For the memoir prompt – A moment that changed my life

Today, I was writing a new Squidoo page on how an Ansel Adams book and George Winston CD piqued my interest in photography. What they really did was make me want to visit Yosemite National Park in California. After visiting Yosemite with my family in June of 1995, I wrote “My life has never been the same since.” Aha! What was it exactly that changed my life? What was the moment? I would have to say that it was seeing Half Dome, one of the most well-known mountain peaks at Yosemite, for the first time.

[amazon-product align="right" alink="0000FF" bordercolor="000000" height="240" tracking_id="thenatuofphot-20"]0821216910[/amazon-product]Rewind a year or so. The book that made me want to visit Yosemite was a book of letters that Ansel Adams had written throughout his life. They really allowed me to get inside his head and know him at a pretty personal level. Many people throughout the years have been inspired by Half Dome, but arguably, none more than Ansel Adams. His images of Half Dome could make a book in itself and they show the love and respect he had for the place.

When I saw Half Dome for the first time, I was in awe. I felt such a connection with Adams and understood why he felt compelled to photograph it so many times. I hadn’t even taken my first photography class at the time, so of course, my photos do not do it justice. But I will never forget how I felt when I really saw it with my own eyes. I was not the same since.

We moved to Indianapolis two months later and I signed up for my first photography class a month after that. The rest is history. Whether I never sell another photograph does not matter. I will always love the art and the craft of photography.