Summer trips often inspire us to keep our smartphone cameras at hand to capture sunny locales and shared adventures. However, for one scientist in the UAB Department of Microbiology, telling stories of her travels through the lens of a camera is more of a calling—one meant to inspire and excite those who view her photographs.

“I want to show off what I see. Not just the image as it’s seen through the lens, but how I see it in the moment—how it feels to be there,” said Stacy Hall, lab manager and supervisor in the lab of Jan Novak, Ph.D.

Hall became interested in photography around 2006, and she travels overseas every two to three years on average.

“I’m partial to landscapes, and because painting and drawing are not my forte, I wanted to show people what ‘I see’ when I look at these amazing places,” she said.

Hall recently returned from a trip where she photographed places throughout Scotland, Ireland, and Northern England. When asked her favorite location she’s ever photographed, she replied:

“That’s a hard question! Pretty much anywhere in County Kerry Ireland—the Iveraugh and Beara peninsulas have breathtaking scenery at every turn, whether it’s the Gap of Dunloe or Connor Pass near Dingle, or the cliffs near Ardgroom, St. Finnian’s Bay, and the Skelligs. A very close tie between Kerry and the Highlands in Scotland. Where Ireland is soft and green, the Highlands are green-steel blues and ominous. Scotland ‘feels’ ancient and weathered.”

When capturing these picturesque scenes, Hall added that the most exciting aspect to her is trying to get “that one perfect shot.”

“You’ll take 50 images just to get ‘The One’ that might best show what you see and feel in the moment of the snapshot,” Hall said. “If the clouds are just so, and the natural light brings that amazing glow to everything—or that one tree all alone in a gap in valleys. The joke among my friends is that there’s no length I won’t go to in trying to get ‘That Perfect Shot:’ I’ve stood on rocks in the Atlantic to get the waves, crouched in fields of wildflowers and heather for a perspective shot, backing up as far as possible to get the wee house and the huge mountain in the same frame. I’ve even laid on the floor in cathedrals to get images of the statues and candles.”

While she’s always happy to return to Scotland and Ireland, Hall said she also has her sights set on a trip to Italy in the next year or so—specifically the Dolomites and Ravenna. And as much as her passion for photography excites her, she hopes her photos help inspire a passion in others as well.

“I’m hoping to excite people to go out and have their own adventures and stories to tell through photography.”