We were lucky to catch up with Cameron Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cameron, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

What is meaningful to me? All my trips, travels and hikes have had a meaningful impact on the evolution of my work in one way or another. But right now I would have to say that my abstract body of work titled ‘Natural Abstractions’ is having the greatest impact on me artistically.

Natural Abstractions in its simplest summary are abstract photographs of different landscapes out in nature. I create these by using intentional camera moment by taking seconds long photographs and physically move my camera in different ways. I like to think of it similar to how a painter moves their brush and manipulates the paint; my camera is the brush and the light is the paint. All of my work revolves around this concept of nature and The Natural Abstractions project has been a way for me to dive deeper into exploring my relationship with the outdoors. With my landscape photos I capture the landscape as it is, in all its wonderful glory. Usually it is in hope of inspiring others to see these places for themselves or as a way to preserve the memory of that moment for myself. But with this abstract project, I’m injecting my intent onto the landscape when I move the camera and what I create are images that are not entirely real nor entirely false. What I have come away learning so far is an appreciation and a greater awareness of the basic shapes and colors that we see everyday. Whether that’s something as large as the breakdown of the colors of a sunrise or as small as the patterns formed by fallen leaves on the ground, it all holds a beauty unto itself.

Cameron, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I really got into photography in college, where I took one class and was hooked. I wound up graduating with a degree in it from The Ohio State University. Before that I had always enjoyed photographing our family trips. I would often steal my mothers camera during these times, so a lot of our family photos were taken by a young me. But it was nothing more than a passing interest at the time until I got to college, where I found a place that nurtured that interest and my creative self.

I have taken my love for photography and combined it with my love for the outdoors to now being the owner and photographer for Striped Moon Studios, a photography service that sells prints of landscapes, wildlife and abstract photography. My love of nature is the central driving force behind my work and my photographs are of places all around the country, and a few outside it as well. I sell my photographs on paper, canvas, metal and acrylic, all from my website. I really enjoy sharing the wide and diverse beauty of nature and will hike many miles, sometimes many days, to reach certain spots to share with others. Hopefully my images help inspire others to make memories of their own and make them want to help protect these precious locations. Or perhaps they already have a precious memory and my images helps being them back to that moment.

I do think of myself as an artist and with that I’m always trying to find new ways to experiment and push my work. That has come in the form of my abstract photography and even more recently my dabbling with infrared imagery. I’m constantly tinkering around with my photography and process. It helps me hold off complacency and keeps me interested. In the end, I’m just a photographer and artist that loves capturing the outdoors in different ways and wants to bring it into as many peoples homes as I can.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Ever since I graduated college I’ve been doing something involving cameras. It started out working for a camera store and then working for car dealerships and taking photos for them, which I hated. In the background, I was building my studio and figuring out exactly I wanted to do because I didn’t exactly know what I was passionate about at the time. I did portraits, weddings, and product photography. You name it, I tried it, all in an effort to figure out how to make this work. Eventually it was during my back to back trips to Iceland and Yellowstone that helped me greatly in deciding that landscapes and celebrating my love of nature is where my passions were. But I was still hesitant to fully dive into it. Then an opportunity arose, my wife got a new job that would require us to move to Minnesota, away from all of our friends and family. In that time we both decided that I would try and commit my efforts to landscape photography full time. So I quite my job, shifted my business model and that is what I have been doing since. The first year for me did not go well. I am not instinctually business minded and that is still a learning curve I am crossing. But my second year was better, the third better than that, and so and so on. I am and will forever be grateful to my wife Kylee for taking a chance on me.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being able to see places I didn’t even know existed and doing this while exploring my creativity. The goals of my artwork push me travel and see more and it is honestly something I don’t fight much. I have been fortunate enough to have hiked mountains, deserts, coastlines and caves which is something that I am proud of. But being able to do it at my own pace is something that I have found to be rewarding. Inspiration doesn’t always come easy to me and I found it to be something that I can’t force, despite my best efforts. So to travel when I want, at times where I feel inspired or maybe just need to recharge myself has been a great gift to me. Also, lately I have been enjoying just talking to people who have been to the same places as I have. Someone who sees my work, talks to me about their experiences and the time they spent in a spot I have has been a rewarding experience. To hear about how their experience was similar or different from mine really shows me how a place or nature itself can bring us closer together as people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stripedmoonstudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stripedmoonstudios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stripedmoonstudios/