Landscape Photographer Biographies

Ansel Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984)

Born in San Francisco, California, Ansel Adams is best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park, characterized by clarity and depth. Adams primarily used large-format cameras despite their size, weight, setup time, and film cost, because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. His photographic career started when his father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera. In 1919 he joined the Sierra Club and spent the first of four summers in Yosemite Valley, as "keeper" of the club's LeConte Memorial Lodge. He then met Albert M. Bender, a San Francisco insurance magnate and patron of arts and artists, who kicked off his career. Bender set in motion the preparation and publication of Adams' first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. Adams's star rose rapidly in the early 1930s and spent a considerable amount of time in New York during the 1930s and 1940s. Some of his famous work include Moon and Half Dome and Tetons and the Snake River. Adams also was an activist for the cause of wilderness and the environment. Over the years he attended many meetings and wrote thousands of letters in support of his conservation philosophy to newspaper editors, Sierra Club and Wilderness Society colleagues, government bureaucrats, and politicians. His photographs, though, are what made the most impact for the cause of conservation. In September 1983, Adams was confined to his bed for four weeks after leg surgery to remove a cancer and later died on April 22, 1984, in Monterey, California at the age of 82 from a heart attack. He left behind his wife, two children, (Michael, born August 1933, and Anne, born 1935) and five grandchildren.

Moon and Half Dome

The Tetons and the Snake River

This picture caught me eye instantly because of the great use of value. The black and white in this shot is very effective because there is a long range from the truest of whites to the darkest black. The sky demonstrates great texture because of the value by the light coming in. The framing also adds to the power of the shot because the sky takes up about 1/3 of the photograph which is just a right amount and the position of the camera is elevated showing both the ground and sky. The emphasis is on the mountain which is centered on the photograph and has the stream leading up to it, bring the eye to it. The image also has great depth of field which most of the image in focus.
Carr Clifton
Carr Clifton was born in the northern Sierra Nevada near Taylorville, California. He began photographing in 1977 because of his neighbor and mentor Philip Hyde. Later, he went to Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and received a degree in Commercial Photography. He has spent thirty years exploring the endangered, wild landscapes with his camera and is widely known for beautiful landscapes of remote regions most people don't ever get to see in person. He goes to the most remote and least populated places in the world and captures it for the rest of us. He is not only a photographer but also an award-winning documentary filmmaker.

I absolutely loved this photo which was unusually because I tend to go more for black and white photography but Carr Clifton knows just how to use color to showcase the beauty of his landscapes. Color in this photograph is part of what makes this image so powerful. The different colors in the sky and their reflection on the water look almost unnatural and stunning. The photograph was taken just at the right time of day with just the right amount of light shining through. Shape also plays a role in the photograph as the glaciers are clearly sculpted and defined as are the mountains in the distance which cut across the sky. The glaciers also show a great deal of unity as they are all scattered along the water.