Idaho Librarian

Reviews

Are you interested in great photography, or wildlife photography?  Then this book is for you.  Tom Ulrich, a wildlife photographer for over thirty years, has done an exceptional job in putting together this book of beautiful wildlife photography.  He includes pictures of animals, birds and scenery from different parts of the United States and from his travels to places like the Caribbean, South America, Australia, and New Zealand.  All 181 photos are excellent; some are amazing.  They are a culmination of several years’ work, several hundred rolls of film, and a little luck. 

It isn’t just the photography that makes this book.  Each photo is accompanied by comments that go far beyond the usual place, lens, and f-stop.  Ulrich explains the hows and whys of the photos as well as the time and patience that he had to learn to get just the right photo.  His style is so easy that reading the book is like walking through a gallery of the photos with the author there to explain how each picture came to be.  He also passes on glimpses of animal behavior he gleaned while catching the photo.

Ulrich paints a vivid picture of what goes into getting good wildlife photos.  One thing that comes out loud and clear is that the would-be photographer has to plan ahead to get the best chance of getting a great photo.  Ulrich tells how he set up the blinds and then spent literally hours in those blinds waiting for the right moment to take the pictures.  He made an effort to be as unobtrusive as possible so the animals would go about their business as if he weren’t there.  Besides allowing him to get natural shots, this practice afforded him the opportunity to observe the creatures and learn about them. 

He watched the loggerhead shrike--the smallest bird that eats meat-- hang its prey on the barbs of a wire fence so it could tear off bits of meat to feed its young--and got pictures to prove it.  He watched and photographed playful moments of bighorn sheep, polar bears and foxes.  He even got a shot of piranha teeth so close up it could probably be used as a dental record.

Once Upon a Frame is a multi-use book.  It is a nice book for browsing through the photos.  It is good for detailed realistic pictures of the wildlife to accompany school studies or to inspire personal field trips.  It is a guide to wildlife photography.  Although this is not a how-to photography book, the novice or expert photographer will be able to pick up pointers on how to find or make the photo opportunity, as well as on the mechanics of taking the shot.  A bonus feature of this book is the index of subjects.  This is a definite plus for revisiting favorite photos without wearing out the book flipping through the pages. I would recommend this book for school, academic, and public libraries as well as for anyone who wants to go nose to nose with a keel-billed toucan.

There are so many good books on wildlife photography it is difficult to know which ones to recommend.  However, if you enjoyed the information and photography in this book, you might want to take a look at some of Ulrich’s other books.   Birds of the Northern Rockies, Mammals of the Northern Rockies and Mammals of the Canadian Rockies (with George W. Scotter) are all of the same quality of photographs and comments as Once Upon a Frame.