Landscape/Nature Photo's - Idea's/Experiments

Essay

Nature - Landscapes

I am studying Nature photography and in particular; landscape photography. I have a great interest in Nature photography for a number of reasons, hence why I chose it as my theme. In nature photography, there are many elements and things to consider which make it a unique theme. Here are some things which define nature photography as a whole and can be used to create great photographs:

• Natural Lighting
• Natural, diverse colours
• Immense detail to be captured
• Space
• Lot's of different aspects of nature
• Depth of field
• Foreground
• Sky
• Lines
• Natural movement
• Contrasting weather
• Golden hours
• Horizons
• Point of view

While studying landscape photography I have researched the internet looking for inspiring artists with influential work. my favourite artist has to be Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams was an American photographer, born in San Francisco, California. Born February 20th 1902, living till April 22nd 1984, Ansel Adams was one of the world's leading landscape photographers. His work was unique at the time as landscape photography was only becoming a thing  around this time. Most of his work was produced and taken within the American West, with many pieces of his work being reproduced on posters, calendars and in books. Fans today have also been inspired by Ansel Adams and emulated his work, including myself. Here is one of his most popular pieces of work called 'The Tetons - snake river":

Ansel Adams took and published this photograph in 1938/41. It was taken in the Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, U.S.A. It is famous for it's overall style and detail. The skies packed with thick clouds, shadowing the mountains in the distance while a river winds through the vegetated landscape.

Above is another very famous photo by Ansel Adams. It was taken of Garnet lake, in the 1900's. It shows great detail, especially in the upper half of the photo. The clouds fill the sky, shadowing the snowy mountains and lake at the lower section of the photograph.

Above is a photograph by Ansel Adams too, in which was taken in 1937. I love his photography as the depth of his work is insane. The Mono colour scheme makes his work unique also.

Above is an image captured by Ansel Adams. It shows a tree slanted to one side on a cliff edge in the foreground with the clouded sky in the background. I love this photograph because of how the tree is almost a silhouette within the image. 

I have really enjoyed studying Ansel Adams' work, there fore I wanted to find another artist who shares the same sort of work criteria. Therefore I found and did research on a man called Henri Cartier-Bresson. He was a French Humanist photographer who was considered the master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He worked deeply with the surrealism side of photography

Another artist I have studied is Charlie Waite. He is an English photographer, born in 1949 known for his "painterly" technique with light and shade. He originally worked in theatre and television then moved onto photography with his recognisable 6*6 square, Hasselblad images. In 2014 he won the award 'fellowship of the royal photographic society'. 

Whilst studying Charlie Waite's work, I noticed he shows a constant personal technique within his images. In a small selection of his photos he has one object in the central foreground of the image, with a very detailed background. Here are some of my favourite photographs i've picked out from his online gallery:

'Sinalunga, Tuscany, Italy'

'Willoughby Hedge, England'

'Highland Cow, Scotland'

'Cabo, Polonio, Uruguay'

Another photographer I have studied is John Shaw. John Shaw is an American nature photographer who is well known for his instructional books. In 1997 he was awarded the 'inaugural outstanding photographer award' from North American nature photography association. In 2002, Nikon featured him as "Legend behind the lens". Above, you can see I have used his book he published as one of my artefacts. I visited his official website, here is the main page:

As you cans see, he has a-lot of work. He has split his work into sections, from years to different countries. For me, 'Variety' was the most inspiring as it gave me a wider view on his and photography as a whole. Whilst browsing his website, 'variety' in particular, I picked out 3 of my most favourite:

John Shaw published a few books on nature photography. One of which I have studied myself:



Emulation + Plan

Emulation plan

For my emulation I will be emulating three photo's from my favourite landscape photographers. 

First of all is one of Ansel Adams' photography;

This photo is in black and white as you can see. This brings out the details of the tree against its background. The Tree has an almost silhouette like figure, with the whitey/grey sky in the background. This silhouette effect makes the tree stand out as its the main subject within the photograph. 

Above is my emulation for the previous photograph from Ansel Adams. It is not exactly accurate but shares most similarities. I had gone to a local field, and found a lonely/stranded tree. I have captured it so that the edges of the tree reach out towards the borders of the screen. I have increased the blacks in image, but then erasing it from the ground and sky afterwards. This let me achieve a silhouette type form for the tree, which looks appealing to the human eye with the light grey sky in the backdrop of the photograph. 

Here is my the second photograph I will be emulating by Charlie Waite: 

This photo shows a lovely tree line, with grassy fields in the foreground on the left side of the image. I will emulate this to as accurate as possible. 

Here is the third Photo I will emulate, by Charlie Waite also:

This photograph shows a narrow path running through the middle of the photo, with a tree line either side of the path. 

Here is my version of the photograph above. As you can see it is completely different in most ways but the layout and overall concept is the same (path running down the middle of the image with vegetation either side). I have modified the picture on photoshop; bringing the colours out more, emphasising the greens especially. Here is the original photo;

Here are the options I used and tweaked on photoshop: