Ansel Adams Research Post

 Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. He created the zone system shown above which was a scale of 1-10 to help identify different tones. He not only focused on tones but looked widely at landscapes. Adams commonly linked the two subjects together - manipulating his landscape photographs to show a wide tonal range.

This is an example of Ansel Adams' work which shows a wide range of tones. It is a good representation of his usual work and focus point. This picture shows large depth of field because it is all round a sharp image. Ansel Adams often focused on natural landscapes rather than man made landscapes. He tied together his connection to the environment (due to being an environmentalist) to his love of photography. This is commonly seen within various famous photographers work (for example, Vivian Maier and her tying of her occupation as a nanny and photography). The stream  catches our attention because of the light tone it shows and the fact that it leads us into the photograph (leading line).

   This image is another piece of Ansel Adams work which again, presents a wide tonal range. There are extremely bright whites which highlight certain areas and therefore are eyes are more drawn to this. Our eyes are close drawn to the reflection of the sky onto the water which is very clear. The clouds look soft and puffy and the grass looks untouched, presenting the natural world in a more picturesque way. I like this image because you can see the real contrasted difference between the bright white highlights and the dark tones.
 

  I chose this image taken by Adams because it not only explores tone, however it explores form of the natural world also. The rocky and jagged shape of the boulder creates a sharp contrast with the soft and calm clouds. I like this image because the way in which the photographer has taken it, makes it seem as if the boulder is touching the sky which creates a intriguing illusion. It is more interesting than the other images of Ansel Adams which I explored because it looks at more than one topic in photography. I could possibly attempt to bring these two topics together when shooting my photographs.