I recently picked up a Leica Q2 and took it with me into the desert. Check out this walk I did around the the historic ghost town of Keeler, CA.

Everything looked right. I had checked the weather - clear skies and cold. I had checked my Golden Hour app, and it was forecasting a 9/10 for the lighting. I was prepared. The alarm went off at 3am, and I rolled out of bed in the little cabin we were staying in just outside of Jackson, Wyoming.

Announcing the 2023 Alberta Photography Workshop! Very limited spots. Get the information and reserve your place now!

Fall and winter are my favorite times to head into the National Parks. This is mostly because as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become much more introverted and I don’t want to see anyone. When you start getting into fall and then winter, the parks start to empty out a bit.

Amanda & I have a long history of traveling together. In the years before having children, we did roadtrips constantly. We saw many National Parks for the first time together during these years - from the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone and many others.

Happy Halloween! I thought today I’d keep it simple and share three photoshoots that are on-theme for Halloween. As an adventure and travel photographer, not much out there in nature scares me. Well, at least landscapes.

I recently posted about how I shoot in harsh light. Think of this blog as a part-two to that post. I’m going to show you how I go about editing photos that are taken in that intense mid-day sun.

Photographers have a special relationship with natural lighting. At times it’s gentle and soft, and other times it’s screaming with intensity. I was just in Wyoming for a few projects, and I had many shoots take place in harsh lighting. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have known how to make the most of this and would have tried to squeeze everything into the small window of golden hour every morning and evening.

Straight up, I have a bag problem. Sometimes I hop on Youtube and find other guys with way worse bag problems than me. But still, I have cycled through many bags in an attempt to hike, carry gear, and not be overburdened by adventuring.

Last fall, I was packing my bag for a week in the Canadian Rockies. This is one of my favorite places on earth. It was just me going. My friends who were suppose to travel with me had something major come up and had to back out at the last minute, so rather than cancelling everything, I went ahead as planned.

The Goonies is one of my all time favorite movies. It made me (a country kid from North Carolina) fall in love with the Pacific Northwest at a young age. I used to think the coastline from the movie was straight up magical.

The year is 2005. I’m on a road-trip with two other guys from Virginia to Alabama. We’re driving down there in 10hrs, staying two days, and then driving back.

Traveling can be incredibly exciting and life giving. You get to see new things, expand your experiences, and if done well, rest and recharge. That said, travel can be pretty stressful as well.

Golden hour. It’s the photographers dream. And as much as we all love shooting during golden hour, I’m going to make a case that between the two golden hours everyday, sunrise is the absolute winner.

I’m an avid planner, but I wasn’t prepared for Iceland. This didn’t mean I didn’t spend hours pouring over maps, locations guides, researching secret spots, and crafting an intense daily itinerary. I most certainly did. Yet none of that mattered when we actually got moving, because I overestimated the population density, and underestimated the daylight hours.

I love meeting new creatives, and I recently got to hang with an incredible photographer from Sacramento named David Thuman. Check out his work here. My friend Jacob and I headed to Monterey to meet up with David, and the three of us went down into Big Sur.

As I’ve become more and more seasoned as a photographer, I’ve realized how fickle a moment is. Everything about a moment is pretty much a singular event.

I don’t want to be the guy who complains about National Parks. I don’t.

Don’t ruin the National Park experience for others. Here are five things to NOT do when you’re in the parks, or anywhere for that matter.

Thinking about heading to Zion National Park this year? Let me share with you what it’s been like compared to other years, and recommend an alternative.