Book Cover Options

One of the fun photographic challenges that I set myself while in the Galápagos was to see if I could come up with a good cover for my forthcoming book on species. I wanted something that would convey either the obviousness of (some) species divisions or the unity species often share. The unity theme seemed well illustrated by the piles of marine iguanas or clusters of frigate birds we saw. The difference theme could be illustrated by pretty much any shot where you have a contrast between organisms of different species.

Luckily, I wound up with a few shots that hit both of these themes. The two best options, in my view, turned out to be quite similar. Here are the mockups I slapped together (for other covers in the series, see here). You can click to expand:

             

For the original higher resolution shots, see here (left) and here (right) — also a fun one here. That's a great blue heron (I think) with the iguanas on the left and a Darwin finch (female medium ground finch, I think) on the right (kinda cool that both species on the right cover are endemic to the Galápagos).

Any preferences? I can go with a different color too, of course.