The Ansel Adams Project: A Tree Makes A Great Subject

 The Ansel Adams Project I am currently pursuing is continually opening my eyes to new and refreshing photo opportunities. If you study Ansel Adams photographs very much at all you will begin to realize he photographed not only the grand landscapes of the American west, but he captured numerous photos of what might seem like ordinary things most of us would probably walk right past without giving it a second look. He photographed pastures, textures of weathered fence rows, flotsam in a pond, church steeples, wave patterns, and much much more, simple ordinary daily things where he turned the subjects into works of art. One of his common subjects were trees. 

Sometimes it was a tree in full view, other times it might be its root structure, then with another composition he would photograph a single dead snag. Then for another he might isolate a single tree against the background of tall tree trunks. Trees were wonderful subjects of his, I suppose because they exhibited a character unique to their individual environments. 

Trees have been a favorite subject of mine long before I started the Ansel Adams Project. However, they were mostly random composition and I rarely thought of them within the context of black and white compositions. Once I started seeing them as subjects beyond what and how I observed on a daily basis, their beauty and subject content began to blossom into a fascinating part of nature.

The hard part is finding the right subject in the right light at the right time. Not just any tree will do. Not just any conditions will work. What I look for is actually multi-faceted. Ideally, an isolated tree offers a wider range of possibilities because I can return to it time and again during different lighting conditions. Same tree, often with completely different looks. For the most part, I look for a tree that sits on the apex of a shallow hill where the tree itself is isolated against the sky, but not always. Sometimes a tree sitting alone out in some bottoms works quite well.

These tend to make the most dramatic of compositions. If you look at Ansel Adams renditions of trees, not all of them are isolated against the sky. Many are stand alone trees, standing apart from a background wooded area or even within a wooded area. He was a master at eliminating the background clutter of a woodland so much so that his subjects always became obvious and were not lost in the cliched...can't see the forest for the trees... effect.

Trees make great subjects and when captured in dramatic light, they will often portray a part of nature we too often overlook. I love the boldness of their form and I admire how they for decades deny the elements to stand firm against what nature throws at them. 

As part of the Ansel Adams Project, they have provided a wonderful opportunity to see beyond the ordinary, to discover a visual reference of the best of what nature has to offer.