Behind the Image: March 2026

March 2026: “Cottonwood, willow, and rabbit brush resting in Southern Utah.”

Nikon Z8
Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 @ 200 mm
f13 x 1/10s
ISO 64

In February 2025, I had the amazing opportunity to join up with a few of my dear friends to explore the desert of Southern Utah for several days. We had a fantastic time and all sorts of laughs, but it was a challenging week because the different landscape was not one I was familiar with. It takes time to adjust to a new place photographically, often taking days if not, repeat visits to really connect with a spot. Knowing this, I did my best, but I am definitely looking forward to returning again someday.

Mid-February in the south deserts of Utah is definitely Winter, but the abundant sunshine helped keep things warm during the day. The selection of this image for March in my annual calendar was an easy one, it truly reminds me of what Winter can look like in that area. These cottonwoods under early morning light take on some amazing shapes. The abundant rabbit brush and willow in the area start to glow in that morning light, and the shadows remain cool. It's a remarkable site and I don't think I would ever tire of seeing it. It was such a great experience to see it in person after enjoying numerous photographs from my colleagues of this area over the past several years.

The composition for this was fairly straightforward, I just needed to find an unobstructed view of one of these amazing trees from a slightly elevated position. I was hoping for some symmetry, too, but that wasn’t necessary. I wanted to keep the sky out of the image, as it would be bright and very distracting. A long lens with a slightly elevated angle would allow me to eliminate that sky. The new Nikkor Z 180-600mm from Nikon was perfect for this task. It's an exceptionally sharp lens for the work I do and it really lets you dial in on small sections of a larger landscape. The settings I opted for were f13 for about a 10th of a second at ISO 64 to give me as much sharpness and detail as possible. I don't always fret over that particular issue with my photographs as I am often intentionally adding motion into my photographs, but at times it's definitely warranted. The breeze was also pretty minimal that morning, so I was not worried about the fine details of the tree branches getting blurred from swaying in the wind.

The processing for this image was also fairly straightforward. I often have a light touch with the work that I do, and this image was no different. Sharpness was really critical to me with this particular one, so I did take several images of the same composition, focusing on the foreground mid-ground and background. I did that in case I needed to add sharpness into the scene by blending some of those separate exposures into one exposure. For the non-photographers, this is a process called focus stacking. I opted not to do any of that when I processed this one, the sharpness of the initial exposure was acceptable from foreground to background when I pulled it up in my studio. The only adjustments here were treating the foreground mid-ground and background separately in terms of their color saturation and temperature to accentuate the warm/cold contrast.

An interesting thing happens when you approach an area with an intended set of images you would like to create. Especially when time is limited. Once you create the images your sense of urgency can wane a bit and you can begin to explore more creatively. It’s like the internal pressure of it all lifts and you begin to see things more deeply. What else is here? What else is this saying? How can I capture the essence of this place and create something a bit different with it? This is easily all the subject of a book, but one of my approaches is to take things less literally. Whether that’s doing multiple exposures, long exposures, or introducing intentional movement into the scene, I strive to see a bit deeper. Sometimes that works and sometimes it does not.

Nikon Z8
Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8
f22 × 1s
ISO 64 (-1)

“Rabbitbrush and willow.” is a good example of this. I created this image one cold morning out there soon after getting some images I felt comfortable with. It was very cold that morning so my cold hands were kind of distracting me. I was also tired and not feeling well an all. That all aside, by slowing things down with a 3-stop ND filter and tightening my aperature I washable to experiement with some intentional camera movement. The color and angle of the lines was what was catching my eye. By moving during the exposure I thought I could accent those lines and emphasize the contrast between the colors and types of branches.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of this year’s calendar — including the option of getting “Whiteface mountain greeting the new day.” as a collector’s print — you can find them here.

Thanks for your ongoing interest! Questions or commments? Drop them below!