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Pea Island NWR Sand Pattern
I let the real-time conditions determine my shooting schedule and direction in place. This type of responsive strategy forces me to always adapt, to be flexible. It keeps the actual practice of landscape photography less bullish and more like a dance, I think. The...
Snow Jennettes Fishing Pier
There’s snow in the overnight forecast. It’s coming from the south. What? Is this something that actually happens? We wake on the morning of January 22nd with no real plans. We—my mother (also a photographer) and I—just want to see snow on the beach. In all the...
Rainbow Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse
For nearly all of my biggest shots—the photographs that feature the most undeniable moments of light and atmosphere in the natural world—there’s a clusterfuck of poor and questionable decisions by me behind the lens! Mistakes that nearly derail the capture. That...
Jockeys Ridge Sand Pattern
The weather is always the driver of my outdoor photography. My ability (or inability) to adapt to the weather is likely the single greatest barometer regarding success or failure behind my lens. As the first week of January pushed by without many frames, I was...
Photo Journal: Outer Banks Winter 2025
January 2025 Outer Banks North Carolina / Winter / Coast Each winter I travel to the coast of North Carolina in January to photograph the barrier islands of the Outer Banks. A migration of sorts, I guess. This year, the average temperatures were well below normal....
Roan Highlands Sand Myrtle
Landscape photography, for me, is like assembling a puzzle. Only this puzzle--the outcome of which is an understanding of place--can be approached and completed from infinite different angles and strategies. The pieces don't follow any particular order or make any...
Valley Fog Sunrise
I'm a morning person. I'll always favor the early hours of day. The way that I feel physically: loose, energized, strong. The way I feel mentally: fresh, hopeful, optimistic, a sea of possibility. I'm relaxed but I'm also primed. The new day is another...
Cliff Saxifrage
Cliff Saxifrage is an extremely tiny wildflower native to the Southern Appalachian Mountains. It grows in the damndest of places, appearing along the margins of rock outcrops at high elevation. I've always smiled that such a dainty flower chooses to live in such an...
Inverted Cloud Spring Sunrise
Anyone familiar with cloud, or temperature, inversions knows how hypnotic they can be. Warm air traps cooler air, the pressure and temperature difference bringing intangible elements of the landscape to life. A layer of misty fog seems to crawl across the lush,...
Art Loeb Trail Sunset
The Black Balsam area off the Blue Ridge Parkway is one that I'm pretty familiar with, but that I've also never much connected with. Not sure why. The Art Loeb Trail, shown here, traverses the crest of open, grassy balds. The views are gorgeous. The popularity of...
Spring Mountains + Rainstorm
"A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because its trust is not on the branch but on its own wings." --Charlie Wardle Despite failing more than succeeding at the business of photography, I've never questioned the "rightness" of the pursuit....
Indian Paintbrush Green Flowers
While my photography client and I were working a roadside meadow together along the southern Blue Ridge Parkway in Western North Carolina, she called me over to see some beautiful water droplets that were hanging from the stigma of each greenish/yellow flower on an...
Painted Trillium Translucent Leaves
My favorite photo clients are those who can appreciate--and even enthusiastically embrace--the small. I know, I probably shouldn't say that. Sorry, not sorry :-). The Southern Appalachian Mountains are absolutely full of beautiful small botanical treasures, each...
Cloud Inversion Sunrise
I'm always nervous before leading a paid photography adventure. While I have no control over the weather--and the weather will largely shape the experience of outdoor photography--I still want to deliver the type of day that will inspire my clients to keep...
Blue Ridge Parkway Sunrise
I love to witness sunrise from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead of posting up at a popular overlook, however, I've taken to the challenge of finding atypical views between the overlooks. This was between East Fork Overlook and Black Balsam in Western North Carolina....