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Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
Galen Rowell was a great photographer, but he blathers on in this book, which I did not find at all helpful. Plus, many of the photos are tiny and the book is poorly designed.I found Brenda Tharp's Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography much more helpful, with larger photos and a better designed layout.
Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
Fantastic book. Title says it all - very cerebral and quality focused. Takes time to read and process.
Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
This is a disappointing read for anyone that is looking for a book about photography. A good immediate clue that this book might not be what you expect is the sheer size of the book. This is by far the most text-dense 'photography' book I have ever read.The title suggests that the text will contain insights into the more subtle aspects of photography--perhaps giving you insight into the thought process behind how some of Rowell's spectacular images were made. While there are some aspects of that covered in this book, it is a small fraction of the content.As with his earlier book, "Mountain Light", there are, of course, excellent photographs in this book. In "Mountain Light", Rowell sprinkled useful/interesting pieces of information about natural lighting phenomenon and tips on capturing these events on film amidst a backdrop of travel stories. While it was a bit frustrating that the density of photographic information was low, I found the stories that complemented this information to usually be intriguing.In this book, however, the majority of the text is not about photography at all. Most stories are simply travel diaries or thoughts on environmentalism, climbing, or other topics. I found myself wondering on many occasions whether I was reading a photography book at all.The best part of this book (aside from the lovely images) is the collection of essays at the beginning that discuss various aspects of perception and the creative process. These were the kind of essays I thought would dominate the book. There are some really interesting abstract insights in what makes a great photograph. Things got a bit over the top when Rowell gets into his theory on colour casts, but overall, this section of the book was quite enjoyable.The next part of the book still loosely feels like a photography book, but the technical information is dated and very film-specific. The last two sections are basically just travel logs. There are chapters that are essentially void of anything photography-related. This dominated well over half the book, and by the time you get to the end, you almost forget that the book had photographic topics at the beginning.I think this book would have been more successful as two shorter books rather than one long one. The first two sections put together are less than 130 (of the nearly 300) pages, but would contain more or less what I would have expected from this book from its title. I might give that 3.5 stars for the content and brilliant photos. The second book about Rowell's journeys I would have skipped completely. Put together as one book, where the last two parts dominant the majority of the text really diminishes the overall value for someone looking for a book on photography.
Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
It is quite sad and unfortunet that Galen Rowell and his wife were killed in a plane crash recently. The world has lost a truly visionary photographer. The results that Rowell achieved with 35mm film are truly breathtaking.I paid full price for this book, which is something I don' t do very often. In it, Rowell proves himself a very generous and inspiring person. He shows an uncanny ability to not only make amazing photographs, but to also talk saliently and make cogent statements about them too. He shares with us all his thoughts, stories and techniques for his photography. I'm not sure many other other photographers would be so willing to do so.As a photographer myself, I found it interesting to learn and understand what went through Galen Rowell's mind while making photographs. Oftentimes one sees a photographer's results (his images) yet knows nothing about the journey of work it took to achieve the results. This book fills that gap beautifully. You don't have to be a landscape photographer to enjoy this book. You only have to be interested in photography in general to get something from it.The book is easy to read and the size of it is just about right (ie. not too big and bulky).
Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
The advanced photographer is searching for something in a photography book different from the novice's search. The advanced photographer understands exposure, focus perspective and the fundamentals and can tie them together to create a sharp, properly exposed image. What he or she wants to know is how to form a vision of the world that he sees and translate it into what Galen Rowell call's a visionary image."Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography" is not a how-to book. There is no progressive review of the fundamentals. Instead it is a collection of Rowell's essays that have appeared in Outdoor Photographer magazine over the years, revised for the book and placed in a sort of order that ties subjects and ideas together, rather then in the random fashion that they appeared in the magazine. The book is divided into four parts. The first discusses photographic visualization; the second a few advanced techniques that the photographer can use; the third Rowell's own travels and the way he transformed his visions into photos;and the last, a collection of miscellaneous thoughts related to photography ranging from digital manipulation to what's really wrong in the Galapagos.It may be that we cannot be taught how to make the leap from snapshot to visionary image. But perhaps the teacher can open up those recesses in our own mind where our creativity lurks. I know that after reading these essays and thinking about them, I've found my own approach to photography has changed for the better.Even though the book swept me away, I have to confess to one complaint. At the top of each essay is a reference to relevant photographs contained elsewhere in the book. Several photos are referenced by more than one article. In their original magazine format, the photos conveniently appeared at the start of the essay. Here you will have to keep flipping back and forth. There probably is no economical way to provide these links, but it does break up the continuity a bit.Although I'm pretty closely aligned with Rowell's political philosopy, which creeps in throughout the essays, especially in the final section, there's still enough appropriately provocative material here from which a photographer with a different philosophy can benefit.Although you may feel driven to devour this volume as quickly as possible once you get a hint of its goals, I think you will keep it on hand, to occasionally dip into an essay or two to stir up your own photographic creativity.
Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
I loved this book. Great photographs and very inspiring. There are a few pointers on the technical aspect of photography, but the book stays true to its title by focusing on the emotional part (the important part) of creating an image. I gave it only four stars because the last chapter had little meaning to me as a photographer. It basically talks about photography as a large scale way to influence politics to save the environment. Noble, but doesn't really apply to my situation.