A few weeks ago I headed out to Antelope Island with Darwin and his mom for one of my favorite kinds of photo outings: part catching up, part wandering around with a camera, and part trying to be responsible about future projects before they turn into future panic.
This summer is the third year of Unleashed Education challenges, called Empower, which means I need to stop vaguely thinking about what I want to shoot and start actually figuring it out. Antelope Island felt like a good place to do that. It has enough space, enough texture, enough weirdness, and enough good light potential to keep me interested for a long time.
It also had a lot of bison right near the road once we got across the causeway.
So before we even got to the scouting part, we were already doing that special Antelope Island driving routine where you keep one eye on the road, one eye on the wildlife, and one eye on the people who have decided this is the perfect time to stop in the middle of everything for a photo. (For those of you that are counting, yes, you need three eyes to pay attention to everything. Luckily we had four eyes – Darwin was too busy dreaming of sausages to be a trusty lookout!).
Our first stop was Fielding Garr Ranch, where I wanted to look around for possible future photo spots and see what the winter light was doing around the old buildings and ponds. Walking the grounds, we stopped near a pond and Darwin immediately understood the assignment. Or at least he understood that if he looked serious enough for long enough, sausages were likely to appear. He knows me well!
He gave me his full solemn portrait face while I worked on getting him nicely backlit, and honestly, I respect a dog who can look that thoughtful while negotiating payment terms.
Darwin did a fantastic job of sitting in dry winter grass with that warm backlight catching the edges of his coat, looking off like he had somewhere important to be or at least had a strong opinion about the direction of the breeze. This was one of those simple scouting moments that ends up reminding me why I like Antelope Island so much in the first place. The place gives you texture for free. The light does half the work. The dog does the other half, assuming the sausage contract has been honored.
After the ranch, we headed north to Ladyfinger Point, which I already had my eye on because I remembered there being some promising rocks out there. I was hoping for something that felt a little dramatic without requiring a full expedition, and Antelope Island is very good at offering exactly that kind of terrain.
We also, once again, had to dodge bison and people trying to get selfies with the furry cows directly in front of signs telling them not to approach the furry cows. Public lands remain undefeated as a source of observational comedy.
By that point I was pretty convinced Ladyfinger Point had what I was looking for. Good access, interesting rock formations, open views, and plenty of variety for both scouting and actual portrait sessions.
And then Darwin got up on the rock. This was the frame I had in mind when we drove out there. Not this exact image, necessarily, but this feeling. A dog in a place that looks big. Some texture in the foreground. Space in the background. Something that feels like exploration without pretending we hiked across a continent to get there.
With enough encouragement from his mom, a few weird noises from me, and steady sausage-based compensation, Darwin was a total rockstar. He gave me exactly the kind of patient, alert energy that makes a scouting trip feel useful. Also, I am fairly sure he would like the record to show that standing on a rock while being told how handsome you are counts as work.
Before he got completely bored with the arrangement, we headed across the point to the beach on the other side and let the evening wind down with sunset, calm water, and, naturally, more sausages.
Out along the shoreline, the evening started to soften. The lake went pastel, the horizon settled down, and Darwin stood there on leash looking like he had personally arranged the color palette for me. This was exactly the kind of spot I had hoped to find while scouting: accessible, interesting, and just dramatic enough without needing a full backcountry commitment.
That leash part matters, of course. Dogs are required to stay leashed in the park, which is sensible for a place full of wildlife and birds, including California gulls, which are not technically “seagulls” even though everyone says seagulls, and are somehow also the state bird of Utah despite the ‘California’ part of their name. Antelope Island has a way of making every outing just a little educational whether you planned on that or not!
Even with the unusually warm winter, the bugs were still minimal, which felt like a rare and generous gift from Antelope Island.
This trip was mostly a scouting trip, which is why there are only three finished images from it, but honestly that feels right. Sometimes the point is not to come home with a giant gallery. Sometimes the point is to walk around a place with a dog, pay attention to the light, notice what might work later, and remember that location scouting is a lot more fun when your assistant has a beard and works for sausage.
And I feel like I’m making a little progress in my Empower ideas, so it was really the perfect way to spend an afternoon/evening!
Dogumentary Pet Photography
