 In February 2003, I drove from my home in Studio City, California (Los Angeles area) north to Yosemite National Park. The weather forecast promised snow, and on my first-ever trip to this nature photographer's Mecca, I wanted to capture the spectacular valley shrouded in winter cover.
I was amazing lucky. My schedule allowed an 11 a.m. arrival on Monday, February 24 with my departure planned for 11 a.m. Thursday morning. During that short period of time, I experienced rain, sunshine and snow with clearing periods that enveloped the valley in a gentle mist and low-lying cloud cover.
But the best surprise came last. I awoke around 4:30 a.m. on my final day, I didn't even peek out my Yosemite Lodge room door to check the weather...I planned to shoot anyway, so what did it matter?
When I stepped outside, the ground, trees and everything else in sight was covered with a thick, wet blanket of fresh snow! Grinning broadly, I looked upward and uttered a heartfelt "Thank you, Ansel."
I figured the old master had given a wonderful gift to this aspiring student to enjoy during my final hours in "his" valley.
Tech Notes
Nikon D100 digital camera with three lenses:
- 20mm f/2.8
- 35-135mm f/3.5
- 70-300mm f/4
(2) 512MB Transcend CompactFlash cards
(1) Delkin 20GB eFilm PicturePAD
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 Four decades of experience, rich in traditional photography, photojournalism, journalism, creative writing, graphic design and computer graphics have prepared me for my latest endeavor, producing fine art giclée prints based on computer-enhanced digital photographs.
My photography experience began in 1965 with a second-hand 35mm Minolta viewfinder camera, purchased at a pawn shop in Bangor, Maine, and used to launch a 30-year period of creating fine-art black-and-white prints.
In 1974, a career change to journalism/photojournalism and an upgrade to Nikon SLR cameras further enhanced my visual experience, as the editorial position offered opportunities to travel and photograph much of the U.S., Europe, a bit of South America and segments of the Far East. Producing both images and words to describe my experiences for publication, my depth of understanding and creative/emotional development increased manifold during the fast-paced 22-year period in print media.
In 1994, I discovered the World Wide Web. In 1995, I launched CYBERpress Publishing Company, a web-development firm, and began applying my art to digital media, designing interfaces and creating content during the dot-com boom. In 1996, I left print media behind and began working fulltime for such companies as EarthLink Network, idealab!, Tickets.com and Mail2World to help create the visual "front end" for their complex computer systems.
I bought my first digital camera, a floppy-disk Sony Mavica MVC FD-91 with a resolution of less than one megapixel, in 1999 and created CYBERpress Galleries to display my early digital work to the world. A year later, I upgraded to a higher-resolution Sony Mavica MVC CD-1000 and launched digitalphotography.tv, my current fine-art photography gallery complex and digital photography portal. And in September, 2002 I upgraded once again to a state-of-the-art Nikon D100 (just in time for my annual Maine Fall Foliage pilgrimage) to support my full commitment to the joy and business of creative photography.
I'm currently self-employed selling fine-art prints personally and via my representative, DanielakArt of Pasadena (http://www.danielakart.com/), and providing digital photography consultation for companies that wish to integrate this exciting new medium into their production systems. I'm presently working with Primedia Publishing, training their editors and photographers to exploit the advantages of digital photography in the world of magazine publishing.
Contact:
Website
Also contributed to:
- Issue 14: The Writing on the Wall
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