Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dillon Weishuhn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Dillon, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Learning to shoot photos of interesting places required two separate endeavors. One is obviously, shooting and editing the photo of the cool thing in question, but before you can do that you have to find the cool thing, which is no easy task in itself. To shoot and edit photos I started with my phone and then moved on to a cropped sensor camera and then eventually a full frame. Along the way, I watched copious amounts of YouTube videos to learn new skills and troubleshoot old ones. The best teacher however, was good old fashioned experience. Nothing improved my photography more than shooting and editing as much as I possibly could. You especially need this in photography to hone in on your personal style. You have to shoot a technically good photo but then you also have to make it your own. Now as far as the finding locations, I want to shoot mountains and historic places more than anything. In order to do this well I needed to be a decent outdoorsman and hiker as well as being adversed in history enough to know the significance of the places I was going to shoot. Luckily, I love mountains and I’ve been a history nerd since I was a kid so I enjoyed the process. In order to shoot awesome mountain scenery, I had to make sure I was a competent hiker, even in less than ideal weather. I try to push myself with hiking not only with distances like 18 plus miles for Half Dome at Yosemite but also with being able to carry my camera gear: I’m not the fastest on the mountain, but I’ll get there with my camera. To shoot and tell a story of an amazing historic place, I have to be able to find it even if it’s not in a convenient touristy spot. I also have to research enough to tell people why this place in important. One of my favorite finds from my last adventure in Italy was the temple complex at Paestum, about an hour south of Napoli. Most foreign tourists don’t venture out there but it’s magnificent. Still standing to this day are 3 massive Greek temples dedicated to Hera and Athena, the oldest of which was constructed over 2500 years ago, 400 years before the time of Caesar. The Doric style columns constructed by the colonists at Magna Grecia (great Greece, coastal areas of southern Italy), had a major influence on the architecture of the Romans.

If I knew what I knew now, to speed up the learning process, I would learn more from photographers of different styles and take what I can from each. When you are first starting out, you may be tempted to find the first work flow of a photographer you like and do exactly what they do on every photo and this might cause you to miss tools and techniques that could improve your work.

I think attention to detail is one of the most important skills to getting better at photography. So much of it involves subtle changes to certain things that make a world of difference in the end result. An example would be noticing a slight green tint over the walls of a house in the mountains surrounded by green trees. In order to make the house “pop” a little, you might consider throwing a mask on the house and pushing the tint away from green and more towards magenta. Developing an eye for subtle things is key in photography.

Feeling stuck is probably one of the biggest obstacles in photography. I find this happens if I stay glued to the same project for too long. One thing that helps is taking a break ti work on something else and coming back to it with fresh eyes. Another thing that helps being stuck in the edit is to think more simple. Instead of getting bogged down in too much editing, often times thinking in simple terms like “is this exposed right? Should this be warm or cold? And is my subject the focus point?” is helpful to unsticking yourself.

Dillon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For the folks that haven’t heard of me, my name is Dillon and I’m on social media as Ponderingadventurer. I shoot photos and videos of hikes, travels and historic places. If you tune in, you’ll see photos of the most awesome mountains I’ve seen, epic travel destinations and fascinating historic places that give you something to ponder on afterwards. In addition to photos and videos I try to provide value by giving hiking tips and photo op spots for when you’re in the mountains. I’ll hopefully give you some destination ideas that the average Joe traveller may not venture to and that you can get a bit more out of your adventure. I’ll also show you an image that perks your curiosity, hopefully enough to get you to read a story from history that makes you think of where you came from and what it might be like in a different time.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

There’s probably at least a few goals that drive my creativity, but I think the main goal with photography is to make other people feel what I felt when they look at my photo. I want the viewer to get a glimpse into what I was thinking when I saw that particular scene. For example, if I go out to the mountains and shoot landscape photos during a storm with low clouds that wrap around the peaks, I want the viewer to feel cold and maybe a little intimidated by the mountains. I want them to feel like this scenery is beautiful but looks dangerous and dramatic at the same time. I want to impart the feeling of the subject to the viewer.

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

I’d say the most rewarding aspect of being an adventure photographer is being able to tell the story of these different places in my own way. To me, the most interesting photographers capture moments, not images. Anyone can snap a photo of something. Not everyone can capture the story or the feeling of it. In my last trip to Rome, I captured a photo of two Swiss Guards standing at their posts just next to St Peters Basilica in the Vatican. I love that the positions they’re standing in are symmetrical, and they guard a pass that leads to the side and back of the Basilica. This photo reminds me of the origins of the Swiss Guard. Not to rant too much (sorry haha), but during the Middle Ages, fighting men from the mountains of Switzerland were the premier mercenaries of the time. Eventually they were hired to protect the pope in Rome and in 1527, they cemented their legacy. An army from Germany invaded, sacked Rome and 189 Swiss Guards stood their ground on steps of St Peters Basilica to protect the pope against around 20,000 invaders. Only 42 survived. The Swiss Guards have protected the Popes ever since. These are the stories I want to tell with my photography.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @ponderingadventurer
• Twitter: Dillonweishuhn

Image Credits
All images are my own.