1 comments about Edward Weston's Book of Nudes.

1. There are people, (mostly in New York) who resent photography, confusing it with the blurry, out of focus vacation pictures of the non-technical.
   Now I think that art is whatever will sell on 68th street and that Edward Weston was an artist of the highest ranks of people who use a medium to create what they see or feel, in short, art of merit. Production of the volume is good, the comments not too oprobrious and we ar left Edwrd Weston an his models. The book is to be cherished and not left on a coffee table to impress your lumpen friends.

5 comments about Snaps: The Original Yo' Mama Joke Book.

1. Stupid snaps, fat snaps, ugly snaps. The list goes on. Here are some typical snaps you may find in this book:
   
   Yo mama so fat, when they hand her a menu at a restaurant she says, "okay."
   
   Yo mamma is so fat, that the tattoo artist called a billboard agency for assistance.
   
   Yo mama so fat, she has her own area code.
   
   Yo mamma so fat, when she turns around people say, "nice to see you again."
   
   Yo mama so fat, the shadow of her butt weighs fifty pounds.
   
   Snaps generally pick on mothers, but it is all in good fun. The original object of the game was to come up with the biggest insult of another person's mother, or other family member, while keeping your cool. The first person to lose his or her temper was the loser.
   
   This is a hilarious book, and Percelay has several others like it. So the fat mamma jokes just keep rolling in, kind of like a tidal wave of lard. While many snaps are fairly clean, some of these may not be suitable for children. Percelay also provides a decent history of the "snapping" tradition in this book.



2. "Snaps" is a good book that helps to preserve an oral tradition. It begins with a couple of interesting and well-written essays on the history of "snapping" / "the dozens." From there, it gets on to the really good stuff, the actual insults conveniently divided into sections such as "Stupid Snaps" and "Fat Snaps."

   Some of the jokes may seem outdated, but one has to remember that the book was written in 1994 and didn't have the help of all of the people that wrote in with submissions to the later books. Even without that, it's still a quality work.




3. This book has intersting tidbits about the history of the "Game of Dozens" and a few of the jokes are gems, but it has too many OLD or BORING jokes that really should've been filtered out.

   I don't know how it happened, but all the good jokes ended up in the SECOND "Snaps" book-- none of the others in the series can hold a candle to that one...Just look at its Amazon[.com] ratings compared to all the others. Now THAT book DOES have what you're looking for...funny funny funny insults that you haven't heard before.




4. "Snapping" is a form of "playing the dozens" which derives from the rich oral history of blacks in America. It's a verbal contest in which two opponents hurl all kinds of insults at each other, the object being to see which one can beat down the other without either of them losing their cool or resorting to physical violence. It does not mean cursing the opponent out; in fact, the most effective snaps, or insults, involve no profanity at all. Percelay, Dweck and Ivey have compiled hundreds of snaps from sources all over the black community and organized them into categories (fat snaps, skinny snaps, stupid snaps, ugly snaps, color snaps... well, you get the idea). A few examples: "Your mother's so fat, she has her own area code" or "Your mother's so fat, when I got on top of her my ears popped" (which is, in effect, a double snap -- she's not only obese, she's a lady of ill repute); or "Your father's so dumb, he leaves his fly open in case he has to count to eleven", or "You were so ugly when you were born, the doctor slapped your mother instead of you." "Snaps" is hilarious and will have you laughing out loud, as well as appreciating the razor-sharp wit of whoever dreamed some of these gems up. Check it out, as well as its companion book, "Double Snaps" -- double the pleasure and double the fun.



5. When I read this book, I was taken back to the days when I was kid, watching people on the corners and in classrooms trying to top each other with the better insults. It was called "playing the dozens", and this book is full of funny "snaps" or insults. Some of them are down and dirty, but still laugh out loud funny. Next time you want a good comeback to tell the next smart aleck that annoys you, read this book.

5 comments about Photoshop for Nature Photographers: A Workshop in a Book.

1. Excellent resource. This book should be on everyone's shelf who uses Photoshop for nature photography. Authors (there really are two of them regardless of how it's listed here) know their stuff and explain it very well. CD accompanying the book is very helpful too.



2. This book is a must have for any digital nature photographer. Great step by step how to's and very well laid out.



3. I am not sure what part Tim Grey plays in creating this book but if you are purchasing the book do it because of what Ellen Anon is contributing to the book. I Think Tim Grey is a fantastic Photoshop and P.C. Guru - and a great writer in his element. If Tim contributed to the Photoshop techniques of this book that is good. Tim Grey has some great books out - Color Confidence and Photoshop CS2 are two of them. Buy those two books before this one if you want some of Tim's best writings on Photoshop. Photo Finish is another book that Tim Grey co-authored and it also a So-so book. There are tons of good Photoshop books. If you need a starter try the Adobe Photoshop Classroom in A Book series for whichever version of Photoshop you are using. Use the Adobe Photoshop Tutorials on their web site - they are great and free. Print these tutorial out in color and put them in a binder and you have a great Photoshop book with little or no cost to you. John Shaw has an excellent e-book, "John Shaw's Photoshop Field Guide", about 208 pages. A great source for nature photographers with some Photoshop experience. No 'down-&-dirty' tricks in his e-book. It is straight forward Photoshop information for a nature photographer of all levels of experience. It does not cover Photshop CS2 but you can figure everything out. Cost is $30 US. http://www.johnshawphoto.com/ebook.htm. Two other books to consider if you don't already have them are Adobe Photoshop, by David Blatner & Bruce Fraser and Digital Photography, by Eismann (a great photographer & writer), Duggan, and Tim Grey. (since Grey is at the end of the line here I can only assume his part is small in this book). Purchase some of these other books before spending money on Photoshop For Nature Photographers.



4. I should be clear up front - I'm lucky enough to know Ellen and Tim personally but that has no impact on my thoughts about this book.
   Ellen and Tim have done a great job of explaining Photoshop from the nature/landscape photographer's point of view. The additional comments from other pro photographer's gives the reader insight into how a working pro uses the software and the included CD with sample files is great for working through the examples on your own.
   If you're looking for a book on how to get results from Photoshop you'll have to look long and hard to find one that matches Photoshop for Nature Photographers.



5. I find "Photoshop ® for Nature Photographers : A Workshop in a Book" to be a great book to add to your PhotoShop library. It adds some great insight by several of the world's best known nature photographers. Any book that has instructional information from John Shaw, Arthur Morris, Charles Glatzer, and Joe McDonald is well worth the investment.
   
   One of the most difficult aspects of PhotoShop for me has been the effective use of curves. Tim and Ellen do a much better job at helping with this complex matter than any other book I have read.
   
   The effective utilization of PhotoShop requires as much of an artistic approach as it does as workflow approach. Tim and Ellen do a very good job of fully developing a great workflow while introducing their own artistic approach.
   
   No one book can every include all the aspects of PhotoShop that you will every need. However, "Photoshop for Nature Photographers : A Workshop in a Book" does a great job of specilizing for nature photographers. As with any workshop, it does require the student to do some work to get the most out of the class.
   
   I recommend this book to any nature photographer who would like to improve their utilization and knowledge of PhotoShop.

4 comments about Leica: Witness to a Century.

1. Not a very detailed book but a nice overview of Leica's history, with excellent photos of some beautiful classic cameras. But probably not worth the price.



2. I first saw this book in a Cambridge, UK library. I fell in love at first sight with it. The images it contain reflect all of our 20th century history through the view provided by the magnificent Leica lenses and shutters. The quality of the book is very good in terms of content and materials. The book contains a two page geneological tree of the Leica family at the end of it, so one can consume hours deepening into the Leica relatives and the evolution of a once in a lifetime photographic equipment experience.



3. This is a fun book for the Leica enthusiast. Unlike many of the Leica books I have seen this one is comprehensive in covering not only the cameras but the company and some of the famouse photos taken with a Leica. A good balance of text, photos, diagrams and history. A contemporay layout in graphic design makes this my favorite Leica book for an evening peruse.



4. A cofee table sized book, very well organized and laid out, stating very little new for old Leica fans but giving in not too many pages a brilliant summary of the relevance of the Leica as a photographer's tool from its inception to the 21st century dawn, stressing the points where the Leica was unique in any way. The book is finelly printed and bound and has a dynamic layout chock-full of good reproductions of the pictures that made history along the century. A bargain at the current price, IMHO.

5 comments about Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom.

1. I am a self-taught Photoshop hack. First started using it when version 3 came out (on a TON of 3.5 floppy disks). I have been able to use it enough to generate/ edit web images, scan prints, etc. It is grossly overpowered for what I use it for, but it's all I know and the company I work for is willing to pay for it. I am equally inept in my photographic workflow processes. I just take pictures, use my limited knowledge of Photoshop to get them to a point where I like the finished product, and go on my merry way. Until now.
   
   Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom is helping change my bad habits. Originally written to cover Lightroom 1.2, the processes are still applicable to 1.41, the latest version I am using. I had seen Lightroom and sort of dismissed it as just more $$ to spend until I started reading this book. Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom has given me insight into using the tools contained in Lightroom and how using them will affect my images. At just over 200 pages, this book is full of images and practical examples. I used to edit my images exclusively in Photoshop. Now I do most of my post processing in Lightroom, exporting the results to be uploaded into flickr, iStockphoto, or burned to CD. I doubt I would have changed my habits were it not for this book. Needless to say, it is highly recommended if you have been curious about using Lightroom.



2. I completely disagree with the positive feedbacks regarding this book for a variety of reasons. I took it fascinated by the "covers Version 1.2" note, thus suggesting a specialized "version 1.2" text, a most current book of them all, an advanced insider instruction to Lightroom. The dilemma about Lightroom is that it keeps changing from version to version. Users of this program know about its immaturity and stability issues. "Version 1.2" really sells in such conditions.
   
   Another reason to pick this book was that I like to read the essays from Outback Photo and the FotoEspresso Online Magazine by the same author. But the reality with this particular book is different:
   
   1) Too short to really provide any add-on value to the standard Adobe's manual, and to the many web-zines. 200 pages, minus approx 50 *not* about Lightroom at all, make this book too short to cover any advanced issues in the 5 main modules of Lightroom. This book is virtually just as brief and insufficient, as is the PDF file provided with the Lightroom by Adobe.
   
   2) Tries to please everybody at the risk of not satisfying anybody, to quote the great Donald Knuth from one of his forewords. For example, do you really need to buy a specialized "version 1.2" Lightroom book to learn about what is a Jpeg and what is a RAW file? Yes, its true! This thin booklet spends a few pages to tell you revelations that Jpeg has different levels of compressions, and, yes, you guess it: You should use the lowest compression for highest quality.
   
   3) Digresses into usage of other software and/or hardware. Do you really need whopping 3 full pages with screen shots from a Huey screen calibration software? No, you surely do not need that, a product flyer and a self guiding menu will do it! Besides, Huey is only one possibility. We have also all the "Spiders" and several more. In any case, I would rather be using the manual provided with the device instead of buying an extra book about something else, to look into it for another copy of a hardware gadget manual. I use Huey, its fantastic. And trust me, the menu is self guiding. You ought to press the Next button and proceed with the instructions. These 3 pages 191-193 in this book should be better devoted to Lightroom.
   
   4) Poor print quality. It is really kind of difficult to talk about color, and look at the pale faded looking print by rokynook press. These images look like projected through a light gray filter.
   
   5) Instructions seem to be very MacIntosh oriented, thus not attracting the vast majority of users, who are rather likely to use Windows and see completely different Lightroom menus. Its basic statistics...
   
   I am at peace with author attempt to describe the workflow between Lightroom and Lightzone (8 pages), but this shows even more how few information is about Lightroom 1.2 per se. Do you need more examples of "not to the topic"? Have you seen compact flash cards in a box? Jeez, now you can! Have you seen a card reader? Now you can too.
   
   One puzzling thing about Lightoom are its color curves. I am a seasoned computer scientist with a PhD, I do photograph for 30 years, and yet I fail to make any use of them based on information and instructions provided so far. I would rather be still using RawShooter, but Adobe bought and shut it down to "assimilate" its user base for Lightroom. A look into Adobe's forums shows just how many people are confused, if not lost in Lightroom's baroque interface, shuttered by bugs, malfunctions and poor performance. Such program needs instructions of more experienced photographers, who maybe stand in direct contact with Adobe development team and can explain what the manual and own experiments fail to provide.
   
   Would you believe that the ENTIRE set of development operations, what includes these dreaded tone curves, is covered on mere 32 pages (pages 78 to 111, chapter 4.) Can we really learn anything new but to see another enumeration of menus and sliders in such a brief description?
   
   Example: Split toning, half page 98. ..."split toning can also be (mis)used to reduce the blue cast of your shadows." Excellent, I am excited! Lets see it, lets learn!! Oops, there are no instructions, no lesson of just how to (mis)use the split toning to work on the blue shadows... This was it! Authors said "it can be used" and that was it. This is the KIND OF VALUE PROVIDED BY THIS BOOK. I am sorry, this does not do it.
   
   My recommendation is to take rather Mikkel Aaland's book, what is clearly my favorite among the otherwise hastily thrown books about Lightroom.



3. I get tired of Scott Kelby's humor but at least his books are readable, and useful. This book, well, I suppose all the information is there but I kept drifting off from the dull text and even duller PC-inspired graphics (they could at least use Mac screen grabs). I think the front cove pretty much sums up the book.
   
   It looks and reads like your basic college text book. It's going back



4. An excellent book if you want to learn how to work with Photoshop Lightroom.
   No frills, no ego's from the writer interfering with the information. Just plain information how the programm works. Clear explanations, following the workflow.
   Just what I needed.
   Four stars due to the principle that things are not perfect, because it is made by humans.



5. I have only Scott Kelby book to compare with Juergen Gulbins and Uwe Steinmuller book. Both have their advantages. Managing Your Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom is a simple with book with straight forward easy to follow examples. Kelby book has mare examples for advance uses of Lightroom. Workflow makes a good reference book to use for every day use. Kelby book gives good advance step by step procedures for different images.
   
   I will continue to use both. Like most of Kelby books his humor detracts from the information. Maybe he should write a joke book.

5 comments about Storyboarding 101: A Crash Course in Professional Storyboarding (Michael Wise Productions).

1. This guy couldn't draw, if his life depended upon it. How he ever got a storyboarding job is beyond me. Saya a lot about Hollywood.



2. This book had some good information, but focused more on career building and Hollywood networking than on actual storyboarding techniques. I'm glad the author was able to develop such a career, but he goes on too much about it and I think the book would have been more useful with more detail on translating script and director's vision into storyboards rather than stories on how lucky the guy was getting to be a director's assistant.



3. I bought this book expecting a how-to, instructional guide. There's none of that! No tips on drawing or the art of storyboarding. Instead, we get a autobiography of Fraioli and tips on breaking in: "hang around movie sets." Wow. I never would have figured that out on my own.

   The few examples of art Fraioli gives are amatuer and poorly drawn. I didn't find this book useful at all.




4. Mr. Fraioli's book is certainly a wonderful work about sticking to something and getting where you wish to be. However, I found it interesting that his name isn't found in the crew listing for either Ace Ventura nor Wild America. Of course, this could be a simple oversight...but still.
   In my opinion the situations seemed a bit "staged" and in a lot of ways cliched. He does try to inspire, however and for that I give him two stars.



5. This book will motivate any artist or filmmaker trying to break into the highly competitive Hollywood scene. The author's words of wisdom, and "tricks of the trade" is something not taught in any school. If you want an edge on the competition, pick up a copy of this book!

2 comments about John Hedgecoe's Complete Guide to Black & White Photography and Darkroom Techniques.

1. I purchased this particular book to learn techniques...not how to catagorize my pictures under certain headings. Which is what this book is about;Mr.Hedgecoe's pictures are B U Tful but I wanted to know how he got there!He had the right headings but no content. I expected techniques and numbers not "you should do this, and not that".It was like he didn't want to give his secrets away.It has nice pics but definitley not a reference book.I hope I'm not 2 hard on him.



2. Covers all aspects of black and white photography. Great for who doesn't know anything about B&W photography. Darkroom techniques are made simple and easy. Powerful shots. Undoubtedly one of the best general B&W book.

No comments about Picturing Place: Photography and the Geographical Imagination (International Library of Human Geography).

2 comments about Magic of the Sixties.

1. Gene Anthony's new book MAGIC OF THE SIXTIES is a terrific collection of his photographs, which with few exceptions were taken in and around San Francisco during that tumultuous decade. He certainly must have been out and about to have gotten all these, with photos from an incredible variety of venues including rock concerts, appeal parties, nude parties, the human be-in, the magic bus, office of "The San Francisco Oracle," apartment of poster artist Satty, activities of the Diggers, and much more. The epicenter of all this was the famous Height-Ashbury district. Other similar photo collections from the Sixties that I've seen do not have nearly the variety or organization into many topics that MAGIC OF THE SIXTIES has. Some famous faces Anthony captured include those of Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Bill Graham, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and particularly famous images of George and Linda Harrison. The generous text is also by Anthony, and it's true that it is overly idealistic, yet the occasional launch into hyperbole (such as the excerpt quoted by Publisher's Weekly above) is rare, since most of the text is helpfully descriptive. Also, it's not all positive, as with the chapter on the Free Clinic, which he points out was focused on helping people with drug problems. I'm glad this book does focus on the idealism of the Sixties' counterculture in promoting love, peace, environmental protection, non-materialism, and the like, with the close of the book being especially apt:
   
   "Now, as perhaps never in the years since the Sixties, we need to look back for solutions to present problems. We need to shake off our cloaks of powerlessness and apathy. The Sixties seem particularly fit for the task. It was magic, and it all really happened!"



2. Gene Anthony gives us a lot of personal recollections and adds to the growing volume of insight into a formative time. Some of the pictures are excellent. What I look for I found on the last page; these words: "Now, as perhaps never in the years since the sixties, we need to look back for solutions to present problems. We need to shake off our cloaks of powerlessness and apathy. The sixties seem particularly fit for the task. It was magic and it really happened!" I agree.
   The inclussion of the Diggers and Morningstar is important. Here is the key: Service, sharing, compassion; one world, one love, one people. These ideas got a boost back then. They need another big boost now. My own book, "New Buffalo; Journals from a Taos Commune", offers insight also into a movement that should be huge. Let's get some farms and paint some buses and get this show back on the road! With love, Arty Kopecky

1 comments about Landscapes of Cycling.

1. Fantastic collection of competetive cycling images from around the World by Graham Watson.
   
   Even for non-cyclists the scenery is spectacular and a great book for the coffee table.