“…(and) I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost
This page is dedicated to the artistic vision and nature conservatorship that was best embodied by Ansel Adams. This is my attempt to recreate many of the photographs made famous by Ansel, and to share the learning and challenge of doing so. I will share what I do, how I do it, and what I hope to learn along the way. My desire is that perhaps this helps you to start that project you have in the back of your head but have been held back for one reason or another. Go and do!
What is this project?
Andy chasing Ansel is a project I dreamed up to help me deliberately get better at photography with a critical eye to the artistic side of the discipline of landscape photography. I will do my best to recreate some of Ansel Adams 1,500 published photographs across the United States, and judge them against how well I was able to capture the same things he saw during his lifetime. I know that I will fall far short of Ansel, but I’d rather be modeling his work than any others. Unless otherwise noted, all photos on this page are my own. I am a person driven to learn, and have always cut across the grain by doing so. In these days of radical specialization and the 10,000 hours of studying (popular of late), I find more enjoyment out of following the path that is naturally dictated by my curiosity.
why Ansel Adams?
Ansel Adams was a photographer, and also a life-long advocate for environmental conservation. His early works were as a member of the Sierra Club, and later worked with the United States Department of the Interior to help advocate for the National Parks. It is these two characteristics I hope to imprint on my own life through this project: create better skills as a photographer, and share more of this adventure in the outdoors with others.
How did I get started?
It began with the an idea. But, I think more importantly, before I had it all figured out, I started. I will make mistakes along the way. I don’t know how or what to do along the way, but I will share these trials with you. I continually find that the initial resistance to an idea from yourself or others to be enough to cause us to never begin in the first place. This site is intended to show that you can just go and do. Throw caution to the wind, it’s okay to fail spectacularly. You will survive and learn along the way. Embrace this feeling and keep moving. I encourage you to go and do.
“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communication, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation, and execution”
— Ansel Adams (photo by Andy)