In this heartfelt tribute to the spirit and people of Oklahoma, one of the state's most distinguished photojournalists shows that he is equally talented as a photographer and writer. Showcasing black-and-white photographs and fifty short essays, Shooting from the Hip portrays Oklahoma's people, animals, lifestyles, landscapes, and weather in all their diversity. Cowboys, kids, tornados, trucks, rattlesnakes, fiddlers--J. Don Cook has seen them all, and through his poignant essays, he allows us not only to see them but to understand them as he does.

After a hardscrabble boyhood, Cook...