Fine Art Photography Blog

“It’s god-awful country,” the officer said, recommending that I avoid US 287 across Wyoming from Rawlins to Moran Junction. He was right. I had flown to Connecticut, where I grew up, bought a used car, and was driving it home to California; a member of the local highway patrol wanted to make sure my [paper] temporary plate was legitimate. After our ad hoc meeting, I confirmed that the road to Grand Teton is indeed long, sun parched and wind swept high desert.

Yellowstone itself is an oasis, rising up on the back of the Rocky Mountains to pull moisture out of the air, and teeming with life because of it. Sitting on a now-protected crest of the continental divide, the park is known the world over for its wildlife, although the photo doesn’t show any endangered species. In the surrounding hills and meadows live bison, elk, bighorn sheep, black and grizzly bears, eagles, and more.

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Something doesn’t have to be big to be compelling. A friend of mine who didn’t know much or anything about photography tried an old camera I used to have with a mega-zoom lens, and described the wide angle as a “grand view.” We’re taught to think in terms of sea to shining sea, of a big sky that stretches from one end of the horizon to the other, as far as the eye can see. This doesn’t always have to be the case.

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I thought I had lost the first image in this series many years ago. This was shot in December of 2000; I had spent the month living in Denver and left at sun up most days to explore the high country. Heading into Colorado’s “interior” along US Route 285 toward Buena Vista, this expansive landscape can’t help but catch the eye.

Without meaning to, I’ve pulled over to enjoy the scenery every time I’ve driven by this particular curve in the road. That hasn’t been very often; three years passed between the road trips that produced the two photos below.

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