Mike Balonek

I discovered photography in March of 2002 on the tops of Alaskan mountains. Armed with a primitive digital camera, I wanted to share the scenery of Juneau—where I resided at the time—with my friends and family back home in Ohio. It took many years since then to realize that I didn’t just enjoy photographing the natural beauty around me, but that it was actually a meditative and healing art form that allowed me to meld my passions for art, nature, and technology. Eventually I began to crave it and I became hooked.

I find that photography not only brings me closer to nature, it forces me to pay attention to the minutest details I would have normally missed just strolling through the woods. It also allows me to take my appreciation for nature and put it in a format that I can share with others, showing them beauty in something they may have taken for granted.

​I subsequently got into filmmaking for the same reasons, and the rest is history.