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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring nature photography and how you can create it, November 28, 2009
This review is from: Photographing Nature: A photo workshop from Brooks Institute's top nature photography instructor (Paperback)
This is a wonderful and inspiring nature photography book for intermediate and advanced photographers. For everyone else it is a beautiful book that will probably get you interested in taking better nature pictures.
"Photographing Nature" contains outstanding nature photographs and the instructions for creating them. Ralph Clevenger describes the sometimes very expensive equipment used. He also recommends using a garbage bag for taking "wet belly" photographs, which is about a down to earth as any instructions could get.
I really like the author's answer to the moral question of manipulating the picture as opposed to recording the truth. He demonstrates his logic with a picture that has earned a great deal of money. It clearly shows the truth about icebergs with a composite photograph that would be impossible to make with the camera alone.
"Photographing Nature" covers composing seeing light, modifying the light when taking the picture, and altering the light digitally afterward. It covers composing using the 3D rule of thirds, and the natural reason why the rule of thirds works. It provides more technical information such as sources for determining the hyperfocal distance to focus for the maximum depth of field.
"Photographing Nature" provides guidance for taking nature photographs of different kinds and in different locations. It tells how and when to approach animals, and when not to disturb them. This is one great book for any photographer taking nature pictures, from insects to landscapes, whether in a back yard or on a trip to exotic locations. It is almost as much inspirational as educational.
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28 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Meandering, November 10, 2009
This review is from: Photographing Nature: A photo workshop from Brooks Institute's top nature photography instructor (Paperback)
It always seems strange to me that one of the best ways that we can find to keep in touch with the natural world is by using a high tech tool like a digital camera and a computer. Yet I find, as I wander about the woods, mountains and shores, more and more people are there with their cameras, and more and more people are interested in the nature images that I capture. Given this, I was quite eager to see what an instructor from Brooks Institute could offer to help me make better images.
The book is divided into sections with titles intended to evoke a smile like "Play Nice", "You Need More Stuff?" and "Wet Belly Photography". The author tries to keep the same light tone throughout the book. You can't always tell from the title what a chapter is about so you must read on to learn that "An Ounce of Prevention" is about photographing in zoos. After an introduction most chapters include the same subheadings: equipment, lighting, questions and answers, and assignments to try. (The assignments are very basic but they can be effective.) Useful tips are sprinkled throughout the book that a more experienced nature photographer may not have encountered. On the other hand, there is no exposure or basic photographic theory so the book presumably is not aimed at the beginner. Instead, a great deal of the instruction advises you of things like the fact that the range of light that the human eye can see exceeds that of the camera. You might think this would lead to a discussion of how to select the range of light for an image, or the use of the camera's histogram, but that's somewhere else in the book.
This little disconnect is illustrative of the major problem with the book. Instruction manuals (and all books, probably) need to have a certain rhetoric to make sense. Concepts need to be presented in a certain order, so that the reader can build upon earlier concepts, and also as an aid to remembrance. The rhetoric doesn't have to be traditional, like going from a description of the camera to exposure to focus and so on, but it has to have some logic. Ansel Adams approached photography in his book " Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs" by organizing the chapters around individual pictures and the decision processes he used to move the image from an idea to a print. Unfortunately, Clevenger meanders.
For example the only discussion of light metering occurs in a chapter on either landscapes or wide angle lenses (I wasn't sure of which at first) although metering is essential to all photography. The section on using filters to protect lenses is in the chapter on composition. Bubble levels are in the creativity chapter.
The meandering also seems to apply to his selection of audience. If you are not talking to beginners, the chapter on post processing should cover something more than the most basic fundamentals, if it's going to be included at all.
I'm not certain at what level of photographer this book is aimed. Photographers beyond the beginner stage may find a little useful information. Beginners will not find enough.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coffee table quality photos - with a lesson for every photographer!, January 21, 2010
This review is from: Photographing Nature: A photo workshop from Brooks Institute's top nature photography instructor (Paperback)
This book is small in size, but very big in stature!
The photos are impressive by any measure. But what really sets the book apart are the detailed descriptions of the "how he did it" that accompany almost every photo, including many "tricks of the trade" that can often be leveraged by mere mortals carrying a point and shoot camera. That's not to say there aren't photos taken using lenses, equipment and methods that cost thousands of dollars. There are. So people who are serious enthusiasts or who regularly dabble with their digital SLRs (like me) can also get a lot out of this book. That's what makes it such a fun coffee table item. Almost everyone who picks it up can find photos they like and learn something relevant to their skillset - and investment level.
You also might want to consider getting this book if you live in or have visited California and are looking for gifts that reflect some of the state's diverse natural beauty. Based on my rough tally of location attributions, it looks like a majority of the photos in the book were taken in California.
Whatever the reason you might buy or gift this book, I don't think you can go wrong. It seems like there is always someone in the circle of family and friends trying to learn about and improve upon their photography skills. Oh, and did I mention most of pics in this book are breathe-taking?
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