Why I Photograph During Storms Instead of Blue Skies
If there’s one thing that has defined my photography over the past four decades, it’s this:
When everyone else is running for cover, I’m usually reaching for my camera.
Most landscape photographers dream of perfect blue skies. They’re beautiful, and there’s certainly a time for them. But over the years I’ve discovered that the photographs people remember most rarely happen under perfect conditions. They happen when nature becomes unpredictable.
I have always believed that great landscapes require great skyscapes. The mountains may provide the stage, but the sky tells the story. A dramatic thunderstorm, a curtain of falling snow, shafts of golden light breaking through dark clouds, dense fog, or driving rain can transform an ordinary landscape into something extraordinary.
Some of my favorite photographs were created while everyone else had gone indoors.
Storms create opportunities that simply don’t exist on sunny afternoons. Rain deepens colors and reveals textures. Fog simplifies a busy scene into elegant layers of mystery. Snow softens a landscape and gives it a timeless quality. Breaking storms often produce the most spectacular light of the entire day as the setting sun filters through rain or snow.
That philosophy eventually became the inspiration for one of my favorite collections, Veiled Landscapes.
The photographs in this series are not about perfect weather. They celebrate the beauty that appears when nature wraps mountains, forests, rivers, and meadows in rain, fog, snow, or drifting clouds. These are often fleeting moments that last only minutes before disappearing forever.
Wildlife photography can be even more rewarding.
While heavy rain often makes photographing wildlife difficult, snowstorms create opportunities few photographers ever experience. Animals covered with fresh snow, icicles hanging from winter coats, or a veil of snow drifting between the camera and the subject can transform an ordinary wildlife portrait into something dramatic and unforgettable.
Some of my favorite wildlife photographs have been made under conditions most photographers avoid. I’ve photographed animals leaning into hurricane-force winds, birds disappearing into blowing snow, and wildlife surrounded by weather that revealed not only what the animal looked like, but what it was enduring.
Those are the moments I chase.
Anyone can photograph a mountain beneath a blue sky.
What fascinates me is discovering what that same mountain becomes during the first snowfall of autumn… when fog rolls through an evergreen forest… when golden evening light breaks through a departing storm… or when fresh snow turns an ordinary landscape into something that feels almost dreamlike.
Nature is constantly changing, and those changes are what make photography so exciting. The most memorable images often exist for only a few moments before they’re gone forever.
Photography has taught me that some of nature’s greatest masterpieces aren’t found on perfect days.
They’re found in the storm.
If my photographs encourage someone to pause, step outside when everyone else is heading in, and discover beauty hidden within changing weather, then I’ve accomplished exactly what I hope every photograph will do.
After all, sometimes the storm isn’t the obstacle.
Sometimes it’s the masterpiece.
