Ansel made a lot of powerful photographs, but for me, this one falls short. First, less foreground would strengthen it. Perhaps a longer lens would have been a better choice. Also, this situation calls for greater elevation, not always possible, and the reason Ansel often photographed from his roof platform. However, it's Ansel's photograph, and he was most likely pleased with the result. That is what matters.
I don't recall having seen this photograph. I knew Ansel well, and he had a large impact on my life as a photographer. I think many photographers today owe a great deal to Ansel.
Thanks Sirius. In its own quiet way this is a dramatic picture to accompany a dramatic story. Other than his son, I wonder how many miles away the next human being was?
On a small relatively densely populated island, even in its remoter regions, it becomes almost impossible to contemplate what a real wilderness is
One day in his neighborhood I walked in where the print spotting assistant was laboring on another print from that Alaska trip, a very well known Mt McKinley image with a big sky. A mosquito had gotten inside the bellows and rested on the film, leaving a perfect outline of itself, now highly enlarged right in the middle of the sky. Retouching purgatory. Being a professional spotter must be the worst job on earth, I thought to myself.
One day in his neighborhood I walked in where the print spotting assistant was laboring on another print from that Alaska trip, a very well known Mt McKinley image with a big sky. A mosquito had gotten inside the bellows and rested on the film, leaving a perfect outline of itself, now highly enlarged right in the middle of the sky. Retouching purgatory. Being a professional spotter must be the worst job on earth, I thought to myself.
That's is what amazes me most about civil war images...wet sticky egg whites on glass together with 10s of thousands of horses and mules -- and the shit and flies that go with them (and probably worse post-battle).