This book contains some of the most stunning jungle photography that it has been my pleasure to see. The images contain amazing contrasts between breathtaking vistas and intricate close-ups. The contrasts continue with great use of both stillness and motion. In some cases, very fast exposures capture images that you could never see in real time with the human eye. In all these scenes, you will see incredible detail that will impress you with nature's richness.

Mr. Lanting's view is that only by knowing the jungle, can people want to save it. The whole book is designed to serve a conservationist's purpose.

You and I could spend a lifetime in the jungle and probably not see a quarter of the stunning images that are here. These photographs are the result of 20 years worth of work in trying conditions all around the world.

The photographs are grouped into four sections to emphasize elements of the jungle. Water and Light looks at the interplay of these elements with plant and animal life. Color and Camouflage looks at the contrasting needs to hide and desire to be seen for procreative purposes. Anarchy and Order surveys impressions of growth and movement. Form and Evolution shows many wonders of natural selection.

My favorites include the following:

Victoria's Crowned Pigeon

Raindrops on Leaf, Peru

Rainforest Sunrise, Borneo

Fern, Borneo

Waterfalls, Brazil

Swimming Snake, Madagascar

Palm Savannah, Brazil

Great Argus Pheasant Plumage

Nightjar, Belize

Lichen Katydid, Borneo

Scarlet Ibis Bathing

Urania Moth, Peru

Proboscis Monkey, Borneo

Mount Kinabalu, Borneo

Pitcher Plant Growth, Borneo

Chameleon, Madagascar

Tree Ferns, Australia

Butterflies on Sneaker, Peru

After you finish enjoying these marvelous color reveries of the natural world, I suggest you think about how you can help save the jungles. They offer practical benefits (like providing biological diversity, places where life-saving drugs can be found, and offsetting the carbon dioxide build-up) as well as aesthetic ones that we all should take seriously. If you can afford a donation, do that. If you can donate your time, do that. If you can help inform someone else to help, that's a wonderful thing to do as well.

Walk and act in beauty!


Stunning   March 18, 2001
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

This was bought for me as a gift & is not the sort of book I would consider buying for myself. It was bought in honour of a trip I made last year to Costa Rica. The stunning photography in the book would certainly inspire me to visit more of the world's jungles!


Go and buy it.   February 19, 2001
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Those 5 stars were not givem lightly. This book is amazing. Buy it now. If you don't know anyone worthy of buying it for, buy it for yourself.

It's beautifully presented and filled with enormous photographs which capture something of the character or spirit of the subject in unusual and non-cliched ways.

I like the toucan.


A visual delight   December 13, 2000
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Photographically breathtaking portraits of one of the earths most spectacular environments. A pleasure to view and I cannot think of a better book to grace any coffee table. Stunning stuff.