Images of Nature: The Photographs of Thomas D. Mangelsen by Charles Craighead is a folio about the stories behind some of Thomas D. Mangelsen's best known photographs.

Each chapter beings with a description of the natural setting. Craighead includes summaries of the animals, the time of day, and the challenges involved in taking photographs of nature in action. Besides expensive lenses, the process involves a lot of time and patience.

Mangelsen takes his equipment to remote, often wet, places at early hours. He researches the most active places for the type of animal he wishes to photograph and then he's there to capture them on film. But animals work on their own schedule. Weather interferes. But weather can also add drama.

Images of Nature ends with Mangelsen describing his equipment. As the book dates from the 1990s, his equipment includes a variety of film stock and there is no discussion of digital photography. That said, the over all advice of known your subject, know your equipment, and be patient is still very useful. ( )

Very large format photographic images ( )