Snake River Overlook
Made famous by Ansel Adams the overlook is easily accessible from the roadside parking lot located nine miles north of Moose on the main highway. Tree growth now breaks up the once unobstructed view of the Snake River that Ansel photographed over 70 years ago. No matter how time has changed the view it is still one of the iconic views of the Tetons.
Like most views of the Tetons, sunrise can provide the extra element needed to make the view even more dramatic. One negative about photographing sunrise is the Snake River will be in shadow during the dramatic warm light. A graduated filter or employing high dynamic range in photographing digitally need to be used to make sure to retain the large variation between highlights and shadows.
Ansel Adams used late afternoon light, which drops the mountains into shadow creating the reflection off of the s-curve of the Snake River. Ansel used clouds to balance out the exposure and lots of darkroom printing to bring out the details in the sky and the mountains.
Photo by Jonathan Adams