Igniting a Passion for Photography
Updated August 5, 2018 . AmFam Team
When Scott Pudwell isn’t busy protecting dreams as an American Family Insurance agent in Hartford, Wisconsin, he can be found somewhere off the beaten path capturing the beauty of the great outdoors with his trusty camera.
It all started in 2005 when he lived in the Pacific Northwest. During his first week, he took a tour to see the Killer Whale pods not far from the Seattle shore. The biologist on the boat was capturing photos with an impressive camera that had a big lens. The second Scott saw the incredible whale photos taken with that professional camera, he was hooked. From that day on he’s had his own camera to capture those splendid moments in nature.
The things he’s seen continue to ignite his passion for photography, “I’m amazed at what a camera can catch in just one moment in nature: a lightning bolt in the sky, a glacier calving in the ocean, a magnificent sunrise. Seeing the things I’ve seen ignites my passion to see even more and capture some of it for the rest of the world to see. I’ve been lucky enough to have my photos featured in National Park Service calendars, postcards and a variety of other publications.”
Some of Scott’s best work has happened when he’s been waist-deep in snow in Yosemite Valley, in the middle of a tornadic thunderstorm in the Great Plains, or hiking his way to a tranquil lake in the middle of nowhere. He’s even gone face-to-face with a bear, twice, and is still here to tell the story.
“I often get asked, ‘How do you do all this? How have you seen all of these places?’ I simply respond that I just choose to do it. You only get one shot at life, and I want to experience as much as I can.”
His most recent adventure took him to a rustic camp in Lake Clark National Park in Alaska to photograph the coastal brown bears. Let’s hope he didn’t come face-to-face for a third time. But if he did, you can bet he took some amazing pictures!
To see more of Scott’s work visit his Instagram profile (Opens in a new tab) or his website (Opens in a new tab).
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