There is only one thing about being a portrait photographer that makes me a little sad. And that is that you are expected to stay within your bubble (being your field of choice). Brides don't care about pretty pictures of waterfalls.
But I do.
I am not a landscape photographer professionally speaking. But I am a professional photographer that takes professional photos of landscapes, how is that ;)?
So this is for the guys. Because there is not a single guy I've met that when talking shop hasn't asked me about landscapes. We live in a beautiful land and something about the wilderness is deeply satisfying.
So for your viewing pleasure, here are some of my favorites...
This photo was taken on our sibling-road-trip from Delaware to Oregon. This is in Idaho on a frosty November morning, our last leg of the trip. Matt indulged me by slowing way down; this is taken out a window. Because, you know, we were driving. But I love this because it shows the marvelous design of creation. I was there in the moment so I can see it, but there is a deer in the center.
Here we had barely crossed the border into Oregon and the early morning fog hugged low to the hills like a bank of clouds. This photo makes me incandescently happy and I don't think I could explain why.
Shoshone Falls, Idaho. These so far have all been taken on the same day, by the way haha. I love the yellow in the foreground and the rocks are magnificent.
Here is sunrise over the Three Sisters in the central-Oregon, Bend area. My parents and I, along with a few members of our church, got to camp on this lake in the middle of nowhere doing a multi-day service project for the ranch ministry at Keirth Springs. It was so much fun and an incredible blessing for us as much as anyone. Hard manual labor is very rewarding when you have good company, good cause and a good view to look to with a guitar and campfire afterwards.
This one pretty obviously speaks for itself, but this was sunset in Uganda and this sucker (along with the bull behind us) had us stuck for hours. He moseyed into our camp and I can now say I have eaten dinner with elephants. Part of me realized I should be frightened but I wasn't really. They kept enough distance no one was too worried. That was an amazing night actually...
Eight hours away from the plains, I cannot tell you where this is. Some remote place in the heart of Uganda, a cheap shot out the window that turned out beautiful and relatively in focus for my old T5i camera.
I adore this photo for some inexplicable reason. It's a flight to the east coast, maybe near Las Vegas or something, I'm not sure. With a water bottle, yes. There's a person, too ;), not that you can tell. This photo would be very much less-than without that water bottle. You might be asking me, "Sarah, where is the land?" But it's a landscape (horizontal) and I love it so it stays :)
This day had a song written about it. My oldest bro took me on a date and was like, "Hey, let's just drive and see where we end up." We ended up here that January day. He is a photographer, much more into landscapes than I. This is really his thing and he relished the composition of it all. I loved watching him in wonder. Next time we'll need to figure out how to deal with the mist, that's why this isn't super clear on that left edge, my lens was all wet haha.
And now that we've been all over the country and world, let's land on my home.
It's nights like these that take my breath. I literally stood in awe. This kind of beauty makes my chest ache. There is usually a pang of loss that I can never take a photo to do it justice... but I think this one is magic because it froze time for me. If there is one thing that brings me utter, childlike joy it is light. It's beauty is captivating and it always always always grounds me in the moment with my God. Jesus died and rose again so that those who receive Him and believe in His Name get to become children of Light. And there is nothing I would rather be. Tell me I get to spend eternity in awe and wonder and light and beauty with my Jesus. I know there's a lot more to it than that in so many ways, but it is also that beautifully simplistic. It can't be solely an emotional experience, and it certainly is not, but also light is like emotion to me. Or it creates it anyway, paints it. Stirs it. And I'm just caught up in it all.
So that's why I take pictures. I'm in love with the Light. And all that it means.
Love, Sarah
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