Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Directing the Eye, Creating Visual Depth, and Conveying Emotion

Introduction

Growing up, I was in love with magazines. I suppose it was the combination of high-quality writing and imagery, the glossy pages, and the booklike heft of the publications. Like many photographers-to-be, I was drawn to the storytelling qualities of National Geographic, but the yellow-bordered publication wasn’t the first to catch my eye. I’m not afraid to admit that the magazine that attracted me as a youngster was the one and only Popular Mechanics. I fondly remember visiting my grandparents’ ranch in central Texas, running out to the car shed, and pulling multiple back issues from a dusty shelf—issues that may have sat there for a couple of years before I got to them. I would spend hours looking at the diagrams and the images, ...