"Wow, this is your job? I didn't know that was a job! That's amazing. Can I have this job?"

That offhand epiphany neatly sums up the enviable career path of wildlife, adventure, and travel photographer Chelsea Mayer. From an early start with her mom's camera to her selection for an Ambassador mentorship, before becoming a partner photographer, with Girls Who Click, all the way through to her certifications as a 100-ton boat captain and professional divemaster, the course Chelsea plotted has made her undeniably qualified for a thriving career.

In today's show, we do a deep dive into the steps she's taken to keep her career moving forward and the vital role of mentors who've kept her motivated and focused on details that count. And on the flip side, Chelsea talks about common fears and obstacles creatives must overcome to land a dream job like her current role with National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions.

"There are so many different paths to get a job in photography or adjacent to photography," Chelsea points out. Yet, as her story make crystal clear, "How do you know that you want to do it if you didn't know it exists?

Guest: Chelsea Mayer

Episode Timeline:

• 2:15: Chelsea's early interest in photography and filmmaking, then adding structure through formal education.
• 5:31: From a casual whale watching trip to finding a photo job on the boat.
• 8:26: Chelsea's involvement with the organization Girls Who Click—from ambassador to partner.
• 13:18: Chelsea talks about uncertainty and roadblocks in building her photo career.
• 15:29: Pivoting to a new opportunity to sell limited edition fine art prints due constant travel in her current job.
• 18:49: Overcoming a fear of public speaking in a new role at National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions.
• 22:04: Chelsea's gear for whale watching expeditions and underwater work. 24:48: Chelsea's disarming approach to teaching, the inspiration she draws from the outside world, and finding focus in photographing for fine art prints.
• 30:46: Chelsea describes a magical underwater experience with a Mola Mola. 32:48: Breaking through walls and asserting herself in a male dominated field.
• 36:01: Chelsea's aspirations for the future: owning a boat and teaching photography in Antarctica.
• 37:24: Advice for other young photographers: become undeniably qualified.

Guest Bio:

Chelsea Mayer is a photographer and cinematographer specializing in wildlife, adventure, and portrait photography. A California native, she attended UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television, earning a BA in film production. After spending a few years working on films, Chelsea turned her sights seaward to work as a wildlife photographer and social media manager for local whale watching boats. In 2022, she joined National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions as a certified photo instructor, captain, and naturalist, traveling along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja, and to Scotland.

Chelsea is a US Coast Guard-licensed 100-ton Captain, a professionally certified Divemaster, a certified naturalist for a number of organizations, and a Partner Photographer with Girls Who Click, a nonprofit mentorship organization dedicated to empowering the next generation of female nature photographers.

When not on expedition or pursuing photo projects, Chelsea works as a dive supervisor, camera assistant, and safety diver for natural history film productions.

Stay Connected:

Chelsea Mayer Website: https://www.chelseamayerphotography.com/ Chelsea Mayer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseamayerphotography/

Credits:

• Host: Derek Fahsbender
• Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman
• Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

Join Deanna as she welcomes professional side-quester, storyteller, and video editor, Mylene Mae (@mylenesmind). Mylene shares her personal journey, including how she pivoted from working in STEM and got started in video, as well as her learning process and the struggles of digesting long-form content. They discuss the importance betting on yourself, staying curious, and forgetting the metrics and finding the fun in content creation.

Credits:

• Host & Creative Producer: Deanna Testa
• Creative Producer: Elena Maidebura
• Creative Editor: Larissa Mattei
• Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

Photographs preserve what daily life cannot—moments that would otherwise fade into obscurity. In today's show, we explore this topic through a nexus of American culture, popular folklore, and photographic archives in a chat with Alan Govenar and Adam Forgash, two photographers and visual historians who are passionate about unearthing and preserving forgotten stories.

Coming from different backgrounds, Alan's formal training and experience with the non-profit Documentary Arts complements Adam's hands-on skills hunting for treasures and selling vintage photographica at New York's Chelsea Flea Market.

A few of the points they discuss include: the central role of the community photographer in twentieth-century life, the cultural significance of Route 66 as a favored connection point, the painstaking process of resurrecting century-old portraits from damaged glass plates, and much more.

As Adam notes about these rescued portraits now titled "Faces of the Mother Road," "I've had these kinds of collections over the last 30 years and kind of let them go, but this one, I knew there was something special about it. So, as soon as I realized what I was looking at, I stopped. I put it in climate control storage. I got archival paper to put it in. I started a numbering system.

"It feels pretty good," he adds, "to get more serious about my craft, realizing that I am a photo historian, even though I don't have a degree."

Guests: Alan Govenar & Adam Forgash

Episode Timeline:

• 3:07: Alan Govenar's early connections to photography and his introduction to Stoney, the hunchbacked tattoo artist who jumpstarted his photo career.
• 8:33: The role various media has played in Alan's work as an interdisciplinary artist and how changes to media has influenced his storytelling.
• 11:37: Adam Forgash describes New York's Chelsea Flea Market and the treasure trove of 8,000 glass negatives he discovered there.
• 16:18: A peek into the Texas African American Photography Archive, and the era of the community photographer.
• 22:02: Storytelling within a historical context and a photographer's accountability in reverse engineering a story from vestiges of the past.
• 27:01: Adam's accidental discovery of a second half to SJ Tyler's archive and tracking down information about the photographer.
• 30:49: Connecting the story of SJ Tyler's portrait studio to an exhibit celebrating the centennial of Route 66.

32:28: Episode Break

• 33:47: Making distinctions between Alan's formal education in folklore and Adam's schooling at the hands of New York's Chelsea flea market crowd.
• 40:23: Adam's approach to beginning this project, and how SJ Tyler's collection differed from past archives he's worked on.
• 42:52: Connections between Tyler's photographs and the significance of travel on Route 66, plus Adam's relationship to Tulsa.
• 44:26: Placing photographic stories in a wider historical context and their connection to the communities being served.
• 49:54: Funding and sponsorship for large photographic projects and the benefits to working with a registered non-profit as a pass-through organization.

Guest Bios: Alan Govenar is an acclaimed photographer, filmmaker, writer and folklorist. A 2010 Guggenheim Fellow and the author of more than 40 books, Alan is also founder and president of the organization Documentary Arts, which he created to spotlight marginalized voices and cultures, through projects such as the Texas African American Photography Archive.

As a filmmaker, Alan has produced and directed documentaries in association with NOVA, ARTE, and PBS. And as a playwright, he has written and produced musicals that have been performed from New York City to major venues across Europe.

This year marks some major milestones in Alan's career, with a photography retrospective at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, a new documentary film premiering at New York's Cinema Village, and the publication of three new books, including Kinship & Community, released by Aperture.

Adam Forgash is a photographer, filmmaker, photo history specialist, and proud former Oklahoman. In 2023, while foraging for visual treasures at New York's famed Chelsea Flea Market, Adam happened upon the archive of the undiscovered portrait photographer Sidney J Tyler. From 1913 to 1943, Tyler operated a photo studio in Afton, Oklahoma, making portraits of everyday subjects as they passed through the region, during a break in their travels along Route 66, otherwise known as the "Mother Road". This once-lost visual history of northeast Oklahoma features working-class people of all races and communities, including the famed Tuskegee airmen.

After two years of intensive research into Tyler's archive, Adam's project, now titled Faces of the Mother Road: The Lost Portraits of S.J. Tyler - A Route 66 Story, is poised to make a lasting impact on Oklahoma's visual and historical narrative, just in time for the centennial of Route 66 in 2026.

Stay Connected:

• Alan Govenar Documentary Arts Website: https://www.docarts.com/
• Adam Forgash Website: https://adamforgash.com/
• Adam Forgash Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamforgash/

Credits:

• Host: Derek Fahsbender
• Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman
• Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

In Episode 7, host Deanna Testa sits down with the vibrant and hilarious, Tolú Ekundare (@tolukundare) to spill the tea on what it takes to grow as a modern creator. Tolú shares how she landed two big Netflix shows, the challenges of getting started in the podcasting space, and how she continues to build her own brand while staying her most authentic self.

Credits:

• Host & Creative Producer: Deanna Testa
• Creative Producer: Elena Maidebura
• Creative Editor: Larissa Mattei
• Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

News reporting has got to be one of the toughest markets for a visual journalist to crack. But the whirlwind of 24/7 news cycles and the pressures of telling human stories in rural news deserts have not deterred today's guest, Keren Carrión, a photojournalist and short form video producer currently working on the NPR visuals team.

Follow along as we chart Keren's evolution from stills to documentary video stories to vertical social media clips that can be absorbed in two minutes or less. We also learn about the many opportunities for feedback and career advancement she's explored, and the mix of internships and mentorship programs that have been central to her career success.

When asked about parting advice for current students she notes, "I think it's really important to have a visual voice. And the only way to find that is to keep shooting. Yeah. And I will also say meet with as many people as possible, be mentored, go to portfolio reviews figure out how to elevate that voice."

Guest: Keren Carrión

Episode Timeline:

• 2:28: Keren's early photo experiences, pairing pictures with stories for her high school paper.
• 5:05: Adding video to the mix in college and how this has influenced her storytelling.
• 10:40: Keren's advice to college students: Seek out networking and internship opportunities.
• 12:17: Momenta Workshops and other non-profit mentorship programs, and how these opportunities can shape creative vision and skills.
• 20:20: Working with Report for America in Texas, covering under-reported stories and rural news deserts.
• 26:22: The evolution of news media and Keren's work at NPR to create short form videos for distribution across social media platforms.
• 31:12: Keren's current gear, from iPhones to Sony mirrorless cameras, for shooting vertical videos
• 35:32: Non-traditional news reporting and how user-generated content is now shared by larger news organizations.
• 38:28: Keren's future aspirations to evolve with the industry and learn new skills as platforms and audiences change.
• 39:56: More advice for the next generation: Keep shooting to find and elevate your visual voice.

Guest Bio:

Keren Carrión is a photojournalist and a short-form video producer currently working on the NPR visuals team. Originally from Puerto Rico, Keren graduated from George Washington University in 2019 with a BFA in Photojournalism. Prior to her current role, she spent two years as a photojournalist for KERA News, NPR's affiliate station in Dallas through Report for America. She has also worked with CNN as a video editor in Atlanta, and interned with Univision, USA Today, The Hill, and the New York Times Student Journalism Institute. Additionally, Keren is an alumna of the Eddie Adams Workshop and Momenta Photo Workshop's Project Puerto Rico. When Keren isn't working, she's probably sitting in the window seat of an airplane, heading to a new destination. If not, you can always find her with a camera in hand — or petting the nearest dog.

Stay Connected:

• Keren Carrión Website: https://www.kerencarrion.com
• Keren Carrión Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerencarrionphoto
• Keren Carrión on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keren-carrion
• Keren Carrión at Report for America: https://www.reportforamerica.org/members/keren-carrion/
• Keren Carrión at NPR: https://www.npr.org/people/1213266959/keren-carrion

Credits:

• Host: Derek Fahsbender
• Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman
• Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

In this episode, we sit down with New York-based photographer and content creator Brandon Woelfel (@brandonwoelfel) to discuss his personal journey as well as the growing pains of being modern creator and photographer. Brandon shares how fine art led him to taking photos, adapting to the ever-changing social media landscape, gaining confidence in one's own work, educating in the space, and even leveraging AI.

Whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, TikTok star, podcaster, or just starting your creative journey, this conversation is full of insight, motivation, and practical advice you can use right now. Episodes drop every other Thursday. Hit subscribe and join the B&H Creators community for more unfiltered conversations with creators shaping today's culture.

Guest Bio: Brandon Woelfel

Brandon Woelfel is known for his dreamy portrait photography. His creative use of lighting and color lend a unique sense of intimacy to his portraits that makes his work instantly recognizable. He's also the author of two photo books, Ultraviolet and Luminescence.

Credits:

• Host & Creative Producer: Deanna Testa
• Creative Producer: Elena Maidebura
• Creative Editor: Larissa Mattei
• Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

Although they cater to different senses, photography and music share much in common. In both these arts, timing, rhythm, and mood are key. It's been a while since we've mixed photography and music on the show, so we're particularly excited about today's chat with two photographers who share a passion for documenting musicians and their fans—in particular, devotes of punk and indie rock.

From early memories of being truly moved by music to practical tips about photo access, image rights and restrictions, plus the complexities of organizing your work for a book, the conversation doesn't miss a beat.

So, turn up the volume as Bootsy Holler reminisces about dropping into the Seattle music scene in the early 1990's to capture the raw energy of her favorite bands, now compiled in the book Making It: An Intimate Documentary about the Seattle Indie, Rock and Punk Scene. And Chris Ortiz describes how the house parties he captured at a punk commune in Kansas served as the foundation for his skills as a music photographer with a keen eye for differentiating himself in the photo pit.

As Chris points out when it comes to preparing for a show. "It goes back to knowing that music and knowing the band, and being able to sit back and say, Yes, I am a fan of the band, but I also am professional, so this is what I'm going to look for when the band comes out."

Guests: Bootsy Holler & Chris Ortiz

Episode Timeline:

• 3:20: Bootsy Holler recalls her early days dropping into the Seattle music scene, photographing garage bands and dive bars.
• 9:41: Chris Ortiz talks about his start in photography, and his time photographing house parties at a punk rock commune in Lawrence, Kansas.
• 12:01: The difference between documenting live music and making portraits of musicians, where you need to develop a rapport with your subjects.
• 17:32: A tip of the hat to Chris as a longtime podcast superfan, plus what he's learned from listening to our 10-year archive of shows.
• 20:20: Bootsy's early stylistic influences and its effect on her art and music photography.
• 25:54: The earliest memory of being truly moved by music and the songs Bootsy and Chris were listening to when they truly got it.
• 31:56: Applying the inner feels of music to photographing a concert and connecting with the rhythm to grab key moments.
• 39:00: Negotiating access, shooting from the photo pit vs the side of the stage, plus differentiating your pictures from other photographers' work.

48:00: Episode Break

• 48:56: Chris talks more about current dynamics for gaining access when shooting music and concerts.
• 53:44: Current limits on concert photo usage and restrictions on contracts offered by some artists and entertainment companies.
• 58:28: Legal parameters related to pictures in Bootsy's book, plus the difference between concert pictures and portrait situations.
• 1:02:26: Bootsy's nine-year process of assembling a book, working with a designer for big picture decisions, plus leaving room to break the rules.
• 1:08:09: Finding publishers, choosing between options, plus the importance of owning the rights to your images.
• 1:10:20: Bootsy and Chris name the band at the top of their bucket lists to photograph.

Guest Bios:

Bootsy Holler has spent 30 years capturing the essential personality and emotions of her subjects. Best known for her work as a portraitist, Bootsy's journey began with intimate depictions of herself and friends at the center of Seattle's pivotal music scene during the early 1990s. These formative years at both ends of the lens cemented her style as well as the methodology behind her empathic and journalistic approach. Bootsy's work has been recognized by the Society of Photographic Journalism and twice selected for the Critical Mass Top 50. Her photos have been exhibited and published internationally and are included in the permanent collection of the Grammy Museum. In 2019 she published the monograph, TREASURES: objects I've known all my life. Most recently, her book Making It: An Intimate Documentary about the Seattle Indie, Rock and Punk Scene, was released by Damiani books.

Stay Connected:

• Website: https://bootsyholler.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bootsyholler/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shop.BootsyHoller/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BootsyHoller

Chris Ortiz has enjoyed a relationship with photography since age six, when he learned the basics from his stepfather. He's specialized in music and documentary subjects since 1998, shooting with both digital and medium format black and white film. After earning a bachelor's degree in art history, Chris obtained an MFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Select documentary projects include Portraits of Latinx Identity, and We Are All We Have Tonight, featuring portraits and personal narratives from punk rock enthusiasts, describing each subject's connection to the scene. Additionally, Chris works as news editor for the Prescott Daily Courier, covering area news and events.

Stay Connected:

• Website: https://www.chris-ortiz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fastboyent/

Credits:

• Host: Derek Fahsbender
• Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman
• Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

Welcome to the fifth episode of the B&H Creators Green Room Podcast! In this episode, we sit down with viral street photography creator David Guerroro to discuss what it takes to grow as a modern creator.

David shares how he got started in content creation, tips for building an audience, the importance of believing in yourself, photographing strangers, and advice for going viral.

Whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, TikTok star, podcaster, or just starting out, this conversation is full of motivation, insight, and practical advice you can use right now. Hit Subscribe and join the B&H Creators community for more unfiltered conversations with the creators shaping today's culture.

Guest Bio: David Guerrero

Title: Street Photographer & Content Creator

Through authentic storytelling and viral content, David Guerrero from Texas has built a global audience inspired by the connection between photography and humanity. David is best known for his signature approach of stopping strangers with, "Hi, excuse me? You look cool — can I take your photo?" His candid portraits have earned him following of more than 4 million people and over 1 billion views across platforms, showcasing the beauty of people around the world.

Stay Connected:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dgphotoholic?igsh=c2M0eHRvNG5md2N4

Credits:

• Host & Creative Producer: Deanna Testa
• Creative Producer: Elena Maidebura
• Creative Editor: Larissa Mattei
• Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

"Inspiration doesn't have an age gap… Maybe you've heard it 100 times before, but this time it hits differently. Or this time, it's where it sinks in and you have that 'aha' moment." That's just one takeaway from our spirited conversation with Grace Mc Nally.

From soaking up a passion for photography through an early mentorship program at NYC Salt to her decision to forgo college and continue learning on the job, Grace has forged an impressive path as a creative renaissance woman with a passion for community.

As podcast host Derek Fahsbender notes about this chat, "Great advice is all around you. Experience is all around you. But if you're not soaking it in, if you're not learning from it, then it's not going to make you a better photographer. It's not going to make you a better person. You really have to take it and internalize it."

So, sit back and be a sponge for some inspired creative insights!

Guest: Grace Mc Nally

Episode Timeline:

• 2:28: Grace's photographic beginnings, her father's influence as a full-time professional, plus discovering the NYC Salt mentorship program.
• 6:08: Studying photography on the job, plus the influence of mentors like Mark Mann and the program at D&AD Shift NY.
• 13:40: How Grace's vision has changed through various mentorship programs, how her early self-portraits compare with recent projects to serve others, plus the creative challenges that come with doing paid work.
• 21:09: Grace's work in art direction and discovering the value of being a photographer in a different stage of production.
• 23:02: The main inspiration for how Grace sees and its relationship to Irish culture.
• 24:58: The gear she works with—from her earliest experiments with the iPod Touch to current work with her iPhone and her Canon R6 MK II.
• 29:30: More on free work vs paid jobs. How do you find your value as a photographer?
• 34:25: Thoughts about having diverse skill sets, compartmentalizing and creating labels, and Grace's vision for her career moving forward.
• 38:15: Grace's most instrumental piece of advice for photographers just starting out—Don't stop shooting and don't delete your work!
• 40:57: Grace's current self-portrait series in the Irish landscape and other future projects.

Guest Bio:

Grace Mc Nally is a creative renaissance woman with a passion for community. Born & raised in Queens, New York by two creative & crafty Irish Immigrants, Grace has a diverse skill set, with more than 7 years of experience running her creative production house Allegro Photo Industries. During this time, she's trained under celebrity photographer Mark Mann, won a Scholastic Golden Key, worked as an Art Director at Area 23, spoken at the 2023 D&AD Awards, created content for Meta, captured icons like Chaka Khan, Lil Wayne, and Drake, been interviewed by Vice, and cast talent for Roblox. Grace also plays video games & football, produces an immigrant-centered cooking show, makes zines, directs music videos, performs spoken word, collects manga, colors with children, and teaches photography to teens at NYC Salt, where she was a student herself from 2016 to 2020.

Stay Connected:

• Website: https://www.gracemcnally.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grmcn/
• Allegro Photo Industries: https://allegrophotoindustries.myportfolio.com/
• NYC Salt: https://www.nycsalt.org/at-salt/2024/5/15/grace-mcnally-the-creative-directors-journeycreativity-hard-work-and-stunning-results

Credits:

• Host: Derek Fahsbender
• Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman
• Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

In this episode, we sit down with viral ice cream creator Dylan Lemay to spill the tea on what it really takes to grow as a modern creator. Dylan shares how his content creation journey began, how he built his audience, and the importance of balancing life on and off social media. We also discuss his ultimate tips for going viral in 2025 and get a peak of the ice cream business behind the scenes. Whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, TikTok star, podcaster, or just starting out, this conversation is full of motivation, insight, and practical advice you can use right now.

Guest Bio: Dylan Lemay

Title: Content Creator

Dylan Lemay, aka the Ice Cream Guy, is a creator and storyteller who blends food, interactive experiences, and creative video, taking you behind the counter to make the world's most iconic treats.

Stay Connected:

• TikTok
• Instagram

Credits:

• Host & Creative Producer: Deanna Testa
• Creative Producer: Elena Maidebura
• Creative Editor: Larissa Mattei
• Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens

How often do you think beyond the photos you make to consider the larger purpose they serve—both for yourself and, ideally, for a wider audience? In today's show, we explore this idea while connecting the dots between picture making, process, and purpose. Our guides for this conversation are nature/landscape photographer and mountaineer Matt Payne, and street photographer, portraitist, and YouTube storyteller Sean Tucker. While Matt and Sean have widely different photographic specialties, they share much in common, from educational backgrounds in psychology to a profound commitment in using photography to find purpose in life.

Taking Matt's 567-mile through-hike of the Colorado Trail as a jumping off point, we explore how balancing such a mammoth feat of endurance with a creative pursuit led him to look inward and see the world around him anew.

Beyond the how of making pictures, we discuss the all-important why's of photography—from being more intentional in your image making to forging connections between learning and failure in order to grow creatively. By the end of this chat you'll gain valuable insights about living and working with intention in world oversaturated by social media—where digital fatigue is a valid concern, and AI looms on the horizon.

As Sean Tucker notes, "We've been given this gift that can also be a poisoned chalice. And we each need to decide for ourselves how we want to use it, beyond the addictive qualities. We need to take some responsibility and say, 'how much do I want this in my life so that it's useful? And where do I need to draw a line?'"

Guests: Matt Payne & Sean Tucker

Episode Timeline:

• 4:01: Matt talks about why he first started taking photos as an avid mountaineer, plus Sean describes his start and the first camera he had as a little boy.
• 8:52: Jung's concept of two halves to creativity—the morning and the afternoon of life—plus Sean's crisis point in his journey to making meaningful work.
• 15:06: Matt describes our modern addiction to dopamine and ways to become comfortable with introducing discomfort in your life. Plus, he looks back on his decision to focus full time on his photography two years after quitting his day job.
• 21:14: Knowing how you are wired and finding the place where your deep joy and the world's deep hunger meet to pump purpose into the universe.
• 26:36: Matt's 567-mile endurance hike of the Colorado Trail and how he balanced this with photography and creativity.
• 32:24: How to make sense of all the visual noise around you to become more intentional with your photography.

40:38: Episode Break

• 41:38: Find the magic by looking inward and asking yourself why you make the photos you do.
• 45:39: Sean's simple camera set up, which is infinitely better than gear that great photographers had access to 40 years ago. Plus, the creative tension between making a mess and maintaining consistency to progress in your work.
• 50:37: Sean describes the nuances that define his style of street photography and discovering a connection to Edward Hopper's paintings.
• 54:22: How to deal with creative slumps, places to look to for inspiration, plus making the space for new inspiration to come.
• 1:00:25: Making connections between learning and failure so to grow, plus digital fatigue and the desire to return to a pre-screentime era as an antidote to social media and AI.
• 1:10:06: How to remain relevant in today's saturated marketplace, and parting advice for using technology to promote your unique creative vision—make the work you want to see more of in the world.

Guest Bios:

Matt Payne is a nature/landscape photographer based in Durango, Colorado. After connecting with nature first as a climber and mountaineer, his relationship shifted to photography. Nature has an innate beauty that doesn't need to be exaggerated, so he strives to capture landscapes in ways that are truthful and ethical.

In 2017, Matt launched the podcast F-Stop Collaborate and Listen as a way to dive into meaningful conversations with other photographers and industry leaders about photography, ethics, and the challenges of rapid environmental change. He is also co-founder of Nature First Photography, an organization to help increase ethical awareness in nature photography and the Natural Landscape Photography Awards to celebrate nature photographers who dedicate themselves to photographing and editing their work in a realistic fashion.

Having already summited all 100 of Colorado's Centennial Peaks, in 2023 Matt completed a 567-mile hike across the Colorado Trail for his current project, The Colorado Way: a Book of Mountains Trails and Growth. Featuring over 140 images and 25 essays, this book blends photography, storytelling, psychology, and wilderness to reflect on what it means to live with intention, resilience, and awe.

Stay Connected:

• Website: https://www.mattpaynephotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattpaynephoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattPaynePhotography/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MattPayne/

Sean Tucker is a photographer, filmmaker, author, speaker, and storyteller. Born in the UK, Sean spent most of his formative years in Africa, where he served as a youth pastor in South Africa during his 20s. Although that role is now behind him, Sean still carries a fascination with psychology and spirituality, which he brings to discussions around creativity. As a photographer and filmmaker, he's been fortunate to tell visual stories for individuals, NGOs, and multinational corporations across more than 20 countries. He's also helped organizations set up in-house studios and trained them to tell their own compelling visual stories. More recently, Sean built a large following online, both on YouTube and Instagram, where he talks about the "why" behind the things we make, seeking to inspire people on their own creative journeys. In 2021, Sean published the book, The Meaning in the Making to further share his philosophy for living a creative life.

Stay Connected:

• Website: https://www.seantucker.photography/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seantuck/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seantuckerphoto/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@seantuck/

Credits:

• Host: Derek Fahsbender
• Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman
• Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein
• Executive Producer: Richard Stevens