16/10/2020
Hi, everyone! I'm Eliott. There's a lot of new people hanging out on this page, so I thought I'd introduce myself.
I run Wilderness Media Co and The Wilderness Diary, and along with some great friends and local businesses create outdoor and adventure photo and video content, much of which you see here.
I live in Estes Park year round these days (except for travel!), so you can often find me in Rocky Mountain National Park dressed just like this looking through my camera's viewfinder.
I'm fortunate to live in such an incredible place these days. I grew up in Indiana and Illinois. As a boy, my mother would often take me out to local forest preserves and I'd splash around catching frogs and snakes. I rekindled my love for the outdoors during my time at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California. After leaving the Marine Corps, I did a lot of back country exploring in the beautiful American West.
Living in Arizona the past 8 years, I spent a lot of time in the incredible landscape of the southwest. And while I worked as Director of Marketing for a few places near Phoenix, my passion was always rooted in the rough solitude of the wild, not the polished wood of a desk.
After visiting the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in 2014, I knew who I was and the kind of places I wanted to go. But a week or a weekend just wasn't enough to quiet down the call of the wild in my heart. Almodt by chance, I picked up a Nikon D3300 knowing only that a "DSLR" camera would be the answer for product photography at work.
While I was on the road visiting clients, I figured I should take some shots of the beautiful landscape surrounding me. Nature photography quickly grabbed a hold of me, and provided all new "missions" in my mind, giving me a goal-oriented approach to what most people would view as vacation. After a lot of outside interest in my developing photography skillset, I started getting a lot of traction with companies in the outdoor and tactical space.
If you're familiar with companies like 5.11 Tactical, First Tactical, Armor Express, Survival Armor, Haley Strategic Partners, Oboz Footwear, Conner Hats, Skaggs Public Safety Uniforms, or Arizona Highways Magazine, there's a good chance you've seen me and/or my work.
During the COVID lockdown, I had a chance to slow down and learn new things. I decided to figure out how to do video, and I am in love with the ways you can deeply create and shape story in the medium.
Today, you'll find me in the mountains with a gimbal and a Nikon Z7. Say hi if you see me on the trail!
