Chapter 1. Introduction

Getting started in digital photography is exciting. In this opening chapter we introduce you first to digital images and then to how they are captured with these new devices. We also discuss the question "Why go digital?" If you are still using a film camera, this section is meant to convince you of the error of your ways. Film photographers are standing on the deck of the photographic equivalent of the Titanic, and it's already taken on a great deal of water.

A swallowtail larvae navigates the stem of a fennel plant in Montecito California.