FLAMINGO: A Photographer’s Odyssey by Hara...

FLAMINGO: A Photographer’s Odyssey by Hara (Abrams: $35; 128 pp . , paperback original). This striking volume chronicles the author’s safari to photograph the flamingos of Africa’s Great Rift Valley. Simultaneously graceful and gawky, flamingos have few defenses against predators and rely on a hostile environment of alkali-encrusted mud flats, where the daytime temperature can reach 140-degress Fahrenheit. Hara made woefully inadequate preparations for transportation, shelter and nutrition on her journey, but her often silly prose is redeemed by the spectacular pictures of vast roseate clouds of birds.