Book picks similar to
Listen to the Trees by John Sexton


photography
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Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees


Harley Rustad - 2018
    He came across a massive Douglas fir the height of a twenty-storey building. Instead of allowing the tree to be felled, he tied a ribbon around the trunk, bearing the words “Leave Tree.” The forest was cut but the tree was saved. The solitary Douglas fir, soon known as Big Lonely Doug, controversially became the symbol of environmental activists and their fight to protect the region’s dwindling old-growth forests.Originally featured as a long-form article in The Walrus that garnered a National Magazine Award (Silver), Big Lonely Doug weaves the ecology of old-growth forests, the legend of the West Coast’s big trees, the turbulence of the logging industry, the fight for preservation, the contention surrounding ecotourism, First Nations land and resource rights, and the fraught future of these ancient forests around the story of a logger who saved one of Canada's last great trees.

Walk Sleep Repeat


Stephen Reynolds - 2018
    Younger than Bill Bryson, smaller than Levison Wood, and hairier than Julia Bradbury. In his latest adventure, our bumbling yet affable narrator walks the 100 miles of the stunning and dramatic West Highland Way.Join him on a memorable hike that takes in all the splendour of the Scottish Highlands. With grand imposing scenery and beautiful shimmering lochs. Mountain peaks, midges, Highland Cows, Irn-Bru, turnip pizzas, waterfalls, wild open moors and going to increasingly bizarre lengths to avoid sleeping in a tent. If you like the sound of any of these things, then this is undoubtedly the book for you.

How New York Breaks Your Heart


Bill Hayes - 2018
    Now he presents an exquisite collection that captures the full range of his work and the magic of chance encounters in New York City. Hayes's "frank, beautiful, bewitching" street photographs "unmask their subjects' best and truest selves" (Jennifer Senior, New York Times): A policeman pauses at the end of a day. Cooks sneak in cigarette breaks. A pair of movers plays cards on the back of a truck. Friends claim the sidewalk. Lovers embrace. A flame-haired girl gazes mysteriously into the lens. And park benches provide a setting for a couple of hunks, a mom and her baby, a stylish nonagenarian . . . How New York Breaks Your Heart reveals ordinary New Yorkers at their most peaceful, joyful, distracted, anxious, expressive, and at their most fleeting--bringing the texture of the city to vivid life. Woven through with Hayes's lyric reflections, these photos will, like the city itself, break your heart by asking you to fall in love.

The Air is on Fire


David Lynch - 2007
    Spanning a period of forty years, David Lynch's widely respected films and television series include "Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway," and "Mulholland Drive," However, his prolific visual art production, which began even before his films, has rarely been seen. This catalogue of his artistic output, published on the occasion of a large-scale exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, covers a wide variety of disciplines: painting, photography, drawings, sculpture, furniture, music, and "moving pictures." His art echoes his films in theme and aesthetic, yet offers viewers a fresh and more intimate glimpse into his singular universe. The book also contains several essays that analyze his artworks, as well as a conversation with Lynch, interviewed within the context of the show. 469 illustrations in color.

Exposure Mastery: Aperture, Shutter Speed & ISO. The Key to Creative Digital Photography


Brian Black - 2015
    I’ve Spent Years Discovering All There Is To Know About the Possibilities of Photography. Now I’m Here to Help YOU! Hi, I'm Brian. I’m a professional photographer with a long career that was made possible by one single tool: my camera. I’ve explored the boundaries of photography for many years and watched it evolve into a high-tech profession that still follows the same, basic rules.I’m here to share these insights with you, to help you turn that basic know-how that’s got you this far into a full-fledged understanding of the physics and rules of photography. Give Me 48 Hours and I'll Teach You the Art of Exposure Give me a week and I’ll train your eye to see all the possibilities as you angle a shot. By the time you’ve put the advice in this guide into practice, you’ll understand everything from light metering, depth of field and exposure to contrast and special effects.In this book, we’ll cover: All you need to know about creative digital photography The physics of photography, including aperture speed, motion capture and light meters The dynamics of light – and what they mean to a photographer The secrets of portrait, close-up, panoramic and landscape photography The special effects that are possible with nothing more than your shutter speed And much, much more. My Secret Ingredient… Sure, there are expensive course out there that cover some of the information included in this book, but the secret ingredient is that I know how to turn mechanical understanding into artistic brilliance – and it’ll cost you less than the price of a memory stick to find out what that ingredient is.All it takes is a few key pieces of knowledge and you’ll be on your way to turning a deep and profound understanding of your camera into a hobby, or even a career. Start Taking More Professional Photos In Less Than a Week... or Your Money Back! If you follow the steps in this guide and don’t see a single difference in the quality of your images, simply click one button within 7 days and Amazon will return 100% of your money. That’s how confident I am that I have the answer to your problem – I really can help you find become a professional-standard photographer.Just scroll up now and click the BUY NOW button to start taking BRILLIANT photographs, TODAY!

Photography Demystified: Your Guide to Gaining Creative Control and Taking Amazing Photographs


David McKay - 2016
    “Photography Demystified—Your Guide to Understanding Photography, Gaining Creative Control and Taking Amazing Photographs!” has been designed to resolve your frustrations and photography difficulties. This book will give you the tools, education and practical applications needed to understand how to take great pictures! PLUS, a section entirely dedicated to assignments has been included! Video tutorials are also available at no charge! http://mckaylive.com/bonus/Along with my wife Ally, I own McKay Photography Academy. Leading hundreds of photographic tours around the world, I have taught over twelve thousand people just like you how to excel in photography. Having earned my Master of Photography and Photographic Craftsmen degrees from Professional Photographers of America, the leading photography organization in the world, I have been a full time professional photographer for over twenty nine years and am passionate about teaching others how to achieve great results in their photography. My motivation is to see that everyone can enjoy photography and take the frustration out of the process!Beginning photographers, camera buffs, photo enthusiast, and many others who struggle with understanding photography concepts, exposure, and their camera manuals have already experienced my proven methods of teaching beginner’s photography. This book will do the same for you!•Terry L from Santa Cruz, CA says: “Taking someone off automatic settings to manual settings can be daunting at times. Fortunately, I have had the experience of learning from David McKay. David has taken me further into the world of photography than I could have ever imagined.”•Keith W from Austin, TX writes: “David is one of those rare individuals that combine passion, extensive knowledge and a laid-back style in teaching photography. What else can I say; it is refreshing to learn from someone this talented.” •Steve of Steve Scurich Photography in Santa Barbara,CA states: “The ability to take decades of complex photography knowledge and boil it down into concepts that are clear, understandable and easy to implement, is David’s gift to the world. Personally, I am forever grateful for the inspiration and encouragement he’s given me.”•Denise Mann from San Antonio, TX says: “David McKay is passionate about photography and equally as passionate about teaching it to those eager to learn.”•Jeff G from Sacramento CA says: “David McKay is a great photographer—not every photographer can be a great educator, David is! David is able to take complicated topics and break them down to something easy to digest and practical to implement—you are inspired to go out and use what you just learned!”•Kara from San Jose, CA writes: “You can’t help but to feel his love for photography and his passion for teaching.

RHS Encyclopedia of Plants Flowers


Christopher Brickell - 1989
    Packed with advice on over 8,000 plants with all you need to know on cultivation, pests, diseases and choosing the right plant for the right place. Now features a new section on choosing the best plants for year-round colour in your garden.

Backwoods Genius


Julia Scully - 2012
    After his death, the contents of his studio, including thousands of glass negatives, were sold off for five dollars. For years the fragile negatives sat forgotten and deteriorating in cardboard boxes in an open carport. How did it happen, then, that the most implausible of events took place? That Disfarmer’s haunting portraits were retrieved from oblivion, that today they sell for upwards of $12,000 each at posh New York art galleries; his photographs proclaimed works of art by prestigious critics and journals and exhibited around the world? The story of Disfarmer’s rise to fame is a colorful, improbable, and ultimately fascinating one that involves an unlikely assortment of individuals. Would any of this have happened if a young New York photographer hadn't been so in love with a pretty model that he was willing to give up his career for her; if a preacher’s son from Arkansas hadn't spent 30 years in the Army Corps of Engineers mapping the U.S. from an airplane; if a magazine editor hadn't felt a strange and powerful connection to the work? The cast of characters includes these, plus a restless and wealthy young Chicago aristocrat and even a grandson of FDR. It’s a compelling story which reveals how these diverse people were part of a chain of events whose far-reaching consequences none of them could have foreseen, least of all the strange and reclusive genius of Heber Springs. Until now, the whole story has not been told.

Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America


Brian Vanden Brink - 2009
    He is also drawn to the mystery and unexpected beauty found in abandoned architecture. Here Vanden Brink captures and illuminates in stunning black and white images abandoned structures such as mills, bridges, grain elevators, churches, and storefronts-structures that once were important and useful. With text by historic preservation expert Howard Mansfield, this collection of photos grants permanence to places that may soon vanish forever.

Botany in a Day: Thomas J. Elpel's Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families


Thomas J. Elpel - 1998
    Line drawings highlight family characteristics, and plant entries discuss medicinal uses, edibility, toxicity, and look-alike plants. A standard reference at herbal and wilderness schools across the country, this resource is essential for herbalists, gardeners, and naturalists.

Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier


Richard Cahan - 2014
    Her story—thousands of photo negatives and prints found in a storage locker and sold for pennies at auction—has stirred millions around the world. Maier was a painfully private woman who now speaks powerfully through the photographs she took only for herself. This new collection offers readers a chance to follow Maier as she travels the world, including images of France, Italy, Malaysia, Yemen, Puerto Rico, and America. These eye-to-eye portraits, published for the first time, are the single constant in her lifetime of photographic work. Maier is often cast as a quirky, antisocial character, moving on the outskirts of real connection. But these photographs show something more. Printed with the latest technology, the book utilizes a modified four-color process that produces images akin to traditional silver gelatin prints. Combined with 15u stochastic screening, Maier's 96 photographs in this volume are spectacularly sharp, full-range black-and-white reproductions.

The Oldest Living Things in the World


Rachel A. Sussman - 2014
    Over the past decade, artist Rachel Sussman has researched, worked with biologists, and traveled the world to photograph continuously living organisms that are 2,000 years old and older. Spanning from Antarctica to Greenland, the Mojave Desert to the Australian Outback, the result is a stunning and unique visual collection of ancient organisms unlike anything that has been created in the arts or sciences before, insightfully and accessibly narrated by Sussman along the way. Her work is both timeless and timely, and spans disciplines, continents, and millennia. It is underscored by an innate environmentalism and driven by Sussman’s relentless curiosity. She begins at “year zero,” and looks back from there, photographing the past in the present.  These ancient individuals live on every continent and range from Greenlandic lichens that grow only one centimeter a century, to unique desert shrubs in Africa and South America, a predatory fungus in Oregon, Caribbean brain coral, to an 80,000-year-old colony of aspen in Utah. Sussman journeyed to Antarctica to photograph 5,500-year-old moss; Australia for stromatolites, primeval organisms tied to the oxygenation of the planet and the beginnings of life on Earth; and to Tasmania to capture a 43,600-year-old self-propagating shrub that’s the last individual of its kind. Her portraits reveal the living history of our planet—and what we stand to lose in the future. These ancient survivors have weathered millennia in some of the world’s most extreme environments, yet climate change and human encroachment have put many of them in danger. Two of her subjects have already met with untimely deaths by human hands. Alongside the photographs, Sussman relays fascinating – and sometimes harrowing – tales of her global adventures tracking down her subjects and shares insights from the scientists who research them. The oldest living things in the world are a record and celebration of the past, a call to action in the present, and a barometer of our future.

Guava Moon Revenge: An Alex Rutledge Novel


Tom Corcoran - 2018
    A long-awaited vacation in Grand Cayman ends too soon for Rutledge and Detective Beth Watkins when Beth learns that someone has killed her houseguest, Elaine Ogilvy. They return quickly to Key West and, from the moment of their arrival, events suggest they might be in danger as well. A photographer who prefers ad agency and magazine jobs, Alex has no training in police work. Still, he often gets drawn into Florida Keys investigations. Monroe County Sheriff, Fred Chicken Neck Liska, has Alex’s back (usually), and The Aristocrats—off-kilter private eyes Dubbie Tanner and Wiley Fecko—provide off-the-books surveillance, background checks and info gathering. Everyone knows that success is not guaranteed. The victim’s father, Parke Ogilvy, whom Watkins knew long ago, comes to the island and offers the names of the ex-lovers of his daughter, one of whom could be in the Florida Keys. DNA crime evidence, a second murder, threats against friends and, for Alex, a solid link to events in the past boost the peril. Even with law enforcement at full force, Rutledge senses that only his actions will lead to a crime solution.

A Lesser Photographer: Escape the Gear Trap and Focus on What Matters


C.J. Chilvers - 2018
    Less gear. Less anxiety. Less stress. Less fear. A Lesser Photographer is the missing guide you've always wanted to the only gear that really matters: the gear between your ears. In under an hour, you’ll be able to identify the myths you’ve been taught about photography and embrace useful creative habits that will set you apart. Praise for previous editions: “For something beautiful and well-said, check out A Lesser Photographer.” — David duChemin “Amazing read…I really recommend everyone get a copy.” — Chris Marquardt “CJ Chilvers reevaluates what it means to be a photographer in this manifesto. Most of the points apply to virtually any creative endeavor or obsession. ‘The real show is outside the viewfinder.’” — Jim Coudal “I have to say, CJ has a great attitude. If you care at all about photography, he’s a must read.” — Patrick Rhone “Every photographer should follow CJ Chilvers.” — Eric Kim

National Geographic Greatest Landscapes: Stunning Photographs That Inspire and Astonish


National Geographic Society - 2016
    With vast deserts in twilight, snowcapped mountain ranges at the brink of dawn, a forest in the height of autumn colors, these indelible images will magnify the beauty, emotion, and depth that can be captured in the split second of a camera flash, taking readers on a spectacular visual journey and offering an elegant conduit to the world around them. Paired with illuminating insights from celebrated photographers, this beautiful book weaves a vibrant tapestry of images that readers will turn to again and again.