Snow and Cottonwood
Utah

20×24″ prints are $1,500
30×40″ prints are $3,000

This image was photographed during my return trip from Bernheim Forest in the spring of 1991. Just a few days previous to this I had photographed the Pink and White Dogwoods, one of my most popular images. I had stayed longer than originally planned in Kentucky and was hurrying home to print the new photographs as well as print images for orders which had come in while I was gone.

Leaving the town of Green River where I had spent the night, I drove up and over a low range of mountains on highway 6, heading toward interstate 15 on my way through Utah. I was driving through a vigorous spring snowstorm, glad that my vehicle was four-wheel drive. The snow had been falling for about two hours but a brief respite came for around 20 minutes.

During the lull in the storm, I was driving along, admiring the quiet beauty around me when I spotted a stand of cottonwood trees along the highway. Quickly stopping the car, I had just a few minutes in which to work with no wind and the just-fallen snow. All too soon, the wind picked up and the snow began to fall again and so I continued driving and late that same night I arrived home in Vernonia, Oregon after having driven over 1000 miles that day.

This image is a reminder to me that nature can be soft, delicate and transitory—of how many perfect snowflakes fall every second, and how the world is filled with beauty and glory everywhere.