300,000 Miles or Bust – the Cliff’s Notes Verstion

Hey! Do you want to hear about my upcoming photo trip but don’t have time, or feel like reading the full story behind this trip? Cool, You’re in the right place! If you change your mind and want to hear all the details and stories just jump back over here for the full version.

I’ve owned my beloved ’94 Geo Prizm for the last 15 years of my life and I’ve decided it’s finally time for the two of us to have one last grand adventure together. It’s only 3400 miles away from hitting a huge mileage marker: 300,000 miles! So on April 19th 2017 I’m jumping behind the wheel and taking off on a coast to coast road trip on on the longest road in America – US Route 20. I’ll start in Newport, Oregon and if all goes well end in Boston, Massachusetts.

I’m excited to see parts of the country I’ve never seen before, and I want to photograph people I meet along the way.
So here’s the deal: if you live in any of the following places, OR if you want to travel to any of the following places, OR you live anywhere along the way (close to HWY 20), I want to photograph YOU, I want to see YOUR town, I want to photograph YOUR favorite places, and hear what makes YOUR small part of the world unique and different.
Specifically, I’d like to set up a photo session* with you to get to see your life through my lens and create some beautiful portraits for you.

So….here’s roughly the direction I’ll be headed once I leave Oregon:

– Boise, Idaho
– Craters Of The Moon (Idaho)
– Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
– Hell’s Half Acre (Wyoming)
– Douglas, Wyoming
– Newport, Nebraska
– Brushy Creek State Recreation Area (Iowa)
– Chicago, Illinois
– Toledo, Ohio
– Erie, Pennsylvania
– Buffalo, New York
– Niagara Falls (NY and/or Canada)
– Albany, New York
– Finger Lakes (New York)
– Boston, Massachusetts

Those are the basic landmarks, but I’m willing to consider photographing anything relatively close to Highway 20 in between these places, so if you have a great idea, please get in touch!

 How do the photo sessions work?

– The photo session itself is 100% FREE to you.

– Once I’m back home in my office in May, I will email you with a link to your private viewing and ordering gallery of images.
– You are welcome to order prints and/or digital files from your gallery (Pricing here).
– You are not obligated to purchase anything, but you will be asked to sign a model release form for me to use your images on my website or advertising.
– In most locations I won’t have time to take on more than one session, so please apply early and really ‘sell’ yourself on the contact form 😉

 *One BIG FAT warning:

So far the car has never failed me, and there’s no reason to think it will start now so there’s a good chance that I could make it all the way to Boston on schedule with no issues at all. But, it’s an old car, and no road trip is every fully predictable, so of course there’s also a chance that I will only make it part of the way, have the engine go out and not complete the trip or just get off schedule for some minor reason.
I can give you a good idea of what date and time I likely could do your session and we can stay in contact throughout my journey, but, despite my best intentions, I cannot guarantee that I’ll be able stick to a certain schedule or that I’ll make it to your location at all.
This is why I’m offering the photo sessions for free.
My hope is that those who apply will be as excited about this crazy experience as I am, have a sense of adventure, and be willing to roll with the punches right along with me. I CAN guarantee that if you’re willing to be flexible and embrace this adventure with me, that you’ll have tons of fun and will end up with some awesome portraits. Ready to apply? Get in touch HERE.

Excited about my adventure but don’t live along the way?

There’s a few ways you can participate or help me out!

– Tell a friend! Send this blog post to someone who does live along the way and who might want to participate!
– Follow along on Facebook
– Follow along on Instagram 
– Contact me and give me suggestions of must-see places, can’t miss restaurants, and tips for fun things to see and do along the way. Most of these locations will be new for me so I will want to learn from your experiences!

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The Faces of Senegal

After spending a few weeks in Senegal Africa, I’m excited to start sharing some photos with you all! I went to take photos for a non-profit called Andando – Andando’s goal is to alleviate poverty through micro development – meaning they are investing in rural villages in Senegal helping build community gardens, digging wells, setting up health clinics and many other programs.

The photos I took while there will hopefully help Andando get grants, support and just show off the amazing work they are doing – I was excited to get to be a part of it. In future weeks I’m planning on blogging about that side of the trip, talking more about the programs Andando is working on, and share more photos – some of the photos below may turn up again as I talk about people and projects.

But for now I wanted to start out by sharing about a personal project I was able to do while in Senegal. Because the area Andando works in is so remote and impoverished I knew that most people likely didn’t have many (or any!) printed photos of themselves or families. I wanted to be able to take some portraits and family photos and gift them to the local people. So I purchased a small printer that would run off batteries and packed it along with me.

While we were out and about in the villages I captured photos of people and groups and was able to print, put into small portfolios and pass them out. It was so much fun to see their excitement when they were given their photos. Traveling to remote locations and taking family photos is something I would love to spend more and more of my time doing – Stay tuned for how that goal plays out!

This first photo shows the printer hard at work, printing photos late at night by solar lamp. The rest are the ‘Faces of Senegal’ – some of the photos I took of the people I met – I’ll stop the commentary here and let the photos do the talking.

























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Kuriger – McInnes Family | Tauranga, New Zealand Photographer

When I was in Tauranga, New Zealand earlier this year for Amanda & Stefan’s wedding I had the opportunity to do a mini-session for Chantelle, Shane and Lachlan. Isn’t Lachlan adorable? Plus he called me ‘Danaenanae’ so that automatically makes him cool!





As you can see I’m always up for traveling for photo sessions so whether your wedding is 68 miles away or, as with this trip, 6800 miles away – I’d love to hear more about what you’re planning! Check out my website for more info or don’t hesitate to email me for a quote!

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