Study Of A Photographer Study: Ansel Adams '

Madison Bacca

Photographer Study

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams is a photographer who known best for his black and white landscape photos. Before beginning my photographer study of him, I had a limited amount of knowledge of his photography. Previously I had to write an essay for another class about a form of art. I chose photography and ,I more specifically, wrote about Ansel Adams. This essay was nothing too extensive, the only knowledge that I gained from it was that Adams took photographs mostly in black and white and that he was especially famous for his breathtaking landscape photos. When I set out to being this photographer study, I immediately knew that I wanted to continue learning about Ansel Adams and his type of photography. I think

Anybody can see a beautiful scene and photograph it but it takes some skill to be able to take a photograph of a scene in a way that makes it beautiful. Adams’ images are so detailed and complex that I am assuming that he used a wide angle lens. With my normal lens I would not be able to fit that much of a scene in frame. The way that he also presented these photos in black and white made them even more interesting. The photographs are more dramatic and intense when in black and white. Black and white photography is something that I have always found very captivating, I just have not experimented with it much. Because of how Adams’ iconic black and white landscape photographs inspired me, I decided to go out and try to imitate his

Landscape photos have not been a strong suit of mine, I am more comfortable with close up photographs of one particular thing instead of a whole scene. When photographing a landscape, I have a difficult time keeping the photo interesting enough throughout. I did not have access to national parks and landmarks like Adams did, but I did the best that I could with what I had. I tried to frame images with other landmarks to keep them interesting throughout, and some photos turned out better than others. My first photo turned out well, I kept the frame full without being overly busy. I also included the color version of that same photograph because I found that each photograph had a very different feel to them. Adding the black and white to the photo made it much more dramatic looking. Throughout this study I have learned many different things. I am more comfortable setting up and shooting landscape photographs, before they usually turned out rather plain and boring. I have also seen how the color scheme of a photo, black and white or color, can really change an image. The feeling produced by a photo is dependent on the color scheme. While I was studying Ansel Adams himself, I learned that he worked hard to become as well known as he was. He was very actively putting his work out there for people to see, which is something I hope to do more of in the future. I look forward to experimenting with