Episode Seven - Keith Ladzinski

Welcome to another episode from Naked Eye Studios. Join host Will Bolsover as he delves into the captivating world of visual storytelling with Keith Ladzinski, a National Geographic Photographer and Emmy-nominated director. From storm chasing to tranquil wildlife photography, Keith's tales transport us to nature's heart. Tune in for an inspiring visual journey filled with stories, insights, and the artistry of one of the finest photographers in the business.

Transcript

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00:00:54:05 - 00:01:12:17
Unknown
Well, Keith, thanks. It's great to finally meet you think it's been as I said to Andy last night, we had a chat with Andy, and I think it was about four years ago that I first tried to hit you guys up and see if you could do some stuff with us, but maybe you just sort of set the scene for where we are now because I've never been here before and it's pretty cool.

00:01:12:17 - 00:01:28:19
Unknown
Steve. Alex But yeah, well, it's great to meet you as well too. Finally, after all those years, thanks for that incredible small bar trip. Is that the song? That was a lot of fun. We had a good time down there. Was talking about that accidental polar bear in which he got. Yes to do. Unreal. I was 5 minutes late for that.

00:01:28:19 - 00:01:40:14
Unknown
We can actually talk about like, Yeah, I'll set the stage real quick. Yeah, yeah. Here we are sitting in my studio in Boulder, Colorado, Nice cold winter day and I'm glad you were able to swing into that.

00:01:40:15 - 00:01:49:11
Unknown
Yeah, but so he says cold here in terms of a the other day though, you're half Scottish. Explain that. What's that come from?

00:01:49:13 - 00:02:12:17
Unknown
So my mom on my, my dad's side is Polish and my mom's side is Scottish. And my mom emigrated over from Glasgow when she was quite young, three years old. She's the youngest of four and they made the decision to to leave Glasgow in the mid fifth, 1950, 1955, and came over to Beo, New Jersey, where they essentially settled, and that's where she grew up.

00:02:12:19 - 00:02:39:06
Unknown
And so how long you've been here for now? Buller I've been in Colorado for most of my life. They moved my brother and I to Colorado when I was two years old, and they blindly moved us to Colorado. They've never stepped foot here. It's my parents. My brother was just about to enter kindergarten and they didn't want to give him the same public public school experience that they had.

00:02:39:09 - 00:02:56:05
Unknown
Yeah. So we had an uncle that lived here in Colorado that was in the Air Force, and it was my my mom's brother. And he convinced them to just without ever having visited, moved to Colorado. So Colorado is what I've known pretty much for my entire life. I grew up about 90 miles south of here in Colorado Springs.

00:02:56:05 - 00:03:17:09
Unknown
Yeah. And then I moved to Boulder in 2012. And so and then of course, now I travel out of Colorado and I've lived in different parts of the world, but for three months at a time or six months. And I've never even been here before. But I was quite surprised. Apart from the difference in temperature between here in San Francisco was like 21 Celsius in San Francisco, I go in here, it's -14.

00:03:17:11 - 00:03:32:03
Unknown
I was like, Jesus Christ. But it says, I've never been here. But it seems a pretty laid back sort of area of the states, you know, and I'm very outdoorsy and stuff. There's a lot of Olympic set up here as well as in there and stuff, but it's that sort of what set the scene for you sort of growing up in this environment.

00:03:32:03 - 00:03:47:08
Unknown
You know, in terms of it's quite a big difference to sort of living in an inner city or something like that, isn't it? It is. What I love about Boulder is that it's a real melting pot for athletes. It's also a real multipart pot for artists as well. You have a lot of independent filmmakers that live here. You have a lot of writers.

00:03:47:08 - 00:04:08:06
Unknown
You've got really brilliant minds that work in, you know, high level engineering fields or work for Noah or End Car. And then as far as the athletes are concerned, here you have some of the best and the best, you know, that gravitate to this part of the country because of the access to the mountains. And then just 90 miles from here where I grew up is where the Olympic Training Center is.

00:04:08:07 - 00:04:25:10
Unknown
I wrote this because you have altitude here in Colorado Springs is about 7000 feet altitude, which forgive me because I know it's meters. Yeah, this it's so you know, it's like over 2000 meters. Yeah. And so they it's great for them as far as you know, for anything. Cardio gives you an edge when you're working at higher altitude.

00:04:25:10 - 00:04:45:25
Unknown
And so the whole front range of Colorado is quite unique that a lot of athletes move to this region simply for training or because the terrain is so great, sort of explains your Winter Olympics sort of success and the sort of Brit's absolute nightmare, the Winter Olympics, doesn't it? We've got Aviemore in Scotland, and that's about it. Exactly the best training ground.

00:04:45:25 - 00:05:11:13
Unknown
I'm not here to rub it in to show you, but I'm Scottish at heart, so. Yeah, but, so is that, is that how you sort of got into what you do now? Sort of talk me through that in terms of your photography, as is your and your style is quite different to traditional photography methods etc. and you seem to sort of set the trend on that, you know, taking a different approach because you had this outdoor lifestyle and background to this.

00:05:11:16 - 00:05:31:15
Unknown
How did that happen? Where did it sort of start for you? Just skateboarding stage? Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. That's thanks for the nice words. I for me, you know, I when I picked up a camera like most people, you sort of gravitate to what you know and what I knew at the time in my life when I picked up a camera was I was an avid skateboarder, like, fanatical about it.

00:05:31:17 - 00:05:52:09
Unknown
And but I also grew up, you know, growing up in Colorado, the outdoors is just all around me. So I was dividing my time between skateboarding and being outside, like rock climbing and mountain biking and camping and doing all the things you would do with the mountains. And but then I also had this sort of urban duality. And one of the great things about Colorado is it does have a really great skateboarding scene.

00:05:52:09 - 00:06:12:02
Unknown
So that being a piece of my life as well as the outdoors, I started pointing my camera at skateboarding, which is really all about artificial light, you know, using strobes, you're likely trespassing and you're getting running from security guards and things like that really quick. Yeah, you know, it's sort of renegade running gun setups and sort of skateboard lifestyle.

00:06:12:02 - 00:06:32:10
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. No, and you're you're probably shooting at night or in bad light. So you're having to use, you know, strobes to sort of supplement the bad light you're working with. That was completely polarized by going into the mountains where it's quiet and serene and you're waiting for the light in the moment to evolve. You know, at sunrise or sunset, you're out there alone.

00:06:32:16 - 00:07:07:15
Unknown
You are running from people. Yeah. You're just the best. Exactly. You just got to watch your back. Keep an eye on your six. But the whole thing is, for me, it was. And I didn't realize it until the years and sort of lapsed a bit, that my style became a bit of Malcolm ized and that once I started moving away from skateboarding and focusing on wildlife and rock climbing and the different sports I was shooting and the different activities in the natural history components, I sort of took a little bit of that skateboarding sensibility and was using off camera lighting, and a lot of that was because I really liked the look, and that look

00:07:07:15 - 00:07:32:29
Unknown
became sort of incidentally, a signature look. It was really just more of a taste thing initially. And then over time it sort of evolved into its own thing and, and I became a bit influential to other photographers. And, and it wasn't that I had pioneered anything. I had just simply taken this sensibility that I had and put it into two sports that weren't really being shot that way at that.

00:07:33:01 - 00:07:41:23
Unknown
But it's a much bigger thing now. And some people say, you know, kind of obviously sort of followed you and worked with you a bit just on the NWS stuff, but

00:07:41:24 - 00:07:53:11
Unknown
were sort of, Andy, you know, good friend of yours. We were chatting last night and this is sort of quite clear that he's put almost the intelligence back into sort of ocean conservation and photography and stuff like that.

00:07:53:11 - 00:08:00:21
Unknown
You know, he's got a great angle on it and stuff, but then some people have said you've put sort of sexy back into climbing in photography. Is that fair?

00:08:00:22 - 00:08:14:25
Unknown
I mean, I'd be it would be breaking their guidelines of humility about agree with that or even say that. But I'm sure you're taking the perspective in terms of you've just you've seem to have made it look a lot more attractive and fun and exciting and adrenaline.

00:08:14:25 - 00:08:46:00
Unknown
You know, and and at a time when climate has come through massively, hasn't it, in terms of the last four or five, ten years, you know, whether you look at Meru or free solo or The Alchemist has just been out and stuff like that, hasn't it? You know, and you've sort of been one of the trendsetters, I would have said almost on that to sort of bring that into into the sort of public domain a bit more perhaps early on over the climbing industry has exploded over, you know, know in the films you've referenced have certainly been a really big part of that as well as climbing gems being it's almost like you can't go

00:08:46:00 - 00:09:23:18
Unknown
to a gym anymore without there being at least a small climbing wall. It's become so accessible to to people everywhere. And a lot of that is through climbing gyms. And then, of course, these movies being influential for me personally, the photography that I was doing, I think during my heyday of shooting climbing was certainly during that rise. Yeah, but it's funny because and it's a bit ironic is that as climbing became extremely popular, I was sort of pivoting and exploring different facets of photography and really getting more into climate change work and natural history work and different advertising opportunities.

00:09:23:18 - 00:09:44:21
Unknown
And as much as I still love climbing and I'd probably do, you know, 20, 25% of my years maybe dedicated to rock climbing, though as things were becoming really red hot in the climbing industry, I start sort of making this pivot without realizing it because you have evolved and you just you did the skateboarding, you done the climbing, you do some commercial work.

00:09:44:21 - 00:10:05:14
Unknown
You know, we all need to make money as well, you know, and you've done a lot of the natural world stuff as well. Is that was that sort of intentional evolution for you, or was it just sort of as things came up or what was the motivation behind that? It's a little of both. A lot of it was, you know, the product of just simply getting opportunities handed to me and then also chasing interests.

00:10:05:16 - 00:10:28:17
Unknown
So the wildlife thing, you know, it's tough to make a living as a wildlife photographer, right? There's everybody wants to do it. It's obviously fun, It's beautiful, it's exciting. You get you go to exotic places. So that's a very difficult place to kind of crack into. At least that was my experience. I was really fortunate in that rock climbing had opened up a much larger global landscape for me and so on.

00:10:28:17 - 00:10:50:11
Unknown
These climbing expeditions. And often times, you know, when the athletes are on rest days or even if you're just simply on location, moments of present themselves. And I started becoming more opportunistic with those and with everybody else was resting. And, you know, climbers are as pedantic as any athlete in the sense of they're like always monitoring their skin and their energy levels and their concerns.

00:10:50:14 - 00:11:06:26
Unknown
It's only in there and just the quality of their skin, you know, the tactile sense of it and the adorableness of it and the small cut on their finger. It can and can end a trip, but they're always really just taking care of themselves. So when it came to rest days, most climbers are very good about simply taking their resting as what it should be.

00:11:07:02 - 00:11:29:14
Unknown
Whereas me, I'm like, I want to go see some other stuff. I want to get out of here. I want to go see what this region that I'm in is all about, maybe extend a trip a little bit. Wildlife started becoming a big extension of that because growing up here in Colorado, you know, you see a fair amount of North American wildlife and it was something that I'd shoot recreationally, but I started shooting it with much more fervent passion as the years evolved.

00:11:29:14 - 00:11:51:21
Unknown
And a lot of that was really just being lucky and being sent on a climbing trip to Greenland or Antarctica or South Africa, you know, some really cool place where there is an abundance of wildlife or it's unique. That gave me an edge really early on, and I just started honing in on that more and more. And, you know, I started getting organic opportunities there.

00:11:51:25 - 00:12:22:25
Unknown
And then also once I started getting a taste of those, really just trying to design shoots where they became a more important, they're integrated and you touched on them. But Andy said again last night, we chatted about you a bit and he said that you're one of the hardest working photographers that he knows in terms of. And is that sort of is that because you don't want to sit down and rest in terms of you just alluded to it then in terms of, okay, you are doing a climbing project, but then that stage of that, you know, day or whatever is sort of on pause, right?

00:12:22:25 - 00:12:39:00
Unknown
I'm going to off, off and see if I can find this or do that. Is that, you know, I've heard stories about you sort of driving the roads around here. You know, you're up and you're out and you always looking for something different. Is that what sort of what motivates you to do that? Because it is difficult to keep challenging yourself, isn't it?

00:12:39:00 - 00:13:00:11
Unknown
And maybe it sort of helps with as photographic equipment evolves so quickly and stuff like that, the new challenges and stuff like that. But to have the mindset to be able to do that and what can be quite a saturated industry is pretty impressive. Well, first of all, you touched on a lot of great points and reasons right there, and I can't not address that.

00:13:00:11 - 00:13:15:20
Unknown
It's nice of Andy to say that. You know, it's funny because, you know, as you work in this industry and you you begin to to meet more and more these really hyper creative people. And, you know, I was lucky to just have a really great relationship with him for, you know, going on 16 years. And we got to do a lot of great things together.

00:13:15:20 - 00:13:42:27
Unknown
And that's nice of him to say that. And I could say the same about photographers that I know. Yeah, For me, I think the the real conduit here and the real attraction is it's just curiosity. It's not wanting to sit still. It's having an excessive amount of energy, perhaps, or I don't really know how to relax. And, and also when you're out behind the camera, especially when it's wildlife or really any sport, if I'm I can get interested in just about anything I'm photographing.

00:13:42:29 - 00:14:01:07
Unknown
You know, it could be it could be like that cannister of mints right there. Like I could get really into it and put the right way with the light. It just becomes hazy. You always like this? Yeah. And exploratory. You know, it's really this an opportunity when you're behind the camera to to really look at the world more objectively and start honing in on things.

00:14:01:10 - 00:14:27:27
Unknown
And when you're shooting wildlife, you know, specifically, there's, there's rarely second opportunities. You can't direct your subject. So and you're and also the moments can often be fleeting. And I think when you take those three things, they give you stakes. And when there's stakes involved, it's something it's almost like if you're photographing an athlete and they're like, you have one chance, all of a sudden, that heightens the the importance of nailing the shot immensely.

00:14:28:05 - 00:14:54:04
Unknown
And with wildlife, I feel like with wildlife, I feel like that is the stakes all the time, every time. Unless it's like some sleeping lion or something. There's certain animals. Yeah, but if it's like a bird that's coming in or there's a potential squabble, it's always back to bird. If you, if they there or if you see two animals and they're having like a real behavioral moment, maybe they're sparring or fighting or it could be whatever it is, those moments are quick.

00:14:54:04 - 00:15:12:14
Unknown
They don't want to be around humans. So you're already kind of being intrusive. So you have to be kind of stealth and figure out a way to to allow yourself to get that access. And then when the moment presents itself, you have to be on point. And I love that any time there's stakes involved, it's I working for companies like Red Bull, for instance.

00:15:12:14 - 00:15:37:22
Unknown
It's usually really fun because something really crazy and radical is going to happen and it's going to probably happen once. And that really heightens the opportunity there. It heightens your senses immensely because, you know, you can't fuck it up. But that makes sense on this day. But that sense that you thrive on it, you know, which is quite different to a lot of people who sort of back off in those situations.

00:15:37:22 - 00:16:05:21
Unknown
And it's it's more of a stress point for them, whereas you seem to sort of embrace it and so is they. And you says it's about that one shot and that one opportunity. Osama I'm not. Is there is there one shot that you have that sticks out for you? Andy? Last night said that polar bear image and Svalbard, obviously, you know, that was what he said was just like probably one of his preferred wildlife shots that he's done, you know, And that was a bit of luck and a lot of skill involved.

00:16:05:27 - 00:16:25:25
Unknown
And then there's that one for you that is like, yeah, that's that was just one that always sticks out. Yeah. From the wildlife perspective. Gosh I'd have to look, I the problem with me is I'm like a voracious photographer in the sense that I shoot a lot. Yeah, I'm going to there's an abundance of my archives kind of spiraled completely out of control.

00:16:25:25 - 00:16:51:06
Unknown
So to just think of a single shot on the fly here. That's right. Does that's cool. Yeah, but it's tough because I know that. I know that those moments exist. Yeah. Typically speaking, those are moments of of either deep serendipity or hardcore planning. Yeah. You know, and those, those are typically when you, when those big unique moments present themselves This is not I have a million great stories of going out and really having to battle for it.

00:16:51:09 - 00:17:13:07
Unknown
You know like one moment that comes to mind and it's just randomly comes to mind was in 2016, I was working on a story around a lot of the national parks in the United States, and I went to the Everglades and Andy came with me and Andy came out to to assist me. And I say that very lightly and loosely, because, you know, Andy's such a skilled and the expert photographer.

00:17:13:11 - 00:17:34:26
Unknown
He just came along to sort of simply be there and like shoot alongside of me. And yeah, it have some, you know, some pro time together and get some good shots. But Amy's skill as an underwater photographer is something that I've really been able to learn a lot from over the years. And while we were in the Everglades, which, you know, is a big wetland national park, so many of the opportunities for great shots do live underwater.

00:17:34:28 - 00:18:01:08
Unknown
And so I remember going out there, I had this really cheap like surf housing, something like a polymer housing to take out and the breakers that, you know isn't too heavy. You get thrashed around it and not to kill yourself with. Whereas Andy had a nice Nordic cam housing, which is a completely different pedigree of of, you know, equipment and we we were like their night number one there's these beautiful valleys in the water I'm using my like pretty shitty housing and Andy he's like, Here dude, use this and he gets not a camera.

00:18:01:15 - 00:18:19:13
Unknown
Wow. Right away I'm like, This is a very nice piece of equipment. You just feel the difference, right? Quality. Quality is night and day shooting photos with at night. Wow. Thanks, man. I got to hand it back to him. And God bless his heart. He's like, Dude, I brought that for you. He's like, Make photos. This show me, like, different techniques I'm doing.

00:18:19:15 - 00:18:33:08
Unknown
You know, I had a little bit of underwater experience at that point, but not much at all. And most of it was Ron what? Using my surf housing, which was really clunky, quite heavy. And I live in Colorado. I'm landlocked. You know, it's only when I'm in a location where I could use it that I get to use it.

00:18:33:10 - 00:18:53:01
Unknown
So we shoot all day. We're getting all these great photos that evening. We're sitting back in the hotel and I was like, I'm buying one of these. And being in Florida, there's lots of underwater dive shops. So he took me to a place where he had actually bought his I spent ten grand by the whole set up. You know, this heavy price tag just, you know, what are those what do they call it?

00:18:53:03 - 00:19:12:26
Unknown
Buyer's remorse immediately. Yeah. There's like this piece of equipment. But now all of a sudden, you're, like, leveled up. And two days into this thing, we're sitting there and, you know, photographing alligators and all the things that this story was for National Geographic. So the stakes are quite high. It's nearly impossible to show up to an editor's desk with photos and blow their mind.

00:19:12:26 - 00:19:32:03
Unknown
Right? They've seen everything. It's National Geographic. They're expecting the best. And so what are the things we did was Andy had a friend down there that dives with alligators in the Everglades. So I'll just get in there and he'll go snorkeling alone. It I mean, this is a place that's outrageously abundant with alligators. And we call he call them Chris for a couple of days.

00:19:32:03 - 00:19:54:01
Unknown
And Chris meets us up to this one wetland area that's outside of the national park where we can actually go and do this. And we spent the day snorkeling through the Everglades with alligators and you touch anything and there's just instant backscatter and yeah, and everything. It's gotten moss and grit. And that moss is just algae. And, you know, if you touch the vegetation, all of a sudden it's like a fog bank in front of you.

00:19:54:01 - 00:20:15:07
Unknown
You might see anything around you which these predators love this. It sounds like Jurassic Park. Totally. And we are seeing alligators in heavy abundance the whole day, you know, underwater, no less like in their playground. And there was a moment that unfolded towards the very end of the day where the sun was in just the right spot, where sending these dancing rays a light underwater.

00:20:15:09 - 00:20:36:00
Unknown
And there was this alligator that it sort of like went down into the water. It was underneath this beautiful piece of wood that kind of folded over. And I just remember it being a very stand out moment in the entire project for me, because it was just one of those moments where everything was perfect. We'd worked really hard to get this shot because we'd spotted this alligator and moved in real slow.

00:20:36:00 - 00:20:58:26
Unknown
Some of them are really like coming close, so I'm totally cool with that where, I mean, I'm talking like ten inches closer. Yeah. Whereas some are just, you know, alligators aren't as aggressive as crocodiles, but the crocodiles are much, much more dangerous. Giant reptile. Yeah, alligators are fine on that. They're fine. Just slap around them. Yeah. Thankfully they're not as they don't develop provoked or oracle.

00:20:58:29 - 00:21:17:08
Unknown
I mean, an alligator roll is more well anything in the wildlife world predators. If you approach a predator eye to eye that is definitely a that's a sign of that usually is predators. When you watch them hunt, they peripheral hunt a lot. You know, as soon as they see the prey that thereafter is like locking eyes with them.

00:21:17:14 - 00:21:37:25
Unknown
They they get all casual. They're like, hey, I just sort of it's it's funny when you watch those behaviors because they're whole they're ambush predators, right? No one wants to die at the mouth of something else. So they have to be really cunning. Well, if you approach a predator, certainly like an alligator, eye to eye straight in, they feel like they have the lesser hand in a situation like that.

00:21:37:25 - 00:21:55:19
Unknown
They're not going to just attack unless they're cornered or it's the. So you're saying it's female and desperate and. Yeah, yeah, it's not safe, but it's definitely they know what's key. I learned a lot during that dive and I've done a few since, but it's I do remember just getting it. I don't even know why I got on that tangent is I forgot my greater point.

00:21:55:22 - 00:22:14:05
Unknown
But I do remember getting in and we worked at this one alligator for like 15 minutes under this beautiful compositional setting. Yeah. And I the photo I got was a very standout wildlife moment and certainly one of my best. While underwater wildlife frames at the time and one that I'm still quite pleased that I was able to get to.

00:22:14:08 - 00:22:29:06
Unknown
But that was a standout moment for sure. And it doesn't the way you described it is obvious that, you know, and so it shows your passion around the topics as well, what you do a lot on on your own doorstep as well, don't you, in terms of a lot of people travel far and wide these days in terms of photography, right.

00:22:29:06 - 00:22:44:28
Unknown
For you know, I've got to go to the other side of the world to take images and stuff like that. So it's different, but you invest a lot of time on your doorstep. Is that fair to say? It is fair to say a lot of it. I think there's a two pronged reason. One is I just want to go out and shoot photos because it's it's good for my brain.

00:22:44:28 - 00:23:04:29
Unknown
It's it's a place where I can find tunnel vision and quiet. I just like to shoot. I just like the act of shooting. Even if they're bad pictures or they're mediocre pictures, it's just fun to go out and hunt. It's a sort of therapeutic. It really is. Yeah, I guess it's where I'm kind of, you know, it's one of the places where I can find myself at my happiest.

00:23:05:01 - 00:23:29:05
Unknown
But the other thing, too, is if I'm driving around and photographing wildlife locally where I live, there is certainly a fair amount of of things to go photograph in the wildlife world. But it's not hyper abundant. It's not like you're in the Masai Mara or something. You know, you still do have to go find it. And there are little indicators and you slowly find and unearth your little spots.

00:23:29:07 - 00:23:48:17
Unknown
But what I do it for as much as trying to get good shots, is it's a great place to practice. And over the years I have realized it's one thing if you're photographing anything you shoot recursively, you're just naturally going to get better at with wildlife. Just because the moments are fleeting and you're really having to make sure the fires are sharp.

00:23:48:17 - 00:24:05:04
Unknown
You're dealing with six millimeter lenses. There's a lot of room for error. I think it's really good to just it's almost like a training exercise, almost like an athlete's going to go out and train all the time. Know, I think when you're working with big lenses and even just anything in general, you really want to get the greater understanding.

00:24:05:04 - 00:24:23:17
Unknown
You have a care equipment and a better you are with it and the better and more refined your timing is because a good photo is just, you know, it's the merge point of a great moment happening and then good, well-executed timing. Yeah. And so if you nurture those things and you practice a lot, your pictures are just going to get better.

00:24:23:19 - 00:24:45:00
Unknown
So I really like it. But it is a very practical thing that when I am out in somewhere like the Potton Hall or in small bar or somewhere where there is moments happening that can be fleeting, it's handy to to really have a full, you know, full comprehension and be on it straight away. Yeah. I mean, and also you can get out of shape creatively.

00:24:45:05 - 00:25:01:09
Unknown
Yeah. That's the one thing I've noticed if, if I, if my work kind of pivots and I find myself filming more than I'm shooting photos or vice versa, there is an adjustment period when I get back into whatever that next job is, is training your eye as well as it really is, and also like its different styles of storytelling.

00:25:01:12 - 00:25:19:00
Unknown
And so the more I do both of those things or whatever, I'm if I have a big job coming up, the more I'm in tune of the job is, the better I can execute. So you work on the on your doorstep lot? We travel a lot. How did you just quickly how did you balance that? You've got a young family, you know.

00:25:19:02 - 00:25:37:03
Unknown
It's difficult, isn't it? It's very hard. I mean, newer dad. And that's definitely changed my life for the better. But it has there's a lot of compromises when, you know, I want to be an engaged dad. I don't want to be that dad, that when my son's 16, he's just like dad, like just cameras, you know, that is not one.

00:25:37:06 - 00:25:54:14
Unknown
Yeah. So one of the great things is, is, you know, now when I go out and shoot, I take my son with me do and it's so much fun. And that's great because I get to kind of he's at the age where everything is new and I get to see the world through his eyes. You know, as cliche as that sounds, I know you're a dad.

00:25:54:14 - 00:26:11:27
Unknown
You get that? It's you can take something you've seen your entire life and make it exciting again. When you're witnessing this thing you love more than anything, experience for the first time and respond. And, you know, I put bird feeders all around our yards and we get, you know, the squirrels come and steal the food, the birds show up.

00:26:12:03 - 00:26:29:15
Unknown
And I've noticed this because I. Did you do that when you what did you do that sort of before you have kids? No, I'm excited the same. And suddenly I got much more into that. And it's quite interesting, isn't it? And suddenly you sort of ended up getting paid. So got bird books and everything. Keith knows I love that.

00:26:29:17 - 00:26:49:02
Unknown
And that's the other thing too. We'll put on planet Earth or, or I'll bring a photo book out or even an illustrated book of wildlife, and then I'll take them in the field. And you can see that he's he's really enjoying it and responding to it. And when we when we fly or we drive around now, let's say like a a flock of geese flies overhead, he'll see it out the window.

00:26:49:02 - 00:27:03:09
Unknown
It's like his periphery is getting tuned in to. Yeah. There's see the birds and he'll like gesture and make a wild noise And he does this thing where he like pretends to fly and that's his signal of like I'm seeing a bird or whatever, Or if he sees a horse, he tries to make a horse's noise or whatever.

00:27:03:12 - 00:27:19:16
Unknown
And so driving around with him, it's sort of a nice two pronged effect for me. It's certainly much less about the photography when I've got my son Gray in the car with me know I want him to see that more the course of his till he gets something. But I'm not going to burrow in like you know. So you haven't taken him storm chasing yet?

00:27:19:19 - 00:27:46:01
Unknown
Not yet. This year. Yeah, that's right. The toy giant has. So what the hell was all that about? I mean, storm chasing. I'm just like, you're you're nuts. Well, that one. I'm really fortunate. I got. I have a friend, Crystal Wright. I don't know if you know Crystal writers, but she's an incredible photographer out of Australia in 2018, she had a she was doing a series of videos profiling different photographers, and she was profiling a kind of a mentor of hers.

00:27:46:01 - 00:28:10:12
Unknown
This guy Nick Moyer, who who's a Sydney, he's like the Sydney Herald director of photography. He's incredibly talented photographer, a very larger than life personality. She's hilarious. Australians in general just have fun. Yeah. And so Krystal contacted me and another friend, Scott, who lives here in North America, Skip Armstrong, and she said, Hey, I'm doing this film on Nick, you guys when it comes Storm Chase.

00:28:10:15 - 00:28:32:21
Unknown
I've always loved bad weather in the sense that you're guaranteed a very interesting backdrop, right? I've always loved to chase lightning. If there's a lightning storm in the area or if there's some kind of a weather event. But I have never pursued storms like this in my life. Typically, they were upon me and I was sort of very, you know, stuck in the right place, right time or whatever you want from wrong place, wrong time or wrong place, Wrong time in a lot of case, actually.

00:28:32:23 - 00:28:54:22
Unknown
Yeah. Which is absolutely the truth. Well, in this regard, I, I didn't know the level of science and understanding and amateur meteorology and all of those things that were involved to go. It's one thing to see a supercell, you know, like a giant storm formation and just drive your car towards it. Anybody can do that. But there's a strategy behind the storms.

00:28:54:22 - 00:29:12:25
Unknown
You do chase and the the side of the storm you find yourself on because most of the storm is like a mess. But if you can get on the right side where there's great, you know, wind and it's shaped and it's sculpted in, you're not sitting there in the hail. Those are places where you can make great photos and they are exquisite.

00:29:12:28 - 00:29:41:06
Unknown
They're a little sort of almost not vacuums as pretty long work, but in and little pockets where you can sit in to exact a monitor. It's not it's not exclusive to the storm that it's going to be beautiful. There is a position you need to find yourself in. And it's also quite hard to get into position, too, because a lot of these storms, they can be moving at, you know, 50 to 60 miles, even much faster, actually, where they're moving across the landscape, they're really all spinning across the landscape from convection and the way they form and everything.

00:29:41:08 - 00:29:58:29
Unknown
And you have to understand, you know, you look at a radar, Nick has all these incredible radar apps that have slowly been able to kind of learn over the years. He's been doing this for 20 years. So he's he's like the expedition leader and we lean on him. It's almost like being out with a biologist that really understands a frog.

00:29:58:29 - 00:30:18:02
Unknown
You're trying to, you know, to photograph. They're going to know the habitat, they're going to know the behaviors are going to increase your chances of success. You know, 90% with Nick and storm chasing. I just got to draft behind him and find and just get brought to these incredible places and slowly, like do my best to learn about them.

00:30:18:04 - 00:30:39:21
Unknown
But the storm chasing thing is so addicting because the days are interesting. You wake up in the morning typically early, but the storms don't happen until like two or three in the afternoon. The reason you get up early is you got to start looking at the radar systems immediately because you open up a radar and you look at essentially Tornado alley, which is, you know, multiple states, again, gigantic swath of the United States.

00:30:39:23 - 00:30:58:26
Unknown
And Nick will start making calculations and decisions on which storms we should be pursuing. And it is not uncommon to wake up in the morning and be like we have to drive six miles a day, really, and you'll just get in the car. And the great thing about the U.S. is that there's great highway system. So and that's why it's a great place to storm chase.

00:30:59:01 - 00:31:23:28
Unknown
You know, we're also fortunate in that some of the most incredible weather events in the world do happen here, specifically around tornadoes and supercell formations, which is all based on the geography of the mountains in the ocean, you know, the surrounding oceans and the Gulf and everything else. But that intersection of things, knowing where to go and to start planning your day early, you'll spend I think the first time I chased, we did 15 days and we drove just shy of 8000 miles.

00:31:24:00 - 00:31:49:18
Unknown
And it's just like that gives you a new perspective is a lot of time in the car, swapping stories and broken down and exhausting all your audio books and podcasts and playing both skills. It's exactly so, but you need to be with people you like. Yeah, because you are in the car a lot. And trust, I imagine as well, being in those situations, trust is everything is choices like that and did that.

00:31:49:20 - 00:32:08:28
Unknown
You've worked on a lot of just moving on to sort of the natural world and conservation. You've done a fair amount of projects on that. Did that did you get a different angle on all of that from the storm chasing in terms of the climate change aspects and everything like that? Did that give you a different sort of perspective on things?

00:32:09:00 - 00:32:30:03
Unknown
There were some little lessons learned from storm chasing that helped for the climate stuff, but for the most part, I mean, the storms in themselves are being they're they're they're growing in intensity with the way that the climate and planet is changing. Right. So you're having longer elongated hurricane seasons and storm chasing season is becoming elongated and more erratic and infrequent.

00:32:30:05 - 00:32:56:02
Unknown
I mean, was it in February through tornadoes and in the southeast of the United States that killed a bunch of people and did breach that horrible destruction, really unseasonable tornadoes? I mean, the weather is changing a lot and you get really direct climate change for the climate change work that I've done specifically, there are two things certainly around algae blooms hotter, longer that the heat index is kind of changing a little bit.

00:32:56:02 - 00:33:20:24
Unknown
So, you know, algae blooms are ignited by heat. So there's some amazing imagery on that. thanks, man. That I could tell you stories about this hot day in particular. I was so excited to go photograph the big algae blooms of Lake Erie because they're they're oddly not that well known, but they're it's a huge problem. And the day we went out, we were working with this university in the area that does all this algae bloom studying the dam.

00:33:20:24 - 00:33:44:17
Unknown
We go out my assistant, who was one of the hardest working people, she actually just moved on about a few weeks ago. So I'm speaking about her in the past tense because of that reason was and she just clarified. Exactly. That's what I'm speaking like. She wasn't storm chasers and she didn't die. But we went out and and she had she just an on top of that person in every possible way.

00:33:44:19 - 00:33:57:27
Unknown
And I'm like, drone that's ready. We were going to shoot these photos. We needed the boat as sort of scale reference, right? They're going to take us out to the blooms. And I'm like, Perfect. I'll just use the boat. So it's not a lot of boat traffic out in these areas because the water's is sludgy and nasty and there's no reason to be.

00:33:57:29 - 00:34:22:12
Unknown
And so when we got out there, she forgot to charge the remote control for the drone. She didn't know even how to charge that she this is the first time she worked around a drone before. So the batch are all good. We had like eight batteries for this, this drone, but we had 19% on the controller. So basically we got two flights we were out in like the most unbelievable setting.

00:34:22:14 - 00:34:40:18
Unknown
And she said, you've got to be you've got to be on it when those moments present themselves, but you got what you needed. The I did luckily I'm a photographer and I agree. I feel like I want the most I can get. And also, you know, when you the more you put into something, you can really whittle down and start working a situation and finding better photos.

00:34:40:18 - 00:34:58:22
Unknown
Right. But those pictures in general, I'm really happy with. But I had a you know how it is is a you're a photographer. You go out a lot of times with the preconceived vision of what you're hoping to get, and then you work with what you have and you try to execute on that vision or oftentimes you're blown away and you get more than you hoped for.

00:34:58:29 - 00:35:18:20
Unknown
And then there's other times it's gotten to whatever. But in this situation, I had all these photographs in mind that I could not wait to go get, and we got some of them. But so is that why in some way assistance you don't hear anymore? I know she's so talented. She we we started making a decision, but it's a line that she needed to start pursuing her own photographer.

00:35:18:24 - 00:35:37:00
Unknown
So talented But on on the climate change and conservation aspect, is there anything you travel to watch? You do a lot on your doorstep. You you travel to this, you know, the remote corners of the world. And I just remember the footage because our sister ship that we have installed right now is the sister ship of the when you came back from Antarctica.

00:35:37:02 - 00:35:54:21
Unknown
nice. The. Freya. Yeah. No, no, the other one, not the French. So sorry. The one we use now is Kingfish, but it's the sister ship of the one that you came back from Antarctica. And some of the footage they're bouncing back through the ocean would look pretty, pretty brutal. That was intense. I was a drink. That's. Yeah, Yeah.

00:35:54:21 - 00:36:12:09
Unknown
Because, you know, the Southern Ocean or the Southern Passage or Drake Passage, whatever you want to be on the boat that size, that's that's pretty brutal. But that was insane. I did not film that That was Andy filmed a lot of the interiors this guy Shane more film some. Yeah. And then I cannot believe I can't remember his name right now.

00:36:12:11 - 00:36:36:09
Unknown
Anyway, I didn't do any of that. Yeah, but it's just I was also the star photographer on that shoot. But we're going back to sort of far corners of the world. Other examples in terms of or is there stuff that you've seen that you're like, this is the biggest example I've seen not everywhere, but of of where climate change is having a massive impact, you know, or conservation issues that you see that are common in different areas.

00:36:36:11 - 00:37:04:03
Unknown
Absolutely. And you start to see that. You start to see it more when you when you begin to work with people that are top experts in their field. Right. And that's one of the things I've been very fortunate in my life, certainly over the last previous 12 years, is that going out on assignments and being with, you know, one of the leading ecologists, they're going to show you indicators and signs and catastrophic areas and healthy areas they're really going to build.

00:37:04:06 - 00:37:21:24
Unknown
They're going to give you a better understanding of those things. And then as you travel around, you begin to see the more in the same as when you're working with a top biologist or ornithologist or whatever it is, I, I think that I owe everything in my career. I mean, I'll work as hard as I can and I'll do everything I can to kind of get the best shots that I can.

00:37:21:26 - 00:37:40:28
Unknown
But I owe so much to the athletes. And then these people that work in these scientific fields that really, really get to sort of stand on their shoulders and call myself tall, so to speak, in the sense that I get to go out and really work off of their knowledge base and go do my job. And that's what's great about this.

00:37:41:00 - 00:38:03:21
Unknown
Photography can be looked at a lot, is the sort of single occupation where you're, you know, you're the person with the camera and you're doing all the storytelling. But the truth is, is you're really reliant on your fixers and your the different people that help you facilitate these shoots in the in the field. And if you get a great editor, that's like, here's here's five incredible contacts with you, you know, and you start running down these little rabbit Charles investigative lead and everything else.

00:38:03:23 - 00:38:26:01
Unknown
It's such a team activity. Filmmaking is like amplified even tremendously more than that because of all the moving parts. But even as a working photographer, I, you know, I can't shoot those. I can't shoot a great climbing picture without, like a talented climber. You know, you need these different people and these relationships become so symbiotic is the wrong word because there's more the sport.

00:38:26:01 - 00:38:59:24
Unknown
KING Yeah. Friendly than symbiosis, but very symbiotic relationship that's working in tandem with those profiles and those personalities to better to really bring it to life. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then drove it so about about two years ago now, isn't it obviously a massive impact globally and when that happened, I was quite hopeful that things would change. You know, and obviously I run a travel company, we try and do things differently, but very conscious of the impact that travel has on climate and like that in the UK.

00:38:59:24 - 00:39:14:18
Unknown
You know, you sort of looked up and world worldwide and there were no jet trails in the sky. You know, you had sort of deer in the street, in the cities and stuff and you're like, shit, maybe this is going to be, you know, the moment this stuff changes. I've been a bit sort of, you know, sad that it doesn't seem to have changed much.

00:39:14:18 - 00:39:37:29
Unknown
And we're as guilty as, you know, the next company. You know, the machines are cranking back up again pretty quickly on that. What do you think about the has covered been all there any sort of solutions to this? I mean, from an environmental standpoint, one of the worst things from COVID is that we've microplastic consumption and usage has been it's been amplified.

00:39:37:29 - 00:39:58:08
Unknown
I don't know the actual number of like ten. That's not I don't know in terms of masks and PPE and absolutely it's and everything is you you travel anywhere now and like we're we're at a hotel we just got back from a trip and down in the hotel breakfast buffet every apple was wrapped in sulfate and plastic. Right.

00:39:58:08 - 00:40:18:08
Unknown
Everybody is now such a hypochondriac. Then they grow on trees like that. They do? Absolutely. But they just spill the usually they are after, but not anymore. And we don't. I'm saying, like, there's all these things where, I mean, the petroleum industry benefited tremendously from COVID. Like, granted, yes, it was probably less air travel and other. So maybe I shouldn't say you benefited tremendously.

00:40:18:14 - 00:40:40:27
Unknown
I will say that plastic consumption went up immensely, and that's a massive problem. That's something we've been doing a lot of microplastics work the last couple of years, and so getting a greater understanding of that issue. And then as you travel and seeing it becoming even more prevalent and I feel like people were trying to at least reverberate a message of like, Hey, everybody, let's avoid this stuff.

00:40:40:29 - 00:41:08:13
Unknown
It became an unavoidable thing because there was, under the guise of sanitation and health and safety and that so as far as COVID is concerned, from an environmental perspective, I feel like that is a major, you know, step backwards and where we've kind of come there. But there are some of the positives are something like you address like you were seeing was planes in the air for a while and so, you know, there's less gas being used and all the pollution that that's created there.

00:41:08:14 - 00:41:26:16
Unknown
And even just the ambiance, the sound ambiance. I remember here in Boulder for the first I don't know, I was six months for sake of conversation. People were just indoors, right? And then all of a sudden there were pictures of people. There's a street here in town called Pearl Street. It runs kind of right downtown and it's like a shopping district.

00:41:26:16 - 00:41:52:01
Unknown
It's all cobblestone. And they told me about it. Yeah. And so, yeah, down on Pearl, there were, like, sightings of mountain lions walking down the street through empty. It was almost like I am legend in that the wildlife was like stargazer. Like all the humans are gone, thank God. Yeah. Slowly. But that's incredible. Listening. And that was sort of so reassuring in and how quickly it seemed to sort of bounce back, you know, in terms of the wildlife sort of coming back into the cities and stuff like that.

00:41:52:08 - 00:42:16:02
Unknown
But then how quickly it reverts again is a bit depressing, isn't it? It is. It was extraordinary for a moment. And then yeah, now it's I think, you know, we're just the planet's trying to go back to life as normal. And and it is wild when you see I mean, we all live in and much more comfortably than than humans have ever lived, historically speaking.

00:42:16:05 - 00:42:46:02
Unknown
But in that the sorry, my friend just the problem is, is we're so codependent on massive supply chains and you know, I mean, to live the way we live requires a lot. And it's interesting as you start seeing those things being pulled apart, like right now, there's this whole the latest conversation is how the oil industries, you know, oil is going to be the price of gas and everything in petroleum are going to go up because of the percentage of gas that Russia provides to the planet.

00:42:46:07 - 00:43:16:03
Unknown
Right. And I forget what it is. It's like 6% or something, but 6% is a lot. And so it doesn't take much to disrupt humanity. And I think we're all trying to kind of get back into our old rhythm, but our rhythm sucks. Yeah. Ah, rhythm was so hard on the natural world and we are part of that natural world as much as we live in houses and live in sanitary places and put paint on her walls like this room we're sitting in here and we like things that are specific temperature and all those comforts of humanity has sort of evolved into wanting.

00:43:16:05 - 00:43:44:26
Unknown
They come at a huge cost and I don't know, man, that's like a podcast in itself. We know that forever. So then just look, one last question. I know and I appreciate your time. What would you hope to achieve through your imagery and what would you want your sort of legacy to be? It's a good question. I actually ask myself that a lot, as particularly around the legacy talking point.

00:43:44:26 - 00:43:58:08
Unknown
I have no idea what that looks like and what that means. You start to think about it a bit more when you've got kids doing kind of. I think I look more at the longevity of it, like, how can I keep this going because of it? Yeah, you know what I mean? That to me is more important than a legacy.

00:43:58:11 - 00:44:27:13
Unknown
You hope that your pictures make a difference in that they they perhaps, like start a conversation or people are moved by them. I think that's the highest praise you can ever get through a through a single photo is that you've perhaps changed the narrative that somebody has. But when I look at the topic of legacy, like we're working on a documentary right now about Tim Lehmann and Tim is like a legacy photographer, his work on Birds of Paradise is truly legacy, its legacy to the point where his images are in the Natural History Museum of New York.

00:44:27:15 - 00:45:01:10
Unknown
They are prominent, they are globally seen. To me, that's what I think of when I think of what legacy is. Or I look at Paul Maclean's Arctic photography, right? Yeah. Paul shoots a lot of other things, but his Arctic photography is become and then of course is greater underwater work as well. Beloved and yeah, absolutely people get these O'Brien Skerry with his work on whales and things people that dedicate themselves to to a pretty specific topic that's where legacy I think is birthright David Duke is underwater work right He's focused so heavily on that thing.

00:45:01:12 - 00:45:19:06
Unknown
So you're still you're still looking for your topic? David I'm just doing a bit of research. It's like, give me everything. And so I don't know that I'll ever be one of those legacy photographers when you look at it in terms of that, we seem to be doing pretty well and I appreciate that. I appreciate that. That's very nice of you, But I, I, I don't focus on a thing.

00:45:19:09 - 00:45:40:24
Unknown
Yeah. You know, I, I don't want to say I get bored, but I, I love variety. It makes shooting more fun for me personally, and that's why I kind of bounce around a lot. So basically. Thanks, Keith. Hereditary to where can people find your words? What's your Instagram? Your website, What's the. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for asking. My my website is my last name.

00:45:40:24 - 00:45:49:26
Unknown
It's ladzinski. And my Instagram handle is also ladzinksi. Cool. Perfect. Well, thank you very much. Just. Yeah, thanks for having me.