Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California [Paperback]

Tim Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Breathtaking new photography and ideas explore the Range of Light An extraordinary mountain range, the Sierra Nevada rises high over California. In Luminous Mountains, award-winning author and photographer Tim Palmer captures the dazzling variety and enchantment of this revered and exquisite place, revealing the essence of the Sierra in a way that has never been done before, from its northern limit to its southernmost slope, from its rolling foothills in the west to its dramatic fault line at desert s edge. With 135 stunning photographs and engaging text, Palmer guides us through the stormy white depths of winter and into ancient green forests suffused with life. With knowledge gleaned from decades of experience, he writes of the intricate workings of nature and also the conflicts inherent in the booming growth of the nation s most populous state. In all months of the year he shows us unmatched images of wonder from icons of scenery such as Yosemite s El Capitan, Devils Postpile, Lake Tahoe, and Mount Whitney, to remote and secret enclaves amid the peaks and the canyons. Born of an intimate relationship with nature, Luminous Mountains is a spirited journey of discovery up the peaks and down the rivers of the great Sierra Nevada.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Outdoors Library: The height of beauty Tim Palmer's book, "Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California" is a love letter to his beloved mountain range. His prose is passionate, his photography exhilarating. "On that first trip to the Sierra, I wanted to see it all, and now thirty-eight years later I still do", he coos. "Back then I couldn't get enough . and now , half a lifetime later , I still can't". Palmer's got it bad. The award-winning outdoor writer uses 135 photos to seasonally showcase the Sierra from north to south, from western foothills to eastern desert. Several photos were taken in the dead of winter as Palmer endured whiteout storms and avalanche danger during Sierra ski trips. Palmer's photographs in the section "The Southern Sierra Nevada" are his most spectacular with images of Devil's Postpile, a crescent-shaped moon over Ritter Range, snow at Silver Pass, a full moon over Moose Lake and several others. His writing is crisp, descriptive and ardent..... "Luminous Mountains" is ...engaging when Palmer is describing and photographing his hikesinto the heart of the Sierra Nevada, amountain range he now admits he'll never completely explore. --Dan Vierria, McClatchy Newspapers 4/10/2008

About the Author

Tim Palmer has written seventeen books about the American landscape, conservation, adventure travel, and rivers. California Wild, a text and photography book, won the Benjamin Franklin Award for the best book on nature and the environment in 2004. Palmer wrote the text for the Yosemite Association s Yosemite: The Promise of Wildness, which received the Director s Award from the National Park Service as the best book of the year in 1997. His latest book, Rivers of America, features 200 color photos of rivers nationwide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Heyday Books/Yosemite Association (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597140775
• ISBN-13: 978-1597140775
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #68 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Mountains

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sierra Nevada captured in mind and heart, September 29, 2008

By 

Teacher "Teacher" (Middlebury, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California (Paperback)

This book is the product of two passions: Tim Palmer the hiker and environmentalist palpably loves the Sierras while Tim Palmer the artist is drawn to the effects of light on this sacred place. The text makes clear a lifelong curiosity about and education in the many intersecting elements of these mountains. The pictures make clear a sympathy of eye and heart.

Award winning author and photographer, Tim has for nearly forty years been hiking in and caring for the Sierra Nevada range, during which time he has bounded this "twenty-million acre expanse," North, South, East and West in seasonal pictures to create a magnificent photographic rendering of one of our most spectacular terrains. This remarkable book leads us into the Sierras as he felt them first-hand in 1968: "I had the distinct feeling of going not so much higher but rather deeper into the folds of warping rock, deeper into the forests of lodgepole pine, deeper into the glacial enclaves once buried in ice but now drowned in pure luminous light so rich it seemed drinkable in yellow and gold."

We are taken deep into the Sierras in pictures that praise the intimate as well as the magisterial. Tim's eye, balanced and wide-ranging, finds delight in the lone marmot, the brilliant California poppy, the architectural columns at the Devil's Postpile, the lunar landscape of Mount Gayle, the immanent power of the Tuolomne River at Glen Aulin Falls, and the breathtaking, distant sweep of Mount Humphreys and the Eastern Sierra.

Anybody who has ever been moved by a mountain, lake, stream, tree or flower needs to get hold of this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of the Sierra Nevada mountains, June 7, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California (Paperback)

The beauty of the Sierra Nevada mountains - something that doesn't get old to just stare at, even in photographic form. "Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California" is a compilation of well over one hundred and thirty five photographs of the beautiful mountain range in various states of day, displaying a different type of beauty through each time of a day. An ideal coffee table book for lovers of beautiful scenery, "Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California" is ideal for any community library collection focusing on nature photography.