Posted 10 years ago
rniederman
(343 items)
Before becoming a collector of early American wood & brass apparatus, I was a photographer (amateur and pro/freelance at times). My first darkroom was at the age of 11, and by 19 I was shooting large format (4x5 to 8x10) negatives. One of my greatest pleasures was attending one of Ansel Adams' Yosemite workshops.
Shown here is an image I shot when the workshop made an excursion to Lake Tioga in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Ansel reminisced about some of his favorite shots at the lake. It was a cool yet brilliant day and not a cloud in the sky. This is known as a ‘bald sky’ day and photography is especially difficult because of the extreme contrast range (ratio of brightness from shadows to white snow).
This image was shot with a Cambo 4x5 using a 90 mm Grandagon lens; by far one of my all time favorite optics for the format. A medium yellow filter was used to darken the sky so that it didn’t have the same tonality as the snow. Of course, we used Ansel's famous Zone System to calculate exposures - expose for shadows and develop for highlights. (Sometimes I dearly miss the art and subtle beauty of chemical photography!)
I consider Ansel to be the greatest of all American landscape photographers and his attention to detail was unparalleled.
stunning !!!!!
Many thanks, Sean!
Thanks, vetraio50!
Thanks, aghcollect!
Thanks, tom61375!
Thanks, Manikin!
Thanks, valentino97!
Thanks, Phil!
Thanks, Bootson!
Thanks, Leah!
love the picture.. I'm a great fan of black and whites photo's...... my first darkroom pictures came from a baby brownie ........I was learning about grain paper and working on timing and such.. you have a great collection .. love looking at them...thank for posting them...........
Thanks, Ben!
Thanks, Scott!
Thanks, ho2cultcha!
I was taught the Zone System in Boston 1979 and use it for yrs, i was a photographer for 35 yrs.
Thanks, pw-collector!
filmnet ... always good to meet another photographer.
Thanks, martika!
Thanks, SpiritBear!
very nice shot....
Thanks!
Windwalker
OneGoodFind
Thanks, Nicefice and I appreciate the compliment!
Thanks, Jean123!
Happy Birthday Ansel Adams! February 20th would have been Ansel's 120th birthday. It was an honor and privilege to meet him and gain a deeper appreciation of photography.