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. It’s not the Rockies, but it is beautiful in its own right.
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. Nature (mountains in particular) is one of my happy places, and photography gives me the ability to capture a bit of the beauty, awe, and memories from the places I visit. My prints give you the opportunity to bring this beauty and awe inside, and perhaps remind yourself of a place or memory that is special to you.
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. My fire hydrant prints give you the opportunity to own a more unique and quirky piece of art.
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. In 2007 I went to the University of Oklahoma to study meteorology. At the end of my first semester there was a crippling ice storm. I had never experienced an ice storm before. It was mesmerizing, awe inspiring, beautiful, eerie, and terrifying all at the same time. I didn’t have a camera, so I purchased a couple disposable cameras to get some pictures. The pictures were awful. Haha. ​​​​​​​
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 quite intimidating at first, but through using and learning 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, through another series of unplanned events (which you can read about here), I got into fire hydrant photography, and over time that became a larger part of my photography. 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. 
After many years of taking pictures and posting them online, I decided I wanted to do something more with them, so fine art prints became a part of my photography in 2019. I participated in art shows/festivals and gallery exhibitions for a short period until the pandemic put an end to most of that in early 2020.
In late 2020 I decided to hike the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) in 2021, and use that as an opportunity to make some big life changes, so fine art printing went on hold indefinitely. (I ended up hiking part of the CDT in 2021 and the rest in 2023.) I moved to Arkansas in late 2021 and I decided to pick up fine art printing again in early 2023. I currently exhibit and sell my art at galleries and businesses around northwest Arkansas, and plan on getting back into shows/festivals in 2024.
If you’re interested in my art, my weekly newsletter 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.
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