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100-481: Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West . He helped found Group f/64 , an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph . He and Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called

200-426: A wide-angle lens is generally the preferred lens, allowing a broad angle of view. However, medium-range to telephoto lenses can achieve satisfying imagery, as well, and can enable the capture of detailed scenery of smaller areas at greater distances. Telephoto lenses can also facilitate limited ranges of focus, to enable the photographer to emphasize a specific area, at a fairly specific distance, in sharp focus, with

300-549: A "first-class road" to the summit, completed in 1876. Lick chose John Wright , of San Francisco's Wright & Sanders firm of architects, to design both the Observatory and the Astronomer's House. All of the construction materials had to be brought to the site by horse and mule-drawn wagons, which could not negotiate a steep grade. To keep the grade below 6.5%, the road had to take a very winding and sinuous path, which

400-408: A "slow film" (low- ISO film), or low-ISO digital camera sensor sensitivity setting (typically ISO 100, or perhaps 200), is generally preferred, allowing maximum precision and evenness of image. However, if there is movement in the scene, and the scene is in lower light—as with cloudy days, twilight, night, or in shaded areas—a higher ISO (up to the limits of the film or camera sensor, depending upon

500-443: A 36-inch (91-centimeter) lens was commissioned to Alvan Clark & Sons , for $ 51,000 (equivalent to $ 1,610,000 in 2023). Manufacturing of the lens took until 1885 and it was delivered to :the observatory on December 29, 1886. Warner & Swasey designed and built the telescope mounting. The telescope, built with this lens, became the world's largest refracting telescope from when it saw first light on January 3, 1888, until

600-529: A San Francisco insurance magnate and arts patron. Bender helped Adams produce his first portfolio in his new style, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras , which included his famous image Monolith, the Face of Half Dome , which was taken with his Korona view camera , using glass plates and a dark red filter (to heighten the tonal contrasts). On that excursion, he had only one plate left, and he "visualized"

700-633: A San Francisco photograph finisher. Adams contracted the Spanish flu during the 1918 flu pandemic , from which he needed several weeks to recuperate. He read a book about lepers and became obsessed with cleanliness; he was afraid to touch anything without immediately washing his hands afterwards. Over the objections of his doctor, he prevailed on his parents to take him back to Yosemite, and the visit cured him of his disease and compulsions. Adams avidly read photography magazines, attended camera club meetings, and went to photography and art exhibits. He explored

800-719: A better vantage point over the immediate foreground and a better angle for expansive backgrounds. Most of his landscapes from that time forward were made from the roof of his car rather than from summits reached by rugged hiking, as in his earlier days. Adams was the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships during his career, the first being awarded in 1946 to photograph every national park. At that time, there were 28 national parks, and Adams photographed 27 of them, missing only Everglades National Park in Florida. This series of photographs produced memorable images of Old Faithful Geyser, Grand Teton , and Mount McKinley . In 1945, Adams

900-503: A big part of local economies throughout the world. Countries such as Scotland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, New Zealand, USA, Canada and countries in the European Alpine region are very popular with photography tourists and welcome people from all over the world. As a result of this, landscape photography workshops and tours have become big business in these countries. Apps have formed part of this experience telling users how to find

1000-512: A carpenter and piano maker, had arrived from Peru in San Francisco , California, in late 1847; after accruing significant wealth he began making various donations in 1873. In his last deed he chose the site atop Mount Hamilton, and was buried there in 1887 under the future site of the telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the inscription, "Here lies the body of James Lick". Lick additionally negotiated that Santa Clara County construct

1100-708: A core principle in his photography. Adams's first portfolio was a success, earning nearly $ 3,900 with the sponsorship and promotion of Bender. Soon he received commercial assignments to photograph the wealthy patrons who bought his portfolio. He also began to understand how important it was that his carefully crafted photos were reproduced to best effect. At Bender's invitation, he joined the Roxburghe Club , an association devoted to fine printing and high standards in book arts. He learned much about printing techniques, inks, design, and layout, which he later applied to other projects. Adams married Virginia Best in 1928, after

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1200-607: A gifted pianist. However, when he formed the Milanvi Trio with a violinist and a dancer, he proved a poor accompanist. It took seven more years for him to conclude that, at best, he might become only a concert pianist of limited range, an accompanist, or a piano teacher. Adams's first photographs were published in 1921, and Best's Studio began selling his Yosemite prints the next year. His early photos already showed careful composition and sensitivity to tonal balance. In letters and cards to family, he wrote of having dared to climb to

1300-436: A greater amount of detail and a wider range of artistic presentation. However, a larger-format camera yields a more limited depth of field (range of the scene that is in focus) for a given aperture value, requiring greater care in focusing (see: "Shutter Speed and Aperture", below). A camera with "panorama" function or frame can permit very wide images suitable for capturing a panoramic view. For "wide open spaces,"

1400-441: A group show at the M. H. de Young Museum with Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston , and they soon formed Group f/64 which espoused "pure or straight photography " over pictorialism ( f /64 being a very small aperture setting that gives great depth of field ). The group's manifesto stated: "Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form." Imitating

1500-420: A life of hiking, camping, and photographing; and the rest of the year he worked to improve his piano playing, perfecting his piano technique and musical expression. He also gave piano lessons for extra income that allowed him to purchase a grand piano suitable to his musical ambitions. Adams was still planning a career in music. He felt that his small hands limited his repertoire, but qualified judges considered him

1600-1010: A member of the Sierra Club . He was later contracted with the United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks. For his work and his persistent advocacy, which helped expand the National Park system, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980. Adams was a key advisor in the founding and establishment of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, an important landmark in securing photography's institutional legitimacy. He helped to stage that department's first photography exhibition, helped found

1700-488: A member, to build and direct a state-of-the-art darkroom and laboratory in Washington, D.C. Around February 1942, Steichen asked Adams to join him in the navy. Adams agreed, but with two conditions: He wanted to be commissioned as an officer, and he would not be available until July 1. Steichen, who wanted the team assembled as quickly as possible, passed on Adams and had his other photographers ready by early April. Adams

1800-456: A neutral (colorless) gray tint which reduces the amount of light entering the camera lens. These filters are used to lengthen shutter speeds without the need to alter aperture or film/sensor sensitivity, or alternatively, to use large apertures without exceeding the maximum shutter speed of a camera. A variation of this filter, termed the graduated neutral density filter or simply 'ND grad', transitions from dark, neutral gray on one side to clear on

1900-408: A pause from 1925 to 1926 during which he had brief relationships with various women. The newlyweds moved in with his parents to save expenses. The following year, they had a home built next door and connected it to the older house by a hallway. Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured, and he became more established. The 1930s were a particularly experimental and productive time for him. He expanded

2000-529: A program to reduce the effects of lighting, most notably replacing all streetlamps with low pressure sodium lamps . The result is that the Mount Hamilton site remains a viable location for a major working observatory. The International Astronomical Union named Asteroid 6216 San Jose to honor the city's efforts toward reducing light pollution . In 2006, there were 23 families in residence, plus typically between two and ten visiting astronomers from

2100-405: A scene from a moving vehicle). Consequently, some compromise between shutter speed and aperture may be necessary, or advisable. To some extent, a higher-ISO film or digital camera setting can compensate without the need to alter shutter speed or aperture. However, higher ISO settings ("fast film") can result in grainy pictures and poor capture of details, especially at a distance. In some cases,

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2200-467: A scenic setting nearby, even close-up, and sometimes at night. Photography of artificial scenery, such as farm fields, orchards, gardens and architecture, may be considered "landscape" photography as well. Even the presence of human-made structures (buildings, roads and bridges, etc.) or art (such as sculpture ) may be considered "landscape" if presented in artistic settings or appearing (or photographed) in artistic style. Further, landscape photography

2300-522: A slow shutter speed is desired to show movement of the subjects, particularly moving water or the effects of wind. Filters can serve a wide range of purposes in landscape photography. For instance, a polarizing filter can darken the sky, while allowing surface features to be shown in relatively sharper clarity. Polarizing filters also help with cutting glare from water reducing reflections, snow and ice—even facilitating greater transparency of water and ice. Neutral density filters are darkened with

2400-438: A small aperture (a high f-stop , usually between 11 and 13 is best for clarity and depth of field), which creates only a small hole for the light to come into the camera from the lens, ensuring that as much of the field of view is in focus as possible (see: depth of field ). With a small aperture, however, a slower shutter speed (longer exposure) may be required to compensate for the limited amount of light squeezing in through

2500-433: A soft-focus lens, "capturing a glowing luminosity that captured the mood of a magical summer afternoon". For a short time Adams used hand-coloring, but declared in 1923 that he would do this no longer. By 1925 he had rejected pictorialism altogether for a more realistic approach that relied on sharp focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure, and darkroom craftsmanship. In 1927, Adams began working with Albert M. Bender ,

2600-639: A studio home in Yosemite and lived there during the summers. Best allowed Adams to practice on his old square piano . Adams grew interested in Best's daughter Virginia and later married her. On her father's death in 1936, Virginia inherited the studio and continued to operate it until 1971. The studio is now known as the Ansel Adams Gallery and remains owned by the Adams family. At age 17, Adams joined

2700-448: A timer, remote control or cable release allows the shutter to be tripped without the introduction of vibration that might result from manually depressing the shutter button. Some modern, high-quality cameras also provide image stabilization , which compensates for vibration by moving inner workings of the camera, or electronically correcting the photograph. Because landscape photography is normally outdoors photography, protection from

2800-673: A total of 225 small prints to the DOI, but held on to the 229 negatives. These include many famous images such as The Tetons and the Snake River . Although they were legally the property of the U.S. Government, he knew that the National Archives did not take proper care of photographic material, and used various subterfuges to evade queries. The ownership of one image in particular has attracted interest: Moonrise . Although Adams kept meticulous records of his travel and expenses, he

2900-449: A well-known avant-garde composer, gave Adams some lessons. Over the next decade, three music teachers pushed him to develop technique and discipline, and he became determined to pursue a career as a classical pianist. Adams first visited Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family. He wrote of his first view of the valley: "the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it was glorious.... One wonder after another descended upon us.... There

3000-431: A winter storm abated, leaving a fresh coat of snow. He gathered his recent work and had a solo show at Stieglitz's "An American Place" gallery in New York in 1936. The exhibition proved successful with both the critics and the buying public, and earned Adams strong praise from the revered Stieglitz. The following year, the negative for Clearing Winter Storm was almost destroyed when the darkroom in Yosemite caught fire. With

3100-578: Is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California . It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton , in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California , United States. The observatory is managed by the University of California Observatories, with headquarters on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus, where its scientific staff moved in the mid-1960s. It

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3200-404: Is common for the observers to work from remote observing stations rather than make the drive, partly as a result of the business office raising the cost to stay in the dorms. The swimming pool has been closed. In 2013, one of Lick Observatory's key funding sources was scheduled for elimination in 2018, which many worried would result in the closing of the entire observatory. In November 2014,

3300-475: Is named after James Lick . The first new moon of Jupiter to be identified since the time of Galileo, Amalthea , the planet's fifth moon, was discovered at this observatory in 1892. Lick Observatory is the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. The observatory, in a Classical Revival style structure, was constructed between 1876 and 1887, from a bequest from James Lick of $ 700,000, equivalent to $ 23,737,778 in 2023. Lick, originally

3400-455: Is often used in close-up landscape photography (e.g.: garden spaces, small areas of dark forests, etc.). However, given the broad expanses of open space that tend to dominate in landscape photography, artificial lighting is typically ineffective, or even destructive (causing the foreground to be wildly over-lit, and the background to become overly dark). Light at dawn or dusk, or just before or after those times (especially at sunrise, or during

3500-426: Is typically of relatively stationary subjects—arguably a form of " still life ." This tends to simplify the task, as opposed to photography of kinetic or live subjects. However, landscape photography often overlaps the activity of wildlife photography and the two terms are used somewhat interchangeably; both wildlife and landscapes may be elements of the same picture or body of work. Landscape photography has become

3600-494: The High Sierra during summer and winter with retired geologist and amateur ornithologist Francis Holman, whom he called "Uncle Frank". Holman taught him camping and climbing; however, their shared ignorance of safe climbing techniques such as belaying almost led to disaster on more than one occasion. While in Yosemite, Adams had need of a piano to practice on. A ranger introduced him to landscape painter Harry Best, who kept

3700-564: The Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915, his father insisted that he spend part of each day studying the exhibits as part of his education. He eventually resumed, and completed, his formal education by attending the Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School, graduating from the eighth grade on June 8, 1917. During his later years, he displayed his diploma in the guest bathroom of his home. His father raised him to follow

3800-721: The Presidio Army Base . The home had a "splendid view" of the Golden Gate and the Marin Headlands . Adams was a hyperactive child and prone to frequent sickness and hypochondria . He had few friends, but his family home and surroundings on the heights facing the Golden Gate provided ample childhood activities. He had little patience for games or sports; but he enjoyed the beauty of nature from an early age, collecting bugs and exploring Lobos Creek all

3900-549: The Zone System , a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in exposure , negative development, and printing . Adams was a life-long advocate for environmental conservation , and his photographic practice was deeply entwined with this advocacy. At age 14, he was given his first camera during his first visit to Yosemite National Park . He developed his early photographic work as

4000-404: The macro/micro lens for extreme close-up work. While variable-range zoom lenses are widely used, some landscape photographers prefer fixed-range prime lenses to provide higher clarity and quality in the image. The sensitivity to light, of the medium—the film or the digital camera sensor—is important in landscape photography, especially where great detail is required. In bright daylight,

4100-560: The "Mural Project" with commissions for the U.S. Potash Company and Standard Oil, with some days reserved for personal work. While in New Mexico for the project, Adams photographed a scene of the Moon rising above a modest village with snow-covered mountains in the background, under a dominating black sky. The photograph is one of his most famous and is named Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico . Adams's description in his later books of how it

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4200-401: The "golden hour" just before sunset), is often considered the best for capturing detail, showing scenes in the best colors of light, or otherwise generating impressive and attractive images. With cameras that allow a variety of shutter speeds and lens apertures , landscape photographers tend to prefer settings that allow all of the viewed area to be in sharp focus. This typically requires

4300-540: The 1970s. Some of his clients included Kodak, Fortune magazine, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, AT&T, and the American Trust Company. He photographed Timothy L. Pflueger 's new Patent Leather Bar for the St. Francis Hotel in 1939. The same year, he was named an editor of U.S. Camera & Travel , the most popular photography magazine at that time. In 1940, Adams created A Pageant of Photography ,

4400-437: The 20th century. Renowned landscape photographer Ansel Adams received both a Conservation Service Award and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of the influence of his work on the preservation of wilderness and fostering of environmental consciousness. Landscape photography commonly involves daylight photography of natural features of land, sky and waters, at a distance—though some landscapes may involve subjects in

4500-668: The Art Center School of Los Angeles, now known as the Art Center College of Design . In 1941, Adams contracted with the National Park Service to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations managed by the department, for use as mural-sized prints to decorate the department's new building. The contract was for 180 days. Adams set off on a road trip with his friend Cedric and his son Michael, intending to combine work on

4600-591: The Pacific , from 1925 to 1950. Charles Adams's business suffered large financial losses after the death of his father in the aftermath of the Panic of 1907 . Some of the loss was due to his uncle Ansel Easton and Cedric Wright 's father George secretly having sold their shares of the company, "knowingly providing the controlling interest" to the Hawaiian Sugar Trust for a large amount of money. By 1912,

4700-542: The Sierra Club's efforts to secure the designation of Kings Canyon as a national park. This book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of that effort, and Congress designated Kings Canyon as a national park in 1940. In 1935, Adams created many new photographs of the Sierra Nevada; and one of his most famous, Clearing Winter Storm , depicted the entire Yosemite Valley , just as

4800-580: The Sierra Club, a group dedicated to protecting the wild places of the earth, and he was hired as the summer caretaker of the Sierra Club visitor facility in Yosemite Valley, the LeConte Memorial Lodge , from 1920 to 1923. He remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director, as did his wife. He was first elected to the Sierra Club's board of directors in 1934 and served on the board for 37 years. Adams participated in

4900-444: The University of California announced its intention to continue support of Lick Observatory. Telescopes at Lick Observatory are used by researchers from many campuses of the University of California system. Current topics of research carried out at Lick include exoplanets , supernovae , active galactic nuclei , planetary science , and development of new adaptive optics technologies. In 2015, Google donated $ 1 million to

5000-437: The University of California campuses, who stay in dormitories while working at the observatory. The little town of Mount Hamilton atop the mountain has its own police and a post office, and until 2005 had a one-room K-8 school. In 2008, there were 38 people residing on the mountain; the chef and commons dinner were decommissioned. By 2013, with continuing budget and staff cuts there remain only about nineteen residents and it

5100-528: The West coast all the way to Colorado. With the growth of San Jose, and the rest of Silicon Valley, light pollution became a problem for the observatory. In the 1970s, a site in the Santa Lucia Mountains at Junípero Serra Peak , southeast of Monterey , was evaluated for possible relocation of many of the telescopes. However, funding for the move was not available, and in 1980 San Jose began

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5200-552: The beauty of the natural environment and a desire to see it preserved. The work of William Henry Jackson in the mid-19th century was instrumental in convincing Congress in 1872 to create Yellowstone , the first national park in the United States. Photography produced by Philip Hyde for the Sierra Club found extensive use in promoting the preservation of natural places in the Western United States during

5300-552: The best viewpoints and to brave the worst elements. During the mid-1920s, the fashion in photography was pictorialism , which strove to imitate paintings with soft focus, diffused light, and other techniques. Adams experimented with such techniques, as well as the bromoil process , which involved brushing an oily ink onto the paper. An example is Lodgepole Pines, Lyell Fork of the Merced River , Yosemite National Park (originally named Tamarack Pine ), taken in 1921. Adams used

5400-406: The club's annual High Trips , later becoming assistant manager and official photographer for the trips. He is credited with several first ascents in the Sierra Nevada. During his twenties, most of his friends had musical associations, particularly violinist and amateur photographer Cedric Wright , who became his best friend as well as his philosophical and cultural mentor. Their shared philosophy

5500-467: The construction of Yerkes Observatory in 1897. In May 1888, the observatory was turned over to the Regents of the University of California , and it became the first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory in the world. Edward Singleton Holden was the first director. The location provided excellent viewing performance because of lack of ambient light and pollution; additionally, the night air at

5600-485: The effect of the blackened sky before risking the last image. He later said, "I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print." One biographer calls Monolith Adams's most significant photograph because the "extreme manipulation of tonal values" was a departure from all previous photography. Adams's concept of visualization, which he first defined in print in 1934, became

5700-517: The elements can be helpful. Shooting from inside a sheltering structure or stationary vehicle (engine off, occupants stationary) can be helpful. Use of an umbrella or other shield to keep camera and photographer dry can also be helpful. A waterproof container for the camera, with drying agent inside (e.g.: dry cloth) may be advised, and experts advise that the camera should be shielded from blowing dust, snow, and rain, and extremely harsh direct sunlight. Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory

5800-648: The example of photographer Alfred Stieglitz , Adams opened his own art and photography gallery in San Francisco in 1933. He also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote his first instructional book, Making a Photograph , in 1935. During the summers, Adams often participated in Sierra Club High Trips outings, as a paid photographer for the group; and the rest of the year a core group of Club members socialized regularly in San Francisco and Berkeley. In 1933, his first child Michael

5900-463: The family's standard of living had dropped sharply. Adams was dismissed from several private schools for being restless and inattentive, so when he was 12, his father decided to remove him from school. For the next two years he was educated by private tutors, his aunt Mary, and his father. Mary was a devotee of Robert G. Ingersoll , a 19th-century agnostic and women's suffrage advocate, so Ingersoll's teachings were important to his upbringing. During

6000-458: The following night, the telescopes and domes survived. The following astronomical objects were discovered at Lick Observatory: In addition to observations of natural phenomena, Lick was also the location of the first laser range-finding observation of the Apollo 11 reflector, although this was only for confirmation purposes and no ongoing range-finding work was performed. Below is a list of

6100-450: The foreground and background blurred (see: depth of field ). A big difference between a wide-angles lens and a telephoto lens is the compression of the landscape; the wider the angle the more distance will appear between the foreground and background elements; however, a telephoto lens will make the same elements appear closer to each other. Other lenses that can help include the fisheye lens for extremely wide angles and dramatic effect, and

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6200-494: The help of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson (Weston's future wife), Adams put out the fire, but thousands of negatives, including hundreds that had never been printed, were lost. In 1937, Adams, O'Keeffe, and friends organized a month-long camping trip in Arizona, with Orville Cox, the head wrangler at Ghost Ranch , as their guide. Both artists created new work during this trip. Adams made a candid portrait of O'Keeffe with Cox on

6300-414: The ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson : to live a modest, moral life guided by a social responsibility to man and nature. Adams had a loving relationship with his father, but he had a distant relationship with his mother, who did not approve of his interest in photography. The day after her death in 1950, Ansel had a dispute with the undertaker when choosing the casket in which to bury her. He chose the cheapest in

6400-470: The largest and most important photography show in the West to date, attended by millions of visitors. With his wife, Adams completed a children's book and the very successful Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley during 1940 and 1941. He also taught photography by giving workshops in Detroit. Adams also began his first serious stint of teaching, which included the training of military photographers, in 1941 at

6500-522: The magazine Aperture , which was intended as a serious journal of photography, displaying its best practitioners and newest innovations. He was also a contributor to Arizona Highways , a photo-rich travel magazine. His article on Mission San Xavier del Bac , with text by longtime friend Nancy Newhall , was enlarged into a book published in 1954. This was the first of many collaborations with her. Landscape photographer Many landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in

6600-550: The main building. Because a scientific meeting was being held elsewhere, the only staff member present was Nicholas Mayall . Nothing caught fire and the two individuals in the building were unharmed. The pilot of the plane, Lt. Richard F. Lorenz, and passenger Private W. E. Scott were killed instantly. The telephone line was broken by the crash, so no help could be called for at first. Eventually help arrived together with numerous reporters and photographers, who kept arriving almost all night long. Evidence of their numbers could be seen

6700-492: The modern-day road ( California State Route 130 ) still follows. The road from Smith Creek to the summit makes 367 complete turns, in a distance of seven miles. The road is closed when there is snow. The first telescope installed at the observatory was a 12-inch (300-millimeter) refractor made by Alvan Clark . Astronomer E. E. Barnard used the telescope to make "exquisite photographs of comets and nebulae", according to D. J. Warner of Warner & Swasey Company . In 1880,

6800-565: The most popular locations and how to photograph them once there. Landscape photography typically requires relatively simple photographic equipment, though more sophisticated equipment can give a wider range of possibilities to the art. An artist's eye for the subject can yield attractive and impressive results even with modest equipment. Any ordinary (or sophisticated) camera— film camera or digital camera —can be readily used for common landscape photography. Higher-resolution and larger-format digital cameras (or larger-format film cameras) permit

6900-505: The next day by the litter of flash bulbs carpeting the parking lot. The press widely covered the accident and many reports emphasized the luck in not losing a large cabinet of spectrograms which was knocked over by the crash coming through an astronomer's office window. There was no damage to the telescope dome. In 1950, the California state legislature appropriated funds for a 120-inch (300-centimeter) reflector telescope , which

7000-414: The north of Ireland during the early 19th century. His paternal grandfather founded a very prosperous lumber business that his father later managed. Later in life, Adams condemned the industry his grandfather worked in for cutting down many of the redwood forests . One of Adams's earliest memories was watching the smoke from the fires caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake . Then four years old, Adams

7100-403: The observatory over two years. In August 2020, the observatory was in danger of being destroyed by the rapidly growing SCU Lightning Complex fires . Firefighters were on standby at Lick Observatory to defend the buildings if necessary. As of the evening of August 19, 2020, the fire was on observatory property and moving quickly. While the residences on Mt. Hamilton sustained some damage during

7200-442: The opposite side. Photographers use these filters to lower natural contrasts by reducing light transmission from the brightest portion of the subject landscape, while letting light from the darker portion of the landscape enter the lens unobstructed. UV-Zero haze filters reduce "purple fringing" caused by ultraviolet light, especially in digital situations. They are also recommended by some professional photographers as protection for

7300-719: The photography magazine Aperture , and co-founded the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona . Adams was born in the Fillmore District of San Francisco , the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray. He was named after his uncle, Ansel Easton. His mother's family came from Baltimore , where his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business but lost his wealth investing in failed mining and real estate ventures in Nevada. The Adams family came from New England, having migrated from

7400-473: The prints were made during the 1970s, with their sale finally giving Adams financial independence from commercial projects. The total value of these original prints exceeds $ 25,000,000; the highest price paid for a single print of Moonrise reached $ 609,600 at a 2006 Sotheby's auction in New York. The Mural Project ended on June 30, 1942; and because of the World War, the murals were never created. Adams sent

7500-448: The pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature , devoid of human influence—instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light. As with most forms of art, the definition of a landscape photograph is broad and may include rural or urban settings, industrial areas or nature photography . Some of the most important and celebrated landscape photographers have been motivated by an appreciation of

7600-400: The rim of Canyon de Chelly . Adams once remarked, "Some of my best photographs have been made in and on the rim of [that] canyon." Their works set in the desert Southwest are often published and exhibited together. During the rest of the 1930s, Adams took on many commercial assignments to supplement the income from the struggling Best's Studio. He depended on such assignments financially until

7700-437: The room, a $ 260 coffin that seemed the least he could purchase without doing the job himself. The undertaker remarked, "Have you no respect for the dead?" Adams replied, "One more crack like that and I will take Mama elsewhere." Adams became interested in playing the piano at age 12 after hearing his 16-year-old neighbor Henry Cowell play on the Adams' piano, and he taught himself to play and read music. Cowell, who later became

7800-454: The shortage of light) may be desirable, to ensure that fast shutter speeds can be used to "freeze" the motion. Normally, landscape photography—being focused primarily on natural beauty—tends to be done with only naturally occurring ambient light. In some cases, however, artificial light is recommended or unavoidable. Careful use of flash , continuous artificial lighting or reflective surfaces (e.g.: reflectors ) for "fill" in shadowy areas

7900-407: The small aperture. This can be a problem if there are kinetic elements in the picture, such as moving animals (especially birds), people or vehicles. It can also be a problem if the environment is kinetic (in motion), such as wind blowing and shaking all the trees and plants in the scene, or if water is flowing. Slow shutter speeds can also be a problem if the photographer is in motion (such as shooting

8000-468: The technical range of his works, emphasizing detailed close-ups as well as large forms, from mountains to factories. Bender took Adams on visits to Taos, New Mexico , where Adams met and made friends with the poet Robinson Jeffers , artists John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe , and photographer Paul Strand . His talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him popular among his artist friends. His first book, Taos Pueblo ,

8100-531: The top of Mt. Hamilton is extremely calm. Often a layer of low coastal clouds invades the valley below, especially on nights from late-spring to mid-summer, a phenomenon known in California as the June Gloom . On nights when the observatory remains above that layer, light pollution can be greatly reduced. E. E. Barnard used the telescope in 1892 to discover a fifth moon of Jupiter , Amalthea . This

8200-635: The vulnerable lens, especially when outdoors or in dynamic situations. Color filters can create other effects, or compensate for the appearance of unnatural lighting due to camera characteristics. In order to mitigate shaking associated with hand-holding a camera, landscape photography oftentimes requires a firm camera footing which affords the potential for sharper imagery. Tripods are specifically designed for stabilizing cameras and are widely regarded as essential equipment for landscape photography. However, any firm surface unaffected by vibration, wind or human contact may offer similar benefits. The use of

8300-559: The way to Baker Beach and the sea cliffs leading to Lands End , "San Francisco's wildest and rockiest coast, a place strewn with shipwrecks and rife with landslides." Adams's father had a three-inch telescope, and they enthusiastically shared the hobby of astronomy, visiting the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton together. His father later served as the paid secretary-treasurer of the Astronomical Society of

8400-467: Was able to distinguish them into spectral classes R 0– R 9 and N 0– N 7 ( on this scale N 7 is the reddest and R 0 the bluest). This was an expansion of Annie Jump Cannon of Harvard's work on carbon stars that had divided them into R and N types. The N stars have more cyanogen and the R stars have more carbon. On May 21, 1939, during a nighttime fog that engulfed the summit, a U.S. Army Air Force Northrop A-17 two-seater attack plane crashed into

8500-481: Was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts . Adams invited Dorothea Lange , Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston to be guest lecturers, and Minor White to be the principal instructor. The photography department produced numerous notable photographers, including Philip Hyde , Benjamen Chinn , and Bill Heick . In 1952 Adams was one of the founders of

8600-416: Was born, followed by Anne two years later. During the 1930s, Adams began to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation. He was inspired partly by the increasing incursion into Yosemite Valley of commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops, and automobile traffic. He created the limited-edition book Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail in 1938, as part of

8700-575: Was completed in 1959. The observatory additionally has a 24-inch (61-centimeter) Cassegrain reflector dedicated to photoelectric measurements of star brightness, and received a pair of 20-inch (51-centimeter) astrographs from the Carnegie Corporation . In 1886, Lick Observatory begins supplying Railroad Standard Time to the Southern Pacific Railroad, and to other businesses, over telegraph lines. The signal

8800-694: Was distressed by the Japanese American internment that occurred after the Pearl Harbor attack. He requested permission to visit the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley , at the base of Mount Williamson . The resulting photo-essay first appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and later was published as Born Free and Equal : The Story of Loyal Japanese-Americans . Upon its release, "[the book]

8900-405: Was from Edward Carpenter 's Towards Democracy , a literary work which endorsed the pursuit of beauty in life and art. For several years, Adams carried a pocket edition with him while at Yosemite; and it became his personal philosophy as well. He later stated, "I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate." During summer, Adams would enjoy

9000-486: Was generated by a clock manufactured by E. Howard & Co. specifically for the Observatory, and which included an electric apparatus for transmitting the time signal over telegraph lines. While most of the nation's railroads received their time signal from the U.S. Naval Observatory time signal via Western Union 's telegraph lines, the Lick Observatory Time-Signal was used by railroads from

9100-475: Was in U.S. Camera 1943 annual, after being selected by the "photo judge" for U.S. Camera , Edward Steichen . This gave Moonrise an audience before its first formal exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1944. Over nearly 40 years, Adams re-interpreted the image, his most popular by far, using the latest darkroom equipment at his disposal, making over 1,369 unique prints, mostly in 16" by 20" format. Many of

9200-529: Was less disciplined about recording the dates of his images, and he neglected to note the date of Moonrise . But the position of the Moon allowed the image to be eventually dated from astronomical calculations, and in 1991 Dennis di Cicco of Sky & Telescope determined that Moonrise was made on November 1, 1941. Since this was a day for which he had not billed the department, the image belonged to Adams. When Edward Steichen formed his Naval Aviation Photographic Unit in early 1942, he wanted Adams to be

9300-404: Was light everywhere.... A new era began for me." His father gave him his first camera during that stay, an Eastman Kodak Brownie box camera , and he took his first photographs with his "usual hyperactive enthusiasm". He returned to Yosemite on his own the next year with better cameras and a tripod. During the winters of 1917 and 1918, he learned basic darkroom technique while working part-time for

9400-438: Was made probably enhanced the photograph's fame: the light on the crosses in the foreground was rapidly fading, and he could not find his exposure meter; however, he remembered the luminance of the Moon and used it to calculate the proper exposure. In the resulting negative the foreground was underexposed, the highlights in the clouds were quite dense, and the negative proved difficult to print. The initial publication of Moonrise

9500-513: Was met with some distressing resistance and was rejected by many as disloyal." This work was a significant departure, stylistically and philosophically, from the work for which Adams is generally known. He also contributed to the war effort by doing many photographic assignments for the military, including making prints of secret Japanese installations in the Aleutians. In 1943, Adams had a camera platform mounted on his station wagon, to afford him

9600-509: Was not yet up to the standards of Strand. He decided to broaden his subject matter to include still life and close-up photos and to achieve higher quality by "visualizing" each image before taking it. He emphasized the use of small apertures and long exposures in natural light, which created sharp details with a wide range of distances in focus, as demonstrated in Rose and Driftwood (1933), one of his finest still-life photographs. In 1932, Adams had

9700-432: Was published in 1930 with text by writer Mary Hunter Austin . Strand proved especially influential. Adams was impressed by the simplicity and detail of Strand's negatives, which showed a style that ran counter to the soft-focus, impressionistic pictorialism still popular at the time. Strand shared secrets of his technique with Adams and convinced him to pursue photography fully. One of Strand's suggestions that Adams adopted

9800-516: Was the first addition to Jupiter's known moons since Galileo observed the planet through his parchment tube and spectacle lens . The telescope provided spectra for W. W. Campbell's work on the radial velocities of stars . In 1905 (Jan. 5 and Feb. 27), Charles Dillon Perrine discovered the sixth and seventh moons of Jupiter (Elara and Himalia) on photographs taken with the 36-inch Crossley reflecting telescope which he had recently rebuilt. In 1928, Donald C. Shane studied carbon stars , and

9900-831: Was to use glossy paper to intensify tonal values. Adams put on his first solo museum exhibition, Pictorial Photographs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Ansel Adams , at the Smithsonian Institution in 1931; it featured 60 prints taken in the High Sierra and the Canadian Rockies . He received a favorable review from the Washington Post : "His photographs are like portraits of the giant peaks, which seem to be inhabited by mythical gods." Despite his success, Adams felt that he

10000-497: Was uninjured in the initial shaking but was tossed face-first into a garden wall during an aftershock three hours later, breaking and scarring his nose. A doctor recommended that his nose be reset once he reached maturity, but it remained crooked and necessitated mouth breathing for the rest of his life. In 1907, his family moved 2 miles (3 km) west to a new home near the Seacliff neighborhood of San Francisco, just south of

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