Light Painting Moulton Barns on Mormon Row

Photographing, let alone light painting, the Moulton Barns on Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park is one of the holy grails of landscape photography. The barns set against the backdrop of the Tetons is an icon of the western landscape, almost mythical. Yet when I finally saw it in person I was struck by the simplicity of the scene. Suddenly there I was in front of one of the most photographed scenes in the West, no grand signage, no locked gate, just the barn, some trodden grass, and trees -- and only one of the most inspiring landscapes I've seen, the Tetons. It's not difficult to see why people love the scene. The photo almost makes itself. The challenge is waiting for the right light, finding the fresh perspective, and putting your own creative stamp on it. I was also amazed that the property around it isn't really monitored. This is why I urge leaving it in better shape than you found it. The scene doesn't change much (let's keep it that way) -- just the way it's photographed. Because of the popularity of this spot, it's challenging to come up with fresh perspectives and interpretations. The reason you usually see the barns from the same angle is because there's only one perspective that frames them inside the Tetons mountains, and that's usually the most interesting. However, I had only one day to shoot them, and we had spent sunrise shooting the mountains so we didn't get to the barns until later in the morning. We simply didn't have enough days to wait for the best conditions and shoot every location we wanted at sunrise and sunset. And we tried to use the best conditions to photograph the mountains. But the light was still soft, so I made the best of it. The sky was bland, so I knew I needed an element of interest. There was a stand of trees nearby which you hardly ever see in photos, so I thought it'd be interesting to frame one of the barns with them. I explained my thinking to my fellow photographing family and they decided they liked the idea and took the shot as well. It was a nice "family workshop" moment. We joked about how this is the new perspective that will sweep the photographic community off its feet. Well, I think it's something different. The idea is when skies are bland, you need something else to enhance the image. I think it works. There are almost always other photographers at the barns, every day from spring to fall, so you can imagine how many times they've been photographed. Maybe I'm onto something here. The barns are easy to find on Mormon Row with a park map. Once you get there, it's totally up to you how you want to photograph them. That's the beauty; there are no rules. Enjoy the scene and the experience, and leave the property in better shape than you found it!

Light painting Moulton Barns I returned to the barns in the evening with my father after supper in Jackson Hole. I figured it was my one shot to do a good light painting photograph in the Grand Tetons. Admittedly I borrowed the idea from Dave Black, who had done light paintings there also. So I knew some good starting points and the right equipment, which included a Brinkman Q-Beam spotlight for "painting." I also knew a good exposure setting would be about ISO 400, 1/30 at f/8. I adjusted from there. This was a difficult shot given the distance to run to the barn, paint it with light, and then wait for the camera to process the raw file for preview. Rather than set a long timer delay and guess when the exposure would begin, I had my dad press the shutter button, tell me when the exposure began, and I ran and did the light painting. So we both get credit for the shot and it was a nice father son memory.