BY SUZY STUMP for WEEKLY VOLCANO 9/19/25 |
You might know Melissa Ferrell as melissapnwa, the name she uses across Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. There, her photos and videos have drawn thousands of followers who find themselves wishing they could tag along on her hikes, watch the light shift over alpine lakes, and breathe in the peace she somehow bottles in pixels. “I honestly do not know why so many people found me,” she admits. “I’d like to think others feel peace with my work, or find a connection with nature. I really like to emphasize or capture a story, bringing people into my experience.”
Ferrell’s love for the Pacific Northwest runs deep. She moved here as a child after her father was stationed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She grew up camping in the Olympics, visiting Hurricane Ridge summer after summer. Those early experiences planted seeds that would later blossom into a creative life outdoors.
Still, she didn’t grow up thinking of herself as a photographer. It wasn’t until a friend casually called her one that the identity began to take root. “I think imposter syndrome is a constant battle,” she admits. “Even after I consistently took my camera on outdoor adventures, it didn’t click until someone else named it.” Her formal training came from her sister-in-law, a professional newborn photographer, who introduced her to the basics of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. From there, she did what the best artists always do—she experimented and eventually began creating images that stopped people in their tracks.
A scroll through Ferrell’s feed will show what makes her work distinctive. The landscapes are gorgeous, yes, but plenty of people point their lenses at mountains. What she offers is something harder to name—a sense of invitation. Her photos carry the feeling that you’re not just looking at a place, you’re standing in it. Her fans agree. “The favorite comments I get are along the lines of, ‘I could feel your photo or video, you transported me there,’” she says. “Or, ‘You brought me peace.’”
She balances her photography with a day job as a government contract lead for a Seattle maritime company. On weekends, she disappears into the wild, camera in hand. “Nature is so mentally and physically healing for me,” she says. “I’ll take every opportunity I can to spend time outside.”
Every photographer has a story about stumbling into a moment too perfect to plan. Ferrell has two favorites. The first happened early in her journey, when she and her partner went backpacking. She woke in the middle of the night, pointed her camera at the stars, and noticed something odd—shimmering layers of green and purple across the sky. “It turned out to be the northern lights!” she recalls. “It was the first time I had ever seen them, and I didn’t even realize what I was looking at. The photo is still amazing to me in a nostalgic sense, even though it’s definitely a newbie photo.”
Her second came just last month, during a boat-in camping trip at Ross Lake. Their original site was cancelled because of the Perry Fire, but they secured a walk-up permit for Lodgepole Camp—directly across the water, at a safe distance, from the burning forest. “Both nights I captured astro timelapses of the wildfire burning through the night sky,” she says. “It was incredible and so sad. Probably one of the most powerful things I’ve ever photographed.”
Ferrell began sharing her work on Instagram in 2014, drawn by the platform’s visual focus. A few viral posts later, she found herself with a sizable following. “At first I thought a lot about what to post and when,” she admits. “Now I just post what I love. This is more for me.”
Brands have noticed. She’s collaborated with NikonUSA, Stio, Sea to Summit, Luno Life, and even getaway stays like Postcard Cabins. Still, she stays grounded, offering prints, calendars, and dreams of bookmarks and puzzles in the future. In the meantime, she’s considering hosting group photography tours. “Funny you ask,” she says when I mention it. “I was considering doing a workshop next year teaching others how to take photos of waterfalls and the stars.”
Her photos capture moments of calm in a chaotic world. They are invitations to pause, breathe, and appreciate the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. “Photography and videography have a way of capturing feelings,” she says. “Transporting back to these places is something I will never get tired of. Capturing memories, even in landscape and nature, is so special.”
This fall she has local backpacking trips lined up, and soon she’ll head to Costa Rica for a completely different kind of landscape. Wherever she goes, she’ll bring her camera and her gift of inspiring people to lace up their boots and step into the wild.
Follow her Instagram @melissapnwa.
