 In 1941 , Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes hired Adams for six months to create photographs of lands under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior . Wright accompanied Adams and his young son Michael Adams on a long road trip around the west . While traveling through the Chama River valley near nightfall on November 1 , 1941 , they encountered a " fantastic scene " , a church and cemetery near Hernandez , New Mexico , and pulled to the side of the road . Adams recalled that he yelled at his son Michael and at Wright to " Get this ! Get that , for God 's sake ! We don 't have much time ! " Desperate to capture the image in the fading light , they scrambled to set up the tripod and camera , knowing that only moments remained before the light was gone . The result was Moonrise , Hernandez , New Mexico , a photograph that became so popular and collectible that Adams personally made over 1 @,@ 300 photographic prints of it during his long career . On October 17 , 2006 , Sotheby 's auctioned a print of this photograph for $ 609 @,@ 600 . Art historian H. W. Janson called this photo " a perfect marriage of straight and pure photography " . 
