So there I was, sipping warm beer at a noon luncheon and getting ready to tell some formally-dressed Rotarians what Wyoming was like. To those folks, it was a long, long way from Cardiff, Wales but they felt intimately familiar with the Cowboy State.

         It soon became obvious it was because of cowboy movies and the Yogi Bear cartoons.

         This was in 1986 and most of my audience had no idea where Wyoming was. But when I mentioned Yellowstone Park, the place exploded in laughter with members shouting out “Jellystone” and “Yogi.”

         Could this be why Yellowstone is one of the most popular international tourist destinations in America?

         These 26-year old memories are rekindled right now by the Summer Olympics in London and last week‘s British Open golf tournament at Blackpool.

         These Olympic games will cap off quite a year for the Brits. Earlier they celebrated the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. Much of that celebration was held during incredible rainstorms. Hope similar storms do not blot out the games. But I digress . . .

         We were in Wales where I was earning a Masters Degree and serving as a guest lecturer at the Centre for Journalism Studies, one of the more unique mid-career masters programs in the British Empire. My classmates were from all over the world – China, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Korea and even a few Americans.

         That year involved my first trips to Great Britain and among all the surprises, the one that seemed the biggest was how the Brits got their news.

         Back here in the USA, we journalists sincerely (and perhaps naively) practiced a type of “neutral” journalism where we tried to keep opinion on the editorial pages and clearly identified partisanship in any news story that displayed such favoritism.

         Great newspapers such as The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and the newcomer-USA Today were all self-proclaimed bastions of neutrality.

         In Britain, it was not that way.

         Because of the small size of their country and their incredible rail service, everyone in Britain could receive his or her favorite newspaper each morning.

         If you were rich, you read a Tory conservative daily. If you were a union member, you read a Labor daily. If you were a greenie, you could read a newspaper tilting totally that way. If you liked photos of scantily clad pretty young women, you could find those, too. A whole class of young celebrities developed in the UK called “Page 3 Girls.” But I digress.

         This all seemed so foreign to me.

         But it is all too familiar to me now.

         The concept of being able to have your own private media was not a prevailing concept in the USA back then. But it is today.

         One of the men who made billions with that fractured newspaper style back a quarter century ago in Europe was the man who pioneered your individual cable TV stations here in the USA today. That man is media baron Rupert Murdoch, the founder of Fox News.

         Probably the favorite cable news show out here in conservative Wyoming is Fox and it delivers its consistent message 24 hours a day.

If you want liberal news, people across the country tune in to the MSNBC cable channel.

         CNN tries hard to maintain neutrality but it has been getting clobbered in the ratings.

         Today, often because of time scarcity and information overload plus the Internet, folks just do not have time to be selective when they seek news. Very few people take the time to sample all the different flavors available on cable.

         Personally, I like Fox News. It fits my aging conservative tendencies but it does leave me feeling funny about that lack of good old-fashioned neutrality.

         Then again, maybe the concept of neutrality disappeared some time ago when major media outfits in the USA decided it was more important to be “fair” than it was to be “neutral.” After all, the argument goes, who can be neutral? We are just human beings. That change occurred 20 years ago and probably made a lot of sense.

         So that is what media is supposed to be here in 2012 – fair. 

         And what is the motto of Fox News: “Fair and Balanced.”

         Hmmm, helluva motto.  

I think I first witnessed this kind of media back in Great Britain in 1986.

         Who is the dean of Wyoming photographers? It is William Henry Jackson, the pioneer who hauled his darkroom on horses, and shot images of the Yellowstone and Teton regions on 18x22 glass negatives in the 1870s.

         After Jackson, who would make such a list?

         Normally, when asked who is the best Wyoming photographer, names like Randy Wagner of Cheyenne or Tom Mangelson of Jackson come to mind. 

         The real list of great photographers, though, is a long one.

         Have you heard of Scott Copeland, Jared Kail, Michelle Motherway or Sara Wiles of Lander? Daryl Hunter, Mark Gocke and Ed Riddell of Jackson or Dewey Vanderhoff of Cody? Tim Doolin of Sheridan or Dan Hayward and Brett Deacon of Laramie or Ken Stoecklin and Steve Schlager of Casper? Dick Randall, John Partain, Paul Ng and RJ Pieper of Rock Springs or Jeff Vanuga of Dubois? Aaron Huey of Worland or UW grad Joe Riis? Woody Wooden of Powell, Ron Mamot of Riverton or Fred Pflughoft of Pinedale or Rick Carpenter and Jonathan Green of Cheyenne?

         These are some of the best photographers in Wyoming.

         My latest project is a book that was originally going to be a showcase of my personal photos plus my friends Randy and Scott. Alas, 30 other good photographers literally came out of the woodwork.

         After my half-century of experience, three things define outstanding photographers:

1.    Good skills.

2.    Good equipment.

3.    Being able to capture the moment.

Normally, you need all three to create photographic art.

         Going into this project it did not seem possible that Wyoming, with such a small population, could have so many good photographers.

         This list doesn’t even mention first-rate newspaper photographers like Mike Smith in Cheyenne or Lara Love of Thermopolis. There are lots of other great newspaper photographers but few have submitted photos for this project.

         A Casper native, Dean Conger, was chief photographer for National Geographic for years. Conger, 84, is retired and lives in Durango, CO. He sent me a fantastic image to use in the book.

         A young man from Cody, Bobby Model, also has pictures featured. He was an up-and-coming photographer for National Geographic when he died from injuries sustained in a freak accident in Africa a few years ago.

         UW grad Joe Riis is also doing work for NatGeo. His photos of the Wyoming Pronghorn migration over a 15-month period are spectacular.

         Worland native Aaron Huey dominates the July edition of National Geographic. A terrific artist and inspiring human being, too.

         Well-respected photographer was the late Mike McClure of Lander who died a few years ago. We are using his photo of the Oregon Buttes.

         Odd, when I review the list of photographers in this column, there are virtually no women? I know there are some good ones out there, but so far they have not appeared in connection with this project.

         The book is based on a 2007 column called “Wyoming’s 7 Greatest Natural Wonders + 33 Other Fascinating Places.”

The book consists mainly of incredible photos but it also includes seven written chapters about the “wonders.”

Writers include my daughter Shelli Johnson, who founded the Yellowstone Journal. Former Grand Teton Lodge CEO Clay James is handling the Tetons and former Thermopolis publisher Pat Schmidt is covering the Hot Springs in his hometown. U. S. Sen. Mike Enzi is writing about the North Platte River System; former Wyoming Tourism Director Randy Wagner is writing about South Pass; and veteran outdoorsman Jim Smail is writing about the Red Desert. Gene Bryan is writing about Devil’s Tower.

Their writing is as illuminating as the amazing photos.

         Besides the seven wonders, have we ever found some incredible places! And we will be offering photographic proof in this 156-page book. Hidden “vision circles” in the desert with “and a mysterious gigantic rock arch hidden high in the Shoshone National Forest; brilliant waterfalls, grand canyon-like formations, and photos of amazing wildlife. 

         We are in the last stages of editing. Our absolute deadline is July 31 in order to get the book finished so it can be printed and returned to Wyoming for Thanksgiving sales.

         Since I mentioned Jackson in the beginning of this, I would be remiss not to mention some other great historical Wyoming photographers such as J. E. Stimson of Cheyenne and Charles Belden of Meeteetse. Plus Jack Richard, a pioneer in Cody, as was Tom Carrigen in Casper. Here in Lander, Ted Carlson, Tony Henry and Bob Hede took many great photos over the years.

         Wyoming is such a big place.

         You just cannot comprehend how big until you wander the desert, look around you from the top of a mountain or even try to ride a bicycle across it.

         It was interesting to learn that the huge Arapahoe Fire covers 150 square miles. Can you imagine how big a space that is?

         Here in Lander, that would be a square that if you went 10 miles to Hudson one direction and 15 miles to Fort Washakie the other – everything inside that square would be on fire. Amazing.

         You might want to check out the Internet web siteYahoo.com for an interesting photo taken of the Wyoming fires by an astronaut on the International Space Station. You can find it at Yahoo News under photos.

         The photo was taken from 240 miles up in space and it sure shows why we have been getting some amazing sunsets lately. And that piece sure shows how big our state is.

         A piece in the New York Times also called attention to our wide-open spaces and why we are the way we are.

         Liberal columnist Gail Collins in an op-ed piece claims that population density makes a huge difference in red state and blue state folk.

         Her conclusion, which intuitively seems to make sense, could be generally summarized as: folks who live in wide-open spaces are more self-reliant and do not want government intruding in to their lives, hence they are conservative and vote red state.

         On the contrary, people who live in densely-packed cities feel the need to have government involved in everything they do, as a way to protect them from the unrelenting pressure all around, hence they are liberal and vote blue state.

         Make sense to me.

         She concludes: “The Tea Party is so Empty Places. Do you remember that Tea Party rally in Washington last year over the budget crisis? (That would be the spring budget crisis as opposed to the many other seasonal versions.) “Nobody wants the government to shut down,” began Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, diplomatically. “Yes we do!” cried voices from the crowd.

“The Empty Theory made a lot of sense when the country was full of isolated farms, but it lost its mojo when the farmland filled up with suburbs and we elected a long series of presidents who were, to one degree or another, Modified Crowded. But now Empty is making a comeback, less an expression of physical reality than a state of mind. People living on Social Security and Medicare in a 400-unit condo development built with federal subsidies can march to their congressman’s town-hall meeting and demand that he get government out of their hair.”

         Bobby Model - The International Climber’s Festival in Lander this past week honored the late Bobby Model, one of the best photographers the state has ever produced.

         Bobby, of Cody, died from complications of a mishap in Africa some years ago.

         He was famous for his photos in National Geographic of mountain climbers. Most famous was the unbelievable climb of the Trango Tower in the Himalayas with the late Todd Skinner of Lander and team.

         We are using two of Bobby’s photos in our new book. He was a wonderful artist and his sister Faith Model is keeping track of both his photo treasury and his legacy.

         He loved Africa as much as his mountains. He was almost killed when a cement block freakishly crashed through the windshield of the car Bobby was riding in. It did terrible injuries to Bobby’s skull and brain. He died a few years later at home in Cody from the result of those injuries.

         But photography is an amazing thing. A person’s good works can live on long after they are gone. Check out Bobby Model’s web site at: www.m-11.com.

         Hecox, Simpson – Humor writer Doug Hecox and Milward Simpson both commented in statewide columns about my upcoming book “Wyoming’s 7 Greatest Natural Wonders + 33 Other Fascinating Places.”

         Hecox took a humorous jab at me for inviting all those people into the state that we have been trying to escape from. He is a very funny guy and I think you can access that column on the Internet.

         Simpson, who is the head of the Wyoming Division of Cultural Resources et al, wanted me to also include lots of state parks and historical sites. Hard to argue with that, however, we are mainly featuring “natural” places. Good point, though, and thanks for the mention.

         • Up near Buffalo, Jim Hicks reports: “We had one hell of a fire near us. Started about four miles away and ran to the north and east behind a 40 to 50 mile per hour wind with temperatures near 100.

         “It burned 30,000 acres, took out a lot of fences, burned a few small buildings on one ranch house, barns and corrals. 

         “I know most of those people in that area.  Some now have no forage for their cattle and no place to go with them. I`m helping haul cattle.  Really feel sorry for some of these people. They either have to sell or truck them many miles to find grass and hay prices are high.  Looking at $200 a ton hay now.”

         Pretty sober message.

         • A similar report came from former gubernatorial candidate Ray Hunkins about his Thunderhead ranch west of Wheatland.

         “Just got back from a survey of our ranch. We are surrounded on three sides by this monster fire. Praying the wind stays out of the south.

 “It is the driest I have seen it in the 33 years I have owned the ranch,” he says. “In 44 years of living in southeast Wyoming, never seen it this dry. It`s the driest in my 73 years in the West.”

         “The creeks and springs are drying up. There is no grass and lots of dead and drought- stressed timber. We are all waiting for a spark to set this whole mountain range - from Cheyenne to Casper - ablaze. There have already been two project fires, one just north of us and another west of Glenrock that is burning as I write this. There will be more to come. Our son works for the U.S. Forest Service (Black Hills National Forrest) in the summer on their fire crew. He has been sent to the High Park fire west of Fort Collins.

“The cattle trucks are streaming out of eastern Wyoming filled with cattle. Thank goodness the prices have held pretty good but the extreme drought has disrupted a lot of operations.

“Had an old Indian firefighter friend of mine tell me that it is going to start raining in this country on July 9. Bring on that hope and change!”

         • Here in Lander for the first time in history, all fireworks were banned over July 4. 

         Lander is famous as looking and sounding like the nighttime bombing of Baghdad on the 4^th. While many other cities and towns have banished fireworks over the years, Lander leaders encouraged them. Some neighborhoods saw people spending $5,000 to $10,000 for their own shows. Not this year.

         • Randy Wagner says, “it is dry as dust in Cheyenne” and “we are choking on the smoke from those Colorado fires.”

         • Rock Springs Chamber Director Dave Hanks (who lives in Farson) says: “On our side of the mountain we haven’t seen a measurable amount of rain since April. Our beloved desert is extremely dry. No new growth of grasses or sage.

“This year is starting to shape up like 1988 and the Yellowstone fires. Ranchers are already hauling water to stock ponds due to no runoff. It looks to be a good year for hay prices if you can spare the feed. With all the dead timber in the West we could be in for one hell of a fire season.”

         • Also near Buffalo, retired legislator Doug Osborn says: “We live on the Middle Fork of Crazy Woman Creek. It usually floods in May or June but no flood this year. It has run fairly high and is now more back to summer normal. After the beautiful year of 2011, this feels more like the old drought days.”

         • Retired Thermopolis publisher Pat Schmidt tells: “It was obvious during a recent morning that the temperature was going to hit 100 degrees. Donna and Norval Eberspacher and I decided to beat the heat by retreating to the high country.

       “The temperature hit 90 degrees as we headed west up the Owl Creek valley shortly before noon, our destination the point where the east-west Owl Creek Mountains reach the north-south Absaroka Mountains. The heat didn’t start to dip until we started the final climb above the corrals around 40 miles from town.”