Back in 2016 I was in a rut. A big stinky, nasty rut. So I googled “most beautiful places in the U.S.”, saw links to a place called “Yellowstone”, and decided to load up the car and go on a road trip. The trip was magical and made me feel something I wanted to recapture more of, and from then on it was my goal to visit and photograph all 63 U.S. National Parks. Seven years later, at the entrance of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, I was at 63/63.
Accomplishments
Photo on a Frontier Plane!
If you’ve ever flown on Frontier Airlines, you’ll know that one of their gimmicks is they put a critter on each plane. On a trip home I saw I was flying on a grizzly bear. “Neat, I like bears”, so I took a picture of the “Today You’re Flying With” placard.
Later I got home and realized “wait, that’s my photo”. The image was likely purchased as a stock photo but still, one of the coolest/most random uses of my photos.
Stephen Colbert’s Show
During a Michigan football game I was covering, coach Jim Harbaugh’s pants caught fire on a space heater. It seemed silly enough but I tweeted the photo and it instantly did numbers. Eventually I received an email in my inbox from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, thus resulting in one of the weirdest features of my photos.
While adventuring, my #1 rule is “don’t make the news.” While covering sports, my #1 rule is “don’t make the ESPN Not Top Ten.” The ESPN Assignment Desk messaged me about the photo but didn’t end up using it.
National Geographic
National Geographic has bought a couple of my photos as stock photos. They’re not my favorite photos but they made it into an online magazine and an article.
Equipment
Current Equipment:
Bodies:
Canon EOS R5 Mk I
Canon 6D Mk II
Lenses:
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens
Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II
Canon EF24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM
BlueBarronPhoto 