California Desert Road Trip

Road Trip Photography - America - Travel - California Desert

It’s interesting how certain places can grow on you that at first didn’t seem so appealing. And light seems to be one of the biggest determining factors of that in my opinion. It doesn’t have be traditionally beautiful light either. It just has to be interesting light. Or, maybe light that you understand how to work with? That knowledge is part of growing as a photographer. Most people focus so much on that “perfect” light that occurs during a sunrise or sunset, but beautiful images can be made at all times of day if you know how to work under different conditions. Even midday sun can transform a scene from completely forgettable to “I can’t wait to come back here”.

Click here to shop the Roadside Meditations book

Contact me directly about prints of my American road trip photography for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography

Mountains in the California desert along Highway 395. American road trip photography by Rob Hammer.

American road trip photography

American Photography. Back roads near the desert town of Mojave, California. American road trip photography.

California desert - Mojave, CA

Wall art of Joshua Trees growing in the California desert. Desert vibes photo.

Mojave Desert

A sky filled with clouds behind a windmill farm in Mojave, California. Alternative energy photos.

Windfarm in Mojave, California

A desert landscape along Highway 395 near Lone Pine, California. Desert Vibes.

California desert near Lone Pina

Windmills in the desert near Mojave, California. Alternative energy photos.

Mojave, CA

Photo of a small town in the California desert

Road Trip Photography

A train going through the small desert town of Mojave, California

A train going through the desert town of Mojave, CA

Roadside Meditations - Kehrer Verlag

Just returned from the road to find the first copy of Roadside Meditations waiting quietly at home. Feels so good to finally hold a hard copy in my hands after the long (but fun) production process with Kehrer Verlag in Germany. Unfortunately the books aren’t for sale yet in the States, but I will be posting and talking much more about this when the time comes. Hoping to have them up and ready to sell on my web store in about a month. Check back here or Instagram (@robhammerphoto) for updates.

Fine art photography book Roadside Meditations by Rob Hammer and Kehrer Verlag.

Wyoming Cattle Ranch

Wyoming Cowboy Photography

American West

A cowboy gathering cattle on a ranch outside Laramie, Wyoming. Cowboy Photographer Rob Hammer.

Wyoming cattle drive

Wyoming is a land rich in rugged beauty, where open plains meet towering mountain ranges, and the cowboy way of life still thrives. One of the most iconic images that evokes the spirit of the American West is that of a working cowboy on a Wyoming cattle ranch. These photos not only showcase the breathtaking landscapes but also the hard work, dedication, and heritage that define ranch life.

A cattle drive on a large ranch in Wyoming by cowboy photographer Rob Hammer.

Cowboys moving cattle on a ranch in Wyoming

A cowboy lets his horse drink from a pond during a long cattle drive on a ranch in Wyoming by cowboy photographer Rob Hammer.

Black and white cowboy photography print

Cowboys herd cattle on a rugged section of open ranch in Wyoming by cowboy photographer Rob Hammer

Wyoming cowboys

At Work

There are a lot of strategies for being productive while on the road. One of them is the “pop-in”. It’s become my go-to when rain won’t let you do much outside. That’s precisely how these images came to be. The pop-in isn’t for everybody. It used to scare the hell out of me. Then you realize there are only two answers, yes or no. If it’s a no, who cares? Just move on. Tony, the owner of this garage, was happy to let me hang out for a few minutes to make some images. Confused as to why, but it didn’t bother him any. Obviously they are going into my “At Work” series that has been so much fun to shoot. Some of the images you’ll see in the gallery are personal and others were made for clients. Better yet, some of them are personal assignments that were later published. Love when that happens.

American Road Trip

It seems like every road trip has its own personality filled with unique findings and activities. Of course photography is always the main focus of these trips, but there are also auxiliary goals that I try to squeeze in as well. Ranching, fly fishing, friends, and hunting are just a few of the things that happened in the squiggly red lines on the map. So far it seems like the results are good in the photography category and a hell of a lot of good times were had along the way. Excited to share more the miles soon.

Texas Barbershop

Lockhart, Texas Barbershop

Photography - Prints - Wall Art

Not sure what the trigger was, but it hit me the other day that I never post updates about Barbershops of America. It’s been over two years since the last book came out and so much has happened since then. What an incredible journey this project continues to be. I’m really grateful for it. Even with all the other series in the works, I can’t seem to keep myself out of barbershops.

The image here are from Raymond’s Barbershop in Lockhart, TX. For those of you that live in the BBQ world, you know Lockhart is Mecca. And honestly, that’s the only reason these images exist. During a cross country trip a few years back, the BBQ itch needed to be scratched. After overdoing it at Smitty’s, I stumbled up Raymond’s with some heavy meat sweats. That’s just how the road goes though. Some days you search and search and search without finding a damn thing. Other days it just falls in your lap with a side of brisket.

Click HERE to pick up a copy of Barbershops of America .

Contact me directly for fine art barbershop prints for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography.com

Western Road Trip

Open Road - Photography

American Road Trip Photos - Nevada - Utah

It seems like there is always a new “favorite” state based on a recent experience. Nevada is really creeping up on the list for me though. In a much different way then say Montana, Colorado, or Wyoming, but I really love Nevada. It’s a place that’s generally overlooked or unthought of altogether. Except of course for Vegas. Personally, I’ve had far too many good times there to ever need a return trip. The rest of the state though!! Would be fun to do a whole book just on the state of Nevada…..

Click here to shop my road trip photo book - Roadside Meditations

Click HERE to see more of my American Photography.

Basketball Culture Photography

Basketball Hoop Photography - Culture

Communication Arts Photo Annual - Award Winning Photos

Competitions have become one of the many shams in the photography industry. Today is seems like there are as many competitions as there are Starbucks, and they all prey on people, promising “exposure” that will lead to a world of endless possibilities. What they really are is a bullshit way for companies to rake in a boatload of money on entry fees. Communication Arts on the other hand, has a long standing reputation for high quality and publishing the most inspiring work of the year in their Photo Annual. So I’m honored to have my American Backcourts images included in this years pages along with breathtaking work by incredible photographers.

Click HERE to pick up a copy of American Backcourts

Photographing America

American Photography - Fine Art

Road Trip Photos - Travel

Walking away from our work can be such a benefit. Meaning that we need to not see it for quite some time to realize what’s good and what isn’t. The “America” series has, like most of my projects, been going on for ten years now. I love it, but things have reached the point where the library is so big that it’s overwhelming. Making it hard to share in any productive manner. Everything you seen in the post was made over the last two or three years, which is usually the amount of time it takes to make sense of it all. That’s not a good thing. It’s time to enlist the help of a professional editor.

Click here to see more from the America series

Traditional Barbershops

Small Town Barbershops

Photographs of American Culture

Hard to believe this project has been going on for 10 years now. You’d think after publishing a couple books on the subject, the desire to photograph barbershops would go away. Apparently not. What a journey it’s been and continues to be. Here are a few made over the past 6 months or so. The first shot of the Commercial Barbershop in Elko is actually a shop I photographed 8 or 9 years ago when it was in full swing. Unfortunately, it is no more. Sad, but that is exactly why I started this project.

Click here to pick up a copy of Barbershops of America.

American Basketball Culture

Basketball Hoop Photography - American Sports Culture

10 years into this series and it’s still just as much fun documenting the sport of basketball as it was initially. It’s always interesting to think about the games played on hoops in different parts of the country. It’s also enjoyable to see the images and realize that each one was an experience in itself to make. The first photo here in Primm was taken on a day so windy that I had to brace myself with one leg five feet in front of the other. You can see how the net is being pushed backwards. The second shot is from a high school gym in the middle of a remodel. Door was wide open and not a sole in sight. The hoop in Santa Rosa is actually one I photographed 10 or so years ago under completely different conditions. That image from all those years ago is in the book. Crazy how a location so random can be unintentionally revisited. And shocking to see that there is still a chain net hanging from the rim. The last image was made on a road I’ve driven a hundred times and never noticed before.

Click here to grab a copy of the book

American Motels

Road Trip Photography - American Culture

American Motels - Open Road - Americana

Another one of those subjects I can’t seem to stay away from - American Motels. Maybe it’s the nostalgia or all the time I’ve personally spent in them? Not sure. Said this in a recent post, but it was shocking to see how many of these old places had shut down during a trip out to Texas a few weeks ago. What a shame.

Click here to see more from this series.

Cowboy Culture Photography

Cattle Branding - Cowboy Photography - American West

There’s nothing staged about the kind of cowboy photographs I make. No hired models in brand-new hats. No one pretending to ride for the brand. Just real people doing real work day in and day out, in weather that doesn’t care if you’ve got a camera slung over your shoulder.

For the past 5 years I’ve been photographing working cowboys on ranches across the American West. Not for the sake of nostalgia or myth-making, but because this way of life still exists, and it’s worth documenting. It’s early mornings, long days, sore horses, busted hands, and wind that doesn’t quit. It’s also pride, precision, and an unspoken connection between the people, the animals, and the land.

Most of the time, I’m just trying to stay out of the way. The goal isn’t to direct or interrupt—it’s to be quiet, to watch, and to make images that feel true. The kind that a cowboy can look at and say, “Yeah, that’s how it really is.”

These photographs aren’t just about cowboy hats and boots (though those are in there too). They’re about culture. About people whose lives are shaped by purpose, place, and tradition. And if you spend enough time around it, you realize it’s not just a job. It’s a commitment. A way of seeing the world.

If you're interested in cowboy culture—not the romanticized version, but the actual, hard-earned life behind it, this collection of photographs is for you. No frills, no filters. Just the truth of the West, one frame at a time.

Click HERE to see more of my cowboy photography.

Click HERE to shop my collection of cowboy photography prints

Smithsonian Magazine

The Saguache Crescent

Small Town Newspaper - American Culture - Publishing

If you’re not interested in hearing more talk about personal projects than skip this one. It will be a familiar topic forever though, so get used to it if you’re going to stick around. Shot these images back in July of 2019 during a road trip out to Colorado. There was a final destination in mind but the route was unplanned. One of the small towns that popped up along the way was Saguache, CO. And by small, I mean population 424 small. Driving down “Main St” I noticed a very peculiar yet unmarked storefront. Inside the front window was an unidentifiable machine that looked like it came from a different age. (Findings like this are one of the many romantic draws to small towns). The screen door was open so I went in and was greeted not by a person, but a space filled with unexplainable life. A monstrosity of metal, tools, and papers from front to back, but I couldn’t figure out what year it was or what it all meant. There was nobody inside so I tried the jewelry store next door hoping for an answer. Sitting calmly behind the counter was the man I later found out ran the business I had so many questions about. That business turned out to be the town newspaper, the last of it’s kind still being printed on a linotype machine. A what? A linotype machine. The industry standard before the invention of computers. Now they are dinosaurs. Dean was very lackadaisical toward my request to photograph him at work, but nevertheless we made plans to meet again after my 4th of July camping trip. So about 5 days later I was back in a town I had never previously heard of, working on a story about Dean Coombs and The Saguache Crescent. My two days with Dean and the town of Saguache was quite memorable. It all seemed like living in a time capsule. Life there happens in a bubble because Saguache has nothing to draw any tourists, so the only people you’ll ever see are locals. Learning about Dean’s process what both educational and humbling. The patience required by one person to put out a weekly newspaper on a linotype is unfathomable. Hats off to Dean and all the people around the world dedicated to similar tasks.

One morning at the local cafe I sat quietly at the bar waiting for a breakfast burrito that turned out to be the size of a piece of firewood. Haven’t found anything even close to that size since. But just as memorable was a 90 year old man in conversation with a friend, who picked up a jar of sugar and did a 10 second pour into his cup of coffee. Kinda threw all the science about health and longevity out the window.

A while after the trip an edit of images was put together and sent around to a few places and got picked up by The National. We were happy with the placement as The National is a very reputable/long running publication. Then Covid hit and everything went to shit. The piece needed a new home. We received warm feedback from a contact at National Geographic. She liked the photos/story even though it wasn’t a good fit and suggested we pitch it to the Smithsonian Magazine. So we did and 1.5 years later here we are. It can be hard waiting so long for a piece to find a home. The wait is well worth it though when that home winds up being The Smithsonian.

If someone handed me a billion dollars tomorrow I’d still be working on these type of projects. Telling stories about people like Dean and the last newspaper in the world being made on a linotype machine. I’m grateful for the opportunity to tell his story my own way and to collaborate with Nick Yetto on the writing. And to have a personal project end up at a place like the Smithsonian.

Long live the personal project!

Click HERE to read the article on Smithsonian’s website

ROAD TRIP

THE BAD:This past week was the first time in a while since I’ve been on this particular route through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The findings were not good economically. It was hard to see so many familiar small town restaurants and hotels closed, boarded up, or in the process of being demolished. Maybe the timing was a coincidence, but you have to wonder if it was all the result of COVID? Either way it’s a shame.

THE GOOD: Road trips are always so much fun, educational, and therapeutic. This one had me shooting on a cattle ranch (The Four Sixes) in the Texas panhandle where I met some great people and had a hell of a lot of fun shooting with them. Will be a while until I can post those images. So for now you can click HERE to see more of my Cowboy photography.

European Basketball Hoop Photos

Basketball Hoop Photography - Europe

Over the past few years, I’ve been documenting basketball hoops throughout Europe—not the polished ones inside arenas, but the forgotten, improvised, and well-worn hoops you find in alleyways, apartment courtyards, village parks, and industrial edges of cities. These photos show the global reach of the game in its most local forms.

Each image carries the texture of its surroundings—cobblestone streets, Soviet-era apartment blocks, medieval stone walls, graffiti-tagged fences. The contrast between architecture and asphalt makes these hoops feel different from their American counterparts but no less soulful. They reflect how basketball adapts to the space it’s given, whether in a quiet plaza or behind an old church.

This series is available for editorial and commercial licensing, and it’s a great fit for brands or publications looking to tap into global basketball culture in an authentic, visually arresting way. Whether you're working on a story about international basketball, designing a campaign around street culture, or sourcing imagery for a global brand, these photographs offer a fresh take on the game—and its reach far beyond the NBA.

Interested in licensing these photos?
Please reach out for pricing and usage details. High-resolution files are available, and custom image sets can be curated based on your project’s needs - rob@robhammerphotography.com

Click here to see more basketball imagery from my American Backcourts series.

American Photography

Some frames from the last road trip up to Idaho and back. Seems like I’m always saying “______ is my new favorite place” and I can’t help that because I love this country so much. For now though, Nevada is becoming that new favorite place.

Looking at this set of images is interesting because they all fit into the different major ongoing series that have taken shape over the last few years. “American” , “Hotels” , “Barbershops of America”, and the latest “Roadside Meditations” which comes out in June. Only one missing is “American Backcourts”. None of these images were intentional. I didn’t set out with the thought to add to those series, it just happens. Grateful for that.

Click here to see more of my American Road Trip Photography

Fausto Ferrari Barbershop

Traditional Barbershop - Cincinnati, Ohio - Photos - Americana

It’s crazy what BBQ can bring into your life besides good times and a happy belly. There are countless images made on the road that have been a direct result of my love for smoked meat. In December 2013 I was cruising around downtown Cincinnati in a huge snowstorm when a (meat) smoker caught my eye in front a non-descript store front. If it weren’t for the huge plums of smoke coming from it I would have went right on by. Luckily it was about the only form of life on those empty streets that day. So I stopped for some food which happened to be next door to a beautiful old barbershop, which at the time, was closed despite the listed hours stating it should be open. I remember asking the owner of the bbq joint about the barber - “Good luck. That guy comes and goes whenever he wants to. Who knows when he’ll be back.” I had to take a gamble though, hoping he would indeed be cutting the following day. After spending the night I showed up at his stated “opening” time, but there was no sign of the barber. So I sat in my car wondering if he would show. Quite some time after, he did.

Over the past 10 years of working on this project I’ve encountered an almost endless list of characters. Mr. Fausto Ferrari is at or near the top of them all. Despite being in this country some 50+ years, he still spoke very broken English, so our conversations were fun to dissect. One of his long time customers came in shortly after he arrived and it was obvious that they had quite the history together. Halfway through the cut Fausto went into the back room . The man in the chair could see how much I enjoyed the barbers antics and said “I keep a file on my computer of all the stories he tells me”. Fausto was entertaining on his own, but watching the two of them was a gift. The kind of chemistry that can only happen between old friends. They carried effortless conversations that were often interrupted by the barber abruptly saying “Seeeñññoooooorrr” and the man in the seat volleying back with a smile “Faaaauuuussstooo”. Then the conversation would continue like it never stopped until the next volley. A special interaction that I was luck to witness.

Señor Fausto recently passed away after 94 years. A beautiful ride that any of us would be luck to match. Rest in Power Mr. Ferrari. Cincinnati will miss you.

Click here to grab a copy of Barbershops of America

Photo was made on 12/7/13

On The Road Again

Winters are typically when I spend the most time on the road to get as much snowboarding in as possible. This has been a very dry year for snow but that hasn’t kept the miles off at all. The better part of the last 30 days was on the road for two different trips filled with a weekend getaway to Tahoe for Emily and I, a commercial shoot, two editorial shoots, personal shooting (of course), and a “ski” trip with old friends in Sun Valley, Idaho that turned into a fly fishing trip due to the severe lack of snow. More on all this later.

Click HERE to see some of my road trip photography