One of my favorite photographs made by Ansel Adams is his print of Tetons and Snake River which he made in 1942.

Compositionally it is a very strong image including the Grand Teton on the top right third, a C-Curve, leading lines and a nice foreground. But the most important aspect of this image is the sky or the background. When I taught photography workshops we stressed planning the image before pressing the shutter release. This meant placing elements of the image in the foreground, middle section and background. Having a great sky will almost always take care of the background.

I have been by this location many times but never with a sky like this. Including the sky was how I envisioned this image before I took out my camera. Setting up the tripod I knew it would be a vertical but I did not want to use a lens wider then necessary minimizing the grandeur of the Tetons.

I incorporated an orange and a polarizer to add contrast to the sky.

The Exposure was F32 ½ @ 1 sec. on Tri-X - 5 x 7 sheet film.