Justin Brownlee’s photo of a starry night over Mount Rainier won the U.S. National Weather Service, Seattle’s July photo contest. And he’s only been taking photos for a year, with no professional training.

The 32-year-old Brownlee moved to the Covington/Kent area three years ago from South Carolina and started exploring the outdoors as much as possible. After seeing all of the amazing sights Washington had to offer, he wanted to start taking pictures of his adventures to share. From waterfalls to hiking trails, he captures all he can, accumulating more than 50,000 pictures in the one year he’s been taking photos.

“I wanted people to see what I have been able to experience,” Brownlee said.

When Brownlee entered his photo as part of the July contest, he was more than excited to be chosen as their winner. According to weather service’s Seattle Facebook page, Brownlee was not only able to capture more star light than most people can, he also captured an atmospheric phenomena known as air glow. There are faint green bands in the photo which is the air glow, which is only visible under very dark, clear skies.

Once Brownlee started taking more and more photos, he taught himself how to capture the best photos and got a nicer camera. He simply Googled any questions he had or watched YouTube videos.

Taking photos is Brownlee’s escape from his hectic job as a bartender at Duke’s Chowder House in Kent. Bartending has been a very stressful job where he is constantly surrounded by people and running around trying to meet everybody’s needs. So when life gets too crazy, Brownlee drives off with his camera and camping gear. He heads somewhere he can be alone to take pictures and be with nature. His favorite thing to capture right now is the milky way.

He is constantly getting compliments about his pictures and when asked if he has thought about selling his pictures, his answer was a quick no. It can get expensive to sell prints if he wants to make a profit, which is not what he is after to begin with, he said.

“I just get a great feeling when someone can see the things I have seen, and they enjoy the photos,” Brownlee said.

Seeing the positive feedback and reaction he gets from people is all he needs.

“I like to make people happy and pay it forward, and I can do that by simply sharing my photos,” Brownlee said.

The photos he decides to share are very meticulously picked. On average, he will only like about 10 percent of the pictures he takes, he said. He can take hundreds of photos on one trip and only end up liking and sharing just a few.

Brownlee is continuing to learn and explore the photography world and he isn’t going to stop any time soon. His dream job would be to get paid to travel around the world and take photos. The pshotothat was chosen for the July contest is currently the cover photo on the weather service’s Seattle’s Facebook page.