i'm here in wales and when you're in
wales there's a castle basically every
well every square meter and i felt like
i probably needed to go take pictures of
at least one castle while i was here um
but it's been raining all morning and
the forecast is for rain all day so i
thought i'd maybe keep things simple
and just photograph the castle here near
my guest house in pembroke
which is kind of right around the corner
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the castle's right there i was hoping to
get kind of a shot with like maybe a
reflection and a lit up castle and at
least a really nice blue sky in the
background but the sky is kind of
actually really really gray so
i'm gonna grab a photo anyway
and got up might as well take the shot
so let's get set up
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normally i'm super positive when i wake
up and i'm like oh you know what it'll
probably clear
this isn't going to clear this is just
getting worse and worse i'm getting wet
getting kind of it's not really like
heavy rain it's just missed rain so
there's mist hitting the front of the
lens when i'm trying to take pictures
and
yeah there's no worse light for
photography than right now i don't think
so um i'm gonna pack up head back to the
guest house and then we'll head out this
evening afternoon and shoot more
seascapes because i had better luck
doing that here in wales yesterday and
the day before
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the weather's just getting nastier and
nastier
wow i should have stayed in bed
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i
like everything
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so i made it to stromblehead and this
location is actually perfect absolutely
perfect the weather though is not
perfect it's absolutely the worst
absolutely unperfect imperfect but that
being said i think i'm gonna wait it out
and maybe shoot this in blue hour
because it is beautiful here and the
perfect photo for a stylish shot that i
need now i don't have a lot of content
today because the because it's been
raining so i'm going to jump forward to
the future where i'm going to film a
quick q a and then come back here and
shoot this i'm here in the future i'm
actually in the philippines already i'm
that far in the future which means that
the videos are kind of delayed generally
i like the videos to be maybe two or
three days delayed right now they're
like 10.
and
anyways i also want to talk about
something
relating to trover yesterday's video was
about the trover scavenger hunt location
scouting using trover and wales which i
think was one of my favorite videos ever
it was so much fun and every month in
case you didn't know this i do photo
contest that i run on trover through my
facebook page which is called brendan
vanson's mother photographers and you
can search it on facebook to find it if
you don't know about it but the way
those contests are supposed to run is
they're supposed to run like three
contests the first three weeks of a
month and then one the last week and
then we give away things like amazon
gift cards tripods filter systems all
sorts of really cool stuff but because
of the internet being so bad here in the
philippines and because i'm so far
behind things are far behind so the
trover photo contests are still
happening on the facebook page they're
just not on schedule and i'm sorry
they're delayed but the bad internet i
just i just couldn't get them online on
time but let's get into the q a
questions i asked for personal questions
and it's kind of funny because even if i
ask for personal questions on this i
always get a ton of like hey what camera
do you use but we're gonna keep it
personal i'm just gonna literally scroll
through there was like 80 questions but
i'm gonna pick like five how long can
you keep up this lifestyle question from
chris marr who's also an awesome
photographer at small town hero probably
forever how long can i keep it up and
how long will i keep it up is another
question i like my lifestyle i like
constantly traveling i like not having a
base i like eating at different
restaurants and having somebody that
cleans my room for me because i'm
basically a spoiled brat now that i
travel the world and
i don't see that changing in a really
big capacity but what i do see changing
is me finding more of a base to base
myself for smaller or for longer periods
of time right now it's kind of like run
run run run run i'd like to be like in a
base where i can drop all my things and
then run and then come back and then run
and then come back and do that on like
three months basis
if that makes sense so look for that to
happen this year i could live this
lifestyle forever i just kind of maybe
need to adapt it a little bit what age
did you start going bald and how many
hats do you own to cover it up there's
my bald head i have no problem with
having a bald head just so you guys know
i started going bald or noticing that i
was going bald when i was 16 and it's
just slowly gone since i was
yeah since i was 16. and i've honestly i
maybe was like self-conscious about it
when i was like 16 17 18 maybe up until
the end of university and now i could
care less than a bald i have no problem
the reason i wear a hat and i wore a hat
originally on my blog is i kind of
wanted to have something distinguishing
about me that would make me recognizable
to viewers because i feel like i kind of
have an average looking face i'm not
super attractive i'm kind of normal
looking and i kind of wanted this
distinguishing feature and i always
rocked backwards snapback hats early on
and actually it was last year in the
philippines that i brought them back and
how many caps do i own i think close to
10.
what do i do for medical insurance i
actually have travel insurance that i
get through world nomads and i buy an
entire year in bulk world nomads is
actually really fantastic they cover a
little bit of camera gear not a great
amount but they definitely cover the
health side of things which is the most
important and the beauty of world nomads
is you can actually re-up them when
you're traveling so if i'm like six
months into travel and i just want to
keep
going and like i'm a year and a half
into travel i can re-up a lot of
insurances i have to go home before i
start a new trip and it doesn't work for
my lifestyle that's not a sponsored
pitch by the way i legit use them and
i'm not being paid to say that favorite
soccer player of all time football
player of all time iron robin i
absolutely love iron robin i felt like
he was just like the heart of that dutch
team that made the run in the world cup
a while back and even though i'm
canadian i grew up kind of feeling dutch
and being a little bit dutch in my
hometown and rooting for the netherlands
football team and uh so yeah i'm robin
do you think your vlogging has changed
or been affected since pairing up with
jody yes i think it has i think that um
it's become a little bit more
multi-dimensional i think when you're
vlogging on your own it can become a
little bit self-centered and it's just
because it's nice having subjects in
your photos and your videos i also think
having somebody around me i kind of
build on their energy and jody maybe on
camera doesn't show that she's full of
energy but in real life she's just full
of it so i kind of feed off her energy a
lot and i think that it probably shows
in the videos so i think that my
vlogging definitely changes when jody's
around it maybe has more of her in it
because i like featuring another person
having that scale in the videos but it's
also changed my photography because i
now get the chance to shoot more
portraits nobody wants to see a portrait
of me so it's nice having somebody that
i can shoot portraits of or shoot more
environmental environmental portraits on
the road and i can shoot you know just
have somebody outstanding in the
distance that looks better than i do in
a red dress what's my shoe size 10
because i'm average what do i think of
bitcoin um i'm mad about bitcoin because
about a year ago one of my buddies said
oh you should jump on this bitcoin thing
it's really cool and i had some money i
probably had a thousand dollars or maybe
a little bit more that i could have
invested that i wanted to invest and i
went onto a website to do the bitcoin
thing and i couldn't figure it out
because i'm not very tech guy i'm not
very tech savvy and i was like i don't
really understand it and i don't want to
invest in something i don't understand
and i just don't understand what bitcoin
is or how you make it and then obviously
now in that year that thousand dollars
or 1500
i think would have jumped to like 20
grand or something stupid so i hate
bitcoin if a genie said they give you
three houses anywhere in the world where
would you want them to be i think that's
an easier question than you'd expect
because one would be in cape town i love
cape town and i'd love to have a base
somewhere in southern africa the second
i think would be in portugal because i
love portugal absolutely love portugal
and i would love to have a base
somewhere in europe i don't need a base
in north america because my brother's
got a cool apartment in calgary in
canada my parents have a house in
arizona and so maybe my third house
would be the big challenge and i'd be
torn between somewhere like maybe brazil
or somewhere like colombia or somewhere
in asia i don't know where in asia but
somewhere
maybe a beach house somewhere in asia
would be cool last question my boy
michael pereira asks how much coffee did
you drink on the bvs america road trip
you guys are gonna be surprised but i
didn't drink much i made a rule on that
road trip that i was gonna only have one
energy drink and one coffee a day
because i was worried that i was gonna
just pound all this caffeine and then i
would like pass out or like crash or i'd
be driving and then i would crash and
then crash and i didn't want that
obviously so i had
one energy drink in usually around
midday and then a coffee in the evening
and that was usually how it worked the
first day i didn't have any coffee
chicago
my buddy john brought me a coffee then i
had a coffee crossing colorado and a
blizzard and then actually michael you
bought me a coffee in uh in moab so i
guess that's
four coffees
i think i had only four coffees the
whole way across america and
normal-sized coffees they weren't like
yeah anyways that's it let's get back to
the past back to wales and just like
that i'm back already so um i'm here at
this spot you might remember that a
while ago i was shooting a bunch of
images for a client eddie bauer a client
i love an outdoor brand and it's
actually one of my favorite clients to
shoot for and they actually
recommissioned me for a new set of
images for seven new images and i really
really want a shot here kind of a hiking
shot so i'm gonna go back i'm gonna get
my gear and i'm gonna set up a hiking
shot somewhere along this coast maybe
sat there with the lighthouse in the
background and some eddie bauer gear on
i think it'll be really cool so let's go
get the gear
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everything
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so the shots actually came out kind of
cool this
bluish light that i'm getting right now
actually kind of works it's moody and
yeah it's kind of beautiful i think i
already got the shot i wanted for the
client i'm going to talk to you not
about what i did or the settings but how
i did it so that was a long exposure
selfie the art of the longer exposure
selfie is kind of what i'm known for the
way i do it is really simple i just
stand still there's no layer blending
there's no layer masking i just stand
still and one of the tricks of doing
that is using a camera's intervalometer
so i have my camera's intervalometer
setup i was taking 15 second exposures
or eight second exposures and then i'll
set it up to take like 10 or 15 photos
and that way i can stand still for a
really long time and hopefully one of
them i didn't move doing that i can also
get farther away from the camera so i
don't have to like worry about beating
the 10 second timer or anything like
that i can also stand in multiple places
in case one works better than another so
i might only show one photo but the
chances are the camera took like three
or four the other thing i want to talk
about is safety
or at least safety for your camera when
you're on a cliff edge if you're on a
cliff edge or on a hill slope like this
you might be a little bit worried that
your camera gear is going to get knocked
over by wind and end up in the sea or
something like that and there's a pretty
simple solution to it and it actually
seems kind of counter-intuitive the way
my camera is set up shows that i'm not
right on the cliff anymore but i kind of
want to walk you through what i'm doing
the tripod is actually set up with two
feet pointing down the hill which is the
counterintuitive part because if you set
it up on level it feels like if it falls
it's going to fall right down the cliff
what you do is you set those two feet up
down the hill one foot backwards and
then you set this one foot way lower at
the back that way you're actually way
off level and the camera's leaning back
and if a gust of wind happens or you
knock your camera it's not going to fall
forward it's going to take a serious
amount of weight to knock it forward
what's likely going to happen is if it
falls it's going to bounce like that and
fall sideways or backwards into the
cliff edge and save your camera gear so
set up your tripod like that if you're
shooting on cliffs and now
and now the rain is just like crushing
down and i'm loving the light even
though it's crushing down and it's
splattering the filters in the front of
the lens so i'm actually going to go to
the other side of the lighthouse and cut
try a couple more photos before calling
this a show
okay check that not happening over here
it's way windier and the rain's starting
to hit me pretty hard so i'm actually
gonna call this an episode i want to
come back here
to this location to this region to wales
and to shoot again to shoot more this
has just been so incredible even with
the nasty weather and to be honest
this weather is probably not even close
to as nasty as it gets here sometimes um
but yeah that's it for me today hope you
like the q a and the photography even if
the weather was bad and i guess i'll see
you tomorrow
peace