TITLE: Wonders of the Vermillion Cliffs

These images were made while exploring the North Coyote Buttes region of the Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, located along the Southern Utah/Northern Arizona border in the U.S. Images of "The Wave" and the "White Pocket" are included. This area is now accessible only by permit, and I feel exceptionally fortunate to have been successful in being selected to visit the area. Though most would be more inclined to show these images for their incredible colors, I chose to also process them in B&W. I love the textures of the Navaho Sandstone layers, and the way in which these images are rendered in monochrome.

AUTHOR: Ron Kusina (United States)

Ron Kusina is an award winning photographer who has been producing images of nature for more than fifty years. He purchased his first camera during his service as a U.S. Marine in Southeast Asia, and would later learn from others how to develop his film and work in the darkroom making prints. Raised a city boy in the suburbs of Toledo, Ohio, he later chose to live in rural Northern California. It was here he developed a keen appreciation for the outdoors. He recalls an experience of visiting with a friend in the timber industry when he noticed a framed photo of an outdoor scene on the wall, a black and white print of the High Sierra that caught his eye. In the corner of the image was a small handwritten signature that read “Ansel Adams.” His passion for nature photography was born in that moment.
Ron is a self-taught photographer, learning from the books and works of Adams, Eliot Porter, Galen Rowell and others. He much enjoyed visiting national parks throughout the west, taking photographs. He built a darkroom in the basement of his home, and spent long hours there learning all he could about custom printmaking; experimenting with adjustments to his chemical formulas, altering their temperatures, dodging and burning under the light of his enlarger, and trying other techniques. In 1985, he was introduced to the use of computers, and found that he enjoyed working with them. Within a few years, he purchased one for home use and continued to sharpen his skills, not yet realizing that one day the computer and his photography would merge.
With the advent of digital photography, Ron made the decision to try this new medium, and purchased his first digital camera. He recalls going out in the evening to make a few images of scenic landscapes around his home in Northern Utah. Upon his return, he previewed the images with his computer, and he knew right then and there, he would never use film again.
A few years later, he decided to launch his first photography business, and created the online gallery GreatWest Images, offering his fine art nature photos for sale. An accomplished user of photoshop and other digital imaging tools, Ron is also a skilled printmaker, continuing to produce exhibition quality prints in his “digital darkroom.”
Ron’s work can be viewed at www.greatwestimages.com.