Had a lot of fun delving through the image archives and old notebooks to write this short piece for Outside Bozeman‘s summer issue. Fly fishing the backcountry of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness a few summers ago, chasing Yellowstone cutthroat trout with Absaroka-Beartooth Outfitters, has been one of my favorite stateside fishing experiences. Combine days on horseback, a comfy backcountry camp in the perfect location, most excellent people, and stellar fishing for ambitious Yellowstone cutthroat trout, and you’ve got the recipe for something amazing.
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Story for Chi Wulff: An Odd Anniversary
Sometimes we go back to the beginning.
And sometimes anniversaries sneak up on us. This July marked my tenth year as a working photographer, and I had to go back to where it all started. (Ironically, it wasn’t very far away.)
You can read the full story on Chi Wulff, but here’s an excerpt:
They say a lot changes in a decade. I guess they’re right.
This past weekend I passed a funny rite of passage: ten years behind the camera. A decade ago, my dad (Mark, here on Chi Wulff) and I drove from our respective lodgings in Bozeman to Missoula, months of hard-earned cash tucked carefully in my pocket, to buy my first DSLR camera. The target was a Canon 5D Mark II; one that now, ten years later, still travels with me on large shoots as a back-up camera. At that point in time, my grocery budget was a generous $50 / month; the rest of my funds going into a camera fund.
Rather ironically, I now live in Missoula, finding myself back in Montana after living around the U.S. and abroad. Life’s funny that way.
Fortunately, my grocery budget is somewhat increased.
In July of 2009, after parting ways with what seemed at the time an unspeakable amount of money, we piled back in the truck and headed to my childhood home, Montana’s Flathead Valley, to photograph the prestigious equestrian show The Event at Rebecca Farm. (The return made even more ironic that I rode in the event nine years prior.) I hiked across…
Read the full story on Chi Wulff.
Assignment: Salmon Select Sale for The Big Sky Journal
I had the chance to spend this past weekend down in Salmon, Idaho, photographing the Salmon Select Horse and Mule Sale for one of my favorite Western publications, The Big Sky Journal.
Assignments like this one are my favorite—my two careers merge into one, which makes for a good day at work. After growing up on an equine boarding and training in northwest Montana, it’s always a strange homecoming to return to the horse world, even just for a few days.
Get a little mud on the boots, dust on the lens and horse scent on the jacket and all is good with the world.
Just like this California ranch assignment last fall for the UK’s Sidetracked Magazine, it’s easy to fall back into old habits, and I’m still convinced down-home cowboys and cowgirls are some of the best people on the planet. Think I made more random new friends in one day at the sale than I have in ten months here in Missoula.
The images will be appearing in a later 2019 issue of The Big Sky Journal, so stay tuned. Thanks again to everyone who didn’t mind the “girl with the camera” running around; to all the lovely folks who made small talk and to the BSJ team for the assignment!
Here’s a tip: want to boost your photography skills? Look for the details. Wait for the right moment, then capture an image with tight framing, focused on the minute little bits of the scene. Tell a story with those details. I think you’ll find the challenge well worth the trouble.
