Iceland : A Monograph
Iceland. Prior to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption earlier this year, about the only thing I knew about Iceland was Bjork. Now, following the release of David du Chemin’s Iceland : A Monograph, the latest instalment in Craft and Vision’s The Print and The Process series, I can add “stunning photographic destination” to the list of things I know about the country.
As with all titles in this series, the eBook starts out with The Premise. If you’re new to this series, think of the premise as an introduction to the work that’s inside. Next comes The Print, a series of 38 photographs from a 10 day trip through Iceland. You’ll be forgiven for spending a long time looking at these because they show some incredible landscapes shot by a photographer at the top of his game. These images really deserve a gallery exhibition.
The Process comes next. Here du Chemin takes you through the process of creating these photographs. His inner thoughts, motivations, goals and reasons for doing what he does are on display. Chase Jarvis describes it as “looking inside the black box” and that’s essentially what you get here – a look into the mind of a photographer and artist. It’s honest and open communication between an artist and his followers.
Gear gets some discussion as well, particularly tripods and filters. Tripods are the kind of thing that a lot of photographers leave at home – I know I do too often – when they really should be used as much as possible. In some cases, it’s necessary to use them as certain shots just wouldn’t be possible without them, but in all cases a tripod will slow you down, and that is almost always a good thing. ND and graduated filters get a look in too, tools that are essential to the landscape photographer and ones that also get easily overlooked.
As a special bonus, just like in the Safari Monograph, some Lightroom presets are included – well the link to download them is. If you like the split tones used throughout you’ll want to check these out.
Finally, Iceland concludes with a quick look at logistics and a gear list, then takes you on a walk-through of each of the 38 images presented.
Like previous Craft and Vision releases, this one hits the spot. At times I risk sounding like a broken record when I recommend these eBooks but it’s warranted. Priced at an attractive point, these publications are worth every penny.
For the first four days only, if you use the promotional code ICE4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of ICELAND, A Monograph – The Print & The Process for only $4 OR use the code ICE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST September 12, 2010.
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