Hello Guy, I just had to stop by and say I sure miss our earlier meet ups in Torrey years ago now. I sincerely hope the personal setbacks you mentioned with regard to slowing the book release were not too severe. I’m finding with my own aging family and long time friends our life changing event pace is becoming more often.
Good to see as always your very personal and well thought out responses here… 
Hi Guy,
Like others here, I’ll add my gratitude for the influence you’ve had in my creative life. A spark began in my first DV workshop with you and Michael. It has now flourished into the freedom of personal expression that burns within today. Looking back at that workshop (and L&P with Colleen) that is when I began to get “it” and even began to learn to articulate “it” and share “it” with others. Thanks!
I have a question about writing. Of course I have suffered the inevitable creative highs and lows that come with that discipline. I cherish the times when concepts, ideas, sentences, and even single words flood my brain. The problem is they sometimes come so fast and often evaporate before I can capture them. I’ve tried notebooks, voice messages, etc. But I seem to lose most of them before they gel into output. It’s actually quite frustrating. You must have a system for managing your ideas, the quotes you share, and all the seeds that ultimately lead to your essays. How do you manage it all?
Thanks in advance. Thanks also for your continued presence at the forefront of creative expression. What you do inspires a generation. I hope the rewards are as meaningful for you as they are for us!
3 Likes
Thanks, Chris! I actually did not put a lot of thought into the selection; I just scrolled through my archive and picked a couple of favorites. In judging my own work my primary goal is to assess how well the image expresses the mood I was after, which makes it very subjective. Rather than go into details, I’ll tell you what these images are “about” for me. I’ll go from top to bottom:
The first image was made on Christmas eve. I spent the day hiking in the canyons under a thick layer of clouds and did not see the sun all day. This time of year is even quieter than usual in these places, and on Christmas eve you may not even see or hear vehicles on the roads for prolonged periods. As I was heading toward my house, I drove up one of Utah’s high plateaus and was thrilled to realize the clouds were in fact fairly low. Before I knew it, the road broke through and I found myself above the clouds. It was still an hour or so to sunset and everything was fairly gray but I decided to stop and see what will happen as the sun got lower, and was rewarded with these colors. It’s actually very rare for me to photography sunrises and sunsets, but what made this scene special to me was visualizing being the person in Caspar David Friedrich’s painting, “Wanderer Above a Sea of Clouds.” This feeling, combined with the silence and complete absence of any sign of humanity made it very memorable.
The second image is from a place that has become very popular in the last couple of years. I first discovered it in 2006 just driving around at random. In following years, I liked camping there on the edge from time to time and for several years I never saw another person there. This image was made early one morning, shortly after I woke up in my camp, It felt very remote and lonesome, and I was just soaking in the peace with a cup of coffee in hand. I don’t know if the people that visit the place today have any idea how quiet and unknown it was until just a few years ago.
The third image was made during a low period in my life. Between personal circumstances and my general dislike of cold weather, I was very much “feeling blue” but as anyone familiar with my work likely knows, I have a special fondness for trees. Being among large trees calms me down, and one thing I love about these ponderosa forests is that they are not very dense and you can comfortable wander among the trees. I love doing that, just to think and to hear the wind in the canopies, to breathe the familiar scents of pine, etc. I remember it being very cold but also very still and calm.
2 Likes
Thank you very much, Paul! I also enjoyed our conversations and hope our paths will cross again. I hope you’re doing well.
1 Like
Thank you very much for the kind words, Steve! I hope things are going well with you, too.
I’m not sure it’s much of a system, but more a way to capture thoughts as they come. I take a lot of notes, usually just a couple of sentences or a paragraph. I realize that I have to do it as these thoughts bubble into my head, which can be any time. If I wait too long, I either forget them completely (oddly, I sometimes remember that I had a good thought, just not what it was) or I can’t recall them as poignantly as when I first had them (awkward phrasing, etc.). I used to carry notepads with me and just jot them down on the spot, but these days, well, there’s an app for that 
Usually I sit down to review my notes and put them into essay form within a couple of days of capturing them, but not always. About once a month or so, I’ll pull up all my notes for that period and read every one of them. Often, this re-ignites whatever idea excited me, sometimes I’ll find a good description or anecdote I forgot about and realize I could use, etc.
It’s not the most efficient way to keep track of my thoughts and ideas, but for someone as generally disorganized as I am, it’s about the only way I can make sure to not lose useful ideas.
3 Likes
Thank you very much, everyone! Your kind words and thoughtful questions made this a very enjoyable experience. I appreciate the opportunity to share some of my thoughts and hope it was useful to you as well.
I’m about to head out for a few days to welcome the first signs of spring in the lower desert areas, so may be off line for the next week or more. I hope to cross paths with some of you again in the future.
Guy
3 Likes
Good morning Guy! How important is it to print one’s own work? I have been using a west coast printing house to print my images. The results look acceptable but not always consistent. I recently attended a seminar from a photographer who’s main goal is to have others print their own work, in essence, controlling that final process. As he states, we control the equipment, lighting, subject, composition and editing but we turn the printing over to someone else. How do you control the printing process so that it conveys the feeling of the image that you created? Thank you very much.
Hello Guy. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!
I’m a passionate advocate for wilderness. Our wilderness areas provide invaluable refuge from the stress of our daily lives, habitat for animals, and water we need for survival.
However, I feel like my voice of support is drowned out by giant moneyed interests who wish to exploit our wilderness’ natural resources for their own wealth.
As a wilderness advocate yourself who lives in a state at the bullseye of controversy, how do you take action to protect our wilderness so we don’t lose it?
Thank you, Anthony! I think it’s a subjective call. I love prints, mainly because the experience of holding one in my hands and studying it with focused attention is a more e notable experience to me than seeing small images on screen. I also like the tactile qualities of textured paper, even the smell of it. It’s just a richer experience of appreciating photography for me.
I make my own prints, both for the reasons you mentioned and because it’s very satisfying to me to see my own print rolling off the printer. It has a certain sense of accomplishment, and I also find it a very enjoyable skill to learn and practice.
1 Like
I know what you mean, Matt. It’s sad to see some of these place sacrificed in the name of short-term interests, and often there is little we can do about it. I’ve come to see the role of conservation in many cases as holding back the tide, perhaps even just delaying the inevitable. Still, those are important accomplishments.
I support my local conservation organizations with donations, and since I’m out a lot I’m also vigilant in reporting violations when I see them, but of the options available to me I think the most effective is to explain to other the value and importance of wilderness and the experiences it offers. I think the biggest hurdle to conservation of wilderness is that we have become so physically and culturally detached from wild experiences that most people no longer understand its value and compare it with that of other land uses. There is a lot of confrontational advocacy going on, and I don’t think my voice will make much of a difference in that mode. I have the privilege of an audience of artists and people who love natural places, so I try to take the positive approach of helping people realize what is at stake, what they may be missing or denying future generations, by action or by inaction. Sadly, I can’t say I’m very optimistic about the long term.
3 Likes