PORTLAND, Maine — A photographer from Los Angeles is taking the trip of a lifetime.
In 50 week, Michael Brown plans to travel to all 50 states with his dog, Atlas.
After Brown retired from the military he says, "I got out, became a photographer, went to L.A., was really deep in it. I was shooting Instagram models. Don't get me wrong, that was a fun job shooting models in bikinis all the time, you know. But in 20 years, nobody was going to remember my stuff, and I got tired of it."
"I looked at all the signs that were happening and then I was just like, you know what, I'm going to pack up all my stuff, leave L.A., and go to 50 states with my dog."
Brown 's 1-year-old dog is accompanying him throughout his trip.
"Sometimes I pretend he's listening to me too," says Brown, "so we can bounce ideas back off of each other."
Brown is sharing his journey on his social media accounts, specifically Instagram.
"Instagram is huge… Instagram is huge. I am doing photos for every state but, on top of the photos that are going to be going into it, I'm also going to disclose some of the locations which I have found throughout the 50 states, and a lot of those are hidden gems."
Brown's Instagram account is @MichaelAngeloPhoto.
"I'm excited to see what Portland is all about because I've heard really good things about the architecture and the culture here," says Brown.
"Actually, one of the really cool things about Maine, when I was just at the gym this lady just knocks on my window, she's all like 'hey buy yourself a six pack when you're done with the trip,' and hands me a $20. I'm just like, this is Maine? This is awesome! So like that's what I would tell people to come to Maine for is the very friendly people."
Brown hope his journey inspires other veterans like him.
"This has the potential to inspire a lot of other people, especially former veterans with PTSD such as myself. I would be able to take all of this information, show what's going on around the U.S. and then tell all these former veterans who are having a hard time going back into the civilian society after a survivalist mentality in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria."