2024 Reflections
As the year draws to a close, I find myself in a familiar place of reflection and looking back on all the moments I photographed and experienced. With the new year approaching, it's an opportunity to revisit where I started, where I've ended up, and the lessons I've learned along the way. It's also a time to assess personal growth and how my journey has evolved.
This year felt like a bit of a rollercoaster. It wasn't my most productive year in terms of capturing new photographs. While I created several collections in familiar places, I wasn't as consistent in photographing during every trip. Adding to that, I'm still grappling with an overwhelming backlog—thousands of unprocessed images spanning the last four years.
Living this incredible lifestyle of teaching and traveling, which I'm deeply grateful for, comes with its challenges. One of the biggest is finding the time to stay on top of image processing while constantly on the go. This year, I made it a priority to breathe new life into my photography. After years of feeling buried in busyness and creatively "stuck," I finally broke through. Confronting my confidence issues and stepping back into the flow of projects awakened a renewed sense of purpose and creativity.
One significant step forward was committing to my newsletter, keeping up with it consistently for the first time in years. I also prioritized photo processing and began experimenting with new ways to share my work. For instance, I released a few free ebooks to explore how I want to present my images in the future. These small milestones have sparked many new ideas, and I'm excited to see where they lead in the coming year.
Each year, I like to curate a selection of favorite images. These are not based on social media popularity or others' preferences but rather on the meaning they hold for me. These photographs capture a special moment or represent a milestone in this ongoing photography journey.
The Wapiti wolf pack appears out of a snowy forest and walks across an area of geothermal features in Yellowstone.
2024 began in a place very close to my heart: Yellowstone National Park. After a challenging end to 2023, the year opened with a sense of renewal as we led our winter workshop. The conditions were nothing short of magical—snow-covered landscapes, steaming geothermal features, and an ethereal light that brought everything to life.
One of the most unforgettable moments occurred during this trip. After twenty years of only hearing wolves in the distance or seeing fleeting glimpses of them far away, we experienced something extraordinary. While photographing a quiet sunrise and simply soaking in the landscape, an entire wolf pack emerged, crossing the geothermal terrain in the midst of this winter wonderland. The encounter was unscripted, serendipitous, utterly magical and a powerful reminder that the most meaningful moments often happen when we least expect them.
Steam rises above Cistern Spring creating a dreamy winter scene.
Two sets of snowy trees peak out from behind plumes of steam.
After returning from Yellowstone, Denver was gripped by a cold snap, allowing me to experiment with a new macro lens and the delicate beauty of ice crystals on glass. This exploration sparked the beginning of a fun ice project that I'll be sharing soon. It served as a wonderful reminder that magic can often be found right in your backyard—you don't need to travel to far-off places to capture something extraordinary.
Ice crystals from a canvas of feathery patterns.
Tiny ice crystals converge to create geometric patterns.
Our next adventure took us to Death Valley, this time free from the usual demands of teaching workshops. Hurricane Hilary had damaged roads and temporarily closed the park in late fall, prompting us to reschedule our workshops for later dates. With more freedom to explore, we spent our time hiking, photographing, and discovering new backcountry locations.
This spring, we logged 100 miles hiking through the Mojave Desert, soaking in one of the most prolific seasons I've ever experienced in Death Valley. The desert came alive with breathtaking wildflower blooms, and Lake Manly made a rare and stunning reappearance, offering a visual feast of contrasts in this iconic landscape. I will be releasing a very large collection of Death Valley images in a few months, but these images were among my favorites this year.
Towering, colorful mountains illuminate in dappled light in a mountain range in Death Valley National Park.
Water on a salt playa reflects the sky along with other pastel colors on the playa.
Mud textures line the shore of an ephemeral desert pond reflecting clouds.
Flooded mud cracks reflect colors during blue hour in the desert.
Light dances across a flooded salt playa in Death Valley.
Next, we headed to Big Sur, a place I had never visited before, to teach at a photography conference. That trip inspired my LensWork project, "Anemone Choreography," as I spent time photographing the fascinating sea anemones along the coast. The conference was a success, but the highlights extended far beyond the event.
During the conference, we visited Ansel Adams' family home and took a private tour of his darkroom. This surreal experience offered a glimpse into the legendary photographer's creative process, which was fascinating to witness. We also had the privilege of meeting the Weston family, touring their home, and viewing the incredible works of Edward Weston and his family, who continue to carry on his artistic legacy. These moments were deeply impactful and filled me with gratitude for the opportunity to connect with such rich photographic history.
An anemone catches sunlight as it sits in a tidepool.
Anemone tentacles lay flat during low tide in a tide pool.
The tide brushes away tentacles to reveal the feathery mouthparts of an anemone.
When we returned home in May, we headed up to Yellowstone, where we were treated to one of the most magical nights of the year: photographing the aurora in Yellowstone National Park. The vivid, dancing lights felt like something out of a dream, and the memory of that evening will remain etched in my mind forever. I created an ebook to share the story of that night and the images I captured. You can download it here to read the narrative from that incredible evening.
Early summer began in the Grand Teton National Park, where I had the privilege of coordinating a photography conference. It was an incredible experience, though we didn't spend much time photographing on our own. Afterward, we returned to Denver to prepare for a wildflower workshop in Crested Butte, Colorado. The remainder of the summer was filled with work, planning, and navigating some health concerns that, thankfully, were nothing serious.
An aurora curtain dances in the sky and reflects onto the bacterial mats in Midway Geyser Basin.
White Dome Geyser erupts under a colorful aurora.
Fall arrived in a whirlwind of workshops and adventures. Over two months, we traveled more than 8,000 miles and were fortunate enough to witness another breathtaking aurora display in Glacier National Park. That night was surreal and magical, rivaling the aurora experience I thought couldn't be topped after Yellowstone. I've compiled an ebook about this unforgettable evening, which you can find here. Before that night, we spent time in Mt. Rainier National Park, where I loved the scenery and that beautiful volcano. While we didn't spend much time in Mt. Rainier National Park, we have made plans to visit again for more extended time to hike and photograph.
Two trees reveal themselves through passing steam.
Mt. Rainier appears into view after a clearing autumn storm.
A pretty pink and green auroral corona dances in the sky.
Ribbons of purple and green aurora dance above Lake McDonald.
We closed out the year teaching in Death Valley and are now home, preparing for the adventures ahead in 2025. Reflecting on the past year, I'm grateful for the experiences, challenges, and opportunities that have shaped me. For the first time in years, I feel energized and ready to create, share more of my work, and embrace whatever the new year has in store.
I'm excited about our workshop schedule for next year and feel incredibly grateful to have spent another year doing what I love and am so passionate about. Exciting new teaching opportunities are on the horizon, along with a wealth of projects, ideas, and creative work that I can't wait to share. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey with me this year. Your support and connection mean so much. Here's to embracing all the things the coming year has in store!