fortunately, adams found great joy and inspiration in music and nature. a self-taught pianist, he set aside regular schooling to follow his passion for music. the discipline and structure that his musical studies demanded buttressed his otherwise restless youth. but it was nature itself which became his incontrovertible muse. adams fell in love with the Sierra Nevada mountains in his first visit, in 1916. he returned to the yosemite valley, the jewel of this mountain range along california's eastern border, every year of his life. on that first trip, adams's father gave his son a camera, a gift that would abet a life devoted to nature and to art.