Close-Up on Insects: A Photographer's Guide

Rating:
Summary: Close to the Creepie Crawlies
Review: "Close up on Insects" is a guide to the macrophotography of insects. Anyone without specialized equipment and skills who has ever tried to take a picture of a butterfly, will realize the need for this book, which covers all the bases.

The author explores this field in a methodical way, starting with chapters on equipment (he favors medium-format cameras) and moving on to subjects like exposure, magnification and depth of field, ways to increase magnification, working with flash and natural light, composition and design and operating in the field. The author assumes you know something about these areas in general photography and emphasizes the special skills for insect photography. In the second part of the book he discusses subject matter, including dragonflies, butterflies, moths, caterpillars and other insect groups, again from the point of view of photographing these insects. He also briefly discusses managing your photographic collection, marketing and selling your work and photographing abroad. The book is profusely illustrated with the author's pictures of insects, with a brief description of his considerations in taking each picture.

If close-ups of insects are your interest, this book will tell you how to do it. Unfortunately much of the material is repetitious, which you may appreciate if you want to know that the same techniques apply to shooting dragonflies and moths. The technical skills are covered more concisely in one chapter in John Shaw's "Nature Photography Field Guide", although the emphasis is not on insects.

Moreover most of the pictures are record shots of standing insects, with no flight shots, although the vivid colors in some pictures are quite striking. However, there are certainly none of the magnificent and awesome photographs contained in John Brackenbury's "Close Up" (although that book is disappointing as a guide to technique).

The insect descriptions are general rather than species specific, although the author does provide a good list of references. Most of these will be of more help to photographers in the British Isles than other places, although the author is always careful to include at least one U.S. reference.

I don't quite know what to make of the chapters on managing a collection, marketing, and photographing abroad. They are really too generalized to be of much use.

Still if you want to learn the specifics of insect photography in more detail than Shaw provides, this book will prove useful.



Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not remarkable
Review: This book does well at covering the basics of insect photography. The author begins by giving a broad review of general photographic principles. Almost all of this is better-covered in general photography books, and it doesn't add much. About the only thing unusual in this section is the author's encouragement that medium format cameras are the best choice for insect macro photography. He gives some good arguments for this, and adequately covers most of the reasons NOT to use medium format, except that he completely omits any mention of the problems with depth of field inherent in medium format.

The author definitely is an entomologist, and appears extremely knowledgeable about insects and behavior. We benefit from his expertise because most of the last half of the book is chapters on several common insect groups, with advice on photographing each type. This is by far the best part of the book--This part rates four stars.

The book concludes with a very brief section on organizing your photo files, and marketing your work. Nothing special here.

As is typical in nature photography books, each page is heavily illustrated with photos from the atuhor's files. Many of the photos are gorgeous. The author is from Europe, and most of his subjects are naturally European species.

The book does well on discussing technique in terms of approaching insects, and where to look for some common types of insect. It doesn't do a very good job of discussing a number of techniques special to macro photography. For instance, the author does mention use of reflectors for lighting in at least one place, but other than saying it can be handy, he gives no specific advice. He repeatedly talks about using water tanks to shoot aquatic species under controlled conditions, but never gives any specific advice. The book was published in 2002, and is good in acknowledging some recent technical developments and products among film cameras, but I don't recall even a brief allusion to digital--This isn't really a flaw, but it is peculiar.

Not a bad book, and the sections on specific insect types make this a useful purchase for the dedicated insect photographer. But I think Larry West's book on insect photography is better. I also thought Ronan Loaec's general macro photography book was a better buy.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not remarkable
Review: This book does well at covering the basics of insect photography. The author begins by giving a broad review of general photographic principles. Almost all of this is better-covered in general photography books, and it doesn't add much. About the only thing unusual in this section is the author's encouragement that medium format cameras are the best choice for insect macro photography. He gives some good arguments for this, and adequately covers most of the reasons NOT to use medium format, except that he completely omits any mention of the problems with depth of field inherent in medium format.

The author definitely is an entomologist, and appears extremely knowledgeable about insects and behavior. We benefit from his expertise because most of the last half of the book is chapters on several common insect groups, with advice on photographing each type. This is by far the best part of the book--This part rates four stars.

The book concludes with a very brief section on organizing your photo files, and marketing your work. Nothing special here.

As is typical in nature photography books, each page is heavily illustrated with photos from the atuhor's files. Many of the photos are gorgeous. The author is from Europe, and most of his subjects are naturally European species.

The book does well on discussing technique in terms of approaching insects, and where to look for some common types of insect. It doesn't do a very good job of discussing a number of techniques special to macro photography. For instance, the author does mention use of reflectors for lighting in at least one place, but other than saying it can be handy, he gives no specific advice. He repeatedly talks about using water tanks to shoot aquatic species under controlled conditions, but never gives any specific advice. The book was published in 2002, and is good in acknowledging some recent technical developments and products among film cameras, but I don't recall even a brief allusion to digital--This isn't really a flaw, but it is peculiar.

Not a bad book, and the sections on specific insect types make this a useful purchase for the dedicated insect photographer. But I think Larry West's book on insect photography is better. I also thought Ronan Loaec's general macro photography book was a better buy.