Note: This is the introductory essay to our newest free PDF ebook portfolio (one click download, no sign-up required). If you prefer, you can also see Sarah’s photos from the ebook in this online gallery.
Ron and I have created many collaborative photography projects in the past and we have carefully curated each one to avoid duplication. This ebook portfolio is different. In the pages that follow, you will see two portfolios of photographs, one from me and one from Ron, that we each created during our recent trip to Zion National Park in Utah. We separately edited, processed, and sequenced our individual collections without consulting one another, and are presenting them here as two distinct bodies of work that represent our individual connections with the landscape.
Our 2024 fall trip started with us heading north in our RV through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We then turned east and spent about five weeks exploring the Upper Midwest for the first time. As we were heading home from Wisconsin, we looked at a webcam for Zion National Park and could see that the fall colors were just starting. We spontaneously booked two weeks at a campground just outside the park and were happy to wrap up our fall photography season in a familiar landscape that we both deeply love.
Before continuing, I will share one note for your consideration as you browse through the portfolios. Although we were both in the Zion area for two weeks, only Ron was able to take advantage of the photography opportunities during that entire time. As I was walking through Zion Canyon while wearing new hiking shoes with an aggressive and sticky tread, one shoe got tangled up in the knobby pavement. I ended up fully falling to the ground, spraining my ankle in the process. I’m just glad it didn’t happen as a shuttle bus full of park visitors rounded the corner to see me collapsed on the road while crying pain-induced tears. Another major concern: Although my camera hit the ground hard, it seems to be fine. Ron enjoyed some additional photography sessions and I got a head start on processing my photos while resting.
As married photographers who typically travel together, share a photography website, and communicate using the same email list, it can be a bit of a dance when it comes to sharing our work. Our different working styles usually help ease this process. When we get home from any trip, Ron likes to get to work immediately and he almost always finishes processing his photos within a few weeks. As I have discussed many times before, I instead let photos linger for months or years.
Up until this year, editing and processing has always felt like an ordeal for me, mostly because simply viewing my files felt like examining my vulnerabilities and failures as a photographer a bit too closely. In the last year or so, I have found much more confidence in my work and am actually enjoying editing, processing, and curating my photographs. If I can keep up my recent pace, I might even get through all of my 2024 photos before the end of the year—a first!
With us each finishing our Zion portfolios around the same time, we decided it would be interesting and most streamlined for viewers to present them in a shared ebook. While we see the natural world in similar ways, we are drawn to different subjects, explore in different ways, have different photography practices in the field, and make different choices in processing. I spend a lot more time with plants and Ron is better at seeing and photographing bolder grand landscapes. I wander and linger while Ron moves through a landscape more quickly, often covering significantly more ground compared to me unless we have specifically planned to stay in close proximity. When we finish photographing on any given day and compare notes, Ron has almost always created two or three times as many files as I have during the same amount of time. He can process photos from a two-week trip in a weekend while it takes me a month or more to do the same (wandering and lingering, in a different way).
I’d sum up our photography relationship as a Venn diagram with the overlapping section bringing the most important things into alignment: We enjoy exploring similar landscapes, we like being outside as often as possible when traveling, and we both make photo time a priority. This makes it easy to choose which places we visit for photography, both close to home and farther afield. Since our photographic interests are similar and we both value the quieter side of the landscape, we do not need to spend time convincing each other that a scummy puddle or a tiny patch of ice in an otherwise spectacular canyon might be a worthwhile stop. And although we have different approaches in the field, they are complementary. We can enjoy time in nature together while exercising enough autonomy to photograph in a way that is individually comfortable and fulfilling.
We are not competitive with one another. We ask you to approach these two portfolios in the same way. This is not about determining which one you think is “better.” Instead, we offer this as an opportunity to see in practice how nature photography can be an act of individual creative expression. After photographing the same places at the same times, our portfolios reflect some overlap in terms of subjects, and even a few similar compositions, but also quite a bit of independence in terms of the subjects and scenes that resonated the most with each of us. We hope you enjoy these two perspectives on autumn in Zion National Park.
Selected Photos from Sarah
Selected Photos from Ron
