They say hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, but David Clifford lives and dies by the belief that passion will get you further than both. Always armed with a wide smile, a healthy dose of humility, and a full arsenal of camera gear and lenses, “Cliffy” charges the machine-gun nest in pursuit of the best light, the peak action, and those serendipitous “in-between” moments that grab you and shake you to the core.

He is perhaps the only photographer who has won awards in the categories of being a filmmaker, a photographer and a photo editor: a 2012 APA short-film contest with “Best Overall”; a 2013 APA/NY 1st place for Action + Adventure; a 2014 APA for 2nd place Landscape; a Maggie Award for Photo Editing; and a Red Bull Illume Finalist in 2007.

David Clifford is a Zeiss Lens Ambassador, a former photo editor of Rock and Ice and Trail Runner magazines. Some of his clients include: The North Face, Marmot, Mountain Hardwear, Sketchers, and Hoka One One. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Outside, Runner’s World, Ski, Rock and Ice and Trail Runner.

He is centrally located in the heart of the Rockies, in Carbondale, Colorado, with his wife and three kids.