Photo Tips San Diego Underwater Photographic Society
Photo Tips
San Diego Underwater Photographic Society
| Ansel Adams: Insight From A Master by Randy Morse While being interviewed for his autobiography, Ansel Adams was asked this question. After so many others have spent years photographing Yosemite, what is it that has made your work the standard by which all others are measured? He replied, I feel that I am good at capturing things that are not literally there. As underwater and natural history photographers, we can learn much from this simple, yet insightful, response. He went on to explain that for him the process of photography was as much one of looking inward as it was one of looking out through the lens. He always asked himself, what is it about this subject that excites me? How can I best capture this subject to evoke the same feeling of this experience in others? While growing up, he studied music and had planned on becoming a concert pianist. He felt strongly that his training in music had played a large |
role in his success as a photographer. He had learned that
it is not merely the notes that form the art of music. It is rather the
subtle timing, the interplay of the notes, how long each is held and the
pause before the next key is struck. He felt it was much the same with
photography. It is not merely the individual elements that make up a photograph.
Rather, it is the interaction of the elements, their positions relative
to each other and the timing of the instant the shutter is released.
He called this the critical instant. He felt that every photograph has a critical moment when all of its elements, subject, background, and light come together. While composing a photograph, he would always try to anticipate this critical instant, so as to capture precise moment. I have found that it is very easy to lapse into looking out through the lens, considering only the technical aspects of equipment and exposure, rather than looking inward and anticipating the critical instant that will best capture my own experience on film. Randy Morse |
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