Ansel Adams

Reading about Ansel Adams gave me more respect for nature photography. I've always assumed that landscape photography was an easier subject to photograph because it's not like other genres of photography (like documentary or portrait) where one hurries to capture a moment or expression, however Art and Man brought to my attention that this was not the case at all. While other photographers hurry hurry to capture a moment, landscape photographers have to hurry to capture a scene--a moment in light that will never happen again.
Although I learned from it, I didn't think the article did Ansel or his genre of photography justice. I felt like it stated the obvious instead of examining the details. I would have liked to have scene a picture and just had Adams explain about it--what did he think makes the picture truly beautiful? Instead he gave afew sentences overview about the taking of Moonrise Hernandez, and moved on to explain about "seeing" a picture where the obvious advice of "seeing the image before you shoot it" was mentioned.
My favorite part of the magazine was when Adams states "I would say the creative impulse and the discipline came directly from my training in music. If I hadn't had that, I... wouldn't have had any insight into art... As a musician, you've got to know your notes and be able to play them right." The idea of music being similar to music was an odd comfort to me. I feel like I can relate to and am more familiar with music than I am photography so to hear the two considered similar was great; it made me not feel so lost with my camera.