Pond-Smith, David

David Pond-Smith was born in Chicago and was reared by his grandparents in Port Arthur, a small refinery town in southeast Texas. He went to high school with Janis Joplin, drove a fast car and earned a bad reputation with the parents of all the girls that he dated. His grandfather told him to get a shovel and go to work at the bottom of the heap at Texaco, or get a college degree. Pond-Smith got a BS and burned the shovel. He had written photographer, Ansel Adams, and asked him to teach him the language of light. Ansel wrote a postcard back and said that he didn't know if he could do that but