We are pleased to announce that our book Great Smokey Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes, photographs by Richard Mack was named as a finalist in the 2009 Book of the Year Awards for Photography.

ForeWord Reviews today announced the finalists in the 2009 Book of the Year Awards. The finalists, representing 360 publishers, were selected in 60 categories. These books are examples of independent publishing at its best. 

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor’s Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at BookExpo America in New York City on May 25, 2010. ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program was designed to discover distinctive books from independent publishers across a number of genres.

We are honored to be announced as a finalist in this prestigious award. There are 14 books listed as finalists so we will await the decisions of the judges and the award ceremony in New York on May 25^th!

Cheers!

Richard

Winter Storm, Lake Michigan

For the last few days we’ve had a winter storm in Chicago which has dumped over 12” of snow. So naturally I finally said it was time to grab a camera and head down to the lakefront and see what images I might find there for possible inclusion in one of my next books on all five Great Lakes.

These images were all shot around the lake front in Evanston, Illinois. Some places you may recognize from previous posts since it is my home town. The storm was in full force yesterday afternoon when I ventured out. The ice has built up tall against the shoreline with the winds out of the northeast and stacking the ice onto shore from the lake. With the dark clouds on the horizon I worked with the clouds, low visibility and starkness of the images in front of me. It will be interesting to see if these ever make it into the book, but it was fun to be out in the weather and making images again! Seems like a long time since I shot anything on this project.

Pier and storm, Lake Michigan

The working title for this book on all five of the Great Lakes is 20%. Named so because 20% of all the fresh water in the entire world lies within these lakes. A drop of water from Lake Superior takes over 400 years to travel through the lakes and into the Atlantic Ocean. It is clear what we do to these lakes now will affect those who come after us for many generations. The book does not yet have a release date since I am just now beginning to shoot most of it.

To see more of the images from this shoot please visit www.mackphoto.com/blog/LakeMichiganWinter/

Enjoy the winter snows! We’re over half way to spring…

Peace,

Richard Mack

 

With the beginning of the New Year we always seem to take stock of where we have been and where we want to go. I’ve decided on a few new projects for the coming year. Working on two books during the year, both of which are in the planning stage, so I am a bit reticent to discuss them as I flush them out but I intend to figure out exactly how to approach each one in the next few weeks. One is idea is on the five Great Lakes, which hold 20% of all of the worlds fresh water supply. Think about that, all the rivers, streams, creeks, pond, lakes and we here in the Midwest live within reach of a continuous body of water with 20% of all the fresh water. How will we protect it and use it in the future? The other project is on the overseas National Cemeteries. This book is really in the research phase so I am not sure it will come to fruition yet.

This is also the time to make lists of places you’d like to see this year. I’ve got a list going, which seems to change daily, but it’s good to be flexible right? So here is my list of places I’d like to go this year, in no particular order.

• Everglades National Park (in January – just a few weeks away!)
• Southern Patagonia
• France
• Circle Each of the Great Lakes
• New Orleans for Jazz Fest

Now there are many other places I would like to get back to, some I already know I will with the Quiet Light Workshops in Zion National Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Love to get back to Alaska, Yosemite and even Yellowstone in winter. But there is only so much time each year so I’ll try to get to as many places as possible and be ready to change it up at a moments notice. But planning always makes a better trip so here is to the start of a great year! Hope your plans include getting outdoors and seeing the wonderful world we live in, learning new things and enjoying this life!

Happy New Year!

Richard Mack

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to do two book signing events at Sugarlands and Cades Cove Visitor Centers. It is always fun to be down there and meet folks coming into the park and get reactions to the book first hand. I have some great notes from a few of those who have taken the book home and written me about how much they love the book. I am always humbled by their notes. This past weekend I also ended up giving some advice on where to go to shoot the sunset in the park to three gentlemen who had come for the weekend to shoot some images. I mentioned that on this night they could go up to Clingmans Dome and get two very different shots, one of the full moon rising in the east and then turn to the west and photograph the ridges of mountains in the sunset. I confessed I was going to try and head someplace else to shoot the full moon rising, since I had shot it from Clingmans Dome before – and I showed them the pages in the book. But I confessed if it didn’t work I might see them up there.

Well, as it turns out, the location I thought might work looked a bit to far to the southeast and ridges blocked where the moon was going to come up at 81º in the east. So I eventually headed up to Clingmans Dome and ran into these gents and we all ended up shooting together, along with the dozens of others up there that cold, cold evening. I was too late for the moon rise, but got there to shoot the end of the sunset. It is always fun to see how you can have 4-5 folks within feet of each other and we all get different results and see the shots differently. It was also fun to give them some advice on the techniques I use to achieve some of the my images and how late into the darkness I end up shooting, usually being the last to leave an area in total darkness.

All three it turns out have studio’s down south but don’t do nature photography. I got a nice note back from one of them who is the photographer for the woman’s roller derby team in Atlanta – who knew they still had roller derby? He’s got some nice shots of them. Ironically, none of them bought the book – what’s up with that? – but we all had a great time anyway! In his note he said they all decided to come back often to shoot in the park, so maybe the next time I’m there over Halloween weekend I’ll run into them again.

To see more from this hour of shooting on Clingmans Dome use this link: Clingmans Dome Sunset

Cheers!

Richard

Saturday night was the official book release party sponsored by Quiet Light Publishing and Renew Management at Studio Flo in Evanston. Everyone had a great time and it was great to see everyone who came to celebrate the release of my new book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes.

The food, wine and beer flowed freely as people enjoyed the prints on display and I signed books. Here are shots taken by Rich Nickel, the designer of the book. Thank Rich for taking these. At one point it was so crowded both floors of the space were packed.

To see more images use this link: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/QLPParty/ 

I also want to thank our sponsor, Renew Management for donating the space for this event. They have supported the arts in Evanston for decades. If you are looking for live/work lofts these are the coolest – check them out!  www.evanstonlofts.com

Thanks to all who came!

Richard