All, I just got back from Kaua'i and last night saw the news about Galen Rowell's plane crash over the weekend. Rowell's work has some special significance for me. I grew up in the desert just south of where Galen and his wife Barbara recently made their home (they lived in Bishop, California, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. I grew up in Ridgecrest). I was inspired as a teenager to start rockclimbing in part by a National Geographic cover article that Rowell shot in the 1970's documenting the first "clean climb" (no pitons) of the northwest face of Half Dome in Yosemite. In my last few years in the San Francisco bay area, I photographed from some of the same locations that Rowell published in books such as Bay Area Wild.
I believe that his pioneering work with neutral-density gradient filters stands as a tremendously important contribution to the art of landscape photography. To me, his technique demonstrated how to "dodge" or "burn" images in the camera, thus allowing the color chrome photographer to replicate at least some of the effects that must otherwise be performed in the darkroom via the printing process. Of course, he certainly had strong opinions and was not shy about sharing them in print. On occasion, he came off to me as a little arrogant and self-righteous. His strong beliefs and assertions always made me think, though. In addition, he had the goods on film to back his opinions. Galen Rowell's technical prowess, his sense of adventure, and his push to deliver exceptional images combined to create a lasting effect on environmental and nature photography and photographers everywhere. I was planning to take a weekend workshop from Galen in Bishop sometime soon. I was looking forward to deepening my photographic skills in a place familiar to me from my childhood. I see that I've missed my chance. --Mark - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
