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Stop blaming your camera – It’s better than Ansel’s was

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Often, we a point made so often that the actual message becomes lost. We hear arguments from both sides that justcompletely don’t get it. To the point where we forget what the original discussion was all about. “The gear does not matter” is one such debate. It’s one that pops up all the time, and there are compelling arguments for both sides, but many arguing “for”, are completely missing the point of the message and arguing against something that it never its intent.

Ted Forbes at The Art of Photography put out a video on this topic a while ago and a lot of people there didn’t seem to get the point, either. So, he’s released an update to it. When you look at photographers like Ansel Adams, and the gear they used vs the gear we have available to us today, it definitely helps to drive the message home.

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This 80 minute documentary is an in-depth study of Ansel Adams’ life and work

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Ansel Adams is a photographer who is spoken about a lot. To many, especially landscape photographers, he’s a huge inspiration. Every snippet of information we see about his photographs or the man himself offers valuable insight. We learn more about who he was, how he worked, and his thought process.

In this one hour and twenty two minute documentary, we learn more about Ansel and his work than in just about anything else I’ve seen. It’s an old documentary, but it’s recently become popular again online, and I thought I’d share it here with you.

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How Ansel Adams chose the work for his famous “The Range of Light” book

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Ansel Adams’ book, Yosemite and the Range of Light, is one of those must-reads of photography. Especially if you’re a landscape shooter. It’s full of amazing imagery that’s inspired countless other photographers since it was first published in 1979. But how did he decide exactly which images went into its creation?

In the latest video of Marc Silber’s series on Ansel Adams at Advancing Your Photography, Marc again visits Ansel’s son, Michael. He talks about how the image choices were made, his father’s dramatic imagery, and offers some advice for improving our own photography. Michael also speaks about Ansel’s childhood, his education, and the process of becoming a photographer.

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Take a visit inside Ansel Adams’ house & studio to see his camera collection

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Marc Silber’s series of videos on Ansel Adams just gets better and better each time a new one comes out. In this latest video, we are taken into Ansel’s home and studio. His son, Michael, now lives in the home with wife Jeanne. He talks about some of his father’s lesser known commercial work as well as his teaching.

We also get a peek into Ansel’s personal camera collection.  This is one of the more interesting videos of the series for me. It speaks more about the man himself and his equipment, than the work. Studying Ansel’s work is always fun, but most videos about him already do that.

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If you ever wondered what it was like to be taught by Ansel Adams, here’s your answer

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Ansel Adams is one of those legends of photography that most people have heard of. Whether they’re a photographer themselves or not, they know who he is. They know of his work, they may even own some of it. For those of us who are photographers, have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be taught by the man himself?

Marc Silber of Advancing Your Photography has been making a series of short films over the last few months. Each of them covering a different aspect of Ansel’s life and work. In his newest video, Marc wants to help answer that question. He introduces us to Ansel’s daughter-in-law, Jeanne, who was ran Ansel’s business for over two decades.

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Take a look inside Ansel Adams’ amazing Darkroom

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The room in which Ansel Adams created many of his works has to be the absolute ultimate DIY darkroom.  Back then, many things had to be made yourself as commercially available tools for most of what Ansel wanted or needed to do simply did not exist.

In this video from Marc Silber, we’re guided through Ansel’s darkroom and processes by his son, Michael.  With motorised dolly tracks and an enlarger that holds an array of individually controlled light bulbs, this darkroom features some very interesting and unique engineering.

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Ansel Adams’ biggest secret to stunning photography

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Ansel Adams was one of those people that becomes more and more fascinating the more you learn about him. Each bit of information you gained made you want to learn even more about either the man himself or photography in general.

In a video recently uploaded to Advancing Your Photography’s YouTube channel, host Mark Silber interviews his son, Michael Adams, and looks at how Ansel discovered what became his biggest epiphany in photography.

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Get Up To $100,000 Per Year Doing Ansel Adams’ Job For The National Park Service

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If you thought that film is dead and that there’s no money to be made in nature photography, you’d better think again.

74 years after the National Park Service commissioned the great Ansel Adams to document the National Parks, the NPS is looking for a full-time photographer to perform a similar job, and is offering a salary of up to $100,000 per year.

One of the fortunate photographer’s duties will be to capture large-format photos for the Library of Congress collection.

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Vintage “Baseball” Trading Cards Feature Ansel Adams & Other Notable Photographers

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Dating all the way back to 1975, the The Baseball Photographer Trading Cards are not exactly new, but they are still really cool. Featuring the likes of famous photographers such as Ansel Adams, Aaron Siskind, Imogen Cunningham, and others, the collection of 135 trading carding is an amusing look at the comradeship found among working photographers from the era.

The front of the cards feature a photo taken by photographer (and card creator) Mike Mandel. On the back of the trading cards, you’ll find a baseball card inspired design featuring the stats of each photographer: height, weight, batting hand, information about their preferred film/camera/photo paper…, and my personal favorite, short little words of wisdom written by the photographer featured on the card. (Some are full of humor, some are philosophical, while others share their predictions of what will become of art photographers.)[Read More…]

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