Picked up because 1. I have driven through/ past the country depicted here several times and feel it wouldn't hurt to educate myself a bit by taking a little closer look at it and the ppl who live there, and 2. because I want to know if I do indeed like the author's writing style to order a whole book by him.?á Turns out that Lindy and Verlyn are married, so that's kind of cool.?á Anyway, I have to admit that, so far, I'm admiring the heck out of the pix, but not actually enjoying them too much.?á I guess I just hate the idea of living like that so much that I can't empathize, and I need to empathize to appreciate.?á My personal failing.

But the pix are amazing.?á The camera angles, the 'poses,' the use of distance, of context, of light & dark & reflected light & shadow, the composition, the perspective... seriously, this book would be an effective exemplar for just about everything taught in Intro to Art classes.?á That is to say, the photographer pays attention to all those details, uses strategies to create images we've never seen before, but never gets audacious even as she breaks the rules.

So. I paused in my reading to come here to say that I absolutely love the picture Sheep Convention."?á Somehow she got all members of this large mixed flock to look at the camera, but she did so without making them look excited with either fear or eagerness; they're still as placid as laypeople tend to imagine sheep to be, just mildly curious....

And done.?á And the text is fine, if a little *L*iterary.?á And the pix, overall, are a little sentimental, a little too 'homage' or 'paean' ... but not too much.?á Highly ecommended if you are interested in photography or the real cowboys, not if you're hot...." ( )