I get asked for recommendations for photography books all the time.  I’ve read over 40 books on various aspects of photography in the last couple of years and I almost always have a good book to suggest (of course lately those books have typically been authored by Kelby or McNally).  A friend recently asked for a recommendation for a book about wildlife photography that he could pass on to someone planning a 5 week trip to Africa.

This is a topic with which I am extremely familiar as I shoot birds and wildlife it all the time.  But I quickly realized that this is one particular photography subject on which I had seen very few books, and for the most part those books that I have read have been entirely unremarkable.  Most of what I know on about making images of wildlife has either been self taught or been learned by applying lessons from other photographic topics to my wildlife photography.  Let’s face it, photography is photography and the basic rules of composition and exposure don’t change if you’re shooting a bride at a wedding or a bear in Alaska.  There may be other obvious similarities as well!

Yet I still wanted to be able to provide some ideas about some books to start with, so I went to Google and Amazon for some ideas.

I quickly found that the vast majority of “Wildlife Photography” books are about pictures of wildlife rather than about photography (a subtle but important distinction).  It immediately become clear to me that the search would have to be expanded to birds, nature, and/or travel photography (and in fact maybe travel photography would be a better subject for someone planning a 5 week long trip anyway…).  Using this expanded criteria I came up with three books to recommend, but they are older books and they may be tough to find new copies of.  Your local library may be your best bet if you want these books:

(NOTE – there may be some newer, better, and badder books available on the subject but I make a point of recommending only books that I have actually read…)

1. Moose Peterson’s Guide to Wildlife Photography: Conventional and Digital Techniques – Although it’s getting a little long in the tooth (it was published in 2003) the basic techniques presented haven’t changed in many years and this book is still very useful.  Unfortunately this book is very Nikon centric and some people find it difficult to get past that if they shoot a different brand of camera.  I can generally apply the same principles to any camera so it doesn’t really bother me.  Moose Peterson is widely considered to be the Dean of wildlife photography and his blog may be even more useful than this book.
2. The Art of Bird Photography: The Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques – Also published in 2003, and also somewhat dated, this book by Arthur Morris is the go-to book for anyone that wants to get into bird photography.  Again the principles can easily be applied to any other photographic subject and much of the information is timeless.  Artie (as he likes to be called) is widely considered to be the Dean of bird photography and he has a lot of information to share.  Although this book went out of print years ago, Morris recently aquired the publishing rights and reprinted it himself. It is now available from his online store at his Birds as Art website.  While you’re there consider checking out his blog and his email newsletter.  They both contain lots of extremely valuable information.
3. John Shaw’s Nature Photography Field Guide - Another oldie (from 2001), but it’s still a goodie.  This book has far less to do with wildlife photography and is much more about nature and landscape, but there is still good stuff.  And if you’re on a trip it’s not going to be all about animals anyway.  The major weakness here is the almost complete lack of information from the digital age.  It’s an easy read though and it has some really great stuff inside…

I’ve got a bonus pick for you that’s more about vision and creativity in photography than it is about any specific genre of photography, and it is definitely not a technical “how-to” kind of book.  It gets lumped into the Travel Photography category because that’s the author’s specialty, but it could easily be included in many other categories as well.

“Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision” by David duChemin

 I couldn’t include it in my original list because I haven’t finished reading it yet.  In fact I’ve only read the first couple of chapters, but it is shaping up to be an excellent read AND it’s getting more rave reviews from the photography community than pretty well any other book I’ve seen published.  This book is deifnitely worth checking out if you are planning a trip, or even if you want some help pushing your photography to the next level.