Hyper Nature

by Philippe Martin

A revolution in nature photography.

Philippe Martin revolutionized digital nature photography by "stacking" images. To take one photograph, he will shoot a subject hundreds of times, stack the images into a composite, and then clean up the composite image pixel by pixel. The result is a "quasi-3D" photograph of nature with such sharpness and brilliance that surely it will leap from the page. What's more, Martin takes the photographs in his subjects' natural setting, including inhospitable jungles.

Hyper Nature is a portfolio of Martin's stunning photographs of snails, orchids, dragonflies, snakes, frogs and many other creatures. The hyperrealism and large images bring the viewer into the heart of the scene, face to face with the subject, where he can discover the smallest detail. This is nature photography as never seen before. Martin also explains how he achieves his photographs, increasing readers' appreciation and leaving a legacy for new photographers.

The most recent exhibition of Martin's photographs attracted one million visitors to the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.

Hyper Nature is ideal for all photography and nature enthusiasts as well as photographers, naturalists, educators, museum specialists and scientists.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Nature, Animals

176 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2015

About the author

Philippe Martin est professeur d'histoire moderne. Il dirige l'Institut Supérieur d'Étude des Religions et de la Laïcité.

Reviews

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Photography of the (mostly) small in our world, the likes of which I doubt many of us have seen before. Martin uses a technique that takes multiple high-speed shots of the same subject, moving the focus each time, so that you get the entire subject in crisp, clear, full-focused close-up. He photo-stacks the images; one of them took (if I recall rightly) 10 hours to render.

I was entranced by the beauty of the plants and animals Martin's captured on film. If you are an aficionado of nature, photography, the natural sciences, botany, entomology, zoology, evolutionary studies or you just like being startled by unexpected beauty, then I recommend you read this book. (Sub note: if you're fascinated, as I am, by patterns, this collection will wow your proverbial Argyles off.)

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nature is truly beautiful, but you don't need this book to see that. This book contains some beautiful images, though the range (mostly Madagascar) is rather limited. The plant/fungi images impressed me less than pretty much any others in the book. I could not help but feel as though the author of the book was more impressed with his technique than by nature itself, which is not appealing to me. I also was irritated that he actually messed with his subjects, such as one lizard (I think?) that he moved just to photograph it.

[Rachelle DeMunck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing.

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very unusual picture book. The illustrations are made up of composite images. As the Foreword says, "This book presents the result of repurposing readily available focus-stacking software. The images are by no means photographs and they are not true 3-D images. They are illustrations composed of many close shots, the results of a process that we call, for lack of a better term, "Hyper Focus." When rendered, mainly through digital painting , these images provide the viewer a new perception of biodiversity that shines light on the most humble and prolific of nature's creatures." Anyone interested in nature and any aspect of photography will find this fascinating.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures are amazing. It's fascinating getting to see the creatures in detail that you otherwise cannot, and I like that he gives extra information, such as the weather at the time the photos were taken, and that he describes his process of making the images. My one complaint is that I wish the common name for the animals was included, as usually just the scientific name is listed.

I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway.