The Renaissance

Recently I’ve recaptured my creative spark. This is all being spurred on by an off-the-cuff conversation I had with a group of close friends.

Towards the end of 2019 I was preparing to launch a full time freelance photography career, primarily focused on shooting motorsports. As I was getting ready to purchase some gear to round out my kit, we were launched into a global pandemic. The next two years would see my creative spark slowly start to diminish due to the job I was working.

Fast forward to the middle of April of 2024, and something just clicked into place. One of my friends helped me remember who I really am. This singular conversation started my new found renaissance into creativity and expression. Photography has always been one of my main creative passions I feel most connected with.

However this time, I want to explore a whole new medium to me at least, film photography. With this renewed passion, I dove in the deep end and bought a mint Mamiya 645 Super straight from Japan. I have always to experiment with film and I figured why not make the transition to medium format film.

This past weekend a close friend and I ventured out to Look Rock Tower up in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to catch the sunset. I knew I was going to see something special that night and did nature deliver. I personally feel that these images that I shot are some of my strongest work in quite some time.

Armed with my trusty Nikon D800 and Mamiya 645 Super, I headed up the trail to the old fire tower to survey the scenery. I have been spot a hand few of times in the past but never during golden hour. As the clouds started to break and leave the right amount of texture in the sky, a beautiful painting of light was happening right before my eyes.