Sneak a Peek

I maintain a list of about 25 locations around here that I want to photograph. I’ve kept this list on my phone since 2015. I refer to it whenever I’m thinking about where to shoot next. I only check off places after I feel I’ve covered them the way I’d like.

The list is always changing. When I hear or read about an interesting location, I add it. But stumbling across little places like this is actually the most common way I find new ones. The places on my list are broad — they give me a target area to explore rather than a precise viewpoint. I know I’ll never fully cover everything on the list, and that’s fine. But it gives me plenty of options without the constant work of thinking up somewhere to shoot.

Years ago I decided I’m not interested in making a complete accounting of Idaho’s landscapes. That would be literally impossible. Instead, I seek out places that mean something to me — places I’ve returned to often and connected with over time. I call the portfolio My Private Idaho because every location on the list is genuinely part of my Idaho. Each one belongs to my experience of this place.

Everyone has their own version of where they live — what they connect to, what they notice, how they respond to it. This is mine.

Driving north on Highway 55, I turned my head many times to sneak a peek at this small valley, until I finally stopped with my camera in the spring of 2017. It sits between Boise and Horseshoe Bend and is identified on Google Maps as Cottonwood Creek.

I photographed it several times that year, until someone began developing it as a homesite.