Badlands Spire

Badlands SpireBisti Badlands, New Mexico, United States This photograph was created in the Bisti Badlands during the final moments before sunset, after spending multiple visits exploring the area for less familiar compositions. While the region is well known for its dramatic terrain, each trip has focused on moving beyond established viewpoints and finding formations that reveal themselves only from specific angles and light conditions. The spire in this image was

The sky was replaced with a similar sky I photographed later under comparable conditions

From this direction

The foreground was handled gently

relying on camouflage rather than structure

that exact effort

with very little transition between meadow and mountain

I’ve grown more interested in restraint

" from Volume 1

then reshapes everything

the river reflects the sky more clearly than the land itself

something rooted at the boundary between solid ground and open space

The Big Bend region is defined by scale and separation