California has the best of all the landscape worlds - ocean, beaches, mountains, high deserts, low deserts, redwood forests and much more.  Most all of which were within a day's drive from the photography school I was attending.  It made for unforgettable moments in some spectacular locations.  My one regret is not being able to meet Ansel Adams - the one photographer whose work inspired me (and I know countless others) to become a better photographer by learning and practicing the Zone System which he helped create.  I did attend a workshop near Carmel in the fall of 1984 after he had passed the previous spring and we were able to tour his darkroom and meet his widow Virginia at their home on the Carmel coast.  That same fall I joined a workshop trip that travelled to China and Hong Kong and the leader of that workshop was John Sexton, a former assistant to Ansel Adams from 1979-1982.  I attended several other workshops over the following years that were lead by John Sexton and his expertise and successful method of teaching the Zone System and making expressive prints is so invaluable to this day.