Book Review: The Passionate Photographer

Steve Simons offers a solid TEN steps for becoming a better photographers. These steps are :

1 : Finding your passion
2 : Practice and persistent
3 : Work it
4 : Concentration
5 : Evocative Portrait
6 : Follow the Light
7 : The art of edit
8 : Assessing strength and weaknesses
9 : Action plan and strategies
10: Follow through, sharing your vision to the world

Steve Simons shares his extensive experiences on shooting documentary photography. This book is crystalization of his photography experiences, and I am very glad that he shares it. Those ten steps will benefit all photographers but if you are documentary photographer (photojournalist), or aspiring to be, this book is written for you.

Simon talks less about photography techniques, rules or principles but more about the photographer’s mind. However, he considers techniques and gears are important to master so it does not get in the way when you want to make the best picture. For example, Steve shares some of his tricks such as why he use aperture priority mode and why manual focus is still relevant today.

Most part of the books deal with how to get passionate about photography, how to work and handle many situations especially handling people. The book is filled by many interesting photos (most of it are documentary and portraits). There are “lesson learned” and “action plans” in every chapter so you can practice right away.

After reading this inspiring photography book, one can’t wait to grab the camera and go shoot right away. Highly Recommended!

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