I'm not Ansel Adams

Photo by: Tim Bindner

I was told in the past by someone who used to support my blogs that “if it is about photography, I just instantly delete it.” Today’s post is about that topic, and thus this warning. I will not get into technicalities of the photography but explaining why and how I took the above photograph. Also, what inspired me to do so. So be warned, now is the time to “delete” if you don’t want to go any further.

Recently I watched a YouTube video from a person who went out and shoot scenes like the famous photographer, Saul Leiter. Watching the video, I imagined myself trying this as well. Since I was going to the mountains of Colorado, why not try to shoot a shot like Ansel Adams?

You can read more about Ansel Adams in the link below. To summarize, he was the most famous landscape, black and white photographer ever known. He produced color shots later in his career. My inspiration for the above shot and much of my work started and continues to be because of him.

If you do not know who Ansel is, I guarantee you have seen one of his many famous shots. My goal was simple. Try to produce a black and white shot that reminded me of something Ansel ‘might’ have done. I use a digital camera and some small edits in Lightroom. Ansel used a film camera and did all his edits in his darkroom.

In my shot, I was trying to mimic some elements of Ansel’s work, but not copy it directly. His photograph below was from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California in 1944. Mine above is from the Collegiate Mountains in Colorado in 2023. Mt. Princeton specifically.

Ansel Adams Mount Williamson Sierra Nevada from the Owens Valley California 1944 © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

With any photograph, the conditions must be right, the subject had to be interesting, the lighting must be correct, and the rest is up to me and my camera. Colorado provided me with these.

Ansel, in the photograph above, captured a few things that I was trying to duplicate. First there were the mountains. Easily found in the part of Colorado I was in. Next there was the fog or mist. We experienced multiple rounds of storms over the course of our trip. Then there was the lighting. With the view I had of my backdrop, the sun rose to my left every day and set to my right (east to west). In Ansel’s picture, he had more sunlight than I had, but the direction of the light was still the same in his photo. Finally, which is difficult, is showing depth. Ansel had a dark foreground of trees, bushes, or open plains, followed by a first range of mountains, then the tall peaks in the distance. The fog separates the mountain ranges, and the peaks are kissed by the sun, especially the one on the left side of his photograph.

Now for my attempt. I have a dark tree covered area in the foreground of my shot. My location is not as close to the mountain as Ansel was, so the scale is different, but could still capture many of the same elements. As mentioned, the light is not as predominant in my shot, either. However, I had a mid-ground mountain in the background. I replaced his heavy fog on the mountains with moody clouds, while capturing the sun kissing the peaks of the mountain tops. Finally, I made sure there were mysterious shadows in my shot. Remember, this is not a copy of what Ansel did, more of an homage to him. An attempt to recognize his masterpiece and product a similar piece myself.

Ansel provides me inspiration. Many people imitate the work of Ansel Adams and other masters on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. I wanted to shoot from inspiration and not just copy what he did (though I am not sure I could ever do that). Technology makes it so easy to locate, duplicate and edit a famous shot that there is little to no skill involved, sadly.

Look at any tourist location on Google and you will see 1000’s of the same shots of the same feature. Yellowstone is a perfect example of this. One reason I like to explore and visit less touristy places. Not follow the herd.

I hope you enjoyed my attempt of inspiration from my second favorite famous professional photographer. How did I do? Any comments or feedback are appreciated.

Until next time,

Tim

 

Links:
Saul Leiter – https://www.saulleiterfoundation.org/

Video on how to shoot like Saul Leiter – https://youtu.be/uThZ756GdRc

Ansel Adams – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams

Ansel Adam’s Famous Photos (some of them) – https://www.thecollector.com/ansel-adams-famous-photographs/