May 12, 2025 • 61 mins
Ever wondered what makes wildlife photography truly ethical? Jesse Villemaire takes us deep into the heart of this question, revealing how respecting wildlife comes before capturing the perfect shot. As co-founder of Follow Me North with his wife Susan, Jesse shares captivating stories from Algonquin Park's wilderness and South African safaris while unveiling the philosophy that guides their intimate photography workshops.
"The wildlife comes first, the photo comes next," Jesse emphasizes, explaining how maintaining proper distance and understanding animal behavior creates not just better photographs, but more meaningful encounters. Through heartfelt examples—including a devastating story about a habituated wolf—he illustrates why "baiting" wildlife causes harm that far outweighs any photographic benefit.
Jesse's personal journey from tattoo studio owner in Cambridge to wildlife photographer in Muskoka reveals how nature became his essential reset button. The story of meeting his wife through Instagram's Algonquin Park hashtag (culminating in their wedding on an island in Lake of Two Rivers) demonstrates how shared passion for wilderness can forge life's most meaningful connections. Their volunteer work with Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary further showcases their commitment to conservation beyond the lens.
From their viral "Santa in a Red Canoe" series to their humorous "Sorry Algonquin" Instagram project pairing stunning images with one-star park reviews, Jesse's creative approach invites others into nature's beauty with both reverence and playfulness. His South African photo tours—where participants might find themselves surrounded by 21 lions—offer transformative experiences that "change you" on a fundamental level.
Ready to experience wildlife photography through a more mindful lens? Listen now and discover how connecting with nature might just help you connect more deeply with yourself and others along the way.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and good day.
Welcome to the Super GoodCamping podcast.
My name is Pamela, I'm Tim andwe are from supergoodcampingcom.
We're here because we're on amission to inspire other people
to get outside and enjoy campingadventures such as we have as a
family.
Today's guest is a verytalented ethical wildlife
photographer.
He and his wife, susan hostintimate photo tours and
photography workshops inAlgonquin Park and South Africa.
(00:22):
To be fair, there's so muchmore to these folks pet
photography, editing workshops,mentorship programs and on.
One of Tim's favorites is theSanta and a Red Canoe series.
Please welcome Jesse Villemereof Follow Me North on Instagram
and Facebook.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hey, welcome, hi guys , thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I appreciate this.
Thanks for coming in.
Yeah, excellent.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What a lovely intro.
I'm going to have you walkaround with me and just speak in
my ear.
That's lovely, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
No, no problem, We'll do it.
We'll do like.
You know how musicians get anickel every time their record
gets played.
We'll put this on tape for you.
You can take it wherever youwant.
Just pass that nickel.
Yeah, we'll get our royalties.
Cool.
So you've been a busy guy.
We're here, we are recordingtowards the end of March 2025.
(01:12):
And we've we've had some funtrying to trying to juggle
schedules and stuff like that.
What have you been up to lately, like shoulder season?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So what have you been ?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
getting into.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, actually over the winter.
It's funny, a lot of timespeople think that our
photography will slow downthroughout the winter months,
but actually I find it's a timethat a lot of people love to get
out into nature a little bit,because it's dark and gloomy and
I feel like people just needsomething and that that
something is often just natureor photography, and those two
(01:45):
combined is what we love to do.
So we were actually quite busythis winter and then kind of
going into the editing season isalso winter, so all the photos
we take throughout the year tendto get pushed into the winter
season and, yeah, we just tendto love, you know, curling up
next to the fire and doing a fewedits and then getting out into
(02:07):
nature as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Sweet.
So when you're, when you're,we'll talk more about workshops
down the road, but when you'reout doing a workshop, what do
you guys drive to a certain spotThen?
Then throw on you knowsnowshoes and trek in a bit.
Throw on, you know snowshoesand trek in a bit.
Do you have, like I make theassumption, you have favorite
(02:29):
spots where you know that thereare tracks, like trails, that a
big bull moose you know favoritebig bull moose goes through, or
what have you?
So how does that all sort ofplay out?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, I wish we had a bull moose, kind of like in the
trees that we always knew wasgoing to be there at all times,
and like kind of like somepeople that think like Algonquin
park is a zoo for some reason,and they're wondering, hey, you
know, where are the moose?
When are they going to be letout?
And it's quite amusing platform.
Yeah, it's kind of amusingsometimes hearing some stories
(03:00):
from locals as well what theythink.
So, yeah, basically, when we goout into the park and we, we go
with that expectation or notexpectation, I guess,
anticipation that we're going tofind something, and we always
find something.
It might not be the moose, itmight not be the core, like I
call it the big five ofalgonquin.
Um, like the bear, moose, loon,beaver, wolf, right, those are
(03:24):
the ones that I find a lot ofour clients tend to want to see,
and it's kind of amusing whenthey're like, yeah, um, I have
you booked for a day we're gonnasee all five of those.
Right, like, probably, sure,yeah, yeah, sign here, yes,
we'll go to toronto zoo andwe'll make it, I'll make your
dreams happen, so, yeah, so theidea is to go out and find some
(03:46):
tracks, hopefully some freshtracks, and it's kind of helpful
knowing what's a fresh trackversus a day old or a two day or
three week old tracks, right,and so when we're finding those
fresh tracks, sometimes,depending on the clientele, on
how comfortable they are, we'llstrap on some snowshoes, we'll
go trek through the bush alittle bit and, yeah, and
(04:08):
hopefully, you know, sometimeswe get lucky, and I think part
of it is at least teaching themto kind of explore, have that
wondrous mind right and justkind of, hey, you might not know
what's around this next corner,you might not know when you go
over this hill what's over there.
So getting out into nature isamazing for people because it
(04:31):
takes them back to when theywere five years old and had that
wondrous mind, and a lot ofpeople have lost that,
unfortunately.
So, like yourself, our missionis inspiring inspiring people to
get back into nature, inspiringthem to connect with nature
through photography, and thentrying to inspire people to
(04:51):
connect with each other.
So that's the best thing I canask for.
If they leave somewhat moreinspired to get back into nature
, then I feel like we've doneour job to nature, then I feel
like we've done our job, even ifwe haven't found the moose or
any wildlife for that matter.
Part of ethical wildlifephotography is not guaranteeing
that we'll find wildlife, and wesay that right off the bat and
(05:14):
people are really receptive ofthat and I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, and that's excellent, we're we're fairly
big tree huggers and and I'veseen the sad outcome of baiting
before, and it's I mean it'sjust that word baiting I didn't
even know existed when I pickedup a camera and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's one of those things that when we're out on
these excursions or experiencesthroughout the day, we bring up
a lot of the ethics, we bring upa lot of those words that maybe
photographers have never heardof, and then they experience it
in the field.
And that's what happened to meis I didn't know what it was
that I was experiencing, but Iknew it was unethical.
(05:57):
I looked at it, it was likethat doesn't seem right.
And then when I learned theterms so baiting, for example,
very common word.
If anybody's listening to thisand doesn't know what baiting is
, it's feeding an animal inorder to get the better photo,
the better shot, and it'sunfortunate, but it's very, it's
common.
(06:18):
It's common and it's verycommon within, like, let's say,
owls feeding owls or feedingfoxes to get the better shot.
There's lots of different thingsthat I've seen over the years
and, and you know, some peopledon't have a clue if it's, you
know, they don't know if it's uh, if it's harmful, or if it's a
(06:39):
good practice, if it's a badpractice.
And that's the conversationthat we like to bring up.
We prefer more conversationversus confrontation.
I believe that there's always agood there's there's good in
people.
If people don't know, thenlet's have a conversation about
it, let's discuss it and go fromthere.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, agreed, education, education for the win
every time.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, I'd love to know more just about ethical
photography, like what thebaiting?
For sure we don't want to behabituating the animals, but
what other kind of things wouldyou include in that ethical
photography?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
yeah, I think, um, ethical photography should
always be a practice.
So, for example, when I say apractice, there's always room to
learn.
So.
So after every encounter thatwe have in the field, we look
back at it and we're like, wasthere anything that we could
have done personally to improvethat situation or to improve
that encounter?
Would that mean not stressingout the animal?
(07:37):
Did we interfere with thebehavior of that animal doing
its thing, for example, if it'sfeeding, and then all of a
sudden we stumble across it andthen we're pushing our
boundaries and getting closerand getting closer.
Did we all of a suddeninterrupt that behavior, that
natural behavior, and then theysplit?
That could happen.
We've seen it where you know,sometimes birds will go one way,
(08:00):
the young will go the other way, right, like ducks, for example
, example, or something whenyou're canoeing.
It can happen as well.
So it's one of those things thatwe kind of really always have
that mindset of the animal first, not the photo first.
So the wildlife comes first,the photo comes next.
Like, if we don't get the photo, it's not.
It's not about getting thephoto, it's about learning how
(08:24):
to be one with nature andrespect it from a distance and
distance is.
Another thing is keeping thatrespectful distance, and what is
a respectful distance?
That's the question that'salways asked.
It's a tough question to answer, to be honest.
You can go to yellowstone andthey might have exact
measurements, like 50 yards fromblack bears or 100 yards from
from grizzly bears or 100 yardsfrom moose when you come to
(08:47):
algonquin.
I find a lot of the times it'sjust it's keep a safe distance.
Now, if you talk to some peoplea safe distance, it's funny,
though it's.
Here's the funny thing that I'venoticed us with the longest
lenses, the people with thelongest lenses, are often the
ones that are the closest to theanimal for photography, which
(09:08):
is bad, it's not.
That's why we get these lenses,so we could, you know, stand
back, get the shot Right, andthen we can crop in if we needed
to.
But I think by leading byexample is a big thing, because
oftentimes we're around ananimal that might have a bunch
of people around us as well,especially if it's next to the
(09:28):
highway and we're photographinga moose.
You want to lead by thatexample and you also have to
have that courage to speak up ifyou see something that's
obviously dangerous.
We've seen parents put theirkids closer to the moose in
order to get a photo of theirkid with the moose.
And I remember this onespecifically because that was
(09:49):
one that I was like you're,you're pushing it, you're really
pushing the boundaries herejust to get that shot.
And we've had, you know,parents again it was a parent
gave a kid hot dog just a hotdog to go feed the fox and
literally, like the whole familysat back and was taking
pictures as this kid was walkingover to this wild animal to
(10:11):
feed a fox.
And again, do they know better?
I mean, after you talk to them,after you, you know, have that
little conversation.
Sometimes they're receptive,other times they're
confrontational.
So you kind of have to, kind ofyou kind of have to read, read
the room and hopefully they willleave, maybe confrontational,
(10:33):
but then they'll leave with thislittle thought in their head
yeah, maybe that wasn't such agood idea.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, sorry, I'm being sad right now.
Um yeah, just that.
I mean I, I do get it.
You you're, you know we're inthat we're in a society that has
access to so much information.
Where in the in the old days,unless you in in the old days in
my youth?
unless you're actually out there, right?
You've never seen a fox,perhaps running through your
(11:00):
backyard?
If you, you lived out in theboonies or what have you.
But now you see videos of themon YouTube all the time, like no
biggie, not a big thing at all.
Or the exposures of I mentionedearlier.
You know Toronto Zoo for thebig five.
So, yeah, we're just going totake you to a tour through the
zoo.
You got to see them all.
(11:21):
Woo Yay, we're off.
Tour through the zoo.
You got to see them all.
Woo yay, we're off.
Because of that sort ofexposure, I'm sure that it sort
of diminishes people's even givea thought.
I was going to say respect,maybe, and maybe that plays part
into it, but but certainly toeven give a thought to, like I
don't want to be given a hot dog, why there are regular
occurrence in my life, because Isee them all the time.
(11:43):
Not, you don't actuallyinteract with them, so I'm not
terribly surprised that stufflike that happens.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It happens more than we think, and I think and again,
people's intentions aresometimes good.
It could be feeding them intheir own backyard, leaving meat
out or leaving kibble out foran animal over the winter and
thinking that's going to be agood thing.
For an example of somethingterrible that went wrong.
I think it was two winters ago.
(12:11):
It was on New Year's Day.
Susan and I were driving intoAlgonquin Park and we came
around a corner andunfortunately we saw an Eastern
wolf just curled up at the sideof the road and when we pulled
over cause it just caught my eyebecause it was still kind of
dark and caught my eye.
I'm like what is this at theside of the road?
And when we pulled over and welooked and it lifted its head,
(12:34):
it was still alive, but it wasobviously hit by a vehicle
sometime over the night or inthe early morning.
And the sad thing was is oncewe well, once we determined it
was an injured animal, we calledAspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary
because we're volunteers thereand we'd love to help wildlife
as much as we can.
We contacted them.
(12:55):
They sent somebody over.
It was going to take about anhour to get there, so we kind of
blocked the shoulder lane inour vehicle and just waited and
just kind of, you know, waitedpatiently with this, this wild
animal.
In that time neighbors acrossthe highway came over and just
discussed what was going on andthey said, yeah, this wolf, it's
(13:18):
been around quite a bit and I'mlike, oh, interesting, uh, it's
rare that I even get to see awolf.
So yeah, and they're back inthe highway and then go back
into Algonquin, for example,right, and it's just unfortunate
(13:53):
when I see that what shethought was doing so good,
feeding this animal turned intobe probably the most devastating
thing for they.
Well, obviously it was the mostdevastating thing for that
animal, but I think a lot oftimes people don't look through
what could the outcome be forthis right?
Unfortunately the wolf did notmake it.
(14:14):
They had to take that harddecision at the sanctuary to
humanely um euthanize.
So yeah, it was a sad moment.
I got chills now just thinkingabout it.
It's.
It's very sad when I comeacross.
Not every moment with wildlifeis a positive one.
I want it to be, but it's notalways a positive one, and no,
(14:34):
numerous times, most times, it'sdue to human interference of
some sort.
So it's sad, it's sad.
So here we are trying toeducate people.
Um, I think people come for thephotography and they leave with
so much more.
I think they come wanting tolearn settings on their cameras
(14:55):
and then they leave with oh, Ididn't even know about ethics, I
didn't even know about thisabout a moose, or I didn't know
about this with a fox.
It was more than just things.
I didn't even know aboutconnecting with nature or how it
feels to be out here in nature.
As soon as you're in nature, assoon as you're out there,
everything else just stops,doesn't it?
(15:16):
There was no politics today.
When I was in Algonquin, therewas nothing.
It was silence.
It was beautiful, it was chickchickadees and nut hatches and
woodpeckers and you know justeverybody like the sounds of
nature.
Just eliminate all of ourstresses, right, and I think
that's what they come away with,and I think that's the most
(15:38):
inspiring thing for me is toinspire those people to connect
with nature and each otherthrough photography.
Imagine that's our missionstatement.
Actually is is just that sothat's awesome one.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I guess a lot of people too, if they're not
photographers, don't realizethat when they see that picture
of you and the fox or the wolfis that you're not six feet away
from that animal at the timeyou're taking that picture.
They looks like that from theirperspective.
It looks like that from theirperspective, just because it
looks like that's where you are.
But people, I guess, need tounderstand that, that you're not
(16:15):
going to approach an animallike that that closely.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
It is a valid point, and I think you know I struggle
with this because, as aphotographer, I'm posting all of
this online.
Every day we're posting a newphoto and it looks like we're
really close to this animal.
Or I'm posting tons of prettyphotos of Algonquin Park and
we've seen the numbers ofvisitors coming to Algonquin
(16:39):
Park and then not respecting theland as well.
And I mean, am I part of thatproblem, possibly?
And then not respecting theland as well?
And I mean, am I part of thatproblem, possibly?
Are we all part of that problemTalking about what we love to
do and sharing it with othersand then inspiring them to come
out into nature, and then theyget out into nature and then we
(17:00):
hate them for coming out intonature, right?
So what our angle is is tryingto educate as much as possible
in an ethical way when we'redoing our photography tours or
when we're posting online,trying to give some ethics in
behind it as well, and sometimesyou know a lot of photographers
, including myself, and I don'tdo it as much as I probably
should, but, like stating in thecaption, it's like this was
(17:24):
taken from a respectful distancewith a long telephoto lens and
and stating in the caption islike this was taken from a
respectful distance with a longtelephoto lens, and and part of
the problem is like we think we,you know, we assume that people
would know this, but we've seenit when we get to a moose and
all of a sudden somebody has gottheir giant iPad and they're
walking closer to that moose totry to get that photo that we
(17:44):
got with our telephoto lensRight.
So that's the unfortunate thing.
So there's always room to learn, there's always room for
improvement from all of us thatenjoy the NAIT as much as you
guys do, as much as we do.
I think we all have a part toplay in the education, not just
parks, not just Ontario parks,not just parks Canada, but all
(18:06):
of us.
And of course and I think andof course, we can all point the
finger and say you know whatOntario parks, you could do more
.
Right, we can all do that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
But we can all do more.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
We can all do more as well, a hundred percent, we can
all do more, and it's alwayscomes down to budget or it
always comes down to how do weput the?
How do we make people read?
You know, because I mean, whenwe book a, when we book a
campsite, we have to answer allthese questions and it's just a
tick, and it's a tick, and it'sa tick, it's just a checkmark.
Did I read any of it?
No, you know.
(18:39):
But I know what I'm, I'methical, so I know what to do.
But I know what I'm, I'methical, so I know what to do.
But I mean, is there a way thatwe could?
It's hard to say the wordenforce because it's like how do
you enforce something Right?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
How do you?
Yeah, as you're answering thequestion.
If you didn't actually read it,you'd be straight to tasers.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I haven't.
I have to pack that in my bag.
I thought I just you know, bearspray, no Tazer.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Tazer's a reusable Bear, spray's a one-shot deal.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
That's a good point there, Tim.
I like the way you think You'regoing to pack my bag for me
this year.
All right, cool.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
All right, we could go, we could do the entire
episode just on ethics and stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
no, and I totally agree and leave no trace and
leave yeah, leave.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
No, it's we so I made a conscious decision probably
probably a year or so ago no,it's got to be a little more
than a year ago when I startednoticing the.
Oh, this was somebody who hadno idea what they were doing in
the backcountry.
I'm backcountry guy, we do dofrontcountry, but that's my, my
(19:50):
jam.
And you get out there and andand you also hear stories where
people are like yeah, I showedup at my site and there were
garbage bags along the edge ofit, nicely neat and tight, but
like somebody's gonna come andtake that away.
So good, a for effort, but bfor not knowing what the hell
you're doing, right.
So we I have made a point oftrying to point things like that
(20:12):
out so that in the hopes thatit educates people better,
because I used to assume if youwent in the back country you
actually knew what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So yes, exactly, I feel like.
I feel like, uh, ideally,wouldn't it be great, if you're
going back country, that therewas a five minute video that
they just had to watch on theiriPhone, or not?
Like, how do you enforce that?
But just, it would be great.
You didn't watch the video.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Sorry, what was that, tim?
You didn't watch the video.
You get tased.
That's how you report.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Love it, love it yeah .
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So tell us about the volunteer work with the wildlife
sanctuaries.
I think that's.
That sounds fascinating.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
They're very special, veryspecial people.
One of the largest sanctuariesin all of Ontario, if not all of
Canada.
One of the only ones that canactually house moose and have
rehabilitation for moose as well, which is great.
So every year they havehundreds and hundreds and
(21:16):
hundreds of animals, and this isthe time of year where they
start to come in.
They could be orphaned animals,it could be due to injuries
from car strikes or anythingalong those lines, and Aspen
Valley's mission is torehabilitate as many animals as
they can.
Or, you know, sometimes, again,it's not always a pretty.
It's not a pretty ending right.
(21:38):
However, they also havepermanent residents.
So for the animals that cannotbe re-released due to maybe an
injury or maybe due tohabituation, that's a big one.
If animals are too habituatedand we've seen it with like
foxes in campgrounds, we've seenit with bears coming into
campgrounds, and just right.
(21:58):
So when they have those cases,they also have the.
They have the space that theycan make that call Can we keep
this animal?
And of course it's a call notjust by Aspen Valley, but MNR
gets involved as well and theymake that call Can we keep this
animal and give it a better lifehere, or at least give it a
(22:20):
chance to live out its life inthese giant enclosures.
It's not like a zoo, it's notlike a small little 10 by 10
cage.
No, they try to replicate thatnatural environment for that
animal as best as they can, givethem all that space.
And it's really exciting.
They're working on a new wolfenclosure right now and it
(22:41):
should be ready within the nextfew months, and the wolves are
going to have even more spacefor them to to roam around
within the grounds, and they do.
They do tours for regular folksif they want.
Just note that it's not a juststop in and just don't drive in
(23:01):
and say, hey, I'm here for atour.
You have to book all thatonline because a lot of it's run
by volunteers.
So for volunteers, they havevolunteer greeters that will
greet the people.
Then they have volunteers thatwill work the little gift shop
there.
They have volunteers that takepeople on tours, and then
there's volunteers like myselfand Susan.
We offer photography guidedtours there, and we just get to
(23:25):
get.
They're very small, so it'sjust literally me, susan and a
maximum of four people, and wejust get to bring them through
at a much slower pace.
So then it's not like theregular group where it might be
10 to 20 people walking around.
They have about an hour hourand a half roughly to walk
around that place with a guide.
(23:49):
We spend up to four hours withthem so we can show them
different locations where we canget the shots through the
enclosures, so we know theunobstructed views that we can
get some of these great shotswith some of these, these
animals, and so it's more of aVIP experience doing it that way
, and 100% of the proceeds go tothem.
So a part of one of ourpackages that we sell on our
(24:10):
website is one day in Algonquinand a half day at Aspen Valley
Wildlife Sanctuary one day inAlgonquin and a half day at
Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
So $465 of that fee goesdirectly to Aspen Valley and we
just donate our time, that's ourgiving back, because we love
them.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And we love wildlife.
Yay for you.
That's cool Gear.
So, folks, when they're doing atour with you or a workshop
with you, they bring their owngear.
Do you know what they're comingwith?
Do they just show up withwhatever, and then you figure
out how to make it work.
How does that play out?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
So for anybody that's looking at our website and our
workshops, usually we just havea little questionnaire that they
fill out first and we jump on azoom call, similar to this, and
then we just kind of go througha few basic questions of like,
what are they looking for?
Are they just opening up theirtheir camera for the very first
time and they need every step ofthe way, or are they
established photographers andjust want to learn a little bit
more about wildlife photography?
And then we have people thathave been professionals and they
(25:16):
just want to know, you know,some more tricks and tips when
it comes to seeking wildlife.
It could be from hotspots inthe park that we know about, or
tracking or anything along thoselines, and I think why we have
these little consultations firstof all is to get an idea of
where they are on that level,like on that journey, and it's
(25:38):
just working with small groups.
So I think what we love, what Ilove about our workshops is we
don't do more than four peopleat a time.
We only bring out maximum fourpeople.
We used to do 10.
This was before COVID.
We used to do like big groupsof 10 to 12 people, but I find
now that we've and it was aresult of COVID we brought it
(26:00):
down to like one to three people, maybe four, and I'd say most
of our workshops now areone-on-one, so it's it's
actually very intimate.
We can actually look over yourshoulder.
You can look over our shoulder.
We hand, you know, we gothrough the settings together,
we can look at the scenestogether, we can discuss
composition, we can have abetter chance of seeing wildlife
(26:22):
instead of having five carsfollowing me on the highway and
then trying to pull over atdifferent spots and maybe lose
the sighting.
And we get to see more.
We get to actually get out moreand it's all based on, you know
, we've had people that show upand they they just have an
iPhone and they just have asmartphone and they just want to
(26:43):
learn how to take better photoswith that.
And it's amazing, because Ithink photography isn't about
the gear, I think it's about howto see.
It's literally.
There's a technical side, yes,but there's also the creative
side, and that's very left side,right side, brain, and what's
great about photography is itchallenges on both of them,
(27:05):
right, and those people that arevery technical have a hard time
sometimes seeing what they wantto take a photo of.
And then there's the creativesthat they love the compositions
and they can look at a scene andbe like, yeah, this is what I
want to take a photo of.
And then there's the creativesthat they love the compositions
and they can look at a scene andbe like, yeah, this is what I
want to take.
And then what happens is they,they can't get the technical
part down.
Yeah, they don't know whatf-stop to use or whatever.
(27:26):
Yeah, what's an f-stop?
You know what's an aperture,what's a shutter speed, what's
an iso, like all of these words.
It's a different language, andrightfully so, and it's
stressful.
And then you talk to people.
They're like I didn't, like thebest is like we get this all
the time.
We post a photo.
And then somebody's like oh,what camera do you have?
(27:46):
And it's like okay, I can tellyou the camera, I can tell you
the lens, you can go buy it.
But it's the same as likeasking a chef what kind of stove
did you cook that meal on?
You know it's not.
You don't buy the stove and youget the meal right, there's a
lot that goes into it.
So I find there's that wholemisconception at first, and then
(28:07):
they start to realize okay,there's a lot more to
photography than just picking upa camera and clicking and it's,
there's a whole bunch to it.
So a good example is somebodyhired us a couple of years ago
and she had about $20,000 worthof camera, camera equipment 20
grand, she told me right off thebat.
She's like I got this much.
I know everything that there isto know about my camera.
(28:29):
I know all the settings, I knowall the menus.
If you tell me anything, I'llknow exactly where everything is
.
I have all these differentlenses and she's like you know
what, though?
Still to this day, I cannottake a photo of the scene that I
want.
I can't represent the scene inmy photo.
She's like I don't know how totake that.
Can you help me?
(28:49):
And I said absolutely let's,let's do this.
And I think what she was findingis she thought, every time that
I go out and I can't get theshot, she thought, ah, it's a
piece of gear, it's a lens thatI don't have, it's a filter that
I don't have, it's a tripodthat I don't have, it's the
newest thing that I don't have.
And I think what people have torealize, or what they do end up
(29:12):
realizing is you can workwonders with even just your
smartphone If you unlock thatcertain part of creativity in
your brain.
Um, so now seeing her shots nowover the next and it's not and
I'm not going to take all thatcredit and say, hey, yeah, I did
this all in one day, no, butshe's just excelled so much more
(29:33):
building on that creative sideover those last couple years.
It's just, it's an, it'samazing, I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's inspiring, that's excellent.
Well, and you mentionedsmartphones, it's.
I'm usually after the fact.
You know you're like oh, that'sman, you take some really cool
shots.
What are you using?
My I whatever?
Like I know that they.
You know just, we all havephones.
Like I know that they.
You know just, we all havephones.
So you know that, since, sinceI had a flip phone, the cameras
(30:01):
have gotten so much better,right, what's a flip phone?
But, still like.
I just like, holy crap man.
Yeah, you know whatever youknow, pixelization, but the
color saturations and the huesthat you can get, it's just it's
mind boggling.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I think the best thing with smartphones is just
this big display on it.
It's visual, it's huge, it'sit's almost like looking at a
four by six photo, right thatwe're.
You look at it and you're like,oh, I see the scene.
It's funny.
You could stand there on abeach or somewhere and just look
out and say I don't know whatto take, and then you lift your
camera, your phone and you'relooking at it through this
(30:40):
screen.
That's huge.
And then you're like, ah,that's the shot.
Because now we visualize it inthis little rectangle.
We're like that's the shot,right there.
So we use it as a tool all thetime.
We'll get out to scenes andwe'll just actually hold our
phone up as a visual and justkind of like look around the
scene, get low, get high, um,get closer to the subject,
(31:01):
further from the subject, thesubject meaning landscape
photography here, not closer tothe subject as in right moose,
um.
So yeah, we use it as a tooland it's just like anything.
Use these things as a tool inyour toolbox.
Um, that's the best bet.
Cool, uh, how did you get intophotography?
How long?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
have you?
How long have you been doing it?
But as a tool in your toolbox,that's the best bet.
Cool, how did you get intophotography?
How long have you been doing it?
But what tripped you into it?
Speaker 3 (31:24):
I'd say back in, going back into early 2000s.
I actually lived in Cambridgeprior to living up here.
I currently live in Muskoka, inBaysville, which is in between
Dorset and Bracebridge of area,so Lake of Bays area now.
So I lived in Cambridge and Iactually owned a tattoo studio
(31:44):
way back in the day, hence themany tattoos I never personally
tattooed.
I was a body piercer for allthose years.
I owned it for like 18 yearsand in that studio we operated
it as a very high-end studio, soit was not like your typical
back alley scary place like wehad.
We were popular with the moms,because always it was always the
(32:06):
moms that were like worried,right, so we were popular there.
And then what happened was weneeded to show off the art, so
we needed to take better photos,so we would set up lighting in
our in our one room we had thislittle studio corner, I would
call it, and I decided to take acourse in photography through
(32:26):
the local college in Kitchenerand as I did that, I bought a
DSLR camera and I was like thisis it, I'm going to be, this is
going to be perfect.
I can nail all these shots now,get the lighting right and
everything.
But what was funny about that?
I took the course and it wasover a course of two years and
then that's when iPhones cameout.
And when iPhones came out, likeall those years later, I was
(32:50):
like why am I carrying this big,heavy camera around?
I could just use this iPhone.
So literally for probably agood year or two after my
photography course I kind of putmy, my camera away and I was
like I'm just gonna use this andI can contribute that.
So much to have the way I seenow, because I just had, like I
(33:12):
said, I had that screen.
So I was really nailing orworking on the compositions,
because I feel like thecompositions are so much more
important to like tell the storyof what you're trying to convey
to the audience or to theviewer.
So I just took my phoneeverywhere and I was taking
photos like crazy.
(33:33):
And what was funny about thatis then I drove up to Algonquin
Park to come hike and I wastaking photos like crazy.
And what was funny about thatis then I drove up to Algonquin
Park to come hike and I cameacross my first moose two moose
actually in the field, and I hadmy iPhone and I zoomed in with
my iPhone.
This is back in 2009.
So you can imagine how qualitythe cameras were on our iPhone
(33:53):
back then.
They were great for likelandscape, like downtown right
or architecture, whatever.
But I zoomed in and my moosethey were so pixelated, they
were so bad, the photo wasterrible and it was my first
moose experience and I'm like,no, I can't believe this.
So then I dusted off my oldcamera again and I used to drive
(34:16):
literally from Cambridge toAlgonquin, hike all day and then
drive home at the end of theday and it was three hours up
here in the morning and thenthree hours back in the evening,
and I would do it almost everyweekend.
As much as I had the time off.
That was my escape from mybusiness, that was my.
I needed to reset in nature.
So, as much as I could.
(34:36):
Then fast forward a few moreyears, 2013, I was driving down
this one road here and I noticedthis little cottage for sale.
And back then, uh, like I waslike, okay, well, let me, let me
look into the pricing.
And back then pricing wasaffordable.
Uh, in 2013, a little bit moreaffordable and surprised that
(34:57):
this cottage was on the marketfor a year and a half.
So I put in a really low bidoffer and they accepted it and I
was like, oh, my God, I'm.
I have a cottage up there nowNow.
Now what?
This unlocks everything.
So it's funny because I'm about40 minutes from the entrance to
the park now, because I'm about40 minutes from the entrance to
(35:19):
the park now, and before I wasthree hours and I used to
complain that it's three hoursto get to the park.
This is ridiculous.
Now it's 40 minutes and I'mstill complaining that it's 40
minutes to get to the park.
It's ridiculous.
So never happy, never happy.
So fast forward all these years.
Unfortunately, there was adivorce in that nature and I
sold my business to my partnerat the time and I said you know
(35:40):
what?
My next chapter is going to beup north, where my heart is.
And that's where that allhappened.
And I was lucky enough that Icame across Susan, this
beautiful woman that had acamera, that had a Canon camera
and I had a Canon camera.
So it was like, oh, that was amatch made in heaven.
But surprisingly, we met onInstagram under the hashtag
(36:02):
Algonquin Park.
So as us as a business, becauseI started follow me north prior
to Susan and I was alwayslooking up Algonquin Park
hashtags and I was just lookingat other people's photos and
liking other people's.
It's part of the marketing,part of like getting in there
and seeing.
And I just remember comingacross her in Algonquin park
with her and her girlfriends andI'm like you know what.
(36:24):
I'm going to reach out to her.
I'm just going to reach out.
What's the worst that canhappen, you know.
And so I think my cheesy line ifshe was right here, she would
tell me the cheesy line wassomething along the lines hey, I
see you have a camera there.
Maybe we can meet in algonquin.
I can show you where the mooseare.
How about you give me a shout?
And uh, she ignored me.
(36:45):
She ignored me for a good year.
She ignored me for a good month, uh, because and it wasn't
ignored, it was just ininstagram if you message
somebody that isn't a friend, itgoes into a sub category like
another.
Yeah, it goes into hiddenmessages or something hidden
messages, right.
So then she contacted me laterand said you know what?
That was great.
(37:06):
Why don't we meet up sometime?
So anyway, fast forward.
Our first date was actually inalgonquin park, on the 125th
anniversary of the park.
So that was beautiful, that wasreally great.
So we had our first littleglass of wine at Bartlett Lodge
in the park beautiful resort,and then from there we got
(37:27):
engaged in Algonquin Park a fewyears later and then, two years
ago now, we got married inAlgonquin Park on the island of
lake of two rivers, cause thatwas a special place for us as
well.
So the park brings, like holds,a lot of special, like feelings
for us for numerous reasons.
But it really shows that thatconnection really has that
(37:52):
connection for us and that resetthat I think we all need in
life.
And it's not just Algonquin,just nature in general.
Just so happens that Algonquinwas what brought us together,
and so photography was first,and then getting out into nature
more.
I was always into nature, but Imean so it was just an easy
transition to bring the cameraalong with me to capture these
(38:14):
moments, and then it was gettingother people out into nature
with their cameras as well, andas someone that loves to teach,
I've taught my previous life.
I used to teach health andsafety.
I still teach health and safetyfor the tattoo and piercing
industry because there's notmuch out there that's teaching
(38:35):
that.
So I'm trying to make dullsubjects such as hepatitis and
infection control and bloodbornepathogens and
cross-contamination.
I have to make all that soundfun, so I'm used to doing that.
So this was fun.
Doing photography and thenactually exploring outdoors and
(38:57):
getting people to understand alittle bit more about not just
photography but about themselvesand getting themselves excited
to be outdoors again was such asuch a passion.
I just kind of went with it andI believe truly, if you find
your passion in life, you knowthe business side will follow or
the money will follow, like,don't chase the money, chase the
passion, and then the rest willkind of unfold itself.
(39:18):
And I wrote I went with it, Ijust went with my gut and I
chose that new path.
And here I am today, uh, allthese years later, with a
beautiful wife and running thisbusiness together.
It's been really great.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
And doing stuff you love.
That's awesome, man, exactly.
Yeah, kudos to you.
A little bit of a sideways,just because it's been sitting
in the back of my brain how,what, how did?
How did south africa pop intothe picture?
How did that play?
How did you go start takingpictures there?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
so south africa was definitely a highlight on our
life and, like in our, I guess,our path, our journey through
photography, I think everybody'sbucket list is to get to South
Africa.
At some point it's on.
It seems to be like on a lot ofpeople's bucket list,
especially if you're aphotographer.
Wildlife you can neverguarantee until you go to South
Africa or Africa in general.
(40:12):
There's lots of differentplaces, lots of different
countries.
You can witness some amazingwildlife and it was during COVID
, I believe.
We had this tour company reachout to us on the West Coast.
It was two women that run thiscompany called Finisterra Travel
Great people.
They reached out to us and theysaid you, you know, we run
(40:36):
these tours and we're gettingmore and more people that are
interested in photography tours,but we don't have any
photographers.
And your name was given to usfrom a local here in in Muskoka.
That it was funny because oneof the owners of that company,
the travel company, was dating,dating the son of this gentleman
(40:57):
in town, and he was like oh we,I know these, this couple that
do photography.
You should reach out to them.
So here he is, one of ourneighbors reaching out to this
company, saying you should reachout to us.
So they're on the West coast,we're here in Ontario.
We had a zoom call like this andit was just literally, it just
(41:26):
felt like an easy connection,just very simple.
And so we kind of like justchatted and said like what, what
do you think your clients wouldexpect or what would they want?
And they were like what do youwant, what would you think that
your clients would like to do?
And I said, well, I think 100%South Africa would be like high
up there on that bucket list.
And I also said grizzly bears.
(41:46):
So West Coast and when Susanand I talked about it and talked
about it with Finisterra Travel, we said let's make those kind
of like our two core offeringswas kind of like West coast for
the grizzly bears.
And we ran that workshop forabout four years and this is our
fourth year running Um, I thinkthird or fourth, yeah, fourth
year now running the SouthAfrica trip and it's been such a
(42:09):
great success.
We only bring 10 people peryear, that's it.
So, again, very intimate.
Uh, so the one lodge that webook, we book out the whole
lodge, so it's just us and theycater to us, and we have two
Jeeps.
We have two guides, so we splitup the group into five and five
, and so Susan's in one Jeep,I'm in the other Jeep, and then
(42:31):
we split up and we go lookingfor wildlife all like three
hours in the morning, threehours in the evening, and then
they cater to us all day.
It's we're spoiled, let's putit that way.
It's terrible, it's very sad.
Yeah, like highly, highly, don'trecommend it whatsoever, but
you know what?
It's such a magical place.
(42:51):
It changes you Like.
I mean I heard people say thatlike it changes you.
I mean I heard people say thatit changes you if you go to
Africa.
Just the people, not just thepeople.
Everybody's worried about crimeand such.
Yes, of course there's placesnot to go in anywhere.
It's just like Toronto.
There's certain places you'reprobably not going to go.
It's the same within othercountries as well.
(43:15):
Never experienced any anythingremotely scary, even even the
wildlife wasn't even scary.
Like we got one time surroundedby 21 lions in our jeep and
there's no roof on this jeep,it's just like open, like these
lions could jump in.
But when we saw one lion comeout of the bush and then two
(43:35):
lions and then three and thenall of a sudden it was like a
pride of lions and young onesand, uh, the females, the males
with the big manes and they camearound and they just kind of
all hovered around our jeep andthen they laid down and the
young ones were playing androlling around and, uh, it was
such a it's such a moment likethat you can't describe it
(43:56):
unless you're there.
Literally like we've all seenlions on online, we've seen the
Disney specials.
But when you're there and yousmell it and you hear it and you
feel it and you have that windand the silence and the
different birds, and oh mygoodness, I can go on forever.
You're signing up right now Ican see.
(44:17):
Oh my goodness, I can go onforever You're signing up right
now I can see, right, oh, it'sjust an incredible experience.
So we're so grateful to Nicolaand Carrie that gave us that
opportunity to unlock ourworkshops that we do on a grand,
like a grande, like a grandscale, right, and then offer
them something different.
And so, yeah, we have everyyear just unlock it for 10
(44:41):
people and see if they want tocome.
So this year sold out prettyquick and we're leaving in, I
think, 20 days or so, so we'regone for a month, so we don't
take them for a for a wholemonth.
It's about a 15 day, 14 dayexperience.
But this year Susan and I aregoing to spend an extra week
(45:04):
exploring different areas ofSouth South Africa and
potentially offer somethingdifferent for the following year
.
So that's kind of like our, ourplan and we can't wait counting
down those days.
I'm done with shoveling.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
I'm done, yes, yes yeah, I hear you there.
It's gonna be a magical trip,yeah I'm in awe, man, that's.
That's very cool.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Sounds like a really crappy life, dude, I'm just
saying you know, I'm telling you, yeah, I, I wake up every day,
miserable I'm just crying yourtears, crying your beer, yeah
you caught me on a good day,Like I don't know if you know
you know it sounds really reallybad.
No, you know what?
It's just very rewarding.
(45:45):
Obviously not for just thetravel, but the connections that
we've made with peoplethroughout the years.
And I feel selfish sometimesbecause I need that connection.
And I feel selfish sometimesbecause I need that connection.
I feel like I'm doing it for me.
I didn't realize it when I movedfrom Cambridge to up north, up
here.
(46:06):
I was missing something and Ididn't know what it was and I
went through this kind of likelull.
I went through this.
I don't want to use the worddepression, but it was something
different that I wasn'texperienced with.
It was a different emotion, itwas different.
It could be the start ofdepression, but it was like
something's not right with meand it took a while to figure
(46:27):
out what that was Cause.
In Cambridge, where I lived mywhole life, if I walked out the
door, somebody was honking theirhorn, waving at me and saying,
hey, jesse, nice to see you, youknow.
Door somebody was honking theirhorn, waving at me and saying,
hey, jesse, nice to see you.
You know, everybody knew me,everybody like.
And then throughout the day atmy job, I was making people feel
happy every half hour when Iwas doing an appointment, you
know, you get your little nosepiercing with a diamond in it.
(46:48):
And then they look in themirror and they're like, oh, let
me hug you.
And it was like these littledopamine hits.
And it was like, oh, this is sogood.
And then I'm like, all right,I'm leaving Cambridge, see you
guys later.
And I remember I came up hereand I'm like, oh, this is what I
need, just peace, quiet, nature.
And then I was like, butthere's something missing and I
(47:09):
didn't know what the heck it wasand it took me quite some time,
like I said, to figure that out.
I used to drive it's a halfhour to get to Tim Hortons from
here.
I used to drive a half hour togo get coffee just to see
somebody, just to say hi to theperson that was serving me every
.
You know, it was just a strangefeeling.
I remember walking across thehighway not the highway but the
(47:30):
road in Bracebridge and somebodyhonked at me and I waved,
thinking I would know them, andthey gave me the finger.
I was like, oh, you're right.
Like not, everybody knows mehere.
It was like it was completelydifferent.
So I've learned over thoseyears that I definitely needed
that connection.
Susan definitely played a hugepart with helping me heal
(47:54):
throughout that.
She moved up here from Whitbyand she was working in Toronto
for so many years and it waslike how do we do this?
Like, if I move up North, areyou going to like, are you going
to be still in Toronto and wejust do this on weekends?
And so she actually pitched toher boss like I need some remote
(48:15):
time.
Can I do three, three days aweek remote?
And this is before the wordremote was a word in the
workplace, so way before COVID.
And they actually gave herthree days to work remote and
then two days in the office.
And there was a point where isthat?
Even that was getting tough forher.
So she's like you, you knowwhat, I'm giving my notice, I'm
(48:36):
actually going to give my noticeand I'm quitting.
And they said to her no, youcan't quit, what do you need?
And then she said why wouldn'tlike full-time remote?
And they gave it to her and itwas like it was incredible.
So that right then helped uskind of like get Follow Me North
on a good traction in thatdirection that we wanted to go
(48:58):
and we had this vision for itand we're still continuing that
vision to this day, and we'redoing this now more or less
full-time and trying to get asmany people out there, and I
think this year is going to beprobably a record high, because
I think a lot of people aretraveling in canada and they
want to spend their money incanada rightfully so.
(49:19):
Canada is beautiful, regardlessof what's happening south of us,
and it's really special to beable to offer something like
that for people that are lookingfor an experience, something
different.
For example, we just got backyesterday from somebody
celebrating their 30th birthdayand they chose follow me north
to celebrating their 30thbirthday, and they chose follow
me north to experience their30th birthday with in algonquin
(49:42):
park, and it was such a it'ssuch a special thing to be
somebody's part of theirmilestone in their, in their
life, right.
So I just love, love, loveconnecting with people.
I think, more than anything,it's connection.
For me, photography is abyproduct of the connection,
right, and I absolutely love itso tell me one of one of my
(50:05):
probably what?
Speaker 2 (50:06):
actually?
I think I'd heard your namebefore, but then I saw there's,
you've got a series of Santa ina red canoe and it's usually
like a well, it's a snowybackground.
It looks like one of thosewhere they do the colorized
thing and then turn everythingelse black and white right, like
it's just pops right out andit's.
(50:26):
It's cool, it's fun, it'sexplain that, what?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (50:32):
yeah, so we did a series called Santa in a canoe,
simply as as it sounds, and itwas such a a special, special
series and I think we did thisback in 2018 or 2019, but a
little backstory on that wherethat came from, where that whole
Santa and doing something innature or doing something
(50:54):
actually came from my father.
Many, many years ago.
He used to dress up as Santa onChristmas day and get on his
motorcycle in Cambridge anddrive around and stop at Tim
Hortons and give out candy canesto people or give out little
gift cards to people here andthere, stop into banks, whatever
(51:16):
.
If it was that whole weekleading up to Christmas, he
would dress up as Santa and goout and do this and he was just
making people smile and I waslike, what a guy like this is
incredible.
I love my dad.
It was such an amazing thingthat he could do and it stuck
with me and it's funny, allthose years later I got a
(51:37):
motorcycle and I continued thattradition.
So in Cambridge for many, manyyears we would run that as an
event through our studio at thetime and we would raise
awareness and just going out onmy bike as Santa and collecting
toys, for, you know, kidsthroughout, you know, for
(51:59):
Christmas right, people thatcouldn't afford Christmas gifts
or whatever the case when wewould donate toys and food to
the local, to the local foodbank, and it was just such a
rewarding thing that we justgrew and grew over the years.
And then there was more Santason motorcycles joining me and
friends that were dressed up asSantas.
And then there was more Santason motorcycles joining me and
friends that were dressed up asSantas, and and of course there
(52:20):
was some years that it was toosnowy that we couldn't do it.
But in Southern Ontario it'salmost pushing into January
before we're getting a good snow.
So there was many years that wedid it over and over again and
nothing beat the look onpeople's faces when you pull up
on your Harley next to them andyou're dressed as Santa and
they're like do the double takeand you give them a little
thumbs up and then you take off.
(52:42):
So very special, it was veryspecial.
I thank my dad dearly for thatand so that instilled deeply
into me.
So when we moved up here I stillhad my Santa suit and I was
like what can I do Now?
It wasn't like a charity thingby any means.
It wasn't like something likelike what can I do now?
Wasn't like a charity thing byany means.
It wasn't like something likewhat can we do.
It was just literally like Ilove this idea of keeping this
(53:06):
kind of traditional.
I've like, I want to just dosome more photos and and let's
see what we can do with this.
And so we dressed I dressed upas Santa.
It it is the real Santa.
I mean, sorry, I hired Santaand got in my red canoe, or I
(53:26):
mean got the red canoe, put itin and put it into the river.
And this was during the firstsnowfall, so it was like that
fresh, sticky snow that's likestuck to the trees.
It was probably November, Ithink.
It was up here and, yeah, wejust did this shoot and Susan
photographed it from shore as Ipaddled around and just took a
few fun photos, and we decidedto, you know, post it online and
(53:48):
it kind of went viral.
It went.
It was one of our biggestshared photo sets that we've
ever done.
Since then, we've put it incalendars, we've put it on.
Since then, we've put it incalendars, we've put it on
greeting cards.
We've donated it to so manydifferent organizations that are
looking for donations to helpother causes as well.
So we're using that series alot to kind of like it's an
(54:10):
intro, to get to help otherpeople do something for
themselves as well.
So I just love that series somuch and it's just continued
every year.
We try to.
We sometimes try to go out anddo another set, but nothing
beats that first set that we didand that's the one that you
probably saw, because that's theone that went kind of crazy.
Yeah, it was definitely ahandful of years back, so yeah,
(54:32):
and then this year it just wenteven crazier online.
So it was a really good set,really fun it's, and it's again
great.
It connects people with natureand it connects people with that
whimsical of Christmas and thebeauty of, you know, camping and
canoeing.
So there's all this relation toit.
And then last year, I think, wedid a series with the Grinch.
(54:53):
So we did the Grinch in thecanoe.
So, yes, we did the Grinch inthe canoe.
So, yes, we did the Grinch inthe canoe.
You probably didn't see it,because I also learned
afterwards that we might getsued if we continue with the
Grinch, because Disney ownsGrinch.
So I was like, oh okay, so wepulled it.
But, yeah, that series was verypopular as well, but nobody
(55:14):
owns Santa.
So we were able to run that oneand it still continues to this
day.
So as long as we're makingpeople smile and make them feel
good and again, hopefully,connecting them with nature and
each other through photography,then it's a win-win for us.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
Well, I just a long line to making people smile.
The Sori Algonquin page oninstagram is hilarious uh I
don't know that.
What they've done is they'vetaken negative reviews that
people have posted aboutalgonquin and they've juxtaposed
that with some of the beautiful, like brilliant, photography
that you and your wife do.
Uh, and it's hilarious to mejust to see what you know.
(55:53):
It was so boring.
There was there, was it justthere's mud and trees and and it
was like and then there's thisbeautiful backdrop that you guys
have put that quote on.
I just thought it was reallyfunny.
Speaker 3 (56:04):
I love that series too, and it was funny how that
took off because it was justliterally I was looking up
there's an app called All Trailsand I was looking up an app and
just kind of reviewing some ofthe reviews about that one trail
and then I came across one.
It was a one-star review and Iwas like, oh, let's read it.
(56:24):
And I think one of the one-starreviews one of the first ones
that I read was literally thatthere was so many bugs on this
trail and I wasn't informedabout it beforehand.
And one star review and it waslike do you think?
Think that Ontario parks hasthat right, like they have to
inform you that there's bugs atthis time of year.
So I just was like this isridiculous.
(56:46):
I wonder how many more thereare.
And surprisingly, after a deepdive into, like Google reviews
and trip advisors and all ofthese different places, I found
some of the best ones.
And then I just exactly didthat, put that bad review over
top of one of our pretty photos.
And to this day I still getpeople coming up to us in
Algonquin and they're like youknow what?
(57:08):
We sat around the fire lastnight and we were all making
s'mores and we passed the phonearound reading quotes from Sorry
, algonquin and we all just diedlaughing sitting around the
fire having this.
Uh like listening to some ofthese, how ridiculous they were.
And it's not to bring negativityto it, I think it's to.
(57:28):
I hope this is my hope thatsomebody that wrote one of those
reviews reads it again in thiscontext and was like, okay, you
know what you're right, it is abad, it is ridiculous what I
wrote, that you know nothing butmud and trees, nothing to see
here.
Uh like terrible place to gofor photography, don't waste
(57:50):
your time.
Like there's better wi-fi, youknow it needs more wi or
something Like there's just somany that I was like there's
better roads in Kazakhstan,that's one.
And I was like, really, and youspent the time to log into
something and write this badreview and there was nothing
(58:12):
good from it.
And I think that's a hard thingto grasp for me, because
there's so much beauty out thereand we're so quick to jump at
all the negative for everythingthat people forget that there's.
You probably witnessed 10amazing things, and then this
one negative thing is the onething that gets stuck and
recycled and gets regurgitatedand just spreads Right.
(58:37):
And I think now it's aboutsharing that kindness and I want
people to like share more ofthat kindness and share those
positive reviews.
Get online and you know, go ontoGoogle and give somebody a
positive review.
You went out to a nicerestaurant.
You know how many people justwrite a negative review as soon
as they get home If all of asudden somebody was too long or
somebody didn't greet themproperly, but they didn't
(58:58):
remember the five other timesthat they've been going to that
same establishment and got thatgreat service and didn't tell
anybody.
So it's hard.
As a small business ownermyself, it's like trying to.
You want to give thatexperience that everybody's so
happy that they leave feelingvalued and had a great
experience.
And you know what?
I want to encourage people tolook for that and see those
(59:21):
things and the more kind Googlereviews or good reviews that you
can leave for people.
Guess what?
You're going to start seeingmore.
You're going to start seeingmore kindness in your life.
You're going to see more peopledoing those positive things for
you.
They're just going to come yourway.
You're not going to be seeingto come your way.
You're not going to be seeingthe negative as much.
You're going to see thekindness.
So I challenge everybody to goout there, share your smile,
(59:44):
share your kindness, keep itkind and then it's going to
follow you.
It's going to come your way.
That's an excellent challenge.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Yeah, I totally agree .
Thank you so much, man.
This has been a fantastic, afantastic, fantastic chat.
Speaker 3 (59:59):
I don't know why I didn't do this way sooner it's
because I was ignoring you forall those months.
That's why we didn't do it waysooner.
My apologies.
I was out in nature connecting,but you know what this is
connection too and I love thatyou guys are doing what you're
doing and getting peopleinspired to go outdoors as well,
and I I'm so grateful that youguys reached out to me and and
(01:00:20):
on behalf of Susan thatunfortunately couldn't be with
me today I I know she loves whatyou guys are doing, just cause
it's similar.
You know we're inspiring peopleto get outdoors and share our
love for nature.
So thank you on behalf of Susan.
Follow me North.
I appreciate you guys.
Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Awesome.
Thank you so much to JesseVilmer of follow me North.
Check them out on Instagram andFacebook and and actually do
definitely check out the storyAlgonquin Instagram page,
because it is good for a laugh,especially if you enjoy
Algonquin park, you'll.
You'll find it amazing.
And do check us out whileyou're on any of those social
media things.
We're there too, and please docheck us out on YouTube,
(01:01:01):
subscribe and if you would liketo talk to us, we're always at
hi at supergoodcampaigncom.
That's hi atsupergoodcampaigncom, and we'll
talk to you again soon.
Bye, bye.
Hello and good day.
Welcome to the Super GoodCamping podcast.
My name is Pamela, I'm Tim andwe are from supergoodcampingcom.
We're here because we're on amission to inspire other people
to get outside and enjoy campingadventures such as we have as a
family.
Today's guest is a verytalented ethical wildlife
photographer.
He and his wife, susan hostintimate photo tours and
photography workshops inAlgonquin Park and South Africa.
(00:22):
To be fair, there's so muchmore to these folks pet
photography, editing workshops,mentorship programs and on.
One of Tim's favorites is theSanta and a Red Canoe series.
Please welcome Jesse Villemereof Follow Me North on Instagram
and Facebook.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hey, welcome, hi guys , thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I appreciate this.
Thanks for coming in.
Yeah, excellent.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What a lovely intro.
I'm going to have you walkaround with me and just speak in
my ear.
That's lovely, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
No, no problem, We'll do it.
We'll do like.
You know how musicians get anickel every time their record
gets played.
We'll put this on tape for you.
You can take it wherever youwant.
Just pass that nickel.
Yeah, we'll get our royalties.
Cool.
So you've been a busy guy.
We're here, we are recordingtowards the end of March 2025.
(01:12):
And we've we've had some funtrying to trying to juggle
schedules and stuff like that.
What have you been up to lately, like shoulder season?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So what have you been ?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
getting into.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, actually over the winter.
It's funny, a lot of timespeople think that our
photography will slow downthroughout the winter months,
but actually I find it's a timethat a lot of people love to get
out into nature a little bit,because it's dark and gloomy and
I feel like people just needsomething and that that
something is often just natureor photography, and those two
(01:45):
combined is what we love to do.
So we were actually quite busythis winter and then kind of
going into the editing season isalso winter, so all the photos
we take throughout the year tendto get pushed into the winter
season and, yeah, we just tendto love, you know, curling up
next to the fire and doing a fewedits and then getting out into
(02:07):
nature as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Sweet.
So when you're, when you're,we'll talk more about workshops
down the road, but when you'reout doing a workshop, what do
you guys drive to a certain spotThen?
Then throw on you knowsnowshoes and trek in a bit.
Throw on, you know snowshoesand trek in a bit.
Do you have, like I make theassumption, you have favorite
(02:29):
spots where you know that thereare tracks, like trails, that a
big bull moose you know favoritebig bull moose goes through, or
what have you?
So how does that all sort ofplay out?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, I wish we had a bull moose, kind of like in the
trees that we always knew wasgoing to be there at all times,
and like kind of like somepeople that think like Algonquin
park is a zoo for some reason,and they're wondering, hey, you
know, where are the moose?
When are they going to be letout?
And it's quite amusing platform.
Yeah, it's kind of amusingsometimes hearing some stories
(03:00):
from locals as well what theythink.
So, yeah, basically, when we goout into the park and we, we go
with that expectation or notexpectation, I guess,
anticipation that we're going tofind something, and we always
find something.
It might not be the moose, itmight not be the core, like I
call it the big five ofalgonquin.
Um, like the bear, moose, loon,beaver, wolf, right, those are
(03:24):
the ones that I find a lot ofour clients tend to want to see,
and it's kind of amusing whenthey're like, yeah, um, I have
you booked for a day we're gonnasee all five of those.
Right, like, probably, sure,yeah, yeah, sign here, yes,
we'll go to toronto zoo andwe'll make it, I'll make your
dreams happen, so, yeah, so theidea is to go out and find some
(03:46):
tracks, hopefully some freshtracks, and it's kind of helpful
knowing what's a fresh trackversus a day old or a two day or
three week old tracks, right,and so when we're finding those
fresh tracks, sometimes,depending on the clientele, on
how comfortable they are, we'llstrap on some snowshoes, we'll
go trek through the bush alittle bit and, yeah, and
(04:08):
hopefully, you know, sometimeswe get lucky, and I think part
of it is at least teaching themto kind of explore, have that
wondrous mind right and justkind of, hey, you might not know
what's around this next corner,you might not know when you go
over this hill what's over there.
So getting out into nature isamazing for people because it
(04:31):
takes them back to when theywere five years old and had that
wondrous mind, and a lot ofpeople have lost that,
unfortunately.
So, like yourself, our missionis inspiring inspiring people to
get back into nature, inspiringthem to connect with nature
through photography, and thentrying to inspire people to
(04:51):
connect with each other.
So that's the best thing I canask for.
If they leave somewhat moreinspired to get back into nature
, then I feel like we've doneour job to nature, then I feel
like we've done our job, even ifwe haven't found the moose or
any wildlife for that matter.
Part of ethical wildlifephotography is not guaranteeing
that we'll find wildlife, and wesay that right off the bat and
(05:14):
people are really receptive ofthat and I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, and that's excellent, we're we're fairly
big tree huggers and and I'veseen the sad outcome of baiting
before, and it's I mean it'sjust that word baiting I didn't
even know existed when I pickedup a camera and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's one of those things that when we're out on
these excursions or experiencesthroughout the day, we bring up
a lot of the ethics, we bring upa lot of those words that maybe
photographers have never heardof, and then they experience it
in the field.
And that's what happened to meis I didn't know what it was
that I was experiencing, but Iknew it was unethical.
(05:57):
I looked at it, it was likethat doesn't seem right.
And then when I learned theterms so baiting, for example,
very common word.
If anybody's listening to thisand doesn't know what baiting is
, it's feeding an animal inorder to get the better photo,
the better shot, and it'sunfortunate, but it's very, it's
common.
(06:18):
It's common and it's verycommon within, like, let's say,
owls feeding owls or feedingfoxes to get the better shot.
There's lots of different thingsthat I've seen over the years
and, and you know, some peopledon't have a clue if it's, you
know, they don't know if it's uh, if it's harmful, or if it's a
(06:39):
good practice, if it's a badpractice.
And that's the conversationthat we like to bring up.
We prefer more conversationversus confrontation.
I believe that there's always agood there's there's good in
people.
If people don't know, thenlet's have a conversation about
it, let's discuss it and go fromthere.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, agreed, education, education for the win
every time.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, I'd love to know more just about ethical
photography, like what thebaiting?
For sure we don't want to behabituating the animals, but
what other kind of things wouldyou include in that ethical
photography?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
yeah, I think, um, ethical photography should
always be a practice.
So, for example, when I say apractice, there's always room to
learn.
So.
So after every encounter thatwe have in the field, we look
back at it and we're like, wasthere anything that we could
have done personally to improvethat situation or to improve
that encounter?
Would that mean not stressingout the animal?
(07:37):
Did we interfere with thebehavior of that animal doing
its thing, for example, if it'sfeeding, and then all of a
sudden we stumble across it andthen we're pushing our
boundaries and getting closerand getting closer.
Did we all of a suddeninterrupt that behavior, that
natural behavior, and then theysplit?
That could happen.
We've seen it where you know,sometimes birds will go one way,
(08:00):
the young will go the other way, right, like ducks, for example
, example, or something whenyou're canoeing.
It can happen as well.
So it's one of those things thatwe kind of really always have
that mindset of the animal first, not the photo first.
So the wildlife comes first,the photo comes next.
Like, if we don't get the photo, it's not.
It's not about getting thephoto, it's about learning how
(08:24):
to be one with nature andrespect it from a distance and
distance is.
Another thing is keeping thatrespectful distance, and what is
a respectful distance?
That's the question that'salways asked.
It's a tough question to answer, to be honest.
You can go to yellowstone andthey might have exact
measurements, like 50 yards fromblack bears or 100 yards from
from grizzly bears or 100 yardsfrom moose when you come to
(08:47):
algonquin.
I find a lot of the times it'sjust it's keep a safe distance.
Now, if you talk to some peoplea safe distance, it's funny,
though it's.
Here's the funny thing that I'venoticed us with the longest
lenses, the people with thelongest lenses, are often the
ones that are the closest to theanimal for photography, which
(09:08):
is bad, it's not.
That's why we get these lenses,so we could, you know, stand
back, get the shot Right, andthen we can crop in if we needed
to.
But I think by leading byexample is a big thing, because
oftentimes we're around ananimal that might have a bunch
of people around us as well,especially if it's next to the
(09:28):
highway and we're photographinga moose.
You want to lead by thatexample and you also have to
have that courage to speak up ifyou see something that's
obviously dangerous.
We've seen parents put theirkids closer to the moose in
order to get a photo of theirkid with the moose.
And I remember this onespecifically because that was
(09:49):
one that I was like you're,you're pushing it, you're really
pushing the boundaries herejust to get that shot.
And we've had, you know,parents again it was a parent
gave a kid hot dog just a hotdog to go feed the fox and
literally, like the whole familysat back and was taking
pictures as this kid was walkingover to this wild animal to
(10:11):
feed a fox.
And again, do they know better?
I mean, after you talk to them,after you, you know, have that
little conversation.
Sometimes they're receptive,other times they're
confrontational.
So you kind of have to, kind ofyou kind of have to read, read
the room and hopefully they willleave, maybe confrontational,
(10:33):
but then they'll leave with thislittle thought in their head
yeah, maybe that wasn't such agood idea.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, sorry, I'm being sad right now.
Um yeah, just that.
I mean I, I do get it.
You you're, you know we're inthat we're in a society that has
access to so much information.
Where in the in the old days,unless you in in the old days in
my youth?
unless you're actually out there, right?
You've never seen a fox,perhaps running through your
(11:00):
backyard?
If you, you lived out in theboonies or what have you.
But now you see videos of themon YouTube all the time, like no
biggie, not a big thing at all.
Or the exposures of I mentionedearlier.
You know Toronto Zoo for thebig five.
So, yeah, we're just going totake you to a tour through the
zoo.
You got to see them all.
(11:21):
Woo Yay, we're off.
Tour through the zoo.
You got to see them all.
Woo yay, we're off.
Because of that sort ofexposure, I'm sure that it sort
of diminishes people's even givea thought.
I was going to say respect,maybe, and maybe that plays part
into it, but but certainly toeven give a thought to, like I
don't want to be given a hot dog, why there are regular
occurrence in my life, because Isee them all the time.
(11:43):
Not, you don't actuallyinteract with them, so I'm not
terribly surprised that stufflike that happens.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It happens more than we think, and I think and again,
people's intentions aresometimes good.
It could be feeding them intheir own backyard, leaving meat
out or leaving kibble out foran animal over the winter and
thinking that's going to be agood thing.
For an example of somethingterrible that went wrong.
I think it was two winters ago.
(12:11):
It was on New Year's Day.
Susan and I were driving intoAlgonquin Park and we came
around a corner andunfortunately we saw an Eastern
wolf just curled up at the sideof the road and when we pulled
over cause it just caught my eyebecause it was still kind of
dark and caught my eye.
I'm like what is this at theside of the road?
And when we pulled over and welooked and it lifted its head,
(12:34):
it was still alive, but it wasobviously hit by a vehicle
sometime over the night or inthe early morning.
And the sad thing was is oncewe well, once we determined it
was an injured animal, we calledAspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary
because we're volunteers thereand we'd love to help wildlife
as much as we can.
We contacted them.
(12:55):
They sent somebody over.
It was going to take about anhour to get there, so we kind of
blocked the shoulder lane inour vehicle and just waited and
just kind of, you know, waitedpatiently with this, this wild
animal.
In that time neighbors acrossthe highway came over and just
discussed what was going on andthey said, yeah, this wolf, it's
(13:18):
been around quite a bit and I'mlike, oh, interesting, uh, it's
rare that I even get to see awolf.
So yeah, and they're back inthe highway and then go back
into Algonquin, for example,right, and it's just unfortunate
(13:53):
when I see that what shethought was doing so good,
feeding this animal turned intobe probably the most devastating
thing for they.
Well, obviously it was the mostdevastating thing for that
animal, but I think a lot oftimes people don't look through
what could the outcome be forthis right?
Unfortunately the wolf did notmake it.
(14:14):
They had to take that harddecision at the sanctuary to
humanely um euthanize.
So yeah, it was a sad moment.
I got chills now just thinkingabout it.
It's.
It's very sad when I comeacross.
Not every moment with wildlifeis a positive one.
I want it to be, but it's notalways a positive one, and no,
(14:34):
numerous times, most times, it'sdue to human interference of
some sort.
So it's sad, it's sad.
So here we are trying toeducate people.
Um, I think people come for thephotography and they leave with
so much more.
I think they come wanting tolearn settings on their cameras
(14:55):
and then they leave with oh, Ididn't even know about ethics, I
didn't even know about thisabout a moose, or I didn't know
about this with a fox.
It was more than just things.
I didn't even know aboutconnecting with nature or how it
feels to be out here in nature.
As soon as you're in nature, assoon as you're out there,
everything else just stops,doesn't it?
(15:16):
There was no politics today.
When I was in Algonquin, therewas nothing.
It was silence.
It was beautiful, it was chickchickadees and nut hatches and
woodpeckers and you know justeverybody like the sounds of
nature.
Just eliminate all of ourstresses, right, and I think
that's what they come away with,and I think that's the most
(15:38):
inspiring thing for me is toinspire those people to connect
with nature and each otherthrough photography.
Imagine that's our missionstatement.
Actually is is just that sothat's awesome one.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I guess a lot of people too, if they're not
photographers, don't realizethat when they see that picture
of you and the fox or the wolfis that you're not six feet away
from that animal at the timeyou're taking that picture.
They looks like that from theirperspective.
It looks like that from theirperspective, just because it
looks like that's where you are.
But people, I guess, need tounderstand that, that you're not
(16:15):
going to approach an animallike that that closely.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
It is a valid point, and I think you know I struggle
with this because, as aphotographer, I'm posting all of
this online.
Every day we're posting a newphoto and it looks like we're
really close to this animal.
Or I'm posting tons of prettyphotos of Algonquin Park and
we've seen the numbers ofvisitors coming to Algonquin
(16:39):
Park and then not respecting theland as well.
And I mean, am I part of thatproblem, possibly?
And then not respecting theland as well?
And I mean, am I part of thatproblem, possibly?
Are we all part of that problemTalking about what we love to
do and sharing it with othersand then inspiring them to come
out into nature, and then theyget out into nature and then we
(17:00):
hate them for coming out intonature, right?
So what our angle is is tryingto educate as much as possible
in an ethical way when we'redoing our photography tours or
when we're posting online,trying to give some ethics in
behind it as well, and sometimesyou know a lot of photographers
, including myself, and I don'tdo it as much as I probably
should, but, like stating in thecaption, it's like this was
(17:24):
taken from a respectful distancewith a long telephoto lens and
and stating in the caption islike this was taken from a
respectful distance with a longtelephoto lens, and and part of
the problem is like we think we,you know, we assume that people
would know this, but we've seenit when we get to a moose and
all of a sudden somebody has gottheir giant iPad and they're
walking closer to that moose totry to get that photo that we
(17:44):
got with our telephoto lensRight.
So that's the unfortunate thing.
So there's always room to learn, there's always room for
improvement from all of us thatenjoy the NAIT as much as you
guys do, as much as we do.
I think we all have a part toplay in the education, not just
parks, not just Ontario parks,not just parks Canada, but all
(18:06):
of us.
And of course and I think andof course, we can all point the
finger and say you know whatOntario parks, you could do more
.
Right, we can all do that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
But we can all do more.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
We can all do more as well, a hundred percent, we can
all do more, and it's alwayscomes down to budget or it
always comes down to how do weput the?
How do we make people read?
You know, because I mean, whenwe book a, when we book a
campsite, we have to answer allthese questions and it's just a
tick, and it's a tick, and it'sa tick, it's just a checkmark.
Did I read any of it?
No, you know.
(18:39):
But I know what I'm, I'methical, so I know what to do.
But I know what I'm, I'methical, so I know what to do.
But I mean, is there a way thatwe could?
It's hard to say the wordenforce because it's like how do
you enforce something Right?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
How do you?
Yeah, as you're answering thequestion.
If you didn't actually read it,you'd be straight to tasers.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I haven't.
I have to pack that in my bag.
I thought I just you know, bearspray, no Tazer.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Tazer's a reusable Bear, spray's a one-shot deal.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
That's a good point there, Tim.
I like the way you think You'regoing to pack my bag for me
this year.
All right, cool.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
All right, we could go, we could do the entire
episode just on ethics and stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
no, and I totally agree and leave no trace and
leave yeah, leave.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
No, it's we so I made a conscious decision probably
probably a year or so ago no,it's got to be a little more
than a year ago when I startednoticing the.
Oh, this was somebody who hadno idea what they were doing in
the backcountry.
I'm backcountry guy, we do dofrontcountry, but that's my, my
(19:50):
jam.
And you get out there and andand you also hear stories where
people are like yeah, I showedup at my site and there were
garbage bags along the edge ofit, nicely neat and tight, but
like somebody's gonna come andtake that away.
So good, a for effort, but bfor not knowing what the hell
you're doing, right.
So we I have made a point oftrying to point things like that
(20:12):
out so that in the hopes thatit educates people better,
because I used to assume if youwent in the back country you
actually knew what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So yes, exactly, I feel like.
I feel like, uh, ideally,wouldn't it be great, if you're
going back country, that therewas a five minute video that
they just had to watch on theiriPhone, or not?
Like, how do you enforce that?
But just, it would be great.
You didn't watch the video.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Sorry, what was that, tim?
You didn't watch the video.
You get tased.
That's how you report.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Love it, love it yeah .
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So tell us about the volunteer work with the wildlife
sanctuaries.
I think that's.
That sounds fascinating.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
They're very special, veryspecial people.
One of the largest sanctuariesin all of Ontario, if not all of
Canada.
One of the only ones that canactually house moose and have
rehabilitation for moose as well, which is great.
So every year they havehundreds and hundreds and
(21:16):
hundreds of animals, and this isthe time of year where they
start to come in.
They could be orphaned animals,it could be due to injuries
from car strikes or anythingalong those lines, and Aspen
Valley's mission is torehabilitate as many animals as
they can.
Or, you know, sometimes, again,it's not always a pretty.
It's not a pretty ending right.
(21:38):
However, they also havepermanent residents.
So for the animals that cannotbe re-released due to maybe an
injury or maybe due tohabituation, that's a big one.
If animals are too habituatedand we've seen it with like
foxes in campgrounds, we've seenit with bears coming into
campgrounds, and just right.
(21:58):
So when they have those cases,they also have the.
They have the space that theycan make that call Can we keep
this animal?
And of course it's a call notjust by Aspen Valley, but MNR
gets involved as well and theymake that call Can we keep this
animal and give it a better lifehere, or at least give it a
(22:20):
chance to live out its life inthese giant enclosures.
It's not like a zoo, it's notlike a small little 10 by 10
cage.
No, they try to replicate thatnatural environment for that
animal as best as they can, givethem all that space.
And it's really exciting.
They're working on a new wolfenclosure right now and it
(22:41):
should be ready within the nextfew months, and the wolves are
going to have even more spacefor them to to roam around
within the grounds, and they do.
They do tours for regular folksif they want.
Just note that it's not a juststop in and just don't drive in
(23:01):
and say, hey, I'm here for atour.
You have to book all thatonline because a lot of it's run
by volunteers.
So for volunteers, they havevolunteer greeters that will
greet the people.
Then they have volunteers thatwill work the little gift shop
there.
They have volunteers that takepeople on tours, and then
there's volunteers like myselfand Susan.
We offer photography guidedtours there, and we just get to
(23:25):
get.
They're very small, so it'sjust literally me, susan and a
maximum of four people, and wejust get to bring them through
at a much slower pace.
So then it's not like theregular group where it might be
10 to 20 people walking around.
They have about an hour hourand a half roughly to walk
around that place with a guide.
(23:49):
We spend up to four hours withthem so we can show them
different locations where we canget the shots through the
enclosures, so we know theunobstructed views that we can
get some of these great shotswith some of these, these
animals, and so it's more of aVIP experience doing it that way
, and 100% of the proceeds go tothem.
So a part of one of ourpackages that we sell on our
(24:10):
website is one day in Algonquinand a half day at Aspen Valley
Wildlife Sanctuary one day inAlgonquin and a half day at
Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
So $465 of that fee goesdirectly to Aspen Valley and we
just donate our time, that's ourgiving back, because we love
them.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And we love wildlife.
Yay for you.
That's cool Gear.
So, folks, when they're doing atour with you or a workshop
with you, they bring their owngear.
Do you know what they're comingwith?
Do they just show up withwhatever, and then you figure
out how to make it work.
How does that play out?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
So for anybody that's looking at our website and our
workshops, usually we just havea little questionnaire that they
fill out first and we jump on azoom call, similar to this, and
then we just kind of go througha few basic questions of like,
what are they looking for?
Are they just opening up theirtheir camera for the very first
time and they need every step ofthe way, or are they
established photographers andjust want to learn a little bit
more about wildlife photography?
And then we have people thathave been professionals and they
(25:16):
just want to know, you know,some more tricks and tips when
it comes to seeking wildlife.
It could be from hotspots inthe park that we know about, or
tracking or anything along thoselines, and I think why we have
these little consultations firstof all is to get an idea of
where they are on that level,like on that journey, and it's
(25:38):
just working with small groups.
So I think what we love, what Ilove about our workshops is we
don't do more than four peopleat a time.
We only bring out maximum fourpeople.
We used to do 10.
This was before COVID.
We used to do like big groupsof 10 to 12 people, but I find
now that we've and it was aresult of COVID we brought it
(26:00):
down to like one to three people, maybe four, and I'd say most
of our workshops now areone-on-one, so it's it's
actually very intimate.
We can actually look over yourshoulder.
You can look over our shoulder.
We hand, you know, we gothrough the settings together,
we can look at the scenestogether, we can discuss
composition, we can have abetter chance of seeing wildlife
(26:22):
instead of having five carsfollowing me on the highway and
then trying to pull over atdifferent spots and maybe lose
the sighting.
And we get to see more.
We get to actually get out moreand it's all based on, you know
, we've had people that show upand they they just have an
iPhone and they just have asmartphone and they just want to
(26:43):
learn how to take better photoswith that.
And it's amazing, because Ithink photography isn't about
the gear, I think it's about howto see.
It's literally.
There's a technical side, yes,but there's also the creative
side, and that's very left side,right side, brain, and what's
great about photography is itchallenges on both of them,
(27:05):
right, and those people that arevery technical have a hard time
sometimes seeing what they wantto take a photo of.
And then there's the creativesthat they love the compositions
and they can look at a scene andbe like, yeah, this is what I
want to take a photo of.
And then there's the creativesthat they love the compositions
and they can look at a scene andbe like, yeah, this is what I
want to take.
And then what happens is they,they can't get the technical
part down.
Yeah, they don't know whatf-stop to use or whatever.
(27:26):
Yeah, what's an f-stop?
You know what's an aperture,what's a shutter speed, what's
an iso, like all of these words.
It's a different language, andrightfully so, and it's
stressful.
And then you talk to people.
They're like I didn't, like thebest is like we get this all
the time.
We post a photo.
And then somebody's like oh,what camera do you have?
(27:46):
And it's like okay, I can tellyou the camera, I can tell you
the lens, you can go buy it.
But it's the same as likeasking a chef what kind of stove
did you cook that meal on?
You know it's not.
You don't buy the stove and youget the meal right, there's a
lot that goes into it.
So I find there's that wholemisconception at first, and then
(28:07):
they start to realize okay,there's a lot more to
photography than just picking upa camera and clicking and it's,
there's a whole bunch to it.
So a good example is somebodyhired us a couple of years ago
and she had about $20,000 worthof camera, camera equipment 20
grand, she told me right off thebat.
She's like I got this much.
I know everything that there isto know about my camera.
(28:29):
I know all the settings, I knowall the menus.
If you tell me anything, I'llknow exactly where everything is
.
I have all these differentlenses and she's like you know
what, though?
Still to this day, I cannottake a photo of the scene that I
want.
I can't represent the scene inmy photo.
She's like I don't know how totake that.
Can you help me?
(28:49):
And I said absolutely let's,let's do this.
And I think what she was findingis she thought, every time that
I go out and I can't get theshot, she thought, ah, it's a
piece of gear, it's a lens thatI don't have, it's a filter that
I don't have, it's a tripodthat I don't have, it's the
newest thing that I don't have.
And I think what people have torealize, or what they do end up
(29:12):
realizing is you can workwonders with even just your
smartphone If you unlock thatcertain part of creativity in
your brain.
Um, so now seeing her shots nowover the next and it's not and
I'm not going to take all thatcredit and say, hey, yeah, I did
this all in one day, no, butshe's just excelled so much more
(29:33):
building on that creative sideover those last couple years.
It's just, it's an, it'samazing, I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's inspiring, that's excellent.
Well, and you mentionedsmartphones, it's.
I'm usually after the fact.
You know you're like oh, that'sman, you take some really cool
shots.
What are you using?
My I whatever?
Like I know that they.
You know just, we all havephones.
Like I know that they.
You know just, we all havephones.
So you know that, since, sinceI had a flip phone, the cameras
(30:01):
have gotten so much better,right, what's a flip phone?
But, still like.
I just like, holy crap man.
Yeah, you know whatever youknow, pixelization, but the
color saturations and the huesthat you can get, it's just it's
mind boggling.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I think the best thing with smartphones is just
this big display on it.
It's visual, it's huge, it'sit's almost like looking at a
four by six photo, right thatwe're.
You look at it and you're like,oh, I see the scene.
It's funny.
You could stand there on abeach or somewhere and just look
out and say I don't know whatto take, and then you lift your
camera, your phone and you'relooking at it through this
(30:40):
screen.
That's huge.
And then you're like, ah,that's the shot.
Because now we visualize it inthis little rectangle.
We're like that's the shot,right there.
So we use it as a tool all thetime.
We'll get out to scenes andwe'll just actually hold our
phone up as a visual and justkind of like look around the
scene, get low, get high, um,get closer to the subject,
(31:01):
further from the subject, thesubject meaning landscape
photography here, not closer tothe subject as in right moose,
um.
So yeah, we use it as a tooland it's just like anything.
Use these things as a tool inyour toolbox.
Um, that's the best bet.
Cool, uh, how did you get intophotography?
How long?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
have you?
How long have you been doing it?
But as a tool in your toolbox,that's the best bet.
Cool, how did you get intophotography?
How long have you been doing it?
But what tripped you into it?
Speaker 3 (31:24):
I'd say back in, going back into early 2000s.
I actually lived in Cambridgeprior to living up here.
I currently live in Muskoka, inBaysville, which is in between
Dorset and Bracebridge of area,so Lake of Bays area now.
So I lived in Cambridge and Iactually owned a tattoo studio
(31:44):
way back in the day, hence themany tattoos I never personally
tattooed.
I was a body piercer for allthose years.
I owned it for like 18 yearsand in that studio we operated
it as a very high-end studio, soit was not like your typical
back alley scary place like wehad.
We were popular with the moms,because always it was always the
(32:06):
moms that were like worried,right, so we were popular there.
And then what happened was weneeded to show off the art, so
we needed to take better photos,so we would set up lighting in
our in our one room we had thislittle studio corner, I would
call it, and I decided to take acourse in photography through
(32:26):
the local college in Kitchenerand as I did that, I bought a
DSLR camera and I was like thisis it, I'm going to be, this is
going to be perfect.
I can nail all these shots now,get the lighting right and
everything.
But what was funny about that?
I took the course and it wasover a course of two years and
then that's when iPhones cameout.
And when iPhones came out, likeall those years later, I was
(32:50):
like why am I carrying this big,heavy camera around?
I could just use this iPhone.
So literally for probably agood year or two after my
photography course I kind of putmy, my camera away and I was
like I'm just gonna use this andI can contribute that.
So much to have the way I seenow, because I just had, like I
(33:12):
said, I had that screen.
So I was really nailing orworking on the compositions,
because I feel like thecompositions are so much more
important to like tell the storyof what you're trying to convey
to the audience or to theviewer.
So I just took my phoneeverywhere and I was taking
photos like crazy.
(33:33):
And what was funny about thatis then I drove up to Algonquin
Park to come hike and I wastaking photos like crazy.
And what was funny about thatis then I drove up to Algonquin
Park to come hike and I cameacross my first moose two moose
actually in the field, and I hadmy iPhone and I zoomed in with
my iPhone.
This is back in 2009.
So you can imagine how qualitythe cameras were on our iPhone
(33:53):
back then.
They were great for likelandscape, like downtown right
or architecture, whatever.
But I zoomed in and my moosethey were so pixelated, they
were so bad, the photo wasterrible and it was my first
moose experience and I'm like,no, I can't believe this.
So then I dusted off my oldcamera again and I used to drive
(34:16):
literally from Cambridge toAlgonquin, hike all day and then
drive home at the end of theday and it was three hours up
here in the morning and thenthree hours back in the evening,
and I would do it almost everyweekend.
As much as I had the time off.
That was my escape from mybusiness, that was my.
I needed to reset in nature.
So, as much as I could.
(34:36):
Then fast forward a few moreyears, 2013, I was driving down
this one road here and I noticedthis little cottage for sale.
And back then, uh, like I waslike, okay, well, let me, let me
look into the pricing.
And back then pricing wasaffordable.
Uh, in 2013, a little bit moreaffordable and surprised that
(34:57):
this cottage was on the marketfor a year and a half.
So I put in a really low bidoffer and they accepted it and I
was like, oh, my God, I'm.
I have a cottage up there nowNow.
Now what?
This unlocks everything.
So it's funny because I'm about40 minutes from the entrance to
the park now, because I'm about40 minutes from the entrance to
(35:19):
the park now, and before I wasthree hours and I used to
complain that it's three hoursto get to the park.
This is ridiculous.
Now it's 40 minutes and I'mstill complaining that it's 40
minutes to get to the park.
It's ridiculous.
So never happy, never happy.
So fast forward all these years.
Unfortunately, there was adivorce in that nature and I
sold my business to my partnerat the time and I said you know
(35:40):
what?
My next chapter is going to beup north, where my heart is.
And that's where that allhappened.
And I was lucky enough that Icame across Susan, this
beautiful woman that had acamera, that had a Canon camera
and I had a Canon camera.
So it was like, oh, that was amatch made in heaven.
But surprisingly, we met onInstagram under the hashtag
(36:02):
Algonquin Park.
So as us as a business, becauseI started follow me north prior
to Susan and I was alwayslooking up Algonquin Park
hashtags and I was just lookingat other people's photos and
liking other people's.
It's part of the marketing,part of like getting in there
and seeing.
And I just remember comingacross her in Algonquin park
with her and her girlfriends andI'm like you know what.
(36:24):
I'm going to reach out to her.
I'm just going to reach out.
What's the worst that canhappen, you know.
And so I think my cheesy line ifshe was right here, she would
tell me the cheesy line wassomething along the lines hey, I
see you have a camera there.
Maybe we can meet in algonquin.
I can show you where the mooseare.
How about you give me a shout?
And uh, she ignored me.
(36:45):
She ignored me for a good year.
She ignored me for a good month, uh, because and it wasn't
ignored, it was just ininstagram if you message
somebody that isn't a friend, itgoes into a sub category like
another.
Yeah, it goes into hiddenmessages or something hidden
messages, right.
So then she contacted me laterand said you know what?
That was great.
(37:06):
Why don't we meet up sometime?
So anyway, fast forward.
Our first date was actually inalgonquin park, on the 125th
anniversary of the park.
So that was beautiful, that wasreally great.
So we had our first littleglass of wine at Bartlett Lodge
in the park beautiful resort,and then from there we got
(37:27):
engaged in Algonquin Park a fewyears later and then, two years
ago now, we got married inAlgonquin Park on the island of
lake of two rivers, cause thatwas a special place for us as
well.
So the park brings, like holds,a lot of special, like feelings
for us for numerous reasons.
But it really shows that thatconnection really has that
(37:52):
connection for us and that resetthat I think we all need in
life.
And it's not just Algonquin,just nature in general.
Just so happens that Algonquinwas what brought us together,
and so photography was first,and then getting out into nature
more.
I was always into nature, but Imean so it was just an easy
transition to bring the cameraalong with me to capture these
(38:14):
moments, and then it was gettingother people out into nature
with their cameras as well, andas someone that loves to teach,
I've taught my previous life.
I used to teach health andsafety.
I still teach health and safetyfor the tattoo and piercing
industry because there's notmuch out there that's teaching
(38:35):
that.
So I'm trying to make dullsubjects such as hepatitis and
infection control and bloodbornepathogens and
cross-contamination.
I have to make all that soundfun, so I'm used to doing that.
So this was fun.
Doing photography and thenactually exploring outdoors and
(38:57):
getting people to understand alittle bit more about not just
photography but about themselvesand getting themselves excited
to be outdoors again was such asuch a passion.
I just kind of went with it andI believe truly, if you find
your passion in life, you knowthe business side will follow or
the money will follow, like,don't chase the money, chase the
passion, and then the rest willkind of unfold itself.
(39:18):
And I wrote I went with it, Ijust went with my gut and I
chose that new path.
And here I am today, uh, allthese years later, with a
beautiful wife and running thisbusiness together.
It's been really great.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
And doing stuff you love.
That's awesome, man, exactly.
Yeah, kudos to you.
A little bit of a sideways,just because it's been sitting
in the back of my brain how,what, how did?
How did south africa pop intothe picture?
How did that play?
How did you go start takingpictures there?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
so south africa was definitely a highlight on our
life and, like in our, I guess,our path, our journey through
photography, I think everybody'sbucket list is to get to South
Africa.
At some point it's on.
It seems to be like on a lot ofpeople's bucket list,
especially if you're aphotographer.
Wildlife you can neverguarantee until you go to South
Africa or Africa in general.
(40:12):
There's lots of differentplaces, lots of different
countries.
You can witness some amazingwildlife and it was during COVID
, I believe.
We had this tour company reachout to us on the West Coast.
It was two women that run thiscompany called Finisterra Travel
Great people.
They reached out to us and theysaid you, you know, we run
(40:36):
these tours and we're gettingmore and more people that are
interested in photography tours,but we don't have any
photographers.
And your name was given to usfrom a local here in in Muskoka.
That it was funny because oneof the owners of that company,
the travel company, was dating,dating the son of this gentleman
(40:57):
in town, and he was like oh we,I know these, this couple that
do photography.
You should reach out to them.
So here he is, one of ourneighbors reaching out to this
company, saying you should reachout to us.
So they're on the West coast,we're here in Ontario.
We had a zoom call like this andit was just literally, it just
(41:26):
felt like an easy connection,just very simple.
And so we kind of like justchatted and said like what, what
do you think your clients wouldexpect or what would they want?
And they were like what do youwant, what would you think that
your clients would like to do?
And I said, well, I think 100%South Africa would be like high
up there on that bucket list.
And I also said grizzly bears.
(41:46):
So West Coast and when Susanand I talked about it and talked
about it with Finisterra Travel, we said let's make those kind
of like our two core offeringswas kind of like West coast for
the grizzly bears.
And we ran that workshop forabout four years and this is our
fourth year running Um, I thinkthird or fourth, yeah, fourth
year now running the SouthAfrica trip and it's been such a
(42:09):
great success.
We only bring 10 people peryear, that's it.
So, again, very intimate.
Uh, so the one lodge that webook, we book out the whole
lodge, so it's just us and theycater to us, and we have two
Jeeps.
We have two guides, so we splitup the group into five and five
, and so Susan's in one Jeep,I'm in the other Jeep, and then
(42:31):
we split up and we go lookingfor wildlife all like three
hours in the morning, threehours in the evening, and then
they cater to us all day.
It's we're spoiled, let's putit that way.
It's terrible, it's very sad.
Yeah, like highly, highly, don'trecommend it whatsoever, but
you know what?
It's such a magical place.
(42:51):
It changes you Like.
I mean I heard people say thatlike it changes you.
I mean I heard people say thatit changes you if you go to
Africa.
Just the people, not just thepeople.
Everybody's worried about crimeand such.
Yes, of course there's placesnot to go in anywhere.
It's just like Toronto.
There's certain places you'reprobably not going to go.
It's the same within othercountries as well.
(43:15):
Never experienced any anythingremotely scary, even even the
wildlife wasn't even scary.
Like we got one time surroundedby 21 lions in our jeep and
there's no roof on this jeep,it's just like open, like these
lions could jump in.
But when we saw one lion comeout of the bush and then two
(43:35):
lions and then three and thenall of a sudden it was like a
pride of lions and young onesand, uh, the females, the males
with the big manes and they camearound and they just kind of
all hovered around our jeep andthen they laid down and the
young ones were playing androlling around and, uh, it was
such a it's such a moment likethat you can't describe it
(43:56):
unless you're there.
Literally like we've all seenlions on online, we've seen the
Disney specials.
But when you're there and yousmell it and you hear it and you
feel it and you have that windand the silence and the
different birds, and oh mygoodness, I can go on forever.
You're signing up right now Ican see.
(44:17):
Oh my goodness, I can go onforever You're signing up right
now I can see, right, oh, it'sjust an incredible experience.
So we're so grateful to Nicolaand Carrie that gave us that
opportunity to unlock ourworkshops that we do on a grand,
like a grande, like a grandscale, right, and then offer
them something different.
And so, yeah, we have everyyear just unlock it for 10
(44:41):
people and see if they want tocome.
So this year sold out prettyquick and we're leaving in, I
think, 20 days or so, so we'regone for a month, so we don't
take them for a for a wholemonth.
It's about a 15 day, 14 dayexperience.
But this year Susan and I aregoing to spend an extra week
(45:04):
exploring different areas ofSouth South Africa and
potentially offer somethingdifferent for the following year
.
So that's kind of like our, ourplan and we can't wait counting
down those days.
I'm done with shoveling.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
I'm done, yes, yes yeah, I hear you there.
It's gonna be a magical trip,yeah I'm in awe, man, that's.
That's very cool.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Sounds like a really crappy life, dude, I'm just
saying you know, I'm telling you, yeah, I, I wake up every day,
miserable I'm just crying yourtears, crying your beer, yeah
you caught me on a good day,Like I don't know if you know
you know it sounds really reallybad.
No, you know what?
It's just very rewarding.
(45:45):
Obviously not for just thetravel, but the connections that
we've made with peoplethroughout the years.
And I feel selfish sometimesbecause I need that connection.
And I feel selfish sometimesbecause I need that connection.
I feel like I'm doing it for me.
I didn't realize it when I movedfrom Cambridge to up north, up
here.
(46:06):
I was missing something and Ididn't know what it was and I
went through this kind of likelull.
I went through this.
I don't want to use the worddepression, but it was something
different that I wasn'texperienced with.
It was a different emotion, itwas different.
It could be the start ofdepression, but it was like
something's not right with meand it took a while to figure
(46:27):
out what that was Cause.
In Cambridge, where I lived mywhole life, if I walked out the
door, somebody was honking theirhorn, waving at me and saying,
hey, jesse, nice to see you, youknow.
Door somebody was honking theirhorn, waving at me and saying,
hey, jesse, nice to see you.
You know, everybody knew me,everybody like.
And then throughout the day atmy job, I was making people feel
happy every half hour when Iwas doing an appointment, you
know, you get your little nosepiercing with a diamond in it.
(46:48):
And then they look in themirror and they're like, oh, let
me hug you.
And it was like these littledopamine hits.
And it was like, oh, this is sogood.
And then I'm like, all right,I'm leaving Cambridge, see you
guys later.
And I remember I came up hereand I'm like, oh, this is what I
need, just peace, quiet, nature.
And then I was like, butthere's something missing and I
(47:09):
didn't know what the heck it wasand it took me quite some time,
like I said, to figure that out.
I used to drive it's a halfhour to get to Tim Hortons from
here.
I used to drive a half hour togo get coffee just to see
somebody, just to say hi to theperson that was serving me every
.
You know, it was just a strangefeeling.
I remember walking across thehighway not the highway but the
(47:30):
road in Bracebridge and somebodyhonked at me and I waved,
thinking I would know them, andthey gave me the finger.
I was like, oh, you're right.
Like not, everybody knows mehere.
It was like it was completelydifferent.
So I've learned over thoseyears that I definitely needed
that connection.
Susan definitely played a hugepart with helping me heal
(47:54):
throughout that.
She moved up here from Whitbyand she was working in Toronto
for so many years and it waslike how do we do this?
Like, if I move up North, areyou going to like, are you going
to be still in Toronto and wejust do this on weekends?
And so she actually pitched toher boss like I need some remote
(48:15):
time.
Can I do three, three days aweek remote?
And this is before the wordremote was a word in the
workplace, so way before COVID.
And they actually gave herthree days to work remote and
then two days in the office.
And there was a point where isthat?
Even that was getting tough forher.
So she's like you, you knowwhat, I'm giving my notice, I'm
(48:36):
actually going to give my noticeand I'm quitting.
And they said to her no, youcan't quit, what do you need?
And then she said why wouldn'tlike full-time remote?
And they gave it to her and itwas like it was incredible.
So that right then helped uskind of like get Follow Me North
on a good traction in thatdirection that we wanted to go
(48:58):
and we had this vision for itand we're still continuing that
vision to this day, and we'redoing this now more or less
full-time and trying to get asmany people out there, and I
think this year is going to beprobably a record high, because
I think a lot of people aretraveling in canada and they
want to spend their money incanada rightfully so.
(49:19):
Canada is beautiful, regardlessof what's happening south of us,
and it's really special to beable to offer something like
that for people that are lookingfor an experience, something
different.
For example, we just got backyesterday from somebody
celebrating their 30th birthdayand they chose follow me north
to celebrating their 30thbirthday, and they chose follow
me north to experience their30th birthday with in algonquin
(49:42):
park, and it was such a it'ssuch a special thing to be
somebody's part of theirmilestone in their, in their
life, right.
So I just love, love, loveconnecting with people.
I think, more than anything,it's connection.
For me, photography is abyproduct of the connection,
right, and I absolutely love itso tell me one of one of my
(50:05):
probably what?
Speaker 2 (50:06):
actually?
I think I'd heard your namebefore, but then I saw there's,
you've got a series of Santa ina red canoe and it's usually
like a well, it's a snowybackground.
It looks like one of thosewhere they do the colorized
thing and then turn everythingelse black and white right, like
it's just pops right out andit's.
(50:26):
It's cool, it's fun, it'sexplain that, what?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (50:32):
yeah, so we did a series called Santa in a canoe,
simply as as it sounds, and itwas such a a special, special
series and I think we did thisback in 2018 or 2019, but a
little backstory on that wherethat came from, where that whole
Santa and doing something innature or doing something
(50:54):
actually came from my father.
Many, many years ago.
He used to dress up as Santa onChristmas day and get on his
motorcycle in Cambridge anddrive around and stop at Tim
Hortons and give out candy canesto people or give out little
gift cards to people here andthere, stop into banks, whatever
(51:16):
.
If it was that whole weekleading up to Christmas, he
would dress up as Santa and goout and do this and he was just
making people smile and I waslike, what a guy like this is
incredible.
I love my dad.
It was such an amazing thingthat he could do and it stuck
with me and it's funny, allthose years later I got a
(51:37):
motorcycle and I continued thattradition.
So in Cambridge for many, manyyears we would run that as an
event through our studio at thetime and we would raise
awareness and just going out onmy bike as Santa and collecting
toys, for, you know, kidsthroughout, you know, for
(51:59):
Christmas right, people thatcouldn't afford Christmas gifts
or whatever the case when wewould donate toys and food to
the local, to the local foodbank, and it was just such a
rewarding thing that we justgrew and grew over the years.
And then there was more Santason motorcycles joining me and
friends that were dressed up asSantas.
And then there was more Santason motorcycles joining me and
friends that were dressed up asSantas, and and of course there
(52:20):
was some years that it was toosnowy that we couldn't do it.
But in Southern Ontario it'salmost pushing into January
before we're getting a good snow.
So there was many years that wedid it over and over again and
nothing beat the look onpeople's faces when you pull up
on your Harley next to them andyou're dressed as Santa and
they're like do the double takeand you give them a little
thumbs up and then you take off.
(52:42):
So very special, it was veryspecial.
I thank my dad dearly for thatand so that instilled deeply
into me.
So when we moved up here I stillhad my Santa suit and I was
like what can I do Now?
It wasn't like a charity thingby any means.
It wasn't like something likelike what can I do now?
Wasn't like a charity thing byany means.
It wasn't like something likewhat can we do.
It was just literally like Ilove this idea of keeping this
(53:06):
kind of traditional.
I've like, I want to just dosome more photos and and let's
see what we can do with this.
And so we dressed I dressed upas Santa.
It it is the real Santa.
I mean, sorry, I hired Santaand got in my red canoe, or I
(53:26):
mean got the red canoe, put itin and put it into the river.
And this was during the firstsnowfall, so it was like that
fresh, sticky snow that's likestuck to the trees.
It was probably November, Ithink.
It was up here and, yeah, wejust did this shoot and Susan
photographed it from shore as Ipaddled around and just took a
few fun photos, and we decidedto, you know, post it online and
(53:48):
it kind of went viral.
It went.
It was one of our biggestshared photo sets that we've
ever done.
Since then, we've put it incalendars, we've put it on.
Since then, we've put it incalendars, we've put it on
greeting cards.
We've donated it to so manydifferent organizations that are
looking for donations to helpother causes as well.
So we're using that series alot to kind of like it's an
(54:10):
intro, to get to help otherpeople do something for
themselves as well.
So I just love that series somuch and it's just continued
every year.
We try to.
We sometimes try to go out anddo another set, but nothing
beats that first set that we didand that's the one that you
probably saw, because that's theone that went kind of crazy.
Yeah, it was definitely ahandful of years back, so yeah,
(54:32):
and then this year it just wenteven crazier online.
So it was a really good set,really fun it's, and it's again
great.
It connects people with natureand it connects people with that
whimsical of Christmas and thebeauty of, you know, camping and
canoeing.
So there's all this relation toit.
And then last year, I think, wedid a series with the Grinch.
(54:53):
So we did the Grinch in thecanoe.
So, yes, we did the Grinch inthe canoe.
So, yes, we did the Grinch inthe canoe.
You probably didn't see it,because I also learned
afterwards that we might getsued if we continue with the
Grinch, because Disney ownsGrinch.
So I was like, oh okay, so wepulled it.
But, yeah, that series was verypopular as well, but nobody
(55:14):
owns Santa.
So we were able to run that oneand it still continues to this
day.
So as long as we're makingpeople smile and make them feel
good and again, hopefully,connecting them with nature and
each other through photography,then it's a win-win for us.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
Well, I just a long line to making people smile.
The Sori Algonquin page oninstagram is hilarious uh I
don't know that.
What they've done is they'vetaken negative reviews that
people have posted aboutalgonquin and they've juxtaposed
that with some of the beautiful, like brilliant, photography
that you and your wife do.
Uh, and it's hilarious to mejust to see what you know.
(55:53):
It was so boring.
There was there, was it justthere's mud and trees and and it
was like and then there's thisbeautiful backdrop that you guys
have put that quote on.
I just thought it was reallyfunny.
Speaker 3 (56:04):
I love that series too, and it was funny how that
took off because it was justliterally I was looking up
there's an app called All Trailsand I was looking up an app and
just kind of reviewing some ofthe reviews about that one trail
and then I came across one.
It was a one-star review and Iwas like, oh, let's read it.
(56:24):
And I think one of the one-starreviews one of the first ones
that I read was literally thatthere was so many bugs on this
trail and I wasn't informedabout it beforehand.
And one star review and it waslike do you think?
Think that Ontario parks hasthat right, like they have to
inform you that there's bugs atthis time of year.
So I just was like this isridiculous.
(56:46):
I wonder how many more thereare.
And surprisingly, after a deepdive into, like Google reviews
and trip advisors and all ofthese different places, I found
some of the best ones.
And then I just exactly didthat, put that bad review over
top of one of our pretty photos.
And to this day I still getpeople coming up to us in
Algonquin and they're like youknow what?
(57:08):
We sat around the fire lastnight and we were all making
s'mores and we passed the phonearound reading quotes from Sorry
, algonquin and we all just diedlaughing sitting around the
fire having this.
Uh like listening to some ofthese, how ridiculous they were.
And it's not to bring negativityto it, I think it's to.
(57:28):
I hope this is my hope thatsomebody that wrote one of those
reviews reads it again in thiscontext and was like, okay, you
know what you're right, it is abad, it is ridiculous what I
wrote, that you know nothing butmud and trees, nothing to see
here.
Uh like terrible place to gofor photography, don't waste
(57:50):
your time.
Like there's better wi-fi, youknow it needs more wi or
something Like there's just somany that I was like there's
better roads in Kazakhstan,that's one.
And I was like, really, and youspent the time to log into
something and write this badreview and there was nothing
(58:12):
good from it.
And I think that's a hard thingto grasp for me, because
there's so much beauty out thereand we're so quick to jump at
all the negative for everythingthat people forget that there's.
You probably witnessed 10amazing things, and then this
one negative thing is the onething that gets stuck and
recycled and gets regurgitatedand just spreads Right.
(58:37):
And I think now it's aboutsharing that kindness and I want
people to like share more ofthat kindness and share those
positive reviews.
Get online and you know, go ontoGoogle and give somebody a
positive review.
You went out to a nicerestaurant.
You know how many people justwrite a negative review as soon
as they get home If all of asudden somebody was too long or
somebody didn't greet themproperly, but they didn't
(58:58):
remember the five other timesthat they've been going to that
same establishment and got thatgreat service and didn't tell
anybody.
So it's hard.
As a small business ownermyself, it's like trying to.
You want to give thatexperience that everybody's so
happy that they leave feelingvalued and had a great
experience.
And you know what?
I want to encourage people tolook for that and see those
(59:21):
things and the more kind Googlereviews or good reviews that you
can leave for people.
Guess what?
You're going to start seeingmore.
You're going to start seeingmore kindness in your life.
You're going to see more peopledoing those positive things for
you.
They're just going to come yourway.
You're not going to be seeingto come your way.
You're not going to be seeingthe negative as much.
You're going to see thekindness.
So I challenge everybody to goout there, share your smile,
(59:44):
share your kindness, keep itkind and then it's going to
follow you.
It's going to come your way.
That's an excellent challenge.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Yeah, I totally agree .
Thank you so much, man.
This has been a fantastic, afantastic, fantastic chat.
Speaker 3 (59:59):
I don't know why I didn't do this way sooner it's
because I was ignoring you forall those months.
That's why we didn't do it waysooner.
My apologies.
I was out in nature connecting,but you know what this is
connection too and I love thatyou guys are doing what you're
doing and getting peopleinspired to go outdoors as well,
and I I'm so grateful that youguys reached out to me and and
(01:00:20):
on behalf of Susan thatunfortunately couldn't be with
me today I I know she loves whatyou guys are doing, just cause
it's similar.
You know we're inspiring peopleto get outdoors and share our
love for nature.
So thank you on behalf of Susan.
Follow me North.
I appreciate you guys.
Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Awesome.
Thank you so much to JesseVilmer of follow me North.
Check them out on Instagram andFacebook and and actually do
definitely check out the storyAlgonquin Instagram page,
because it is good for a laugh,especially if you enjoy
Algonquin park, you'll.
You'll find it amazing.
And do check us out whileyou're on any of those social
media things.
We're there too, and please docheck us out on YouTube,
(01:01:01):
subscribe and if you would liketo talk to us, we're always at
hi at supergoodcampaigncom.
That's hi atsupergoodcampaigncom, and we'll
talk to you again soon.
Bye, bye.
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