Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography

The advanced photographer is searching for something in a photography book different from the novice's search. The advanced photographer understands exposure, focus perspective and the fundamentals and can tie them together to create a sharp, properly exposed image. What he or she wants to know is how to form a vision of the world that he sees and translate it into what Galen Rowell call's a visionary image."Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography" is not a how-to book. There is no progressive review of the fundamentals. Instead it is a collection of Rowell's essays that have appeared in Outdoor Photographer magazine over the years, revised for the book and placed in a sort of order that ties subjects and ideas together, rather then in the random fashion that they appeared in the magazine. The book is divided into four parts. The first discusses photographic visualization; the second a few advanced techniques that the photographer can use; the third Rowell's own travels and the way he transformed his visions into photos;and the last, a collection of miscellaneous thoughts related to photography ranging from digital manipulation to what's really wrong in the Galapagos.It may be that we cannot be taught how to make the leap from snapshot to visionary image. But perhaps the teacher can open up those recesses in our own mind where our creativity lurks. I know that after reading these essays and thinking about them, I've found my own approach to photography has changed for the better.Even though the book swept me away, I have to confess to one complaint. At the top of each essay is a reference to relevant photographs contained elsewhere in the book. Several photos are referenced by more than one article. In their original magazine format, the photos conveniently appeared at the start of the essay. Here you will have to keep flipping back and forth. There probably is no economical way to provide these links, but it does break up the continuity a bit.Although I'm pretty closely aligned with Rowell's political philosopy, which creeps in throughout the essays, especially in the final section, there's still enough appropriately provocative material here from which a photographer with a different philosophy can benefit.Although you may feel driven to devour this volume as quickly as possible once you get a hint of its goals, I think you will keep it on hand, to occasionally dip into an essay or two to stir up your own photographic creativity.

Lovely imagery. It's amazing that he shot everything with a 35mm. But he was a climber and it would be too much weight to haul a 4X5 up a mountain. His imagery really is excellent. I can understand his energy level as I suffer from the same affliction or maybe it is just determination to get that image. He certainly was an optimist and a very determined photographer. His books really reflect that thinking and being. For me it really is about his images though as they are artful, majestic, calming and introspective. There is solace in them, which is something that this "modern society" sadly lacks and way underrates. The silly thing of it is that it does not cost anything. So even in this bad economy it costs you little, except sweat. Others talk about his quirk of running to get a shot. I don't think there is a landscape photographer who has not done that or at least waddled very quickly and even for a mile or two or more. Then at other times it is like Still Hunting deer, where walking faster than a quarter of a mile and hour is way too fast. And you are all eyeballs, analyzing, probing, seeing.

If you're a serious photographer (amateur or pro) and find your interest in shooting lagging occasionally, Rowell's enthusiasm might be contagiousness enough to provide a cure. This man was passionate about photography and went to extraordinary ends to get the shots he visualized. The majority of the book deals with his philosophy of photography and how he accomplished what he did. There's also much excellent technical advice. The book's only shortcoming, from my very personal perspective (take it for what it's worth), is the undercurrent of Rowell's ample ego. Were the personal pronoun "I" deleted from the book, its page count would be reduced considerably. Nonetheless, I still strongly recommend "Inner Game" for the highly passionate and very personal account that it is - an extraordinary photographer's testimonial to a life totally devoted to the art of photography and love of nature. It makes you want to climb a mountain and take pictures!

This was a Christmas present for my son, a very talented amateur photographer. He was thrilled!

We gifted this book to our favorite, up and coming, landscape photographer. He loved the inspiration!

I read some of the reviews about this book present on this site and was somewhat surprised to see mostly positive ones. Maybe it is just my perception or the expectation I had after reading these reviews but before buying the book that lead to my disappointment in the book. What were my expectations...? I did expect Galen to tell me what he thinks and feels before, during, and after taking those great pictures. I did NOT expect a HOW-TO book (which it is definitely not). I expected a book about artistic approach to the outdoor photography. What I found instead was mostly a travel log. The first 2 chapters were as close to my expectation as it ever got. The author talked some about his creative approach and very little about his technical one. The rest of the book doesn't even present his "photographic philosophy". He simply talks about his travels, places he visited, people he met. All that would be great for an illustrated travel book but not for a book that was supposed to tell me about how HE came to those pictures, what (in his opinion) made those pictures great or standing out (there is some of it but so little it almost doesn't exist). The book's title has "inner game" words in it. I wanted to know what that "inner" game was before, during, and after taking EACH picture (or at least most of them). Overall - disappointing and expensive for that.

I purchased it on 2002. Be warned it is not a traditional text on Photography techniques or even vision and composition. It is a series of articles where the focus is the adventure - Photography is incidental there.Personally I think it is worth... it is a great book to read in a rainy day dreaming with those texts!

Worth buying for the chapter on how we see what we want to see.

The book comprises a series of articles first published in "Outdoor Photography". Primarily bought this book at the suggestion of Ken Rockwell's camera review website. Whilst not exactly what I was expecting(?),I did find it sufficiently interesting to read it from cover to cover. It may not revolutionise your photography, but it may make you think about the process more deeply. I found the article on Smart Flash photography very useful.

An interesting book, but leaning a little towards the philosophy of photography rather than the nuts and bolts of how the images were made. This is a compilation of magazine columns, which doesn't really detract since each discusses one particular shoot or situation, but it does mean that it feels more like a lot of bite-sized pieces rather than a single, coherent read. That said, there is plenty here to learn, and Rowell does go into his motivation behind each situation in a useful and pleasing way. Worth a read if the price is right.

A good book that covers some of the thinking behind Galen Rowell's photographic style. It is not a technique book. The technique part has largely been superseded with the advent of sensor based photography, but the basic concepts on what makes a good image are still valid. The first half was the most interesting in my opinion. It's a collection of articles he published over a number of years in the 1990s.

un buon libro. la qualità non è altissima, ma per il prezzo pagato puo andar bene. consiglierei però ad un amante della fotografia di cercare libri di livello qualitativo piu alto, anche se c'e da spendere di piu. se invece non si è appassionati ma si vuole un buon libro su un grande artista, va bene.