David Degner

Boston Photographer and Photojournalist

Outdoor Lifestyle Photography

Adventure photography on the trail to Mount Everest. Photographing avid adventurer Kenton Cool, one of the world’s leading high-altitude climbers.

Adventure Photography & Lifestyle Photography

Adventure photography and Lifestyle photography are rarely easy, and they are tough to do well. Getting the most striking photographs of athletes and explorers first requires the photographer to keep up with them. The best light and most expressive vistas are usually found by waking up before sunrise and moving through the day’s heat.

Somehow in that haze of physical and mental exhaustion, I focus on making a creative photograph. I love it.

My favorite part of fitness photography is forming that perfect photo in a dynamic situation. It often requires a mental flow of recognizing the light or compositional elements available. It harkens back to my first love, street photography, but with more preparation and pressure.

I assembled a portfolio of adventure and fitness photography that I created for jobs worldwide. Usually, I am working beside a video production crew with only a few minutes in between takes. However, sometimes the results can be magical.

Sometimes adventure photography includes the cultures around the physical challenge.

Hiking to Mount Everest

Taking adventure photographs using the early morning sunrise.
A map can help find the best places for adventure to photograph.
Kenton Cool, avid high altitude climber.

This trek to Everest Base Camp was possible with extensive planning and coordination. It was even more complicated as the whole crew had to quarantine and stay Covid-free. Thanks to the producers, sherpas, crew, and talent it succeeded even after several things went wrong.

My extensive planning included, how to make a photo studio small, light, and powerful. Because I had to carry it in my backpack and use it in the midday sun. Carrying my Profoto B1x wasn’t an option, so I brought two smaller A1xs and a special mount so they could be mounted side by side and be twice as powerful.

Fitness in Turks & Caicos

Fitness photography in Turks and Caicos includes paths along rocky outcroppings.
Beaches are one of the most iconic places for fitness photography.
Photograph from inside a cave structure in Caicos.

Photographing fitness instructors in Turks and Caicos sounds like a dream. It was some of the best accommodations and sunsets of any photoshoot. But Covid curfews and forced us to work quickly. Usually, we were under the mid-day sun, missing the golden hour light of sunrise and sunset. I was able to photograph quickly with a light Profoto kit and a large reflector.

One of my favorite fitness photographs on the beaches of Turks.
Fitness photography can include historic context like the pyramids of Egypt.

History and Exercise in Egypt & Jordan

Doing yoga in Wadi Rum of Jordan.
Yoga poses in Wadi Rum of Jordan.
Khan el-Khalili is not the normal place for fitness photography, but it works.

Photographing explorers and fitness instructors in Egypt felt like working on my home turf. Since I know the language and have been to the locations many times, I was able to help as a local guide. It was a fun photoshoot, even when we were walking through the desert.

The Sinai Trail

The Sinai Trail has been in development since 2014 and is now ready to walk. Egypt’s first long distance public hiking trail and one of a number of new hiking trails being built across the Middle East. Beginning by the Gulf of Aqaba and ending in the highlands of St Katherine – on Mount Sinai – the Sinai Trail is a 200km sea-to-summit route cutting through Egypt’s iconic desert wilderness. Built by Bedouin guides from three different tribes, with backing from NGOs, and help from local volunteers, the Sinai Trail is a new way for Egyptians and tourists to experience and explore their country.

In December 2016 I joined the inaugural group of guides and hikers for part of their 12 day trek and made a series of portraits of the people this trail is bringing together.

The geography in central Sinai is varied and the guides are great so it was never boring or tedious. We would walk through a valley then clamber up mountains to see the view. Sometimes the Hijaz in Saudi Arabia was visible, sometimes Mount Sinai itself, there were always desert gardens, and homes to stop and rest in, but usually we camped in the wadis and hiked early.

The hike isn’t very strenuous because the guides used camels to carry our equipment and had younger men arriving in camp early to prepare everything for the nights.

It is an amazing project that is helping unite the tribes around the Sinai to increase tourism and collaboration inland instead of just the government development happening in costal cities like Sharm-el-Sheikh.