My name is Adam Johanknecht, and I’m a nature photographer, long-distance hiker, and seasonal worker. I’ve been pursuing photography since 2019, and I love how this passion has changed the way that I see and experience nature.

In the spring of 2022 I quit my job as a software engineer to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, and after rehabbing from a knee injury, I was able to hike 1,000 miles of the trail through Oregon and Washington! I brought my camera with me on the hike, and I was given the trail name “Cameraman” because I was always finding something that caught my eye to take pictures of.

After the PCT, I found wildlife photography and birding as a new passion. You’ll see that passion for birds and wildlife in many of my images, though that hasn’t stopped me from creating landscape photos as well. In the summers and falls of 2023 and 2024 I worked as a backcountry caretaker on the Long Trail in Vermont, which allowed me to live in the backcountry while working on trails, privies, and alpine stewardship.

The next big shift in my photography happened in the summer of 2024, when I began to learn about camera trap techniques for wildlife photography. This culminated in my mountain lion project over the winter of 2025, where I got some of my most exciting images to date of big cats.

Now, I’m living in Bozeman, MT and working as a guide with Yellowstone Safari Company. I’m super excited to be leading tours in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and photographing the animals and landscapes of the northern Rockies!