366! Three hundred and sixty six! Wow, that was quite the project! I realize I’m off schedule by a few days due to some personal time last year, but I’m glad I kept with it. I hope you all enjoyed the daily posts and that I was able to keep it interesting, along with some quality imagery!
For my final image of this 366 project, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite views in the United States. From the Green River overlook in Canyonlands National Park, one can stand at the brim of a nearly vertical thousand foot drop looking out at the distant mountains, plateaus, and buttes, carved out by millions of years of river erosion. I find this place extraordinarily serene and peaceful to sit and study the shapes of the landscape below. Time seems to stretch out in a place like this, you can feel it in the air.
Thank you for taking the time to like, comment and share my photography throughout the past year! I’m going to take a week off from posting to social media just to recollect my thoughts. I still have plenty more to share in 2017 and I have some exciting announcements planned for the year ahead. See you all in a few days!
Day 366/366
Expanse - Canyonlands National Park, Utah
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #Canyonlands #NationalPark #GreenRiver #Overlook #Utah #VisitUtah #photography #FindYourPark #geology #travel #explore #outside #beauty #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

At times, the leftovers may hold value for a purpose yet to be discovered.
Day 365/366
Detritus - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #GrandTeton #NationalPark #FindYourPark #Wyoming #VisitWyoming #TravelWyoming #ThatsWY #mountains #MormonRow #Autumn #Tetons #photography #outside #history #beauty #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

To be contemplative of one's own existence is a uniquely human trait often exaggerated at the mortality of others. There's a never ending search for the meaning of life and we've each been given a finite slice of time to solve the riddle. In the grand scale of the universe, our lives are just a quick blip – but we are able to transcend our allowed orbit and leave a legacy for far longer.
We're each created by the journey of our own mind and our experiences are unique for our time, but we can still transfer tokens of this worldliness on to others. Conceivably, a part of the meaning of life is to pass on knowledge, to share skills, to teach and to imbue thoughtful exploration. With this, every future generation is bestowed with a gift that increases with the passage of time.
Day 363/366
Guise - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #BryceCanyon #nationalpark #findyourpark #Utah #VisitUtah #hoodoos #outside #geology #nature #photography #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

It feels like walking around the feet of giants, hoping you’re not stepped on and squished between their toes. It's a good thing these trees are well rooted and firmly held in place.
Day 362/366
Giant's Foot - Sequoia National Park, California
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #Sequoia #NationalPark #FindYourPark #Redwood #GiantSequoias #grove #BigTrees #RoundMeadow #California #biology #photography #outside #optoutside #beauty #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

Welcome to 2017! Where will this new year take you?

We made it to the end of 2016! I've chosen a heck of a year to take on this very ambitious 366 day challenge. I set off with the goal to bring you all a daily photo post (images not shown in my portfolio prior), garnered from imagery captured in previous years, lost in a pool of hard drives, but also photographed from this year's travels. You see it as a quick flip of your thumb or scroll of the mouse, but behind the scenes, each day's post involves hours of digging deep in archives, finding an image that spoke to me and presenting it to the world. Every image is tagged, mapped, and meticulously massaged to my liking. I researched locations to bring out facts, wrote musings and ramblings, and cursed often at my nagging writer's block.
One thing to note: I have no complaints about this choice – it's been one of the best projects I've taken on. It has forced me to experiment, relearn processing techniques, hone my skills and even find a lot of beautiful images I had already captured and forgotten about (many of which are my new favorites)! For anyone who desires to be an artist or further their skills – go do and do often. Don't stop and keep moving forward. All castles are built brick by brick.
I started on January 1st of 2016 and today's post should be the last, however, there were a few days skipped due to personal reasons or lack of internet during travel days. You'll see those remaining posts in the coming days.
Somewhere in all of this, for those in the know, my wife and I welcomed a new daughter to the world last March. As all parents know (and we quickly learned), sleep is depreciated heavily in these early years. But we keep our beautiful daughter involved and at nine months old now, she has already visited 18 states and 21 National Park locations. I'm quite proud that she's getting the opportunity to travel and experience the world.
I want to say thank you to all of you for the support and encouraging likes, comments and shares over the past year. And a mega-big thanks to my wife who believes in my efforts and keeps me on task. I do this because it gives a smile to those in need, offers a path to learn something new, and even provides a pause in the every day monotony for many. This is far from being a lucrative endeavor, in the monetary sense, but the value in experience often outweighs the negatives. Keep supporting your artist friends, their dreams and their passions because they make the world a better place. It's a long winding road to success but let's enjoy the view at every turn.
I wish you all a happy, safe New Years and I look forward to wandering in wonder with you next year!
Day 360/366
The Last Drop - Sequoia National Park, California
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #Sequoia #NationalPark #FindYourPark #Sunset #horizon #California #photography #HappyNewYear #Goodbye2016 #Hello2017 #outside #optoutside #beauty #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

These intervals are the evident steps which indicate passage of time. Watch attentively and it seems to drag on forever – step back and it flutters right by.
Day 359/366
Intervals - Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #GreatSmokyMountains #NationalPark #Tennessee #trees #autumn #Abstract #MultipleExposure #photography #FindYourPark #FineArtPhotography #FineArtFriday #travel #explore #outside #beauty #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

The great mystery is how everything seems to drift into place.
Day 358/366
Between the Folds - Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #GreatSandDunes #NationalPark #Colorado #FindYourPark #travel #explore #outside #photography #abstract #extract #detail #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

If you only get one crack at life, may as well find the best view and hold on tight.
Day 355/366
Out of the Cracks - Yosemite National Park, California
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #Yosemite #NationalPark #California #photography #FindYourPark #Granite #sunset #HalfDome #OlmstedPoint #travel #explore #outside #beauty #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder

Halls decked and the trees lit! Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you, your family and friends!
Day 353/366
Tree Lights - Yosemite National Park, California
#366challenge2016 #photoaday #photooftheday #Yosemite #NationalPark #California #photography #FindYourPark #Granite #sunset #travel #explore #outside #beauty #nature #ThisLand #WanderInWonder