Andrew S. Gibson is quickly becoming one of my favorite photographers as well as one of my favorite photography writers. I fell in love with his first 2 ebooks, The Magic of Black and White and The Magic of Black and White, Part II soon after he released them. I found they really taught me to “see” in black and white better and produce better overall images as a result, whether in color or monochrome. I return to those titles over and over reminding myself of his tips, suggestions, and direction as well as to receive inspiration from the absolutely stunning images included within.
Yesterday he released another ebook. It is a bit different from his earlier works for the Craft & Vision label in that this is not really an instructional book although the reader will get a pretty clear sense of how Gibson approaches photography philosophically. This ebook: Andes: The Print and Process Series features some of the same images in his earlier works but also delves into the journey that gave birth to those images as well as the thought process behind them.
Focused intently on several journeys to the Andes mountains in South America, Gibson recounts bus rides, exploratory wanderings, encounters with indigenous cultures, witnessing local festivals and really gives a sense of what it is like to wander and photograph the area, the land, the people, and their customs.
What struck me the most personally was the simplicity of Gibson’s gear and how it had a direct impact on the outstanding quality of the resulting images. On his first trip Gibson traveled with two simple Pentax 35mm film cameras with a 24mm wide lens on one and a 50mm lens on the other. On his second trip he traveled with a Canon EOS 350D (a Canon Digital Rebel XTi here in the U.S.) and 18-50mm kit lens. A kit lens!! Brilliant!! Just the proof I needed to be reminded that the quality of a photographer’s gear does not directly correlate with the quality of a photographer’s photographs.
So come take a tour of a gifted and skilled photographer’s images in this wonderful ebook: Andes: The Print and Process Series. If you’re anything like me you’ll be inspired to go out and make incredible images with simple gear.
Special Offer on PDFs
For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code ANDES4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of ANDES, A Print & Process Series for only $4 OR use the code ANDES20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST August 6th, 2011.