Originally published in The Mountain Connection, November, 2004.

I have been a photographer for many years and I hope that my photographs have improved in quality over time. If they have, I think it is because that I have been able to more clearly express through an image my thoughts, ideas and emotional connection to a scene. Some thoughts, ideas, and emotions are not always apparent when I take the picture and reveal themselves over time.

I recently did a one-man gallery show. One young woman that I talked to at the opening reception expressed how she could feel my love of nature in my photos and how well I expressed my conservation ethic.

I was taken aback by her comments. My intent in taking photographs had been to show others places that I had been and to try and capture the beauty that I saw in wild country. Privately, I had always felt a very strong connection with and love of nature, but thought that I did not express that love in my work or deliberately included a conservation message.

Upon reflection, I realized that I was very concerned that some of the places that I visited would one day not be there due to the forces of development and other changes. So in one sense I was trying to capture a moment in time that could very well be transitory.

I also wanted to show others the beauty of theses places and to somehow strike a chord within them that love for these places that I had.

I had never been aware of these intentions in my work until she made her observations. I was that pleased that my work had deeper levels of meaning. But it had taken someone else looking at my photos in order to see my underlying motivations at work.

Whether through writing or any of the fine arts explore your interactions with the world around you. Your art may reveal deeper and more profound things about the world and about yourself that you weren’t aware of before.