Earth Day

Happy Earth Day everyone! In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to put out a short little blog with some of my favorite landscapes I’ve taken over my career, and talk a bit about my love for this planet.

Truly I feel 100% like I am my most authentic and best self when I’m out traveling and enjoying nature. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s snowing, raining, dry heat, whatever. I just want to be out in it, experiencing life on our planet to the fullest.

Something that’s extremely important to me is that we take care of the places we visit, and leave it better than we found it. I myself have sometimes failed in being respectful to the outdoors. But even though I’m not perfect, there are steps we can all take to care for our home and make it better for our children and grandchildren. I wanted to share with you all the Leave No Trace seven principles that we implement when exploring, as well as link to their website for some more information. I hope you all enjoy these beautiful pictures, & let’s all work together to preserve these places we are gifted with!

The Leave No Trace Seven Principles

Plan ahead and prepare

Travel on durable surfaces
Dispose of wast properly
Leave what you find
Minimize campfire impact
Respect wildlife
Be considerate of others

1. Yosemite Valley

Kicking things off with one of my favorite national parks, Yosemite. This photo was taken on a cold foggy day last December, the littlest bit of the sun came out clearing the clouds and making these beautiful colors.

2. Bavarian Alps (Austria)

This is a very old picture, but one that is very important to me because it’s the first time I ever saw mountains. Jeremiah and I took a month long trip in Europe, and Austria was my favorite country we visited.

3. Foggy El Capitan

I took this photo standing in front of El Capitan, admiring it as long as I could before the light left. The fog in the valley was eerie and yet so serene.

4. Big Sur

Sitting on a cliff edge far away from the tourists, admiring the waves crashing below me and thinking about all the choices I’ve made in my life to be here. Another impactful moment for me.

5. Vernal Fall

Even since I was young, I’ve had a lot of love and admiration for waterfalls. I feel so happy around them, I loved the rushing water and find comfort in the noise.

6. Utah Wilderness

Going to be 100% honest here, this is actually an iPhone photo! We visited one of our favorite hot springs in Utah on a recent trip, and on our walk back I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful contrast between the golden sunset light and blue mountains in the distance.

7. The Grand Canyon

Look at these textures! The day I visited the Grand Canyon it rained and was cloudy all day, which made for a unique viewing experience of the textures below.

8. Utah Highway

Walking along the side of some random highway in Utah, admiring the mountains with the deep blue evening light. Two of my favorite colors to photograph together is blue and orange, and the headlights of oncoming cars really inspired me.

9. Colorado Forest & Fog

I took this photo from the passenger seat of our rental car on a trip in 2018. The forest and fog reminded me of a picture I pinned on my Pinterest years ago, I couldn’t believe I was seeing a sight like it in person.

10. Grand Teton National Park

I am 100% always here for moody weather, especially fog. There was so much going on in the atmosphere around us here, too beautiful for words. Can’t wait to revisit this place.

11. Antelope Canyon

Although an extremely busy and hectic experience, the light coming from outside the canyon and hitting the gorgeous red rock was out of this world. Impossible to take a bad picture of.

12. Page, Arizona

More from a canyon, but a different perspective than I’ve ever seen before. So much texture and detail in one rock, amazing.

13. Sequoia National Park

Not a photo of the giants themselves, but of the view of the sky from our campsite. This is easily the moment of my life where I felt most at peace, when I was a kid I used to be terrified of looking up at the darkness in the sky. But in this moment I felt nothing but calm.

14. Arizona Sunset

This sunset was the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen in my life, and a heck of a goodbye the first time we visited Arizona.

15. Half Dome

Ending this blog with a picture of a pretty iconic rock. My #1 hike I’d love to do some day is the half dome hike, someday I’ll stand up there.