Ansel Adams – Famous Landscape Photographer
Ansel Adams is a prominent photographer primarily known for his work throughout Yosemite National Park. He was also well known for his scientific accomplishments in the field of photography.
Ansel Adams had an interesting life growing up. He was actually born to an upper class family in the state of California. He is well known for having the crooked nose which he never had corrected but was the result of an aftershock from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The aftershock had actually thrown him into a garden wall. The result of the aftershock also started a large fire in a nearby town, nearly burning the entire town to the ground. It was one of his first memories as he was only four years old at the time.
As Ansel was growing up his parents taught him to love nature. This was a slight paradox considering his father owned a lumber company and this industry is responsible for tearing through some of the largest Redwood trees. It is ironic that despite his family being so closely tied to the industry that Ansel Adams later on in life heavily criticized the industry for their practices. Still though, Ansel and his father shared a passion early on for the landscape and wildlife around Yosemite. They would frequently find themselves going outdoors just to spend some time looking through a telescope to view the beautiful scenery.
This is likely what had probably led him to a passion for photography. He came into the industry early on but the going thing was trying to have photographs resemble that of paintings. This meant a lack of clarity, but with color. Ansel Adams actually had changed the industry as his photographs grew in popularity. He favored realism and tried to ensure his photographs displayed a lot of clarity. This is why his pictures are still used in many magazines, calendars, despite how old many of them are. Adams photographs are often very recognizable. They were very high resolution and using superior dark room techniques that he helped develop, he was able to produce some of the clearest pictures of that time era.
Ansel Adams still remains as one of the pioneers in the industry as well for his zone system which he co-developed. This is what helped improve the quality of photographs so dramatically over this era of photography. He had developed a systematic way of determining what the proper exposure should be and helps you adjust the contrast of the final print.
Notable photographs
* Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, 1927.
* Rose and Driftwood, 1932.
* Clearing Winter Storm, 1940.
* Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941.
* Ice on Ellery Lake, Sierra Nevada, 1941.
* Georgia O’Keeffe and Orville Cox at Canyon de Chelly
* Aspens, New Mexico, 1958.
There are 13 comments on this post.
Trackback URL | Comments RSS FeedHi, my name is Tori Stonebreaker and I am very much interested in Photography. I am currently 13 years old soon to be 14 in November. I make some money that I am putting aside in a bank account so I can buy my own camera. I am very much interested in photography and I am determined to make it a life long choice. I take pictures of landscapes, animals, and misplaced beauty. I would like to ask you what type of cameras and lenses would be most suitable for my type of photography. Also if you have any tips for a rising photographers then please include them. I would greatly appreciate any information you can give me.
Sincerely,
Tori Stonebreaker
Tori »
It’s hard to say since I don’t know your budget limits.
Did you consider what brand you want to start of with? It’s an important decision, cause you will have to stick to your choice – if you get canon camera, you will buy canon gear: lenses, flashes, batteries etc. So if later you decide to move Nikon it will be hard to dump everything and move onto the other system. So think twice before choosing any brand over the other.
I’m a canon shooter, so I will give you recommendation on that brand.
For the landscapes I would use Canon 5D + 17-40 f/4L (You can also read my: Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Lens Review)
For animals in the zoo, or wildlife generally 40D + Canon EF 100-400L IS. Crop factor 1.6X of 40D will make this lens 160-640 long enough for anything, BIF (birds in flight), ZOO photography, or wildlife.
If you are on the tight budget, skip 5D and 40D, and Get canon 30D (goes for 600$ body only) + 17-40 F/4L, 100-400L IS, 85 f/1.8
For the beginner photography tips please visit: Photography basics
Good luck!
I have realise that everytime i see a photograph of a true artist, i feel like this photo shows the world isn’t just full of war,and hate but there is always something from this earth that will always make you smile.i never did think about what i wanted to be when i grow up until now.the problem is i have no idea where to start.i am afraid i will lose this intrest.do you have any idea how i should start ?
jennifer » well if u don’t start you’ll never know – just grab a cheapest digital SLR and start shooting… I’m sure you gonna love it. I first took film camera in my hands in 1996, since then it was constant development of style and skills. Photography is something you always gonna enjoy, no matter if your a pro or just an amateur. Read my article for starters: Digital photography for dummies
hey, im danielle.. i kind of can relate to jennifer.. i love photography and respect art but im afraid that ill lose this interest. im doing my senior project on photographers and their contributions to art. ansel adams is all i have come up with so far. any suggestions?
p.s. i have to write a six page long research paper on these ppl also. it cant be a how to or history of.
I would say look around to start with a Nikon D5000 or Canon rebel is nice if you have more you can get a better camera I like Nikon because they keep to the original andc dont change their lens adapters ( meaning a lens from 20 years ago can work NOW!!) which is awesome and you wont spend as much it also keeps it looking more like purist like it and Nikons are great for landscape think about getting a wide lens a zoom lens a 35mm and or a 50 mm non zoom lenses are good to have because you have to work on composition more try and take classes check out the book the moment it clicks by Joe McNally really good book and overall have fun and shoot what you like dont limit yourself to digital either understanding FILM PHTOGRAPHY AND THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING is VERY important its really crucial to getting what your doing with a digital too have fun and love what you do overall though
I am pretty late to reply but what I believe is that you do not need to spend so much money to take photographs. Granted i do not know a lot about photography, never taken a formal class or even a workshop. That doesn’t stop me, I am 19 years old and I have photographers that have gone to college and have been shooting for 30 years ask me to partner with them not because i’m great but because I have fresh ideas. To Tori my advice is just get any camera you can afford and start there, its not about how much you spend on a camera but rather what you do with it. Take care and happy shooting.
Im studying Photography and Ansel Adams is a huge part of our studies, Amazing eye and style.
Another fantastic photographer’s we study are ken Duncan and Simon Beedle http://www.simonbeedle.com for there compositions and style.
Thanks
Dave
Dave T » WOW, they are awesome… thanks for sharing!
Where do you study btw?
this guy is off the hook i love his work..
land scape is 1 of the hardest to shoot
cause u should get the resolution right,
the ISO, man this guy… huh he’s GREAT..!!
Sandro again thanks..
For the young man.
Consider looking at the new mirror-less cameras. Lighter, compact and advancing quickly. The latest versions from Olympus show every promise of being super fast, super accurate. New lenses are coming every day ..especially in the Panny/Olympus camp (Sony a bit behind here) ..and an ability to use a myriad of legacy lenses from vrtually any camp.
I wish you well.
Action requires knwledoge, and now I can act!