field photography, alfred blaker: great useful book from 1976!

i bought his used about 10 years ago at a second hand bookshop for $7. it was published in 1976 (other editions?) on wh freeman, and is hardcover + 451pp. besides Ansel Adams' books [notice the only capital letters used!] books, this is my next favourite. it goes into great practical detail on the techniques, problems, and equipment for scientific field photography, oriented toward the biologist ior ecologist. but it'll be ueful to a far greater circle than that!

chapters are [actual titles with my notes in parens]: staffing, training, and operations [including education, library, economics, etc.), equipment and materials (cameras, hardware, film, etc.), basic photography (not an intreoduction to photography, but an overview of basic photography as applied to the scope of the book; includes ethics (!how often do authors include this?!), scientific visualization and accuracy, etc.], exposure, filters, darkroom, ecologically sound photography [again, something that most others don't consider/care about!], climatic problems in field photography [extreme temperatures, humidity, dust, etc.], high res 35mm technique, closeup and photomacrography, focal-length variation techniques [formulas, telephoto lenses, wide angle], stereophotography, balanced-ratio flash applications, and appandices [films, construction of darkroom and otjher stuff, slide and film copying, etc.].

this is really an unusual and very comprehensive book, and there's really little in it that you could call 'outdated'. the author is very detail-oriented, yet the book had most tables, math, etc. as supplemental, and so the text can be enjoyed with or without this additional info. one of the more unusual things in the book is a section on developing and even printing film in the field! he writes: "i have developed negatives in soup plates, and prints in glass baking dishes. i know of people who have developed films while sitting beside woodland streams, and i've heard of people using battery-powered enlargers out in swamps"[!!]. another nice feature is the instructions for making you own equipment (darkroom sink, battery packs, etc., sure there was less equipment in the '70s, but it;'s also refreshing to see that some problems can be solved through ingenuity and resourcefulness rather than buying more stuff [too often 'recommended' in books and periodicals more from advertising paymenty than use and response!].

it's a great book, and worth hunting for at your local public or university library aor at a used book shop. i've seen it fairly often, and checking on http://www.abebooks.com/ here... [please wait while i check...] ok, i'm back - checking just on abe [a databse search of used bookshops] i find 104 matches for this book ranging from less than 5USD to over 30, so there's plenty for everybody!

this is a great book that shows little signs of age, and many of a 'classic'!