Monday, July 14, 2014

The patience of Ansel Adams...

I went to see the Ansel Adams exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles, on Saturday.

That the majority of his work is stunning, is a foregone conclusion.  Besides this, one word comes to mind when viewing Adams' work.  That word is "patience."

I used to tell my photography students that one will rarely create fantastic images from the window of a stopped vehicle.  At the very least, I would say that making successful landscape images requires one to, at least, get out of the vehicle and take a few minutes to compose the photograph.  This is the bare minimum.

Adams would, at times, spend a whole day in one spot, waiting for the light to be just right.  The results speak for themselves.

So, my point is that photographers who are inspired by Adams' photographs should also be inspired by his patience.  That means planning a photography trip far enough in advance so that one can spend more than a few minutes trying to get that quick image.

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