Capturing Cleveland: Gabe Wasylko on Landscape Photography & Cityscapes

On this episode of the #ZoomPod, Cleveland-based photographer Gabe Wasylko joins the ZWOF Photography Lab to talk about his photo journey, landscape photography, and how he creates stunning shots of my favorite city on the north shore!
#cleveland #ohio #cle #thisiscle #clevelandohio #theland #sonsoftheshore

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Transcript

TMac 0:14

Hello and welcome to the Zoom with Our Feet Podcast, the pod about learning photography. With me, your host, T-Mack, professional photographer and videographer who also happens to be a teacher. In this episode of the Zoom Pod, professional photographer Gabe Wassilko stops by to talk about his work in landscape photography. Let's talk to a pro. All right, Gabe Wussilko. Pleasure to have you on the Zoom with our feet podcast. First question.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Yes.

TMac 1:01

What inspired you, or who inspired you, to get into photography?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

That's a good question. One of my favorite questions to answer. And it's a little bit of an untraditional route of photography or to photography that I've taken in my life. So I grew up being around creatives. My dad was a video producer and PR extraordinaire for years and years and years. My mom owns a gift basket company. So I always grew up around creative minds, creative beings, and was always taught to think creatively with new ideas, interesting perspectives, and really think outside the box when it comes to media, when it comes to just my day-to-day life. So I was influenced from a young age to be creative. And as I grew older, you could call it a little bit of the rebel or the rebellious phase in me. But if my rebellious phase is anything like anybody else's, I just wanted to do something outside of what my parents did. I didn't want to follow the path and do this sense of creative work. So I looked and I jumped as far as I could from the creative route and said I'm going to be a lawyer. So went into college at the College of Worcester, majoring in mathematics and political science with this whole entire philosophy. I love sports. I loved the whole entire idea of working in a front office and I wanted to go to law school and be a sports agent or work in general counsel for the Cleveland Guardians. That was always the dream. So going through my last few years of high school into college, um I had an opportunity to intern with the Akron Rubber Ducks, the minor league affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. So back when I was 16 years old and in 2014, I um remembered driving down to Akron.

TMac 2:58

16. Yeah. 16, man.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

I was a youngin' back then. I didn't even have facial hair. But went to remember my uncle had to drive me down to Akron for that interview because I didn't have my license at the time. But I um interviewed for an internship with the Akron Rubber Ducks in their video creative services department. And it was all in this sense of you know adding to the resume in high school, trying to, you know, add something unique. I was like, there's no kid that's gonna have a rubber ducks internship on their law school application. Like, there's no way. Um, so went, got an internship, and continue that internship was actually brought on in a part-time capacity at the age of 17 years old, my senior year of high school, which was really cool.

TMac 3:45

Old 17.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah, old 17. I was weathered. Uh, I seen a lot in that one year, um, a lot of tarp to pull, but it was it was a really cool experience, but still in this mindset of, you know, this is just a resume builder, this is just a fun summer job that I can have in the summer months and then go to college and continue my wall work. So worked my way through college, got to my senior year, and the creative services coordinator at the rubber ducks uh took another position at another company, and um, they actually brought me on in a full-time capacity to be the creative services coordinator in my senior year of college. So that was a fun time to transition from doing your senior thesis and then all of a sudden in April getting ready for the baseball season. But um it at that point too, I I would tell you, I definitely wasn't in the right mindset of this creative field. I still was like, hey, this is my end to you know, get into a front office, making connections, trying to, you know, learn as much as I can about baseball. Um, that was kind of the mindset. Um, and after my first year with the Rubber Ducks, I kind of looked myself in the mirror and said, hey, I think I have the creative itch. I think I have the creative stuff that my parents passed down to me from um generation to generation. I'm gonna give this baseball thing and this creative services route a try. So really I went to um to town just learning as much as I could, everything from video to what is frame rate, what is the different settings, how do you light, how do you do audio? I'm not as trained professional when it came to video or creative works like Photoshop, Adobe, um, the creative cloud, all that stuff. It was it was a lot of me sitting and wanting to learn and answering that question of what makes things happen, what makes things do things. And it was so great to have a almost a blank canvas with the rubber ducks to be able to say, hey, I want to do this video series, I want to learn this, I want to try this. And they allowed me to have that creative freedom to try different things and really explore. Um, so fast forward into 2020, we all know what happens there with the pandemic and no baseball season due to the pandemic. Um I was cooped up and we had to be creative in different ways to engage a fan base. Um, I was thankful to be kept on as an employee during that time and we got to work hosting baseball games. We probably hosted Canon McKinley High School during that time at Canal Park. Um, but it was just fun to think creatively and get those juices flowing. And as we worked our way through 2020 and into 2021 at the end of the year, um things were winding down. We were prepping for the 2021 baseball season. Um, and I was feeling a little antsy. You know, my dad unfortunately caught COVID. Um, I was at home, just kind of still hunkered down, not able to see the world, getting a little cabin fever and a little anxious. And I said, you know, I'm going to try to learn something new. I'm going to try to push myself in a different direction. I learned all this video stuff. I'm going to jump into photography and see kind of, you know, what is out there. And really, I knew nothing about photography. I didn't know settings. I didn't know what ISO and shutter speed and aperture meant. I didn't know what different techniques you could do, long exposure, like all these different things. I didn't understand. So I saw it as a perfect kind of uh way to a runway to learn this new craft and see if I could just get a little bit better. Um, and kind of an experience and a technique that I used was this thought of, you know, one, I have to identify something that I enjoy shooting and or photography photographing. And two, I want to really be able to show consistent growth and consistent kind of effort. So, what I decided to do is there's this one photographer in Pittsburgh named named Dave Decello. He's a famous Pittsburgh skyline landscape photographer. So many people have seen his work. He is a friend of mine now, which is so fun to think about. But he celebrated Pittsburgh so much through his photos. And he would wake up super early and capturing those sunrises and those sunsets and those little pieces that really made Pittsburgh such a unique city. And I kind of looked in Cleveland and I said, there's no one doing this. There is no one with that tenacity, with that growth that is celebrating Cleveland each and every day like Dave does to Pittsburgh. And I thought, you know, hey, this is a great muse to kind of learn photography, is to capture Cleveland, to photograph Cleveland, and to kind of, you know, work on my skills and see the city that I grew up in and grew up around and went to as a kid.

TMac 8:38

So okay. So you you helped with the influence question. How did you meet him? Did you meet him? Or did you find his work? How did that how did that influencer? I'm gonna throw out a hip term. How did that how did that happen for you?

SPEAKER_02 8:59

You know, the way I was influenced is I think some someone on Twitter retweeted one of his shots and talked about, you know, Dave's photos are fantastic, and I saw what he was doing. And just the one thing that I loved about his work is his consistency, is the ability to wake up and find new creative angles and to to look at each day and the beauty that it has, even if it's a cloudy day. I mean, Pittsburgh's a Midwest city too. There are cloudy days in Pittsburgh as well as Cleveland. So just coming upon his work was really that that catalyst to saying, you know, I want to accept this challenge to post a photo to Twitter each day during 2022 and and really track my or 2021 and really track my progress and see, you know, from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021, did I get better with photography?

TMac 9:53

And how did you what was your metric to measure your progress? Was it showing your work to other professionals? Was it being bold and and and selling your work? How did getting good happen?

SPEAKER_02 10:15

You know, that's a good question. And I think my metric actually changed a little bit throughout my journey. And the first kind of metric in the piece that I really paid attention to was the instant gratification that I had of saying, oh, that photo looks better. That photo is not shaky. That photo is cool. Like I captured this moment, I exposed properly. That's building is is good. So it was really self-fulfilling. It wasn't really necessarily um tracking, you know, this thought of, oh, am I making X amount of dollars from my photos? It was never about selling work, it was never about trying to get a certain amount of likes on a photo to kind of do that. That wasn't the the the the piece that kind of got me going was that thought of, you know, me personally, does Gabe feel like he's grown? Then that piece of that metric actually changed quite a bit about I'd say three or four months in, where Cleveland ended up becoming my inspiration, the city that I grew up in. Before it was this inspiration of getting better with photography and exposing images properly, getting that firework shot, getting that lightning shot, getting those bucket list shots that I had. That was kind of that initial thought of and doing it well. But as time went on and what consistently is the piece that inspires me isn't as quantitative as a data metric or money sign, but it's this thought of how can I showcase Cleveland each and every day? Because growing up, I was around the city that, you know, kind of had a negative perception, people didn't think positively about Cleveland. Um, how can I showcase the beauty that I see through my lens each day? Um, and doing that consistently, that kind of became the muse along the way.

TMac 12:14

So you took it you took an analytical approach to the to the creative part. Yeah. Let's let's talk about technique for a sec. How did you how did you tackle let me back up? When you first started out, did you know about the exposure triangle, ISO aperture, shutter speed? Did you how did you learn um those foundational skills while this creative um and analyzing and well that didn't work, right? Um how were the two connected, the technical and the creative, and and where did you start?

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Yeah, I think the the catalyst for me starting to learn was this idea of in a way being overly obsessive with this finding the answers. So, and it sounds a little weird, but it kind of started with video. You know, when I was learning video, I would constantly watch interviews on TV, 60 minutes. I would watch, you know, YouTube videos, I would watch documentaries, I would watch videos on Twitter, I would watch everything, news, and I would say, you know, why is that background slightly out of focus? Well, where is the light source there? Where is this coming from? And I would screenshot these things, or I'd take photos of it, and I'd go run to my dad and say, Dad, how are they doing this shot? Or where is why yeah, why?

TMac 13:54

Why, dad? Why? Why?

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Yeah. And and he would say, Well, son, you know, it's it's this or this that, or he'd kind of, you know, talk about the importance of a lava mic and and and different mic sources and everything. So, really, this idea of why, why are things happening and how do you make these things? Like, I see the end product, I really like the end product, but how do you get there? And then also, how do you do it in different situations? I mean, when you're looking at lighting, you could be shooting in this room with windows, and then at seven o'clock, the light source is completely different. How do you mask for that? How do you work with it? How do you work on the fly? All these things, you know, started to kind of get into my head and really became the process of how I did video. So I went to photo, it was a lot of the same stuff.

TMac 14:46

Well, you have um I want to say the same settings applied differently.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Yeah.

TMac 14:54

So iris and aperture, or you know, the those are the same, right? I mean, a lot of video camera lenses have f-stop numbers on them, but the the speed uh is gain, yeah, right. So so there's that there is there is the crossover, but but also man, you chose uh your inspiration was landscape work, which uh you know is sort of the opposite of my sports uh yeah um uh background where you know I could be shooting a soccer game at you know 3200 aperture, a 3200th, or a four thousandth. Yeah, you know, and you know, uh a landscape you're shooting at what? Shutter speed.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

You know, it sometimes depending on the shot, I'm I'm doing a long exposure or I'm doing like a 15-second long exposure, or if I'm 15 seconds, yeah, maybe even a minute. Like who it's it kind of depends on the situation, and you start to get used to just like sports photography, you're seeing you know, certain sports call for different things, certain weather conditions call for different things. Does the stadium lit well? Are there dead spots in the corner where the light isn't shining down and you have to compensate? Like you're always making these adjustments, so that's why I think you probably know and students know it's so important to understand the why behind things. So when you're in new different situations, you know exactly kind of what to tweak. And it comes with practice, but um, that was kind of the the background for for that too, is with landscape, it's uh it's completely different.

TMac 16:45

So you make you you you make a conscious decision. Um Cleveland's prettier than we even locals think. I mean, it's beautiful, it's our hometown, but not uh you're right, there was a market uh niche that you saw that nobody was showing it off. And I'm fascinated that that you found that through landscaped, landscape photography, yeah, and then and then backed up and then probably figured how do I, what is the workflow for landscape photography? Because again, just as comparison, I show up at a game, they start running around, yeah, and I shoot, versus talk through a you know, pick a shot that you really like, yeah, and and talk me through that workflow from idea to yes, I got it.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Yeah. And and and I think you know, you're you're you're too kind. I will preface with one thing. You know, this niche market that you brought up, you know, it really it comes down to the Cleveland people that the people that love Cleveland that support it. And I I you you you're talking about how I found this niche. Truly, it was they kind of I found the people of Cleveland that love Cleveland. They just needed something to talk about. So they were always there. Um, and they really just the people on Twitter, the people on social media, the people that live in their community that are from Cleveland, from Northeast Ohio too, they just love this area and they needed a piece to talk about. So you do you're very kind to give me some credit for that, but really it's truly um a passionate group of people in this area that truly love their city. Um but yeah, it's kind of going into this workflow completely different than portraits or doing different things in a studio versus sports as well. Um and and really my prep, and I learned this from video from my dad, your prep starts the night before. Um, if I'm gonna wake up and get up at sunrise, one, it's you gotta check the weather conditions. You I'm have many different apps on my phone, many different websites I check, many different webcams in around Cleveland that I check to see where the sun's coming up, how it's looking, cloud coverage. I I'm doing research probably like while I'm at dinner with friends. I'm checking my phone just to see like, oh, what's the sunset looking like tonight? Or what's it looking like tomorrow morning? So I'm constantly looking to plan out that morning, and I have it blocked in my calendar each day. Actually, I'm a religious calendar user, but um in the morning and at night, just in case um I have this time blocked, and and I consider that kind of like need time. It's very therapeutic. It's time that I spend by myself reflecting, thinking, and shooting photography. So that's kind of the process there. But when it comes to um kind of the gear side of things, always making sure memory cards are cleared, um, batteries are in check, um, gear is in my different lenses that I have, is in my bag, ready to go out the door the night before as I'm kind of getting ready to go to bed. Um, just so in case and it's happened before, I've woken up uh uh late and have to get to a location in the morning to try to catch a beautiful sunrise. I see it starting from my window, and I'm like, oh, I gotta go. Like, thank goodness I have all my gear pulled together, ready to go. It cuts down on that friction. Um but kind of like going into one of my shots, you know, it's I'm checking the weather. Um, one of my favorite shots, and I can I can send that over to you too, so you could see, but it's it was a lightning shot. It was a captured lightning, and um it was it was such a a wild experience. And this shows kind of why knowing your settings and your surroundings are so important. But I was I was finishing up work downtown, and you started to see it was an October day, it's kind of stormy. You see the shelf clouds moving in around the city. Um I kind of went out and said, you know, I was meeting my friend actually that night for dinner. It was his dad's birthday, and we were going out to eat to kind of celebrate the occasion, and that was at seven. Um, and and I was finishing up work at about 5:30. So had some time to kill, decide, hey, I'm gonna go out and grab some of these shelf clouds, you know, see what I can find. Because a lot of times that's what my photography is just kind of bumping around. I have a couple extra minutes seeing what's what's going on. So went out, shot some photos at this one location, the script sign and Abbey Road in Tremont and going into Cleveland. Then decided to move over to the Hope Memorial Bridge. Um, the clouds were still kind of coming in, sun was setting a little bit. It was a cool, eerie feeling. You felt that brisk in the air, like a storm's coming. And um parked in my normal spot by the Hope Memorial Bridge, walked up, walked across the bridge over by the Guardian statue, snapped this one image that actually is like on. Wall right here that I'm looking at of these cool, beautiful clouds coming in and the sun setting, they have some nice color. Then I see halfway down the bridge, because there's the Cuhaga River that goes through there, there's a freighter coming. I love to capture freighters in my compositions and just kind of have different interests. So I ended up running down that way to capture this boat going down the river with the sky and the sunset. It was beautiful. And I felt really good. I was like, okay, I got these shots. Then as I was kind of reflecting and ready to go back to my car, um, I see to the to the left of me coming in from the the west um a storm with lightning. And I've never caught lightning up until this point. And part of me was like, hmm, should I try it tonight? Should I try? Is this the night that I tried it? But also I wasn't planning on going up to shoot lightning. So I didn't have my tripod, I didn't have a rain jacket, I didn't have an umbrella, I didn't have any of the gear I normally would have set up when I'm trying to go capture lightning. Um, and it's starting, it's starting to rain, and I might actually run into some lightning here, and I don't want to miss it. So I'm like, hmm, what do I do here? So I'm wearing like a jacket, and then underneath I have like a sweatshirt. Um, so I end up taking my my camera, setting it on the railing of the Hope Memorial Bridge, taking my rain jacket and throwing it over the camera just so the lens is is is showing. Um, I don't know what's happening, like looking through the viewfinder, but I set my settings, I set you know my shutter to a five-second timer just so it's constantly going on a five-second long exposure with a one second in between, um, just in case there's lightning because it's quick. You don't know when it's gonna happen. And if you're doing a manual shutter, you have no shot. So doing the long exposure, set my aperture to F, I think I did 13 or 14 in the shot, just so everything was pretty in focus. Um, so again, like these kind of things are coming into play that I know. Uh ISO, ISO, you know, trying to make sure everything's well exposed, not bumping. I kind of have like a range that I like to stay in personally. So kind of going to the brink of that just in case, making sure everything's exposed properly, throwing the camera the jacket over the camera and trying to not get too wet. It's pouring at this point. I'm covering my gear and my book bag below me. Um, I'm just please, please, let's get some lightning. And all of a sudden, I see a giant bulk just right next to the city. Um, and I'm like, gosh, I hope that actually showed up on the the uh the camera. And I like went under the hood like an old-fashioned photographer and went and looked at the the memory card and what was on there, and sure enough, there was that Sean, and I was ecstatic. Um, ran back to my car soaking wet. Um, texted my friend, I said, hey man, I think we're the same size in like shirts and t-shirts. Can you bring me a pair of like pants to change into so I'm not soaking wet in this restaurant with your dad? Um, but ended up getting the shot and it was a memorable experience, and it really put my skills in that process. This was about just um, this was uh, I think this was December of 20 or October of 2021. So this was roughly a year during my journey, and this was a moment that I look back on and say, man, like that was the accumulation of all this stuff that kind of came together to get that shot.

TMac 25:30

There's you know, it's hard to tell people sometimes that there's a uh a part about um in in television, especially when I was working in sports, there's always this sort of it field expediency that you that you you don't even know it's in you, but you know that you have to do XYZ, protect the camera, um, don't have a tripod, so you gotta set it, you look for a a good solid place um to set it, but but that is still part of your preparation for the the result was preparation. Yeah, the the image was a result of preparation, understanding your settings. Now, were you triggering on a timer? Yeah. So you were you meant so you were manually triggering hands free exposure.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Oh so I wasn't man I wasn't manually triggering. So what it was happening was because also too, you have to account for a slight camera shake. Um, because if you're pressing the trip, the trigger or the the trigger, the shutter, it's um you might shake the camera a little bit. So in the past, I've with fireworks, so like I did a lot of research on how to shoot a good fireworks shot, and I've done a lot of research in how to shoot lightning, and there's a billion different ways to shoot lightning, but I remember researching, you know, like hey, this a way to shoot kind of lightning is to set up a timer, a five, so you're doing a five-second long exposure, and you set up a um infinity timer in your camera settings that allow you to take one second in between to let the image right to the card, and then it goes immediately into another five-second exposure, and immediately into another five-second exposure, so you don't even have to touch the camera. And that's so nice because lightning's so unpredictable, and even if you get that shot, you don't want the um camera to shake. Like if you press that and you see that it happens, um, you just don't want to get a blurry image at the end because you're using such a low shutter.

TMac 27:44

Some of the um some of the moon shots that I've done, yeah. I I have mine set on a two-second okay. Um so I will uh actuate and and if I'm on a tripod, and I typically am, um then it's hands away, single shot, and if I you know if I like that, I'll do a couple. Do you bracket when you do landscape?

SPEAKER_02 28:21

So most of my shots, I would say about 97% of my shots are are not bracketed. Um, the only situations where I might bracket are when I'm doing the moon, where you have something extremely bright and you're trying to line it up with a subject that isn't super bright. But I would even say, you know, um I'm blessed to, I use Fujifilm cameras. I absolutely love Fujifilm cameras. Um, there's so many good cameras out there. I'm a big advocate of, you know, you the the camera is only as good as the person holding it. Um so I really believe that you could get so many great different uh effects and outcomes out of any camera on the market. Um but I love Fujifilm and a lot of the shots I do, um, I just really love to with the settings and everything, I have kind of my workflow down where I know the settings and what I need to do and editing uh kind of that process um to make sure I'm pulling out the best.

TMac 29:24

I would I would also think that you have a small book on locations. True?

SPEAKER_02 29:32

So I I I I'm working on some some projects. I I wish I had a physical book. It's coming down the line, but um I do have a mental book in my head of some of my favorite locations to shoot at.

unknown 29:46

Shh.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Don't tell me. Hey, I'm a big and it's so against the norm, I feel, sometimes in Cleveland. Because I've gone during my my experience, I've gone through some things where photographers are saying, you know, your competition or your So I hear Oh, go ahead.

TMac 30:07

I was gonna ask, um you are all manual all the time, correct? Correct. Are there is there any part of the triangle that you will give camera the control? Or are you in those in all in most of your landscape situations? Are you all manual? Set them all, go.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yep, all manual. The I use autofocus, that's really it. Um, but but a lot of my shots too, when I'm using long exposure on a tripod, I'll throw that in a manual focus too. Um just to kind of it's it's habit just to make sure nothing shifts. Um, but yeah, no, all manual.

TMac 30:48

All right, so then that brings us to composition. So um just tell me about the importance of composition in landscape, um, level, rule of thirds, um, and how that can, I believe, um make or break your images.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Yeah, that's that's a good thing. And I I hope, you know, this does not ruffle any feathers too, but I I do feel like you know you need a foundation and the level of like rule of thirds and composition and knowing what makes a good shot and what's your subject subject and what like kind of is what are you capturing, how are you capturing it, all that fun stuff. Balance in the shot, all that. But I think there is sometimes it's a great foundation to have, but oftentimes people can rely too much on it. And people can say, you know, this composition is in textbook rule of thirds, this composition is is isn't perfect. And that's the beauty of photography is looking at things in a different way and looking at things that might not be textbook but still are beautiful. And I know somebody actually I was on a photo walk and they asked me, Gabe, I saw this one photo from your your morning that you shot. It was the sunrise, it was beautiful, but you left so much of the sky, and it was like a very small amount of the city. And I said, you know, that's a hundred easy like, did that break the rule of thirds? Like, did that what what happened there? And I said, you know, yeah, it doesn't go textbook with the rule of thirds. Like that's a great thing to kind of pay attention to. But for my eye, the sky was such a great subject. It was beautiful. There were colors and wispy clouds and just all this different stuff. And it was a different way that I was looking at the scene that I've seen so many times before. So it was cool to have that conversation with him where it was, yeah, it's not textbook, it's not perfect, but it's important to know those skills because they are the foundation of a lot of your work. But also make it your own. Also make your photography and your photographs your own and don't be afraid to bend those rules a little bit.

TMac 33:10

You know, it's funny, I use uh all the time with students both video and photography. I use musical analogy.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Yeah.

TMac 33:19

Yes, it's important to learn the scales. Yes, but if you want to bend notes and play jazz, you have to not be afraid to um put your own uh uh signature, style, stamp on your images.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

I agree. That's 100% true. I never really thought about it as music.

TMac 33:44

Uh I use I use that all the time. You're you're welcome to steal it.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

I might I might have to.

TMac 33:50

What gear do you use? Talk to me about gear. Um, have you evolved in your gear landscapes? You know, pretty specific. You mentioned lenses. So I'm I'm really interested in your gear and your kit and what's your go-to um when it comes to gear.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Yeah. So I'll say when it comes to camera brands and camera gear, it's all Fujifilm. Um, I'm a big fan of Fujifilm cameras. They were the camera that I really learned photography on just because the XT4 had such tactile dials, and you could see the ISO and the shutter speed, and you just could feel it. And I did Sony and I've used Canon and Nikon in the past, and a lot of that was digging into settings and setting up buttons, and I just really wanted it as simple as possible. So I turned to Fujifilm, I fell in love with Fujifilm, and it's been with me ever since. So all my cameras are Fujifilm. I actually um use three different cameras for different things. So um the first camera that I use for I'd say 90% of my landscape photos um is my GFX 100X, with it, which is a medium format camera. Um it's uh it's a workhorse, great medium format sensor, gives you the detail if I'm blowing up prints or doing different things. Um was kind of that cool step in my journey where I was able to, you know, take that leap and try a different camera. But I I started on, well, I used the GFX 100S and kind of my workflow and what I do and a lot of landscapes, some portraits here and there. Um, but it's a it's a great camera. It's heavy, it's big. Um I I mare it with um, I have a couple different lenses I use. The 250 um F4 with a teleconverter is my main one for shooting the moon and shooting close-ups and things like that.

TMac 35:50

One what lens is your favorite and why? Uh uh, and then I'll add, what what do you think you've gotten uh the best results using?

SPEAKER_02 36:03

You know, I think those are two good questions. And my favorite lens is kind of a trick question because it's my favorite camera. Um, my favorite camera is my Fujifilm X100V, which is a small compact camera, fixed lens, only I think it's a 23 F2 on a crop sensor. So it's a roughly a 35 mil. I love that camera. It fits in my pocket. It's kind of when I look at my workflow, that's my camera I carry with me when I'm just out and about during the day and I see something cool, or I'm going to a restaurant and I want to take a photo of my food, or I go to kind of a baseball game and I'm taking photos of my friends, or capturing that moment each day. That's my favorite camera. That's my favorite lens. I do live by the philosophy that you know the camera, the best camera you have is the one that's with you. Um, it doesn't have to be this kit with lenses and fancy uh just equipment and everything. The best camera is the one that you have in the moment you're feeling creative. So that's the that's the one that I love to use. I forget your other question.

TMac 37:13

What was the it was the your favorite and why? And you know your favorite pictures. So the lightning that you described, yeah, was was was that a lens and camera combination that is sort of oh yes.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Yes, so that was using my GFX 100S with this 32 to 64. So that was um just one I felt comfortable with, and it was for that situation, I could have used my XT5 or XT4 at the time with a 18 or 10 to 24 to really get it wide. But I said, you know, I like the focal length here, I'm comfortable with it, I'm comfortable with the settings. Um, in this situation, let's just let it ride.

TMac 38:02

So in landscape photography, um you briefly mentioned that you're comfortable with a uh certain set of uh settings. Yep. Talk me through your sweet spot of aperture, ISO, and shutter speed for landscape work. So let's call it a day. You have a beautiful shot of train coming at you, smoke, yeah, beautiful uh landscape photo. Talk me through those settings and then circle back to your uh infamous rain lightning shot. Yeah, and and and and I'm trying to get a contrast of they're not going to be as far apart as people think. Uh I I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Yeah, I think so. I'm thinking about actually I'm thinking of a shot that I took in the Kyogre Valley National Park of the 765 steam engine coming at me. Um, that's the really cool steel plate engine, super cool, the fun to photograph. But in that situation, when I'm trying to line up what I'm I'm shooting, I'm thinking, okay, what am I what am I photographing right now? Is and that's normally the question that I ask. And when you're looking at a train, this train's moving. This train is moving at a quick spot. So, and I want it to be in focus too. Like this is a shot that I want as much of the frame to be in focus. Um, or is it a shot that you know I want to just focus on the frame and I don't care if it's blurry on the sides or like out of focus or slightly soft? So I'm asking myself this question. And in that situation, it would start with nailing in mind my shutter speed. How fast is this thing going? How fast do I need to shoot this? So it's coming at you, yeah. So I'm asking myself, okay, where does my shutter speed speed need to be? So I'm freezing that moment as crisp as possible. So I'm lining that up, you know, maybe it's uh one 500th shutter speed, or or maybe even like a one uh one over 250. Like that's maybe where I would be. I would probably, and it's hard when you have a split second to do this, you never know. Um, so a nice little counter I like to do too is I'll throw my camera into burst mode and just have it on burst. So I'm focusing, I'm just taking the shot and never letting down the trigger until it passes. And then I'll go back and say, okay, did I get this shot? Was there a moment where it was sharper than others? It's kind of a nice little tip that I like to use when I'm shooting things that are moving kind of quickly, or things like fireworks fireworks with if I'm doing it handheld or like on the opening day, if there's a split moment, I'll shoot it in burst just to make sure I get it. So it started with shutter speed, then from there, it's it's okay, how much wiggle do I have on aperture? Where do I want my aperture to be? How much light do I want to bring in? Knowing my cameras and my ISO, I don't like to go over like 2400. I really don't. I can, I totally can push it. I could push the 32, I could push it higher than that. I just don't like to. I don't want to get into post and see a grainy piece of piece of uh photography, grainy image. I kind of feel comfortable there. So I won't bump it up there depending on the situation, unless it's a super rare time, but um I'll kind of set that at there and see kind of with the aperture where I have a little bit of a wheel room. Um, but going back to the lightning picture, kept my ISO probably the exact same at probably 2,000, maybe 2400. Um, it was I was doing a long exposure, so I was letting a lot of light. So I didn't really have to worry about ISO that much. And then my shutter speed, because I was doing a long exposure, was super slow, five seconds. And then my aperture, I think, was probably at about F11 or F13, just to make sure as you narrow down that aperture, you start to get soft edges on your shot. So kind of my sweet spot is anywhere between F11 and F16.

TMac 42:10

Just it just you just boggle my mind because I'm my reference is so I am sometimes, shh, don't tell anybody, sometimes if it's cloudy, sun rolling in and out, yeah, I'll put I'll put ISO on auto. Oh, really? Right? Yeah, and I will then knowing that I want to freeze action, you know, so you're talking uh I'm F28. I don't, you know, I I I don't change it. Yeah. Whereas in landscape, you want this big, deep depth of field, yeah. And in sports, I want it to be almost paper thin because we want all that isolation and we want all that beautiful softness around it's it's literally the opposite ends of of the spectrum. So, you know, one of the three, I'm I don't know if I I hardly ever, if I'm shooting the moon, I'm I'm I'm changing some things. But I'm 2-8. Like when I walk out of the house, it's in 2-8, and it's and it stays in 2-8. I will drive the I will drive the ISO until I absolutely, you know, can't just to stay at F2A.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Yeah.

TMac 43:38

And and and you know, lighting conditions, day games, night games. My daughter plays college soccer up at Lake Erie College, and they have night games at a high school stadium.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Yeah.

TMac 43:51

So I'm I'm up I'm pushing close to 10,000 ISO. So I will back off to JPEGs, um I shoot cannons, so they have some in-camera noise reduction that works pretty well. So I will on those situations where it's night shots, and I know that at seven o'clock it's pitch black at Game Start. So I will flip it into JPEG, the noise reduction then kicks on, and I'm starting off at 2400 ISO and then going that away. Yeah. So I'm like, I I knew it was gonna boggle my mind, but now you're you're you know, you're Jones and about going as high as as 2400. I'm like, man, there's plenty of evenings where I start there.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Yeah, yeah.

TMac 44:48

And and and and for me though, that is the beauty of image making and the understanding of that triangle. Yeah, and and that even amongst all the different genres, we all use the exposure triangle as our guides, but we use it in sometimes completely different uh ways. Landscape guys, all the all the astro um folks that are that are it's crazy that they're you know doing two-minute or longer exposures. So you're so your sweet spot sometimes, or well, always based on your conditions, but sometimes it's your lens camera combination.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

Yeah, yeah. It's I mean I have I have a lens, you know, that you would love for sports. It's uh on my XT5, which is crop sensor, it's a 200 F2. So it's like it's really a 320 millimeter F2, which is beautiful. Again, you get that shallow depth of field.

TMac 45:56

So not having ring gear notwithstanding, what are some essential gear things that when you go out on a shoot? You mentioned having your bag packed. Yeah, when you go out on a shoot, what are some of your essential items other than camera lens and cards and sort of what what are you what do you landscapers have as essential items in your kit?

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Yeah. So the first essential I have is you know, a camera bag. You have to take care of all your stuff. A lot of times you're walking to a location or walking around. So you want to have something that's comfortable, that protects your gear, that things aren't flying around, easy to get to. So the camera bag is essential to make sure you have everything. And also, too, I never know what um I'm gonna be shooting. Like I could go out and it's like this morning, I was out photographing over at Edgewater, and it was beautiful sunrise, kind of cloudy, but the sun was peeking through. There's uh gliders that were getting in there um doing the paragliding and everything. And if I wanted to get close up, I needed a different lens. So it's nice to always have that lens available, ready to go. So I'd say camera bag, keeping that safe is is number one. Um, I always carry a tripod with me. You never know when you're gonna need it. Um I always carry my laptop. So I always call my my 2017 Toyota Corolla, my second office. I edit all my photos in my car right after I take them. Um and I yeah, I pull out my laptop and I edit it, and then I post it right right then and there, um, just so I'm in that mindset. So um laptop is essential. Um I have rain jacket umbrella in my car at all times. Um I use my bag as a sand kind of stop to keep my tripod heavy and level and not flying around on some of those windy days on the coast of Lake Erie. Um, I have um ND filters and things like that. I don't use them a ton, um, but it's always good to have just in case I want to do a long exposure or I need to kind of cut down on some light. Um I have ND filters, camera wipes just in case something happens. I have a towel just in case I need to wipe something off or cover things. Um I have extra batteries, it's very important. Um uh shutter cable just in case I need something there. Um flash occasionally during the winter if I'm doing snow shots and I want to like get the snowflakes to look extra big and bright. Um, so that's kind of the essentials, but um, yeah, the Toyota Corolla is my second office.

TMac 48:41

So doing post in your car. Yeah, I love that. Um, what's your go-to post-production tool? Do you have more than one? Do you do you go? Is your workflow in do you do an initial uh sort of culling in your car and then home you're doing, or are you are you sitting there until you get them all?

SPEAKER_02 49:06

So a lot of the times when I go out, my sunrise and sunset shots, they're um they're kind of, you know, I just find that it's easier to edit in the moment because I just took the photo. I know exactly what it looks like. And I don't want to spend, I have this rule where I spend with my landscape images a minute, only a minute editing the shot. Because so many people I've seen, and I've been victim to it early on in my photography career. We spend too much time at post. It's that fix-in-them post mentality that I learned in video that is never true. It's the best time is to capture the moment and be in the moment when you take these photos. So um that's why I only spend a minute. I have my workflow, what I do, what settings normally are the same, or at least my base is the same, and I'll tweak things. Um, but I feel comfortable, I like the product and what that kind of comes up, but only spend about a minute. But um what software? Oh yes, I use Lightroom, which is Lightroom Classic, not Lightroom, the the newer one. Um Lightroom Classic. Um I've tried other ones. I've tried what's the other one, like Capture One, I hear is really good. Um, but I just like Lightroom. I'm used to it.

TMac 50:19

Have you have you tried, because I've recently experimented with um throw out a number. So you go to Edgewater Park, you shoot some cool sunrises, you got some guys in your frame, um photo gods shining, and you get some extra um added um aesthetic in your in your shots. How many total images are we talking?

SPEAKER_02 50:44

I think this morning I took maybe 50.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

50.

TMac 50:50

Yeah. I'm shooting 20 frames a second at a sporting event. I could not sit in my car and do plus production, so I was kind of smiling when you said, but um, then I thought, yeah, but his numbers are probably hundred max if he's like, but you're not bracketing, so so then I'm like, maybe he's not, you know, and it's again, it is such a contrast that I'll easily shoot. I I'm in my advanced years, I'm better about my bursts, and you know, I'm I've shot soccer for a thousand years, so I kind of know, you know, and I'll shoot the burst, get my 10 or 12 images, and move on to the and move on to the next thing. But again, I'll minimum, you know, 180, 200 images, yeah, and I'll belly up to I'll belly up to classic, and I gotta go through all of all of that process. However, what I was gonna lay on you, and I think maybe um you should give this a try, is a friend of a friend, photographer, said, No, dude, you should be using bridge. And I said, Really? Do you use the Adobe Suite? I guess I should back up and ask.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

I do, yes.

TMac 52:12

Do you use just like room or do you have the whole suite?

SPEAKER_02 52:14

I have the whole suite. I use Photoshop. So all that stuff.

TMac 52:19

So what what he um he's got a really cool uh workflow where card goes in, open up bridge, and what's essentially what you're doing is taking out the loading process into Lightroom out of the equation. Okay because bridge will read them right on your card.

SPEAKER_02 52:40

Okay. Interesting.

TMac 52:42

So my workflow that I've I'm kind of gradually moving towards is fire a bridge and then um look at everything and do I was not a big ratings guy, but I have because of this workflow, you know, just I'm a I'm a Mac guy, squash five is is a rating. And I rate, I I go through my and give them all the rating. What it does in bridge is it puts those all the then you can of course resort your list by rating. Now I'm only working with those, yeah, and I can select those and it will load camera raw, yeah, which is sort of the poor man's light room. Yeah. So then I can go through and do all of my again, like you said, sort of the basics of it. Yeah. Now out of those 180, 60, you know, I've got that I can now if if I'm really serious client type work, I can ship those and import those into Lightroom and do some presets that I have and some serious editing. And I gotta tell you, Gabe, it saves a ton of time. So you should check it out if you're working with 50. I mean, and there's tons of videos on on that sort of bridge workflow. But through bridge, then you can export them out to wherever you want, how and you're back into your into your saving workflow. But it's reading them right off the cart, that was the thing, and they pop up instantly, and it was like, oh my gosh, I'm not like going and making a pot of coffee while a hundred or two hundred images loaded the classic. Um, all right, so last couple of questions. So um, this is like you love them all, but out of all of your uh images, say other than the lightning, give me a favorite, and then why?

SPEAKER_02 55:02

So I live by the philosophy that you know my favorite photos are come with this sense of this story, this memory that either went into me getting that photo. I mean, the lightning photo is my favor one of my favorites, um, because of that story of having to call my friend and ask for a change of clothes before I went to go see his family before on his dad's birthday. So that's kind of you know a fun kind of piece. But I think outside of that, my one favorite photo is um Guardian's Opening Day in 2022. This is the year that they rebranded, new team, new name. And I've never been to a Guardian's opening day, let alone while kind of during my photography era. Um, so I was very excited. I was excited to get the first image of the flyover coming over the stadium, big American flag out on the field, bleachers packed, first Guardians, like the Guardian sign all lit up. I had this on my radar for weeks, um, if not months. I was ready for this shot. So was able to get tickets, um, got it all squared away there. And a bunch of my friends and I were going to the game, and we decided to um we were downtown for work, we parked our car and we decided to go down um closer to the warehouse district, which is probably about a 15, 20 minute walk from Progressive Field, um, just to like hang out, meet some more friends, you know, get ready before the game. Um, so we go down there, and I'm all I'm doing is like looking at my watch, being like, it's 5 45. It's six o'clock. The flyover is at seven o'clock in five seconds. Like you can't, it happens and it goes. And you have to be in prepared, ready to go. You know when it's gonna happen. You got a split second. Um, so I'm definitely using burst mode in this situation, but um definitely was getting a little antsy talking to my friends. I kept saying, like, hey, we should maybe walk over there. I don't know how long the lines are gonna be. It's opening day, so it might be crowded. And they're like, oh, we got time, game. We're fast walkers, it's fun. I'm like, ah, I kind of want to get this shot. Finally, about 6.20, 6.25, we decided to walk over, get to the stadium, and when you have it, you know, the place is packed. Lines for days. It's it's crazy. And I'm sitting there like, shoot, I'm not gonna get this shot. I'm gonna miss this shot. So um, and then I we we walked to the one gate over by Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, in between Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. That those lines were really long. I was like, okay, maybe let's go center field. Um, maybe, just maybe that's a little shorter. It wasn't. Um, but I conveniently saw one of my friends that um I knew that was a little bit further in line. And I I I and this is horrible, but she was like, Oh, hey Gabe, how's it going? And I said, Hey Bailey, can I just talk to you for a second? And I squeezed in. And I was I was a little closer to getting through the gate to get to the progressive field, but still, it was a long line. It was I didn't know how quickly it was going. Um, I I apologized to Bailey, but I had to do what I had to do and cut the line. I'm sorry for anybody I made upset, but this was we had a task at hand in this moment. Um, but then we kind of cut cut a little bit of line, was going, was moving, but still it was close. I was thinking, do I have to get this flyover from center field if I can barely get through this gate? Like and just get the pack stadium, and it just won't look good, it won't be good. Finally, we get through to the front, and you have to go through, you have to scan your ticket, and um, you have to go through security. And I have this camera, so I'm a little nervous too. Like it's totally regulated and good, but sometimes you know, people need to scan it a couple times, just make sure it's safe. So definitely a little nervous, and it's about 657 right now, and I'm standing and I still have to go through security. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see an angel opening up a new security line, and I just bolt to it. And my friend Justin is behind me and he bolts too, and we're through with this. We get through security, he's like, enjoy the game. I get my rally towel, and I look back at Justin, and he's just like, run. So I book it from center field up and down the concourse, around up four flights of stairs to the 500 section up there, get there, 659, ready to go. Have my I'm like doing my camera settings as I'm doubling up these steps, trying to get to this location. And I get there, I get the shot, it happened, and then I go back and my um my friend said a nice cold beverage for me waiting at my seat. But it that's truly one of my favorite stories, is just that journey to get that shot.

TMac 1:00:07

Last question.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:08

Yes.

TMac 1:00:08

What is the and and this is sort of the you know, pay it forward kind of thing. What is the one thing you wish you knew before you started taking pictures that you know now?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

I think the one thing that I wish I knew and listened to more is this thought that you know the picture and the settings and everything comes together. Like you can take a photo, and it's so weird to kind of quantify this. If you're a math person, it's hard to quantify. But really you it's the emotion that you portray in a photo that makes or breaks a photo. You could have a textbook and you can be so anal about settings and rule of thirds and these different things, but if you don't capture that moment, then it's just another picture. And that moment doesn't have to be super special to the people around you, it can be special to you, but if you don't capture that emotion, that moment, how you're feeling in that situation as you take that photo, then it's just another photo on your hard drive. But if you're able to really think and feel and slow down and say, this is the shot, and I'm happy with this shot, and this is why it's such a beautiful shot, and capture that beauty. No matter who it is for, or if it's for you or a friend or social media or whatever, if you capture that beauty, that photo is gold. And it's so hard to quantify. But that's the piece that I would I would tell people is you know, don't forget about that beauty, don't forget about capturing that moment, because that at the end of the day is what makes a photo truly special.

TMac 1:02:02

And and this craft that we've been talking about, mastering it for that moment to do what you just said to capture, you know, some of my favorite photos are I got it right. Yeah, you know, the gods looked and the and the soccer players parted, and the one that I wanted was right there, and I got a little frame around them and and all of that stuff. I can't control that part, but I can control all of the other things that led up to that. And it may not be the the greatest compositional thing, but it's it I I mastered it in that moment while they're all flashing around to to get the shot. That's that's exactly what you're what you're talking about. Gabe, I can't thank you enough. Gabe Wasilko, killer landscapes in Cleveland. Uh I can't thank you enough for taking part in the Zoom with our feet podcast and being a part of the project. Thank you very much, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

No, thank you, and thank you for all you do for photography and photographers and aspiring photographers out there. You you you pay it forward so well. So um I can't thank you enough, too. And thanks for letting me share a little bit about my journey.

TMac 1:03:29

Thanks again to Fellow Son of the Shore, Cleveland's own Gabe Wistilko. You can check out his portfolio and more at Gabewistilco.com and on all of his social media channels. The Zoom With Our Feet Podcast is a production of TV Commando Media. The Zoom Pod theme song is by November, and they're a funky groove Cloud 10. Be sure to take a peek at the blog and other episodes of the Zoom Pod at zoomwithourfeet.com. Until next time, photographers. If you're not shooting, you're not learning.