Ep 56 - How Pete O’Hara channels his rejection from Hollywood to do what he is passionate about the most - adventure photography & videography - The Art of Photography

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I was like eightmonths trying to get
all the contracts,right with
everything. So manypeople were
involved, right?There was just it
was like, endless.There's production
companies there isDisney there is like
the talent there wasus. And so, you
know, I was puttinga lot of my time and
energy into this,like over a year.
And you know, I wasediting it on my own
time putting thesizzle together,
like weeks and weeksand weeks and

(00:20):
months. And then weflew back to LA to
put it together tofinish it at a
studio. And it wasjust like, I
remember, wefinished it, and I
was just like, flewback home and I was
just totally burntout. And then like
they called About amonth later and
said, Yeah, we'renot gonna pick this
up. So there's justlike, it's spent all
this money spentlike two years of my
life trying to putthis thing together

(00:42):
and then just likethey're just like,
in a second. They'relike, ya know?
Hey, weekend isWelcome back to The
Art of Photographypodcast, where we
share artistsjourney and
adventure behindtheir photographer,

(01:02):
journey. And today,we have someone from
the CanadianRockies, someone
who, you know, I'vebeen acquainted with
a long, long time,and I've been
following his notonly amazing photos,
and we have a lot ofphotographers here,
but he's also anincredible
videographer. Andwe'll talk about all
of that in thispodcast. But before

(01:25):
we get there, let'swelcome Pete. Hey,
P. Welcome to thepodcast. I'm very
excited to have youhere
is Dan, thanks forhaving me really
excited to be hereand have a great
conversation withyou. Yeah, man,
like, you know,like, I think you're
only the secondphotographer slash
videographer andI've ever had here.
So I'd really loveto hear a little bit

(01:46):
more about that. Butbefore we can get
into, you know, allthis project that
you did, you know,in a pile and you
know, all of youradventure in the
Canadian Rockies,exploring ice skates
and all theseincredible,
incredible placesthat many people
think that it wasjust a dream. I
mean, I used tothink those places

(02:07):
are a place of adream that I'm never
going to get to. Sobefore we get to all
that, give us alittle bit of
introduction of whoyou are, and what
got you intophotography. Yeah,
you know, that's agreat place to
start, because,well, my name is
Pete. And I startedout not in these

(02:29):
amazing places inthe Rockies, I
started out actuallyin Toronto, working
in the televisionand commercial
industry for a long,long time, probably
about 1015 years.And so that's kind
of where I jumpedinto photography, I
was probably likelearning
cinematography, andsort of shaping my
career to become adirector of

(02:50):
photography morethan I was a
photographer. Andyou know, so that
was kind of that waskind of the
direction I washeading in. And when
I was coming upthrough the
industry, the peoplethat I was
assisting, orshadowing the
directors ofphotography's the
DPS or thecinematographers,
you know, the theadvice that they

(03:10):
gave me is like,just to become a
better photographer,you should pick up a
photography cameraand learn
photography, becauseit'll help you
become, you know, tohelp you with
composing images tohelp you with
lighting and allthat kind of stuff.
And so, you know, Itook that advice,
and I did that, andit was just, you
know, no punintended, it clicked
fast. And it wasquickly became more,

(03:31):
more more than justlike a learning tool
to become a bettercinematographer. It
was like, became,quite quickly a
passion andsomething that, you
know, I, I love justas much as
cinematography. Andso that's kind of
how it happened wasworking in the TV
industry.
edisi church thing,wow, I didn't know
that. Say, this iswhy I love this

(03:52):
podcast, I just getto learn new things
about artists andtheir journey. So
what drive you tobecome to get into
the TV industry? Isthat something was
there a bit ofmotivation from
yourself that youwant to do that or
it's pretty muchkind of the path
that life leaves youthere.

(04:13):
You know, I gotlucky in high school
because, you know,like, it got to
about grade 11 grade12 and we were kind
of everyone had tostart thinking about
okay, what kind ofcollege programmes
Universityprogrammes I want to
go after and I gotlucky early on and I
think I was in grade11 I was just
working in I thinkit was
communications classand they introduced

(04:34):
us to like videoediting and shooting
and all that kind ofstuff and like I'll
never forget I stillI love this like
when you we went outand it was like you
know we we didn'tknow what we're
doing it wasprobably like what
Yeah, it's likereally bad stuff.
But just filming ascene out in the
field and thencoming back to the
computer to edit itand like what

(04:54):
happens when youtake this piece and
match it with thispiece? The first
time I edited twoclips together and
they sort of worked.It was just that was
it. You know what Imean? I was just
like, I love this.And it was just like
there's an addictionto it, right? It's
like that one thingwhere when you edit
this piece in thispiece, and now it's
like, that opens upa whole world of,
you know,documentary
filmmaking,storytelling. And I

(05:16):
was I was justcompletely hooked.
So I got lucky. AndI had that right
from high school.And then, you know,
it took a while tothink, like, do I
want to shape thisinto a career
because I was soyoung. And I didn't
really know what Iwanted to do. I
thought maybe I knewI wanted to
adventure too. Andso I was thought
about maybe joiningthe Canadian Army, I
thought aboutbecoming a pilot. So

(05:37):
I wanted to join thearmy to become a
pilot. But Irealised I didn't
really, I was alsogetting into trouble
a lot. So I don'tthink the army might
have been a greatplace for me,
because I probablywasn't good with
authority. And so Iguess that was the
quote unquote,artist in me. And so
I started to look atprogrammes, and I
was like, Oh, youcan do you can do

(05:58):
this as a career.You can do TV
school, you can dofilm school. And
that stuff is acareer. And so I
kind of chose thatpath. And I went
away to college forit. And, you know,
college was reallytypical of like,
everyone in collegewanted to be a sort
of indie filmmaker.And I also caught
that bug as well.And so for a long,
long time, I wantedto be like a film

(06:20):
director. But Inever really like,
did that I was justdoing like,
videography,cinematography, that
kind of stuff. Like,I never really got
into the directing,I was just dreaming
about it. And so Iwent down that, but
I went down thatdream for a long
time, you know, Iwas like that, you
know, like thattypical film school
like guy that wantedto be a director,

(06:42):
and I just, like,ate all the ate all
that up, I bought,like 1000s of DVDs.
You know, like, Iwatched movies from,
like, the 1920s, allthe way up to like
modern day cinema,just learning about
cinema. And then,you know, through
that, once Igraduated, college,
you had to do aninternship. And so I
had no idea where togo. And like, at

(07:03):
this point, in mylife, I wasn't being
super intentionalabout anything, I
was just kind oflike, there was an
opportunity to workin reality TV after
college, so I tookit. And so I ended
up working inreality TV in
Toronto for a long,long time. And just
kind of like, youknow, learning the
business, learningthe ropes. And it
was, it was reallygood in that sense,

(07:24):
in terms of justbeing exposed to
that world, and manydifferent
opportunities, andjust learning how it
all works, but itwasn't, I was never
really intentionalabout the direction
I was going, I wasjust in this massive
world of like TV andcommercial, and not
really shaping mypassion into
anything. And that'skind of where I'm,
you know, I wasslowly building

(07:45):
myself up to be likea cinematographer.
And, and I likehappened to stumble
into photography,right, like,
shadowing.cinematographers,
and them telling me,you know, pick up a
camera and just pickup a photography
camera to learncomposition, right.
And so I was workingon this one show,
and I did that, andI started to learn,
I started reallylike it. And then I

(08:07):
went travelling fortwo months to New
Zealand andAustralia. And it
was just photographythe whole time,
adventurephotography, travel
photography, and,you know, I think
most photographerswill have that
moment where, forme, it was like
doing a longexposure at night,
and just seeing whatthat image produces.
On the back of thecamera. It's like
magic, right? Like,you're opening up

(08:27):
your shutter for 30seconds, and you're
opening up lightfrom what you can't
see, but all of asudden, you get this
massive exposure onthe back of your, in
the back of yourlens, right. And I
was just, I was justin love with that I
just, I love thecolours, the blues
of the sky, ofcourse, being in New
Zealand andsurrounded by
beautiful mountains.And so yeah, that's

(08:48):
just kind of that's,that's sort of that
started to shape. Istarted at that
point, I think toshape my career more
into photography,not immediately, but
I started to likeput these things
together. Like Ireally liked
photography, and Ireally liked the
outdoors and it tooka few years. And
eventually likeafter, after a bit
of time, I startedto become more

(09:09):
intentional aboutwhat after a lot of
failure, I shouldsay, lots of failure
and like tryingthings and things
not working out. Iwas like you know
what, I really needto give this this
adventurephotography and
filmmaking like Ican bring both both
things together andtry and make
something of it andI started to become
really intentionalwith what I wanted
to do. And so Istarted to actively

(09:30):
make choices aroundthat and so that's
kind of what broughtme to the Rockies in
a nutshell.
Wow, what a journeyand you know, I
remember when Ifirst took my long
exposure like Idon't remember what
it is but I rememberwhen I first took it
and then you youopen it you close
the aperture quitesmall so you get

(09:51):
those star bears andjust like this is
like looking forstreet lights and
just take thisreally low exposure.
So the idea of thestarburst and that
was like that wasit?
I know right at someof that about that.
It's just likeyou're right. Like
with cars. Iremember like I was
in New Zealand andWellington. I just
remember like, Iremember
photographing thecity at night from
above the hill. AndI was just like,

(10:12):
wow, look at thisimage. And then a
car like went by myframe. I was like,
oh, no, ruin theshot. But then. And
then when the after20 seconds when the
image revealed, it'slike you have this
light streak. I waslike, oh my god,
it's so cool. Youlook terrible now,
right? But at thetime, I was like,
just when you'reexperimenting, and
you have that you'relike a kid again,
right? And you justsee all this like,

(10:32):
it's like paintingalmost, you know,
painting with light.
Yeah, I mean, like,we never know, it's
possible, right?Until we play around
with camera beforewe never see that
not with our eyes.So that's, that's
really funny,because I can
totally relate withthat. And, you know,
yeah, I was gonnasay, like, you were
really lucky to beable to get a lot of

(10:53):
that direction earlyon, and you fell in
love, you know, Ihave that click. And
it's, it's crazy,isn't it, it's crazy
how the simplestthing in life shape
the rest of yourlife. And the rest
just become, itdoesn't really
matter anymore. AndI love that I love
hearing that. And,like, for many

(11:13):
people, that's notthe case, like for
me, took me 30 yearsto figure out that
this is what I wantto do that, you
know, finally feltlike I'm doing what
I've been wanting todo. But you
mentioned somethingvery important. And
you say, you know,in order to get to
where you need tobe, and where you
are. You've gonethrough not only

(11:35):
once or twice, but alot of failures and
trying things. Andso just give us a
little bit of apicture of what this
those failures arelike and how, how
does that push youforward? How do you
take those failureand make and take
that as a fuel to goforward? Instead of,

(11:58):
you know, a fuelthat burn you down
and basically crashand burn? You know,
that's a fantasticquestion. Because I
think like, like,there's so many
quotes on failure,right? Like, I can't
remember who it was,but it was like, you
know, failures,where you kind of
learn everything,and success almost

(12:20):
teaches you nothing,right? So I think,
and I can I can gointo a few stories
and in a moment, butI think like it's so
true, like failureis basically just
data, giving youdata of what
information that youneed to know that
you didn't know,right. And so
that's, I think thebest way to look at
it, you know,because it's,

(12:41):
especially in ourline of work, like,
there's going to belike failures, just
inevitable, it'sjust part of it,
right. And whetherit's like on a big
scale, or a littlescale, like, you go
like, just on alittle scale, we'll
go out to the backcountry to try and
get a shot and we'llget a shot or we'll
go out to you know,here in the Rockies,
as you're familiarwith the ice fields
and the roadsclosed. And it's
like, so you justhave to expect that

(13:03):
all the time.
For me,
working in thetelevision industry.
You know, there'sdefinitely a lot of
projects that Iattempted to do that
failed. Ultimately,there's definitely a
lot of ideas for TVshows that I would
pitch you know, soyou deal with
rejection on aregular level. And

(13:24):
with photographynow, too, like
you're, you'resending out pitches,
you're sending outemails, and you're,
you're not hearingback or they're
saying you know,we're not
interested, etc. Soyou just just
become, I think, forme, it's just about
becoming used tothat, oh, that's
just part of thebusiness. It's just
you just have tobecome comfortable
with it. One of thebiggest failures, I
probably had, Iwon't even consider
it a failure now,but it was more of a

(13:45):
learning experiencewas I was when I was
working in thetelevision industry.
You know, I wasstarting to become
more intentional. Iwanted to I was very
ambitious, right? Iwas like, I want to
make TV shows, Iwant to be director
all this stuff. Andso like I started a
company with afriend became
business partners.And we got this idea
for the show. Andeveryone's like, it

(14:06):
was more likefinding the talent
and, and we had thisgreat talent for a
TV show. And it wasnew, and it was
exciting. And youknow, like Disney
was like, We pitchedit to a bunch of
people because wehave some
connections andDisney's like, Hey,
this looks great. SoI flew to LA I think
two or three timesthe first time I
flew there to pitchit around and I had
this we it was likeit was wild. I mean,

(14:29):
we were driving allover LA you know,
going to these likeHollywood buildings
and pitching this TVshow and we pitched
it to Disney and itwas this crazy
meeting was likelady was she was
she's still there.She's really big
person in Hollywood.And she just was
like, she listenedto her pitch for
about two to threeminutes. And then

(14:49):
she just went offthe rails being like
kind of unusual for45 minutes and we're
like, whoa, what'sgoing on? Right?
Tried to kind ofreel the meeting
back into like, whatwhat we're actually
trying to pitch andshe just would take
it and go anotherdirection. And then
it was just as weirdsomething was having
an understand. Butwhat I didn't know
until after sheactually really
liked the show andwanted to pick it

(15:09):
up. And so they Aweek later, they
picked it up andthey said, we want
to produce, likesort of a pilot
episode, like a minipilot episode, they
call it a supersizzler, which is
like a mini pilot.And so we're like,
great, this is it,we're gonna, we're
gonna and we'regonna make it. And
so, you know, I'vebeen all over Europe
filming and doingall this stuff. So
we got all thisgreat footage for

(15:30):
it. And then, youknow, spent a lot of
spent like, maybe, Idon't know, it was
like eight monthstrying to get all
the contracts, rightwith everything. So
many people wereinvolved, right,
there was just itwas like, endless.
There's productioncompanies, there is
Disney, there islike the talent
there was us. Andso, you know, I was
putting a lot of mytime and energy into
this, like over ayear. And you know,
I was editing it onmy own time putting

(15:51):
the sizzle together,like weeks and weeks
and weeks andmonths. And then we
flew back to LA toput it together to
finish at a studio.And it was just
like, I remember, wefinished it. And I
was just like, flewback home. And I was
just totally burntout. And then like
they called About amonth later and
said, Yeah, we'renot gonna pick this
up. So just likeit's spent all this

(16:12):
money spent, liketwo years of my life
trying to put thisthing together, and
then it just like,they're just like,
any second, they'relike, yeah, no, you
know, and that's theway it goes. But I
was pretty likedevastated for a
while, you know, Iwas doing some like,
it was like, man,like, that was a
huge blow. Like, Ididn't really tell
anyone for a while,like I didn't tell
like my family for acouple months. Like
I didn't tellanybody only like my

(16:32):
business partnerknew. And so I think
at that point, I wasjust I remember
listening to apodcast too, and
somebody else wastalking about
failure. And youknow, you're gonna
hit rock bottom, andyou need to build
yourself back up.And I remember
thinking is like,no, that's not gonna
happen to me, thisis good. The show
we're gonna make itright. So. But of
course, now it'slike, you know, that
happened. And youhave to kind of pull
yourself out of it,you can give

(16:53):
yourself time tolike, sort of mourn
it and mourn theloss. But for me, it
was great, because Istarted to really
then focus andbecome more intent
on Adventurephotography and
adventurefilmmaking, right.
And I remember, Alexdrol had a bunch of
courses out on anadventure
photography, it'swhen just before the
course craze kind oflike took off to

(17:15):
what it is now. AndI just remember, I
picked up one of hiscourses, and I was
like, This isawesome. Like, I
love this. And, youknow, I applied some
of those techniques.And I remember, I
was still inToronto, but I came
out west to visit mysister here, here in
the Canadian West,in the Rockies. And
I was like, I'mgonna come out here
and like, take somephotographs of the

(17:35):
Rockies do someadventure stuff, and
like, kind of putthese ideas into
practice. And then Ilike, fell off my
bike and broke mycollarbone. And, but
that would thatreally gave me a lot
of time to just stopand like, reflect,
you know what Imean? And like, the
Disney thing justfailed, and I just
broke my collarbone.So it wasn't having

(17:56):
a great year. Butyou know, I just, I
just kind of, and soI had to take two
months off to healmy shoulder. So I
just stayed out inthe west here for
two months. And itwas just like, that
was that was kind ofit for me as I need
to move out Westbecause I was you
know, going going onhikes, taking
pictures. And sothis sort of, I
guess, event offailure, you could

(18:16):
say that startedwith the, you know,
the show not gettingpicked up with
Disney kind oftranspired into
like, Okay, well,now I can really
focus my energy intoshaping my
intentions intogoing after
adventurephotography and
adventurefilmmaking,
landscapephotography, just
like becoming moreintentional with my
time, right? And sothat's a good,

(18:38):
that's a good, Ithink, like, you
know, I know, it'shard when you fail.
Like, in thatmoment, if someone
was telling me like,Hey, you can really
use this it'd beit's, it's a really
hard thing to hear.But I think like, I
mean, you have tolisten to it. At
some point, you haveto drag yourself out
of those, thosehorrible moments and
like, rebuildyourself. And I
think those aregreat, actual
opportunities tobuild, you know, and

(18:59):
learn.
You know, that's,that's really,
really cool story. Ilove hearing that. I
know, at that time,it's probably the
worst time of yourlife, right. But as
you can see, today,the failures is
really what shapeour success, right
without thosefailure, like you
say you wouldn'thave moved to
Canadian Rockies,you wouldn't have
had that time tokind of just reflect

(19:20):
and stay home andkind of pull
yourself out of it.Now, one thing that
I'm reallyinterested in, I
think a lot ofpeople will get a
lot of benefit outof this is that when
you hit that rockbottom, or you know,
at the place whereit's not really a
nice place to be andlike you say,
sometimes people aretelling us like, Oh,

(19:40):
this is learningexperience, just be
positive and youfeel like, well, you
know, try to bepositive when you're
here right? See howyou go right.
So you know thatreally you just got
like, okay, it'seasy for you to say,
but what are some ofthe things that make
a difference? wordsthat make you you

(20:01):
know what? It is alearning experience
or you know what,this is how I'm
going to rebuild,you know, my future
based on thisfoundation? What are
those differenteither events or
advice or anythingthat have clicked in
your head that makeyou that convinced
you and help youpull yourself out of

(20:23):
this hole very muchand start going back
on your road towardsthe dreams that you
always been dreamingon? Yeah,
that's a greatquestion. I mean,
it's really hard.Like we mentioned it
in that moment tolike, sort of
emotionally pullyourself out of that
moment. But youknow, like, there's

(20:44):
a, I think I heardTom Tom Hanks saying
interview the otherdays, like this too
shall pass, youknow, you're feeling
low. This too shallpass you feeling on
an incredible high,you know, this too
shall pass. So Ialways try to remind
myself like, Thistoo shall pass. And
then you know, itdoesn't happen
overnight. But justknow that I try to
always remind myselfthat everything is

(21:04):
sort of figure outdouble, if that's
even a word. Youknow what I mean?
Like, there's,there's always
something that youcan do to improve
like, the next day,like so you're in a
low moment, okay,what can I do? Okay,
tomorrow, I'm goingto learn something
new, you know what Imean, to get me out
of this moment. SoI'm, whether it be
reading, like, Ilike reading
business books, Ilike reading
personal developmentbooks. And so

(21:25):
there's always goingto be, you know, the
vantage of livingnow, in this time,
there's so muchinformation about
there, there's somany books out there
to help you thatthere's almost like
no excuse, you knowwhat I mean, if
you're just sittingat home doing
nothing, likethere's, there's
action that you cantake to pull
yourself out ofthose moments. And
so I always remindmyself that if I
need to take a dayoff to be to feel
crappy, and mournwhatever just

(21:46):
happened, then I'lldo that. But then,
you know, the, thenit's like, there's,
there's baby stepsof pulling yourself
out of it. And youknow, if you start
something like now,just imagine, and
you keep working onthat every day, just
imagine like, whereyou're going to be
it's like thosegradual steps, like
kind of open up intosomething much
larger many yearsdown the road.
Right. And so, andthat's kind of what

(22:07):
happened for me now.I'm like, you know,
that was a that waslike, a low moment
for me get nothaving the show. get
greenlit. But Imean, now I'm
thinking like, well,what if the show did
get greenlit, Iwouldn't be here in
the Rockies? Youknow what I mean? So
you never know.Like, you're never
gonna know. So it'sjust everything is
figured out double.And, you know, it's
just one step at atime and, like, you

(22:28):
can make it youknow, you can make
it work.
That is greatadvice. You know,
like, figure outdouble, I think that
that is such adifficult word to
say. I think we sayit enough, we can
make it to, youknow, the Webster
Dictionary,
figure. Yeah. Imean, even now, with
my business, I mean,it's not, it's
great. You know, welive in the Rockies

(22:50):
now. And there'sstill, you know,
there's still issuesto deal with every
day, there's still,you know, new
clients to get orthere's still like,
you know, fosteringor maintaining old
relationships,there's things that
don't go right. Andso, you know, you
still, you stillhave to either sell
to figure thingsout, you still have
to try new things,you still have to,
you know, we'reworking in an
industry that'sconstantly changing.

(23:10):
And so, marketing ischanging all the
time. And so we'reconstantly learning,
we're constantlyevolving, and so
just getting used tothings not working
out, and then youknow, celebrating
the things that do
know, 100% I lovewhat you say there,
how, you know, itdoesn't matter what
you do in whetherit's your business

(23:31):
or life, that's,that's the journey,
it's never going toalways be good,
right? Like TomHanks, say, like, if
it's good or bad, itwill pass and you
just have to take itone step at a time.
And I think one ofthe most profound
thing that I get outof that is how you
can how you tellyourself that even
at the worst timethere is you have a

(23:53):
choice. And I thinka lot of people
don't understand ordon't realise that,
right? They feellike, this is my
entire life. Andit's but you have a
choice, you have thechoice to stay in
it, or you have achoice to get out of
it. And that'sexactly what you
did. Right? And ittakes you through
the whole series ofevents, it takes you

(24:14):
to where you areright now. And of
course, we mightnever know where it
can go in thefuture. But, you
know, it sounds likethat's something
that you're, it's alife that you you
love and you know,passionate about. So
I think you didreally amazing, you
know how to dealwith that. And
that's such aninspiration. Now, I

(24:35):
want to bring youback to your, your
creative, you know,videography and
photography now.It's always
interesting. I mean,I started with
photography, and Iknow how videography
can be addicted aswell, just like not
Apple, especiallywhen you're able to
put this cohesivevision into like 30

(24:58):
minutes. Sorry, 33And it's or one
minute video orwhatever it is, and
you look back of itand just be like,
Wow, that isincredible. Right?
So, if you what areyour story in
videography, but youwanted to move to
photography? So whatare the motivation
for you to? Toexplore into the

(25:19):
photography?
Yeah, yeah, it's
a good question. Imean, I coming back
to like the TV thingit was like, like I
said, they told meto like practice
photography. And soI did that. But I
think what Irealised in that as
was like, wow, youcan really, you can
really create it potone powerful image

(25:39):
to tell a wholestory versus like
videography, iscreating many images
to tell a story.Photography is just
one image to tell astory or if you can,
like do a series ofimages, but just
that aspect of likecrafting a simple
single image, Ithought it was very
powerful, and justjust how I felt from
the images and otherpeople's images, you

(26:01):
know, like watchingwatching other
people's work, Ithink that's
probably been in mesince I was a child
as well. Like, Iremember flipping
through, you know,the library at
school, likeNational Geographic
magazines, you know,like Time Magazine,
Maclean's magazinehere in Canada,
like, we alwayssubscribe to those.
So I rememberflipping through and
seeing like, theseimages is powerful

(26:21):
images that are justburning into your
subconscious, right,like, and so I was
always fascinated bythat. And so I just
feel like naturallyfor me, the
videography andphotography kind of
went hand in hand ina way. And so again,
it took me a whileto figure out to
shape what I reallywanted my
photography to bemore like adventure

(26:43):
landscape, likebecause I was
working in TV, and Iwould get hired to
do like, oh, Pete'slike posting
photography to hisInstagram or
Facebook, let's hirehim to do the behind
the scenes photos oflike the show we're
working on, right.And so I was like,
oh, cool, likeanother avenue, I
can make money in,right. And so then I
was doing portraits,and I was doing
weddings. And I wasdoing like, all this
kind of differentstuff. And then,

(27:05):
again, coming backto that, like
niching down orbecoming more
intentional of like,what speaks to you
the most is like, Ikind of started to
shape that once Istarted travelling,
the world I wasworking on it was
funny, because I wasI was working on a
travel show, as adirector of
photography. So itwas getting to that
level, we were doinglike travel Food
Show and a traveltravel show. And so

(27:26):
I was doing thecinematography, but
then you know, I'dhave time to do the
photography as well.And so it's just
like, bang one afterthe other, right,
like, and so I waslike, I really liked
doing this, I wantto make this work
for my career. Andso it's slowly and I
used to that wasfrom Toronto, before
I moved out westhere. And as I
mentioned, my sisterlives out west here

(27:46):
as well. And her andher husband are
really big intoadventures. And so
when I would come tovisit them all the
time, you know,we've got
backcountry skiing,we do all this kind
of fun adventurestuff. And so that
was starting toclick, and I was
taking pictures outthere. So all of a
sudden, this likeadventure and the
photography, theystarted to come and
mash together alittle bit more as
like, oh, you can dothis as a career,

(28:06):
you know. And sothat kind of, and
then there's like,that's kind of
exploded into thishuge creative, as
you know, as well,because you're in
the same sort ofrealm as me where
it's like, Astrophotography, you
know, climbing upmountains in the
night to justcapture the night
sky and themountains and all
that kind of stuff.It's endless, right?
So it's like, in myopinion, it's like a
lifetime of workahead of me.

(28:30):
Yeah, that's, that'sinteresting how you
say that, like alifetime? alorica
that's really cool.I like that. I like
how you think aboutthat. And, you know,
there's this, I wentout, hanging out
with a couple offriends here in, in
Bali, and we hadthis villa to
ourselves, and weit's like more like
a networking. So wemeet like few

(28:51):
different friends.And we're, like,
chilling. And we'relike just sitting
there. And at onepoint, everything
just went silent.And we're like, this
is amazing, isn'tit? It's like, Yep,
and one of thethings that's so
like, it's stillgonna stay with me
until this day isthat he said, You
know what,everything that we
did in our life, youknow, all the bad

(29:12):
all the failure isliterally just an
administration toget to this point.
And that time, justlike, that is so
awesome. You know,like, you know, all
the time that youput in all the
failures, all thework, you know, and
when you stand thereon top of mountain,
you know, that it'sall worth it, that

(29:33):
nothing elsemattered, right. And
that's, that's oneof the things that I
love about going upthe mountain, but I
can totally resonatewith that. So yeah,
totally. And so Ilove how, you know,
you share how yougo, you win
portrait, you winwhen you win all of
these differentbusiness model and

(29:55):
that's somethingthat I have gone
through as well. Butit's They're looking
for a niche that'smost profitable, you
looking for a nichethat you love the
most. And you kindof head into that, I
understand that, youknow, that's not
always going to bethe case, sometimes
you kind of need tofill it with other

(30:15):
things into that.But I really love
how you stay true towhat you truly
passionate about. Sowalk us through how
does that work?Because I know like,
for many peoplewedding is very
profitable. And Ican't or, I mean, if
I if I get $1 forevery time people

(30:38):
tell me you shouldgo into wedding
photography makes alot of money. I
would be amillionaire by now.
So walk us throughwhat are you? What
are your, yourmindset there? What
are your hardestthe, your thinking
process that get youout of that? You
know what I need tomake money versus

(30:59):
you know what, I canmake money while
doing what I'm trulypassionate about?
Yeah, it's kind oflike the million
dollar question,right? Like, how do
you make money whiledoing what you're
passionate about.And to be honest,
like, we're still,like when I say we
are going to talkabout Jenna in a
bit, because likeJen is part of my
story as well. Andmy I'm hers as well.
So you know, to makemoney you do have

(31:21):
to, you have to dojobs like that we
did one wedding awhile back, I have
kind of steered awayfrom weddings a
little bit, althoughI was doing more
weddings, in termsof is doing a couple
photo weddings, butmore videography,
for weddings, whichI still I did one in
2019 in Costa Rica.And it was amazing,
you know, it waslike travel. And

(31:43):
they wanted to dothis whole adventure
thing. So it waskind of sticking in
the realm with whatI like to do still.
And so I was like,yeah, we'll go to
Costa Rica and filmyour five day
wedding. And we'llgo in the jungle and
do adventures andall this stuff. So
it was incredible.But even like, you
still have to, likework on some stuff.
To make money, youknow, like, it's not
going to be, youknow, we're still

(32:03):
kind of trying to, Iguess you could say
sculpt it into justdoing exactly what
we want to be doing.But I'm still trying
to keep a percentageof myself open.
Because what if Ilove figure out that
I love doing thisother thing, you
know. And so we workwith a lot of
tourism boards. Andso they'll send us
out to doadventurous type
shoots, but theywill also be like,
Hey, can you filmthis hotel or film

(32:25):
this, you know,food, because that's
a big part oftourism, right? Food
and Beverage andplaces to stay. And
so you still have tofilm a bit of a bit
of that kind ofstuff. And so I have
all that experience,because I worked in
reality TV I workedin I worked in like,
you know, propertyshows. So I kind of
have that portfolio.So that kind of
helps me to producequality work in that

(32:46):
area. Becausetourism boards, you
know, it's not alljust about the
adventurer, right,you have to think
about their needsand what they need,
they don't just needyour awesome banger
shots, they need acouple of those,
right, but they needa lot of other
things to helppromote their
regions, right. Soyou have to be a
little bit flexibleand adaptable,
right. So it'sworked really well
for us in thatregard, because I
have the photoaspect that I can do

(33:06):
and the videoaspect. And usually
if you can find aclient that really
needs both of those,then you can kind of
hit a home run,right. And so we've
been able to do thata little bit over
the last year with,with the various
different clientsand build really
good ongoingrelationships with
them. And so and soyeah, and it's
still, but stillkeeping that time to

(33:29):
do what we love.Like we'll go out in
the Rockies here,like I was out last
week, and we werefilming ice
climbers, you know,we weren't getting
paid for that, thatmight come back
later. Because thenI've got this
portfolio of workthat I'll now send
into magazines, andyou know, or that I
could sell to thetourism, you know
what I mean? Sostill going out just
because you lovegoing out, which is

(33:49):
great becausethere's no pressure
to create for aclient you're just
creating foryourself and then
generally thatactually pays itself
off down the roadanyways because
people can see thatyou're passionate
you're creating thisunique image that
you love and that'skind of like what
what gets maybehopefully not geo
interested down theline or some other
magazines right andso there's there's a

(34:11):
lot of there's a lotof ways to make it
work to fit withinyour lifestyle.
That is incredible.And I love that last
sentence that yousay there where you
know you look forpossibilities and I
love I learned a lotfrom what you just
say there where yousay you know, I I

(34:33):
know what I like butI still keep a
percentage of thatopen for anything
that's that's thecolumn and I think
for most of us, wechoose a path and we
think that is itright we focus on
that and this is howwe can shape the
rest of our life butas you mentioned
earlier, we are in aconstantly changing

(34:54):
life what to saythat you are good
enough, you knowwhat's what are you
Who are we to saythat this is our
live and you know,it's not going to
change in the futurefor the better,
right? So I reallyenjoy that. So
a small, smallexample of that as
well, because so Isort of like said, I
kind of want toniche myself to

(35:15):
adventure, likelandscape
photography andvideography, and
that kind of stuff.And I never really
thought too muchabout wildlife
before I done alittle bit, but it
was very difficultto shoot as many
wildlifephotography, anyone
know. But weactually worked with
a client last year,Campbell River
whalewatching out onVancouver Island.

(35:36):
And so they havelike their boats,
and they do well,they do like all
kinds of amazingstuff. And so we
ended up workingwith them doing like
wildlife. And it wasincredible. Like I
was like, holy, Ilove wildlife. Now,
I love shooting likewe were filming
grizzly bears, wewere filming
humpback whales,black bears, seals,

(35:56):
dolphins, like itwas just amazing.
And so the videoshould be out really
soon. I'm reallyproud of it, I'm
really stoked withit, the clients
really happy. So I'mreally like, excited
to share that video.And kind of also, I
know, the area iskind of well known
for wildlife, but Idon't think people

(36:17):
are fully aware ofhow the abundance of
wildlife that it hasthere. So I'm really
excited. Hopefully,the video will
create some sort ofawareness and get
tourism driven tothat area. Not too
much, right? Becauseyou want you know,
you don't want tolike over, you know,
overdo the tourism.But I think they
have enough roombecause it's
Campbell River, andit's kind of a small

(36:37):
area on VancouverIsland. And so just
going back to thatidea of keeping a
little bit of thatpercentage open,
because you can younever know what you
could figure out andit's like, Man, I
love shootingwildlife. It's it's
a bit harder here inthe Rockies to film
wildlife. But, butif you get the
opportunity to gosomewhere, and now
you have thatexperience, you
know, it's alwaysit's always worth

(36:58):
keeping that thosepercentages open,
because you neverknow where those
opportunities willlead you to.
Yeah, no, that'sincredible. I love
hearing that. And,you know, one of
those things, is,you know, when I saw
you going out toNepal, and you know,
working on thisproject, and you
create this really,really amazing

(37:19):
footage, to to sharethat awareness. So,
do you want to talka little bit about
how that come about?And, you know, like,
what is theintention behind
that project? Yeah,
for sure. Soactually, that was a
friend of minereached out to me,
he owns a company inCalgary and outdoor

(37:39):
adventure company,and he had this
client, he's like,Hey, I am not able
to go on this trip.There's some
scheduling conflictsor something. And so
I thought about itfor a while. And you
know, it was for areally good cause it
was for these isbasically for
Duchenne musculardystrophy, and
Duchenne is a verysevere muscle

(38:00):
wasting disease thathappens in its
genetic and ithappens in children.
And so the, the, thechildren, mostly
boys, I think, too,but girls can get it
as well. And so thechildren developed
it, or they justhave it from birth,
basically. And, youknow, the life
expectancy can go upto 29 to 30 Years
Old Navy, don'tquote me on that,

(38:20):
but it's just, youknow, you're you
become paralysed tohave trouble
breathing. So it's avery awful disease.
And it's very, veryrare. I think about
only 20,000 in theUS maybe have it and
like maybe 300,000worldwide, and so
it's not a diseasethat's well known.
So it's not gettinga lot of attention,
which means there'snot a lot of

(38:40):
research, whichmeans there's not a
cure on it. It'sthere's no treatment
or anything. And sothese fathers, their
sons have Duchenne.And so they have the
father, the onefather's name is Jim
or phone and he'sthe founder of a
company or anonprofit called jar
of hope. Jar standsfor James Anthony,

(39:02):
ruffling, which ishis son. And so they
went, they trackedup to Everest base
camp, to createawareness and money
because there's aclinical trial,
first ever clinicalclinical trial now
for a treatment forDuchenne. And they
need I think, Ithink they need
about 1.7 million.When the trip
started, I think thetrip raised about
$200,000. And so Ithink, I think

(39:23):
they're pretty closeto raising their
goal to get theclinical trial going
right for the firstever treatment. And
so, for me, I waskind of for a long,
long time in mycareer. And this is
the thing aboutphotography and or
any creative you getso self focused,
because it's sohard, right? Like to
make money to make aliving. And so you

(39:44):
kind of forget andas a child, I was
like, you know, Iwant to work in a
career where I cangive back a little
bit so just havingthat opportunity
come up. I was like,Okay, this is a good
opportunity. Andit's like mixing my
love with adventureand adventure
storytelling. We'reliterally trekking
to Everest basecamp, making a mini
The documentaryalong the way, and
creating awarenessfor this cause and

(40:04):
so I was, I waslike, Yeah, I'm, I'm
gonna do this. I'mlike, it took me a
while to say yes. Sothey need to figure
out some logistics.But I was like,
Okay, I'm fully now.And we went to Nepal
and I didn't knowany of these guys.
They're like yourtypical all
American, you know,guys, and I'm like,
you're Canadian,kind of, like
reserved, quietCanadian. And so but

(40:25):
it was like, theywere the best guys
ever. I love thoseguys, you know, we,
we had such a greattrip. It gots I
learned so muchabout Duchenne and
hearing theirstories of like,
their struggle withtheir families, and
just being able tocapture that on
camera, and shareshare that with the
world was a really,you know, I was
honoured that I wasable to do that, and

(40:46):
help them with that,you know, and, and,
like, I have thedocument or the
sorry that I made avlog, there's a
documentary, and Imade a vlog as well.
So there's two. Andso I kind of talked
about this in thevlog is like, you
know, my experiencegoing to base camp
is obviouslydifferent than
theirs. Like, I gotto have a lot of
fun, you know what Imean? And like, and

(41:06):
enjoy the trip andtheir purposes. You
know, like, they'reconstantly thinking
about their sons,right? Like,
they're, they're notreally there to have
a good time. I mean,it's hard, you kind
of have to find thatbalance, you still
have to live yourlife a little bit,
but they're theirmotivations are very
clear. And so forme, it was really
interesting watchingthat and their
motivations andjust, you know, we
all kind of cameaway from that trip

(41:28):
with a lot ofgratitude at the end
of it, you know, andit was, it was an
incredibleexperience and being
able to see MountEverest, you know,
like the tallestmountain in the
world is a bucketlist thing to be
able to experienceand be able to do
that and capture animage and give back
along the way was Ijust feel so lucky
to be able to havebeen part of that
journey.
Yeah, wow, that'sincredible. I know,

(41:49):
you know, like, it'ssometimes it's hard
to look back andgive, like you say,
because often we'reso sucked into how
to survive, right?And it's, it's such
a it's such a toughlife, because it's
not only acids,everyone else. And I
guess, you know, Ilove what you do

(42:10):
there. Because if wealways if we if
everyone onlyfocused on our own
survival, then whoare we as human
right, our humanitywould pretty much
disappear. Right?And what you did,
there is justabsolutely
incredible. Youknow, I think
sharing the story ofbringing awareness
of this, thiscondition that is

(42:32):
very rare, Iactually really love
how you create theblog. So I haven't
really watched ablog yet. So I'd
love to hear that.Because, yeah, like
when you say that, Ithink that's very
true. Like, it'sreally easy for us
to think about lifeabout adventure
about travel, in ourown view, but
sometimes, you know,some people just

(42:54):
maybe you know, afriend of a friend
or you know, friendof a family that we
may know, arestruggling with
whatever it is, itcould be physical
health or mentalhealth. So I think
it's reallyimportant for us to
just, you know, keepan eye on that and,
and have that sortof gratitude, like
you say, you know,come back with,

(43:15):
with, with a senseof thankfulness,
that things are theway they are in our
life instead ofasking for more. So
thanks a lot forsharing that. Now.
One thing that I'mreally interested in
is, when you go on atrip there, I know,
you cannot touch alittle bit, right.
But when you go on atrip, you have the

(43:37):
purpose of you know,creating awareness,
you know, capturingall this stuff. Now,
at the same time.It's something that
you never donebefore, I never
tried in the basescam you like you
say you don't reallyknow them all that
well, like, youknow, you kind of
just get acquainted.So how do you how do

(44:00):
you show or how doyou tell the story,
the emotion withinyour video and
photography, inorder to capture all
this sense emotionthat, you know, they
may trying to sharewith with the rest
of the world? Yeah,
it's a greatquestion. And I
think what really,really helps me with

(44:21):
that was myexperience in
television, becausewhen we were working
in reality TV shows,were constantly with
new people everyweek and not just
like reality TV. Iwas doing like
corporate videos,I'm constantly
meeting otherpeople. And so you
have to like haveconversations you
have to want getthem to warm up to
you not just to yourcamera, but to you
as a person rightand so it's oddly

(44:44):
become like my jobto do that. You know
what I mean? So it'slike, it feels quite
natural, just tolike, I mean, it's
like it'sessentially kind of
easy, just like,it's like going to
the coffee shop withsomeone you never
met before and juststarting a
conversation. Andfor, you know, a
project like goingto bed camp were
with each other forlike, I think it was
like 12 days underthese really

(45:04):
strenuous hikingconditions like you
get to know eachother really, really
quickly right?There, you know,
you're walkingthrough rain, you're
walking throughsnow, that you're
going up in highelevation, you're
losing your breath.And so you get to
know each otherreally quickly. And
so everybody getsvulnerable really,
really fast. Andthen they start to
open up to you. AndI think, you know,

(45:25):
that plus havingthe, the sort of
knowledge that we'reall on the same page
wanting to sharethis story with the
world, and like Jimand Dylan, their
sons have Duchenne.And they have, they
had an incrediblewillingness and
understanding howimportant it is to
share this story.They were vulnerable

(45:46):
with me, they openedup to me, you know,
they, they showed mesome moments that
were, you know,like, their, that
were quiteemotional. And they
and they wereperfectly okay with
that, because theyknew it was going to
help the story andhelp help the, you
know, ultimatelyhelp their sons.
That's what they'rethere to do. And so,
you know, I was justable to capture
these amazingmoments, I was able
to put the camera onthem, ask them

(46:07):
questions, and theyeven came to me
sometimes, and werelike, Hey, I really
got something tosay, here. I was,
like, great. So justheld up the camera,
and they were veryopen about their
journey with theirsons, and like, why
this trip toBasecamp was so
important to them.And so, you know, it
all came togetherreally nicely, I
thought, and, youknow, I was happy
to, like, we made afilm, and the film

(46:30):
should be coming outsoon, it's a bit
about half an hour.And then I asked if
I could also createa vlog just like
sort of, like mypoint of view of the
trip, because I'mnot in the film,
right. It's justlike, the footage.
And so I just wantedto share, like, sort
of my point of view,and I think they
really appreciatethat as well.
Because, again,like, it's such a

(46:51):
rare disease. Sojust getting that
message out there toas many people as
possible. They were,they're very happy
that I made the vlogand was able to
share it. And so andI likewise, for me
as well, I was like,really happy to, to
share that vlog.And, you know, I
think it wasprobably like, it
was definitely oneof the most
meaningful things Ifeel like I've
created, you know,because I haven't

(47:13):
eyes we talkedabout, like, it made
me realise, like, Iwant to do a lot
more of this, I wantto use my skills of
what I have to sortof help people. And
that doesn't have toalways be
financially Right.Like, I can use my
skills as aphotographer, as a
cinematographer totell a story to help
people. And so Iwant to allot time,
if I can, every yearto do a project like

(47:34):
that. And so, yeah,I'm just, I, you
know, and it's oneof those things as a
kid, I remember,like flipping
through, I think Ican't remember
because it was akid, right, but I
just remember seeinglike a NatGeo, or
something. And itwas photographers.
And they talkedabout, like, drawing
their lens to theseissues in the world
that needed to beheard. And I really
like that reallystuck to me as a
kid. So to now beable to sort of take

(47:55):
that and do that, asan adult, I just
think is is reallyrewarding.
You know, that thatis so powerful that
you share that. AndI think if there is
anything that thelisteners or, you
know, photographersout there can take
out of this is thattypography and
videography is suchan important and

(48:16):
such an essentialthing in our life.
Right. And forartists, especially
photographers andvideographers, a lot
of times we thinkabout it the other
way, where you know,the stuff that we
put out is notvaluable. And, you
know, that's where alot of the starving
mindset kind of comein. But what you say
there is just soprofound, how, you

(48:37):
know, our photos,and our videos are
the things that tellthe story. And
without a story, youcan't move people in
motion, you can't,you know, raise a
fund for a certainresearch, you can't
convince people totravel to, you know,
a certain part ofthe world and you

(48:59):
can't express loveor connection
between twodifferent people.
And this is I thinkit's really
important if thereis any photographers
who feel like, youknow, I don't know,
like my photo is notgreat. Like, it
doesn't matter howgood or bad your
photo is. But if youcompare it to the
fact that peopledon't have any of

(49:21):
those photos, it's aworld of difference
without photo, ourour world are
boring, we probablywant to travel
because we don'tknow what's out
there. We probablydon't have to travel
because we thinkwhat we have is the
best thing in theworld. So, you know,
I really love youwhat you say there.
And one thing thatI'm interested in,

(49:42):
right because you'rea photographer and a
videographer. Howdoes the
storytelling shiftbetween the two
because in video youhave a little bit
more time you couldyou know set the
scene you can createa certain movement a
certain dialogue acertain Um,
voiceover orwhatnot, but in a
photo, that's it,like, whatever one

(50:04):
shot, you take, ithas to tell the
whole story, right?So I'm really
interested forsomeone who come
from videography,right from creating
a story within alonger length of
time. How do youtransfer that into a
photography? And howcan you create the
best, most impactfulstory within one

(50:28):
frame?
As a great question,I feel like I have
to ask myself thatevery time I'm
shooting is like,okay, how can I make
this work within oneframe? I think for
video, and I'malways
experimenting, videois obviously it
depends what you'rewhat you're doing,
like the averagetrip was 11 days.
And so you know, interms of making an

(50:48):
impact with thatvideo, it was about,
you know, you haveyour typical, like,
you're covering yourscenes of us hiking
to base camp, youknow, it's exciting,
it's exhausting,it's raining. So you
have all that thetypical adventure
stuff. And then it'ssort of sprinkled
with, I didinterviews every
day, at the sort ofat the beginning and
sort of at the endof every day. And

(51:10):
then I would askthem questions
throughout the trip,and they would give
me these moments of,you know, very, I
found very impactfulmoments of them
talking about theirsons. And so the
story is, we'regoing to base camp
to raise awarenessfor Duchenne
muscular dystrophy.And then you
sprinkle that withthe sort of, you get

(51:33):
to know them alongthe way, right. And
that's like, Jimtalking about his
son veryemotionally, you
know, like, I wasalmost like crying,
holding the cameralistening to him,
because their sonsare dying, you know.
And so and Dylan,same thing, he's
just like, there's amoment in the vlog
to where it's like,my favourite moment,
he just totallyopens up. He's like,
you know, he's like,you know, some
parents worry abouthow their kids are

(51:54):
going to do insports, but he's
like, the only thingI can really think
about is just like,how fast can we fund
these clinicaltrials, so that, you
know, my son canhave an extra year
or two. And so justgetting those
moments on camera,like them saying
those moments, andthen, you know,
using those moments,that sort of
voiceover to tell astory as they're
walking into basecamp, that sort of
like, that's what Ilove about film,

(52:16):
it's this wholething of all these,
like, you know, likeamazing, either
sound bytes, orvideo or music all
mixed in togetherover either 510
minutes, or, youknow, in commercial
film, like an hourand a half, right.
And so films likethis whole other
other beast, you'restill, you know,

(52:38):
framing images andframing shots. But I
think the emotionsare hitting you on a
different level,because you're like,
you're hearingpeople, you're
seeing people,there's like sound
to it. You know,there's there's
movement. And so,you know, that's
just, that's anotherthing that's like,
endless, you canwork with that
within a life like,you can work to
improve that throughyour whole life.

(52:59):
Right? So I lovethat. And then
photography, there'sno music, there's no
sound, it's just animage, right? But
it's a still image.And so you have to
kind of think about,well, what makes a
really impactfulstill image and so
and, you know, I'malways experimenting
for me, it's like,either, it's an
incredible landscapelandscape that takes

(53:19):
my breath away,whether it's the
auroras over thevest, or horn and
Iceland's, you know,this huge panoramic
shots that I took.Or if it's like we
were last week in anice cave, and we had
an Ice Climberclimbing up to the
top of the ice cave.And, you know, the
fact that it was atblue hour or
Twilight hour, itwas dark. So a lot

(53:41):
of the darknessovertakes the frame,
and you just seekind of your
attention is moredrawn to the light
of the head torch.To me, that's like,
it's hard to put itinto words, but it's
really impactful.And it's really
powerful. Becauseyou're just looking
at this one image,maybe you're
wondering, like,wow, where the hell
are they like, hislike, is way deep

(54:01):
into the backcountry? Or like,
what led up to thatmoment? And so,
yeah, it's just, Ithink they're both
very powerful tools.And video takes a
lot longer, but it'sjust as powerful and
photo maybesometimes it can
take just as longyou could be out
there for months.But sometimes it's
just this one photocan just express an

(54:22):
entire thing, right?And so, yeah, I just
totally addicted tothem both. And
actually, the kphoto that I was
just talking about,we did do some, it's
hard, right? Becauseyou're in the
fields. And you havethe videographer
mindset, and youhave the
photographermindset, right? And
so usually, usuallywhen I'm going out
into the backcountryon our own in the
Rockies, I'm alwaysin the photography

(54:43):
mindset, becausework is more video
related, right? Andso I'm usually doing
photos just on myown, but we always
try to capture Ialways try to make a
point to capturesome video aspects
of something. Youknow what I mean?
Just because Forover a year or two,
I can piece togethera whole story. But
actually the so Iwas in photo mindset

(55:06):
going out to the icecave to film these
are to shoot theseclimbers. But we did
one of the climbersis also a
photographer and avideographer. So he
we're filming littlepieces along the way
of the whole trip,right. And so we put
together the videopieces of us getting
to the ice cave, youknow them tying up
the ropes, and thenclimbing up. And

(55:26):
then we also put theimages in the film
as well. So like youhave this whole mix,
and it all comestogether in the end.
So you put all theseingredients in the
barrel and mix itall up, and you have
this film with someimages in it. So
that's a good, Ithink example of how
I kind of utiliseboth. But I will say
that, depending onthe mindset, I mean,
it's hard to do bothright. So either, if

(55:49):
I'm more in thevideo mindset than
the photos will kindof suffer a little
bit or take more ofa backseat and vice
versa. I mean, thephoto mindset and
the video kind oftakes a backseat
because they do kindof require your full
attention at alltimes. You know what
I mean, to be ableto craft the perfect
image.
I love how you saythat because it took
me a long time untilI realised that I
was like, Yeah, Ican fly my drone and

(56:09):
take photos likenow. Like, I always
want to take photo,I want to do time
lapse on apply droneis like no, you just
have to like focuson one and
everything else willsuffer like you say
and you know, focuson the thing that
truly mattered mostwithin that
particular time. Soyeah, wow, that's,
that's justincredible. I love
hearing thatperspective from a

(56:31):
videographer, thatkind of shift into
photography insteadof you know, the
other way around.Because I feel like
most people are, youknow, their journey
is, is the oppositewhere they start
with photography,and then they get
into videography. Iknow that's, that's
what's the case forme. So yeah, really,
really interestingto hear that. So

(56:51):
amazing. Thank youvery much. Well, we,
you know, it's beenan amazing
conversation. Ican't I can't
believe it's been anhour like you
chatted, and it'sliterally felt like
it's 15 minutes. Butit's been an
incredible story.You know, thank you
a lot. Thanks a lotfor sharing that
story, especiallythe height that you

(57:13):
did for the Shem.Disease. Oceania,
just can musculardystrophy. Yeah, the
Shen musculardystrophy? And it's,
it's, I think, whenyou say that, when
you tell them how,you know, most
parents are worriedabout the are they
going to be gettinga or are they going

(57:35):
to be good insports? Well, you
know, they all theycare about is how
they can dosomething so that
their son can livejust that little
further, this issuch an a grounding,
worse, you know,that you share that
man, like, we are solucky to be here in

(57:57):
our life, especiallyif you don't have
any disease, you youcan go anywhere in
the world. You know,like, I mean, you
can walk, you don'thave a problem with
that, man, we arelucky. And I think a
lot of people justdon't, like take
that for granted. So
really, truly, Imean, just to be
able to I was likereading a book the

(58:19):
other day, and it'sjust like, just
think about it,like, just think
about it, like, evenanyone, like not,
there's people inthe world right now
who are just focusedon survival. But if
you think back toeven your ancestors,
like it was all justabout survival. So
just being gratefulthat we even have
the ability toponder our, our, our
purpose, you know,or for me, it's like

(58:40):
for our ability tojust go after a
career or just mylove of photography
and cinematography.I'm just able to do
that. So just ashard as it is just
be grateful that I'mallowed to be able
to do that. Because,you know, there's a
lot of people thataren't allowed to do
that. They they'rejust purely focused
on survival. So Itried to tell myself
that every day aswell just be really

(59:02):
grateful for thejust the opportunity
to be able to eventry this for a
career and as alife, you know,
yeah. Wow. That's,that's, that's
really important.And that just gives
me goosebumps therethat you say, you
know, just, it'slike, like you say,
it's an opportunitythat is presented to
us, and it's up tous whether to take
it or not. So,thanks a lot, Pete.

(59:23):
You know, for yourstories, your
wisdom, I reallyenjoy that. Now, one
thing that I alwaysask the guests in
the podcasts is thatif there is one
advice, whether it'sphotography, or live
advice, or whateverother advice that
you have, that youcould give your
younger self or theaudience out there,
what would thatadvice be?

(59:44):
Yeah, it's a greatquestion. I think I
might have like twolittle ones. One of
the ones I thinklike in photography,
I would say that Iwould have told my
younger self, and Ithink it's kind of
boring, but I thinkit's kind of
important to hear islike, we don't
really I was alwaysfocused on the
living in the momentfor today and stuff.

(01:00:05):
And so you don'treally focus a lot
on like saving moneyand all that kind of
stuff. But learningthe business,
learning how to savegetting all that
done earlier, thesooner you do that,
the better to allowyou more freedom
later. And so Ilearned that a
little bit later.And so I would say I
regret because Imean, I've had such
amazing experiences,but just having that
information a littlesooner. So if you're

(01:00:26):
hearing this, andyou're younger than
that means yousomething to look
into, that will helpyou and will
ultimately get youmore freedom in your
career down the lineis, I think, a good
piece of advice thatI learned in my
life. And, you know,there's so much
information outthere that you can
like Google it,there's books to
help you. And so Ithink I think people

(01:00:46):
can figure that aseverything is
figured out a bowl,and they can figure
out that aspectquite easily. And
then one thing thatI read today
somewhere, and Ireally think this is
important, too is ifyou find yourself
like in a reallybusy schedule, and
we kind of touchedon this in the
podcast a little bittoo is like, allow a
little bit of apercentage of time

(01:01:08):
or just a space inyour mind to or in
your schedule. Likegive yourself an
opportunity toexplore something
new, whether it's inyour career, or, or
whatever it iscareer or schedule.
So for instance,like I said, we had
this opportunity tosort of dive more
into wildlife. Andthat turned out to
be an incrediblething. Or even if

(01:01:30):
it's just a schedulething, like if you
have a fully bookedsummer, try to
squeeze in a weekwhere nothing is
scheduled just topotentially allow
something to happen,right? You know what
I mean? Likesomething
spontaneous, becausethat spontaneity
will you don't youdon't know where
that will lead youto. And for
instance, for me,like, what the
impetus for movingout to the Rockies

(01:01:51):
was like, I kind ofhad this drive to
come out here. But Iwas working this
full time job and TVand I just decided
to leave the job.Like I found someone
to replace me tocome out to the
Rockies for thesummer, right and
just allowing myselfto have that
freedom. Basically,I came out here and
that my girlfriendNow Janet, who's

(01:02:11):
also photographer,you know, we went on
all these hikes andit just basically
just allowing thattime and that window
of opportunity toexist basically like
I felt like I openedup the door in my
life was like rightthere, right, I met
Jenna, we're goingout together. And
you know, we'rebuilding our lives
together in thisRockies. So if I
didn't allow forthat window of time
to happen, if I hadchosen to stay

(01:02:34):
comfortable, andearn the money that
summer, I wouldn'tbe where I was
today. And so just Ithink giving
yourself thosewindows of
opportunity toexplore something
can lead you intosomething
incredible.
Ah, that is such agreat advice. Such a
great advice. Imean, if we look at
the amount of peoplewho are successful

(01:02:54):
in this world todayand how they find or
how they discoverthat path of life
through travel, orto try new things or
true, accidental,you know, things
that they neverthought it would
have, lead them towhere they are, I
think this is areally, really
important lesson tolearn. And I love

(01:03:15):
how you mentionedabout setting
yourself up forsuccess as well as
you get older. And,you know, I mean,
for me like it, Ithat's all I care
about in the earlyage, and I thought
you know, in,because that's how I
brought up, right?It's like, Well, you
gotta save, yougotta save and then
you retire, and thenyou can enjoy all

(01:03:36):
this, right? So, Ialways I used to
always think that itwas a waste of time
for me to do that.But you know, now
that I when I leftmy career in
engineering and youknow, starting over,
that really helpedme out when when I
don't have thingscoming through,
right, I could Icould help me to

(01:03:57):
through all the allthe tough time of
not having incomeand all that. So
it's I think it'sreally good advice,
especially if youdon't know what, how
to invest or how tosave, you know, at
the very least startlearning and you
know, start doingthat even just a
little bit. Soamazing advice be
Thank you very much.Now, you know, you

(01:04:18):
have amazing workyou have beautiful
photography, as wellas videography and
you know, how canpeople learn more
about you? And howcan people support
you as well?
Oh, that's a goodquestion. Support
sports hard like um,well, you can go to

(01:04:39):
my website, SilverFern productions.ca.
I put a lot of mywork onto there a
lot of the videowork a lot of the
photography work,and I'm just in the
process of revampingthe whole thing, but
it's still stilllive online there.
You can find me onInstagram Pete
underscore O'Haraand Twitter Pete
O'Hara photo andYouTube, I have a

(01:05:01):
YouTube channel withJenna called
adventures with Peteand Jenna. And the
Everest vlog that wewere talking about
is on there as well.And so I'll
eventually have, Itook my print shop
down for the momentbecause I'm in the
middle of rebuildingit. And so I mean,
you could do me ifyou want to print or
you can wait for theprint shop to be
live should be livein the next couple
of months. If youwant to support me,

(01:05:22):
or you can just goto the YouTube
subscribe, just tagalong on the
adventures. Andhopefully you enjoy
them.
That's fantastic.
I love your ear, youguys go on some of
the most, thecoolest adventures
and, you know, ifyou haven't checked
out Pete's work,please do check them

(01:05:43):
out, because youtake them to a world
where again, like Isaid, felt like it's
not in this worldanymore. You know,
it's felt like it'ssomewhere else. So
going on youradventure itself.
It's just, you know,it really fed my
framing for winter.Because here in
Bali, unfortunately,we don't have unless
it's on thecocktails.

(01:06:07):
Well, I'm happy tohear that if I can
make people fall inlove with winter,
then that makes mehappy, man.
That's awesome. Allright. Well,
thanks a lot for youknow, for your time
and for being hereand sharing your
story as well asyour journey. And we
can't this hopefullyyou get a lot of
that. And it's beenan incredible

(01:06:28):
storytelling. Youknow, from P Gocek.
His profile out,look at his YouTube
channel, and thebeautiful
videography that hedoes. It's just
absolutelybeautiful. But with
that being said, ifyou haven't
subscribed yet, dosubscribe on the

(01:06:48):
podcasts if you wantto hear more story
like this. And ifyou have other
artists that you'dlove to hear in this
podcast, please dolet me know. So that
I could reach out tothem. But without
being said, b Thankyou very much for
your time here. Andit's been a great
conversation. Andhopefully we have
you back here oneday and chat on a

(01:07:09):
different things.
Yeah, might havesome new failures to
talk about and whatI learned from them.
Thanks again forhaving me, Stan,
this was so muchfun. And I really
appreciate you doingthis podcast for
photographers. And Iwant to say too,
that I really loveyour work. And it
really both Jen andI it transports us
as well. I mean,your work is
incredible. YourAstro photography is
phenomenal. And Ijust I always love

(01:07:31):
looking at yourwork. It's just it's
so beautiful. Andthank you for having
me and thanks forsharing this time.
Thanks.
And I appreciatethat very much.
Thank you. Alright,well we can do is,
you know, with thatbeing said, I'll see
you guys next weekand we have someone
exciting next week,which I don't know
who's gonna be inthere yet, but it's

(01:07:51):
gonna be excitingnonetheless.
I'll see you guyslater. Bye.

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Ep 56 - How Pete O’Hara channels his rejection from Hollywood to do what he is passionate about the most - adventure photography & videography

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep 56 - How Pete O’Hara channels his rejection from Hollywood to do what he is passionate about the most - adventure photography & videography