STORIES & PHOTOGRAPHS

OVER THE POND..

The Good Eye

Looking back, what I came to realize was that my photographs had become about the people and were less tied to the physical places in which we moved in.

Visiting South East Asia showed itself to be one of the most memorable experiences to date. After living abroad in the Otago region of New Zealand for a semester, myself, along with three of my new friends, Sydney, Cara and Sam decided to make our way to Thailand. We landed in Bangkok first, but had heard from people that it is best to get out of the big city and see the country as soon as possible. Our first location on our list was Chang Mai during the annual Lantern Festival. Chang Mai was also where we made plans to meet Sydney, who would land on a separate flight. However, because of a travel mishap, our sleeper train tickets were booked for a day later than we were suppose to go. Instead of waiting around for a day in the heat and noise of Bangkok, we decided to throw ourselves onto a last minute 14 hour train ride that only had third class seats available. In other words, this train ride was our 14 hour experience in non reclinable seats crammed with other passengers and gear that would be coming in and out of the train car all night. We did it figuring it would get us to Chang Mai when we wanted to be there the next day. Nonetheless, everyone was stoked to be starting our adventure.

We arrived in Chang Mai. The city was bright and colorful. Just moving through the streets whether on foot, tuk tuk or taxi was an incredible way to see the city breathe.

We spent a couple days visiting the local temples and getting accustomed to Thailand’s culture before getting back on the road further north to the town of Pai.

Chang Mai was incredible. Being immersed during the lantern festival, taking Thai cooking classes and gaining exposure throughout the unique culture had become addictive. I found it hard to leave but we heard stories telling us about a beautiful town in the mountains of Thailand called Pai which would hold breathtaking landscapes, the most outgoing people and an elephant sanctuary that was humanly taking care of disabled Tai Elephants.

We found our three hour ride to Pai for 2500 Thai Baht (about 20 USD per person) via a nice man with a pickup truck who let us sip on some beers and sit in the bed of the truck. As we made our way up through the sunny hills of Thailand, I could not help but to appreciate the company I was with, the three friends around me, all with smiles on their faces and the conversations about life and philosophy that we shared with each other. We made it to the hostel with just enough daylight to read our books and stretch out in hammocks.

We rented scooters (which is necessary to fully experience Pai, almost all the locals use them to get around) and headed into the town.

It was amazing to explore the streets of Pai. We found ourselves branching out of the small town and seeing the beautiful surrounding region as well.

After jumping in the water we got back on our scooters. Sam took a wipeout on one of the bends of the dirt road and cut himself up pretty bad. This type of thing must have happened quite a few times before because not far down the road, a local man had all the medical gear you would need to treat an injury. Or at least he had more medical equipment than he would need for just his small shop. The man helped Sam clean out the wounds while his son kindly brought out some delicious snacks for us to try. The man and his son, like most people we encountered, did not speak english. This allowed us the opportunity to communicate through just facial expressions and body movements.

We took our time getting back to the hostel but still managed to enjoy the breezy ride.

The last main photographed event in Pai was the elephant sanctuary where we met Huan, the Thai elephant who was born with a blind eye. I might just let the images speak for this one..

A FEW fallS AGO..

estes park

Last May, my friend Cammy and I took a day trip and drove up to Estes Park on a crisp and beautiful spring afternoon. We spent some quality time finding the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Both of us were stoked. This was the first time Cammy had ever been to the park. After driving through the entrance, I would say that we made it about fifteen minutes up the mountain road when I hear "Uh oh, think we're out of gas" from the driver seat. It's moments like these when you have to take a deep breath and just appreciate where you are. 

The good news about driving in the mountains is that whatever you drive up, you can coast down. 

summer OF 16..

My summer turned out to be one for the books.

road trip

After graduating from high school, some good buddies of mine and I decided to embark on a road trip that would take us from our home town of Boulder, Colorado to Yosemite, California. Seemed like the right thing to do considering that in just a couple months we would all be going our separate paths. So, after spending about a week hanging out and enjoying our first days of break, we packed our bags. I began the trip a little bit early by driving with my family to Telluride. I spent some quality time hiking with them, and a few days later, they dropped me off in Grand Junction while on their way back home. The timing worked out perfect. I met up with my buddies from Boulder, Eli and Nick on the side of i70. They were driving Eli's car. We grabbed a few last minute supplies, and headed West.  

Our first major destination was Zion National Park in Utah. After eight hours of driving through deserts in Eli's Subaru with windows down and a broken air-conditioning system, we made it to a remote camping spot outside the park where we spent our first night. Nick, who turned out to be the cook for the trip, made a simple meal with chopped hotdogs and bread that we shared.  Being in a car all day had everyone exhausted. I watched the sky turn bright red, snapped a couple photos and enjoyed some down time before crawling into my sleeping bag as the world outside became dark.

we spent the next day hiking in Zion. It was an action packed day.

It was almost 100 degrees while we were standing at the top. One thing that I enjoyed about this trip was how spontaneous everything was. We decided right on the spot that instead of going straight to Yosemite, we would first drive to the beach. So, we left that night. 

The water was cold but refreshing. I forced myself to go for a swim. It was definitely worth it. We also happened to be in San Diego when our good friend Bryce was suppose to be getting on a connecting flight back from his mission trip in Mexico to Boulder. Even though he only had Hawaiian shirts, we figured we would be his ride back instead. 

So, the four of us drove a few hours to a friends dorm at UCLA who was generous enough to let us crash for the night. It was nice to get a shower and a couch to sleep on.  Everyone got up early the following morning. We climbed in the car and began the drive to Yosemite. 

It was late in the afternoon when we arrived. The weather was foggy and overcast and the stoke level was out the sun roof.

We were already amazed by the beauty of the lush and green Ponderosa Pines driving in. It's moments like these when you have to take a deep breath and just appreciate where you are. However, I still couldn't wait to see when the forest would open itself up to the valley and when it did...

If I had to describe Yosemite in one word this would be it

Magnitude  

Everything is magnified, the beauty, the size of the valley and it's 3,000ft smooth granite walls, the clouds hovering under huge roaring waterfalls of in the distance, the trees, it was almost too much to take in. I reached for my camera.   

After our first greeting from the valley, we began our search for a nice camp site. We ended up finding free camping one minute outside the park entrance.  Once we unpacked our gear and pitched the tent, Eli and I decided to go for a walk.  Neither one of us had any goal or destination in mind and in my opinion that was the beauty of it. I just took my camera by my side and went along for the adventure. I think we both just wanted to spend time exploring the unique surroundings.   

The next day we woke up fresh to some new weather. 

We spent the next couple of days going back and forth between our camping spot and the valley. On our first full day in Yosemite, we hiked 22 miles round trip to the top of El Capitan. After icing our legs in the river that afternoon, we went to bed, exhausted. We were planing on hiking Half Dome the next day which would of been really cool but our permits did not go through. So we decided to hike to upper Yosemite Falls. I was definitely sore and my legs were burning but it was a really cool experience.   

we spent our final day relaxing on the valley floor. It was nice to lie around in such a beautiful place. 

WHEN THE WEATHER COOLED..

Aspen co.

In late September, my buddies Ian and Henry invited me to go with them on a weekend camping trip up to Aspen. I was stoked to be able to go camping in the mountains with some good friends. Henry took a separate car with some supplies and other people. Ian had bought a yellow school bus and gutted its interior. He put a couch, table, bean bag chair and bed in the back where the seats were suppose to be. We were planing on taking the bus to the camp site up in Aspen. Unfortunately, on the night we drove from Boulder up to the mountains, the bus broke down mid way and started to leak coolant liquid. To be honest, I was not surprised when we ran in to issues with the bus considering he had bought it for $2500 and was driving it 200 miles on steep-grade-mountain highways. Some dreams are just too good to be true. We still wanted to go up though. Ian called a few people who knew something about cars and we decided to buy a ton of coolant at a gas station to refill the radiator. Our only hope was that it would last us back to Boulder.

It was really late by the time we made it back to Boulder. Ian and I decided to find a camp site close by where we could finish the drive the next morning in a normal car.

We woke up early the next day, stuffed our hammocks, drank some coffee and got on the road. At around noon we arrived in Aspen, found Henry and enjoyed the fall colors. 

At this point we only had a day and night to spend in Aspen. I was really determined to see the Maroon Bells, I had never seen them in person before. Henry who is a fellow photographer, agreed to go with me and check them out that night.  

We put on some layers and were on the road by around 10pm. Eventually, we made it to the look out, turned off the headlights and stepped into the cold night air. It was pitch black and everything was quite. Not even the sound of crickets or a slight breeze broke the silence. slowly my eyes began to adjust as we walked down to the lake shore. It felt like I was emerging into a different world.  The water was so calm that you could see the reflection of the stars in it. The world seemed upside-down. I could barely make out the Maroon Bells, which were right in front of me.

I just pointed my camera in a general direction across the lake and hoped for something good.     

It was such a beautiful night. I ended up sitting on that lake shore for over an hour before getting back in the car and returning to the camp site.  

The next morning we packed up our belongings and began the trip back to Boulder.  

. . .