Alex Noriega Photography

Alex Noriega Photography Nature photographer, nomad, nerd Alex Noriega is a landscape photographer based in the USA's Pacific Northwest.

For information on processing instruction, workshops/tours, prints, and image licensing, visit www.alexnoriega.com

Copperwave (2026), the sequel to Copperline (2022). Hollywood movies are seemingly all low-risk remakes and sequels now,...
04/27/2026

Copperwave (2026), the sequel to Copperline (2022). Hollywood movies are seemingly all low-risk remakes and sequels now, and they’re rarely as good as the originals. Why should my photographs be any different?

Los Pastelitos. They speak to me.
04/26/2026

Los Pastelitos. They speak to me.

Grains of Jupiter, Death Valley 2026. Recent storms had made for some of the craziest patterns I’ve seen on the dunes.
04/25/2026

Grains of Jupiter, Death Valley 2026. Recent storms had made for some of the craziest patterns I’ve seen on the dunes.

Ocean shores? Misty mountains? Icy plains?Naw, just the desert. I thought this place was supposed to be a brown and feat...
04/24/2026

Ocean shores? Misty mountains? Icy plains?

Naw, just the desert. I thought this place was supposed to be a brown and featureless wasteland? I guess the 1-star reviews aren’t to be trusted.

Only the light.
04/23/2026

Only the light.

“Looking Glass”, Death Valley 2026. There’s one thing that most of my very favorite photographs have in common: I never ...
04/22/2026

“Looking Glass”, Death Valley 2026. There’s one thing that most of my very favorite photographs have in common: I never could have planned them or conceived of them in advance. This is what keeps me going in nature photography. There’s always something new and unexpected to discover, if I just keep my eyes and my mind open. (This mantra doubles as a convenient excuse for a night owl like me to skip waking up for sunrises!)

I have just begun two weeks of spring workshops with William Neill in Yosemite. Here are twenty of my favorite images I’...
04/21/2026

I have just begun two weeks of spring workshops with William Neill in Yosemite. Here are twenty of my favorite images I’ve made in the park over the past five years. I don’t believe I’ll ever tire of photographing this place, nor will I tire of sharing it with our students!

Here are my favorite photographs of 2025, right on time in late April! I’ve always liked making lists of my favorite thi...
04/20/2026

Here are my favorite photographs of 2025, right on time in late April! I’ve always liked making lists of my favorite things, and I also enjoy curation. This yearly ritual of drilling down to my twelve favorite images is therefore ALSO enjoyable. Is that the transitive property? I don’t know, I’m not a MATHEMATICIAN.

Fifteen photographs I made in Olympic National Park last fall. It was so nice to return to one of the main places where ...
04/19/2026

Fifteen photographs I made in Olympic National Park last fall. It was so nice to return to one of the main places where my obsession with nature photography was seeded in the early 2010s. The smell of the forest meeting the ocean is so deliciously distinct—it hits your open window as soon as Highway 101 rejoins the coastline around Kalaloch. If you’re interested in joining me here, Anna Morgan and I have a workshop with two spots left in March 2027! More info on my website.

It’s now been 10 years since I made the first of these original aerial images, including “Mother Brain” (a reference not...
03/25/2026

It’s now been 10 years since I made the first of these original aerial images, including “Mother Brain” (a reference not only to what I personally imagined when I first saw it, but to the all-time classic Super Metroid.)

I had explored photographing the formation with direct sunlight raking across the landscape, but I felt that the context added by the light destroyed the abstraction and the mystery. Additionally, since the the “tree” or “brain stem” was located within a concave depression, low-angle light only hit its surroundings, which drew attention away from the main idea of the composition and toward the edges of the frame. In the end, I felt soft light was the right choice for an already complex subject. This decision also gave me the freedom to work the color with intent, into a cohesive (and brain-like) red and pink palette.

Though the dendritic patterns were radial in nature, I felt they had a bit more of a horizontal flow with the brain oriented “right side up”, so I chose this framing to allow enough space for the important elements on all sides. I excluded distractions outside of what I saw as the brain shape, so that the titular idea could be conveyed effectively.

Nature photography should not be conflated with subject, nor location. There are so many more considerations that go into it than where to go and what to point at. I enjoy revisiting some of the same places and subjects year after year, because there is always something new to discover and create when I let go of prescribed ideas.

Even still, I have not felt particularly compelled to return to making images like these. This is despite frequenting this area for the last decade-plus, and despite the inherent novelty and abundance of aerial perspectives. I sold that drone many years ago, and finally bought another one last year. I’ve hardly used it, because I still prefer the slower, quieter process of standing behind the camera and tripod, observing the light and subject directly with my own two eyes.

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