Building a nature photography library

There has been thread about books on nature photography but they have

mostly been about how to do this or how to do that books or whats your

favourite books. I personally feel that seeing great pictures is the

best way to learn, second only after learning by your own mistakes.

Being an avid bookworm and a nature photographer, and being without a

local bookstore where I actually can see the books before I buy, I

really would like some opinions on books mandatory or even optional

for a library on nature photography. I'm not primarily interested in

"how to" books but books where you can enjoy the pictures and get

inspirations. I'm familiar with the usual stuff; Rowell, Wolfe,

Muench, Brandenburg, Lanting and of course Shaws "how to" books, but

where do you go from there? In particular I would like to see some

other angle than the typical american aproach to nature photography,

which with all respect, suffer from a slight Ansel Adams complex. Any

suggestions?

Paal,

2 of my favorite books are the product of the same photographer. Frans

Lanting has one the most insightful visions when it comes to wildlife

and "wild-scape" photography. Check out his photo essay "Eye to Eye;"

yes, it is big and expensive, but the images are worth every penny.

His work inspires me to be a better photographer every time I see it.

The second book I would recommend was authored by Frans DeWaal. Frans

DeWaal is a primatologist whose work centers around the study of

captive chimpanzees. While he is famous for a book called "Chimpanzee

Politics," he recently released a book with photographs by Frans

Lanting called "Bonobo"... the photos and text in this book are

outstanding...

regards

bruce

You might try the BBC Wildlife Photography series. Each year the

winners of their photo contest are published in book form. Just the

pictures (with limited technical info). Being rather more Eurocentric

then US publications, they avoid that dreadful "Ansel Adams" syndrome,

though a few US photographers do sneak in at times. I guess you could

always tear those pages out!

Bob's suggestion is an excellent one. I'll also second the comments

about Frans Lanting, whose approach to wildlife photography I find

highly original. Indeed, I can't find a hint of "Ansel Adamism" in

his work, or much of any one elses. I'll take Frans over Art or

Arthur any day of the week.

 

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I'm tempted to let you think he's not American, given his name I

might get away with it, but not only is he an American, he's a

CALIFORNIAN, northern California, disturbingly close to Ansel's turf!

 

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Not only do I like his photography, but he's partly responsible, with

my aquaintence Bob Fields, refuge manager at the time and avid bird

photographer, for the eagle blinds at the Klamath/Tule NWR complex,

still open to the public on a first-come/first-served basis, gotta

love him for this.

I would just like to add that I have nothing against Ansel Adams, in

fact I'm a big admirer. However, there are significant differences

between different schools of nature photography; Scandinavian nature

photography is differnet from American and I bet the Japanese are

interesting based on the few images I've seen in various publications.

I wouldn't mind even more books in the grand american landscape

tradition, but it would be nice to see how eg. the germans are doing

it.

 

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I completely agree with Don Baccus; I'll take Frans Lanting (which I

believe is from Holland, but living in California), before any Art

(though I enjoyed Light on Land) or

Arthur any day. Eye to Eye is the most impressive porfolio of Wildlife

photography I've ever seen. I will also recommend his Okawango book.

 

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But aren't there any hidden (at least from me) gems out there? Aren't

there any books not from the well known houshold names thats actually

worth exploring?

Paal: Michio Hoshino was one of Japan's finest wildlife photographers

(he was tragically killed by a brown bear in Kamchatka 2 years ago).

One of his books is still available: "Grizzly" published by Chronicle

Books; ISBN:0877014310. (available through Amazon.com) It's a

paperback, but a true gem. More of his books are still available in

Japan, but difficult to find elsewhere.

Small tangent: What is "Ansel Adams" syndrome?

OK, I think this is what you want. First two mainstream books that

were very inspirational to me. �The Art of Photographing Nature� by

Art Wolfe and Martha Hill, and Mountain Light by Galan Rowell.

 

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These are not your mainstream books but deserve to be on every nature

photographers shelf/coffee table. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND �The Sacred

Earth� by Courntey Milne (see his site at

http://www.courtneymilne.com/). His photography is absolutely

outstanding. He truly is a master. He also has two new books out

�Visions of the Goddess�, and �Sacred Places in North America�. I

have not seen either of them but I suspect they are both worth having.

Inspiration is what his work is all about. NO how to stuff here.

The second recommendation of mine is by the man who inspired me to

return to photography after many years away from it. Peter

Dombrovskis� book �On the Mountain� by West Wind Press (P.O. Box 245,

Sandy Bay Tasmania, Australia, 7005) is in the �class by itself� that

we like to mention. It would probably be hard to find except here in

Australia where he was probably the undisputed king of medium and

large format wilderness landscape photography until his untimely death

several years ago. His wife has also recently published another book

of his works that is rapidly selling out. There is some information

about him on http://www.view.com.au/.

 

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Cheers

Another vote for Lanting's "Eye to Eye." This piece of work is incredible. I have never been so drawn into images of animals the way the great photographs in this book do. He truly characterizes the animal spirit!

 

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Mark

Another vote for Frans Lanting, John Shaw, and David Muench.

 

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I recently purchased two books by William Neill that I think are

excellent. The first book, called "By Nature's Design", shows the

simple and complex patterns that repeatedly appear in nature. Mr.

Neill's photographs are beautiful examples of how to simplify a

subject down to its very graphic nature. The second book, called

"Landscapes of the Spirit", is a collection of Mr. Neill's nature

photography, along with text by various authors and poets that try to

enhance the beauty of the photographs. If you are interested in

improving your composition skills and in capturing simple but

powerfully graphic nature images, I highly recommend getting these two

books.

 

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By Nature's Design (ISBN 0-8118-0329-5)

Landscapes of the Spirit (ISBN 0-8212-2338-0)

 

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Another book I highly recommend is, "The Nature of America" (ISBN

0-8174-4994-9), created by Bill Fortney and David Middleton. This

book contains beautiful photographs by 33 of the top nature

photographers in North America.

 

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Good luck with your search.

Paal, consider getting a book or two by the "first" color nature

photographer...Eliot Porter..in addition you might try Chuck Theodore

(N.H./Maine Nature Photographer)...or Greg Guirard (Louisiana Nature

Photographer) or Frank Oberle (Prairie/Plains/Mo. Nature Photographer)

Jeff Gnass, Tom Blagden Jr., Ashvin Mehta (Indian photographer..not

strictly nature) Tupper Ansel Blake, and Phillip Hyde (you might have

to look for these last two) There are many, many others....

Outside magazine has a small section called Exposure every month

where they have 3 or 4 photographs. Some are sent in by readers and

some are by big names like Art Wolfe and Galen Rowell. Usually the

ones sent in by readers are more original.

 

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They also occasionally publish a book of these. I have one and

there's some great stuff in there. I think there's been multiple

editions and they're worth looking for.

I am going to suggest two older (approx 20 years) books but I only have the titles at the moment. "Living Earth" and "Living Water". They were heavily into macro subjects, but I remember them as outstanding pieces. And all well before matrix meters and AF. I will try and track down the authors names, which escape me right now. Perhaps someone else has seen these books and can fill in the blanks.

Frans lanting/Tom Mangelson/Michio Hoshino/Freeman Patterson/Galen Rowell/Mitsuako Owago/David Muench/BBC Wildlife/National Geographic/Time Life, and in/for his day John Crawford.

I purchased the oversize softback book "The American Eagle" by Tom & Pat Leeson a few years ago. It is simply superb. Wonderful photos of bald eagles combined with descriptive text, but not too much of it, and poems and sayings by Native Americans which add a cultural dimension to this lovely book. The tasteful use of some opaque pages works really well, for example there is a page showing a photo of the indent of an eagle's wing in snow where it landed to feed. The facing page is opaque and has an eagle's wing printed lightly on it and allows you to place this over the wing/snow photo to create a really interesting combination. This is done on several pages and works really well. I would urge you to check it out to see an alternative way to present nature photography. It is published by Beyond Words Publishing and its ISBN is 0-941831-51-5. I would suggest that this is one book which might be slightly different from the norm, certainly in its presentation. I'm not sure though that it will suit Paal, or if it allows him to "see another angle than the typical american approach to nature photography". Maybe he would let us know? PS I am not an American! Enjoy!

 

JOHN

Hey! I'm with Pete Su. What the heck is "Ansel Adams" syndrome?

Sigh! Ansel Adams have had a huge impact on american nature

photography; believe it or not. There's nothing wrong with that. He is

after all one of the greatest nature photographers ever. However, my

intention with my original post was to stress that I wanted variation;

that I do not only want books by american nature photographers

shooting in the big landscape tradition in my collection, which is

the fate my collection seems to be suffering from at this moment. I

enjoy them. I even want more, but I also want variation.

There is a huge difference between different schools of nature

photography; an interesting topic for another thread. I would also

like to thank for all the great recommendations so far.

There's an interesting book by Gary Braasch called something

like "Photographing the patterns of nature". No grand sweeping

landscapes but well written. Partly a "how-to" book, but still

worth a look even if that's not your primary interest.

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Personally I'm about maxed out on nature photography books. After

a while they all start to look about the same. What I should really

do is start selling off the older ones! Anybody want Tim Fitzharris's

"Audubon Society Guide to Nature Photography" (hardback) or Laurie

Campbell's "RSPB gide to Bird and Nature Photography" (hardback) or

Ann Guilfoyle's "Wildlife Photography : The Art and Technique of Ten Masters"

(soft cover)

for 1/2 price + shipping? All in pretty much like new condition.

I've got both of Lepp's "Beyond the Basics" books too that I might

sell if asked. Not that these aren't good books (I wouldn't have

bought them if they weren't), it's just that either I've outgrown

them, or that I prefer more philosophical works these days.

I agree with Bob, my collection of books is small since I don't find

all that many that seem unique enough to own (heavy books really

become a pain at moving time!).

 

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Regarding Frans Lanting, he is not a Californian, he just lives here

so he can hang out with his buddy Galen Rowell. He's European, Dutch

I believe. And, I've always found that his work strongly reflects

his European approach to shooting. I'm not a big fan of his, though.

 

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The Eliot Porter recommendation is one I can second. I'm no scholar

of early shooters, but I was given a coffee table book of his a few

years back and it's kind of the model I was talking about in the

media thread for presentation of photos without distracting text.

The cool thing I found about his work is that it was all produced

without modern 35 mm equipment, which I feel gives it a kind of

painted feeling (the perspectives are not generally those of the

super telephoto). I was quite surprised at some of the shots -- must

have taken good old fashioned skill and hard work to get them without

the modern gear we take for granted.

Paal I like to recommend two books that are very different from the

regular nature books more personal and very inspiring. The first one

is a big coffee table book, "Reflections on a trail taken" The

photographs of Daniel Farber, ISBN-0-87923-923-9. Published in 1991 by

David Godine, Boston.

The second one is a small gem, titled "Mind Shower" a sensitive nature

diary by Chikara Amano. ISBN4-87198-799-X. The few captions are in

Japanese and English, I don't know if it is published in Japan or the

USA the back reads, Inter press corporation. I got it in the USA. Both

are defenitely worth your effort to get them. good shooting, Bert.

In regards to Franz Lanting being American as stated by Don Bacus...nothing could be farther from the truth...he is from Holland...he only lives in the USA (California). As with a great many talented people who are in the USA , most are not American born they are from elsewhere such as Canada (take a look at your actors list), Holland, England..you name it...don't be so arrogant to think all the great ones are AMERICAN!

Hi Paal, I know you said you were not looking for "how-to" books, but

Michael Busselle's series offers different pictures than the usual,

simply because it is coming from Europe.

 

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here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/Author=Busselle%

2C%20Michael/002-9952495-0977633

 

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Barnes and Nobels has these books usually, too.

Paal has received a number of great suggestions, and I would like to

toss up three more. The first one is "Wilderness Scenario" and the

second is "Nature's Holy Realm", and both are by Pat O'Hara. If this

photgrapher's work doesn't inspire one, I suggest that it is too late

to check for vital signs. BTW Pat is one of the 33 photogs featured

in another keeper "The Nature of America" which has already been

mentioned. One other "Natures Places" by Rod Planck - one of the

aforementioned 33 - would be another nice addition to anyone's

library.

 

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Carpe Diem!

One of the favorite books in my photographic library is "Nature of

America" by Bill Fortney and David Middleton. This is a compendium of

work from 33 of the worlds finest nature photographers. I highly

recommend it.

As an English nature photographer and a confirmed book-a-holic (is that how you spell it?) I have become destitute over the years as a result of buying virtually every American wildlife & nature photography book I see. Shaw, McDonald, Wolfe, Lepp et al you have much to answer for. There is very little doubt that soon my family and I will have no option but to go on welfare to survive as a consequence of my irrational almost junkie like cravings for more & more info and more & more pics. There is, however, a glimmer of hope for us and it relies on you guys out there giving me some of my money back by buying a copy of my book entitled "The Wild Mushroom". It contains over 220 great colour shots, 40 full page, of these fabulous, mysterious, exotic sometimes erotic plants and the text ain't bad either. Essential for every good nature photography library why not E-mail me for further info or a signed copy.