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Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log 18

May 22nd, 2012

Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log: June 14-September 14, 1971 by Ardis Hyde

(Pioneer landscape photographer Philip Hyde, his wife Ardis and son David in their Avion Camper on a 1968 GMC Utility Body Pickup. Continued from the blog post, “Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log 17.”)

Part Eighteen: Mile 65.5 Denali Highway, Alaska to Riley Creek Campground, Denali National Park, Alaska (Originally McKinley National Park)

Lake Near Susitna River, Denali National Park, Alaska, copyright 1971 Philip Hyde.

Saturday, July 18, 1971: We were happy to wake up to blue sky between the clouds. We ate breakfast and got away by 8:45 am. Our first stop along the Denali Highway was Susitna River Lodge in a classic outdoors setting for it’s type of tourist destination. Susitna River Lodge offered hunting, sightseeing, fishing; float planes, land planes, helicopters, boats. Philip made photographs. We were impressed by the Susitna River, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The Susitna River ran brim full and filled its grassy banks. We were filled as well, looking up river at a wall of snowy peaks. Spruce grew above horizontal tundra green and the sky sunny. Some lands of the middle ground were in dark cloud shadow. Philip made photographs at the bridge and then further on with the lake or backwater of the river in the foreground and pleated, close mountain in the background at mile 88.5. Philip also took a picture of the tundra, Monahan Flat and West Fork Glacier at the high point on the shoulder of the road above the river where we stopped for lunch. Philip walked back the way we came with his Hasselblad 2 ¼ medium format camera for pictures of flowers and the view upstream toward the source of the Nenana River. David found the shoulder blade bone of some animal, an oil can and other assorted junk. Driving on, the road dropped down to an overlook of the Nenana River where Philip made more photographs. At Mile 124, Philip made a 2 ¼ photo of cotton grass and a black stream on the left. At Mile 126, Philip stopped to make a 2 ¼ photo of the mountains across a small lake at the road edge. The mountain across the small lake was streaked with buff orange talus slopes. We turned off the highway toward Cantwell, Alaska and pulled over to buy a loaf of Wheatberry bread for $0.80, inquire about Denali Lakes and obtain directions. We headed out the section of new Route 3, Anchorage to Fairbanks road. Philip stopped several times for views from this road. It traverses the same broad open valley that the Alaska Railroad does. After we turned around at the FAA Housing site we saw the northbound Alaska Railroad train go by. Back on the Denali Highway, we again stopped along the Nenana River for pictures. I made honey cake while waiting. Then we looked for a dinner spot as we passed Carlo Creek. Not far beyond was a gravel track taking off from the main road and paralleling it. We pulled in and ate there. David and Philip went out after dinner and picked out numerous tracks they reported including moose, fox, a dog-type track, moose droppings, and a dead porcupine. David to bed. We drove in the Danali Lakes road a short distance beyond. We stopped and inquired of Mrs. Nancarrow for artist Bill Berry. “He is in the park sketching,” was all she said. We looked up photographer Charlie Ott when we got inside Denali National Park. He wasn’t home. We went to the Hotel and bought the new Washburn Guidebook, Nancarrow silkscreen notepaper, and a new copy of the Heller flower book to replace the one I ruined with water.

Continued in the next blog post in the series, “Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log 19.”

Do you remember the most beautiful river or other outdoor setting you have ever seen? Did you make photographs of it?

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Posted in Philip/Ardis Trip Logs

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Earth Day 2012 Review: Are Social Media Earth Friendly?

April 22nd, 2012

Happy Earth Day

Spent Earth Day Outdoors And Twittered About It Later

BUT, Is That Earth Friendly?

Would activism, volunteering or something else be more Earth friendly?

(Read last year’s Earth Day Blog Post, “Earth Day Celebration Of Ardis And Philip Hyde And Canyonlands.”)

You can now enjoy following Philip Hyde Photo on Twitter.

Twitter Address: @PhilipHydePhoto

Beyond the tweets I twittered, our Earth Day included a hike along Indian Creek, or “The River,” as locals call it because it is the largest part of the Feather River. My friend Nancy’s daughter of seven and her friend, the daughter of a neighbor, made water channels and pools in the same beach sand the neighbor and I dug in when we were the two girl’s age almost 40 years ago. We hiked the rugged, rocky river shore back to the house where the girls did handstands and cartwheels on the lawn while I Twittered about our activities. Then we planted herb starts: Sweet Basil, Marjoram, Parsley, Caraway, Mint and Chamomile. Meanwhile, in the last few days, Daffodils, Lupines and a few other early bloomers had blanketed the garden. We cut Daffodils and Lupines for bouquets the girls took home. There’s nothing like the smell of Lupines or Daffodils in the early Spring.

Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing now?”

A few tweets:

Happy Earthday. Some day everyone will be green, but isn’t it ironic that by then might be too late. A little too ironic…

Earth Day. Friend Nancy is coming over w/her 2 kids. We will dust off the Solar Oven for kids to see in action baking a cake.

Hiking, outdoors, maybe photos, probably just enjoy Earth Day. Enjoy the Earth. Do you enjoy the outdoors?

Children dug in the beach sand at the river high in snow melt. We sat in the shade of Alders just starting to leaf. Watching next generation

What did you do for Earth Day? What do you think of social media? Is there any overlap? Please share your opinion…

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Posted in David's Perspective

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How Color Came To Landscape Photography

April 19th, 2012

Photography For Art’s Sake, For Earth’s Sake Or Both?

Drake's Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, 1972 by Philip Hyde. This photograph was first published in the revised second edition of Island In Time, 1972.

(See photograph full screen, CLICK HERE.)

Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter and Philip Hyde were the three primary landscape photographers of the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series. The Series influenced a generation of landscape photographers as it redefined the photography book and brought international attention to the protection of wild places through photographs. While Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter were both Sierra Club Board Members and committed conservationists, Philip Hyde dedicated his life to the portrayal and protection of wilderness chiefly through landscape photography.

Both Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter considered the art of photography their foremost reason for making landscape photographs. Ansel Adams went so far as to say that he did not want people to view his photographs as propaganda for any cause. If his images were used in environmental campaigns that was all for the good, but he did not want that to be thought of as the motive for their creation. In contrast, Philip Hyde expressly stated that his reason for being a landscape photographer was to “share the beauty of nature and encourage people to preserve wild places.”

David Brower Sent Philip Hyde On The Projects That Made National Parks And Designated Wilderness

Though he had fine art training in Ansel Adam’s photography department at the California School of Fine Arts, now the San Francisco Art institute, a fair portion of Philip Hyde’s landscape photography was documentary. Dorothea Lange had a significant impact on Philip Hyde and his classmates. She spent significant time in classes at CSFA as a guest lecturer, assistant and advisor to Minor White and the students. Dorothea Lange showed the power of photography in affecting social awareness. Philip Hyde applied what he learned to conservation photography as it transformed into modern environmentalism in the 1950s and 1960s. He became the “go-to-guy” for Sierra Club Executive Director David Brower and at times for other leaders such as the Wilderness Society’s Howard Zahniser, primary author of the Wilderness Act.

Eliot Porter was a doctor early in his photography career and later he came to the Sierra Club with his own completed ideas. Ansel Adams was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships to photograph the national parks. Meanwhile, Philip Hyde, young, motivated, talented, willing to work for little besides expenses, could take off on short notice wherever David Brower and other conservation leaders sent him to bring back images that would show them the beauty each place had to offer. Between the Exhibit Format Series and other photography books of the same era published by the Sierra Club, Philip Hyde had more photographs in more of the volumes than any other photographer.

This is the American Earth By Nancy Newhall and Ansel Adams Launched The Exhibit Format Series

The Exhibit Format Series was conceived in 1960 by Ansel Adams, Nancy Newhall and David Brower. The first book in the Series, This is the American Earth, mainly consisted of Ansel Adam’s landscape photographs and Nancy Newhall’s eloquent prose. The creators also invited a few other landscape photographers to participate such as Edward Weston, Minor White, Philip Hyde, Cedric Wright, William Garnett, Wynn Bullock, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eliot Porter, Pirkle Jones and others. An accompanying exhibition of the photographs toured nationally and internationally.

In Island In Time Is The Preservation of The First Master of Black and White, and Color Landscape Photography

In 1962, the Sierra Club published Eliot Porter’s In Wildness is the Preservation of the World.  It outsold all of the other books in the Exhibit Format Series including This is the American Earth. Eliot Porter became known as the photographer who introduced color to landscape photography. However, the same year the Sierra Club also published Island In Time: the Point Reyes Peninsula text by Harold Gilliam and landscape photographs by Philip Hyde. Island In Time was not a well-planned art project like In Wildness Is The Preservation Of The World. Island In Time was rushed through to have a book to show in fund raising efforts to buy the ranches of Point Reyes before developers bought the land and began to build homes. It had a more documentary look and purpose, but it also showed the world the impact of color and helped establish color photography as the new trend in publishing and printing. Island In Time: the Point Reyes Peninsula contained beautiful color landscape photographs as well as black and white images together for the first time. While Philip Hyde became the first landscape photographer to master both mediums, Island In Time helped establish Point Reyes National Seashore and color photography. For more on Philip Hyde’s black and white printing and transition to color printing see the blog post, “Black And White Prints, Collectors And Philip Hyde.” To read more about today’s trends and concerns in color landscape photography see the blog post, “Is Landscape Photography Thriving Or Dying?” and “Did Velvia Film Change Landscape Photography?” To read about Color Magazine’s feature article about Philip Hyde see the blog post, “Color Magazine Feature Out Now.”

References:

Sierra Club Records at Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley, California

Taped Interviews of Philip Hyde by David Leland Hyde

Taped Interviews of Martin Litton by David Leland Hyde

Notes from Conversations with Ken Brower

The History of the Sierra Club 1892-1970 by Michael P. Cohen

This is the American Earth by Nancy Newhall and Ansel Adams

In Wildness is the Preservation of the World photographs by Eliot Porter with quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Island In Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula text by Harold Gilliam, photographs by Philip Hyde

Ansel Adams: An Autobiography

Ansel Adams: A Biography by Mary Street Alinder

For Earth’s Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower by David Brower

Work In Progress by David Brower

Originally posted August 16, 2010

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Posted in Photography History

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Philip Hyde Photo Now On Twitter

April 18th, 2012

Philip Hyde Photo Is Now On Twitter

Username:
@PhilipHydePhoto

Please tell your friends…

Please send me a tweet so I can follow you…

Hope you enjoy following us…

Here’s my first three tweets:

Love is. Assoc of Ansel Adams was color pioneer Philip Hyde. 1st Tweet. Do you think Photoshop killed straight photography?

Love is now. Ansel Adams’ assoc color pioneer Philip Hyde. Gandhi: would he say peaceful environmental revolution?

Love One Another. Pioneer landscape photog Philip Hyde. Is a Photoshopped image “real”?

Are you on Twitter? Why or why not?

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Posted in Events-Releases

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Drylands: The Deserts of North America 1

April 3rd, 2012

Excerpts From The Text And Photographs Of Drylands: The Deserts of North America By Philip Hyde, Part One

Celebrating Landscape Photography Blogger’s 200th Blog Post!

On this special occasion Landscape Photography Blogger presents an excerpt from Drylands: The Deserts of North America, with photographs and text by Philip Hyde. Besides Slickrock with Edward Abbey and a few titles in the Sierra Club Books Exhibit Format Series, Drylands is considered Philip Hyde’s magnum opus, or great work. Yolla Bolly Press, which also packaged Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light, recently donated its archive to Stanford University. Help celebrate Landscape Photography Blogger’s 200th Post by reading a page from the great book that is becoming more rare all the time…

Drylands: The Deserts of North America 1

The Five Deserts of North America

…nature is already in its forms and tendencies, describing its own design. Let us interrogate the great apparition that shines so peacefully around us.  –Ralph Waldo Emerson

White Domes, Valley of Fire State Park, Mojave Desert, Nevada, copyright 1970 by Philip Hyde. Cover Photograph of "Drylands: The Deserts of North America." Color Transparency: 4X5 Baby Deardorff View Camera. Dye Transfer Prints, Cibachrome Prints, and Archival Digital Prints. See PhilipHyde.com for Image Info and pricing.

(See the photograph large: “White Domes, Valley of Fire.”)

Webster’s dictionary defines a desert as “an arid region in which the vegetation is especially adapted to scanty rainfall with long intervals of heat and drought…amore or less barren tract incapable of supporting any considerable population without an artificial water supply…Desert rainfall is usually less than ten inches annually.”

This bare bones definition needs expanding. For one thing, barrenness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Ancients regarded the desert as a place to avoid—literally, to desert. The biblical “waste-howling wilderness” is a description of the Middle Eastern desert, a fearful place for most people. But even then it was for some a place for contemplation, a retreat from the cares of daily life. In our times, the desert is commonly a refuge, though we can be grateful that the deserts of North America were avoided by so many early travelers, and thereby protected. More recently, parts of these great deserts have become increasingly attractive to sun-worshipers. It is an irony that the climate, attractive to so many people, is being gradually altered by air pollution generated by population growth and its attendant requirements for industries and automobiles.

Webster’s definition doesn’t explain the aridity of the desert. High mountain chains intercept moisture-laden storms, keeping rainfall from the land in the lee of the mountains. Wind also contributes to desert dryness. A map plotting the course of trade winds in relation to deserts around the globe would show most arid lands to lie in the path of the trades. Though our deserts are not as directly in the path of the trades as some, strong winds persist over most of them for long periods, particularly in the spring.

The North American deserts are unlike most deserts in that they are not confined to the interior of the continent. They reach to the sea on both coasts of the Baja California peninsula and along the west coast of mainland Mexico as well, creating some unusual meetings of desert and water.

The scarcity of rainfall in the desert has one advantage. The surface of the land in well-watered regions is often obscured by dense vegetation. In the desert, land forms are readily apparent, the often beautiful sculpture of their contours revealed. This may be why geologists are drawn to the desert and sometimes inspired to near-poetic descriptions. A classic example can be found in Clarence Dutton’s monumental Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District, first published in 1882. Here is his description of the Vermillion Cliffs in the Painted Desert:

During the midday hours the cliffs seem to wilt and drop as if retracting their grandeur to hide it from the merciless radiance of the sun whose very effulgence flouts them. Even the colors are ruined. The glaring face of the wall, where the light falls full upon it, wears a scorched, overbaked, discharged look; and where the dense black shadows are thrown—for there are no middle shades—the magical haze of the desert shines forth with a weird, metallic glow which has no color in it. But as the sun declines there comes a revival. The half-tones at length appear, bringing into relief the component masses; the amphitheaters recede into suggestive distances; the salients silently advance toward us; the distorted lines range themselves into true perspective; the deformed curves come back to their proper sweep; the angles grow clean and sharp; and the whole cliff arouses from lethargy and erects itself in grandeur and power as if conscious of its own majesty. Back also come the colors, and as the sun is about to sink they glow with an intense vermilion that seems to be an intrinsic luster emanating from the rocks themselves.

The stone landscape of which Clarence Dutton writes might appear austere and unfriendly to the casual traveler suddenly thrust into it. Many people would not recognize it as a part of their familiar world, but something about the place immediately appealed to me. Perhaps it struck some of the same harmonic notes evoked by the clean expanses of granite in the High Sierra Nevada I had learned to love in my youth. The place spoke to me of the same kind of purity that Ralph Waldo Emerson was alluding to when he wrote of the integrity of natural objects.

I am not able to take up full-time residence in the desert; my roots are too deep in the northern Sierra Nevada where I live now. I can, however, happily spend a season there and feel quite at home. It was not always like that. The ease I feel now is the product of many experiences, not all pleasant, but all valued for what they taught. Nor did the ease come without struggle, but as a result of an effort to understand, to penetrate the discomforts, to clear away the debris of prejudice and preconception that can so distort one’s view of a natural environment. It is not necessary to change the country—or to develop it. As Aldo Leopold put it so well: “Development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind.”

As a forest dweller and desert traveler, I am especially aware of the contrasts between an arid landscape and one that is well watered. The creek that flows beneath my window as I write; the groundcover, trees, shrubs, and flowering plants; the seasonal and atmospheric changes I observe here are all expressions of water abundance. In the desert it isn’t just the paucity of water that impresses me. I am delighted to discover water’s surprising, often beautiful presence in hidden places, as for example, the spring in Monument Valley that flows from beneath a high sand dune—or those few, small, spring-fed pools surrounded by the vast, sere, rocky landscape of Death Valley.

I also enjoy the contrast between desert vegetation and that of my home environment. In the southern part of the Baja California peninsula, the array of strange, even unique, plant forms is the result of the plants’ special adaptations to water scarcity…

(Continued in the future blog post, “Drylands: The Deserts Of North America 2.”)

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Posted in Other P. H. Writings

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Living The Good Life 2

March 14th, 2012

Living the Good Life, Part Two

By Nancy E. Presser and David Leland Hyde

(Continued from the previous blog post, “Living The Good Life 1.”)

Rough Rock Lower Lawn, Maples, Fall, Shoulder of Grizzly Ridge, Northern Sierra Nevada, California, copyright 2011 by David Leland Hyde.

Back to the Land movement leaders, Helen and Scott Nearing in Living the good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World, share a living philosophy based on self-reliance and living a simple life sustained by farming the land. Ardis and Philip Hyde studied many such books and ways of life and found Helen and Scott Nearing’s model most relevant to the Hyde’s home lifestyle, including daily pace and schedule, food preservation and organic gardening. In the previous blog post, “Living The Good Life 1,” Nancy E. Presser wrote about how Helen and Scott Nearing led the Back to the Land movement of the 1950s and how Ardis and Philip Hyde in turn implemented the Nearings’ philosophy.

While delving into the first chapter of Living the good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World, Nancy was happy to find that Helen and Scott Nearing were writing for someone just like her, a city person that had ideas of living a simpler life. Helen Nearing wrote, “…A couple, of any age from twenty to fifty, with a minimum of health, intelligence and capital, can adapt themselves to country living, learn its crafts, overcome its difficulties, and build up a life pattern rich in simple values and productive of personal and social good.” But Nancy Presser wondered about Ardis and Philip Hyde. Were they from the city or the country? Why did they choose to adapt to their own situation, Helen and Scott Nearing’s lifestyle and philosophy?

David explained that his mother, Ardis, grew up in the suburbs of Sacramento, California, when Sacramento was a small town that couldn’t even be called a city. About 15 miles from downtown, in the rural countryside lay the Van Maren Ranch. The Van Maren Ranch House sat in the center of the Van Maren Ranch on a small hill that was later removed and is now a shopping center in the town called Citrus Heights, California. Ardis visited the ranch often with her family. David’s grandmother, Ardis’ mother, Elsie Van Maren King, had grown up on the ranch with her three sisters and no brothers. The four Van Maren girls learned to do all of the chores that boys usually do, and when Ardis came along, and later her brothers, grandma taught her all the ranch chores that boys usually did too. David’s mother from a young age was very competent around animals, farm equipment and anything outdoors. Ardis’ father, Clinton S. King Jr., loved the outdoors and loved to go camping. All of the Kings grew to love camping in the Sierra, except grandmother, who went along, but never liked it much.

David’s father, Philip, was born in San Francisco in 1921, but by 1925, the Hyde family moved to San Rafael. In those days Marin County was rural countryside. The Hydes lived in a house in the woods near the train station at the end of the train line in San Rafael. At age four to five little Philip learned to love to play in the woods. When Philip’s older brother Paul died and the family moved back to San Francisco, Philip joined the Boy Scouts and continued the outdoor adventures that he loved. Leland Hyde took his wife Jessie, Philip and his newborn little brother Davy and their older sister Betty camping also. At age 16, Philip first backpacked in Yosemite National Park with the Boy Scouts. After the second year’s annual backpack in Yosemite, Philip wrote “Home” across a map of Yosemite Valley. Philip considered the mountains his spiritual home from this time forward. David discussed in Guy Tal’s interview of him, how during World War II while stationed in flat Kansas, Philip used to ride two days on the train to Denver, Colorado just to get a glimpse of mountains.”

Philip and Ardis Hyde were both from the city, but both had an affinity to the country. Both had roots in camping, farming and wilderness. They both developed a love for the outdoors and even though their experience was somewhat limited then compared to later, they felt at home enough in nature’s company to seek more of it. Many people of all walks of life with much less experience easily learn to thrive in the country, but some connection to nature and the value of being close to nature, lends them the desire that carries them on to further learning and becoming accustomed to country life.

After their marriage in June 1947 at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California, Philip and Ardis Hyde began taking steps to achieve their dream of living in or near the mountains where they could cultivate a bit of land and sow a garden. Helen and Scott Nearing, for example, considered many places to live: the United States, abroad or in a commune. They settled on Vermont because, as they wrote:

Aesthetically, we enjoy the procession of the seasons. In any other part of the country we would have missed the perpetual surprises and delights to which New England weather treats its devotee… The land that has four well-defined seasons cannot lack beauty, or pall with monotony. Physically, we believe the changing weather cycle is good for health and adds a zest to life… Geographically, we found New England in closer contact with the Old World, from which we did not wish to sever connections.

Ardis and Philip Hyde kept their sights on the United States as well, though they did go abroad for a one year stint in Casablanca Morocco, French North Africa. See future blog posts for their adventures in 1953-1954 French Morocco. The Hydes found and fell in love with the Sierra Nevada first through childhood camping trips, then through Philip’s teenage backpacks, but later Ardis and Philip together connected to the Northern Sierra through an unlikely series of events. As fate would have it, they were on the train to Sacramento to visit Mom’s family one time and they ran across one of Ardis’ old Principia College friends, Patricia Lindren Kurtz and her new husband Cornell Kurtz on their way to their new home in Plumas County in the heart of the Feather River region. The train at that time traveled on from Sacramento up the Feather River Canyon. The Hydes were looking for good paying jobs for the summer of 1948. Pat Kurtz said she knew the owner of Cheney Mill in Greenville, California and that she could get Philip a good job there. How ideal, a chance to be in the mountains for the summer and a good job. There was even a vacancy in one of the cabins at the Fox Farm where Pat and Cornell Kurtz lived at Lake Almanor. The Hydes moved in for the summer and fell in love with the area. In a letter, Ardis described their first drive from Greenville over to the other end of Indian Valley one day. She wrote, “With Grizzly Ridge above Indian Creek lined by trees, this is by far the most beautiful end of Indian Valley.”

Though they did not realize it fully at the time, Philip and Ardis Hyde had found their mountain paradise. Nonetheless, it took nearly 10 more years and many more twists and turns, including attempts at settling in Carmel, California and in French Morocco, before their dream of owning their own wilderness land became reality. Watch as this story of the Hyde’s home life unfolds in the next blog post in this series, “Living The Good Life 3.”

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Posted in Living Lightly

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What Urban Exploration Photography Learned From Nature

March 5th, 2012

What Did Urban Exploration Photography Learn From Nature?

Is nature glossy? Is nature always beautiful? My father Western American landscape photographer and conservationist, Philip Hyde, said “Nature is always beautiful, even when we might call a scene ugly.” Is he correct?

Red Canyon at Hance Rapid, Boulders in Dunes, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, copyright 1964 by Philip Hyde. First Published in "Time And The River Flowing: Grand Canyon" by Francois Leydet, in the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series. The book that helped defend the Grand Canyon against two dams.

(See the photograph large: “Red Canyon At Hance Rapid, Grand Canyon National Park.”)

Nature surprises us with patterns we might not have noticed or thrilling textures and colors, but nature also at times presents us with drab or even repulsive sights so ugly they smell, such as a road killed skunk or a field spread with cattle manure. My mother, Ardis Hyde, often repeated the old adage, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I also remember her saying, “Wow, what a beautiful field of manure,” on more than one occasion when we were hauling cow manure for the garden in “Covered Wagon,” a 1952 Chevy Step Side Pickup, see the blog post, “Covered Wagon Journal 1.”

Dad’s photographs of proposed wilderness areas and national parks documented the natural features of the land. He said he was not interested in “Pretty Pictures for Postcards.” This attitude came partially from his having studied and taught with Ansel Adams. Dad also espoused the straight photography and documentary principles of his other mentors Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange and Imogen Cunningham. These principles included keeping compositions simple and maintaining the camera’s focus crisp throughout the image, as was only attainable with a large format view camera.

Like Edward Weston, Dad presented his black and white photographs with minimal darkroom manipulation. He said, “There is no need to add drama to nature. Nature is dramatic enough.” However, when he printed dye transfer color prints and Cibachrome color prints, Dad found more color adjustment necessary, to meet his goal of making the final color print look more like the scene as he remembered it, than the film.

Today the trend in much of what is called landscape photography is toward heavy saturation, dramatic weather, unusual lighting, sunlight effects and the most dramatic cliffs, mountains or other land features. Making pictures today is in truth often two arts: Photography, defined as what occurs in camera, plus the art of post processing using Adobe Photoshop or other photo editing software. Post Processing is much like dodging and burning in the darkroom, except that in the world of digital prints and photography art, the alteration of images is easy to overdo because it takes no more effort to move the slider to 80 percent than to take it only to 10 percent. In contrast, when darkroom processing ruled, greater alteration took more work.

Landscape photography today displays magnificence. Big scenes of striking beauty possess the viewer, exhibiting an abundance of what photography galleries call, “Wow factor.” In contrast, my father’s photography grunge rocked: gritty, clear, raw and most importantly imperfect. The imperfections were minimized in the darkroom, but certainly not removed or cropped out of the photograph as they are today.

Nature is very rarely perfect. Neither is any kind of photography. While many produce sub-standard photographs, many landscape photographers thrive with quality work and high standards for maintaining a “natural look.” I have looked at much current landscape photography. In my opinion the best work continues to become better.

Nonetheless, much of landscape photographers today could re-learn, or learn back a lesson from Urban Exploration, Urb Ex or Urban Decay photography. The lesson Urban Exploration photography learned from nature. The best way to understand the lesson is to read one of the master lesson teachers in Urban Exploration Photography, Chase Jarvis. Chase Jarvis recently wrote a blog post called, “The Un-Moment: Why Gritty Beats Glossy & the Deceit of Perfection.” I recommend repeated reading of this post for landscape photographers who want to find their own voice and connect more deeply with nature. Any photographer, for that matter, who wants to have an authentic connection with his or her subject matter could learn from Chase Jarvis.

What do you think? Can the beauty of imperfection improve landscape photography? Does gritty make sense in photography genres other than Urban Exploration?

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Posted in Recommendations

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New Release: Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake

February 23rd, 2012

(SEE REGULAR BLOG POSTS BELOW THIS MESSAGE.)

The Making Of “Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake, Glacier Peak Wilderness” copyright 1956 by Philip Hyde.

Ardis and Philip Hyde Write About Trekking Into The Glacier Peak Wilderness and Image Lake in Their Travel Logs.

In the proposed North Cascades National Park, Ardis and Philip Hyde backpacked To Image Lake with Philip & Laura Zalesky, Grant McConnell And Other Sierra Club Board Members with the David Brower family, Howard Zahniser family, Jane Goldsworthy, Bob Golden, Rich Miller and others joining the group for the Sloan Creek High Trip.
Lake Chelan,
Lyman Lake
Image Lake
Glacier Peak Wilderness

Glacier Peak: The Glacier Peak Wilderness was originally proposed as part of North Cascades National Park. The Seattle chapter and other chapters of The Mountaineers, the Sierra Club and many other environmental groups in and out of coalitions in the Northwestern United States have campaigned for more than 60 years to have the Glacier Peak Wilderness added to North Cascades National Park. Last year yet another failed proposal nearly made it through the US Congress.

The Photograph: Even though Philip Hyde was the primary illustrator, his 1956 photograph, “Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake,” was not part of the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series book, “The Wild Cascades: Forgotten Parkland”  that helped in the campaign to make North Cascades National Park. However, the high mountain photograph became fairly well-known as it was used in the campaign to make the Glacier Peak Wilderness part of the National Park and in several other books and magazine articles. Philip Hyde never made a color fine art print of the photograph. Also, it was rare that Philip Hyde used 5X7 transparencies for color photographs. By far the majority of his color photographs were made with 4X5 film. The original 5X7 color transparency of “Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake,” has faded and color shifted significantly.

Restoration: The photograph was restored for archival fine art digital printing by David Staley, Jr. of Outdoor Plus Digital Print Lab. David Staley, Jr. quit counting his time at eight hours and worked long beyond that to get this photograph correct in Photoshop. Ed Cooper, a mountaineer, climber, outdoorsman, large format and Sierra Club Calendars photographer and book author who knew my father, confirmed that our restoration looked very close in color, hue, saturation and range to the original landscape that time of year and to his own Photoshop restoration of his color shifted 4X5 color transparencies of Glacier Peak and Image Lake. Ed Cooper has backpacked into Image Lake himself and photographed it a number of times.

For the first time ever produced as a fine art print, Archival Digital Prints of “Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake” are now available at New Release Pricing for a limited time.

****UPDATE****

We’ve already sold a number of the beautiful archival digital prints of “Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake, Glacier Peak Wilderness.” I believe the five prints at the lower New Release Pricing will go fast. I would not wait if you are considering acquiring an archival fine art digital print of this photograph. See the blog post, “New Release Pricing” for more details on how New Release Pricing works and how long it lasts.

Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake, Glacier Peak Wilderness, North Cascades, Washington, copyright 1956 by Philip Hyde.

(To see the photograph large go to: “Glacier Peak From Above Image Lake.”)

This Section by Ardis Hyde

Friday, August 17, 1956:  We departed leisurely from Philip and Laura Zalesky’s home in Everett, Washington. We drove through miles of apple orchards to the Southern end of Lake Chelan to Lake Chelan State Park, which proved crowded with little privacy.

Saturday, August 18:  We just made the Lake Chelan Steamer at 9:10 am. We steamed up Lake Chelan, making two stops on the way. The land on both sides of the lake was low, hot and dry foothill country. The steamer was crowded, but comfortable and very maneuverable. We disembarked at Lucerne, Washington and transferred to a bus that took us up 10 miles of good graded gravel road to Holden, Washington. We were surprised to find Holden a pleasant shingle mining town, all company owned except for many private residences built on land leased from the US Forest Service. While we were walking to the Sierra Club camp, a Sierra Club truck met us, picked up our gear and delivered us to the packers just in time to have our duffle transferred to the pack horses. Shortly, around 2:30 pm, we set out on the 8 to 9 mile hike to Lyman Lake. The going was hot and humid through a lush young forest. Some kind of packing accident happened on the trail that spooked the horses and landed our dunnage and film box on the trail. They repacked our horses and headed on to camp, arriving after sundown around 7:45 pm. The packers were at that point only ahead of us by 15 minutes. With much of our trip after the sun slid behind the mountains, the nine mile hike seemed long enough, but not too hot or over strenuous. We arrived so late that we made our bedding and campsite right near the commissary by the lakeside.

Sunday, August 19:  It was the coldest night we spent sleeping out, the whole summer. Philip laid tarps over us that became soaking wet on the under side. After getting up, we found a good, sheltered and private campsite near the stream and relocated our gear. Philip photographed subjects around camp, while I spent the day reading the novelized true story of, Anna and the King of Siam, the book that inspired the film and Broadway Musical The King and I. I became acquainted with Sierra Club leader and pre-eminent political scientist Grant McConnell, his wife Jane, his daughter Ann and his son Jim. They spend the summers in a cabin at Stehikin, Washington and winters in Berkeley, California, where Grant McConnell teaches Political Science at the University of California. Also around camp were Al Schmitz and Oliver Kehrlein, co-leaders of the trip. There were only about 15 Sierra Club members in Base Camp at that time, while 125 more people from other groups and individuals were expected soon.

The Following Section Written by Philip Hyde

Sunday afternoon a group of us including Philip Zalesky and Grant McConnell hiked up to Phelps Creek Pass and Spider Pass for views down Phelps Creek and of the Entiat Mountains in the proposed Glacier Peak Wilderness. The Seattle group of The Mountaineers club proposed that the Glacier Peak Wilderness boundary run across Spider Pass.

Monday, August 20:  We gathered our gear together to backpack to Image Lake over Cloudy Pass and Siuattle Pass, then along Miner’s Ridge. We hiked past an old mining camp from several years ago. Several miles further we came across the present mining camp. What a mess. There were trees chopped off two feet or more from the ground in all directions, old oil drums, tin cans, bottles, and all sorts of other imaginable debris everywhere within throwing distance. The mining camps support diamond drilling operations prospecting for copper ore. Large scaffolds in several places support the drills. All of it is supplied by helicopter. We hiked on along Miner’s Ridge. It was a stiff climb to high steep grassy slopes, then around into a cove in the ridge and Image Lake finally below. Image Lake is in a small depression held back by a rock lip around the downhill edge. Below the lip, the valley plunges deeply down to the Suiattle River canyon, while our gaze moves upward to the steeper slopes across the river valley, up, up, to lower snow fields and finally to the immense, white glacier-covered slopes of Glacier Peak. Ardis preceded me into camp, while I exposed several large format black and white negatives and color transparencies of the Suiattle River Valley and surrounding peaks. I found Ardis’ welcome of hot soup as I walked into camp by the shore of Image Lake. There was a beautiful full moon that night over the snowy slopes of Glacier Peak across the valley.

Tuesday, August 21:  I woke up early to make more 5X7 view camera photographs of Glacier Peak across and from above Image Lake. Then I climbed the pass behind the lake for a view across Canyon Creek and Canyon Lake nestled in a cirque about two thirds of the way to the top of the ridge. Then I joined Ardis and some of the others, picking up our packs and heading back down to our Lyman Lake Sierra Club Base Camp. On the way, we took a high trail near the mine and ended up near one of the drilling rigs watching the helicopter operation. We took off cross-country, off-trail, bushwhacking while contouring along the ridge. After negotiating several patches of heavy forest and avalanche paths, we rejoined the trail for the climb up to Siuattle Pass and Cloudy Pass, followed by the drop down into the Lyman Lake basin. It’s a long haul, not so easily done with backpacks as we were led to believe. The mob had descended on Lyman Lake Base Camp. Already the lake surroundings look beat up. Circus tents are up, as well as individual large tents, which the management rents out.

Wednesday, August 22:  I hiked up to the South Peak of North Star Mountain today for magnificent views of Glacier Peak over Cloudy Pass and Siuattle Pass. Oliver Kehrlein made a sly dig at me at the evening campfire for going up alone.

Thursday, August 23:  We were up early for the walk out to Holden, Washington, leaving the Lyman Lake Base Camp for the trip around to the Sloan Creek Sierra Club High Trip. It was cloudy early, bringing the first threat of rain this week. It rained some on us backpacking down. We took the bus from Holden to Lucerne and down Lake Chelan in a boat. There was some hard rain on the lake. It was overcast all afternoon and night, as we camped in the US Forest Service campground on Steven’s Pass…

More in another blog post as the Hydes met up with the David Brower family, Howard Zahniser family, Jane Goldsworthy, Bob Golden, Rich Miller and other Sierra Club Board members and regular members…

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New David Leland Hyde Portfolio Prints

February 2nd, 2012

Unveiling 24 New Archival Digital Prints Added To The David Leland Hyde Portfolio At Philiphyde.com

To begin this exciting announcement, from the blog post, “Best Photos Of 2011,” four new Lightjet archival fine art digital prints are now part of the David Leland Hyde Portfolio:

Fountain, Main Courtyard, Sauk Institute, La Jolla Shores, San Diego, California, copyright 2009 by David Leland Hyde. Nikon D90.

- “Curved Shadow On Cliffs, Drakes Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore”

- “Thistle Heads And Pines, Northern Sierra Nevada,”

- “Tents, Dutton Hall Financial Aid, Fountain, Occupy UC Davis, Davis, California”

- “Grain Processing Plant At Night, Great Central Valley”

Additional NEW IMAGES added to the David Leland Hyde Portfolio at Philiphyde.com are:

- “Juniper Tree Skeleton Near Eureka, Nevada”

- “Panamint Mountains Near Panamint Springs, Approach To Death Valley National Park”

- “Granite, Pool And Maple Leaves At Indian Falls, Northern Sierra Nevada”

- “Daisies, Cracking Adobe Wall, Carmel Mission, Carmel”

- “Bicycle Church, Barrio Anita, Tucson, Arizona”

- “Historical Mansion, Downtown Santa Cruz, California”

- “Graffiti And Wall Art, San Francisco, California”

- “Self Realization Fellowship, Pacific Palisades, California”

- “Fountain, Main Courtyard, Sauk Institute, La Jolla Shores”

- “Wheelbarrow, Adobe Wall, Fall Leaves, Santa Fe, New Mexico”

- “Bell Tower, San Juan Bautista Mission”

- “Tokopa Falls, Kaweah River, Sequoia National Park”

- “Summit Sunset, Loveland Pass, Rocky Mountains, Colorado”

- “Sunrise And Volcano Along US Highway 6, Nevada”

- “Reflections Detail, Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park”

- “Hay Bales, Pacific Ocean, Santa Cruz County North Coast”

- “Foothills Of The Rocky Mountains Front Range Near Eldorado Canyon State Park, Boulder County, Colorado”

- “Ghost Ranch In Snake Valley, Snake Range, Near Milford, Utah”

- “Sierra Wave Cloud Over Bodie, Eastern Side Sierra Nevada, California”

- “Tufa, Mono Lake, East Side Sierra Nevada Near Lee Vining, California”

- “Tide Pool Rocks, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California”

- “Tokopah Falls, Sequoia National Park, Southern Sierra Nevada, California”

- “Bell Tower, San Juan Bautista Mission, California”

- “Foothills Of The Rocky Mountain Front Range Near Eldorado Canyon State Park, Boulder County, Colorado”

- “Snow And Grass Detail Near Angel Fire, Sangre De Christo Mountains, New Mexico”

View the photographs: “David Leland Hyde Portfolio.”

Please share which new photograph(s) you like best of the group and which you like least…?

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Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log 17

January 19th, 2012

Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log: June 14-September 14, 1971 by Ardis Hyde

(Pioneer landscape photographer Philip Hyde, his wife Ardis and son David in their Avion Camper on a 1968 GMC Utility Body Pickup. Continued from the blog post, “Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log 16.”)

Part Seventeen: Fairbanks, Alaska to Mile 65.5 Denali Highway, Alaska

Cotton Grass, McKinley River Trail, Alaska Range, Denali National Park, Alaska copyright 1972 by Philip Hyde.

Thursday, July 15, 1971: Fairbanks, Alaska to Donnelly Creek State Campground, Richardson Highway, Alaska

The day started sunny and progressed to clouds and rain. At 7:00 am the sun was brightest when Malcolm Lockwood left for work as site photographer at NASA’s Gilmore Creek Tracking Site. By 9:00 am when we left Malcolm Lockwood’s home, storm clouds were already gathering. After grocery shopping and gas pumping we drove out of Fairbanks a ways. We passed Alaskaland, then decided to turn around to take David through. Alaskaland combines an amusement park with museums, kids activities, restaurants, shops, educational shows and more. After eating lunch we ventured inside. David liked the paddlewheel river boat and the army helicopter most. At last he had a ferris wheel ride that he and Philip took together. When we got back onto the Richardson Highway and passed through Delta Junction. On leaving Delta Junction, the road became much more interesting than the flat country of the Alaska Highway. The terrain along the Richardson Highway, though also open, presented many wooded rolling hills with small lakes between. We had dinner at a turnout, then dropped down to the broad tree strewn Delta River bed at the base of the Alaska Range peaks. The fireweed and pea vine bloomed in mats out into the river flat. Philip took some photographs along here in the late light. We stopped to look at Black Rapids Glacier. We drove several miles beyond, then returned to Donnelly Creek State Campground. This way we could do that stretch again the next day. The air turned cold and the clouds were solid. We were out of the mosquitos. The temperatures dropped into the 50’s. We heard on the radio that it was 36 degrees in Anchorage.

Friday, July 16, 1971: Donnelly Creek Campground, Richardson Highway to Mile 65.5 Denali Highway, Alaska

We rose at 6:45 am. It had been raining hard in the earlier morning. When Philip looked out the back door of the camper he exclaimed, “Wow,” seeing the Alaska Range peaks visible through a lifting veil of clouds with fresh snow on the lower slopes. We left hurriedly to get down the road for pictures. First Philip made some 2 ¼ Hasselblad photographs before we pulled away, then a short way down the road he brought out the Baby Deardorff 4X5 camera. He drove on and stopped again near the Donnelly Inn Hunting Lodge log and sod cabins. He made more photographs at Darling Creek. At Black Rapids, he made photographs of Black Rapids Glacier upstream of the river flat. He also pulled over at Rainbow Mountain for more pictures. We drove off the main road into Fielding Lake. Fielding Lake was larger than other lakes along the way and surrounded by low brushy slopes and very wet meadows. Philip photographed the abundant wildflowers including Monkshood, Valerian, Mertensia, and Groundsel. On our way back out of Fielding Lake, the rain began again and soon increased to hail. We ate our lunch before reaching the main Denali Highway. Once back on the highway, we soon could see the Gulkana Glacier at a turnout. We also stopped shortly after at the Summit Lake Lodge for gas and propane. We watched a floatplane take off from Summit Lake. We did not stop again until Paxson, Alaska for more gas. We picked up two ladies who needed a ride about 20 miles with a repaired tire for their camper. The Denali Highway started and continued with attractive views of a beautiful alpine setting. The highway stayed high along the ridges, where we were above everything and could see in all directions. We saw rolling mid green tundra accented with darker spruce trees. Lakes and ponds lay in all the swales. The distant snow covered high mountain peaks with snow clouds and mist in veils crowned the scene. Philip made frequent picture stops. Showers continued. We stopped at Tangle Creek Campground to let our ladies put on their tire. We continued to McClaren Summit where it rained hard, but we could still see what a flower garden it was at the roadside. Beyond a short distance, after we looked down at the McClaren River Valley, we stopped for dinner and hoped for the rain to abate to enable photographs. The many ponds below were catching the light. The rain abates and the mosquitos become fierce. After we eat dinner, Philip and David go out on the Tundra for more pictures, both 4X5 and 35 mm. With David in bed we drove on along a moraine top, and stop abruptly for images of a cow moose browsing in the brush close to the road. We made it to Denali Highway Mile 43 by 7:30 pm. Our next stop was at a small pond on the roadside with grass growing in it. A Wilson’s Snipe sat on a post and “cheeped” continually. Driving along the road a few minutes later, Philip suddenly stopped and pointed out the high snowy peaks of the Alaska Range visible almost due west. He was sure we were looking at the slopes below Mount Denali. The light was just right to make Philip a show and having him hopeful that the clouds would part. More pictures at Mile 62 around 8:30 pm. We go on a short distance to Mile 65.5 where we pull off on a track dropping below the main road on the left side and still in view of the distant Alaska Range, which was less clear of clouds every minute. The mosquitos were terrible all night even though the low went down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Continued in the blog post, “Denali National Park, Alaska Travel Log 18.”

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