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books instead of cameras.

smokysun

New member
i just looked at the 4 thirds forum and my goodness, how many have jumped from here to there! one day i may do it myself, but i have so many beautiful cameras and lenses already...

yesterday at barnes & noble i ran across a new national geographic book, a hundred photos submitted by amateurs - as good as anything the pros do. ah, the digital age has changed things.

so, i'd like to quote erasmus: "when i have money, i buy books. if i have anything left over, i buy food and clothes."

here are three books i've found very helpful and none focus on equipment:

http://www.amazon.com/Being-Photogr...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248227806&sr=1-1

(i'm sure you can get it from lenswork cheap)

http://www.amazon.com/Within-Frame-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248227917&sr=1-1

(which i'm reading now)

http://www.amazon.com/Moment-Clicks...=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248227917&sr=1-9

(it only takes one tip to make you take a quantum leap)

now i'm as sinful about books as cameras. i've probably bought at least 300 photo books in the past six years. one failure doesn't make up for another.

does anyone have suggestions for books?

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp
 
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ddk

Guest
i just looked at the 4 thirds forum and my goodness, how many have jumped from here to there! one day i may do it myself, but i have so many beautiful cameras and lenses already...
Getdpi is kinda special, click on "Forum Home" at any point in time during day or night and you'll see the that the two busiest forums are the 4/3 first, then MF forum followed by buy and sell!

yesterday at barnes & noble i ran across a new national geographic book, a hundred photos submitted by amateurs - as good as anything the pros do. ah, the digital age has changed things.

so, i'd like to quote erasmus: "when i have money, i buy books. if i have anything left over, i buy food and clothes."

here are three books i've found very helpful and none discuss equipment:

http://www.amazon.com/Being-Photogr...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248227806&sr=1-1

(i'm sure you can get it from lenswork cheap)

http://www.amazon.com/Within-Frame-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248227917&sr=1-1

(which i'm reading now)

http://www.amazon.com/Moment-Clicks...=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248227917&sr=1-9

(it only takes one tip to make you take a quantum leap)

now i'm as sinful about books as cameras. i've probably bought at least 300 photo books in the past six years. one failure doesn't make up for another.

does anyone have suggestions for books?

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp
Hard to recommend books not knowing what you're looking for, I don't usually buy books on photograpy rather prefer books of photographers. A couple of my favorites are Eikoh Hosoe and Connie imboden, I'm pretty sure that both will appeal to your sense of aesthetics.
 

Streetshooter

Subscriber Member
Hmmm, books...my most expensive vice.....

Some good reads....
A Primer Of Visual Literacy....Dondis A Dondis...Out of print but an easy find....
Camera Lucida.........Sarte
Visual Thinking and Toward a Psychology Of Art...Arnheim
Aesthetic......Benedetto Croce

Easy to find great books about Photography but the above are related to vision and thinking and ...understanding what works and why....

Don't forget....
Kertesz......
Winogrand......
Evans.............

shooter......

ps..the above books are in my collection and I will lend them to any member with the promise of a quick return...if you can not find a copy of your own..
My family don't get to my books....
Don
 

smokysun

New member
the real problem for the photographer is what to shoot?. with millions of wonderful photos on the web, how do you strike a vein of gold on your own?

here's a book from the guru who had a career very like michael jackson's:

http://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Osho...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248547394&sr=8-1

and i think it's a goldmine of ideas. for example, he says, 'find the thread that runs through all things.' now that's a great photographic project, no matter what you decide the thread is:

gravity
love
sex (desire, libido)
air
light
money
earth
fire
water
spirit
time

probably every little chapter could give you a life's work.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp
 

smokysun

New member
got to musing on the threads running though certain photographers. here's a sample:

Sam Abell: solitude
Lee Friedlander: reflections
Jan Sudek: spirit
Jan Saudek: lust
Mary Ellen Mark: growing up
Henri Cartier-Bresson: life as a journey
Robert Frank: exile
Robert Douisneau: community
Bill Brandt: tension
Sally Mann: decay
Phillip-Lorca diCorcia: dissipation
Robert Capra: life as a dance

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp
 

smokysun

New member
i know i've mentioned this book before:

http://www.lenswork.com/obp.htm

re-reading passages i've underlined. a very good treatise on how pros work, especially in photojournalism.

a few passages on equipment:

"It is important to have the right equipment for the purpose at hand and which is compatible with your own personality."

"And personality is what will determine, to a large extent, the choice of certain subjects and ways of working over others. My advice is to stick to one camera and format for a considerable period of time."

"For me, the top requirement is a very quiet shutter, and all other controls and features are secondary considerations."

"More important than the choice of camera is the ease and fluency with which you use it."

"All the technical decisions in photography should be so thoughtless that the act of shooting pictures is solely concentrated on the image in the viewfinder."

"You can learn all you need to know about the technical side of photography in three days, but it takes constant practice to make it so instinctive you are in the right position, at the right moment, with the right exposure and focus, without any thought about equipment or technique."

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp
 

smokysun

New member
i've been reading bits and pieces of this compilation at breakfast for the past couple of months. a fun way to start the day:

http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Loves...7403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250521647&sr=8-1

charles simic began pretty much as a street-kid in war-torn serbia to become (recently) poet laureate of the usa.

and since my first love poetry (you can browse my bits at http://www.pbase.com/wwp/the_written_words ), i find the poet and photograper kin. both try to express the ineffable and unsayable in an image.

one sentence from this book might help a photographer define his/her career. say this one, "Everything, of course, is a mirror if you look at it long enough." that's how a photographer's sensibility gets mixed up in whatever picture he/she takes.

this is my favorite quote from the book (so far). i think it says what we've all felt at one time or another:

"It's the desire for irreverence as much as anything else that brought me first to poetry. The need to make fun of authority, break taboos, celebrate and body and its functions, claim that one has seen angels in the same breath as one says that their is no god. Just thinking about the possibility of saying **** to everything made me roll on the floor with happiness."

enjoy!
wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

hmm, interesting. those stars showed up automatically to replace his word!
 

smokysun

New member
spent the day reading this

http://www.amazon.com/Revisions-Alt...Ian-Jeffrey/dp/094848960X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3

and again i found ian jeffrey very insightful. he gets at (or speculates wisely) on the vision of each photographer. how they see things. and also the currents of history in photography, what's in, what's out. in this book he touches on each major scientific development. normally this bores me to tears. not here.

i read all of the following one at barnes & noble and still haven't bought a copy:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Photograph-Lessons-Photographers/dp/0810972972/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2

the title a bit misleading. it's really about 'how to read a photographer.'

and looking at this

http://www.amazon.com/Josef-Sudek-5...1684/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1251774858&sr=1-1

it struck me how interesting the commentator's comments. once again it turned out to be jeffrey.

here's his amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Ian-Jeffrey/e..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1M4S40WGA45M2YNTY439

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp


When I have money, I buy books. If anything is left over, I buy food and clothes. erasmus
 

Tim

Active member
i know i've mentioned this book before:

http://www.lenswork.com/obp.htm

re-reading passages i've underlined. a very good treatise on how pros work, especially in photojournalism.

a few passages on equipment:

"And personality is what will determine, to a large extent, the choice of certain subjects and ways of working over others. My advice is to stick to one camera and format for a considerable period of time."


wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp
Wayne,

this line makes me wonder if with all the new digital models coming out every few months if many of us would adhere to this? Will our images suffer because of it? Probably not, but we only just get used to a camera and there is a replacement.
 

smokysun

New member
hi tim,
i guess it depends. recently someone asked about the leica digilux 2 and if anybody used it. the answer is yes, it has many rabid fans. and leica keeps sending out refurbished ones cause they sell. (originally out in 2002, i think). even certain digital cameras have special results and despite their drawbacks, appeal to people. it is amazing how many people jumped on the olympus ep1. and quite a few are coming up for resale. in terms of the foveon sensor, only sigma has it. so if you like it...
my question is: do you want your pics to look like everyone elses? almost anybody can take a 'beautiful' photo these days. kodak's original saying, 'you push the button and we do the rest' has come to pass.
wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

ps. two famous examples of photographers who used old cameras. joseph sudek used a 1900 kodak panorama to shoot prague in the 50's and 60's. bill brandt used an old police mug shot camera for his wonderful nudes at about the same time.
 
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sizifo

New member
Wayne,

this line makes me wonder if with all the new digital models coming out every few months if many of us would adhere to this? Will our images suffer because of it?
Getting to really know a camera takes time, I'd say six months to a year of frequent use. I do agree that people who are swapping cameras like mad are probably doing it to the detriment of their photography.
 

andrewteee

New member
Great thread. I have been buying a lot of photog books and I'm running out of room to put them all! Very few are technical and most of those are about printing in black and white. I've been studying a lot of photographers and their work. Most nights I pick one to study while I relax. I also read essays and discussions about photography and art in general.

Lately, I'm particularly drawn to Josef Koudelka, particularly his panoramas. Browsing and 6-degreeing Amazon and other sites I've recently discovered the likes of Richard Long who combines photography with conceptual and land art.
 

smokysun

New member
in response to wooter's thread on his son's autism and photography, i'd like to suggest a few readings. the point is to realize other people can and do see the world differently. and the desired result: to develop (find) your own vision.

none of these have specifically to do with autism, but i think are related. i once gave a lecture on literature and madness, have spent thousands of dollars of therapists myself, and have wasted too much time in the past trying to figure human beings out!

http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252274165&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Drea...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252274220&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/My-Voice-Will...=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252275051&sr=1-7

milton erickson ultimately shows how we hypnotize ourselves all the time! telling ourselves the same things over and over, we believe them. (backed up by neuroscience research).

jung did a tremendous amount of self analysis and self healing. his record of it well worth reading.

and the autobiography of the girl incredibly intense (i read it 30 years ago).

and yesterday i ran across this on a shelf here at the lookout:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Voice-Will...=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252275051&sr=1-7

how a number of outsider artists, many institutionalized, have used photography in their art. one, henry darger, became famous through a documentary about him:

http://www.amazon.com/Realms-Unreal...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1252275863&sr=1-1

evidently he was diagnosed as autistic.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

"The world is not a problem to be solved, rather a mystery to be lived." osho
 

smokysun

New member
i'm wondering about magazines? couldn't get to the lenswork site. they only sell on the web now, so i haven't bought one in awhile. great duotone printing.

http://www.amazon.com/Lenswork/dp/B00007AZ87

and these two put out by the same publisher, the color just recently. some very interesting info on auctions, collectors, and so on, but mainly portfolios of photos. the last color issue well over 200 pages.

http://www.color-mag.com/

http://www.bandwmag.com/

most of the how-to magazines seem to basically develop a thirst for buying new equipment instead of taking pictures!

any other great art photo mags out there?


wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

ps. the competition very stiff. two things seem determinate: subject matter and a powerful perception of form.


To take better pictures put something more interesting in front of the camera. joe mcnally
 

Streetshooter

Subscriber Member
Wayne,
The best book to read bar none is the one you live.
Our own book of life gives us from our own personal experience
the will and knowledge to go forward. It's very obvious you read that book all the time.

There is no point in complicating photography. The simple truth is in the answers we all seek. Those answers are always answered by our selves.
The key is to apply what you have learned to living and the awareness of dying.
Your book has some very interesting images in it and I for one enjoy reading it.
Your friend....don
 
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