- So I wanted to bring you
guys along on my hike today. I'm at the highest peak in
the Eastern United States Mt. Mitchell. And this place is not only very beautiful. It's also very significant to my journey in regards to hiking and filmmaking. The first time I came here was
a little over two years ago and I was absolutely blown away. Not by the views but by the forest, the Moss and ferns and the Redwood. These were things that
I didn't think we had in the Eastern United States. I thought you had to go to like Oregon to even have a chance of
seeing anything like this. And I think that one trip
kind of marks a transition for me from thinking that I
lived in the most boring place on the entire planet to
constantly being out hiking and finding new spots to shoot. Just like me most of
you probably don't live in a particularly exotic vocation. And social media can make it feel like everyone else's
surroundings are way cooler than your own. Lately I've been getting a
lot of comments and questions from you guys asking how to make the most of a not so interesting
location in your backyard? And how to make due kind of with the cards
that you've been dealt and still get great photos. And recently I've even gotten
some comments asking like Aidin, I don't live somewhere
beautiful, like North Carolina how can I possibly still make great films? And these are words that I
never thought I would hear because to me, the Carolinas
are about as ordinary as it gets. All that to say in this video I want to not only bring you
along on this nice little hike but also share a few
different things that help me to stay inspired where I live and to make the absolute
most of my backyard. (upbeat music) If you wanna find the
coolest thing in your area. I think a great place
to start is by getting as far away from civilization
as you possibly can. For example, we're out
here on top of a mountain, middle of the woods. If you look at this area on a map there are pretty much
no roads to get here. Just one, and it's like
the state park access road. So absolute middle of nowhere. I'm of the belief that
mother nature doesn't miss. Like every natural
landscape out there is dope and they only become mundane and ugly. When we obstruct them, bird. I have to redo every
line like multiple times because these birds. And those landscapes only become mundane or unappealing when we obstruct them with like buildings and roads. And of course some
buildings and roads can add to a landscape and to a
composition, but you get the point. It's a great place to start by getting as close to nature and true wilderness as you possibly can. (upbeat music) Secondly, and this is a big one. You've got to stop
getting all of your travel and photography
inspiration from Instagram. Social media makes you feel left out and it's easy to feel like everyone else lives somewhere awesome, because they're posting awesome photos. The reality is most of the
travel content on Instagram is concentrated to a
relatively small handful of very popular locations. But there's a ton of other stuff that just doesn't get the
same level of attention. And a lot of it is
probably in your backyard. The resource I used to find
almost all of the places that I go to shoot is AllTrails. It's a giant database of
trails rather than photos. So most of the photos you see
on there are not very good. So it gives you an accurate depiction of where you're actually going. And it's a great place to see the location and figure out the photo for yourself. It's also literally just a forum for hikers to share
trails with other hikers. So no one on there cares about what's gonna get the most likes. So it's a great place to find hidden gems because they usually get
about as much attention as everything else. It also has a bunch of
other great features like trail information and being able to download satellite maps so you don't get lost while you're hiking. It's a resource I can't recommend enough and obviously I'm not
affiliated with them at all, but if they want to, I'm in. (cool music) My final tip for you before we
move on to our next location is to visit areas in
different weather conditions, particularly weather conditions that you might not want to go out in. It's incredible just
how much a great sunrise or a nice layer of mist can
completely transform a location. That's what I did for today's shoot. Last night, I looked at the
weather forecast for this area and I saw a 100% chance of rain. So I was like, all right,
I got to shoot tomorrow. And I did. And I did that because I
wanted that nice layer of fog that you can get in the
forest on a rainy day. It just adds so much to this landscape. To be honest, I was hoping we
would get a little more fog than we're seeing right now,
but it's still a nice layer of mist in the trees and rain
on the leaves and the ground. It just adds more depth and drama, and mood to the area. And actually, as I'm saying this, I'm kind of watching some more dense fog kind of come in behind me. So I guess there's a cloud moving in from this side of the mountain. I mean, doesn't this look dope though? Like, it looks like we're in like a Disney movie or something. I'm telling you you got
to go shoot in the rain. It's great. All that being said, let's move on to another location and
shoot the rest of this video. (cool music) These fall colors are gorgeous but time to get back on the road and head to another spot to
shoot the rest of this video. And to be clear, when I talk about like shooting in my backyard, car. This stuff isn't like in my actual backyard, I'm always driving like two or three hours to
find these spots and shoot. Like by the end of today's
shoot for this video I will have driven at least
five, maybe six hours today. But it's worth it, but it
is still a lot of driving. So let's go find some mountain coffee to make it more bearable. (cool music) Made it to one of my favorite coffee shops in this cute little mountain
town in the middle of nowhere. I'm gonna go get some caffeine and then we can explore a little more of this very cute, very
mountainy little town. (upbeat music) Another thing you need to keep in mind and shooting in the
right weather conditions is kind of like a part of this. Is that when you look at a photo or a film on YouTube or Instagram, anywhere. You need to remember that
there's a lot of craft behind it. It's not just the location. It's a lot more about composition, how you work with natural light, how you post-process the images. Locations look completely
different when you shoot and edit them the right way. And I say that not to be
like a Debra downer, like, ah everything you see on
social media is fake. But more to point out that
this is an opportunity that you have as well. So if you're in a location that's not, super exotic and just inspiring
from the get, keep in mind that you should be looking
at it not as what it is, but as what you can turn it into when you shoot it in your style
and edit it a certain way. And fulfill your artistic vision you could say that way. That being said, I think
I'm about the last person in this mountain town at the moment. It's like 5:25 and it
shut down super fast. I was gonna go up the road to a little fudge shop they
have here and get some fudge but I missed it, next time. But, seeing as it is after five I'm gonna hit the road again in a moment and we will go try and
shoot somewhere for sunset. I don't think there's
gonna be much of a sunset but we'll go somewhere
and see what we get. (cool music) So I made it, but I think
it's safe to say that sunset isn't gonna be
much of an event tonight, but that's fine. I mean, come on. This is still dope. So let's finish out
the video here instead. The final piece of advice I have for you isn't really what anyone wants to hear. And it's that you just have
to do a ton of research to find these hidden gems and track down these locations that don't make it onto social media. I spend a ton of time just
screwing around on the internet. Browsing through trails on AllTrails trying to find new things to shoot. And as a result of
that, I'm always finding new areas to shoot and things that I didn't
know about before. But you have to put in
that time to research. And you also have to be willing to just try things to just go places, explore a new trail without knowing if it's gonna be worth it. Just accept that it might
suck, but do it anyway. This is a dangerous shot. So let's make it fast. Ironically enough I think the thing that made me really start
exploring my back yard. Was actually moving to New York for three months last summer. Being really immersed in
that big city environment that's so different to what we have here is what ultimately made me realize how much I actually enjoy hiking. So when I got back I was
really eager to hit the trail because I hadn't done it in three months. So I did. And then I did a few days
later and ever since then it's been pretty much a
weekly routine for me. Oh, car, let's get out of the road. All that to say, as cliche as it is the grass is pretty much always greener on the other side. Earlier today actually
I received a comment from someone saying that
they weren't as lucky as me with where they live because they had to drive seven hours to get to the mountains. But the mountains that they could drive to were the European Alps. Being here the first thing I reacted to that comment with was, wow you can drive to the Alps. But if the roles were reversed I lived seven hours from the Alps and they lived two hours from
the Blue Ridge Mountains. We'd probably be saying
the exact same thing because the grass is always
greener on the other side. And living somewhere for a
large portion of your life does a great job of desensitizing you to what's special about that location. And I don't want to imply
that I'm immune to this. I'm absolutely not. I 100% would rather be in the Dolomites or the Cascades in Washington. And I want to move to
somewhere with cooler and more dramatic landscapes
in my opinion in the future. But I want to be able to look back and know that I made the absolute most of these mountains while I was here. And of course I didn't
make this video to suggest that like you shouldn't travel
or that you don't need to. You absolutely should if
you have the opportunity. But the fact of the matter is a lot of people don't get
the opportunity to travel nearly as frequently as others. And occasionally there's a global pandemic and nobody has the opportunity to. But hopefully what you
took away from this video is that even when that happens and when you're stuck in one place you can still get out
there, have an adventure, find something new and make a great video. See you next week. This was a good vlog. We got foggy forest vibes. We got fall foliage. We got mountain coffee, just an overall really good
vlog, but it's raining. So I'm leaving. See you next week.
