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Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Ansel Adams (P)

Image result for Monolith, the Face of Half Dome

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist whos work has inspired many people all over the world. Considered one of the greatsest photographer's of all time its not hard to see why!

Image result for ansel adams photography Image result for ansel adams photography

Working mainly on landscapes in the west of America, Adams has helped to document and capture the environment in such an unique way. Working mainly in black and white. He said that one day he was shooting and had a moment of visualisation. He could visualiste the way he knew the picture would look but more importantly he felt the way it would look. This he said was the true way of photography and something that he was famous for quoting.

Image result for ansel adams visualization quote

Black and white photography has the benefit to make a photo and can highlight the light and shadows. Dramatic shadows are brought to the viewer's attention. It can make more of an impact on the emotional state of a person but also make it timeless. 
Adams would have been used to a dark room and maybe this old style of printing played a bigger part of the reason he used black and light. He knew the difference of the shadows, highlights and line and perspective. Adams was to bring photography into the /fine art category with some of his black and white images.



Here is a picture of my shoe I took, notice the different in light and dark, The highlights on my shoe and stones. the logs in the background become more detailed.

Adams did a lot of to conserve the natural wonders of the west, he was to become a board member of the Sierra club and transform his passion into a long spanning career as a photographer. His work helped the Yosemite National Park, as he his work to promote conservation of the wilderness areas there. It was at the Yosemite park that Adams had started to began experimenting with photography.

He did work on close up images which I have to say are very good and the detail is truly fantastic in its basic form......photographing the intimate details of nature. It gives an interesting view from a photographer lens showing the the form and surface more in depth.

Image result for ansel adams close up Image result for ansel adams close up

This work looks as if it could be a pencil drawing. The black and white gives such detail that just jumps out.

His legacy includes helping to elevate photography to an art comparable with painting and music. Adams himself was a keen pianist and hadn't done well in school as a child. Similar to Bailey I guess and I wonder if a creative mind comes from hardship/stress with people who struggled academically. I suppose back then they was as much help available.

Adams has a mountain of books and images for sale and did workshops to teach his techniques to others. The impact he had on the world of photography has been great one and he deserves the recognition he gets. His work made me sit up and look.



Canyon de Chelly by Ansel AdamsRose and Driftwood by Ansel AdamsEl Capitan, Merced River, Clouds by Ansel Adams

Adams and the camera - I searched for the most famous camera Adams used and this came up.

Ansel Adams, master of the view camera, is revered for the exceptional print quality of his photographs. Using a view camera allowed him to control several aspects of photographing, each one of which contributes to this print quality.


A View Camera, The view camera is a large-format camera used by photographers who want to control every step of taking a photograph. Controlling tonal range may be crucial, they may need large negatives to create prints that clearly show even the tiniest detail, or they may want to decide exactly which parts of the picture are in focus. The photographer who uses a view camera devotes a lot of time to taking each photograph. Think about how this is different from using a camera with automatic focus and automatic exposure.

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