Customer Reviews

Pet Photography NOW!: A Fresh Approach to Photographing Animal Companions (A Lark Photography Book)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ordered this book with anticipation. The reviews were mostly favorable and Paul's work recommended. However, the book falls short in several areas.

Pet Photography Now! is heavy on anecdotes and light on usable content. The text focuses mostly on a common sense approach that most photographers would practice regardless of skill level. For example, how many times must the reader be told not to wear nice clothing to an outdoor photo shoot? Some crucial subjects such as lighting are addressed but only in a cursory manner. The section on photo editing is woefully insufficient and makes one wonder why it was even included at all. Additionally, for a book with only 115 pages of actual content, much of it is pictures with captions that often do not highlight technique.

If you are looking for a 50 page short story stretched to produce a book, this is for you. However, those of you expecting a reference book with a wealth of information will be disappointed. After reading this light book cover to cover I have little reason to open it again.

Loved this book and would highly recommend it to others. Paul Walker really inspires people to have the confidence to tackle pet photography, not just dogs but all pets. There are great tips for either the pro or amateur and fantastic images to encourage you to consider what can be achieved. Paul's work seems to be a departure from the 'chocolate box' studio pet stuff that others seem to talk about - this book teaches you how to capture animals in more natural environments and the results can be far more stunning. I used to think that pet photography would be really daunting but now I am motivated to give it a go and hopefully expand our business from it.

I noticed that another reviewer said there were typos in the text - I think they might be referring to the different spellings of some words in the US or the UK e.g. 'colour'-vs-'color' - reading a book with a few words spelt differently to what you are used to hardly distracts from it being a great read packed with brilliant ideas.

This is a great resource for pro's, and anyone wanting to learn how to make pet images. Paul was on Pro Photo Show #51 where he talks a bit about his technique and his book.

More than just dogs, and more than just plain poses this book is full of creativity and tips for nearly every situation and is up to date with rodays digital technology.

I have several books on pet photography and this is definitely different - the author is not prescribing a set of camera values to achieve the "seen it all before conventional pet photography shots" rather a "what's behind the picture" strategy to get photographers (amateurs and advanced) thinking about ways to shoot differently for themselves. Having read the introduction and compared the contents to what the author was attempting to achieve, I have to say the book hits the mark. It's also great that the author has chosen to include "illustrative" shots of examples that don't work or could be improved - these are often missing from the vast majority of other books on the market on this subject. Highly recommended!

As a professional equine photographer I am asked frequently to photograph companion animals.I purchased this book because I know horses but not dog/cat imaging. Paul takes a very methodical approach to explaining cameras, lenses, lighting, preparing for the shoot, dealing with less than ideal owners and pets. Paul explains why it is so important to know not only your camera but also the owners expectations, disposition and training level of the animal, location and safety. I would have to rate this as the best dog photography technique book there is on the market. Paul's work shows why he is one of the top photographers there. I found his websites [...] and [...] These sites will show that Paul should start on his next book of obtaining perfect wedding and portrait images. If Paul returns to the US for an animal portrait seminar I will be one of the first to sign up.

Paul Walker has compiled a book of information on pet photography that should be "The" number one book for anyone who wants to seriously get into the pet photography business. As a professional photographer who has been shooting event and corporate photography for the past decade and who is now looking to expand into the field of high end pet photography, I found this book and the associated images to be exactly what I was looking for. The book helped me adapt to a creative shooting style that has quickly become valuable. Many thanks to Paul Walker for sharing his skills.

I couldn't wait to get this book and really delve into it. However, for someone who has been photographing pets and animals for only two years already, this book hit way below my expectations. The design is great and pleasing to the eye, but only half the photos are above average. Most of the text is redundant, riddled with typos, and just barely brushes the surface of some of the things you need to be aware of when photographing pets. For pro photographers, I would recommend Creative Canine Photography, or Professional Techniques for Pet and Animal Photography. The captions for each photo does include exposure information most of the time which can be helpful for those still learning. And if you're just getting into the world of animal photography maybe some of his recommendations will be helpful. For me, this book will be collecting dust on my bookshelf because I'm too cheap to ship it back to Amazon.

I found this book an inspiration to me as a dog photographer. It helped me with the client, it helped me fine tune my supply kit that I take along to shoots and it gave me some ideas for pictures that I may not have put together on my own. Thanks I love one particular feature of this book that I really appeciated and that is with every picture it tells the camera information and although in each situation these settings can change it was good information to see.

This book by Paul Walker exceeded my expectations, clear and concise , it is great source of information for anyone wishing to photograph their own pet or anyone elses.

What an inspirational and refreshing read. The author and photographer Paul Walker gives his methodology and mindset on how he prepares and conducts his own pet photography shoots. There is invaluable detail on other areas too on items that can easily be overlooked such as preparing for a shoot. There are too many photography books in the main that list endless f-stops and shutter speeds and focal lengths and try to encourage other photographers to use similar recipes resulting in all too familiar clones of images or poor attempts. This book is aimed more at creating different images that are unique and I totally concur with this approach. I have reviewed the imagery on the author's website too and it's in a league of its own. With an understanding of a camera you need such a book on creating imagery rather than how to use a camera and in this regard the book is exceptional and different.