November, 2008, Outside Boulder, Colorado.

Stopping at the overlook, I grabbed panoramic shots of the Rockies at several focal lengths. Walking back to the car I thought "too bad I can't get up there for a shoot this trip." But perhaps as a backdrop...

The model and I were hunting for the right spot - something with some great rock outcroppings. Coming upon one area, we ventured from the car and were rewarded with rock faces upwards of 60 feet.

We tried a few different locations and angles, but then I noticed this face that I had a great side-on view of. "Hey, look what you could do over here!" I showed the model the pose and how to maintain body balance on the slanted rock face, and it took a couple tries for him to catch on, but he fully did! We had some laughs about the "exposure" of the shot, but when I showed him the capture, I said "Oh, I know exactly how I'm going to present this!"

Cliffhanger gives the viewer the combination of perspectives of the formidable vista of the Colorado Rockies with an element of conquering and overcoming by both strength and beauty of form.