Trees & Sun

Camera: iPhone 4

I want to mention a really wonderful new book on photography, The Passionate Photographer, by Steve Simon.  While the emphasis of the book is mainly on the journalist approach to photography, it speaks volumes to any photographer.  It's filled with images of Steve's and some of his favorites.  He also has many quotes from prominent photographers:

"I can have aspirations or ambitions or ideas or goals for my work, but in a sense, the only purpose those goals serve is to get me to take the pictures and only through the taking of the pictures will I find out who I am or what my pictures look like.  In the end, oftentimes the pictures that I think I'm going to take aren't the pictures I take and the direction I'm headed isn't the direction I think I'm headed."

--George Heisler

The Passionate Photographer is the first book on photography I have come across that articulates the emotions of the photographer--much like a writer can feel the gamut of emotions in the midst of working on a novel so too can a photographer. Perservere, and shoot and shoot and shoot and after 10,000 images or maybe even after 100,000 images the photographer will have a substantial base knowledge, a knowledge that cannot have been gained any other way.