Slowing Adventure to a Moment

Tom Kingsford’s bold landscape journey

By Matt Maenpaa  »  Photos by Tom Kingsford

You may have seen his work scrolling through Instagram or in campaigns with the Colorado Tourism Board and Arc’teryx, among many others. Tom Kingsford’s landscapes are stunning, rich in detail and lush with light. From shots of the Dolomites in Italy to iconic Arches National Park in Utah, his work excels at capturing the essence of a place in such a way that the viewer longs to be there.

He won’t give up his secrets, though. He insists he doesn’t have any.

Kingsford will be the first to tell you he wasn’t always particularly creative growing up; that his work isn’t all that special or that he’s not very good. He misses more good shots than he takes, he says, and it’s the failures that make the success that much sweeter.

What you see when you look through galleries of these wild, color-soaked images, framed with an undeniable eye for composition, are a testament to patience, planning and a lot of luck.

“All the hard work of getting up a crazy, big ridgeline to take a photo with all your gear before the sun comes up,” Kingsford says. “You get a chance to go and take a picture, sometimes it’s euphoria and others there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Please, God, can I get a cloud?”

Getting into photography is what he calls a happy accident. Growing up in Michigan, Kingsford poured over ski magazines and issues of Backpacker. Those images spoke to him and once he graduated college in Kentucky, he packed up a U-Haul and made his way to Colorado as fast as he could, he explains.

“I’ve just been outdoors, climbing mountains, camping and being in nature ever since,” Kingsford says. “But I’ve always had it in the back of my mind; I was kind of intrigued by photography but very terrible at it.”

It was while working at Apple that Kingsford finally picked up a camera, under the encouragement and tutelage of the creatives he worked with. From there, he explains, everything was self-taught through online tutorials and a lot of trial and error. Now, 20 years after he picked up a camera, photography has granted him an outlet for adventure and expression that still challenges him.

“I just love it, I fell in love, and it has been one of those things that helped slow me down,” he says. “I’ve been out in nature, spent a lot of time racing and climbing mountains, right? Photography forces me to stay out and hold still.”

A sunset shot isn’t just hiking in, it’s getting to the spot to envision the image in daylight. It’s the patience while the light is high that lets Kingsford sit with the place and the moment.

“I’m going to wait, and I’m going to enjoy it, right?” he explains. “I’m there for an hour, maybe two, waiting for the sun to go down. It’s just the most peaceful, wonderful thing. And hopefully I’ve come home with an amazing image, or maybe not, but it was still fun no matter what.”

To capture these stunning landscapes and athletic images, particularly like the ones Kingsford shot as part of the Arc’teryx adventure team, it isn’t all patience and solitude. The adventure part of his photography requires Kingsford to stay in top shape, even ahead of the athletes he’s shooting. Whether it’s keeping ahead of the route ice climbers are taking or navigating the complicated Dolomites, it helps him keep his focus.

“You really gotta pay attention, so those are the challenging moments, right?” Kingsford says. “It’s one of those pure focus moments, where a lot of people are having trouble focusing on just doing the activity. What we have to do is not only focus on that, but be ahead, be faster and jockey the camera at the same time.”

There are no plans for stopping, no tiring of the view for him. With the ever-changing world, he hopes his work can transport people to places they may not ever see in person. Mastery is an afterthought for Kingsford, who continuously challenges himself to learn new techniques and find new landscapes for his lens. 

Moving outside the realm of social media, Kingsford hopes to take a page from photographers like Peter Lik and open a gallery where he can show off his work at a scale it’s meant to be seen, printing his images on stunning metal and acrylics, where hopefully they can fill someone’s home with some natural wonder and beauty.

Until then, see more of his work at tomkingsfordphotography.com and on Instagram @tomkingsford.