Justin Wideman is an Italian-born American photographer, print & graphic designer, and e-commerce consultant living in San Antonio, Texas.
Since traveling as a young kid and young man (over 40 countries), I have always been fascinated with travel, culture, architecture, and new experiences.
Why #TexasEdgeToEdge?
Texas Edge To Edge was born from a personal challenge in 2014 to get out and see the Lone Star state from one end to the other and everything in between. This is still ongoing, Texas is a big state and there are still lots of places to explore and document in pictures.
Using that hashtag is still one of the best ways to see my Texas images across various social media platforms.
Onward Southwest!
2021 was a pivotal year for me as having COVID-19 at the end of 2020 helped me reevaluate my goals and passions under the world’s current events, and the fragility of life and my priorities. I decided to double down on photography, dusted off my travel bucket list, and hit the road.
In 2021, I took several trips out of state by car just enjoying nature and the small towns of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern Utah. Ultimate social-distancing locations. These are magical places and I will keep returning as often as I have the time. The Southwest of the USA is truly an enchanted and magical part of our planet.
Why the “full-stack attack” approach?
Having grown up being self-reliant at an early age, having to work hard for every dime. While I am now happy to work with teams on projects. For most of my life, I was not able to afford others with the skills to do something. This meant I HAD to make the investments in myself to gain the needed skills to get something accomplished.
Over the last 20+ years of investing in myself and selling my skills to others, I improved my working knowledge be it photography, print, graphic design, writing, or e-commerce websites. With time and working experience, I have gained the 360 knowledge to “full-stack” the design and marketing world.
Why Do you do photo books?
Firstly, it ties my skillset to my passions, even if they are not big sellers they are a material thing and not just playing games with social media algorithms that are tiresome and shallow.
My earliest memories are looking at National Geographic and other adventure photo books and magazines, so naturally that inspires a lot of what I do and try to emulate.
The river book series stems from my travels and finding rivers have a beginning, middle, and end much like a storybook, so it helps me with an outline to follow, explore, and document. I do plan to explore other photo/travel book topics in the future as well.
Do you do client work?
I do a limited amount of client work (mostly e-comm sites and location or architecture photography) as well as my other jobs and projects. I will consider all requests personally, but I not be able to take all requests due to my schedule.
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When I am not taking photographs, working, or writing/researching for my next book I can be found riding my road bike on one of San Antonio’s Howard Peaks trails running local 5k-10k runs, or kayaking the local rivers and lakes to stay active.
GEAR: In 2021 I made the switch from the Canon 5D series to the EOS R and RF 24-105 f/4L lens as my primary tools to cut down on camera bag gear and keep it simple. I also use a DJI Mavic Air 2 drone for hard-to-get shots and some outdoor action cameras like Insta360 X2. I rent other lenses as needed. I am a camera user and not a collector. I have found cameras have become tech tools and improve quickly and don’t want to be left with lots of outdated equipment. I’d rather use my extra funds to self-fund another trip than have the greatest gear collection.
Photo-karma and giving to the web-uverse
I am a big believer in giving back and paying it forward. I have benefited immeasurably from others’ works as inspiration and as stock images/art in my work and print projects. By upload my non-fine art images and b-roll to other sites so that other artists can use them for client projects or as composite images and see where their imagination goes. In that way, a piece of my work can live on with others and complete the circle.
One of the best ways to do this is to upload them for FREE on Pixabay. This is a free library of stock images that are used by many and now can even be inserted into your WordPress website projects.
An active Google Contributor, I take pictures of everything on my phone, with over 3,953 images contributed to date, (some have over 150,000 views!) and donate food, travel, and location images that others see on Google Map search as I go about experiencing in my daily life. I think it is good camera-karma and keeps my eye sharp, and helps small businesses.
