Ansel Adams Presentation Notes
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12IbFrjTAaY04E_nJXeVjH-mhQw0zx5c_?usp=sharing
Today Ansel Adams is recognized as one of the most influential landscape photographers in the 20th century, but he did not start off that way, he did not even start out as a photographer. Ansel Adams was born on February 20, 1902 in San Francisco, California. He was a very quiet and shy child growing up, which helped him find his joy in nature. I picked Ansel Adams because of my interest in nature and landscape photography, and my passion for National Parks. I am also planning to do my Honors Thesis on Adams and his Zone System because he is my favorite photographer. I’ve always loved his contrasts in his black and white photographs and has given me a preference for black and white photography when I am looking for a much more dramatic look.
1. Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, 1927
Yosemite National Park in CA
Adams first fully visualized photograph.
He used a red filter, apparently he had already taken one exposure using a yellow filter but wasn’t satisfied, so then he switched to a red filter in order to give a more stark aspect to the rock face and darken the sky
2. Bridalveil Fall, 1927
Yosemite National Park in CA
The image captures Yosemite ‘s majestic Bridalveil Fall, including the curling mist that inspired its Native American name pohono, meaning “puff of wind.”
The fall also carries family lore for Adams: in 1901, Harry and Anne Best, the parents of Ansel’s wife Virginia, were married at its base.
3. Rose and Driftwood, 1932
His mother had brought him a large pale pink rose from there garden, and he immediately wanted to photograph it, but couldn‘t find an appropriate background. He remember a piece of weathered plywood picked up near Baker Beach, and then he balanced the board on two pillows on a table under a large north-facing window and made the exposure using natural light.
4. Mt. Ansel Adams Lyell Fork of the Merced River, 1938
Yosemite National Park in CA
Adams made this image with a 3.25”x4.25” Zeiss Jewel view camera.
Precise date of the image is debatable, some evidence points to 1943, but it may have been taken on a pack trip in September 1938 with Georgia O’Keeffee and David McAlpin.
Not the only peak in the Sierra Nevada honoring Adams. After his death, California Wilderness Act enlarged the Minarets Wilderness Area to its present 231,005-acre size and renamed it the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area.
5. Gates of the Valley, 1938
Yosemite National Park in CA in the Winter
This photo is still capturable today.
Ground level take of the Yosemite Valley with El Capitan to the left and Bridalveil Falls to the right with the Merced river right in front of you.
6. Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, 1938
Yosemite National Park in CA
Adams made this image with an 8”x10” view camera from the Old Sentinel Bridge near the Yosemite Chapel. The old bridge was replaced in 2000, the new Sentinel Bridge remains one the best viewpoints in Yosemite Valley and is a popular spot for photographers, largely because of Adams ‘ photographs from this location.
7. Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome, 1940
Yosemite National Park in CA
Adams made this image with an 8”x10” view camera.
Sentinel Dome is the 2nd highest point in the Yosemite Valley after Half Dome.
Adams’s photo made the Jeffrey Pine famous, making it an icon for photographers visiting Yosemite. It was an easy hike to reach Sentinel Dome made it popular destination action for hikers, over the years thousands of visitors carved their initials into it. Despite the efforts of park rangers who carried buckets of water to it, the tree perished in the drought of 1976-77 and fell in August 2003.
8. Moonrise, Hernandez, 1941
New Mexico taken form a highway at 4:05pm
Making of this photograph is legendary
From Ansel Adams, in Examples:
We were sailing southward along the highway not far from Espanola when I glanced to the left and saw an extraordinary situation—an inevitable photograph! I almost ditched the car and rushed to set up my 8×10 camera. I was yelling to my companions to bring me things from the car as I struggled to change components on my Cooke Triple-Convertible lens. I had a clear visualization of the image I wanted, but when the Wratten No. 15 (G) filter and the film holder were in place, I could not find my Weston exposure meter! The situation was desperate: the low sun was trailing the edge of the clouds in the west, and shadow would soon dim the white crosses.
Realizing as I released the shutter that I had an unusual photograph which deserved a duplicate negative, I swiftly reversed the film holder, but as I pulled the darkslide the sunlight passed from the white crosses; I was a few seconds too late!”
Obviously it still holds up to incredible work of Ansel Adams even if he was in a rush, haha
9. The Tetons and the Snake River, 1942
Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Part of the photographs taken for the project for the US department of Interior.
Highlights large format photography and composition of landscapes, using the foreground and background by beautifully capturing the river snaking all the way to the mountains in the back drawing your eye along the river the whole way.
10. Canyon de Chelly, 1942
Taken from the White House Overlook, Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona
He first traveled to the Canyon de Chelly in September 1937, Ansel was drawn to the “beautiful, flowing patterns” of the solidified sand dunes clearly visible in the lower left corner of this photograph.
He wrote to his wife, Virginia, “The Canyon de Chelly exceeds anythign I have imagined at any time!”
11. Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine, 1944
On four consecutive mornings Adams tried to take this photograph from the east side of the Sierra.
On the 5th day it was still dark and cold when he set up his camera on the new platform on top of his car and returned back into his car to keep warm.
As dawn was approaching, he returned to the camera to wait for the sun’s rays on the meadow, and at the last possible moment, a horse entered into the photo.
12. Teklanika River, 1947
Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska
In 1946, Adams received a Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph national parks and monuments. He would go on three fellowship trips in 1946, 1948, and 1959.
The following summer he spent 6 weeks photographing the Alaskan landscape.
13. Mt. McKinley and Wonder Lake, 1947
Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska
He had been taken from McKinley station to the ranger cabin at Wonder Lake by NPS. The photograph was take at 1:30am, the sun having only set 2 hours previously at 11:30pm, on one of the rare cloudless days during a weeks stay at the ranger station.
He anticipated a good day so he retired early the previous night, and woke up at midnight to prepare for sunrise.
14. Maroon Bells, 1951
Near Aspen, Colorado; you can still visit this spot today because it is part of a US Forest Service land.
The Aspen Institute was founded by Walter Paepcke in 1950, and in 1951 the Institute sponsored a national conference on photography with a list of attendees and participants including Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Berenice Abbott, and other significant practitioners of the art form.
15. Rock and Surf, 1951
Big Sur Coast, California
Adams technique was to stop the motion in the surf. Freezing the water was essential to the effectiveness of the composition.
What looks so natural and effortless is actually very difficult as Adams explain in the narration that accompanies this photograph.
“Surf is seldom predictable in its ebb and flow. It constantly presents fresh shapes, and the eye must be swift and anticipation keen to expose at the most favorable moment for the particular composition consistent with the visualization… Many waves broke on the sand and curled around the rocks before the one I photographed. The impulse to operate the shutter came at the appropriate fraction of a second before the foam curves met as we see them in the image. Anticipation is a very important part of the photographer’s training, and is acquired only by much practice.”
16. El Capitan, 1952
Yosemite National Park in CA
Adams used an 8”x10” view camera.
El Capital is the largest exposed granite face in the world, drawing climbers from around the world. Thanks to Adams work, it’s also a magnet to photographers and this image has long been a favorite of the Adams family.
During his career, Adams took many images of El Capitan’s dramatic face, notable one of his first known photographs taken in 1916 on his first trip to Yosemite. Adams return to El Capitan over and again photographing it in every time, season, and light he could.
17. Moon and Half Dome, 1960
Adams made this image at 4:14pm on December 28, 1960 with a Hasselblad Camera and 250mm Zeiss Sonnar lens, releasing the mirror before operating the shutter to minimize vibration.
It was one of his last well known photographs, and is arguably the definitive photograph of Half Dome and among the most famous images of Yosemite National Park.
It was a very personal piece to Adams, because it debuted for a very personal audience: the first publication of this piece was as the wedding announcement for Adam’s son Michael and his daughter-in-law, Jeanne in 1962.
In his book “Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs” Adams recalls making “Mood and Half Dome:” As soon as I saw the moon coming up by Half Dome I had visualized the image. …I have photographed Half Dome innumerable times, but it is never the same Half Dome, never the same light or the same mood. …Half Dome is a great mountain with endless variations of lighting and sky situations and seasonal characteristics; the many images I have made reflect my varied creative responses to this remarkable granite monolith.”