About Me
Hunter Young
Hi I’m Hunter. I’m from Colorado/Utah but I now live in Crystal City Missouri. I first got into photography in high school. The pandemic broke out and I got sent home for the rest of the school year giving me plenty of time to explore the outdoors and take many of the landscapes I share on this website. I’m 21 years old now and a much more experienced photographer. If you couldn’t tell I love turtles. I have two yellow bellies named Kayla and Jackie and they’re the mascots for my business. My business is called Mr.Turttles Photography because my name is super common for my age group and because I didn’t know how to spell turtle when I was 8 while creating all my social media usernames. I’m pretty shy and super awkward but it doesn’t stop me from meeting new people. In high school in my photography class all my classmates used to call me crazy because I would do anything for the shot. I live by that now “do it for the shot” because the best shots are the ones you remember taking.
The Stories Behind The Camera
My First Milky Way
It was a hot summer night and I couldn’t fall asleep. I decided to go for my first ever night time hike on a trial I was very familiar with, The Delicate Arch Trailhead. I had probably hiked it 20 times before I went at night and was still nervous about getting lost. The long 40 minute drive from my house showed much potential as I could see our universe with my naked eye. I slowly hiked the trail with nothing more than my lightsaber for light. It didn’t take long to find a lost soul who had wondered far off the rocky trial. I waved my lightsaber around in the air to signal them closer to the trail. Little by little a man approached. A middle aged man slowly emerged from the darkness and thanked me for helping him find the way. He told me his name was Jason and he had never been to the park before but got there too late to hike in the day. He asked if I could get us to the arch and I replied with a confident yes as we were already halfway there. We took another 45 minutes to go up the trail and were met by some other photographers who were about to leave. I told Jason he could go with them if didn’t want to stay and wait for me to take some pictures. Thankfully he agreed to stay and watch. I slowly worked out the focus of the arch with my camera and figured out the settings. It took a couple tries to get it right but after an hour I had it ready. I began running from my camera to the arch trying to frame myself but I couldn’t beat the 10 second timer. Jason told me he would press the shutter button for me. He pressed the button and I posed with my lightsaber and the arch. He took a few different pictures whenever I told him I was ready. I used a few different colors for the light but decided red was my favorite. I finally walked back to the camera and looked through the pictures we took. We both looked in astonishment at the pictures we saw. We then packed up and hiked down the trail and met up with the other photographers in a different area of the park. A special thank you to Jason for helping me achieve this shot.
The Delicate Sunrise
I was working at the Hampton Inn in Moab and I finally had a day off from my busy work schedule and I decided to go for a nighttime hike. Fortunately I slept through my fist alarm and woke up an hour late to start packing for my hike. By the time I was packed I was two hours behind my original plan. I ran out the door into the early morning darkness. I sped through town and the park to get to the trail. I looked at the time I realized I could possibly make it to the arch with time to take astro pictures. I must’ve hiked this trail in record time in the darkness. I was quite surprised by all the people on the trial for this early morning hike. I had an unknown man follow me up the whole trail. He said he followed me because I looked like I knew where I was going compared to everyone else. Me and this man hiked this trail in under 30 minutes. We were practically jogging up this 1.5 mile uphill hike. My efforts were too little too late though as the stars were slowly fading by the time I had made it close to the arch. I turned the final corner to see a bunch of tourists and photographers waiting for the moon to rise through the arch. I didn’t bring the correct lens to photograph the moon through the arch and decided to try and salvage the hike by looking for any deferent angles. I saw the sun slowly rising in the distance and realized I could hike to a popular spot where I could sit in a different arch and look at sunrise. I thought the sun would rise next to the Delicate Arch not through it. I had my tripod set and watched the sun rise into the arch. I instantly filled with excitement I looked around and saw I was the only one who had captured this rare moment. While everyone else was capturing the moon I had captured the sun.