May Your Christmas be Merry and Bright!

Happy Holidays from all of us at
The Ansel Adams Gallery.

Two New B&W Digital Printmaking Workshops for 2010

We are pleased to announce two new black-and-white digital printing workshops next year in June and September with Rich Seiling, President of West Coast Imaging. Black-and-white photography provides a deeply expressive means for personal communication. Using the vocabulary of tone, density, contrast, boldness, and subtlety to render light and physical subjects onto a print, black and white provides photographers with a language that is unique to this medium.

This workshop is designed to unlock your potential to express yourself through black-and-white prints made with digital tools. For more information, please visit our website.

Before starting his own business, Rich was a fine print curator and staff photographer for The Gallery. He founded West Coast Imaging in 1997 and turned this into one of the premier fine-art digital printing studios in the country. Rich is an outstanding photographer in his own right and an excellent teacher. You can view some video tutorials on his blog to see some examples of his teaching style.

Digital Printing Workshop with Michael Frye - Making the Complexities Easy to Understand

Digital Printing and the Zone System
January 19-23, 2010
(Yosemite National Park)














From Michael Frye's blog....

"Do you have a love-hate relationship with Photoshop? You’re not alone. One the one hand, it’s an incredibly powerful tool, capable of doing fantastic things. You know that if you mastered this program you could get the most out of your images and make beautiful prints. On the other hand, Photoshop can be cryptic, complex, and confusing. The learning curve can seem downright crooked.


"I was lucky. When I first started using Photoshop in the late ‘90s, I got to spend a weekend with Bill Atkinson, who probably knew more about digital imaging than anyone else in the world at the time (maybe he still does). He started me in the right direction and helped me avoid the confusion caused by gathering random bits of information from books and the internet. Like Charlie Cramer, Keith Walklet, and many other fine-art photographers Bill taught, I still use a variation of the simple, powerful, and flexible workflow that Bill showed me.


"I’ve since taught Photoshop (and now Lightroom) skills to dozens of people in workshops for West Coast Imaging and The Ansel Adams Gallery. I try to make the complexities of Photoshop easy to understand. The truth is that Photoshop is simple. Anyone can learn to use it. And if you’re already familiar with it, you can learn to harness its full power. The secret is that you don’t have to deal with most of the tools. If you learn to use a few powerful tools well, you can do almost anything in Photoshop.


"My next workshop with The Ansel Adams Gallery, Digital Printing and the Zone System (January 19 - 23, 2010) is designed for people who already have some Photoshop experience but want to master this powerful beast. You'll learn both simple and advanced techniques for getting the most out of your images and making beautiful, fine-art prints. I included the Zone System in the title because getting good exposures in the field is vital to getting good results in Photoshop, so we’ll be working with the entire process, from capture to print. The Zone System also gives us a framework for understanding contrast throughout the workflow—an important tool in this age of HDR. Here’s a partial list of the topics covered:


- Zone System Exposure for Digital Cameras
- Color Management
- Overall workflow
- Raw Image Processing
- Making a Master File
- Using Layers for Flexibility
- Controlling Contrast
- Mastering Curves
- Flexible Dodging and Burning
- Retouching
- Making Difficult Selections Easy
- Converting to Black and White
- Sharpening
- Combining Images for Greater Depth of Field
- Combining Images to Expand Dynamic Range, both with HDR and Photoshop"

There’s still space available in the class if you’d like to join us. Click here to register or get more information.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Four to five inches of snow have fallen in Yosemite Valley and more is on the way. National Weather Service predicts a total accumulation of 7-11" of new snow in Yosemite Valley by 4:00 pm this afternoon. More in the higher elevations.

Badger Pass Ski Area is scheduled to open December 18, and the skiing should be great!

Happy Winter!

Above photograph of Sentinel Rock by Charles Cramer

Moon and Half Dome Revisited

Visitors and residents alike gathered in the Ahwahnee Meadow to watch the gibbous moonrise last Saturday afternoon at 4:04 pm. Just as the correct time for viewing the Moon and Half Dome encore of Ansel's famous photo made in December 1960 was approaching, blustery winds from the east blew snow showers across in front of Half Dome blocking the view of the moon. Staff Photographers Evan Russel and Gabe Mange took matters into their own hands after Evan found a yellow golf ball in the meadow. Encore complete!

Visit our newly created Moon and Half Dome Flickr Group or check out our Facebook fan site for more creative images made that evening.

Michael Frye also has a nice blog entry on the evening as well.

Enjoy!

Moon and Half Dome Celestial Encore Tonight!

Here is a look at Ansel's original contact sheet from the 120 roll film he used in 1960. Notice how his attention wanders a couple of times and that he used more than one lens.

Weather Alert- Chance of rain and snow this morning in Yosemite Valley, but it appears it will clear this afternoon for the Moon and Half Dome celestial encore. Follow our weather link for more information.

Can't make it up to Yosemite for the encore? Tune in to the Yosemite Association's live Yosemite Web Cam views at 4:04 pm PST.

Special Notice- Black Friday Online Sale will be extended through the weekend! Save 15% on Ansel Adams merchandise (excluding original photography and photography education).

Our biggest and last sale of the year. Don't miss this one!

Michael Adams on the Making of Moon and Half Dome

Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite, California, 1960

Michael Adams recently recalled the events surrounding the making of Moon and Half Dome by his father in 1960:

Ansel claimed that he had always been moonstruck and had many moons in pictures. This photograph was taken in December of 1960 when in Yosemite to direct the Bracebridge Dinner. It was a cold afternoon with snow on the ground. Ansel was using his Hasselblad camera on a tripod and took a number of photographs using different lenses. The contact prints of the image reveal a number of similar photographs that look wonderful. In 1962 when Jeanne and I married, Ansel offered this image to use as our wedding announcement. Jeanne feels that Ansel took his most exciting images when emotionally engaged and comments: “This was taken my first Christmas with the Adams family and Ansel was particularly happy for Michael and the family.”

It has turned out to be one of Ansel’s most popular and sought after photographs. Ansel stated: “I have photographed Half Dome innumerable times, but it is never the same Half Dome, never the same light or the same mood. I am told by mountaineers that the three most distinctive mountain shapes in the world are the Mustagh Tower in the Karakorams, the Matterhorn in the Alps, and Half Dome in Yosemite. Half Dome is a great mountain with endless variations of lighting and sky situations and seasonal characteristics; the many images I have made reflect my varied creative responses to this remarkable granite monolith.”

A reminder: An"encore" of Ansel's much-loved photograph of the Moon and Half Dome will take place in the afternoon on Saturday, November 28 at 4:04 pm. Special programs led by our staff photographers begin at 12:30 p.m. For more information or to register, please go to our website.

Moon and Half Dome is available as a poster and as a matted reproduction. It is also available as a beautiful Special Edition Photograph. Ansel Adams former assistant, Alan Ross has been printing the Special Edition Photographs to Ansel's exact specifications for over 30 years.

This month, Alan presents his own elegant black-and-white photographs in our current exhibit, Visions of Yosemite and the West, on display in Yosemite through January 3, 2010. The Gallery will host a reception for Alan following the the Moon and Half Dome programs on Saturday, November 28 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm.

To commemorate the encore, Alan Ross will sign and date the back of a limited number of Moon and Half Dome Special Edition Photographs. The prints will be available during the Thanksgiving weekend only to celebrate the encore and will not be made available again in the future. Select from three metal frame colors; german silver, contrast gray, and matte black. An acid-free seal in the cut-out window of the backing protects the print and allows the identifying stamp, signature, and date to be visible. Call the Gallery at 888-361-7622 to reserve yours.