Book Review: National Geographic Photography Field Guide

Let me start out by saying that the National Geographic Photography Field Guide is an amazing book. If you are a beginner or an intermedate user and want to learn about photography, this book is the place to start. I recommend this book because of the depth and bredth of subjects covered, the quality of the writing, and the fact that this book is absolutely packed full of world class National Geographic photos and examples. I'm willing to bet that there are more photos than there are pages in this book. Also, this book contains interviews with with almost a dozen National Geographic photographers. These interviews are invaluable as they draw from countless years of expereince and knowledge to provide a perspective from someone who has "made it" in the photography world.

The book is about 350 pages long - enough to cover a lot of topics but not too long if you have a short attention span. The style of the writing is simple enough for novices to understand but technical enough to go far past the surface. Chapters are relatively short but very well organized. You don't need to read the book straight through to find the good stuff - information is laid out so that the book can easily be used as a reference. Also, there really isn't any "fluff" in the book - all 350 pages are packed full of good information.

Whether you know nothing about photography or if you already know a thing or two, there's lots to learn in this book. There are shooting tips and examples for almost every situation. You'll probably gain some new ideas and gain some inspiration just by looking at the photos, so it's at least worth a quick read from photography experts. I personally have benefitted a lot from reading this book as the book was used as the main textbook in a couple of informal photography classes I took.

The only drawback for me of this book is that it doesn't really focus on digital photography - which is what I care about. There are sections in this book about darkroom processing and different kinds of chemical films which you may not care about. This isn't a big issue though as the concepts from film transfer well into the digital world for the most part - besides it's good to know about "the roots" of photography so that you may better understand the basics.

The book is currently in it's 2nd edition and contains a 20 page section about computers and Digial photography but if you are looking to learn about digital editing, this is not the place to look. For that I recommend Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers. I have written a review about it here:

At the time of this writing the book was going for about $17 on Amazon and probably $25 at your local book store: Click on the link below to be taken to the amazon.com page. Notice the 4.5 out of 5 rating - I'm not the only one who thinks this book is great.

Topics in this book cover almost the entire range of photography:

• Equipment: Camera bodies, lenses, and flashes


• Lenses: in depth discussion about different focal lengths


• Fundamentals: relationship between apeture, shutter speed, and film speed, composition, depth of field, etc


• Lighting: a discussion about all forms of lighting from the sun to off camera flash


• Subjects and how to photograph them: Landscapes, People, Architechture, Close-up Photography, Evening and Night Photography, Animals, Underwater, Festivals, etc...


• Interviews with and tips from National Geographic Photographers


• 20 page section on computers and photography


• Photography travel tips