Product Description

Streams, lakes, rain, ice, mist, and fog provide the photographer with a wealth of opportunities to make great images. In this inspirational how-to book illustrated with some 70 stunning colour photos, master photographer Tony Sweet explains how to make the most of those opportunities. With a focus on sharpening the skills of interpretation, he shows how to create beautiful photographs of water in all its forms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104018 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 104 pages

About the Author
Tony Sweet is a nationally known photographer, workshop instructor, author, and lecturer whose work is featured in a variety of mediums. He is the author of Fine Art Nature Photography (0-8117-2750-5) and Fine Art Flower Photography (0-8117-3181-2). He lives near Baltimore.

Customer Reviews

More of the Same (and that's Good)
In his three published books, Tony Sweet has hewed a constant course. On the left hand side of the fold is a beautiful picture. On the right hand side is a description of the considerations that ran through Sweet's mind in making the picture.

The pictures themselves are quite lovely. Sweet specializes in nature scapes of both the close-up and the long variety. But in these pictures the photographer comes close to abstraction in almost every shot. At first glimpse his work looks like the paintings of Arshile Gorky or Helen Frankenthaler with nary a straight or hard edge. Then suddenly it resolves itself and you realize that you are looking into the heart of a flower or a dew drop with almost no depth of field, or at a fog-filled forest, or onto a frozen river.

Although Sweet claims "there is very little in the way of specific instruction in this book", I thought him mistaken. The descriptions of what he was trying to achieve and the approach he took for each subject seemed to me even more instructive than his first two books. It was not like an explanation of how to pick a proper exposure (although when he tells you to open the aperture wide for a particular effect, that seems pretty specific.) Instead he emphasizes the importance of visualizing what you want to capture and then selecting the tools to achieve that goal. I was particular struck by his regular use of colored filters to achieve a certain tint in his photographs.

After my first reading, I felt that much of the instruction was similar to the material he presented in his other books, with just a slightly different perspective. But half way through my second reading I came across something Sweet suggested that seemed new to me, stopped reading and got my photography equipment, took a picture using a technique I had never tried, and was well pleased with the result.

Because I am such a fan of Sweet, several of these pictures reminded me of pictures in his earlier books and indeed when I looked at the other books I could see great similarities in the treatment of subjects, while also noticing different results. Sweet advocates going back to subjects and places you've already photographed and photographing again and demonstrates how effective this can be.

I suspect that readers who have looked at the photographer's work before and learned nothing about seeing will also be disappointed by this book. Those who learned to see a little better will probably learn to see even more by reading this volume.

A permanent addition to any collection.
"Fine Art Photography: Water, Ice and Fog" is a definitive guide to image design for this subject.

The elements of image design are a cautious balance between capturing the spontaneity of the moment and the careful placement of subject, line and form. Breathtaking images are no accident. The author, Tony Sweet expresses his vision of water with a distinctive visual simplicity. Having had the pleasure to shoot a scene with Tony, I know that he is a tremendous talent, who quickly isolates and simplifies a scene into images that are evocative and singular.

This book is unique for its beautiful images, but more so because the author provides ample prose to describe his thoughts in that moment. "Fine Art Photography: Water, Ice and Fog" is a permanent addition to my collection of texts on the art and technique of photographic interpretation.

I highly recommend this title for any photographer.

Another fine book
This is another fine book put together by Tony Sweet and an excellent compliment to "Fine Art Nature Photography".Tony does a nice job explaining what , why and how he made the photos . With many of the photos I understood what he did and found myself asking "Great idea ,But what if I try this or tweak that"

What more can one ask for then to be shown the possibilities and have their imagination expanded at the same time.

This is another fine addition to his credit and my collection.