Outdoor and Location Photography

When I read through Outdoor and Location Photography the first time, I found the discussion of natural light to be pretty helpful for me. A lot of the topics in the book I am already familiar with, but re-reading them helped remind me that yes, you can hold sessions anytime during the day (or night, I suppose), it’s all in how you handle the available light.

I appreciated the discussion on reflectors in this book — which was especially helpful because now I know the difference between my gold, silver, and white reflector panels (gold/silver reflect greater volume of light).

Jeff Smith also discusses how to create a particular “feel” using color, lines, and texture. Although I’ve taken design courses, this section reminded me the importance of factoring in different elements.

One quote I appreciated was “Time forces the artist to plan – and speed encourages the photographer not to” (p. 89). I have fallen victim to this, and lately have been reminding myself to not go so quickly!

There are 2 chapters on the business side of photography (making a profit and marketing), which are mainly overviews reminding you that your business’s sole function is to make a profit and that you need to have a planned strategy for your advertising and marketing techniques.

I enjoyed reading this book because it gave a lot of helpful pointers on location photography (and has many pictures for examples — although I admit I wasn’t a fan of some of his images).