I flew for the first time when I was twenty years old. I flew one time, one way, and that was it. Portland, Oregon, was the destination. I would not see the sky again for almost ten years. I’m not sure why I didn’t fly again, I just didn’t. Perhaps I was caught up in the hustle and bustle of being in my early twenties discovering who I was. Maybe it was college or my career; whatever the excuse, traveling was absolutely, one-hundred percent not on my radar. And neither was photography.

Fast forward almost a decade and I meet my wife, who has traveled all over the world. I’ve met a lot of people in my life, but for some reason she was the one who got me interested in traveling. First stop: Las Vegas, Nevada. We couldn’t have picked a more scenic and beautiful city to fly to. I remember so clearly what it was like to see the clouds break at 30,000 feet and below, witnessing the orange, red and brown desert and mountains of the western United States peak through. I had never seen anything so mesmerizing. Back then, photography wasn’t but a thought in my mind. Sure I had taken classes in high school and learned to develop my own film, but nothing really ever came of it. Until that moment. I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough; back then a five megapixel Kodak point and shoot. Nevertheless, I started shooting away. I think that was the moment I became a photographer.

If you’ve ever visited my website www.martinmoorephotography.com or anything that shows my biography, it goes a little something like this: “I started shooting pictures just like everyone else, and what started as a hobby, slowly grew into a full blown passion. To me, capturing the aesthetics of the world we live in is natural, and wherever, and whenever I shoot, I strive to create something profound and unique.” I never could pinpoint when photography found me, but like I said, if I had to guess it was on that flight to Las Vegas. That day not only did I fall in love with traveling and being up in the air, but I fell in love with photography too.

This book is not only a portfolio of the work I’ve done over the past five years, but also a pictorial biography of the places to which I’ve traveled. My hope is that who ever is flips through these pages finds the same excitement and joy looking through the photos that I’ve taken, in hope that they might recognize them as places they have traveled to as well.