When I was shooting news and sports 35 years ago I never envisioned myself as a fine art photographer. But after two years attending the Moab Photo Symposium, that same passion I had in shooting hockey and midnight fires is manifesting itself in a crazy desire to drive an hour to Mesa Arch at 5:00 a.m. to catch the fiery sunrise under the arch.

Sunrise at Dead Horse Point

The Moab Photo Symposium (May 1-4, 2008) is the brainchild of Bruce Hucko, a Moab teacher and renowned southwestern photographer, including being one of the most noted documenter of ancient rock art. A year ago we met one of Bruce’s students (waitressing at Pasta Jay’s). She simply lit up when she heard we there for the symposium – you could see the passion Bruce instills in his students. That same passion and vision has gone into making the Moab Photo Symposium a family like event that you don’t want to miss.

Why is this important to me? For those who don’t know, my original passion and career was as a news and sports photographer in Madison, WI. It began for me in high school and continued through college. I shot the U.S. Ski Jumping Team training in Madison when I was in high school. And I was working for one of the dailies by my sophomore year in college. But I got away from photography to move into PR in 1977. By chance, I saw a poster for the symposium at Pictureline in Salt Lake City a year ago and thought it would be a great weekend in Moab. And it continues to be inspirational.

The opening keynote was from noted Aspen photographer and educator David Hiser, someone I had long admired but never met. David got his start at the Aspen Times and became a noted outdoor photographer for National Geographic among other international publications. He showed some stunning images of his work in Canyonlands over 40 years – many of which he dug out of the archives and scanned just for the presentation. His most striking comment came in the Q&A. When asked what was more important for a photographer: the camera body, glass (lenses), software or just focusing on the photography, he had a quick, succinct response: “None of those, it’s about hard work.” It was not the answer anyone expected. But it became a sub-theme for the remainder of the symposium.

Local Chris Conrad kicked off the next morning with a follow up on his presentation a year ago. Chris has been hard at work since then. Chris is a Pennsylvania native who moved to Moab for his passion of climbing. He said he never took pictures then because he always felt a camera got in the way of his experience. That changed in 2001 when a climbing accident caused him to take it easy for a period of time – including during a trip to Nepal. So he decided to buy a camera and spend his time behind the lens. He’s never looked back.

Chris is doing one-of-a-kind work, according to Hucko. He has combined his love of shooting film at night with digital sequences set into video. His work on Moontracks is simply stunning. A year ago Chris introduced us to night photography. This year he added a new dimension – night skies reflected in ponds and waterholes. Checkout Moontracks to see for yourself.

Salt Lake City photographer Ann Torrence captivated the audience with her passion and images of life on US89, a lifeblood highway stretching through five states from the Mexican to Canadian border, including seven national parks. Ann had a great story to counter Chris’ past feelings that a camera got in the way of the experience. She related her own childhood experience of how a camera signaled that something important was happening. Such was the spirit she is putting into her US89 project.

Ann is traveling border to border photographing life on US89 – people, places, festivals, rodeos and more. It’s a fascinating collection of photography. And she brings a special passion and ability to make people feel at ease in front of her camera. Watch for US89 sometime soon.

One of the highlights of the symposium was the appearance of noted local outdoor photographer Tom Till. Till’s work is known worldwide. But it all started in his adopted hometown of Moab. But that wasn’t Tom’s topic. He didn’t talk about his career behind the view camera. He talked about his newfound experience with digital.

A year ago, a niece talked him into shooting her wedding. “I tried to tell her I didn’t have the equipment or the knowledge to do this, but she wouldn’t accept my answer.” So, he went out and bought a digital camera and software and gave it a shot. He was hooked. Now, as he travels the world, he’s starting to do it a bit more lightly. With a library of over 80,000 4×5 images, shooting digital has been a new experience. Tom showed some of his current work and talked about how digital was the logical next step for him. Is he worried about what the public things? “I just want to have fun and do it the way I want to do it.”

Noted outdoor photographer Jeff Foott kicked off the Saturday program. Foott has over a quarter century experience and showed great insights in his presentation of work from Arches to the Antarctic (you can’t go wrong with penguins). In addition to great images, Jeff had great advice for photographers learning to work with editors. He recommended shooting for diversity to give editors the most opportunity to select one of your images. That includes shooting an establishing overall shot, then some medium shots and finally closeups – but you need all of them!

As a biologist, Foott has a special interest and knowledge on many of his subjects. And he’s passionate on the environment. As many speakers noted throughout the weekend, he encouraged everyone to use their role as photographers to tell the story of the environment and what is happening to it.

Grand Junction photographer Steve Traudt is best known as the PhotoShop workshop guy, selling his techno-geeky photo gizmos. But Steve was challenged this year – no technical workshops or presentations, it was time to show his own work. “I almost turned Bruce down,” he said. And you could tell he presented with a bit of trepidation. But it was one of the best presentations of the weekend.

Steve talked about how he was influenced early on in his photographic career and how that impacts him today. He showed an eclectic collection of fascinating and diverse work, all the products of those who taught him years ago. “Shoot what you feel.” “Follow your own voice.” “No rules.” “And, have fun.”

A year ago we were fascinated by the keynote of Adriel Heisey and how he built a tiny ultralight aircraft to photograph the Four Corners region. This year, Heisey’s presentation focused on his breakthrough book and show 10 years ago on the Sonora Desert – including an honest-to-goodness slide projector show (three projectors, no less). Adriel chronicled the step-by-step methodology he used to turn a dream into a business opportunity. You can easily see from his presentations that he lives his passion and loves to share it with others.

We all wish we, too, could take to the sky and live our dream. That’s what the Moab Photo Symposium is about. Adriel and the other presenters have inspiring stories to motivate the more than 100 participants. When you see their images, hear their stories and share ideas with other photographers, it’s easily to get motivated to be somewhere before dawn. It’s about the passion, and it’s about hard work.

I had the opportunity, too, to run into an old colleague and friend, Rod Hanna. Rod was a Steamboat Springs marketing exec for many years. But his passion was photography. Like me, he was a former newspaper photographer (Kansas City). He served as team photographer for the Denver Broncos for 12 years. And since retiring from Steamboat some years ago, he has turned to his passion of photography, recently self-publishing a fabulous picture book: Seasons of Light: Impressions of Steamboat Springs and the Yampa Valley.

Moab is a special place – a photographer’s paradise. But what you take away from the Moab Photo Symposium is much more. Great stories and great images are all around us. We just need to find them.

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