Generally speaking, the period from mid-July through the end of August isn't the best for nature photography in Western Wyoming and Eastern Idaho. Hot, stagnant air creates haze. Add to that the inevitability of fire season: whether or not anything is burning locally, you can pretty much count on smoke coming from somewhere at some point.

As for wildlife, when the temperatures rise, many animals tend to retreat further into the backcountry.

So, the skies are murky and animals are hidden from view. Other than that, the conditions are just about perfect!

Heh.

But summer is when many folks have time off, and therefore a lot of people are here on vacation - and they want to see the mountains. So optimal conditions or not, you'll probably find me in or near the Tetons.

Since July 10th air quality has steadily deteriorated from a little bit hazy to downright poor, so whether you're viewing them from the west in the Teton Valley or the east in Grand Teton National Park, the Tetons aren't looking their best right now. (It could be worse: the Lemhi Range in south central Idaho, which I can normally see from my house, has been mostly invisible for the past two weeks. At least you can still find the Tetons.)

To cap it off, persistently stubborn high pressure has served up nothing but clear skies, day after day.

Haze and smoke plus cloudless "sort-of-blue" skies: not the kind of trifecta any photographer is hoping for.

If you're visiting from out of town, though, you have two choices: put the camera away or figure out what kind of photographs you can make.

Of course this type of situation is just another variation on a story we know all too well. Mother Nature calls the shots. It's always a little bit more of a disappointment, though, when you've traveled to a location expecting to do some work with your camera and the sky looks like pea soup. Still, when the conditions aren't what you'd hoped for or expected, you've got to pivot.

I was fortunate to be in the park recently with a guest who didn't mind the fact that we were going to have to call an audible. Understanding this wasn't the time to expect to capture lots of grand landscapes (or at least not the type he probably originally had in mind), he was open to suggestions regarding how he might make lemonade with the bucket of lemons we'd been gifted.

When it comes to smoke and/or haze, there are potential opportunities, some of which can be rather unique:

• Sunrises and sunsets can be very colorful.

• A smoky sky softens details.

• By accentuating the contrast between foreground and background, it creates depth.

• Smoke can create ethereal, moody, and even otherworldly scenes.

Because we also had cloudless skies to deal with, some of these options weren't possible - like the sunrises and sunsets.

But there are other things you can try, like going tighter. Look for smaller scenes. Consider abstracts. Get closer to your subject and air quality will not be an issue.

Don't forget black and white as a creative option.

We ended up spending quite a bit of time focusing on water, specifically at Cascade Creek, Jackson Lake, and Jenny Lake. There was still a tremendous amount of runoff rushing through Cascade Creek, so it was a fantastic place to play with various shutter speeds and abstractions:

The image at the top of this post was made at Jackson Lake. There's no rule that says you can't represent your subject in an unusual way - like tilting the camera to one side or the other.

I just waited for wakes created by boats far out on the lake to reach the shore. I shot quite a few but liked the spacing of the colors on this one the best.

Finally, snow and glaciers can pop in the same way as showy cumulus clouds when processed in black and white. Shooting from out on the lake and therefore much closer to the canyon, thinking in black and white opened up some creative options in spite of the otherwise uninteresting sky.

This was before the smoke moved in; we were just dealing with haze at that point. Still, you can see how haze creates depth by separating the line of trees in the foreground from what lies behind them.

I'll leave you with an example of serious smoke from a few autumns ago. Though I had no intention of including the Tetons in any of my foliage photographs that year due to the persistently poor air quality, I changed my mind when I saw what was happening over Mount Moran one afternoon.

Thick smoke from a far-away fire rendered Moran as spectral, and I saw claws in the cloud clinging to it. Perhaps 399's paw? She is the Queen of the park, after all...

Regardless, I found the combination compelling and it provided an excellent backdrop for some of the most reliably colorful aspens in the park which happened to be at peak color. To cap it off, I made this photograph at a very unlikely time of day: early afternoon.

Moral of the story: even when the deck seems to be stacked against you, keep your eyes open and think creatively. Who knows what might happen?