What if, while taking pictures, you felt all warm and peaceful inside, like curling up on rug by the fireplace? Or what if you could sense a connection to something bigger than yourself?

It is possible, you know.

The most profound thing I’ve discovered in the 35 years that I’ve practiced and taught Alaska photography tips, is that taking pictures of what’s outside us helps to heal and re-connect with what’s inside us.

Most photo tutorials, workshops, videos, and books spoon-feed us the predictable topics like composition, f/stops, jpegs, pixels, noise, depth of field, HDR, aspect ratios, and shutter speeds. A solid foundation for making technically correct images — be it Alaska nature photography or street photography — but it lacks soul.

Just like learning music, if your goal is to make music from the heart and connect with people, memorizing scales, note placement, and music theory won’t get you there.

“Get out of your head and just play,” my harp instructor said one day.

My photographs have been featured by Better Homes and Gardens, Audubon, Patagonia, Pillsbury, Organic Gardening, TIME, Christian Science Monitor, Business Week, Readers Digest and National Geographic Traveler to name a few. I even have one adorning a wall at The Smithsonian.

My favorite photographs, like the ones I publish in my annual calendar — along with recipes, upbeat quotes and unusual holiday for sharing at gatherings — are the ones where I can re-live the scene:

+ Curvy lines drawn in the sand, like icing on a cake

+ Northern lights waving a pink and green cape like a bullfighter

+ Hot tears of joy puddling down my cheeks when I bring a single snowflake into focus, and

+ Leaning so close to a bumblebee that I can hear tiny clicks from its claws as it scrambles across a daisy.