All language subtitles for B&H OPTIC West Day 02 - Main Stage

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hi everyone

good morning Cody that was fun doing a

little whale watching the the weather

was perfect who was on the whale

watching trip

did you get any good shots

okay make sure you go get those shots

printed and entered into the challenge

it's a 500 gift card pretty serious

stuff you know that that's that's

totally no joke and uh also want to

check if uh

if in the house

is hold on

we have

this was a person who won the the uh

won yesterday's

you think I know how to operate this

um

hold on

okay the name was

Susie tarlington is Susie tarlington

here hey how you doing Susie

you know what you are

you're a winner

all right and check this out you know

what when is get

Winner's got b h gift cards

so

let's get your get you hooked up here

here's a here's a 250 dollar b h gift

card congratulations right

foreign

now the good news is is that you can win

again so if you want to enter again so

everyone please enter

um you know Susie great shot

congratulations uh you know it was a

pretty easy win for you because there

was only like seven entries yesterday so

pretty pretty good there

um so we've got uh three categories

we've got uh what's called nailed it

nailed it is uh any picture taken on the

macro tables or actually uh physically

in the trade show area so you got those

all the experiences that you could shoot

at uh that's one way you can win then

there's a runners-up to nailed it and

then there's uh the whale watching best

whale watching and best Sunrise photo

walk so who was on the sunrise photo

walk

okay get it make it because you get get

a good shot get it printed out edit it I

go to the workflow area and uh that's

really a fun thing that we do at optic

we do a thing where you make a

photograph here with all the great stuff

that we have uh to provide you guys to

subjects to make the shot then you go to

the workflow room and there you tweak

the image then you get it printed and

then you put it up into the optic

challenge pretty cool it's a whole

circle all right so

um yesterday I gave that that opening

remark so if you're just tuning in on

the live stream and you weren't here

yesterday absolutely go back and click

on day one live stream and re-watch

yesterday yesterday was pretty amazing

we have a really good show for you today

we're going to start off with Annie

Griffiths who is super important she's

one of the first women National

Geographic photographers so she's very

inspirational and a very important

photographer she has some great

messaging and then we're going to go

into our keynote speaker for today we've

got the legendary Scott Kelby and I

talked with Scott he's like what do you

want me to talk about because Scott can

talk about anything and uh have him talk

about the iPhone uh and how the iPhone

is really it's become an important tool

even if you have a a serious camera it's

good to have the iPhone he'll talk more

about that and uh I got some I got some

theories on that I the iPhone is not

replacing a traditional camera or would

like to call a tradcam and primarily

that is because if you want a really

long lens to do whale watching your

iPhone is not going to do it this is a

wildlife belongs to traditional cameras

iPhone is fun for everything else

personally I'm trying to really

understand how great the iPhone is and

how great my film cameras are and I find

myself taking pictures with the film

cameras and taking almost the same shot

with the iPhone and then being able to

share that shot immediately on social

media and get the likes and get all the

fun that is social media and then a

couple of weeks later I got that film

developed get it scanned and then that

has just a few in a style that I really

like and that's more my serious camera

so Scott's going to talk a lot about

that then we're doing a uh something

really interesting we're doing a panel

Franz is going to lead a panel and that

panel is going to be the importance of

Photography and responsibility so

looking forward to that then we got

Christy Odom uh and Christy's gonna you

may have seen the video before

Christiana was an amazing wildlife

photographer she's going to show you

some just some incredible work that

she's been doing especially with the

Nikon z9 high-speed photography that's

going to actually blow you away it's

amazing and then she's got a lot of

video in that too because these cameras

do such good video and I think it's

important for us as photographers to

acknowledge video and I know it's been a

kind of a slow burn but our these good

quality cameras that we've got they

really shoot amazing video I think it'll

be blown away by what she shows and then

we've got doc ready software ready

coming back we had her in June at optic

in New York City and she's an amazing

speaker but she's going to speak on a

great topic and it's I'm actually how to

monetize your Wildlife photography right

sounds pretty good let's let's just add

a further complication of what we do and

try to make money while we do it but uh

it is a it's a cool topic and I think

it's going to resonate really well

um so that's uh that's going to be

today's program uh we're gonna have a

short lunch only a half hour lunch and

that might get uh that might get blocked

up with some over going on the speakers

but uh enter the challenge I know that

there's a big line outside for the Canon

camera checkup cleaning so um you know

the trade show is still going on we'll

be closing up at 4 P.M today and that's

going to wrap up optic West our first

one let everyone know thank you so much

for coming out yesterday was just an

amazing Sunday we had a ton of people

here and it means a lot to us and it

means a lot to the manufacturers because

it was a it was a long time that we were

shut down and couldn't come out and see

everybody and just to see everyone's

faces and meet our customers from across

the country that's really why we're why

we chose to not do it in our backyard we

wanted to go out and see our our great

customers from across the country so

that's awesome and we got Franz in the

audience here hi Franz how you doing and

Chris Chris nice so we'll be starting in

about two three minutes so that a few

more people come in here

um you know here there's a lot of things

going on we've got Vincent Versace

outside in the trade show floor uh he's

getting a really good presentation on

Printing and uh I'm just gonna you'll be

able to watch that anyone who's in this

room and doesn't see what's going on

outside you can always go to the website

and scrub backwards on the stream and

watch any of the program we had and I

just want to talk for a second about

printing and how important printing is

we were talking about archiving and now

that we've been in digital photography

for the better part of 15 years we've

been practicing it we've got hard drives

filled with images and I'm really

worried about what's going to happen to

those images in 20 30 years and I hope

that any of you have been at this for a

while and you had images on your scuzzy

hard drives you remember scuzzy hard

drives are you okay gotta you know if

you got images on those old dry lives

that's it and up fronts I've still got

my I Omega Zip drive I got to get images

off of I don't even know if I can plug

that in anymore but uh the a Surefire

way to be archival is the print and I go

to a lot of galleries I go to a lot of

uh art fairs and art festivals and I

noticed an amazing Trend especially at

uh

at the Armory show which took place at

the job that's in September and almost

all the photography now are either glacy

Prince or pigment prints do you guys

know what a Class C or a pigment print

is

it's an inkjet print it's as simple as

that so what they're doing is these uh

these super fine art photographers are

now really adopted large format printing

it's inkjet and it's archival so the

thing about an archival print is that in

a hundred years it doesn't matter what

connection the hard drive view of your

images is on doesn't matter what

computer you're looking at open up an

archival box and look at your prints and

I'm really going to say this go through

your archive pick out your best work

build photo books make prints put them

in a box and they will live on if you

keep your images on the cloud onto

drives what really where are they it's

so kind of take that to heart if you

want your your images to survive on the

other cool thing is that if you make

really great photographs and you don't

become a famous photographer somebody

will eventually in a couple of hundred

years go to a flea market and find your

box of prints so make sure they're

labeled make sure that you tell them

what they're looking at and who you are

so you can be remembered a personal goal

is always you know they should they

should sing your name in the sagas and

you know you've done you've done

something meaningful uh the other thing

I just want to reiterate uh uh our paybu

is our b h credit card and pay boo Works

two ways you could do a deferred payment

well and a deferred payment lets you uh

pay over time or better yet you can use

the function where paybu pays the tax so

this is a big deal because if you spend

let's just say you spend five thousand

dollars on a on a camera that's going to

be 400 in tax 400 in tax would you

rather pay this well would you rather

pay your local state government your tax

or would you like rather get three or

four filters or maybe a new hard drive

or maybe a smaller lens

I think I'm going to pay the government

the tax I think I know no one wants to

do that so hook yourself up with a pay

boo card if you haven't already if you

sign up you get a 50 B H gift card so

you're ahead of the game just even

before you even you don't have to use it

you still get the b h gift card why not

and uh it's always fun to have a have a

cool

b h card that has your name on it you

know the other way to get a b h card

with their name on it is uh we hire you

and we're hiring so that's you gotta

even take your picture for ID okay so uh

we're having fun we were on the whale

watching this morning um did did any of

you did anyone get sick on the whale

watching trip no good

there were yeah was if you we handed out

something really neat we handed out uh

these uh these barf bags just in case

anyone got sick but uh the cool part is

is that if you didn't get sick this is a

great rain cover for a 100 to 400

millimeter lens so so that's b h we take

care of you we got you we got you coming

and going

all right I've been waiting to use that

joke all night long

ladies and gentlemen I'm here every

Monday okay so I think we're we're ready

for Andy Griffiths uh she's got a really

cool program for you Annie is a veteran

of B H Photo and she is sponsored by

Panasonic she's a Lumix Ambassador and I

I know that Panasonic it kind of you

know generally think Panasonic you think

of video cameras and whatnot but uh

they've got some amazing cameras that do

really good jobs super high quality uh

they've got excellent video capabilities

because of Panasonic's genealogy in

video and on top of it all though the

lenses from Panasonic they utilize uh

some company called Leica they use a

Leica lenses which are pretty amazing

and we actually have Leica here as well

in the trade show go check out some hem

cameras uh but uh so Panasonic is is a

very high-end capable camera and video

camera but the cool part about them the

best part about the Panasonic cameras

they're really lightweight and small so

for those of you like myself that have a

a bad back you appreciate lightweight

cameras so that's it you want to

definitely check out go see Brad at the

Panasonic booth and he'll tell you all

about those those cameras we've got

specials on them and then lastly after

Eddie speaks we're going to do it her q

a we'll be at the speaker meet and greet

table where she'll be doing a book

signing and she's got her books for sale

and you can actually get the book get it

signed and and walk right out with it I

don't remember what the exact price is I

think she'll tell you I think it was 20

or 25 and we've got uh Catherine from b

h will be taking care of the the book

sales and having her sign it uh so

definitely it's a it's a really a treat

to meet and talk to Annie we had dinner

last night and she was telling me about

her or telling us about her new book

that she's got she's working on she's

always up to something and Annie is the

original really glass ceiling breaker

she's uh just done things for women in

photography when it was really basically

a pretty much a really a male game game

aside from some of the classic

photographers out there so it's an honor

and a privilege to have Andy Griffiths

come here and speak at at optic West so

let's give her a great warm welcome hi

Annie

so how many of you saw whales show of

hands

how cool is that that you can just go

out one morning and see whales I grew up

in Minnesota not a lot of whales there

but yeah but a great state I know

I thought I would start today I have to

make sure I make friends with this

Clicker

talking about

um

how I've been set free and so many

photographers have been set free

by technology and it was technology that

I was terrified of when it first came

out and I remember being in a meeting at

National Geographic France was probably

there too when Joe McNally came in and

told us all that we should really look

into digital photography and every

photographer in the room was like this

yeah right

because you know we'd spent our career

shooting film and

but I have to tell you that

there isn't a day that goes by that I'm

not grateful for the technology and the

freedom it's given us so I'm going to

start

with the very first time I left the

country

I grew up in Minnesota my folks didn't

have means to travel and so the very

first place I went it was the country of

Namibia

and we were looking this was a long time

ago we were looking for a remote tribe

that lived up the skeleton coast and

Inland and the thing that was uh most

important

hello is that better

okay so uh anyway uh these people had

lived through seven years of drought and

um I can't quite imagine that you mean

this is the desert they lived in but can

you imagine finding lunch

but they did and the first people we saw

were three women and some kids down in a

little dry River bed and I went walking

toward them and they really looked at me

as though I had arrived by spaceship or

something they they just didn't get me

at all and um back then the only instant

pictures you could show people were

Polaroids so I came up and I took a

Polaroid picture of them they had no

idea what I was doing and then I handed

them the little Polaroid they didn't

know what it was but as their image came

up on the Polaroid these women fell on

the ground and started laughing and

pointing at each other and without a

single shared syllable of language I

knew they were going oh that's you no

yeah that's me yeah that's you and it's

because none of them had ever seen her

own face before

now here I am I'm a 25 year old kid

never been out of the country and I land

in this place where

where truly amazing things were

happening to me and I didn't know it at

the time but it would lead me on the

most important Paths of my life

so here I am

and you can imagine that they weren't

intimidated by me I look like a bug you

know with these glasses this hat and my

Minnesota Zoo t-shirt but what I love

about this picture is it looks like

we're chatting

and it felt that way

and I learned from that encounter that

if you are willing to make an idiot out

of yourself by pantomiming and engaging

and looking people in the eyes that will

free them up to do the same so without

any language

you know they were living in this

stunning stunning area but they had to

feed their babies and they'd been

through seven years of drought

and so one of the first things they did

is they'd hold up a breast and point to

their mouths and I knew they were asking

if you know they thought I was some kind

of a witch and maybe I was a good witch

and they were asking if I had anything

they could take to help their milk come

in

the thing I learned that was most

important is that these women were not

to be pitied

they were the opposite of helpless they

were survivors they were smart they were

funny they were

elegant

and proud and they were keeping their

kids alive Against All Odds

they lived with Wildlife you know they

all lived together and you saw this

incredible respect

between the human animal and the and the

other animals and the understanding that

they you know could be each other's food

and so I I just I learned so much on

this trip and the two things that came

together for me here and that would

follow me throughout my whole career is

my love of the environment

and my love of women in the developing

world

well I was in Africa two weeks ago so I

thought I better

bring some new pictures

um

and if you don't have enough fear in

your life show your Wildlife pictures in

front of Franz Landing

uh but but anyway I always like to have

some new work to show and you know I

every time I go to Africa something that

first trip comes back to me and I'm I'm

in the presence of such extraordinary

life

and

you know to to know that some of my

colleagues are giving everything to

protect these glorious animals I'm just

so proud to be among them

and you know they're getting some really

important work done to save endangered

species and to and to save environments

and areas that the animals need to

survive

so the other thing that you may notice

in these pictures is the extraordinary

sharpness

these

the lenses we have now and you know I

I'm lucky enough to be a Lumix Global

Ambassador and the Leica lenses that are

part of that camera system

are unbelievably Sharp and that just

Thrills me

and it's it's so easy too I mean

one of the things that I always

talked with my kids about was special

powers oh I should introduce you to my

kids so there's my daughter Lily

and she was the first one to arrive

and then her brother Charlie

they're big now but when they were

little they used to talk about

superpowers what superpower would I you

know would we like and they'd talked

about flying and and I just always said

I want the invisibility cloak

I I wish I could just go about and be in

these communities and be in these places

and and have no one see me and I you

know I I just wanted to look like

somebody's mom not like a photographer

and so this is the closest I ever got to

an invisibility cloak

and it's it's this wonderful gear that

has allowed me to travel all over the

world and rarely check a bag now when I

was traveling with my kids flight

attendants would see me coming and like

run because as a photographer and a mom

with a baby you know with baby I had

usually had about nine cases of

equipment I did in fact pack my lenses

in Pampers and you know it was just a

different time so to be free from that

and to be able to to travel I can go for

two weeks easy with just carry-on

and again you know what you get to do

when you get there

is mind-blowing if if any of you have

not been to Antarctica and you're

thinking about it

do it

and go to South Georgia

these are whales

the other thing about and I'll talk

about this throughout here is is that

you know technology has freed us up to

be playful

I was one of those people who got

opportunity very very young

so I never played all of a sudden it was

really serious

and

I've never played more than since I you

know since digital came and I

recognized that creativity needs a chunk

of play in it

so these are penguins on South Georgia

and they're just so graphic and fun you

know

um

and you see things you really can't

believe

but when you become a more creative

photographer you'll take you know these

different kinds of pictures

to tell the full story

and I've always been fascinated by

feathers it's that you know it's just

unbelievable the detail and to be able

to capture that and bring it back is so

rewarding

we saw this leopard seal and she was

really showing off she was on a an ice

flow and she was you know kind of kind

of enticing us she was really a flirt

um and so we got closer and closer and

then she slipped off the ice and

proceeded to buy it holes in five of the

rafts that were out there

and she you know

it's humbling

but I also love to show pieces of an

animal in a way that it hasn't been seen

and and you know to me like this is an

elephant seal

which they're just the goofiest looking

things on earth

and yet if you can just take a look at

part of them

you see this

like you see why they can swim so deep

you see you know you see that

aerodynamics you see the beauty of their

skin

so early on I started doing work

um you know conservation work uh and I I

just loved it I I really like landscape

photography but also there had to be a

way to tell stories by having someone

look at a picture and go what the heck

is that and then you trick them into

reading and they find out so this is

salt piles that are left behind in the

Dead Sea because it's shrinking so

rapidly due to time climate change

and this is all that's left of the

mighty Colorado River by the time it

reaches the Sea of Cortez because we've

siphoned off every drop

imagine what that impact is on the sea

of Cortez and all of the life that

depends upon it

these are pelicans in a in the Gulf of

Mexico and you can tell that this is a

an unnatural

cut in the water and it's be it's there

because it's the oil industry

and they have just destroyed the salt

marshes and the salt marshes in addition

to being full of life

are also the Protectors of the shore

and if you chop them up or if you chop

up Dunes then this extraordinary weather

that we're experiencing comes roaring on

Shore and does a tremendous amount of

additional damage inland

my girlfriend Barbara King solver and I

decided we wanted to do

a project that would remind people of

how how little pristine Wilderness is

left in our country

so uh Barbara wrote These incredible

essays and I decided to to go back to an

old technique

um that you guys may have seen with your

parents pictures and stuff where you

hand color a black and white picture so

I shot it in black and white infrared

and then I hand colored the images

and it was just such a joyful

endeavor

but more importantly

this project

raised about a quarter of a million

dollars for Grassroots land conservation

in our country

and boy I got bit

it was like

so I can have my pictures be useful

as well as beautiful

like just bring it on that's what I want

to be doing

and I did work for Habitat for Humanity

um kind of on the the topic of the

Dignity of helping to build your own

home

and

I'd go for a week every year

and I had to do get 14 calendar pictures

in a week all over the country and

sometimes the world this is in Brazil

and it became like my favorite week of

the year because once again I'm with

these wonderful people who are so

underrepresented in our

are seeing their future for the first

time for many of them

this guy was great he was a habitat

worker and uh somebody had stolen the

family car it was a single mom with

these darling kids and he he just got

mad and he went out and he found that

car and he brought it back and this is

he pulled into the driveway and all the

kids climbed into the car with him

but where my heart really was

was with women

and I have been privileged to work in

almost 150 countries

and you cannot believe how many women

have taken me in

and they've never heard of National

Geographic

I'm this strange creature who arrives in

their world usually working with Aid

organizations

and they welcome me

I know a lot of us are afraid to

photograph people right show of hints

how many of you are afraid to photograph

people oh come on

foreign

well let me ask you something

how many people in this room have ever

been on TV or in a newspaper or in a

magazine of some kind show of hands how

many

did you hate it or did you get five

copies for your mom

you know and that's what we have to

understand when we are going to

photograph people

a lot of times we put it on them right

we go oh I don't want to intrude oh I

don't want in fear what if they get mad

you know and we make excuses putting the

blame on them when really what's going

on is we're feeling shy

we're feeling fear and if you can get

past that fear and understand that if

they don't want their picture taken

they'll go like this they'll go like

this they'll go like this they'll go you

know though there's always very clear

ways they can tell you and that's fine

then you don't take their picture but if

you jump in

it's you will not only travel you will

make friends and you will learn

so I started working for eight

organizations the last picture was India

this is in Rwanda

and I I recognized that

Western media really misrepresents these

these people you know there's a

kind of a pitiful

kind of a pitiful picture of these women

as being pathetic

to you know

uh downtrodden

uneducated

and the truth is

these women are survivors and they're

Heroes and they are the engine of every

community

I've worked in a lot of

refugee camps this is this is one in um

Thailand and it's uh refugees for

Myanmar

and I've worked in super remote parts of

the world

to get to this village where they were

solving a water problem I had to

um

drive for four hours in a pickup truck

after we left the last road to get here

and then

these families welcomed me

as though I were family

and some of the refugee camps are

fantastic really not very many but some

of them are if they give the people

control over their lives and if they

don't fence it and you know just give

them some food help or some shelter help

but one day I was in this refugee camp

and it was the worst one I'd ever been

to and I just loved this young Somali

woman and her baby was sick and her

family had been in this refugee camp for

10 years and I just had this crisis that

I think we all have which is this is too

big this is this is too much what am I

doing I can't make a dent in this

but I took the picture and it was used

and two years later I was in a refugee

coordinator's office in Richmond

Virginia

and this picture had been torn out of

the magazine and and put on the wall

and I you know I I just went I was

startled and I said oh my gosh

uh and the refugee coroner looked at the

picture and said

oh yeah well she's one of our refugees

her family her family's fine she's

working at Kentucky Fried Chicken her

husband's working at Walmart if the

baby's fine and you know

and I just looked at him and said you

know her

and he said yeah oh yeah

yeah and I thought geez Annie you don't

get to give up I mean I didn't get her

out of the refugee camp this Aid

organization did and if I can help those

eight organizations continue to to lift

people out of their circumstances that's

what I want to do for the rest of my

life so I called my girlfriends for some

of the best photographers in the world

and they had all all experienced the

same thing an understanding that women

these women were fabulous and were

misrepresented and I asked them okay

we've learned from these girls that when

they work together they can get anything

done so how about we work together and

they all said yes and we started ripple

effect images

and what we do is we cover success

in programs that help women become

empowered

and then we create

fundraising materials for them we make

films and we do fantastic pictures so

that they have a better way of telling

their own story of success

and it's just been

the most important thing in my career to

do this and a lot of it is a combination

of women and environment and women and

climate change these are kids seeing

water come out of the ground for the

very first time

and

it works you know we've we've uh

done over 50 films and we have a photo

Archive of over 50 000 images and our

photographers

are the best

you know Carol Goosey I think she's won

more pulitzers than anyone in the

history of photography Amy Vitale who's

doing heavy lifting in Africa to to

promote things Lynn Johnson

Daniel berhulik John stanbeyer these are

such great people and they are telling

these stories in a way that makes a huge

difference

so our Aid beneficiaries have been able

to raise well over 10 million dollars

using these assets that we've given to

them

and that what's better than that you

know you're telling stories you're

you're telling truths that don't get

covered very often because it's actually

easier to tell stories of disaster than

of success

and so that's a lot of what gets covered

education is one of our pillars I mean

when you educate a girl she is going to

have a different life

and you know the good news is and you

never hear it

right now apart from the pandemic

there's less extreme poverty there's

less disease there's more kids in school

the world is getting better but we don't

get to hear that and it's getting better

because girls and women are being

empowered

and that will affect their entire

communities

and even women who've never had the

luxury of an education can be taught

skills you know economic independence is

so important so you know like this woman

went to this place and she built 50

solar lanterns

and when she was this is her taking her

final exam

they give her a broken one and see if

she can fix it

and of course she could fix it so then

she gets to take the 50 lanterns back to

her home Village and just look at her

body language when she arrives and gives

all her girlfriends who've never had

electricity

the gift of light a bottle of light that

will help them in so many ways just you

know

thank you these women are extraordinary

this woman

not a day of education but she was

taught to run a a desalinator a solar

desalinator in one of the driest parts

of India so she's like more important

than the mayor in her Village

I went to cover I went with a health

group because we cut health is another

one of our pillars and you know we were

going to visit salt workers and a lot of

it's done by girls and women it's a

tough job and the salt goes everywhere

you can see

um so they were trying to help these

women with the health issues and you can

here's a couple of the girls and women

working in assault mine

but at the end of the day

this little girl went over and she had a

solar Lantern which I hadn't seen so I'm

like cool what you know what what do you

do with your solar Lantern

and she told me that because she has to

work during the day the solar Lantern

lets her go to school at night

and I've I did some research and found

out that seventy thousand kids in her

region were now going to night school

because of solar lanterns

that's how they get out of the salt mine

that's how they get out

and I was in Tanzania and I I met this

group of women Maasai women and the

Maasai tribes you know they're pastoral

so they have cattle and animals but they

live in these little Villages as you can

see behind these women that are called

bombas and at night they are trapped

inside their houses because

they can put the cattle in pens but the

but the Lions and the leopards and all

those animals are going to come in

and so this group of women said well

enough of that

and so the first thing they did is and I

walked with them for about two hours to

a stranger's house and they punched a

hole in the roof and they built a

chimney to to ventilate her her house

because most people don't realize the

number one killer of women

and of children under five

is indoor pollution

from heat and cooking fires it's number

one we should know that so anyway they

started venting the homes and what I

loved is here's this little girl she's

carrying her baby sister and she is

witnessing the women

solve the problem in their community

how cool is that

you know we all want to see success in

someone who who looks like us

they they came back with a solar panel

I'm not kidding and these gals

sat down and did the entire wiring for

the solar panel and put it on top of the

house because the the you know the

Predators will not come in

if there's light

they won't come into that Village if

there's light there and so this solar

panel will protect the entire community

and it's being done by women and this is

the woman who for the first time in her

life could cook without breathing in

toxic smoke

what I think we all want in our

photographs is intimacy

I think the goal no matter what kind of

Photography you love you want some kind

of intimacy in your images

and with intimacy comes empathy

and education and learning so

I think as we come to understand light

as we come to understand composition

we then move on to a deeper form of

earning moments and I say earning very

sincerely because

these kinds of images

are it's not a drive-by shooting it

means you you

sincerely give some of your time

and your energy

and your compassion

to people or to wildlife in a way that

is non-threatening so when I was lucky

enough to learn a little bit about

Wildlife photography

it also informed my ability to work with

people

because you just have to accept you're

in their world

you have to abide by their way of doing

things

or they will flee

and if we can just put that in our

hearts and put the same kind of time

into photographing the human animal

the results are are moving and and

important and we can tell a deeper story

foreign

and that's what that's what makes me get

up every day

privilege of telling people's stories so

that we all understand a little better

and it doesn't matter where we are

the stories are there there you guys

have stories in your backyard

in your community

and

you know I hope I can encourage you

to wake up in the morning and say I am

going to find a story

about something I care about

and within that story I'm going to grow

and because of that story I might be

able to have some impact

I might be able to open people's eyes to

something that they just didn't realize

and what's better than that

you know

to wake people up to bring people

together to take fear out of our Lives

because we feel compassion and empathy

and joy

the joy of life

so

you know I this is what

I've been privileged to learn

starting with National Geographic and

then through the wonderful Aid

organizations I've been lucky enough to

work with

um

I've seen the world even though I grew

up in a family where we never left the

state

and I've also worked in every single

state in our country which I never

thought would happen

but in all of it what I want is for my

pictures to make a difference

to um somehow sometimes raise money

which I love

um but also to have people stop and and

pause in their lives and say oh my gosh

what is that that's

extraordinary

and then they can be led into how they

can participate to save this creature or

to to help these women or to just

send pictures to your kids going look

what happened on my little Lake today

the other thing that I really hope you

guys will do is have fun I just you know

I was so lucky early in my career but I

just wasn't having a whole lot of fun

because I was too scared that they'd

figure out they hired the wrong person

and so go out there get in the water get

lay on your back you know go to the

market just be ready for whatever is

coming and you just don't know when it

might happen I was with this woman in

Ecuador oh sudden this mime comes out of

nowhere you know

and the baby's like what you doing you

know

get on the ride

get in the water

I'm going to finish with a little day in

my life

that where I learned so much about the

basic Joy of photography I was invited

out into the middle of nowhere

and there was a family that was having a

real cattle branding and I don't know

how many of you guys have been lucky

enough to attend one but

for the family it's bigger than

Christmas I mean everybody shows up

Grandma's making pies and the guy you

know everybody's working everybody's

eating everybody's laughing

so it was such a remote Ranch that they

invited me to stay in the you know in

their ranch house so I'm grateful and

the next morning I wake up because

there's this soft light coming through

the window and I look out and I see this

Sky which I call a mackerel sky and you

hardly ever get them I'm like oh

and the sun wasn't up yet but the horses

were in the pasture so I grabbed my

camera and I ran down to the fence and

this horse came right to me and I'm like

oh

shooting and um and then you know it all

fell apart and I remember vividly going

whoa

and I turned around and that's when I

saw like four or five cowboys leaning up

against a fence looking at the crazy

lady from National Geographic

and that's when I realized I was in a

t-shirt and underwear

because I was so excited about the light

and the clouds and the horses and they

you know that I forgot to put my pants

on

and I wish for each and every one of you

that you have days like that as

photographers where you're just having

the so much fun you forget to put your

pants on so these are just pictures from

the rest of that day

and I try to tell a story every day

but places like this are just

alive

this was the cook

the uncle got arrested several times

that day

and this little guy came to me at the

end of the day and he was seven years

old I remember and he went you won't see

me wrestle a steer

and I'm like yes I do okay let's go so

he goes over to this little calf and he

wrestles and wrestles calf did not move

an inch

it's looking at me like okay here we go

again

so I said well does your little calf

have a name yup

his name is Michelangelo

I thought great parenting out here in

the middle of the United States he knows

who one of the most important artists

that ever lived was

and then he said

I got some other ones back at the barn

name for the other Ninja Turtles

thank you

we are funny and we are alive and thank

you so much for coming to hear my talk

[Applause]

introducing the new paybu credit card

you can save the tax or choose special

financing for your purchases made on

your payboo credit card so you want to

save the tax on a camera laptop and

drone no problem no need to wait for

credits or cash back like other credit

cards the b h payboo card pays you back

instantly or save over time and choose

special financing and pay it off over 6

or 12 months it's easy use your new

payboo card as payment at checkout then

choose your available options either

paybu savings or special financing see

your savings or promotional plan right

on your receipt in-store or online

applying is easy your approved paybook

card will be in available for a first

purchase at checkout the new payboo card

same funny name your choice of exclusive

benefits apply today

this is a brief history of b h

everyone's favorite photo and video

store

the year was 1973. the Mets went to the

World Series the first cell phone call

was made

and blamey and Hermann opened a

specialty photography shop at 17 Warren

Street New York City

they had a simple philosophy be honest

treat people right and they will come

back thanks Irving also free candy and

it worked over the next 20 years we

expanded a move to West 17th Street and

34th Street and 9th Avenue and added

more products lighting binoculars

telescopes audio video tripods computers

printers mobile televisions projectors

drones and even more free candy now it's

three stories on over 400 000 products

over a thousand employees

we take millions of orders online and

ship to 179 countries and Counting

you can talk to us in person on the

phone DNA chocolate or online

check out our checkout baskets also

check out our checkout numbers also

check out the Flair on Murray's vest and

everyone's favorite part are conveyor

belt the benefit of the conveyor belt is

you don't have to worry about the

product or schlep it around anymore

until checkup nice the owners they still

come to work

to work anyway this is Jeanette oh sorry

she's busy this is our warehouse this is

yaakov and Lady fighting over lighting

kits

b h is not a chain b h is open every day

except Saturdays of course

now you know almost the whole story

we are b h

thank you

[Music]

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

what here we go

foreign

introducing the new paybu credit card

you can save the tax or choose special

financing for your purchases made on

your paybu credit card so you want to

save the tax on a camera laptop and

drone no problem no need to wait for

credits or cash back like other credit

cards the b h payboo card pays you back

instantly or save over time and choose

special financing and pay it off over 6

or 12 months it's easy use your new

payboo card as payment at checkout then

choose your available options either

paybu savings or special financing see

your savings or promotional plan right

on your receipt in-store or online

applying is easy your approved paybook

card will be instantly available for a

first purchase at checkout the new

payboo card same funny name your choice

of exclusive benefits apply today

foreign

[Music]

it's extreme environment over time has

shaped the landscape itself it's shaped

the animals that live here and it is

very much shaped its human history you

really do feel when you're here like

you're living on the edge of the world

we're in some of the most beautiful

fjords that exist on the planet we're

always looking to find polar bears and

already as we have dropped our anchor we

have seen several it's Barren and Rich

at the same time and that's what I find

amazing

monstrous amounts of seabirds here

nesting in the Millions

Iceland really is the land of Fire and

Ice

it's the land it's the sea it's the

atmosphere it's really what the Arctic

is all about

our Voyage together explores where the

desert meets the sea

this whole set of mangroves right here

is a roosting area and a nesting area

for magnificent frigates wow how cool to

be back here today we traveled North

through whole Canal which is an

incredibly narrow channel

here's a place we have the opportunity

to see moms and calves some of them just

a few weeks old

it's a fantastically warm and wonderful

day here in Baja and we're seeing

incredible behavior from these gray

whales

no that was incredible

these large Keyhole sand dollars two to

three inches across

I had no idea how beautiful this place

was going to be

it's really quite unimaginable until

you've been here

we are in the ismos of Central America

it's one of the most diverse places on

our planet

we're very lucky to get to walk the best

kept tropical rainforest in mesoamerica

[Music]

cause which was absolutely awesome the

fish were outrageously beautiful schools

of fish little tiny things yellow

striped

it's great I love it running into Panama

Canal is one of the more exciting parts

of my job I just see uh mechanics behind

it I mean the technology just keeps

improving definitely the high point

everything is so special in this part of

the world welcome to the journey that

will change your life

this is a strange beautiful remarkable

place the word unique absolutely applies

here there are so many creatures that

exist nowhere else on Earth

[Music]

in the middle of equator isolated from

the rest of the world here animals don't

show concern to The Observers it's

something that you will never forget

we're with the giant tortoises and we're

walking through their natural home my

inner child is just like yes

Galapagos you never know what to expect

and I've often said that every single

week something new happens

look at this 91. don't move everybody

don't move it's going to pass by next to

us

never leave you if you go to the

Galapagos Islands you will have stories

for the rest of your life I promise you

as a photographer who works with

National Geographic it's such a

privilege and an honor to be able to

bring the National Geographic audience

[Music]

to visit some of the most remote spots

on the planet

investigating the native plants looking

for endemic Birds

Amanda right coming straight at us

straight ahead of us now you can see

them

it was amazing it was beautiful sharp

Ridge lines and Peaks that are so

defining for these islands people are

going back to their history and finding

ways to renew that so those layers of

history in the present day you know are

visible in everyday lives of the people

that we're meeting I've never seen

anything like it it's most pure in a way

because nobody's here this is the

postcard that we all buy or dream of

going to see

this is a brief history of b h

everyone's favorite photo and video

store

it was 1973. the Mets went to the World

Series the first cell phone call was

made

and blamey and Hermann opened a

specialty photography shop at 17 Warren

Street New York City

they had a simple philosophy

be honest treat people right and they

will come back thanks Irving also free

candy and it worked over the next 20

years we expanded a move to West 17th

Street and 34th Street and 9th Avenue

and added more products lighting

binoculars telescopes audio video

tripods computers printers mobile

televisions projectors drones and even

more free candy now it's three stories

and over 400 000 products

over a thousand employees

we take millions of orders online and

ship to 179 countries and Counting

you can talk to us in person on the

phone

check out our checkout baskets also

check out our checkout numbers also

check out the flare on Murray's vest and

everyone's favorite part are conveyor

belt the benefit of the conveyor belt is

you don't have to worry about the

product or schlep it around anymore

until checkout nice these these owners

they still look

s Jeanette oh sorry she's busy this is

our warehouse this is yaakov and Lady

fighting over lighting kits

b h is not a chain b h is open every day

except Saturdays of course

now you know almost the whole story

we are b h

introducing the new payboo credit card

you can save the tax or choose special

financing for your purchases made on

your payboo credit card so you want to

save the tax on a camera laptop and

drone no problem no need to wait for

credits or cash back like other credit

cards the b h payboo card pays you back

instantly or save over time and choose

special financing and pay it off over 6

or 12 months it's easy use your new

payboo card as payment at checkout then

choose your available options either

payboo savings or special financing see

your savings or promotional plan right

on your receipt in-store or online

applying is easy your approved payboo

card will be instantly available for a

first purchase at checkout the new

payboo card same funny name your choice

of exclusive benefits apply today

this is a real b h customer story

okay sorry about that Irving to cut him

off there he actually he hired me a b h

25 years ago nice guy all right so

moving right along we've got our keynote

speaker for day two optic West and uh

this is a guy that that has been a

partner at b h for many many years and

uh when the guys were hooking up the

computer from the tech company I was

like he invented Photoshop and they kind

of looked at me and I was like okay he

didn't invent Photoshop but he did

basically Teach the World how to use

Photoshop so I'm sure we've all learned

something from Scott Kelby over the

years he is a incredible speaker and a

great contributor to digital photography

we had a conversation talking about what

he was going to do for optic West and uh

I'm sort of started talking about the

the iPhone and how good a quality it is

and so you know there is a way to use

your iPhone and what I like to call the

tradcam the traditional camera and Scott

was like yeah and really I've been

working on that and and using the phone

and he uses Canon cameras and said well

maybe you can do a program on really how

to maximize your iPhone but also where

the iPhone fits in your whole program so

he's going to teach you all about that

and you know the guy never stops

teaching we went out to uh McKay's falls

on Saturday before before optic West and

uh I kind of I think that I'm a

know-it-all at least my wife always

tells me I'm a know-it-all and uh

evidently I'm not a no at all because he

shows me how to do time long exposures

on an iPhone but after the fact I I

couldn't even it took me like 10 minutes

to even figure out what what exactly was

going on and I still don't understand it

but this is a guy who digs into

technology finds something really useful

brings it up to the top and then

integrates it into his work also he's

really he's influenced photography and

the digital world in tremendous ways uh

he's also a really good drummer and

guitar first and vocalist who knew so

let's give a great warm welcome for

Scott Kelby

[Applause]

I'm not using a mic today oh there we go

all right thanks thank you very much

thank you for the very nice introduction

David exactly as I wrote it

um real quick this is so great to see so

many people here for a class like this

this is great uh just quick show of

hands how many people are here

all right who's not here

yeah thanks for not coming all right

well uh this is going to be an

interesting class

um and I I what I what I want to show

you is so many different things that we

can use as our second camera we can use

the iPhone now I I just came back I I

had a wonderful Workshop uh in Tuscany I

just came back literally just a couple

of weeks ago and of course uh I I took

my my favorite camera ever uh the Canon

EOS R6 uh the uh oh there's you don't

see it here

we're going to hope that screen changes

are you seeing a picture of an R6

me either

let's let's now do you see it all right

this is good going good already all

right so that's what I took with me I

took a Canon EOS R6 I took just really

one lens I took a second lens I didn't

even use it until the very last day so I

was there nine days I took out the lens

for one shot the last day I used this

one lens the whole time uh because I

knew that I was going to be seeing

scenes like this

but I didn't take that with the R6

that's with my iPhone

so I know what you're thinking well

Scott you got that brand new uh iPhone

Pro 14 yes they do it says it right here

but I didn't have it on that trip

so you must have had the iPhone 13 Pro

very still good

nope

I had the two-year-old iPhone 12 Pro why

because I'm one of the losers

I had this old phone from the turn of

the century but here's why so I my

company luckily gets my phone and so

when it was time for for the the 14 to

come out I called my it guy and I said

hey I want to get the new iPhone he's

like you're not eligible for the new

iPhone yeah I said I've had mine for two

years you're not eligible and he goes

the Wireless plan we have you have to

wait until uh October 22nd for your

agile then we can order it and then get

it now I don't want to mention the name

of the Wireless company I have it

wouldn't be professional but they do not

get their plan their plan stinks but I

again all right so I took this thing on

on an iPhone now there are obvious

advantages to using a phone we know a

bunch of them already I don't want to

harp on those I want to spend 30 seconds

on them you're it's small it's light you

already have it with you anyway right so

that's obvious this is the thing that's

not so obvious of course you know you

can post process right right on your

phone which is really cool but you can

go from this

to this in one click

it does it in the phone in camera now it

also has here's another Advantage you

already know this this isn't what the

class is about when you want to show

somebody one of your pictures you got a

way bigger screen think about the screen

on your mirrorless or your DSLR three

inches time it's like the smallest

screen any of us own is on the back of

our camera but your phone is much better

for sharing photos all right you know

that and you know that it you can do

full fully silent shooting and I know

some cameras like I had a 5B mark IV and

it kind of did a quieter mode but it

never did silent you know so things like

that and that's nice it has that uh it's

very easy for selfies you ever tried a

selfie with your mirrorless

hanging that big thing out there you're

like my arm's just not long enough all

right

um you also have a super fast lens like

the lens on the new ones like f 1.5 so

if you need to shoot in low light

situations before it even has to do its

low light magic you can shoot at a

really low f-stop time lapses are super

simple because there's no math there's

zero math you just hit the button and it

does all the math and when you're done

it compiles it into a video for you it's

one click one click when you start it

one click when you end no math no using

apps no figuring anything out also

here's a really good one I love to use

my iPhone for behind the scenes shots of

me using my real camera

so there's all these but you know that's

all the obvious stuff right

but the iPhone has a secret weapon

that's one of these things that you

already know but when you really Embrace

this it's magic

you can shoot with an iPhone in places

where regular cameras are forbidden

so this is the interior of Saint Paul's

Cathedral in London

when you walk in the front doors there's

no camera and it shows a picture of a

DSLR as you walk every few feet there's

another thing that says No cameras

if you pull out a DSLR or a mirrorless

there are snipers positioned up in the

corners and they you're You're gone

they'll take you out in a split second

but you walk in and there's 200 people

with phones taking pictures and nobody

cares

the guards walk past everybody everybody

the whole place everybody in there is

taking pictures with their phone so one

of the greatest reasons to take a iPhone

with you is your second camera for

travel

is it is your your way to shoot anywhere

still take good pictures and not have to

worry about someone telling you to stop

this is what you're going to see

and you're going to laugh and walk right

by you're just going to go no film no I

haven't had film in a few years no photo

that's not I'm just taking my phone all

right but here's the thing I want you to

think about this differently because it

can be your backup right because I used

to carry two DSLR bodies with me like I

take two bodies and I stopped doing that

a few years ago because I know I already

have a phone with me I have my phone

with me so I got my second camera

but I want you to this is what what this

whole class is going to be about

it's changing how you think about the

camera in your phone right so the camera

that's in your phone today

is so much better than the cameras that

were used just a few years ago I

remember when I bought a Nikon

what was it 1dx no no I'm sorry

oh what was the name of it it was the

noisiest camera in the history of man

if you went to 200 ISO it looked like it

was snowing in any scene what was it 1dx

Mark II no

anyway it was six thousand dollars

and at the time I was like man this is a

kick butt camera it was 12 megapixels

this one's 48.

and I I look at the pictures I took back

then with it and they all look so grainy

and so you know they don't not the good

grain

the bad grain because there's you know I

don't know if people realize this like

in Lightroom in Photoshop there's like

three different things to add grain

right grain can be wonderful especially

with black if I do a black and white

image I add grain every single time

right so grain can be wonderful the good

grain not the bad grain that was coming

from that anyway

um it's going to hit me the name of that

camera here in a minute but anyway long

story short is if you change about how

you think about it like my wife has a

great great saying she goes if you treat

it like it matters your pictures will

change

because what happens is oh it's not my

real camera so this picture is not going

to be any good so click

but if you change the way you think

about it it'll make a difference but

I'll tell you what the day it changed

for me because I remember it very

clearly where I really started to

realize I was being silly not giving

this my my second camera status

I was in the middle of nowhere China

leading a workshop

and this is a picture taken from the

workshop that's a phone picture right

there take it back with the old phone

the iPhone 10. anybody still have an

iPhone 10 all right you need to leave no

no it was it's a good oh no it was a

great it was it was a great camera

um but but anyway

so we're sitting out there in this

little piece of ground now to get to

this shot we had to take a bus from our

hotel like a big bus for two hours then

we got in a little bus and then we had

to take the little bus and then we did a

hike and then we got on a raft that was

big enough for just me and the guy

running the raft and he had a lawnmower

engine on it and I thought as it's we're

in the Dark Mist and I thought this is

where I'm going to die

and so then you walk and you hike some

more and then then we get to the spot so

we're out in the middle of nowhere China

I couldn't find it for a million bucks

it's just in the middle of somewhere

so we're out there shooting and I've got

my I had a Canon r at the time so I got

my Canon set up I got my tripod I got

all this stuff and I'm out there

shooting and I was doing the workshop

with Rick salmon who's a wonderful

photographer and a great friend and his

wife Susan's there now his wife Susan is

a very serious iphoneographer she

teaches iphoneography she's really

serious so I'm sitting there shooting

and I'm looking and she walks over and

she goes look and she shows me her

picture on her phone and it it's on

Instagram

and I fought it to myself

well I want to put my picture on

Instagram

what's it going to take

well

I have to hike

I have to get back on the raft

I have to hike again

I have to get on a large bus

then I have to transfer to the small bus

so three hours later I'm back at my

hotel then I'll take out my memory card

I put in my card reader I'll import all

the photos I'll go through and I find

one I like I post process it and ready I

have to upload it back to my phone so I

can put it on the internet so I can get

it come on and that was I was an

Awakening for me I was like son of a gun

all right so I'm already sitting there

thinking

you know I could I could just take this

picture and put it up right this minute

and all right so uh oh there goes the

Android guy

see ya I knew I know I know oh it's

going to get worse for you you should go

now okay

so so then Susan a few minutes later

walks over and says look what I did and

I'm gonna I don't have her video but

I'll show you what she showed me she

said look what I did

and I'm sitting there looking at my

Canon r

and I'm looking at Susan

I pushed her right in the water

but now when she showed at me show me

hers you know and I I edited this uh it

shows regular speed and then it stops

and goes the slow and that's what makes

the one that's in your iPhone so neat it

starts at regular speed and then it

stops when the motion starts and it's

just I'm sitting out there in the middle

of nowhere China going I gotta rethink

this thing because I brought a big

camera bag out there I got all this

extra gear and stuff and then I have a

third camera with me right and so

this is how I changed my thought process

and if you do this

it will change how you take photos with

your phone all right and so because your

phone today now I'm not going to show

you any pictures I have I took my first

pictures with this yesterday so I don't

have really pictures from the new 48

megapixel version so all the pictures

you're going to see are from my old own

phones but these are all taken with

iPhones

and you know how hard it is to shoot

with an iPhone what do you do

click

and so I'm already carrying a camera

that's capable of this so what I want to

do in the rest of this class is I want

to give you 20 tips ways to set up your

camera and I want to set you up for an

absolute success when you shoot travel

with your second because there's certain

things that are actually better to shoot

with your phone than it is with your

DSLR or mirrorless there are certain

things that your mirrorless in your DSLR

are better I can't give up my my

mirrorless I love it my Canon EOS R is

my it was my favorite Cameron tool two

days ago when they announced the Mark II

of the EOS

R6 and now I have to pre-order that so I

really liked it until two days ago

um but anyway so it's it's not going to

replace mine but there are times where

it's better there's times where it's

easier and it's always my backup camera

and if my EOS R goes or my R6 goes down

or more likely I drop it I've done that

I I was changing lenses in uh in

Portugal and took my 7200 went whoops

crash

instant death Dead on Arrival I dropped

cameras I dropped everything I dropped

my phone all the time uh I apparently I

have a dropping problem but anyway uh

but I want to show you we're going to go

through 20 things real quickly in the

time that we have and I want to set you

up to where you'll start making travel

photos thinking differently about it and

understanding the power that it has the

first thing I want to do is set you up

for shooting in raw

so and I'm going to give you two

different scenarios for this it's really

easy to do all you have to do is go to

your settings

and you're going to scroll down to

camera

click on it

and you're going to scroll over here to

formats up at the top

and you're going to turn on Apple Pro

Raw

now you have two choices if you click on

Pro raw resolution you can shoot 12

megapixel if you have the brand new

iPhone 14 pro or the pro Max you can

shoot at 48 megapixel now that's only

step one but you only have to do this

one time so now you've told the camera

there'll be times I want to shoot in raw

but when you actually want to shoot in

raw you have to go up top and it will

say no raw by default so your raw is off

even though you went and turned it on in

the presets it's off and you'll see why

it's off in a second and then you just

tap on it and now you're shooting Raw

now why is it off by default and why

even though you went and turned it on

the settings here's why

your regular 12 megapixel file is 25

megabytes

your 48 ones are 75 a piece if they left

it on all the time you'd be shooting in

raw like pictures of your foot and your

kid and your cat and you know like I

turn on Raw when it matters when I'm

like oh this is something good that's

when I tap it and I'll leave it on for

three or four shots and then turn it

back off because I don't want to fill up

my phone now what if you have an older

phone that won't shoot and raw natively

it doesn't matter if you have an iPhone

6 you can shoot in raw today because

Lightroom has its own camera built into

it that shoots in raw all you do is you

see at the very top where it says dng

just tap on that if it says jpeg if it

says jpg you're shooting in jpeg if you

tap it dng is raw it's adobe's raw

format so you're actually shooting in

raw if you tap that all right so that's

that's number one let's get a set of

shooting in raw whether you have an

older camera a new camera everybody can

shoot and wrong

next exposure compensation

it is so great on the iPhone so easy so

here's all you do you know how you tap

on the screen to focus on something

if you leave your finger there and you

drag up it brightens the scene

if you drag down it darkens it that's it

tap to focus and then just drag now when

you tap and start to drag you'll see a

little Sun show up and a little line

it's like a little slider and if you

want to make it brighter you drag Up

drag down here's what it looks like take

a look

just tap see how it's just tap on the

screen

and drag it up or drag it down that's it

it's the easiest exposure you can

imagine

all right number three this is a great

trick my wife taught me this one because

she's a very Avid iPhone photographer

she does articles for international

magazines on iPhone photography she's

really got a great eye and I've bought

her numerous dslrs and she's just like I

just love my phone

she goes I know this is great I know it

works really well I understand it now

um but here's the thing her trick is

this and it's a good one it's how to

shoot wider so if you ever notice when

you take a picture on the iPhone that's

the size

and you're like why isn't it wider

well you can actually trick it and make

it wider all you have to do it's a weird

trick but it works great

look how much wider you can make it you

can go from regular screen to widescreen

you shoot your stills in video mode

so all you do is start shooting a video

just switch the video and hit go and

what happens is look right above the

record button a shutter button shows up

right there

and when you click it it shoots almost

the whole full screen in one shot

which that's pretty kick butt that you

can do that but it also makes you wonder

why can't we just do that all the time

Apple

okay

number four David talked about this so

you can do live exposure long exposures

right in your camera it works stunningly

well it's I was shocked the first time I

saw it so here's how it works all you

have to do is one simple thing

you have to it well it's Two Steps step

one is you have to make sure you're in

live photo mode this is the default and

you know if it's you're in this mode if

you look in the corner you see a little

circle with the multiple circles around

it and it will say the word live in

front of it so when you go to shoot when

you look at your camera you should see

the little circles in the word live

so as long as it says that so this is

not a raw trick you can't do this with

raw you have to do with jpeg all right

then your all you're going to do is

change one thing but it's after the shot

take the shot and you're done with the

shot open the photos app or just tap on

it to edit it and then here's what you

do

you're going to I took these two days

ago so you look at the water

right oh hold on the video didn't play

there's a video there one second

something bad happened don't move don't

breathe don't make a sound

something there's a video that was going

to play right here

that did not play Let's see if I can

figure out why it didn't play

one moment that that it should have

played let's see if it plays

here we go all right look at this water

boo frozen water

here's what you do you're in the photos

app see where it says live up the top

left corner just click on it look what

it says long exposure

just tap on long exposure wait a couple

of seconds look

is that crazy

so here's what it does

if you have an older iPhone and you know

who you are

it takes 15 photos averages them

together and that's what creates the

long exposure if you have the new iPhone

14 pro I think it takes 36 pictures and

puts them together automatically in two

seconds and renders out the long

exposure now that's done to every

picture you take with live photo behind

the scenes and when you tap that button

that word that says long exposure boom

it builds it it's two seconds and it's

done now if you don't want to do that

uh oh here's the yeah here's the final

picture all right so if you don't want

to do that there is an app that is

amazing it's called even longer it's

3.99 on the App Store

you can do as long one as you want you

want to do 20 seconds

you want to do a real long exposure

three minutes five minutes whatever you

want to do it's amazing you just type in

the number you want and it will leave

your shutter open that long has its own

camera of course it uses the lenses

that's you know in apples but it's uses

its own camera app

and it's brilliant and and that's it

this is a five-minute exposure

taken with your iPhone it was actually

my my buddy Eric kuna took that I was

standing right beside him with my

mirrorless

he could show me his he goes hey look

and I'm like

I know

get in the bus go back to the hotel card

reader I get it

okay now

should you hand hold a five-minute

exposure

however no no you need to shoot on a

tripod all right now I have a tripod

with me right now

hang on

it's in my wallet oh there it is

this is a little miracle it's called the

pocket tripod Pro

it literally fits in your wallet it is

the size of a credit card

and this is what it looks like up close

I made a stunning video for you for the

two clicks it takes to set it up and

start using it as a tripod anywhere you

are watch

you take it you turn it one turn

and you pop up the legs that's it tripod

and you put your phone in it

that's it

and it tilts

and it's incredibly well made and it's

incredibly expensive

it's like 30 bucks

now

this seems like a lot doesn't it like 30

bucks for this little thing

now I just want you to pause and think

what your carbon fiber tripod costs that

you that you have that you carry around

with you this this could stay in your

pocket I actually keep mine in my car

but it's it fits in your wallet and you

can just pull it out all right this is

what it looks like come on it's just and

it's so well made it's so sturdy and it

weighs nothing it I don't think it

weighs an ounce it probably weighs a

half an ounce all right now if you want

to get really serious about this and

move to the next level because this is

great for putting on a table or laying

on something but what if you're out

there shooting you know you're out like

I was in Tuscany in that case there is a

wonderful Mount you can get from

Arkansas

it's that company

the company that makes the phone tripod

mount with the Arca Swiss plate it's

designed to go on to your regular tripod

and ball head slides right onto your

ARCA Swiss Mount locks on there it's so

well made it is also like 30 bucks

um but you you feel like it's worth it

for this one I don't know why but anyway

it attaches to what you've already got

so if you're like hey I am going to use

this on my second camera and it went

down that's a great thing to have in

your pack all right

what's the next one

this is something that will also change

how you feel about shooting with your

phone as your second camera

there is another shutter button you do

not have to press the one that is on

your screen because if you just use the

volume up and either button shoots the

shot

it's so much better to do it that way

because when you're when you take your

finger off to shoot you're moving your

phone now your phone's whole you know

and it's a camera you got to hold it

still like anything else right so this

way you're holding it with both hands

and you're taking you do it for a day

you'll never go back to tapping the

screen again

and it's either volume button will work

all right

next this is just a setting that makes

things easier and nicer but it also

unlocks another feature that I'm going

to show you later in this presentation

so this is why I would turn it on there

is a shooting grid that comes with it

and here's how you see it's like see on

the left there's no shooting grid and on

the right there's a rule of thirds grid

right here's how you turn that on

you go to the camera set you go to your

settings app go to your camera

preferences there they are there there

all right and go over there see where it

says composition down the bottom just

turn on grid

and that's it it's this little button

right there and now you'll have that

same little grid popping up Right Where

You Are

all right this next one is incredibly

handy

it's how not to miss the shot when I'm

walking around a city it's the worst

thing in the world to have to turn on

your camera and wake it up or whatever

you know what's worse than that turning

on your iPhone waiting for it to do

facial recognition or typing in your

password

that's why this tip is so awesome

so when your phone is off and it's

asleep

here's what you're going to do ready

you're not going to wake it up you're

not going to do anything you're not

going to put in your password you were

just simply going to tap the screen once

and swipe left

take a look

and the camera's live

no logging in none of that stuff

it's the fastest way so your camera's

off your compute it's often it's in your

pocket you just pick up your phone

you tap the screen once and swipe to the

left

boom instant live camera

that's the fastest way to get to your

camera and you won't miss the shot

so again

don't wake it up no password none of

that stuff tap and swipe left boom it's

ready all right now if that sounds good

you may like this next one even better

this one's the back tap

this one allows you to tap the Apple

logo and your camera comes up anytime

two Taps on your logo and it comes up

here's how to set it up so you're just

going to double tap the logo you go and

you set this up in the settings

all right step one is go to the settings

and go to accessibility

all right

step two

is you're going to uh

tap on touch

all right and then when you get to touch

step three is you're going to choose

backtab now back tap will be off by

default so it's just going to say off

you're going to switch it to camera

and then from then on when you double

tap with your you're already holding

your camera right because you're walking

down the street

and you just boom boom and your camera's

live immediately it's incredibly fast

so that is the back tap double tap that

thing and your camera goes live

all right next this isn't this is one of

the things that I think that your camera

does better than excuse me your phone

does better than your DSLR or mirrorless

and that is shooting panoramas

it is so easy and fast to shoot a Pano

because it is going to stitch it and

crop it and do everything for you and

you're going to see it right there on

the spot it's just

turn it on

and hit stop

that's it it's not going to ask you any

questions you're not going to say hey I

took seven images put them together

later on your computer when you get back

it does it for you it is literally one

tap Hey look it's Venice that's not

actually Venice you know what that is

that's Tokyo Disneyland

so I take a lot of Panos just because

it's so easy

it's just literally you click and go

here's what it looks like if you've

never taken when you switch to Pano and

all you do is just slowly go to the left

and I'll tell you about the slowly part

in just a second

and that's it

I have two tips for you for taking

pianos

and the two tips are this

number one

you know it tells you to slow down just

ignore that tip number two if you want a

successful piano here's the secret

honestly don't go too far like you want

to take a panel that goes like this wee

the whole world all the way from the end

to end what happens is you wind up

looking on your phone you have a panel

this tiny and you go and put on

Instagram it's this tiny so like I I try

to take pianos that are kind of this

wide so my camera would take normally

this and I want to go this I don't go

that

because it will wind up being so small

that you won't you won't get to enjoy it

and it'll even look small on your phone

if it looks small on your phone it's

really going to be small all right tip

number 11.

the for travel this is a killer one

because I love to use my phone for

scouting

so this is a tip that I give people when

I'm talking about just travel

Photography in fact I gave this tip when

I did the optic presentation in New York

which was when I go to a town the first

thing thing I do if I've never been to

this town before is I take that two hour

bus tour

that and you can get the hop on or hop

off but I never Hop Off

so why do I take this tour hour tour

first because I already have a shot list

when I show up into town right if I go

to Rome I'm like all right I want to

shoot the Coliseum and you know I'll

have my list of shots so I when do I

want to shoot the Coliseum at dawn right

I want to get up early I want to be

right there in the perfect position but

when you take the two-hour bus tour

you'll find out like I did

that is covered in scaffolding so I can

mark that off for tomorrow we're not

doing that and uh if I I go to Paris

like oh they're doing construction right

where I want to shoot see everything

everywhere is being renovated which is

misery so if you do that two-hour tour

you know right off the bat exactly where

not to go the next day all right and

this is what it looks like you driving

around now here's what's right but

that's not that's just part of the

bigger tip but the secret is this when

you when you do this two-hour bus tour

right you're going to see places that

weren't on your list you'll see some

little alley and there's a beautiful

fountain down there and it wasn't on

anything that you've looked at on the

web you didn't know it was there so now

you've found this great location it's

really cool and you want to go back

there how are you going to find

this alley that on a side street in the

middle of Barcelona because here's what

you're going to do when you take a

picture with your phone

it embeds the GPS location of where you

were when you took it it automatically

embeds the GPS well that's great if you

have like a GPS unit in your car

something oh oh no here's what's better

when you take that photo into Lightroom

for example Lightroom classic

take a look it has that GPS so look I'm

in Lightroom classic I mean the library

module scroll down to the metadata panel

and there's all the information in your

camera embedded and all that stuff

yep there it is up taken with an iPhone

and then right beside there's the GPS

data look at the little arrow to the

right of it see that Arrow

you click that Arrow it takes you to a

satellite image of where you were

standing where you took the photo and

look there's the photo

every time you shoot with an iPhone

Lightroom automatically takes that photo

and Maps it to a world map you don't

have to do anything you don't have to

turn it on it's done it automatically so

now you can know exactly where those are

it's already organizing your images

behind the scenes which is pretty

amazing so that's why I love it because

I'll be able to find out by looking at

at literally inside of Lightroom or

inside of Apple's own photo Apple also

show you the exact same thing you don't

have to bring it into the Lightroom it

will show you a satellite image of where

you were standing you can look at it on

a map and see exactly which corner which

place or which location to get back to

because it's based on that all right

another setting for you that just that

you might love you're either going to

love this or hate it and I'm going to

show you it and you can decide you can

actually view outside the frame so when

you go and pull up the iPhone's camera

this is what it looks like see the big

black bars on either side

you can go and turn on a setting wait

you don't see the black bars

there they are see the big black bars on

either side

your photos in the middle you can go

turn on a setting that will do this

it lets you see through the black bars

so you can see now here's Apple's Apple

says we do this because you might see

that there's things outside the frame

that you want to compose like oh I

didn't realize there's a lamp over there

so I'm going to move over and include

that in my shot

here's the problem and so try this and

see what you think

I turned it on for a while and I wound

up turning it back off I have people

that swear by it and love it and they

say I think it helps me compositionally

but what it does for me is I

subconsciously think that stuff is in my

frame

like I kind of think I got it and then I

get back and go wait a minute I knew I

had oh no it wasn't really in my frame

because you're holding the phone up and

you see it and you're like yeah that's

in my frame no it's not

all right so how about this one here's

how you turn this feature on just in

case

you're going to scroll over to the

camera settings of course

you're going to scroll to view outside

the frame and turn it on at the very

bottom it's right here

I say it's here but then it doesn't

appear

there view outside the frame

just try it see what you think you may

like some of my friends have fallen in

love with it can't live without it or

you may think it's Trish

all right this next one is so good and

it's about getting super low

and it is an iPhone feature that's

pretty clever

so when you take your phone and you want

to shoot really really low and you love

that low perspective

you can turn your phone upside down

but it will automatically shoot the

image right side up

now so

what am I looking for when I turn it

upside down

just give me the smallest tiniest puddle

of water

I just need this much water look how

look a little water you see that little

tiny bit of water

that's all I need

it flips the image over for you

automatically so literally my my lens is

an inch above that tiny little puddle

but if there's a little puddle it's

there all right do you remember me

telling you a few minutes ago

that um

there that I have a technique for you

for that uh if you turn on the grid it

comes in handy later

and this is what it is it's for shooting

food

I always tell people why it's so

important to photograph the food when we

travel so number one is if you talk to

people about travel and say what is it

you love about traveling Oh I love

seeing other cultures I love seeing the

architecture I love trying the food in

different places so when I'm teaching a

travel photography Workshop I'm always

telling my students and teaching my

students how to photograph food because

it's really important now the the reason

I came up with this is when I first

started doing teaching travel workshops

I wanted to find out what is it that

that makes a travel photography Magazine

spread so awesome like you look at these

you open up Conde Nas traveler or

National Geographic traveler or you know

any one of these and you look at it and

you're like oh my gosh I want to go

there so I started to do research and

write down like I made a shot list of

what are the things that you see in all

these different magazines from around

the world and one of the things they

always feature is food

always whatever it is they're always

because there's such enough now they may

feature wine as well you know liquor you

know heroin different things depends on

the place but but they're always showing

the food right and one of the shots that

I love is when like when the waiter or

the waitress is putting down the food

you know you get a little of their arms

in there but I love that shot and I'll

even ask my server hey when you bring

the food can I take a picture of you

putting it down and you know they work

for tips they're like absolutely how

many times do you want me to do it

anyway but so the trick I want to give

you is for shooting food

um and there's a there's another tip in

here that will also relate to shooting

food but there is a special feature

inside the iPhone for shooting food

but it's hidden then you only get to it

if you turn on the grid

so one of the most popular food shots is

of course the straight down food shot

but if you don't nail the straight down

part it looks like the weird prospective

food shot

so like being able to nail that shot is

important so here's the trick on how to

nail it

when you go to shoot when you have the

grid turned on you'll notice that when

you put your camera horizontally like

this you'll see a Crosshair once white

and a second one that's yellow

when you line them up the camera is

perfectly flat and it's so easy to do

here watch this is what it looks like

this is not going to be a beautiful

video but you get the idea okay

step one you got to make sure the Grid's

on so go turn your grid on it only works

if the grid feature is turned on

all right now

let's get some food see the two

crosshairs

you just when you line up

it's a really bad video there you go

when they turn solid color you are

perfectly flat

again only happens if the grid is turned

on so make sure you have your grid on

all right

the next one

only use your camera's Optical lenses

so what does that mean you know how you

see these numbers on your phone so this

is what's on my phone my new one here I

don't know if I mentioned that I got the

new iPhone 14 pro yeah just got it brand

new yeah two days old okay anyway

if you have this you have four buttons

and that just means your 25 cooler than

the people with three buttons anyway

so these are Optical lenses so if you

choose 0.51 two or three you're going to

have nice crisp clear pictures if you

have an iPhone 11 or a 12 or a 13 Pro

you'll have three you'll still have the

ultra wide which is amazing you know the

ultra wide on an iPhone is 13

millimeters

that's wide man

all right then you've got one X and 2x

those are the optical these are the safe

ones if you have an iPhone 10 or 11 or

13 it's time for a new phone

You've Got One X and 2x you're living in

a world of pain

I'm not sure if your phone even makes

calls anymore anyway

but here's the thing you never want to

do don't ever while the camera app is

open don't ever pinch to zoom

when you pinch to zoom you're no longer

using one of those Optical lenses you're

now it's now creating pixels that aren't

actually there so and I took a picture

to see is it really going to be that bad

yep

it looks like you painted it

which if you're looking for the

painterly effect well it's one Zoom away

but that's probably what you're looking

for it it looks it just Falls literally

falls apart because the it's making up

pixels that aren't there so always use

the optical ones the the

I guess the the theme I'm trying to say

here is don't pinch

okay

number 16 this is a wild one this is

wild and it's so cool when you're doing

things like shooting food or you want to

shoot on the slide you're doing street

photography you don't really want anyone

to know what you're doing right you use

a little iPod pocket Pro and aim it at

whatever you want the servers people at

other tables someone's hotel room

whatever you think is appropriate all

right and then what you're going to do

is you're not going to touch the phone

you're not going to use the self timer

you're going to shoot from your Apple

watch

there is actually an app in your Apple

watch scroll down to

camera

remote there it is camera remote you tap

on it and it will show you a picture of

what it's seeing

and then you can just tap the shutter

button or tap a delay you can even

change the zoom and stuff you tap and

watch it fires the phone

is that crazy

well you got to buy an Apple Watch

that's that's the unfortunate part but

you might already have one

all right so the other thing that the

phone is cruelly great about then people

don't realize is that all of the lenses

have a super close-up macro capability

built in

you can get about an inch from anything

and it will still zoom in so you can

just say all right I want to zoom in so

here's this plate of food now the

background is blurry because I'm using

portrait mode so portrait mode on the

iPhone actually makes the background out

of focus it literally puts that a focus

like you're at F 2.8 or F 1.8 or you

know 1.7 whatever it takes

um anybody nobody get that no one saw

that movie Dark on it okay anyway it was

an old movie but um

so you look at uh you know you focus on

this that automatically puts the back

it's great for portraits but I don't I I

think of it also for just shooting

objects for shooting anything it just

makes your image stand out but if you

want to get really close you can get up

in on that food or anything else it's

not just food it will take all kinds of

different stuff

all right this next one's going to seem

really obvious but when I tell people

this and they do it I always get an

email back saying oh my gosh my phone is

shooting sharper shots than it's ever

taken so it is the secret to taking

really sharp shots just clean your lens

think about it you're throwing it in

your purse you're throwing it in your

pocket you're just you you're throwing

it in your car in the cup holders and

gosh knows where when was the last time

you thought to clean the lens on your

phone

how many years has it been since she

yeah and you know what I was I was

talking to a buddy about like yeah I

don't know about this phone my old phone

you know and he's like when was the last

time you cleaned your lens I'm like oh I

cleaned it pretty regularly really when

was the last time

May

I got out and cleaned it it was like I

bought a new phone it was terrible all

right this is the home of junk and gunk

and we would never think of this with

our mirrorless or DSLR we would never

think of it we're very you know uh

fastidious I guess it is the word I'm

looking for about keeping all our lenses

clean we're cleaning them all the time

but our phone we never think of it it's

a camera we just never clean it

clean it and all of a sudden now where

do you get a cleaning cloth for 4.99 get

the Sensei microfiber lens cleaning

cloth and this is look it's the number

one seller of b h here's the interesting

thing

it doesn't just work on phones

you're getting double duty out of this

it cleans your phone's screen and the

cam and your lenses it's really it just

is for lenses but it'll clean anything

it'll clean your glasses and I keep one

with me all the time in fact I've got a

cleaning cloth in my pocket because I

always keep them with this is not that

one this is one that came with my phone

Daddy mention I got a new phone I don't

know if I said anyway

um all right so that's it seems like a

silly one but it's honestly a very

important one

all right

number 19.

shooting in burst mode so there is a

burst mode that you don't even have to

do anything to turn it on it's ready to

shoot multiple pictures so this morning

we're out on the whale watch and we were

shooting and I was in the good boat

anyway

um

there were two boats that you know the

one with the really good shooters

it's another boat as well anyway

just kidding I'm just kidding for you

folks watching at home

I'm not kidding okay

all right

so if you press and hold the volume up

button it'll shoot a burst and it'll

just keep shooting bursts

I mean it'll shoot as many shots as you

want to shoot now

how do you turn this on you have to go

turn it on you have to go into the

settings to the camera app you know the

routine and go turn on the switch for

use volume up so it's not the volume

down so volume up or down we'll take the

picture click click but now when you

turn this on you hold volume up and

it'll shoot a burst you know what's neat

if while you're doing it because you can

either hold the button on the phone or

you can hold the the top one if you drag

the shutter to the left it'll tell you

how many shots you've just taken

so you can see them and it goes fast

it's just shooting like you know I don't

know 10 frames 12 frames a second you

start moving it's like stop stop it it

takes a lot a lot of photos that's why

you want to be careful about putting raw

on all the time

you'll shoot a gig of photos in six

seconds

all right we're down to the last the

last tip of the day now

this tip is called how to shoot a manual

mode because one of the things people

will tell me is well I really can't use

a funk camera phone I shoot a manual and

it's my whole life my life is based

around shooting in manual and I I can't

do it on a phone but you actually can

all you have to do is use lightroom's

camera so Lightroom has a pro mode it's

set to automatic by default you can just

click on Pro and look there's the

exposure

got a slider for it

shutter speed ISO you can set your white

balance manually you can do the whole

nine yards and set all of your settings

manually just by switching from

automatic to Pro mode as soon as you do

you have all of those settings

all right

that is the actual 20 tips now

if you're like thinking to yourself

Scott there's got to be more than 20

tips by gosh there's just a ton of them

and I shoved him in this book

you knew this was lead you knew I was

going to mention it at the very end for

goodness sake

so I have this book called the iPhone

Photography book and this is what I did

in the book I took regular photography

principles like the regular stuff that

we do for portraits and for Landscapes

and travel and all and I said what if we

pretended that it was just a camera and

we never talked about what kind of

camera it was and we just did photos

with it and this is our camera so that's

what the whole book is about

um I do show you all kinds of iPhone

Centric stuff that's why it's called the

iPhone Photography book instead of just

the cell phone Photography book because

it has a bunch of these like features

and tricks that I've shown you today

that kind of stuff is in the book and

it's hundreds of pages they sold out of

it yesterday morning before the doors

opened but they drove back to San

Francisco and got more I don't know how

many they have but they have a 35 off

show special and Rocky Nook as you know

the registration desk at the front when

you're walking in the door they're right

to your right so uh I I highly encourage

you to buy 15 or 20 copies each

you do you know people that have phones

don't they want to take good pictures

too

all right well I'm going to stick around

for a few minutes to answer any

questions if you have so if you have any

questions please come up but I'm so

thrilled that you came to a class on

using your iPhone this crowd right

coming to a class I my hat's off to you

thanks very much everybody

[Applause]

hi sure

still

um

yeah

you guys hit hit go on the video

Geographic audience

to visit some of the most remote spots

on the planet

investigating the native plants looking

for endemic Birds

Amanda Ray coming straight at us

straight ahead of us now you can see

them

it was amazing it was beautiful sharp

Ridge lines and Peaks that are so

defining for these islands people are

going back to their history and finding

ways to renew that so those layers of

history in a present day you know are

visible in the everyday lives of the

people that we're meeting I've never

seen anything like it it's most pure in

a way because nobody's here this is the

postcard that we all buy or dream of

going to see

this is a brief history of b h

everyone's favorite photo and video

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year was 1973. the Mets went to the

World Series the first cell phone call

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they had a simple philosophy be honest

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back thanks Irving also free candy and

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expanded a move to West 17th Street and

34th Street and 9th Avenue and added

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telescopes audio video tripods computers

printers mobile televisions projectors

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okay isn't that right Irving

we need to be ready for whatever the

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come on just one example well there was

NASA NASA NASA what's the big deal we

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Fred Smith here told us the B H Photo

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I was a fitness instructor in Atlanta

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me let's talk about lemons the lemonade

as I started looking for equipment

everybody I spoke to was pointing me to

b h I needed a camera a lens microphone

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introducing the new payboo credit card

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[Music]

[Music]

foreign

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questions

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[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

2013

or if they start they say if everybody

starts

foreign

hi everyone all right we're going to go

to our panel started momentarily the uh

how to make an impact with photography

and importance in photography that's

going to be starting in a couple of

minutes and uh it's going to be a blast

we've got uh Franz launting is going to

moderate the panel we're going to have

Andy Griffiths flip nicklin and also

saffner ready and then safna will be

coming back and joining us at three

o'clock for a presentation so we're

looking forward to that that's going to

be in a couple of minutes so you want to

take your seats and get ready if anyone

wants to meet Scott and get some book

signs uh Scott's going to be at the

speaker meet and greet table he'll be

there hanging out and also if you want

to pick up one of his books they're

they're for sale from Rocky Nook

publishing which is right next to the

speaker meet and greet area so stay

tuned we'll be back in a minute

introducing the new paybu credit card

you can save the tax or choose special

financing for your purchases made on

your paybu credit card so you want to

save the tax on a camera laptop and

drone no problem no need to wait for

credits or cash back like other credit

cards the b h payboo card pays you back

instantly or save over time and choose

special financing and pay it off over 6

or 12 months it's easy use your new

paybook card as payment at checkout then

choose your available options either

paybu savings or special financing see

your savings or promotional plan right

on your receipt in-store or online

applying is easy your approved payboo

card will be instantly available for a

first purchase at checkout the new

payboo card same funny name your choice

of exclusive benefits apply today

this is a brief history of b h

everyone's favorite photo and video

store

the year was 1973. the Mets went to the

World Series the first cell phone call

was made and believe me and Herman

opened a specialty photography shop at

17 Warren Street New York City

they had a simple philosophy

be honest treat people right and they

will come back thanks Irving also free

candy and it worked over the next 20

years we expanded and moved to West 17th

Street and 34th Street and 9th Avenue

and added more products lighting

binoculars telescopes audio video

tripods computers printers mobile

televisions projectors drones and even

more free candy now it's three stories

and over 400 000 products

over a thousand employees

we take millions of orders online and

ship to 179 countries and Counting

you can talk to us in person on the

phone

or online

check out our checkout baskets also

check out our checkout numbers okay

everyone's best we're about to bring a

lot of talent all on the stage at the

same time I don't know if the stage will

be able to take this and may collapse in

on itself like a black hole and not emit

any light

I don't know that's about all I know

about physics

but evidently they discovered I I heard

that uh that theory has been debunked

that light can escape a black hole from

the uh our new uh

what's the name of the news the new uh

telescope

what's that

yeah the the yeah the wait what's it

the way the web telescope yeah it it saw

a light coming out of the hole

I don't know without it I

I don't know look I saw a Disney's black

hole when I was a kid and all I know is

that you don't want to go in a black

hole

because everything I've learned about

astronomy I've learned from Disney

that's not true

I used to go the Hayden planetarium a

lot

okay so um so we've got this killer

panel that's going to be run by Franz

launting day one keynote speaker

everyone knows Franz because this room

was completely packed on yesterday

morning we've got doc ready softener

ready she's a radiologist and

photographer teaches workshops I spoke

at optic in June she's an amazing

photographer and really understands that

the science behind photography We've Got

Annie Griffiths who spoke this morning

we all know Annie one of the first of

the National Geographic women

photographers and a great influencer and

champion of women's rights and uh she's

pretty amazing and we have flip nicklin

which uh he's flip spoke yesterday and

uh flip is either speaking to you guys

or he's speaking to the whales so flip

this is a foremost whale photographer

and this is going to be an interesting

panel and I'm really looking forward to

it so without further Ado can we have

our panelists come on out

thank you

you're not going to be at the lectern

you're going to be sitting oh yeah I'll

I'll stand there okay

that chair's been back and forth on this

stage in the past 10 minutes

this is not musical chairs Annie and

you're logged up and you've got

you know what I'm gonna

there you go everyone's got their own

mics are you guys ready

we are all right take it away everybody

thank you

it's my pleasure to join these three

photographers and amazing human beings

for a conversation about how we can make

the world better one picture at a time

they each have their own backgrounds and

I'm going to ask them to explain a

little bit more but just for starters so

we know how much to tell you about their

backgrounds how many of you heard Annie

speak earlier this morning

how many of you did not hear any speak

that's the question I should have asked

so any you can repeat some things for

reference to people who didn't hear you

how many of you did not hear flip speak

yesterday

so we can repeat some of the things as

well and sapna you haven't spoken here

yet right so we definitely need to give

you a chance to introduce yourself and

where you fit into this panel and did

anyone see France speak

who didn't who did who wasn't here

yesterday when I spoke

one or two people so

um without further Ado uh let me just

kick this off

um

you're all photographers right

anyone not a photographer you

okay so we start from a common ground

um you all have a lot of gear right

and you're all motivated to do

interesting things with your cameras

right

now what are you going to do with your

pictures I think that's the next step

and I addressed that a little bit in my

talk yesterday morning and I would like

to continue on that theme picking up on

what Annie talked about and uh you know

we just had a conversation with flip and

sapna and Annie and we would like to

share those experiences with you uh how

can you focus your work in a way

that makes it more meaningful for

yourself but especially for others shall

we start that way uh flip should we

start with you because you've you've

you've been photographing whales your

whole life in fact it's a family

tradition by now because your father

started that and you told a very

emotional story yesterday

but you know you did phenomenal stories

for National Geographic over the years

and then you started giving more of your

personal time to scientists and I found

that a really interesting Evolution and

that is what's been a Mainstay of your

of your time so can you talk about that

and you've you mentioned the concept of

Citizen science well actually

I wanted to be a biologist as a kid

snakes and lizards but still you know I

wanted to be a biologist and my eighth

grade teacher science teacher Albert

Grennan said with my academic skills I

should do something else

and and so really National Geographic

just got in the way of my scientific

career for 27 years

but I was covering researchers and from

the very beginning the first time I went

out to cover a research story my father

had just done the film the documentary

gentle Giants of the Pacific which was

very nice save the whales film how

wonderful and friendly whales were and

then I met the researchers and they had

all these other stories including whales

were sometimes in battles and there's

all this other part of the story

and that idea of how you

take that initial interest and and get

excited about the idea of what a whale

is and want to see one

and then realize that's just the

beginning of the story and I can tell

you right now you're probably if you're

really really excited about whales in

the news and what's what's in the

popular culture you're five or six years

behind the cool stuff that people are

learning about whales and so after a

bunch of Geographic stories

finally I went with the guys that I

originally started with and I'd learned

in all this time I wasn't giving them

anything by coming and taking their

picture I wanted to tell their story and

take something from them there had to be

a relationship where we were working

together to tell that story and when I

got a little ahead in the mid 90s I went

back to the first guy I worked with Jim

darling and said can we go back and work

together and do research and go back to

Maui and see if it works out

the first year we had like ten thousand

dollars we went for a month we had five

good days we had a boat that blew up

twice and uh I got one picture that one

picture is the logo picture for whale

Trust

but we came back and now we've been

donated 27 years I've been on 10 uh

peer-reviewed science pieces as part of

the scientific project and the idea that

we can work together tell a good story

and show it both in popular and

scientific terms is the best stuff I've

ever done and I think it's a good thing

to do okay oh one other thing the best

thing about yesterday and the best thing

about coming down here is telling my

father's story my father's 95 years old

I interviewed him last year to think

back to that whale he'd ridden on the

back of and at the end dived down in

1963 and pulled the line off the whale

the whales from away and my dad could

relive that story and at the end say we

did a good thing

my dad now is

really awake for about two hours a day

he was up at the right time he saw the

presentation yesterday and I got news

back that really liked it and that was

great

[Applause]

so flip let me pick up on what you just

shared with us and see if we can

connected a bit more with people's

circumstances here because you know

offering your photographic talent to

researchers who are working with

interesting animals

is a great opportunity now if you knock

on the door of a whale researcher yeah

you might get some resistance there

because everybody wants to photograph

Wales there's permits involved and we

don't want to get into that but there

are loads of other opportunities you

know in every community in every

metropolitan area there is a science

museum a natural history museum there

are people working in community colleges

who may not be working with whales but

they're working on other interesting

stuff that is probably much closer by

that is more relevant for something that

you can say yes to and then as flip said

you build a relationship with someone

and you have no idea what I've made lead

flip what do you want to say

foreign

yeah thank you very much and and citizen

Sciences we can't all the people would

like to come and participate with us we

don't have the resources to do that but

there's a thing called happy whale

happywheel.com and if you're out on a

boat and you see a whale and you see it

get a picture of its tail even and not a

very good picture you can send it into

Happy Wheel and they'll tell you where

else that whale's been seen what they

know about that whale and you will have

started a relationship with research

cool

perfect

what's happening you have a different

story to share with people right what

would you like people to know about your

background and what you do with your

photography

heard my previous talks I hope I'm not

boring you by repeating my story I often

feel like I repeat myself a lot here

um I am a physician and a photographer

pursuing a dual carrier right now I work

part-time as a radiologist and part-time

as a photographer in a workshop

instructor

so when I was pursuing medicine you know

there were times when it got quite

stressful during the training period and

often to escape that stress I found

myself in the outdoors exploring hiking

camping doing a lot of outdoor

activities and gravitated gradually

towards photography through that

the more time I spent in the hospital

the more I realized that the therapy

that I was experiencing in the outdoors

being out in nature

was not really being reflected in what

we were doing in the hospital you know

people come to the hospital to get

healed

and you want to create an Ambiance of

healing in the hospital but what we were

doing with the whitewashed walls and

fluorescent lights was a very sterile

intimidating atmosphere

and you know I thought why don't we

display images of nature on the walls

why don't we create a more holistic

environment for healing

we have so many advances for healing the

human body but how come we are creating

an atmosphere of fear when it comes to

the mind

so I took this idea to the hospital

board and I suggested you know the time

of spend in nature is so therapeutic why

don't we incorporate those images so

they said okay let's go ahead and start

doing that so I started with the

hospital that I was working at which was

actually Kaiser Walnut Creek and

um that's the first hospital that I

started putting up the images on

you know this was back in 2011 2012 and

I had just started in photography at

that time

definitely an amateur and

I like the fact that they bought the

idea I like the fact that they did an

entire hospital with just my images but

the first week after the images went up

I was devastated

because every mistake I had made in the

photographs stared at me now at an eight

foot size

so I was cringing every time I walked

past the images and I secretly hope none

of my photographer friends would ever

come to that hospital

so as you know we are perfectionist

right so we look at the details but in

in that week I suddenly began to notice

a change I realized that others did not

see the images the way I was seeing them

they just took the overall feeling from

the image they liked the fact that the

walls were transformed they liked having

something nice to look at the Patients

appreciated the fact that they could

have a temporary escape from their

anxiety while waiting for the doctor to

come in or for some test results the

pictures were also played on TV screens

and then I realized even the staff

enjoyed coming to the hospital now

because it was something really nice to

look at

so after about a month I began to accept

that it's okay to have pictures that may

not be perfect as long as the result

from them is good

and that's kind of the message I have

when we're looking at what can we do

with our photography that makes this

world a better place then I think it's

important to start exploring how can we

transcend what is just a personal Hobby

and an individual need to something that

has a larger purpose that reaches out

and touches other individuals that has a

positive impact on others lives because

when we do that our personal Journey

becomes that much more rewarding

now so that's that's the aspiration I

have for all of us that we make this

world a better place one image at a time

you know sometimes we may just have to

delete that image to make the world a

better place

we've all been there done that but sort

of you know you hope you hope you're

generating images that work

um and so far it's been a very fruitful

Journey for the past several years I

have been pursuing the Dual carrier but

come summer of 2024 I turn into a

full-time photographer so looking

forward to that

so thank you sapner and

the the Health Service that Chris and I

use the Palo Alto Medical Foundation

practices what what you just preach

there's two doctors at PAMF who are

really quite good photographers and and

they've decked the walls of all the

facilities there and it makes a huge

difference it's just become a cheerful

place

and you know I've had similar

conversations in the course of some of

our workshops sometimes we teach a

session called personal Vision that is

aimed at

distilling gems from people's work

photographers who've been accumulating

tens of thousands of images and they

don't know what to do with them and I

recall a conversation that I had during

one of these sessions to inspire our

participants to start thinking in that

direction and you know reach out to

schools reach out to nursing homes and

specifically

I remember one lady who's doing lovely

work and she said well what can I do and

I notched her in the direction of

putting putting slideshows together and

take him to nursing homes

they were not the kind of stories that

an editorial publication would ever be

interested in because it was too soft

too personal and it's pretty competitive

to break into any publication these days

but there are so many people who are

yearning for opportunities to connect

with the outside world on the basis of

Photography so think of what's happening

just shared with us and then take it the

next step other school schools under

nursing homes are there other places

where people can't get out as much and

what could you offer to them and

actually if you think of it in those

terms those audiences could actually be

a really good tryout for you to test a

body of work give it shape get responses

from the audiences before you take it to

the next level

how about you Annie what would you like

to share

well I you know I just spoke earlier so

I don't want to repeat myself too much

but

I do believe that most of you probably

underestimate yourselves

most of you probably

you know would love to publish in some

way

certainly love to grow and

if you if you think about it sort of on

a community level you can start that now

I mean the kinds of things that someone

was talking about flip is working with

Scientists I remember one of the first

groups I worked with was Habitat for

Humanity

sometimes it can be just as simple as

saying

I'd like to come and photograph what you

do maybe you love cats and dogs

maybe you want to work at a shelter and

photograph cats and dogs that need a

home maybe you um you know maybe you

care very much about the environment

and so you look for a way or an

organization that could really use a

visual representation of what they're

trying to either prevent or promote

there are just so many

needy and wonderful Outlets

and I think what usually happens is we

throw a roadblock in front of ourselves

oh I can't do that because I'm not good

enough because I'm not experienced

enough because you know and and the

truth is remember that that the work you

do is needed and necessary and

if if you've ever just walked into a

building and seen one of your

photographs on a wall

it's just it's just as thrilling as

seeing it in a museum or seeing it in a

magazine or seeing it it's better than

online really so

don't don't put roadblocks up and

instead try to look inside and go what

do I really love

you know what is it that I have to give

and and then take that and think

creatively rather than literally

so I love

chemistry well what am I going to do

with Kimmy

you know you can you can light up a

chemistry lab with with images you can

there are just so many things where you

are needed

and

and that's when you leave kind of the

private world of just I love to go into

the woods and photograph flowers or

something and you you start thinking

Beyond yourself

and you honor your craft

and it gets you out the door and then

you grow and grow and grow

so that's that's what I believe

flip are you thinking to

add on to anything that's happening or

any have said well I was just thinking

the the idea of dealing with other

people and if I think of when I worked

in you know for over 10 years in the

Arctic and we go for months at a time

with a guide with uh trying to do a

targeted picture and if we went out for

60 days you had three good days and the

rest of time you were waiting for those

three good days and now I go out 60 days

to do research and we still get three

good days but we're doing scientific

recordings we were doing IDs we're doing

all kinds of other cool stuff to go

along and when those three good days

come along you still take the pictures

but you're doing a lot more and you're

working with with uh spreading the word

to a lot more people

okay one thing that that we did at my

non-profit which is called ripple effect

images

um one of the things we did that was so

simple and so satisfying and you guys

could all do this we went to a Syrian

refugee camp in Jordan

and we

we

photographed every family that wanted to

be photographed and many of these people

had absolutely no pictures you know they

had fled their Homeland and a lot of

them you know never had many pictures to

begin with

and we simply photographed these

families anybody who wanted to and then

we gave them their image and a lovely

little folder

so that it it felt like a real gift

and I'm telling you the impact that had

and you guys can do that too you can

photograph families who lost their homes

in fires you can photograph refugees you

can you know you can find a way to give

back and I promise you you're going to

get more than you give

but just think out of the box

and and work with organizations that can

connect you to the people who need you

okay a couple of thoughts come to mind

just hearing you talk about this

you have one other possibility is to

team up with others

other photographer studies for the

purpose of covering a project

you know you may not want to do certain

kinds of Photography but you know you

may know somebody else who can cover in

for that and that gives you a broader

approach it gives you a chance to

motivate each other

and that can go even further when you

start a conversation with the people and

the organizations that may be interested

in the in the results of your work one

thing that every researcher wanting that

every activist needs is materials for

presentations

no matter whether it is for fundraising

or whether it is for any other kinds of

community event

ask them to share their existing

slideshow with you and you as a

photographer will within a matter of

minutes see okay that is what they've

got well that doesn't look so great we

can do better than that in the course of

that same conversation you can ask them

Kenneth what is it that you would like

to visualize that you do not have in

hand at the moment

and that way you start the conversation

and basically you come up with the

classic shot list I see flip already

nodding his head I know that anything's

that way too and that way a concept

turns into a very specific project list

I heard Annie refer to

Animal Care Facilities you know for

those of us interested in Wildlife

environmental issues that could be a

great focal point because you know

there's there's a lot of needs there and

you can see how that could go from a

point of initial contact where an animal

gets picked up gets nurtured back gets

adopted gets released again those could

be really powerful stories and that'll

really force you to not just look at

animals but also at the essential

interactions between animals and people

it's going to force you to deal with how

you photograph things in confined

circumstances which will become a real

education for you because things may not

necessarily look so pretty so those are

just some initial thoughts from what I

hear you say

sampner you mentioned something

interesting backstage you became aware

of the different psychological effects

of certain colors and certain patterns

do you want to say a bit more about that

yeah I do want to talk about them

do you know how we talk about getting

into a creative Rock sometimes

sometimes we feel very anxious because

there are others who are performing

better than us in the field of

Photography and you you have this fear

of missing out the fomo effect or you

know you're looking at social media and

realizing oh my God this person is doing

all this stuff and here I am investing

all this time and energy and I'm not

really progressing in the field of

Photography right so how do we take that

and flip it to positivity

no matter where you are in the Journey

of Photography there is always someone

who knows less than what you know

and who is less talented and skilled as

you are and there will always be people

who are more talented and more skilled

than you are right

so instead of comparing ourselves to

someone who is doing better than us and

beating ourselves down and saying oh my

God I'm not performing at that level

what if we were to lend a helping hand

to someone else who's not performing at

our level and say let me impart whatever

knowledge and skill I have let me share

that let me make them feel better I

promise you the latter approach will be

much more rewarding you know it's one

thing to try to gain popularity on

social media but if you want to really

feel positivity in photography then it's

true connections that you make to other

individuals with the aim of wanting to

help them you know so it's I'm talking

about community over competition and as

photographers I think each one of us has

that individual responsibility to create

a community where we foster care for

others it's not like we're trying to cut

into the same slice of pie and therefore

we have to be aggressive about it I

think we can change that culture

and especially as we move towards more

professional aspects of photography I

think we need to bring that

professionalism

something to think about when we're

thinking of how we can make this world a

better place through our imagery

and the other thing I wanted to talk

about is what France brought up about

you know how when you're out there in

the field and you're experiencing

absolute Bliss like you go there and the

weather is crappy but you hope for

something nice to happen you arrive

there it's still crappy but you refuse

to go back and you you know you're

thinking through your head why couldn't

I pursue studio photography you know why

the hell am I here in this crappy

weather while everybody else is nice and

you know cuddling I go to Hawaii and I'm

standing in the you know by the ocean

early in the morning and in English by

the waves and my friends I know are

sleeping and we'll be drinking their Mai

Tais later on right and you and you

question yourself why did I choose this

we do it because when conditions do come

the way we planned you know once in a

while we enter the state of flow we find

absolute Bliss when all our expectations

are rewarded doesn't happen all the time

but when it does it is so deeply

rewarding that we become addicted to

that state of bliss it's called finding

the flow right we practice meditation

specifically to achieve moments of bliss

where we find flow how lucky are we as

photographers that we have found an

Avenue that leads us into those moments

of bliss on a repeated basis what a

fortunate life we have

if we have discovered that and if we

have experienced that flow what could be

better than to teach someone else to

find their own moments of flow to show

them how they can also have a blissful

life and that's where I think the

educational component and sharing your

knowledge and sharing the information

comes

becomes very important so spreading that

Joy you know I'm sure a lot of you have

short Horsetail Falls right the very

first time you did Horsetail Falls think

of that excitement you had when we go

back year after year after year I swear

to God everybody's picture of Horsetail

Falls looks exactly the same yet we keep

going back right and people ask me sapna

aren't you like don't you have enough

pictures of it don't you feel bored

don't you feel like you're crowded

there's hundreds of thousands of people

over there and they're crowding your

space I don't because when I stand there

and the horse tail Falls goes off and

everybody starts cheering like their

favorite team won what a wonderful thing

to celebrate right then you forget about

the crowds and you forget about you know

having to park two miles away and walk

to the spot that you want to shoot

instead you remember what Galen Raul did

and Ansel Adams did when they inspired

us with these images and you realize

you're sharing that Joy with everyone

else I would much rather stand at the

base of Horsetail Falls surrounded by a

whole bunch of people then watch a

football game that's just me is that

thank you sebner

um

any other struck when you showed your

your

photos of of women and girls earlier

this morning

the every image is just expresses

humanity and it expresses intimacy and

you have a rare gift to get into

people's lives and I remember you saying

well it's really easy to know when you

can take a picture of someone because if

they turn away if they you know signal

through gestures that they don't want

you in their lives

but of course there's more to it

can you give us some insights that are

relevant for people here no matter

whether they intend to travel or whether

they go into Community projects what

what is your advice how how do you

establish the rapport

first of all because that's the first

step right to be accepted but then often

in my experience yet when you when you

see something in your mind's eye that

you would like to accomplish but the

situation can be improved a little bit

how do you go about asking someone could

you do this could you change your

position how do you go about that

well

you know basically photographing people

is all about trust

and so you want to do ever anything you

can to earn that trust so for example I

mean I I don't have a camera bag I just

have a little backpack I want to look

like

somebody's cousin or mother or something

and

um and then

I'll demonstrate for example for you you

guys who are shy about photographing

people so let's say I'm going to

photograph front right he's right here

and he he doesn't know that I'm here and

he's just eating an ice cream cone and

it's kind of cute because it's about to

dribble down and everything so do I go

over and go excuse me friends can I take

a picture of you eating your ice cream

cone no because then you've just wrecked

the moment but if I'm over here and I

start shooting

and then he looks over and sees me if I

go like this

it's gonna that's gonna say I'm not

trustworthy

if I go like

this

and I don't mind making an idiot out of

myself he's gonna go

well that idiot is taking a picture of

me and I guess it's okay because she

seems harmless and but it goes from

there

but I I think the the most important

thing is you look people in the eye

after you've got the picture you go

spend a little time with them and that

is what leads to the next thing and the

next thing and the next thing so because

I'm a journalist

I go in

actually hoping they'll invite me home

you know you guys want to get a real

photograph

but

I want to go deeper because I'm I'm

telling a story

so in many situations My Hope Is that

we'll become Pals and and I'll learn

about him and he'll learn about me and

even if we don't have language we'll go

oh great Jack you know love your

earrings anything that does a personal

connection

it's really fun you know it's and you

realize that most people aren't used to

having anybody pay attention to them

so

there at first they might be a little

shy or awkward but pretty soon they're

like

this was pretty fun and you'll be you'll

be the same way so it's that and then

um the other thing I would say is

it's so tempting to go to the place

everybody else goes to and to tell the

story everybody else tells

but what is really satisfying is to find

the stories that need to be told

and that everybody isn't covering and

that you can find access to people real

people

who who matter

so does that answer your question okay

it does

um

I would like to

turn things over to to you and the

audience to ask if you have any

questions or comments about things so

far

who would like to say something or ask

something of any of us

yes

well the question is

um if you couldn't hear when do you need

to get permission or a release or

something like that

um

the truth is you know certain

Publications and would like you to have

a release for everyone including your

children you know

um because someday maybe possibly

I I rarely get releases

I I form a relationship and I make darn

sure that my images are never used to

embarrass them hurt them I mean that's

that's what the basis of the lawsuit or

that they're not used in an ad campaign

then then you do need a release you know

and you need to compensate people

but it's it's really not a big issue

but for me at least and I don't want

them to think that actually I've

invested this time because I want to

make money off of you yeah

um I would like to thanks for that

question because I know more

photographers are of concern about that

I think the first threshold is if if you

think you're doing this just for your

own private use no worries you know the

last thing you should do when you enter

into somebody's personal space is to

pull out a legal agreement

because that doesn't create trust right

so the second threshold is used for

educational purposes and that is really

what what most of Annie's work is all

about and if you add in the caveats

about making sure that people are

represented in a way that is trustworthy

honorable

Etc you're not going to run into

problems the big threshold to Big

trigger is commercial applications that

is where if you give the images to third

party yeah where there's a financial

exchange that is where you need to be

very very careful yeah

um any other questions comments

yes

how do you handle people stealing your

images

okay how do you how do you deal with

people I would call it appropriating

your your images

um

um entirely different question and in

this day and age of of rampant

appropriation via VIA the internet via

social media it is very difficult to

control that in every in every instance

there's companies now that specialize in

patrolling the internet and if you give

them a set of images they can Patrol the

internet and find any and all

applications and then they can act on

your behalf and contact the users and

find out if things have been done

inappropriately

um and ultimately that could lead to you

know to legal fees and so on

um I think for most people sitting here

that it leads you down a rabbit hole and

if you don't depend on your photography

for your livelihood it could really add

a a level of anxiety and and worries to

what you're really doing

because you it pleases you it makes you

feel good about creating images so

I would

not worry about that too much however if

there's specific instances where you

feel somebody really stole an image

there are some resources out there do

you have anything to say about that so I

think when you post right I mean most

you're talking about online stealing

because I mean prints they can't really

steal right because we have them in a

secure place so my advice would be don't

post anything at high resolution you

really don't because whether it's Flickr

or Facebook or wherever it is that

you're posting any way that algorithm is

going to make your images look only so

good right it's crappy the resolution so

don't ever be out there on social media

or any kind of online platform with high

resolution images 1080 is all you should

be posting I posted two thousand even

that I think is overkill just stick to

280 so that's one thing the second thing

is when somebody when you realize this

happened to me where I took a picture of

my friend in the desert with her camera

bag

and a company from India actually stole

the picture and published it on their

main magazine better photography the

cover actually had that it was a stolen

picture

and what happened was others

congratulated me for getting a cover

photo that I did not know about

so I looked at it and I thought that's

interesting first of all it was a

commercial it was an advertisement for a

bag and that was in the bag the girl was

wearing

she was out there in the desert it was

far you couldn't tell but it was a great

shot so it's like okay so they're using

the wrong product two they don't have my

permission three they don't have my

friend's permission to have the picture

so a lot of things had gone wrong

um in this particular instance when I

reached out to the magazine and said

what you published is wrong they said

sorry for the next three months the

contract has already been sold so you'll

see the picture again and again and

again on the back cover and no you're

not getting reimbursed for it

so I had to make what I did is made a

big mess out of it on social media I

just posted it and said don't buy this

bag because they're not selling the

right bag you know um so reached out

that way and everybody thought it was

funny so they started sharing it and I

reached out to the original cam camera

bag company and said what you're doing

is unethical and I'll keep posting this

and making jokes about it unless you

take it down so there's a way to go

about it without I guess getting too

anxious about it but here I would say

send a season desist letter if they're

using your product usually if it's a

brand that's using it you will get your

money back because you know brands are

careful it was a genuine mistake because

it was a middleman who had sold the

picture to them so they didn't know it

was mine so if it's a brand send a

seasoned assist letter make them aware

that this is happening there are

companies out there which will search

the internet like do a reverse search

and they will find out where your images

are and try to compensate you for that

my friends in Europe have much better

luck collecting than we do in America or

Asia

um and I think if it's an individual

who's stealing it guys you know

imitation is the sincerest form of

flattery right that's a compliment take

it say thank you you must really love my

images now that you're stealing them and

let it be you know it's one individual

don't you think it's mostly

think about where you want to put your

time and energy

you know it it's quite kind of karmic

um you know of course I've seen my

images used without permission and stuff

but it's not where I want my energy to

go so unless it's egregious

don't worry about it

honestly it's just that's how that's my

belief system

you have to share a funny story I took a

picture of my daughter's friend you know

she was trying to become sort of like

this teenage model and so I took a

picture and when I was in the hospital

the hospital said sapna can we use all

your images to just you know living up

the atmosphere and I said yeah sure feel

free dig into any of my pictures and you

can use them the next thing I know I'm

walking through the mental health clinic

and I see a picture of my daughter's

friend saying if you are depressed

you know she was trying to strike the

model pose where they don't smile and

sort of have that sour look and they use

that and said if you are depressed this

is what you need to do at that point I

had to put my foot down and said please

take that picture down so you know it

happens

all right

um

um yes last question yep you there in

the back

okay I believe I understood the question

if you share an image from a photo

sharing website and I don't want you to

put your watermark on the image what do

you do

well now we're really getting into legal

territory here if you really feel

strongly about this you should register

your images with with the Library of

Congress periodically before you post

them

um but it just gets more and more

technical there and so I would say let's

steer the conversation back to what we

were here for is how can you make a

difference with your pictures yeah Kevin

you have a question

I like taking this to an

enjoy

and if from your experience

do they usually have a problem paying

for these do they ask for so many

okay your question is if you're

interested in making your work available

to conservation organizations or

educational

entities

how do you bring possible compensation

into the conversation about that

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um

you know the budgets of most of the

entities that you might be interested in

supporting are really limited and

they're really not used to paying for

the use of pictures I hate to say that

but that's just the reality and that's

not just a small organizations it

includes you know worldwide conservation

organizations with budgets of hundreds

of millions of dollars because the

people who are in a position to say yes

to the use of your images are under

duress not to spend anything at all

because they'll get their pictures from

their Partners from their scientists etc

etc they want the money to be spent on

programs not on image acquisition and

yeah now that's that's that's different

that's a physical asset if that's an

interest of yours then I would say I'd

go to a lab and say okay I'd like to do

this would you be interested in in

participating in that

so

um well

I don't know how much time we have I

think we should wrap this up I will say

before we finish this that

if any of you are interested in having

us look at a body of work that you think

has got some gems in it or you're

searching for possible applications

we'd be happy to bring you into one of

these these Workshop sessions where we

do that explicitly and with a small

group of people you'll be amazed to see

how much camaraderie

you can develop in the course of a

weekend and it's not just your

applications but those of others as well

that'll that'll inspire you to carry on

so just let us know go to Talia outside

at our table if you're interested in

that can I say one thing France yeah

um because I really want I really want

to finish on a high note

um thank you Annie yeah

not not your workshops his workshops are

really good

um but

the questions

bother me a little bit because I think

what what we all believe and want to say

is

you should be each other's best friends

you know photographers need each other

and the world needs our work

and so try not to expend too much energy

on

what bad thing might happen you have to

have the basic knowledge and the ability

to know who really can afford to pay and

who can't but more importantly what I

think we would like you to take away

from this

is that follow your heart

you know be sure in your in your career

or you're just your photo life

that as well as growing personally

you learn how to give back to your

community

and it will bring you tremendous

tremendous pride and it will make a

difference Annie thank you for bending

it back because we went into some rabbit

holes and I see flip not here flip a

last concluding statement because I

think you have something on your mind or

in your heart and IT addresses what

we're just talking about if you're

taking pictures you want to show them to

people

and and people want to see your pictures

the senior centers anywhere if you're

taking pictures and just looking at them

yourselves you're not doing much find

some way to share the pictures with

people to get input from them and that's

when you do that someone goes hey can't

you come over here and do this and show

your pictures somewhere there's there

whether it's in a school whether it's in

a senior center figure some way to share

what you're doing with other people

okay how's that for a closure

if you end up doing something that comes

out of this session please share the

results with us and we'll cheer you out

thank you very much

[Applause]

thanks

okay that was pretty awesome let's give

one more round of applause for these

guys

they did great

okay so we're going to be breaking for

lunch and we're going to be back at two

o'clock with Christy Odom make sure

you're here she has an amazing

presentation with some work that's going

to curl your eyebrows

I'm sorry that's gonna be uh

two o'clock wait it's 1 30.

it's time change yeah to two o'clock two

o'clock two o'clock she'll be back and

then at three o'clock uh softer ready

we'll be back on stage talking about how

to monetize this amazing thing that we

call photography okay folks see you uh

have a great lunch and uh we'll see a

little bit also hey everyone enter your

photo into the contest the optic contest

have them printed out uh the last call

for the contest I believe is at three

o'clock so have them printed out and

enter there's not so many people in the

contest which means your chances are

very good

the question is is how do you do that so

you uh go have your print made at either

Epson or Canon we'll print it out and

then you go to uh all where there's a

wall of foam core that's the push pin

Gallery you go there there's a table and

a young lady will will take your

information put a sticker on your

picture and put it up on the wall and it

will be judged

that's the trade show then yep

the trade not out the lobby the trade

show area four corner

okay thank you good luck

baskets also check out our checkout

numbers also check out the flare on

Murray's vest and everyone's favorite

part are conveyor belt

the benefit of the conveyor belt is you

don't have to worry about the product or

schlepping around anymore until checkout

nice

to the owners they still come to work

every day they're around here somewhere

anyway this is Jeanette oh sorry she's

busy this is our warehouse this is

yaakov and Lady fighting over lighting

kits

b h is not a chain b h is open every day

except Saturdays of course

now you know almost the whole story

we are b h

uh

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assistant

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foreign

foreign

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foreign

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thank you

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everything

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foreign

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foreign

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family started a pizza restaurant in

1960. whoa 60 years of pizza what's the

secret we use cheddar cheese

okay so what's next for you Steph I want

to take this tiny thing that I've been

looking at and blow it up using

projectors I just have to figure out

what equipment I need I like where this

is going so b h you know we're gonna

we're gonna talk again Steph we're

always here when you need us and be sure

to save me a slice for your next project

head to the experts at B h.com

oh yeah I've definitely put him under

the microscope cat fur looks crazy

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it's extreme environment over time has

shaped the landscape itself it's shaped

the animals that live here and it is

very much shaped its human history you

really do feel when you're here like

you're living on the edge of the world

we're in some of the most beautiful

fjords that exist on the planet we're

always looking to find polar bears and

already as we have dropped our anchor we

have seen several it's Barren and Rich

at the same time and that's what I find

amazing

monstrous amounts of seabirds here

nesting in the Millions

Iceland really is the land of Fire and

Ice

it's the land it's the sea it's the

atmosphere it's really what the Arctic

is all about

introducing the new payboo credit card

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this is a real b h customer story Jack

and barber professional Wildlife

photographers and b h customers for 30

years live in remote Alaska hey what's

the population there about 50 to 52

people and bears would definitely not

New York anymore it's just quiet here

it's beautiful the wildlife photography

out here is amazing while they could

order equipment from any number of sites

they don't anytime we need anything b h

is our go-to we can send an email we

have used the chat feature and of course

the phone of our phones are working if

the phones are working hi Jake

I needed a tripod and it had to be light

it had to be sturdy so I talked with

somebody at b h I think his name is

Charles and he pointed me toward a

certain tripod and liked it so much that

I bought a second one nice one Charles

when it comes to getting gear things

were shipped quickly packed well made it

through the harrowing Journey going from

plane to smaller plane to somebody's

hand thrown to somebody else put in the

back of a truck and arrived unscathed

that's quite the schlep it must be

incredible when it gets there oh it's

it's like Christmas I mean honestly it's

better than Christmas yeah it's my

birthday B H has everything that we need

I mean when have we ever looked for

something and it wasn't available well

there was bananas yeah

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our Voyage together explores where the

desert meets the sea

this whole set of mangroves right here

is a roosting area and a nesting area

for magnificent frigates wow how cool

back here today we traveled North

through hole Canal which is an

incredibly narrow channel

here's a place we have the opportunity

to see moms and calves some of them just

a few weeks old

it's a fantastically warm and wonderful

day here in Baja and we're seeing

incredible behavior from these gray

whales

no that was incredible

these large Keyhole sand dollars two to

three inches across

I had no idea how beautiful this place

was going to be

it's really quite unimaginable until

you've been here

[Music]

this is a strange beautiful remarkable

place the word unique absolutely applies

here there are so many creatures that

exist nowhere else on Earth

[Music]

in the middle of equator isolated from

the rest of the world here animals don't

show concern to The Observers it's

something that you will never forget

we're with the giant tortoises and we're

walking through their natural home my

inner child is just like yes

Galapagos you never know what to expect

and I've often said that every single

week something new happens

look at this 91. don't move everybody

don't move it's gonna pass by next to us

it will never leave you if you go to the

Galapagos Islands you will have stories

for the rest of your life I promise you

as a photographer who works with

National Geographic it's such a

privilege and an honor to be able to

bring the National Geographic audience

to

visit some of the most remote spots on

the planet

investigating the native plants looking

for endemic Birds

array coming straight at us straight

ahead of us now you can see them

it was amazing it was beautiful

shark ridgelines and Peaks that are so

defining for these islands

people are going back to their history

and finding ways to renew that so those

layers of history in the present day you

know are visible in the everyday lives

of the people that we're meeting

I've never seen anything like it it's

most pure in a way because nobody's here

this is the postcard that we all buy or

dream of going to see

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this is a real b h customer story okay

okay

we need to be ready for whatever the

customer needs even when especially when

the items are rare so true could you

give us an example Irving we help

millions of customers all over the world

come on just one example well there was

NASA NASA NASA what's the big deal we

have everyone big and small so what did

a unique hasselblock lens for a space

mission I guess no one else had it but

we did but we often have what others

don't love it what else can you tell us

about this story that is the story copy

that Irving and thank you for sharing

for all your needs big or small check

out B h.com

go back to work now

Fred Smith here told us the B H Photo

helped change his life Fred tell us your

story

I was a fitness instructor in Atlanta

and I transferred to New York March 13

2020 right as the city went under

lockdown oof that's rough timing all the

studios shut down but with b h as hell I

started workout with Fred it's an online

fitness platform with cycling classes

and off the bike classes hot by me let's

talk about lemons the lemonade as I

started looking for equipment everybody

I spoke to was pointing me to b h I

needed a camera a lens microphone

capture card audio interface oh Fred

we're running out of room here well

here's the thing that setup is really

complicated and that's where b h came in

I felt like every expert I spoke to had

been in my shoes before whether I was on

the chat or I called anytime I had a

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ah I wish I called you earlier we're

always here for your friend say where do

you film all this let me show you my

living room is essentially a recording

studio everything in here except for the

couch and the TV are laid out so that I

can do my recording amazing what's next

to you Fred one of the things I wanted

to do for years was start a video

podcast so I started something called

join the convo we discussed important

topics in a safe space Fred you're a

real Mensch thank you for sharing your b

h story with us if you're thinking of

starting a virtual business like Fred

check out B h.com

story about a magical place

everything's amazing

especially the people

we can tell you everything there is to

know about over 400 000 different pieces

of gear tell them Lenny we have a 17

millimeter 24 millimeter 45 millimeter

he does this all day we'll help you find

the right thing which is often not the

most expensive the A9 is great but I

think the 6500 is better for what you

need

it's pretty rare and just like you we

love to explore and share our passion

because we're creators as well Israel

and Jake like to make videos for the web

I love it when he does this

oh by the way if you can't meet us in

person you can always chat with us

online

think of us as collaborators production

Partners problem solvers this is Greg

he's made five gold records

and here's Jay the King of the

candidates wait wait I'm not ready Jay

sometimes we geek out and help each

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like Lenny who's still going because

there's a lot to say when you're making

some pretty important decisions so now

you've met 16 of over 1 000 employees 16

reasons our customers like to do

business with people not algorithms we

are b h

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your paybu credit card so you want to

save the tax on a camera laptop and

drone no problem no need to wait for

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cards the b h payboo card pays you back

instantly or save over time and choose

special financing and pay it off over 6

or 12 months it's easy use your new

payboo card as payment at checkout then

choose your available options either

payboo savings or special financing see

your savings or promotional plan right

on your receipt in-store or online

applying is easy your approved payboo

card will be instantly available for a

first purchase at checkout the new

payboo card same funny name your choice

of exclusive

foreign

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

thank you

foreign

folks find the products they need isn't

that right Irving yes definitely we need

to be ready for whatever the customer

needs even when especially when the

items are rare so true could you give us

an example Irving we help millions of

customers all over the world come on

just one example well there was NASA

NASA NASA what's the big deal we have

everyone big and small so what did NASA

need a unique hasselblock lens for a

space mission I guess no one else had it

but we did but we often have what others

don't

love it what else can you tell us about

this story that is the story copy that

Irving and thank you for sharing for all

your needs big or small check out

bnh.com

I go back to work now

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

oh my God

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

students

[Music]

first things

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

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foreign

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

foreign

foreign

and we're

we'll be great

okay hi everyone welcome back hope

everyone had a great lunch we are in

that time of optic which is called the

home stretch the last two presentations

so as a matter of fact you're all going

to giggle but I think you're going to

have an opportunity to stretch at a

certain point of this Con of this next

presentation all right so we have an

amazing presenter up for you next

Christy Odom is a Nikon Ambassador we

want to thank Nikon for bringing Christy

out to optic West uh Christy has also

done some extensive work with the b h

social team and they produce some of

their videos with Christy but Christy

also did a webinar last week for optic

and it was an amazing webinar if you go

to the webinars tab of the optic West

website you'll be able to watch that

webinar if you haven't seen it yet so

you're not one of the 12 000 people that

have viewed the video yet you'll see it

and uh I just want to say from a close

part of my heart this is a beautiful

presentation and the work she's been

doing is really incredible and of some

really using Cutting Edge technology

from Nikon to Showcase something that

hasn't even been seen before so you guys

get ready buckle up this is going to be

fun Christy Odom take it away

thank you so much

hello everyone who all was whale

watching this morning

awesome right big thank you to b h for

that a great Excursion I'm going to

start with a video I made just for optic

West so here you go

there are moments that connect us

when we feel connected we want to make

change

[Music]

fight for what we love

[Music]

to me my camera has been a tool to

connect

tool to understand a tool to feel and

experience nature and the sheer

empowerment

[Music]

celebrate the beauty of life

hi I'm Christie Odom I'm a wildlife

photographer and filmmaker based in

Longmont Colorado

I'm a Nikon Ambassador I'm an associate

fellow of the international league of

conservation photographers

the camera is not only my weapon for

change

but the bridge that creates my passion

[Music]

my connection my love and ultimately my

fight

[Music]

[Applause]

the first time I felt the emotions of an

animal it was at my very home with Choco

Taco pants

we've been through a lot in the 14 years

we've been together she was there at the

hardest of times and she has this way of

knowing when I'm sad she comes up puts

her head in my lap and doesn't ask a

thing and it's just like hey I'm here

my goal with photography is to connect

people emotionally to Wildlife I want to

show that animals have emotions

characters personalities

in connection I believe comes the fight

for protection

I'm going to talk today about the crazy

stories behind the images along with my

challenges and failures but first i'm

going to talk about the passion that

drives me and where that fire was first

lit

and I'm going to start with one of my

biggest inspirations

in July 1960 Jane Goodall traveled to

Africa to study chimpanzees what she

learned there redefined the relationship

between humans and animals

her work showed just how connected

everything is people Planet animals

environment

my first connection to Wildlife happened

around 12 years ago when I visited this

animal sanctuary called Lucinda verde in

bolivi in Bolivia

this little guy this little spider

monkey this is not the spider monkey's

mother

but there was this love compassion and

feeling

I had no idea what went into animal

trafficking and the trauma that animals

go through

in order to get an animal into

trafficking on average they kill nine

mother monkeys what they do is they

shoot the moms from the trees they pull

the babies out of the dying mom's arms

and that's how an animal ends up in

trafficking

people traffic monkeys for all sorts of

reasons to have them as pets bush meat

what I saw there I saw trauma I saw

sadness I saw so much of the world at

its worst but I also saw the world at

its best I went down during a really

crazy time in my life and what these

animals taught me was that at the other

side of pain and the other side of

misery there was also love and there was

hope

and I decided I wanted to use my camera

to try to show these emotions it

connected me so deeply

orangutan share about 97 of our DNA

chimpanzees 99. I've traveled all over

the world to photograph these primates

and I've seen power strength but I've

also seen Grace

personalities characters and I've seen

hope and what can be such a crazy world

I've had these moments in nature where

literally my jaw has dropped

because I'm so overwhelmed with

something that is so beautiful that

there are no words hopefully there's

pictures I will admit that I've cried

many many times behind my camera

this world can be so big and so Sublime

it can be overwhelming but also

beautiful in so many simple ways

beautiful in The Quiet Moments

beautiful and the compassion that

Wildlife shows each other

and also in times of need

I've also seen Heroes people that fight

every day for our planet people that go

out and help these animals when they're

just when there's so much destruction of

Wildlife and destruction of habitat

I started to realize just how much

change is needed

my tool is my camera

with the hopes to celebrate wildlife and

to get people to want to fight for

wildlife and Wild Spaces

and maybe it's something as simple as

getting people to use less palm oil

that's what's caused the destruction of

habitat here this orangutan lost its

Wilderness and roamed into a farm and

had to be relocated

little things changes in our consumption

make a huge huge difference

do you remember the first photo you took

that you loved

this is one of my very first photos I

took that I loved I actually never

thought I would be a photographer I went

to school for electrical engineering so

when I got into photography I started to

love to celebrate patterns and I wanted

to photograph a whale shark because I

wanted to see those spots

and what I saw when I went out to

photograph the whale sharks is I saw not

just spots but I saw all these lines

and I wanted a moment where those lines

brought your eyes in and met the spots

when I went out to dive with the whale

sharks I immediately thought I had to

get in the water and go deep and I'm

scuba diving and trying to take all

these pictures and I'm not getting

anything the second I went to the

surface and started snorkeling I noticed

that the light was diffracting around my

body

diffraction is when an obstacle causes

light to bend and this light was bending

around my body which meant I could

control it

and so I realized the more and more I

swam that I could put those lines where

I wanted and direct people's eyes to

what I wanted them to see

so I swam swam swam

I might have swam into a school of

jellyfish while I wasn't wearing a

wetsuit

on an island with no running water

medical facilities

people that didn't I didn't speak their

language

so I show up and I say you know hey

I got a problem

can you all help me

and they said yes we've got aid for you

and I'm like great what kind of Aid do

you have

it was the least

it was the last thing that came to my

mind I show up to lunch

ready to get this Aid literally they

said lemonade

there's all the scars the spots I got

from photographing the whale shark and

there was a lemon with a glass of water

and I'm like what is this gonna do

it was not the best of situations that's

literally what I was wearing so you can

see just how much skin I had exposed

Lessons Learned right

the lemonade didn't really help and they

say when life gives you lemon make

lemonade

still didn't make me too happy

this image ended up in the Smithsonian

on as part of Nature's Best Awards I've

always kind of been a little shy and

introverted at the core and I remember

this being my first photo that was

really put on display

and it was beautiful to be able to say

look at something that I see that's

beautiful and maybe I can get somebody

else to love a whale shark a little bit

more

every time I see that image though I

sometimes want Lemonade I'll admit

and it reminds me of the spots that I

got from the jellyfish

but at the same time it was beautiful to

me because photography has this way of

showing us the grand

of giving us these moments of standing

with the sublime or swimming

but that's the thing about photography

and nature

the sublime isn't just in the grant

my camera has taught me that there's

also the sublime and the tiny

this is a tadpole

and I hope you don't mind I'm going to

talk about tadpoles but this is no

ordinary tadpole this is a very

important tadpole the more and more I

take photos the more I want to tell

stories I want to celebrate Heroes and I

want to talk about issues that matter

and hopefully get somebody to care a

little more about a tadpole

this tadpole is the tadpole of a boreal

toad let me tell you a little bit about

the Boreal toads and this is a story

I've been working on for the last couple

of years

the Boreal toad is Colorado's only

Alpine species of toad

this high altitude amphibian lives at 7

000 to 12 000 feet in Mountain lakes and

ponds it's an indicator species for

healthy wetlands and it has been known

to hop over five miles to find healthy

habitat and rugged Mountain Terrain

it is found in different places in the

U.S and Canada and it's very they're

very unique like our fingerprints they

have these markings on their belly that

give their individual characters

while they have no vocal sac and

hibernate for half of their lives they

have a massive group hundreds of people

fighting for their survival

they used to thrive in numbers to the

point where they were hopping around

mountain towns

now experts estimate that there's only

800 adults living in Colorado

they're currently listed as protected in

Wyoming and endangered in Colorado and

New Mexico

the major threats habitat loss climate

change and a deadly fungus called

kitrick that is wiping out amphibian

populations globally

facilities are not only helping breed

and release these Boreal toads but

there's a community tons of community

science groups that go all the way to

these high altitude ponds and wetlands

to check for citric fungus

in 2008 the Utah Department of Wildlife

Resources started an assurance colony to

make sure these toads did not disappear

they started that in this plateau in

Utah and since then collaborative

collaborators from around the world are

joining forces to save this toad

different aquariums different zoos

different Wildlife Management

organizations the list goes on and on

there are 145 toads from this 15 lot

from the the plateau that are all at

these different institutions so I'm like

yes this is a story I want to take

pictures of and I took pictures of the

first tadpole or not the first I took

pictures of a tadpole released in

Colorado

and then I ended up taking pictures of a

release of the little tiny newly

metamorphosized toads in Utah and it's

really cool because the Toads were

released back to the plateau in Utah

that the Assurance colony was started in

2008 bringing the story full circle

from zoos state agencies and Community

scientists joining forces the story

speaks to the importance of

collaboration technology and passion to

protect a species

a lot of stories have a hero or two this

story has many and I'm so passionate

about it and I'm really excited to get

out and photograph these tadpoles

one of the misconceptions I had for a

very long time is a misconception about

zoos

there's a whole Aza accreditation for

zoos that celebrates the conservation

efforts Denver Zoo alone puts in two

million dollars a year to conservation

all the way from Colorado to

Mongolia to Peru to Vietnam they've got

all these conservation programs for

protection of species

your local zoo is a great place to find

stories and I am such a fan

in 2019 the Denver Zoo was the first to

successfully use hormones to help breed

Boreal toads

a model that has now literally put tens

of thousands of these toads back into

Colorado in Utah

now here's the interesting thing

while this story has a lot of Heroes

the biggest part about this story is a

tadpole

and I'm saying how in the world do you

photograph a tadpole that's not

something you can Google

I show up with my Nikon z9 and my 105

macro and I first time to see the

tadpole tanks and I'm putting my camera

in the tank and I'm trying to take

photos and they suck

right tadpoles talking about macro

photography you've got a very very

shallow depth of field

you've got an animal you've got an

animal that's in water submerged super

fast super erratic how in the world do

you photograph a tadpole

the things I love about photography and

I love about our community

is that there are so many people that

are out there to help there are so many

people so I started sharing my failures

I started sharing my failures with

everybody I could and going what did I

do wrong I had to go back to the zoo not

once not twice not three times I think

five freaking times to figure out how to

photograph a tadpole here is a list

of the people that helped me photograph

a tadpole

beautiful is that we live in a world

that all these masters of Photography

are coming together

to get a photograph of a tadpole

people even joined me at the zoo other

ambassadors Joey Terrell Dave black

wrote me emails Michael Dion who's out

at the Nikon table came with me to the

zoo

Paul Van Allen helped me figure out

exactly how to construct a studio for

the tadpoles

it was a beautiful thing and this

honestly melts my heart that so many

people came together for a tadpole

I've got a little BTS video that I want

to share with you and then I'm going to

break down the setup that ended up

working

here's my BTS video

hardest thing I've ever put a rest a

temple but these are no ordinary

tadpoles they're very important tadpoles

there have been a lot of threats to the

Boreal toad in Colorado and all over the

world because of this fungus that's

coming in called pitrick and there's

also all sorts of issues with water

rights people

ponds and lakes for their own irrigation

and whatnot

Colorado has been in a little bit of a

drought 21 years it was 7

so with loss of habitat fungus

these toads that used to be hopping

around the roads are now they're

estimating about 800 or left in the

population in Colorado so I'm here at

the Denver Zoo who have created tons of

tadpoles and they're releasing them back

into different ponds and lakes

throughout Utah and Colorado in order to

help

population so that these guys

you don't threat for extinction

important tadpoles so important photos

and uh how do you put it up a tadpole

here's a picture of the setup and I'm

going to talk a little bit about this I

was using my z9 my 50 macro I needed to

I actually got a 50 for this project so

I could get really really close I had a

little rubber hood on my macro so that

if I went against the plastic that I

wouldn't see those Reflections from the

light hitting it

I used two Astera pixel bricks very

unique light that b h is like one of the

only places that sells it it's fantastic

but it's a static light that I can

change the color I can change the

intensity I can change the temperature I

put one on the side and one on the top

because of the speed in the macro having

a flash fire one shot off isn't what I

wanted I wanted to be able to to fire a

burst of images off so I wanted static

light I figured that would work better

Paul Van Allen helped me figure out

getting a tank which I think was awesome

and having the experts at Denver Zoo

that were working for the creation of

tadpoles was super important to make

sure that I didn't harm any living being

for the sake of a photograph which is

vital

and then on top of that like I bought

black cardboard from Michael's to block

light in certain areas it was great and

I'm so grateful for Paul who will answer

any question you have which is fantastic

no matter if it takes them 17 000 frames

on his own camera to figure out what was

it 17 000 for that one question

he's the man but I was super excited and

I'll tell you like not only were the

tadpoles impressive for so long with

macro photography the way I photographed

insects and the way I photograph stories

with macro is I usually put my camera on

manual focus

for my lens I put my macro I said it so

it's as I can get as close as possible

to the subject I use a feature called

focus peaking which throws a colored

light on what's in focus when you're in

manual focus

so I move in and out and when the insect

is in that frame I see that light and I

fire off a burst

that's how I do my macro photography and

that's how I was planning on

photographing these tadpoles but then I

got this new firmware update for my z9

and and I went in there and I saw

something that was unbelievable to the

point where I had to put the atomos

Ninja on my camera to show you guys the

electronic viewfinder

animal eye tracking worked on a tadpole

foreign

I'm like I don't know what engineer did

this but props right

I was using auto focus to get these

photos now I'm saying I can't even

really see the eyeball with my own eye

so I was really surprised and it wasn't

exact it wasn't locking and staying on

but it kept hitting and I shot my

pictures on autofocus I'm like what

as impressive as that is

what was even more impressive that

actually brought me to tears at the

Denver Zoo

was seeing what a tadpole looks like

from the chubby cheeks to the identifier

spots to the cosmos that it looks likes

inside the eyes I have never seen a

tadpole like this and I was overwhelmed

by something that looks like a boba and

a boba tea right

I was blown away and I remember just

going wow

and when you have those moments that you

can celebrate nature even from a very

small perspective it opened my eyes and

it showed me just how protect how

precious this tiny Critter is that

hundreds of people are fighting for its

survival

there were even moments where I could

see the red of the heart

in a tadpole

it's beautiful when the camera can

connect us show us the sublime show us

the little show us just how magnificent

nature is

Colorado Wildlife is something I'm

really passionate about I've lived in

Colorado since October of 2020 and since

then I'm always looking for stories and

I'm going to tell you my favorites

favorite of the Colorado animals

the incredible the Mighty the powerful

pica

I didn't know about this species until I

moved out to Colorado and I am so glad

pikas are in my life because they're

amazing and to introduce you to the

mighty Pika I put a video together I

love that we can switch our foot our

camera from photo to video mode and when

that mood hits we can get these little

video clips that can connect people in a

totally different way

and I hope this video connects you to

the mighty little pika

[Music]

thank you

thank you

[Music]

[Applause]

the Pika ended up becoming my second

story that I got published online for

National Geographic I contacted them and

I was going oh my gosh there's a group

of over 400 individuals that hike to

high elevation to count pikas

pikas are an indicator species and with

weather changing they're at threats for

for losing their livelihood

here's what they said in National

Geographic a critter the size and shape

of a furry Russet potato with Mickey

Mouse ears and no tail the American Pika

might not be your standard iconic

species

but the charismatic rabbit relative is

integral to high altitude Landscapes of

the American West

the Project's mission is to document and

collect key information about pikas in

their habitat and we use that

information to better understand how

climate change could be threatening the

survival of populations

so in every story of course they're the

heroes like this hero

Dr Chris Ray is a wildlife biologist

who's been working close with pikas as a

long-term project to understand climate

change and its relationship between its

local extinctions of Pica through

Western North America

I followed her out to see how her and

her volunteers and other researchers

collected data and monitored the pikas

as part of this story there were all

sorts of challenges where they trapped

the picus and how they tagged them to to

monitor them they trapped them in these

cages so I had to find a way to make

sure I got light in there I'm constantly

bringing my SB 5000 constantly bringing

a flash around with a remote trigger to

my flash

constantly bringing little things I can

use as diffusers and going for different

angles and and trying to find ways to

make sure I bring light into area that

needs light it's a super easy way for

any of you that got a chance to see my

webinar I talk a lot more about this on

my optic West webinar I talk a lot about

using Flash and I highly recommend if

you're curious to watch that

here are my settings the the camera

equipment that I used I use the z72 24

to 70 SB 5000

wr11 to trigger it

and this ended up being one of the

photos that ran in the story

which is great because I wanted to tell

the Pica in all sorts of form for uh

different forms sorry

these pikas have quickly grabbed my

heart from the fact that they collect

all these flowers and and they they put

flowers and leaves and forbs in their in

their Rock piles and they actually don't

hibernate they put them in there and

they feed on them throughout the crazy

crazy Mountain winner and they're

survivors

and they also get big bellies which I

love

I was lying in bed one morning and slow

to get out of bed checking my phone

seeing what was going on in the world

and then I saw this list I saw this

email

National Geographic's best animal photos

of 2021. I'm very new to the getting my

stuff and even just online for National

Geographic I'm I'm new to like really

pushing these stories and and fighting

for them because it is a very hard

battle

and I remember seeing and going through

this list and seeing Brian scary and Amy

Vitale

my name

sorry

and I saw the Pica

and I remember just crying in bed

because I couldn't believe that I was on

that list with my heroes and with so

many amazing photographers and there's

my pika

and my husband looks over he wakes him

up and he's like whoa and I'm like it's

good it's good

I want to talk about this shot because

while it doesn't look like a anything

too special it actually did take a lot

to get this photo the thing I've noticed

about Wildlife is wildlife has

repetitive Behavior a lot of times I

notice this with insects a dragonfly if

you go out to a flower or read the

dragonflies there and then it flies off

stay focused because you might not just

get that dragonfly to come back but you

might get it Landing they go back and

forth to the same spot over and over

again

this Pika was going back and forth to

the same spot over and over again it was

going down and licking the Rocks here

maybe it liked a mineral or something

like that

so I put my Nikon z72 down there wide

angle 20 millimeter lens I made sure it

wasn't in the area that the Pica was

interested in it was a little bit off

and I use that wr11 the same trigger I

used for the flash down to trigger that

camera I set back with a big pack of M

M's

chocolate right Lizzy

set back with a big pack of M M's and I

waited and sure enough

Pica came down and I fired off shots

little things a little tiny remote that

can help you get your flash off camera a

little tiny remote that gets you step

back and turn your camera into a remote

helped me get this photo that ended up

on that list I'm pretty excited about

that

all right I know this has been like

after lunch and and like David said it's

the long stretch so I'm gonna let you

guys all stand up and give yourselves a

big stretch you have as much time as my

Pica stretch video and honestly this is

just an excuse for me to watch this

video because I'm kind of obsessed

the back legs this is my favorite part

right here

God right

I love it so much you're gonna watch it

again but mirrored

everyone feeling nice and stretched

oh yes I love this audience you're

amazing

gosh

there it is

[Laughter]

the biggest stretch gets unplugged yes

I love Colorado and I was out and I'm

kind of still I think just a couple of

years into video and I I love video I'm

getting obsessed I'm loving doing these

little video clips

I was out rock climbing with my stepson

and husband

and to me one of my dreams has always

been to do a camera campaign because

it's like

do something you're passionate about and

show off our gear and you're like yes

and I remember being out rock climbing

with miles that's miles my stepson on

the rocks

killing it right I was out rock climbing

with Miles and I get this call from

Michael Corrado head of the Nikon

ambassador program

Christy this is super confidential super

confidential and that's always fun kind

of walk away I'm like all right all

right what's up we're coming out with a

new flagship mirrorless camera the z9

and we want you to do a slow motion

video campaign

of course I started crying because

I'm very passionate about what I do and

I'm just crying and he's like you can't

tell anyone my husband no I'm like okay

can't tell anyone I'm like all right

so I come back over and Miles sees me

crying he's like what's up and I'm like

nothing it's

I'm like and he's like you okay and I'm

like it's good tears I promise it's

happy tears I'll tell you about it one

day I promise

but it was beautiful because I just

finished this story with the pikas and

when Corrado asked do you have any ideas

I mean we're still in the pandemic

international travel is still like kind

of off the table do you have any ideas

and I'm like yes let's do a piece that

celebrates the High Altitude Wildlife

let's celebrate Colorado's Wildlife

these animals like the Pika or they're

Mighty in their Warriors and Corrado I

don't think he knew what a pekka was at

that time he's now obsessed

but they were like they heard the

passion in my voice and they were like

okay we'll do it

a lot of problems with this and the main

problem is the mountain Wildlife while I

celebrate the animals for enduring it

it's a harsh environment for a camera

campaign right the weather changes super

quickly

you're at high altitudes and there's not

really time for the team to acclimatize

and I was like you know we're gonna make

it work

we went all the way up to 14 000 feet in

elevation for this campaign and we had a

number of Shifting weather patterns

so it was really funny too because

I'll let this play

I just did a time lapse to make it more

dramatic when I talked about the

mountains I hope that was all right

our first day getting out there we went

to Mount Blue Sky and formerly known as

Mount Evans but now Mount Blue Sky we

went out and we parked and there was

hail and horrible weather and you know

we're sitting in the car like

all huddled together and okay we got to

get out and take these pictures and um I

just remember karate looking at me like

what have you gotten me into and Megan

our wildlife biologist on the trip turns

to us and says

don't like the weather in Colorado wait

10 minutes

this is Megan she's a senior

conservation biologist with Rocky

Mountain wild she was also one of the

heroes that does the Pika project

and having her on the team was one of

the most integral things for me because

whenever we photograph Wildlife

especially doing a project like this we

want to make sure we don't harm any

wildlife

so she stayed there and she not only

knew the behavior of locations she also

had all the maps for our permits where

we could stand where we could shoot

where we couldn't she was brilliant and

I highly highly push you all to educate

yourself on Wildlife educate yourself on

the rules and talk to the biologists

they're so friendly

we finally got out of the car and we got

to photograph the pika

right

my campaign was mostly video but I did

also have to give some photos and so I'm

really excited though because the

weather cleared and we got out do you

want to know what's more nerve-wracking

than somebody looking at all of your raw

files

because it's like crap crap crap okay

that one works crap

crap crap like a lot of times when I'm

on a trip I'll take five six thousand

images hoping for one for my portfolio

it is hard and I shoot probably more

crap than anyone in this room I

guarantee it because I'm constantly

playing and experimenting but what's

more nerve-wracking than having somebody

look at your raw files

having the head of the Nikon Ambassador

team with a device hooked up to your

camera watching your electronic

viewfinder as you're taking every photo

right I'm like oh you're seeing my auto

focus modes oh you're seeing this

and not only that this was for a camera

I had no manual

I hadn't I wasn't able to play with

before it was all confidential and then

it ends up in my hand and it's like

here's the job of your dreams with gear

you don't know

but it was really beautiful because the

z9 jumped Leaps and Bounds and the

second I started using it I started

noticing that the autofocus was hitting

the eye of the Pika I started noticing

that the camera was so fast and accurate

and it was really beautiful because

really really quickly I built up that

confidence and I could just focus on the

amazing Colorado Wildlife

like the Whistle Pig

the bighorn sheep

and I could see those crazy details

now here's the thing

I wanted this was my first video

campaign this was my first big

production and I was scared and I was in

front of a person that has changed my

life I was in front of Nikon who's given

me so many gifts and I wanted to do a

really really good job

this bighorn sheep has a big story

because it was one of the things I

really wanted I wanted the shape to tie

in this Moon footage I got I wanted that

circular shape I really wanted a Bighorn

but we didn't see it for the first five

days and then we finished our shoot top

of Rocky Mountain National Park and we

start heading down we had two vehicles I

was in the first vehicle Mike Corrado

was in the second

we started heading down and I saw on the

side the bighorns your big horns we

stopped we got out we walked the second

car came and joined us

and it was funny though because

everything was so confidential I had to

hide shooting all the time

Michael Dion was with me he kept

throwing jackets over my head and kept

hiding me so nobody could see the camera

nobody nobody could see it

but we're taking this picture me and

Michael Corrado and and it was really

funny because it was like that Pinnacle

it was like yes we got that shot we're

high-fiving each other we're super

excited it's what's going to tie things

together

and then

something kind of disastrous happened

I went back to the car a little earlier

because I had to use the facilities so I

walked back to the car went down to a

toilet came back up to pick up the

people that stayed behind the two that

stayed behind my husband and Michael

Corrado

we pull up my husband comes up to the

car jumps in I say Mike you want to get

in here no I'll stay in my car the

second vehicle the second vehicle sees

that I slow down to pull off

the second vehicle doesn't go back for

Michael Corrado

start going down Rocky Mountain we find

a pull off with a bathroom get out and I

ask people yeah Hey where's Michael oh

he's probably in the toilet we wait

there wait

wait

we had left the head of the Nikon

ambassador program at 11

000 feet at Rocky Mountain National Park

first ever camera campaign that I'm

gonna kill and impress everybody and I

leave the head of the program the guy

that changed my life

yeah you ever see him ask him about that

story he loves telling it he loves

giving me the dirties when he tells it

because it is scary at that high

altitude it is scary and I I'm sorry I

will forever be sorry and I'm really

glad that Nikon gave me a second

campaign because

I am so indebted and I will never leave

I will never leave the boss at the top

of the mountain ever again

but here's my z9 campaign I'd love to

share it with you all today

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Applause]

foreign

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Applause]

it's really beautiful because

photography used to always take me far

to take photos but I'm starting to

really Embrace North American wildlife

I got another call end of last year this

one from the amazing people at b h

asking me if they could shoot a series

on on my Wildlife photography from

ethics to scouting to composition to the

conservation aspect of it I was like yes

and they asked where do you want to go

Maria and Matt were just phenomenal and

they were so excited to like come out to

Colorado or come out to Yellowstone we

ended up going to Yellowstone

they told me they wanted me to shoot in

January and I'm like oh let's do

Yellowstone really excited too because

if you're interested in that whole

process from start to finish from

finding the right guides to everything

to packing my gear to what lenses I have

I highly highly recommend you checking

it out they were kind enough to let me

share a little clip of the series you

know those moments in nature that

completely take your breath away

I live for those moments

look at it walk and you see the light

hitting the snow as it's coming off

absolutely beautiful we're gonna go

through my whole process from prepping

to packing to research how to approach

Wildlife ethically we're going to talk

all the technical but also all the

creative and then we're going to move

into the post-processing join me in b h

for this Wildlife series and welcome to

Yellowstone National Park

it can be found on their YouTube page

and to make things super super simple

for you all I developed I made a QR code

so if you're interested in finding that

take a photo of this and and jump on and

watch that Wildlife series and if you

see Matt or Maria give him a big thank

you because it was an amazing amazing

production that really let me be

creative and show what I like shooting

not just the technically

sharp and and you know the pictures that

everybody wants but I got to get

creative and play around and they pushed

me to be an artist which I thought was

beautiful

we got an opportunity to talk about the

bison and the importance of the Bison in

Yellowstone and as much as this shoot

was beautiful and everything it was also

hard

because Yellowstone in January had lots

of areas without snow

which is not normal

with photography it's important to step

back and show the bigger picture and I

wanted a picture that showed the wolf in

the environment and the fact that the

environment is missing the snow pack it

needs

as a Storyteller that sort of narrative

and that little bit of extra information

can go so far

educate people let people know what's

happening

the world has shown me so much Beauty so

much compassion so much emotion it's

brought me to tears more times than I

can remember

I saw Lizzie's presentation yesterday

and she made a comment that she said she

felt excitement for life through

photography

and Lizzy God that just

spoke to me and that's what my camera

does it gives me this excitement for

Life an appreciation an understanding of

beauty and I hope you don't mind me

using your phrase because it is

beautiful

but that's the thing this world is full

of so many emotional beings it is full

of things that make me want to celebrate

life it helps bridge that Gap and helps

me deeper understand and it helps me

want to fight passionately for it even

if I am fighting for a tadpole

from seeing the sublime in the mountains

to seeing the sublime and the tiny the

camera has connected me and made my life

more beautiful it has given me fight

there are things to discover everywhere

they're Heroes to celebrate that are

helping these populations

and you know what we've got cameras and

we can help tell their stories

I see a lot of people that go out and

take photos of wildlife but if you find

somebody in your own local park or

somebody in your community that goes out

and counts birds or knows about a unique

species

teaming up with them asking them about

it joining them with the camera letting

them spread what they're passionate

about taking those photos and taking

those photos not just for you but for

them to continue telling their story and

what they're passionate about

you will help protect your local spaces

you will help protect wildlife

as much as I try super hard they're all

baby steps and maybe taking a photograph

at a local park as a baby step but it is

huge and it can protect that space it

can protect your local wildlife

for me My ultimate goal forever was

getting published getting a National

Geographic

this story has been turned down more

times than I can count this is a story I

told at the optic West webinar watch it

if you're interested it's all on the

importance of native bees if you think

I'm passionate about tadpoles you should

get me talking about bees

and you know what my tadpole Story made

it all the way to the text destination

and got to nine

my B story has not been published

but you know what

for me now the end goal is not getting

published the end goal is to be able to

share these stories maybe get one of you

guys to be passionate about a tadpole

passionate about a bee

the B photos are being used by the

biologists to teach all over the world

and to connect people with what he's

passionate about and that in a lot of

ways is more powerful than getting an

image published

publication is getting harder and harder

and it should not be the end goal

anymore

the end goal should be celebrating

people celebrating life because you know

what how freaking cool is it that we

live in a world with pikas

[Applause]

I want to thank you all so much for

listening to me talk and listening to

what I'm passionate about I love that

you saw what I was passionate about I

would love to see what you're passionate

about feel free to follow me on

Instagram all you have to do is Click

your camera on this QR code and share

your images with me share your stories I

would love to see them because I am so

grateful that we're in a community of

people that spread passion

love you all

thank you for everything we have some

time for Q a but uh I guess I'm cool

that you guys got an email from us

saying that uh that Christie's got

something special for you I think it was

a Nikon z62 kit yes I get to give a

camera out it's pretty cool so how about

we make a deal

Let's uh see if anyone will trade a a

Nikon lens cap

maybe 62 millimeter for a z62 sounds

like a plan I love it okay so uh you

know I don't know if anyone's got a

Nikon lens cap but I'd ask everybody to

reach underneath their chair and if they

don't have a lens cap they are reaching

the chair next to you and tell me if

maybe someone's gotta know I'm Nikon

lens cat oh we got it now is that is

that 52 millimeter or 62 millimeter

because if it's 72 it's going to be a

Nikon z9 congratulations

thank you for something

it means the world to me

today he sat down he thought I want to

be close to Christy and I'm going to

have to see the monitors like at an

angle but he went for it you're like

stand up and just spin around for the

camera there let's get this guy on

[Applause]

all right you know what this guy is he's

a winner

okay so if you could give me your name

and address we're gonna we're gonna hook

you up okay you're welcome okay so let's

do a little q a that was fun by the way

that was cool I had fun and how about

that by the way a Christian like but

what a great videographer photographer

right

[Applause]

we'll sound a little shout out to Nikon

um look I'm in this business I see

everybody's video products and and

what's going on

the video the quality of that video

right I don't know that was blowing me

away like I said

I was ready for like sir David

Attenborough to like come on to the

voice over and say ah and the Pica

captured by Christie Odom is uh is uh

really shows its fine fur from the Nikon

system with their Nano coated lenses

anyway oh I do want to share something

really quick about the video if that's

okay oh I'm already miked I don't need

that mic unless you guys want to hear me

louder

um people were curious about the

transition from photo to moving Stills

into video so I put up four hours of

classes with Adobe so if you go on Adobe

live and you're interested in like you

get those captures and you don't know

what to do with them go check it out you

can rewind and play and all that good

stuff if you can't find them just

message me I'll send them to you but if

you're interested in the journey because

the thing about videos people think

about video is like these big video

pieces but you can think about video as

moving Stills something small for social

something is small for what you're

seeing at that time so I highly highly

recommend now it's online and you guys

can figure out how to do the editing so

okay so we have about five minutes for

some q a on the stage then we're going

to turn it over to softener ready so if

anyone has a question uh Emmanuel we'll

uh we'll hand you them here we go okay

hi I'm not a photographer but my husband

is and he just got a new z9 and it has

900 pages of instructions and he read

them all and then he listened to all the

videos and I now probably know how to do

the z9 myself

but when you had that new z9 in your

hands you didn't have any of that

information so my question is what you

produced was beautiful but what would

you change now knowing how to use it oh

my goodness I made so many mistakes but

art mistakes beautiful because there's

something really cool on the other side

of failure hints five times to

photograph a tadpole but

um I would have probably

I always say the same thing I'm so slow

with stabilization equipment I would

have mastered a fluid tripod much better

worked it even more I see a little bit

of jittery that I would love if I had

mastered that I'm just not as quick so I

that z9 campaign is actually like 95

percent handheld which it's beautiful

that it you know still worked and it

looked good and and that's the thing

about slow motion is it's such a Gateway

into video because you hide those

Perfection imperfections when you slow

time down

but when I look at it I'm always like oh

I should have really rocked a monopod I

should have rocked a tripod so there are

always ways we can get better they can't

the the

um bird thing that keeps playing on

repeat that's also that was my next

campaign for Nikon whenever I look at

that I'm always like oh I wish I had

used a polarizer I wish I'd used a

neutral density so there's certain areas

where I'm like a little too much

contrast but we're always growing

and it's funny because like I'm my worst

critic every time I get off stage I

spend a moment to think every single

thing I did wrong and he's like just

celebrate you're on stage and I'm like

but I could do this better do this

better so I'm like a super bad critic

and the one thing I've learned more than

anything is you know what when you're

shooting for your passion

you can't fail

so always growing so that was a really

long answer to a really simple question

I hope that's all right I get a little

emotional on stage this is a scary spot

do we have any other questions do we

have time for another another question

oh let's yeah we'll go

yes my main lens is my 500 5.6 f-mount

lens I love that lens I finally just got

the 800 Z lens

so the 500 is slowly slipping away but

it's still my favorite but it's slowly

but I love that 500 because of how

lightweight how easy it is how I mean

it's a great lens and I I do love the

400 2.8 but that's a the 400 2.8 TC lens

is kind of a dream lens after I did I

did a campaign with that lens and I'm

like that lens is amazing

that lens is probably one of my

favorites in the universe but it's not

one that I own because of the it's it's

a little out of

yeah it's a little out of my budget

right now but that lens is like crazy so

I love that the the mirrorless cameras

let you use your f-mount lenses to their

full capacity so I could use the lens I

was really familiar with for that

campaign love that 500.

can we do back here do we have to have

Mike or oh yes

uh did you uh record the audio off the

camera as well great question actually I

suck at audio

and when I'm taking video I find that I

have this heavy breathing I hold my

breath a lot so in my camera like I'm

playing back and there's this beautiful

sound and then there's

I'm like no I can't use that why do I

hold my breath when I take pictures

there is the Pica sounds that I used

the rest were things I licensed even the

bird calls I licensed so a lot of my

sounds are things I purchased later for

the effects because I have not learned

audio and it is a beast but you don't

have to I've got this great subscription

with triple scoop music because I always

license my music and having them I can

find a great soundtrack I can go on to

my music library that I also have a

license to and search for different bird

calls and I pull those in I pull

lightning even that lightning was a

licensed lightning bolt but also when

you're dealing with these animals that

are far away and you've got really long

lenses and you've got windy days it is

hard to get a really good audio capture

so great question and I'm going to be

honest I suck at audio but that's fine

you can still do video If you suck at

audio as long as you know where to

purchase your video your audio sounds

all right how are we doing are we can I

wrap up do we have another question

won't time for one more or are we done

all right we gotta one more

what photographers did you follow if if

any what photographers do I have because

you said you went from electricity

electrician studying that become a

photographer oh I haven't inspired you

just briefly gosh well I went to school

for electrical engineering and then went

into photography and of course like I

was inspired by so many of the older

School photographers actually one of my

biggest Inspirations was Edward Weston

which was such a gift to see The

Westerns speak yesterday who was there

for who was here for that

gosh it was amazing

so I'm really inspired by a lot of the

older School photographers and I'm also

really inspired by the Brian scaries and

the Amy Vitale's and people that are

current and photographing Wildlife I'm

inspired by people that are off putting

their life on the line for photography

like the Carol guzies and Lindsay

adarios and there's so many people to be

inspired by

then at the same time yesterday a

gentleman was showing me beautiful shots

of a fox and a squirrel and those

inspired me I get inspired by the

passion in the story from all

photographers that's why I love seeing

all of your work please feel free to

share and yeah tell me what you're

passionate about but great question

thank you so much thank you all for

being here I'll be at the Nikon Booth if

you have any questions

all right

easier they were supposed to be steps by

the way

thank you so much one more time Christie

Odom nice come on

all right

okay

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[Music]

okay everyone

who's passionate about photography

right

who likes to make money

do the two ever go together

they they do but you gotta really you

gotta there's some tricks to this brings

to mind uh one of a depth of field b h

depth of field speaker Mel De Giacomo

said he said do you know the difference

between a professional photographer and

a and a and a pizza pie

a pizza pie can feed a family of four

that's not true he was being salty now

and Mel Mel drives a Cadillac so he

shouldn't say that okay ladies and

gentlemen I was introduced to a really

cool photographer uh that was suggested

that she come and speak at optic in June

and uh she was uh she was she was from

the San Francisco area so we flew her

all the way out to New York City we took

a prayer of her and she did an amazing

presentation and actually if you want to

watch it you can go to uh you can go to

bhoptic.com and you can you can check it

out the videos there but we figured

since we're coming to San Francisco

let's invite saffner ready back here to

do a presentation and uh she said what

kind of presentation do you want me to

give I think she did a really cool

technical one in New York and we said

you know what maybe something about how

you can actually make money while doing

Wildlife photography and something said

okay so ladies and gentlemen we present

software ready set to come on out thanks

thank you David

thanks everyone for sticking around

I was the first one to speak at uh optic

earlier this year and I'm the last one

to be on the main presentation so I

think b h is using me as bookends

I thank you all so much for being here I

know you have had two full days of

activities and for those who got up and

went on the whale watching tour I know

there was quite a few stomachs churning

and a lot of throwing up going on and if

you're still sitting here thank you

so let's jump into this

um you know the last time I gave a top

Target optic West all my talks

everywhere have been about the creative

side of Photography the Aesthetics of it

composition color technique that sort of

thing and I got the comment from a

couple of people man she's intense you

know they they felt I was way too

intense when I was talking about

photography

so I watched myself and I thought yeah I

am kind of intense and I was like I need

to chill a little bit I need to take it

easy how do I do that

maybe talk about something I'm not so

passionate about

making money so that's how this came

about I don't see too many people

talking about monetizing image making

so I was like well let me jump into that

and talk a little bit about it and there

is a reason why I used this image as the

title image because we are all looking

for that proverbial pot of gold at the

end of the rainbow when it comes to

trying to make money from photography

this was taken at restaurant during an

Iceland Workshop we had gotten to this

place it was raining it was overcast you

know it's it's cold it's wet we're all

kind of miserable we're sitting in the

car and contemplating should we get out

or should we just skip it and go back to

our warm cabins you know

if you have a logical normal people we

would have gone back to the cabins but

we are not right we are native

photographers so what do we do we get

down in the rain set up our tripods and

hope and pray that a miracle will unfold

before us and sure enough it did the

clouds parted this gorgeous rainbow

draped itself over the mountain and what

was even better is that it started to

reflect on the beach as the water washed

in and out so we got this phenomenal

um opportunity to photograph it this

kind of reminds me that if you are

thinking of either starting a career in

photography or you're thinking you know

what this hobby of mine is getting to be

quite expensive I wish there was a way

to monetize all these beautiful images

I'm making we won't know if it's

possible unless we try right just like

we stood there in that rain and storm

and said let's wait for the rainbow you

gotta try and if you don't try you will

never know whether there is a chance to

succeed or not

a little bit about myself I am a

physician and a photographer so probably

thinking why the heck is she talking

about making money I don't think it's

that important for her so why is she

here

you know think about this if you have a

duck right a duck that is really really

hungry and he's trying to catch some

fish to eat he's going to have his head

under the water and he's going to be

paddling as fast as he can searching for

those fishies right he doesn't have time

to look up and see what the other ducks

are doing he's so lost in finding his

own food on the other hand if you have a

duck with a half full stomach that duck

is not paddling as hard and that duck

has the time to look around and see what

the other ducks are doing where they

seem to be catching more fish which part

of the pond seems to be more successful

for them I am that second duck so I am

often looking around at others and

wondering well how are they monetizing

their photography what are the different

Avenues we have open to us and so I am

coming at it from a different

perspective and hopefully we'll be able

to offer that insight to you I work

three days of the week as a radiologist

it's considered a very high stress job

so they give us about eight to ten weeks

of vacation all of which goes into my

photography so between working only

three days and having quite a bit of

vacation or all of it being invested in

photography I end up spending about 60

percent of my time in photography and

about 40 percent in medicine and will

very soon be transitioning into a

full-time photographer

yeah I gave my notice

okay so these are tips that I wish to

share with you in monetizing your

photography this is just my personal

Journey hopefully some of this will

resonate with you hopefully I will be

able to share some insight of how things

have come about

um especially for someone who has not

invested 100 of their time in the

pursuit of Photography how do things

work out how can you end up as a

professional photographer when you did

not quite start on that route

tip number one I probably use this for

every talk of mine so the first slide

you see is always about finding purpose

so once there was a man who visited a

quarry there were a bunch of stone

cutters over there

as he walks up to the first stone cutter

he's bent down hammering hard you know

it's hot he's sweating he's grimacing

and he's working really hard and the man

walks up to him and asks the stone

cutter what are you doing

and the stone cutter replies and working

hard to earn a living

then the man walks to the second stone

cutter and he asks what are you doing

now this guy's super busy he's hammering

as hard as he can doesn't even look up

at the person questioning him and he

says I am working to be the best

stonecutter in the county

then he walks to the third stone cutter

and this guy is whistling as he works he

has a gleam in his eye he has a smile on

his face so the man walks up to him and

says what are you doing

and he replies I am building a cathedral

so you see the attitude with which we

approach the very mundane tasks makes a

huge difference in our overall Journey

so when we're talking about photography

there will be times when it feels really

painful isn't it it was standing out

there hiking up these mountains standing

in really bad weather don't get our

shots if we focus on those moments then

we forget to focus on the big picture

which is we are creating art

one image at a time to make this world a

better place so it's important for each

one of us I feel to First identify the

purpose behind our photography why are

we making images and we need to have

that purpose transcend our selfish

individual needs and reach out to the

Greater Community

if we have that purpose within us the

journey becomes much more bearable much

more rewarding and the hurdles we Face

along the way don't seem as stressful

so for me

the purpose was basically to create art

that could be used to create an Ambiance

of healing in medical centers I work in

the hospital and I felt that it was

necessary to approach healing in a

holistic way and create an environment

that does not feel intimidating that

does not feel scary or anxiety causing

rather it should be one that you walk

into and feel like you have walked into

a safe haven so that's what I started

doing creating images that would have

that sort of healing impact and started

putting them up in hospitals and medical

centers

the first place that I did that was the

very hospital I worked at and for those

of you who watched my panel talk earlier

you remember what I said this happened

very early on in my career 2011 2012. I

had just learned how to start shooting

Landscapes did not understand a lot of

the technique compositions were still a

little bit off made a ton of mistakes

and when I pitched the idea to the

hospital board they absolutely loved it

and said yeah let's start putting up

these images so the next thing I know

the entire hospital is flooded with my

images literally you know that was the

entrance to the hospital I showed

earlier this is the waiting room for the

big outpatient centers and all of the

lobbies and hallways everywhere the

pictures were flooded up the first week

was extremely painful for me to get

through you know why because when I

walked in that sensor spot that I had

missed was staring at me as big as my

face

they were all printed at like eight feet

ten feet and I was like holy cow how

could I be so bad at photography how

could I have made this many mistakes so

I went to them and said could you please

take them down because if my photography

friends photographer friends saw this

they would laugh at me so can you please

take them down of course they did not

they said uh these images are great

because they were looking at the feeling

they produce and they had a very

positive impact on the atmosphere in the

hospital the staff loved it the patients

loved it and gradually over a period of

one month I learned that it's okay it's

okay to make mistakes did you know Pablo

Picasso painted 13 500 paintings we know

how many five

if Picasso can do that so can we right

it's okay it's okay to generate not so

perfect images it's okay to generate

quantity and then look for Quality

because without quantity we don't get to

that quality Factor

so don't be afraid to make the mistakes

and find that bigger purpose in life

so that's tip number one tip number two

you know oftentimes people say if you're

passionate about something just jump

into it right it's sink or swim throw

caution to the wind just throw yourself

into it that probably works if you're in

your early twenties and you have you

know a trust fund or something I didn't

I cannot take a chance I was a mother

before I was a physician I did it all

backwards right married in my early 20s

had the kids before I even turned 25 and

now I'm in medical school and I'm a mom

and I have no money all the money goes

into paying the tuition fees so if I

start thinking about having an alternate

carrier and giving up some of my medical

career income that's scary because

what's going to happen to my kids you

know how are we going to pay for all the

expenses

so even though I say be Fearless that's

not exactly what I'm trying to get at

this is the Bayou right

um probably a bunch of you have been

there photographed it it's very

beautiful to photograph in Autumn I was

just there two days ago the cypress

trees change color this picture is

literally from maybe two or three days

ago

and um it's just such a glorious

atmosphere the water is really cold so

you know the alligators and poisonous

snakes and everything else that lives

down there is sort of sleeping for the

most part hibernating or so you hope and

you can sit in your kayak and you know

sort of enjoy that ethereal atmosphere

of going around the very first time I

went there that was about five years ago

I went with a guide who was well

experienced in kayaking knew the swamp

like the back of his hand and had done a

lot of Photography there

he was also a good one foot taller than

me and stronger so we get there and I'm

happily paddling away in the kayak you

know so happy that I'm doing a great job

he gets down into the water sets up his

tripod looks at me and he says what are

you doing you need to get out of your

kayak you need to get into the water you

need to set up your tripod and you need

to start doing long exposures

I thought about this for a second I was

getting plenty good pictures in the

kayak I was like is this really

necessary

like um I don't know about that then I

was like sapna you got to be Fearless

come on you got to step out of your

comfort zone you got to push yourself to

make these images

so I got out of the kayak set up my

tripod and started shooting

a realization crept in that the person

who's one foot taller than me the water

level comes only to his knees

for me it's up to my hips and I'm

thinking to myself hmm wonder if this

was a logical decision how am I going to

flip my legs back into the kayak without

tipping it over or getting my gear into

the water how's this going to be

accomplished then all of a sudden I feel

a little bit of coldness and wetness

at my feet guess what I bought some

cheap Raiders because I was being cheap

and they started leaking

so the Water started coming around my

feet next thing you know past my ankle

up my calf and the next thing I know I

have freezing water completely around my

legs if I thought it was difficult to

get into the kayak without the water

imagine what it would feel like with

water logged

legs there

and that's how people drown and die in

the swamp right so now I'm thinking now

that was a stupid decision

thinking I should be Fearless that was

an illogical stupid decision shouldn't

have done that

and as I'm thinking what am I going to

do now I'm in the middle of nowhere how

am I going to make it to the shore I

can't walk through this mud I can barely

move how am I going to get myself out of

this trouble in that instant I feel

something slithering between my legs

to this date I do not know if it was a

snake if it was an alligator or it was

my Pure Imagination I swear to God I

don't know but what I do now is that I

in that instant turned into Wonder Woman

I was able to lift my legs onto the

kayak 10 seconds flat second leg comes

on grab my tripod grab my camera out of

there paddling like I have a motorboat

so you know what fear is actually a

great motivator isn't it

so instead of saying Fearless here I am

photographing maybe I should tell you be

afraid

be very afraid sometimes that comes in

handy

but really what I'm trying to say is you

got away the risk versus the reward you

have to take baby steps we start off

with passion but we have to acquire the

knowledge we have to be persistent in

acquiring that knowledge and finally

gain the ability to go ahead and do what

we really want to do now a few years

later I understand the swamp I know that

you check with the tripod How deep the

water is before you get into it

you kind of dig around to make sure

there's no Gators or snakes around and

once you do that you can be out there in

the middle of the night and start

creating magical images where you can

light paint the cypress trees maybe even

catch some stars in the sky and it

becomes a truly wonderful experience but

it takes time to get there so what I

would like to say is it's going to be a

long haul if you want to indulge in the

business of Photography there are

certain steps that you will have to go

through be in it for the long run don't

expect quick results and the journey

will become rewarding eventually

brings us to tip number three

so when I first started photography I

actually did self-portraiture as you can

see

self-portraits in the environment how

many of you guys fell for that how many

of you think that's really me

it's always a pleasure when I put that

up and people don't go ha ha ha as soon

as I say self-portraiture so then I know

I'm doing okay

I never have a body that looked like

that that's that's a belly dancer you

know

um so I'm talking about finding your

Niche you know what is it that floats

your boat what is it that you're most

passionate about it's important to

establish that niche in order for you to

be successful in photography

say you needed a knee replacement right

would you go to an orthopedic surgeon or

would you go to maybe a family practice

guy

you would seek out the specialist right

you want to go to someone who is an

expert in what you are trying to

accomplish it's the same in photography

so whether you want to be a wedding

photographer or a newborn photographer

maternity whatever it is that is your

genre once you find your Niche you will

have to hone down your skills and show

people you're an expert in that

going back to this image you know we're

out there this was at Cliff House in San

Francisco which I'm sure a lot of you

know so we're standing on the Rocks

there and you know how cold San

Francisco gets this girl is covered in

Goosebumps but she's so intent on

getting that portrait for her website

she's standing there and I'm using her

boyfriend to hold on the reflector

and throw some golden light on her we're

very immersed in you know making this

image and then when I'm done I turn

around and realize there's five tourist

buses behind me

and there are about a hundred people

lined up all with their cameras out

Smiles year to year going ah California

I know I made Wendy happy that day but I

must say I made a lot more people happy

that day

so finding your Niche I even tried my

hand at newborn photography you see what

I did there my hand at newborn

photography

and I am a pediatric radiologist by

training which means I work with

newborns I scan them for hip dysplasias

and they usually come to me when they're

six weeks old so I'm like I know how to

handle babies and manipulate their hips

how hard can it be to take their

pictures so I dappled a newborn

photography the more I did newborn

photography the more my expression

became like that of that babies

I was like it wasn't really my thing you

know so these are all the things I tried

portrait event Street environmental

portraits and then gradually the people

in my picture started getting smaller

and smaller and smaller and finally they

just disappeared altogether

but this goes back to that purpose I was

talking about where if I want to display

images in a hospital obviously I cannot

be shooting people I have to be shooting

something find a niche where it'll serve

my purpose so that's what I encourage

you to do by the way if you haven't

heard the good news we have seven feet

of snow coming this week to the Eastern

Sierra which means this scene is about

to unfold people I say we all just jump

into the cars and right there after this

conference

okay moving on

I don't like slides with a lot of text I

tend to tune them out so I apologize for

this but I just wanted to put this out

there to say there are so many different

ways you can monetize your photography I

like to divide it into two main arms the

side that is image making sort of and

the size that is educational and these

are not mutually exclusive so you will

have to ask yourself

what do I do well

once you answer that question

then you can start to explore what are

the different Avenues I can use to

monetize my photography I like to teach

so for me workshops are a great way to

do it

um and if you are an Explorer perhaps

guiding is a good thing to do if you

just like making reels or something you

know content creation if you like to

collaborate with Brands I mean so many

ways I think when I last Googled it it

said 56 different ways to make money in

photography or something like that so I

don't have to go through that list but I

do want us all to reflect on the

strengths and weaknesses we have and how

we can hone down on the niche that

should be ours in this field

let's take print sales for example you

go well sapna that's all fine and dandy

I make good pictures but you need to

tell me where I can sell my prints

because there is so much competition yes

there is this image that you're looking

at on the left hand side last light on

Horsetail Falls we know about this

phenomena right we're all California

Californians so we know about this Galen

created this image

in 1973 at that time back in 1959 Ansel

Adams had photographed this phenomena

but he did it in gray tones black and

white nobody really

appreciated that image and then Galen

comes around and he creates this image

in 1973 and if I can use the term it

went viral even back then since then it

has inspired so many of us to go back

there and shoot these images right Galen

sold hundreds of copies of that print

what is the chance that you or I have a

chance to sell this picture now

very low why is that because we are not

being innovators we are emulating

something that has already been done so

when we talk about print sales we have

to be creating art that is unique that

is original and that is needed in the

space that you're trying to Target

maintaining high quality and networking

through art shows I know I have friends

who go from art show to art show with

tons of prints in their truck and

they're good at marketing at sales can

you do that then yes print sales would

be one way to go

but I feel it's important to start

locally right where you are I have a

client sister Grace she's a nun but she

likes photography I should say and she

likes photography so what she did is she

bought a used camera from the church

went out into the garden started

creating images and before you know it

she had a collection of floral images

then she was like what do I do with my

images now

aha what if I put them on the cover of

hymn books people come into the church

they need a cover for the hymn books so

she put them out before you know it it

was not just one church or two church

now there's a whole region of churches

that are using her cover for the hymn

books and the next thing she was like

let me be a little bit more ambitious

about this what if I can generate

tens of thousands of dollars to build an

orphanage in Africa she had gone for a

mission to Africa seen the conditions

there and she felt moved by it and said

I have a greater purpose in life now I

want to use my photography to generate

enough funds to fund this orphanage so

she comes back she collects all those

floral images that she used for the hymn

books and says I'm going to make a photo

book out of this by now people who came

to the church saw her work so as luck

would have it a Publishing Company came

forward and said that's a noble cause

we'll publish that book for you and they

did and then a very wealthy family came

in and said well that's a noble cause

we'll buy 75 of the books that you're

going to publish and 25 can go to the

rest next thing you know she has the

orphanage up and running in Africa

so you see wherever you are there are

opportunities but we need to think

outside the box and say what can I do to

make this work for me and you start

small and then scale up

which brings us to tip number four a

business plan did I have a business plan

when I first started monetizing images

no most of us don't is it absolutely

essential to have one no but it's nice

to have a road map isn't it

so all that a business plan does is

forces you to sit down reflect upon your

journey in photography and ask yourself

where am I headed on this journey

so if you have a description of the

business who you essentially are what

are the products and services you offer

who is your target audience how are you

going to reach them what is your

marketing strategy what are your goals

what are you going to go do for in the

next six months in the next year what

are you going to do in another five

years having that sort of discipline and

setting yourself goals makes it easier

to travel in this business world so I

suggest we all do that

and that brings us to tip number five

I can't just be talking about these dry

topics without talking about the images

guys isn't this a spectacular image so

let me just pause for a second and talk

about this this is degvlay in Namibia

okay so there is a river that sort of

comes towards the ocean travels through

the desert and never really makes to the

ocean and just dries up so it's like

huge salt pan and in the middle of the

salt pan these dead trees are So

Graceful in their architecture so that's

what people go to photograph the trick

here is to wait till the light

traverses in such a way that the salt

pan is in Shadow

and the Dune behind it is in light so

that's what we do here wait for that

right decisive moment and then you get

this nice separation between warm and

cold and this beautiful minimalistic

image

so one of the most important steps in

the business of Photography is to have a

really good website you know people

often just brush that aside they say I

have it on Instagram I have it on Flickr

or whatever no because you need a

website in order for you to look

legitimate in order for you to look

professional in order for you to go

ahead with the legal implications that

will develop in the business of

photography

so what does a website need to do

another image from the Bayou

some of the things are still very

intuitive isn't it you want it to be

reliable and efficient it has to be

aesthetic you have to be able to manage

it

but some of the more important things

that people tend to neglect when they

first start a website is one it should

be tied to an e-commerce platform so

even if you don't have anything to sell

at this point the idea is that you're

setting yourself a goal where you will

generate an income from the work or

products or services that you're

offering on the website so when you're

developing a website keep that in the

back of your mind and say I need to be

able to integrate an e-commerce platform

so you could do that on something like

Wix or Squarespace and have like an

integrated platform from the start

smugmark does that too but if you're

using a WordPress or something that is

more custom then you have to go and Link

a Shopify or something like that an

e-commerce platform has to be linked

from the very beginning to your website

and the other thing I would highly

encourage you to do is to have a

newsletter sign up right because

Instagram changes its algorithm every

two three months all social media

platforms do that how are you going to

reach your target audience the

newsletter is where they're coming and

subscribing to you and that there is no

algorithm so you when when you send

something out you know you have a

captive audience so ask people encourage

people to sign up for the newsletter and

always share your testimonials it's kind

of like you know when you go on Amazon

and you're looking at the Amazon rating

before you buy something

similar to that people come to your

website they're going to look at the

testimonials what do others have to say

so if they come to my website and say we

want to take a sapner ready Workshop

like what did the others say about the

workshop experience and I have the

unique advantage of sharing just the

good testimonials so I can make it look

really good right in terms of rating so

definitely take advantage of that

number six I want to talk a little bit

about the business structure let's just

look at this image for a second because

I know if I talk only about business

you'll fall asleep so look at the image

this is again these giant sand dunes are

hundreds of feet high and the way the

light falls of them gives a beautiful

separation between warm and cool colors

and the trees add a sense of scale

a business structure is how you want to

make your business entity look so what

does that mean what are the startup

costs you want to incur what are the

government regulations you're willing to

endure what kind of liability protection

you're looking at and what are the tax

implications if you get nothing else

from this talk I want you to get what

I'm about to say next

I encourage you all when you start your

business in photography to do a limited

liability company for a lot of us we

have other assets that we would like to

protect okay to put it very simply small

businesses have two business structures

one is sole proprietorship and the other

is an LLC in a sole proprietorship there

is a single owner

a single manager he's everything

and if that business entity gets sued

all that the owner has will be sued

which means the personal assets the car

the house the personal bank balance

everything is liable in an LLC what

you're essentially doing is separating

your personal individual assets from the

business assets you're no longer

responsible if the business does get

sued what ends up happening is they can

only come after the assets of the

business but not your personal assets

and this is sort of important it's very

easy to do you just go to Legal Zoom if

you want if you don't want to hire

somebody to do it for you takes about I

swear less than 10 minutes to set it up

you shoot it off to Legal Zoom they take

60 bucks they send you back some forms

another less than 100 bucks to the

government forms a couple of forms are

submitted and then 10 days later you

have your own LLC super easy to do I

actually went through it to make sure

that I wasn't telling you something that

was not true

the advantage of limited personal

liability is that there is less

paperwork there's no shareholders and

you don't have to hold meetings and all

of that stuff there is a tax advantage

right because remember once you are an

LLC you are now eligible to show losses

so all that gear you buy you know all

those trips you're having they're all

now tax write-offs

yeah especially when you're just

starting out and you have another income

that you're trying to protect and sort

of get a break with all the expenses

that you're incurring in photography for

three consecutive years you don't have

to show a profit in the business of

Photography that's a huge Advantage

right you can acquire all of the gear

you need in that time after the three

years if you show intent you have a

website you have made a few sales you're

trying to sell stuff but it's not

working out you're still incurring a

little bit of a loss you can still show

that I know people who have dragged it

out for five years but talk to your

accountant I am no accountant so talk to

your accountant and ask what is the best

way to go about doing this I mean the

cars you buy the laptops you know

there's so much stuff that goes into the

business of Photography that becomes a

deductible expense that's one of the

biggest advantages of having an LLC

having a website and showing intention

to actually really monetize your

photography if at the end of five years

you find you're still struggling maybe

maybe they were not cut out for the

business or photography but at least we

have that amount of time to figure out

what we're going to do with it

building your brand you know the minute

you say I am going to pursue the

business of Photography you actually

become a brand you as an individual are

now a brand

so you have to reflect what a good brand

would reflect quality Integrity offer a

unique value make sure you retain your

customers and your clients and

networking you want to send out positive

vibes to everyone involved and have

brand collaborations

I know people always ask me this sapna

how do you get to Brand collaborations

because that sounds like a sweet deal

right

I am a Sony Ambassador I'm an ambassador

for gurager and an ambassador for Nissi

I work with b h and Adobe as an educator

and for Flickr photo pills heat company

and some other companies work as a

content creator

how did this come about

I'm going to tell you frankly how this

happened I did not chase after any of

these things particularly

I was using agura gear camera bag for

five to seven years and just posting

pictures of myself carrying the bag on

social media platforms before somebody

in uruguer noticed it I did not even tag

them mention them or anything but

somebody noticed and said this girl is

using the girl gear bag they reached out

and said would you like to be a brand

ambassador I have I would like to

believe that it was those images that I

posted on social media had a certain

amount of quality to them that they felt

she can be a representative of our brand

so it was a very organic experience

for Sony what they do is they actually

like big

camera companies they have Scouts

they're actively looking for brand

ambassadors because we are the ones who

Market the products right so they have

Scouts these Scouts are keeping an eye

out for your posts so say you're using a

Sony camera and you post and you say I

use the a7r4 with such and such a lens

and you know these filters and this

tripod those brands are paying attention

and when you get traction on social

media they go this person would be a

good representative for our brand so

having

shown chronicity you know a time frame

over which you're using these products

being honest about it

investing your time and saying this is a

really good quality product

and then the most important thing that

people sometimes forget is your online

persona Brands don't like it if you're

heavily opinionated or get into fights

or arguments you know or somebody gives

you a suggestion and you're like you can

go suck an orange I'll post whatever I

want to post you know you might feel

that on the inside but realize that you

are now a brand you're not an individual

and therefore what comes out on your

online platform should be clean

and it should not you know in any way

show lack of humility or lack of

professionalism and if you do that

you're watched you know for a few years

and then you eventually might get that

ambassadorship program for Sony I know

they have a Facebook group the Sony

Alpha Facebook group and if you're

posting that constantly they're always

picking people up from that group as

well

other opportunities I know Nissi I got

recruited because I was presenting at a

conference they heard me talk and Jim

you know came up to me and he said

something this would be a good fit you

are you already using Nissi filters you

should come on board so usually that

kind of organic growth works well there

have been a couple of opportunities

where I was asked to become an

ambassador for a product before I tried

it and I'm telling you it's a big

mistake I made that mistake you know I I

said okay I'll represent your company I

got the product and then I found that I

when I took it out it wasn't quite as

good as the other product I had been

using and so I found it very difficult

to tell my clients to buy it I couldn't

so I kept recommending the other product

and then eventually I was like I wrote

back to them and said I can't be your

Ambassador because I I can't even

recommend your product so I think that

sort of honesty and integrity is very

critical

okay moving on

this is very important investing in

personal growth you know this was way

back I think maybe like 2012 or

something and uh

maybe even earlier I went to Yosemite I

had heard about the moonbows right the

rainbows forming in the moonlight so I

get there at night I set up at lower

Yosemite Falls there is probably about

50 photographers in line with me and I

stand there I focus in the night I'm

super happy I actually got some sort of

focus going I take a picture I look at

it in the viewfinder step back and say

this is it in a loud voice shows you how

humble I am this is the best photograph

of moon boss that's it with 50 people

around ignorance is bliss isn't it

I was so dumb I did not know what I did

not know and so I was very happy with

what I got you know the fact that the

water hardly has any texture there's all

this motion blur in the trees probably

cut off some of that no Shadow detail

blah blah all of that came later

I think it's very very important to

invest in personal growth and understand

what are the things I don't know the

more I shoot the more I feel

the less I know you know there's so much

more to know but you only realize that

as you invest in personal growth so this

is my goal every week I tell myself you

have to learn one new thing just one new

thing a week

it could be anything it could be like

say flying a drone or it could be a new

post-processing technique or it could be

learning how to focus stack perspective

blend whatever it is that you want to

pick

one goal a week but at the end of the

year think of all the things you have

learned at the end of 10 years think of

all the things you have learned keeping

oneself occupied with personal growth is

extremely important because if we don't

do that we lose relevance

and we'll get we will not be able to

succeed in that business

moving on

I love this picture guys this was also

in Namibia and I absolutely love those

sand dunes and you know I was chasing

some oryx in the light and all of a

sudden we turn around and we see this

disparity in the shadow and the light on

the sand dunes and this little solo tree

had like that sliver of light going

across it absolutely loved the scene ran

back towards it and photographed it one

of my favorite images from Namibia

and I just want to mention that

networking marketing and community over

competition are the pillars on which we

should be building our business

you never know where the opportunity is

going to come from you know b h I

actually did not know anybody in B and H

it was a friend who was presenting at

one of the conferences and I said oh how

do you do that and she said oh I know

somebody who one of my friends works for

b h so I'll just put you in touch and

she did and that's how I got into b h so

you never know where opportunities come

from it's important to be polite to

everyone and you know the doors open

automatically

works great for marketing as well and

this feeling that I was talking earlier

about community over competition

we are all part of a larger family

and I think there is enough for all of

us and if we develop a culture where we

are fighting over each other you know

fighting with each other over the same

slice of pie it becomes a very

unpleasant experience instead of that I

think it's better to think outside the

box and say what can I do a little bit

differently that others are not doing

and so reduce the competition for myself

and that brings us to the last tip

because I wanted only 10 tips I added a

bunch of tips in the last tip as you can

see I said do not compare yourself okay

you are on an individual Journey there

will always be someone who is way better

than you and there will always be

someone who is trying to catch up to you

always no matter how good you are so it

doesn't make sense to compare yourself

you know those times when you feel a

creative rut you feel like God everybody

is taking over I'm not going anywhere I

suggest you open up Instagram and go to

the regular Pages not the ones you

follow look at all the garbage over

there you're going to feel so good

you're gonna feel so good about your

images your confidence is going to be

right by like those people that's

nonsense what I'm doing is much better

if you are looking at people who are

performing at a higher level it is to

draw inspiration from them not to berate

ourselves so we need to stay inspired

and I think you know we become so

serious that sometimes we forget to have

fun and my clients

God bless them when I get intense they

start imitating me because I have a

certain way of talking I'm like this is

it guys this is it you better be getting

the shot so then when we go back to the

house they're like this is it guys this

is it you better get it you know they're

like just making fun of me

I'm sure they're watching now and

laughing even as I say this but it's

important to do that it's important to

have fun on this journey so I was in

Indonesia and I was trying to get this

waterfall absolutely perfect you know

with the red foliage around it very

meticulous about the texture of the

waterfall and everything and one of my

clients had a very different idea about

how to shoot

so you see

I had to share that as a story

you know I remember and there was

another picture we were standing at the

Asian volcano we had hiked several hours

to get to the summit and we are there at

dawn trying to catch it and he's

standing there and there are fumes

coming out of the volcano and he's just

pretending like it's his smoke you know

that sort of thing uh I think that's

very endearing I think maintaining not

taking yourself too seriously you know

like Lizzy said yesterday I think it's

important to keep that in mind and have

fun on this journey

well

going back to the original one

it is very tempting to be that second

stone cutter who's so focused that you

want to be the best in your field but I

want to remind you if we do that and

lose the big picture the journey can

become very stressful very quickly as

you can see right here so I encourage

you to be the Third Kind of stonecutter

who takes in the big picture and

realizes this is a community effort we

are creating art together and the art

will be our Legacy it will live long

after we are gone right

and we're making this world a better

place one image at a time keeping that

in mind and the bigger purpose will

reduce the stress we place upon

ourselves on the day-to-day tasks that

need to get accomplished in order to get

monetary gain

I just want to thank you all again for

giving me this opportunity

um I really enjoy speaking to people who

share this common passion with me so b h

thank you so much I and as usual you

know the best the most important rule of

business you can't stop hustling gotta

hustle so here's my hustle I'm doing

workshops people

get to them okay that's it thank you all

so much

but I might be cut off for all I know

I know it's a long day

so three years is

the three years is what is conventional

for any business actually any small

business

um the five years I had to actually look

it up and it said that if you show

intent and you show that you have made

progress you do get some slack

you know I just did like Google the tax

um what all the information that was

there I used Google basically to say how

far can you push it but definitely talk

to your accountant because you know I'm

no expert in that yes

to protect my images from being stolen

okay

yes

yes so you know what actually

um I sell my images through uh

International Art Gallery chain called

yellow corner and they just found me

organically they saw the images on

Facebook wrote to me and said would you

like to sell your images through our

platform

so I released about I don't know I want

to say like less than 10 images to them

this was a while ago those images are

now sold in 80 countries worldwide is

there any chance I will know how many

copies were sold in each country what is

the chance that the people who are

selling them are telling the original

parent company how many they actually

sold

there's no way to keep track but you

know what because I let go that has been

a source of passive income for me for

the last 10 years

that image that you saw hanging out of

the redwood forest with the light

streaming through I call that hope that

has sold hundreds of thousands of

dollars worth there is no way I could

have achieved that if I held on to the

image so I had to let it go I had

realized that some people might be

stealing it but in the long run if it

pays off I think it's okay to just sit

back and say there is only so much you

can do it will happen people will steal

your images people have stolen my images

printed them and sent me a photo saying

I put it up in my bedroom they didn't

even pay for it they just downloaded it

from Flickr and I say well it looks

great and keep quiet at that it's not

worth our emotional energy and if

somebody steals your picture and says I

took this picture they must be such a

big fan of yours and they must be in

such desperate need of raising their

self-esteem just think of it as offering

therapy and say take it it's really not

worth it guys you know and like I said

earlier post the lowest resolution

possible so they can only print it to a

certain degree and the quality is not

going to be as good as your quality and

I was talking to a wedding photographer

the other day and he said every time I

set up a family now the family members

come out and take their pictures with

the iPhone what does that feel like

they're not going to buy his prints

they're just taking their own damn

pictures now everybody does that imagine

what will happen to that wedding

photographer you can't fight it it's

just so pervasive that it's not worth

the mental energy you know if your brand

does it I say go after them use a cease

and desist letter you can hire a lawyer

because then there's big money involved

but if it's tiny individuals doing it

just don't even don't rent space in your

head for it not worth it yes

yellow corner but the K it's a

k-o-r-n-e-r

yeah they are like an online presence

but they also actually have physical

galleries in multiple countries across

the world

and uh it's I I honestly don't know how

they're recruiting nowadays during the

pandemic I didn't hardly sold anything

in Europe but now

um the sales are picking up again

you know SmugMug I probably shouldn't

say this because I work with Flickr but

honestly SmugMug did not work much for

me

um Because unless people know unless you

tell them right they come to you and

they say oh I want to purchase this

image and then you can now go to because

I have it on smugma go there and buy it

but smug bug it in itself doesn't

generate much Facebook is actually

better because you could like say

Thanksgiving is coming up and you put

out your images and say I'm going to

give you a 20 discount these are the

prices and these are the four Images I'm

gonna sell

that's actually that works you know on

that note if you're trying to like you

know uh make tax deductions and stuff

I don't know if I should be saying this

on stage but I was thinking like you

could have like a neighborhood party or

something invite people over and try to

make some sales because you have to show

intention that you're actually trying to

sell your images it doesn't matter if

it's your mother or your brother or your

sister buying it you just have to prove

that you are selling those images if you

can show intent that way and then maybe

they'll hang it up in their house and

you know by Word of Mouth it'll spread

and you know slowly the print sales will

go up

something like that or you know in the

place of work you know in restaurants

can you offer to put them up in

restaurants in your hair salons all

these places that require art can you

put it up and put a little card and say

you can buy from me so

just an idea

okay that's it all right thank you so

much

[Applause]

thank you this afternoon

okay if anyone has entered the optic

challenge we're going to announce in

about five minutes the winners of the

optic challenge day two

we had a whole panel of people working

on it and uh it was a tough a tough one

to come up with but we got our we made

our picks

um L ready is finishing uh out on the

second stage and then we'll make an

announcement for anyone that's in the

other room to come in here so if you did

drop anything into the optic challenge

I'd stay in this room if you didn't drop

anything into the optic challenge I

thank you all for coming here the past

couple of days we've had fun we've left

we've cried we've been inspired

um and uh it's been great coming to

Monterey I really uh really love you

guys it was pretty amazing thank you so

much uh our speakers on on this two days

has been incredible uh from from sapna

to the The Westerns to France to the

panels to Annie to Scott uh and I could

just name them all and I'm really

thrilled on how this all turned out and

it was great to meet a whole new group

of of our loyal customer we've been

doing optic in New York City for years

and really got used to seeing all our

optic regular b h customers from New

York and New Jersey and and Connecticut

and Pennsylvania

and Brazil and okay

now we have a we've got the best

customers ever it's pretty pretty cool

well who was your favorite this is a

shout out who you who's your favorite

speaker that really inspired you

Lizzy

right

yeah I I have to say Lizzy was you know

it was great putting Lizzy after seeing

uh darted frogs and Vipers and and then

Lizzie comes out and shows those amazing

compositions of her self-portraiture

yeah that was really that was cool I'm a

Believer in Lizzy

front yeah well they're really all good

yeah Franz takes it to another level he

Franz really also his contribution aside

from all the the critiquing the the

panel and his amazing keynote uh and the

work he did for Bay of life and all that

he's the one who who really got us into

Monterey it was uh it was his his thing

and then uh we researched it and and got

in there and it looked like Monterey was

was a good was a good place

um let's also hear it for

excuse me our Tech Team

from Encore and uh and try Court they

did a

really great job there's there's Bob in

the back great uh yeah you guys are a

pleasure to work with I was a little

worried coming out across country to

work with people I I never really didn't

know so

thanks no they rocked it it was good it

was it was a pleasure and uh

thank you I'd say the only disappointing

thing that I could really match in this

whole thing was that when I came out

here in September uh all the California

seals were right at the at the lip of

the harbor right across from the Pacific

house the custom house and I said there

was like I don't know 400 of them and

just just singing and making the noises

and uh and I'll tell you 400 California

seals in a small area that uh that guano

smell was that's going to live with me

forever I and I was looking forward to

having Eisenhower meet the the

Californian seals but uh they evidently

moved to the other Jetty and they said

that one morning they were gone so I

don't know what I think one just had a

bad slice of pizza and was like we're

out of here and we're gonna go the other

side uh but uh that was my only my only

complaint was that they were they

weren't right here

but uh we don't have California seals in

New York City yeah we have rats we have

really cool right no I'm serious we have

here Google the pizza rat this is a a

famous thing uh the pizza rat

I I'd say we have great cockroaches but

really Florida palmetto bugs beat our

cockroaches but but we we got you on

mice and rats

all right we're almost there

we're in the home stretch

let's see yes

does b h have printing services uh we

don't we have a we have a a DMP

developing and processing drop-off in

the store

so we have that

and we had a we had a lab in our

basement during the

when the Republican National Convention

came to New York City

which don't know if that was really the

smartest idea for them because there was

a lot of heckling and booing that went

on in New York City but when we had them

there there were so many journalists we

Fuji put a mini lab in our basement and

we were like a focal point for that for

that I think that was 2004

I think but now we don't our lab is

really not

funny thing about labs in New York City

and I'm a I'm a New York City guy and uh

there was in Chelsea where b h used to

be on 17th street I was called the uh

the photo ghetto and it was a lot of

Studios a lot of professional

photography was was in that neighborhood

and there was a proliferation of labs

like a real lot of labs and uh during

the digital Revolution and the download

those labs all all disappeared and now

there's only a small handful of labs and

guess what they're doing really good

because because film is back it's kind

of I might say film is back like point

0010 of pictures being taken as being

done analog on film but uh but that's

the uh

oh they're almost done out there so

those labs are doing really good but

there was a time on 17th 19th Street

there were a ton of labs

I used to photographers would do they

would shoot E6 Chrome film and they

would they would shoot like mad catalogs

whatever their fashion and then they

would they would drop it off and it

would be done in a couple hours the art

directors would get it and it was it was

the old days

now it's all digital service bureaus and

and all that stuff

all right any other questions for anyone

that I'll take any any question you got

I'll give you

you're welcome thank you for coming I

think thank you very much it's the guy

who won the Nikon Z6 Mark II just for

sitting in the right seat

so funny story about that um

I I do that trick frequently at big

events where you know I'll put something

underneath it a seat and ask people at a

strategic time to pull it out and uh at

the last optic so people start coming in

and they and they're checking the seats

because they got used to it because you

know

New Yorkers figure it out that's it so I

had to stop so I said as I said I think

we could do that here I don't think

anyone's going to know that secret I

didn't see anyone checking out seats

underneath them but don't think that you

should go just like checking out seats

underneath thinking you're going to win

because there's a good chance you're

going to get like somebody's gum you

know it's gross things can happen under

a seat so I don't

think you're going to get ahead with

that

people are still

hey Christy is uh is already still on

the second stage at Explorer stage she

she's finished up okay great okay all

right I'm gonna

I'm gonna spin around do you do you want

me to get back on the stage or can I can

I do it here

okay I could do it thank you

okay

here we go

all righty

okay so um first off

a little disappointing with the entries

you guys got to play this game it's fun

it's uh gotta get your prints made and

get it out there and uh we made some

choices based upon um based upon the uh

a number of things like the crop made a

decision in one storytelling of course

just good composition and whatnot but

there's a there's a lot going on with

why we picked and uh it's all about uh

figuring out all right so we're going to

start with

this is the nailed it category and

everyone if you did enter something you

can go pull your picture off the wall

now okay so Ferndale did uh nailed it is

a category that is the um

this is hold on a second

I'm sorry we're going to do we're gonna

do whale watching as the first one

and whale watching winner is Ricky B

Castello

Ricky B are you here

all right good job so so Ricky uh a

couple of reasons you got it um that it

was a it was a really good shot you got

the water coming off the the fluke was

pretty good and I heard we heard a rumor

that you you you really worked for that

shot

that's right

okay I got I got seasick for the first

time in my life so I was on the first

boat with uh Scott Kelby and um that was

kind of cool uh he's like coolest

photographer but anyway so I'm in the

top level and I want to get to the edge

right I'm like okay

but but I couldn't because uh all of a

sudden it's like like five minutes of

the ride I'm against Eastlake so I got

my Canon 7200 lens with a monopod

and so I just go to the back of the boat

and I'm like holding onto this row here

and like oh and people are saying

there's a way over there to the uh on

three o'clock nine o'clock 11 o'clock

I'm like in the middle I'm just pick

them up I'm just pressing I'm just this

is what I'm doing I'm never looked I

never looked I'm just doing this

this is well over here I'm like yeah

because the people are riding from me

this I'm hoping that I'm gonna catch

something you know so then there's a

well that comes right behind me I'm like

oh

so I'm doing it really fast hoping that

it's working because sometimes if you

press it too much it's gonna bog up but

I did I got a little lucky I got real

lucky but sometimes it's better to be

lucky than good

a little bit of your insides got

outsides and earned you a 250 gift card

it's a really good shot so

congratulations well done I like that

you're improvised cool okay well done

all right so the next one is uh a

sunrise photo walk and uh oh I've also I

got I got just another announcement um

there's a lost camera

and you can go to the registration desk

I'm not going to say what camera it is

but there is a there is a camera and if

you can name what it is they'll give it

to you and also there's a piece of

jewelry that somebody lost and we found

on the ground and uh it was a uh that

was a ring so we wanted we want to check

that out it wasn't one of the Rings of

power so it didn't turn anyone invisible

it wasn't made by elves okay so um so

that's our announcement for that okay so

we're gonna do the sunrise photo walk

now and the sunrise photo look was

you know the pictures are on the wall

and I got I really have no way to show

the pictures so I I it's it's not we we

try I mean I got the picture on my phone

if you really want to see it but

um maybe you can zoom in on that I don't

know if I can but uh this is the sunrise

photo walk it's a beautiful shot of the

cobblestone streets the sky is blue and

there's one lone person in the middle of

the shot beautifully composed vanishing

point and that is Sandy McCaffrey

Sandy McCaffrey where are you Sandy

Sandy now

nope okay we're going to email that to

her so Sandy won if you're watching this

online Sandy you are a winner okay all

right next up

uh this is going to be

okay this is the this is nailed it this

is a big one actually I'm going to start

with with the honorable mention I'm not

going to go to nailed it yet so this is

the honorable mention

and this is in uh nailed it honorable

mention means that it took the

photograph happened in the in the

shooting areas outside a 250 gift card

and uh this is uh this is going this is

uh whoop that's weird I didn't know we

could cut and paste from a picture uh

Carol krillow

Cairo krilov Cairo krylov

nope okay then they're going to get it

emailed and uh they did a double

exposure of a bug and then they did it

on Aaron Sullivan's little uh photo uh

photo dioramas so it was like this bug

was attacking the uh the canoeist it's

kind of pretty pretty cool so that got

the honorable mention but now the big

one this is for a 500 b h gift card

which is no joke right 500 bucks huh and

this is are you ready

is there a I'll make sure that's right

is there a Lori Miller in the audience

yes right huh

congratulations Lori well done do you do

you want to say some words

okay she's like just give me the 500

bucks I got a new lens I want the nice

thing about b h gift card you know if a

lens cost like is expensive at 1200 lens

only 700 bucks now now check this out if

you if you do buy that 1200 lens and use

your 500 gift card use a pay boo card

you don't have to pay the tax on it just

gets better and better all right

everybody thank you so much this has

really been a great time we've really

enjoyed it and I I think that we're

going to be taking optic on the road so

we'll we'll see how

keep your eyes on where this ends up

next in the country thank you so much

it's been an honor and a pleasure thank

you so much

introducing the new paybu credit card

you can save the tax or choose special

financing for your purchases made on

your paybu credit card so you want to

save the tax on a camera laptop and

drone no problem no need to wait for

credits or cash back like other credit

cards