Wyatt Mullen is a recent graduate from Stanford University in physics and Spanish and a native of the Pacific Northwest. The natural world inspires him daily in both his career pursuits as a scientist and in his landscape/adventure based photography. He is curious about the ways of the world and how humans can better understand and protect the Earth’s beauty through close observation and scientific methods. Nothing gives him more pleasure than a tasty tropical fruit, a fiery sunset, a spectacular storm, a star-filled night, or a spontaneous adventure. He hopes that his photography provides an authentic portrayal of the earth’s incredible natural diversity and that it inspires others to responsibly adventure outside while developing a stronger connection to the Earth. 

Establishing shot

(Camera swoops over jagged mountain peaks and then focuses on verdant valley as a gleaming sun sinks into the Salish Sea, gasps elicited from crowd…)

I grew up in Washington. Washington State, not Washington, DC. In the town of Mount Vernon. No, not Mount Vernon, VA outside of Washington, DC, but Mount Vernon north of Seattle. No, I did not grow up in Seattle, but an hour north of it in about as rural of a farming community as you can still find west of the Cascades. This is the sort of town where in high school we had a day where we celebrated tractors; seemingly overnight the tractors would herd into our courtyard and their mechanical lowing would echo across the school grounds.

As the other residents of the United States have begun to discover in the last few decades, this corner of the country is stunning. Yes we are intimately familiar with every variation of gray in existence (I mean there’s a reason Fifty Shades of Gray is set in Seattle) and we may act a little irrational when we finally get our first 60F day of the year in June, but this truly is one of the best places in the world (not that I’m biased in any way). There’s no other place in the US where such a dichotomy exists between wilderness and population center, where the farm fields, cities, and millions of houses along the Puget Sound transition abruptly to impenetrable forests and unclimbable mountains. And here I was born, before the Y2K apocalypse in the verdant valley where 50% of the world’s beet seed and 25% of the world’s cabbage seed are grown (so think about my photography during your next beet seed dinner).

The best aspect of the Skagit Valley, other than the tsunami of berries and other fresh produce we get every summer (don’t you even think about trying to convince me Maine blueberries are better than Washington blueberries), is its proximity to some of the US’s finest scenery. It’s less than two hours from Seattle to three of America’s finest National Parks, although my heart really lies in the North Cascades. The actual park is not easy to see (please go check out the drivable parks throughout in CA and UT if you’re going to stay in your car); you almost certainly have to hike or backpack it to experience a piece of its grandeur. Even for someone who could *almost* see parts of the park from my widow growing up, it was only in the last few years that I realized how much I had been missing. 

During the early noughties (pronounced "naughties" but also known as the 2000s—I’m really trying to make this a thing) I would go hiking in the cascades with my parents and other friend groups. These trips seemed as much a part of daily life as doing my homework or going to the store and I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have this access. However, never did I become complacent of this beauty. With so many overcast days, every moment the sun came out was a gift. Those sunbreaks were a chance to go outside, to explore, to discover, to connect. Sometime during those years I was gifted my first camera. Originally it was just another object to keep Wyatt busy on trips—one of those "point and shoot" cameras that you take pictures of cool things, but never look at again. I can’t tell you how many photos I have of "cool" objects from the Museum of Natural History in Washington (actually DC this time!) or grainy photos of flowers.

The DSLR set-up

Entering high school my passion for photography really began to take off. I believe part of this was the freedom that a vehicle gave me to photograph my interests, but my interest also grew as I became aware of the power of photographs. As I was exposed to more images, my excitement to take images of my own grew. This culminated with the gift of my first camera at the end of 2011, a cropped frame sensor DSLR: the canon T2i. They say the best way to get better at something is practice and in the last 8 years I’ve certainly had a lot of practice (after some 120,000 shots I finally upgraded to a used full frame Canon 6D this past summer).

At first my DSLR continued to serve me mostly on vacations, but I gradually began to incorporate it on weekend trips and into my daily life. Today I rarely go anywhere without it. During my last few years in high school I continued to ramp up my "photo production" but it was only after moving down to California that I got the taste for adventure. I’ve been lucky enough to always have a lot of freedom, but for me college continued to push me towards independence. Getting outside and exploring the state of CA proved a nice balance to exams and late nights spent solving math problems. In CA I learned adventure. Adventure is about leaving your comfort zone. It’s about realizing that you could be snug as a bug in a rug in your bed, but if you do that too much you end up missing out on essential life experiences. Pain? Soreness? Discomfort? Exhaustion? Mild frost-bite? Danger? For me the risk of all of those are worth it to an extent if it means having a new experience. And the nice thing about CA is most of those can be completely avoided while still having your eyes seared by beauty.

In the last year I’ve had more time and opportunities than ever before (and certainly more than I was planning to have) to figure out what it is about photography and adventure that fascinates me. Photography in itself allows me to concentrate on my surroundings. I think many landscape photographers frequently get asked whether photographing a special moment takes them out of it. This question arises as everyone carries a camera in their pocket and seems to care more about checking experiences off a list than actually living them. This is exactly the opposite of how it impacts my appreciation of the moment.

The Mullen Mantra (ooooo sounds pretentious)

I take photographs to remember. I take photographs to see more clearly. I take photographs to live life to a fuller extent. As a photographer I see scenes from a different perspective than I once did. I love to use the puddle-raindrop analogy. Have you ever spent time watching how raindrops splash into puddles (no, I’m not going to make another Washington is rainy joke)? You probably did this when you were a child, but as we age we tend to lose our wonder. There’s something wild about watching these spherical drops hurled out of big puffy things blobs above us before incorporating violently into small collections of water. All the forms the water takes, the chaos of it all, the fact that this small thing passes unnoticed every day by billions of people who are too worried about their own lives to care; it's something that continually amazes me. Our perspective, and how we live our lives is highly dependent on how we see the world. We can see disorder and violence around every corner or we can find order and tranquility. We can see a grotesque world or one filled with beauty, or we can become indifferent and choose not to see anything at all. For me photography is meditative. It helps me appreciate the grandest mountains and the smallest flowers and the fact that I am lucky enough to see and feel and smell and touch and hear and taste. I’m alive, and honestly it's an intoxicating realization.

My goal with my photos and this website is to share this passion for life. I try to capture natural beauty and it’s intrigue as best I can. I try to add context when possible because even if a photo is worth a thousand words, many times the story behind it can inspire many more. Editing is limited. I don’t believe in many of the standard photography rules. Tripod shooting is way too passive for me and I only use it if light conditions force me to. The idea that you can only shoot one subject is not as important as they say. Yes, you may have to find some niche, but don’t stop photographing everything else and don’t be afraid to share experimentation.

I will never try to sell you things that you don’t need because world resources are taxed enough already. I believe photography should be accessible to everyone and in general I oppose artificially inflating prices way past their production cost. My prices are mostly determined by the cost of goods with a little extra to help support me as I update photography equipment or travel to these remote places myself. Please contact me if the price is out of reach and I’m sure we can work out a deal. More than anything I want my photography to inspire an appreciation and a desire to protect our beautiful planet.

-Wyatt Mullen

March 2020