Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park

The first day of a forced sale of photographs owned by the Polaroid Company brought in more than $7 million Monday at Sotheby’s, breaking a record for the highest price ever paid for an Ansel Adams picture.“Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park,” the large 1938 black-and-white landscape pictured above, went for $722,500, including a buyer’s commission to the auction house, topping the $609,000 that was paid for another Adams work in 2006.More info at the NYT.

Dorothy Waugh

After graduating from the Chicago Art Institute, Dorothy Waugh worked in a commercial art studio in Chicago. She relocated to New York soon after and became the manager of the children's book department at Alfred A. Knopf. In addition to her work at Knopf, she was production supervisor of the National Park Service doing copy, layout and artwork. In the late 1930's she was appointed special lecturer and critic to the New York School of Fine and Applied Art where she also taught typography and design. See the posters above much larger after the jump and then head on over to the Library Of Congress Shop and buy "The Lure Of The National Parks" for yourself.

Canon In The Parks

The wonderful folks at American Park Network (I spend all day, everyday with 'em) and Canon have again organized a series of digital photography workshops in Yosemite National Park. They're going down twice a day from June 7 to June 28. There will be many more stops along the way for the "Canon In The Parks" program, but for now, find out more info about the FREE Yosemite workshops here.MP3: Bruce Cockburn - Thoughts On A Rainy Afternoon

Half The Park Is After Dark

To help meet the demand for night sky interpretive programs, the National Park Service Night Sky Program last year recruited 19 volunteer astronomers from around the country who were then placed in national parks, started a loaner telescope collection, produced audio podcasts and brochures, and supported the stellar night sky poster art by Dr. Tyler Nordgren, an astronomer at the University of Redlands, California.Nordgren spent a one-year sabbatical in national parks where he collected his experiences into a book and drafted the series of 14 posters that harken to the Works Progress Administration posters of the 1930's. The full series of night sky posters is available for browsing here.

Cold Splinters + The Curiosity Shoppe

A few weeks ago, the kind folks at San Francisco's Curiosity Shoppe asked if I would contribute to their Ideal Bookshelf series. I put the task in the hands of my personal prop stylist, Kalen Kaminski, and this is what she came up with. Looks great. Nothing goes with the vision quests of Black Elk Speaks better than Woody Allen.If you're in San Francisco, go to the store and check it out. And if anyone wants to buy this thing for me, be my guest...

Salt Stained Eyes

Salt Stained Eyes is the brainchild of Jack Brull, a surfer from Long Island who chronicles his life at the great beaches of New England through the lenses of multiple analog cameras. He's usually surfing at Long Beach, and his photographs perfectly capture the ghostly feel of the empty New York ocean during the early morning hours.