Nature Photography Book Reveiw

I don’t know of a single photographer who has not shot a good amount of landscape images, and I’d say most of them would find it a dream come true to be able to have their work published in a magnificent picture book of those images. The kind that anyone would want to have laying out on their coffee table for everyone to see. Picture books come a dime a dozen, but truly beautiful coffee table photography books are very hard to come by. I said all of that to tell you about Plateau Province, A High Desert Portfolio by Tom Till. This new book is a collection of 135 color images, an essay on desert photography, techniques, equipment, and how the images were made. This hardback book is 10x13 inches, so every full-page image is a huge beautiful picture, some of which like the one on the cover are also two-page spreads. If you would like to see the true beauty of the American southwest at it’s best, this is the book to get. It is one of the very best picture books I have ever reviewed.

Plateau Province retails for $49.95-US, has 176 pages, and can be ordered from Tom Till’s web site at http://www.tomtill.com. I Rate it A++++

Images In Stone is a collection of North American petroglyphs, who many recognize as one of the best landscape photographers in the world. This 12x12 inch hard back book holds a collection of image that most will never get the fortune to see, and because of the ignorance of many who do find and deface them, hopefully they will never find. Everyone has seen pictures of these wall paintings, but few have seen such a collection of them in one group, and VERY FEW people have been able to locate and photograph this many. This is not only a beautiful picture book that anyone who respects our land would love to have, but you can be sure that it will be used for centuries in major libraries worldwide as a reference source.

This book has 198 color images on 192 pages, and incredibly it retails for only $49.95-US. Do you know a photographer who you’d like to make your best friend? Give them a copy of this book! It is published by BrownTrout Publishers and can be ordered at www.browntrout.com. I Rate it A+++

English Ruins is a beautiful new book that features many of the picturesque old ruins of England, including castles, abbeys, stately homes and even industrial locations, as well as other urban sites. This is not a how-to photograph them type book, but a photo and historical record book, the kind you like to sit down on a nice summer evening and read while the sun goes down. The images range from outside shots of the buildings like on the cover, to inside detail shots of stone stairways and empty abbey windows. The stories that accompany each location is also very interesting and even gives some useful information like the small amount of people who visit some of them. (Very useful if you ever get to shoot there without getting frames full of people walking around.)

This hardback book is about 10x11 inches, with 192 pages, retails for US-$50.00 – and is distributed by Merrell Publishers at www.merrellpublishers.com. I Rate it A+

Fine Art Photography
Water, Ice and Fog
by Tony Sweet

I have reviewed several of Tony Sweet’s books in the past and I have to say that each new one is better than the last. I especially like his close-up images like you see on this cover of the patterns in ice. This is a how-to techniques book, but not like so many others that are just the same old song-and-dance in a brand new suit. Instead, Tony doesn’t tell you “how” he took each image, but with each image he tells you “why” he took it the way he did, and “why” the image turned out looking the way you now see it, so that you can go out and do the same thing yourself. There are a ton of books out that do nothing but repeat all of the same old information, but give you little in the way of what it takes to really make better images, and that is why one Tony Sweet book can replace dozens of those other ones. All you have to do is look at his images, like the one on this cover, and you will see exactly what I am talking about.

This soft cover book is about 9x9 inches, with 106 pages, retails for US-$19.95 – and is published by StackPole Books at www.stackpolebooks.com. I Rate it A++

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Paul W. Faust is a self-taught Photographer, Writer, Digital Imaging, Photo Restoration, and Photo Stock Service professional. You can see more of his images on his web site at www.Impressions-of-Light.com plus two web galleries of his images at www.paul-w-faust.artistwebsites.com and www.redbubble.com/people/pwfiol.