Why the Pursuit Begins

Forrest Fenn wrote something that stuck with me.

“I never knew it was the chase I sought and not the quarry.”
— Forrest Fenn

It explained something I had felt for a long time but hadn’t put into words.

Photography, for me, has always been about what’s around the next corner, over the next horizon, or what the conditions might bring tomorrow. It’s about pushing yourself when you’re tired, cold, wet, hungry, or the odds look slim. Sometimes you hike for miles in the rain, camp for days in the backcountry, and never even see the peak you came for. Other times you step out of the car, take a couple of shots, and walk away with something you’ll keep forever. You never really know what you’re going to get.

Every photograph is a single, unrepeatable moment. Behind each one is an adventure. Some life-changing, some fun and a little on edge, some completely anti-climactic. Some took years of planning and hard execution. Others were dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time. All of them happened while I was doing something I loved in a place that inspired me.

That’s why the pursuit continues.

The name itself, The Pursuit Begins, comes from a few things that don’t seem related at first but are tightly connected for me.

Exploration is the core of it. Going after the next image, and the adventure that comes with it, is what drives me. The pursuit of that next frame is always just beginning. It’s the journey, not the destination.

Learning sits right beside it. I’m never satisfied with what I’ve already done. I’m always looking for the better image and the better version of myself as a photographer.

And then there’s the music and the people. When I was first getting serious about photography I spent a lot of time in Colorado bouncing around in a friend’s Jeep, listening to the alternative rock he loved. One album stuck: Evans Blue’s The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends. Even now, when I hear it, I’m right back in those early years. The mountains, the freedom, the long days with friends and my second family. That friend was Monte Trumbull. He was a mentor and like a second father to me. I still think of those Jeep rides every time the album comes on. (Monte Trumbull — RIP 2023)

Years ago I watched a TED talk by Dustin Garis, Pursuit of a Memorable Life, about something he called life profit. Watch it here↗ (opens in a new tab). The idea is simple and I keep coming back to it: life isn’t measured by the number of days you live, but by the number of days you remember. A day floating in open water listening to a humpback sing. A night in the backcountry when the kids see the stars for real. Those are the days that count. The pursuit has always been about making more of them.