Product Description

This book is for the photographer who strives to achieve a higher level of results in their work. Take Your Photography to the Next Level is based on a series of essays originally featured on the popular Luminous Landscape website. Barr tackles some of the rarely discussed, yet essential aspects of successful photography. Here is where photographers will learn what is required in order to grow in their creativity and to gain a deeper understanding of their craft.

With a foreward by Michael Reichmann.

Topics include:

• Creativity
• Dealing with disappointment
• Developing an "eye"
• Making stronger images
• What photographs well
• Where to go looking for the best photographic subjects
• How to approach subject material
• A great image is just around the corner
• Dealing with failure
• Mind games
• Becoming a self-aware photographer
• Framing, cropping, & manipulating prints to create mood and transmit your message

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44818 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

About the Author
George Barr is a photographer living in Calgary, Canada. Serious about photography since age 12, working initially with a WWII Zeiss Ikonta in a basement-bathroom "darkroom", he has progressed through medium format, 4X5, and now digital SLR's. He earns his living as a family doctor with a special interest in psychiatry but his primary passion has always been the fine art print.

Major milestones include learning to make quality prints from Fred Picker, learning to really "see" photographs from Hubert Hohn of the Edmonton Art Gallery, looking at Edward Weston prints bare, attending workshops, working with galleries, and being published.

George has had his images published in the magazines Black and White Photography, Black and White, Focus, Lenswork, and Outdoor Photography.

By the time George closed his darkroom, he was making very high quality prints and carried on this quality with digital cameras and inkjet printing, producing some of the finest inkjet prints made, surprising many traditional 4X5 photographers with the level of quality.

Throughout his life George has been a teacher of medical students & residents, patients, and fellow photographers. A writer of understandable patient newsletters and handouts, it was a short step to writing essays on photography. George has bravely tackled the challenging subjects of aesthetics, seeing, and composing in a style that is clear, practical, and applicable to many.

Customer Reviews

interesting insights from an expert
This is most certainly not a technical book. It avoids the nitty-bitty techie jargon that so many photography books fall into. Instead it looks at the more difficult subject of *why* certain images work, and how to develop an eye for a better shot. It's an interesting book, full of spectacular images, though some are unusual choices, though he does go on to explain why each was selected. The author talks about how to 'read' images, what makes a good image great, and how the various parts of an image work together to form a more pleasing whole.

He goes on to discuss how to find an image and 'work the scene', getting more out of the location you've chosen. Lots of good advice in here on composition, cropping and using the edges of your frame. There's an interesting discusson on the 'mind games' of photography - how you wish you had better kit, how you get stuck in a rut (and advice on how to get out of it!), what to do when photographs go wrong and so on.

Overall, it's a fascinating read, with some great photos, including a selection which are analysed in more detail.

The great value of subjectivity and feelings in Photography - very happy with it
As a professional photographer, I frequently need to read books and attentively see many photographs from other authors (just as George Barr recommends, from along the lines of this book). I find this a very healthy attitude and absolutely necessary for the photographer that wants to improve his/hers view of his/hers own work and of others. It is not easy to keep a clear view of your own work, all the time. In this book, the author talks about this. This is just an example of his "parallel thinking" shown in the book. And I do think that the author does this with care for the reader, with the aim of sharing - I do think that he knows very well how this book is directed to.
As I do with all the books, I didn't read all of it (I need time for photography and to live on it!) but I particularly liked Chapters on Seeing, Finding Images, Assessing Images, Mind Games and the very last one on "to the Next Level". This is about 80% of it.
He tackles very practical problems that hit the amateur or professional fine-art photographer if he/she wants to convince people of the value of their work, e.g., emotional impact, clichés, seeing fatigue, picking our best work, on negative thinking, how good the equipment, money. Very down-to-earth, practical things.
Though the author naturally mentions his work, with his great photographs and his own views, I read it in the way of openly being at ease in showing how he works and feels. It is not an author's ego-oriented book, way far from that.

Title: it did correspond to my expectations, when buying it. Of course the next level of each person is subjective. But subjective things, just as photography, are part of our world!
Text: very straight forward (and english is not my native language), clear and humoristic enough, straight to the point. Very good to read each section as one feels like, independent of any reading order.
Print quality: very good, which is a must in a book on photography!

Overall: one of my favorites. Happy with buying and reading it and having it in my shelf for future re-reading of chirurgical points to keep in mind. Definitely worth the time to write my opinion on it!

Not what the title says...
This book contains lots of useful advice on how to approach the act of photography, just as the product description reads. What it does not contain, is advice on how to really take better photographs. In this respect, there is an inconsistency between the title and the content.

The author, already at the beginning of the book states that this is a book about "fine-art photography". Therefore, fundamental aspects of image composition are not discussed. But then the author discusses in extensive detail other aspects of the image form, while totally neglecting the essence of fine art photography (as we know it from the great masters), which is the message of the image.

The biggest weakness of the book though, is the selection of images, all taken by the author. Displaying several dozens of colourful rocks, close-ups of streams, and overly photoshoped industrial scenes, and calling this "fine-art photography" appears to be too pretentious. I hardly found any images I wished I had taken in this book. This of course reduced my motivation to read the text. It would have been much more effective if the editor had included some of the photographs of the great masters, instead of using only the author's photographs.

The book was compiled from a series of essays originally published on the web, which leaves some noticeable traces on the writing style, which is far too personal, not a disadvantage when writing a blog, but not an advantage when writing a book.

All in all, this is a book about the author's personal approach to photography, and the author's personal experience. Although any photographer can learn a lot from the experience of others, this is neither a book with advice on how to take good photographs, nor a reference book on photography. In this respect, its target group is significantly narrower than what the title implies.