Outdoors photography of the highest sense

On Mount Aconcagua in South America, or Mount McKinley in Alaska, and while trekking the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet — Sean Bagshaw took dramatic photos of mountains and sky, showing where he had been.

He soon realized, after putting a few slide shows together, that he had a natural eye for landscape photography.

“I started noticing there was an artistic element to it,” he says.

Fifteen years later, the Winston native’s picture-taking skills have risen beyond the tallest mountains and to the zenith of landscape photography: Outdoor Photographer magazine. This month’s issue contains a 1,160-word write-up about the artist and three of his photographs, taken in Monument Valley, Utah, and on the Oregon Coast.

“That was one of the things that made it exciting for me,” Bagshaw, 40, said.

New directions

Only four years ago, Bagshaw had quit his job as a math and science teacher at Ashland Middle School to delve full-time into the business of selling images he captures with digital technology.

“I slowly worked it into my lifestyle,” he said.

But he quickly caught the attention of his peers across the country. Most photographers that appear in Outdoor Photography have been working professionally for about 20 to 30 years.

The career change, at first, he admits, was a bit nerve-wracking. Bagshaw and his wife, Jennifer, had just had two boys — Griffin and Aidan are now 5 and 6 — and he had to market himself by networking with colleagues, consultants and buyers.

But like waiting for the dusk light to turn right, apparently a regimen of daily photography is more laid back than grading math and science tests and keeping junior high kids in check.

“It’s less stressful,” Bagshaw said.

Traveling man

Though full-time photography demands more working hours, they’re also spread out and manageable. Whenever Bagshaw needs to pad his portfolio, he hops in his “funky old” Volkswagen van and drives to the backcountry, sleeping in it for a few days or hiking farther to capture spectacular scenery in perfect light.

Bagshaw, who lives “in the hills” south of Ashland, will sometimes repeatedly visit certain places until capturing an image he originally envisioned. He traveled 15 times to one particular spot on the Rogue River, near Crater Lake National Park, until he was satisfied with the light.

In 2006, he documented from base camps Laurie Bagley’s summit of Mount Everest. Bagley, of Mount Shasta, became the 26th woman to ascend the world’s most famous climb.

After quitting teaching, Bagshaw said he’d “take any job that involved a camera:” weddings, portraits, even freelance journalism. But now that he’s “fairly well-known” in the Rogue Valley, he can be more selective.

The 1986 Douglas High School graduate said it helps tremendously to be featured in a national publication.

Besides making it with name recognition, Bagshaw said he licenses photographs for advertising, magazines and books. Art consultants buy his photography to spruce up commercial buildings and office spaces. Assignment editors hire him to shoot architecture. And the Ashland Artisan Gallery, where Bagshaw works once a week as a resident artist, features his work.

“I think he can take an ordinary image and make it unique,” Paula Fong, a wildlife and botanical illustrator and a resident artist at the gallery, remarked of Bagshaw’s photographic arrangements. “He has a very good eye for color.”

Bagshaw’s photography can be viewed at his Web site, www.outdoorexposurephoto.com, and also in Outdoor Photographer at http://tinyurl.com/5ugttd.

Two weeks ago, Bagshaw drove his funky old van to the Sierra Nevada backcountry. This fall he plans to head southwest to take some seasonal shots.

In a sense, though, he realizes he doesn’t have to travel that far at all.

“I’ve really been trying to focus on southern Oregon,” he said. “I really have not done justice to the local region.”

• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@nrtoday.com.