Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring places on earth. For photographers a trip to Yosemite is more a pilgrimage than a visit. The work of Ansel Adams has made the park famous and elevated both him and the park to almost cult status. Yosemite is the holy grail of landscape photography and no tourist goes there without a camera and a sackload of film. When I visited Yosemite I was struck by two things: color and people. Ansel Adams' photographs of Yosemite are in black and white. Despite having access to color film, he chose to photograph the park without color. I found Yosemite to be all the more wondrous for being in color. Secondly Adams' Yosemite is a perfect unspoiled wilderness untouched by human hands. The Yosemite I found was packed full of visitors and they were hungry. The work of Adams that has popularized Yosemite to so great an extent that experiencing it is a commodity to be purchased. It is an attraction to be visited on payment of admission charge - like Disneyland or SeaWorld. It was interesting to see how people interacted with nature here and how the natural world was an experience like any other that could be served up for consumption. I found this difference between Adams' Yosemite and the one I found interesting and so I tried to photograph it.
	ansel adams gallery men's room with bear warning
	no parking yosemite mugs
	yosemite fridge magnets yosemite t-shirts
	ice machine rides
	ansel adams books buy a yosemite book

	deli sign yosemite calling cards

Ansel Adams book at Amazon.com