Ansel Adams, do the crip walk

Observe, while some schmuck attempts to critique the master photographer...



The picture I am critiquing is a picture by Ansel Adams called Mono Lake. The picture is in black and white and was taken in 1948. Mono Lake is an ancient lake in California. At over 700,000 years old it is one of Northern America’s oldest lakes. It is also more than twice as salty as the ocean.

In the foreground of the picture is the edge of the lake and a few dead branches that stick out of the ground for a few feet. You can see some short vegetation on one side and some rocks going out just past the branches. After a few feet everything becomes hidden by the water and cloud reflections. This patch of land and the branches provide the main focal point and offer the greatest detail of the picture. The rest of the picture appears calm and never-ending.

The next shapes you recognize in the picture are the reflections of the clouds on the smooth lake surface. It almost flips the picture upside down and forces you to clarify in your mind just what you are looking at. When you look at the reflections of the clouds everything else in the picture seems to disappear. The clouds fade away into light reflective surfaces. In some areas they are interrupted by large black spots.

The black spots are the reflections of the first layer of mountains in the background. One large formation to the left seems low with rounded edges. Not many details are present. The black formation contrasts well with the reflective surface of the water in front of it. It helps break up the picture and separate the water from the sky. Without some sort of landmass the water and sky might meet in the middle and make it hard to have some type of perspective.

To the right of the mountains is a large channel with another, smaller land mass in the middle. It provides another focal point as a break between the water and the larger mountains in the far background.

The mountains in the background are more jagged but blurry. Their color is a much lighter color than the mountains in the foreground, which helps with the overall perspective of the picture.

By the time Ansel Adams took this picture, the government had begun diverting its source streams away from the lake, causing the salt levels to rise and the lake to begin dying. It’s hard to say if that is what the picture is depicting, but it certainly gives you that idea. From the dead branches in the foreground to the large black masses in the background, the picture seems like a vast wasteland. The combination of the dead branches and the reflection of the clouds on the water make it feel like you are looking at a vast desert. The absence of color in the picture also gives the impression of the lake dying. The black and different shades of gray give it a somber feel.

I like this photo because it is calm and peaceful with a good mixture of detail and focus. Looking at it gives the impression you are looking out from the edge of life. The trees in the front suggest you are not in the best place, but the mountains in the background offer hope that something more positive and colorful is on the other side.

That was horrible.... I apologize Mr. Adams... (yes, I know he is not living anymore)

peace nick