1 comments about Draw Mini Manga! (XTreme Art).

1. Another great addition to Hart's xtreme art series. Following the monster, chibis and villains, comes the mini manga draw guide. Gorgeous & irresistible to draw, these little creatures come to life in four simple steps to follow. With few words to read and simple examples; from the large basic outline down to the details -these silly but adorable little creatures are developed. Suitable for the young as well as the more advanced cartoonist, this book will keep you entertained for quite a while, Enjoy.

No comments about Vanishing Beauty: Indigenous Body Art and Decoration.

5 comments about Photoshop Elements 4.0 Maximum Performance: Professional Image Editing for Photographers.

1. This outstanding book provides many step by step instructions for editing photos with photoshop elements. Along with common instructions such as croping as straightening photos it includes blurring backgrounds and the use of masks for special effects.
   Everything is made simple. Have a problem recreating the effects in the book? Simply view one of the included movies and watch the author perform the functions step by step. This included movie feature is GREAT!
   Watch to movie and you should be able to find a step that you omitted when using the book. Useful content, well written, included DVD for chapter movies. The complete book for anyone wishing to enhance their photos.



2. Of all the tutorial manuals I have on Photoshop Elements I think this one is the best. While not exactly at a beginner level, it can still be of value to a novice. The great thing is that it pretty much avoids the 'first face the stove' approach that most all books of this nature feel required to do. The lessons on color correction and turning a color photo into black and white are particularly great!



3. This text is written for photographers that want to make their images look there very best. Unlike introductory texts, Mr. Galer's book goes into the very soul of Photoshop Elements (PSE) to find hidden features that give pictures a WOW factor. Here are a few examples. In introductory text, the student is introduced to the unsharp mask filter and given some suggested settings. In Galer's text, the student is introduced to some unique masking techniques created with the high pass, and threshold filters to locate edges. He then combines that technique with paint masks and the magic erasure tool to isolate just those areas that will benefit from edge crispness. The results are stunning. Galer also has a technique for making high dynamic range (HDR) photos using some add-on layer styles that are available in the companion DVD.
   
   A number of introductory texts concentrate on color correction and marginalize the importance of luminosity and tone. In Galer's text, there are a number of advanced techniques on levels, contrast and preserving shadow that are used to allow photos to look their best.
   
   Speaking of the DVD, it not only contains all the images used in the lessons but many additional background photos of sky and sea and other landscapes that the user may access to enhance their own projects. Unlike many introductory books on PSE the photos are of high quality (lots of pixels) and all the lessons on the DVD are also included in the text. The lessons are quite good and Galer's English accent lends credibility and authority to his narrative.
   
   What you won't find in the book is any serious mention of the Organizer, quick fix or photo creations (with the exception of a lesson on panoramas). In summary, this is an important book on the advanced features available in PSE that every serious student should own.



4. I have completed several Photoshop course books and found all of them to be very good and useful. So I had a reasonable knowledge base when I discovered this book. I found that in this book, the author has covered the most useful Photoshop examples yet. The text and video projects complement each other perfectly and are seamless. Not only does the author explain every step of the project, but he also does the most important thing: he tells you why he is doing it. This book has propelled my knowledge of Photoshop Elements 4.0 to a very high competent professional level. I cannot express my absolute delight with my new skills.



5. One of the best books out in the market about using Photoshop Elements 4.0 (PSE4) to edit pictures. Comes with a DVD containing pictures to practice on, and some movies to watch while the author explains a specific technique. There are some techniques included in this book that I've not seen included in any other book. Examples are clear and concise, and with accompanying pictures at each stage. Stress is on using techniques to work on pictures that will not harm the pictures or the pixels themselves. These techniques include learning all about gradients and making some for yourself that increase contrast, or using adjustment layers, and making masks to affect the contrast, learning how to get the most efficient use out of the levels settings, among other things. Take part of a gradient sample in PSE4 and use it to create beams of light coming out of a storm cloud! Great book. This book teaches you how to work on pictures with many different techniques--techniques that do the least harm to the original working photo--techniques that allow you to take care of small subtle details that are usually ignored, but that make your work more believable. Highly recommended.

2 comments about Love Your Dog Pictures: How to Photograph Your Pet with Any Camera.

1. As the previous review indicates, this book is aimed at the person who is not a photographer but rather the loving pet owner who wants better photos of their dog. The book is full of clear examples that will help get a better photo of your dog. The author has an easy writing style and her instructions are easy to incorporate into photographing. After reading this book, any dog lover should be able to get pictures that will be more individual and representative of their dog. Definitely for the beginning/snapshot photographer who wants pictures that will actually look like their dog without distortion, and add some creativity in their photos.



2. This book is not about becoming a professional dog photographer but it is intended for the family photographer who wants to know how to take the best pictures of their dog or their family's dog. Pictures they can hang on the wall later on or put in scrapbooks. It will help you create images of your dog that will catch the dog's true spirit.
   
   It does not matter if you have a cheap film camera or an expensive digital SLR camera, the tips and techniques in this book will work for any camera. Throughout the different chapters the text is accompanied by famous dog quotes every now and then and along with all the tips and techniques are 305 illustrations in total (only ten in b/w) that clearly show you before and after situations and different camera setups and their resulting photographs.
   
   In the first chapters you'll get familiar with all the technical stuff like equipment and exposure, then you'll move on to more practical techniques like lightning, composition and taking great action shots, posing and portraits. The last part explains in short chapters how to digitize your film photographs, how to enhance your digital pictures and how to
   turn them into scrapbook pages. In the appendix you'll get to meet all the dogs that were models for the illustrations throughout this book.
   
   With its 144 pages this book is a definite handbook for beginning photographers who want to know everything about taking beautiful photographs of their beloved dogs. If you are looking for more professional dog photography you might be better off with Creative Canine Photography. This book, Love Your Dog Pictures, though handles everything you ever needed to know about dog photography and with a creative mind I'm sure you can be just as well a professional dog photographer. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their photographing skills and who wants to catch their dog's real personality on image.
   
   - reviewed by Eveline for Euro-Reviews

2 comments about Jim Marshall: Jazz.

1. I've been digging Marshall's work for 25 years-ever since I got my first copy of "The Allman Brothers Band Live At Fillmore East". I'm not a photographer but something in the way he composes his shots moves me. Mostly, tho', it is the quality of the contrast between black and white- and the richness of the color in his photographs. I'm sure it all has something to do with the equipment, exposure, film, etc. People like he, Adams and Claxton make black and white as sexy as color-if not more so. If you love jazz, you will find some iconic pictures here as well as some that have probably never been seen. Lets' put it this way, if I had the chance to have one photographer shoot me as a musician, it would be him. I once called him up out of the blue to talk photography (which I know next to nothing about) because I was/am such a fan. Just the finest technique that makes the pictures seem three dimensional. Long live Jim Marshall.



2. After the superb Not Fade Away and Proof Jim Marshall comes out with his 3rd book covering his Jazz (and Blues) period. Iconic images that will surprise fans who only know his Rock photos. The foundation that built the Marshall mystique. To be enjoyed drinking 16 year old Lagavulin single malt Scotch and listening to superb jazz vinyl (Monk, Prez, Diz,Trane, Miles, etc..) on a good turntable/stereo system. One can only hope for the long rumoured Color book next. A must get for your music and photo book library!

5 comments about Pedro Páramo (Southwestern & Mexican Photography Series, Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos).

1. This is a translation that some of us used in my senior year Survey of Latin American Literature class. Granted, as Spanish majors and minors, we should have been reading in the original. Where translations are most useful is getting around colloquial turns of phrase that leave practitioners of castellano a little dogged.
   
   It is a good translation, mind you - Peden does an excellent job working out the phrases, something that is helpful in surrealistic prose. I just much much much prefer to read something in the original - you lose a great deal in the translation by putting up a barrier between the author's mind and your own.
   
   The narrative can be confounding if you're expecting a straightforward plot - rather, there are two narratives, interwoven, and the order of the vignettes has more to do with character development than with chronology. One tale is of the son - and takes place somewhere between his quietly seething sense of abandonment and his abysmal personal hell. The other is of the father, and recounts his wicked life. A páramo is a local colloquialism for an empty, frozen mountaintop - a little symbolism that describes the inner life of the father quite well.
   
   This is not a "what happens" book so much as an "about" book - and indeed the facts of the story are up to some speculation. It is up to the reader to determine whether the narrator, Juan, truly succumbs to the ceaseless dead around him and joins them, whether he is in his personal torment but remains alive, or whether he is already dead and returns to Comala, "a la mera boca del infierno" - at the very mouth of Hell. It is also up to the reader to determine whether Pedro's love for Dolores Preciado (literally "precious wounds" - oh, symbolism!) is more possession than passion.
   
   The surrealism is one of the reasons this book remains on my shelf (supplanted by a Spanish-only edition), next to Borges and Vallejo.



2. I read the original version of it in Spanish, from what I have found so far from research, most translations of this book are pretty bad. There are lots of allegories and historical backgrounds in there, one cannot disregard all the content just because it seems confusing.
   And to get any award for something, a book has to go through lots of consideration. If the book was really such a horrible book do you think the judges of the award would risk their reputation supporting a "bad" book?
   I guess if you are fluent in Spanish I strongly suggest reading it in Spanish, or if you are a Latin American History major or Mexican history. This is a breath of fresh air, the book breaks all conventional narratives. I personally love "Continuidad de los parques" of Julio Cortazar. So if you like him you will definitely find this book a good read.



3. I finished the book, and had little feeling on it. So I read
   a literature review, and found out that I did see the writing
   techniques that were enthusiastically appraised. Yes, the
   book might be full of writing techniques, but I am not
   touched.



4. Pedro Paramo
   
   I have read this book three times in Spanish so I know it pretty well. This English translation is good but it doesn't flow as well as the original in Spanish. Perhaps it is that Rulfo's style is not easy to translate.



5. I had the pleasure of reading this book the first time in Spanish. That has advantages, obviously. Much of the poetry shines even brighter. However, an English version will also shock and grasp you in a good way. A story that unwinds with twists and turns, from present to past, and in the end develops into a poetic vision of a town haunted by both beauty and brutality at the same time.
   
   All of the modern Latin American magic-realist writers are in debt to Juan Rulfo.
   
   Highly recommended; a must read.

4 comments about The Alaska Highway: A Portrait of the Ultimate Road Trip.

1. A delightful little book showing mostly native wildlife and scenics, as well as people and sights and signs along the Alaska Highway. Almost all the photographs have captions that tell the locations along the highway where they were taken, and the text gives an entertaining general narrative describing the highway from start to finish.
   
   This is not a travel or wildlife field guide, but an inspiring pictorial book for a photographer or nature lover, showing and describing areas where many of the wild animals and interesting sights may be found. Erwin and Peggy Bauer, who both passed away this past year, were outstanding partners in a wildlife photography career spanning many many years.
   
   I plan to travel the Alaska Highway this summer by RV and definitely will be taking this little book with me.



2. I was rather disappointed when I finally received this book. The cover is a perfect example of my problem with the book. Take notice of the subtitle, "A Portrait of the Ultimate Road Trip". Now notice the picture of the highway to the left, and a seperate picture of a brown bear to the right. For a book about something as visually exciting as the Alaska Highway and it's surroundings, I counted only 3 pictures that actually included beautiful scenery with the actual Alaska Highway. No pictures of wildlife and the highway. How about a picture of a brown bear crossing the road or a beautiful sunset blanketing the highway with golden rays of sunlight. If that is what you expected, you won't find it here.
   In several instances the words describe how often one will encounter bison heards, grizzly bears, caribou, and moose crossing the highway, but not once is there an image of any of these creatures near anything remotely resembling asphalt. There are great pictures of these animals by themselves, but they could be stock photography from who know's where. The author's describe a mountain range coming into view as a beautiful backdrop to the Alaska Highway, so then why do they not show me a picture of the highway backdropped by this awesome mountian range? Instead they show me a picture of a lynx!?
   Maybe my expectations of this book were too literal, and I expected too much from it. I mean I love dogs, but when I buy a book on the Alaska Highway I want to see it, not close ups of people's cute dogs. I counted 5 dog pictures, compared to the 3 pictures of the actual Alaska Highway. I think this book should be renamed; "The Alaska Highway and the Dogs That Live Off to the Side".
   I must say that this book did make me more interested in the Alaska Highway, but not for anything it did, but for what it didn't do. It described the most beautiful images, but left your imagination to paint the picture. Disappointing.....unless you like dogs.



3. The description of this book indicates it is hardcover. It IS NOT a hardcover book. It's also very small. There are a lot of good pictures, but little writing. If you are looking for a nice hardcover book with lots of details - this is not it.



4. The authors provide a view of the Alaska Highway as it is in this century, not the previous century. The Alaska Highway of this century is not the dusty, gravel road of the previous century. This book allows the reader to formulate expectations of an Alaskan Highway journey in 2003. The authors also provide information on likely places to spot caribou, bison, muskoxen, and wolves. Their photographs capture wildlife, scenery, relaxing side trips, local humor, and glimpses into the past in a vibrant, brillant, informative, and tantalizing manner. The text is refreshing. I'm glad I bought this book and I would recommend it to others. For those planning to travel the Alaska Highway in the near future, this book is a great supplement to the 55th Anniversary (2003) edition of The Milepost.

No comments about Hellen Van Meene: New Work.

5 comments about The Lost Border: The Landscape of the Iron Curtain.

1. This book is a must for those who have never seen the Border regions during the cold war. These pictures show the regions as they were then. The photographs in this book show these areas as beautiful, tranquil, quiet and foreboding, with the ever present eye of East German Guards peering at you from the border towers. Those fences and no mans land are gone now, and have since been replaced by reconstruction. These photographs are very rare and exclusive, taken throughout Berlin, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czeshoslovakia and Italy. It is a haunting reminder what communism was, especially for those who lived between the fences.



2. With photos taken in the mid 1980s the author takes us on a pictorial trip along the former Iron Curtain from the Baltic sea coast at Travemunde (West-East Germany) to the Adriatic sea coast at Trieste (Italy-Yugolsalvia [today Slovenia]); with a separate chapter on the Berlin Wall. They are superb photos full of (sad) atmosphere, poignancy and historical importance. Like another reader, I just wish there were more of them. The chapters with photos from the period following the collapse of the Soviet empire and thus its lengthy prison wall with the west are relevant too. The author doesn't provide any lengthy description of the physical nature of the fortifications, history of escape attempts, as well as the constrast in the lives of people on each side of the borders but that has been the subject of other books and there is no need to; the brief comments combined with the pictures are all you need to appreciate it.



3. The Lost Border by Brian Rose fulfills an historical need by photographing the Iron Curtain before it was relegated to the dustbin of history. The photos are are in color and fill the need of being historical rather than some modern black and white modern art form which would have defeated the whole purpose of the book. I have walked the Berlin Wall many times in the 60's & 70's to take photos and aggravate the guards and for me to see the rest of the Iron Curtain in this large format book was a pleasure. I compliment Mr Rose on his endeavor. These photos show the stark reality of the evil of communism in clear detail. The Lost Border is an asset to any library; home or otherwise.



4. I haven't seen anyone else put together a book like this, with shots from all along the Iron Curtain in the Cold War. My only disappointment was that there's not more of it - because the work in here is excellent, and I would have loved for it to not end so soon. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in what the Soviets did to Eastern Europe until the fall of communism.



5. I grew up behind that border, lived in this grey cold world. The photographs brought back a lot of supressed memories. Looking through the book, I realized that these memories should be kept alive. Awesome and chilling at the same time. I would recommend this book to anyone....the era has passed but it was real. A lot of lives were lost at that border and many untold stories are buried with it. To me that book is a tribute to all who suffered in the name of freedom, I was just one of many.

5 comments about Mastering Digital Nude Photography: The Serious Photographer's Guide to High-Quality Digital Nude Photography.

1. Althogh I do not do nude photography, I found the material in this text a good summary of all aspects of nude as well as portrait photography. Very comprehensive and clearly written.



2. This book is without a doubt one of the LEAST helpful books I have seen. It goes back immediately! Not only is the photography uninspiring, but the information contained is all but worthless ("there's a long tradition in the use of food.." "this playfully quizzical look suggests a good working relationship between model and photographer..." ) Far from being instructive, it reads more like stream-of-consciousness photo-babble from cover to cover. RUN - don't walk - away from this one!



3. I found that the book was very well presented. Only a small portion of it deals with taking pictures. The rest deals a lot with how to deal with all the other aspects of nude photography. I found this as an invaluable resource not just for nude photography but for all photography involving models. I especially enjoyed the sort of conversational approach he takes in his writing style.
   
   Overall I highly recommend this book, the only downside were the frightened looks of people who saw me watching it.



4. If you are seriously interested in taking photographs of beautiful naked models, then this is the kind of book you won't be able to put down. It's rammed full of insightful little tips and tricks and amusing anecdotes. Explaining everything in a coherent and concise manner, from how to approach potential models, right through to tweaking and correcting the final print, without ever becoming patronizing or overly techie.
   
   An exceptionally good read, a very useful reference book and a fine collection of pictures too. I'm sure I'll be returning to this fantastic book, time and time again.



5. I have all 3 of Rod's books. The first 2 were all about the information and were rather impersonal in his approach in showing you. This book rather has a very personal touch to it. Its like he is sitting with you explaining everything one on one. It is chuck full of information and a lifetime of experience. All you have to do is read and learn from it.
   
   Chris