I agree with the Weston quote, whichever one said it, but that is also why Jeeps exist.
I agree with the Weston quote, whichever one said it, but that is also why Jeeps exist.
Adams was willing to go much farther than a several yards from the road. There is a photo of Ansel's camera gear on a pack mule many miles into the Sierra backcountry. It was on top of a pass I think. He would be out there for days in the Sierras. He did some serious hiking with his camera equipment. Imagine the campfire stories he had.
Here's one photo after a quick google search.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ansel/s...f_packing.html
Wilhelm (Sarasota)
I believe that is Kearsarge Pass, something like 4 miles from the present Onion Valley trailhead. But yes, he went much farther (further? ) into the backcountry. Don't imagine. Read about the man in his own autobiography, "Letters..." or these oral transcriptions.
I too, have gone very deep into the Sierra backcountry with both MF and LF. I have found that, absent specific atmospheric and/or late snow conditions, obtaining meaningful, compelling, monochrome compositions to be quite difficult at high elevation, above say 9 or 10K. The relatively harsh quality of light and general tonality of the landscape can frequently be fairly uninspiring. I would be lucky to get 4 or 5 decent fine art prints out of week's journey, while shooting "near the road" (i.e., lower elevations) nearly always produced many more good images, by my standards.
Banner Peak Clearing, Island Pass
And Adams took Weston and Charis up to into the high Sierras (Minarets). Such quotes are fun and are not to be taken too seriously.
... and should certainly be taken within context. For example, I don't go much further/farther than my trunk, and haven't for a long time... but once upon a time I thought nothing of packing camera gear into deep wilderness. Times change but the written word remains the same. My diaries of 30 years ago no longer apply to my current lifestyle, nor do they do a very good job at expressing the "lifetime average" of my experience and beliefs.
AA did a great many LF shots deep into Sierra backcountry. Examples of a good workout
would include Milestone Basin on the upper Kern and Marion Lake, and the famous shot
of what would later be named Mt Ansel Adams on the headwaters of the Merced. Kearsarge Pass or Thousand Island Lake are a casual mosey compared to those hikes.
I find it ironic that he gave up on the backpack at just about the same age I began carrying LF in one. Afterwards he used a mule, often shooting in spare moments during oversight of huge Sierra Club convoys along the Muir Trail etc (sure not my cup of tea).
I don't think his chain-smoking helped much. I have one of the classic coffee-table books
called Yosemite and the High Sierra. At least half those shots were a serious distance from
any road, possibly a couple weeks worth in a few cases.
>>At least half those shots were a serious distance from
any road, possibly a couple weeks worth in a few cases.<<
True, of course, but I think an earlier post limited the claim to Ansel's most famous images. How do we define most famous or most iconic? Let's let the AA publishing Trust do it for us and limit our discussion just to what has been published on those $20 posters (with amazing quality for posters, I must admit). How many of *those* images required any sort of serious hike? We know Monolith did--which other ones?
Edit: Here is a link to the posters at the AA Gallery: http://www.anseladams.com/category_s/9.htm
--Darin
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