Landscape, Nature & Wildlife Photography, Marine Biology - General & Miscellaneous, Photo Essays

Pacific

Name: Pacific
Author: David Doubilet
ISBN: 9780821219034

by David Doubilet

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Overview

From space, the Pacific dominates our planet - it is an ocean so vast that it makes islands out of continents. Beneath its surface lies a multitude of mysterious underwater kingdoms populated by creatures dazzling and diverse, often beyond imagination. In Pacific: An Undersea Journey David Doubilet, one of the world's foremost underwater photographers, takes us on a spectacular expedition through this magnificent realm, presenting his finest photographs of the last twenty years, taken while on assignment for National Geographic. The journey begins off the coasts of California and British Columbia before turning outward to the Hawaiian islands and the Galapagos. Doubilet continues westward across the Pacific, passing by the tiny island groups of Palau and Kerema to Japan, where he explores the sheer submarine cliffs of Suruga Bay at Izu Peninsula. In Papua New Guinea and the waters of the Southwest Pacific - the most diverse coral paradise in the world - Doubilet captures the eerie remnants of World War II battles, underwater wrecks now softened by coral growth and inhabited by schools of glassy sweepers. Moving southward, he touches on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia and lonely Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea. The journey ends in the rich temperate waters of New Zealand. Doubilet's mastery of the art of underwater photography is evident in his stunning color images of the world beneath the sea. We see California sea lions cavorting in kelp forests, a one-inch-long armored shrimp climbing up whip coral, brilliant red clownfish among bubble-tipped anemones, circling barracudas, a school of silvery cardinal fish hovering over a wire coral forest, the delicate beauty of a tiny, venomous juvenile lionfish, an exquisite Gorgonian sea fan garden, and divers silhouetted against the deep blue waters of a submarine cave. Also included are splendid above-water panoramas and dramatic split-level photographs. In anecdotal essays about each region, Doubi

National Geographic photographer David Doubilet takes readers on a fascinating undersea expedition of the vast and beautiful Pacific Ocean that begins off the coast of California, travels to the Hawaiian Islands, the Galapagos, Japan's Suruga Bay, and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and ends in the temperate waters of New Zealand. 146 color illustrations.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

On assignments for National Geographic , Doubilet ( Light in the Sea ) has journeyed across, around and above the Pacific Ocean. Here, he takes us on an underwater tour from the North Pacific near Vancouver to the ocean's southern limits in New Zealand, from Japan to the Great Barrier Reef and islands in between. The text recording his adventures is overshadowed by his stunning photographs. In 144 color images we see the kelp forests of California's Monterey Bay, sea lions at play in the Galapagos, the remnants of WW II in the Solomons and Papua New Guinea (Doubilet discovered equal-sized piles of Coca-Cola cans and antiaircraft shells north of Guadalcanal). He takes his readers on dives in the Palau chain, caves in New Zealand, vast coral fields in New Guinea. Doubilet describes the Great Barrier Reef as an oceanic wilderness. Readers who enjoy diving, travel and adventure will treasure this book. (Nov.)

Library Journal

``I dreamed of the Pacific,'' writes Doubilet, a noted underwater photographer, in his introduction to eight chapters on different areas of the Pacific Ocean, from the coasts of California and British Columbia to Hawaii and Palau and on to Australia's Great Barrier Reef and New Zealand's temperate waters. The text is forgettable, but Doubilet's underwater color photographs of fish, coral, kelp, invertebrates, and submerged ships and airplanes, as well as a few aerial photographs, are glorious. Many of his pictures were taken during National Geographic assignments, and all meet that magazine's high standards. Doubilet also includes a list of equipment for the underwater photographer and a list of scientific names. Recommended for medium to large public libraries.-- Jean E. Crampon, Hancock Biology & Oceanography Lib., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles

Gretchen Garner

Doubilet is one of the world's great undersea photographers, lugging tons of equipment and lights down to terrifying depths to capture his amazing close-ups of electric-hued fish and other grotesque denizens of the deep. This book, full of such pictures printed big and beautiful, is something of a personal diary of his experiences in several Pacific locations. The text is anecdotal, barely holding together for any continuity. The pictures--nearly 200 large colorplates--are the big attraction. Although the concept of the book seems weak, underwater photography buffs will still appreciate the incredible images.