When life gives you lemons.... This old expression may not always apply, but I've learned over the years that it can be dead-on for photography. Once or twice a year (at least during normal years) I set out to discover new areas, sometimes thousands of miles away. When I travel I tend to stay in one region for several days in order to learn the lay of the land and the fall of the light changes through the day. A visiting photographer is always at a significant disadvantage. A good local photographer builds up a mental file of when to be where.....depending on season, time of day and even weather. When one is visiting, even for several days, one is limited to one season and often just one weather pattern. So you learn to adapt.
This was certainly the case in September when I travelled to northwest Wyoming to spend some time in Jackson Hole. Early fall in the northern Rockies can bring intense color and awesome weather, as the first snows of the season arrive at higher elevations. Perhaps it was the curse of 2020, but this September a huge high pressure area developed over the west, resulting in warm, dry and absolutely cloud-free conditions. To make matter worse, the winds aloft blew in thick smoke from the horrific wildfires over the far west, hiding the mountains and creating an acrid, smoky haze.
So I had to press 'restart' and figure out how to make photographic lemonade. The dry, hazy conditions were terrible for color but did present a couple of advantages. First, there was almost no wind....which helped with longer exposures and water reflections. And the thick smoke acted as a giant diffuser, softening the light and making it possible to shoot even during the middle of the day. So I ended up switching gears and shooting mainly black and white scenes, and more close-ups than sweeping landscapes. This particular image was taken on the second morning I was there, as the smoke was just blowing in from the west. This would be dull and washed-out in color, but with the textures of the barn and sagebrush, combined with the unique smoke layer below the peaks, it becomes a rather dramatic black and white image. By the next day, the mountains were almost completely hidden.
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