After reading "Creative Close-ups" I can't wait to get to the wildflowers springing up in the desert and try some of the many superbly described and illustrated techniques for close-up and macro photography Harold Davis includes. He efficiently covers the basics - cameras and settings, lenses and extension tubes, tripods, lighting and flash, aperture and depth of field and criticality of focus, and then tells exactly how they're varied and applied to each of the >200 images included. Each image has a purpose - showing something a little different to try whether photographing insects, flowers, water droplets, abstractions, reflections, or studio close-ups. His flower photography variations are most inspirational - covering lighting methods, settings and background colors - white and black - to emphasize shape, color, texture and transparency. His descriptions and illustrations of HDR flower photography and focus stacking techniques are so clear they beg to be tried.

I'd have liked a few photos of actual equipment setups, but this is still a 5-star book for me.

It's an easy to read book I'll browse through whenever I'm thinking macro and looking for something new to try.