Young Pine, Upper Young Lake, Yosemite

About the Artist

Charles Cramer is a photographer who revels in exploration and craftsmanship. A masterful artist, his career broadly parallels that of Ansel Adams: an early focus on music, finding inspiration in Yosemite National Park, and exploring the developing medium of photography. Charles has worked in the darkroom for many years, mastering the complex Dye Transfer process. He was also one of the first landscape photographers to work with the "digital darkroom", recognizing the computer as an unparalleled means to control color and realize his artistic interpretation of the scene.

"I studied piano for 20 years, ending up with a degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. This conservatory was endowed by George Eastman, who also founded the Eastman Kodak Company. This connection between music and photography can be seen in the lives of many photographers. I gradually turned to full-time photography by 1980. The end goal of my photography has always been to make beautiful prints. I have spent a large part of the last 30 years refining my skills not just photographing the natural scene, but learning how to make the best possible prints from these images.

"When venturing out into the field, I am drawn to photograph primarily by the 'light' and only secondarily by the subject. I search for that special kind of light that can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. This brings me out at seemingly odd times---sunrise, sunset, during storms and snowstorms. The weather can be onerous. But when everything comes together for a photograph, all that is quickly forgotten. Many of my photographs are from the Southwest. The light here is unique, especially when bouncing off canyon walls and enveloping a scene in glowing, warm light. Another favorite canyon is Yosemite Valley."

"For many years, I made my own photographic prints in the darkroom with the Kodak Dye Transfer process. This was a very difficult, expensive, and time-consuming process---but I felt the results were worth all the work. In 1997, I started working with processes that I feel can now rival and even surpass the beauty of a dye transfer print. I scan my original 4x5 inch transparencies at very high resolution, and using Photoshop as a digital darkroom, I can adjust the image with more subtlety than I had with the dye transfer process. I do all the final printing with Canon printers.

The Canon Pro-4000 large format printer uses pigmented inks, on specially coated papers. These prints exhibit incredible sharpness, along with great resistance to fading. Previously, dye transfer prints were considered the gold-standard for archiving important images, but the Canon inks now exceed that by 3-4 times. I am thrilled to be able to make prints of a quality I could only imagine previously. And this process allows me to make very large prints, with no loss of quality" ~Charles Cramer

Print Size Information

Charles Cramer uses digital processes for image control, such as color and contrast. He prints his images in three ways. Lightjet prints on Crystal Archive paper, Ultrachrome pigment inks on coated Premium papers, and a very few images as Dye Transfer prints. Each is archivally mounted and overmatted with 4-ply 100% rag museum board.

Crystal Archive and Ultrachrome Pigment prints are signed on the print, titled, and numbered on the verso. Images printed originally as dye-transfers are limited to 100 prints in 16x20 and 20x24 image sizes. Most prints are priced as follows:

Images may shift into higher tiers without notice, depending on sales.

Ordering Information

Original photographs are handmade, and not all sizes are kept in inventory.
Special orders from the photographer may take 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

Please contact us at sales@anseladams.com if you have any questions about shipping and delivery.