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Anyone who knows me from my writing or has attended one of my photography workshops, knows that I am a bit of a fanatic when it comes to using a tripod.  In fact, I would rather have a good tripod than a good camera.  A tripod is one of the few toys you  can purchase that will instantly make your photography better.  Assuming of course that you actually remember to bring it with you.

Which, of course, brings me to my story of a mountain biking trip to Fruita I recently went on with my wife, Carin, last month.  We were only planning on doing a little mountain biking and heading back to Breckenridge, but an afternoon storm caused us to cut our plans short.  Rather than just give up and leave, we took a drive in to Colorado National Monument hoping to get some photos of the sun setting just as the storm was clearing.  I always have my camera bag in my car, but couldn’t find my tripod.  I tore the car apart before remembering that I left it in the studio.  So here I was, the king of tripod advocacy, without my tripod.  To make matters worse, the weather and light came together for some incredible views.

I realized the only way to get a decent photo was going to be to place the camera directly on the ground, but if I do that, I need to make sure there was an interesting subject in the foreground.  After a little searching I came across a depression in the sandstone that had filled with water from the afternoon rain.  Using my hat, and some nearby stones, I was able to prop the camera up in front of the puddle to compose the shot.  I also used the mirror lock up and self timer in order to minimize vibration.  The image below was the result.

Sunset in Colorado National Monument

People walk in to my shop in Breckenridge every day and remind me how lucky I am to be able to live the dream and turn my passion in to my profession, and they are absolutely correct. In reality, I don’t need any reminder as to how lucky I am. Photography has brought me into the lives of countless people, through portrait and wedding photography, and has enabled me to travel to far corners of the world and experience things that would have been impossible if it wasn’t for me being a professional photographer.

Out of the last year, I’ve spent over four months travelling in order to photograph.  I spent a month of that time in Tibet, where I was able to stay in guest houses sipping yak butter tea while watching the sun rise on Mount Everest.  I spent two weeks on a road trip to California with my wife, during which time, I alternated between days of photography and rock climbing.  For nearly two months I explored New England during the peak of the fall colors. I have photographed 2 weddings in Nepal, one in Washington D.C., another on the beach in Southern California, not to mention countless weddings across Colorado.  This to me is what living the dream is all about.

Sometimes, I need to remind myself of how this is all possible.  Part of that is realizing that photography is only a small part of the equation.  There are many things that most people don’t know about that are required in order for me to be a successful photographer.  So much time is spent on budgeting, it borders on ridiculous.  For instance, when I traveled to Asia this past year, I incurred a lot of expenses.  I had to weigh the option of having a magazine pick up the tab, or paying for the trip myself and having more freedom to photograph what I want.  Then there is the question of whether or not I could pay for the expense with income earned from the project.  This is an exceedingly impossible task due to all the variables involved.

Also, there is this illusion that photographers are self employed.  People say that it must be great to make my own hours.  A lot of time it is, but I also work pretty hard.  It isn’t unusual for me to work 20 hours each day when on a project or photographing a wedding.  With wedding photography there are no second chances, do overs, sick days, or good enoughs.  It has to be perfect the very first time.  With each wedding, I photograph, hours of time is devoted to planning every detail ahead of time, because I know expectations are nothing less than perfection.

That all being said, I do love my job.  I am getting to live my dream, but sometimes I need to remind myself of all the work that goes in to it, because the last thing I want is to become complacent.

I love the mountains and the outdoors, but my favorite thing about travelling (aside from eating exotic foods) is getting a chance to meet with people from different cultures around the world. Before leaving for Asia, I had planned on photographing landscapes, mountains, rivers, and ancient monasteries. However, after a few days of travelling through Tibet, I was really drawn to the people there.

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I was recently speaking with a fellow photographer regarding our favorite weddings.  It is actually something I hadn’t thought about before, but I it turns out I didn’t have to think long.  My favorite wedding was one I wasn’t even invited to much less had a plan for photographing.

Last spring I had spent a few weeks in Nepal.  One morning I went on a tour of the small village of Banepa.  Afterwards, instead of taking the bus, I decided to walk with our guide back to the town of
Dhulikhel, where I was staying.  He returned to the hotel, and I decided to head back to the main area of town to use the internet.  As so often happens in Nepal, the electricity was out, and the internet cafes were closed.  Since I had my camera with me I decided to make the most of my time and explore some of the back alleys of
Dhulikhel. Once I got off the main street with the never ending auditory assault of the constant car horns, things became much quieter.  I could hear some people playing instruments down another alley and I decided to investigate.

When I found the source of the music, I wasn’t sure what was going on. There were about a dozen musicians dressed in red in the street, and maybe another 100 people in the yard of a large house. I didn’t speak much Nepali.  And what I did speak was mostly limited to arranging a hotel room or ordering a meal.  So, I looked for a someone who looked like they were school aged.  When traveling abroad, I have found that most people have studied english in schools, but tend to forget it as they get older.

I met a boy who told me that there was a wedding happening, and he then introduced me to his father.  It turns out his father was related to the groom, and he invited me to join the wedding party.  It was really a huge honor to find myself in a small town in a country that I had only just arrived in, being allowed to join in such an important moment in this family’s life.

One of the best ways to experience another culture is to actively participate in their lives and ceremonies, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a better way to do this than to be involved with a wedding. My favorite thing about photographing weddings is being allowed in to one of the most important things that two people will likely experience together. However this wedding was truly a new experience for me.

Weddings in the West are typically happy affairs in which the couple has known each other for years, and they can’t wait to finally get married.  I had found out that this couple had only met a few weeks before the wedding, and only briefly.  The groom looked nervous the entire time, and the bride was practically in tears during the ceremony.  It was a little unnerving to say the least, but I tried to keep an open mind. A few days later, when I met up with some Nepalis my age, they were able to better explain what was going on.  First they had explained to me, how much they appreciated their families finding there spouses for them, and how terrifying it must be to have to find our own here.  I hadn’t really thought of things that way before, and I recalled how terrifying it was to propose to my wife.  They also explained the crying bride.  In Hindu culture, when a woman is married, she ceases to become part of the woman’s family and becomes part of her husbands family.  So, her not being upset at the wedding would be a sign of disrespect to her family. In fact the woman is usually very happy about the marriage, but showing happiness on the wedding day is considered unacceptable.  I did get the chance to see the same thing at another wedding I was at in Nepal a week later with a better understanding of the culture, and it was a lot different.  Particularly because I was able to meet the bride the next day, and could see how happy she was compared to the day before.

I would have to refer to this as the “ultimate destination wedding.”  At least it was for me. This wedding really let me experience the culture of Nepal first hand.  I got to meet people and see things that I might not have otherwise had the chance to.  The family welcomed me like I was one of their own.  I got to experience traditional Nepali food (the taste as well as the consequences,) as well as the local homemade liquor, roxi, which not surprisingly after tasting it was brought to the wedding in plastic bottle which looks suspiciously like antifreeze containers.  Best of luck to the Srestha family who really made my first few days in Nepal ones to remember always.

During the spring of 2009, I travelled to Tibet and Nepal to work on a documentary portrait project.  For six weeks I photographed people living in the Himalayas.  While I mostly worked on portraits, I also went about photographing people in their day to day lives.

This 10 minute slideshow, available in HD, is a small sample of the images I made while travelling over the roof of the world.