Ansel Adams.

Ansel Adams was a photographer known for his black and white photography back in the 1900s. He was the main subject for my research PowerPoint earlier this semester. I am very passionate about his works, as he is a very skilled photographer and takes shots that are very pleasing to the eye. His photographs allow my eyes to move all along the picture. There is so much to look at. When he goes out to shoot, he looks for “Grandscapes.” He has such a great eye for scenery.

Ansel Adams was born on February 20th in 1902. He was born in San Francisco California. He started photography when his aunt gifted him a copy of “In the Heart of the Sierras.” The photographs in the book inspired him to pursue photography as a career. He was given his first camera in 1916 at Yosemite National Park for a vacation. He educated himself as he grew up, leaving school and starting his photography career, occasionally alternating between photography and pianist, but photography was his main career and the cause of his success, as his works were very popular.

With his career Adams has created many techniques that are still used today, just advanced, and some techniques he used were even put into photoshop. He invented the zone system, a technique which allows photographers to translate the light they see into specific densities on negatives and paper, thus giving them better control over finished photographs.

He ran a photography group/movement called f/64.  F/64 was made up of some of history’s most influential American photographers. The group was founded by Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke. The goal of this group was to begin promoting a common aesthetic principle. In 1952 he was also the founder of the magazine, Aperture.

At age 82, he passed away. In honor of him, The Minarets Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest was renamed the Ansel Adams Wilderness in 1984.  Mount Ansel Adams, a 11,760′ peak in the Sierra Nevada, was named for him in 1985. Adams was very good with visuals and finding the perfect landscapes was very important. And since the cameras required developing the pictures, and he couldn’t see the picture right away and take it again, he’d be very careful with his cameras and made sure his pictures were perfect. When he died, he left his wife, two children (Michael born August 1933, Anne born 1935), and five grandchildren. As of now, there’s an Ansel Adams gallery where people can see his works in person.