Behind the Lens Field Journal

One of the greatest gifts of living in the Okanagan and Similkameen in the spring is witnessing the vibrant explosion of Arrowleaf Balsamroot across the valleys. By late April and early May, the grasslands glow with golden flowers stretching across the hillsides. These flowers are more than just beautiful, they play an important role in sustaining the wildlife that call these valleys home. A few years ago, my dad and I were hiking through a high-elevation grassland when we no

It was a warm mid-spring weekend in the Okanagan Valley far warmer than seasonal temperatures should have been. The heat shimmered off the earth, creating harsh light and waves of haze that make wildlife photography difficult and uninspiring. I knew if I wanted to find spring in its truest form, I needed to leave the valley behind and head for the mountains, where winter still lingered in the shadows and the awakening of the wild had only just begun. With hopes of finding a g

Somewhere along the past year, I drifted quietly at first into the current of comparison. A tide pulled not by truth, but by curated fragments of other people’s lives. Through a glowing phone screen, I measured my own adventures, my photography, my very identity and somehow, I always came up short. The mountains I climbed felt smaller, the wildlife I captured less rare, the moments less meaningful. I shrank beneath the weight of illusions, until I barely recognized myself wit