Glenn Oakley: Panorama

Snow!

2012-01-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome back winter.

Waiting for 'da snow

2012-01-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

Never has a snowstorm been so anxiously awaited as this week in Boise, with Bogus Basin Ski Resort still barren and closed in mid-January, the worst snowpack in its 69-year history. Up in Sun Valley they've been skiing since Thanksgiving, making snow on Baldy and maintaining what they do have quite well on the nordic trails north of town. We skied the 32-kilometer Boulder Mountain Tour trail Saturday and returned the next day to ski around Galena Lodge. Hey!--are those storm clouds on the horizon?

League of Extraordinary GentleWomen (& Men)

2012-01-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

Each year the Jones clan, of which I am a member by virtue of my sweetie being the eldest of 5 Jones sisters, gathers for a post-Christmas Christmas, usually in the Ozarks of central Missouri. They are individually remarkable people -- Paul the Methodist theologian turned Trappist monk and prolific author; the twins Suzanne and Elise, both environmental leaders and now becoming political leaders in addition; Wendy, a bilingual educator who emerged from recent cancer treatment with a sense of equanimity and gratitude for life; Amy, a gifted calligrapher and artist who also has a pretty sharp left brain too; and of course Katherine, a photojournalist, columnist and printmaker. Then there's the nephews and significant others, like Karl the rocket scientist. A pretty diverse lot, but what they share in common is a focus on living intentionally, something that is reinforced at these annual gatherings through family rituals and ceremonies. This group portrait was made at the end of the last gathering.

Mink Stole Trout

2011-11-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

While scouting a location on the Boise River last week a mink swam by with a freshly caught trout in its mouth. I think he was using an elk-hair caddis.

Pinto Bennett, Back Soon

2011-11-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

For my project "Where Music Lives" I recently photographed iconic Idaho singer/songwriter Pinto Bennett at his sheep camp home outside Hammett. Pinto is doing mostly gospel these days and has a new album, "Back Soon," coming out. He shares his sheep wagon with a dog, a cat, a Danelectro guitar and a Fender amp.

Where Music Lives: Rosalie Sorrels

2011-10-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Since last Spring I have been photographing musicians at their homes and personal spaces. I've wanted to create portraits of musicians in the environments they have chosen and created, places where they are most grounded -- where music lives. On Tuesday I visited Rosalie Sorrels at her storied Grimes Creek home -- on land her grandfather settled and in a house her father built by hand. Here she plays "Nevada Moon" under the rapt attention of her dog Dudley while the afternoon light of autumn filters through trees planted generations ago.

Changing of the Seasons on the South Fork Snake

2011-10-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Just my personal opinion, but there is no better place to experience the turning of autumn than the South Fork Snake River canyon.

Fighters & Friends on the Middle Fork

2011-08-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

I never take a Middle Fork Salmon River trip for granted: floating 100 miles of crystal clear water running through the heart of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is always a gift. But it is often easy to take for granted the fact that there IS a crystal clear Middle Fork and a 2.3 million acre wilderness surrounding it. These things seem so obviously right that anything else -- a dam, clearcut forests, an open pit mine -- seem inconceivable now. But of course it was only by the work of dedicated people that the Middle Fork and places like it are still the wild and untrammeled lands they are today.

Last week I rafted the Middle Fork with several of those individuals -- Bill Arthur, Debbie Sease, Jim Blomquist, Rose Kapolczynski, Russ Shay, Ken Gersten--who met one another in the early 70s as young environmental activists and are now senior leaders in organizations like the Sierra Club and the Land Trust Alliance. They're still fighting the good fight, working to keep places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from becoming an oil field. Should they succeed, future generations will no doubt find it crazy that the arctic plains would be anything less than the magnificent, wild and pristine land of caribou and wolf and polar bear. It will be so obviously right. But not without the passion and work of people like my new good friends. Thanks.

25th Twilight Criterium

2011-07-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the 25th annual Twilight Criterium bike race, one of those events that makes one happy and proud to live in Boise. The final pro-mens race lasts 90 minutes, with the 100-plus riders averaging speeds of 25-30 miles per hour on the circuit through downtown Boise. That's about how fast I average riding DOWN from the Bogus Basin ski resort.

Missing the Boat

2011-07-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes missing the boat opens up new opportunities. Such was the case last Sunday when we missed the 5 pm shuttle boat on Redfish Lake that would deliver us from the end of the lake back to Redfish Lake Lodge and our car which we planned on driving to our friends' cabin where we planned on preparing an elk roast dinner. Finally arriving at the lodge at 7:30 pm we were too late for a long drive and dinner but just in time for a free outdoor concert on the lawn by bluegrass band Barefoot. It was a classic Rocky Mountain summer scene -- live music and dancing bodies on a perfect July evening below the Sawtooth Mountains.

Craters to Pioneers

2011-07-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

On Monday I flew with EcoFlight, a nonprofit environmental flying service, to photograph the Craters-Pioneers landscape of central Idaho. This vast, largely undeveloped landscape ranges from the lava flows of Craters of the Moon National Monument to the snow-covered peaks of the Pioneer Mountains. The Pioneers Alliance, a coalition of ranchers, farmers, agencies and conservationists, is working to sustain the natural and cultural values of this region.

Up a Deep Creek

2011-06-13T13:04:00.001-07:00

The Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness is considered the most remote place in lower 48 America. A late spring has kept the streams in this desert landscape running at boatable flows weeks later than normal. We took advantage of this last week on a 4-day canoe trip down Deep Creek to the East Fork Owyhee River.

Owyhee Rocks

2011-05-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

The Owyhee River canyon country is mostly rocks -- basalt columns, layers of pink baked clay, welded ash from cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, rhyolite spires, boulders polished by river-borne sand. Floating down the river over the past 4 days we examine the rocks, play with them, and see how the ancient people of this country chiseled their mysteries into the skin of the rocks.

Valet, my mule please

2011-04-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

Normally I avoid turning over my camera pack to furry, dull-witted beasts of burden -- but enough about airline baggage handlers. That's my Lowepro camera pack roped down atop a mule after arriving safely at Santa Lucia Lodge, situated high atop a ridge in the cloud forest of northwestern Ecuador. Our duffels are wrapped in plastic and strapped on either side. Virtually everything at Santa Lucia -- all the materials to build the lodge and cabins -- were carried by mules up the muddy trail that climbs 1,640 vertical feet in less than a mile and a half. This remarkable lodge is the economic centerpiece to a community conservation reserve which protects some of the best remaining cloud forest in Ecuador. Here's a link to Santa Lucia's website: http://www.santaluciaecuador.com/index.html

Behind the Photos

2011-02-15T07:17:00.000-08:00

The summer ad campaign for Colorado Tourism is released and these are two of my favorites from last summer's shoot with Tom Stofac and Brandon Saunders at MMG Worldwide. The dude ranch image was supposed to be an evening shoot, but a thunderstorm of epic proportions forced us to cancel that after assembling a cast of cowboys, dudes and horses. We reconvened at 5 a.m. the following morning and were rewarded with exceptional light. Then it started raining again.

The Tavern shoot also had its brush with weather, as rain was falling as we were setting up. Eventually the rain let up and we brought up our talent -- 14 young Denverites, each better looking than the last one. The Tavern was busy since a Rockies baseball game next door had recently finished, but we had a section of the deck cordoned off for the shoot. That did not stop one short, weasly-looking individual from breaching the perimeter, walk up to the models at the front table and announce, "You girls are all bitches." Our producer, Liz Long, thought he had said, "You girls are all midgets," and was a bit perplexed. But the male models heard him clearly and all leapt up with an idea to defenestrate our intruder. Realizing he had not called them midgets after all, and fearing the mens' wardrobe was about to mussed in a bar fight, Liz quickly had the individual removed, and the shoot proceeded happily.

Return to the Burn

2011-01-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

Last week in Yellowstone I found myself photographing the same location I had photographed over 22 years ago -- the day after it had burned in the great Yellowstone fire of 1988. Here are the before and after images.

Wheel of Life & Death in Yellowstone

2011-01-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

The wheel of life and death is close to the surface this time of year in Yellowstone. And not just because most winter visitors tend to be retirees well into their social security years. All the animals are in survival mode, expending as little energy as possible to make it through until spring.

On my first morning in Yellowstone last week I encountered three coyotes working over the remains of an elk that wolves or weather had killed the day before. The formation of the ravens waiting for their piece of the kill created a kind of wheel of life mandala. By the time I left 4 days later, there was not enough left to interest the ravens.

Escalante

2010-06-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

Handmade: Artisans of the Old & New West

2010-05-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks I've been photographing Western artisans -- individuals who are making functional things by hand with a very high level of artistry. It's that balance of form and function, I think, that makes their work so compelling. One commonality I've found amongst all the artisans I've worked with is that their work is a natural extension of their lives.

No, I don't do weddings but...

2010-05-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

When your friends renew their vows with an Elvis impersonator officiating you have to make an exception.

Symphonic Collaboration

2010-03-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Once again I am honored to be working with composer Jim Cockey on a multi-media project to accompany his latest symphonic work, "The Gift of the Elk-a Suite for Native American Flute and Orchestra." The performances are April 10 and 11 at Hyannis, Cape Cod, with Jung-ho Pak conducting the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra. Joseph FireCrow, from the Northern Cheyenne tribe, will be the featured flute player. My images will be projected behind the orchestra during the performance. This is my second collaboration with Jim, the first being "Symphony #3 -- An Idaho Symphony."

Florida Frozen Orange Sunshine

2010-02-25T11:54:00.001-08:00

Amelia Island, Florida--

The important thing is that it look warm, even if it is 29 degrees. Working with Jim Cox on Florida's northern-most barrier island for a resort shoot during the coldest cold snap in a turtle's memory. Our models slid down the iced boardwalk to stroll along the beach in short-sleeves.

Lambing Season

2010-02-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

In the heart of winter, between Craters of the Moon and the Pioneer Mountains in south-central Idaho, it is lambing season at Lava Lake Ranch. It is a 24/7 operation that lasts for weeks as some 700 ewes give birth. The ranch is a leading organic sheep producer and a national leader in grazing management and landscape-scale conservation.

AMAZON

2009-11-30T08:45:00.000-08:00

When I went to the Amazon in mid-November I expected – and found -- a landscape thick with life. It was life run riot: tangles of vines enveloping trees festooned with bromeliads, 4-foot tall wasp nests suspended from their branches, birds of every color calling, and always the ants.

But the people living along the rivers of this most biologically rich place on the planet became one of the most interesting surprises of my travels. Known as Riverenos, they are of mixed blood, but mostly indigenous people, living in very simple thatch-roofed stilt houses in small villages along the rivers. They fish and hunt and grow a few crops, consult shamans for cures and blessings, play soccer in the evenings under ominous thunderheads. And in places like the nearly one million acre Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Community Reserve in northern Peru, they have embarked on a voluntary conservation project that promises to protect the wildlife while enhancing their livelihoods.

A gallery of images from the Amazon is now posted on my website portfolio.

8 Parts Mayberry, 2 Parts Twin Peaks

2009-11-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

Boise's north end is the kind of charming, homey, front-porch-with-cat, quirky neighborhood that developers are constantly trying to recreate --minus the quirkiness.

And Toto too?

2009-11-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

Red Couch Guitar Series

2009-10-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

I decided to photograph my favorite instruments, with the only rule being they had to be photographed on the red couch in the music room. This gave continuity to the images, referenced both Picasso and the other famous Red Couch Series, and meant that I didn't have to move my favorite possessions very far. They are, top to bottom, a Martin D-35 guitar, Weber Beartooth mandolin, Paul Reed Smith Custom 22 electric guitar, and a Beard Roadaphonic resonator guitar.

The Amazing Traveling Colorado Tourism Photo Shoot Road Show, Part 4-- Revenge of the Rain Clouds: All's Well That Ends Well

2009-09-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

bottom photos by Aaron Beck

Highlights:

Working with a great crew: Jen Farquharson, our talented and lovely art director; Tommy Martinez, account executive and comic impersonator; Liz Long, the hardest working woman in production; Jere Long, location scout and fixer extraordinaire; Nathan Berry, production assistant and source of all useless factoids; Aaron Beck, my energetic and quick assistant. And a cast of two dozen-plus.

At Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde’s most spectacular cliff dwelling, the storm clouds and rain finally breaking at the very last possible moment to illuminate the sandstone arch and make the Anasazi architecture glow.

Faking out Liz by convincing her that we weren’t sure we got the above shot and would have to stay another night at Farview Lodge sans phone service, internet and t.v. The horror, the horror.

Shooting backstage during Vieux Farka Toure’s performance at the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival.

Riding the highlift 30 feet above the crowds at Telluride as the day-long rainstorm cleared.

A crazy-busy, complicated, beautiful shoot at Denver’s Rioja restaurant and then enjoying an exquisite late dinner on their patio after the wrap.

The Girls

2009-09-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Every day is Christmas when you have chickens. You open the little door to the nesting boxes, peek inside, and Voila! a clutch of mocha, cream and chocolate-speckled eggs. Just don't say the words "fried" and "chicken" when they are within hearing range. They're smarter than they look.

Summer in the city

2009-08-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dawg Music

2009-08-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

David Grisman is one of my musical heroes -- a player rooted in traditional music who has created his own genre, which has been described as incorporating strains of Django/Stefan Grappelli style jazz and Grateful Dead folk-rock with traditional bluegrass. Grisman just played the Egyptian Theatre, which was one of many Egyptian-themed movie theaters built across the country in the 1920s in the wake of the King Tut tomb discovery and a general Egyptian mania. So here's an audience of Westerners listening to a bluegrass/jazz/rock mandolin player from Hackensack, New Jersey by way of California under a panel of scarab beetles and Pharos. We finished the concert and had dinner at Bar Gernika, the Basque bar down the street.

Fingerlings

2009-08-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

The lake at 9,700-feet in elevation was filled with very hungry Brook trout -- too many for the amount of food available. So we did them a favor and reduced the population by five. My friend Lee used his fingers as a stringer to carry our catch up to camp. A few hours later they were browning in olive oil with slivers of sweet onion.

From the ashes

2009-07-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

Two years after the Castle Rock Fire raged around Sun Valley an explosion of wildflowers has risen from the still very black ashes. On this ridge north of Sun Valley, over an acre of hollyhocks (yep, they grow wild) stands four feet tall beneath the charred remains of the forest.

Alaska Terminal Polar Bear

2009-07-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

I had finished a two-week raft trip down the Tatshenshini and Alsek Rivers and was in the Juneau airport awaiting my flight home when I encountered the polar bear under glass. This had been my second Tatshenshini trip, and in just the 8 years since my first, the glacial retreat along the river was noticeable. Further north where the polar bears roamed, the ice was also thinning and shrinking, leaving the bears no where to go -- except perhaps to live under Plexiglas. The whole peculiar diorama of this once-living bear now stuffed and framed by a trash can, courtesy phone, restrooms and a photo mural of its melting habitat seemed to say a lot about our inadvertent attitude toward nature.