CHRIS: Hello? MARIA: Hey Chris, it's Maria from B&H!
I heard you were shooting, and I wanted to ask you 21 questions.
Do you have time? CHRIS: Absolutely, it's a great time.
MARIA: So, where are you?
CHRIS: I am on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just over the North Carolina state line.
And... just setting up to do a night shoot.
MARIA: And what are you hoping to capture tonight?
Well, um, as you can tell, it's daylight right now, but I'm out doing some daylight scouting,
which will give you a better idea of what I can shoot once it gets dark.
I was looking on PhotoPills a little bit earlier,
and the Milky Way is going to be right here.
The North Star is going to be up over the parkway that way.
So, I've got a couple of options.
Plus, there's some fences just up the road.
There's some great hay bales on a farm.
So, I'm going to hope to be playing with all these options tonight
and get a good shoot in under these nice clear skies.
MARIA: Can you tell me what National Parks at Night is?
National Parks at Night is a night photography education program.
The primary thing that we do is night photography workshops in national parks
and other inspiring pretty places, domestically and internationally.
But, we do other things as well. We have...
We publish ebooks on night photography and videos.
We did a creative live course.
So, anything that we can think of to help people become better night photographers,
that's what we do.
MARIA: What do you do when you aren't shooting with NPAN?
Oh gosh, when I'm not shooting with NPAN...
Uh, I like to shoot in general.
I always say I would do photography whether I was doing it for a living or not.
So, I'll try to get out and shoot whenever I can.
When I'm home, I like to spend time with my daughter.
I've got a seven-year-old girl. We go swimming; we go for hikes in the woods.
And this summer, she even got interested in going out under the night skies with me
and learning about how to find Jupiter and Saturn, and she can even spot the North Star.
MARIA: How has the group pivoted during this pandemic?
Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a good question. So...
You know, obviously we had to postpone a lot of our workshops--about two-thirds of them--
And that's, that's our main thing, so.
We did a couple of things.
One is we wanted to stay engaged with our community.
We've got this great community of night photographers around us.
And we came up with ways to stay in touch with them
and to help keep the creative process going, even when we couldn't go out as a group and shoot.
So, you know, zoom meetings and image reviews.
Uh, we've done this thing called Blog Chat on YouTube.
And we do Instagram Live, and any way we can think to stay in touch.
The other thing we've done is, you know, there's always these long-term projects that we never have time to do.
Uh, that's what we did. You know, we had, like, six months of not being able to travel much.
We hunkered down, and we, you know...
We worked on ebooks we worked on writing and videos and all,
all these projects that hopefully you'll see come to light over the next few months
MARIA: What's your go-to camera and lens?
Uh, they happen to be on the tripod right now.
The Nikon N5, which I've been using since, uh...
Shortly after it came out to one degree or the other.
I love how it feels. I love how it operates at night.
I love the touch screen.
And all the little things that go into making a flagship camera a flagship camera
are things that play into how I work.
My go-to lens is the Nikon 14 to 24 mm, which is on the camera right now
It's great in daylight. It's awesome at night.
It's tack-sharp, wide open.
I can auto focus with this combination on Jupiter.
I can't say enough about what's on this tripod right now.
MARIA: What got you started in photography?
Um, I got started in photography because I grew up around it.
My dad was a serious amateur.
My uncle was a professional photojournalist for the papers in Connecticut where I grew up.
A good family friend was a lifelong wedding and event photographer,
who would, you know, let me "help" him in the dark room (I don't know how much of a help I was).
But, I grew up around it.
That said, I didn't start shooting myself until about halfway through college,
when I started doing sports work for the college newspaper.
I was gonna be a writer. Uh, that's what I was doing out of college,
and photography on the side, and it just took off. I just never stopped doing it.
MARIA: And, what drew you to night photography specifically?
So, I was first exposed to night photography in the early 90s.
I read an article in Outdoor Photographer magazine about shooting under moonlight
and about how you can kind of get a surreal effect
because the shadows move as the moon moves during a long exposure
And not long after, I saw another article about light painting.
And I still remember the photo was three hay bales in a snowy field,
and the photographer light painted each of them with a flashlight.
That's probably something I could do tonight with these hay bales up here.
Except for the snow, we don't have any of that right now, but that's what first drew me into it.
I didn't do a lot of night photography with film.
When I started shooting digital in 2004, it was after that during my national park trips,
on any kind of assignment I had, I would try to stay out at night and play with night photography.
But then, about six years ago,
when I got involved with the National Parks at Night guys, with my business partners,
that's when it just really, I mean, through the roof.
Probably 90% of the work I do is night photography since that time.
MARIA: Why is it important to you to take the time out of your normal day to educate others?
Well, educating others, I mean, this is my normal day job.
Except that, of course, I'm teaching night photography usually at night.
But, I'm full time with National Parks at Night, as are 3 of my 4--uh, 2 of my 4 business partners.
And there's a lot of daytime work to do,
whether we're on a workshop teaching during the day,
or if we're at home working on the blog,
or working on the website, social media, communicating with attendees.
There's so much work that's not on site during the workshop.
So that's what i'm usually doing on a day-to-day basis.
But why is it important for me to educate people?
I just like sharing my passion.
I've got a huge passion for being in places like this
and for being out in beautiful night skies doing photography.
And I love to share that.
I love the look on people's faces when they get a photo of the Milky Way that they couldn't take yesterday.
And I love the look on people's faces
when they come to a beautiful place.
When they walk out onto the coast of Acadia and see that beauty.
Or when they walk to the to the foothills of the Grand Tetons
and see that beauty in front of them.
I just love sharing these places and these experiences.
MARIA: What's your goal for NPAN?
The goal for NPAN is to keep growing, To keep growing the the community
We're surrounded by these great people who are passionate about this too,
who share and collaborate even when they're not in a workshop
and I want to keep growing that because I love seeing the interaction between them
and the way that they interact with us.
I just want to keep growing the program, finding new ways to teach, new experiences to offer,
new things that we can teach, new ways to teach night photography.
For instance, next year we're doing, for the first time,
we're going to do two workshops dedicated to teaching PhotoPills.
So, that's just an example the kind of idea of how we're trying to do new things all the time.
MARIA: If someone wants to join an NPAN workshop what do they need to do?
If someone wants to come on a workshop, we'd love to have you.
Just go to our website nationalparksatnight.com
all the workshops are listed there, all the information you need.
And if you have any questions, you can email us, call us.
All our contact information is on the website anytime you want.
MARIA: I know you also focus your time on writing. Can you tell me about your book?
Oh sure! Yeah, you know I mentioned before I was a writer first.
That's what I was going to do for a living. I worked in magazines for 10 years
as a writer, and then an editor, and doing photography on the side.
And then, since 2004, I've been doing writing and photography both freelance.
I write about the national parks. I write about photography.
And, about 8 years ago, I got an opportunity to write my book, "Photographing National Parks."
It was such a fun project to work on because it was all my passions coming together.
You know, I wrote about how to plan a park trip,
how to scout the photography on site or from home,
and I wrote about all the national parks and what the photographer can find in each one.
So it's a guide, you know. If you're interested in Alpine photography or wildlife photography,
you can dig into my book and find the best national parks to do those things.
MARIA: You spend a lot of time overnight waiting.
What's your go-to snack during these night shoots?
[Chris laughs] Uh...
Yeah, I could spend a lot of time out here.
Dinner happened a long time ago by the time that some of these shoots are done.
But usually, I just keep a couple Cliff bars in the bag.
That's enough to get me through the night.
MARIA: If you could only use one lens forever, which would it be?
Ooh, uh... As much as I love this one,
If it's one lens forever I'd have to, say the Nikon 24-70, 2.8.
Uh it's just it's the perfect focal range for being out for the day.
If I could only have one lens, it's a fast lens; it's sharp.
And, uh, yeah that's another one of my favorites.
MARIA: What has been the coolest place you've done a workshop?
The coolest place I've done a workshop?
Gosh, there's a bunch. You know, I love the national parks,
but I have to say, earlier this year we did a workshop in the Lofoten Islands in Norway.
And that was a blast. I mean, it was...
It was snowy. It was cold.
There was Aurora.
There was beautiful coastline and mountains.
The food and the people were amazing.
It was, that was a fantastic experience.
I would go back there anytime.
MARIA: I know you guys did Easter Island.
How was that?
Easter Island, uh, I wish that I was on that one.
Lance and Gabe, they were the first two who did the Easter Island trip.
Lance Keimig, one of my partners, and Gabe Biderman.
Lance arranged that and got a special night access
to shoot the Moai there,
which as far as we know, no other workshops have been able to do
So, that's an exclusive experience that we're really excited to be able to offer
We're running that one again this coming winter.
Lance is going to be back on that one, along with Tim Cooper.
And then, what we want to do is just keep running that workshop in the future.
And we're gonna all take turns being on it.
MARIA: If you weren't a photographer what would you be?
Well probably a writer, uh.
If the photography thing never caught on, I think I would just still be writing.
Either way, I'd be getting to do something I love.
You know, I've always felt like I'm lucky to be working in my hobbies.
If either one of them hadn't worked out professionally,
but the other one did, that would have been fine.
I'm just really happy doing what I'm getting to do.
MARIA: Aside from your camera, what's your favorite piece of gear?
Fave-- Oh there's so many. You know, it's all the ancillary gear that makes the experience as a photographer, right?
I'll go with my most recent favorite piece of gear, which would be my Tenba hybrid roller bag.
I'm almost 50.
I've, just the last few years, I've gotten tired of carrying the backpack.
It just felt like my back hurt at the end of every trip.
So now, I've got the Tenba roller, so I can load all my gear in that.
It's a lot easier to carry it around,
but because it's the hybrid model, which has the backpack straps that I can pull out,
I can still throw that on my back, and then go walking into a field or into the forest and still be remote.
MARIA: What's the best advice you've ever received?
[Chris chuckles] The best piece of advice...
Um, how about...
I remember a friend telling me once,
Trust your instincts, and when in doubt, call your mom.
MARIA: If there were to be a movie about your life, who would play you?
[Chris chuckles] Um, gosh...
Let's go with Toby McGuire.
MARIA: Okay, last question: who should we interview next?
Oh! Well, I have to say my National Parks at Night partners!
You got Lance Keimig, Tim Cooper, Gabe Biderman and Matt Hill.
They're all amazing night photographers
and great people that all have something to offer you.
MARIA: Okay that's it! Thank you so much for answering all of my questions.
Absolutely, no problem! Look forward to seeing you at B&H again.
Take care.
MARIA: Alright, see ya!