If you aren’t familiar with Moose Peterson and his photography, you’re missing out. It’s worth a look; he does wonderful wildlife photography.
Since I’m not a wildlife photographer (view cameras don’t work well for photographing wildlife!), I hadn’t read any of his earlier books, but on a lark I decided to have a look at his new one, and I’m glad that I did.
His writing style is very informal, and easy to read — he’s not the least bit pretentious about himself or his work. That he loves what he does really shows in his writing.
He begins by describing some of his earliest work, and how he got started working with biologists and photographing wildlife. He discusses some of the challenges he had to deal with outside of photography, like finding time to get out and shoot while working at a camera shop to pay the bills.
His section on equipment is one of the best I’ve seen yet, since his approach is to describe what works for him and why. He explains his choice of lenses, how he decides what to take with him when he goes out to shoot, and also what he carries with him for lighting. He dedicates quite a bit of space to explaining how he lights some of the critters that he photographs, particularly at night.
The quality of the images in the book actually varies — it begins with images he captured early in his career, when he was learning how to photograph critters, and progresses along with the narrative. He shows how he improved over the years and it’s very easy to see why he is so well known for his wildlife photography; he does an incredible job of showing the personality of the animals that he photographs.
Throughout the narrative, his love for the animals is clear. He doesn’t photograph wildlife for wealth and prestige, he photographs wildlife for the love of the wildlife.
He also points out a number of times that you can do this too — he doesn’t attempt to imply that he’s anything special, and in fact his humility is both refreshing and encouraging. That’s not to say that he implies that it’s easy, quite the contrary — he alludes to the difficulty in making a living as a photographer, but the rewards, like the opportunities that he gets to work with biologists and get close to and photograph rare and endangered species is infectious.
My only real criticism is about his captions; they read “Least Bell’s Vireo, capture by Nikon
Captured is a great read, one that I highly recommend even if you aren’t a wildlife photographer.
Captured: Lessons from Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer (Voices That Matter)
