Waves

"Waves" caught my eye while I was searching for something unrelated, can't remember what, but when I saw it, I was drawn in, abandoned previous search, and had to have it. I grew up by the water, spent every waking moment in the waves on my little beach back home, and this book instantly made me feel the powerful pull of the ocean from the front cover to the back. Every page is breathtakingly beautiful, it makes me long to paint, to capture the strength and delicacy of water the way these photographs do. Alas, that is not to be, but at least I can look at these amazing pictures and dream. There is text about the dynamics and working of waves, very good, but the pictures blow me away.

You can actually feel the energy of the waves in some of these shots coming right off the pages. There are some very awesome shots - unusual angles, colors, and just plain spectacular. Great coffee table book. That's where mine stays, and I still pick it up and flip through it when I'm on the phone. Mother Nature makes a great model to work with.

I bought this book because I saw it for sale when I was in Hawaii, but didn't want to carry it home with me and risk the chance of it getting banged up in transit. The photos are beautiful. The only thing I don't like about this book is that some of the photos run from one page to the next, which means that there's a big crease down the center of some of the really great photos. It's a great coffee table book, especially for those of us who live far from the ocean and need a reminder of its beauty.

Walt Whitman's strophe to the ocean could well be applied to this exciting book that captures the noise, the majesty, and the seduction of the sea - with a special emphasis on the waves. Writer Steve Hawk is a committed wave-rider and has collected a varied group of photographs of the challenging waves that seem at once threatening and exhilarating: the viewer can easily imagine the constant call of the sea to surfers within these pages. Just as there is an infinite variety of ocean waves, both at sea and as the waves meet the shore, so is there a spectrum of photographs here, photographs that surprise not only in the obvious challenge of those who captured them, but also in the spectrum of colors that light and wind and mists alter their beauty and majesty. The photographers include the well known such as Art Brewer, Wayne Levin, Jeff Divine, Wayne Levin, and Joel Meyerowitz as well as lesser well-known but equally impressive artists. The locations for the photographs are from all around the planet and the variation in the quality of light and perspective is beautifully related to these different vistas. For the most part Hawk allows the images to speak for themselves, but being a journalist he also interjects some interesting facts and poetry that variably enhance the book. WAVES is a must-have book for those already committed to the sea, but it is also a fine volume of images for those who continue to marvel at the power of nature. Grady Harp, December 06

This is a very beautiful photo book on a very specialized topic--the photos are exclusively those of ocean waves. There aren't even any surfers in the photos, although there is one or two with a pod of dolphins, and various backdrops are sometimes used, but the waves themselves are truly the protagonists in most of the pictures. The photos show surfing and beach locations all over the world, including famous places like Weimea Bay in Hawaii as well as those I was less familiar with, such as the location in Tahiti, which has very beautiful waves and was featured in a number of the photos. One striking aspect of the photos is how much the colors of the waves vary, from light sky-blue to a deep marine and saphire blue to a dark, mossy green color. I don't know if this is more from the light or the type of photo emulsion used, or both, but just the spectrum of color possibilities is as varied and diverse as the waves themselves. Not all the waves are big; some are just beautifully shaped or symmetrical, or they are shot with an interesting subject in the background or foreground--such as the one showing San Francisco's Ocean Beach with a lone wave breaking in the background. This book will be of interest to anyone who appreciates nature photography or the beauty and power of the sea, as reflected in the awesome power of the waves themselves. The text is well written and there is even a brief discussion of the physics of waves and how the power in mechanical foot-pounds of a wave can be calculated, which was developed by a famous oceanographer. (Most of the text isn't nerdy though). :-)