matt harris*

Photographs

The ones worth printing.

Twilight over the Gulf, a fan of pink cloud above a darkening sea
Sunbeams breaking around backlit cumulus in a deep blue sky
A sweep of pink sunset cloud over a palm-lined coastal road
Aurora pillars in a magenta sky, stars showing through, above a dark treeline
Lower Falls pouring into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, turquoise river threading the gorge
A storm tower over the sea at blue hour, beach in the foreground
Storm towers over the open ocean, rain shafts and sunbeams trading places on the horizon
Dawn surf breaking on the beach under a band of yellow horizon light
A column of rain drifting over the Cliffs of Moher, the cliff line dark below
Sunset over a sea of clouds filling the valleys below Mount Le Conte
Cumulus reflected in the thin water of a thermal terrace, Yellowstone
Old Faithful steaming against an orange dusk sky
Twin cascades threading mossy boulders under a yellow autumn canopy
A sliver of light through a slot canyon, orange rock glowing overhead
A dark stone wrapped in a curve of white sea foam, black and white
A small island of pines in a still lake, dissolving into fog, black and white

Collections

Longer looks: one place, one thread, a dozen or so frames each.

Morning inversion, ridgelines breaking through the cloud like islands Le Conte, October 2019 Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee · 12 frames An overnight on Mount Le Conte, timed by luck to a temperature inversion: the valleys filled with cloud and the ridgelines became a shoreline. Everything here was shot in about eighteen hours, sunset to sunrise. A rain-soaked maple leaf on a wet boulder, the creek blurred behind Greenbriar, October 2012 Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee · 14 frames Three days of rain in the Greenbrier section of the Smokies, the kind of weather that empties the trails and saturates every color. Fourteen frames in shooting order: wet stone, moving water, and leaves exactly where they fell. Lincoln Memorial columns at night, lit from within DC in Marble Washington, D.C., 2003–2006 · 15 frames Three years of walking Washington after dark with a tripod. Lincoln, Jefferson, the Korean War ponchos, the Supreme Court, Union Station, and one February snow. Marble does its best work at night. A storm front carving a dark diagonal across deep blue, the original focus on the clouds frame Clouds mostly looking straight up · 15 frames The oldest thread in my photography. I ran a site called focus on the clouds for years, and I never really stopped. Storm towers, crepuscular rays, and the ordinary spectacular weather that happens above parking lots. The first frame here is from 2003; the last is recent. Same sky. Grand Prismatic Spring from the overlook, teal ringed with rust Yellowstone & the Tetons Yellowstone & Grand Teton, June 2026 · 13 frames One week in June, from the geyser basins to the Tetons. Mineral water doing things color isn't supposed to do, steam catching the last light, Old Faithful on a cold morning — then the road south to the mountains, and the whole valley from the air on the way home.