Hi Callum!
Thanks for chatting with us today about your recent adventure-filled to Washington County, Utah! We’re excited to hear more about the trip, but also learn about how you got into this awesome profession in the first place.
So, let’s jump right in! Your photos are incredible, can you tell us how you got into landscape and adventure photography?
Thank you! I had a keen interest in photography from around 16 years old, when I was at school over in England. When turned 18, I moved to Canada on my own and photography was a way of sharing my experiences with my family and friends back home. Over the course of a few years, I developed a passion for photography and the outdoors. I was living in the Canadian Rockies, the epicenter of outdoor activities in Canada, and it goes without saying that these mountains provided a stunning backdrop.
You have a pretty terrific following on social, as well as your blog, how have you managed to continue to grow your following?
I try engage and interact with everyone that comments, messages or emails me and that alone is a full-time job, but if people take the time out of their day to do that, I will do the same. My style of photography has been fairly key to this as well, my processing is timeless and not affected by photography trends that come and go.
Of all the places you’ve visited, what would you say your favorite or top three favorites are?
It’s always a tough question to answer, but at the moment, the Khumbu Valley in Nepal’s Himalayas for its mountain culture, stunning mountains and high-altitude hiking. Queenstown in New Zealand for it’s amazing outdoor community and Fujiyoshida in Japan for its diverse and modern mountain culture surrounding Mount Fuji.
Is there anywhere you are dying to go that you haven’t crossed off the list yet?
My current life goal is to see a wild Spirit Bear in the Great Bear Rainforest here in British Columbia; it’s been number one on my bucket list for nearly a decade. Spirit Bears look like Polar Bears, but are actually Black Bears with a genetic colour gene missing. They’ve very rare and can only been found in a remote part of the BC coastline that is hard to access.
We know you’re big into adventures, too, so what would you say your favorite adventure activity would be?
Without a doubt, hiking is my favourite outdoor activity. I love a good long distance hut-to-hut multiday hike. I find it very meditative, my photos are much stronger on these trips because I really connect with my environment. I only get out on a few each year but I would love to do more.
Back to that awesome trip in Washington County! It was a jam-packed weekend it looked like, what was your favorite aspect of the trip?
It was an amazing weekend in Washington County. I think my favourite aspect was staying at Utah Under Canvas, our “Glampground.” The atmosphere and vibe there was so communal and relaxed. All of us had tents next to each other and we would eat down at the main hut together and roast marshmallows around the fire with a few drinks in the evening. Not to mention the canvas tents themselves were so cozy and beautiful, especially when you fire up the stove for warmth in the evenings.
We saw you guys got to go canyoneering! Jealous! What was that experience like?
Canyoneering was the highlight of the trip for me. I rarely get to do anything like this, and I love doing things that push me outside of my comfort zone. The guides at Zion Adventure Company made it a really enjoyable experience, they were fun and made us feel safe even when we were hanging off a 50 foot cliff. All of us left with huge smiles that morning and were on a high for the rest of the day.
This also didn’t look like a traditional campground experience, what was it like staying at Under Canvas Zion?
Under Canvas Zion was really special, I mentioned before that it was probably my favourite aspect of the trip because of how social it was. We woke up one morning to a pack of coyotes howling across the valley and fell asleep to the sound of the wood-fired stove crackling away. I highly recommend staying here if you want to visit the area!
It’s hard to fit everything you want to do into one weekend, so what would you like to try next time around?
I need a whole month there I think, there’s so much to do! I would go back and do some more canyoneering, more hiking and maybe try a horseback trip. The small little towns had some great food and coffee, I would love to drive around and check some of those out as well.
Can you give us a quick tip to capture amazing images like yours?
Put a circular polarizer (CPL) on your lens to make your desert images ‘pop’ and take away unwanted reflections. It will also help you shoot long past/before golden hour. I have a CPL on all of my lenses and they never come off. Another tip if you’re shooting midday is to expose for your subject, which will likely overexpose parts of the image but it will look much better like this, as opposed to being very underexposed.
This post was in partnership with Visit St. George.