Patagonia has been at the top of my travel list since probably 2017. I had taken a trip with my dad home from San Francisco and we stopped in Yosemite. That really sparked my love for national parks and the outdoors. It was pretty natural to end up wanting to make it down to Torres Del Paine and hike the W Trek. As excited as I was to get there and start taking photos, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was about to learn a lesson the hard way…

When the trip was over and it was time to edit the photos I found myself… disappointed in the gallery I had created. I had mythologized this place in my head so much that a single trip - or even a lifetime worth of trips - could never really live up to. I had seen so many “perfect” photos of this place that I was hunting for something that didn’t even exist and in the process missing the place I had so desperately wanted to visit.

There is a lesson in there somewhere. Maybe it sticks out to you more than it does me. As I look over this gallery again & again I find myself falling in love with images that I had initially disregarded; images that I never set out to create. As time passes, I found myself becoming proud of what I did create.