5 comments about Photographing the Southwest: Volume 2--A Guide to the Natural Landmarks of Arizona & New Mexico.

1. Have you ever been in "The Southwest" without looking at Laurent Martres two guide books Vol. 2 and Vol. 1, than you really have to visit the place again.
   If you see landscape-pictures in magazines, calenders, on postcards or posters and you think: "Whow, this is something I want to see with my own eyes.", than you will surely find it in Martres' two books "Photographing the Southwest".
   He not only shows beautiful pictures from things you have never seen before and I'm sure you like to, no, additional he gives very good way descriptions (including needed time) and a lot of tips how to take the best pictures and at which time of the day.
   I visited the area and the National Parks (and the visiting tourists) in more than one vacation. Laurent Martres was able to lead me to the places I ever dreamed of, "behind the tourists".
   Planning your next trip? Best buy!!!



2. This book, combined with Photographing the Southwest: Volume 1, which covers Colorado and Utah, is an absolutely essential tool for serious photographers who are looking to spend time photographing some of the most spectacular natural sights of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.
   I own both books, together with the accompanying cd roms, and I can honestly say, as a serious advanced photographer, I have never made a better investment. Since aquiring these guides, I have returned to the Southwest three times in three years, and each time have returned home with memories and photographic images that I had never known existed. These books are well written with great attention to details and chock full of black and white photos which excite the imagination. The cd roms provide hundreds more photos of these and nearby areas in vivid color. Together, this is a must have collection.
   These books are not mere travel guides; they are an indispensable aid to photographers looking for the most photogenic spots in any given area of the Southwest. After spending hours enjoying these volumes, you will learn exactly how to get to each of these awesome spots, the best time of the year to travel to them, the preferred time of day to arrive for ideal lighting, suggested lenses and equipment and even the best spots (literally) to stand for ideal camera angles. Laurent Martres pretty much does it all for you; however, you will have to put on your own hiking boots and do your own walking, climbing, scrambling and whatever else it may take to get you to some of these hidden and often out of the way places. The rewards are great for those willing to follow his suggestions which will often include getting up well before dawn, hiking a few minutes or a few hours in some cases and a few days in others, scrambling over bolders or squeezing thru narrow canyons, wading thru waist high water or four-wheeling over back roads that will challenge the most adventureous among us.

   Since getting hold of these books I have done all of the above and have always come home with more than my share of wonderful memories and prizewinning photos. I have discovered spots that I must return to over and over again because I just can't get enough of their jaw dropping beauty. I have spent time in locations you won't find in travel books or just about anywhere else for that matter. Many of these are places you would drive right by, never realizing their existence were it not for these books. A good number of the places featured in these books are generally not well publicized or often written about.
   If you have interest in photographing or seriously exploring the lesser known and less often visited scenic wonders of America's Southwest, then I can't recommend both of these books and their accompanying cd roms enough. They should be on the bookshelves and in the backpacks of all serious lovers of the Southwest. They are invaluable in planning my photo trips; before I leave home, I pretty much know where I'll be going each day and what I can anticipate along the way. I have yet to be disappointed in any of the places I've spent time hiking to; quite the contrary since I am most often overwhelmed upon experiencing these spots in person. I expect to spend many future years searching out and exploring the great number of wonderful places Laurent Martres brings to our attention in both of these volumes. Thanks, Laurent; I'm looking forward to your future works.




3. Martres's two books on photographing the Southwest are remarkably useful, sensible, and affordable. He keeps his directions--both geographic and photographic--brief, relevant, and precise. Even if you don't take a camera, these books can help you reach remarkable places of which may never or only vaguely have heard of. I even enjoy just "armchair travelling" with these books.



4. This is a very good book with detailed information for photographors. It gives photo advices, time estimation, etc, which can be very helpful for planning your trip. I give it 4 stars for two shortcomings: the first is that it doesn't have colorful pics, although you can buy the accompanying CD; the second is that it doesn't contain any maps, so you'll have to figure out by yourself where the places are. I'd suggest you also look up one other title by Joseph K. Lange: Photographer's Guide to the Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona. In my opinion, that one is even better.



5. I own both vol.1 and Vol 2. of Photographing Southwest". I agree with other reviewers that they contain excellent materials and are very useful.
   What I don't like is that Vol. 2 contains the following that is essential the same in Vol.1:
   PREFACE (identical)
   ACKNOWLWDGEMENTS (identical)
   ABOUT THIS BOOK (differs in a few words)
   Chapter 1 (identical)
   Chapter 2 (identical)
   Chapter 16 (Identical to parts of Chapter 5 in vol. 1)
   APPENDIX (Majority is the same)
   
   In other words, 30% Vol. 2 is already in Vol.1. In my opinion, it should really be a single book containing both.

3 comments about New Mexico (America Series).

1. The book is very prettily done. Lots of slick photographs of things that caught the photographers eye. But - not a lot to really give you the scope and majesty of New Mexico. I have found that other books - particularly a book of how-to's for photographers visiting the Southwest [Photographing the Southwest: Volume 2--A Guide to the Natural Landmarks of Arizona & New Mexico, by Laurent Martres] to be actually a much better travel guide.

   However, it looks nice on the coffee table... how's that?




2. I've lived in New Mexico for most of my life, and usually find photo books of the state to be pretty bland and unexciting: adobe areas of Santa Fe, red chile ristras hanging in doorways, monotonous collections of animal-shaped hot air ballons, and Socorro's Very Large Array of satellites facing the sky like sunflowers.
   This book has all those things, but it also has a good variety of weird natural formations, urban parts of Albuquerque, and even some ruins. Many of the photos are beautiful, and overall the collection is eclectic enough to give a person a good idea of many of the unique facets and areas of New Mexico.



3. I ordered 3 of these books as brand-new. I use them for customers who purchase out-of-state investment real estate from me. They enjoy getting a book of the state they purchased in. 1 of the books was used. I was in a short time frame and needed to deliver the books immediately, so I gave 2 clients a brand-new book and 1 client a used book.

2 comments about Children's Guide to Santa Fe (New and Revised).

1. This book is a delight, and an essential tool for Santa Fe parents and visitors. Every home should have one. It's a complete, clear, and enticing guide to the things children of all ages can enjoy in Santa Fe. It made me want to borrow friends' children or be a kid again, myself.
   
   D.Potter



2. This is one of two great guidebooks written for parents to help them select places to visit and activities to include when they take their children to Santa Fe. Both this guide and "Santa Fe with Kids" provide basic information about the usual activities and attractions popular with children in Santa Fe: the Children's mMseum, Palace of the Governors, the Plaza, and lots of others. You can't go wrong with either of these.
   
   This guide is a little more "scholarly" than the other. It begins with several pages of child-friendly facts about Santa Fe's history, and includes more activities related to the arts and culture.
   
   Both guides describe fun day trips from Santa Fe, but this one includes a good bit of information on attractions and activities for children in Albuquerque (and Los Alamos) that is useful if you plan to spend time there as well.
   
   Overall, this guide contains more information than the other (it's longer and a little more expensive) and it has a wonderful drawing of the Plaza on the cover. It does lack the information about child-friendly restaurants that the other guide provides.
   
   Of course, if you are looking for a guide that is written for children rather than for parents--one that can be your child's own--I recommend I See Santa Fe! A Children's Guide and Coloring Book
   
   -Lynn Michelsohn, author of Roswell, Your Travel Guide to the UFO Capital of the World!

No comments about Rand McNally Easyfinder Santa Fe: Laminated (EasyFinder).

1 comments about Green Dreams: Travels in Central America.

1. Mainstream media usually gives Latin America a raw deal. News articles zero in on violent crime, political uprisings and natural disasters, while tourism features tout escapism from cruise ship extravaganza to Fantasy Island-wannabes.

   Rarely are environmental issues discussed, let alone ecotourism initiatives. However, this situation is improving. Case in point is the publication of Green Dreams, (Oakland: Lonely Planet, 1998, 278 pages, $13) by Stephen Benz.

   This new volume in Lonely Planet's Journeys series provides narratives from the authors travels in the Amazon, Chiapas, Honduras' Mosquitia, Guatemala and Honduras. Despite the chapters about his adventures in South America and Mexico, the book is unwittingly subtitled, "Travels in Central America."

   The chapters are arranged chronologically, detailing the authors first forays into "ecotourism" by traveling to Iquitos, Peru's port on the great Amazon River. He has been told he can survive as a stringer if he writes unusual travel pieces.

   "Not much money, but a quick and easy by-line, and it paid enough cash to keep you going for a spell without having to resort to the even older stand-by of giving English lessons," he explains in the opening chapter.

   A year later he headed to Honduras, another political hot spot, in search of journalistic opportunities. But instead of covering the war, he finds himself wanting to explore the country's wilderness.

   "Here it was, the object of my quest, the Rio Platano. I should have felt exhilarated, but in fact, I felt vaguely disappointed; I had no idea why, exhaustion perhaps," he writes, adding, "Or perhaps the biosphere had become in my mind something so fantastic, a place so sublime that reality was bound to seem anticlimactic."

   Benz's observations are candid and thoughtful. He recounts other adventures in Costa Rica, and a trilogy of chapters about the "Mundo Maya" - a megaproject tourism scam that exploits the indigenous peoples.

   On his journeys - seemingly random in choice - he meets up with an incredible cast of characters perfectly detailed and familiar to anyone who has spent time traveling in Latin America. Here are his meetings with journalists with fat travel expenses, government lackeys, ugly tourists, and dare devil bus drivers.

   His epilogue recounts some of his adventures on the internet, trying to touch base and keep track of places he grew to love, if not on his first journey, then in memory.

   Thanks to the author's candor, Green Dreams redefines the travel narrative and paints a realistic picture of what green travelers can expect south of the U.S. border.

   Ron Mader is the host of the Eco Travels in Latin America website. He travels extensively in the U.S. Mexico borderlands and is the author of the new guidebook, Mexico: Adventures in Nature (John Muir Publications, 1998).

No comments about The Double Eagle Guide to Camping in Western Parks And Forests: Southern Rocky Mountains : Colorado, New Mexico (Double Eagle Guide to Camping in Western Parks and Forests).

3 comments about Country Roads of New Mexico: Drives, Day Trips, and Weekend Excursions (Country Roads of).

1. This small but fact-filled book explores the richness of New Mexico beyond the Albuequerque-Santa Fe-Taos axis. The author really knows her stuff--giving equal weight to the Native American, Hispanic and Anglo influences that make New Mexico such an interesting state. It's in the car beside me every time I head there.



2. My family and I planned a trip last summer (2000) using this book. Our original plan was to spend most of our time in Santa Fe and Taos. After we read this book, however, we found several far more interesting trips that cost us about half what it would have cost in Santa Fe. Sure, we did a night in Santa Fe and Taos, but this book showed us the hidden spots in town that really were known only to locals. This book is so good that we even had a wonderful time in Farmington! Yes, that's right, Farmington. In fact, we plan to return their and once again enjoy the hidden restaurants and trading posts in which we found some of the most unique indian jewelry ever (and at about 1/3 of Santa Fe prices). Kudos to Ms. Moore! I just wish I could talk her into writing a similar book about Wisconsin.



3. This is a nice book. It is well written.
   The chapters are devided into areas of New Mexico. In each chapter there is a little bit about the history of that area, places to visit and more information about other nearby areas.

   Having been to many of the areas that are discussed in this book, I found the description on target and the suggestions of places to visit good. I particularly liked the history of the area with directions to see some of the historical spots in each area.

   Very nice. Well worth the money. This book will join me in the car as we go on our trips. It will join the RoadSide History of New Mexico as one of our invaluable, must keep in the car resources.

   Enjoy.

No comments about Mobil Travel Guide Southwest, 2005: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah (Mobil Travel Guides (Includes All 16 Regional Guides)).

1 comments about New Mexico's Historic Places: The Guide to National & State Registers Sites (Adventure Roads Series).

1. For the past nine years, my husband and I have driven from Southern California to and sometimes throgh New Mexico to visit his folks for the holidays. This year we had the pleasure of driving through some of the pueblos around Albuquerque. However, for whatever reason, some of the historical landmark signs were illegible. Not to be outdone, we stopped at the Flagstaff, Arizona library to see if there was a guidebook available which would contain this information. After searching the holdings, the very helpful librarian tried Amazon.com and lo and behold, found the first and only book of it type was just published this year. Considering that, as the book points out, people have lived in New Mexico for more than 12,000 years, it is interesting that it has taken this long. This book is a comphrensive listing of over 1700 New Mexican registrar sites made more accessible for the first time. Previously, one had to go to the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division in Santa Fe to obtain this information. It is a remarkable achievement. However, I can't help but compare it to two other state historic place guides which we have enjoyed, CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL LANDMARKS (1990, 11th edition) published by the California Department of Parks and Recreation and ROADSIDE HISTORY OF ARIZONA (1986) by Marshall Trimble which we found in a used bookstore several years ago. Each guide has a slightly different organization. NEW MEXICO'S HISTORIC PLACES divides the state into six regions and then lists the national and state register sites alphabetically by town or city without a map of towns or cities in each county. Although the sites are listed alphabetically in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, that does not seen to be the case for all cities. The editor, Marci Riskin lists nine steps on "How to Use This Guidebook." That about seven steps too many on a road trip. CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL LANDMARKS is organized alphabetically by county preceeded by a map of the cities and highways in that county. Within each county, the landmarks are listed numerically by date of registration. Trimble, on the other hand, divides Arizona into five areas with a map of cities and subheadings according to highways. This format, of course, is the easiest to read on a road trip. So, unless you are very familiar with the geography of New Mexico, make sure you have an OFFICIAL HIGHWAY MAP OF NEW MEXICO issued by the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department and the New Mexico Department of Tourism. Perhaps the next edition of NEW MEXICO'S HISTORIC PLACES will be a bit more user friendly, dividing each region by county, with town, city and highway maps, and also providing historic walking tour maps(or where to find them).

5 comments about Travel Advisory: Stories of Mexico.

1. This is one of the best books I've read in years. David Lida writes in a prose style that avoids cheap fuzzy adjectives to present in keenly-observed prose the innermost thoughts and feelings of a cross-section of people in contemporary Mexico: predatory taxi drivers, boozy Texans down for the weekend, Mexico City professionals, their families and servants, an alcoholic photographer, the Jewish singles scene in Mexico City, a homeless boy. Most of the stories present a side of Mexico that we in the US rarely see.

   These are very very dark stories...people are raped, robbed, exploited. But the stories are also funny by turn. It's a tone that is not that common, and certainly not to some people's tastes, but I found it quite satisfying.

   Lida understands Mexican sensibilities and those of her northern neighbors better than most. He deftly shows the clashes that sometimes take place. In one of the book's lighter moments, an American woman travel writer has come to a sleepy Mexican town to do a piece. Lida describes the gulf between US and Mexican standards of feminine beauty thusly:

   "In Philadelphia, where Rhoda lived, men tended to eye her 42-year old body with what they considered cold objectivity. They regarded her as over the hill, accustomed from TV commercials and magazine spreads to surgically enhanced prototypes half her age....She was on the road much of the year, so couldn't keep up a perpetual (exercise) schedule...On the other hand Eusebio (the Mexican hotel keeper) found her adorable, if lamentably lean for a woman her age (which he figured at about thirty-five.)"

   If you don't mind reading dark disturbing fiction, I think you will find this collection richly rewarding.




2. Lida does a masterful job of providing a window into those aspects of Mexican society not seen in tourist propaganda and sanitized resort zones. Dark and revealing and, quite often, disturbing and unsettling, these stories nevertheless effectively capture the widespread desperation that blooms from extraordinary poverty, the clash of the animist vs. the Christian aspects of society at large, and the seemingly inescapable clash of humility vs. the congenital aggressiveness born of the national inferiority complex's that seem to be fostered in third world societies.

   One can only hope that at some point Lida will aim his attention and efforts at capturing the whimsy, familial devotion and racial and cultural pride that also color Mexican society. One can imagine that would be equally insightful an effort as well as a much more pleasant reading experience.




3. David Lida has crawled deep inside the collective conscious of modern Mexico and America, turned on a glaring flood light and revealed to all the ugly side of both cultures. Having lived in Mexico City for 7 years, I found myself predicting the disturbing curves of some of Mr. Lida's stories.

   His stories are an affront to the tequila doused illusions of so many middle aged American expats living in Gringo enclaves within Mexico. I applaud him for this brave reversal of the "happy go lucky" stereotypes of Mexico, so often conjured up in the writings of foreigners.

   Mexico is a dark, mysterious and deeply complex culture incapable of stereotyping. Mr. Lida understands this by neither mocking Mexico nor glorifying it. Mexicans have lived under an oppressive but flexible rule for 700 years, first at the hands of Aztec royalty, later the Spaniards and now the Meztizo elite. 700 years has bred a level of cynicism that both handicaps Mexicans and serves as a source of comic relief. David Lida's book understands the cynic behind every Mexican smile.

   If you really want a taste of Modern Mexico, read this book.




4. I bought this book on a deep sale at the bookstore. I like stories about travel in Mexico, "The People's Guide to Mexico" is one of my favorites. I chose to read "Travel Advisory" on my summer vacation in a cabin in the cool mountains of Colorado. The writing is well done but I sure wanted at least one story to have a happy ending! I found it to be a bit of a downer. Reading this book compelled me to write my first review on Amazon. I have traveled to Mexico many times. My family backpacks and stays at family-run camping parks and bungalos. I was facinated by this book, read it all, but disturbed enough to send out a warning...this is not the Mexico I know.



5. First of all, be aware that this is a collection of short fiction stories, not true accounts. If you're in the mood for some tales from the darkside with a Mexican focus, you'll find this a very interesting collection since Lida is a great writer.