Ansel – My Hero

After blowing out of a poker tournament, Helaine and I headed to the Strip. We were going to Bellagio where I wanted to see the Ansel Adams exhibit.

I’m with you on this. Las Vegas is the wrong place for America’s foremost nature photographer. On the other hand, I’m here and it’s here!

As a photographer, how can he not be a god to me? His displayed work did not let me down. Not every print was genius, but there were more than enough for a lifetime’s work.

It was interesting to listen to the narration (you are given an audio ‘wand’ to listen to), especially when it was Adams’ own words describing the circumstances of a shot.

I was a little disappointed, because I wanted more technical disclosure. Adams kept notes. I wanted to know if a shot was a 3 second F4.5 or 1/30 F11. Why did he make his choices? How did the darkroom affect his finished product?

Now I’ll go look for that info, because it’s surely on the net somewhere.

One thought on “Ansel – My Hero”

  1. There is a very interesting video about Ansel with a lot of footage of him — both his on-site camera work and in his darkroom. *Nothing* today compares to his darkroom work. It’s around an hour long, I think. I once had it, but haven’t seen it in more than 10 years, since one of my photo lab employees failed to return it before I quit. It’s well worth the purchase. I was at Yosemite three years ago—the Ansel Adams gift shop there might do online orders, if they have it?

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