The first question to ask is what makes an Ansel Adams photograph an Ansel Adams. To classify him to one certain category would be nearly impossible.

Ansel Easton Adams, born on Thursday, February 20, 1902, in San Francisco, was an only child. For many years his Aunt Mary home schooled Ansel. However, in 1911 he was enrolled in the neighborhood school. It was at the young age on twelve that Ansel’s interest in the piano began. His parents supported his interest, and Ansel began to teach himself to read and play music. Ansel continued for many years with this passion and became outstanding. In the spring of 1916 while recuperating from a cold, Ansel’s attention started to stray from music when he read In the Heart of the Sierras by J. M. Hutchings. The book set in the Yosemite Valley illustrated by maps, engravings and photographs kept Ansel’s imagination. It was because of his fascination with Yosemite, that his father and mother would take him there on a family vacation. This was a momentous event that would change his future for

ever. It was on this trip that his parents gave him his first camera. Yosemite became a place that Ansel would visit frequently and held a place in his heart that would remain and that would inspire him. “From his first days with a camera, fourteen-year-old Ansel approached photography seriously.”

Adams published more than two dozen books, including My Camera in the National Parks (1950), Ansel Adams: Images 1923-1974 (1974), Photographs of the Southwest (1976), and Yosemite and the Range of Light (1979).

Ansel Adams spent much of his life taking photographs in the national parks, and served as an official photographer for the Sierra Club, a conservation organization that he became involved with starting in his early teenage years.

In 1932 Adams and other California photographers, including Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, founded an influential group called Group f/64, which was devoted to taking straightforward photographs in sharp focus. The following year his son Michael was born and he opened the Ansel Adams Gallery at 166 Geary Street in San Francisco. Two years later, his daughter Anne was born and Adams published his first technical book Making a Photograph: An Introduction to Photography. This would be the first of a series of technical manuals by him.

As a new budding photographer, I was inspired by Ansel’s photo from the moment I walked into the room. So much so, that I found it nearly impossible to look at any other pieces with out judging them to what I had just seen. It was very hard for me to concentrate. This is how I knew that I wanted to know more. On a technical aspect (even though I will not profess myself to be knowledgeable in this yet) I found that the way Ansel used the sunlight to his advantage and the way he was able to capture the depth of the moment made the picture come to life. He was able to make the mountains seem larger yet he did not take away from the presence of the boulders. I also was amazed at the manner by which he was able to portray the tones of black and white and in a way show you the richness of color of the scene. The more I was able to study and research about him and see other pieces of work, both black-and-white and color, the more I admire and adore him and his work. I am truly inspired by him.

On April 22, 1984 Ansel Easton Adams died of heart failure. In his honor the United States Congress established the Ansel Adams Wilderness area, located between Yosemite National Park and the John Muir Wilderness Area. Mount Ansel Adams, an 11,760-foor peak located at the head of the Lyell Fo

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