Customer Reviews

Beaches

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Forget the hazzles and stress from the day. Take a trip to the coast, to the beach, to the lake. The book is beautiful and it makes me feel like I've taken a mini vacation!

This book is filled with stunningly beautiful photos from beaches all over the world. The brief text is also interesting, but the images will make you crack this open when you want to remember the magic that happens when the ocean meets the land. I don't know exactly what is different here but the photos look especially vibrant and kind of jumped out at me.

From Antartica, to Cape Cod, to Tahiti, Indonesia and Newport Beach to name a few you'll see all the different elements of beaches around the globe. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't love having this book around. This would also make a great gift.

I used to live in Capitola on the sand and looking through this reminded me of all the reason I love the beach. It's obvious that the authors must have the same passion. Also the book cover and pages are high quality and physically look and feel great.

Review Summary: Take the most talented photographers in the world. Review thousands of their best color beach photographs. Select a few dozen. Fill in with intriguing, inspirational essays about the origin, geology, physics, terms, and biology of beaches plus describe great beach activities like surfing. The result is a stunning work that makes you wonder how come you've never seen a beach scene as beautiful as these. It's the most fun at the beach you can have without going out into the sun!

Review: "The beach, after all, is among the most challenging and rewarding of photographic subjects . . . ." The shifts between land, water, and sky are often subtle. The light has an enormous influence on the colors and the mood of the scene. Light changes swiftly. The activity of the waves changes even faster. In many cases, a photograph is capturing a unique and fleeting moment, almost like a snowflake about to melt on your hand, that could not otherwise be as fully appreciated. While the editing could have selected scenes built around the nostalgia of your own experiences at beaches, the book instead takes you around the world and to rare moments to see beaches as you will probably never see them in a lifetime, even if you visited these same sites. I was particularly impressed by the scenes of waves (which must have been taken from surf boards) and through rocks.

The editorial selection criteria were intriguing: To show "how the beach might see itself if it were to ponder its own face without the intermediary of the human eye." That concept would not have occurred to me, and I am sure I will think about all scenes in nature differently in the future as a result. I am sure you will, too. Next, the editors looked for "the most crystalline, intelligent, and evocative portrait . . . ." They also wanted the book to show a "shining range of visual sensiblities." This sense is nicely captured by looking at scenes from dawn to dusk, and from full sun to fog. Panoramas alternate with tight shots of a single element. The book is not limited to ocean beaches. Estuaries, rivers and lakes are also pictured. When in doubt, the book's editors seem to have selected the images with the highest levels of unusual color, along with stunning compositions from unusual angles.

My favorites in the book are Art Brewer's Talava Arches on Niue Island in the Cook Islands, A. Blake Gardner's shot of Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, Michael Ventura's image of Natural Arches in Bermuda, Craig Tuttle's Tide Pool at Bandon State Park and his shot of Ecola State Park both in Oregon, Ron Romanosky's beautiful Newport Beach, California, Daryl Benson's Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Peter Lik's Australian shots of Orpheus Island in Queensland and Twelve Apostles in Victoria, and Joe Cornish's North Yorkshire Coast in England.

After you have bathed in the beauty of these rare natural wonders, I suggest you think about other rare moments that you may never experience. What are they? How can you seek them out? Can others help you? One of the great wonders of books, videos, and recordings is that they can bring us into extended communion with sights, sounds, and feelings that we have not directly experienced.

Let choosing rare, rewarding moments be a guide to your fulfillment!

I am a beach lover, and as the DVD producer / cameraman of the "Waves: Virtual Vacations" Series here on Amazon.com, this book has been an inspiration to me. The spectacular shots of beaches from around the world are truly extraordinary. Having shot myself hundreds of the best beaches from California, Hawaii, Florida, the Caribbean both with stills and for the DVDs, I can easily say this book is top notch. I highly recommend it. It sits proudly on my desk. And for those who want to see and hear what some of these beaches really feel like, bring this book with you and check out our Waves DVDs here on Amazon.

The is a stunning book. The photos come from diverse parts of the globe and diverse coastal landscapes. At first, I was skeptical of the small-ish size. But the photos are very high quality and beautiful to look at. Maybe someday I'll get around to looking at the text?

Now and then, I pull the book off the shelf and flip through the photos -- an instant retreat to the shore. Great for anyone who loves the sea but can't be there very often.

I saw this book at our campus bookstore, and being a starving college student, I hesitated at first to buy it...But when I flipped through the pages and saw all the beautiful photographs, I HAD to have it, I just couldn't resist...People that have a special attachment to the ocean will love this book.

This book is gorgeous. The photographs are astonishing, and convey the authors' love of the beach. Only a couple photos features people, and they're way in the background. This is a good thing. (The book is not coffee-table size, but that's okay with me, because I can keep it with me in my bag for a mood-lifter every day.) The beaches are far more lovely, important, and lasting than we humans! I'm betting that many readers will be inspired to plan their next vacation to get near some of these beaches after viewing this book. Perhaps some will also be inspired to behave in an environmentally responsible manner in their lives. Let's preserve our planet's natural beauty while we still can!

Seldom I come across a photographic book so vivid and inspirational. The layout, color, and organization as well as the printing quality of the book is of first grade. A truly must for nature photography lovers.

I bought this to use as our wedding guest book and it's the perfect size. I had previously seen in a bookstore but was able to get a better deal here. There is definitely enough white space around the beautiful pictures for guests to write messages. It'll be great to display in house and guests will be able to look at great pictures of beaches from around the globe.

Being an avid beach lover, my own beach can become mundane. We sometimes forget that beaches take place in many forms and colors. I was quite enchanted with this book, as it opened up new worlds and beaches to me. The clarity and colors created a visual imagery that revealed the beach for what it was: a muse and a home to us all.