May 102013
Extraordinary Everyday Photography: Awaken Your Vision to Create Stunning Images Wherever You Are
Get inspired to discover the beautiful images around you
Photographers are born travelers. They’ll go any distance to capture the right light, beautiful landscapes, wildlife, and people. But exotic locales aren’t necessary for interesting photographs. Wonderful images are hiding almost everywhere; you just need to know how to find them.
Extraordinary Everyday Photography will help you search beyond the surface to find the unexpected wherever you are, be it a downtown street, a
List Price: $ 25.99
Price: $ 15.73
Extremely Well Done Inspiration,
This is a book from the class of books which aim to improve the photographer rather than one dealing with the technology of photography. Perhaps the best known author along this line is Freeman Patterson who the authors here cite both as an expert in this area and an inspiration for them. These books, such as those I’ve cited and one other excellent one, ‘The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World With Fresh Eyes’ teach you to see and once you see the striking image, recording it photographically is just a matter of steps.
Who is/are the photographer(s) you admire? Very likely these people did not need to travel to exotic locales like so many photographers desire so they can find ‘the shot’. These masters saw the great images they later captured all around them. For example, Henri Cartier-Bresson just wandered the streets taking quiet images using his little Leica. Ansel Adams’ images sell for seven figures yet he mostly shot places millions of others have and will travel to yet never equal his shots. Clyde Butcher makes wonderful images where others see nasty swamps. Weston’s most famous photographs are of common vegetables.
So why do so many art and amateur photographers dream of finally taking that voyage to Antarctica or Africa or some other place to get stunning images when the masters seem to find them in their backyards? The difference is that they are masters because they see artistically. This book, as well as those others cited (and more too) have examples, essays and exercises to help you develop your eye to you too can see like those who can seem to always find ‘the shot’ where others just walk by.
This book isn’t very long but is dense in information, sample snaps to illustrate the authors’ points and exercises to assist you in this artistic development. The book concentrates on the image – the composition and its elements. It strives to break you free of any creative restrictions you may have developed. For example, the book instructs you, at one point, to (horrors of horrors) set your expensive DSLR rig on ‘P’ so you can concentrate on the image rather than fiddling with the aperture or shutter speed or whatnot. At other places, the authors even exceed this recommendation by suggesting you (double horrors of horrors) using your cell phone camera where you won’t worry about these settings because you cannot.
Do not expect here a technical discussion of how aperture affects DOF or how to use CS to post process your way to imaging happiness or other purely technical issues. The authors figure you either know that stuff or can find it elsewhere. This is a book about how to move from where you are to a more artistically inclined version of yourself. By that, I mean one who can see the great photo no matter where you are.
To paraphrase the previously cited Freeman Patterson, what do you expect to photograph at that exotic location if you can’t see what there is to photograph right at home? On a personal note, after reading this book for all of 15 minutes, I had a sort of awakening. I went home, got my expensive DSLR, and walked to a place I pass each morning. Putting the camera on the never before used P, I took a snap which is one of my better ever. It was nice to open my eyes and wake up to that which is always around me.
Highly recommended.
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|The Head and the Heart,
Hundreds of books exist that explain how to take well exposed, well composed photos. What’s so special about this one? The authors, Brenda Tharp and Jed Manwaring, say that while knowledge (the head) of basic photographic techniques is important, it is the heart that is fundamental to the creative process as it is a tool of infinite exploration, perception, and expression in the field of play that is photography today.
Brenda and Jed make a case for “seeing deeply and feeling deeply” in order to create images that may or may not be technically perfect, but that have personal meaning — the ones that makes your heart go pitty-pat and cause you to exclaim a silent or very loud Yes! to yourself. And to carry out that expression effectively, the authors suggest that we begin with a “creative vision that comes from seeing with an open heart and mind.”
They illustrate the “how” of this process through a series of intelligently presented chapters that each focus on an aspect of expanding one’s awareness and perception. Entries such as “Practice Seeing Daily,” and “See Beyond the Subject” offer simple but effective ways to see beyond the normal — for example, to look for potential subjects in close-up and macro work, in reflections, and in patterns. Recommended exercises at the end of each chapter offer simple ways to practice what is discussed.
The chapters, “Discovering Pictures Where You Live” and “Capturing Everyday Moments” are at the heart of the book, which challenges the notion that one needs a fat travel budget to take great photos. On the contrary, the authors say, right around you — in your own neighborhood, park, back yard, or even kitchen — lie opportunities for “extraordinary everyday photography.” Using examples of common objects (a cheese grater!, a coat hanger in an open window, a sheet of ice), the authors take us on a little bit of a magical mystery tour, showing how simple techniques such as isolating elements through cropping, identifying abstracts, and using light imaginatively can yield beautiful and unusual images.
Another chapter, “Expanding the Creative Process” shows examples of images manipulated either in camera (multiple exposures, slow shutter, panning) or in post-process (such as Photoshop) and provide fresh ideas for making “straight” photos more artful and personal. And the resources chapter lists several smartphone apps and websites that photographers will find useful.
Who will like this book? Any beginning-to-intermediate photographer who wants to expand their photographic skill and horizon, or any photographer who feels stuck, stymied, bored, or unchallenged. Anyone who thinks they can only make great photos in “great” locations. Practicing these techniques is likely to greatly improve your photography at home while preparing you to take even better photos when those big travel adventures do come your way.
Finally, I love the authors’ suggestion to make photo play dates to practice the techniques offered. While they don’t make a specific recommendation about whether to do this alone or with others, I personally think the exercises provide a useful framework for getting together with other explorers eager to expand photographic boundaries and to then share/compare results in a space of camaraderie, support and fun!
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|Learning to See,
There are photography instruction books that suggest that a person can be a better photographer if they practice Zen in photography. Somehow my mind rebels at this approach, as if what I consider a form of religion (I know others will disagree) can be picked up and put down like a camera lens. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when Tharp and Manwaring suggested a Zen-like approach without ever mentioning Zen. I was also pleased when they suggested that their recommended approach could be used not only to make photographs of the inherently spectacular, like the Grand Canyon, but also to make better photographs of the everyday world around us.
The authors suggest a number of techniques for using the photographer’s most important instrument – the mind. The opening chapters deal with learning to see the world and the later chapters with composing the key elements, especially light, to reveal what we see in that world. The book is lavishly illustrated with the authors’ images. Each chapter includes several exercises designed to improve your vision, and, even though the text is well written and clear, if you don’t work at these exercises, the book is not likely to benefit you. Typically, the chapter entitled “The Moment of Perception” includes an exercise that requires the reader to go out and photograph color, such as an image of one color, or contrasting colors. Doing these exercises is expected to sensitize the photographer to color in all of one’s photography.
One of the side issues of this approach is that it seems aimed at sensitizing the photographer to form, without regard to content. Many of the authors’ images in the early chapters resemble abstract paintings rather than photographs of something. The photographer should keep in mind while doing these exercises that many photographers believe that the purpose of photographic form is to explicate the content.
Learning how to see is far more difficult than learning how to set proper exposure. There is no guarantee that the authors can do this, but it seems to me that someone interested in improving the skill to see is likely to benefit from this book.
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