Some years back, I wrote a blog titled Too Close To Home. In it, I talked about the problem of becoming so familiar with your own surroundings, you become blind to the photographic opportunities right in your own backyard.
In 1974, through a wonderful set of circumstances, Ansel Adams asked me to be his full-time assistant. I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Carmel. I was thrilled to be surrounded by such wonderful photographers and scenery. It was inspiring, to say the least.
I photographed in Big Sur, Point Lobos, Cannery Row and any and all places in between. As my time in Carmel stretched to three, four and then five years, I found myself photographing less and less in the area.
Although I always had my 4x5 camera with me, I found excuse after excuse not to photograph. The "light wasn't right," "the weather was blah," "I was late for..."
I left Ansel's employ in mid-1979 to move to San Francisco and open my own advertising studio. Ironically, one of my first major assignments was to make 8x10 fine-art seascape images of the Big Sur area for a major computer company!
It was December of 1980, and I was headed to Carmel for Ansel's annual New Year's party. Since I had this new assignment, I was loaded with my 8x10 camera and lots of film.
Just a mile-and-a-half south of Ansel's house, I stopped at a turn-out I had never bothered with before in all my trips up and down the Big Sur coast. Rocks and Mist was made that morning.
It took an external impetus to force me to see the too-familiar as new.
General Edition and Sizing Information:
Limited Edition Prints signed and numbered in an edition of 100. Each print is made personally by me, printed either on Ilford Multigrade Classic fiber paper and selenium toned or on Canson Platine paper using a Canon Pro-1000 printer and my personal printing profiles. Mounted and over-matted on 4-ply or 8-ply museum board using the most current industry standards for archival permanence.
Open Edition Archival Pigment print made personally by me on Canson Rag Photographique paper using a Canon Pro-1000 printer and my personal printing profiles. Actual image size approximately 8x10 inches, over-matted to 14x17. Digitally signed.
Sizing:
8x10 Open Edition - Image size approximately 8x10, over-matted to 14x17 on 4-ply museum board
11 x 14 – Image size approximately 9 x 11.5 inches, over-matted to 16x20 on 4-ply museum board.
16x20 – Image size approximately 14x18, over-matted to 22 x28 on 4-ply museum board
20x24 – Image size approximately 18x22, over-matted to 26x32 with 4-ply museum board
24x30 – Image size approximately 22x28, over-matted to 32x40 with 8-ply museum board
30x40 and larger – Archival Pigment Print over-matted to 40x50 on 8-ply museum board. Call for pricing.