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Ducks Unlimited Podcast is a constant discussion of all things waterfowl; from in-depth hunting tips and tactics, to waterfowl biology, research, science, and habitat updates. The DU Podcast is the go-to resource for waterfowl hunters and conservationists. Ducks Unlimited is the world's leader in wetlands conservation.
Swell AI Transcript: Ed Wall - AUDIO FOR VIDEO.wav
Matt Harrison: Yeah. This is official. Hey everyone, I'm Matt Harrison and welcome back to the Ducks Limited podcast. We have with us this morning, uh, Dr. Mike Brasher, who is also our co-host of the podcast and the one and only Edward Walt, Ed, how you doing? Doing good. How are y'all? We are great. We are so excited. We got some awesome, awesome stuff coming your way here in just a minute. But before we dive off into all the nuts and bolts, if you don't mind, just give our listeners and watchers just a little bit of an introduction about yourself, kind of your background a little bit, and also what you're currently doing right now.
Ed Wall: I'm a photographer, owner of Wall Media, started doing this 10 or 12 years ago basically as a hobby. I just picked up my first camera and started taking it. So just as a hobby? Just as a hobby. I literally just wanted to take some pictures of my dog and take some pictures of duck hunting and it kind of transformed into this and kind of made a career out of it and built a little business and so it's But basically, at the end of the day, I just take pictures. Got some great guys that work for us.
Mike Brasher: You're a little too modest.
Ed Wall: No, that's what I do. I just take pictures.
Mike Brasher: That's it. It's an occasional video. Picked up a camera, started taking some photos, you know, if the problem turned out good.
Ed Wall: I mean, honestly, that's really how it happened. It was just about a camera as a hobby. took a lot of bad pictures for a lot of years. And they were, I mean, at that time, I thought they were good. But looking back, I realized how bad they were. But occasionally, there'd be a good one in there somewhere.
Mike Brasher: And… Was it digital at that time when you first started? I had to go under the curtain.
Ed Wall: I was thinking, you know, the 35 millimeter.
Mike Brasher: You never dealt with that.
Matt Harrison: Because you had a full-time job at the time that you bought the camera. Like this wasn't something you were like, hey, I'm gonna go be a full-time photographer.
Ed Wall: No, I literally bought a camera to take some pictures of my dogs and me and my buddies hunting and Were you out of high school? Were you out of high school budget, so you were fully employed by then? This was, I guess, 11, 12 years ago. Okay. And took a few, like I said, a whole lot of, seriously, a whole lot of bad ones. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know anything about cameras. But I know I liked doing it. And occasionally, I would take a good one. And DU or Mossy Oak or Drake or somebody would repost it on Instagram. And so, somewhere along the line, somebody was like, well, this guy's not that terrible and started reaching out to basically do just some trade for, hey, we'll send you some products if you'll send us some pictures. And I really, really enjoyed photography and started wanting to learn more about it. Watched a bunch of YouTube videos and practiced a bunch.
Matt Harrison: At what point were you like, okay, I'm pretty good at this and I think I can make this a living? Like, was there a photo or was there an instance or was there a brand that reached out? Like, what kind of was like, okay, I think I can do this.
Ed Wall: So, originally when companies were just wanting to do trade, when they would send you products in exchange for pictures, There wasn't any pressure, necessarily. It was, hey, I'll take some pictures and send them to them. The first time a company reached out and said, hey, we'll pay you for this. Honestly, I was a little nervous because now… What have I gotten myself into? If I'm doing it for free, you get what you pay for. Absolutely. It was actually, it's a company, Ren and Ivy. They reached out and… Wow. Which is a very well-known brand. Yeah. And said, hey, I'll pay you. I was like, nah, man. He's like, no, no, I'll pay you to do this. And I was like, all right.
Matt Harrison: Give me 20 bucks.
Ed Wall: Yeah, I hope I don't mess this up. And so, um, and it actually, so they were the first company ever actually paid me anything. And then, um, but you, you and I talked about earlier, this big roofing company out of Jackson started, uh, paying me to do photos for them, shoot video for them. And it was more and more and more and more. And I realized, man, making more money doing this. And so, I had a discussion with my wife. I said, look, I think I'm gonna try this, do this full-time.
Mike Brasher: And, uh… And so that, and you're a full-time professional photographer.
Ed Wall: Yep, since 2018, I think.
Mike Brasher: Where, where can people go to find your, your stuff?
Ed Wall: Edwall81 on Instagram, all the social media stuff. Edwall81. But, yeah, and for a lot of years, it was just me. I got, I still get stretched pretty thin. We're gonna get into that. A bunch of irons to the fire, but I've got some great guys that work with me now and do a phenomenal job. They're super talented and so it's allowed, the best thing about it is it's kind of allowed me to take on some more projects with some other companies that are really cool and allowed us to do a lot more things and you can only, it's only so many hours a day and if it's just you, you can only do so much. So, having those guys has been unbelievable.
Matt Harrison: Yeah. No doubt. And we all know that you've taken some amazing photos. And if you're a waterfowl hunter, you're in the outdoor space, you've came across an Ed Wall photo, whether it be social media, at an event, at an expo, you have seen, whether you realize it or not, one of your photos, whether it be on the Mississippi license, whether it be like, I mean, it's everywhere. Okay. We all know that you've taken some really, really good ones. But Take us back and through a little bit, because I was told that in 2018, you won a very big contest. And I want to know a little bit about kind of that whole contest and also the photo you took to win.
Ed Wall: Yeah, back in, so every year, Ducks Unlimited Magazine, I think it's their May-June issue, they have a photo contest where DU members can submit, I think it's three photos a year. So every year, that was like my big goal back then was I want to get one of my pictures in DU magazine. And they've got three categories, which is waterfowl, retrievers, and then waterfowl hunting. And so, I would grapple every year with which three am I going to submit. And I would send them to people like, pick your, I'd send them eight and I'd narrow it down to like eight or ten. Which one do you think's the best? Pick your best three. And so, and it's always an internal struggle trying to figure out which three I was going to submit. And they also, they have those three categories. They pick a winner and a runner-up and then they have an overall winner and an overall runner-up. So, basically, they're putting eight pictures from DU members in the magazine and that was, Every year, I would just hope it was going to be me and it never was. So, 2018, I got an email that said I'd won the Retriever category. And they were going to call and do an interview with me and I was just blown away. I was super excited. So, it was a picture of my dog in Mississippi and Mississippi Delta, bringing back a wood duck that was banded. No way. Yeah, we shot like a four-man limit of mallards that morning. One wood duck and the wood duck was banded and as my dog came back with it, I was snapping pictures and a big group of Mallard's works in and we shoot it. It wasn't until 30 minutes later that I even noticed. Are you serious? Yeah, this wood duck was banded and I said, man, I think I was taking some pictures when it came back and sure enough, I had a good one. Wow. In 2019, I won the overall… Contest. Yep. Wow. For the picture I took up in Arkansas and then… 2020, I just assumed that I wasn't going to get picked again. submitted three pictures and I really, I couldn't even, I got an email that said I'd won the retriever category again in 2020. And I honestly couldn't remember what three I'd submitted. And so I emailed the lady back and I said, Hey, can you send me what picture it was? And so, and I got an email from John Hoffman, who's the photo editor to you and said, congratulations. And So going forward, we'd rather you not submitting more pictures. So you're banned. We'll pay you for them and we'll put you on our list of freelance photographers. I was blown away because my whole goal was to get one picture in DU Magazine and here they're offering to pay me for pictures. It was kind of surreal to be honest.
Mike Brasher: Still is. So thus far of all the photos that you've had selected as the, you know, to win an award or feature in some, on some magazine or the Mississippi license, um, which one is most memorable or special to you? Um, is that an unfair question?
Ed Wall: I guess, well, I guess those are maybe two different questions. I'll say, I'll say the most special to me. Um, so the, In Mississippi, when you buy a hunting license, you get a sportsman's license, which they send you an actual hard card that looks like a credit card. And one of my big goals in photography was, I mean, I've grown up in Mississippi my whole life, and I wanted to have a picture of mine on that card. And I've actually got three pictures that I've never put on, nobody's ever seen him but me, unless you, I've shown him to some people on the phone, but I've never seen him to anybody because I've saved him specifically for the opportunity to possibly be on the sportsman's license. And I submitted them to possibly be on there and it never happened. Well, last year, um, one of the guys who works at the Department of Wildlife, I'd been on the 2022 Mississippi duck stamp was a picture of mine. And he ran into me somewhere and introduced himself and said, congratulations on the duck stamp. And I said, thanks. And he said, have they talked to you about the sportsman's license? And I kind of turned my head and I said, no, they haven't. And he kind of looked and then, and And I was like, yeah, and that's kind of how it went. And I said, should they have? And he's like, well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now. He said, well, your picture is going to be on the 2023 Schultz's license. And I was like, yes, finally. And so, well, and I'd submitted these, these, the two main ones I'd submitted was a, it's a picture of a deer and a picture of a turkey. And I said, well, is it the deer or the turkey? And he said, oh, neither one. Oh, boy. Well, you got the wrong person. Yeah. So, I was like, okay. And he said, it's a picture of a… He said, I think it's your dog. Wow. He started describing the picture to me. And I said, okay. And I knew exactly which picture it was. And he said, we've never had a dog on the Mississippi Sportsman's license. So, I was like, well, that's… Wow. To be honest, that's even cooler. No doubt. My picture with my dog. And so, on something that was really important to me. So, I would say that one's the most special to me. Most memorable would probably be the one on that 2019 one from Arkansas that won the overall for the DU Magazine Contest. It was a very memorable picture. Some stuff went into getting that one.
Matt Harrison: So talking about getting some of these shots, you know, I know that a lot of hard work and determination goes into a lot of these shots. And what is one of the craziest stories you may have on getting one of these shots? Because I know that there's sometimes that you see a raft of ducks or you see a field that's far away or you see whatever it might be and you're like, I got to get there and I got to get this shot. So I'm sure you have a story of getting one of those shots and what's maybe one of the craziest things you've ever done to get a shot.
Ed Wall: Yeah. So I'm, I would say that I'm more than addicted to taking, I just love taking pictures of ducks and I travel a lot and where I've always got my camera. nine months a year riding my passenger seat, and I see ducks on the side of the road, I'm like a junkie. I can't drive past it. I have to stop and try to take some pictures. But talking about the, you said the most memorable, the 2019 picture that I won with was It was, I don't know if I can say it, it was taking a lake ashfall in Arkansas. Huge freeze back in 2018 and the entire, I think it's a 550 acre lake, was frozen. Except for just a little bitty bit.
Mike Brasher: You did not belly crawl out onto the ice.
Ed Wall: Right in the middle of this, of the lake, there was probably 10 or 20,000 ducks keeping this one little spot open. And for three days, I'd watched him. Till you couldn't stay. And I was like, how do I get out there? So, we were staying at a camp up there. John Woodard, who works for Drake, was there with me. I said, man, how thick do you think that ice is? He's like, I don't know, man. I said, well. So, I rode out there and I was standing on the side of the road. Everything's frozen. We're shooting them in the dry fields in Arkansas that morning. Which don't happen. Yes, that's how cold it was. And I was like, well, I'm just gonna ease out there. Cause I, even though I have a big lens, like they were so far out there that I just, I couldn't get what I needed. And so it's crazy. I was actually wearing Crocs. This is how bad this is. And so I started easing out on the ice. I was like, man, this is solid. And I just kept going and kept going. Did you have socks on? I think I did. Crocs and socks. Locked in four-wheel drive. And my Ole Miss sweatpants. So, I kept easing out there. And I was like, well, if I hear it start cracking, I'll just ease back. And I got probably, I would say, 300 yards out, 200, 300 yards out on the ice.
Mike Brasher: You didn't have a tether rope, tether line tied to you?
Ed Wall: I was there by myself.
Matt Harrison: If you go through, you're dead. For sure.
Ed Wall: And looking back, it was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done in my life. But at the time, I was like, man, I'm going to get this shot. And I think there was like 13 bald eagles on these cypress trees around just sweeping down, picking off these ducks. And I was like, man, I've got to go photograph this. So I get out there and I lay down on the ice. I'm taking some shots. And… He hears crap. I actually saw blue lights. The sheriff's department comes by, turns on blue lights, because I'm out there on my stomach or on my knees taking pictures, and I've got this several hundred yards away. So I walked back to him and they're sitting there on the levee and they're kind of looking at me and said, what in the hell are you doing? And I was just taking some pictures like, yeah. And we pulled up, we thought, surely this guy's not out there with a gun about to shoot anything. I thought I had a gun in front of his name and got to looking. Well, as big as your camera is. And so in looking back, like I said, if it was, not very smart on my part.
Mike Brasher: Did you get some award-winning photos from it?
Ed Wall: So, the picture I took was the 2019. Wow.
Matt Harrison: So, it turned out.
Ed Wall: Yeah, it did. Well, I don't know if we should really advertise. Don't do that. But it's just a, like I said, a pile of ducks in this one little spot they're keeping open. They all got up at one time. I think there's like And it's been a few years now. I think it's like nine or eleven different species in that one picture. Oh wow. So there's a black duck in there. Some cool stuff. That is really cool.
Matt Harrison: I may be throwing him out under the bus here when I say this, but one of our good friends, Mark Wheat, I think was also with you possibly on a story about some pintails. Can you, he may have told me that, or I may be telling a little too much here, whatever. But he told me about a story where you try to get some a photo of some pentails. And how about you tell us that story.
Ed Wall: So he and I were filming a television commercial for Drake Waterfall up in Arkansas. I think it was the first or second week after the season this year back in February. So we had filmed that morning. We're going to stay that night at Straight Lake. That's where we were filming and we were going to film the next morning. So, we filmed until early afternoon. So, I went riding around trying to find somewhere to take pictures of ducks. That's just what I do. That's what I love doing. So, he said, I'll ride with you. And I was like, alright. So, we were coming down the road and I looked and it's just a couple thousand pintails out in this field. I was like, I've got my binoculars. I'm looking, I was like, man, there's a pile of pintails out there. So I pull up my own X, I'm looking, and I see that Matt Sharp, who owns Straight Lake, has the property right next to it at least. So I called him and said, hey, do you know so-and-so who owns this property? And he said, yeah. And he said, well, what's up? And I said, well, there's a couple thousand pintails in this field back there. And I'm, you know, I want to go, it's half a mile from this road, but I want to go back there and take pictures. And he said, yeah, I'll call him real quick. So he did. And he's like, yeah, man, fire away. He said, you're good to go. So I'm looking at the best way to get there. And I was like, well, we can just, and he had told me to take, it's like park here and go across this bridge. And well, there's this low spot in the woods. It was probably 30 or 40 yards wide. And it had water in it. You still wearing your Crocs? No, I wasn't. I had a pair of light boots on then, but it was, but it was, this was three weeks after the big freeze from last year. So it's seriously cold and. I'm looking, we walked and walked, and I was like, man, this, I looked and this water runs into, like, some more water. I was like, well, can't get across it. So, I'm just thinking like, man, I know I could, it was like a perfect setup where I'd crawl up the back of the levee, and they'd never see me, and I'd be 20 yards from them of 2,000 pintails. And Mark was like, well, I don't know how you're gonna get in there. And I was like, well, there's not but one way to do it. And so, I stripped down to my underwear and left my boots on. And I was thinking it was going to- You are kidding. No. And this was cold.
Mike Brasher: Yes. This was, it was- What month was this?
Ed Wall: February? Probably the February 10th-ish, somewhere. All right, carry on. Yeah. So, there was still a little bit of ice in the water and stuff. So, I'm, Mark was like, man, all right, I'm going to wait here. I'm not going, so. I hung my clothes on a tree, and I was thinking it was gonna be maybe knee deep. Well, it was about nipple deep. And I'm having to go really slow. And you've got your camera with you. So, I've got my camera over my shoulder, and I'm holding it, so, because I don't want to, obviously, I don't want to fall.
Mike Brasher: You had the clothes, you weren't taking your clothes with you to the other side? No, I didn't.
Ed Wall: No, they were just back there.
Mike Brasher: So, you know, I mean, you're all in, and I'm gonna be down to your skivvies. Correct.
Ed Wall: Photos, yeah. Just underwear, and I'm going across this water, and it's, There was a couple points at certain depths that it took my breath away for sure. So many questions you gotta follow up with. So what makes it even worse was I got across there and as I get almost all the way across I hear a bunch of snow geese that are way down this way. They fly over and so I finally get across it and I walk down a little bit and I crawl, literally crawl through the last 30 yards up this bank and I get up there and the pintails are gone. I guess when the snow geese get up.
Mike Brasher: At least were there some gadwall there or something.
Ed Wall: It was an empty field. There's not a duck in it when I got there.
Mike Brasher: So, did you take any photos? Didn't take a picture. Where are the photos of you crossing the ditch and all that? Because I know you. I hope they don't exist.
Matt Harrison: You know, when those pintails got out, they probably like, look at this dude over here in his underwear.
Ed Wall: And I thought, and it wasn't, I didn't flare on that. Only thing I could think was when the snow geese get up, they, I don't know, something spooked the snow geese, which I assume spooked them as well.
Mike Brasher: So there's an interesting parallel here. All right, so you went and did some filming and photography for DUTV earlier, was it last year? When was that? With Mark Petrie up to… I forgot what month. Yeah, it was his previous… PEI. And so Mark's a good friend of mine. He is our director of conservation science and planning out in the western region. He was one of the guests on that episode. And he, that's right, he sent me, I took a photo, he sent it to me and said, look who I'm with. And I had already met you at that point. And so Mark was commenting to me later on. He's like, how good a dude you were. He said, Ed is fantastic photographer. He said, we'll have that guy any day of the week. You know, he, he was really, he's been with a lot, been with a lot of, a lot of these films, uh, filming, um, outings, and so very complimentary of you, your photography, your dedication to it, and knowing how to get an angle on the shot, whatever. The parallel here is, though, with you crossing the ditch and your dedication to the cause, crossing the ditch down in your skivvies, there is a story of Mark Petrie in Prairie, Canada, one time. We were hunting. He's going to love me telling this story.
Ed Wall: Somebody else doing something that they shouldn't be doing.
Mike Brasher: And he has stories to tell of me too, so it's all fair. We'd kind of split up and we're hunting potholes on our own and we heard him shoot and we see him a little bit later on and I think he was telling the story of how he shot a gadwall. landed in the middle of a pothole. There was no wind whatsoever. He had no dog, nothing like that. It's not ideal. And not ideal. And he's like, what am I going to do? I have to go retrieve this duck. So he stripped down to his skivvies, swam into the middle of a pothole in Prairie, Canada to retrieve a gadwall. And of course, our buddy tells a story. He said, you know, I've thought about this a lot. I'm just trying to imagine Mark, because I think he still had his gun with him. He had some, maybe still had his gun with him to go out there for whatever reason or something. Because I have this vision of Mark just kind of swimming back, swimming with one arm and the duck in his mouth.
Ed Wall: Gun in one arm, gun in one hand, some with the other and duck in his mouth.
Mike Brasher: So you and Petrie are like-minded in your pursuit of Ultra Gods.
Ed Wall: I had a lot of fun with him. He, uh, great guy. And he, uh, look, I'm really, he's got a book coming out that I'm really looking forward to. He sent me the first chapter. It was great. Um, yeah, we were in, I think we filmed DUTV up there for, Six or seven days and then everybody left. I stayed and we filmed, Mark came in. We filmed an episode of Deunation, right? Yeah. So, we ended up shooting geese and black ducks up in the PGI. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I really enjoyed spending some time with Mark.
Mike Brasher: Yeah. He said it was one of the best hunts he'd been on as well. So, that was cool.
Matt Harrison: Yeah. Okay, so shifting gears a little bit here. I want you to talk about your work-life balance. I know I've, prior to me coming on Ducks Unlimited, I was able to help you a little bit on a couple projects and I don't think I've ever seen somebody so dedicated to what they do. And this is the God's honest truth. This ain't me just trying to tell a story to try to, but I'll never forget we were filming in Oklahoma for Crash Landing Outdoors and We had a really good group of people in there at camp that this specific dates that we were there. And we would go out in the morning, but then we would also go out in the evening. Well, it was, I'm talking about freezing. Probably one of the no doubt coldest duck hunts I've ever been on. I think the reel feels like negative two that morning or something. It was brutal. I mean, it was really brutal. Super cold. We hunted that morning. Wasn't much, you know, flying that morning. We end up going back, going back out that evening, but I'm saying all that to say is like, I was kind of able to see you behind the scenes, what a lot of people don't get to see. And with you managing as much as you manage from all these different accounts, all these different brands, working, trying to do all this, it was unbelievable to see When Ed wasn't in the field shooting, when we would come back, he was opening his laptop, dumping photos. When he wasn't dumping photos, he was editing photos. When we had to go back out, we had to go back out hunting, he was shooting again. That night when we came back and started playing ping pong and started eating, Ed had that Apple MacBook flip back open, dumping photos, editing. It was a constant, until we laid down that night in to eat. I think he was on his computer. And not even just the editing side of things, the travel. I can't tell you how many times I've called you during a waterfowl season. I'm like, Ed, what are you doing? Traveling to Oklahoma, 13 hours. Well, what are you doing next weekend? I've got to go to the Upper Peninsula and film. Well, what are you doing after that? I've got to spend three days in Arkansas, then leave there and come and film Lost Break for two. I've never seen somebody so dedicated and put so much time and effort into doing what you do. How? In the world, like I said earlier, you have a wife, you have a kid, and your everyday life. Like we mentioned to you, you're a golfer, you enjoy golfing, which thankfully, you know, you probably ain't doing that much during waterfowl season. None. But! How in the world can you work life balance and keep a head on your shoulders and keep everything moving forward with what you do?
Mike Brasher: I want to add something that I observed. I saw all that you just described in terms of the work that Ed did, shooting whenever we're actually doing the filming, because the first time I met you was part of, I think, a DUTV hunt. And you came back, you did all the editing, the downloading of the photos. The other thing that you did that Matt didn't mention, while the rest of us were sitting around napping or whatever else in the afternoon, or doing whatever it was that we were doing… He was skating across ice to get… Dude went back out in his ghillie suits, like, yeah, there's some snow geese back here, I'm gonna go try to get some photos of them, there's some white fronts, and I'm like… Dude, it's just another flock of snow geese and white fronts. I know you've taken hundreds of photos of those. What are you doing? But you did, and it's like, that's when I knew, and it was the first day I ever met you, like, this dude is real. Yeah.
Ed Wall: How do you do all that? Honestly, like, it's… It does take a good bit of discipline too. When Matt was talking about when we were out there, we had hunted that morning, that afternoon, and there's some really cool people there. Megan Patrick was there, Jay Bruce, former baseball player. Everybody's hanging out, having a good time. As much as I would have loved to have been doing that with them, at the same time, I know that this is my job and I've got to get this done. it's, I don't know whether it's just age or maturity that I've years ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to do that, but it's, um, you know, you just got to get it done. I know, I know that the editing part of it, the getting everything organized, it's very time consuming. It's, you know, it's everybody always tells me I have the greatest job in the world, which I, 100% agree, but you know, you only get to see parts of it. There's, it's a lot of hours too. Um, but the two years, let's, you know, as far as going back out in the ghillie suit, man, it's when I say I love taking pictures of dogs, I mean it. Yeah. It's, I spend a lot of hours every year, uh, sitting by myself, just a camera and a tripod and trying to take pictures of ducks. It's, and I generally like just really, really enjoy doing it. And no matter how many I take, I always want to take one, one more good one, you know? And so, um, but yeah, I just, I love taking pictures of ducks. So it's, that part makes it easy. Um, the, the time deal, um, I've got a family and so and a lot of projects going so it's I don't sleep very much during duck season. Yeah a few hours probably three to four hours a night on average. There be a handful of times that I just drive all night from one place to the other and then go film and just miss a night so it but when I'm home I'm Got a lot of editing to do, but I try to literally make the most of my time so that I do get to spend it with my family, you know, and edit as much as I can while I'm on the road. So when I do get home, I don't have more on my plate. I can spend some time with them. And I've got a five-year-old that's just started duck hunting. Luckily, I think in the years going forward, he'll be tagging along on a bunch of them. Give him a camera.
Mike Brasher: Is he going to be shooting a gun or shooting a camera?
Ed Wall: Probably, I don't know. He's done both so far. He's actually gone and sat with me, taking some pictures of some ducks, and he seemed like he enjoyed it. Same thing, photographing turkeys. He's come and sat with me one morning. like two or three in the morning. Of course, he slept the whole way there, but I drove about three hours away to try to take some turkey pictures for the season, and he sat in a little blind with me, and he had a good time. So I think he'll probably like shooting them, but I'm sure at some point he'll want to take some pictures of them, too.
Mike Brasher: The reason I ask that is because I think most of the time on that DUTV hunt, you were taking photos. But I think one time you put your camera down, you said, I want to take a few shots at birds with a gun. And I think you missed. And you… Probably so. I think you took a couple of shots, and you completely whiffed on them, and everybody was like, Ed, pick your camera back up.
Ed Wall: Stick to what you know. That's about right, yeah. There's been a couple of those. I actually don't get to shoot a whole lot. I think last year, 181 days, I took a gun, five of them. I actually, what's crazy is that I feel like Over the years, I've become a better shot because it's such a similar when I'm trying to photograph with a camera. It's the same thing with a gun. And actually, I think one of the days last year, I was kind of surprised myself a little bit about but I actually shot pretty good. But yeah, there's been a It's been a bunch of times where it's been at the end of a hunt or something and somebody's said, uh, said, why don't you shoot one? It's like, no, I'm good. And they're like, shoot one. And then it's just the best was, um, so we went to White Oak one time and Mack Sharpen on Straight Lake had taken me over there. Um, so they'd shot one shot of a four man limit. And Max said, hey, you shoot the last one. I said, man, I'm good. And he's like, no, you're going to shoot the last one. I said, Max, I'm good, man. He said, we're not leaving here until you shoot the last one. Two hours later. And I said, all right. And so it was kind of a bigger hole. And I don't know what happened, but I was shooting over under. Hand me a gun. I'm shooting over under. And I shot a gazillion mallards. Well, these came in and I popped up. I was sitting in a blind. I pop up and shoulder the gun. I realized they're way out there. Like they're not where I thought they were. I'm shouldered and I'm just waiting and here they come and it's the worst thing you can do. Shooting a shotgun is just reaction. So here I am like it's just waiting on them and they're coming and they're coming and they're coming and I shoot and I miss at point blank. like 20 yards, maybe even 15. And it was that, oh man, I missed. And of course, then I've rushed a second shot and I miss. And I squeeze again, then it dawns on me that I'm shooting an over-under. And everybody had a good laugh. And I politely handed the gun back to him. And I said, where's that camera? Let me do something I'm somewhat decent at. It was like nobody's ever missed worse than I missed those two. They were just backpedaling. I don't know how you could miss, but I did.
Matt Harrison: I've done it. We've all done it. Every duck hunter's done it, but you do a really good job, you know, and prior to, like I said, whenever I was a very amateur photographer, but on those jobs that you could shoot some, you had to say, all right, look, it's time to, you know, put the gun down and take pictures. And you do a really good job of realizing, hey, I'm there to do a job and I'm going to do a job, you know, right.
Ed Wall: And, and truthfully, like everybody always, asking about, man, you know, miss hunting. And I really don't like it's I'm there. Like it's, it's to me, it's, it's not in your passions pictures. Correct. Like I, I get just as much enjoyment out of getting one framed up just right. Probably more so than somebody does at shot one, um, the couple of years ago, the last time of the season, um, and a couple of buddies of mine were we've been filming all season and we had a really good last two weeks season been really good and I had tons more footage I could have used and he said Eddie's like won't you take your gun last day and I said all right and so first group came in lined up perfect and it was a sunny southeast wind clear and which it's like three days a year I say is the photographer's dream is a sunny southeast wind duck hunting because everything's just perfectly front lit and a big group of ducks comes in and we shot five, five of them came in, we shot all five of them, and all I could think was, man, that'd have been such a great video. You couldn't even enjoy that. I literally, I couldn't. It was, that's all I could think was, man, that'd have been such a good video, just perfect in the sun.
Mike Brasher: Do you prefer to, do you prefer still photography or video? Stills, for sure. Why is that?
Ed Wall: I just, I don't know. It's just, uh, That's what I've always, ever since I picked up a camera, I've just loved taking pictures. I mean, video, it's more, I guess it's your video to tell a story a lot of times or, you know, um, and trying to get certain shots to put together this bigger thing where to me it's taking a photo it's just your it's this one frozen moment in time where you get to see exactly what I saw for that one split second whether it's a duck coming in or a dog coming back or whatever it is and I just
Mike Brasher: You get more detail. It's that, you get to focus, for me anyway, you get to focus on every aspect of the detail of whatever the subject is.
Ed Wall: Right. It's this one duck or this one group of ducks and you're just, it's frozen right there and it's just, instead of just, but I mean, for some reason, I've just always, always liked taking pictures since I picked up a camera. It's been a lot of time video and I'd love to do it as well, but I guess I'm always going to be a photographer at heart.
Matt Harrison: Yeah, no doubt. Well, you've been to a lot of cool places, you know, filming all over for sure, filming and taking photos all across the United States, but you've also been out of the country. Where would you say has been the coolest place you've got to go?
Ed Wall: Um, I would say I've been very fortunate. I think I've been filming, I've been filming DUTV for like four or five years now. So I've gotten to go to some really cool places with them. And, uh, well, we've gone out West, Oklahoma, I mean, uh, Oregon and Washington, which is, uh, Washington was one of the prettiest places I've been. Um, done the, the Great Salt Lake coffin hunt. Uh, and it was really cool. It was, it was up there. Um, Ogden Bay did a, did a swan hunt, filmed a swan hunt in Ogden Bay, which is like probably the prettiest place I've ever been, North Utah, Northern Utah. I would say my favorite place that I've ever been was this past year. We went to Prince Edward Island, where Doc, you're talking about, Mark was there. And I think it was, there's a lot that went into it. So we had been trying to DUTV had been trying to film this hunt for like four years, this Prince Edward Island hunt. And the first year it was COVID and the second year they had opened the border back up, but the restrictions on the Island were so bad that it was kind of just wasn't worth it. And then two seasons ago, we were scheduled to fly out like on Thursday and a hurricane hits the Island on Monday. And I was like, well, this is, it's never going to happen. And My wife, I didn't know much about Prince Edward Island at the time years ago, but my wife was like, it's one of the prettiest places in the world. She's like, I've always wanted to go there. And I was like, oh, okay. And we're going to go hunt black ducks, which is at the time was like one of the few ducks that I hadn't photographed. So I was really excited. And then this past season, we finally got to do it and it didn't disappoint. It was… I mean, we just had an absolute blast. It literally is one of the prettiest places I've ever been. And we, but I think it was more so the people we hunted with. We hunted with Paul McKinnon and a bunch of his buddies up there. And they were, we stayed at their house. I was there like, I guess 10 days with them. And it was like, I felt like I was family when I left. Like he and I still talk every week, if not every other day. We just had a blast. And those guys, They knew exactly what they were doing. They were some very, very good waterfowl hunters. We, I think we were there, I was there 10 days. I think we hunted seven of the 10 and we limited out every single time we hunted. Are you serious? It was impressive. And that's tough to do, man. Those guys, they were out scouting every day and they've got, they've just got a cool group. They've got a couple of young guys that are like in their early twenties. They've got guys that are in their sixties and they all just kind of mesh together and
Mike Brasher: That was when Petrie was with you.
Ed Wall: Correct.
Mike Brasher: Yeah, because he described the same thing. He said that was the absolute best series of hunts I've ever been on. Wow. It was fantastic.
Ed Wall: I mean, it's just gorgeous up there. It's, I mean, the whole island itself, it was just everywhere you went was just, it was beautiful. And then to have a great group of guys there that we got to know and become friends with and just the hospitality was unbelievable and just literally made some lifelong friends. And then to have limit out every time you go. It makes it even better. With that cherry on top. Those guys, I mean they were, I actually talked to Pauly the other day and he was out scouting for a new lease. And I was like, man, it's August. They've got it on the mind already. And so they, it's probably my favorite, favorite hunt I've been on. It was up at Prince Edward Island. Wow.
Matt Harrison: That's really cool. Yeah. Sounds like a blast. All right. You clearly have a strong social media following. You have a lot of people that admire your work, keep up with you just for your photos, and you have just your everyday follower. You have a wide variety of followers. So I know that I'm sure you get a lot of questions all the time from people. Hey, what kind of gear do you use? Hey, how do you edit your photos? Hey, how can I get involved with brands? Hey, how can I do this, this, and this? Whatever, whatever, whatever. But I'm sure one of those top questions is, what are you shooting with? You know, what kind of gear do you use? What lens are you using? So, can you talk a little bit about that, but before you do that, can you show us something that you brought?
Ed Wall: It just so happens.
Matt Harrison: Matt asked me to bring it, so this is, I mean, I think we need a scoop back.
Mike Brasher: The power of video, we previously, if you're listening to this audio only, go check it out on Ducks Unlimited's YouTube channel. We now have video with the Ducks Unlimited podcast. And you're going to want to see this.
Ed Wall: You're going to want to see this. So I've actually got two of these. This is my newest one. The old one was for an old camera and it was like 13 pounds. This one's a lot lighter, but this is my waterfowl.
Matt Harrison: Check that bazooka out.
Ed Wall: Literally, this rides around in my passenger seat nine months out of the year. And so you never know. I'll never know when I'm going to see ducks or something on the side of the road.
Mike Brasher: You have a camo. Yeah, I've got a camo sleeve for it.
Ed Wall: In the summer, I usually have it off.
Mike Brasher: You might think it's a snow goose crawling out.
Matt Harrison: Yeah, exactly. So, can you walk us through kind of this setup? Like, what you're running right here.
Ed Wall: So, this is a Canon R5 body. It's just got a cage and a battery grip on it. And then this is their 600 f4 prime. So, it's not a zoom lens. It's 600 millimeters at all times. So, it's a fixed lens. Wow. And it's, I had the old one that went to the DS, I still shot a DSLR camera. And when they came out with the mirrorless cameras, it would fit on there, but it had to have an adapter and it just, the auto, the focus wasn't fast enough for shooting water fowl. And so I finally Broke down and bought another one. And this one's a whole lot lighter, so it's a whole lot easier to carry. I said the old one I have… I can't even see over here. I know, I know. We're gonna have to… So, the old one I've got's like 13 pounds. 13.7 pounds. I think this one's a little over four, so… So, what's a rig like that, Ron? The body, I don't know what they are now, but I think the body was four or five thousand when I bought it. And the lenses… just shy of 15,000. So you're looking at roughly $20,000.
Matt Harrison: Creeping up on 20,000. And this is the prime example of how much pride you take in your work, but also how valuable your work is. People that are just like, oh, that's just a photo or can I just use this photo? Can you just send me a bunch of photos? Can I use your photo? Well, yeah, but people don't realize and whenever say you send a quote to somebody for coming to account for three days and you give them that number and they're like, well, I ain't paying that. I just use my iPhone. Yeah. But people don't realize you're looking at 20 thousand dollars just in your body and lens. That ain't your computer to edit. That's not all your software that you use. That's not your other lens that you use. That's not your expertise in time that you can't teach. But what I'm saying is just this alone, 20 grand. And people don't understand the importance of when you do turn in a quote or when you do tell somebody your prices. Well, you're not just, like Dr. Mike said, you're not getting a $200 camera and saying, all right, boys, let's go take some photos.
Ed Wall: True. And, but at the same time, like you can, I mean, I shot a lot of years with- Correct. Without, before I was doing it full time, you know, Some of the better pictures I've taken over the years were with a less expensive one. You don't have to necessarily have the best… The best of the best. Having the best oven doesn't make you necessarily a world-class chef. This is what you do. Yeah, but if you're… But when you're taking… Having the best equipment will help.
Matt Harrison: Absolutely. And when you're, when you have as much people that view your stuff and you solely depend on this for a living, I mean, it makes sense. But like you said, that was leading into my next question is, a lot of people like, there's no way I would ever even come close to spending that. And that's fine because like you said, there's a lot of other options out there. For sure. A lot. Like, I mean, there's like, for example, there's, there's, there's certain cameras that two thousand, two thousand bucks and you can take phenomenal photos with. So, I mean, it don't have to be a $20,000 rig to get a good photo. Now, like you said, if you're trying to get a shot at 200 yards and you're trying to get it pristine to put on a magazine, odds are you're going to have to get something that's going to be more pricey.
Ed Wall: It's going to help for sure. I mean, it's like, They make a, Tamron makes a version of this that's $600, that's $1,500, or $1,400 instead of $14,000, $15,000. And that I shopped for with, I've still got, I've got two of them that I've had for years that I actually still use from time to time. If I'm getting on a plane, I got to where I take this on a plane now, but years ago, I would just take my smaller $600, because it was, you could, it actually, it wasn't as big and it was a 150 to 600 so it was a zoom so you could actually make it smaller and I could fit it in my backpack. But yeah I mean I've taken a lot of pictures so you can if and that's what I get asked a lot is like hey what's a great starter camera what do you shoot all this stuff but a lot of them is like hey what I want to take pictures of ducks or you know what's a good good lens and that's usually one of the ones I suggest because it's You know, it's $1,500 and it's not… Yeah, don't break the bank.
Mike Brasher: Correct. Was this the camera and lens that you had on your shoulder as you were crossing the ditch? That's it, yeah. And belly crawling out onto the ice.
Matt Harrison: And hey, that's another thing is, you had never crossed that ditch before. You could have hit a beaver run and that could have been bye-bye.
Ed Wall: Yeah, well, that's insured, so it's… I still probably would have cried a little bit. Oh, I knew that. Yeah, it's part of it. We took one last year. We got through with a hunt, a public land up in Arkansas and as we came back, we got to a three-way stop, or I guess, you know, the one I'm talking about, but we made a left there and going to this camp and I could look through the woods and this field that was private. And it was just Mallard's pouring in it. And I was like, man, it's right through there and a few hundred yards. I got, looked at my map and it was like 706 yards or something, but it was all waist deep cypress over there to it that I had to go. And I was like, man. All right. So, I went, got to the camp. Everybody, we took all our stuff inside and I put my waders back on. Okay, good. Put your waders on. Yeah. All right. And so, I'm waiting out there and literally had to go super slow because it was sniper sneak after sniper sneak. I was like, man, if I drop, this was mid-season and I was like, man, if I drop this.
Matt Harrison: Because by the time you insurance claim it and do all that and they send you the check and you reorder, I mean, it's done.
Ed Wall: And I've got a tripod on one shoulder, so it's, you know. Which ain't light. Correct. But I got over there and got set up under this, it was right at the, on the last little piece of public, and looking out at this private field, I set up right there, and it's a perfect tree, hanging over some leaves, still had a few leaves on it, so. Got set up, and the first duck that comes in, it was, the sun was perfect, snapped it, and it was a banded mallard. No way. No way. Yeah. Wow. It was the first picture, and I was like, well, this was worth the walk over here.
Matt Harrison: That's awesome. And look, we noticed that there's some signatures on that, that there on your camera. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Ed Wall: Yeah, just some folks, some cool people I've hunted with over, I guess, the last year or two. Just some country, like, Brantley Gilbert, Riley Noreen, Dylan Marlow, John Langston, Megan Patrick, and some baseball players. Archie Bradley and Adrian Houser, some guys I've hunted with. Uh, just something I decided to start doing, uh, last year. No doubt. There's a bunch of folks that I've hung with it. I got to get to sign it, but I just started doing it last year. And so that'd be something cool to do.
Matt Harrison: That is really, really cool.
Ed Wall: You can take that off and replace it. And so there you go. Let's put a new one on there one day. Yeah, that's the one that rides around. That's the beast. That's the one that rides around in my passenger seat all, for literally about nine months a year. Wow. September 1st to end of May or so.
Matt Harrison: Unbelievable. Yep. That's awesome. Well, Ed, it has been a pleasure, man. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the Ducks Unlimited podcast and share all your ins and outs and bringing the beast. And we can't thank you enough. It's been been a pleasure. Dr. Mike, thank you as well.
Mike Brasher: It's great to be here, Matt. Ed, so fantastic. It's always great to see Dr. Brady.
Ed Wall: Any reason to see him is always a good time.
Matt Harrison: Thank you all so much for tuning into the Ducks Unlimited podcast.