The White Lady
JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING - 2025

There is not much I would change with
this photograph - it all came together
in cold winter light looking out to the
much-loved Mount Moran in Grand
Teton National Park. I am not the first
photographer to be drawn to the almost
perfect symmetry and grandeur of this
12,000-foot-tall mountain and I won’t be
the last.

The foreground had to have some punch
and I think the combination of Josie
Canseco and her travel companion in a
1953 Ferrari pushes a few boundaries.
There is much to look at.

It was, however, the weather that made
the shot. I needed fresh snow and a clear
morning sky; without one or the other,
there was no picture to be taken. The
light becomes increasingly less kind on a
sunny day and we knew that it would all
be over by 8 am at the latest. The window
of opportunity is less than 30 minutes.
During our week in Jackson, we had low
sky and suboptimal light for 95% of the
time. But we had one morning of clear sky
and we took our chance. It was luck really,
but I think we leveraged what we were
given and that ultimately is the acid test.
This image is now in the bag forever and
that’s something to celebrate.

For those with a visual sensibility,
The Tetons set a high bar; there is no
mountain range in the Americas I would
prefer as a backdrop and the Snake River
Valley below offers so much opportunity
to build stories. It is an amphitheater
that demands a filmmaker’s A game
- to be mundane or vanilla would be
embarrassing.