Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Parks and Travel podcast covering parks, public lands, and historic landmarks across America and around the world. Welcome everyone. Today is September 8th, 2024, and it marks the release of National Parks USA that premieres our National Geographic. This is an awesome five-part series, and it takes you to some of our most beautiful national parks. Zion, Yellowstone, Kat Mai, the Everglades, and Olympic National Park, and today we're excited to have Thomas Miller join us. He's an aerial cinematographer who focused mostly on Zion and Olympic National Park. So welcome to the show. Thomas, how are you? Thank you. I'm doing well. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. Well, I, you know, we love love this series so much, and it's just like I told Jeff, uh, Jeff Reed, also photographer on the show, cinematographer, and, um, I was like, you guys made us cry. Yeah, it's true. You made us cry, and people normally think that it was being like a fiction show, right, that someone would cry, but, um, it's a beauty, and I think what you managed to do so well is, you know, when you do the aerial side of it, it gives us this bird's eye view that we can't see regularly when we're on foot and gives us this extra massive layer of magnificence. Do you feel that when you're up there? I mean, you're always up there because there's drones too, right? Um, I specialize in aerials. So, um, I started out on the ground as a camera assistant years ago, and sort of found my niche in, in aerials and, um, started shooting aerials in 1998. So, um, that's been pretty much all I do. I mean, occasionally I'll do some ground stuff or, or I actually boat work. And like, I've done a lot of, uh, work with, um, sea otters and on the coast. And so, that's, that's always a lot of fun or dolphins. Um, marine life, I, I love shooting marine life as well or filming since I shoot. Yeah, really. Yeah, we don't be careful. Yeah. But, but aerials, the, the great thing about aerials, it's really kind of the, um, the exclamation point on, uh, I'm, uh, the, the transition to the revealing, the opening, the, um, you know, when, when we're going to, uh, uh, show the overall picture of, uh, you know, the grandeur of what we're looking at. And that's always love, um, what I do in, in that respect. But I have to be very focused, um, and not kind of fall in love with, uh, with what I'm filming because, and what I mean by that is that there's technically you're always on. You don't, I don't have a lot of time. I'm not camped out in a forest. I'm not, um, up there, like in, uh, for example, in Olympic, we had two days of filming, three hours each. So it's essentially just a loop. It was a three hour loop that we figured out. And if we're like, rain, if we had red fog and on the coast, we were going to do this. If, if that wasn't working out, we were going to go over here and, um, so, and if we get a bug on the lens, we, you know, we have to go outside the park to land. We can't land in the park. So we're always on edge in terms of, well, I am, uh, that something technical is going to go wrong. Um, and there's, there's really no contingency. Um, they did allow me to, you know, there is some, but it's very expensive in a helicopter. So you have to, you have to sort of have, when I tell my clients, a lot of times is, um, just tell me what the story is about, what, what elements you need, um, you need me to convey visually in the, in the story. Don't get locked into details. Um, because we go searching for details that, that, that eats up time and we don't have a lot of time. So, um, and Jeff was really great about giving me some, some bullet points to really hit that they needed to see. And on that show on Olympic, it was, uh, the ecosystems and how low of the water with the mountains, the glaciers down into the valleys and then out to the coastline. And that feeds that whole ecosystem in that. That's amazing. It's amazing what, what you can do by doing that. And then, so you're going up with helicopters, which is different than people think everything's drone. So what is the difference? When do you make the call of drone versus helicopter? And I'm arguing, isn't there's restrictions on this too, right? So you have to work with the parks and everything to make. There are when we, when we initially, um, Jeff contacted me, uh, February of 2023. That's when we first started talking about this. We ended up filming, uh, in August or September of 2023. Um, we had zoom meetings. Um, I initially when a client comes to me, they want an estimate, right? So it's, it's all right. Right. So, and I knew exactly Northwest helicopters was going to be the helicopter company that I used because they're 30 minutes outside the park and they have a relationship with the park. Okay, that's cool. Flying over the park all the time. So that's, that's key. You want to make sure that you have, uh, that your liaison, the helicopter company is going to be in good standing with where you're going to go film. So, uh, Doug Utek is the chief pilot there. He immediately called the park and let them know what, what we were going to do. And, um, they don't, they don't really permit. Okay. Uh, it's, uh, again, uh, for flying over national parks, a lot of the times it's recommended altitudes and not, it's not like a strict, you know, you have to stay at this altitude. So we basically, we just tried to maintain safe altitudes and didn't fly over personal persons and property and. Oh, yeah. So when, when you're doing this and going up in helicopters, I've heard it's like, it can be kind of scary. Like, do you mean, I mean, I mean, yeah, what is what's going on with that? I only fly, I only fly with very experienced pilots. Um, they have thousands of hours. Um, if I don't feel the pilot, uh, the pilot's job is, is amazing because they have to multitask. They're, they're dealing with towers. They're dealing with me. In the backseat, get lower, get lower. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I really don't concern myself initially with, with, with the safety part of it because I can't, I mean, that's not, my job is get in and get amazing shots. So that, um, I tell the pilots a lot of times, especially ones that, that I haven't flown with before. I'll say, listen, if you feel that what I'm asking to do is unsafe. Don't do it. You don't have to prove anything to me. I'm going to tell you to do some stuff that, you know, you may not feel comfortable doing. And if that's the case, if you don't feel a hundred percent comfortable doing it, don't do it. And I won't hold anything against you. Yeah, really. Hey, your job is to keep us safe. So we come back and if we get some epic shots along the way, that's awesome. If, if you don't and we get what they need, then that's, that's, that's great too. So, um, yeah, fortunately in the Olympic case, we were able to get amazing shots and, well, yeah, you know, it's, it's interesting. So do you, okay. So like with your gear, I even look at it like when you go on a, you know, you're looking over like a canyon, like a gunneson of black canyon, right? You go with a black canyon of gunneson. Yeah. And you're leaning over and I'm, and I'm like, dude, no, I'm going, like, I'm total vertigo. Obviously you're okay. But I'm like, dude, what if, and then there's that side of me, like, oh, who cares? This is such a cool picture, right? You know, it's the sort of, um, I think the battle photographer's syndrome where you somehow feel like you're removed in a way. You're looking at this monitor and you're not really there. And it's just, you, you just like, you see this image and you want to compose. And that's the most important thing is composing, not, oh, am I flying two inches off this rock? Which has, you know, like, when, if I feel like, I've had, I have had moments where I've kind of pushed myself back from the monitor and going, whoa, you know, we don't need to do that anymore. But that's the thing. But then you kind of go, but, and then it's, it kind of snaps you off course if you do that. Yeah, whoa thing kind of, then it's like you lose that whole focus, you know, I have to trust the pilot. I have the pilot and that's part of it. I mean, that's part of being an aerospace photographer. It's, you know, if you're a marine photographer or cinematographer, you trust your experience to know or whoever's helping you assisting you under the water. You, you have to kind of let go because if you're always on guard, it's just, you know, and it's kind of the tough thing about what I do because I'm up there by myself. I don't have a technician with me. If things go wrong technically with the system, I have to make it work. I don't, there's no, I've had situations where I was thrown and I literally had 30 minutes over Rome to film the, the Colosseum, the Vatican, these little points that they had and my system started blacking out. No, it started just going out and then coming back and then going out and coming back and my horizon gyro every time the pilot would key to talk to the tower, my gyro would start to roll like this. No. Had to, I had to counter roll and I had to imagine there was actually an image based on the framing that I had. Yep. The image went out. I kept that, that framing. Wow. And if you watch the show in Italy, it's, it's framed and it's level, but all this stuff is going on and I have to be able to deal with that while I'm dealing with everything else that's, that's going on. That's crazy. It is, it is crazy. It's, it's, it's that and that, that's kind of the, the thing about when you, when you work in a helicopter, a discipline like this, a specialty like this, you have to be able to just feel it ease with the environment. Do you feel it ease with the environment? Then you can start to create. If you're worried about the environment that you're in, I mean, I couldn't imagine, I couldn't imagine going under the water and filming Great White Sharks or something like that. I couldn't, I couldn't imagine. So I'd be so scared. Everybody's got their thing. Yeah. Yeah. I, I freaked people out because I, I mean, even yesterday I filmed the alligators yesterday and people are like, you can't get close. You know, and I'm like, dude, the alligators were just coming up to, oh, you know, I can't. And I'm like, look, look, they're cute. And it was people don't find them cute. I find them cute. Oh, everyone, the Everglades section of like, don't ever look at what I photograph, like the Everglades portion of this is extraordinary. True. But like going, you're moving. So you do boat and the helicopter. So you're moving. And that is like a whole other thing on its own to be able to film while moving. That's, I know you've got everything to stabilize and all that kind of stuff. But you're still having to kind of find that rhythm and understand like on it, if you're on a boat, you have to understand the movement, right, to be able to capture that. Yeah. The most on the boat, the most challenging was, I worked on this thing for, I think was called 3D or 4D Dolphin for it's for the Atlanta Aquarium. They have, I think, a 4D experience. And we filmed dolphins at 1000 millimeter at 1000 frames per second. And I would, they rented a boat taxi because dolphins loved a porpoise of the boat. So they rented a boat taxi to go alongside with us. And then I would frame just in front of the bow of the boat so that we would catch the dolphin as it would break the water at a throughout 1000 frames per second. It was, it was quite remarkable. And then we would do straight down shots of the dolphins off the, the bow of our boat. And the director would be, okay, I want you to, you know, zoom in on that. And I'm like vertical, I've got a hood, black hood on my head, the camera's on a crane arm, the boat's rocking. And he's wanting me to follow dolphins that are just coming up from under the bow and then porpoising. And so I would follow them up and then out of the water and then up and out of the water and over here. And it's, you, your, your inner ear gets used to it. I guess it's my hand on the joystick that connects me. Yeah. Some kind of form of, that's like a balancer in a way. Yeah. But the technology, I was using a GSS system and it had my degrees. So I knew where my camera was. I knew where it was panned and where I was tilted. So I could, I could visually see on the monitor where I was so that I didn't get disorientated. I could come back to, you know, zeroing. Once I learned that, that, that was a big really, I was going to say, because that's technical, right? So it's like, you've got the composition, you've got to get past the fear part of it, but you better know all that stuff because that, that needs to be second-hand, right? Yeah. Get over being sick. If you're sick, you can't, you can't operate. No. And if you're, if you're, don't, you're not a legend. You don't even collect yourself. But when you were doing Zion, were you doing part of the big one sheet part of that, like seeing them or was that more on ground? No, the, the Zion was Zion was the, the tough thing about Zion, Zion is tough. You've got all those little crevices. Yeah. The, the, the tough thing, I filmed it a couple of times, I filmed it for Aerial America and I filmed it and then, and now for, for this show, National Parks. No, we didn't have a lot of time. We had three hours. We basically had three hours. So, again, Jeff, because, and it, it's not like at Olympic was 30 minutes from Northwest. I would apply a ship. There's, there's only one helicopter company in Zion and they're a tour company and they don't really do aerial cinematography. I call them, but they, so the closest helicopter really was a Sundance and they were in Vegas. So I drove out to Vegas. We rigged up in Vegas and it's 45 minute flight out to Georgetown. And then we, we based there. So we really only had three hours total. So the first day, I think we did like an hour and so what I did and it's really important because there's a lot of tourists there, not so much that, you know, that you see in Olympic in, in Zion, in the main stretch of Zion, there's a lot of tourists. Yeah. You want to be really careful of that and a helicopter screaming down the center, slapping blades makes a lot of noise and especially us off the canyon. Not, not really. Yeah. Our plan was go in at like say five, six thousand feet and get these amazing vistas. And, and we did a shot all the way up the canyon initially, but we're so high up that we're not disturbing anybody. And then we did a cross pattern. And then we, I can't remember exactly what what else we went over to arch and then I think that was it for that day. The store, the weather started coming in. So we decided to save what little time we had for the next day. Woke up at sunrise and went and shot. Again, we started with the arches at sunrise and, and then angels landing. We got a lot more detailed. We did lower passes because we knew we were on our way out. So we did lower passes and then film people on top of land angels landing, which I think is at the end of the piece. Yeah. It brought, I think Zion brought this balance to all five episodes. It was like kind of this balance or of like showing like the, the, the geology of the Southwest. I mean, obviously look at, you know, Olympic has got the, all of it does, right? All of it is fascinating, but it just goes, oh, yes. And here's the West like this Southwest. It is just amazing, you know, when you just brought that in, I thought, okay, good, we got to have that balance in there. So people understand that kind of area, you know, but going up and when you know that you, that would be a little bit more freaky to me than Olympic going up in helicopter. I don't know, because you could splash somewhere, but then you did the glaciers. And that's the thing I think that people, when you're doing Olympic is bringing that ecosystem together, that topography together, that we know, okay, that the glaciers happen. And if you maybe get into the wilderness and get to hike out there, you'll get it, but you still don't, because you don't see the other portion. But when you see that kind of thing happen, you get to understand how the systems work together. And I don't think you can quite, our brains don't kind of put it all together unless you see it from the top. Yeah. And that's, and that's where, that's where, to get back to your earlier question, that's where helicopter really stands out in terms of the very high altitude shots. And I mean, if you look at what a helicopter can do, just within the three hours, you know, I can go from the top of the mountain to the shoreline, to the coast. I can, you know, I can zoom in really tight. I mean, on that, I have a 50 to 1,000 millimeter lens. I wasn't using it on this job. I was using the 25 to 250, just because I knew I didn't have a lot of time. Jeff was, he wanted me to try and get shots of wildlife. But I said, Jeff, really, do that eats up a lot of time. Yeah, that's a specialist. It really, it really does. And so, like when I did, I actually worked for Jeff back in, what's it, 2018, 2019 on Epic Yellowstone? Yeah, you know what? You guys, we actually did an interview with Tom's and his wife. We did an interview on that. I just figured that out yesterday, because he was mentioning names. I'm like, I know those names. I looked it up and we did a podcast on Epic Yellowstone. That is, that is. But I had, it was a week in the spring and I had a week in the winter. And we had days of just going out to film wildlife. That's what it takes. Yeah, that's why you just need the time because the wildlife, they're, you know, they're very keen. They're, you know, bears, they're easily spooked. It's not easy to shoot wildlife at all, because as soon as they see the helicopter, they're gone. Yeah. In order for me to be in the right attitude, the right lighting, it just, I remember I was filming, it was in Kodiak and we were filming the bears in the salmon run. And the director says to me, you know, I want a shot of salmon jumping out of the water and into the bear's mouth. And I just looked over to him, I said, do you know those guys, like in hides, like for a month trying to get this shot? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we got, we've got 15 minutes. And I actually got a salmon, it, it came out of the water and it hit him in the, and it's now, and then it bounced off onto a rock and he ate it. So close enough. Close enough. But yeah, but I mean, that's an interesting thing, because I think we never really think about the perspective of the aerial cinematographer. We just go, we just think someone is on the ground with a drone pointing the drone to go and seeing, oh, this is what we got. So I'm glad you're talking about this, because I think that's a, do you know what I mean? I mean, just think about it. How many people realize who's going up in helicopters? I've heard some crazy helicopter stories of, you know, like, you know, yeah, some crazy, like people hanging off trying to get some good shots and like I'm going, you guys can do that. That's really good. I'm really glad you do it. And I really appreciate work because I'm not going to hang off a helicopter. But you guys, some of them do and some don't. And I mean, even going to get the wildlife, that's, that is difficult. But that's my favorite part. That's my favorite part. But how do you see like the pilot? That's where the pilot really comes in. I mean, I've worked with some pilots that they work for the national parks, they work for Fish and Game. And a lot of them are, they're tagging or they're, you know, they're doing some sort of mitigation work. And they, so they're really good at spotting for animals. And that's who you need. And then, then it's all about how do you get close to the animal with a helicopter? How to orientate the blade so they're not slapping the air? Because as soon as they make that vibration, that you've given yourself up, with the 51,000, you can get pretty, I mean, you can get tight on the animal. But if I zoom out, you'll see how really far away we are. Okay. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's tricky. Because I'll have pilots that, that are not familiar with, and they just immediately fly it right over. Oh, did you see that elk? And then fly right over the elk and they look like, no, no, you've got to understand there's a relationship between the two, like, you have to be sneak attack, you know, exactly. You see them, and then you sort it, you see them, and then you edge off, and you get around, go around, you know, just, you just keep away from them. And then you kind of bring it in slowly. And I've shot wild Mustang in, in Nevada, and with pilots that knew how to herd the Mustang, and get calmed down, and get them to calm down. Because you don't want to, animals don't look right running away like they're evading prey. You know, those aren't the shots that you want to get. You want to get them in their natural habitat. Once they see that you're there, it's kind of the same thing when you're, you're out, like, when we hike and do our park stuff, we just actually will just sit down, we know, like this is a spot. And you know, you can kind of feel like something's there, and we'll chill, maybe have a picnic, just chill. And then next thing you know, they know you're there, they sniff you out, they're like, all right, whatever. And then they continue on their way. And if you're just there, that's why wildlife takes ten years, right? You're there, they know you're there. It's not, it's not like they don't know the helicopters there. They're just going, okay, this is a big bird, and it's hanging out, and it's there. But you know what I mean? So, because you gave it that breath, right? Instead of just going right on top. Because that's predatory. You know, so you'd have to know the animals and the pilot has to know. So that's what you said, that the picnic was really great, because he knows that part specifically. Exactly, exactly. They're very, very, they're there every month doing something. Yeah. And yeah, so they know I like the back of their hands and they, and they're very comfortable flying through the glaciers. We got some great shots climbing up and then revealing the blue glacier. That's amazing. Yeah, I have that blue, you know, and that's where you have to, you have to stay focused because, you know, you become the kid in the candy store and you're like, oh my god. Yeah, exactly. Because I mean, look at it, I was just looking, because it doesn't even, it's not even how you expect it to look. But it gives us that look of, there is like an ice age trail that goes through and it gives us this, you know, it's kind of something that was far away and doesn't, you know, you can't imagine it until you see it from the aerial view. That's what I was saying. It just made everything make sense. So you have to know wildlife, you have to understand like geography, right? Do you go through maps? Are you looking at maps as you're doing this and before? Before. In the old days, that's, I have a great picture in the Grand Canyon. The pilot has the map. Yeah, furled in the front seat and I, and it's like, he's looking at a map while he's flying below the canyon. Nice. He was very old school. He's very old school. Today, it's all GPS and foreflight and, but look at maps on foreflight and, you know, we may bring out a old school map, you know, at the very beginning. But most of it is on iPads now and looking on the screen, but, and which is extremely helpful, because you can plot your points. Well, Jeff, I had Jeff give us some KMC files of specific points and we can upload those into foreflight and it's a little bullet point, so we know exactly where to go to. Yeah. So we're, you know, that's super helpful, because then we had a lot of tree from like, yeah, pre-production work, like, free, like, and he was always out in the field. Yeah, he was. I think he likes it out there. Who doesn't? Who doesn't? But that's a fact though, you always talk about the helicopters now, right? So what about the planes? I mean, that's where I grew up in, in South Africa, in Kenya, and, and there were all it was more the bush pilots. Like, so would you ever go and do photography and do photography that way? The thing is with the plane is that it's. It doesn't turn as well. Very restrictive. Yeah. Well, it's very restrictive. It's limited in terms of, you know, in most places there have been like a thousand foot limit, although I have seen planes fly a lot lower than a thousand feet. I mean, I, I've shot the Bahamas from a fixed wing, and I didn't have a big field of view. I was like, point it back. It, it's really depends on what I found is that whenever you're dealing with fixed wing, usually it's a budget issue. Okay. If, if they had money to throw at it, it would be a helicopter. So they're, they're, they're, they're putting you in a fixed wing. And the guys that do fixed wing well are the, are the owner operators, the ones who have their own plane and they've dialed it in to maybe like a helial courier where it doesn't have the struts that come down that we get in the way of your shot. I had a pilot that I work with Robert Campbell, a fantastic landscape photographer, aerial photographer. He actually studied with Ansel Adams, but he had a helial courier and he had a camera mounts in the back and we, he would call me up every so often. I, and I would go and shoot like boats coming into the Golden Gate and he would crab the fixed wing sideways. He crab, we'd fly sideways so I could get the shot. No, you guys are crazy. You guys are crazy. You are. Okay, no, really, because I can't even do bridges. All right. So like I do, I just have to put Bob Marley on and I can do anything. That's all just calm. This is all good. But yeah, no, no, I appreciate it. But I have to think because the wings are in the way. That's the thing. I mean, it's just, it's not a great field of view. Now the guys that have it dialed, there's some guys that have built wing strap mounts for their, for their gimbals. And, and that works. That works really well. But, and Bob actually had a nose mount that he had constructed to his wing so he could put the camera on the wing. But again, it's more limited than a helicopter. So it's usually kind of a budgetary thing. Like a lot, a lot of the sports casters that do like stadiums, they've switched the fixed wing because it's cheaper. Okay. You know, doing a helicopter. I don't know, but it does sound like fun actually going sideways or doing that. That kind of does sound fun. That was one of those moments where I was just like, you can do this in it. You can do this. Like, when you, when you go up, okay, before, before you go, but when you go up, when you know you've got X amount of time to do this, right? It's just like a, you know, I used to do, I was a musician on stage, so anything could go wrong. And when you think anything could go wrong, then you think, Oh, I've been through everything. And then just as soon as you get that mindset, oopsie, something else that you never dreamed of can go wrong. You know, it really can. And, but when you know you're going out there, is there just like, do you kind of have like an adrenaline rush knowing? Because it's like, it's like an epic challenge to do what you're doing. I'm on, you know, I wouldn't say pins and needles, but I'm the, it's really, for me, because I care about what I do, I care about the images. And I want to give the most amazing images to my client. And I'm, it's, it's a tough thing. A lot of times I go, why can't I just write? Why do I have to be an integral? Because I have to worry about the helicopter. I have to worry about, you know, is my pilot gonna, you know, give me what I, you know, is he gonna, because you never know really, you know, what you're gonna get. And so there's always anticipation of what's gonna happen, what's really gonna happen. Yeah, because like when you go on stage, like we get the butterflies, right? So that's gonna be what I was thinking. Do you kind of, I'd have to have like a way to just calm down. Yeah. And focus, you know, it's once the shots start happening. And, and, but it, like when we started going, when we initially started flying out, and we're getting to Mount Olympus, and everything technically is going great with my gimbal, everything's looking good, the air quality is good, because that was another thing. That was a big, that's a big part of it. When, see, I was, I was really fortunate. Jeff gave me a, he had a lot of trust in me, which, you know, I was really happy to, to, you know, he basically didn't send anybody with me. He just, he's like, well, you know, you did Epic Girls, you can do it. Just go shoot it. So I, I basically called the helicopter company, and I put them on standby. And I said, Doug, let me know when you think a good window is coming in, of high pressure, that's going to, you know, give us the best with visibility. And he, and, and it's tricky up in the Northwest. It can be very tricky. That's a good time of year that then we went shoot it. I think it was July, August, that we did that. But, so the other problem we have are wildfires. I was going to bring that up. Wildfires are, give you epic sunsets. Yeah, but terrible does. Yeah. So what happened was the weather was looking great. There were no wildfires at that particular time. I said, you know what, Doug? Let's do it. Because if we wait any more, a wildfire could happen and you guys could get booked up because they, they would, they fight fires. So look, let's, let's do it. So I just loaded up my van and I headed north. And the, the day I started going, a fire broke out up, I think near Spokane. But you know how the plume, the smoke travels. Fortunately, it was blowing, I believe it was blowing east. So we were able to get in there, but then it changed a little bit and it came into there is a little bit hazy in the footage that I, that I shot, but it wasn't bad at all. It wasn't bad at all. It got terrible right after I left. Wow. That was good timing. Yeah. No time like the present. Yeah. You just got it. You sometimes you just have to, you just have to go for it. And if you just wait too long, you're going to run into all sorts of problems. That, that, that comes with experience. Because if you, you know, a lot of times I'm flying into an area and then we have the option to film right away or go to our hotels and have a nice meal and plan for the next day, I can't tell you how many times we've done that. And then the next day was just terrible. And we couldn't film at all thought we thought it was going to be great or just something happens that prevents us from, from, from filming. So it's, you have to take these opportunities when they're given to you, especially with nature and with, I was going to say climate change right now, just even with us traveling. I mean, we're dodging hurricanes, tornadoes, all the time. And it's like the weather. I mean, it's interesting. You can't. And it, and it changes even you could be standing right where the weather says everything's fine. And I'm going, I just watched trees come down. What's going on? Where's the delay? Or maybe it's just because of where I am at that time of digital signaling and stuff. So it's, we watch that we're like, we live on the weather. But I can imagine that for what you do. I mean, because especially being up there. And it's wildfires, like you're talking about Zion, you know, wildfires happen around that area. And also, when monsoon storms come, now that would be fun. Are you allowed to be up there in a monsoon storm? Because that would be pretty cool. You know, I, to be honest with you, I've always wanted to, that's been kind of like a bucket list thing that I've wanted to go out and film storms. And specifically in the Midwest, I thought it would be because there have been times when you see an aerial America, where when we were coming back and we were like racing hail storms, we're in the helicopter and the pilot's like, we got to get to shelter. I've got to put the helicopter in a hanger. So we're frantically calling airports, trying to find someplace. And I'm looking out over these cornfields and just seeing these crazy cells. But at that time, I was shooting on HD and the latitude to really hold the highs and the highlights. And if I expose for the highlights, everything else is good. But some of the, you know, the newer cameras like the Venice and things could really hold that. And I would, you know, could be amazing. I mean, it's amazing how much technology has changed, even in cameras now. I mean, now people are running around, you know, with a phone and I'm going, I just know. But anyway, it's good. But, you know, there's just something, it's too little. I want something heavy to me. I feel like you need to have the heavy balance. But yeah, I mean, the film, I mean, we've gotten gone through like so many tornadoes and dodged them. But there's that side of you that wants to go in. I can't explain it. I don't know if I want to go in it, but I being comfortably removed from it. But I don't know how to be comfortably removed and do it. Like, I don't know how they do it. But it's just kind of like it draws you in because it's so neat, you know, and then, you know, that's the the the war cameraman's, you know, it's tempting. Yeah, you just like, you're looking at the frame and nothing can hurt me. I'm, you know, I've done too much weird weather stuff and you go up in helicopters and do that stuff. But like, I want to be on ground. So I appreciate what you do big time because I want to do it. But I'm too much of a baby to ever do that. No, it's all right. I've been on planes where you can actually see out the, there's like cracks, like in little those little planes and you can see the ground and I'm going, what, how, I thought everything was supposed to be sealed, apparently not. And then we went over the ocean and then I'm like, this is not cool. This is not fun. There's sharks in there. No, but they thought it was fun. Anyway, well, thank you so much, Thomas, for joining us. It's been so much fun to learn about your side of doing this series of national parks, USA, everyone. Again, it is out today, September 8th. So go get it through National Geographic. And also, thank you for giving us an insight of what you do as an aerial cinematographer. It's awesome. Pretty epic. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thanks for joining us here on Big Blend Radio's Parks and Travel podcast. Visit nationalparktraveling.com to plan your next park adventure and to see our Parks and Travel digital magazine. You can keep up with our shows at bigblendradio.com.
