Customer Rating: 
Summary: A quatum leap
Comment: The portfolio gets better and better every year but in 2008 there has been a significant improvement in the way the pictures reflect the animals in their natural environment.
Take the example of the 2 eagles fighting over a carcass or the bat flying in the jungle, every picture has an interesting story about the painstaking weeks (months in some cases) that it took to produce it.
Interestingly nearly all the photographers use D-SLR apart from one guy in South Africa that uses film.
I wish there was more information about the pictures as the organisers restrict the amount of information printed per picture, but every one has a great background.
This will make a perfect present to any interested in wildlife and / or photography.
5 stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This book gets better every year
Comment: I am pleased to say that I have every annual volume of this book and recently the photography seems to have gone on leaps and bounds, probably due to the fact that for all intents and purposes this is a book of wildlife competition winners. With a pot of money to be won, more photographers are entering the competition and then standard is rising. However do not let that put you off the images are no less then fantastic and the young section also has some great images.
This book will be a timeless volume and like mine will become well thumbed over the coming years. Its not just a great book of wildlife images but also a book to give all of us inspiration to get out there with a camera.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!
Comment: This is the second volume I've reviewed in the now very well established, BBC wildlife photographer of the year competition. Portfolio 15 was the first one I bought and because of the amazing pictures I've continued to buy it each year, however I did not review 16 or 17 because there was little else to say. Now, I feel there is.
I don't know what the photographers out there have been doing this year but the level in quality has jumped to a whole new level and it will be amazing to see if they can sustain it. The number of pictures produced from film rather than a digital sensor seems to have fallen almost to nothing but if the quality is improving for that reason then who would complain? The photos in this volume transcend wildlife or nature photography. They are fine art. Incredible moments, captured with exquisite competition and perfect timing.
A few photos after my first look already stick in my mind, an image of dolphins going after fish, an underwater portrait of a beaver, a snake trying in vain to eat a treefrog.
If you bought other volumes in the series you'll know how good they are and need little convincing, even without knowing how much better this new portfolio is. If you haven't - then you must try them out starting with this one. If you only have the one book of wildlife photography, make it this one - you won't find better than this anywhere.
The book follows the standard formula and include a short statement by each photographer and include technical details, these are generally short but cover the essentials like aperture and shutter speed and this is, after all, not a book on how to take a photo. It would be nice if the pages were bigger but they're glossy and the photos seem to have been reproduced very well.
Absolutely wonderful book, stands head and shoulders above the other volumes in the series. A must-own item!
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