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Matt Payne
Matt Payne is a landscape photographer and mountain climber from Durango, Colorado. He’s the host of the weekly landscape photography podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance, and co-founder of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. He lives with his wife, Angela, his son Quinn, and his four cats, Juju, Chara, Arrow, and Vestal.
In the summer of 2023, I set out to hike the 500-mile Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango. I brought with me a single camera and a 28-200mm Tamron lens, unsure of exactly what I would photograph, but deeply certain that I needed the walk. What unfolded over the next five weeks became one of the most creatively and personally transformative experiences of my life. I didn’t plan the images. I didn’t chase epic conditions. I didn’t even know if the photos I was making would be any good. And that was precisely the point.
As a full-time photographer, it’s easy to fall into the trap of always shooting with a purpose: for a portfolio, for a client, for a competition, for the algorithm. But walking the Colorado Trail reminded me of something I had lost sight of: the power of presence. Of slowing down. Of making photographs not for anyone else, but as a way of being in relationship with the landscape. It was a return to curiosity, patience, and authenticity - the very values that first pulled me into photography in the mountains of Colorado decades ago.