Ansel Adams: Close-ups of Nature in Black & White

• Ansel Adams was a nature photographer. His subject matter was close to his heart; as a director of the environmentalist group called the Sierra Club Adams helped fight for the cause of nature conservation. 
• Through this photography project students enlarged upon the distinction they were learning to draw between living and non-living things in their science unit to also distinguish between "natural" and "man-made". Like Ansel Adams, they would seek out subject matter that was from nature. 
• Once a photographers know what the subject matter of their pictures will be they need to decide how to photograph it. Students looked at a variety of photographs and learned first to identify and then to create their own "close-ups". 
• On our own "Nature Island" students had frame close-up photos that showed interesting views of nature without including any of the made-made objects around them (cars, buildings, asphalt, etc.). These photos were then edited on the iPad to be black and white and students adjusted brightness and contrast to improve their appearance.