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- Hi, everyone, welcome back.
So if you follow me on Instagram,
you'll know that I've been posting
quite a number of stories of late
around new photography books that I've been purchasing.
And every time I purchase a new landscape photography book
or just a photography book, in general,
I get a couple questions in my DMs.
So I thought that was a great opportunity
to sit down, have a chat with you
around why I picked the photography books
and how they do inspire me.
Some of the reasons I enjoy purchasing photography books
or coffee table books, is really the ability to,
A, support other photographers and artists,
but more importantly...
Well, that's important obviously,
but I actually get the opportunity
to have a look through their full body of work.
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And in this example here of "Quiet Light" by Adam Gibbs,
you know, we can fully appreciate, you know,
from a pro photographer, a pro landscape photographer,
you know, 25 years worth of his work.
You get to really study the individual images,
which you really can't do on places like Instagram
or even just YouTube or even the website.
By actually having, what I feel,
by having the actual books here,
tactile in nature and appreciating the beauty
and the curated approach of the books,
gives you, really, a way to be inspired
and really drive yourself to be more creative
and find new ways to approach the scenes,
which is much more challenging, I feel,
looking at a computer screen or, say, my iPhone.
And Adam, you know, before he became, I guess,
a pro landscape photographer, he talks about his time
as a garden photographer in the book.
And, you know, when he was trying to practice his craft
or hone his skill,
one of the things he was doing
was photographing the public gardens
and lands near where he was working and living at the time.
And so consequently for him,
"Quiet Light" was developing a real passion
for the way he approached the scenes,
and really resonated with him,
was things like diffused light,
and it's clearly evident throughout his book and his work.
You know, if after 25 years I could be as good as Adam,
I'll be really impressed, so...
And this image we're looking at here
from The Enchantments in Washington State,
I really love the way the light
is hitting the side of these, are they pines?
So as you move through the book,
and some of my favorites here,
I 'll just quickly skip through.
Yeah, so it was even some of the abstract work he's done
around British Columbia,
and images like these ones here, we're looking at now
from a place called King Horse River.
This is absolutely incredible,
and I hope that you can actually see them.
I'll just turn around here,
I don't know if you can see it or not.
You can see, notice the colors, the texture,
the geometry.
To me that looks like ice and rock or glacier or rocks,
I don't really know, but absolutely spectacular.
I mean, that in itself is worth buying the book for.
Like really what an incredible high flex comes
off the camera.
What an incredible photograph.
And what resonates with me throughout the entire book,
from Adam's body of work is, really, the way,
you know, he talks about those quiet moments
in the landscape and how it's an opportunity to reflect,
and ponder different scenes.
And I think as my own landscape photography has evolved,
I've really been looking at those opportunities
to find those moments.
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So perhaps the book that I'm most excited about,
that's recently arrived into my library,
is Simon Baxter's newest book, Gathering Time".
And I've seen it just before Christmas and really excited.
I got a signature edition.
So one of 100, which Simon has kindly signed.
And in the book we have in this beautiful case,
absolutely incredible work by Simon.
And those that do know me,
I have admired Simon's work for many years now.
And to me, he's an incredible woodland photographer,
and landscape photographer, more generally.
And I was so excited to receive his book.
And as soon as the (indistinct), be like the Sony a7 IV,
I placed my pre-order.
As we can see in Simon's book here,
I got number 50 of 100 and signed by Simon himself.
Absolutely, it's an incredible,
incredible journey for those
who love woodland forest photography.
I'm really excited to get one of his book
with a good cup of coffee, one afternoon.
As I said, this is a beautiful book.
And Simon talks throughout his book
around his passion for woodlands,
which I think we all know for those who do watch his channel
or have seen his work previously.
But more importantly,
Simon's talked about the health benefits from spending time
in woodland and in the outdoors.
And I think that will, sort of, resonates
with some of these photographers,
and I think my own approach for landscape photography.
And then the foreword, which is written by Joe Cornish,
also a fellow UK photographer.
Joe writes in the book, "His deep visual awareness
of the space and form in front of his camera.
It's a mastery of perspective, intuition framing,
and obviously the technical skill
to execute the photograph."
I think that really sums up Simon's work,
and this is an absolutely fantastic book.
And I know that I'm gonna spend a lot of time looking at it.
I mean, if we look here this one here,
which is a more recent photograph, and Time to Rest.
The level of yes, the detail, the contrast,
the way he approaches the scene,
the separation and the elements within the frame.
If you've seen his work on social media,
having a copy of his work in print, is absolutely beautiful.
I just really love, again, something that I try and do here
with the Australian eucalypts,
is again, the textures of the bark
and the colors.
Again, he does a beautiful job here in he's local woods,
just had a look through Simon's book,
he's actually separated into, sort of, curated collections
around, I guess, sort of, themes.
So themes like here, Source of Time,
there's one called Springtime Calm, Synergy.
So a lot of amazing images, I mean, and this one here,
which is called Forest Bathing, a "Gifted Moments in Time".
And we have similar, sort of, forest here in Australia.
I'm not saying trees, but again,
what an absolutely fantastic image.
And it's a real celebration of his love for woodlands,
and how it's helped him in his six years of devotion
to that area where lives in the UK.
If you gained value at this video,
and you've enjoyed learning about these photography books
and landscape photography books,
be sure to hit that like button
so we can spread it to other photographers,
who might be interested in learning
about some of these books and resources
that might help them, as well.
So the next book I wanna talk about is this book here,
called "vol. 3" by James Popsys.
I own "vol. 2" as well.
And I actually really enjoy watching James YouTube channel,
and James always teaches me something different, unique.
But the reason I got the book is, it's his humor,
and it's his approach to storytelling.
It's the way he controls color in his images,
and the stories that he tells.
And I think that's really resonated with me
over a long period of time.
But it does talk through his 18 months
through the lockdowns in the UK.
And he did, actually, manage to get out
to places like the French Alps and Iceland as well,
but it's even his work, just as an example
around shooting local and how
that actually provides a little bit of inspiration,
when, you know, we went through three lockdowns here
in Melbourne last year.
So, you know, some beautiful colors here as well,
and textures are in his images and it really,
it's outdoor photography, it's travel photography,
it's landscape photography.
I think it's just a great all around book.
The next book I want to talk about
is a book that is dear to my heart,
and one that I've just recently received,
and this book is called "The Great Forest".
And it's a book about the forests and areas and landscapes
around where I live and the areas
that I photograph here in Australia.
The book's written by David Lindenmayer,
and photographs taken by Chris Taylor, Sarah Rees,
and Stephen Kuiter, I hope I pronounced those names right.
And it takes in the area around where I live,
which is called the Victorian Central Highlands.
So for me, it's a book that inspires me,
in terms of understanding the geology and the areas
that I'm photographing.
And whilst it's titled "Great Forest",
it's actually celebrates the local national parks,
places nearby, such as the Yarra Ranges National Park,
all through to the Baw Baw Plateau.
And it's everything from cool temperate rainforest
to, as you can see here,
these beautiful marshlands up to the Baw Baw Plateau.
There's a lot of places here, if you can say that,
that I'd like to photograph, going forward.
And so for me, the reason I wanted to put this book up,
and why I purchased it was,
'cause this is the areas that I've done a lot of videos in
over the last few months for this channel,
the areas I'm gonna continue to explore.
And perhaps the last thing about that book
is really, for me,
it's actually a reflection of celebrating the areas
that I wander in so happily and take photographs of,
and for me to identify different types of trees,
and subspecies as well.
It's really, it's a beautiful book.
So if you have the opportunity to find something similar
where you are living, or you'd like to take a look,
again, the link will be in the description below.
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The next book I wanted to include
is a book called "52 Assignments Landscape Photography"
by Ross Hoddinott, sorry if I got that wrong,
and Mark Bauer.
And this book I've had for a while.
I wanna include it because, whilst it's not a new book,
it's a book that I draw inspiration from.
And so I think if you're in a creative rut,
and you're struggling with your photography,
and need some direction,
or perhaps you're looking for some inspiration
to different things you can do
to, sort of, mix up your landscape photography,
this book itself has quite a number of activities.
In fact, 52 of them, if you read the title correctly.
So 52 assignments over the course of a year.
And what I really like about the book,
is a simple explanation,
tells you any special kit or gear you might need
and some field notes.
And so it's a range of ones you can do through.
So one we'll get now, by keeping it simple.
I've done the one on blue hour, one about sunrise,
black and white techniques,
using just a fixed focal length, like the Nifty 50 here.
So it's a beautiful little book
and one that's worth having a look at,
if you haven't seen it.
And if you are looking to branch out
and learn something new in 2022,
perhaps this is worth giving a go.
There's no way I can make this video
without featuring Nigel Danson.
Now, actually, I have both of Nigel's books,
and the book I want to talk about today, you guessed it,
is "Woodlands", which I got last year.
And this was a pre-order edition from Nigel,
which again like Simon, has kindly signed.
And the cool thing about Nigel's pre-order,
was he actually put his supporters names
at the back of the book.
But Nigel's book, in particular, "Woodlands",
which is forming a series of three books.
There's "Vistas" which is his first book,
"Woodlands" which is this book here today,
and "Seascapes" which I believe he's releasing
in the near future.
Is, again, a body of work where he talks in this book,
how he found woodland photography purely as a hobby.
Even though he's a pro landscape photographer,
he still finds it, the therapeutic benefits again,
being in the woodlands, being in the forest,
and spending some time there in terms of the healing nature.
And he feels that not only are the images, you know,
representation of point in time,
but he also talks through how the images make him feel.
And it's a similar sentiment to, I think,
we're resonating with Adam and Simon's books as well.
And you can see here some absolutely stunning photography,
some incredible pictures here.
And I think for an Australian landscape photographer,
we have evergreen photographs from the Northern Hemisphere
where we can see photographs like this,
like this of deciduous trees, is absolutely sensational.
And again, it's the ability to appreciate the work,
and the textures here.
I mean, if you just look here, the textures in the bark,
and the way he's brought that out.
The colors, the separation of the colors,
it's really a beautiful book.
And it's a great way to bring his work together, you know,
in a collection where you can celebrate some amazing forests
and woodlands.
So, one thing to note was done really well,
is he's included a small blurb, I guess,
akin to an artist statement.
So if we look at this one here,
this image here called Survivor, he's talked through,
you know, as he's walking through the woodland,
he likes the medallions of gold on the leaves.
And they saw that a couple of green ferns
were adding something extra to the shot.
I think for those of us trying to learn woodland,
or photography in general, you know,
having these statements or these artists notes below,
really helps understand what he was feeling at the time,
and what he saw in the scene.
So it's equally a beautiful book
as it is a learning resource as well.
So that is Nigel Danson's "Woodland".
The last book I wanted to include
which actually is an ebook,
is a book by Alistair Benn called "Luminosity & Contrast",
the choice between darkness and light.
And the reason I include this ebook,
and I'll put the cover up just here,
is because this book has probably the most profound effect
on me in the last 12 to 18 months
in terms of my own photography.
They're not every image that I, I guess,
produce or share on social media is reflected
in Alistair's thinking or in his theory behind his images,
but it certainly has had an impact on the way
that I approached the landscape.
And so he talks and reflects on his time in the Gobi Desert,
where he had no clear subject to photograph,
but he was drawn to light transitions, to contrast,
to form and textures in a landscape that enabled him
to create some of the most powerful images ever created.
So he takes us on a journey throughout his book,
both in terms of infield,
things we should be looking through,
through to post-processing.
And he talks through things such as the tonal zone system,
making an emotional connection with the landscape.
And if you've watched any of his YouTube channel,
or any of his other work, then you'll understand,
he's very passionate about expressive photography.
And so it's a great book to start with.
If you are looking to invest in your own education
in terms of landscape photography, particularly.
It's a very comprehensive ebook, it's very thorough.
I think it's well over a hundred pages,
with great examples of, from his own catalog,
and how he approaches post-processing.
But also again, as I said, infield as well.
So if there's any book that you should get your hands on
at the end of this video,
that's definitely one worth jumping on his website,
and purchasing that ebook.
If you have any of these books,
or you have other photography books
that you think I should have a look at,
be sure to drop a comment below
so I can have a look at them as well.
I'd be keen to check them out.
Now, as I've mentioned throughout the video today,
I'll leave a link in the description below
for all these books, including the eBooks as well.
And if you're interested in learning
how to turn landscape photographs into art,
the next video,
I suggest you watch the video I did recently
on intentional camera movement in "The Great Forest",
which I mentioned in the video earlier on.
I'll leave a link in the description below.
I'll see the next video, bye for now.