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Health & Fitness

Finding Inspiration Nearby

A personal review of the Ansel Adams exhibit currently at the Lake County Museum, and end of the year wishes for all of Libertyville. Happy New Year!

 

 

“Our lives at times seem a study in contrast... love & hate, birth & death, right & wrong... everything seen in absolutes of black & white. Too often we are not aware that it is the shades of grey that add depth & meaning to the starkness of those extremes.”

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-Ansel Adams

Certainly Lake County has seen its shades of grey recently, at least weatherwise.  It's easy to let the lack of a fresh white snow coupled with a distinct lack of sunlight get you into a bit of a Post-Christmas slump, but now is a good time to find ways to snap yourself out of it, and I did today, courtesy the Lake County Museum in Wauconda and the travelling Ansel Adams exhibit there.

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Adams has always been an inspiration to me, as someone who shares my deeply-held conservationist beliefs, someone who appreciates the depth of the call of the mountains and the American West, and of course, as a photographer.

Today's travels to the museum really lifted my mood. The exhibit is well thought out, well lit, and allows time to linger with the images or to wander freely. Adams' work has always struck me, but to be in person with it is to really appreciate the deep tonality and detail that you can't see the same, even with a high tech LCD screen. His work has always stood out to me because it makes you feel as though you're standing there in a way few people can manage to capture on film. Oftentimes I've found myself standing in the Rocky Mountains looking down from a cliff at everything around me, and when the camera comes to my eye, I realize I can't really quite capture exactly what that feels like, or the overwhelming power of those sorts of surroundings.  He brings you in to the quiet of a moment on a mountaintop in a way I aspire to someday capture. The pictures draw you in and you'll find yourself revisiting a few by the time you leave. I found great joy in that and in watching what drew my friend in as we explored it together.

The exhibition of his work at the Lake County Museum is drawing to a close, so if, like myself, you've ever marvelled at his amazing shots on a website or in a tabletop book, it's certainly worth the 6 dollars and a little bit of your time in the next week to drop in.

Whatever you do in this last few days of 2011, I hope you find some inspiration to take you into the New Year. Things may not be quite the way you'd hoped or expected, but maybe there's something to the shades of grey. 

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