Muskoka

Muskoka
By Mike Grandmaison
Published by Key Porter
Reviewed by Martha Beach

Get ready for a long-weekend of barbeques, canoeing, hiking, swimming and campfires with this gorgeous coffee-table book. It is a beautiful and stunning photographic portrait of one of Canada's vacation wonderlands.

For this book, Mike Grandmaison, an award-winning Canadian photographer, has turned his photographic eye to the summer playground of Ontario's cottage haven, Muskoka.

Muskoka means “land of the red earth” and this area of Ontario stretches from the eastern wilderness of Algonquin Park to the western shores of Georgian Bay Islands.

Featured in this text are images of forest's rugged beauty, clear, pristine lakes and settlements of the photographer's favourite cottage destinations. Each photo is crisp, clean, and contains colours and hues of all shades from the natural world, from the orange skies of a late-august sunset to the clean, blue water on a hot summer's day.

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The Life and Love of Trees

The Life and Love of Trees
By Lewis Blackwell
Published by Chronicle Books
Reviewed by Martha Beach

Trees are a vital part of life, just like the sun and the air.
Without trees human kind simply would not have survived. But not only are trees completely essential for shelter, construction and nutrients, they have been an inspiration for art and religion throughout history and all over the world.

The Life and Love of Trees is a beautiful and breathtaking collection of photographs that were taken during a journey from the boreal forest at the edge of the Arctic to rainforests.

The text is simple and accessible, yet written eloquently, so it is interesting yet comprehensive.
This photographic series features huge, ancient bristlecones and fresh-leaved tiny seedlings. The trees in this book are beautiful, scary, charming and rare, and your eyes are bound to widen at these gorgeous photographs of much-needed and much-loved plants: trees.

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The English Garden at Night

The English Garden at Night
By Linda Rutenberg and Christopher Woodward
Published by Verve Editions
Reviewed by Lisa Tran

The English Garden at Night will take you on a midnight tour like no other through some of England's most magnificent gardens.

The book is the perfect accompaniment for anyone who has ever wandered through a lush garden during the day and wondered what it may look like come nightfall.

Your journey begins after midnight, long after the tours have ended. Photographer Linda Rutenberg captures the shimmering flowers, trees, and fountains that are normally veiled under the darkness of the night. The moonlight gives the sleeping plants a special glow and carefully frames their stillness, mystery, and soliloquy of shadows.

Christopher Woodward, Director of the Museum of Garden History, introduces us to the gardens in an eloquent essay and the beautiful photographs are preceded by intimate introductions penned by those who know the gardens best.

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