I have not mentioned my book, Landscapes of the American Southwest, recently. So herewith a shameless bit of self-promotion! Landscapes of the American Southwest features some of my best images of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The book is available in softcover, hardcover, and apple ibook format from Blurb. Here’s a preview…
Posted in Landscape, Photo News, Photography, Uncategorized
Tagged Arizona, book, California, Landscapes of the American Southwest, New Mexico, Photography
Almost anyone who follows this blog knows how much I love macro and closeup photography. I’ve been doing it for years. Going all the way back to the days of film and manual cameras, I’ve done closeup photography using closeup lenses, macro lenses, and extension tubes. Closeup and macro photography – all kinds, but especially flowers, fascinates and intrigues me, and challenges me as well. Over the years, I’ve seen and read many books on the subject. No book has interested me more than the latest ebook from Craft And Vision, Up Close: A Guide to Macro and Close Up Photography, by Andrew S. Gibson.
You can spend a fortune on macro lenses, but you don’t have to. Macro photography can be surprisingly affordable, and Gibson discusses all the different approaches in depth, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of each. Moreover, Gibson doesn’t just discuss equipment or theory but gets into practical techniques for doing closeup photography in different settings. As much closeup phiotography as I’ve done, I learned a great deal from Gibson’s book. He explains differences in magnification – and the effect of DX vs full-format cameras – better than any I’ve read. And there is a wealth of glorious beautiful closeup photography to admire.
Photograph by Andrew S. Gibson
After an Introduction and chapters on Equipment and Technique, Gibson discusses fully something most books gloss over but is critical to closeup and macro phgotography – Lighting. Again, he goes over the available equipment but also explains methods and techniques of different approaches.
Finally, the book concludes with something I wish more photography books included: Two in-depth case studies – Many lovely photographs and commentary by two other photographers specializing in closeup photography, Mandy Disher, who photographs insects and flowers, and Celine Steen, who does food photography. Throughout, the style is conversational while quite informative. This book is like a private seminar on closeup photography with three expert practitioners of the craft.
Photograph by Mandy Disher
Photograph by Mandy Disher
Photograph by Celine Steen
As I said, this is one of the best books on macro and closeup photography I’ve read. It’s quite suitable for both beginners and experienced photographers. Up Close may be the best ebook to come from Craft & Vision. 88 pages. PDF ebook, available from Craft and Vision for the ridiculous price of $5!
BUT, for the first six days only, if you use the promotional code CLOSE4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Up Close for only $4 OR you can use the code CLOSE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm (PST) June 24, 2012.
Click here to visit Craft And Vision.
Posted in Macro, Photo News, Photography, Recommended Links, Reviews
Tagged Andrew Gibson, book, closeup, Craft and Vision, ebook, how to, instruction, Macro, PDF, Photography, Up Close
Here is a book we all need! The latest ebook from Craft & Vision: eyePhone – Making Stronger Photographs with Your Camera Phone by Al Smith. This may be the best ebook from Craft & Vision yet!The cameras in camera phones have gotten so good! With each new iteration of the iPhone, Apple improves the camera. Manufacturers of other smartphones are doing the same. Yet how often are we disappointed with the results we get? Maybe we should add some apps to help with photography. But how choose? There are hundreds – thousands – of photographic apps; how do we pick the ones that will help?
As with all the Craft & Vision books, Al Smith adopts a “Less is more” philosophy. It’s exactly because the cameraphone is a limited tool that Smith finds it useful, and his book shows how to turn the cameraphone’s limitations into assets. It is, in Smith’s words, a “perfect trilogy” – the “right tool, in the right place, at the right time.”
I would argue that less is actually creatively more. The less you have to think about setting up your camera and which piece of gear to use, the better. It lets you apply more brain power to shooting creatively and will speed up your progression as a photographer … This is the beauty of mobile phones. They are extremely limited in what they do as a camera, but they make you feel completely free in your ability to create images.
But eyephone isn’t just philosophy. Writing in a relaxed conversational style, Smith packs this book with concrete suggestions and helpful hints, techniques and approaches that will help you get better pictures from your iPhone (or whichever cameraphone you use). Smith’s book divides photography with the cameraphone into three stages: Shooting, editing, and sharing. For Smith, the fact that you can do all three on the same device is key. Each topic gets a section of the book devoted to it. We get suggestions for apps. Ideas about how to use the iPhone to shoot in different settings and situations. Techniques for editing. And how and where (and why) to share our images. Although the book is suitable for all cameraphone users, Smith uses the iPhone and frames the book mostly on that.
This could be one of the most helpful photography books to come along. It’s 45 pages. PDF ebook that can be read on computer, iPad, iPhone or any device that will read a PDF. And it’s up to the overall quality we’ve come to expect from Craft & Vision books. $5. BUT, for six days only, use the code EYEPHONE20 and get it for $4. Or buy any five Craft & Vision ebooks and get 20% off. But the code expires at the end of the day (11:59pm PST) on May 27, 2012. Click here to visit Craft And Vision.
Posted in Photo News, Photography, Recommended Links, Reviews
Tagged camera phone, cameraphone, craft & vision, ebook, ebooks, iphone, mobile, mobile phone, PDF, Photography, smart phone
Landscapes of the American Southwest, Front Cover
Landscapes of the American Southwest has gone to press!!! I’m thrilled with it. More information when the book is available!
Posted in Landscape, Photo News, Photography
Tagged American southwest, books, Grand Canyon, Landscape, photobooks, southwest
Los Angeles International Airport (1964) Garry Winogrand. Gelatin silver print 13 1/2 x 9 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © 1984 The Estate of Garry Winogrand © 1984 The Estate of Garry Winogrand
There are several wonderful images included, for example Garry Winogrand’s “Los Angeles International Airport”; and (my favorite) William Garnett’s “Plaster and Roofing, Lakewood, California”. But the exhibit as a whole left me feeling shortchanged.
There are only 25 photographs, in one small room, in the exhibit. Philosophically, the design of the exhibit can’t be questioned. The images are grouped around “the themes of experimental photography, vernacular architecture, car culture, and fantasy and the film industry.” But I find it hard to believe that the Getty does not own or could not find a broader selection of photographs representing each of these areas during a most dynamic period in Los Angeles’ history, 1945-1980.
Plaster and Roofing, Lakewood, California (1950). William A. Garnett. Gelatin silver print 19.5 x 24.3 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © Estate of William A. Garnett © Estate of William A. Garnett
While these four themes do represent the multidimensional dynamics of Los Angeles – and though admittedly Los Angeles is a fascinating city – a broader assumption of the exhibit’s organizers begs argument.
It is immediately apparent that no city has ever been produced by such an extraordinary mixture of geography, climate, economics, demography, mechanics and culture; nor is it likely that an even remotely similar mixture will ever occur again.
—Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, 1971
But that’s quite a stretch! is that not true for most – or all – of the world’s great cities, and even a few of the not-so-great? Why do cities develop where/when/how they do? Is it not usually the “mixture of geography, climate, economics, demography, mechanics and culture”?
As disappointing as I found In Focus: Los Angeles at the Getty Center, the exhibit if part of a much grander city-wide scheme that is both bold and exciting. Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980 - Website here – features coordinated showings of Los Angeles art, design, and culture of 1945-1980 at more than sixty galleries, museums, and other centers from San Diego to Santa Barbara. A small but information-packed catalog of all the exhibits is available at the Getty.
Pacific Standard Time runs through April. In Focus: Los Angeles 1945-1980 exhibit at the Getty Center runs through May 6, 2012. The Getty Center, Los Angeles.
