This month we will critique one of Galen Rowell'€™s most famous images, €œSplit Rock and Cloud, Eastern Sierras, California€. Rowell was one of the modern masters of landscape photography. The long list of his awards can be found with his biography in the link to his Mountain Light gallery, below.

Galen Rowell was one of those photographers who immersed himself in the environments he photographed, whether they were near his home or in the distant places he visited to photograph. A well-rounded photojournalist with a special ability to connect with a vast audience through his writings, Rowell influenced countless photographers in multiple genres beginning with rock climbing, wilderness adventure and then eventually landscape photography. The list of current working photographers that have followed in his footsteps reads like a who'€™s who in outdoor adventure and landscape photography and number too many to list. He was one of the first to utilize 35mm cameras exclusively in outdoor photography and popularized the use of graduated neutral-density filters. His untimely death in a plane crash left us to wonder what else he might have accomplished, and how he might have transitioned into the digital era.

In the foreword of his book Galen Rowell: A Retrospective, Tom Brokow wrote "€œGalen Rowell was a man who went into the mountains, into the desert, to the edge of the sea, to the last great wild places in the world to be absorbed by their grace and grandeur. That is what he did for himself. For the rest of us, he shared his vision with "€”click", €”the release of a shutter, creating photographs as timeless, as stunning, and as powerful as nature itself."

As you evaluate your response to this image consider the following:

1. What do you make of the composition? The framing? The colors? Do you like the image? Would you want it on your wall? Why or why not?
2. What do you think about the large percentage of dark-space without detail? Does it detract or enhance the impact of the image? Why or why not?
3. The composition is rather simplistic when compared to many landscape images we see today, and even compared to other of Rowell'€™s images. Does this simplicity appeal to you? Why or why not?
4. Do you see influences from this type of work in your own photography? If you'€™d like, share a landscape photo of your own that you feel was made in a similar vein.

Resources for Further Study
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen_Rowell
http://www.mountainlight.com/news.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthpicturegalleries/7614648/The-greatest-nature-photographs-of-all-time-go-up-for-auction-in-a-bid-to-save-the-Earth.html?image=5
https://www.naturescapes.net/articles/opinions/working-with-a-legend-galen-rowell/
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/aug/15/news/lv-rowell15
https://photographyconcentrate.com/7-things-galen-rowell-can-teach-you-about-photography/
https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/on-location/featured-stories/lessons-learned-from-galen-rowell/

I like this image. I would almost bet that the cloud was "placed" in the photo; but I can accept it at face value. It seems a one in a million to be able to get that rock and that sky to line up the way they did. Maybe that is what is so impressive about this photo. I would not have this on my wall because that means I would have spent a lot of money on someone else's photography. I think that I try to emulate that kind of simplicity. The silhouette is a good idea; but I can't help thinking that a bit of detail in the granite (such a great rock with all its texture) would be nice.

I noticed that many of the articles highlight the fact that he was an adventurer. I don't think this is important for the image. Some perspectives require a photographer to be more agile, active, adventurous, to get the image; but the essential for me is the image and not the incidental. I don't mean to say that I, in any way, disparage his athleticism; but I think that the image is more important than the circumstances required to make the image.
Erich