Creative Inspiration

Explore Landscapes #19: I'm a big fan of podcasts - and listen to a lot of them while I'm out walking the dog or during road trips. Here's one of my favorites.

I’ve been a long time listener of Matt Payne’s podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen.” Matt is a mountaineer and fine art nature and landscape photographer living in Durango, Colorado. He recently took the step to becoming a full-time photographer, and in parallel with the podcast and his own photography, he now leads workshops on behalf of Muench Workshops.

Colorado Photographer Matt Payne on the summit of Turret Peak © Matt Payne

Matt has quite the pedigree in terms of nature and landscape photography - check out his bio. Matt was a founding member of Nature First: The Alliance for Responsible Nature Photography - and the Nature First Principles that they developed.

In 2021, Matt partnered with Tim Parkin, Alex Nail, and Rajesh Jyothiswaran to create an international landscape and nature photography competition in response to over-the-top post-processing that has become popularized and normalized in this artistic medium. The main goal of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards is to celebrate the artistic achievements of landscape photographers who dedicate themselves to capturing the beauty of the landscape in a realistic manner.

Back to the podcast, and inspiration.

Each podcast includes a candid conversation that Matt has with photographers, artists, and others, on the craft of nature and landscape photography. I enjoy every episode, as Matt’s style of conversation and questions, always pulls out some nuggets of inspiration, wisdom, and motivation.

I love the fact that the podcast almost never talks about gear. Topics typically include talk about psychological drivers in landscape photography, business, marketing, social media, creativity, workflow, and more. Matt has a talent to invite both well-established nature and landscape photographers, as well as lesser-known photographers from the USA and worldwide.

Talking of lesser-known photographers, I was delighted to be interviewed by Matt for a podcast episode back in November 2022. If you’d like to get to know more about me, and my obsession with Joshua Tree National Park, please take a listen.

As a patron of the podcast, I was recently asked by Matt which of the 350+ episodes I felt was ‘most valuable’. My choice was episode 300 with Sigfrido Zimmermann, “An Ecologist’s Take on Nature Photography.”

Sigfrido is a local (to me in SoCal) ecologist and nature photographer, who leverages his intimate knowledge of ecology to create stunning images - check out his website to see them.

I had the good fortune to ‘bump-into’ Sigfrido while hiking in Joshua Tree - he walked past me on a trail, recognized me, and stopped for a chat. It was great to be able to meet him in person. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon.

If you’re not already a listener to F-Stop Collaborate and Listen, I encourage you to take a listen, and then subscribe to get the weekly episodes. If you like what you hear please do consider supporting Matt to continue creating the podcast each week.

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Let me be your landscape photography guide to Joshua Tree National Park in 2024.

My workshops cater to all levels of photographers and include classic viewpoints as well as some hidden gems. I'll make sure you're in the best place to take advantage of the light and weather conditions.

Choose a one-to-one workshop (and personalize it to what you'd like to photograph, specific techniques, or how far you want to hike), or join a small group workshop (which is limited to no more than 3 photographers).

I will help you discover new places and improve your photography at the same time.

To usher in the new year I’m giving a 20% discount on all 2024 one-day workshops booked before January 31st. Use coupon code JNP2024 at checkout.