I watched the PBS documentary on Ansel Adams last night (from the American Experience series). The film itself was alright, but not as good as it could have been. For a show focusing on a photographer, there was remarkably poor treatment of his photographs and the venues he shot them in. The director, Ric Burns, chose to use the now cliched pan-n-zoom effect his brother made so famous, but it really detracted from the photographs. I would’ve loved to have seen the full pictures for a little bit to understand the composition and have a sense of scale before zooming around the various elements of the photo. They also had a lot of helicopter footage from the Sierras, but the camera was so shaky and not level, it was disturbing.

The American Experience website for this documentary, however, is quite good – there’s extra footage and some cool features. Check it out here.