Photo Book
Reviews
Alphabetized by Title
| A-Ad | Ad-An | Ar-Au | B | C-
| A-Ad |
Ad-An | Ar-Au |
B | C- Co |
Co-Cr | D-Di
| Di- Dy | E
| F | G |
H-Hi |
| Hi-Ho | I-J
| K-L | L(2) M |
N | O |
P-Ph | Ph
| Ph(2) |
Ph(3) | Ph(4)- Pr |
Q-R |
|S-Sp | Sp-Su
| T | UV |
W | XYZ |
Apogee Photo Home Page
All Reviews are by Paul W Faust unless otherwise noted as Michael Fulks (MF)
and Elizabeth Powis (EP).
To purchase any book or to find out pricing information, click
on any of the book images.
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100 Naked Girls
by Peter Hegre
This is a great collection of female nudes in the style of Peter
Gowland, but with a modern twist. I was not able to find out where
the work was done, but with names like Tatiana and Olga I’d say that
most, if not all of the models are from Russia, or nearby. If so,
they’ve come a real long way from the pictures of Russian women in
uniform and farm clothes that most Americans have seen over the
decades. The models are shot indoors and out, posed and in candid,
with and without props. Any nude photographer will get a lot of new
ideas from this collection.
This hardback book is over 8x10 inches, with 192 pages, retails for
US$40.00 – and is published by AMPHOTO BOOKS at
www.watsonguptill.com
I Rate it: A
(Reviewed March 2006) |
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100 Suns
by Michael LightI have come across a coffee table photography book that
is like no other I have ever seen till now. "100 SUNS" doesn’t
even have an author because the only writing in it are the notes and captions in
the back. 100 SUNS is a collection of images taken during 100 tests of
nuclear weapons, both in the desert and the South Pacific between 1945 and 1962.
Images in both color, and black and white, many seldom if ever before published.
We probably will all agree that the destruction these weapons cause if horrific,
but many of the images in this book are stunningly beautiful. Mushroom clouds
with golden halos all around, and other clouds that create their own lightning
bolts. Fireballs that turn night into day, and others that look like some cosmic
embryo being born. The books name comes from a portion of the Bhagavad Gita
that ends with,,, "I am become Death,,, the destroyer of worlds." This 11x13"
hardback book is published by Alfred A. Knopt Publishing and retails for
USD$45.00.
(Reviewed March
2004)
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111 Infrared Photos
by Joseph Constantino
This book is another from Author House and I am sorry to say that it
is not a lot better than the first. The print quality is the same on
what looks like typing paper, but I will say that the captioning is
a lot better in this one, and the images themselves are more
interesting. There is no information on how the images were taken,
only short comments on the subjects, but while many images look like
good IR work, others do not look anything like infrared. The poor
paper choice also makes the IR grain effect in many images look
almost like reticulation damage. It’s a shame, too, since more than
a few of the image subjects look great for this kind of work.
Both this book and the one above are way over-priced!
This soft cover book is about 8x11 inches, with 111 pages, retails
for US$25.50 - and is published by Author House at
www.authorhouse.com
I Rate it: B (Reviewed March
2007)
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1001 Adobe
Photoshop Tips
by Andy Anderson
Here is the “800-lb Gorilla” of Photoshop books. Actually this book
weighs over 7-lbs and I had to get out my large postal scales to
weigh it, plus it is almost 3 inches thick. - (In a few years after
it gets outdated you can use it to block up your car) - This is not
a how-to book, so the illustrations in it are all black and white as
it is not meant to teach you how to use the Photoshop tools, but to
supplying you with the tips and information you will need to do your
work easier and faster. However, after later going through this book
more thoroughly I found that the illustrations in it are done so
poorly that it lowered my rating for the whole book. The
illustrations are on the small size to begin with, and add to that
being grey scale makes it worse, but the final straw was the poor
choice of images used. The large majority of them are all of dark
subjects in front of dark backgrounds, which makes trying to see the
selection areas mentioned in the text next to impossible, and you
can just forget about trying to see where the curser is, even
with arrows pointing to many of them. I’d say that the authors need
to take a class in photo lighting before they start work on a second
edition of the book. In spite of the illustration problem I did
find a lot of useful info in the book. Fortunately this is not
typical of the quality from this publishers.
This soft cover book is about 9x11 inches, with 1,740 pages, retails
for US$69.99 – and is published by Thomson Course Technology and can
be ordered from
www.courseptr.com
I Rate it: B+(PF)
(Reviewed June 2007)
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One Hundred Seashells,
by Harold Feinstein
This one is a collection of the most
beautiful seashell images, from all over the world, that I have ever
seen published in one book. All you have to do is take one look at
the cover and you will know what the rest of the book looks like.
Many shells are familiar, while others look more like glass
sculptures, and then there are those that are photographed in a fine
art style. If you buy this one for a gift, you’d better buy two of
them because after you see it you will not want to give it away.
This hardback book is about 11x13 inch, with 144 pages and retails
for only US$50.00. Distributed by BULFINCH Press at:
www.bulfinchpress.com
I Rate it: A+++ (Reviewed Dec. 2005)
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ONE/MANY
Western American Survey Photographs
Bell and O’sullivan
by Joel Snyder
“Some of the most celebrated images of nineteenth-century American
photography emerged from government-sponsored geological surveys
whose purpose was to study and document western landscapes.” This
new book presents many of those images taken by the two best known
western survey photographers of that time, Timothy O’Sullivan and
William Bell. The images in this book were not meant to be works of
art, but many, like the shot of the Shoshone Falls in Idaho
certainly could be called that. Both photographers and history buffs
will like this book.
This soft cover book is about 11x8 inches, with 125 pages, retails
for US-$28.00 – and is distributed by University of Chicago Press
at:
www.press.uchicago.edu
I Rate it: A
(Reviewed August 2007)
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One Tree
by Garry Olson and Peter Toaig
This is one of those few books that I will review that is only about photography in
as far as there is photo illustrations in it.
However, I feel it is worth covering because it is a photo
documentary of the OneTree Project, which began in 1998 with the
felling of an ailing 170 year old oak tree in Cheshire, England.
Instead of turning it into firewood and mulch, every single piece,
including the scraps and sawdust, was turned over to seventy-four
artists who turned all of that into everything from toys and
jewelry, to fine one-of-a-kind furniture. Each piece was
photographed and is shown and explained in the book. This is one
book that everyone who loves beauty and creativity will want laying
on their coffee table for everyone else to look at. The creative
ideas in it are beyond belief!
This soft cover book is about 9x11 inches, with 192 pages,
retails for US$39.95 – and is distributed by Merrell Publishers
at:
www.merrellpublishers.com
I Rate it: A++
(Reviewed Sept. 2006)
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Our Pennsylvania,
by Jerry Irwin.
For those who live, or have lived in the
northeast, or Pennsylvania, you will like this new book just out,
Our Pennsylvania. This large 9.5x12 inch, hardback book
is full of great images of one of my favorite states to photograph.
It covers the state from old to new, mountains to valleys, and most
great photo subjects in between. This book will make one great
source for finding places to photograph, other than all of the
well-known ones like Gettysburg and the Amish areas. With 150 color
photos on 128 pages, it makes for a real pleasant way to pass time
reading it. This book retails for US$19.95 and is published by
Voyageur Press. If you need the same kind of book for another state,
and some major cities, you can check out what is available at
www.voyageurprress.com
I Rate it: A+ (Reviewed Feb. 2005)
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Our Philadelphia,
by Jerry Irwin
Irwin's new book is a picture book of the City of Brotherly Love. It
is a collection of images of the history and character of this
birthplace of America. A hardback book, 9.5x12 inches, with 112
pages of top quality printed pictures, it will make a great addition
to any home library. Every image is captioned, not only with what
the picture is, but also with many bits of added information. This
is a super reference book for anyone planning on visiting this
eastern Pennsylvania historical city. All of that and for a retail
price of only US$14.95. This book is published by Voyageur Press and
can be ordered from
www.voyageurpress.com
I Rate it: A
(Reviewed Aug. 2005)
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Outdoor Photographer
Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2
By Rob Sheppard
Here is a new book by a Photoshop Pro that will show you how to use
this program, not to fix all of your image mistakes, but how to use
it as another tool to improve how you make your images. The book
starts out with sections on how to shoot correctly from the start,
with Photoshop in mind as the next tool in the process, and goes on
from there. All of the Photoshop how-to information is in
step-by-step format, with before and after illustrations, and also
includes the settings used for each tool and step, so it is all very
easy to learn from. Along with all of the how-to info in this book,
it also includes a lot of “Pro-Tips” thrown in throughout it for an
added bonus.
This soft cover book is about 8x9 inches, with 379 pages, retails
for US$34.99, and is published by Sybex, an imprint of Wiley at www.sybex.com
I Rate it: A+
(Reviewed Aug. 2006) |
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