African Air

This book will enthrall you from the first pages. In fact even though the cover picture is great it is only an 8 when most of the pictures are a pure 10! His narrative was good but I can't get over the pictures so I pick this book up when I have 5-10 minutes and can't stop looking at the pictures to read the book. I have 2 kids and I show them the pictures too and they are enthralled. I can't understand the other reviewer saying this book is short because I still see something new each time after looking at it for a year. I am not an Africa expert but I know what I like and this book is spectacular. His method of using a paraglider is unique and I have seen books of satellite pic's and then books of pic's taken from planes or on land. Steinmetz has truly created a masterpiece. You can see the faces of peoople in villages and then look as he later flies to far off remote places that few dare to go and if you did it would be in a superliner 20,000 feet up. To me this book shows you what God sees. 100 ft or so above the earth. Kids and adults looking up that have never seen any aircraft so close. Remote villages surrounded by jungle nestled on the rivers. Sand dunes more beautiful than any movie, and I swear that if you looked at one very special landscape picture independently you would guess it to be the landscape of Mars. I like this type of book and if you have any inkling of wanting to engage in an adventure without being there buy this book. It will take you somewhere very few people have the priviledge of going. 26 years of work down to 1 picture book? You know it's going to be good, no great!

These are spectacular pictures from a unique perspective (hang gliding). An excellent panorama of the African continent and its population (animal and human). Somewhat short for the price though.

Breath-taking photography, no question. But before purchasing I wish I had known that the book focused on only a very few countries. And a book on African aerial vistas and not one photograph of magnificent Victoria Falls or majestic Mt Kilimanjaro??? Most pictures are a work of art, and many are of remote and unusual spots which is much appreciated, but...a real disappointment to a 20-year Africa hand.

This enthralling book of photographs by George Steinmetz, noted photographer for National Geographic and GEO magazines, tells the story of Africa through the lens of aerial photography. Soaring over the continent in a motorized paraglider, Steinmetz succeeds in capturing what are surely some of the most breathtaking images ever seen of wild and otherwise inaccessible areas. But it's not just the remarkable photographs that make this book worth having. The first few pages tell the story of how Steinmetz came to Africa as a young college student and how he launched his career in photography after becoming captivated by the land and its people. At intervals throughout the book, he shares the story behind some of these amazing photos, and its easy to feel you are on the journey with him. The photos themselves are really mesmerizing. Even my kids were huddled in close to me as we paged through, asking questions and pointing out their favorites. This is a book that should really be in every library.