I've admired this image since I first saw it in the Ansel Adams Gallery at Yosemite in the mid-1960's. Adams was a master at transcending the limitations of his photographic equipment. What he accomplished in the darkroom, is now much more easily done in Photoshop and its kin. In spite of the new tools, the challenge of transcending the limitations of the equipment to render the truth in the image remains. I stumbled upon this video short of Ansel on location, and his son Michael telling the story of this image and its transformation from the negative to the inevitable final print.

Also worth viewing is Daile Kaplan's The Story Behind Ansel Adams's "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico".