Trav Shoots Photos

09/01/2023

Oh man... Where do I even begin with this trip? 😅

Last month I had the absolute joy of volunteering as the photographer on a whitewater kayaking trip to Salida, CO. I spent the week capturing the stoke, community, and growth of a group of people who have been through so much in their young lives. We participated in wilderness therapy exercises and pushed our limits on the water in our kayaks. The personal growth I saw in each and every participant is the most inspiring lesson I have taken from the trip.

This experience is the type that can reframe your life; there is a you before the trip and a you after the trip. I don't share in the struggles the participants have had to overcome but I still needed this experience more than I realized. Approaching personal growth through the lens of the outdoors was such a powerful experience and one that cut me to my core. Huge shoutout and a big thank you to the wonderful FD staff who led this trip for us.

What I thought was going to be my main highlight of this trip: getting to spend a whole week with my camera capturing the experience. It became so much more in sharing just one part of my love for the outdoors with people I became lifelong friends with and experiencing the healing power of nature with everyone.

I really can't express enough gratitude for the people who made this experience possible: chefs .dredz , fellow volunteers .the.king and , and lead staff and .forced.mindfulness

And to all the participants: I love you all! Thank you for making this such a fun and memorable experience ❤️

08/31/2023

The beautiful waterfalls of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado 😍

I often have a hard time editing images like this that are shot with an ND filter to slow the shutter speed and get that milky water texture. Add in that I stacked a polarizing filter on top of that to cut out the reflections on the water so those river rocks really show through and now the colors were far from accurate as I pulled it in to Lightroom.

I really like how it turned out in the end. And yes, the water really is that blue!

08/30/2023

Hey there! It's been a while so I wanted to check in and share just a tiny little bit about what I have been up to and what I will be getting up to.

I haven't really checked in since the end of my Moab trip back at the end of April! Since then I have been travelling off and on, learning a ton about things that interest me, reading, and sort of putting my photography under a microscope and figuring what my creative practice could look like. I have been preparing with Anna to get married at the end of September and having my bachelor party. I also took a week-long trip to Colorado to photograph a First Descents whitewater kayaking trip (more on that to come).

Through all of this I have continued shooting photos, I just haven't been sharing them. I have a pretty large backlog to get through and I am excited to share them with you all. I am also excited to come back to Instagram with a fresh perspective. I want to share more of myself and my experiences in my life, out in the wild and at home with everyone. I've been reading some good books and I want to experiment with some new types of content here too.

So happy to be back and focusing on my photography again. And I am so glad you are here too 😊

05/18/2023

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to the Moab area and checked this spot off my Utah bucket list. I tried to get here 3 times (don't try in the winter, duh) and finally succeeded!

SO worth it, so worth waking up at 5am, beating the sun, and running around on these rocks trying to take a photo of myself 😅

04/23/2023

Sunday evening hikes with friends, I think I want this to be a theme of this summer.

Hiking with friends chatting about photography, upcoming plans for getting out into nature, and all of our fun new toys. I always leave these experiences, however small, feeling more motivated to achieve more in my photography.

It had me thinking about the value of community in any craft one pursues, so I wrote a short blog post about it on my website. If this has sparked your interest at all, go give it a read and let me know what you think!

04/23/2023

Just some thoughts on the benefits of finding a community for your craft. Image gallery from this shoot to come later today 😊

Don’t underestimate the power of community, even if your community is just one other person right now. Get together, talk about what you’re doing, what you’re interested in doing, make plans, and dream big. Speaking your dreams out loud is the first step towards achieving them.

04/21/2023

I am 110 days into my daily meditation practice and have been thinking about my relationship with technology lately. I resurfaced a few thoughts I wrote down a while back about this.

First blog post in a long time, give it a read if you are interested in doing nothing :P

A surprisingly prescient take on my relationship to my thoughts from a past me who only had a fledgling mindfulness practice under his belt. The non-judgmental observation was incredibly powerful in getting back on the right track with my thoughts and feelings.

05/01/2022

Desert days are rapidly coming to an end as it gets hotter down there. Also, as the weather in the mountains gets warmer ☺️

03/16/2022

Cutie in a canyon 🥰

One of the shots from a slot canyon hike we got in last weekend. Also, new favorite thing. Part hike, part jungle gym, slot canyons are so fun! Def looking for more of these, especially as the temps heat up ☀️

03/10/2022

No matter which way you look at it, Goblin Valley is truly unique.

Going into our trip to Goblin Valley, I didn't really know what to expect, but I had this one idea for a photo. I wanted to get my drone up high in the sky and capture the elongating shadows cast by the hoodoos

I was stoked with how this one turned out in camera, and I am still stoked on it! What do you think of this unique view of the valley?