Click a book or video within a section to read about or buy it at Amazon.com
This section is devoted to the marvelous in the natural world.
The rating system used is as follows:
5 Melted Elephants: Mind-bogglingly excellent. All that will remain of your elephant will be a bubbling grey liquid.
4 Melted Elephants: Truly remarkable. The eyes looking out from the seething mass which was your elephant will alarm small children.
3 Melted Elephants: Interesting and worthwhile. Your elephant's features will swirl as though the world were the reflection in a glassy lake.
2 Melted Elephants: Has redeeming features. Your elephant will be sticky to the touch.
1 Melted Elephant: Not up to snuff. If you even attempt to test the consistency of your elephant it may trample you or turn away in disgust.
Light on the Land
by Art Wolfe (Introduction), Art Davidson (Editor)
4 Melted Elephants
Art Wolfe's most beautiful book, these large high-resolution photographs of mostly natural landscapes are etudes in light.
Antarctica : Beyond the Southern Ocean
by Colin Monteath
4 Melted Elephants
The photographs of arctic ice are so unlikely I suspect Colin Monteath may have dreamed them.
Karakoram : Mountains of Pakistan
by Shiro Shirahata
5 Melted Elephants
Like photographs of nuclear explosions, these images of some of the most hostile environments to man are full of majesty and power.
These 3 books by Galen Rowell provide photographic evidence that we are not in Hell.
The
Art of Adventure
by Galen A. Rowell, J. Curtis Sanburn, David Cohen
4 Melted Elephants
Galen
Rowell's Vision : The Art of Adventure Photography
by Galen A. Rowell
4 Melted Elephants
Mountain
Light : In Search of the Dynamic Landscape
by Galen A. Rowell
4 Melted Elephants
Nudibranchs and Sea Snails
by Helmut Debelius
5 Melted Elephants
For those who don't know, nudibranchs are what butterflies would be if they turned into mucous membranes and lived under water.
Aurora: Rivers of Light in the Sky
4 Melted Elephants
The Aurora Borealis in itself is sufficient proof that the universe is uncanny.
Tornado Video Classics Volume 1
5 Melted Elephants
If you don't want to be in Kansas any more, these videos are a start.
Tornado
Video Classics Volume 2
4 Melted Elephants
Tornado
Video Classics Volume 3 (1996)
4 Melted Elephants