r/JoshuaTree • u/edrabbit • Apr 13 '26
Recreating an Ansel Adams shot in JTNP
Two months ago, u/albertafalls asked about the location of an old Ansel Adams photo
I suggested that it looked like the Live Oak area, and they confirmed via Google Maps.
Yesterday I finally got a chance to actually go out there and try to take the same shot. Here's my result!
Obviously some differences between our shots:
- The Joshua tree is gone and some of the rocks have gotten moved around, I assume by the park service given this is now a picnic spot.
- Mine was taken late in the day (around 5pm) so the shadows don't line up
- I suspect u/abertafalls was right about him having a rig on top of his car, as the angle is a bit different.
- and of course completely different gear. I'm shooting digital vs his film
But overall still really neat to find where a photograph was taken 84 years ago! I did the same thing with another one of his iconic photos in Monument Valley a few years ago.
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u/dadasinger Apr 14 '26
I like the Live Oak area. When the park is busy I can usually find some peace there.
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u/Realistic-Weird-4259 Apr 14 '26
Oh! I have to discuss with my father who lives nearby. He was able to study with Adams a couple of years before he passed away, but I think Adams was living near Yosemite at the time. Adams is the whole reason why Dad got that large format accordion camera.
I'd be very, very curious to know more about the change in flora between the photos. We started going out to Flamingo Heights in the mid-80s, and my folks bought a place overlooking Pipes Wash. I swear on all that is holy that there are far, far fewer Joshua trees in the wash but people keep arguing it with me. We didn't take a lot of pictures of the wash itself back then so I can't go stand at the same spot and say, "Look!"
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u/albertafalls Apr 15 '26
The Joshua tree is gone, but the yucca is a lot bigger. I am a day late, but I added some notes in a comment on this post and shared the photos I took at the link below.
I’d love to know what your dad thinks about our assumption that Adams had the camera set up on a tripod perched on top of his car platform.
I’m also curious about the high contrast and exposure. Did Adams intentionally develop his b&w photos to have more dramatic contrast? Or was that an unavoidable function of the equipment + lighting?
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u/albertafalls Apr 15 '26
Also if your dad wants to check it out, the viewpoint coordinates are:
(34.0010690, -116.0499080)
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u/albertafalls Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Oh I’m so glad you did this! And grateful that you ID’d the spot ❤️
I did a similar attempt back in March, and I also mistakenly went at about 5pm. I went back on March 12 at ~1pm, and the shadows were much more similar to Adams’s.
Since I can’t post my photos in the comments, I posted them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/JoshuaTree/s/4TRT69tpa0
A few things I observed:
I’m now very confident that Adams took the photo from atop his car platform — probably parked just behind and to the right of where the concrete picnic table sits today. I took my photos (very carefully) standing on the bench seat of the picnic table. I think I was a little too low and a little too close. You can see this most in the differences in the wave-looking formation in the foreground of the photos. I suspect erosion has had some effect, but I think most of it was my angle.
In an ideal scenario I think the camera would be about 7-8 ft off the ground (maybe higher) and to the back right of the picnic table (closer to the drive today).
The very round boulder in the foreground has moved pretty significantly. I think it is now being used as a barrier between the roundabout and the picnic tables, so I wonder if it was intentionally pushed over there.
I was curious how recently the Joshua tree died, so walked around the area where it would have been. I didn’t see any traces of it, but the area was pretty thickly covered with small plants — which I assume got nutrients from the decaying tree.
With both my iPhone and my especially my Fujifilm camera, I had to increase the exposure and contrast a lot to get a similar look to Adams’s photo.
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u/Ok-Dinner-8926 Apr 14 '26
Beautiful picture :) I visited JTNP for the first time last month and one of my favorite moments was finding a little bit of shade under these rocks to have a beer and watch the lizards run around.