Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Weekly Catch-up:
Ray got married to Emilie Reid Vairo this past week! The two of them had an amazing wedding on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and Puffins flying around in Newfoundland with their families. Brad and his wife Jenelle and their daughter joined in the celebration and Brad took some amazing photos and Jenelle performed the ceremony. Emilie and Ray are so happy with how it all turned out, it was such an incredible evening!!
The guys chat a little about all the eclipse photos they have seen this past week as well as specifically the ones from friends Tobias Yoder and Liron Gertsman which turned out incredible. They discuss how it can be overwhelming to see so many photos of the same thing at the same time on social media and how it can take away from a particular image feeling special. Then they discuss the same about all the Puffin photos shared over the summer season. They end the show answering a question from viewer Mark Noll. Brad shared about a couple of local urban locations that he photographed, which felt less isolated and more immersed in nature, yet still offered great photographic opportunities. He then showed a couple of other locations where he’s photographed loons and Rock Ptarmigan, which were a bit harder to reach and provided a more isolated and immersive experience in nature. Brad shared that these locations offer the best case scenario with stunning scenery and excellent photographic opportunities.
Mark’s question was:
“I just came up with a potential idea for a podcast kind of out of the blue I wanted to share to see if it might interest you. This is partially inspired based on your last few conversations about wanting to provide guests with a good overall experience in addition to good/unique photo ops on your workshops. I think it would be interesting if you talked about some specific places you’re traveled to that were either really cool but produced not great photo opportunities (maybe you felt this way about Costa Rica, maybe not since it wasn’t a trip you planned) or those that produce really nice photos but maybe the experience isn’t as cool (maybe Magee Marsh or Brooks Falls in Alaska if I had to guess, though I’ve never been to either - maybe some place in New Jersey?). I wonder how you and a potential guest might think about those tradeoffs when planning personal trips if you get say one or two per year. Do you alternate between photo trips and non-photo trips? Do you always take a camera with you on vacation? There are places that give you both nice wildlife photos and a good experience, but there are many places with very few animals that are probably worth visiting as well - do those interest you? Would you ever regret choosing the latter - which might have richer cultural, landscape, relaxing, hiking, etc. elements - because it feels like you’re “giving up” a chance to go an equally nice place but with photo opportunities? On the contrary, have you ever gone to a place that was a “meh” or commercialized experience but where the photo ops or photo experience was so good, it made the trip worth it or even superior to other options (or not)? Anyways, just an idea, not sure if you’ve already discussed this on the pod with anyone yet or not. This topic is likely appropriate for Brad or another guest that only gets to take a few trips per year rather than someone who leads multiple workshops a year or travels full time like yourself. Or maybe you can think back to your pre-van life perspective. The reason this came up is that a few years ago I visited the Ecuadorian Amazon, and I now find myself wanting to return purely for the natural experience, camping in the jungle, knowing I’ll likely not get any/many photos that would be worth sharing given the difficulty in seeing birds and general tangled mess the rainforest is. But I won’t have any regrets because of how unique and cool the Amazon ecosystem is. The Canadian Rockies are kind of similar from what I remember - beautiful experience, but not too many birds around compared to some other places. The same might be true of other non-natural places as well.”
Thanks for supporting the show:
Andy Bruner - instagram.com/andys_crappy_photos
Liam Corcoran - instagram.com/lcorcoran117
To support the show visit wildlifephotochatvideo.com
Weekly Catch-up:
Ray got married to Emilie Reid Vairo this past week! The two of them had an amazing wedding on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and Puffins flying around in Newfoundland with their families. Brad and his wife Jenelle and their daughter joined in the celebration and Brad took some amazing photos and Jenelle performed the ceremony. Emilie and Ray are so happy with how it all turned out, it was such an incredible evening!!
The guys chat a little about all the eclipse photos they have seen this past week as well as specifically the ones from friends Tobias Yoder and Liron Gertsman which turned out incredible. They discuss how it can be overwhelming to see so many photos of the same thing at the same time on social media and how it can take away from a particular image feeling special. Then they discuss the same about all the Puffin photos shared over the summer season. They end the show answering a question from viewer Mark Noll. Brad shared about a couple of local urban locations that he photographed, which felt less isolated and more immersed in nature, yet still offered great photographic opportunities. He then showed a couple of other locations where he’s photographed loons and Rock Ptarmigan, which were a bit harder to reach and provided a more isolated and immersive experience in nature. Brad shared that these locations offer the best case scenario with stunning scenery and excellent photographic opportunities.
Mark’s question was:
“I just came up with a potential idea for a podcast kind of out of the blue I wanted to share to see if it might interest you. This is partially inspired based on your last few conversations about wanting to provide guests with a good overall experience in addition to good/unique photo ops on your workshops. I think it would be interesting if you talked about some specific places you’re traveled to that were either really cool but produced not great photo opportunities (maybe you felt this way about Costa Rica, maybe not since it wasn’t a trip you planned) or those that produce really nice photos but maybe the experience isn’t as cool (maybe Magee Marsh or Brooks Falls in Alaska if I had to guess, though I’ve never been to either - maybe some place in New Jersey?). I wonder how you and a potential guest might think about those tradeoffs when planning personal trips if you get say one or two per year. Do you alternate between photo trips and non-photo trips? Do you always take a camera with you on vacation? There are places that give you both nice wildlife photos and a good experience, but there are many places with very few animals that are probably worth visiting as well - do those interest you? Would you ever regret choosing the latter - which might have richer cultural, landscape, relaxing, hiking, etc. elements - because it feels like you’re “giving up” a chance to go an equally nice place but with photo opportunities? On the contrary, have you ever gone to a place that was a “meh” or commercialized experience but where the photo ops or photo experience was so good, it made the trip worth it or even superior to other options (or not)? Anyways, just an idea, not sure if you’ve already discussed this on the pod with anyone yet or not. This topic is likely appropriate for Brad or another guest that only gets to take a few trips per year rather than someone who leads multiple workshops a year or travels full time like yourself. Or maybe you can think back to your pre-van life perspective. The reason this came up is that a few years ago I visited the Ecuadorian Amazon, and I now find myself wanting to return purely for the natural experience, camping in the jungle, knowing I’ll likely not get any/many photos that would be worth sharing given the difficulty in seeing birds and general tangled mess the rainforest is. But I won’t have any regrets because of how unique and cool the Amazon ecosystem is. The Canadian Rockies are kind of similar from what I remember - beautiful experience, but not too many birds around compared to some other places. The same might be true of other non-natural places as well.”
Thanks for supporting the show:
Andy Bruner - instagram.com/andys_crappy_photos
Liam Corcoran - instagram.com/lcorcoran117
To support the show visit wildlifephotochatvideo.com
