Todd Strange

About Me

I was born and raised in the foothills of Southern California. I was fortunate to be born into an active family full of outdoor enthusiasts. We spent a significant amount of time in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where I learned to rock climb, mountain bike, hike, fish, backpack, and so much more.

This is where my fondness for nature and the outdoors began, which was compounded by many family trips to National Parks across the US. I first fell in love with Utah on a childhood trip to Zion and Bryce Canyons. I was enamored by the magnificence of the canyon walls in Zion as we hiked through the Narrows the way the light reflected off the water and danced across the walls. The tunnels through the Upper East Side were enchanting and seemed a portal to another universe. I fell in love with the stars at Bryce; never in my life had I been able to bear witness to the magnitude of our galaxy in such a way. I immediately took my allotted souvenir money and bought a book about the stars.

I have had an affinity for taking pictures for as long as I can remember, though I didn’t pursue photography with much zeal until after I moved to Utah in July of 2011. I started to spend a significant amount of time exploring the backcountry of southern Utah. During this time, I started taking a lot more pictures with my cell phone, which eventually, around the time 2016, led to me purchasing and learning how to use a DSLR. I was hooked. I began taking photos of everything.

If I wasn’t taking photos, I was reading books about photography, watching YouTube videos, and seeking other photographers out to ask questions. For those first few years, I ate, slept, and breathed photography. I could think of nothing else. I learned through application and failure every time a shot didn’t turn out the way I wanted I immediately went home, researched why, and went back out to try again. I met my good friend Ty Andersen shortly after and began chasing fall colors, monsoon storms, and flashflood waterfalls throughout the southwest portion of the state. The Immense raw power of nature and its everchanging beauty was addictive. I eventually took a position as a backpacking field guide to become more competent in the backcountry and to study the way the light interplays across the landscape.

I love the chase of photography. Light is so fleeting and fickle that there is a thrill involved in its capture. behind every image is a lot of time, preparation, likely many return trips, and a multitude of other factors that need to line up. Each image generates its hidden backstory full of adventure, mishaps, trials, failures, and of course, victory. Photography also offers me an ever-changing and evolving platform and space in which I can grow and challenge myself.