Danny McGee is a photographer / videographer based in Colorado. He basically grew up being outdoors, as he was hiking, fishing or camping with his family. Trying to show his adventures to his friends at school, he bought a cheap camera. His love for photography made him quit university to do what he really felt like doing. He started learning about photography and videography by just getting outside, watching hundreds of YouTube tutorials, keeping photographing without giving up… And crashing a bunch of drones. Being inspired by work of Chris Burkard, Kylor Melton and Sam Potter, Danny now really has found his own style; doing as much as possible with the camera and keeping the edits pretty small. He now wants to focus on meaningful story driven content and thinks about putting together a video about climate change in Greenland.
His favorite photos aren’t necessarily his best ones, but the ones that represent cool moments that he experienced. Though he plans his travels around specific spots, he always goes on adventure to find the off the road beauty and surprises. About a trip to Myanmar, he says: “I’m not sure how far I walked but eventually I found this monastery on the side of the road and went in to check it out. Being a 6’2” white dude, soon the entire monastery was out of their houses just looking at me.”
Do you want to know what happened in the monastery? Are you curious to know about his cultural experience of eagle hunting in Mongolia or do you want to learn from his four tips to boost your professional career as photographer? Keep on reading!
Welcome Danny!
First, can you tell us what lead you into the world of photography and videography?
Growing up in Colorado, it’s sort of a requirement to get outside and be somewhat outdoorsy, so my family was always hiking, camping, fishing and doing anything to get outside. As I got older and into high school I wanted a way to show my friends all these cool places I was seeing. So I bought a cheap camera and quickly fell in love with it. I never saw it as a potential career though. My whole life was leading up to me going to University, getting a degree and getting a “normal” job. So I gave University a chance for a year, but the whole travel photography thing was always itching in the back of my mind. Around the same time booked a solo backpacking trip to Iceland, and it was on that trip that I really decided that this is what I want to spend my life doing. Exploring cool places, sharing them with the world and hopefully inspiring people to get out and explore it for themselves. So I dropped out and started spending all my spare time improving, watching youtube tutorials, and traveling when I could.
Your feed is full of incredible videos. How did you develop the skills to shoot this kind of videos?
I crashed a bunch of drones… haha. Literally in that sense to get better at flying drones I had to crash a bunch of times. But metaphorically it’s the same concept with any skill. I know it’s kind of cliché, but just getting out and doing it consistently is the biggest key. In the beginning my photos and videos were pretty terrible, but I kept going out and shooting anyways, trying new things, and watching a whole lot of youtube tutorials and they eventually got better.
If there’s any specific topic you’re having trouble with, there’s likely at least a few really well done tutorials out there on the internet where you can learn. And don’t be afraid to ask questions – still to this day I’m constantly DM’ing people asking them how they did this, or that.
Surrounding myself with people who were better than me has been a huge key for me. Something that wasn’t around when I was first getting into it was in-person workshops. My friend and I run a few of them per year where we take a group of 10-15 people and teach them everything we know about photo / video and the business side of things. It’s a great way to quickly learn and build a community of people around you. But if you’re not able to attend one of those, there’s plenty of awesome free info out on youtube.
If you had to choose between videography and photography, what would you choose and what would be the reasons behind choosing one or the other?
Videography. I love photography, but with video you’re able to tell so much more of a story. With video – especially longer format content, you’re able to bring the viewer into the story on a much deeper level and have them connect with the story / characters more. As they say – if a photo is worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth? (It’s 1.8 million / minute if you want to get literal).
After taking a great shot, you probably edit the photograph to make it even greater. Can you tell us a little bit about your style regarding editing photos? Can you explain to us your editing process with an example?
For me every photo is different, so I tend to edit each one a bit differently depending on the light, the mood etc. But generally I like to do as much as I can in camera and keep the edit pretty small. No matter what camera you’re shooting on, the photo isn’t going to do justice to how it looked when you were actually there. So for me the edit process is just about making the viewer feel like you did when you were actually standing there in front of that waterfall or looking up at that mountain.
As a photographer, I am sure that you feel attached to all your photos. All your pictures represent unique moments of your life. However, among your works, do you have any picture that you really like? What is your favorite photo?
Yes very true! All of my favorite photos aren’t necessarily the most epic or best photos, but the ones that represent cool moments for me. It’s so tough to pick, but if I had to pick one I think it would be this one I took in a monastery in Northern Myanmar. The government there is still pretty militaristic, so most of the country is off limits for foreigners. I was traveling alone at the time and was in a town that’s just about as far north as you can legally go as a tourist. You’re not allowed to rent mopeds or anything like that there so you’re pretty much stuck getting around on foot, so I took off up some random dirt road heading towards the mountains. I’m not sure how far I walked but eventually I found this monastery on the side of the road and went in to check it out. Being a 6’2” white dude, when I walked in I instantly felt like an alien haha.
Pretty soon the entire monastery was out of their houses just looking at me. When it quieted down I played soccer with the kids for a bit then pulled out my camera. This kid instantly came up to me and I snapped this shot.
Being in an area that so few tourists go, and then going even further down some obscure road, I just don’t think they’d ever been exposed to it. So the look in his eyes is just pure, genuine curiosity. Something that I haven’t experienced since. It was a special moment for me.
It seems like you have been to many different places. What is your approach when it comes to planning your trip and finding your ideal locations? What are you looking for when you go on a trip?
Usually when I’m planning a trip I’m going for something in particular. For example on a recent trip to the French Alps, we went specifically to visit a certain spot we’d seen a photo of. Once we knew where we were going we could open up google and search for things that were close by or in the general area. If there’s one cool thing in any specific area there’s bound to be a lot more. I always leave time for unplanned stuff as well. It’s always good to leave at least a few things up to chance and take random roads, go down random trails, and do some good old fashioned exploring. I also use google earth a lot. You can zoom in, find cool spots, and even look at the topography on there. It’s kinda creepy how good it is.
When you travel that much, you also experience a variety of cultures. You have shared some pictures taken in Mongolia that caught my attention because of the story behind it. What is/are the most impressive thing(s) you have seen or experienced in your travels talking about cultural diversity?
That recent trip to Mongolia is probably the most impressive example of cultural diversity I’ve seen so far, and definitely one of my favorite trips to date! The reason we went there was to visit the people in the western part of the country that actually hunt with Golden Eagles. They train these massive birds to hunt foxes, rabbits, and even wolves.
We lived with one of the Eagle Hunting families in their Yurt totally off the grid. I think there was probably 12 people living in this one yurt while we were there. It was amazing. We made sure we visited during the festival they hold every year called the Sagsai Eagle Festival. The main event of course is the eagle hunting, where the hunters call their eagle and are judged on speed, precision, and elegance of the whole act. But there’s 2 other events as well that are just as unique – the first one is where a man and a women race on horseback, and the entire time the girl just whips the crap out of the guy.
But it was incredible to see these things going on in today’s world. I think beauty of humanity lies in our differences, and embracing our own customs and heritage is so important. And in today’s ever-changing world where customs like this are seeming to slowly die out and fade away, it was reassuring to see that they’re still out there, you just have to put in some serious work to find them.
Imagine yourself at the beginning of your professional career as a photographer/videographer. What four pieces of advice would you give to yourself?
1 – Keep going. Sometimes it may seem like you’re not making progress but you are. Keep working at it and soon enough you’ll see things pay off.
2 – Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
3 – Don’t lose sight of why you started in the first place.
4 – Have fun. I know it’s easy to only look at the next goal / step, but make sure to take a step back and appreciate where you’re at. The beginning stages of anything are usually the most fun to look back on.
Is there any artist/photographer who has inspired your art? Can you name three?
1 – Chris Burkard – Incredible landscape and adventure photographer. He’s one of the first people I remember following and being like “woah. I want to do that”
2 – Kylor Melton – Tells incredible stories. One film in particular called “Live Unbound” that he made was a huge inspiration for me when I was first starting out.
3 – Sam Potter – Really good storyteller as well. His photos are beautiful and the way he’s able to connect with other people from around the world is really inspiring.
Probably you have lots of places on your wishlist to visit and photograph! Any new projects coming up or countries you will be visiting soon?
I’ll be headed to Indonesia for the month of November to build out an online version of the photo / video workshops I do so I’m pumped about that! And then as far as dream / wishlist destinations I’m really hoping to make it up to Greenland next summer. I want to put together a short film about the effects climate change has had up there because it’s one of the places that has been most affected so far. In general I’m just really starting to focus on more meaningful story driven content.
Thanks for having me on!
“I want to share images that makes people stop for a second and think: “Wow, our earth is epic.” That feeling I want to convey.”
“Honestly, as of late, the one word I use to describe my lifestyle is always “hectic”. I love the uncertainty of it all, which I know is something most people would hate.”
“My humble beginnings with snapping iPhone photos, led me to receiving an invitation from Apple to hold photography workshops in their Ginza storefront. I’ve since moved into using DSLR for my work, and in 2017 held my first exhibition at FR2 gallery in Shibuya.”
“Being outside is definitely what keeps me alive and happy. Fresh air and moving my body get my mind off of everything. Sometimes you have to put down the camera or not even bring it and take in the views.”
“Nowadays photography is the perfect excuse to travel and explore the world. When photography is involved, everything is more exciting. I really like to combine tattooing and photography while I travel.”
“I spent over two months as a volunteer 500 km from the Arctic Circle, living in the tent with a little wood stove while outside the temperature was oscillating between -30 and -46 Celsius.”
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