Beryl Ayn Young has just written her first children's book called “Phoebe The Photographer: Gets A Camera“.

When Beryl Ayn was 20 weeks into her first pregnancy, she lost the baby. Though she had initially planned to photograph her daughter, Beryl Ayn instead leaned on photography as a way to rediscover herself. She began a blog and started sharing her work. Soon she gained a following with other moms who sought her out for their own healing process.

As a teacher, Beryl Ayn embraced technology and taught as a school teacher. She now teaches moms the in's and outs of photography through her courses on her site.

Her experiences have helped her find the real reason moms take up photography and that is to have deeper connections with their children.

By writing Phoebe The Photographer: Gets A Camera, Beryl Ayn hopes to inspire a love of photography in children early on in their development and give moms who also pursue photography a clear path to connecting with their little ones.

The book's message, about empowerment and resilience for girls and women, is rooted in the idea that we don't always get what we want. It took her nearly three years to find an illustrator and when that business connection failed her, she set the project aside only to take it up a few months later.

I spoke with Beryl Ayn about the process of writing this book. Here is our short conversation:

Some of the other challenges Beryl Ayn faced were finding the right language to use, defining the length of the book and figuring out the book's target audience.

Beryl Ayn has curated a recent blog post on her site called “41 Experts And Creatives Reveal Their 3 Best Tips To Make Photography Fun For Kids“. I was honored to be asked to contribute to this project. Read what I had to say on the topic!

If you have kids who are between the ages of 3 and 8, this would make for a perfect gift to them. So, buy the book right now.

CJ Chilvers is a writer, and dare I say, “thinker,” behind one of my favorite blogs for photographers called, A Lesser Photographer. By profession, he is a technical writer based in Chicago. In addition to “A Lesser Photographer” he writes at This Life of Leisure.

I cornered Chilvers into a quick interview because we very rarely see him or hear his voice. I was curious to know more about why he started A Lesser Photographer, what made the blog so popular.

I was pleased to know that Craft & Vision was going to be publishing his book by the same name very soon. Well, that book just appeared today on the Craft & Vision site. You can grab it here – A Lesser Photographer: Escaping The Gear Trap To Focus On What Matters – for only $4 before the price bumps back up to $5! [aff]

David duChemin writes about the book, “The Lesser Photographer by CJ Chilvers is about escaping the gear trap and focusing on what matters: the things that actually make better photographs. Things like creativity and authenticity. So instead of worrying about your f-stop, you can concentrate on doing more with less. Less gear. Less comparison. Less “should” and “ought” and “if only,” and more of you, reflected in your work.”

Anyway, before I get completely sidetracked here is my conversation with CJ Chilvers:

The book on Van Halen CJ mentions is called The Van Halen Encyclopedia [aff]

You might as well jump!! [if you got that reference comment below] Subscribe to TiffinboxTV now and see all the interviews before they appear here!

Please also check out the Craft & Vision interview with CJ Chilvers.

Laurie Young, a UK-based entrepreneur, physicist, ballroom dancer and photographer has written a book called “Being a Photographer.”

In it, Young explores the idea of approaching photography with intent. What is it that motivates you to raise your camera to your eyes and make an image? Is it an intuitive reflex based on experience or necessity? Or, is your photography fairly random?

Laurie's book attempts to inspire photographers to ask the question “WHY” – when photographing anything or anybody BEFORE you make the image. You can find “Being A Photographer” here, for just $5.

To learn more about Laurie and “Being A Photographer,” I sat down with him to ask him a few questions about his intent for writing the book. Here is our conversation:

The other book we talked about was David Hurn's “On Being A Photographer” which you can order here.

You'll find below a few examples of Laurie Young's ballroom dancing images. Enjoy!

Setting goals and making lists is all the rage right now. Before I forget, here's wishing all of you a very Happy New Year. 2015 can be big year for you. I know I have grand plans. So, let's toast to both of our dreams, shall we?

One of the ways I dream (and I do day dream a lot) is via books. In fact, I am a lot more protective of my books than I am of my gear. I am kinda weird that way. Books, for me, are the ultimate escape and I am very protective of them. I am not much of a tv watcher (though that show House of Cards is something isn't it?) and my bar-hopping days are behind me. So, I sit with my books and I am easily transported to a different life. It's my exit into understanding the world around me.

In the last week or two, I have read books by Jon Acuff (“Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters” is awesome and I am waiting on his next one called “Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck“) and Pico Iyer (“The Art of Stillness”).

I have a special place in my heart for photography books. Being a photographer, I know how difficult it can be to edit, design, produce and publish one. So, when a photographer launches a book, I am typically one of the first to sign up and buy it. But budget is a consideration and I have to be rather picky about which ones make it into my bookshelf.

I am heartened to know that so many photography books were published in 2014. It's the end of the year and there have already been a bevy of photography websites linking to their favorite photography books of the year. Here is a sampling:

Lens Culture
Time Magazine
American Photography Magazine
Art Book
Brain Pickings
Humble Arts Foundation
Aperture
PDN Photo Annual
The Guardian
Flak Photo
PhotoEye
Photolia [A motherlode of links to other lists] Elizabeth Avedon
Microcord
Mother Jones Magazine
Conscientious Photography Magazine

My favorite books – the ones I bought are as follows:

Dan Winters'Road To Seeing
Scott Strazzante's Common Ground
Gregory Heisler's 50 Portraits
Lena Hyde's The Design Aglow Posing Guide For Family Portrait Photography
Ernesto Bazan's Isla
Alex Webb's The Suffering Of Light
Raghu Rai's India: Reflections in Colour
Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb's Street Photography and the Poetic Image: The Photography Workshop Series
Neil van Niekerk's Lighting & Design for Portrait Photography: Direction & Quality of Light
Roberto Valenzuela's Picture Perfect Posing: Practicing the Art of Posing for Photographers and Models

Then there are books that I will buy someday in the near future:

Martin Schoeller's Portraits
National Geographic's The Farmer In All Of Us
Paul Mobley's American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country
Eugene Richard's Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down
Zun Lee's Father Figure
Marc Wilson's The Last Stand: Northern Europe
Alain Lebloile‘s En attendant le facteur
Chirodeep Chaudhuri's A Village In Bengal
Salgado's Genesis
William A. Ewing's Masterclass: Arnold Newman
Magnum Contact Sheets
Larry Fink's Composition and Improvisation: The Photography Workshop Series
Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern's The Photographer's Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas
Erik Valind's Portrait Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots
Art Wolfe's Earth Is My Witness

I know some of these books were published before 2014, but I came to know about them only this year. So, at least in my mind, they still made my list.

Buy one or more of these books using the affiliate links above and you get to right them off as a business expense for 2014. But you do have only until December 31st (that's tomorrow) to snag these books and get that tax break. Gee whiz, I might have just sold myself more books to buy before tomorrow!

Ok, your turn now. Which photography books did you buy? Which ones would you like to add to your library? Sound off below.