Waiting is part of the nature photography game. While not every photograph requires a significant investment of time, a lot of them do.

We wait for the clouds to shift or for the breeze to die down. We wait to see how the fog is going to behave before it begins to lift. We wait for the morning sky to brighten or the evening sky to get darker. We wait for the rain to begin falling - or to stop. We wait for wildlife to make a move. We wait for the quality of light to change or for shadows to shift. We wait to see if a shaft of light will break through a stormy sky.

And so on.

It might take a few minutes, or it could an hour. Or more.

Patience is often rewarded. It can mean the difference between a "pretty good" photo, and an interesting, compelling image. Especially when conditions are changeable, it's worth it to invest the extra time.

I made this picture on a stormy spring afternoon at Arches National Park. Neither Balanced Rock nor I were getting wet (at that moment), but you can see the line of heavy rain not far away. It was quite a show; I was out there for perhaps three hours watching and photographing it. Sunlight which intermittently emerged from behind my right shoulder made the scene more intriguing, further darkening the sky and adding contrast.

Conditions overhead were rapidly fluctuating, so I waited for a low cumulus cloud to move into the upper left to anchor that side of the composition and for the sun to appear at the same time. The sheets of rain clearly visible in the middle of the rock formation were a bonus.

Fog typically demands patience, but it's often worth it to bide your time. Following the first significant mountain snowfall of the autumn, the fog was very dense on this morning in Grand Teton National Park. Positioned just outside of it so I could "look in," it took a few hours before it lifted enough to be able to see much of anything.

Finally, the opaque blanket became almost animated, shape-shifting and moving rapidly. It'd reveal a little bit of the landscape before shrouding it again. In and out, back and forth. This grouping of aspens at peak materialized from out of the whiteness and were quite pronounced since most of the other foliage in the flats remained hidden and the rest of the scene lacked vibrant color.

By now some of the Tetons were visible, which provided context. The fog was quickly drifting from left to right; an incoming line formed a shape which perfectly mimicked the line of the trees. The moment it passed directly above them, it'd be time to release the shutter.

From the time I showed up that morning until I made the picture, roughly four hours had passed. The wait was well worth it.

Waiting's first cousin is persistence: the willingness to revisit locations. To try again. To see the same places at different times of day, in different seasons, and with a different frame of mind.

Some images take days, months - or even years - to make. Patience and persistence are, indeed, virtues.

There's a difference, though, between waiting for the right moment and waiting for perfection - and by that I mean the perfect conditions. Those who prefer to wait for everything to be absolutely optimal will be doing a lot of waiting and very little shooting.

(By the way - what exactly is perfection? As the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure.)

Even when you're working locally and therefore have the luxury of trying to time conditions, how often does Mother Nature serve up exactly what you hoped for when you arrive on location?

Better to just get out there and go for it. Problem solve. Think in terms of what's possible rather than what you're not going to be able to do. What kind of photograph can you make?

You might surprise yourself. Sometimes it's from situations in which we are put to the test that we produce our best work.

In Local News

Skiing season is......oh hold. Grand Targhee's opening was scheduled for tomorrow with Jackson Hole following on the 28th, but even snowmaking can't keep up with the warmer temperatures we've had over the past few weeks.

More seasonal temperatures are forecast for next week.

Wait and see.