Posted by Eric Vaughan on July 7, 2009 at 11:13 AM
I just moved to Lehi, Utah about eight months ago and I was wondering is there any really good photography guide books for Utah and Colorado? I bought the one "Photographing the Southwest" volume 1 which is great for all spots in Southern parts of Utah, but would like to find out more information and about other areas in Utah & Colorado's mountains, lakes, wildflower spots, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'll vouch for the "Photographing the Southwest" series, as well as the other two in Joshua's list - "Colorado's Best Wildflower Hikes" and "A Guide to Colorado's Best Photography Locations".
I also use the "[state] Wilderness Areas" series (I have "New Mexico's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide Book" and "The Complete Guide to Colorado's Wilderness Areas", but don't yet own the Utah version...) These are not quite so heavily targeted to photo taking, but each has photos by well-known photographers - and tips from those photographers for the various areas.
I have a library of various guide books and find many of them useful for trip planning. I really like photographing the southwest for Utah (Volume 1) but I'm not so crazy about it for Colorado/New Mexico (Volume 3).
For Colorado, I find the more detailed area guides more useful and have books for the Sangre De Cristo, San Juans, Maroon Bells/Collegiate Peaks/Hunter/Fryinpan and Massive wilderness. I've got a climbing guide for the South Platte region (where I used to climb alot when I was in high school). I've got 4WD trail guides (Wells' series) and the Wildflower books Joshua mentions. In all, I've got over 20 books just on Colorado/Utah. I've got guides on fishing and snowshoing and mountain biking. All of it can provide useful information for photography. Sometimes I think you've got to patch together information from several sources. But I combine it with topo maps and the USNO detailed azimuth/altitude information too. This information simply isn't on the internet.
Looks like most of the good books have been covered.
Like Mel, I'm not too crazy about Vol. 3 of the 'Photographing The Southwest' series.
One book that I use constantly when I'm in the Colorado backcountry is the 4WD trail guide titled 'Colorado Trails-Southwest.
This book was just updated a couple of years ago (incl. topo. maps), and seeing that the best wildflower locations are accessed via 4WD roads, I find this book invaluable.
Discussion
8 repliesKen
This one has also been one of my go-to guides, summing up some of the most well-known spots in Colorado, "A Guide to Colorado's Best Photography Locations": http://www.rockymtnrefl.com/coloradosphotographylocationguide.htm
Also any of the Colorado's Best Wildflower Hikes are useful. There are four in the series but #2 is my favorite:
http://www.amazon.com/Colorados-Best-Wildflower-Hikes-Vol/dp/1565792742/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246983015&sr=8-3
I also use the "[state] Wilderness Areas" series (I have "New Mexico's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide Book" and "The Complete Guide to Colorado's Wilderness Areas", but don't yet own the Utah version...) These are not quite so heavily targeted to photo taking, but each has photos by well-known photographers - and tips from those photographers for the various areas.
For Colorado, I find the more detailed area guides more useful and have books for the Sangre De Cristo, San Juans, Maroon Bells/Collegiate Peaks/Hunter/Fryinpan and Massive wilderness. I've got a climbing guide for the South Platte region (where I used to climb alot when I was in high school). I've got 4WD trail guides (Wells' series) and the Wildflower books Joshua mentions. In all, I've got over 20 books just on Colorado/Utah. I've got guides on fishing and snowshoing and mountain biking. All of it can provide useful information for photography. Sometimes I think you've got to patch together information from several sources. But I combine it with topo maps and the USNO detailed azimuth/altitude information too. This information simply isn't on the internet.
Like Mel, I'm not too crazy about Vol. 3 of the 'Photographing The Southwest' series.
One book that I use constantly when I'm in the Colorado backcountry is the 4WD trail guide titled 'Colorado Trails-Southwest.
This book was just updated a couple of years ago (incl. topo. maps), and seeing that the best wildflower locations are accessed via 4WD roads, I find this book invaluable.
John Fielder's Best of Colorado
Andy Cook's book
Also, get yourself a Gazateer atlas to find great backroads and things not on traditional maps.