Why do I do this???

Why do I do this...

 I get that question a lot. “ Brian , why do you take pictures, or travel to places to take pictures ?”   To be honest, I am not sure if I can answer that. I mean , I know the answer... I just don’t know if I can find the right words to properly explain it. 

 I have always been into cameras.   Even as kid I carried around a camera. I remember the first one I carried way back when was a Kodak Disc Camera.  Mainly took shots of my buddies and I doing crazy stuff on our bikes.  It was hard back then doing photography as a hobby.  This was film days, and as a kid I just didn’t have the income to do it much. You definitely couldn’t practice much to learn.  It was way too expensive.  

 Fast forward some years , i had talked to a guy that had an SLR. When he showed it to me, how you could change lenses, seeing that shutter fly up and down as he pressed the shutter button. I was hooked.  I had to have one. I saved and saved and got my first canon SLR.  I practiced as much as i could financially. Learned as much as i could from whomever i could. 

It was around then i got into shooting nature, landscapes and wildlife.  I loved being outside, chasing light, colors and perspectives.  Growing up in Muscatine Iowa, right on the Mississippi River, it was perfect.  I spent all the time i could along that river getting shots.  Trying to catch every sunrise and sunset.   Then it happened...  i got hooked on national parks. Something about them, the mountains, valleys, rivers, streams, waterfalls... just mesmerized me. 

This is where it gets hard to explain why i do what i do.   Honestly unless your a landscape/wildlife photographer.. you may not understand this.  It’s the feeling you get being out in the mountains.  The best i can describe it is “ small”.    You don’t matter. Your problems don’t matter.  You realize that the mountains have been there long before you, they will be there long after you.  You realize that all your stress, problems , issues are all man made .  We make the stress, the earth and the mountains are just “there”.. they roll on, no matter what you are going through.  I’m not important, I don’t matter... the mountains do not know my name, they will not remember me. 

The pull they have on me is unexplainable.  I’m in awe when i am there, there is a longing, a hole in my soul when i am not.  As a photographer i look deeper into the mountains.  I look for different perspectives.  Not those normal views of everyday snapshots.  I look for light. I look for shadows. I live for sunrise’s and sunsets.  

Each one of my photos tells a story. Mostly they tell me a story,  or re-tells a story to me.  I remember what went into getting each shot. It could have been a long hike, a climb, camping out a few days. So many things.  There is something about getting up before  anyone is up. Grabbing your pack and gear, heading out long before the sun comes up.  Knowing that out there in the dark is an amazing vista, mountain range, waterfall.  Waiting for the suns light to dance over the earth and bring it all to life, and your the only one there to capture it... that’s a feeling only a photographer will understand.  I will never get tired of that.  

 So,  why do i do this??    It’s in my soul... I have too...