Featured Female Travel Photographer | Jennifer Carr
What are you shooting with?
My main camera body is the Sony a7rIII, it’s a beast with 42 mp! For some trips and for underwater photography, I use the Sony a6500. It’s small size is much more manageable than the full frame body. And the Sony rx100mVI is always in my pocket!
What is your favorite lens?
Without a doubt the 24-70 GM f2.8. It’s so versatile that if I had to, I could live with just one lens.
How did you get started in photography?
When we got married and bought our home. When my hubby and I got married, we went shopping at art shows, hoping to fill our walls with beautiful photographs of the local beaches. But when we saw the price tag of even the smallest of prints, he offered to buy me a new camera if I wanted to learn to take photographs like those that we saw at the art shows. Knowing nothing about cameras and never having heard of an SLR, we went with a Sony point and shoot model that offered the option to stack lenses. I loved that camera. I began reading photography books, stumbling over words like aperture and eye-so (ISO), being baffled by “taking a meter reading,” never realizing that this foreign language had no meaning to my point and shoot camera.
What is your favorite image you have taken and why?
I call it Watching the Break. It is the first image that I ever felt that I successfully previsualized. I evaluated the light and the environment and asked my husband to continue on the beach, but when he decided to turn out to head into the water, to pause for a moment. I didn’t want to control the scene, only to document it as it was happening in that moment.
What is your favorite thing to take pictures of?
Without a doubt, the sun rising over the ocean. Or a mountain being lit with the setting sun. Or a sunburst. Clearly, I have more than one favorite!
What is your favorite trip that you have taken?
This is the hardest question! I have been lucky enough to take some incredible trips and have absolutely life-changing experiences. But, seeing the Matterhorn in Switzerland for the first time is seared in my mind.
What is the most photogenic place you have been?
Big Sur, California is right up there at the top. The land rises from the sea to 5000 feet in under 3 miles, bringing incredible rugged cliffs, wildlife, marine layer, bridges, lighthouses, giant redwoods, and turquoise waters. It’s a photographers paradise.
If money were no object where would you travel to and why?
Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Chile. The rugged, off the grid location, the high mountain peaks, and the incredible skies!
What is your travel itinerary for the next year?
Having just relocated to northern California from the east coast, we’re spending the year doing mini-trips, getting to know our new state. We’ve been filling our weekends with surfing, snowshoeing, and hiking trips.
Do you have any travel or photography tips?
No matter what it is, keep it simple and don’t over do it. If you put too much pressure on yourself, you’ll never enjoy the task at hand. And always, always ask for help.
When you are not traveling, what can we find you doing?
Wishing I were traveling! Haha! I’m using taking a fitness class, going on a bike ride, or making a yummy meal.
Tell me something random about you-
I am an avid mountaineer and adventurer, but I only got started hiking 10 years ago. I’ve put a lot of miles on my boots in those 10 years.
Do you have any photography or travel goals?
A short term goal that has stemmed from our move is to visit all of the National Parks in California.
Any special projects you are working on (photography or otherwise)?
I started a new project on our weekend trips in California as a way to share our experiences with family and friends back home. It’s a work in progress and adapting as I go, but it’s showing promise!
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
Underwater breathing so that I could swim with the turtles and the tropical fish. I had a saltwater fish tank for almost 10 years and I love being able to feel like I’m swimming inside of it.
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Jennifer Carr is a Northern California landscape and nature photographer known for her vibrant, uplifting images. She spends much of her time outdoors and is an avid traveler, always with her camera in hand. She is drawn to photograph the beauty of the natural world around her, capturing colors and light. Jennifer offers fine art prints, photography lessons and hosts The Saltwater Retreat for women. She welcomes email at jcarr@jennifercarrphotography.
