Odyssey with a Camera: Yosemite, Death Valley, and a few other places

1/5 ( ratings)

To stand in the very spot where Ansell Adams stood to take his ‘Yosemite Valley’ series is something that’s not easily forgotten and then to travel all the way from Australia to do it is even more memorable. To wait 50 years for this trip of a lifetime and then with flawless timing coincide it with the October 2013 US government shutdown of funds, thus closing all of the US National Parks, is even more unforgettable.
Author and amateur photographer Roger Simpson takes us as a student on a 12 day photographic workshop from LA through to San Francisco via Death Valley, June Lakes, Mono Lake, the ghost town of Bodie, the Sierra, Yosemite, and finishing off in San Francisco with a visit to the Redwoods, a Liberty Ship, and a US submarine. Using one definition of the word ‘odyssey’ meaning a long journey where many things happen we meet the people and visit the places along the way. We’ll also meet the lady who was not going to let the Washington shutdown stop her from taking photographs, the Texan who could not construct a sentence without swearing, a shop assistant who was not allowed to sell a cup of coffee, the taxi driver who tells us where he came from. There’s also an encounter the barman who could sense when a strong drink was needed and also have a disagreement with the sultry spoken female GPS voice. This is a travel book about photography.
From the desolate beauty of Death Valley to the heartbreaking splendor or Yosemite and the Sierra follow the author as he improves his somewhat mediocre photographic skills and why a standard camera strap can be painful and why removing the lens cap vastly improves the final image. In the final chapter he passes on the learning curve together with a few links to his favorite sites. All these, and many more, contribute to a good yarn with a camera.