Design and develop advanced computer vision projects using OpenCV with PythonAbout This BookProgram advanced computer vision applications in Python using different features of the OpenCV libraryPractical end-to-end project covering an important computer vision problemAll projects in the book include a step-by-step guide to create computer vision applications Who This Book Is For This book is for intermediate users of OpenCV who aim to master their skills by developing advanced practical applications. Readers are expected to be familiar with OpenCV’s concepts and Python libraries. Basic knowledge of Python programming is expected and assumed.What You Will LearnGenerate real-time visual effects using different filters and image manipulation techniques such as dodging and burningRecognize hand gestures in real time and perform hand-shape analysis based on the output of a Microsoft Kinect sensorLearn feature extraction and feature matching for tracking arbitrary objects of interestReconstruct a 3D real-world scene from 2D camera motion and common camera reprojection techniquesTrack visually salient objects by searching for and focusing on important regions of an imageDetect faces using a cascade classifier and recognize emotional expressions in human faces using multi-layer peceptrons (MLPs)Recognize street signs using a multi-class adaptation of support vector machines (SVMs)Strengthen your OpenCV2 skills and learn how to use new OpenCV3 features In Detail OpenCV is a native cross platform C++ Library for computer vision, machine learning, and image processing. It is increasingly being adopted in Python for development. OpenCV has C++/C, Python, and Java interfaces with support for Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android. Developers using OpenCV build applications to process visual data; this can include live streaming data from a device like a camera, such as photographs or videos. OpenCV offers extensive libraries with over 500 functions This book demonstrates how to develop a series of intermediate to advanced projects using OpenCV and Python, rather than teaching the core concepts of OpenCV in theoretical lessons. Instead, the working projects developed in this book teach the reader how to apply their theoretical knowledge to topics such as image manipulation, augmented reality, object tracking, 3D scene reconstruction, statistical learning, and object categorization. By the end of this book, readers will be OpenCV experts whose newly gained experience allows them to develop their own advanced computer vision applications.Style and approach This book covers independent hands-on projects that teach important computer vision concepts like image processing and machine learning for OpenCV with multiple examples.

Create a high-quality first person shooter game using the Unity game engine and the popular UFPS and Probuilder frameworksAbout This BookLearn how to use Unity in conjunction with UFPS and ProBuilder to create a high-quality game quicklyCreate both interior and exterior environmentsA step-by step guide to building a project with clear examples and instructions to create a number of interesting scenarios Who This Book Is For This book is for those who want to create an FPS game in Unity and gain knowledge on how to customize it to be their very own. If you are familiar with the basics of Unity, you will have an easier time, but it should make it possible for someone with no prior experience to learn Unity at an accelerated pace.What You Will LearnUse UFPS to build custom weapons with custom meshes and behaviorsExplore level design as you prototype levels, making use of Prototype to build levels out quicklyBuild environments that are realistic as possible while keeping peak performance and repetitiveness downReview tips and tricks on how to create environments using both terrain for outdoor areas and a modular workflow for interiorsDevelop a number of different encounters that your players can fight against, from a simple turret enemy to complex AI characters from Shooter AIDiscover how to create unique objects such as exploding barrels and objects you can interact withCreate a custom GUI to help your game stand out from the crowdPackage your game for release, create an installer, and get your game out into the world In Detail Unity, available in free and pro versions, is one of the most popular third-party game engines available. It is a cross-platform game engine, making it easy to write your game once and then port it to PC, consoles, and even the web, making it a great choice for both indie and AAA developers. Building an FPS Game in Unity takes readers on an exploration of how to use Unity to create a 3D first person shooter (FPS) title, leveraging the powerful UFPS framework by VisionPunk and Prototype/ProBuilder 2.0 by ProCore3D. After some setting up, you will start by learning how to create custom weapons, prototype levels, create exterior and interior environments, and breathe life into our levels. We will then add polish to the levels. Finally, we will create a custom GUI and menus for our title to create a complete package.Style and approach An easy-to-follow guide with each project containing step-by-step explanations, diagrams, screenshots, and downloadable material. Concepts in Unity and C# are explained as they are used and for the more inquisitive, there are more details on the concepts used with additional external resources to learn from.

Master PowerCLI to automate all aspects of VMware environmentsAbout This BookLeverage PowerCLI to perform administration tasks in a more effective and efficient wayEscape from daily tedious and repetitive tasks by unleashing the full potential of your creative side through *ingMaster the intricate workings of PowerShell and PowerCLI through easy and real-life examples Who This Book Is For If you are a system administrator with working knowledge of PowerShell and PowerCLI who wants to perform quick and easy *ing but at the same time achieve complex results and write production grade *s, then this book is for you.What You Will LearnUse GitHub for collaboration and Pester to automate unit testsWrite advanced reusable functions and dynamic variables and learn about error handling in PowerShellAutomate ESXi host installation using Auto-Deploy, host profile, and host imageImplement security best practices in a vSphere data centerManage SRM, vCloud Air, and vRealize Operations environmentsAccess and utilize vSphere APIs to manage advanced aspects of vSphere and work with .NET view objectsUtilize REST APIs to manage vRealize Automation environmentsCreate a Windows GUI through the use of PowerShell and Sapien PrimalForms CE In Detail Have you ever wished that every morning you could automatically get a report with all the relevant information about your datacenter in exactly the same format you wantOr whether you could automate that boring, exhausting taskWhat if some crucial task needs to be performed on a regular basis without any errorPowerCLI *s do all that and much more for VMware environments. It is built on top of the popular Windows PowerShell, with which you can automate server tasks and reduce manual input, allowing you to focus on more important tasks. This book will help you to achieve your goals by starting with a short refresher on PowerShell and PowerCLI and then covering the nuances of advanced functions and reusable *s. Next you will learn how to build a vSphere-powered virtualized datacenter using PowerCLI while managing different aspects of the environment including automated installation, network, and storage. You will then manage different logical constructs of vSphere environment and different aspects of a virtual machine. Later, you will implement the best practices for a security implementation in vSphere Environment through PowerCLI before discovering how to manage other VMware environments such as SRM, vCloud Director and vCloud Air through PowerCLI. You will also learn to manage vSphere environments using advanced properties by accessing vSphere API and REST APIs through PowerCLI. Finally, you will build a Windows GUI application using PowerShell followed by a couple of sample *s for reporting and managing vSphere environments with detailed explanations of the *s. By the end of the book, you will have the required in-depth knowledge to master the art of PowerCLI *ing.Style and approach In this book, every topic is explained in a very easy-to-follow fashion with real-life, simple examples so that you get an idea of not only the topic but also the context in which it should be used or where it can be best utilized.

After decades of service and years of watching her family's troubles splashed across the tabloids, Britain's Queen is beginning to feel her age. She needs some proper cheering up. An unexpected opportunity offers her relief: an impromptu visit to a place that holds happy memories—the former royal yacht, Britannia, now moored near Edinburgh. Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace into the freedom of a rainy London day and heads for King's Cross to catch a train to Scotland. But a characterful cast of royal attendants has discovered her missing. In uneasy alliance a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a girl from the stables, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that supplies Her Majesty's cheese set out to find her and bring her back before her absence becomes a national scandal.Mrs Queen Takes the Train is a clever novel, offering a fresh look at a woman who wonders if she, like Britannia herself, has, too, become a relic of the past. William Kuhn paints a charming yet biting portrait of British social, political, and generational rivalries—between upstairs and downstairs, the monarchy and the government, the old and the young. Comic and poignant, fast paced and clever, this delightful debut tweaks the pomp of the monarchy, going beneath its rigid formality to reveal the human heart of the woman at its center.

Has science shoved parents out of the nurseryJudging from the steady stream of headlines, one would think biologists have discovered a gene for every aspect of behavior. Now, Winifred Conkling reassures us that there's still room to help our children reach their personal best. In clear, compassionate language, Conkling tells parents how to make practical use of the latest research on early brain development, offering invaluable advice on how to: Create a nurturing environment in which you child can grow cognitively Encourage movement and motor development Stimulate speech and language development Foster a child's emotional health and personal identity Make toy and food choices appropriate to each stage of development With specific, sound advice; readable charts and timetables; and clear, easy-to-understand language, Winifred Conkling translates the latest scientific discoveries into useful ways to help your child live up to his or her fullest potential.

In April 2005, Ashley Smith made headlines around the globe when she miraculously talked her way out of the hands of alleged courthouse killer Brian Nichols after he took her hostage for seven hours in her suburban Atlanta apartment. In this moving, inspirational memoir, the 26-year-old widowed mother of a six-year-old girl shares for the first time the little-known details of her traumatic ordeal, and expands on how her faith and the bestselling book The Purpose-Driven? Life helped her survive and bring the killer's murderous rampage to a peaceful end.Just as she told her 6'1", 210-pound captor that his ultimate "purpose" in life was to end up spending the rest of his life in prison, preaching the teachings of Jesus Christ to his fellow inmates, Smith believes her own purpose is to spread that message of love to the rest of us. Juxtaposing the minute-by-minute tale of her experience with the never-before-told tragedies and triumphs of her own life, Unlikely Angel is a gripping tale of downfall and redemption, involving addiction, violence, death, loss, faith, and love. It is a story that will leave no reader untouched.

New York Times bestselling author Brian "Head" Welch returns with a raw and unforgettable journey through his life with Christ and the *ure that has helped lead him into deeper intimacy with GodIn 2007, Brian Head Welch, the former lead guitaristfor the hard-rock band Korn, shared the dramaticstory of his music, drug addiction, and miraculousredemption through Jesus Christ in his New YorkTimes bestselling book, Save Me from Myself. Inspiring and compelling, this book began a newchapter in his life, as he acknowledged the mistakes ofhis past and looked forward to a brighter future withGod at his side. Now in Stronger, Head continues to share hispersonal life with an unflinching forty-day devotional of*ures that have helped him to mold his Christianfaith and find light during life's darkest moments.Written with passion and openness, this forty-dayjourney offers stories from Head's past and present,as he speaks candidly about his bouts of depressionsince finding God, his struggles against the darknessas he's tried to understand his faith, and how, throughthese times of weakness, God's written word has beenone of the keys to making him stronger than he sever been. Applying both the Old and New Testaments to every aspect of his life from his time with Korn tohis new solo career to his life-altering decisions tohis relationship with his daughter Head details how,no matter what the issue, God has always provided theguidance he's needed to become a stronger person.One part journal chronicling his evolving relationshipwith God, one part spiritual testament to the undeniablestrength of the Bible, Stronger is a devotional unlike anyother both a moving tribute to the transformative powerof the word and a no-holds-barred look at what it meansto give yourself completely to Jesus Christ.

In this deeply moving book of reflection and recollection, Frederick Buechner once again draws us into his deeply textured life and experience to illuminate our own understanding of home as both our place of origin and our ultimate destination. For Frederick Buechner, the meaning of home is twofold: the home we remember and the home we dream. As a word, it not only recalls the place that we grew up in and that had much to do with the people we eventually became, but also points ahead to the home that, in faith, we believe awaits us at life's end. Writing at the approach of his seventieth birthday, he describes, both in prose and in a group of poems, the one particular house that was most precious to him as a child, the books he read there, and the people he loved there. He speaks also of the lifelong search we are all engaged in to make a new home for ourselves and for our families, which is at the same time a search to find something like the wholeness and comfort of home with ourselves. As he turns his attention to our dreams of the heavenly home still to come, he sees it as both hallowing and fulfilling the charity and the peach of our original home. Writing with warmth, wisdom, and compelling eloquence, Frederick Buechner once again enables us to see more deeply into the secret places of our hearts. The Longing for Home will help to bring clarity and guidance to anyone who searches for meaning in a world that all too often seems meaningless.

For many divorced women, the prospect of reentering the dating game is a daunting one. Too often they are afraid of another failure and of not being able to get past their own feelings of inadequacy. This fear of intimacy with another man keeps many single mothers from sticking their toes back in the relationship waters. The challenges of raising children, supporting a family, managing household chores, and money concerns only make moving on with life that much harder.Now, Sheila Ellison uses her warmth, wisdom, and personal experience to provide women with the tools they need to overcome the inner and outer obstacles to finding healthy, happy love. This book will show you how to find the courage to look at your mistakes, accept your choices, forgive yourself, and go on to a place of self-acceptance and love.Part One explores the inward journey-how we learn to love and to accept who we are, and how to gain the courage to get rid of the old patterns and make room for new ideas and dreams. Part Two is about the outward journey toward a healthy new relationship. This is the exciting part, where you put your newfound self-knowledge into action.Miracles do happen! says Sheila Ellison. You do deserve it all, and you can have it all if you follow the steps presented here. The Courage to Love Again is your blueprint to finding an enduring, loving relationship.

Drawing on the first study of 1600 scorers conducted with the full cooperation of the College Board, here are the 7 secrets to success on the SAT -- and in life.Every year roughly 2.3 million high school students take the SAT; of those, however, only 650 students on average achieve a perfect score of 1600. Such a statistic raises obvious questions: Who are these kidsWhat are they likeAnd how do they do it?In a new landmark study, educator and executive recruiter Tom Fischgrund became the first researcher ever granted comprehensive access to these high academic achievers by the College Board, the body that administers the SAT. Weaving together in-depth interviews with perfect-score students, insights from their parents, and exclusive College Board data, in 1600 Perfect Score he reveals the 7 secrets that separate the cream from the crop.Among the Revelations Attending small private schools (or any school with classes) doesn't always make a big difference ... but having strong family support does Paying for expensive classes or tutors doesn'talways make a big difference ... but takinglots of practice tests at home does Having a strongly motivating teacher doesn't always make a big difference ... but having an independent passion for learning definitely does Packed with intriguing case studies and practical advice -- and tips from the 1600 scorers themselves -- this essential book brings hard data and a new, more human perspective to one of the greatest challenges parents everywhere face: how to make sure their children have the best chance to thrive in high school, college, and beyond.

Above all else, Italy has a reputation for style, having gained fame for its beautiful architecture, up-to-the-minute fashion design, exotic cars, and motorcycles which display a rare combination of sheer style and exciting performance.

Whenever I see a rebuild guide I am impressed by how easy everything looks - every job seems to be so straightforward. Not surprisingly, since they have been written by seasoned professionals who have all the tools, own large workshops and have worked on the same cars for years.

From the hugely respected journalist Miranda Sawyer, a very modern look at the midlife crisis – delving into the truth, and lies, of the experience and how to survive it, with thoughtfulness, insight and humour. ‘You wake one day and everything is wrong. It's as though you went out one warm evening – an evening fizzing with delicious potential, so ripe and sticky-sweet you can taste it on the air – for just one drink … and woke up two days later in a skip. Except you're not in a skip, you're in an estate car, on the way to an out-of-town shopping mall to buy a balance bike, a roof rack and some stackable storage boxes.’ Miranda Sawyer’s midlife crisis began when she was 44. It wasn’t a traditional one. She didn’t run off with a Pilates teacher, or blow thousands on a trip to find herself. From the outside, all remained the same. Work, kids, marriage, mortgage, blah. Days, weeks and months whizzed past as she struggled with feeling – knowing – that she was over halfway through her life. It seemed only yesterday that she was 29, out and about. Out of Time is not a self-help book. It’s an exploration of this sudden crisis, this jolt. It looks at how our tastes, and our bodies, change as we get older. It considers the unexpected new pleasures that the second half of life can offer, from learning to code to taking up running (slowly). Speaking to musicians and artists, friends and colleagues, Miranda asks how they too have confronted midlife, and the lessons, if any, that they’ve learned along the way.

Following on from his epic ‘1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow’, bestselling author Adam Zamoyski has written the dramatic story of the Congress of Vienna. In the wake of his disastrous Russian campaign of 1812, Napoleon's imperious grip on Europe began to weaken, raising the question of how the Continent was to be reconstructed after his defeat. There were many who dreamed of a peace to end all wars, in which the interests of peoples as well as those of rulers would be taken into account. But what followed was an unseemly and at times brutal scramble for territory by the most powerful states, in which countries were traded as if they had been private and their inhabitants counted like cattle. The results, fixed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, not only laid the foundations of the European world we know; it put in place a social order and a security system that lie at the root of many of the problems which dog the world today. Although the defining moments took place in Vienna, and the principle players included Tsar Alexander I of Russia, the Austrian Chancellor Metternich, the Duke of Wellington and the French master of diplomacy Talleyrand, as well as Napoleon himself, the accepted view of the gathering of statesmen reordering the Continent in elegant salons is a false one. Many of the crucial questions were decided on the battlefield or in squalid roadside cottages amid the vagaries of war. And the proceedings in Vienna itself were not as decorous as is usually represented. Drawing on a wide range of first-hand sources in six languages, which include not only official documents, private letters, diaries and first-hand accounts, but also the reports of police spies and informers, Adam Zamoyski gets below the thin veneer of courtliness and reveals that the new Europe was forged by men in thrall to fear, greed and lust, in an atmosphere of moral depravity in which sexual favours were traded as readily as provinces and the 'souls' who inhabited them. He has created a chilling account, full of menace as well as frivolity.

Stephen Davis’s brilliantly-written personal account of criss-crossing America with Led Zeppelin on their 1975 tour. A warts-and-all snapshot of the world’s biggest hard-rock band at their peak. As a young rock writer Stephen Davis landed the ultimate commission – touring America with Led Zeppelin. This is a personal account by Davis of his journey, which saw him crossing the country with the band on board the Starship, their famous Boeing passenger jet, complete with deep shag purple carpet, electric pianos, girlfriends and star-struck hangers-on. This is also the story of one of the hardest-living bands in the world at their peak. For Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham, the most beautiful women in America tear their spangled jackets from them and riots start outside their gigs. LZ-75 captures a few perfect months in rock, when Led Zeppelin epitomised the free-living rock dream, but, like Icarus, their wings were already beginning to melt. It wouldn't be long before John Bonham died of a vodka overdose, and punk killed their brand of monumental rock. With it's up-close-and-personal accounts of band members, managers, groupies, fans and drug-dealers, there's a lot of Almost Famous about this book – Led Zep's 1975 tour is in fact the very one on which Cameron Crowe's film was based. Stephen Davis was barely twenty in 1975, but now he is recognised as one of the best rock writers in the world. He is the author of the mega-selling Hammer of the Gods – a biography of Led Zeppelin. He recently unearthed his notebooks of the 1975 tour – which he didn't use for Hammer of the Gods – to write LZ-75. LZ-75: Across America with Led Zeppelin is a wonderful and unique thing – a beautifully succinct account of a single moment in rock, when no lyric was too far-fetched, no drink went undrunk and no expense was ever, ever spared. It's a moment that will never be repeated.

This edition does not include illustrations. A wartime romance, survival saga and murder mystery set in rural France during the First World War. From the Number 1 bestselling author of ‘Agent ZigZag’ and ‘Operation Mincemeat’. Four young British soldiers find themselves trapped behind enemy lines at the height of the fighting on the Western Front in August 1914. Unable to get back to their units, they shelter in the tiny French village of Villeret, where they are fed, clothed and protected by the villagers, including the local matriarch Madame Dessenne, the baker and his wife. The self-styled leader of the band of fugitives, Private Robert Digby, falls in love with the 20-year-old daughter of one of his protectors, and in November 1915 she gives birth to a baby girl. The child is just six months old when someone betrays the men to the Germans. They are captured, tried as spies and summarily condemned to death. Using the testimonies of the daughter, the villagers, detailed town hall records and, most movingly, the soldiers’ last letters, Ben Macintyre reconstructs an extraordinary story of love, duplicity and shame – ultimately seeking to discover through decades of village rumour the answer to the question, ‘Who betrayed Private Digby and his men?’ In this new updated edition the mystery is finally solved. This edition does not include illustrations.

An epic social history of steamship travel from the 19th-century to the ‘Lusitania’, the ‘Mauretania’ and the ‘Titanic’. The great transatlantic steamships became emblems of an age, of a Victorian audacity of spirit-cathedrals to man's harnessing of new technology. Through the innovations and designs of key engineers and shipping magnates – Samuel Cunard, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Edward Knights Collins – ‘the largest movable objects in human history' were created. To the wealthy, steamships represented glamorous travel, but to most they offered cheap passage out of Europe to the New World. At their peak, steamships delivered one million new Americans each year, transforming the world’s oceans from barriers into highways. In this fascinating history, Stephen Fox chronicles the tragedies that marked the evolution of the ocean liner, including the 1852 sinking of the ‘Arctic’, with the loss of three hundred and twenty-two lives, and the early 20th-century losses of the ‘Lusitania’ and the ‘Titanic’. Using contemporary records, diaries and writing, he penetrates the experience of transatlantic passage and examines the societies created on the vast floating cities, ‘a kind of third human environment, neither land nor sea but partaking of each, and bridging them in unprecedented ways’.

Please note that some images were unavailable for the electronic edition. The highly praised biography of an archetypal great house and the family who lived there for over 250 years. ‘The Big House’ is the biography of a great country house and the lives of the Sykes family who lived there, with varying fates, for the next two hundred and fifty years. It is a fascinating social history set against the backdrop of a changing England, with a highly individual, pugnacious and self-determining cast, including: ‘Old Tat’ Sykes, said to be one of the great sights of Yorkshire (the author’s great-great-great-grandfather), who wore 18th-century dress to the day of his death at ninety-one in 1861. His son was similarly eccentric, wearing eight coats that he discarded gradually throughout the day in order to keep his body temperature at a constant. He was forced to marry, aged forty-eight, eighteen-year-old Jessica Cavendish-Bentick – a lively and highly intelligent woman who relieved the boredom of her marriage by acquiring a string of lovers, writing novels and throwing extravagant parties (her nickname became ‘Lady Satin Tights’), all the while accumulating debts that ended in a scandalous court case. Their son, Mark, died suddenly whilst brokering the peace settlement at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I; Sledmere was destroyed by fire shortly afterwards. But the rebuilt Sledmere rose from the flames to resound again with colourful, brilliant characters in the 1920s and 1930s including the author’s grandmother, Lily, who had been a celebrated bohemian in Paris. ‘The Big House’ is vividly written and meticulously researched using the Sykes’ own family’s papers and photographs. In this splendid biography of place and time, Christopher Simon Sykes has resuscitated the lives of his ancestors and their glorious home from the 18th- through to the 20th-century.

The perfect companion for the safari enthusiast, this complete traveller’s guide to the wildlife of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Malawi is a must-have for all those considering a trip to the game reserves of this highly popular region. Written and illustrated by wildlife experts who have been leading safaris in the region for over 20 years, and featuring over 400 species of bird, mammal, reptile, amphibian and insect, this informative guide makes the perfect companion for all those considering a trip to the game reserves of southern Africa. Each species is illustrated with a full-colour photograph and features a full species de*ion. Key information on wildlife photography is also included, such as the best type of camera, film and lenses to use, along with information on techniques and codes of conduct.

Ever since man first cultivated plants and grew crops, insects, mites and other creatures have risen to prominence as pests, but it is only throughout the last two centuries that we have come to study them in any detail. Whereas in the past, emphasis has mainly been placed on ways to protect cultivated plants from attack or damage, nowadays our over-reliance on pesticides has been replaced by a far more enlightened approach to plant protection. Though chemical pesticides still have a role to play, environmental aspects and non-chemical means of pest control have become equally, if not more, important. This requires a greater appreciation of ecosystems, coupled with a greater understanding of individual pests, including their habits and their role in the environment. Drawing on a lifetime of experience, David V. Alford provides a fascinating account of the natural history of the insects and mites that inhabit our farms and gardens, and feed on our cultivated plants. He shows how and why the different operations of cultivation affect their world, and why plant pests should not be viewed as different from other wildlife. Coverage of pests includes aliens, and although emphasis is placed mainly on arable and horticultural field crops, pests of protected crops - both edible and non-edible - are also included. Details of pest life cycles, status, distribution and the damage they cause are given, and natural enemies of pests are examined. The author also explores the impact of pesticides, climate change and evolving crop management practices.

Chris Yates, one of Britain’s most insightful and lyrical writers, raises his gaze from his beloved rivers and ponds and takes us on a mesmerizing tour of the British countryside. “Last November, the sudden appearance of a hundred wintering ravens in a wood in Cranborne Chase, where I have lived for twenty-five years without seeing more than a few solitary specimens, reminded me that there is always something ready to flame up again in the landscape, just when it seemed the fire had gone out.” In Nightwalk we accompany Chris Yates on the most magical of journeys into the very heart of the British countryside. His acute observation of the natural world and ability to transcend it exquisitely sets Chris apart from his contemporaries. Time slows down for a deeper intimacy with nature, and through Chris’s writing we hear every rustle of a leaf, every call of a bird. He widens the power of our imagination, heightening our senses and revealing beauty in the smallest details.