DON
ALLEN
Book Reviews
National Geographic Photography Field
Guide
Author(s): Burian, Caputo
Paperback - 1999
Photo/Diagram Quality: Excellent +
Text Quality: Excellent -
A nice treatise on all aspects of photography outdoors. Subjects discussed include:
The authors of this book (Burian is a former editor of Shutterbug Outdoor and
Nature Photography and Caputo a National Geographic photographer) must of read
a lot of books on photographic technique and decided to use the best ideas they
found and put them all into one book (plus a few new ones of their own). The pictures are outstanding (would you
expect anything less from National Geographic photographers?), and more
importantly for this type of book, the diagrams are flat out the best I have
ever seen in a photographic technique book.
Almost all diagrams are in color, and they well illustrate the concepts
(examples are the effect of fill flash, the effects of under/over exposure,
film characteristics, camera hardware, etc.).
The illustrations are concise and used appropriately (i.e. when they
concepts call for them). The list of
topics is quite broad (virtually every popular topic in "outdoor
photography: is covered), there is certainly something for everyone to learn
here. My one negative comment, is that
I wish the discussions of many of the topics were longer. However, to satisfy me this would probably
make the book 800 pages long. It is
about 350 pages as is. So there is a
lot to read and learn. While the book
seems geared most towards advanced amateurs, I think professionals will find this
to be an excellent reference, especially for fields of photography in which
they do not specialize. Included are
"how to" tips from ten National Geographic photographers (wish these
were longer too!). Highly recommended -
once again, it is hard to knock a book for which the worst thing I can say
about it is that I wish there were more of it!
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Thanks again!
Don Allen