Michael O'Hara Photography

11/16/2024

Yosemite with Emily, October 2024. 35mm CineStill 800T film.

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Two years in a row? I think Emily and I have started a new tradition of visiting Yosemite in the fall. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of this place.

09/29/2024

I just sent off Haylie’s senior photos this afternoon and felt like I had to share a few of my favorites from this session here.

I love getting an up-close, firsthand look into the personalities and passions of my subjects at this momentous stage of their lives, full of new and meaningful milestones, and then doing my best to capture that spirit in a few still images.

I probably wrote a very similar caption last year as I reflected on some of the senior sessions I took under the same golden light of the late summer sun and early autumn colors, but it’s also fitting that Haylie is the younger sister of one of my subjects from last year, and I feel like that makes my job feel even more special.

08/16/2024

Do you know anyone who needs senior photos this Fall? I had a blast getting creative with these seniors last year and I’m looking forward to more senior sessions in the coming months! Check out my booking link or reach out directly for availability!

08/02/2024

Ann and Rango had spend the day riding through the Badlands backcountry, but we ran into each other in camp as the last embers of sunset burned their way across the horizon and the soft crescent moon cut with increasing sharpness through the growing blue evening.

She asked for a photo of the two of them, and how could I resist the pull of such a scene?

07/29/2024

07/21/2024

Six years ago, I went for a walk in the woods with a pretty girl in a floral dress.

Six years later, I went for a walk in the woods with a pretty girl in a floral dress, but this time I wore a floral tie to match.

Now I get to go for walks in the woods with my wife.

Happy birthday, Emily, forever my pretty girl in a floral dress—I love you!

06/10/2024

A couple of weeks ago I led an outdoor program backpacking trip through Coyote Gulch in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. This was the biggest trip I’ve organized and guided with Augie, and while it took us to some of the most incredible places with an amazing group of students, it was also an exhausting week of driving, camping, hiking, and carrying ourselves through new experiences under our own power.

We backpacked into this unassuming canyon, descending from the sand dunes and sagebrush-speckled expanse of arid desert to a beautiful, lush oasis, green with willows and filled with the sound of wind rushing through the fish scale silver green leaves of quaking aspen that mingled with the babbling of creek water falling into emerald green pools beneath brick red walls of sandstone, painted black by millennia of rainwater drunk by the thirsty desert and collected here beneath and washing over our feet as we followed the path cut over time measured not in years, but in stone.

So really, who am I to complain about a few dozen hours of driving across the country to sleep under these walls? But on the other hand, can you imagine having the patience of a stone?

11/10/2023

I’m not sure I have the words yet to appropriately describe the trip Emily and I took to Yosemite a couple of weeks ago, so these photos will have to do for the time being. Black and white photos, of course, because where better for a photographer to try his best to emulate Ansel Adams than here?

09/23/2023

This senior session was twice the privilege being able to photograph both Olivia and her twin brother Levi.

You can tell they were both naturals in front of the camera, but it was also just a pleasure to share in conversation with them. Taking good photos is always made easy when you can get to know someone, and when a photoshoot becomes a conversation and I learn the story behind the person, that’s when I thrive. I strive to ensure that all of my photos tell a story, and I think that can have a huge impact on the final result.

It’s one thing to go through the motions of posing and orchestrating a technical photoshoot, but as a storyteller, I want to make these photos embody you and show who you are. Olivia and Levi, thank you for letting me tell your stories.

09/22/2023

I haven’t just been in the mountains for the past few months, despite what my social media might make it look like. I’ve been lucky to have had several senior photo sessions this summer with some fantastic clients.

It’s such a good feeling to be creative behind the camera with such expressive subjects and to create a body of work that captures and embodies a person at a milestone moment in their life.

I’ll share a few highlights from some of those sessions here over the next couple of days, starting off with Olivia, who wholeheartedly understood the assignment.

09/20/2023

This past weekend I led my first overnight backpacking trip as Director of the Augustana University Outdoor Program. It was a humbling experience, as guiding can be, especially to do so in such a humbling and beautiful place, but it was an exciting milestone in this new role.

Grateful to have this opportunity, and for those who have taught and encouraged me and the experiences and opportunities I’ve had that have led me here. Thankful for these lands and landscapes shaped by stone and water, life and history. Forever stoked to challenge myself and encourage others, to be outside and to welcome others into new spaces and worthwhile experiences.

09/11/2023

I should share these before the leaves change colors, but I also recognize that my Instagram has become less about instant gratification than it has been for me in the past.

It’s nice to slow down, relax, reflect, find introspection. Especially with a good friend.

From the end of July on the North Shore. A couple of days in the backcountry to think and talk about things important and unimportant, drinking and sharing of brews micro and macro, and a little bit of walking in the woods with a good friend. One of the best.