Creative Landscape Photography is an excellent book, with a specific audience that does not include the rank beginner or even someone who is just comfortable with the controls on a single lens reflex camera. If you fall into that category I suggest you read John Shaw's Landscape Photography or, if you want something a little more up-to-date and covering almost the same ground, Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide. Benvie presumes you know about technique and tries to develop your creative side so that you can put your opinions, beliefs and experiences into your landscape pictures. He believes that while great pictures can be found, many others must be intended.The first things he examines are some of the concepts that are critical to understanding what can be influenced to convey your vision: exposure, space, light and darkness. For example in his discussion of light he talks about the nature of fog and some of its different forms and how this can be used by the photographer in creating his image.
He next examines the environments of landscape: wilderness, land dominated by people, city and garden and what he calls the intimate landscape, that is, the detailed view or close-ups. In discussing the city he talks about both iconic scenes and the incongruous. His views of each of these environments in terms of photographic vision reflect his feeling about man's relationship to the landscape. Benvie say "I have merely recounted my own response to environments and suggested that we should think about what we are looking at, rather than taking it at face value."
Benvie discusses the hardware that he uses for landscape photography in a chapter that seemed to say, "my editor said I have to talk about equipment". Although I'm sure, for a committed professional, a one-yard square softbox may be essential, most readers will not be inspired to make such an investment.
A chapter I particularly liked was devoted to digital finishing. Few photography authors acknowledge that the digital darkroom is rapidly replacing its chemical predecessor. Benvie takes several photographs and shows how he adjusted them in Photoshop. This in no way constitutes Photoshop instruction (for that, I'd recommend Barry Haynes' Photoshop 6 Artistry to both novice and experienced photographers). But it is interesting to see how a particular artist approaches his work and uses his photographic intentions to select digital tools.
This book operates in the overlap between photography and philosophy. Ultimately the question the reading photographer must ask is whether he (or she) is at the stage where he needs to develop his photographic vision. If one is, there is no clear or easy path to that development. Benvie may or may not work for you. You might benefit from Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography. Or you might need to look afield to something like Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory. I believe that this is the most difficult step for a committed photographer and that it takes a combination of many different tools to develop vision. Some tools will be more helpful for a particular individual. But I think that Creative Landscape Photography is well worth the try.
