Time & Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2015 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)
Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.
As a teen with angst, Ed Cooper led a dull and rather aimless existence in New York State. Then at age 16, Ed’s family encouraged him to go out west with his older sister. They went to Yellowstone where he took a picture of a bear on a hillside with his Ansco Panda Box camera. Ed remembers that the highlight of the trip was a guided climb of Mt. Rainier. Ed recalls, “From that point on, the mountains became my passion, my raison d’être”. Some years later, the (Seattle) Mountaineers published a book entitled “Freedom of the Hills” and that is what the mountains represented for him and still do 62 years later.
Ed returned to the mountains again and again, finally moving out to the West Coast to be close to them. Along the way, Ed made a number of first ascents in British Columbia and the Cascade Mountains of Washington. There was even an early climb of Mt. McKinley and a new route on the face of El Capitan in Yosemite. Then one day in his 20’s, Ed realized that he had known over 50 people who had been killed in the mountains in every type of accident you can imagine. He took a critical look at his trajectory and it didn’t bode well for the future. He made a mid-course correction and decided to concentrate on the mountain photography aspect of the mountains. This was, of course, not without risk, but it kept his interest at a very high level and enabled him to make a living at what he loved to do.
Ed has three published books: Soul of the Heights, 50 Years Going to the Mountains; Soul of the Rockies; and Soul of Yosemite. After years of shooting film, Ed entered the digital world in 2005, considerably reducing the weight he carries into the mountains. You can follow Ed on his new Instagram account: @ed_cooper_photography and his three Facebook accounts where he posts new images almost daily. https://www.facebook.com/ed.cooper.photography. Ed’s presentation is a distillation of all of his mountain experiences over 60 years where he will show us his amazing photographs, many of which have been restored. Ed will also have his books and prints for sale at the presentation.
