Accidental Copy Cat
I admit it, I copied Ansel Adams, but I swear it was on accident! I was 16 at the time. Myself and two other friends thought we had what it took to winter camp in a February on a ledge overlooking Yosemite Valley. We had a K-mart tent smelling like cat urine, rations of beef jerky & liquorish, our fathers’ old 35mm cameras and a few rolls of Black & White TMAX-400 film. After that miserable trip of firsts (including snow blindness), I eagerly awaited delivery of my developed film. It arrived! I ripped open the envelope, I gave the shots a twice over and with quickly fading enthusiasm promptly proceeded to dump them in a drawer, and continued on with my adolescents.
About a year later I was given a photo book, Ansel Adams was the photographer. I had no idea who this guy was at the time. I like the outdoors, I had an interest in photography, but after that book I was infatuated with both. (Ansel was the person who gave me that infatuation). As I flipped through the book (which was better than any Nintendo game or Playboy magazine i had access to) my eyes, mind, and imagination attained visual nirvana, I couldn't believe someone could make nature look this way.
Then there it was amongst the pages of that book!!! I’ve seen that mountain, that ridgeline, that snow field before! I dropped the book, headed to my dresser drawer, rummaged around and found my stack of 4x6’s from that ill-fated trip! I quickly thumbed them and found it! I had photographed the same ridge as Ansel! He shot it with a telephoto, I shot it with a telephoto, and, and, and…… that is where the coincidence falls off a cliff, BUT, this meant I might have a photographer’s eye! Ever since that time a camera has always been a major part of how I see my life mature.
I've lived in Folsom, California for 13 years with my out-of-this-world wife and two, too-cute daughters. We like it here because we are equidistant from the mountains and the ocean and farmland and oaks are darn pretty. I’m a full time small business photographer that would love to sell you a piece or two of my reasonably priced and very limited edition work.