Often when we are asking "why", we should be asking "how".  Our deductive reasoning nature drives the who, what, when, where, how, why in us all. Science asks "how", whereas religions ask, seek, and configure "why", when a reason neither exists nor is necessary.

Photographing in nature gives us the opportunity to transcend our daily lives with the gift of something far more. When we allow ourselves to be purely in the present and the presence, it becomes so much greater than merely a captured image.

By moving past the bucket list/epic approach to landscapes, we can then realize what the allure, the inner call, really is. By being completely open we are connecting, we are immersing ourselves in that place and in that moment. This is why the most powerful experiences, at least for me, are when I am alone photographing a place that has completely enthralled. The ensuing image is a shadow of that experience, an experience that lives on and can never be taken away. The camera is incidental.

The immersion of photographing that moment transforms into a unifying experience. There is no "why", and "how" fades into the background of now.

The landscape simply is, I simply am, and, for a blissful moment, it is being at one.