Latest / The Nerdy Photographer Podcast / 173 - Building What Didn't Exist: Creating Space for Black Women in Nature Photography

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173 - Building What Didn't Exist: Creating Space for Black Women in Nature Photography · The Nerdy Photographer Podcast

• 0:04
  Casey Fatchett: And just a couple more boards. Oh, hey
• 0:11
  there. Welcome to the nerdy photographer podcast. I'm your
• 0:13
  host, Casey Fatchett. If it's your first time here, don't
• 0:16
  forget subscribe to the show, then you can join us for lots of
• 0:21
  interesting conversations and adventures. Because in addition
• 0:23
  to giving you interviews with amazing photographers from all
• 0:26
  over the world and providing you with lots of informative and
• 0:29
  entertaining photography related information, I also go on
• 0:32
  adventures with the crew of the starship Fibonacci. Right now,
• 0:35
  I'm putting the finishing touches on a makeshift space
• 0:37
  where the locals here on artistus Seven can show their
• 0:41
  work and gather to talk about art. Cue, awesome segue,
• 0:45
  speaking of creating spaces, on this episode of the podcast, I
• 0:48
  talk with nature and wildlife photographer Angela Ledyard
• 0:51
  about creating a community for black female nature
• 0:53
  photographers, how it has helped the women involved, as well as
• 0:57
  what she considers the benefits of going on solo photography
• 1:00
  journeys, all that after the break. Wait. Is this backwards?
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• 3:16
  Hello and welcome to the nerdy photographer podcast. I'm your
• 3:24
  host, Casey Fatchett, and I am here today with nature and
• 3:29
  wildlife photographer Angela Ledyard. Angela, welcome to the
• 3:32
  show.
• 3:33
  Angela Ledyard: Thank you. Thank you, Casey for having me.
• 3:36
  Casey Fatchett: You have a pretty distinguished career as a
• 3:39
  photographer. I'm gonna, before we get into that, though we're
• 3:42
  gonna get into we're gonna roll the dice breaker 16 best advice
• 3:48
  you've ever received in regards to photography or in general,
• 3:53
  actually,
• 3:53
  Angela Ledyard: best advice live life as much as you can.
• 4:01
  Casey Fatchett: That's pretty good advice.
• 4:03
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, my mom, my mom told me that years ago.
• 4:08
  Casey Fatchett: There's, you know, we're we're only here one
• 4:11
  time around as far as we know,
• 4:13
  Angela Ledyard: exactly that part right there.
• 4:14
  Casey Fatchett: Get as much out of it as you can
• 4:17
  Angela Ledyard: Tomorrow is not that promised! Do as much. Put
• 4:21
  those excuses away. Get out there.
• 4:23
  Casey Fatchett: Oh man, I wish I had learned that lesson earlier.
• 4:25
  Get rid of the excuses. Spend too many years like sitting on
• 4:30
  it's not gonna be good enough. It's not gonna be like, it's not
• 4:33
  like people are gonna like it. I should have just learned who
• 4:36
  cares
• 4:37
  Angela Ledyard: exactly! do you! This is your life. This is your
• 4:40
  journey.
• 4:41
  Casey Fatchett: That's where I think that's where I'm at now, I
• 4:43
  think it is. I mean, I'm pretty feels like it, but I got to
• 4:46
  remind myself sometimes, because they're still that creeps in
• 4:49
  there. Occasionally, like, like, oh, we were just talking about
• 4:54
  how I sometimes I feel self conscious on camera, and it's
• 4:56
  like, whatever. Like, just let it go
• 4:59
  Angela Ledyard: Let it go.
• 5:01
  Casey Fatchett: I'm not here to be a beauty queen. I'm here to
• 5:03
  help people with photography,
• 5:05
  Angela Ledyard: to be you exactly, let it go there.
• 5:10
  Casey Fatchett: Well, speaking of family, you mentioned your
• 5:12
  mother had given you that advice your love for photography
• 5:15
  started with your grandparents. Is that correct?
• 5:18
  Angela Ledyard: Yes, actually, my mom's parents, yeah, my
• 5:22
  grandfather loved taking photos of my grandmother and and she
• 5:28
  loved modeling for him. So you know, looking and observing how
• 5:35
  much joy it was bringing to both of them. I asked him if he would
• 5:39
  show me how to use the camera. I want to take pictures of granny
• 5:42
  too. He showed me, and I was hooked ever since. And this is
• 5:51
  probably 1000 years ago. Yeah,
• 5:55
  Casey Fatchett: I know the feeling. I mean, I my parents
• 5:59
  both took pictures for different reasons. My mom did it as part
• 6:03
  of, like, being a crafty person. So she would like, take pictures
• 6:06
  of stuff that she saw that she could then, like, take the
• 6:10
  picture and, like, incorporate it in her crafts for cards or
• 6:14
  stuff or whatever. My dad was a fire investigator, so he was
• 6:19
  very technical. And one part of it, he, like, it was very much
• 6:23
  like a, you know, technical for work and his investigations. But
• 6:27
  then when he would take pictures of our, like, family gatherings,
• 6:30
  he would just, the camera would be all over the place, and he'd
• 6:32
  just be having, he was a very gregarious person, and he'd just
• 6:35
  be, like, having a wonderful time. So I saw all these
• 6:37
  different kind of sides of it growing up, and it had always
• 6:41
  been kind of something I really enjoyed. So, yeah, that
• 6:44
  connection, when you see people, you love, enjoying something and
• 6:49
  getting something out of it, like, it leads you to, like,
• 6:51
  Hey, maybe I wanted to give that a shot. Let's see. Let's see
• 6:54
  what, what that's, what that is all about,
• 6:58
  Angela Ledyard: exactly,
• 7:00
  Casey Fatchett: and that you've, you're primarily, I would say,
• 7:03
  the nature photographer at this point.
• 7:06
  Angela Ledyard: At this point, yes, because early on, you know,
• 7:10
  taking pictures, like I said, of my grandmother, and then
• 7:14
  grandparents and family, and then I'm, like, just a portrait.
• 7:20
  And in high school, I apprenticed with a portrait
• 7:25
  photographer doing senior photos, and learned how to use
• 7:30
  the medium format as a mamiya 645, I think,
• 7:34
  Casey Fatchett: got one back here
• 7:37
  Angela Ledyard: why am I not surprised?
• 7:38
  Casey Fatchett: on my shelf somewhere.
• 7:40
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah and then from there, I also in high
• 7:46
  school, I was photographer for the year books. I was doing
• 7:48
  people, yeah, gotten to doing like, weddings and fashion
• 7:55
  groups in college, and people were doing peopling stuff as a
• 8:02
  photographer,
• 8:04
  Casey Fatchett: photographing people
• 8:06
  Angela Ledyard: you know, and that's back with film. Like,
• 8:08
  when are you gonna have the pictures? And, oh, my goodness,
• 8:14
  it wasn't as relaxing as nature. I mean, I was doing nature, not
• 8:18
  as it wasn't my main focus, because I would still like go
• 8:21
  out and, you know, sunsets and ducks and what so have you, but
• 8:27
  nature became my true love people. Yeah, it's as you will
• 8:35
  know, it's a different patience level when you're dealing with
• 8:39
  people, as opposed to Mother Nature.
• 8:42
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, I think for me, like I do a lot of
• 8:45
  weddings and people photography, events and portraiture and stuff
• 8:49
  like that, for that's the job. And I love the weddings. I love
• 8:52
  the emotion and of people, and like being there and trusted
• 8:55
  with that. But my relaxed thing is flowers, nature, birds like,
• 9:02
  that's just my like, Zen activity, because it's like,
• 9:04
  there's no, there's no pressure coming from the other side.
• 9:07
  There's no I can just be it can take as long as I want. I can
• 9:11
  just do my thing.
• 9:13
  Angela Ledyard: Yes, and you're not fighting other people that
• 9:15
  are trying to get the shot with their phones, and people like,
• 9:20
  can you remove this blemish off of my cheek? Yeah, it's yeah.
• 9:25
  Casey Fatchett: I once had somebody want to. I was working
• 9:28
  at another studio where I was just doing albums, so I was
• 9:32
  doing a lot of retouching and things like that for those
• 9:34
  photos that went in in the bride had asked if I could retouch out
• 9:38
  her tan lines in every photo from the wedding, not just the
• 9:45
  ones that went into the album. I said, I will do the ones that go
• 9:48
  into the album, but I am not going through and doing all the
• 9:52
  ones from the entire wedding, because that's a lot.
• 9:56
  Angela Ledyard: Yes, yes, that, and that's why. It, there's a
• 10:00
  difference patience level and tolerance you have to have when
• 10:04
  it comes to weddings and people.
• 10:07
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, it's like, it's just a, I don't know, I
• 10:10
  think that, and this topic of patience, though, I think that
• 10:15
  you have to be patient in a different way when it comes to,
• 10:19
  like, wildlife.
• 10:20
  Angela Ledyard: Yes, you do.
• 10:21
  Casey Fatchett: You can't you? Like, I don't know a lot of
• 10:24
  wedding photographers who could sit outside for an hour waiting
• 10:27
  for something to show up that might not ever show up. there's
• 10:30
  just a like, impatience there, of, like, Okay, we got to move
• 10:33
  on to the next thing or do something, because it's very
• 10:33
  hard for me. That's just why I find it calming. Is to just sit
• 10:38
  there and be like, okay, might not get the shot today. It's not
• 10:41
  a big deal
• 10:41
  Angela Ledyard: That's the thing. It allows for you to
• 10:44
  connect. You may not get that shot, whether it is that light
• 10:49
  that you wanted to have coming across the peak of a mountain,
• 10:53
  or, you know that black bear with the Cubs, and you're like,
• 10:56
  they're gonna go to the creek, they're gonna get salmon. It's
• 10:59
  gonna happen. And if the light's not right, or whatever, it's
• 11:04
  still you're still there. You're still present. You know, you
• 11:08
  don't have all that noise in your ear and trying to hurry up.
• 11:12
  You're like, oh, wait, she's getting ready to throw the
• 11:15
  bouquet. I was talking to Aunt Betty, or, you know, Oh yeah,
• 11:18
  yeah.
• 11:19
  Casey Fatchett: Or I was trying to eat. Now. Now somebody's
• 11:21
  giving a speech. Take my five minutes to have my meal, and
• 11:27
  they parked me in the back of the venue, and I hear somebody
• 11:30
  like standing up and cheering, and I'm like, what got to run to
• 11:34
  the to the reception room? No, I think that it's that that I
• 11:39
  think it's also just acceptance in a way that, like, you're
• 11:42
  saying, like you might not get the exact light that you want,
• 11:42
  and like, I'm gonna have to come back and try this again, and
• 11:42
  it's just sort of that is the compelling, you know, part of
• 11:43
  it, like, you know, like, even if I get the even if I do get it
• 11:49
  the way I want to, like, Oh no, I want to try it a different
• 11:58
  way. Like, maybe I want to try this at sunset, or I want to try
• 12:01
  it at sunrise, or I want to try like, something, some other
• 12:05
  variation of this. And then there's just all these things
• 12:08
  that you get to do, and you have to just be patient and wait for
• 12:13
  and search for like. That's another thing. It's like you're
• 12:15
  having to be able to, like, be present a and, you know, look
• 12:22
  for the moments that you want to capture,
• 12:25
  Angela Ledyard: right. And being out there, you know, you will
• 12:29
  never have with nature. You're not going to have that same
• 12:32
  light, that same moment any other time, ever again. It's
• 12:36
  just not going to happen. It's the thing that will always
• 12:38
  change, yeah,
• 12:39
  Casey Fatchett: which is right, this is the thing that irritates
• 12:40
  me about people asking for camera settings on photos all
• 12:43
  the time. I'm like, Well, you going back in time to that spot,
• 12:47
  like, where it was, like, light was exactly like that. Because,
• 12:49
  I mean, you need to understand how these things all go
• 12:52
  together, which is, you know, very much my teaching style is
• 12:55
  to say, like, let's understand the fundamentals so that you can
• 13:00
  do you can create something similar in any situation and be
• 13:04
  consistent in your work. So what do you think the turning point
• 13:10
  was for you, though, like, as far as like, getting away from
• 13:12
  peopling to going into nature, primarily, what was the, what
• 13:18
  was the the turning point for you that made that switch,
• 13:23
  Angela Ledyard: oh gosh. It was the moment where someone wanted
• 13:29
  me to do some crazy editing. And it's not like, you know, you try
• 13:38
  and communicate all right, this is what I can do. This is how
• 13:43
  much it's going to cost. Let me know once you review these. You
• 13:48
  know, if there's anything else, let's put it all together. And
• 13:52
  then when you agree, and then after you do it, and then it's
• 13:56
  like, oh, I just showed it to my mother. Would it be possible to
• 14:00
  do X, Y and Z and and I'm like, this isn't fun. This is not fun.
• 14:10
  So I left weddings alone while and then I was doing like, some
• 14:16
  kind of editorial that was fun, kind of being on a team with a
• 14:19
  stylist, makeup artist. So I was doing that for a bit. Had a
• 14:25
  model that I'm like, This is what you do. You're going to get
• 14:28
  kind of same thing. And then they want to know, well, what
• 14:31
  are you going to do with the rest of the images? I'm keeping
• 14:36
  them, unless you buy them, right? You know? So then you get
• 14:40
  into that conversation. So again, I'm like, this is just
• 14:43
  not fun. I rather hike 15 miles getting up to a peak that's
• 14:50
  10,000 feet elevation with my gear and just enjoy. I want you
• 14:55
  know you want to be present. And again, it really all depends on
• 14:59
  the. Person, because landscape photography, nature photography,
• 15:04
  is work. You're you're hiking, you're carrying that gear and
• 15:08
  that I also enjoy, because I'm like, I'm getting a workout too.
• 15:11
  I'm building cardio. I'm building leg strength.
• 15:14
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, you're like, I think that it's, yeah,
• 15:16
  it depends on the person and what fulfills that person. Some
• 15:20
  people need that human interaction, like some people
• 15:24
  need to be like working with another person and whatever
• 15:29
  capacity it is and creating something and having that. And
• 15:33
  some people need to be by themselves. Like some people,
• 15:36
  that's just how they feel fulfilled. And you know, I
• 15:41
  understand, because it's both for me, like, there I need my
• 15:44
  times of silence and I need to read to recharge the battery,
• 15:48
  and then there are times when I just need to be around people.
• 15:51
  And yeah, because if that also charges my battery in a certain
• 15:55
  way, like, you know, being alone doesn't but yeah, I think that
• 16:03
  it really, I just went through a whole thing of compiling advice
• 16:08
  from various episodes of the show. And there's a lot of it
• 16:11
  depends. It depends on the person, it depends on the shoot.
• 16:15
  It depends on, you know, everything that it feels like a
• 16:18
  cop out answer, but it's true, like there's no absolutes that
• 16:22
  are going to work for every single person or situation
• 16:26
  Angela Ledyard: precisely. You know, I was explaining to I was
• 16:30
  talking with someone, and they're like, you can, how do
• 16:35
  you just be outside all day? I'm like, Well, look at it this way,
• 16:39
  you have people that like to fish, you have people that like
• 16:42
  to golf, yeah, you know. And where are they? They're outside,
• 16:46
  one's on water, one's on the golf course, you know. And,
• 16:50
  yeah, there's two different activities, but they're outside
• 16:54
  and they are enjoying what they're doing that, you know,
• 16:57
  the the person golf and may not get a hole in one the one
• 17:01
  fishing may not get all the fish or catch anything, but they're
• 17:05
  out there. Yeah, it really all depends on the person.
• 17:08
  Casey Fatchett: Oh, man, such great analogies for photography
• 17:11
  too. Like you just go out there and you do it, and like, you
• 17:15
  might get it, you might not. You might get a few little fish and
• 17:19
  not the big one, or you might get the big one and nothing
• 17:21
  else. And that's, you know, who knows same thing with golf man,
• 17:26
  like golf buddies. This is great analogy for for my job. Yeah,
• 17:33
  it's that being around nature, being around the natural world,
• 17:39
  I think that some people really don't understand it, like they
• 17:42
  because they've been so a nerd to, like, sitting in front of a
• 17:47
  computer and, like, this is what I do for eight hours or more. I
• 17:51
  look at a screen and just so that the, you know, I have to,
• 17:55
  you know, sometimes remind myself because I'm doing editing
• 17:58
  or whatever. Like, Hey, get up, go outside, stick your hands in
• 18:01
  the dirt, you know, touch grass,
• 18:04
  Angela Ledyard: yes,
• 18:05
  Casey Fatchett: yeah, you need that every day to, like, a
• 18:07
  little bit of an extent too,
• 18:09
  Angela Ledyard: right? We have gotten so domesticated as humans
• 18:13
  and detached from the very thing that our ancestors were
• 18:17
  connected to, yeah, you know,
• 18:21
  Casey Fatchett: oh, I think about it all the time. I'm like,
• 18:22
  I wouldn't survive. I'm not. I'm not chasing down a wild boar.
• 18:28
  I'm not, I'm I'm the person, but I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be
• 18:33
  growing food. I'm gonna be the one like growing some, growing
• 18:38
  something to eat and that, and staying up to watch the fire.
• 18:42
  Yes, telling stories around the fire. That's yeah.
• 18:45
  Angela Ledyard: Let's check that garden. Let's make sure the
• 18:47
  caterpillars aren't eating up everything,
• 18:49
  Casey Fatchett: yeah, like make sure the pests are staying out
• 18:52
  of this.
• 18:54
  Angela Ledyard: Yes.
• 18:55
  Casey Fatchett: So you have also co founded a community, the
• 19:02
  black female landscape and nature photographers community,
• 19:05
  Angela Ledyard: yes,
• 19:07
  Casey Fatchett: I'm sure just A) my own conversations with other
• 19:11
  photographers like what you saw as a gap that you were trying To
• 19:16
  fill. And
• 19:18
  Angela Ledyard: yes, precisely growing up, there were my only
• 19:25
  only people I saw out in nature doing landscape major
• 19:27
  photography were white men. Very rarely saw women, and it was
• 19:34
  even more non existent to see a black woman out there in nature
• 19:40
  taking photos. And was around June 2020, I'm like, this is a
• 19:47
  good time. Let me create this group, see. Because I'm like,
• 19:50
  there has to be other unicorns out here. I know there is. And
• 19:56
  so creating the group to build community, creating TO THE.
• 20:00
  Group to motivate young kids that, yeah, we go out there,
• 20:07
  there are women that do this, and it's like different levels.
• 20:13
  As far as you know, with the ladies that participate in the
• 20:17
  groups, not everyone has access to traveling or national parks,
• 20:23
  but it's just that community to support people. Maybe some of
• 20:28
  the ladies live or realize they live in some of the same
• 20:31
  geographic locations, and it's like, I don't want to go by
• 20:33
  myself. So that's other thing, having that we have a private
• 20:38
  Facebook group so that it's just where women can safely say, Hey,
• 20:44
  let's go do the cherry blossoms in DC. We're going to meet at x,
• 20:48
  y and z, and they don't have to have that fear of, Oh, someone's
• 20:52
  going to know that I'm there with my gear,
• 20:54
  Casey Fatchett: right?
• 20:55
  Angela Ledyard: So creating that it has been cool. It's been fun.
• 21:02
  We had a couple meetups, couple other ladies that referred me,
• 21:08
  or you to me. I met through the group.
• 21:12
  Casey Fatchett: It's wonderful to see the community grow and
• 21:15
  like is, community building was a huge thing during the
• 21:18
  pandemic, because people sat around like I don't, I don't
• 21:21
  have my regular community now, what do I What do I do? And I
• 21:25
  think I try to use my voice as a white dude who has a lot of
• 21:33
  privilege that I didn't understand from, you know,
• 21:36
  probably till my mid to late 20s. I really wasn't cognizant
• 21:40
  of exactly how much like I knew, but I didn't really know. It
• 21:44
  took a little while for me to like fully grasp it, and to try
• 21:50
  to use my platform to like let people know about other like,
• 21:54
  this is something you can do. This is something you can do.
• 21:57
  Like, this is like you. They always say like, representation
• 22:00
  matters Well, like you were saying, like for young girls to
• 22:03
  be able to see that this is a possibility. This is a career
• 22:06
  path that you can if you enjoy this. This is something you you
• 22:10
  can do, because there's too many, you know, mediocre white
• 22:14
  men who just feel like they can do anything, and this just that
• 22:20
  have that confidence? Have the confidence of a mediocre white
• 22:23
  guy
• 22:24
  Angela Ledyard: be out there, you know, there, there has been
• 22:29
  teachers that have reached out, there has been college students
• 22:35
  that have reached out, looking for mentors. So it has, you
• 22:40
  know, really help to, you know, motivate, inspire and connect.
• 22:47
  So I am really happy with that. And we were, for quite some
• 22:53
  time, we were doing interviews for our YouTube channel and so
• 22:57
  that people can watch and see, you know, the interviewees would
• 23:03
  share their struggles, share what they learned, but you are
• 23:06
  like, wow, this person looks like me. This person is in the
• 23:11
  same state, or what, so have you.
• 23:12
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, it's making those connections even,
• 23:17
  even if you're not geographically near somebody,
• 23:19
  just knowing like that, there's other people going through the
• 23:21
  same struggle that you're going through, or trying to, like,
• 23:23
  reach the same goals that you're trying to reach, and building
• 23:28
  those connections and feeling that you're not alone. Because I
• 23:31
  think that this can be a very lonely like and you like to go
• 23:36
  off by yourself, but, I mean, like just but like, having those
• 23:39
  like people you can talk to about what you're going through
• 23:42
  is also important.
• 23:44
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, I do love going out by myself.
• 23:48
  Casey Fatchett: It's, you know, you completed it like a solo. 27
• 23:54
  day, 3600 mile road trip focused entirely on nature photography,
• 24:00
  like, that's, that's when you talk about going out on your
• 24:04
  own. And I was trying to tell my wife about this, and she was
• 24:08
  like, How long, like, was she hiking? What's going on like
• 24:11
  this? And that's, that is a long time to be by yourself,
• 24:17
  Angela Ledyard: yes,
• 24:18
  Casey Fatchett: and you enjoyed it. That's fine. Like this.
• 24:21
  There's this, there's nothing wrong with that. I think that
• 24:25
  some people, we were just saying, like, some people need,
• 24:28
  you know, regular connection with another person, face to
• 24:32
  face, whatever but how do you like? How do you do that? Like,
• 24:35
  I don't know. I kind of go through the cycles. Like I was
• 24:39
  saying, there's times where I just feel like I can be by
• 24:42
  myself. I feel good alone. But then there are times where I
• 24:46
  feel like I need to connect with somebody. I need to I feel
• 24:50
  better that I have spoken to somebody in person. So I'm
• 24:53
  curious about that particular thing.
• 24:56
  Angela Ledyard: It's a balance. I do have. Oh, there's another
• 25:01
  photographer friend. She and I have done a couple road trips,
• 25:07
  like from San Diego up to Utah, and we get along perfect. And
• 25:15
  that's the other thing you know. You have to know who you gonna
• 25:18
  be in the car with. There's people that have been married
• 25:21
  for years and will probably say, I cannot be in the car with my
• 25:26
  spouse for over two hours. We would strangle each other,
• 25:29
  right? But she and I, every time we've done a road trip, it's
• 25:34
  like, wow, we're at the destination, and even getting to
• 25:38
  where we're going, we will see the same thing. And I'm like,
• 25:43
  Did you see that? And she's like, yes, so we pull over,
• 25:46
  right? So you having that connection is so fun. But timing
• 25:52
  is also a thing. When I did the the 333,003 600 anyway, three,
• 26:00
  600 mile road trip, I trip. I had just finished being in
• 26:04
  Alaska. I was a photography tour guide there and Ketchikan,
• 26:09
  Alaska, and took the ferry to Seattle. Then I'm like, Yeah,
• 26:16
  I'm gonna drive to my family this fall. And I took the long
• 26:22
  way. I wanted to go actually through like Idaho, Wyoming, the
• 26:27
  Dakotas, but the time of year, I knew, yeah, you're gonna have a
• 26:33
  lot of snow in those higher elevations. So I'm like, I'm
• 26:39
  gonna drive down to from Seattle down to San Diego, and then San
• 26:42
  Diego to Ohio. And being alone meant I'm not on anyone's
• 26:51
  schedule, but my own being alone for me means I don't care if
• 26:57
  it's something that might be dumb to someone else, I'm
• 27:00
  pulling over, you know, I have my food in the car. I can sit at
• 27:06
  a spot. The only person I have to answer to is myself and
• 27:12
  seeing stuff, although I kind of had some areas mapped out, then
• 27:17
  you see stuff on the road, or just out of curiosity, when I'm
• 27:20
  getting gas and when you have your Google Maps and, you know,
• 27:25
  like, highlight something like, Oh, let me go check that out.
• 27:30
  Casey Fatchett: The I mean, it kind of amazes me, like I I kind
• 27:38
  of yearn for doing a trip like that. At times, it's when I was
• 27:45
  much younger, before I was a professional photographer, I was
• 27:47
  an actor, and I did, like, a national tour. And we didn't
• 27:51
  went. I went through the whole country, like the contiguous
• 27:54
  states, and, like, took a lot of photos while it was there. But
• 28:00
  there's, like, the part of me it's like, Man, I wish I wish I
• 28:02
  could go back and and on my own schedule and stop at certain
• 28:07
  places, explore different things, or like, Oh, I was so
• 28:11
  close to this. I wish we would had chance to go there and that
• 28:14
  sort of so I completely get what you're saying with that, that
• 28:18
  desire to just be like, I don't have to worry about somebody
• 28:20
  else's whatever, like, I can just spend as much time with
• 28:24
  this as I want, and I can sit in this and then, and I don't have
• 28:29
  to stop somewhere if I don't want to. I don't have to, like,
• 28:31
  you know, just because somebody else wants to stop there, I
• 28:33
  don't have to do it. So, yeah, there's, there's a part of me
• 28:36
  that yearns for, you know, making one a trip like that.
• 28:39
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, I was like, I had no idea if I would
• 28:42
  be able to do it again. And since I had the opportunity,
• 28:46
  like, oh yeah, I have no problem with this whatsoever. And here's
• 28:54
  the thing, it was in the it was in October. And do you know,
• 29:00
  this is so crazy that I and sharing this just blows my mind.
• 29:04
  Every time I say I share it, every single day was sunny.
• 29:13
  Every single day, no matter if I was in Seattle, gets just as
• 29:18
  much rain is, you know, like Ohio and so have you
• 29:22
  Casey Fatchett: it's a rainforest.
• 29:25
  Angela Ledyard: Temper rainforest Seattle has yes and
• 29:29
  every day, no matter where I was in the US at the time, every
• 29:36
  single spot I had beautiful conditions. I was like, what?
• 29:41
  Casey Fatchett: But sometimes, okay, so listen, I've done this
• 29:44
  has happened to me too, like when I've gone to Ireland and
• 29:47
  like, where you're expecting, like moody, rainy conditions,
• 29:52
  like foggy, whatever, nothing, like bright sun every day for
• 29:56
  like, a week and a half, and it's just like, but I wanted
• 29:59
  something. Duty. I wanted to get, like, a foggy, you know,
• 30:02
  mountainside with all the hills. Like, I wanted something that
• 30:05
  was a little bit more dramatic and like, and not just like,
• 30:08
  clear sky, sun, like, like, yeah, it was great for the first
• 30:12
  few days. But now I wanted something. Now I want a little
• 30:15
  little something else. Do you did you ever feel like that?
• 30:18
  Because, I mean, like, I appreciate the not having to
• 30:22
  attempt the cliffs of mower with like, 80 mile an hour winds and
• 30:27
  like horizontal rain. But there's also like, oh, you know,
• 30:31
  like, I would love to do the dark hedges with like, some mist
• 30:35
  or fog or something going on. That would, I think that would
• 30:38
  be fantastic. But, yeah, did you ever feel like that? Maybe it's
• 30:43
  too good. No, you're
• 30:44
  Angela Ledyard: Cloudy conditions. A few times when I
• 30:47
  was on the West Coast, I went well watching or trying to
• 30:52
  search whales, because I'm like, I'm on the West Coast. I want a
• 30:57
  full breach from a humpback or an Orca, dang it. I want that. I
• 31:02
  get sick on boats too, mind you. And it was at one point was San
• 31:07
  Diego, we're getting that fog coming in, and you couldn't see
• 31:11
  anything, but then dissipated, and it was like, the whales were
• 31:16
  like, No, it's no, we're not doing it. But the dolphins,
• 31:20
  amazing, amazing. So that that was okay, but every place else I
• 31:25
  had partly cloudy or sunny skies, I get up early, I stay
• 31:30
  out late. There was early morning getting the sun rises
• 31:34
  during the day, when you had that harsh light, I'm eating.
• 31:39
  I'm sitting in a park, you know, just eating in my car or
• 31:43
  whatever. And in the evening I'm out, I'm doing like light trails
• 31:48
  or getting some cityscape, and all I'm answering to is myself.
• 31:53
  Casey Fatchett: It's a, you know, freedom. It's a freedom
• 31:58
  that, you know, I think that some people can't handle that
• 32:04
  much freedom.
• 32:07
  Angela Ledyard: And why? What do you mean by that?
• 32:09
  Casey Fatchett: Well, it comes to me thinking of like about
• 32:12
  wedding photography, and they know a ton of wedding
• 32:16
  photographers, and that, I think if you gave them, unless it was
• 32:21
  something they were very passionate about, like my
• 32:25
  longest term photography friend. We've been friends for 30 years.
• 32:30
  He loves his birder, and he could go out there and like but
• 32:35
  I think that he's also gotten out of wedding photography. But
• 32:39
  there's, like, other wedding photographers I know who are
• 32:44
  kind of like, I need there to be something happening for me to
• 32:49
  like process and this sort of like being sat down with, like,
• 32:54
  I have to go look for it. And like, it's not like they they
• 32:58
  are very much capturing, like, candid moments at weddings and
• 33:03
  like, not influencing it, but the same time it's sort of, it's
• 33:08
  presented to you,
• 33:10
  Angela Ledyard: right?
• 33:11
  Casey Fatchett: It's not in a in a place where you just have to,
• 33:14
  like, Okay, I have to, like, plan all of this. I have to
• 33:17
  figure out all the things like, where am I going? What am I
• 33:21
  trying to do? And I think that some people do have, I'm not
• 33:25
  saying this is like a not a knock on anybody, but some
• 33:29
  people are feel unsure of themselves when given that much
• 33:33
  freedom. I think that's a better term. When you're given that
• 33:37
  much freedom to decide what to do, it can seem overwhelming for
• 33:41
  people. It's sort of like being given too many choices and not
• 33:45
  knowing where to go. I don't know. I feel like if I were to
• 33:49
  do a trip like that again by myself or with my wife or
• 33:53
  whatever, like, I know the places I would want to go, like
• 33:56
  something, and then also just kind of give myself some freedom
• 34:00
  to explore other places, like I would need to have, like,
• 34:04
  certain spots that I hit that I was just like, Oh, I've seen
• 34:08
  this before. I really wish I was a better photographer back then,
• 34:13
  when I was there and I need to go again, that sort of stuff.
• 34:17
  The Rockies, man, I was a terrible photographer. I took
• 34:20
  horrible photos.
• 34:22
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, I had those moments too, where, like,
• 34:24
  gosh, I want to go back to certain spots, especially when I
• 34:29
  was younger. And, you know, I'm looking at those four by six
• 34:34
  prints, like, oh, this
• 34:38
  Casey Fatchett: could have been something totally different, if
• 34:41
  I could have, if I just know, if I just know how to light it
• 34:45
  then, or if I just know, like, better, like concepts of
• 34:49
  composition or whatever. And I'm like, No, these are elevated
• 34:53
  from a snapshot to, like, an actual photo. There's, that's,
• 34:56
  that's the I think there's, I look back at this, and I just
• 35:00
  refer to photography as time track. Because you can, like,
• 35:04
  sit there and they kind of go back to that moment and place
• 35:08
  them. Like, obviously, I was not carrying around as much gear as
• 35:12
  I have now back, you know, 30 something years ago and but,
• 35:16
  like, now, okay, well, if I were to go back there, what would I
• 35:20
  take with me, and what, what, what gear would I use? And like,
• 35:24
  how would I approach this and just sort of going off on that
• 35:28
  sort of fantastical voyage of this is, this is how I would
• 35:32
  choose and writing it down. So like, Okay, if I do go on that
• 35:36
  trip, if I go back to the Rockies, or, you know, Wyoming,
• 35:40
  or Utah or Seattle as well, up and down the Pacific coast, the
• 35:44
  desert going through like Nevada and Arizona and New Mexico is
• 35:48
  just like, there's so many wonderful things to see and but
• 35:52
  like, how to approach it like that, I think, is like, I would
• 35:56
  need to put the constraints on it Just a bit, like, so that I
• 36:00
  could, otherwise, I'm a person who will just go off, like, try
• 36:04
  to go in 100 different directions, and I'll get it 75%
• 36:07
  of the way. I'm like, half of them, and the other ones, I'm
• 36:11
  like, Why didn't I finish that? Yeah, so I need to, like, work
• 36:15
  it out a little bit. But I would like to have, like, some of that
• 36:19
  freedom. I think that too much of it would be detrimental in
• 36:23
  the long run.
• 36:25
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, and, you know, I've been on the route a
• 36:30
  couple of times, like going from San Diego to Texas and, you
• 36:36
  know, being in Arizona. And I also wanted to make sure I want
• 36:40
  to go in places that I hadn't been before, and places that I
• 36:44
  had visited before, where I took images. It was like, do I want
• 36:48
  to go back there? You know, I want to be, be where I am now,
• 36:53
  be present in this moment. You know, it's okay to kind of like,
• 36:57
  revisit spots, but, you know, I again, I was my mind to hit
• 37:03
  different different places. And the objective was bird landscape
• 37:09
  at night, depending, you know, it's got out do some light
• 37:14
  trails, and if the situation permitted it to, it was like,
• 37:19
  Okay. I mean, not all. There are moments where I'm like, I'm on
• 37:24
  the highway. Look at how that light is casting, you know, just
• 37:28
  hitting this field, in this this barn or whatever, oh my gosh.
• 37:34
  And I'm like, and
• 37:35
  Casey Fatchett: you can just pull off and do it, and take and
• 37:37
  do the do the show.
• 37:38
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, I There were times where I couldn't pull
• 37:41
  off. There was a moment where there was this I thought it was
• 37:46
  an owl at first, because it was really fat. I'm like, that's not
• 37:49
  a hawk. That's not a hawk. And I pulled over on the highway.
• 37:54
  Trucks are flying by. That wind is hitting you because
• 37:57
  everyone's moving. And I walked down the highway. I was like,
• 38:01
  Oh, you are a hawk, okay?
• 38:03
  Casey Fatchett: Fed up hawk. That's the term like they, when
• 38:07
  they get they, they have done some falconry stuff, like they
• 38:12
  want to say the term fed up is like they have a little puff
• 38:16
  their chest that pops out. It's like, it's like the turkey when
• 38:19
  you're making the tricky one in the thing pops out and says it's
• 38:22
  done. Birds have that like they have little say that shows you.
• 38:25
  And if you're using a hawk or a falcon for hunting or whatever,
• 38:30
  you give it enough food, but you want to make sure that you don't
• 38:33
  get them fed up,
• 38:35
  Angela Ledyard: Ahhhh
• 38:36
  Casey Fatchett: Because they're no longer interested in doing
• 38:39
  anything. Like, I got my food right? I need to, like, do
• 38:42
  something for you to get, get rewarded. But yeah, if it was
• 38:46
  like, looking, if it was looking that had fed, well,
• 38:51
  Angela Ledyard: yeah, because I was like, There's no way, no
• 38:53
  way. Then that's that curiosity, right? You're like, the heck,
• 38:58
  I'm gonna pull over
• 38:59
  Casey Fatchett: those Harris hawks, though down in the
• 39:01
  southwest, will take down deer as a group,
• 39:05
  Angela Ledyard: really,
• 39:06
  Casey Fatchett: yeah,
• 39:06
  Angela Ledyard: I wasn't aware of that.
• 39:08
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah. They will take down a deer. They will
• 39:09
  like, push it off a cliff or do something, and then, and then go
• 39:12
  and like, but as they will hunt as a group, almost like wolves,
• 39:17
  Angela Ledyard: Oh, wow.
• 39:18
  Casey Fatchett: And like, and push like animals to like to
• 39:22
  hunt them. Yeah, it's crazy. Just a little another bit of
• 39:28
  trivial knowledge
• 39:31
  Angela Ledyard: Thank you write this down for the next trip. Yeah.
• 39:33
  Casey Fatchett: So you mean, you've been a lot like, as you
• 39:35
  mentioned, you've been a lot of places. You've been from Alaska
• 39:38
  to Peru, and, you know, points in between, was there, like a
• 39:44
  single location in the field, or a moment that you feel like
• 39:49
  really changed you as a photographer or as a like how
• 39:53
  you view your job, your landscapes and nature?
• 40:01
  Angela Ledyard: It, oh, geez. Was there a moment that changed
• 40:08
  me, being out
• 40:13
  Casey Fatchett: or affirmed or really?
• 40:15
  Angela Ledyard: Yes, there was a moment. Actually. There's been
• 40:19
  some recent moments too, but I'll share this was in Costa
• 40:23
  Rica. My guide and friend in Costa Rica, we were looking
• 40:29
  we're kind of keeping our eye out for this one particular
• 40:34
  bird, Rufus, invented cuckoo. I think it was, anyway, some
• 40:39
  people had saw it. The people in the landscape for maintenance
• 40:43
  saw it, and they told him, and he's like, come on, they see it.
• 40:46
  We gotta go get it. We gotta go get it. And we just finished
• 40:49
  doing a hike, and the mosquitoes from this hike, I had netting,
• 40:53
  and we were just finished. We were about to eat the food
• 40:57
  looked amazing, and I was just ready to tear the food up. And
• 41:01
  it was like, oh, grab gear. He goes right into the woods.
• 41:09
  There's not a trail. I stood there for a second, and I'm
• 41:13
  like, Oh, wow, we're just jumping into the woods. There's
• 41:16
  no trail. And that voice went off in my head, like, put your
• 41:20
  big girl panties on and get in there. Hurry up, and we go in
• 41:24
  there. It's covered, you know, you got this
• 41:26
  Casey Fatchett: canopies,
• 41:27
  Angela Ledyard: right? Really canopies and he's like
• 41:30
  signaling, like to be quiet. And for some unknown reason, I was
• 41:36
  curious, because I wanted to look down, because we were in
• 41:41
  Costa Rica, there are snakes. There's venomous snakes and what
• 41:46
  so have you. And we were standing literally on a mound
• 41:50
  with a million freaking ants, and I said to myself, Wow, you
• 41:55
  are if this does not say I am dedicated to what I am doing.
• 42:00
  And I, of course, I didn't scream, but I'm standing there.
• 42:05
  And I started balancing on one leg, trying to shake ants off of
• 42:10
  the other foot and trying to crouch down. Thank you for yoga
• 42:15
  and get images of this bird, that woman right there was like,
• 42:20
  you can't tell me that I am not dedicated to this whatsoever.
• 42:26
  Casey Fatchett: Affirmed that you'd made the right choice.
• 42:28
  Angela Ledyard: It did. I was like, wow,
• 42:31
  Casey Fatchett: I wouldn't be able to, like, I don't know,
• 42:34
  swarms of bugs. One bug, not a problem. Swarms bugs, real
• 42:37
  problem for me. I don't know if there's some. Maybe it's growing
• 42:42
  up in the 80s, there's so many, like, swarms of, yeah, like in
• 42:46
  movies and TV shows, like it's gonna be bees or it's gonna be
• 42:50
  cockroaches or something,
• 42:52
  Angela Ledyard: yeah, yeah.
• 42:54
  Casey Fatchett: So the you speak often about the importance of
• 42:59
  being connected to nature as sort of a prerequisite for
• 43:05
  photographing it. How do you how do you cultivate that? How do
• 43:11
  you cultivate that? And how do you suggest other people
• 43:17
  cultivate that connection to nature.
• 43:24
  Angela Ledyard: I like to think that my images are a way to get
• 43:29
  people to connect. Everyone can't every. Everyone cannot get
• 43:37
  out to places that I go. Everyone may not be as
• 43:41
  adventurous as I am, and not being able to see these things,
• 43:49
  you don't have connection with these things. And that's
• 43:54
  important to me, because I want people to be able to connect,
• 43:58
  and I understand, because growing up, I I didn't know that
• 44:02
  there was anybody that like me in you know, that would do this,
• 44:08
  women period. Because it was like, Oh, you grow up and you're
• 44:11
  playing with dolls where boys had GI Joes and trucks, and
• 44:15
  you're in dirt and there's bugs out there, right? So that's for
• 44:19
  me trying to capture images where people will connect and
• 44:27
  hopefully inspire or motivate them to help to preserve what is
• 44:33
  out there. We're all connected.
• 44:34
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah,
• 44:35
  Angela Ledyard: you know, nature plays a major role in our
• 44:38
  existence. It's not just humans. We're not the main thing here.
• 44:41
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, unfortunately, not enough people
• 44:43
  understand
• 44:44
  Angela Ledyard: that, right? Exactly. And when I'm around
• 44:48
  people who are either if they want to go on a hike, you know,
• 44:53
  I've come across people who have never really hiked. They were
• 44:56
  scared, and they're like, Wow, thank you. I had no idea. Idea.
• 45:01
  And, you know, unfortunately in the black community, it was all
• 45:05
  about fear. Don't go on the woods. They're going to chase
• 45:07
  you down and hang you or what. So have you punishment. So it
• 45:13
  was generational thought process that has to be broken. No, our
• 45:18
  ancestors way back, we're out hunting or growing food, they
• 45:23
  were connected to nature. We don't need to. We don't we lost
• 45:26
  that connection. So that's the whole thing with me in the
• 45:29
  photography to help inspire people to connect and to get out
• 45:34
  there. That makes sense.
• 45:35
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, it totally makes sense. And my wife had
• 45:38
  never been hiking before, and she grew up in New York, but
• 45:43
  like, it's the during the pandemic, I started, like,
• 45:47
  hiking a lot, because we moved to New Jersey, and spending a
• 45:50
  lot of time, you know, just walking in the woods, and, like,
• 45:52
  hiking. And she was, I was, like, you should come with me.
• 45:54
  You should come like, like, saying you have to go with me
• 45:57
  every time. But like, I think this would be helpful for you to
• 46:00
  get out and be in nature. And she was, like, just walking in
• 46:04
  the woods, like, I don't like, I don't understand now, it's like,
• 46:06
  Oh, I totally get it. They totally but also, for women,
• 46:09
  it's like you were talking about before, there's that fear of,
• 46:11
  like, going out there by yourself that, you know, that
• 46:16
  men don't have in the same way. But it's like, you know, getting
• 46:19
  out there and being able to enjoy nature and being able to
• 46:25
  connect with nature and in a tangible way, I think, is also
• 46:31
  like, I mean being able to experience it through someone's
• 46:34
  photos is like, I have seen how it affects people. I've seen how
• 46:38
  like, not my photographs necessarily, but like other
• 46:42
  people's photographs. Like I was people looking at them and
• 46:45
  going, wow. Like, I really just, you know, like, I want to see
• 46:47
  that place. I want to experience. I want to have an
• 46:50
  experience like that. I want to be out in nature and have that
• 46:55
  experience, like something that really Stokes the fire inside of
• 46:59
  them to connect with nature, or, you know, wildlife in some way
• 47:03
  that they didn't have before. And I think that's such an
• 47:07
  important aspect of it. So a gets them to want to be in it.
• 47:16
  Want want to be part of it. And like you said, not everybody can
• 47:19
  go to, you know, just in locations, but they can find
• 47:23
  someplace near them
• 47:27
  Angela Ledyard: Exactly in their yards. They're like, I have
• 47:30
  bird. I have a red bird, a cardinal in my yard. Yes,
• 47:34
  Casey Fatchett: yeah, that's fantastic. It's like, yeah, I I
• 47:36
  like to go out and take pictures of out in the woods and get
• 47:41
  like, bird photos, whatever. But I also doesn't mean I don't have
• 47:44
  a bird feeder in my yard where I can sit there and be like that
• 47:47
  stupid, fat Blue Jay scaring everybody away. I'm trying to be
• 47:52
  trying to bring the crows to my yard. I've been trying for
• 47:55
  years. When I have my own Murder of Crows that, oh
• 47:59
  Angela Ledyard: my goodness,
• 47:59
  Casey Fatchett: does my bidding. For me, it's just, and I've
• 48:03
  gotten them to, like, circle my backyard, but they've not come
• 48:06
  down, so I'm not sure what's going on yet.
• 48:09
  Angela Ledyard: Wow, you put some nuts out there.
• 48:11
  Casey Fatchett: No, I was calling them because they The
• 48:13
  problem is, like, a few blocks away, there is a strip mall
• 48:18
  where they can get all the food they want. Like there's no like,
• 48:21
  they they're down there. There's a Burger King. Further down.
• 48:25
  They're, like, splitting their time between the strip mall and
• 48:27
  the Burger King. They're getting all they want. But like, I've
• 48:30
  been able to get them to, like, come. Like, hey, I will. I will
• 48:33
  give you something else like it. But they have not come to sit
• 48:36
  down. But they do follow me around the neighborhood
• 48:39
  sometimes, which had some sex, starting to build a rapport with
• 48:43
  them. But that's like, one of my nature things, like, I want the
• 48:46
  crows too. I want that. Want them to like me because they
• 48:52
  they will tell their
• 48:52
  Angela Ledyard: up your front door and they'll leave little
• 48:54
  gifts for you.
• 48:55
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, exactly. They don't want the little band
• 48:57
  of thieves taking shiny objects from wherever they find them and
• 49:04
  bring them to me because I put peanuts and other nuts out for
• 49:09
  them. They're like, peanuts. Geez, I can get half a hamburger
• 49:12
  if I go over Burger King, not helping me out. But, yeah, I
• 49:18
  don't know if there's something that is a connection I want to
• 49:22
  make,
• 49:24
  Angela Ledyard: even just you saying that if so many people
• 49:26
  aren't aware about how crows are,
• 49:29
  Casey Fatchett: they're super smart.
• 49:31
  Angela Ledyard: Oh my gosh yes,
• 49:33
  Casey Fatchett: they will pass it along for generations, like
• 49:35
  if someone was nice to them, or if someone was mean to them,
• 49:38
  they hold a grudge like they and they, yeah, that's the thing.
• 49:44
  It's like, you know, I'm nice to birds, and I'm like, hey, it was
• 49:49
  really weird because I was looking at I was visiting in
• 49:53
  laws in Florida and Barnes and Noble. And I'm. My wife saw this
• 50:01
  book that was like, hey, crows and ravens and like, how to, how
• 50:04
  to bring that, like, how to, she's like, Oh, this is the book
• 50:07
  for Casey. Like, let's pick this up. And she picked it up, and
• 50:10
  the author of the book was behind her, and he was like, Oh,
• 50:18
  we have an interest. And she's like, Oh, my husband does. And
• 50:21
  he's like, Well, I actually wrote that book. And she's like,
• 50:25
  well, let me go get him. So, like, I came over and we started
• 50:28
  talking about it, and he's like, oh yeah. It's like, yeah, I have
• 50:30
  generations of crows that have felt like that hang out in my
• 50:34
  backyard. Like they tell their children, like, you can trust
• 50:38
  this human and identify the faces. Yeah, I love talking
• 50:42
  about but, like, just that's, that is a connection to the
• 50:45
  natural world that I would love to make, because I'm not gonna
• 50:48
  go out and, like, befriend deer, because I'm not gonna get so
• 50:51
  close as to, you know, I'm not Snow White and I'm not, like,
• 50:57
  where it's flitting to my hands, but, yeah, I can maybe lure some
• 51:00
  crows. Kind of went off topic for a moment.
• 51:08
  Angela Ledyard: I love it, though that's cool.
• 51:10
  Casey Fatchett: Your work, listen, look at your photos, and
• 51:13
  it's incredible, and it's really inspiring to me. It like the
• 51:18
  variety of where your work has been featured, though, like you
• 51:23
  were featured last year in the spring issue of BBC Wildlife
• 51:28
  Magazine, and your work is on display at the Cleveland
• 51:32
  Guardian Stadium, which, as a Midwesterner, I'm from Michigan,
• 51:37
  so we've got, we have our issue. You're beneath me, Ohio
• 51:42
  Angela Ledyard: I'll forgive you for now.
• 51:46
  Casey Fatchett: But like, what a what an awesome like, I don't
• 51:48
  know it's just as somebody, if something, if like, the Tigers
• 51:50
  or the lions or something, want to display one of my photos in
• 51:53
  their stadium, I would just be, like, blown away. I don't know
• 51:56
  there's something. There's just something childlike to that,
• 51:58
  that like,
• 51:59
  Angela Ledyard: yeah
• 52:01
  Casey Fatchett: you don't like the sport, I don't know
• 52:03
  something about like your hometown, like putting up
• 52:06
  putting up your photos, like, that's amazing. Congratulations.
• 52:10
  Angela Ledyard: Thank you. Thank you. I was, I thought it was not
• 52:15
  a prank, but I thought it was a scam, something at first, you
• 52:19
  know, right? You get these messages, and it's like, Okay,
• 52:22
  let me research this company. Let me see who is this. And when
• 52:28
  I found that it was legit, and when we talked and I was like,
• 52:34
  Whoa, like, all of my family is in Ohio, and like, what a
• 52:42
  freaking honor. Like, what? And I told my daughter, and she's
• 52:47
  like, wow. And, you know, and then trying to, you know, grasp,
• 52:56
  like, what are you What's the theme? Well, you guys, you know
• 52:58
  the mood that you want to have in these, these lounges. And
• 53:03
  then when they, you know, and I submit it, and when they decided
• 53:07
  what they wanted, which is basically that street
• 53:11
  photography or not, street photography, more city, you
• 53:14
  know, there's no people in there, of course, but it was
• 53:22
  just, it's, it's, I don't even know how to describe it, but it
• 53:27
  was just a feeling of, like, this is freaking cool. It's
• 53:31
  Casey Fatchett: that sort of giddy. I don't know, giddiness
• 53:33
  is kind of like the word I keep landing on in my head when I was
• 53:36
  trying to, like, think of how to describe is that sort of like, I
• 53:40
  don't know a child like happiness, of like, oh, this is,
• 53:44
  this is an honor. And like, wow. Like they it's not the Pick me,
• 53:49
  but it's like, they chose me. They want they like me. They
• 53:52
  really like me. They like my work.
• 53:54
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, it's Yeah. And timing is everything I know.
• 54:00
  And when they had the stuff on, when they first kind of opened
• 54:06
  up the rooms, I was in town. Sadly, I was in town for my
• 54:10
  mother's funeral. So being in town and dealing with that, and
• 54:17
  I was like, I would love while I'm in town at the time, if I
• 54:20
  could, you know, see those lounges, my daughter is here,
• 54:23
  and I want to bring my dad. And the part that hit me was, like,
• 54:29
  my dad's expression, right? First, he didn't, he had not
• 54:34
  seen the stadium. He had been inside there with it being how
• 54:37
  it is. And then he's, he whips out his phone, and he's, like,
• 54:43
  taking pictures. Like, wow, that right? There was just, it's,
• 54:51
  yeah, I don't want to get emotional, but yeah,
• 54:53
  Casey Fatchett: it's okay you get emotional. It's bright. It's
• 54:55
  a proud moment, like, you should be proud of yourself.
• 54:57
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, it's pretty
• 54:58
  Casey Fatchett: awesome. It's pretty it's like. It was really
• 55:00
  cool thing, and you should be proud of
• 55:03
  Angela Ledyard: yourself. I take, you know when I'm out, for
• 55:08
  me, photography is a feeling, right? Yes, do I want people to
• 55:14
  connect with the images that take absolutely but it's a
• 55:19
  feeling. It's like if someone would say, don't you get sick of
• 55:23
  taking pictures of sunsets, absolutely not.
• 55:26
  Casey Fatchett: How many sunsets Have you seen that you thought
• 55:28
  were terrible? I could I don't want to see another one. I don't
• 55:32
  want to see another
• 55:34
  Angela Ledyard: sunset. No one ever
• 55:35
  Casey Fatchett: right?
• 55:38
  Angela Ledyard: And it's like when you love something, and
• 55:41
  you're like, so in love with it. You You're capturing your
• 55:45
  feeling in that image. That's how I That's how my mindset is
• 55:50
  about that. And the images in the Guardian stadium, it was
• 55:56
  like, is of Cleveland. I'm like, people don't realize the details
• 56:00
  that they're walking by every day, because we're just
• 56:04
  Casey Fatchett: the architecture and those Midwestern cities. And
• 56:08
  like, the people didn't, people don't realize it. Like, Detroit
• 56:10
  had a lot of that stuff and that, a lot of it fell apart.
• 56:14
  But like, Cleveland has, like, amazing, like, that sort of,
• 56:17
  like, that architecture,
• 56:19
  Angela Ledyard: yes,
• 56:19
  Casey Fatchett: amazing, and they don't realize it. They
• 56:23
  don't like,
• 56:25
  Angela Ledyard: yes, yes. That part, you know, the details and
• 56:29
  all that that these architects took to, oh my gosh, don't get
• 56:34
  me started.
• 56:36
  Casey Fatchett: Well, you're obviously passionate about it. I
• 56:38
  think you're like, yeah, yeah. I do in that passion also shows in
• 56:44
  your like, the nature and wildlife photography, and that
• 56:52
  it was kind of like segue, because I was gonna say
• 56:54
  something about, like, you know, how does that feel? Like being
• 56:56
  in The Guardian stadium feel different than being in, like, a
• 56:58
  conservation magazine? How does like that? Because that is
• 57:02
  something you're all like, also passionate about, and you're
• 57:05
  kind of helping spread the word about conservation, because
• 57:11
  you're sort of like, you're kind of like on the edge of art and
• 57:15
  advocacy with all of those with those photos. So that
• 57:19
  making,
• 57:20
  as we were talking about, making people connect with something
• 57:23
  that they might not see in their regular life or ever experience,
• 57:27
  but to be concerned about
• 57:30
  it
• 57:30
  and and feel like it's important. And how do you sort
• 57:36
  of balance that in your approach to your work? And is there a
• 57:42
  different feel to like your approach?
• 57:48
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, I would say there is a different feel
• 57:51
  when it comes to wildlife in nature. Reason for that is
• 57:56
  because there are moments when capturing wildlife, where you
• 58:02
  have the animals or the birds or what so have you, they're
• 58:10
  sharing or displaying like a relationship. I don't want to
• 58:16
  use the term like a human element, but like a family
• 58:21
  connection for them, like the image that was in BBC of the
• 58:29
  vultures. It was like an intimate moment between two
• 58:33
  birds. People look at those birds like, Oh, they're so ugly.
• 58:36
  These are beautiful, but they are having it's like, although
• 58:41
  people will see it's a bird, it's a living animal, they have
• 58:46
  connections. They mate, they make kids. They raise their
• 58:49
  children. Humans are not just yeah,
• 58:52
  Casey Fatchett: not the only ones who do this,
• 58:54
  Angela Ledyard: right? Yeah. So for that, that's the thing
• 58:58
  where, yes, there's a different feeling, because sometimes I
• 59:02
  have to catch or remind myself, you have your camera, you have
• 59:05
  your camera take a photo. Because there are moments where
• 59:07
  I'm like, I'm just watching that, like, Wow, look how this
• 59:11
  bird is, you know, feeding its young, or building this nest.
• 59:17
  And then, you know when I'm like, the images that are in the
• 59:22
  stadium. That is also a different feeling, because I'm
• 59:27
  capturing art that was built is, you know, people say it's a
• 59:32
  building, but that was design,
• 59:34
  Casey Fatchett: yeah,
• 59:34
  Angela Ledyard: yeah, that's art. These buildings were
• 59:38
  created by an architect. That's art. Design put together. So
• 59:43
  yeah, there's a two different feelings that I have, but really
• 59:48
  trying to get people to connect. Because, yeah, you have your
• 59:53
  buildings, but we don't
• 59:58
  Casey Fatchett: need to conserve the buildings. That's.
• 59:59
  Necessarily Yes, historical Yes. In the same way as we need to
• 1:00:05
  think about nature, a lot of people have forgotten about
• 1:00:09
  conserving nature, or think that because, like we said, like,
• 1:00:13
  they think that humans are the only, you know, creatures that
• 1:00:17
  do these things, and just animals are. It's, it's
• 1:00:21
  astounding to see, like, people, like, respond to, like, What do
• 1:00:24
  you mean that? You know, crows kind of have a funeral for
• 1:00:27
  their, like, dead bird, it's like, and they're investigating
• 1:00:31
  how that animal died. They're figuring out, like, they're
• 1:00:34
  like, what happened? We need to, kind of like,
• 1:00:36
  Angela Ledyard: they have their own CSI, Turkeys
• 1:00:40
  Casey Fatchett: do similar stuff? Yeah? It's like, they in
• 1:00:45
  people. Oh, that's kind of a weird behavior. No, it's not.
• 1:00:49
  No, it's not. Do you think that these like, yeah, dogs, look at
• 1:00:53
  all the stuff that we like train dogs to do that we found these
• 1:00:56
  behaviors in wolves that we like, Let come share the fire
• 1:01:00
  with us, and they're like, oh, this dog like this, this wolf is
• 1:01:04
  making noises anytime, like a another animal, or, you know,
• 1:01:09
  stranger, comes towards our camp, or whatever. Maybe we
• 1:01:12
  should give them around to, like, do that stuff. Now. We're
• 1:01:14
  like, stop barking at the mailman who comes in. It's like
• 1:01:18
  30,000 years.
• 1:01:19
  Angela Ledyard: Stop You dog
• 1:01:21
  Casey Fatchett: in 30,000 years that we were training you to do
• 1:01:23
  this stuff, and now stop doing it. We want you to be quiet or
• 1:01:28
  like hurting animals like my, I have a Border Collie, and just
• 1:01:32
  the amount of just ingrained genetic, you know, and she's not
• 1:01:38
  for purebred like this is, she's like, from St Martin. She's
• 1:01:42
  like,
• 1:01:42
  a whole
• 1:01:42
  bunch of but she's mostly Border Collie and but like, we put her
• 1:01:46
  with sheep one time, and she just, like, took off and, like,
• 1:01:48
  circled them all up. And I'm like, it is in there. It is just
• 1:01:52
  genetically in there. And people don't understand that the
• 1:01:56
  animals like, how animals interact with the world, and
• 1:02:01
  like they kind of put them. We put humans kind of at the top of
• 1:02:04
  everything, like we're the only ones that matter and that
• 1:02:06
  Angela Ledyard: we're not. We're
• 1:02:07
  Casey Fatchett: not, absolutely not. All right, one last
• 1:02:10
  question,
• 1:02:11
  Angela Ledyard: okay,
• 1:02:13
  Casey Fatchett: for the young photographers out there, I mean,
• 1:02:15
  maybe specifically young black female photographers, what
• 1:02:20
  advice do you have for pursuing this, pursuing pursuing
• 1:02:26
  photography, or if you want to do specifically nature and
• 1:02:30
  wildlife, that's fine. I'm leaving it open for you to
• 1:02:34
  Angela Ledyard: use what you have and grow from there. Don't
• 1:02:39
  let someone tell you that, oh, we don't do this. Yes, we do.
• 1:02:45
  You don't need to start out having to have a $6,000 camera.
• 1:02:49
  You can start off with your cell phone. Learn the camera settings
• 1:02:52
  on your cell phone some a lot of today's cameras allow for you to
• 1:02:57
  do a lot more than what cameras would allow for you to do back
• 1:03:01
  in my day. But start where you are start. You can go to local
• 1:03:08
  parks. You can be in your backyard. Those are the main
• 1:03:12
  things that I would say. Don't let someone tell you that we
• 1:03:15
  don't do this.
• 1:03:17
  Casey Fatchett: People
• 1:03:17
  Angela Ledyard: like to embed fear for stuff that they were
• 1:03:20
  scared to do,
• 1:03:23
  Casey Fatchett: you nailed it. Yeah, yeah. That's definitely.
• 1:03:26
  And I'm like, as we're recording this, it's, we're only like, I
• 1:03:29
  think, a week removed from the Artemis two mission, where they
• 1:03:33
  had, like, a old DSLR that they were shooting with out the
• 1:03:36
  windows Artemis to take pictures of the moon and the earth. And
• 1:03:40
  people are like, Why do you have such an old camera like, and
• 1:03:44
  people still arguing about gear? Like, look at how beautiful this
• 1:03:48
  image
• 1:03:49
  is.
• 1:03:49
  That is every person alive, except for four people. In that
• 1:03:53
  photo, there's the whole earth,
• 1:03:57
  Angela Ledyard: yes,
• 1:03:58
  Casey Fatchett: in that photo, do you know how few people have
• 1:04:01
  seen that you are getting to see that point of view. You did not
• 1:04:05
  have to travel hundreds of 1000s of miles from the planet to
• 1:04:10
  witness this amazing thing, and you're still so like, wrapped
• 1:04:14
  up. Like, why do they have such an old camera? Like, come on,
• 1:04:18
  man, get
• 1:04:22
  Angela Ledyard: stuck. I
• 1:04:23
  Casey Fatchett: don't know why. I don't know why
• 1:04:26
  Angela Ledyard: I don't either. I
• 1:04:26
  Casey Fatchett: think it's again. I think it's fear. I
• 1:04:28
  think that they're like, that has some because they're like,
• 1:04:31
  if I don't, if I have the best camera, then I'm the best
• 1:04:33
  photographer. I have the newest camera, that means. And they,
• 1:04:36
  those are the people who don't quite understand how to use the
• 1:04:41
  equipment, and they think that having the newest shiniest thing
• 1:04:46
  is what makes them higher
• 1:04:48
  Angela Ledyard: up. Yeah, absolutely not. Yeah, no.
• 1:04:58
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  recommends slash Luminar and edit like never before. You can
• 1:07:15
  find that link in the Episode Notes. Just use our link and the
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  code nerdy photo at to save $10 off your purchase or
• 1:07:24
  subscription at checkout. That's nerdy photo. Go to the link in
• 1:07:28
  the Episode Notes. Luminar Neo, your creativity Supercharged.
• 1:07:39
  Hey, and now for my favorite part of the show, what's that?
• 1:07:44
  Say, useless information. This is always death.
• 1:07:51
  Let's go on to our useless information for this episode, I
• 1:07:56
  specifically saved this one for you. Oh, yeah, okay, so Angela,
• 1:08:08
  did you know that the smell of fresh cut grass is actually an
• 1:08:16
  SOS, it is a cry of despair, Call of alarm, from the grass to
• 1:08:26
  other grass and to insects and to other plants.
• 1:08:33
  Angela Ledyard: No,
• 1:08:34
  Casey Fatchett: yeah, I saw this three times on social media. I
• 1:08:38
  was like, I gotta research that. I got to figure out if it's
• 1:08:41
  actually true, and it is actually true, it is a chemical
• 1:08:45
  distress signal released when the plant's damaged, known as a
• 1:08:48
  green leaf volatile. The compounds act as an SOS warning
• 1:08:54
  neighborhood plants of danger and attracting beneficial
• 1:08:57
  insects like wasps and beetles that prey on pest insects that
• 1:09:04
  eat the plant. So they're like, Hey, you eat the insects that
• 1:09:10
  are eating me. So come, come. They're here, save us. But when
• 1:09:16
  it comes to other plants, it's like, release your toxins,
• 1:09:19
  scare. Like to like or start growing harder leaves that they
• 1:09:24
  won't want to eat. Like or like the it's actually is a distress
• 1:09:29
  signal saying, mind blowing. I
• 1:09:33
  Angela Ledyard: have no idea that's That is interesting.
• 1:09:37
  Casey Fatchett: The look on your face told me that you do not
• 1:09:39
  like the smell of fresh cut grass, though,
• 1:09:41
  Angela Ledyard: no
• 1:09:45
  Casey Fatchett: nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with
• 1:09:46
  some people don't like it. I don't know it. For me, it
• 1:09:49
  depends on how bad my allergies are, because I react to it like
• 1:09:53
  as like my allergies go nuts.
• 1:09:57
  Angela Ledyard: Yeah, I can imagine. Well, it well, then.
• 1:10:00
  That explains why?
• 1:10:01
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, hey, I'm hearing the signal I know to be
• 1:10:04
  on alert. My the histamines in my body have said, hey,
• 1:10:08
  somebody's damaging the plant world. The plant world is in
• 1:10:11
  danger. Get out there, save them.
• 1:10:14
  Angela Ledyard: That's interesting. Thank you for that.
• 1:10:16
  Casey Fatchett: You're welcome. Angela, my dad, that is, that is
• 1:10:21
  the goal of this segment of the show is that people have, like,
• 1:10:24
  a little fun bit of information they can share with people. It
• 1:10:27
  makes me so happy. Angela, thank you so much for taking the time
• 1:10:31
  to be on the show. Where can people find you find your work?
• 1:10:34
  Angela Ledyard: Well, first, thank you so much, Casey for
• 1:10:36
  inviting me to be on the show. I am on every social media. I am
• 1:10:43
  on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on threads, I'm on YouTube.
• 1:10:48
  You can put in my name, Angela Ledyard, oh, and my website, and
• 1:10:53
  yeah, you put in my name, and search bar in all my stuff will
• 1:10:57
  come up. I will include
• 1:10:58
  Casey Fatchett: links
• 1:10:58
  in the Episode Notes, so people don't even have to search they
• 1:11:00
  can just go to the Episode notes and click on stuff. Click on
• 1:11:03
  stuff, yeah, like, you can search if you want to, but I've
• 1:11:06
  also got the links you were so welcome to come back anytime you
• 1:11:11
  want. This is a wonderful conversation. I really
• 1:11:13
  appreciate
• 1:11:14
  it.
• 1:11:14
  Angela Ledyard: Thank you. Thank you. It was fun. You.
• 1:11:23
  Casey Fatchett: And we are back. Did you enjoy my talk with
• 1:11:28
  Angela Ledyard? I sure hope you did, and I hope you will go into
• 1:11:31
  the Episode notes, find her links, follow her and take a
• 1:11:35
  look at her work. You should also follow along with us, the
• 1:11:38
  nerdy photographer, at the nerdy photo, so that you're notified
• 1:11:41
  when we're doing things like live streams, giveaways,
• 1:11:44
  workshops, etc, etc. There are lots of things that happen
• 1:11:47
  between the episodes, so be sure to keep up. Okay, looks like
• 1:11:51
  this platform and gallery space are all set. Wait. Did I leave
• 1:11:57
  my communicator inside the platform? Until next time,
• 1:12:01
  everybody, stay safe and stay nerdy.
• 1:12:12
  Unknown: Who's your heart been beating about? Get better. Get
• 1:12:19
  better. Get better. Get better. Listen, you.