To Make Landscapists jealous

[JBrunner]

What? I've been in most of the 50 states, and Utah remains my favorite for photography. Like Kerry says, Moab would be a good starting place. There are months, perhaps years, of intensive photography within a day's drive of there. However, as others have implied, fine photographs are where you look for them. Many Weston masterpieces were shot in or just outside his home.

Hi Jim,

I was being sarcastic. The incredible thing about

Utah is that besides the known wonders, there are literally thousands of lesser known, and less visited places, to suit almost any taste. One has only to get in the car and drive in any direction.

More than once I have exausted my day, never reaching my intended photographic location, because of other photographic discoveries along the way.

 

[poutnik]

The difficulty with "close to home" is that it can be difficult to see the photographic potential in something you see every day. Travelling to some far-off place makes it easier to see the potential - but that doesn't necessarily lead to better pictures.

Took me quite long to figure that out.

But I want to visit Norway some time in the future to explore the photo opportunities there, too...

 

[Ole]

Just as I want to explore the Czech Republic?

I'm sure I would get some nice pictures, mostly of things the locals see so often it no longer registers.

 

[roteague]

The biggest problem I have photographing locally is that all the spots I used to go are now overrun with people, especially on the weekends. The crowds and traffic here are just getting to be too much. One of the reasons I love going to Australia - much quieter and the country more open.

 

[Drew B.]

Within 100 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

Columbia River
Columbia Gorge
Mt. Hood
Mt. Saint Helens
Mt. Adams
North Cascades
South Cascades
Glacier Mounds
Ape Cave

Within 200 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

Mt. Rainier National Park
Olympic National Park
Washington Pacific Coastline
Oregon Pacific Coastline
Oregon Sand Dunes
Oregon High Desert
Smith Rock
Three Sisters
Pugut Sound
Hood Canal
Columba Basin

Within 300 miles of Vancouver Washington: The short list.

San Juan Islands
Crater Lake National Park
Oregon Painted Hills
John Day Fossil Beds
Mt. Baker
Mckenzie Pass
Rouge River
Hell's Canyon
Snake River
Frasier River

Lakes, Rivers, Waterfalls, and Wilderness Trails abound as well as National Forests and protected areas. There are four distinct Seasons to the year.

All are welcome, "Take nothing but Photographs, Leave nothing but Footprints"!

...and the point you are trying to make?

 

[Thanasis]

That's about a 5-hour drive, I believe. 3 1/2 hour to Stryn, another hour to Geiranger seems about right.

But I'd probably get no further than Dead Link Removed near Stryn...

Wow! That looks great. My fiance and I were going to visit her parents in Denmark over Christmas and I was going to push for a trip to Norway for a week or so. Is there any place that you know would would be interesting to see during winter that is relatively easy to get to? Or should we save our pennies and visit in the warmer months?

 

[DrPablo]

I have been to many superlative parts of the world, including the Andes, the Southern Alps, Norway, Alaska, the Amazon, the Canadian Rocies, Yosemite, and many more.

But despite all of these, the one place that my brain cannot let go of is Canyonlands National Park in Utah. The views from Dead Horse Point, from the Island in the Sky, and from all the little canyons in the Needles, frankly make you feel like the world has wrapped its fingers around you and hurled you into some other time. It's in a league all of its own, even above Zion and the Grand Canyon. The only places close to that in my mind are the Lofoten Islands in Norway, Fiordland in New Zealand, and the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

 

[roteague]

But despite all of these, the one place that my brain cannot let go of is Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

I think most landscape photographers have a place like this in their heart. For me, it is the West MacDonnell National Park, in Australia's Northern Territory. A place of such extremes and such beauty, I've never been able to photograph it with justice. I would go back there in a heartbeat.

 

[DrPablo]

Robert,

It's not even necessarily the placest closest to my heart. Without a doubt that would be the White Mountains in New Hampshire, which are spectacular in their own right. But it's the one place, of all the places I've been lucky enough to visit, that had an almost metaphysical effect on me.

But it reminds me of the opening to the fantastic book Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey:

"This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places."

 

[walter23]

I live on the edge of wilderness in its truest form

Murray

Yeah, me too. At least until it's completely scraped off the planet by giant cranes and earthmovers, and its underlying sediments shovelled into trucks and refined into oil.

 

[Vaughn]

Humboldt County ain't too bad.

 

[Soeren]

The difficulty with "close to home" is that it can be difficult to see the photographic potential in something you see every day. Travelling to some far-off place makes it easier to see the potential - but that doesn't necessarily lead to better pictures.

Ok so true. But how to include High Woltage powerlines, Westas windmills and broadcasting masts in an interesting way? We have very few unspoiled places around here and the above mentioned can hardly be descriped as my favourite subjects.
Kind regards
Søren

 

[Ole]

Søren, I know what you mean.

Whenever I've been in Denmark I've thought that if I had lived there, I would probably not have taken up landscape photography...

We have lots of high voltage power lines here too, and the windmills are spreading like a nasty rash over the coastline. But at least our broadcasting masts are smaller - they are placed on mountain tops in most cases.

 

[P C Headland]

The difficulty with "close to home" is that it can be difficult to see the photographic potential in something you see every day. Travelling to some far-off place makes it easier to see the potential - but that doesn't necessarily lead to better pictures.

True, and coming "back home" after an extended stay away gives you a whole new take on your own back yard. There is beauty and interest to be found everywhere, if you know how to "see".

'Tis not too bad in this neck of the woods - no crowds, no security hassles, no dangerous creatures out in the bush, and what is probably the clearest air in the world - it gets changed quite often round these parts....

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Re-thinking my "wilderness in the truest sense" comment I should have said; I live on the edge of wilderness, if wilderness is even possible in 2007.

It's hard to get away from people, or to places where there's no evidence of someone having been there before, even here on BC's north coast. Still, there are lots of places left that might get visited once a decade or so, where the bears aren't spoiled and everything is as it should be. Even the famous 'Inside Passage' can be a lonely place as my wife and I found out while sea kayaking there in the winter, where we managed to talk to other people only once in two months.

Call me greedy, but it's hard for me to get excited about an area crawling with people.

Murray

 

[mark]

Murray,

In the desert SW it is really easy to go where there is no sign of anyone ever being there. Especially in northern Arizona.

 

[Vaughn]

'Tis not too bad in this neck of the woods - no crowds, no security hassles, no dangerous creatures out in the bush, and what is probably the clearest air in the world - it gets changed quite often round these parts....

I'll have to agree with that -- I was spent 5+ months on a push bike, touring both islands...primary reason was to photograph with a 4x5. This was back in 1986.

I got about 6 feet (2 meters) from the airport when I put my rear derailer thru the spokes...I was pretty bummed...I had never toured before and it was not a great start. I thought "How am I going to make it for the next 5 months?!". But I caught the airport shuttle bus into Auckland and bus driver let me off right across from the olny bike shop open on Saturdays and I got things fixed up.

On my first solid day of riding, north of Auckland, I was pedaling slowly up a hill. A white Toyota van pulls up next to me and matches my speed -- and I'm think what is going on here? The side door slides open and in back were 3 Maoris and a keg of beer. From there to the top of the hill they passed me cups of beer. ..and I thought, "Yep, I think I can definitely do this!"

But all my photographing abroad (NZ, Austrailia and Costa Rica), and throughout the US Southwest only strengthens my seeing and photographing when I return home to the Redwoods. That is my best reason for photographing away from home.

Vaughn

 

[RooX]

Yeah, me too. At least until it's completely scraped off the planet by giant cranes and earthmovers, and its underlying sediments shovelled into trucks and refined into oil.

I feel you're pain. Lived in Fort McMurray for 15 years, before getting out for Calgary. Lately feeling like i'm missing the remote-ness though.

 

[Shmoo]

The biggest problem I have photographing locally is that all the spots I used to go are now overrun with people, especially on the weekends. The crowds and traffic here are just getting to be too much. One of the reasons I love going to Australia - much quieter and the country more open.

To quote Joni Mitchell: "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

On the other hand, you've got a bunch of outer islands that we'd all kill to be photographing!!!! The Big Island's my particular favorite...there's something about sitting on the rim of Kilauea's crater that makes all my problems seem small. Might just be heading there next month!