If I were told that I could only concentrate on one genre of photography for the rest of my life, it would probably be landscape photography, as much for the process as the subject. Making landscape photographs transports me to a place of intense focus that usually takes me down one of two paths.
Often, its like composing a complex classical symphony for a full orchestra. One of the ways to strengthen a design is to limit the elements you include and in photography I can do that through the use of light and shadow as well as changing my point of view. Still, there can be dozens of elements that have to be arranged into a harmonious composition, and not all of them seem to fit at first. Making a single photograph can involve hours of work.
On the other hand, after 4o years of making photographs, there is often a kind of grand calculus going on in my head that I’m not always aware of on a conscious level, a kind of instinctual process where I compose and select camera settings in order to achieve my vision of the photograph I wish to make that is much more like playing smooth jazz than composing that symphony.
Both processes can lead to compelling photographs, and in the end, isn’t that all that matters?
Teton Sunset Over Jackson Lake 1
I had been shooting clouds sailing over Jackson Lake and the Tetons all afternoon on the day before the interior park roads closed for the winter. It was cold and obscenely windy as a high pressure front moved in and blew all of the clouds out of the Hole. I was just thinking of calling it a day and finding a place to warm-up when the western horizon started to show a bit of color. I'm glad I stayed, the sonset through the mountain peaks and the reflections on Jackson Lake were a perfect end of a great day and another season in Grand Tetons NP. A 30 second exposure was about the longest I could manage without the hurricane winds shaking my tripod even crouched down in the lee of my truck.
