Yosemite is NOT

Minox 8 x 11 mm country.

...It is

8 x 10 INCH country!

Merced River and Vernal Falls May, Yosemite National Park This is NOT just out the cabin door!. This is NOT just any time of day! This is NOT just any time of year! We were showing friends around Yosemite, and as usual I don't carry camera equipment in such situations. At the Vernal Falls Bridge I was struck by the light and the level of the river. I ALWAYS have my Minox IIIs, this time loaded with AgfaPan 25, which I like very much. I estimated the exposure to capture the shadow detail and made an exposure. I had an 8 x 10 silver print in my office for years and often had people say "Ansel Adams?", to which I would have to reply, "No, my Minox." It is a perfect example of a print that in no way approaches the technical quality of a print from a 4 x 5 or 8 x 10 negative, but elicits from viewers, in normal viewing situations, a pleasing response. As I view it among other prints, some from large-format negatives, I have no sense that it is inferior. I have returned to the site several times in May with larger format equipment and never been able to capture the same feeling. The water in the foreground is never quite right!.

Camp Curry Yosemite National Park One doesn't usually carry the tripod to breakfast, so it is no surprise that I have no other images of the Camp Curry Cafeteria. This morning the campfire smoke and backlit log seats caused me to quickly pull out my Minox. The trees are now gone and the log slices, upon which we once sat to watch the Firefall, are gone. So is the Firefall. This is another May image made with AgfaPan 25, c. 1983. It also produces marvelous 8 x 10 silver prints, and is improved with the Photoshop removal of another breakfast-goer and a scratch. I have an 8 x 10 print made with an Epson Stylus Color Printer which is undetectable from a silver print when framed behind Plexiglas and viewed from 6+ feet.

Yosemite Falls, Spring The light must be correct, ...wind blowing in the right direction, ...river full, ...and proper clouds. With all of the above, there are an infinite number of different images per minute. It is spectacular.... and impossible today because of thirty years of tree growth. I have a beautiful 8 x 10 Ansel Adams Gallery Print ..of this scene. It was printed by Alan Ross and was (is) sold in the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite. In my view it is NOT a Minox subject. The beauty of this type of scene is in the brilliant tonality of the falls juxtaposed with the dark tonality of the rocks, the realm of the large-format medium. The brilliant water, dark rocks in deep shadow, film speed and filtration, and a desire to control the appearance of the water through shutter speed, make this scene more than a trivial exercise.