As the new year is fast approaching, I’ve been thinking about projects to take on. One that appealed to me is ‘Project 365′ which many people are doing … taking a picture every day and posting it. Interesting idea. My problem is that rarely a day goes by already that I’m not taking pictures. But then I came up with an idea that appeals to me even more. Updating Ansel Adams to the digital age.
Before I start, I want to make it clear that I’m not an expert and I don’t claim to be in anything like an Ansel Adams category of photographers. I’ve had training and experience, I attended Community College Classes in creative photography, I did a correspondence course at one time, and I’ve done semi-professional, freelance photography. I’ve done portraits, little theatre, product and advertising photography, and quite a bit more. My father got me interested many years ago and I got personal attention from an art teacher who taught me the creative side to photography. In short, I’ve learned a lot over time, but I don’t hold a candle to the people who do it every day for real. This is a learning experience for me and I hope other people will join in to make it bigger and better.
For my project, I plan to go through Adams’ Basic Photography Series and his Polaroid Land Photography book to try to understand what he’s written in digital terms. I’m working from my older copies of his books
Updated versions of the 1st three books are available from Amazon. I’ve never read the updated copies, so I don’t know how much has changed. I’m pretty sure they predate the digital photography revolution. According to the listing on Amazon, they were published in 1995.
The other three books I plan to go through don’t appear to have been updated, but I don’t really know.
Much of what I’ve seen written about Ansel Adams and the Zone System suggests that it’s only useful as an exposure evaluation system, and even there not as good as more modern approaches. My plan though is to look deeper and see if I can drag something more out of this material. This is a personal exploration of the guidance from one of my heroes. Expect it to be random. The structure will be provided by the books.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ansel Adams in the late 1960’s when I was a student in Monterey California. I used to attend exhibitions at the Friends of Photography center in Carmel and remember meeting him at an exhibit of his photographs. At the time, I also remember that I didn’t really appreciate who I was meeting. In later years, I’ve considered this a lost opportunity. As I got interested in larger formats (4X5 on an old Speed Graphic and finally a View Camera), I came to appreciate Adams more and more and see the opportunity I had missed. I’ve applied the Zone System both formally and informally since that time and found it exceptionally useful. I’d like to do better and that’s what this project is all about.
This isn’t going to be an every day affair online. I plan to report on my progress regularly, but I’ve got a lot of material to go through. I’m hoping to get feedback and help online, that’s why I’m using the blog format. I also plan to include some of my own photos here, some I’ve taken new and some I’ve done just for a specific blog entry. This photo was taken during a trip to Mt St Helens with a small point-and-shoot digital camera (Kodak Z730) and processed in Photoshop and Lightroom.
