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

[Alan Klein]

Wherever you go, there you are.

[Scyg]

Depends on what kind of landscape you want to photograph, I guess. If you're into the grand vistas of the Great Plains, you'd be wise to move there, or at least close by. If you want the Rockies, ditto - move there. Not sure what the tax questions have to do with landscape photography - If you want to photograph Yosemite, you're probably better off not living in Texas, no matter what the tax situation might be.

[Vaughn]

Yeah, the tax thing is a little strange, but I photograph light -- and that's everywhere. So it gets down to where I want to be...and I am here.

[tonyowen]

Ontario the last state to join has amazing lakes and rugged features.

I agree with the amazing lakes and rugged features but I thought that Ontario and all Provinces west would join the US in the 1970s after Charles De Gaulle's Vive le Québec libre on the balcony of Montréal City Hall. It caused a diplomatic uproar with Canada and inflamed the Quebec sovereignty movement.

At that time I was resident in Toronto; and it has not happened yet.

regards
Tony

[bob carnie]

I agree with the amazing lakes and rugged features but I thought that Ontario and all Provinces west would join the US in the 1970s after Charles De Gaulle's Vive le Québec libre on the balcony of Montréal City Hall. It caused a diplomatic uproar with Canada and inflamed the Quebec sovereignty movement.

At that time I was resident in Toronto; and it has not happened yet.

regards
Tony

Well right now we are considering letting Oregon, California, Washington to join Canada all immigration welcome up here.

I kind of like the Carolina's so they can come up here as well

[Greg]

For me New Hampshire. Recommend the book: Among the White Hills, the life and times of Guy L. Shorey. Especially admire the work he did with his 7x17 Korona in the early 1900s. Think of him driving around the White Mountains in 1906 in an open windowed car in the dead of winter to photograph a mountain view with his 7x17.... we have it so relatively easy now.

[William Whitaker]

State of Financial Readiness.

But seriously, as I read over all the responses, I was reminded of the fact that since retiring in 2014, I have taken jobs three times that have caused me to move west. I live in North Carolina, having always called that "home". But in 2015 I moved to Las Vegas to take a job. Nevada just doesn't inspire me. Sorry! And going somewhere interesting involves just too much driving. Although not as far as if I were to drive from NC! Then another job took me to the Central Coast of California. That was interesting. But that job didn't last and before I knew it I was back on I-40 to NC. Most recently I took a job that led me to the south burbs of Seattle. True, it's a beautiful area. If you can see it for all the cars. Then there was the cost of living... yikes! Didn't matter 'cause I got laid off in February.
How about my home state of NC? Well, yes. We do have some fairly scenic and visually interesting areas here. The Appalachian mountains are beautiful. But I've always found it extremely challenging to find a scene, a composition, that moves me. We do not have the Grand Vista that the Southwest and so many other venues offer. No, we have the haze, humidity (and the bugs). And the first two destroy contrast such that detail is lost. It can be worked around. But I've always run out of time before I've come up with a solution.
I did make one of my favorite photographs on the other end of the state, interesting to say. But it took me literally three days of scouting, looking, setting up and then striking my equipment until I found the composition and the conditions which caused me to commit it to film.
And, living again in NC, I miss the West and its beauty. But every time I've moved west, I have missed the East coast with its trees, hills and dales and especially New England which I miss whichever place I'm living. I've spent a fair amount of time one place or another in coastal New England and I fell in love with it. One of these days I'm going back!
So, I think culture has a lot to do with the answer. The southern Appalachians definitely have their culture. Some of it I definitely do not find attractive. But then, the local folks there are descended largely from the Scots-Irish who settled in this area. Those are my people as I share that heritage with them. So it feels like home... sometimes rather oddly.
New England has its cultural distinctions - very strongly! - and that makes the landscape that much more interesting (it seems to me, anyway).
The West (again, to me) is about space, isolation, big skies and strong lighting. But then Coastal California begins to take on its own character, sometimes in ways reminiscent of New England.

These are my own reflections on places I've lived... my own experiences. I don't expect anyone to agree with them. But one thing I think is indisputable is that from a US-centric point of view, the the US has an incredible diversity.
So throw a dart at the map. You'll find your vision and your images wherever you go. Maybe more so if you go somewhere you've never been before.
And that applies to the rest of the world, too. Maybe even more.

[C. D. Keth]

I think it is tie between western South Dakota and Idaho.

You really want to live in Idaho with all the mad anti-govt nuts, EOTW preppers, and mormons that are too Mormon for Utah? I like Idaho to visit.


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[Vaughn]

Well right now we are considering letting Oregon, California, Washington to join Canada all immigration welcome up here.

I kind of like the Carolina's so they can come up here as well

Don't know if I want to move to a country that wants the likes of me...but if the geologists have plate tectonics down, you'll have California up your way before you know it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BxnIkqK1J4

You really want to live in Idaho with all the mad anti-govt nuts, EOTW preppers, and mormons that are too Mormon for Utah?

And a high concentration of retired southern CA police officers...

[FrancisF]

Clearly the most pointless and interesting thread I have read in a while.

And the answer is simple. It is not a state, it is an island. Monhegan