Growing up in Austin, Texas was difficult for me because everything I loved to do was outside and I was basically at the center of a huge maze of subdivisions. Eventually I discovered the Austin Greenbelt, a large tract of undeveloped land that became my retreat, and was where I taught myself photography starting at age 16. I would sleep out on the greenbelt and wake up to take photos during the “magic hour”, and then head off to school a few miles away. My improvement was hindered a bit by poor equipment and a lack of instruction, but accelerated by a strong drive to show others what I thought was the under-appreciated beauty of the macro world. My motivations have changed greatly with regard to photography, but I still find it difficult to focus on large animals like birds or mammals that already get plenty of attention, preferring instead the little guys scurrying or slithering around beneath our feet. As a result, I never needed to buy hefty and expensive telephoto lenses and so my camera bag is a manageable size and weight, allowing me to carry it in addition to the equipment and food for multi-day expeditions. I found a limit though, at multi-month ones. Between 2004 and 2007 I did three hikes that were each over a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail on the west coast of the U.S., and didn’t take camera gear on any of them. When you get to the point of sawing off your toothbrush handle or burning chapters from a book as you finish them, 20 pounds of camera gear doesn’t stand a chance.

me_and_briansmall swallowtail

Since graduating high school i’ve lived in Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska, Virginia, and now Oregon, and travelled to many countries in Central and South America, Europe, and northern Africa. Throughout this time photography has always been there, something i’ve done on countless chilly mornings in countless amazing places. After being undecided for years as to what photography should be to me, I’ve decided that it will be my lifelong hobby and nothing more, because the reality of trying to make a living with it seems too difficult. In 2009 I was a category winner in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, the biggest in the world of its kind, and was invited to the awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London where I met many big names in photography, most notably the National Geographic photographer Nick Nichols, the closest thing I have to a photography “hero”. Currently, I spend summers on an Interagency Hotshot Crew fighting wildfires (and making money), and winters focusing on photography (and spending it).


Photos:
 :My brother Brian and I (i’m the one with the bigger beard) in Denali National Park when he and our parents visited me during a summer i worked on a salmon gilnetting boat in Alaska’s Bering Sea.


:A swallowtail butterfly landed on me while i was felling a tree on a wildfire in central California in 2008,
maybe it thought I was a big yellow flower.


About my equipment: I used a Minolta Maxxum 7 film camera from when I started photography in 2000 until Feb 2010, when I switched to a Canon 5d Mark II. I use 4 lenses: Sigma 150mm f2.8, Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro, Canon 300mm f4, and Canon 16-35mm f2.8


Some Links:
- http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/prevPhoto.do?photo=2459&year=2009&category=52
- www.nickbrandt.com
- http://www.sergetollari.com/
- http://www.xaviercoulmier.com/
 - http://www.declicmacro.com/
- http://www.yvanbarbier.com/