Customer Reviews

100 Ways to take better Nature & Wildlife Photographs

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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!

I was especially pleased on the approach that this author used to help define what is required for great nature and outdoor photography. It is clearly written and offers the newbie and the old timers the requirements needed to achieve great outdoor pictures. Granted some things will cost you $$, but the other suggestions, such as commom sense are good reminders of the basic things needed to achieve that special chance to capture that certain picture. Some of it requires luck, some requires patience, but the techniques described and the approaches offered are great reading.

This is a very well written and illustrated book on nature photography that has lots of good tips and no fluff which is rare with photo books. Most of the information is generic in that it applies equally well to both film and digital cameras and to any type of camera system. The author only has experience with Canon equipment so there is no so much a bias as a lack of information on excellent options afforded by Nikon that are relevant to nature and wildlife photography and not available from Canon.

The photos were taken in Europe and Scandinavia both in the wild and at animal compounds with captured animals. Personally I believe it is wrong to photograph captive animals unless it is for a ID guide book or as part of scientific research of some sort. The author is completely candid about those photos taken of captive animals but to me wildlife photography should have photographs of wild animals in the wild.

Guy Edwardes provides a lot of practical information that will make it easy for even a complete novice to quickly get better pictures through simple techniques. Although they are simple to do they are seldom if ever mentioned in photo technique books. Some are obvious to people who have been taking photographs for many years but some are not and for those just starting with photography the information provided will save many hours of fruitless effort.

One glaring shortcoming that I would hope might be corrected in a future edition is the omission of any serious discussion of the use of flash in both nature and wildlife photography. The new iTTL and eTTL flash systems from Nikon and Canon respectively make it easy to improve results from photographing nature as the work of George Lepp and especially Frans Lanting beautifully illustrate.

For example Guy mentions carrying around a 8x10 mirror in his camera bag when actually a small strobe fired off camera would be a more versatile approach with more options as to the amount of fill light provides, the area of coverage, and adding warmth with a 6000K light source. I only have a roller case that is large enough to transport such a mirror but a small flash easily fits in every bag I own.

Many photographers specialize with plant or landscape or wildlife photography and one of the benefits of Guy's book is that it covers all three areas very well and can provide exposure to areas that photographers in their single mindedness have overlooked but should consider for future outings. I got at least 5 useful tips to improve my own photographs from this book and at $5 a tip I consider that a very good and very rare value.

This Guy Edwards is just so good, his composition is quite beautiful, I liked the layout and the way this is designed, he has some sound advice in an excellent publication. Inspiring.

An excellent book with all the EXIF information.

With detailed descriptions, how it has been captured and good quality print too.

Will recommended to nature photographers.

Thanks.
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