The inspiration of Ansel Adams and his great landscapes

Ansel Adams is perhaps one of the most famous photographers to date. Born at the beginning of the 20th century, Adams is commonly associated with his landscape photographs of the great American west¹. Many photographers have drawn inspiration from the productions of Adams. Flickr, where I will be drawing my comparative images from, has an entire group consisting of just over 10,000 photos that have been inspired from the legendary Adams.

Adams was a man that always lugged large-format cameras. Through the benefits of large-format cameras and the development of his own zone exposure system he granted his photographs with precise depth and clarity¹. This is one of the biggest developments in photography that Adams is known for.

Adams, Ansel. Tetons and the Snake River. 1942. Photograph. The Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite National Park. http://www.anseladams.com. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. http://www.anseladams.com/Tetons_and_the_Snake_River_p/1701186102.htm

Many of the photographs in the Ansel Adams Flickr group follow a direct connection the style of Adams. They are almost all published in black and white, they retain a very sharp focus on their subject, they almost all are printed with a large-format landscape(shrunk to fit Flickr’s policies), and most of them maintain a very large if not maximum depth of field. They are of course not taken entirely in the same locations Adams photographed but they still manage to retain the overall feel of Adams’ style. These photographs were taken after Adams’ time so they do look a lot more clean in aspects such as noise. The four photographs I have chosen are below.

Bertagna, Luca. Lavaredo. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. Flickr. Oct.-Nov. 2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucabertagna/5128542341/in/pool-44005383@N00/.

Chenery, Mickey. Romancing the Stones. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. Flickr. Nov.-Dec. 2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/40850611@N07/5156556859/in/pool-44005383@N00/.

Lange, Richard. Opera936. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. Flickr. Oct.-Nov. 2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/santaferich/5195410564/in/pool-44005383@N00/.

Williams, Steve. Orford Ness 2. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. Flickr. 16 Oct. 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/polarunner/5133302514/in/pool-44005383@N00/.

The fifth photograph I have selected is not related to Adams’ landscape photographs because it is actually a macro photograph. Adams had snapped a photograph of a leaf surrounded by other vegetation in Glacier Bay. A very similar photograph to Adams’ leaf image can be found inside the group.

Adams, Ansel. Leaf, Glacier Bay National Monument. 1948. Photograph. The Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite National Park.www.anseladams.com. Web. 4 Dec. 2010.

Simpson, Roger. Agave. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. Flickr. Nov.-Dec. 2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/49914665@N00/5230743980/in/pool-44005383@N00/.

As you can almost instantly tell, the subject matter is nearly the same in both photographs. With Roger Simpson's photo, we're presented with a close-up photograph of an agave plant. Although being more rich in detail than Adams' original shot and containing less vegetation, it still manages to retain the feel of Adams' leaf. The detail is sharp in both photographs, the subject matter is closely related and closely pictured as well, and the value surrounding the object darkens while the subject remains the dominant brightness in the photograph. I feel as though Adams' image is only less detailed that Simpson's because of the technology available at the time.

There are many other photographs imitating Adams' style available to view on the Flickr group aside from the four I decided to specify. I believe Adams had a similar impact on all of these images. Rather than taking photographs of the extraordinary, often times Adams had photographed ordinary scenes in extraordinary ways. This has had an impact on the genre of landscape photography. Adams was keen on the protection of his land and so he found ways to make everyday landscapes stand out. In this way, he is able to show the beauty in the most subtle points of nature. His impact on landscape photography, coupled with his research and developement on photographic depth and sharpness, is probably Adams' most important points of a photographer. Through the use of his images, Adams was able to generate an amount of attention towards national parks in the U.S.

It is clear why Adams' is one of the world's most known photographers. He has made great strives in the category of landscape photography and was able to develop a zone exposure system for photography overall. Through his love of nature, he was able to contribute significant amounts of attention towards the U.S. national parks movement. Adams' is a photographer that will stay with us for years to come.

1. Ansel (Easton) Adams. (2010). Biography.com. Retrieved 09:57, Dec 4 2010 from http://www.biography.com/articles/Ansel-Easton-Adams-9175697

Photojournalism: Is manipulating photographs acceptable?

The year is 2010. Many, many years after the first camera was developed to operate with film, photographic devices have made a big leap from analog to digital technologies, replacing strips of film with strips of data stored on a compact memory card. These technological changes have also carried in a new wave of image editing tools. Photoshop is now a globally-recognized program used to edit pictures and photographs alike and many other nifty pieces of software, such as GIMP, Photoscape, and Picasa, exist alongside it to make editing photographs quicker, easier, and overall more efficient. Yet in the photojournalism industry, editing and manipulating photographs submitted to news presses are mostly frowned upon if not completely shot down. The industry has a strict code of conduct for photographers within the industry and reworking these news images is a big no-no.

The reasoning behind this is simple: photojournalism involves giving us an unbiased representation of what is happening at the current place and time. When a photograph is edited in any way, it adds bias. A mere cropping can attach a sense of isolation and loneliness to a photograph(see below), which in turn makes us view the overall image in a different, more biased way than it was originally intended. This in turn can make us view the entire news story in an entirely different light.

Above: (Left) The front cover of The Economist. The photograph is cropped to add an effect of isolation

and has undergone some slight brightness and contrast editing. (Right) The original press photograph.

There are strict guidelines for journalists to follow. Photojournalists must submit photographs that are not edited in any way to impact the composition of the photo. There is a reason for this guideline to exist: journalism is an art that involves reporting the truth journalistically. By adding small touch-ups to photos, the overall impact of the photograph and the story can be drastically altered. In many different press locations, this course of action is unethical because it crosses the guidelines set down for journalists and it does bring an immediate contradiction to the idea of photojournalism. It is also very unacceptable in many presses because of the guidelines set down and because the journalist may risk his or her own credibility by going forth and tapping into the artificial nature of Photoshop.

Above: Two photograph of O.J. Simpson. The photograph on the left is much more unedited. The photograph

on the right has many more alterations and edits to convey a different type of emotion.

Many photojournalists have defended their personal beliefs in altering their images for journalism. This is simply an unecessary justification because journalism is the art of reporting the truth, yet through any sort of manipulation, the photojournalist removes from the truth. Some photojournalists have gone so far as to even recreate their own fantasized scene and pass it off as photojournalism, and although I personally can understand their reasoning behind their actions, I cannot see it being even remotely true photojournalism. It is unacceptable and unethical because it goes against the very nature of journalism and by altering the photograph in any way, it adds bias and removes much neutrality from the original image.

Both photograph sources used from FM Forum(http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/916709)

Photography: Shooting the Truth

Greetings mortals. You've stumbled upon the blog of the rogue photographer Marc Anthony. The blog is titled astronomer almost. although it's actually going to be used for my photography... which I have lots of. I'm a proud owner of a Nikon D60 camera that I use on daily basis, unless I'm caught in an artists block(which I am right now). I have a gabazillion photos to share with my valued readers, being yourself, but I don't have very much time(among other resources) to post them with. In any case, I'm very interested in many kinds of photography. My passion however lies in the images produced out of everyday scenes - the category known as street photography.

Aside from that, I enjoy the company of others and that's really all I can say here. If you'd like to get to know me, you can contact me in a few clicks of your mouse. I'll be posting some photos as time goes along to brag and show off mostly, so feel free to check back here.

Ciao,
Marc