The "My True American Hero" Story

It was an ordinary day. I just got a really neat gift from my lovely wife for my birthday. An Ansel Adams "Yosemite Special Edition" print. REALLY NEAT! Ansel Adams is one of my all-time favorite photographers. I'm sure you would recognize his work if you saw it. For years

I taught high school photography and spent a few weeks talking about the founding masters of the art. Ansel Adams was one of them. He was born in 1902 in San Francisco and suffered a broken nose in the 1906 San Fran earthquake. He carried the slight nose crook with him the rest of his life. At the age of 12 he taught himself piano which became the main focus of his later youth. In 1916 his family visited Yosemite National Park. During the visit his father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera, and he took his first photos of Yosemite. And ... he was hooked! At the age of 17 he joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to preserving the natural world's wonders and resources, and was hired as the summer caretaker of the visitor center at Yosemite Valley. He published his first photos in 1921 and the rest is history. In 1932 he formed the f/64 club (f/64 is a very small light setting used for great depth of field) with other professional photographers, and the following year opened his own gallery in San Francisco. In 1980 President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his conservation work. Four years later he died of a heart attack in California. My very brief life history of Ansel Adams doesn't do him justice, but I think you get the idea as to how important he was in the history of photography. His photograph taken in New Mexico in 1941 of the moon rising above a modest village with snow-covered mountains in the background is my all-time favorite of any photographer. It is titled "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico". Carol was hoping it would be part of the collection of his negatives that was resurrected and reprinted for sale, but it was not. Maybe someday! The print she gave me was titled "Thunderstorm, Yosemite Valley", c. 1945. I made a cherry frame and have it hanging in our family room.

Now, what you have just read took place a few years ago, and Carol has now given me an additional print from the same collection titled "El Capitan, Winter", c.1950. That one also hangs in our family room. Both are beautiful and reminders of the true artistry of Ansel Adams. I love them both!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, c. 1941

Thunderstorm, Yosemite Valley, c. 1945

El Capitan, Winter, c. 1950