Face to Face - Up Close with Mother Nature is a collection of wildlife author and photographer Al Hornsby's most exciting underwater and topside wildlife encounters, as captured through his camera and words. Organized into The Americas; Africa; and Asia and the Pacific sections, the color and B&W images, most shot at very close range, feature sharks, whales, crocodiles, grizzly bears, leopards, cobras and many more of nature's most lovely and exciting creatures. Key photographs are accompanied by Al's first-person impressions of the encounters that led to the images, which share his feelings and emotions during those oft-times intense, face-to-face moments.

According to the author, "For the big animals - big carnivores in particular - it's my hope the book's images and real-life stories can show that their fearsome reputations as 'blood-thirsty man eaters' are the products of myth and too little real information; that they are instead majestic and beautiful, usually too timid or wary to be approached at all, and even if they show interest in us, it's generally merely simple curiosity. This aside, they play critical roles in virtually all our planet's ecosystems, and they need to be protected. Hopefully, Face to Face can do its small part in communicating just what is at stake should we ultimately fail to adequately respond."

Available in Chinese