I'll have to admit that I was trying to channel Ansel Adams when I made* this photo. Of course, Ansel used a view camera, filters and elaborate dark room magic to make his great black and white landscape photos. In the digital realm, all of those things are done using software.

I had taken my Black Hills Photo Adventure participants to the Needles Highway in the Black Hills and when we arrived at this vantage point, low clouds were skimming over the Spires, though you can't see it is this photo. It was the perfect moment to be at this place and I'm guessing that even Adams would have found it worthy of a photo or two.

Incidentally, what made Ansel Adams so good was that he didn't see the landscape that he photographed as geologic architecture. Instead, he worked hard to show the landscape as an environment. I try to do this in this photo, but I would say I fall a little short, though there is plenty of texture in this photo. And texture is a hallmark of Adam's work.

*Adams said, "You don't take a good photo. You make one."