National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography: 07/14/17

National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography by Tim Fitzharris promises step-by-step instructions towards creating photographs that captures the natural beauty of the landscape. That's a big promise that here doesn't follow through.

Tim Fitzharris has worked hard to develop a certain aesthetic to his landscapes. He likes mountain lakes at sunset or early morning, taken with a long enough exposure to render the water flat and reflective. To me, these look like the photographic cousins of Thomas Kinkade's paintings. I'm not a fan of that pristine, everything's perfect approach either to landscape photography or painting.

After a brief introduction to the tools needed for landscape photography and a similarly short pep talk, the book narrows its focus to the specific steps needed to produce Fitzharris types of landscapes. There's no wiggle room given for other interpretations of the landscape. Nor is there any encouragement to check out local areas — only the most extraordinary, out of the way, untouched areas should be photographed! Fine. If this is the type of photography you want to produce, read this book. If it isn't, by all means, skip this one.

Three stars

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