Birds of Prey in the American West

Rating:
Summary: Masters of the Sky
Review: This is a great book of bird photographs. There are many spectacular, and some astounding, pictures of the raptors. That Vezo was able to get so close to birds catching their prey; eating their prey; with their young; and feeding their prey to their young, is beyond my imagination. The title page shows a kestrel perched atop a cactus with a lizard in its claw; the next page a prairie falcon crying defiance over a just-killed dove in an arid western landscape, and the book goes on from there. Two to four pages are devoted to each bird. But this is not a birding guide. This is a book of photographs.

This is not to suggest that every photograph is a wonderful shot. There are many record shots of hawks gliding against a blue sky. While these are not as impressive as most of the pictures, I suppose they were necessary for a book dedicated to presenting views of all of the avian raptors of the American West.

One of the questions that this book raised for me is whether these photographs were art. There is certainly not the well-developed sense of line and color that the great bird photographer Arthur Morris presents in his pictures. But looking at Morris' work, I also notice that none of his raptor pictures are as arty (no pun intended) as his other work. Vezo has set himself a difficult task. These birds are handsome, not pretty, and their chicks are sometimes downright ugly. Most of them seem to be glaring at us with hostility. They don't have long sinuous necks whose curves can be emphasized. And yet as I looked at a picture of a perched zone-tailed hawk, against the blue western sky, with its tail feathers displayed, I certainly felt a sense of admiration for these birds, which appear to be so much more in control of their world than we mere human beings.

A brief narrative by Glinski accompanies each set of pictures of a particular species. The writing is romanticized and filled with varying amounts of information on the birds. No one would ever buy this book for the text, although it seems customary to provide this sort of thing. Instead what they would want is the striking pictures, and anyone looking at them will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Masters of the Sky
Review: This is a great book of bird photographs. There are many spectacular, and some astounding, pictures of the raptors. That Vezo was able to get so close to birds catching their prey; eating their prey; with their young; and feeding their prey to their young, is beyond my imagination. The title page shows a kestrel perched atop a cactus with a lizard in its claw; the next page a prairie falcon crying defiance over a just-killed dove in an arid western landscape, and the book goes on from there. Two to four pages are devoted to each bird. But this is not a birding guide. This is a book of photographs.

This is not to suggest that every photograph is a wonderful shot. There are many record shots of hawks gliding against a blue sky. While these are not as impressive as most of the pictures, I suppose they were necessary for a book dedicated to presenting views of all of the avian raptors of the American West.

One of the questions that this book raised for me is whether these photographs were art. There is certainly not the well-developed sense of line and color that the great bird photographer Arthur Morris presents in his pictures. But looking at Morris' work, I also notice that none of his raptor pictures are as arty (no pun intended) as his other work. Vezo has set himself a difficult task. These birds are handsome, not pretty, and their chicks are sometimes downright ugly. Most of them seem to be glaring at us with hostility. They don't have long sinuous necks whose curves can be emphasized. And yet as I looked at a picture of a perched zone-tailed hawk, against the blue western sky, with its tail feathers displayed, I certainly felt a sense of admiration for these birds, which appear to be so much more in control of their world than we mere human beings.

A brief narrative by Glinski accompanies each set of pictures of a particular species. The writing is romanticized and filled with varying amounts of information on the birds. No one would ever buy this book for the text, although it seems customary to provide this sort of thing. Instead what they would want is the striking pictures, and anyone looking at them will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Vezo does it again. No one captures the essence of the bird on film as does Tom Vezo. If you've never seen a bird in the wild, look at Vezo's pictures and you'll feel like you're there.