Targeting System

This view, taken from a campsite on a high knoll directly above the Payette River west of Garden Valley, was found the old-fashioned way: getting in the car, driving around, paying attention, and knowing what I’m looking for.

I knew instantly it was a profound view. Sometimes I feel like a targeting system in an action movie, the kind that sweeps and scans until it locks onto something and the intermittent beeping goes solid. Beeeeeeeeeep. That happened here.

I hear that sound because I know what I’m after: views that express the diversity, depth, majesty, and beauty of Idaho. Right now I’m focused on the southwest corner of the state, but there is so much more. The depth is endless.

I get a lot of inquiries from locals. They ask if I’ve photographed Fairfield, Mackay, Leadore, Weiser, Riggins, Twin Falls, Coeur d’Alene, the Sawtooths, the Pioneers, Yellow Pine, the Salmon River, Sun Valley, the Palouse, Bruneau Canyon, and on and on. I’ve spent over a decade focused on the area within fifty miles of my home and still my list grows every year in that little radius. I wish I could spend every waking hour scouring the state, but I work a full-time job alongside my photographic life.

Many evenings I’m tired and agitated after work. I have to push myself to get in the car and head out. It would be much easier to sink into my large, comfortable chair with a book. But the reward of finding photographs like this one, the thrill of standing before a view like this, makes it more than worth it.

It’s impossible to capture all the places locals consider the most beautiful parts of Idaho, their own private Idahos. But I’m trying.