Meet Hayden Lynch | Adventure Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hayden Lynch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hayden, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I almost died climbing in Hawaii. I slipped and fell from a cliff. I was lucky my friend was there to grab my wrist before I plummeted 200 feet to my death.

And somehow, I don’t view this experience as a risk. For me, the risk came before. When I thought about quitting my job as a data analyst in 2018, when I began to pack my bag for a year of traveling the world in 2019, and when I decided to pursue photography as a full-time job in 2020.

The risk is always the time that leads up to a major event in your life. It’s the uncertainty of what will happen once you make a definitive decision.

After I quit my job in 2018, after I boarded my first flight in 2019, and after I sold my first print in 2020, I didn’t feel that sense of risk because I didn’t have time to ponder what the future entailed. I was right in the thick of whatever it is I was doing.

Risk has been essential to me. It has taught me so much about who I am and what I can accomplish.

I was afraid to quit my job in 2018 because I didn’t know what I’d do to earn a living. I was so afraid to travel the world because I had never been to so many of the countries I planned to visit. And I was terrified of starting my own photography business because I didn’t think I was any good at it.

All of these decisions I made felt like massive risks at the time; however, now I look back on those moments with confidence because they led me here, to where I am now.

Those three decisions have driven me to take on bigger and bigger risks in my life – challenges that I’m no sure I’ll be able to accomplish. I feel the need to take on risk more often in my life because when you succeed at something you feared you overwhelm your soul with joy and confidence. That is what it feels like to be alive.

I continue to chase that feeling with every endeavor I take on. As I write this I am preparing to head out on a 2 month solo-journey through South America. It will be the longest I’ve traveled alone. Of course I feel fear in this moment; fear in the uncertain. But, more than ever in my life, it excites me. I have no idea where I will be in a week, who I will meet, what experiences I’ll share. And that is wonderful because it is in this risk that there is so much possibility to learn and become a better person. And I am so excited to see where this risk takes me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I feel like I’m still such a young artist – I picked up my first camera less than two years ago. Since then, life has felt like a rollercoaster.

I became an artist because it was a means to travel the world. I dreamt of traveling the world and filling my life with endless experiences, but I had no idea how to monetize that.

I started out as a travel writer. Selling my stories from the road to magazines and digital publications as a means to fund future travel. One editor back in the summer of 2020 asked me if I had any high-resolution photos to go with my article; I did not. She recommended I pick up a camera and learn photography as that would make me more valuable as a travel writer. I took her advice and bought my first camera the next day.

I immediately fell in love with photography.

No longer was I spending time alone pounding my thoughts into a keyboard – now I was capturing moments with friends and loved ones. Telling stories with one click of the shutter.

I remember the first photo I took was of my dog. I immediately could see the emotion in his eyes as he looked back at me. It was a wonderful moment that filled me with joy and sparked my career as a photographer.

As time has passed and I’ve had more experiences in different areas of photography, I’ve found a passion for the adventure side: the moments of pain and misery climbing to a summit or the stillness of a 20 meter dive into a cenote. These adventurous moments are experiences that give me so much joy, it makes sense they are the moments I strive to capture so often.

I work hard to capture the authenticity of a moment – the raw emotion of an experience. It is always a challenge because the moment is fleeting. I don’t think it has become any easier for me to capture a moment, but I do feel more prepared going into an adventure. I feel I have gained the ability to anticipate a moment quicker but it still is the most challenging aspect of photography for me.

In terms of what I want people to know about my brand – I want them to appreciate the authenticity of my work and how much time and energy goes into each photo. I love creating and I want to share my work with everyone.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I guess it depends where we are – if a friend came to visit me in Jackson Hole, I would spend the vast majority taking them backpacking through the mountains – waking for every sunrise and staying up for every sunset. I’d want to show them my favorite alpine lakes, take them to the summits of the Tetons, and immerse them in the wilderness. We’d camp, eat ramen and peanut butter sandwiches, and spend the time in the mountians.

If I could choose a place to bring a friend – I would pick one of my favorite countries, whether Nepal or Japan or Peru or Italy or Indonesia – and we’d go there with our only plan being to explore the most remote parts of that country. Whether trekking somewhere in the Himalayas or living on a boat exploring islands in Indonesia – I would want the trip to be spontaneous and fully immersive in the culture we were visiting. That, to me, is how stories are made.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My parents.

When I decided to quit my job in 2018 they supported me. When I talked about traveling the world for a year, they encouraged me. And when I picked up a camera for the first time, they fell in love with my photos.

I know how lucky I am to have parents in my life that whole-heartedly support my decisions and I do not take it for granted. I am grateful because without their support I wouldn’t have made it this far in life.

Image Credits
Hayden Lynch