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Holiday Book Buyers' Guide
By Paul W. Faust | Books |
Nov 20, 2008
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It's that time of year again when the question arises of what gifts do we buy and for whom. Anyone who knows a photographer, artist, or digital imaging enthusiast have many choices when looking at books. There are publishers who specialize in just one subject, and others who have hundreds of books to choice from in many different areas of the fine arts. Here is a small selection of what's out there, and any of them would make a great present for that special someone.
HUBBLE, Imaging Space and Time by David Devorkin & Robert W. Smith is one of the best books I have seen in many years. If you like astronomy and the kind of pictures that we have all seen taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, then this is the book for you. It is filled with the most breathtaking images, many of which have been seldom—if ever—published before. Many images look more like paintings that would be used in Sci-Fi movies, but these are all real photographs of what cannot be seen any other way. I look at this book over and over again and I still can’t believe that these are real images of the space that is all around us. Many images are two-page spreads, and one is of an area of space so dense, with so many stars, that it is actually hard to see the dark space between them. Each image is accompanied with a line of text that reveals how far away, in miles or light years, that area of space is.
This book is also a wealth of information about astronomy, both past and present, with historical images to go with it. There are also several images of the Hubble Telescope itself in space. I look at these Hubble images and I think that “this is what it must be like to sit on GOD'S front porch.”
This hardback book is about 11x12 inches, with 224 pages, and retails for $50.00-US. If the local bookstore does not have a copy, you can order it from the National Geographic web site at: www.nationalgeographic.com I Rate it: A++++
The Moment of Seeing – Minor White at the California School of Fine Arts by Stephanie Comer & Deborah Klochko. This new book could best be called the history and times of the fine art photography classes started by Minor White at what is now the San Francisco Art Institute. Its teachers included Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Dorothea Lange, to name a few, and the book contains many of the letters, records, and all-around workings of the class. The first half of the book contains a lot of information, and the last half is filled with the images by both the teachers and students of those early years. It is a top example of what real photography fine art looks like. An excellent book for any photo library!
This hardback book is about 10x10 inches, with 208 pages, retails for $40.00-US – and is distributed by Chronicle Books at: www.chroniclebooks.com I Rate it: A+
A Grain of SAND, nature’s secret wonder by Dr. Gary Greenberg is a new book with amazing microphotography images of this most common of minerals—everyday sand—that most of us rarely see this way. The book is filled with 235 color images of single and groups of sand grains (collected from beaches and dunes from all over the world), many resembling precious stones that could enhance any fine piece of jewelry, while others look like abstract sculptures. There are the smallest pieces of marine animals, like sea urchin spines, and the hardest of rocks, weathered and ocean polished down to grains smaller than an ant’s head. This new book would make a great holiday gift for anyone, and they would never look at the beach in the same way again.
This hardback book is about 9x10 inches, with 112 pages, retails for $20.00-US - and is published by Voyageur Press at www.voyageurpress.com I Rate it: A+
Complete Digital Photography – 4th Edition by Ben Long is exactly that, a complete training book on the workings of digital photography. It is published by a classroom book publisher and used in many, if not most, of the major schools in the country. If you want to learn as much as you can about how digital photography works, this 16-chapter, 130-lesson book is for you. And if you get lazy you can always drop in the training CD that comes with this book and learn from that as well. (That’s my kind of learning!)
This soft-cover book is about 7x9 inches, with 566 pages, retails for $39.99-US. It's published by Thomson Course Technology and can be ordered from www.courseptr.com I Rate it: A
Understanding Shutter Speed by Bryan Peterson is a great how-to book on all of the things you should know about how a camera works at speeds other than the usual 1/125 setting. Speeds that tax the normal way we work to get an image. This book is richly illustrated with every bit of information it gives you, and is also full of ideas for new shots and effects that you can try. The chapters cover fast speed, slow speed, the composition some effects may need, and what they can do in the way of required exposures. How would you handle a shot when the camera is mounted onto a shopping cart and pushed down a store aisle? Now you get the idea of a little of what this book contains.
This soft cover book is about 8x11 inches, with 160 pages, retails for $24.95-US – and is published by AMPHOTO BOOKS at: www.watsonguptill.com I Rate it: A
60 Hikes within 60 Miles by Matt Willen. I requested this book because I often look for new places to shoot, and I found an edition of this book for close to where I live. But the publisher has editions of these books available for all parts of the country, so you could check out their website to find one near you. The book is packed with location information for each area, including the name of the place, of course, directions to get there, any fees required, what you can expect to find, hiking difficulties you will encounter, length of hiking trails, and a map for each location. And that’s only the beginning. You'll also learn a lot of the history of a place and any other special information that is relevant.
This soft-cover book is about 6x9 inches, with 292 pages, retails for $16.95-US – and is published by Menasha Ridge Press at www.menasharidge.com I Rate it: A
Images of a Vanished Era, 1898-1924 – The photographs of Walter C. Schneider and edited by Lucian Niemeyer. I have always been fascinated by old, turn-of-the-century photos taken around the time when photography first got its start. Most old images we see are in small groups from here and there, but this new book is a whole collection of the images taken by Schnieder of his family and hometown life in Kankakee, Illinois. Those images of his daily life include subjects from train wrecks to family picnics, as well as a family trip to Europe. There is even a shot of the Statue of Liberty taken in 1902 with a totally barren landscape in the background. This is a very nice book of old-time early American images for any photo library.
This hardback book is about 10x7 inches, with 178 pages, and retails for $49.95-US. It's published by University of Missouri Press at www.umsystem.edu I Rate it: A
The Art of Black and White Photography by Torsten Andreas Hoffmann is a new book that will be of great interest to anyone who is working in digital black-and-white, or anyone who's just considering it. This book is filled with techniques for transforming any image into a superb black-and-white photograph. The book is mostly geared towards the creative and artistic result of the final image, and each photo subject is covered that way. The book is not just a how-to, but is more of a how and why for the way you should think and work in this special art form.
This hardback book is about 8x10 inches, with 260 pages, and retails for $44.95-US. It is published by RockyNook, distributed by O’Reilly Media, and can be checked out at www.oreilly.com I Rate it: A+
Photoshop CS3 Photo Effects Cookbook by Tim Shelbourne is a book with 53 easy-to-follow lessons on how to add all kinds of special effects to your images. These effects include light rays, neon sign, rain, film grain, rainbows, and even snow, just to name a few. Every lesson is fully illustrated step by step, and includes screen shots of the tools and the settings used. The Cookbook series from O’reilly is a super way to learn both special effects and how to use Adoble Photoshop. It is also a treasure of new ideas for even the most seasoned Photoshop user.
This soft-cover book is about 9x10 inches, with 176 pages, retails for $29.99-US. It's published by O’Reilly Media and can be checked out at www.oreilly.com I Rate it: A+
All reviews © Paul W. Faust
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Last Updated: Aug 11th, 2010 - 13:36:44
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