This harbor is my home, where I learned to sail and swim. This is the place where the ocean first felt like magic to me. The ocean is one of the most personally grounding elements in my life. These pictures with their diverging explosion of color and lines, feel like a painting of home to me.

This past year I spent abroad, from stilted Indonesian villages to the stoic Table Mountain in South Africa. This picture was taken on the trek up the side of the mountain as I formed new relationships (and sores) along the way. The top of the mountain has such a gradual slope to the summit that false peaks appear everywhere, but appreciating the unique foliage helped with the blisters and aches we all felt.

I had never been to South America until I sailed up to this little Jurassic Park looking island off of the coast of Brazil. I had just crossed the Atlantic Ocean and looking to the stunning lushness and astounding topography of this island made life seem even more unreal than it already did.

Sitting in the middle of the South Atantic Ocean is a little island inhabited by no more than five thousand people. The harbor is scattered with local fishing boats and some bigger sailboats passing by as they are making the trans-Atlantic crossing. From the cliffs of the island, the perspective that I had looking down on the harbor, to me, was incredible; it was such an unique way to see so much ocean.

My seaside hometown is known for its long stretch of beach and its extreme lack of waves, so whenever I catch a little barrel crashing on the sand I try to snap it with my camera; focusing especially on the light rays hitting the water.

Some of my favorite pictures that I have taken have been on 35mm film. For me, this photo is the combination of all of the movement and vibrance and love in life. I have never disregarded photos simply because of a blur or even misfire, sometimes they can come out as the most engaging pieces

Taken on a French Island in the middle of the Caribbean: even trees in towns with paved roads and cafes filled with crossiants and coffee abide by the “there are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature” law.

The ice blue of ocean waters has always and will always entrance me like nothing else. The contrast of colors and the reaches of the branches moves the viewers eye across the photo to the top right where the white waves are washing over the rocks and from there the viewer is free to explore the details of the photo.

As a girl from the East Coast, driving down the California Coast proved to be one of the most beautiful drives I’ve been lucky enough to do. Camping in the forest along the shining waters and rocky cliffs, tramping in fields of flowers and beaches with no footprints, finding our own way down the coastal highway.

The waters of Indonesia are clearer than any other, being able to look down and see underwater fields of coral and endless schools of tropical fish was a sight I will never unsee: the beauty of both the diversity and enormity of life in the endless sea.

The concept of youth can take form in any number of ways, from whom you spend time with, to what you do in your free time, to what you wear. To me, youth isn’t just one point in your life, but a mindset of freedom and being able to be wild in the ways that you want.

Making their living on hosting foreigners on treks and camping trips through one of the most biodiverse jungles in the world, these Indonesian men have so much knowledge of and passion for the forests around them. They spend their lives learning the trails leading deep into the jungle like the veins on the back of their hands.

The mountains of Flores Island in Indonesia look up to and almost worship Mount Ineire, the highest volcano on the island. It stands beyond the black sands of beaches demanding all eyes and admiration from the people who live in surrounding villages, who pass down stories year after year of their “beautiful mountain mother.”

The size, shape, and use of boats around the world varies place to place, but in Fernando de Noronha the small dinghys are used for locals to get out to their dive and fishing boats to entertain tourists on.

The silhouettes of the few fishing boats left in the harbor for the winter, paired with both the divergence and fusion of the warm colors of the sky at dawn with the blue of the ocean create a smooth reflection moving towards the horizon.