Diana’s Little Corner in the Nutmeg State: A Little Bit of Heaven

Friday, August 17, 2007

A Little Bit of Heaven

Today I was in a little bit of heaven, I went up to Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton MA to see their Ansel Adams exhibit, need I say more?
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OK, OK, for those of you who are not photographers I will tell what is so special about Ansel Adams. You probably have seen some of his works even if you didn’t know it was by him, he has a style that is immediately recognizable. I first saw his work when my parents got me a 35mm camera for my high school graduation and they also got me a subscription to Life Library of Photography which is a series of about two dozen book that teach photography using examples from the great photographer. One of the examples that they used was Ansel Adams and as soon as I saw his work in fell in love with his works. He co-developed the Zone System for taking black and white photographs and was one of the founders of the f/64 Group. What is the f/64 Group? It is a school of photograph that set the aperture to the smallest possible opening (The opening of the camera lens) as a result the depth of field is almost infinite (Depth of Field is the range of what is in focus. Like when you take a close up of a rose and the background is all blurry, that is the result of the aperture opening.). A great example this technique is the third photograph of the Smith College web-site, Mount Williamson, notice the boulders in the very front are in perfect focus and so are the mountains way off in the distance this because of the small opening of the lens.
OK, lesson is over.

2 comments:

Unknown8/19/07, 2:00 PM
Controlling aperture and DoF to my liking is one of my biggest challenges. I'm improving, but it is still hard. Sometimes I want a lovely background bokeh and other times I'd love the whole shot to be in focus.

I'm sure it was a lovely visit-- something I'd like to do. B. is in Portland, Maine this week. I'd love to have gone with her but I can't get out of work. Your wonderful photos of New England really make me want to visit!
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Diana_CT8/19/07, 3:31 PM
At one time you use to get a depth of field table which each lens.

Yes, you have to get to New England sometime and go up the coast. For Cape Cod to Bar Harbor.
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