Photo: 2807 miles; Waiting for the light.

Picture: Waiting for the light that never happens, Oxbow Bend, Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

I got back home from my little abbreviated tour of Wyoming late Saturday afternoon. As luck would have it, by far my best weather was during the drive home from Winnemucca, Nevada. It was crisp and clear after a fall storm had past. The mountains had a nice dusting of fresh snow, and the sage and rabbitbrush along the desert floor were in bloom. I was in full drive mode, so only memories, and no photos exist. Oh well…

The photo above is typical of much of this trip, where vast chunks of time were spent waiting for some variation of light to occur. Here, on my first evening in the Tetons, I had stopped at Oxbow Bend, where about a dozen or so photographers waited to see if any special light would sneak through the storm clouds. Most sat around not taking any pictures, while others snapped away like crazy. I waited for some variation on solid grey, and this thin hole in the clouds was the best I got that evening. Such is the way it goes sometimes. Weather is what gives us the best photographic show of our life, teases us for hours with the (unkept) promise of a glorious show, or shut us down completely. Sometimes, we photographers have no choice but to wait and see what will happen.