This Storm Photographer Was Inspired by Ansel Adams

Jun 23, 2021

Photographer Mitch Dobrowner‘s work is what you get when you combine storm chasing photography with fine art photography. His awe-inspiring black-and-white photos show dramatic storms over sweeping landscapes.

Dobrowner counts Ansel Adams as one of his greatest inspirations as a photographer, and his work shares a similar aesthetic to the masterpieces of the late landscape legend.

“I owe much to the great photographers of the past, especially Ansel Adams, for their dedication to the craft,” Dobrowner stated in an interview with PetaPixel back in 2014. “They were the ones that inspired me in my late teens. Their dedication, determination, craftsmanship and vision still inspire me. Though I have never met them, they helped me determine the course my life would take.

“The first time I saw the work of either Ansel Adams or Minor White I was floored. It may sound a bit cliché, but the images left a major mark on my life. And even today when I look and a great Ansel Adams print or book my world turns upside down again.”

“Living between Los Angeles and Lone Pine, California, Dobrowner often travels throughout the Midwest and Southwest documenting major systems that rage across rural regions,” Colossal writes.

After becoming addicted to photography early in life, Dobrowner stopped taking pictures after getting married, having 3 children, and launching a design studio.

“The tasks of running a business and raising a family took a priority to Photography. During that time I stopped taking pictures,” the photographer states.

Dobrowner finally picked up a camera again in 2005, and since then, he has been on a mission “to create images that help evoke how I see our amazing planet.”

“It’s always about the light,” Dobrowner says. “My main focus has always been landscape photography. I have always loved just sitting out in nature, hearing the wind blow and watching the light changing. I study the light and see photography as an exercise in painting with light and shadows.

“In inclement weather, light and shadows are always changing. Then there are the unexpected things that Mother Nature throws at you, especially when a storm is approaching. It’s a pretty surreal sight. I just try and capture what I see and feel at those moments in my pictures.”