Travel, landscape, and adventure photography

TRAVEL, LANDSCAPE, AND ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY

2010-

I've been blessed with the opportunity to visit some incredible places. I never really had the luxury of staking out a location and waiting for the perfect moment, but across family vacations, day hikes, and other adventures, more often than not I was in the right place at the right time to see at least something cool.

Exploring Hawaii (2010-2015)

During my teenage years, my family and I lived on Oahu, the most populous by far of the eight Hawaiian islands and home to Honolulu. Despite Hawaii's pop-culture reputation as an iconic tourist destination, actually living there was another matter. It's a big city, with most of the same problems as any other, and space was very limited. Once you get through all that, though, the tourist magic is definitely still there, but our long tenure there freed my family and I to explore many places well off the beaten path. I got to see expansive views from the top of remote volcanic ridges, camp next to forgotten WWII-era infrastructure, and watch the water and the sky nearly every day.

Lichens covering some loose rocks. (2010)

Makapu'u Beach, near the easternmost tip of Oahu. (2011)

Only part of the shoreline was beaches. Everywhere else, waves crashed against hard volcanic rock. (2011)

Rice paddies near Hanalei, Kauai. (2011)

An oil-fueled tiki torch, taken at a luau. (2011)

The Waimea Canyon on Kauai, sometimes nicknamed the

A dead, windswept tree on Oahu. (2012, color graded)

Sunset looking west from the middle of Pearl Harbor, Oahu. (2013)

Aquatic bushes in shallow water at the edge of Pearl Harbor. (2013)

Stormy skies above the remote Dillingham Airfield, on the far north shore of Oahu. (2014)

Twilight in Haleiwa, Oahu, a world-famous surfing spot. (2014, color graded)

Tree cover and a remote ridge on the Kealia Trail on Oahu. (2014)

Fog pours over the top of the Ko'olau mountain range. (2014)

Water laps on the soft sand of Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. (2014)

An abandoned WWII-era observation tower on Sand Island, near Honolulu. (2015, color graded)

The powerful tropical sun spills out from behind a cloud. (2015)

Southwest view from the Wa'ahila Ridge. Downtown Honolulu is visible in the distance, and Diamond Head Crater on the left. (2015)

The remains of the USS Utah, one of just two ships destroyed in 1941 that weren't recovered from Pearl Harbor. (2015)

Epic coast-to-coast road trip (2014)

Originally, the plan was to stay in Hawaii for three years. Then my father was offered a different role with a two-year extension...and at the end of that, he got extended yet again. Traveling to or from Hawaii was very difficult and very expensive. My poor mother was trying to be patient with the situation, but the years of such great distance away from home were taking a toll. And for my brothers and I, prior to moving here none of us were old enough to really pay attention to the world around us. The remote, densely populated island, with a melting-pot Asian culture largely foreign to mainland America, was all we really knew.

We needed an opportunity to be reminded of what the United States was really like. To that end, my father was granted the extraordinary request of an entire month off between jobs, and we laid out a route from coast to coast, fitting in as many sights we could see and old friends across the country as possible.

Starting in the Bay Area of California, we drove south, then headed east through the Mojave desert and across the entire southern US, ending up in Florida one month later. The journey complete, our memories full, we left our vehicle with family and flew home to serve that one final year in the middle of the ocean.

We flew through the night from Hawaii to California.

Gigantic redwood trees in Muir Woods, CA.

Eastbound on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, CA.

Northern end of the Pacific Coast Highway, near Big Sur, CA.

Desolate landscape in the Mojave Desert, CA. (Color edited)

Shadows cast by fellow onlookers at the Grand Canyon.

Sands of the Painted Desert, near Horseshoe Bend, AZ.

Making tracks on the way out of Arizona. We moved quickly through NM and TX, and I didn't get many good photos.

Misty early morning in the mountains of northern Georgia.

Jetty Park Beach at Cape Canaveral, FL. We had traveled coast to coast!

After a month of unforgettable experiences, it was time to return home.

South-to-north road trip (2015)

Following the completion of our time in Hawaii, our next home would be Maine, where I had once before lived as a child. Our truck was still in Florida, so we gladly embarked on a second road trip to take the long way north. We only had three weeks this time, but with a shorter distance to travel, there was still plenty of time for sightseeing and visiting friends and family.

Flying back to Florida, to pick up where we left off last year.

The distant skyline of Atlanta, GA, viewed through a plane window.

Key West, FL. Despite its appearance as some kind of navigation marker, this isn't actually THE southernmost point, but it's plenty close enough.

The rocket garden of Kennedy Space Center, FL.

Dramatic clouds and heat haze somewhere in Georgia.

A sunflower field on the Biltmore estate. I would later use this image as album art for a piece of music.

A hiking trail near Deep Creek in the Smokies.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NC.

Shrouded in fog, Clingman's Dome is the highest point in the Smokies.

Manassas Battlefield, VA. (color edited)

West Quoddy Head Light, the easternmost point in the United States. (East Quoddy Head is across the channel in Canada.)

Bridge over the Penobscot Narrows in upper Maine.

Life in seacoast Maine (2015-2024)

While house hunting in Maine, we found a relatively economical vacation-rental home on Moody Beach, just south of the coastal town of Wells. I found the character of the Maine seashore to be entirely different than the tropical waters of Hawaii, driven by changing seasons and the shifting Atlantic weather.

I spent the largest chunk of my life so far here in Maine, with four years of college and the first chapter of my professional career in IT. Despite the business of the day-to-day, I was routinely struck by the beauty above and around me. Out of all the sections on this page, this was the hardest to curate by a good bit.

Wet sand on Moody Beach, ME. It might have been after a recent storm. (2015)

Interesting shapes in exposed bedrock near the water. (2015)

A placid evening in Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, ME. (2015)

A tidal pool isolated at the low-water mark. (2015)

Sunset viewed from the balcony of our vacation rental home. (2015)

Dramatic weather as late summer turns to fall. (2015)

Another gorgeous evening right out our back windows. (2015)

A completely different texture on a different part of the shore. (2016)

In most of New England, anywhere that isn't built up is covered in dense forests. It's rare to see the sky wide open like this. (2016)

Vibrant fall leaves of a maple tree, backlit by the afternoon sun. (2017)

Participating (well, truthfully, I was ballast) in a sailboat race off the coast of New Castle Island, NH. (2018)

My neighborhood, well off the beaten path. (2018)

Wet, heavy snow lingers on pine needles and bare branches. (2018)

The Bellamy Reservoir, near Dover, NH. (2019)

Dusk on Mount Agamenticus, the highest point in York County, ME. (2020)

The Piscataqua River Bridge, supporting nearly all traffic into and out of Maine. (2022)

Adventures on the Eastern seaboard (2016-)

With my brothers and I growing older and building lives of our own, the opportunities for giant road trips were over. Though we couldn't find as much time together, there were still plenty of opportunities for smaller adventures near and far from home. Niagara Falls, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, New Brunswick in Canada, and more.

My family and I left Maine in 2024, and today my work and other activities leave me with little time to get out and about. But every once in a while, I still come across something beautiful.

Water crashes over the base of the American side of Niagara Falls, NY. (2016, color graded)

The locks in a small preserved portion of the Erie Canal, NY. (2011)

Probably the most beautiful crepuscular rays I've ever captured. (2016)

A fishing pier on an estuary of Lake Marion, SC. (2017, color edited)

Cypress trees on the shore of Lake Marion, SC. (2017)

Nylon line tied to a cleat in Lake Marion, SC. (2017)

The National Mall in Washington, DC. (2017)

Fire escapes above a narrow alley in the North End of Boston, MA. (2017)

An observation platform on Plum Island, MA. (2017)

Rapids on the appropriately-named Swift River in NH. (2017)

Unique perspective of an aspen tree in the White Mountains, NH. (2017, color edited)

An impeccable view in Franconia Notch State Park, NH. (2017, color graded)

The Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick, Canada. Some of the most dramatic tides in the world expose the sea floor and churn up mud in the bay. (2019)

Rocks on the shore in Acadia National Park, ME. (2020)

Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park, ME. (2020)

View from the Harbor Walk in Punta Gorda, FL. (2021)

Hiking up Mount Passaconaway in the White Mountains, NH. (2022)

Scenic overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway, looking toward Lexington, VA. (2024)

Twilight on a flight heading northeast. With the sun beneath the horizon, Earth's shadow reaches upward into the sky. (2025)

Also check out some of the close details I've discovered over the years:

Abstract Photography