The Beginner Photography Podcast

510: Bryan Minear: Capture Emotional Stories Through Creative Photography - The Traveler

• Raymond Hatfield

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In this episode of the podcast, I chat with Fujifilm X-Photographer, Bryan Minear, a passionate documentary and landscape photographer whose creative journey is as inspiring as it is instructive. Bryan shares how he rekindled his love for photography by focusing on landscapes and personal projects that resonate deeply with his life experiences. Learn from his meticulous trip planning to White Sands and the emotional significance of his project with his son.

THE BIG IDEAS

  • Find Joy in Creativity: Embrace the beginner’s mindset to discover the joy in every shot. This mindset can transform ordinary scenes into extraordinary captures. 
  • Pursue Personal Projects: Personal photography projects provide a deeper connection to your work, fuel creativity, and can teach you unique lessons about storytelling. 
  • Value Planning and Spontaneity: Balance meticulous planning with the flexibility to embrace unexpected moments. Both elements contribute to capturing authentic, powerful images. 
  • Emotional Resonance: Aim to create images that evoke emotions and tell a compelling story, adding depth and meaning to your portfolio.

PHOTOGRAPHY ACTION PLAN

  1. Begin a Personal Project: Choose a theme that resonates with your life experiences or passions. Plan a detailed roadmap, setting milestones and goals to guide your progress.
  2. Focus on Storytelling: Identify the story you want each image to tell before pressing the shutter. Include elements in the frame that support and enhance the narrative of your photo.
  3. Schedule and Plan Shoots: Research and plan your photography trips meticulously, including contingency plans for unforeseen circumstances. Use tools like maps, apps, or online forums to scout locations and understand the best times for optimal lighting and weather conditions.
  4. Embrace Spontaneous Moments: Stay flexible and ready to capture unplanned, authentic moments that may arise during your shoots. Keep your camera accessible and practice taking quick, candid shots in various settings.
  5. Reflect and Review: After each shoot, take time to review your work, noting what worked and what could be improved. Gather feedback from peers or mentors and use it constructively to refine your approach and technique.

RESOURCES:
Visit Bryan Minear's Website - https://bryanminear.com/traveler/
Follow Bryan Minear on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bryanminear/

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Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Bryan Minear:

There's something special about being a beginner or having that beginner mindset because it allows you to, you know, I talked about wanting to unlearn some of the things that I had kind of had developed into my style over time. Everybody's chasing kind of the end result. I just want to be good and do the thing. But like, it's really the journey where you find the most, fulfillment.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the beginner photography podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield. And today we're chatting with landscape photographer, Brian Manier about creating a father son photo project that transcends time. Yeah. But first, the beginner photography podcast is brought to you by CloudSpot. With CloudSpot, you can sell your photos through prints, products, and of course, digitals. You can set up a storefront in just minutes and start earning more with every single gallery that you send. So grab your free forever account over at deliverphotos. com and only upgrade when you are ready. I was, introduced to Brian from past guests, Christopher Gilbert. And I remember looking at his website for the first time and thinking like, this guy's on a whole other level like with blending Both photography and graphic design together. He is able to create some really cool stuff He also had a post about a recent photo project that he made with his son called the traveler which was described as personal project about fatherhood legacy and breaking generational cycles Yeah, a lot went into this. You can tell, it's very sci fi, it's very space. But it's also very playful and childlike and I think all around just really incredible. So I encourage you to check out the images for yourself, which you can actually find the link in the show notes of this episode, or you can just head over to traveler. photo right now to check them out. But in today's interview, Brian is going to teach you how personal projects can turn your love for photography into deeply powerful and meaningful experiences that you can then share with others, which is great. And remember to stick around to the end of the episode where I'm going to recap what Brian shares today into some practical tips that you can then implement into your own photography to become a better photographer yourself. So with that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Brian Muneer. Brian, I really want to know, when did you first know that photography was going to play an important role in your life?

Bryan Minear:

That's such a hard question to answer. It's such a good question. Photography, to me, I've had so many different phases of the type of photography that I did. I knew it was special to me really early on. When I was, in college and getting to print and develop in the darkroom. That's really where I fell in love with the process. I just, had this feeling, I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, but I knew there was something really special about it. And even, I think, the moment it hit the hardest was probably when I got my first DSLR. mainly got it because I was going to school for graphic design at the time, dating myself a little bit, but it was really hard to find like high res textures to layer on stuff that I was making for, from a design standpoint. And so I wanted my first digital camera so I could just take my own high res textures to be able to use in my design work. So, really when it first started for me, It was more about that. It wasn't like I'm pursuing this career in photography to photograph people. And eventually it kind of grew into that. Cause you know, you become the person with the camera and then all of a sudden everybody's like, well, would you take pictures of, can I pay you to take pictures of this or this or this wedding? And, so you kind of hit the ground running there, but yeah, from very early on, I mean, I was the kid that my dad was always kind of a tech nerd a little bit, even though he wasn't particularly creative, but was the kid that was always like sneaking into his office to steal his digital camera just to make cool things with my friends. I was a skateboarder kid growing up, so I was always the guy that was filming and taking photos of us doing stupid stuff on a skateboard, so it's been around for a long time for me, and it's just changed roles in my life so many times.

Raymond Hatfield:

When do you think it changed most recently for you? Like, when did you decide, you know what, graphic design is, it's cool and all, but I also want to pursue photography more than just textures.

Bryan Minear:

I mean, was a pretty slow progression, I'd say, because, I was basically, again, dating myself, but I taught myself to code by making, like, MySpace layouts for bands. Um, Yeah. so, quickly it went from textures to I played in bands growing up, so all my friends bands, I'd do, like, promo photos for them and then use those photos in the layouts. And then, I found strobus. com and David Hobby and taught myself off camera lighting. And then, once I started feeling more comfortable with that, then came, like, portraits and, commercial work for, like, local banks and stuff. And then, I started second shooting for a professor of mine who was a wedding photographer and started getting into wedding photography that way and then did wedding photography for a really long time and it was probably around 20, it was right after I got married, so 2012 2013, I really started like, I don't know, I just started feeling a little burnout. I was taking like a wedding photography workshop. And just to, boost up the business side. Cause I'm very much a creative. I hate, the business side of stuff. if I could just be independently wealthy and just have fun taking photos for the rest of my life, that would be ideal. making money. Yeah, exactly, exactly like MySpace Tom. but yeah, I think, I just hit this point where it was like, I think it's time. I basically had the realization that if I didn't Kept going down that path of like further and further trying to like monetize and make a living I was just going to end up hating photography and probably within like a year to two I was just going to burn out and quit. So I just, I made the, a weird decision was at a time when, all the blogs online where I'm quitting my full time job to go freelance. And I was quitting freelance to get a full time job and I just finally decided I'm going to put my degree to use. I'm going to get a job as a designer and, purely focus on photography. What I love about photography versus chasing, clients and stuff like that. So that, and then getting my first Fujifilm cameras kind of signified the last major shift in my career, I'd say going from like a grinding working photographer to, I'm just going to try to figure out how to be a landscape photographer. And I had no goals to like monetize anything. I just wanted to find like my passion for photography again.

Raymond Hatfield:

Was the reason why you didn't want to continue with weddings simply because the business side or was it because the subject matter as well?

Bryan Minear:

as like, it's just visual problem solving. And so, wedding photography, I kind of felt the same way, would have a lot of anxiety leading up to a wedding, but like, when I'm in it, it was just, I know what to do, and I know I can kind of, uh, improvise my way through this. But I think it just got to a point where the juice wasn't quite worth the squeeze for me. My wife was also, In our last kind of round of the business, she was also my second shooter. We started doing more like location and travel weddings, which was cool because we got kind of a vacation out of it. But then we had kids, which changed kind of the dynamic of everything. She couldn't second shoot for me. I started having to hire second shooters and it just kind of lost a little bit of its luster, I think. And landscapes to me, I grew up in kind of rural Southeastern Ohio, like the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, and I just was always drawn to that kind of, landscape scene. I was just obsessed with Ansel Adams from the first time I ever saw one of his photography books and that kind of, on me in a way that even, just sat in the back of my subconscious, cause I can look back at those early photos when I was teaching myself off camera lighting and I was doing a lot of senior portraits and stuff and I would find a really nice landscape scene that I liked, and then I would drop someone in it and just light them and then wait for a sun, you know what I mean? So, I was kind of already after that sort of thing, it was just, I needed to get paid, so I needed to put somebody in the scene to make money. And then, so when I took that element away, and I could really just focus on what drew me to the scene in the first place, I think that's when things started changing for me.

Raymond Hatfield:

So today shooting landscapes, what drives you to a scene?

Bryan Minear:

That's a great question. I feel like, 2022. My running joke was that I was like amidst an existential crisis of what even kind of photographer am I? I think so much now even has changed for me over the past couple years. I've slipped into this documentary photographer. I love just documenting my family. I constantly have a camera on me I'm constantly taking photos of my two sons and my wife and just whatever we're doing, but i'm also always doing it in a way that isn't just like Snapshots of daily life. I'm trying to also push myself to think more creatively about how I'd approach a scene in any particular scene that is whether it's a landscape or not So I think the things that draw me to a scene now, you know, it used to be that perfect light or finding, the right composition or the right contrast of colors. I'm trying to unlearn. I'm trying to think outside of the box that I, I've kind of painted myself into over the past 10, 15 years. to, it is, but I think it's, rewarding. so last year I have a friend, from Omaha who I travel a lot with now. And we decided last minute to go shoot the annular eclipse in Utah last October. And it was like, I had a flight credit from Delta that was expiring. He lives in Omaha, which is obviously like dead center in the United States. So he's like, well, just fly into Denver. I'll drive to Denver, pick you up, and then we'll drive the rest of the way to Utah. And it was like, 30 hours of travel or something like that for about a day of shooting. It was like a crazy turnaround. But one of the things that stood out to me the most is, you know, we, go to Hanksville, Utah, which is where, Oh, what's it called? I'm like blanking on the name right now. That doesn't matter. Just this giant Butte and the eclipse was happening right overhead. So we get there and we photograph it. It's great. It's my first annular eclipse. It was super cool. Ring of fire. Got great, amazing photos on our way back. We decided to stop at this little town just outside of Denver, Just this tiny little mountain town, it's like nestled in the mountains. maybe Omaha or Idaho Springs or something like that. And we just did like a little photo walk. The light wasn't great cause like we're in the mountains so, the sun's kind of already come up, it's maybe 10 in the morning and it's just blue skies, but we walked around this little town for hour, hour and a half, just taking photos. And of that trip, you know, I went for the eclipse, but that experience of just doing this little impromptu photo walk, my friend was shooting with, some film camera something. And I was shooting mostly, I think with the X 100 V and just, looking for Little pockets of light or little interesting compositions that we could find. Like that was the highlight of the trip for me. And so I think it's just interesting how your approach to a subject or scene changes over time. When we were going to do this podcast, I was thinking, trying to get back into the mindset I had when I first started photography, thinking like a beginner. And it's hard, I remember wanting to be at an end result, right? I looked at photographers that I looked up to, like Ryan Dyer, Mark Adamus, like these epic landscape photographers, but me being in the Midwest with a full time job and a family, it's, hard to travel and do that kind of thing. So I had to kind of adapt my style to what Does landscape photography in the Midwest look like if you're doing that same type of thing? So that's kind of how I developed my style originally I forget where I was going with this. Wow. I just totally lost my train of thought Sorry

Raymond Hatfield:

I think what I loved about that is, and I can relate. I had a wedding a few years ago in Kansas City, and I was really looking forward to this wedding. I just drove out there because I like that kind of exploration element of it. The drive, and I grew up in California. So it's like driving through the Midwest is there's something to it that visually I like, and the wedding was great, but the morning after I was going to drive back home, but the couple told me about like this little bakery downtown. And I was like, okay, yeah, I'll go check it out. They're like, you gotta go. They opened up at four and then they're like, yeah, the line is out the door already at 4am. So I showed up and sure enough, the line was out the door. I don't know why I was expecting anything different, but I was like, I'm not going to stand in that line. So I literally just like walked around in the dark of Kansas City like downtown Kansas City and later I found out the worst part of Kansas City, but regardless That hour and a half was the most memorable part of that whole trip for me, even though it's like I went for that wedding there's something about just the walking around and just seeing what happens like seeing the world for what it is rather than As you know of being a wedding photographer, it's like you do have to be reactionary, but it's within a bubble like, you know the flow of the day, you know that you're focusing on these two people and then kind of the people around them but just going out and just walking around is you can do whatever and there's the freedom in that I think that when you can tap into that it becomes a lot more enjoyable But like as a beginner, I know that that can be difficult. But also makes up like a lot of the fun when you can, tap into that. But, recently you worked on, like you're getting into personal projects as well. More so than just, I mean, I guess landscape photography is a, form of a personal project, but like, I want to know more about, your personal project, the traveler, because this is something that like, when I found it, it was on your website. I was captivated. One, my son is very much into aviation and like I saw a lot of parallels there. I was like, wow, this is so gorgeous, but also I could tell that like from I could tell looking at the photos that you have a graphic design background like there's a lot of geometry it's very simple and yet impactful which is obviously very important in graphic design as well. So, for the listeners, can you tell us a little bit about this project the traveler I guess let's just start there, like how you got into this, where this idea came from, because it's not traditional landscape photography.

Bryan Minear:

Man, there's so many layers to this project. it's crazy. This is the first time I'm really talking about it versus just writing and ideating on it. You know, It started back in 2020, the very first traveler image. It's actually hanging right here above my desk. We took that, my son was four. It was like I said, 2020, so four years ago, but we're coming out of the pandemic. where he had started kindergarten and, as a kindergartner, had to do Zoom classes into school, which I still think was the funniest thing. He was sitting, I'm trying to work at my little office desk and he's like sitting at a kitchen table next to me. It was just silly. But anyway, that whole, I mean, it changed all of us, for better, for worse. But I remember distinctly having a conversation with my wife about, because we, my wife and I both work and at the time we both had office jobs. So it was, very much dropped the kid off at daycare, go to work, pick the kid up from daycare, come home. And, just thinking about like all this time that you're losing with them in that process. And so the pandemic kind of, I mean, it obviously was not great, but for us as a family, it felt like we were getting time back, when we were getting to spend more time together. And it was hard in some ways, but in other ways it was great because, Miles, my son started coming out and, taking photos with me. and just in getting to spend more time with him, I got to notice more of what he was interested in. At that age for he's really, really was starting to communicate as a first time dad, like, getting to have a conversation with this little kid who used to not be able to talk, it just was blowing my mind. So I tapped into something in that year. Where I was just getting to observe him or getting to show him something that I liked when I was a kid Getting to play with lego together, getting him into star wars and space and all of that stuff So we had all this bonding time. And so I think that's really where it started I was just I became enamored with childlike wonder and kind of as a concept And one morning it was I think I remember if it was october or november, but it was late in the year And I woke up With, like, out of a dead sleep with, a vision of this image that I wanted to take. The one that's hanging here, it's, kind of him, him in his astronaut suit, which we had bought just because we were into space and, you know, having fun. He loved costumes. We were very much the family that goes to, Target, after the day after Halloween and buys like 15 costumes for 2 a piece. Like he just always loved costumes. So, I just had this idea for an image that, You know him very again single single point perspective like moon overhead in focus him out of focus shot wide open on an f 12 lens Just him completely blurred out with this tiny moon in focus over his head And I just had that in my head when I woke up and I was like this never has happened to me before. I was like, we need to go take this photo. So I was like, Miles, grab your stuff. We just hopped in the car, went down the road to this spot where we used to live. We had these kind of wide open fields and stuff. And everything was perfect. The sun was rising, hitting, like, the light was perfect, the moon was in a perfect spot, I had to stand him up on the hood of my car so I could get, like, the right angle, but everything about it just worked out in a way that I was like, that was weird. And then, that's when it kind of all started, Like, what does it mean? Why am I doing this? And, It was a very slow, I didn't really know what it was. Outside of just a cool visual concept, something fun that I was doing with my son. But then, my wife and I started therapy, just went through a rough patch, started therapy. And it started bringing up some stuff from my childhood and some issues that I had with my own dad. And, I started really realizing why I am the parent that I am. And why, you know, I'm trying to kind of knee jerk reaction to the way that I was raised, a little bit. As I started uncovering that stuff, I started kind of drawing parallels between the project, me as a dad, and what that, what all that looked like. So really, when it started, it was just a very simple visual concept. And I just wrote about it a lot. I'm a cyclist, I ride my bike a ton. I'd be on, out riding my bike somewhere and just have this thought. And have to stop and like type it into my notes app for later. I just wrote about it constantly, what it meant to me. because like you said, personal project. I looked at landscape photography when I first started as a personal project, because in my mind, there's no way I was getting paid for any of that, right? I was just doing it to kind of reignite that passion for photography again. But this kind of took it to a whole other level because I started, there was just more layers to it, that I needed to uncover and it took, you know, we, took a bunch of, photos just kind of locally around, but my goal with it was always to take him somewhere that we can experience a place for the first time together, like I do on like a landscape photography trip. But father and son, having this kind of bonding experience together, that was always kind of the ultimate goal. I just didn't know how to make it happen. So, when I pitched Fujifilm on the project and it kind of aligned with, some things that they had, coming up for a launch, it kind of shifted everything into overdrive. And it quickly, it quickly spiraled into. Oh wow, I'm way over my head and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Raymond Hatfield:

Tell me more about like, how then this idea came together because it is more than just a single image, but it's when I look at it, I can see a story. Well, I guess first, I guess we didn't touch upon this. Tell me what is. The Traveler, like who is the Traveler? and then also, how did you start to build out? Like, what are the images that you wanted to create here?

Bryan Minear:

So, to me, The Traveler, when it started, it was more about the representation of childlike wonder, To me, distilled down, I thought about me as a kid wanting to go to space camp, watching just sci fi films. Stuff that inspired me to, like, dream bigger growing up, I had kind of an emotionally abusive father. And so, I didn't have a lot of one on one time with him. We never went out to the yard and had a catch. I was just telling Miles, my son, the other day, cause we ride our bikes all the time, and he asked me something about my childhood, and I was like, well, I didn't really do stuff like this with my dad, you know? My dad's idea of us having father son time was like, we had a giant yard and two riding lawnmowers, and we would mow the lawn together. Like, that was my dad's idea of us having bonding time. So, So, much of my childhood

Raymond Hatfield:

of personal

Bryan Minear:

Yeah. right? mowing 13 acres and, never seeing each other except when you need to refill the gas tank. but yeah, so I think so much of, that was almost me photographing, myself as a kid dreaming about, cause books were my escape. One of the new traveler images, there's an image where, Miles is sitting in the suit and he's reading a book as kind of the moon setting behind him. And I have an led inside that's kind of illuminating the book and up at him. That's me as a kid, as pure escapism into sci fi books and stuff like that, because it was, how I kind of got out of my present circumstance that wasn't great. So, so much of what The Traveler started in this childlike wonder realm, there's just a lot of layers to it. Because I kind of found myself in it. I found myself as a kid, but also as a dad, wanting to break generational cycles. Like I said, I started it in 2020 and we took a few images here and there, maybe like 10 total, but I never really connected it to myself outside of just myself as the father of a kid. When I really kind of touched base with and came to terms with some of the stuff, from my childhood, The creative producer that I was working with at Fujifilm Verena, we had all these phone calls leading up to the project where she was kind of, helping me kind of figure out what this was. And they were like just full on therapy sessions, you know, where I'm talking like, I don't know how this can relate. And she'd be like, you hear what you just said? How does that not relate to, you know, this? So I think the most daunting part of it, for me From a photography standpoint,'cause there's a whole like emotional putting yourself out there in this way standpoint, that was equally as hard but from a photography standpoint, I had to normally as a landscape photographer, it's just kind of like you do research and time scouting, location, you know, you do that stuff, but like you're kind of at mercy with whatever the weather decides to do. Or you just go to a place and you take photos and then you're done. This was like. Everything was scheduled because we had a production team there with us shooting a video, so I had to have every single shot broken down what it meant when we were shooting it. was a lot. Multiple times I was like, Farina, I don't think I can do this. This is like, way above my pay grade. But she was like, trust me. You can do this. That's what I'm here for. I had a great cheerleader along the way that was kind of pushing me to rise above what I thought I could do. yeah, hopefully that answered your question. I know it went a lot of different directions, but ultimately, like, The Traveler is, you know, it's, all of us, right? banner image, I would say, my favorite image of the series is Miles holding this flaming paper airplane. That, to me, we actually shot that here in Michigan about two to three weeks before we left for New Mexico. And part of that was me wanting to like, have a couple in the can before we, go and then roll the dice on, Hey, is, are we even going to see the sun at all when we get there? Because the sun and the moon are kind of important parts of all of this. So part of it was just me wanting to like, test the suit that we made for him and make sure everything worked, but like distilling down that idea, that base idea of child like wonder into a single piece of paper, right? This paper airplane that all of us grew up making as kids, and throwing. Me and Miles make them all the time. We have contests for how far we can throw them. It seemed like the perfect, representation of the project, and the core principles of the project. The flames, igniting it on fire, is like that's the anxiety and like all the adulthood stuff that kind of creeps up on us and just wipes all that childlike wonder that we once had away without us even knowing, right? One day it's like we're just these free spirited kids that aren't afraid of anything and then the next we're terrified because we have all this responsibility. So I think that to me and then he's he's just holding it defiantly because he's this like kid that doesn't know any better, right? Holding this, flaming paper airplane right in front of his face, and it just, it kind of, that represents the project the most to me, because it's kind of connecting deeply with the core principles that the whole project was founded around. But it's also, hopefully, expressed in a way that everybody can kind of find themselves in it. And, my whole goal for the project was, I mean, for me personally, obviously, to kind of like break this generational cycle of terrible fatherhood in my family, but hopefully inspires other parents or non parents to just reconnect with their inner child and realize that, we're here for such a short time on earth and there's so much beauty in this world, and I think just finding a way to not get caught up in all the, anxiety and depression that we all kind of face daily is, something I wanted to express.

Raymond Hatfield:

Especially during an election cycle for sure. Yeah, I get that. I will say that like looking at the photos, like specifically the one that you're talking about, how you just described it is exactly how I experienced it. So I think that you hit the nail on the head on that one. But diving into personal projects more, there's this feeling for me personally of like, I don't want to waste my time, right? Like, I guess it's like I have this idea. One, is this anything? Two, who cares? Right? Like, I take these photos of my kids, right? What do I do with these photos? And then three, it's like when you finally get over those first two okay, now the rubber has to meet the road. And where does it start? So for you, obviously the idea came to mind, right? Kind of mirroring your own childhood, the childhood that you wished that you had, fleeting childhood, that whole time travel aspect of it. But from a technical standpoint of putting this together, making sure that you got the images that you wanted, because you said that you went out to New Mexico, did it start with finding a location and going from there? Did it start with you're also a graphic designer? Let me build out these photos in my head and see how I can create them or something else.

Bryan Minear:

can remember back when I was just a working photographer. I remember, do you know Jeremy Cowart? The photographer Jeremy Cowart?

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes.

Bryan Minear:

Yeah. Okay, so I discovered him early on in my journey and was a big fan because he's obviously a mixed media artist, painter, does a lot of different things, graphic design, So I, found a kindred spirit in him and he always talked about having the importance of personal work. And I can remember thinking at the time, I'm like making money. Why am I, I'm going to pause making money so I could just go, like, Do a personal project? Why? Like, it doesn't, I'm having fun doing what I'm doing.

Raymond Hatfield:

it doesn't add up,

Bryan Minear:

so then I burn out because I didn't have the personal work. And so, I, got a taste of, what I should have been doing all along the way. But it is very important and I think if nothing else, it's just allowing yourself to experiment. I remembered what I was going to say when I was talking about trying to get back in the mind of a beginner photographer, when I look at photos that I took when I was first learning strobes, and I was making my own beauty dishes out of Tupperware, and spray painting it black, I can look back at, like, those test photos that I took, and think, man, there's just something to these, when I had no idea what I was doing, that I don't feel like I have now that I have all of the best equip not the best, but I have all the equipment and I have the lighting and I have the, you know, so I think there's something special about being a beginner or having that beginner mindset because it allows you to, you know, I talked about wanting to unlearn some of the things that I, had kind of had developed into my style over time. It's hard, you know, everybody's chasing kind of the end result. I just want to be good and do the thing. But it's really the journey where you find the most, fulfillment. At least for me. So, getting back now, jumping back to your question. Man, the planning for this project was so tough. First and foremost, it was a personal project. For me, but also I had deliverables to meet for Fujifilm, I was shooting this new GF medium format, 500 millimeter lens. It aligned perfectly with the only reason that I agreed to do it at all was because that's how I wanted to, shoot this project. The moon is a representation of me. The sun is representation of my dad. There's so much symbolism that's baked into all of these. And a lot of that, those ideas, which was the question, right? How did these kind of come to be? Was just kind of a, this path of self discovery. I started reading this book called, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. It's by Annie dillard. I don't recommend it for everyone. It's a thick read, but it's, essentially just this lady who's in the Blue Ridge Mountains making observations of the natural world around her. The book is compiled from a bunch of essays that she wrote over this like year to two year period. And so it's, it's just her talking about going out and getting puddle water and then coming back inside and looking at it under a microscope and seeing all the organisms. It's very like, get caught up in the moment. Get lost in the moment. The things that we take for granted every day and don't notice. What can you see if you really stop, slow down enough to look? So I'm reading this book while I am kind of developing ideas for the traveler project. And I can't tell you the number of times that I'm like reading the same passage over and over to try to figure out what she's really trying to say. And I'd get so lost and have an idea for, oh my gosh, like, what if I use 65 by 24 crop of this GFX camera? To do a triptych of images that kind of express, again, the core principles of the project and what I'm trying, you know what I mean? So, it was very much, that process. And here I have, like my little notebook of sketches that I originally did for the triptych. So there's a lot of like, that sort of thing. It was very much a, I have no idea what I'm doing. But. I have these creative inclinations and I really tried to get back to that mindset of, I think, not to rabbit trail again, but I think this relates in a lot of ways. Last year, 2023 I did my first ever 365 day project where I photographed something or made something every single day. There were a couple of times where I copped out and I did like an illustration on my iPad. Because it kind of fell under the umbrella of creating something every single day, but most of it was photography. And I, just so much changed about the way I approach a scene, the way I approach a subject over that year period. And then I ended up losing my job right after Thanksgiving, of last year. So I switched into freelance, got the call from Fujifilm that like, hey, this project might, be working out. So then all of a sudden it was like just all these life things kind of lined up in a way to where I never would have been able to do this if I had a full time job, if I hadn't gotten laid off from, this job. So everything kind of worked out in a way to where I had the brain power and To really explore it. and I think that's kind of what made it I mean, I'm not really one to toot my own horn. I made something that I am absolutely, me and my kid are just absolutely proud of from every possible standpoint, and I really don't care what anybody else thinks. But like, I feel like we made something special because of the time. You know, so much of the planning had to be done because of, like, the production team and all of that stuff. But, I went overboard with the planning up front. Primarily because I wanted this to be a father son trip first and foremost, right? I didn't want it to be, like, a photo trip that I'm just, like, dragging my kid along for and he's miserable the whole time. You know? I wanted it to be, a real experience for the both of us, and that, so, to answer another question within your, question about location, we picked White Sands, one, because it's temperate. We were shooting this in February. It was supposed to be actually the end of January, but then we couldn't get permits, from the park in time, so we had to bump it a month to the next full moon cycle. So it was February, so we needed it to be like, semi warm, so I knew it had to be somewhere in the

Raymond Hatfield:

Not Michigan

Bryan Minear:

Not Michigan no. Miles, when we shot that, the paper airplane shot, it was like, the cool thing that I love about that is nobody really notices the background because obviously there's so much going on in the photo, but if you just look at the background, you could kind of think, Hey, that's just like, But it's actually, like, a frozen lake. There's snow on a lake in the background. He was just completely frozen when we shot that. So, yeah, if it was, if it was anywhere else, it just wouldn't have worked out for all the, we need to be outside for. But White Sands was perfect because it just checked all the boxes. it was a place that I had never been. I wanted that genuine experiences of us, going to a place together for the first time and, getting to, see it for the first time. Not me taking him to a place that I've been 50 times before. There's also the, idea that, the purity of childhood, going back to this idea of kids being kind of a blank slate of wonder, the white sand plays perfectly into that as, like, a visual concept. But then also, I just, I love, Dunes and the desert. was born in Ohio and raised in Ohio and I currently live in Michigan, but like I should live in the desert that's my color palette. It's my Idea of like perfect life. I just love it so much other option was anza borrego. It's right outside of palm springs. We almost did that when we couldn't get the permits for White Sands, but like, so much would have changed had that been the case. And I think the other thing with White Sands that kind of made it perfect was, there's this insane connection between, the origins of NASA and them using, the White Sands as like a testing ground for like lunar modules and stuff. So, on top of Getting to go to the park and stuff. We stayed in, the town of Alamogordo, which is just northeast of White Sands, and they have the New Mexico Space History Museum. So we got to go to this and do father son stuff at the Space History Museum. And so that really added to kind of that overall, vibe that I wanted for the trip, not just to be like grueling, waking my kid up at 4 a. m. every day to go catch a moon set. I w wanted to have everything planned down to the, like, time so that I wasn't having to think while we were there, right? I could just go and execute and then be a dad and have fun with my kid and we got sleds and we sledded down dunes. So I think, all in all, there were so many, so many variables and I was so stressed about it. But the one nice kind of saving grace about it all is, like I said, we were supposed to shoot it at the end of January. Saturday, so like three days before we were supposed to leave, I got a text, a group text from the, Fujifilm team, saying, you know, we couldn't get the permits in time, what are we gonna do, and I was like, oh no, this is, everything's falling apart and unraveling, but from that point on, when we were like, no, we can push it a month, the director, David, was just absolutely phenomenal, he had to like, leave from White Sands, Go back to New York to his apartment and then fly to Africa like the next day for another project. So he was, he was just super graceful and, giving us that extra time, I think helped immensely because from that point on, I was like, it was almost like you're cramming for a final, but then also the professor's like, yeah, you got another month and then it's like, okay, I can do this for sure. So was at that point where I was like, I'm just going to shut off the anxiety. We're gonna crush this. It's gonna be fine. And, we did. So I think a lot of it comes down to like, just, having that confidence level, and the preparation that allows for the confidence level to go and execute on something like that. With so many variables. Like the weather was a variable, Miles was a seven year old kid at the time, like,

Raymond Hatfield:

yeah, They don't always cooperate 100 percent at 7, Yeah,

Bryan Minear:

was there's in the video. I love it. We had walkie talkies, because obviously I wanted to be able to I'm shooting with a 500 millimeter lens sometimes so far away from I want to be able to communicate. So we had a walkie talkie like into an earpiece running up into his helmet. And in the video, they left it in. There's like a moment where I'm like on the walkie like, Okay, can you just go back and walk one more time? And he's like, Okay. Are you kidding me? Freaking out about it, and I'm like, yeah,

Raymond Hatfield:

You're like, come on, please. There's a whole video crew here.

Bryan Minear:

is like, this is what we're here for. We had those moments, you know? I think, one other thing that I'll say, the morning that we shot the book image that I was talking about, that was like very much a, we're crushing into the park to try to catch this moon setting in this perfect spot. When I got that image, I just had like tears in my eyes, I can't even believe, like I have this, I have the photo that I showed you in the notebook, right? And then we do make this exact image that I've wanted to make for the last month or two. It was just overwhelming emotionally. But then, as soon as that was done, we quickly changed sets to get the image where he's pulling the wagon, with the sun kind of popping up behind him. I had forgotten this is in the video too, I'd forgotten his gloves. run very hot so like, I had a puffer jacket and his gloves were in my jacket pockets in the car. I'd left it in the car cause I was like I have so much adrenaline in my body right now I'm not gonna need a coat. He's pulling this wagon, which is a metal handle, frozen. His fingers are just hurting and painful. I'm like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, but we can get through this. Right after that, he was just done. The production team went back, cause we had to reset for the sunset later that day. was like, can we just stay and get a couple more images? And he was just like, I can't do this. And I was like, just a few, and then we'll sled, then we'll go back to the hotel, we'll get in the pool, hot tub, we'll have a good time. He had this moment where I was trying to get him to like run up a dune and jump which when you're wearing all the stuff in the helmet it's hard, right? And so I was like, let's just try a couple and he had this breakdown moment where he was just like overtired, he was done and I felt bad for pushing him But I got this image where he's kind of sitting and he did this organically. I didn't even pose him or anything He just took his helmet off sat down, helmet in his lap, and just like put his head up against the helmet. So I have this perfect side view of that, of him just kind of like hugging this helmet. And immediately I had this text exchange with my sister, my younger sister, this was like before the project started, I was kind of filling her in on, what we were doing, what we were going to make, and how it was related to our childhood and everything. And she, she said to me like, I just wish there was a way that we could go back in time and hug those kids, talking about me and her as kids, hug those kids and tell them that it's all going to be okay. And so when I told the creative producer Verena about that text exchange, she was like, Oh my gosh, you have to figure out a way. To get an image of that, like what that looks like, I have no idea. And so as soon as he did that and I saw that photo, I was like, holy crap, it not even planned, you know, it just happened organically, but there it is. There's the photo of him and just the look on his face, you could tell he just was full of so much emotion. Yeah, I don't know. it was incredible. It was one of those just life changing kind of experiences. That, it's probably the coolest thing I'll ever do, for sure.

Raymond Hatfield:

It's all downhill from here. You talked a lot about like obviously the preparation, being prepared, having everything scheduled, drafted out, you know exactly how it's gonna look. But then you have these moments where your son surprises you, right? And you take those photos that were completely unplanned. I mean, you just took time to tell me about this moment that you didn't plan at all, you

Bryan Minear:

Mhm.

Raymond Hatfield:

As a photographer, I know that, sometimes we have to, I like to call those happy accidents, right? Like, hey, this is great. I wasn't expecting this at all. This is great. But how do you deal with, you think that the project would have been as strong without an image like that? The preparation is key, right? You felt better because you prepared for this project. And you said that it was timed out to the minute. Did you give yourself room to allow for things to happen, like this? And how important was that for you?

Bryan Minear:

For sure. Absolutely important. One thing that, had this not been a Fujifilm project, had we just gone and done it, it would have been so different. It would have been harder to motivate Miles, I think. Because obviously, there was, you know,

Raymond Hatfield:

It's just you and dad, eh? It's, yeah.

Bryan Minear:

The stakes weren't as high. You know, this, we had to do it in three days. And so I basically, I had a PDF document. That I called my, I think it was just titled like sunandmoonbible. pdf or something. And it was basically, I had taken screen grabs of every day we were going to be there. Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset for three days. I took screenshots of the app PhotoPills showing these times so we had essentially like day one. Here's our sunrise sunset times. So basically what? The moon was setting in the morning before the Sun rose and then this the moon was rising right at sunset So we had kind of like brief times to nail the shots that I wanted so that's why it was so important to kind of schedule it but like we definitely had a First day, here are the shots that I plan to get. If it doesn't work out this day, we have a contingency day. We ended up needing our contingency day to shoot, just interview, you know, me talking content for the video. Thankfully we didn't need to use the contingency day for anything because everything went so, so smoothly. But, I don't think it would have been the same project had I not prepped. But there was definitely, I left room in the

Raymond Hatfield:

better or for worse?

Bryan Minear:

For worse. For worse. Yeah, for sure.

Raymond Hatfield:

You think it was the pressure of, having to perform because now you had people there recording this forced you to be prepared to get everything that you wanted?

Bryan Minear:

Yeah. For sure. Had the production team not been there and I not had to plan out every single day, I would have been way more loose with it. I would have had kind of a shot list. And then I would have had the research for the timing of everything, but I don't think I would have plotted it out as far as like, this is the shot we're getting at this time, and then we'll move into this, and then we'll move into this. It would have been more of a fly by the seat of our pants thing. So I think that definitely played in my favor. I mean, even the project happening at all, right? This is something I've wanted to do for a really long time. And I was finally forced to do all of the hard work to make it happen, because I had to meet a deadline, you know? I think it's just like the me, I'm very motivated by deadlines, so I don't know that I could've, if it was just a thing that I was going out to do myself, I would've, we would've done it for sure. But like, going to my wife to say, hey me and Miles are gonna, we're gonna go for a week to White Sands and you can stay home with the other Um, it would have been a harder sell than, Hey, we're doing this crazy project for, Fujifilm, and Miles is even getting paid as, like, an actor. That was also a part of it that was really cool, was them giving me a budget for the project, and then me being able to say, Okay, well this amount of money I'm dedicating, to Miles for, being that, the talent

Raymond Hatfield:

Being a part of it. Yeah. Yeah. absolutely. So then, let me ask you, and this, this might, be a different answer for whether you did this on your own versus, the way that it happened with, Fuji, but, At the end of each day, right? How would you know if you did a good job or not? How would you know if you got the photos that you needed? And how would you know that you got enough photos for this project? Because in theory it could just go on forever.

Bryan Minear:

Well, I mean, to be honest with you, that's kind of how I envisioned it at the beginning, when I didn't know what it was going to be. So, the original astronaut suit This relates, I swear. The original Astronaut Suit was literally just like, you type in Astronaut Suit on Amazon, and it's probably the first one that pops up. We took some photos, you know, in, like, foggy woods with a flashlight that was glowing. We went up to, the dunes, in northern Michigan, and took some photos there. But it was all just kind of like, eh, we'll just go as like a little, Family trip and see what we can get and it was it was never for anything really that was very much You know when I when I look at those those were almost Like just sketches only with the camera, I was feeling out what this project could be and like I said I always wanted us to go somewhere for it to be elevated to a Father son trip at this location. We've never been to before That was always the goal but forcing myself to make it happen. It's something that I really wanted to do, but you know how life goes, especially when you have, kids, and a job, and responsibilities, like it's hard to say, okay, no, I'm gonna mark this spot on my calendar for when we're going to go spend a ton of money, Yeah. spend a ton of money, like we worked for, a month and a half to two months on just, creating this suit, hand painting a helmet, coming up with all these different kind of props and props that would also kind of relate back to that story, telling the story of my childhood. And so kind of everything was in a way that was like service to the overall project. I joked around when I was doing a couple interviews, with Fujifilm's, agency that does, like, some of their marketing content. And I joked saying that, like, Fujifilm let the landscape photographer play conceptual photographer for a little while. But, I, like, went in hard. I think the hardest part for me, wanted it to be elevated in a way, like, I'm so inspired by film and cinema. And so, the image, the multiple exposure image that has like the sun in his eye, that was very much like my, ode, homage to like Tron, Blade Runner, it was very much like, I want something that kind of represents those sci fi roots. And so that's why I wanted the suit and the helmet to be more than just like a store bought whatever. I wanted it to almost have its own personality, even though most of the images, you're not going to be able to see the little details, One of the patches, we did like a handmade logo on everything. my friend from Omaha that I told you I travel with, he has a 3D printer. So he 3D printed us logos that went on like the backpack and the chest that we hand painted. So it was just, I think, sinking into it in a way where you're like fully committing to something. Thankfully I had my wife to like, am I going too far? Am I the only one that's going to care about this one little tiny detail, or is this, worth exploring? I used to have the helmet sitting right over here, Miles has it in his room now, there's this one little spot that I braided, well, while I was painting, Miles was, like, having fun just, I had some wires laying out, and he was just, like, braiding these two wires together, and I like the look of it so much that I, made it a couple pieces on the helmet and filled gaps that were just like plastic with this braided wire and like hot glued it in there and I'm like, nobody's going to see these little details, but like, it makes it more meaningful to me to know how hard we worked to make this happen. You know, that we didn't just like buy something last minute and then hop on a plane to go do the thing. We actually put And, another theme of the project going into that, like, Breaking of generational cycles was I very much wanted it to be a collaboration. So like everything that me and miles did, the decisions that we made, picking the location, like he helped me in all of that. It was like, I would go to him and say, here are some ideas. What do you think about this? What should we do for the logo? He had as much of a say. And all of that, as I did. I even, down to, one of the things we did was, he loves just drawing and coloring and I said, let's just sit down and like, think of a cool photo. That we could like, draw yourself as an astronaut. And let's try to get that photo. and just see what happens. So, yeah we did, yeah it was, I mean, he went pretty like, him with the moon overhead. So it was definitely gonna happen anyway. But yeah, it was pretty cool. I just think if it weren't for the extra push of, the deadline, I just don't know that we would have put as much time and effort into it, knowing that

Raymond Hatfield:

Sure.

Bryan Minear:

it wasn't just like a self launched project that I did that nobody cared about. It was also kind of like a,

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Bryan Minear:

marketing campaign, international marketing campaign type thing too. So knowing that the final image is, that was like, it wasn't really motivation for me cause I was just wanted to make this project, and have this experience with my kid. But I think for him, being able to, photos on like the Fujifilm Instagram or whatever print. From the launch event I have a bunch of little like, product cards and stuff that have his picture all over it. That's super special for him. And it was a great motivator for him to be like, look, This is gonna suck sometimes, and like, you're gonna be tired and you're not gonna want to do anything. But we're gonna do something cool, and you gotta buy into it as much as me. So, it was just a, all around just a great experience to have, like, with him. And just, I think, going back to like the core principles of the project, I just wanted him to know, if you put your mind to it, like, you can literally do anything. Your life is a blank slate right now. And you just have to put in the work and then you can make your dreams a reality. So I think getting to like have that with him and walk side by side with him through something like that was, was like super incredible.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's the next level on top of the photographs, right? If this project is about you and the childhood that you went through and what you were hoping for, you were able to now give that to your son in more than just photographs, but in a life lesson right there.

Bryan Minear:

Yeah, for sure. triptych image, the first image with him in the book, that's like me in my childhood. The second image is him kind of more prominent in the frame. Yeah. walking away from the sun toward an hourglass. So like I said, the sun is, kind of my father. So it's, me kind of like stepping outside the shadow of my father. And then that middle image with the hourglass is kind of showing, symbolizing the passage of time. And the last image is him kind of very small, silhouetted looking up at just a vast sky of stars. And that's like him and his unlimited potential future. if the, paper plane image distills down kind of the core themes and concepts of the project, that one is more of a overview of what the project's all about, from me both a father and, my childhood within the same, and Miles childhood and future beyond what it entails. yeah, and to answer one more question, I think you were talking about. Could it go on indefinitely? That was definitely kind of the goal like maybe we could do this all different locations, but I don't know something about finally getting to do it in this way This one time obviously miles is eight now. He's growing up. I didn't want to like kind of have him perpetually keep doing the same thing over and over again I felt like it would be more impactful if this was like kind of the final iteration of it and then we, I had the idea, so way back in, when I shot my first eclipse in 2017, me and some friends went down to Tennessee to see, the solar eclipse. Immediately we were all like, when's the next one, when's the next one? The next one was this year, 2024, you know, seven years later. I was like, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do for it, but I know I wanna do it. Miles was one at that time, so obviously he wouldn't have cared. If he went with me. I was like, I just want to experience it with him. So, that to me felt like the perfect ending. I got a, basically the exact image that I took of him first. With like the moon directly overhead, him blurred out. We shot that, we replicated it exactly only with an eclipse over his head. And that to me felt like, the perfect finale ending for the project. as it exists now.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, that is so cool. That is a great, little bookend right there. Cause I know, it's hard to, Like with photography again, like these things can just go on forever and that's almost like a form of procrastination, right? Like, oh, it's not done. It's not done. But I love that you were able to, kind of give yourself an end date, right? Have at least some sort of closure, like not to say that it isn't going to have a sequel or, or, you know, extra later on, but that's good. Yeah. Brian, I can't really think of like a better way to end it than that. Like it was very, motivational, also informational there. So I really appreciate that. I know that listeners are going to think, I want to see some of these photos. Like this sounds crazy. It sounds cool. It sounds sci fi. It sounds awesome. Where's going to be the best place for listeners to find images from The Traveler.

Bryan Minear:

Sure. just go to traveler. photo. That's gonna forward you to the blog post that I did that has this like full write up and shows, I think, the majority of the photos. And then from there you can find me on Instagram if you'd prefer to look at a bunch of them there. I think most of them are, at least the main ones are pinned to my Instagram profile as well. So, Yeah, traveler. photo, www. traveler. photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

Huge thank you to Brian for coming on the podcast and sharing. All that he did with this really, really cool project. Let's go ahead and recap what we have learned. One reignite your passion with personal projects. If you are feeling any sort of burnout or, overwhelmed, try to reignite your love for photography that you had in the first place. Through taking on a personal project like this, something that deeply resonates with you. You can start by trying to just identify some sort of theme in your life or a subject that has some sort of emotional significance to you. And then, well, you try to plan that project around that. You don't have to share it with anybody. If you don't want to just go ahead and create it at first. Takeaway number two is to try to incorporate family and personal history into your project. By using, your personal history and family relationships, you can have these really unique and interesting layers of meaning to your work to create these unforgettable moments. So try to involve those family members in the planning and the execution to create these bonding opportunities that, you wouldn't necessarily have without a personal project like this. And lastly, embrace the meticulous preparation, but also expect some flexibility there, detailed planning is critical to be able to create a project of this caliber as you could hear from Brian, but also you have to be ready to adapt to unexpected changes, having this, dual focus of extreme critical planning and, you know, just leaving it up to the wind and just hoping for the best is what is going to help produce some of the most powerful and emotionally, resonating images for you. So again, allow for that flexibility in your shooting, but also be open to capturing the, unplanned moments so that you can be able to tell a deeper story. I want to hear what your biggest takeaway was in the free and amazing beginner photography podcast community, which you can find and join right now over at beginner photopod. com forward slash group. That is it for today. Until next time. Remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon.