What I Love About Landscape Photography

There is so much to love about landscape photography—the grandeur, the epic light, the massive scale of it all.  It gets me out in nature, to see new places, and to see old places in new ways.  

I'm more introverted, and unlike most other genres of photography, I can choose to shoot with good company or go solo.  Getting up before sunrise or staying out after sunset ensures that you'll have places when they're least crowded.  The slower pace of this craft is meditative and healing because it encourages a different state of mind that allows me to observe the scene intimately and under many different conditions.  Because of changing weather, light, and seasonality, the landscape is different every time I visit, which tests my ability to plan, pre-visualize, anticipate and improvise. 

In the digital age of smartphones and social media, where it can feel like every inch of the planet has been instagrammed and hash-tagged, it is still possible to get ‘lost’ and find unique locations to produce original photographs.

My driving force is not the end image, but rather the inner experience of personal expression.  Exploring new places or finding new ways to see familiar ones is creatively and emotionally fulfilling.  I have found no more natural way to enter the elusive flow state – that feeling of completely losing yourself to the moment and being totally immersed in the current of life.  In this flow, I'm able to tune in to the primal forces of wilderness and adventure, allowing my mind to become calm and clear and allowing worries to melt away.  This art form provides immeasurable joy and balances my life.  I cherish my times in the wild, removed physically and emotionally from the masses of humanity.  And in the height of such experiences, my camera is the best tool I know to express the significance of such meaningful and fleeting encounters.