Mikkel Aaland's tutorial of Adobe's next generation digital photography application is called Photoshop Lightroom Adventure, and it's a high-concept spin on a photography expedition to Iceland that resulted in a book.

The idea behind the expedition -- Aaland's brainchild and sponsored primarily by Adobe -- resulted in a team of photographers spending time in Iceland during summer. The idea was to shoot pictures and then bring them back for processing in Lightroom, thus unlocking its potential. The project also served as a test bed for the application - resulting in a number of tweaks and features that were incorporated into Lightroom eventually.

Aaland starts the book by introducing his team with pictures and thumbnail bios - this is a nice touch and allows you to get a feel for the virtual team of authors who provided material that went into the book.

As far as the book goes, its a fairly conventional tutorial - but the layout makes it stand out. Filled with colorful pictures on glossy paper, Lightroom Adventure is part coffee-table book, part technology tutorial. Its pages are divided horizontally into thirds: a third is devoted to text while the other two thirds are reserved for screen caps and photographs.

It's a format that is hugely engaging to read. Periodically Aaland will break with a two page splash of a particulary striking photograph shot by someone on the team. It is embellished with something personal about the photographer and the circumstances under which the picture was taken. The pictures may interrupt the flow but actually do a stellar job of integrating the book under the Icelandic Expedition theme.

Because all the pictures used by Aaland also have the same theme, they hold the tutorials together really well. Of course, it helps that the pictures themselves are gorgeous, taken by a highly competent and creative team of photographers.