Carmel

It's been a long, wonderful day and this is going to be short. Our drive this morning from San Francisco to Carmel along Highway One was, in a word, fabulous. There are nine of us on this expedition, with a study leader, a group leader and a driver for a total of 11. And, we're in a 48-person coach. So, not only were we moving south along some of the most dramatic scenery in the world, we were doing it spaciously. Plus, none of us "students" were having to deal with the traffic, not to mention figure out where we were going.


Our primary destination in Carmel were two galleries, both featuring (mostly) black and white film photography and both pictured here: the Weston Gallery (below) and the Photography West Gallery (left) In both cases the gallery owners met us, offered short lectures and showed us many photographs from their inventory, matted and housed in large, drawered cabinets.

Astounding fact. At the Weston Gallery we saw a large format (20X24, really large format!) Charles Watkins photograph, Pohona The Bridal Veil Fall , shot c 1878 and printed by Watkins himself with a 2007 price of $48,000.00. More astounding than the price? That he got all that glass in and out of Yosemite by pack mule and the glass survived.

Carmel? It's charming, gentrified, very expensive. And, there have to be more galleries per square inch than anywhere else in the world. A serious collector could find absolutely anything here. To my eye, there's simply too much to take in.

Tomorrow promises more space and fewer people. It's Point Lobos for a hike with a local naturalist for an hour, two hours for photography followed by lunch. Then we'll begin the 5 1/2 hour drive to Yosemite.

As we go our study leader, Mark Citret, is instructing our diverse group, diverse in the places from which we hail and diverse in photographic experience and platform (we have point-and-shoot to highend digital, SLR and large format film represented in the group), in all manner of photograhic technique and philosophy. Check Mark out at his website: www.mcitret.com.

I'll close with the one photograph I shot today that I've had time to crop and edit. It's just a second story scene.


Thanks for reading and good night.