Welcome to My Desert Lens

I grew up in the Northeastern U.S., but the moment I first set foot in the desert Southwest in 1986, I knew I’d found something special. It took six years to untangle my ties to the East, but in 1992 my wife Rhonda and I, along with our two kids, made the move to Colorado - and by 1998, we had settled in southern Utah.

For years, I ran a photography/inspirational blog focused on southern Utah, hoping to inspire others to explore this incredible corner of the American landscape. That passion soon turned into a profession when I landed a job in tourism promotion. I loved helping people discover how to experience the region both smartly and safely. But over time, the creative energy my job demanded made it harder to keep my personal blog going. After a full day of crafting tourism content, I often had little left in the tank for my own work.

Don’t get me wrong - I genuinely enjoyed most of my 25 years in the industry. But in the later years, as government politics began to overshadow the work itself, I knew it was time to step away. Leaving was the right move. It took a while to decompress from the shifting demands of government work, but now I’m reconnecting with the things that sparked my passion in the first place - and I’m loving every minute of it.

So here we are. I’m fully retired, with a renewed love for photography and the desert Southwest. Not a bad place to be. When I look back, it’s clear the desert has shaped nearly every chapter of my life since that first visit almost 40 years ago. And like a lot of retired guys, I’ve got stories - and lots of pretty pictures. I figured I’d share a few of them here - nothing too profound, just some of my favorite moments as seen through a desert lens.

If anything I post here gets someone out exploring the desert for themselves, that’s just plain awesome!