I made this image to explore the scale involved in landscape photography. This photographer was shooting the steaming earth on the slope before her. I backed away and photographed her as a miniscule figure in a vast landscape crisscrossed by sweeping diagonals.

We were shooting in the abandoned school at the Bannack ghost town when I found a fellow photographer simultaneously shooting light and shade at the same time. My guess is that he is working on a picture of the knotted cord that once hauled the shade up and down.

Tourists are not supposed to get out of their cars to photograph Yellowstone’s wildlife at close range. But some photographers do not follow such instructions, including this pair of tourists who have left the safety of their car to get a closer shot of a bison crossing the road in front of them. I made this image through the front window of our own car, which was stopped in traffic to allow the bison to pass. This couple has just finished photographing the bison and are rapidly retreating to their car. They were fortunate that this bison had other things in mind – such bison can weigh 2,000 pounds and can run at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. They stand within a few feet of the oncoming bison at this moment – a dangerous risk to take for a photograph.

Tour leader Dave Wyman likes nothing better than to lead by example. He balances on the edge of cliffs, climbs huge boulders, and here explores the essence of a muddy gulch. The light was flat, but the colors around him are emblematic of Monument Valley. I am sure he found what he was looking for.

A heavy backpack full of bodies and lenses, and a cumbersome tripod are child’s play for this sturdy soul. She is walking along a cliff above Wilson Canyon, on her way to another vantage point. (Many nature photographers routinely use tripods, fill flash, and various filters to enhance their work. I prefer to keep things as simple as I can, travel lightly, and avoid subjects and situations that mandate the use of such tools.)

This member of our group was so intensely following her subject at a ranch near Moab that she seems to put everything else out of mind, including the click of my shutter. We can feel the energy she brings to her image – it's there in the eyes and hands.

I used a superwide angle lens to diminish the size of this photographer as he heads back from a precipice overlooking a massive canyon holding a twisting river. It asks a question of sheer scale – how does one do photographic justice to such a huge slice of nature? I look forward to seeing his solution.

The light at this moment was as flat and ugly, yet the colors here in this tiny box canyon remain richly saturated. This photographer recognizes the value of such color on a gray day, and makes the most of it. As he aims his camera into the depths of this mini-canyon with no outlet, I use him to anchor my own image of the scene.

The photographers on this trip took turns making the famous image of a distant Monument Valley as seen from a road that runs straight as a Navajo arrow towards the famed monoliths on the horizon. Every few seconds someone would shout “Car,” triggering a quick exit. I liked the contrasting colors of this photographer’s elbow and knee. They help energize an otherwise flat, cloudy day image.

So much of expressive photography involves chasing the light. Sometime we find it, and sometimes we don’t. And sometimes we may even have the flexibility in our schedule to wait for it. We stopped off at Monument Valley again on the way home from our visit to Arches. It was late in the day, and evening clouds had gathered around the massive monoliths in full force. The light was in and out, and we had but 45 minutes to make the most of what we could get. In this shot, I found one of our photographers hunched over his tripod in the wind and cold – waiting patiently for something magical to happen. I don't know what kind of image he was able to make, but I try here to express the calm, carefully measured response to light so critical to expressive photography. Shot from a hotel parking lot overlooking the valley, this image abstracts both photographer and butte, placing them into the context of the shifting clouds and the reflected colors of a setting sun.