Photography assignment 1

1. The name of the photographer is Ansel Adams, the name of the book is Ansel Adams Divine Performance, and it was published in 2002.
2. The first picture I chose was a picture of giant roots of a tree. I liked this photo because it stood out to me. It was very different then the other photos in the book and felt more organic and living. The roots reminded me of anacondas beginning to crush something. I also liked that the photo only focused on the roots and ignored the tree; it has a simple and engrossing point of interest. The picture makes me want to reach out and feel the roots.
3. The second picture I chose was a picture of a forest with some mountains in the background. The photo really has that epic feel to it, like it’s a set piece of a grand adventure. The mountains in the background are covered with a heavy mist which adds a bit of a mysterious feel to it, not knowing what’s beyond the fog. I really liked this picture, the pure scale of it makes you want to just sit back and take it all in. It does an amazing job of capturing the moment.
4. I chose this book specifically after about an hour of looking through the shelves. This was the first one to really catch my interest right away with all the epic scenery. I love pictures of nature, especially ones of new places I’ve never been to.
5. Ansel Adams definitely has a lot of strengths. One of his main strengths is versatility, he doesn’t just do grand scale pictures, Adams does closer up photos with more focus on them as well and they are just as powerful. His second strength is his eye for nature. Just about every picture I saw was pretty breath taking and I couldn’t imagine them being any other way. They all just felt right. Adams’ final strength is his ability to tell a story through his photos. Each photo has a powerful tale to tell of the western American trails.
6. These are, in my opinion, the things that make a good photo. You need a subject. Your photo needs to say something specific. You need some form of structure. Is there a story in your picture? A sense of balance between lights, colors, etc.