Adventure Branding Photography in Stanley Idaho for Tourism Brands

These multi-day branding photoshoots for the Stanley Sawtooth Chamber of Commerce are some of my very favorite photoshoots. They bring together so many elements that are important to me, people, stories, adventure, the Sawtooth Mountains and they also require me to bring together all of the skills I’ve built over the last twenty years of working as a professional photographer. I love the people, I love the place and I love the challenge.

I started working with the Stanley Sawtooth Chamber of Commerce in 2023, and I have loved building relationships in Stanley and spending so much time there every year. Before I ever started working with the chamber, Stanley was a special place to my family and I and we camp every year with friends at Redfish Lake.

This was a 3 day photoshoot and a big part of the purpose of this photoshoot was to document the damage from the Wapiti fire in 2024. The job was for me to get to Stanley as soon as the snow melted (which was in June 2025) and participate in a lot of different activities while documenting the damage from the fire.

Because Stanley and the Sawtooths are so special to me and my family, I was truly concerned about the fire damage, as a lot of us in Boise who love that area were. To think of that special area never being the same again in my lifetime was hard to comprehend, but I mountain biked deep into the burned areas surrounding Stanley Lake and even only six months after the fire was relieved by what I found. It was not scorched earth by any means, and even in the most burned parts, life was quickly coming back.

A big part of these photoshoots are getting a large variation of photography work for the Chamber, so over these three days, I did photoshoots around camping, the Stanley Thursday night street dance, gravel biking, e-biking, e-mountain biking, hiking, hot springs, restaurants, fishing, horseback riding, paddle boarding and even a car show. It was an incredibly full three days behind my camera, and also incredibly fun. In this post I’ll share a full overview of images and then talk a bit more through each individual photoshoot I did and share more images, it’s a long one, but I promise it’s worth it.

I love the drive to Stanley from Boise. Winding up highway 55 and then 21, through Banks and Lowman, my eyes are always peeled watching all of the beautiful scenery around me, Idaho is such an amazing (and under rated) state. One of my favorite places on the drive, and a place where I always stop is the overlook with the first view of the Sawtooths.

On this drive however I was nervous to see these mountains that I love so much. I knew the Wapiti fire had burned hot and long in the area of the overlook in fall 2025 and this was my first time seeing the forest and the mountains since that had happened.

As soon as I pulled over, I was relieved. Yes the area had been burned, but not completely scorched like my imagination had pictured. Certainly the trees were charred, but it was not a burnt wasteland like my imagination had pictured it, phew.

I got out my camera, put my drone up in the air and surveyed the damage more thoroughly. I grabbed a few photos of cars on the road thinking they would be valuable for the chamber of commerce in their marketing and then I headed on to Nip & Tuck road to scout the location for my first photoshoot of the trip, which revolved around an authentic camping setup. Here’s a few photos from my drive in to Stanley and from the overlook.

My first photoshoot scene was camping, so we setup a quick camp site with a beautiful view of the Sawtooths in the background. I scouted a location, let everyone know where to meet me and as you can see the weather changed so quickly, we started off in the sunshine and found ourselves packing up the campsite as fast as possible as raindrops started to fall. Huge thanks to Heidi Dohse founder of Tour De Heart and Reilly and Caleb for helping me out on this photoshoot. Heidi brought her Sprinter van and they all brought so much camping gear. I’m always so grateful for all of the help and generosity from the people who live in Stanley on these photsohoots.

Something awesome that Stanley has every summer is a Thursday Night Street Dance. I’ve been to several of these now and they’re so much fun. They happen in front of Papa Brunees and Kasino Club out in the unpaved streets of stanley. It’s such a fun merging of all the guides and workers in the area as well as people who are visiting on vacation. They always have local bands and I love the fun vibe.

My Stanley photoshoots are marked by early mornings and oftentimes late nights, but it ensures we get the best light of the day for our photoshoots, which is especially important when we’re trying to really showcase the beauty of Stanley and the Sawtooth Mountains (which is something truly spectacular, IYKYK).

I woke up the second day a solid hour before sunrise and I checked the weather, it all looked great and sunny and clear, but I walked out of my hotel room to thick fog. I was so close to the base of the Sawtooths, and if you didn’t know they were there, you would’ve missed them completely.

I met up with Jay and his Niner bike for some gravel biking photos on the path that runs from Pioneer Park to Redfish Lake Lodge. I had my fingers crossed that the fog would break the whole time, but it never did. The photos are still cool, but I was hoping we could get the beautiful Sawtooths in the background.

After gravel biking photos with Jay, I headed over to Trei’s bike shop Balance Bike Works to pick up an E-Bike and an E-Mountain Bike as well as one of Trei’s staff members to help me out on the next portion of the photoshoot.

We had to install a beefier bike rack on my car to hold the two heavy e-bikes, and then we headed up onto Nip & Tuck Road to do some e-biking photos with the Sawtooths in the background.

We were slowed down a little bit, when one of the e-bikes slipped off of the rack and slammed into the back window on my SUV. We were going 45 mph and I’m so grateful it wasn’t worse, my back window could have been shattered or a very expensive e-bike could’ve been destroyed, instead we lost 15 minutes and I’ve got a scratch in my back window that reminds me of this adventure.

Thankfully the fog was low in the valley and had largely burned off by the time we got up on Nip & Tuck and we got incredible views.

I’m an avid mountain biker, but I had never ridden and E-MTB before. Trei set me up with a Marin e-mountain bike and I met back up with Heidi for a lap around Elk Meadows out near Stanley Lake.

Here is where I knew the Wapiti Fire had done quite a bit of damage. Stanley Lake is such a special place to me, I’ve camped there with my family, fished with my son on his 13th birthday father son trip, and it is just a spectacularly beautiful place seated at the bottom of McGowan Peak in the Sawtooths.

Much like the Sawtooth overlook on my way into Stanley, the fire damage at Stanley Lake was much less than I feared. Places were solidly burned, but not all of it, and we were only about eight months after the fire and significant plant life had already started to come back, even in the most burned places.

I had never ridden Elk Meadows before, and it was an absolute blast to ride, and E-MTB’s? Oh sooooo much fun. Even though I had a camera bag on my back so I had to slow my roll a bit, I still had a blast on this ride with Heidi. We did have to navigate some fallen burned trees, and in one meadow the mosquitos were absolutely brutal, but I was so happy with the photos that we got, and with the adventure.

One thing that was neat about the fire damage was that we had views of the Sawtooths and of high mountain streams that you would’ve never seen before the fire. Trying to see some upsides here :).

After mountain biking, we needed some hiking and backpacking photos, and also wanted to document Iron Creek which is one of the starting points for many of the backpacking trips people take into the Sawtooths. The fire had also come near Iron Creek, so the Chamber wanted to me to go out there and get some photos of what the area looked like.

Before leaving Stanley Lake (actually before mountain biking), we also did some hiking photos to give something different than the ones at Iron Creek.

Again at Iron Creek I was relieved, and the fire damage was actually much less than even at Stanley Lake.

At this point I was feeling very grateful about the post fire condition of the Sawtooths and Stanley

After saying goodbye to Heidi, I headed back into Stanley and to Mountain Village Resort. They had just finished a brand new hot spring, and we wanted to get photos of it with a family.

The hot spring is so cool, and the view of Sawtooths from it is spectacular. I had always heard about this hot spring, and seen photos of it on social media, but this was my first time actually going to it and it was so cool, I would love to spend the evening with my wife and kids here.

Something that always amazes me about Stanley is the food quality. When I first went to Stanley I figured the food wouldn’t be that good just because it was such a small town, but I have been consistently impressed by every single restaurant in town, the food in Stanley is very good.

For the next scene in this photoshoot I met with a group of people at Mountain Village Resort for dinner. We sat out on the patio enjoying the beautiful view and the great food.

We purposefully built the plan for the photoshoot around locations, and where I would be when, so since I was in Stanley, I also swung by the Sawtooth Hotel, to get a few photos of their food and space (they also have amazing food).

One convenient thing about Stanley is that everything in town is really close together, so next I literally walked across the street to The Rod & Gun to grab some photos there.

After the Rod and Gun, I headed back to my hotel for the night to get some rest and prepare for another early morning.

I was really grateful to wake up to no fog on my second morning. The first morning had spooked me a little bit, and I know it’s not uncommon to get that low fog in the morning in the Sawtooths.

I headed out to Redfish Lake to meet up with Dallas and Kalli for fishing photos. Dallas runs a youtube channel all about fishing, he makes great videos and spends lots of time out on the water. I was really grateful that he and Kalli were willing to help me out early on a Sunday morning. It was an absolutely beautiful morning out, the Sawtooths were in all of their glory and Redfish Lake was calm and peaceful.

I left Redfish Lake and next headed out to Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch. This was my first time ever at the ranch and it is such an amazing place. They have such a unique vantage point on the Sawtooths, not quite like any other view I’ve seen. I think that’s one of my favorite things about the Sawtooths too is they look so different from every angle. Even though I spent a short amount of time at the ranch, I got to meet some of their staff and I can see they give their clients an amazing experience. I took photos of the buildings, view and incredible pool, and also grabbed some photos of their horseback riding as well.

After Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch, I jumped back into my car and headed back to Redfish Lake for paddle boarding photos. This is at a beach that my family and I paddle board at when we go camping, so it’s a spot I know well and it has such an amazing view.

I finished up the third day of my photoshoot for the Stanley Sawtooth Chamber of Commerce by taking photos of a car show that was happening in downtown Stanley.

With my heart full, I said goodbye and thanked everyone for their help, I took a last look at the Sawtooths and packed all of my gear up into my car and started the trek back to Boise, grateful for an adventurous three days, for time in this beautiful little town with it’s amazing people and so excited to get home to see my wife and kids.

If you’re in need of branding photos, my calendar is booking up quickly and I’m currently booking into mid-May, contact me to get the conversation started and see what it would be like to work together. I look forward to chatting.