As a side note, I watched this Kelby video a few weeks back in it's entirety ( which is rare for me... the video is ... I forget... an hour long? )
He gives a pretty decent overview of how he "gets the shot" - he doesn't necessarily always use the classics of composition ( rule of thirds, leading lines etc ) - what he does do is "work the shot".
I always appreciate his candor on matters of "an interesting place to shoot" - your backyard is never going to give you breath-taking shots as if you were in the Grand Canyon. Attractive people make your photos look better than unattractive people.
If you have a few minutes, maybe just try the start of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpHMuK7Htic
your best book is going to be about composition. the camera can do pretty much everything else fairly well these days.
for camera specific information your best source is your instruction manual. it'll also teach you some things about photography. read through it and practice with it.
bridge cameras and superzooms are not SLRs, btw. no mirror, so no (R)eflex. the difference between a bridge camera and a superzoom can be fuzzy, as bridge cameras often have big zoom lenses, and the terms are often used interchangeably. imho, i wouldn't consider something a bridge camera unless it had (at the very least) access to the full suite of manual controls and raw output. also probably needs a larger than usual sensor and a hot shoe.
The best idea is to look for books that focus on the principles of photography (the Shutter/Aperture/ISO triangle, understanding histogram and meter results, composition guidelines) rather than discuss a specific model or brand of camera. Understanding the fundamentals is portable across different cameras and models. You can always look at the manual for a specific camera to find out how that specific one lays out controls and menus.
I've purchased about a half dozen "basics of photography" books that all claim in some measure that they are useful for DSLRs or Superzoom/bridge/P&S cameras.
They're mostly right.
I would honestly just go to Amazon and search for "beginning photography" and pick a based on ratings, like
http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Phot...ng+photography
As a side note, I watched this Kelby video a few weeks back in it's entirety ( which is rare for me... the video is ... I forget... an hour long? )
He gives a pretty decent overview of how he "gets the shot" - he doesn't necessarily always use the classics of composition ( rule of thirds, leading lines etc ) - what he does do is "work the shot".
I always appreciate his candor on matters of "an interesting place to shoot" - your backyard is never going to give you breath-taking shots as if you were in the Grand Canyon. Attractive people make your photos look better than unattractive people.
If you have a few minutes, maybe just try the start of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpHMuK7Htic
I've purchased about a half dozen "basics of photography" books that all claim in some measure that they are useful for DSLRs or Superzoom/bridge/P&S cameras.
They're mostly right.
I would honestly just go to Amazon and search for "beginning photography" and pick a based on ratings, like
http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Phot...ng+photography