Sara Louise Kras wrote to View Camera magazine (Sept/Oct issue) to express her dismay over the "no car" policy at Zion National Park in Utah (a shuttle-bus-only transport policy is also likely to be phased in at other over-exhausted national parks). She and her husband drove up to Zions gate with "an 8x10 and a 4x5 camera with several lenses" but were apparently unprepared to walk very far from their car (or from a shuttle bus) with their equipment.
"Anyone who has visited a national park in the past can see why the bus system is being put into place," Ms. Kras concedes. "Wildlife was diminishing and the overall nature experience was becoming quite frustrating and maddening fighting the traffic."
On the other hand, she says, "park officials should be aware of photographers, painters, and other artisans [who] wish to communicate their experience through an art medium. Special concessions should be given to these artists. They keep our national park alive through proxy for those [who] cannot visit them."
Ms. Kras doesnt suggest a policy for determining whos a photographer and who isnt, nor does she mention such considerations as balancing the wishes of photographers and painters vs. the wishes of others who may want to drive a car in these parks (such as those who are merely disabled or elderly but not particularly artistic). Thoughts, comme
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