Photo Therapy Motivation and Wisdom

Book excerpt: Unlike Rick Sammon's 39 other best-selling and photo-rich books, Photo Therapy Motivation and Wisdom - Discovering the Power of Pictures, has no photographs between the covers. Yet, Rick feels as though it is his most important work. He trusts this book will make you think - hard - about your photography, and about how using your brain, the best photo "accessory," will help you become a better photographer. Or as stated by famed black-and-white landscape photographer Ansel Adams, "The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it." It's not that Rick is tired of having to "lug around a camera," as Lewis Hine said, it's just that he thinks the motivational and inspirational message of this book is better expressed without showing his own pictures. Rather, in reading the 35,000-word text, he'd like you to imagine your own pictures - and potential pictures - while he is describing a situation, process, technique, feeling or emotion. Chapters include: Emotional Intelligence for Photographers, Seeing vs. Looking, Creating Your Own Reality, It's Never Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been, Light and Color Therapy, Learning is Health, and What Does Your Photography Mean to You? The book also includes more than 20 "missions" that you can accept in your quest to expand your photographic horizons. This very personal book is filled with Rick's photo and life wisdom - wisdom he has gained by spending almost an entire lifetime - starting in the late 1950's with developing pictures in his parents' basement - involved in photography in many forms and fashions. You will find many inspirational quotes in this book. One of Rick's favorites: "When you are through changing, you are through." - Bruce Barton