Talking Pictures

While driving up to higher elevation searching for the perfect scene, it became evident that it had recently snowed and I spotted this snowman that a mother and her two young sons were just completing. I stopped for a while and enjoyed making a few images of the snowman and as I was walking back to my vehicle it dawned on me that this rare desert snowman would make a great subject for my star trail image.

Formerly a professional markets technical representative for Nikon, and an instructor for the Nikon School of Photography, Garcia’s travels across the country and around the world presented him with many room-service breakfast trays, from which he took the Tabasco and ketchup bottles that accompanied the meals.

I’d been looking for a nature photo—a grabber with a story behind it. I found it on the cover of The Killing Lessons, a compelling, disturbing crime novel I was reading. The photo had obviously been manipulated to serve the novel’s plot, so in addition to a likely story behind the image, there’s a story ahead of it as well.