Details

Details tell stories. We don't need a series of 12 photos showing firefighters throwing water on the fire. We only need one or two of those in the story. We need closeups- maybe an image of the affected family crying over the salvaged family photos. Maybe a shot of a fireman walking away after the fight looking utterly exhausted. Maybe a shot of an ash covered toilet. Stories live in the closeup.

In essence- the very instinct of landscape photography wants to go against good story telling. How can the details really show the overall sense of grandeur and personality you can find somewhere like the Mission Mountains?

I'll have to figure that out I guess.

Oh yeah, here's another photo. I went up Mt. Sentinel just to play around in some good evening light. Here's a shot of my Nalgene I took at sunset.

Beginnings

Mountains are often photographed from below. You don't photograph a person from the distance. You get close, in their face. We don't need to see another photograph of a mountain range at sunset. We've seen that before. These as I will call them "pretty photos" don't really say more than "oh look I'm a pretty photo". 

The Mission mountain range is located half an hour North of Missoula Montana- located in tribal wilderness, the Mission's are some of Montana's most remote and under-explored mountains. The geology of the region is spectacular to say the least, and many photographers have taken shots of the mountains from along highway 93. Every photo is the same- nothing interesting to me. Just another pretty mountain shot. My goal, is to shoot them differently.

Compelling narrative means far more than a conglomeration of pretty landscapes. In photojournalism, stories are told through detail. An establishing shot gives a sense of place, then the story teller moves in closer, establishing characters, shooting interactions and relationships, finding the story and showing the action. Can this same concept ever be applied to a seemingly inanimate landscape? This blog is here to document my search for the answer. 

For starters, I am exploring this mountain range, getting lose, in it's face. We'll see what I can find.

Here is an initial shot I took of Grey Wolf Peak-  nothing that great really. But hey- the mountains sure are pretty around here.