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Ansel Adams was an ultimate icon of photography for me growing up. I read The Eloquent Light, his biography by Nancy Newhall when I was about 12 and was totally caught up by his ability to capture images in nature coupled with his deep commitment to the environment—myself being both a photographer and a budding outdoorsman.

Shortly after that Ansel came to my school—the Peninsula School, and had a exhibition in our gallery upstairs. I well recall my mom talking him about his shots of Manzanar where she had met him during “the war”—being introduced to him by her is an indelible image in my mind, but I regret there was no actual photo of that moment.

I went on to read all of his books on photography, which I highly recommend for basics of photography nowhere else covered.

Many years went by and I had the opportunity to interview Michael Adams in Yosemite, in fact at Glacier Point, before the park service opened the road for the season, so we literally had the place to ourselves. Michael then invited us to come to Ansel’s (now his) home on the Monterey peninsula. You can imagine the experience of walking in and taking in his home!

We shot a segment in his gallery where Michael told me stories behind many of Ansel’s classic work, including Moonrise, Hernandez, one of his most haunting images, from Michael’s perspective as a 7 year old.

We then went through his darkroom, the darkroom—fully custom made by Ansel, like none I have ever seen. You’ll see images of Ansel actually at work in it, printing his images. (Thank you to his family for loaning us this unreleased footage.) You’ll get an idea of how he was able to interpret his images as he had visualized them at the time of shooting. Whether you are purely a digital photographer or not, drink this in as the basis for our modern photography, for example you’ll see tools in use that live on in photo-software today.

I feel indeed fortunate to have had this experience and to see the surrounds that Ansel saw on the coastline every day. I’m really happy to share this rare glimpse into the world of a true master.