Mike Talladen - Light Writer

Great Sand Dunes National Park⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ This majestic place has been on my mind quite often lately. Briefly met a few folks on the peaks of the dunes just before sunset, and although we exchanged some friendly banter once we all made it to the top, we all eventually fell silent, drowning in the pure awe that this place so easily instills upon its visitors. ⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Never before have I felt so small or recognized in my narrow field of view just how large this country actually is. It is by far my favorite National Park thus far. So much diversity and variety was at my fingertips. I explored as much as I could in the two short days I lived here, wishing I spent my entire trip in Colorado solely in this park.⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I can't wait to go back. Who's with me? @greatsanddunesnps
Asheville Bound In One Week!⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ One week from today I'll be back in Asheville for a whole slew of reasons. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I've been invited to speak on rainforest conservation and destruction at the University of North Carolina.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I'll be celebrating my sisters birthday.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I promised a four year old boy and his mom @brianahauck I'd show him the mountains.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I'm spreading the ashes of my dear @rilestherunt into the Waters, the Earth, the Fire, and Air of the Blue Ridge Mountains.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I'm coming back home with a new woofer, Little Kapok. ⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I can only hope the colors are half as vibrant as what I saw the first time I visited this place years ago. The first time there was the first road trip I took with Riles. I've never been back there during Autumn since that trip, so it seems fitting that her final journey to these mountains takes place under those falling leaves...⁠⠀ ⁠⠀
The Floating World _____ Living in the moment, Detached from the bothers of life.
Public speaking is scary, but here we go again...⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I've been invited to take the stage by the Student Environmental Center (SEC) of the University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA) and share my stories and images from the rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. I'm both incredibly nervous and excited for this opportunity.⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The last time I shared this presentation - "Chasing Dreams: A Journey from Chicago to the Rainforests" - was last June at the Garfield Park Conservatory here in Chicago. It was a dream of mine to somehow share my work in that space ever since my career in photography began. That was over a decade ago now... so much has changed. So much has been cut down and burned. So many lives have been lost. ⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The last time I shared this presentation was before the fires around the world ignited once again this season, before the skies of Indonesia turned red, before "economic growth" burned across South America. It happens every year and it seems like it just gets worse and worse. I hope somehow the images and the stories I share on this platform and on the stage - like so many others doing the same - can help educate and inspire others. I hope they can reach someone and offer them a deeper perspective at what is happening and what is at stake. I hope they can make someone feel the urgency and the weight of the environmental crisis we have been in and continue to fan the flames of. I hope beyond hope because we need more people to stand up together to build a better future for all living things. ⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I hope to see you there - October 17 5:30pm UNCA.
Fall Equinox⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The first day of Fall is officially here and I cannot wait to get back to Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains in just a few short weeks!
Mallory + Anthony This Saturday! _____ Met these two just over a year ago for their engagement session and we had a cussing blast! Halfway through our session the sky went from a muted overcast to one of chaos in a matter of minutes. We were walking towards a building to take cover in when the rain suddenly pummeled us. There was a small bean tree we took refuge under for roughly five minutes before the rain suddenly stopped. We. Were Soaked. _____ We grabbed drinks at a bar and used their hand dryers to dry off, Mal worked her magic on hair, and we hit the streets again to boogie. _____ When I delivered their photos, I recorded a short video with my phone of the screen as I flipped through part of their session while Agnes by Glass Animals played. During our final meeting they told me they’re playing that song during their ceremony exit and that’s just about one of the coolest things one of my couples has ever done. _____ Really looking forward to this weekend! 9.21.19
Harvest Moon // 2019 Sept Friday 13 _____ The Harvest Moon signals the Autumnal Equinox. We couldn’t see the moon from where we sat, but the fire burned strong as winds licked the flames, and I fell in and out of quiet reflection. Excited as I am for the Fall, it always seems so short-lived, and this year I feel like Summer was practically non-existent. The past few months have been a whirlwind of emotions, pain, and stress for a wide array of reasons - largely the loss of my beloved Riley. _____ After her diagnosis with cancer in the Spring, I put everything on pause. I stopped taking bookings, turned down invites, and gave as much of my energy and time into making sure Riles was comfortable and enjoying what time she had left. Anything I wasn’t already committed to fell into the back burner so I could focus on her while trying to remain grounded. _____ Bumping into a familiar face back in June was a pleasant surprise that evolved into one of the few close connections I have these days. Riley was still around the first time we all hung out and we spent the day swimming, swinging in hammocks, and playing fetch with Riles. Not long after they joined me and another friend around the fire the night Riley departed, and we've held many fires since. _____ Briana and her son Cosmo have easily been the highlight of this year, helping me embrace Summer fun and the mindset of remaining present - enjoying the good amidst the swirling shadows that consume many of my thoughts. I am grateful for the time spent with them and the adventures we’ve shared, and I feel privileged to have such good company in my life. Short as it was, this season has felt a little more full - getting muddy on the trails, exploring caves, spending days at parks, meeting a shared hero, and even tagging along to document Cosmo’s first day at school (more on that later). I owe them much and more for the Summer they’ve gifted me. _____ The first and last photo in this series are from the Harvest Moon. The last image was one Cosmo wanted to take. I let him direct us and set the composition. Fifteen seconds, shutter timer on, try to hold still. _____ Nothing beats the fire.
More on living and loving in the present...⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I was talking with my friend @megggmelia recently and we shared some feelings on embracing love. It's something I hadn't shared with anyone until that point but was something I've been trying to practice over the past few months. She put into words what I had been trying to live by, and it was nice to hear this from someone else. I took this photo of her and @strauchman at the @wndrmuseum a month or so before we had this conversation.⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ "I told David I loved him. Which is the first time I have ever said that to anyone first, AND the first time I meant it the first time I said it. Personally, I’m working on saying fuck it, and just loving whole heartedly even though there is a chance it will not last. I just want to know I’m capable of that even if it is going to eventually hurt. Because I want to feel that real love."⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ There are no guarantees in life except death. Fear of possible futures holds so many of us back from enjoying the present, from embracing the good that exists in the now. Fear of repeating the past can do the same thing. It's easier said than done, but try to let go of those things. Your heart will be more free. Your life will be better for it. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀
One month go - My path to the present _____ Earlier today it hit me - with the force of falling on your back so hard you can’t breathe - that is has been one month since I had to make the painful decision to end Riley’s suffering. Her cancer had spread, her pain grew too strong, her strength wavered, her appetite faded, and her will to go on had come to an end. _____ I’ve said multiple times over the past month that I’ve done a lot of pre-grieving since her diagnosis back in the spring, knowing full well her time was now limited, but it’s still impossibly hard to accept at times. Even today I nearly told a friend we should FaceTime so that Riley and her dog could meet, catching myself just before suggesting it. _____ Painful as it was to say goodbye, painful as it continues to be, one of the many lessons I learned from this final Journey with Riles was to try harder to live in the moment; to exist more in the present, to embrace the current good and love. I tried my best to practice this mindset in the final months of Riley’s time here in this plane with us, and in doing so I found myself working on bringing this practice into my time spent with all others, with places, with myself. Riley and I joined some of my family up North in July to bask in the sacred sun and water of a place my family had been visiting for generations. For the first time in recent memory, I felt a sense of calm and lived in moments of clarity. I left the worries of the past and future behind me and forced myself to exist in the now. _____ It was Riley’s first time in these waters. It was my first time my sister and I shared time in this place with our Uncle E. It was the first time any of us had been here together in years. It was the first time I felt rested in years. Over soil and water we explored places old and new, creating memories together as an act of escapism from our collective turmoil. There is so much to share from this trip yet I’ve felt incredibly overwhelmed since my return. Only a week later I had to say goodbye to @rilestherunt and I’ve found my life flipped upside down by a variety of external forces, some good, some bad, but I have been trying to just be present.
Can you imagine fleeing a scorching Earth? ⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Can you imagine running from uncontrollable flames swallowing everything around you, losing the only home you have ever known, or even burning to death? We keep hearing about this, but the fires raging across Amazonia the past few weeks is a very complex and serious scenario. While it may be easy to shrug it off because of how common forest fires are, how frequent the reports are, how far away they might be, and how little of an impact they might have on us, how often we hear this kind of news - but this apathy comes with a price. ⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ One of the most biodiverse ⁠ecosystems in the world continues to burn at an unprecedented rate, largely thanks to Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro advocating for more industrial development in the Amazon. Bolsonaro has made recent comments on the fires, with false claims that they have been made by unspecified NGO's in an effort to damage his reputation; an obvious smoke screen to shield himself as his administration rolls back rainforest protections.⁠ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ As a federal lawmaker in the 1990s, Bolsonaro said he admired the ruthlessness of the American calvary against Native Americans during the expansion of the U.S. "The Brazilian calvary was incompetent. The North American cavalry were the competent ones because they decimated their Indigenous people in the past and today, they don’t have this problem in their country.” In a recent meeting with governors of Brazil's 9 states in the Amazon region, Bolsonaro stated “Indigenous people don’t lobby, don’t speak our language, and yet today they manage to have 14 percent of our national territory. One of their intentions is to hold us back.”⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Indigenous people are always the first to suffer in environmental collapse like these. Homes, livelihoods, and lives are lost, destroyed in the greed of industrial powers of a growing Western world backed by those who only see value in money and lack foresight of how useless money will be when all else is lost. This may be far away but we are all connected, and the figurative fires will burn us all.⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Photo: Tahuayo river in the Peruvian Amazon
The Amazon River / Peru / 2015 September⠀ _____⠀ ⠀ I left the Peruvian Amazon with the desire to do what I can with what I have to build positive change, returning home to find the world's attention fixed on Indonesia, whose rainforests were burning stronger than before. This triggered my desire to travel to Sumatra, Indonesia in search of answers. Now our eyes turn back to the Amazon. Copied caption from @rainforestalliance below:⠀ _____⠀ ⠀ The lungs of the Earth are in flames. 🔥 The Brazilian Amazon—home to 1 million Indigenous people and 3 million species—has been burning for more than two weeks straight. There have been 74,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon since the beginning of this year—a staggering 84% increase over the same period last year (National Institute for Space Research, Brazil). Scientists and conservationists attribute the accelerating deforestation to President Jair Bolsonaro, who issued an open invitation to loggers and farmers to clear the land after taking office in January.⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ The largest rainforest in the world is a critical piece of the global climate solution. Without the Amazon, we cannot keep the Earth’s warming in check. ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ The Amazon needs more than our prayers. So what can YOU do?⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ✔ As an emergency response, donate to frontline Amazon groups working to defend the forest. ⁣⠀ ✔ Consider becoming a regular supporter of the Rainforest Alliance’s community forestry initiatives across the world’s most vulnerable tropical forests, including the Amazon; this approach is by far the most effective defense against deforestation and natural forest fires, but it requires deep, long-term collaboration between the communities and the public and private sectors. ✔ Stay on top of this story and keep sharing posts, tagging news agencies and influencers. ⁣⠀ ✔ Be a conscious consumer, taking care to support companies committed to responsible supply chains.⁣ Eliminate or reduce consumption of beef; cattle ranching is one of the primary drivers of Amazon deforestation.⠀ ✔ When election time comes, VOTE for leaders who understand the urgency of our climate crisis and are willing to take bold action—including strong governance and forward-thin
My heart burns in the fires of Amazonia. A childhood dream of going to the amazon forest was finally realized in 2015. It set me on a path to use my photography for something greater than myself. It absolutely breaks my heart to see how much of Amazonia is burning, how fast it is being destroyed; thousands if not millions of species of all kinds are being wiped out. These fires have been raging for years, only now it is faster, stronger, wider. The forest can only take so much before it is gone, and the world will suffer for it. I imagine we will suffer in ways we cannot even imagine. I imagine the indigenous people who have lived off the lands of Amazonia, fleeing from the only home and life they knew. I imagine all the animals, insects, and plants - including the ones still yet discovered by science - disappearing from the face of this one planet we all share. I imagine a future when we westerners finally realize the tragedy of not having clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, enough food to eat, enough land to roam. Only then will the greedy fully realize nothing else really mattered, only then will those who looked away for so long realize they should have stepped up, only then will we all truly know - like so many others have already been enduring for far too long - what suffering truly is. The fires in the Amazon are not alone, they are not the first, but they are a scream, a cry for help. Mother Earth does not need us, we need her.
Five Years From Mexico⁠ 3/3⁠⠀ .⠀ ⠀ A FB memory popped up last week and the words I wrote five years ago really hit home for me. "In one week I leave the country for the first time in my life. Excited as I am to be traveling to Guanajuato, Mexico for a wedding, the trip already feels a little bittersweet. As a photographer I am constantly searching for light, and doing so for a job that evolves around love can prove to be a difficult task when the lights in my life are flickering, leaving me blundering around in the dark. We all meet darkness throughout our lives, we just have to fight through it and keep searching."⁠⠀ .⠀ ⠀ With the recent loss of my dog Riley, I've been struggling in my day to day. Depression has creeped back in heavier than usual, inability to focus or form coherent thoughts at times, a massive lack of sleep, and a brand new form of feeling alone have all played to the tune of mourning after 13 years of companionship. It's made moments of joy and serenity harder to come by and harder to fully appreciate when they do. It's left me thinking back on all the things I did wrong with her, wondering what I could have done differently, and if I made the decision I made to end her pain when I did.⠀ .⠀ ⠀ The first few days were a strange mix of emotions at first. A relationship had ended, I'd never been out of the country or traveled solo until this trip, I didn't speak Spanish, and it was one of the first weddings I shot as a lead on my own. ⁠I was worried my current emotional state would bring failure. It came to a point where I decided to just embrace the present, camera in hand I explored the city in search of literal light as well as inner peace. In the end I killed it at the wedding and came home with some valuable lessons.⠀ .⠀ ⠀ We all mourn, stress, and suffer in different ways for different things and emotional distractions come in all forms. The only thing we can change is how we exist in the present. Whether you're in a foreign land or stuck inside your own head, keep searching for your light, old and new, and stay vigilant in your heart and mind, hard as it may be. You never know what you'll find or what you can achieve when you embrace the p
Five Years From Mexico⁠ 2/3⁠⠀ .⠀ ⠀ A FB memory popped up last week and the words I wrote five years ago really hit home for me. "In one week I leave the country for the first time in my life. Excited as I am to be traveling to Guanajuato, Mexico for a wedding, the trip already feels a little bittersweet. As a photographer I am constantly searching for light, and doing so for a job that evolves around love can prove to be a difficult task when the lights in my life are flickering, leaving me blundering around in the dark. We all meet darkness throughout our lives, we just have to fight through it and keep searching."⁠⠀ .⠀ ⠀ With the recent loss of my dog Riley, I've been struggling in my day to day. Depression has creeped back in heavier than usual, inability to focus or form coherent thoughts at times, a massive lack of sleep, and a brand new form of feeling alone have all played to the tune of mourning after 13 years of companionship. It's made moments of joy and serenity harder to come by and harder to fully appreciate when they do. It's left me thinking back on all the things I did wrong with her, wondering what I could have done differently, and if I made the decision I made to end her pain when I did.⠀ .⠀ ⠀ The first few days were a strange mix of emotions at first. A relationship had ended, I'd never been out of the country or traveled solo until this trip, I didn't speak Spanish, and it was one of the first weddings I shot as a lead on my own. ⁠I was worried my current emotional state would bring failure. It came to a point where I decided to just embrace the present, camera in hand I explored the city in search of literal light as well as inner peace. In the end I killed it at the wedding and came home with some valuable lessons.⠀ .⠀ ⠀ We all mourn, stress, and suffer in different ways for different things and emotional distractions come in all forms. The only thing we can change is how we exist in the present. Whether you're in a foreign land or stuck inside your own head, keep searching for your light, old and new, and stay vigilant in your heart and mind, hard as it may be. You never know what you'll find or what you can achieve when you embrace the p
Five Years From Mexico⁠ 1/3⁠⠀ .⠀ ⠀ A FB memory popped up last week and the words I wrote five years ago really hit home for me. "In one week I leave the country for the first time in my life. Excited as I am to be traveling to Guanajuato, Mexico for a wedding, the trip already feels a little bittersweet. As a photographer I am constantly searching for light, and doing so for a job that evolves around love can prove to be a difficult task when the lights in my life are flickering, leaving me blundering around in the dark. We all meet darkness throughout our lives, we just have to fight through it and keep searching."⁠⠀ .⠀ ⠀ With the recent loss of my dog Riley, I've been struggling in my day to day. Depression has creeped back in heavier than usual, inability to focus or form coherent thoughts at times, a massive lack of sleep, and a brand new form of feeling alone have all played to the tune of mourning after 13 years of companionship. It's made moments of joy and serenity harder to come by and harder to fully appreciate when they do. It's left me thinking back on all the things I did wrong with her, wondering what I could have done differently, and if I made the decision I made to end her pain when I did.⠀ .⠀ ⠀ The first few days were a strange mix of emotions at first. A relationship had ended, I'd never been out of the country or traveled solo until this trip, I didn't speak Spanish, and it was one of the first weddings I shot as a lead on my own. ⁠I was worried my current emotional state would bring failure. It came to a point where I decided to just embrace the present, camera in hand I explored the city in search of literal light as well as inner peace. In the end I killed it at the wedding and came home with some valuable lessons.⠀ .⠀ ⠀ We all mourn, stress, and suffer in different ways for different things and emotional distractions come in all forms. The only thing we can change is how we exist in the present. Whether you're in a foreign land or stuck inside your own head, keep searching for your light, old and new, and stay vigilant in your heart and mind, hard as it may be. You never know what you'll find or what you can achieve when you embrace the p
160 / 450 Views _____ Earlier this year someone said, “If you see something that turns your head, you’ve gotta stop and grab it.” I’ve been trying to follow this motto as best I can ever since… While driving to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, I watched the sky breathe over the Spanish Peaks. I was already delayed from other stops I made in the morning, but there was no way I could pass up this view. As soon as I saw a decent spot to stop, I was out of my car with my camera on the corner of 160 and 450 photographing this scene. Arriving at Great Sand Dunes later than planned was well worth it.
Under the Surface with Uncle E _____ All my life my uncle shared countless stories of his travels around the world, with tales of his diving days at the top of my list. He got into the scuba industry before it was commercialized: started snorkeling in 1957 and got his first scuba tanks in 1966. In 1969 he received the title of Instructor and helped spearhead the diving classes at NIU’s P.E. department for four years. During his time at NIU he helped develop various training techniques that became part of the official PADI sport diving instructor manual. In 1973 he became a Master Instructor. After that he ran his own business running private and semi-private dive courses in Florida as scuba diving became more and more commercialized. _____ In all these years I’ve never been able to join him in the water, nor have I shared a trip to our family lake, but that finally changed last month. He brought a bunch of his old snorkeling gear and gifted me my first set of fins, mask, and snorkel. We snorkeled in two locations in the lake during our time up north, and it easily became one of my favorite memories in life. _____ Thanks for always being the best Uncle 🖤
World Elephant Day // Ethical Tourism⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀⁠⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ The tourism industry is unsurprisingly no stranger to human-wildlife interaction. We as humans have been taught for generations that animals are for entertainment. What better way to connect people with nature than to turn animals from lands far, far away into an attraction? With travel a lot easier, so many of us are able to see these animals in their homelands. The term "sanctuary" is thrown around a lot, offering visitors the chance to get closer, to take selfies, to pet, to ride, all at the expense of the animals' suffering.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Pictured above; a Sumatran elephant being prepped for a ride. The kind of "training" used to make these animals submit to this is far from ethical. The use of bull hooks, pulling on ears, even punching the elephants were some of the interactions I saw while visiting this facility. Shrinking habitats create more and more human-wildlife conflict. Their jungle homes are being transformed into oil palm plantations or new homes for a growing human population. The increase of interactions between elephants and humans has resulted in practices like poisoning drinking holes in an effort to eliminate what some - out of ignorance and/or lack of respect - consider to be pests.⁠⠀⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀⁠⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ To avoid losing more elephants in the wild, programs like this have become more and more common, but unfortunately these facilities are often understaffed, under-resourced, or both, leading many of them to open up to tourism in an effort to raise more funds. There is good intention behind these programs, but a lot of positive practices are left to be desired; Elephant Walks instead of Rides, positive reinforcement training instead of submissive torture, better diets for the elephants, etc.⁠⠀⁠⠀ _____⁠⠀⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ It is not just elephants who suffer - we need to do better. When traveling to areas that offer activities involving animals, whether in the wild or in captivity, do your research, educate yourself, and put your money in ethical programs. And if you see something being done that shouldn't, use your voice to speak up for the voiceless!⁠