Ansel Adams - Moonrise in Santa Fe (actually "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico")

Brian - all those test pilot types had giant egos and excess adrenaline, so Apollos flight crews had to be very carefully chosen not only relative to a necessary suite of technical abilities, but for sake of personal compatibility with each under stress other too. But the fellow I mentioned had to make sure all the controls and features on the craft were specifically tailored to the exact individuals chosen for the mission, and then were trained with exact replicas of all that beforehand. So I take it that even the oversized grips on the camera involved were optimized for a specific individual or two, and not all of them. In my own day job prior to retirement I even got to handle some of the modified-grip power tools being used on the International Space Station. It's amazing what a nice cordless drill or impact driver you can get for merely spending an extra ten thousand dollars or so apiece. I actually sold aerospace quality batteries in our own store.

Yep, I’m familiar with human factors and ergonomics. I worked for a decade at a company that had a Division that built and operated NASA’s training tank in Houston, as well as designed some of those unique tools… one of which has been on display at National Air and Space Museum for decades. I was in another Division but there was a lot of communication between Divisions… enough to make each of us jealous of the others.

My buddy’s astronaut son, as well as the other astronauts I’ve met, were highly experienced but more tame and “intellectual “ compared to stereotypes of their earlier generations. He would fly a T-38 into our regional airport to have lunch with his Dad. Always an exciting arrival and departure!

But enough of this… we veered quite off-topic.

Yeah... we never did post what the REAL luminance of the moon is. Perhaps that's why one simulation of the Moonrise shot metered a reflective pie pan in the foreground instead.

DREW WILEY said:

Brian - a former patient of my wife was one of the test pilots chosen by NASA, and was an aeronautical engineer as well, directly involved in both the Mercury and Apollo programs. Although he never went to the moon himself, and remained an alternate astronaut, he was in charge of a lot of the ergonomic designing of equipment, as well as training with it. I've had some fascinating conversations with him. He's still alive and even rented a small plane to fly around a few hours, to celebrate his 96th birthday! But he was never involved with any of the camera gear per se, so couldn't help my curiosity in that respect.

But back to Moonrise per se - I doubt that even the most religious of Zone gurus ever precisely previsualized a print. The whole point is to obtain a versatile enough negative to make life easier. And not until one actually gets to work in the darkroom and spends some time with that specific negative can they start homing in on what it was they might or might not have been thinking about when they took that shot to begin with. It's impossible to instantly freeze-dry the whole mental and practical process. Papers change, personal ways of looking at the same things change. Even the Zone System doesn't preclude an evolution of practical output in print fashion, potentially even within the same work session. I often deliberately print the same negative a bit differently, even on the same day. I might like one version better than the other, or perhaps like both equally well, but for different reasons. That's the difference between a human being in control versus a rote machine. We try to impart our own soul into the print too.

Click to expand...

That's the point I was making and believe what the Zone system is all about, including Adams understanding.

Alan Edward Klein said:

That's the point I was making and believe what the Zone system is all about, including Adams understanding.

Click to expand...

I know the Zone System can get out of hand but it can be simple.

I know some people have no “mind’s eye.” Those with “aphantasia” cannot visualize, but they can enjoy photography.

Ansel Adams could have thought this: “The moon is Sunny 16. Don’t blow it out.”

He did say he opened up two more stops to account for the orange filter. That is plain and simple.

The rest of the story would backfill on the drive home as he imagined what he got.


Spotmeter V set to “Sunny 16” for ASA 64.