Charles Cramer studied piano for 20 years, receiving an M.A. from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. This conservatory was endowed by George Eastman, who also founded the Eastman Kodak Company. This connection between music and photography can be seen in the lives of many photographers.

Ansel Adams regarded the negative as the "score", and the print as the "performance". Being very concerned with "performing" led Cramer to become involved with one of the most complicated methods of making color prints - the dye transfer process. A dye transfer print, with its startling depth and brilliance, has long been considered among the finest methods of color reproduction. Since it is also one of the most time-consuming and costly methods, it is rarely seen today. Cramer labored mightily with dye transfer for 16 years, and is recognized as a master printer.

In 1997, he began emerging from the darkroom to sit in front of a large, color-calibrated monitor. This new digital process involves scanning the transparency at high resolution and using Photoshop as a digital darkroom. Although far removed from darkroom-intensive dye transfer, this process also gives him incredible control over the final image. Cramer is convinced that his digital prints now rival and exceed what he was able to do in the darkroom.

Photographs by Charles Cramer are available through fine photographic galleries throughout the West. He has also taught workshops for the Ansel Adams Gallery, Palm Beach Workshops in Florida, and, co-taught with his friend Bill Atkinson, at Calypso Imaging and Anderson Ranch Workshops.

In 1987 he was selected by the National Park Service to be an Artist-in-Residence in Yosemite. Charles Cramer's landscape work has been published by National Geographic Books, Sierra Club, and the Yosemite Association. He has been profiled by View Camera, PhotoTechniques, and PhotoVision magazines. He is also featured in the new book published by Rotovision, "Landscape: The World's Top Photographers."