Marc: Hey Jeff, thanks for inviting us here for Advancing your Photography.

Jeff: Yeah, yeah, anytime.

 

Marc:  So, tell me about your approach to photography and the type of work you really love to do?

 

Jeff: I like to do all sorts of different types of work. I shoot, travel and I'm sports climbing, and surfing and I like more of a photo journalistic style kind to things. I kind like to be a fly on the wall. I think lifestyle. My favorite is lifestyle and portraits, portraiture. I think that's what I probably like most about it and I like just getting out there and traveling and documenting.

 

Marc: Telling stories?

 

Jeff: I like, telling stories. I think, um, you can take a picture and it's just a picture. But, I like telling a story with a photograph, after a series, of photographs.

 

Marc: Yeah. Well, let's take a look at how you do that. So, how do you get a story out of whatever you're going after?

 

Jeff: Um, comes in different ways sometimes I'll just, you'll be hanging out with somebody you'll be realize, wow, there's a story here, and then you just try to document as well as you can, or, um, ..., usually, the best story, comes from just hanging out, they never come from sitting around thinking about it. Usually, it just pops in your head while your the road somewhere, you might be in a place and find something that's really interesting, you want to document it or you meet somebody and realize you got a great story. It's um, the best stories are never, something, and you go out and try to find it. It just kind of finds you. What I found the most the interesting was, there usually the ones that pop up at the last minute.

 

Marc: Cool.

 

Jeff: And, I got to be on it.

 

Marc: Yeah. So, what are some of the key things that you use every time you got the camera, or you go to pick one up?

 

Jeff: It's kind of um, basically, what is a story? What's going on here? Is it the place, is it the person, is it what their saying? I'm also a writer too. So, and I write stories also. Um, that's something I can use, if I, if I don't get that photographically, and also write about it. So, just kind of, um, I think you have to have an idea of what your trying to say with that particular subject and you have to start with that and then everything else will follow suit after that. But, yeah, you kind of, have to know that going into it. Right off the bat, what are we going, what am I trying to find here, what am I trying to say?

 

Marc: Let's talk about 180 degrees South. Which I totally, love that movie.

 

Jeff: Oh, thanks, thanks.

 

Marc: So, you had a story, obviously, already in mind?

 

Jeff: Yeah. Yeah, that, um, that you know was ins-s, hat whole trip was inspired by film made in 1968. So, it was, it was the spirit of the journey, that propelled us on our journey to record something new and to meet up with the guys that were on that 1968 trip. So, that was um, that was interesting, because up to that point, I been um, a staff photographer, for Patagonia assignments and what not and um, when I started shooting before I became a photographer, or, a paid professional photographer, I just traveled and took photos and wrote in my journal, and that's how I started with photography and I never thought I would become a professional and then, it became a profession, which is a dream come true, and then I was on this trip, and it was a real different thing for me, to not have a particular story behind it, because I was in the film.

 

Marc: Hmm-hmm

 

Jeff: And, I really didn't have an assignment and my assignments were, was whatever I wanted to be. So, I just, for 6 months, I documented things, that I thought were interesting along the way. So, there's, so many characters and people, and places, that I ad a blast with it. It was great not having, the pressure to shoot someone, sometimes, I wouldn't pick up the camera for weeks, and then sometimes I would just shoot for days on end. So, it was really nice. It was kind of getting back into my roots of photography and I started shooting filming in on that trip, because I have been shooting digital right before that. Then I went back to film. You know. Digital. You know, a film camera on that trip. It was great for me going back. That's kind of why I started in the first place.

 

Marc: Hmm-hmm. Jeff that's a rough job, but, somebody's got to do it right?

 

Jeff:  Yeah, it is rough.

 

Marc: Travel for 6 minutes. [Laughs].

 

Jeff: Right. [Laughs].

 

Marc: Shoot whatever comes to mind.

 

Jeff: Yeah. I mean it was, um, yeah I took a leave of absence from work. So, I was, um, totally free to do whatever I wanted to do. So, I was um, I think, on an 8-month leave.

 

Marc: You know, I ask Chris Burkhard, about getting a cover shot and he, you know, he kind of gave me the ingredients, that the last one was the mojo.

 

Jeff: The mojo. [Laughs]

 

Marc: Mojo. So, what is for you, that's the mojo, when you get that photograph, that you, it really pops?

 

Jeff: I think its some kind of emotion, I think, um, because, I think Chris's, is um, he's really into wide landscapes and stuff, and having things go out with color and light, and action and stuff. And, I think mine um, we both, he shoots other things too and I shoot different things, I think my, what I do best is people, and getting some sort of emotion out of the people or, um, the others, yeah, it's hard to pin point that thing that' s happening. You don't know, when you got it. You know. And, it's um usually, when you're not setting something up. You know, I'm sure Chris has had this happen, where you have this idea, where you go and you set it up and something else happens at your shot.

 

Marc: Right.

 

Jeff: And, that's the mojo. You know, that shot, you thought about, that you set up, is not the shot you want from, my experience. You know. That's what you didn't' plan on and you hope that you captured that thing and you didn't plan on it.

 

Marc: So, it's being prepared for that?

 

Jeff: Being prepared. Like, the other day, I was, shooting, um, this guy Fred Becky, he's shooting his portrait and a climber was doing a book on him, he's just this classic guy in his late 80s and um, he's just like a classic looking character of his features and stuff. I was shooting portraits and people were talking and I was standing back and I saw him [Jeff wipes face], he was just tired, he is tired. You know, it was late in the day [Jeff wipes face], and he just went like that, and I clicked those shots off because those were my favorite. You know, those were really doing it, instead of the camera. He was like wiped out. [Jeff wipes face], tired. And, he had his hands on his face the whole time and I got that real quick and um, I think those are, those are, I think, that's the mojo. I think that' s what's Chris is talking about.

 

Marc: Yes.

 

Jeff: Those unexpected moments.

 

Marc: Jeff, any final tips for photographers, who just want to get better outdoor photographs?

 

Jeff: Shoot. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Shoot.

 

Marc: Yep.

 

Jeff: That's the best thing they can do. And, finding subjects, finding subjects is a, every outdoor, photographer needs somebody to shoot. And, that's the hardest thing, that not having someone to shoot, a lot of the times. You make it very hard if you had nothing to shoot. And, you don't have a photograph.

 

Marc: Yeah.

 

Jeff:  That would probably be, the most important, for, outdoor action style things.

 

Marc: Cool.

 

Jeff: Sure.

 

Marc: Hey Jeff thanks for joining us.

 

Jeff: Yeah. Thank you Marc, I appreciate it.

 

Marc: You bet.

 

Jeff:  Appreciate your time.