An Ansel Adams Legacy One of Ansel Adams’ primary personal commitments was to share his energy and abilities in support of the things he believed in, most notably, photography and the environment. In the cause of both, Ansel and his wife, Virginia, selected six photographs of Yosemite and offered them for sale through her family…
Understanding Lenses – Depth of Field
Where do you focus, and how does the aperture affect an image? In a certain way, the opening question should be the other way around! There is a law of physics that governs the relationship between shutter speed and aperture (f-stop). Shutter speeds are pretty easy to understand: 1/60 second is one half as much…
The Zone System and Digital – Let your Spot Meter do the Work
As I discussed in a previous blog, effective application of the Zone System (ZS) really requires the use of a reliable hand-held spot meter. There are basically two kinds of spot meters, those with analog dials for calculating exposure and those with digital displays. While both can afford effective results, the ones with analog dials…
Can the Zone System Go Digital?
In a word: YES! The Zone System (ZS) can be an integral and important part of any digital photographer’s workflow because it allows you to plan and predict an image’s tonal values rather than letting the camera make the decision. The computerized metering systems in modern cameras are really amazing, and a lot of the…
Ansel Adams, Leica, and Yosemite in April 2012
News Flash: Experience the Leica S2 in Yosemite! Students attending my April Ansel Adams Gallery workshop, “Ansel Adams’ Yosemite: The Art of Seeing,” will have a rare opportunity to photograph with the Leica S2, a premier medium-format digital camera that retails for approximately $28,000 and was developed exclusively for digital photography. It’s based on a…
Special Print Offering
While I’m not much into New Year’s resolutions, I’m giving myself a goal to get into the darkroom more this year, and I’ve been doing some digging around in my files of as-yet unprinted images. And there are quite a few! The digital age has allowed me to experiment with images of interest and I’m…
Alan Ross Photography Masterful Images
Alan Ross Photography Masterful Images Alan Ross is a renowned photographer whose unique vision combines traditional photographic methods with today’s technology. He worked side-by-side with Ansel Adams as his photographic assistant, and was personally selected by Ansel to print his Yosemite Special Edition negatives. Alan is a sought-after teacher who inspires professionals and amateurs to…
Featured images – home
[col] West and Southwest[/col][col] People[/col][col] Form and Function[/col][col] Coastal[/col]
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Using a Cut-Out Card to Refine Photo Composition
One of the most challenging things in creating a strong image in photography is the need to find order in chaos. In the urban jungle there are wires, poles, signs, traffic and the like. In the natural world there are rocks, bushes, branches and landforms all contributing to visual mayhem. In an earlier writing I…