After a period of reflection and adjustment I would like to say hello again to my readers. I’ve not been blogging for a while, but I’m about to resume.
As most of you know, I’ve been writing photography books for nearly 15 years under publishing house Rocky Nook—in my opinion, the best camera-book publisher in business today. Recently, due to the extreme configurability and complexity of today’s mirrorless Nikon cameras, it has become nearly impossible to publish a printed book that weighs less than five pounds and is useful for carry in your camera bag.
The cost of publishing is very high and lengthy books are becoming prohibitively expensive to publish in print. I expect my upcoming Nikon Z books to be nearly 1000 pages long. Why so long? Well, the Reference Guide for the Nikon Z8 camera, for instance, is just under 1000 pages. How can I write a book that goes into the necessary depth on how to use each feature in the camera and expect the book to be less than the length of the user reference manual?
Therefore, starting now, I am self-publishing a new series of eBooks with the series name: Master Your Nikon, cleverly matching the name of this site, my Facebook site by the same name (MYN), and the Master Your Nikon educational forums at Nikonians.org.
I have a previous series in print called: “The Mastering Camera Guide Series” under Rocky Nook. You may recognize some of my over two-dozen printed books under the older series. A couple of recent ones are: Mastering the Nikon Z6II / Z7II and Mastering the Nikon D850. My new self-published eBook series is titled differently, using “Master Your Nikon” instead of Mastering the Nikon” (see the upcoming sample book cover). I decided to use the new simpler series name for my future self-published eBooks.
Why eBooks? Well, unlike printed books, you can carry as many eBooks as your smartphone, tablet, or computer’s memory can hold, without weighing yourself down. I have recently made an arrangement with Nikonians.org to place my new eBooks directly under the NikoniansPress banner. I’ll publish more information here when everything is fully in place. I hope you will subscribe to this website so that we can stay in touch. Simply enter your email address and press the Subscribe button. I do not get a copy of your email address, subscriptions are handled privately by the website software.
My first two eBooks in the new series will be for the Nikon Z8 and its big sister the Z9. Here is a look at the almost finalized cover of Master Your Nikon Z8, which will come first later this summer, closely followed by Master Your Nikon Z9.
I also look forward to writing many new articles about our newest Nikon Z cameras here on this site. Please check by this website often and I will try to help you by providing camera feature guidance and especially enthusiastic enthusiast information (say that quickly three times).
I’ll let you know when my new eBook series is about to hit the market. I humbly appreciate that so many of you have been readers of my older print books for many years, and I sincerely hope you will allow me to continue providing a reliable technical resource for your Nikon camera needs. Be safe and stay well!
Keep on capturing time…
Darrell Young
Darrell Young is an active member of the Nikonians User Community, Nikon Professional Services (NPS), Professional Photographers of America (PPA), North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), The Nature Conservancy (nature.org), and the author of over 30 photography books. You may review a few of Darrell’s Nikon books here. He has been an avid photographer since 1968 when his mother gave him a Brownie Hawkeye camera.
This website was created to support the readers of his educational books, photography students, and clients. Visitors to this website will find articles and reviews designed to inform, teach, and help you enjoy your photographic journey.
John. Good to hear you’ll soon be publishing again. Doing so online make abundant sense, I’ll be happy to be one of your first Z9 customers. By the way back when I was waiting in line for the Z9 , your suggestion that I apply to be a member of Nikon Professional Services was a great one. So now not only am I a Nikonians member I’m an NPS member. Love the Z9 and all that I can do with it. But to say I’ve Mastered it, would be an overstatement, so looking forward to seeing your book.
I would have thought the Z9 would have been the first book.
I wasn’t going to do a Z9 book until I saw that the Z8 and Z9 are basically the same camera. Therefore, I will do both. The Z8 first and the Z9 a few days later. There are enough minor differences to require some extra explanation. Of course, the Z8 will have firmware updates soon, as will the Z9. I think Nikon will likely equalize the two cameras.
Your books are the best. At least for me they are easier to understand and more complete than some of the others. I am an Olympus shooter and have several of your books but would love to have an ebook or even better a printed book for the OM1. I actually bought your book for the Mark III as there were couple of things I could not grasp but thought they might be covered in the Mark III book.
My publisher decided not to do any more Olympus books due to the company sellout.
Looking forward to your new work.
Just received my Z8.
Glad you are going to do the Z9 book. Have been looking forward to it for some time. You do a great job as I have used your books for many years. An ebook will work just.
Walter