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50 Percent Off Sale On Select Limited Supply Archival Lightjet & Digital Prints

February 1st, 2013

While Supplies Last…

SUPER SALE: 50% Off Select Philip Hyde Archival Lightjet & Digital Prints

(Regular Blog Posts Begin Below.)

Unique Overstock Sale: This is only the second time we have EVER discounted prints this deeply in 10 years. It is the LAST TIME we will ever knock off this much.

Available Only Online…

Select Archival Lightjet & Digital Prints Authorized By Philip Hyde And Printed By Carr Clifton And David Leland Hyde NOW ON SALE 50% OFF While Supplies Last…

Help Support Environmental Causes…

Inquire Thru Contact Form, Or Order Thru PhilipHyde.com Shopping Cart…

Most of the images mentioned below only have 1-2 prints left in the size mentioned. Please keep checking this post as sale items will change. Matted prints come with 4-ply archival hinge mats and 4-ply archival board backing. For more on why Philip Hyde’s authorized archival fine art digital prints from large format film originals are the best in the world see the blog post, “About Archival Fine Art Digital Prints.”

The following Philip Hyde photographs and sizes are NOW 50% OFF While Supplies Last:

Pines, Mormon Canyon, Winter, Northern Sierra Nevada, California, copyright 1985. (From The Range Of Light with John Muir) (See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

20X24 Archival Digital Print Unmatted Was $675, Now $337 (1 left)

16X20 Archival Digital Print Unmatted Was $475, Now $237 (1 left)

11X14 Archival Digital Print Unmatted Was $325, Now $162   SOLD OUT!

 

Tenpeak Range, Glacier Peak Wilderness, Washington, copyright 1956. (From North Cascades: Forgotten Parkland) 

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Print Unmatted Was $325, Now $162  SOLD OUT!

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted    Was $175,   Now $87 (1 left)

Mitchell Butte From Mitchell Mesa, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Utah-Arizona, copyright 1963. (From Navajo Wildlands) (See photo large, read more info Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Digital Print Matted     Was $550,     Now $275 (1 left)

11X14 Archival Print Unmatted Was $325, Now $162  SOLD OUT!

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted Was $175, Now $87 SOLD OUT!

Founder’s Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California, copyright 1977. (From California State Parks: 1864 To The Present) (See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Digital Print Matted  Was $550, Now $275 SOLD OUT!

11X14 Archival Digital Print Matted   Was $375, Now $187 SOLD OUT!

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted Was $175, 50% Off, Now $87 (1 left)

 

Sunrise, Monument Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, copyright 1963. (From Slickrock with Edward Abbey) (See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Print Matted  Was $550,  50% Off, Now $275 (1 left)

11X14 Archival Print Matted  Was $375,  50% Off Now $187 (1 left)

8X10 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $175, 50% Off, Now $87 (1 left)

 

Yucca Blooms Near Toroweap Overlook, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, copyright 1964. (From Time And The River Flowing: Grand Canyon) (See photo large and more info Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Digital Print Matted    Was $550,    Now $275 (1 left)

11X14 Archival Digital Print Unmatted  Was $325, Now $162 (1 left)

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted  Was $175,  Now $87 (1 left)

Fredrickson’s Barn, Winter, Indian Valley, Northern Sierra Nevada, copyright 1952. One of Philip Hyde’s early color photographs.

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” ordering options Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Print Unmatted   Was $475,  Now $237 (1 left)

 

Burney Falls, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, California, copyright 1977. (From California State Parks) (See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $475,  Now $237 SOLD OUT!

11X14 Archival Print Unmatted Was $325, Now $162  SOLD OUT!

 

Near Water’s Edge, Mile 25, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 1964. (From Time And The River Flowing: Grand Canyon) (See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Digital Print Unmatted  Was $475,  Now $237 (1 left)

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted  Was $175,   Now $87 (1 left)

 

Red Canyon At Hance Rapid, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, copyright 1964. (From Time And The River Flowing: Grand Canyon) (See photo large and more info Click Here.)

16X20 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $475,  Now $237 (1 left)

11X14 Archival Print Unmatted   Was $325,  Now $162 (1 left)

8X10 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $175,   Now $87 (1 left)

Berry Creek Falls, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California, copyright 1977. (From California State Parks: 1864 To The Present) 

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Digital Print Unmatted     Was $325,
50% Off,  Now  $162 (2 left)

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted   Was $175,
50% Off,  Now $87 (2 left)

Horse And Cottonwoods At The Mouth Of Canyon De Chelly National Monument, Arizona, copyright 1963. (From Navajo Wildlands) (See photo large and more info Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Print Matted  Was $375, Now $187 SOLD OUT!

8X10 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $175, Now $87 SOLD OUT!

Monument Basin, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, copyright 1975.

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Fine Art Digital Print Unmatted Was $325,

50% Off Now $162 (3 left)

8X10 Archival Fine Art Digital Print Unmatted     Was $175,

50% Off, Now $87 (1 left)

Mount Denali, Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska, copyright 1971.

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Print Unmatted Was $325, Now $162 SOLD OUT!

8X10 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $175,  Now $87 SOLD OUT!

White Rim At Monument Basin, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, copyright 1982. (From Drylands: The Deserts Of North America) 

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Print Unmatted   Was $325,  Now $162 (2 left)

8X10 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $175,   Now $87 (1 left)

Ponderosa Pines, Volcanic Boulders, Northern Sierra Nevada, California, copyright.

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” view ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Digital Print Unmatted  Was $325, Now $162 SOLD OUT!

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted  Was $175, 50% Off, Now $87 (1 left)

 

Mendenhall Glacier, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, copyright 1971.

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Digital Print Unmatted  Was $325,  Now $162 (1 left)

8X10 Archival Digital Print Unmatted   Was $175,    Now $87 (1 left)

Mount Lassen From Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, copyright.

(See photo large, read “Image Info,” ordering options Click Here.)

11X14 Archival Print Unmatted   Was $325,  Now $162 (1 left)

8X10 Archival Print Unmatted  Was $175,   Now $87 (1 left)

Inquire Thru Contact Form, Or Order Thru PhilipHyde.com Shopping Cart…

 Philip Hyde Photography donates a portion of all proceeds to environmental and conservation work.

Most of the images mentioned above have only 1-2 prints left in the size listed. Please keep checking this post as sale prints will change. Matted archival digital prints come with 4-ply archival hinge mats and 4-ply archival board backing. For more on why Philip Hyde’s authorized archival fine art digital prints from large format film are the best archival digital prints in the world see the blog post, “About Archival Fine Art Digital Prints.”

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Sierra Club Books: Exhibit Format Series 2

October 4th, 2012

Sierra Club Books: Exhibit Format Series

Part Two: The Making of This Is The American Earth

(Continued from the blog post, “Sierra Club Books: Exhibit Format Series 1.”)

Aspens, East Side of the Sierra Nevada off the Tioga Road near Yosemite National Park, California, copyright 1949 by Philip Hyde. A close variation on the photograph of Philip Hyde’s that appears in “This Is the American Earth.” Made with an 8X10 Deardorff large format view camera.

“The Exhibit Format Series put the Sierra Club on the map,” Philip Hyde said in a 2004 interview. The Sierra Club Foundation, founded by David Brower, had the central purpose of operating the Sierra Club publishing program that published all Sierra Club Books and the Exhibit Format Series as it’s mainstay. For more on David Brower see the blog post, “David Brower: Photographer And Environmentalist 1.” The Sierra Club Books’ Exhibit Format Series not only popularized the coffee table photography book, but brought an awareness of land conservation, wilderness preservation and environmental ethics into the national and eventually worldwide limelight.

The oversize photography books in the Exhibit Format Series spearheaded conservation campaigns to create Redwood National Park, North Cascades National Park, to save the Grand Canyon from two dams, to expand Canyonlands and many others causes. Photographer Ansel Adams, Museum Curator, Writer and Art Critic Nancy Newhall and Sierra Club Executive Director David Brower invented the Sierra Club Books Exhibit Format Series.

Life Magazine Photographer, Joe Munroe, interviewed David Brower in 1967 for Infinity, the magazine of the American Society of Media Photographers or ASMP, regarding the new Exhibit Format Series. Joe Munroe asked David Brower, “You’ve called the Sierra Club’s Exhibit Format Series ‘Books with a bias.’ What is the central bias behind these books?”

David Brower answered:

We make it perfectly clear that we like this wild country we’re portraying in our books. We want it saved and we don’t want it paved, or logged, or dammed, or sprayed, or polluted. Our point is that there’s only 5 or 10 percent of the country left in its un-messed-up wildness. If our economy cannot operate on the 90 or 95 percent that has already been changed, that other 5 or 10 percent won’t save it; so our big effort must be in doing better with the land we’re already on. We say let’s pretend this 5 or 10 percent just doesn’t exist, so we can save it for itself for whatever answers there are to questions we haven’t learned how to ask yet. This has got to last for all the generations we expect to be aboard this planet. We’d like to have some of the wild spots left and we’ve been trying to stress this in several ways, one of which is through these books with an extra measure of physical size, the best of reproduction quality, and photographic and literary excellence.

This is the American Earth, the first book in the Sierra Club Books Exhibit Format Series, was a perfect example of just these attributes. This Is The American Earth offered text by Nancy Newhall and photographs primarily by Ansel Adams joined by some of his photographer friends such as Ray Atkeson, Werner Bischoff, Wynn Bullock, Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Garnett, Philip Hyde, Pirkle Jones, Eliot Porter, Edward Weston, Minor White, Cedric Wright and others. All in black and white, the book has both literary and visual eloquence unparalleled in books containing photographs.

The front flap of the Sierra Club Centennial edition published in 1992 said:

First published to acclaim in 1960, This Is The American Earth launched the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series, creating a revolution in publishing and in conservation action and attitudes. “This Is The American Earth is one of the great statements in the history of conservation,” proclaimed Justice William O. Douglas… Called “terrifying and beautiful” by the New York Times, This Is The American Earth presents eighty-five powerful black and white photographs—fourty-four by Ansel Adams and others by such eminent American photographers as Eliot Porter, Philip Hyde, Edward Weston and Margaret Bourke-White. Accompanying the images is a luminous text in blank verse by Nancy Newhall. Reprinted in rich duotones from new prints supplied by the Ansel Adams Trust, the pictures exhibit the stark contrast between those spaces forever altered by the forces of development and those left unscarred by human presence. As Nancy Newhall explores the intricate threads that unite the earth as an ever-shifting whole, and Adams exults in Yosemite’s rocky peaks, and Porter reveres a single tern in flight, William Garnett despairs at waves of smog and frantic mazes of tract housing that forsake all of nature’s singularity. The images, so bold in their divergence, are an eloquent call for the preservation of wilderness. This Is The American Earth compels us to ask what is the value of solitude, the cost of freedom, the legacy of our ingenuity—and the peril of our unwavering march from nature.

Ansel Adams first conceived This Is The American Earth as an exhibit of photographs, in response to the Natioal Park Service suggestion that something more functional be done with the Joseph LeConte memorial building in Yosemite Valley.  Ansel Adams asked Nancy Newhall to bring in her skill with exhibits and text she gained as curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The exhibition that opened simultaneously at the LeConte Memorial in Yosemite Valley and at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, gained a world-wide audience through the Smithsonian Institute, while a number of prominent publishers and foundations helped the show become a book. The idea of the project was to educate the public about conservation. Ansel Adams said in brainstorming sessions with his wife Virginia Adams and Nancy Newhall later quoted in Modern Photography Magazine:

What about a show on the whole of conservation?… Clear up the confusion in people’s minds, show them the issues at stake, and the dangers… Show the importance of the spiritual values as well as the material ones by making the most beautiful exhibition yet… A lot of people think Conservationists are a bunch of long-haired cranks and wild-eyed mystics. It’s about time they were given a chance to understand the broad principles and the full scope for which we’re fighting…

Ansel Adams raised the money to mount the exhibition himself. Nancy Newhall reviewed thousands of photographs, designed the overall concept and layout of the show and wrote the text. Beaumont and Christi Newhall’s new introduction to the Sierra Club Centennial edition described how the printing and organization of the show came together:

Six photographers made their own prints [including Philip Hyde] for the show, and Ansel Adams, with the help of his assistant Pirkle Jones, made the rest from the photographer’s own negatives. These images were attached to fourteen panels, each seven by four feet. Some of the photographs were mounted with spacers, making them stand out from the panels, and giving a certain visual liveliness to the show. Also displayed were natural objects and geological specimens such as butterflies, mushrooms coral, crystals, and shells, as well as small Egyptian and Greek artifacts. These objects added color, variety, a sense of life, and a sense of immediacy… Labels made from Nancy Newhall’s text were placed together with the photographs where they seemed appropriate, giving the exhibition an even broader scope. Immediately, the show received an overwhelming enthusiastic response.

An article in the November 1955 issue of Modern Photography Magazine stated:

This Is the American Earth is one of the most beautiful and remarkable photographic exhibitions ever put together… Various organizations have proposed to circulate it in reproduction to every community, to make it into a movie for TV and ordinary theater showings, to publish it as a book for distribution in this country and throughout the world. Why all the excitement? There are two answers, one is the theme of the show, the other its execution. The theme stresses the need, the history, the purpose of the conservation of America’s resources. The execution includes the display of some of the most penetrating and beautiful photographs ever made…

Nancy Newhall completely revised the text as the exhibition became a book, “to reflect new thinking and expansion of the original ideas.” Beaumont and Christi Newhall’s introduction explained:

The exhibit had focused on conservation and the “national park idea.” The theme of the book is avowedly ecological and environmental. It embraces an understanding of the interrelation of all resources including man, and the need for reverence and preservation of these resources. The impassioned, poetic text also deals with the tragic effects of man’s greed and ignorance throughout history upon this planet. The book was an instant success. It was chosen as one of the forty-six “Notable Books”  of 1960 by the nation’s librarians, and was selected Best Book of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. It was reviewed in newspapers and periodicals throughout the country, often accompanied by photographs from the book and large sections of the text.

In Ansel Adams’ last living interview by Art News in 1984, he said, “…It boils down to the fact that the world is in a state of potential destruction. There’s no use worrying about anything else.”

(Continued in the blog post, “Sierra Club Books: Exhibit Format Series 3.”)

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Plumas Arts Reinvents The Capitol Club In Quincy, California

June 29th, 2012

Announcing The Grand Opening Of The Capitol Arts Gallery

525 Main Street Across From The County Courthouse
Quincy, California   95971
530-283-3402

Opening Reception 5:00-7:00 pm June 29, 2012

Group Exhibition June 29, 2012 Through August 22, 2012

Mount Hough, Arlington Ridge And Cottonwoods Across Indian Valley, Plumas County, Northern Sierra Nevada, California, copyright 2009 by David Leland Hyde. A 16X24 archival print of this photograph will participate in the Capitol Arts Center Grand Opening Show. The Plumas Arts Grand Opening Group Exhibition is the first time David Leland Hyde’s photography has been exhibited in a “brick and mortar” venue. David Leland Hyde was born in Plumas County. He is the son of pioneer landscape photographer Philip Hyde, who lived in Plumas County for 56 years. Philip Hyde was one of the founders of the Plumas County Museum. He hired the architect of the Plumas County Museum and was active in local community affairs including being a member of the nationally acclaimed Quincy Library Group that created a bridge between environmentalists and timber interests. For more on Philip Hyde click on his name in the main text.

(See the photograph large: “Mount Hough Across Indian Valley.”)

For more information about the current Lumiere Gallery group show in Atlanta, Georgia, see the blog post, “Lumiere Gallery Presents: Designed By Nature.”

The history of art, local Plumas County artists, Plumas Arts and the history of watering holes, bars, taverns, drinking establishments, clubs and historic saloons converged last year and will culminate in a new Grand Opening of the Capitol Art Gallery at 525 Main Street in downtown Quincy, California, the county seat of Plumas county.

The historic two-story Capitol Saloon, established in 1873 by Andrew “Doc” Hall, thrived for over a century and a quarter before falling on hard times in recent years. The Capitol Club, as it was later called, stood vacant until the 25-year-old Quincy, California based art association, Plumas Arts, bought the building outright for $70,500 in September 2011 and paid its back taxes, reinventing the premises as The Capitol Art Gallery.

The Capitol Arts Gallery opened on May 4, 2011 with a rare local exhibition by internationally recognized landscape photographer Carr Clifton. The Grand Opening of the Capitol Arts Gallery and opening reception will be this evening, Friday, June 29, 2012 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Carr Clifton’s opening reception and the gala Grand Opening this evening may be the most colorful and captivating events in the long history of “The Cap” besides “A spectacular shoot-out that occurred in front of the saloon in February 1886, resulting in the death of one man and the ostracizing of the other,” historically recounted by Las Plumas of the Plumas County Museum Association, which pioneer landscape photographer Philip Hyde helped found.

Philip Hyde and his son David Leland Hyde will be just two of more than 35 local artists, whose art will appear in the Grand Opening Exhibition. Philip Hyde’s “Cathedral In The Desert,” that American Photo Magazine named one of the top 100 photographs of the 20th century will be in the show as well as “The Minarets,” that Ansel Adams said he liked better than his own photograph of the Minarets, as well as “Misty Morning, Indian Creek” and “Spanish Creek” will appear in the show. David Leland Hyde’s “Grasses, Clouds Reflected, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California” and “Mount Hough, Arlington Ridge And Cottonwoods Across Indian Valley” will also hang in the exhibition. When asked which artists might be of interest to a national and international audience, Plumas Arts’ Executive Director for over 25 years, Roxanne Valladao replied, “They all are. It’s not fair for me to say which artists are more important or more interesting than the others. The show represents all of our members that wanted to be in the show.” Indeed the Plumas Arts membership is “diverse and talented,” reported the Feather River Bulletin and Indian Valley Record. “The exhibition will feature two dimensional and three dimensional fine art and artisan creations in wood, basketry, pottery and jewelry… Plumas Arts will also use the evening to offer recognition to the generous individuals and groups that offered financial and volunteer support… All who made a financial donation of $100 or more or offered volunteer labor will be given a fine art print of Indian Creek by late local artist bob Pfenning.”

Executive Director Roxanne Valladao said that 36 people so far have donated their time and 57 people have donated money to the “Place of Our Own” fund that became the Capitol Arts Gallery. The California Arts Council article on Plumas Arts said that after decades of saving, sacrificing and fundraising, Plumas Arts was in the fortuitous position to take advantage of a foreclosure auction to purchase the Capitol Club. Donations paid for the bulk of renovations while dozens of volunteers cleaned, dumped trash, demolished walls, replaced rotted floors and walls, painted, polished and redesigned the space into a beautiful contemporary art gallery space that still retains the charm of the historical building as well. Organizations such as the California Arts Council, the Plumas County Board of Supervisors, Feather River College, Pacific Gas & Electric, High Sierra Music Foundation and a number of other local and state organizations contributed funding or expertise to the project. A gorgeous wood floor installation that would have cost tens of thousands of dollars came together under the efforts of Feather River College Students in Free Enterprise, also known as S.I.F.E., with a LOWE’s foundation grant.

As said in the California Arts Council organ ArtWorks, “For a rural arts council in one of the most economically challenged, least populated (Plumas County’s population is 20,000), and geographically isolated counties in the state, the notion of owning such a part of local history might seem part of a dreamscape.” However, local artists have earned this dream. Artists in Plumas County who support Plumas Arts range in experience, schooling, expertise, recognition and fame, but they all have actively participated in the development of the arts in Quincy and in the entire county. Plumas Arts members hail from the Plumas County communities of Quincy, Portola, Greenville, Chester, Taylorsville, Crescent Mills, Canyon Dam, Hamilton Branch, Westwood, Graeagle, Blairsden, Loyalton, Belden, Bucks Lake, Meadow Valley, Cromberg, Johnsville, Lake Almanor, Tobin, Twain and others. The Capitol Art Gallery is now open Wednesday through Friday 11:00 am to 5:30 pm and Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

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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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Tuolumne Meadows Parsons’ Lodge Caretakers Hugh Sakols And Mara Dale

March 20th, 2012

Photographer Hugh Sakols And His Wife Mara Dale Work As Summer Caretakers Of Parsons’ Lodge And The Historic McCauley Cabin In Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park…

Environmental Educators And Back Country Mountaineers Hugh Sakols and his wife Mara Dale, Each Summer Since 2008, Have Honored And Educated About Early Conservation Leaders, While Acting As Volunteer Docents, Leading Interpretive Walks, Caretaking The Sierra Club Parsons’ Memorial Lodge And Staying In The Rustic McCauley Cabin, Much As Ardis And Philip Hyde Did In The Summer Of 1949. On This Land, Next To Soda Springs In Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, John Muir And Other Pioneer Conservationists First Conceived The Sierra Club.

"Lenticular Clouds and Lembert Dome," Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada High Country, California, copyright 2010 by Hugh Sakols.

(View the photograph large: “Lenticular Clouds and Lembert Dome.”)

Hugh Sakols first started exploring Yosemite National Park on a backpacking trip when he was seventeen years old. He started seriously photographing the Park after working as a Yosemite Institute instructor teaching environmental education. He later assisted photography workshops taught by Michael Frye through the Ansel Adams Gallery. Today he continues to explore the Yosemite back country, whether in summer or winter. He now lives just outside Yosemite National Park in El Portal, California, where he teaches elementary school during the school year. Hugh Sakol’s photographs have been used by the National Park Service, Yosemite Conservancy, Yosemite Institute, and have appeared at the Yosemite Renaissance. He has converted almost entirely to digital photography, now using a Nikon D300, whereas before he often used a Bronica SQA medium format film camera and a Horseman VH-R large format View Camera.

Summer In Tuolumne Meadows By Hugh Sakols

Over the last four summers, starting in 2008, my wife Mara, and I have worked as National Park Service Volunteers. We are summer caretakers for Parsons’ Memorial Lodge and the historic McCauley Cabin in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park. We are lucky enough pull this off and continue working at our “real jobs” as Educators in Yosemite National Park.

Just like the Southern Miwok people have done for thousands of years, Mara and I migrate upslope, where at 8600 ft the meadows are green, the temperatures are generally cool, and the views are striking.  Tuolumne Meadows is a glacially scoured sub alpine landscape that is the heart of Yosemite’s high country and part of what John Muir referred to as the Range of Light. To learn more about John Muir and the Sierra Nevada, see the blog post, “Philip Hyde’s Tribute To John Muir.”

It was here at Soda Springs that John Baptist Lembert, namesake of Lembert Dome, spent his summers on a 160 acre homestead where he raised Angora goats and became an expert on local butterflies. John Baptist Lembert’s only friends in the summer were sheepherders, many of whom were Basque. At this time Tuolumne Meadows was essentially a land grab. Reportedly, in the late 1860s there were thousands of grazing sheep that later John Muir described as “hooved locust.” After John Lembert’s death (he was murdered in El Portal), the McCauley brothers acquired the land where they grazed cattle and built a log cabin. The McCauley Cabin now is a park service residence, where Mara and I live come summer.

Honoring The Place Where Western Conservation Began

Hugh Sakols And Mara Dale In Front Of The Historical McCauley Cabin, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada, California, copyright 2011 by Hugh Sakols. Self portrait.

While at the McCauley Cabin, Mara and I have some big shoes to fill.  It was here that the western conservation movement began. John Muir saw the commercialism that was taking over Yosemite Valley and dreaded what would happen to Tuolumne Meadows. In 1889 Robert Underwood Johnson convinced John Muir to write two articles for a popular East Coast magazine. In one article John Muir described the beauty of Yosemite, and in another article John Muir proposed the need for Yosemite’s preservation. Only a year later, Abraham Lincoln signed a bill to establish Yosemite as the country’s first national preserve. Soon after Yosemite became a national park.

In 1912, the Sierra Club bought the McCauley brother’s land in hopes that it would be saved from the building of hotels, stables and other improvements. The land around Soda Springs with Parsons’ Lodge and the McCauley Cabin on it, the Sierra Club eventually seeded to the National Park Service in 1973. During the Sierra Club’s ownership, this remarkably beautiful spot brought club members together for mountain adventures and a place to discuss the protection of wild lands, many of which are now national parks. The most famous early battle was probably over the damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley inside Yosemite National Park. Sierra Club leaders such as Edward Taylor Parsons, William E. Colby, and John Muir fought tooth and nail, but eventually lost the battle. Interestingly, the man Forest Service people call their first environmentalist, Gifford Pinchot, was in favor of damming Hetch Hetchy. Gifford Pinchot opposed John Muir in the ongoing public debate over building a dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite National Park around the turn of the century. In 1915 Parsons’ Lodge was built as a mountain headquarters and a place to reflect the work of forward thinking Sierra Club leaders.

A year after Parsons’ Lodge was built, Ansel Adams made his first trip to Yosemite National Park. After that he quickly became part of the Sierra Club where he first worked as a custodian at the LeConte Memorial and later served on the board of directors. The Sierra Club over time indoctrinated Ansel Adams to Yosemite’s High Country and the importance of preserving wilderness. This was the beginning of a close relationship between landscape photographers and conservationists.

Conservation, The Environmental Movement And Landscape Photography

Beginning in the late 1930s and 1940s, Ansel Adams and wilderness photographer Cedric Wright both contributed photographs to conservation campaigns. However, it wasn’t until 1951, when the Sierra Club sent photographer Philip Hyde on the first photography assignment ever for an environmental cause. The Sierra Club sent Philip Hyde, who had been a photography student of Ansel Adams in San Francisco, to Dinosaur National Monument to help prevent the building of two dams, again within the National Park System. The battle over Dinosaur, many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement because it combined the conservation ideals of John Muir and other turn of the century conservation leaders with the hard hitting tactics of David Brower and other environmentalists of the 1950s and 1960s. For more about David Brower see the blog post, “David Brower: Photographer And Environmentalist 1.” The Dinosaur battle redeemed the loss of Hetch Hetchy to the extent that it reversed the precedent set for such development within a national park. Read about the first photography assignment for an environmental cause in the blog post, “The Battle Over Dinosaur: Birth Of Modern Environmentalism 1.” Activists are still working to remove Hetch Hetchy Dam and restore Yosemite Valley’s sister valley to its original pristine state.

In the decades that followed the Dinosaur battle, Philip Hyde, worked with the Sierra Club, National Audubon, Wilderness Society and other environmental groups, contributing his photographs to more environmental campaigns than any other photographer of his time. David Brower, Sierra Club Executive Director and head of the publishing program, used Philip Hyde’s widely published photographs in Sierra Club Books to help save such places as the Grand Canyon, the California Redwoods, the North Cascades and many other national treasures. The Sierra Club Books Exhibit Format Series, not only popularized coffee table photography books and the modern environmental movement, but paved the way for photographers to be able make a living from such publications. Photographs from this time period helped spark the 1960s interest in getting back to nature and helped instigate a backpacking boom in the 1970s.

Philip Hyde’s first exposure to vast wilderness also occurred in Yosemite National Park in 1938. Philip Hyde at age 16, joined a Boy Scout backpacking trip from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley. To read this history see the blog post, “Lake Tenaya And Yosemite National Park.” For some years afterward, Philip Hyde visited and backpacked in Yosemite National Park until World War II. After the War, Philip Hyde studied photography under Ansel Adams. For more on Ansel Adams’ innovative photography department, see the blog post, “Photography’s Golden Era 6.” During the summer 1949 break from photography school, Ansel Adams helped Ardis and Philip Hyde land the caretakers job at Parsons’ Lodge in Tuolumne Meadows. Ardis and Philip Hyde stayed in the rustic McCauley cabin while Ardis Hyde studied for her teaching credential and Philip Hyde gleefully photographed. Future blog posts will share more about the Hyde’s Summer in Tuolumne Meadows. That summer Philip Hyde met David Brower briefly in Tuolumne Meadows, as the Sierra Club leader brought a Yosemite High Trip through the Soda Springs area. Philip Hyde and David Brower were more formally introduced later by Ansel Adams, which led to David Brower inviting Philip Hyde to act as official Sierra Club photographer for the 1950 Summer High Trip, one year before the battle over Dinosaur National Monument began to take the national stage. Read about the Sierra High Trip in the blog post, “Cedric Wright And Philip Hyde On The 1950 Sierra High Trip.”

Tuolumne Meadows And Landscape Photography Today

"Golden Reflection, Gaylor Lake" Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada High Country, California, copyright 2008 by Hugh Sakols.

(See the photograph large click: “Golden Reflection, Gaylor Lake.”)

Understanding the history and traditions of Tuolumne Meadows has helped me to realize why I am so intrigued by landscape photography.  First I have always felt the need to venture into wilderness. Second, I hope my photography advocates the importance of wilderness preservation and the complexity of nature. And third, I want to uncover Yosemite National Park as a place I have spent years exploring and observing.

While at the McCauley Cabin, some of our tasks include taking care of Parsons Memorial Lodge and assisting presenters who come each summer.  Also, I lead weekly photography walks while my wife teaches Junior Rangers.  Together each Sunday we serve coffee in the campground where we are able to talk with a very diverse group of visitors. It is not uncommon to have gritty looking backpackers who are passing through on their way along the Pacific Crest Trail, a computer geek from the Silicon Valley, and a family looking for the falsely posted church service, all together around a single camp fire.The one thing we all have in common is our love for Tuolumne and of course, caffeine. It is during these informal programs that Mara and I try to instill the values of our predecessors. We remind the visitors of the challenges Yosemite National Park faces in finding a balance between preservation and access. Furthermore, we celebrate Yosemite’s timelessness by enjoying the rustic nature of places such as Tuolumne Meadows.

When I am scheduled in the Yosemite Guide, I lead a Monday morning photography walk for the general public.  During the walk I quickly go over the basics of composition, exposure, and quality of light.  Along the way I will pull out prints I have made that illustrate these concepts and show views from the trail that I have collected over the past summers. It is fun to pass them around and not worry about people handling them.  I’ve even dropped a few on the trail. I explain that for me the end product of an image is the print, and it is always fun to carry a few in a box to share with others.

Imparting Landscape Photography’s History And Significance To Yosemite National Park’s Visitors

Beyond the basics of photography, it is more important to help visitors understand what landscape photography represents today and how it co-evolved with the creation of national parks and organizations like the Sierra Club. Early photographs have documented changes in the landscape over time whether it be a sandstone tower that is now covered in water in Glen Canyon, a 1860s view of Yosemite Valley that shows a greater abundance of black oaks, or an 1870s view of thousands of sheep grazing in Tuolumne Meadows. Hopefully modern landscape photographs will someday represent our successes, failures and our human need to connect with nature.  I think understanding this tradition will help fellow photographers be more cognizant of their own impact in the park.

I also take the opportunity to discuss our increasing detachment from the natural world which could have alarming effects on the future of our natural heritage. Today our new generation of young people spend more and more of their free time glued to a monitor and show little interest in the out of doors. In fact many children do not know how to play outside unless they are playing organized sports.  Today most Yosemite visitors walk a quarter mile or less from the road. Increasingly I find visitors who don’t quite know what to do in a place like Tuolumne Meadows. For these visitors photography is a perfect way to have fun, become observant, and connect.

I am not sure how long we will continue to live in Tuolumne Meadows during our summers. At some point Mara and I want to have more time to explore areas of the park that take more than a long weekend to find.  However, having had this experience makes my photography all the more meaningful.

June 2, 2012 Exhibition At The Ansel Adams Gallery

Local artists including Hugh Sakols will show their work at the Ansel Adams Gallery on June 2nd.  All proceeds will go to Yosemite Park El Portal School.

What makes your photography more meaningful? Have you been to Yosemite or explored its back country? In what place or places do you enjoy getting off the beaten path?

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Living The Good Life 2

March 14th, 2012

Living the Good Life, Part Two

By Nancy 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 Presser and David Leland Hyde 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 found 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.” Nancy 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 upcoming blog posts in this series. Read about the Change of Seasons in the next blog post, “Living The Good Life 3.”

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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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Moving Past The Repertoire by Greg Russell

December 19th, 2011

Moving Past the Repertoire: An Essay By Greg Russell

Landscape Photography Blogger Note: My photoblog friendship with Greg Russell developed over the last year or more through an exchange of many e-mails and phone calls on the state of photography today and yesterday, philosophy, and our development as photographers.  This essay came out of our conversations. Concurrently on Greg Russell’s photoblog Alpenglow Images, he has posted an essay I wrote called, “Make Your Own Tripod Tracks.” For more background on Greg Russell see the blog post, “Monday Blog Blog: Greg Russell, Ph.D.” or his own short bio.

Moving Past The Repertoire By Greg Russell

Early Morning, Bisti Badlands, New Mexico, copyright 2011 by Greg Russell.

In a previous blog post, I mentioned Katie Lee, whose songs and essays have undoubtedly made her one of the greatest advocates for the Colorado Plateau, and the Colorado River in particular.  In one of her essays she talks about a photographer friend she once brought to Glen Canyon before it was dammed.  He dropped his camera in the sand before exploring a much-anticipated side canyon.  Instead of continuing up the canyon sans camera, he turned around, saying emphatically, “I don’t even want to see it if I can’t photograph it.”

Hmmm…that brings up an interesting question.  Imagine yourself on the trip of a lifetime, possibly even knowing you’re going to be one of the last people to see a particular canyon before it disappears underwater forever.  How would you react if your camera got filled with sand?

Personally, I would probably begin by using every curse word in my vocabulary.  Then, I would probably pout, and I hope I would enjoy the rest of the trip, even without “that shot.”

Today on my blog, David Leland Hyde in his blog post, “Make Your Own Tripod Marks,” likens landscape photography to trophy hunting, with intense competition to get “the shot.”  Indeed, despite the camaraderie, things have evolved into a very “me first” sort of culture.  As a result, as soon as a new location is discovered (and its coordinates disseminated), it quickly becomes part of hundreds of photographers’ libraries.  Mark Meyer has written an excellent article on the landscape photographer’s repertoire, which describes the mentality of this culture very well.

Rather than rehash Meyers’ comments (he makes his point much better than I ever could), I wonder to myself, can we move past the repertoire?  Can we discover our own little wild places, places that inspire creativity based on our own discoveries, our own way of seeing?

As a beginning landscape photographer, it seemed logical and intuitive for me to learn about composition and exposure by following in the footsteps of photographers who inspire me.  I visited the classic viewpoints—Mesa Arch, Tunnel View—and in all honesty, I don’t regret it.  I think everyone should see sunrise at the Towers of the Virgin at least once.

However, I began to realize that by visiting these locations and making the same compositions as everyone else, my creativity was impeded.  By photographing the repertoire, my technical skills matured, but when the time to look for unique, incongruous, compositions and to attempt to break the “rules” in an artful way, it was obvious to me.  In other words, it was time to put down the roadside guide, to stop letting highway pullouts dictate what would make an interesting photograph.

Wave Abstract, Channel Islands National Park, California, copyright 2010 by Greg Russell.

In the search for my own voice, I quickly learned that for me, fostering a connection with the land—a sense of place—was the most valuable tool in letting me discover the landscape’s “unseen” beauty.  As a result, my writing and photographs focus on the place, rather than the technical aspect of photography, see, for example, the blog post: “Overland Flight.”

It was my voice, not the voice of others, that I wanted people to hear; speaking for the land, in my opinion, is an important aspect of being an artist.

All of this isn’t to say you should avoid Yosemite Valley at all costs, or that you should never venture into the eastern Sierra in October.

What I am saying, however, is to enjoy the landscape for its own sake.  Ask yourself, “If I forgot my camera on this trip, would I still be enjoying myself?”  After all, the first step to moving past the repertoire is to foster a connection with the land, not to race everyone else in documenting it.

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New Official Philip Hyde Short Video

November 17th, 2011

The Official Philip Hyde Short Video

Bob Yellowlees, proprietor of Lumiere Gallery in Atlanta is a genius for hiring Tony Casadonte as gallery manager. Tony Casadonte also builds the Lumiere Gallery search-friendly website on WordPress, presents and sells vintage prints and digital prints, oversees matting and framing, coordinates events, activities and a lecture series with the High Museum of Art, Atlanta… and… oversees the recording of videos. He directed the NEW 3:18 MINUTE PHILIP HYDE SHORT VIDEO…

Philip Hyde from Lumière on Vimeo.

The Making Of The New Video

One day Tony Casadonte told me I would receive a recorder in the mail. Seemed a bit strange, but everything is strange these days when it comes to technology. Sure enough, one day this box about 6″ X 10″ X 8″ arrived in my mailbox. I opened it up. Tony explained the contraption, “It’s only a couple hundred dollar recording machine, but we shipped it FedEx to be sure it arrived safely.” It was digital. No tapes. OK, I know I am hopelessly stuck in the 1980s when I remember my father picking up the first tape recorder commercially available from Sony. Anyway, no moving parts, amazing. Just press a button and start talking.

Tony gave me an outline of his interview points and I started speaking into the microphone to answer them. Every so often Tony interrupted and said, “Well, what about this?” or “That?” In a flash, seemed like, we had an hour and a half of me rattling on about my father pioneer landscape photographer and conservationist Philip Hyde and his work. I burned a copy of the recording right to my computer for backup, put the recorder in the box and done. Tony said he would have to edit it. OK, I agreed. He sent me several versions of the audio, cut down to three and four minutes. The editing shined in one version. Tony said, I’ll have my guy Neal go to work on this and cue up a video with music and your father’s photographs. Hopefully we will be able to make a video or two more out of the rest of the recording.

In a day or two Tony and Neal posted the newest version of the video on Vimeo and a slightly different version on YouTube. Take a look. I am amazed at the results. From my convoluted ramblings, they somehow cut a very focused, concise statement about my father that would have made him proud. Hats off to Tony Casadonte and his team, or is it Bob Yellowlees’ team? Anyway, great job gentlemen, thank you. Take a look yourself… and… don’t miss the current exhibition at Lumiere Gallery, “Messages from the Wilderness,” prominently featuring Dad’s conservation photography and the work of other great conservation photographers such as Ansel Adams, Edna Bullock, Peter Essick, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Tom Murphy, Bradford Washburn, Edward Weston and Brett Weston.

Messages From The Wilderness Exhibition

November 12-December 23, 2011

Lumiere Gallery
425 Peachtree Hills Avenue
Building 5, Suite 29B
Atlanta, GA 30305
404-261-6100

For more information about the exhibition see the blog post, “Messages From The Wilderness Opening At Lumiere Gallery.”

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Monday Blog Blog: Review Of ‘Light And Land’ by Michael Frye

October 31st, 2011

Monday Blog Blog: Review Of Light And Land: Landscapes In the Digital Darkroom By Michael Frye

Light And Land E-Book Promotional Image.

(What in the world is Monday Blog Blog? See the blog post, “Monday Blog Blog Celebration.”)

Michael Frye’s articulate, yet casual writing style in Light And Land: Landscapes In The Digital Darkroom, easily conveyed ideas to me that perhaps had seemed more complicated or even intimidating before. Right from the start I felt relaxed as though he would take me through a challenging journey safely. For example:

In this book I’ll take you step-by-step through each decision as I process five different images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. You’ll see my workflow in action, and I’ll explain why I use particular techniques in a particular order. But more importantly, you’ll come to understand the aesthetic judgments behind each decision… you’ll gain insights about how to convey your own unique vision, and how to squeeze every ounce of beauty, emotion, and inspiration out of your photographs…. While I use Lightroom for these examples, the basic principles apply to any software. Learning how to make good decisions and find the right balance is more important than learning any particular tool or technique.

“OK, I’m in,” I said to myself. “I can do this.” Michael Frye then rolled right into Highlight and Shadow Detail, Black Points and White Points, Workflow, Curves, Tools, Default Settings, Finding Direction and other sections in the natural flow of his work on digital images. These sections, besides explaining technical concepts in non-technical terms, made the process seem simple, but not too simple. Many photography how-to books wax long on technique, but Michael Frye showed me what to do with the techniques to create images that bring out my own vision. He also told me how to best apply each technique depending on what I intend to accomplish in each photograph. In my view, this makes Michael Frye an above average teacher. No wonder he teaches workshops through the Ansel Adams Gallery. No wonder he is the author of the traditional paper paged book Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters. Michael Frye knows what he is doing regarding the unique considerations in landscape photography post processing. In his e-book, Light And Land: Landscapes In The Digital Darkroom, he also sprinkled in his own wit and wisdom for landscape photography in general:

…In some other photography genres the photographer is often concerned with only one subject. Landscape photography frequently requires blending many different ingredients in a harmonious way.

Or:

…Landscape photography is all about communicating the mood of a particular place at a particular time.

Or:

Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you prefer using Curves or some other tool, what default settings you start with, or even what software you use. The goal is to make the image communicate something, and there are many ways to accomplish that. Knowing what you want to say is more important than using a particular procedure.

At the top of Michael Frye’s section on Workflow, he listed for us readers in order the various steps he takes in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Then he elaborated on each one. He showed how he goes about each step in a sort of “real time” demonstration on his landscape photographs.

He explained that “in a book of this size it’s impossible to describe every nuance and keyboard shortcut in Lightroom.” Then he went on to recommend the two books I already have on Lightroom, but have never read, how handy is that? Plus Michael Frye recommended one more book on Lightroom by David DuChemin called Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The other two books I have are Martin Evening’s The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers and D65′s Lightroom Workbook: Workflow, Not Workslow in Lightroom 3 by Seth Resnick and Jamie Spritzer.

Having watched master landscape photographer Carr Clifton work with curves since 2008, but having only minimally tried it myself, I found Michael Frye’s explanation of curves to be the easiest to understand of any I have read. To check out the Photoshop and Lightroom resources I have either studied or gathered and not yet studied, see the blog posts, “Monday Blog Blog: Photoshop For Pros” and “Monday Blog Blog: Lewis Kemper.”

What I liked about Michael Frye’s style of presentation in Light And Land: Landscapes In The Digital Darkroom was that he urged the reader to think and make decisions. He asked many questions that put me into action in processing images along with him and starting in on my own. His sections called “Evaluation” in Light and Land and on his “In The Moment: A Landscape Photography Blog” have encouraged and inspired us students of landscape photography to jump right in and get involved.

Michael Frye powerfully wound up Light And Land by advising us to go to galleries and museums and look at the finished product: fine art digital prints. He said not just to look at them but to ask yourself his many evaluation questions:

When viewing prints, look at the contrast. How much of the photograph is pure white? How much pure black? Is the print dramatic or understated? Notice the color balance and saturation. With black-and-white prints, check for slight color tints.

To bring home his e-book coaching Michael Frye in Light And Land quoted Ansel Adams, one of the world’s greatest fine art print makers of all time:

The difference between a very good print and a fine print is quite subtle and difficult, if not impossible, to describe in words. There is a feeling of satisfaction in the presence of a fine print—and uneasiness with a print that falls short of optimum quality.

The only aspect of Light And Land I don’t like is that it is too short. I would like to learn much more and have Michael Frye go into greater depth in many of the areas of his coaching in this e-book. Fortunately, Light And Land is priced at what David DuChemin termed the “outrageously low price” of only $5.00. If you look around some you may even find a coupon to purchase the e-book for $4.00. I recommend that each of you who takes the digital printing of landscape photography seriously not wait any longer: buy the book now. Michael Frye will show you how to make that subtle difference, referred to by Ansel Adams, in your fine art digital prints. To order go to Light And Land: Landscapes In The Digital Darkroom.

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