Guidebook Photography Tips

Hey MP,

Within the next month I will begin shooting images for a new and revised edition of the Clifton Crags guidebook (A small, yet rad congregation of vast, slabby granite faces in Central Maine).

I am reaching out to the mountain project community for advice, tips, dos, don'ts, preferences and all round beta on guidebook photos. Examples of both good and poor guidebooks would also be helpful.

I really want to create something useful and attractive for my climbing community. Thanks for the help!

Cheers,

Mathias

Hey!

I'm also working on a guidebook for Michigan.

Basically I'm trying to not use photos for beta after a long debate with myself. I chose to do this largely because the amount of foliage around here gets in the way of accurately depicting the route. I also think that using topos or something similar instead adds a bit more adventure to the experience. Check out Adirondack Rock, I really love the way that the routes are depicted in that guidbook.

If you do end up using photos, I would recommend ensuring that you can fit the entire route in the photo you are using. I would avoid taking shots directly from the base of the climb.

In my opinion:
Good: Rock Climbing Smith Rock State Park by Alan Watts, Squamish Select by Marc Bourbon

Granted these are pretty big, comprehensive guides, they have great topos and descriptions, not to mention good coverage of history & lore.

Terrible: Austin Rock - Absolutely, handsdown the worst guidebook I've ever owned. No beta probably would have been better than carrying this to the crag. Directions are poor, guidebook is terribly formatted (like someone did it in MS Paint). Beta for routes are given through pixelated hieroglyphics. The most annoying thing though was the random photos unrelated to climbing randomly sprinkled throughout: photo of someone's cat, photo of all the empty beer cans they drank on an outing, etc.

Good luck, have fun, and remember that the purpose of the guidebook is to inform and get people stoked to climb!

If you are taking photos of a route, especially for starting location, I would recommend taking them from the trails or places people will actually be. It's very annoying to see a photo taken from a weird angle that is hard to make out because it was taken with a zoom lens.

Thanks for the advice. Appreciate it.

Vincent, what location are you making a guide for?

The entire state. We don't have a ton of rock and most of the previous guidebooks end up hardly larger than pamphlets. There's a lot more developed here than MP seems to suggest though.

Awesome man, would love to see it in completion! Whats your timeline looking like?

I don't have a hard timeline other than I anticipate finishing it before I graduate in December.

I've got all my information and reference photos to create topos from and I'm currently writing/rewriting route descriptions and creating the topos alongside them.

Classically trained fine art film photographer, commercial, digital, and more. Then I changed majors.

I would ask around your local scene for someone who is well trained. Anyone can take a point and shoot and get decent pictures. The quality will increase exponentially if someone uses a pro camera and meters it properly. Washed out images will make the guidebook suck. They can also assist in the workload, and will probably do so in trade for listing them as photographer and getting the second book off the press.