Back in May I got a great assignment shooting for Walmart World Magazine. They were doing an employee profile and wanted me to go out and photograph one of their employees who climbs mountains on his days off. So I set off to Granite Mountain to hike to the top with Farzad Ahmadi. I soon realized why this man is so special. Greeting everyone on the trail with a huge grin, Farzad's good nature poured out of him. He offered to carry my gear, fed me a delicious lunch including special cookies from his home country of Iran and patiently followed my slow pace up the 4 mile 3800 foot gain to the granite boulder topped peak. He regaled me with stories of climbing Mt Rainier, Mt Shasta and more and he gladly posed for many photos along the way. After I caught my breath at the top, I had a moment of really realizing how lucky I am to do what I do. Here I was combining my love of the outdoors with photography AND getting paid for it. I get to go to new, beautiful places and meet wonderful people. But enough bragging, here are my favorite shots including the feature photo that went to print.
