Mountains are calling & I must go! Let’s wander where the Wi-Fi is weak & the trails are steep.
Adventure awaits!
Jason Roberts is a photographer who threw himself back into the art like a man escaping a burning building. No plan, no roadmap, just a camera and a hunger for something real. Oregon is his stomping ground: mountains that bleed into the sky, rivers that rage like drunk gods, and ghost towns crumbling under the weight of time. That’s where his lens points, not at the polished, the staged, or the safe, but at the raw nerve of the world.
Roberts walked away from photography once, swallowed by the static of daily life, but he came back swinging. The camera became his weapon and salvation, a way to wrestle order from chaos and bring back proof that the wild is still out there kicking. Every shot is a field report: lightning storms stitched over the Three Sisters, deer skulls strung up in hunting camps, forests whispering secrets in the dark.
Through Nerdy Viking Photography, Roberts keeps driving down back roads, chasing storms, and crawling into the forgotten corners of the Pacific Northwest. His work is part survival note, part love letter, part battle cry. A reminder that beauty isn’t gentle, it’s feral, and you have to step off the map to find it.
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There are gifts… And then there are time machines disguised as plastic and metal
Rebecca hands me this black, angular relic — the Minolta Maxxum 7000 — and suddenly it’s 1985 again. Synth music in the background. Shoulder pads wide enough to land aircraft. The Cold War humming softly under fluorescent lights. And in the middle of it all, this thing. The Maxxum 7000 wasn’t just a camera. It… Read more
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March 13th.
Sauvie Island — Attempt Number Two. The first run was a meteorological ambush. The sky cracked open, the wind turned hostile, and we were forced to pivot like disgraced generals retreating from a battlefield we never meant to lose. Oregon weather doesn’t negotiate. It issues ultimatums. But Sauvie has been circling the calendar like unfinished… Read more
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Madness that only photographers understand
There’s a certain kind of madness that only photographers understand — the good kind. The kind that starts as a date circled on a calendar and slowly mutates into maps spread across kitchen tables, weather apps checked obsessively, batteries charging like we’re preparing for siege warfare instead of sunrise. March 13th is coming. We don’t… Read more
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What advice would you give to your teenage self?
In a world full of noise, focus on resilience, authenticity, and the power of taking action. Read more
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Writing prompt: Favorite Shoes
Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you. My favorite pair of shoes are blue Columbia hiking boots — battle-scarred veterans of the Pacific Northwest campaign. They’ve marched through Oregon mud like loyal infantry and clawed their way across Washington trails with the stubbornness of a mule that’s seen things.… Read more
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Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you? Patriotism is a dangerous word. It gets tossed around like a half-empty whiskey bottle at closing time—everybody waving it, nobody quite sure what’s inside. Am I patriotic? That depends on who’s asking, and whether they’re wearing a flag pin or carrying a pitchfork. The loud… Read more
Nerdy Viking Photography 