View Finders

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Sigma is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world.

And we believe creativity and sustainability go hand in hand.

(water roaring) (birds chirping) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Mpix is a proud supporter of "View Finders".

From our materials to our American photo labs, we believe your adventures are worth celebrating.

Mpix.

Print what matters most.

- [Narrator] Support is provided by Visit Oconee, home of "View Finders", with historic landmarks, parks, and year-round events.

Learn more at visitoconee.com.

- [Narrator] Troncalli Subaru is a proud sponsor of "View Finders".

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Pam] You know, when we come out here, it's immediately, your blood pressure goes down.

- [Steve] Companionship, the tranquility.

You have God's wind and sun and water.

And it just is our washing machine.

It washes out all of our cares and worries.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - The sailing capital of the world.

- Consisting of 60 islands, 16 of which are inhabited.

- Home to 21 national parks on land and in water.

- These are the British Virgin Islands.

I'm Chris.

- I'm Paul.

- [Both] And we're the View Finders.

(glasses clink) (Paul laughs) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) ("Long Dark Night") - Paul, I've never before been on a flight that they had to weigh you first.

(laughs) - The question is, did you give 'em the real weight, or did you give 'em your high school weight, you know?

- I gave 'em the real weight because I feel like there's safety involved.

Bring that beat in - [Chris] Oh my gosh.

Ah, yeah - [Chris] Paul.

- This the struggle, man.

- This does not suck.

- This is the struggle, man.

- I almost feel a little guilty because this is so posh.

- Is this work?

- And so comfortable.

- [Paul] Does this count as work, or is this... - I don't know if this represents a typical photographic outing.

To this beautiful life ("Long Dark Night" continues) - [Chris] It's a little different, cheery vibe.

- Very different.

Yeah.

Very different.

- It's so dang pretty.

- Pretty, not steady.

- Not steady.

- No tripods, obviously, it's not gonna really help you.

- [Chris] How are you handling that?

- Well, when I got my camera, I immediately saw this shot right here with the boat.

- Yeah.

- With the dinghy.

So, I'm gonna try to play around with the steering wheel, the seat here, maybe have that in the foreground, and have the sun coming down in the background.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- I'm gonna make sure I don't blow out the highlights, so I'm gonna underexpose for the sky.

Maybe get some sun rays coming down on the mountains back there, the different islands back there.

Nothing spectacular, but it's what we have here, what's available, and it's something good, I think.

- Yeah, this is one of those moments where we're moving to a place that we need to get to, so we don't have time to stop and, like, go onto an island.

So it's like, well, what can we find here on the boat?

What can we make sense of?

And so sometimes, it's kind of cool, 'cause it's different and you're forced to do something that maybe you're not naturally wanting to do when you're, like, in the BVI.

So, I kind of like that.

I wasn't even looking at the boat.

I was zooming in tight on those kind of distant mountains and trying to kind of crop in on those and do layers and all of that.

- I'm gonna do that next too, yeah.

To come alive to this beautiful life ("Long Dark Night") Oh, it's the long dark night of the soul Where you find the light (gentle music) (birds chirping) - Hello, good morning.

How you guys doing today?

Let me take the privilege to welcome you to Anegada, welcome you to nature's little secret, welcome you to paradise, welcome you to heaven on earth.

- Well, the sailing is awesome.

I think we are the sailing capital of the world, you know?

You know, you could sail from island to island, and every island you go to, you know, the people are very nice, they're friendly, welcoming.

And don't talk about the food, you know?

And even the drinks, you know?

(laughs) Yeah.

- I was born in Anegada, and my birthright is an acre of land.

All the businesses on this island is owned and ran by locals.

You would never come to Anegada and see a Marriott or a high rise, because the island is owned by the people of Anegada.

- So, you know, it's always a open welcome to the whole world, you know?

And we get people from all over that come and visit the BVI.

- Well, we had a lengthy boat ride, and then got on an interesting taxi and came to the other side of this very distant island.

And now we're about to walk out on the beach.

I don't know what we're gonna find, but I always love beach photography.

- Yeah.

Middle of the day.

- So, what's going on in your mind right now?

- Well, I don't know.

I don't know.

I wanna see what I see out there.

I know I like the color of the water from a distance.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So I might try to do something with the water.

We're going this way?

- Think we're gonna go right through here, yeah.

- My gosh, looks like the SEC ran through there.

Look at this, Texas A&M, Alabama, LSU.

Palm trees, that always says Caribbean.

- Oh, look.

That's what we're talking about, man.

- Yeah, that's nice.

- Look at that color.

Been a motherless child I've been an orphan alone Looking for comfort For my soul (camera shutter snaps) Don't matter how hard I try Don't matter which place I go Nothing can heal me - Using these lounge chairs as my subject.

Honestly, before these guys set this place up, I was searching for shots.

I mean, there was nothing that was really coming to my mind.

This is not the time of day that you would normally shoot.

And it just gives the perfect beach setting.

Just lounging, nice aqua blue water, nice sky, blue skies, clouds in the sky, and you're just on this beach in a lounge chair, and I think this is just the perfect subject for what we have going on out here.

- I just wanna say I've been fortunate to travel to a lot of beaches over my lifetime, and I've seen 'em all over the world.

This is a very, very special beach.

I think part of it is because we have it to ourselves.

There's literally nobody else.

I mean, looking miles in either direction along the coastline, nobody else out here.

It's like a relaxing energy that it gives you where you just feel very at ease, very at peace.

The sound of the waves and the sound of the wind and then the visuals all come together.

It's hard to put it into words, but it's a special place.

("Rock My Soul") (camera shutter snaps) (camera shutter snaps) - You know it from the minute you walk ashore that Anegada's a place that you need to come to.

A lot of the T-shirts back in the day was, "Hard to get to, harder to leave," and when you get to Anegada, you get it.

- We have done a lot of photography together all over the world, multiple seasons.

(Paul chuckles) And yet we have never done this.

- No.

And to be honest with you, I mean, I'm looking forward to it, but the only thing I'd say I'm a little worried about is not being fully in control of a camera that I've learned to operate, you know what I mean?

- Right, there's that feel, that tactile feel of a camera in your hands, and knowing all the controls, that muscle memory, that is gone.

- Yeah.

Love of mine, is this your design Can we not just take our time Turn the lights on, but leave the lights low A second chance to take it slow Oh, either way, I want to go Either way, I want to go Oh, either way, I want to go Either way, I want to go Oh, either way, I want to go ("Either Way") (camera shutter snaps) - I'm here to prepare my special fresh conch ceviche.

We have our fresh conch right here, and we're just gonna get right into it, taking the conch out of the shell and making the fresh ceviche right before your eyes.

The line over the top gives you an XY axis.

And I'm gonna chip right in between there and get the conch out of the shell.

You know, what's the most important part about cutting this conch is always keeping your eye on the knife, 'cause you never know what's gonna happen, you know what I'm saying?

What do you think, guys?

- Have to get another one to see.

- Just a little extra taste?

- We gotta make sure.

- Well, you've seen it here first, guys, in Anegada.

Oh, either way, I want to go Oh, either way, I want to go ("Either Way" continues) - Good morning, Paul.

- Morning.

How you doing, man?

- I'm pretty good.

- Ready to get this started?

- Yeah, you know, it's pretty rare where we literally, we woke up about 40 feet from here.

We came up, and here we are.

- No travel time, no travel time to the shoot site.

- Normally there's a bit of a travel to get to our sunrise spot, but our sunrise spot is where we're sleeping.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (camera shutter snaps) (camera shutter snaps) - Sailing to us is really very simple.

You can't adjust the wind, but you can adjust the sails.

So our job is to put the boat in a position to take the maximum capacity of wind onto the sails to give us the greatest speed, while doing it safely with the folks that are around us.

And slow is always fast on a boat.

- You know, the BVI is the perfect place for all that, because it's smooth sailing.

So, our three, four times a year lets us to kind of be able to experience that.

And the people are amazing.

(gentle music) (bird chirping) - Beyond the Reef is a marine conservation nonprofit.

We do several different projects, but our kind of core pillars are our shark research, citation research, coral monitoring and restoration, youth education, community outreach.

Yeah, so we have a very holistic approach, so we kind of try and cover all bases.

A big issue that we face here, for example, with one of those projects is the ghost pots.

We find that often, those nets, and that's abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear, is actually coming from further afield.

So, it's not gear that's actually used here by the local fishermen.

So, it's possibly coming from illegal vessels, and it's definitely floating from further afield.

So, I think what is so important is that some of these issues are not born here.

They are coming from other places.

So it's absolutely vital that we protect these island communities, 'cause they're the ones that suffer most from problems that they're not necessarily creating.

- Kenetha, Michelin certified chef in the BVI.

How many of you are there here?

- As far as I know, it's only me.

- Wow.

- The only one, yeah.

- How did you get that certification?

- So, I got really angry at working so hard and wasn't receiving what I deserved.

But what I realized is that I needed that certificate.

So I went off to Michelin school in London.

What I walked away with was the science behind it.

- Wow.

- The way that you can just simply take onions and vinegar and everything, and turn it into something more exciting.

You gotta love what you do, and you cannot stand up here with a heart full of hatred, because for some reason, the food gonna feel that, the person that gets that gonna feel it.

But a BVI love is the culture, is the people.

It's like now you're pouring all of that love that you got from everybody elsewhere, and you put that directly into your meals.

So the best part of it for me is the way that, again, the culture that we have here in the BVI, the food, the people, everybody wanna say, "Good morning, how are you doing?

How is your family doing today?"

Then you have the guests come in, and then you extend that to the tourists that comes in.

They instantly become family.

So it's showing them what we have, 60 islands and keys.

- What are we doing here?

- So here I have some cured salmon, and this salmon being cured in some sugar, salt, some fresh dill, some lemon zest, and I add some cumin seed, and I let that sit for 48 hours, and then I slice it off, rinse it off, and that's what it looks like.

Would you like to taste it?

- Why not?

Yeah.

- Go ahead.

- I could eat it just like that.

- That's how it's supposed to be.

(laughs) ("Sailboat") ("Sailboat" continues) I feel just like a sailboat I don't know where I'm headed But you can't make the wind blow From a sailboat - Yeah, I'm just gonna work this right here.

- I'm trying to photograph a couple of the restaurants and beach bars, do really long, dreamy types of exposures where I'm just embracing the pastel colors.

I've been lost and found, but (camera shutter snaps) Mostly I've been waiting Oh, I'm out in the waves And I'm hoping and praying Please let this wind blow me home And night after night, there's an empty horizon My God, do I feel so alone But sometimes life And most times I feel just like a sailboat Mm ("Sailboat" continues) - The National Parks of the Virgin Islands started back in 1961.

So this year, we celebrated 64 years.

We started off as a voluntary organization, and now we are fully staffed.

We have currently 21 national parks and 155 marine conservation moorings.

Now, one of the very important things that I like about the Baths is that you wouldn't find these wonderful granite boulders anywhere throughout the BVI, okay?

So the BVI has geologically formed from six different formations.

This one where the Baths, Devil's Bay, Fallen Jerusalem, Spring Bay, that was the last formation, which is called the Virgin Gorda Batholith.

And so it is marked by these large boulders.

- We're kind of descending down through the Baths, and it's amazing.

It is photographer's paradise.

We've got like an hour and a half, which is wonderful, and then the sun's gonna set, and who knows what that's gonna bring.

- I am just trying to find different comps in the darkness.

A lot of cool shapes, a lot of cool textures in here, a lot of cool colors.

- I see this triangle shape cut out of these... It's not cut out, it's just the way all these boulders are formed.

And right through that triangle is a catamaran that is anchored right off shore, and it fits almost perfectly, except you gotta move.

- See a lot of good colors that go well together here.

The sun is kind of beaming in, and it's hitting the water, and it's showing a little bit of the green, and mixed with the brown on the walls, that looks perfect.

- And I've talked about this in the past, but when I came in back there, I was like, "Oh, it's kind of partially obscured by one of the boulders."

But when I got in closer, I moved my camera closer and closer and closer, it opened up this window and it kind of allowed for a better framing of the boat itself.

(camera shutter snaps) (camera shutter snaps) - I think for me, the way I see my job as director of the Trust and the work that the Trust does is to preserve and to conserve those areas that are still in their natural state for the most part.

All of our sites, they were not designed to be tourism sites, but because of the pristine condition that they're in, these are the sites that the tourists want to visit.

- [Chris] Oh, my.

There's a lot of coolness here.

Lot of coolness.

And I'm pretty sure I'm heard - [Paul] I closed my exercise ring.

- This is just where, like, my old man back doesn't... Whoa!

(groans) But I feel like a fool, yeah 'Cause I can't hear you listening But I'm not giving up - What I try to do in a situation like this is you see all of these rocks, you see all of these boulders?

I don't like a lot of clutter in my shots.

So if I can find one rock, one boulder, or maybe two rocks, two boulders to compose in a shot, I'll go that route.

The other stuff just presents clutter and it doesn't give the human eye a place to look to in the photo.

And what I think is gonna happen, hopefully this does happen, the sun's coming down right behind that boulder, so I don't have to worry about the sun hitting my sensor, but I'm gonna get the bleed off from the sun rays hitting the clouds.

So I got a lot of orange in there, a lot of pink, a lot of blue, some white.

But I got everything I need in the sky, and I don't have to worry about the sun hitting my sensor.

- This was a great sunset, and it's still putting color in the sky afterwards.

You get this kind of afterglow, where the high, high stratus clouds, maybe, cirrus, stratus, I don't know, the real high ones start to catch color, and that's what's happening right now.

I found this catamaran, all of these rocks.

I wanted to do a long exposure.

And wow, the sky's literally lighting as I talk about this.

I wanted to do a long exposure, but the waves coming down were moving my tripod, like, so I found this kind of submerged rock that I've set my tripod on so that I have a nice, solid foundation.

I'm doing two exposures, one to get a dreamy look on the water, second one to freeze the sailboat, the catamaran, 'cause it's drifting up and down in the waves.

And I don't want it blurry, I want it tack sharp.

I want the rocks tack sharp.

I want everything else beautiful and smooth and colorful.

And I'm gonna take some more pictures right now because the colors are popping.

It's just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Oh, I'm out in the waves And I'm hoping and praying Please let this wind blow me home And night after night There's an empty horizon My God, do I feel so alone Sometimes life And most times I feel just like a sailboat - [Chris] Well, Paul.

- What an adventure, man.

What an adventure.

- Oh, we had some very enjoyable experiences and learned a ton from so many people, and I think we got a few good pictures along the way.

- We couldn't be in this place, in this location, with everything we've seen here and the crazy skies that we've been, you know, lucky to have the last couple of nights and mornings for sunrises and sunsets without coming away with a couple of shots.

And even outside of that, just being able to take shots in, like, flip flops and- - Oh my God.

- T-shirts and shorts.

- And let's also appreciate the fact that we were whisked from one insane location to another by a sailing yacht.

- [Paul] It's like a floating Marriott, man.

- It's kind of nice, huh?

Like, you can get used to this.

I certainly enjoyed every bit of it, and I just enjoyed meeting a lot of really interesting people.

Everybody here is so happy.

- Yeah, that's one of the things that I'm gonna take away from this trip, is, of course, the photography side, but just the meeting the people and the culture here, and just the persona.

This whole island is... I mean, all of these islands here, everyone is just hug friendly.

- There is like this infectious joy and happiness from everybody.

It doesn't matter who they are, what walk of life they come from, they're all just happy, and it just made me happy.

Like, morning, starting out with Kenetha, pure joy, pure happiness, and it just kind of sets my mood.

- Well, think about it.

If you are seeing this kind of weather 365 days a year, I mean- - If I lived here, I think I'd be pretty happy too.

You're right.

I think we need one more Kenetha meal before we leave.

- Ah, we can take two more, man.

I'll miss my flight for that.

- I believe there is one waiting downstairs for us.

- Let's go, man.

- Let's go.

Hollows in the woods call out Trails up mountains climb ("Chasing Light") Waves and sand keep beat and time Mossy blankets, swirling streams Over rocks and dirt Run at pace with all the earth Could we capture nature's wonder Find our way to getting lost Freeze a frame to save forever Adventure worth the cost Bees and dandelion grain Dance in sun-soaked fields (gentle music) - [Narrator] Sigma is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world.

And we believe creativity and sustainability go hand in hand.

(water roaring) (birds chirping) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Mpix is a proud supporter of "View Finders".

From our materials to our American photo labs, we believe your adventures are worth celebrating.

Mpix.

Print what matters most.

- [Narrator] Support is provided by Visit Oconee, home of "View Finders", with historic landmarks, parks, and year-round events.

Learn more at visitoconee.com.

- [Narrator] Troncalli Subaru is a proud sponsor of "View Finders".

(upbeat music)