Photographing Nature: A photo workshop from Brooks Institute's top nature photography instructor [Paperback]

Ralph A. Clevenger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321637542 | ISBN-13: 978-0321637543 | Edition: 1

25 years of nature photography instruction in one gorgeous, full-color, hands-on course

Anyone can photograph nature—just step outside and you’re on location. But becoming a good nature photographer takes expert training. In Photographing Nature, Ralph Clevenger, whose images have appeared in such publications as Nature’s Best and National Geographic, shares the techniques he’s been personally using and teaching to aspiring photographers for the last 25 years in his popular nature photography course at the elite Brooks Institute.

In this stunning, four-color course-in-a-book, each chapter opens with a spectacular photo spread from the natural world that Clevenger uses to illustrate themes and techniques essential to mastering nature photography. Just as he does in his classroom at Brooks, Clevenger explains how each photo was captured, the tools and techniques used, and typical problems related to capturing such a photo, along with solutions. Chapters also include sample Q&A sessions as well as assignments you can try yourself.

By the time you’ve worked through all of the techniques in this beautiful, yet informative book, you’ll not only photograph the world differently, you’ll see it differently as well. With a foreword by George Lepp, one of North America’s best-known contemporary outdoor and nature photographers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“I’m impressed! Clevenger covers topics most other books lack including ethics and environmental impact. His Q&A sections give valuable advice we can all use.”
—John Nuhn, Photography Director, National Wildlife magazine

“Photographing Nature reminds us that it takes knowledge and an appreciation of the technology, subject, and environment—combined with creativity—to make a great photograph.”
—Nancy Carrizales, Vice-President, Animals Animals / Earth Scenes

About the Author

Ralph A. Clevenger teaches courses in nature photography, stock photography, video production, and undersea photography at Brooks Institute. Clevenger has traveled throughout the world on assignment. His clients include the Monterey Bay Aquarium, The Nature Conservancy, Denali National Park Wilderness Center, the National Park Service, and the National Marine Sanctuary. His publication credits include Audubon, Aqua, Islands, Oceans, Outside, National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Popular Photography, National Geographic Books, Smithsonian Books, Sierra Club Books, and many other national and international publications. Ralph’s stock images are represented worldwide by Corbis Images.

Share your work with the author and other readers at www.flickr.com/groups/photographingnature

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (November 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321637542
• ISBN-13: 978-0321637543
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring nature photography and how you can create it November 28, 2009

By Hartley J. Jackson

Format: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.

33 of 41 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Meandering November 10, 2009

By Conrad J. Obregon TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format: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.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Nature Photo Book December 2, 2009

By TM Images

Format:Paperback

I thought this book was really great. My first impressions before even opening the book was that it was heavy a bigger than many photo books out there. The cover also says quite a bit about the info inside. "A photo workshop from Brooks Insitute's top nature photography instructor." This gives you a sense of what this book is, and who it is for. The intended audience seems to be those who have a good grounding in photography but are looking for both basic explanations and detailed advances in their nature photography.

As a photographer who leads workshops, I am often amazed that many of my students do not approach the wild with an ethical manner. Therefore, it was refreshing and encouraging to see that the author devoted the first chapter of his book to those ethical issues that all nature photographers should be aware of. To this, I say kudos. All photographers who want to go out into the world should be grounded in these ethical principals.

The book is split into many chapters, and most of them include a section on Equipment, Lighting, Questions and Answers, and Assignments to Try. Instead of shoving all the equipment talk into one long chapter, Clevenger chose to use the premise of the chapters to lead into those areas of specialized equipment that might be required. In this way it is alot like school. There is not one class on lighting, one class on equipment, and one class on questions; those are the components of each and every class.

This book was full of stuff that made me stop and think, or just look in amazement. First, the images. This book has 100's of images that help to illustrate points, create discussion, or just look beautiful. The overall highlight for me was how personable Clevenger came across in the writing. Often in books like this, the author is relegated behind the material, in essence, anyone could have written the book. Not so here!

In any book, however, there are some things that could be improved. There was only one small problem for me, and that was that often the ideas of creativity were small as compared to the technical considerations. In nature photography, I often come back to the question, "Why am I taking this picture?" I wish that the author had spent more time on some of the less technical considerations, and more time on motivation and why certain things catch his eye. This, however, is a hard task considering the nature of the audience as technical photographers.

Moreso than any other nature book I have read recently, this book takes you through the process of nature photography in a logical and detailed way, as long as you understand the logic! From the beginning of ethics through the in the field shooting, preparing for a road trip, and finally becoming the "photo lab." Amazing pictures, great writing, unique information, and detailed presentation makes this a welcome additional to my bookshelf.