His parents were John and Julia Watkins, a carpenter and an innkeeper. He originally worked for his friend Huntington, delivering supplies to mining operations.
Send Email. His images were pirated, and his lack of business acumen resulted in bankruptcy. They were quickly revered as images of superb technical and artistic quality. Carleton Watkins (1829-1916), the creator of the striking photographs of the remote Yosemite Valley that so inspired the New York Times critic, had moved to California around 1851 from the small New York town of Oneonta. The creditor and another photographer named Isaiah West Taber started marketing Watkins' stereographs with Taber's name on them.
The effect is oftenBeing outdoors and doing landscapes soon became Watkins' favorite work, and in July of 1861 he went to Yosemite--with a dozen mules to carry his mammoth plate camera, which uses 18 by 22 inch glass plate negatives; a stereoscopic camera; tripods; glass plates; chemicals; other supplies and a tent for a darkroom.
The 1864 bill signed by Lincoln is often seen as the beginning of One reviewer admired Watkins' photographs for their "clearness, strength and softness of tone."
Then focus on your finger. The law was an important first step in the creation of the National Park Service in 1916. In later years, his daughter described him as a friendly character, always full of fun and happiness. Vance showed him the basic elements of photography, planning to return and retake the portraits himself.
By 1897 Watkins was almost completely blind.The fire following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake burned Watkins' studio, and countless pictures and negatives and most all of his stereo works were lost. When the studio's photographer quit suddenly, the owner asked Watkins to pretend to be a photographer--to try to keep portrait customers happy until a real photographer could be hired. Watkins explained that he was just able to select the spot which "would give the best view."
T he striated details of a giant sequoia’s bark, the unforgettable rock formations, the drama of water cascading over a cliff — these wonders of the Yosemite valley were captured by an ambitious young photographer named Carleton Watkins.
By the mid-1890s, however, Watkins' deteriorating eyesight and crippling arthritis limited his ability to work. This studio was destroyed in the Three years after Watkins retired to Capay Ranch, he was declared incompetent and put into the care of his daughter Julia.