Misplaced Pages

#188811

75-449: The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half, is just an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête , that is oriented northeast–southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon , is probably controlled by master joints , 80 percent of

150-480: A pyramidal peak is created. A cleaver is a type of arête that separates a unified flow of glacial ice from its uphill side into two glaciers flanking, and flowing parallel to, the ridge, analogous to an exposed mid-channel bar in a braided river . Cleaver gets its name from the way it resembles a meat cleaver slicing meat into two parts. A common situation has the two flanking glaciers melting to their respective ends before their courses can bring them back together;

225-487: A Half Dome permit when they pick up their wilderness permit with no additional reservation required. Rock climbers who reach the top of Half Dome without entering the subdome area can descend on the Half Dome Trail without a permit. The top of Half Dome is a large, flat area where climbers can relax and enjoy their accomplishment. The summit offers views of the surrounding areas, including Little Yosemite Valley and

300-529: A San Francisco insurance magnate and arts patron. Bender helped Adams produce his first portfolio in his new style, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras , which included his famous image Monolith, the Face of Half Dome , which was taken with his Korona view camera , using glass plates and a dark red filter (to heighten the tonal contrasts). On that excursion, he had only one plate left, and he "visualized"

375-454: A San Francisco photograph finisher. Adams contracted the Spanish flu during the 1918 flu pandemic , from which he needed several weeks to recuperate. He read a book about lepers and became obsessed with cleanliness; he was afraid to touch anything without immediately washing his hands afterwards. Over the objections of his doctor, he prevailed on his parents to take him back to Yosemite, and

450-432: A Young Woman Stained with Tears" ("Tis-se’-yak") because of the colonies of brown-black lichens that form dark vertical drip-like stripes along drainage tracks in the rock faces. Jack London 's 1900 short story "Dutch Courage" tells of a fictional climb of Half Dome. Monolith, the Face of Half Dome is a black and white photograph taken by Ansel Adams in 1927 that depicts the western face of Half Dome as seen from

525-721: A better vantage point over the immediate foreground and a better angle for expansive backgrounds. Most of his landscapes from that time forward were made from the roof of his car rather than from summits reached by rugged hiking, as in his earlier days. Adams was the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships during his career, the first being awarded in 1946 to photograph every national park. At that time, there were 28 national parks, and Adams photographed 27 of them, missing only Everglades National Park in Florida. This series of photographs produced memorable images of Old Faithful Geyser, Grand Teton , and Mount McKinley . In 1945, Adams

600-444: A candid portrait of O'Keeffe with Cox on the rim of Canyon de Chelly . Adams once remarked, "Some of my best photographs have been made in and on the rim of [that] canyon." Their works set in the desert Southwest are often published and exhibited together. During the rest of the 1930s, Adams took on many commercial assignments to supplement the income from the struggling Best's Studio. He depended on such assignments financially until

675-711: A core principle in his photography. Adams's first portfolio was a success, earning nearly $ 3,900 with the sponsorship and promotion of Bender. Soon he received commercial assignments to photograph the wealthy patrons who bought his portfolio. He also began to understand how important it was that his carefully crafted photos were reproduced to best effect. At Bender's invitation, he joined the Roxburghe Club , an association devoted to fine printing and high standards in book arts. He learned much about printing techniques, inks, design, and layout, which he later applied to other projects. Adams married Virginia Best in 1928, after

750-610: A gifted pianist. However, when he formed the Milanvi Trio with a violinist and a dancer, he proved a poor accompanist. It took seven more years for him to conclude that, at best, he might become only a concert pianist of limited range, an accompanist, or a piano teacher. Adams's first photographs were published in 1921, and Best's Studio began selling his Yosemite prints the next year. His early photos already showed careful composition and sensitivity to tonal balance. In letters and cards to family, he wrote of having dared to climb to

825-442: A group show at the M. H. de Young Museum with Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston , and they soon formed Group f/64 which espoused "pure or straight photography " over pictorialism ( f /64 being a very small aperture setting that gives great depth of field ). The group's manifesto stated: "Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form." Imitating

SECTION 10

#1732780528189

900-422: A life of hiking, camping, and photographing; and the rest of the year he worked to improve his piano playing, perfecting his piano technique and musical expression. He also gave piano lessons for extra income that allowed him to purchase a grand piano suitable to his musical ambitions. Adams was still planning a career in music. He felt that his small hands limited his repertoire, but qualified judges considered him

975-492: A member, to build and direct a state-of-the-art darkroom and laboratory in Washington, D.C. Around February 1942, Steichen asked Adams to join him in the navy. Adams agreed, but with two conditions: He wanted to be commissioned as an officer, and he would not be available until July 1. Steichen, who wanted the team assembled as quickly as possible, passed on Adams and had his other photographers ready by early April. Adams

1050-410: A pause from 1925 to 1926 during which he had brief relationships with various women. The newlyweds moved in with his parents to save expenses. The following year, they had a home built next door and connected it to the older house by a hallway. Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured, and he became more established. The 1930s were a particularly experimental and productive time for him. He expanded

1125-518: A piano to practice on. A ranger introduced him to landscape painter Harry Best, who kept a studio home in Yosemite and lived there during the summers. Best allowed Adams to practice on his old square piano . Adams grew interested in Best's daughter Virginia and later married her. On her father's death in 1936, Virginia inherited the studio and continued to operate it until 1971. The studio is now known as

1200-503: A saddle-shaped pass, called a col . The edge is then sharpened by freeze-thaw weathering , and the slope on either side of the arête steepened through mass wasting events and the erosion of exposed, unstable rock. The word arête is French for "edge" or "ridge"; similar features in the Alps are often described with the German equivalent term Grat . Where three or more cirques meet,

1275-436: A soft-focus lens, "capturing a glowing luminosity that captured the mood of a magical summer afternoon". For a short time Adams used hand-coloring, but declared in 1923 that he would do this no longer. By 1925 he had rejected pictorialism altogether for a more realistic approach that relied on sharp focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure, and darkroom craftsmanship. In 1927, Adams began working with Albert M. Bender ,

1350-689: A stylized depiction of the Half Dome formation. It is still their logo 50 years later. In 1988, Half Dome was featured on a 25 cent United States postage stamp. An image of Half Dome, along with John Muir and the California condor , appears on the California State Quarter , released in January 2005. From 2010 until the introduction of REAL ID , California driver's licenses featured an illustration of Half Dome. The design of

1425-675: A total of 225 small prints to the DOI, but held on to the 229 negatives. These include many famous images such as The Tetons and the Snake River . Although they were legally the property of the U.S. Government, he knew that the National Archives did not take proper care of photographic material, and used various subterfuges to evade queries. The ownership of one image in particular has attracted interest: Moonrise . Although Adams kept meticulous records of his travel and expenses, he

1500-453: A well-known avant-garde composer, gave Adams some lessons. Over the next decade, three music teachers pushed him to develop technique and discipline, and he became determined to pursue a career as a classical pianist. Adams first visited Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family. He wrote of his first view of the valley: "the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it was glorious.... One wonder after another descended upon us.... There

1575-488: A winter storm abated, leaving a fresh coat of snow. He gathered his recent work and had a solo show at Stieglitz's "An American Place" gallery in New York in 1936. The exhibition proved successful with both the critics and the buying public, and earned Adams strong praise from the revered Stieglitz. The following year, the negative for Clearing Winter Storm was almost destroyed when the darkroom in Yosemite caught fire. With

SECTION 20

#1732780528189

1650-624: Is also the name of the fourth route on the formation, ascended by Royal Robbins and Don Peterson over eight days in October 1969. Tis-sa-ack is the name of a mother from a native legend. The face seen in Half Dome is supposed to be hers. Tis-sa-ack is the name of a Mono Lake Paiute girl in the Yosemite Native American legend. John Muir interchangeably used "Tissiack," "South Dome," and "Half Dome" in his writings. Others say Ahwahneechee Native Americans named Half Dome "Face of

1725-604: The American West . He helped found Group f/64 , an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph . He and Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called the Zone System , a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in exposure , negative development, and printing . Adams

1800-724: The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona . Adams was born in the Fillmore District of San Francisco , the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray. He was named after his uncle, Ansel Easton. His mother's family came from Baltimore , where his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business but lost his wealth investing in failed mining and real estate ventures in Nevada. The Adams family came from New England, having migrated from

1875-566: The Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915, his father insisted that he spend part of each day studying the exhibits as part of his education. He eventually resumed, and completed, his formal education by attending the Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School, graduating from the eighth grade on June 8, 1917. During his later years, he displayed his diploma in the guest bathroom of his home. His father raised him to follow

1950-723: The Presidio Army Base . The home had a "splendid view" of the Golden Gate and the Marin Headlands . Adams was a hyperactive child and prone to frequent sickness and hypochondria . He had few friends, but his family home and surroundings on the heights facing the Golden Gate provided ample childhood activities. He had little patience for games or sports; but he enjoyed the beauty of nature from an early age, collecting bugs and exploring Lobos Creek all

2025-580: The Wilshire Grand Center skyscraper in Los Angeles was inspired by Half Dome. Ar%C3%AAte An arête ( / ə ˈ r ɛ t / ə- RET ; French: [aʁɛt] ) is a narrow ridge of rock that separates two valleys . It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys . Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequently this results in

2100-507: The "Diving Board". It was used by the Sierra Club as a visual aid for the environmental movement , and was a part of the portfolio Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras . The ashes of Ansel Adams were later scattered on Half Dome after he died. Half Dome was used as the logo for a software company, Sierra On-Line . In 1971, outdoor recreation and climbing equipment company The North Face created their company logo , based upon

2175-561: The "Mural Project" with commissions for the U.S. Potash Company and Standard Oil, with some days reserved for personal work. While in New Mexico for the project, Adams photographed a scene of the Moon rising above a modest village with snow-covered mountains in the background, under a dominating black sky. The photograph is one of his most famous and is named Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico . Adams's description in his later books of how it

2250-543: The 1970s. Some of his clients included Kodak, Fortune magazine, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, AT&T, and the American Trust Company. He photographed Timothy L. Pflueger 's new Patent Leather Bar for the St. Francis Hotel in 1939. The same year, he was named an editor of U.S. Camera & Travel , the most popular photography magazine at that time. In 1940, Adams created A Pageant of Photography ,

2325-729: The Ansel Adams Gallery and remains owned by the Adams family. At age 17, Adams joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to protecting the wild places of the earth, and he was hired as the summer caretaker of the Sierra Club visitor facility in Yosemite Valley, the LeConte Memorial Lodge , from 1920 to 1923. He remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director, as did his wife. He

Half Dome - Misplaced Pages Continue

2400-670: The Art Center School of Los Angeles, now known as the Art Center College of Design . In 1941, Adams contracted with the National Park Service to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations managed by the department, for use as mural-sized prints to decorate the department's new building. The contract was for 180 days. Adams set off on a road trip with his friend Cedric and his son Michael, intending to combine work on

2475-609: The National Park system, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980. Adams was a key advisor in the founding and establishment of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, an important landmark in securing photography's institutional legitimacy. He helped to stage that department's first photography exhibition, helped found the photography magazine Aperture , and co-founded

2550-593: The Pacific , from 1925 to 1950. Charles Adams's business suffered large financial losses after the death of his father in the aftermath of the Panic of 1907 . Some of the loss was due to his uncle Ansel Easton and Cedric Wright 's father George secretly having sold their shares of the company, "knowingly providing the controlling interest" to the Hawaiian Sugar Trust for a large amount of money. By 1912,

2625-485: The Sierra Club's efforts to secure the designation of Kings Canyon as a national park. This book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of that effort, and Congress designated Kings Canyon as a national park in 1940. In 1935, Adams created many new photographs of the Sierra Nevada; and one of his most famous, Clearing Winter Storm , depicted the entire Yosemite Valley , just as

2700-675: The Valley Floor. A notable location to one side of Half Dome is the "Diving Board", where Ansel Adams took his photograph Monolith, the Face of Half Dome on April 10, 1927. Often confused with "the Visor," a small overhanging ledge at the summit, the Diving Board is on the shoulder of Half Dome. From 1919 when the cables were erected to 2024, there have been 25 confirmed deaths on the cable section. The latest fatality occurred on July 13, 2024. In August 2024, there were calls to double

2775-491: The amount of wooden rungs on the climb, to increase safety. Lightning strikes can be a risk while on or near the summit. On July 27, 1985, five hikers were struck by lightning, resulting in two fatalities. The Cable Route was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Half Dome was originally called " Tis-sa-ack ", meaning Cleft Rock in the language of the local Ahwahnechee people . Tis-sa-ack

2850-486: The base of the northeast ridge of Half Dome itself. The final 400 ft (120 m) ascent is steeply up the rock between two steel cables used as handholds. The cables are fixed with bolts in the rock and raised onto a series of metal poles in late May. The poles do not anchor the cables. The cables are taken down from the poles for the winter in early October, but they are still fixed to the rock surface and can be used. The National Park Service recommends against climbing

2925-555: The best viewpoints and to brave the worst elements. During the mid-1920s, the fashion in photography was pictorialism , which strove to imitate paintings with soft focus, diffused light, and other techniques. Adams experimented with such techniques, as well as the bromoil process , which involved brushing an oily ink onto the paper. An example is Lodgepole Pines, Lyell Fork of the Merced River , Yosemite National Park (originally named Tamarack Pine ), taken in 1921. Adams used

3000-455: The cheapest in the room, a $ 260 coffin that seemed the least he could purchase without doing the job himself. The undertaker remarked, "Have you no respect for the dead?" Adams replied, "One more crack like that and I will take Mama elsewhere." Adams became interested in playing the piano at age 12 after hearing his 16-year-old neighbor Henry Cowell play on the Adams' piano, and he taught himself to play and read music. Cowell, who later became

3075-486: The effect of the blackened sky before risking the last image. He later said, "I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print." One biographer calls Monolith Adams's most significant photograph because the "extreme manipulation of tonal values" was a departure from all previous photography. Adams's concept of visualization, which he first defined in print in 1934, became

Half Dome - Misplaced Pages Continue

3150-650: The example of photographer Alfred Stieglitz , Adams opened his own art and photography gallery in San Francisco in 1933. He also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote his first instructional book, Making a Photograph , in 1935. During the summers, Adams often participated in Sierra Club High Trips outings, as a paid photographer for the group; and the rest of the year a core group of Club members socialized regularly in San Francisco and Berkeley. In 1933, his first child Michael

3225-427: The exceedingly rare analogy to which is a situation of two branches of a braided river drying up before recombining. The location of a cleaver is often an important factor in the choice of climbing routes. For example, following a cleaver up or down a mountain may avoid travelling on or under an unstable glacial, snow, or rock area. This is usually the case on those summer routes to the summit whose lower portions are on

3300-465: The family's standard of living had dropped sharply. Adams was dismissed from several private schools for being restless and inattentive, so when he was 12, his father decided to remove him from school. For the next two years he was educated by private tutors, his aunt Mary, and his father. Mary was a devotee of Robert G. Ingersoll , a 19th-century agnostic and women's suffrage advocate, so Ingersoll's teachings were important to his upbringing. During

3375-455: The help of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson (Weston's future wife), Adams put out the fire, but thousands of negatives, including hundreds that had never been printed, were lost. In 1937, Adams, O'Keeffe, and friends organized a month-long camping trip in Arizona, with Orville Cox, the head wrangler at Ghost Ranch , as their guide. Both artists created new work during this trip. Adams made

3450-400: The ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson : to live a modest, moral life guided by a social responsibility to man and nature. Adams had a loving relationship with his father, but he had a distant relationship with his mother, who did not approve of his interest in photography. The day after her death in 1950, Ansel had a dispute with the undertaker when choosing the casket in which to bury her. He chose

3525-522: The largest and most important photography show in the West to date, attended by millions of visitors. With his wife, Adams completed a children's book and the very successful Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley during 1940 and 1941. He also taught photography by giving workshops in Detroit. Adams also began his first serious stint of teaching, which included the training of military photographers, in 1941 at

3600-415: The north of Ireland during the early 19th century. His paternal grandfather founded a very prosperous lumber business that his father later managed. Later in life, Adams condemned the industry his grandfather worked in for cutting down many of the redwood forests . One of Adams's earliest memories was watching the smoke from the fires caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake . Then four years old, Adams

3675-678: The northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey . The summit was reached by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eye bolts into the smooth rock. Anderson had previously tried a variety of methods, including using pitch from nearby pine trees for extra friction. Anderson subsequently went on to add ropes to his eye bolts, so that other people could climb. Among those who took advantage

3750-411: The pre-season and daily permit lotteries. Permits are checked by a ranger on the trail. Hikers without permits are not allowed to hike beyond the base of the sub-dome or to the bottom of the cables. Hikers caught bypassing the rangers to visit either the sub-dome or main dome without a permit face fines of up to $ 5,000, and/or 6 months in jail. Backpackers with an appropriate wilderness permit can receive

3825-475: The prints were made during the 1970s, with their sale finally giving Adams financial independence from commercial projects. The total value of these original prints exceeds $ 25,000,000; the highest price paid for a single print of Moonrise reached $ 609,600 at a 2006 Sotheby's auction in New York. The Mural Project ended on June 30, 1942; and because of the World War, the murals were never created. Adams sent

SECTION 50

#1732780528189

3900-512: The route when the cables are down, or when the surface of the rock is wet and slippery. The Cable Route is rated class 3 , while the same face away from the cables is rated class 5. The Cable Route can be crowded. Since 2010, all hikers who intend to ascend the Cable Route must first obtain permits when the cables are up between May and October. Permits are limited to 300 per day, and as of 2022, more than 70,000 applications were received in

3975-491: The south face of Mount Rainier , where climbers traverse the flats of Ingraham Glacier but ascend Disappointment Cleaver and follow its ridgeline rather than ascend the headwall either of that glacier or (on the other side of the cleaver) of Emmons Glacier . Notable examples of arêtes include: Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of

4050-471: The technical range of his works, emphasizing detailed close-ups as well as large forms, from mountains to factories. Bender took Adams on visits to Taos, New Mexico , where Adams met and made friends with the poet Robinson Jeffers , artists John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe , and photographer Paul Strand . His talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him popular among his artist friends. His first book, Taos Pueblo ,

4125-734: The top of the dome in 8.2 mi (13 km) (via the Mist Trail), with 4,800 ft (1,460 m) of elevation gain. The length and difficulty of the trail used to keep it less crowded than other park trails, but trail traffic grew to as many as 1,000 people a day, and about 50,000 per year, before a permit system was introduced in 2010. The hike can be done from the valley floor in a single long day, but many people break it up by camping overnight in Little Yosemite Valley . The trail climbs past Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall , then continues into Little Yosemite Valley, then north to

4200-505: The valley floor. After a rigorous 2 mi (3.2 km) approach, including several hundred feet of rock stairs, the final pitch up the peak's steep but somewhat rounded east face is ascended with the aid of a pair of post-mounted steel cables originally constructed close to the Anderson route in 1919. Alternatively, over a dozen rock climbing routes lead from the valley up Half Dome's vertical northwest face. The first technical ascent

4275-586: The visit cured him of his disease and compulsions. Adams avidly read photography magazines, attended camera club meetings, and went to photography and art exhibits. He explored the High Sierra during summer and winter with retired geologist and amateur ornithologist Francis Holman, whom he called "Uncle Frank". Holman taught him camping and climbing; however, their shared ignorance of safe climbing techniques such as belaying almost led to disaster on more than one occasion. While in Yosemite, Adams had need of

4350-562: The way to Baker Beach and the sea cliffs leading to Lands End , "San Francisco's wildest and rockiest coast, a place strewn with shipwrecks and rife with landslides." Adams's father had a three-inch telescope, and they enthusiastically shared the hobby of astronomy, visiting the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton together. His father later served as the paid secretary-treasurer of the Astronomical Society of

4425-605: Was a life-long advocate for environmental conservation , and his photographic practice was deeply entwined with this advocacy. At age 14, he was given his first camera during his first visit to Yosemite National Park . He developed his early photographic work as a member of the Sierra Club . He was later contracted with the United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks. For his work and his persistent advocacy, which helped expand

4500-468: Was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts . Adams invited Dorothea Lange , Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston to be guest lecturers, and Minor White to be the principal instructor. The photography department produced numerous notable photographers, including Philip Hyde , Benjamen Chinn , and Bill Heick . In 1952 Adams was one of

4575-417: Was born, followed by Anne two years later. During the 1930s, Adams began to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation. He was inspired partly by the increasing incursion into Yosemite Valley of commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops, and automobile traffic. He created the limited-edition book Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail in 1938, as part of

SECTION 60

#1732780528189

4650-694: Was distressed by the Japanese American internment that occurred after the Pearl Harbor attack. He requested permission to visit the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley , at the base of Mount Williamson . The resulting photo-essay first appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and later was published as Born Free and Equal : The Story of Loyal Japanese-Americans . Upon its release, "[the book]

4725-535: Was first elected to the Sierra Club's board of directors in 1934 and served on the board for 37 years. Adams participated in the club's annual High Trips , later becoming assistant manager and official photographer for the trips. He is credited with several first ascents in the Sierra Nevada. During his twenties, most of his friends had musical associations, particularly violinist and amateur photographer Cedric Wright , who became his best friend as well as his philosophical and cultural mentor. Their shared philosophy

4800-407: Was from Edward Carpenter 's Towards Democracy , a literary work which endorsed the pursuit of beauty in life and art. For several years, Adams carried a pocket edition with him while at Yosemite; and it became his personal philosophy as well. He later stated, "I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate." During summer, Adams would enjoy

4875-480: Was in U.S. Camera 1943 annual, after being selected by the "photo judge" for U.S. Camera , Edward Steichen . This gave Moonrise an audience before its first formal exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1944. Over nearly 40 years, Adams re-interpreted the image, his most popular by far, using the latest darkroom equipment at his disposal, making over 1,369 unique prints, mostly in 16" by 20" format. Many of

4950-549: Was in 1957 via a route pioneered by Royal Robbins , Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, today known as the Regular Northwest Face . Their five-day epic was the first Grade VI climb in the United States. Their route has now been free climbed several times in a few hours' time. Other technical routes ascend the south face and the west shoulder. The Half Dome Cable Route hike runs from the valley floor to

5025-531: Was less disciplined about recording the dates of his images, and he neglected to note the date of Moonrise . But the position of the Moon allowed the image to be eventually dated from astronomical calculations, and in 1991 Dennis di Cicco of Sky & Telescope determined that Moonrise was made on November 1, 1941. Since this was a day for which he had not billed the department, the image belonged to Adams. When Edward Steichen formed his Naval Aviation Photographic Unit in early 1942, he wanted Adams to be

5100-405: Was light everywhere.... A new era began for me." His father gave him his first camera during that stay, an Eastman Kodak Brownie box camera , and he took his first photographs with his "usual hyperactive enthusiasm". He returned to Yosemite on his own the next year with better cameras and a tripod. During the winters of 1917 and 1918, he learned basic darkroom technique while working part-time for

5175-442: Was made probably enhanced the photograph's fame: the light on the crosses in the foreground was rapidly fading, and he could not find his exposure meter; however, he remembered the luminance of the Moon and used it to calculate the proper exposure. In the resulting negative the foreground was underexposed, the highlights in the clouds were quite dense, and the negative proved difficult to print. The initial publication of Moonrise

5250-516: Was met with some distressing resistance and was rejected by many as disloyal." This work was a significant departure, stylistically and philosophically, from the work for which Adams is generally known. He also contributed to the war effort by doing many photographic assignments for the military, including making prints of secret Japanese installations in the Aleutians. In 1943, Adams had a camera platform mounted on his station wagon, to afford him

5325-511: Was not yet up to the standards of Strand. He decided to broaden his subject matter to include still life and close-up photos and to achieve higher quality by "visualizing" each image before taking it. He emphasized the use of small apertures and long exposures in natural light, which created sharp details with a wide range of distances in focus, as demonstrated in Rose and Driftwood (1933), one of his finest still-life photographs. In 1932, Adams had

5400-436: Was published in 1930 with text by writer Mary Hunter Austin . Strand proved especially influential. Adams was impressed by the simplicity and detail of Strand's negatives, which showed a style that ran counter to the soft-focus, impressionistic pictorialism still popular at the time. Strand shared secrets of his technique with Adams and convinced him to pursue photography fully. One of Strand's suggestions that Adams adopted

5475-429: Was the first woman to climb Half Dome in 1876, S. L. Dutcher, of San Francisco. In 1877 James Mason Hutchings along with Anderson led a climb which included Hutchings' daughter Cosie, his son Willie, his mother-in-law Florence Sproat, aged 65, and two other women. Today, Half Dome may be ascended in several different ways. Thousands of hikers reach the top each year by following an 8.5 mi (13.7 km) trail from

5550-833: Was to use glossy paper to intensify tonal values. Adams put on his first solo museum exhibition, Pictorial Photographs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Ansel Adams , at the Smithsonian Institution in 1931; it featured 60 prints taken in the High Sierra and the Canadian Rockies . He received a favorable review from the Washington Post : "His photographs are like portraits of the giant peaks, which seem to be inhabited by mythical gods." Despite his success, Adams felt that he

5625-499: Was uninjured in the initial shaking but was tossed face-first into a garden wall during an aftershock three hours later, breaking and scarring his nose. A doctor recommended that his nose be reset once he reached maturity, but it remained crooked and necessitated mouth breathing for the rest of his life. In 1907, his family moved 2 miles (3 km) west to a new home near the Seacliff neighborhood of San Francisco, just south of

#188811