I used to be more athletic. I ran cross country in college and competed in half marathons, but I no longer participate in these activities. While I enjoyed being active and very fit the competitive nature of it was taking a toll on joints.

    At first, I didn’t have much to replace the exercise with defaulting to a sedentary lifestyle. Especially during the winter it was easy to stay inside and avoid any form of physical exertion. Lucky for me I found photography as a good excuse to reverse these bad habits.

    Photography doesn’t have to involve hiking. There are many ways to create awesome images not far from the parking lot, but I find it more fulfilling to incorporate some level of hiking and adventure. It has two benefits that way in forcing me to get more steps in and it makes my photos a little more unique and my own because I put the extra effort in.

    It has become a bit of a slippery slope as well because the more I add in hiking the more I enjoy the photography and vice versa. I am not the most adventurous photographer out there, but since I have done backpacking trips in the past I have been toying with the idea of taking my hikes around photography up a notch. Perhaps training for and going on a multi-day trek somewhere to capture images is in store soon!