Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures (Lonely Planet Travel Photography) (Paperback)

by Richard I'Anson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Note From Publisher: This is the old edition of Lonely Planet's Guide to Travel Photography.

Lonely Planet's new edition of Travel Photography may be found by typing the ISBN number 1741041848 into the search box.

The fantastic new 2nd edition has been thoroughly updated and revised to include a special new section on digital photography. It also includes new information on black and white photography techniques.

We invite you to check it out.

From the Publisher
For more than a quarter century, Lonely Planet guides have provided adventurous travelers with all of the how tos, wheres, whats and whys for a successful trip. Richard I'Anson has been supplying photos for Lonely Planet guides for over ten years, his work appearing in over 150 guidebooks. For the first time, I'Anson shares his secrets, techniques and more than two decades of experience in "Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures". Packed with unforgettable color photographs, it is broken down into four useful parts – First Things First, Taking Control, On the Road and Back at Home. Find detailed information on:

• Equipment • Accessories • Film • Exposure • Composition • Light • Subject Matter • Assessing Your Photographs

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; illustrated edition edition (January 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 186450207X
• ISBN-13: 978-1864502077
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,165,282 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A typographic treasure ..., December 6, 2000

By	Max Grenkowitz "BookWorm" (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I couldn't agree more to Richards introduction, when he says: "Modern automatic cameras have eased the burden of having to understand what's going on when you press the shutter. However, this often means the process and the variable elements that go into creating a successful image remain a mystery, and cannot be repeated."

To be able to repeat good quality photographs you have (you need) to understand and to control the picture-taking process. I have read this book in one hit -- I couldn't let go -- the text is short and precise, the photographs are stunning and the caption contains the details you need to know to understand the scene.

Many pictures have a counterpart to show you what had been improved by using different settings, lense or filter, etc.

Travel photography is a super-set of abilities, not only the landscape scene, not only the family album type picture, not only macro shots, but all of it. This book will not let you down, by explaining in enough detail what to watch out for... it covers the lot, from selecting a camera to suit your needs, a suitable type of film, "a guide to taking better pictures", even how to make money out of your shots, in case you want to.

The author concentrates on what is necessary, don't be scared when hearing about filters, one is a must (UV), another is very helpful (Polarizer) and two others are nice to have (find this out for yourself).

The book is definitely worthwhile the money... way cheaper than taking test pictures and to find the settings on your own. You still have to take test pictures to test your capabilities, but I reckon you'll save five rolls :-)

P.S. Why "A typographic treasure"? -- The layout of the book is excellent, the sections of the book a clearly visible, helping you to find you way around.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Travel Image Subject Matter Inspiration, January 30, 2001

By A Customer

An okay little book with lots of tips and hints on travel photography. The real strength of this book is the coverage of potential subject matter, providing plenty of food for thought. If your a beginner you may find coverage of the basics a bit brief, though there is still useful content in these early sections of the book for all. As an early intermediate picture taker, I found the lens aperture and shutter speed information included with most of the images useful in understanding the scope and context of those combinations selected for the different subjects. If you know your way around your camera equipment and are looking for some inspiration on what to photograph on that once in a lifetime trip, then take a look at this book. It is small enough that you can take it with you without adding too much to the baggage.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best concise travel photography guide on the market, July 3, 2006

By	Mark Schmieder (SF Bay Area, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures (How to) (Paperback)

This gem of a book is probably the best concise guide to photography on the market (and I've looked through most of them over the years). As I am an advanced semi-pro and sometime pro photographer, it would be hard for me to judge how useful this book is to an absolute beginner, but for me it is a handy reference to review before a major trip, reminding me of things I might forget about that are not part of my everyday shooting in Coastal California (such as the advice on ways that you may inadvertantly expose your film to too much heat, and the caveats about damage from sand, humidity, etc., as well as specific exposure and filtering considerations in some of the extreme conditions one encounters overseas).

I own the 2000 edition, which I find perfectly well organised, but plan to look at the updated edition this week to see what changes have been made and if the quality has been fully retained or if the guide has been "dumbed down". What I find particularly useful in the 2000 edition is the moderately well annotated comparison shots. Most photography guides provide silly and useless "comparisons" of different focal lengths from the same standing position, or "artistic" renditions that I personally despise such as soft focus portraits, slo-mo waterfalls, etc. This guide is the best I've ever seen for picking appropriate subject matter and shooting conditions for showing the best use of specialised filters (such as 81 series and 82 series) as well as summarising Best Practices and pitfalls of graduated and Neutral Density filters.

The book spendds little or no time on subjects such as Black & White, Infra-Red, Ultraviolet lighting, etc. Other subjects are left uncovered as well, and this is entirely appropriate for a book that focuses on the likely types of photography that even a professional photographer would probably engage in during extensive travels. There is an implicit emphasis on the practical considerations of what one brings along on a longer vacation (such as three weeks or longer).

My only criticism on the advice is one that is common to most modern photography books, and that is the advice for people to buy zoom lenses. Although the more high-end zooms are now capable of producing sharp photographs and delivering adequate light, those zooms tend to be as heavy and expensive as the fixed lenses that they replace, and my experience with moderately priced variable aperture zoom lenses is that they are unable to deliver the requisite amount of light or minimum focus distance required by most "best light" shooting (i.e. two hours before sundown in the temperate zone, or half an hour to one hour befolre sundown in the tropics). Also, learning to use a few ideal focal lengths (such as 24, 35, 50, and 105) greatly enhances the development of one's technical and artistic skills; whereas using zooms tends to make one lazy in using the zoom to frame the picture vs. thinking in terms of aspect ratio and which shooting position delivers best lighting.