I’ve been lucky enough to have been living in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains since the fall of 2007. I came to escape the Boston city-life “for one [ski] season” and like so many other local’s stories heard around here, now I can’t find a reason to leave. Not that I’m trying either. I live at a world-class ski resort, I wake up to 13,000 foot peaks every morning, and I can drive anywhere from one to 10 hours and be at some of the most unique places in the world.

During the past few years since I’ve been living out West, I’ve become pretty heavily invested in photography. I had never studied it and I had never really thought about it. I had always been the guy with the camera, but never in any sort of capacity of capturing “artsy” shots. I’ve got hundreds of non-sober college pictures from a disposable cameras, but I’m disappointed in the lack of pictures I have of beautiful Lake Champlain sunsets or fresh snow at Mt. Stowe.

My 2009 post-wrist-surgery-depression somehow pushed me into deciding to entrench myself further into debt by throwing down the credit card for my first Nikon D60 DSLR. (I didn’t even know what a ‘DLSR’ was!) I don’t know how, but I then became addicted to photography - I’m lazy, but I’m still getting up at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. to make it to locations for sunrises. I’m hiking 10 miles into secluded lakes. I’m stitching together 20 photos for panoramas. I’m messing around with all sorts of lens filters. And I can’t remember the last time I read a non-photography related book.

I had also really enjoyed the web design that I had done for my Journalism & Mass Communications minor at St. Michael’s College, but after graduating, my ‘career’ paths didn’t exactly push me towards that and I hadn’t found a personal purpose to dive back into it. Getting more involved with the photography community that was the motivation I needed to get back into some web design and teach myself to use these open-source platforms, coding html/javascript/CSS, and attempt some search engine optimization (SEO). And I’m loving it.

The travel that I do nowadays is much different the my European days and not necessarily considered a ‘dream destination’ to many. Most of it has now turned into relatively ‘local’ photography excursions (luckily to many of the western national parks). I’ve got no problem throwing my camera, a tent/bag, and a few beers in the trunk and just going - I find the windows down, music blasting, and cruise control on ’80′ heading to a new place extremely rewarding. I’m constantly antsy for that next trip where I can see and capture some extraordinary moments and unique landscapes. For me, that next ‘trip’ only has to be an hour down the road.

If you’re interested in more of what I'm up to and how I do it, click over to my blog, shoot me an email, or hit up the social links right below. And if anyone reading this does want to hire me to travel the world and take some pictures, just let me know…

~ Brendan ~