Books like this always make me smile because they have been created with such a love behind them and that comes through on every page.
Timothy K. Smith has taken a place which is close to his heart and has chosen to share it with us, as he sees it with his own eyes as well as how he has captured it through the lens of his camera. He sounds like a warm man, a family man with a deep appreciation for nature and an eagerness to show off what he loves for all to see. This comes through in the Preface, Dedication and Acknowledgment and in the inclusion of short tributes to others who are invested in Little River Park in the same way as he is.
There is something really honest about this book. It’s like a scrapbook in the personal message that permeates through it as well as the photos including people who Smith knows. He wants to show the importance of this place to the people who visit it but also wants to pay tribute to the place itself in all its natural glory.
The pages are full of beauty; of waters flowing over rock, from a distance, up close; in differing lights; at different times of the year as well as after devastation. This book serves to chart Little River Park as it was and how it is now a tornado has torn through and I love the fact that Smith has chosen to do this. It could almost be seen as a metaphor for life as Smith sees how Little River Park has been altered but loves it anyway and still wants to show it off.
I think if Little River Park could speak it would be overwhelmed at the attention that Smith has given to it and would be happy to have itself preserved in these pages by someone whose joy at being there is palpable in every image.
Scuffed Granny 