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Books

Reviewing the book "Treasured Lands"

Ernesto Santos (esantos)


Keywords: landscape, nature, photography, america, parks, esantos

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Quang -Tuan Luong, better known as QT Luong, has been one of my favorite landscape/nature photographers since I first discovered his website back in the early 2000’s. He has logged an incredible journey to pursue the craft of photography, having traveled the world over, and most notably to EVERY national park in the United States. His work is voluminous as can be experienced at his website TerraGaleria. Now, for the first time, his timeless images of our parks are available in a magnificent coffee table book, Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey through America’s National Parks.

Born in Paris, France, from Vietnamese parents, QT earned his PhD from the University of Paris and while studying there he spent his free time hiking the French Alps. This experience stoked his love of nature and wanted to record his experiences some way so he took up photography.  After earning his doctorate he found himself in Berkley, California conducting research on artificial intelligence. He soon started visiting nearby Yosemite National Park on a regular basis, fell in love with the American concept of national parks, and started to photograph them. Thus began his odyssey to visit as many parks as humanly possible, maybe getting to see them all one day. At much personal expense and effort, he crisscrossed the country for years documenting on film what he saw, what inspired him. We are now certainly the beneficiaries of his determination. Over time the knowledge he gained about our parks and the beautiful scenic treasures they hold did not go unnoticed.  Impressed by this, Ken Burns, the legendary PBS documentary film producer/director and his partner Dayton Duncan contacted QT when they began doing the preliminary research for their PBS series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”. QT was soon asked to provide consultation on the parks and was even featured in the documentary series.

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The book is not just a compendium of inspiring landscape imagery, it is a very well laid out reference with the contents divided by geographical region. Detailed notes are provided for each park followed by a series of amazing photos of each location. QT uses large format film cameras so the detail of these images is outstanding. They certainly stand up to the best digital photograph imagery.

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5 comments

Jonathan Kandel (JonK) on November 13, 2016

Awarded for his high level skills and in-depth knowledge in various areas, such as Wildlife, Landscape and Stage Photography Donor Ribbon awarded for his very generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2015

Ernesto hit it on the head. Everyone who loves good photography — and certainly landscape photogs — should own this book!

Jonathan Kandel (JonK) on November 13, 2016

Awarded for his high level skills and in-depth knowledge in various areas, such as Wildlife, Landscape and Stage Photography Donor Ribbon awarded for his very generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2015

Ernesto hit it on the head. Everyone who loves good photography — and certainly landscape photogs — would own this book!

Ernesto Santos (esantos) on November 10, 2016

Nikonians Resources Writer. Recognized for his outstanding reviews on printers and printing articles. Awarded for his high level of expertise in various areas, including Landscape Photography Awarded for his extraordinary accomplishments in Landscape Photography. His work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian. Winner of the Best of Nikonians Images 2018 Annual Photo Contest

UPDATE: I wrote this review having only had the chance to see a full PDF file of the book since I was given advance access before its release. Now that I have a hard copy I must say the quality of the images is outstanding and the book is printed on quality paper and to a high degree of standards.

Tom Jacob (sevendayimages) on November 10, 2016

Awarded for his continuous knowledge and images sharing with community members Awarded for his win at the Best of Nikonians 2016 Photo Contest Awarded for his in-depth knowledge and high level of skill in several areas. Awarded for winning in The Best of Nikonians 2019 Photo Contest 
Winner of the Best of Nikonians Photo Contest 2020
This member has gone beyond technical knowledge to show mastery of the art and science of photo Winner in the Best of Nikonians Photo Contest 2021

Thanks for taking the time and posting this Ernesto, it's a great read and bringing QT Luong to my attention. I looked his site up and it's full of wonderful stunning pictures. A good article and a must buy book for landscape photographers for sure.

J. Ramon Palacios (jrp) on November 9, 2016

JRP is one of the two co-founders of Nikonians and has in-depth knowledge in many photographic areas Awarded for his contributions for the Resources

This book will help us expand the number of possible locations for ANPATs. Thank you very much, Ernesto

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