Dovetail

A farm truck pulled up behind me while I was setting up and the driver wanted to know what I was doing on his property. I’d taken the track for a county road — there was no signage on the way in — and it turned out to be his. I apologised, explained that I’d come out to photograph the peak at sunset and nothing else, and he told me he’d been having trouble with people trespassing but that I could stay where I was as long as I went no further. I thanked him, took the picture, and left.

I’d wanted this view for a while. We lived in Logan for three years and I’d noticed Gunsight Peak repeatedly on drives out past the marshlands toward Tremonton — it sits across from the Wellsvilles, which are the range everyone knows, and it has that notch cut into the summit that gives it its name. A dovetail is a type of rifle sight, which is where the title comes from.

The sky that evening was one of the best I’ve had anywhere. I shot it very wide, nine frames across, and then cropped down to 2:1 afterwards because the middleground of the frame was mostly empty field at the edges. What survives the crop is the range, the stream and the road.

A great horned owl watched the whole thing from a dead tree not far off. I got a frame of him before he left, as well.