Customer Reviews

The Zen of Photography: How to Take Pictures With Your Mind's Camera

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

 

 

I'm really disappointed about this book. I am already a photographer, an admirer of the zen life style (a very humble practitioner), and of course a reader of books about these themes. I expected this one would be a further motivating lecture to increase my horizons, but... This is a real example about how words like "zen", "open mind", "satori" and so on, can be poorly used, trying to capture readers through a beautiful title and a promise of taking pictures with "the mind's camera". First of all, the author says in the Introduction: "I understand that my message will only be heard by those people who are ready to listen and those who already know. For those who do not listen and will not know, read on with an open heart". A serious author can not condition readers from the very start. At the end of each book, each reader will take hia/her own conclutions. My heart was open, and I am a guy who like to learn of each and every little things. But it is not enough to write a few words in a white background to make it sound something "humble" or "zen". Employing the words of the Masters, does not make anyone a Master, and this book is not the exception. It could have as much as twenty pages, considering that the same ideas are repeated once and again along the one hundred pages. "Trying to be one with..." is as nonsense as "¡Be spontaneous!". Maybe the intention was good, but sometimes a Professor of Communications can teach a lot from the silence.

This small book contains 100 useless sayings, each on it's own page. Here's a good example ---- #78 "It is not good enough to be a good photographer. You also need to be a good person who takes pictures." PUH .... LEEZE! Save your money, save some trees and look at some [alternative] for inspiration.

This book is more a collection of empty platitudes (and generous whitespace) than any kind of substantive guide to improving your photography. Truly, it's not about photography -- or even the art of seeing -- at all. Not even any pictures. Sheesh. See "Tao of Photography" by Gross & Shapiro instead -- it's fully of nicely reproduced classic images that are well chosen to illustrate the (much more substantial) points made in the text.