Book Description
In our times, cityscapes are no longer dictated from above, by urban planners, architects, engineers— or even by geography — but "from below," by how the people live and work in groups. By simple, aggregated acts, people become spontaneous city planners: their urban design incorporates grafitti and street restaurants; makeshift homes that take their own formal pattern of development; ads and neon lights that become an integral part of the 'natural' landscape, as they have been for decades in LasVegas. Even civic monuments can emerge, like the hundreds of names of desaprecidos "the disappeared" scratched in dirt in Buenos Aires.These changes are not accidents: they are "What We Want."

This kind of global transformation is not adramatic force compared to erecting a skyscraper or residential housing – sometimes it is not even quitevisible.But this force operates in strikingly similar ways in cities around the world; it is a profound social force in that it changes the way we interact and how we ultimately exert control over ourenvironment. ... Read more

Product Description
About the changing landscape of the San Francisco Bay area. ... Read more

Book Description
Photographer Tokihiro Sato (b. 1957), along with contemporaries Toshio Shibata and Naoya Hatakeyama, focuses on the shifting landscape of Modern Japan. Using a 8 x 10 inch camera fitted with a darkening filter, Sato creates lengthy exposures in which he moves throughout landscapes, pausing periodically with a mirror that reflects sunlight back at the camera. The light is recorded as traces of his presence, but he himself is rendered invisible by his motion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Literaly.... Painting with light!
If you don't know Tokihiro Sato Work, You can buy this book.
He is a great artist but this is a very small and thin book.
If you can find a bigger an rigid one will be better.

Breathtaking
Last year I saw some of Tokihiro Sato's photography at the Art Institute in Chicago.The technique and content are incredible!Amazing work! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

it's OK but only OK
When I saw that Gerry Spence had a book of his favorite photographs of Wyoming that he made, I thought, "man this is gonna be great. It's Wyoming, which is a place like no other, and it's Gerry Spence, a man like no other."

I have to give him respect, he has talent in photography. It looks like he's studied Ansel Adams quite a bit and he has similar equipment. You do have to sit out in the elements quite a long while to get a good shot, which bespeaks his endurance and willingness to do the best job he can when it's his name behind it. That's pretty seldom nowdays, which I respect. He has an eye for the right shot as well, which says he's a man of the outdoors who has practiced a lot.

I thought his poetry sounded too much like what you'd say in a final argument at a jury trial. That works incredibly well - a fellow attorney, I wish I were as fluid with words and spoken imagery as he is - but as "poetry" it's out of place here I think, because you can still feel the litigious "feel" of what the poetry is. Nature doesn't know plaintiff and defendant, even if the defendants are S.O.B.'s as they usually are.

There are also too many of the same types of images. He'll have a great image here or there - there's a picture of a colony of quaking-aspen that's just great, but there are many other pictures of the same sort of subject matter, trees crest in snow under a sunny winter sky.

It's Gerry Spence here. Pure and simple - with some strengths that you wouldn't have thought he had, but with some choices that I wouldn't've made myself which take away from the effect that he's trying to present to you, the reader who's not from Wyoming and hasn't experienced what he's experienced in his life. I can see what the effect is that he's aiming at but it's too personalized to the guy that took the pictures and wrote the text. That's how I'd say it. He has some moments of greatness in it though - that's why I give it 3 stars. It wasn't what I'd have thought it would have been at all, but then again, that doesn't mean that it wouldn't be somebody else's thing completely.

Gerry Spence's Wyoming: The Landscape
I received this book today. I sat down and looked at the pictures as I read the poems. I found it to be a wonderful book. The pictures told a story. I found the poems to be very good. Gerry Spence has a voice that one could never tire of hearing. It shows the landscape of Wyoming, not the tourist traps. This a long way from the home that Gerry Spence and his lovely wife Imaging occupy in Jackson Hole. Good job Gerry, if one did not know you were such a celebrity, it would never be guessed by looking at the wonderful black and white pictures with the story telling poems.

"a landscape bereft of its people is no landscape at all."

Thank you,Gerry,for the wonderful experience of experiencing the wonders of Wyoming. Spending the time listening to you read your poems while following the words in the book and bringing it to life with your personal photographs;is a real pleasure.
It's been said, that someone once asked Picasso how long it took him to paint one of his pictures. His reply was thatit took about 40 years. With that thought in mind,it can surely be said that it took Gerry Spence at least 40 years, but more likely closer to a lifetime of 70 years to gain the love and feeling of his country to write this wonderful book.
I have read a few of his books,but none convey the feel of his surroundings and country as well as this book does.
I am not a particular fan of recorded books;but in this case ,the combination of photographs,written words to follow,while we listen to Gerry's impassioned reading is simply stunning.
The photograph of the girl sitting in the window of a long abandoned log cabin is accompanied with this short,haunting poem;

They Have Gone

They have gone,
And here we are,
Flying on the wings of history.

captures the days of the pioneers who settled the land.

Then we see the two photographs on pages 82 and 83.An abandoned cabin at close range and then at a distance across water.One can feel how glad to see his cabin at a distance,the owner must have been, when it came into view; and then how glad he was to finally reach its door.It takes the soul of an artist ,first to see this scene and then capture it with his camera.The reader is left withwondering what stories this cabin could tell.

Gerry captures this land with this poem;

It's over
This is the last roundup.
We have abandoned the long prairies
And the endless,rolling mountains,
We have abandoned this blessed realm
To the antelope,the prairie dogs
And a new horde of interlopers
Who chop the land
Into mournful pieces
For investment bankers
Who hanker to become
Real cowboys on twenty acres.

Thank you,Gerry,for sharing this landscape,people and quickly disappearing way of life with us.

Bland Photography
Gerry Spence is a man of many talents, photography, however, may not be his strongest. The photographs are much better than your average snapshot, but not quite as impressive as they should be to have been published. All in all, the images are a bit of a dissapointment if one wants to appreciate fine art photography.

You just can't loose with Gerry Spence
This is a "coffeetable" book of photos and poems.They are excellent renderings of Wyoming.The book comes with a CD of Mr. Spence reading the poems.Sit back, turn on the CD and go on a journey of the past, the future and the everchanging beauty of Wyoming.There is food for thought in the poems, also.It is very interesting to note the difference between the way one reads the poems and the way Mr. Spence, as their author, reads them. ... Read more

Book Description
This book combines breathtaking aerial photographs and exquisite map-drawings of the American landscape with thoughtful essays that explore how various cultures have forged the landscapes in different regions of the country and what the possibilities are for future landscape design. The authors demonstrate that landscape representation is more than descriptive-it can also instruct and construct how people perceive, shape, and transform the land. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A Must Have!
This book is incredible, the essays, photography, map drawings and descriptions really changed the way I looked at the world around me.This book was used as our text book for a Senior Project class in design school.

You've never seen anything like this
This book will change the way you look at and think about landscape.Technically, it's a landscape architecture book, and the essays that deal with that subject are excellent.James Corner is one of the best landscape architects/theorists around, and his writing is though-provoking, lucid and enjoyable to read.He draws an wonderful comparison between this work and Le Corbusier's sightseeing flights over North Africa in the 1930's.But without a doubt, the reason to buy this book are the photographs that document the unexpected beauty that arises out of the interaction between man and nature.The incongruities of landscape, juxtaposed against the linear certainty of the Land Ordinance Act grid, farm plots and other common interventions make for stunning photography.

There are also little subplots, such as creative reuses of already built spaces (tennis courts as parking lots & football field yard lines over a baseball diamond), and the similarity of totally unrelated natural forms (who knew that from 7,000 feet, cracked pond ice looks like microscopic images of streptococcal bacteria?).

There are dozens of other little thoughts I could include, and one of most remarkable things about this book is that the photogrpahs allow the reader to draw on his or her own knowledge to make connections and interpertations.There's no right or wrong way to see these things, which makes it universally rewarding and enjoyable.

Excellent graphic representation of landscape documentation
I always enjoy graphic design, but this one integrates intelligent visual graphic representation and it portraits site/landscape analysis.
Not your usual blueprint survey, but delightful new way of documentation.

Excellent for all
Perceptive and conciousness raising while an aesthetic visual pleasure. An unforgettable book.

Wonderful. Combines geography, mathematics, aesthetics
This is one of the nicest Christmas gifts I ever received. Two guys flew across the United States at low level taking wonderful photographs, many of which are worth framing as art. A geographer's reflection and insights onthe frames draw attention to the cultural impact on the landscape of U.S.history, its varied immigrants, the rectangular land survey, and of theWestern mathematics embedded in their choices.

No math teacher lookingfor an exciting resource that supports cross-disciplinary work would findthis book except by accident. Nor would those who fly in small planes andwant high quality, thoughtful, intellectual books that go beyondcoffee-table glamour and reflect in a serious way about the earth beneath.Nor would somebody interested in cultural geography. This is because thecataloging-in-publication information is generic and unimaginative. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beauty to Behold
From the Mark Twain forest to the Arapaho ranch, these photographic scenes of our great nation are a beauty to behold, the next best thing to actually being there ... Read more

Book Description

"It may be that the developers, residents, and corporate owners of the new American village have gotten exactly what they want. Like all such rare complete triumphs, the victors are left to consider not the limits of their effort but the quality of their original vision." -- Bob Thall

Since 1971, Bob Thall has made photographs that examine and interpret Chicago's urban landscape. His highly praised 1994 book, The Perfect City, documented the sweeping changes in the character of the downtown area from 1971 to 1991. Now, continuing his extensive project to photograph the Chicago metropolitan area, Thall presents a complete picture of the nationally known area around Schaumburg and O'Hare International Airport -- significant as perhaps the best example of a new type of American suburb, the "edge city."

In The New American Village, Thall captures four components of the new edge city -- corporate, commercial, domestic, and environmental -- in a way that no previous photographer has achieved. To find the stark but provocatively beautiful images that appear in the book, Thall spent years exploring the western and northwestern suburbs of Chicago, photographing remnants of open land and farm structures, the process of clearing and construction, corporate headquarters, townhouse developments, model homes, office parks, strip malls, and the many aspects of nature that remain, in one way or another, in these miniature cities.

Thall's photographs are not simply snapshots of raw visual facts but images full of meaning. Documenting these new American places, he draws attention to the choices being made when they are built and discovers some unexpected transformations. In an industrial park built where once there were only huge, flat fields of corn, Thall is surprised to find innumerable small lakes and ponds created by developers for flood control. While timing exposures at dusk, he recalls, geese flew so close overhead that he could feel the beat of their wings.

But along with such oddly pastoral scenes, Thall finds much that is emotionally chilling. His photographs show a landscape with no pedestrian life, no old trees, and little diversity in architecture or people. "Everything, for hundreds of square miles, looked much the same to me," he writes, "the cheap standardized construction, the ceaseless flow of cars, the acres of blacktop and concrete, and the unwalkable distances across open, flat land." Always thoughtful, often striking or strangely beautiful, Thall's remarkable images capture a vast suburban world where, in ever increasing numbers, Americans are choosing to spend their lives.

Customer Reviews (3)

Very interesting look at nondescript location
In the 20 page written intro to Bob Thall's book of photographs, the author discusses the introduction of the new suburban areas surrounding large cities, specifically the ones surrounding Chicago, and even more specifically Schaumburg, Illinois. His description is admittedly subjective, but that doesn't make it negative. He addresses the pros and cons of both city life and suburban life, and details the way that his photographs will illutrate his points.

The photographs themselves are stunning simply because they are of such typical subruban non-descript businesses, streets, homes, and parks. What is interesting is how new everything looks, and yet 8 years later, I wonder what it looks like. Thall considers what these neighborhoods will look like 20 years from their construction dates, considering they are built with such cheap material, and almost a decade later, we're close to finding out. It would be interesting to see a follow-up book about the same area, just to see how much can change in such a short amount of time in a rapidly growing suburban area.

For anyone interested in the suburbs and the small cities full of strip-malls and housing developments that arise around major cities, this book is an excellent reference point.

Maturing nicely
Schaumburg, Illinois (incorporated 1956) is now on the map thanks to Bob Thall's excellent photos taken during the growth of the town in the Nineties.Divided into four chapters dealing with the landscape: corporate, commercial, domestic and natural, the photos carry on the deadpan format of Adams, Baltz, Gohlke and others associated with the New Topographics style.

Despite appearing rather anonymous because there are no people in the photos Schaumburg does look a very reasonable place to live and Thall mentions in his short opening essay that many of the houses and corporate offices overlook small lakes and ponds, created by the developers to control flooding, this water obviously encourages wildlife.As is usual with suburbs/edge cities/New Villages, critics will assume that the inhabitants can't possibly be happy living in such an environment but I bet they are.Probably the best folks-at-home-in-the-suburbs book is Bill Owens stunning 'Suburbia' (ISBN 1881270408) photographed in Livermore, San Francisco.

The sixty-five photos in 'The New American Village' are well presented (in 265dpi) in the standard art-photo landscape format though there is the usual photobook annoyance of having to turn to a page in the back to read each photo's caption.Unfortunately the captions say no more than place and date yet the images frequently, it seems to me, deserve more of an explanation than just resting on the page.

Incidentally, it is worth looking down atSchaumburg on Google Earth, you will see a place that has matured over the years since Thall took his photos and especially look at the space between houses, the curved streets, the position of corporate and retail units in relation to domestic housing. A pretty good place to live!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

A Remarkable Vision of the New American Landscape
Thall is a photographer and his photographs are marvelous:lucid, lovely, tonally rich, beautifully constructed.What's astonishing, though, is the way he has applied his sensibility to the least-liked spaces thatincreasingly dominate America and the globe:the "edge cities"of prefab warehouses for outsourced products, of instant townhousecommunities (really trailer courts stacked upright) of malls and corporate"campuses."Most writing about this new American landscapeexcoriates it or, more rarely, argues that it's the landscape we want(ignoring that "we" aren't the architects, the patrons, or thedevelopers).Thall seeks simply to look, to see what's remarkable, andthen to communicate it, in pictures that embody the complex history of ournewly decentralized human habitations.On the cover is a picture of twoshocking office towers shot from a parking garage.Only one car is there: a beat-up Toyota station wagon perched impudently at off-angle to theresolute order of the rest of the space.That must be Thall's car; certainly it's the embodiment of the position he takes when he makes thesepictures. ... Read more

Book Description
Focusing on the techniques needed specifically for the use of infrared to shoot landscapes, this book walks the reader through everything form finding the best locations to how to select the best equipment. More than 50 compelling images are analyzed and used to illustrate tips and techniques. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

No redeeming qualities
Infrared photography is ripe for somebody to come along and codify it. It's a very confusing subject for a number of reasons. For one,the various infrared films have different sensitivities to infrared. For another, there are no commercially produced infrared meters. Between the two, almost all infrared texts give vague advice on exposure, development, film speed rating, and every other aspect of photography. Very few people are willing to give prescriptive advice.
That said some people produce beautiful images with huge tonal scales and refined highlights, so it must be doable and it keeps aspiring IR photographers searching for a master to reveal the techniques and simplify the form. Todd Damiano is not one of these people.
Every shot in this book has blown highlights and blocked shadows. They look like they were printed on an unmodified inkjet. They are flat and lifeless and the text is fairly generic and not at all specified to the subject. In fact the images are so bad, I went and looked at other images to make sure I wasn't wrong about the possibilities of IR.
Not only would I not buy anything else by this author, I wouldn't by anything else from this press. You can find much better information and examples on the Web.

a little disappointing
I was a little disappointed in both the images and text. The author/photographer could have done more with the landscapes he had to work with.

Nice pictures, but...
There seems to be little content here. Some nice images, but I didn't learn any how-to from the techniques. This is another guide to lucky dice-rolls with infrared.

A must have photograghy resource. Brilliantly done!
Damiano has done an exceptional job in completely focusing in on the photography techniques at hand.Formal and complete descriptions make this a wonderful experience for any photographer.

exceptional work, informative, fantastic resource
a must for anyone who owns a camera, detailed informative book, fantastic images, extremely useful ... Read more

Book Description
The photographers of the Clinton County project--there werenearly twenty of them--did not work quickly; they studied the lay of theland, met people, drove the streets and alleys of every community, andknocked on several hundred doors. More than two years, countless miles, andseveral thousand images later, the result is A Place Called Home.

One of the most ambitious photographic projects ever compiled in Ohio, itarose as idea in the minds of two local women--Joann Chamberlin and LeilaniPopp--who saw it as a fund-raising vehicle for their Clinton CountyFoundation. Its execution fell to the localOrange Frazer Press, whose urbanart and coffeetablebooks had put it within the orbit of some of the bestphotographers in the country. And so it began,the diverse group rangingfrom Thomas Witte (journeyman Sports Illustrated shooter) and Dan Patterson(one of the country's foremost military aviation photographers), to ThomasSchiff (who brought in his 360-degree panoramic camera) and Ty Greenlees(the lead photographer who brought his own airplane for aerial shots).

It was the photographic equivalent of bringing the Special Forces intoClinton County to chase down insurgent photographs. Naturalist andlandscape specialist Ron Levi mapped most of the county, studying itsagrarian vistas through four seasons to learn where the light fell mostadvantageously. Bob Flischel, the noted portrait photographer, came in fromCincinnati for lengthy sessions involving a sound stage of lights (as wellas the patience of his subjects). The photographers juggled whimsicalweather and the vagaries of people, machinery, and livestock. Theyscheduled and re-scheduled.

The foundation, in a farsighted moment of its own, gave thephotographers--most of whom did not know the county--a virtual carteblanche to discover the essential imagery of the place we call home. Theirwork to locate our universal imagery has become a picture of life in oneparticular Midwestern place, held firmly by two centuries of agrarian smalltown traditions even as it moves itself into a less-traditional future.Picture by picture, these photographers demonstrate how we live and workand play, and they do this in such a compelling fashion that theirnarrative picture leads others to wish they lived here, as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Landscapes of Cycling
Fantastic collection of competetive cycling images from around the World by Graham Watson.

Even for non-cyclists the scenery is spectacular and a great book for the coffee table. ... Read more

Book Description
Each image in this book represents one of Cartier-Bressons decisive moments. Although some photos contain people, the focus is on outdoor surroundings the landscapes of Nature and the landscapes of Man as captured by Cartier-Bressons camera. The accompanying text is an important new and poetic assessment of the artist by Erik Orsenna. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The "thick black surround"
... the "thick black surround" ... is something Cartier-Bresson insisted on.It's present in nearly all of his original prints.It's the result of filing back the negative carrier to show a small amount of the film border surrounding the image, and signifies that the image hasn't been cropped.His "decisive moment" theory required that the image not be altered in any way -- that the whole photograph be created in the moment in which it was taken.There are a few instances in which his prints don't have the border, and that always indicates that he cropped, usually for some remedial reason.The famous "Behind the Gare St. Lazare" photo of the man jumping across the puddle is a case in point.The original negative (shown in John Loengard's "Celebrating the Negative") is blurred on the left side because C-B shot through an opening in a wooden fence, and some of it intruded.It's an exeception.

The border is easy to miss in framed C-B photographs because it's very thin (he wanted it to be unobtrusive, in contrast to the more modern fashion for a rough-edged, thick black border) and often runs right at the edge of the frame or the window mat.Some exhibitors mat over it.But it's almost always there.

As to the new book -- I agree that the print quality isn't up to the ultimate best, but it's not at all bad, and the collection pulls together some of C-B's work that isn't seen often.Pretty nicely done.

most disappointing
given the quality of other monographs by this publisher, the beauty of HCB's landscapes etc., and especially the price of this book, one has every right to expect something special.Sadly this book is far from special.Each illustration has a thick black surround which, frankly makes it impossible to concentrate on, and enjoy the image content.The quality of reproduction is average, somewhat lacking the sparkle of other monographs.Still worse are the vast acreages of blank white pages.What is going on here ??, the number of images could have been doubled and more, quite easily.Information on location, and context are frustratingly sparse - I do not know if HCB did keep a log of his locations, but it would be nice to have rather more than, say, "Japan".This rich and fascinating area of HCB's work deserves a proper presentation, rather than just something that seems to have been 'cobbled together', as this has. ... Read more

Book Description
200 photographs, culled from among some 40,000 taken over the course of thirty years, are accompanied here by poetic descriptions that reveal By'es sensibilities in yet another medium. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

funeral parlor
This book is perfect for the coffee table of a funeral parlor, or anywhere else melodramatic death is desired. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Fantastic book - not for beginners
No need to write a full review here Conrad J. Obregon has said it all perfectly in his review below.
This is not a book for beginners, if you do not have some experience with Landscape Photography the value of this book will be lost on you. However, if you do have some experience this book is an absolute joy. If you wish for your photo's to convey the 'feeling' of the landscape, this is the book for you.
As for the the negative and silly comments in other reviews .... ignorance is bliss !

Pleasant and thoughtful.
I like this book, but I don't feel inspired by it.Benvie's photographs and text tend to be low-key and thoughtful, but they don't send me out in the field to make my own.

Boring!!
It's just plane boring!!Very little, if any information on photographing landscapes; it just seems to ramble.No mention of what cameras or camera sizes used, just rambles on about nothing.No technical information and the photographs are made in europe.What little hard information there is, is in the metric system...all in all, not nearly worth the cost of the book.

A Great Book, But Not for Everyone
Creative Landscape Photography is an excellent book, with a specific audience that does not include the rank beginner or even someone who is just comfortable with the controls on a single lens reflex camera.If you fall into that category I suggest you read John Shaw's Landscape Photography or, if you want something a little more up-to-date and covering almost the same ground, Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide.Benvie presumes you know about technique and tries to develop your creative side so that you can put your opinions, beliefs and experiences into your landscape pictures.He believes that while great pictures can be found, many others must be intended.

The first things he examines are some of the concepts that are critical to understanding what can be influenced to convey your vision: exposure, space, light and darkness.For example in his discussion of light he talks about the nature of fog and some of its different forms and how this can be used by the photographer in creating his image.

He next examines the environments of landscape: wilderness, land dominated by people, city and garden and what he calls the intimate landscape, that is, the detailed view or close-ups.In discussing the city he talks about both iconic scenes and the incongruous.His views of each of these environments in terms of photographic vision reflect his feeling about man's relationship to the landscape.Benvie say "I have merely recounted my own response to environments and suggested that we should think about what we are looking at, rather than taking it at face value."

Benvie discusses the hardware that he uses for landscape photography in a chapter that seemed to say, "my editor said I have to talk about equipment".Although I'm sure, for a committed professional, a one-yard square softbox may be essential, most readers will not be inspired to make such an investment.

A chapter I particularly liked was devoted to digital finishing.Few photography authors acknowledge that the digital darkroom is rapidly replacing its chemical predecessor.Benvie takes several photographs and shows how he adjusted them in Photoshop.This in no way constitutes Photoshop instruction (for that, I'd recommend Barry Haynes' Photoshop 6 Artistry to both novice and experienced photographers).But it is interesting to see how a particular artist approaches his work and uses his photographic intentions to select digital tools.

This book operates in the overlap between photography and philosophy.Ultimately the question the reading photographer must ask is whether he (or she) is at the stage where he needs to develop his photographic vision.If one is, there is no clear or easy path to that development.Benvie may or may not work for you.You might benefit from Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography.Or you might need to look afield to something like Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory.I believe that this is the most difficult step for a committed photographer and that it takes a combination of many different tools to develop vision.Some tools will be more helpful for a particular individual.But I think that Creative Landscape Photography is well worth the try. ... Read more

Book Description
Bernd and Hilla Becher have profoundly influenced the international photography world over the past several decades. Their unique genre, which falls somewhere between topological documentation and conceptual art, is in line with the aesthetics of such early-twentieth-century masters of German photography as Karl Blossfeldt, Germaine Krull, Albert Renger-Patzsch, and August Sander.

Industrial Landscapes introduces a new aspect to the Bechers' photography, one that will surprise connoisseurs of their work. Whereas their previously published works concentrated on isolated industrial objects, they now show huge industrial sites amid their natural surroundings. They move away from the objective, severe image to present slightly more narrative, interpretive images of the industrial environment as a whole. Although the photographs in Industrial Landscapes were taken over the past forty years, they are published here for the first time.

The industrial structures shown include a wide range of coal mines, iron ore mines, steel mills, power stations with cooling towers, lime kilns, grain elevators, and so on. They represent industrial regions in Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States (Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very helpful, and comprehensive.
I especially liked the rating of places to photograph (one to five film canisters), since it helped me narrow down what I wanted to see.The book is also very comprehensive in the areas of California it covers -- it isnot limited to the big cities like San Francisco and LA, but covers thedeserts and other lesser-traveled places that offer many photographicpossibilities. It is arranged well and is easy to read.Although the bookwas printed in 1993, the basic information contained in it is still current(from my experience, anyway).There are no pictures,which may disappointsome people -- but that would only take away space for the information, andthere's a lot of that!!

I also have Andrew Hudson's "Photo SecretsGuide to Photographing California" (or something like that -- I mayhave title incorrect, but he has a web site if readers would like moreinformation). It's interesting to compare some of the places mentioned inboth books to get a sense of what's best to photograph. I guess if I had tochoose one or the other book to take with me on a trip to California, I'dtake Photo Secrets, but taking both would be the best alternative!! Mr.Hudson's book covers slightly different areas, but is a GREAT book.Iespecially like the hints on when to go to a particular place (morning,afternoon, or sunset).He also includes some pictures, which are fairlystandard but very nice.They give you a better idea of what to expect atsome of the places mentioned.For an average sized book, it covers a lotand has a lot of good resource material and photo hints.

Both books arewinners, and will help the first time visitor to California a lot. Theywill also help people who've been there before but want to explore somemore. I had been to San Francisco several times before I purchased eitherbook, and thought I knew a lot about the area and its photographicpotential.However, both books pointed me to places I was not aware of. ... Read more

Book Description
Tips and maps explain how to photograph 40 of the country's most scenic locations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good tips but not realistic photos
I really appreciate this book in terms of good tips and trips!
But, man, I really non understand the way to over saturate photos.
Canadian landscape is so beautiful on its own....we don't really need to make it up as a woman.

Colorful, both literarally and literaturely
The authors present their view of Canada in a colorful and often in a 'colorful' manner. The photography is world-class and the writing is light, easy and often humorous.

This book was a constant companion on my trip toeastern Canada and a most helpful guide to locating well known locations,as well as off the beaten path "secrets."

I was not aphotographer when I first read this book, nor was I after the secondread-through. By the third read I was wanting to be: If the authors havethis much fun pursuing their craft, then I want to be a part of it.Thankfully they included a very methodical techniques chapter for ourbenefit.

This book does not disappoint.

A refreshing visual journey across Canada
All to often photographers arrogantly believe their images will support weak writing. Benson and Wilson obviously had set a goal of writing and photographic excellence from the beginning, and did they ever succeed! Fromcover to cover this guide/reference/instructional, and yes, to some extentcoffee table book, establishes a new standard -- a standard that will beextremely difficult for those following to attain.

The authors take us ona visual journey across Canada, from coast to coast to coast. The trip isone of visual stimulation, along with useful information on how to getthere and when is the best time of year to visit. Non-photographers willalso benefit from the detailed travel instructions.

Benson and Wilson aremasters at extracting colour from a scene. Their overt use of filtersstimulates the senses with each image pulling the viewer into the scene.Yet they succeed where so many others have failed: they use filters in acomplimentary manner, not in a 'look at me I'm filtered because thephotographer didn't know how to handle the light' variety. Fortunately forus, the authors put in a very useful chapter on photographictechnique.

This book is visually exciting, a fun read and an excellantaddition to my library. Even if you are not planning a trip north of the49th parallel this book is worth the price simply because it is the best ofits kind: it communicates. Kudos to the authors.

useful book with good places and ideas, but over-saturated.
As a canadian, I am happy to see a photography book that covers the country from one corner to the other. It is an easy, even humorous read, with plenty of good location and photography ideas. On the down side, thephotographs by the two authors are good but enhanced over the top. theytake a nicely saturated film like velvia, and top it up withblue/yellowpolarizers and other enhancing filters. The result is the visual equivalentof a parfume bath, with the predictable result: it gives you a strongheadache!Bottom line is this: it is a reasonableguide to photographingcanada, and if you really want to, you too can do it in sledge-hammersaturation. What are the alternatives? If you want somethingmore naturalbut without location info, try "The Last Wilderness: Images of TheCanadian Wild" edited by Freeman Patterson. For a lot of greatcanadian location photography, try a series of coffee-table books by PierreBerton ("Seacoasts", "Great Lakes" etc) photos by AndreGallant. ... Read more

Product Description
Copp Clark Pitman Ltd, ... Read more