In 2015, I quit my 6-figure “American Dream” job as a Boeing Aerospace Engineer to take photos & hike full time.
This was the scariest and best choice I’ve ever made.
My photography business was built as a side hustle while I was working as an engineer.
2009 is when I first picked up a camera.
Starting as a total beginner, my engineering mind created photography techniques & systems that I optimized over the years.
Around the same time I got obsessed with backpacking & ultralight hiking.
Since then I’ve hiked over 20,000 miles chasing the best light & photo locations I can find.
I also love teaching & taking other photographers to some of my favorite locations.
My Back Story (For Anyone Interested)
I don’t like writing about myself.
This section is for anyone with the desire to be a full time landscape photographer & adventurer.
It’s not something that people magically become.
You have to choose to do it.
No one else will choose you.
You also need to have a lot of luck on your side.
The luck will appear, but only after you go all in!
Next, you need to become unstoppable. This is also your choice.
The path is a bunch of small steps linked together over many years.
The hardest part is trusting yourself and your gut instinct no matter what.
You have to be willing to get punched in the face again and again, and say, “I’m not stopping!”.
Being free & living a life your proud of is a war of attrition.
Almost everyone quits.
All you have to do is survive long enough and you win.
Here’s How I Did It
Since I was 12 I always wanted to be free & go on adventures.
We lived in the woods on a river in the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania.
I would constantly “run away” on adventures in the woods, looking for new locations to explore.
There is something about the unknown of new locations and the high that comes from reaching them that’s addicting.
It’s all I could think about.
I needed money to expand my adventure radius so I started working paper routes & at a pizza shop after middle school.
By the time I was 16 I had a car, by 18 my brother and I started doing road trips on the east coast to go hiking.
Then we expanded the trips cross country & added in harder and harder hikes.
I needed funding for this freedom to continue. The only way was to be my own boss. Otherwise, someone could stop the adventures.
I had to start a business. It was the only way.
I didn’t want to go in debt. Then someone would own my business.
What was the fastest way to fund a business?
Engineering would teach me to solve problems at the highest level using first principles, instead of depending on others.
That’s all business is anyways…
Looking for problems and building solutions.
That seemed like the quickest route so I went for it.
In 2009, I finished aerospace & mechanical engineering school at West Virginia University.
Next, I moved to Washington State to work for Boeing Aerospace.
Finally, I had the money to buy a DSLR camera & start my business.
Photography was the perfect mix of physics, problem-solving, and creativity.
The search for new photo locations led me to backpacking and week-long wilderness photography expeditions.
This was the first time I experienced real freedom.
There is nothing better than living out of a backpack, traveling by foot, and chasing good light & locations for weeks on end.
In the wilderness, I learned to be self-sufficient, make decisions quickly, and trust in myself.
There is no other option out there.
After the first long trip I was hooked.
I wanted to spend every second out in the wilderness, hiking long distances, pushing my personal limits, and taking photos.
My engineering job got in the way.
It also funded my adventures and equipment.
The job was great for the time being, but I wanted to get out within a few years.
I made an escape plan and started building it, one small step at a time.
Over the next 6 years, I learned the basics of running a business while working and creating images at the same time.
It was a great challenge.
The risk of failure and promise of freedom kept me highly motivated.
In 2015, my photography business could fund my life so I quit Boeing.
Since then I’ve spent 7-9 months of each year backpacking and taking photos in the wilderness.
This disconnect from the world gives me time to think of and process new ideas.
I also use this time to create photos and videos for Youtube.
The remaining few months are spent building my website, teaching, and creating new content to help others learn.
The balance between teaching, learning, creating and wilderness adventure, keeps me motivated.
It’s also the best way I’ve found to have my own thoughts, without the constant influence of “the right way of doing things”, that’s constantly pushed online.
The internet is the greatest tool for sovereignty ever created—offering more control over how we live, work, and explore than any other advancement in history.
You can digitally build anything and share it with the world for close to free.
If you go all in. You can make a living & get paid to create stuff you love.
On the other hand, the influx of mass information freezes some people in place.
There are too many choices.
The filtering becomes a job on its own.
Hopefully, you will find my photo guides, hiking skills, and writing to filter the noise, allowing you to create something useful for the world.
Thanks for reading,
Dave
My Latest Photography Trips & Videos
9 months of each year I live out of my vehicle & travel the wilderness by foot on an endless backpacking & landscape photography trip.
I record my adventures and teach the photography & outdoor skills used on these trips.
Click the “Playlist” button above the video or watch on Youtube.