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Okay, Questions. So since you've been shooting digital, this is from the chat room. Since you've been shooting digital, do you ever find yourself? Do you ever delete images, or do you just pick them is non keepers and store them in archives? Oh, my God. I delete if you came to my house, My house is spartan. I throw away things that I don't use. If I have any clothes that I don't wear in one year, they're gone. And so, uh, just as an extension, I delete constantly. I hate deadweight. So yeah, delete is very much part of my work flow. How many images do you think you have? Well, you know well, over a 1,000,000. But who's got time? I mean, it's not worth anybody's time to sit there and count numbers, and I honestly, it's irrelevant. I have 1,700,000 and 63. Yeah. Yes. So this is from the Twitter hash tag from Carl in Ohio Way earlier, you were talking art about that epiphany moment when your mind transforms from seeing what is right in front of you and to the potential of what will be the...

re. And Carl wants to know. Can you sick suggest any techniques to exercise one's right brain? Teoh reached that epiphany moment. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things, Uh, I mean and obvious would be to take a workshop for me or any other person that teaches art and composition, and it could be a drawing class. Could be a painting class, uh, dive into books and go to Barnes and Noble or checkbooks out at the library. If they're well known photographers, there's a reason they have exhibited success at getting to that point of that artistic expression over the years. Absorbed what they're doing. Look at their composition, self educate yourself. Ah, being open to all possibilities, I often walk through an environment. I stop, turn around, and often I've just walked through the very best composition. I wouldn't even have known it having a doctor around. So always challenge yourself to look at things from a different perspective. You know, every Steph, sideways, forward or backwards changes the elements within the composition in front of you so often. I think the biggest mistake for most people is just aiming at the camera taking a picture, and they think later on. We'll crop, but just study the elements and how they change relationship from one to another. And I guess, be open to all the possibilities. But yeah, that's what I teach. We have a question in the room. Grabbed the microphone, high art. So taking that a step further, Um, when you talk about the creative, I I'm curious. Like when you go back to the beginning of this presentation, the photos of the lines in the water, How much of a photo is that epiphany or that creative I How much of the photo is having the right exposure of the right lens? The technical side of it? And how much of the photo is getting up at four in the morning, climbing 2000 feet to the top of the mountain and being in the right place, you know, in some remote village? That was a great question, and I would say that it's all of that. Everything you mentioned, certainly you got to be there. I would put the technical aspect that f stop shutter speed way low on that. The ah being there is one thing, and being able to recognize the potential is the critical thing, and it's I often make the analogy whether this is true or not. It's like you ever had anybody. Try toe work muscles on your body like a masseur, and you're tightening it. And then suddenly you relax it, and the muscle just goes very placid and soft. It's almost like the minds gotta relax That point to where you're open to it and suddenly something that you're seeing maybe as a a rotting log in a forest suddenly becomes a study of line and elements of design. And it's getting to that point where you're open to seeing that, and often I could be staring at something and only see it two dimensionally instantly. I'm relaxing the brain and I start to see into it, and then it opens up. It just reveals itself, and that's that epiphany moment, and I've been doing this for 30 years, and it's still the big challenge for me. So I teach some of the techniques, but I show so many examples of where something blossoms into something that's right in front of you and is our biggest challenge. It's yours, it's mine. It's everybody's is seeing that potential. That's because someone that struggles with the technical side or that is my weakness. It's good to know that that is probably the smallest portion of importance. Yeah, it definitely it is. And I think that's like the last 10% of starting to pay attention to the depth of field and knowing what that faster shutter speed can yield. And these air shots, quite honestly, that one I started off with earlier I could not have shot that 10 years ago. There was no film I was using for me. Fast film was I s 0 100 film. I was usually shooting. Elvia 5200 was out of question was too flat, the darks were just too opaque. And all of this quality now has really come on with digital. So when people say, Oh, I still love my velvet film, I'll never switch It's like, Okay, you're a dinosaur and you don't even realize it because the quality of digital is yielding photos. I would never be able to other wise attain and I'm not hired by you know, You know, flash card makers say it's just the reality. What is true? Yes, what kind of follow following on that question. Nancy and Goto Webinar asked. She wanted to know with the first shot of the burden of the building in the water. Which camera did you use to shoot the image? And she's asking because cameras at higher I s O can look out of focus or soft because of digital noise. So I I was using Is it the lens of the camera they're asking? I'll tell you both. I was using the five D 21 megapixel camera for capturing that I was using a 72 200 almost exclusively. Now I have to say that I kind of set that up because, honestly, the night before, I shot only the reflections. I didn't shoot the ugly building. And then I went back to my room and I thought, I'm teaching this workshop In a month and 1/2 I'm gonna go back and photograph that ugly building I would never have photographed on ugly building and stumbled on the reflections. I actually should, as expected, see the results and shoot the reflections. But I it was that discovery. But then I went back to following night and shot the other details just to make the story a little clearer, and you usually shoot the 72 204. Not the 28 right? I am, I am. You know, it's amazing technology that manufacturers of cameras and technology are gearing to aging yuppies just like me. Where, you know, the 2.8 is a heavy lens compared to therefore, and I'm getting great results. So, yes, I'm going to go for the lighter camera. So from the chat room, I have kind of come combined some questions into a two part question. The first part is, have you ever mistakenly offended somebody you know relating to your faith? Have you ever gone in and done something that you didn't realize was a folk law? Yes. And that's touching, um, Monk on ahead. You know, I I'm very Ah, I'm not touchy feely, but I'm also part of the eye contact with people. I will put my arm on their shoulder or something that kind of reaches out and breaks down that rigid separation. And I put my hand on Ah, the head of a monk wants when he was sitting on and he just kind of went like that and my guide said, touch them on the head. So I learned from that experience. So in the second part of that is that when you're going to a new place, how much research do you do ahead of time? And do you do it yourself? Or do you have your stuff? You know, the way I work is I'm usually going from one trip to another to another to another, and I'd rather get the shots and learn about what I shot right now on our block, we have a frog that we can't identify. I'm not gonna ah, photograph it after I know what it is. I'm going to get the shot now. And how I extrapolated to the bigger question is I don't have the time to study every place I'm going to go to. I'm just moving too fast and furious to do that. But I am bringing in guides that would know the tradition, know the language. No, the culture. And that's what we do do. And the guides are really worth time. I cannot land on the ground and figure out what I'm doing. By the time I'm arriving In the case of Bhutan, Paro Bhutan. I've got a guide. I've worked out where I'm going, what I'm going to do, and it's just like 10 days, right, one day after the other. And I'm sorry that there's 1/3 part to that question that do you find that you usually take better images the second or third time you place to go to a place or the first time, usually the first time. And I'll tell you why. Because the very first time you experience something, you're going in there with all the wonderment, eyes wide open and there's often times where I'll go back and I'll find tune some subjects. But usually the first time you go, everything's new. Everything's starting. Lee actually shocks you, like seduce and what they do. But that engages your brain. I use culture shock to stimulate my imagination. So I loved going in the very first time to any situation. This is actually a question from me. I'm following up on that is, with regard to the guides. How do you source them? So say you're planning your trip Well, often this word of mouth, I know a lot of people in the photographic world and, uh, um, you know, Nevada were has gone to me Miramar many times over the years. She's a very, very fine photographer and has made a specialty out of leading photographic workshops in that part of the world. I just called up Nevada and found out who she used. Barring that, if there's nobody that can draw upon from direct information, then I'll look up. You know, photographic guides, Bhutan. And if somebody's got enough on the ball that they've got a website, they're going to be pretty organized. And so I often have done that. Once I was doing a book called The Living Wild, where we wanted to photograph. Ah rang. It hangs in Sumatra and we just went too much a dash guide. Sumatra and up came the only guy, and he turned out perfectly so often The Internet does it for us. So to follow on on those two sets of questions, how much pre planning do you do for like a trip abroad? Well, you know, if I'm working on the concept of a book, for instance, like faith, you know, I've got a huge library of books. I'd love buying books and sitting down and looking at books. So if everybody was like a Custer customer like I am, all my colleagues would be wealthy photographers because I have all their books. I like looking through. I have a profound knowledge of the world at this point. You know, I I've never been to Egypt, but I pretty much know where the pyramids are and everything the white desert and all that. So when I go there someday, I'll know where I'm going. So I love the study books. I love to study maps. I have educated myself over the years. What the difference between Brazil and you know Barcelona and all that, And so I will. I'll do a lot of research. I'll make notes, actually, in many cases, storyboard. I'll draw if it's the case of the monks shooting from above, all literally draw a picture of what I want to dio. And when I've drawn a picture, what I want to do is more likely to happen, so you know, it's I. I shoot a documentary style, a tradition. Then I will also put the eyes of an artist on and translate that ah religion into something that could be a whole different body of work. And so, you know, I come away with various different bodies of work, depending on what I want to use those for, and you mentioned Brazilian Louise Single. Webinar said that the ritual in Brazil is called corrupt. Yes, absolutely. The car a k u a r u p right. And the group is the Yanomami, and they hail opponent a penna. Great. So we have a cultural anthropologist. That's also photographer. Thank you for that information. So you mentioned that the technical aspects are kind of low on the priority for for you person in chat. Several people in Chad asked you when you go into, ah, situation where it's have emotional and lots that happening, do you set your camera and then kind of forget it, or do you make technical changes to your camera as the scene? I I alluded to this last week that for 90% of what I shoot now I'm on aperture priority on, and I forgive me. I I don't even know on the cannon what they call it when you taken overall reading value to okay, whatever Ah setting and 90% of what I shoot it delivers the proper exposure. But every so many clicks I'm looking at the back of the camera and verifying. I'm getting what I'm wanting And if it's you know, there are a lot of scenes on aperture priority that I might blow out the highlights, and that's not what I want. Sometimes I want to blow up the high highlights for artistic merit, but it is not what I want. That's when I would then switch on to manual and then either take the evaluative or center weighted or pinpointed reading and make sure I'm getting what I want. But most times it's aperture priority, but you got always look always look because you don't want toe at the end of ah, great session. Realize you've totally brought blowing the exposures. So Sergio and Goto Webinar was curious about the picture that you showed in the Japanese festival, and there were people who were both. There were some people who were in focus, and some people who were below blurred, and he was wondering how you may have gotten that. Was that with a long shutters? Yeah, absolutely. And it's one of my favorite things I like to teach is playing with shutter speeds. It does predispose. You got a tripod. It's often exposures around one second in length, where some individuals are frozen in the moment and others are wildly out of focus. In that contrast between movement and sharp, focus is what gives that photo added layer of depth and depth. This something we're all wanting to do. We want to keep the viewer of our photos tuned in. If it's very flat in and statically sharp, it's less life. And so that's what I'm trying to do. And that's why I try to teach. Can we have another question in the classroom? And and just to not leave the technical thing? Um, just because I'm shot lens shopping, Um, as aperture priority would be your generals, state of the camera. What would that translate for what lens you have on? Because I remember last week, he said, You don't like toe carry a lot of lenses and well, I mean, they're two different things. I mean, aperture priority doesn't really relate to lunch choice. Know it? I know. I just I mean, what you know, what lens will you have on the body mould? Yeah, it's the two workhorse lenses are a 35 to 16 wide angle. There are five to see funds, 16 wide angle, and I shoot a lot of white angles. I mean, a lot of my landscapes, even a lot of a lot of my people shots are shot with wide angles, so that's one work hard, and it's the late I mean, this is a brand new lens off. The last couple of years that had to be made sharper to accommodate, accommodate the digital format, which dimension sharper glass. So it's a great lens, and the other one is the 72 200 F four that I use. 2.8 is excellent, just a little heavier. And if you've got a to eight and you don't have the money toe by a lighter lens stick of the 28 I mean, but those ranges are generally the two I work with, and if I need a 50 millimeter or something, I walk in between or you know it's It's often said that the 50 millimeter angle you're using and 50 millimeter translates there's no distortion is largely what you see, but I'm trying to either distort reality and make a image more dynamic by compressing the scene with a telephoto or opening it up in dramatic wide angle fashion. So I'm trying to create more drama. And so those middle, uh, you know, like a 50 millimeter. It's less interesting to me. That's the reason I do it to those two lances. Okay, so you don't use the What is it 18 55 18 to 55? Yeah. No, no. I mean, because 16 to 35 pretty much covers most of what that is. You know, a lot of people, I think, fall into this. If there's a brand new lens coming out, they've gotta have it. And, my God, you could wait yourself down with all the various lenses or be happy with the two or three that you've really feel comfortable using. And that's where I am. And I know Franz launching. Ah, great colleague of mine uses very few lenses as well. We just make the ones we use work. Thank you. You're more than welcome. Yes, this is a question from Mark in Twitter, and it's just kind of a short one. But in some of the places that you travel that may not have traditional electricity sources. How do you go about charging your batteries? Well, you know, very few places we travel Ah, don't have electricity. Certainly. When I have done some raft trips up in the Arctic will bring solar panels. It will bring extra batteries and make do and shoot a little more judiciously. But almost everywhere you've seen in today's lecture, we have electricity. We'll use converters will have, you know, universal plugs that can work in most sockets. And so that's not as much of a concern today, if you're working in the deepest part of the Amazon or the Arctic, yeah, it can be problems. But most times we have electricity source, or we'll use an adapter that plugs into the vehicle were traveling in. When you say solar panels, Do you mean like big, huge ones, or, like these newer, small or like Well, even having cli, I think back to the trip that we did up in the Conga Cut River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That was about three years ago, and we un rolled panels that were probably about three by four feet. Now, if they've got more smaller, lightweight ones. I'm not aware of it. Yeah, they have little little things you can find. What to power. Your I've pod. Well, they are generally power in your IPod. Yeah, you know, with the cameras were using up there, they took quite a bit of battery. But we you know, you don't bring gas and generators up there. You do bring extra batteries and those solar panels. So this is a question from chat. That was one that I thought was very interesting. When you're in the temples and the other release quiet still places do you do anything to mitigate the shutter noise? You know what's funny about that? IHS Ah, when you're in a monastery where men are chanting, it is loud, they've got drums and they got horns and they're all chanting very loudly, so it's almost deafening. So And in the Montana, in the big cathedrals, many of the cathedrals air open for visitors and some let you use tripods. Others don't depends on, but when you're in those spiritually quiet moments, it's loud. People are just chanting and concentrating, and often they have their head monks walking along with sticks. And if the younger monks aren't paying attention. They're looking at us taking pictures. They get whacked on the back of the head. So that's the reality. Yeah, anybody else? What kind of filters? To use I. There's two filters I'll only use. I've got a graduated to stop neutral density filter that I'll use even though I'm using light room more often now. And you can drop in a little filter. I'll still use the, uh, the, uh Lee and the, um, singer a filter. You've got to make sure the neutral is truly neutral, not blue, but neutral in color. And then I'm using a polarizer. Almost always. I use a polarizer not only on Blue Sky days, when the subject is 90 degree angle to the sun, but I'm using in rainforests. I'm using it. You'd be amazed how much reflective light there is on your subjects. And I want to settle a color and take the shine off for the most most situations. And that's again, Why use a tripod? I'm you know, I'm surrendering to stops of light, but I'm gaining the quality. I think we have a question here in the high art. The pictures are amazing. Thank you. thanks for sharing it with this. I'm wondering about the pictures of the tribe with the fire when they were eating it and sitting in it. Did you go knowing that they had that kind of ritual and expecting to see it or were you surprised by And what? Why did they do that? Thea. I knew that we were going to see voodoo and probably some ceremonies that are a little outrageous. And that was part of the TV show. So we worked with the TV show is a little different than when I'm going off on my own book assignments will have an editor. That kind of research is an area and work with a guide. So the bedtime, our film crew, our film crew could easily have just flown in from Mongolia. And we're emptying the sands of Mongolia over boots while we're walking into the sands of the Sahara. And often we went from location to location and we only hope that the editors that we're doing the homework had it all lined up right? But why they're doing it, I think, again is to demonstrate mind over matter the power of the human mind to be able to eat fire or to sit and fire demonstrates some sort of connection to the spiritual world that they're making a connection to. So there's. And that's true in so many cultures. The shaman figure, the these are not the average citizens within that culture. These are the revered purveyors of fire eating or whatever. It may be there, demonstrating their power over, you know, discomfort and paying and winning the battle. From what I could see, you know, it wasn't some sort of fire walking where you're walking too fast for the fire to actually burn your soldier your feet. These guys were sitting in it for minutes at a time, and I have no idea. And that's also what I've learned from years of travel. You know, it's there's certain things I'm not ableto explain, which makes it that much more interesting to me. I just wanted to pass on derricks comment in the chat room tigers. Now there's an argument for investing in a long lens, you know, Not even that's true in Banda Guard National Park in Common National Park and pinch Forest thes Nash natural areas in India, you can often photograph animals tigers that have are the great grandchildren of tigers that have been habituated. So tigers are very nonchalant around human beings. If you're in a vehicle like although they have these little gypsy jeeps, they call him where you four people sit in the back of the open air Jeep and they're about 3.5 feet off the ground and a tiger could walk within six feet of you are five feet of you and look straight at you and you're going and you can get great shots with 72 200. So a tiger. I've never seen a tiger actually see us and run away. They will ignore you and look for predator prey animals. Tigers are just chilled because they are top predators. They're habituated. They've grown up under the gaze of wildlife biologists, game wardens and tourists. They're totally wild animals. They're hunting while