Zion National Park Ansel Adams Inspired Fine Art Photograph
Every year around early March I make a trip out to Las Vegas, Nevada for the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International conference and trade show at the MGM Grand Hotel, Casino and Conference Center. After a few days of intense interaction with the best photographers from around the world I find myself looking for a little escape from all the chaos of the Las Vegas strip. I usually hop on a rental motorcycle and head out into the desert, but this year Mother Nature had different plans in mind. The temperatures were abnormally low and, as you can see from this picture, there was still snow on the ground.A colleague of mine and I left Las Vegas in a rental car and headed some five hours away to the slot Canyons outside of Page, Arizona. On the return trip to Sin City we detoured through Zion National Park near St. George, Utah. Our timing couldn’t have been better. The late afternoon winter sun was setting rapidly and casting long deep shadows over the breathtaking landscape. I knew immediately, as I positioned myself to capture this scene, that I was going to be on to something very special here. I call this black and white image "Zion... A Tribute To Ansel" because it calls to mind some of the great images of Ansel Adams...probably the most famous photographer of all time.How easy us photographers have it today. Ansel would have lugged a huge 8 X 10 view camera, a sturdy tripod and a heavy box of film plates, hiking for days into the harsh environment to capture his classics. Then he would spend hours, if not days, in the darkroom massaging his images into the perfect creations that they were. Now...nearly 100 years later...I got out of my heated rental car and hiked a mere 1/4 mile to the vantage point where I captured this image (on a mirrorless compact digital camera that weighs 27 ounces). Back at my hotel room I "processed" my image in the digital darkroom on my desktop and produced the finished image that you see here.This, then, is my tribute to Ansel Adams. An image that required the same knowledge and understanding of the black and white photography zone system that he pioneered nearly a century ago. If you are interested in acquiring a print of this image for your personal collection I invite you to contact me personally at my gallery. Contact and pricing information for my highly collectible fine art editions is elsewhere on this web site. I am also amenable to licensing this image for commercial use. Contact me with your needs.