“Safari – a monograph” by David DuChemin- e-book review

“Safari – a monograph” is a second e-book in The Print and The Process series from Craft and Vision, also the second authored by David duChemin. Within 62 pages of this e-book you can find as many as 36 great photographs from his trip to Kenya. The book organization, introduced already in the first monograph, enables to enjoy the photographs first, before we learn more about the story behind, and all the technical and post-processing details.
The post-processing is strongly dividing images into 3 stories. One has focus on Africa- landscape, people and animals. This images were treated in a very original way with the Lightroom preset, which is available for download, a bonus of the book purchase. The preset turns images into chocolate-colored duotone, reminding me a bit of a color of dried soil.
Second story, consisting of just a few images, is hard to describe. Maybe solitude or emptiness, for some, but for me it is all about clouds and tress, and space.
The third story is about safari itself, balloon trip, camp life. With very basic, natural post-processing, the images are kept in photojournalistic style.
The e-book is not just about the photographs. After all, David DuChemin enjoys teaching his photographic philosophy and does it well. The worth taking lesson from the monograph is that for a skilled vision monger the subject doesn’t matter that much. Author is not a wild-life or landscape photographer, but he still finds a way to photograph his surroundings in an engaging way. It is also a lesson on patience, on taking your time and looking around, on slowing down instead of thoughtless snapping pictures.
You can also find some great great tips for a safari type of photo outing.
The last part of the book, explaining the reasons and techniques behind each image is a great tutorial as well. All the mistakes, points for improvement and notes to self for next time are honestly outlined. You can take second look at all the images, notice them in the context of lost chance on triptych for example.
Regardless if you just want to browse through David DuChemin images and want to learn something about photographic process, the book is certainly worth buying.

Here is what the author himslef says about the e-book:
SAFARI, A Monograph is the second in the series The Print & The Process. David duChemin unpacks the images from a 10-day safari in Kenya, first letting the images speak for themselves then diving deep into the process behind the photographs. This eBook offers an honest discussion about the issues connected to the creation of duChemin’s SAFARI monograph, including the gear used, the techniques employed, and the lessons learned. It’s a 62-page PDF eBook that will provide you with inspiration amidst the details of the Why and the How. This is not so much about how to photograph your first safari, though you’ll learn that too; it’s a look at the lessons learned, and re-learned, by a photographer who is now 25 years into his craft. Also included are the Adobe Lightroom settings used for Serengeti Chocolate, the duo-tone look in which much of his SAFARI monograph has been styled, and a downloadable Lightroom Preset. SAFARI, A Monograph is a available now for $5.

And… As usual, there is a special offer. For the first four days only, if you use the promotional code SAFARI4 when you checkout, you can have SAFARI, A Monograph for only $4 OR use the code SAFARI20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more books from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST JULY 11, 2010.
As a disclaimer, all links in the review are affiliate links, as is the box on the right. If you chose to click on it and buy the e-book, I will make a small profit on it.