Behind the Image: Mountain Goat and Mount Rainier

Mountain Goat and Mount Rainier, Mount Rainier National Park

We’re going way, way back with today’s “Behind the Image” post - all the way to the summer of 2001 and Fuji Velvia 50 film. What you see here is the very first image I ever sold. Looking at it now, well…it’s kinda hard to look at, honestly. I’ve become so accustomed to viewing super clean, highly detailed digital images that I really struggle to lay eyes on photographs I made on 35mm film and scanned with a Nikon CoolScan film scanner. Factor in the less than awesome compositions of so many of those old images, including this one, and sometimes I feel like I’m watching a train wreck. However, back in 2002, when an ad agency purchased this for use as a large backlit sign in the Sea-Tac airport, it obviously caught someone’s eye.

And now, on to the back story. Several friends and I decided to climb Mount Rainier in August of 2001. About two weeks before our departure I fell walking down the stairs in my apartment and broke my right hand. No, I wasn’t drunk…just clumsy. Rainier is an alpine ascent, requiring that climbers utilize ice axes and be assigned to a rope team for safety. Given that I wasn’t able to hold a can of soda, there was no way I could self-arrest with an ice axe in a fall. Rather than cancel the trip, I went along with my friends and spent my time hiking while they spent several days training for and executing the climb.

On one of my hikes I stumbled upon this tarn high on a ridge in the Tatoosh Range, which sits just south of Rainier itself and affords spectacular views of the glaciated southern flanks of the peak. It was afternoon and the light wasn’t optimal so the next morning, I awoke long before sunrise, dragged myself out of bed and trudged up the steep trail in the dark. I quickly set up my tripod, composed a photo in the viewfinder and waited patiently in the chilly morning air for the first rays of sunshine to grace the mountain before me.

I had initially photographed a different, portrait oriented composition and after the sun was a bit higher in the sky I decided to try framing a landscape composition with less foreground but more of the ridge and trees to the right of Rainier (the composition above). No sooner had I locked the ballhead in place with this composition in the viewfinder when a lone mountain goat appeared on the ridge. I was so stunned that I literally forgot to press the shutter button. The goat wandered from the ridge, down toward the tarn and then proceeded to stand right in front of me, at which point the synapses started to fire again and I had just enough time to make one exposure before it wandered away out of frame.

In retrospect, the composition would have been a thousand times stronger if I had the presence of mind to press the shutter when the goat was standing on the ridge to the right of the mountain. Nevertheless, it’s a unique image that obviously has commercial appeal, so I probably shouldn’t be too critical of it.

I had been using the same lab to develop my film since I started shooting slide film and never had the tech commented on my work until I picked up the slides from this trip. I remember the tech saying, “You’ve got some really nice images in there” as he handed me the developed film. Needless to say, I rushed over to one of the light tables, threw my slides down and was pretty thrilled when I saw this one through the loupe!

Tech Specs:

• Canon 35mm film camera, model unknown

• Tokina 20-35mm lens, probably at around 20mm (not recorded)

• Shutter speed unknown at f/22

• Fuji Velvia 50

• Possibly a 2 stop graduated neutral density filter

• Scanned with Nikon CoolScan, lightly processed in Adobe Lightroom

Behind the Image: Winter at the Windows

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Winter at the Windows, Arches National Park

New year, new site, new blog feature? Why not! With the recent launch of my new website I’ve decided to also reinvigorate my blog. By reinvigorate, I mean “bring back from the dead.” One of the features I’ll run regularly here will be “Behind the Image”, in which I will write about the making of one of my photographs. These will not be technical articles about how I used the hyperfocal point with a wide angle lens on a super awesome camera to blah blah blah. Rather, these will be the backstory - what I was feeling, why I wanted to photograph the location, my experience creating the photo, amusing anecdotes, etc. And yes, for those who just have to know, I will include the technical details.

I’m kicking off the series with this image of a snowy day in the Windows area of Arches National Park. I made this image on February 27, 2007, about six weeks after breaking my back in two places in a car crash. No, this activity was not doctor approved but after spending weeks lying around the house I was flirting with insanity and knew that a quick jaunt to Arches would refresh my mental state. So, off I went.

If you’ve photographed Turret Arch through North Window you know that the scramble over exposed slickrock one must do to achieve this view can be a bit hairy even in good conditions. Doing it in snow and ice while carrying a pack on a recently broken back is just stupid. Nevertheless, I did it and luckily, everything turned out just fine.

I had envisioned warm sunrise light bathing the sandstone, which itself was freshly blanketed with pristine snow. It quickly became clear that wasn’t going to happen. Plan B? A moody image of fog and falling snow. I ran with it and made the image you see here. In retrospect, I’m thankful old Mother Nature guffawed at my original plan, something she is wont to do. I think this image is more unique, and if image sales are a good barometer I’d say my clients enjoy it, too.

I still recall the absolute peace and a very real sensation of gratitude I felt standing on that little knob of rock, snow falling all around me and the cold air chilling my face. The crash that broke my back easily could have killed me. It felt like I’d been given a second chance and at the time, I swore I wouldn’t waste it. For a while, I didn’t. But over time, work got in the way and excuses were easy to come by, and I kind of got off track.

As I type this I’ve got casts on both arms. Last November I fell off a small cliff while mountain biking with my family in Sedona. I broke both arms, a few ribs and suffered several other injuries. My head and face slammed into the rocks but were not seriously injured thanks to my helmet and sunglasses. Once again, I was lucky to be alive. It was another wake up call. This year, I’m resolving once again to make changes, to get outside more, to appreciate every moment I have with my wife and son. And, I’m dipping my toes back into photography. All the downtime over the last seven weeks has allowed me to revisit images, start writing again and build a new website. It’s stoked my creative fire for the first time in a few years, and that inner warmth feels damn good.

Tech Specs: Camera, lens, Lightroom. ;-)

• Canon 1Ds Mark II

• Canon 24-105mm lens at 35MM focal length

• 1/50 sec at f/22 (I didn’t need f/22 but still hadn’t really figured out aperture at the time)

• ISO 100

• No filters

• RAW, processed in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Software

This photograph may be licensed for commercial or editorial use and is also available as a beautiful fine art print in a variety of sizes. Please visit my contact page to inquire about pricing or to discuss print options.