Yosemite National Park’s wilderness region was the summer studio for North Texas alums Scot Miller (’77) and Mike Osborne, two of five photographers on a five-year mission to capture the park’s beauty for the public.

Their work has been collected in First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness (Heyday Books), with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Yosemite Fund.

Miller also produced a YouTube video trailer for the book. His previous work focused on Walden Pond, the Maine Woods and the Texas Hill Country, and he and his wife, Marilyn, own Sun to Moon Gallery in Dallas.

Osborne, who served on the North Texas student senate in 1964-65, went on to a 30-year career as a ranger at Yosemite. He says he took up photography “only after becoming enamored with wilderness and discovering the inadequacies of words.”

“I was genuinely shocked to discover I had some talent for expressing what I saw in nature on film,” he says.

Miller, who earned a marketing degree at North Texas, says he took photos during his college days courtesy of his father, Jack (’57, ’59 M.Ed.).

“I was using a 35mm camera he had purchased in Hong Kong while on leave during the Korean War,” he says. “I started photographing at an early age and have never stopped.”

View more of Scot Miller's photos from First Light at the Yosemite Fund's web site.

View more of Mike Osborne's photos from First Light at the Yosemite Fund's web site.