On a mountainside in Northern Norway, a young woman bears 70 pounds of gear. Next to a young man carrying around the same, they trek a 100 mile trail. Through rain, knee deep mud and over rocks they climb to the apex. Every slip and fall rips her clothing more, but through rising frustration 20-year-old Ali Kimball presses on, determined.
The scrapes, cries of anger and desire to turn back are negated when she sees that dazzling view from the mountaintop. A serene cloudy sky above the lush green Lofoten islands makes for a spectacular photograph. Later that night, as the northern lights dance across the sky, Kimball freezes the moment with a click of the shutter.
Through all the hardship and laborious hiking, Kimball and friend Jude DeVry didn’t fight once. Their friend chemistry allowed DeVry to relax, even in the most trying situations. After years of looking to the islands he was finally able to go and having Kimball along for the hike made it more fulfilling.
Aurora Borealis kept her and DeVry up all night, watching the sky dance. “We could feel the energy intertwine with us,” she says.
DeVry struggles to put into words the glory of the northern lights saying they made him feel peace. After the recent death of his mother, seeing those lights and traveling with a close friend whom he trusts with his life was an experience that made him feel complete.
Kimball’s turning point was when she saved up all her money to buy a Canon T5i, her first camera. Since then, she has been taking every picture she can from senior photos to grand landscape portraits across the USA and Europe.
Now back in the states, drinking coffee at a café and video-calling friends on Instagram, Kimball says, “I take photos for the nostalgia. The raw emotion of capturing a memory forever.”
A middle school teacher once told her that she should get used to living in her parents’ basement if she wanted to be a photographer. How Kimball hated that: the audacity of an educator to tell her she wouldn’t make it. In high school, an instructor told her, one of the most important things in life is to follow your dreams. Kimball took that as a sign that the universe wanted her to continue photographing her life.
In Lofoten, Kimball faced death in the form of a fraying thin rope – the only thing between her and reaching the top of another mountain. As rain started to pour down, she began the climb, but her hands kept slipping and every thought circled around her impending doom.
She prayed, for her safety but also for her mother to get over her death. After crying from dread and determination both with a heavy bag and sheer will, she reached the top. She’d survived and would reap the rewards as she came upon a majestic little cabin on the shore of a glassy lake.
DeVry says the trip was extremely difficult but they both knew it would be. “We signed up for helping each other out so both of us make it home safe.”
Photography is her dream vocation, but it seems that her true calling is the exhilaration of being free. She travels all over, with friends or alone, to experience the gifts the planet has to offer. As a former volunteer for the Utah Conservation Corps, she’s discovered herself in the wilderness.
“It was unreal. The corps, the work we did there… it’s what introduced me to how invigorating and healing the outdoors can be,” Kimball recounts, glowing with joy.
The photos that Kimball takes, all the best posted on her Instagram KimballCaptures, are more than merely picturesque. Taken in the golden hour just before sunset, in the dead of night, or in bright daylight, Kimball captures nature in its most profound.
From a mountaintop, she shows the grandeur of Norway, contrasting the sleek waterways with the deep green slopes. On a beach, a human silhouette seems to float on the surface of the ocean with the sunset reflected on calm seas and mirror-smooth sand.
Kimball faces a dark screen when it comes to wanting to profit off her work. The possibility of losing her passion in the face of working for others looms over her. The hardest part about it, Kimball reflects, is that she compares herself to others.
“I know it’s dumb and the worst thing you can do,” she acknowledges, attempting to shake off the thought.
On her way to solo hike the Grand Canyon, she is determined to overcome the comparisons and photograph tiny memories. The experiences that feel so full yet, so fleeting are the ones that she loves the most. Armed with a camera and a bag of gear, she feels like she can take on the world with everything she needs strapped to her back.
In that little cabin atop the mountain in Lofoten after facing her fears head on, she wrote in her journal, “How bittersweet it is to have a moment so great you find yourself missing it before its gone.”