Peter Watson (2) (1952–)

A stunning book on a number of levels. The images are beautiful (shame so many are spread across two pages), the technical details are important, and the description by the photographer give an insight into his technique.

I don't always agree with some of his artistic points (his almost continual use of 81C warm-up filters strikes me as a little over-done), but he has confirmed for me how successful landscape photographers work - get boots on the ground and be prepared to wait for the right show more light or even to go away and come back another day. Some of his writing about his craft seems a little flowery, but I'll let him off.

Of course, it's rather nice to have the ability to work in large format, and Wilson still works with film; but so much of his advice holds good whatever you're using (well, perhaps not a camera phone unless it has a tripod bush and a lens you can stop down to f16 or less. You got one of those? Thought not).

Watson makes the point that there are plenty of locations that he hasn't found yet, and the map at the end (which is graphically clever rather than accurate) shows that up. And it would have been nice to know how he copes with power lines. I doubt that he uses Photoshop, so nothing's said about fixing it in post; and I would have liked more on the practicalities of organising a field trip and selling the resulting pictures. But this is an excellent start.

I can't wait to get out there myself!

Fewer typos than other books from this publisher. show less