ARAT!

There is an acronym I hear bantered about like a dirty word in photography circles- ARAT- Another Rock, Another Tree.

It is roughly short for “Ansel Adams was so awesome that he pretty much ruined straightforward images of the natural world for most photographers of attractive landscapes for all time so unless you think you can do better or you’re showing us something completely special and different in the landscape (and it better be fucking transendental), your work is boring. Just another rock, just another tree.”

Okay, maybe that’s not wholly true, but it feels like it sometimes. Not being a landscape photographer, I am generally fine with this sentiment.

However, every now and then, it’s nice to just share the beautiful bits of the world that are out there. Written right into my mission statement is the delusion that I can show the world to the world, even when it’s just another rock or another tree in my city’s backyard.

So it was a emotionally mopey, bitterly cold day in January when I took the camera for a walk at Smith and Bybee Wetlands…

It wasn’t transendental, but I was a bit happier having been there.