023 - Photographing National Parks with Chris Nicholson

In the early morning light of Great Falls, Virginia, I was distracted. The light fell perfectly on the Potomac River as it rushed over a series of steep, jagged rocks. This was the scene I came to photograph, but I couldn't focus. Literally. Nearby, my two young sons bounced carefree across the rocks that border the waterfalls. Any slip by one of them certainly wouldn't end well, but as young boys, they were impervious to the danger hundreds of feet below. I shifted my attention between shepherding them to safety and taking a few photos I really liked. In fact, I was so distracted, I was surprised to find an image l liked enough to matte and frame. I hung the photo for a while but lost track of it over a couple moves. I recall this now because recently I went into my oldest son's room and saw that he'd found and hung that photo on his wall. I hadn't seen it in years, but it brought back so many memories from that morning in 2004. The National Parks are not only great for creating photos but memories as well. That's one of the messages from Chris Nicholson, who wrote the book Photographing National Parks. In this interview, he shares: • How you should prepare for an efficient and productive visit to a National Park;• The tools you should take for best results;• His favorite National Parks for photography;• When you would need permits to photograph the parks;and much more   Listen to the interview and find the show notes at bit.ly/022