Which State is the Best State for Landscape Photographers to Live?

[Kirk Gittings]

Southern Alberta which is not a state but province. Everyone thinks only of Banff but there is much much more.
1. Foothills - tough to photograph as they are more subtle than the mountains but beautiful.
2. Badlands - We have several areas beside Drumheller, there is Dry Island Buffalo Jump, and Dinosaur Park which is a Unesco site
3. Writing-On-Stone Park which on the border with the US. Small but spectacular with lots of funky sculptural formations.
4. Kananaskis Country which is a huge provincial park east of Banff. Free to get in and huge.

I went to grad school in Calgary. I loved shooting in Southern Alberta.

[tonyowen]

However, this is a U.S.-based forum. Why attempt to drive discussion away from the OP's inquiry? Methinks doing so persistently risks becoming a Welsh analog of "the ugly American."

Sal, apologies for tardy reply - Tax returns etc is the reason

I did not realize that non-US residents were excluded from commenting on any thread.
Mine were not the only postings trying to widen the scope of the thread.
I am NOT Welsh. I have dual British and Canadian citizenship and presently live in Wales - next year perhaps somewhere else

Regards
Tony

[Sal Santamaura]

Sal, apologies for tardy reply...

Apology? Tardy? Many don't ever reply to posts; two days is nothing. Please don't apologize.

...I did not realize that non-US residents were excluded from commenting on any thread...

They/you are not. Had you commented on which of the 50 U.S. states the OP was inquiring about, I'd not have replied to your post.

...Mine were not the only postings trying to widen the scope of the thread...

No, but yours were persistent and their tone implied that the U.S.-centric nature of the forum needed changing. The others weren't/didn't.

...I am NOT Welsh. I have dual British and Canadian citizenship and presently live in Wales - next year perhaps somewhere else...

OK then, a "Commonwealth analog of the ugly American."

[Thad Gerheim]

Another way to look at this is which states have the most renown landscape photographers? I think that would be California and New Mexico, hands down by far Carmel. You have to be certified crazy or mormon to live in Idaho and besides we prefer people who contribute to society, instead of on the lam from the tax man.

[LabRat]

A good state of MIND... Anywhere...

Steve K

[Scyg]

Another way to look at this is which states have the most renown landscape photographers? I think that would be California and New Mexico, hands down by far Carmel. You have to be certified crazy or mormon to live in Idaho and besides we prefer people who contribute to society, instead of on the lam from the tax man.

Don't know if I'd necessarily want to live where lots of renowned photographers had already done their thing. Kind of like doing street photography in New York - it may be easier to get a "classic look", but you'll be very likely just treading over someone else's footprints. Doesn't mean you can't do something original, but it might actually be harder than somewhere less... used.

[Vaughn]

Don't know if I'd necessarily want to live where lots of renowned photographers had already done their thing. ...

Like in sports, if you want to get better, ya gotta play people better than you -- you have to lose a lot.

[Scyg]

Like in sports, if you want to get better, ya gotta play people better than you -- you have to lose a lot.

I'll freely admit I never saw it as a competition. Even if you do, I would think it's how you do things not where you do them that counts. But I guess everyone's got their own take on things.

[Vaughn]

I'll freely admit I never saw it as a competition. Even if you do, I would think it's how you do things not where you do them that counts. But I guess everyone's got their own take on things.

Neither do I, as in win-lose. I am talking about learning and pushing one's self to improve.

Edited to add: I photograph a lot in Yosemite Valley...late fall to early spring. Up higher if I happen to be in the area in the summer. It is quite challenging to find and keep one's own voice when Ansel's is still echoing off the walls...not to mention those of his assistants and students. Stepping up to this challenge is not being competitive. Who wants to make AA's images better than he did? I want to make my images stronger.

I could stay huddled under the redwoods, keeping to what has become rather easy imagery to capture...40 years of working with the light here has advantages, but I do not want to make the same type of images again and again. So I photograph in Death Valley a bit and I had a nice month in Chile with the 5x7, but where ever I photograph, I bring that experience back to the redwoods and look with renewed eyes.

Actually, I want to do more work in my backyard -- the town I live in. Perhaps 11x14 and toned cyanotypes. Sounds like too much fun.

[Drew Wiley]

Scyg - like everything has already been taken? and in the same manner? Might as well roll up into a big ball and die, my, my. I live in the most populated state in the country, which also has the most number of Natl Parks and Wilderness Areas of the lower 48. Yet I've had a view camera many many times where no footprints were visible for days on end. But let's say that's not the case. On one trip just a few years back, I stumbled onto the exact spot at Bullfrog Lake in Kings Canyon where AA took a famous picture. It's a big slab of rock slightly above lake level. At one time that particular lake was so popular with horse packing outfits that now it's completely off limits to camping to let the spot recover. But there on that very same rock, I take a look a slightly different direction from the AA perspective, and said to myself, How on earth did he miss thaaaat? Something completely different that I've never seen a picture of until I printed it, and in my own personal style. And I'd hang that thing any day of the week beside anything AA did in that area. His photography was a big factor in it becoming a Natl Park to begin with, which nobody else can repeat. But there are huge sections of that very Park he never saw even from a distance, and where signs of any kind of human presence are rare or nonexistent. But finding your own slice of geography has far less to do with it than finding your own style and not being intimidated by someone else's reputation. Personal creative opportunities will always exist, no matter how many times a particular genre has been explored.