Seeing Trees

Seeing trees is something that most of us do every day. The question is: how closely do we really look? In all probability, not very. Which is a pity, because - as this splendid book demonstrates - there's a vast amount of detail and sheer beauty to be appreciated when you take the time to get up close. Robert Llewellyn's elegant, startlingly precise photographs are indisputable proof of this. The four consecutive pages of maple leaves - no text, just 36 lusciously tinted leaves - make you want to rush out to the nearest woodland and start riffling through the discarded foliage. His studies of bark, leaf buds, flowers and fruit, along with the thoughtful, passionate text, made me vow never to pass a gingko or a walnut tree again without pausing to marvel. This book was originally published in the USA, so most of the species it focuses on are ones you're unlikely to encounter outside a garden, park or arboretum. No matter, because the images and text are still equally inspiring, and the message - that trees deserve so much more than a casual glance - remains equally valid.

Excellent close-up photographs of bud, bark, twig and leaf make this a visual treat [...] a good read.

A book that will make you view these giant plants in a completely different way. It combines stunning photography with a wealth of information on tree physiology.

Featured as a Christmas gift book:

Even the mundane can be beautiful if you take the time to look closely. That is the premise of this gorgeous book. Lively and fascinating, the text is a good read and adds texture to the fantastic photos of 10 native American trees, with more detail on a wider range of features. A book anyone would welcome as a gift.

This is a book whose photography is as elegant as so many of the trees it features, as specimens or in the intimate intricacy of their flowers, and is matched by appropriate elegance in the book's design. The engaging and very personal text, is derived from enthusiasms for the trees in her [Nancy Ross Hugo's] and neighbor's backyards and an inclination to look closely, reflect and ask searching questions.

The images are vivid documents of various species that attempt to treat each component of the tree as a beautiful subject in its own right. We see things such as the twigs of a beech and the leaves of a red maple given room to breathe within the pages. Revealing the beauty of these objects demonstrates that we can often take these subjects for granted. Sometimes, it's only when you begin to get close that you can see the inherent beauty of a thing.

This book is all about the photographs, which really make you look at, and appreciate, trees in minute detail.

It's not just the author's detailed observation that distinguishes this book, it's the way she transmits what she's been looking at with enthusiasm and simplicity. This is botany for Everyman... Llewellyn's close-ups of flowers, pollen grains, seeds, buds, leaves, bark and twigs are truly exceptional and, thankfully, very well printed. Rarely are author and photographer in such harmony...

Seeing Trees initially looks like a coffee table book but it isn't. It contains not only the most amazing photographs I have ever seen for a very long time but also prose which conveys the author's enthusiasm for her subject so well that you just want to go out and climb the nearest tree to see what you can find.