Timeline Cleanse.

Since I got serious about photography in the early 2000s, the hobby has exploded.  Landscape photography in particular has become ubiquitous, with landscape photography workshops being a serious $$$$ business.  As a result, so much of the landscape photography community has coalesced into what are now known as “cliche” shots: the Mormon Barns in Grand Teton National Park; the Maroon Bells in Colorado; Antelope Canyon in Arizona; Horseshoe Bend in Arizona; Tunnel View in Yosemite; Delicate Arch in Utah’s Arches National Park; the “firefall” of Horsetail Falls in Yosemite; pretty much everywhere in Iceland and Patagonia; the list goes on.  The joke among serious landscape photographers is that you can just walk up to these cliche sites and put your tripod in the same three holes worn in the ground by the thousands of photographers before you.

I of course am guilty of this—who isn’t?  These are irresistible locations of great beauty.  But I also pride myself on using my Army map-reading skills to identify beautiful spots that others do not know.  That is how you can gain unique beauty that most have not seen.

So the last time I was at Grand Teton National Park, I did an extensive map recon (using military-style maps with contour intervals) of the surrounding area looking for unknown spots.  I found one, it’s below.  

And the location is secret, I ain’t tellin’.

Nikon D850, 32mm on my Nikon 24-70 zoom, Really Right Stuff tripod, f/22 (to let the water blur), ISO 64, 1/8th second.