General Forums >> Photography Bistro >> What affect has Ansel Adams had on your life?
What affect has Ansel Adams had on your life?
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Posted about 1 year ago Taking many hundred black and white photos and working with them in a darkroom, Ansel Adams had a profound affect on my life later when I started doing digital photography. How has he affected your life? |
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| Posted about 1 year ago I just remember early in my career finding out that he did a lot of darkroom manipulation of his work... it was like finding out there was no Santa all over again... but I got over it... Adams that is. Santa still depresses me 222 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since March of 2003... more than World Wars 1 & 2, Korea & Vietnam combined. |
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| Posted about 1 year ago giovanni said: As I sell my wares around the Northern California country side, I run into older adults that tell me personal stories about Adams. One I will never forget is about him sitting behind a card table in Yosemite Valley trying to sell his photography for $5 a picture and no one was buying! |
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| Posted about 1 year ago Geez, Ansel Adams?! If you had known stanmcq... you wouldn't have asked that question! I have a darkroom on my third floor and a ZoneVI print washer and water filter/temp gizmo in my laundry room(I have at times heard so much about ZONE VI I was sure my brain would start bleeding) I have boxes of camera stuff for building experimental lenses and sCrap all through my house, cameras, computers, and a husband who was totally inspired by his mastery in the dark room while in college till even my bookcases are loaded with him.... in fact, since my husband is making his living that way and even pulling me into the world of photo retouch (I love to illustrate, but those pixels pay man, it's like a drug) I have quite a bit to thank Ansel Adams for. I can hardly ever look at anyone's prints of the West, especially B&W, and not think of him. Now his friend Georgia O'Keefe nearly killed me and certainly led to the biggest depression in my "young" (-like 20 years ago)artistic life... but that's a story for some other rant or group I suppose, :) ciao Each day is a gift, open it up and play with it! |
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| Posted about 1 year ago One day I was going through a collection of my grand father's photos and I came across his collection that he took in 1927. Him and two friends took a 1925 Buick on a 12,000 mile round trip across country from the Bronx. It took them two months to complete the trip and along the way he sent post cards back home telling his father and his brother how the trip was going. One day I was at a art gallery and I saw an image that looked just like my grand fathers but it was panned back a bit. The image was Ansel Adams famous shot looking across the Mercer River into a valley at Yosemite. I have always wondered if Ansel Adams and my grand father ever ran into each other in 1927 at Yosemite. Ansel Adams went on to do great work and my grand father went on to be a wildlife photographer for the New York Zoological Society (the Bronx Zoo). Ansel Adams has definitely had an effect on my life. Mr. Adams has shown me that photography is art. |
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| Posted about 1 year ago Photon101 said: Thank you Photon101, that's what I'm talking about! Photography is "art". Ansel Adams had written that he was an average photographer at best, it was because of what he did after the camera had finishing doing its business, that made his images so great. He was a darkroom "junky"! He was an "artist" not a photographer! |
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| Posted about 1 year ago Well. His work is amazing. When I see something of his in a book, or magazine, I have to stop what I'm doing and stare at if for at least a minute. For example yesterday, I was at the mall and I saw a calender with his photos in it. I had to stop and stare. Hmm.. As for what kind of affect he has had on my life... well, I guess he makes me say 'woaaahh...' a lot. |
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| Posted 11 months ago He was the most influential B&W wet film technician for me. His zone exposure system and his methods for stretching or compressing the B&W film light-to-emulsion density curves really opened up my eyes to wet film possibilities. The way he was able to create those deep tonal sky renderings are unmatched even using modern polarizing filters. Simply said, he just made B&W spectacular. |
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| Posted 5 months ago Ansel Adams knew how to pick his best images. If he were alive today... and on Bistro... I don't think you'd see him upload a ton of images on the same subject. 222 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since March of 2003... more than World Wars 1 & 2, Korea & Vietnam combined. |
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| Posted 4 months ago his books are quite a good reference concerning to photography technical issues. |
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| Posted 2 months ago Anyone that knows me, will know I am an avid Ansel fan!!
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| Posted 2 months ago Wait, you're telling me there's no Santa AND that Ansel Adams manipulated his photos?! I look at Ansel Adams as a reference more than an icon. (Though, I do get kind of tired of people who can't manage to name another photog. aside from Adams.) He was a supremely talented photographer and as mentioned before, knew how to put his best work forward and contain the mystique of his work and technique mostly to himself, being overshadowed by the power of whatever images he had captured. One who closely mimics Adams is a photographer local to me, Monte Nagler. Now, there's another great talent but sometimes I look at his work and say "Really? Did it look JUST like that?" But usually, I don't care enough to give it too much thought. But I think that when a great name like Adams will admit to darkroom manipulations or when I find out it [the subject] of a photo didn't look JUST like that, I feel a little more comfortable with my own talents as a photographer, knowing that even the most modest tweak here or there to enhance the beauty or feeling I'm trying to convey in a photo is okay. |
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| Posted 2 months ago I've read alot about the man over the years, I had met him several times in the earily morning hours at the B/W lab at Brooks Inst, in Santa Barbara it was at a time when we would both spend alot of time in the lab, I as a student and he was just needing a place to do his printing. He taught several workshops and most of those that took them were students from Brooks, I on the other hand only known him as the big old guy in the lab. When I was back in high school I spent most of my days in the darkroom, I even built a darkroom in my basement,thus I spent all of my weekends in the darkroom,and any other free time I had. So while I already understood how a image could be enhanced in the darkroom, it was Ansel who would explain how those filters on the enlarger could help show more of the image I was loosing. Back then the school was teaching the curve and how to enhance the curve. But it was actually watching Ansel use one of my "Lone Cypress" shots that opened my eyes to what he saw even before I did. I took several of his wookshops and to this day When I shoot B/W I think of all the things he showed me. I've found that if I shoot senics in the pre-dawn hours with a very long exposure you can see far into my images. It wasn't his photo-manipulation in the shot, it was all the image in his negitive,if its not on the film to begin with you can't make it come out with all the dodging and burning of the negitive. Get on the film first, then do the magic. Did anyone know he was big on useing rubber cement when he put toner on the prints? After the war,and when I first started ISU I did alot of alternate tone images. So much so it put wedge between me and my advisor,as she wanted me to do her B/W printing for her. I refused even tho it was a common thing for under grads to this type of thing. Soon after I transfered to another university. Ansel had a big enfluence on my photography life, and I guess one day I too will make it back to Yosimite and reflect in my images all the things he taught that young 18 year old kid. But this year I'm traveling Texas,last year I was in the Flordia Everglades, I don't stay in one place for too long...JIMMMMM |