I'm Sony, the person behind the lens
I'm based in Springfield, Mo. – the Ozarks! You'll find most of my work reflects this region, but we also travel near and far.
My art
My decades-long passion for natural outdoor spaces is expressed through artistic photography.
I am especially drawn to making images around the Ozarks in Missouri, where I live, and Arkansas nearby, that you can only reach by hiking to otherwise hidden waterfalls, creek cascades, clear, cool reflections, or amazing rock formations.
We also enjoy traveling to natural outdoor locations, including national parkland and occasionally, notable cities. While I've been a midwesterner for most of my life, my childhood was spent in San Diego, one of my favorite locations to visit still. I credit that upbringing for my love of all things coastal, also reflected through my art.
No matter where I go, my camera goes too.
I am a veteran journalist who specialized for years in feature-writing and editing, but creating art in a variety of forms and spending time outdoors are lifelong passions. That's why today, I limit writing to outdoor and travel pieces for regional media outlets in the Ozarks. Most of the time, those stories are illustrated with my outdoor photography.
While I have been photographing natural places for a couple of decades, sharing my art through social media, area gallery exhibits, and now, in juried regional art shows is a more recent pursuit.
The best thing about sharing prints of my work is the reactions and conversations they inspire: Perhaps someone recognizes a waterfall trail, or a budding young photographer has questions, or a viewer simply feels connected to my art.
My approach
I am a photographer. And I am a journalist. But I have never been a photojournalist.
I do not seek to simply document the outdoors. Rather, I use photography as a tool for artistic visual expression to convey what I feel, what I hear, what I touch and what I see while experiencing the wonder and beauty of natural places.
While I use advanced blending methods for some night sky or focus-stacked images, my photography reflects the scenes I encounter. Many, I'm told, have a touch of appearing painterly. Perhaps it's because I favor long-exposure photography. Or perhaps it's because artistry began in my youth with paints and pastels. One thing I love about nature art photography is the passion I feel for my subject – a feeling I share with other landscape photo artists I know personally or follow online.
Whether I'm hiking a wilderness trail that ends with a waterfall, or waking before dawn to capture an empty shoreline, using my camera – a constant companion – encourages me to pause, to look, and to listen.
Camera body: Sony A7R3 (Sony A73 as backup)
Most used lenses: Sony 16-35 F2.8 G, Sony 24-105 F.4 G, Tamron 28-200, Tamron 20 prime
About my name
"If I ever lose my camera, it's the one with my name on it" – or so goes our family joke. But no, I was not named for the camera I use, although it's spelled and pronounced the same way. I've been called Sony – an unusual derivative of Allison ('Alli-sony') – since I was a teen. While my nickname is memorable, it's often mispronounced ("Sunny") or misspelled (most often Soni) because, really, who would name their daughter "Sony!?"
(No one. Sorry, Mom, I still love my given name too.)
My life
Still reading?
Here's a little more about me, my family and the journey that led me to outdoor writing and photography.
There's a certain arc to my life that makes my current chapter feel full circle.
I spent the first half of my childhood in California with my parents and two younger brothers. A few years after my father, a Navy fighter pilot, was killed in Vietnam when I was 9, my mother –a writer – accepted a job at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. We became lifelong Midwesterners from that year forward.
Before he died, my father gave me a lasting gift: A deep appreciation for the natural outdoors. An Italian boy who grew up in Brooklyn, he learned to fish, duck hunt, camp, and hike in his 20s while training with other pilots. He shared that passion with his family, and we continued camping and fishing after moving to the Midwest. I was 12 the first time I paddled in a canoe on the Current River, and I learned to love hiking as an adult. I feel my best, most natural self while spending time outdoors in the woods, along a stream, at a shore, or hiking with my camera to amazing waterfalls and vistas.
My husband, Kevin, went to Shawnee Mission South High School, and I went to its rival, Shawnee West, in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. But we didn't meet until college while attending Baker University. We married right after graduation, raised two sons, and happily still laugh together as empty-nesters.
After bouncing around Kansas and Nebraska, my husband's career brought us to Springfield, Missouri, more than 25 years ago. Springfield is a nice-sized small city I often call the "gateway to the Ozarks outdoors." We soon realized we could reach trails, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, campgrounds, wilderness areas, and even dark, dark skies within a couple of hours – some locations in minutes – and we were hooked. The Ozarks is our home, and we wouldn't live anywhere else.
No one but Kevin is as willing to hike – hauling some of my camera gear – with a few hours' notice when he hears me announce, "The waterfalls are flowing!" I couldn't pursue my passion for outdoor photography without his willingness to travel or embark on more adventures than he might choose for himself. (Shout out, also, to outdoor-loving, hiking friends who patiently wait while I photograph a waterfall.)
My work life led to outdoor writing and art photography, too.
While I began my career as a graphic artist (with a gap to stay home with my boys), I switched to print journalism in my late 30s, working as an assistant editor and feature writer for a KC-based magazine. Six months after we moved to Springfield, I joined our city newspaper. For 16 years, I worked as a features writer, eventually wearing several hats as an editor. In 2015, I left the paper to start my own creative content business, Sony Hocklander Creative, through which I have produced storytelling videos for local nonprofits and written freelance outdoor, business, and feature stories for local publications.
My relationship with a camera began when I was young – there's a photo of me around age 7 holding a Brownie – and I purchased my first SLR camera in college, where I learned how to use a dark room. I bought my first DSLR around 2006, shooting with Canon gear until I switched to the Sony brand a few years ago.
For 20 years, lifestyle and family were my prime subjects, along with my son's high school soccer games. I photographed local activities for feature stories and events for several nonprofits. Outdoor nature photography, however, was for years a personal passion. I rarely showed anyone my images. Then, in 2018, a friend talked me into doing a travel photography art show. It was the first time I printed and shared my art in public. For the next five years, I dabbled as an artist by participating in local exhibits while continuing to freelance write and produce videos, the bread and butter of my business.
Meanwhile, my husband retired and we bought a small camper. At last, "living" outdoors for longer periods of time became possible.
In 2024, I dropped all work that didn't involve writing about or photographing the outdoors and began pursuing a more active role in nature art photography. That's when "Wanderscapes by Sony Hocklander Creative" emerged, now representing my primary creative interests.
Through Wanderscapes, I focus on what I love to do best: Write about travel and outdoor adventures while capturing landscape images through my lens.
I hope the images that emerge convey the depth of my awe for the wonder and beauty of our natural world.
