My name is Ryan Erickson, I am an aspiring freelance travel photographer and travel writer. Ever since I was a young child I was been obsessed with studying world maps and traveling to distant lands one day.  I was born and raised in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains near Salt lake City, Utah.  When I was 19 I moved to Brazil for two years to do volunteer work, where I caught the travel bug.  It was such a gratifying time in a truly exotic place.  I then had the blessing of receiving a scholarship to attend college in one of the most beautiful places in the world, The North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.  After living in Hawaii I became interested in visiting many of the other Polynesian islands, which I have been lucky enough to do.  After college I decided I'd try to find a job that would further allow me to travel the world.  I went to work for an airline offering free standby travel benefits and I began traveling all across the world on my time off.  I was hooked. 

       I soon recognized that if I was fortunate enough to travel to all these amazing places, I might as well get a decent camera and learn how to take photos.  I fell in love with travel photography immediately.  Any skills that I have learned as a photographer over the years, have been self-taught, on the road.  I have traveled to and have photographed over 75 countries.  My goal is to visit every nation in the world in the next 10 years.  Only 120 more to go!  I hope to tell the story of the unique and distant places from my travels through my photographs.  I want to showcase the remote places that are not on the same old well-trodden travel circuit. In addition to photography I enjoy travel writing and drawing sketches of some of the places I travel to as well.  My home bases are Salt Lake City, Utah and Oahu, Hawaii.  Some of my favorite things to photograph are islands, beaches, mountains, remote landscapes, wildlife and surfing. My favorite place I've ever traveled to is Hawaii, however my favorite travel moment was arriving at Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal after a 10 day trek through the Himalayas.  My scariest travel moment occurred a week later on the same trip when I was trapped in Kathmandu near the epicenter of the 7.8 Nepal earthquake in May of 2015, which killed over 10,000 people. I feel so fortunate to have survived that disaster.

       My travel photography has been featured in Delta Air Lines' latest global ad campaign: onboard their planes, in airports, in TV ads, their website, on their amenity kits and in their inflight magazine, "Sky Magazine."  It has also been featured by other publications such as Islands Magazine, Surfing Life Magazine, Stand-up Paddler (SUP) Magazine, by National Geographic Adventure and by outdoor brands like Outerknown and Coalatree.  When I'm not taking photos or traveling I enjoy hiking, biking, snowboarding and surfing.  Thanks for coming along on the  journey! 

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