Landscape & Travel Photographs By Michael Anderson

"I was a backcountry ranger for several years in Yosemite National Park where I met Galen Rowell and spent the week of my 21st birthday at a remote ski cabin learning from Galen at one of his first workshops. He was a great story teller who lived through some extraordinary adventures and he lit a fire in my imagination that continues to this day. On the night of my birthday, Galen took me aside and we talked about how individual vision, seeing the unexpected, and an artist's passion can combine to create great photographs, but also shape our view of the world and our goals in life. I wrote his words down on a piece of paper I keep in my copy of his famous book 'Mountain Light' which he signed that week. Since then, I've worked hard to find my own voice and I've incorporated a lot of his philosophy into my work."
"Then I started exploring. I worked hard all year so I could spend my summers backpacking and climbing in the Sierra. I walked over 1,000 miles one summer and spent a lot of time off the trail. I saw amazing things, was often solo and found that I had a hard time sharing the intimacy of my adventures with people that weren't there. But my stories were always more effective if I had a few good photos. My passion for photography was growing. I sought to capture the essence of what moved ME on those trips, and in doing so I also learned how to capture scenes in a way that moved OTHERS who were not there.