Why I’ve Been MIA…

Impressionistic seagulls alight on a foggy day at Acadia National Park in Maine.

Have you noticed that I’ve been MIA?

I have been very, very quiet lately, both on social media and on my website/newsletter. The reason for the radio silence is because I’ve been very busy working on a couple of big projects, and that’s what I wanted to share with you today.

For the last few months, I’ve been working on my next eBook, The Art of Fog (Expanded Edition), coming soon! I expect to release this book in the fall, and I can confidently say it’s going to be pretty special and completely unique. Yesterday I was working on some cover options, and if you’re on my mailing list, you can expect an email in the coming weeks requesting your input on which cover option you like the best. I’ve done this in the past and my subscribers have clearly enjoyed being a part of this process! This time I’m going to offer those who vote a special discount on the product once it is released, so if any of this sounds interesting to you, please join my subscriber family at the link below this blog post to be sure you receive the email. More details on The Art of Fog will be forthcoming.

I’ve also been working concurrently on my next project: a third eBook, DAWNLAND: Creative, Holistic Approaches to Photographing Acadia National Park, coming next year. This will be the second in my series of location-based instructional eBooks, and the format will be very similar to that of RIVERSONG: Creative, Holistic Approaches to Photographing New River Gorge. In the past, I’ve always visited Maine in the fall, but because I wanted to experience this place in another season, I moved there for the entire month of July! I lived inside Acadia National Park during that time, shooting daily and building my knowledge, connection, expertise, and portfolio of images from this special and unique place. I mostly camped for the month, fully immersing myself in this place, except for the week my fiancee came to visit when we stayed in a nice rental property. It was challenging - I’ve never camped for this long before. And the weather was extremely wet, too, with torrential downpours every few days and soaking fog for almost the entire month. I became quite homesick about halfway through the trip, but I persisted, and worked really hard to build my portfolio and my understanding of this landscape. And I came away even more in love with this place than I was when I arrived, despite the hardships.

The backstory to this adventure is that I would not have been able to undertake this project in the way I did without some assistance. So earlier this year I applied for and was awarded a grant from The Inspired Creator. This is a program run by Nic Stover of Nature Photography Classes offering financial assistance in the form of grants to nature photographers that have inspiring projects, places, spaces, or purposes they want to promote or protect.  Nic’s philosophy aligns closely with my own, focusing on creativity and connection with nature, so it seemed like the perfect fit for this project I had been dreaming of since last year. I am so honored that Nic saw merit in my proposal, backed my project, and gave it life! The timing was just beautiful, too, since I was almost immediately able to book campgrounds once they released on Recreation.gov… For those of you not familiar with Nic and Nature Photography Classes, he offers some incredible learning resources at highly affordable prices, and he has an exciting series of webinars each season (Speaker Series), with presentations from the top landscape and nature photographers in the field today. I highly recommend you check out his website if you are looking to build your skillset.

So that’s the essence of what I’ve been spending my days on for the last few months. I have lots of hard work ahead of me, but I find I am loving my projects and happy to spend many of my days writing.

If you are not already subscribed to my newsletter, please consider doing so below. I will never, ever, spam, I keep your information private, I provide valuable free resources, interesting opportunities for participation, and more. I’d love to have you join my subscriber family! I also offer a free ebook, Appalachian Dreams, linked below at the very bottom ;)