ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY
FAVORITE BOOKS
DYNAMIC WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY;
Techniques For Creating Captivating Images
Amherst Media, 2004
Paperback, 128 pages, over 150 color photos
Whether you're a film or digital camera user, an occasional admirer of photos of this sort, or a photographer seeking to improve, Dynamic Wildlife Photography contains something for you. Even seasoned photographers will find, as I did, something to incorporate into their work. If you want to get the most "oohs" and "ahs" from your wildlife photos, don't miss this book. I rate it A+. by Michael Fulks Apogee Photo Magazine
This is a very good instructional photography book written to motivate the photographer to think outside the "routine" box with his or her photography...I would recommend this book to any photographer who desires to move their images from the mundane to the extraordinary. by Lesley Collins f/8 And Being There...
FLORIDA'S FORGOTTEN COAST
John B. Spohrer, Jr.
Two Dogs Publishing, Eastpoint, Florida
Hardback, 176 pages, 196 color photos
The book deals with a part of Florida that many nature photographers are unfamiliar with--the area around St. George Island, Apalachicola Bay and the Apalachicola River System. And the reason most nature photographers are unfamiliar with this region is because there are lots of places in Florida where the herons, egrets, ospreys, eagles, pelicans and terns are much easier to photograph. We were amazed to find that John only photographed local subjects, and that the quality of the images did not suffer because of it. If anything, it makes the photos even more special because a little of the time and effort required to capture them seems to shine through.
As appealing as the photography is though, it is the writing that makes this a gem among travel books. John is a long time resident of the area, and currently lives at the edge of Tate’s Hell Swamp. The slice of life anecdotes that accompany the photos made me want to drop everything and go spend time with the area’s residents, human and otherwise. Through the author’s eyes we watch paradise slowly being lost to development, we see how a non-photographer might look at a lens in terms of how large a diamond one might purchase instead, and we experience the sinking sensation of realizing the winter surf we’re wading through could easily come up higher than our chest waders.
John has done a superb job of sharing the essence of this part of the country with his readers. It is a vision of a Florida that has not yet been totally overdeveloped, and it made me nostalgic for a slower paced life. If you’re curious about the wonders the rest of the state has already lost, the fight to keep that from happening here, or if you’re just interested in reading about Gypsy, the sea turtle dog, you’ll definitely want to get ahold of Florida’s Forgotten Coast.