Ansel Adams
About Ansel Adams:
Adams was known for his stunning nature photography. He was also an environmentalist. He started photographing national parks when he was in his teens and continued throughout his life. His images became symbols of wild America.
C & T: Formal balance (it's pretty centered), selective focus (the background isn't focused) and framing (the bark frames the tree and the trees behind).
C & T: Rule of thirds (2/3 have dog and trees), informal balance (dog isn't fully centered), selective focus (the dog and ground vs the background), grouping (of trees) and a low horizon line.
C & T: informal balance (house on one side), rule of thirds (something different in each third), sharp focus, grouping (of trees) and framing (the windows and the trees).
C & T: informal balance (more space on one side), selective focus, leading lines (smaller lines to the peeling part) and grouping (of lines and curls).
The subject of these images are the outdoors, mostly trees. I took them in the woods behind my house. To make these images I used my film camera and the darkroom. I chose to take these close up images of nature because these rolls were inspired by Ansel Adams. He was an amazing film photographer who captured stunning images of the world around him. These images all show value in black, white and grey as well as texture.
The composition rules and techniques are shown above. These images started out on rolls of film and then I processed each roll using developer, stop and fix. Once they were dry I made contact sheets so I could see each image. I then chose images I liked and printed each. I started with a segmented test strip for each and chose how many seconds and if I should use a filter or not. For the first image I didn't use a filter and exposed it at F8 for 3 seconds. The second image took a few test strips, I ended up at F8, #3 filter and exposed for 4 seconds. The third image is an accidental double exposure of film, I took a picture and then rolled it back in and took another one. For this I didn't use a filter, it was F8 for 3.5 seconds. The fourth image took a few test strips, it is F8, #3.5 filter for 4 seconds. This image has the best contrast of all four. To print each of these I used an enlarger, photo paper, print developer, stop and fixer and filters.
For these images I wanted to focus on the beauty of nature and I find the patterns in nature to be fascinating and beautiful. I took these images to capture natural beauty, the double exposure is cool because it has natural trees and a manmade house. This is an interesting contrast. This project relates to my life because I took the rolls, processed them and then I chose which images to focus on. I think the second image could have more contrast, I could try this by using a high filter. The fourth image could be stronger if it was placed correctly on the paper. Overall I think the compositions of these images are pretty strong.