Is it a painting or a photograph?

   

     Is this a painting or a photograph? Photography was first created as a faster replacement for painting. It allows artists to create images easier and quicker. But was that really the main purpose of photography? This indeed is a film photograph taken by Ansel Adams at Yellow Mountain, Glacier National Park in Montana on 1948. Ansel Adams believed that one of the main purpose of photography was to capture visual in a sharp and clear form. Unlike paintings, it is hard for a painter to create a painting that looks truly real. For a photographer, they are able to capture the image they already planned in their mind with the sharpness in just seconds to minutes. This it why Ansel Adams enjoyed photographing in small aperture. This way he can capture everything in focus and sharp. 

     In this photo, Ansel Adams captured the landscape of the Yellow Mountain in Montana. In the background, we are able to see a huge mountain covered in snow and ice. However, in the foreground, we can see few smaller mountains full with grass and trees. It is fascinating to see a placement of a snowy mountain with grassy mountain. Although we can see a clear distant between both, but they still felt very close. If you looked very closely to the lower left of the photo, you will be able to find a cabin hiding within the trees. It wasn't because Ansel Adams wasn't aware of it nor he was too lazy to move, but it was done in purpose. Ansel Adams included the cabin as a scale to show the size of the mountains. You can really get a sense of how big the mountains are comparing to the cabin. The color of this photograph was also interesting. Ansel Adams combined the cool colors from the sky and the snowy mountains with the warm colors on the yellow trees and the cabin. However, the mixture of cool and warm colors created a unity between both in this photograph. Some might believed that the sky and the shadows are negative space, but I thought that there aren't any negative space in this photo. I believed that without the sky or the shadows, this photo would not be complete. In the end, this is still an amazing photograph. It looked almost like it was a painting and if you were to touch it, you'll be able to feel the texture of the dry paints on the surface.