Customer Reviews

John Shaw's Focus on Nature: The Creative Process Behind Making Great Photographs in the Field

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What separates this book from many others is that it concentrates entirely on the aesthetics of photography, rather than the equipment. Most photography enthusiasts (including myself) are equipment fanatics, and are convinced that photographic nirvana is just another L series lens ahead! This book reduces the essence of the visualization into its basic elements, teaches you (with fabulous examples) to see nature in terms of light, form, texture, pattern, and color. It will change the way you see the world.

If you are interested at all in nature photography, you will enjoy and benefit from any of John Shaw's works. Shaw is a clear, concise writer as well as a great photographer. Focus On Nature is a wonderful in-depth look at a meaningful approach to nature photography. In his usual friendly style, Shaw teaches how to capture the environment as well as its wildlife and how to go beyond merely identifying, "headshots" of animals. He makes a good point, along with many others, that since any photographer (who can afford it) can use a long lens, the true challenge is to capture something much more meaningful.

This book has everything you expect in a John Shaw book and more.

While there are beautiful shots and a detailed descriptions of the equipment, location and the time of that the photos where taken. The book is really more about the thought process that goes into the shot, the hardware involved, lighting, lens focusing, filters types, framing and composition.

The book also details the environment weather it's a desert conditions or lush landscape, time of day and time of season and how to handle lighting, exposure and what types of filters to use based on this.

He reminds us that sometimes there will be a good shot but patience will turn it into a great shot if you a willing to wait for light conditions to change. Look at your framing and composition and deciding what elements to emphasize and what to leave out or minimize. Practicing good stewardship of the environment and making sure to leave things as you found them.

The photography in Focus on nature is breath taking as always. While the book pre-dates digital media it does not detract in any from the book because with the exception of the discussion of film everything else is applicable to the digital and film photographer.

The book cover to cover is hi-gloss paper and all photos are in color and oh-so vibrant.

I own several of Johns books and I would have to say that alll are outstanding and this is no exception.

5 stars and then some.

This is one those truly "good" books.

I was looking for help in "seeing", or recognition of a great photo, rather than for help in photography technique. John Shaw communicates precisely this in a very lucid and concise manner. It predates digital cameras so some of the photography equipment mentioned is now obsolete. But the real point of the book is about "seeing" and capturing a great photo and that is much easier to do with digital equipment.

I almost made the mistake of buying a more inferior treatment of the subject by a different author because I had skimmed a copy and it looked helpful. I am glad I took time to read the reviews before making my purchase. When I read the reviews on that book I found positive mention of John Shaw's Focus on Nature. When I checked the reviews of his book I realized that this was probably a better choice. It is! I am delighted with this book!

Truly inspirational and provides valuable thoughts and insigths on the merging of art with the craft of photography. Invaluable tool and on a simple level great for staring. Could even be treated as a coffee table book !!!

John Shaw is an accomplished photographer, who is very adept at describing what he sees, how he approaches the scene, what he thinks about when formulating his plans for taking a particular photo, and how he shoots to arrive at the photo shown. I would highly recommend this book, and all of the other books of his that I have read.

Carl

All of John Shaws books are thoughtfull, well written and aesthetically valuable. This one is specifically oriented towards Shaws photographic values, i.e. what is his view of how to photograph nature. What I took away from reading "Focus on Nature" was the abstract sense of how Shaw dedicates his techniques to achieving high quality photographs. This book does not teach creativity however. That is up to the individual.

A book that focuses on the story behind the photo more than the photo itself. Mr Shaw narrates how he thought about the scene and what he did before taking it. He is apparently a very able photographer. I'd say the pictures are not stunning but indeed very good. This book is old by todays standards as the pictures are taken with either 35 mm file or 4x5. The compositional techniques are of course valid still! I got quite a lot of inspiration and ideas from it. Of course going to national parks with beautiful sceneries and mountainous regions will also help getting those perfect shots:)

Even though I respect C. Weinstein's comments about John Shaw's amazing book "Focus on Nature" in that I agree that you cannot inherently teach "creativity"
(something it sounds like Mr. Weinstein was looking for), I am glad he didn't overdo such comments.
After capturing very beautiful nature photography myself for many years, I can say that having owned, read and studied John Shaw's "Focus on Nature" helped put me into a higher
level of expertise. John's extraordinary work gives readers a glimpse into the mind of a truly great photographic visionary. One may understand exposure, focal lengths, aperture/shutter speed
relationships, neutral density filtration, the zone system and all the latest digital wizardry, but still may not be able to "see" what other truly great photographic artists can. Indeed, it
is that very essence which the book provided, and helped me greatly improve "seeing" as an artist, and therefore (in my case) DID teach me creativity or at least unleashed that part of my mind and
has allowed me to improve. Shaw's book, and Art Wolfe's wonderful "The Art of Photographing Nature," are the two TOP books I recommend to any upcoming nature photographer on how to improve their
composition. And any great photographer worth his or her salt knows that composition is the most difficult area to learn. Thank you John Shaw for such a wonderful look into your mind's eye.
J.Singley, Pro Photographer

This book focuses more on the why and how he took a photo than the technical stuff. Makes a great companion to his field guide.

All of John Shaw's books are great. There is some overlap between them as he goes over the basics but they are all worth a read for any aspiring nature photographer.