No comments about Josef Sudek: Portraits (Torst Series).

No comments about Ecological Houses (Architecture).

3 comments about Searching for the Dixie Barbecue: Journeys in the Southern Psyche.

1. Interesting reading but, unfortunately no receipes. Rated it 3 Stars because it didn't have them...just ideas and basic facts.



2. What a marvelous storyteller Mr. Caldwell is! I have not finished reading his book, but am savoring each character he meets, each BBQ joint he describes and the food fixed the way it has always been. Caldwell takes a subject and follows every path it leads and you are drawn down the path happily.



3. The culinary and cultural attributes of Searching For The Dixie Barbecue make for an important and unusual blend of information on Southern cooking, culture, and redneck barbecue origins - but don't expect a recipe book alone. Searching For The Dixie Barbecue: Journeys Into The Southern Psyche pairs black and white photos of Southern barbecue establishments with plenty of travel and cultural background to provide a road journey through the contentious world of Dixie barbecue. The lively, folksy manner makes for a winner for any who love barbecue!

2 comments about The American Cowboy: A Photographic History.

1. If you're a Cowboy and Western History enthusist you might be disappointed in how slim Mr. Collins' volume is - it is one of those wonderful books that make the reader wanting more.
   
   Still he captures the essence of the American Cowboy in that brief period between the end of the Civil War and the beginning years of the 20th Century. Using archival photos by Charlie Belden, L.A.Huffman, and others, and coupling it with a splendid but terse essay, Collins adequately captures the life and the spirit of the American Cowboy; the cattle drives, the chuckwagon, the campfires, the loneliness,the ranch life, the joys and sorrows,including the extremely sad photo of a large group of cowboys surrounding the gravesite of a dead pardner. This last photo is even more poignant when one considers that even when that photograph was taken, the time of the individualistic cowboy riding the open range itself was coming to an end.
   
   A beautiful coffee-table book for anyone who loves the history of the cowboys or for those who wanted to know what it was like back then between the opening of the trails and the closing down of the frontier. Mr. Collins' book, coupled with renowned photographer Jay Dusard's works of contemporary images of cowboys, would make an awesome two-pack gift for all who wished they could be a Hoppy, Gene, Roy, or Teddy Blue Abbott and Andy Adams.



2. There are 110 pages of vintage photographs in this oversize book, by a half-dozen or so early photographers working with bulky equipment out on the plains during the years of open rangeland. Most of the photographs chosen for this book date from 1885 into the first decades of the 20th century, with a few as recent as the 1930s.

   Besides herding, driving, and working cattle and horses, which have become familiar images over the years, the editor has included shots of meal-time and preparation of food at the chuckwagon. Some of these are nights shots, lighted by the campfire.

   There are shots of cowboys with fiddles and guitars, one a younger man on a cot in a cabin, the photograph rich with details: the layers of worn blankets on the cot, the cowboy's big white hat, the two shirts he's wearing, the cuffs of his jeans turned up, two pairs of boots (the more beat-up pair shoved against one corner of the cot), a towel hanging against the log wall behind him, and a copy of Liberty magazine lying open on a seat in the foreground.

   There are cowboys on horseback performing the remarkable trick of drinking water from their hat brims. (One of these is on the cover.) There are many groups shots of men lined up to face the camera. Two of them from early 1880s Montana show artist and writer Charles Russell. Another shows over 30 men at a cowboy's funeral, hats off, standing around a patch of freshly turned prairie sod, two of them holding shovels.

   A group of ten trail cowboys from the XIT ranch sit for a portrait shot, two with revolvers drawn in their laps, each of them dressed very differently. There are two studio portraits of individual cowboys from the 1890s, one of them with long, shoulder-length hair, the other a fresh-faced youth, with silk scarf, woolly chaps, leather gloves with wide cuffs, gunbelt, and a monogrammed shirt with big medallion buttons.

   There are a few shots of cowboying in winter, taken in the 1920s and 30s. In one remarkable two-page spread, a cowboy on his horse watches a long, long line of Herefords moving across a landscape totally whited out by snow. Also interesting are shots of early ranch houses and cow camp cabins, one of them against the eroded rocks of the Missouri Breaks.

   The opening essay by Bob Edgar, curator of The Museum of the Old West, Cody, Wyoming, gives a general overview of the period, focusing on the cattle drives and talking briefly about the career of one dedicated photographer, Charles Belden. For more of a historical background to go with the photographs, there is Andy Adams' "Log of a Cowboy," "Cowboy Life" by William Savage, Jr., Ramon Adams' book about chuckwagons and the camp cook "Come an' Get It," and Larry McMurtry's novel "Lonesome Dove." For another book of vintage photographs of the Old West, look at "The Early Days in Jackson Hole" by Virginia Huidekoper.

No comments about Northeast Passage.

4 comments about The Quick & Easy Guide to Photographing Your Artwork.

1. The author recommend using halogen work lamps that produce extremely uneven lighting with a stripe of strong horizontal light right in the middle of the works photographed. Even if using 4 of these lamps, there is no way to get even lighting on the works.
   
   Also the digital photography discussed is totally outdated and useless.The Quick & Easy Guide to Photographing Your Artwork



2. Although the information given was essentially correct, it was not up to date regarding use of digital cameras.
   
   This book should have been thoroughly updated before being reprinted.
   
   Regards,
   
   Gregg Puckett



3. This is a decent book on photographing artwork -- but not the the most comprehensive. The strengths of this book are that Mr. Saddington (1) discusses the use digital media, and (2) makes the process of photographing artwork very user-friendly by providing great visual references throughout. The user-friendly aspect is the book's strongest selling point, especially for artists who are new or novices at photography, or visually oriented (i.e., no patience for reading instructions that come with few or no pictures). Mr. Saddington's book provides pictures of what makes a bad negative exposure/photograph, and provides a concise explanation for these results, and does the same for an example of a good negative exposure/photograph. He also provides illustrations of setting up equipment and artwork for photographing. The weakness of this book lies in the general details provided ... unfortunately, Mr. Saddington provides a limited amount of helpful hints and leaves out specific details for for problem shooting ... I base this opinion on my comparison of this book with a book called "Photographing Your Artwork" by Russell Hart. If you buy Mr. Saddington's book, I'd recommend supplementing it with the purchase of Mr. Hart's book. The two books complement each other. Where Mr. Saddington's book lacks in details, Mr. Hart's book fills in the information gaps. On the other hand, Mr. Hart's book is very text heavy and has very few illustrations ... so if you're a visually-oriented person, Mr. Saddington's book would easily compensate in the area of illustrating this very important process. Again, Mr. Saddington's book is decent, but it should be used as a supplemental reference, especially for the visually-oriented person.



4. Actually I give this book zero stars. It is one of those books that pads the pocket of the author but is stingy with the information it gives. It is too general and does not really deal with problem solving the technicalities involved with taking slides of your own art. I wanted to know on which side of a slide to place a mask. The book failed to give this important piece of information. I found that I had already bought a more comprehensive book, so I feel that I wasted my money buying this book.

No comments about Spectacular Homes of Florida (Spectacular Homes).

4 comments about Alaska's Inside Passage.

1. Beautiful photography along with very informative information. A book well worth looking over again and again.



2. My wife had seen this book at another person's house before we cruised the inside passage. Gave us a preview of what was to come. After our cruise it was fun going back over what we had seen. We ordered the book after our trip. We especially enjoyed the beautiful photographs. We both own digital cameras and especially enjoy good pictures. The book has a nice overall appeal and look to it. The text was excellent.



3. Having just returned from my first Alaskan cruise, I was looking for a book to capture the beauty and grace of this wild land. I was so impressed by the full page pictures that I bought copies for several family members who were also on the cruise with me. Just opening this book takes me back on the cruise. The text is descriptive and insightful, but it is the 9.5 by 13 inch pictures that fill my vision and bring back memories.



4. This book offers the serenity and solitude of the outdoors, seen by few and unexperienced by many. The inside passage is the untouched adventure that the photographer has magnificently demonstrated by the composition of the moment! Incredible, to the point of allowing the reader to share the feeling of the experience.

5 comments about Flash to the Core.

1. This is an excellent book for both beginners and intermediate Flash designers. Joshua Davis did a great job of writing this. It is very easy to understand and follow (none of that jumbled jargon that you get lost in). The CD with demos and the website are wonderful. I keep this with me at work and loan it to friends and co-workers interested in learning more about Flash.



2. In this "technical" book Joshua Davis does more than simply inform one how to do cool things in Flash -- he shows how to use programming in Action Script as a surpassing design tool. This plus his useful analogies helps the reader see more clearly the usefulness of programming design, and how to readily go about it.
   This is exactly as the book claims - it's Flash to the Core. If you don't need to get that far into it, don't bother. If this is your profession, you *need* this book. (An aside : Perhaps Mr. Davis does do a little bit of self-lovin' in his book -- but darned if he hasn't earned it, in my humble opinion.)



3. if youre looking for quirky code snippets that are written poorly and have no practical use, then this is the book for you. otherwise avoid it and get something else.



4. I have been working with Flash for over 3 years, so I have a good grounding in the basics, including ActionScript. Today I finally decided to crack it open and do some of the tutorials. I finished Chapter 1 through Chapter 12, so that leaves me right at the beginning of the Intermediate and Advanced Projects section. On page 132 there is an error. In step 4 the author has you to name the "01 - crosshairs" instance on the main stage "crosshairs_mc". Just name it "crosshair_mc". Otherwise, it won't work. Steps 6 and 8 will have you write code to access "crosshair_mc". Just thought I'd mention this.



5. Make no mistake, Joshua Davis is one in a few web designers out there to be a true visionary in Flash design. So much so, that he sets the standard in inspiring web designers to exceed their own limitations and achieve their own visionary goals. However, when it comes to tooting their own horn, Mr. Davis is his own Tower of Power.

   "Flash To The Core" is a 352 page love letter from Joshua Davis to Joshua Davis. I found myself feeling a bit instrusive, and at times blushing, to be reading Mr. Davis' open missives of love and praise to himself; as often as his little anecdotes and "words of wisdom" got to become more patronizing than inspiring (upon remembering that "Flash To The Core" was meant for me...and anyone else who wanted to further their knowledge of Flash). What's more, agonizing through Mr. Davis' countless self-referentials and numerous "I's" and Me's" had me come to the blistering conclusion that Mr. Davis has the inter-personal depth of a kiddie pool, and only where a hum of a computer fan is is where JD feels most comfortable, and connected.

   I figured, if you want to be the best, then you look to the best, which is why I purchased this book. However, after reading this "tutorial", I found that no matter how talented I think Mr. Davis is (regardless of not being very helpful), it is by no means any comparison to how talented Mr. Davis thinks he is and the contribution he has made to his own legacy (a.k.a the Joshua Davis Experience--toot, toot).

   In short, "Flash To The Core" is an eight course dinner for Mr. Davis' minions and wannabes, however, to web designers, like myself, who want to set our own standard, it's a starter that looked good on the menu, but wasn't very filling.

No comments about Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks.