Tsunamis, a Marine Toilet Disaster, and Maximum Security Prison: Tales from Our 2025 Alaska Photography Retreat Artwork

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Tsunamis, a Marine Toilet Disaster, and Maximum Security Prison: Tales from Our 2025 Alaska Photography Retreat

July 28, 2025 • Seth Macey & Aaron Mannes • Episode 283

In this episode we talk about the adventures of our 2025 Alaska Photography Retreat! From dodging tsunamis and navigating quicksand-like tidal flats to witnessing lunge-feeding whales and clamming bears, this trip was packed with unforgettable moments. We even had a close call at a maximum-security prison! Along the way, we reflect on balancing the pursuit of epic shots with simply enjoying the moment, sharing laughs, lessons, and inspiration for photographers and adventurers alike.

Expect to Learn:

How to strike a balance between photographing and enjoying the moment
How to pace yourself on a trip, building in rest to avoid burnout
What and how much gear to bring for photography trips
How familiarity with a location will lead to better shots
How to foster a sense of community and collaboration on group trips

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Thanks for listening!
Go get shooting, go get editing, and stay focused.

@sethmacey
@mantis_photography
@thephotographermindset

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00:00:24.75
Seth Macey
Hey buddy, I just saw you.

00:00:27.90
Aaron
For an extended period of time.

00:00:29.47
Seth Macey
I just saw you in the flesh no more than three days ago in Alaska for our 2025 TPM retreat. We're going recap it today, tell some stories, and give some insight into maybe some things we learned war that have made us better photographers, and we're going to share that today. This is the Photographer Mindset Podcast. I'm your co-host, Seth Macy.

00:00:51.27
Aaron
I'm your co-host Aaron Maness.

00:00:53.62
Seth Macey
And as always, if you love these episodes, feel free feel free to leave a rating a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. It's cost-free, effective way to support the show. And with that, let's just chat. Let's just chat about our trip. It was awesome. It was incredible. I've learned a lot. I learn things every single time, and I hope to do that for the remainder of time.

00:01:13.16
Aaron
Yeah, I'm still ah still winding down. So at this point, what day is it? Wednesday. We got back Sunday after a whirlwind of travel. Four-hour time change.

00:01:23.45
Seth Macey
Yeah, I woke up at 9 a.m. m Eastern time today. i'm trying to First it was 11, then it was 10, then it was 9. I'm trying to get back down to my 8 a.m.

00:01:31.49
Aaron
Yeah.

00:01:33.01
Seth Macey
m

00:01:33.97
Aaron
Yeah.

00:01:34.35
Seth Macey
I usually don't do too bad with jet lag, but this time it's kicking my ass.

00:01:39.48
Aaron
Yeah, it's shifted. It's shifted this time for sure. The first day it was perfect and I thought, oh, I got this. But then it kind of caught up. Re-caught up. But I'm alright.

00:01:50.20
Aaron
We're doing good.

00:01:51.25
Seth Macey
And I'm not going to get my after-travel sickness that you said before we pressed record because we've talked about this on the show, how I am go, go, go, go go go go and I try to fit as much stuff as humanly possible into and a trip, especially.

00:02:06.99
Seth Macey
i feel like the further the distance is, Alaska is not close to the East Coast. That's a long flight. Of course, there's longer flights, but still, I find that...

00:02:13.67
Aaron
Yeah.

00:02:18.51
Seth Macey
this was a mission to get to. So you better, you better cram it full of exciting photography adventures and opportunities, which I think we did this time, but I was trying to be conscious of that the whole trip. Cause it's a, I don't know. Would you classify that as a problem? But I think it just puts maybe unnecessary stress on my body and minds.

00:02:40.38
Seth Macey
And I was trying to take moments to, to tell myself, Hey, it's okay to relax for an hour or two here, man.

00:02:47.91
Aaron
Yeah. ah I think with our first trip there, there's so much daylight.

00:02:51.39
Seth Macey
Question.

00:02:52.49
Aaron
It can get away from you very fast. with weakened We did a whole day and we have four more hours to do four more hours of hikes or photography or sightseeing or whatever it may be.

00:03:06.28
Aaron
And day after day of that, of literal 20-hour days of light, you can um you can you can burn out fast. And I think we did a good job this time of...

00:03:17.67
Aaron
having some rest time built in and taking our moments. We had a really nice rain day in the middle of the week. The rest of the weather was absolutely perfect. ah But that rain day, I think, kind of revitalized us ah physically.

00:03:32.31
Aaron
Emotionally, that was a tough one. and We'll get into that, what happened on that day. ah But it was a ah it was a it was ah it was a challenge ah getting through all of the the amounts of things you can do with that kind of daylight and and trying to hold back.

00:03:50.31
Aaron
i agree.

00:03:52.26
Seth Macey
Yeah, I mean, a couple times i think I was just trying to have some reflective moments and asking myself why... Because because often, I was better this time, often i

00:04:06.10
Seth Macey
will indirectly have the kind of thoughts that...

00:04:15.27
Seth Macey
feel like no matter how many cool things we're doing in a day or that I'm doing in a day on any trip, it's almost not enough. You could be out there.

00:04:22.66
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:04:22.83
Seth Macey
You could be out there. You You could be doing more. You could be doing more. you could be doing more And I guess that's kind of and that's unnecessary suffering to a degree. So I was better at this time just trying to deliberately say,

00:04:35.51
Seth Macey
If you went home today, this is enough. You got great shots. You got a great clip. I think it was when Mark Raycroft was on because he's been to Alaska, what, 20 times? I can't remember what he said. and Something he said that kept I kind of kept in my mind was that if I have one great photo or one great shot, that's enough.

00:04:52.81
Seth Macey
And so I was trying to kind of have that as my mantra. So this today was enough or that shot was enough. And that helped me really

00:05:04.61
Seth Macey
Relax when it was important to relax.

00:05:08.41
Aaron
Yeah. Also, I think and I was proud of both of us in a sense, uh, at times. And again, we'll get into, I think the day to day what happened and what went through, but we're on the boat and we're looking at orcas and last year we saw orcas. And, I noticed at one point, this sort of outer body experience where we're sitting there looking at orcas, uh, coming up and breaching and,

00:05:35.08
Aaron
and doing orca kinds of things there's pods of fives threes there's a big one out in the distance and we're just watching and neither of us were shooting

00:05:42.08
Seth Macey
remember that. You and I were looking at each other like, I remember that. You and I looked at each other and we're like, both saw our cameras were down.

00:05:45.74
Aaron
yeah that's cool yeah and we we were just enjoying it not going crazy trying to get every shot this time uh

00:05:48.62
Seth Macey
and was cool. That's neat. Not shooting, right? Yeah.

00:05:57.62
Seth Macey
Didn't that feel good?

00:05:58.96
Aaron
Yeah, came away with a lot of good shots, but I felt like my percentage of good shots to ones that I'm going to not use or delete or repetitive ones was much better this year than years previous, where you're kind of just like blown away and shooting everything.

00:06:18.21
Aaron
It was nice to be there a second time and kind of just take it in.

00:06:18.42
Seth Macey
yeah

00:06:23.46
Seth Macey
that's the benefit of going to a place twice i think we did an episode a few months ago about revisiting locations you and i think unite in the orca moment we're like hey we already have a hundred dorsal fin shots i don't need more that are never going to see the light of day it's almost this instinctual uh

00:06:29.42
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:06:43.10
Seth Macey
Feeling that something incredible is happening before your eyes. I need to lift the camera up.

00:06:48.83
Aaron
yeah

00:06:48.95
Seth Macey
And it was nice to take a step back. Notice that you don't have to do that. And you can kind of just enjoy in this example, Orca is doing Orca stuff. And enjoy that moment entirely. I'm not saying you can't behind your camera, but it's a different way of enjoying it.

00:07:06.74
Aaron
Yeah, I think, I think you can multitask thoughts in a juggling sort of way, this, then that, then this, then that, and this, then that, and kind of bounce around.

00:07:18.49
Aaron
don't think it's easy to multitask at the same exact time. And what I'm, where I'm getting at is when you're trying to take a photo on a boat of a, of a whale in a split second breaching, you are constantly, you're working for that photo. You're working for focus. You're working to try to get it. You're taking multiple shots because you're catching waves or catching the landscape behind.

00:07:43.33
Aaron
It's difficult.

00:07:44.00
Seth Macey
Fighting seasickness.

00:07:45.34
Aaron
fighting seasickness, all those things. You are working for the photo. What you can't think during those times is I'm floating on a boat in the middle of Alaska in the ocean and there's a pot of orcas right in front of me.

00:08:04.29
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:08:04.87
Aaron
you You can't to that moment and like, yeah, and like breathe and sit in that moment for a long time

00:08:05.54
Seth Macey
Or you can't get your full attention to that moment. It's a trade-off, right?

00:08:14.22
Aaron
versus trying to get the photo and get the photo. That's fun too in its own right, but it was nice to be able to sit there. And like you said, there is, um, there is something to already having a photo or already having like, uh, I don't think I have an eight plus or a photo, at this point at all, but I do have some bees, uh, and from last year. And if,

00:08:39.22
Aaron
if the photo presented in front of me is, is let's call it like lesser than ah B it's a, it's an average photo. They're further away. It's that I'm not going to get something great.

00:08:50.42
Aaron
The background's not, whatever it is, you can sort of just decide,

00:08:52.27
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:08:54.75
Aaron
look, I don't need to chase these photos that, like you said, because of previous opportunities, I'm not going to print this out over those ones. I'm not going to try to sell this over those ones.

00:09:06.70
Aaron
Like, I can wait. I can be patient and enjoy this and wait. And if there's an opportunity, then I can grab it.

00:09:13.91
Seth Macey
Yeah, that's a good point. And that's something I was thinking of as well was, is this image I'm ah about to take going to be eight out of 10 in terms of my perceived quality or less than? And I tried to not click the shutter unless it was, if it was going to be lower than eight.

00:09:34.10
Seth Macey
Obviously, that's difficult to tell all the time because sometimes you point your camera in a direction and click it almost as a type of reconnaissance effort.

00:09:39.40
Aaron
Yeah.

00:09:42.35
Seth Macey
And it's incredible, but it doesn't look like it to the eyes. Have you ever found that where you're just in the forest and you're like oh my God, that's incredible.

00:09:45.88
Aaron
yeah

00:09:49.78
Seth Macey
And vice versa. Something looks great with your eyes and you take a picture and it just kind of falls flat.

00:09:53.27
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. Yup. And I agree.

00:09:55.91
Seth Macey
But

00:09:56.39
Aaron
And with that, the eight out 10, like, is the, is this photo worth taking myself out of gratitude, if you will, the moment, if you will, like, is is that worth that?

00:10:03.09
Seth Macey
the moment. Yeah.

00:10:07.41
Aaron
And be able to separate that, I think a lot more on this trip was, was really cool to, for me.

00:10:15.89
Seth Macey
Yeah, I hear you. And you know what was really helpful? You're probably sick of me talking about my damn binoculars at this point. But it was so nice to bring binoculars. I've never brought binoculars on a trip.

00:10:28.24
Seth Macey
And it was a great tool to substitute a camera out for. For example, when we were in the glacier and saw a black bear swimming...

00:10:42.56
Seth Macey
It would have been very easy to go through the process thought process of, this is a remarkable moment. This is very unique. The bear's kind of far away, but let's see what I can get with my camera. they may These photos may pan out. Probably not, but they may pan out.

00:10:58.11
Seth Macey
And it was nice to be able to just reach for something that provided great optics, but that wasn't going to capture the moment digitally and just get to observe it. And I found myself multiple times throughout this trip reaching for those.

00:11:12.67
Seth Macey
And it was it was it was almost like a crutch between between what you're talking about, enjoying the moment and capturing it digitally. And I got to kind of enjoy high-quality moment with great scopes.

00:11:24.01
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, and that makes sense. That's a nice middle ground right there.

00:11:27.79
Seth Macey
Yeah, so bring binoculars, I guess, is what I'm saying.

00:11:30.96
Aaron
My favorite part with the binoculars was at the airport.

00:11:31.05
Seth Macey
Try it.

00:11:34.67
Seth Macey
ah yeah that was sweet i hope we have footage somewhere that aaron and i at the end of our trip were just karen was there too one of our and our attendees karen we're just waiting for our flight we're what three hours early and we were the airport is so interesting when you watch it through binoculars you see all the luggage being loaded the fuel getting injected into the wings people different characters driving different vehicles because everything looks like

00:11:38.88
Aaron
Nerding out like little boys.

00:11:55.45
Aaron
Yeah.

00:11:58.81
Aaron
Yeah.

00:12:01.36
Seth Macey
ants and very minuscule when you're just watching with your eyes but it is a it is a very cool playground of activity when you're watching through binoculars we just didn't want any people coming up to us thinking we were being bad actors i mean we were just a couple of dudes though having having fun looking at uh you know things going on in the airport

00:12:05.72
Aaron
Playground.

00:12:08.77
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:12:12.96
Aaron
Yeah. it was

00:12:21.45
Aaron
yeah yeah comments like, look at the size of that tire. That's as big as that guy. Like just nerding out.

00:12:29.67
Seth Macey
I was actually doing recon on your plane because you're flyer and i was I was helping you out. Oh, Aaron, tires look like they're really inflated, buddy.

00:12:38.26
Aaron
Yeah, looks good. and

00:12:39.41
Seth Macey
i can see the pilot. He's got flip-up sunglasses. You know, you're you got ah you got a good captain. Don't worry.

00:12:46.35
Aaron
god Yeah, I think I've graduated from being a nervous flyer. I was absolutely fine.

00:12:50.31
Seth Macey
Or what?

00:12:51.47
Aaron
Just being fine.

00:12:52.76
Seth Macey
Okay.

00:12:53.86
Aaron
And I didn't want to say anything during the show, but knock on wood, people on our trip had some delays, some cancellations.

00:12:53.87
Seth Macey
Exposure therapy.

00:12:59.84
Aaron
Everyone got there. It was fine. But I, my, ah I'm going to ruin this, but my last 15 flights on time, landing early, smooth, no issues whatsoever.

00:13:01.85
Seth Macey
ah

00:13:14.76
Aaron
And that helps, that helps to feel like desensitize any issues with, with travel that, that definitely has helped.

00:13:14.81
Seth Macey
Let's see. Yeah.

00:13:22.43
Seth Macey
That's most flights.

00:13:24.43
Aaron
huh?

00:13:25.02
Seth Macey
That's most flights, I feel like.

00:13:27.44
Aaron
Yeah, for sure. But you hear stories of like, I was stuck in Atlanta for two days and this man, like, I don't know.

00:13:34.88
Seth Macey
Nobody wants to be stuck in Atlanta for two days. Sorry, Atlanta folks.

00:13:37.19
Aaron
No, no. Uh, but yeah, some smooth travel. Um, I'm getting pretty used to the process. It's more of the, uh,

00:13:45.12
Seth Macey
Yeah, I mean, the world's just not built for you, though. That's the part I feel annoyed about for you. six five in economy.

00:13:52.28
Aaron
Yeah, we got to earn some more money so I can afford the first class. You can still fly economy because it's just it's relative.

00:14:01.68
Seth Macey
Yeah, you know what?

00:14:01.74
Aaron
Right.

00:14:02.20
Seth Macey
I got a huge bounce on my way home. The flight attendant looked at me and said, you come up here.

00:14:07.38
Aaron
No way.

00:14:07.73
Seth Macey
i was like, isaac sick. I'm going to first class, baby. This is my day. Because I've heard stories where where you know that happens.

00:14:15.54
Aaron
hmm.

00:14:15.70
Seth Macey
And I was like, here we go. Here we go. I'm moving to the front, moving to the front, moving the front. And there's the last seat in economy that's open. And I plop down there. And I was like, ah. But then i do a second glance and there is infinite leg room because it's where the hallway kind of veers, you know, somehow playing somehow sometimes do that.

00:14:35.19
Aaron
Yeah.

00:14:35.72
Seth Macey
So I had, I could stretch out full.

00:14:38.67
Aaron
That's nice.

00:14:38.77
Seth Macey
I was like thank you. Divine being.

00:14:43.44
Aaron
Yeah.

00:14:43.70
Seth Macey
We'll have this.

00:14:44.47
Aaron
Yeah.

00:14:44.76
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:14:46.25
Aaron
Yeah. Well, you know, emergency rows. I try to find those. I'll be the helper. Uh, they give you a lot of leg room.

00:14:54.15
Seth Macey
We'll get to first class someday, big boy.

00:14:56.46
Aaron
One day, one day, fake first class.

00:14:57.55
Seth Macey
One day. Yes. The other thing that I have decided on trips moving forward, I think for the most part, obviously there will be outliers or special cases, is two lenses.

00:15:12.65
Seth Macey
Two lenses, man. I didn't use a third lens once. I used a 150 to 500 from Tamron and I used the 16 to 30 millimeter. and I had a big gap obviously in focal length there, but it forced me to be very selective and extra creative with those lenses with that focal length restriction.

00:15:35.75
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. ah I hear you. I mostly used to, I had a third for special occasions, which I would then switch on.

00:15:46.45
Aaron
But what's real, my three were the Tamron 35 to one 50, which I, yeah, which I really like took a lot of, lot of good stuff from that.

00:15:46.57
Seth Macey
What were your three?

00:15:52.13
Seth Macey
F 2.0. Oh, yeah.

00:15:58.37
Aaron
I use my 200 a 600 Sony sony a bunch Uh, and then I would throw on if I needed it in certain scenarios, like if we're doing the cabin shoot or certain landscape stuff on hikes, I brought my, what is it?

00:16:14.15
Aaron
16 to 24, 14 to 24 Sigma that really fish eyed wide angle lens, um, offers a different look and it's, it's particular for certain things.

00:16:18.53
Seth Macey
oh yeah

00:16:26.66
Seth Macey
What's the aperture on that?

00:16:28.43
Aaron
It's a 2.8.

00:16:29.78
Seth Macey
Nice.

00:16:30.47
Aaron
Yeah, so that's a that's a nice one I like to bring. i i am a proponent, big proponent of two bodies. I feel like that

00:16:39.98
Seth Macey
Yeah, I wish I did that.

00:16:41.87
Aaron
on a trip makes things, makes things so much easier.

00:16:42.17
Seth Macey
It's constantly switching lenses.

00:16:46.07
Aaron
It's more secure in terms of dust or messing up your sensor to be able to have two cameras ready to go, especially, I'm going to go to the boat scene. I had both cameras out at my side because we're, we're dealing with big animals, big landscapes, sometimes far away, whereas 600 would be useful.

00:17:03.39
Aaron
But a lot of times I was using the, the one 50 and I wanted to be able to switch without missing stuff because I'm switching.

00:17:10.16
Seth Macey
Yeah. Right.

00:17:10.55
Aaron
And then it goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between far, close, far, close. So that really helps in those moments to be able to get it.

00:17:15.14
Seth Macey
right

00:17:20.25
Seth Macey
Well, especially with, we had lunge feeding humpback whales, which was incredible.

00:17:24.26
Aaron
Yeah.

00:17:24.47
Seth Macey
Uh, that's something I'll never forget. And I had seen it once before on good friends, Slater Moore's boat, which we all know I was unable to do shoot or photograph or film because I was so sick.

00:17:35.57
Seth Macey
This time I was better. I was not sick other than i destroyed captain Jimmy's bathroom. I had to go, had to go real

00:17:45.06
Aaron
I was wondering if you're going to even say it, but yeah, he almost sunk the boat.

00:17:47.55
Seth Macey
Of course. if you If you can help it don't poop in a marine in amarine toilet.

00:17:53.21
Aaron
Oh my, the, my dude was gone for 30 minutes. Yeah.

00:17:57.86
Seth Macey
I'm in the bathroom and I hear whales lunge feeding when I'm in there going number two and I'm like, get out of here, man.

00:18:03.47
Aaron
Yeah. and And likewise, the lunge-feeding whales heard you in the bathroom going... So it was equal for everyone.

00:18:14.47
Seth Macey
Come on.

00:18:15.87
Aaron
Oh, no.

00:18:16.29
Seth Macey
Well, we got up so early and I need time in the morning get things moving along. i know people are listening and relating and there was no time to do that. And then seasickness was kind of starting.

00:18:26.63
Seth Macey
And then i think it moved things along.

00:18:27.54
Aaron
Oh, God.

00:18:29.02
Seth Macey
And I went in there and I was like, this is happening.

00:18:32.61
Aaron
Yeah, the...

00:18:32.63
Seth Macey
And then it wouldn't go down because it's a little dinky marine toilet and I had to get Captain and Jimmy to get it down.

00:18:33.17
Aaron
ah

00:18:39.51
Seth Macey
he needed to yeah he needed He says, I need to put the boat on step, I guess, to power up the the pump.

00:18:39.63
Aaron
the

00:18:44.62
Seth Macey
Because we were in idle, it wasn't powerful enough.

00:18:45.81
Aaron
the let let's let's tear it no it's everyone does it let's let's tarantino though it a bit let's let's go back to the beginning uh

00:18:48.98
Seth Macey
I'm not embarrassed. I'm not embarrassed. embarrassed all.

00:18:55.53
Seth Macey
Do we really need to fill an episode with this? What were we talking about prior to this? Can I say what I was saying before?

00:18:59.91
Aaron
and no no i just want to i just want to share because as me i'm giggling still thinking about this because

00:19:07.99
Seth Macey
yeah you could probably You're probably on the outside hearing the brr, brr. You're like, it's just, buddy, it's not working for you. not going down.

00:19:15.58
Aaron
Before though, the, the out loud inner dialogue that I had to go through for about 30 minutes prior was just comical where I was like, I don't know, man, yeah you gotta do what you gotta do.

00:19:28.98
Seth Macey
because I was telling you that I had to go?

00:19:29.74
Aaron
It'll be fun. you're Yeah. And you're like, I don't, ah but I'm not feeling great with seasickness. going to be in there for a while. There's no porthole. Like, will I be able to see, is it a cold space?

00:19:39.26
Seth Macey
Oh, yeah, because you're sloshing around, too.

00:19:40.68
Aaron
Is it,

00:19:40.78
Seth Macey
I can't see anything. It was gnarly.

00:19:42.22
Aaron
Is it hot? Should I wait? I have to. i And I was like, God, like this kid is struggling right And then he comes out.

00:19:52.83
Aaron
He comes out and he looks at me with like a ghost white face. And he's like, ruined the bathroom. I thought his boy won't flush his room. I got to tell the captain.

00:20:03.25
Seth Macey
Well, the problem was like it wouldn't go down and the water just kept coming out, but the the substance wouldn't go down. So i was like, I'm going to overflow this man's toilet, his marine toilet, and it's going be all over the boat.

00:20:12.79
Aaron
We're

00:20:13.07
Seth Macey
And then that'll be embarrassing. I stopped. And that's why I asked him to get a plunger.

00:20:16.67
Aaron
going to ruin the trip and have to two hours in and just burn

00:20:21.37
Seth Macey
Yeah, just wreck his bathroom. No, but then he said, he's like, oh yeah, mean I was, the level of relief I had when he's like, it won't go down. Right, right.

00:20:31.75
Seth Macey
okay yeah I just got to put it on step. Like this has happened before was what he implied.

00:20:35.28
Aaron
the boat.

00:20:36.47
Seth Macey
And was like, oh my God, thank God.

00:20:37.14
Aaron
Yeah.

00:20:40.98
Aaron
Yeah. It goes to me.

00:20:41.69
Seth Macey
The best part was, and then we'll get off of this because people are like, are you 10 years old guys?

00:20:46.64
Aaron
Yeah, no, they're dying.

00:20:47.15
Seth Macey
Was he gets it to go down. So then there's a second wave of relief for me.

00:20:51.12
Aaron
but

00:20:52.69
Seth Macey
And then he goes, you know how people have like the spray hoses on their boat? He's like, let clean the bowl up a bit.

00:21:03.19
Aaron
Oh, man.

00:21:04.01
Seth Macey
and then he goes, he goes, he goes, I said, i said, man, I'm so sorry. I just, I had to go. And he goes, Hey man, shit happens.

00:21:10.85
Aaron
Just dry pant.

00:21:11.05
Seth Macey
So I've been Jimmy.

00:21:13.05
Aaron
Yeah.

00:21:13.07
Seth Macey
Shout out to you. You're a beauty.

00:21:15.35
Aaron
But Seth, you got, you were back. You were back after that.

00:21:17.22
Seth Macey
And I was back in business. I had, you know, it was great. would, that would have, that would have made me seasick.

00:21:20.28
Aaron
Yeah.

00:21:23.66
Seth Macey
Having to fight on two fronts.

00:21:27.69
Aaron
That's a war no one wants.

00:21:28.06
Seth Macey
Growing up in the base, you know, i I wouldn't have done it. So I was able to stay at a three out of 10. I think I maxed out at a three out of 10 on the seasickness scale.

00:21:36.62
Aaron
Yeah.

00:21:36.79
Seth Macey
And I was in the thick of it when I was having, you know.

00:21:40.25
Aaron
Wow.

00:21:41.01
Seth Macey
So that's that.

00:21:41.18
Aaron
Well,

00:21:42.03
Seth Macey
Don't be embarrassed by that stuff. That happens to everybody.

00:21:46.19
Aaron
Yeah, no.

00:21:46.21
Seth Macey
Just to clarify, there wasn't like shit on the walls. It was just, it wouldn't go down. And I was like, oh, no one's going to able this bathroom.

00:21:51.54
Aaron
Yeah, I just, no, it it was sanitary. was just bad timing for you.

00:21:57.15
Seth Macey
oh Yeah.

00:21:59.28
Aaron
Not pleasant. Not what anyone wants. Out of ah all your experiences, you said it was the worst experience.

00:22:01.89
Seth Macey
Now with

00:22:05.11
Seth Macey
It was the worst bathroom experience i've ever had just because of the panic. I'm like, what do I do? Like having to calculate my next move while whales are, and that's a once in a lifetime moment. Luckily that I had been shooting the, the, the whales lunch feeding for what an hour prior to that.

00:22:20.87
Seth Macey
But in my mind, this is funny, right?

00:22:22.44
Aaron
ah

00:22:22.49
Seth Macey
Cause I'm in there in my mind. um there's so many things going through. What do I do? Do I talk to you? Like, do I try, do I sort this out on my own? Do I get help from the captain of the boat, which I ended up doing? Uh, there's whales. Am I missing great shots? Like, Oh, this is so terrible. By the way, you're in a box moving around, sloshing around. You can't see the horizon. You're getting sick.

00:22:45.15
Seth Macey
Anyways, I'm here.

00:22:48.09
Aaron
wow Welcome to the Photographer Mindset podcast, where we talk about photography, mindset, and battling both fronts sometimes at the same time.

00:22:48.64
Seth Macey
Able to tell you the story. Yeah. Battling through adversity.

00:22:59.46
Seth Macey
Yes. Well, I'm glad if you're still hanging around, we'll get back to some photography. You know, i like that idea, though, having two different bodies with two different lenses that cover lots of focal.

00:23:09.77
Seth Macey
Because especially whales, you never know where they're going to pop up, right?

00:23:12.43
Aaron
Yeah.

00:23:13.30
Seth Macey
I'm saying it like an expert.

00:23:13.57
Aaron
Yeah.

00:23:14.18
Seth Macey
I've been there. I've seen one shooting whales twice. But it really was a guessing game. It's just they could be right beside you or they could be 200 yards away.

00:23:26.00
Seth Macey
But I do find it very i found it very interesting. the

00:23:32.33
Seth Macey
anticipation, trying to best guess where whales were going to come up by watching other factors like the birds. Oh, the seagulls are all moving. So let's point in this direction with our camera.

00:23:42.15
Aaron
Yeah, it was, it was cool to learn that.

00:23:43.09
Seth Macey
Very cool.

00:23:45.01
Aaron
And there was a learning curve, but you could learn the difference between the seagulls moving and the seagulls starting to tornado and dive bomb the water.

00:23:53.44
Seth Macey
Right.

00:23:54.67
Aaron
then you're like that it's coming up right there.

00:23:56.78
Seth Macey
Coming up.

00:23:57.10
Aaron
You kind of learn in it, but yeah, well, that was an awesome experience. So.

00:24:02.07
Seth Macey
But to your point, too, that entire time was working. that's There wasn't a ton of

00:24:10.05
Seth Macey
there wasn't a ton of getting to enjoy the moment with your camera down, other than when whales were very far away. It was almost like a relief when there wasn't an opportunity to photograph them at times.

00:24:22.34
Aaron
Yeah, Seth and I kind of stationed ourselves, happened to, in on the back of the boat for most of that part.

00:24:24.09
Seth Macey
Awesome.

00:24:28.44
Aaron
And then half our group was in the front, Matt and Karen, I believe. I'm sure if Meg was up there too. And there was a point where it just seemed like right off the front, 12 o'clock, all this action was happening.

00:24:42.27
Aaron
And again, instead of, I mean, there's a there's a small percent of Seth and I being like, oh, damn, like we missed that. What an opportunity. But at the same time, it kind of takes away the pressure of having to shoot and just sort of looking through the captain's window, looking around the side.

00:24:58.59
Seth Macey
Neither I.

00:24:59.01
Aaron
Like I turned around to check out the group right as ah blue, um, a humpback whale completely breached. must've been 50 yards from in front of the boat, uh, completely out of the water and splash down this enormous splash.

00:25:08.16
Seth Macey
yeah

00:25:13.21
Aaron
And some of the group has some photos of that. I do not, but I saw it.

00:25:17.17
Seth Macey
neith do i

00:25:18.16
Aaron
I saw it. And I was like, oh like I've never seen that in my life. And just to even see it and have the mental photo of that, It's kind of surreal. It's kind of like a dream.

00:25:29.61
Seth Macey
You know what's really interesting about that is damn where whale activity was going to happen was entirely random, right? Could happen anywhere.

00:25:37.86
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:25:38.21
Seth Macey
So, but I would say,

00:25:43.03
Seth Macey
that maybe activity was skewed towards the front of the boat where we were not sitting just by sheer chance.

00:25:49.00
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:25:51.79
Seth Macey
And your brain can have the tendency. I had this a couple of times and I was like, you're being silly to think, Oh, okay. Things are happening at the front. Maybe I should move there, which is, which would, would be a form of chasing.

00:26:02.42
Aaron
Right, right.

00:26:05.89
Seth Macey
We talk about not chasing wildlife. Obviously this is different because you're in a stationary on a state on a boat, but,

00:26:14.11
Seth Macey
But having to kind of remind yourself, hey, this is entirely random. You get what you get. Going to the front of the boat where things have happened in the past does not mean that more things are going to occur there.

00:26:25.46
Aaron
right

00:26:26.18
Seth Macey
almost And having that ah conversation in ah in a sense that, hey, if you if you go to the front, I bet you things will start happening at the back because that's just how it would be.

00:26:26.23
Aaron
right

00:26:36.56
Seth Macey
So it was almost...

00:26:36.61
Aaron
Yeah.

00:26:37.12
Seth Macey
ah It was freeing to stay in position at the back of the boat and just say, hey, I get what I get, which was kind of an overarching theme.

00:26:45.99
Aaron
Yeah, I agree with that.

00:26:48.43
Seth Macey
but I'm going get what I get. I'm going to relax. I'm just going to chill out. I'm not going to chase. I'm not going to try and force things. I'm not going to get frustrated.

00:26:57.36
Aaron
Yeah.

00:26:57.80
Seth Macey
Whatever I get is enough.

00:26:59.53
Aaron
Yeah. I know what's worse than missing ah moment in the front is going to the front and then missing a moment in the back because you're chasing the moment in the front.

00:27:05.98
Seth Macey
That's what I'm saying.

00:27:07.01
Aaron
Yeah.

00:27:07.10
Seth Macey
Exactly.

00:27:08.01
Aaron
So yeah, I, it's a small boat where things are happening everywhere. Did, if you were to rate like the coolest moments, yeah, maybe they happen off the front of the boat and we were blocked out by the, the boat to take photos, but there is, there was plenty of stuff that was going on.

00:27:22.38
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:27:25.24
Aaron
And there's only so many seats. And also we want our group to have a great time.

00:27:31.74
Seth Macey
better and Better photos if possible.

00:27:31.80
Aaron
And they were, yeah, they were, they were in the front. Things were going well. That's, that's a win.

00:27:37.54
Seth Macey
Yeah, it's just interesting to me that we can have the tendency just as humans to think that the past is absolutely reflective of what's going to occur, which it often is, but not in this scenario.

00:27:37.73
Aaron
That's a win.

00:27:50.41
Aaron
Yeah.

00:27:50.85
Seth Macey
And you know that logically, but it's this feeling, there's this, I feel like often there's this underlying urge to, I have to take action.

00:27:55.24
Aaron
Yeah.

00:28:03.09
Aaron
yeah

00:28:04.07
Seth Macey
when often it's inaction is going to potentially give you the same or a better result.

00:28:11.54
Aaron
So ah yeah, I totally agree. I think, I mean that to recap the boat trip, it was Alaska saltwater fly fishing, uh, captain Jimmy, uh, he does six months in Hawaii and six months in Alaska.

00:28:26.40
Aaron
What a, what a life, uh, seems to love it.

00:28:28.25
Seth Macey
yeah interesting.

00:28:30.14
Aaron
He's a loves fishing. We did a little bit of fishing as well. Um, the most efficient fishing I've ever seen in terms of fly fishing, I think there was three casts and we caught enough for our dinner.

00:28:42.61
Aaron
Uh, and we ate every,

00:28:43.47
Seth Macey
Well, we had to have more than three calves because we had five fish.

00:28:47.13
Aaron
Oh, that's right. I think that was Karen.

00:28:48.25
Seth Macey
Four rockfish and in a silver salmon, which we ate, which was delicious.

00:28:49.00
Aaron
Karen.

00:28:52.48
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. And cooked it up that night. was awesome.

00:28:57.31
Seth Macey
Fish tacos, yeah.

00:28:58.44
Aaron
ah He, we took us, he took us out at 6 He, he was awesome in terms of like, Hey, we want to get out early. If you guys can get out early, we can beat the tour boats. I know right where they're, they're lunge feeding. We can have the ocean to ourself essentially, which we did in morning light. it was amazing.

00:29:16.16
Aaron
an incredible moment he did an awesome job um might have been the highlight of my trip i feel like that boat tour in general in terms of all that we saw was really pretty cool like you said that black bear was hemming and hawing on this island near a glacier and needed to cross i don't know how many yards was that 300 400 yards

00:29:39.75
Seth Macey
400 yards

00:29:41.53
Aaron
Uh, just a 20 minute swim straight to a sheer cliff and just kept going. Like again, appreciation for animals and their strength and endurance, like a four, a 400 meter swim and then straight up 400 yards.

00:29:56.39
Seth Macey
hundreded yards

00:29:58.34
Aaron
Yeah. Uh, swim close.

00:29:59.56
Seth Macey
I guess that's cool we're close to being the same, isn't it? it kind of Well, that sounded less, then it had to be more.

00:30:02.44
Aaron
Uh,

00:30:06.73
Aaron
I don't know as far it was 20 minutes at least of swimming through freezing water.

00:30:08.20
Seth Macey
Far.

00:30:10.78
Seth Macey
Sure.

00:30:12.31
Aaron
And then i was like, didn't get to that beach and sun for a bit and maybe lay down.

00:30:12.51
Seth Macey
Sure.

00:30:17.72
Aaron
We'll get some photos. Nope. Quick shake. And then straight up a 80 degree pitch up a mountainside to the, yeah, to just out of sight. And I was like, that is triathlon right there.

00:30:31.33
Seth Macey
Yeah. How many photos did you take this trip?

00:30:32.51
Aaron
yeah, this trip total with, with everything.

00:30:36.34
Seth Macey
Yes.

00:30:36.68
Aaron
Yeah.

00:30:37.22
Seth Macey
Seven, seven days in Alaska. We did. We'll get into i'm maybe into some of the other things we did. Brown bear viewing on foot on the tidal flats the first day, which was insane.

00:30:48.79
Seth Macey
We did the boat eight hour boat tour with, with saltwater fly fishing whales, um the spires in Kenai Fjords, National Park, just seward the town, beautiful Homer.

00:30:56.37
Aaron
yeah

00:31:03.91
Seth Macey
How many photos did you take?

00:31:06.86
Aaron
I took with some, yeah, now this is everything.

00:31:08.65
Seth Macey
roll

00:31:11.83
Aaron
This is responsibilities, deliverables, everything.

00:31:14.46
Seth Macey
everything nice some people listening are like that really that's it and some people are thinking that's a lot it's just interesting I wonder what people listening in their mind because I know they were thinking how many would I take in that seven day period if I was in Alaska fifteen hundred

00:31:16.27
Aaron
I uploaded, feel like 1500. Yeah, 1500. Yeah.

00:31:20.80
Aaron
yeah fifteen hundred

00:31:27.30
Aaron
yeah

00:31:37.96
Aaron
now a lot Now, if you if you imagine i have a cool bear moment, I'm probably rattling off seven, eight of the same photos. So there's a lot of repeats there.

00:31:50.48
Aaron
I think another interesting stat is how many did I star and how many did I delete?

00:31:56.13
Seth Macey
what do you think your star ratio is?

00:31:58.48
Aaron
Well, I starred out of that. So once I wanted to look back at potentially edit and some were repeats and I could probably star further, but I had 420 starred.

00:32:08.35
Seth Macey
That you starred.

00:32:09.67
Aaron
Yeah.

00:32:10.37
Seth Macey
Wow, you're starring a lot.

00:32:13.12
Aaron
A lot of any photo that was like, that's a good photo or like that could be edited. Well, I starred so.

00:32:18.27
Seth Macey
Interesting. I find I'm starring about 10%.

00:32:21.46
Aaron
Yeah. But that's where I said my ratio of, I felt like of good photos to all the ones I took was really strong this trip.

00:32:29.94
Seth Macey
Good for you. That's what you want.

00:32:30.85
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Now, am I going to edit every one of those? Absolutely not.

00:32:36.49
Seth Macey
The closer you can get to starring every single photo.

00:32:36.56
Aaron
Uh, from.

00:32:39.35
Seth Macey
Yeah, I think it's important to try and work that ratio. Right?

00:32:43.68
Aaron
Yeah. Now from that ratio, I might,

00:32:45.69
Seth Macey
I think that forces you to deliberate, right? Mm-hmm.

00:32:49.03
Aaron
Like I said, that bear moment, so there's that bear that's standing that we got a photo of a really nice, cool moment ah of the stair standing bear photos.

00:33:00.39
Aaron
I probably have 10 ones that I could easily edit and they are going to look similar.

00:33:03.64
Seth Macey
Mm-hmm.

00:33:04.97
Aaron
So from that, I pick one that I really like maybe in a couple of years or a year, go back and edit a different one. But so there's those moments where it's like, all right, here's a chunk of decent photos, which is the best of those ones.

00:33:10.87
Seth Macey
So

00:33:18.73
Seth Macey
so you'll start the whole sequence and then pick your favorite of those.

00:33:22.40
Aaron
as long as they're sharp and in in focus and it's a good photo and I didn't cut something off or whatever, like I will start that as a good photo. The, the, yeah, the other ones,

00:33:30.46
Seth Macey
But you'll start the whole sequence.

00:33:34.33
Seth Macey
Is what you're saying, right?

00:33:35.62
Aaron
Yep, but if it gets out of hand, if it gets out of hand, like there's 20 of the same thing. Let me see if I can pull up. not sure I can, because my monitor's off.

00:33:46.12
Aaron
But ah from that, i also I also delete as I'm going to. So anything out of focus or garbage, or maybe I have 20 of the basically the same photo.

00:33:53.25
Seth Macey
Yeah. Yeah.

00:33:56.49
Aaron
I might go through and be like, that's the one I love. I'm not going to edit the same one over and over because they're so close. If it's the same thing, essentially, i will pick the best one and then X out and then delete from my desk.

00:34:08.45
Aaron
I don't need to store a thousand photos at 80 megapixels or megabytes um and just keep them on my thing for no reason.

00:34:11.69
Seth Macey
yeah

00:34:19.80
Aaron
So I will try to erase as I go as well.

00:34:23.40
Seth Macey
Yeah, it can be hard to let go of clutter, especially when the moment's been fresh.

00:34:28.54
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. Especially unique moments. Like there's a bunch of bubble feeding ones where it's like, wow, was cool. But at the same time, in terms of a photo, it's like a mess.

00:34:41.10
Aaron
Like it looks messy, you know, and those are, that's.

00:34:42.77
Seth Macey
Yeah. Yeah, it's sometimes hard to decipher the difference between a cool moment and this is visually appealing.

00:34:49.63
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. So I have the memory of it. Like I have the memory of the. ah humpback lunging in front of the boat. Like that memory kind of like a vivid movie.

00:35:01.35
Aaron
And maybe it gets better in my mind as I don't have a photo to remind me of what it actually was. That's deep. But yeah, you don't need every single thing that you you take.

00:35:12.63
Seth Macey
no you really don't you really don't I mean i the way I work is so if I'm understanding correctly you'll star a sequence that you really like and then pick the best one of those I guess I'm only I'm looking at the whole sequence and then just starring the one

00:35:13.96
Aaron
So

00:35:29.23
Aaron
yeah

00:35:29.89
Seth Macey
But I like your method too, because it allows you to come back later, which I should do more of. I like that you do that. You'll revisit something a year, two years later in that same sequence, different photo, different pose.

00:35:43.29
Aaron
Yeah. I really enjoy that.

00:35:45.22
Seth Macey
And maybe you have different, yeah, you have a different kind of eye on it. You get to relive it. I should do that more often.

00:35:50.19
Aaron
the Maybe your style changes over the years and your new tricks.

00:35:53.52
Seth Macey
Sure.

00:35:54.97
Aaron
Like recently I went back to Banff and went through those and like, it's very fun to do that. I also like when you rate them and then you filter out like all the rated ones I get in the trap of, if I have a sequence of boom, boom, boom, boom let's say 10 photos of a, of a cool bear moment.

00:36:01.80
Seth Macey
Oh.

00:36:12.75
Aaron
If I, if I, I used to do, I think your method, is when I get to the first photo, that's good. I would star that and then skip ahead and move on, like move to the next sequence. Cause I'd be like, that's the good one.

00:36:25.57
Aaron
And I would kind of forget to check all the other ones. And a lot of times, and a lot of times in photography, especially with landscapes,

00:36:28.74
Seth Macey
oh

00:36:33.75
Aaron
for me, i am, um, I'm learning as I go. So if, if I'm taking a landscape photo and it's not moving in front of me, I might take it quickly or like be hasty with my settings slightly.

00:36:46.70
Aaron
And then I might adjust and then I might make sure the foreground's in focus. And, and then like, so Usually the last couple photos of a sequence are the ones where I got my shit together.

00:36:55.92
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:36:59.69
Aaron
And so sometimes I look at my photos from the back to the front also to see like the last of the sequence where I decided like, I'm going to stop with this photo because I got it or I felt like I got it.

00:37:00.66
Seth Macey
Right.

00:37:07.67
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:37:13.08
Seth Macey
Right. Well, you and i also are not traditional landscape photographers in the sense of how a true pro would do a landscape. They would sit there, wait for perfect light on a tripod, stack everything, exposure stack everything.

00:37:28.78
Aaron
yeah

00:37:29.14
Seth Macey
On the last day, you and I were shooting together down by the river and there were these pretty flowers and you're like, oh, you could set it up and stack that. And I'm like, I don't i know. There's too many other cool things happening. I don't have time for that.

00:37:40.66
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:37:40.81
Seth Macey
like like You and i you and i think like to shoot landscapes in a way that makes them look great, but isn't pro like Mark Adamus or somebody like that.

00:37:53.17
Seth Macey
Because I just don't think it excites you and I to sit there and spend an hour on that perfect landscape shot when we can capture a whole bunch of other things in the same environment really well.

00:37:53.24
Aaron
yeah

00:38:06.16
Seth Macey
Maybe not 10 out of 10, but aiming for like an eight.

00:38:10.12
Aaron
yeah Yeah.

00:38:11.52
Seth Macey
you know Those shots of you flying your drone off the back of the van are some of my favorite shots I've ever taken of people in a in an environment. of a person in an environment and My thought process is if I'm having to set up that perfect landscape shot,

00:38:29.14
Seth Macey
great. The photo is going to look awesome and professional, but the trade off is, is ah I don't get to capture lot of other things. Like maybe I missed that shot of you in the van I just described because I'm busy with filters and waiting for light and all that stuff. It's a different art form.

00:38:44.62
Aaron
Yeah, those those shots were great.

00:38:45.04
Seth Macey
Um,

00:38:46.69
Aaron
Thank you.

00:38:47.03
Seth Macey
I just found that interesting or that, that, that, that conversation we had, you're like Oh, you could focus back.

00:38:49.08
Aaron
and

00:38:52.60
Seth Macey
And I'm like, no, I don't have time. I don't want to do that. I don't have time for that.

00:38:55.14
Aaron
i don't want to do that.

00:38:55.32
Seth Macey
It would be great for sure. It's the professional way to do something like that, but I'm not doing that.

00:39:00.07
Aaron
Yeah. Could I be honest? I tried to focus stack with those flowers and it just didn't work.

00:39:06.48
Seth Macey
Okay. Now I feel even better.

00:39:07.96
Aaron
Yeah, it was it was very difficult to, like all in between the flowers, maybe I was doing it wrong.

00:39:11.96
Seth Macey
Right. Right.

00:39:15.57
Aaron
Maybe the wind was moving. I don't know, but it just did not. it was a It's the ah the cover photo of the sauna reel.

00:39:25.04
Seth Macey
I'll take a closer look at it.

00:39:26.20
Aaron
I just went with the blurry ah flowers in the front, in the foreground, give it some depth, whatever.

00:39:29.09
Seth Macey
Yeah, that's fine. That's great.

00:39:31.61
Aaron
Moving on.

00:39:31.72
Seth Macey
That's great.

00:39:32.52
Aaron
don't have time to figure this out.

00:39:32.55
Seth Macey
You know, like in that, in that time we were down there, I'm shooting. the the mountain landscape that has beautiful light on it at F 16 or whatever, you know, it's pretty much all sharp rates.

00:39:42.94
Aaron
Yeah, right.

00:39:43.85
Seth Macey
I'm filming stuff with the Osmo, some vertical video. I'm shooting you just again, that, that conversation of trade-offs and how using the example of the 10 out of 10 landscape photo, doing all those, uh, you know, intricate things that's required to get a 10 out of 10 landscape photo.

00:39:49.92
Aaron
Yeah.

00:40:02.42
Seth Macey
Is it worth the trade-off constantly thinking about trade-offs?

00:40:06.49
Aaron
Yeah.

00:40:07.40
Seth Macey
So that's an instance of good enough, I guess.

00:40:09.86
Aaron
So...

00:40:12.63
Aaron
we got stuck on the boat, but I do want to kind of go through the day and relive some of this stuff, especially for how people.

00:40:18.36
Seth Macey
Yeah. Talk about the bears and ah mile and a half walk through quicksand pretty much.

00:40:20.46
Aaron
Yeah. So day one,

00:40:25.11
Aaron
everyone Everyone was there first and I got in at 11 on Sunday morning. We got all situated. We made ourselves down to Homer, ah had a really nice Airbnb.

00:40:37.75
Seth Macey
Mike Patterson.

00:40:38.44
Aaron
night We are getting up for nine o'clock. We're meeting our ah Mike, that was his name, right? mike to take

00:40:45.99
Seth Macey
mike patterson

00:40:47.09
Aaron
Mike Patterson to take us across the bay to see some bears. We don't know exactly where he's going at this point.

00:40:57.66
Aaron
Yeah. So we, we wake up, we get all our stuff, we get our, our morning coffee or sandwiches, get to the boat. They tractor us down in low tide through the beach. So we're on the boat while it's being tractored down and thrown into the water.

00:41:12.74
Aaron
And we go about two hours across and he's starting to stop the boat around, I would say a mile from shore, give or take, ah because of low tide. We're in about three feet of water.

00:41:25.01
Aaron
And it turns out we have to jump off the boat and wade the rest of the way in. And he has waders for us. We all brought our muck boots. We thought it was going to be. But he.

00:41:33.96
Seth Macey
I thought we were going to get beached on shore and have enough boots to walk through the muddy tidal flats.

00:41:35.87
Aaron
Yeah, so so did I.

00:41:39.97
Seth Macey
Nope.

00:41:41.14
Aaron
Nope. We're, we're jumping off with all our gear, thousands of dollars of gear for everyone on a step ladder into, for me, waist high water for everyone else, probably chest high water carrying Matt Patterson's carrying a rental 600 prime lens from Nikon.

00:41:46.00
Seth Macey
On a stepladder.

00:42:00.97
Seth Macey
Like what? Retail 16 grand.

00:42:01.48
Aaron
Uh, Retail my car like insane carrying that. And we're, we're waiting, not straight to the beach. We go left to the bears, which is, I would say a mile to a mile and a half walk through waist high water and mud, which was difficult to say the least.

00:42:23.54
Seth Macey
Your feet sink with every step, yeah.

00:42:25.72
Aaron
Yep. San, I'm glad he made it with us. Got a little bit stuck. He lost a boot.

00:42:30.82
Seth Macey
Oh, it's the second person I've saved on a trip.

00:42:31.44
Aaron
Seth,

00:42:34.14
Aaron
Seth saved them.

00:42:34.22
Seth Macey
This is great advertising for...

00:42:37.62
Aaron
the But ah he got through it. He survived.

00:42:42.67
Seth Macey
Well, the funny, let me talk about that. The funny thing is his foot got stuck in the mud and he couldn't get it out.

00:42:44.39
Aaron
Yeah.

00:42:48.88
Seth Macey
And you guys are getting further and further away from us because you continued walking. I don't know why Mike didn't stop and turn around. One of his patrons is stuck in mud

00:43:00.54
Aaron
Really stuck. Like stuck.

00:43:02.16
Seth Macey
yeah I'm holding his lens, which is also a rental. And he's pulling on me to help get his foot out. And I'm thinking, don't let's not both of us go down here.

00:43:14.87
Seth Macey
Right. You're rent. You're a camera gear. My shit in my bag.

00:43:18.98
Aaron
Yeah.

00:43:19.79
Seth Macey
This is not good. Gets his, ah finally gets his foot out, but not the boot. The boot is still stuck in the muck. And San being the lovely guy that he is, just the nicest person, reaches back down to get the boot. I'm like, dude, fuck the boot.

00:43:36.47
Aaron
o

00:43:37.44
Seth Macey
Leave it. It's a $40 boot. Like, who cares?

00:43:40.79
Aaron
Fuck shoes.

00:43:40.85
Seth Macey
He still, he comes up with the boot because it's, it's I guess it's Mike's boot, right? They have kind the different boots on the boat for people to wear.

00:43:46.71
Aaron
Yeah.

00:43:50.10
Seth Macey
comes up with the boot I'm like, geez. Okay. And so he walked with one shoe and one bare or not barefoot, but one foot in the waiter, the whole way holding the boot while I have his camera gear. and And I was like, man, that's craziness.

00:44:05.88
Aaron
Whew.

00:44:05.97
Seth Macey
I would left that.

00:44:06.24
Aaron
Yeah.

00:44:06.65
Seth Macey
I would have left that boots and, but you're not me and you're extremely nice.

00:44:11.17
Aaron
Yeah, that was a that was that was a close one. That was a close one. Yeah,

00:44:16.24
Seth Macey
Well, and so then he has he has a shoe and a foot, which puts you totally off balance. And now you lack the surface area on the foot, right? So now you're your foot sinks in more than the boot, which has more surface area.

00:44:26.02
Aaron
so he's just thinking in.

00:44:31.07
Seth Macey
So he's holding me the whole walk while I have his gear because his foot keeps getting sucked in. That was for like at least a mile. half a mile. I'm like, oh God, let's, let's not go in the drink here, but we made it stressful, but it made getting to shore worth it. And I let you continue.

00:44:52.89
Aaron
Yeah, that I mean, it was touch and go, but we got there.

00:44:55.62
Seth Macey
One more thing I'll say too during this, like he's maybe stressing a little. I'm, I don't know. I'm not him, but

00:45:08.33
Seth Macey
I'm looking at you. I'm like, Aaron, come like, slow down the group or come back. Just, and you're laughing. Oh, this is amazing. ha So fun.

00:45:19.53
Seth Macey
I'm like this guy, this guy doesn't know our struggle right now.

00:45:24.72
Aaron
Well, no, you got to have comedy in all situations.

00:45:29.83
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:45:31.04
Aaron
Uh,

00:45:31.41
Seth Macey
I just look at you. I'm like, this isn't, this isn't good right now.

00:45:34.17
Aaron
yeah, I could tell you guys it wasn't good, but you were, you were fine.

00:45:38.25
Seth Macey
We were fine, though.

00:45:40.27
Aaron
You're going to get through it. And of course, of course I filmed it and we'll have it as keepsake for myself.

00:45:41.86
Seth Macey
Once he got his foot out, it was good.

00:45:46.31
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:45:49.70
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:45:51.05
Aaron
Uh, good job, bud.

00:45:51.17
Seth Macey
Stan, you made it through, buddy. Good for you.

00:45:55.98
Aaron
So we get to the we get to shore finally, or some almost dry land. And we're just surrounded by, again, exhausted, you're tired. And then you look around and you're like, there's...

00:46:08.58
Aaron
10 bears around us digging for clams. ah We're getting our way to this mama bear, this big mama bear that has two cubs digging away, digging away.

00:46:19.24
Aaron
And we're, we're just in between. We're in like the middle of a circle where there's bears everywhere.

00:46:25.02
Seth Macey
Yeah, on off-rants.

00:46:26.48
Aaron
And felt felt super safe having a guide, uh, doing research. It was, it was just incredible to sit there and watch and watch some interactions.

00:46:37.92
Aaron
There is, there's a little bit of testiness between a couple bears, some running, some standing, some, some noises that got the heart rate going. Uh, it was um unbelievable. And in that moment you get I don't know how many hours we spent out there on the flats, maybe one.

00:46:55.19
Seth Macey
three

00:46:56.36
Aaron
Yeah. But like in the, we kind of switched it up. So maybe an hour and a half we were out on the flats, on the, on the title flats, maybe, maybe just time flew.

00:47:03.26
Seth Macey
Maybe two.

00:47:05.82
Aaron
I don't know. ah Yeah.

00:47:06.98
Seth Macey
You kind of black out.

00:47:09.17
Aaron
But just so many photos of bears, ah photos of bears for forever. And it's just that experience.

00:47:18.71
Seth Macey
You see, I wouldn't even go as far as to say I have so many, but again, back to that theme at the start of the episode here, I have enough that I'm satisfied.

00:47:27.18
Aaron
Right.

00:47:27.82
Seth Macey
I have a couple really great ones that I'm excited about. I think in my early, earlier wildlife photography days,

00:47:40.83
Seth Macey
ah

00:47:43.58
Seth Macey
my approach was, here's a bear, click, because I don't have any photographs of bears.

00:47:48.48
Aaron
right

00:47:49.01
Seth Macey
But now I'm in a fortunate enough position just with, with a couple of years, more experience in a better portfolio that

00:47:59.11
Seth Macey
I'm not looking for, here's a bear. I'm looking for, here's a bear doing something interesting and hesitating to click the shutter. For example, also there was a couple times where we saw Harbor seals.

00:48:12.40
Aaron
Yeah.

00:48:12.73
Seth Macey
I don't have one picture of a Harbor seal this trip.

00:48:15.78
Aaron
yeah

00:48:16.45
Seth Macey
Because last year we got a photo of a harbor seal peeking out behind a little piece of floating ice, which was in one of my favorite shots. And I didn't really see anything that met that same level of interest to my eye.

00:48:32.78
Seth Macey
The photos that I saw were the photo opportunities that I saw were just harbor seals just in water.

00:48:32.84
Aaron
yeah

00:48:38.02
Aaron
right

00:48:38.55
Seth Macey
And the thought is I have that. I have that. So I don't need to fill more card with that because I know I'm not going to do anything with those.

00:48:51.20
Seth Macey
But had that been what I just described, had that been the first time I had ever seen a harbor seal, you better know I'd be clicking away.

00:48:58.58
Aaron
Yeah, it makes sense.

00:48:59.69
Seth Macey
So i get if it's your first time seeing a bear, you're you're shooting a ton. Why wouldn't you?

00:49:06.90
Aaron
Yeah, there's just, there's a lot of just scenic moments. The lighting was nice. um It was, it's cool.

00:49:17.71
Aaron
Yeah, it's different

00:49:17.86
Seth Macey
The other thing I found too was we're so close to the action and we all have lenses capable of 500 mil, 600 mil. So great opportunity to get in tight, get some real good detail, fill a frame.

00:49:31.13
Seth Macey
And you can you can get potentially so sucked into shooting that the whole time. that i remember I had to consciously remind myself a couple times, hey, zoom all the way out.

00:49:44.55
Aaron
yeah

00:49:45.13
Seth Macey
Zoom all the way out and get the landscape. Because you can i had that thought i had this thought process a couple times where it's like, hey, you're never you may never be this close to brown bears again.

00:49:58.39
Seth Macey
Who knows? Just fill the frame.

00:49:59.51
Aaron
Right. Yeah.

00:50:00.48
Seth Macey
Get all that detail. And it can be hard to say, i'm ah I'm not going to utilize my full focal length and I'm going to zoom all the way out.

00:50:08.61
Aaron
right

00:50:09.78
Seth Macey
Just something I kept in mind. You know we talk about that zoom out medium and then ah zoomed in approach to get a good portfolio.

00:50:18.53
Aaron
yeah

00:50:18.53
Seth Macey
i was reminding myself of that. So.

00:50:21.99
Aaron
Yeah. So that, uh, that rounded out that experience, the tide came in. So we had a very short walk, weighed back to the boat, got back, uh, we're driving back.

00:50:29.79
Seth Macey
Thank goodness.

00:50:34.00
Aaron
Yeah. Just at that point, everyone's happy. You took a little nap.

00:50:38.67
Seth Macey
I fell asleep on the boat and I woke up to a radio call that there was a boat on fire.

00:50:39.03
Aaron
Uh,

00:50:43.81
Aaron
Yeah. A charter boat, seven people in the water, boat on fire, uh, uh, rescue in, in motion.

00:50:51.39
Seth Macey
Jeez.

00:50:51.49
Aaron
Uh, so, so we heard that we're like, whew. And that's the start. Well, San actually, I think was the start of us escaping death on this trip.

00:50:58.71
Seth Macey
There couple times.

00:51:00.03
Aaron
Yeah. A couple weird moments. Uh, so yeah.

00:51:02.78
Seth Macey
We weren't the boat on fire either, which was great. help us I'm sure those people got it out all right.

00:51:06.20
Aaron
So

00:51:08.43
Seth Macey
They were in the water, right? Could you imagine, though, if that's us with all your camera gear?

00:51:09.92
Aaron
yeah.

00:51:12.32
Seth Macey
That's

00:51:13.75
Aaron
No, I don't want to.

00:51:15.43
Seth Macey
terrible.

00:51:17.34
Aaron
Terrible. Terrible.

00:51:19.40
Seth Macey
So.

00:51:20.95
Aaron
ah Hopefully everyone's all right. I think they were based on the the phone calls they were making.

00:51:22.68
Seth Macey
I think they were. We would have heard if they weren't.

00:51:25.62
Aaron
ah Yeah, Mike was awesome. Alaska Bear Viewing Company. it was It was great. It was a good experience. I wish we knew we had to wait so much. That could have been dicey.

00:51:34.93
Seth Macey
I can't believe that that wasn't that ah brought up.

00:51:38.82
Aaron
I know.

00:51:38.82
Seth Macey
mean, what if we were 80 years old?

00:51:41.44
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't i don't know. don't know how that works, but

00:51:47.38
Seth Macey
You know, I can't believe that we didn't know that.

00:51:50.74
Aaron
yeah.

00:51:51.99
Seth Macey
The other thing I found interesting, and maybe my more vetted Alaska people can help me figure this one out, but I always assumed that bear guides carried shotguns.

00:52:04.13
Seth Macey
I know that these bears are very used to people and at no point did we ever feel in danger, but they are wild animals. You never know. it's statistical anomaly could happen.

00:52:16.93
Seth Macey
Since you have that last line of defense,

00:52:21.46
Aaron
Yeah.

00:52:22.30
Seth Macey
Beyond spray and bear bangers? I don't know. That's just... I mean, I don't know. That's my thought process. When I was in... At Nanook in northern northern Manitoba, there was two guides, each with a gun, front and back of the line.

00:52:37.83
Seth Macey
I mean, those are polar bears, but...

00:52:40.54
Aaron
yeah I don't know, but

00:52:42.35
Seth Macey
I don't know. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. I also didn't understand why, and somebody can probably enlighten me as well, why the boat we didn't why the boat wasn't beached, especially since tide was out.

00:52:45.76
Aaron
maybe there's,

00:52:55.89
Seth Macey
Because when we finished, tide would come in and wouldn't that bring the boat up? So for our dismount, why not just beach the boat? Maybe it would get stuck in the muck and the tide wouldn't be enough to pull it out.

00:53:07.66
Seth Macey
I'm not sure.

00:53:08.98
Aaron
Yeah, that that was our question. Because I felt like we could have gone in a good amount more. But, yeah.

00:53:14.56
Seth Macey
So I'm sure I don't know better than a seasoned captain.

00:53:20.35
Aaron
Yeah, a lot of on a good ah good thoughts.

00:53:20.47
Seth Macey
That's me. That's me being genuine. I'm not being sarcastic.

00:53:24.09
Aaron
Yeah, those those guys were awesome. They were excited.

00:53:25.64
Seth Macey
They were awesome. Either way, I was just, was not understanding fully, but I don't run trips every day.

00:53:29.74
Aaron
Just... Alaskan folk talking about fishing and you caught.

00:53:34.49
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:53:35.04
Aaron
And it was, it was fun. It was fun to just be a part of that for sure.

00:53:40.27
Seth Macey
Yeah, so sand got pulled out of the muck, dodged a boat fire, and then were in Seward.

00:53:40.42
Aaron
So we got back to the beach. Yeah. Boats on fire.

00:53:45.31
Seth Macey
You want to tell it?

00:53:46.48
Aaron
We're a Homer. Yeah. Homer one more night got up, went to Seward. It's a Wednesday. Is that when we drove? Was it Wednesday? So and this is Monday.

00:53:55.90
Seth Macey
It was a rainy day.

00:53:56.96
Aaron
Oh, it's Tuesday.

00:53:57.21
Seth Macey
Well, this is the rainy day you're talking about.

00:53:57.86
Aaron
It's Tuesday.

00:53:59.05
Seth Macey
At the start, you said, we'll get into that.

00:54:00.80
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:54:01.25
Seth Macey
That was crazy. Okay, now I know where you're going. All right.

00:54:03.79
Aaron
Well, we got to Seward Tuesday. We made a few stops. We stopped at the Russian river. who did ah a big hike. There was a bear in the area. We missed it.

00:54:10.52
Seth Macey
I got attacked by mosquitoes, so.

00:54:12.85
Aaron
Attacked by bugs. Seth took one for the team. ah They just swarmed him for some reason. It was interesting.

00:54:17.75
Seth Macey
I was at the front of the line, I'm convinced.

00:54:20.38
Aaron
ah who They liked him. ah But yeah, that was a nice, pretty hike. We have some, some video footage of that. There was a bear in the area, but we did not see him or or her.

00:54:33.35
Aaron
ah And I think we saw that bear later on. That's the one that was near the river.

00:54:36.86
Seth Macey
Yeah, think so.

00:54:37.89
Aaron
Yeah, he's he was doing his rounds. ah But Yeah, so we get to Seward, an awesome sea town. I think we had dinner that night and just kind of relaxed. ah The next day was ah supposed to be kind of a rain out.

00:54:51.32
Aaron
We decided to go to the Marine Sea Life Center in Seward. ah People, but at that point in the trip, in a couple of days, everyone's like, have you done this? Have you done this? You can feed sea otters sometimes.

00:55:02.24
Aaron
It's a rehab center. It's a really nice place.

00:55:04.41
Seth Macey
Thank

00:55:05.14
Aaron
So we're like, all right, it's raining out. A bunch of our group seemed interested in doing it. So we added that to the trip. ah We're in there. We're walking around. Uh, see puffins up close. That was pretty cool. See them swim underwater. That was really cool.

00:55:21.83
Aaron
Uh, just to, to see their flight patterns underwater. Amazing. Uh, that was a highlight for me, obviously. Uh, we're sitting there getting ready to go. Our group is a little dismembered here where Seth and I are in the lobby.

00:55:35.87
Aaron
People are still kind of walking around. There's about, I'm going to guess 300 people in this center at the same time. everyone's phone, like an Amber alert, everyone's emergency alert.

00:55:48.61
Seth Macey
Oh,

00:55:49.39
Aaron
There it is. Goes off in sync all at the same time. And that's startling on its own. What the message said, and I'll read it verbatim is, yeah, I still have it.

00:56:02.35
Seth Macey
ah you still have it?

00:56:04.36
Aaron
I took a screenshot of it somewhere. ah Is essentially, i just want to I just want to read it straight up.

00:56:15.23
Aaron
If I could find it.

00:56:19.70
Aaron
ah The suspense. I know everyone. I know. Here it is. Emergency alert. The National Weather Service has issued a tsunami warning in capital letters. A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you.

00:56:33.83
Aaron
You are in danger. Get away from the coastal waters. Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it's safe to return.

00:56:45.63
Aaron
We are on the coast.

00:56:47.73
Seth Macey
Couldn't get any closer to the water.

00:56:48.02
Aaron
we We are stone throw from the coast with this alarm going off. Now I will imitate the employee at the Sea Life Center talking to hundreds of people.

00:57:03.33
Aaron
Everybody listen up. You need to go now. Do not run, but walk to higher ground. Do not get in your cars. Go now

00:57:15.56
Seth Macey
Just like that.

00:57:17.17
Aaron
just like that. And wow, the panic that ensued of everyone. i will say the crowd stayed calm, but Seth said it.

00:57:29.63
Seth Macey
Luckily, she is lucky that that she is lucky that that did not cause a stampede.

00:57:31.44
Aaron
We're funneling to glass doors.

00:57:36.38
Seth Macey
I will say that because the way you and I have never been in a tsunami warning.

00:57:38.05
Aaron
Yeah.

00:57:44.26
Aaron
Mm-mm.

00:57:44.88
Seth Macey
The way it was vocalized like that.

00:57:49.58
Seth Macey
gave the impression of, hey, this could happen in the next 10 minutes, five minutes. We don't know.

00:57:54.46
Aaron
Thank you.

00:57:54.96
Seth Macey
We're not... we We later found out that there was an earthquake 180 miles offshore. Big one, 7.3 magnitude. And based on where it was, our arrival time, in so the arrival time of any waves in Seward would have been three, four hours later.

00:58:13.57
Seth Macey
But you and I didn't know that at the time. And the way that it was... vocalized was it gave the impression of you can get swept away in the next five minutes

00:58:25.90
Aaron
Yeah, this is an emergency right now.

00:58:27.73
Seth Macey
I cannot believe that there was not, and who knows how many tourists from locations that aren't prone to tsunami warnings. Who knows how many of those kinds of people were in there. Very lucky that there was not a stampede that killed people heading out of doors. I will say that I am amazed.

00:58:43.64
Seth Macey
All it would have taken was two people to run to create a herd mentality. And that would have been very dangerous. Just saying that was crazy.

00:58:50.17
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Seth and I are moving quickly. We're in the lobby. We're not, we're, we're texting our group. Hey, get out. Let's meet at the car.

00:59:01.89
Aaron
It's all like one word text, very efficient. Like we're meeting up the hill. We've happened to park up the hill.

00:59:09.10
Seth Macey
You and I, like, we're not walking.

00:59:09.61
Aaron
Uh, yeah.

00:59:10.43
Seth Macey
Are you kidding me?

00:59:12.20
Aaron
But then you're, you're second guessing like is is this a bad idea to get in a car? She said, don't get in a car. But we're like, we're already up the hill. Let's just get out of here. Let's get out of here.

00:59:25.81
Aaron
Uh, there was an evacuation going on. ah there was traffic. There are people leaving again, again, not, not knowing what this was, was very scary in that moment.

00:59:30.61
Seth Macey
Traffic wasn't even that bad, though.

00:59:39.77
Aaron
We are right on the shore, you know?

00:59:41.65
Seth Macey
I started feeling better when I saw, you know, cars and Alaskan pickup trucks going into town.

00:59:41.81
Aaron
And,

00:59:50.63
Seth Macey
My mind is thinking these are locals.

00:59:53.09
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and talking to our hosts, our great hosts, Heather and Tim um and Matt up there at Oz Lodge, they put us to ease.

01:00:04.52
Aaron
They were like, well, we're, we're 180.

01:00:06.73
Seth Macey
You're 170 above sea level at our airbn b

01:00:06.96
Aaron
We got,

01:00:10.23
Aaron
got we got a mountain behind us. We'll, we're absolutely fine. This happens once a summer. We're good.

01:00:16.95
Seth Macey
Yeah.

01:00:17.17
Aaron
And kind of reassured us where everything was, but we were scared for a bit. We were in our cabin.

01:00:22.23
Seth Macey
Holy, yeah, that was scary.

01:00:22.46
Aaron
Everyone was like watching the news, just trying to figure out what's going to happen.

01:00:23.84
Seth Macey
Well, it ended up being national news, right?

01:00:28.16
Aaron
Yeah, I think so. um think so. It was on my Instagram feed, but I do like Alaska stuff. So maybe that's why, but yeah, so that was a scary moment, but one that we will, uh, we will remember. We survived the tsunami 2025.

01:00:40.88
Aaron
Yeah.

01:00:41.05
Seth Macey
We'd still be walking if we had walked and not driven.

01:00:41.12
Aaron
Back home. Oh boy. back home although

01:00:47.76
Seth Macey
Yeah, I don't know that. I get it's probably protocol there in the training.

01:00:57.39
Seth Macey
But that and that the the tone. And she's very lucky that there was not people running through doors.

01:01:03.29
Aaron
Yeah.

01:01:04.89
Seth Macey
I don't think that was the right way to handle it personally.

01:01:07.95
Aaron
No, probably not. And maybe she got the warning before any news too. And you don't know. And there's obviously there's, There's panic there. And I think if it is close, if you don't know in the moment, you have you have minutes probably.

01:01:21.39
Aaron
So urgency is probably key without information to get get to the high ground.

01:01:25.23
Seth Macey
Sure. Sure. I guess there's not enough time to look up.

01:01:30.36
Aaron
Yeah.

01:01:31.17
Seth Macey
Yeah, I get it.

01:01:32.32
Aaron
And how late is that warning from when the thing actually happened also? Is it two minutes later? Is it immediate? Is it five minutes later?

01:01:38.82
Seth Macey
So I guess you have to assume that it's within the next.

01:01:42.91
Aaron
10 seconds, you could, you know?

01:01:43.02
Seth Macey
i Yeah, right.

01:01:46.07
Aaron
So I get it.

01:01:48.04
Seth Macey
I guess my analysis could be unfair and that it's based on a lot of hindsight, which I am aware of.

01:01:48.40
Aaron
but

01:01:53.12
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

01:01:55.02
Seth Macey
ah Regardless, I'm just surprised nobody trampled.

01:01:58.98
Aaron
Yeah. People probably, yeah, we stayed calm. That was impressive. Good job, humans.

01:02:03.44
Seth Macey
you know, and all it takes is one or two to run.

01:02:04.25
Aaron
Great job. Yeah.

01:02:07.67
Seth Macey
ah it's all it takes.

01:02:09.23
Aaron
Yeah.

01:02:09.37
Seth Macey
Oh, maybe I should run. Oh, I should run. I'm not, you know, it do do two do do a chain reaction.

01:02:13.69
Aaron
Absolutely. Absolutely.

01:02:15.77
Seth Macey
so yeah, good job, humans.

01:02:17.73
Aaron
Good job. Nice work. ah Yeah.

01:02:20.03
Seth Macey
Yes, we dodged a tsunami. That was great.

01:02:23.08
Aaron
Yeah. Some great food. We don't need to get into that. ah But now we're up to our boat ride. We went over that. It was an incredible. ah And then we sent the the kids home on the scenic train. They had the scenic train ride home to Anchorage.

01:02:38.90
Aaron
Caught up with them the next day. Seth and I stayed behind, did some photography work for some of the things we had to do. ended up shooting until unpacking. I mean, we got to bed at midnight with a 4 a.m. wake up call.

01:02:52.46
Aaron
um We just couldn't. I think we enjoyed that river night and like the lighting and just being out there.

01:02:59.19
Seth Macey
I said to you, I said, what's the difference if you we're going to be tired whether we get five or four hours sleep?

01:03:01.50
Aaron
Yeah.

01:03:06.10
Seth Macey
Like, let's just stay out here.

01:03:06.15
Aaron
And I, spun it as this will help us with our time change.

01:03:07.06
Seth Macey
It's great.

01:03:10.24
Aaron
Uh, so let's, let's, let's get up at four, stay up all day and then hopefully sleep on the red eye home.

01:03:10.52
Seth Macey
Yeah, good rationalization. That probably wasn't true, but.

01:03:17.94
Aaron
That didn't help. That didn't work too well.

01:03:19.62
Seth Macey
I slept the entire way home.

01:03:21.54
Aaron
Did you?

01:03:22.85
Seth Macey
I slept all the way from.

01:03:23.14
Aaron
Wow.

01:03:25.26
Seth Macey
Mind you, was crappy sleep, you know, where you're kind of like in and out. My garment said I got four hours on a six and a half hour flight from Anchorage to Chicago and then got myself a nice um great um Great American Bagel.

01:03:27.78
Aaron
Yeah.

01:03:38.13
Seth Macey
Is that what the company's called?

01:03:39.79
Aaron
Maybe.

01:03:39.90
Seth Macey
In Chicago.

01:03:39.95
Aaron
I don't know that one. Yeah.

01:03:42.11
Seth Macey
Digestion said it and I just passed out from Chicago to Toronto.

01:03:46.01
Aaron
Yeah.

01:03:46.31
Seth Macey
So it was great. And then I slept for 11 hours that night.

01:03:47.65
Aaron
Yeah.

01:03:51.02
Seth Macey
And then the next night was 10 hours. And then last night was nine hours. So I'm catching up.

01:03:56.23
Aaron
You're catching up. Yeah.

01:03:57.22
Seth Macey
Catching.

01:03:57.29
Aaron
I saw my body battery hit 95 yesterday and i was like, Oh, I'm back.

01:04:00.25
Seth Macey
Oh, look at you flying.

01:04:02.42
Aaron
I'm back.

01:04:02.45
Seth Macey
Garmin says you're rocking and rolling.

01:04:05.08
Aaron
Golfing and everything.

01:04:05.08
Seth Macey
oh The other thing I'll say is i recall I've done this before and you and I have done this on trips together where we'll try and include work for a brand.

01:04:06.56
Aaron
Yeah.

01:04:17.44
Seth Macey
And you and I have made the mistake at times of doing too much where we've taken like three different projects.

01:04:17.59
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

01:04:22.77
Aaron
yeah

01:04:23.72
Seth Macey
I think a good rule of thumb, at least for me, is if you're traveling or going on a trip and you're wanting to introduce brand work for your trip, do one per person involved in the trip.

01:04:35.96
Seth Macey
It's like you, you organized doing work for Oz Lodge and then I organized Tamron and it was manageable on top of our primary responsibility, which was putting on a good trip for participants.

01:04:37.58
Aaron
yeah

01:04:49.20
Aaron
Yeah.

01:04:50.89
Seth Macey
In the past, you and I have tried to do two or three or three or four, and it's just been insanity. And your head feels like it's going to fall off.

01:04:57.62
Aaron
Yeah, it's too much.

01:04:59.45
Seth Macey
So i like I liked doing, we averaged one per trip leader. I don't think if I was doing going solo, I would pick more than one at this point, just because it it takes away.

01:05:12.59
Aaron
Yeah. you know I would, I would agree. We, we had a nice setup where we had time at the end where we didn't have, um you know, paying guests to be honest.

01:05:24.23
Aaron
And we could have some time to shelf that stuff for those moments was getting little stuff as we went, but shelf the bulk of it for that moment where we're not taking away from the trip in that sense.

01:05:31.79
Seth Macey
right

01:05:39.70
Aaron
And that made it very doable, very easy. I agree. it's not It's not fun feeling like you have homework, in a sense, when you're trying to enjoy a trip and be responsible for other people's good times.

01:05:52.80
Seth Macey
Yeah, just a little bit of homework.

01:05:54.91
Aaron
Yeah, little bit of homework's not bad.

01:05:57.21
Seth Macey
No.

01:05:57.46
Aaron
but's That's kind of fun, if you can fit it in.

01:06:01.19
Seth Macey
Yeah, and I think it's a good it is a good idea too, especially if you're in a beautiful place like Alaska that a brand or a company would be happy to have you market their service or product in. What an opportunity, right?

01:06:13.55
Aaron
Yeah, absolutely.

01:06:15.29
Seth Macey
So utilize that if if that's your fancy, right? Just don't go overboard, which I'm speaking to my past self.

01:06:18.06
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

01:06:24.59
Aaron
Yeah, absolutely.

01:06:26.57
Seth Macey
you know I'm shooting a pair, I'm shooting a lens, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. ah why am i you forget Why am I here?

01:06:31.98
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

01:06:33.08
Seth Macey
Right?

01:06:34.09
Aaron
Am I just a hired gun? Yeah.

01:06:36.17
Seth Macey
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I think you can you can forget to enjoy yourself when you have too many responsibilities.

01:06:46.39
Aaron
Yeah.

01:06:46.65
Seth Macey
ah At least that's just me.

01:06:48.84
Aaron
Yeah.

01:06:50.22
Seth Macey
Any other takeaways? What else you think?

01:06:53.67
Aaron
I just love for the photographers are out there that haven't gone to Alaska.

01:06:59.64
Seth Macey
Thank you.

01:06:59.84
Aaron
I just absolutely love the trip. I love this setup. I love Anchorage to Seward to Homer, vice versa, whatever it may be.

01:07:11.88
Aaron
the amount of daylight you have in each day. If you are a go-getter, you can get so much done and just the vastness of the scenery, uh, the food, the people like there's something, there's something alluring about that state.

01:07:30.73
Aaron
I think, I think it does steal a bunch of mainlanders that love the outdoors, that love nature, that love,

01:07:39.18
Seth Macey
Hmm.

01:07:39.86
Aaron
sort of space and room. There's a lot of space, uh, even in the city, uh, or big towns, like you feel like they're, you're not blocked in their space all around you where you can go hike or be alone.

01:07:54.35
Aaron
Uh, if that's important to you, uh, there's opportunities for tons of wildlife interactions. There's You're not landlocked. You have the ocean right there. You got a lot of different opportunities to see a lot of different things.

01:08:08.74
Aaron
It is expensive. I mean, to, to see some of the stuff up close for sure. ah but it should be on every photographer's bucket list, especially if you're a wildlife and nature, uh, to, to get out there.

01:08:20.16
Seth Macey
Right.

01:08:21.81
Aaron
It's just a, um, there's not many places. I think after going last year, i would be like, let's do that again. Like,

01:08:31.20
Seth Macey
Right.

01:08:31.93
Aaron
There's so many places in the world and we chose to do that again. I think that's telling as telling as having to repeat guests that are saying like, let's do that again.

01:08:40.60
Seth Macey
right

01:08:40.92
Aaron
Right. And our group was awesome. Matt and Karen were there last year. Sand finally made a trip. He's been trying for three years to get on a trip.

01:08:50.03
Seth Macey
Yeah.

01:08:51.10
Aaron
Uh, he's made a trip. It was, i mean, after weeks of travel for him, uh, he was a trooper and Meg was new uh, i I think by what she's writing in the group, like so there was a trip she definitely needed and absolutely loved her time there. And I'm excited to see all their photos and their, their pictures. And I remember from last year, you just sort of kind of relive this for the next couple months.

01:09:14.85
Aaron
Our text group will, will keep going and keep joking and keep talking.

01:09:15.02
Seth Macey
yeah

01:09:19.38
Aaron
And, It is kind of nice when you step away and as leaders of a group, when it goes well, everyone's safe. Everyone had a good time.

01:09:30.84
Aaron
Everyone got home safe. Everyone experienced the things that we love and and they hope to.

01:09:36.92
Seth Macey
Or they had hoped to. They have good photos.

01:09:39.89
Aaron
had all these moments. We had maybe the most incredible sunset I've ever seen on the first night driving to Homer.

01:09:47.84
Seth Macey
I think I said that to you. i think I said that's one of the best sunsets I've ever seen.

01:09:50.44
Aaron
Yeah.

01:09:50.48
Seth Macey
you know

01:09:52.04
Aaron
Minus dodging 17,000 moose by Seth.

01:09:54.26
Seth Macey
oh my God. I was playing, yeah I was moose swallowing along the roads.

01:09:57.85
Aaron
Moose Lalom on the way to Homer. And I was on 48 hours of being awake and like passing out, like could not stay awake in the passenger seat and we just hear moose.

01:10:09.46
Aaron
I'd be like, Oh, ah

01:10:09.91
Seth Macey
I would panic startle him awake. Yeah.

01:10:13.51
Aaron
yeah.

01:10:13.64
Seth Macey
That just freaks me out, man. I don't like, I don't like the idea of driving at night in moose country.

01:10:15.69
Aaron
Yeah.

01:10:19.17
Aaron
New, no.

01:10:19.93
Seth Macey
That's not it. But like we had to get there.

01:10:21.63
Aaron
Uh, but to, to conclude just in, just an awesome place, it's hard to, uh, it's hard to compete.

01:10:22.19
Seth Macey
yeah.

01:10:30.59
Aaron
I think with that in terms of a photo trip, like I, in the last couple of days, like, where are we going to go next year? I rattle that around my head and it's just hard to, it's hard to compete.

01:10:41.41
Aaron
It just is. It's hard to compete with that trip. I think, um,

01:10:44.62
Seth Macey
Well, we have some ideas.

01:10:46.20
Aaron
We have ideas. I don't think we're going to do Alaska a third year in a row, but I know we'll be back.

01:10:49.97
Seth Macey
I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think three years in row I agree. But

01:10:53.67
Aaron
Yeah, but we will be back for sure.

01:10:56.67
Seth Macey
I think the other interesting thing, just to add on to what you're saying, is I sometimes feel this way. don't know if other people do, that photography can be kind of isolating.

01:11:10.14
Seth Macey
in the grand scheme of things, it's not a practice that many people understand or participate in or even really get, you know, the common everyday people.

01:11:23.32
Seth Macey
So you can kind of feel like it's, um Instagram and things like that help digitally, but there's nothing that compares to being with a group of like-minded people who are as excited and interested and get the struggles and understand the difficulty and see the amazement in a particular moment.

01:11:42.32
Seth Macey
Nothing really competes with that. And I think that's part of the allure of any photo trip you can go on, not even just ours, whatever, is that there's that underlined sense of camaraderie.

01:12:00.25
Aaron
yeah

01:12:00.51
Seth Macey
You know, when you go through a difficult moment or something incredible happens and there's this unspoken bond that says, Hey, I, I understand you and you understand me. And whereas we're equally as excited about this thing. And that's difficult to get when you're not, you know when you're just kind of on your own.

01:12:25.88
Aaron
Definitely. that's That's well, well thought out and said, i I agree. It's, or even worse than on your own is with someone that doesn't get it. Like I'm sure a lot of us have gone on trips with friends that aren't into photography and you're at this place and you're like, you feel guilty stopping photography.

01:12:35.70
Seth Macey
Sure.

01:12:46.40
Aaron
at a moose on the side of the road for 30 minutes because it's awesome. And there's awesome light. And you're like, ah, this guy, were like, we're supposed to be getting dinner right now. Like it, you know, it's, it's nice when we're all on the same page of like, we want photos.

01:13:02.69
Aaron
We know when we want to relax. We know when we're a little burnt out, we can kind of feel that. Cause we, we do have the same intention of seeing great moments. Uh,

01:13:14.35
Aaron
If anything's the struggle, I think it's knowing how hard we can push ourselves and maybe equating that to other people and feeling like downtime is time missing or people are upset that we have downtime.

01:13:28.67
Seth Macey
Sure.

01:13:29.89
Aaron
And I think we've gotten better at learning that downtime's okay and that we need it also.

01:13:36.10
Seth Macey
sure

01:13:36.22
Aaron
and And allowing the trip to flow and allowing the trip to have some space where We can take a day to say, Hey, like we're getting the vibe that we're exhausted. we have a big day tomorrow.

01:13:49.64
Aaron
Let's slow down. What do you guys want to do? You know, versus spoon feeding the whole time of things, things, things, uh,

01:13:57.45
Seth Macey
yeah And thinking that what we want is what everyone wants.

01:14:03.67
Aaron
Yeah. Or that more, that seeing more is more valuable or seeing everything is getting your money's worth rest. Sometimes it's getting your money's worth and being sharp and we get shot.

01:14:14.01
Seth Macey
Sure. Good point.

01:14:18.50
Aaron
Like I, last year it was Seth's wallet wallet gate. This year it was my air pod maxes that were in my backpack.

01:14:24.87
Seth Macey
When you're so tired.

01:14:26.36
Aaron
you're so tired and I could not find them when we're about to leave. And then I go to find my, like the find my phone app and my airpod maxes were seen last time, five hours away in, in Homer.

01:14:39.87
Aaron
And just your brain goes into like, damn it. Like I, I emailed the Airbnb, Airbnb and asked if they found them or we're flying. I'm going through every suitcase thing. I'm like, Oh, maybe it's in my shoe compartment in my suitcase. Look there. It's not there.

01:14:54.57
Aaron
We finally get there and they're in my backpack, like just there where I put them a long time ago. And you're like, God, like I am just, I'm losing it at this point. I'm tired.

01:15:05.45
Aaron
And then we were saying like, there's so many moments in that 4am, that midnight to 4am, wake up to Anchorage, to switching cars, to picking people up luggage, where it's like the whole time we're like, I think we forgot something.

01:15:19.35
Aaron
We forgot something somewhere.

01:15:20.29
Seth Macey
hate that feeling that you've just, you're forgetting something.

01:15:22.67
Aaron
And like, I think it's because we're changing so much.

01:15:23.58
Seth Macey
Because it's usually right. That feeling is usually right for me.

01:15:26.62
Aaron
Yeah. And we still might find out that we lost something, but uh,

01:15:30.44
Seth Macey
I lost one thing, a charger adapter, but it was like 20 bucks. I feel better about it. Because I know what it is.

01:15:34.98
Aaron
Yeah. And I found my, I found my air pod maxes and Seth was like, Oh, those big ones.

01:15:39.10
Seth Macey
Good for you.

01:15:41.03
Aaron
I thought you meant the little guys. I'm like, no, that's why I was kind of freaking out.

01:15:44.39
Seth Macey
Oh, yeah. I didn't know what AirPod... I didn't know AirPod Maxes were actually giant headphones. I thought they were just a better version of the AirPods, which then you and enlightened me to the fact that AirPod Pros are what I was thinking of.

01:15:48.98
Aaron
Yeah. So

01:15:57.10
Aaron
yeah.

01:15:58.14
Seth Macey
So I'm technologically ignorant.

01:15:58.56
Aaron
and um so

01:16:00.17
Seth Macey
The one thing I will say, too, about...

01:16:03.65
Seth Macey
think you were talking about... when you're traveling with somebody who like isn't a photographer, i think you can have, I'm speaking from experience cause I travel with Haley all the time and she doesn't pick up a camera ever and is incredibly patient with me wanting to stop at some dinky little bird for half an hour.

01:16:18.93
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:16:22.98
Seth Macey
And is able to just kind of look around and enjoy it. Maybe in her head she wants to get going sometimes, but maybe not. But I guess what I'm trying to say is find a travel person, whether that's your significant other or a friend who may not be into photography, but is incredibly patient. And that also is close to or equally as excited to see some of the things that you are, but just is fine.

01:16:49.20
Seth Macey
Taking it in with their eyeballs. I remember traveling, you know, in the winter in Jasper with Haley and we turned the corner and there was this moose and calf and we ended up sitting there for God had to been an hour and a half because the sun was down and the sun came up for an hour and a half. I'm snapping away and she's just enjoying it which there's something so pure about that.

01:17:06.56
Aaron
yeah Yeah, there is.

01:17:08.06
Seth Macey
Back to our conversation about watching watching the Orcas. But i guess I'm just building off your point that if you're going to go with somebody who isn't exactly like you are in the sense of a photographer or as a videographer, find someone with great patience and who just has a natural love for the outdoors or travel, et cetera.

01:17:25.50
Aaron
exactly. Someone that appreciates it.

01:17:27.30
Seth Macey
Yeah.

01:17:28.51
Aaron
Yeah.

01:17:29.60
Seth Macey
So that's all I got for it.

01:17:31.31
Aaron
It was a great trip.

01:17:32.85
Seth Macey
It was really good.

01:17:33.99
Aaron
Yeah. Thanks for helping out and being around and vice versa, I'm sure.

01:17:38.22
Seth Macey
Yeah.

01:17:40.99
Aaron
And you know what?

01:17:40.99
Seth Macey
Yeah. How's your lumbar? How's your back?

01:17:43.56
Aaron
Not bad. I golfed yesterday, so that's a good sign.

01:17:44.43
Seth Macey
Good. Good. lot of sitting at times, driving planes.

01:17:50.16
Aaron
That's my theory on... Yeah, it's hard to get work. It's tricky. It's sneaky. on On travel like that, you assume...

01:18:01.29
Aaron
you must be doing extra steps and you're, you're working hard and you're hiking mountains and all that. Yeah. In spots, but the other spots are a lot of sitting and traveling, sitting for long periods of time, even on a boat sitting a lot.

01:18:18.73
Aaron
Uh, we did how many hours of boat rides? Six plot. No, that was more than that. So was six to 12. We got back at it. That was a long boat ride. Six to 12 to then we got home at three, around three.

01:18:33.06
Aaron
It was a nine hour boat ride. We had two hours, four, 13 hours of sitting on a boat or being on a boat like that.

01:18:41.73
Seth Macey
yeah

01:18:42.57
Aaron
That stuff adds up. Um, so yeah, it's important to, I don't know. Get some isometrics and stretch a bunch, uh, get some walks going, walk around on trips like that.

01:18:52.69
Seth Macey
Yeah.

01:18:54.71
Aaron
But yeah, I'm feeling good.

01:18:55.07
Seth Macey
Yeah. And shout out to Matt, huh?

01:18:57.75
Aaron
Dude, the Billy goat, I think mid sixties.

01:18:58.63
Seth Macey
Matt is, how old is he? 60? Is he 60? I

01:19:04.11
Aaron
don't, I don't know for sure.

01:19:04.87
Seth Macey
thought he was 60 flat.

01:19:05.36
Aaron
I'm just guessing just to cooking up that Mount Alice.

01:19:07.42
Seth Macey
Or maybe he's in his late 50s. I don't know. Fitness level of a 25-year-old.

01:19:14.66
Aaron
That was, uh,

01:19:15.68
Seth Macey
Yeah, he's a mountain goat.

01:19:18.31
Aaron
What do we do for elevation? We didn't do the whole 3000 because it was super foggy and rainy.

01:19:21.08
Seth Macey
Probably at like two.

01:19:22.70
Aaron
I think we did about two and he was, he had no problem.

01:19:27.08
Seth Macey
Light years ahead.

01:19:27.43
Aaron
just going, going, talking full conversations with strangers.

01:19:29.59
Seth Macey
So no excuses. Yeah. c Incredible. Incredible fitness.

01:19:34.51
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it was a good time. It was a good time.

01:19:39.27
Seth Macey
All right, man. I'm excited for the next one with you. Hopefully I want to be able to do two next year. One in the spring and one in the summer. So we'll see.

01:19:45.75
Aaron
How, how did we not tell the story? We have one more story.

01:19:49.30
Seth Macey
Which one is that?

01:19:50.47
Aaron
The prison.

01:19:51.77
Seth Macey
Oh, we got to tell this one. almost got deported. I could have easily been deported on day four.

01:20:00.14
Aaron
Dave was a date. Yeah, it was Dave. Maybe day three.

01:20:02.04
Seth Macey
I just, picked I picked an arbitrary number. It doesn't matter.

01:20:04.12
Aaron
I think it was day three. The first night we were in Seward, Seth, I, and San wanted to go do some drone stuff. We had our drones. So it's late. Everyone's getting to bed, but again, it's daylight.

01:20:15.32
Aaron
We thought there might be a great sunset again. We go out a place that Seth and I went last time, ah but there's some mountains behind us. So we, we take.

01:20:24.73
Seth Macey
I was looking at you. I'm like, I want to fly my drone and point it at that kind of glacial or mountain inlet there.

01:20:28.53
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

01:20:31.43
Seth Macey
It would be really pretty. Can we get close to it to take off?

01:20:35.09
Aaron
So we look at Google maps. We see this road that comes down close to it and it says on it, something athletic field, athletic field.

01:20:42.28
Seth Macey
It says athletic field. Athletic field. Yes. Sweet.

01:20:45.56
Aaron
So we're like, Oh, it's a baseball field. It looks like a complex.

01:20:48.46
Seth Macey
Sweet.

01:20:49.65
Aaron
So we drive in there down this solitary road. There's one entrance that says like, there's a gate there and says, you know, answer it.

01:20:57.41
Seth Macey
It says warehouse or shipping. It's a Y.

01:20:59.57
Aaron
Yeah, and then there's a bunch of pickup trucks in this lot, and I was like, is there a game going on? What's going on? There's also a control tower that looks like

01:21:08.46
Seth Macey
almost looked like a church or a control tower. Yeah, it was weird.

01:21:10.85
Aaron
broadcast tower. i don't i don't know. I'm like, maybe this is like minor league baseball. I have no idea. So we are coming in here and everything's up on a hill. So the parking lot's lower.

01:21:22.21
Aaron
There's a hundred cars and campers and ah RVs and pickup trucks. No one's in them. It was just a weird, quiet feeling. No lights are on in this complex.

01:21:33.58
Aaron
It's late, by the way. It's probably 11 pm So we pull up right to this hill. Everything's above us. Uh, sand goes to just turn on the drone to check things. And it says restricted area. Do not fly here.

01:21:48.11
Aaron
we're like, we can't fly here. Okay.

01:21:49.77
Seth Macey
but like Are we close to the airport?

01:21:51.97
Aaron
And I'm like, maybe that's a control tower.

01:21:51.98
Seth Macey
What's going on?

01:21:53.57
Aaron
Like this is weird. So I get out of the car while they're talking kind of my own volition here. I'm holding a 600 millimeter lens and and my camera, this big bazooka looking thing.

01:22:06.66
Aaron
And I run up this hill to get to the top and I freeze and I see a fence with multiple strands, big strands of very sharp barbed wire right there.

01:22:19.71
Aaron
And I'm like, this is weird. So it then hits me. I'm like, this looks like a prison. And I came back with an inquisitive tone. like, it's weird up there.

01:22:30.51
Aaron
It's like a prison. So Seth zooms in to the Google map and he's, what's it called?

01:22:37.16
Seth Macey
So I zoomed in even, so Google Maps, you got to figure your shit out, okay? So when you're zoomed out on the map, it says athletic field. And then you zoom in a little more and it says Spring Creek Correctional Center.

01:22:52.33
Aaron
Yeah.

01:22:52.66
Seth Macey
You would think that Spring Creek Correctional Center would come before athletic field.

01:22:59.72
Aaron
Yup.

01:23:00.34
Seth Macey
So this was Spring Creek Correctional Center, which is a maximum security prison for men located in Seward, Alaska.

01:23:11.60
Aaron
Yeah, with some.

01:23:12.73
Seth Macey
A large, and let me read this.

01:23:14.27
Aaron
Yeah, read it.

01:23:15.21
Seth Macey
A large portion of the prisoner population consists of, quote, hardcore felons who committed violent crimes such as murder. The Alaska Department DOC, I assume that's Department of Corrections, says that these prisoners, quote, will probably spend the rest of their life in prison.

01:23:28.15
Aaron
hmm.

01:23:35.98
Seth Macey
Jeez.

01:23:38.09
Aaron
And I'm running up to this prison with us firing up drones and a 600 millimeter lens. And Seth starts reading that and we couldn't get out of there fast enough.

01:23:50.94
Aaron
We flew out of there. So

01:23:55.64
Seth Macey
Oh, notable inmates, Robert Hanson, a serial killer convicted of killing numerous women in or near Anchorage, Alaska.

01:23:57.16
Aaron
I don't know.

01:24:03.51
Aaron
Jeez.

01:24:06.25
Seth Macey
Evan Ramsey, perpetrator of the Bethel, Bethel regional high school shooting in Bethel, Alaska. Like these are some hardcore people that are in there, man.

01:24:13.76
Aaron
oh

01:24:13.90
Seth Macey
The fact that you ran up there with 600 millimeter is hilarious. Could you imagine? I don't know if the drones would have ever taken off, but if sand hadn't checked and we just flew anyways or whatever, could you imagine?

01:24:27.52
Aaron
The problem we would have had

01:24:28.40
Seth Macey
oh my God. I don't know. don't even want to know what happened.

01:24:31.69
Aaron
in a white unmarked van, that's what we're driving.

01:24:33.81
Seth Macey
Yeah. In a white unmarked like a cargo van type thing.

01:24:38.07
Aaron
We're launching three drones and camo gear and 600 millimeter lens and sprinting up to the prison to look at it.

01:24:46.99
Seth Macey
Oh, God.

01:24:48.26
Aaron
Not good.

01:24:48.33
Seth Macey
Yes.

01:24:49.51
Aaron
Do your research, folks.

01:24:50.85
Seth Macey
Do your research. Google Maps have the correctional facility display before the baseball field that is within the correctional facility.

01:24:59.77
Aaron
Yeah. How many families are going to play catch at the correctional facility based on the wrong titling?

01:25:05.85
Seth Macey
Oh, God.

01:25:05.93
Aaron
Come on. Anywho, that's that.

01:25:09.56
Seth Macey
That's...

01:25:10.29
Aaron
That wraps up our Alaska trip.

01:25:11.89
Seth Macey
Could have been bad.

01:25:13.64
Aaron
Prisons, tsunamis, boats on fire, moose slalom, stuck in the mud.

01:25:16.30
Seth Macey
Sucked in the mud.

01:25:19.73
Aaron
Exciting, exciting times.

01:25:21.45
Seth Macey
I'm excited for a different one next year.

01:25:24.16
Aaron
Something safer like Nebraska.

01:25:26.76
Seth Macey
you're making it sound like ah Nebraska.

01:25:27.85
Aaron
I'm just kidding.

01:25:28.99
Seth Macey
It's just corn forever. No.

01:25:30.52
Aaron
Yeah.

01:25:31.63
Seth Macey
It was great.

01:25:31.95
Aaron
No, they have 20 of those.

01:25:32.21
Seth Macey
It was great.

01:25:33.33
Aaron
It was great. We all survived.

01:25:34.38
Seth Macey
It was great.

01:25:35.28
Aaron
Winning.

01:25:35.34
Seth Macey
It was good. All right, buddy. Until next time.

01:25:38.05
Aaron
See ya.