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

[tax888]

Every state has something to offer LF photographers, and good photographers can make great images anywhere, but the question is asked in our Large Format forum what the best state is for LF photographers to live in. Please consider following facts:

Weather
Cost of living
State income tax and |Real estate tax
Number of National Parks
Workshop or large format community
Death rate of coronavirus

and more you can think of ......

[Pops]

In my mind California ticks most of the boxes, except cost of living. Lots of variety there. Arizona would probably be second.

I’m trying to figure out how to make the most of my regional offerings.

[Two23]

Every state has something to offer LF photographers, and good photographers can make great images anywhere, but the question is asked in our Large Format forum what the best state is for LF photographers to live in. Please consider following facts:

1. Weather
2. Cost of living
3. State income tax and |Real estate tax
3. Number of National Parks
4. Workshop or large format community
5. Death rate of coronavirus

and more you can think of ......

1. Montana. Has a four season climate. That's like getting to live in four new places without having to move. Each season has its own mood.
2. Montana. Affordable housing, food is low, sales tax is low.
3. South Dakota. No income tax at all. One of the reasons i moved here.
4. Montana. Yellowstone, Glacier, plus some nice state parks. More than that you have the great plains in the east. The Missouri River valley is spectacular and few outside the region know it.
5. Montana. Long a destination for photographers. FJ Haynes lived in Bozeman.
6. Montana, North & South Dakota, Wyoming. I wouldn't worry about that anyway over the mid to long term. I'll mention that most of the states in region never overreacted with "lock downs." I took the month of April off work and was driving hundreds of miles a day taking photos. Motels and restaurants were open if I wanted to use them.

If I was single I'd buy a smaller RV and just wander the Great Plains. It's so big I would never get to all of it. As for California, the best place to live there would be Reno.


Kent in SD

[Bob Salomon]

Reno, CA?

[Vaughn]

Reno, CA?

As in...What's the difference except who owns the casinos?

[Tin Can]

double bubble

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...c93_story.html

[C. D. Keth]

I have to say Utah is pretty good. 13 national parks dept. units (5NPs, 3 NMs, and some recreation areas and historic sites), 43 state parks. About 80% of land is publicly owner, either federally or by the state. Ecosystems range from alpine marshes to the famous redrock desert. Taxes are reasonable, there's probably 300 sunny days a year. I like it here.

[Vaughn]

California is totally messed up. Cost of living, hippies, earthquakes. Stay away.

[Drew Wiley]

Yep, stay away from California. Carnivorous deer, twelve-foot long venomous centipedes .... Forget that we have more National Parks and Wilderness Areas than any other state in the lower 48. Every inch of it is covered with million-dollar houses inhabited by Zombies and klepto surfers. Nothing to see here.

[Pechoretc]

If the question was posed more broadly: where is the best place to live for a photographer who takes landscapes in a large format, I would name only one place - the Republic of Tuva, located in Russia in southern Siberia near the border with Mongolia. My friend, an American photographer, visited there and said that Tuva is a mixture of Tibet and Wyoming, because Buddhist culture exists against the backdrop of untouched nature and a very small number of inhabitants ... For the past twenty years I have been there every year and take photographs. Some of my Tuvan pictures can be viewed here: http://rasfokus.ru/pechoretc/bestphoto.html
They can easily be identified by the plot among my other pictures - these are natural landscapes or some household items of Tuvans