About

In search of natural beauty.

 

My name is Michael Villa. I was born in Mexico City, and grew up in the suburbs of San Diego, CA for the most part. 

I am a self-taught photographer after studying design and engineering while in college. I was first exposed to photography during my junior year while I was enrolled in a black and white 35mm photography class. I loved the darkroom and the magic of the printing process.

That process has now evolved to the digital darkroom, and my tools have evolved also. I hope you are inspired to experience the beauty around you.

2 image series. These are close crops of the solar eclipse at totality. I did very little processing, and I'm sharing these more out of fascination than anything. I'm amazed by the few flares that appear that I didn't pay much attention to before.
2 image series. La Jolla was quite nice Monday.
3 image series. Nice to shoot local. Luckily was able to get in touch with @tom__morgan with time to head to the beach and then serendipitously met @itsadogslife5 and @_jaymanning_ To me, getting to meet three awesome photographers that I've followed
Celebrating the hairy babies on National Dog Day. For the sake of clarity, the dogs were on the sand dunes of imperial county, not national park land.
Some of my absolute favorite places and memories have occurred in our national parks. Happy 101st birthday National Park System. #nps #nationalparkgeek
11 shot series, leading with a composite of the different phases of the eclipse and then individual images.
Can't wait to work on the RAW files, what an amazing experience.
Incoming, outgoing.