Links and recommed books

Website Links
Here are some useful sites I recommend around the web for more information.

Fred Miranda.com
Fred creates some excellent photoshop actions. This site also has an excellent forum section.

photozone.de
This site has some excellent lens reviews, which include some fairly exhaustive testing. Highly recommended read when trying to select and compare lenses.

Norman Koren Photography
Another excellent photography site. His tutorials cover a number of topics. Of particular interest is the section on lens testing.

cambridge in colour tutorials
Here are a number of excellent tutorials on various photography subjects. A number of them (notably the understanding diffraction and understaning depth of field tutorials) have nifty calculators to help you get a feel for the effect they are explaining.

The Strobist
This guy's minimalist approach to flash photography is very thought provoking. Check it out...

The Japanese Sword Guide
One of my passions is photographing Japanese swords and fittings (see galleries 9-10). I've been asked enough about this that it seems to warrant a link to Rich Stein's site on the topic.

Yamabushi Antiques
A stand-up seller of Japanese swords, fittings, armor, and books. They also have some very good articles on various sword and armor related topics, with more to come soon.

Nihontocraft.com
Another highly recommended and reputable seller of Japanese swords, fittings, books, and other oriental antiques. They also have some very good articles on various sword related topics.

AllWebCo Templates
Professional easy setup web templates - I used one for this site.

Recommended books:
Here are some links to a a few books I have found useful for photography

Recommended photoshop books:
I keep getting asked about useful photoshop books, so here are the links to a few that I have found helpful

Recommended out of print books:
Here are some additional links to some excellent but currently out of print books on photography