Now if you’re thinking that escalated pretty quickly, well you’d be absolutely right. We didn’t know what we were doing except that people responded very positively to our work and we could afford to take a small chance on a side gig while we both slogged away in corporate America. And we had just enough work to hang on the walls and keep fresh stuff coming in. On First Fridays we’d be open late and have wine and all our friends stop by and we were “artists” trying to make it all work. We soon found out why other galleries were only open by appointment and that was because there was no foot traffic during the week at all. Yet somehow we stayed open for two full years, with the only real operating hours being four or five hours just for one night on the First Friday of every month. You read that right, we had an art gallery that was basically open FIVE hours a month. And we broke even financially. In fact the only reason we closed was because Jason decided to quit his job first (lawyer) and take his show on the road traveling doing juried art shows around the country. Our little Sub2 Gallery in Old City Philadelphia had a nice run from 2012-2014 and it was time to move on. By that time I was now fully immersed in doing landscape photography and the more that passion grew the more that I hated my day job and everything that came with it. But I sat in traffic an hour each way to work so I had plenty of time to plan my escape.
So let’s back up a bit and talk about the other person responsible for where I am today, my wife. As a kid I loved getting out exploring in the woods catching any critters I could find behind our house in Virginia. One summer my brother and I even set up “The Mini Zoo” in our carport and charged the neighbors a dollar to see it. I remember visiting National Parks as a kid but at some point our vacations turned to more beachy time share type trips. My wife’s family on the other hand, took more adventurous vacations, she still talks about her white water rafting trip in the Grand Canyon as a child. So when we met in 2007 the first vacation we took together was to Antigua for some relaxation on the beach, and that was the last one of those trips we took until our honeymoon in 2012 and then babymoon in 2018. Almost every other vacation has been a camping and hiking adventure including a trip that started in Glacier National Park and changed my photography focus and passion forever. It was that big one which took us from Glacier to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons that started it all, and we continued taking camping trips that brought me back to my youth and love of nature. It became an obsession to explore, enjoy, and capture as much of the natural beauty of our planet as I possibly could. Eventually after several years of very careful planning and working on my business I was able to make the leap to photography full time and quit my job in 2015. Something that never would have been possible without my wife’s support and encouragement.
And so here we are, four full years into this now and I’m leading photography workshops and selling my images to people with the same appreciation for nature that I have. I work much longer days now, but MUCH HAPPIER days and my office changes almost every single day. When I started doing photography, like most people I believe, I just wanted to take good pictures to remember the places that I’d go. And to this day that is still the case as you’ll see in my favorites below. But now it’s a much longer process that allows me to enjoy and savor the moments for a more stretched out period of time. From planning a trip and getting excited, to scouting locations in the field and creating images, then getting home and editing my photos, and eventually sharing them with people, I’m able to now relive these places over and over again. I feel so fortunate to have been able to carve out my own little niche that allows me to live a much more enjoyable, purposeful and mindful life. Something that wasn’t even a thought ten years ago.
So without further adieu, here are some of my favorite images from the decade. There’s at least one for each year and a few bonus photographs. You’ll notice that a number of them are from family trips and we are fortunate that both my parents and my in-laws are still avid travelers. It’s interesting to see my progression each year in style, subject matter, and processing. The beauty of photography is you can always keep learning and growing. And if you get bored shooting something, if you understand your camera you can switch it up and try photographing a completely different subject matter. But for me for now, my love of nature and landscapes has never been stronger. So here they are, my best (or favorite) of the last ten years. Click on any image to view it larger.
