Customer Reviews

Photographing Oregon with Professional Results

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I am planning a trip to the Oregon coast this summer and greatly anticipated the arrival of this book. It seemed a perfect fit for my needs. My initial reaction to the book is disappointing.

The book is organized by photographic subject such as waterallfs, shorelines, valleys, sunset, etc. It gives advice o the lens selection, camera placement, and exposure for photographing each subject. At the end of each topic is a list of Oregon specific locations for photographing these subjects.

I can find plenty of books on how to photograph waterfalls or sunsets. What I was hoping for was advice on specific beaches or locations in Oregon. This book will not give you that. Look for places on the web for "Photograph America" and "Phototraveler" for location specific advice.

Sorry to borrow the same title as Michael Johnson, but I could easily say "ditto". To say it in my own words, I think if you changed a few of the photos and some references, this book could easily be called "Photographing Washington" or "Photographing California". In fact, if you replaced the references of oceans to lakes, you could almost call it "Photographing Michigan".

The point being is that the book has chapters dedicated to different aspects of photography (oceans, waterfalls, forests, etc.) and then lists some very general references to places in Oregon to find these, like "Whalehead Beach", or some state parks. But these could just as easily be anywhere - California, Washington, etc. There is no specific information like "take this trail in the spring in the morning for the best waterfall shot".

This book gives you a good overview for getting professional results for photographing the Oregon scenery. Though the book was written before the digital camera boom there is still much that can been gleaned from a couple of readings of the material.