There is this view along the Yellowstone River that I have taken a picture at hundreds of times a year. I stand on a mostly flat rock a few steps up on the levee, next to Sacajawea Park in the small town of Livingston, Montana and snap away. Looking up a side channel of the Yellowstone River, a few shrubs have grown out of the ever-shifting gravel, holding on tight through the spring floods and somehow surviving the frigid temperates and ice dams of winter. In the distance, the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness beckons modern day explorers, its rocky mountain tops scraping the sky.

It is easy to look at a picture and assume we know the story of the scene. Our brains quickly and happily create a narrative, but few know what really happened when the shutter clicked and the image was captured. In this weekly series, I’ll be going behind the scenes of one of my pictures, giving a quick insight into things. I’ll be describing the how, when, what, why and where of the picture and hopefully, it is appreciated.