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We’re excited to be talking today with Colby Brown, a successful professional photographer and photo educator who specializes in travel, landscape, and humanitarian photography. For eight years, Colby Brown has been traveling the world, merging his love of travel and adventure with his talent for photography. With a truly impressive online following of more than 2.5 million on Google+ and 300,000 on Facebook, he’s leveraged the power of social media to build a strong personal brand.
Your photography has taken you all over the world — what was your first professional assignment as a travel photographer and where did you go?
Coincidentally my first paid professional job as a photographer was given to me just a few months after purchasing my first DSLR (a Canon Rebel XTi). At the time I had decided that I wanted to explore south east Asia and had bought a one way ticket to Bangkok. I had planned to just play things by ear and see what jobs I could find while on the road, building a portfolio along the way. However on the flight to Bangkok, the woman sitting next to me was a rock climber from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She had been visiting the Karabi Peninsula of Thailand for years to climb and had fallen in love with a local Thai man. It just so happened that she was flying to Thailand to get married and one of her friends (a photographer) had to back out at the last second from the trip. Turns out that my first paying photography gig ever was photographing a traditional Buddhist wedding in the middle of a rural village in southern Thailand. It was a surreal experience that I will never forget. Two and a half years later I was teaching photography for National Geographic in South America. Kind of funny how life works out.
What is one adventure you have on your bucket list that you haven’t gotten around to doing yet? Where do you want to go?
These days I am in a very fortunate situation in that I own two very successful photography companies. This allows me to pick and choose the projects I want to work on and the clients I wish to work with. Every year I always make it a point to knock a few “bucket list” locations off my list. This year that focus is on Namibia, where I will spend 3 weeks exploring in November. For the last few years I have been drawn to Namibia, between the amazing landscape, unique culture and amazing wildlife, it has been a big draw. I can’t wait for November!
As a professional travel photographer, where travel is your job, do you ever travel anywhere for fun or do you prefer a night spent at home in your downtime?
That is a great question. When it comes to “vacations” I don’t think I ever take them anymore outside of a possible family reunion where I refuse to bring my camera gear with me for fear that I will be asked to “capture” the event.;) I do however try to bring my family with me on my adventures when it is appropriate, which is tricky with a 2.5 year old son. For example, I just got back from a wonderful photography trip to The Big Island of Hawaii. I spend 7 days exploring and photographing on my own and them my wife and son met me on the island. I was still able to go out shooting during the golden hours, but spent the rest of the time enjoying some down time with my family.
As for my home life, I am certainly a home body. When you travel as much as I do, you begin to realize how wonderful the idea of “being home” truly is.
You have a strong background with working with nonprofit organizations and forming them – could you tell me about your motivation for forming The Giving Lens & Lespwa Haiti?
Ever since I got into travel and photography, I have always felt that life was very one sided. As a photographer and/or a traveler, we visit these amazing locations, take photos of beautiful landscapes, buildings, people and events and then leave. Some of us make a living off these images and the countries we visited got what? Money for food and hotels, most of which goes to the corporate hotel owners in these countries? That never seemed right.
My goal with creating Lespwa Haiti and The Giving Lens was to provide a tangible and meaningful way for photography to do good in the world. I wanted to stray from the superficial experiences that most people get when they travel and instead focus on helping and working with local communities to help solve real world issues, such as child education, women’s rights or clean drinking water.
Were you always an outdoorsy person? What got your interest in the great outdoors — did it begin as a child or was it not till older that you became interested in nature?
I grew up in the Bay Area of California (San Fransisco) but always had a love of being outside. Part of that had to do with growing up in the 80’s when there were no XBoxes or computers to distract me and part of it was that I enjoyed the solitude I found in nature. Having two sisters and two young Uncles that lived with my family for a short period of time, it was always nice to be able to get out and find some piece in the woods. It just stuck with me and once I decided to be a photographer, it became a staple of much of the work that I do.
What’s the longest period of time that you have spent out in nature?
23 days in the Himalayas in Nepal. Any time you visit the remote regions of the Himalayas, you have to really have to work for your images. With the altitude, you have to take rest days where you sleep low but climb high during the day so that your body doesn’t freak out on you. AMS is a serious issue (Acute Mountain Sickness) and one that should be taken seriously.
I always enjoy my time out in those mountains, but man am I exhausted when I return. 🙂
Do you do a lot of camping and adventuring around your home base?
Sadly not as much as I want to these days. This stems back to my answer above that had to do with being a home body. Because I travel so much, when I am home…I generally just want to be with my family. As my son gets older, this is changing. As he gets more into the outdoors and camping, I can’t wait to take more advantage of living in one of the most beautiful states in the US, Colorado.
Are there any environmental causes that you participate in?
My wife and I are big advocates for a number of causes that we regularly support financially, including Environment Colorado that helps protect our waterways here in the state. Additionally, with my company The Giving Lens, we are always finding new ways to help support environmental causes. Moving forward we have a mandate to include more clean drinking water projects as water sanitation and rights is vastly becoming one of the biggest challenges the world is facing.
What was the catalyst (inspiration) that drew you to becoming a full-time professional photographer?
In reality it wasn’t some life long obsession with art or photography. In fact, I only ever took a single photography class in my whole life…in 7th grade, when I was much more interested in girls and football. When it came down to it, it was my love of travel that got me into photography as I truly enjoyed seeing and experiencing contrasting ways of life. At the time I was at a cross roads to figure out what I wanted to do and randomly came up with the idea that if I wanted to travel for a living…might as well be a “photographer”. I use quotes because in truth, I had no idea what I was getting myself into 🙂
Have you ever run into any dodgy situations while on assignment? What happened?
There have a few times that I have found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was once that I had a gun pulled on me in Costa Rica. I almost got jumped in Fiji in a bathroom of a horrible nightclub I shouldn’t of been at. Lots of little stories like that. Most of this kind of stuff is avoidable though as it generally comes down to not knowing or being aware of the situation and walking into trouble/danger.
All in all, I am still alive…with some scars to prove it 🙂
What is your favorite lens at the moment? Can you share one of your favorite photos that you have taken with it?
While I want to say either my Canon 24mm or 17mm TS lenses, I would probably have to say the Canon 24-70 f/2.8L II as it is just ridiculously sharp. When paired with the new Sony A7r’s 36mp sensor, it is a beast of a combination.
As for an image to share, this photo of the Landmannalugar region of Iceland is one of my favorites. I used a circular polarizer and had a near perfect reflection and a gorgeous sunrise that helped to create the final image.
