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: