Used Photography Book Roundup - January 2020

View fullsize

I found a great collection of photography books at a used bookstore in January, 2020.

Every so often I love stopping by local used bookstores to see if any interesting photography books have turned up. You just never know what you may find. This month I came away with a great haul of books, some I’d never heard of. Take a look and let me know if you’ve read any of these.

I’ve provided links to Amazon in case you’re not able to find these books locally. These are affiliate links and I’ll be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links, though this won’t cost you anything extra. Thanks much!

ShadowLight: A Photographer’s Life by Freeman Patterson

Buy on Amazon

I’ve always heard great things about Freeman Patterson, and I own a couple of his instructional books, though I’ve yet to read them. So when I stumbled across this book about his life and photography I grabbed it. The book is full of beautiful photographs interspersed with written sections where Patterson talks about his life and creative process. I look forward to reading it.

Galen Rowell: A Retrospective

Buy on Amazon

Galen Rowell is one of those names many people interested in outdoor and adventure photography will be familiar with. He was for a time THE iconic adventure photographer and created some absolutely incredible and beautiful photography. I was so happy to find this large format book collecting some fantastic examples of his work. But it’s not just photography, it also contains a number of essays about Rowell I can’t wait to read.

The Family of Man by Edward Steichen

Buy on Amazon

You may recognize The Family of Man from a previous used book roundup. In that post I’d mentioned the paper quality of that edition was very poor and that I’d love to find a better copy. Well, now I have! This edition, printed in 1996 is much better than the older edition, printed on more substantial paper with pages that have not yellowed with age. The book chronicles the large photographic exhibition put together by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, often called the greatest photographic exhibition of all time. It essentially tells the story of mankind, photographically. I hope to one day put together a post specifically about this book.

Tone Poems: Nine Photographic Opuses, Book 1 — Opus 1, 2 & 3 by Bruce Barnbaum & Judith Cohen

Buy on Amazon

This book fascinates me. Bruce Barnbaum is an amazingly talented photographer (who wrote an incredible instructional book I’m still reading, The Art of Photography). Judith Cohen is a pianist. It appears they have put together a book that presents Barnbaum’s photographs arranged into collections that are matched to pieces of classical music. I honestly have no idea how this is supposed to work, but I find the concept intriguing. Granted, I would have purchased it for Barnbaum’s photography alone, as it contains a stunning collection of his black and white work. But I will be curious to see how well it pairs with the music, and whether I happen to have any of the pieces it pairs with. It appears a CD came with the book when new, but was missing from my used book purchase.

Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams

Buy on Amazon

This is a classic, and a book I’ve wanted to own for some time. In it Ansel Adams selected 40 of his photographs to talk about, sharing some of his thoughts about each image. I love these sorts of books, especially when written by the photographer. We can learn so much hearing what they saw, thought and felt when creating the image, and what processes they used both in the field and back at the dark room. This one will take longer to read than some of the others, but I very much look forward to it.

The Greek World by Eliot Porter

Buy on Amazon

This was a fortunate find, as it wasn’t in the art and photography section, but instead with the books on Greek history. Eliot Porter is one of the big names in photography, in fact he had the first one-man exhibition of color photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I look forward to viewing some of Porter’s photographs, and learning a bit about Greece from the text written by Peter Levi.

So how’s that for a great collection of books? Used bookstores can be a fantastic resource, especially for out of print books. They’re also a chance to find large, sometimes expensive, books without hurting the wallet quite as much. Have you read any of these books, or have you found any interesting used (or new) books lately?

---

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

---

Winter Heat Wave Heron

View fullsize

A Great Blue Heron with beautiful plumage seen atop a tree felled by a beaver in the woods of a wetlands park.

Most of the Great Blue Herons migrate south for the winter, but some choose to stick around Northern Virginia, a potential risk if it happens to be a bad winter. But so far this has not been a bad winter, in fact we just recently had a heat wave that brought temperatures up around 70 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-January. This must have pleased the herons still in the area.

While hiking my favorite wetlands park during this heat wave we stumbled across one special Great Blue Heron, or at least one I found to be special. First off, we encountered it back in the woods, not out on the open wetlands lake. Granted, the water does sometimes extend into the woods, as it was this day, but most of the herons I’ve seen have been around the open water.

View fullsize

The Great Blue Heron seen through the trees, standing atop a fallen tree.

The heron was perched atop a tree felled by one of the local beavers. It was watching the water below, keeping a keen eye on anything moving below the surface. It was far enough away from the trail not to be disturbed by people passing by, even loud children. At one point we watched as it stretched out its long neck, leaning towards the water, preparing to strike… Only to slowly bring its neck back in and once again stand straight on the tree. Apparently its prey had moved away.

Another element that made this particular Great Blue Heron special to me was its fantastic plumage. Look closely at those beautiful long white feathers displayed on its chest and along its back. I always love the opportunity to watch, study, and photograph birds with such beautiful plumage. It just makes me smile.

View fullsize

In this image we can see the Great Blue Heron straight on, a different view than the typical profile shots.

We slowly moved down the trail as my father would move ahead and point out locations that had interesting views of the heron. I photographed from several of these locations, looking for different backgrounds, trying to find cleaner compositions, something that can be a challenge in a wooded environment. In most locations I kneeled down on the ground, trying to shoot from the herons height, or below it.

At one point the Great Blue began stretching, so I stayed still and took advantage of the motor drive to capture as many images as I could of this behavior. I knew from past experience this often preceded shaking and preening, behaviors I love capturing. In the images you can see examples of the stretching, which was following by shaking, where the heron literally shakes its entire body back and forth, puffing up its feathers, before settling back down. After the stretching, shaking and puffing the heron began preening, where it stretches into all sorts of interesting positions to maintain its feathers, cleaning, straightening, perhaps plucking old damaged ones.

View fullsize

The Great Blue Heron stretches one leg and wing. Look closely at the foot of the leg being stretched.

View fullsize

The Great Blue Heron stretching both wings and puffing its feathers just a bit.

View fullsize

I enjoy watching Great Blue Herons shake back and forth, airing out those feathers.

View fullsize

After shaking the Great Blue Heron begins preening.

The final feature that made this Great Blue Heron special was its feet, or more specifically one of its feet. Look closely at the images and you may see something unique about its left foot. I’ve included some zoomed in details to give you a better view. The heron is missing all its front toes on that one foot. It only has the single back toe. I suppose it’s possible this could be a birth defect, but my guess is it waded too close to one of the many large snapping turtles that inhabit this wetlands. The turtles are very quiet and move very slowly, just as herons do. They wait for something to move within reach, then they stretch out their long neck and grab at the prey, whatever it is, again, just as herons do. It can be a tough world out there, but in this case the heron appears to get along fine without the toes. I do wonder, though, if the missing toes might be why it was deeper in the woods instead of out on open water?

View fullsize

A zoomed in closeup showing the herons feet. The left foot, seen here on the right, is missing all its front toes. You can see the back toe standing out behind.

View fullsize

A zoomed in closeup showing the missing toes on the Great Blue Herons left foot. It only has the single rear toe.

These situations are always difficult for me to walk away from. Sometimes I’ll stay put until the animal moves away, provided I’m not stressing it by being there. If I’m stressing it I move away quickly. In this case the animal wasn’t at all stressed. But herons can stay put for hours at a time. I don’t always want to stay in one spot for that length of time, so eventually we moved on, leaving this special Great Blue Heron standing atop the fallen tree, perhaps continuing to peer below the surface of the water looking for its next meal.

Click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at a special Great Blue Heron. Have you seen similar deformities or injuries in wildlife you’ve observed?

---

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

---

Red Badges of Courage

View fullsize

A male Red-winged Blackbird displaying its red epaulettes.

This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. This is at no extra cost to you.

Some birds, mostly males, have ways of slightly changing their looks, whether to attract a mate or aggressively mark their territory. One such species is the Red-winged Blackbird, a fairly common blackbird with red badges, or epaulettes, on its shoulders. You can often find these birds in large numbers around wetlands areas where they feed and nest. Adult males of the species are easy to identify because they are all black with a red badge on each shoulder, and sometimes a strip of yellow below the red.

View fullsize

This young Red-winged Blackbird (notice it still has brown tips to its feathers) is hiding its red feathers.

View fullsize

Now the young Red-winged Blackbird displays more of its red feathers.

I’ve observed these birds for years, and I was under the impression that some have much larger and bolder red epaulettes than others. I thought perhaps it was related to age, or just genetics. I’d seen some birds with very little red, whereas others had large, bold red badges. But it never occurred to me they controlled how much red was visible, even though it’s obvious when looking back through these photos.

View fullsize

While foraging on the ground this male Red-winged Blackbird covers most of its red feathers.

View fullsize

While calling the male Red-winged Blackbird uncovers its epaulettes and puffs out the red feathers.

View fullsize

A male Red-winged Blackbird showing less of its red epaulet.

View fullsize

Here the male Red-winged Blackbird shows more of the red epaulet while also calling.

I’ve recently been reading a fantastic book about the coloration of birds, titled National Geographic Bird Coloration, by Geoffrey E. Hill. It was here I learned about what is referred to as coverable badges, how some birds are able to cover their strongly colored feathers. The example he used was of Red-winged Blackbirds, and he described how they have a set of black feathers above their red epaulettes, which are the bold red patches of feathers on their shoulders. They are able to cover the red with these overlapping black feathers.

View fullsize

Here we see the male Red-winged Blackbird pushing out its shoulders making the red badge even more visible.

The red epaulettes of Red-winged Blackbirds can be used to attract mates and mark their territory. Hill describes how a male displaying its red epaulettes within the territory of another male is a very aggressive action and one often met with conflict. So the males need to display their red to attract a mate, but may want to hide their red when flying through another males territory. I suspect another time they may hide their red is when gathering nesting material, as may be seen in the photograph below. If a male will be flying back to its nest, I would imagine the last thing it would want is to reveal the location to another male.

View fullsize

A male Red-winged Blackbird foraging for nesting material completely hides it red epaulettes. All that is visible is the yellowish line of feathers below the covered red ones.

In this post I show several examples of male Red-winged Blackbirds showing and hiding their red epaulettes. In some examples you can see they not only control how much of the red is showing, but can also actively puff out the red so it stands above the black feathers. Look closely and you can see they even sometimes push their shoulders out, bringing more attention to those bold, red badges of courage.

View fullsize

See how this young male Red-winged Blackbird puffs out the red feathers of its epaulettes? They extend well above its black feathers.

View fullsize

Here is another view of a male Red-winged Blackbird puffing out the red feathers of its epaulet.

View fullsize

And one final view of those bold, red badges of courage being displayed by this male Red-winged Blackbird.

To learn more about bird coloration check out the book, National Geographic Bird Coloration by Geoffrey Hill, who is an ornithologist and professor of biology. Though intended for a broad audience, this book contains a huge amount of detailed information sure to excite anyone interested in ornithology. It’s not a quick and easy read, nor a college text book, but instead manages to tread that line between the two. I am absolutely loving it!

Buy on Amazon

---

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

---