Customer Reviews

Serengeti: Natural Order on the African Plain

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having just returned from Kenya and Tanzania and as an aspiring photographer myself, I was anxious to get my own film developed. I did and had some good shots, but was dissappointed because only a few of my shots conveyed what I felt when I was actually in Africa. Only a little bit of what I captured on film was something I could use to show people when they asked me how my trip was. Out of my own photographs, only 3 or 4 really conveyed the emotions and awe I felt in viewing the African wildlife and landscape.

This book is a completely different story. Every single photograph conveys all of the beauty and awe-inspiring nature that is Africa. I can look at these photos and say "this is exactly what Africa is like." These photos are so beautiful that just by looking at them I begin to feel some of what I felt standing on the plains myself at dawn watching a family of lions no more than 100 yards away. Iwago's use of composition, light, and technique clearly convey life on the Serengetti. Everything from the absolute power of the lion to the complete goofiness of the Wildebeast is conveyed wonderfully in this book.

If you have any of the same interests I do in wildlife and Africa go on safari. If you can't do that, at least do yourself the favor of picking up this book.

This book is a wonderful tribute to nature's beauty. The photographs are outstanding and only someone who loves nature could have taken them. A great panorama of the great Serengeti through its two seasons. Thank you Mr. Iwago.

These images bring the Serengeti to you. This being largely a pictoral tour of the Serengeti, words do it little justice. If you are an intelligent animal lover with a pulse, you will pay twice the cover price for this book.

Pay heed to the subtitle of this book - "Natural Order on the African Plain" - as it does not shy away from images that may not show up in a children's book. I'm so glad this tome is still in publication, as it is a beautifully photographed document of life and death on the Serengeti Plain that stretches across Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. Photographer Mitsuaki Iwago has captured the vibrancy of the mythic wildlife of this expansive area, in particular, the scope of the Great Migration, when over a million wildebeest and zebra travel hundreds of miles in search of water.

Iwago has a wondrous eye for detail, whether it's an uninterrupted pattern of zebras with their heads bowed to drink up from a watering hole or a gaggle of hungry hawks gnawing on the dead carcass of a lion. My personal favorites are any pictures showing adult animals and their children and the ones showing the Masai villagers living so naturally amid the wildlife. Even the eye-wincing scenes of death make for vivid reminders of how essential the cycle of life is on the plain. I have been lucky enough to have been on safari on the Masai Mara, which is the northern part of the plain, and the images in Iwago's book perfectly evoke my experiences on the range rover as we looked at life happen. This is a great coffee-table book at the right size not to be overwhelming.

This book has the pictures we wish we could have taken, excellent information, covers the serengeti from rain season to dry. Highly recommend for someone going to or who has been to the serengeti.

We recently returned from Tanzania and Serengeti, after seeing this book in the airport in Africa at the start of our trip I could not carry it around for 5 weeks up Mt Kilimanjaro, after returning to Australia and finding it very difficult to get, I am glad that I have found it. A truly lovely piece for the coffee table

I have just written a book about the Serengeti myself, but it's a business fable and has no photos. This coffee table book has photos...over 300 stunning photos!

Hats off to the photographer Mitsuaki Iwago for capturing the diversity of wildlife that inhabit the unique landscape of the Serengeti plains of East Africa. Mitsuaki, I was so impressed with your book that I bought 30 as gifts for my friends. Thank you for spending 18 months there to take the photos.

Stefan Swanepoel
Author: Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business and Life

This book offers vivid snap-shots from the Serengeti National Park through dry and wet seasons. It has everything I dream to encounter on a safari trip - landscapes, cute babies, huge herd of animals, and battles for survival. The photographer got some incredibly close-shot of the most fierce pictures, as if everything were still yet you can feel the tense and the motion. I got it as a warm-up for my Tanzania trip. If you need to be convinced to go on a safari or want reminders to keep your safari memory alive, flipping through this book over a cup of morning coffee is an irresistible option.

The pictures are fine, but this book won't show anyone interested in wildlife anything new - & it doesn't explain anything...

The pictures are stunning.

But it is only a coffee-table book, and there it will remain, because pictures is all it is. You get no sense of place; it is impossible to orient yourself ... a nice picture of an elephant is just that, and this book provides no context whatever.

But, it does have nice pictures.