~Looking Down~

~Moonset At Sunset~

Don't have much to say about tonights photograph,
except, right place, right time, lucky me!

What I would like to comment on is my visit to the
Tucson Museum of Art today. I went there specifically
to see the Ansel Adams exhibit. About 100 of his
photographs were on display. All the prints were made by him.
What a consumate artist he was! To see his work really up close
is an experience to be savored and relived many times over.
The incredible detail in the blacks and the unequaled detail
in the brightest highlights, the composition of shapes
and the attention to the point of view of the camera.

I recently, and coincidentally, just bought a book call
"Ansel Adams - Examples - The Making Of 40 Photographs".
The book was written by Adams, just before he died in 1984.
I didn't know at the time that the exhibit would be in town.
I took the book with me this morning to the museum.
What a joy and an insight to look at one of his prints
and then go sit down in front of the print and read about it.
For example, his image "Sand Dunes, Sunrise",
he tell how he slept on the camera platform on top of
his old station-wagon, woke early in the morning and
made coffee and reheated some beans from the night before.
His tell of the struggle of several previous days,
walking through the Dunes with all his gear, only to miss
the right light. But this morning he lightened his camera
gear and made the trek out in better time. He reminisces
about the searing sun and the wind blown sand particle
that got into everything. Adams relives the shot, the settings,
his thoughts and pre-visuallization of the image. How he
planned on work the image back in his darkroom
to get what he saw in his "minds eye".

In my adventure today this book was a wonderful companion.
And I'm not sure why but several times while looking at
a print, my eyes less than a foot away, I had an overwhelming
emotional reaction. Almost teared up a couple of times.
Don't know what came over me, but it came over me.

I spent four hours at the exhibit today and only made
it through about twenty-five of the one hundred prints.
Suffice it to say, I'm going back again, and finish what
I started today. Even if it takes several more visits.

Wish you could come along with me!


Edit-
This is a photograph of a very unusual cloud formation.
It is not a volcano or a atomic mushroom cloud.
So don't worry, Tucson and Jim are still around!