Posted by Jim Goldstein on November 18, 2006 at 3:10 AM
I just got back from a week in the field and today on my return home I stopped in to Galen Rowell's Mountain Light Gallery. I've always driven by at night on my way to my next shoot and today was the first time I actually could stop in.
I think its fair to say many of us have been influenced by Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell and others, but today in viewing Galen's images I felt photography. I've never consciously thought about Galen's influence on my interest in photography, but today it became clear how much he has. Several images I matched title to image with out looking, recognized too many images to count that were published in Outdoor Photographer or National Geographic and well just found myself sucked in to the images as I looked at them.
Sure being out in the field and being in the mode of looking for scenes to photograph had me in a particular mindset when visiting the gallery, but I realized something.
Galen's work was not just amazing but inspiring. I had looked at Ansel Adams images too many times to count growing up, but only in the past 8 years when I began to take photography much more serious did I find Galen's images resonating with me. I came to think that I too could strive to capture nature in photos helping others realize the magnitude of beauty found around us. His style, composition, format and articles helped bring photography into focus for me.
After making it a third of the way through the gallery I couldn't help but realize also how big of a shadow he has left on the photographic world. It leaves us all having to work even harder to show the beauty of the natural world in our own unique way.
Although I enjoyed viewing every single image in the gallery I left feeling incredibly sad and yet... driven. Sad that there will be no more new perspectives of nature from Galen and driven to keep the torch lit by sharing my own perspective of our natural world.
Posted by David Weber on November 18, 2006 at 7:16 AM
What a wondrous experience that must have been. Thanks for sharing it with us, Jim.
Posted by Cliff Beittel on November 18, 2006 at 7:32 AM
"I couldn't help but realize also how big of a shadow he has left on the photographic world."
Posted by Keith Anderson on November 18, 2006 at 4:22 PM
I have never seen his images in his galleries. I would love to get across to America one day and look through the Bishop gallery. Galen's images and articles in OP and other publications were the whole and sole reason I decided to take up photography more seriously. I had a Nikon F50 way back then, yep the cheapest Nikon you could buy at the time and I used to go out taking photos around my home town, I even thought my images were good Then one day I was looking through some photo mags at a shop and saw one of Galen's images "Winter sunset, Gates of the Valley". Oh my was I woken up. My images were garbage and looking at this one image made me realize there is so much more to photography. From then on my goal was to find out as much as possible how this guy was shooting such beautiful images. Now over ten years later I still look at Galen's images. I never had the privilege of meeting Galen but his images and view on the wilderness of the planet will alway be with me.
Loved you story would love to live the experience one day as well thanks for sharing
Discussion
4 repliesI think its fair to say many of us have been influenced by Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell and others, but today in viewing Galen's images I felt photography. I've never consciously thought about Galen's influence on my interest in photography, but today it became clear how much he has. Several images I matched title to image with out looking, recognized too many images to count that were published in Outdoor Photographer or National Geographic and well just found myself sucked in to the images as I looked at them.
Sure being out in the field and being in the mode of looking for scenes to photograph had me in a particular mindset when visiting the gallery, but I realized something.
Galen's work was not just amazing but inspiring. I had looked at Ansel Adams images too many times to count growing up, but only in the past 8 years when I began to take photography much more serious did I find Galen's images resonating with me. I came to think that I too could strive to capture nature in photos helping others realize the magnitude of beauty found around us. His style, composition, format and articles helped bring photography into focus for me.
After making it a third of the way through the gallery I couldn't help but realize also how big of a shadow he has left on the photographic world. It leaves us all having to work even harder to show the beauty of the natural world in our own unique way.
Although I enjoyed viewing every single image in the gallery I left feeling incredibly sad and yet... driven. Sad that there will be no more new perspectives of nature from Galen and driven to keep the torch lit by sharing my own perspective of our natural world.
Couldn't agree more.
Loved you story would love to live the experience one day as well thanks for sharing