Talking with Colby Brokvist: Mountain Photography, Intentionality When Setting Up the Shot, Defining Style, and How to Get into Photo Guiding

What does it mean to slow down, be intentional, and truly see before pressing the shutter? In this episode of The Wild Photographer, Court sits down with renowned guide and photographer Colby Brokvist for a wide-ranging conversation on creativity, simplicity, and storytelling in photography. From the ethereal landscapes of Antarctica to the discipline of putting your camera down and being present, Colby shares wisdom on cultivating intentionality, developing a personal style, and guiding others to find their own voice as photographers. Along the way, they explore the balance between technical skill and creative vision, the evolving role of conservation photography, and the realities of leading photo trips around the world.

Main Takeaways:

• How to get into guiding photo trips and teaching photography
• Simplicity is the answer (why and how to keep it simple)
• Thoughts from Colby on Photographing Antarctica
• Colby’s Go-To Settings and why he’s always prepared for fast action
• Colby’s advice for honing your style (but not to be put in a box) and thoughts on a timeless style
• Colby's Tips on Mountain Photography
• Why image searches on google can elevate your photography for your upcoming trip
• Why Colby always recommends traveling with a lightweight kit
• Plus, Colby's favorite x-factor lens

Links Discussed and to Share:

Colby's Guide-Training Academy: Waypoint Guide Academy Website

And IG Account: Waypoint Instagram

Colby's Personal IG: Colbyoutdoors Instagram

Colby's Guide-Training Book: The Professional Guide's Handbook

Colby's Photo Website: Colby Outdoors Photography

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

Will Patino's YouTube (Colby's favorite YouTube Photographer)

Court's Websites

• Check out my photo portfolio here: shop.courtwhelan.com
• Sign up for my photo and conservation blog at www.courtwhelan.com
• Follow me on YouTube (@courtwhelan) for more photography tips
• View my camera kit and recommended camera gear

Sponsors and Promo Codes:

• MPB.com - Buy, Sell, or Trade Camera Gear
• ArtStorefronts.com - Mention this podcast for free photo website design
• BayPhoto.com - 25% off your first order (code: TWP25) 
• ArtHelper.com - a photo community to learn, share and be inspired
• Arthelper.Ai - Smart tools to promo and showcase your art.
• LensRentals.com - WildPhoto15 for 15% off

Transcript

Court Whelan (00:00)
Hey folks, I've got a very exciting and insightful conversation for you today with Colby Brokvist phenomenal guide, photographer, all around great guy. We talk about a lot of things including Antarctica, simplicity in photography, his photo style and simplicity there, but also accuracy with a great quote. If you were editing to showcase the scene, it will never go out of style. I love that. Just wanted to put that up front. Great takeaway from the episode, but there's so...

so much more good stuff. Please dig in. But before we do start the episode, big thanks to our sponsors. First up, arthelper.ai. They are an amazing AI tool for photographers. Arthelper.ai is the website, so please do check them out. Essentially what it is, is it's a promo tool for photographers.

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check it out, I think you're gonna really, really enjoy it. I also like to thank lensrentals.com, a long time sponsor of the podcast. If you use the promo code wildphotographer15, you'll get 15 % off whatever lens you want to rent. And as I always say, renting lenses is a really, really great thing for photographers. Not only does it let you get really great gear for photo trips, but it also lets you try stuff out before you invest all the money in buying that specialty lens or that.

big investment lens, you name it. And they actually also have a buy it program too. So you can rent it and say, my gosh, I love this so much. I'm just going to keep it. You can hang onto it. And they give you this nice kind of discounted used lens price and everybody's happy. Really great stuff. And finally, I'd like to thank Shimoda designs. They are a camera backpack company that I'm just in love with. It's definitely the best camera backpack I've ever used. And I have the action X 40. It's a 40 liter backpack.

And it comes with these things they're calling core units, which are kind of like little cases. And this is modular system where you can have a small lens here and then fit it with a big camera body here. You've seen it before. It's what's in a lot of camera cases, but they do it really, really well. But more than anything, the backpack itself is just so comfy. It's so well designed. It's like really, really water resistant, dare I say waterproof before you even put the rain cover on it. So it's just like really expedition ready. It's also very

airport ready to, so it's just kind of the ultimate camera travel backpack. I truly love it. And if you use the Whelan W H E L A N 10 Whelan 10, you'll get 10 % off without further ado. Let's go ahead and talk with Colby.

Colby (02:58)
Hey, Court, good to be here again.

Court Whelan (03:00)
So what do you like so much about photographing in Antarctica?

Colby (03:06)
You know, Antarctica is such an ethereal and magical place and most of our daily life skillset does not apply in a place like Antarctica and it can be really surprising. so just the youthful energy that people bring to the creative photography experience down there is very powerful.

And I think that's what I like most about it, you know, ⁓ that people are seeing things for the very first time. They really don't have an idea of.

of what it's like, what it feels like, what it really looks like, the comment that I get from people all the time is just the vastness of everything and just there's no sense of scale and there's so much white. So figuring out from a ⁓ photography standpoint creatively what you're going to do with that scene is really exciting.

Court Whelan (04:04)
So yeah, you hit on something that I was gonna ask. So I'll ask it now is I've always known you to have a pretty unique approach to walking up on a photo opportunity. You are not the photographer or you didn't used to be the photographer that just goes up and starts snapping right away. It's like, okay, just snap in all directions and know, rapid fire. You are quite intentional ⁓ and you can tell that you're thinking as you walk up on these photo ops. What is your approach to walking up on a photo and maybe

picturing a glacial scene or a snowy scene or penguins or anything that you can think of in Antarctica. What's going through your mind as you see that image that you know you want to capture in some way, or form?

Colby (04:47)
Yeah, my mantra is walk up with your camera down. What are the chances that when you show up anywhere to Antarctica and you step ashore for the first time or you come up on deck in the morning and they're seen or you're somewhere else and you just get out of your car and you step out, we have this inclination to, this is so exciting, this is what I came for and you pick up your camera and you start going.

And then it's not about being immersed in that place and the feelings of that place. You're now looking through your camera and everything is literally through the lens of your camera. And it disconnects you from that place. And you start thinking more about...

know, composition of what happens to be in front of you or the settings to try to get the exposure correct and you're not in that place anymore. And for me, the images that have always captivated me the most when I look at like photojournalism essays, for instance, in National Geographic or whatever it might be.

The things that really stand out to me are people's personal connection and they're able to capture this emotion and there's a lot of interest built into their images. And having worked with lot of professional photography and video teams as a guide over the years, I've found that they do a lot of talking and thinking and walking around.

before they actually even make an image. They'll go over here and they'll look through their camera or their viewfinder and then they'll go over there and look somewhere else but they never really try to compose an image and put it down. They're just thinking about the place. And so for me, when I'm leading photography trips, they're usually with people that have not been to those places before.

and they don't know what that destination has to offer. They haven't felt the feelings yet and they haven't come to understand the things that are important. We move past, once we spend time in a place and we immerse ourselves, we move past these things that are obvious and you start finding the things that are unobvious.

Or how about this, Court? You start noticing what is most of interest, because sometimes actually the obvious thing is the thing that's mostly of interest, right? We could think about that of wildlife photography. It's like there's a grizzly bear and cubs there.

They are the thing that is the most interesting, right? And it's obvious. But sometimes the most interesting thing isn't obvious. You learn it through a story from your guide or something somebody else notices or something that you recognize with your own senses. And so to give ourselves time to recognize that as a traveler, I think is important. And then even more so as a photographer, we're gonna make a story for ourselves and for the people back home to bring us back into those moments.

recognizing what's special about those moments is important. And we can only do that by physically being present, not just wielding our camera right from the onset.

Court Whelan (07:50)
What advice would you

have to help someone cultivate that skill? Because I think when I'm walking up on a scene, it's hard for me to not take photographs right away, to be totally honest. I usually do look through my viewfinder. But if you were wanting to be more intentional about your photographs, is it as simple as just giving yourself 10 seconds for starters? Is it just as simple as doing it? Or is there something deeper within the psyche that might help you?

when you do get on that photo trip and you are in front of that landscape or even that wildlife, the bear and cubs, how might you help hone that practice?

Colby (08:29)
Yeah, well let's frame out what's actually happening, right? When we show up to a new place, as a traveler, as a photographer, you're excited about seeing that place, you're excited about the opportunities for photography.

It's good to honor that feeling. You don't want to take that away from yourself or hold yourself back, create anxiety because you feel like you're missing opportunities to be making images, especially if other folks are with you and they immediately start picking up their camera and say, oh, what am I missing right now? Certainly there's an amount of energy and excitement. And when you walk up, if something is very inspirational for you and it's like, this is it, this is the moment, this is what I came for, make that image.

In the long run, it might remind you of arriving. It might just be documentary in the long run also, but that's okay. There's no wrong way to take a photograph. There's no bad images in the end. When we think about travel images in terms of your own catalog and remembering your trip and bringing you back to those places. But when we start thinking about, all right, now I want to start making exceptional work.

not just documenting my own experience. That's where we need a lot more intention. And so after that initial arrival, I put my camera down and I encourage everybody around me to do that. ⁓ And that might mean having it down slung around my hip or something, or it might mean literally just putting it in the bag and going for a walk for a little bit. And just trying, really trying to be present and to notice things and to do things that are not.

photography. And for me, that's powerful because when I do have my camera with me and I put it by my side and I was like, now I'm going to intentionally go walk around and do these things, then I'm like, ⁓ now after five minutes I discovered this thing. And now my camera comes back out and then I'm just down the camera path, right? And I'm on that first thing that interested me. Where if I put the camera down and I just take a walk around for a while, I say, that thing's really interesting.

don't have my camera right now, but I can come back and then I'll keep walking and then I'll find something else. And so then I get to build an idea of a shot list in my mind. I get to decide what opportunities I want to prioritize. I think a little bit more in terms of ⁓ light and some of the technical aspects. Like am I gonna want to bring my tripod back? Do I want to just be back here later on in the evening? This is an interesting place. Like it gives more space to think about things.

The other thing that I find too is being in a group. And if we can cultivate this like sort of culture of creativity around ourselves when we're traveling in a group where everybody can talk and see, this is what I'm doing or check this out over here and do you all notice this thing that's happening right now? That can be very inspiring as well. And again, if we're all just looking through our cameras kind of doing our own thing.

then we lose social connection with each other as creative artists. And yeah, so as a guide, that's one of the things that I always try to bring to the table is open communication and dialogue between all of the photographers where we're all sharing what we're noticing and what's happening.

Court Whelan (11:54)
Yeah, I think that's absolutely brilliant because you know it gives you the chance to spend time looking and finding the thing that is exceptional in the environment because that's what we're really trying to take a photograph of. mean there is the documentary side right where you're you're saving a memory you're you're you're photographing what that landing on that gravel beach might have looked like in Greenland but it's really what is what is the thing that makes this place so unique and spending that time without your camera without

photographing a hundred shots in 10 minutes to really find that and look for that. think that's a really, really powerful technique. And the other thing I'll say is it also helps with, frankly, editing fatigue because it's very, very easy to take those 10 minutes while you're looking for the exceptional thing and to take the hundred photos or even 200 photos and come to realize that none of those are really all that exceptional. It's not of anything really unique or necessarily breathtaking.

yet you're still kind of stuck calling and editing those. And I say this from very recent personal experience. I just got back from a trip where I took something like 13,000 images. And by the time I was done editing those, was truly exhausted of looking at them. I find so much fun in the editing process. And I'm like, ⁓ I think I've hit my threshold. So yeah, being discerning, slowing down, taking, you know.

Taking the quality over quantity approach, I think is really, really sage wisdom there.

Colby (13:23)
Yeah, I agree. ⁓ You know, a comment on that too, Court is there's a time and a place for really pushing that trigger button when everything is right. You know what you're doing, you an image in mind, you've thought about the composition, the technical stuff is good, the light is good, the time and day is good, you know, and then boom, the trigger goes. ⁓ There is a time and a place for more...

images when we're thinking about wildlife or there's like fast action happening then it does make sense to be pushing that button more because small you know small looks or so you know an animal blinks or the way they have their body position or you know something like this can make a big difference in the overall composition so there is a time and a place to just be kind of going for it and have to sort through and you know find that special image but also I've been with a lot of people out there in the dark side

Court Whelan (14:10)
Mm-hmm.

Colby (14:21)
it I think is what you're getting at where you know it's just like well if I keep taking pictures of everything then I can go back and I can look later and there's gonna be some good stuff in there and I find that these are people that have a lot of anxiety about trying to create good work and they're not quite sure how to so they're taking pictures of everything in every moment and they stand next to other people and they're like what are you doing over there and they start taking the you know that that picture

But what they're doing is they're taking pictures. They're shooting from the hip. They're not making work. And that's a difference in mindset, I think, that can help both with creativity and great images, as well as not creating too much more work for yourself. Those things are all related.

Court Whelan (15:06)
Well said, well said. So you are a photographer, of course, a guide, a photo guide and a guide trainer. What have you learned? Perhaps some of the biggest stumbling blocks for someone who maybe goes on a couple of trips a year. They're a very passionate photographer, but they kind of put all their eggs in those baskets, meaning they're not a day to day photographer. They're not honing that muscle memory. Is there anything that you can add?

Of course, the intentionality behind photography, think is an excellent point, and I'm so glad we started with that one. But any advice you'd have to people that, again, might go on a couple of photo trips a year, but not doing it all the time, all day, every day, how would that person think, plan, prepare, and maybe execute their photography on those couple of photo trips a year?

Colby (15:58)
Yeah, I have a buddy that's ⁓ also a travel photographer and he leads a lot of trips. That's his primary thing is travel photography trips. And he does an introductory slideshow ⁓ about composition and he shows just beautiful images on a PowerPoint presentation. You know, so like blown up on a screen on the wall and he walks you through some compositional techniques for the regions that he's guiding him.

And he goes on to say that the best camera is the one that is in your hands at the time. And he's doing it kind of tongue in cheek because the Canon and the Sony and the Nikon people like to kind of grind on each other a little bit and he's kind of old for it, right? And he's like, I don't want to do this. He's like, the best camera is the one I had with you. And he's like, if I told you that there's ⁓ iPhone pictures in my slideshow that I just showed you,

What would you think about that? And people are like, come on, those are incredible images and the blah, blah, blah, blah. He's like, I can tell you that there's iPhone images in there and you can't even tell the difference. And then people have a lot of comments on this and that and the other thing. And then after a minute or so of conversation, he reveals, he's like, actually, he's like, the honest truth is every single picture you just looked at is with an iPhone. And it kind of takes some of the piss out of it, doesn't it? ⁓

Court Whelan (17:07)
Hmm

⁓ man, the reveal.

Yeah, I just

spent $10,000 on all this stuff.

Colby (17:27)
Yeah,

and there's a time and a place for all of the equipment, right? I I carry a very professional Sony rig around, but I find more often than not, you know, when I'm doing people pictures and some of the day-to-day stuff now, my 40 megapixel, you know, 3-camera iPhone is doing a lot of the lion's share in general travel photography for me now. So, your question then, after that story is...

Court Whelan (17:50)
Mm-hmm.

Colby (17:56)
I think people put a lot of pressure on themselves to try to be, I'm a serious photographer, so I need this big piece of technical equipment, and I'm gonna try to shoot in advanced settings, and what's the difference here? And I find that people get bogged down by a lot of that, and it becomes very overwhelming. And again, it takes you out of the moment to where you're not really paying attention and having fun, and it causes some anxiety. And I think my advice then to the people that are coming out,

⁓ casually as photographers is keep it simple. Like don't be afraid to shoot an automatic, don't be afraid to have a simple camera. The fun of it is getting out there and being creative. It's not that, you know, the technical stuff is a means to an end and the end is a captivating image and that's done through

composition techniques and creativity and understanding what it is that you're making an image of. The camera and the technical aspects are just the means to the end. So don't get overwhelmed by that stuff. Go out there and have some fun and make beautiful images. Nobody knows what your technical settings on those things were and frankly, most people don't even care, right? Make something that's captivating.

Court Whelan (19:15)
that might become the title of this episode. The end is a captivating image. That's a great, great takeaway. I do like that. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant thoughts there. So you've been guiding for a while and you've been training guides for a while. If someone were to want to get into being a guide or maybe more specific to this podcast and this audience, a photo guide, how like...

What are your thoughts on that? Like what's the process? What's the likelihood one would succeed? Even if you had no background in guiding or biology or photography, maybe you have a lot of all that and you've just never guided before. Yeah, what are your thoughts on how someone could get into guiding photo trips?

Colby (20:00)
my thoughts on guiding photo trips are, ⁓ it's just like guiding, it's guiding, it's still guiding, it's a different type of guiding, and guiding is about people, right? ⁓ When folks decide to be a guide, you know, you'll get a rock climber, a river rafter, and I wanna do more rock climbing and more river rafting, wouldn't it be fun to go do this for a job? Same thing with photography, wouldn't it be fun to go take pictures, you know, for a job? ⁓ And it is, and as photo guides, we get to make some amazing images and we're out there.

you know, in the field all the time. And over time, just by virtue of being in a place, there are a lot of opportunities arise for our own photography. But there are plenty of days when I cannot take my camera out. And that's because what it really means to be a photo guide is helping other people. That's what you're there for. You're there to guide them. You're there to make sure that other people...

can make good images and that other people can increase their skill set and other people are having fun in this community atmosphere with photography. So for people that are interested in being a photography guide, you need to have a great body of work, you need to understand composition really, really well, you need to be able to talk and teach about the technical aspects with all kinds of cameras and equipment and be able to help people with their own.

ability to make images. But at the end of the day, you know, it's about the images from the people in the group, not yours. So remember that.

Court Whelan (21:34)
Yeah, no point point taken is kind of like the sounds kind of weird to say, but it's like it's like the kid that wants to be a veterinarian because they love cats and dogs and then they they grow up and they find out they're just like dealing with a lot of really sick animals that they loved as a kid. Like, my gosh, I want to be a photo guy because I want to take photos all the time. And you're actually probably taking fewer photos because you're around other people taking those photos. Maybe I'll edit out the sick dog comment, but ⁓

Colby (21:52)
What?

Well, I don't know, it's

not that far off, right? I mean, what makes a good veterinarian is somebody that understands that this is a member of your family and they give your loved one a lot of personal attention and they give you personal attention and it's not just about spading and neutering, you know, it's about your relationship with that animal and that's exactly what guiding is all about. And a good veterinarian...

You know, they're the ones that know the names of the owners and the names of the animals and can make those connections. And it's the same in guiding. That's what we're there for. It's not about spaying and neutering. It's not about aperture and shutter speed. It's about the people and their experience when they're there with you.

Court Whelan (22:45)
Dang, good save, Colby. That's why you're the pro. So yeah, I love the philosophy and that sort of just whet my whistle for digging in more on kind of the getting into the photo guiding. So obviously someone needs to keep in mind that it is still guiding. ⁓ It is about the guest. It's definitely about what they take away from the trip and you helping them get good images. But what are some thoughts you have on ways someone that

Colby (22:49)
I got you, Court

Court Whelan (23:15)
you know, maybe has, gosh, maybe never guided before or barely guided to get into this world. I mean, it's something that both you and I have been in for ⁓ a while. And I, I frankly get asked this question a lot and I'm like, I'm not sure if I would say the same thing, you know, five years and then the next five years and the next five years. Cause I think it's, I think it's changing a lot. Everything changes a lot, but what do you know about like the current climate and to getting into this?

realm. think photography is like a rider onto that. mean, that's that's part of it. ⁓ But it really is the world of guiding in the first place. So yeah, what what's it like to get into that world right now?

Colby (23:56)
that's a great question. I also like your point of it's always evolving, right? Like, yeah, I get asked that a lot about just how do I get into guiding and I think about the people that work alongside me and we come from all kinds of walks of life and there's no one mold. There's some foundational skills and abilities that we all need to have. Some of those you need to show up with.

and some of them you can be trained for, but very few people are gonna come with all of them when they apply for a job and they start working. Certainly as a photo guide, or any guide in any realm, you have to have some basic subject knowledge and ability. You're gonna need to have a good portfolio of work. You're gonna need to be able to teach people photography. And those are important skills. Being able to make your own great images and teach other people how to do that is different.

There's a language and a feel that comes along with that. So finding opportunities for volunteerism is usually one of my biggest recommendations for people to try to get some experience working with people as a photographer. But then past that, find that operators have different needs at different times as well. Some of these companies will work with one guide at a time on a trip.

Others might have two or even three guides that are helping people on a trip. And so the companies that are having multiple guides on a trip, there's more opportunity to come in with a slightly weaker skillset as a junior guide, as long as you're good at working with people. And then you can start learning the leadership and management, and there's still risk management skills and operational logistical skills and that sort of thing that you can learn when you're out there in the field.

So identifying a company that ⁓ Not that is your sort of ideal like stretch goal company But trying to find the companies where you can come in and really add value At the end of the day when a company manager is looking to hire a photography guide You can believe that every single person that's applying is gonna have a good portfolio and they're gonna be a good photographer so

When you're writing a cover letter or talking to your people or curating your resume, focusing too much on photography isn't gonna get you there. What you need is to talk the talk of adventure travel and that has to do with your relationship with people and providing great experiences for people. So don't miss that opportunity when you're applying.

Court Whelan (26:41)
You said something earlier I wanna come back to, and this is getting back in the realm of kind of creative photography. And essentially you said, what we're trying to do out here is have fun and the end result is this captivating image and finding creative ways to capture those, not necessarily getting deep into the settings. So I wanna ask you about camera settings. No, I'm kidding, we'll get to that in a second. But no, I wanna touch on the creative aspect. And I know that it's gonna be hard to...

to explain this off the cuff, ⁓ but I'm wondering if you can kind of maybe paint the picture or maybe you have some tools in mind of, when you are landing on that beach in Antarctica or you are in a Zodiac in Greenland or you're rappelling down a canyon in the American Southwest, like when you say looking for creative images, what are you looking for? And trust me, I realize that that's a hard thing to answer without being in that.

place, you know, you're like, you don't, don't know what the flowers look like next to that meadow next to that mountain, but, but try to paint the picture for me of what, what really are you looking for? What are some tools that you have in mind for finding creative photos?

Colby (27:53)
you know those landscapes that you're talking about, polar regions like Greenland and Antarctica, like the desert southwest, I'm generally looking for shapes to start.

When I go out there, I'm looking for something that graphically is very pleasing. Again, we're in these giant landscapes. You have icebergs, you have mountains, right? In the canyons, you know, have desert towers and cool little wavy spots and ⁓ sandstone formations, right? And so those graphic shapes and patterns are really, really interesting to me. I like them as leading lines. I like them to frame other things out and I'm looking for those.

And then I'm thinking about the light. Those environments are also very harsh environments. so thinking a little bit about contrast, about where my subject is related to the dark spots or the light spots that are out there on the frame.

what I can do in post-processing. There's sometimes when I look out there and I'm like, oh, you know, the dynamic range on this is so hard right now that what I really need is to have my subject lit up with a dark background behind them. Or there's no way I'm gonna be able to do anything with it. Otherwise, if they're in the light spot and they're in the light, they're just gonna all be washed out and it's not gonna work.

So in those environments, those are things that I'm thinking about all the time. And yeah, and then in terms of the technical components, then I'm usually spot metering in those areas as well.

Because I don't want to blow those highlights out if you blow out all the highlights in an iceberg You're done. It's not like you know the sky around the Sun you can get away with that sometimes right great like soft California dream and feel It doesn't work when you're you know The Sun's reflected so badly off of a desert tower or often of an iceberg that you lose all the contrast so I'm usually Sorry the detail so I'm usually spot metering on those things at the same time

And that makes up the foundation of what I'm doing down there.

Court Whelan (29:59)
I love that.

Yeah, that's I'm really happy to hear you say that because I've been playing around with spot metering a lot and I say playing around because I really haven't used a lot in my career because a lot of the stuff I'm doing is wildlife photography and it's it's just really really tough when you're photographing a backlit animal to spot meter and then blow the sky completely out. It's much more of like a judicious decision of where you're going to meter where the lights in the dark are going to be.

but I have been playing around lot with that with people photography, with landscape photography, and you're exactly right. Spot metering, if you need to quickly inject some creativity in photography, spot metering and boom, it just turns into a different scene, different image. So yeah, I love to hear you say that. Okay, so I do actually wanna talk with you about settings. And the reason is because I know you're not like a huge...

camera settings guy, ⁓ like I could nerd out on that stuff all day. However, I find oftentimes in life when you gain insight from people that aren't really focused on a certain part of the art form or a certain part of, you know, the work you're doing. And that's like the side part, like you, for instance, you're talking to creativity, the composition, all that. I find that there's some really interesting takeaways when you do get into that, that part of their brain that

they've sort of put off to the side, like the settings. And I don't mean to put you too much in a box here, ⁓ but I think you can probably agree, like you're not the nerdy settings guy, So the first question on this is, you know, what camera settings would you walk out the door with? And you can say this generally, you can say it for, you know, a suite of different locations, but what are you walking out the door with in terms of your aperture, your ISO, your...

your shutter speed, are you shooting on manual, are you shooting an aperture priority, you know, even white balance, that kind of stuff. Like what's your, what's your go-to?

Colby (31:55)
Right.

Yeah, yeah, I can run through that for sure. And I do have preferences. Just your comments about not being nerdy about the technical stuff, I do subscribe to that, I think that's fair. But I do have to say, ⁓ understanding those things are important. And when you'll hear the second part of your question, I'll answer it in a minute and I'll give you very specific.

settings that I use. And it's not because that happens to be what my camera was set out out of the box. It's because I know

the technical aspects and have chosen these things to fit my own shooting style. And so for listeners, I do think that's an important distinction because we do need to understand the basic mechanics of how our camera works, whichever type of camera you have, and being able to use all of those settings to your advantage to achieve your creative vision.

And there's plenty of times when we all change our settings around for something special, right? I mean, that gives you a diverse portfolio and it's fun to be creative that way. ⁓ Like, can I tell you right now exactly how many megapixels my camera is? I forget. It's a lot. You know? But I also know that like back in 2006, know, cameras were like four megapixels and people were putting them up on the billboards in New York Times Square, right?

Court Whelan (33:25)
Mm-hmm.

Colby (33:25)
⁓ So at some point, I don't care. These things serve their purpose and you can move on. But understanding your exposure triangle and various metering settings and focus modes, that stuff's really, really important and we talk about that a lot on trips, don't we, as guides? ⁓

Court Whelan (33:46)
I'm gonna

stop you there because I think that's the nugget of information I was hoping for. I didn't know where it was gonna be, it's, no, it's exactly what it is. It's you gotta understand the heck out of it deeply, but don't obsess about it. Is that kind what you're?

Colby (34:01)
Yeah,

I mean like Alright, so Now I'm gonna sound like a crusty photo guide, right? But like the person on the trip that drives me sort of nuts is the person that shows up and they have all the very expensive camera It's probably all hanging off them all at the same time They want to talk megapixels and how good their lenses and how fast that is and what does like I don't care I gotta say like, you know, like I love that they love it and I want to engage them about this thing that they're inspired about

Court Whelan (34:08)
You

Colby (34:31)
But by day three at the dinner table, I'm not talking about your camera settings anymore You know, like I'm happy you found a piece of equipment that works for you. Now, let's make some images with it, right? ⁓ So yeah, there's a there's a balance in there ⁓ somewhere that needs to be achieved Yeah

Court Whelan (34:48)
Mm-hmm. Okay,

I did cut you off. I do want to hear ⁓ if you do have some walk out the door settings ⁓ for, you know, for your average photo trip.

Colby (34:58)
so for me, my perspective is in adventure travel settings, which most photography trips are going to be that. And these are dynamic adventure environments where we don't really know what's gonna happen next. And so for me, I'm always set up for fast action. If there's a place where I'm like, look at the pretty flowers, let's take some pictures of the flowers, it is always the opportunity to...

you know, go into aperture mode to change my settings, to switch a camera lens, but if I'm out there and something quick happens and animal runs by or, you know, whatever it is, then I need to be able to just pick up my camera and use it. So I'm always out there set up ⁓ to where I can handhold my camera and then some, like maybe there's a, I'm handholding and there's a moving animal. ⁓ And so I'm always trying to have a shutter speed that doubles my focal length.

So for instance, if I'm shooting at 300 millimeters, then I want to have a shutter speed that's at least 1 over 600, so double the 300. And if you can go more, if the light allows you to go faster, then I'll usually be set up faster, but that's kind of a minimum for me. And certainly if you're on, you know, like I'm on sailboats and, you know, zodiacs and these kind of things that move, make sure that I go even faster. And if I need to jack my ISO,

ISO up and run a noise filter later, then so be it, but I want to make sure that I get a sharp image out of that. So yeah, anytime there's a lot of action, anytime that I'm on a wildlife trip, I'm always making sure that I'm ready for that action. And otherwise, you have all the time in the world and it doesn't really matter what your camera's set at. You pick it up and put it to what you need it to be and do your thing.

Court Whelan (36:46)
What is the Colby Brokvist photo style and why?

Colby (36:51)
photo style. You know it's funny my partner tells me like, I could tell that photo is yours, it's your style. I don't see that. I've wondered about that actually. I've been reading, here's a book recommendation actually for people that want to get more creative is I'm reading ⁓ Rick Rubin's book, The Creative Way. In fact I've read the whole thing but it's these short little essays and I read one almost every night. They're brilliant.

Court Whelan (37:10)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Colby (37:19)
There's a lot of really deep philosophy in there about creativity and the creative mind and creating creative space and what that means. And yeah, I've been trying to embrace that a little bit ⁓ more lately

Photographers will find it very useful. But he comes from music and I got to thinking, after she made that comment to me, was like, well, does rock and roll people know what their style is? And then there's an interview years ago with Angus Young of ACDC and they were gonna make another album. was, I don't know.

like in the 90s or something maybe and they're like, what's this album gonna be? What are you guys gonna do? And he's like, what do mean what are we gonna do? Like we're gonna rock. You're not gonna, you like we're not gonna make a ballad. That's not what ACDC does, you know? And I thought, wow, this guy is like really in the box. And it changed the way that I thought about that. I'm not an ACDC fan really, but like it changed the way that I think about like them and their music. And then I was like, well, you know.

Guns and Roses is kind of in the same genre, but we got November Rain, right? And that's a great one. you know, so anyway, I was like, I that person that is so specific about what I'm doing? And I spent a lot of time looking at my catalog. And I do think there's a lot of diversity that's in there. ⁓ But I think in terms of editing style,

Court Whelan (38:24)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Colby (38:45)
⁓ I do tend to edit a particular way and I'm mostly self-taught with like YouTube videos and that sort of thing ⁓ outside of I took a lot of darkroom classes in high school and university like I did a lot of art classes and photography specific classes and so we would get critiqued and I hold those lessons tightly and dearly from from getting my work critiqued, but now I don't really have anybody that does that

Court Whelan (39:11)
Can you share any of those lessons that are still with you today?

Colby (39:14)
Well,

yeah, but what I was gonna say is I think that when you look at your images, if you look at them, you're like, this is my style. Everything always matches the rule of thirds, and it's always in golden light in the evening. That's a detriment to style, right? You do need to think out of the box, but when you're editing, I think that you do need to have a style.

because people want to recognize your work and if you're just kind of doing different things all the time, it's more experimental. And when you're, you know, young to photography, that's fine. Keep experimenting and learning all these new techniques and find, you know, what it is that you like and what looks good to you. But at some point, sooner rather than later, you do need to settle on an editing style.

You could be dark and moody, can use contrasting, complementary colors. Some people really like the HDR look. ⁓ Whatever it might be, land on that and make that your style. But don't get so caught up in style that you lose your creative force out in the field. Yeah.

Court Whelan (40:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's

kind of what I was getting at is the editing style. You know, I think that It's just it's it's at a point today where you almost have to edit all your photos You know, like you can't you can't get away with not editing your photos if you want to be Competitive for lack of a better word if you want to be you know a pro photographer Even if you're not selling oodles of work if you're you know a photo guide and somehow, you know Making money with your photography editing is really really important

Colby (40:46)
Yeah.

Court Whelan (41:02)
And I've personally just found my editing style has changed, several times throughout my history, you know, as editing programs get better and better, like all of a sudden, this is capable to really lighten the shadows. Maybe I should be doing that, like you said, for the HDR look. Or we're seeing so much of that now because it's so feasible, it's so easy to do on the biggest specs cameras. I mean, you can take photos.

Colby (41:19)
Yeah.

Court Whelan (41:28)
in the dark, can make shadows completely normal lighting. Maybe instead you go the opposite way and push the darkness, push the shadows and get really, like you said, that dark and moody, the contrasty. And now with social media, you're seeing not just the use of filters, but the ability to really harmonize and choose these complimentary colors. And yeah, I'll just find as I'm scrolling through someone's portfolio or album or, or their page on social media and, they're just, it's all just this nice kind of matched.

you know, all greens and oranges or, blues and, it's like, man, like they got, they got good style, but yeah, it's an interesting, interesting thing to think about, huh?

Colby (42:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay. I have another comment and it's gonna play into you. You gonna ask what the advice or critique was from my photography instructors and it plays into this. So there's a couple things that's happening with the editing and yeah, like there's been a lot of evolution in the software and what we're capable of is average people. There were a lot of things years ago that I wanted to do with my images.

Court Whelan (42:17)
Mmm, yeah. ⁓

Colby (42:40)
that I would have been able to do in the darkroom, but I couldn't do on Photoshop because Photoshop is so complicated. And Lightroom and similar products over the years are so attuned to photography and making it easy and they've pulled all those very powerful capabilities out of programs like lightroom and they've put them in a way that's usable for us.

Court Whelan (42:47)
Hmm.

Colby (43:08)
and it really helps to achieve your creative vision. so knowing how those programs work and what's possible will allow you to achieve your creative vision. There's also all sorts of presets and things, and this is what comes to mind when you're talking about some of the stylistic things that's out there. And I think a lot of that is beautiful. Part of me also thinks it's gonna be dated.

Court Whelan (43:22)
Mm-hmm.

Colby (43:35)
and another three years or five years. Some of the color combinations that are really popular right now are popular for a reason because they feel nice to us and they're visually appealing, but too much like pink and teal, it's gonna just start looking like normal photography after a bit. And somebody is gonna say, how can I set myself apart? And then it's gonna be like,

Court Whelan (43:35)
Hmm.

Yeah, it's like, oh, that photo was taken in the

2020s. Yeah.

Colby (44:05)
green and purple, right?

Next. And everybody's gonna go green and purple and if you have pink and teal, it's gonna be like, oh, look how dated that is. Whereas if you're editing to make your scene just feel like the scene, that's never gonna go out of style. Like if your jungle always looks like a jungle, it doesn't look like a jungle in 2024, right? Then I think your work is going to last and I think that you're going to...

Court Whelan (44:14)
Mm-hmm.

Colby (44:35)
be happier with looking at your whole portfolio over time. I'll say that with the caveat of, this is sort of for us as average photographers or as travel photographers or maybe even fine art photographers. If you're doing commercial work, if you're doing stuff for social media, like whatever that might be, doing what's hot now and in this time and place and making that visually appealing to people now.

is really an important component of your work as a commercial photographer. So people that are creating, you if you have listeners that are doing stuff for calendar work or for visitors bureaus when they travel, you know, some of the online magazines and blogs, having something that looks very contemporary and stylistic for now makes a lot of sense for you. So it does depend on your end use. But being, again, it's like we were talking about with the technical settings.

understanding all of that, having some ability to achieve all of that, and then making a choice of, all right, what is me and what is my style? And a lot of that's gonna come down to what is your end use,

Court Whelan (45:42)
You spend a lot of time in the mountains. I started this conversation with Antarctica, ⁓ but you spend a lot of time in the mountains and you've guided a lot in the mountains of Yosemite and elsewhere. I'm wondering if you can give some words of wisdom on someone that might be headed to the mountains to photograph for maybe it's a weekend trip or a summer vacation or something like that. What are some thoughts in mind of how to think and prep, you know, what sort of...

sort of stuff to bring with you maybe, but more like what's the creative vision and what are some nuggets of information to get them to ultimately with the goal of coming away with better photographs.

Colby (46:20)
things. One is, if you're gonna go into the mountains and you want to get some great mountain photography, Google it. I do this more and more lately ⁓ and I try not to specifically like do image searches for the place that I'm going because I don't want to make replica work ⁓ but

Court Whelan (46:29)
Hehehe.

Colby (46:43)
I do like to if I'm going to the mountains and so now I'm gonna be in some big I'm gonna be in the Dolomites and it's gonna be big craggy peaks and mountain huts and that kind of stuff I'll do an image search for that and I'll see what people are doing and It really helps to just get the creative flow going right? You'll see some close-ups and some wide angles and you'll see sunbursts at sunset and you know, whatever it is So that's great before you go to a new place that you've never been

And I find that it helps take some things off of my plate because like we were talking about earlier when we get to a new place, there's all this energy and emotion and we're trying to make sense out of the things and understand it and get more deep. And if you're also like, and then what kind of pictures am I supposed to take? If you have some kind of like little shot list or ideas, possibilities in your mind, it's very helpful.

Court Whelan (47:32)
Now I have to ask, do you ever get bummed out by seeing something that would have been a surprise or like, you know what I'm getting at? Like sometimes I'll do, yeah. Has it? Sure.

Colby (47:43)
Yeah, I do. Like personally, like I'm in it for the adventure.

I want the discovery. The first time I ever went to Africa, this is when I was younger and I hadn't been guiding very much, hadn't heard very much from people and you know, this and that, but I just went to Africa ⁓ on my own. And I remember turning the corner and there was a kudu there. I'm like, what in the heck is this thing? you know, and it was so amazing.

Court Whelan (48:05)
It's a weird looking

animal. ⁓

Colby (48:08)
Yeah, and they

were landscapes like that. And the first time I saw a baobab tree, I didn't even know they existed. it's so inspiring and energetic. Don't take that away from yourself. And that's why I say, if I'm gonna go to the Galapagos and I wanna make images, I'm not gonna be like, show me the best Galapagos images. It's like, well, what do I know I'm gonna do there? I'm gonna take wildlife images, I'm gonna take images in a marine environment, and there's gonna be islands. So maybe do those searches.

Court Whelan (48:27)
Hmm.

Colby (48:37)
and then see what comes up. And then we don't get locked into these things where it's gonna take away from our own experience when we get there. then you have in your mind, it's like the internet's the worst of the worst and the best of the best, right? But you're gonna see some amazing things that you're not gonna have access to. The wrong time and the place, the light's not right, whatever it might be. And so don't set yourself up for disappointment because you get so excited about an image that you can't take it.

It's useful for me as a technique before I go somewhere to have a sense of what's possible there. And I do like looking at other people's images because there's so much inspiration, but I don't want to take away from my emotional experiences and I don't want to create derivative work. so I try to have guard rails on there for myself when I go out, you know, and, you know, for those people that go on guided, you know, experiences.

Court Whelan (49:23)
you don't go too deep. Yeah. Yeah.

Colby (49:32)
It's the same when you look at the catalog of these travel companies, mine included, it's gonna be amazing images, right? From guides over like 10 or 20 years of being there. The best of the best, right? Those are some of the things that have happened on the trips and we try to create exclusive opportunities for you, but you're not gonna go replicate some of the best images that anyone's ever taken of that destination on a trip, right? It's not gonna happen.

Court Whelan (49:43)
The best of the best.

Colby (50:00)
So be judicious, put some guardrails on there, but also get those creative juices flowing so you can make good gear choices and show up with some intent when you get out there. And then the second answer to your question then, it leads into that is just go light. Once you've decided what you want to do out there and what kind of work you want to make, what equipment you need for that and try to have a small kit. Just like the people that go out and they're just on machine gun mode trying to

make images the whole time, they're taking images the whole time they're there hoping something sticks. You can do the same thing with equipment. I'm just gonna bring everything, right? And then when you're in that moment, you see something and you're like, now I need this lens and now I need that lens and this thing and the tripod, right? And it slows you down. So I always recommend taking two lenses. Maybe they're both zoom lenses these days. The zoom lenses are so good.

maybe take a small lightweight little nifty 50 in addition to a wide angle lens and a telephoto or something. And then when you're out there, know how to use those. And it might not be the perfect lens that you instantly imagine for that scene, but you're gonna be creative with what you have when you're there and maybe take something that's unique. And in the meantime, you can move around and it's so much easier to travel with a light kit.

It's less to think about, there's less decisions to make, there's less to clean at the end of the day and organize, right? And it's just much more simple when you're traveling internationally to have a very small kit.

Court Whelan (51:36)
What does the term conservation photography mean to you?

Colby (51:41)
Yeah. So, Court, you and I are both very much into conservation and sustainability. photography is an art, and the purpose of art is to communicate things to other people through, in this case, imagery. So you're going to use their sense of sight to communicate something. And there's a lot that can be built into a captivating image.

Once the person becomes captivating, then you have the ability to say something else. If it's a gallery show, a collection of images can continue to tell the story. You can have small bits of verbiage next to a print that communicates a little something extra. And today, we all have access to that on social media. And so we can tell the story through our...

our text and our images of what's happening in these places. And as travelers, it's important to understand these places that we're going to, and it's important to be able to recognize the interconnectedness of everything that's happening in the world. And it's important to bring back those stories and share those stories to other people that might not have the privilege of experiencing those places like you did.

And so conservation photography for me is telling that story. And people can do that through their own media, right? You can do that on social media. You can do that in a gallery show. You can do it by selling note cards on Etsy. You can do it by having a blog of your travels and images. But past pretty images, there's something to be said about that. And if we circle back to our original question and comments about, you know, what it...

what makes a great image, it's something that tells the story of this place. And you learn that by immersing yourself in there. And you have an opportunity to use your privilege to tell a story. And that's what conservation photography is all about for me.

Court Whelan (53:49)
Hmm, beautiful. Yeah, really well said. really enjoyed hearing that. Okay, I wanna switch over to gear now. ⁓ What is your favorite lens for wildlife? And same question for landscapes. I'm gonna force you to get nerdy here on gear. It's, know. Yeah, and then landscape. We'll do a two parter.

Colby (54:06)
Favorite lens for wildlife, specifically.

Okay, so my favorite, I mean, I don't have that much kit really. So I use my 100-400mm f3.5 or f4, I guess f4, all the time. I shoot a Sony rig, but that's a common, right, workhorse lens for any system. And I am also gonna say that it's my most favorite one for landscapes. And...

Court Whelan (54:38)
⁓ all right,

yeah.

Colby (54:40)
And

so wildlife, nobody's going to be surprised. It's a killer lens. It's fast, great focus tracking on the Sony system. Most all the systems these days, right? So it's great. I can get pictures of birds in flight on the Drake Passage, you know, on a sailboat, just sharp albatrosses, you know, in the waves and on the wing and bouncing around. So it's great for that. But the surprise is that it's also my favorite landscape lens.

And I say that with the caveat of I spend my time in a lot of big wide open landscapes, not in the forest. But I'll put an asterisk on that and come back to that in a minute. And the reason I like that is because of the ability to compress things. Some of your viewers might remember there's a, man I'm gonna get it wrong now court, but there's a really really famous National Geographic cover.

And it's in the Himalaya, and I can't remember what country, but you have these layers of mountains with golden light, and I think there's some kind of little temple or something, you know, that's in the foreground. And you look at that and you're like, wow, like what a scene. And actually the photographer took that at a great distance and moved around to line up all of those elements, and it turns out that the story behind that image is...

is that he worked really hard for a very, very unique view and did that with a long lens, which was pretty unique at the time. And a telephoto lens at a long distance and then a long distance like in real time, in real space, has the effect of compressing everything. Unlike a wide lens, will give you a lot of depth in your image and you feel like, I'm here and now I can go way over there.

When you take a landscape image through a telephoto lens, it compresses everything and it makes it all look like it's right there. And I love that look. And when you're in these big wide open landscapes and you have, you know, triangular shapes of icebergs or mountain ridges and you can line these things up and maybe put some people or a boat or something in there, it gives this grandeur to everything ⁓ and really makes it feel big. Yeah, and I love it.

So that's my landscape secret and anybody that goes to my website will see a lot of landscapes. And then the asterisks, so like the little pin in that that I put is I also really love it for portraits of nature. And so again, if you're gonna tell people I want you to go out and take intimate pictures of the forest, I think a lot of people are gonna put on like some kind of wide angle or a macro lens and they're gonna go up there and they're gonna kind of get close to stuff. And I would much rather be way back.

in a big meadow looking at a boreal forest on the hillside and taking pictures in nice light of just all the shapes of the trees with a long lens. And so I love it for that. And I call those portraits of nature, where we're taking pictures of things close up somehow. But that doesn't mean you actually need to be close up to them.

Court Whelan (57:41)
Hmm.

All right. A three for one. So it's the 100 to 400 in all cases. No, I love it. I feel very similar to you with the compression of landscapes. It's an obvious choice for wildlife. But yeah, for landscapes, my favorite is to put on some sort of telephoto as well. It looks different. It gets you closer.

Colby (58:06)
The X factor

lens though, the X factor lens is a 20 millimeter with a good starburst. Cause not everybody, does everybody know that's listening? Like the ability to have a nice starburst depends on the actual parts that your lens is made out of. ⁓ So you need, when the aperture opens, there's all these fans that are connected in a big circle and

Court Whelan (58:13)
Aha. Yeah.

Colby (58:36)
And so if those little like fan blades Are cut in a little bit more and there's a lot of them Then you can get a good starburst out of it. So Sony makes a decent one. My favorite was the My previous rig was a Nikon rig and there's a 20 millimeter 1.8 prime lens

That's one of the favorite lenses I ever had and when I did decide to switch over to Sony, ⁓ I had a hard time because of that Nikon lens, like leaving Sony. So they do, I own it. You know what, how maybe more people are familiar with bokeh, right? And you're like, it's such a nice bokeh, right? Like, you know, any lens that's going to have some bokeh, like it'll do it, right? But there's some that are just like, wow, that looks really nice.

Court Whelan (59:13)
Sony's gotta make something like it now. Okay, you gotta now. Good, good.

Colby (59:32)
and it feels smooth and the size of the spots that it forms are pleasing to you. That's how this starburst situation is too, right? So different lenses have a different quality to them even though they're able to do it. And the quality of that Nikon was something special. Still is for people that are using that system.

Court Whelan (59:37)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Yeah,

right. Yeah.

Colby (59:57)
But I love that

lens for, you know, can get landscapes with starbursts and I use that as a little trick sometimes if maybe a scene is not as compelling as it could be, but something is happening that's really interesting and I find the use case for that is travel photography. Like this is the time and place that I'm here now and I'm not gonna be back and I wanna make an image of this thing because it's important to the trip or what's happening in the moment, but.

maybe the light's not particularly nice or there's something else happening, whatever, I can throw a starburst in there and it just gives it that little extra something that makes it special. But then there's also a time and a place where, you know, where everything is special already and you can still do that, you know. If you look at, there's a photographer that I really like, ⁓ Will Patino out of New Zealand.

Court Whelan (1:00:34)
Mm-hmm.

Colby (1:00:51)
And actually, does, the reason I know him, not just because of his work, but he does a lot of tutorials on YouTube. And it's a wonderful channel for learning photography. And what's really special about Will is he'll just take you out with his GoPro and walk around and be like, here we are, we're taking images. This is what I'm thinking here, this is what I'm doing. You you get to hear his whole process as a professional. And I've learned quite a bit. But he loves the Starburst.

Court Whelan (1:01:20)
Okay, I'll have to put a link to his channel in the show notes to get people dialed in Will Patino noted noted Yeah, Canon just just came out with a 20 mil f1.4 of their like their primo line, you know, like their L series I'm like ⁓

Colby (1:01:23)
Check it out, yeah.

Wow.

They're fun lenses. Yeah, they're fun lenses. Yeah.

Court Whelan (1:01:40)
Great for Astro too, right? Like, that's right, you were

asking about the Rokinon lenses. Did you figure that out?

Colby (1:01:45)
⁓

I don't think I'm gonna go that route, but I'm looking Yeah, I'm looking at a very inexpensive ⁓ Macro lens actually is what I'm for But I want to just I want something that's gonna have nice glass But that I don't have to worry about I don't want to spend a thousand dollars on another lens and do whatever But I want to be able to do some close-up stuff. Yeah So anyway, there's a couple companies that are making ⁓

Court Whelan (1:01:55)
Hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Colby (1:02:13)
some really nice now, like very competitive, ⁓ but not quite as fully featured lenses. ⁓ like, ⁓ yeah, seven artists is another one. You just manual lenses and they're not gonna talk to your camera very well, but the glass and the casings are exceptionally nice. so, know, Macro, I figure you have all the time in the world to sit there and mess with all the manual.

Court Whelan (1:02:20)
Hmm.

So, have you heard of them?

Yeah.

Exactly.

Colby (1:02:42)
aperture rings and the whole thing and the focus and everything, know, it won't do it through your buttons. But then you push the trigger and it's an incredible image. just, yeah, pretty fun. And, you know, from a guy that started on a Canon AE7 in, you know, the dark room, like the manual setup feels pretty natural and nostalgic to me. And it's another way to just slow me down. I don't want it as a wildlife user, but to...

Court Whelan (1:03:02)
Hmm.

Colby (1:03:09)
kind of go play around with something like macro photography or astrophotography. It could be a really fun addition to your kit.

Court Whelan (1:03:17)
I hear ya, I hear ya. Okay, so final question of the podcast. ⁓ What is a piece of gear that is not directly camera related that is surprisingly helpful for your photo expeditions?

Colby (1:03:32)
Yeah.

Court Whelan (1:03:33)
Like kind of like when I say surprisingly helpful, like almost indispensable, like you gotta bring this thing. But it can't be a piece of camera gear.

Colby (1:03:41)
Yeah, right.

you know what it is court it's masking tape

Court Whelan (1:03:44)
You got it.

that's a good one. Do tell.

Colby (1:03:49)
Or electrician's tape. Electrician's tape

works just as well. Yeah, because I like to put my camera in manual focus and then lock out the ring so it doesn't move. There's something particular, you know, that's happening. I started doing this with ⁓ Aurora photography because focusing is always tricky and I always do it manually. There's some techniques for that and then tape it down. But I find that I use it in situations where I have my camera on a tripod.

and I'm set up for something to happen and I don't want the focus to change. One way to do that is just to tape that thing down and manual. And then I can be very specific about the spot. ⁓ yeah, like for instance, if someone is going to move into the scene and they're not there yet, the camera doesn't know where it's supposed to focus before that person gets there. And you can have difficulty with autofocus later.

Yeah, I'll put somebody out there or I'll pick a spot on the ground where I know that person's gonna be, where that animal is usually the case for me is gonna be, and then I tape it down. And when the animal comes in, then push the trigger and I've got it.

Court Whelan (1:05:06)
That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Well, thank you. Well, Colby, that's a wrap. Thank you so much for joining today. I learned a lot of cool new tidbits and you are the first official second time guest of the Wild Photographer. So congratulations on that. Thanks for joining.

Colby (1:05:22)
Thanks for having me back, Court. I really appreciate it. It's always fun to talk.

Court Whelan (1:05:27)
Well folks, hope you enjoyed listening to that conversation as much as I enjoyed being a part of it. As I like to say, the best way, if you wish to support this podcast, the best way is free to you and it's just to leave a review on your podcast platform. You can leave up to a five star review, say a few words about what you like and that really helps me a lot. can also, another great option is to forward this on, share this podcast on to a friend that also likes photography. So please, if you would like.

One of those two things, both those things do a great amount to help me out and I thank you in advance for considering. I also look very much forward to the next time we get to chat. Take care.