Blue Planet Photography

From John Sexton’s newsletter:

ANSEL ADAMS MOON AND HALF DOME ENCORE NOVEMBER 28, 2009

I suspect that many readers of this newsletter are already aware of this news, but in case you are not I wanted to share with you that, on Saturday, November 28th, at 4:04 PM PST a celestial encore of Ansel’s iconic Moon and Half Dome image will occur in Yosemite. The moon will be a fraction of a degree north of where it was on December 28th, 1960 when Ansel made his well-known image.

Texas State University Astronomer, Donald W. Olson, and his team have studied a number of Ansel’s famous moon photographs, and worked out the exact dates the negatives were made. On November 28th the sun will be about 1.5 degrees off of its 1960 position, so the shadows, as well as the position of the moon, will be very similar… that is if the weather cooperates and the sun is out at that time! The Ansel Adams Gallery is presenting a special program focused on the making and printing of Moon and Half Dome on the afternoon of the 28th. You can check out the Ansel Adams Gallery web site for more information or call them at 209-372-4413. Here is a link to the page about the special program:
http://theanseladamsgallery.blogspot.com/2009/11/moon-and-half-dome-encore-november-28.html

I imagine if the weather is good there will be quite a crowd in the Ahwahnee Meadow. Since the moon is a tiny bit to the north of where it was when Ansel made his photograph, it will be necessary for photographers to position themselves a short distance to the south of Ansel’s 1960 camera position. In addition, it will be necessary for photographers to back up a bit further west from Half Dome, because trees have grown up and partly blocked the view from the precise spot where Ansel placed his tripod so many years ago. I think the best photograph will likely be of the crowd of photographers and tripods attempting to emulate Ansel’s photograph. I hope a few photographers are successful in making images that interpret this event with new and different eyes.

If you’re worried about where to set up your tripod, you can go to Donald Olson’s Texas State University web site and check out the aerial photograph with a suggested tripod location diagram. Amazing!! http://uweb.txstate.edu/%7Edo01/moonandhalfdomeencore.htm

For those that won’t be able to attend the event (like us), but want to experience some of the excitement, try checking out the Yosemite Association’s Ahwahnee Meadow web cam. If the weather cooperates, it should be an excellent view… complete with photographers! Here’s the link: http://www.yosemite.org/129/Web-Cam-View.htm

As an added bonus, the Gallery in Yosemite will host an opening reception for Alan Ross from 5:00 to 6:30 PM. This would be a great time to meet Alan and see his beautiful photographs, which are on display at the Gallery through January 3, 2010.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 5:19 am and is filed under Photography, Creativity, Art, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.