Review: Parker, Edward. Photographing trees. Richmond, Surrey, England: Kew Pub., 2012. Print.

This is a beautiful book as much about the love of trees as it is about how to photograph them.  The author is a well-regarded photographer whose images have been published in many well known publications such as National Geographic. He has also written a book on ancient trees, and contributed photos to a survey of some of the most important plants in human culture.  Here he looks back on three decades of nature photography, offering a collection of some of his best images as well as tips on how you, too, can produce beautiful tree photographs.

This is not, however, a book for photography professionals, but more an every-man’s guide to making good photos and appreciating the beauty of trees.  Parker says that used correctly, the compact point-and-shoot can produce similar quality images to equipment costing thousands of dollars.


The book is comprised of three parts:

How to Improve your Photographs.  Anyone who has attended a beginner’s photography course will be familiar with the principles and advice delivered here.  Topics include composition, the importance of both foreground and background, light and lenses, viewpoint, and planning.  The most useful hint I picked up here is to shoot with a compact zoom at mid-range focal length to avoid distortions at either end and produce the sharpest image.  Common sense, really, but something I have never considered when out with my compact.

How to Take Control of Your Camera.  Stepping up a bit, Parker explores exposure, focus, camera modes, flash, and image quality.  Take-away information here:  Compact sensors typically do a better job capturing the entirety of a scene in focus (but lack the ability to produce bokeh except under extreme conditions);  the hyperfocal point is one third of the way into the image and if in focus can trick the mind into thinking everything else is in focus.

How to Photograph Trees.  The lessons here should not be unfamiliar to anyone who has shot trees even casually.  These have to do with framing - shooting the forest, the tree or its parts - and some of the details available when you get in close - trunks, bark, leaves, seeds and flowers.

While there is not much tree lore here, the photographer's obvious love of nature is infectious.  You can find much the same technical advice on a few of the websites I reviewed in a previous blog post, but it won’t be so handsomely packaged, nor contain nearly as many beautiful images.

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