Ansel Adams in Color

Ansel Adams is, of course, famous for his black and white photos of the American landscape.  Whenever I’ve looked at his black and white images I’ve always thought of them as well-crafted and well-composed but very stark and, frankly, somewhat flat, lifeless and closed in.  There isn’t a lot there that really moves or inspires me aside from the stark graphic forms. I’ve always wondered in the back of my mind what they would look in color. Well, now I found out.

Recently I saw a book in Barnes and Noble called Ansel Adams in Color. I don’t remember ever seeing his color photographs before so looking at the photos in this book really shows me a different side of him. To me the photos in this book are very alive and visually interesting compared to his black and white images. They really are kind of a relief to me compared to the somewhat heavy black and whites. The colors maybe aren’t quite what our modern eyes would expect, being used to modern digital images, but they still add a great deal to the images.

I have to admit that I am somewhat biased against black and white. I can see that it has its uses but it just generally doesn’t seem all that interesting to me. As I said above, the stark graphic aspect can be interesting with the right subject but the images generally seem flat and lifeless with a very heavy and closed in feel. Very little subtlety. Color seems to me to add a whole new dimension that makes the images feel much more alive and open. Color is just an overwhelmingly important part of the way we see the world and removing it just provides a very impoverished view. I realize there are many people that would disagree with this, but it just seems obvious to me and I feel that black and white is rather overrated.

There seems to be a little bit of controversy about this particular book too. Apparently Ansel was fairly clear that he felt these color images didn’t live up to his standards and that he didn’t want them published. At least part of this seems to be because of the limitations of the color films and developing process in use at the time. I have seen a few comments, particularly in the customer reviews for the book on Amazon, saying that the images shouldn’t have been published in this book for that reason. I have to say that, while I understand the reasoning, I don’t agree. First, if nothing else these pictures have a significant historical interest that makes publishing them worthwhile. Also, to me at least, these color pictures are actually much better than the black and white ones. It would really be a shame to lose all that.

One of Jupiter’s Dark Bands Disappears!

Hmmm.  One of Jupiter’s most prominent dark bands, the South Equatorial Belt or SEB, has essentially disappeared over the last year.  You can see the before and after pictures in this entry at the Planetary Society’s blog. Apparently this is something that happens on a somewhat regular basis, generally every 3 to 15 years. I try to keep up-to-date on amateur astronomy so I was somewhat surprised that I can’t remember hearing about this before. Maybe I did but my memory is just going bad. Anyway you can also check out this post by Astro Bob (also linked to from the Planetary Society blog post) to get much more explanation about what astronomers think is going on in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Apollo 11 Launch in Slow Motion

Here is an amazing video that shows the first 30 seconds of the Apollo 11 launch in slow motion.  The video is slowed down so that it runs for about 8 minutes.  The video was taken from a camera that was mounted on the launch pad and shows the powerful main engines starting up and lifting the rocket off the pad. An interesting commentary has been added to give you a good idea of what’s happening.

This video is totally awesome in itself, but it also brings lots of other thoughts to mind.  I have a memory of being at a relative’s house in the Twin Cities watching the Eagle land.  Then later that night being back at our house in Wisconsin watching Neil and Buzz walk on the moon.  I also think about how we had rockets with these capabilities back in the 1960’s but don’t have the same capabilities today.  As cool as the space shuttle is, it can’t be used to go to the moon or beyond Earth orbit at all.  When will we finally send people beyond Earth orbit again?  I’m skeptical about the changes to the manned space program being suggested by the Obama administration.  There doesn’t seem to be a concrete goal to be met anytime soon and I’m afraid that will cause more vague meandering similar to what we’ve had for the last 20 or 30 years.  I hope I’m wrong.

Anyway, try to keep negative thoughts like that out of your mind (I know, not so easy after I put them there) and just watch this cool video and marvel at what we were able to do.

Hi!

Hi!  I’m Jon Peterson and this is my blog.  I have a lot of different interests so I expect to post on many different subjects.  I’m very interested in photography and am trying to spend more time on it so photography (mainly nature/outdoor photography) will be a big focus.  However, there are many other subjects that will probably show up here including science, math, technology, space exploration, astronomy, science fiction and maybe even occasionally (shudder!) politics.

A little bit more about me.  I live in Minnesota and have lived here for about 26 years now.  I have been a software engineer for most of those 26 years, but I was recently laid off.  For now I’m trying to spend more time on my photography and getting my web site (www.jonpetersonphoto.com) up-to-date.

I grew up in central Wisconsin.  I got a Bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1984 and I’ve lived and worked in Minnesota ever since.  Even though my degree was in computer science and I’ve worked in that field ever since, I have always been very interested in science and mathematics.  I considered a major in physics, but eventually decided that it would be much easier to make a living as a computer programmer.

My interest in photography has waxed and waned over the years.  I’ve always been interested enough to make sure that I owned a decent camera.  However, in the last several years my interest has grown and I’ve gotten more serious about it.  The advent of digital photography has really improved the process of photography for me.  Being able to see my images essentially immediately and not having to worry about wasting expensive film on images that I’m not sure of is all very empowering.  Working with my images on the computer, a medium that I’m already very familiar and comfortable with, also makes the process much easier.  My current camera is a Nikon D200 with an assortment of lenses.  I also use a Bogen tripod.  I find that using a tripod helps me to slow down a little and think a bit more about the composition of my image before actually snapping the shutter.

I hope that gives you a little idea of who I am and what I hope this blog will be.  I intend to try to update the blog a couple times a week.