Aj Williams 🌻

5.22.23 • lilac alley 💜 my favorite plant blossoming in my favorite season. 📍: Homelands of the Salish and Kalispel peoples. Image descriptions: 1. Purple lilacs are in focus on the right side of the frame, with a view down the alley filled with the last strong rays of golden hour light. 2. White lilacs emerge from the bottom right of the frame, with a worms eye view of the bush. A telephone pole and bright blue sky are on the left side of the frame.

5.22.23 • Always turning toward the sun 🌞🌼 📍: Homelands of the Salish and Kalispel peoples. Image descriptions: 1. A medium shot of yellow arrowleaf balsamroot lines the trail up Mount Jumbo. 2. An up-close shot of yellow arrowleaf balsamroot turning toward the sun, soaking in every ray of the season.

5.22.23 • Wildflower season 🌼 📍: Homelands of the Salish and Kalispel peoples. Image descriptions: 1. Purple lupine wildflowers are rooted up close and in front of yellow arrow leaf balsam root on the side of mount jumbo. 2. A close up shot of multiple purple lupine wildflowers. They are vibrant against the green, spring grasses.

2.04.2023 • Snowshoeing adventures at Lolo Pass! Snowshoeing is one of my favorite ways to get outside with friends during the Winter, especially when @davies_mag comes to visit for the month 💙❄️💙❄️ 📍: Homelands of the Ktunaxa, Cayuse, Walla Walla Umatilla, and Nez Perce peoples [image description: The vista view from the top of Lolo Pass. The sun is setting in the left side of the frame, shining on the snowy rolling mountains and young spruce trees are in front coming from the bottom of the frame.] #lolopass #snowshoeing #snowday #sonyalpha

2.04.2023 • Snowshoeing adventures at Lolo Pass! Snowshoeing is one of my favorite ways to get outside with friends during the Winter, especially when @davies_mag comes to visit for the month 💙❄️💙❄️ 📍: Homelands of the Ktunaxa, Cayuse, Walla Walla Umatilla, and Nez Perce peoples [image descriptions: Maggie, a white woman with red hair, is wearing a brown jacket and a black backpack. She is sitting in a snowbank and smiles towards the sun, and sure looks like one happy Midwestern transplant.] #lolopass #snowshoeing #snowday #sonyalpha

2.04.2023 • Snowshoeing adventures at Lolo Pass! Snowshoeing is one of my favorite ways to get outside with friends during the Winter, especially when @davies_mag comes to visit for the month💙❄️💙 📍: Homelands of the Ktunaxa, Cayuse, Walla Walla Umatilla, and Nez Perce peoples [image descriptions: 1) two people snowshoeing on a broken trail toward a smooth peak of a mountain. The sky is golden with evening light and there are young spruce and pine trees surrounding the broken trail. 2) another shot of a snowshoer on the trail, blowing snow towards the camera. 3) two snowshoers reach the top of Lolo Pass that straddles Montana and Idaho. The vista of Idaho is beyond them. A snow pole stands to the left of the showshoers, marking the trail.] #winter #snowday #snowshoeing #sonyalpha #sony

2.28-3.3.2023 • in the midst of winter, I found a free week between work contracts and took myself on a creative retreat. It was a first for me; five days of unstructured time and no goals of production, only intuitive care. I’m grateful for emergence, and hope one day I can share the snowbank of drawings and the river of words that flowed out on disability and environment. For now, here are a few views of the week taken on strolls and from writing nooks. 🏔❄️ I am in constant awe of our world, and feel lucky to keep surviving it. “We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.” -Pema Chodron 📍: Homelands of the Wenatchi, Yakama, Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. [image descriptions: 1. The Wenatchee River flows low, it’s banks covered with snow, rocks and green and bare trees. A bridge is in the distance, along with snow covered ridges and puffy clouds in a blue sky. 2. The old Plain, WA school house stands surrounded by snow, where inside I spent many hours writing. The structure is a small, white building with a brick fireplace and red-painted dormers. 3. The inside of the Library, preciously the Plain, WA schoolhouse. The wall is covered with books and square, colorful stained glass windows. There are wooden beams, floors, and old light fixtures hanging above. 4. A close up picture of three ponderosa pine trees, mirroring light shades and darker shades split in the center of the middle tree (nature is amazing!). 5. A large, sun filled room with two story windows is filled with weaving looms. This is the fiber arts studio, and I wandered here every day to see the warm room light up in afternoon light. 6. A mountain in the near distance with a ridge cascading down, covered with snowy coniferous trees. The photo was taken on a snowy road, with blue skies above. 7. An birds-eye shot of the large, wooden table I wrote at every day. On the table, I’ve laid out my journal and some of the writings that inspire me.]

2.28.2023 • frosted trees in light, standing still with its magic ✨🌲❄️ 📍: Homelands of the Wenatchi, Yakama, Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. [image description: 1. Ponderosa pine needles emerge close-up from the frames right side, their green edges covered with big snowflakes. 2. Douglass Fir needles are weighed down with frost and snow, the tips touching snow on the ground. Daylight streams in from behind in the bottom half of the frame, making the tree sparkle.] #northcascades #washingtonphotography #trees #frost

3.1.2023 • Lake Wenatchee in Winter 🌊❄️taken during a creative retreat in the North Cascades, where a piece of my heart lives 💙 📍: Homelands of the Wenatchi, Yakama, Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. [image description: a lakeshore of gathered ice shards carried in by green-blue, rolling waves. The Lake is surrounded by dark green, coniferous trees and mountains with snowy caps. The sky above is covered with light grey clouds with breaks of blue sky.] #lakewashington #lakephotography #washingtonstateparks #winter #naturephotography

10.29.2022 • First light in Nine Mile Valley, Montana 🌄 Grateful for the opportunity to connect with this place on a morning walk among female hunters (a long-term and forthcoming photostory). 📍: Homelands of the Salish and Kalispel peoples. [image description: a picture of a deep green coniferous tree forest with tall grasses on the ground and rolling mountains behind. The first sunlight of the morning is steaming onto the mountains, with blue clouds above.] #huntingseason #diversifyoutdoors #sony #sonyalpha #montana

10.2022 • This past weekend I covered the Adaptive Climber’s Fest in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. As I dive into editing photos and reading through transcripts, Im feeling grateful as ever to be apart of the disability community and especially lucky to be creating media about the spectrum that is the disabled experience. More to come…for now, here’s one of my favorite shots ⭐️. 📍: Homelands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, Yuchi, and Shawnee peoples. [image description: Ronnie, a white man with brown hair who uses a prosthetic left leg wearing a t-shirt and shorts, lead climbs the Recess rock face in Muir Valley within Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. The rock face is a slab at a steep angle with several ropes pitched onto it. Ronnie’s shirt is bright yellow, as are the leaves on the trees behind him.] #adaptiveclimbing #adaptive #climbing #disability #kentuckyphotography #redrivergorge #muirvalleyclimbing #sony #sonyalpha

9.2021 • beach combing with @gators_r_us & @justjonahthings 🌊🐚💛 on the Eastern Shore. 📍: Homelands of the Pocomoke-Assateague peoples. [image description: Allie, from the shoulders to knees, wearing jeans and a grey sweatshirt. She is walking toward the sun holding a glass of wine and a shell peeping from her left front jean pocket. The water is on the right and the sky above is bright blue.] #beachphotography #naturephotography #easternshoremd #assateague #sony #sonyalpha