I want to mention two books that have been released this month with whole of partial reference to my home state of Tasmania.
The first is a book by Holly Hughes titled Frommers 500 Places to See Before They Disappear
Author Holly Hughes writes:
Many unique species thrive in Tasmania, one of the world's most unusual ecosystems. Increasing development, including logging, mining and other industries, threaten many of the island's most beautiful places.
As well as the Tasmnanian Devil, I believe there would have been several reasons Hughes included the whole state and not specific locations. Head strong in many peoples minds here, the controversial proposal to build a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley. This project is seen by many locals as a fast short-term investment for shareholders, against the long-term interests of Tasmania and with careless disregard to the environment and local residents. The approval process has been government fast-tracked and corrupt from the outset, further infuriating those that oppose it.
In a letter on the Amazon site Hughes writes:
Though this book was originally conceived as a handbook for eco-tourists, it soon became clear that we couldn’t separate natural and man-made attractions. After all, historical and cultural landmarks are part of the environment, too. The destruction of an entire city like New Orleans is as much as a natural disaster as the destruction of an entire biosphere like the Amazonian rainforest; the same concerns affect the Acropolis as the giant redwoods. If changes in the natural environment have threatened the piping plover, the Tasmanian devil, and the mountain gorilla, so too have changes in our cultural environment threatened classic amusement parks, ballparks, and movie palaces. Our planet is the poorer every time we allow something beautiful to die.
Well said.
The second book I want to mention is Mikkel Aaland's Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure
Earlier this year I blogged about 25 photographers from around the world who converged on Tasmania for a week long photographic adventure of this beautiful island. During their stay, each photographer used a beta version of Adobe's Lightroom photo processing software with amazing results.
And those results are now published in this book, showing off Tasmania to the world... well, those that are keen to see some of the tricks that were used with the software.
In his blog Aaland writes:
I am a proud father. The book looks great! I'm not surprised--a lot of good people at O'Reilly worked really hard on it-- but I am relieved. It's nerve racking to work with other photographer's images and honor them. I think the double page spreads look fantastic and really highlight the amazing talent that made the adventure--and the book-- successful.
My copy should arrive in the next week or so.
