About the Site

When people think of California landscape photography they most often think of Ansel Adams' Yosemite and the granite spine of the Sierra Nevada. They think of towering, fog shrouded redwoods and sun-scorched desert vistas. They think of the Big Sur coast and fields of golden poppies in the Antelope Valley.

What they don't think of is the Sacramento Valley and the surrounding hills and mountains.

But the Sacramento Valley has unique pastoral beauty of its own. From rolling oak-dotted hills to picturesque abandoned barns, the Sacramento Valley is a different kind of California from the dramatic escarpments of the Sierra Nevada or sunset-drenched cliffs of the Central Coast. It is a California of peach orchards awash in pink blossoms, lazy river bayous and wide open skies. It is a California unseen from the Interstate, hidden behind a bend in the river or far down a dusty country road. It is a California that reveals itself only to the slow and patient seeker.

The rural, agricultural character of the Sacramento Valley harkens back to an older California now lost under concrete and freeways. It reminds us of a place that used to be, almost forgotten in the corners of our dim childhood memories. In the Sacramento Valley, this forgotten state lives on in quiet fields and orchards, in rolling hills, and in sleepy country roads dozing under an endless sky.

I first began seriously taking photographs when I was 17, at the time doing mostly sports photography. I've been engaged in serious landscape photography since I lived in Tuolumne City (near Yosemite National Park) and wanted to capture some of the beauty of the country.

I currently working on a book of landscape photography of the Sacramento Valley and the surrounding mountains.

Though the majority of the work posted on this site consists of landscape photography of northern California and the Sierra Nevada, I do a wide range of fine architectural and location photography as well. My work has been published in books, magazines, posters, calendars, annual reports and postcards nationwide. My work is availble for stock use. Contact me for inquiries at adunn@adunnphotography.com.

Many photographers are obsessed by equipment, but I place more emphasis on the vision of the photographer, not the equipment used to capture the image. Still, many people ask me what equipment I shoot with. I shot for many years in 35mm format, but in early 2003 I moved to medium format, and have recently added digital cameras as well.