SKYFLUENCE

SKYFLUENCE A Series of works created from Ecuadorian and American captures featuring hummingbirds. Project is an into exploring immersive journey into mental health being healed by nature through deepening our connections to it.

From the photographer:

After a long struggle with my mental health following years of violent physical and verbal abuse, I traveled to the cloud forest of Ecuador to bond with hummingbirds and an intimate group of amazing healers, some of whom I had met and others who were newly found family members. Most importantly, I was traveling to not just bond with wild animals, but to regain my motivation to be alive. The leader of the journey was a well-known shaman, teacher and ethnobotanist, Rocio Alarcon, one of my dearest connections on earth.

After bonding with a swarm of tiny and wild vibrating birds on the side of a mountain during my journey to the equator, my brain began to shift, like the gears of crank-up toy.

I have truly never been so moved, inspired, consumed by any species. When I began this journey, and I chose to connect, and a new world began unfolding. I chose life in Ecuador, and I chose hummingbirds.

Maybe I chose birds in general that day…as many of my created images now feature birds of all kinds. And when I returned home from that journey, the hummingbirds began to populate around my home. They began to land on my hands and do somersaults in my front lawn…and I began to harass them with my camera (whether they appreciated that bit or not).

…but my deepest gratitude still remains with the winged creatures that ensured that I stick around for a while (and while I’m here take some more pictures).

It is an ongoing honor for me to utilize my lens as a microphone to amplify the less heard voices of our natural world, and a microscope to the personality and energy of birds that isn’t always witnessed with the naked eye.

In 2024, I began submitting photos to PhotoVogue, and my first curated image to adorn a VOGUE logo was an image of a hummingbird taken during that journey to Ecuador.

I will never forget running around in circles like a child after seeing my work published on such a historical and influential platform…and to have it be a photo from such a major turning point in my life made it even more special. I began to be hooked on the feeling of sharing the magic I was seeing in fleeting moments with birds, and having even one set of eyes appreciate it. And the photography world that I felt I was able to now able share my work with became a source of inspiration and encouragement for me to keep creating.

In 2025, I then achieved a Best of PhotoVogue title for an image featuring two hummingbirds at dusk, and I believe that finally fully solidified that my work could appeal to more than just myself.

I continue to be surprised by the journeys that I continue to be swept upon following Ecuador. The influence the birds have had on me; and the scenes we have created together, has changed my life in nearly inexplicable ways, and I am eternally grateful and humbled to present this project…

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All of the photographs that I have captured and displayed in my works were taken on a Sony Cybershot, and all were edited in Lightroom by myself.

The title for this submission is reflective of the influence that winged creatures have had on me and the effect they continuously have on the sky and universe around all of us.