This book is for the photographer who strives to achieve a higher level of results in their work. Take Your Photography to the Next Level is based on a series of essays originally featured on the popular Luminous Landscape website. Barr tackles some of the rarely discussed, yet essential aspects of successful photography. Here is where photographers will learn what is required in order to grow in their creativity and to gain a deeper understanding of their craft.
With a foreward by Michael Reichmann.
Topics include:
Creativity
Dealing with disappointment
Developing an "eye"
Making stronger images
What photographs well
Where to go looking for the best photographic subjects
How to approach subject material
A great image is just around the corner
Dealing with failure
Mind games
Becoming a self-aware photographer
Framing, cropping, & manipulating prints to create mood and transmit your message
George Barr is a photographer living in Calgary, Canada. Serious about photography since age 12, working initially with a WWII Zeiss Ikonta in a basement-bathroom "darkroom", he has progressed through medium format, 4X5, and now digital SLR's. He earns his living as a family doctor with a special interest in psychiatry but his primary passion has always been the fine art print.
Major milestones include learning to make quality prints from Fred Picker, learning to really "see" photographs from Hubert Hohn of the Edmonton Art Gallery, looking at Edward Weston prints bare, attending workshops, working with galleries, and being published.
George has had his images published in the magazines Black and White Photography, Black and White, Focus, Lenswork, and Outdoor Photography.
By the time George closed his darkroom, he was making very high quality prints and carried on this quality with digital cameras and inkjet printing, producing some of the finest inkjet prints made, surprising many traditional 4X5 photographers with the level of quality.
Throughout his life George has been a teacher of medical students & residents, patients, and fellow photographers. A writer of understandable patient newsletters and handouts, it was a short step to writing essays on photography. George has bravely tackled the challenging subjects of aesthetics, seeing, and composing in a style that is clear, practical, and applicable to many.
I love the photographic image, all sorts of images. I love the challenge of making fine images, and the process of creating and editing them. I have been doing this for 49 years.
I was born in Glasgow, Scotland and moved to Canada at age 8, being raised in Edmonton. I wanted to be a physicist and that's how I started at university. I wasn't a very good one, barely graduating - I was spending all my time photographing for the university student newspaper and yearbook and making team and student residence group photos.
Eventually I settled on medicine (mum got her wish after all - hated it that she was right). After radically bringing up my marks I went to medical school at U of Alberta, graduating class of 76. I continued to photograph and even in residency, had a darkroom - no running water, but functional none the less.
Over the years I amassed a large collection of books of photographs and even during periods of not photographing, I continued to study great photographs. With the help of Fred Picker's Zone VI manual, I became a good printer, and from a weekend course on photographic appreciation, learned a lot more about what makes fine images.
I now live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 60 miles from the Rocky Mountains, 200 miles from the Alberta Badlands.
About six years ago I started writing about photography, first with my own blog, and then for outbackphoto.com and then luminous-landscape.com
The latter publication led to the owner of Rockynook Publishing contacting me to suggest taking my series of articles and expand it into a book. I was already having some success being published, first in Black and White Photography (U.K.) with an article on my badlands photographs, and then a portfolio of my industrial work in Lenswork 57. I've also been in B&W, Focus and Outdoor Photography (U.K.)
I have always enjoyed writing. For years I had a patient newsletter in which I would explain diseases and tests and whatnot and seemed to have some talent for explaining things clearly.
In my blog, although sometimes writing about technical matters, my first love was the art in photography, commenting on subjects like where to point the camera and how to compose, which images to select and how to assess one's work.
Although it is true that I earn my living as a family doctor, I spend almost as much time doing, thinking about and writing on photography.
I'm told I have a good eye. I have an understanding of how composition works rather than knowing a list of rules and I can explain it to you.
I have gone through most if not all of the problems that photographers can face in 40 years, failures, rejections, discouragement, dislike of one's own work, and for the most part I have come out the other side, and think I can help you through that journey.
Perhaps most importantly, I write from the point of view of someone who cares only about the final image, not about efficiency or maximum output, a failing in nearly all the books written by commercial photographers. Should you want to edit 2000 images of the same girl in the same red dress, then read those books, but if you have one image you care about and want to make it the best you can, then I think I can help, right from before you even discover the scene until you make the last edit to your image.
I have written 3 books so far.
My first is:
"Take Your Photography To The Next Level"
This book is about the art of photography - there isn't a single f stop or shutter speed in the whole book. It takes you from seeing to working the scene, onto composing and through the mental struggles we get up to, and to selecting our best work. Finally it gives you a frame work upon which to judge your work, not because having a rating is of the slightest value other than to point out how you might go about improving your work. I use 30 years of my work as examples and to illustrate points. The basic premise is "Practicing what you are good at is human nature, but not terribly effective. Identifying our weaknesses and working on them may be painful, but even modest improvements usually make huge differences to our work.
This is a book for all photographers who care about their craft or art. It won't explain how to use your new camera, but it might help you aim it in a good direction.
This book has been translated into German, Italian, Swedish, Polish and two different versions of Chinese.
My second book is:
"From Camera To Computer"
We considered calling this "A Look Over My Shoulder" and rejected it. When it came time to translate it into German, we went with the "Over My Shoulder", albeit in German, and the book has sold 10X as well.
The idea of the book is to take the theoretical knowledge of the first book and apply it to working the scene in a series of example sittuations. I show you my failures on the way to success, and then show how I go about editing the captured image(s) to make the final photograph. There is a short Photoshop primer at the back of the book explaining how to use the small fraction of Photoshop that I use to edit my images. All but a few of the images were not in the first book. This is the field manual to the text book of my first book.
The third book is:
"Why Photographs Work"
Sarkowski's "looking At Photographs" was an important book for my development as a photogapher, and I felt there was a place for a modern equivalent, explaining why photographs work, with the emphasis on image rather than process, recent rather than historical and including colour. I felt I could not write faithfully about why a photograph is successful when it is one of my own images - perhaps I could write about what I did to try and make it successful, but that's not the same, so STEP 1 was to use images of other photographers. I decided to limit it to photographers who are living.
I proposed the idea to my publisher and Rockynook was very enthusiastic, so I bit the bullet and started selecting images I'd like to write about, then tracked down the photographers and asked for their participation. I had little to offer except some exposure, hardly a carrot for the more famous on my 'want' list. I was blown away by the positive response to my request. From an anticipated 40 photographs and photographers the book soon expanded to 50, and as you will note, eventually 52.
Some of the photographers are extremely famous, from Pete Turner to John Sexton, From Beth Moon to Elizabeth Opalenik. Also included are some names you likely have never heard of (yet), simply because I thought their photographs wonderful. Photographers have come from six different countries and involve a large variety of subjects and processes, a number of the images pushing even my comfort zone in terms of subject and style, yet still wonderful. There are still lifes and landscapes, nudes and flowers, people and architecture, wildlife and abstract.
There are 52 wonderful photographs, each on its own page. There are essays on why I think each image works. Each photographer has donated their image, and their time and writing, without payment. They explain what made them take the image and briefly, how. There are short biographies by the photographers, including their major influences. At the end of the book is a list of other photographers you might want to check out, suggested by some of our 52 photographers.
As I write this, I have only seen the book as a pdf but it's coming, within the month(I'm writing this 24 Oct. 2010). It's going to be beautiful, affordable, and I think helpful, for both photographers and lovers of photography.
This review is from: Take Your Photography to the Next Level: From Inspiration to Image (Paperback)
George Barr's stunning new book is an impressive debut for George in the world of art instruction in book form, and a "must-read" book for photographers at all skill levels. George is already quite an accomplished master of photography in traditional print and Blog forms. Indeed, according to his Blog, the idea for this book, and a bit of its substance (though markedly enhanced and expanded) came about partly from the many insightful entries he's posted on his Blog over the years [...].
Apart from his obvious writing skill, one of George's great strengths as an artist/communicator is his ability to articulate some of the core - and often mysterious - qualities that describe the process of art in general; and photography in particular. Though he doesn't shy away from philosophical issues (and addresses such issues as "Just what is fine-art photography, anyway?" head-on), he has a veritable wellspring of practical advice to impart photographers, ranging from complete novices to seasoned professionals.
That this book is special is immediately obvious. It is neither an all too common "How To.." instruction manual on what f-stop to choose or what lens to put on your camera, nor is it yet another "This is how it is done in Photoshop..." guidebook (though some allusions to both sets of "problems" are sprinkled throughout). What this book does, and does exceedingly well, is address the much more difficult subjective components of fine-art photography: the nature of creativity in the photographic process, where to "look for" images, and what to do when you find them (and when you cannot!), how to compose your shots and why, how to assess your imagery, and to learn to develop your own "style," and the differences between purely technical acumen and aesthetic vision.
Such matters are rarely if ever are given the attention they deserve, and if they do appear in other books - typically as short side-bars or quick asides - do so more as after-thoughts than substantive discussions. In fact, I know of only perhaps three or four other books (none of which are as well-written as this one, by the way) that similarly delve deeply into the creative and aesthetic parts of photography. It is thus a book that is long-overdue; and I am delighted that a photographer of George's unique blend of artistic skill and expository ability has taken up the challenge.
I am also impressed by the utmost care and attention that has been put into the design and content of the book. The image selection is excellent throughout; and (in another rarity for books in this admittedly small genre) include many "don't quite work" photographs simply because George wants to show what works, what does not, and why. Even the captions to the photos show a quiet attention. Each tells a succinct story about what is being shown, and makes a point all its own that compliments the accompanying text. If all one did was to skim the book reading its captions, and nothing else, one would arguably still learn a great deal of the subject. Another nice feature is that many of the sections include simple but marvelously effective sketches to illustrate the finer points of, say, cropping and composition. While most authors would have contented themselves to include an image example or two and leave it at that, George goes that extra step for the reader. Finally, there is also a generous selection of "portfolio" images, each accompanied by its own "story" of how it came to be, in two-page spreads that appear throughout the book. My personal favorite (and one that, as George reveals, turns out to be among George's all-time popular images) is Windowpane, that appears on page 193. Indeed, it is this particular image, that I first saw in Focus magazine a few years ago, that introduced me to George's photography, and compelled me to become an avid reader of his Blog.
If you are either a budding photographer who wants to learn about the "art" in fine-art photography, or a long-practicing photographer (perhaps even a pro), and are wondering where to look for advice to improve your own vision; or your skill level is anywhere in-between, know that there is no better place to learn, and no better guide to turn to for guidance, than George's superb new book. On the basis of this book alone, I'd say George is about to embark on yet another career track (in addition to already being a physician and photographer); namely that as an accomplished teacher of fine-art photography. Well done George.
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This review is from: Take Your Photography to the Next Level: From Inspiration to Image (Paperback)
I just received my copy yesterday, and although I've browsed through it and only read the first few chapters, I must say it's the BEST book I've ever read for serious photographers interested in improving their ability to see their subjects, capture them well, and create good images - regardless of what equipment (digital, film etc) they're using. The images and layout are excellent and the text is very readable. But most important, I feel as if the author is talking directly to me - simple, clear, friendly, and using the many images to illustrate the useful tips he is trying to convey. Contrary to books on this subject by many authors, he is not afraid to use some of his 'bad' images to get across an important lesson - I respect him for that. Only at the end of the book does Barr devote a small chapter to equipment and software - which is just fine.
ADDENDUM: I've finished the book, and my first impressions are well confirmed. As a serious amateur photographer who has navigated over the years the ups and downs of how I and others perceive my images, I feel much better after 'listening' to Dr Barr. His professional skills as a psychotherapist come across very well in the book.
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This review is from: Take Your Photography to the Next Level: From Inspiration to Image (Paperback)
I must admit, I had high hopes for this book. It has overall fairly good reviews and the author is a skilled image maker.
However -- that's all the book is about, HIS images. He does talk about inspiration -- HIS inspirations. And if his kind of photography (industrial and landscape) leaves you cold, as it does me, you may learn next to nothing. I would much rather have seen him discuss a wider range of pictures, even if they weren't his own, and widen his rhetoric beyond his private processes.
Perhaps that was not the purpose of the book. If so, then a title like "How *I* Took *MY* Photography to the Next Level" would have been more appropriate.
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