It is this time of year when I like to look back and reflect on everything that happened, or didn’t, in the last twelve months and make plans for the future.

This is also, perhaps the last blog post from me this year, so with that, I would like to wish you and your families happy holidays and thank you for following me and being my subscriber.

So, without further a due, my year 2020 has begun like any other year – with tons of plans and ideas for new projects, but went and ended quite differently than anticipated, to say the least. This taught me one lesson – do not over plan and rather follow my own instincts and do what feels right and what inspires me the most, instead of putting too much pressure on plans and myself.

Atacama, Chile

February 2020

Perhaps very few of you know that right before the pandemic I ventured into the wilderness of the Chilean desert – Atacama.

That was a rather spontaneous trip, decided in a week or two, and some of you probably know that I hate flying with all my gear, especially such long distances. And that trip was not an exception, and only straightened my belief that – flying and large format photography are incompatible.

Troubles started at the Mexican border when security tried to confiscate my tripod, not letting me board the plane with it, noting that according to their “protocol” it is considered a dangerous item and could be classified as a weapon. It is hard to tell whether it was true or not because the protocol that they let me look at was in Spanish and they would not let me use my phone to translate it into English. It took almost three hours of negotiation, disassembling the tripod into pieces and assembling it back. Eventually, I tried going through a different gate and different security, and guess what – no one even blinked an eye…

The whole experience of doing photography in the Atacama was pretty much ruined by the fact that the majority of their nature travel is now largely driven by the guided tours, unlike the US where one can go and explore as much as they please for as long as they stay on the trail (God bless our National Park Service!). It would have probably been fine though if only these tours started way before sunrise and ended way past sunset. Because you know - this is pretty essential for landscape photography. But I get it – these tours are not designed for photographers, but rather for the general public and instead, we should have arranged a private guide who would take us where we needed to go and when we needed to go. So, perhaps this is just my own fault for not doing enough research and me being spoiled by our freedom here in the US.

With that being said, I haven’t shot anything worthy on that trip at all. Below I posted a few photos just for you to take a sneak peek, but this is not going anywhere in my collection.

I should probably say to wrap this Chilean section up that I really enjoyed exploring Santiago. What a beautiful city with lots of history and amazing food, fresh markets, and people. We took one of their free historical tours around the city and it was amazing!

Bean Hollow State Park

April 2020

Being able to photograph somewhere near home has always been on my radar to master, but I kept putting it away either just being lazy or shutting myself from the beautiful scenery and subjects that are just around the place where I live. It is so much easier to be “in the zone” when we travel far away from home and so increasingly harder when it is just a half an hour drive from your couch.

So, after my Chilean disaster, I decided to challenge myself. And after being stuck in quarantine at home for a couple of months I required some outdoor time.

This place has been on my list for quite some time and you can read about my entire experience in my blog from last week here. and without planning too much I decided to go and take my chances.

This time I came away with a worthy photograph that is now part of my portfolio.

*Me during one of my attempts to photograph this subject.*

*A final photograph taken on a sheet of 8x10 Fuji Provia 100F film.*

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Coyote Gulch (Utah) and Yellowstone NP (Wyoming)

June 2020

My next adventure came right around the corner in a couple of months after my success at Bean Hollow. My glutes needed some serious training after sitting for a few months in front of the computer the whole time. So, myself, my loved one, and my good friend Rodney Lough Jr, a brilliant, successful large format photographer, decided to do some serious hiking and photography in the Grand Staircase Escalante in Utah.

It was quite a challenge from the beginning, Coyote Gulch is not an easy hike by itself, but doing it with all the large format photography equipment, especially in some of the sections that required ropes and then hiking through sand in a terribly hot desert for miles was terrible… But fun!

Wait, did I forget to mention that we got lost in a desert on our way back and almost ran out of water. Ooops, did I say almost? No, we actually did run out of water and barely made it to the end. I was this close to heatstroke. Except that it was not the end because we came out at the wrong spot miles away from where we were supposed to be. But hey, we found a huge well full of water instead (non-drinkable though). By huge I mean almost like a swimming pool size. We could not be luckier than that considering our situation, so without much hesitation, we got into the pool to cool our bodies down. It was a relief. It is incredible what our bodies are capable of.

If that part already sounds a bit surreal to you, then stay tuned for what happened next…

After cooling down in a well, as the youngest man in the group (what is it called - protect the children, women, and elders?) I decided to hike miles across the desert, saving as much water as possible, to bring our car back to this spot.

While hiking that desert to get to the car I felt like my entire body is burning almost like a candlewick in a mid-day June sun, the temperature was over 100F. Finally, after a couple of miles, I made it to the car almost on the last drop of water in my bottle. I must say, that was probably the most dangerous stuff I have done in a while during my photography trips. I poured almost a gallon of water onto myself, it was one of the most incredible and satisfying feelings I have ever had.

While driving the car back I almost got stuck in deep sand. Unfortunately, another driver decided to drive his truck towards me at the same time (what are the odds of this happening in the middle of nowhere?), and while sliding on the sand we hit each other on the back. Sometimes people make very poor decisions and I still do not understand why he decided to do that instead of letting me pass first as he had a much bigger and more capable in those conditions vehicle. I would have definitely gotten stuck if I stopped, so the only option for me was to plow through on speed.

Luckily, he turned out to be a very nice guy. I told him about our situation and that I urgently must go pick up the group and bring water to them and that I will call him later to talk about the damages and insurance stuff. He took my word for it and I drove away. We did settle our issue later in a couple of weeks with no problem.

I arrived in a few minutes to where the rest of the group was. They were ok! That well was a real savior, without it everything would have been terribly worse. Turns out they saw me miles away getting into an accident on my way back in the middle of the desert and could not believe this is happening. I could not either.

Luckily we all made it and in a few hours after our bodies adopted and cooled we were telling stories, reflecting, and giggling again.

We were completely exhausted, we booked a room at the hotel in Bryce Canyon NP and had a wonderful dinner at the restaurant in the lodge. The dinner was gone in seconds including the desert.

We parted our ways with Rodney the next day, him heading back home and us driving up north to Yellowstone for another week.

I can’t say that I shot anything worthy in Yellowstone that time, but what was really incredible is that the park was pretty much empty due to the pandemic. I have never seen some of the busiest places in that park so empty, we pretty much had it all to ourselves.

I really enjoyed doing photography when practically nobody was around in the entire park. It was certainly once in a lifetime experience.

Finally, below you will see some unpublished work from that trip that unsure of and whether it will make it to the portfolio.

*Lions Heart Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming*

A Month in the Wilderness

October 2020

Yellowstone NP, Wyoming

Dixie National Forest, Utah
Gunnison National Forest, Colorado
Mt Rainier NP, Washington
Mt St. Helen, Washington
Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington

It is incredible what you can do in five weeks exploring nature by yourself. During those five weeks, I photographed in all of those locations listed above. I wrote a great deal about my experience here in my blog post – A Month In The Wilderness.

These experiences and memories keep pulling me back to nature even more and I can’t wait for my next trip in February 2021 to Death Valley.

I could write a lot about this trip here again (just read the blog post if you haven’t yet :)), but instead, I will rather share an unfinished photograph that I made almost at the end of the trip as a teaser for the future release. It is a big deal for me, as well as for any artist sharing unfinished work, so do not judge too much, please.

This is a raw scan of a large format sheet of 8x10 Fuji Velvia 100f film and to be fair, I am not sure yet that this image will make it to the “finals”, but at least you get a chance to see what I am working on.

*Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington*

Thank you for reading this far! One more thing…

Last but not least, this year has been difficult for all of us in many ways. The photography and art business, in general, has been significantly down compared to last year of course.

I am incredibly grateful to everyone who decided to buy my prints this year despite everything that is going on. This helps me to continue my photography, to keep working with film, and to keep filling the gas tank of my car for new trips.

Thank you, my dear subscriber, collector, supporter, and Happy Holidays!