The photograph of Charlie — one of a number that I've made over the years — comes from one of the last expeditions of the "First Light" group into the Sierra, this time deep in the John Muir Wilderness. As was our tradition, we mule-packed into a remote location and then spend a week photographing the heck out of our surroundings.
I thought of sharing this because Charlie sent me and a few other friends and associates a link to an article about him in the alumni magazine of the institution where both of us earned our undergraduate degrees (in Music!) at about the same time. See Charles Cramers Tale of Two Mentors, one being his piano mentor Aiko Onishi and the other being none other than Ansel Adams.
That article includes some other interesting stories and a link to a talk that Charlie presented at the Landscape Meeting of the Minds Conference back in 2016: https://youtu.be/-d8zxB4zMAg?si=Ei-MEaNwrqfi-qBy
Here's another photograph of Charlie in the Yosemite backcountry, here sporting the Phase One back system he used to drag around:
Here's one more photograph of Charlie in the Yosemite backcountry landscape, along with the rest of the band in 2014. (Yours truly is among the performers — I'm the one with the banjo.)
