Scott Hargis

 

Scott Hargis is a freelance photographer and writer living in Oakland, California. Originally from Michigan, he also lived in Louisiana, Florida, and Missouri before settling in the Bay Area.

Hargis specializes in lifestyle, outdoor recreation, and adventure photography. Over the past 30 years he has trekked, skied, or paddled in remote areas of Canada's north woods, Florida's Everglades National Park, Chile's Torres del Paine National Park, Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, Chile's Atacama Desert, Alaska's Prince William Sound, Death Valley National Park, the Cordillera Blanca in Peru and Bolivia, and many more places in between.

An avid marathon runner and cyclist, Hargis also counts among his skills scuba diving, backcountry skiing, sea kayaking, canoeing, and mountaineering. "I'm happiest when I'm off-trail," he says, "I like the high, remote, wild places. I've never been lost. Confused for a couple of days, maybe, but never lost!"
Photo by Steve Stephens
Over the years, Hargis has pursued some interesting vocations, including beekeeping, rodeo cowboy, tire re-treading factory hand, freelance math and English tutor, manager of a Kinko's, and in 1989, a summer spent supervising a massive coastal restoration project in remote parts of South Louisiana.

As a rodeo cowboy in his early 20s, he competed in Louisiana, Mississipi, Texas, Missouri and California. "I was OK at it," he says, "But being 'OK' in rodeo is a long way from being great. I wasn't great."

Currently, Scott is writing for adventure sports magazines including Wend, and is pursuing a long-term photography project in Death Valley. He is a regular contributor to Bay Crossings Magazine, and continues to do assignment-based photography throughout California.