Stand Tall

Among the many unsolicited lessons that COVID decided to impart, the inability to plan for the unexpected ranks high on the list. You can do your best to map things out for your travels, but there will always be something out of your control.



Early sunrises in Wyoming in July mean very early alarms and frigid mornings in the dark. There are plenty of apps to forecast a variety of conditions, but there’s nothing that can help you stumble upon a tree that decided to grow on its own in an open field in front of a perfectly placed gap in the forest behind it. The morning mist added a natural separation and the soft light put the finishing touches on a scene that I don’t think I would encounter again, even if I returned to this spot a thousand times. So much preparation can go into a photo only for Mother Nature to remind you who sets the stage.



For that quiet morning, the ideal conditions, the solitude of that lone tree still standing tall, and for capturing what the COVID era felt like to me, this image will always resonate with me, and it will immediately transport me back to that quiet morning.