This is a very interesting and informative book and the most useful book I have found on the Course so far! I had read one of the author's other books whilst doing the Part 3 Colour project namely "The Colour Photography Field Guide" and that was also most useful. The Art of Photography course seems to be very much based on some of the material in this book, using some of the exercises and some of the photographs. I would see this as a more useful book to send out with the course materials following enrolement, rather than Graham Clark's "The Photograph" as I think it will be more encouraging to newcomers as opposed to the more academic, wordy and often more difficult to understand "The Photograph".
This book has six chapters and covers areas such as composition and design, traditional in-camera composition and the new opportunities for picture making through digital photography, it explores situations and locations to show best photo opportunities and it uses clear examples from actual photo assignments with schematic illustrations of how and why certain pictures work.
I found the early parts of this book most useful in backing up and expanding on some of the things covered in the course so far such as design and compositional issues within the frame. Contrasts and balance issues were also well covered and elaborated upon some of the content within the course manual. There is emphasis on the Gestalt Laws and Principles of design - however, an architect friend of mine said that some of these concepts are now a little dated. In terms of new learning I found the last third of the book most useful and Michael's assertion for example that what determines composition is the purpose - the intent. These later chapters less on technical issues but more on how, why and what sort of photograph is taken will get me thinking more about how I translate some of the ideas and concepts in this book into my future work. Even the unusual references to Zen were useful in understanding how we connect with things. An excellent book to which I shall be referring to in the future as I approach assignments and look for new ideas, approaches and inspiration!
This book has six chapters and covers areas such as composition and design, traditional in-camera composition and the new opportunities for picture making through digital photography, it explores situations and locations to show best photo opportunities and it uses clear examples from actual photo assignments with schematic illustrations of how and why certain pictures work.
I found the early parts of this book most useful in backing up and expanding on some of the things covered in the course so far such as design and compositional issues within the frame. Contrasts and balance issues were also well covered and elaborated upon some of the content within the course manual. There is emphasis on the Gestalt Laws and Principles of design - however, an architect friend of mine said that some of these concepts are now a little dated. In terms of new learning I found the last third of the book most useful and Michael's assertion for example that what determines composition is the purpose - the intent. These later chapters less on technical issues but more on how, why and what sort of photograph is taken will get me thinking more about how I translate some of the ideas and concepts in this book into my future work. Even the unusual references to Zen were useful in understanding how we connect with things. An excellent book to which I shall be referring to in the future as I approach assignments and look for new ideas, approaches and inspiration!
As a final note, I am showing the small field guide book by Michael Freeman mentioned above.