The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great (Voices That Matter) [Paperback]

Steve Simon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0321719891 | ISBN-13: 978-0321719898 | Edition: 1

If you've got a love and passion for photography, a feel for your camera gear and settings, yet your images still fall short--The Passionate Photographer will help you close that disappointing and frustrating gap between the images you thought you took and the images you actually got.

This book will encourage you to determine what you want to say with your photography, then translate those thoughts and feelings into strong images. It is both a source of inspiration and a practical guide, as photographer Steve Simon distills 30 years of photographic obsession into the ten crucial steps every photographer needs to become great at their passion.  

Simon's practical tips and advice are immediately actionable-- designed to accelerate your progress toward becoming the photographer you know you can be. Core concepts and suggestions include:  

• The power of working on personal projects to fuel your passion and vision

• Shooting a large and targeted volume of work, which leads to a technical competence that lets your creativity soar

• Learning to focus your concentration as you shoot, and move outside your comfort zone, past your fears toward the next great image

• Strategies for approaching strangers to create successful portraits

• How to edit your own work and seek second opinions to identify strengths and weaknesses, offering opportunities for growth and improvement with a goal of sharing your work with the world. 

• The critical need to follow, see and capture the light around you

Along the way, Simon offers inspiration with "Lessons Learned" culled from his own extensive experience and archive of photojournalism and personal projects as well as images and stories from acclaimed photographers.

If you're ready to be inspired and challenge yourself to take your photography to the next level, The Passionate Photographer provides ideas and creative solutions to transform that passion into images that convey your unique personal vision.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steve Simon has been passionate about documenting the beauty and drama of the human condition his entire photographic life. The author of four critically acclaimed photography books with pieces in major museum collections around the world, his work has been featured three times at the Visa Pour L'Image Photojournalism Festival in Perpignan, France and at solo shows in New York, Buenos Aires, Toronto and Montreal. He has been honored by the Art Director's Club of New York, the National Press Photographers Association, an Alfred Eisenstaedt Magazine Award Nomination and chosen Canadian Newspaper Photographer of The Year. He loves to lead workshops with passionate photographers everywhere and is on the faculties of ICP and SVA in New York City, where he lives.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (July 30, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321719891
• ISBN-13: 978-0321719898
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.6 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Simon has been passionate about documenting the beauty and drama of the human condition his entire photographic life. The author of four critically acclaimed photography books with works in major museum collections around the world, he has had solo shows in New York, Buenos Aires, Toronto and Montreal and his work has been featured three times at the Visa Pour L'Image Photojournalism Festival in Perpignan, France. He is on the faculty of ICP and SVA in New York and is a contributing photographer for The Digital Journalist. International awards include: Art Director's Club of New York, The Canadian Newspaper Photographer of The Year, Global Health Council Photography Award for his work on AIDS in Africa, Alfred Eisenstaedt Magazine Photography Award Nomination, PX3. He has lead workshops all over the world, including Mentor Series 2010 in New Orleans and Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai.

http://www.stevesimonphoto.com
http://twitter/stevesimon
http://facebook/thepassionatephotographer

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for Photographers August 29, 2011

By Matt Welsh

Format:Paperback

I just finished reading The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great by Steve Simon, and I'm happy to say that it's one of the best photography books I've read in years. In the Passionate Photographer, Simon presents 10 things that photographers and those that aspire to photographic greatness can do to to improve their photos including a discussion about how personal vision fuels photography projects, how to approach and photograph people, and learning how to focus (you, not the camera) as you shoot and how to manage your own workflow.

The Passionate Photographer is not a technical book on the how-to of working a camera and the author assumes a level of comfort with photographic concepts, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Examples from his own life and body of work illustrate perfectly the points he makes (and his work is very, very good), and even after 25 years of doing photography I found myself getting excited about picking up a camera.

I don't often buy photography books, and even less often recommend them, but I think that anyone with an interest in photography and taking their own work to the next level can benefit from this book.

109 of 122 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Core Reading Material for any Serious Photographer July 28, 2011

By D. Hobby

Format:Paperback

As the author of the Strobist blog, books just show up in the mailbox and doorstep several times a week. To be honest, far more often than I would like -- as Strobist is generally not a book review blog. Luckily for me, one of this week's crop was an advance copy of Steve Simon's The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great.

Simon's experience in his genre (documentary photography) rivals McNally's as a lighting photographer. But what makes this book special is Simon's ability to get his tenets across to the reader with clarity as well as passion. The bullet points in the promotional copy above give you a sense of what the book contains, and I won't repeat them here. But they really do not give the book justice.

This book is very hard to describe in a single sentence. The best I can do is this: Passionate Photographer is to the fieldcraft and compass point of being a photographer as Joe McNally's books are to small-flash lighting. And that is saying a lot.

Suffice to say that "The Passionate Photographer" is one of the most inspirational books I have ever read. I give it five stars because Amazon won't let me give it six. I think it is destined to become a classic.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The book I've been waiting for October 2, 2011

By Rob LaRosa

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is NOT a beginners photography book. I suppose some pros could consider it a beginner's book looking at it from the aspect that it's a great book to read if you are just starting a career in photography or nearing the completion of your studies. However, there are no in depth discussions on the effects of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. There is no discussion about what the buttons on your camera do and there is only brief discussion on traditional compositional techniques (e.g. the rule of thirds). The author assumes you know these things and you should before reading this book.

If you feel you have a good technical and creative grasp of photography but that your knowledge somehow isn't making it from your brain to your eye to your final photos, then I think you'll enjoy this book. The author breaks down ten easy to understand steps to improve your photography. These aren't just quick little tips or tricks, this is a veteran photographer who has gone through the growing pains selflessly giving you the knowledge he's picked up through his experiences. It's the closest you can come to spending a few hours learning from a professional without paying a ton of money for a workshop.

Typically intermediate photography books have taken me about 6 weeks to read. Not because I'm a slow reader but because I've found them lacking or felt the authors holding back knowledge and I've had to force myself to finish when I really didn't want to continue. This is undoubtedly the best photography book I've ever read. The highest compliment I can pay it is that it took me less than a week to read it from cover to cover.