Costco just took delivery of a nice order of PhotoSecrets books. Now you can get a new camera and plan a photo trip at the same time. The world’s second-largest retailer will have these eight titles in their stores this holiday season:
A dozen new PhotoSecrets guide books are now available, in the version 2.0 style. In order of publication, they are:
New York beckons your camera with the icons of America: the Statue of Liberty and the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Capture the excitement of the ultimate big city, with bustling Times Square and Wall Street, and from towering observation decks on One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center.
Most of the sights are in an area eight miles long and four miles wide, all easily accessed by public transport subway, ferries, and walking paths. We start our journey in the south, at the can’t-miss Statue of Liberty, and move north up Manhattan island, where most of the east-west streets are conveniently numbered. At 59th Street we reach Central Park with a welcome respite of greenery, then we head out to the city’s boroughs, with skyline views from the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and the waterfront of New Jersey.
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
San Francisco beckons your camera with sweeping vistas and unique, indelible sights. From the majestic Golden Gate bridge and a soaring downtown skyline to romantic cable cars and quirky Lombard Street’s hairpin turns, the region is home to an awesome array of spectacular and photo-worthy sights.
Covering about 47 square miles (121 kms) on the tip of a peninsula, the City and County of San Francisco — the area’s official name — ranges between the Pacific Ocean and the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas.
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
New Orleans beckons your camera with romantic buildings and colorful culture.
Founded in 1718 by French colonists, the city is known for the architecture and nightlife of the French Quarter. Every night is Mardi Gras along Bourbon Street.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
Yosemite National Park is one of nature’s most photogenic locations. In the namesake valley, sheer granite walls are laced with a dozen waterfalls — some of the world’s tallest — and tower over verdant meadows and a meandering river. It’s justly known as “The Incomparable Valley.” Wherever you turn seems to be a view made famous by legendary photographer, Ansel Adams.
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
Hawaii beckons your camera with lush, Jurassic Park-style scenery with exotic waterfalls and tropical beaches.
The U.S. state of Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state, joining in 1959; the only state located in Oceania, and the only one composed entirely of islands. There are over 100 islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, in an almost straight line extending around 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers). They are the exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, formed by volcanic activity over a hotspot in the Earth’s mantle. The most populated four islands are Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii (the “Big Island”), and those are the chapters of this book.
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
Las Vegas beckons your camera with more photogenic sights on one street than anywhere else in the world. Twenty-seven of the planet’s 60 largest hotels stand within four miles of each other and tempt your photography with fountains, recreated world icons and outlandish architecture.
Located in the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada, the city is named for, and grew around, green meadows fed by springs from the nearby mountains. This welcome water-stop on the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles was found by Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829, and first documented by American explorer John Fremont in 1844. Founded as a railroad respire in 1905, the city became popular for gambling during the 1930s when the Hoover Dam was being built.
Las Vegas today is a truly unique place. Built in the middle of nowhere and designed for fun, “Sin City” is the ultimate party town — an adult Disneyland, a place where money and imagination have run amok. Over 42 million visitors per year enjoy the “Entertainment Capital of the World”, where both your wealth and marital status can change in a matter of minutes. Fortunately, as the marketing slogan says, what happens here, stays here. Elvis said it best: Viva Las Vegas!
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
Yellowstone beckons your camera with towering geysers, colorful geothermal pools, photogenic waterfalls, and abundant Western wildlife.
Located in northwest Wyoming (with 3% of the park in Montana and 1% in Idaho), the park spans 3,468 square miles (8,983 km2) around Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. This active volcano fuels around 10,000 geothermal features — half the world’s known number — including hot springs and 1,283 geysers, many of which can be photographed from boardwalk trails.
Although Yellowstone is huge, the main sights are relatively compact and easily explored. Old Faithful and the geyser basins are about seven miles long, the main views along Grand Canyon of Yellowstone are about four miles long, and animals in the valley can be photographed from the Grand Loop Road.
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
Washington, D.C. is the nation’s capital and beckons your camera with the stars of the news — the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and the Supreme Court. These three buildings represent the three branches of U.S. government; legislative, executive and judicial. They are connected by landscaped parkland with photogenic monuments and reflecting pools, all offering classic postcard views just for you.
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
London beckons your camera with some of Europe’s most famous sights: Big Ben, the Queen’s Guards and Changing of the Guard, the London Eye, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.
Located in southeast England on the River Thames, London grew as a port and became the capital and largest city of the United Kingdom. Over 19 million people visit London, many of them with a camera.
Find the postcard-perfect views with this travel guide for your camera.
Available as a printed book from Amazon.
The new books are in a real store! While on vacation in Portland, the family and I checked out the travel section to find some familiar additions.
The Summer 2019 catalog of distributor Baker and Taylor features the new PhotoSecrets titles. Libraries and book stores can order books by clicking on the covers in the online PDF. Check it out here.
The most visited unit of the National Park System, the Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic mountain road running 469 miles along the Blue Ridge Mountains through Virginia and North Carolina.
This guide is split into two books, one for each state, containing:
Virginia (mileposts 0–217):
North Carolina (mileposts 217–469):
Available as printed books from Amazon.
Twenty-two years after the first edition was published, the second edition of PhotoSecrets San Francisco is published. Over 200 views — including over 20 of the Golden Gate Bridge — are shown with over 380 color photos.
The first big-city title of PhotoSecrets version 2.0 is now out. PhotoSecrets Washington DC has over 250 views and nearly 400 photos. Quickly flick through and find your favorite shots. Then scan the QR code to find the spot on your smartphone map. In the book’s maps, a circle shows where to stand and a target shows where to aim.
Take lots of photos!