Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs

The book is what I expected.The packaging (which I've already emailed Amazon about), well . . .Disclaimer: I'm leaving this here for a practical reason; not to be a jerk. If others see similar practices I want to encourage them to let Amazon know as well.The packaging was terrible. Extremely bad. I took photos before attempting to open because I was sure the books would be damaged and need to be sent back. Part of this *appears to be* Amazon's fault. At least part of it is, I think certainly, USPS' fault.The box was ripped open in one corner. The inner plastic was only partially covering one of the books, and was split open. If the box had gotten wet, the books would have been ruined, all of them. The usual practice of plastic wrapping the books to an inner piece of cardboard was not used. There were two (only two??? why?) biggish air cushioning bubbles inside, both of which were deflated 100%. It's as if they were sliced open with a razor before throwing the books in the box. So, the books were laying unsecured in a big box and they just sloshed around freely all the way from America to Japan.For USPS' part: unbelievable. And it's common practice now for some reason. They put this one box in a HUGE plastic bag and tie it shut! This means that everyone who handles the package cannot just pick up the box like normal, but they pick it up in what is virtually an oversized trash bag, which means they do not handle it gently. Indeed, the bag makes it hard to handle gently even if one wants to.Obviously, this proves to be the case, as the box was indeed ripped open in one corner. It would be surprising if the box was NOT damaged! In fact, when I cut open the plastic tie that held the bag closed, I realized how stupid the practice is and that the box and books were probably in bad shape. Imagine when I looked at the box and saw, in fact, I was right.In that bag, which is very thick and stiff not allowing it to sit neatly with other boxes, it is a virtual certainty that it will just be whipped around by its "neck", while the box and (in this case, unsecured) books are banging around on floors and against who knows what else.Amazon! You apparently boxed the books very, very poorly. USPS compounded the problem by shipping the box in such a way that makes it very, very likely any contents of the package will suffer from rough handling.Somehow, Amazon and USPS need to get their respective parts of the shipping process fixed.On another note: I marked the package as coming too late. It was within the estimated delivery time, so I'm not within my rights to really complain, but the delivery estimate seemed waay longer than it should have been, and counting from the time the package was sent to delivery, it was pretty long.And the biggest thing, I guess, is by some miracle, the books were not damaged. How, as mentioned, is only explicable by divine intervention.

I purchased the used Ansel Adams Postcard Folio book as a gift for a special friend. When she received the book, she was very happy about the quality of the book. The pictures are so nice that she insisted that she could not bear to tear them out and send them, but wanted to keep the book as it was. The condition of the book was still great although it was used. And even though the book is used and only the size of a postcard she insists it is good enough to be a coffee table book for everyone who comes by to see. Because she was so happy with it, I have looked at other Ansel Adams Postcard Folio books to order because of the high quality and beauty of the pictures inside. Since they are so nice, I will be ordering some of the other Ansel Adams Postcard Folio books also. I was happy that the book arrived without issues and on time and in better shape than I'd imagined.

This is an amazing book with so many photos. Of course it’s not the same as seeing them in person, but it’s so wonderful to be able to look through so many.

A good sampling of Ansel Adam's works, especially the nature shots. Also perfect size for a coffee table point of interest- always grabs the attention of visitors rather than just sit there and collect dust. It is a bit on the hefty size but that is to be expected considering the number of images it contains.

As described, on time

I just discovered that the Ansel Adams book of 400 photographs is weird. When you remove the paper cover the name of the book is printed upside down on the book itself. If you turn the book around so the front of the book matches the paper cover then when you open the book to what you think will be page 1, you actually find the last page of the "index" only the printing is upside down. Now, are you as confused as I am? Just wondering? I know it's past the return date so guess I'll just send it on to my 94 year old sister because it is supposed to be her Chirstmas present. Thank goodness that even at 94 she's sharp as a tack and will hopefully get a big chuckle out of it. She loves Ansel Adams so cross your fingers that she will just laugh then enjoy all 400 photos inside the weird covers of this book. Okay, just wanted you to know. Sorry I didn't find this until I started to wrap it for Christmas. Thanks, Frances Goldston of Austin, Texas.

It made a great gift.

This book of the historic images Ansel Adams has created over his lifetime, is the must have book of his work. Just sitting and thumbing through the pages you are educated by what makes up a great photographic image. The quality of the book pages and printing is top-notch. Happy to have added this to my coffee table.