Research- Ansel Adams

My next photographer am going to research is another photographer that has inspired me to do River and surroundings photograhy. Ansel Adams photography is phenominal in the area that he works with. Below I will be explaining why this photographer has inspired me alongside a few of my favourite shots of his and all about this photographer.

Ansel Adams was born in 20th February 1902 abd died 22nd April 1984. He was an enviromentalist as well as a photographer. From when Ansel was a child at the age of 12 he was very interested in the environment. His original intented profession was being a pianist but as he was learning to play the piano he was also showing great artistic skill in photography which eventually replaced the pianist profession.
He started off with the photography from 1916 using a kodac no1 Box Brownie which his parents gave to him, and from there he didnt stop his photography. He explored everywhere pretty much to become what he was. Below are three of my favourite shots which I feel have inspired me for my work.

Tetons-Snake River

 I will firstly start off with my favourite shot of his. This is a picture of the Tetons-Snake River. This picture in one word is phenominal and I would one day love to be able to take pictures like this. He has everything perfect in this shot. He has made the main subject (River) become the first thing the viewer looks at when this picture is viewed. He has managed to take the shot just as the sun is shining on the river to get a lovely reflection on the river and the mountains in the background. Also what I love about this picture is how he has managed to get the surroundings especially the background looking so brilliant with the mountains and trees at the side so the viewer will also be able to look at this aswell as being drawn to the river at first hand.
Overall this picture is absolutely stunning and is a huge inspiration for me to take these sort of shots because when they are taken like this they look amazing and faultless.



McDonald Lake

This is another shot of Ansel's work which I was very impressed with. This beautiful shot is of the Mcdonald Lake. As you can see from this picture and from the previous picture his pictures were taken in black and white. This, I feel can add a really nice effect especially with this sort of photography and they Ansels shots are taken makes them look even better. This shot of the Mcdonald Lake looks amazing with the background and surroundings looking so beautiful. The way he has taken this picture with the mountains going off into the far distance adds an amazing distant effect to this shot. Amazing.



El Captain (Merced River)

The final picture I have chosen for my research is of the Merced River. This shot was taken in 1950. The River is at Yosemite National Park. Obviously this photograph had to be taken in black and white but I fell that this makes the picture look alot better. I dont really think that this picture would have the same effect if it was in colour. As you can see his main focus for this shot was to get the river to stand out but to also blend in the huge cliff aswell and he has done this perfectly. You can tell that Ansel was an environmentalist because he explored almost every location like this to take these sort of pictures. Also I love how the cliff in the far background is blurred. This is proberbly due to the camera that he is using but it adds an extra effect to the shot which actually suits it.