Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore

Ep #31 - Evan Schiller Golf Course Photography: Evan Schiller (Founder)

January 25, 2021 Paul Liberatore Season 2 Episode 31
Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore
Ep #31 - Evan Schiller Golf Course Photography: Evan Schiller (Founder)
Show Notes Transcript

We made it to Episode 31 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast.  In this week's episode, I interview my friend Evan Schiller, the world-famous golf course photographer. 

Evan has photographed over 600 championship courses and has left his own distinctive mark on some of the most recognized tracks around the world.  Evan’s work has been published in countless national magazines, books and calendars. His photography is exclusively featured in the acclaimed book, Golf Courses of Hawaii and he continues to publish his own award-winning golf calendar, Golfshots. 

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Speaker 1:

Today, we play a golf. Let me show you how we do it in the pros. Welcome to behind the golf brand podcast. I've never missed with the seven nine a conversation with some of the most interesting innovators and entrepreneurs behind the biggest names in golf. My friends were the golf clubs. I lived on the golf course. I lived on the driving range from pro talk. You should learn something each and every single round you play to fun from on and off the green. Why would you play golf? You don't play it for money. Just let me put the ball in the hole. This is behind the golf brand podcast. With Paul libertory behind the golf brand podcast is sponsored by OnPoint. The revolutionary three-dimensional dome golf ball. Marker on point provides a recognition as small as a degree of inaccuracy from the planned course of the putt face angle endorsed by Jim Furich us open champion and 17 time PGA tour winner. On point alignment technology has been proven to increase putting performance and help lower your score. Visit OnPoint golf.us, and be sure to use code[inaudible] for a 10% discount on point, make more putts

Speaker 2:

What's up guys, Paul from golfers authority, and welcome to really season two of behind the comprehend podcast. Uh, this week I have a really good friend of mine. Uh, I've been a fan for, for him. Uh, years, literally years, we got, kind of got into contact with one another. It was funny. I'll go to that story later on, but how we got in contact with each other. But this week I have Evan Schiller, uh, the world famous photographer of golf courses and everything. You've probably seen his work. I can guarantee you see his work somewhere, either in magazines or, uh, Instagram, or just, just anywhere really concourses. So this week on episode 31, I have Evan Schiller. Welcome to the show. Hey Paul. Great to be here. Thank you for having me looking forward to it. I'm excited. Cause like I'm going to start talking today first. So let me tell you how I met Evan Schiller. Okay. This is a good story. So I follow up in chiller on Instagram and the other, I don't know. It was probably like six months ago. Uh, my friend Brandon from true links where we're on the phone. He's like, Hey, my, I want to reach to my friend, Evan. He's really nice. I think he's, you know, you might have some things in common and I'm like, okay. Yeah, sure. Whatever, what is he? And he's like, Evan Schiller. And I'm like, no. I'm like Evan from like the photographer guy. And he's like, yeah. He's like, I like how he ain't give my cell phone number. And that's literally how it started. So like, I would show them to me. I didn't want that chiller. I'm going to put that on the record. Just kidding. Anyway, Evan's like one of the coolest, nicest guys, like I love talking to him. We probably talked like, I don't know, twice a month, I would say. And his stories are crazy things. You've seen the places he's been the shots he's taken. Welcome to the show today, Evan. Um, I guess my first question for you is I'm gonna go back in time and what, like how'd you get into golf really? Photography wise, like how'd you get into golf?

Speaker 3:

Well, it was probably all due to my father. He played, he was a pretty avid golfer. My recollection is he would go, you know, every weekend to go play with his buddies. He got pretty good. I think maybe he got down to be at nine or 10 handicap and he would take me to the range and I remember my first lessons or with him. So yeah, he's the one who got me started and got me introduced to it. You know, then he takes me to the golf course and he got me some lessons. So that's yeah, I think it was due to him.

Speaker 2:

So how, how old were you?

Speaker 3:

I want to say probably four or five. Well, we lived in New York city actually and ended up in New York, New York, the city. Yeah, we lived in this apartment building. Um, it was a high floor. I don't remember this very well. I have very, you know, kind of some little snippets of memory. We lived on this high floor, uh, with, uh, terrorists. And I remember seeing videos of me swinging a little plastic golf walking around the apartment with a plastic golf club whacking away. And, um, my father told a very funny story. He, um, so anyway, we lived in New York until I was probably four and then we moved up to Westchester. Um, they bought a house up there and lived there for, you know, until I moved out and went to college and was on my own. I probably lived there until then. So what does your dad do for a living? He was a painting contractor in New York city. You know, if you know, office space, uh, office spaces, buildings thing, not outside, but mostly, you know, inside office space is needed painting. And we did that. I remember one of the, um, a couple of the jobs he did, you know, he would take me on the jobs. Uh, you know, lots of times on the weekends, they work on weekends, you know, cause nobody was in the office. So he would take me with him. And I remember he did the, um, when they built the new Yankee stadium, which was not this last one, but the way, way back, the prior one that they, you know, they built, I think w I dunno, sixties. Yeah. He took me on the job and they they've painted a lot of these boxes and booths. And he actually, you know, so I'd be running around Yankee stadium on the field and these boxes up and down the stands cause you know, nobody there. Um, yeah. And he also did the, um, there was a restaurant on top of the world trade center. It was called windows on the world.

Speaker 2:

That's like famous. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Well, it was, yeah, it was fair. And he did a bunch of office. He did a bunch of floors there and I, but I remember going up in the world trade center up to windows on the world, which is, you know, it was a hundred, three or four stories up there when there was no windows

Speaker 2:

Shut up. There's no window.

Speaker 3:

Oh my God. Yeah, it's crazy. And then I remember going up there when they were doing the job and it was, I, it was the coolest thing, you know, you going out and looking out these and they had these huge windows up there and you'd walk around looking at the city. And so,

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, dude. I don't know. Like I used to be a pilot. Right. It's so funny because like I used to be a pilot before and like I love airplanes and I fly and whatever. No that scares me. I've done crazy things in airplanes, crazy stuff. Right. There's no way you would catch me on the hundred and whatever. What does it been on the third floor of a dude on the edge of it? I'd be too. I don't, I don't know why it's so weird. It's a control issue. Yeah. So then you moved to Westchester when you're younger and then you're the high school out there now. Is that when you started playing golf or did you like,

Speaker 3:

Uh, no, I was, I, um, yeah, I had been playing, um, actually played a lot of tennis as well, growing up, I think at one point I actually played more tennis than golf. And then I think in high school where I really started getting serious was when I played on the gold high school golf team, I had met a few of the guys and they knew I played and they said, well, why don't you come play on a team? And so I did. And um, you know, I had it played some junior events and things like that, but it really kicked in when I started playing high school golf.

Speaker 2:

And then did you like become good or just like,

Speaker 3:

I, I probably had, uh, you know, I've played since I was, you know, like I said, five and then played some junior events, you know, when I was 12 and 13. And I think probably in between when I was 10 and 16, I had a real spurt of, I got really good or really quick. And that, you know, in that frame, you know, I went from just hacking around to be in, I mean, I dunno I was probably scratch golfer when I was 14.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So then

Speaker 3:

Maybe somewhere in there, did you like play in college? And then I play, I played high school golf and then I went to, um, I went to a couple of years. I went to two lane in new Orleans lane to lane. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'm fun as hell. What year was that? Like the seventies?

Speaker 3:

Yup. I was a 1971. A lot of those years. Uh, yes I do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do. Uh, I would, I would love to hear another story. So like I wasn't a fly in the air or spray, like I was, well, I was gonna go on the reserve, so I didn't want to like, Oh, I'm on go reserve for the airlines. And I interviewed, but I didn't want to fly like cargo planes. I don't want to fly like the few lawyers or anything like that. I just didn't want, I want to fly fighters. Right. So I only applied to fighter squadrons and I actually got an interview with a squadron in new Orleans and they flew eight, 10, no, eight, 10 is the warthog.

Speaker 3:

So I

Speaker 2:

Interviewed there, but their interview was actually three days. And it was like, like pretty much, it wasn't much, but we had some simulators. Part of our interview was like hanging out and like drinking in new Orleans. It was crazy. They all came down to this. This is what I learned. It all came down to. Are you cool? And can we hang out with you because we're going to be stuck in a tent in Afghanistan for a year. I don't want her to go. And I'm going to find out in three days, whether or not you're cool. And now that's obviously you're talented enough to like fly a plane because you wouldn't go. It's more of a personal level. Did you graduate from Tulane or did you

Speaker 3:

No, I was there for, well, I went there and there was the promise of, you know, the golf team was pretty good and it turned out it wasn't so good. And the coach was a drunk and I mean, we had don't get me, don't get me wrong. We had fun. But it wasn't, you know, it was, I said, this doesn't work. So I was actually gonna take a year off and figure out what I was going to do. And the friend, a friend of mine who lived in Miami, I went to university of Miami, said, why don't you come down here? And I said, I said, my father would never let me put your new Orleans. I know exactly right. It's like, well, he goes, she that's what she said. She goes, you went to Tulane. Are you kidding me? So I got an, a, I got on a plane. I went down to Miami. Um, she showed me around, you know, it took me around the university of Miami, all the buildings. And I said, this is cool. So I went to the, uh, yeah, the be everywhere, you know, and I thought, okay, I could, like, I could get into this. So I, um, I went to the admissions office and said, I mean, literally this is in the summer. This is like in July or June or July. Uh, I said, well, who do I talk to? What do I have to do if I want to transfer? And they told me, and I said, well, can I get into the fall? She goes, uh, possibly. So I got all my, yeah, I got all my information, got a transfer it. And I went in the fall. It was like an August. I went through fast. Yeah. That fast. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, and then I ended up going to Miami for three years and played at Miami and played my yeah. And then Miami. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we had, we had, we had a pretty good team, so pretty much went from division one to division one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, um, yeah, we had a pretty good team while I was there. It was, it was good. It's a good place to hang. Yeah. And this is the way the seventies, uh, now we're in the, we were in the eighties, we're in the, we're in the eighties, you know, the early eighties. So then this is like pre

Speaker 2:

Miami base years.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Oh, it was, it was the beginnings of it. I used to play. Here's a good one for you. When I was in school, I was in school with Jim Kelly

Speaker 2:

Football player. Oh yeah. Like Buffalo, Buffalo, Mark Ray, Mark. Rick. Yeah. Yeah. They were all my classes. Uh, Miami

Speaker 3:

CO's are,

Speaker 2:

Bernie CO's are

Speaker 3:

And test the Verde. They were all there. So here's, here's my story.

Speaker 2:

Back in time with these dudes. Holy.

Speaker 3:

We used to play football on the beach with Vinny Testaverde when he was a red shirt, freshmen, we'd all go down to the beat, you know, like on the weekends and we'd play football on the beach. And you know, this guy shows up one day, we're playing football on the beach with many tests already. And then he goes on to win the Heisman trophy. And my buddy and I, my roommate now was, was he really that good? I don't remember. I thought we burned him. Then we,

Speaker 2:

I got a story. You and your story. So that was my, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I went to Purdue and, uh, Purdue, I was like really about football forever, like 20 years. Right. And then all of a sudden we started getting good. We hired a new coach. This is the late eighties. And uh, my first year we sucked my sophomore year. We got good. And, uh, I had a kid in my class who sat next to me in my psychology class named drew Brees. It was a red shirt freshman, and he was nice and he was cool. And like I knew, like I knew him through project or whatever, but, um, I was like, who's this dude, like, I didn't know he was even starting yet. Uh, and so then it was crazy. So then yeah, we all know reasons, but it's a nicer to hanging out with the football players. Cause my, where I live in LA, they all call them together. And so, um, it was crazy. Cause that's when the boilermakers were good, like late nineties and that's me with the Rose bowl and like get them out and a bunch of like a Kapha team picked up. Um, but I remember one of my friends, his name was Matt light and he played for the Patriots. And uh, I remember, I remember when he got drafted because the next day I saw him on campus and I was like, Hey man, what's going on? And he was fricking decked out in Patriots gear. Like, what's your pants? Like, you know, it was, I remember, I don't know why it's crazy. Cause when you're in college, you don't really know everyone's the same, you know? And like they're, those guys worked their off like double time. Um, drew breeze is a good dude, man. It seems like it. That's why I'm crying last night or two nights ago. I was like, I, that might be the last game. I think it is. I don't think he needs to make it his last. No, but yeah, but sorry. I said football talk. So you graduated from Miami and then what happened?

Speaker 3:

Uh, I, um, I was debating whether I wanted to play tournament golf. I didn't really think I was good enough. Um, I was okay in college. Uh, the Miami c'mon. Yeah, it was okay. But you know, if you're going to do this for a living, you gotta be, you know, I wasn't all American or anything. So I decided to play at the coast thing and my ethic coaxing of my father, he goes, well, why don't you give it a shot? Listen, we tried for two years. It doesn't work out. We'll figure, we'll figure it out from there. And I remember actually I had, cause I knew a lot of guys from playing golf who said, you know, what are you going to do? And I said, I don't know. I said, well, if I can ever help you out, let me know. So I went to talk to a lot of these guys, you know, they were worked on wall street, their insurance business, countrymen. And I went to talk to them and like kind of an interview. And I walked around their offices and I said, this is not me. This is not made

Speaker 4:

Billionaire. Right.

Speaker 2:

New York wall street in the early eighties. Like, Oh yeah. I knew all the greed is good.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Um, so I, um, I played a summer of amateur golf after I graduated and I actually played really well, had a really good summer of amateur golf. And um, I sent in my application go to tour school. That's cool. Yeah. So that I was off and running, playing golf re traveling. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I played some mini tours in Florida and you know, I missed it the first time to a school. Uh, I made it to the finals, but I missed it and I played many tours and you know, state opens and all that kind of stuff. That sounds like fun. Yeah. It was, it was, you know, you're young, you're single. I mean, heck yeah, traveling. It didn't have no response

Speaker 2:

Or not capable when you're a young adult, like, you know, out of college you feel like, Oh, I have to grow up right now. I have to get a job. You know what I mean? And like, that's. You don't right. You could like, that's the best time to take chances in life and be like, I want to travel the world. I want to play because 10 years later, bro, you ain't doing that.

Speaker 3:

My father said, he goes, you know, I know was a lot of, probably a lot of pressure on you that you feel it's like, okay, you got to get a job. You got to do something. He goes, don't rush it. Yeah. He said, he said, I seen guys who do that and then they're not happy and it's too late. You know, they turn around and it's too late. So go do what you like

Speaker 2:

Bitter about it. And I shut it. Well, so I was in college when I was in the, I remember I was an intern and I remember in an engineering company and uh, I remember the guys telling me like, Oh, like, this is the best time of your life. Like enjoy it right now. And I was like, use the. You're talking about like, I'm working for free. Like it was so, so like naive, right. Looking back. I was like these guys. Right. You know, because like literally I was home for the summer. I was making$20 an hour, which is a lot of money back. And uh, like I was leaving my parents' house for two and a half months. And so it's like, dude, I would love to have that. I mean, and then you can do to everyone, I think. Yeah. That's the best time to get away and like, you know, learn about life as much. So then you're doing mini tours. And did you ever make it or no?

Speaker 5:

Uh, no. I, um, I never got my tour card, but I, um, I played some many tours. I won some mini tour events. I, um, I played in a number of those. Yeah. You know, on Monday they have the four spotters. I don't know if they, for the tour events, uh, Monday, uh, for some of the events, I don't even know if it's four spots anymore, maybe two, but it used to be Monday, let's say of, you know, the Phoenix open. Okay. Right. They would have a qualifying. Uh, and actually I think they were required by law to be, to do this, to leave open. If it's called an open, they have to anyway. So Monday you could send in an application. I think it cost a hundred bucks. You know, it's usually like 150 guys, some places they actually had to split it up into two courses because there was so many guys would tee it up and the low four scores would get into the tournament. That's cool. Yeah. So I played in a bunch of those and I actually made it in a bunch of, I made it in a bunch of those. Um, believe it or not. Um, you know, it was basically to me, it's like, okay, you go out and you just fire away, you got to shoot a low score. If you don't, you're not going to make it. So I actually, I qualify for a number of tour events that way. Uh, I think it was like eight or nine of them, um, over a period of, I think it was six years or something like that. I, uh, played the us open and Shinnecock in 86. Yeah. That was cool. Holy CRA. Yeah, that was cool. Um, my dad got to meet Jack Nicholas. Um, well I knew, I knew his son Jackie, because he was in North Carolina when I was at Miami. So we got to know each other. So that's how that happened. Played against each other and yeah. Well I know I played Jay, his son, Jackie Nicholas was at North Carolina when I was at Miami. So I got to know him that way. Cause we played in a lot of tournaments with North Carolina, so it was cool. Yeah. It was very cool. Um, yeah, so I did that for, you know, I played, you know, played tournament golf probably till the late eighties. And I think I, I went to South Africa, played a South African tour a couple of years. Um, and uh, then I decided, you know what, I gotta take a step back from this. So I said, you know what, maybe I'll go work in a club as an assistant. I can do that and maybe still play some tournaments and just figure out what I'm going to do. So I ended up working as an assistant, uh, I Quaker Ridge in New York for three years. And then I worked at Westchester country club for two or three as

Speaker 3:

An assistant. Yeah. I had a pretty good gig. Yeah. They, they let me teach in play and that's basically what I did. I thought, well, this is cool. So how'd you get into photography then now that we kind of know? Yeah, well I had, when I was playing, it was actually, I think it was 1986. I was playing, I had kind of always taken pictures. My parents got me an Instamatic at some point, you know, we'd go on family trips and I would take pictures. My mother was a, a pretty good photographer, not a professional. And my father was a, uh, an, a semiprofessional movie maker just for, you know, it was a hobby really? Yeah. On the side. Um, just a side gig as a movie maker. Yeah. Side gig is a movie maker. Yeah. Um, Oh, just like he was part of this group and you know, these, they would make movies. I don't know whatever happened to him. I know it's not like they were in theaters or anything. That's still really cool though. Yeah. So, um, where was I afraid? Oh, so, Oh we, well, I think what really turned was in 1986, played the California open, um, at mission Hills and, uh, and the Lakita mountain course in, uh, in the California desert, it was in August and it was 120 degrees. It was so hot. I'd never been in weather that I had never seen so hot in South Africa, you know? Yeah. But that was actually after that, this was before South Africa. Cause this was the hottest I'd ever seen. 120, 120 and Lakita. Oh yeah. It's hot as hell. I remember taking a picture of the sign. Um, so we played in the tournament and at some point somebody said to me and my buddy said, you know, you guys should go check out this new Pete dye golf course. It just opened up down the street. It's okay. And it was the stadium course at PGA West, which is actually where they're playing the American express this week that the tour is playing at PJ West this week. So we got out early cause it was really hot. I'm really hot. Yeah. Um, and there was nobody else. There was nobody else out there. I mean the pro shop was in a trailer. Uh, it was brand new course brand new is just desert and golf course. And we're playing this course and it's really long. Of course we play from the back. It's a West coast course right there. It's long. So we get to the ninth hole and I'm walking, we hit our tee shots and I'm looking out at the ninth hole, the ninth hole. It's just par for that bends around a Lake. I wouldn't say it's really a dogleg, but it kind of curves a little bit around. It's got the Lake, it's got this bunker that runs the length of the fairway and then has a railroad ties along the Pete dye, railroad ties along the bunker, the railroad ties for an all

Speaker 5:

The way along and then in front of the green and as the backdrop of these mountains and the water was still, and it was this beautiful reflection in the water of the mountains. I said, man, this is so beautiful. Wow. I said, you know what? I got to start taking a camera with me when I go on these trips. So I can take pictures because we didn't have cell phones. Yeah. So I went home and bought a camera and started taking it with me, you know, whenever I played and I would just collect these pictures and I remember I would give them to my buddies and I remember hanging on them on my wall, in my bedroom. I would line the top. I would lie in the wall with these things. That's awesome. So that's really, that's crazy. Yeah. That was the beginning of it. How it started.

Speaker 2:

I think it's so cool about what you do is like, unless you're a call for people, don't understand what you actually experienced when you're not on the course. You know what I mean? Especially, I mean, all core courses are all different all around the world. Right. And you know, you can play mountain area, you know, ocean, or, and it's like the way you design these courses within the environment. And it's almost like you're playing golf in nature. You know what I mean? And I didn't really realize that to myself until I was in college and, you know, playing courses in the Midwest, there is nothing like playing courses in the West, you know? And I, and I think what's cool is you capture those that, that moment or what that player sees that the rest of the world wouldn't see if they didn't play the game. That's really cool.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. And you know, many times actually, most of the time I'm out there before, uh, most people get out there. So for the grounds crew, you know, I'm out before the sun comes up, whenever I'm doing shoot, I'm always out before the sun comes up and sometimes it's pretty dark, but it's really, it's a special time to be out there and watch the sun come up and watch things light up. I recall being in Hawaii a number of years ago and I was doing a book, golf courses of Hawaii and the publisher, the editor, sorry, the editor of the book came out with me for, I mean, I was out there for a month. He came out for a week and he wanted to just come with me and see what goes on. Yeah. So it's okay. So one morning we got up early and he was questioning what we're, why are we getting up so early as well? We're going to be out there when the sun comes over the mountain, because I want to, there's the shots I want to get. I want to get soon as the sun comes over the mountain and we were on that, I remember we were on the big Island and we were at Waikoloa or out there early. And I remember we had a lift, you know, like a bucket truck things. Cause he didn't have drones in. Yeah, no drones in. Um, and we're out there. I, I was the superintendent and we had a lift and this guy's out there and I could see he's, I'm watching him. And he's kind of looking like, what are we doing out here? Right. I'm getting the superintendent position, the lift, or I want it, you know, we're calling it back here, but went over here and he's looking at me like, I don't, he's like he doesn't get it. So I go up in the lift and I sit there and I'm waiting. You're just waiting for the sun to come over the Hill. Right. I mean, the sun is already totally risen. Right. But it takes, but it takes a while to come over the Hill on the big Island. So the sun comes up and it lights up. This hole is a par three, you know, and there's a lava rock and they got these little puffy grasses. It lights up and it's just amazing. It was some cool clouds over there. So I got the shot and he looks out there and he goes, Oh, now I know why we're out here. Yeah. I said, but if I'm not here beforehand, setting up, getting ready, I'll miss it.

Speaker 2:

So what's your favorite course. I'll make it even easier. So not getting in trouble. What is your top five favorite?

Speaker 5:

Okay. That's makes sense. Easier row County down in Ireland. Um,

Speaker 2:

I guess let me ask and then a couple of that question. Why like what, why is that?

Speaker 5:

Especially it's um, well the Holzer, well, first of all, the topography is the setting is wonderful. The holes are just, you know, it's just one hole after another. It's just really well conceived. Well-designed um, and they made a few changes a year back that made the whole thing complete. Um, it's everything, it's the setting, it's the course. It's, um, it's still, it's a little different than a lot of courses in Ireland because, uh, the dunes there or a little bit larger and it has this backdrop of the mountains and just the whole setting of the places is really, yeah, it is really is, um, number two, I would have to say Cypress point it's California on the Monterey peninsula. It's um, it's analogous to McKinsey. Um, you know, it's, um, it's almost like you play three golf courses there. You have, uh, the holes that go through the forest, big Pines. Yeah. And then you have the holes that go through the dunes because it goes through the forest, then it comes out and you go through the dues. Uh, and then it has holes by the water, you know, 15, 16, 17, and you know, for the most part 18 or all, you know, by the water, you know, and just get the waves crashing and yeah, yeah, no, exactly.

Speaker 2:

I'm looking at an aerial map of that course.

Speaker 5:

That's

Speaker 2:

Pretty good. And those are all the rich people live right there in those houses.

Speaker 5:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

Number three on your list.

Speaker 5:

Uh, this is, uh, not necessarily in any particular order, um, Fisher's Island, um, it's, uh, it's off, it's actually in New York, but it's closer to the coast of Connecticut. It's an Island, basically it's in New York, but also the coast of Connecticut. Um, you have to take a ferry to get there. So you, unless you have your own boat or your own very long Island, right? Yeah. But actually long Island. And it was between long Island and Connecticut. So you take a ferry from new London, Connecticut. Um, we can take your car half the Island. I mean, the is only, I think, seven miles long and at its, at its widest, it's a mile, but most of the islands, not, not that wide and at the far end of it before, I think it's the far East end, which is the golf course. And the far East end of it is privately owned and it's a Seth Rainer golf course. You can see the, they basically see, you can see the water from every hole. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Here's a lighthouse going and the bells know. Yeah. So I put that one up there in the top five number four point a spotter in the Dominican Republic. And I think you're telling him about that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't even know if it's in ranked in the top 50 in the world, but it's one of my five favorite. I mean it's in the top hundred I think. Um, but it's, it's one of my favorites. So when you are in public yeah. So when you get to shoot these courses, do they, um, put you play golf there? They do. Yes, they do. I don't always have time, but yes they do hang out. Yeah. So we were talking about this one time, like out of the top a hundred courses in the world, like how many of you shot, but boy, you kind of like a rough estimate. And I was like, Holy crap. Yeah. I would say, because that, you know, the top hundred keeps changing top a hundred in the world or top hundred in the us, but in the top hundred in the U S maybe a third of them. Yeah. So they keep keeps changing, but yeah, when you take shots, like what cameras are I've to that question on Instagram camera is that no, I it's. It's basically to, I use a drone drone, the drone is called an inspire to at CGI. Right. Actually I should have had it here for the show. Yeah. It's a DGI inspired too. It's uh, you know, it's probably their top of the line. That's a white one. No, it's kind of this gunmetal gray, uh, it's all carbon fiber and the camera hangs down, write things down. So you'll worry about, um, yeah. Well, how it does is the landing gear goes up and down. Like when you, when you take off the landing gear goes up so that you can swing the camera around all different directions if you want to.

Speaker 3:

But I haven't seen the drone stationary camera

Speaker 5:

When the, when you land, the landing gear goes down. One of the things that I, well, the cameras, the sensors really good. The camera's really good. One of the cameras on, and it has two different cameras, um, that you can attach to it that are both made by DGI. One's called an X five S and the I'll just call them X seven. Um, the video capability of the X seven is probably better than the[inaudible]. Um, but the still images of the X five in my opinion, are a little bit better than the X seven. So I use both, I use both, one of the things I like about it is the interchangeable lenses, which, which most drones, you know, like the Mavic or the Phantom, you can't, it doesn't have interchangeable lenses. It's one lens, usually a wide angle lens, you know, like a 24 millimeter lens, but with the inspire, uh, it, first of all, has a bigger sensor and has interchangeable lenses. So I use three different lenses. I use a 50 millimeter, which is like the equivalent of a hundred, a hundred millimeter on a, like a regular DSLR, which gives you that zoom effect. Um, I use a 24 and I use a 15, so it, depending on the scene, what I want to compose. So I really liked the fact that I can use interchangeable lenses. So what about your candy with camera in your hand? Oh, and the camera in my hand is a hustle blog.[inaudible], which probably doesn't mean much to anybody, but

Speaker 3:

The photographers would be like Googling it right now. Yeah,

Speaker 5:

No, exactly. Um, it's a, uh, it's a medium format camera, so it's, the sensor is bigger than like a Canon or a Nikon. It's actually two and a half times aside the sensor it's like two and a half times the size of a Nikon or a cannon. Uh, and the file that it puts out is pretty big, you know, for all those huge file. So you can like lay with it. Yeah. It's 145 megabyte file. Holy crap. Not a as a, as a tip, which probably means something to photographers. There's a raw image is not that big, a bet as a TIF, it's like 145 megabytes that probably doesn't mean much to most people, but yeah, it's a huge file, which gives you, um, a lot of information, a lot of leeway to work with. So you spring your camera on the drone with you when you travel these places and a tripod, tripod, tripod, um,

Speaker 3:

And stuff too, or no, actually the one lens

Speaker 5:

I use the one lens possible at it's like 25 to 90, 30, sorry, 35 to 90 millimeter lens with a hostel bar and, uh, lots of batteries for the drone. Tons of batteries, right? Yeah. Lots of cool. The inspire takes two batteries at one time.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God. How long does it last? Like 30 minutes,

Speaker 5:

20, 20, 25. Maybe if you're lucky. So I travel with a tunnel up to 12 batteries. Yeah. That's what it is. You know, it's like, if you need to,

Speaker 2:

Where are you going this year? Like what courses or?

Speaker 5:

Yeah. So, uh, I got a shoot coming up, uh, not too long next month in Hawaii, on the big Island at hawala and a couple other courses there. So I want to be there for probably a week on the big Island. Yeah, I know. It's tough duty. Thanks for taking it. I know exactly time. Uh, there may be a few others that are kind of in the works and then, uh, in, um, there's another possible trip to Florida, but that's not confirmed yet. And then in March, I'm going out to Texas to a place called Briggs ranch, which is part of the dormy network of courses. If you're familiar with the dormy network, it's just a collection of courses. They, I think they have six where you, you get a membership and it gives you access to all six of them. They're all in, they're all over the places. One in Virginia there, Indiana Jersey, Texas, uh, Nebraska. Um, and then in April, uh, begin April is when it really starts kicking in, going out to the West coast to shoot, uh, Olympic. Um, that's a big, gonna shoot both courses. AirPlus plus the par three and going up to scent Sacramento, the shoots place called YOKA day. Hey, so resort Indian on by the Indians and then up to Bandon.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah. Your favorite place.

Speaker 5:

My favorite place. Yeah. Probably going to be during that trip was probably going to be a trip to pebble in there as well. Um, for work, for work, for work. Yeah. Um,

Speaker 2:

Cause you're like the go-to guy, right? I mean, everybody's like, you're, you're the man, right? Like everyone's like, everybody wants you to take, I mean, there's only so many hours in the day. There's only so much you can shoot and it's like, once your is full, sorry, we ran it until next year.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. From, from pretty, you know, beginning of April, till middle of July is at this point pretty much filled up booked up.

Speaker 2:

The first time I talked to you, you were going to like that Island. Remember that? And you're trying to figure out how to get there with the car. Remember that there was like, Oh,

Speaker 5:

Whoa.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right. Yes. That was like August. Wasn't it?

Speaker 5:

Uh, I was, I might've talked to you in August. I was heading there in September. You're trying to figure it out.

Speaker 2:

Cause it'd be cluster. Right? Like how to get there and car, no car like,

Speaker 5:

Well, Nantucket is challenging because it's a huge, huge vacation spot in the summer.

Speaker 2:

Especially in like September. Right, right. Like right around labor day, people were like

Speaker 5:

Right up to labor day. But this year, even more so because of COVID people were hanging out, they were staying. But you know, starting June, July, August, everybody's going out there. And everybody's, you know, if you tried to get a ferry to Nantucket with your car, now they, for June, July or August, you probably couldn't get it. Even now, like in January now look it out, look it up. They book it out booked. And that's why it was so hard to get out there because everybody's going out there and then, you know, come end of August and September. They're all coming back.

Speaker 2:

Go out there, put on Nantucket. I'm sorry.

Speaker 5:

No, there is, yeah. There is a small airport out there,

Speaker 2:

But you want your car? We're going to be there for this,

Speaker 5:

Right? Yeah. Yeah. So people, yeah. People there for the summer. So they bring the car, even though they may go back and forth, they bring their car, leave the car there. I mean, it's probably easy to get on a ferry without a car. You bring a bike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah,

Speaker 2:

Pretty much. Oh, are you almost booked out then for the year? Uh, or almost like you're at, towards the end

Speaker 5:

From beginning of April, til middle of July. So that's pretty much, I think there's one week and they're just not, but it's booked up. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's you traveling too, right? And go with you on these trips.

Speaker 5:

Some of them she does. Yes. That's cool. If I go into Ireland, she's going, if I'm going to the Dominican Republic, she's going

Speaker 2:

New York.

Speaker 5:

She went to Bandon last year. Did you like that? Yeah. Yeah. That's fine.

Speaker 2:

I would love to go to band bands. Like my favorite. I've never been there, but like, you know, even the picture you sent me.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. It's really it's. Yeah. It's yeah. It's probably the best golf destination. Like all in one best golf resort on the planet. As far as I could tell

Speaker 2:

Really a lot of places.

Speaker 5:

Well, you know, he just for golf

Speaker 2:

Courses, they have

Speaker 5:

Five courses there that are no, I don't know if the, the most recent rankings have come out because the sheep ranch is pretty new. But I would imagine when the new rankings come out, all, they're going to be ranked in the top hundred. We think so. Yeah. Well there's four of them are ranked in the top 75 now. So I would imagine when the sheep ranch comes out because at one best new course, I think, uh, there, that's going to be ranked in the top a hundred. So they're going to have five courses ranked in the top hundred. Plus they have the par three course, which is one of the best anywhere. Um, yeah. You know, food's great. Accommodations are great. Uh it's I don't know, you know, in this setting, I mean, it's, they have over five miles of coastline there more. Yeah. I think it's five miles of coastline.

Speaker 2:

What I want to do is I want to go there with you and Brandon.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. Uh, so it's, I don't know that you can find a place, another place in the world. Like it. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't even like this year, like I, and I like most man, I'm like, I'm going to play more golf, but literally like just put a want to like last year I need to play as much as I wanted it. Cause it coated and like life, you know? Yeah. Next year I want to Actually get my kids lessons now. Like they were getting lessons for a while and then COVID hit. But like now they're really wanting to get back to golf. I'm like, hell yeah, you can go back.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. Golf courses were busier than they've ever been.

Speaker 2:

I think it's going to be busier this year. I honestly,

Speaker 5:

Yeah. They were just, I'm sorry,

Speaker 2:

The last six months and yeah. I mean there's more new golfers. I feel like there's a big shift in golf. I mean, I see, I don't know if you do, but like I feel, you know, I always felt like golf has been a very inclusive sport. Right. And I think like now you got a lot of new brands coming in, um, that are cool and different. Not the same bike. And like I was just at last night. It's uh, you look at what the big brands are doing in terms of products. And it's like, not, not like clubs and crap like that, but like apparel, whatever. It's just, it's just kinda like really that's like the same you made the early two thousands, you know? And it's like, I don't know. I feel like you got to see a big shift and it's like, we already have a year, the next

Speaker 5:

Year and a half more.

Speaker 2:

I just think you look at understand, especially with the bird, with the boom of Shopify, you gonna see a lot of cows and stuff out. So your site, so right now your sites on Shopify or is about to be, I know that. So tell us like, I mean, trust me, you have a lot of fans, man. Like he's got his and believe me, I talked to him and he's like, Oh, whatever. I'm like, dude, like seriously, people get excited. Like when we had that big Christmas contest, people were like wanting or price. They're like, Oh, I was one, I just wanted this picture. I was like, buy it. I mean like, cause I mean then you get people that take your content. I know we've talked a lot about it before. Like people repost your pictures all over Instagram, all over the world or whatever. But I mean, some of his, he has some of the most iconic shots or you've been like, what, what, what magazines have you been in? I know you've been in like punt, right? The time golf

Speaker 5:

Magazines. Yeah. Uh, you know, there's travel, leisure, golf, which is no longer a magazine. Um, I don't even know if I can't even think of,

Speaker 2:

There's not even like magazines anymore. That's kind of going away. It's like magazine companies are just trying to like get people to like subscribe to they're like, Oh, we'll give you a year free. And then it's like, you can cancel it for a year. It's like, nobody wants you to ask magazine. They want content now.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. It's gotta be challenging to be in a print. Imagine a hard print. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, uh, what, uh, what kind of things do you like sell on your site? So people can kind of,

Speaker 5:

Well, there's a, there's a store. It's mostly prints. Um, so you can buy prints on photo paper or prints on metal. And I know people always ask me, what's the difference? Um, so it's actually kind of cool. I get a lot of calls or emails or texts, like tell me what's the difference between print

Speaker 2:

Is a hotter present, legit. Like, I mean it printed photos, it's a photo. So it's easy to describe what that is. Right? Brown metal takes it to a whole nother level and actually wouldn't have the unboxing video of it. And I have it, my I'm a rash it's over here, but I'm break my office. It's so beautiful. It literally looks like you're there. And that's the only way I can describe it. It's it it's like, you know,

Speaker 5:

Real, um, they really pop, it's almost like a three-dimensional look to them and it's actually, what's interesting. It's not even really a print it's, it's a sheet of aluminum that has special dyes infused into it. So what they do is they actually infuse the photo into the metal because it's not even printed onto the metal it's infused into it. Um, and while you saw it, it looks, they look and then it comes with this for lack of a better term, call it a hanging mechanism on the back, which is called an inset frame with a French cleat. I love it. And it's so, so yeah, it has a really clean,

Speaker 2:

I try to sell it. I'm not like buy one. I'm telling you when we shot that video, my camera man was like, what the hell? And he was awesome. I'm like, I know I'm like touching it. And it's like, you literally could walk through this picture. And I, you know, I can't say it the best way I can describe it. I bet you this, what they do, you know, like how they have those fancy, like Photoshops and Vegas, you know, like those famous artists with like whatever, you know, grand Canyon or whatever, it looks like those, that's what it looks like. You know, if you had a light on it, but you'd be like fully engulfed. Those are like seven grand. For those pictures. Things are reasonably priced. Like, I mean, I don't know. It's freaking awesome. It's my favorite. I'm not just saying like, Oh, it's really cool. You should buy it. I'm telling you right now. That is, I don't say about a lot of things.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. They're, they're very, yeah, they're really cool. And um, my sense is a lot of people don't, I probably sell more prints on photo paper, the metal. Yeah. And I think, uh, a lot of people are not familiar with education and also yet. Yeah, yeah. Education, but also it depends on where it's going to hang.

Speaker 2:

Well, here's the thing you're telling me about it. I was like, what the hell are you talking about? You know what I mean? And then when you get it and you're like, and you compare the two and not say that about one or the other, when you compare the two, they're just different. And it's like, if you want my opinion on a metal print is like, if you want some, you can just go hang up right now. Right. And be like, look, I'm awesome. Just do it. If you want to get the photo, which is beautiful, you have to get a frame and put it in glass, whole nine yards, which you want to do that. So it's like, you have both sides. Yeah.

Speaker 5:

I'm thinking about coming out with two, uh, two more products, which are kind of cool. One is a different process of printing on photo paper and it's called it's printed on a paper called, um, it's, it's a Fuji paper, but it's, it's a Glossier paper and it looks much, it actually looks almost like the metal print, but it's on paper. Yeah. And then there's another one I'm going to do where they take this paper called Fuji flex, which is this, I mean, it looks like my wife opened it up. She goes, it looks like a piece of glass. Really? It's paper, it's photo paper by Fuji. And then what they do is a Mount it a piece of metal. Right. And then they seal it. So that might be in that's in the works as well. I think. So I think there'll be offered on the new website. That's the thing is you gotta, yeah. It's um, one of the things you have to be able to explain to people what it is, because sometimes it's hard to tell what it is through a photo. You know, the people that people are going to be spending that much money, they want to know what is this thing?

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah. I mean, I could literally see your, your photos, like in a gallery, like that biggest one of those Peter what's his name, but like one of those, like, like that's how cool. Yeah. Check them out. You guys are really cool, but you got people go. Did you sell out of your calendars?

Speaker 5:

Sell out of them? Uh, no. I usually print enough to like don't yeah. The, um, probably come close to this year. That's cool. Yeah. So where can people find you? Well, my website is golf shots.com. Pretty simple. Call shots.com. The, uh, the stores on there. There's galleries on there. Yeah. I live in Connecticut. Go visit. Yeah. Let me get my gluten-free muffins. My hours

Speaker 3:

Are from now. Uh, yeah. Somebody asked me, went to lose your home. I said, well, it depends where I was shooting. Seriously. Yeah. It's certain times of the year. It feels like that.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you for being on the show today. Thank you. This is awesome. Thank you. It's fun. Right? Like I'll just hang out and like people know you as an Schiller, the person, right? Like I know you as a person. Cause we had lots of phone calls together, but you guys, you guys have to check out his stuff. You've probably seen it, you know, but if, if you're, if you want to decorate, you want some really cool. You get some of this stuff like yeah.

Speaker 3:

You know, it's been really enjoyable. Um, you know, you said, talked about the followers on Instagram is getting to know some of them, you know, the, uh, the conversations on Instagram or, you know, they call me up and they ask me questions or I get to know them. So that that's actually, it, most, most of them probably never get to know, but the ones that they get do get to know through, you know, a chat or he'll call me up and they have questions about stuff. That's kind of cool.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah. That's what I love about this too. What's cool about golf is that you're talking about golf, right? Let's jump on call. And you're talking to, or interested in the same thing you are and it, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I had a guy I actually, yesterday a guy call me from New Jersey. He just built a golf room in his house with a simulator. That's cool. You know, it's got track, man. He's got the simulator. Yeah. So that's, you know, that's, you know, substantial investment there. Right. So he calls me and he goes, I'm thinking about getting some photos for this room and he's, he's in his car driving. And he goes, yeah, what do you think I've got this wall? It's, you know, 20 feet long and it's nine feet high. And then I got this other wall. I'm just trying to on it. He goes, I'm not good with spatial relationships. So he gets home and he goes, wait a second here. I'm going to, I'm going to FaceTime you. He, he got home. He went into his room. It's golf room. He want, here it is. Yeah. So he's walking around and he goes, I'm thinking about putting a photo here to here. What do you think? What size of work outside of the phone when you got it?

Speaker 2:

Metal print. I have.

Speaker 3:

So it's showing me this room. It's walking around. What do you think here? What do you think here? That's cool. It was cool. That was very cool.

Speaker 2:

Oh no. I've connected with some cool people in Instagram. I've honestly like just some really nice people and we're all the same. Yeah. You know, like

Speaker 3:

Golf, whacked out nerds.

Speaker 2:

Cool. Well thank you for being on the show. Uh, you guys check out Evan on his website and on Instagram. What's your Instagram handle again?

Speaker 3:

Evan, Schiller, photography, whatever little hash

Speaker 2:

You're going to go to Instagram and you're going to be like, all right, no, this guy is, trust me. You're going to do it because people copy his all the time. They repost it. So close again. The photo credits. Okay. Yeah. So you can buy those guys too, but anyways, thank you for being on the show and I will talk to you soon, my friend, right, man. Thank you. It was great. It's a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf brand podcast, you're going to beat me, uh, go stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfers authority.com. Don't forget to like subscribe and leave a comment. Golf is always more fun when you're, when stay out of the beach and see you on the green.