Michael Cohen, Author at Teton Photography Club

May 23, 2023August 2, 2023

“More Interesting Stuff”

About 10 years ago, I took a wonderful photography workshop and one of the instructors was the former photo editor of National Geographic. One afternoon I cornered him and asked what the secret was to making great photographs. Without missing a beat as if he’d answered the question like a million times, he said, “get in front of more interesting stuff.”

Last week I was lucky to end up in a place that I have wanted to go for many years. It’s an area of the south of France called the Camargue. It’s just to the southwest of Provence, right on the Mediterranean Sea. And what is there is something that I have wanted to photograph for a very long time: white horses that run wild. While my wife was busy looking at white dresses for our daughter’s upcoming marriage, I was out in the Camargue looking for white horses.

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February 12, 2022February 22, 2022

Winter In Yellowstone National Park

I remember that morning. I came out of the Super 8 in Gardiner, Montana at 5am to make sure the car would start. I was dressed in my Yellowstone gear; lots of layers and my heavy neoprene boots with the super thick soles that keep your feet off the ice. That’s what you need to stay warm when its 25° below zero. As I made my way in the dark my small flashlight caught the eyes of a dozen or so mule deer in the parking lot. I had left the car unlocked, a lesson I’d learned the hard way the year before, and I got in. The car didn’t want to start but after a kind word under my breath, the engine caught.

Welcome to Yellowstone in winter.

Yellowstone National Park was created by Congress in March of 1972, which means March of 2022 is the 150th anniversary of America’s first national park. Yellowstone is an expansive, ever-changing landscape of mountains, meadows, geysers, boiling mud, snow, ice and the most diverse collection of wildlife in one natural place in North America. The hand of man is very discreet and Yellowstone today looks much as it did when Congress named it.

Of course, I was there to make photographs and so getting an early start is important. The sun begins to bring light about 45 minutes before sunrise and sometimes that very early morning light can be the best. Moments can happen quickly so it is important to be on the lookout at all times. For that reason its good to have a couple of other photographers in the car.

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November 27, 2018November 27, 2018

Photographing Desert Dunes

I’ve just returned from the Sultanate of Oman. It is a fascinating Arab country on the Arabian Peninsula that has literally been built in the last 40 years from virtually nothing but sand. Where there were only camel paths, Bedouins and fisherman, there are now highways, homes, hospitals, schools and a modern society.

But untouched are two of Oman’s great desert areas: Wahiba Sands and Rub Al Khali (The Empty Quarter). I spent about 40 hours in each, shooting a total of four sunrises and four sunsets. Continue reading

October 29, 2018October 31, 2018

Photographing the wild horses of North Carolina

What is is about the form of a horse that evokes so much emotion? Is it their gentle nature as they gaze in a pasture? Or maybe the power of their muscles visibly flexing as they gallop? We have all seen horses in competition, at the track, maybe have ridden a time or two, and many of us have had the pleasure of being up close and personal. But the wild ones… With no halter and reins, and their harem and only the open land, wild horses are truly a sight to behold…and to photograph. This past October I spent four days with wild horses on two barrier islands near Beaufort, North Carolina. Each island had two characteristics in common: you could only get there by boat, and there are no people or homes there. The horses are in charge. On Bird Shoal is the Rachel Carson Reserve, over 2000 acres with a group of horses that tends to stay together, about 30 in total. On Shackleford Banks, the horses prefer to stay in harems, groups of one stallion, perhaps one or two mares, and any recent foals as the family unit. There are about 120 horses on the nine-mile long island.