I regret that I’ve neglected the blog the last six months. It’s not that I’ve lost interest in photography. I find it hard to keep up with all I want to do. I would rather spend my time roaming the wilderness and making photographs than sitting in my basement office on a Saturday writing a blog post. When I’m not making photographs, there is always a checklist of chores waiting for me at home. I miss sharing my photography, especially since I’ve left social media. My readership isn’t large, but such as it is I appreciate you taking a moment to look at my work.

I grew up on the coast of California and I loved the ocean. We also ventured to the mountains when I was young; the mighty Sierra Nevada Range. When I was 18 and graduated from high school, I began my freshman year at Brigham Young University. BYU is nestled along the base of the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. North of campus is one mountain of particular beauty and majesty, Mount Timpanogos, sometimes referred to as Sleeping Woman (from a fabricated tale early in the 20thCentury, told to imbue a Native American reference). Within a week of first arriving on campus in 1976, I made my first climb to its peak. Since that day, almost 42 years ago, I’ve loved this mountain. I’ve climbed it, biked it, driven around it, camped upon it, and hiked its myriad trails. On most of those trips I’ve carried a camera with me. I must have thousands of photographs, taken in each season of the year. When I dropped into bed last evening, I lay awake for a while deciding where I would photograph when I awoke in the morning. I drifted off to sleep without coming to a conclusion. My internal alarm went off at 4:30am and I was up and out of bed. I have to admit my motivation was low this morning. I knew I needed and wanted to go out to shoot, but I couldn’t decide where to go. I thought about driving along the Alpine Loop that circles Mt. Timpanogos from Provo Canyon to American Fork Canyon. But honestly, I thought, what does Timpanogos have to show me that I haven’t seen a hundred times already? I sat for almost 30 minutes in my living room before finally deciding that regardless of how often I’ve been to the mountain, I never regret being upon her ground. I was confident that no matter the photographic prospects, I always enjoy breathing the aspen forest air and seeing the rays of the rising sun illuminate her peaks.

Sunrise this morning was at 5:58. The 30-minute drive got me to the saddle of the Alpine Loop Road just minutes before. I walked into the woods not more than 5 minutes to where I found this gap in the aspen trees as the sun burst upon the mountain. I waited for nearly 30 minutes, hoping the clouds would part and the peak would catch the morning rays. I recorded various compositions, however the sun never found that right gap in the clouds. It was incredibly peaceful and stunningly beautiful. I think living this close to Mt. Timpanogos has left me feeling that I take her beauty for granted. Shame on me for that. It’s because of my familiarity with her, and her close proximity to my home, that I am able to discover her thousands of nuances and explore off the beaten path. I think that if I were given another 42 years, she would still find new vistas to share with me. Let’s hope that I can double my existing collection of photographs of Mount Timpanogos before my turn here is through.