Thursday, June 30, 2011

Boulder Mountain Magic

As a kid growing up in the 80's, my favorite movie character was Indiana Jones. I was enthralled by the way he could think his way out of just about any situation. He was a master at improvisation, and that mastery was demonstrated over and over in the three Indy films (let us not speak of the abomination that was the fourth movie).

As a nature photographer, that same ability to adapt and improvise is crucial. Last November, when Marc Adamus and I were shooting in Utah, improvisation literally saved the day.

Late on our final day of shooting, we were trying to get to Capitol Reef National Park in time for sunset. By the time we reached Boulder Mountain, still a ways from the park, it became clear that we weren't going to make it. So, what did we do?

We improvised.

We pulled our vehicles over and had a quick discussion. After a few minutes, we reached a consensus: we would stop right where we were and make the best of what Boulder Mountain had to offer. It turned out to be a fortuitous decision.

We quickly fanned out across the area, each of us scouting on our own for good compositions. We didn't see each other for several hours. When all was said and done, we both came away with images we were happy with. Marc made this beauty, and I created the image you see below.

Improvisation and adjusting on-the-fly had turned lemons into lemonade for us. Later that night, we camped on Boulder Mountain and celebrated a successful trip with a roaring fire and our good friend Don Julio. ^_^

Tree of Triumph


Celebrating With Don