Expressive Nature Photography

Photographer and teacher Brenda Tharp marries photography craft with artistic vision to help intermediate photographers translate what they see into a personal impression of a subject in nature. Using single images, along with before-and-after and with-or-without examples, Expressive Nature Photography teaches how to make exposures that are creative, not necessarily correct. Inspiring photographers to get out early and stay out late, this book explains how to use light, an essential element of outdoor photography. Readers will learn how to “see in the dark,” use filters to create very long exposures, create a natural effect using light painting, photograph night skies and moonlit landscapes, and make the best use of available natural light. This book also covers how to use shutter speeds to express motion and capture the energy of fast-moving subjects, such rushing streams, ocean swells, and bounding wildlife. A chapter on the art of visual flow discusses how to create compositions that direct the viewer's eye through the frame for maximum impact. Photographers will develop a sense of when to break the "rules" of composition, how to use elements to frame subjects, what to include and exclude in the frame, how to create the feeling of depth and dimension in a scene, and how to push the boundaries of composition to make memorable nature images that capture and convey fresh viewpoints. High-tech cameras can help create a good exposure and focused image, but they can't replace the artist's eye for composition, visual depth, and design, nor their instinct for knowing when to click the shutter. There are many books on photography technique focused on technical quality, but Expressive Nature Photography goes beyond the technical. It guides the way to pulling emotion and meaning out of a dynamic landscape, a delicate macro study, or an outstanding nighttime image.

When a photograph captivates you and stirs your soul, you know it instinctively. You not only see the image, you feel it. But how do you capture shots like that with your own camera? How do you make your photographs worth the proverbial thousand words? From portraits to landscapes, still-lifes to documentary shots, Expressive Photography will not only show you why certain images sing, but will also teach you how to create your own compelling photographic images-one click at a time. Visually stunning, and unique in its collaborative approach, this book brings the spirit of the immensely popular Shutter Sisters' blog to the printed page through the voice and photography of its founding members.

Learn to ask better, more helpful questions of your work so that you can create stronger and more powerful photographs.

Photographers often look at an image—one they’ve either already created or are in the process of making—and ask themselves a simple question: “Is this a good photograph?” It’s an understandable question, but it’s really not very helpful. How are you supposed to answer that? What does “good” even mean? Is it the same for everyone?

What if you were equipped to ask better, more constructive questions of your work so that you could think more intentionally and creatively, and in doing so, bring more specific action and vision to the act of creating photographs? What if asking stronger questions allowed you to establish a more effective approach to your image-making? In The Heart of the Photograph: 100 Questions for Making Stronger, More Expressive Photographs, photographer and author David duChemin helps you learn to ask better questions of your work in order to craft more successful photographs—photographs that express and connect, photographs that are strong and, above all, photographs that are truly yours.

From the big-picture questions—What do I want this image to accomplish?—to the more detail-oriented questions that help you get there—What is the light doing? Where do the lines lead? What can I do about it?—David walks you through his thought process so that you can establish your own. Along the way, he discusses the building blocks from which compelling photographs are made, such as gesture, balance, scale, contrast, perspective, story, memory, symbolism, and much more. The Heart of the Photograph is not a theoretical book. It is a practical and useful book that equips you to think more intentionally as a photographer and empowers you to ask more helpful questions of you and your work, so that you can produce images that are not only better than “good,” but as powerful and authentic as you hope them to be.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Better Questions

PART ONE: A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH?
Is It Good?
The Audience's Good
The Photographer's Good

PART TWO: BETTER THAN GOOD
Better Subjects

PART THREE: BETTER EXPRESSION
Exploration and Expression
What Is the Light Doing?
What Does Colour Contribute?
What Role Do the Lines and Shapes Play?
What's Your Point of View?
What Is the Quality of the Moment?
Where Is the Story?
Where Is the Contrast?
What About Balance and Tension?
What Is the Energy?
How Can I Use Space and Scale?
Can I Go Deeper?
What About the Frame?
Do the Elements Repeat?
Harmony
Can I Exclude More?
Where Does the Eye Go?
How Does It Feel?
Where's the Mystery?
Remember When?
Can I Use Symbols?
Am I Being Too Literal?

PART FOUR: BETTER PHOTOGRAPHS
The Heart of the Photograph
Index

Jay Maisel has been hailed as one of the most brilliant and gifted photographers of all time. But he is also much more than that–he is a mentor, teacher, and trailblazer to many photographers, and a hero to those who feel Jay’s teaching has changed the way they see and create their own photography. He is a living legend whose work is studied around the world, and whose teaching style and presentation garner standing ovations and critical acclaim every time he takes the stage. In his first educational book, Light, Gesture, and Color, Jay put his amazing insights and learning moments from a lifetime behind the lens into a book that communicated the three most important aspects of street photography: light, gesture, and color. Here, in It’s Not About the F-Stop, Jay builds on that success to take you beyond the buttons and dials on your camera to continue to teach you how to “see” like a photographer, and how to capture the world around you in a way that delights, intrigues, and challenges the viewer. Each page unveils something new and inspires you to rethink everything you know about the bigger picture of photography. This isn’t a book about f-stops or ISOs. It’s about seeing. And nobody communicates this, visually or through the written word, like Jay Maisel.

All of us have, at one time or another, taken "the perfect picture" - the one that not only works technically, but which exactly captures the emotion of the moment, evoking delight and wonder in the reactions of all who see it. Frustratingly, though, we all have many more of the "nearly" shots - when you were in the right place, at the right time, but didn't get the mood you were going for. This book will help you capture the emotion of your subject, and the feeling of that moment. Visually stunning, and unique in its collaborative approach, 'Expressive Photography' brings the spirit of the immensely popular Shutter Sisters website to the printed page through the voice and photography of its founding members.

Presents advice on taking successful digital photographs, with information on such topics as portrait photography, nature photography, still photographs, documentary phtography, and photographs of chidlren.

See the images and read the stories behind the creative process of one of America’s most respected landscape photographers, William Neill.

For more than two decades, William Neill has been offering his thoughts and insights about photography and the beauty of nature in essays that cover the techniques, business, and spirit of his photographic life. Curated and collected here for the first time, these essays are both pragmatic and profound, offering readers an intimate look behind the scenes at Neill’s creative process behind individual photographs as well as a discussion of the larger and more foundational topics that are key to his philosophy and approach to work.

Drawing from the tradition of behind-the-scenes books like Ansel Adams’ Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs and Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape, Light on the Landscape covers in detail the core photographic fundamentals such as light, composition, camera angle, and exposure choices, but it also deftly considers those subjects that are less frequently examined: portfolio development, marketing, printmaking, nature stewardship, inspiration, preparation, self-improvement, and more. The result is a profound and wide-ranging exploration of that magical convergence of light, land, and camera.

Filled with beautiful and inspiring photographs, Light on the Landscape is also full of the kind of wisdom that only comes from a deeply thoughtful photographer who has spent a lifetime communicating with a camera. Incorporating the lessons within the book, you too can learn to achieve not only technically excellent and beautiful images, but photographs that truly rise above your best and reveal your deeply personal and creative perspective—your vision, your voice.

A classic guide to creative nature photography, now updated for the digital world. Amateur and experienced photographers interested in taking more compelling, personal images will love this new edition of Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography, now updated to address the exciting possibilities (and challenges) of digital image-making. Author Brenda Tharp’s inspiring approach has garnered fans all over the world, as she teaches that magical skill no camera can do for you: learn how to “see.” Readers expand their photographic vision and discover deep wellsprings of creativity as they learn to use light, balance, color, design, pattern, texture, composition, and many simple techniques to take a photo from ordinary to high-impact. Featuring more than 150 stunning, all-new images, Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography, Revised Edition is for anyone who understands the basic technical side to photography but wants to wake up their creative vision.