Fact file
Born in 1902 on February 20th in the USA, Adams was a photographer with a preference for a full tonal range in his pictures. He married in 1928 and had two children, Anne and Michael Adams. Unfortunately, Ansel met his untimely end in 1984.
In his life, Adams was part of a group called f/64. It was founded by 20th-century San Francisco Bay Area photographers; Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, Brett Weston, and Edward Weston. These photographers shared a common photographic style characterized by sharply focused and carefully framed images.
image analysis
In this image, I thought Ansel Adams had cleverly constructed the photograph since the image directs our view point through the use of leading lines. in this image, it is the lake that acts as a leading line as it creates a path that leads the viewers eyes around the image stopping at the top of the mountain. Having this position of the lake also help to create a feel of depth to the image, also meaning that when taking the photo Adams must have considered where certain shadows and highlights would be.
This photo has been taken at face on angle with the camera aiming towards the mountain. The picture being in black and white gives an eerie feeling due to the amount of darkness seen in the image along with the cloudy grey sky, however, it could be argued that the picture also has a calming atmosphere by the lake bringing light back into the image. The black and white within the image helps to add a dramatic flair to the image which is a common theme throughout his pictures.
In this image, the big, dramatic clouds shown behind the mountain top give off an anxious feeling to the viewer since the appearance of them resemble a sandstorm about to cover the mountains and trees below.
The rule of thirds is shown here too, where the mountain and clouds joining in the middle right of the image. Adams used leading lines through the use of the curved mountain edges pointing towards the trees below. The viewer would probably feel anxious when observing this image due to the huge clouds raining down on the mountain.
This picture was taken from a eye- level view, we can tell this by the fact that the trees are taller than the perspective. This picture uses natural lighting and the focus point of the image is the mountain due to it being the largest thing in the image, naturally drawing our eyes to it.
The image might be trying to show the beauty of nature due to the lighting and placement of the image. It also appears to be very detailed form the reflection of the lake to the individual leaves on the trees standing out.
I like how perfectly timed this image was with the wave crashing into the rock making it dramatic. The photo was taken from a hillside at a high angle using a front person perspective to capture the image. He also uses high contrast in this image due to the colour variation.
The Zone System
The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer.
