Ansel Adams lived from 20/2/1902-22/4/1984 and was born in San Francisco, California. At age 4 he obtained a nose injury falling to the ground in The Great Earthquake of 1907 and this gave him his distinctive life long feature. He felt that he never really fitted in at school, partly due to this injury, and was home taught by his father and aunt before having private education.
"Ansel Adams is the most famous black and white photographer of all time" according to his web site. He was an only child, had by his mother at age 40, was raised in a Victorian way and had an affluent family history, though in his early years his family fortune collapsed.
This is one of his famous Oak Tree (sunset city) photographs which is great and so atmospheric. The shape of the tree is lovely, the stillness of the atmosphere comes through, and the way he framed the sun within the arched branches is something I would like to attempt given the opportunity. Though mostly I prefer colour photographs I do think Black and white look good and bring out the form. The scene shows siluette qualities and it makes me want to hunt a similar tree, with light showing from behind the branches.
Ansel Adams had a solitary childhood and found joy in nature, spending hours taking walks, hiking dunes, creeks and beaches in the wilderness of the Golden Gate.
When he was 12 he taught himself to play the piano and read music. He took lessons and it was to be his profession, but then from his first visit to the Yosemite Sierra, he was transformed. He started to use his Kodak No 1 Box Brownie his parents had given him, to photograph scenes there and this was a turning point in his life.
Adams decided he would make more money in photography that being a concert pianist. He hiked, climbed and explored Yosemite and gained confidence and self esteem in the process. In 1919 he joined the Sierra club and spent 4 summers as keeper of the clubs memorial lodge in Yosemite Valley.
His life was (in his words) "Coloured and modulated by the great earth gesture of the Yosemite Sierra." and spent time there every year up to his death.
He described himself as a Photographer, lecturer and writer and travelled the country in pursuit of natural beauty to photograph and to promote photography as a fine art.
In 1927 he met friend photographer Edward Weston and later they both became part of the renouned f/64 group ( founded in 1932). Although this group was short-lived, a San Francisco museum gave them an exibition and also gave Adams his first one-man museum show in the same year. The members of the f/64 group believed that everything should be in focus in photography.
Adams tried to portray the emotional side of his images to the viewer. He was a sociable man who liked to entertain and would also work for 18 hours or more a day for weeks or months on end, with no holidays. These times would follow with some days spent in bed with the flu.
He mostly worked as a commercial photographer and struggled with money until later in life. He was also an activist for the wilderness environment and fought for lots of environmental issues ie. new parks, the Wilderness Act for the preservation of the wilderness, (in particular Yosemite National Park), Wild Alaska, for the mighty redwoods, endangered sea lions/ otters and for clean air and water...
There is a vast amount of protected wilderness in America due to the efforts of Ansel Adams and his friends.
Adams was master of the technical and developed the famous 'Zone System" of exposure control. He produced 10 photography manuals, said to be the most influential books ever written on the subject.
I relate to the natural likes he had for natures imagery and find it inspiring that he worked all hours to fulfil his ambitions.
taken by Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams took this image in Yosemite California. I like the way this tree is snow covered with a thickness and the upwardly somewhat irregular branches full of it. The harsh shadows formed from the brightness are a good contrast bought more to eye because it is all black and white probably. Snow scenes are some of my favourite sort of photography and I also like mountain scenery.
taken by Ansel Adams
He took this one at Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming and is a scene that appealed to me because of its expanse. A great waterway leads the eye to the snow mountains and broody skies. I think the image does look cold because of the black and white and wonder, if it had been in colour whether some greenery or light cast would add some warmth. I still like it however, as the lack of colour does adds to the mood I think.
Here is an Ansel Adams colour photograph:
taken by Ansel Adams
This image does look warmer to me. I like the scene and the way it has some colour and like their reflections in the lake. It is interesting the way the colour cast shows a pink edging in the water reflection. The patterns created are affective and I would compare it to my 'Reflections' image (see composition and images section), only for a patterns point of view, not of image quality, clarity or composition. I would love to be able to achieve such clarity.
I was eager to go out in the snow to experiment with the camera over the icy period recently. Armed with a loaded camera and warm clothes; jumper layers, jeans, trainers, hat, 2 pairs of socks and fingerless gloves I found helpful. I didn't take a tripod on this field trip as not only did I consider it too cold to hang around too long, I didn't want any accidents with the equipment.
Health and Safety (what went right and wrong):
I would say I was considering health and safety issues here, as stated above, when I had the thought of not carrying too much equipment in hazardous conditions, considering the health and safety of the equipment. However, the health and safety thought soon left me, once at my destination... I got carried away, staying too long, and as the light was fading failed to consider my journey home and how a one- way out situation led me to drive on slippery lanes that had not been gritted. (Having arrived there by main road). I ended up feeling quite scared approaching hills, finding another car stranded and awaiting a recovery vehicle. I remember thinking how stupid I had been and that the images I had collected better be worth it. I hate driving in snow conditions as a rule and a journey of approx 10 minutes took me an hour to return, but I was safe. Although I thoroughly enjoyed taking photographs in the snow on this day, I would not put myself in the same situation again.
shutter 1/160 aperture 8.0 iso 200
As I walked this path I looked back thinking I must take a shot of those animals... the wooden tree remains in the centre, reminded me of something out of a Jurassic Park film. I liked the way the snow had settled on their backs and surrounding ground ferns, and the snow path contrasting to the autumn coloured trees cascading overhead. There was a nice blue sky that day too. To me this is a lively bright image showing sun light reflections on the snow path and Ansel Adams' Minarets image I also find lively and bright with its reflections. His Tetons image shows more mood and less light, as does my image below in my opinion.
shutter 1/200 aperture 10.0 iso 200
Not as moody as Adams' Tetons, Ice Pools felt more moody as the light was falling. I like that the sun shows to the left and its reflected light paths going up throughout the image. My favourite part is the slab of wood in the clear ice middle foreground contrasting to the snow ice part and their curvy patterns. I would have liked a closer image of that area, had there been more time and space to get in closer ( I already had my zoom out to its full length). I also like the bits of white cloud, matching the snow ice colour, against the blue sky. Whilst the colours appeal to me I am thinking the image may also work in black and white, which I think would make it look colder and possibly give more mood.
The images below were took on a different day, with lesson learned, I travelled on foot to take these, with a loaded camera (as described on a previous blog):-
shutter 1/85 aperture 4.00 iso 200
I think Ladders may also work in black and white, though I am liking the way snow has a blue colour reflected from the sky. It looks like you could climb the wooden snow ladders here, the branches so horizontal, I simply liked the way the snow had thickly collected on them. I realise there is not much composition to it, but then just liked its simplicity. I think Ice Pools and Ladders would both work in black and white but it would make Ice Pools feel colder.
shutter 1/50 aperture 4.5 iso 200
Again I like the thickness of snow collected here but what I loved about this scene was that it contained another small scene beyond...(centre of image); the open inviting tree trunk displays an attractive scene framed within its core. I like the criss cross branches above this inner scene, not too sure about the wooden fence to the left of the full image, and I did move in for a closer shot:-
I have been out and found light behind a tree. The light comes from the moon, not the sun, as in Adams's Oak Tree image, and mine is not a full tree shot, but its a start...
shutter 0.6 sec aperture 4.00 iso 3200
I like my first attempts at this. I went out and took this image at just after 12.00 midnight. I wanted to capture the light through the tree branches, but I could not get the whole tree in the shot, because there were houses stopping me moving further back (I was nearly in someone's driveway as it is).
For health and safety reasons I wanted to set up close to the car as possible, I knew that there probably wouldn't be many people around at this time on a freezing cold night, but I wasn't taking any chances and wanted to shoot and pack up to go as soon as I could. I ran off a few, changing position slightly and height of the tripod. The moon was hazy coming from back cloud but the colour effects I got on the tree, from a lamp to the left behind me, were a nice surprise... A golden glow, even at this time of night. Once I had loaded them onto computer for inspection, I wished I had taken more.
Equipment used:
* Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera with battery
*L series Lens 24-105mm
*SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash card 8 GB
*Tripod
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