5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some value, but not well conceived overall, February 7, 2011
This review is from: 100 Ways to take better Nature & Wildlife Photographs (Paperback)
The well-known wildlife photographers have for some reason avoided publishing how-to books in the digital age. I continue to find inspiration from 90s books by Joe MacDonald, John Shaw, and Larry West, but those books tended to focus about 25% of their content on film choice (now obsolete), and digital has changed most other aspects of wildlife photography as well. So, those books all still have value, but an update was desperately needed.
Given this, I bought Edwardes' book mostly out of desperation. I found its structure of "100 tips" annoying in a short-attention span kind of way even as I read it in the store, but I noted that between the lines he offered some useful tips here and there. After having had it a year and used it as reference occasionally, I can now report it does offer some useful advice and tips, but they are few and far between. The structure of this book is illogical to the point of irritation - his "tips" blatantly contradict one another, with no explanation given for why we should overlook that. In essence, to gain value from this book, I am forced to completely ignore its intended structure and simply read it for the tidbits it contains in between them. This is made all the more challenging by the fact that these observations are randomly scattered across the 100 tips. Example: In one tip he mentions casually that he was trying to photograph a diving sea bird, and the sequence he shows was the only successful one out of several hundred he shot. That sort of deeper observation is very useful to the digital photographer wondering how the pros are accomplishing these feats (and wondering if they themselves are crazy or simply grossly incompetent!), but this book makes it almost impossible to find and profit from such advice. Truly annoying.
In addition, the "100 tips" structure enforces a lecturing style of writing. The author spends the entire book saying "do this, don't do that," with his dos and donts mostly representing truisms. Shoot a closeup. Why? Because this closeup picture of a fungus looks nice. Huh? The structure doesn't allow him space to explain what he does and why since it is built around these "prime directives." Any moderately experienced photographer is likely to benefit more from just letting a professional relate their experiences without the enforced artificiality of trying to organize them around these 100 imaginary points.
In summary, I would recommend this book from the bargain books bin only. And, more importantly, I'd like to try and send a message with this review to publishers. The audience for something as niche and complex as serious nature photography is the wrong audience to be pitching to with a "10 best" list mentality as American cable TV has so endlessly done the past decade. It surprised me all the more that the author of this book is a brit. Typically I look for deeper, more engaging prose from a UK source, not this sort of disjointed, annoying fluff. My 4 cents.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"100 Ways to Take Better" series is simply.. amazing!, March 18, 2010
This review is from: 100 Ways to take better Nature & Wildlife Photographs (Paperback)
I have all books (I could find in the U.S.) from the "100 Ways" series - landscape, wildlife, portraits, b&w, general for one reason, and one reason only: while other books on the given subject could be funnier, use the same equipment that I use (for some reason every author in this series uses Canon equipment - could you imagine how much better the results could've been if they would've used Nikon?! Just kidding!!), easier to put in a pocket, etc. etc. - "100 Ways" is the series I learned from the most. Period.
Just imagine - for $18 you get 100 ultra-high quality photographs on a single subject with detailed settings used information, how-tos, whys and story behind the photo, tips and tricks, and, simply, new ideas for your own new creations.
Wow, what an amazing value!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
100 Reasons to Buy this Book, July 31, 2011
This review is from: 100 Ways to take better Nature & Wildlife Photographs (Paperback)
As an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and one who loves to get out into the great outdoors and shoot wildlife, I think this book is an excellent aid to getting better nature photographs. From the very first page where the author suggests keeping a nature diary so you can go back to prime locations time and again, I was hooked. Each of the 100 ways are useful tips for photographers, especially with the camera settings listed for each shot so you can go off and try out the techniques yourself. We don't all have the luxury of owning expensive long lenses but the same principles apply. I recommend this book to anyone interested in improving their nature photography. Oh, and the author's photography is just magic!
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