Our Photo Guides Are Awesome

Backcountry Journeys photo guides are awesome!

As a company dedicated to providing world-class and seamless adventure travel photography tours and workshops, we believe that they are at the heart of our success. Whether you travel with Ben, Matt, Russ, Russell,  Kevin or Kenton, you can be confident that you’ll be in great hands.    

All of our guides are experienced photographers, but that is just the baseline. They are also all lovers of the natural world in which they lead tours. 

Kenton Krueger

Ben Blankenship

Russell Graves

Matt Meisenheimer

Kenton Krueger

Russ Nordstrand

Kevin McNeal

While our wonderful photo guides may know just about everything there is to know about the locations we visit together, they also know how to have a really great time while still managing to attend to every important detail that goes into making a tour exceptional. 

“Just completed the Canyons of Utah photography tour with Russ and crew from Backcountry Journeys! This was one of the best vacation experiences of my life! Not only were the guides knowledgeable in photography, cameras & camera gear, but they also were very knowledgeable about the geology, history, flora and fauna of the two National Parks we visited. This added immensely to the experience for me. The Backcountry Journey crew took care of every detail of the trip so all we had to concentrate on was photography. I really appreciated that they were familiar with the restaurants in the towns we stayed in, the food was great. Again, this was an awesome experience and I plan on taking more trips with Backcountry Journeys!”

Tony E. -Springfield, MO

Many photography workshop instructors can teach you what F-Stop to use, or what shutter speed will work, but can they tell you all about the natural and human history of the landscape and the regions you are photographing? Our guides can, and will. While on a Backcountry Journeys photo tour you can also count on learning about the geology, wildlife, flowers, and birds, etc., of the region that you are photographing. 

Backcountry Journeys provides our photo guides with the freedom—plus all the behind-the-scenes support they need—to deliver thoughtful and attentive personal service, each and every time. 

Our photo guides are not only employees, but they are also part of our small (yet growing) family. We choose to not utilize independent contractors like many companies do because we feel that a family of folks working as guides makes them an integral part of our business which leads to greater investment in the overall approach to providing quality tours and workshops time after time. 

And, as we often hear in testimonials from our guests, this approach works! 

“Many thanks to (photo guide) Matt Meisenheimer for an amazing 6-day expedition in Glacier National Park. His ability to get us to the right places at the right time for incredible sunrise and sunset photography opportunities is unsurpassable. He was totally dedicated to instructing the group as to obtain max results. Despite forest fire haze in the park, he taught us to benefit from its color enhancing effects. He was quick to share his expertise in Photoshop in Lightroom for post-processing our images. 

Food, comfort, and instruction are incomparable for the price. This being my second trip with Backcountry Journeys I look forward to many more with this group.”

Linda L. – Connecticut 

Great photography is at the heart of everything that we do, however, having a guide who can share insight into the natural and cultural history of a place we are visiting together is the icing on the proverbial cake. Wildlife, ecology, history, even local cuisine. These things combined with being at the most interesting places at just the right time for well thought out scenes for your images, and personal instruction, all combine to make your Backcountry Journeys tour complete. 

Our belief is that our tours are more than just photography. They provide to our guests the opportunity to connect with a place, with the other folks they are traveling with, as well as their guides in ways that lead to unforgettable experiences that should last a lifetime. As photographers, we all know that part of what we are doing with creating an image is to tell a story. To achieve a feeling about a scene. If a photographer can connect with the location, that story, those feelings can be better achieved in an image. Our guides work hard to provide all the right ‘feels’ so that you have this whether you are aware of it, or not. 

We attribute much of our success to our remarkable guides who are out there helping to facilitate all of this with their enthusiasm, likable personalities, knowledge and talent as leaders.

We invite you to come along with us one day to find out for yourself just how ‘awesome’ our photo guides (and all of our world-class tours) really are!

Kenton Krueger

Kenton Krueger grew up and spent the first 33 years of his life in the corn country of Omaha, Nebraska. After studying aviation at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Aviation Institute, he “conned” his way into the newsroom at the award-winning Omaha World-Herald where for 3+ years he wrote and photographed news articles on a variety of topics such as community events, travel and even mixed martial arts for the sports department. Yet something was missing. While on backpacking trips to Grand Teton and Grand Canyon National Parks in the mid-2000’s he was quick to realize that the wild lands of the western United States stoked a fire in his heart as nothing else could. This realization led to a relocation to Flagstaff, Arizona, and he hasn’t looked back. He has spent the past several years guiding backpackers, hikers and photographers into the wild places of the American West such as Havasu Falls, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone National Parks as well as in the Grand Staircase Escalante in southern Utah. In addition to backpacking and camping, his adventures include rock climbing, exploring the slot canyons of southern Utah, mountain biking, and bagging 14ers in Colorado’s San Juan Mountain Mountain Range. Kenton is a trail runner, a former pilot, newspaper photographer, and writer. Kenton looks forward to utilizing his years of guiding experience, combined with his passion and experience behind the lens to provide memorable and unforgettable experiences at the wild places we will visit together.