"The Great Wide Open" by Wes Aldridge
As I took this shot, I heard wolves begin to howl from the nearby shadows. I stepped back and took a look at my life, and realized that I have it pretty good. There I was, in the middle of nowhere, engulfed by the wilderness, and loving every second of it. This was my job, the thing that makes my living for me. It doesn't get any better than this.
The day had been long and I had been shooting for around 13 hours. My first shoot was at 9 a.m. with some kids at an equestrian farm in Vancouver, WA. Then I drove a couple of hours up to Mt. St. Helens National Park. The weather once again was terrible and I was literally driving through storm clouds as the elevation kept rising en route to the volcano. After that, I was off to the Pacific Ocean to shoot a lighthouse at sunset on the Long Beach Penninsula. After that, it was time to drive two hours back to Cowlitz Co.
I saw this shot at dusk while I was driving to the hotel in Kelso, WA, from the coastline on Highway 101. I had the top down on my convertible Sebring so I could have a panoramic vision of the beauty around me. There were no street lights, but the full moon was shining brightly enough through the fog that I wouldn't even need headlights to see the road ahead of me. I slammed on the brakes and a deer ran across the road little more than 100 feet in front of the car. I popped in my Telefon Tel Aviv cd and it just mellowed the ride out a little more. Everything was in its right place and I was more than content with everything. I love what I do.
