Customer Reviews

Galapagos in 3-D

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This series is plainly one of my all time favorites! All ages will love this book.

Explore the wildlife and landscape of the famous Galapagos islands, above and below the ocean's surface. Galapagos in 3-D is filled with beautiful photography with informative captions. But, if you have normal binocular depth perception, you will be absolutely blown away by the amazing 3-D stereo effect.

Mark Blum is certainly a leading practioner of the difficult art of stereo photography. He has designed and even built his own specialized cameras. He uses cameras capable of seeing the world from the perspective of a tiny shrimp, or giving the viewer a crystaline sense of depth in a vast scene of cactii spreading out to the horizon.

I am especially intrigued by the underwater stereo photographs. The book ends with a magnifacent shot of 2 hammerhead sharks surrounded by a huge shoal of creolefish. The depth effect is incredible!

I simply can't recommend Galapagos in 3-D highly enough! All of Mark Blum's books are superb!

The publisher has unfortunately tried to market these fabulous works as childrens books (not that they aren't wonderful for kids as well), but these photos are truely amazing both in the quality of the photography, but also in the presentation. They are printed on very high quality coated paper with a STURDY set of lenses built right into the hard cover, which allows you to view them in all their splendor without any additional equipment.

These are not red/blue lenses! The images are presented in true color stereo pairs and when viewed, merge into a single, dynamic 3D image - WOW! I can't say enough about the overall quality of viewing for ADULTS as well as children.

The price is another thing that confuses me. I don't know why these are so inexpensive? I urge anyone who loves nature to buy all of the books in this series!

You may get some funny looks as you stick your head into this book to look through the 3-D glasses, but it is well worth it! There are some remarkable photos; my favorites include the Marine Iguana, the Galapagos shark, and the Stone Scorpionfish (which looks like something from Star Wars). Mark Blum specializes in underwater stereo photography, and some of the underwater photos such as the seahare or spotted moray eel really pop out. There are also the Galapagos favorites such as Sally Light-Foot Crabs and Sea Lions. Only a few of the pictures did not work that well in 3-D, such as the brown pelican, or some of the habitat photos, but provided for well-rounded text. Associated with each of the 44 pictures is a useful paragraph that introduces the species or habitat. For example, I did not know that the sex of the Giant Tortoise offspring depended upon the temperature of the nest. A fun book for any age!

Worth every penny. Mark's photos are one of the few ways to appreciate the underwater and terrestrial landscape as close to real life as possible, without the hassles of separate glasses.

I felt I was back underwater with Mark's book. If these images moved, it would be more thrilling!

GALAPAGOS IN 3-D

Fabulous book with stereo 3-D photos!

I highly recommended this book for school children and adults alike.

I was introduced to the book by a friend and liked it so much that I sought out and bought all of the 3D books by Mark Blum. I find the price so reasonable that I've since bought more to give as gifts.

I enjoy looking at the 3-D photos even more than my seven year old boy so I already know several adults and children who will be getting this book as a gift.

The technical quality of the photos and printing of the books is very good. A magnifying, stereo viewer is built into a unique bi-fold cover of the book A little research showed that this idea is well over a hundred years old (like stereo photography) but I still find it very innovative because it is so rare and unusual.

The photographer has an inspired eye and top technical skill. Not to mention an amazingly adventurous job. The 3D photos make it easy to imagine yourself scuba diving under a school of hammer head sharks!

The writing accompanying each image adds to the photos with just the right amount of scientific and general information to serve both young and old reader. I like this book very much and I hope you find this review helpful. I recommend looking for the other 3-D books by Blum. They are all great!