Chris Benabise Photography

Hello and thank you for stopping by and if this is your first time visiting my blog how the hell are you?  I have been shooting for four years now and I have taken so many lessons from learning photography.  I have also learned so much about myself.  The biggest lesson that I have learned is to be humble with the praise that you get from being a photographer.  You see once your images start to take off you have to not let that get to your head because it will break you.  I don’t shoot for the praise that I get from a really good image.  I shoot for the love of being out there.  

You see there is a calm place you can be and nothing that is happening in the world can take you away from that one moment in time.  You are at peace with yourself and the world.  No matter how bad life is when I have my camera in my hand I know that its all going to be ok.  I use photography as my way to relax after driving a school bus all week.  Its my happy place its my love for being at one with nature.  I love a good city scape don’t get me wrong but when I am truly in my safe place I am standing on a bank of a river or the shoreline on the ocean.  I feel that some of my best images were taken standing on the bank of the North Platte here in Casper.  

There are times when a lot of things are going wrong in the world but when I stand on that river bank it all goes away like the water flowing down the river.  I have seen some of the most beautiful skies in the country and the only thing that I can think about is how lucky I am that I get to see this happening right before me.  The clouds streaming across the sky creating so many different animals up in the sky looking down on me.   The best time for me to go shoot is not at sunset or at night its right before the sun comes up over the horizon.  You see that is when the world is starting to wake up.  The birds in the spring really start to sing their happy little songs about twenty minutes before the sun comes to kiss them good morning.  I truly think that the wildlife looks forward to that good morning kiss from the sun.  

Watching the sun break over the horizon is something special to me now that I am a photographer and as a father.  I love seeing the moving light kiss the landscape with its warm rays of joy.  You see at that moment I know that I am alive I have lived to see another day and for those that I have lost I get to see them one more time.  I wish that I could have told my mother just how much it means to me to see a sunrise.  She always loved my images and I hope that she seen the beauty that I did as the sun was kissing the world good morning.  One day I will make her proud of me with my work.  I know that her and Iris are standing on the river bank watching me grab that shot.  They are guiding me to see the world in a better way and I get to pass that on to you the viewer.  

You see being a photographer you can put so much emotion into an image when you are taking it.  I never thought that you could put emotion into something so simple as the sunlight dancing on the mountain tops.  The clouds catching the last of the light changing from pure white to a wonderful purple and pink.  You would not believe me when I tell you that I have seen some bright vibrant colors in the sky and when the sun is either rising or setting there is a rainbow that goes across the sky that we get to see if we take the time to stand in one spot and watch what I call the light show.  

I love seeing how the water will light up like the rainbow that goes across the sky with the reflections of the colors from the sky.  There are two times during the day that you can truly see something amazing like that.  I  truly wish that my words could tell you just how wonderful it is seeing the light show everyday. 

The biggest lesson that I have learned from my wife and being a photographer is to slow down and embarrass that moment in time because you can never ever get it back.  So sit down and watch a sunrise or a sunset just to experience the light show.  Let the rays from the rising sun kiss you good morning and close your eyes and enjoy the sounds of the world coming to life.  Take that moment enjoy it because you never know when its your last.