Creature
from Chronicle Books
Amazon Best of the Month, December 2007: December seems to be the classic month to celebrate the coffee-table book--those oversized tomes that sit out on display, easily enticing anyone within arm's reach to flip through the pages. One of my favorites of the season--and one you'll want to keep out all year long--is Andrew Zuckerman's Creature, a photographic safari of astounding studio shots of an ark's worth of animals, ready for their close-ups against a stark white backdrop. Mesmerizing, inspiring, and ultimately very, very cool. Badgers, fruit bats, and bald eagles never looked so good. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Photographer Andrew Zuckerman's strikingly detailed images of animals from around the world are as delightful as they are inspiring. This collection of astonishing studio portraits of 175 wild creatures from baby leopards to parrots, bears, mandrills, and many more are stunningly foregrounded against white backgrounds, depicting their subjects with rare sensitivity, insight, humor, and wonder. Zuckerman also an up-and-coming filmmaker, whose first short film, High Falls, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 has created a volume perfect for animal lovers, photography fans, and anyone fascinated by the world around us. Creature is a beautiful and thought-provoking look at the fragile wonders of the natural world.
Cat Gallery Calendar 2009 (Page a Day Gallery Calendar)
by Workman Publishing Company
from Workman Publishing Company
A black cat in midleap, as ephemeral as smoke. The texture of a tiny pink nose. Green eyes that glow with light and intensity. The plushness of a tabbys fur, a kittens questioning gaze, the elegant silhouette of a cat stretching against a window. Capturing all the grace, beauty, and mystery that make cats the enthralling creatures they are, this desktop gallery features hundreds of elegant portraits in black-and-white and color. Beautifully composed and reproduced, the photographs reveal the true essence of the cat. Size: 6.25" w x 7.25" h.
John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide
by John Shaw
from Amphoto Books
An updated bestseller, this book of extraordinarily beautiful photographs of nature contains state-of-the-art instruction on how any photographer can aim for equally impressive results every time a camera is focused on the great outdoors. Even highly skilled photographers are often baffled by the problems facing them when they work outdoors. But with this exceptional field guide in hand, every photographer-beginner, serious amateur, semi-pro, and pro-can conquer the problems encountered in the field. Using his own exceptional work as examples, the author discusses each type of nature subject and how to approach photographing it. Specific advice and information cover selection of equipment and lenses; how to compose a shot; how to get close ups; and other tips covering a range of techniques to enrich various types of nature photographs.
The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Nature Photography (BetterPhoto Series)
by Jim Miotke
from Amphoto Books
* Step-by-step lessons cover every aspect of digital nature photography
* Clear text and helpful photos demystify digital photography
* Miotke has taught hundreds of photo workshops
From the tiniest ladybug to a towering glacier, from a horse running in a field to a leaf falling slowly from a tree, nature subjects offer some of the greatest challenges and the greatest rewards to photographers. In the Better Photo tradition, hereÂ’s a complete photo course in a book. Hands-on lessons cover every aspect of digital nature photography, from buying the right camera for close-ups, landscapes, and movement, to understanding how the camera works, to taking great pictures. Author Jim Miotke uses straightforward text and inspiring yet informative photos to show the best ways to approach nature photography. Everything a beginner or intermediate photographer needs to know is here, including a buyerÂ’s guide, full information on camera features, file formats and settings, exposure, low-light photography, filters and white balance, composition and lens choice, creative ideas, manipulating, and printing, along with a glossary and list of useful websites. The Better Photo Guide to Digital Nature Photography helps photographers everywhere get great photos in the great outdoors.
Closeup Shooting: A Guide to Closeup, Tabletop and Macro Photography
by Cyrill Harnischmacher
from Rocky Nook
Close-up photography is one of the most fascinating areas in photography. This illustrated guide will take the reader on a journey into the wonderful world of small, smaller, and smallest objects and show him how he can capture their beauty with photographic images. Each step of the way will be carefully explained; how to choose the right equipment, how to use ambient light or create artificial lighting, and how to conceptualize and frame the perfect shot.
Whereas the nature photographer is exploring facets and structures in his environment, the "table top photographer" is trying to shoot a small object, a product, or a small treasure for display on the web (e.g., eBay) or in print. Here, the choice of the appropriate lighting and backdrop, and the creative use of the camera's features are key to a perfect image.
Cyrill Harnischmacher explains all aspects of close-up shooting for both inside the studio, as well as outdoors. This book is filled with beautifully illustrated examples and detailed instructions on how to set up a system and workflow for successful close-up photography.
Audubon Engagement Calendar 2009
by National Audubon Society
from Artisan
A daily reminder of the Audubon mission to celebrate the earth's natural beauty—this week-at-a-glance datebook is a treasure. Here is unspoiled nature in dozens of spellbinding images—from panoramic landscapes to intimate moments, such as a butterfly alighting on a flower bud. A spider's web, glittering with beads of dew. Hyacinth Macaws perched on a tree branch. A meadow flushed with deep-red Indian Paintbrush. Utah's magnificent Delicate Arch, set aglow in the late-afternoon sun. Featuring spacious weekly grids, detailed captions for every photograph, and an elegant gift box.
Dog Gallery Calendar 2009 (Page a Day Gallery Calendar)
by Workman Publishing Company
from Workman Publishing Company
A gallery of soulful, spirited dogs for your desktop. Hundreds of elegant portraits in color and black and white bring out the beauty and personality in every expression and detaildown to the velvety fur on an ear, the delicate texture of a moist nose, that gleam in the eyeand reveal the essence and spirit of the dog. Size: 6.25" w x 7.25" h.
On This Earth: Photographs from East Africa
by Nick Brandt
from Chronicle Books
Nick Brandt depicts the animals of East Africa with an intimacy and artistry unmatched by other photographers who choose wildlife as their subject. He creates these majestic sepia and blue-tone photos contrasting moments of quintessential stillness with bursts of dramatic action by engaging with these creatures on an exceptionally intimate level, without the customary use of a telephoto lens. Evocative of classical art, from dignified portraits to sweeping natural tableaux, Brandt's images artfully and simply capture animals in their natural states of being. With a foreword by Alice Sebold and an introduction by Jane Goodall, On This Earth is a gorgeous portfolio of some of the last wild animals and a heartfelt elegy to a vanishing world.
Beach Stones
by Josie Iselin
from "Harry N. Abrams, Inc."
Walking along the water's edge, who among us has not stopped to admire the evocatively patterned, shaped, and multihued stones that beckon? Fun to collect and free for the taking, beach stones are objects of contemplation, beauty, and sentiment. This exquisite volume-at once a gorgeous art book and a nature guide-presents more than 200 exceptional stones from around the world and describes the fascinating natural processes that produced them.
Photographer and installation artist Josie Iselin, who uses a flatbed scanner to generate her imagery, has arranged these stones with great artistry, and nature writer Margaret Carruthers yields their secrets, revealing, for instance, that a pebble from Maine was created 400 million years ago during the birth of a great mountain range. Art lovers and beachcombing spirits everywhere will cherish this gift book.
Heart Stones
from Abrams Books
A heart stone is one of nature's gifts. Heart stones are not rare or precious in the typical sense--a good scour of a beach with any stones at all will usually turn up one or two heart-shaped stones. But heart stones, lifted from their obscurity, with all of their cracks and blemishes, lopsided and imperfect, are simply the best find on any beach. Beachcombers collect them, keep them as talismans, and give them to friends and lovers.
Josie Iselin, author of Abrams' very popular Beach Stones, has put together a magical collection of 100 heart stones, and each one expresses a universal feeling. Love, passion, admiration, obsession, reassurance, joy, intrigue, comfort, wonder, and many other human emotions seem to be portrayed in these homely but appealing objects. This little book can bring great pleasure to anyone who has ever sought inspiration and solace in nature.
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