So I alluded on Friday to one of the items that would be featured tonight, stating that it was the best $24 spent in a long time. I’ll get to that specific item in a minute …
Tonight’s items are inspired by one of my all time favorite photographers — Ansel Adams. And in conjunction with Ansel Adams, when one thinks of his photographic work, they also think of the U.S. National Parks, especially Yosemite and Yellowstone.
After visiting several national parks this summer and yearning to capture a scene that would be Ansel Adams worthy, the next best thing is discovering creative works by others that are as awe-inspiring as Adams’ work.
Rather than featuring a ton of photographers or books, I picked two that ‘spoke’ to me immediately. The first is black & white photographs from cover to cover, the other is full of color images. Both hopefully will inspire the photography and/or travel lover in your life to pick up a camera or book a ticket/make reservations for their next trip before they reach the back cover.
While at Glacier National Park, one of the two books I picked up at the camp store at Lake McDonald Lodge was Bret Bouda’s Glacier Classics — a black and white centennial edition book of Bouda’s black and white captures of Glacier National Park. I don’t feature much in the way of black and white images here on the site, but Bouda’s images have me inspired to sit down and convert a few of my summer travel images while I’m off work (from the day job) later this month.
You can purchase Glacier Classics by Bret Bouda from the Glacier Park Inc Online Giftshop. Order by December 18th and you can get 10% off with the code “N1109“.
Now for the book I was referring to on Friday and at the beginning of this post … Ian Shive’s The National Parks: Our American Landscape. A couple weeks ago, B&N sent out a 25% coupon code off one book. Being the bookworm I am, I conceeded defeat and clicked the link to see what book I just couldn’t live without. I searched for several books I’d contemplated recently, then remembered the companion book to the National Parks miniseries. When I did the search for it, book #2 in the results was Ian Shive’s recent release. Hands down, there was no contest, the companion book to the miniseries will just have to wait until another day.
The image of the front cover alone won me over — the Tetons and the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park. Bonus — the dust cover/sleeve features two images, the actual hardcover of the book a third panorama of sunset in Death Valley. Whoever thought Death Valley could be so beautiful!
And the cover image did not disappoint in person either. I sat down the evening it arrived and took my time flipping through each page. Several national parks are featured in the book, some I’ve visited and some I haven’t had the privilege to yet. Needless to say, Shive’s book is one of the few to truly inspire me to kick my landscape and travel photographic work up another notch. And knowing he used similar or identical equipment to that in my camera bag is the other kick I needed. In fact, when I showed my father the book and pointed out the sights we missed at Glacier and Yellowstone that I would have given my first born to just view in person (figuratively, not literally), his words were, “Well, quit your job and do this for a living already! You know you want to!”
I’ve already scoured Shive’s website and its a safe bet that if I had a mantel to display a large wall print above right now, several prints from his online store would be in the shopping cart while I agonized over the one that would be on display.
You can purchase Shive’s book at Amazon (temporarily out of stock, but there’s a few copies available via the Marketplace sellers) or on Barnes & Noble’s website (in stock and currently everyone can purchase it at the Members Only rate). And while you wait for it to arrive in the mail, go view the jaw dropping images on his website at http://www.waterandsky.com/ or follow him on Twitter.