Talking highly about Montana is better left to the most lyrical of wordsmiths because I certainly can’t do that place any justice. Maybe that should be a personal goal? I’m fresh off the road after spending over a week in that glorious state and can’t wait to go back. This trip was particularly visual due to to the heavy winter snowfall that made everything greener than green. I’ve never been to Ireland, but the particular hue off grass felt more like something you could only see there. Check back soon to see images from the two cattle ranches I photographed, but don’t expect any images of trout. Those are only in my head.
Hanoi, Vietnam Photography
Hanoi Street Photography: Markets, Motorbikes, and Everyday Life in Vietnam
Hanoi moves fast. Not in the way of modern cities, but in layers—motorbikes weaving through intersections, street vendors setting up before sunrise, and entire neighborhoods unfolding on the sidewalk.
These photographs were made while walking through markets, alleyways, and main roads across the city, documenting everyday life as it happens—unposed and uninterrupted.
For brands, publications, and collectors looking for authentic Vietnam street photography, this work focuses on real moments rather than staged scenes.
Street Markets and Daily Life in Hanoi
Much of Hanoi’s life happens at street level. That’s where you want to me. Markets spill into the road, vendors work from low stools, and entire meals are prepared on the sidewalk.
Photographing here means working quickly and staying observant—moments appear and disappear in seconds. The goal isn’t to direct anything, but to let the scene unfold naturally. You have to become part of the city while also blending in.
Motorbikes, Motion, and the Rhythm of the City
Traffic in Hanoi is constant, but rarely predictable. Motorbikes move like a current, flowing around pedestrians and through intersections without stopping.
Capturing this requires anticipation—watching patterns, waiting for alignment, and shooting at the exact moment when chaos briefly becomes composition.
Everyday Moments on the Street
The best part about Hanoi is how normal the chaos feels. There’s so much going on everywhere, all the time, but somehow it just works. To see a city like that, in constant motion, is a treat. Sometimes you want to be in the mix, and other times it’s fun to just sit back and watch from afar, to really take in those candid everyday moments of real people going about their lives.
The people in Vietnam work hard. Really hard. Yet they always seem to have a smile on their face - a lesson we Americans should really consider.
Vietnam Street Photography for Licensing and Editorial Use
This body of work is available for licensing and editorial use, particularly for:
– Travel brands and tourism campaigns
– Editorial features on Southeast Asia
– Commercial projects needing authentic urban lifestyle imageryIf you’re looking for Vietnam street photography that reflects real, lived experience rather than staged travel imagery, you can get in touch here:
👉 Contact RobStreet Photography Beyond Hanoi
While Hanoi offers an intensity that’s hard to match, similar moments unfold across other parts of the world in very different ways.
In central Vietnam, the pace shifts slightly—markets become more compact, colors more saturated, and the rhythm of daily life takes on a different feel. You can see that in this series of Hoi An images focused on vendor culture and street-level interactions: Hoi An market street photography.
In a completely different context, the game of basketball shows up in unexpected places throughout Vietnam. This project documenting Vietnam basketball hoops explores how the sport exists far beyond the United States, embedded into everyday neighborhoods and streets.
And in cities like Paris, street photography takes on yet another form—less chaotic, more observational—where small gestures and fleeting expressions define the frame. That contrast is explored further in this collection of Paris street photography.
Hanoi, Vietnam street photography
A woman rides her bike through the streets of Hanoi with a platform of bananas for sale
The streets of Hanoi, Vietnam
Caged chickens at a restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam
A woman preparing dead chickens to cook at a restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam
Fish for sale on the street in Vietnam
Shellfish for sale on the street in Hanoi, Vietnam
The Railway Cafe - Hanoi
Stock photograph of a woman selling watermelons on the street in Hanoi, Vietnam
A mom and three daughters riding a scooter through the busy streets of Hanoi, Vietnam
Shoe repairman on the street in Vietnam
Hanoi, Vietnam street scene photograph
Stock travel photography of Hanoi, Vietnam
Hanoi, Vietnam Street Photography available for editorial and commercial licensing
Textile vendor - Hanoi, Vietnam
Train Street in Hanoi, Vietnam
A Vietnamese woman carrying food on her bicycle to sell on the streets of Hanoi
Cowboy Photography - American West
Western Cowboy Photography
Photographing cowboys in the American West has been so many adjectives. Just scrolling through images to make this blog post gives me even more appreciation for the work, life, and culture of these people. As of this writing I’ve been lucky to photograph on cattle ranches in Nevada, California, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, and Wyoming. Which has been an education in and of itself, seeing all the differences from region to region. Not sure how long thing has been going on no, but the desire to continue only grows with each ranch visited. Certainly my favorite project to date.
Click here to see more of my cowboy photography and contact me directly to purchase wall art from the American Cowboy series. All of my images are available as prints for your home, office, or commercial space.
Fulstone Ranch - Bridgeport, California
Dave Ennis - Wyoming Cowboy
Diamond A Ranch - Seligman, Arizona
Cowboy “Office” - Idaho
Dwight Hill - Buckaroo - Idaho
Diamond A Ranch - Seligman, Arizona
Dwight Hill - Buckaroo -Idaho
American West Photography
Cowboy Photography
It’s always great to get press on your work, especially when it’s a big outlet like the Daily Mail. If you want to go on “followers’, they come in at 22+million on Facebook, whatever that means. Either way, I’m honored to have them do a feature on my cowboy photography - a project I love. It’s also quite young compared to some of the others like Barbershops of America or American Backcourts, which have both been going on now for ten years!
Click here to see more of my cowboy photography. Or contact me directly if you’re looking Western prints / wall art for your home, office, or commercial space.
Snow covers a barn where an old basketball hoop hangs in Wyoming
Basketball In Winter
Winter Basketball Hoops in America
Winter changes everything.
Courts disappear under snow. Lines fade. Backboards freeze over. In most places, the game moves indoors.
But not everywhere.
Across small towns, backyards, and open spaces, basketball hoops remain standing through the winter—unused at times, but never gone. The photographs in this post are part of my ongoing American Backcourts series, documenting the places where the game continues to exist, even in the coldest months of the year.
A winter storm covers a basketball hoop in front of a mountain cabin
Basketball in the Off-Season
Winter reveals something different about these courts.
Without players, without movement, the focus shifts to the environment. Snow collects around the base of the hoop. Ice forms on the backboard. The court becomes quiet, almost suspended.
But the structure remains.
A basketball rim buried in a massive pile of snow in the Eastern Serra
When the Court Disappears
In many of these places, the court itself is no longer visible.
A driveway becomes a sheet of ice.
A dirt court turns to frozen ground.
A painted surface is buried under snow.
The only thing left is the hoop—marking where the game returns when the season changes.
A basketball hoops sits quietly above a pile of snow as a snowboarder shovels out his car
Why Winter Changes the Photograph
Photographing these hoops in winter isn’t just about weather—it’s about absence.
Without people, the images become more about space, stillness, and time. The hoop is no longer part of an active game. It becomes a marker of one.
A worn hoop standing in front of a red brick building, the court quiet and frozen until the season changes.
Part of the American Backcourts Project
These winter photographs are part of American Backcourts, a long-term series documenting basketball hoops across the United States that has been exhibited in fine art galleries/museums and published in iconic magazines like SLAM as well as fine art books about basketball culture.
→ View the full American Backcourts basketball photography gallery
→ Explore available basketball photography prints
A snow-covered court at sunset in a small town, where the hoop remains even as winter takes over the landscape.
Road Trip Photos - USA
Photography and the Great American Road Trip
Road Trip Photo Book
It’s a good thing most people only think of Las Vegas when Nevada gets brought up. Otherwise it gets thrown into the “fly over state” category. Staying that way would be just fine. The hoards can go elsewhere and leave the untamed beauty to the rest of us that truly appreciate it. Of the states many redeeming qualities, under populated ranks very high on the list. I’d argue it has everything, but that’s an obvious bias. The biggest draw is almost endless open roads, which is why it fits so nicely for my Roadside Meditations series. One of those places that really allows your mind to wander. Beyond that, it’s got sage brush, deserts, mountains, snowboarding, fly fishing, and cattle ranches. What more does a guy need? All joking aside, Nevada is a really special place. Another one that took me a while to understand or appreciate, but now the hooks are firmly planted. Desert mornings and evenings offer a vibe you can’t find elsewhere. It’s something about the light mixed with the color palette and textures of the landscape. I’ve spent many a night sleeping in my truck in Nevada, waking up to sunrises that rival any in the country.
Click here to pick up a copy of Roadside Meditations
Contact me directly about American road trip photography prints for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography.com
Goodsprings, Nevada - Road Trip Photography
Goodsprings, Nevada - American Road Trip
Jean, Nevada - Road Trip Photography
Hawthorne, Nevada - American Road Trip Photography
Sandy Valley, Nevada - Travel Photography - America
Sandy Valley, Nevada - Road Trip Photo Book
Walker Lake, Nevada - American Photography
American Road Trip Photography
Carson Valley, Nevada - American Photography
Driving Through America
American Road Trip Photography
More from the road this winter. You never know what you’ll find out there, which is most of the draw. If you knew, what fun would it be? That’d be like fly fishing if you were guaranteed a catch every single time out. It’s about the hunt. The coyote image is a great example how the road always keeps you guessing. I only found them because of a pee break on the side of some desert parking lot in the middle of the Nevada desert. Parking lot is the only word available, because it didn’t seem a need for one. There was nothing around for miles and miles. Nevada desert. Which begs the question, why were the coyotes there? Clearly they were killed by hunters and placed carefully in that spot. It took effort to drag them from the kill location. Why not just leave them there? We’ll never know. Nor does it matter. Just the kind of thing you see on the road.
Dave’s Pubb - Tetonia, Idaho
Lovelock Speedway - Lovelock, Nevada
Nevada desert
Mojave, California
Hawthorne, Nevada
Frames Magazine
Photography Podcast - Frames Magazine
It’s rewarding connecting with people that you’re on the same page with. The motto at Frames Magazine is “Because excellent photography belongs on paper”. For quite some time I’ve been saying that photography belongs on your wall, not your phone. So you can see the natural connection to the people at Frames. They get it. So I was honored to be interviewed about Roadside Meditations by W. Scott Olsen for their podcast. Scott is as talented a photographer as he is an interviewer and writer. If you’re into long form photo essays about travel, check out the piece he did on traveling the country by train - Scenes From a Moving Window . It’s a lot of fun. Here is a link to my episode on the Frames Photography Podcast.
Road Trip
Road Trip Photographer - America - Open Road
What a winter it’s been. The snow just keeps on coming. Made an impromptu road trip up to Jackson Hole again for a mix of business and pleasure. More on the business part coming soon! We had two days of incredible backcountry snowboarding. The best of which was in Grand Teton National Park, where the snow was literally as good as it gets. Felt like floating on a cloud. The road trip portion was a lot of fun too, although the weather conditions made it quite interesting. On the way south while driving through northern Nevada, an emergency alert popped up on my phone. I figured it was just an overreaction, then got slammed with some of the worst driving conditions I’ve ever witnessed during 10+ years of road trips. The snow and wind was so heavy, that there were moments when I couldn’t figure out if the car was moving forward or backwards. It was also the first time I ever called it and got a hotel due to weather. That hour and a half of driving in those conditions completely fried my eyes and brain. Gotta love the road. It keeps you honest. Will be posting new images soon from the cowboy project.
Doug Monson - Western Charcoal Artist
A Charcoal Artist in Wyoming Preserving the Spirit of the American West
Western Art That Comes From Experience, Not Interpretation
There’s a noticeable difference between Western art made from observation and Western art made from experience. The best work doesn’t try to explain the West. It comes from living in it.
Doug Monson’s charcoal drawings aren’t romanticized versions of cowboy life. They carry the weight of real work—long days, unpredictable conditions, and a deep familiarity with cattle, horses, and the land itself.
That’s something I’ve seen again and again while photographing ranches across the West. The people who live this life don’t exaggerate it. And the artists closest to it don’t either.
A Chance Encounter With a Western Charcoal Atist
It’s always amazing how the universe brings people together. During a trip to Jackson Hole I was on a big gallery kick and spent quite some time taking in the top tier art that Jackson’s galleries have to offer. After the trip was over I began the drive back home. At the time I was living in San Diego and decided on a route that happened to go through Afton, WY - home of the Western Skies Fine Art - a gallery I had no knowledge of. Still having a thirst for art though, I popped in and was greeted by the owner Doug Monson He showed me around the gallery and his breathtaking studio upstairs. Next thing you know, I pulled the camera gear out of the track and was photographing Doug at work. Prior to that day I never even knew who Monson was. It was a pleasure spending time with him though. He’s a talented artist and a hell of a nice guy.
Why Wyoming Still Matters for Western Artists
Wyoming holds onto something a lot of places have already let go. There’s still space. Still working ranches. Still a culture that hasn’t been completely reshaped for an audience.
For artists—whether working in charcoal, photography, or anything else—that matters.
It means the subject isn’t manufactured. You’re not documenting a version of the West built for tourists. You’re seeing something that still functions the way it always has.
That’s why so much of my own work continues to bring me back to places like this.
Documenting the Same World Through Photography
While Monson works in charcoal, the intent overlaps closely with what I’ve been building through photography. For the past several years, I’ve been documenting working cowboys across the American West—on ranches where traditions like branding, roping, and horsemanship are still part of daily life. It’s not staged. It’s not styled. It’s not built for content. It’s just the work, as it happens. That same honesty is what makes both forms of work resonate. Whether it’s a drawing or a photograph, the goal is the same: create something that holds up over time because it’s rooted in reality.
The Importance of Western Crafts and Artists
There’s a broader ecosystem around cowboy culture that often gets overlooked — Saddle makers. Rawhide braiders. Bootmakers. And artists like this one working in charcoal.
These aren’t separate from Wester culture—they’re part of it. And as fewer people continue these traditions, documenting them becomes more important. Not in a nostalgic way. In a factual one. Because once these skills disappear, they don’t come back.
Collecting Authentic Western Art and Photography
For collectors, there’s a difference between work that references the West and work that comes directly out of it.
That difference shows up over time.
It’s in the details. The restraint. The lack of exaggeration.
Whether it’s a charcoal drawing or a photograph, the strongest pieces tend to be the ones that don’t try too hard. They just reflect what’s there.
If you’re interested in collecting work like this, it’s worth paying attention to where it comes from—and who made it.
A Larger Project Documenting the American West
This visit is part of a much larger body of work focused on documenting the people, places, and traditions that still define the American West.
It’s taken me across ranches in multiple states, often working in remote environments where this way of life still operates largely unchanged.
If you’re interested in seeing more:
View the full cowboy photography project
Explore available cowboy photography prints
Explore another Western artist - William Matthews
Inquire about licensing or editorial use - rob@robhammerphotography.com
Charcoal artist Doug Monson at work in his daylight studio
Monson drawing a cowboy with charcoal on paper
Portrait of artist Doug Monson
Doug Monson at work on a drawing in the Western Skies Gallery
Doug Monson surrounded by art in his studio
Cowboy Photography - Buckaroos
Nevada Buckaroo Photos | Authentic Great Basin Cowboy Photography
Buckaroo Photography from the American West
The Great Basin is a special part of the American West, particularly as it applies to cowboy culture and the buckaroos that call it home. Among the few remaining iconic ranches still left in northern Nevada are the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock and the Winecup Gamble Ranch in Montello. Both are jaw dropping beautiful and incomprehensibly large. The C-Punch, the biggest I’ve been to so far, is 1.8 million acres. Yeah. Try wrapping your head around that. Seeing all these properties in different parts of the country has been amazing. Each region has its own allure. Nobody ever said to pick a favorite, but there’s something about the land in northern Nevada that really does it for me. Still working on putting that into words, but it’s exceptional, to say the least and took a few years to truly understand. At first, places that big, open, and seemingly void of life are difficult to grasp. Then something clicks and you can’t get enough of it. The muted colors, textures, and vibes of the Sage Brush Sea are intoxicating.
Nevada Buckaroos and Great Basin Ranch Culture
A Nevada buckaroo is not a costume or a posture. It is a way of working that developed in wide country where distance matters and horses are tools, not accessories. The Great Basin shaped this culture the way weather shapes a face—slowly, without asking permission. These photographs were made in that context, among people whose days are structured around stock, seasons, and the quiet competence required to make both endure.
The buckaroo tradition in Nevada carries deep vaquero roots, visible in gear, horsemanship, and the small details that separate function from style. While every worn saddle mark, coil of rope, and dirty Garcia bit does a job it has already done many times, make no mistake, buckaroo gear has a style all it’s own. A style that’s worm with immense pride, not just because it’s part of their very identity, but also because they know it’s the visual element that separates them from cowboys in every other region of the West.
Photographing Working Buckaroos in Nevada
Photographing buckaroos is less about chasing moments and more about staying put long enough for the work to reveal itself. The rhythm is slow, punctuated by long stretches of waiting and brief intervals where everything happens at once. These images come from time spent standing off to the side, watching cattle move, horses settle, and men do what they’ve always done without commentary.
There is no staging here. The photographs are made in real working conditions, often dictated by weather, dust, and the simple fact that ranch work does not stop for a camera. That constraint is part of the appeal. It keeps the photographs honest and the subjects unbothered.
Nevada Buckaroos Within the American West
Within the larger story of cowboy culture, Nevada buckaroos occupy a particular corner—one defined by style, scale, isolation, and continuity. This body of work fits within a broader project photographing working cowboys across the American West, but these images belong specifically to the Great Basin and the people who know it well.
Taken together, the photographs function less as individual moments and more as a quiet record of a way of life that persists without announcement. They are not meant to explain or romanticize the work, only to show it as it appears when you spend enough time around it. I am forever grateful that these these buckaroos have allowed me to spend time with them.
Photograph of a cowboy working cattle on the C-Punch Ranch - Nevada
C-Punch Ranch
Winecup Gamble Ranch - Montello, Nevada
Photograph of a buckaroo catching horses
Buckaroos branding cattle in Nevada
Black and white photograph of cowboys on the Winecup Gamble Ranch
Cowboy moving cattle on the Winecup Gamble Ranch
C-Punch Ranch
C-Punch Ranch - Cowboys working horses in a round pen
C-Punch Ranch
American West Cowboys
Portrait of Trapper Rodgers
C-Punch Ranch - a cowboy waters his horse
C-Punch Ranch
A cowboy riding his horse on the C-Punch Ranch in northern Nevada
American Road Trip Photography Book
American Road Trip Photography Book
Photo Book - The Open Road
For the past 13 years, I’ve been photographing the quieter edges of America—small towns, roadside motels, empty streets, and the kinds of places most people pass without stopping.
What began as a road trip became a long-term body of work built over hundreds of thousands of miles on the road.
That work is now collected in the book Roadside Meditations.
Roadside Meditations — A Photographic Record of the American Road
This fine art photography book brings together photographs made across the United States, focusing on places that exist just outside of attention.
There’s no single destination or narrative arc. The work moves through the country the same way the photographs were made—slowly, without urgency, and often without a clear endpoint.
The images reflect towns that feel paused in time, buildings that have outlived their purpose, roadside spaces shaped more by use than design, and landscapes that hold a quiet, persistent stillness
This is not a document of landmarks, but of presence—of what remains when nothing is trying to be seen.
An American Landscape Between Moments
The photographs sit within a tradition of American color work that looks beyond spectacle and into the everyday.
Gas stations, motel rooms, desert edges, storefronts, parking lots—places that are often overlooked, but deeply characteristic of the American landscape.
The interest is in the in-between: The space before something happens. The trace of something that already has. The feeling that time moves differently in certain places
Many of these scenes resist being tied to a specific moment. They exist somewhere outside of it.
The Book
Last week on the drive home from Wyoming I listened to a great podcast with Rick Ruben and Rich Roll. Rick is such a unique and inspiring individual with an immense amount of knowledge from a lifetime of varying experiences. Of the many nuggets he dropped on the show, this one stuck out the most - “The audience comes last, in service to the audience. The audience wants the best thing. They don’t get the best thing when you’re trying to service them. They get the best thing when you’re servicing yourself. When you’re true to who you are”.
That’s an invaluable statement for any creator to hear and it sums up exactly how I feel about photography, for personal projects as well as commercial work. Very rarely do you see commercial work that has any great effect on people or the world of photography, because it’s watered down generic imagery that’s sole purpose is to sell a product and feature the companies logo as many times as possible. Nobody wants to take a risk. They want to play it safe and not ruffle any feathers. Seldom does an ad campaign come out with historical significance or staying power. They are about now! How much can we sell now!!?? So what does this have to do with a photography book? Everything. If I or any other photographer set out to make a book strictly with the audience in mind, it would suck. The intention would be glaringly obvious and the images would reflect a direct lack of caring. The title of the book might as well be Money Grab.
Roadside Meditations is a niche subject that’s not for everyone, which you could argue is the case for any fine art book. If it were for everyone, it wouldn’t be worth a damn. To further Ruben’s above quote, I’d like to share how my latest photo book came to be. A few years back I began collaborating with (now) photo editor/consultant Alexa Becker (Germany). At the time she was working for Kehrer Verlag and I was trying to pitch her one (maybe three?) different book ideas, none of which landed. Her interest in my work seemed genuine though, so I kept in touch. And at one point I reached out asking simply for a consultation on my “America” series. After a half dozen back and forths through Zoom, she pulled a few outlying images from my edit and asked if I had anything else that might go along with it. I did, so she began assembling a side edit. A while later she had the beginnings of Roadside Meditations, and told me to forget all about the America series, because “this” was the book! Turns out she was right, and all the roadside images I made thinking they were just accents to the bigger series, was IT all along. The point is that I never had anything in mind for the photos. I wasn’t making them for anyone but myself, and maybe one or two of them might find their way into a book, print, whatever?? Well, here we are a year and a half later, and a large shipment of books is scheduled to arrive from Germany in less than a half hour. So much has happened since then. I’ve continued shooting images that would fit into a Roadside Meditations Vol. 2, but that’s not the intention. The images are only made because I’m drawn to make them. And it would be a bonus if another book happened to develop. Vol.1 isn’t out in the world yet, so there is nothing to say people even want it, but I’m still a firm believer that “the audience comes last, in service of the audience.”
Collecting the Work
Photographs from Roadside Meditations are available as fine art prints.
Each print is produced using museum-grade materials and intended for long-term display in private collections, interior spaces, and galleries. If you’re interested in prints, please contact me directly - rob@robhammerphotography.com
Purchase the Book
Fine Art Road Trip Photography Book
A two-lane road curves into the desert as the last light settles over the mountains.
The shoreline bends into still water under a fading sky, the moon rising over the basin.
A quiet intersection sits beneath a weathered formation, where signage meets open land.
A roadside sign marks a place to stop, set against the slow movement of the landscape.
Neon light spills onto an empty street, holding the only sign of activity after dark.
Clouds gather and stretch across the basin, moving slowly over an open and unchanged landscape.
American Road Trip
Road Trip Photography - America - Open Road
Winter is such a special time in the West. Especially if you’re lucky enough to be in it when a massive snowstorm hits. Such was the case this past week in Wyoming where the snow never seemed to stop. I drove up there to do some shooting and for a backcountry snowboarding hut trip in the Tetons. Jackson Hole and the surrounding area never disappoint in the snow category. Snowboarding is my “selfish time”, meaning I generally put the camera away and just ride, so there are no images of powder to share. However, the image below made in Afton, Wyoming is a great example of the odd things you see while on the road that are only made possible by the hand of mother nature.
Winter Storm Photography in Mammoth, California
Photographing a Winter Snow Storm in Mammoth
I’ve spent a lot of time in Mammoth over the years, mostly chasing snowstorms and long days on a snowboard. When a real storm rolls in, the town changes completely. Roads disappear, buildings soften, sound drops, and everything starts to feel slower and heavier. Those are the days I usually trade the board for a camera because the mountain tends to shutdown during heavy storms.
These images were made during an active winter snow storm in Mammoth, California. Not the postcard version of winter, but the kind where visibility comes and goes, snow stacks up faster than you expect, and the landscape feels stripped down to its essentials.
Living and Riding Through Winter Storms in Mammoth
If you spend enough winters here, storms stop feeling like events and start feeling like part of daily life. You wake up early to check the wind, ride when it’s good, wait it out when it’s not, and move through town while everything is still half-buried.
That familiarity makes it easier to photograph in tough conditions. I’m not chasing drama — I’m paying attention to how snow reshapes familiar places. A parking lot becomes abstract. A road turns into a line of tone and texture. Scale shifts constantly as the storm moves through.
Photographing Snow, Wind, and Scale
Winter storm photography is less about spectacle and more about restraint. Snow simplifies scenes, but it also hides detail. Light flattens quickly. Wind erases edges. The challenge is working within those limits without forcing a moment that isn’t there.
Most of these photographs were made quietly, between riding and driving, while the storm was actively changing the landscape. I’m drawn to scenes where human presence feels temporary — plowed roads, snow-covered buildings, tracks that won’t last long.
Why Winter Storm Photography Matters
Severe weather has a way of revealing place. In the mountains, storms expose how people build, move, and adapt. They show scale in a way clear days don’t. For editors, designers, and brands, winter storm imagery can communicate isolation, endurance, calm, and intensity without explanation.
These photographs aren’t about tourism or ski culture. They’re about atmosphere and environment — images that work as visual anchors in editorial layouts, books, campaigns, and long-form storytelling.
Editorial and Commercial Licensing
This series of winter storm photographs from Mammoth, California is available for editorial and commercial licensing. The images are well suited for magazines, books, outdoor and lifestyle brands, environmental storytelling, and large-format applications where mood and scale matter.
If you’re looking for cinematic winter imagery made from lived experience rather than a one-day shoot, I’m happy to help you find the right images or build a custom edit for your project.
Images from this series are also available as fine art prints. Contact me for details.
Sierra Nevada Resort covered in snow after a winter storm
Schat’s Bakery in Mammoth, California covered in snow
Photograph of a record breaking snow storm in Mammoth Lakes, CA
Streets covered in snow after a record storm in Mammoth Lakes, CA
A-Frame Liquor covered in snow after a winter storm in Mammoth Lakes, CA
A basketball hoop sticking out of a snow bank after a record breaking storm in Mammoth,CA
Photograph of a car covered in snow after a storm in Mammoth Lakes, CA
Snow storm in Sierra Nevada Mountains in California
Photograph of a Mammoth California restaurant covered in snow
Photograph of Mammoth Liquor covered in snow after a record breaking storm
Roadside Photography in America — Small Towns, Quiet Roads & Stillness
Roadside Photography Across the USA: Small Towns, Country Roads & Quiet Places
This body of roadside photography from across the United States focuses on small towns, country roads, and the overlooked spaces between destinations. Made while traveling secondary highways through places like Iowa, Utah, Nevada, Virginia, and California, these photographs slow down the idea of the American road trip and shift attention away from landmarks toward quieter moments. The work comes from a long-term project that eventually became my book, Roadside Meditations—a photographic exploration of stillness, distance, and the visual language of everyday America.
Photographing America Beyond the Interstate
Much of American road trip imagery centers on motion—crossing state lines, reaching destinations, ticking off places on a map. This work was made by doing the opposite. Instead of interstates and major routes, I spent years driving back roads, county highways, and rural connectors where towns thin out and time feels less compressed.
These roadside photographs aren’t about where you’re going. They’re about where you pause. A quiet diner at dusk. A sun-bleached sign. An empty stretch of road that doesn’t ask for attention but rewards it if you stop. This approach allows the landscape to reveal itself slowly, without narrative pressure or spectacle.
Small-Town America and the In-Between Places
The photographs in this series were made in places most travelers pass without stopping—small towns, agricultural regions, and rural outskirts where commercial life has softened or shifted over time. These in-between places are rarely presented as destinations, yet they form the connective tissue of the American landscape.
By photographing these locations without dramatization, the images lean into quiet observation. The goal isn’t nostalgia or critique, but presence. These towns and roads exist as they are—weathered, functional, sometimes fading—holding layers of American life that often go undocumented in contemporary photography.
A Slow, Observational Approach to Roadside Photography
The photographs in this post were made over many years, often while driving alone, without a fixed itinerary. Working slowly is central to the process. I look for moments when light, geometry, and stillness align—scenes that feel complete without intervention.
There are no staged elements and no attempt to “improve” what’s already there. The camera becomes a tool for noticing rather than arranging. This method allows the work to remain open-ended, inviting viewers to bring their own experiences and memories into the frame.
From Long-Term Project to Roadside Meditations
Select images from this body of work eventually became the book Roadside Meditations, a collection shaped by years of sustained attention to the American roadside. The book brings these photographs together as a single visual conversation—one that reflects on travel, stillness, and the quiet spaces that exist alongside movement.
Rather than documenting a single journey, the book and this ongoing series reflect an accumulation of time on the road. Each image stands on its own, but together they form a broader meditation on how America looks when you stop trying to get somewhere.
This post represents one thread within a larger, ongoing exploration of the American landscape. For those interested in seeing the work as a whole, Roadside Meditations gathers these photographs into a single volume focused on overlooked places, visual quiet, and the spaces we usually pass by.
Sunset on a country road in rural Iowa
Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System
An abstract view of dense forest in Virginia
Reflections of trees in a Virginia river
Eastern Sierra - California
Reflections of trees and foliage in a still river in Upstate New York
A car kicks up dust on a country road through harvested farmland in rural Iowa, photographed in early morning light.
The alien landscape in a remote part of Utah
Muted colors of dead plants during winter in Iowa farmland
A country road and train tracks running along a river in rural Virginia
The Des Moines, Iowa capitol building reflected in windows of a nearby office building
Train tracks going through Iowa farmland at sunset
San Francisco Photography
Street Photography - San Francisco
Candid Moments From The City By The Bay
Had another commercial shoot in San Francisco a while ago and planned a little extra time to play around in the streets. It’s always a fun way to relax and grow as a photographer. No idea what the bigger picture is for this ongoing series, but that doesn’t matter. Even if it’s just a personal documentation of the city, that’s ok too. This particular day got interesting about an hour in to the walk, when a women pulled up in her car and asked what I was doing. She didn’t like my simple answer and continued to disagree with everything that came after. So I went on my way, only to have her creep behind me for an hour, watching from a distance. At one point our paths crossed closely and her window was down, so I asked if she was having fun. She replied with an entitled grin as if she had cracked the case of the century, saying “I know what you’re after, mailboxes and garages”. I just kept walking. Eventually she couldn’t follow any longer after my path went through a park. People are funny. Did I handle the situation properly? Probably not. If there was a business card in my pocket it would have went immediately to her, but there was not. And her attitude was such shit, that it seemed like a losing battle to convince her of anything other than what she already had in her head. Moral of the story: always carry a business card to show Karen??
San Francisco street photography
San Francisco street photography
San Francisco photography
San Francisco street photography
Street photography - San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
Street Photography - San Francisco, CA
San Francisco street photography
Street photograph of a San Francisco neighborhood
San Francisco, CA
Photo of a beautiful home in San Francisco
San Francisco street photography
American Photography
Photographing America - The Open Road
Road Trip Photography Prints - Americana
A new batch of American photographs from the last couple road trips around the country. This series has gotten increasingly overwhelming from an archive perspective. It’s probably the largest series to date, but also the one I’ve done the least with. And by “least”, I mean nothing. So to look at it as a whole feels like a monumental tasks to make sense of for a book or any other publication. Guess it’s time to turn things over to a professional??!!
Click here to see more of the America series.
Contact me directly to order fine art prints for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography.com
Hawthorne, Nevada
Honolulu Club - Yucca, Arizona
Tuba City, Arizona
Southern Iowa
Griswold, Iowa
Big Island, Virginia
Mountain Home, Idaho
Hillsboro, Illinois
California Desert
Whiting Bros - Yucca, Arizona
Old movie theater - Hawthorne, Nevada
Lovelock Speedway - Lovelock, Nevada
Shoe shop - Texarkana
Griswold, Iowa
American Road Trip
Every year you hear the same story on the news - people left stranded in airport after thousands of canceled flights. Same thing. Every year. This December (2022) marks 10 years that I’ve been driving from San Diego to New York to do some shooting and see family for the holidays. It’s also the first December in a decade without Mojo, so I pulled an audible to the normal cross country drive, instead trying to focus time and effort on the cowboy project. The plan was drive to a couple ranches in northern Nevada for several days of shooting on each. Afterward leave my truck at the Salt Lake City airport and fly home to Albany from there. Plans don’t always work out. After rushing to the airport I walked right through security with a knife and a lighter. Didn’t plan on having them with me, it just worked out like that. My flight had several delays as did Emily’s. She was supposed to land in Albany 5 hours prior to me. I finally made it there at 5am, while she had been rerouted. Which meant taking my mothers car, driving to Boston to pick her up, then back to Albany for Christmas Eve at my Aunt’s house. Then up to Lake George for 3 days at my sisters. Those 3 days were fantastic. Then on Tuesday I woke up to a text saying my Thursday flight was already canceled. Phone calls to Southwest resulted in a busy signal or that annoying ring from yesteryear that happened when the number you called was no longer in service. An internet search revealed the next available flight wasn’t until January 2nd. Who knows if that would actually happen though? So I rented a car and started the next morning on a drive back to Salt Lake City where my truck was waiting. Honda Accords with summer tires are no fun to drive in the winter, especially when the weather reports are filled with storm warnings. Slowly, it did the trick. Meaning it got from A to B, but not much else. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time during the ride to do much shooting, but I still managed to squeeze in a few early morning frames of southern Iowa.
The ride through Wyoming on the 80 was par for winter in Wyoming on the 80 - a windy/snowy mess. Thankfully it remained uneventful. After picking up my truck in SLC, I started the drive south through 3+ hours of rain. At some point of tiredness I pulled off into a truck stop and slept in the back of the truck. Tried anyway. The days coffee intake was far too high for any real sleep. Around 2:30 am I was back on the road, pulling off again for a nap around 5 am just south of Vegas. Waking up from the nap was a pleasure. That hour or so before the sun actually rises is really special in the desert. From about 7am to 9am I was shooting almost non-stop. Everything just seemed photographable in that beautiful light. Really though it’s the lack of light that makes it particularly desirable, in my opinion. Low ambient light through the cloud cover without any harsh direct sunshine is premo. The side road took me to a part of Nevada I’d never been before, into a place that seemed completely disconnected from the rest of the world, despite only being 25 minutes from the highway. From there is was back into the mess that always is southern California traffic.
There were two lessons learned over those couple weeks of travel. 1) I’m an idiot for not driving the whole way. 2) the pictures will always come if you’re patient. The first day of driving 15 hours straight from Albany to a hotel in Iowa was frustrating. I hate burning country without making images, but there was a deadline to meet, so I didn’t have much of a choice. That next morning the weather was interesting, so I hopped off the 90 for an hour and managed to make images I’m quite happy with. The itch was scratched. Still though, it would be wildly disappointing to drive from coast to coast only making a few images in a small section of one state. It worked out though. The incorrect amount of coffee led to a sleepless night that put me in exactly the right place/right time. Situations like this have happened many times over the years on road trips, international vacations, etc. So the lessons have slowly changed the way I go about finding images. 10+ years ago I couldn’t sit still until images were in the can. Now, I’m learning to let them come.
Serenity in the Marsh: Stunning Duck Blind Views that Connect Hunters to Nature
Capture the Beauty of Duck Hunting: Photography of Tranquil Marsh Views from the Duck Blind
The stillness of the marsh at dawn is unlike any other—where the world feels suspended in time, and the only sounds are the subtle movements of nature. From a duck blind, hunters are immersed in a breathtaking view that connects them deeply to the environment. These photographs showcase the serene beauty of those moments—the quiet reflection of the marsh in the water, the mist rising off the reeds, and the vast openness of the landscape.
As a duck hunting photographer, my goal is to capture not just the action, but the peaceful relationship between hunter and environment. These stunning images reflect the calm before the hunt, allowing companies in the duck hunting industry to showcase their gear in the most authentic and serene setting. Whether it’s a perfectly placed blind, a well-crafted decoy, or the right camouflage apparel, these photographs offer a powerful narrative about the connection between the gear and the natural world.
For hunting gear companies, these images are an opportunity to highlight products that enhance the experience of duck hunting, providing a visual representation of both functionality and the serene beauty of the marsh. This collection of photographs not only invites viewers to appreciate the tranquility of the environment but also serves as a testament to the role that quality hunting gear plays in a hunter’s success and enjoyment.
San Diego Botanical Gardens
Lightscape - San Diego Botanical Gardens
Christmas Light Show - Photography
The last few weeks haven’t seen much action with the camera, unfortunately. Instead the days have been filled with end of the year business nonsense that I don’t enjoy. Going for any amount of time without making images causes a bit of uneasiness, so I brought the camera for a walk through Lightscapes at the San Diego Botanical Gardens, and played around with some hand held long exposures. It confused a number of workers that we would actually walk to the event, instead of driving.
