I have chosen to use storm Ciarán to respond to the sublime as it is an example of how powerful nature can be. Storm Ciaran took place in Jersey during early November 2023, it damaged many properties and took down hundreds of trees. Another extreme weather event which was similar to Storm Ciaran in the way in which it affected jersey was the Great Storm of 1987.
My Photoshoot
To create these photos I went to St Ouens and took photos of damaged areas which were affected by this extreme weather event. I also visited St Peters Valley as there were many affected trees within this area.
Contact Sheet
I took three versions of the same photo using three different exposures so I am now able to combine them to make HDR images inspired by the photographer Ansel Adams.
Best photos
I have chosen to ignore the exposure whilst selecting my best photos, as I am going to be combining the three different exposure levels together. I have focused more on the composition of the photo and how clear it is.
Editing and creating HDR images
This photo consists of a tree in Saint Ouens that had been damaged due to storm Ciaran. By editing this photo using the HDR method it has enhanced the colours and details of the photo to make it more sharp and contrasted. I like how the tree branch is in focus whilst the background is more blurred as it guides the viewers attention onto the tree rather than the background.
I then moved onto changing the previous photo into black and white in the style of Ansel Adams. I prefer the coloured version as it looks more contrasted and the colour adds something to the photo whereas the black and white photo sort of looks more flat.
My plan for the romanticised rural landscape photos are to go to Plemont beach because of the rocky beach to get photos similar to Ansel Adams photo of the rocks. Then I’m also going to go to the cliffs to get more dramatic photos of the sea and the rough waves.
Depth
The depth of this photo is very wide as there is a lot of the photo in view and it extends out quite far. The leading lines are from the stones and the beams of light that lead your eye to the focal point being the mountains in the background.
Colour and light
The colour in this image is very dark colours and uses the Zone System to understand all the colours that are in the image. The use of light in this image is very dramatic light but the sun beams that are in front of the mountains give contrast against the dark light on the stones.
Shadow
The shadow in this image is on the mountains and on the stones on the beach which increases the dramatic effect of the light on the image.
These photos are rated 4 – 5 on the star rating, and are flagged meaning I believe they fit the right aesthetic for my attempts of creating a similar photoshoot of landscapes like Ansel Adams, however by using photos of storm Ciaran damage.
With good texture and tone within the images, these best contain what I feel could be used to create a similar set of images that Ansel Adams created in American national parks.
Yellow coloured:
These images are taken well but lack the correct amount of exposure or may be salvageable.
These images, although containing some good and bad photos, can partially relate to Ansel Adams work. Not taken in the similar style I believe they still show some elements of romanticism.
Red coloured:
These images did not fit the aesthetic because they where either blurry, poorly taken or not what I had in mind when I saw the results.
These images outcomes were not what I wanted in terms of exposure, aperture and shutter speed and were either taken poorly.
Best Images –
I like This image as like Adams’ work, it includes a large variety of detail in its composition, with different areas of nature through its fore, mid and background. With a nice tonal contrast with shadows and sunrays it creates an interesting mise en scene for the image.
Using the building and equipment as a frame, I believe I made an interesting composition and space, with a variety of texture on the stone brick wall and the wooden trees and patchy grass, it contains, to me, a rural aesthetic, similar to what Adams strived for with his work.
Although not massively similar to Ansel Adams landscapes, I still like this image as it contains an interesting angle on the landscape at Noirmont.
This picture in my opinion covers the landscape well including large elements of nature such as: Hills, Sea, Cliff faces and fields. With a good texture in the clouds and beams of light spreading across the horizon it creates an interesting composition.
Conclusion –
In conclusion, I find that there is a fair majority between the photos have been rated and that there is some both good and bad outcomes with my images.
Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favoured sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. With exquisite plays of light and dark, each gelatine silver photograph exhibits a moment captured by Ansel’s eye brought to life through his masterful touch.
Ansel’s photography has had great impact indeed, not only in awakening people to the beauty of nature but in inspiring many other photographers to turn their efforts to the natural scene and to use photography in the interests of environmental preservation.
Ansel Adams’ love of nature and his work in capturing vistas within the Sierras and other protected lands for all to see changed the American art world to include nature photography.
Adam’s background was quite challenging, therefore he took up photography as a distraction. When Adams was only four, an aftershock of the great earthquake and fire of 1906 threw him to the ground and badly broke his nose, distinctly marking him for life, also destroying his confidence growing up. He was not successful in the various schools to which his parents sent him; consequently, his father and aunt tutored him at home. While sick in bed with a cold one day at age 14, Ansel read a book that would eventually change his life. James Mason Hutchings’ In the Heart of the Sierras caught Adams’ imagination, and he soon managed to convince his parents to vacation in Yosemite National Park. From his first visit, Adams was transfixed and transformed. Equipped with a simple Kodak Box Brownie camera his parents gave him, he hiked, climbed, and explored, gaining self-esteem and self-confidence whilst snapping the first images of what would become a lifetime of incredible artistic productivity. He spent substantial time there, due to the love he had for the place, every year from 1916 to his death. In 1919 he joined the Sierra Club and then spent six summers accompanying High Sierra tour groups as trip photographer. The most important result of Adams’s somewhat solitary and unmistakably different childhood was the joy that he found in nature, as evidenced by his taking long walks in the still-wild reaches of the Golden Gate. Here, he developed a close bond with the nature around him, and began appreciating his surroundings and seeing the true beauty and potential in them.
Methodology:
“Weston is, in the real sense, one of the few creative artists of today. He has recreated the matter-forms and forces of nature; he has made these forms eloquent of the fundamental unity of the world. His work illuminates man’s inner journey toward perfection of the spirit.”
Visualisation:
Quoted by Ansel Adam’s Visualisation is “to see clearly in the mind prior to exposure, a continuous projection from composing the image through the final print”. Visualisation is the concept of being able to see the scene prior to shooting and using your mind to make the that scene as a final product. In addition to using visualisation, Ansel Adam’s alongside his fellow photographers in their group F/64 developed the ‘Zone System’.
The Zone System:
The zone system is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development. Adams described the Zone System as “not an invention of mine; it is a codification of the principles of sensitometry, worked out by Fred Archer and myself at the Art Centre School in Los Angeles, around 1939–40.”
Image analysis:
Adams commonly prioritised his photos based around the American West, in which he focused on features like mountains and rivers which can easily elevate an image. When taking these photos, Adams would adjust the camera settings to produce images that look completely different to how he saw them with his naked eye, in which he favours sharp focus and manipulates the camera settings to reach the photograph’s full potential and achieve a surreal outcome, often over-saturated with more details.
In this image in particular, Adams has clearly adjusted the ISO, shutter speed and aperture in order to emphasise the different tones and shades within the image. At the top he has included part of the sky in the angle, where the shades of grey are slightly darker around the outsides, and they get lighter towards the middle where the sun is being blocked. This is effective because from the angle of the photo, the brightness of the sky works well, with the peak of the mountains just in front, it successfully draws the viewers attention to the subject of the image. Adams has also incorporated lots of the river and trees in his image, which is effective because the tones of the trees contrast against the river, as they are very different. In my opinion, this photo looks better in black and white because it allows the lighter tones to appear brighter and the darker tones to appear more emphasised. We can also see where the sun has brightened up the river creating a reflection, which gives the overall outcome some life.
Overall, I like how Adams produces most of his outcomes in black and white as it differs from how we view things with the naked human eye, which makes each of his images more interesting. This also makes him unique to other artists. I like how he bases his photos around nature, it gives the effect that he is trying to send as message to his viewers, reminding them to appreciate their surroundings.
My artist references are Ansel Adams and Peter Mitchell, I am going to take inspiration from there “story telling” images.
The reason I have chosen to put these images on my mood board is because I like the emotions the images create. The use of colour and lighting is what I want to be in my imagery. The use of models is also what I want to use. I like how these images have huge contrast within all of them, the contrast of lighting, the contrast of colour, the contrast of weather. These really change peoples attitudes when they look at photos.
Romanticism was a cultural movement that started in the 1800s but peaked in round about 1800 to 1850. it was essentially artists and poets criticizing the “lavish life” living in big city’s and also science as they thought it was glorified and wanted people to be glorifying nature and how happy people were living in the countryside’s in the middle of nowhere. this is because people that lived in these remote areas even though they weren’t very fortunate they were seen as a lot happier than these people that lived in wealthy places. inconclusion, there is 5 elements to romanticism which is individualism, emphasis on nature, emotion over reason, freedom of form, and exploration of the unknown.
Casper David Friedrich 1832
context to why the Romanticism movement started
the reason why romanticism started was because writers and artists rejected the age of enlightenment as it was all about undermining religion and other beliefs.it was all about pushing intellectual and philosophical ideas hence why it was also had the nick name of the age of reason.
coming from an era of enlightenment the art formed grew out of the disillusionment regarding reason and order after the French revolution in 1789, this when the French decided to revolt against their monarchs and wealthier population. Bringing a change to other countries in Europe such as Britain, Italy and Spain which adapted to these ideas.
what is the difference between bucolic and pastoral?
bucolic often refers to the nice and relaxed county life and its nature. And pastoral is quite similar as it focuses on the positivity of the working elements of country.
the art of the sublime
the art of the sublime has been understood to mean the quality of greatness or grandeur that inspires in awe and wonder. this specifically relates to to landscapes.
Romanticism artist-
John Constable, was a well known Romanticism artist in the 1800s, he liked to paint his personal concept of what the countryside was like similarly done by other artists. however he was able to still exaggerate the elements of nature. this was due to john constable growing up in a small village (Suffolk) where he had first hand experience what the country side was like first hand . this experience he had when he was younger would go on to inspire his paintings in the future.
Ansel Adam was a man often considered to be the father of modern landscape photography with his famous landscape work of big mountains and rivers/lakes. Being born in 1902 he grew up in California in the sand dunes amid the golden gate. As he grew older after his family being largely effected by a volcano his father helped him pursue his creative roots and ideas even when not fitting in at school with a more traditional style of education. Progress in school until he gained a ‘legitimising diploma’ and soon after spent the majority of his time outdoors hiking, climbing and observing what was on his door step. However his photography career did not begin here so much as he taught himself to read and play music quickly becoming his occupation until he gave it up for photography, not after having learnt many important lessons of planning and patience from the music. As his love for photography progressed using the Brownie box camera his parents gave him, he joined the Sierra Club in 1919 looking after their memorial cabin located in the Yosemite Valley in which he spent four summers growing and learning while meeting fellow conservation enthusiasts. This club gave Adam’s so much of his life not only did he meet his wife during his time there but it was essential to starting his photography career, starting with his first publishing being in the clubs bulletin. As time continued to progress the clubs yearly month long trip during the summer, quickly grew in popularity with having up to 200 attendees. Adams now being on the board of directors for the club as well as now being the trip photographer/artists, he strayed further from a concert pianist and realised he could make a living off of his work. The most life changing year in Adam’s career was 1927 when he took his first ‘visualized’ photo which became what he was known for and how he created all of his work. Adams only grew in popularity and fame from here as his work grew and began being featured in more and more shows all the while his new techniques and talents shone through and taught so many others. Later on in his career he met Edward Weston who himself is a hugely important and influential photographer. This pair was quickly noticed by Group f/64 who did so much for the duo presenting shows of their work together and helping Adam’s have his first solo exhibition in a museum, although this group did not last long they brought a whole new idea to ‘straight’ or ‘raw’ photography works and looking at photography as though it what the eye would see. Time went on and Adam’s was forced to do more and more commercial work but even for this he had an unusual talent for this as well but he felt it limited his creativity that the entire reason he started photography in the first place. Adam’s was revolutionary not only for his creativity but he was a master with all the technical sides of camera, he developed the ‘zone’ system that is still used and completely changed how other photographers looked at their own work and his. He was looked up to greatly in a lot of other aspects of his life, whether it being his social company or his sheer passion for the environment and preserving it.
American west, why?
Adams was also a tireless conservationist and wilderness preservationist who understood the power of a strong image to sway public and political opinion. His stirring images of US national parks have no doubt always inspired a desire to protect the natural world.
Group f/64
64, loose association of California photographers who promoted a style of sharply detailed, purist photography. The group, formed in 1932, constituted a revolt against Pictorialism, the soft-focused, academic photography that was then prevalent among West Coast artists.
Goup f/64 included: 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.
Zone system
The zone-system of Ansel Adams divides the photo into eleven zones; nine shades of grey, together with pure black and pure white. You could assume that a normal photo does not contain pure black and pure white. Therefor the nine shades of grey would be the only zones you can find in a photo
Comparison
Romanticism: a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasise, inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.
Both romanticism and Ansel Adams both have the ideas of human creativity. In photography, photographers who took up the romanticist approach aimed to sensationalise the overall look of their mages by enhancing certain colours to make the image look almost surreal, glorified and they wanted to dramatize certain areas of their photographs.
Ansel Adams uses black, white and grey to romanticises his images with a dramatic effect. He uses the perfect contrast of all colours so there isn’t too much of one.
One difference with Ansel and romanticism is, a lot of romanticism used in pictures uses colour, Ansel Adams doesn’t.
Influence on others
Ansel Adams is known for his artistry in what has become known as Landscape Photography. He also contributed to advancing the technical aspects of bringing this artistry to light. In this class, you will learn some of Ansel’s important innovations to photography and how they relate to your modern digital camera.
My Photoshoot Plan for the Landscape project is going to be going around Jersey to capture the dramatic landscape.
Capturing the sublime:
Jersey was recently hit by Storm Ciaran, which saw a tornado running through Jersey. I would like to start by trying to capture the environments captured by the storm, reflecting similar ideas of the Sublime in Romanticism. ifferent woods/forests with my dad taking photos of fallen
I would go to areas like these and take photos of different terrains, broken objects and buildings.
I will try take photos of the fallen objects in the rain, on a cloudy day, sunny day and on a windy day to try get a choice of each weather on the broken houses and nature.
I will try to use the HDR photo technique with my landscape photos trying to implant the multi-exposures and then merge the photo after to create this overall end photo with the best features all around.
This photo shows an element of natural lighting and how daylight can affect your photo. each different type of lighting can have a different effect to your photo, for example natural lighting fits this photo the best as it shows that everything is natural whereas when taking a portrait of someone natural lighting could be stronger on one side of the face than the other which changes the whole photos purpose. I would say this photo has a hard level of control and it is impossible to move anything but the camera therefore you could get different angles of this scene but not necessarily move any one part of the photo. The control of this photo shows how badly we are affecting this world as we cannot move it, but we can destroy it with global warming, burning fuels and enormous amounts of greenhouse gases in the air. Ansel Adams has given this photo quite a cold tone as the black and white lighting adds a colder tone, if the photo were to have a slightly warmer tone I feel the photo would make me feel almost as if the photo is burning as the cold tone makes the photo look normal and just right, the area looks like a cold place and having a warm tone over it wouldn’t look right and make it look almost like it’s in an odd place. The aperture looks focused as if nothing in the photo is blurry, and you can spot things well. Even though it looks like there is fog in the distance the camera does not really pick it up and almost cancels it out. The iOS 100 has a clean image with no noise around it and has quite high sensitivity.
CONTEXTUAL:
The image was taken at The Tetons and The Snake River, The Tetons and the Snake River is a black and white photograph taken by Ansel Adams in 1942, at the Grand Teton National Park, in Wyoming. It is one of his best known and most critically acclaimed photographs. That river is famous and well known because of the inspiration given to photographers, professionals as well as amateurs. Ansel Adams had taken this photo in 1942, Ansel Adams was the first to get an award for his photography in 1946. He had taken photos of every national park. Ansel Adams had visited 27 out of the 28 national parks missing Everglades National Park in Florida. Ansel Adams liked the idea that proving that landscape plays an important part of the American conservation movement. He wants to make a constant reminder that landscape needs to be protected due to all the earth’s diseases, such as global warming. As a youth, Ansel Adams spent much time outdoors developing a love of nature and taking photographs of these special places.
CONCEPTUAL:
The idea of this photo shows how pure this photo is and how nature needs to be protected at all costs, Ansel Adams wants to keep nature in photos as in a couple of years those areas will not look like that. The world is slowly dying with forest fires happening and destroying trees and other wildlife, this means that those photos will be the only memories left of the national parks. These areas will change either way because people are cutting down trees, and the weather will look different on different days. The meaning of these photos are purely a reminder of what nature looked like in the 1940s and how different it looks now , how we as humans have destroyed it, it’s almost as if it’s a message saying I told you so, that we are destroying this world and we aren’t doing anything to protect and prevent all these bad things and once they happen we won’t be able to go back. The notion of this photo shows that the world is dying, and humans will not stop producing bad products, this world is known as cruel, Ansel Adams is representing this by taking photos of landscape. I also believe that this photo could suggest how each generation has changed and how little children are always on their phones and never playing outside. They are missing out and will never experience this beauty. As Ansel Adams said himself, he liked being outside as he developed a love for nature and taking pictures of those special places and I believe that as generations get older nature gets less and less appreciated and therefore those photos will hold a lot of meaning in the future.
VISUAL:
This photo has quite a repetitive pattern with the trees being scattered around the photo on the sides which creates this biodiversity of a forest, where each tree has been cloned and pasted in the same place to create an illusion of theoretical fractals are infinitely. This photo shows the true elements of nature where there are not any manufactured items found in the photo and everything is natural, there are not any people or any animals found, it almost gives a peaceful effect. This photo was turned into black and white purely because Ansel Adams felt that colour could be distracting and could therefore divert an artist’s attention from the achievement of his full potential when taking a photograph. The colours in the photo are known to take people’s attention when they want the photos’ details and texture to attract the naked eye. This photos texture looks quite smooth around the middle bit where the river lays however around the tree the texture of the photo looks quite rough which could show the two different sides of nature and how it is pure and beautiful and how there are wars going, global warming and many other things destroying our planet. The texture of the mountains almost gives off a rough texture, however, the colour white softens that texture to create a more smoothened texture. All together I would say the texture is balanced between a soft and rough pattern all around the photo surrounding the river. The layout of this photo is really well positioned as it shows the real beauty of nature, each element has a feature in the photo without leaving it out, for example the trees have a big part in the photo and show that they give off a rough texture whereas the river is mid centre to represent that everything should be smooth and nothing should go wrong if you think positively about it.
