Category: Boulder Open Space

Stormed Out!

Well our big March snowstorm in Rocky Mountain National Park has moved on out leaving a heaping of fresh snow in its path. As I was just saying a few blog posts ago, too much snow is a bad thing for landscape photographers. Sometimes a few inches of fresh snow are better than the 2 foot plus of snow RMNP received during this past March blizzard. With so much snow falling, the NPS had to close nearly every road in the park in order to plow and keep visitors safe. The end result of this big storm is that when there was finally enough access to Rocky, it was quite limited. Yesterday was the first morning I was able to get back into the park. Being that it was St. Patricks Day and the mountains were covered in clouds and snow, I used the opportunity to photograph Horseshoe Park. Here the colors of the Irish can be seen with orange willows, white snow and green pines covered in fresh snow from the weekend storm. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 200-500mm F5.6 AF-S VR Lens

Well our big March blizzard came and went and in the process dropped over two feet of fresh snow on Rocky Mountain National Park. With a little less than half the month of March left, its possible that we will certainly have more snow though not quite as likely to have as much as this past storm.

As I just wrote about in the blog a few columns back, big snowstorms aren’t always conducive to landscape photography. I stated in the column that sometimes a few inches of the fresh white stuff is better than feet of snow falling and this latest storm was a case in point.

By the time the storm had cleared out on Monday morning, anywhere between 20 and 30+ inches of snow had fallen on the northern Front Range towns and foothills of Colorado. We had a spectacular sunrise down here in Erie as the Boulder Flatirons were covered in snow and clouds over the peaks turned pink along with the skies as the sun rose over the tundra like landscape.

Of course I was out all ready to photograph the said beautiful sunrise after the historic storm?, nope. Not because I did not want to head out but between shoveling through the four foot drifts on my driveway and the fact that all the side roads and streets had also not been touched by plows along with parking lots there was no way to get out to photograph the sunrise as the storm departed. There was just too much snow, too fast for the plow operators and maintenance people to keep up with. I was snowbound for the morning and had to watch this beautiful sunrise unfold from the confines of my office where I suffered from a serious case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

The same problem was occurring up the hill in Rocky Mountain National Park. While the mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park remained covered in clouds and snow flurries, the National Park Service closed access to Rocky Mountain National Park down on Sunday so that the plows could work safely.

A very small section of RMNP reopened by Tuesday afternoon on the east side of the park. US 36 to Deer Ridge Jct. and US 34 through Fall River entrance were open. All other areas were closed leaving only a very small section of the park that one could photograph. As of this writing on the morning of 3/18, Bear Lake Road is still closed and being plowed and the NPS is reporting there is 63 inches of new snow that has fallen at Bear Lake.

So while this was a great storm for precipitation which we desperately need in Rocky, it was a terrible storm if one wanted to photograph snowy landscapes or just gain access to the trail system and backcountry area. Good news is that Sunday through Tuesday of next week look unsettled and hopefully we have more snow, but not so much that roads and access are closed off making photography impossible.

Bouncing Around Boulder

Artic cold has settled in over the Front Range of Colorado this week. While its chilly out, the change in weather has really opened up opportunities to photograph some dramatic conditions for a change. I’ve been out all week trying to get myself in the most favorable locations based on the weather and cloud layer. This particular morning, Walker Ranch above Boulder was a perfect spot to photograph the inversion layer and the backside of South Boulder Peak. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 24-70mm F4 S lens
As I sit here in my office and write this post its currently a chilly one degrees fahrenheit outside. A cold arctic blast has settled over the Front Range of Colorado bringing winter roaring back. While i’d prefer to see it a little warmer out, I can really complain about the change in weather for two reason.

For one, we’ve barely had much of winter here on the Front Range to speak of. It’s been mild and dry and we really need to start playing catch up on our moisture and snowpack. Secondly, the change in weather brings with it great opportunities for photographers looking for dramatic conditions and spectacular light and atmospherics. All those mild and dry days we’ve had so far this season have made for so ho-hum lighting conditions in what is typically a difficult season to photograph as is.

When the weather changes around here and the dominant weather pattern changes to an upslope flow on the Front Range, winds out of the east northeast bring with them snow, fog and inversions.

Fresh snow on the landscape with clouds and fog will spice up any landscape photographers day but get yourself in the right location in regards to the inversion of clouds caused by the upslope flow and you are all set to take the drama up another notch.

When chasing and photographing inversions on the Front Range of Colorado, the important part is figuring out at what altitude the cloud layer or inversion is at, and then figuring out how to get yourself in a position to be just above the layer of clouds. You can have ideas where you want to shoot and you may have a checklist of locations you want to shoot when conditions are right, but the weather is ultimately going to determine where you end up.

Some days when I’m out chasing the weather and trying to get above the inversion of clouds, the elevation of the inversion puts me high up in Rocky Mountain National Park. Other mornings, the layer is lower and I’m bouncing around the foothills just west of Boulder working on getting above the clouds so that I can see and photograph the light when the sun rises above the horizon.

The following day after photographing at Walker Ranch, the cloud and inversion layer settled a little lower than the previous day. This particular morning, Walker Ranch was free of fog and clouds but a little lower down Flagstaff Mountain was looking good. About 3 miles up Flagstaff Mountain just above downtown Boulder, I was able to get above the inversion layer again and photograph the north side of the Flatirons with Gregory Canyon covered in fog. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 24-70mm F4 S lens
With the big changes this week we had a couple of good days of inversions, fog, snow and rime ice on the trees. So far this week the weather has been such that the best locations have not been up in Rocky Mountain National Park but in the lower elevations and foothills just around Boulder. The inversion did not creep up the the foothills high enough to reach RMNP this week and most mornings settled between 6000 and 7000 ft.

This put Walker Ranch as the best area to photograph one morning, and Flagstaff Mountain just west of downtown Boulder as the best place to photograph the second morning this week. While Rocky had some snow, the winds were mostly out of the west at higher elevations obscuring the mountains and pushing the upslope flow with east northeast winds below Estes Park and back up against the high plains of Colorado.

This arctic weather is going to stick around for a few more days. Every morning I’ll be out checking web cams and trying to figure out where the best spots are going to be and if I can even get above the cloud layer for dramatic photography. Regardless, it’s great to see some moisture and change and typically speaking, this pattern tends to strengthen more as we had towards spring. Either way, these mornings albeit cold, can make for some great photography if you can get yourself in the right location.

Open or Closed?

Trying to navigate a business through our current COVID-19 pandemic is tricky. While I’ve been keeping close to home photographing, I’m keeping a close eye on whats going on in Estes Park, Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park moving forward. While we appear to be seeing some loosening of restrictions, I am currentyly unsure of how and when I will be able to reopen my photography tour services in Rocky Mountain National Park as we move towards our busy summer season. I’ll keep the blog updated whenever I get updates and information. Technical Detail: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 AF-S VR FL lens

Just a quick update on what’s going on here in Colorado in regards to the current COVID-19 pandemic and how its affecting people, travel and less importantly photography.

As of this writing we are still under a ‘Stay at Home’ order until April 26th. The Governor of Colorado will change the status from a ‘Stay at Home’ order to a ‘Safer at Home’ order starting on the 27th of April.

The new order will allow some relaxations of guidelines and hopefully allow us to begin to revert to a more familiar and open status. Even with the conservative relaxation of the current ‘Stay at Home’ order, society, towns, and local governments are each going to have to wrestle and debate how they want to move forward.

I don’t currently have any insight on when Rocky Mountain National Park will reopen or the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake will welcome visitors again. Currently both towns are requesting that visitors and guests avoid the town until further notice. The current sentiment in both of these mountain towns along with many mountain towns in Colorado is to keep visitation to a minimum to help curb the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus in areas where the medical infrastructure could be easily overwhelmed by an outbreak or cluster.

Estes Park along with Larimer County has signaled that some lodging restrictions will begin to loosen when our ‘Safer at Home’ begins on Monday April, 27th. While it appears that Estes Park will allow some limited lodging options to reopen, I’m not clear how that will actually be implemented in reality. I would expect some pushback from some of the Estes Park residents and I believe many will want to proceed at a very slow and deliberate pace. I don’t have insight as to how Grand Lake will address this but I assume they will do so shortly.

The push to close down Rocky Mountain National Park during the pandemic was aided by officials from both the town of Grand Lake and Estes Park. The NPS and Rocky officials decided it would be prudent to work with both towns and close RMNP down to slow the amount of visitors and traffic to both towns. I assume these same park officials will work with both towns to help decide when it would be prudent to reopen Rocky Mountain National Park to visitors.

The reopening of Rocky Mountain National Park is going to require a delicate balancing act. With the unofficial start of the summer season only a month away (Memorial Day Weekend), many business in both towns are going to look to reopen their business to tourists and visitors. One has to keep in mind that both of these towns and the business that exist in town have about 7 months a year to either make it or break it for the season. Running a business in a seasonal tourist town is unbelievably difficult in the best of times, losing some, any or all of that prime season business with be a death knell to even the best of run business in both towns.

As far as how COVID-19 will affect my Rocky Mountain National Park Photography Tour service moving forward is as good a guess as anyones at this point. While its already affected my business, I expect it to greatly affect at the least the early portion of the summer seasons. If and when RMNP reopens for the season I will be looking from guidance from both the CDC, the NPS and the local municipalities on protocol. Social distancing, travel, facial coverings and other issues will all have to be addressed when potentially heading out on a photography tour of Rocky with me.

While we are still in a world of unknowns moving forward, certainly at this point in time I am unable to run my photography tour business in Rocky Mountain National Park. As things begin to open and guidance becomes available I will update the blog as well as existing clients who have bookings with me this summer as to whether or not we will be able to conduct photography tours in RMNP this season.

What Now?

With a statewide stay-at-home order in effect here in Colorado, I wont be making any trips up to Rocky Mountain National Park or Boulder in the foreseeable future. The current pandemic is restricting mobility but will allow many photographers to explore their own backyards. I photographed this image here in my hometown of Erie, Colorado yesterday morning. Behind the windmill is Rocky Mountain National Park 40 or so miles west of my location. Mount Alice,Meeker,Longs Peak and Mt. Lady Washington can all be seen catching the warm light of sunrise. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 AF-VR FL lens

In the words of the great philosopher Ron Burgundy, ‘Well that escalated quickly’. In our current reality, keeping up with the latest closures, restrictions and advisements is becoming a full time job in and of itself.

First it was maintaining space and social distancing while out in public. Next it was a closure of Rocky Mountain National Park by the National Park Service and then the town of Estes Park. Finally, Boulder County issued a stay-at-home order along with other counties here in Colorado. The coup de grace finally coming when the governor of Colorado extended the stay-at-home order to extend to the entire state of Colorado in response to the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus.

Late last week I was hoping I would still be able to access Rocky Mountain National Park and the foothills of Boulder along with its great open space properties. Photography tours were out of the question but I figured I could continue to photograph, hike and get out in nature and enjoy solitude as I always do.

With the stay-at-home order extending throughout the state of Colorado thats not going to be happening anytime soon. So what am I going to do to pass time, stay busy, enjoy the outdoors and prevent my photography skills from getting rusty?. Thats fairly easy, I’ll photograph the areas in my hometown of Erie which I can walk, hike or bike to. Luckily for me, I live right along open space.

Coal Creek runs right behind my house and acts as great conduit for nature. Birds, Prairie Dog colonies, coyotes, foxes and some great sight-lines of the mountains including Rocky Mountain National Park will help to keep me occupied and outside during this difficult time.

So for the near future, look for most of posts either on my social media accounts or here on my blog to be images close to my house and easily accessible via walking or biking. While I cant wait to get out and get back into Rocky Mountain National Park or the parks of Boulder, photographing in my backyard, something I often dont have a lot of time for, will now become a fun project to dive into. We’ll see how it goes and I would suggest other photographers now restricted to their local municipalities to do the same. It may not be as glamorous as one of our iconic national parks, but it will keep you occupied, outside and your skills sharp.

New Reality

As of this writing, Rocky Mountain National Park is still open for business. While the impacts from the Corona Virus (Covid-19) have been debilatating here in Colorado, I’ll still attempt to keep some normalcy in my routine and will get out as long as I can to enjoy nature and continue to photograph that beauty. Even amongst all the grim news of this new reality, mornings like yesterdays in RMNP still allow for reprive and renewal. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 24-70mm F4 S lens

There has been quite a lot going on since my last post to the blog. The now well known Corona virus or Covid-19 as its known was picking up steam in Asia and starting to affect Europe. While I had been following developments since early January, much of what was going on seemed far off and distance. While I knew with our interconnected world, the virus would eventually appear in the United States, it was hard to know what the impact would be on the United States as well as Colorado.

Here I sit on March 18th, 2020 and the impact of Covid-19 is more than most of us could have imagined. Major cites in the United States are on lockdown and travel has been curtailed in most locations. Currently for Colorado, and more specifically Rocky Mountain National Park the impacts have been severe but not yet crippling.

With restaurants and bars closed with the exception of pickup only, and most of my fellow Coloradans working from home or furloughed, the prudent thing to do limit contact with others in public places and follow the CDC guidelines for our newest catch phrase regarding ‘Social Distancing’. Life has been greatly altered and the apprehension and anxiety that goes with having daily life turned upside down is palatable.

The current situation makes landscape and wildlife photography seem unimportant in the grand scheme of things. While this may have merit on many levels, the truth is being out in nature is still just as important as it ever has been. Trying to adhere to some form of a daily routine is important to allow for normalcy and furthermore, at some point in the future we will move forward from our current situation.

With Rocky Mountain National Park still open with recommendations that social distancing and CDC guidelines be adhered to, I will continue to photograph Rocky Mountain National Park as long as access is possible. It’s a nice distraction to the wave of news that many are exposed to far too long as we isolate in our homes and apartments waiting for the next ball to drop.

So I’ll keep photographing Rocky Mountain National Park as long as I can as we move through this crisis. Photography tours and workshops are still possible during this time but precautions and space will be needed to do so. The situation is constantly evolving so this may change in the near future and it’s possible access and travel could be further restricted.

I’ll keep the blog updated and for some reason if I cant photograph Rocky Mountain National Park or the areas around Boulder in the near future due to restricted access or closings, I’ll find something to photograph and post to the blog.

Lets keep our fingers crossed that we can get through this difficult time quickly and with as little collateral damage as possible to our personal and work lives. As always, nature is still there doing her thing with little regard to what humans are doing or thinking. She still acts as a great reprieve and renewal and even during these difficult times we should attempt to keep some normalcy in our current new reality. Stay safe out there.

Interview On The Landscape Photography Show Podcast

A few weeks back I was interviewed by David Johnston for the podcast he produces, ‘The Landscape Photography Show’. I’ve been a big gan of David’s photography as well as a listener to his podcasts for years dating back to his original set of interviews prior to this latest incarnation of his show.

We had a great discussion about a wide range of topics related to landscape photography, life, business and some other interesting topics as well. It’s always fun to be interviewed, and podcasts are a personal favorite of mine. Spending countless hours traveling and in vehicles, podcasts help to fill a lot of time for me when I cant be out in the field photographing or working with clients.

If you would like to hear the podcast and interview, follow the link at the bottom of the page. If you follow my work or are interested in heading out into Rocky Mountain National Park with me on a photography tour or workshop, you can get a little better feel of who I am and how photography, or more specifically landscape photography has played an important part in my life.

Regardless, I highly recommend you subscribe to David’s Landscape Photography Show and check out the long line of interviews he’s conducted with some of the heavy hitters in the landscape photography genre. It’s a great show and a fun listen.

The Landscape Photography Show Podcast With Thomas Mangan

Link To Interview On iTunes

Some Foothills Magic

The winter solstice is only a week away and this time of year I enjoy exploring areas close to home. I spent Thursday morning in the foothills just west of Boulder near Walker Ranch enjoying what was certainly our best sunrise of the week. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 14-30mm F4 S lens

Were a week away from the Winter Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere. You can feel the change in the lighting and sun angle this time of year. Not only are our days very short this time of year with just over 10 hours of daylight, but even when the sun is out and shining, it doesn’t have quite the warmth it does most of the year in our high altitude of Colorado.

Snow from our large snowstorm just before Thanksgiving is still covering much of the open ground. That would be a rarity as we get into February and the sun rises higher in the sky and causes snow to quickly melt in all but the shaded areas quickly.

The winter winds have returned and even if its not snowing in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Continental Divide is often blanketed in clouds as storms from the Pacific dump snow on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park as well as Colorado’ ski areas.

I like to use this time of year to recharge. I’ll still spend a good amount of time in RMNP, photographing, especially when conditions warrant it based on freshly fallen snow or the promise of an amazing sunrise. This time of year however, I really enjoy spending time in the lower foothills and plains in and around Boulder

The weather and the winds down here are usually a little more cooperative and the sunrises over the high plains and foothills this time of year are often stunning. It’s a nice change of pace and it allows for different compositions and locations for photography. It also involves a little less travel and driving which can often be welcome in the middle of winter.

Thursday morning I took the opportunity to head up to Walker Ranch in the foothills just west of Boulder to photograph what was an amazing sunrise. I could tell it was going to be a good one as we had the classic setup of clouds over the foothills and mountains with a small gap in the cloud cover over the high plains. As long as the clouds aren’t moving off to the east to fill in that gap, your pretty much guaranteed and explosion of color in the sky when this occurs.

There was no disappointment with Thursday’s sunrise and other than it being breezy west of Boulder, the color in the skies over South Boulder Peak were amazing. Truth be told, the sunrise east of Boulder was even more intense and peoples social media feeds all around the Denver metro area were filled with images capturing the amazing sunrise.

With us heading right into winter now, I’ll be searching out and exploring not only locations in Rocky Mountain National Park for new compositions and photographs, but I’ll be spending plenty of time in and around Boulder on their numerous open space properties and mountain parks.

Sunday Morning Chautauqua

Hard to think of a better way to spend a morning that in Chatauqua Park photographing Boulder’s iconic Flatiron formation. It’s great to have locations like this so close to home especially as a fallback when getting up Rocky Mountain National Park may be difficult or conditions arent ideal for photography. Technicial Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 24-70mm F4 S

I’m going to post another image here of the Boulder Flatirons from Chautauqua Park that I shot yesterday (Sunday). Since the government shut down occurred I’ve been spending most of my time photographing around Boulder and have only made a few trips up to Rocky Mountain National Park. None of those visits to Rocky have produced any images worth posting and really were just ways for me to keep up to date on the conditions.

To be honest, even with the park open and a skeleton crew of employees along with dedicated volunteers helping to maintain the park, visiting and posting images during the shut down left me with mixed feelings. As much as I love Rocky and depend on it to make up for about 80% of my photography portfolio, working and photographing in the park while others were in limbo did not seem very conducive to creating photographs or art. Luckily, the Rocky Mountain National Park is back open, at least for the time being and I am motivated and ready to get back out there and start photographing and exploring my favorite location not just in Colorado to photograph, but favorite subject period.

With that said, I’m equally as blessed to be able to photograph some iconic locations really close to home that were not affected by the government shut down. Many of you who follow my photography know that when I’m not photographing Rocky Mountain National Park, I’m out somewhere around Boulder or Boulder County photographing it’s scenic wonders and beauty.

Boulder and Boulder County could be a National Park onto themselves. In fact a good portion of Rocky Mountain National Park resides in Boulder County. One of the jewels of Boulder and Boulder County is Chautauqua Park and Chautauqua Meadow. Its from here that one can photograph the iconic view of the famous Flatiron formation.

It’s difficult to think of too many better ways to start off a Sunday morning then right here in the meadow at sunrise. I found myself and a few other photographers doing exactly that yesterday enjoying the beautiful sunrise and January conditions. I’ll spend quite a few more mornings over the next few months in Chautauqua Meadow photographing the Flatirons, but I’m happy as heck that I also will get the chance to spend some quality time in Rocky Mountain National Park soon enough.

Whats Happening In 2019

2019 has started off with uncertainty. Currently Rocky Mountain National Park has limited access due to our current government shutdown. We are all hoping for the situation to resolove itself sooner than later but trying to guess when that will be is difficult. Currently, I’ve been spending lots of time in and around Boulder, Colorado photographing the landscape down here and getting out as much as I can. This is a view of the Flatirons from the Doudy Draw area last week looking back towards South Boulder Peak and Bear Mountain. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, 24-70mm F4 S lens

I apologize for the lack of blog posts lately. After wrapping up a very busy 2018 year of guiding and tours in Rocky Mountain National Park, I took a brief hiatus only to have the latest government shutdown make access to Rocky Mountain National Park difficult. As a reminder you can always check my Twitter or Facebook feeds that are linked at the bottom of this page as I post to them at least a few times a week if not more.

While you can technically walk into Rocky as of right now, services are limited and getting into most areas of the park is fairly difficult. Furthermore, most of the better locations for winter photography would require quite a commitment to get to without the ability to drive to a trailhead.

As of writing this it’s difficult to tell when the current government shut down may actually end as we have just past the 23rd day of the shutdown. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for all involved that a resolution can be found sooner than later and we can get back to Rocky Mountain National Park operating as is normal once again.

While we wait out the shutdown, I’ve been keeping myself busy photographing in and around the Boulder area. Not only is this area my second favorite place to photograph after Rocky Mountain National Park, but I’m thankful I have a fallback that allows me the ability to get out and keep productive while the machinations of our current political climate grind away.

I’ll again be offering photography tours in Rocky Mountain National Park for the 2019 season. If you are interested in heading out with me feel free to drop me an email and I’ll be more than happy to discuss dates, locations and times with you.

Until we get some more clarity here, I’ll be out traversing the landscape and open space properties in and around Boulder and will try to make a few expeditions into Rocky because I miss getting out and exploring the park as much as you all do. Stay tuned for lots of posts and images as 2019 unfolds here.

Motivation

It’s mornings like this one from today in Rocky Mountain National Park that keep me motivated. I may not always have something deep to say about each image but my love of Rocky Mountain National Park and wild places is what keeps me heading out regardless of the times or conditions. Technical Details: Nikon D850, Tamron 100-400mm F 4.5-6.3 DI VC lens

I get asked often what motivates me to get up five, six or seven days a week to head out at an ungodly hour of the morning for most people and head out into nature ready photograph whatever is in store that particular day. It’s a good question without an easy answer.

Head over to social media, podcasts or other photographers blog and this subject comes up often with some photographers while others never discuss it at all. Some photographers feel strongly that if your motivations behind your photography and the reasons you connect with nature and discussed openly than you are discrediting your imagery and craft. While sharing your images with other is important too many that is not enough.

Photographers on the opposite side of the argument may feel the need to share and detail all their personal feelings and motivations each time the create and share and image is necessary. In the modern age of ever shrinking privacy and autonomy, sharing one’s personal feelings, beliefs and motivations each day beyond the image itself may not only make them uncomfortable but may leave them feeling narcissistic and overly self important.

Where do I fall in the discussion? Not to be a cop-out but I would say I fall somewhere in the middle. We as nature and landscape photographers get to witness untold beauty on an almost daily basis. For many the beauty of the light, landscape, journey and discovery is what drives and motivates us to keep returning and communing with the landscape and light. This certainly motivates me but so does the entire process motivate me.

I enjoy waking early long before most. I take great satisfaction in working out after I wake so that I can stay trail ready whether I’m hiking or not. I taking the dog on a walk in the neighborhood at 2:30 AM so I can survey the sky and conditions before I drive to my location. I love my hour long drive from my home in Erie up to Estes Park in the dead of night so I can think quietly, listen to bad music or have long conversations with myself about who knows what. Most importantly I love that I have the freedom to do not only what I love doing, but have locations such as Rocky Mountain National Park that have been preserved, protected and kept open to the public so that I can for the most part, still freely access large swaths of wilderness. Lastly and most importantly I enjoy the entire process. From start to finish each day each step along the way exciting or boring I enjoy. The minute I stop enjoying the entire process is the minute I stop taking photos. I doubt many other photographers would find my routine and process enjoyable like I do.

With that said, some days I’m motivated to write something thoughtful and engaging, and other days I may feel the image stands alone with little need or desire to delve deeper on sharing the personal intricacies that go into my love and motivation behind my craft.

In the world of art there is certainly not a need to conform to what others are doing. In fact conformity is looked down upon and discouraged. No two artists or photographers will travel the same paths nor will they ever arrive at the same destination. We should not only appreciate the difference between individuals, but embrace it.

Being original should be a goal, but it should not be the be the only goal. The goal should be staying true to yourself but remembering to enjoy and love both the experience and process while championing in a responsible manner the subjects you photograph.

As a final thought on motivation, I see many photographers today railing about photographing original compositions and shooting locations or subjects that are rarely photographed. When posting their original composition they often choose to preface it with a quote from an author or historical figure. It’s probably a quote you’ve seen many times before on the internet, in books, calendars and other forms of media. I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for these quotes and often find them interesting and amusing. But in the interest of originality, is it ok to post a never before photographed composition while recycling somebody else’s writing? If we are going to tout the importance of originality shouldn’t the quote used to describe the photograph be held to the same standard as the image and also be original?. Just a thought.