BY REBECCA BRATBURD
Jeffrey Murray got started in photography for a very simple reason: there happened to be a space available in an intro class at Danville’s Monte Vista High School. That class quickly turned into a passion as Murray went on to earn a degree in photography from Northern Arizona University and now spends most of his time traveling in search of epic landscapes to capture on camera. (click here to see examples of his work)
The 26-year-old Danville native, whose work has been featured in National Geographic, has traveled throughout California and the western U.S. This weekend at Berkeley’s Live Oak Park Fair, he will display photography from a recent two-month road trip through the American West including southern California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. This fall he’ll branch out even further as he embarks on his first cross-country road trip from Washington to Maine and into southeastern Canada, traveling in a diesel Ford F/250 Super Duty and setting up camp at campsites along the way.
Murray said he enjoys being self-employed and self-directed. What he shoots depends on his mood.
“I shoot anything that is pretty, interesting, and different, ” Murray says. “Any time I can find good light, I’m having a good time.”
The trees, canopies, and the light of the rainforest are Murray’s favorite landscape subjects. He has shot many types of landscapes from the snow to the desert.
“Recently, I shot photographs in wine country and caught the Napa harvest,” he says. “I shot an old barn right outside the town that was by rows and rows of grapes.”
Originally, Murray was drawn to the outdoors for the adventure of it—in college, he met photographers from the Sierra Nevada who turned him on to the beauty of nature. Still, he admits that life on the road isn’t always as romantic as it sounds.
“Sometimes there’s a lot going on to interfere with my work like running into road closures, problems with the engine on my truck, or finding a place to camp, especially in big cities,” says Murray.
At Mount Rainier, Murray experienced a rock avalanche that landed just 30 feet away from his camp and was assaulted by someone while sleeping, all in the same weekend.
Yet Murray shows no signs of slowing down.
“[Life on the road] is awesome,” he says. “Sometimes, it’s the best life you can ever imagine. It’s having the complete freedom to really pursue what I’m out to do.”
