Speaker 1: Photographer Andrew Voorhies this year.
Speaker 2: Hello Andrew, Hello, good morning everybody.
Speaker 1: Good morning, welcome to the program.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: And uh so you are a what would be the
proper term photo journalist? Is that? What? What? What should
we how should we refer to your profession?
Speaker 2: I would say, so, I mean I'm a I'm a
photographer really generally all around. I mainly do do a
lot of political stuff and photojournalism, but I also do
a lot of non photojournalism and non political stuff as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you are very well. How when did you because
you're a young man, when did you start? When did
you start doing this professionally?
Speaker 2: Actually, so about a year ago is when I got
my first actual camera, which is the camera that I
still have today.
Speaker 3: Okay, I first started.
Speaker 2: Out going around to like local events, and I actually
went down to Boston a lot, because, I mean, being honest,
around conquered.
Speaker 3: There's not really a lot of stuff to photograph over there.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, well once in a while, they're sure is
but we'll.
Speaker 2: Get Yeah, absolutely, we'll get to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, So I first started out, you know, just going
to events and just you know, going around Boston just
kind of photographing the city. I started out doing some
wildlife stuff and then I also did some motorsports as well,
a lot of stuff with I've done a few things
with MX NHMX up in Epping and NHMX one on
one which is like the dirt bikes, and then the
quad cross and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So that was super fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, excellent, excellent. What made you want to get
into photography.
Speaker 2: I was first inspired by photography when I was in
eighth grade. I've always been a really big fan of history. Yeah,
and you know, in school, our teacher at the time,
mister Brown, he would show us a lot of photos
of the civil rights movement in World War Two. I
was very inspired by those photos because you know, when
you take a photo, that's not all you're doing. You're
really freezing a moment in time, right, And that's what
first interested me in That is not only just the
aspect of you know, being outside and you know with
a camera, it's also you're you're documenting things. Even if
it's something might seem mundane, You're still you're still freezing
that moment in time, you know. Yeah, And I remember
seeing these photos and being that's what I want to do.
I want to get out there. I want to document
I mean because it's important. You know, people need to
know what's going on in their communities, and people have
a right to know what's going on, right, And it's
one thing to hear about an event, but when you
see it visually, even through a photo, you get that
deeper level of understanding of, oh, this is what happened.
Speaker 1: Are you? Something that comes up on the show a lot,
and we we haven't really talked about it when it
comes to photography. We talk about it a lot when
it comes to music, but uh AI and the encroachment
of AI for a lack of a very way better
way of putting it into our creative endeavors, and and
uh are you. I'm curious to get your thoughts on
that because now and this is something we'll probably get
into a little bit more later too, but now there's
it's easier than ever, of course, to create a photo
or a video or anything you know that is AI generated.
And it's also but not only does it make it
easy to fake things, or easier to fake things than
it used to be, but also it makes it easier
for people to say, oh, I don't believe this is
real when they see it, and obviously that directly affects
what you're doing because, like you said, when you take
a photo of something, you're documenting it. You're creating evidence
that this happened, this is an event, this is something
that is real. But I mean, how do you feel
about how do you feel about AI? And do you
feel do you feel threatened by it? Are you concerned
about it? Or you're not worried about it?
Speaker 2: So there is definitely a level of concern when it
comes to AI, because I mean AI is supposed to
you know, help us, not replace us, right, that is
what the intention of AI should be. But we are
definitely seeing a lot more now that AI is encroaching
on that line of you know, because again, like you
just said, there are a lot of people who will
now be like, oh, that's fake right now, And it
is definitely very damaging when you know people do that
because of tools like that. I think it definitely is
something that needs to be regulated because then things will
start to, you know, go out of control. Because again,
like as as a photographer, I have had people fully
on tell me that my photos are fake it and
they are People are a lot more emboldened to say
that because of tools like AI, right, like because you
know before, like I always say this a lot is
you know, the undeniable proof of photographic evidence is one
of the most important things that we have. But now
we're living in a day and age where that kind
of means, hey, I can just type this thing in
a chat GPT and generate it right there. So why
can't you do this thing right?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: And it's like, well, I'm not right right, but it
definitely is starting to concern me a bit, especially with
you know, what just happened, because you do have a
lot of people going out there and be like, oh,
that's fake, but it's not, sir, you're right right, Yeah,
oh yeah, it is definitely a concern for me.
Speaker 1: Well, we should talk about because this this is an
instance where I assume you didn't expect going into the
event where you took photographs that we're about to talk about.
I assume you didn't expect to go in there and
get necessarily the kinds of photos that came out of. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, absolutely not.
Speaker 2: Yes, So, for those who don't know, I covered the
neo Nazi demonstration that happened in conquered. At the Capitol Building,
there was a fifty to fifty one protest that was
being held, but it was kind of the They did
try to take it over, but they eventually failed and left. Yeah,
but it Yeah, I did not expect to turn on
to the road of you know, my capitol building and
see that.
Speaker 1: Ye.
Speaker 2: And I once I saw that, I realized people are
probably gonna think the same thing, like, oh, there's no
way that you know they were here and conquered New Hampshire.
So that's why the first thing that I did, I
threw my bag in the ground, ripped my camera out
and started photographing. You know, because like I said earlier,
photographic evidence is very important because you know, people might
not know that it happened, or you know, like we
said earlier, people might be like, oh, that didn't happen,
this is fake. But then when I show you a
photo of it, then you can't really sit there and
say it is very important because people need to know
and people have a right to know what's going on
in their community.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, So in that moment, I mean, have you
had have you had any other moments that even approached
that in terms of oh, my god, I've got I
gotta hurry up and grab grab my camera and get
out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely so.
Speaker 2: My friend He's so, I live right on Manchester Street
and Conquered, like right next to where all the car
dealerships are, you know, Brookside and all of that.
Speaker 1: I know, I grew up in Concored Well yeah, I
know exactly.
Speaker 2: My friend Jaden, he actually works at Brookside and one
day he sent a video of the apartment building. So
this actually happened last month. The apartment building next to
Brookside was on fire.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: And he was like, you know, he sent that to
me and I was like, dude, I got to get
over there. So I grabbed my bag, I sped over there.
I was like two minutes away. By the time I
got there, the fire department like already had the flames,
you know, dim and down. So, you know, thank you
to Conqueror Fire Department all the other fire departments that
were there. Yeah, you know, that was one of the
That was probably the first moment where I was like, oh,
I need to grab my camera and go. Yeah, and
you know, go to this without you know, warning or
anything like that. It's a as a photographer, it's definitely
another level of adrenaline when it's it's not a planned thing,
right I imagine, especially something like a fire. So I
got there, I photographed the fire department at work and
stuff like that, because that's another thing that people need
to know about, is events like that and stuff, because
that also affects a lot of people because you know,
after that event, there was a lot of people without homes. Again,
it's also a very scary thing because you know that
that can happen really at any time, right, you know.
And it's also good to get those photos for the
fire department, you know, so.
Speaker 3: They have those.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it was very it wasn't necessarily what happened
at the Capitol Building type of experience, but it was
definitely still a very you know, crazy situation to walk
up to and see what was going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Do you ever have anything happened
where you you you go to photograph something and it
winds up? I mean, are you ever disappointed, like, like,
do you ever find something asn't as interesting a photograph
as you expected? Or has that ever happened?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely been those times, you know, But I
feel like as a photographer, especially like I, as I
gain more experience, you realize how to photograph things like
that that might seem mundane or boring and stuff like that.
You you really learn and you get that eye of
like what I should actually capture instead of just being like, ah, well,
you know this, this isn't going well. You know, there's
definitely that uh that thing. I try to keep it
in the back of my head of you know, let's
let's find something because there's there's always a story or
there's always something to show people out there. Now, as
I kind of mentioned earlier that you know, even though
Concord is kind of a boring place to photograph, as
long as you look, there's always something out there right right.
Speaker 1: No doubt. How I want to circle back to AI
for a moment, because how do how can you tell like, like,
do you have any advice for people who and and
whatever we say about it today might not even matter,
you know, a year from now, a month from now,
who knows, because the technology moves so fast. But like
if somebody says to you, for example, well, how do
I know this photograph took is real? How do I
know this is an AI? Like what can you tell
other than while I was there, you know, I mean,
what what can you tell them or can't or is
there anything you can you can say?
Speaker 2: Really well, I have an SD card with raw files, yea,
But obviously I'm not going to show up to someone's
house with my SD card and be like, well, here
you go.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 2: There are definitely ways to tell if an image is AI.
There's a lot of things that can factor into it.
Is the quality of the image, because like, if if
I have an actual camera, obviously it's not going to
look like it was taken off of a potato, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The other thing you look for is really just like
human anatomy is, like is there few extra fingers or
people's faces smudge together and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, has a problem with fingers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2: They have a very big problem with you know, getting
those features down. So that's important to look for, you know,
certain colors. There's things that just wouldn't make sense, you know,
like a group of people merging together in like a blob,
stuff like that. But it is getting harder and harder
to tell. Like I don't know if you've seen the
I believe it's called the Google VO three.
Speaker 3: Or something like that.
Speaker 1: I believe, I know of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like people are able to create these like
very realistic looking videos, and you've got to look at
the progression of AI, like I believe in like twenty
twenty three is when it first really started to kind
of emerge with Oh, you can create these AI videos
of you know, like Will Smith eating spaghetti or something,
and now it's merged into and you could clearly tell
back then, oh this is AI, like his fingers a
like disappearing into his.
Speaker 3: Face and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: But now it's it's kind of getting the point where
it takes longer and longer to kind of look at
it and realize, Okay, this is AI. And again, if
that's the kind of progression it's had since twenty twenty three,
I mean, could you imagine what it's going to be
like two years from now. And it is a very
very scary thought because I mean, not only does that
come into play when it comes to my job, of
people saying this is fake, you got to think what
that would do the world, especially when it comes to
deep fakes. You know, people can make deep fakes of
political leaders, celebrities or even of you you know, what
I mean, it's a very real concern. And this is
why I say, like it really is something that needs
to be regulated, because if it's not, it's it's gonna
spiral out of control. And a lot of people think
that way. So I don't really know why it's not
really happening.
Speaker 1: I keep seeing these videos that show up in my
feet on like on on Facebook. I'll see these shorts
of videos of like floods and and and like tsunamis
and things. And one of the one of the ways
I can always tell. I mean, I'm sure there's some
of them that look so real that I can't tell
they're fake. But but there is one tell and a
lot of these is how the people in the videos react.
Like you'll see this huge wave coming and people aren't
running away, just standing some of some of the some
of them are running away, but some of them are
just standing there like it's not like they're not you know,
it's like, Okay, that's not how people would react in
that situation. Everybody would run.
Speaker 2: It's like you can tell by their movements too, is
like you know what I mean, Like their arm will
spin all the way around or something like that. But again,
especially when it comes to a lot of you know,
older people to say they they are more attuned to
believe things like that, you know, obviously, But and that
also poses the other danger of you know, scammers have
also been using stuff like that to lure people into
just draining their accounts. And it is a very horrible
situation and I hope that something is done about it
rather sooner than later.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what can be done though, not to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 2: So that's the thing is we need to actually have
conversations about this and you know, figure something out because
it does need to be addressed. And that's where it starts,
just having simple conversations with each other and be like,
all right, what are we going to do about this,
you know, your state and local legislators and just bringing
it all the way up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how you put this genie back
in the bottle. I really don't. I mean, honestly, I
really don't. But but yeah, there are concerns. I mean,
obviously a I can do can do some great things too.
You know, we've we've our first experience with AI actually
live on the radio. We there's a couple of Suno
and Udio seem to be the two biggest ones where
you can make music using AI, and we we did
an experiment live on the show. I said, we had
something where we had I guess who had canceled or something,
but we always find ways to fill the time. So
I said, let's, uh, this was something I'd kind of
had in the back of my mind. Let's use the
Suno app because I'd created an account and their free
account is actually pretty generous, and let's just create a
song live on the air. We'll we'll put in a
prompt and we'll create and and oh my god, like
they're so good, like they're legitimately good. Like it's not
it's not like, oh this is obviously AI listened to it,
you know what I mean. It's it's pretty incredible what
what it can do. And uh, you know, and I
have mixed feelings about that because, on one hand, because
of where I come from in my background and what
I do, you know, I will always always advocate for artists,
for musicians and protecting them and everything. On the other hand,
when you type in an idea and it creates this
great song for you, it's like, this is pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like what do you do.
Speaker 2: The other thing that places into it is you know,
people's job security, and it just comes down street to
like human creativity. No matter what AI can do, at
the end of the day, humans created AI, and humans
have done those things on their own without AI.
Speaker 1: Yeah, true, true, Yeah, it's uh, you know you mentioned
too deep fake videos. And part of the part of
the problem too is people will tend to just broadly speaking,
even if you take AI out of the equation, people
are easily fooled when they're being told something or shown
something that they want to. Yeah, you know, we all carry,
some people more than others, and we won't get into that,
but you know what I'm talking about, But but we
all carry It's it's part of human nature, some degree
of confirmation bias in our brains and and so we're
always all of us are more apt to believe certain
things more easily, and so you know, if they comport
with what we already think and believe or like to
think and believe it. Therefore it's very very because that's
the thing too. Even if there are tells this is
part of the problem. Even if there are certain ways
that you can tell that something is AI if you
want to be fooled by it, you will be, you
know what I mean, Yeah, if you want to be
it will be.
Speaker 2: I mean even before AI, people were saying things were
fake and they didn't believe them and stuff. That's why
I truly feel like what I do to this day
is still very very important, still relevant, you know, because
there are a lot of people out there who might
just be like, oh, you're just taking photos. I mean yeah,
I mean, if you really want to simple it down
like that. But at the same time, especially with AI
and all this other stuff, it is very important for
you know, people like me to get out there and
document things and document things accurately. That's why I get
photos of everything. I'm not just taking photos of one
side or I'm not just taking photos of a select
group of people. I get everything because at the end
of the day, no matter what your beliefs are, the
truth is important.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Oh well said, perfectly said. If you're just joining us,
we're talking with photojournalists. Photojournalist tripped on that word, I
should just say photographer, Andrew. No, but what you do
is more than just photography, so it's important to it's
important to get that out Andrew Vorhees is here with us,
and I also want to talk to you about you know,
we've been talking about AI technology. Also, phones like your
cell phone can take incredible pictures depending on what I mean,
some of the new phones, it's amazing what they can do.
Is that a threat to what you do in any way?
Speaker 2: So when it comes to the phones, I don't believe.
So I'm actually very glad that, you know, people who
aren't able to get a super expensive or fancy camera
can use their phone to document things like this, because
there's not always going to be someone with a nice
camera around to document things like that. So I actually
think it's a good thing that other people have the
ability to document events like this, even if it is
just a cell phone. Do I think they're gonna take
my job?
Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: I mean you got to look at just the things
you can do with cameras. It's just on a whole
other level. Yeah, iPhones that they definitely have, the quality
on them has gotten insane. But when we're talking about
the level of photos and the storytelling that you can
do with a camera, it's just on a whole new level.
And I might be a little biased saying this, as
a photographer, I should. I mean, even before I was
a photographer, it's what truly inspired me was photos with
actual cameras.
Speaker 3: I feel like, you get you're able to.
Speaker 2: Tell more of a story with a camera, and you're
able to get a deeper understanding of things when it's
actually taken by a camera, you know. But definitely I
am Actually I do believe it is a good thing that,
you know, everyone can have the ability to document events
because that is also very important too, and you can
see all sides in that way, you know. And again,
like I said earlier, the truth is important, you know
whether again it doesn't matter what your beliefs are as
long at the end of the day, as long as
the truth is what gets out there, that's what's important.
Speaker 1: Can you tell? Can can you tell if a picture
was taken with a camera or a phone?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Yeah, yep?
Speaker 2: Interesting, interesting, yeah, yep, yeah, it's it's I mean, especially
as a photographer, it's very easy to tell. But if
if you're not, it's very easy to give you a
simple explanation and be like, oh, here, you know what
I mean. That would actually be a pretty good test
to do actually, just to you know, test my eye
a little bit, right, right, Yeah, mainly because like the
mainly the way you can tell is the depth of
field is like when it come cameras crazy, But also
I mean just image quality in general, like typically even now,
like the more you zoom in with an iPhone, the
worst and worse the image gets. Yeah, you know, but
if you're you know, someone like me who has like
a two hundred millimeter lens, you can really get in
there and it's still crystal clear.
Speaker 1: Interesting, Okay, that makes sense, Yeah, it makes sense. So
what you take the picture with is important. Rag gear
is important, absolutely, because I'm also curious too for anyone
who's listening to this conversation who's interested in doing what
you do, you know, that's that's something you probably want
to impress upon people, right, like what you use you know. Yeah, yeah,
it's fine to take pictures with your phone, but to
do what you do, you know, you really need a
professional camera.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, absolutely, and especially like if you do want
to do photography, you are definitely going to need a camera. Yeah,
it's definitely an important thing. So what I would recommend
doing is at first, like anything you know, even with photographers,
like okay, this seems like something I'm inted in. But
there are some things where you're like, oh, I'm interested
in this, but then you start doing it and you're like,
I don't really like this, you know. So my recommendation
would be too because there's actually a store here in
Manchester called Hunts. It's a photo store. They you can
actually rent a camera for like the day or the
week and stuff, so interesting. That would be my recommendation
is to rent a camera, you know, for a day
or a week or you know, whatever you think is adequate,
rent out, you know, because you can actually rent lenses
and stuff like that as well, So I would that
would be my recommendation was to start out doing that,
you know, renting and rent different types of cameras like
rent a Fujifilm or a Nikon or a Cannon or Sony,
just to see what feels comfortable to you and what
you know aspects of certain brands that you like, right,
you know, because that is also very important in photography,
is you know, it's not people aren't necessary. I mean
people are as and you know any other community are
very brand heavy. But at the same time it's really
you know, just what are you most comfort with what
do you like using, you know, what specs do you
like about certain cameras? So yeah, just renting stuff out
and just going out and just really taking pictures of anything. Yeah,
like literally anything when you're starting out, just to not
only be like, hey do I actually.
Speaker 3: Like this what I'm doing right now?
Speaker 2: And also learning the mechanics of the camera, learning you know,
all that stuff, and just learning what to photograph, learning
how to photograph it. It was very I mean I'm
still definitely learning. I mean, no matter what you do,
there's always room to learn and grow, and it's very
very interesting. As someone who's very passionate about the work
that I do, it's I'm always down to learn everything
that I can when it comes to photography. So that
that is another thing I would recommend is just learn. Yeah,
you know, I have, like the majority of what I've
learned I've done on my own with you know, YouTube
and talking to those around me.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So that's the other aspect too, is you know, joining clubs,
talking to other photographers, stuff like that can go a
really long way.
Speaker 1: I wonder how many people are interested in doing this,
but they but then they become overwhelmed because we kind
of live in a culture where a lot of things, Well,
now you're you're very young. Jenny and I were Gen X,
so we're like the last generation that actually grew up
pre Internet. And I wonder how many people are are
just kind of just they get discouraged because it all
is more complicated than maybe they expect, because they think
they think it's going to be easy, because so many
things are easy in terms of just like you know again,
like taking pictures with your phone. They think, Okay, well
I'm gonna be a photographer. Okay, I better get a
real camera to do this. Oh there's a lot to learn,
like different trying different cameras, like you said, trying different
lenses and so forth. It's not like you just Okay,
now I have a real camera. Now I'm gonna go
take some pictures and it's going to be great and
I'm a professional. It's not like that. It's like any really,
it's like anything else. You have to actually learn and
spend the time. You know, you've you've put the time
in to learn all this stuff. But you know, a
lot of people they get impatient, they get frustrated, and
you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and Honestly, I've been there, you know, like, yeah,
you know it's but really again, once when you're passionate
about something, you realize, hey, this is what I want
to do. You stick through it, you know, on the
highs and the lows. It is that, like I said,
I mean, happened to me, and it's definitely a very
real thing that can happen where you're like, oh, this
looks super easy, because before I got a photography I'm like, oh,
you're just pointing a camera and pressing a button.
Speaker 1: Right, there's definitely more than that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But once you you know, sit there and you
actually start learning a lot of it just makes I mean,
for me, it just like that. It was just super
quick and I was like, oh, okay, yeah, so that's
what this setting does.
Speaker 3: That's what this does.
Speaker 2: Okay, awesome, And then you just kind of collectively take
all the things that you've learned and just really when
it comes to a camera, when you do one thing,
it affects something else. So you know what I mean,
Like when when you up your ISO, it adds more
light into the camera, but it also makes the image
more fuzzy, so stuff like that. So like almost every
setting that you can mess with it also messes with
something else. And once you learn that really that those
basic things you're not necessarily set, but you kind of
you can from there you can just go yeah, you know.
And it is definitely a very very interesting process because
you know, as a photographer, the weather hates us.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so, and it also.
Speaker 2: Goes down to the gear that you have as well.
The more gear you have, the different types of gear
you have, the more you can do. Really, you can
definitely do a lot with you know, I even have
right now, you know, as a twenty year old, it
doesn't have a lot of money. I only have, you know,
one camera body and three lenses. Even with that you
can do a lot, yeah, you know. But the the
more equipment that you have and the type of equipment
that you have, you can do a lot more. You
can shoot indoors, you can shoot at night, you can
shoot when it's cloudy, stuff like that. So really it
might not even come down to you know, what you
know and what you don't know. It just comes down
to what tools do I have available?
Speaker 1: Yeah, have you been in situations you mentioned the weather?
Have you been in situations where you needed to photograph
something in in uh weather, that was challenging.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, it's especially with you know, only one
camera body and three lenses. It happens more more often,
especially in the winter, I bet, especially in the winter.
And I'm like, ah, because again, like lighting, lighting is
a big thing when it comes to me. You know,
it's it can be very especially indoors. You know it
like like this right now, it's very you know, well
lit room. But if I were to you know, take
my camera out, it's not gonna look so lightly right right,
especially with my my long lens. But you know, with
my one point for you know, fifty lens in here,
it would look pretty good. But again that's that's a
very very short lens. You can't really zoom in and
stuff like that. And that's the other thing when you
zoom in with a camera, it also.
Speaker 3: Gets darker as well.
Speaker 2: So oh okay, yeah, so it's very it can be
very challenging when you're in a very big, open room
and you're trying to get the you know, close up
shots of you know, people talking and stuff like that
or just you know, what have you whatever you're photographing.
But again it's just gear. There's there's so much out there.
It's insane, Like I could literally look online for like
hours and hours and be like, oh I want this,
I want that, I want that. So it's also very expensive. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Do you have a favorite
thing to photograph? Is there? Is there something anything in particular,
like political events or is there anything that?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: So I I cover a lot of protest and I
would say, not only is it my favorite thing to photograph,
but it is definitely the thing that I'm best at.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is just you know, telling people's stories of you know, resistance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's I love.
Speaker 2: That's another thing that got me really interested in photography
was I love talking to people. I love hearing people's stories,
you know, the where did you come from? Why are
you here? You know, just just learning about people is
something that fascinates me, you know. I I just love
talking to fellow humans, you know, and telling their stories.
To be able to not only tell their story, but
show people their story through the visual aspect of photography is.
Speaker 3: Just something I love.
Speaker 2: And again it's also very important to document events like that. Again,
no matter what your belief is, that's still history, you
know what I mean. It's it's still history. And to
be able to be at those events and meet the
people that I meet, it's it's amazing, you know. And
it's again it's it's like one of the things that
I'm best at. I mean, the quality of images that
I've been able to get through those events is just insane,
you know. Also an another thing that I really love
the photograph is the motor the like motorsports.
Speaker 3: Love it. I love it itself.
Speaker 2: Fun just to watch them jump up on their dirt
bikes and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: It's great.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Is it a I would imagine part of I'm guessing
tell me if I'm right that part of what's exciting
about that is the challenge of getting like a really
good sort of action shot. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And when you look back, and then when I get
home and I look back at my shots, I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, oh, it's so cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just there's just mid air. It's it's great. Uh.
I do also like I mean wildlife as well. It's
just it's so cool. I've gone to the Boston Commons
a lot because I mean, the squirrels.
Speaker 3: Will just walk right up to you. Oh really, Yeah,
it's great.
Speaker 2: I mean I I literally have a photo of my U,
my friend Bryce with an acorn in his hand and
the squirrels literally just like up against his hands. Really yeah,
grab the acorner hit out of his hand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just super cool.
Speaker 2: And I mean a lot of street photography stuff is
great as well. I mean, you know, I've taken photos
of people in Boston just playing guitars on the side
of the streets stuff like that. And again, it's like
to other people that might seem like super mundane, but
you're you're capturing a moment there, yeah, you know, and
it's it's just with a camera. It's just it's so cool. Yeah,
that's another aspect of love. And I'm like, this is
so cool.
Speaker 3: Right, right, Like it's great.
Speaker 1: Not only that, but if you take a picture of
somebody with a guitar, you never know exactly, You just
never know.
Speaker 2: And that's the other cool aspect of it. And again,
it's like when you as a photographer and you take
a photo of someone that's also a conversation initiator. You know,
As I mentioned before, I love talking to people, and
that's a great way to be like, hey, I got
this super cool photo of you. At the same time,
some people might be like, hey, why did you take
a photo of me?
Speaker 1: Which that's something I'm curious about too. So do you
ever have someone who you want to take their picture
and they and they say no?
Speaker 2: So I when it comes to me on my own,
you know, when I'm out in public, I definitely do
tend to ask people first, or if it's for example,
like if someone is you know, playing a guitar or
actually like doing something, you know, I tend to take
the photo first and then show it to them and
then you know, if they want me to delete it,
obviously I'm gonna respect their right to privacy and I'm
gonna get rid of the photo. But I definitely do
make you know, initiations, you actually ask people like hey,
can I take a.
Speaker 3: Photo of you?
Speaker 2: Because again, like I'm very you know, big on privacy
because I mean, I mean everyone should be. It's just
respectful and you know, it's just common sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: But I mean I know at the the rallies and
stuff like that, I've had people come up to me
and they're like, are you a cop? And I'm like, no, really, no,
I mean it doesn't really. I mean I got the
short hair. I'm a tall, pretty Yeah. I get my
fit white dude who wears khakis and yeah polo shirts
a lot. Yeah, I totally get it. Uh, And I
totally get you know, people's worry about that stuff. But
I'm like, no, I am not a police officer. And
they're like, oh, do you work for the press or
something like that. I'm like no, I'm like just a dude,
I promise. Yeah, Like I'm with you, you know, yeah,
you know, but I I kind of like laugh at
it now, you know what i mean, because I'm like, well,
I mean, do you see a bat? Like, no, I'm
not a police officer. And it It actually happened a
lot yesterday at the I was at the Portsmouth Airport
photographing the anti ice protests there and I did get
like around three people who are like, hey, dude, are
you are you a cop? And kidd like no, it's wow,
Like no, I'm not. That's funny, Like I just take pictures.
Oh that's funny. Yeah, but you know, just having simple
conversations with people and be like hey, no, you know,
I'm just here to document the event and stuff like that. Yeah,
everyone that I've come across so far has been like okay,
you know, thanks for being here and stuff like that.
And I do understand the worry that I mean, we
do live in you know, pretty sketchy times right now,
so I totally understand it.
Speaker 1: By the way, Todd Air of course from the Hanging
Left podcast, and he is in the chat room, he says,
love to go out and have you give me a
refresher on photography, and he says he loves street photography
as well. Very good, and we should mention, of course
Todd from the uh yeah, Hanging Left. I guess you're
coming on board with us officially, right, absolutely so, so
we'll have so Andrew and I and Todd. We host
the Hanging Left podcast. You can find online and it
is on all your favorite podcasting platforms of course. But yeah,
so you must you're with Todd every day, right because
you both work on the campaign. We won't get into
it in depth here, but the campaign. Do you want
to mention the campaign? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So I am a campaign photographer for Sarah chid Zinsky.
She's running for congress here in New Hampshire. That's another
thing that's that I was like, you know, back to
what inspired me to do photography was not just you know,
political rallies and protests and stuff like that, but also
like my absolute dream is to be.
Speaker 3: A White House photographer. Really, yeah, that is.
Speaker 2: I went to d C for my eighth grade field trip,
and this was sort of where like, you know, the
first flame began of all, I really want to be
a photographer. I've always been interested in history, you know,
and you can't really be interested in history without being
history and with you know, interested in politics hand in hand.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it just doesn't really make sense for
you to like history and then not like the thing
that dictates.
Speaker 3: Like all of history.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2: But I remember being there, you know, as like a
twelve year old, thirteen year old kid, and I was
just like this is this is where I want to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I again, I had an iPhone at the time, and
I was just taking pictures of everything. Yeah, I actually
have I still have a photo of me in front
of the White House and I was like, that's where
I want to be.
Speaker 3: Oh, okay, I have actually have Pete.
Speaker 2: So's's photo book. He was Obama's chief White House photographer
the images. He was actually also Reagan's photographer as well. Yeah, So,
I mean it's so interesting. He's an amazing guy. And
the the types of photos and the quality of photos
that that man was able to produce is insane.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like he's like one of those people that
I look up to, you know, because I mean, that's
that's what I want to be right there in the
Oval office photographing what's going on. Yeah, you know, it's
just man, I'm just I can nerd out about it
for like the longest time.
Speaker 3: But it's great.
Speaker 1: Are there are there any specific photos that come to
mind of of that are sort of iconic in your
mind of of at the White House that that perhaps
that gentleman. Would you say his name.
Speaker 3: Was Pete Soza?
Speaker 2: I believe that's how you pronounce his name.
Speaker 1: Like, are there are there any specific photos you can
think of that he's taken that you can describe that.
Speaker 2: The the one that comes from One of my favorite
photos is the photo of Obama and his staff in
the situation room during the bin Laden raid.
Speaker 1: That was the first one I thought of when you
when you mentioned I, yeah, photos from the White House?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I I look at that photo almost every day,
and it's like to capture a photo like that is
just it's just insane. Yeah, I mean that, like it
just blows my mind, like not only was he there
in that moment in that room with all the super
important people, yeah, he got to document that like that
like that is forever in history because of him. Yeah,
and that's just that the thought of that's just insane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: And you know, even just like sort of the again
what other people might think is like mundane, but like
the photos of you know, one of Obama's daughters, like
sneaking behind the couch to like surprise him. It's like
when you think of the Oval Office like in my
brit Oh, it's a super serious place and all this stuff.
But I mean again, at the end of the day,
like they're still human, right exactly, especially you know, you
know as young girls growing up in the White House,
like they're still gonna do all those kid things like
you know, scaring or surprising their dead. It's just that
and again, you it just shows like the humanity aspect
and it's just that is that is one of the
things that also I love about photography is just capturing humanity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and its purest form.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's it's just great, I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. So that that's the long term goal.
Speaker 3: That's that's what that would be. To get to d
C and to do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be insane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. Oh yeah, Todd says too. Yeah, that's
an amazing photo, he says, show Matt the protest photo
you took of me after the show.
Speaker 3: I can definitely send that over to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, absolutely, absolutely. Oh the time goes
so quick. Yeah, this has been wonderful. Yeah, absolutely, you know,
and looking forward to talking to you of course on
the next hanging left as well.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Where should people go to UH to follow you online
and if they want to see I assumed do you
have a website or something where you put a lot
of these photos are so?
Speaker 2: I So the website is Friday dash Photography dot com.
Speaker 3: Okay, I do.
Speaker 2: I also am Friday Photography on UH Facebook as well.
So the way to find that really is so the
logo with the like Jason Vorhees esque hockey maskts it's
a play on my last name, you know, like Vorhez,
Friday Photography, Friday the thirteenth, you know. Yeah, a lot
of people don't really know what that is, but you know,
uh look it up Friday the thirteenth. It's a super
good horror film. I believe it came out in the
round the eighty.
Speaker 1: Friday the thirteenth. Probably I never got I never got
into those movies, but early eighties, early eighties.
Speaker 2: And you can also just search up my name on
Facebook as well. I post all my stuff on there,
and that's just as an Apple and d R E
w V as the victor O O R H E
E S. I'm also on Instagram Andrew dot Andrew dot
V hold on, okay, let me make it right.
Speaker 1: Definitely won't make sure people can Uh.
Speaker 3: There we go. Andrew dot V thirteen on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, very good, very good.
Speaker 2: And for those who use blue Sky, oh yes, I
am the camera guy thirteen dot b s k Y
dot Social.
Speaker 1: I'll have to find you on blue Sky if I
if I if we're not already connected. I I have
Blue Sky, I I have the app on my phone
and everything, but I forget to use it, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm not gonna lot. Do you like I do
the same thing. I'm like, oh yeah, that does exist.
Speaker 2: And I know a lot of people have switched from
X to Blue Sky and like that. So yeah, I
do need to get on there a lot more.
Speaker 1: I know. Every time I'm reminded of it's like, oh,
I got to do that, and then I'll forget about
it again. Well, very good, Well, Andrew Vorhees, thank you
so much. This has been wonderful. Absolutely, I'm sure we'll
do it again in the future and I'll see you
on the podcast. Well, absolutely wonderful. Well, if you are
listening live on Saturday, stick around Amber. Nicole Cannon is
coming up in the second hour. Is she in the building, Jenny,
She is in the building, so looking forward to speaking
with her. And in hour three, our friend Nancy Manet
is going to be joining us online via Microsoft Teams
all the way from Texas to talk about her new single.
But so stick around. Plenty more to come here on
this Saturday on Matt connorton Unleashed and Andrew, thank you again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: You got it.