Durango, Colorado

There are no more useful additives to a mountain story than fresh snow on the ground coupled with a decent but not overwhelming amount of falling snow. Neither comes on demand like room service and our unlucky moments make the lucky ones so much better. Gratitude for the good days is probably a subconscious product of all the underwhelming weather conditions we will face over the next year.

This was the first snowfall on the celebrated Durango & Silverton Railroad in Colorado for over three weeks. When we booked the steam train, the cowboy and the fashion model Kelsey Merritt, we had no idea what weather conditions would prevail that January morning and the results can be consigned to a case study on the random walk of luck.

Kelsey shines in her role; there had to be a palpable sense of sovereignty and a hint of nonchalance. She had never puffed on a cigar before, but she did so as if she grew up with a bunch of wise guys in the south side of Chicago.

I am drawn toward cinematic imagery and this is a story made for the silver screen. My preconception was that a wide composition would allow for a broader story to be told. It really is as simple as that. The focal plane does not exclude the train or the cowboy; it simply celebrates Kelsey.

Women have been underrepresented in Westerns to the point of parody and the series we have just embarked on addresses that imbalance. There were girls on the final frontier and many of them had a casual relationship with the law. That all adds to the rich tapestry of the Wild West. There is something most alluring about women who do not play by the rules.