I read. Voraciously. Ravenously. In other words…too much.
I believe strongly in self-education though, and though other mediums exist (online or not) I love the tactility of a book. There is just something about a good book, the weight, the ink, the discovery!
The majority of my reading is about photography, either technique, history or biographical. It’s what I enjoy, and if I can learn something to help make me a better photographer then why not!
Just in time for the holidays, here are a few of the page-turners that helped keep me from getting enough sleep in the past while. Some I have read and re-read, some are new and will be getting a second look sometime soon!
If you would like more information on a specific book, simply click the link to the listing at Chapters (Canada) or Amazon (US)…Oh yeah, these are listed in no particular order.
Happy Holidays!
Athlete by Walter Iooss Jr.
Walter is one of those living legends in photography, he’s been everywhere and seen almost everything. Lucky us! Iooss started shooing for Sports Illustrated at 16 and has not slowed down. The photographs in this book are simply stunning, among the best sports photographs ever made. Name a top pro athlete and they are in this book! Jordan? Check! Armstrong? Yup! Mays, Rice, Ali, Gretzky, they’re all there! And not only action shots either, Iooss has made some incredible portraits and has traveled extensively shooting photo essays which he also shares in this book. Need more proof? Remember The Catch? Joe Montana’s pass caught by Dwight Clark to win the NFC Championships for the 49ers? They would go on to win the Super Bowl that year…and the famous photo of The Catch…guess who shot it?
Chapters – Amazon
The Moment It Clicks by Joe McNally
This is the first in a series of books released by photojournalist Joe McNally. While the awesome The Hot Shoe Diaries and the soon to be released but undoubtedly awesome Sketching Light both concentrate on flash photography, The Moment It Clicks is accessible to a much wider audience. The book is presented mostly in a left-right style, the left being a very candid and hilarious look at what it took to make a photograph which is then presented on the right. The thing I love about Joe’s work is that he operates in much the same way as I do, he kinds fly’s by the seat of his pants and goes for it. Sure, you sketch out what you hope to accomplish, but it doesn’t always work out how you had hoped, sometimes for the better! Do you want to find out how to dangle someone from a flying helicopter above the Hollywood sign? This book will show you how! How can you not love someone who has nicknamed himself Numnuts?
Chapters – Amazon
The Passionate Photographer by Steve Simon
If you are having a heated discussion about Passion, Steve is the guy you want in your corner. First, he is from Montreal. That counts for a lot. Why? It just does…
I first met Steve while he was leading a workshop sponsored by Leica. As he spoke, he came alive. His eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning, and he really inspired me with the way he spoke. During the workshop, we were sent out on a couple of assignments and we received crits on our work, and I took in every word. This was real, this was what I wanted to do. We were asked to go and make some photos, street shots and the like, I managed to talk my way into a tattoo shop and photograph a friend of mine working there and then made some photographs of a homeless man in Old Montreal. Nothing groundbreaking or earth shattering…but to me it was a revelation. Something inside of me opened up. I had been published at that point, but I was still very green. Steve’s encouragement helped me tremendously. I have since run into him a couple of times, but not often enough. This man breathes and lives through his camera, and this book will encourage you to do the same. It is not a manual, a set the camera to f/8 kind of book, it is a show you how to dig deeper with your photography, to look into yourself and shoot what you want to shoot and you will become all the better for it kind of book.
Chapters – Amazon
Better Business Practices For Photographers by John Harrington
The biggest failing of photography schools is that they teach you about camera settings, lighting and stuff like that then release you into the wild to fend for yourself. There is nowhere near enough instruction about business, about how to find, serve and keep clients, about the nuts and bolts of how to make a living as a photographer. You can make one of the best photographs ever recorded to a CMOS chip, but if you can’t operate your business successfully you will be out of luck. If you have decided to make a go at this, to make your living as a photographer, you owe it to yourself to get this book. I wish we had studied it in school!
Chapters – Amazon
Lighting Notebook by Kevin Kubota
Boring light can kill a potentially stunning photograph. You can have the most famous of famous people in front of your lens, and still make a very boring portrait. In this handy little book Kubota shows over 100 photographs including behind the scenes shots showing where he put his lighting gear, what modifiers were used and why he did it that way. It is a pretty interesting look into the life of a working photographer and what goes into making a shoot happen. He lists the shoots in terms of difficulty and also in terms of budget, can this particular look be pulled off with a reflector or do you need 4 Profoto packs? The Gear section is a great resource as to what is currently on the market and available to photographers. My one gripe with the book is that Kubota also sells Lightroom plug-ins which he uses to process almost every photo in the book giving every photograph a very heavy-handed manipulated look. Some will lov it, I prefer many of the photographs before they get the treatment. Still, if you can look past that then it is a great resource for all you lighting nerds out there.
Chapters – Amazon
Moments In Time – Dirck Halstead
Many biographies, auto or not, can be kind of boring, self serving and one dimensional. Not this one! I didn’t put it down, devouring it in a couple of nights…
Halstead is one of those lucky-enough-to-be-there photojournalists who happens to witness a lot of history. He photographed many of the key people and moments in US history since the 1950′s. While still in high school, he photographed Rita Hayworth leaving a courthouse in White Plains, NY which was published on the front of the Daily Mirror. He never looked back. One story I loved is how in 1996 he was covering a campaign fundraiser for the US election when he made a photo of President Clinton hugging a staffer. You see where this is going? The other 2 shoots, who were both shooting digitally (digital was in its infancy then) wrote off the photographs and deleted them, but Halstead, who was still a film shooter, had THE photograph. Halstead’s photograph of President Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky was subsequently seen around the world.
Thoroughly engaging, Moments In Time will appeal to anyone who loves history and photography and wants to have a behind the scenes glimpse into the workings of a photojournalist. I mean, c’mon, he shot 47 covers for Time. How many have you shot?
Chapters – Amazon
South Southeast by Steve McCurry
McCurry’s photographs are on a level of their own. If I ever become half as good as him I will consider my career a success. This is a huge book, definitely not a curl up in bed kind of reader, but the size of the book allows McCurry’s stunning photographs made in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other locales in Southeast Asia. Each photograph is presented on a page of it’s own with nothing else except for the location to vie for attention, you simply stare at amazement as you turn each page. The photographs in this book show you why Steve is truly a legend.
Chapters – Amazon
Speedliter’s Handbook by Syl Arena
Joe McNally started a phenomenon. Strobism has been around for a while (Thanks David Hobby) but McNally put out a book about flash photography, mainly small camera mounted flashes and how to take advantage of them. Sure, books on lighting existed, but after McNally released The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries (which is a great book, but speaks in depth of the Nikon CLS which is something that doesn’t really apply to us Canon shooters), it seems there was an explosion of books on the topic, some great some terrible. Now it seems there is a new one every few weeks. Syl Arena’s book is the Canon answer to Joe’s Nikon fare, and is actually very good. It is an expanded instruction manual about Canon’s Speedlites and their capabilities. Syl also talks about various triggering options and methods of modifying the photons that pop out of your flash when you trigger them. Nikon guys and gals may not be too interested though the stuff about lighting stuff about lighting theory and the gadgets is pretty universal, Canon shooters who are even semi-serious about making better flash photographs should own this.
Chapters – Amazon
11 Ways To Improve Your Photography – Craft & Vision
This last one exists, but only on a monitor. It is also free! Not a bad price for a very entertaining guide of how you can improve your photography.
Here’s the deal: Craft & Vision is a book publisher who publishes e-books which are available for purchase through an iPad , or if you don’t have an iPad, you can download PDF’s of the books and read them on whatever device you choose (laptop, desktop, windows tablet etc…) You can’t really cuddle in bed to read it unless you like the glow of an iPad at night…I’m not there yet but I suppose one day I’ll get used to it.
The books are great, and this free e-book is a great introduction to them. It is not a rehashing of already published tomes, it’s all original writing for this edition, but it gives you an idea of the writing styles of the authors. The thing I love about this e-book is that it is written in many voices. Some speak of improving your craft through a new technique, some encourage you to simply look within yourself for the needed boost in creativity.
Download it here: http://craftandvision.com/books/craft-and-vision/
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