Revisiting the Magic of the Tetons — Slow Photography Movement

In Capturing Context, we share the story behind the image, providing insight into the photographer's approach and experience, and allowing the reader to connect more deeply with the work.

Photographing a place you frequently visit offers a unique opportunity for a slow approach. Whether it is a place near your home or one that you have come to know after repeated visits, developing a familiarity with it allows you to relax, explore on a deeper level, and discover perspectives and details you might have missed before. It also offers a valuable opportunity to learn from prior experiences and apply those lessons next time you are in the field.

Growing up, I was blessed with the incredible experience of spending a week or two in the Tetons most summers of my life. In 1969, my grandparents bought property and built a home near the Snake River, where my grandpa would fly fish every day. When I visited them there, days were spent wandering their property, hiking, fishing, and taking in the experience of being engrossed in nature.

“The Tetons are a place where each season has its own magic, and I love to take advantage of the details that make each season special. ”

Over the years, photography became a significant part of my experience there. This was partly because I wanted to capture the beauty to bring home with me, and because I fell in love with photography itself. In the fall of 2012, I escaped my Midwest home for a few short days to immerse myself in the beauty of a Teton autumn. That weekend was the spark that fueled my passion for landscape photography.

Since then, I have traveled to the Tetons many times; sometimes alone, with my family, or to lead my ladies landscape retreats. Each experience brings me closer to this place and has allowed me to see new beauty in an area I have known for over 40 years. There are several ways this has happened, allowing my voice to speak through my imagery of this special place:

1 ~ The Variety of Seasons

One of the things I enjoy most about coming back to a place time and again is the opportunity to experience the special beauty within each season. This may not be true everywhere, but many locations enjoy distinct unique beauty in different times of the year. The Tetons are a place where each season has its own magic, and I love to take advantage of the details that make each season special. As a child, I experienced it mostly in the summers when the days were warm, and the landscape was green. As an adult, I have been enchanted by the autumn colors and the amazing peacefulness and sparkle that comes with winter. Each season brings my attention to different parts of the park and details of beauty.

In the image above, “Frosty Trees”, I was exploring an iconic location at sunrise and was drawn to a distant area where the mist from the Snake River was rising into the icy trees. The small scene felt like the epitome of winter magic. My telephoto lens allowed me to get the reach I needed to isolate the story of these mesmerizing winter details.

In the title image, “Light on the Grand”, I was drawn to this location because of the striking autumn colors of the trees in the foreground of the Grand Teton. I spent some time capturing this scene with various focal lengths during golden hour. As the sun went below the mountains, the light created this beautiful triangle of light on the Grand, and I used my telephoto lens to highlight the golden light and include some of the beautiful fall color in the foreground.

2 - Seeing New Perspectives in Favorite Locations

Over the years, I have visited some locations in the Tetons repeatedly. Some are the iconic spots that the masses have come to know and recognize, while others are lesser-known views. Spending a lot of time in certain locations has allowed me to find new ways and perspectives to capture these spots, fine tuning my compositions and techniques to create unique images that authentically express my voice.

Growing up, my favorite peak of the Tetons was the Grand Teton, because it is simply the Grandest! From my grandparents’ home, you could see the Grand framed between the trees and if you walked out to the river, at a certain point, you could see it tower over them. In the very last year that my family owned the property, I came to discover a new favorite vantage point that didn’t include the Grand. I happened upon it by simply from walking around, taking in the beauty of the other peaks, and admiring the line of the Snake River. The image above is taken from that new spot where the line of the river leads the eye to Buck Mountain. Repeated visits and wandering with my camera opened my eyes to an incredible perspective I had missed before.

3 - Discovering New Locations and Perspectives - There are always new compositions to be discovered no matter how many times you visit a place. With limited time, you must make choices in how you spend it. Spending more time exploring one area means digging deeper there, while visiting fewer spots. It can be hard to give up spending time in a favorite location, but more frequent visits can allow you to branch out and explore new areas.

“Teton Winter Sunset” (above) was captured in a beautiful location of the Teton valley where I had not historically spent a lot of time. During the winter months, some of the areas I usually spend time in are closed to traffic. This encouraged me to explore other areas and landed me in this beautiful spot at sunset one evening.

The image below, “Moran over the Hills”, was captured in the fall of 2020 at a location I didn’t discover until about 5 years ago. Hard to believe I was unaware of such a spectacular view, but I had simply spent a lot more time in other areas of the valley. After visiting here a few times, I really wanted to spend a fall sunset here. The evening unfolded beautifully, and I enjoyed taking in the incredible view overlooking the Teton range, with a road and trees below me in the valley. One of the most striking moments was the way the light danced over the layers of the hillside in the distance, below Mt. Moran. My telephoto lens allowed me to isolate and capture this slice of the grand landscape and highlight the beauty that was calling to me.

4 - Observing Beauty of more Intimate Scenes

Knowing the landscape of an area well, and having the opportunity to often capture the grand landscapes that can awe any visitor during a spectacular sunrise or sunset, can free you up to take in the smaller scenes and stories that make up the grand landscape. I still love an epic sky and grand scene but recently have been more drawn to smaller segments of the landscape, and to capturing them with a telephoto lens. In this way I can share a more intimate and unique story of how I see the beauty of this place I love.

“Light in the Trees” (above) is one of my very favorite images captured during my time in the Tetons in the summer of 2020, and an example of an unplanned and unexpected moment where I allowed the light and nature to lead me. As I drove back to the cabin one morning after sunrise, I was mesmerized by the way the light was hitting some of the trees on Blacktail Butte. It took me a while to find a place to pull over, but I eventually found one and used my telephoto to capture a small pocket of the most beautiful light through the trees.

“Colors at Oxbow” was captured during the peak of autumn at Oxbow Bend, one of the most iconic spots in Grand Teton National Park. The ridge in this image is not the view that most people think of from this location, as it sits above the road to the north of where Mt. Moran stunningly reflects in the Snake River. On this day, I allowed my eye to explore the entire scene around me and was struck by the layers of color below the mountain and the beautiful clouds above. Photographing this ridge in a wider view would also capture the road and line of cars parked below, but my telephoto lens allowed me to capture a more intimate landscape that included these beautiful details and excluded the distracting elements in the scene.

Revisiting a place you know well, whether big or small, allows you to slow down and relax. It becomes easier to let go of any expectations and encourages curiosity as you explore. While new places are always exciting, familiarity can calm us and allow our creative eye to thrive.