I think I was put off photography at an early age by my father. He was a keen photographer, and I remember spending what must have been minutes but seemed like hours, hanging around or reading a book in the car whilst we all waited for the sun to come out or go in, or for someone to move into or out of a view. To be fair, my father spent a lot of time hanging around or reading a book in the car whilst I waited for a bird to come out and appear in view.
When I see something beautiful then I want to drink it in and it sets my mind working with words. I don’t want to reach for the camera as that seems to me to put something between me and nature in a way that I don’t really want. But I am very grateful that there are those who capture images of the beauty of nature so that I can see the things where I haven’t been and will never go.
Chris Gomersall is a thinking photographer, and a very good one too. Formerly the RSPB’s in-house photographer and now an author, teacher of photographic skills and professional image-taker he was the first British photographer to be made European Photographer of the Year (in 2007).
This book is full of beautiful images, and I was tempted just to look at the pictures, but I was drawn into reading much more about photography than I really wanted to do. The chapter headings help with such titles as ‘Order from chaos‘, ‘Finding your voice‘ and ‘Truth, ethics and integrity‘. The chapter ‘Saving the Earth‘ couldn’t have been written by most photographers.
Each chapter has quotations at its head and, having recently had the task of making such selections for my own next book (watch this space), I found Chris’s choices very stimulating. I couldn’t help reading more about how to take photographs than I intended.
I enjoyed learning the difference between ‘studium’ and ‘punctum’ – do you know? Read the chapter ‘Seizing the moment‘ to find out!
And there are the photos, pictures, images – they are amazing. For what it’s worth, my favourites include those of snails on a map, summer flowers and a preening crane but there are so many that made me think ‘I wish I had seen that’. And Chris’s writing made me realise that I had seen many things just as wonderful but hadn’t noticed them – I’ll try to look harder and better in future. And maybe I’ll get my camera out too. Certainly, if he were still alive, I would buy my Dad this book, and I think he would love it.
Wildlife photography – a course in creative photography by Chris Gomersall is published by Frances Lincoln Limited at £25. As a reader of this blog you can receive a 25% discount if you buy the book and to discover how to do that please sign up to my monthly newsblast and next week you will be told the necessary code.
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You’ve inspired me to look out for this book in shops, possibly buy it from you too. Like you, I’ve always felt photo-ing the moment spoils the moment. That has to be wrong, right?
Nigel – welcome! It’s a personal choice – it’s a very good book, IMHO.
I find myself torn between the just wanting to look at nature and trying to capture moments with a camera. I’ve an ongoing mental dialogue with myself on the whole subject and I’ve come to the conclusion there are two types of photographer; those who are taking pictures of nature because it’s a good subject for their photos and those who are trying to capture something of a much more personal nature. Like all generalisations this is woefully inadequate but it seems to me to fit the basic motivation to pick up a camera.
I remember on my first trip to the Farne Islands at the height of the breeding season last year standing marvelling at the total sensory overload of the stacks which no photograph could even begin to capture. It was a defining moment in my relationship with seabirds, I’m not sure it would have been so if I’d been taking photographs at the time. The guy beside me who, by his own admission, wasn’t really into birds was snapping away like mad not taking the whole scene in and losing out on relishing the whole scene before him. Eventually he turned to me and said, “I don’t know why I’m taking so many pics.” All the while I’d been standing there utterly mesmerised by the sight and smell of the colony, camera in my bag with no desire to take it out whatsoever.
I do enjoy photography though, and I’ve resolved to get better at it having picked up a basic DSLR and telephoto lens which now goes with me on any birding trips I take – primarily because I find it a great aid to identifying things I see and don’t get long enough to study while trying to flip through a field guide. It’s challenging trying to get decent pictures but it’s a real treat when one captures a cherished moment. I just try not to let the lens get in the way of why I’m really there.
This book sounds like the one I’ve been looking for, thanks Mark.
Brian – if you buy it, I hope you like it. I did.
I do understand where Brian is coming from. In the past I have gone out birdwatching with the camera and come home having tried to do both but really having achieved neither. I tend now to go out with the aim of one or the other. I will be looking out for the advert in your newsletter Mark.
…16 quid at Amazon!