We recently connected with Michael Simmons and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

After 30 years of public service in the military and as a first responder, I was able to recently retire and this has helped in being able to start a new career path as a Landscape Photographer. This new path hasn’t been easy but has definitely been rewarding. I had traveled this world and great country of ours for work but now being able to do it again with a camera is a dream come true. I have discussed and learned from some talented full time photographers and am learning the ropes of running a business. I now have been running landscape photography workshops and have begun to make a living from teaching these workshops. I have had to look at creating a niche or style that will draw potential clients and I found it in my lobe of overlanding. So my workshops come with a twist and we do it overland style. We get to drive out to our shoot location and have the ability to stay on scene and shoot more and be within nature for even longer. These workshops encompass the fundamentals of landscape photography with the adventure of getting to our composition scenes. This new full time living is a new way of bringing joy to others in the workshops and a way to enjoy nature and photography.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well, Im a married father of three daughters (who keep me on my toes) and I have always been an outdoorsy person being raised in Colorado. I’m actually really new to my new career after 30 years of public service as a first responder and U.S. Army veteran. I have always enjoyed landscape photography starting in my youth but did not always have the time or ability to photograph my surroundings due to work. As the years progressed I was able to find time and get out into nature for my mental health and photograph this beautiful world of ours. The more I got out the more I found that I didn’t want to return to civilization and a realization that I want to do this full time was born. After retirement, I picked up the camera full time and with a desire to share my craft, I began teaching landscape photography workshops.

My photography workshops are different, instead of photographing the landscape and driving back to a hotel, we take our hotel with us and stay on location to shoot longer and enjoy nature even more. Many locations require a off-road vehicle and so we see less people and enjoy more time at some epic locations. This new style of photography workshop brings a type of enjoyment that many workshops are missing, the adventure.

I have found that Overlanding and photography brings adventure to those photographers who want to see more and spend more time in solitude with nature.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The biggest struggle I have is learning social media and the new AI generated algorithms. If I had this understanding earlier, I would have focused on my social media audience and growing a following before embarking on my new career. With this said its a new journey and learning social media is part of the journey and is fun creating new online friends and followers.

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

One of my main reasons for pursuing my photography in all these years was for my own mental health and inner peace. I have found that with my photographing adventures. I would love that those who struggle with mental health can find peace with getting out and photographing the world and if I can assist with that peace it would be my goal to do so.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.distantlightphotos.com
• Instagram: distantlightphotos
• Facebook: Michael Simmons Photography

Image Credits
All images are mine