One Year of “Illuminating Nature”
The Original Image of the Cover: Kebler Pass in Gunnison National Forest near Crested Butte, Colorado, taken October 2023.
(The following playlet is a slightly fictionalized telling of the truth. The names have been omitted to protect the innocent, though you will learn them later anyway.)
TIME: Early afternoon in the middle of November, 2023.
SCENE: Jon is seated at his desk. The phone rings.
RESPECTED BOOK PUBLISHER: “Would you be interested in contributing some photos to a book?”
-Wow! Me? What kind of book? (ASIDE: This sounds intriguing…)
“An eclipse book. We liked your pictures of the 2023 eclipse. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: The Annular Eclipse, also known as the “Ring of Fire”, which took place in October, 2023, through a wide swath of Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon.) Do you have any more pictures of eclipses?”
The Annular Eclipse, aka “The Ring of Fire,” taken in Devil’s Garden, Escalante, Utah, October 2023.
-Well, I’m not really an eclipse photographer… I have some lunar eclipses…
[STAGE DIRECTION: RESPECTED BOOK PUBLISHER PAUSES.]
“What about a book on nature? Maybe you could contribute some other photos and we can have someone else write the words.”
-That sounds interesting. Let me think about it. Can I get back to you?
“Absolutely.” [HANGS UP]
[ A WINDOW APPEARS ON STAGE. JON STARES OUT AND MUSES, DRAMATICALLY]
Did I seem too standoffish? Was I not enthusiastic enough? Just what exactly am I doing here? A chance to get published by a major publisher?! Why are you not paying them for this opportunity?!
I mean, I’m not a professional photographer, but I do feel protective of what I do. I’ve already been burned before with submitting pictures to a book project where the editor repurposed my and others’ work into a political and moral screed (Don’t you remember?). I choose to pursue what I do with my intention, not someone else’s, even if we were in complete cosmic alignment.
SCENE 2: A few days later, the week before Thanksgiving. Same location. Phone rings:
“Jon, we’ve been looking over your social media feeds, and we like what you’ve written with your pictures as well.”
-Thank you very much! That’s very kind of you. (This is a surprise! Where is this going?)
“Would you like to write for the book, too?”
-Wow! That sounds great. Can I think about it over the weekend?
“Sure. Let’s talk again on Monday.”
[CUE THE WINDOW. IN DRAMATIC FASHION, GLASSES ARE REMOVED FROM FACE. DRAMATICALLY.]
This is starting to sound like MY book? Did I hear that right?
Does that make it more appealing? Or scary?
SCENE 3: Monday, mid-afternoon, same location, same phone. Same shirt?
“Jon, we don’t want to offend you…” (Oh, great, they want to drop the idea all together. Despair!)
“...But this is starting to become YOUR book. Is that okay for you?”
(Did I hear that right? Can it be? Keep your cool, man!)
[JON PAUSES FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT.]
-Yes, I think that will work for me.
[CURTAIN. AUTHOR’S NOTE: DRAMATURGY WAS NEVER MY SPECIALTY. LET’S CONTINUE ANON IN A FORMAT TO WHICH I’VE BECOME ACCUSTOMED ON MY BOOK TOUR-THE Q &A!]
Q: How long after that momentous phone call did you work on the book?
A: Every morning at 5 a.m. for the next six weeks, I sifted through dozens and dozens of my social media posts and photos; scoured selections from Aldo Leopold, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Christopher Camuto, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Wallace Stegner, Mary Oliver, and other nature writers and photographers that I admire; and wrote and rewrote additional epigrams to create what would become the first draft of Illuminating Nature: Chasing Light Across the Landscape, from Countryman Press (a division of W.W. Norton), which will celebrate its one year anniversary on September 17, 2025.
The mechanical draft (the version resembling the layout of the book) was due in February after rewrites and revisions, with the final draft to be submitted in March. However, more on that when the right question comes up.
Q: So what about the Great American Solar Eclipse of April 8, 2024? Was that going to be included?
A: Great question! Fortunately, the publisher asked if I could still capture the eclipse to include in the book provided that everything else had previously been submitted. After the fateful event, I frantically edited, re-edited and put together a composited image that I sent the next morning --from my campsite in my car, no less. After that, it was out of my hands.
Q: So where did the title come from?
A: I can’t take credit for it. The Countryman team came up with a lot of suggestions: Bending Light? Chasing Light? Looking for Light in All the Right Places? (I made that last one up, by the way). I also can’t take credit for the organization and look of the book, either. Those distinctions belong to Aurora Bell, my first-rate editor, and Allison Chi, an amazing designer.
In fact, I can’t claim credit for the actual genesis of the book itself (as evidenced from our dramatic scene included at the beginning.) Very special honors go to the Anns: Ann Treistman, the aforementioned Respected Book Publisher of Countryman, and Ann Somlyo, Director of Special Markets. It was a truly collaborative process helped along by wonderful and dedicated professionals.
Q: So it sounds like it really does take a village to get an effort like this off the ground.
A: Well, that’s not a question, but you are absolutely right. And the small size of the book was also suggested by Ann Treistman, as we both agreed that a coffee table-sized book may discourage people from reading it. Plus, the bigger the book, the bigger the expectation for sales! (Awkward laugh.)
But I bet I can anticipate your next question.
Q: Oh? What is it, smart guy?
A: Thank you. Very kind.
Q: Funny. No. So, how about the promotion of the book?
A: The publicity, marketing and sales teams at Countryman really excelled here, as they were very committed to getting it into bookstores all across the US, especially in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest areas. Special thanks to Devorah Backman, Zach Polendo, and Meg Sherman and her sales team for those efforts. We hope that it might make its way into some National Park bookstores, too, but that remains to be seen. My inaugural event was at my local independent bookstore, Joseph Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, with a question and answer session hosted by my good friend …
Q: Just like we’re doing here!
A: Uh…yeah… anyway, hosted by my good friend and fellow photography enthusiast Kopana Terry, and then from there I went on tour. I travelled to many amazing independent bookstores and community organizations in Ohio, Kentucky and all the way out in Colorado, discussing and sharing my presentation on this book. (See the full list at the end of this post.)
Pictures from the Book Launch of “Illuminating Nature” at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 17, 2024
Q: Here’s an obligatory one: what got you into photography in the first place?
A: I could get pretty wordy with this one, but let’s just say that about 14 years ago I needed a creative and emotional space where I could exert some control over my life. As a child, I loved being outdoors, playing on my grandfather's farm in Central Kentucky, and I wanted to regain that feeling of suspending time to immerse myself in a Zen-like embrace of nature. Photography just seemed to be the best way for me to do that.
Do you have any other questions? I think we’re running out of time…
Q: Oh, I have so many more questions! The themes, the locations…
A: Well, we could go into all of those details, but I would really recommend watching the short promotional video the great folks at Boulder Bookstore helped put together last year. And, of course, one could purchase the book from any of the fine establishments I have listed on my website. But I think you have one more question to ask me, one that is hands-down the most commonly asked at almost all of my events.
Q: Hmm. I know: What kind of camera do you use?
A: No, not that one, though it comes up a lot. I shoot Sony, though not that I have any experience in this arena. It’s all I’ve ever known, beginning with the Cybershot way back in 2001. Besides, there are lot of good cameras out there.
Q: Okay. Uh, well, which places were your favorite and what recommendations would you give to aspiring photographers?
A: Nope, but I will answer the first part. They are all amazing to visit, but I really enjoyed the places with perhaps less national prominence, such as Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, Custer State Park in South Dakota, Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, and Kebler Pass near Crested Butte in Colorado. In fact, the cover of the book was taken at the bend of the pass during a starry night in early fall 2023. The second one is answered in my book.
Q: Okay. Let me think…
A: Come on. I’ll give you a hint: it’s the perfect one to end this discussion.
Q: Oh! You mean, when is the second book coming out?
A: Yes, that’s the one. And my response is as spontaneous, off-the-cuff and unrehearsed as this entire Q & A is: that depends on the reader!
I hope they will see this not just as a collection of photographs (which, thanks to social media we are already completely saturated with images), but more as a meditation on the importance of reconnecting with nature and valuing the precious time we have on this planet. I see photography as a way to develop and nurture that sensibility. In my introduction, I quoted part of the following selection from Emerson’s Nature, but here I would like to give a more complete attribution. I think this says it all perfectly:
“To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself. The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”
Q: Oh, that’s lovely. You should’ve written that.
A: Well, at least I copied it.
Complete List of Bookstores and Organizations I Visited on My Tour. My eternal thanks to all of them!
Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, Ohio
Carmichael’s Bookstore, Louisville, Kentucky
Kentucky Book Festival, Kentucky Humanities Council (Hosted by Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Lexington)
Books by the Banks, Cincinnati, Ohio
CoffeeTree Books, Morehead, Kentucky
Roebling Point Bookstore, Dayton, Kentucky
Kentucky Conservation Committee, Frankfort, Kentucky
REI (Recreation Equipment, Incorporated), Cincinnati Ohio
Morgan County Library, West Liberty, Kentucky
Boulder Bookstore, Boulder, Colorado
Off-the-Beaten-Path Bookstore, Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Between the Covers Bookstore, Telluride, Colorado
Kenton County Public Library—Erlanger Branch, Erlanger, Kentucky