LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by. In this blog we are going to get a little personal on so many levels. I am going to take the time and explain how Landscape Photography changed my outlook on life. The reasons why I chose to shoot this genre more than others. The last thing that I am going to talk about is why you would want to start shooting this genre.

To start this off right I have to let you know a little something about me. I am not the type of person that opens up that much at all with others. This blog has helped me with that but I still tend to keep things to myself. Getting out to learn landscape photography was an outlet for me to share the work that I have been working on. The stories that come with the images is where I try to express myself in a way to connect with the viewer and the landscape at the same time. Looking at a landscape and connecting with it is a way of seeing myself in the view.

The one area that I have grown as a person is by shooting as much as I can. I love being around people but sometimes we need to disconnect from the busy lives that we have and just be one with ourselves. Shooting out in a landscape tends to put you in a place that is disconnected from people. Remember I said that I have a hard time with opening up right. Well being out by myself is a way of me expressing my art through the camera and connecting with like minded people.

I always loved being out in the landscapes albeit in a jeep four wheeling but still enjoying the outdoor life. I enjoyed seeing the different areas that I would travel to and just be in awe at the beauty that the world has to offer. I enjoyed seeing the trees sway in the wind (not really because the dust that flys is so annoying lol). I have always been a person that likes to wake up around 3am to watch the sunrise as well. All these things gave the universe the hint that I wanted to be a landscape photographer. The issue was that for so many years I was not listening to the universe at all when it came to this. I wanted to express myself all the time in those years but I was surrounded by people that were not the expressive type.

When I was working as a young man in the trades we never spoke about the beauty of the area we were in. We talked about hunting and talked about our trucks and how they did when out hunting. The topic of how beautiful the landscape was became a brief overview of the stories that were told. I managed to tell some people about it but the topics went back to the trucks and what they could do. It wasn’t until I was faced with a life or death situation that I decided to go with trying my hand at photography. The person that was my biggest supporter at the time was the one having the issues. She explained to me that I should pursue photography and when we almost lost her I decided to pick up a camera and start shooting.

I never thought that landscape photography was going to be my jam but hey look at me now. I picked up the camera that day I made the choice and started just shooting anything and everything to the best that I knew how. Looking back at some of those images I noticed one thing. I was using techniques that I was never taught before and the images looked pretty good. To this day I am still using some of those techniques but a little more refined.

The main take on why landscape photography for me was when I would shoot a sunrise or a sunset I was at home in my head. I felt connected to the landscape I felt as if my camera was an extension of my eye. I was seeing the world in a different way. I was cherry picking the locations for the very best way to shoot it. I would go back to the same locations all the time and find a different way to shoot that location. I noticed that I was happier due to just being out there with no one holding my hand showing me what to shoot. I was at peace with my life. I have never truly been at peace with myself ever since my daughter passed away but standing on the bank of a river I was there I found my peace.

Then life happens and I had to take a break from shooting all the time and I found myself missing something again. That peace was gone it was torn away from me. I was not happy out there shooting anymore. I was going through the motions capturing the same old same old type of images. So it was time to try and shoot something else. I ended up shooting portraits for a while and then sports for awhile. The whole time I was yearning to get back to a river bank, seeing a lone tree, or just standing on the hilltop at sunrise. I missed hearing the birds starting to sing songs as the sun was kissing the trees. I missed seeing the light from the sun dance on the distant mountain tops. I missed seeing how the light was run across the landscape and wake up all the little animals.

I was not finding that in all the other genres of photography. What was I going to do about it. Well as it turns out when you get back to the basics in anything you end up seeing and moving in a different direction. I bought a basic entry level camera and a old school lens and started heading out the door at 4am again to shoot that magical sunrise. I would stay out after sunset to shoot that Milky Way dancing in the night skies. I would chase the storms trying so desperately to catch a bolt of lightning hitting a mountain top in the distance. It was time for me to get back to my roots in photography and become that photog that was in love with the world again.

I am a landscape photographer at heart and through my soul rings the truth of seeing the beauty for what it is a great creation that needs to be shared with everyone. I am a landscape photographer that yearns for the outdoors. I am a landscape photographer that wakes up before the sunrise to take a two mile hike in the dark just to watch the sunrise on top of a hill in the middle of winter. I am a landscape photographer that will capture the light kissing the tree tops at the end of the day. I am a landscape photographer that will stand in the middle of a rain storm to capture the mood of the storm.

The only way that I can truly say that becoming a landscape photographer changed me is I finally get to be me. I am able to let go of the stigma of trying to be a mans man and not talk about the beauty that surrounds me. I am able to really just let you all into my head and see the images that I see when out on a hike. I want you to feel the feelings that I have when taking the photo. I want you to experience the heartache that I have when the act of getting up at 4am is too much but you know in your heart a beautiful scene awaits you. I want you to read my words on how the story unfolded for me and the heart felt moments that I go through trying to make images for you all to see. The biggest change is that I found myself that young man that was given a Fuji film disposable camera one day and tried to just take any and all the photo. I could with it. I want you be on the journeys with me when I see that breath taking shot. I hope you all enjoyed this and we will see you next time. Enjoy y’all from St Johns AZ.