The Gallery.
A gallery of nature photography — mountains, streams, light, land, sky — spanning half a century behind the lens.
Selected Plates
The seven plates Robert returns to most often — the spine of the working gallery.
Mount Yale, Last Light
A service spur east of the summit. Storms cleared at 18:42; the peak was lit for thirty-eight seconds. I had been visiting the spot for nine autumns.
Lone Pine, Quiet Drift
The mountain made a bowl of snow and a single tree decided to stand in it. Six winters of visiting the same tree before this one frame asked to be made.
Maroon Bells, Summer's End
A slow lake, an early frost, and the bells lit for fifty seconds. The famous overlook turned around — this is the other shore.
Mt. Sopris Panoramic
Three thousand exposures of this mountain over fifty years; this is one of the three I would defend. Made under conditions I could not have predicted and would not have requested.
Pawnee Buttes, Storm Break
The only vertical thing for a long way in any direction. Stop trying to photograph the buttes themselves; start photographing the grass at their feet.
Walk Through Weather
Three hundred yards downwind in a snowstorm that obscured both me and them. Eight dark shapes moving through pale grass — one of the photographs I am still surprised by.
A Quick Rain on the Sunflowers
Late August on a service road most maps do not show. The rain lasted four minutes; the light, perhaps two. Both were enough.
Waterfalls
Long exposures, cold mornings, and the patience to wait for the river to do its work.
Cascade Creek Falls
A short walk in, a long wait at the bottom. The light through the spruce was the photograph, not the water.
Havasu Creek Cascade
The water carries calcium carbonate; the calcium carbonate carries the color. The cascades belong to the chemistry as much as to the rock.
Havasu, Sunrise
Ten miles in, an early start, and a window of light that opens for about eleven minutes a year. This was one of them.
Latourell Falls
Two hundred and twenty-four feet of falling water and a basalt cliff that has been waiting underneath it for fifteen million years.
Latourell Falls, Vertical
A second visit, a vertical frame, and the moss on the south wall finally lit.
McCloud River, Middle Falls
The river drops three times in a mile. The middle drop is the one most photographers walk past on the way to the third.
McCloud River, the Middle Fall
Spring runoff, an overcast sky, and an exposure long enough to flatten the spray into a single soft sheet.
Mohawk Lake Falls
Above eleven thousand feet, where the snowmelt is still ice in the shaded pockets and the falls roar for about six weeks a year.
Multnomah Falls
The most photographed waterfall in the Northwest. I arrived at first light, before the parking lot, and had it to myself for forty minutes.
Three Rivers Junction, Hot Springs
Geothermal water meeting cold runoff at sunrise. The steam is the photograph; the rivers are the supporting cast.
Travertine Steps, Havasu
The mineral terraces are remade by every flood. The version photographed here lasted, I am told, about four more years.
Reflections
Still water is the patient half of a landscape. Most of what is in these frames is also in the sky.
Carter Lake, Sunrise
Wind drops at first light for about eleven minutes. This frame was made in the third of them.
Carter Lake, Standing Light
The same lake, a different morning. The cottonwoods on the far shore are the same trees, photographed twenty years apart.
Greenlee Pond, Sunrise
A small pond most maps do not name. The sky did all the work — the pond was simply willing to repeat it.
Maroon Bells, Summer's End
An early frost, a slow lake, and the most photographed peaks in Colorado deciding, briefly, to cooperate.
Maroon Bells, Vertical
Same morning, vertical frame. The reflection runs deeper than the peaks rise; the photograph is half made of water.
Causeway Lake, Panoramic
Eighteen by thirty-six inches in print. Three exposures stitched, made in the order they were composed.
Smith Rock, Reflection
The Crooked River does what its name suggests. The rock face does what the river requires.
Tetons, Jackson Lake
A piece of heart-shaped driftwood at the foreground edge. I did not place it; I waited until the wind did.
Walden Ponds II
Restored wetland on what used to be a gravel quarry. A reminder that some landscapes are recoverable.
Walden Ponds, Panoramic
Three frames stitched. The cattails on the right are the same cattails on the left of the next frame.
Walden Ponds, Standard
A single frame, made the morning after a long night of rain. The light arrived twelve minutes late.
Wetlands, Sunrise
Five degrees and a wind that died at six fifty-two. The frame was composed at six fifty-three.
Ocean, Islands & Skies
Salt water and dark skies — the work made when the high country let me go.
Bat Ray, Scorpion Bay
Three feet of water, a passing ray, and a polarizer that turned the surface into glass.
Boardwalk to the Atlantic
An old boardwalk and a dune that has, in fifty years, moved nine yards inland.
Columbia Gorge, Panoramic
The river cut through the basalt for fifteen thousand years to leave what you are looking at.
Columbia Gorge, Vertical
A vertical answer to the panoramic — the sky doing the work the river usually claims.
Crab in Sand
Three inches across. The composition is what the crab decided.
El Arco at Sunrise
The famous arch, the famous beach, photographed at the only hour they are willing to be photographed without a crowd.
Lone Leaf in Sand
A leaf the tide put down. The frame is the time between the tide putting it there and the wind taking it away.
Milky Way, Haleakalā
Ten thousand feet up, no moon, twenty-five seconds. Most of what is in the frame is older than the mountain.
Milky Way over the Observatory
The observatories look up; the photograph looks at them looking. A small frame of human attention against a much larger one.
Potato Harbor, Sunset
A two-mile walk from the dock. The last ferry leaves at four; the light was made at six forty-one.
Princeville Overlook
Hanalei Bay from above. The rain on the windward side made the frame; the lee side gave me the light.
Skiff, Hanalei Harbor
One boat, one rope, and a tide that turned during the exposure.
Starfish, Tide Pool
Low tide on a clear morning. The starfish was the third I checked. The light was on the second.
Sunset, Henry's Beach
The cliff behind me holds about fifteen minutes of last light. This was made in the eleventh of them.
Tide Pools to Heaven
A long exposure of the receding tide. The pools held the sky long enough to be looked at twice.
National Parks
The places everyone has heard of, photographed at the hours and seasons most of us are somewhere else.
Anderson Hole, Yampa
The Yampa is the last undammed major river in the Colorado system. The light there knows it.
Aspen in the Mist
A cold front, a warm valley, and a half hour when the trees looked like they were standing in their own breath.
Bryce, Sunrise Point II
A second composition from the same overlook. The hoodoos are different photographs at every five degrees of azimuth.
Bryce, Sunset Point at Sunrise
The light at Sunset Point is, in winter, best in the morning. The naming was done by surveyors, not by photographers.
Bryce in Winter, Sunrise
Snow on the hoodoos for about eleven days a year. This was one of them.
Cliff Palace
Eight hundred years of stonework. The photograph is sixty seconds.
Delicate Arch in Fog
The arch is photographed eleven thousand times a year. Fog removes the eleven thousand and leaves the arch.
Dream Lake
A short hike, an early start, and a lake that earns its name about three mornings a season.
Fall Colors, Water Knob
The Smokies do something Colorado cannot: they put red, orange, and yellow on the same ridgeline.
Half Dome from Glacier Point
The Ansel Adams view, made on a morning when the dome was lit and the valley was not.
Park Avenue, Wildflowers
Spring on the slickrock. The flowers last six days; the slickrock has been there one hundred and fifty million years.
Hoodoos in Winter
The snow stays on the north faces and not on the south. The shadow is half the photograph.
Kiva, Mesa Verde
A round stone room. The Ancestral Puebloans understood light from below; the photograph is borrowed from them.
Klondike Buttes
A long dirt road, a longer wait, and a band of last light that crossed the buttes in under two minutes.
Mesa Arch, Winter, Vertical
The arch holds about ninety seconds of fire-orange underglow before the sun clears it. Vertical frame, second visit.
Mesa Arch, Winter
Horizontal frame, same morning. The other photographers had left an hour earlier for breakfast.
Park Avenue
The walk between the walls is the photograph; the walls are simply doing their job.
Queen's Garden
Down into the canyon, then back up. The light at the bottom is the light at the top, half an hour late.
Queen's Garden Trail
The trail itself, made in late morning when the shadows are short and the rock is honest.
Reflecting Pool, Zion
The Virgin River doing what rivers do, photographed at the only hour the canyon walls allow.
Water Knob Ridge, Panoramic
Five frames stitched. The blue ridges are atmosphere, not paint; the haze is the park's namesake.
Rim Trail, Fairyland
Fairyland is the least crowded section of the rim. There is a reason; the photograph is the reason.
Turret Arch through North Window
An arch framed by an arch. Photographed in winter, when the second arch is empty of tourists.
Virgin River, Reflect Pools
The trail to the Emerald Pools, photographed below them — where the water has already done its falling.
Water Knob Road
A road that turns east and then south, photographed at the turn.
Mid Pool, Sunset
The middle pool of the Emerald Pools at last light. The cliff behind it is in red; the water is in blue.
Mid Pool, Reflecting Vista
Same pool, different hour. The cliff is doing the same work; only the light is moving.
Limited Edition Posters
The poster series — twenty plates pulled from the larger archive and offered in editioned 24×36 inch prints.
Autumn, Maroon Bells
The classic vertical of the Bells in fall — the plate that opens the poster series.
Maroon & Pyramid
Two peaks, one frame, and the air between them lit for under a minute.
Maroon & Pyramid, Vertical
Same peaks, vertical frame. The sky above them is the third subject.
Flatirons in Winter Mist
A morning when the fog held the lower meadow and the sun cleared the rock above it.
Hanging Lake, Sparkling Water
The travertine deposits make the water as photogenic as the cliff behind it. A short hike, a long composition.
Behind the Falls
Standing behind the curtain of water — the photograph the postcards leave out.
Lone Pine, Horizontal
A horizontal frame of the same pine I have photographed for six winters. The composition arrived in the seventh.
Old Mine, Red Mountain Pass
An abandoned mine head, photographed in the same hour as the lone pine. The pass holds more than one photograph.
Lone Pine, Vertical
The vertical companion. Same tree, same hour, different argument.
Evening Deer, Trail Ridge
Twelve thousand feet, last light, and a herd that paused long enough for one exposure.
Lake Isabelle, Potentilla
Yellow shrub-cinquefoil at the foreground edge. Six feet from the camera, doing all the work.
Lake Isabelle, Horizontal
The horizontal answer. The same flowers, photographed from one step to the right.
Devil's Thumb Pass, Sunrise
The thumb of granite the pass is named for, lit first because it sits highest.
Wetlands Sunrise
A small wetland east of the Front Range. The sky is the photograph; the water repeats it.
Rainbow over Dallas Divide
A rainbow lasts about three minutes; the wait was four hours. The arithmetic of this work, on a typical day.
Yankee Boy Basin
Twelve thousand feet of wildflowers, in a basin that opens for about three weeks each summer.
Yankee Boy Basin, Horizontal
The horizontal frame — the basin's full width and the peaks above it.
Spring Flatirons
The meadow in green, the rock in red, and the sky doing the editing.
Road Less Traveled
A dirt road on a high mesa, photographed from where the road ends. The title is honest, for once.
Wave, Big Beach
A single wave at last light. The shape arrived for the duration of a thirtieth of a second.