I remember my first camera: it was a small point-and-shoot film camera, the kind where you had to twist the little wheel to advance the film for the next shot. I took that camera on my first international trip to Bermuda in 2002, where I discovered that if you aren't careful loading the film, you might wind up happily shooting away for days only to discover that you haven't actually taken any pictures.
A few years later, in high school, I got my first digital camera; again, a simple point-and-shoot. No longer constrained by the amount of film in the camera, I would shoot picture after picture, winding up with thousands of photos, most of which were no good. I had a few opportunities to travel out west in those years — to Colorado, to California (very briefly) — and I fell in love with the mountains and their endless beauty.
Soon I outgrew my little point-and-shoot, so I decided to upgrade... to a glorified point-and-shoot (all I could afford at the time). It was a Fujifilm HS-10, and while it wasn't a DSLR with an interchangeable lens, it had a full manual feature set and was a pretty remarkable camera for its time. A few of my favorite photos even today were shot using that camera. But eventually I found I was bumping up against the technical limitations of the camera trying to get the kinds of shots I wanted. On a road trip through Utah, for example, I stopped to try shooting the Milky Way—it was the most visible and vibrant I had ever seen it. I got the shot, but it was so noisy that it hardly did justice to the scene.
So in 2015, knowing that I might have some more opportunities to travel west, I finally upgraded to a DSLR—the Nikon D7100. That's what I'm shooting with today, and it's been a joy. I'm still grateful for the cameras I used in the past, though. They helped me learn many of the fundamentals of photography as I tried to squeeze out the very best images they could produce.
As you can tell from my portfolio, I love shooting landscapes, particularly where the mountains, rocks, and rivers provide awe-inspiring scenes and endless photographic possibilities. But I've also dabbled in some event photography and done a couple of engagement sets, and I'm always willing to try new things.
One final note on photo editing: I used to think that most editing was cheating. While I still won't swap a different sky into a photo (yes, some photographers do that) or remove unsightly objects if they're part of the landscape, I've come to think that most other edits, within reason, are legitimate. When I'm editing my photos, I aim to reproduce the feel of the landscape. I want viewers to be drawn in to my photos, making them feel like they were there, experiencing the landscape in all its grandeur and beauty. Hope you enjoy!
— Jeff
