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Ansel Adams photo - identify the peaks?

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:42 am
by 395guy
In Ansel Adams famous photo, "Winter Sunrise from Lone Pine," what are the peaks in the photo? ...especially the ones on the left side.

Here's a large image of the photo:
http://genevaanderson.files.wordpress.c ... unrise.jpg

Lone Pine Peak is in the left-center and of course Whitney on the right, but which peaks are those on the very left edge behind the southern shoulder of Lone Pine Peak?

Thanks.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:47 am
by Luciano136
I'm sure some people can easily answer that question but I would guess LeConte and very maybe Irvine and Mallory?

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:56 am
by Gene
Peak on the far left is Corcoran. The one resting on the shoulder of LPP is LeConte.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:05 am
by 395guy
Thanks. And is that Mt Russell getting cut off on the far right edge of the photo?

And for bonus points, what's the name of the horse in the foreground? :D

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:09 am
by Gene
Don't know about Russell, but the answer to the second part of your question is Ed.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 7:37 am
by mungeclimber
neat photo

compared to taking that photo today, some differences, eh

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 11:45 am
by Arthur Digbee
Today is Ansel Adams' birthday. FWIW.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:38 pm
by The Chief
A little story about the final processing of that shot...

It took Ansel well over 3 years of manipulation of the original 5X7 neg in the Dark Room to acquire the results you see in the OP.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 3:49 pm
by 96avs01
395guy wrote:Thanks. And is that Mt Russell getting cut off on the far right edge of the photo?


my guess would be Carillon

PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 3:49 pm
by 395guy
Yep, he would have been 108 today.

From what I've read, the students from Lone Pine High School used to put white rocks on the Alabama Hills in the shape of LP, and Adams had to take ink and smudge out those letters in the photo.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:48 am
by ksolem
Gene wrote:Peak on the far left is Corcoran. The one resting on the shoulder of LPP is LeConte.


Actually I think the very left most pinnacle is Shark's Tooth, with Corcoran to it's right.

Then I think that ridge falls out of sight so LeConte in not visible. The nearer visible peaks are Mallory and Irvine? The perspective is distorted by the lens but I think that's it.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:58 pm
by Palisades79
How about a count and name of the peaks from left to right . I've been hearing disagreements for the last 50 years. In a show I saw at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in the 70's , Mr. Adams displayed photos ,including some very famous ones , side by side that he had printed quite differently with dramatic results .

PostPosted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:28 pm
by ksolem
I’ve been looking more carefully at this part of the image – to the left (south) of Lone Pine Peak. First, there is no possibility, as I speculated above, that Mallory or Irvine are in the picture. :oops:

That part of the image is especially compressed in perspective. Perhaps this is because it is well away from the center, and also this could be due to the focal length.

I am convinced that the very leftmost pinnacle is Shark’s Tooth. This means that the next peak to the right has to be the main summit of Corcoran (the lesser summit being out of frame to the south,) even though it appears to be entirely the wrong shape. Corcoran is a narrower peak and does not present such a broad face. I suspect this is an artifact of the lens, merging a lesser peak in front of Corcoran and Corcoran itself into one larger looking massif.

Next is the prominent North Gully or Notch of Corcoran, then a lesser peak unnamed in Secor, and then Mt. LeConte.



For reference here’s some poor quality pics I took when I climbed Corcoran in Sept. 2004:

This one shows both the north (higher) and south summits of Corcoran with Shark’s Tooth in between… (at this point I have just walked beneath the Tuttle Obelisk on my right.)
Image

This one shows Shark’s Tooth to the left, the clean face of Corcoran just right of center, and the lesser peak in front which I think the photo merges with Corcoran…
Image

This is Corcoran proper. As you can see it is a narrow prominent peak…
Image

Shark’s Tooth from Corcoran summit. N Face Langley behind.
Image

Sorry, it was a throw away camera. Next time I’ll take a good one. It is outrageously rugged and beautiful up there. And wow does Adam's light and detail on the NE Ridge of Lone Pine Peak bring back some memories...

PostPosted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:45 pm
by ksolem
Interesting: Other reproductions of that Ansel Adams image I've been looking at online are cropped slightly differently and do not show the Shark's Tooth. This also takes away a nice little bit of air along the South Face of LPP, below the clouds...

This is the way a 1970's original print sold by Christie's for over 27K appears on their site...

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5185990