Seizing the Moment | Director and Photographer, Corey Rich

Corey Rich (0:00)

We've been on the side of El Capitan for six days at this point.

It's the perfect light, the perfect time of the day, with the perfect moment of Tommy leaving the portal edge. Kevin, neither of them is paying attention to what I'm doing. And the camera was close enough and through muscle memory, I lifted it, made a very, I mean, this happens very fast. It's kind of, I don't know enough about football to liken it to the quarterback. Like he sees the pocket, he throws, the guy, the receiver is ready to grab it. But it's a little like that. I mean, it's, it's very fast. I make, it's probably less than 60 seconds from start to finish.

See the opportunity, pick up the camera, a couple, you know, make, compose, adjust exposure, depress the shutter a few times, moments gone. Let's go on.

Michael Gervais (0:48)

All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais. And by trade in training, I'm a sport and performance psychologist, as well as the co-founder of Compete to Create. And the whole idea behind these conversations, behind this podcast, is to learn from the extraordinary, is to learn from people who have dedicated their life towards mastery, either of self and craft or both.

And what we want to do is understand not only what they've come to understand, but how they've organized their life, both their inner life and their external world, to be able to pursue mastery. And that involves a psychological framework, it involves mental skills, and it certainly involves understanding what they're searching for. I want to take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I want to pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just want to get right to the heart of the key elements, one in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it.

And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering. And it's called the Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training, whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you in your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up once again. That's findingmastery.com/training. And I'm really excited to see you there.

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Okay, this week's conversation is with Corey Rich, a director and a photographer. And Corey's built his life and his career around his passion for travel, adventure, and telling stories with his camera. With a background in rock climbing and photojournalism, his work spans a range of genres from iconic still imagery for TV and film and publications. And he also directs and produces high value commercial projects for Fortune 100 companies. And Corey recently released his book, Stories Behind the Images. It's awesome. It's a photo essay book about his reflections on becoming a master photographer, working with high profile subjects like Tommy Caldwell, Bear Grylls, Kelly Slater, Alex Honnold. And if you're not familiar with those names, do a quick search, you'll say, wow. And more importantly, go get his book because all of the insights that he's got about living on the edge and filming those men and women who are on the edge are embedded in this book. And he was the official photographer for Tommy Caldwell's The Dawn Wall film. And his image of Tommy on the cover of his book was Nat Geo's cover image as well. It's beautiful. I mean, it's stunning. When you really look at what he's captured and you think about his experience in it as well.