Tag Archives: tetons

landscape, photography, travel

WY // The Active Landscape

One thing I will most certainly be working on this year: active people within a landscape.

Though I have always considered myself a landscape shooter, I realized recently that in order to generate more sales in the nature/ outdoor photography arena, I need to begin incorporating people and activity into my landscapes.

And for me, the timing couldn’t be better.

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With the increasing assignments I have had the last few years, I have actually grown to enjoy photographing people… go figure.

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And I am ever more interested in the relationship people have to their surroundings.  How to visually convey a human’s relationship to a landscape, has become one of my favorite challenges of late.

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The icing on the cake:  there is a HUGE market growing for this kind of imagery, so it can be quite lucrative.  As a professional artist, I’m always looking for ways to continue doing what I love AND making the kind of living I want.

So, on this visit to Wyoming, Elle and I practiced a little active landscape shooting.  We realized a few things too.

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To keep the images fresh, realistic, and sellable, the gear and clothing have to be new and/ or current.  We realized that we need a few upgrades for the next trip :)

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We also realized we should shoot what we know.  Elle is a yogi, so we focused a lot on yoga poses in gorgeous locals.

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The key for me will be to keep shooting and keep adding people and activities to my landscapes… it’s a mental shift, but I really enjoyed pushing myself in Wyoming.

 

— andrew

 
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art, photography, travel, writing

wyoming | the bounty of autumn

it’s been said before that fall in the mountains is a magical time.

the leaves are changing, the temperature drops, and the animals are energized with hormones for mating season.

moose populations in wyoming are declining because of the growing wolf numbers, and i’ve been seeing less and less of them every year.  so i was really excited to see a huge bull with two cows at our campground one morning when we woke up.  the state has recently opened a limited hunting season for wolves.  there are at least two lawsuits in the courts currently, brought on by environmentalist groups to challenge the state’s new policy.

because of the close proximity of fires, the sunrises were often very hazy but quite colorful.

i spent many days out on the river road looking for bugling bull elk.  and i found plenty.

the bears were apparently out in full force.  fall is the time when grizzlies and back bear are fattening up for the long winter ahead.

and grizzlies, in particular, are emboldened by the fact that hunters are out in full force and leaving their kills’ guts in the field.  it can be a dangerous time.

but i didn’t even see one bear the entire month i was there… just lots of signs…

mornings on the river road were marked by bugling elk.  they lead their harems up from the snake river to the high plains to strut at the foot of the tetons.

the evenings brought about the reverse.  the bulls, some with new females won from rivals, made their way back to the safety of the tall grass, trees, and water along the snake.

bugling is one of my favorite sounds in the natural world.  and spending the quiet times of my mornings and evenings listening to the haunting tune of elk replenished my soul.

autumn is a time of beginning and end.  the leaves fall from their branches, but not before they take on colors rarely seen so bright in nature.

bitter cold wind blows in from the north.  but not without it’s gifts.  the cold air brings with it the desperately needed moisture to alleviate the wildfires with the first snowfall.

i long for this time of year.  i already miss it.  and i’m already planning for next year…

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2012

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art, photography, travel

wyoming | the many faces of the tetons

my working title for this post originally was “l’obsession des tetons”…

you know, referencing western wyoming’s french explorer roots.

then, thanks to google translate, i quickly realized it was essential that i think of new title.

needless to say, i don’t speak french.

so last year, i had a photographic obsession with squaretop in the wind river range. this fall, i can’t believe i’m saying this, but i didn’t even visit green river lakes (where squaretop lives).

yes, it’s sad. but i was just too busy. i had a two hunts to attend, a ranch to shoot, lots of hot wings to eat in jackson, many pints to consume at deadman’s bar in signal mountain lodge, etc. so since most of my (very important) activities were near teton park, I decided to spend some much needed quality time with the beloved teton mountain range.

enter my newest photographic obsession.

it started the day we finished at the goosewing ranch shoot.

we had a burger and beer at deadman’s bar, then sat on the edge of jackson lake to watch a phenomenal sunset over the tetons.

i then ventured out on the river road, looking for elk.  and the interesting photographic opportunities expanded.  in the next blog post, i’ll show more of the elk photographs.

the clouds and smoke provided most of the drama for me.  but it is the landscape itself that always draws me in and keeps me coming back for more.

come on… you knew i had to.

a portrait with my subject….

more bull elk in the shadow of the mountain.

where the antelope roam…

i hiked to emma matilda lake for the first time.

and then, of course, oxbow bend.  there is good reason that this is one of the most photographed places in the world.  especially in the fall.

that night the stars were out in full force.  i could see the milky way stretching high above the tetons.

i’ve been going to this part of wyoming at least annually since 2001, which i know in the bigger scheme of things is not a long time.

but for me, it’s over a third of my lifetime, spending some of my favorite moments up there.

and honestly, i can’t wait to find out what gorgeous mountains will capture my obsession next year.

God bless wyoming.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2012

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wyoming | winter panoramics

as always, i shot some panoramics while in wyoming.

and i was happy to get some new mountains and landscapes that i haven’t shot previously.

please feel free to click on any of these images to view them larger… enjoy!

the tetons clouded in are still dynamic to me…

the reservoir outside of cody.  completely frozen, and completely beautiful.

again, just a wider view this time…

these cliffs just west of cody, heading toward the east entrance of yellowstone, were my favorite new landscape of the whole three week trip.  they were so dynamic contrasted against the flowing golden grass.

along the wind river, toward the northeast edge of the mountain range by the same name.

ah the tetons!  the clouds finally broke on the second trip through on our way down to telluride.

the tetons from the jackson lake dam, with a frozen jackson lake foreground.

flaming gorge, utah in winter.  not much snow, but even this time of year there are amazing colors.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2012

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wyoming: day 5

elle doesn’t have the flexibility of schedule that i have, so her time up here was short.

we had to start heading toward jackson, where she would fly out early the next morning…

we hung around teton park for a while.

then i received a stern “talking to” for some reason i can’t remember… but i bet she can!  haha.

we stopped on pacific creek road and took a nap while the afternoon showers passed.

then we decided to go for a short hike.  it was a section of the jenny lake trail that we hiked last year the day before she had to leave.

we took a spur trail off the main, and found a fantastic overlook that elle said was her favorite view of the trip.

so we thought we’d see if we could find that spot again, and enjoy the view before she had to go…

sure enough, we found it.  no more than a 30 minute hike in too… great!

she looked out at the landscape, but this time didn’t cry.

last year when we were here (see “somewhere in the middle of montana… err… wyoming“), we weren’t engaged yet.

poor girl didn’t have much to lean on regarding us.  but this time, we’re married.  and i know she realizes that we’re both in this for the long haul.

and probably the only perk for marrying me, is that you for-damn-sure will get to go to wyoming… a lot.

so she knows that this is not the last time (by a long shot) that she’ll look out over this view…

and i am comforted to know that this is not the last time that she’ll be by my side up here.

seeing what i see, and reveling in all this raw, untamed beauty.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2011

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