Cover Shot, July 2019

Our July 2019 issue of Outdoor Photographer celebrates the beauty of our national parks. Feature stories in this issue include the 5 best parks to visit this summer, rafting Grand Canyon for a new photo perspective, and 10 highlights from an epic year-long adventure Jonathan Irish took to photograph every national park.

On the cover is a stunning image taken by Irish in Redwood National Park, California. Here’s the story behind the shot.

“I had been wanting to photograph the giant California redwoods for a really long time, so a National Geographic assignment taking me to all of the national parks during the centennial of the National Park Service was a dream come true.

“This was a perfect spring morning among these majestic and beautiful trees. I spent over four hours this day walking along the trail, trying not to get neck soreness from constantly gazing upwards. I was overcome by just how tall the trees are, and I remember thinking that having a person in my images would help show the incredible scale. However, I was alone, and I hadn’t seen another soul the entire morning. So I did what all photographers do—I improvised.

“I set my camera on a tripod, framed the scene I envisioned, set the proper exposure, turned on the interval timer to take a photo once every two seconds, and commenced to walk on the log. Yes, this is essentially a selfie. The camera ended up taking maybe 70 or 80 photos as I blindly struck different postures, listening for the sound of the camera click to change my pose. I am sure I looked rather silly up there, but who cares. This ended up being one of my favorite clicks from the assignment.”

–Jonathan Irish

The July 2019 issue is available now in a variety of digital formats including Apple News+ and will be on newsstands beginning Tuesday, June 25.

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