Vern Clevenger’s acute ability to respond with such an unerring sense of place—to feel and to frame a day’s shifting light, a season’s shifts of color and mood, and the constant drama of mountain landscapes—has evolved from an adventure-filled life of sojourning in the Sierra Nevada. His legendary Yosemite climbs, his record first ascents, and more than 35 years of ramblings over the range’s peaks and trails have given Vern the experience of wildness he so powerfully expresses in this collection of his favorite Sierra Nevada images. For Vern, capturing these Sierra wilderness photographs has involved taking time to be with these places. His images share special mountain moments deeply lived. They are the offerings of his “sierra sojourns” as an adventure of art.

As Vern’s lifelong love of the mountains found artistic outlet, he soon moved from 35mm to large format cameras. He also developed meticulous darkroom skills and established a long-term dedication to the Dye Transfer process. Currently using film for the initial exposure,Vern incorporates digital processes to produce constant improvement in his art prints, but he remains faithful, as well, to fundamental principles of classical photography.

Ever an inveterate mountaineer, Vern Clevenger still hauls heavy 4 x 5 cameras all over the High Sierra as he seeks images that will convey his experiences of this alpine world through essences of light and reflection. His traditional choice of equipment requires significant time in the field to set up shots that show thoughtful consideration of subjects and demonstrated care for composition. It also captures and recreates beautiful, true color with the finest detail as it imparts strong aesthetic statements.

More than just a “mountain-man,” Vern Clevenger is a true “mountain-family man.” His wife Margaret, son Dylan, and daughter Sabrina share every step of Vern’s adventures and artistic journeys, as reflected in the descriptions of his images in this book. Throughout his professional career, Vern’s family has helped him review thousands of images and has thoughtfully guided his selections for prints.

And today, of course, operating the Vern Clevenger Gallery of Fine Photography is always a whole-family enterprise. Located in Bishop, California at the foot of the Eastern Sierra, the Clevenger Gallery and Studio displays Vern’s impressive breadth and accomplishment as an established international landscape and architectural photographer. Gallery visitors who have recently sojourned in the nearby mountains themselves are often struck most profoundly by Vern’s images of the Sierra Nevada. For fellow sojourners in the Sierra, the images collected here share experiences of a landscape at once breathtaking in its familiarity, yet always startlingly new.