Customer Reviews

Seeing Landscapes: The Creative Process Behind Great Photographs

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This book is a gem. I was about to ignore this book when browsing through Amazon.com myself (it drowns in mediocre books), but I took a chance on this one. I'm glad I did. Soon after I got this one, I just had to get Waite's other book; "The Making of Landscape Photographs". In my collection of photography books, these two are by far the best, both in text and photograpy. Unlike many photography books, "Seeing Landscapes" is not about the technical aspect of photography. This book is about what's more important. It's all about composition. It's all about seeing landscapes, just as the title suggests. So, even though technical details are found in the captions for all the photographs, this book won't teach you anything technical, such as exposure. For that, look elsewhere.

After about six pages of introductory text (double spaced), the rest of the book follows the format of showing a picture and some text about the picture, typically why it works (or doesn't), how it was done and how it could have been done better. I find the text exceptionally helpful and entertaining. Several nature photographers seem to have a somewhat arrogant tone (works demotivating) to their writing. Thankfully, you won't find that here.

Waite uses mostly 6x6cm, but there are also some 6x17cm and a few 35mm pictures. Expect great photography in square format. The pictures are of excellent quality and the difference between the few 35mm shots and the 6x6cm is obvious. The latter format is obviously superior in terms of image quality, making it great to print and present in book form. But you don't have to use medium format to find this book useful, although you might have a hard time matching his dedication; You'll find him referring to using a ladder (!) throughout the book, for example to avoid tilting a camera upwards when shooting a building (to keep the lines straight).

His photographs are mostly from Europe (France, Italy and England in particular, but also Greece and Spain) and a few shots from USA, Africa, India and China. As such, the scenery pictured is refreshingly different from what seems typical to find amongst American photographers. But it's not just because it's a different continent. It's also Waite's photographic style which I find quite unique. There is no postcard feel to any of Waite's photographs. You won't find cliched sunset (only one picture could perhaps be categorized as a "sunset" picture) or blurred waterfalls (only one waterfall) here. While many nature photographers go for the majestic and grand scenery, Waite takes a step pretty much in the complete opposite direction. His style is abstract. Simple and uncluttered landscapes. That makes his photographs calm, peaceful and harmonic.

At the end of the book, Waite tries something interestingly different; Introducing the unexpected into a scenery. He also goes for extreme abstraction which I don't think work all that well, but this is just at the very end of the book and is insignificant to the overall quality of the book.

The book is 160 pages long with 140 color photographs. Excellent print.

If you like this book, you can't go wrong with Waite's "The Making of Landscape Photographs". In fact, that one might be even better...

This book is a real treat for the eyes, full of beatiful photos. My only significant complaint is that the information isn't presented in a manner which was useful for me -- I would have preferred a format oriented to specific lessons, or at least clearly identifying the principles involved. Instead, the author discusses the qualities of each photograph and how he created the photo. Don't get me wrong, you can learn a lot from his descriptions, but it takes me some work to understand how to apply what he says to my photographs. One feature of the book I really enjoyed is where the author contrasts two photos -- one good and one not-so-good -- and explains the differences that make the one photo much better.

If your passion is Landscape Photography then this is for you. As the title suggests, your eyes are opened wider to the beauties of the landscape around us. Also what is wonderful about this publication is that Charlie explains how he came across the subject and then talks you through each image.

I find this a very personal book, it's as though it has been written especially for each individual reading it, to help them creatively advance in their own photographic journey.

Having said that, if you just want to marvel at great photographs taken all around the world by an artist so in love with his subject, then just sit back and enjoy from the comfort of your favourite chair.

This is one of the few books I've seen that details the creative process and technical methods involved in shooting professional-quality landscapes on a medium format camera. Most how-to landscape books are written by authors who shoot almost exclusively in 35mm (Rowell, Shaw, Wolf, etc.). It is quite refreshing to see so many beautiful places -- Spain, France, Italy, Africa -- captured in a square format.

Waite not only explains the underlying order in a seemingly unordered world -- every landscape can be seen as a collection of shapes, colors, textures and shades -- he gives the reader a vivid example of each visual concept. The photographs are truly exceptional to say the least. On top of this, the author provides key exposure data - such as focal length, shutter speed and aperture.

But perhaps the best feature of this book is not the stunning photographic works Waite has chosen, but the inclusion of the ones that were "almost stunning, but not quite." There are some truly excellent side-by-side comparisons.

Many pros will tell you they are lucky to find two or three marketable images in a roll of 36. It's the nature of the beast. However, by showing the reader some of the most common compositional mistakes (and how little they can vary from those shots we consider "exceptional"), Waite helps the reader to think through each composition more carefully. The bottom line is you will not only be inspired by the photos in this book, but you can learn alot from it - and from a different perspective than most how-to books as well.

Highly recommended for any landscape photographer.

We are surrounding by images waiting to be taken, some of which may make great photographs but most of which will not be worth the film or memory that will be committed to them. Mastering the technology is one thing, but selecting the part of the world to put a frame around is another.

When someone in an outdoor photography newsgroup recommended "Seeing Landscapes: the Creative Process Behind Great Photographs" by Charlie Waite, I got very excited. The title reminded me of one of my old favorites "Photography & the Art of Seeing" by Freeman Patterson. The title made me hope that this book would zero in on our way of looking at landscapes, on deciding what we should put the frame around.

I was disappointed. "Seeing Landscapes" is a great collection of Waite's work. If you are the kind of person who can learn by just studying another's work, this book will do the trick. Otherwise the brief narrative that accompanies each picture will not help you develop a cohesive way of seeing landscapes. Oh, you will find a few "rules": be patient; look for strong lines; capitalize on color differences; don't let the near shore cut off a reflection in a body of water. But don't expect to come to the landscape with a new vision. Hopefully, that's in someone else's book.

I think that C. Waite's intention was to create a coffee table book with useful advice for photographers. The result generally justifies his efforts. It's a great photo book with astonishing and inspiring landscape images along with short comments and on point information.
In my opinion the compromise between to presenting quality images and to avoiding long texts of technical advice was very successful.
I highly recommend it to the lovers of art photo books. It's, also, a must for photographers using medium format cameras.

Book has very useful pictures that will make you learn how to compose shots. The text is quite sparse, but you don't need a lot of filler text anyway.

I just bought my first DSLR camera. I bought ten photography books on amazon. I'm evaluating these books from the perspective of a semi-advanced amateur. (On things I've learnt is that book by the same author tends to be very similar. So make sure you vary your authors when buying more than one book. Rather than saying this author is good, let me buy more from him/her.)