Light, Gesture, and Color

Book description

Jay Maisel, hailed as one of the most brilliant, gifted photographers of all time, is much more than that. He is a mentor, teacher, and trailblazer to many photographers, and a hero to those who feel Jay’s teaching has changed the way they see and create their own photography. He is a living legend whose work is studied around the world, and whose teaching style and presentation garner standing ovations and critical acclaim every time he takes the stage.

Now, for the first time ever, Jay puts his amazing insights and learning moments from a lifetime behind the lens into a book that communicates the three most important aspects of street photography: light, gesture, and color. Each page unveils something new and challenges you to rethink everything you know about the bigger picture of photography. This isn’t a book about f-stops or ISOs. It’s about seeing. It’s about being surrounded by the ordinary and learning how to find the extraordinary. It’s about training your mind, and your eyes, to see and capture the world in a way that delights, engages, and captivates your viewers, and there is nobody that communicates this, visually or through the written word, like Jay Maisel.

Light, Gesture & Color is the seminal work of one of the true photographic geniuses of our time, and it can be your key to opening another level of understanding, appreciation, wonder, and creativity as you learn to express yourself, and your view of the world, through your camera. If you’re ready to break through the barriers that have held your photography back and that have kept you from making the types of images you’ve always dreamed of, and you’re ready to learn what photography is really about, you’re holding the key in your hands at this very moment.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. About the Author
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Light
  7. Gesture
  8. Color
    1. Things Not to Do
    2. Lousy Painter
    3. Joy
    4. Reverse Shadows
    5. Keep Moving
    6. Context
    7. Think Revelation, Not Replication
    8. New Viewpoint
    9. Something New
    10. If It Fascinates You, Keep at It
    11. Jobs Can Be Fun
    12. Carry the Damn Camera
    13. Bad Light at Noon 1
    14. Bad Light at Noon 2
    15. Bad Light at Noon 3
    16. Bad Light at Noon 4
    17. Bad Light at Noon 5
    18. Surprise Light
    19. Less Is More
    20. Questions
    21. Wander Around
    22. I Am Technically Challenged
    23. Two Out of Three Is Not Bad
    24. Ready, Aim…
    25. Have You Learned Nothing?
    26. Be Open
    27. The Problem at the Tetons
    28. Keep Going Back
    29. Gifts
    30. The Background Is Also Yours
    31. Open Shade Light
    32. Saving the Child
    33. Background Could Be Better
    34. Not Enough Lens to Get Closer
    35. Look Around
    36. Light from Below
    37. Less Is More
    38. Surprise and Delight
    39. I Miss 99 Out of 100 of These
    40. North Light
    41. Don’t Pose. Oh,Wait, It’s Okay
    42. Gesture Is Not Always Action
    43. Ambivalent
    44. 400-Year-Old Wall
    45. Be Very Specific
    46. There Are No Pictures in Orlando
    47. Long Trip to Shoot Fish
    48. Four Surprising Gestures
    49. The Details
    50. Make Some Notes
    51. Use & Abuse
    52. Snow
    53. Patterns
    54. Whole New World
    55. I Didn’t Really Want to Shoot This
    56. Using Compression with Your Lens
    57. Opening Up Space
    58. Context 1
    59. Context 2
    60. Shoot It Forever
    61. The Gesture of Space
    62. The Gesture of Space 2
    63. Gesture of a City
    64. I Really Have to Get This
    65. Inanimate Gesture
    66. Different Universes
    67. Visual Contract
    68. Two’s Tougher Than One
    69. Train Station, Rome
    70. The All-Important Gesture
    71. Let the Subject Show
    72. Waiting 35 Years
    73. I’ve Been Influenced
    74. Shooting Without Breaking Stride
    75. That’s Not What I Meant
    76. Invisible Fence
    77. I Found Her Again
    78. Shoot It, Dammit!
    79. A “Save”
    80. No-Color Color
    81. Make Visible
    82. I’ll Paint It Again
    83. Finally...
    84. Wait
    85. “Well...”
    86. Guess Who Tells You the Shoot’s Over
    87. Full Color
    88. Colors, Not Color
    89. Color, Not Colors
    90. Forget What It Was, Look at What It Is
    91. Is It Light, Gesture, or Color?
    92. Colors That Have Lived Together
    93. Move Your Ass
    94. Garry’s Color Events
    95. The Players Will Come
    96. The Next Day
    97. Avoid Blinders
    98. What’s Not Really There
    99. A Little Knowledge Can Be a Wonderful Thing
    100. Spoiling Mystery
    101. Rushed Wedding
    102. Traffic Tie-Ups Can Work for You
    103. Got Anything Shiny or Red?
    104. Something’s Always Going On
    105. It’s All Spread Out in Front of You
    106. You Get Two Chances, Again
    107. Perfect Adobe
    108. Problem=Solution
    109. Luck
    110. Stop Planning
    111. Crop in the Camera as Much as Possible
    112. Five Hours of Nothing
    113. Something New
    114. Black and White and Color
    115. There Are No Rules
    116. Bizarre Sunrise
  9. Index

Product information

  • Title: Light, Gesture, and Color
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: October 2014
  • Publisher(s): New Riders
  • ISBN: 9780134033013