Photo of Mount Tom (left) and Wheeler Crest taken at a turnout on Highway 395 north of Bishop, CA
I used to think of myself as a landscape photographer, and every landscape photographer knows that getting to that special place you want to photograph, or to check a location for the best angle on a shot, is probably going to involve some walking or hiking. That’s just a given.
When I could no longer walk I was forced to approach my landscape photography in another way — from the window of my car. Yes, it’s true. As ridiculous as it sounds, for the last twenty years most of my landscapes were shot out the window from the front seat of my car. And it changed the way I saw the world.
Instead of walking into a scene, I worked with whatever the road, turnout, or parking place gave me, waiting for the light and composition to come together from a fixed point of view. It was limiting at times, but it taught me to look more carefully—to notice distant ridgelines, changing skies, roadside details, and the way a landscape unfolds from the edge of the pavement. The car became not only my transportation, but also my tripod position, a quiet place from which I could still explore and photograph the country around me.
Most of the time I was okay with it, and adjusted my photography accordingly. But once in a while it bothered me to the point where I would say to hell with it, and began looking around for a different hobby that would keep me off my legs. But sooner or later I realized that, even with my limitations, I liked photography. And most days I loved it. That’s when I’d collect my camera gear, get back in the car, and head down the road searching for landscapes to photograph.