Book Review : David Duchemin and Bryan Peterson
Been buying quite a few books lately and trying to plough through hem whilst doing my course, as well as all the other things that go on day to day ...
Bryan Peterson is a bit of a legend when it comes to explanatory books, his chestnut being "Understanding Exposure" - a must buy and consume. Learning to See Creatively takes us through a very well imaged and glossy journey of how to see in colours, design and composition. Bryan tells it like it is and always leaves the reader and photographer wanting to try out the techniques and ideas he shares. His supporting frames are fantastic, and are all noted with exposure settings and supporting gear (tripod, cable release, etc). Really helpful.
The sections are well set out according to the fundamental Elements of Design and take you through many practical ideas and tools to use when out in the field. Its a detailed insight into the creative side of photography and frame capturing and I like his style.
David Duchemin is an extensive photographer and writer, and his Visual Toolbox has been revised the year to now have 60 Lessons !
This book is a great read and well designed with large format page and glossy, thick pages. David takes us through several areas of theory, practise and creativity to cover a wide range of fundamental and exploratory topic areas, accompanying just about every section with a practical and/or creative assignment.
He writes as if he is sitting opposite you having a chat with a couple of cameras on the table in the middle. Its great. And make sit so easy to consume such topic areas as the Zone System, Seeing Light and all the Composition areas.
This book in particular goes in to some very useful areas but sometimes they seem a little brief for me - not enough insight in to how to capture the topic area at hand, or some of the basics that are needed in order to capture the scene as being described. That said, it's an easy read and if you did every assignment as described, improvement would be assured. Its topic areas match the course I am doing well so i have used it as a complimentary tool box literally.
And as you lust after that new piece of glass, or that new latest format camera, remember to try and buy books not gear !