Journey to Inspiration

Journey to Inspiration I'm a born and raised Californian who flew halfway across the world to live in the coldest and most rural part of Japan, Hokkaido.

I think that's where my passion for photography began. I hope you can enjoy Japan through my lens.

Soaking in last of the sun for the day ☀️🦭Be thankful you can’t smell this photo.
11/27/2025

Soaking in last of the sun for the day ☀️🦭
Be thankful you can’t smell this photo.


Sometimes all you catch is the backside of the animal. This was one chonky pika.
11/08/2025

Sometimes all you catch is the backside of the animal. This was one chonky pika.

Mother otter and pup in Moss Landing, California. I love the bright orange-red reflection coming from a nearby buoy.
10/25/2025

Mother otter and pup in Moss Landing, California. I love the bright orange-red reflection coming from a nearby buoy.

With all the new autumn images I was able to get during my trip down to Bishop, CA, I finally went back to some of my mu...
10/22/2025

With all the new autumn images I was able to get during my trip down to Bishop, CA, I finally went back to some of my much older images from 2021 during my last roadtrip in Japan. If I remember correctly, I took this photo in one of the Alpine regions in Gifu prefecture. A very rainy and foggy day, but it made for some awesome cloud formations.

A cute little Yellow-rumped warbler frolicing in the fall Aspen leaves. 🍂
10/18/2025

A cute little Yellow-rumped warbler frolicing in the fall Aspen leaves. 🍂

The road to Lake Sabrina was like a fairytale fall landscape. Some of the best colored aspens I saw while in the Eastern...
10/08/2025

The road to Lake Sabrina was like a fairytale fall landscape. Some of the best colored aspens I saw while in the Eastern Sierras.

I am currently in Bishop taking my first real vacation in over 2 years! Living on the central coast of California, we ra...
09/29/2025

I am currently in Bishop taking my first real vacation in over 2 years! Living on the central coast of California, we rarely get a true autumn at least when it comes to the colors changing foliage. It’s something I’ve missed immensely since leaving Japan. This trip down to the Eastern Sierras was just what I needed. I sometimes regret posting photos mid trip because occasionally I can get better shots later on, but even if I get a better shot of North Lake, this is still an amazing shot!

The sneeze heard around the world. This large group of sea lions took over one of the local beaches and I was determined...
09/20/2025

The sneeze heard around the world. This large group of sea lions took over one of the local beaches and I was determined to photograph them at sunrise. That was easier said then done when Monterey Bay is know to be quite a cloudy area especially in the mornings. After a week of checking the weather I had my window of opportunity. My goal was to get a group shot showing the scale of just how many sea lions were on this beach. This sea lion in the center just happed to sneeze as I was taking my photos, illuminating it in all its glory.

🌊🐋 Epic Whale Watching Moment 🐋🌊After almost a year of weekly whale watching trips with I finally had the experience th...
09/16/2025

🌊🐋 Epic Whale Watching Moment 🐋🌊

After almost a year of weekly whale watching trips with I finally had the experience that will stick with me forever.

It started like any other trip. We spotted some humpback whales near Moss Landing and then encountered a pod of Risso’s dolphins. I thought that was the highlight of the day but then, the real magic happened.

On our way back, our naturalist and captain both noticed a whale off in the distance putting on a spectacular show. I had no idea what was happening until we got closer since I had been looking down at my phone. This humpback whale was absolutely showing off that or it was really itchy.

It breached over 30 times, nonstop. It was as if it was performing just for us. I honestly lost count in the moment, but when I watched the footage later, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

20 minutes of pure magic 🐋. Even when it was time to head back, the whale kept going. I’ll never forget this one. It was one for the books. 🌊

A very memorable morning out whale watching. I thought I’d be posting some surface lunge feeding behavior by a baby hump...
09/04/2025

A very memorable morning out whale watching. I thought I’d be posting some surface lunge feeding behavior by a baby humpback whale but in the end, the most interesting thing that happened on this trip was finding this sea otter starting to devour some type of skate.

Now I’ve taken many photos of sea otters and have seen them consume crabs, sea urchins, muscles, clams, geoducks, but never in my life have I seen them eat a skate. I was so focused on photographing this amazing sea otter behavior that I failed to hear the captain of the boat tell us that our engines had failed. I only noticed something was up when I stopped looking through my camera lens and saw that we were mear feet from shore as we had drifted there when there was no way to move the boat. At least the engines failed after we had returned to the harbor so the tugboat didn’t have to push and pull us too far back to the dock. A very fun morning out with .

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