Break on Through - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Being a travel photographer with a special fondness for mountains, whenever I go to the Rocky Mountains, my excitement level reaches high levels. To get to these destinations, you spend a bit of money, endure painful airline security, sit in cramped airplanes and have at least one layover (sometimes two). When you begin your descent, you start to think of all of the great shots you will take, and then it happens, your plane gets below the clouds and you realize that the mountains are socked in completely. Yep, those photos showing the golden light that you dreamed of turn into a white nothingness. You hope that the sun will break through for the rest of your time there, but sometimes it doesn't.

On my last trip to the Tetons, our group was faced with such possibilities. As we drove around the park, we all looked for the change in the weather that would revive our hopes. A tiny little break in the clouds would indicate that a better weather front was coming. As soon as a tiny little peak was there for a few seconds, all you could hear was a lot of cameras firing away, shots that none of us would taken had we had good weather and visibility. But when the sun finally puts on a push to break on through, photos like this one happen quite quickly. To those who weren't there with us, this photo shows the beginning of a change that made the rest of the tour meet our photo expectations.