lsquo;The owls are not what they seem.rsquo; From ancient Babylon to Edward Learrsquo;s The Owl and the Pussycat and the grandiloquent; absent-minded Wol from Winnie the Pooh to David Lynchrsquo;s Twin Peaks; owls have woven themselves into the fabric of human culture from earliest times. Beautiful; silent; pitiless predators of the night; possessing contradictory qualities of good and evil; they are enigmatic creatures that dwell throughout the world yet barely make their presence known. In his fascinating new book; bestselling author and broadcaster Desmond Morris explores the natural and cultural history of one of naturersquo;s most popular creatures.Morris describes the evolution; the many species; and the wide spread of owls around the world ndash; excluding Antarctica; owls are found on every land mass; and they range in size from 28 centimetres (the Least Pygmy Owl) to more than 70 centimetres tall (the Eurasian Eagle Owl). As a result of their wide distribution; owls also occur in the folk-tales; myths and legends of many native peoples; and Morris explores all these; as well as the many examples of owls in art; film; literature and popular culture.A new title by an acclaimed author; and featuring many telling illustrations from nature and culture; Owl will appeal to the many devotees of this emblematic bird. Despite the fact that many have never seen or even heard an owl; he illustrates through this enticing read that the owlrsquo;s presence is still very real to us today.
#4433644 in eBooks 2013-10-25 2013-10-25File Name: B00C5593K6
Review
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful. This book is so easy to understandBy Mary Jane Condon BohlenI am 70 years old and technologically not very savvy. I am an artist and a photographer; but I needed help cataloging and working with my images. The only negative thing I have to say is that I wish the screen shots were larger. I find this to be a problem in most photo instruction books I have purchased. When you are my age; even with reading glasses; some things just "dont compute". However; the detailed instructions and the labels on the screen shots help to maneuver through this book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to work through the Photoshop E;ements maze.65 of 67 people found the following review helpful. A road map for hands-on software learningBy TTP3317I went to a local BN bookstore and compared five books and chose this one. Got it from for $10 less.This is by no means an "Inside-Out" type of software manual. It is; rather; sort of a manual in short hand. It is task oriented and loaded with screen shots. Each instruction from the author has a number with a corresponding number marked on a screen shot. So if you want to learn how to crop an image; for example; you can go to the index and look up "crop"; and then go to the pages (104-105). Youll find four steps to crop your image with screen shots of the program buttons to click (numbered 1-4) as well as an example of a photo being cropped. To me; this is much quicker to learn than reading a statement such as "Locate the Crop Tool on the Editor Tool Selection Panel (see chaper 2 on Editing Tools) and select the tool by clicking on its icon."If you believe the best way to learn a new computer skill is to get your hands on the mouse and keyboard then I think this book can speed up your learning curve. You can use this book to become familiar with the progam; its logical design and organization; and the right buttons to push for a particular task. There are 17 chapters so it is not without details; it just has a lot more screen shots and a lot fewer words than most software manuals. Dyslexic folk like me appreciate that.83 of 86 people found the following review helpful. Just what the doctor ordered!By P. B. SharpI have both Photoshop Elements 12 "the Missing Manual" and Photoshop Elements 12 "Learn Visually". Both are handsomely printed in full color on shiny paper but a picture is worth a thousand words applies to the two volumes as "Missing" consists of 618 pages; "Visually" of 371. "Missing" retails for $28.20; "Visually" for $16.79. I cant recommend one volume over the other in efficacy of teaching you the mechanics of a complicated art form but "Visually" perhaps has the edge in getting you started as the the first pages are devoted to introducing you to the tools and their uses with screenshots of the whole Elements workspace including the top and bottom right and left areas. You have to study the diagrams very closely but you will learn the identity of each tool by mousing it over and when you click on it the parameters and manipulations of that particular tool appear in the lower task area. Color; thickness; aliasing and other methods of adjusting what the tool will do are right at your fingertips. Elements crams something useful into every possible space on and around you canvas and its up to you to ferret them out. The tools can be just plain fun: with the sponge tool saturate or desaturate an area. The Smart Brush lets you turn a grey sky to blue and the exact shade of blue is your decision. Want to turn a pallid rose into a luscious red? Piece of cake!The visual approach (but there is still a lot to read) came to my rescue in "refining the edge of a selection." I work a lot in digital collage; putting a zebra; say; in the middle of Fifth Avenue. In isolating the zebra by removing him from whatever background he is on -using the eraser tool- results in an edge; a whitish area around the image; as the eraser tool cannot cut it absolutely cleanly. Needless to say the edge has to be removed or the zebra will not seamlessly enter his new environment on Fifth Avenue. "Visually" by pictures shows exactly how the edge appears and what happens when you employ the correction sliders. The technique is a godsend for me; saving much time; as previously I had to zoom in and laboriously integrate the picture into the new background.After the tool section "Visually" shows you how to set the program references; again by screen shots of the appropriate work space so you dont get lost peering around trying to find what adjustment or tool is being talked about. All the preferences can be left on default until you get a real feeling for wrenching the software to do your bidding. One aspect that amazed me is that you can discover how much RAM (memory) Photoshop is using during any manipulation and if the memory is too low you can allocate extra memory into your hard drive using "scratch disk space." I work with huge images(10 mgs or more) for designs on T-shirts and posters and prior to seeing this amazing gimmick I often ran out of memory; my PC telling me so and sending up a greyed out screen and crashing. If you are new to Elements; its very useful before you send your pictures to Photoshop to store them together in a bunch to later be organized by Photoshop. It is sort of a case of being pre-organized without fine-tuning; a depot area for pictures gathered from your digital camera or a scanner or from the internet. I use ACDSee but an excellent free software is Picasa; by Google. When you upload your images to Photoshop; from whatever source- camera; scanning; plucking from the internet- "Visually" tells you how to fine tune your images practically down to the last pixel.There are 160 Photoshop Elements tasks in "Visually" each one covering and concerned with one technique. The lessons break down the big topics into chewable bites and holds your hand as you progress. Perhaps the screen shots of the tools and your working area is the most important part of the book as you have to learn to use those building blocks before you can progress in an informed and intelligent manner."Visually" is a handsome book with excellent full-color illustrations. You cant handle Elements 12 cold turkey and this fine manual at your elbow will greatly increase your confidence. Learning Photoshop is not fast and it is not easy but this book will help you greatly; trust me!