01/29/2026
I am sharing this as "Life as a Landscape Photographer." I have been guiding and training landscape photographers alongside Robert Killen, owner of NPPE National Park Photography Expeditions. This is Grand Tetons National Park, just out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This was last fall, in September 2025. This morning, we arrived with students before sunrise to see vehicles lining both sides of the road. This is Oxbow Bend, which is one of the most photographed areas of Grand Tetons NP. After finding a spot to park, we all began our hike back to find a place along the river's edge to stand and wait for the sunrise. There were at least a couple of hundred photographers with tripods along the river's edge. There was a steep bank to traverse down to the dark river. Many can not make it, as you have to use a red headlamp to navigate. Once you find a spot, you wait. This photo was taken about 2 hours after sunrise, with heavy clouds. There is no wind as the river is glassy. The Tetons are in the distance. The sun would peek in and out between clouds, and in an instant, the fall trees or the snow-capped mountains would light up like fire. The peeking sunlight comes and goes within seconds or minutes, and the light is gone. You can see this cloud cover in the foreground. I left the photographer's tripod beside me in this photo to show the scale of perspective. There is lots of research that goes into landscape photography. Time of the year. Sunrise and sunset times. Daily atmosphere, temperature, weather, and cloud cover. I know we see photos all the time, but do you really know how it was captured? In the age of artificial intelligence, I thought I would share the old-timey days of REAL photography. Today, you can grab a digital map and put a pin on it. Upload this map pin to ChatGPT or Gemini, and ask the software to create a photo looking in a specific direction, at a specific time of day and season, all without leaving your comfy chair in your temperature-controlled room. I choose the old-timey way, as this way I feel I lived.