Ansell Adams 110th birthday

Ansell Adams was born in 1902 on 20th February.
He was born in San Francisco and was largely home schooled after being expelled from several schools. In 1916 he was given a Kodak Box Brownie for a family holiday in Yosemite. By the late 1920s his photos were selling so well he gave up plans to be a pianist and moved permanently to Yosemite.

I don't think any other photographer has brought us as many photos in such incredible focus and marvellous perspective. His images are not the result of just pointing a camera and blasting away, although I've been known to get lucky that way .



Notable Ansell Adams sayings:

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

How high your awareness level is determines how much meaning you get from your world. Photography can teach you to improve your awareness level.

I expect to retire to a fine-grained heaven where the temperatures are always consistent, where the images slide before one's eyes in a continual cascade of form and meaning.

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer — and often the supreme disappointment.

Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes, your easy smile is your museum.

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

I particularly like the last quote. But I suspect he wasn't thinging of mine.


Bernard

He was superb, but I don't agree that landscape photography is the supreme test. It's why I would place HCB higher in the pantheon. But Ansel comes second.

G

One of the first photography books I read was by Ansel Adams - I reckon I would understand more of it if I read it again today

Thanks for the heads up! One of the things I want to do is to try recreate 10 of his photographs around Yosemite.

You will need to join the queue I suspect.

10? 1 would do me

But if you are going all the way to Yosemite you might as well try for more than one.

Funnily enough for all the times I've been to California I have never been to Yosemite.

Try Gwyn? - Yes - achieve? - I would be happy with one that came close to any from AA

Carl

You can start practicing by photographing the moon!

Shouldn't that be half moon .

I was thinking of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico

I was at a loss with the subject luminance values, and I
confess I was thinking about bracketing several exposures,
when I suddenly realized that I knew the luminance of the
moon – 250 c/ft2. Using the Exposure Formula, I placed
this luminance on Zone VII; 60 c/ft2 therefore fell on
Zone V, and the exposure with the filter factor of 3x
was about 1 second at f/32 with ASA 64 film. I had no
idea what the value of the foreground was, but I hoped
it barely fell within the exposure scale. Not wanting
to take chances, I indicated a water-bath development
for the negative.
Ansell Adams

The negative bore little resemblance to the final print

The final print had indeed been heavily worked, but it remains a mystery to me what people see in it. There are such magnificent Adams images and yet this very ordinary shot (IMHO) seems to receive lots of accolades.

Tastes clearly vary enormously.

I know what you mean John.

Unfortunately his work doesn't come across all that well in the book I aquired at a jumble sale "Ansel Adams Letters and Images 1916 - 1984" I would very much like to see the same photographs in real life as I think they would be very impressive.