Walk softly, lest in your haste You miss a thousand things of beauty.

Autumn leaves dry in the sun, curling to make endless abstract patterns of curved surfaces and shadows. Or are they leaves? A closer look with Dr. David M. Baird reveals not leaves but layers of mud, which have shrunk into leaf-like shapes as they dried.

Baird's amazing photographs show that intriguing patterns and textures are all around us. In Beauty in the Rocks the esteemed geologist, writer and poet takes readers on a photographic journey around the globe, finding beauty and form in settings as exotic as the Galapagos and as close to home as Yoho National Park.

His intense, artistic images and accompanying text give mood and meaning to the changing earth and encourage readers to observe carefully the world around them, recognize what they see and understand how it came to be. From the hexagonal organ pipe patterns in Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway to the hoodoos in Yoho National Park to the wrinkled surface skin of cooled liquid lava on James Island in the Galapagos, the wonders captured in this book will engage and enlighten anyone with an interest in the natural world.