Photographer's Bibliography

A photographer's bibliography is an important index of his or her aspirations and potentialities. The creative growth of any artist often comes as much from the ideas they have encountered from other minds as much as from the impressons from the world they see. A powerful bibliography is a collection of great creative engines with the power to radiate energy, provide guidance, enthusiam and inspiration; to arouse curiosity and provide magic for the aritist.

Bibliography: Category One
The profoundly important books:

Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein, Jacobson, King, Angel. A Pattern Language. New York, NY, Oxford University Press. 1977. ISBN 0-19-501919-9 amazon.com There is a "voice" of history which speaks to all people in all times and it carries the tone of one who "understands". Here, such a voice describes a catalog of things that we humans have done during our occupancy on the Earth that have worked well and which help to explain who we are and how we and the planet fit together. For the photographer/artist this book is an outstanding guide to the viewing and understanding of regions, cities, villages, buildings and rooms, because this is a book that explains how these places can be made to come alive. There are 253 chapters in this 1171 page book, and you really won't have to read the whole book to get enough out of it to change your life - then see if you can not read the rest of it!

Koestler, Authur. The Act of Creation: A study of the conscious and unconscious in science and art. New York, NY. Dell Publishing Co. 1964. ISBN: 0140191917 amazon.com For me the heart of this book was Book One (The Art of Discovery and the Discoveries of Art) pages 1 - 409. Book Two (Habit and Originality) pages 412 - 715, I found a bit less to the point I am looking for and more to a medical approach; yet this part is awesome too, and I have read much of this part, and still am.

Livingston, David and Lynch, William, Color and Light in Nature, Cambridge, England, Cambridge Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-43431-9 Hardback, amazon.com 0-521-46836-01 Paperback. amazon.com A discussion of things we pass by every day and never notice: landpools and skypools, airlight and Alpenglow, the anti-twilight arch. What is the color of pure water, and the real color of the moon? Glitter, glints and sparkles; catspaws Most of the things this book explains are things we have already known about, but we didn't know that about! As I read this book I realized I had walked in an amazing world with my eyes closed! After you have read in it, you will walk through a different world.

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The extensions of man. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1964. ISBN: 0262631598 amazon.com The first part of this book (pages 1 - 73) is sometimes hard to get through, so don't struggle - go on to Part 2 (pages 77 to 359) and just pick and choose from the 26 different chapters that point to the essense of humanity and the human experience.

Bibliography: Category Two
The books that are too good to miss:

Brandenburg, Jim. Chased by the Light. Minnetonka, MN, NorthWord Press., 1998. ISBN 1-55971-671-1 How's this for a self-imposed assignment: spend 90 days in the boundary-waters wilderness area? Take your camera, of course, but only three rolls of film. Object: to make one picture each day, every day, but never more than one - they all need to be world-class to grace coffee tables all over the world. Also, even though all you ever shoot is slide film, you will use print film for this work! Here is one of the finest lesssons in photography you'll ever find.

Bullaty, Sonja and Lomeo, Angelo, Provence, Paris, France, Abbeville Press Publishers, 1993 ISBN 1-55859-557-90 amazon.com If you want to see what can be done with color, then look here. This is definitely a "Wow!" book, but look closely. There are lessons and lessons on every page. If you have mastered the art of color photography then you may be ready for these lessons. If you aspire to greatness, then here is one of your pathways.

Shaw, John. Business of Nature Photography. New York, NY. Amphoto Books. 1996. ISBN 0-8174-4050-X. For the grungy business of making money with photography. This book is so standard in the field of photographic business enterprise, that any mistakes he might have made are now standing operating procedure. You will now have to make them too, and here is the source.

Upton, Barbara London with John Upton. Photography. (Adapted from the Life Library of Photography) Fourth Edition. City not given. HarperCollins. 1989. ISBN 0-673-39842-0. Basic book about basic photography and how to progress beyond that. Classic college textbook for photography. One volume encyclopedia about photography. Need to know something about notching code, ferrotype, collodion? Maybe you have questions about developing, printing, lighting, photography history, framing, etc. This is the book for all that.

Womack, John, Methods and Procedures of Outdoor Photography, Franklin, NC, Soliloquy Press, 1997. ISBN 0-9655546-1-9. amazon.com Obviously this book is here because I wrote it, right? Well, true . . . but - it is still the only book I have ever seen that introduces color as a "Color Clock" in a way that you can learn the so-called color wheel instantly and never forget it. It also shows how to use the colors with each other so that any two colors can be combined in a beautiful way. It also is the only book I have seen that discusses composition from the point of view of interpretation and expression. It also has a important appendix of charts that display times of sunrise and sunset for the southern Blue Ridge mountain area.

Bibliography: Category Three
Books that lead, guide and provide reference.

Campbell, Charles. The Backpacker's Photography Handbook. New York, NY. AMPHOTO. 1994. ISBN 0-8174-3609-X. Excellent book for anyone who is interested in beginning serious nature photography. Campbell discusses equipment (including backpacking & clothing), techniques and procedures. His work on exposure modification is critical to all good photography and he provides a color card system which is not my cup of tea, but some folks think it is the cat's meow. Regardless of the color cards, the book is excellent.

Petrides, George A. A Field Guide to Eastern Trees. Boston. Peterson Field Guide Series, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1988. ISBN 0-395-46732-2. This is my favorite field guide for tree identification for the Blue Ridge Mountains. It has a good key, good maps, excellent illustrations of leaves, buds, twigs, etc.

Leslie, Clare Walker, and Roth, Charles E. Nature Journaling. Pownal, VT. Storey Books, 1998. ISBN 0-58017-088-9. Primarialy for people who can sketch. In my nature photography classes I always make my students do some sketching. For most of them this is the first time they have ever really looked at the thing they have photographed. It changes their photography! You can do this type of nature journaling that the writers speak of with photography though, just think - what a treasure such a thing would be in 5 years! (or 20 or 100.).

Ludlow, David. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Weather. New York, NY. Alfred A. Knopf. 1991. ISBN 0-679-40851-7 I have two books on weather listed here and love them both.

Newcomb, Lawrence . Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. Boston. Little Brown & Co., 1977. ISBN 0-316-60442-9 A map in the front of the book shows the area of coverage which doesnot include western NC or north GA, but it does cover all of the mountains in that area. The key system in this book is excellent, and I have proven that it does work - however, one must still be willing to put in the time to make a good ID of a plant, and not expect it to leap out of the book at you.

Sams, Carl R II, and Stoick, Jean, Images of the Wild, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, Sleeping Bear Press, 1997. Here is a book of nature photographs as good as it gets. Astonishing photographs.

Schaefer, Vincent J., and Day, John. Atmosphere. Peterson Field Guides. Boston, MA. Houghton, Mifflin, Company, 1981. ISBN 0-395-33033-5 I have two books on weather listed here and love them both.

Swanson, Robert E. A Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of the Southern Appalachians. Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1994. ISBN 0-8018-4556-4. Sooner or later all writers, naturalists and artists will have to come to terms with a scholarly authority for their identification of trees and shrubs. This is an excellent book for that purpose, easy to carry, definitive and reassuringly authoritative.

Watts, May Theilgaard, and Watts, Tom. Winter Tree Finder. Nature Studio Guild, box 972, Berkeley, CA 94701. 1970. ISBN 0-912550-03-1. I found this incredible little book the first winter I was in the Beautiful Mountains. During that winter I learned to identify all the trees I encountered. But when summer arrived and the leaves came out, only confusing ensued from then on until the leaves fell once more and then I was at home in the winter forests again. (For non-winter work, see the Petrides book above). This tiny book is only one in a series which includes, berrys, ferns, tracks, flowers, birds and many others. Write the Berkely address for a catalog.

Zim, Herbert S, & Baker, Robert H. (both Ph.D). Stars: a Guide to the Constellations, Sun, Moon, Planets, and ther Features of the Heavens. Golden Field Guides. Western Publishing Co., Racine, Wisconsin, USA. 1975. ISBN: 0-307-24493-8. Unsophisticated introduction to the night sky for beginners and lovers of nature. No better place to begin than with this book. (Might be able to contact at Dept M, Wpc, INc., 1220 Mound Ave, Racine, Wisconsin 53404, USA)





 

Leaf Fall Franklin 1997 - 2001

Note the double wave of leaf fall, with a rise in week 39 and 40, then hitting the peak in weeks 42 through 44.
Generally leaves seem to fall about 10 days after max color.
The Following is reprinted from "Dancing Trail Newsletter", September, 2000 and October, 1998:

The FIRST wave is the "blush": a long, slow process of somewhat pastel yellow, tan and orange from greenbriar, woodbine, dogwoods, gums, dog hobble, magnolia with occasional bright reds. The SECOND wave is the intense colors of birches and tulip poplars, sumacs, buckeyes, sourwood. THIRD takes us from "some" color to "a lot of" color, with the locust, hickory, chestnuts, walnuts. By this time, falling leaves from the second and third wave have become a constant part of the woodland experience, and a leaf accumulation becomes substantial on the ground. The FOURTH wave involves the "Big Show", and include the red maples, sassafras, cherries, mountain maples, striped maples, sugar maples and some ironwood and white ash. Finally, the FIFTH wave comes after hard freezes turn the white oak family, the red oak family, and beeches. The possibility that all these would occur together is nil, although waves 2 & 3, and 3 & 4 could overlap and occasionally waves 2, 3 & 4 could overlap as they did in 1996.

As a photographer, I try to work with each wave of color, concentrating by using contrasting colors in the first two waves, working in the intimate vistas within 100 meters of the photographer , and going to "solitaire settings" in the waves two and three, by placing one or two trees against a forest with its supporting colors form other trees and wildflowers; this gives a chance to use the Balanced and the Harmonious color schemes. I will often bracket, making one photograph with Balanced colors, then changing the composition slightly and making a Harmoniously colored picture. You can also make interesting monochromatic color photographs, especially with maples and sourwoods. The third and fourth waves offer the vista opportunities, and finally, in the last wave, there are some opportunities for mood pictures of a few leaves against a mostly bare forest with leaf fall as a base; often I compose these in early morning or late evening light and use the full nine dimensional focal composition techniques.

What accounts for the differences in color timing? Everything. The length of the growing season (which means the date of the last freeze in spring), the amount of and rate of rain, the occurrence of certain astronomical dates (July 28 & Oct 14) when diurnal light has diminished by at least 5% from maximum and half time) Also, the different elevations on the mountains affect the rate of coloration. Also, the siting on the mountain: north side usually goes earlier than south side; east quicker than west. Soil thickness and slope also matter.Then along with this solar control pattern, the moon plays its role influencing the actual timing of the changes. We usually don't have the great bands of color that often sweep (briefly!) across the western mountains of Colorado. Our colors are much more variant , longer lasting and clustered in different areas.

There is an Old Husband's Tale to the effect that a "heavy leaf fall" indicated a cold winter to come. This would imply that more leaves fall than normally fall, therefore that the leaves "knew" last April when they came out that the winter to come was going to be tough, so there would be more leaves. (Actually it would the be summer before as the buds for the following year were being formed!) A more likely story is that as a serious winter develops and comes in quickly, the 5 waves of leaf drop may be pushed into just one or two leaf falls that are very close together, or maybe just one big one.

© John Womack, 2001. All rights reserved.

Note: I had placed 7 plastic laundry baskets in the forests surrounding my home in Franklin (after spray painting them green, brown, black) and counted the leaves and tree species each Sunday. From this very unscientific survey I developed this august looking data field. This was accompanied with frequent trips into the surrounding mountains and all that information was also factored into the "wave theory". I quit after 2001 because my wife and I preferred to spend 2 to 3 weeks in Europe each autumn, usually in late September through mid-October.