About two years ago, I was looking for a good excuse to get out and get some exercise, aside from the albeit obvious, when I decided to buy a Nikon D3200 and start taking pictures. Before that, I’d taken pictures when I traveled with small point-and-shoots and my iPhone and got okay results.

The thing is, people always commented about my composition, so I often wondered whether or not I’d be any good. Spending the remainder of the day hiking 10 miles and taking about 800 pictures was all it took to hook me. But it wasn’t until I decided to ‘throw together’ a calendar of the pictures I’d taken around the Matanuska Susitna Valley about a year ago that I realized what had begun as an excuse to get exercise had morphed through the hobby phase to become something I might not only be good at, but I thoroughly enjoy doing and I might even be able to make a little money at it to boot.

So, in the past year, I’ve taken every opportunity I’ve been given to get away, whether it be a road trip or a day hike, anything that will get me out and take pictures. In that process, I’ve snapped over 6,000 photographs. This year’s calendar has been much more difficult to pull together, the first cut alone dropped over 5,300 pictures from candidacy. But I think I’ve pulled together something that people will enjoy and I can be proud of.

I’ll be posting a link to my Square store from my new photography website [wildak.us] where they will be on sale soon. I’ve also launched Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for my photography.