PhotoLibrary

A book, a retrospective, an inspiration. Galen Rowel has been that adventure photographer whose thread connects contemporary photographers eight years after his untimely passing in a small plane crash.  I first heard and read about Galen, from Thom Hogan’s web site, and then while in Lone Pine, CA, Moose Peterson also recalled Galen.  I almost, almost took a trip to visit Galen’s Gallery in Bishop, but thought he’d agree to my spending my last day in the Sierra’s shooting the Alabama hills.

Galen published over twenty books in his lifetime. However, the book released in 2006 by the Sierra Club, titled, ‘ Galen Rowell, A Retrospective’ is simply an astonishing visually awe-inspiring collection of his Images.  The book itself is oversize to properly print these images in the correct 100% perspective.  The colors are dynamic and vivid and the paper and print quality are exquisite.

Galen was a climber with a camera. You are there in the Eastern Sierra’s and Yosemite, at altitude with climbers clinging, crawling, traversing, and free ascending mountain sides.  The emotion, focus, physicality of their bodies as the grope thru gravity by hanging onto the rock face walls is all captured on film by Galen the co-climber.

Within this volume you’ll find 188 photographs, and introduction by Tom Brokaw, forward by Andy Grundberg, and essays by photographers, mountaineers, biologist, novelist.  The book takes you thru Galen’s history of work both domestically and internationally. There is also a section which gives you a rundown of the gear Galen used and his inventiveness.

The quote that best sums it up Galen:

“Galen Rowell [had} a wonderful combination of qualities – eye, energy, intelligence, sensitivity, courage both physical and moral, and above all, heart. Very seldom have I experienced so clearly defined the connection between the artist and what he sees, feels, and does with the work itself.”  -Robert Redford…

I mentioned in my welcome message,  that this past weekend my daughter and I went shopping at her favorite stores in Boston.  While Maddy, was looking over the summer lines, the old man started to notice some interesting books around. I then came across a release on the life and art of Vera Neumann., A NY artists, who serendipitously turned into this country’s first true fashion designer in the 40-70′s.

The book itself is a labor of love by the author, Susan Seid, who discovered, then worked for, then rescued/purchased the remaining Vera artwork, fabric and clothing housed in an Atlanta warehouse.  The book is available as a pre-order at Amazon, but it is in print and available at Anthropologie for $40

The book is richly illustrated with Vera’s graphic art, and I could see the 2 dimensional patterns that the artist had to work in, with the third dimension being the fabric as it flows and bends. I couldn’t help thinking that all Image making starts in the confining 2 dimensions , but Vera had also created additional depth thru her pattern placements, arrangements and colors.

Continue Reading ➞

Based on some recent contact information, we will be seeing some new books in the not to distance future from three of the top Outdoor and Travel Photographers.

1. Moose Peterson will be releasing his book in the next month or so.  When asked the subject and title , Moose coyly replied it will be Romancing the Image. I can not wait to see what this iconic NIKON photographer will share with us.  His Imagery and blunt prose should help pursued us to keep things simple in our shooting habits and the elegant results will follow.
2. Tom Hogan has been working on a book, that will take off where Molly Bang left us. That is the subject of  Image composition and what subconsciously tugs on our hearts and eyes and how to feel and be aware of that sensation as your framing your Image. There is not a lot of information written by someone of Thom’s experience and stature on this subject, so I’m definitely looking forward to his book. No time frame that I know of…he is into so much, that I’ll keep my eyes on his site for tips until he makes a formal announcement.
3. From my current virtual mentor, Sean Arbabi, this 20+ year pro-photographer related to me that he will soon publish a follow on book, to his highly successful,(top 50 Amazon titles). Exposure…The subject of the new book will relate to Nature Photography, due out in summer/fall of 2011.

There you have it, Moose, Hogan, then Arbabi…a trifecta of knowledge…… Reviews to follow on release

This book came to my attention thru another blogs comment section and I ordered the book for my flight read from NY to the Eastern Sierras workshop with Moose Peterson. My timing on ordering the book and the book’s content could not have been any better !

Here is a book written by a Master Photographer with excellent field and fine print sales credentials.  For author, Sean Arbabi this is his first book copyrighted in 2008, after 20 years as a pro-photographer. In the the book’s introduction he had me hooked by writing …… ‘This is what the art is all about, especially in outdoor and travel photography, to notice the beauty of the world, catch the details, and stop a moment of time, recording it for all to see and appreciate. And it all starts with exposure’

For me, I have been plucking exposure gems of information from a few publications, workshops, discussions, and trial and error on how to master exposure.  I find it difficult to accept the KISS philosophy of setting the camera to aperture priority, tune up/down EV compensation and fire away…that may come to me with another few years of experience..but for me, on my journey, there is more to the art and essence of using exposure in my Images.  The KISS philosophy bangs up against the tonal dynamic range and working with stops of light from shadow to highlight. It seems fraught with error to embrace that with just the DLSR’s metered 5 1/2 to 7 stops (contrast vs the eyes 12-15 stops), that you can simply have the correct exposure by adjusting for blinkies with your EV after LCD review.

No, not for me anyway, selectively using my metering mode, (spot/matrix),  and using shutter and aperture in manual mode appears to be my preferred  picture taking process. How to understand the light, how my camera sensor sees the light and to creatively set up my DLSR using all of its capabilities to capture the emotion of the Image that I am experiencing…and do it repeatedly, accurately and adaptively  that is my primary goal and future knowledge baseline for me right now.

This book is not just a how, although it  does, provides step by step lessons, guidelines and learn by doing assignments.  The subject mater contains technical information relating to  DLSR metering, equivalent  exposue, basics such as shutter stepup and aperture charts.  Author/pro-photographer Arbabi, provides guidelines on the qualities of  directional lighting (frontlite, backlit, sidelite), choosing metering modes, ever changing light, creative tips, flash…then there are the images as examples, this man has been all over the world, quality images published by Watson-Guptill Publications,  abound from Yosemite, Alabama Hills, Mexico, Borneo, Florida Big Cypress, Patagonia…it is one thing to write from the office but another to lead and teach thru field experiances.

This book is now my go to tool for understanding and improving my exposure at point of capture…. the journey continues, and I’m loving it….

Sean Arbabi Website

Sean Arbabi Blog

Have a look for yourself: Amazon.com First Chapter Link

I read a very brief reference to this book on Thom Hogan’s site a few months ago, the snippet of info that he discussed piqued my interest and I quickly searched out and found an out of print (2000) soft bound copy for $30 from a book dealer in Atlanta. A few weeks later Thom posted up, that the book was now selling used for over $120, and that the author had notified Thom that a reprinting was in the works (April/2010), and that to wait for the price to settle back down.

Why the interest for this book ? Just because of a recommendation ? That may have started the ball rolling, but this 1991 release is a discussion of the psychology of art and how a few clear principles can help create an emotionally charged  visual statement when arranged optimally.  The preface of the book details the author’s journey and discovery process of the book’s core principles and further validation by external educational leaders.

This was not meant as a book for photographers but rather an evaluation for understanding how art and shapes are interpreted in Children’s books. What has been revealed is that these colors and shapes are very basic, as the author has explored one question: How does the structure of a picture affect our emotional response ?….. that here is a basic connection/collaboration between emotions and elements which the author had thought, taught and witnessed in her Cambridge classrooms.

What is so interesting, as I read the book, is that Molly Bang has revealed at our most primal level what elements we see and visualize and cause us to get excited about in an Image. She then uses these basic elements to build up a story around the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ theme.  Each flip of the page poignantly revealed  how I visually interpreted these arranged elements. It was a fascinating trip thru the minds eye to my basic feelings and my interpretations of the books illustrations.

The results for me as an aspect of this journey into photography are revealed in my recent images Small Barn and Redwood Down. Both shots were framed up by tapping into my new found understanding of which shape elements and colors can create an emotional charge when prearranged inside a Digital Image.

Molly Bang,Picture This, Chronicle Books

Thom Hogan

Small Barn

Redwood  Down

For those of you looking to hone your craft, get a tune up or just enjoy some great imagery and some well crafted wordsmanship, you need to head over to Pixelatedimage. The site is hosted by David duChemin who has himself authored a fine series of ebooks (which I also recommend) and has a good deal of other reference material and super Blog.

What I liked about this book, was the discussion of that unique hour of light before sunrise and after sunset. This special moment of lighting,The blue hour comes from a French expression, l’heure bleue has been written down in basic terms to give you a chance to work your craft, and understand how to prep and set up for those images.  Dave Delnea sets up a kayak shot on the beach, and walks thru the subject and light and provides an image that we’d all love to take.

The price for all this knowledge and Imagery, $5… your worth the investiment…because this photographer made the investment to help others..

Pixelatedimage

Blue Hour

As you cover the web looking for those Pro’s who give you what you need, (info, training, hard facts,) I hope you have stumbled upon this site.  I have followed him for a year or so, and have taken out a subscription to his ‘special reports’.  The disclosure I’ll give here is that I emailed him a few weeks ago, thanking him for web site advise, and he posted my comments… and we emailed back and forth a few time, he seems like a very decent guy…

Other than that, I checked his site the other day and saw a bunch of new content that you should go take a look at, especially the filters and photo tips…

#1 is for those photo purist’s who need the best glass and camera’s (Prez), the Leica w/Zeiss lens

#2 is Filter info, in detail and with Lloyd’s professional opinion on application and usage, very informative and now you have some options about your vendor selection, if you’ve kept up with my Blogs..

#3 Photo Tips, useful information with some very technical detail. Lloyd seems to have had a string of bad luck when ordering new lens and he gives some solid advice to check things out (I’m still trying to get around to it). You’ll also get a chuckle as this may be the first Bear scat shot I’ve seen on the web, with discussion points

#4 For those who have the need for speed, Lloyd is the man, for hooking up your gear upgrade requirements backed up by his own performance and testing results. I recently did a major-major-major system upgrade to get me to the next level, and I would have been lost without his web site and without the vendor that he works with OWC. They are an extremely complementary High performance team. OWC has a great mix of products, always in stock, excellence service and I enjoy working with them. Highly recommended.

Now you might wonder why I’m sending you off to look at someone else site, after all the work that it’s taken me to start building this one up.  Well, I guess I’m going to take my cue from Moose, He seems to just put it out there,  he encourages the sharing of information and promotes others which I think plays forward ….