Option Two

Ansel Adams worked almost exclusively in black in white photographs.  His photos are majestic and illustrate the beauty of the wild landscapes of the west. Although these photographs are beautiful they do not capture the reality of nature. Thus, "A black and white photo, framed and carefully shot by a master photographer, does not capture what is really in nature"; color defines objects, color makes the landscapes more realistic, and color shows the true beauty of the west.  

There are three primary and three secondary colors that humans can see but there are countless hues and shades of those colors.  These colors are everywhere, and humans would perceive the world differently if there was no color, because one would only see black and white.  Humans define objects by the colors they are;  an orange is called an orange because of its color, gold is called gold for the same reason, as well as silver, and many other objects.  Since every object has a unique color and that color characterizes that object, when a black and white photograph is taken it makes the picture seem less realistic.  Adam's photograph "Old Faithful Geyser"  looks surreal because it is not defined by color.  The sky in this picture is extremely dark, not blue like it should be, this makes the photograph seem unreal because it looks like it was taken somewhere beyond the earth.  Also, because of the lack of color, one can not tell what the picture is of, it could be a volcano erupting or a water jet at the bottom of the ocean.  Without color humans cannot define what the picture is of, thus it is interpreted as surreal.   Another example of this is Adams "Sand Bar".  This picture is of the Rio Grande River but the lack of color makes it difficult to decipher what the River really is, it could look like a road or cuts in the earth.   Without color, one cannot definitely say that that is a river, because there are no colors to show that is a river and with out color one can never be one hundred percent sure that the object is a river.  Thus because of the lack of color in both photographs, the photos seem surreal and unrealistic, which makes it hard for people to comprehend what the picture is showing.

Using color instead of black and white photographs makes the landscape of the photo look more realistic.  The picture will look more realistic because color is part of the world and without it a photo can not capture what really is in nature.   Nature is full of color, the sky is blue, grass green, mountains a mix of brown and gray, rivers dark muddy bluish brown, and trees a very dark green with hits of brown.  These things characterize nature and make nature what it is, without color nature would be perceived in a completely different way.  Thus when color is not included in a photograph, like Adams', those photographs look less realistic than other color photographs.  This is true because a color photograph takes a picture of what really is in nature while a black and white photo is modified to delete the color in nature, thus not capturing what is really there.

Color is inexplicably tied to the way humans view the world,  in humans eyes there are countless rod cells that interpret the color one sees.   Because color is part of how humans view things, without it we cannot truly visualize a landscape or picture.   Beauty is from the Merian-Webster Dictionary, "the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit", thus part of beauty in a landscape is seeing the multiple colors interact and compete with each other.   In Adams "Clearing Winter Storm" everything is a shade of gray, but if the picture was taken in color one would see the white clouds taking over the dark brown and gray mountains and then the green trees at the bottom would contrast both the clouds and the mountains.   These colors working together to create a landscape is the true beauty of a site because of how humans classify beauty and without nothing can really be beautiful.

Color is very important to an photograph and to nature.  Color defines objects, makes the landscape more realistic, and shows the true beauty of the west and nature.  Asnel Adams works exclusively in black and white for his iconic photographs.  Although he is a "master photographer" his photos would be so much better with color.  Color defines nature and is a vital part of the world.

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