How would Galen Rowell have taken this photo?

RobC · Dec 6, 2015

Christopher Nisperos said:
So maybe the OP simply meant, "How did Galen Rowell take this photo?". Just giving the benefit of the doubt, ya know?

By the way, in my long past youth while working at Denevi Camera store and, later, when I managed Palmers Camera in Berkeley, I had the honor of selling sh*tloads of film to Galen Rowell. I don't remember the film type (probably a chrome of some sort, maybe Koda-, maybe Ekta- .. I don't remember if Fuji had yet made headway into that domain) but he was a quite a nice guy and, don't forget in addition to being an excellent photographer, he was a damned good climber! I used to also see him in the Valley, in the 70s, when I'd hang-out with and sleepover with climber friends at I believe it was called "Camp 4". Bouldering madness!

Thats what I took it to mean. I was just pointing out that out to Sirius Glass who seemed to think otherwise.

Richard S. (rich815) · Dec 6, 2015

Christopher Nisperos said:
So maybe the OP simply meant, "How did Galen Rowell take this photo?". Just giving the benefit of the doubt, ya know?

By the way, in my long past youth —while working at Denevi Camera store and, later, when I managed Palmers Camera in Berkeley, I had the honor of selling sh*tloads of film to Galen Rowell. I don't remember the film type (probably a chrome of some sort, maybe Koda-, maybe Ekta- .. I don't remember if Fuji had yet made headway into that domain) but he was a quite a nice guy and, —don't forget— in addition to being an excellent photographer, he was a damned good climber! I used to also see him in the Valley, in the 70s, when I'd hang-out with and sleepover with climber friends at —I believe it was called "Camp 4". Bouldering madness!

Then for sure you and I have "met" before as I was in Palmer's a lot back in that day. Galen was pretty much exclusively chrome and pretty much Velvia 50 almost exclusively too. He dabbled a little with E100VS and E100S and SW when they came out as Kodak's last ditch at a "Velvia-killer"....

Bill Burk · Dec 6, 2015

Richard S. (rich815) said:
Galen was a huge influence on my work back in the 80's and 90's until I moved on from color. I've met him a couple of times and visited his tiny studio on Solano Ave in Berkeley back before he even moved it to Emeryville, and then Bishop. His books were my bibles. This was clearly Velvia and using his famously promoted and Galen Rowell-branded Singh-Ray Graduated ND filters.

I wish I'd had a chance to meet him, he was a huge influence on me as well. I switched to Velvia because of him. I was convinced it was necessary to compete in the outdoor photography market at the time. I also picked up a set of the filters, but late in the game. I didn't use them very much.

So I could show you what it would look like without an ND graduated filter.

flash26c · Dec 6, 2015

From what I remember "F8 and be there" was a catch phrase of his. So, that's the answer.

Sirius Glass · Dec 6, 2015

RobC said:
Thats what I took it to mean. I was just pointing out that out to Sirius Glass who seemed to think otherwise.

Ok, so I was wrong. Now that I am no longer married, I am allowed to be wrong.

Richard S. (rich815) · Dec 6, 2015

Christopher Nisperos said:
So maybe the OP simply meant, "How did Galen Rowell take this photo?". Just giving the benefit of the doubt, ya know?

By the way, in my long past youth —while working at Denevi Camera store and, later, when I managed Palmers Camera in Berkeley, I had the honor of selling sh*tloads of film to Galen Rowell. I don't remember the film type (probably a chrome of some sort, maybe Koda-, maybe Ekta- .. I don't remember if Fuji had yet made headway into that domain) but he was a quite a nice guy and, —don't forget— in addition to being an excellent photographer, he was a damned good climber! I used to also see him in the Valley, in the 70s, when I'd hang-out with and sleepover with climber friends at —I believe it was called "Camp 4". Bouldering madness!

Oh and the original Velvia (RVP) was introduced in 1990, he rarely shot ektachrome after his "discovery" of Velvia, from what I understand. He also owned and ran a local auto repair shop before going pro in photography! And yes, an amazing climber, as can be seen on the cover of his most famous book (and perhaps the most influential one on me):

Trail Images · Dec 6, 2015

The posted photo above always comes to my mind when Galen's name is mentioned. An excellent photographer and climber as already stated in other comments. As a Velvia 50 shooter for MANY years myself I find his 2 & 3 stop Singh Ray ND's critical for my own work. My 2 stop hard has about wore through on the edges and is scared from so much usage, but still works very well.

Bill Burk · Dec 6, 2015

I uploaded a picture to the galleries, Fall Dawn Beneath Mount Humphreys, which shows what you get on Velvia without a Neutral Density Graduated filter.

*My shot is not Velvia it's Kodak Ektachrome 64

tomfrh · Dec 6, 2015

Bill Burk said:
I uploaded a picture to the galleries, Fall Dawn Beneath Mount Humphreys, which shows what you get on Velvia without a Neutral Density Graduated filter.

Thanks for posting that. How did you meter that?

Vaughn · Dec 6, 2015

I have been to his gallery in Bishop. There are two distinct types of work in the gallery -- those printed while Galen was alive, and those printed after. The OP image seems to fall in the latter.

Bill Burk · Dec 6, 2015

tomfrh said:
Thanks for posting that. How did you meter that?

While looking back and trying to remember so I can answer your question, I caught a couple mistakes.

First, this was in 1983 and I didn't have an OM-4 yet. So this is most likely taken with my ES-II and since slow speeds can only be done on automatic, I assume the exposure was fully automatic.

Second, it's not Velvia. I pulled out another slide from the roll and looked at the margin. It's Kodak Ektachrome 64.

Richard S. (rich815) · Dec 6, 2015

I had one of these Singh-Ray ND Grad filters. I did not enjoy using them much. Instead I'd often shoot two identical frames from a tripod. One exposed for the shadows, one for the sky and highlights. Then combine in PS. That's if I was scanning the slides. If not I'd try to shoot in lighting that was not overly expansive for the slide film's range and then burn and dodge as needed for cibacrome work.

Richard S. (rich815) · Dec 6, 2015

Ha. I only just remembered that I worked at a color lab in San Fran for a year back in the early 90's. It was on First Street called Frog Prince & Sieg (don't ask about the name, I have no clue why it was called that). We did some printing for Galen though he used a few labs on occasion. I did work on a few of his prints but mostly the preliminary draft prints dialing in the CMY on the enlarger while one of the top pro printers would finalize and dodge or burn with gels as needed. I did a few of his chromes to internegs. We'd make nice big internegs of his 35mm chromes into 4x5 internegs negatives. He popped in once or twice to look things over and approve finals for going to print. There was one print in which I did almost all the work. It was a group of trees and the photograph almost all green trees and some bark, redwoods if I remember, not an overly challenging print. He ordered 10 of those but it's not an image of his that was a very popular or a famous one. I was of course on cloud 9 anyway.. I did see it on the wall of his Emeryville gallery a few months later and I remember a very pretty gallery attendant there who I was sure knew that I was the one who had made that print. Didn't get me a date though. Darn it.

tomfrh · Dec 7, 2015

Thanks for all your insights!

One question about The Singh Ray nd grads - are they better than others, or are nd grads nd grads? I have a couple of moderately priced 3 stop ND grads (hitech) and they seem OK, however I have nothing to compare to.

Richard S. (rich815) · Dec 7, 2015

tomfrh said:
Thanks for all your insights!

One question about The Singh Ray nd grads - are they better than others, or are nd grads nd grads? I have a couple of moderately priced 3 stop ND grads (hitech) and they seem OK, however I have nothing to compare to.

Galen used to insist only the Singh-Ray ones were truly "neutral" and possessed the "optical quality and color fidelity" he insisted upon.

RobC · Dec 7, 2015

neutral is neutral. If it isn't neutral then it isn't neutral.

Lee filters do a whole range of grads, neutrals and various warming and colour grads. See their website.

hard and soft edge grads

http://www.leefilters.com/index.php/camera/ndgrads

http://www.leefilters.com/index.php/camera/filters

If you look at filters menu on following page you will find a whole range of different colour grads for different scenes.

http://www.leefilters.com/index.php/camera-directory/camera-dir-list/category/coral-filters

Alan Klein · Dec 7, 2015

It's a nice shot. But I find that the foreground is too unnaturally bright for that early in the day. Maybe, a grad with less stops would have been preferable. Also, because the foreground is so lit and the background is so orangey lit, my eyes bounce around between the two as they try to focus on one particular subject.

RobC · Dec 7, 2015

there seems to be a lot assumptions that a grad was used which is not provable.

Richard S. (rich815) · Dec 7, 2015

RobC said:
neutral is neutral. If it isn't neutral then it isn't neutral.

Exactly. Some are more neutral than others. At least that was Galen's point. Or more explicitly some ND filters sold as such simply are not.

Bill Burk · Dec 7, 2015

Summer Dawn Beneath Mount Humphreys appears on the Singh-Ray website.

http://www.singh-ray.com/pro_gallery_template/galen-rowell

Sirius Glass · Dec 7, 2015

Bill Burk said:
Summer Dawn Beneath Mount Humphreys appears on the Singh-Ray website.

http://www.singh-ray.com/pro_gallery_template/galen-rowell

Every thing looks over saturated and over sharpened to greatly exceed that found in nature.

RobC · Dec 7, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
Every thing looks over saturated and over sharpened to greatly exceed that found in nature.

Yup, I think the word is garish.

Sirius Glass · Dec 7, 2015

If it were garish, then it would be better than it is. It looks like the crap in touristy gallery and craft fairs.

RobC · Dec 7, 2015

Bill Burk said:
Summer Dawn Beneath Mount Humphreys appears on the Singh-Ray website.

http://www.singh-ray.com/pro_gallery_template/galen-rowell

So does this one. I wonder what it would look like without the grad.

http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.easternsierra/images.html

Truzi · Dec 7, 2015

RobC said:
So does this one. I wonder what it would look like without the grad.

http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.easternsierra/images.html

I can't put my finger on it, but something feels "wrong" about that photo. There are many elements I like about it, but as an whole something just feels off.

How would Galen Rowell have taken this photo?

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