ebook review

Dec

2011

Learn How A Top Travel Photographer Makes Their Images

I have a new favorite photographer to add to my growing list: Mitchell Kanashkevich. Mitchell is a Belarusian/Australian photographer who has made great waves in travel and documentary photography in the past several years and has been on my radar for some time now as I followed his travels on his blog.

His photos and portraits are stunning, to say the least. But what garners my attention the most about him is his minimal use of equipment. The images he makes are so rich and inviting that I continually ask myself the photography fan’s ubiquitous question: “how does he do that?!?”

Well, today I found out as I was asked to review his latest ebook “Rabari: Encounters with the Nomadic Tribe” published by Light Stalking as part of their Inside Series To Travel Documentary Photography. I have to admit that at first, while honored in being asked to review the book, I wasn’t that excited. On the surface this looked like another “how to” book. A sort of “I went here and took these pictures and had an adventure you’ll be envious of” book. But this book is not like that.

Very early on Mitchell lists the equipment he used on this project and that made me sit up in my seat. Using only a Canon 400D (Rebel xti to US based folks), 3 prime lenses (50mm, 28mm, and 20mm) and a reflector, Mitchell reminded me of my other fave photog, Andrew S. Gibson, in the “less is more than plenty” category of photographers. Once I knew that I wanted to know how Mitchell could make such stunning images with wayyyyy less gear than I own.

Well, Mitchell is very generous with this information providing background information, his objectives, the light conditions and how he modified them (with only a reflector!!), his challenges, how and why he composed the images and posed his subjects, and the “what” and “why” of post processing for each of the 10 images.

As I read along I noticed I was beginning to anticipate Mitchell’s writing by correctly guessing what he was doing and why; a clear sign I was learning. This is, after all, why I am interested in these ebooks: to learn. And that learning, the lessons, were beginning to sink in as I progressed through the book.

At $24.95 this is a premium price for an ebook. But I have to say that at 59 pages you get decent value for the money. Add to this a $5 discount until Christmas and a money back guarantee and the value gets a bit better.

A word of warning, though. If you want to discover exactly how Mitchell post processes his images, this is not the book for you. Those descriptions are general. If, however, you want to know what he was trying to achieve while photographing his subjects, the challenges he encountered while doing so (from language issues, to cultural issues, to technical issues) then this book will be helpful. Some of the information is repetitive, but I think that is exactly what makes this book a good teaching tool-repetition is a key component of education.

Nov

2011

New Craft & Vision eBook: Beyond Thirds

The fine folks at Craft & Vision have been staying true to their mission of providing quality ebooks meant to educate photographers to increase their craft and explore their vision. Today, they released the latest publication by Andrew S. Gibson, author of “The Magic of Black and White, Part 1 & Part 2”: “Beyond Thirds: A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition.”

In this ebook Gibson uses some of his beautiful imagery to explain basic guidelines of photographic composition beginning with the Rule of Thirds and moving beyond into aspects of the Golden Section, Balance, Dynamism, Contrast, Aspect Ratios, the use of Space and more.

This book is particularly useful to those photographers that are attempting to understand how positioning subjects in a photographic frame leads to stronger images. If you tend to adhere to-or have not even heard of-the “Rule of Thirds” this book is for you. Gibson is clear in his writing and explicit with his imagery and while he introduces the reader to varying compositional theories he also encourages the reader to work from feel. For $5 this ebook provides what it promises-an introduction-but can also serve as a nice reminder for those of us that think we are beyond such discussions.

Click on the link in the text above or click on the images in this post and you will be taken to the Craft & Vision store where you can purchase and download this and other wonderful ebooks.

Special Offer on PDFs: Use the promotional code BT4 and you can have the PDF version of Beyond Thirds for only $4 OR use the code BT20 to get 20% off when they buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST November 19th, 2011.

Aug

2011

New C&V eBook: Andes: Print and Process by Andrew S. Gibson

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.