Golden Light

Tom photographed the Teton Range from the valley floor in April 2022, just as a late-season storm began to clear. The setting sun broke through a gap in the clouds, throwing rays of gold across the sky — while the Grand Teton and its neighbors, granite nearly 2.5 billion years old, held steady in blue shadow below. Spring weather in the Tetons can shift from sun to storm within hours; this was the reverse, a brief clearing that let warm light punch through before the clouds closed again. The kind of moment that lasts a few minutes and doesn't come back.