Both Adams challenges have occurred in the dead of winter (where I am) which kind of bums me out. My options are limited...
R.
Winter poses some challenges, but a lot of opportunities. The air is lowest in humidity this time of year providing a lot of image clarity potential. The snow on the landscape adds an element of interest. The weather and light need to cooperate, but with a few clouds hanging around the peaks and fresh snow above 9000', I think I'm excited.
I won't have the reflection of a "Wonder Lake", but I have in mind something like "McKinley Range" or "Clearing Winter Storm". Our weather is to include a January thaw for the next six days, so I'll snowshoe into the high country tomorrow for the sunrise light. Low angle sun in the south, so I'll select a valley with the right orientation.
One thing I'm looking forward to is the absence of tourists popping into my scene at the decisive moment of best light.
hahn23 is in Colorado. eee-gads. Even his profile picture in black and white is Ansel-ish. How can I get a picture of a flower a fence or a tree NOW??? (I think it's eyeglasses for me. hahah).
Oooo my God. Just saw this. GREAT picture hahn23. What a dream!
Winter poses some challenges, but a lot of opportunities. The air is lowest in humidity this time of year providing a lot of image clarity potential. The snow on the landscape adds an element of interest. The weather and light need to cooperate, but with a few clouds hanging around the peaks and fresh snow above 9000', I think I'm excited.
That's great for Colorado, and winter is terrific on the Central California coast, and it's just outstanding in the desert, but in the Northeast, where I am at, it is problematical. A lot of bleak, dull, leaden skies and half-melted, slushy snow scenes ar5e the norm right now. We do have a big storm coming, though, so maybe I'll luck out again like I did last time :-)
Winter poses some challenges, but a lot of opportunities. The air is lowest in humidity this time of year providing a lot of image clarity potential. The snow on the landscape adds an element of interest. The weather and light need to cooperate, but with a few clouds hanging around the peaks and fresh snow above 9000', I think I'm excited.
That's great for Colorado, and winter is terrific on the Central California coast, and it's just outstanding in the desert, but in the Northeast, where I am at, it is problematical. A lot of bleak, dull, leaden skies and half-melted, slushy snow scenes ar5e the norm right now. We do have a big storm coming, though, so maybe I'll luck out again like I did last time :-)
R.
Cape Cod? Must be beautiful Bear_Music. In Kentucky we have lots of dormant trees on the side of mountains but no snow caps here. I didnt see much about Ansel that had snow in it. Any good sites to go to for his snow pictures besides snow capped mountain peeks?
I have ideas .... and being in New Mexico is finally a plus! Now I need the weather gods to cooperate... :)
New Mexico? I think I saw pictures by Adams that were taken in New Mexico. Maybe you can go to the same spots! (Gosh I am really in eyeglasses now. Hahahah).
I didnt see much about Ansel that had snow in it. Any good sites to go to for his snow pictures besides snow capped mountain peeks?
That's pretty well it. Offhand, the only winter/snow shots I can recall of Ansel's were taken at Yosemite, where of course he had lodging available and knew the territory well.
I have ideas .... and being in New Mexico is finally a plus! Now I need the weather gods to cooperate... :)
Ansel loved New Mexico, did a lot of work around Santa Fe and Taos. He loved photographing the Pueblo architecture, was fascinated by the adobe forms. Our "actual Ansel" entry in the first AA challenge, in fact, was one of these Adobe shots.
I didnt see much about Ansel that had snow in it. Any good sites to go to for his snow pictures besides snow capped mountain peeks?
That's pretty well it. Offhand, the only winter/snow shots I can recall of Ansel's were taken at Yosemite, where of course he had lodging available and knew the territory well.
R.
Ooo. I think I will research him a little more. I dont think I will do this challenge tho but it will be nice to do the research anyways.
Winter poses some challenges, but a lot of opportunities. The air is lowest in humidity this time of year providing a lot of image clarity potential. The snow on the landscape adds an element of interest. The weather and light need to cooperate, but with a few clouds hanging around the peaks and fresh snow above 9000', I think I'm excited.
That's great for Colorado, and winter is terrific on the Central California coast, and it's just outstanding in the desert, but in the Northeast, where I am at, it is problematical. A lot of bleak, dull, leaden skies and half-melted, slushy snow scenes ar5e the norm right now. We do have a big storm coming, though, so maybe I'll luck out again like I did last time :-)
R.
Cape Cod? Must be beautiful Bear_Music. In Kentucky we have lots of dormant trees on the side of mountains but no snow caps here. I didnt see much about Ansel that had snow in it. Any good sites to go to for his snow pictures besides snow capped mountain peeks?
I liked Ansel Adam's Denali shots more than his Yosemite shots. But, the link above shows a lot of trees.... both winter and other seasons, beaches, rivers, cumulus clouds, rose, driftwood, etc. I have seen an Ansel Adams image of the Golden Gate bridge with boats in SF bay, but almost all of his images avoid the "hand of man".
We had two weeks of bright skies , white snow, and super dry freezing temps. Now that the challenge that excites me most comes about, we get cloudy skies, damp freezing rain/snow/slush mix, and as Robert put it bleak, dull leaden skies - predicted to last through the weekend. >:|
I have seen an Ansel Adams image of the Golden Gate bridge with boats in SF bay, but almost all of his images avoid the "hand of man".
I'm not sure I can agree with that "almost all": he photographed a lot of indigenous architecture, as you noted he did the Golden Gate, he didn't exactly *avoid* the hand of man on a day-to-day basis. But it's true the archetypal Ansel Adams image, the one's he famous for, are pretty much all wilderness shots, so that's mostly what we see. I mean, I went through images in his studio with him, and there was a LOT of really nice stuff there that wasn't wilderness...
I liked Ansel Adam's Denali shots more than his Yosemite shots. But, the link above shows a lot of trees.... both winter and other seasons, beaches, rivers, cumulus clouds, rose, driftwood, etc. I have seen an Ansel Adams image of the Golden Gate bridge with boats in SF bay, but almost all of his images avoid the "hand of man". [/quote]
Thanks for the link. It was very helpful! Maybe I will be in this one after all. No canyons here but I will do my best anyway.
In the first Ansel Adams challenge I took 6th with this one:
All the rest of the top 30 were landscapes, except 13th was a harbor/skyline 'scape, 14th had beached fishing boats as a subject, and 27th was a nice detail of an old adobe (?) wall. There was an actual Ansel image entered, of an adobe church in New Mexico, and it also cracked the top 10. Bear in mind that the overwhelming majority of entries WERE landscapes, so it's not surprising most of the top finishers were as well. But there is some flexibility.
The real determining factor will be (or ought to be) a very high level of skill in powerful, tonally-rich B/W processing, which is the true mark of Ansel Adams.
R.
I am trying to understand, how is Ansel such a great photographer when one of his photographs recently appeared on the DPC Shadows challenge, and only scored a 4.6. It sounds like this guy is only a great photographer if you know it's his photo. If you don't know it's his, he obviously isn't all that great. So, how can you say how great he is, if his photo doesn't score so well on DPC?
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