Photography is full of conventional rules—the rule of thirds, maintaining sharp focus, filling the frame—but some of the best photographs break those conventions to remarkable effect. Likewise, some of Tara’s most memorable images have flaunted the rules of traditional climbing photography. “I often work in places that have been photographed hundreds of times,” she says. “I take risks to make my images original.”

Many climbing shots fill the frame with a single human subject, but Tara often backs way up, rendering her climbers minute in comparison to the crag or the landscape the crag resides in. “Shooting from distance can convey a greater sense of place,” says Tara. Even more particular is the rule that you shouldn’t shoot climbers from the ground. “Unless you get up on a rope yourself, people think you aren’t being serious,” she says. “But shooting climbers from the ground can lead to some fresh images if they are well framed.”