Forrest Gump Point in Monument Valley

Located just north of Monument Valley on US Scenic Highway 163, Forrest Gump Point is arguably one of the most photographed and recognizable views of the American Southwest. 

Featured in the 1994 Best Picture Winner, Forrest Gump Point is where Tom Hanks (as Forrest Gump) ends his cross-country run and unceremoniously decides to go home. Naturally, you'll see lots of people stopping here and running to get the same shot (myself included).

Monument Valley scene in Forrest Gump (1994)

A Snowy Flight Over Utah

On route to my connection in Salt Lake City, Utah this morning, two failed landing attempts in white-out conditions lead to a 40 minute diversion to a small airport in Idaho for refueling.

While ordinarily this would be frustrating, I had a long layover in SLC anyway that was going to kill an afternoon. The diversion actually became an incredible aerial tour over Great Salt Lake with the opportunity to photograph some of the most unbelievable winter scenery below.

We were on the ground about an hour in Idaho before the weather passed and we were back on track. Now here I am in SLC waiting for my next flight and already excited about images I was never meant to capture. My good / bad luck strikes again!

Southwest USA Travel Shoot 2022

Two weeks, 6 states, 7 national parks / preserves, 12.6K images, nearly 7500 kms driven, and my first return to travel shooting on the road in the U.S. since March 2020. 

From the Grand Canyon to the California coast, from hiking in Arches to camping in Joshua Tree, from searching out desert art installations to classing it up at the Beverly Hills Hotel ... can I just say how much I've missed this? 

My sincerest thanks to everyone who made this series of travel shoots an epic success. Now, where to next? I'm thinking I could use some recommendations as I'll be camped out in the edit suite for the next few months to continue work on the documentary ... 

Are you planning any travel in 2022?

Open Roads & Wide Open Spaces

It's been a minute since my last road trip travel series through the good ole U.S. of A, but after 17 hours of driving south I'm happy to share that I'm back at it again. I hope you'll join me over the next few weeks as I share some highlights from the road and a few behind the scenes teasers of some of the new travel content I have in the works for 2022. 

This series of shoots is all about making up for lost time. Please be sure to engage with the new posts to continue to see them in your feed if you're interested. 

*Reposted from @editingluke

Salt Lake City, Utah

In the shadow of Temple Square, Dave and I continued our road trip by taking a few hours to walk around the downtown core of Salt Lake City, Utah. While this destination was simply a late night stop over on our way to California, we still managed to make the most of our time by walking a loop from the Grand America Hotel to the Salt Lake Temple. 

It was a warm September afternoon and given that it was Sunday the city seemed noticeably quiet. It was cool to just walk around and shoot the breeze despite not really having a specific path in mind. Sometimes you don't even have to be doing anything out of the ordinary, but just being in a new place keeps you in the moment. Plus, Salt Lake is a beautiful city.

Utah & Salt Lake: Indio Outio

Day One (08.23.09) Through Montana and Idaho, by the time we reached the Utah border it was late into the evening. By that point Dave and I were fairly quiet, enjoying music and making predictions about what the landscape looked like that we couldn't see. I remember Dave selecting a lot of R.E.M. tracks.

All of the population in Utah is practically located in the corridor surrounding Great Salt Lake, which gives the illusion early on that you must be close to Salt Lake City (if you're not used to the drive). In reality, by the time we reached Ogden, we were still a ways off from our destination, and with midnight rolling around we were feeling beat.

Bursts of rain continued to hit us randomly and then stop, on and off several times throughout the day. I remember this becoming more treacherous as we neared Salt Lake. The dirt on our windshield combined with the lights of oncoming traffic and buildings made for one blurry mess. In any case, we made it to Salt Lake City, spotting the giant temple from the interstate and looping around the international airport several times in our effort to find our hotel. By the time my head hit my pillow I was out.

Day Two (08.24.09) We awoke the next day intent on exploring downtown Salt Lake before heading south to Las Vegas. We parked kitty-corner to Temple Square and took a casual walk around the complex, spending extra time to take pictures of ourselves mimicking the statues. If there is one thing I could say about my impression of Salt Lake, it's that the place was immaculately clean and well landscaped.

We followed the Salt Lake Temple with a trip up to the State Capital Building, taking more random photos with statues and pictures of ourselves sitting on the steps. 'I'm Just a Bill' from Schoolhouse Rock was sung (by me anyway, haha).

The entire time I was trying to contain my enthusiasm, not because of any single thing we saw, but because I knew that this was just the beginning of our road trip. We could have easily spent several days exploring Utah, but instead the brief stop actually helped to justify the distance we were covering for the sake of the things we were going to be able to see and experience.




It was upon leaving Salt Lake City that the clouds from the day before finally started to break up. Heading south to Vegas the sun suddenly appeared, giving everything a golden colour and revealing the incredible transformation from the green and grey of Montana. It was as we passed Provo that afternoon I remember quipping, "this is where the road trip really begins".