Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape

Mountain Light is the best-selling classic that captures the unique artistic vision of Galen Rowell, one of the world's most celebrated nature photographers. This remarkable collection offers 80 of Rowell's finest photographic images, as well as the stories behind them - what he was after and how he achieved it.Rowell arranges the photographs, with details of their creation, in eight exhibits according to visual themes, reflecting his fascination with the infinitely varying qualities of light found in mountain landscapes. He recounts his development as a photographer, his philosophy and techniques for creating "dynamic landscapes," and his adventures in remote, dangerous, and beautiful places, from California's Yosemite Valley to almost inaccessible peaks in China.Rowell also explains how film and the human eye see differently, how he selects and composes the content of his work, how to work with optical phenomena and natural light, and how equipment and adventure interact in the field.

"One could call Mountain Light the classiest 'how-to' text on landscape color photography ever published. [It] will leave you delighted." The New York Times

"Part personal and artistic biography, part adventure story, part outdoor photography manual, [Mountain Light] is a tour de force. The images are charmed, compelling, imbued with a love of the high and wild."

San Francisco Chronicle

"Galen Rowell has a wonderful combination of qualities -- eye, energy, intelligence, sensitivity, courage both physical and moral, and above all, heart. Very seldom have I experienced so clearly defined the connection between the artist and what he sees, feels, and does with the work itself." Robert Redford

"Combine a devotion to mountains and wilderness, a sensitivity to the special quality of its pristine light, and a desire to communicate the beauty of the natural world, and you'll begin to understand what motivates photographer Galen Rowell .... In [Mountain Light], vision and technique are combined in one long paean to the marvel of the earth's wild places."

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