Chase More Light
About
I am a self-taught Landscape Photographer, whose seen the Grand Canyon, and the Smokey Mountains, I lived in a big city for a year, raised in a small town, I’ve seen the city lights, and the starlight on a summer night, I’ve walked the hills and hollows, above ground and below, in all season at all times of day and night, and there’s still nothing better than taking a walk along the river.
It all started with my Dad and Grandpa. When my Dad was still a teenager they decided to explore the River, bringing everything but the kitchen sink. Looking at them you would think that they were going on a week-long backpacking trip, minus the cookware and the sleeping gear. Instead, they brought a camera. They walked those hills with nothing but the word of mouth and a topo map. There wasn’t a trail, there weren’t any signs telling you where the trailhead was, just a topo map to find the bluff line and some luck. Once or twice they need up on the wrong hill looking out over the hollow onto the correct hillside. They did a lot of night photography, one year they tried to get the full moon lined up with the top of Hemmed-In Hollow Falls, they walked down there every single night on the full moon, racing the fog back up to California Point. One night they barely made it. Only my Grandpa had a light with him. A small freebie Kodak flashlight. Between three people only one flashlight. To this day it still works. The moon never did line up.
When I was in my freshman year of high school I was 14. That fall I had gotten my first camera. I had been helping my Grandpa with cave photography for a little while when I was about 7 years old, and then every weekend when we would go and visit he would show me his new pictures, how he got them, where they were, and what he did to them. That fall I went on my first hike with him. By the fall of my sophomore year, we were going every other weekend. By my senior year I had applied for art school, was accepted, and went for two years, but it didn’t work out. They weren’t helping me. They didn’t seem to understand what I was doing, they had lived in a city their entire lives. They had never seen a clear, moonless night in the middle of nowhere, which was what my project was about. I need up dropping out. I’m now trying to show more people what it’s like to be in the middle of nowhere. Those two years showed me a different perspective. Showed me that not everyone knows about the river which has been my whole world for a very long time. Not everyone knows what the stars look like, what it feels like to be surrounded by nothing but the stars, trees, and the river. So I created my own Photography business that is made to show people what it feels like to be the only known person for miles, with no city lights glowing on the horizon and no cell service.