Every spring, there’s a brief window when the trees have budded but haven’t fully unfurled yet. It was the trees’ singular shade of green that drew photographer Vicki France back to a lush valley of the Driftless Area in Iowa County, not far from where she grew up. That’s the setting for this photo, The Big Picture from our April 2026 issue. France told us about capturing this beautiful moment in a Wisconsin spring, and what’s so special about this place.
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What is your favorite thing about this photo? What “makes” it?
What I love most about this photo is how it captures a fleeting moment in spring – that brief window when the leaves are just starting to emerge from their buds, still small and delicate and a green that only appears in early spring. The timing has to be perfect: too much foliage and the winding road disappears from view, but catch it early enough and you can capture both the road and the woods. The light matters just as much – it needs to angle through the trees at precisely the right time of day to illuminate those tiny new leaves and that brilliant green.
When and how did you shoot this photograph?
No special tricks here – just a zoom lens to compress the perspective and pull the scene together. I’ve photographed this road in different seasons, but spring is the best. This shot is from the southwest Driftless Region, captured on Big Springs Road as it descends into a pastoral valley in Iowa County, Wisconsin. I took it about halfway down the hill, and if you continue going to the bottom of the valley, you’ll find even more visual rewards worthy of stopping and exploring.
It’s an ideal spot to bring your bike and ride the entire valley. Or a fishing pole if you enjoy trout. I have known this area and road since a child and always loved it and continue to return to when I am in the area.
What do you remember about that day – was there anything special about it? Do you often shoot in this area? Is it a special place to you?
It was a cool and sunny. I love shooting south of Highway 18 in Iowa County down into the Wisconsin River Valley. There’s lots of beauty in the land, from barns to huge rock formations left where the glaciers melted. I may be slightly prejudiced to its beauty because it’s where my roots are and where I spent the first 20 years of my life… I know every road in the county and it’s still just as bucolic 45 years later, but the barns are collapsing and it won’t be long before they are gone.
Tell us a little about yourself as a professional photographer.
I’ve been behind the camera and in a dark room since I was 13 years old but turned digital about 20 years ago. Now at 65, retirement from photography isn’t even on my radar. I went professional around 2012, and it’s been incredibly fun. After leaving my desk job at 55, I’ve been spending time traveling and shooting lots of photos. My studio is based out of my home in Mount Horeb – a wonderfully creative town filled with artists of all kinds.
Is there anything else you’d want people to know about your photography or this photo?
My guiding principles: Practice makes perfect. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Wisdom comes from making many mistakes. My secret sauce for landscape photography is driving slow and discovering new roads and not chasing locations that others have already photographed. Have fun discovering! Take the road less traveled and find what draws you to the land and photograph that connection.
If you set off to visit this scene bring a camera, tripod, and picnic. Stop at the Big Spring parking lot and bring some vessels to fill with fresh spring water from the earth.
