2016 was a very “interesting” year for me but I guess that I’m far from the only one who can say that. It had highs and lows and both were quite extreme. That being said, I’m not here to get into the nitty gritty details about all these events. I’m back here writing on my blog because it has been gnawing at me for some time that I’ve been neglecting one of the things that I used to love doing on a rather regular basis. Does that mean that I’m back and will be writing more often? The answer is: I sure hope so!
“May you live in interesting times”
~Ancient Chinese Curse
Roller coaster year
So what happened in 2016?
The answer is a whole heck of a lot but the biggest thing for me was the fact that I moved from Canada to the USA. Looks like I picked a unique time in American history to do this too. I’m just a six-hour drive from my old hometown of Montreal but the cultural change is quite drastic in some ways. I went from a French speaking multicultural city to a smaller town here in Connecticut where I’m now living. It is strange to hear more Spanish than French (no French at all really) but hey, change is good and I love my new surroundings. After all, I’m also just one hour outside of New York City and yes… I LOVE NY!

In his last executive order, President Obama granted me a green card
So yes… This was huge, or as the new US president likes to say…. UUUUGE
Ok, before risking getting political, let’s move on.
I worked at getting my green card for the last two years and finally was able to make the move on American independence day, July 4th. That’s either ironic or a nice sign that this was meant to be and I favour the latter explanation. But hold on… wait a minute. Why did I make the move? What was the idea behind heading south to start a new life? That’s not as easy as a one line answer but the gist of it is that like for many Canadian artists, the US has always been the stepping stone to taking a major leap forward in their career.
Now I love Canada and so much of what my native country stands for but living in Quebec was not the best place to be for a travel photographer. After all, I want to continue exploring this beautiful planet and also have access to clients and an airport that is an international hub like JFK in New York City. I was also thinking about moving to a warmer place like Los Angeles when I first applied for my green card but that didn’t end up happening for several very good reasons. On so many levels, making the move to the US just made sense.
A year of Discovery
I’m now closer to some of the offices of the wonderful companies I work with like Fujifilm, Zeiss lenses, and Photoshelter and that makes it easier to collaborate with them on exciting new projects in 2017 and moving forward. I also helped launch a new photography tour company in 2016 and I’m terribly excited about the tours we are running and thrilled with how many new destinations we are exploring for future tours. Discovery Photo Tours offers photographers from all over the world the opportunity to explore some of the most spectacular destination on Earth accompanied by world class photographers and local tour guides who all share a passion for culture, food, art, history, and of course… photography!
Discovery was the perfect word to use for this new venture as 2106 was a year of discovery for me. I discovered that when times were tough, I had it within me to rise above the challenges. I discovered that I had good friends that I could count on. And, I discovered that Robert Frost was right when he said: “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
“It is like a voyage of discovery into unknown lands, seeking not for new territory but for new knowledge. It should appeal to those with a good sense of adventure.”
~Frederick Sanger
If you’re a human being with a sense of curiosity, adventure, and you own any kind of camera, then you need to join us on one of our life-changing tours. Right now we are offering tours in Italy, Iceland, Jordan, Namibia, and Norway. That’s just the beginning. Our team is working on so many other incredible destinations for the next few years. Stay tuned and you’ll find several inspirational places to travel to with us, no matter your taste in photography.

Heck, even the new US president mentioned us on his favourite social media platform last week.

Okay, okay… that’s a lie but it may be a good thing that it is a lie!
Damnit. I said I wasn’t gonna get political. I guess I lied there too. This is becoming a habit. But I digress.
Now, where were we?
America the Beautiful
Oh yeah… America. Well, to celebrate my move to a new country my girlfriend and I decided to do some travel within the USA so that I could get a better sense of just how beautiful this country really is. And it sure is!
After some wonderful international travel to places like Namibia, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Germany, France, and China, I got the chance to visit the west of the United States in Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. In a word… WOW!

Beautiful Horseshoe Bend in Arizona
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it, in old New York!
Being in Connecticut allows me to visit what is perhaps my all-time favourite city in the world on a somewhat regular basis now. As Martha Stewart would say… It’s a good thing!
New York City is incredible in so many ways but perhaps most of all for the ethnic diversity and tolerance and acceptance of all these amazing cultures in one place. It’s also a pretty darned good place to get some exceptional photos. One of the images I have wanted to capture for years is of the beautiful “Tribute in Light” 9/11 memorial lights that get lit every September 11th since the tragic attack on the World Trade Center towers in 2001. What a lovely and subtle way to pay tribute to all the people who lost their lives on that horrible day. Every time I look at this image, I am reminded of how lucky I am to live and have lived in countries where we often times take peace, security, and personal freedoms for granted.
“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.”
~George Washington

The Tribute in Light (9/11 memorial) in New York City
But wait… There’s More
I also had the pleasure of exploring New England last fall to capture some beautiful fall colours in New Hampshire and some seascapes in Maine. I’ll save those images for another time but I wanted to share one last image from one of my favourite US trips of 2016. I was invited by my new friends at PRO EDU to join them and other industry people for a fun getaway in Puerto Rico where we had the chance to live it up in style with good food, beautiful surroundings, and exceptional company. Some of the people that joined in on the fun were old friends Renée Robyn, Sihn Truong, Alastair Joly, and new friends, Dani Diamond, Jose Rosado, Rob Timko, Aaron Nace, and Jake Hicks. Now that is a bunch of talented people! I was honoured to be asked to join the gang for this cool retreat. If you’d like to learn more about all these fine photographic talents, click on their links and head on over to the podcast page that Gary and Rob from RGG EDU put together. All of us sat down to chat about photography and our careers in the RGG EDU makeshift home office in Puerto Rico. My podcast is also available here.
For those of you who don’t know RGG EDU, they make the best photography tutorials in the business and you should seriously check out their offerings if you want to take your photography to a whole new level.

Livin la Vida Loca in Puerto Rico
“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.”
– Melchor Lim
2016 proved to be a very busy and challenging year but at the same time, it was a wonderful new beginning for me as I was able to move forward with so many positive things in my life. 2017 is starting off on a high note with some travel to new places like Norway where I’ll be running a tour next February with Discovery Photo Tours and the beginning of some other fun projects that I’ll share with you in upcoming posts.

Thank You
This has been a long journey and I’m so grateful to all my wonderful American friends who helped me get here. I’ve been given great support, encouragement, from people from all over the world but most of all my mom. And to my mom all I can say is that I hope you both know just how much I love you and appreciate everything you do for me.

I’d also like to acknowledge this not so short list of other people who helped me get here. Pat Di Fruscia a wonderful friend one of the most talented photographers I have ever met, Brian Fabiano the man behind the curtains at Discovery Photo Tours, Ian Andes at RED and his wife Jen for friendship and guidance, Yuji, Justin, Lisa and everyone else at at Fujifilm for all that they do and do so well, Nicole and Richard at Zeiss for their class and unwavering support, Andrew, Amy, Deborah, Chris, and Todd at Photoshelter who make me love being a photographer, David and James at Formatt-Hitech for their vision, humour, and my new Star Wars hat, Ori and Erik at Viewbug for your sheer enthusiasm and kind hearts, and everyone involved with Discovery for your passion and talent, everyone who has joined me on a photo tour for allowing me to do what I love and to be surrounded by awesome people while I do it, and to everyone back in Montreal for making that city home to me for so long… I miss you all!

Welcome, Ken! We’re better for having you. I’m next door in upstate NY and a big benefit of my location is being 2-3 hours by car/train from Boston, NYC, or MTL, so I can understand the appeal of being close to your favorite place. I hope you and yours make a happy home here in the US!
Off to a great start and looking forward to what’s next. Thanks for the kind words and warm welcome :-)
Welcome back and welcome to the gold old USA! I have missed your beautiful photos and am looking forward to more.
Thank you very much! It feels like home in so many ways already and I’m also looking forward to sharing more photos soon!
Change is good. All the best on your future adventures and new home.
Thank you, Stephen. The adventure never ends, right?
Yes Stephen, you are right, chage is very good and importate
Hi Ken,
Thats awesome to hear! I can imagine Connecticut being slightly better than Oberkochen (where Zeiss HQ is) :-)
Looking forward to following your adventures throughout yet another year!
Have a great one
Morts
Hey Morts, nice to hear from you man. Connecticut is lovely and it feels like home. Hope that your year is off to a great start and only gets better!
What a great blog post! I missed reading about your adventures, although I definitely prefer living them out with you! :) You keep inspiring me.
The adventures have just begun and the best is yet to come. :-D
https://goo.gl/H2y7hn
So beautiful place and shared amazing information about america. its really enjoyable place and so stunning photos you shared.
Thanks so much!
So awesome destination you shared of america and awesome photos you shared with Barak Obama. It is one of the best attraction of that post.
Ha… thanks. Hanging out with Barack was a ton of fun… in my dreams. ;-)
Beautiful photo portrait and excellent background view. The lightroom color was excellent and i love the photos. Good work though
Amazing lace, hope you will get so much fun during your trip. it have so many good things.
The USA sure does have a lot of awesome places to see and photograph!
Great article! and your photography work is stunning. Keep it coming! The states are on my to do list, one day soon hopfully!
Hey thanks, Chalie!
Hope you get a chance to visit the USA sometime soon!
very interesting post and shared good plan to visit that beautiful place.
your featured images is so awesome. Obama also welcome you to come america. its great for you………….
Best of luck to you in your new life in America … sounds like you are excited to be there!
I am and I’m not… Making the best of it :-)
Hello my old friend, haven’t read your posts for a while but having digested your latest it all looks great fun for you now in the US. I might just join you in the Lofoten Islands if you promise not to have any one with a drone participating. Will try and get our friend from Philippine mafia to come also but it might be just a little too disruptive.
All the best from the Brit.
Goooord!
Holy #$%^&*… I just saw this message. Emailing you today, my friend. Sorry for not replying sooner. Lots to talk about.
Very interesting post!!
Glad you liked it, Oscar!
I love your phtographs. But not sure if it is a good time in the US with Trump. Nevertheless, beauty and exploration of the amazing things of our planet, will enrich us at a dark time in the world’s history.
Trying to focus on the good! There will always be bad stuff, no matter where you are. :-)
Great images as always, Ken!
Thanks, Cooper! Much appreciated.
Hi there Ken
I like your Blue Landscape city Reflections Photography, Using Logic it is cool.
Luis
Super true! People forget that the US has beautiful shots too! love it.
There’s a lot of beauty here in the USA!
Sooo cool! Really great photos. That Arizona landscape – stunning. I have to see it one day. Cheers!
I hope that you can get to Arizona someday… What a wonderful part of the country!
Mr, Obama welcome you that is great and you should visit america soon.
Great photos. I am visiting arizona next month and plan to visit antelope canyon and horseshoe bend. I really look forward to my trip.
Hope your trip went well!
I like your photographs that you uploaded and sometime ago i went through your portfolio it was awesome a beautiful work doe by you thanks for sharing them all with us .
Glad you enjoyed the photos!
Nice article. good photos.
Cheers!
Just reading this post and your writing article is really wonderful . So much thanks for this post .
Thanks, Solaiman! All the best :-)
I saw this post it’s really waesome.
So much thanks for this post.
I am delighted that I discovered this site, precisely the right info that I was looking for!