Hey Wicked Hunters,
Today we have Lori Grace, also known as the “Lightning Queen”, an extreme weather photographer who is a big advocate of gender equality and underrepresented artist.
We chatted about how she put herself accountable to be better by telling everyone that if she didn’t get better in 2021, she was ready to let everything go and “hang up the towel” – quit.
She also shares her journey in the NFT world and how she started from zero, opening Twitter space with only a few people to a point where she can reach more and more people and become one of the most respected figures in the NFT world.
You can see Lori’s Genesis Piece – the photo that we were talking about on the podcast here:
https://twitter.com/lorigraceaz/status/1515070519300685828?s=20&t=FRr18BeAWQnR69to7krP6A
If you want to learn more about Lori’s work, you can find it here:
• Website: https://www.lorigraceaz.com/
• Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/lorigraceaz
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lorigraceaz
Other ways to listen and subscribe to the podcast:
• Spotify – http://bit.ly/twhspotify
• Apple Podcast – https://bit.ly/Theartofphotography
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• Website: https://podcast.thewickedhunt.com
• Tune In (Alexa) – https://bit.ly/TuneInTheArtOfPhotographyPodcastWithStanleyAr
For those of you who want to learn more about The Wicked Hunt Photography by Stanley Aryanto:
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewickedhunt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewickedhunt/
• Masterclass: https://www.TheWickedHuntPhotography.com
• Photo print: https://www.TheWickedHunt.com/
Don’t forget to leave a review on the podcast if you enjoy this conversation. It would help us to get found and help to inspire other photographers.
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Lori Grace 0:00
I tweeted out that if I didn’t Excel if I didn’t, if I didn’t do better this last year in 2021, than I’ve ever done before, as far as my chasing my photography might the quality of images, the type of extraordinary shots that I was getting, if I didn’t do better than I’ve ever done before I was going to hang it up. I was going to hang up the towel I was gonna throw in the towel and hang it up
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 0:30
Hey, weekenders Welcome back to The Art of Photography podcast, where we share photographers journey and share how photography have given us hope, purpose and happiness. And today we have someone who have been such a big support such a big figure is especially in the NFT world, as well as in photography world, her name is Laurie grace, and Laurie has been someone who is a big advocate for the underrepresented for, you know, the bipoc That woman and all the people out there that you know, do not get as much voice to be heard or, and Laurie has been really active in Twitter spaces to create this spaces for for these people. So I am so excited to Yeah, to talk to Laurie, about her journey, her photography, and how she, you know, bring and help these people who are underrepresented so that they have more space to be able to voice their, their, their messages and there are so let’s get right into it. Give us a little bit background about yourself write about who you are and who, who you like to be known by other people in the industry as well as as a person.
Lori Grace 2:00
Yeah, I mean, so I am, I’ve kind of been all over the place it through through my life and doing different things. When I was young, I always had a fascination with weather. And by the time I was in high school actually wanted to become a meteorologist and a tornado chaser back in the day before There even were there before there even was something such as a thing called storm chasers, there were pretty much tornado trackers, or whatever you want to call it. And I wanted to go to Texas Tech in in Lubbock to study and learn the science of tornadoes. But life took me a different journey. And it got married ended up, you know, ended up pursuing a degree in psychology different, you know, which is vastly different. And then from there just we ended up moving out to Arizona, over 20 years ago. And And finally, back in 2015, I became a wedding photographer, which is something I wanted to do. And once I was doing wedding, once I was shooting portraits and weddings and shooting people, I also discovered rediscovered my passion for for weather, again, especially living out here in the desert, you know, the summer storms can just be some of the most beautiful thing that you’ve ever seen, especially if you’re standing out in the middle of the desert, at sunset, and all of the colours of that you can imagine are just filling your brain with with just this, this, this chaos of beauty. And so I decided to take those same, that same gear right, the male canon five d mark three and the lenses that I had with it, and started shooting storms with it as well when I wasn’t shooting weddings. And since then that’s been what I’ve been kind of alternating. During wedding season, I’ll shoot weddings or portraits or whatever throughout the year. But then during storm season, you know, I’ll either drag out to the high plains and take pictures of storms and supercells and the marvellous storms that are out there or even in eastern New Mexico and in West Texas. Or I’ll wait again for the monsoon season each and every year to try and capture something extraordinary each and every day. And then last year, I jumped into you know, I jumped into NF T’s I took some of that knowledge and I took the the images that I was creating. And I decided to come into and take a look at NFT because I was already into crypto a little bit. So for me, because I was already investing in crypto NF T’s actually wasn’t that that far of a reach and a lot of people have trouble getting their understanding their purpose and the potential for success with them as an artist as a photographer. So you know back in June, July is when I really started to look into it. And then I dropped my my first pieces on foundation last August. And I quickly sold through two or three pieces on foundation which surprised me because I really didn’t know anybody. And then I spent time in the community slowly prepping my my collection. My first collection which is the passionate pursuit, and after that, yeah, I mean, I’ve now sold through two collections and several pieces. Excuse me In an almost another collection of time, lots of pieces on foundation. And I host spaces like crazy, just because I love it. I love this community that I’m part of. And yeah, and that’s where I’m at today. And I’m looking forward to just so many people being on boarded into into crypto now and NF T’s and, and I’m looking forward to storm season again to probably more than anything. I’m so ready to get back out there and chase Chase storms and do things a lot differently.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 5:26
That’s incredible. Yeah, that’s, that’s really cool to see, you know, how everything can flow through. Why did you want it to do wedding photography? I’m curious. That was like, What is that one thing that makes you you know, what, I want to do wedding photography. And, you know, many people can do it for, you know, because it is a good industry to make money off. But when I listen to you, talking about your wedding photography, you really passionate about it, you really care about your your your bride and groom, and you really care about capturing those moments and being able to create a memory of a lifetime. So share us a little bit about that. That passion in wedding photography, I think you’re still muted.
Lori Grace 6:13
was talking Go figure. It didn’t I mean, sorry. But here was you know, with wedding photography, I really enjoy taking photos of people. And ever since we had our kids and their babies, I loved just using the original canon, what was it a digital rebel x t, just such an older camera. But you know what, even those, even those cameras are taking just incredible images. So I want to do, I wanted to do something that kind of offered a little bit of a of an adrenaline rush. And that’s what I love doing most about weddings is that it’s not for everybody. And I jumped right into it, I did all the studying, I bought all the gear learned everything I could about off camera flash, because I just didn’t I see a lot of the wedding photographers who I saw it locally, they’re just flash on their camera, they’re shooting weddings that way. And that is not the kind of quality I wanted to see out of out of from photography. And there are a lot of great wedding photographers who really are a master at crafting light with off camera flash, that that’s something that I really, really do enjoy using is OCF. But not only that, being able to maximise the dynamic range that these cameras have. So you know, I do see a lot of wedding photographers who I think the style or the style is called light and airy. And there’s generally hardly any, if you know, none, to maybe very little of off camera flash or on camera flash. And they essentially, you know, it’s kind of an overexposed, slightly overexposed image, just so everything is super bright. But I don’t care for that style, it’s not my style. I know, it’s, it’s pretty much what you’re gonna see on any bridal magazine that’s out there, because it’s such a popular style. But for me, I was always about capturing the sky, also capturing the breadth of the dynamic range and your camera. So I wanted to see shadows, I wanted to see the sky, I like a blue sky and not a white sky that you typically see in these other kinds of shots. Whether it’s a blue sky, or a pink sky, or whatever is happening in the in the environment. And of course, that translates into my experience as a as a storm chaser weather photographer, you know, I want to maximise, I really want to capture everything that I can. And I’m because I really think that’s important to not only properly exposed for the clients, whether it’s a wedding couple or a portrait of some sort. So, so that’s what I ended up, you know, making sure I expanded into using softboxes, you know, whatever tools I needed to get the shot that I was looking for, and to craft that, that’s what I did. And that’s where I’m at today is I still love, I’ll take a softbox if I’m shooting a high school senior, for example, you know, up on a mountain like I did this past weekend, I will take the softbox with me, and I’ll have a friend standing with a giant softbox just to create that light, that beautifully diffused light, and then have that sunset in the background, that golden hour down in the valley below. Just going nuts to create that, that beautiful, you know that that that beautiful extra light, that’s just the that’s just surrounding the client and it just makes them glow with this that extra warmth. So as you can tell I’m, I’m really technical about it all, but I just really love doing it. And that’s what keeps me juices going.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 9:31
Yeah, that’s really cool. You know, when you do something that you’re passionate about, that’s when you really create something truly unique, right? I think like you really have to love what you do in order to create this images. And it’s interesting to hear that, you know, you you studied psychology, right, if I heard you correctly, and how did that transition to to photography, like from from psychology, like I was an engineer as well. So, you know, there’s a lot of things that can I take There’s a, it’s always interesting to hear, like, you know, how did that kind of flow through to make to spark the interest in photography?
Lori Grace 10:09
Right? Well, you know, it’s the, the degree that I was going for what I originally wanted to do when I was in college was, I wanted to be an industrial Organisational Psychologist, but wanted to be able to find out how we can take care of an employee, how a business can maximise their profits by taking care of the employee first, right? If you look at it, it’s always been a no brainer. And unfortunately, you still see a lot of companies operating in the opposite of the way, right, where they’re kind of abusing someone where they No break for, you get back to work, you know, and they’re just pushing them to the limits. And then when you look at some of the other corporate structures, like some of the companies in Japan, some of the large companies in Japan, where they would actually take a small office room where they would take a room, and they would put several chairs, it was their break room. And it was actually they were massage chairs that you could completely recline in, and the room is exceptionally dark, and they would let them power nap for 20 minutes, right, they would go in there, they would, they would put, you know, they would sit in this complete dark room and just be allowed to rest in power nap. And those those companies found out that their productivity went through the roof, by giving them the breaks that they need the rest that an employee needed, instead of how we do it in the United States where it’s like, you got to work 10 hours a day, 15 hours a day, and just keep on trucking and work to your till you’re exhausted each and every day for the full week. And maybe you’ll get a vacation out of it. You know, when you actually look at these other companies that cause that forced their employees to take those really needed rest breaks in the middle of the afternoon, or the middle of the shift, those employees came back and excelled in their performance through the rest of the afternoon. And that was something that intrigued me, I loved the psychology of the human working spirit, if that makes any sense. And so you know, we’re human, we need to take breaks, we’re not robots. And when companies treat humans like robots, you’re going to experience burnout, you’re going to experience employee discontent, and all of that. So I really wanted to work with large companies with that. And that was where I went with a psychology degree. But I of course, I discovered that you could apply a lot of that a lot of that learning that I’ve done to pretty much anything it applies to anything in life. And so when I finally made it up to becoming a wedding photographer, the psychology of just taking care of your clients, you know, I was an assistant pastor also. So with church was kind of the same thing, you just you have to take care of the people, and you’ll see me actually quote, I actually tweet out probably at least once a month, just the same, just a simple line that people don’t care about how much you know, until they know how much you care. And to me, that’s, that’s so essential. In whatever you do, if I’m just a spaces host, people don’t give a crap up. Until that they know that I’m I’m in it for the community, I see value in them as well. And I mean, it’s really down to something simple as that is that you have to take care of whether you are a boss, then you have to take care of an employee, whether you’re a parent, you have to take care of you know, your family, ever kind of relationship structures that you have, you have, it has to come from a position where you’re you’re giving of yourself you’re providing of yourself in order to get something and in return or to even expect something positive in return, if you’re looking to get a return on investment, basically. So that being said, being in spaces, I just love the community, I love being a part of this, there’s something amazing to have so many people supporting me. And so I am doing these, these spaces that I hold, I just love returning the same support that’s been given to me. And there’s, there’s just a really great cycle with that. And so I don’t really use that anymore. But what I do, as a wedding photographer, I do still use that principle, that same principle, when I’m actually directing a client, right? Like, I just want to make sure that I do everything that I can to make them feel comfortable and focused on each other. And if I can disappear as a photographer, and help the couple to connect, then those authentic moments are really going to be what really sells my work. So being able to capture an authentic moment is is the is the is the best thing you can do as a wedding photographer. And so that’s what I strive to achieve. And I really love doing that. And I love the clients their images from any kind of session, whether it’s an engagement, whatever it would be, and to see just the smile on their faces knowing that capture, you know, real moments is is there’s nothing
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 14:46
Yeah, that’s really cool. I think you know, this is why it’s really good to kind of hear people background and you know where how they can get to where they are today because it really makes sense right when I hear you talking about your your client’s as wedding photographer, I can see how much you care about it. And you know, when you’re in spaces, I can also see how much you, you know, try to uplift each other and care about other people mental health, as well as you know, their successes. And this is, this is why like you this, this, this was your whole purpose altogether. And I think that is really cool to finally learn that, you know, I always love to learn what it is that that drives them. And when you learn that you can see that everything that person do comes back to that one purpose. So that’s really cool to be able to, to know that all of you. Now, I know you from your striking shots, and no pun intended there. Because I love lightning as well. It’s exhilarating. You know, the feeling when you see those lightning strikes, and especially when you capture one on camera is just so addictive. What, how did you so you said that, you know, at one point, as a wedding photographer, you were able to rediscover your passion for weather, and you can tie that into photography, and you start taking photo of the storms and everything right? So how did that spark like? How did how did you manage to rediscover that passion for photography and decided to, you know what, I’m going to chase the storms.
Lori Grace 16:24
You know, it all it all started with, with the reinvestment into the new camera equipment. Because I’ve always I’ve always been just enjoying the storms living out where I live. But I really didn’t have a means, you know, taking a picture with my old, we’re not talking about the new iPhones, right? Or the new, the new Samsung Galaxy fold. We’re talking about the old phones, where you take a picture and it would be so pixelated, and just wasn’t worth keeping, trying to take a picture of a sunset. Like you’re standing there. How many times have you seen pictures, people post pictures of the Moon from with their phone, especially 510 15 years ago, like, oh my gosh, the sunset was amazing. When you look at Facebook, and you’re like, that is the most hideous photo I’ve ever seen. And then you just go Oh, I’m so glad you enjoying the sunset. You know, it just didn’t translate, right. And that’s what I love about about just investing when I first invested in my first camera, my first DSLR I should say, professional body DSLR. I did have a seven Ed before that. And it was a great camera. When I got the five d mark three, and the sigma 50 millimetre F 1.4 Art lens, I tell you what, there was no looking back, you know, it was once you go once you go full frame, there’s, you know, you don’t go back. And so I just love that the beauty and the quality of of a full frame image and capturing that. I don’t know, I really do. It’s, it’s almost sick, like I have an addiction to wanting to capture photos and my love for photography really grew. So back in 2015, when I started the wedding, the wedding business, the wedding photography business, when the storms were there, it was like, Okay, now I have this drive, to relearn a lot of the forecasting that I needed to do, because you don’t just wait for a storm to pop up. And just go outside and take a picture that that’s a disgusting, terrible way to storm Chase. But to be able to figure out where you’re going to be, and to maybe find locations where you can position overlooking a valley if you can, as the storm comes in, off of the mountain peaks, and drifts into the valley towards you, and all of that all of that takes so much work and effort and driving for hundreds and 1000s of miles just to finally get into that position, only to find out that the storm doesn’t pop out anything, you know, anything worth even capturing other than maybe a few clouds over a mountain peak. So, you know, the agony of defeat is much greater when you’re storm chasing, because you’re not always there might look like I have, like I go out there every single day and, and just scoop up success with my images. But that’s not the reality. The reality is you’ve got to just grind each and every day. And more often than not, you’re going to come home with nothing, nothing that you want to even share. So, you know, so you learn to enjoy the journey like I have, and I’ll have my dogs with me and there’s nothing like it even if I don’t get anything. You know, I still spent an afternoon driving 300 miles into the desert or maybe into the, into the foothills of a mountain range in southeastern Arizona where the grass or you get to see the cattle and there’s nobody around for 3040 miles. You know and just to be at peace with that. There’s something really cathartic about being out there storm chasing, and even coming back with zero because you really don’t come back with zero if you have that perspective.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 19:37
That is awesome. Laurie, I think you know, a lot of us, especially the newer photographer really need to understand because you know, they look at Instagram and I mean I get these comments all the time. It’s just like wow, you always captured this I was like no, it’s like you don’t know how many times I went back to that place driving you know how many hours hoping for something and I got nothing and That’s exactly it. You know, I love that you share that. I mean, like, I did that a lot with Aurora chasing in Canadian Rockies. And, you know, a lot of people can say like, wow, you Oh, like you captured a lot of origins like now just out of law. So that’s, that’s it right? You gotta increase your chance to capture it. I mean, yeah, the planning needs to happen as well. But if you don’t go out, you’re not gonna get it, you get it.
Lori Grace 20:30
You’re not going to catch the storm? If you don’t if you don’t even leave the house. That’s very true.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 20:34
Yeah, that’s awesome. I think you know, it’s really powerful, and also translate to a lot of the human. So the mental health issue that we are having is that when we go out there, we have a certain expectation, right. And when we don’t get that most people get angry or resentful about what they’ve done. But if you can enjoy the journey, then that’s when you actually just enjoy it. And that’s, that’s great. Thanks for sharing that was I just lost my train of thought that is, that was a really good point that you brought up,
Lori Grace 21:07
you just have to take a chance on it. Even if you think that there’s only a 2% 2% chance of capturing something extraordinary. Guess what, if you don’t go out, there is a 0% chance of you capturing anything extraordinary.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 21:20
That’s it. And I think that is the difference when you really enjoy what you do versus when you just do it for the sake of doing it. Right. Because when you really enjoy what you do, you’re passionate about it, you want you know that 2% is a massive fuel, right. But when you’re you know, just doing it for the sake of it, you want that serve a certain expectation that it’s gonna get met. So. So if you were to look back, what are some of the biggest struggles or challenges that you have come across to get to where you are today?
Lori Grace 21:52
Oh, gosh, first of all, finances are a huge challenge, right? If you don’t have the money for the gear, you might just be stuck using your phone. Looking back on it, though, you know, I’m still glad that I would, I would use whatever kind of gear I had in my hand. You know, like I said before, that old Canon digital rebel that I spent $600 for at the time, back in 2002, or 2003. That was a lot of money for me back then. And even that that crappy old 50 millimetre What is it the 18 to 55 millimetre kit lens was such a trashy plastic lens that doesn’t even give you the potential to see what you can do even with that kind of camera, and slowly bought a couple of different lenses for it 70 to 300. And I loved that little piece. And it was just, you know, the biggest challenges were the financial thing, just being able to save up when you’re not doing it professionally to, to continue to pursue that passion. So I was always taking a little bite into photography, one thing at a time, like I started from zero, and I was a wedding photographer, there was, there was a build up to it. And you just, you know, you save up for it. If you care about something, you’re gonna save up for it. And that’s what I was doing. So finding, finding the time and the money to be able to slowly build up a collection, not a collection of lenses, but two or three good lenses. And then I finally upgraded at the time, you know, what was it about 2013 I would say is when I got the Canon seven DD and that was a huge step up, especially with the video capabilities and using dual pixel autofocus, and a lot of the great features that are 70 D would would provide, but even a seven ad at night. didn’t cut it for for any kind of Astro because I didn’t have anything wider than like an F four lens or an F five F 6.3 lens or whatever it was. And so I guess one of the bigger biggest barriers was just having the fight the fight the the finances to afford the better gear. But even then, you know, I used what I had, and I still love doing what I what I did with uh, now it’s funny because now I shoot with a lot of Sony’s I have four Sony cameras, including the eighth one. And people tell me Oh, I have Lori’s there’s an old Canon 60 D, and I’m like, Give me that 60 D and I’ll shoot the shit out of a wedding. If I had to. I promise you I would I could get some banger shots. I could shoot with a 60 D with the right lens. I could kill the Milky Way with that I could get some kick ass Milky Way shots, you just get to know how to do it. And you can’t be afraid to use whatever tool is in your hand. And so even sometimes when I see a sunset, one of my most viral images was from an iPhone of a lenticular cloud at sunset and it was all pink. It looked like a huge it looked like a huge cotton candy ball, right? And it was it was moving over the mountain near where I live, and that the horizon was horrible. There’s all these mosquitoes ugly mesquite trees. So there’s nothing beautiful, beautiful about the horizon. But that little iPhone at the time captured such depth of the colour of the pink in the sky. And of course you know, the time lapse of the sunset. I can’t actually using the the Canon YB mark three, that nobody gave a crap about that everybody loved that peak lenticular cloud. Online. You know, I think that that had, I can’t remember how many 1000s of views and, and retweets and all of that stuff and comments. And then of course, I post the time lapse that I had, that the reason I was there, which was the time lapse of the sunset, and I think he got like 100 views on total. So you never know, you know, you never know what the sky is going to provide for you. And if you have an iPhone, use your iPhone, use the tools that you have with you at the time. Yeah, that’s, that’s
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 25:33
a really good advice. I mean, like, especially with the, you know, the technology that the iPhone have today, right now, you could take a pretty good night shot, handheld, it’s crazy. And like, I think a lot of a lot of photographers doesn’t realise as well, especially the ones that are quite new to the, you know, to the genre is that when you capture with a lesser quality camera, there are different ways to push that limit, right, with post processing and all that stuff. And I’m not even talking about, you know, compositing or anything like that, but you could clean up a lot of that photo by by working on it on a post. So, yeah, that’s a really good advice there. Laurie, what are some of the things that you know, kept you going through all this? You know, I know that I’m pretty sure that you have a lot of things that stop you from where you want to go from where you are, to where you want it to go? Right? I mean, especially with, you know, with a wedding, you know, getting started with the wedding couldn’t be easy, as well as with storm chasing, you know, like, I remember when I tried to learn all this, the forecasting, I was just like, wow, what is all this? So what are some of the things that keep you inspired and keep you going? And when you have that low point in your life where you know, like, you feel like you can’t do it, or you’re unworthy of it? What do you do to push past that? And, and, you know, get to where you are today.
Lori Grace 27:02
That’s a tough one. Because there’s so many different things. There’s so many different forces at play, that try to ruin you. Sometimes it could be somebody who was a gaslighter, right? Someone who’s telling you that, that you’re a piece of crap, or it just in a subtle way tell you that your storm images and that you’re forecasting and that you’re always doing the wrong thing. And that was something I dealt with, even as recently as a year ago. And that was huge. It had been just such a defeating mindset that I felt I just didn’t feel like I would ever measure up to anybody else. And wow, what a lie. You know what I mean? Looking back on, like, if I could tell Laurie from a year ago, I would say, Are you kidding me? What do you take a look at your work? How could you believe that? How can you believe the lie that somebody else is trying to tell you look at look at the truth, face the truth, you have been kicking ass for a long time, but you’ve only been getting better, you did start off, you know, look back, when you look back at your first photos, right? Like my first song chasing photos. Oh my gosh, they’re embarrassing. You know, but at the time, I was so excited that I captured lightning, you know, and that I edited Super Bowl into into the photo and oversaturated it and the focus was completely blurry, I was still excited. But over time, you start to I think, I think more than anything, you end up defeating yourself, whether you give in to somebody’s you know, gaslighting or people who are trying to be gatekeepers, those types of things, you know, those are all just constructs. You know, if someone can convince you that you’re a piece of crap, then you really do have to look inside yourself. And it took me it took me jumping into NF T’s and getting crapped on for me to finally be able to break free from that. And now I look back and I’m just I feel the self confidence, self doubt and this lack of self worth, in what I was doing. I have no idea why I was so down on myself, like I really do. That’s one of the biggest things. You hear me in spaces now. And I’m all excited and yeah, I’m such a badass, you know, it’s not me. It’s not, it’s never been me to have that kind of bullish attitude on myself. But it was being in spaces like this and listening to just inspiring people like Jack Cordell saying be bullish on yourself, you know, and that realness of things when others finally see how genuine you are and how awesome you are, and you finally stopped to believe it yourself. And that just sparked something, and it heals a lot of those wounds. And so I would say that the biggest barriers wasn’t the knot wasn’t the ability to have, you know, just have to save up for extra lenses. It was the ability to believe in yourself that really was the biggest limiting factor. Because if you have the greatest lenses, and you’re still out there killing it, and it takes and people are are trying to cut you down and you believe it. You know what eliminate you what a limiter you know you’re trying to be you’re trying to overcome things, but when you don’t see your own and potential and how, what an amazing journey you’ve you’ve been through, you know, that it’s, it’s such a blinder you know how they put blinders on horses? Right? You know, once you take the blinders off of my eyes, you know, once people in this space can just poured their love and their, their, their support into me, and were able to kind of grab me by the head, right, force me to look back on my own work and see how far I’ve come. You know, wow, it’s just and I think that that’s such a limiter to all of us, you know, to finally, cause me cause caused me to stop looking at everybody else and comparing myself to others, and just missing things missing out, and being upset that somebody else succeeded. And of course, we are happy when people succeed. But at the same time, it’s like, when is my time ever gonna come? And just focusing on those things, that’s not important, your successes already come? You’re already successful. And it’s just a matter of time for other people to see that, whether it’s a collector, or whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. For me, my success? Isn’t the sales that I’ve made in NF T’s. My success isn’t the people that I’ve met. I have to admit, when I look back, if I if I were to look back and write a book right now, the story where to end, right now, I would say that my biggest success is oh, sorry, my headphones cut out. Yeah. So I would just say that, you know, that my biggest biggest success has been the relationships that have been forged over the, you know, through the fire of NF T’s over the last six months.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 31:31
Yeah, that’s really cool. Um, yeah, I mean, like, it’s funny, because for a lot of people looking from the outside, I know, like, you know, I have a few artists friend, and they try to, you know, onboard, it’s like, you gotta jump in here. And you know, it’s a beautiful community. And we have like, a massive future for it. Like, it’s a big potential of what you can do, whether you want to share your art, or you want to use it for a different good causes. There’s so many different applications that you can do with NFT. And they were looking from the outside saying, like, Yeah, but just don’t like the grind of, you know, like, you have to do this. And it’s like, no, you don’t have to do that. Like, it’s your choice. But you know, when you’re a part of a community, and it’s, it’s like, if you have a friend and a family that you know, in real life that you really close to, you want to cheer them on, and you want to share their wins. It’s not like it’s a grind. It’s a human nature that we want to be happy for our friends and family that we care about. And, yeah, that’s, I think that’s really interesting to be able to see that some people have that perspective of people on Twitter or spending, you know, time here, because they have to end it when it gets sale. And probably there are some people who are doing that, but I feel like you know, they are, the core community doesn’t do it for that purpose. You know, they are genuinely there to support you and not looking for anything in return. And I think that’s what’s beautiful about this community. But yeah, thanks for sharing that. Laurie. So do you have any other like, you have any shots that you’re like, that is your favourite? I know, like you have a lot of amazing shot. And it’s really a hard question. But is there like one, it doesn’t have to be your your best one. But just like what the most? Yeah. And is that the most memorable one as well? Absolutely. Okay. Do you want to share like the story behind that? Or do you have that in, in your tweet that you can pin tweet so that we all can look at it? Well, you telling the story
Lori Grace 33:36
bookmark? Cool? No, this is this is going to be the podcast, so people won’t be able to necessarily see it. But it is my Genesis piece last year. Last year, I actually tweeted out somewhere in like talking to you the same time. But last year, I tweeted out that it was somewhere like around in March, or what was in March or April, or somewhere around, somewhere around there. I tweeted out that if I didn’t Excel if I didn’t, if I didn’t do better this last year in 2021, than I’ve ever done before. As far as my chasing my photography, might the quality of images, the type of extraordinary shots that I was getting, if I didn’t do better than I’ve ever done before, I was going to hang it up, I was going to hang up the towel, I was gonna throw in the towel and hang it up. And people of course, were like, No, don’t say that. That’s such a negative thing that I’m like, No, I’m not being negative. I just need to, I need something to take a risk. I need to I need something to push myself. And so I’m telling myself that if I’m being serious about it and telling you all to put it on line that if I don’t, if I don’t do better than I’ve ever done before, if I don’t push myself, then I quit. I’m not going to do it anymore. I would still be shooting weddings, because that’s a business but I would be done chasing I would be done trying to capture something extraordinary. And, you know, I pushed myself I knew I knew that I had to one up myself. And so this past year I If I would, if there was even a point 02 chance of there being a thunderstorm out and out within a 300 mile radius, I would get in my car, I didn’t care if I only got two hours of sleep, throw the dogs in the Honda Pilot, and go for a drive until I finally saw something. And I, you know, I’ve, I’ve learned how to target monsoon storms quite well at this point, which is not easy to do, because they’re just, they just kind of pop up seemingly at random. But there’s actually a huge skill that goes into kind of figuring out where they’re going to pop up. And so, this particular shot up this that little, if you’re looking at the photo, and I know, in the podcast, people weren’t gonna be able to see that. But that little goldfish looking cloud on the left is known as a as a mezzo cyclone, it’s actually a little Supercell, the kind of storm that you see out on the Great Plains, a rotating storm is all it is. And so that little storm came off of the mountains, and I have positioned myself, as you can see, by the photo, there is nothing, there’s nothing blocking the image of the storm here. And what you can see on the right is, is golden hour, right, you can see the sun, fiery red colour has been pushed in on the left and on to the left. And then on the left side, you have blue our creeping in and you have that bluish colour. And right in between these were these massive strikes just reigned over this, this valley. And what people don’t know in this image is it right behind me, I’m standing on a bridge, you know that that goes over this river. And right behind me are these is a huge power plant. And some of the some of the poles go up as high as 5070 feet, maybe 100 feet, I’m guessing it’s one of those huge power lines that go through the dug. And it was just completely dropping element. So to position myself where I did to capture the colours and the sun, I challenge anybody else who, because I’ve been told the same thing by other people that that’s probably the best shot of lighting they’ve ever seen. And it’s definitely the best shot I’ve ever captured.
I have refused to make this a composite. You know, some people have told me Well, you know, if you if you if you, you know, maybe put a castle or a Pegasus in there, you know, that would make it more sellable, you know, and then I’m like, No, this is a real freaking picture, you have no idea what went into this, this was all six years of storm chasing that has gone into my brain. And to be able to get to this spot to see to know that this little storm was going to spit that little cloud was spitting out these bolts was responsible for creating these bolts. And I ended up capturing this in a time lapse too. And I have this in a time lapse, I have not meant at the time lapse. And when I posted this, I have since increased this, this is my Genesis piece. And I’ve since decreased it to 30 eath. And when I’m laughed at by people that I’m being, you know, ridiculous, I just point people to, you know, the fact that if you’re gonna look at PFPs, you know, if an ape can sell for however many eath. But not only that, look at look at Blue Chip photographers like Justin Asano, and drift and Kasam Ward, they’re selling pieces for 100. Eve. So I don’t ever want to be told by anybody how to price my work. Granted, this photo might not sell for a while, but I’m okay with that. And I just don’t care. I’m not here, it’s not up for discussion. It’s not up here for negotiation. I do have a lot of pieces when I launched my collections that are averaging about point three right now. And I sold pieces in my last collection, that people were laughing at me that where I had listed them at one each, and the collection sold out and people at the very end came in and swept the rest of those one eath. So I had three photos of lightning, going through rate a double rainbow, and all three of those different shots got picked up within two days. So you know, I just I don’t like having that discussion about pricing, because it’s about worth. And if it even if those didn’t sell, I would still be holding on to that because I know, I know. And if anybody wants to find out how hard it is to capture what I do, that’s what I would tell them here’s the story, and here’s why it is priced out and if you don’t like it, don’t buy it, but this is where I’m at. And of course I do provide other shots that are a little more approachable, which is why I do have an addition piece of a banger of a shot that’s been doing extremely well. That’s a lot of stuff but that’s my favourite shot. Absolutely.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 39:14
Yeah, that’s amazing. Yeah, like just that whole you know the lights between the golden hour and the blue hour and half the strike the lightning striking in the middle of it and you capture it really well that you know you manage to preserve all the details because especially right in the middle there where you know the where it actually strikes it’s always difficult to to be able to preserve that and I know I have a lot of shot lightning shots where when lightning like this happen. You just lose a lot of details in that area. We get to go into a little bit detail here but how do you make that happen and And, you know, what are some of the trial and error that you have to go through to get there, especially when you do a time lapse, because you know, when you do the time lapse, you do like an hour or 30 minutes of it, and you just hope that it goes, All right?
Lori Grace 40:14
Well, and that’s the trick to storm chasing, or at least to capturing lightning is knowing where to put your aperture when taking the shot. Because I guarantee you when I saw this, right around the same time, some of the other bolts that were landing, were of similar brightness, and, and a couple of drove up to me, and they’re like, What is going on. And I was like, Look at this, you don’t need to understand what you’re looking at here. It’s a rare kind of storm that we see here in Arizona. And they were just marvel, you know, it was like they were looking at a spaceship entering Earth. And to see that on their eyes. And the excitement was incredible. It was incredible. But as a photographer, not only did I have to position and do all the forecasting, and get to the right spot right at sunset, and be in the right position at the right time. But now I had to get my cameras out, I was shooting two cameras, on tripods. And I had to make sure that those settings and that I had nailed focus, you know what I mean? I didn’t, there was no autofocus, everything was manual focus. And so I had to also make sure that my aperture was going to be closed down enough so that when this bright bolt just flew out of the sky and landed on the ground, that it wasn’t blown out. Because if you’re shooting at f 2.8, F four, F 5.6, F 6.3, I can assure you, if I had done that the shot would have been overexposed. But without the lightning, it would have just been a really dark shot at those F stops even. But so I had to step down to, I don’t even remember, I’d have to look at the settings, I think it was F 7.1 Maybe F eight, where I shot this out, I’d have to look at the metadata again. That’s something that you just have to see on the spot and make the adjustment and hope for the best because sometimes there are bolts that will be so bright, that they’ll even be overexposed. That f 13 You know, and that stomped down a lot.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 42:05
Yeah, so you basically have to underexposed the shot, right? But you say you were capturing the time lapse so how do you do that because you know, when you do the time lapse, everything else is gonna be just dark when you underexposed the shot, or do you have like two different camera with a different exposure?
Lori Grace 42:21
Yeah, so the other camera that I’m so this shot wasn’t done with time lapse, this was done with a lightning trigger. So you know, I can adjust my settings, and my shutter speed I think was about 1/15 of a second. And capturing lightning actually doesn’t isn’t about under exposing the shot as it is about adjusting the light that comes in when it comes in. I like to liken it to if you know how to use off camera flash, you know that if you’re going to use off camera flash, the first thing you’re going to do is dial in your ambience, right and you do that by using shutter speed. So it’s it’s amazing how my wedding photography has helped me to becoming a better storm photographer. Because if you know about using off camera flash, you’re going to have to adjust your shutter speed before you even bring in any kind of off camera flash. So you know, if I want the ambient, if I want to capture the candles in the background, or the lights or whatever of a of an event, I’m going to want to make sure that my shutter is open to maybe 1/30 of a second, maybe boost my ISO 115 1/20 You know, yeah, now you’re gonna have to worry about embodied stabilisation or whatnot, or a tripod. But then you’re going to, you know not to maybe boost your ISO a little bit, but your flash is entirely dependent on your aperture. So if I then bring in off camera flash at one one of one power, and I take that picture and my aperture is F 1.2. Guess what, you’re just going to blow out your hole, you’re gonna blow out the entire image. And so that’s where you start adjusting your aperture to dial in the kind of power that of light power to properly expose your subject. This is this is kind of photography, one on one off camera flash photography, one on one. And so I’ll dial in my shutter speed if I can, maybe 1/15 of a second during this late golden hour early, early blue hour image, maybe 1/25 of a second somewhere around there, but then I will have my aperture, I’ll need my aperture to be a safe bet would have been F 11. But then the bolts wouldn’t have been so bright, if that makes any sense. If I was at F 2.0, F 2.8, the bolts would have been well overexposed and you wouldn’t have been able to recover those highlights. So there has to be a technical medium and you just have to it comes with experience over time when you are shooting on this on the fly. And you’re you’re hauling butt spot to another to get to storm because we’re also moving so you only have a very short window of time to find a spot that you can you can capture it get your camera set up, adjust your settings and hope that your aperture is the right setting so that when the boat does flash, you’re not over exposing underexposing You know, when if you underexposed too much, then your bolt is just underwhelming and it just looks like any other bolt that anybody else captured. So there’s a little bit of finesse to it.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 45:10
And that is why I asked the question because, you know, a lot of people can think and see, you know, this kind of shot or, you know, any other photos and feel like it’s, it takes, you know, it’s like, you just, you just hit that button. You know, it’s not that hard. But the thing is, you know, it takes a lot of practice a lot of failures, a lot of trial and error to be able to know exactly what you need to be doing at that particular moment, when you add a flash, second, right, especially when you’re capturing storms, like everything changes all the time, but when changes the direction where it hits the ground is always different. And a lot of people kind of just think that that’s not hard. And you know, when when people see that, that’s usually where art get undervalue. But you say yourself that it takes you a lot of trial and error you takes you time, where you just go out there over and over again, and just try to find that one strike. And you know, that that is all the effort that we put into as a photographer to be able to capture what we love. And yeah, thanks for sharing that glory. That is, it’s really, I think it’s really eye opening for people to be able to see that. Do you have any bucket list shot that you want to capture or your type of? Okay, cool. Tell us about that.
Lori Grace 46:29
Absolutely. So I actually saw a picture of a friend of a fellow storm chaser friend, he’s actually done it, he has a Netflix show. And it’s very popular does a podcast as well. Greg Johnson, he shared a picture, I think it was in the United States of a tornado, a very dusty, dirty looking tornado, you know, picking up a lot of dirt, just so you can see the entire vortex. And it’s those kinds of tornadoes that aren’t that aren’t just, you know, low and contrast. But this is very clear that you can see and it’s exciting to look at, but he also captured a bolt of lightning going right through that dirty tornado, and it is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. And I tell myself one of these days, I’m gonna get a picture of lightning going through a tornado. And then I’m just going to take the rest of my cameras and donate them because I’ll be done. You’ll be so excited, I’ll probably just be ready to call it quits at that point. So that’s my bucket list. But the other thing I love to capture are something known as TL E’s. They’re also known as transient luminous events. And what they are is, you know, at the nighttime, during storms that are huge, large storm complex is known as mezzo scale, kind of convective systems. Basically, they’re the ones that just they can span hundreds of miles. And it’s a line of storms. And those storms often produce larger bolts of lightning, call them positively charged lightning. And above those strikes when you when, when you see a positively charged lightning bolt, which accounts for probably anywhere between one to 2% of all lightning, when that happens. Above in the upper atmosphere and actually into space. What happens is, there is a discharge above the clouds. And that is known. Sometimes, you see them known as red sprites, which I’ve captured, and the one that I captured last year, which I have yet to mince, maybe for super rare or something. But there, it’s been known that there are only about 100 images of something called Blue jets. So imagine, like at the top of a thunderstorm, a picture, a picture of someone squirting this bluish purplish colour of neon light into the upper atmosphere above a cloud that you can only see at the highest highest aperture opening and or the video setting, with very, very, very wide aperture, very good equipment, high sensor capable equipment. And so that night last year, in addition to this shot, I captured another 10 Blue jets shooting up over a couple a system 100 miles from me. And it was the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever captured. It’s just as purple colour of light that emanates above a storm on the darkest of nights, and you need all of that to happen. And I killed it. I nailed it. And I got it in video and I have a hole of five or 10 minutes of this happening on video. And I may release that as an NFT one of these days, but that’s gonna go for a shit tonne of money. Just because it’s so rare. And what I what I dislike most about it is that I got paid extremely low when I went to sell the footage to the media for this extremely rare event to capture. They paid me breadcrumbs for it. And so when I look at why nfts For me, you know and I get paid extremely well for my photography and for what it takes to capture my work and I see that people are willing to pay what I believe It’s worth it, it’s just a no brainer for me, I’m so sick of getting taken advantage of by these companies that are going to go on to market the hell out of that rare footage, but only pay me, you know, pennies for, for what I’ve done and all the effort I put into it. And so when it comes down to the why, and why don’t we didn’t discuss that, but that’s the why. So
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 50:19
that was gonna be my next question. So I’m glad that you mentioned that. But like, so, I mean, like, you know, like, going into NFT. You know, like, it’s a lot easier, like you say, because you already in the crypto space, and you’re already an investor in the crypto. But there’s a lot of people who are quite sceptical about it. So, you know, I know, you kind of say that, that’s the why you got into NFT but maybe elaborate a little bit? Is that the only reason why you got into NFT? Or is there another reason? You know, I know that being able to be good, like, to be able to sell your or, Yes, I guess sell your art, that that’s what we think is worth is a big thing in this space. But what are what are some of the other reason that that makes you that brought you into the space?
Lori Grace 51:15
You know, if it weren’t for Jessica Moore, and guys, you know, like Justin Snead, who were already here before me and, and getting into NF Ts and, and kind of helping pave the way I don’t know if I would have done it because I didn’t have an example I didn’t see to the other side of the bridge. And I think that’s important to, to look back on because now I find myself on this side of the bridge, and a lot of other people are looking at us going, you know, how how’s it looking over there? Are you getting assaulted? Are you being that? You know, are you being harassed is you know, are you killing the planet? What’s going on over there? And I think it’s up to us to say, Come on in the water’s fine. But here are some things that you need to know. You know, I really think it’s imperative that people know that it’s not all that everything’s not always coming up roses, you know, FOMO if you’re an artist and you you struggle with FOMO, guess what, you’re going to feel a lot worse here. Unless you do what I think I like to say this to answer your question, I came for the coin, but I stayed for the community. Right? You know, I saw the potential to be able to sell my work through my photography through as an NFT. And I ended up finding just an incredible community that stood by me, that shored me up when I was discouraged, and, and don’t get me wrong. Like I said before, I am not my entire life, I have struggled with self worth. And to this day, I have to admit, I don’t struggle with that today, it’s probably a new horizon. For me, it’s a new dawn for me, which is so unreal. And I have to thank the community for being there for me to help, you know, the friends and the bombs that I’ve made. So I really do think that the the best thing about this, this whole thing is the community that that’s around, there are there are nefarious people who don’t give two craps about you. And that’s okay, too. But there, there is a tribe out there for everybody. And I really believe that, you know, if you stick to that tribe, you’re going to make it in the space. So, yeah, so I’m here for the community at this point. That’s what I love most. And I like to sell an NFT you know, not gonna lie.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 53:21
That’s, that’s, that’s awesome to hear. Yeah, I think, you know, it’s, I don’t think this has been done before, right? To be able to connect in, like, through voice, I mean, club has kind of initiate that. But you know, like, I never met you. And I feel like I know you like you just a friend because he just listened to your voice over and over again and hear your perspectives, your your, your thoughts on things. And I think that’s what’s really cool about this space. And that’s why, you know, we spend a lot of time in this space, because it’s like, we’re hanging out with friends here. So I totally agree with that. I think it’s really cool to be to be here and to be part of it. And sometimes I just wish, I have a clone. It couldn’t be on Twitter and could go on adventure at the same time. But I don’t want to take up too much of your time, and we’re coming to an hour now. One of the things that I really want to get your take on I know you’re a massive, massive advocate on this, and I know that it’s it’s something that artists and human in general struggle with, right, being able to being able to handle that self worth being able to push past their, their self limiting belief, you know, to lift their self back up when they’re down. When you know, when people crush you and stuff like that, and I know you know, following your journey, I know that you you kind of it’s really cool that you really open about it when you’re feeling down and you tell everyone that you know what, I just need space and I’m dealing with this and I think that’s really inspiring because when you hear when we hear you talk, it’s as if you had it figured out right? But what One thing that I’d love to learn and for you to share is that, what are some of the things that you do in order to overcome this feeling in order to come to the other side of it, and, you know, be able to push through this self limiting belief that stop you from getting to where you want it to be?
Lori Grace 55:21
No, that’s a tough thing, you know, it’s really going to come down to, even though people are there for you, you know, you can have your family like my wife, who has been my support, and she’s at my side, sometimes I’ll be in a space, and we’re just sitting down, she’s watching TV or whatever. And I’m just sitting sitting on the bed together, and we’re just chilling. And, you know, she’s listening in sometimes. And, you know, she’s my support, and my rock, but the community has been there for me also. But guess what, after all that said and done, they can’t be there for you. They can’t, they can’t show up for you. At the end of the day, you really have to make the decision to show up for yourself each and every day. And it’s tough. You know, you want to give up, you want to quit, you’ve cried already, when nobody’s looking. Ill like you’re just, oh, that feeling I know. It’s not just a bruising feeling. It is crushing. My closest friends know that I know what that that feels like. And so I don’t know, I don’t know if that makes it relatable. But I can see you in the dark as what I’m trying to say. Because I was there too. And I’ve been there way, way too many times. But it really does take after all that said and done. You know, when tomorrow comes, you just have to choose to step up and say, I’m going to show up for myself today. And I’m going to I’m going to do it again. Because I had another chance I breathing up here, the sun rose. So I’m gonna get after it again. And the when I’ll finally have stopped losing the chance, you know, I’ll finally lose the chance when I finally stopped breathing. And so I’ve got another breath in my lungs. So let’s get it done. You know, if there’s a 2% chance for success, then there’s a chance for success. So let’s get after it. And if you don’t make it that day, guess what, there’s another day. And it’s okay to not be okay. I know it sounds so cliche. But it’s so important to just understand. When you’re not feeling it, that’s okay, break away, step away from your phone, get out and do what you love and create and get back to doing, you know, the very thing that you’re creating, you know, get back out and create. So I don’t know if that’s my best advice.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 57:27
Yeah, that’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Laurie. I know, the one quote that really stuck with me was when you’re tired, you rest you don’t quit. And you only quit when you only you only fail when you quit. And I think you know, you summed that up really well to, you know, give yourself a break. Give yourself some love. And you know, at the end of the day, if that’s something that you really love, then you don’t really want to quit anyway, just want to keep going. So yeah, thanks a lot for sharing that. Laurie, it’s been great talking to you. Learning about your your story. And you know, learning why you care so much about people. I think that’s really cool. To learn that. That’s that’s the very first time i i heard that. You were you were a psychology psychologists. But yeah, it really is you can read I can, like you can really see how you care about the community or care about people and other people well being. So that’s amazing. Now, would you like to share, you know, a project or a piece that that you want to that people want to kind of see if they haven’t met you yet? So that, you know, they can see the amount of work? I know you already share your Genesis piece earlier. And but is there any other project that you want to share with the rest of the world before we close this to an end?
Lori Grace 58:48
You know, I think if people just wanted to go to my link tree, I have so much now that I’ve shared and I’m actually working on something. My pin tweet is actually something that I’m doing now, I actually want to change the way I do things when it comes to my ability to affect change. And I started I started a new collection on open sea. This is an addition to other projects, I’m working on my new and I don’t care about scarcity and all that crap. There’s no rulebook for me, right? Like, oh, well, collectors aren’t gonna want to buy, but whatever, you know, I’m not here to attempt to follow old rules. But I started a new collection, it’s just a one, I’m only gonna drop one at a time. It’s called the elevation project. And every single NFT that I dropped, it’s going to be one at a time, once once that sells that. I’m dedicating, dedicating 50% of that sale to an organisation that uplifts women that elevates women that supports women, nonprofits, whether it’s in real life or if it’s if it’s if it’s a woman led project or non binary project, you know, in web three, and I want to just make those donations because a couple of weeks ago, there was there was some basically there was someone there had said some transphobic homophobic things. And it just kind of stunned to see that people are still out there in this space doubling down on that kind of hate. And I just decided that I wasn’t gonna, I wasn’t gonna be angry about it anymore, people are telling me Screw that guy, Laurie, you don’t need them, you know, we’ll take care of them. And I don’t I don’t want that kind of action anymore. I think the best reaction is to take a good action for the positive. So what I did a couple of weeks ago, I just took a piece that I was going to drop on, like upcoming Slyke a collection. And I took it and I put it on a foundation, I listed it for point to eat. And I just said, whatever the final purchases, or whatever the final bid is on this, I’m going to take it all. And I’m going to donate it to an outright International, which is a huge LGBTQIA advocacy group worldwide advocacy group. And the final bid was to eat. And I took after foundation took their slice of the pie. That was something like 1.75 eath. And I made that donation straight to outright international again. And that’s like, at the time, it was what 69 $7,200 worth of eath. And wow, that felt so good, you know, to be able to do that. So I decided what I’m gonna do with the elevation project is I’m just gonna list one on ones, and they’re going to be reasonably priced, it’s not going to be two or five eath projects, they’re just going to be simple pieces of shots that I really value. And when they sell, I’m going to take half of that sale and give it to one of many projects that I want to give to you that I just have in mind. And I just want to, I want to do that, because that’s what I want to see, I want to see I want to do things differently. And if this becomes successful, then I can start to constantly give at least with this particular collection, I can make make giving a bigger part of of my own journey in NF Ts. So as much as I’ve received, I can also give back. And so yeah, you can look at my pin tweet, I hope it sells. Because the first one is going to the you know my friend Jen, who has just started a group called girls who chase which is dedicated to seeing women, girl, young women who are getting into STEM and other you know, other other weather, aspiring weather photographers, weather enthusiast scientists, and it’s just dedicated to elevating women in the meteorology field or the science field. So I want to do that for her. And for that this new organisation. And then after that, I have some ideas and actually want to, to sell my NFT. So that will be dedicated just to buying other women and other underrepresented groups who are just to lift them up. Because why can’t I? If I can rise? Why can I help others rise while rising? Also? I don’t know, it seems a little idealistic. You know, I’m just not gonna let anybody telling me what the rules are anymore.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 1:02:46
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being idealistic at all, and you know, hearing your purpose that’s, I can see why you’re, you have so much drive behind what you do. And I think that’s amazing. And this is, you know, the big possibility of NFT that, you know, we can make the world a better place. You know, despite all of all the naked negative feelings that we see in the, in the media and all that stuff. But it’s such an inspiring story. Laurie, I will be sure to put all the links on the description. But thank you very much. I’m Laurie for today. I know, time is the most valuable things that we could ever give someone and you just give, you know, not only me, but everyone your time today. I know that you’re in here all the time. So if you guys do want to hang out with Laurie come to Twitter spaces is here all the time. And she holds spaces all the time. And she’s very, very welcoming and inclusive. To you know, to everyone, basically. But yeah,
Lori Grace 1:03:43
I wanted to congratulate you on selling that store shot that you took just recently was it yesterday and the day before I saw that it sold. So good for you on selling a storm piece.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 1:03:53
Oh, thank you, Laurie. That was actually the very first day I went out. So like, you know, basically the whole collection was about my my first journey. But yeah, that was the very first day I went out and I got really lucky with that one. So thank you very much. I really appreciate Well there you have it we can do is hopefully you have great, you got a lot of inspiration from that talk. Glory has been someone who I admire and have been someone who have on boarded not only myself but a lot of people into the Twitter space and the NFT space so she’s definitely someone to follow in, you know in this space. But if you haven’t already, so make sure you hit the subscribe button so that you can get notified when the next artists get interview as well. As you know, don’t forget to leave a review. Don’t forget to leave a comment so that these artists and those people who are wondering what this podcast is about, can know you know your take on it, but highly recommend you to connect with Laurie either in Instagram or in Twitter and I will put all the link below so that you can get in touch with her. But with that being said, thank you very much for being here, and I’ll see you guys next week.
