Ansel Adams Quote?

[Drew Wiley]

Oh let's get silly technical about this ... lawyer-speak style, and just limit it to those four
shots Ansel took modeling lederhosen while shooting behind a Kodak Medalist with three
West Australian parakeets resting on top the bellows in front of the Ahwanee Hotel on a
Spring equinox. That should definitely rule out the possibility of his going any significant
distance from the road, for those of you who are not so subtly trying to justify your own
roadbound shooting habits.

[Vaughn]

I think I'll make a new rule for myself -- to take no photos farther than three beers away from the car...unless I roll a big one first, then who knows how far out I'll get.

[Mark Barendt]

Vaughn,

That seems like a sensible rule. For it to be meaningful though you'd have to carry at least three beers.

[Vaughn]

The secret is to take Stouts or Porters that still taste great warm -- and one can pour them into quart water bottles to save weight!

[Darin Boville]

Oh let's get silly technical about this ... lawyer-speak style, and just limit it to those four
shots Ansel took modeling lederhosen while shooting behind a Kodak Medalist with three
West Australian parakeets resting on top the bellows in front of the Ahwanee Hotel on a
Spring equinox. That should definitely rule out the possibility of his going any significant
distance from the road, for those of you who are not so subtly trying to justify your own
roadbound shooting habits.

I don't really shoot much in the way of landscapes anyway so I'll let you guys worry about the road. But the little rule about the AA posters is not silly at all. The whole *point* of the quote is, if I can paraphrase Edward Weston, is that if you spend time too much time *here* (hiking through the mountains) you'll likely miss more and better images *there* (down the road, near the car). So you really do want to know what proportion of a photographer's best images were made near the car and which were not. My metric of using the Ansel Adams Publishing Trust's poster selections is rather crude, I admit, but it is certainly not silly and strikes right at the heart of the meaning of the quote.

--Darin

[Drew Wiley]

OK Darin, let's put it this way ... I pick up that famous coffee-table book I earlier referred to, which was put together with images Ansel picked out while he was still alive - one of
the best and last in which he was directly invoved - images which he personally considered
important and reminisced about, and involved many memorable summers of his lifetime ....
... or I look at a mere handful of posters sold in a Tourist Trap in Yosemite to guess what tourists in Yosemite?

[Drew Wiley]

Vaughn - among my younger set apprentice backpackers there's a fellow who was into
microbrew - local north coast good stuff. First summer's lesson (easy 30-miler in Emigrant
Wilderness over three days) - lesson learned, don't carry cases of BOTTLED beer in your
pack! Second year: now he brings beer in alum cans. But it's a bit more ambitious this
time with a couple of 12000 ft passes. Lesson learned? This summer I bet he'll leave the
beer behind.

[Drew Wiley]

Oh one more punch to the gut, Darin .... Kings Canyon Natl Park probably wouldn't exist if
it weren't for AA's large formats shots of it, which were "famous enough" to get an act of
Congress. Now anyone who knows much about this particular park knows that nearly the
entire thing is roadless. Only a tiny bit of Cedar Grove - everything else is backcountry.
I think the entire heyday of the conservation movement would raise an eyebrow over the
notion that AA did most of his important work from a road. He didn't get a mountain or a
significant wilderness area named for him because he was just a photographer! And that
wilderness happens to be outside Yosemite, and is itself obviously roadless.

[Dan Henderson]

Speaking of quotes, does anyone know the origin of a quote that goes something like, "whatever you do, don't take up photography. It will ruin your life." I thought that it was attributed to Hurter or Driffeld, but I have been unable to locate it.

[Darin Boville]

Oh one more punch to the gut, Darin .... Kings Canyon Natl Park probably wouldn't exist if
it weren't for AA's large formats shots of it, which were "famous enough" to get an act of
Congress. Now anyone who knows much about this particular park knows that nearly the
entire thing is roadless. Only a tiny bit of Cedar Grove - everything else is backcountry.
I think the entire heyday of the conservation movement would raise an eyebrow over the
notion that AA did most of his important work from a road. He didn't get a mountain or a
significant wilderness area named for him because he was just a photographer! And that
wilderness happens to be outside Yosemite, and is itself obviously roadless.

Missed, I'm afraid. Didn't even feel the wind. How about the Examples book? How about the Portfolios? Those would be better metrics than the Range of Light. I haven't looked at them recently so even better.

I thought you were the expert on everything, Drew. Your study design is pretty crappy.

--Darin