Because of Ansel Adams' keen eye and the snow falling on the branches, we can see a lot more detail in the oak tree: the spray of the twigs, the contour of the branches, the drift of snow against the trunk. Use of dodging and burning (selectively darkening and lightening during the print process) and a gelatin-silver printing technique brings out the depth of tone in the tree trunk and the play of light during the storm.
On a side bar, Ansel Adams was an accomplished painist and used a metronome to time his development process instead of the standard timer.
When my gentle reader sees trees outside in this storm and then looks at this picture, he can understand the difference between the way I looked at the world before vision therapy and the way that I look at the world today.
This is a beautiful illustration, thank you!
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