Have you seen, "American Experience - Ansel Adams"?

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

03/18/2008 04:35:56 PM · #1

I watched a biography last night on PBS called, "American Experience 'Ansel Adams'". I watched it again this morning (on my DVR) to refresh my memory. :-)

It was a very detailed biography of Ansel from when he was born, his childhood activities, the teen years, ... his whole life. The show explained how he quit his life of music (he was a very proficient pianist) to come back to Yosemite, and to his girlfriend and future wife. It is a very well documented biography. I recommend it to all.

After the show, my local Los Angeles PBS station aired a show about the "forgotten Los Angeles photographsâ�� taken by Ansel Adams in 1940 while his was on assignment by Fortune Magazine. His task was to document L.A. as it was preparing for war--specifically the aircraft industry. He gave about 150 photos (complete with negatives) to the main L.A. public library and told them that he didn't like the images and that if they didn't either, to incinerate or destroy them. This show displayed those photos, along with the actual Fortune Magazine article, complete with Ansel's photographs (about a dozen or so). There was even a page of color photos that Ansel shot.

Evidently, Ansel did quite a bit of color photography when he was working on commercial projects.

DrAchoo

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

03/18/2008 04:37:51 PM · #2

I caught about 45 minutes of it. I loved the quote attributed to him where he said the negative is like the score of music while the print is like the conductor's performance. Seems like a great anthem for those of us not afraid of processing and manipulating photos.

JaimeVinas

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

03/18/2008 04:42:02 PM · #3

When I was in Yosemite I had scheduled an appointment to check out his private gallery. But I had to fall into some mud while shooting that salt lake NE of Yosemite and I stunk really bad.

Hopefully PBS will shot it again, I would love to watch it.

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

03/18/2008 04:44:10 PM · #4

Originally posted by JaimeVinas:

.... But I had to fall into some mud while shooting that salt lake NE of Yosemite and I stunk really bad.....

Phrasing it like that almost makes it sound as if there's a connection between the mud and the stink. I know better.

Message edited by author 2008-03-18 16:44:22.

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

03/18/2008 04:45:07 PM · #5

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

ooh ya, great quote!

JaimeVinas

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

03/18/2008 04:58:51 PM · #6

Originally posted by Strikeslip:

Originally posted by JaimeVinas:
.... But I had to fall into some mud while shooting that salt lake NE of Yosemite and I stunk really bad.....

Phrasing it like that almost makes it sound as if there's a connection between the mud and the stink. I know better.

Shh! Thats what I tell my wife. And to this day she stills believe thats what stinks

Message edited by author 2008-03-18 16:59:07.

03/18/2008 05:02:17 PM · #7

Originally posted by JaimeVinas:

When I was in Yosemite I had scheduled an appointment to check out his private gallery. But I had to fall into some mud while shooting that salt lake NE of Yosemite and I stunk really bad.

That's shouldn't have been a problem. Didn't everyone stink back in those days? :-) You would have given the tour that "authentic" feeling.

03/18/2008 05:15:06 PM · #8

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

Yes, that was a good quote.

Also, I liked how they described Ansel's "breakthrough" and "pivotal" moment in landscape photography...

He was so puzzled as to why the photos don't turn out like he sees and senses them with his own eyes. While scaling a mountain so he could have a great vantage point of Half Dome, he took so many photos of his trek and of his wife on the way up, that when he reached his vantage point (to shoot Half Dome), he only had two plates of glass left (same as having only two frames of film left). He composed and shot the first image of Half Dome. At that point, he knew that it would not convey what he is seeing. So, for his last shot, he thought he would use a red filter. The rest is history. That's how he got the deep dark skys that made his shots dramatic. That's how he gets the undersides of big clouds to look mean and menacing (just like his eyes sees them).

Today, we can just "dodge and burn". ;-)