February 20th would be Ansel Adams 109th Birthday (If I did my math right )

He was a pioneering photographer who brought the beauty of the American West to city folks who would never have imagined such beauty existed.

In honor of him I ask all of you that like taking photos to study his photos and take your own versions or studies of his work and share them here in his spirit.

Here is a link to his wikipedia information.

Here is a link to a google search for his images.

His work is a study of light and darkness and the contrast is not limited to the lighting, but also frequently the subject matter.

If you have software to convert and process in black and white great. If not you can email me (pm me for email address) your photos and I can process them how I think he might have and post them here for you.

Here are a few to get us started:

Ansel drove the highways and bi-ways of our great land, frequently shooting from his old wagon. Recently I took a trip with a friend of mine who just lost his wife to cancer. He’s older and not up to hiking around much so we just drove around a looked for things to take pictures of from the road. These are my favorites.

Mono Lake Fog

Mono Lake socked in by Fog

Big Pine California

Snow covered mountains in Death Valley National Park

Clouds in Death Valley National Park

Dappled Hillside in Death Valley National Park

If you have a gallery of photos that are inspired by Ansel, post a link to it in the comments. I have moderated comments turned on because of spam, so it might take a day or two to show up.