Travel like a naturalist!
I discovered a different way to travel
It began with learning how to pay attention
I’ve spent a lifetime asking questions. As a journalist, I learned to listen. As a photographer, I learned to see. As a communications professional, I learned to package it all up. But it wasn’t until I became a Master Naturalist that I learned how to slow down and pay deep attention to how those threads came together.
Master Naturalist programs train volunteers to observe and interpret the natural world, helping others recognize patterns and understand the relationships that shape a place. Once I started applying those skills to my travels, it transformed every place I visited — cities and markets, museums and cafés, landscapes and train stations.
That is what Field Marks is all about. It’s where I share Sightlines, (photograph essays), Soundscapes (field recordings), stories, and a Naturalist’s Notebook, which offers practical ways to help you notice more, ask better questions, and experience each place with greater depth, confidence, and connection.
Slow travel isn’t about doing less. It’s about going deeper.
Behind this project
A lifetime of questions eventually became Field Marks.
Long before I was traveling the world with a camera and a notebook, I was climbing fences, chasing horned toads, and exploring the wilds of the Texas panhandle where I grew up. I didn’t know it then, but I was learning to pay attention to weather, wildlife, seasons, and the countless ways people and the land shape each other.
I may not have been able to articulate it then, but by the time I was hunting and pecking at a typewriter as an awkward preteen, I was working off a hunch that would serve me well into my career — that there’s a story hiding inside almost everything, if you look closely enough.
Radio taught me to listen for what mattered. Photography taught me to wait for it. Communications work taught me how to shape it into something someone else could feel.
But the Master Naturalist training brought it all together. I had expected to learn about a few local species. Instead, I learned that every place is a web of relationships. And the more of that web you can see, the richer the place becomes.
Once I started seeing the world that way, I realized how travel could be richer, more thoughtful, and more rewarding than our crammed itineraries and social media-driven trips are leading us to believe.
So, Field Marks is home for a lifetime of paying attention, applied to travel. I hope you’ll join me and discover the joys of exploring deeply.
My Guiding Principles
I travel for
understanding
I carry home
stories
I believe
every trip has consequences
I return
to see what’s changed
I travel like
a naturalist
I notice
the details others walk past
I spend money on
local people and businesses
I try to leave
as little trace as possible
I measure a trip
by what changed me
I’ll never forget
someone calls this place home
Why “Field Marks?”
Birders use the term “field marks” to describe unique characteristics (like colors, patterns, behaviors) that make it possible to identify a species. If, that is, you know what to look for.
I believe places have field marks, too. They’re found in the sounds of a market, the ingredients in a meal, the way a neighborhood is built, the stories people tell, and the traces history leaves behind.
Once you learn to recognize them, every destination begins to reveal something about itself. That’s the way I travel now, and it’s the perspective I hope to share through Field Marks.
start exploring
There’s more than one way to experience a place
Whether you prefer to read, listen, look, or plan ahead, each part of Field Marks offers a different way to connect with a place. Start wherever you’re most curious.
The story continues
What we bring home matters, too
Some journeys keep unfolding long after we return home. I invite you to join me in exploring the questions, memories, and unexpected lessons that travel leaves behind. Subscribe to receive these personal essays, along with updates on new Stories, Sightlines, and Soundscapes.