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Animal Kingdom: A Collection of Portraits
These arresting studio portraits capture the beauty, power, and even humor of 150 furry and feathered species - a delight for any animal or bird lover.
Acclaimed photographer Randal Ford celebrates our fascination with and love of animals through his engaging portraits of the animal kingdom. A young male lion cub seems to sport a rebellious mohawk; a chimpanzee adopts a pensive pose; a curious duckling cocks his head at the camera lens and flaps his wings. The featured animals cover a wide range, from birds such as the African crane, cockatoos, flamingos, and roosters, to big cats such as tigers, cheetahs, and leopards, to Arabian horses, bulls, and Longhorn sheep, among many others. Bird and animal lovers will be drawn to the powerful and emotionally engaging images that seem to reveal the individual character of the other animals that share the Earth with us. Elegantly designed and packaged, this book will be the perfect gift and addition to the home of any lover of animals or fine photography.
Acclaimed photographer Randal Ford celebrates our fascination with and love of animals through his engaging portraits of the animal kingdom. A young male lion cub seems to sport a rebellious mohawk; a chimpanzee adopts a pensive pose; a curious duckling cocks his head at the camera lens and flaps his wings. The featured animals cover a wide range, from birds such as the African crane, cockatoos, flamingos, and roosters, to big cats such as tigers, cheetahs, and leopards, to Arabian horses, bulls, and Longhorn sheep, among many others. Bird and animal lovers will be drawn to the powerful and emotionally engaging images that seem to reveal the individual character of the other animals that share the Earth with us. Elegantly designed and packaged, this book will be the perfect gift and addition to the home of any lover of animals or fine photography.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published September 25, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 26, 2020
What a beautiful book of animal portraits. The texture of skin, fur, and feathers in these photographs made me want to reach out and pet each one of these animals and birds. Which would not be advisable in most cases. The bulk of the book consists of the unadorned portraits but the end of the book has brief descriptions by the photographer about each photo shoot. Just lovely!
March 19, 2019
This book is INSANELY gorgeous! Oh my lanta, Randal Ford caught some incredible photos of these beautiful beings. I am definitely going to get a copy of this book to display in my place. From the animal names to their images, this book is a delight page after page that page.
January 28, 2019
This book was absolutely amazing. If you have any interest in animals at all, I highly recommend you get this book.
July 1, 2020
Magnificent! Make sure to read the descriptions of each subject at the end of the book, they highlight the personalities of the animals in a wonderful way.
September 26, 2021
A splendid book of breath taking photos of animals. Loved the neutral backgrounds because it allows the animals to shine.
June 12, 2019
This is an outstanding book of pictures of animals. Randal Ford does a great job.
August 8, 2022
This was a book whose title most definitely peaked my interest since who doesn't like to see portraits of animals. Although even with the tiger on the front I was thinking this would be more a compilation of wild beast portraits instead of an actual photographer in their studio.
The good things about the text was the fact that the captions were quite descriptive with information about the plate number, the name of the animal subject, its descriptive and also the frame of the picture. This was added to on some pages with quotes about the animals, which was basically just picked-up from the bios in the index of the book for each animal.
And the reason why I use descriptive for the captions is that not all animals were captioned the same. Some animals were captioned with just their species name while others had a breed name. And even in a select few cases the animal was just mentioned for the color that it was. And there was definitely room for the bios of the animals to be brought up to the portraits so the reader didn't have to flip back-and-forth to read as well as view portraits.
Most of the shots are pretty good and do capture the animal pretty well I must say I am not a fan of stark white or black backgrounds, especially as Randal Ford enjoys putting animals of the same color on the same background. There are instances where it does work out pretty well especially where spots or bright colored eyes pop out or you can pick-up the textures although the metallics in the Ayam Cemani seemed a bit mute since of its similar background. Meanwhile in other cases like the mare Bastina, though, you could barely make her out from her background while the Arctic fox almost blended into his background.
One issue that I had was with the animals themselves although all not for the same reasons. In his portrait Bam Bam the grizzly just seemed quite worn and scraggy like he was more a stuffed animal. And this was really disturbing just since of the fact he was in the front. Meanwhile all of Felix the lion's poses seemed abnormal as well to me and what was with poor Tuareg the lioness? Compared to Felix she was either in a possible crouching position or she is a lioness with much shorter legs than her male counterpart thus making her tail barely touch the ground. As for the herbivores there was also Red Cloud the bison who seemed to have a more pronounced hump than his offset or is that something else we cannot quite see?
Another aspect about the animals that I didn't enjoy were the poses. Some animals were featured just once but other animals were included in multiple poises especially the big cats whom the photographer enjoyed making to snarl. And what was with the need to make Rosie the elephant bow for her portrait?
The last part that I disliked about the body of the book would be what some call nitpicking and nothing really major for the most part but it did bother me. When it came to the peafowl Isaac was given a full page to show off his beauty but his opposite the peahen Lucy who was a gray was given a much smaller page thus her details weren't as detailed to the eye even though since of her coloration I would have found her more interesting to look at. The pelican Juliet had multiple shots but it was actually the same photograph for both and the pigeon Milo mentioned in the back with his friends made no debut at all.
As for the text there is a bunch of pop cultural references dropped, some light cussing for those who want to avoid such and a bunch of misspellings. At the same time for as much reverence as he has for the animals he still calls the bison buffalo as well. And with the back bios being quoted it just also meant that some of the writing was a bit on the repetitive side to boot.
Otherwise if you aren't as critical as I am and just want an animal photograph book to browse through this may be your cup of tea. It will allow you to look some of these in the eye indirectly, to wonder at their strength and beauty and to just be thankful we are able to share such a home with so many amazing animals.
The good things about the text was the fact that the captions were quite descriptive with information about the plate number, the name of the animal subject, its descriptive and also the frame of the picture. This was added to on some pages with quotes about the animals, which was basically just picked-up from the bios in the index of the book for each animal.
And the reason why I use descriptive for the captions is that not all animals were captioned the same. Some animals were captioned with just their species name while others had a breed name. And even in a select few cases the animal was just mentioned for the color that it was. And there was definitely room for the bios of the animals to be brought up to the portraits so the reader didn't have to flip back-and-forth to read as well as view portraits.
Most of the shots are pretty good and do capture the animal pretty well I must say I am not a fan of stark white or black backgrounds, especially as Randal Ford enjoys putting animals of the same color on the same background. There are instances where it does work out pretty well especially where spots or bright colored eyes pop out or you can pick-up the textures although the metallics in the Ayam Cemani seemed a bit mute since of its similar background. Meanwhile in other cases like the mare Bastina, though, you could barely make her out from her background while the Arctic fox almost blended into his background.
One issue that I had was with the animals themselves although all not for the same reasons. In his portrait Bam Bam the grizzly just seemed quite worn and scraggy like he was more a stuffed animal. And this was really disturbing just since of the fact he was in the front. Meanwhile all of Felix the lion's poses seemed abnormal as well to me and what was with poor Tuareg the lioness? Compared to Felix she was either in a possible crouching position or she is a lioness with much shorter legs than her male counterpart thus making her tail barely touch the ground. As for the herbivores there was also Red Cloud the bison who seemed to have a more pronounced hump than his offset or is that something else we cannot quite see?
Another aspect about the animals that I didn't enjoy were the poses. Some animals were featured just once but other animals were included in multiple poises especially the big cats whom the photographer enjoyed making to snarl. And what was with the need to make Rosie the elephant bow for her portrait?
The last part that I disliked about the body of the book would be what some call nitpicking and nothing really major for the most part but it did bother me. When it came to the peafowl Isaac was given a full page to show off his beauty but his opposite the peahen Lucy who was a gray was given a much smaller page thus her details weren't as detailed to the eye even though since of her coloration I would have found her more interesting to look at. The pelican Juliet had multiple shots but it was actually the same photograph for both and the pigeon Milo mentioned in the back with his friends made no debut at all.
As for the text there is a bunch of pop cultural references dropped, some light cussing for those who want to avoid such and a bunch of misspellings. At the same time for as much reverence as he has for the animals he still calls the bison buffalo as well. And with the back bios being quoted it just also meant that some of the writing was a bit on the repetitive side to boot.
Otherwise if you aren't as critical as I am and just want an animal photograph book to browse through this may be your cup of tea. It will allow you to look some of these in the eye indirectly, to wonder at their strength and beauty and to just be thankful we are able to share such a home with so many amazing animals.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 25, 2018
One of the best collection of animal and bird photography I've come across.. each being is captures true to it's real self.. awe-inspiring, with exquisite details of texture and expressions, often humourous, I fell in love with this unforgettable compilation !!
By keeping the background neutral,the focus is solely on the subject...I was pleasantly surprised that each potrait spoke to me in way that made my heart happy..I love the idea of placing the name of each subject below the potrait, it feels like a photo album of dear friends rather than random individuals..
Would recommend this to any animals lover
By keeping the background neutral,the focus is solely on the subject...I was pleasantly surprised that each potrait spoke to me in way that made my heart happy..I love the idea of placing the name of each subject below the potrait, it feels like a photo album of dear friends rather than random individuals..
Would recommend this to any animals lover
April 13, 2020
The photographs in this book are beautiful and I enjoyed the stories of the shoots, but agree with other reviewers that the typos were irritating.
On the downside, I felt uncomfortable that a lot of the animals in this book are wild animals in captivity. Ford mentions several times that he only works with trainers and owners who care for their animals well, and there is no indication that this isn't the case, but I would have preferred to know a bit more about the background of each animal. Maybe I've been thinking about Tiger King too much...
On the downside, I felt uncomfortable that a lot of the animals in this book are wild animals in captivity. Ford mentions several times that he only works with trainers and owners who care for their animals well, and there is no indication that this isn't the case, but I would have preferred to know a bit more about the background of each animal. Maybe I've been thinking about Tiger King too much...
September 21, 2022
The photographs presented here are simply stunning. The eyes captivate you, and the temptation to anthropomorphize expressions is palpable. One interesting a subtle point is to look down at the lower right of each picture. There you will see a note like "frame 11 of 85". In other words, Mr. Ford took literally dozens of pictures of each of these beautiful animals, then sorted through all that raw footage to find just the perfect ones to put in his books. This man has patience that I cannot fathom.
October 3, 2019
Randal Ford is an immensely talented animal photographer who truly captures the essence of each creature in this book. I enjoyed the brief but fascinating descriptions of how the subjects were photographed (a sometimes perilous experience), but wish the publisher had caught the typos in this section.
November 1, 2018
visually stunning, expressive portraits + evokes emotion from both the animal subjects and us as viewers
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“Whether it’s beauty, power, or humor, I want to give animals the opportunity to tell their story and connect with you.”
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instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
📸
“Whether it’s beauty, power, or humor, I want to give animals the opportunity to tell their story and connect with you.”
📸
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
June 7, 2019
A great quick-peek kind of book. My daughter and I cuddled up and looked through it. Gorgeous photos of animals, especially big cats (our favorite). Proceeds from book sale go to charity. It's a win all around.
April 1, 2025
I loved all the photographs, but as with the others in this series, I would have preferred the short paragraph describing each session to be alongside the photo itself and in a larger font. It's ridiculously tiny compared to the size of the book.
March 23, 2019
Gorgeous photos of gorgeous animals.
June 4, 2019
Lots of cute pictures of animals.
June 24, 2019
What a fun book!
January 8, 2020
Amazing animal portraits. The artistic eye here is unbelievable.
March 9, 2020
Cool!
At least one use of dam*
At least one use of dam*
April 13, 2020
To have had the opportunity to photograph these animals up close and personal must have been pure joy. Their personalities shine through and some made me laugh out loud. What a great book.
November 3, 2020
What a gorgeous tome.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews