In Brooks Jensen's latest LensWork podcast, Searching versus Finding, he talks about why a photographer would want to go to a National Park to photograph. Here's my brief response/defense:
Why go to a National Park (let's be cliche and use Yosemite as the example that is almost always used in arguments such as this) to make photographs when that place has been so extensively photographed? Why bother make a photograph of Half Dome, or El Capitan, when Ansel Adams has already made perhaps THE Photograph of all photographs of those features?
Even though one may go to Yosemite, and make, compositionally, a nearly identical photograph to Ansel (who, by the way, made nearly compositionally identical photographs to Carleton Watkins), that person is still bringing THEIR own experiences, THEIR own emotions, THEIR own memories to that photograph. It may not be that they think they can "one-up" those who came before, though by chance that might happen—for example if a freak storm passes through, and raises the drama to 11—but it may be that they want to make a photograph that is THEIRS. Their own piece of work, something that they poured their own emotions and experiences and feelings into. Whether this is enough to pass muster for acceptance into a gallery is another debate.
I would love to hang an original Ansel Adams print on my wall. The likelihood of that ever happening is almost nill—I don't know that I'll ever be able to afford such a thing. But I can go to Yosemite, and bring my kids and my wife, we can have our own experiences, create our own memories, and those things will be wrapped up into the photographs I make there. And that's more than will ever be in an Adams print on the wall.
Zion National Park
I’ve been a Utah resident for 11 years now (14 total, counting the 3 years I lived in Orem and Salt Lake City from 2005-2008), and in all that time, I’d never gone to Zion National Park. So when we started thinking of what to do for Gina’s fall break, we decided that was a good place to go.
On our way down, we toured the Kolob Canyon Scenic Drive in the northwest arm of the park so we could all stretch our legs. I got my first taste of the beauty, and grandeur of the park when we drove around a bend in the road and saw Tucupit Point towering in the distance. To say it was breathtaking would be…well, accurate, I suppose. Having been to Moab and Canyonlands and through San Rafael Swell, I’d seen sandstone formations before, but nothing like Tucupit Point. It wasn’t just the red of the rock that was so astounding, but the height, and the way it rose straight up from the surrounding topography. We hiked the Timber Creek Overlook Trail so we could all stretch our legs after the long drive. Tommy was real excited to be out of the car, and walked the entire distance.
The next day was our full day in the park. We got up early and drove to the visitor’s center and spent the day riding the shuttle, walking a few trails and driving through the east part of the park to let Tommy nap.
We started out by making a short visit at Big Bend Viewpoint, where I got to see the newly fledged California Condor flying overhead. I made a few photographs that I’m a little unsatisfied with while Gina watched Tommy throw rocks into the Virgin River. After that, we hopped on the shuttle again and rode to the last stop, and walked along the Riverside Walk. Tommy drove his brand new Duke Caboom Hot Wheels car on the rock walls lining the path. We ate lunch, and then headed back, following Tommy back down the trail.
Virgin River, Zion National Park 2019
It was getting to be time for Tommy to nap, so we rode the shuttle back to the Visitor’s Center and went for a drive to the East side of the park through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel.
White Cliffs, Zion National Park 2019
White Cliffs, Zion National Park 2019
We finished the day at one of the most iconic/photographed viewpoints in the park. I just had to indulge and photograph there.
Virgin River, The Watchman, Zion National Park 2019
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt as overwhelmed visually by a place as I did in Zion. The place is stunning, to say the least.