Natural Beauties by Eolake Stobblehouse Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Natural Beauties
Book Review: A Celebration
Summary: 5 Stars
Natural Beauties is a celebration of the grace, style, beauty and nobility of the female nude. An inspiration for art throughout the centuries. This is not pornography! It is art. In the same catagory as the B/W picture of Andsel Adams. In Natural Beauties the reader will enjoy picture after picture of stunning woman in graceful natural positions. Nothing lewd or crude. Nothing humiliating or demeaning. Just beautiful sincere women who IMHO could easily grace the pages of any fashion magazine. If someone is looking for porn then buy a copy of Hustler or visit the local dirty book store. You will be disappointed. My only two critisms are that the book could be largier and there be some text on the models and the sets. I hope there will be a sequel soon.Book Review: A bit boring...
Summary: 2 Stars
I never thought I would say that about a book with lots beautiful women in it.
When I saw this book I went back and forth a few dozen times on whether or not to buy it. As I am something of fan of artistic simple nudes I thought how bad could it be. Well I wouldn't describe it being very bad, on the other hand I wouldn't describe it as being very good either.
Yes the women are nice to look at. Yes I am sure that they could make a man smile at night. But after a while it actualy got kind of boring seeing them all in the same or similiar poses. Many of the girls look to be in their late teens with a couple looking as though they are in their early teens. The poses and photography are not especialy artistic or creative. Quite a few images look as though they are a little over exposed (No pun intended) and there are a couple that look slightly out of focus (To be fair this could just be the printing).
The variety of the girls also leads a little bit to be desired. In my own world I am generaly attracted to caucasion women and I say that with no racist suggestions or disrespect intended towards anyone who is of another race. However this book is just a little "too white" even for me. In the world of photography one of the more challenging things to do is capture subtle skin tones. Even harder is to capture the lovely rich browns, golds, chocolates, of races other than causcasion. While the hardest of all is to create an image with those tonal ranges and still have it mildly erotic. The photogs in this book have accomplished none of that. I once read that the difference between porn, cheese cake and art is that with porn the act seduces you, with cheese cake the model seduces you, but with art the image seduces you. Rather an abstract concept to some but one that I have come to see the truth in.
Book Review: Almost 400 Pages of BEAUTIFUL Nudes - Wow !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
All fans of the DOMAI website and their "simple" style of nude photography will absolutely love this book. In fact, anyone who enjoys naturally beautiful models posing completely nude in equally unpretentious settings will find something to rave about here. 38 different girls are featured, each so radiant they could easily have been the central star of this publication with all 368 pages devoted to just them. But we are totally overwhelmed by the depth of material presented here from such famed photographers as Sergey Babneko, Petter Hegre, Martin Krake, Alexander Feodorov, Ale Zhukov, Igor Amirov, Oleg, Ponochovny, Dmitiri Kuleshov, Andrey Razin, Sergey Goncharov, Jaromir Plesko, Mikhail Pogorelov, and even the publisher, Eolake Stobblehouse.For those interested in the philosophical approach to the nude that Stobblehouse champions at his site, www. domai.com, I strongly urge all to seek out that website and read more there. But, in a nutshell, it's about showcasing the natural beauty of the model without any added distractions - no fancy hairstyles or makeup, no elaborate photosets, no clothing, and even the photography itself is arranged to showcase the beauty of the girl and not the technical mastery of the photographer. But make no mistake, these are pictures of perfection, and as famed photographer Craig Morey says in the book "..the bodies and faces are perfect, and the world is a better place while I'm looking at these beautiful women."
This is a large, fabulous, thrilling collection of nude photography. It's difficult to see how anyone who is a fan of this genre will not be absolutely and serenely flabbergasted with this marvelous book.
Book Review: Are you kidding me???
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm going to have to hammer this one: before I started typing I read the sales ranking and it just made me more angry.
OK: First thing. How can this book be so popular? Something is suspicious here, and I'm first talking about totally non-subjective matters. This is a book of images from the DOMAI website, correct? OK, that is a very nice website. It's beautiful and the images there are beautifully presented. And you can go there and join the site and see all (or most) of these photos presented in beautiful, very large (3000pixel?) format that if you MUST have printed, you can print yourself and hang on a wall. SO WHY would any sane person instead buy a book of those same photos that costs nearly twice as much as a site membership and that is absolutely ))) TINY ((( in dimensions?? Understand what I'm saying people, the photos in this book are presented in generally 4x6 inch format (think: prints from Walgreens). Many are much smaller than that. Yes, there are a few that are slightly bigger, but in a book that is less than 8 inch high (huh?!?), the limits are serious. Add to that, the print quality: There is often a color shift to green in the printing (at least in my copy) and the highlights are frequently blown out. Poor printing! Honestly, this book is pretty tragic. So, as I asked, what sane person would buy it? Well, I did, based on the Amazon Sales Ranking and all these "5 Star" ratings from people here. I cannot understand this one at all. My guess would have to be that DOMAI, the site, has asked or coerced some select site members to write nice reviews. I'm being very straight here: I like the DOMAI site very much, but this book is just plain awful and that's on the technical merits alone.
On the subjective.. though 20 odd photographers have contributed, I challenge you to tell one's work from another. Impossible. The editor obviously likes ONE specific type of photograph and only that one, because that's what's in this collection again, and again, and again.. about 400 times! And that "one" photograph is a simple snapshot of a very thin, young girl around 18 years old without any make-up or clothing standing outside in a natural environment. Nice, but after 400 times? Monotonous, IMHO.
But that's subjective and everyone's taste is different. Maybe 400 nearly identical and poorly printed snapshots are your thing and you'll love this book. But for me, the technical failings alone are enough to kill it before I have a chance to notice the monotony. If 0 stars were available, that's what I'd give it.
DBAX
Book Review: Beautiful Women, Natural Settings...
Summary: 5 Stars
As an artist, I support any movement that prefers 'natural' to 'posed', and landscape nudity as simply an element of a canvas, not the entire 'statement'. While the very loveliness of the models in "Natural Beauties" makes them entrancing, the setting provides the drama of each picture, and the combination of feminine beauty, natural poses, and often dynamic backdrops creates a wonderful tableau.
The models, mostly eastern European, lack the 'recognition factor' that defeats the efforts of better-known models, posing nude, and provides the photographers a freedom to take chances. The end results are often surprising, and rewarding. Each page is an adventure, and worth repeated viewings.
I highly recommend it!