Teton/Yellowstone 2025 - A Personal Project

This was far from being the first trip that Dalton and I have taken to Teton or Yellowstone National Park, but I had been feeling the itch to return and the Fall seemed like the perfect time to do so. We mashed this trip in between a biking trip that he had planned to Moab with a friend and a hunting trip that he had around the Vernal area. After realizing that I didn't love the idea of tent camping in high 20-degree nighttime temps, we had asked his parents if they would let us borrow their camper for the trip. This was an entirely new challenge for me when trying to reserve campsites, but I was so grateful that we had a warmer and comfier place to relax between day adventures.

Our first campsite was at the Signal Mountain Campground in Teton National Park. It was quite peaceful and beautiful and full of trees bearing their Fall colors. Dalton expertly backed in the camper, got everything squared away with the site, and began driving around his new remote control vehicle. All was right with the world. We were also within a 5-minute walking distance of the lake, and ventured down their to come upon a fox near the boat dock. That fox will live only within the photos that Dalton took, as I have been restricting myself to a 50 mm lens for all of my travels lately. It's compact, easiest to tote around without becoming burdensome, and forces me to really be choosier with the images I do capture.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the autumn colors were wonderful! With the stark blue backdrop of the Teton range, the contrast was quite striking. I felt as though this was the perfect close to a summer that was filled with many other nature explorations. These all have become a fond addition to my memories.

Our first, and in fact only evening in Teton was concluded with a trip up the Signal Mountain Road to look out over the valley and listen to elk bugles across it. This haunting sound is one of the most interesting sounds I have heard in nature. This was such a peaceful excursion to just relax in the stillness of the setting sun and dial our ears in to listen for these bugles for as long as they lasted. The added advantage of a very nice pair of binoculars helped us to spot a few of the elk we heard as well. It will never not be fascinating to me to observe a wild animal in their day to day comings and goings.

The following morning we woke up quite early (as you do when you want to catch both sunrises and sunsets), and set out to see what the morning had to offer us. Immediately we were mesmerized by the thickest layer of fog all over the park. It didn't cover the entire sky, though, but seemed to hover and glide over the surface of the land and the water. This made for a rather magical morning spent listening for more elk bugles and just taking in the quiet calm of the surroundings.

The sun continued to rise higher in the sky, and we began to realize that we wanted to head out and on our way up to Yellowstone for the second part of our short trip. We said goodbye to the flickering leaves of the aspen and the morning fog, and drove further north.

My selection of photos is a bit slim from Yellowstone, actually. As that was more Dalton's domain with the long lens and wildlife captures, I was more than happy to slip fully into the present moment and become a full-time observer. The few selected here exhibit the contrast in temperature from the morning to the afternoon within the park. From heavy frost in the early hours to needing to shed a layer or two by lunch time. It was interesting getting accustomed to this rhythm. The final panorama hopefully captures the chill and wonder of this volcanic spot especially at first light of day.

Capitol Reef 2025 - A Personal Project

I've always said that this park was my favorite one out of the "Big Five" Utah national parks. It maybe doesn't have the distinctive arches, crazily-shaped hoodoos, or world-famous hikes that make some of the other parks so popular, but that (to me at least) only adds to its allure. My mom wanted to visit one of the parks that she hadn't seen yet, so this one became an easy choice for me even though this was probably my fifth or sixth time visiting. What was unique about this visit was 1. my Mom joining me, 2. camping inside of the park for one night, and 3. my decision to tackle the Navajo Knobs hike on my own on the last day. The latter of these three is pictured in the panorama below. I felt incredibly shaky, aware of my altitude, and full of equal parts excitement and fear as I took the many images that were later stitched together to form this image.

 After arriving at the park around 3:00 pm on the first day of our trip, we set up our campsite and pulled out some food for a picnic dinner. This has become one of my favorite parts of camping - the picnic meals in beautiful surroundings. I turned on my camera for a few camp closeups. As I've discussed before, I enjoy these little details as much as the sweeping landscapes. To me, they help to capture the feeling of the trip in quiet, colorful, and simple compositions. All most importantly bathed in whatever dreamy natural light as available at that time in space.

Another unique part of Capitol Reef are the historic buildings and farm infrastructure. I enjoy how they play against the dramatic rocks and coexist fairly picturesquely. We stopped inside the famous pie shop for a few souvenirs and took a few walks around some of the barns and fruit vineyards.

I was so incredibly proud of my mom for being willing to do a good amount of hiking with me. In total, on our main day of hiking, we walked a cumulative distance of 9 miles together! My gratitude for her physical capability to still join me on all of these crazy endeavors cannot be overstated. From her I learn that by slowing down and taking my time, I can notice and appreciate so much more of the beauty around me.

Something I enjoyed experimenting a bit more with on the post-processing end of these images was black and white. In some of these more high-contrast situations, I feel as though removing color from the photo only enhances its beauty.

One of the extra special perks of this trip was staying at my friend and coworker Cortney's family cabin. The warmth and sense of coziness that this log home provided were almost nostalgic to me even though I had not grown up here. It reminded me in little ways of my Grandma Brand's cabin back in New York State. This was more than enough to make me feel welcome and comfortable. It also compelled me to capture a series of images focusing on some of the unique details, both for myself and for Cortney's family.

Some people might think that you would not need three days to spend in Capitol Reef, but I can really confidently say we fully filled those three days and there is more still that we did not see. We combined hiking with scenic drives, ranger talks, and star-gazing. A little bit of everything - some sunrises, some sunsets, some days taking it easy and others pushing ourselves a bit more physically. It really is a pleasure working to find that balance. Also working with the way the present moment plays out and shifts while traveling. Sometimes all the planning in the world couldn’t take the place of one moment of spontaneity and adventure.

A few more fun details that I'd love to share have themes of texture, shape, and kisses of light. The little things that catch my eye and beg me to focus on them for just a second longer. I love when a photo can almost make you feel the roughness of twisted wood, the porous surface of a desert stone, or the delicate flowers on a dry bit of brush that could fizzle away into nothing at the slightest friction. I seek to capture the vastness of a desert landscape from the perspective of the smallest of its inhabitants.

I will end this blog where I started. With the final hike I decided to tackle on my own on the morning of the day we were to leave. The Navajo Knobs hike had always intrigued me, but had also been just too long to tackle without proper planning. Since I had hiked about half of the trail the day prior, I felt confident about going twice the distance to a total of 9.4 miles. I was the first one to the trailhead parking area at about 6:30 AM, and did not see another human soul for the entire ascent. I did, however, happen upon three bighorn sheep in an interaction that felt like it lasted forever before they walked away. The final scramble up the highest most exposed "knob", was just a tad frightening for me. It also made me so happy that I had done this on my own, though. I took the image of my feet at the edge of that small precipice in an attempt to capture that feeling. The image with the crudely-drawn red circle highlights this final place that I climbed up to from further back on the trail.

In conclusion, this trip filled my cup in so many ways. Going through the photos afterwards was honestly also something I looked forward and thoroughly enjoyed at each step along the way. Think this is something I will continue for the foreseeable future!

Crater Lake 2025 - A Personal Project

It makes me very happy to see my blog slowly but surely populating again with mostly personal projects! This most recent one is one of which I am quite proud. Not so much in the actual end result of the photos, as in the intent with which I set out to take them. Too often, over the past seven years, it seemed as though I actively rejected the thought of taking my camera on trips with me - opting to reserve my creative energy for the photos I took during my work-week. All the while hearing the voices of past photography professors saying “don’t ever give up on your personal work”. We’ve had some rocky times in our relationship - photography and I, but my recent attitude towards surrender, acceptance, and non-striving has me trying one last time to make peace with my initial resistance.

Now without further ado, here are three panoramic views of the stunning Crater Lake in Crater Lake National Park. Each taken from a slightly different angle at a different time of the day.

This lake was unlike any other lake I had visited in my life thus far. It had an air of mystery attached to it, and a somewhat unsettling energy that was palpable. Multiple times, while gazing for extended amounts of time out over its impossibly blue waters, I found myself drawn a little too close to the edge. My cousin Hailey (my travel companion on this trip) echoed my feelings, and we shared feelings of almost missing the lake and needing to see it again after only turning a corner where it was no longer in view.

Although the entire park is essentially based around this one lake, there are countless ways to view and interpret each point in your travels around its circle. I found, as I have in the past, that while I enjoy the broad, grand perspective as much as the next person, I do particularly revel in honing in on the tiniest of details. An example of this being the brave little ground squirrel who posed for quite a long time for me on this rock. Don’t worry, I did not feed it.

Bright, bold color was something that quite obviously stood out to me at this park. The bluest of blues and the limiest of greens permeated this otherworldly landscape, and it was almost too easy to capture it within the eye of my camera’s lens. One of my favorite parts of this trip was finding out that I could fill my water bottle with the water from Crater Lake without any worry about filtering. The lake is fed only by rainfall and snowmelt, so it is completely potable and tastes amazing! On the green end of the spectrum, I also learned that the lichen growing on the trees that I captured here on Wizard Island (the little island at the lake’s interior) provides excellent air quality.

I will forever remember the many “faces” of Crater Lake, and forever appreciate the beauty of this wonderfully preserved piece of wild country. And to close on the personal note I opened with, I’ll remember it as the first trip that brought me back to being in the moment while also capturing the beauty of the adventures within my own life - two things I at one point believed could not coexist.