California the Beautiful Hardcover – October 20, 2009

Bought this for a gift. It arrived on time and was welcomed enthusiastically by a California native who has spent most of his 80 years in careers away from the state of his birth. He is missing it and this book proved a hit as a gift! Thank you!

I purchased a number of these books as "thank you" gifts for various friends we are going to visit in Europe. I was so excited about finding a picture book on California, I didn't read the description thoroughly -- note that the books are only about 7"x7". Even so, their small size makes them perfect to carry in a suitcase. The pictures are quite nice and, even though the coloring is enhanced a bit, they truly show how beautiful California can be. My ONLY complaint with these books is that the price is printed on the back of the dust jacket! This means that if you're giving them as a gift, there's no way to cover up how much you paid (or could have paid) for the book. (I guess I can come up with a cute stick-on label ... )

This book is well worth buying, but not for Galen Rowell's photographs (as they are "printed" here)...the text is actually more indicative of the power of California's beauty and meaning.Rowell's use of super-saturated colors, whether accomplished with filters or digital editing, only serves to show just how MORE beautiful these scenes, at these times of day, are in reality!Subtle was not in Galen's vocabulary, apparently, yet the beauty of nature is often extraordinary AND subtle. I guess my thought really is that Galen Rowell and his 35 mm cameras, found amazing sights (and sites), and took their picture(s), but the essence of many of those sights, he lost because he wanted them to be even more "perfect" than they "really are".Trust us, Galen, they're even more perfect without all the color saturation effects....

This is a beautiful photo book of California. It is small (8x8) but I wanted a console table book, so perfect for my needs. There are lots of gorgeous sunset/sunrise photos, especially of the Sierras. If there is one drawback it is that there wasn’t as much variety of locations/times of day as I would prefer, but I am very happy with the purchase.

Great photos

Colorful photos

After visiting the mammoth mountain and Yosemite park, and climbed Half Dome there, I stopped by the East Yosemite entrance Exon Mobile Gas Station. This gas station is famous for great food like Lobster, and Baby Back Ribs, and Mango Margaritas. This only 20 miles South of other natural beauties like Mono Lake, June Lakes, and the East Sierra areas. This book illustrates other great finds around the area and more. This is a must for anyone who would like to see more of California! Keep Traveling!

This is a nice book, but I do have to say it was a bit smaller than I figured it would be considering that it was called a coffee table book. Usually coffee table books are larger. But overall it is a very nice book and has some great pictures in it.

Stunning graphics and photography accompanied by fantastic quotes I love it

A small book, but plenty of beautiful pictures. A nice adition to my book-shelves, specially by the price.

Nice

Magnifique, aussi bien qu’en vrai, et toujours d’actualité