Josie Dinsmore Chats About Photography And Seeing Her Picture On The Ontario Parks Booking Website!

Working her way up from a point and shoot film camera to a DSLR with a zoom lens, getting her pictures out to non family members in the early days of facebook, getting paid to camp and take pictures of the great outdoors, having articles published in the local paper and Explore mag - Josie does all the cool stuff!

Originally recorded on April 27, 2023

The video version is here: https://youtu.be/xE8-01HS4lo and has an addition bit of a story about Les Stroud.

https://www.facebook.com/JosieDinsmorePhotography

https://www.facebook.com/AdventureswithJosie

https://adventureswithjosie.wordpress.com/about/

https://www.instagram.com/josie.dinsmore.photography/

https://twitter.com/josie_dinsmore?lang=en

Transcript

00:00 - 00:04
Hello, and good day, eh? Welcome to the Super Good Camping podcast. My name is Pamela.

00:04 - 00:04
I'm Tim.

00:04 - 00:05
And we are from supergoodcamping.com.

00:06 - 00:10
We are here because we're on a mission to inspire other families to enjoy camping adventures

00:10 - 00:12
such as we have with our kids.

00:12 - 00:14
Today, we have a repeat guest.

00:14 - 00:20
She is an outdoor adventurer that chronicles said adventures via blogging, photography, freelance writing, and videos.

00:20 - 00:25
She's a real knack for taking great tourism and travel style pictures as evidenced by the fact

00:25 - 00:31
that she has been hired by organizations such as Ontario Parks and Northeastern Ontario Tourism

00:31 - 00:32
to take pictures for them.

00:32 - 00:37
She has written articles, blog posts, and taken pictures for many travel and tourism organizations,

00:38 - 00:41
including Ontario Parks and Explore Magazine.

00:41 - 00:46
She is also currently on the board of directors of the Discovery Routes Trails Organization.

00:46 - 00:49
Most importantly, she loves to be outside as often as she can be.

00:49 - 00:52
Please welcome back Josie Dinsmore. Hey.

00:52 - 00:56
Hi, Josie. Hi, everyone. Hi. Thanks for coming back.

00:56 - 00:58
Thanks for coming and having another yak with us.

00:58 - 01:00
Thanks for having me back.

01:01 - 01:01
You bet.

01:01 - 01:04
I guess it wasn't a terrible experience the first time.

01:04 - 01:05
Oh, no.

01:06 - 01:12
So it's the last time, I I I got sidetracked with a few things, including the the bike camping

01:12 - 01:14
stuff because that's I don't know. That's cool.

01:14 - 01:16
It's something I haven't done.

01:16 - 01:17
I just I thought it was pretty amazing.

01:18 - 01:26
Today, ideally, because you are such an amazing photographer, I'd love to talk about nothing but photography, you know?

01:26 - 01:29
Let's start with how did you, how did you get into it?

01:29 - 01:32
What, what, what's your origin story in photography?

01:33 - 01:38
It's, I guess, very long, long ago, when I was a kid, basically.

01:39 - 01:45
Just, you know, my parents got me and my brother cameras at a young age, you know, so we could

01:45 - 01:47
go in and take our own pictures.

01:48 - 01:56
And, yeah, probably I don't know, maybe it was around 7 or 8 ish at the time, maybe a little older. And, yeah.

01:56 - 02:09
So just started taking, pictures and I kind of just, you know, developed developed there's a photography joke there. It developed from there. Yeah.

02:09 - 02:17
So like I remember one of the first real times I remember taking, photos was actually during a school trip.

02:17 - 02:20
We went to the Bruce Trail and we hiked a section.

02:20 - 02:25
And, I remember taking pictures of my friends, you know, along the trail or the school bus,

02:25 - 02:27
just kind of random things. Yeah.

02:27 - 02:32
So it kinda just continued from there when I was younger, when I was a kid and into early teens.

02:32 - 02:37
Because my family did a lot of traveling and as we talked about last time, you know, spent a lot of time outdoors.

02:39 - 02:41
Naturally, the camera would come along with me.

02:41 - 02:44
It was, you know, just part of the the package.

02:44 - 02:50
And so, so, yeah, I'd be taking pictures of, kind of documenting everything I'd see along the way.

02:51 - 02:55
And then in my teens, I got a so that was that was film cameras.

02:55 - 03:00
When we were still at a film scene, you know, you couldn't take too many pictures, because it,

03:00 - 03:01
you know, it's expensive to develop.

03:01 - 03:03
And then But randomly get them

03:03 - 03:04
back too.

03:04 - 03:09
Yeah. Yeah. And then when I got into my teens, I got my first digital camera.

03:09 - 03:12
And so that was the next kind of big, step.

03:12 - 03:16
You know, as soon as you have a digital camera, you can take as many pictures as you want and

03:16 - 03:19
you can really start to experiment more and start to learn.

03:20 - 03:21
So yeah, I had a little point and shoot.

03:21 - 03:24
I used that camera so much, I wore it right out.

03:24 - 03:26
Had to buy a new one. And then Yeah.

03:26 - 03:31
So then from there, Facebook came along and I started posting photos, you know?

03:31 - 03:32
Oh, I went to this place.

03:33 - 03:39
And, that's when I started to get people commenting like, oh, you know, I really like your,

03:39 - 03:42
your, your pictures and oh, where did you take this?

03:42 - 03:44
And I thought, oh, that's kinda cool.

03:44 - 03:47
Like, people actually like, the pictures I'm taking.

03:47 - 03:52
Because before, like, the only people who saw my pictures were, like, my family members.

03:52 - 03:56
You know, there was nowhere to publicly, you know, post photos.

03:57 - 04:02
So then, yeah, that kind of, that might have encouraged me to try a little bit more, to take

04:02 - 04:04
better pictures and to get out more.

04:04 - 04:06
And then I got a DSLR.

04:07 - 04:11
And of course, you know, as soon as you get one of those, that's a whole another step. Yeah.

04:11 - 04:17
And then a few years after that, I decided to start a public Facebook page to see what, you

04:17 - 04:22
know, not just my friends and family, what the public would think of my photography.

04:22 - 04:29
And, yes, I did that and got on social media, started to get different opportunities come out of it.

04:29 - 04:33
And, yeah, so it was just kind of a long, slow progression.

04:34 - 04:36
And, it's, it's been fun.

04:36 - 04:39
Did you ever do any, any formal training as far as photography?

04:40 - 04:43
No, I'm completely self taught.

04:43 - 04:50
Just, you know, experimenting with the camera, reading books, watching videos online, still learning every day.

04:50 - 04:52
Every time you take out your camera, you're like, oh, okay.

04:52 - 04:55
Okay, maybe if I do this, that'll work a little better. And, yeah.

04:55 - 05:00
So no, I've never gone to school for it or taken any like proper course.

05:01 - 05:04
Just kinda winging it as I go along. That's the best way.

05:04 - 05:06
And it Yeah. Seems to be working well.

05:06 - 05:09
So good good on you. What okay.

05:09 - 05:17
You do things like you do your own photography, your own blogs, so stories with pictures.

05:17 - 05:21
You also do you do, what's the right term, commissions.

05:21 - 05:25
You you are so you you do things for the local newspaper.

05:26 - 05:30
You do things for Ontario Parks, other tourism things.

05:30 - 05:35
How did how did that come about, and and, like, how cool is that?

05:35 - 05:37
It is very cool, actually.

05:37 - 05:42
I, oh, I have a little story I'll tell after, about the Ontario Parks thing.

05:42 - 05:42
Cool.

05:42 - 05:50
But yeah, basically, when I went on social, like social media is such a great thing for artists

05:51 - 05:55
like photographers or Because you can get your work out to such a wide audience.

05:56 - 06:00
Whereas, you know, years ago, you'd take a picture, you'd print it, you'd hang it in a store

06:00 - 06:03
somewhere and how many people are going to see it.

06:03 - 06:05
So that's the great thing about social media.

06:05 - 06:09
So yeah, people started to see, my work.

06:10 - 06:15
One of the very first things that I had well, this was I don't know if this was like within

06:15 - 06:23
the year after I started the Facebook page was I had a I guess they were a business that would

06:23 - 06:26
source photos for Northeastern Ontario tourism.

06:27 - 06:30
And they reached out to me and they said, oh, we like your your photos.

06:31 - 06:33
We're interested in purchasing some.

06:33 - 06:37
And then we're interested, in some photos of a local canoe race.

06:37 - 06:41
Would you able to be able to go out to that and take some?

06:42 - 06:46
So that was pretty cool that they, you know, were interested in that.

06:46 - 06:51
And I talked to them, we worked together, and then I ended up, selling them a collection of

06:51 - 06:55
photos and attending the canoe race and taking some. Yeah.

06:55 - 06:57
So that was probably the first big thing.

06:57 - 06:59
And then it just grew from there.

06:59 - 07:06
I had different, tourism kind of organizations, agencies contacting me saying, oh, we're writing a story about this.

07:06 - 07:08
Do you have a photo that we could use?

07:08 - 07:14
Or they'd see one that I posted online and they'd say, can we purchase that for this article? Yeah.

07:14 - 07:16
So a lot of stuff like that.

07:17 - 07:20
And then, Ontario Parks, that was kind of cool.

07:21 - 07:26
I guess it was probably summer 2021.

07:28 - 07:34
Our local Ontario park, Samuel de Champlain, they well, I kinda knew half of the staff in there

07:34 - 07:36
anyway, so they kind of knew me.

07:36 - 07:39
But they reached out and they're like, would you be interested in doing a little photo shoot

07:39 - 07:44
around the park so that we have photos that we can use for like our social media?

07:45 - 07:46
And I'm like, yeah, of course.

07:46 - 07:50
I do that all the time anyways. You know, why not?

07:50 - 07:56
So I went out there one day with some of my family members and we we kinda like did the stuff

07:56 - 07:57
we were supposed to do.

07:57 - 07:59
Like because they're like, can we get some fishing photos?

07:59 - 08:01
Can we get photos at the beach?

08:01 - 08:08
And then along the way, we just took random pictures of us walking along doing things. And, yeah.

08:08 - 08:10
So that was that was really cool.

08:10 - 08:17
And they got the photos and then, I guess it was some other people from Ontario Park saw the

08:17 - 08:21
photos, like from, the more, like the head office.

08:21 - 08:27
And, they contacted me that winter and they said, hey, we have a we'd like to work with you.

08:28 - 08:35
And, they wanted to purchase a few collections of photos because I had like, you know, thousands

08:35 - 08:40
and thousands of Ontario Park photos in my, on my external hard drives.

08:40 - 08:42
And so they, purchased some of those.

08:42 - 08:49
And then they said, would you like to go to a park and do, a photo shoot for us?

08:49 - 08:52
And so they said, we'll send you to a park.

08:52 - 08:54
You can, camp for a few days.

08:54 - 09:01
We'll get you to do some activities and, then we'll get a collection of photos from you.

09:01 - 09:03
So I thought, well, that's that's really cool.

09:03 - 09:10
Like that's, you know, real like for me, because I really love visiting Ontario parks.

09:10 - 09:11
I've been doing that since I was a kid.

09:11 - 09:12
I'm like, that's just perfect.

09:12 - 09:19
I get to go hang out at a new park for a few days and, take photos, which I'm gonna do anyways.

09:19 - 09:28
And, and yeah, so we did that and we actually went to Bon Sherre Provincial Park and that's

09:28 - 09:31
kind of on, I guess that's the east side of Algonquin.

09:32 - 09:35
And, yeah, I think so. And,

09:35 - 09:35
so,

09:36 - 09:42
yeah. And, yeah, I'd never been to that park before, so it was really cool that the park they

09:42 - 09:43
chose was a new one for me.

09:43 - 09:46
So I got that experience out of it as well.

09:46 - 09:54
And, yeah, just kinda checked out everything that was there and tried some of the, we did some canoeing up the river.

09:54 - 09:55
We tried a corkel in the lake.

09:55 - 09:59
I don't know if you guys have heard of one of those where it's kind of a round, It's like a

09:59 - 10:01
plastic kayak type thing, but round.

10:02 - 10:04
So we got to do that.

10:04 - 10:10
And, yeah, I just had a really great time and it was neat to, you know, get to explore the park.

10:10 - 10:14
But then I'm also kind of working at the same time. Yeah.

10:14 - 10:18
So came home from that, got a bunch of pictures ready for them and they love them.

10:19 - 10:24
And so, yeah, we're, I think I've been in touch with them lately, so I think we're going to

10:24 - 10:26
be doing something else soon.

10:26 - 10:34
So we're kind of in talks, but, definitely something, I hope that will continue to happen, regularly.

10:34 - 10:37
Some working with Ontario parks.

10:37 - 10:39
No kidding. Well, to get wait, Wait.

10:39 - 10:44
I get paid to camp and take pictures and have fun. Okay.

10:44 - 10:46
How do I sign up for that?

10:47 - 10:52
Yeah. And so the little story I was going to tell, which is kind of important to that is, I

10:52 - 10:57
don't know if a lot of people probably don't really know this, but like when I was a kid, like,

10:58 - 11:02
my family and I used to visit, you know, Ontario parks all the time and we'd camp and it was

11:02 - 11:04
like one of my favourite things to do.

11:04 - 11:08
And, back then, you know, we didn't really go on the Internet a whole lot.

11:08 - 11:12
Internet was kinda just starting, but you'd pick up your little your little travel books and

11:12 - 11:15
you'd, you know, flip through them and look at the pictures.

11:15 - 11:22
And I always liked, looking at the pictures from the parks and I'd cut them out and hang them up.

11:22 - 11:28
And then as I got a little older and I got, you know, taking photos a bit more, I'm like, oh,

11:28 - 11:31
that'd be really cool if someday some of my photos were in here.

11:31 - 11:35
Then as the years went on into more recently, I'm like, you know what?

11:35 - 11:41
I'd really like to have some of my photos in something Ontario parks, like either in their their

11:41 - 11:44
guidebooks or on their website or something.

11:44 - 11:49
That would be really neat, especially because, you know, visited so many for years. Yeah.

11:49 - 11:56
So then last fall, I was, on the Internet and went on their website to go take a look at campsites.

11:57 - 12:02
And, you know, as soon as you open up the main page of Ontario Parks, there's like, you know,

12:02 - 12:08
a banner photo across the top and then there's the options to click on if you wanna reserve or everything.

12:09 - 12:12
And I'm looking at the picture, you know, right across the top.

12:12 - 12:14
I'm like, that picture looks familiar.

12:14 - 12:15
Oh, no

12:15 - 12:20
kidding. I took a closer look and I'm like, oh my gosh, that's, one of my photos.

12:21 - 12:26
So it was actually a photo I had taken, in Brent at Algonquin Park.

12:27 - 12:30
And, it was one of the ones they had purchased from me earlier last year.

12:30 - 12:32
And I was like, that's really cool.

12:33 - 12:34
It's kinda like I don't know.

12:34 - 12:36
What do you call it? Full circle or something.

12:36 - 12:42
Like, from when I was a kid looking at the little pictures in the the the guidebook to having

12:42 - 12:45
one of my pictures on their main page of their websites.

12:45 - 12:47
That's awesome. Now now I have to go

12:47 - 12:48
That was pretty special.

12:48 - 12:53
Not not you don't spend a ridiculous amount of time on Ontario Parks website anyhow, but now

12:53 - 12:56
I have to go back and actually look at that banner because I'm always looking at the the where's

12:56 - 13:03
the backcountry one, where's the and looking at those options. That's that's amazing. How cool. How cool.

13:03 - 13:07
Yeah. It was like, there's there's bigger places and websites you could have your photos, like

13:07 - 13:09
National Geographic and things like that.

13:09 - 13:13
But for me, just seeing an Ontario park, so that was a real big deal for me.

13:13 - 13:15
So that was really cool.

13:15 - 13:17
Right on. Right on. I'm glad.

13:17 - 13:22
That's see, Ontario parks is not not not dummies at all. No.

13:23 - 13:27
They know good when it's out there. Yep. So so great.

13:27 - 13:31
So you do you do lots of do do you do, like, nature photography as well?

13:31 - 13:36
Like, I have a couple of friends that that are big on you know, one one of one of my friends

13:36 - 13:43
is, goes goes down and shoots a lot of sort of waterfront birds, whether whether it's, you know,

13:43 - 13:51
mergansers or herons, that that sort of thing, or he does he occasionally does, some macro work

13:51 - 13:57
on, like, really when when he's done shooting them, they look they're really pretty insects.

13:57 - 14:01
They're probably not not so much when but in the macro, they're really cool.

14:01 - 14:06
Do you do anything like that or is it mostly landscape sort of?

14:06 - 14:10
Probably what I do the most is, like, landscape kind of that type of nature.

14:10 - 14:15
But, no, I kinda I do a little bit of everything, when I get the chance.

14:15 - 14:19
Like, you know, if you see something you're out and about and you see like a little flower,

14:19 - 14:27
I'll try and get some really close-up shots or or when I get home, crop it, on the photo editor

14:27 - 14:29
and, kind of experiment a bit.

14:29 - 14:37
But yeah, basically anything to do with, landscape, nature, That whole category is what I love doing the most.

14:37 - 14:42
But I'm, I kind of play around with a lot of different types of photography as well.

14:42 - 14:47
Although I'm more, more so known for the landscape photography, I guess.

14:48 - 14:50
We do portraits and things as well, too?

14:51 - 14:54
A little bit. Mostly family and friends.

14:54 - 15:00
It's kind of something that, like, you know, kind of just regular family photos or weddings

15:00 - 15:03
and stuff that kind of doesn't interest me a whole lot.

15:03 - 15:10
And then sometimes, you know, working with, clients like that can be, I've heard some stories

15:10 - 15:16
that are, you know, difficult or, you know, you don't want to screw up somebody's wedding photo.

15:16 - 15:21
So it's kind of a a category I avoid a bit, but I have done it a little.

15:21 - 15:25
Yeah. Well, you're not gonna get a tree yelling at you for not shooting it. No.

15:25 - 15:26
They wanted to be seen.

15:27 - 15:28
Yeah. Yeah.

15:28 - 15:29
Probably a good call.

15:30 - 15:33
When you do create other creative things as well, like like writing.

15:33 - 15:38
Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've always been into like documenting things.

15:38 - 15:40
So whether that's, photography or writing.

15:40 - 15:45
For the past, I think over 12 years now, I always, I forget now because it's been so long.

15:45 - 15:48
I've been doing freelance reporting for a local newspaper.

15:49 - 15:52
And, so that's, that's been really interesting.

15:52 - 15:59
Get to go to some neat events and talk to interesting people and, and then of course take photos along the way.

15:59 - 16:04
I've done some writing for myself, like on my social media and then my website with my blog.

16:05 - 16:13
And I've also done blogs or online articles for quite a few different, organizations now.

16:13 - 16:20
Xplore Magazine, Northern Ontario Travel, Northeastern Ontario, Tourism North Bay.

16:21 - 16:23
I did do one for Ontario Parks.

16:24 - 16:31
So yeah, that's always, that's always cool because, getting to write, you know, a story about

16:31 - 16:40
something or for example, this winter I was working on a story about, a list of different bikepacking routes in Northern Ontario.

16:40 - 16:45
So I kind of had to do a little more research for that one because I wasn't familiar with all the routes.

16:45 - 16:51
And then, it's always great too when I can include my own photos in the stories as well.

16:52 - 16:53
So, yeah, I enjoy it.

16:53 - 16:58
I'm kind of into the whole, the whole writing and photography thing. I really like.

16:58 - 17:00
It's a nice it's a nice package, especially yeah.

17:00 - 17:09
If you can if you can tell a story and then and then verbally or in words, tell a story as well. That's that's cool.

17:09 - 17:09
Yeah.

17:10 - 17:17
Right on. So we we talked you talked about your progression as you learned through gear up to a DSLR.

17:18 - 17:25
What's what kind of gear do you use now and how like, do you I I speaking for myself, I have

17:25 - 17:33
different camera packages that I take depending on what it is that what what activity we're getting into.

17:33 - 17:36
I take a that's not true.

17:36 - 17:39
I take a smaller I take a smaller kit when we're front country.

17:40 - 17:43
And when we're back country, I take a much larger kit in the hopes of shooting a whole bunch

17:43 - 17:45
of stuff that I'm never gonna edit and put out.

17:46 - 17:49
What do you how do how does that how does that work for you?

17:49 - 17:55
How what do you change or do you take the same gear all the time depending on what you regardless of what you're doing?

17:55 - 17:57
Or how does that work for you?

17:58 - 18:01
I guess not not by choice.

18:01 - 18:06
It's I've made it really easy for myself in the fact that I don't really have the budget to

18:06 - 18:11
go buy a bunch of, camera equipment, so I just use the little that I have for every, all the same stuff.

18:12 - 18:18
I have my DSLR and I do have a couple lenses but there's one that I pretty much use all the

18:18 - 18:21
time because it's not got a nice wide range.

18:21 - 18:24
It's an 18, millimeter to 200.

18:25 - 18:29
So that's kind of a nice, you know, you can get the closer stuff farther away.

18:29 - 18:36
I have, I have a tripod, although I avoid bringing it because I hate using it.

18:36 - 18:42
I I like to freehand everything, like just hold the camera as steady as I can, because it's

18:42 - 18:48
you know, setting up the tripod is so much more takes so much time, more work, you're carrying it.

18:49 - 18:56
So I Basically with my photography, I try to do things as easily and as quickly as I can and

18:56 - 19:00
not like bog myself down with a whole bunch of gear.

19:01 - 19:03
And then I have, yeah, that's

19:11 - 19:19
if there's something specific I'm taking photos of like, moving water or, night sky or the northern lights.

19:19 - 19:23
I have I actually take a lot of photos with my cell phone now.

19:24 - 19:28
I never used to years ago, but when you get out and about doing different activities, like for

19:28 - 19:35
example, some of our long bike rides that we do, I'm not gonna bring my big DSLR on my bike,

19:35 - 19:38
have it shaking around all day.

19:38 - 19:41
So it's a lot easier to just bring the cell phone.

19:41 - 19:50
But nowadays, like the quality of the photos that cell phones take, you know, you can take really good photos.

19:50 - 19:57
So if you don't have your DSLR, then that's, you know, the best thing is your phone.

19:59 - 20:04
And then I have GoPros as well, and I've experimented a little bit with the photography on them.

20:04 - 20:10
That's something I wanna do a little bit more, because they can actually do some pretty cool things as well.

20:10 - 20:11
Because they're not just for video.

20:11 - 20:15
They have all the photo settings too. So, yeah. I'm pretty simple.

20:15 - 20:19
I, I would really like to upgrade, some of my gear.

20:19 - 20:23
My camera is almost 12 years old now. Yeah.

20:25 - 20:31
And, so I'm kind of, looking at some of the new mirrorless, cameras look really nice.

20:31 - 20:37
And then not just not just, you know, something new, but the technology too has changed so much.

20:37 - 20:38
So, you know, that always helps.

20:39 - 20:45
Like, I kind of believe I'm more into the way of thinking that, you know, the best camera is

20:45 - 20:47
the one that you have kind of deal.

20:47 - 20:49
You know, just use what you have, do the best you can with it.

20:50 - 20:55
But definitely like, you know, if you upgrade, if you can upgrade your camera to something better,

20:55 - 21:01
it is going to help a little bit in some of the, you know, some of the details like the quality

21:01 - 21:10
of the photos or or how well you can take night shots, how fast it'll it'll, take the shots. So so yeah.

21:10 - 21:14
That's maybe in the next year or 2, I'll be able to get a new camera. That would be nice.

21:15 - 21:18
Well, they're not cheap. That's for sure. But but you're right. No.

21:18 - 21:18
No.

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CMOS chips and all that sort of jazz.

21:20 - 21:24
That's why that's why phones are as awesome as they are now because they've made Mhmm.

21:24 - 21:27
The technology has increased so much.

21:27 - 21:35
Honestly, other than other than the fact that well, there are there are very few that actually

21:35 - 21:43
have optical zoom, or sorry, yeah, no, optical zoom, as opposed to a digital zoom, that's stunning.

21:43 - 21:47
That blows my mind that they have a lens that moves inside of the body of a phone.

21:49 - 21:54
The downfall to the other ones is that it's only digital, but they still take there's so much information there.

21:54 - 21:56
Like they just, they're fantastic.

21:56 - 21:59
And they put good lenses in that are itty bitty.

21:59 - 22:02
Like, that blows my skull.

22:02 - 22:09
I've had situations too, where actually like I've had both items on me, the DSLR and the, and

22:09 - 22:16
the phone, and the phone has worked out in certain situations better, depending on your lighting

22:16 - 22:18
or or the angle or whatever.

22:18 - 22:25
Sometimes I'll switch in between both or I'll take photos of the same thing with both the camera

22:25 - 22:30
and the phone to see, you know, you know, go home after and take a look and see which one was

22:30 - 22:32
able to do a better job.

22:33 - 22:38
I have a photo in one of my calendars for this year of a old fire tower.

22:38 - 22:43
And the only way I was able to get that shot, I couldn't get it with my DSLR because I couldn't

22:43 - 22:47
get low enough down to get the wide shot.

22:47 - 22:49
So I took the phone.

22:49 - 22:52
I was basically able to almost lay it right down on the ground.

22:52 - 22:58
And, yeah, because you can't stick a camera into the ground, but the phone you can set there.

22:58 - 23:02
So, so yeah, I do go back and forth between them sometimes.

23:03 - 23:07
And, years ago I was like dead against using phones for photos.

23:07 - 23:09
I thought, oh, you're not supposed to do that.

23:09 - 23:10
You know, use your real camera.

23:10 - 23:15
But I think now it's, it's a handy tool. Everybody's got one.

23:15 - 23:19
And, and there's all the, the pro settings on them too.

23:20 - 23:24
So you can, you don't have to just, you know, take the picture.

23:24 - 23:29
You can kind of play around a little bit and adjust the settings as you would with the camera set to manual.

23:30 - 23:34
So, yeah, it's it's it's a good good tool to have. So

23:35 - 23:36
Yeah. Well, and it's easy.

23:36 - 23:38
You just pull it out of your pocket. Right? Like you don't Yeah.

23:38 - 23:38
Yeah. You're

23:38 - 23:46
not lugging stuff around. You're not having to go through all kinds of it's already ready to go. Click. Boom. Cool. Sorry. You mentioned lighting. I'm curious.

23:46 - 23:52
Do you do you ever lug any sort of any form of lighting with you, or do you just make adjustments

23:53 - 23:55
in camera for the lighting that exists?

23:55 - 23:59
No. I have I my camera actually does have the little, like, pop up flash.

24:00 - 24:00
Right.

24:00 - 24:08
But I never use it except for if it's like, you know, photos, family photos or something like that. No.

24:08 - 24:15
I just basically try to like, I I use a lot of manual settings mostly, so I'll try to just adjust

24:15 - 24:17
things the best that I can.

24:17 - 24:23
And if something's turned a little bright or a little dark, I'll make those corrections, editing it after.

24:24 - 24:27
Being post it, like, in Photoshop? Right. Cool. Okay.

24:27 - 24:32
So there was a story I because I've seen it before, but I don't know the whole deal.

24:33 - 24:36
Tell me about, because we like stories, tell me about Canoe Guy.

24:37 - 24:41
So it it's a long story, but I'll try and keep it as short as I can.

24:43 - 24:48
So I think it was 2014. I was at St.

24:48 - 24:54
Maude de Champlain, Provincial Park and it was in the fall and there was a we're down at the

24:54 - 24:56
boat launch area and there's a dock and everything.

24:56 - 25:02
And there was this really kind of cool sunset, kind of like, you didn't see the sun, but you

25:02 - 25:05
saw like the clouds turning pink and purple.

25:05 - 25:07
And so I'm down there taking photos.

25:07 - 25:09
There's really nice reflections on the lake.

25:09 - 25:13
And then this guy in a bright yellow canoe starts paddling across the lake.

25:14 - 25:18
And so if you're a person like me, as soon as you see someone in the in a canoe and the water,

25:18 - 25:20
you're like, oh gosh, gotta get a picture of this.

25:20 - 25:24
Because those are always some of the the nicest, shots.

25:24 - 25:26
And so he kinda hung around for a bit.

25:26 - 25:27
He was going back and forth.

25:27 - 25:30
I think he was fishing and I got a lot of great shots.

25:31 - 25:33
I posted them on Facebook. Everybody loved them.

25:34 - 25:43
I kind of, kind of nicknamed them the canoe guy photos because, I didn't know who he was.

25:43 - 25:48
And, they kinda that's the It ended up with those names. So, yeah.

25:48 - 25:56
And then I guess it was about 4 years later, I was at the park again and, it was Thanksgiving,

25:56 - 25:58
so it was the day before the park closed.

25:58 - 26:00
There wasn't a lot of people there.

26:00 - 26:05
We're down at the beach and, just about to leave and I look across and there's this bright yellow

26:05 - 26:07
canoe coming across the lake.

26:07 - 26:08
I'm like, oh, I gotta take some pictures.

26:08 - 26:10
It's gonna look nice with the fall leaves behind.

26:11 - 26:16
And so took a bunch of pictures and then we were trying to go back up to our, vehicle.

26:16 - 26:22
It was starting to get dark and, and kind of, you know, skimming through on my camera.

26:22 - 26:25
And I'm like, oh, wait a second. That guy looks familiar.

26:26 - 26:32
So I brought out my phone, went on Facebook, scrolled through to the canoe guy photos.

26:32 - 26:34
I'm like, oh my gosh, that's the canoe guy.

26:35 - 26:37
And this is like 4 years later.

26:38 - 26:39
And so I'm like, I gotta find this guy.

26:39 - 26:41
I have to go hunt this guy down in the camp

26:47 - 26:48
year, there's very few people in Champlain Park.

26:48 - 26:54
Like, just time of year, there's very few people in Champlain Park, like just a handful of people

26:54 - 26:55
camping there in the last night.

26:56 - 27:04
And, so we drove around the campsites and there's this, trailer and a truck and this bright yellow canoe. I'm like, oh, great. There he is.

27:04 - 27:11
And, no one was outside, so I knocked on their trailer door and I'm like, I have some photos

27:11 - 27:12
of you from 40 years ago.

27:13 - 27:16
And it was, it was an older couple and I don't know what they thought of me.

27:16 - 27:18
You know, it's pitch black.

27:18 - 27:20
Someone's knocking on their trailer door. Yeah.

27:20 - 27:21
I took pictures of you.

27:21 - 27:22
Okay. Weirdo.

27:23 - 27:27
Yeah. But I had I had to I couldn't just leave there.

27:27 - 27:27
I had to say something.

27:27 - 27:33
So, anyways, so we had a nice conversation with them and I showed them the photos and I showed

27:33 - 27:35
them the photos I had taken that day.

27:35 - 27:42
And, I ended up sending them all the photos, by email later. And, yeah.

27:42 - 27:48
So that was really cool because normally when you see people out in a canoe or a kayak and you

27:48 - 27:51
take a cool picture, you never see them again.

27:51 - 27:52
You have no idea who they are.

27:53 - 28:01
So that was really neat to actually see the guy again and, and be able to give him the photos

28:01 - 28:02
and show him and talk about it.

28:03 - 28:06
And I've kept in touch with them the last few years.

28:06 - 28:09
They come every year to camp at the park and I've gone and visited them.

28:10 - 28:14
And sometimes I've been in the park and, I've been biking around.

28:14 - 28:18
I stopped by the lake and I'll see a yellow canoe going across the lake.

28:18 - 28:20
And I'm like, oh, I gotta take pictures of the canoe guy.

28:20 - 28:28
And, I think it was last year or the year before I got a really, really nice sunset, photo of him. Nice silhouette.

28:28 - 28:31
Probably one of my favorite photos I've taken.

28:31 - 28:35
But, again, I always send them the the photos, at the end of the season.

28:36 - 28:40
And, I still I call him the canoe guy because I we keep in touch.

28:40 - 28:44
And so if I send his wife an email, I'll be like, oh, hi.

28:44 - 28:46
You know, I'm the canoe guy.

28:46 - 28:54
So, yeah, it's, it's kinda neat too because of, I find with the photography too, sometimes people

28:54 - 29:00
will, talk to you or they'll ask you questions while you're taking photos somewhere and you

29:00 - 29:03
get to meet, you know, some interesting people.

29:04 - 29:07
I've met quite a few people that way. But, yeah.

29:07 - 29:13
So it was, it was really neat to come across him again, I mean, across the lake and then to,

29:14 - 29:16
get to know them and give them the photos.

29:17 - 29:20
That's cool. That's it. Yeah. That's excellent.

29:20 - 29:27
That's that's very, very that 4 years later, that would be just like, what? You know? Yeah. How surreal because,

29:27 - 29:33
I mean, I wasn't leaving that park that night until I I tracked him down because I had to go see him.

29:34 - 29:36
That's excellent. That's, that's a great story.

29:36 - 29:43
And and I mean, what a what a wonderful thing for you know, if if I was canoe guy just out fishing

29:43 - 29:48
and stuff, and then somebody popped by and said, I got these really cool shots of you. It's like, what? Oh, that's awesome. How cool.

29:48 - 29:51
Yeah. Actually, it was 2 years ago.

29:51 - 29:58
He, I went to visit them 1 night and he, he was telling the story about this big catfish that

29:58 - 30:00
he caught, but he decided to release it.

30:00 - 30:03
And his wife and his friend were there and they're like, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right.

30:03 - 30:06
And so I'm like, Well, you know, I was taking pictures of them this afternoon.

30:06 - 30:08
I'm gonna look through my pictures and see.

30:08 - 30:10
And sure enough, I don't know how this happened.

30:10 - 30:14
I had taken a picture right when he had caught that fish.

30:14 - 30:15
And there was a picture he took.

30:15 - 30:17
It was kind of blurry because it was so far away.

30:17 - 30:21
But you see this big thing hanging from the end of his fishing pole.

30:21 - 30:22
And I'm like, oh, look, look.

30:22 - 30:23
So he did catch it.

30:25 - 30:26
Photographic evidence.

30:27 - 30:32
So hide hiding around the lake, taking pictures of this guy, but it not not purposely.

30:32 - 30:33
It's just as soon as I see him.

30:33 - 30:35
I'm like, oh, I gotta take pictures.

30:35 - 30:38
So it's kinda turned into a thing, but it it's it's fun. So

30:39 - 30:40
That's cool. And it and it yeah.

30:41 - 30:46
Need to need to be able to post a story like that, like bits and pieces over the over time.

30:46 - 30:47
Yeah. Yeah.

30:48 - 30:55
I I yeah. I mean, I've got a not a ton, probably a small handful of pictures of of other people

30:55 - 31:00
in canoes, shots that I'm quite, quite happy with. No idea. None, none at all.

31:00 - 31:03
No clue who was in that canoe. It's like, oh, okay.

31:04 - 31:09
Yeah. Yeah. It's neat. It's neat to like that had never happened before where I found someone

31:09 - 31:11
after and been able to actually give them the photos.

31:11 - 31:16
Because if I ever took pictures of someone and I've seen them after, I I would have no problem

31:16 - 31:22
sending them the photos because, you know, people always, you know, love to have stuff like that. So, yeah.

31:22 - 31:28
Yeah. It's funny. Most of our camping stuff is is Pamela or or both of the kids.

31:28 - 31:34
It was probably not a bad thing for the general public, but there's hardly any pictures of me

31:34 - 31:36
when we're camping because I'm the photographer. Right?

31:36 - 31:40
Yeah. I'm I'm lucky that my mom, she takes a lot of photos as well.

31:40 - 31:45
So, there is photos of me too somewhere. So

31:45 - 31:47
That's it for us for today.

31:47 - 31:50
Thank you so much to our special guest, Josie Dinsmore from Adventures with Josie.

31:50 - 31:55
Please look her up on all the social media and admire her beautiful pictures.

31:55 - 31:58
We will talk to you again soon. I am Pamela.

31:58 - 31:59
I'm still Tim.

31:59 - 32:01
And we are from supergoodcamping.com. Please do email us.

32:01 - 32:03
We are at hi atsupergoodcamping.com.

32:04 - 32:10
That's SuperGoodCamping.com, and we are on all the social media as well as SuperGoodCamping.com.

32:10 - 32:11
And we'll talk to you again soon.

32:12 - 32:12
Bye.

32:12 - 32:13
Bye.