About Me

My name is Rob Larson. I was born and raised in the small town of Grafton, North Dakota. It has a population of 4,500 people (large by North Dakota standards) and is located on the north eastern tip of the state about 30 minutes from the Canadian border. --It gets cold here. I have a very loving mom and dad, older brother and younger sister... That's right I'm the 'middle child.' Now I know what you're thinking and you're right... It's tough being the middle child and yes I turned out alright. Just keep reading and you'll find out.

Here's a couple of recent photos of my family: Steve & Linda (Parents), Tony (Older Brother on left), April (Sister-in-Law on bottom left), Abby (Younger Sister on bottom right) and Rob (that's me in the glasses)


This is one of the last times the whole group will be together. I'm leaving September 4th for Indonesia, my sister is leaving September 17th for Logrono, Spain and my brother and sister-in-law have their eyes on Boulder, Colorado.



Like my profile says, I got the travel bug at an early age. My parents wanted their children to see all 50 states by the time they graduated high school. Each summer we would travel cross-country and see what each state had to offer. Needless to say, at the time it was tough to give up your summer vacations with your friends but it turned out to be a wonderful learning experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. Thanks Mom & Dad!

After my freshman year in college (1999), I was fortunate enough to be able to travel with my brother to Europe to photograph it. We photographed 14 countries (we were using film back then) and have many fond memories of our journey. I went back a second time with a girl I met in the Swiss Alps and we wandered around Portugal, Spain, and Northern Africa. That was also a very interesting and different type of trip.

Here are some random photos from our Europe trip. Pardon the yellow hair (I was called 'sick-boy' from the movie Trainspotting the entire trip)


It's been awhile since I've done any sort of extensive travel but this September I embark on a world tour starting with South East Asia. I plan to document everything for a series I'm doing entitled 'Through the Eyes of...'

My Background

After high school, I attended the University of North Dakota and received a Bachelor of Arts degree. I had no idea what I wanted to do in life, so after college, degree in hand, I followed my older brother into his profession and got a job in the financial industry. I moved to St. Louis, MO and accepted a job with Edward Jones. I absolutely hated it. Finances weren't my thing. I quit after 6 months and moved to Minneapolis, MN.

I stayed there for awhile sleeping on my brother's couch until he finally gave me a job as his assistant. (A sort of made-up job to keep me busy) I was basically a glorified secretary. Thanks for the job Tony.

After 4 months on the job I was once again unemployed when my brother accepted a new position with another company. This going to college and getting a job thing wasn't working out too hot for me.

During this 10 month ordeal of moving from city to city, I decided to move back to Grafton (my hometown) and help build my parent's home which had been ravished by fire just month's previous.

So here I was, 23 years old and back living with the folks in a rented home while building their new/old home. Life seemed pretty foreign to me at the time but I just learned to roll with the punches.

I finished building their home and a year later I was back living in Minneapolis with three other guys in a run down house on Lake Calhoun. I found a job delivering supplies to various companies around the Twin Cities. I enjoyed the freedom of being on the road, but the hours got to me after awhile. Waking up at 3:00 am and taking 8 shots of espresso before hopping into the shower somehow didn't feel like a healthy lifestyle choice and I soon grew old of this job too.

After many months of being unemployed, I had finally found my calling in life... to sell Real Estate. I enrolled in a month long college-like course through Prosource. I drove to class everyday and sat in a classroom for 8 hours and learned the ins and outs of Real Estate. It was like being in high school all over again but I actually enjoyed what I was learning.

I went on to take and pass my Minnesota State Realtor's Exam. I was now cruising in life. I had a new focus and I was ready to be the next Trump. There was only one problem. After my first interview with Coldwell Banker, I was enlightened to the fact that most Realtors starting out had a nest egg of around 6 months income because that was the unofficial time it took to sell your first home. Uh, Oh.... what to do now. I was dead broke.

Now I'll give you a little background on my parents before I go on with this long, drawn out story. My parents had been in the photography industry for the past 23 years and not much had changed during this span. That was until 'Digital' came along. If you haven't noticed the older generation doesn't adapt as well to technological change as the younger generation. That is were I fit in.

So I was off to Grafton once again (sorry Otis... cats don't like change too much either) to save my parents and build my six month nest egg that I so badly needed.

I worked with my dad all through high school so I knew a thing or two about the business. What I didn't know was how much I really enjoyed photography and everything that went with it. This whole time I had been looking for my calling in life and all the while it was here right in front of me. It's in the blood I thought, and I've been here ever since working in the family business. My time spent in Grafton has been a fun growing experience but now it's time for me to branch out once again and see what this great big world has to offer. I'll be armed with a camera, computer and a backpack and I hope to see the real side of things.

That's my story, I may update it or I may not, but at least you know a little bit about me and my past and if you follow along you will surely know where the future takes me. Hop on board and follow roamingrob.com while I trek across this great planet of ours.

Cheers,

Rob