Christopher Click Thompson

Full episode transcript, auto-generated from the audio and lightly formatted (verbatim, not edited).

[Music] They're like holding like a Michel Vulture or something. And I'm like, it's the same company, Sanheiser Bush. Uh, so anyways, I leaned into the bit harder and I just bought like the mini bottles. Yeah.

So they're like even smaller, you know what I mean? And they're like a Bud Lot. And I'm like, "Oh, I know. I got to get the small ones, too."

A real size one's just too much for me, you know? So I just lean into it. God, that's hilar. But anyways, you were talking about you were talking about your hands looking you have big hands on this microphone.

Yeah, when I like I like the little soda cans because they're like perfect. I like I just need a nip. I don't need, you know. Well, there was this dude sitting there.

I just met him and he was kind of like I don't know, he's probably like 20 ft from me and I just saw him just like looking while I was drinking that beer and I was just like I was like, "You want to light or what?" And he was like, "No, I just Are you actually He's like, "Do you just have like enormous hands or what's going on there?" And then he walked a little closer. I was like, "No, these are little miniature ones."

And he was like, "Oh my gosh." Cuz I think he was a little drunk. So he was he was just over there in a vortex like this guy's not that tall, but this bottle looks like this like it's jungle. Like what's going on?

But like No. Yeah. Yeah, I need to I want to take I'm going to take you out there next year. It'll be a good time.

It's not quite as rowdy as people like try to make it seem like. Make it seem like. And you're around the rodeo crowd. Maybe Yeah, maybe the outskirts are where the runchiness is.

It's like anything. It's like any city in America. If you want to find trouble, you're going to find trouble. 1,000%.

Were you a big city? Like, where were you born? I go back and forth. Like I mean where I'm from is I wouldn't Well, if you grew up in a town of 300 people, then you would think 30,000 people is a lot.

But then you like go in a stadium where there's like 80,000 people in it, you're like, "Oh, well, maybe that's not a lot." But I go back and forth. Like I think I would always I like having a place that's maybe separate from a ton of people, but like business-wise like I want to be around people and I like being able to like go out of my office and go get coffee or be able to walk like be able to walk to stuff. So I go back and forth on it.

But like where are you from originally? Originally I'm from a little town called Glouester, Virginia. So Glosser what? Gloucester.

Gloucester. Yeah. Or the anybody over there say Glucester or Glowchester it gets murdered. It's like a long deal.

But uh Virginia though, not Virginia. Not West Virginia. West Virginia is the little town we put in. It's a zoo.

We put a fence around it and called it West Virginia. No. Um but yeah, Virginia two up to down for What is that one that? So actually this is the Vulcan hand sign, but if you go back to uh forel I thought that was like a Star Trek thing.

Vulcan. Yeah, Star Trek. Oh, see that shows you how much I don't even know. I don't even know those like here or we'll do the two up two down for Virginia.

That's pretty cool. Yeah. But yeah, it's easy little Vulcan deal. You practice forel made it cool cuz that's when like clips and everything blew up and they had their uh I want to say the production company was called Star Trek, but it was spelled with a T r a k instead of trek.

So then it blew up and then everybody was doing that and we were from Virginia. Oh, where's he from in Virginia? I think closer to that Virginia Beach area because that's kind of a big I guess hot point of production like Timberland and then they all kind of work in that Virginia area like that's kind of where they kind of have their little thing. So like you know Missy Elliott's kind of from that area so like and clips and a lot of those artists out that way just blew up apparently over the years like a lot of artists have kind of come through Virginia just as to get their for producers and stuff like that just to either get a different sound or stuff like that.

So interesting. I haven't spent hardly any time there. Got to go. You're halfway there.

You know, from here to Tennessee is like 10 hours. Just drive another 10. You're there. Isn't that deceptive?

Tennessee is a long ways away from here. Every time I drive it, I'm like, gosh, it is far. I'm about to go soon. I got a rodeo at the end of the month in the May in Tennessee.

Yep. Nashville. Oh. Is a PBR?

No, it's a brand new music. It's an actual rodeo. It's going to be a pro rodeo in Bridgestone. How have I not heard about that?

They've been kind of like they've done some nice promotion but it hasn't like blown up at all. Is it who's putting it on? I don't Well, the guy I know his name is Patrick. I met them in Reno.

It was kind of a weird kind of interaction when you're like they're like, "Hey, I'm so and so." I'm like, "Oh, I'm Click Thompson." Like, "We know who you are." I'm like, "Okay, well, yeah, you better."

Cool. What's up, good? That's right. That's what I'd hit him with.

I'm not west side. I'm from the east side. Oh, damn. Yeah, there's all kinds of This is way too hip for me.

I'm trying to think there any other weird gang signs I do. Wait, it's a gang sign. I mean, you could do West Coast. No, but the Vulcan one.

Vulcan one can be I mean, it's just a hand gesture. I mean, it means nothing and everything in the same. But I feel like Westside means something. Oh, yeah.

Especially right now. The Westside West Coast music. I'm kind of an authority on like gang culture and gay. Okay, I can see that.

What's your favorite color? Yeah. So, you know, I don't really like to pick a side necessarily. Uh, I like to take like a real neutral stance, you know, especially in solid.

I like that. That's me. I've been in all of them, you know. Wow.

And been in No face tattoos. How did you pull that off? It's like they Well, you know, they really try to slide it under the radar. That's where I would be honestly if I could be in a gang or like if I could be kind of like a liaison to everybody like, "Hey, hey, like we'll talk about it.

I get it. They drove by your house. Obviously, y'all want to, you know, have some you want to have a rebuttal. Maybe next time.

Let's wait till they're not in an area where there's a ton of other people like, "Hey, I'm all for you getting yours back, but let's maybe cut down on the, you know, innocent bystanders." What do you say? Sure. I don't think anyone that ever uses the word liaison ever going to have a gang.

Yeah. Gang liaison. That would be Well, I mean, I don't know if that's an official title, but I know there's got to be somebody that's like understands the inner workings like, "Hey, they made a mistake. We'll take care of it in house.

I think that's called an attorney. I mean, well, unofficially. I know I'm using regular English, but yeah, bless gang language, but I mean, the attorney could work, too. Yeah.

Well, we've got like a plan B for you. I guess I mean, no, I already got my plan B. I already know what I'm going to be the guy who plays Megatron at like Universal Studios or whatever. It's like he's everything that I that's deep down inside.

He just roasts people. Megatron. So they have like these crazy interactive like deals where you go up and you can stand. Imagine like take Barney all those years ago.

Like it's a person in a suit. They've got this huge giant interactive deal that it's like Megatron from Transformers and they switch him out like sometimes Prime Optimus Prime is there and like you walk up and like there's a whole girl named Kenya. If you go on to TikTok, there's a girl named Kenya who has like this bestie relationship with this Megatron dude. He remembers her.

I don't know how I don't know if it's a guy in the suit or how they do it because he's huge. Like it would literally have to be like a guy inside like a giant suit and he like enter and he roast everybody and but Kenya in particular he's like cuz he's seen her stuff too. He's like, "Oh great, it's Kenya." Like and you would think like Oh, you actually have a little bit of the Oh, yeah.

like I have it down. The best part was when he walked up the one time and she's like, "Kenya, how was your day today?" And as soon as she starts talking, he's like, "I don't care." And there's a line of people that see this whole deal and you come up and get your little picture of Megatron, but like you're a repeat customer.

He starts to like remember you and it's hilarious. Is Megatron Transformers? Yeah. So, he's like the villain.

You have Optimus Prime. He's the leader of the Autobots and then Oh, but you kind of had the Optimus Prime voice, too. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's the same voice.

I know, right? It's just base and like Optimus talks about great things and how we can progress and be great and you know, let's be good for the world and like Megatron's trying to take over and conquer everything. Would you are you kind of nerdy? Oh yeah, for sure.

For sure. 1,000%. Like how do you define a nerd? I think it's just nerd would be more I think more on the science fiction side.

Like a geek. Did you tell me Transformers not science? Well, I mean, Transformers is science fiction for sure. Okay.

But is it also real? I feel like there's probably Transformers walking around. I mean, well, if they can do it at Disney, Lord knows military-wise what we've already got built. Oh, sure.

Right. Okay. So, but yeah, like I think Star Wars, Star Trek, you know, me, I was I wasn't I'm from Virginia. My family's from Virginia, but I was born in Japan, so I've been exposed to anime and all that my entire life, which is essentially just art and, you know, so creative stuff.

But yeah. How long did you live in Japan? I was I was a young lad. I want to say from when I hit the ground to I want to say probably four or five I was in Japan.

Like military family there. Yeah. Dad was in the Navy. And then my mom was I think my mom when she was there she taught English actually.

Yeah. So why did y'all move back? I think I think he just got in station somewhere else and then you know. So was he still active duty and then he was Yeah.

Okay. He's out now. Yeah. But then when y'all came back to Virginia, like what was his job?

What do he do in the Navy? He I know he was the Well, I think he's had several different jobs. Um but can't talk about it. Can't talk about it.

I know one time he was like the mail guy. Like he was the post officer. Like that was his jam. Which I think one it's an important deal because you want everybody to get their mail and stuff like that.

But I think two just kind of his personality. It allowed him to kind of focus that way and not be on the main lines. I don't think he was anything cool like Steven Seagal in what's it called that one movie where he's a cook but he's actually a Navy Seal but it could have maybe it was him. That was a cool movie.

I have to go watch that. He's the postman but really shouts to the uh party cake scene that's 18 and over. What was his person? Is he's still alive?

Oh yeah. Okay. Actually funny story. I was with some friends and she's like and my friend was a horse trainer and she's like I want you come with us.

we're going to meet this uh this family. She wants you to take pictures of her horses. And I'm like, I'm newer into the western game. Like I wasn't used to like people having money like that.

So we soon as we drive in automatic gate, so I'm still pretty new to that kind of level of people who have fancy stuff like that. She's like, "Oh, they just bought this silo. We're going to turn it into like an Airbnb or something." I'm like, "Okay."

So we're rolling along and you know, we come into this deal. Immediately I got like this mafia vibe. Like she's super nice. She knows everything about me and everything.

Oh, I want you to come take pictures of my horses. You got this big pretty palamino and a couple other horses and she just wants pictures of them running out in the field and things like that. And like and when we get there, there's like her and her husband and then there's like this old couple sitting in the corner that don't really speak. I'm like, "Okay, hey, how you doing?"

And I don't like uh tomatoes. Like I'll eat salsa, ketchup, but like a raw tomato is just not my jam. I'll eat even guacamole now. I'm good.

And I'm like trying not to be rude, but she has like these crab stuff deal. So I'm like quietly scooping out the crab and like doing the whole deal like where we're prepping to go shoot these horses. So we go shoot the horses, whatever. Whatever.

Everything's smooth. Go have dinner and this guy's got like this old Sicilian pizza deal and like and he just he talks about money like it's not a thing. Like um my friend Ashley and her boyfriend's there and he's like trying to talk them into getting married. He's like, "You need a ring.

I got a guy like, you know, go down Miami. It's just a $4. 5 million ring. I'm like 4.

5 like no big deal. So then they make like this. Yeah. I made this drink with like chocolate gdiva in it and all this deal.

And the lady's like, "Oh, you can go back inside and refill it." Well, I walk into the deal and her seller whatever deal. And I look up and there's pictures of them with Steven Seagal. I'm like, "Huh, that's interesting."

As soon as we leave the house, I'm like, "Hey, so was that a mafia house that you just took me to?" She's like, "Pretty much." I'm like, "Fair enough. All right.

ual mafia. I mean, I don't I'll say there were probably mafia adjacent. Maybe I don't know enough about Steven Seagal. I mean, is he I'm sure he's been around some.

But was that what tipped you off to the mafia thing? I'm just like or was it just or was just like, man, that's a unique celebrity to have a picture with. Like, it's kind of Or, you know, that's up there in the genre of like Robert Dairo or like you know, you're like, yeah, how did this happen? How did y'all connect?

Where was this place at? It was in Virginia. Oh, it was in Virginia. got to go.

You got to go. But this was kind of your first for kind of early like when I was just starting to take pictures in the western space and you know I didn't know what was it's like when I came here and people like have you done a blue bonnet shoot? I'm like a what you want to take pictures of blue bonnets or you know and then I would pull up like on Google and I see people laying in a field of blue bonnets like you mean those purple flowers that everyone keeps I'm like whatever fair I mean they're paying I'm playing. What was the most shocking thing to you when you first got into like the western culture?

It's funny we're saying western culture when you're in Virginia when you're in Virginia. Yeah. I think I think shocking in a good way is that for the most part like everyone are usually pretty good people. Like you're obviously going to meet your few.

They're like not your cup of tea or just you can tell are just kind of a bad dude. But like how everyone's like kind of in it to help everyone out for the most part just I wasn't used to that level of or that feeling of going like when you interact with someone the first time and you're like oh man that person might be the a friend for the rest of my life and like I've only known them a month like you just like when you look forward in life you're like oh I don't think I think we'll be good kind of like when we met or like of course we had crossed paths a few times but like when we sat down for the first time and actually talked I'm like I think we're good. I don't see me and Jared being pissed off at each other ever. Yeah, I didn't feel like that.

But that's not what you said. No, I would say I would say most times I meet people that's usually their reaction to me is like, "Huh?" Which is he's not that bad. Oh.

Huh. It's not a total dick. I never got that impression. Like I was like, "Oh, he seemed like he'd be a cool dude."

You know, I don't We were making going to make merch that just has my face and it says punchable. Punchable. Hey, I get it. I get it.

As long as you can just I mean, they can punch the shirt as long, you know, got to maintain that. Yeah. No kidding. Which I mean, after all the all these the gang leazison stuff you've been doing, I'm surprised there's no face tattoos.

So, you get Well, you know, reconstructive surgery. Hey, man. Beauty of America or Turkey, wherever. So, did you go to college in Virginia?

Did you I did uh my bachelor's was at Virginia State University um in Petersburg, Virginia, which is kind of just 30 minutes from Richmond. And then my masters I actually did online from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Oh, okay. Oh, you got your masters in art design.

What does that mean? I have a I have a masters in photography, but it's from Oh, yeah. My bachelor's is in like visual communications, graphic design, but my masters is in photography. Okay.

Okay. So when you say art design Yeah. So Savannah College of Art and Design. Oh, gotcha.

Or SCAD. That's the You got your masters in photography. Yeah. What is that like?

So I would say I would relate it to this way. Like when you when you go to college, your first your under undergraduate experience, you're just trying to figure out who you are as a person. Like yes, you have a field. It's just something you like, right?

It's just like when someone graduates with a bachelor's in business. Okay, some people are handy at it, but it's like what do you want to what do you actually want to do? And then when you pursue your masters, now you're starting to kind of find your voice, right? What do you know, you know, what are what's your actual interest both subject matter-wise, but also uh creatively like what mediums do you like to work with?

What you know, like kind like with m with music. I'm a music. I got my basters in music. Now, when you go to get your masters, it's like, okay, what instrument do you really like to use or what like what kind of helps you convey your voice?

Sure. The best. So, so at what point during your bachelors did you did you always have a knack or a I guess a love for photography or was that something you figured out as you were going through? Kind of as I was going through like my bachelor's program was kind of all over the board.

So we had like animation classes, we had design classes, we So it was definitely like figuring out what you liked, right? You didn't have to make decision on what you wanted to do the rest of your life kind of in that way. It was just like, oh, but then I did I had another photography class cuz I shot film in high school and then I do this deal and I'm like and what I was the issue I was having is as a creator, as a designer, I'd kind of get like writer's block. I know now that it was just how I prepared.

I wasn't doing the when they say you need to brainstorm and write it all down like I don't need to brainstorm. I know what I like, you know, but when you actually write it down now, you kind of have a road map for where you've kind of processed and what you thought about and how you want to create something. But like with photography, I gravitated it so fast cuz a whatever I liked, I could photograph. Really like music so I could shoot concerts and but if you like food, you could shoot food.

If you wanted to, you know, you like shoot portraits of people, you could do that. And but I didn't have to think about it. It was like I took a picture, I could just look and go, do I like this or do I not like this? If I don't, I can change it and then I can keep moving forward.

So it was this constant. It was effectively I was brainstorming through the camera versus writing it down on a sheet of paper. And then like you're pursuing this next kind of what's the next goal kind of thing. Um but then on the business side, I thought about well maybe a company needs a designer and a photographer.

And I'm like well that has value. I could go hey maybe you want to redo a catalog. I could actually photograph your product and then I can actually take those images and put it in your catalog. So now you're not trying to chase down this one person to get your image and then try to make sure it fits here.

Like it's the same guy so I can give you a little bit more bang for your buck. You seem like you do a pretty good job of uh combining like just the art and the inspiration and the technical. Like you don't seem to get too hung up on a lot of the technical stuff. And maybe that depends on who you're talking to.

Yeah, I think because actually so I teach photography clinics on rodeo photography and two things I talk about is I talk about being technically proficient because I think that's important. Um, and I believe that part of your success is actually loving the craft, but then I talk about how an image feels, right? Which is not something that you can necessarily calculate compute, right? Cuz you've all seen we've all seen suns.

Actually, I had someone text me last night. She says,"Wh does a sunset photo not feel or look like it does when you're there?" And I said, 'Well, there's two answers to this. The first half is like your eye, it's like we haven't reached that point where we can build a camera that is as advanced and as can adjust and as fast as a camera.

Like when you walk out of the sunlight into a room, your eye immediately adjusts to it. Crazy. Yeah. Right.

And cameras don't work that fast, right? The other side of it is a camera is a machine. And I think there is a spiritual element to capturing a moment and being in the moment, right? So now your brain is it's the same thing like when you hear a recording and you like that feeling when you when that's your song and your artist plays it the first time you hear it, right?

Similar to like the first time you ever hear a song, right? and versus like listening to it 10 years later. There's that emotional thing. But when you look at a picture, that's why I like Photoshop and like because when you see an image usually of a landscape, it's more than likely it's been touched.

It's been pushed up like the colors are like have been pushed up to kind of be reminiscent of that feeling that you had when you saw it. Um so like yeah, there's a spiritual element to that. But yeah, like I don't want to get too caught up in uh it being perfect technically if it feels right cuz it feels like we're in a point of really any art form that Mhm. the average person doesn't want something to seem too, let's call it, produced or too slick.

Um, in some ways they don't want it to look or sound like you tried too hard on it. Yeah. Uh, but at the same time they want it to be good. Yeah.

Feel like they're there. So I'm sure you get hit with it all the time where they're like, "Well, I just want it to look a little bit more raw and like it's a little too slick." How do you how do you I actually had a past student who she sent me we were talking about just AI and we were talking about like noise reduction and stuff like that and I tell people all the time like what I shoot predominantly is gritty dirty stuff like so I'm not trying to make it look polished like this high fashion image. Um, and I go back and forth with it.

Like, you want it to look like you know what you're doing, but you don't want it to look and that's the battle I think artistically that you fight. I think you want to you're always trying to be better either technically or like you or whatever the thing is that gives you the high whether it's, you know, you're always trying to get a little better at that. And sometimes it's getting better to make it look easier or simple or um you know I remember the first time I was like learning how to ice skate and I the how I looked at it was like competing forces because you'd see like some young kid who barely and all of a sudden you just watch him glide out there, right? And then you realize that your body his body isn't competing with the surface that he's on, right?

And like that's the same kind of thing with music like or like any instrument or anything that like has a physical part like you're trying not to that's the moment when you're like no longer they're not competing forces they're working together right like the same thing how maybe a guitar feels or how a camera feels in your hand or I went to a rough stock school and like in my head I'm like man I don't know and it was really good because I got to sit down and talk to some of these younger bearback back riders. I'm like, how do you It seems like there's a that's a lot of chaos and a lot of danger that never goes away, but there's a certain moment when you turn a corner and like now you're in tune with the horse because for a long time, particularly when they're really young, like this looks this looks just like a bad choice. This looks stupid. Like why would you put your body through this?

Like I watch kids I watched one kid break his wrist. I watched a couple kids get like stepped on their head and they're like bleeding out of their head and I'm like when does this get better, right? Like I'm like and then like you break your wrist that takes some time before you can try it again, right? There's a lot of mental time that you have to speak like how in the world how do we get there, right?

And then all of a sudden one day it gets easier, right? And maybe it's they didn't get they weren't hyperfocused on the technical side or maybe they were just more like focused on how it felt or and then all a sudden now he can't f he stays in the middle of the horse the whole time. you're like, "All right." I mean, you know, and but it's like there's this not that competing forces again and now it looks easy.

But the thing I when you talk about stuff looking easy, people forget that it all the work you had to put in to get to that, right? Like, yeah, mechanic and it looks like a really difficult task, but I've been doing it for so long that now it looks easy or, you know, tell me what you think about this. Uh, I think like the written word Mhm. And so like just being a writer Yeah.

and photography are the two most difficult art forms to stand out. Yeah. Like I can see I can see variations in the approaches. I can see it when it is when it does stand out.

I can be like whoa that's different. Yeah. But like for me it's really difficult for me to think about if I were to do that art. And I'm a writer, but I have melody.

So, like I get to cheat. Yeah. Like melody and how you sing it and how you produce it and all that is like just so many other variables to make you stand out and be unique. If it was just purely written word, I'm like, how could you how could you sound and seem different with that?

But you can. Yeah, for sure. And photography is like it's the same way. Like I see your stuff and I'm like, yeah, that's different.

But I can't think about me doing it. I was like, how what would I even start with? I and it's funny I would I would I would be curious if you even agree with that assessment me being a poor writer for the majority of my life like and it's still something that I have to really spend time doing it like I remember one time I wrote something I don't know I was conveying my thoughts and I sent it to my mom cuz she was always the measuring stick when I was a young kid am I doing this right and I knew I was okay when she called me she goes am I talking to the same person that wrote this like she had cuz she had been there through all the trials of me just trying to be good at communicating and not, you know, having the diary of the mouth and writing a runalong sentence and all these other things. So then when I put something that was concise together and meanwhile like I spent, it may be two paragraphs, but I spent all day trying to make sure they were good.

Um, like I knew I'd kind of you have to work at it. But I think the one thing I tell a lot of people with photography is that it is a lifelong process. like it's a lifelong thing cuz everybody wants everything right now. And I think part of that too is there's an oversaturation.

Um because I think photography in particular has gotten to a point where people think it's an innate skill like walking like I can take a picture like yeah but I guess that's my point is like the barriers to entry are some of the lowest. Yeah. Yet I find it to be one of the most difficult in terms of actually doing something like unique and original because maybe because it's like the barriers to entry are so low. Music is even starting to get a little bit like that.

Yeah. Uh more than it ever has. Like the idea of just being able to play the guitar and sing is like whoop-dedoo. Yeah.

Not that not that long ago that was that was the wow. It was an art form. You can you can you can just do them both at the same time. Wow.

Now that's like not who cares. Well, I think now too we look at things like the idea of an influencer. An influencer doesn't necessarily mean you're good at anything, right? Any skill.

Like it used to be I'm a musician. That's an that's a skill. That's a something that like involves development. Not to say that influencers don't have skills that they have to develop.

No, the skill is being able to manipulate and influence people. Correct. That's the skill. If you want that to be your ski I mean which is marketing.

Yeah. That's what marketing has always been. I'm a musician. I'm really good.

I am influential and people want to play this guitar that I can play or wear this hat that I wear. Things like that where it used it was never I'm an influencer, which is another word for maybe you saying a marketer, but you're like, so like even me, I'm like when someone says, "Oh, I meet I meet a gal." She's like, "Oh yeah, I'm an influencer." And I'm like, "I don't know.

Does that mean you can dress well? you know, or you know, like cuz me naturally I want Okay, what do you like to do? What do you do? What do you do?

What you know, what lights you on fire? I mean, putting on clothes, maybe that's what you know. Yeah, I mean that's an art form, you know, you know, kind of things like that. But yeah, there's such a I think yeah, there's an oversaturation of a lot of things and like photography is that way.

But I think um I think how you separate yourself is the things you do when no one's watching the stuff that people don't see. Right. Um one thing and it's and it's been difficult sometimes for me to like cuz that's it's a project that I'm working on kind of going into like a leadership role or kind of helping people understand what are the things you do, what are successful habits, stuff like that because I'm like okay I've had some success. what did I do to uh be where I am today?

And like what are some of the things I can go okay if that was a moment that right um and the one thing I tell people I do all the time is anything that I like I have around me. So if you come in my place that camera may not take pictures but it's sitting there. that instrument I may not be able to fully utilize it to the capabilities of what it can do but it's sitting there or so sometimes it looks like clutter but it's kind of like I'm still like when I couldn't afford the camera like I had pictures of the camera sitting around or and I do it all the time like yeah I'm not going to take pictures today but there's a camera sitting there and so just keep things around you that inspired it just keeps you because yeah that's and that's awesome if you have things that like call you to action Like if there is a pair of shoes that like make you want to walk and be healthy and go outside and you keep them visible where you can see them. Oh yeah, I want to put those on and go do the thing.

Um which is seems very small and regular and everything but it's like another thing that allows you to do the things that separate you because that's what's going to separate you. Like the stuff people see are not the things that in my opinion that make you separate yourself are unique. guess the stuff that people don't see, which is sometimes could be meshed in with your demons and your the bad things. So, I think I do listen to music differently than most people just because I make it.

Um, but I think oftenimes people be surprised how simplistically I listen to it at times as well. And I will just kind of just let it come at me. Yeah. Um, you know, because I've had people be like, "Man, I just I wish I could like listen to it the way that you listen to it."

Like, like it's this hyper techchnical pursuit. And if I was to analyze it, I could find I could find if I don't like something or I do like something, I could probably start to technically analyze why I do or why I don't. Yeah. But when I really just first listen to it and stuff, I'm just like I'm just listening.

Yeah. That And so, do people say the same thing about photography where they're like, "Man, I wish I could." Well, actually, I would say that I wish I could see how you see things. I in my mind it's like you just walk around and like you just see everything through like a frame.

It's like oo yeah. I think uh do you do like do you take little moments where it's like oh that would have been nice to yes and no. Okay. To and actually to piggyback off of your music deal what the thing I've noticed about myself recently is I listen to lyric when I hear music I listen to lyrics last.

I can listen to a song 10 times and then I have to actively go back and be like, "What were those words? What did he say?" Like I'm so very in a simplistic way like does the music make me move? How does it feel?

Yeah. Right. I'll dig into a chord progression or something else later. But I'm like, do I?

And I think that is the most important maybe the do people like it? Do you like it? Right. Does it sound good?

What's the point of music? Like, yeah. Does it do I Does it elicit a response? Because if we're just writing poetry, why do we need the music?

What are we doing? There's no groove. There's no Yeah. What's the point?

Well, well, and with photography, the only time I go, "Oh, that'd be a good picture," is if I don't have a camera, right? And I do that on purpose sometimes. I believe that sometimes the memory is important and it doesn't have to I don't need it going back to the sunset. Sometimes seeing the sunset and having that moment, I don't need a picture of it because I had that like I had that experience and it'll make me look forward to the next sunset.

Or yeah, you might view it differently through the lens. Yeah. Oh, 1,000%. Like when you put that camera in front of your face, it changes how it all the time because I think and that's kind of the pursuit, right?

is I remember like the first time I put a new lens on a camera one time and I took a picture and I just go that but it's not how it looked and then I'm like man how do I get everything look like that because that was maybe the feel the mood uh that I wanted to convey or I wanted to showcase my work and I'm like oh that's there it is but I don't know like now it's immediately like okay now it's more of an active thing it went from very looking at something very simplistic and then I saw it rendered a certain way I'm like Okay, now I got to figure out how to do everything to look like that. But maybe it's not how it looks, it's how it feels. So then, okay, now how do I make everything feel like that, right? So like I'm very much like when it comes to visual stuff, I'm very much a B-roll guy.

Like I don't need the like I like the a shot, but like the B-roll is the stuff that tells the story, the meat, the stuff that fills it in. That's cuz that's what creates the feeling, right? So how Okay. How do you describe B-roll nowadays?

Because it feels like B-roll nowadays for me is the is the dinner and the dessert. It's like becoming the main thing. Yeah. I think for me like the B-roll is the it's not the flashy part.

Like I think the a shot is your that's it. Like that's the image that's on the poster. The B-roll is not the shot that's on the poster, but like the B-roll is what makes the movie cool, but it's the A shots of stuff that gets you to the movie. Doesn't it seem obvious now though that everybody just wants the B-roll?

Like look at look at movies or TV shows. I mean, there's movies that end up getting popular just because they put the little blooper reels out. Oh, one. There you go.

That's the because I think it the a thing Well, there you go. The A shot makes it sci-fi, makes it nonhuman. The B-roll is what allow relates it back to you, right? What makes it real, right?

Or makes it possible. Cuz I think that's the that's the difference. Like the A thing is the superhuman, the B shot is the is what makes it real. What makes it human?

What makes it Yeah. Like, oh, I can do that now. I think it's with So that's kind of what we were talking about with like how do you like make stuff not too overly produced and it needs to have some rawness to it. It's like capt capture things at an incredibly high level and quality.

Yeah. What that being music, photography, whatever it is, capture it at a very high technical level. But what you're capturing I feel like needs to be like have a have a sense of uh of um like in the moment rawness a performance almost like something could have gone wrong but you captured it and it wasn't wrong like oh yeah in music it feels like the same especially with AI happening I feel like it's an at all time importance to like m like the idea of like per perfection is so bizarre to me where obvious like in music there's obviously things like where like everything's out of tune and out of phase and it sounds like trash and the person can't sing. It's like that level of imperfection I'm not really interested in.

But the idea that maybe the voice gets a little bit more grally here and then like it's call it pitchy but you're just doing a little run down and the part of the pitchiness on the run down is what like makes it a human and makes it not AI but technology has gotten where you can make everything so perfect but it's devoid of any like real human experience in the real world and in real life and I feel like it's an alltime importance to like lean into what makes humans. Yeah, cuz it's the only thing that's going to be able to separate you from a computer. I think AI is but AI is in my opinion, AI is not designed to make mistakes. And we are that's how we learn.

Yeah. We're flawed creatures. We make mistakes. We fail.

We, you know, Oh, it's the thing that gives life meaning is the fact that you could do better. Like it's the ying and the yang thing. Yeah. Like I have this scar on my thumb from when I cut it with a knife and it's like it hurt in a moment, but I don't want that scar to ever go away.

Like I cuz it's like and I remember I mean I hadn't talked about the scar on my thumb in over a decade but I'm like but that's you know or maybe you know I got a weird finger crack or something you know anything like that. It's like we're with AI that goes away right you know and that's what makes AI like it's not human. And yes we're always in this pursuit of trying to make it perfect. It's the human experience man.

Yeah. Like when like people will say uh I don't know if you believe in God or anything like that, but like people will say like, "Well, if there is a God, how could there be so much evil?" Like, "How does evil exist if there's a God?" Yeah.

And it's like, "Well, like the only reason you know what evil is because you know what good is. And the only re the only way that there's any good is because there's like a moral lawgiver that can be one or the other." Yeah. So it's like somebody comes up and says something mean to you.

Yeah. Right. The only reason you know that something's mean or maybe it stands out that they come up and say they compliment you and you go, "Man, that felt nice." If all everybody ever did was walk around and give compliments, if there was no option to say something mean, then compliments don't have any meaning or value.

It's like it's that Oh, yeah. It's the it's the you need there is no light without dark. And it's sad. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and that's I mean, that's the very um and I was talking to my cousin about because I think going back to perfection like I think socially we always look at like you've really never seen when you think of wedding pictures, you think of these really bright, pretty angelic type of images.

You've never really seen unless someone's like got specifically a theme that's kind of dark or gothic or kind of looking um you never really seen these dark moody wedding photos. Like that's not the immediate images that come to mind, but um but like but often those are more interesting, right? Those are like I was talking to I can't remember who said the quote. I was talking to my cousin who's a photographer.

I'm like and I was like blowing his mind cuz I was sometimes all you have to do is say something a different way and then like all of a sudden the light bulbs goes off. I'm like I said like light illuminates, shadows define. Like I'm effectively working on a two-dimensional surface. How do I create the third dimension?

I need the shadows. I need the darkness because that's what like light doesn't just cover everything. Like there is, you know, some shadows. So like that's where you how you convey a threedimensional object through a two-dimensional medium.

You have to you need the darkness too. You need the grittiness. You need creates the depth. Yeah.

That all that stuff you need cuz like you everyone knows when you see something that has AI immediately you go that's AI. See, I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to technically know. Yeah. Um how I know it's AI, right?

But you can feel it. Like with music, I could probably technically define it, but with photography, I couldn't. So that's interesting cuz I haven't really necessarily and that's like a relatively simplistic thought. It's just have some depth and shadow and stuff, but AI doesn't understand that yet.

Yeah. Or like I told him the other thing was like I said, the bigger the light source, the softer the light. He's like, "What are you talking I said, "Dude, you can tuck cover. You see the sun?"

Sun's huge. But when you can cover it with your thumb, right? That's why those shadows are really long and cast really far. But if I take a bed sheet and I put it up in front of the sun now, the lights the side of the size of the bed sheet and it's softer and it wraps more and it's not as punchy, right?

And it's just But it's a simple when you like cuz Yeah. The bigger the light source, softer the light. The bigger those dude get this. I've had a he's like a there's a photographer video guy uh that told we shot some video stuff together and he was not worried about light at all.

Yeah. Okay. So, like I didn't know enough at the time. Yeah.

Um and yeah, I it was just now that I've talked to more people, they're like, "Wait, what? What do you mean he didn't care about light?" And like he didn't put up there was no lighting. Yeah.

And then, you know, a lot of the stuff always looks a little bit this, it just always looks the same. Everything that gets shot, there's no depth to anything. And but he was just like, "Yeah, I can just do all that in post." And I'm like, "Okay, I don't know enough about that sounds odd."

Like, so we're going to artificially manufacture the stuff that we could create right here. Yeah. I mean, I knew enough about art to be like, "Well, that's probably not going to be what I want." Yeah.

But I didn't know. But fair enough. Like I trust you like which like as an artist like I appreciate that about you where you're going like, "Hey, this is my idea." Like I'm going to kind of give you this and like you kind of interpret it and like you know and I like I trust you to do that which I think is a good thing about hiring professionals which I like hire the people that know what they're doing and let them do that and then you can go.

But um yeah, I that's what like when and I it's funny when you said he wasn't worried about the light cuz part of me got excited cuz in my head I'm like okay he's available. He's just available to whatever comes from it. Right. Well, okay.

Right. So I'm like but you got to earn that too, right? You got to be like where people like you know what don't worry about it. We'll be cool.

Like I can say that, but I know in my mind 100 miles an hour I'm like, you know, what's the light doing? Where's it falling? Like I'll look at you going, I don't love that. Let's try something different kind of thing.

But yeah, I mean, I've been around enough like really talented people that don't get too worried about the minutia and the technical side of whatever it is that they do. And what they come up with is amazing. And they'll just be like, "Ah, yeah, don't worry about that stuff." because that's kind of how I am a little bit with music and recording.

Um, but so I've been tricked as well by a few people that they have learned how to just be like, "Oh man, you just got to like, you know, it's just it's just about being in the moment." And they like feed me the and I'm like, "Yeah, totally." But then I get the thing back and I'm like, "Oh, I got a little Titanic whistle." Oh, yeah.

You know, and I'm just like, "Okay, I got I got right there." That was that was my army job. Like it was so much cuz the picture wasn't a creative image. It was just I just wanted to photograph a person.

You stand on the X, I push the button, we're good. And but so much of it was this psychology, the psychology of it of like I just had to make you feel good about the image. It didn't actually have to be a good one. And so but I wanted it to be a good one, but I also knew that I had to use the force sometimes.

Be like, listen, it's going to be fine. I got this. This where I need you to be. Like I'm going to push the button.

Things are going to happen. It's going to be good, you know. Meanwhile, I'm like, I'm not trying to rush him out here, but I'm not trying to cause this appointment to go any longer because I'm trying to go to lunch. So, Le's like, "Hey, just jump in.

I got this. Don't worry about it." Like, you know, we're going to make sure your uniform looks good. Bam, bam, bam.

And then they're like, you know what that was? What? I'm like, perfect. They fell for it.

Got to, you know, it's Well, considering all of these factors that goes into like making a great shot, when you talk about shooting rodeos, cuz that's your bread and butter now. Yeah, I mean all bets are off with being able to orchestrate certain things and talk about just having to work with the light that you got. Yeah. And then you have livestock that is not does what it does when it wants to.

So I find it interesting do to think about getting yourself in certain positions. Yeah. that I don't do you have um certain things that you try to do you do you try to think about like maybe this horse is going to go this way or like is there stuff like that you consider that's all I mean that's kind of a big part of the pursuit now like there's so many things out of my control that I just focus on the things that I can't control like all right this is the shot I have in my head if this girl turns this barrel and she's still on her horse and I frame it this way, it should be a good image. They got to do their part.

I'm gonna like I'm gonna make sure my stuff's good. I'm solid. And then, right, or like if this guy's on a on a on a bucking horse if he's in the position he's supposed to be cuz like one of the old the things some of the old guys get hung up on. It's like the horse will be stretched out and maybe the guy's spurs are not like he doesn't have his feet where he needs to.

I'm like, "Guys, I can't spur the horse for the guy." Like if the horse is doing their job and I take the picture at the right time the photo they get back. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm like I'm like Yeah. If the horse is doing their job, I take the picture and you didn't move your feet. That's not my fault, right? Like I can't and I can't help if that's the picture they decide to use because the rest of these bums are 70 and 69.

Like, well, I guess we're going with this crappy 79 ride. He just happened to miss the spurt. Like the horse looks good. Sorry.

Like I don't know what to tell you. Right. I can't get too consumed with that cuz now I'm like focused on too many technical things that I have zero control over. No control.

Yeah. Like I my control is to make a good image. Hopefully it represents you in a positive way. You stay on your horse.

You do your deal and we go about it. And then cuz then that way if I want to do something creative and work on something else then I can because very a lot of what my work is about is you could call it ego but I think it's with anybody with anything. I don't I don't ever want my images to be cool because I ju just because I took a picture of something cool, right? Like I want part of me wants that percentage of me to be in there somewhere like okay this image is cool because I did something unique to it, right?

Which effectively will separate me from somebody else. So some of how do you gauge how maybe how well you did something in your world? Is that do you like selling prints of it or is it if you post it on social media it does better like what would be the barometer that you even I don't even I think it's that's it's part of it's experience right because I think with any creative person particularly in photography when I can when someone I have a conversation with someone and they're in a rut that's usually the time I know that they are progressing because now they're not impressed with everything they do, right? They're like, "Okay, yeah, that picture's good."

Right? Cuz I'm that kind of way. I'm like, "Oh, that's a good photo." Like, I mean, if it doesn't blow me away, I'm not going to run around and high-five everybody in the room.

I've had students like that where like, if she took one good picture, she wanted me to like high five and war whoop and like throw my hat and everything. I'm like, "It's a good photo, but hopefully you'll keep taking good photos, right? But if today is your peak, right? So, like, let's continue to get better.

Like, okay, now let's turn these let's make your good photos not lightning strikes. Let's make it more of like a consistent thing that you can do, right? Because then you can start to get your great images or the images because yeah, now I'm like I have it broken down that way. Oh, yeah, that's a good photo.

And there's some that's like that one's pretty solid, right? Cuz the ones and then there's like the image where like, okay, that image I'll show the rest of my life. Like when people ask me about a certain image or like hey what's your favorite image those that then you know there's levels to that right I don't want my favorite images to just be good images right I want them to be extraordinary I want them to have a level of feeling that people like oh man I remember when so but I also know there's certain images they just haven't lived long enough like I took a picture of Stson right and Ryder right and immediate and they're just sitting there hanging out talking and but it immediately reminded me of a really old picture of like Lane Frost and some of the guys from 20 years ago, which it's a good image, but it just hasn't lived long enough, right? It's got to have some years on it.

Like, you know, when you see someone like, man, that's Ty Murray and he looks like he's 20. You're like, oh man, that's pretty incredible, right? But and someone had the foresight in that moment to take that image, right? Cuz like, oh, they're okay, this image is going to be really important one day, right?

So there and so there's different but yeah so that's there's a lot of things that go into that's actually a I don't know if that exists in music in that way. Yeah. Like a photo and capturing a moment like humans don't really typically appreciate something till it's gone. Yeah.

Or like when those guys are way older. Yeah. Or you know they're dead or something. It's like that photo has more value.

I mean, it happens a little bit when artists die, but I don't know if we like the idea of capturing uh a musician or like a singer in their 20s. Yeah. It's like you're never going to they're never going to probably sing like they were in their 20s. And I don't know if people really think I don't I mean I don't even really think about it that way.

It's still just like this static timeless music thing. But photography Yeah. I feel like has this different Yeah. Like looking back at it, yeah, I think I think about it as far as like people's voices, but like so like we talked about Cleo and still I think about Scandinavian.

Are they from Iceland? They're from Iceland. And I think about JJ's voice and I'm like I really can't wait to hear his voice 20 years from now cuz he's got an incredible voice with a lot of range and a lot of things he can do now. And as you age, usually you lose some of something.

But like that growl, that raspy deal he's got, I'm like, dude, when he gets 60, that's going to be pretty in like interesting to hear that then, right? So I think about that sometimes. But I Yeah, I think with photography it works differently like Yeah. Like, oh, this song will be cuz I don't Yeah, I don't think I don't think you ever say like this song will be more important when I get older or like this will be better when I get older.

Yeah. But photography, you could take it like of that moment and then be like, "Oh, dude, in 30 years, this photo is going to be this photo is going to be really Yeah. I don't think you ever say that about music." Yeah.

This photo is going to be really important or this is going to be a moment or I was just showing the picture once you It's like an obvious statement once you say it. Yeah. But I've never really actually thought about like I show the photo every now and then of me I took a couple years ago when there was the shooting at UNLV and everybody all the contestants all the announcers we were all in the Thomas Mack which is where the shooting happens is kind of almost diagonal down the sidewalk from where this deal was. So they hold everybody in the building and then when they finally cleared everything and they let us walk out the back alleyway.

I took this picture of us walking by and when you zoom in on the picture you can barely see it. There's a cop coming back past us and you can see him. He's got his pistol right here and you can see the badge on his waist, but he still looks like a regular guy. So when you're like when you don't know what a shooter looks like, you're like, "Oh, you know, you're very hyperfocused on him."

But when I took that picture, I didn't even think about it, right? I never saw him. I was like, "Oh, yeah." But then I'm like, "Man, that picture's got in the moment I go, man, that's going to be an important picture 10, 20 years from now when we look back on that moment.

you see like Josh Frost on a horse just riding a horse and there's barrel racers here and I even mentioned it when I posted it. The feeling in that moment that lane of dirt had never had that before. Like when people come in Thomas and Mac and they come down that alley it's the biggest moment in their lives. They've reached the National Finals Rodeo.

And here we are leaving under this moment of grief, under this moment of stress, like not knowing when we get to come back through here again before it all starts. So, it's like this you've turned it that feeling of in that moment is completely different. And that space, you know, cuz I can't imagine what it was like the first time riding down that alley knowing that fortunately no one died in that particular area. But could you imagine if someone had gotten shot there and then you've got to come back through that space a day later or two like so then but yeah but like you knew in that moment like this image is valuable even if I don't ever sell this image it's valuable because of you know that moment in time and it only like it doesn't depreciate like it continues to become more and more valuable because now you have you can look back at it.

Yeah. No kidding. Yeah, that is wild. Was that early on in the rodeo that happened?

That was before it started. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

We were doing rehearsals and like it was crazy. I had just walked outside to come around the building to get to the front of the building. We come in, they're like, "We're on lockdown." Okay.

You know, I thought they were just working something out. And then next thing you know, there's an active shooter. I'm like, "Wait, what?" And then like, and my assistant is like, "I got to go to the bathroom."

Like, "You got to wait." You know? Um, and fortunately, I had the wherewithal to like, "Let me at least take my camera with me. I don't care about these lights.

so we can get more lights. But like this camera is kind of important in the moment. I would imagine there's a lot of videographers and photographers that don't want to be in the pan. Huh?

There's I mean I tell people when I'm teaching like your best ability is your availability. You cannot make money if you're hurt. You don't get any extra points getting wrecked out in the arena. We are But you might get some cooler shots.

I mean, well, if your camera survives. Yeah, totally. Um Yeah. You know, you don't.

And it's funny. I would always tell it the it actually got flipped on its head this weekend at this rodeo I was just at. I always tell people we are a part of the show. We are not in the show.

And then I go to a rodeo this weekend and they've got a whole spotlight like let's introduce Click in the middle of the like I didn't find out till the production meeting. Oh, cool. I'm like which is cool. Like does hey this is you know the photographer blah everybody you know and it you're like hey if one person learned who I was or saw my work because that's pretty cool.

I even had a family cuz where the building was to my hotel, there was like less than a mile. And I was waiting on some friends. I'm like, man, they taking too long. I could have just walked down the street and been there.

Well, I start walking and as I'm getting there, I get to the corner and this family stops and their whole family gets out of their truck to take a picture with me cuz they saw me during the intro of this deal, which I'm like, that's insane. That's incredible. Yeah. But like, yeah, they originally it turned out to be a selfie and then they realized like no one's coming, no traffic's behind them.

So they all like to the wife, husband, their two kids, like everyone jumped out to get this photo with me. I'm like, this is incredible. It's important, dude. AI is worrying me.

I'm not like an anti- technology type person, but in the arts, it's really bizarre. Yeah. Cuz like the whole point of art is human expression. Yeah.

So, I'm already getting demos and all sorts of stuff from like songwriters and stuff that they're just like they're using AI to like develop the melody and everything. And I'm like, what is even the point of any of this? Yeah. Like it at that point, it's truly just for attention or money.

Yeah. It's not about the process at that point of like actually expressing yourself in a human way. Yeah. And putting in the effort and doing something that's unique.

No, no, no, no. like you're purely just using technology now to just be able to gain some attention. Would you photography be the same way? Videography.

So I hope at some point there's a way that there will always be people that are cool maybe just not into art or whatever and they're totally okay with consuming something artificially made which is fine but there will always be a segment of society I think that like wants to like wants to like who's like did you actually go through this song that you wrote about or did you just have an you know computer make this up or did were you actually there when you took the photo? Was that a real human behind the lens? There's a segment of society that I hope that there's maybe some way to get art that is like AI or like maybe there's like a governing AI free tab you know what I mean like uh it would be like pesticidefree yeah organic art like there was no AI used in the making of this but and that even starts to get a little bit squirly because if you're using any type of Photoshop or if you're using any type of editing tools for your music and stuff. It's like there's elements of that are artificial, I guess.

So, it's a slippery slope, but I think it goes but I think it goes back to your original point of um that's how you separate yourself because I think AI is Yeah, but don't you think AI is going to get good enough at a point where it's going to figure that out? I think it's still numbers and eventually it's going to repeat itself. And if enough people do it, it's going to repeat itself again. And like I think that you have to have the mistakes.

And I always tell people like for what I do like loving particularly photography, loving the subject is not enough. Like you have to love the craft too. Like you have to fall in love with pushing the button just as much as the image that it produces, right? You have to that because that's the thing when everything go back to what that does when no one's around when no one's there to hear it like you have to love pushing the button just and that can and that can be enough like that keeps you that you'll be content with that like you have to love the feel of that like that string hitting it or like any of that like that's the thing that I don't know that you could ever replicate that right because you use AI I AI does all the work, right?

And as we've all found, we get the most gratification from the work, right? I think at le part particularly as a creative, like I get my the most gratification from, oh, I did all this to get to here. Like, and then like, yeah, once it's like done, it's a little bit like, okay. Yeah.

What's the next thing? What's the next process? For sure. The labor pains, not the baby.

Yeah. Like the baby's awesome, but like I think or like making the baby. That's probably a fun part too. That's always that's the jam too.

Yeah. Or practicing. Practicing. You know that Yeah.

The practice is probably way better. That's the craft. That's the craft. That is the craft.

Like it's you know that's the whole idea of like the journey is the destination. There's not like because the destination is always an end point. Like that's why we, you know, we drive these obnoxious distances to do the thing. But like, but then but what do we look back on fondly?

The drive, the moments, the road, the, you know, the whatever it took us to get to this point or the checkpoint. Um, dude, it's why I hate surprises. Really? Mhm.

Hate them. I always tell my wife, she loves surprises, but like it makes me mad whenever she surprises me with something. like if it's like a surprise vacation or even like uh for my birthday like we had a bunch of friends and stuff and like she wanted to surprise me but she had to tell me about it cuz I had stuff going on and I was like do not ever surprise me with that stuff and uh it's because I want to get excited about it. Okay.

It's like the leadup to it Yeah. is like and I'm like ah we're going to get to hang and because typically the day of it's like you're doing whatever you're on the vacation like right when it's over you're like oh but the leadup to it just the excitement that Oh yeah. And I'm like, what? That's like part of the fun for me.

You're like stealing that from me. So if you really want to like give me a gift, like let me get excited about going on the ski trip. I don't think AI can replicate that. I know.

Excitement. Yeah. The excitement, the leadup, anticipation. Yeah.

Right. Human experience. Oh yeah. Well, sick, dude.

Well, we're going to do a shoot together. Yeah. You're going to make me look real good. I'm not going to use any light.

I'm just Don't worry about it. We'll just We'll just figure it out. I need you know. Hell yeah.

Well, this was fun, dude. Yeah. It's nice to like meet some people that like really truly love the process and love to do it. That's So I mean like do you I don't know enough about your world in terms of like how you really make money.

I know like getting hired for events and shooting specific projects is probably how you make most of it, but selling actual images. I'm doing more of selling prints now because like I think because everything's so digital like I think there's a there's an appreciation for printed image and being a tangible thing. Um kind of like with me and records like I love physically holding even an old one and just like especially when like a record's older than me like I love the fact man this still works or it's perfect or like this is out of a time machine kind of feel. Um, and they like a great photo, they get better with time, you know, and it's tangible.

Oh yeah, he took this photo and whenever and this was that, you know, um, so yeah, like definitely selling the contestants, selling sponsors, I get hired by um, the actual rodeo or committee itself or, you know, there's a bunch of different ways that you can do it. Um, so you really have to be kind of flexible in that way. Like not always do it the same way, which I think is good because it allows me to shoot stuff differently. Um, you know, I can kind of almost specialize the images for the client.

Um, and I even do that with for contestants when maybe without them knowing that. Like if I know I'm going to see a contestant three times over the course of a weekend, why would I shoot them the same way three times? Yeah. Right.

I can I can why sell just one photo when you can sub two or three or you know give them some variety. I mean maybe they I think I think about people's like cover photos on their Facebook or like well what's the new thing on Instagram or what do they how can they there's one like a cool boot photo I took that like I've done stuff for Durango boots in the past and I got this one photo of literally a guy coming off a steer and like that boot is still in like the stirrup as it's coming out and you can read Durango like perfect on it. I'm so fired up about the image, but like that no one else is going to use it other than the guy in the boot deal, but I'm like, "Hey, man. I got a picture that like you guys are going to want."

Oh, that's perfect. You know, but so there's all kinds of little ways to just look at stuff differently and again, but it goes back to when you're trying to create something different, then you have to go back to the craft or maybe I need to learn a new instrument or new lens or a different, you know, way of applying stuff. And you know, that's what I enjoy probably the most. It's just Yeah.

As long as I keep and I love looking back on old images and seeing like, oh, that little piece of lights there because I'd learned something and did that and I can trace up. So, that's my jam. Beautiful. All right, y'all go follow him on Instagram.

He's got a website, too. Click Thompson. com. Pretty much everything's click Thompson.

Snapchat. If I don't respond on Snapchat, I'm getting there. My Snapchat count's really low. Snapchat.

I'm not allowed to have it. My wife calls it Snapchat. Snapchat. It do be like that sometimes.

It do be like that. I was hanging out with Bull Rider. Uh, sign it. You sign them off with the sign up some Virginia.

What is that one? Two up, two down, man. Two up, two down, man. I don't know if they're backwards in the camera, but you meant what I knew.

Hell yeah. Well, thanks for doing this, man. See y'all later. Two up, two down.

We got to go. [Music] Sing the sweet melody. [Music]