Several years ago while working on a project for Running times magazine, I was fortunate enough to meet photographer, farmer, and pizza baking guru, Joel Wolpert. Joel is an athlete (a pretty darn good one!) and knows how to frame shots that make sense to athletes. Joel’s keen eye frames the vastness of landscape, the quietness of a still, and the inner human spirit.

Joel in his moment of Zen capturing the shot.

The best thing about working with Joel is that you don’t have to tell him the exact step by step shot you are trying to frame up – all you have to do is tell him the purpose of the shot, and his experience gets to work to make it work for the audience. I trusted him to shoot my book. And since I’ve gotten lot of comments from readers that the clear pictures are an outstanding aspect of my book, I’d say his skill speaks for itself.

Over the past few years, Joel became a great friend, and I’m lucky enough to be on his photo feed. He just set up a website so he can share this with more of you. Joel took my most favorite running landscape photo last year at a race high up in the Himalayas. I’m not sure its possible to capture the sheer size of those peaks, but seeing Everest and her friends peek out high above the clouds sure is enough to dwarf anything I previously thought of as a mountain. And there is lots more on the rest of his site. Folks, this isn’t eye candy; its eye chocolate.