Ansel Adams is a landscape photographer known for his extremely dramatic black and white photos. He took photos all over the world, but his most famous works were generally shot in Yosemite. His work is everywhere from books, to calendars, postcards, national park brochures, and many other places. There is a very good chance that you have seen some of his work before, even if you were unaware it was his. Ansel Adams was born February 20th, of 1902 and died April 2nd, 1984. He grew up in the city of San Francisco. From a young age, Adams was enticed in photography. The concept was extremely intriguing to him. He had a lot of problems with sickness as a child, and would spend hours in bed reading and looking at pictures. The most memorable for him was when he was 12. He was sick in bed with the measles and his aunt brought him a book called In the Heart of the Sierras by J. M. Hutchings. The book included pictures of Yosemite, and from then out his love for Yosemite was profound. He visited Yosemite on a family trip at 14 and was consumed by the park. He recalls the sound of the river being so moving and powerful. One morning shortly after arriving at Yosemite, he was presented his first camera. It was a Kodak Box Brownie. This began his love for photography and created a special place in his heart for Yosemite. He continued to come and visit the park year after year and continued to take photos on his long hikes. His dad became sick in 1917 and Ansel visited Yosemite. He would send him pictures of the flowers he’d see on his hikes as his father was an amateur botanist. On his visits to Yosemite, he got to know a man by the name of Francis Holman very well. He would call him Uncle Frank. The two shared many perilous hikes and journeys through the famed Sierras. Francis was a retired mining engineer in South America. His love for the park was immense, something he shared with Ansel. He spent countless summers at Yosemite. The most powerful quote Ansel said was, “I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite.” Ansel Adams has influenced modern day landscape photography in a huge way. He composes his photos using a lot of rule of thirds. Although his photos generally meet the rule of thirds, he was a large supporter of photography as an art form. He supported what is referred to as “pure photography”. Pure photography is when a photo does not possess any kind of composition or idea, but rather just captures the moment. This paired with his black and white photos creates a very dramatic photo with that lasting “wow” effect. In a lot of his photos, he would use highlight and shadows to make those really drastically contrasting photos, typically putting a darker foreground with a lighter background. He achieved this by using a red photo filter on hisd lenses, something still used widely today by landscape photographers. Ansel stuck with film cameras during his career swearing by them due to the high level of manipulation you can get out of them when taking pictures. There are certain things about the film and the lenses that would perform differently from their digital counterparts that allowed him to use his skill to push the photography barriers at the time and pioneer a new era of photography. My photos I took were inspired by Adams focus on the sky, and dramatic contrast. I think my photos accurately represent his style, minus his more dramatic locations I unfortunately don't have the opportunity to shoot. I shot mine in the same spontaneous style Adams was famous for, trying to capture the moment rather than just snap another picture.
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AuthorJoe Budzinski Archives
June 2017
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