Hi, I’m Brent, a photographer, nature lover, and fire hydrant aficionado. Contrary to what my photos might lead you to believe, I do not live in the Rockies, but in the northwest corner of Arkansas.
Mountains
I spent the first 14 years of my life in the small town of Basin, WY, at the base of the Bighorn Mountains. Between family camping trips and church camps, I spent a fair amount of time in the Bighorns. In 2003, at the age of 14, my family moved to southeast New Mexico, and time in the mountains became quite rare. Eleven years later, in the summer of 2014, my brother and I did our first backpacking trip, which took us up to Cloud Peak in the Bighorns. I was hooked on backpacking after that. I have since done many, many backpacking trips (primarily in the Rockies), including the Continental Divide Trail. Photography gives me the ability to capture a bit of the beauty, awe, and memories from the places I visit, and with my prints you can bring this awe and beauty into your own space.
Fire Hydrants
I have had an interest in fire fighting for as long as I can remember. As a kid, if I heard the town siren sound indicating a fire, I would go out to the street to see if I could see the fire trucks going to the fire. Fire trucks were always the highlight of parades. In college, the combined interests of photography and fire fighting got me into “fire chasing,” where I would try to get pictures of fire fighters fighting a fire. This eventually led to my interest in photographing fire hydrants, which is now a big part of my photography. It’s a lot of fun going out and searching for fire hydrants to photograph and seeing new places along the way. I really enjoy highlighting a common object that mostly gets overlooked. And there is also this connection to myself as a child and the journey to get to where I am today. With my fire hydrant prints, you can bring a more unique and quirky piece of art into your space.
GIVE SOMETHING BACK
I had taken something from the land, as we all do when venturing out into our nation’s shared landscape. Whether harvesting an animal or stringing a rope along a rock face, catching a fish or slashing a muddy bike track down a slope, we all make a mark when we step into these places – we all take some small part of them for our own. These are our lands, after all, but with that common ownership comes a collective responsibility and a mandate to give something back.
– Mark Kenyon, That Wild Country
– Mark Kenyon, That Wild Country
This quote was a big inspiration for me to try to find ways to use my photography to give something back. I’m still trying to figure out the best way(s) to do this, and I haven’t gained much traction yet, but in 2023 I was able to donate a couple prints to online auctions for non-profits that had a tie to the photographs. This summer (2024) I will be working on a big photography project with a goal of somehow using it to give something back.
Background
Photography hasn’t always been a passion of mine, and, ironically, it wasn’t the mountains or fire hydrants that got me into photography, but the weather. Near the end of my first semester at the University of Oklahoma there was a crippling ice storm. I didn't have a good camera at the time to capture pictures, so I subsequently asked for a camera for Christmas, expecting to get a point and shoot. I got a camera, but it was an entry level Nikon DSLR.
It was through learning and using that camera that I found my passion for photography. Since I was studying meteorology at the time, my photography trended more towards weather related photos early on. However, right after finishing college I got into photographing fire hydrants (which you can read about here), and three years later I got hooked on backpacking, which led to nature/landscape photography (particularly in the Rocky Mountains) becoming a large part of my photography.
In 2019 I got into fine art printing and started doing art festivals and showing in a gallery in Oklahoma City. I took a break from that starting in 2021 while I hiked half of the the Continental Divide Trail and made some other big life changes, including moving to northwest Arkansas. I picked up fine art printing and showing my art again in early 2023.
If you’re interested in my art, my weekly email is my primary method of keeping in touch, so please sign up for that. You’ll get updates on exhibitions/events, learn more about me and my art, and be the first to know about new images and prints.
Speaking about learning more about me, in addition to hiking and photography, you can find me enjoying my free time by running, cooking/baking, reading, listening to podcasts, and volunteering for cat care at the Best Friends Pet Resource Center. (I will sometimes share some of the cuteness from my volunteer shifts at Best Friends, such as the picture below, on my Instagram and Facebook stories.) I also volunteer on the board of directors for the Ozark Highlands Trail Association.
