Part One of a Three Part Series

On The Arts, Photography, Working With Galen Rowell And Personal Style

Interview Conducted By Phone May 25, 2011

Full Moon Setting Over Rock Outcrop Near Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park, California, copyright 2010 Gary Crabbe.

(See the photograph large Click Here.)

DAVID LELAND HYDE: I read your articles on working with Galen Rowell on Naturescapes.net and on your Enlightened Images blog. In your website bio it said you started taking photographs while you were going to college at Humboldt State University.

GARY CRABBE: That’s correct. It was one of those art electives to make me a more well-rounded square. It was basic black and white photography 101 and an introduction to composition, how to use the enlargers in a darkroom, process film and all that fun stuff.

HYDE: Did you make your own prints?

GARY CRABBE: I certainly did for that class. Also, I started taking photos for the Theater Department in 1988 or 1989. I bought a bathroom darkroom setup. I’d literally shoot photos of a stage production in dress rehearsal. I would get up on stage with a little old manual Minolta X-370 camera, some 3200 speed Tri-X film, shoot without flash, hand held. Because I was also an actor and director I had a sense of what to shoot. Then I’d run home and print 20 or so 8X10 RC prints that night and give them to the theater department the next morning. The art department mounted them on mat boards and by 5:00 pm the Theater Department would have a full exhibit of my prints in the lobby of the theater for opening night of the play.

HYDE: When did you start photographing in color?

GARY CRABBE: Not at all until much later. I had been working as a breakfast cook all through college and after, flipping pancakes, cooking omelet’s, all that. I was so sick of it. I was screaming profanities every morning and my wife said, “Just go for a different job.” I looked through the newspaper and applied for everything I could. One of the ads I applied for in that time just said, “Outdoor Photo Agency,” and, “must like dogs.” I didn’t know what an “Outdoor Photo Agency” was, but I like photos, dogs and the outdoors. I sent in an application, got called for an interview, showed up to the place in Albany, California, before they had the gallery in Emeryville and there was Galen Rowell’s name and the Mountain Light Gallery logo hanging over the front door. I instantly recognized it because one of the very few photographic exhibitions I’d ever gone to on my own was Galen’s Mountain Light exhibit, when it showed at the California Academy of Sciences. I got the job. I was immediately thrust in as this $7 an hour file boy, where my job was to take the slides that were coming back from magazines and publishers and put them back in their spots in the file drawers. It was an intensive sudden exposure to Galen’s work. Then I went off for three weeks on my honeymoon to Hawaii.

HYDE: Your article said that when you came back the woman that had been running the stock department for Galen Rowell had been fired. Why did they choose you? For the filing job, they didn’t want someone who was a photographer. But you would think that for the stock job they would want a photographer.

GARY CRABBE: You’d think that, but they had been very badly burned by some photographers that they had previously had in their employ. They wouldn’t hire another photographer.

HYDE: How did they get burned?

GARY CRABBE: One photographer actually had the gall to take Galen Rowell’s Rainbow Over The Potala Palace photo out of the office and make his own prints of it. One photographer was caught submitting his own images to clients and making sales through Mountain Light, of his own stuff, when they were supposed to be selling Galen’s work.

HYDE: How do you feel your background in theater and what you learned there ties into photography? And the second part of the question is: Did Galen and Barbara Rowell believe your experience with theater might be an asset to choosing photographs or being the stock manager?

GARY CRABBE: I think it was the idea that I had a broader exposure to the Arts, with a capital “A.” I had some basic interest in photography, but I had absolutely zero interest in being a photographer. When I graduated college, if someone said in five years or ten years, I would be a professional photographer, I would have said that they were out of their gourd. I think probably my specific directorial talent and theater background translates into photography in that it was a form of visual storytelling. We had text, granted, that we don’t have in photography, but the idea was that you would use actors and sets to create a composition of a particular moment. When I was photographing the actors on stage, I’d be waiting for that decisive moment. I would be able to communicate the emotional content of the scene, without the text, but still get it across so when the people were walking into the lobby that night, they would be able to build some anticipation. When the photos were used for publicity, it would hopefully spark interest.

(For more on the decisive moment in photography see Gary Crabbe’s recent article on Pro Photo Resource, “Seeking Out Difinitive Moments In Outdoor, Nature And Travel Photography.”)

HYDE: You wrote that Galen Rowell encouraged the use of a tripod and approached 35mm photography with the same deliberate, meticulous set up of the shot as they call it, as people who use a large format camera. I thought, maybe that’s key to why Galen’s compositions look like he could have made them with a larger camera. At the same time you wrote, “Watching Galen’s approach to a scene was like watching a creative dynamo. I always likened it to the cartoon of the Tasmanian Devil with a camera.” When Galen Rowell came on a scene and he decided to make a photograph, what did he do?

Sunrise Light On Coastal Fog Over Hills Near The Mouth Of The Klamath River, Redwood National Park, California, copyright 2010 by Gary Crabbe.

GARY CRABBE: Galen would often tell his students in a workshop that when they were shooting landscapes they should take their time and treat it as deliberately as someone setting up a large format camera. His own way of pursuing photography was a bit different. Galen, in semi-jest, described photography as an action sport. His brain was turbo charged. His experience allowed him to work and recognize things at a quick pace. When it becomes innate, you walk up on a scene and you know if you need to change lenses and when. You know which filter you want to use. You know you need a fast shutter speed. These thoughts are coming almost instantaneously. You are reaching in the bag and you’re not even thinking about it, your body is doing it. That’s because you have absorbed the skills and the science of your art to a point that it is deeply engrained. That’s the way Galen approached and did his own work, but for students who hadn’t reached that level, he taught the deliberate landscape. Galen would say, “Oh, I like this,” and he would set up and make the shot. Then he’d say, “Ooh, I like this,” and he’d go get that shot. “Ooh, I like this over here,” and he’d run 100 yards and set up another shot. He was doing what he advocated the student‘s to do, but at 8X speed. That’s the Tasmanian edge. In one of his video’s he’s literally running by the shore of Mono Lake going from one spot to another. His landscape photography was an action sport, because he was so active getting to the right place at the right time, or trying to connect whatever was happening here with whatever was happening over there.

HYDE: My father, Philip Hyde, had a more contemplative approach. I don’t know if you’ve seen my blog post, “Galen Rowell And Outdoor Photographer Style.” It compares my dad’s style, which was very yin, meditative and receptive to Galen Rowell’s approach, which as you say and as he wrote was much more of a yang, create the photograph you want style: “I’m visualizing. I’m going to go out there and based on the situation I’m going over here and I’m getting this and going after that.” I also notice there are differences between the approach that comes out of using a large format camera and using a 35 mm camera. For example, I’ve only ever photographed with a 35mm camera, I guess I did actually take a few photographs with a medium format, but I’ve never photographed with a large format camera… I notice if I’m photographing a car, I’ll make 30 photographs of that one car. Whereas, my dad used to sort of frown on that approach to photography. He frowned on just going out and banging away, making loads of photographs, roll after roll after roll. But I find that’s what I do. The smaller camera’s more conducive to that, but is that what Galen did?

GARY CRABBE: I think as you point out the key to the difference in approach was format. Galen would say to students, “Oh, there’s too much foreground,” or “Oh, how come you didn’t see this ugly stick down here,” or “You’ve got all this nasty stuff going along the edges.” You’re right, with large format, you only have one frame. You may shoot five frames your whole afternoon out. You have to be very deliberate about things like: Is there anything along the edges that I don’t like? Is there a nice visual pathway? Is the composition right? Is it better from here or is it better over there? That’s the approach Galen was trying to encourage his students to take. He was bringing them to a better level of photography through a more deliberate cognitive awareness of what they were doing. With Galen though, he would go out with one, two or three primary guiding ideas that set his compass needle and the rest of it was responsive. Once he got out to the spot where his pre-visualization took him, active visualization took over. That’s when he would turn on his little dynamo. So it was a little bit of both. He’d have a very strong idea with elements A, B, C and D. He would go to the field at this time, somewhere in this general angle and then he’d start looking at, “OK, there’s A and there’s B and there’s C. And if I want to get A, B and C together I need to move myself over there.” And that’s how I learned to do it too. With the 35 mm format, he bracketed exposures and composition. He might go out on an afternoon run with his camera and he might take one photograph or he might take six rolls. If nothing stopped him in his tracks, he’d just keep going. If something went, “Wow, this is pretty good,” he’d stop and work it.

HYDE: How is your approach similar to Galen’s and how is it different?

GARY CRABBE: My approach is very similar to Galen’s in that it is responsive to what I am seeing. I use a general idea to get me where I want to be. I’ve got this picture in my mind with this and that. That to gets me to the place. Then, much like Galen I hop from “Oh, I like this, I like that, I like this.” The primary difference is that Galen was so incredibly driven, working each scene, active, like a sport and a lifestyle. I’m a little more relaxed and Buddhist. I like taking my time on trails and I like to stop. I have a personal, slower pace, not only out on the trails, but in life in general. Galen was a dynamo. Sometimes I’m just happy to be a cow under a shade tree in the middle of summer.

Continued In the blog post, “Interview Of Gary Crabbe Part 2.”

Flowers of San Francisco, Downtown San Francisco, California 2009 by David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90. Camera Raw.

If you’re going to San Francisco,

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

If you come to San Francisco,

Summer time will be a love-in there.

Wall Design, Trees, San Francisco, California, 2010 by David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90. Camera Raw.

The popular 1967 song written by John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas and sung by Scott McKenzie, inspired thousands of young people to travel to San Francisco in the late 1960s and is still inspiring visitors and natives of San Francisco to this day. San Francisco in the summer time is the place to escape the heat and experience all forms of art and fine art, perhaps a place to create your own art.

A Friend Twirling and Dancing In Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, 2009 by David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90. Camera Raw.

Starting in the mid-20th Century and for many generations San Francisco has been a hotbed of art and is no less a major incubator of artists today than in any other era. Life’s rich pageant blooms in many colors and races in San Francisco. San Francisco is a collage of opposites, of old and new, industry and art, wisdom and foolishness, wealth and poverty.

Golden Gate Bridge Span and Marin Headlands, San Francisco, California, 2009 by David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90. Camera Raw.

It was the birthplace of the Sierra Club, the Exhibit Format Series, perhaps even landscape photography, the Beat Generation, earthquake insurance, the Summer of Love, the sexual revolution, the anti-war movement, Friends of the Earth, Earth Island Institute, Bank of America, Bechtel, Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Garcia, Courtney Love, William Randolph Hearst, Robert McNamara, Robert Frost, Jack London, Gary Snyder, Ansel Adams, Philip Hyde, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Lee, Val Kilmer, Steve Jobs, Jim Jones, O. J. Simpson, Rob Schneider, Jerry Brown and 407 other celebrities.

Stan Zrnich and Himself at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, 2009 by David Leland Hyde. Colors digitally altered.

I visit San Francisco several times a year to go to San Francisco art galleries, photography galleries, museums and libraries for research and as ambassador of my father’s photography. When I am there I feel a quickening as I am artistically moved, culturally enlightened and creatively freed.

Reflections, San Francisco, California, 2010 by David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90. Camera Raw.

My father, who was born in San Francisco, escaped the city and spent most of his life photographing wilderness. Ironically, I was born in the wilderness and do photograph nature often, but feel like I could easily spend the rest of my life photographing San Francisco.

Lines Curving Into The Sun, San Francisco, California, 2009 by David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90.

When I am in The City, as northern Californians call it, I often feel compelled to write about or photograph this diverse built landscape of fog, cable cars and the big red bridge.

For more information about NEW RELEASES see the blog post, “New Releases Now At Special Introductory Pricing.” To see the photographs go to Philip Hyde Photography.

Printing Materials And Processes

Philip Hyde archival fine art digital prints in color were printed in 2008, 2009 and the beginning of 2010 with a 13-ink Epson 9800 Inkjet printer on Premium Luster paper. The archival fine art digital prints in black and white were printed in the first half of 2009 on a 16-ink Epson 11880 Inkjet printer on Premium Luster paper and in the second half of 2009 and beyond on Crane Silver Rag paper. The color archival digital prints beginning in 2010 are now printed with a Lightjet 5000 printer on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, in which case they are not pigment prints but chromogenic prints digitally exposed with light. On occasion the color prints are also printed with the Epson 9800 on a new archival 100 percent cotton rag paper. The life of any of these prints is much longer than those of print making methods of the past. In addition, the process of translating a 4X5 or 5X7 film original transparency or negative into digital print-ready form is complicated, expensive, time consuming and expert labor intensive. The highest quality equipment and methods known are used at each step starting with drum scanning and ending with print preparation.

Fine Art Photographer And Print Maker Carr Clifton

Landscape photographer and print maker Carr Clifton has made archival fine art digital prints for Philip Hyde since 1998, eight years before Philip Hyde passed on. When Carr Clifton expressed interest in photography over 35 years ago, his mother took him to meet Philip Hyde who happened to be a neighbor. From then on Philip Hyde was a mentor and friend to Carr Clifton. Carr Clifton has become a highly respected outdoor photographer in his own right. The two landscape photographers worked on several book projects together. Also, side-by-side for many years their photographs dominated the Sierra Club Calendars that contained the work of the most famous landscape photographers of the time.

Philip Hyde authorized and signed five of the new archival fine art digital prints before he passed on. The new prints are produced by Philip Hyde’s son, David Leland Hyde and Carr Clifton. This equates with Brett Weston or Cole Weston printing Edward Weston’s photographs, as other famous photographers heirs have done. Alan Ross has made special edition Ansel Adams prints for many years. A great amount of time, effort and expense has gone into matching as close as possible the way that Philip Hyde printed the photographs. Having been around Philip Hyde for many years, both David Leland Hyde and Carr Clifton work to maintain Philip Hyde’s straight photography aesthetics of limiting color saturation and maintaining tasteful photo realism when no Philip Hyde model print is available.

Rare Philip Hyde Original Prints Often Long Sold Out

Philip Hyde original prints are very rare and most of the best images have long sold out. Also, because Philip Hyde lost his eyesight, many of his best later portraits, cityscapes, and landscape photographs were never printed. When Philip Hyde was print making himself, he produced traditional black and white silver gelatin prints, color dye-transfer prints and color Cibachrome prints. He did not print the same best images over and over like many photographers. Each time he came home from a landscape photography trip, he printed only 2 or 4 color prints from that excursion. If there was an order for more he might print as many as 2 to 4 more prints given the time, difficulty and cost of color print making. In the earlier days before his transition to color in the early to mid 1970s, the black and white prints were made in edtions of 4 or 6. On rare occasions with only a few of the images, he printed as many as 10 or 12 prints. After printing from one project, he would go on a new trip, return and print the new images from the new outing. He rarely went back and printed older images. As a result, most prints of the well-known images are now gone.

New Archival Fine Art Digital Prints Allow Collectors To Enjoy New Releases And Old Favorites Again

The new archival fine art digital prints allow collectors and fans of landscape photography to enjoy new releases and the old favorites that in many cases have not been printed or exhibited for decades. The archival fine art digital prints are limited in production by the expense and difficulty of translation from large format film to quality digital images. Each of the archival fine art digital prints are produced in special editions that are numbered. The prints of any given photograph go up in price $100 in all print sizes each time 10 prints of any size sell. For example, “Virginia Creeper” has sold nearly 10 prints and will go up in price $100 soon. Those photographs that sell higher quantities will eventually become much higher valued than the others. For example, when 200 prints of an image have sold, it will be valued at $2,000 more in all print sizes than it was to begin with and $2,000 more than prints of the other photographs. This will not only increase perceived and actual value of the prints over time, but will limit production and sales of each print and make them more attractive to collectors.

The Mission, In Part

A portion of proceeds from fine art digital print sales will fund green energy development, land conservation and other environmental causes. Philip Hyde’s prints are in permanent collections in institutions such as The Smithsonian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Eastman House, Time Life Gallery, California Academy of Sciences, The International Center of Photography and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

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See Philip Hyde Photography for Philip Hyde Archival Fine Art Digital Prints Pricing

For print acquisitions, questions or to just say hi, please contact:
David Leland Hyde
prints [at] philiphyde [dot] com
Orders can also be placed on the Philip Hyde Photography Website through the Portfolios that contain a Shopping Cart.

Fish At The California Academy Of Sciences, San Francisco, California, copyright 2009 David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90.

From Greenpeace press materials: After months of hearing from activists and shoppers like you about how important it is to stop destroying the oceans for profit, Trader Joe’s finally announced a plan to “green-up stores” and help put an end to destructive fishing practices.

Prior to this announcement, Trader Joe’s came in 17th out of the 20 stores evaluated in Greenpeace’s analysis of seafood sustainability policies at major supermarket chains. That was the worst ranking attained by any national chain.

For months, Greenpeace publicly campaigned to pressure Trader Joe’s to adopt sustainable seafood purchasing policies throughout all of their stores in order to help save the oceans. Trader Joe’s felt the heat from Greenpeace’s mock website (www.traitorjoe.com), relentless phone calls from supporters, thoughtful karaoke songs from shoppers and in-store demonstrations and questions to store managers from activists across the country.

Trading Destruction for Conservation

Trader Joe’s has removed many unsustainable products from its shelves, including the highly objectionable orange roughy that it sold for several years. Specifically, Trader Joe’s has announced that they will:

• Offer only sustainable seafood in their stores by December 31, 2012.
• Work with third-party, science-based organizations to establish definitions and parameters for addressing customer concerns about overfishing, destructive catch or production methods, and the importance of marine reserves.
• Remove “red-listed” seafood from their shelves. Trader Joe’s stopped selling Chilean Sea Bass in 2005, Orange Roughy in July of 2009, and Red Snapper in March of 2010.
• Provide accurate information on all seafood labels, including species’ Latin names, origin and catch or production method.
• Use their buying power to leverage change in the seafood industry.

Greenpeace is hopeful that Trader Joe’s will continue implementing a comprehensive sustainable seafood purchasing policy to ensure they have a road map for staying green long into the future.

Consumers Demand Sustainable Seafood

In talking with environmentalists, activists and avid seafood shoppers Greenpeace discovered a common link–they all want sustainable seafood in supermarkets and are willing to speak up for the oceans. Greenpeace is poised to release the fourth edition of their supermarket scorecard, Carting Away the Oceans. The report is updated several times a year based on an analysis of sustainable seafood policies and practices among major retailers. The Trader Joe’s announcement and previous announcements from Target and Safeway are sure to shake up the rankings and raise the bar. Weigh in on fish farming practices yourself Click Here and find out more about how to effect National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aquaculture policy Click Here.