In October 2009 I was suffering from severe hamster wheel syndrome and decided to try something a bit left of ordinary to shake things up a bit while seeing if I could build a bit of a portfolio of landscape photography. I said “why not” and after consulting with many friends who all thought it was a great idea I got a few things ready to take a trip. It just so happened my brother was about to be between apartments so he agreed to sublet mine while I was gone. I had a little money saved and small amounts coming in.  I loaded everything I thought I’d need into my Xterra and launched upon a solo road trip across Canada during what many would think is this worst time of year, WINTER.

As I ventured from province to province, the weather was actually pretty reasonable considering it was winter. I drove and hiked and took almost a terabyte’s worth of raw photographs. I saw things and experienced “quiet” that most people will never experience. I learned many new things about myself. I learned how valuable good friends are. I learned that fear is the enemy and that it’s nothing more than a product of our ego, the one that was developed through years of society’s prefabricated bullshit. I learned that it’s VERY okay to be as free as possible. I learned that there are things we sometimes need to let go of, like 500GB of photos that were lost in a split second when my storage hard drive hit the tile floor of a Starbucks. Thus learning that sometimes the things we experience are for our eyes only. I learned that “shit” happens everyday all over the world and it only defines us if we let it. The strong move on.

After the bittersweet adventures of the first trip I arrived home to Vancouver in February 2010. Feeling renewed and excited at first which was also prolonged by the energy produced by Vancouver hosting the Olympic games. Vancouver did a great job with the Olympics but things soon were to be returned to normal. Just as prior to my winter trip I started to again look for work in the over-saturated web design/graphics industry. Sending out 3-5 resumes and applications a day. Again, I was back to getting no replies. I looked into the upcoming film and TV shoots for work and saw how many were actually wrapping shooting for the season, a job I really didn’t want anyway. So back to freelancing I went. Low balling bids just to get the work and then nickel and dime’ing piece work and juggling bills to sustain the most meagre of existence. Basically scraping by only to do it all over again next month. This people, is not life. It’s a mild form of hell.

So I looked around my small bachelor apartment and again wondered why I was paying for a box to hold the stuff that I had crammed into it. A drum kit from a past life that had been collecting dust for almost two years. A passion once yes, and it did hurt a part of me to watch it go but really, lets be realistic it’s a tool to do a certain job. A big screen TV that I hardly ever watched as I was always working and couldn’t even afford the cable anyway. Some prints of my photography that I had outgrown artistically. ..and a room full of miscellaneous furniture and home items that meant nothing. Dead weight. I decided to liquidate my life of the clutter and use the money to experience life and new places while again shooting everything I can find with my camera and advancing my photographic abilities, my artistic vision and once again attempting to build my portfolio. Material things are just that, things. From the smallest trinket to the largest mansion none of it is ever truly OURS. We can’t put it into a container the day before our death and take it with us to wherever it is we go next. It gets dispersed to those we leave behind or perhaps the very bank that you payed those mortgage payments to for decades takes it back to sell to the next sucker. I want the life that flashes before my eyes at the moment of my death to be well worth the price of admission.

By September 2010 I had given up my Vancouver apartment, sold all my belongings, put all my faith in myself and my abilities as a photographer and went for broke one more time. I traveled through and photographed the Southwest USA. However, I honestly wasn’t in the proper headspace. I was letting my small budget dictate the pace at which I traveled. It was like I thought that if I moved constantly, quickly, saw “more”, that somehow I would get more out of the money. Four months later I was back in Vancouver looking for work.

At the end of 2011 a job opportunity brought me back to Calgary, a city in which I previously spent seven years. After two previous 4 month road trips for my photography I re-evaluated and made some hard decisions before getting back out onto the road again. I’ve paid off all my personal debt. I saved every extra cent I could and upgraded my photography gear to best capture the images I want to create. Living a vrery minimalist lifestyle as I saved for this adventure. During my time in Calgary, working towards this I took business courses, revamped this blog, my photography portfolio twice now. August 28, 2015, was supposed to be my last day in this cubicle but upon looking at a few things and with the addition of the first small trailer to the adventure I decided to postpone the launch day a few months to allow me to save up just a little more money. This became a few more months and then a few more, mainly because I wanted to have enough money saved for a year on the road.

Obviously I love travel but throughout my life so far I’ve had minimal “travel funds”. I’m a big fan of the “road trip” and photography. Being originally from the Fraser Valley and Vancouver BC area I have done quite a few shorter trips down the West coast of North America and into the American Southwest. The fact of the matter is, I’ve enjoyed a younger persons life so far and am at a point where I’m simply not ready to “grow up”. I played drums in many rock and roll bands over the years, traveling British Columbia and Alberta Canada extensively in cover bands when just starting out and then getting to see parts of Canada from the windows of a 15 passenger van through the late nineties in a Canadian Pop/Rock band named Zuckerbaby that was signed to a major label for a few years. Experiencing such things as Quebec City in the autumn, Montreal in the summer, a glimpse of P.E.I and so on. These travels just fuelled my passion to eventually get back and photograph these places and everything in between.

Since those days in Zuckerbaby I’ve relocated back to Vancouver and back again to Calgary, worked as a freelance and employed web designer/developer for 15 plus years and still played music locally up until December 2013 when I decided I wanted to focus all my time into my photography. I’ve had my own exhibitions, sold some prints and have been selling some stock photography on a few sites. I simply want and need to take the time to get it to the next level. Like years of drumming has taught me, one must be doing something all the time to be any good. During 2006-2008 I was busy working for a company based out of Las Vegas, Nevada handling all their new website designs and web development needs. This was a great gig and aside from allowing me to afford some of my own road trips, they also flew me down regularly for meetings and face time which allowed me to take weekends away from the glitz of Sin City and see other parts of the Southwest. Life was moving along swimmingly until the whole general economy took a bath. In October 2008 I lost the Las Vegas client and was back to freelancing.

After the economy tanked, freelance web gigs were becoming few and far between. Companies everywhere were cutting people left and right and no one was spending money. Jobs were being fought over by hundreds of designers and developers and freelancing had become almost pointless. For a few years following I was on the list at a major Canadian recruitment agency and even that spawned no results. Awhile following I called up an old acquaintance who works as a Assistant Locations Manager in the film industry and started to get some work, (albeit scattered) as a Production Assistant, the lowest paying, shittiest job in the industry, but it was work. It also got me interested in being a Stills Photographer in the film industry. Unfortunately that is a job akin to winning the lottery, you’re literally waiting for some of the older guys to die off so you can move up the waiting list for potential work.

So I started thinking of ways to do what I love on my own, looking for a way to step off the hamster wheel. I soon made a decision that would change the purpose of my life and have never looked back. Seeing something new every day, exploring places with my camera and talking to new people is all I think of. It consumes me.

Fast-Forward 4 years. Along with the preparations and accomplishing the realistic goals I had set to be better prepared this time around I did take some time to myself. I did a few “shorties” (short trips). Three of them to the Burning Man Festival where I learned even more about myself, my emotions, life and people in general. I took portraits of other attendees of the festival and gifted them back to them during the winters after we all returned back to our daily routines. The extreme gratitude I was shown for this gave me the idea for Fotos Forward, my sidecar project that despite my attempts never really went anywhere. This project was to be an important part of this next adventure but I fear is dying a slow and ghost-like death. 

Sure, some of you will think I’m crazy, some will wonder why I’m doing this just to see “North America” when there’s so many other places to go. Well the answer is that North America is a place I can feasibly start for now. If my plan goes “as planned” and yes I do have one, this North American tour will only be one of many steps and trips. It’s starting with what I know and knowing what I can expect, knowing that I can get more than a lifetime’s worth of photographs here. That I can meet some of the most amazing people right here. Trust me, I’d love the chance to spend years in South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the list goes on. For now though, I will experience what I can get to on my own. It’s better than nothing, better than dying a slow death in a cubicle somewhere.

Over the past few years it’s been a roller coaster, experiencing the first vintage trailer, then meeting a woman and adjusting, buying a larger rig, a year of travel etc only to realize it wasn’t working, back to single life, adopted a great dog, back on the road, thin times financially, pandemics, crossing the Canada again, Exploring Nova Scotia for a whole summer while in provincial lockdown, meeting so many new people and making some great friends, breakdowns, etc.

It’s been crazy but I have no regrets. Now, as I write this in July 2024 things are going better. Lots of paying work, which makes carving out time for the other things I want to do a little more difficult but all in all it’s still better than an in-house brick and mortar job somewhere. Even right now I can decide to take a break, take 5 steps out of my door, play ball with Rollins, watch him get wet and swim in the river or just go for a walk. Sure, sometimes I can’t get in the truck and just drive when I want but when the weekends come well things are opening up. Cheers to the next chapter.