Speaker 1: You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network, brought to
Speaker 1: you by go Wild. Go Wild is the fastest growing
Speaker 1: social media app for outdoor enthusiasts. If you love to hunt,
Speaker 1: if you love to fish, if you left to hike,
Speaker 1: if you love to camp, if you like to be outdoors,
Speaker 1: then you need to download the go Wild app. It's
Speaker 1: a perfect place for you to join a community of people,
Speaker 1: a like minded people who enjoy the same things that
Speaker 1: you do. You won't be persecuted for posting a trophy pick.
Speaker 1: You won't be persecuted for, you know, posting meat or
Speaker 1: whatever like they do on You'll get some haters every
Speaker 1: once in a while on Instagram and uh Facebook, but
Speaker 1: I think it's a really good place for you to
Speaker 1: not only share what you do, but join a community
Speaker 1: and that allows you to meet other people, and who
Speaker 1: knows what happens when you meet other people. A specific
Speaker 1: example of is I posted a comment or something about
Speaker 1: shed hunting, and I met a guy who shed hunts
Speaker 1: near me, and I think we're gonna team up and
Speaker 1: go on a shed hunt together this this fall, so
Speaker 1: or this excuse me this spring. So, if you haven't
Speaker 1: had the opportunity. Go to the Google Play Store download
Speaker 1: the Go Wild app, and if you want some more information,
Speaker 1: you can also go to their website Time to Go
Speaker 1: Wild dot com. Get outside, It's time to Go Wild.
Speaker 1: My name is Clay Nucleman. I'm the host of the
Speaker 1: Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your host into
Speaker 1: the world of hunting the icon of North American wilderness.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation. It will also bring
Speaker 1: you into some of the wildest country on the planet chasing.
Speaker 1: Thanks are listening to the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. On
Speaker 1: this episode, I have with me at the global headquarters
Speaker 1: Ford van Fausen of First Light forwards the conservation director
Speaker 1: of First Light, and also with him is Jordan Riley
Speaker 1: of Captured Creative. These guys were in Arkansas for about
Speaker 1: a week and in this conversation we talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about what we were doing. We tell some couple
Speaker 1: of epic squirrel stories that aren't your classic dedicated squirrel
Speaker 1: hunt type stories, but we hear most importantly about what
Speaker 1: these guys do. So Ford van Fausen has has been
Speaker 1: with First Light for several years, but he took Ryan
Speaker 1: Callahan's spot who was the former conservation director of First Light.
Speaker 1: Ryan's now with Meat Eater, so Ford took his spot,
Speaker 1: and Jordan's is a is a videographer photographer is part
Speaker 1: owner of this media company, Captured Creative Man. They have
Speaker 1: some great insight into their both of their fields and
Speaker 1: it's just a fun pie cast and you're gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I want to make mention of something that I'm doing
Speaker 1: with with several other groups and podcasts, but we're doing
Speaker 1: a hashtag called trash trophies. Okay, hashtag trash trophies. And
Speaker 1: what we're trying to get people to do is when
Speaker 1: they're out on public land, take a Walmart bag or
Speaker 1: some type of little grocery bag with you and pick
Speaker 1: up the trash that you see. We think is hunters
Speaker 1: one of the pretty pretty functional impact that we could
Speaker 1: have on public lands. It's just picking up trash. I
Speaker 1: know in places that I hunt, trash is a problem.
Speaker 1: And parking areas, along trails and different places we're gonna
Speaker 1: see trash. And so take a picture of your trash
Speaker 1: trophy and hashtag it on Instagram hashtag trash trophies. Additionally,
Speaker 1: I want to direct you guys to the bare dash
Speaker 1: hunting dot com store. We just released a new shirt.
Speaker 1: It's our mule Riding Bear Hunter shirt and maybe one
Speaker 1: of the most epic shirts ever created. If you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to pick one up at our at our web
Speaker 1: store and bear dash hunting dot com. And it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's classy. It's gonna keep you classy. It's gonna
Speaker 1: keep you uh, you know, kind of in the in
Speaker 1: the trend. Check it out. All right, we're gonna jump
Speaker 1: right into it. You're gonna enjoy this podcast. So we
Speaker 1: are at the Bear Honey Magazine global headquarters here in
Speaker 1: West Fork, Arkansas, World HQ, World HQ. It's February, and
Speaker 1: I have the privilege of having in my office tonight
Speaker 1: forward Van Fassen first Light. And I'll go ahead and
Speaker 1: tell the other name before we get into these two guys.
Speaker 1: The other the other gentleman sit in front me, is
Speaker 1: Jordan's right captured creative. For everybody who who would follow
Speaker 1: much of what I do, would would know first Light
Speaker 1: from well, from maybe many different sources. But Ford, why
Speaker 1: don't you, uh, why don't you tell us, I don't know,
Speaker 1: give us an introduction to tell us you are to
Speaker 1: tell us what you do for First Light. I'm Ford N. Fawston.
Speaker 1: I am First Lates Conservation and Content Manager. Okay, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: new title out thinking it's always so Ryan Callahan went
Speaker 1: to meet Eater. Ryan Callahan was the former conservation director
Speaker 1: first he was. He was, so I've assumed some of
Speaker 1: his conservation are You're gonna grow a mustache? No, no,
Speaker 1: because I'm still Actually I'm hoping here in the next
Speaker 1: couple of years of Pubert he's gonna come through for me.
Speaker 1: But until then not, yeah, loustache less, not yet. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into more detail, and what we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about is we're gonna I want to hear something
Speaker 1: about really what you do forward and uh for First
Speaker 1: Light and talk a little bit about that. But quickly
Speaker 1: I'll introduce Jordan's Riley have Captured Creative. So Jordan's introduce yourself.
Speaker 1: Oh you didn't tell us where you're from. Ford, I
Speaker 1: am from Trapped, Maryland. I live in Catchum, Idaho at
Speaker 1: first Lights Global International World. Yeah. Yeah, okay, so Jordan's yeah,
Speaker 1: tell us who you are? Yeah, well, Jordan Riley, I
Speaker 1: am one of the owners of Captured creative Taylor Coleman
Speaker 1: is back in Minnesota right now. But yeah, Minnesota based
Speaker 1: UM Production Media production company. We shoot photos and video
Speaker 1: for a bunch of cool brands and get to hang
Speaker 1: out with a lot of cool people along the way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So these guys are here in Arkansas there, they've been
Speaker 1: here for four days and we've been doing some I've
Speaker 1: been doing some hunting down here. We uh we squirrel
Speaker 1: hunted with mules on Wednesday with Trey Autry, Michael and Ere.
Speaker 1: And then on on Thursday we did a little bit
Speaker 1: of deer hunting, is that right? And we also went
Speaker 1: raccoon hunting. And today we did a little scenic tour
Speaker 1: of the Ozarks, got out in some of the rough
Speaker 1: country of the Ozarks and I saw some pretty cool country.
Speaker 1: And uh So it's been a absolute blast having you
Speaker 1: guys down here. It's been fun. A lot of first
Speaker 1: these last couple of days. What okay, what what would
Speaker 1: have your first? What would your first have been? Now?
Speaker 1: Ford is from the shallow South in Maryland, as we
Speaker 1: have defined, which which is a total shock to me.
Speaker 1: I did not realize it. But it's very true what
Speaker 1: he says. And Ford feels like a Southerner to me.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he sounds like a Southerner too. Yeah, he doesn't
Speaker 1: really know what his accent is. Yeah, he kind of
Speaker 1: goes all over the all over the board. But no,
Speaker 1: So what were your first Jordan's I think just about
Speaker 1: every day there or something. First. I've never been on
Speaker 1: a dedicated squirrel hunt before hunt a dedicated squirrel hund
Speaker 1: as opposed to squirrel hunt. Had with Mr Ben Fosson
Speaker 1: earlier and this year he missed a squirrel and dropped
Speaker 1: his I shouldn't say, I shouldn't go this far? Should
Speaker 1: we go there? How did this come up again? The same?
Speaker 1: This came up quick too. Yeah, years would have been
Speaker 1: an incidental squirrel hunt. Certainly that ended in a bizarre way, Yes, certainly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so just quickly go ahead and tell us what happened.
Speaker 1: The long and the short of it was, we were
Speaker 1: hunting the rut in Wisconsin, the squirrel rut or the
Speaker 1: dear rut. That's a good question. We were here the
Speaker 1: white tail deer. Okay, the white tail deer rut. It
Speaker 1: was what I'm told is the absolute peak of the
Speaker 1: Y T L deer rut in in Wisconsin. It was,
Speaker 1: in fact, what we were there to do was not
Speaker 1: at the rut, however. Uh At around ten thirty a
Speaker 1: fox squirrel, which I have personal interest in as a
Speaker 1: species for reasons we don't have to go into, appeared
Speaker 1: at ten yards very close. I had to crater arrows.
Speaker 1: I chose to remove a broad headed arrow and knock
Speaker 1: at critter. Arrow I shot at the squirrel, did not
Speaker 1: kill the squirrel, took about an inch of hair off
Speaker 1: the squirrel's back, and figured I would go get my
Speaker 1: arrow because it was ten thirty. I've been sitting a
Speaker 1: tree for a while and I was gonna just pop
Speaker 1: down to where the arrow was sitting in the dirt,
Speaker 1: only ten yards from the tree. I grabbed my arrow
Speaker 1: ah with my bow still hanging on the tree, arm
Speaker 1: back in the tree, proceeded to climb. I'm the tree
Speaker 1: and felt something kind of on my back as I
Speaker 1: was getting seated back in the stand and turned to
Speaker 1: watch my bow drop out of the tree into the
Speaker 1: mud below. Or what have you? Messed up the boat
Speaker 1: pretty good? Bent up the boat pretty good. Jordan was
Speaker 1: filming this whole thing and at this point just laughing
Speaker 1: mercilessly at me. So this would be an incidental squirrel hunt.
Speaker 1: That was the point we were driving home. That was
Speaker 1: the definition of a of an incidental So what you
Speaker 1: guys did this week was a was a purposeful squirrel
Speaker 1: dedicated as you said, Geordie. Now if you've you've done
Speaker 1: dedicated squrawn and not anything like that one though, I mean,
Speaker 1: well you're about to lead into mules and dogs and
Speaker 1: all kinds of extra accouterments, which made it all the
Speaker 1: more fun. Definitely. Yeah. Well, and I think the original
Speaker 1: question was the first that that we had that you
Speaker 1: had as somebody from Minnesota. So squirrel hunt, dedicated squirrel hunt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a blast. It's just something I think. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people that hunt can kind of get like singular
Speaker 1: minded on one species, and for me growing up, that
Speaker 1: was white tails. So the words were quote unquote for
Speaker 1: white tails. Yeah, you didn't really want to do anything
Speaker 1: to that precious little chunk of land that you had.
Speaker 1: But man, after after going on that squawl hunt, I
Speaker 1: kind of kind of kicking myself. I've been missing out
Speaker 1: for a little bit, I think because I was when
Speaker 1: you said that earlier this week. I've never really thought
Speaker 1: of it that way. You know that I mean, perhaps
Speaker 1: people wouldn't want to, you lose their hunting ground for
Speaker 1: anything other than white And certainly I know there's properties
Speaker 1: like that that are managed in that way, no doubt,
Speaker 1: but that that would like block out like an entire
Speaker 1: hunting culture of a region from like really being into
Speaker 1: small game hunting because they're so dedicated to deer hunting
Speaker 1: and all the all the studies, well, there are particular,
Speaker 1: like scientific based research based studies that show that raccoon
Speaker 1: hunting at night does not affect daytime deer activity because
Speaker 1: like on these big some of these big leases where
Speaker 1: there's multiple types of people using the same piece of property.
Speaker 1: I think there's been a lot of historical controversy that
Speaker 1: like coon hunters would come in run their dogs at
Speaker 1: night during deer season, and all the deer hunters would
Speaker 1: blame them for not killing deer the next day, and
Speaker 1: so somebody settled that. I don't know who it was,
Speaker 1: but I've heard that research project touted many many times.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it's biased, but you know, you gotta sasources on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you google it, if you google it, it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it may have been fake news, but um I have
Speaker 1: so they said, they said that it didn't affect daytime
Speaker 1: deer movement, nveniently, says the raccoon Hunter. And this project
Speaker 1: was funded by the Raccoon Mountain Raccoon Foundation. But so
Speaker 1: that is neither here nor there. So, but the squirrel,
Speaker 1: the dedicated squirrel hunt was the first, and we also
Speaker 1: went on a dedicated raccoon not right, Yeah, the first
Speaker 1: time there too. That's fine, I guess I honestly, I
Speaker 1: really just didn't know what to expect going into that one,
Speaker 1: and it was I mean, there's a social aspect there
Speaker 1: that I think the closest thing I can relate it
Speaker 1: to is maybe like a pheasant hunt back home, you know,
Speaker 1: where you can talk. Only even in a pheasant hunt,
Speaker 1: you're always kind of on edge because a bird could
Speaker 1: jump up and you have to shoot it right over
Speaker 1: With this, yeah, I mean, you let those dogs go
Speaker 1: and we just sat cut the lights and talked. It's
Speaker 1: more like a relaxing type of a you know. That's
Speaker 1: that's the whole essence really of a of a coon hunt,
Speaker 1: especially and for me is that it's, uh, it is
Speaker 1: highly social. I think what part of what I'm doing
Speaker 1: inside of my hunting, especially with my kids is I'm
Speaker 1: looking for a platform to build relationship, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's really the essence of it. But what makes a
Speaker 1: coon hunt different than anything else as you do it
Speaker 1: in the dark in the daytime. It's even if if
Speaker 1: if there was a group of us standing out in
Speaker 1: the middle of that field during the daytime or standing
Speaker 1: by a creek, my kids would have been like off
Speaker 1: doing something. But like the darkness like forces you to
Speaker 1: huddle together and you're just sitting there with your lights off,
Speaker 1: listening for the dogs talking. That's I think that's the
Speaker 1: for me. It's such a contrast to the solo, big
Speaker 1: game hunting that which we all love, well, we all
Speaker 1: we all do love that, but it's uh, but it's
Speaker 1: but it's different. Yeah, it was. It's definitely a from field.
Speaker 1: You know. The only thing though that I thought it
Speaker 1: was at all similar to was frog gigging. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was the only yea in terms of waiting for you know,
Speaker 1: waiting for the sun to go down and then wandering
Speaker 1: around in the dark explicitly totally I mean, still obviously
Speaker 1: totally different, its being different animals, but yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: that night element was a little familiar that way. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. So the conut was a lot of fun
Speaker 1: and we uh, we didn't have a real long hunt.
Speaker 1: We just went out for a couple of hours, but
Speaker 1: we did. We did get a coon. A lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Treat two canes right or one one hole? Well we yeah,
Speaker 1: we put one in the rocks. Yeah, put one in
Speaker 1: the rocks and then and then tread one. So it
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun. Um, So that's what that's
Speaker 1: what we did this week. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: you guys though, and uh, perhaps who do we need
Speaker 1: to talk to first? I think maybe we'll talk to
Speaker 1: Jordan's first, just because we were filming, we were or
Speaker 1: he Captured Creative. If you guys haven't heard of Captured Creative,
Speaker 1: go on Instagram search it out. Uh, you guys are
Speaker 1: on Facebook two yeah, and then you can also just
Speaker 1: check out Jordan Riley's Facebook, Taylor Coleman's Facebook in Instagram.
Speaker 1: And these guys do a ton of work for First Light.
Speaker 1: They do a lot of a lot of the photography,
Speaker 1: a lot of the product based photography. And you gotta
Speaker 1: you ought to tell Ford how you guys hired these guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Jordan and Taylor were some of our first quote
Speaker 1: unquote pro staffers. And these are young guys Jordan's so
Speaker 1: he was just a pup. He was just a pup.
Speaker 1: And this was four years ago. Eything in mind that
Speaker 1: Ford is only one year older than I am. Ords
Speaker 1: a young I'm two years older. I'll have you know older. Um. So, anyhow,
Speaker 1: we were two thousand fourteen. I was putting together first
Speaker 1: light sort of first quote unquote pro staff and there's
Speaker 1: some guys and I'm assuming that you sent some pictures
Speaker 1: that were good and like, yeah, yeah, these guys should
Speaker 1: be part of the part of the pro staff for sure.
Speaker 1: And called Jordan to sort of interview him. And it
Speaker 1: was the day before your wedding. Yeah, I was walking
Speaker 1: through the doors of the church to my wedding rehearsal,
Speaker 1: a bunch of people staring at me while I took
Speaker 1: some random call from catchum Idaho yep, yep. So anyhow,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, going to interview and make sure he
Speaker 1: wasn't crazy. So anyhow, Jordan and Taylor at some point
Speaker 1: soon after sent us a little hype reel then, Is
Speaker 1: that how you describe it? We just went out and
Speaker 1: filmed like a Minnesota hype real sixty or less real
Speaker 1: of just I think we had some drone footage, some
Speaker 1: some other camera type of work in there. Yeah, sent
Speaker 1: it to him and heard back pretty shortly after. I think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my my boss, uh Ross Conforman saw that, and at
Speaker 1: least in my head, the story goes that he said,
Speaker 1: some of the long lines, they're gonna make product videos
Speaker 1: for us. So we called them up and I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe six months later you were filming uh, product product
Speaker 1: videos for the release of I think what was then
Speaker 1: the ten line. Yep, that's a classic story that everybody
Speaker 1: that's into content creation and media would hope would happen
Speaker 1: because they would send their sizzle reel to a major
Speaker 1: national company and that company would hire them to do
Speaker 1: work for them. I believe, my friend, you have hit
Speaker 1: the jackpot. I agree with that. Well, but what they
Speaker 1: saw inside of you guys, what they saw inside of
Speaker 1: your work was a level of excellence that is just notable,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think any anybody that sees your
Speaker 1: stuff is going to recognize that, and uh and that's valuable. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: thank you. I mean, we're definitely not the only ones
Speaker 1: doing it like that. I mean, we try to we
Speaker 1: try to kind of make our own thing and make
Speaker 1: it uniquely us and just kind of keep our heads
Speaker 1: down and work hard, and it's it's it's paid off
Speaker 1: up to this point. We hope we can hope we
Speaker 1: can keep things up and kind of keep pushing it,
Speaker 1: pushing a little bit farther. Yeah, well maybe one day
Speaker 1: they'll actually pay you. I know you've been doing it
Speaker 1: for three this whole time. So right, that's how the
Speaker 1: pro staff works, right yet, know we kint them like
Speaker 1: a ten percent deal on gear. Uh yeah, So so
Speaker 1: Capture Creative. So I want to talk about the film
Speaker 1: in City Limits because both of you guys worked on that.
Speaker 1: So First Light last Fall was it October that that
Speaker 1: was released October? Okay, so First Lights doing they they
Speaker 1: do product videos, Like if you go to the first
Speaker 1: Like YouTube channel, you would see product videos. But you
Speaker 1: would also see in the last two years, um, two
Speaker 1: sets of videos. One about tag a guy there that
Speaker 1: works at the First Light office who was not a
Speaker 1: hunter but drew this unbelievable sheep tag in Alaska, and
Speaker 1: so there's a series of videos on that. But you
Speaker 1: would also see a film called n City Limits that
Speaker 1: now was Taylor working with you on that or was
Speaker 1: it just you and Ford? Taylor Coleman was He was
Speaker 1: one of the photographers with on that one too. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you and Taylor and Ford. We're with Taylor Chamberlain
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. Near Washington, d C. So tell
Speaker 1: me about the film. So Taylor was another original pro.
Speaker 1: He was another O G pro staffer. I think he
Speaker 1: was part of the first round of pro staffs. And
Speaker 1: he is a feller that hunts O G O G proces.
Speaker 1: He was one of the first pro staff Does that
Speaker 1: mean original gangster? Uh? Some might, some mighty didn't. Some
Speaker 1: might say it does. Yeah. Um, he was one of
Speaker 1: our first pro stafvers I think um. And he caught
Speaker 1: my eye immediately because he said something along the lines of, I,
Speaker 1: you know, I hunt a hundred and fifty days a
Speaker 1: year in the suburbs of Washington, d C. I'll kill
Speaker 1: between forty and a hundred deer a year, and I
Speaker 1: hunt out a swing set sometimes. You know. It was
Speaker 1: something that brief. And so he wrote a couple of
Speaker 1: blog posts for us through the years, and eventually, as
Speaker 1: first I sort of moved into those you know, what
Speaker 1: we call full content pieces or full puller length, really
Speaker 1: content pieces. Uh. Taylor was sort of the first story
Speaker 1: that came to mind for me just because it was
Speaker 1: such or it felt like such a unique story. Uh,
Speaker 1: this guy who was was really doing more than his
Speaker 1: part to manage the suburban deer heard there in northern
Speaker 1: Virginia and uh, and also just couldn't get enough of
Speaker 1: doing so he just loves it. So had you met
Speaker 1: him before only on the phone? I have only ever
Speaker 1: you'd only talked to him on the phone when you went, Ye,
Speaker 1: when we flew over there, I think I got there
Speaker 1: a day before Taylor and Jordan's um And yeah, we
Speaker 1: had only talked on the on the phone. We met
Speaker 1: at Reagan Airport. Yeah. So how long were you guys
Speaker 1: there when you were shooting that film? I think we
Speaker 1: filmed four six or seven days how and so you
Speaker 1: were you were hunting in the tree with him, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were filming deer hunts. Yeah, we had both Taylor
Speaker 1: Coleman and I were. You know, one of us would
Speaker 1: be kind of in the tree with Taylor Chamberlain and
Speaker 1: the other one would be back off some ways to
Speaker 1: get a little bit better, because I mean we were
Speaker 1: hunting and sometimes as small as half acre pieces of
Speaker 1: property right on the edge of lawns basically, so just
Speaker 1: to kind of really set the scene of yeah, there's
Speaker 1: houses right there, and we're running here to kind of
Speaker 1: get that. And he's one of those tree saddle hit
Speaker 1: piece he is, and he's he's converting us one by one.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm already converted. Now. They are awesome. They
Speaker 1: are awesome. Um here's my question. How does he so
Speaker 1: what's the how can he kill a hundred deer a
Speaker 1: year legally? Yeah? So very liberal seasons to start, you know,
Speaker 1: in just Virginia's rags in the northern I think it's
Speaker 1: five counties, one of which Oblie obviously he's in. I
Speaker 1: don't even remember the details. I think they're regular boat seasons.
Speaker 1: Probably early September too, I think it was later than
Speaker 1: I or even respected maybe April April March, yeah, for real,
Speaker 1: and that's their regular season. And then they get um,
Speaker 1: I don't remember the terminology. It's a it's a form
Speaker 1: of depredation tag essentially, it's it's essentially a suburban depredation tag,
Speaker 1: an azalea bandit, you know, predation tag or depredation tag.
Speaker 1: And uh so Anyhow, the net some of that as
Speaker 1: they can kill Antler List dear from I think whatever
Speaker 1: it is April until September again, um, And so there's
Speaker 1: essentially no limit on the Yeller List Dear Um. I
Speaker 1: don't remember whether the summer kill permits cover Antler Dear
Speaker 1: or not. Um. But then during the regular Dear season itself,
Speaker 1: I believe they actually do just have three buck tags
Speaker 1: killing bucks up there. Yeah, He's definitely had his fair share.
Speaker 1: I mean, he he's on some big ones in there
Speaker 1: for sure. So even though he's got these unlimited dough tags,
Speaker 1: basically he could still shoot a buck at any time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think during the rot he I mean, he's
Speaker 1: he's hunting for a buck in November. See, they have
Speaker 1: urban deer hunts in like seven cities in Arkansas or something.
Speaker 1: You've got to kill a certain amount of doze before
Speaker 1: you can even kill a buck. Yeah about arna buck,
Speaker 1: Yeah definitely. Well, that that was a that was a
Speaker 1: super neat film. What can you in the production of that?
Speaker 1: What were the what were the major challenges Jordan's I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean was that well, let me back up, was
Speaker 1: that the first feature length film that you had done
Speaker 1: with First Light. Yep, yeah, that was the that was
Speaker 1: the very first one. So what other films had you
Speaker 1: done before that? Just some small our stuff, not really
Speaker 1: too much anything for brands, So that was kind of
Speaker 1: our I mean breakouts maybe not the right word, but
Speaker 1: that was the first. That was the first time kind
Speaker 1: of trusted us for for something of that level. Well,
Speaker 1: it was it was really, it was great. It was great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a lot. There was a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: of fun to put together that one. Definitely Tailor is
Speaker 1: a super fun guy to hang out with, and it
Speaker 1: was really an interesting world to see. That's you know,
Speaker 1: so different then a lot of our experiences, especially I
Speaker 1: think in the West or you know, in sort of
Speaker 1: traditional white tail Great Lake States like Jordan's from. But
Speaker 1: the funny thing about sort of the reception to that
Speaker 1: piece that we were discussing earlier at some point in
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, is how many people identified
Speaker 1: with it. You know, how many people we're hunting in
Speaker 1: in semi suburban areas or near houses. And when I
Speaker 1: thought it through, I mean even I I've shot white
Speaker 1: tails within a hundred yards of folks houses and never
Speaker 1: really thought about it because it was in a kind
Speaker 1: of quote unquote rural area, right, But um, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's I think, and it's an increasingly common experience
Speaker 1: really as obviously cities sprawl out and at the same
Speaker 1: time as as white tail populations increase or or at
Speaker 1: least they're still present in those suburban areas well. My
Speaker 1: biggest Arkansas deer came from very close to my house
Speaker 1: and uh, and it changed the way that I looked
Speaker 1: at whitetail hunting because I mean I liked to go
Speaker 1: to wild places quote unquote to hunt deer and ended
Speaker 1: up killing the biggest deer that I've ever killed in Arkansas,
Speaker 1: will probably be the biggest deer I ever killed in
Speaker 1: Arkansas was in a suburban area and uh in two
Speaker 1: thousand seven, and that's about the time it started to
Speaker 1: become a thing. You know, this suburban deer hunting was
Speaker 1: back during that time. But a lot opportunity And that's
Speaker 1: the that's the beauty of white tail honey is there's
Speaker 1: just opportunity so many places. But what you said this
Speaker 1: week forward in our talk, we had extensive dialogue about
Speaker 1: bears and bara biology, and um, you said that we're
Speaker 1: finding out that that bears are kind of the same way,
Speaker 1: especially in the Northeast. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're definitely we
Speaker 1: I think we had had a had a sort of
Speaker 1: a myth in our head that was really I think
Speaker 1: just informed by where we chased bear to. Ultimately, you know,
Speaker 1: as as sort of colonial pre Americans, um, Europeans whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of came and settled North America, they
Speaker 1: pushed a lot of these games, so he's white tailed
Speaker 1: deer to some degree, to this sort of another corners
Speaker 1: of the country, and then I think we sort of
Speaker 1: assumed that that's where they just live. But you know,
Speaker 1: as as we sort of were more you know, as
Speaker 1: as habitat was restored or people were just more open
Speaker 1: to having bears around, we figured out that they can
Speaker 1: live in most of New Jersey. Yeah, They're just they're
Speaker 1: far more adaptable species than we give them credit for.
Speaker 1: I think ecologically, it's just a question of of how
Speaker 1: humans are are willing to deal with them that really
Speaker 1: determines how many bears can live in a given place.
Speaker 1: The cultural tolerance of it, that's the word for it. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of cultural tolerance, we have had pretty significant intolerance
Speaker 1: at the global headquarters this week of squirrels. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: we have. I feel like it's only fitting that we
Speaker 1: expound on a squirrel incident that happened here at the
Speaker 1: Global Headquarters this week. We we don't have to take
Speaker 1: a lot of time on this, even though it's probably
Speaker 1: the most exciting thing that happened the entire week, and
Speaker 1: we did a lot of exciting things this week. It
Speaker 1: was pretty exciting. Yeah, so we're we're here in the
Speaker 1: office Ford Seeson. Squirrel outside the Global Headquarters and I
Speaker 1: just happened to have a four tien. It's squirrel season here.
Speaker 1: Just happened to have a four tien with shells handy
Speaker 1: and that I didn't I wasn't try wanting to hunt. Well,
Speaker 1: the squirrel has been getting in my in my in
Speaker 1: my ceiling. They've been coming in through a hole in
Speaker 1: the outside, getting in the ceiling. So I have been
Speaker 1: taking care of squirrels. And we see the squirrel. I
Speaker 1: run outside and shoot the shoot at the squirrel as
Speaker 1: it is running away. And I only had one shell
Speaker 1: in the four ten And uh, these guys are watching
Speaker 1: this from the outside and they think I've hit the
Speaker 1: squirrel because they see the squirrel coming out of the tree.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah, we were watching from inside the office.
Speaker 1: The squirrel flees off the office because I think it
Speaker 1: was initially coming towards the office. Well, it was on
Speaker 1: the roof of the office, and I swung around to
Speaker 1: the northwest corner in the squirrel and I just meet
Speaker 1: eye to eye and I'm thinking should I shoot him
Speaker 1: on the roof and I decided not to, even though
Speaker 1: I wish I had now and he goes over the
Speaker 1: other side of the office. I sprint around to the
Speaker 1: southwest corner of the office shoot at a running away
Speaker 1: squirrel about twenty yards with a four ten with number
Speaker 1: six is in it. Miss. It's unclear what happened, but
Speaker 1: the squirrel runs down the trunk of the tree and
Speaker 1: sort of disappears out of sight, and Jordan and I
Speaker 1: are yelling from the inside of the office. He's on
Speaker 1: the ground. He's on the ground. He's on the ground.
Speaker 1: And I run out to tell you he's on the ground. Well,
Speaker 1: and so so you two, I mean, you indicate to
Speaker 1: me that it's dead on the ground, and so I said,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I hit it, and you were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we saw it come out of the tree. I think
Speaker 1: it's training. We're looking for it. We can't find it.
Speaker 1: So my pup is running around my my plot puppy.
Speaker 1: We call the plot puppy, over thinking that the pup
Speaker 1: might be able to find it, which initiates level one chaos,
Speaker 1: Level one chaos. And I, for whatever reason, it handed
Speaker 1: you the gun, and uh and just, I don't know
Speaker 1: where the squirrel came from. It's fairly open. It's like
Speaker 1: he disappeared into the earth and then emerged from the
Speaker 1: earth running up a hickory tree, like no more than
Speaker 1: eight yards in front of Ford. Eight too, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say eight to eleven yards in front of Ford. And
Speaker 1: the squirrel runs to our side of the tree. And
Speaker 1: just it's like, I mean, just right there at probably
Speaker 1: twelve feet obvious. So Ford's got the gun. There's one
Speaker 1: shell left in the gun. He pulls up, squeezes yanks.
Speaker 1: Really it was a man. I wasn't gonna say it wasn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't shot. I wasn't gonna throw a fellow squirrel
Speaker 1: hunter of the bus. But you yanked. This is the
Speaker 1: second time we've talked about squirrels and embarrassment. There's a
Speaker 1: real well, so he squeezes the trigger the guns on safety.
Speaker 1: You weren't familiar with the guns, so I can't fault
Speaker 1: you for that. You weren't familiar with Well, you squeeze
Speaker 1: and jerk and then you click the safety off. Boom,
Speaker 1: And I don't know how did it happened? But you
Speaker 1: missed the squirrel, you know, once again. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: missing squirrel. Listen, though the squirrel doesn't run up the tree,
Speaker 1: which it totally could have run up the tree and
Speaker 1: just been gone. The squirrel comes down the tree again
Speaker 1: and runs to the shed near the Global Headquarters, just
Speaker 1: south of the Global Headquarters. And and now we've run
Speaker 1: out of shells, and so I say watch the squirrel
Speaker 1: forward watches where it goes. I run in get shells,
Speaker 1: and Jordan is still not qued in that like world
Speaker 1: class adventure and excitement has taken place. He's just kind
Speaker 1: of watching a little bit. We go out. Squirrel is
Speaker 1: in the rafters. Ford takes a piece of bamboo, pokes
Speaker 1: the squirrel. Squirrel runs to another section and then I'm
Speaker 1: up close to the squirrel poking at it. It's staying
Speaker 1: in the rafters and we couldn't figure it out. Next
Speaker 1: thing I know. The squirrel is like spread eagle flying
Speaker 1: through the air, and it skips off the top of
Speaker 1: Ford's head such that it knocks his hat back. It
Speaker 1: didn't knock it off, but I just remember seeing his
Speaker 1: hat bill move about two inches. There was impact. There
Speaker 1: was a light impact that this squirrel is flying at
Speaker 1: my face, skips off my hat. I think, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I think it touched off my shoulders on the way
Speaker 1: to the ground. But then, in a bizarre move, the squirrel,
Speaker 1: after touching Ford's head, hits the ground and goes back
Speaker 1: to the shed into a large barre earl that's in
Speaker 1: the Yeah, and I'll speed the story up. We can't
Speaker 1: find the squirrel in the barrel. There's a bunch of
Speaker 1: a bunch of bunch of poles, sticks, shovels, whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so I decided it's time to bring out the
Speaker 1: real We need to find the squirrel. We weren't sure
Speaker 1: it was in the barrel. So I go get Fern,
Speaker 1: my adult good plot raccoon hound, and she's not a
Speaker 1: squirrel dog. But I knew that if she saw us
Speaker 1: getting excited about something that she would, like, you know,
Speaker 1: get after it. So I turned Fern loose and stage
Speaker 1: three chaos. Fern is just going nuts and she realizes
Speaker 1: I'm trying to sicker on something, and she smells that
Speaker 1: squirrel and she's crawling over equipment and trying to get
Speaker 1: in that barrel and barking and running. And finally we
Speaker 1: dig out, dig around, find a squirrel in the bottom
Speaker 1: of the barrel. The squirrel jumps out of the barrel
Speaker 1: and runs, I'm not gonna sit, ran up my arm,
Speaker 1: but it touched my arm as it jumped onto the
Speaker 1: tree behind me, runs a ofss the top of the office,
Speaker 1: around to the northwest corner where we started, and runs
Speaker 1: into the ceiling of the Global headquarters. And that's the show,
Speaker 1: you know, it was. It was a bizarre turn of
Speaker 1: events that ruined it really ruined the week. But uh
Speaker 1: are bawling. The squirrel has touched both of us. At
Speaker 1: this point, the squirrel seems to be wounded. There was blood,
Speaker 1: but didn't And and the most the thing that stood
Speaker 1: out to me the most is that as a hunter,
Speaker 1: there comes a point in any hunt where you it's
Speaker 1: like the animal, It's like you know that this is
Speaker 1: gonna happen. When the squirrels in the barrel, I had
Speaker 1: the four ten, We had Fern and Opie baying in
Speaker 1: the barrel to you with the with a bamboo stick.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was like this, there's no way. Ironically,
Speaker 1: we were cooking a pot of squirrel and dumplings in
Speaker 1: the house us and we were already like both planning.
Speaker 1: This was just another one to add to the to
Speaker 1: the slow cooker, like for real, and he got away
Speaker 1: from us. So it was a sad story, said Jordan
Speaker 1: came out and helped to towards the end. Yeah, can
Speaker 1: you verify that what we said is true? I mean,
Speaker 1: did it happened that way? I was inside just taking
Speaker 1: care of some camera equipment and a couple of gunshots
Speaker 1: and some yelling later on chaos. Oh man. I still
Speaker 1: don't know how that why that Scirl acted that way.
Speaker 1: But it was a bad deal. He has a bad deal.
Speaker 1: But for all we know, he is in the in
Speaker 1: the ceiling of this building right now, chewing the wires
Speaker 1: of my office. All right, we gotta get back to
Speaker 1: business here, guys. Um, what's a good segue after that
Speaker 1: into talking to Ford about First Light? You know what
Speaker 1: I want to know? To me, first Light seems like
Speaker 1: like the Google of Like okay, like at the Google
Speaker 1: headquarters they have like those snap pods. We don't have
Speaker 1: nap pods, if that's what you mean. That's that's about
Speaker 1: where I was going with this. No, just I was
Speaker 1: more thinking those like swirly slides, like multicolored like children's slides.
Speaker 1: None of those either. Don't have any of those. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well tell us tell us what it's like. Now you
Speaker 1: have it. You have an incredible job. Um, Like, what
Speaker 1: what's it like working at the first headquarters? And have
Speaker 1: you seen it evolved? So you started working for the
Speaker 1: like four or five years ago. Yeah, it's grown a ton.
Speaker 1: It's grown a ton. It's it's kind of become more
Speaker 1: of a grown up business. We have sort of yeah,
Speaker 1: we do have standing desks. Okay, you have a couple
Speaker 1: of standing desks. They don't seem to get a ton
Speaker 1: of use. We had some Bounty ball chairs over the
Speaker 1: years that was sort of Google ish. Those didn't seem
Speaker 1: to last very long. Um, but it's great, man, It's
Speaker 1: it's a really neat place to to work. How many
Speaker 1: people work there? Um, you know, I'm not sure where
Speaker 1: we're at this point. Um, twenty one will be at
Speaker 1: maybe yeah, and that's but it's kind of not fair
Speaker 1: to say that because we've got distribution center, we've got developers,
Speaker 1: we've got factories, we've got garment architects. I mean, how
Speaker 1: would you how would you describe what kind of clothing
Speaker 1: First Light makes to someone who wouldn't be familiar with
Speaker 1: First Light gare Oh right, Yeah, so we make we
Speaker 1: make technical hunting apparel. Yeah. Scott and Kent were the
Speaker 1: first folks to put I believe in the hunting industry,
Speaker 1: to put camouflage onto marino wool. That was sort of
Speaker 1: their initial innovation. So they started very much in sort
Speaker 1: of the base core, mid layers and in the years
Speaker 1: since it spiraled out to sort of a full service
Speaker 1: hunting apparel brand with full gear for white tail hunters,
Speaker 1: Western big game hunters, anything sort of big And so
Speaker 1: First Life's really known originally for their marino wool and
Speaker 1: bringing that into the hunting hunting industry exactly as a
Speaker 1: as a as a kind of a miracle fabric for
Speaker 1: active hunting. Yep. Scott and Kenton, um, we're using a
Speaker 1: ton of marino wool. Uh in in Central Idaho, snowmobiling, skiing, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of all kinds of snow sports. Kenton
Speaker 1: was a big snowboarder. Also, Scott's a big downhill skiar.
Speaker 1: So they were using this fabric and sort of other
Speaker 1: pursuits um, hike and fishing, etcetera. But uh, you couldn't
Speaker 1: find any hardly in kind of colors besides black, and
Speaker 1: even black for September archery hunt wasn't really ideal. So
Speaker 1: that's sort of where that impetus came from, that desire
Speaker 1: to use that fabric in a in a context, you know,
Speaker 1: hunting context, and to print and or just produce it
Speaker 1: in colors that were more favorable to hunting. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot of people wouldn't a lot of people in the
Speaker 1: South I have found, and this would include have included me.
Speaker 1: Up until about five or six years ago, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have understood understood much about well. To me, wool was
Speaker 1: what you wore when it was like ultra cold, certainly,
Speaker 1: but what these thin marino wool layers, it's actually what
Speaker 1: you want to wear when it's hot, because it's it's
Speaker 1: it's thermoregulating your temperature. It's pulling when it's hot, it's
Speaker 1: pulling away. It's pulling away heat from your body. So,
Speaker 1: I mean when the thing that the sort of simple
Speaker 1: image that's really powerful I think is a sheep, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, think about how much wool sheep has on it,
Speaker 1: and sheep deal with temperatures across the world from a
Speaker 1: hundred degree is to negative ten degrees. You know, they're
Speaker 1: pretty outfitted for whatever comes that way, and they they
Speaker 1: certainly aren't putting a whole lot of layers on and
Speaker 1: off in the process. Isn't that why the best marino
Speaker 1: woolf comes from New Zealand because of the temperature swings,
Speaker 1: didn't I hear? Yea that I don't. Actually, I'm presuming
Speaker 1: that the climate is important to marino's loving. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure I heard Scott Robinson say on a podcast that
Speaker 1: marino wolf from New Zealand is or maybe that's the
Speaker 1: only place where a lot of it comes from, but
Speaker 1: it's but it's because of the temperature swing, like it
Speaker 1: can get extremely hot but also extremely cold, and certainly
Speaker 1: can and so and that's exactly what a human would
Speaker 1: use that wolf exactly. Yeah, you know, And I'm not
Speaker 1: honestly sure whether people raise marino sheep there because of
Speaker 1: the conditions or whether marino sheep are raised there because
Speaker 1: of the conditions and then they can deal with the
Speaker 1: temperature swings. But either which way, New Zealand produces a
Speaker 1: good chunka and since so that's so marino wolves the
Speaker 1: thing the first lights originally started. But now you have
Speaker 1: a full product line of outer outer layer materials, synthetic
Speaker 1: materials of all kinds of stuff. I mean, we started
Speaker 1: sort of, I think the first initial desire was completing
Speaker 1: our own basically September elk kits, you know, October deer
Speaker 1: kits in central Idaho. So you know, I think we
Speaker 1: started with lightweight puffy jackets, lightweight rain jackets for sort
Speaker 1: of the backcountry hunting we did there in Idaho, and
Speaker 1: from there we kind of spread, uh towards more Eastern
Speaker 1: tree stan oriented stuff, stuff in the stationary hunter that
Speaker 1: has to deal with a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: low tempts and a lot of inactivity that way in
Speaker 1: terms of keeping you warm. So yeah, it's it's been
Speaker 1: a it's been a process, but we now offer solutions
Speaker 1: for for pretty much all big game hunters East West. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I would say for someone that doesn't own
Speaker 1: any of this type of gear. What you could start
Speaker 1: off with that would be practical for any hunter hunting
Speaker 1: in any place in North America would be a basse
Speaker 1: layer marino wool. I mean, like I pretty much don't
Speaker 1: do any type of honey without the bass layer marino
Speaker 1: wool on skin, you know, And that would be a
Speaker 1: good place to start for people and then move up
Speaker 1: from there. Next skin is next to skin is the
Speaker 1: place where're going to realize those benefits. You really don't
Speaker 1: realize the benefits until you do it. I mean, like
Speaker 1: I am anti gimmick when it comes to hunting gear,
Speaker 1: like and uh, and you might hear it. And if
Speaker 1: you've never wore the thin marino wool, it may not
Speaker 1: make sense. But once you start wearing it, it makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not only for active hunting, but for tree stand hunting too.
Speaker 1: It's a game changer. Yeah, from tell me how how
Speaker 1: how is it a game changing for tree stand sitting? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds kind of cliche, but you really
Speaker 1: do sit more and longer when you do sit because
Speaker 1: you're more comfortable for the entirety of the hunt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that long ago, five six years ago. It
Speaker 1: was just the game of how many you know, pairs
Speaker 1: of sweatpants? Could I squeeze underneath this one you know,
Speaker 1: printed camel layer of clothing that I have between September
Speaker 1: and December thirty one, just being miserable out there, and
Speaker 1: you know this is I think most people in Minnesota
Speaker 1: have multiple pairs of sweatpants. Probably Yeah, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised at all, but yeah, I mean getting down when
Speaker 1: it's late season, it's cold. I lived in Minnesota, I
Speaker 1: would have like eight pairs of sweatpants, eight sweatpants status,
Speaker 1: how cold is it? It's about eight sweatpants born and
Speaker 1: it's a it's a good measure. Well. The other thing, too,
Speaker 1: is I think people forget that getting in and out
Speaker 1: of trees, it's important not to get sweated up. It's
Speaker 1: important not to get overheated. So breathable clothing that can
Speaker 1: deal with moistures, it can be important in that regard
Speaker 1: all white til hunters. Yeah, yeah, very much. So well, okay,
Speaker 1: so we've talked about first Light. Let's go let's talk
Speaker 1: about the capture creative a little bit more. So you guys,
Speaker 1: so you're you're working with first Light. It's the business
Speaker 1: as you and Taylor. Um, what would you say, what
Speaker 1: is your bread and butter media creation? Like, what do
Speaker 1: you love to do? I mean, we're definitely pretty diverse
Speaker 1: in our capabilities and what we do. Um, it's not
Speaker 1: really one thing that you know makes up a bigger
Speaker 1: piece of the pie. Um. We do everything from photography
Speaker 1: to you know, filmmaking too. We help out with social
Speaker 1: media accounts for for certain brands and um, I mean
Speaker 1: it definitely all stammed with photography and videography. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what about you? You just you though, like what you're photographer,
Speaker 1: videography increasingly the you know, the whole cinematography and just
Speaker 1: making making typical things, things that you see a lot
Speaker 1: or maybe otherwise, but just making them look visually appealing
Speaker 1: and trying to see them in a through different lands.
Speaker 1: I mean, for instance, this week, we were we were
Speaker 1: doing stuff that I've never done before and trying to
Speaker 1: show that to people who are could be in my
Speaker 1: same shoes, you know, never seeing somebody shoot a bow
Speaker 1: and arrow off the back of a mule, or chasing
Speaker 1: squirrels down you know, down a down an old road
Speaker 1: or anything like that. You know, it's constantly the wheels
Speaker 1: are kind of spinning on how you can tell that
Speaker 1: story and that's it's not always easy, but man, it's
Speaker 1: it's rewarding and that's that's what keeps you going. So
Speaker 1: it keeps me going at it. Yeah, well it was.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of fun this week. What I
Speaker 1: what I learned this week watching you because I'm a
Speaker 1: videographer myself. You know, we make a lot of videos,
Speaker 1: so we and I edit and I shoot steel photography,
Speaker 1: and what I saw this week and I was really
Speaker 1: interested to see how you guys would operate. But I
Speaker 1: just saw a level of excellence that helped me kind
Speaker 1: of up the bar just as i've i've as i've
Speaker 1: watched you deal with light, I mean you're like a
Speaker 1: you're like, uh, I don't know the word to use,
Speaker 1: but I mean just like like conciouseur. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's really all about all about lighting, in the
Speaker 1: in the detail that you go to with lighting to
Speaker 1: get a certain shot. And uh, it's always it's always
Speaker 1: fun to well I've never done it before, worked with
Speaker 1: somebody that was just at a I mean a different level. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean in regardless of what what it is that
Speaker 1: you're doing, like that it's I mean, for instance, even
Speaker 1: even like you me watching you, even though I was filming,
Speaker 1: I'm still taking in what you're doing and learning just
Speaker 1: kind of the general like woodsmanship and everything. And it
Speaker 1: definitely it goes both ways. You know. When I'm when
Speaker 1: I'm on a shoot like that, I'm constantly constantly trying
Speaker 1: to just pick stuff up while I'm you know, looking
Speaker 1: for light, looking for those angles, looking for the right composition,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. It's it's you. Definitely you learn
Speaker 1: more and you learn different things than you expect to
Speaker 1: on a shoot like this and even shoots last fall. Yeah. Sure,
Speaker 1: Now do you mind telling us what kind of equipment
Speaker 1: your main camera? Is? That? Cool? Yeah? Yeah, no, absolutely
Speaker 1: so this week the main rig that I was filming
Speaker 1: with was was a red cameras to Scarlet Wum. Awesome camera.
Speaker 1: Definitely not perfect for the conditions that we were that
Speaker 1: we found ourselves in by any means, but due to
Speaker 1: a variety of reasons, picture quality, the image that it
Speaker 1: puts out is incredible that working with it, and post
Speaker 1: is pretty incredible too, with you know, working with raw
Speaker 1: footage and it's yeah, it's it's a lot to deal
Speaker 1: with out there. But it's definitely worth it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just interjected, Jordan carried a red camera, which ways, what
Speaker 1: do you think It's got to be close to ten
Speaker 1: twelve pounds by the time it's kidded out and you
Speaker 1: were carrying your other gear too though, minimum And I've
Speaker 1: seen Jordan carried up and down mountains, but this week alone,
Speaker 1: Jordan carried it seven miles just today. Yeah, their shoulder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and really not just carried it but sort of pointed
Speaker 1: it for seven miles. Yes, there's seven miles of filming.
Speaker 1: That's probably another good metric that you can ask for real,
Speaker 1: it was for distance. So inside of this scenario forward,
Speaker 1: you're the you're the producer, So you're here with Jordan's
Speaker 1: and you're like, you're I mean, you you don't really
Speaker 1: tell him what to do. It's been fun watching you
Speaker 1: guys work together because I've yet to hear you tell
Speaker 1: him to do something. But yet you're working your your
Speaker 1: your partner together and you're kind of it's kind of
Speaker 1: like you are both on the same bandwidth and you're
Speaker 1: co laboring together. But so you're here like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I don't I just I generally know that
Speaker 1: you know Jordan and I discuss what we want to
Speaker 1: do and pretty much know that Jordan will get the shots. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't really have any He's never not gotten him.
Speaker 1: Let's put it that way. No pressure anyway, but no
Speaker 1: pressure at all. Let's keep it that way. The team
Speaker 1: aspect of it is pretty important too. We've been on
Speaker 1: enough shoots together where we kind of know, not even verbally,
Speaker 1: we don't really even have to say anything too often
Speaker 1: to each other to know what needs to happen and
Speaker 1: when and all the logistics of everything that goes into it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well it's been it's been a lot of fun. And
Speaker 1: for me is a is a videographer, which certainly I
Speaker 1: would I don't talk about a lot about like camera
Speaker 1: gear or whatnot on this podcast, never have, but I'm
Speaker 1: kind of a I'm a I'm an aspiring videographer and
Speaker 1: some trying and learn as much as I can. But
Speaker 1: a red camera, for those of you that wouldn't know
Speaker 1: what this is in the in the film world with
Speaker 1: people that are into film, A red cameras like iconic
Speaker 1: of like the best. So it's a neat, neat piece
Speaker 1: of equipment. You've got a Ronan gimbal they've been using
Speaker 1: some Yeah, and it's important to say to I mean this,
Speaker 1: I feel pretty lucky to be able to run a
Speaker 1: camera like this. But it's not the gear that exactly,
Speaker 1: it's nothing to do. I could have shot this film
Speaker 1: on a camera that's much less one with that, right
Speaker 1: is and still tell the story that we needed to tell.
Speaker 1: But um, just you know, when you're when tools are
Speaker 1: available to you, and you know, it's just like anything else,
Speaker 1: you want to use the best thing that you can
Speaker 1: to tell it. And sometimes this camera isn't. And that
Speaker 1: that's a great that's a great point. Is that And
Speaker 1: I've learned that is that it is not because people
Speaker 1: ask you all the time, what kind of cameras do
Speaker 1: you what kind of cameras does shoot? What kind of
Speaker 1: cameras do you shoot? And you want to say the
Speaker 1: camera is not the limiting factor of your ability to
Speaker 1: tell the story, you know. But but when you're but
Speaker 1: it's good to have good equipment, but that's not the
Speaker 1: limiting factor of how well, look at all your super
Speaker 1: successful videos collide through bear Hunting magazine. Yeah, and look
Speaker 1: how terrible the videography that where you're going with us
Speaker 1: for it. I'll tell another squirrel story about you. Those
Speaker 1: those those videos have really landed, you know, despite not
Speaker 1: having a red camera. So forward to segue into something
Speaker 1: totally different, as we're closing down here, as a conservation
Speaker 1: director of First Light, tell me tell us what that means. Basically,
Speaker 1: I work with our conservation partners are n GEO partners,
Speaker 1: kind of nonprofit groups, to ensure that the First Light
Speaker 1: is doing it's best to give back to sort of
Speaker 1: the hunting tradition and the wild landscape that we based
Speaker 1: our business on and that all our employees pass are
Speaker 1: based on. You know, it's sort of twofold. They're selfish
Speaker 1: and selfishly we're all hunters that that depend on wild
Speaker 1: land and wild places, and and the folks we sell
Speaker 1: gear to depend on wildlands and wild place wildlife and
Speaker 1: wild places. So that means you're coordinating. Can you give
Speaker 1: us an example? Ye? Yes, so I'm I work basically
Speaker 1: with our four current partners and conservation quite a bit.
Speaker 1: That would be back in three Hunters and Anglers, the
Speaker 1: National Wildlife Federation, Pheasants Forever, and uh the Teddy Roosevelt
Speaker 1: Conservation Partnership in supporting them, uh sort of on several
Speaker 1: fronts obviously giving um and in sort of donations that way,
Speaker 1: but also I think, and I think what's frankly kind
Speaker 1: of more important for a small company is education and
Speaker 1: outreach for them, making sure that that we can help
Speaker 1: them spread those messages that are so important via the
Speaker 1: small channels we have, UM, you know, because obviously we're
Speaker 1: never gonna donate as much as proper and gamble, but
Speaker 1: if we can get people to call their senators or
Speaker 1: on important conservation legislation, or inform people about wildlife diseases
Speaker 1: or whatever it may be, I think I think that's
Speaker 1: maybe our most important contribution, is our voice to to
Speaker 1: a certain hunting demographic. Mm hmm. That's great. So is
Speaker 1: that so your your roll inside of that is that
Speaker 1: like an everyday thing at First Life for you? Okay?
Speaker 1: I mean that's like your primary because you're also doing
Speaker 1: some marketing, several primaries, I suppose. UM. I also manage
Speaker 1: all of our photo and video content, which is you know,
Speaker 1: arguably why I'm on here with Jordan's UM. So that's producing,
Speaker 1: putting together photo shoots, uh, dealing and working with photo
Speaker 1: ambassadors with photographers, sending up video shoots. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: kind of managing the myriad of ways that photo and
Speaker 1: video come to First Light, and then helping to deploy
Speaker 1: them via social via blogs on the website, on ads,
Speaker 1: on you know, print ads whatever. So that's that's one silo.
Speaker 1: And then I helped merchandise our website, so I put
Speaker 1: together sort of how products displayed to customers that build
Speaker 1: that out. I've managed copy um and pricing and and
Speaker 1: help execute. Just think forward. You started out as an intern,
Speaker 1: I was. I was first lights here. I think the
Speaker 1: first light is like a dream, like the like the dreammaker,
Speaker 1: like this young this young chap from Maryland probably didn't
Speaker 1: stand a chance anywhere else in the world. I went
Speaker 1: to catch him outa hoo as an intern and ends
Speaker 1: up as a conservation director marketing strategists, yeah, exact. And
Speaker 1: then this young chap Minnesota boy who fishes on ice,
Speaker 1: which is bizarre and crazy, lands as a pro staffer
Speaker 1: on the first start first like crew, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden he's making he's making movies for him. Yeah. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: we both got pretty lucky that way. I'd say, yeah, now,
Speaker 1: but it isn't that the cool thing about uh up
Speaker 1: and coming company? That's you know, thinking progressively. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty neat. It's pretty neat. I mean, honestly, with
Speaker 1: sort of the recent addition of this conservation element to
Speaker 1: my job. I mean, if you had asked the four
Speaker 1: fourteen kind of what his ideal job was, it would
Speaker 1: be pretty pretty sticking close to this one. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: have a you have a really for you have a
Speaker 1: pretty extensive background in wildlife through your car. I mean
Speaker 1: you were ye, that was really right. That's where I
Speaker 1: was going. I mean I went to college. I was
Speaker 1: going to be a wild life biologist. I remember repeatedly
Speaker 1: my mother is saying to me, well, you know, you
Speaker 1: just you don't necessarily have to do what your major in.
Speaker 1: You know, you just never know what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: And I said, no, Mom, that doesn't matter. I'm never
Speaker 1: going to stand out a desk and to be a
Speaker 1: wildlife biologist. And uh so that's that's what my major was,
Speaker 1: conservation biology. My thesis, which we've I've talked about probably
Speaker 1: too much this week, was on black parry habitat requirements
Speaker 1: in the in the Southeast. And I worked for the
Speaker 1: Fishing Wildlife Service out of college and also for the
Speaker 1: University of Delaware doing some deer trapping. So I was
Speaker 1: fully down that path. And anyhow, I guess the long
Speaker 1: the wraparound is that that's come, that's come kind of
Speaker 1: full circle in this in this newest position here at
Speaker 1: first like that's there at first laid I was. I
Speaker 1: was really happy when I heard that you got that job.
Speaker 1: That's that's incredible. You know, it is our connection. The
Speaker 1: first time that I met you, you told me that
Speaker 1: you had read all these research projects about Arkansas black
Speaker 1: bear and you've done a study. And you were the
Speaker 1: first person that I had met, aside from the Game
Speaker 1: and Fish by the program coordinator for Arkansas Game and Fish,
Speaker 1: the bear coordinator, that had ever read these thesis because
Speaker 1: there were only there's only a handful of research that's
Speaker 1: been done in Arkansas. And when I was in college,
Speaker 1: my story was I was going to college for environmental,
Speaker 1: soil and water science. Killed a bear on October one,
Speaker 1: two thousand one, kind of became mesmerized by Arkansas black bear.
Speaker 1: When I realized that I didn't know anything about this
Speaker 1: animal I just killed. Went back to the University of
Speaker 1: Arkansas and started and somehow found these research thesis of
Speaker 1: all these students, and there were only two or three
Speaker 1: official research studies at that time. And so I read
Speaker 1: the same paper as you did. Oh, I mean there's
Speaker 1: only there's not that many we did. We read the
Speaker 1: same papers, and so, yeah, it was funny. When we
Speaker 1: were talking to your dad the other day, he was actually,
Speaker 1: I don't remember how I said it exactly, but it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Clayman went to the University Arkansas. He was studying bears.
Speaker 1: He wasn't. He wasn't, I mean, he wasn't studying bears,
Speaker 1: but I think he was studying bears. Yeah. Yeah, Well
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time, more time than I
Speaker 1: should have been studying for the real thing I was
Speaker 1: there at school for. But but no, no, I worked
Speaker 1: out for it. I mean it worked. It's funny how
Speaker 1: these things become your livelihood, even though they aren't necessarily
Speaker 1: the you know, the the straight and narrow paths, or
Speaker 1: how they come up. I actually took a course in
Speaker 1: college in my senior year, uh called Adventure Writing and Filmmaking,
Speaker 1: and did a project on bare hounding uh in Vermont.
Speaker 1: While writing a thesis on black bear habit was really
Speaker 1: the year of the bear for me. While writing this
Speaker 1: thesis on black bear habitat requirements and uh. And it
Speaker 1: was funny because at the time that was such a
Speaker 1: one off class. I really liked it. I had already
Speaker 1: I've done quite a bit of writing, I was interested
Speaker 1: in writing. I hadn't done any filmmaking, and put it
Speaker 1: put together this film on black bear hunting. But it's
Speaker 1: funny how that of all things, that has become the
Speaker 1: one class that's directly relevant career and all the other
Speaker 1: studying though I think arguably indirectly relevant. Well, you got
Speaker 1: a lot of street cred here at the Global headquarters
Speaker 1: when I heard you made a barehound in the film.
Speaker 1: You're probably the only person I ever got to talk
Speaker 1: to you about my thesis very often. That's why I
Speaker 1: talked to you about it too much. Yes, yes, you did.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. That's awesome. And then and then you have
Speaker 1: a similar story, Jordan, of just taking a chance starting
Speaker 1: a business. You've got a family, Taylor's got a family,
Speaker 1: and you use study graphic design but ended up pursuing
Speaker 1: a passion. I think that's the theme of of of
Speaker 1: everybody that's inside the outdoor industry, you know, is that
Speaker 1: just never in your passion, never counted out, and don't
Speaker 1: be afraid to stick your neck out there and make
Speaker 1: something happen. Yeah, yeah, you never know where you might
Speaker 1: end up. Well, guys, it's been a pleasure having you
Speaker 1: at the global headquarters. Jed is not in here, but
Speaker 1: he he probably will be as soon as you guys
Speaker 1: leave when we get that red camera on the floor.
Speaker 1: So he doesn't like market, you know. But uh now,
Speaker 1: thanks for being on the on the podcast and uh man,
Speaker 1: well uh any closing comments, closing thought, Okay, go through
Speaker 1: your list of first like this, this, this, this, and
Speaker 1: then like's saying not something nice about Arkansas, Jordans, go first,
Speaker 1: it's a small small game. Hunt's fun. It's just fun.
Speaker 1: Didn't that It's just yeah, like I said, I didn't
Speaker 1: know what to expect coming into it and opened my eyes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they might have converted this. Uh this pure bred white
Speaker 1: tail hunter, pure bred gray lights white tail hunter. Go
Speaker 1: in there and stink up those deer woods man, you know,
Speaker 1: don't just at first at first? Uh yeah, thank you,
Speaker 1: thanks for showing us what you do and say you
Speaker 1: do it and it's awesome. Had a great yeah, oh yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it was. This is awesome. Especially coming off trade show season,
Speaker 1: the salty cynicism of trade show or consumer show season.
Speaker 1: Getting to come down here and do this is pretty fun. Ye. First,
Speaker 1: do not include having a squirrel jump on me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that happened to me in the past. But oh, that
Speaker 1: wasn't the first. No, no, that happened to me. I
Speaker 1: had one jumping out of the rafters of a garage
Speaker 1: on I mean, that's that's what happened here. It was strange.
Speaker 1: It only happened once. But there was definitely this oh
Speaker 1: this again feeling actually on one level when said squirrel
Speaker 1: jumped on my I've never seen one do that before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you never know. First, definitely, they'll include squirrel hunting with
Speaker 1: mules and dogs. I mean the dogs. I guess we
Speaker 1: didn't talk about that, but man, the squirrel dog thing
Speaker 1: is cool. It's really neat. I was. I was very
Speaker 1: into that, very into that. Um yeah, squirrel hunting with dogs,
Speaker 1: raccoon hunting in general, that was totally new. Honestly, the
Speaker 1: only thing I had to compared to is bear hunting
Speaker 1: with dogs. It's really not a lot like it. No, No,
Speaker 1: not not that similar, except for there they had the
Speaker 1: same structure. The vacu lie, yes, found that Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: but no, man, it was it was really neat and
Speaker 1: seeing these mountains and hanging out in this this uh
Speaker 1: this landscape. It was. It was really special. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot guys for coming down and uh, keep
Speaker 1: the wild places wild because that's where the bears live. Good,
Speaker 1: I like you good good. That's my that's my that's
Speaker 1: my tag shirt that says that I never thought of it,
Speaker 1: never thought of it. Hey, it's on record of me
Speaker 1: saying I don't get a cut of that, well, as
Speaker 1: long as you give me a cut of the really
Speaker 1: not slop film. Not really what's that? Oh yeah yeah
Speaker 1: store