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Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding nature photographer who can communicate!
Review: As an amateur nature photographer intent on getting to the next level, I have purchased quite a few books on nature and wildlife photography. Many of them are not specific enough and provide too much general photography information. This book is different. To start with, the images are outstanding. This guy is an expert at DOING. That's the kind of teacher I want! Most importantly, the book is full of HOW and WHY. This book is chock-full of tips and information on what works, what doesn't, and how to do it. I found this book more helpful than John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide. Although I liked that book, I found myself a little disappointed when I finished it. It didn't have as much "meat" as this book does. I highly recommend it. And the price is a steal!
Rating:
Summary: A Good Supplement
Review: I can't recommend this book as the only book to read for a beginning or intermediate nature photographer. It just doesn't have enough on fundamental techniques, although there are good tips sprinkled throughout the book. For a book that starts with fundamentals, like the whys and wherefores of exposure, and covers the gamut to photographic vision, one need to go to a book like John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide. But this book makes an excellent supplement to a book like Shaw's. When Benvie discusses exposure control he assumes that you know how light meters work and how exposures are calculated. He discusses when he uses spot, center weighted or matrix metering for a picture, and exposure compensation.Benvie's pictures are beautiful. He concentrates a little more on wildlife then landscape but addresses both areas. Sometimes he tells you a little more than you can probably use. He gives a lengthy description of how to construct a floating hide (that's a blind for us Yanks) that I read with interest although I was certain I would never build such a contraption. Then when I looked at the pictures taken from his hide, I began to reconsider. The most significant thing about this book for me is that it is the first one to address the connection between picture taking and digital picture making. Increasingly I find that even the best custom developers and printers cannot turn my shot into my vision as well as I can in the digital darkroom. As more and more photographers who are more than just snap-shooters learn this, given the prevalence of computers, digital cameras and the availability of photographic adjustment software at all skill levels, this link will be more important. Not that Benvie teaches how to transform a picture into our vision digitally. For that you need a lot more detail. (I recommend "PhotoShop 6 Artistry: Mastering the Digital Image" by Barry Haynes.) But he tells you enough to give a toehold for further exploration. I also found his description of how he handled specific photographs in PhotoShop to be very useful for planning my own work. If you've got the fundamentals down, and want to improve your nature photography, this book should be a great help.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Supplement
Review: I can't recommend this book as the only book to read for a beginning or intermediate nature photographer. It just doesn't have enough on fundamental techniques, although there are good tips sprinkled throughout the book. For a book that starts with fundamentals, like the whys and wherefores of exposure, and covers the gamut to photographic vision, one need to go to a book like John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide. But this book makes an excellent supplement to a book like Shaw's. When Benvie discusses exposure control he assumes that you know how light meters work and how exposures are calculated. He discusses when he uses spot, center weighted or matrix metering for a picture, and exposure compensation. Benvie's pictures are beautiful. He concentrates a little more on wildlife then landscape but addresses both areas. Sometimes he tells you a little more than you can probably use. He gives a lengthy description of how to construct a floating hide (that's a blind for us Yanks) that I read with interest although I was certain I would never build such a contraption. Then when I looked at the pictures taken from his hide, I began to reconsider. The most significant thing about this book for me is that it is the first one to address the connection between picture taking and digital picture making. Increasingly I find that even the best custom developers and printers cannot turn my shot into my vision as well as I can in the digital darkroom. As more and more photographers who are more than just snap-shooters learn this, given the prevalence of computers, digital cameras and the availability of photographic adjustment software at all skill levels, this link will be more important. Not that Benvie teaches how to transform a picture into our vision digitally. For that you need a lot more detail. (I recommend "PhotoShop 6 Artistry: Mastering the Digital Image" by Barry Haynes.) But he tells you enough to give a toehold for further exploration. I also found his description of how he handled specific photographs in PhotoShop to be very useful for planning my own work. If you've got the fundamentals down, and want to improve your nature photography, this book should be a great help.
Rating: 
Summary: Clear, concise & overall helpful
Review: It has been quite long since John Shaw's books that I come across another gem which I would like to have on my bookshelves.
This one is well written and organized. It is to the point (very different from Galen Rowell's) and it's really helpful for those who have little time and are impatient.
The author shares techniques, viewpoint and practical ideas --- very much like John Shaw's books.
Rating:
Summary: It's hard to restrain the superlatives
Review: It's truly difficult to avoid using words like "stunning," "incredible," "eye-popping" and others in describing Niall Benvie's photography. His 160-page book includes about 120 of the most spectacular examples of nature photography I've seen - breathtaking perspectives, razor sharp, vibrant colour, perfect exposure - the pinnacle of the profession, in my opinion. The pictures are so good, in fact, that (partly because the book's title refers to computers) I emailed Mr. Benvie and chided him for not noting in his text the digital manipulation of some images that seemed somehow unnatural in their perfection. His wounded (but polite) reply assured me that there was no digital trickery involved. Several chapters outline the possibilities and techniques of digital manipulation of photographs, and Mr. Benvie assures that only here are the images manipulated. The book's text includes the seemingly-obligatory chapters on equipment, film and composition, as well as chapters on shooting active and inactive subjects, the aforementioned chapters about digital work, and a couple of interesting chapters about the way Mr. Benvie thinks in the field. Throughout, his methodical approach to capturing a perfect image in the camera - rather than in the darkroom or the computer - provides useful instruction. However the reason you must buy this book is for its photographs. I've been an amateur for 30 years, and own about 20 books on nature photography, about half of them purchased in the past year. If I lost them all, this would be the first I'd buy again, just to continually look in wonder and awe at Niall Benvie's pictures.
Rating:
Summary: It's hard to restrain the superlatives
Review: It's truly difficult to avoid using words like "stunning," "incredible," "eye-popping" and others in describing Niall Benvie's photography. His 160-page book includes about 120 of the most spectacular examples of nature photography I've seen - breathtaking perspectives, razor sharp, vibrant colour, perfect exposure - the pinnacle of the profession, in my opinion. The pictures are so good, in fact, that (partly because the book's title refers to computers) I emailed Mr. Benvie and chided him for not noting in his text the digital manipulation of some images that seemed somehow unnatural in their perfection. His wounded (but polite) reply assured me that there was no digital trickery involved. Several chapters outline the possibilities and techniques of digital manipulation of photographs, and Mr. Benvie assures that only here are the images manipulated. The book's text includes the seemingly-obligatory chapters on equipment, film and composition, as well as chapters on shooting active and inactive subjects, the aforementioned chapters about digital work, and a couple of interesting chapters about the way Mr. Benvie thinks in the field. Throughout, his methodical approach to capturing a perfect image in the camera - rather than in the darkroom or the computer - provides useful instruction. However the reason you must buy this book is for its photographs. I've been an amateur for 30 years, and own about 20 books on nature photography, about half of them purchased in the past year. If I lost them all, this would be the first I'd buy again, just to continually look in wonder and awe at Niall Benvie's pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Great Teaching Book
Review: Many books on outdoor/nature photography are simply a showcase for the author's photos and a bragging exercise in the gear he/she uses. Benvie takes a more open approach -- almost giving the store away. Skipping over the most basic elements of photography, he provides practical advice on technique and creative vision. He isn't shy about using digital processes to enhance images -- not adding or subtracting visual elements, but manipulating the image so that it represents what the photographer saw, overcoming the limitations of film and photo paper. Highly recommended. And his photographs are exceptional. Kudos to his publisher for the high quality printing.
Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring and Informative Guide to Nature Photography
Review: Niall Benvie's THE ART OF NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY is both informative and inspiring. Benvie believes that photography is an art, but nature photographers are artists in a different way because they are more preoccupied with capturing the subject at hand rather than expressing the self. The book includes excellent tips on preventing mistakes before the shutter is released-not an easy feat for a person involved in nurture photography. He offers basic advice about composition, lighting, flash, and the like as well as tips for active subjects (animals, weather, etc. have no respect for photographers as anyone who has attempted to photograph outdoors can attest to). While the book is a godsend for film photographers, he also includes detailed information for digital users which makes the book useful to photographers using both formats. Since people purchasing the book from Amazon will not have the opportunity to see all the sumptuous photographs in this book, believe me when I tell you that the photographs alone are awe inspiring and could lead a reader from the couch to the field in no time. Perhaps what makes Benvie's book unique is his support for the amateur, which is most likely the customer who will purchase the book. While Benvie believes that professional photographers make significant contributions to nature photography, Benvie also believes that amateur contributions add a great deal as well since amateurs are less interesting in pleasing clients and more interested in presenting a vision of the natural world to others. Certainly Bevie's book will help amateur photographers who hope to do just that-present nature in all it's glory through photography.
Rating:
Summary: The Best book of natural photography
Review: The author use simple words to illustrate how to take good pictures, how to see the scene, and some tips of how to improve the image with computer help. Certainly a book MUST have if use like landscape or natural photo, or if you like to take picture. If you don't like to take photo, the picture inside the book is so beautiful that you will enjoy much by only seeing them.
Rating:
Summary: The Best book of natural photography
Review: The author use simple words to illustrate how to take good pictures, how to see the scene, and some tips of how to improve the image with computer help. Certainly a book MUST have if use like landscape or natural photo, or if you like to take picture. If you don't like to take photo, the picture inside the book is so beautiful that you will enjoy much by only seeing them.
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