{"id":2646,"date":"2012-09-03T05:00:24","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=2646"},"modified":"2012-09-01T18:02:23","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T02:02:23","slug":"ansel-adams-making-40-photographs-el-capitan-winter-sunrise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/03\/ansel-adams-making-40-photographs-el-capitan-winter-sunrise\/","title":{"rendered":"Ansel Adams – The Making of 40 Photographs: El Capitan, Winter Sunrise"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve heard it said that many photographers believe there are no more photographs in Yosemite, that all the great ones have been taken.\u00a0 And it\u2019s true that the prime locations have been photographed again and again, sometimes with 50 or even 100 photographers all vying for their three square feet of ground in which to set up their tripods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would appear the assumption is that if a particular location is photographed too many times, becomes too popular, it becomes a clich\u00e9.\u00a0 I\u2019ve succumbed to that point of view in the past.\u00a0 There seems to be the faintest whiff of, \u201cI\u2019m too good to photograph something so common.\u00a0 I’m able to find what no one else has never seen.\u201d\u00a0 I know; I kind of felt that way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

El Capitan, Winter Sunrise
\nAnsel Adams<\/p>\n

Ansel Adams had something to say about that in connection with this photograph.<\/p>\n

\u201cA viewer once asked me about the values: \u2018Don\u2019t you think the trees are rather dark?\u2019\u00a0 Black and white photography gives us opportunity for value interpretation and control.\u00a0 In this instance, were the trees lighter in value, the glow of the light on the cliff would, for me, be far less expressive.\u00a0 Exposing for higher forest values\u00a0 would have weakened the separation of the far brighter cliff and cloud values.\u00a0 However, other photographers might well make quite different images.\u00a0 I would not like anyone to think I believe this image to be the only one possible, but it fulfills my visualization at the time of exposure.\u00a0 In an overpowering area such as Yosemite Valley it is difficult for anyone not to make photographs that appear derivative of past work.\u00a0 The subjects are definite and recognizable, and the viewpoints are limited.\u00a0 It is therefore all the more imperative to strive for individual and strong visualization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 comment gets to the heart, mind and soul of the artist.\u00a0 There are two key concepts in his statement that, for me, define art.\u00a0 The first is \u2018interpretation. \u2019Black and white photography gives us opportunity for value Interpretation<\/em> and control.\u201d\u00a0 I take from this that our photographs are interpretations of the subject.\u00a0 After all, art is interpretation.\u00a0 And, as artists, it is through interpretation that we share with our viewers our vision of the world.\u00a0 We don\u2019t document reality; we interpret or possibly even create reality.<\/p>\n

The other concept that catches my attention is \u2018individual \u2026 visualization.\u2019\u00a0 Adams speaks of his \u2018visualization\u2019 all the time.\u00a0 And the reason we enjoy his photographs so much is because of his strong visualizations.\u00a0 When he tripped the shutter he knew what effect he wanted to create with the image.\u00a0 He knew what he wanted to convey in terms of what he was feeling and he knew how to do it, especially when he developed and refined the Zone System.<\/p>\n

And it was his interpretations and visualizations that took a location that had been photographed time after time by many other photographers and turned it into something uniquely and identifiably his.<\/p>\n

So stand on the bridge in Zion or line up to photograph Delicate Arch in Arches or join the throng at tunnel view in Yosemite.\u00a0 You can make your photograph unique through your own strong vision and interpretation.<\/p>\n

\n

This is a continuing series based on my reading of Ansel Adams\u2019 wonderful book, \u201cExamples \u2013 The Making of 40 Photographs.\u201d\u00a0 It is exciting to read of his attitudes towards making photographs, the decisions he made and the techniques he employed and apply them to the issues that confront us today as digital landscape photographers.\u00a0 I think those of us who \u2018Photoshop\u2019 our images for the sake of achieving our visualization can feel a comradeship with the master.\u00a0 The question, \u201cDid you manipulate that photograph?\u201d will never go away as long as our medium is the camera.\u00a0 Adams was also confronted with the same question.\u00a0 For those of use that believe that the purpose of making a landscape photograph is to share with our audience our response to and our connection with the subject, the work is not done when we press the shutter, it\u2019s just beginning.\u00a0 And we can delight in photographing the clich\u00e9 locations, time and time again, because we are creating our own individual statement, not creating \u2018derivatives\u2019 of others\u2019 works.<\/p>\n

\n

If you enjoy these posts please feel free to share them on Facebook or Twitter, or email them to your friends.\u00a0 And we would really enjoy hearing from you.\u00a0 Join the conversation –\u00a0 leave a comment.<\/p>\n

Join me on an upcoming workshop.\u00a0 Click here for more details.<\/a><\/p>\n

To see more of my photographs click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

WordPress Tags: Ansel<\/a>,Adams<\/a>,Capitan<\/a>,Winter<\/a>,Sunrise<\/a>,Yosemite<\/a>,assumption<\/a>,location<\/a>,times<\/a>,clich\u00e9<\/a>,whiff<\/a>,connection<\/a>,viewer<\/a>,trees<\/a>,Black<\/a>,photography<\/a>,interpretation<\/a>,instance<\/a>,cliff<\/a>,separation<\/a>,images<\/a>,image<\/a>,visualization<\/a>,exposure<\/a>,area<\/a>,Valley<\/a>,heart<\/a>,soul<\/a>,artist<\/a>,statement<\/a>,subject<\/a>,viewers<\/a>,vision<\/a>,world<\/a>,concept<\/a>,attention<\/a>,System<\/a>,bridge<\/a>,Zion<\/a>,Delicate<\/a>,Arch<\/a>,series<\/a>,Photoshop<\/a>,comradeship<\/a>,purpose<\/a>,audience<\/a>,response<\/a>,locations<\/a>,feet<\/a>,tripods<\/a>,subjects<\/a>,viewpoints<\/a>,concepts<\/a>,interpretations<\/a>,artists<\/a>,Examples<\/a>,attitudes<\/a>,decisions<\/a>,techniques<\/a>,photographers<\/a>,visualizations<\/a><\/p>\n

(3311)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A continueing series in which I reflect on Ansel Adams’ book, “Examples – The Making of 40 Photographs.” In this post I talk about “El Capitan, Winter Sunrise.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[589,588,739,700,37,587,724,680,751,743,669,692,723,725,730,741,737,748,727,752,738,750,266,745,732,543,376,729,213,749,429,584,457,13,48,742,744,731,740,733,734,125,719,43,640,269,643,728,746,425,679,735,747,507,548,753,726,189,736,262,14],"class_list":["post-2646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-adams","tag-ansel","tag-arch","tag-area","tag-artist","tag-artists","tag-assumption","tag-attention","tag-attitudes","tag-audience","tag-black","tag-bridge","tag-capitan","tag-cliche","tag-cliff","tag-comradeship","tag-concept","tag-concepts","tag-connection","tag-decisions","tag-delicate","tag-examples","tag-exposure","tag-feet","tag-heart","tag-image","tag-images","tag-instance","tag-interpretation","tag-interpretations","tag-location","tag-locations","tag-photographers","tag-photography","tag-photoshop","tag-purpose","tag-response","tag-separation","tag-series","tag-soul","tag-statement","tag-subject","tag-subjects","tag-sunrise","tag-system","tag-techniques","tag-times","tag-trees","tag-tripods","tag-valley","tag-viewer","tag-viewers","tag-viewpoints","tag-vision","tag-visualization","tag-visualizations","tag-whiff","tag-winter","tag-world","tag-yosemite","tag-zion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-GG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2648,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions\/2648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}