Charles Cramer

About Charles Cramer

Charles Cramer creates and teaches landscape photography using techniques he learned from the California nature photographer Ansel Adams, Steinbeck’s exact contemporary. Like Ansel Adams, he trained as a concert pianist before turning to landscape photography—first at San Jose State University, then at the Eastman School of Music—and applies these skills as a Bay Area recitalist and music director for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Santa Clara. He was twice selected by the National Park Service to be artist-in-residence at Yosemite and has taught digital imaging at various venues, including Yosemite’s Ansel Adams Gallery Workshops. His distinctive landscape photography has appeared in major photo magazines, in two books—Landscape: The World’s Top Photographers and First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness—and in a solo exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel.

Big Sur, Point Lobos, and Cannery Row: Digital Photography by Charles Cramer

Composite image of Big Sur, Point Lobos, and Cannery Row in digital photography
Like his teacher Ansel Adams, Charles Cramer is a master of the piano and photography whose timeless images capture the music of nature in visual form. View Big Sur, Point Lobos, and Cannery Row as the music-lover John Steinbeck saw them in this sample of digital photography of the Central California coast by Charles Cramer.—Ed.

Image of Big Sur photo by Charles Cramer

Morning Mist Looking Down at the Big Sur Coast

Image of Point Lobos cypress forest photo by Charles Cramer

Detail of the Cypress Forest at Point Lobos

Image of Point Lobos fog photo by Charles Cramer

More Cypress Trees, This Time in Fog, at Point Lobos

Image of Point Lobos rocks photo by Charles Cramer

A Detail at Point Lobos, Made One Windy Morning

Image of Garrapta Beach photo by Charles Cramer

Those Famous Rocks Again, This Time With Waves Receding on an Overcast Day

Image of Asilomar area photo by Charles Cramer

A Long Exposure of About Five Minutes Made in the Asilomar Area

Image of Cannery Row photo by Charles Cramer

A Study in Sun and Shadows, Taken Near Cannery Row, From Around 1980

Image of Point Joe sunset photo by Charles Cramer

Sunset Near Point Joe, One of the First Coastal Images I Made 40 Years Ago This Year

Image of Garrapta Beach sunset photo by Charles Cramer

Last Light at Garrapata Beach, One of the Most Photographed Beaches in the Whole Area

Image of Garrapta Beach sunset photo by Charles Cramer

Sunset at a Different Section of Garrapata Beach