Customer Reviews

Traces of Time: The Beauty of Change in Nature: An Exploratorium Book

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The Earth has many lessons to teach us. These lessons are written on the ground at your feet, on the mountains across the river from my house, in the rocks of a riverbed, in the trees all around us. Once you learn to read them, you'll see them everywhere.

This inspired collaboration between Photographer William Neill and the Staff of San Francisco's acclaimed science museum, the Exploratorium, Traces of Time, beautifully illustrates the effects of time on our natural surroundings.

The Exploratorium was the one place in the Bay Area where I could take my chickadees for an entire day & know we would all be learning things that were both strange & curious about everyday objects & events. It is the only hands-on museum where you never hear a discouraging word & are invited to play. There are now over 650 exhibits which people can investigate with impunity.

This is a gloriously illustrated, thoughtfully written introduction to how the passing of time can be seen in the moment - rushing rivers captured in the camera's lens & over the eons - geology explained.

Traces of Time will make an excellent gift that will keep on giving. For my full review do check out: [my website].

Two very good friends of mine bought me this book last November and I can't get tired of it at all!

The book is systematically grouped into categories such as Desert landscapes, ancient landscapes etc which necessarily makes it an easy read for a light reader or those who love pictures.

Most of the pictures depict natural features in the U.S.A. and some from Canada and islands in the Indian Ocean. Even though many, such as the Delicate Arch, are very well-photographed, the lively colors seem to want you to pay attention to the pictures again. For example, Delicate Arch was taken with a backdrop of a brewing thunderstorm. Due to the presence of other comparable features behind or near the main focus, one will be kept intrigued, truly appreciating the sheer size of each of the features and marveling at the wonderful hand of God.

The captions are informative, and I would say, rather detailed - so much so they can pass for simple Geographic text. Some even add a sense of humor, describing huge corestones on the Bowling Balls Beach to have "roll[ed] over to join its companion".

My only complaint is that there are too few photos. There should be more on Grand Canyon, and other beautiful features not covered such as Big Horn Canyon, Gates of the Mountains, Yosemite Falls, Crater Lake, Shoshone in Wyoming and Niagara Falls, whose histories can be equally alluring.