“Turn around and look behind you”.
This great tip and reminder comes from my good friend Andy Richards, who is often mentioned here. Andy doesn’t take credit for the statement but credits another friend and expert photographer.
If you’ve traveled to any of the National Parks in the last couple years, you have seen hundreds of photographers and others with cell phone cameras lined up to take the “iconic sunset” or sunrise over this spectacular vista. What I’ve also seen is those same serious and casual photographers snap away at the same scene and then when it’s gone, turn around and just get back in their vehicles and move on to the “next” iconic location they read about in the brochure. Once there, they rinse and repeat.
I’ve been guilty of this several times myself.
I get it, planning a major trip to a special location like Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, Zion, or Glacier National Park is exciting and the last thing you want to do is come home without visiting the top attractions in that park. You spend a lot of money, put up with huge crowds since COVID-19 and you want to be certain you get the thrill of experiencing the best they offer, like the Skywalk or Rim Trail in Grand Canyon or The Grinnel Glacier.
But Then What? Turn Around and Look Behind You
Don’t rush off to find the NEXT can’t miss attraction. The Grand Tetons National Park is over 300,000 acres and when you visit their brochure, they only mention four main attractions and I fell for it. They include Mormon Row and the Moulton Barns, Schwabacher Landing, Jenny Lake and The Snake River Overlook where Ansel Adam’s created his famous photo that many photographers still visit and try to recreate.
My very first photo expedition was in 2005 in the Grand Tetons. I made sure I hit every one of those four attractions and loved every second of it. That being said, when I returned home and started to “work” those images on the computer, I realized that of the 600 or more images on my computer, over 500 were from those same four spots. I used varying apertures, focal lengths, and focus points…..BUT, that created only slight differences in each. What IF I had turned around? What could I have seen? Maybe a Mom Moose crossing a lake with early morning fog or the Elk in Lupine Meadows teaching their calf to walk. It could have been something as simple as the wildflowers in the meadow with the Tetons in the background….But no, I had to get to the next destination.
When I was reviewing my photos from that trip, I was generally happy with the results. I got what I came for. I even have the iconic shot with reflections and sunrise over the Tetons from Scwabacher Landing that is on my home page of my website last month. I love the photo and glad I have it in my portfolio. But a simple google search will show several hundred thousand other photos from the exact location.
So, turn around and look behind you….you never know what might be there. Here a few images that I wasn’t looking for, but I’m sure glad I found them. One other advantage is that at the moment of these shots, I was the only one there.
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