From Planning to Plain Luck: Adventures from Behind the Lens

I am not sure when I “became” a photographer, but I think I have my parents to thank for it.  Just a month before I went to Hawai’i with my gymnastics team, they gave me my very first Kodak 110 Instamatic camera for my 10^th birthday.  Somewhere along the line, I went from a very casual photographer to a wedding photographer’s assistant in college to wanting to spend nearly every day with my camera in my hand.  I do not have any formal training, just tips here and there from friends and fellow photographers….and a lot of experimentation. 

In 2012, my husband and I sold almost all our personal belongings and hit the road in a restored vintage camper to travel North America.  I invested in a DSLR and some additional lenses so that I could document our journey.  Before I knew it, we were chasing autumn, getting up before dawn to catch the first glimpse of light, buying a dry box to take the camera kayaking, staying much after sun down to get the best light, and hauling all my camera equipment up to 8,000 feet to get that ideal shot. 

What was once a hobby is now a passion, a source of income, and a way for me to advocate for and teach people about our Earth.  Through leading nature photography workshops I’ve watched children go from taking goofy selfie shots to capturing amazing natural images in just a couple of hours.   They will go to great lengths to get these shots and identify what is in their photographs.  Blending technology with the natural world is a powerful form of transformative, experiential education and artfully blends my personal passions of environmental education and photography.  Photography, for me, is a form of therapy.

The art of photography is more than having the right camera, right lens, and good eye.  It’s about patience, timing, lighting, risk taking, and sometimes just plain good luck.   A good photo is captured when strong preparation simply meets being in the right place at the right time.

Being a nature and wildlife photographer is even more challenging as I need to embrace the wild to get the shot I want– in all kinds of weather and in all kinds of situations.  My “studio” is constantly changing – with every minute of every day of every season being different.  I can’t count on any weather prediction to give me the information I need.  It’s all wait and see.  Mother Nature is, simply put, fickle.

Whether it’s constantly wiping fog from the lens caused by freezing, humid air or having my partner hold an umbrella over my head to keep the 110 degree desert sun off of me, I am regularly braving the elements to shoot in the wilderness.  Sometimes it’s about hauling 12 extra pounds of camera equipment in my pack (when it already weighs 40 pounds) on an 18-day wilderness trip, hiking 2 days up 6500 feet in pea soup fog to the highest camp in the North Cascade…all to see absolutely nothing.  Then, jumping out of the tent upon the first light to be surrounded by the most amazing scene I’ve ever imagined.  It’s about laying on my stomach in the sopping wet grass to shoot an ant’s eye view, climbing up a snowy rock to shoot through an interesting crack, or balancing on the top of a fence to get above the trees blocking my view.

It’s trial and error, luck of the draw, expecting the unexpected, and seizing each special moment like it’ll be the last opportunity to capture it.   It’s about making a last-minute decision to move to a different campground just before sunset because the neighbors are shooting guns into the canyon, then being on the water at just the right moment to watch Lake Chelan turn every color of the rainbow before the sun sets.  And, having that picture be chosen for the cover image of a magazine!

Sometimes the art of photography is about patience.  It’s taking the same shot 50 times over a period of an hour from all different perspectives to capture the perfect lighting, all while enduring a bitter cold wind coming off the glacier and doing jumping jacks just to keep my fingers from freezing.   Or, about getting up an hour before dawn, driving 40 minutes up a mountain to the ideal sunrise viewpoint and getting shut down by fog.  Then, while eating breakfast, seeing an eerie red sun rise above the forest fire smoke (not fog) and turn the entire Crater Lake pink. 

Often, it’s about planning my day around the golden hour before sunset, setting up my tripod and then having tourists walk right into my scene…just when the light is perfect.  Then, realizing that is exactly what the photograph needed to make it come to life!

Sometimes it’s about taking the road less traveled to remote locations on some of the worst roads we’ve ever seen (with camper in tow) and sitting in the camper in the rain for 2 days because we don’t want to leave without at least getting a glimpse of the infamous Mount St. Helen’s volcano.  Then, having it leave me breathless from the beauty (and frigid air) as the sun rises in the perfect location behind Mt. Adams while bringing Mount St. Helen’s out of darkness and into focus.

Occasionally, I simply get lucky.  I stumble upon the perfect wildlife shot and have the camera out and ready and shoot when the alligator yawns, the Monk seal smiles, the buck licks his chops, or when the cheetah is eating her lunch next to the road in the Maasai Mara.

Other times, I’m not as lucky – when the moose that just walked across the road in front of the car takes off as I fumble to get the right lens and setting on the camera….or I’ve chosen to leave the camera back at camp during a short afternoon paddle off Quadra Island and the normally elusive American Bald Eagle poses for me in the perfect light for 20 minutes atop a rock in the harbor. 

After a few days of shooting, it’s about downloading 800 photos and pouring over them for hours on the computer to find the perfect shot with the right composition and lighting, then using “dark room” software to transform that RAW image back to how I saw it while on location.

With my nature and wildlife photography, each photo captures a piece of me, even if you can’t see me – I’m smiling ear to ear behind the lens.  Through my eyes, you can see what I am passionate about, where I’ve traveled, and what I find inspiring.  If you look even more closely, you can see what I want you to learn, where I want you to travel, and the risks I want you to take.  Now go get that camera and get outside for a little nature-phototherapy.

For more of my images from around the world, please visit my photo portfolio.