52 Assignments: Landscape Photography

by Ross Hoddinott, Mark Bauer

52 Assignments: Landscape Photography is a mission brief, a portfolio of photographic workshops, a personalized journal, and an inspirational guide to putting the creativity back into your craft. Small enough to fit in your camera bag, it is filled with a year’s worth of weekly commissions and concepts for composing and creating eye-catching landscape photography in all its forms. From adding movement to the land to freezing the motion of seascapes; from playing with snow to capturing a starburst; from bird’s-eye views to worm’s-eye views, this is the quickest and most enjoyable way to shake off old habits and discover new approaches that will throw a whole new light on your landscape photography.

Genres: Photography

128 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2020

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This is a very well done, thorough, inspiring, and beautifully presented 'workshop in a book'. The authors have created 52 assignments to help educate, develop, and hone photography skills. The emphasis is on landscapes rather than portraiture but does include e.g., shots with a person in them (but the subject of the image is definitely the environment). Of note, you will need a DSLR to complete most of these. It will also help to have lenses on both ends of the mm range: wide angle to telephoto (note that lenses can be rented online for affordable prices).

The assignments are beautifully and intelligently presented. Each has a large number, symbols showing the type of tasks involved (e.g., technique, composition, light and color, creativity, computer, location, or weather), special items needed (e.g., tripod, wide angle lens, hyperfocal distance chart), a title and description of the purpose of the assignment, photograph examples with explanations, and field notes (tips when you are doing the assignment). Extras may also be included such as a color wheel when you are doing a sunset assignment or Lightroom/Photoshop screen capture instructions when you are doing a panorama. The beginning of the book has a checklist that you can use to keep track of the assignments you have finished.

Examples of assignments: understanding the 50mm, shooting sunsets, motion blur, reflections, framing, shooting the same scene during different times of the day (or year), woods, shoot local, go on a photography field trip, flowers, cityscapes, bad weather, shooting stars, making starbursts, painting with light, and much more. All have at least one but often several examples.

Perhaps the one downside to the 'photography workshop in a box/book' model is that you have no feedback on your completed assignments and have to hope you achieved their purpose. A true workshop would have an instructor there ready to critique and offer advice/refine techniques. But that said, there is certainly a huge price difference that makes in-person workshops out of reach of many. Whether you can afford an in-person workshop or not, I do believe this book will be very useful and inspiring. It is well done and especially if all assignments are completed, will greatly increase a photographer's repertoire. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.