'Rocky Mountain National Park - Jewel of the Rockies' is a self publishing venture by wildlife photographer David Dahms. I first came across the book while browsing David's great web site and felt compelled to get a copy. When the book arrived via a friend who had been visiting the States, I was as impressed with the quality as much as I felt I would be.

David lives very close to this spectacular park and has made the most of this proximity. He has been able to visit the park at all times of the day and through all the seasons and this has resulted in some wonderful photographs many of which appear in the book. These stunning images capture the very essence of the park and its wildlife. The book is in a handy format and is roughly 9x8 inches and contains sixty pages of stunning images and moody landscapes that will whet the appetite of anyone with an inclination to visit places like this. The size of the book has led to some interesting cropping of the images (to an almost square format) which I find very pleasing. The printing quality is very good and the paper on which it is printed has a nice heavy feel to it more usually associated with much larger coffee table books.

There is a healthy mix of pictures within the book covering animals birds, wild flowers and scenics and each picture is captioned with a short nature note or information about the subject. The species photos are well distributed amongst the scenics to give a variety to the images, but there is a recurring theme of waterfalls photographed with slow shutter speeds for the blurr-effect of the water. That said they are good quality and a great many are shot in overcast light which really brings out the best in this type of photograph. The image on page 41 is a praticularly fine example of this kind of shot.

Jewel of the Rockies is probably aimed at the souvenier market to be purchased by the casual park visitor to serve as a reminder of the splendour of the place, but the book provides much more than that and I think it would be invaluable to anyone planning a wildlife watching visit or photo trip to the park. There are no detailed directions to the locations in the book but one could easily work out from the place names whereabouts the photographer had been at the time the image was made. If nothing else it will give you a great idea of what to expect and what magnificient photo opportunities await the image hungry photographer.

If you are heading to Rocky Mountains National Park, have been there or just enjoy looking at great wildlife and landscape images, then this book is well worth the cover price. I would highly recommend it along with its sister publications (which I will be reviewing soon). Have a look at (or even buy) the book and some of the photos at www.paragon-press.com.

Paperback - 60 pages (June 1, 1997) $11.95
Paragon Press; ISBN: 0964635917