Zach Doehler

Back in December 2019 I had the opportunity to go down to the States for a dirt biking trip with my family in southern California. I was invited to come along on this trip only a week before my family was scheduled to leave. Despite the last-minute invite, I was without a doubt all-in for this trip. I had actually been wanting to do a solo road trip down to the States sometime that Winter, so this was the moment I had been waiting for.

TikTok has taken the internet by storm in the past couple years with its addictive layout, usability, and user-based content. It started out as Musical.ly, a place where users could upload videos of them lip-syncing or 'dancing' to songs. And later it evolved into TikTok, which still has much of that Musical.ly content but also many new forms of content and communities that are entirely different.

The Butchart Gardens are without a doubt one of the most majestic and fantasy-like places I have ever visited in my life. The Japanese Gardens in particular, especially with good morning light and peak Autumn colors; are nothing short of amazing. I came here early one Autumn morning and managed to get in just after the place opened. I paid my $30 entry fee and immediately started speed-walking to the Japanese Gardens. I was so excited to visit this place that I had always heard about but never visited. And I was even more excited to finally have the chance to photograph it. Plus, I came on a midweek day when there weren't as many people in the park so I could better enjoy this gem in solitude.

Photographing lightning has always been a dream of mine as a landscape photographer. There have been many times that I have witnessed lightning in-person in recent years, but often I wasn't able to shoot it due to a lack of time, preparation, sometimes both. Lightning storms are very rare here where I live on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. We might get one or two annually, and when they do happen, it's often in the middle of the night when I am asleep and unaware of what's happening outside.

A few weeks ago, some friends and I decided to head out to the West Coast of Vancouver Island for camping. They were going to be camping at a campground near Port Renfrew, and I was going to be heading out for a solo night at Sombrio Beach so that I could get optimal conditions for milky way photography.

One of my favorite ways to get outdoors and get my body moving is to go out for a hike. Sometimes that may be a day hike, other times that may be a multi-day overnight hike. Whatever the case, there is always some exertion required, but it always pays off when you're out in nature.