Ira Estin, award winning photographer
specializing in photographs of the Pacific Northwest
Ira Estin is available for private photograph tours of Yosemite or other destinations.
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His award winning work is available for sale in fine photography galleries
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Ira’s Bio
I began my outdoor experiences when my parents took me camping in Yosemite at age one. Later I was active in the Boy Scouts for many years hiking most of the John Muir Trail and doing many backpacks throughout the Sierra Nevada. There were two important side benefit of my college days at UCLA. First was my participating in many adventures with the UCLA Mountaineering Club, where I learned & greatly improved many of my mountaineering skills. Second, I became interested in photographing my many outdoor adventures. Although graduating with a degree in engineering and working on the Apollo Space Program, my love of the outdoors and photography always kept me coming back to nature. Those interests eventually put an end on my engineering career so I could develop my photography skills. I published articles in magazines and did a lot of advertising photography along with wedding and portrait photography, but my real interest was always nature photography.
My big break was getting hired to teach at the college levels with UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara, conducting many outdoor nature photography classes. I have enjoyed mountaineering pursuits involving backpacking, cave exploring, whitewater rafting and kayaking in many locations of Mexico, Canada, Alaska, Asia, and South America. My love of outdoor adventure photography has lead me to a career of offering my services as a tour guide and photography instructor where I share my knowledge and experiences with people . I have made my home in the Yosemite area (Mariposa) for all of the last Thirteen years, teaching nature photography, as an outdoor wedding photographer, and as a tour guide of the western states and Canada during these years.
My time is now spent almost exclusively between my search for beautiful photographic images in nature and taking people on tours. I get tremendous rewards by sharing my knowledge of nature and Yosemite with people while conducting tours whether scenic or photographic in nature
While spending most of my career using film cameras including 4x5, 6x7 and 35 mm, I have made the change to digital very easily. With film, I needed to wait days or weeks before seeing the results and then having to spend many hours in the darkroom with chemicals and having to take meticulous notes so I could repeat prints at a later time. Now, with a digital darkroom on my computer, I find I get perfect prints with a lot less stress and without the messy and time consuming chemicals.
Ira Estin, photographer, teacher, tour guide
I began my outdoor experiences when my parents took me camping in Yosemite at age one. Later I was active in the Boy Scouts for many years hiking most of the John Muir Trail and doing many backpacks throughout the Sierra Nevada. There were two important side benefit of my college days at UCLA. First was my participating in many adventures with the UCLA Mountaineering Club, where I learned & greatly improved many of my mountaineering skills. Second, I became interested in photographing my many outdoor adventures. Although graduating with a degree in engineering and working on the Apollo Space Program, my love of the outdoors and photography always kept me coming back to nature. Those interests eventually put an end on my engineering career so I could develop my photography skills. I published articles in magazines and did a lot of advertising photography along with wedding and portrait photography, but my real interest was always nature photography.
My big break was getting hired to teach at the college levels with UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara, conducting many outdoor nature photography classes. I have enjoyed mountaineering pursuits involving backpacking, cave exploring, whitewater rafting and kayaking in many locations of Mexico, Canada, Alaska, Asia, and South America. My love of outdoor adventure photography has lead me to a career of offering my services as a tour guide and photography instructor where I share my knowledge and experiences with people . I have made my home in the Yosemite area (Mariposa) for all of the last Thirteen years, teaching nature photography, as an outdoor wedding photographer, and as a tour guide of the western states and Canada during these years.
My time is now spent almost exclusively between my search for beautiful photographic images in nature and taking people on tours. I get tremendous rewards by sharing my knowledge of nature and Yosemite with people while conducting tours whether scenic or photographic in nature
While spending most of my career using film cameras including 4x5, 6x7 and 35 mm, I have made the change to digital very easily. With film, I needed to wait days or weeks before seeing the results and then having to spend many hours in the darkroom with chemicals and having to take meticulous notes so I could repeat prints at a later time. Now, with a digital darkroom on my computer, I find I get perfect prints with a lot less stress and without the messy and time consuming chemicals.
Ira Estin, photographer, teacher, tour guide
Photo RestorationIra can restore and repair any of your old family or historic photos. Just ask him |
PortraitureIf you would like to create a family keepsake or beautiful souvenir of your visit to Yosemite please let Ira know |