Devil’s Tower, Wyoming was a relatively close drive after my week in South Dakotas Badlands and another three nights in the Black Hills a couple of summers ago. Wyoming was beginning to strike me as to how incredible wide open and expansive it is, which didn’t take too long after crossing the boarder. Compared to where I originate from, the Midwest, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Where either I’m used to flat with a forest or very hilly and can’t see more than a mile or two at best. I’m not accustomed to seeing for miles. Yet in Wyoming, it seems you can see for hundreds of miles as the crow flys. At one point at about a half hour from Devil’s Tower I felt I could see the end of the flat earth. 😝 Exaggerated, I’m certain, but I’m going to go home and feel like I’m in a fishbowl now.
Anywhoooo… I was just minding my own business on my short hike and shooting photos as I made my way around Devil’s Tower on the back side and had finished up a shoot after having made my off the trail maybe 50 yards (ca. 46 m) or so towards the mountain to get to the view I had wanted of the tower, so I was turned and making steps back towards the trail again when out of the corner of left eye I caught the slightest glimpse of movement.
Now I’m not the most athletic dude anymore, and I don’t live where rattlers are prevalent neither, so they ain’t something you’re used to seeing just slithering around the ground. But let me tell ya, at 56 years of age when a rattler is moving towards me at after than frigging oh hum clip this 56-year-old can sure as hell do a set of the football tire drills fast enough to make any NFL spring training squad, that’s no lie!
I damn welI’m damn well aware that rattle snakes are supposed to be more afraid of humans than humans are of them! Unless you sneak up to them and scare them, no less! But, let me tell you, not this little bastard, he was possessed by the frigging Devil or famished! I ain’t exactly a boney dude, if you know what I mean.
I feel luckily to have escaped death, or even serious bodily injury! To the bemusement of friends and family back home, who shed way to many tears on my behalf over this encounter, thank you for your deep concern for my health and welfare. If I hadn’t taken these few photos, they would have never had believed my story. It probably would have chalked it up to another one of my famous fish tales. I am grateful for cellphones. Well, at least I am, this, particular time. 🤣 Just glad we didn’t have them when I was growing up! So, those pictures aren’t on the internet!
This next photo of the iconic Devils Tower I decided to take in black & white which I This next photo of the iconic Devil’s Tower I decided to take in black & white, which I sometimes think to myself I should spend more of my time working in. There is something about this medium of photography that speaks to my soul every time I work in it.
For this photo, I was in Photoshop because I wanted to push some texture in the image that would enhance its entire mood.
When I have seen it, the bright white twinkle almost dead center above Devil’s Tower, I thought to myself. ET phone home. Until I realized, wrong movie recalling no, it’s supposed to be “Mr. Neary, what do you want? I just want to know that it’s really happening.” Sadly, I didn’t hear the melody of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Being here at the mountain brought back a flood of memories. Watching the iconic sci-fi movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind with my Dad. He was a science fiction movie fan in his own right. I do miss him dearly now that he’s gone, having passed away back in 2009 from cancer. These memories, along with my photography that he passed along to me, helped me to deeply reconnect with memories. It was like being together, just the two of us again at moments on this trip. Some moments I’ll treasure and hold dear as long as my memory allows. My photographs will help me hold them close. Dad was such a large influence in my life in ways I don’t know if he ever truly understood. There are times I wish I had the time back to do a better job of trying to tell him.
As I’ve approached the halfway point of the western journey of thrip, I’ve already had a lot of time to ponder many of my life’s challenges and success. This can have a tendency to happen when all of a sudden you’re alone with so much time on your hands and avoiding the distractions of electronics. Mother Nature and viewing her life cycle can have an interesting effect on your thoughts and perspectives if you allow it.
Thinking about Dad and how incredibly much he taught me. By showing me on a weekly basis about photography from an early age. Not just how to shoot, hold the camera with elbows in to brace my arms holding the camera steady. But about life, hard work, commitment, dedication, and perseverance.
Following him around to weddings, his favorite and botanical gardens which were such special times for me with him in our homes’ basement dark room. Maybe I didn’t truly appreciate just how special these times together were until he was gone. I’m certain, as any of you who have lost a loved one can attest too. Absence of the hart grows so incredibly fonder. The desire and wish we have for some of that time, we would give anything to have it back, even if for just one more moment.
In a way, every photo I take and share a piece of Dad as he lives on through me in those sIn a way, every photo I take and share a piece of Dad as he lives on through me in those successes and failures I’ve learned over the years of his and mine. At least I’ve felt this way to some extent and is why I have never completely given up on photography over the years, even as other more important parts of life must come first in priority.
I chose landscape photography, as a way escaping the hustle and bustle of work, noise, business. Getting away from distractions. It’s also giving me a feeling of being insignificant, it humbles me, helps to put things back into perspective. This is before the difficulty of the imagination it takes to compose the shot to make it interesting, stand out, and consider the lighting and colors. The number of factors can make it challenging.
I grew up around the GreatLakes region, and I realize the substantial beauty that lies around the region I’ve been privileged to photograph for years. I’ve dreamed of the American West’s rolling hills, rugged and harsh lands, sharp mountain sides, vast grasslands and so many changing features that I’ve wanted for years to see.
I’ve wanted to see some of these iconic locations. Such as the Badlands, Custer National Park, Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore’s National Monuments, the Devil’s Tower and Yellowstone National Park. All that you can find in my photography if you look. For years, had a desire to photographing the nation’s more iconic sights and put a unique eye on the images. Sometimes to even render them in a more artistic view than what you might even see in nature itself, not in necessarily an overt drastic manner, but just how my heart and soul feels it. Such as the “before” and “after” images below
I could feel the artistic juices churning inside me standing here watching the steam rising into the sky. They raged inside the entire time I was on location.
I knew when I got to my computer, my mind was already envisioning this world from a different solar system, a galaxy lightyears away from earth.
All these and other reasons are why I shoot and enjoy sharing my photography. Until next time. I hope you enjoyed hearing more about the month-long trip out west.
You can see some of photography in my store at www.JonLyle.com
Blog 
Leave a comment