Purchased the book because could not get out to see folige this year. So I was very excited to receive the book, but after viewing the images, I feel a bit disappointed. His best image is cleary the cover image, which is spectacular. But inside the images are not biting sharp, probably due to the fact that he shot it in 35mm instead of say medium or/large format. There are too many images of animals. I want to see folige and color. He also include images of evergreens during fall season which are ...green, and rock formations in Zion National which are pretty but they are not folige. He also like to shoot water falls with a slow shutter and again...nice but I wanted more color.

In fairness to the authors and photographer, the title is "Fall Colors Across North America" and not "Fall FOLIGE Colors Across North America".

I will keep the book because I love fall folige and there are some very good images of that but I would have liked to see 1. A larger book in paper size. 2. Sharper images 3. More Folige and less animals and water falls.

I cannot comment on the essays as of yet as I have not read any, that may change my opinion. Hope this review is helpful.

I went to see the photographer at a show and his work is just gorgeous. He uses intersting angles and if you like nature you will love it!

I had the opportunity of purchasing this book after viewing Mr. Cook's slide presentation. His compositions are fresh and inspiring, and he is a perfectionist when it comes to technical execution. I congratulate him on extracting the very most from the 35 mm Nikon / Velvia combo.

This short tract of a book sets out a single, streamlined argument: that twentieth-century art is really a series of art theories (such as Abstract Expressionism or Pop Art) as illustrated by certain works responsive to these theories: the theory, crucially, preceded and influenced - rather than reacted to - artistic experminent. Wolfe singles out Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg and Leo Steinberg - critics rather artists themselves - who in this way exerted the real shaping influence on the development of art in the last century. How? Simply by determining the tastes of the purveying 'culturati' and thus the activites of the artists they patronized. The simplicity of the argument is both its strength and weakness. Strength because it facilitates a brisk, exclamatory, copious prose style capable of persuasive-seeming overviews. Weakness because potential objections and qualifications are skimmed over in silence. However, this is a popular polemic, not an academic treatise, and in this capacity it works extremely well: its basic premise is strong enough in itself not to look shaky and it is delivered with wit, panache and infectious enthusiasm. Successfully provocative.

I've always had a fascination with highly creative people, enjoyed jazz that was ahead of its time, the things that broke the earlier bounds. But I never could understand fashionable contemporary art. Wolfe has explained to why this is so. It turns out that I'm not supposed to understand it; it's intended for an exclusive audience, and my lack of understanding is what validates it to the people for whom it is intended. Suddenly, it all makes perfect sense to me, and as I think about acquaintances who do immerse themselves in the contemporary art scene, my observations correlate directly with Wolfe's.

Where the book falls short is that it fails to recognize that this remains art. It might be odiously exclusive, but it's still a communication between the artist and the intended audience. In fact, Wolfe has probably helped me understand this communication better than I ever did.

A good thought-provoking read; I take some glee in the fact that art world snobs thought he was skewering them (and perhaps Wolfe thought he was, too), but really, he's just explaining the mechanisms at work. And of course, it has some classic Wolfe lines, especially a laugh-out-loud description of young female admirers doing "Culture pouts through their Little Egypt eyes." Worth it for that line alone.

Tom Wolfe turns his caustic wit and pen to the world of art in this social essay. Specifically here he deals with the New York Schools of Abstract Impressionism, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. He reviews the scholarly dissertations and criticism.. the deep and passionate evocation of the intended meanings by painters and their champions.. the social context and views of the public.. and has come to the conclusion.. that it's all about.. promotion.. SELF Promotion. There is always a lot of tongue in cheek truth in a Tom Wolfe work. A nod and a wink that these guys set themselves up for it. But it's easy to lampoon a collection of hard drinking painters who have come to the profound revelation that the guiding principle to all art is that it should be FLAT. The Flatter the better, judged as to its achievement of Flatness. Or a now famous article (in the art world) in which a scholar decided that objects you found on your supermarket shelf were in fact the cultures noblest expression of itself, igniting a fierce struggle for supremacy with its predecessor. I like Pollock, Johns, Liechtenstein and Warhol.. I don't try to understand them. Their aesthetic qualities speak for themselves. But when the hangers on and speculators on 'trends' start lauding ugliness as being a virtue, or as a characteristic perceived only by the untrained eye, things start to get a bit absurd. This funny little (art) treasure.. usually found in some garage these days.. is Totally Charming.

Being a huge fan of the other two Tom Wolfe books I've read, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and "A Man In Full", I was naturally curious to read Wolfe's first book. Unfortunately, I didn't find it to be as sharp or witty as his more recent work, possibly due to this one being non-fiction. I found it to essentially be a set of rambling observations about the state of life in America in the 60's. His choices of subject are clever and put a whole new spin on my view of the United States of the mid-twentieth century but on the whole I found large stretches of the book to be quite dry and, in my opinion, unnecessarily convoluted.

Wolfe is sharp in documenting the developments in America. Vivisecting society with language that is at once descriptive and critical, Wolfe pops inflated egos and elevates the seemingly shallow mod culture. Its a riot to see class, culture, celebrities, and heroes through his witty and keen observations. God Bless America!!!

This book is , like, cool. There is a lot of words that really speak to me, man. yeah

With a number of glowing recommendations already written about this book I hesitate to express my disappointment. This is a less than memorable effort. The writing style is wordy and covers no new ground. For a beginner this book should be useful but no more. The photos have sparse details as to technique and technical information.

For a far better source try Campbell's Backpackers's Handbook. That book will challenge and inspire photographers of all level of ability.

Each to his own.

I suppose if you were absolutely just starting out, and didn't want to visit photo.net or other websites, this book might be a good, concise source of basic information. However, I bought it and was disappointed. I'm not a professional photographer, but I'm apparently a little beyond the target audience of this book, which puzzles me because I still sometimes take shots I don't like. It's not a *bad* book, it's just overshadowed by some *great* books that happen to compete directly with it!

If you are a climber or mountaineer, I would urge you to look at Jeff Achey's 'Guide to Climbing Photography' instead. If you're just interested in nature photography in general, you can't go wrong with Galen Rowell's books, the man is a master of the craft and not as climbing-centric as Achey. Clyde Soles has some terrific photos up on his website, too -- he's no Rowell, but he's also no slouch at outdoor photography. And his articles in Rock and Ice magazine are often quite good, too. This book just isn't worth buying in a world with great online resources and great printed how-to books like Achey's and Rowell's.

I love this book because it is written right at the best level for everyone to enjoy and get something out of. I read and practiced on my Canon AE-1, and shared things with a friend who began taking better pictures on his "point and shoot" camera. Terrific book, great photo examples....

This book contains beautiful photographs of Hart's sculpture and wonderful essays. The copy I ordered from Amazon arrived only yesterday, and after leafing through it, I was stunned by an egregiously poor design choice by the publisher.

The full color photograph of "Ex Nihilo", perhaps Hart's most moving piece, is centered between 2 pages! Split down the middle by the binding! How in the world can a fine art book publisher do this ? Other art texts, National Geographic, even Playboy (for pity's sake!) publish large format photographs using a fold-out leaf. Yes, fold-out leaves are more likely to become torn, or detached with use; but the reader's enjoyment, not preservation concerns, should drive layout and design decisions.

I was also disappointed that no full color photos of the finished "Daughters of Odessa" were in the book. There are photographs of studies, and a b&w photo in the catalog raisonne, but the effect is not the same.

I probably will keep this book; but I certainly won't be buying an art book from this publisher again! If I had it to do over, I would check the book out from the library.

Hart's West Facade of National Cathedral on the subject of Creation is the most famous piece of American scupture. ("Liberty," after all, will always be French.) The name of this piece is "Ex Nihilo" -- from nothing. The book has a wonderful photograph of "Ex Nihilo." Of course, our local rag The New York Times published a full magazine-page copy of this picture with left and right reversed and artificial green-tinted coloring. Typical New York always-in-a-hurry carelessness. ------ The work itself is astonishing. Everything given, nothing held back or calculated to please a critic. All driven by faith. A return to what is meant by the term masterpiece. Hart's personal items and the items of religious expression are sampled with his own favorites. ----- Enjoy ! This is a sweet book.

This book offers readers a complete overview of the world's most well renowned sculptor. Frederick Hart, who passed away suddenly last month, August 1999, created such famous works as the "Three Soldier's Bronze Sculpture in the Washington Public Gardens," "El Nihilo," the three phase triangular scluptures over the entrance to the National Cathederal, in Washington D.C. Maybe the most controversal sculpture Mr. Hart completed, "El Nihilo," was featured in the movie "Devil's Advocate" and was depicted in a lured, and distastful manner. The Hart Foundation sued the production company of "Devil's Advocate," with Al Pacino, the Hart Foundation won it's legal suit, and a disclaimer was placed on all Devil's Advocate's videos disclosing the "El Nihilo" sculpture was not used with The Hart's Foundation approval. Frederick Hart also created and invented the art technology of "double embedded lucite sculpture." This process involved creating a three dimensional free form floating sculpture "floating" within the lucite sculpture itself. Anyone who has ever viewed one of Mr. Hart's three dimensional sculpture's, know the incredible beauty and art that lay within his limited production of sculptures. The book can not honestly show the amazing detail of the "three dimensional double imbedded process" that Mr. Hart created. He and his work will be forever remembered as the finest bronze and lucite sculptor in the world to date. This book is a tribute to his master creations, depiction of his artwork, and ultimately a truly inspirational attestment to one of the world's greatest artists of all time.

My 2 and 3 year olds love this book. The pictures are bright and captivating, and the kids love to follow the poems with their own motions. Animal Action ABC combines lessons on ABCs, animals and gross motor skills. My son learned to jump and stand on one foot from acting out this book. For the reader, it can take a few readings to get the hang of the odd pentameter, but the children don't notice your mistakes. They are far too busy pretending to be a grapling tiger or an elephant blowing water from his trunk. Boys seem to especially enjoy this book, but my little girl is a big fan too.

A different take on the boring "A" is for "Apple" ABC book. The wildlife pictures are beautiful. As a mom, my personal favorite is the "R" is for "Ride" showing a newborn gorilla riding on it's mom's back. I've given this book as a gift and it's been well received.

At first glance this looks like an ideal book for someone who is moving from the point-and-shoot stage of photography to something beyond snapshots. Everything most people want to know about photography from the relationships of f-stops, shutter speed and film speed all the way to underwater photography is in this book. Unfortunately the book throws the information at you so quickly and with so little discussion and few examples of applications that you may miss some very important concepts and confuse others.

It would be nice to think that a person could improve his or her photography without a lot of effort, but that just isn't so. It's not enough to have a new rule thrown at you. Most people need photography principles to be explained, usually in several different ways, with plenty of examples. You'd expect lots of pictures to be used to illustrate points. After all, this is about photography. But that is not the approach taken by this book. The principles are stated, and later in the book, restated, but not illustrated well.

It's really a shame, because this book is small enough to carry with you in case you want to check on something in the field. Art Wolfe, whose pictures appear throughout the book, is one of the great outdoor photographers (Gardner's pictures also appear to a lesser extent, but they aren't in the same league as Wolfe's.). Unfortunately the pictures aren't tied to the teaching points very strongly. That's a shame because stronger ties to Wolfe's pictures could really teach one about outdoor photography.

The book gives a nod to incorporating digital photography, but only in the most rudimentary fashion. For example, I consider an understanding of "white balance" to be essential for a serious digital photographer, but this book just barely acknowledges that there is such a thing.

There are several mistakes in this book. A chart on page 83 suggesting exposure guidelines for low-light photography captions a column ISO 50 (film speed) when it means ISO 400. Follow these guidelines and your picture will be hopelessly underexposed.

The author discusses pushing film. This process involves setting your camera as if the film you are using is more sensitive than it really is and then asking your lab to develop the film in a way that will make it that sensitive. The author says that pushed film is less grainy then film with a higher rating shot and developed normally. It's not true. If it were, all we'd ever need is one speed of film.

If I absolutely needed a guide that would fit in my pocket in the field I'd consider this book. Otherwise I'd buy a book like John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide. It's physically bigger, but will be more effective in improving your outdoor photography.

Photography Outdoors is a must-read for any serious photographer. I read the book from cover to cover and it was easily as pleasent to read as a best-selling novel. Art and Mark present the subject matter in a way that keeps you constantly interested. Their writing is as good as thier photography.

I learned that lenses have a "sweet spot" aperture for producing the sharpest image.

I learned why my snow always looks gray, and why black objects always come out too light.

I learned more about working with my images after digitzing them.

There's too much to list here. I learned a little more about every topic they covered than I knew before reading the book. This book opens up a whole new world of techniques for you to experiment with.

There are tips and tricks inserted throughout the book. Many I transcribed into my PDA, others I scanned and printed to keep in my camera bag.

Buy it. You'll like it.

-CK

This book offers a great variety of options for 3D projects with all the information to get your started, over what ever fear you might have and into the creative fun that can be had! The author starts with essentials, paper mache, styrofoam and brown paper that anyone can use and shows some wonderful projects for beginners. They include excellent masks, wonderful creapy creatures. Some of the urethane foam work is completely unexpected and not such a common starting point for most people. The author includes wire framing, puppets - just an incredible assortment. I purchased this book for myself and love it, but it would have been great to have when I had children around looking for things to do. Truly a book for all ages

I liked this book. The quality of color and pictures guide you thru reasonable steps in making a wood face carving using a minimum of wood. Most books jump over steps and leave the reader wondering what should have been done in between. I have other of T Wolfes books and this is a better one in my opinion. A feature I would also like to see in his /any carving book would be more commentary on the use of 'grain' and how to get around the rough cuts that always deter from making a smooth carve.

Most books of this type deal with Earth's disapperaring cultures in a "laundry list" fashion, shelving away race after race as if they were mere groceries. Not so with this outstanding volume - it delves deep into the society of these hardy societies and focuses on their everyday hardships. Life accounts bring the pages of this book to life with true emotions of fear and uncertainty, distress and need. A definite must-read for those whose views are a tad bit too narrow - I presume that's most of us.