I have just finished reading the second piece of the National Geographic Photography Field Guide series: People and Portraits written by Robert Caputo.

I wrote about the first book of the series a few months ago. The most surprising thing with that post was that I received a comment on my blog from Peter K. Burian, co-author of the book, who is Hungarian, just like myself.

This book is about a very difficult area of photography: photographing people. Difficult from technical point of view and also from writing point of view.
The technical part is that you have to be very much aware of what you are doing and why – with your camera and other pieces of equipment and the people you are photographing. You have to know what you would like to express and also how you can do that using some dull technology that knows nothing about emotions.
Writing about something that is very practical and can be developed only by practicing is a challenge that Robert Caputo coped with brilliantly.

He discusses topics like how to use the environment and available light, how to express movement on a still image, how to plan a photo essay, and – most importantly I believe – how to connect and work with your model when making pictures about him/her.