Ireland: History, Culture, People

Book Description

Here's the next best thing to a trip to Ireland. Rich with illustrations and beautiful color photographs, this 416-page volume is a comprehensive survey of that country's history and culture, from the pre-Christian era through the creation of the United Kingdom and into the 20th century, right up to the recent economic boom. There's plenty more, including a dictionary of clans and families, a glorious appreciation of the landscape organized by county, and a selection of classic Irish recipes.

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The Great Lakes
Pierre Berton
Manufacturer: Stoddart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0773729712

Great Sand Dunes National Park: Between Light And Shadow

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A "must-have" for nature and environmental photography collections
Excellent Photography - Remarkable Journey

Great Sand Dunes National Park: Between Light And Shadow

Manufacturer: Westcliffe Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1565795148

Customer Reviews:

A "must-have" for nature and environmental photography collections.......2005-12-10

Great Sand Dunes National Park: Between Light And Shadow is a collection of essays and photographs by Boulder, Colorado-based nature photographer John B. Weller and showcases the landscapes of the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The truly breathtaking, full-color images of sand dunes, tracks, and wildlife are perfectly complemented by the brief reflective pieces describing the author's journey and experiences. Great Sand Dunes National Park reveals captivating beauty amid shifting sands and seasons; it is exceptionally easy to lose oneself in the panoramic interplays of light, shadow, sand, and natural life. A "must-have" for nature and environmental photography collections.

Excellent Photography - Remarkable Journey.......2004-10-21

The first thing that struck me about this book was the depth of Weller's exploration of Great Sand Dunes National Park. His images feature all seasons, a wide variety of subjects, and capture the many moods and emotions of this national treasure. As you delve into the book and read Weller's essays, he takes you on a virtual journey through the wilderness of the park - you can practically feel the sand in your fingernails and eyes; feel the rain of a summer storm; and step out of your home into an entirely different world. I highly recommend this book, both for its photography, and for Weller's writing.

Under Live Oaks: The Last Great Houses of the Old South

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I wish I could give this 10 stars!
Photo's are great
Southern Gothic Rehash

Under Live Oaks: The Last Great Houses of the Old South
Caroline Seebohm
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0609606999
Release Date: 2002-10-29

Book Description

“Southerners seem to stay close to each other, accumulating ties of kinship in a way that ultimately becomes almost impossible to unravel, and thus the family house remains the center of births, marriages, and deaths through the generations.”
—From Under Live Oaks

There is a part of the South that clings to its past, whether that past is an imagined or a real one. Resonant with antebellum elegance and sometimes turbulent history, the houses of Under Live Oaks act as a touchstone for another time, becoming repositories of rich family traditions for their owners.

This tenacity to hold on to their history is beautifully demonstrated in the decor of these houses, filled with antiques and personal treasures, decorated in the style that was fashionable 150 years ago and that has not been tampered with since. More than 200 images from acclaimed photographer Peter Woloszynski fill the pages of Under Live Oaks, giving a provocative view into a world many never see—a world of faded portraits, shelves of dusty porcelain, dolls lined up in an armchair, family letters, lace fans, invitations to the cotillion, old steamer trunks. These houses were the royal palaces of the age, furnished with the finest objects and fabrics—many imported from Europe—that the first half of the nineteenth century had to offer. Under Live Oaks offers a remarkably consistent vision of a period, a period that takes its place in the dark history of America and that casts a permanent shadow over its legacy.

The houses range from an Italianate villa in Columbus, Georgia, to a masterful Greek Revival mansion in Fairvue, Tennessee; from the charming Catalpa in St. Francisville, Louisiana, to the melancholy Winter Place in Montgomery, Alabama. The classic plantation houses of Natchez, Mississippi, compete in beauty with an elegant townhouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, and the historic Sherwood Forest in Charles City, Virginia. All the states of the Deep South are represented. A few of the houses are open to the public; others are unknown and unvisited except by family and friends. Yet all of them stand as witnesses to a bygone era.

Noted author Caroline Seebohm eloquently casts the stories of the land, the houses, and their owners. She vividly evokes the power of the architecture and interior design of these houses, and through her we hear the owners’ pride of place and staunch allegiance to their family history. Under Live Oaks is an intimate tour of the Old South, an experience available to only a few and that in the not-too-distant future will be lost forever.

Customer Reviews:

I wish I could give this 10 stars!.......2007-04-24

I own a 120 year old farmhouse in the South and I am fascinated w/ the history and culture. This book is a JOY! I LOVE reading about the families in the book, the photos are GORGOUS and I have been unable to put this book down! Of all the 'Home' books I've read this is by far my absolute favorite! ENJOY!!!

Photo's are great.......2003-08-22

If you like old houses of the South this book has some wonderful pictures. Some interesting photos of the interior rooms with a little bit of personal collections of the families. A great coffe table book. Not deep reading.

Southern Gothic Rehash.......2002-12-13

Both author and photographer of "Under Live Oaks" are English, and their knowledge of the South is distinctly secondhand and second-rate. Seebohm even acknowledges needing a crash course in Southern architecture from a friend! Instead of genuine knowledge and insight, we are offered a gauzy gothic cocktail of Hollywood cliches. (Mix one shot of "Gone With the Wind" with a dash of "Suddenly Last Summer" and a gallon of "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.") For a beautiful and intelligent book on Southern architecture, try "Architecture of the Old South" by Mills Lane. For photos that shed some light on Southern myths and realities, try "William Eggleston's Guide."

The Great Wall of China: Photographs by Chen Changfen (Houston Museum of Fine Arts)

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The Great Wall of China: Photographs by Chen Changfen (Houston Museum of Fine Arts)
Anne Wilkes Tucker
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300122470

Book Description

Chen Changfen (b. 1941) began to photograph the Great Wall twenty years before the Chinese government officially adopted it as the national symbol in 1984. This fascinating book presents a small fraction of his decades-long study of the monumental form and conveys the fertile range of themes and ideas that Chen has investigated, each informed by traditional Chinese art, history, and philosophy. Combining a unique blend of traditional and contemporary technical processes, Chen’s richly evocative photographs at once celebrate the remarkable series of building campaigns that produced the Wall and memorialize the thousands of conscripted laborers whose lives were sacrificed to its construction.
One of the most striking features of Chen’s photographs is their unexpected variety of perspectives and moods, capturing the vicissitudes of weather, time, and human history that have acted upon it. By excluding the people, highways, factories, and modern buildings that encroach on and daily destroy sections of the Wall, however, Chen eliminates major aspects of the Wall’s present reality from his pictures. In a thoughtful essay and interview with the artist, Anne Wilkes Tucker probes the meanings of such omissions and guides the reader through Chen’s extraordinary images. The Great Wall of China is essential reading for photographers, historians, and travelers.

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Bruce Davidson: England/Scotland 1960

Manufacturer: Steidl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3865211275
Release Date: 2006-01-15

Book Description

In 1960, after spending an intense year photographing a notorious Brooklyn street gang called The Jokers, Bruce Davidson decided that he needed to get away from the tension, depression, and potential violence connected to that work. He took on a commission to photograph Marilyn Monroe during the making of John Houston's film The Misfits in the Nevada desert, and then traveled to London on a commission for The Queen magazine. Edited by Jocelyn Stevens, The Queen was a magazine devoted to British lifestyle and Davidson was charged, with no specific agenda, to spend a couple of months touring England and Scotland to build a photographic portrait of the two countries. England/Scotland 1960 offers a visionary insight into the very heart of English and Scottish cultures. Reflecting a postwar era in which the revolutions of the 1960s had hardly yet filtered into the mainstream, Davidson's photographs reveal countries driven by difference--the extremes of city and country life, of the landed gentry and the common people--and lucidly portrays the mood of these times in personal and provocative imagery that is as fresh today as it was in that time. Published in this book for the first time in its entirety, this is one of undiscovered gems of late 20th-century documentary photography.

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Better than a stack of "regular" guide books
A fantastic book
Excellent Overview of a Fantastic City!
A book for all Londoners
A book for all Londoners

London: The Secrets and the Splendour
Nick Yapp
Manufacturer: Konemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3829004842

Customer Reviews:

Better than a stack of "regular" guide books.......2005-11-06

On the one hand, this oversized-but-not-quite-coffee-table book isn't really a guidebook, certainly not in the mold of Fodor's or Frommer's. There is no list of hotels and restaurants, no star-ratings, no chapter on "where to take the kids," no advice on where to get your money changed. On the other hand, this is the best all-round travel book about London I have ever had the pleasure of losing myself in. Reading this book, especially if you have at least a superficial familiarity with London, is like strolling through the city with an urbane, witty, and very knowledgeable uncle, someone who knows everybody and every place in it. For example: On a rainy day, you can go to the Sloane Square station of the Underground and listen to the remnants of the River Westbourne sloshing through a conduit overhead. You can visit Leadenhall Market and know who designed the roof. You can read the "Cockney Alphabet," or discover what happened to the Crystal Palace, or learn the ins and outs of the Chelsea Flower Show. You can find out why Brixton smells different than other neighborhoods, where the psychological division between north and south London originated, and how the Thames Barrier works. Or what happened at the first-ever FA Cup Final at Wembly in 1923. Or where Princess Diana bought her shoes. Or why you mustn't miss the engine room at Tower Bridge. Or why Old Billingsgate was more glamourous -- and much more fun -- than New Billingsgate. Because it was published six years ago now, some things have changed; Jack Straw's Castle, an inn and pub Yapp recommends for a visit, has now been sold and carved up into condos. But Hampstead Heath hasn't changed, and neither has Portobello Road. The eclectic topics covered are gathered into eight sections, either geographical (The Thames, The City, Westminster) or by subject, and each topic neatly fills a two-page spread, so you can really open the volume anywhere and just read. And every one of the 350 pages has at least one photo and often more -- most of them shot specifically for this book by Rupert Tenison. Yapp, a Londoner-born, also is obviously an afficionado of pubs. No matter what corner of the metropolis he's escorting you through, you can bet he'll point out the best watering-holes along the way, with something of their histories and unique personalities and notable regulars of the past -- nor does he hesitate to note those chains and themed houses that aren't worth spending your coin in. This is a truly marvelous book, nicely conceived, beautifully written, gorgeously illustrated. My attention actually was brought to it by an American friend, an historian, who has lived and worked in London for more than twenty years -- and who had discovered in it a great many things he didn't know and places he wasn't familiar with. It's out of print, unfortunately, but buy it used or get it through Inter-Library Loan -- but read it.

A fantastic book.......2002-12-05

I wanted to buy a really good book about London after returning from a recent visit there. I was a little wary buying a book such as this over the 'net, but I have to say I was not disappointed with this gem.

It is a classy, beautiful book, packed with slighlty off-beat information that is more than just a summary of what you read in your travel guides. The pictures are just gorgeous, not only capturing what I discovered of London during my all-too-brief trip, but also uncovering so much more.

If you want a great book about London, then this is the one for you.

Excellent Overview of a Fantastic City!.......2000-12-28

This book is excellent - the perfect gift for anyone who has visited or ever wanted to visit London. It covers all of the usual tourist attractions in the city, but it also covers the areas and sights that make London unique. The photographs are high-quality and Yapp offers bits of interesting history and stories that the average visitor would not know. It covers all aspects of the city...pubs, museums, literary and military history, shopping markets like Covent Garden and sites found just outside the city, such as Hampstead, Kew Gardens, and Greenwhich.

It is not a travel guide by any means, as the author notes in the preface, but it allows you to check out areas and historical notes about London that even a frequent visitor may not know.

A book for all Londoners.......2000-11-03

London: The Secrets and the Splendor is a wonderful book. It is the book for anyone who has ever loved the city of London. This book is a must, and anyone can read it.

A book for all Londoners.......2000-11-03

London: The Secrets and the Splendor is a wonderful book. It is the book for anyone who has ever loved the city of London. This book is a must, and anyone can read it.

Average customer rating:

outstanding
Great Resource.
All you need to know about the lighthouses of the Great Lakes

Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia
Larry Wright , and Patricia Wright
Manufacturer: Boston Mills Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1550463993

Book Description

The lighthouses of the five Great Lakes -- a comprehensive collection with full-color photographs.

This comprehensive, full-color encyclopedia features more than 650 lighthouses located on all five of the Great Lakes. These lakes may appear easy to navigate, but swift currents, hidden reefs and shoals, shifting sandbars, uncharted passages and fierce, fast-moving storms made early navigation a mariner's nightmare. Thousands of sailors' lives were lost before the network of lighthouses was established, and tales of tragedy and triumph abound.

All manner of stone, brick and wooden lighthouses were erected to light the night and guide the captains of schooners, steamers, brigs, barks and sloops. Too many of these noble structures have now fallen into disrepair or have been torn down in the name of progress, but hundreds survive as monuments to an exciting period in history and points of pilgrimage for millions of maritime enthusiasts.

Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia includes lighthouses in both the United States and Canada. For each there is a description of its history and construction material. For many that are either open to the public or accessible through state or provincial parks, points of access are given.

Customer Reviews:

outstanding.......2007-07-03

the best lighthouse book we have seen, and we have several excellent books, this is concise, easy to read and laid out so you can make a lighthouse color tour.

Great Resource........2007-05-15

This book provides more information about the lighthouses of the Great Lakes, past & present, than any I have read before. It is an outstanding resource.

All you need to know about the lighthouses of the Great Lakes.......2007-03-23

This is really a great lighthouse book. It has beautiful pictures and a lot of information about the history of over 600 lighthouses of the Great Lakes. It even has information on lost lighthouses such the Kalamazoo River Light near Saugatuck, Michigan. I know of no other book which has more comprehensive coverage of all of the Great Lakes lights and has it all in one volume. And my copy was a real bargain purchased a lower price here than any of the bookstores in my area.

Average customer rating:

Excellent as Usual..
Load of rubbish
Now in colour!

How to Shoot Great Travel Photos
Susan McCartney
Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1581153260
Release Date: 2008-01-22

Book Description

Illustrated with 150 breathtaking images from the author's own collection, How to Shoot Great Travel Photos presents a comprehensive road map to the challenges and rewards of capturing original, top-notch travel photos. World traveler and master photographer Susan McCartney provides tested techniques for shooting magnificent photographs at practically every exotic scenario imaginable, along with advice for exposures, films, filters, and lighting. There's also an extensive section that covers travel precautions and problems, organizing trips effectively, communicating from the road, and even for practicing skills close to home. Whether one wants to shoot photos for a family album or intriguing shots for travel brochures, this guide is packed with a wealth of priceless professional advice!

Customer Reviews:

Excellent as Usual.........2006-11-24

I discovered Susan McCartney in a New York Times review of her first travel book, the review was positive in the extreme. I thought as a New York professional photographer for over twenty years I knew it all, that book proved me wrong! I had years of formal training, yet her book had all the 'nuts & bolts' of the craft that I didn't know. I also learned how to travel & shoot in a efficient and profitable way. Over the years I purchased everything McCartney wrote including 'How to Shoot Great Travel Photos' this new work continues the wonderful writing style and most important her years of hands on experience doing travel photography. Unlike the 'fluff' found in many "photography" books, McCartney is the real deal, I urge you to get your hands on all of her books!

Load of rubbish.......2006-05-26

This book is an absolute waste of money. I bought this because I enjoyed her other book "Travel Photography" which is quite good but this book is probably the worst I have bought.

The information is out of date and wrong in quite a few sections. Worst of all the photography is probably the worst I have seen and is printed very poorly. Based on this I dont know how she got where she is. Money spent better elsewhere.

Now in colour!.......2005-12-20

Well Susan McCartney has done it yet again. For those of us in the travel photography business, and for anybody aspiring to enter, Travel Photography: A Complete Guide to How to Shoot and Sell is the bible. But one thing I always wished it had more of was photographs. Lots of big colour ones. How to shoot great travel photos not only solves that problem but it also goes beyond to cover anything and everything you could ever want to know about how to travel and photograph the world.
A quick glance over the index will show you that this is a very in-depth book. Want to know how to go about charging your equipment overseas? Covered. Want to know what lenses to take? Covered. Should you shoot film or digital? Read on to find out.
But reading the index only tells half the story. It's the way that Susan McCartney presents the information that makes this book shine. Clearly, concisely and in such an interesting way that if you're not inspired to be both a better photographer and traveller after reading this book then I'm afraid there's no hope for you!
One problem I find a lot of travel photography books have is that they talk about the techniques in a general sense and you come away thinking that it's more a book about just photography and not so much about travel. One read of any of Ms McCartney's book and you'll realise that the travel is an integral part of whatever she does. She loves the people and places she visits as much as the photography and that is a very important fact.
If you can't imagine travel without photography, or photography without travel then I highly recommend this book.

Paul Dymond
www.dymond.com.au

Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky (Great Plains Photography)

Average customer rating:

An Incredible Picture Book for Nebraskans
Fabulous for non-Nebraskans too
Postcards from Nebraska
well rounded pictorial of Nebraska's diversity
Wonderful coffee table book for Nebraska state lovers

Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky (Great Plains Photography)
Joel Sartore
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0803259700

Book Description

Welcome to a journey across Nebraska. Relax, take your time, and enjoy the vistas. From Chadron to Falls City, Carhenge to the Wayne Chicken Show, Burwell to Omaha, and everywhere in between, this book captures all that is Nebraska—the people, places, and events that make this state our home. Joel Sartore drove ten thousand miles in a beat-up Chevy truck to record the essence of Nebraska in the images that grace this book. Every page offers readers a chance to reminisce about their own lives and their special times in this great state. If you don’t find at least a few photographs that make you smile or remember something fondly, then you haven’t been in Nebraska long enough.

Customer Reviews:

An Incredible Picture Book for Nebraskans.......2006-12-04

In a word - gorgeous. The author - Joel Sartore - is a contributing photographer for National Geographic Magazine, so you know that the photography is going to be something special and it is. Sartore travels throughout Nebraska, taking pictures of everything - an endangered beatle, rodeos and the cowboys that compete in them, pheasant hunters and fisherman, and Carhenge.
It's is a book that will those of us who live outside the state homesick for Nebraska. It is a reminder of Nebraska's true spirit - it's people. People who live in a state that's dismissed as uninteresting by most, but who make up for any perceived geographical shortcomings by being interesting themselves
Sartore honors his craft, as he captures those traits in the pictures of Nebraskans throughout this book. There isn't a lot of writing, just enough to describe what's happening with each photograph.
"Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky is a perfect Christmas present for that Husker fan who already has everything colored red. The price is right (less than $15 at Amazon, click the link above).

It's the kind of book you can pass around amongst your family at Christmas time, and I guarantee that they'll spend a few hours pouring over the pages. Well worth the money just to have around, even if you're not going to give it as a present. Leave it on your coffee or end table - someone will pick it up and it will provide hours of quiet entertainment for the holiday season.

Seriously, you don't want to miss this one.

Fabulous for non-Nebraskans too.......2000-02-06

Joel's work is extraordinary and will be appreciated by even those who have never set foot in the state of Nebraska. It will definitely make you want to visit, though!

Postcards from Nebraska.......1999-12-31

Joel Sartore has captured the subtle essence of why so many Nebraskans that leave the state eventually come home to roost. Unbeknownst to most residents as they grow up, a strong imprinting slowly takes place. As Joel explains, the unique sense of family, community, place, and weather, all contribute to this phenomenon. Joel's photographs are a collection of these innocent but pervasive features of life in Nebraska. If you have ever struggled to describe Nebraska to a person who has never visited the state, this book is for you. It will crystalize your thoughts.

well rounded pictorial of Nebraska's diversity.......1999-10-25

Fabulous, a must buy for transplanted nebraskans and residents alike.

Wonderful coffee table book for Nebraska state lovers.......1999-10-19

The pictures put you right where the action was

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