It’s pretty rare for me to find pleasing landscape pictures while I’m driving in my car. For one thing, the land near paved roads generally isn’t wild enough to suit me: Setting up my tripod on the shoulder of a road where trucks are whooshing past makes me nervous. For another thing, I seem to need to be out hiking, usually with a pack on my back, sweating my way up a steep mountain trail, before my senses tune in to a place. When I walk, the visual puzzle pieces of earth, water, and sky begin to fit together.
I know it’ll probably sound corny or maybe highfalutin, but the nature photographs I do that personally stand the test of time are experiential. When the dirt of a place has gotten into the pores of my skin, then a photograph I might have made in that place is more likely to have some staying power in my brain.
Last week I drove to one of my favorite areas of the Pacific Northwest. I carved two days of time out of my work schedule and just took off. I had a few ideas for trails I wanted to hike and what kinds of photographs I hoped I might find, but every trip offers its own surprises, and I always try to stay open to serendipity.
The Big Surprise last week’s trip had for me was that my best images -- three of the four you see here -- were shot...uh...from the side of a road. Yes, I did an enjoyable hike on my trip, and yes the arrowleaf balsam wildflower picture at the bottom of this post was shot on that walk. But the other three images were seen at 50 miles per hour.
The light was good.
The scene was right.
I pulled the car over and set to work.
