Rainbows at Zion

Although I mainly photograph people—kids, teens, couples, families, and business professionals—I thrill at the face of nature. I was with my family on the Kolob Terrace in Virgin, Utah. Facing west at sunset, I was fussing with a backlit cactus. My son tapped me on the shoulder. “You might want to see this, dad,” he said. I turned east and saw this gorgeous display arching over Zion National Park.

double rainbow on the kolob terrace in virgin utah overlooking zion national park

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Headshot Photography

moods

Be patient
Light changes
Incredible things happen

Sunset at Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz, CA

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Dancing at the water’s edge

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Paint it gray

neilson landscape photography natural bridges santa cruz sunset waves black and white

Contact me for kids, teens, couples, family, and corporate photography in the Bay Area. 

All the pretty places

When I weary of words, I just stare and wait
Something wonderful usually happens

Big Island

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Long Ridge Open Space Preserve, Bay Area, California

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Joshua Tree, California

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Big Island

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River stones, Wasatch Range, Utah

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Joshua Tree, California

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Sundance, Utah

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Big Island. That, or Revelation 🙂

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Contact me for kids, teens, couples, family, and corporate photography in the Bay Area. 

Aspen

Variations on a theme of aspen
Impossible for me to tire of these trees in the Wasatch Range
They are simultaneously father, mother, daughter, and son to themselves
As they’re often genetic clones sharing the same vast root system
A single individual can occupy an entire mountainside
That’s an amazing thing to consider

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landscape photography utah wasatch mountains aspen three trees
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Contact me for kids, teens, couples, family, and corporate photography in the Bay Area. 

Out Shooting Horses

July, 2019.
Iceland, dusk.
In the summer, twilight lasts a long time.
The sun never never fully disappears.
It flirts with the horizon.
Skirting, touching, and dipping beneath it, briefly.
Then it pops right back up again.
I made these images at 11:30 at night.
My family was asleep.
I was not.
I crossed the road, empty.
I sauntered into an open field.
Potatoes, cotton bolls, lush green grass.
Oh, and horses, lots of them.
Corralled by trenches and thin wire fences.

neilson travel photography iceland horses landscape cotton bolls

They skittered a bit, on edge.
One bolted, then stopped on a ridge.
He looked at me, miffed.
As I walked, he parallelled me with precision till I was gone.
A wild, long-maned Icelandic geometer of sorts.

neilson travel photography landscape horse solitary

Another horse.
Not skittish, friendly.
Soft nose, curious eyes.
Closer, closer.
I touched the forehead,
Then the muzzle.

neilson travel landscape photography iceland horses mono e mono

I approached a small band of horses.
On hands and knees, I crawled up to them.
Totally unnecessary.
They greeted me, flicking their tails.
I sat down before them, at the feet of muscle and bone.
Rocking quietly before their strength and beauty.
Listening, observing, and shooting.
Always shooting.

neilson travel photography landscape iceland horses cinematic group

Now that’s a damn fine image.
Big print here I come!

Contact me for kids, teens, couples, family, and corporate photography in the Bay Area.