What's New
August 2010
Exhibition at Viewpoint Gallery, 2015 J Street, Midtown Sacramento, CA Phone: 916-441-2341
Exhibit Dates: Wednesday, Sept. 8 - Saturday. October 2nd, 2010
Artist Reception: Friday, Sept. 10, 5:30 to 9:30 PM
"Second Saturday" Reception: Saturday, Sept. 9, 5:00 to 9:30 PM
I will have about 50 prints on display, including some rather large ones (including a 60x47 print!)
Viewpoint has been around in various forms since the early 80s, and is a thriving member-supported community with over 500 members. A few years ago, they moved into a bigger space in downtown Sacramento, giving it much greater exposure. The "Second Saturday" Art Walk occurs in Sacramento once a month with over 20 participating galleries, along with other exciting events (outdoor fashion shows, bands performing on street corners, etc). They tell me the gallery will have over 1,000 visitors that night. I will be there both nights, and invite you to drop in.
I will also be doing a 3/4 day workshop on that Saturday, from 9 AM to 3 PM on Optimizing Your Images for Printing. I will discuss my approach to using Lightroom and Photoshop, with special attention paid to optimizing detail in the problem areas—highlights and shadows. Tuition is $95 for Viewpoint members, $145 for non-members.
February 2010
Lecture at Center for Photographic Art, cosponsored by the ImagemakersI'll be talking about all kinds of (hopefully) interesting things! Here's the details:
Interpreting the Image
Saturday, February 6th
at 2 PM
Sunset Center, Carmel, California
$10 admission (members of CPA or Imagemakers free)
“Interpreting a photographic image is dependent on how the human brain processes images,” says Cramer, a master printmaker with rare expertise in dye-transfer and digital printing. His presentation will include illustrations of his personal journey from black & white darkroom prints, through dye-transfer color printing, to his current method of digitally making inkjet prints.
Following in the footsteps of Ansel Adams, who said “the negative is the score and the print is the performance,” Charles will focus on the importance of interpretation in “optimizing” an image, through techniques that make the image reflect more of what is “felt” in exposing a scene.
January 2010
I am delighted to announce that I will be teaching two workshops this year with John Sexton. I first met John in the dawn of my photographic prehistory (late 70s!) when he was assisting at an Ansel Adams Workshop in Yosemite. He later went on to become Ansel's assistant and technical consultant. He has always been very dedicated to teaching, and his John Sexton Photography Workshops were selected by American Photo Magazine as one of the "Twelve Best Photography Workshops" (July/August 2008 issue.) We'll be doing two different workshops together, and all the details are on John's webpage, or on my workshop page. You'll also find all my other workshops for 2010 there, as well..
I just returned from San Diego, where I have a show with the Ordover Gallery in the San Diego Natural History Museum. It's a wonderful space, and quite large as you can see below (those are all my prints). The show will be up until May 2nd. Update! Extended until May 23rd.
June 2009
Last-minute Addition! A special two-day workshop taught with my friend Keith Walklet in Yosemite:
Making a Photograph: From Field to Print July 18 & 19 Class Fee: $295
This 2-day lecture/demonstration presents highlights from the 3-5 day workshops that Walklet and Cramer present for the Ansel Adams Gallery. This will include valuable insights on photographing in the field, exposure of film and digital captures, and creating effective compositions. Plus techniques that will allow you to optimize these images to their fullest potential using Lightroom and Photoshop, all leading to the creation of compelling prints. This course will "open your eyes" to imagine the many possibilities within your image. The various tips and techniques will then allow you to optimize your images to their fullest and strongest potential.
Please email workshops@anseladams.com or call 888-361-7622 for more information and to sign up.
The Ansel Adams Gallery will also host a special BBQ held in back of Ansel's old Yosemite home (in back of the gallery) on Saturday night of the workshop!
May 2009
The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite is now presenting my 16th show! It's entitled "Intimate Landscapes" and is on view until May 27th. There will be a reception on May 15th, from 3 to 5:30 PM, and I will be there. You can take a look at most of the images in the show here.
I'm delighted to be a part of a new book, First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite's Wilderness, published by Heyday Books, in association with the Yosemite Association and the Yosemite Fund. The book will be available in July, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon! The book includes photographs by me and my friends Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne, and Keith S. Walklet. Here's a description of the book, from Heyday:
Five master photographers offer varied interpretations of the Sierra wilderness
Ansel Adams led regular trips into the Yosemite backcountry as part of his efforts to protect this rare instance of untouched nature and, as a result, introduced thousands to its beauty. Following his example, the Yosemite Fund asked five well-known Yosemite photographers to once again bring the wonders of the wilderness to the general public.
For five years, these five photographers spent a part of their summers in Yosemite's wilderness region, which covers more than one thousand square miles of almost indescribable raw beauty, and the camaraderie that developed between them is evident in the reminiscences and musings that accompany their photographs. The result of this uncommon collaboration is a book of glorious prints, each imbued with its creator's distinct style.
January 2009
Finally -- I've added 24 new images to the galleries! You can find these under "new images" at the bottom of the list in the drop-down Galleries menu. These include images from my Tasmania trip, "Appalachian Spring" trip, and my October trip to the Southwest.
December 2008
My 2009 workshop schedule is now up at the workshops page. I'll be offering seven workshops this year, through Picture Element in Santa Clara, California, the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park, and the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California.April 19 - May 30
The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park will be presenting my 15th show! There's a reception scheduled for Sunday, May 11th, from 5 to 7 PM. Some of my newest work will be up. Maybe I'll see you there?
April 2008
I'm delighted to be included in the "Adobe Lightroom Tasmania Adventure!" About a dozen photographers are traveling Down Under to photograph the Australian island of Tasmania. We're all shooting digitally, and every day will gather to process our RAW files in Lightroom. This is also co-sponsored by O'Reilly publishers, and they should have a blog up at some point detailing the adventures of the group. It's a good thing I've been to Australia in the past, as I already speak some 'strine. (That's "Australian", but pronounced as one syllable).... You can follow the adventure at the O'Reilly adventure page. It will have blog posts from the participating photographers.
March 2008
Welcome to my completely redesigned website! I've almost doubled the number of images, and remade all the jpegs from scratch. The website is also "dynamic", which means I can update it much more easily in the future. I even have an image category (under galleries) called "new". All I can say is....What a lot of work!!!
March 19
PhaseOne, who make the best medium-format digital backs around, including the P45, recently interviewed me for one of their glossy brochures. It's a six page pdf file with seven of my images, and a nice interview concerning photography with film versus digital capture. Click on the image to download the brochure from the PhaseOne site.