Focus on Nature: The Creative Process Behind Making Great Photographs In The Field

by John Shaw

Photographing nature is an attempt to order the chaos around us by emphasizing some aspects of the environment while ignoring others. There is a big difference between the procedures and the process of photography and this book attempts to help the reader recognize the difference. The photographer John Shaw presents many of his most spectacular images and, in addition to explaining how to create such images, he also explores the reasons why he has photographed certain topics. John Shaw is the author of "The Nature Photographer's Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques" and "John Shaw's Closeups on Nature".

Genres: Photography

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1905

Reviews

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Shaw is a talented photographer, perhaps not one of the greatest nature photographers that I’ve seen, but certainly one of the more versatile ones. He can take grand landscapes, macro photos of insects, and everything there in between, and do it very well. That is really something. Perhaps the reason why he has become so versatile is that he has taught photography in workshops, and by writing instructional books for decades.

This is an old one, published in 1991, but it is one of my favorites. It is not one of Shaw’s instructional books, but rather a book about the creative process behind his photography. There are photos, and with most of them there is text that tells the reader about how he came to take it, why, and the situation he was in. So there are stories of tripods slipping on ice, and camera malfunctioning due to weather, of luck, and patience waiting for the light to turn right, and so on. Stories from the trail, so to speak, and the results in photos.

For anyone interested in general nature photography, this is a great book, but it is not about the techniques, it is not about f-stops, and focal lengths, and all that. It is John Shaw talking about how he came to make the photographs that are in this book.

[Tony Frampton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended by a couple of photography podcasters as an essential read, I requested this from the library. It’s a fine read as far as finding the right angles, the best light, and the inspirations of nature around every corner. But it is also quite dated, as Shaw wrote this in 1991, when film was king. It makes me think about how much harder photography was in those film days. Digital cameras have democratized the craft, with dozens of brand new features and techniques like auto ISO, image stabilization and post processing with the click of a mouse. While I shot film for years, I can’t imagine taking meter readings, stacking lenses, or going back to having to carefully select images to capture based on how many frames of film were left in the camera. For sure, digital photographers have more options, but film shooters were probably better artisans. A brief 30 years later, and most photographs aren’t even taken with a dedicated camera any longer, but with the fancy phones in our empty pockets.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shaw's book is not about the technical aspect of photography but rather the concepts of composition and emphasis. Although the book was written during the film days, there is nothing dated about the photos and direction give.
Shaw has led many workshops and written a number of books and is an able instructor. His comments and illustrations are clear and impactful.
Highly recommended.