The lyrical words of Helen Frost’s poem accompany the stunning photography of Rick Lieder to produce a quietly powerful book that literally gives a face to some of the tiny creatures that we ostensibly know co-exist with us, and which we sometimes see around us but rarely pause to take a second look at.

With each page or spread in Step Gently Out dedicated to an astonishingly intimate macro portrait of each tiny creature — including a yellow jacket, a carpenter ant and a geometer moth — the reader is able to closely observe the physical attributes of each and marvel at its oddly enthralling beauty as well as nature’s amazing diversity. The last spread identifies all the creatures that are featured, along with short notes on each.