I stood behind this man as he waited for a taxi along a busy Cuenca street, silhouetting him by exposing for the bright light reflecting off the cobblestone roadway. A taxi approaches, but he must sense that it is already taken. I framed him squarely between two oncoming motorbikes, just as a woman with a child passes him on the sidewalk. The silhouette makes him anonymous, a symbol of anyone facing a frustrating wait.

It is early morning, and a worker at one of the stores that line this shopping arcade in Santa Fe is sweeping the sidewalk in front of a store. I shoot him in silhouette as he leaves the arcade to deposit his sweepings. Using spot metering, I expose on the bright street just behind him, which holds detail in the street, reduces detail within the arcade, puts him into an abstract silhouette that stresses the way he walks and holds his tools, rather than describing his appearance. I leave just enough color in the shadows of the arcade to give him context.

It was not a day for landscape photography, yet there we were, shooting in one of the most spectacular National Parks of them all. I committed early on to shooting abstracted impressions of the park’s features, since the only light was utterly flat due to leaden skies. I watched as visitors scrambled in and out of the huge arches that give the park its identity. If I exposed on such people, they became silhouettes, such as this lone figure, which seems to take one step forward while at the same time falling backwards. He or she gives new meaning to the phrase “treading lightly.” Using a 14mm wideangle focal length, I move in as close as I can on the figure while still including the entire massive sweep of the arch soaring overhead.

I used a long lens to backlight the three figures on the fringes of the skeletal remains of the Peter Iredale, which ran aground on Columbia beach in 1906. By silhouetting the people and the wreck, I also turn the sky dark, stressing only the highlights on the ocean just below the horizon. The deliberate underexposure creates a somber mood, one that encourages reflection on the dangers that lurk here at the mouth of the Columbia River, an area known as the Graveyard of Ships.

The restaurant will not open until later in the day, but while we were in the station, we noticed a small staff meeting going on just beyond the ropes closing it off to the public. The three figures were thrown into silhouettes by the bright lights on the façade of the restaurant, which sits just above the station’s main concourse. I made a number of images of this conference from the opposite end of the station, watching the man on the right dominate the conversation. In this image, he raises one arm to his head, while the other is bent at the elbow and anchored to his waist in an authoritative display of body language. The other men are quiet – they betray no emotional response. An arch curves over the group, creating shadows that echo the dark entrance to the restaurant. A final silhouette adds context: the coat rack on the right displays only empty hangers, telling us that the establishment is not yet open for business.

Their body language tells the story here. The silhouetted tourists, weighed down by duffels and backpacks, are so intent on getting home that they won’t even glance at the rising steam of the Old Faithful geyser finishing an eruption in the background. One tourist holds an iPod in her free hand, and appears to be either talking or singing. Yet for the moment she is standing still. The other tourist has a foot in the air as she brings up the rear. Meanwhile, the glowing lanterns over the main entrance of the hotel balance the abstraction with a touch of reality.