Back in January this year, David duChemin went on Safari in Kenya. While he was there he took some photos. Safari: A Monograph is the result, the latest eBook from Craft and Vision and the second in The Print & The Process series.

Photographing Kenya

I’ve never been on safari, but I imagine that if I were to go that everything would be so new and look so amazing that I would take lots of photos, working off adrenaline and instinct, rather than slowing down and thinking about what I was doing. In this eBook David talks about going through the same process, having learnt from experience how to take his time to absorb the atmosphere of a new location and understand his emotional reaction to it. He describes the process of shedding his preconceptions of Kenya so that he can make photographs of what he encountered on his journey.

You’ve probably gathered by now that this isn’t just a how-to book. The practical stuff is there – David talks about the equipment that he took and why, and the practical difficulties that he faced along the way. But this eBook goes deeper than that. David talks about using the written word to understand the way you see a new place, the importance of slowing down and studying visual elements such as the light, composition and background, ‘layers of impact’ and why it’s important to look behind you (clue: it’s not about the elephants).

In short, this is an eBook that’s just as much (if not more) about the mental processes of seeing and photography than David’s safari photos. The photos are there too of course, and you’ll enjoy looking at them as much as reading about the stories behind them. But the lessons presented in this eBook can be applied to any genre of photography. Reading it, and thinking about the message, has already changed the way I think about photography.

Safari: A Monograph is available now at Craft and Vision, where all the eBooks (including mine!) are still just $US5 each. Not only that, but all the eBooks are now available as iPad apps in the iTunes store for the same price (click on the image below to go see the Safari: A Monograph app).

Safari: A Monograph