No comments about Sierra Club 2009 Engagement Calendar.

No comments about Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds (Playboy).

5 comments about The Underwater Photographer, Third Edition: Digital and Traditional Techniques.

1. The book has beautiful illustrations and is easy reading. Underwater photography is covered in detail. Plenty of how to information. The book is worth reading twice and using for reference.



2. I have some experience with underwater photography, but am completely new to DSLR's. This is a fantastic book that provides not just the basics, but advanced techniques to improve your underwater photography. Step by step, broken down into manageable chapters, tips and settings to start out with, this inspiring book has it all. After reading this, I can't wait to get in the water!



3. this book did nothing for me, because amazon have never given me the chance to read it as it has taken 5 weeks to deliver it, tip from me, dont ask for a review untill you have actually delivered the goods.sorry amazon, my new name for you is"amazed-its-gone" because you dont seemed to be able to deliver the service in the right order!!!
   happy new year!! only because i live in hope that i might get my book by then.



4. The couple of poor reviews notwithstanding, this is the best focused reference on digital underwater photography I have seen so far. It is composed of bite-sized chunks of information that covers different aspects of the problem. I like the references to different techniques, lighting, burn-out, and all the other little tips that take a long time to figure out on your own. It also has great advice like how to set your camera if you are swimming around with nothing particular in mind to photograph. About the only thing I think is missing is better coverage of shooting with the ubiquitous compact cameras. That's the only reason I gave it a four. The compact photographer still has a lot to get from this book, but an awful lot is designed for the SLR shooter. Still, I recommend this book to my underwater photo students.



5. This is a great book - highly recommended by many divers. I am more than happy to recommend this book to other divers who have a decent understanding of photography and are looking to expand their knowledge of u/w photography.

5 comments about Forgotten New York: Views of a Lost Metropolis.

1. This was a gift for a very dear friend of mine. I am very satisfied with the book and with the service. Thank you.



2. I found out about this book through the author's extensive website. I'm not even from New York and I found it to be really interesting, and I'd definitely take the book with me if I were ever to visit town. Of course, this is just a sampling of what this author is capable of - the website is amazing, and in many ways I hope that some of the material from the site could make a commpanion volume. Great work from everyone involved.



3. Every large city has its famous landmarks & signature structures which define it in the eyes of the world. For New York, the statue of Liberty, the Empire State building, Times Square and, after 9/11, the absence of the World Trade Towers. These are the sights that travellers and tourists want to see, and having seen them, think that they have "done" New York.
   But they have surely missed the best part.
   
   The real New York, the soul and spirit and humanity of old New York is not so obvious, although it is everywhere around. It is found in its quiet corners and intimate spaces, on its avenues and in its old neighbourhoods with names like Flatbush, Canarsie, Vinegar Hill, Spuyten Duyvil, Flushing, Astoria or Greenwich Village. It is found in the vestiges and the relics of New York's disappearing past.
   
   "Forgotten New York" is a wonderful guidebook to 300 years of colourful personages, events and architecture found throughout all five of the City's boroughs, a guide to memories hidden in plain sight. These include many parks, alleys, doorways, gates, theatres, statues, fountains, clocks, lampposts, views, bridges, a lighthouse, signs, plaques, museums, homesteads, facades, monuments and even some ornate iron ventilation shafts.
   
   It is profusely illustrated with photos and numerically keyed maps which make it easy to discover dozens of little gems of history right around the corner from where you live (you Lucky New Yorkers!) or not-so far from those cousins in Queens or old friends in Brooklyn you always meant to visit.
   Even for a retired armchair traveller like myself, this book is a passport to rich and vibrant world far removed from the stereotyped New York we thought we knew.



4. Although I live in a small town in Nevada, my daughterlives in New York City. She's an actress, and if you want to act on stage you almost have to live in New York.
   
   We were in a book store and found this book. In flipping it over I found a really neat looking German style beet garden. I asked her where it was, and it was just around the corner, down a few blocks from her apartment. In looking at the book we found all kinds of neat places to go visit, far more than the conventional guide books.
   
   Since she started rehersals while I was visiting, I took the book and did a great deal of walking around the city. One thing I found was an amazing amount of wreckage that you wonder why someone hasn't taken over, built something that uses the wreckage as art and developed into very expensive housing.
   
   Basically this book is a collection of literally hundreds of interesting little tidbits from the past. They are broken down into five general categories:
   
   Quiet Places
   Truly Forgotten
   History Happened Here
   What is this Thing
   Forgotten People.
   
   As the author says, all you need is a metro-Card and a good pair of walking shoes.



5. A must read for visitors and newcomers to this town, as well as native New Yorkers. Can't wait for Part II.
   
   mp, a lifelong Brooklynite

5 comments about Fruits.

1. I got this book after seeing the live exhibition of the same name in Sydney years ago and I just adored it!
   Even if you don't like the particular styles shown in the book, it is just such a different and creative take on fashion!
   I find the styles inspirational, happy and fun!
   It is also interesting to see how the styles have morphed from different eras in history and from certain sub-cultures both native and foreign to Japan.
   After seeing this book, studying it and just absorbing it madly, I developed a hankering for all things lolita, and have been wearing the fasahion on and off for about 3 years now.



2. I used to see this book all the time at the nearby music store, and one day I received it as a gift. I'm not going to suggest that everyone should dress like the people in this book, but I will say that I loved how they were able to put together something different and interesting, completely unlike what I've seen here in the U.S. Even the most outrageous outfits I've seen at clubs in LA can't hold a candle to what's in this book. Very creative stuff here.



3. This is an interesting book. The author/photographer documents street fashion in the Harajuku district of Japan. Each page is a photo of an individual and a brief description of their outfit. If you are into this style of fashion, this is a book worth owning. The only short-coming is that the descriptions are printed in colored ink and sometimes get lost in the background color of the photographs.



4. My high school art class, Costume Design, LOVE this book. It's fun to see teenagers in another culture taking western fashion and personalizing it. Every time I pick up the book I see something new. We've only had the book a couple of weeks and it is already dog-eared.



5. Great book, made my girlfriend quite happy. She is very into Japanese street fashion and this book just captivated her, she looked through it about 20 times the day i gave it to her.

5 comments about Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays.

1. When I got this book last week, I was initially somewhat disappointed. I had expected something more humorous or absurd. I mean, a "coffee table book" about CROWS?! Sounds like the ultimate dada, LOL! When I looked through the book, I also instantly saw a major whooper: the author (or perhaps her editor - the error is in the photo captions) claim that Hooded Crows are black and...wait for it...WHITE.
   
   WHAT?????
   
   I live in Sweden, where there are Hooded Crows everywhere, and I can assure you that they are, of course, black and grey. And yes, you can check a standard, scientific reference work at your university library, unless you don't believe me. :-D
   
   Be that as it may, when I actually started reading the book, I realized that the rest of it isn't that bad, after all. As another reviewer pointed out: it depends on what exactly you are looking for. It's not a field guide to crows and their allies, nor is it a original scientific study. Rather, "Bird Brains" is a popularized introduction to the subject of crows and their intelligence, intended for the general reader. The author, Candance Savage, is a Canadian author and nature-lover (and yes, crow-lover!). The book is lavishly illustrated with photos of crows, ravens, jays, jackdaws and magpies. All photos are in color. Some are quite dramatic, for instance a photo of a crow challenging a Bald Eagle, and another showing magpies sitting on bisons, not to mention a photo of two magpies chasing a crow! (As you might have guessed, I'm a magpie-lover myself.) The text is pretty basic, but it's well-written and interesting. I think the book could be an excellent gift to both adults and teenagers, including people with only a passing interest in birds.
   
   The main point of "Bird Brains" is that crows, ravens and other corvids are surprisingly intelligent creatures. In laboratory tests, ravens have showed abilities on the level of chimpanzees, and above the level of monkeys. One raven could count to six, another learned how to fill a small cup with water and moisturize his food, simply by observing a laboratory assistant. The raven wasn't specifically trained to perform this task - he learned it anyway. Both ravens and crows can mimick human speech, just like parrots or mynabirds, and the most humorous situation in the book involves a crow that could say "Three, two, one" and then mimick the sound of an explosion. Apparently, the crow had spent some quality time near a building site.
   
   The most spooky situation mentioned in the book involved a raven that learned to say "Come" and somehow taught another raven to join him every time he uttered the command! The ravens lived in a laboratory, and were mimicking their trainer. Flexible instincts? Real intelligence? A little bit of both? A short work like this cannot answer the question, just pose it. One thing is certain: if a corvid would start talking to me outside the local shopping mould, I would start running!
   
   On a more sober note, "Bird Brains" also mentions situations where corvids don't act very intelligently, where they are indeed driven by pure instinct. For instance, crows and their relatives don't recognize their own chicks, but automatically feeds whatever happens to be in the nest (something not mentioned in the book is that this dumbness is taken advantage of by cuckoos - at least one species of cuckoo specializes in parasitizing corvids). Only when the chicks leave the nest do their parents start recognizing them, even in large flocks. Savage also mentions several instances of rank stupidity among the jackdaws studied by the famous Konrad Lorenz. Apparently, the jackdaws attacked poor Lorenz every time he held up a black object, thinking the object was a jackdaw in need of assistance!
   
   Still, corvids (the quaint scientific term for crowbirds) are remarkably intelligent, and this book may wet your appetite for learning more about the intelligence of birds. Perhaps I'll order Irene Pepperberg's apparently more technical "The Alex Studies" next. It's about that other fascinating group of intelligent birds: parrots.
   
   Four stars! (Yepp, I had to delete one star because of that Hooded Crow thing, no offense.)



2. You will never look at these birds the same again - fansinating.



3. Though it's not as long as I would like, the pictures are fabulous and the information is great. It's a must-read for anybody who likes corvids.



4. A good part of my childhood was spent on an upstate New York farm. We had lots of corn and many other vegetables; many birds - and one extra-special crow. He quickly adopted us and often spoke to my uncle and me by name in my aunt's voice and exact intonations. The vegetable farm, barn, shop-garage, and chicken coop were at the top of a fairly steep hill and the house was at the bottom. Aunt Rose ruled the household; the crow ruled the farm area. Sometimes he would deliver small things up or down the hill. My uncle and I never tired of his antics and wisdom. We were happy to do the work orchestrated by the crow and I was ready for J. Allen Boone's work years in advance.
   
   Bird Brains may not be the most scientific or even accurate book, but I bring it out any time I find a potentially interested visitor. Even now where I live in a fairly rural area of New York City - there are crows among my friends. They live in close quarters with several Cardinal families, near blue jays, and many smaller birds in a huge oak tree and smaller peripheral trees. Crows are gregarious and adjustable. They would no doubt be pleased with this book and see no reason to find fault.
   
   If the book were about humans, would be as picky as we are about crows being correctly represented? Do we expect all humans to be alike? Equally smart with similar talents?



5. I must have bought this book without reading the reviews. I wanted savvy text; I opened the package and found a coffee table book. And on the coffee table it will be stored. Four stars as a coffee table book. Two for content.
   
   It is a quick read. A few steps up from a Reader's Digest level. I did learn from it.

5 comments about Organizing and Editing Your Photos with Picasa: Visual QuickProject Guide.

1. "Organizing and Editing Your Photos with Picasa" by Steve Schwartz was a blessing to find. Picasa2 came with the new workstation I purchased. I had no idea how Picasa functioned and kept seeing new folders and duplicate pictures. Some photos were among my written files, most not. I knew it had to be me doing something I didn't yet understand. Thanks to "Organizing and Editing Your Photos with Picasa" my digital albums are now orderly and manageable. Great book! Fast shipping too.
   
   River Bones: A Mystery Novel



2. Organizing and Editing Your Photos with Picasa: Visual QuickProject Guide
   I had downloaded Picasa a few years ago, right after Google bought it. I used it a little, but took a course in a more sophisticated program which I later started teaching to seniors. Picasa took a back burner on my computer. I was recently asked to teach Picasa to seniors, and figured I'd better refresh my limited knowledge of it. WOW, was I impressed with Steve Schwartz's book and the Picasa program as it now stands! The book is just what it promises: a VISUAL guide. Screen shots are well done, as is the text, and the program is really quite powerful, especially for a free download. Leave it to Google, which does things right, and Mr. Schwartz's know-how to present this freebie in a clear, concise way. For the casual photographer, Picasa's editing capabilities are more than sufficient, easy to use and to understand. Likewise with the organizer. One of these days, I may just say the heck with the more sophisticated (and FAR FROM FREE) program I have been teaching--it is far too complicated and time-consuming for most people. Picasa, now promoted to an icon in my Quick Launch Bar, will be the only photo/editor/organizer I will use.



3. 
   I am presently sorting out and editing a large lifetimes collection of family photos and decided to use Picasa to do this. It worked well but there were a number of questions and the Picasa Help was not particularly helpful, including not allowing me to be quite sure I had the right approach to the all-important issues of back-up.
   
   I found the book to be very helpful and it has enabled me to resolve all of my queries. It is well produced and fairly simple - this is good as one can ignore the obvious pafrts and get good help where it is needed. It's now a bit out of date but not too much. All in all a very uaeful and strategic buy for anyone who is using Picasa for a managing a major collection of photos.



4. While the book covers all of the features of Picasa, I did not feel it was well organized, following a natural flow of introduction and use of Picasa. Additionally, while some material was duplicated, the author would sometimes ask you to return to visit earlier sections to understand his instructions. I have found the "Dummies" books to be better.



5. I returned this book. Picasa is so easy to use that few people will need a Visual Quick Start Guide. The Quick Start series is good but this program just doesn't warrant a guide at all.

5 comments about Fresh Fruits.

1. Every time I go to Japan, I buy a copy of the magazine "Fruits". I sometimes detour through otaku-town in Osaka to see what's new on the videogame front, and to see what some of the kids are wearing. Aoki's magazine and books (which are best-of collections from the magazines) are immensely interesting and enjoyable when we divorce ourselves of our American mainstream prejudices and see these young people defining their own fashion and developing their own aesthetics, appropriating high and low and non fashion to express themselves. What happened that American youth are generally so homogeonized, everyone essentially wearing the uniform of their declared social group? It's no fun, really, not compared to these kids.
   
   Sadly, the 'Fruits' in Japan are also slowly disappearing, being choked out by conformity and a changing local landscape. A sign of the times, for sure, and not an encouraging one.
   
   Well, borderline expat digression aside, this is a wonderful book. It's a semi-hardcover, real cloth binding, so with care it should last for a long time. There is no text to speak of (aside from some of the kids' names and what they're wearing) so it's an accessible book for - well, literally for anyone. I gave a copy to my eight year old niece last Christmas and she loved it, as did her parents. I have both "Fruits" and "Fresh Fruits" (as well as about ten different copies of the magazine) and they are equally good. If you have lots of books, the bright colors on the spine stand out nicely when these books are shelved, if that matters.
   
   'Bright colors standing out nicely' just about sums up the spirit of these books.
   
   By the way, a few years ago I showed the magazine to a professional fashion-designer friend of mine in New York and he fell in love with it immediately. You'd have to be pretty stodgy not to enjoy this book, highlights of the magazine, and document of a gradually fading, colorful and inventive subculture.



2. i saw that book when i was in Germany and wanted it ever since. Now i finally have it and i'm very happy about it. I like all the series of the Phaidon books and already have Fruits. The idea of this book is really great and i hope Phaidon will have some more books like this in the future!



3. Though it's pretty much the same as the previous Fruits book, I guess it's best if you keep it the way it is.
   It's a great quality book, completely filled with photos which are not only unique and beautiful, but also makes you question yourself about what is fashion, and what is acceptable or not on everyday life clothing.
   
   There should be more places around the world like Harajuku.



4. Great book, made my girlfriend quite happy. She is very into Japanese street fashion and this book just captivated her, she looked through it about 20 times the day i gave it to her. I enjoyed it too, but it was mainly for her.



5. Manga, anime, and Tokyo street fashion have a devoted following here in the States, and fans of the above should find this volume entertaining/fascinating. The ensembles displayed in Aoki's book range from super cute (supaa-kawaii) to imaginative to outrageous. Some of the teenagers look almost intimidating, but the funny thing is that if you get lost in Tokyo (easy enough to do), you can walk up to one of these apparitions and ask for directions. In almost every case, they will probably bow, smile, and respond in the most polite and respectful manner imaginable.

2 comments about Image Makers, Image Takers.

1. I love it. Wonderful, inspiring interviews with some of the best photographers alive today. Especially interesting are the interviews with Alec Soth and Anton Corbijn. You will not regret purchasing this, I just wish I had read it sooner! Beautifully put together and a great value.



2. I was thrilled to find this fresh, new, exciting book. It is densely packed full of interviews with a diverse range of the planet's top photographers, and other industry professionals, who answer questions in an engaging and thoughtful manner. There are lots of great tips for budding photographers. A contemporary classic, and latest must-read, for anyone into photography!

No comments about Zalami: Silent Exodus.