Outdoor Photographer’s New Travel Columnist… Me!

The Write Stuff

As with most years, 2019 was a roller coaster ride in so many ways for me and one of the best highs from the year had to be that I started to do some writing for one of my all-time favorite photography magazines, Outdoor Photographer. I was also fortunate enough to get one of my photos to grace the cover of this prestigious publication and I still smile each time I think about that.

 

My first article titled Take Better Travel Photos was a compilation of some of the best tips I could think of on how to improve your travel photography and take it to a new level. My second article (not available online) was about how to take great photos on safari. As I write this now, I’m in preparation for another awesome safari adventure with Discovery Photo Tours and just hours away from getting on the plane to head to Tanzania. These are the adventure I am so happy to be able to live and share with so many of the guests that join me and the other pro photographer leaders that I work with on the tours to Japan, Jordan, Myanmar, Antarctica and more.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
― Anais Nin

 

After a nice start with Outdoor Photographer in 2019, the editor and I began discussing the possibility of a regular column in the magazine with the theme being travel photography. We finally decided on a name for the column, Making Connections, and the rest was now up to me.

What to write for the first column was on my mind for some time. I had several ideas that sounded good in my head but this was my first column and I wanted it to be special.  Then, just before my Antarctica expedition, I received the news that my friend Phil had passed away from cancer after a courageous four-year battle. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to call Phil my friend and to travel with him to the US southwest on a storm chasing adventure and then on my Italy tour last May. He was also supposed to join us in Jordan last October but that is when his health took a turn for the worse.

In the end, it was an easy choice to talk about Phil in my first column. After all, I’ve always said that it is the people that always make or break a trip, tour, or expedition. Phil was always the bright part of any adventure and he was an inspiration to me.

You can read more about Phil in the column which is available on Apple News or in the January 2020 edition of the print magazine which is on newsstands now.

Here’s to you Phil… I miss you, buddy.