You Can't Take a Good Photo in Iowa!
You can't take a good photo in Iowa. There's no way. There's nothing there to take a good photo of. Why would anyone think of taking a photo in Iowa?
Well, you can make a good photo in Iowa!
Lately, I've been thinking about how you can find beauty anywhere you live. I know that areas around your house just seem common place, but if you take the time to open your eyes -- really open your eyes -- and open your mind to look at everything anew, you'll find beauty near your home. You don't have to travel far to make great landscape shots.
With that in mind, here are a few photos from the state I grew up in. These scenes are from Iowa -- a place known as flyover country.
This above shot is quintessential Iowa beauty. If this scene was in Palouse, Washington, every morning there would be 100 photographers fighting each other to get the best spot to get this shot. But on this morning, it was my workshop group and nobody else. It's funny because there are 100s of these locations in Iowa. Don't tell anyone or all the photographers in the world will flock there.
The below shot is from winter near Dubuque. This is in a park that I built trails for when I was in college. The open forest and fresh snow plus the lovely morning light makes for one of my favorite winter images that I've taken.
But everyone says that there's nothing in Iowa but flat farm fields, right?
There's beauty for photographs wherever you look even in farm fields.
The above example of beauty is near Des Moines, Iowa. I used to run a seminar-style workshop there. This was one of our sunrise locations.
These locations near home are going to become more important to us. Gas prices are rising worldwide as the world recovers from the pandemic and won't likely come down, and if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how to reduce your personal impact on the world. Or if you are like me, maybe the pandemic made you rethink travel and what you want in life.
With great beauty all around us, maybe we have everything we need if only we open our eyes to notice it.
I don't have all the answers for myself for travel and my 2023 photography workshops travel to far flung places across the US. Before the pandemic, I'd travel over 100 days every year. Next year, I'll be near 50. That seems overwhelming right now when I know I could stay in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Iowa and find beautiful landscapes that would fulfill my soul and creativity.
I'm curious about when was the last time that you took the time to really open your eyes, heart and mind and see the beauty in your own backyard? I hope that if it wasn't recently that you go out this afternoon and find something beautiful to photograph.
Until next time
I'm currently in the Badlands and Black Hills teaching a workshop. When I see you again in two weeks, I'll share photos from the trip. Until then, here's another shot from Iowa.
