In this week's episode, we had the privilege of sitting down with a remarkable individual whose perspective on quality, design, and authenticity truly resonates with us.
Architectural Photographer Trent Bell joined us for a captivating conversation that delves into the essence of genuine quality. Trent's belief that true quality is grounded in a high degree of truth shines through in his work, whether he's capturing the beauty of objects, spaces, or the very essence of the lives within.
His dedication to capturing the intrinsic honesty within his subjects emphasizes that quality is more than just an aesthetic – it's an experience, an emotion, and a profound connection that enriches our lives.
As we explore the concept of quality, we also reflect on its timeless nature.
Quality transcends the utilitarian function and cost of an item; it resides in the memories and shared experiences that come from engaging with something or someone of genuine worth. It possesses a unique blend of timelessness and durability, leaving lasting impressions that shape our lives.
In this enlightening episode of the Slow Goods Podcast, our host Logan Rackliff sits down with Trent Bell, who is not only an accomplished photographer but also a surfer, father, and husband.
We’re excited to bring you our third episode with Maine’s own, Trent Bell, everywhere you catch your podcasts and appreciate if you show your support for our growing podcast by liking, sharing, and subscribing.
Thank you for being here!
Machine-generated Audio Transcript
Logan Rackliff:
Welcome to the Slow Goods Podcast. We're here in beautiful Biddeford, Maine. Welcome to my studio, Trent.
Trent Bell:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Logan Rackliff:
This is Trent's studio, and he's getting it up and running for a rental. So, yeah. Welcome to Slow Goods Podcast. We love to talk about quality and design, and we love to hear people's stories. We love Maine and all kinds of other good things. I love adventure. We'll probably be talking about some of that maybe. We'll see.
Trent Bell:
Adventure is good. It's very good. It teaches you to not worry so much. I find that I oddly push myself into not failure, but I'll intentionally underprepare sometimes. So, I have to be more creative in the moment to solve problems, to keep it interesting. I don't know that that's a good strategy sometimes, but it's worked for me so far, but yeah.
Logan Rackliff:
Well, if you're going really deep in the Maine Woods, I suggest be a little prepared.
Trent Bell:
Yeah, no, that's different. That's different.
Logan Rackliff:
So Trent, I mean an intro for you, I was thinking... I don't know all the places you've been, but I can tell everybody this that was listening. Whenever I open up a beautiful home and design type catalog, especially for Maine, Trent's pictures are in there a lot. When I was going through trying to find the photographer we wanted for the rope company, I just kept saying... I was like, "Oh, what's my favorite?" I mean, there's a lot of great photographers in there, a lot of good photography.
Trent Bell:
Oh, yeah, there's some really good talent in Maine specifically photography wise.
Logan Rackliff:
But every time I had one that cut and then I look at the name, it was Trent Bell.
Trent Bell:
That's nice.
Logan Rackliff:
That's how I can intro you. So, the Maine Home+Design and Down East Homes. Can you list some other things you've been in? Have you been in Architectural Digest?
Trent Bell:
Yeah, if I were to be trying to impress a client that was architecturally based, I think we had the cover of residential design. I'm pretty sure we've been in Architectural Record. Yeah, we've had a couple features in Architectural Record, I believe, and Architectural Record is the standard for good design for architects.
Logan Rackliff:
That's the go-to.
Trent Bell:
Not many clients of architects will read that as much, but it's a publication for architects. If you get in there, it's a big pat on the back for architects.
Logan Rackliff:
Sure.
Trent Bell:
So for me, that was really cool to be featured in there because that's my client base. So, if I'm serving them well enough to where the photographic standards are able to make it in there and it tells you your clients are talented enough to make it in there. So, it's a combination there. To me, that's a pat on the back. But then Dwell, and we shot for New York Times for a little while. New York Times is an odd one where they pay you with a reputation, not in financial means as much.
Logan Rackliff:
Like the Super Bowl.
Trent Bell:
It's weird, but I mean, publishing in general has taken such a weird turn in the last 15 years basically when I started. It's such a weird thing where before there was really gatekeepers that would say, "This photographer's talented enough. We'll use them." Now more so, I think the public is a little bit more of a gatekeeper where it's through Instagram and social media channels that the people who can really make a good image just get all the likes. So, those people rise at the surface. I'm not really aware of how people in my situation now get to doing what I do because everything has changed right behind me or as I got into it. It's a weird thing. Yeah, we've been in a couple publications and I don't think I've ever read a single article I've been in, because it's odd. I don't have a lot of interest in it, which is weird.
Logan Rackliff:
I totally get it.
Trent Bell:
I love working as an architectural photographer and capturing those images, but the whole cycle and social scene and everything else, I'm not interested in. It's more so the creativity and seeing and showing what my clients have created to take then my layer of creativity and put it over it. That's where I excel and that's where I'm interested in this.
Logan Rackliff:
That's your passion.
Trent Bell:
Beyond that, it all serves to keep my family fed and housed. So, it's this odd combination where you have to bring the two together. If you go for one too much, the other suffers. So, you have to think about building a business and getting your name out there and being seen in publications and all of that, but then on the other end, you have to protect your creative energy. How long have you been doing the rope company now?
Logan Rackliff:
It's been 10 years now.
Trent Bell:
So depending on your personality type too, it sounds like your wife is more of the... When it comes to your company, from what you've said, she's a little bit more of the open, creative, visual, creating things a little bit more, and you might be a little bit more of like, "All right. This is what we're doing and we're charging ahead and I'm making sure it's getting down in time." I'm sure there's overlap.
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah. I think the originating things is where she is just fabulous and having a great eye and always blending that timeless with trend. I can take it and understand it and then hold it, which I have to do a lot. She's mom at home and I've got to make calls and do things as we're going. I'm sure I make ton of bad ones, but she is really certainly, we call it, creative director, right? Maybe. Yeah.
Trent Bell:
But it's great to have that combination of talents and diverse personality types, because if you don't have that, if you're fully creative, if I'm fully involved in just capturing great images and I never do any really thought about marketing or developing a reputation outside of that and patting myself on the back in the face of potential clients a little bit like, "No, I'm really good. You guys should use me," it's all that weirdness where my instinct is to just do good work and let the work come because of that, which works but doesn't too. So, I don't really know what I'm doing, but it's worked out. So, I figured something out and I'm in the process of trying to figure out, "What did I figure out?"
Logan Rackliff:
Right.
Trent Bell:
It sound ridiculous.
Logan Rackliff:
Maybe we can dig into that a little bit today. So, just overall, what's your story? I love to hear people's stories. Get as detailed as you want, but I mean maybe growing up and getting into-
Trent Bell:
Sure.
Logan Rackliff:
... where you've come today.
Trent Bell:
If I had to try and put it in one minute-
Logan Rackliff:
You don't have to go one minute.
Trent Bell:
That's me saying like, "All right, if I try and fit it in one, it'll be five." I was born into a family that my dad was a pastor and then church administrator in the Seventh Adventist denomination. For a religion that's fairly conscientious conservative overall, in my opinion, they themselves were of a personality type that was a little more open-minded than in general in that, in my opinion. I say that because I felt a lot of the constraint of the culture from the culture, but never from my parents. My parents always just felt love and acceptance and encouragement. They obviously had their standards and I got punished for the things that are going out of line.
There's all that normalcy there, but my own personality type is more open and left leaning, but I was raised in a very right leaning, conservative, or conscientious environment. Both my immediate family is having a lot of moral guidelines and everything else and the culture at large that I was involved in. I went to private Christian schools for all of my education and grew up completely in that subculture culture. That's good and bad. There's a lot that can go good and bad in that. The things that can go bad is that your view becomes very tribal and limited and you don't know that it's tribal and limited. You start to view people outside your tribe or social circle as being naturally evil because they don't see the one truth that you see.
In my opinion, it feels very damaging overall to the health of even a town, state, and country overall. If we all do something like that, it's not going to be good. So, that cultural faith didn't work out for me. See, look at this. I'm already like five minutes in and I haven't even gotten out. I'm getting distracted here. But anyways, I grew up in a very faith centered community and a very faith centered family. I have a lot of respect for it and what it taught me. Being very open as a personality type, but being raised in a very conservative environment, I believe, gave me a very good grounding, because naturally, I don't respond well to order and limitations and schedules and all of that. I'm much more so I need to wander, I need to discover.
I'm very excited and inspired by the novel and what's possible and creating in that sense. But having that idea and expectation of boundaries and limits and following morals that are already established, that have shown to be effective over time, while taking those as very strong principles but not rigid things, I think, has really served me well. Coming out of that, I basically distanced myself from the Adventist faith. I think I've come back to a place of strongly believing that there's a God, so all of philosophy and theology and all that, that's basically where I'm at. I could go on for way too many hours about that. Education-wise, I went to architecture school. I got my master's in architecture practice for three years.
Logan Rackliff:
That was college.
Trent Bell:
Yes.
Logan Rackliff:
High school was a Christian high school?
Trent Bell:
Yeah, Shenandoah Valley Academy, four years, Christian school. Actually, my father-in-law was my grade school principal. So, that ended up weird. Eventually, hey, I know you suspended me, but can I date your daughter and now can I marry her?
Logan Rackliff:
Right. So, architecture college, that was four years you said?
Trent Bell:
I think overall, it was five. I got my master's, so it extended out a little further, and then from there went right into starting an architectural firm with a friend of mine here in Biddeford, Caleb Johnson, who then went on to start Caleb Johnson Architects and then now Woodhull Design. Caleb and I worked together for three years. He's incredibly talented, incredibly driven, and determined individual. Really good friend of mine, probably one of my best friends, but to work as friends who both have the same interest is very difficult, because it's not like your wife and you where you have complementary personalities and probably interests.
They're like, "Oh, you go do all the creative stuff and I'll do a little bit of that, but I'm going to do all this stuff. I'm great at this. You're great at that. The combination's unstoppable." We kept both wanting to design or both wanting to do this, and to make matters worse, he was probably three years ahead of me in experience and had worked as an architect for three years and I was fresh out of school. So, there's all those weird dynamics that played in. Especially at that time, I was not naturally a great person to be in a business partnership with. Way too unpredictable and wanting to come in late and stay late so I could surf in the morning or come in early and leave early so I could surf. For starting a business and consistency at that, it just didn't work out.
Logan Rackliff:
So you're coming out of high school, you choose architecture. So, why architecture? You talk a lot about creativity. So, when did you start getting inspired and noticing that?
Trent Bell:
That's an interesting question. Interesting questions give me goosebumps by the way. You see that?
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah, great. Perfect. Then why the switch from architecture to architectural photography?
Trent Bell:
Yeah. Okay. So, right out of high school, I had been dating a girl for four years, and I figured I've got to have some degree to impress her family and maybe marry this girl someday. So, I went pre-dentistry where she was going to nursing school. High school relationships, they've got a 2% chance of working out, and that fell apart in a not great way for me. I ended up after a year and a half in university trying to be a dentist or going pre-med essentially, dropped out and moved to Michigan for one winter where Caleb was actually. He was renting a house with two other friends of mine at the time. I just went and lived with them and worked at a cabinet shop while being deeply depressed. I'm in a cabinet shop with no windows in the winter in Michigan.
Michigan in the winter has no sun. It's like a sheet of gray the whole winter. It's horrible. I thought pre-dentistry would be the thing, but it wasn't engaging enough creatively. There was so much stuff that had to be just blank memorization, like names of teeth and body parts and stuff that I just couldn't relate to enough. So, failed at that, but the whole time, I'm thinking what Caleb was doing looks like so much fun. The odd thing was I went and shadowed architects in between all of this to think maybe I want to work as an architect. The school looks amazing. It was, but the day-to-day practice of working as an architect does not fit my personality. I even saw that when I went and shadowed them, but I wasn't smart enough to get out of the way of that. But I'm glad I went through it because of where I'm at now.
If I had listened to it there, I would've realized these guys and what they do is not what I'd enjoy doing all day. It's a huge amount of details that you have to collate and organize and herd. It's not just creating a nice building. It's all the technicality that goes along with that, which I didn't quite pick up on, which I should have, but I'm just not that bright in that way. So, I went through school. I was at the top of my class. I was really good at it.
Logan Rackliff:
In the architecture school?
Trent Bell:
For the creative part of architectural school, and I was disciplined enough to get my work done and to do it well and to try my hardest. So, all of that, I was a C student in high school and everything else, A student in architectural school. When I got out and started practicing though, it's just such a low gear, high churning and the creative part of an architecture project is so small compared to all the work-
Logan Rackliff:
I see.
Trent Bell:
... that has to go into it. It's an extremely difficult way to make a living. The people that do it, my hat's off to them because it's so hard. You're managing so much money. There's so many emotions with clients involved, especially if it's residential. So, all of that to say, I worked for three years with Caleb and he's much better off without me holding him down in that sense.
Logan Rackliff:
You've already established that. Yeah.
Trent Bell:
Yeah. So, yeah, three years in.
Logan Rackliff:
But the struggle there, just the creativity is small, the detail, because I would be similar, I almost think that I understand what you're saying. Oh, man, I have to constantly handle tons of details all the time.
Trent Bell:
It's a five-year project sometimes.
Logan Rackliff:
Exhausting for me, right?
Trent Bell:
Yeah, which is a lot. But growing up in the way I did, I thought that the main sources or the main channels of work that I could be involved in would be, because of my upbringing, far more directly involved with people. So, teacher, nurse, doctor, lawyer, something that's directly interpersonal communications, interactive in that to a high degree. Any creative line of work to me was not an option. That's just from a general cultural disposition of... To me, a criticism that I do levy at religion is each religion tries to feel like they've got it on lockdown. We've got all the truth. So, creativity is not really welcome here. Questions aren't really welcome here. Now it's not in practice that they're like, "Whoa, whoa, no questions."
But it's the emotional thing of if you're asking a question, that means what I'm holding is not certain. If I'm not certain about what I'm holding, then that's an emotional like, "Ah, why are you taking swings at my crutches?" So there's that weirdness, but I thought you have to be those things. So, I tried to do dentistry, and then I thought, "Well, maybe teacher." I'm a horrible, horrible teacher. So, eventually, ended up like, "Yeah, maybe I could do architecture. That's a creative degree." As soon as I started into the schooling of that, it was amazing, loved it. I looked forward to going to school, to class, but then when you get out and you work, there's all this other layer of things that you really have to power through, which I wasn't good at.
Logan Rackliff:
When does photography start going on in here?
Trent Bell:
So after five years of school and probably three years of trying to work as an architect, I had to think like, "All right, it's time to hit the eject button. This is too much." Every night going to bed, thinking about how you might get in a fistfight the next day with the person you're in a business partnership with is not a good way to live. So, eventually had to hit the eject button. That was emotionally a big hurdle because-
Logan Rackliff:
I can imagine.
Trent Bell:
... you got all that education and everything that you think you just wasted all that time, three years working. It's so hard. But eventually, I was just too unhappy and Amber could see it. I asked her if I hit the eject button on this, I think at the time I was just going to buy rental properties and fix them up. That would be my creativity. Then we'd hold those and rent them as a source of income. I got three buildings, but then I found out management for me, I'm horrible at it. I'm great at the ideas and I'm great at creating and making a place nice, but then my interest just goes... Any problems that would happen, like we got a leak in the roof, is the world was ending for me.
I was just unable to see, "All right, three days from now, this is going to be taken care of and it's going to be fine." But it was just like for three days, the world was ending. Something's wrong with me where I don't do that well. My wife stepped in and she took over all of that. She did it with grace and beauty. I, not so much. I could tell you so many stories about renting properties to people. It's amazing.
But eventually did that probably for a year and a half, but while I was doing that, a good friend of mine, Chet Williams, said, "You should look at doing architectural photography because you have the interest of creativity and you've done some photography and it's a technical thing that you can learn, but your creative artistic side engages that. You have the experience with architecture. You should really think about this."
Logan Rackliff:
What a good friend.
Trent Bell:
Yeah, no, I owe so much to him. So, I had bought and sold a property with a friend of mine, Joey Radford, who's a real estate agent here in Biddeford. With the money that I got from that, I bought probably that stand you see right there. But all the equipment I needed to be a commercial photographer and I didn't even know how to put a lens on a camera. I had to call Chet and be like, "What? This lens isn't going on this camera. What's going on?" He was like, "Oh, that's an EF lens and you need it, blah, blah, blah."
So I got that, and then from there, I just started approaching architects to say, "I'll shoot your stuff for free." No one took me up on it, no one. You offer your services for free. No one wants it. It's weird unless you're established. But if you're unestablished, people are like, "You're of no value and you're willing to do it for free. You're going to waste my time."
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah. When we have products, you got to be careful if you want to drop a price if it's a past season color. So, some people are like, "Well, nobody wants that. I don't want it either." It's a funny thing.
Trent Bell:
It's a weird perception. So, basically, I realized I had to find someone that gave me credit in the eyes of people I was approaching to hire me. So, how do you find that? If I can show that I can do the work, magazines will hire me, because they don't care who I am. They're not worrying about, "Can this guy get his stuff published somewhere?" They're the publishers. So, I knew that getting in the publications, I had to at least show I could do work as good as what they had in the publication, but how do I get someone to back me? So I approached the City of Biddeford, which I had sat on the historic preservation committee.
So, I had connections there and I said, "Why don't we do a thing for the City of Biddeford and I'll go and photograph all the business owners? You can do a little interview with them, and then you'll have this environmental portrait of them in their business that you can put on the website and prints." So that actually worked really well. I went around to different businesses and photographed them in their space, like Marty Gorman, who ran for congressman here recently and he's running again for local Congress, I think, but stuff like that. Then it got my name into the business channels and started getting work that way and then just kept collating and building business that way.
My big break really was I knew there was a really good-looking little project going up in Goose Rocks Beach that Caleb's old boss, Steven Blatt, was doing. I could see how photogenic it was. I knew that the architect would be more discerning about the photos, so they wouldn't be as likely to hire me having not proved myself, but I knew that the builders usually have less, not none, but less aesthetic concern. They leave that to the architects generally, but the builders are the last ones of the project. So, they'll have the keys. So, I knew, "All right, if I can find the builder of that project and tell them I'll go and photograph it for free, they might take me up on that."
So I approached the builder and it was Shoreline Builders. Fred Trudeau, nicest guy, his whole family, great people, ended up working with them a lot, but they're like, "Well, sure, yeah, let's get you in there." So the image I got of the exterior ended up on the cover of Maine Home+Design in the first two months of learning how to put a lens on a camera.
Logan Rackliff:
Wow, that's cool.
Trent Bell:
So there was some natural ability that I already had, and I could feel it when I interacted with it. I was like, "Oh, this is me. I know how to do this almost intrinsically." Now, I didn't know all the technical stuff. I didn't know the shortcomings of there was a light on or a shade was pulled. I didn't quite know how to take it out in post-production at the time, but it was a great image. It ended up on the cover and the interior images, if I looked at them now, I think they were... But at the time, they were good. That one thing, I shot it for Shoreline Builders and then Maine Home+Design's guy who was selling ads, Steven Kelly, I think the day I delivered the images, he came by and I had done a little printout.
I had thought, "Every job, I'll have a folder and there'll be the main best image." They're like, "Oh, yeah, maybe we'll advertise with you guys," but they actually said, "You should check out this photographer, Trent Bell." He was like, "Huh?" Then from there, Susan Grisanti, who now runs Decor Maine, she sent me a ton of work throughout the years. Every opportunity I got to shoot anything was this might be your last opportunity, go the hardest, do everything you can, do the best. I probably hurt a lot of people's career in the photographic world by doing that, because I way overdelivered during that time. I'd post-produce 30 images and I'd just work myself to death because I was trying to get my foot in the door.
These other people who are charging the same and delivering far less who are like, "This is not how you run a business. You won't be able to ever see your kids or wife or anyone," but I had to do everything I could to get my foot in the door because no one's going to give you a handout, especially when it's a sole proprietor creative outlet like this, because I don't really have hardly any overhead or anything else. The amount that I can charge is 100% based on the abilities that I can execute on. All the technical gear and everything else is not really worth all that much when you factor in what you pay me. So, it's a very ambiguous thing that you're doing. So, it's very hard to become the person that people want for that thing. So, it's an odd thing, but that and then just a lot of determination and fear of failure got me here.
Logan Rackliff:
So I would listen to... It was your podcast with Caleb, and you said it was about going in. Now you get into a place and it's like unlocking keys. So, what is that like? You come to a shoot and now you're just going like... What are you seeing? What are those keys? What's going on there?
Trent Bell:
Here's an interesting thing. See, look, you see that? That's so weird. Good questions cause goosebumps on me.
Logan Rackliff:
All right, good.
Trent Bell:
It's so weird. I got to figure that out. Okay, what's the main question so I don't get off track again?
Logan Rackliff:
In that interview specifically with Caleb, you said-
Trent Bell:
The unlocking your key.
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah, you talked about unlocking these keys. You were getting into a place and creativity, but you were really getting into your flow and it felt like unlocking.
Trent Bell:
When I started out, I had no clue what I was doing, which was very engaging. There was a problem to be solved. There's expectations from clients and there's a limited amount of time and there's a lot of money on the table. That's high pressure. When we did the shoot in Cape Porpoise, you have to get access to a location. You've only got it for that. Then they're not going to let you in there another day if you mess up on that.
Logan Rackliff:
That's so hard.
Trent Bell:
So you get access. So, there's all this stuff built up to this one window, and it's very much a dance monkey boy on that day. It's like you don't get to rehearse, so you got to really prepare. But also, for me, it's invigorating because there's a huge risk involved. Now the risk is only my reputation and your financial thing for that one day, which is a big financial risk, but that's why, for me, it's fun. Not that I'm risking your money, but I've shown that I can walk that tightrope every single time. At first, it's really emotionally rewarding because it's highly, highly creative, because I don't know what I'm doing and I have to respond to what my subjective emotional state tells me looks good. I'm transferring from subjective into objective and capturing it. I'm working in that process.
After you do it for so long, you're not worried about it anymore, because you know rather than you feel. Now when you transfer from knowing to feeling, it's like a marriage going dry in a sense. Now hear me out. So, if you start to become bored in a situation, it's not good. The thing I find is that the more I do this, if I overdo it, I can become bored in a situation and don't have enough passion or risk involved. So, when you start out, your prices are low because you're unproven, but you're willing to work for it because for one, the emotional engagement is so high. It's so fun to go and do. People are paying me to take pictures and I don't know really what I'm doing, but I made it work and then I made it work again and then I made it work again.
Look at this. I'm doing it every time. You keep pinching yourself because you're doing something that no one else can really do. Not saying no one else can come in and do a great thing with it. I sent you to Nick LaVecchia because I couldn't work with you, and he's an amazing photographer, really good at what he does. I take a huge amount of inspiration from him. But as you do that again and again and again, you get to a place where you're not pulling from your emotional presence as much as you know exactly what you're supposed to do very quickly. So, the pay is much higher when you're at that state financially, because you've shown from beginning to end that, yeah, I've got a history and I can do this every single time. Your money is safe with me.
It's a much safer bet to hire me at this high rate of cost compared to this person starting out who shows explosions of consistency and then nothing. So, when I was starting out, I'd really hit some really well, but then others were like, "Ooh, not that good." That's why you have to pay really close attention to your failures starting out. You have to realize, "All right, that didn't work because of this. Please notice that next time you're shooting, Trent."
Logan Rackliff:
So the keys...
Trent Bell:
The key to me is if I look at a living room, I already know, "All right, you want to have a place where you as a viewer in an architectural image want to sit or be in that space." So there's either a sidewalk going through a beautiful landscape that calls you through it or there's a nice, seated couch looking at a great view. If you can't see where you're supposed to place yourself to partake of that space, it's going to fall a little flat. Now, details are different. You're seeing connections and all that. But for overall rooms, if this was a living room, I can walk in. If this is glass over here, I know we're probably going to want to shoot towards a view. You just start on one side, and as you're walking, you just feel it's like a click. There it is. We don't need to-
Logan Rackliff:
This is the spot.
Trent Bell:
... spend any more time thinking about this because I know because I've done this thousands and thousands of times. In the beginning though, the hardest thing was when someone would send me to go shoot a house with no shot list and say, "Just do what you do." Because then at that point, I didn't know from doing it a thousand times that that's the best one there. I think this one's pretty good. This one's pretty good. This one's pretty good. This one's pretty good. So, you end up doing all of them. So, it just runs you dry. But working with clients that are very discerning that can say, "No, we wouldn't use that. We would use this because of that."
You also get to a point where you can actually articulately describe why this one is the best. This apex coming towards that rounded piece is too close and it causes tension and we're too high. It feels informational rather than a lower angle feels more connective and emotional. My theory is that it's when you're shorter, you're younger and you're more emotionally present.
Logan Rackliff:
Interesting.
Trent Bell:
That's a deep one too. Who knows?
Logan Rackliff:
That is deep. Yeah. Tell me more about that.
Trent Bell:
Well, every time I interact with a space, the higher you place the camera, the more information you can accurately discern. But if you get a little lower, it just has this feeling of pulling you in more. I think it might be because most adults are at least from five feet and up looking at stuff and it's like, "Yeah, I've seen that before." But if it's down a little lower, something's a little different. You have to engage more. Now, I have a practical example for this that I think this is the first time I'm really connecting that. You've probably heard this if you listened to the podcast, but my living room has a really nice wall of windows and a kitchen over here. When you come into the house over here, it's a really beautiful view that's just all forest out there.
The first time you come in, you emotionally are like, "Whoa." But the thousandth time you come in, you're like, "Yeah, I know it's beautiful, but you don't feel it as much because you've processed it." Now, I was standing in the kitchen one fall and the sun was going down over here and just streaking through the woods and it was this beautiful view. I'm standing there looking at it, and I'm like, "I know that's beautiful," but it wasn't a moment of like, "Whoa." I turned around and my cabinets are glossy. I looked in the cabinets and I could see my living room and the whole view mirrored. All of a sudden, I felt emotions for seeing that where I hadn't before, which was really weird. So, I turned around to see if I could feel the same thing and it wasn't there.
Turn back around, look at the cabinets where I can see the reflection, then I feel the emotions again. It's something to do with that anytime you have an emotional experience, you take in all that information, any novel emotional experience, you take it in and you process it, and then it's articulated and you don't reference the emotional memory as much. Now you reference more so the articulated words that you've translated your emotions into, so you don't have the same emotional response to it. It's more like you're reading something rather than experiencing it.
In doing that, I think the mirrored living room allowed me to see it for the first time in the same way that having a lower camera angle is a new perspective just in general, because we're always used to more so sitting up or standing up here and seeing things. So, when you see it from a little lower, I think it engages a little bit more of this is a novel view. You have to work through this a bit. So, maybe it calls people to interact a little more emotionally, subjectively with the image.
Logan Rackliff:
It almost sounds like you're saying the key's unlocked. You go around a property and find where's the most emotion in a spot and take that.
Trent Bell:
Yeah. There is something to how the pieces relate that causes an emotion that is very interesting. Like yesterday, we were shooting a thing for Terrapin Landscape, and it was a big granite curbing that was being reused for a huge patio and stairs down to a lake. The best views were of the patio looking out to the lake, and by cropping them just right when you walk in, I thought it was going to be hard to shoot. Then when I framed it up where I thought I knew I should, yeah, that's interesting.
I knew enough to crop it how I cropped it, but I wasn't expecting the emotional response that I experienced once I saw the crop. So, I put the camera in and I was, "Whoa." The client came over and was like, "Whoa." I knew to do that, but I couldn't tell that it was going to make me feel that. I was right. We did it like three or four more times, but that was all based off of knowledge of past failures and successes that I knew to pull in there.
Logan Rackliff:
So what would you say your purpose or mission is as an architectural photographer now? What are you hoping people when they come to you are thinking or wanting, and what do you think they're actually thinking or wanting? I mean, those are all maybe a little bit different questions, but I think similar.
Trent Bell:
See, it's such a hard thing to actually objectify or quantify. It's basically an overall general response to the subjective interaction with individuals with the single image created around the project that they did. So, you have to start out knowing that you're overlaying... So, I'm overlaying my creativity over what you created. So, you have these great lobster rope mats for a lack of a better description, but the colors are amazing and they're done well and I love them. I have one on my front door.
Every time I go over it, there's this little authentic, beautiful piece that someone I know and value made and I really like having that in my home. The things I really value in my home have come from people that I know and really value having in there. That makes me emotional for some reason. But what was I saying before that?
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah, we were talking about why people come to you and what are you hoping, I guess, what is your passion to deliver?
Trent Bell:
Right. So, I think people come to me because there's been enough of positive subjective interaction with the images created that leaves an impression that spreads, that whenever a client shows the images that we create to someone that they value or hope will value them, there's a positive response. So, it's chain reactions all the way around that then come back into reinforcing in the client that hires me to say, "We've had really good success in the past with Trent, so we're going to keep using him," or other people have had a lot of success with reputation and feel of images. So, there's an expectation that he'll be able to create a positive emotional connection through this visualization of our project.
Now I have to come in and be respectful that it's not like a solo song and dance by me. It's me gently overlaying my creativity over your creativity. So, there's a layering that needs to be respectful. If someone looks at the image and says, "What a great photograph," they're not really seeing what they need to see. The photograph needs to be beautifully silent. The product needs or the creation of my client needs to sing. That's what needs to happen.
Now, if I'm doing an art piece through photography, great, go at it, but there's this restraint I think that has to be in what I do commercially. I think understanding that and being respectful around that and not making it to photographer tricks all the time is some level of connection, especially with a design community as traditional and restrained as New England typically is. There's opportunities for going outside the lines and being a little crazy, sure, but overall, there's a refinement to it that I think it has served me well maybe.
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah, no, I love your ideas. Like I said, I just try to get you creatives in the space. Hey, what do we want to do here? We have to knock out what I call background shots, get over the top of the mat on a certain... We're always all bored at that one, but we try to knock it out quick. But I love what you said about being beautifully silent. Yeah. Tell me more about that, I guess.
Trent Bell:
If you're looking at who to bring into your life long-term and you look at someone who's doing a lot of song and dance to try and attract you or someone who's respectfully presenting themselves as quality, there's a difference there. There's an easy, quick advertising of yourself, or it's a problem of, "How do I create a perception around myself to advertise this?" That's not just for people and not just what you see in thinking about what to consider to bring into your life, but if you took the marketing and aesthetic of Bubblicious and put it with your mats, it would devalue it a bit like a lot. It's not the same thing. So, bubblegum, you chew up and spit out, and unfortunately, we as humans have the same thing.
People who end up in one line of work and the other, there's reasons for that. So, it is photography and products and everything else that if you've got something that's less money and needs a quick turnaround, there's a different aesthetic that goes into it and everything else. Silent beauty, there's something in that, that there's a restraint that speaks of a depth of I know who I am, I know what my value is, and I'm not going to try and use my value to manipulate your perception of me. I'll show you what my value is, but I'm not going to overshow either.
If I want to take, say a nice small house, and if I add some really crazy lights over here and some crazy lights over there and do some weird lights inside, the more song and dance you do, it becomes more about me in photography, rather than get this in the most beautiful, pleasing but not chattery loud way. When I lean that way, to me, things feel just more at peace, more calm, and it draws more people in for a deeper sense of truth, to not have a better way of saying it. I don't know.
Logan Rackliff:
But tell me a little bit, what are your just days like? I guess days in general, but I'm sure we'd all love to hear about a shoot day, but we know there's also probably just the in studio days and the grind out days.
Trent Bell:
Yeah, I've oddly gotten to a place where my business will self-sustain to a degree, so I don't have to put as much time as I used to into directly marketing to potential clients with my personal time, which is nice. But there's a lot of post-production work, there's a lot of estimates and all of that stuff, keeping up a social media presence. All of that is I'll usually schedule two days a week to shoot. So, then we have weather flexibility and a shoot day. It certainly doesn't look like much and it looks like you're just having fun, but it's a very, very high intensity of mental creation for the day. It really wears you out.
If you haven't been on a photo shoot to go on a photo shoot, especially if you're someone who's in charge of everything happening on time while trying to be creative, you're then pulling two very different parts of your mind together to work together. It's really hard and can be very exhausting. So, I used to do three and four shoots a week, and it was just like, "That's for a 30-year-old man." But now I don't have to do that as much. I can charge more and I can work less. Now I have time to be with my family and spend time with my kids, which I find to be the most valuable use of my time honestly.
So, I'm scaling back and trying to work with only clients that really appreciate what I do and that I enjoy working with, which is a prerogative you get once you are established, which is really nice, but it still does take a lot of work. Even on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday when I'm not shooting, I'll have to be doing emails estimates and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then we have Tim going full-time and we're starting to open a podcast studio now as well. So, a lot going on, but I really enjoy the space of podcasting because it allows you to get out these ideas, be it they wrong or right, this is the process of figuring out like, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't think of it that way," or "I have a proposal that we think of it that way. What do you think?" Yeah, that actually is good.
Okay. These are really important things for transferring even what I've learned in photography over to other people who want to do the same thing. I've gone through it, I figured it out for me, and there might be some of the things that I did figure out for me that'll help you. Also, for people like yourself, potential clients looking to work with a photographer, what should we expect? How should we approach it? What can we expect to pay? All of that stuff is really important. That's why we're starting a podcast business, because I believe in this kind of communication that's less spun, less manipulated, and more honest.
Logan Rackliff:
So I am sure a lot of designers and architects and professional curators will be listening to this. What would you give them for advice on working with someone like yourself, how to get the best work together? What would you give for advice?
Trent Bell:
I would say base it first off of look at a good slice of whoever you're considering hiring. Look at their work. If you can tell, "Yup, that's a Trent image, that's a Trent image, that's a Trent image," if you can see a consistency within the photographer that you're hiring, if you can see that consistency in their work, then you can expect the feeling that you see there is what you'll get in your work. Now, if it seems like it's all over the place, you're not sure what you're going to get then. That's one argument for photographers to limit their website to specifically the subject matters that they want to shoot. So, not people only architecture.
I have some people stuff on my site because I do enjoy shooting stuff like that, but primarily, we're 90%, 95%, probably mostly architecture and architectural related things like house goods and furniture and stuff. But to have an idea that you do want to look for quality, not quantity. If you try and get more, the more that you get, the less quality you'll have. You have to take the time. I always find that I can only really take in a piece of artwork if I'm forced to stay somewhere. So, in marriage counseling, they always have bad pieces of art in there, but it's the only art I ever actually start to feel and see anything in, which is weird. But you have to take some time when you're shooting to really hone in on that subjective thing presented in front of you.
How's it feel that the couch is here but we don't see the other side of the couch and we can't see the seat? So it's a lot of work and it's a lot of time. You have to let those sit for at least a minute or two and talk about them and find if it can be made better. You want to massage those images towards, all right, there's the experience. I look at that in that single frame. I'm told all these things about that product, about the experience of interacting with that product or that house or that space. So, keep your shot list low, unless some of the work we do with you is more so like thumbnails, which you can just switch the match out and go to town. That's a different thing. Product shots in studio in that sense, if it's a swap out catalog type of thing, is easy, but sometimes you're setting up whole scenes.
We were in here shooting with Thomas Moser and we had whole bedroom scene here going and a bedroom scene here going. Those take that subjective time to think about and everyone talks about. They sit there and scratch their head. To me, that's very valuable to do. So, look for the consistency in the work. Keep your shot list restrained. You're going to get better quality and you'll be happier and you'll use those images longer because you'll like them more and you'll keep bringing them up and you'll keep using them more. Having a stylist is really important and having someone in charge of the production schedule of the day is really important, because your photographer is going to generally be someone if they're really good, they're not going to be that technically oriented.
Logan Rackliff:
That's right. They're going to be creative.
Trent Bell:
If you hired a technical photographer, you're going to get junk images. They're going to be technically perfect. You won't have blurry things and the light will be very informational. Sometimes you want the image to lose some technical quality to add some atmosphere. There's all those things at play.
Logan Rackliff:
It will have emotion, right?
Trent Bell:
Right. Yeah. You want imperfection in there to a degree. It's weird, but you want to subjectively engage. You'll need the time. Keep your shot list low. Have a stylist who's looking at the color consistencies of the pieces that are put in. Having your wife there, she has the vision of the styling in her head. So, okay, I don't have to worry about it as a photographer. You're going to be doing that. Great. I'm only going to be focusing on the relationship of graphic like this is communicating with that. Are the colors right or anything? We pull her in. Yeah, but let's put a blanket there and soft good styling. But having a stylist helps a huge amount. They can look at your aesthetic and they can bring it in and make it even better.
Logan Rackliff:
Well, like with Hannah's case, decisive, and actually, that's time.
Trent Bell:
Decisive is good.
Logan Rackliff:
That's where I go to her most. She's very decisive when it comes to that stuff. She's got this vision. Whatever it is, great, let's do it.
Trent Bell:
She's not doing math in her head. She's emotionally present through what she sees.
Logan Rackliff:
It's all feeling.
Trent Bell:
I'm going to take us off track there. Never mind. So, consistency of work. Keep your shot list low so your quality can be high. Try and bring a stylist if you can, because your photographer can do three roles. He or she can be the photographer. They can be the stylist. Often, they are. They'll have to be the production person for the day, keeping everything on track. Now, if you're getting your photographer to do all three of those things, something's going to suffer. What's going to suffer is your composition and your lighting and the things that-
Logan Rackliff:
Time, money, quality, right?
Trent Bell:
Yeah. So, by spending more money, you get better. So, you can take it on yourself as a client maybe to say, "All right, I'm going to keep us on track." If you can just keep telling the photographer what to point at and the photographer doesn't have to have it on their head emotionally to say, "I better keep on track and make sure we accomplish everything we're going to accomplish," that's one more emotional stress that takes away some emotional availability to read what he's doing or she's doing. So, if I can be fully emotionally present, subjectively, working with an articulate mind that can think through these things, that's where you want me.
Then you want someone saying, "All right, we've got 30 minutes here. Go, stylist, go. We need to wrap this up by that time and then we're onto something else." I don't have to think about what we're onto because the production person has that. So, I'm just focused. Stylist is focused. That feels best, because that way, you're pointing me at what I need to do and what I do best. When I work with people that point me in a direction and then get out of the way, as far as people that hired me to do what I do, the best results are those people who they give you an outline, but they say, "You do it. You do it. I'm not going to tell you what it is." You'll have a creative person that will say, "Well, we'd like to focus more on this or that there."
There's a process, sure, but the people that come in and try to be the photographer themselves too much will really take away from the voice that they already chose. So, they choose to hire this photographer because of their consistency, but if you come in too much with your own opinion, you can squelch that voice and it becomes the client's vision in photography, rather than the photographer you hired, which it's a nuance there. I get it.
Logan Rackliff:
Definitely.
Trent Bell:
But yeah, in a sense, get out of the way, but to also offer all that protection of that creative space for the person that you hired. So, those are, I think, the main keys and to make the people you feel with valued, if you do truly value what they're doing as well. You had sent the keychains and stuff just from the work that we had done, and you're like, "Yeah, here, take them out. Love it." That's one of those things that's like the next time you work with that person too, you feel like these guys value me and what I was able to add to what they're doing. They actually value me, not even beyond what I demand I be paid, but also, no, we really valued that. That was good. Thanks, man.
Logan Rackliff:
That's relationship. Yeah, partnership. Yeah.
Trent Bell:
So that would be, I guess, my best-
Logan Rackliff:
That's great.
Trent Bell:
... advice.
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah. So, what is the favorite part of your... Let's just say a photo shoot day, right? What's your favorite part of that day?
Trent Bell:
When it's wrapped up.
Logan Rackliff:
Maybe it could be all of it. Yeah. Maybe in the whole Trent Bell, what's your favorite part of your day or week?
Trent Bell:
When a photo shoot wraps up, yeah, that's weird. Yeah, if I'm honest, it's when it wraps up, but not because it's over as much as there's like, "All right, I can't keep running at 110% anymore." Someone said, "All right, that's good, thank you." There's something in that moment of creativity and all the tension and stress of this is what I do to provide for my family. If I lose my reputation, I lose the ability to provide for those that I love. What I'm doing is such a high wire act that if you fail once at it, it's really hard, if you really fail. I mean, sometimes the images aren't as great as they could be because you miss something. That happens. But it's a huge amount of tension, but I also thrive off of that.
So, it's a weird thing that it's like, "Well, why do you work out?" Well, I work out because I like it. Yeah, you like it best when it's done and you don't want to really do it before it starts, but you know it's good. So, before you do it, you know like doing it for how it feels. So, it's a real exercise that is really good to engage in, but it feels best when you're like, "I did that." It's not that it's over, but it's that I did do that. It's weird.
Logan Rackliff:
I mean, if you hike a mountain or for me, I love to deer hunt and I go on these big tracking adventures. The adventure's amazing.
Trent Bell:
Oh, that's cool.
Logan Rackliff:
Right? It's all about the adventure. If you get the deer, which I don't really care, it was my least favorite part is that's something dying. It all culminates right there. Without that, you still have the story, but the story doesn't have so much to it. Or if you've just hiked a mountain or whatever it is, once you're done, you're like, "Wow, that was great." So I get what you're saying.
Trent Bell:
Have you hiked Chocorua?
Logan Rackliff:
No.
Trent Bell:
Do you know which hike that is?
Logan Rackliff:
No.
Trent Bell:
It's over in Farmington. It's the only mountain that's the top quarter of it is all bald rock, and it's not because-
Logan Rackliff:
It's crazy.
Trent Bell:
... it's above tree line. I don't know. It's really, really pretty. You look at it and you're like, "We're hiking that?"
Logan Rackliff:
Photo shoot location.
Trent Bell:
Oh, yeah. It's insane. It's the best hike I've ever been on, probably for the last quarter view. It's just amazing. But if you could just helicopter to the top, it is like, "Oh, wow, what a great view." But the fact that I got myself on my feet from here to there, it's not the best part, but it makes when you get to the top that much better. So, a photo shoot's the same thing to go from here to there. If you could just get to the end without the work, it wouldn't be as rewarding, but it would be easier. But the hike that you do is for when you get to the top and you see the view, but it's also for the hike, but it's not-
Logan Rackliff:
Sure.
Trent Bell:
It's weird.
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah. So, do you have any interesting projects going on now or coming up or things you're excited about?
Trent Bell:
We have a thing that we've done with a reflect project that people keep wanting to hear more about it still. It was like 10 years ago that we did with prison inmates, their portraits. We had them write a letter to their younger self and then put it in around them. That was really well received. We are going to take it down to Tennessee, but the problem is anyone who's interested in it, it's not art that you'd buy to put on your wall. It's very melancholy in its presence and it's very deep, difficult subject matter, but it's also very, very engaging. I mean, I watch people stand in front of it and start crying, but to me, it's a really interesting thing with a lot of depth that we continually come back to engaging with that I really enjoy.
Other than that, it's just we have a lot of really good architectural work lined up. Yeah, it is just stuff like that. I'm really excited about the podcast studio that we're setting up too. If money were no issue, I would mostly be reading and writing and doing stuff like this and then maybe I'd go to shooting once a week.
Logan Rackliff:
Right. Perfect. What does quality mean to you?
Trent Bell:
Response to truth probably, being very aware, but also responding. It's a hard one. To me, it comes down to my definition of God and that's where I would pull my understanding of anything from. So, to say something is of high quality or low quality, right?
Logan Rackliff:
Sure.
Trent Bell:
To me, if it's high quality, it has a high degree of truth to it. Now, the problem with that is that all of reality in which an overlap of what I would assume are ideas of God would be that God is omnipresent. In that sense, I would agree that when you have a high degree of relationship, honest relationship towards truth, to me, those two things coming together are the most foundational characteristics that you could attribute to God, love and truth. Now, we say love, I feel because that is what we experience as positive human emotion or positive human relationship. So, if I'm in good relationship with someone, that means I'm treating them with love and it's a relationship of love.
So, if I take that to the deepest level, it's simply relationship and truth are the relationship between consciousness and truth essentially. But relationship and truth, using your consciousness to identify truth everywhere you can means that you have to in that try and be as honest with yourself as possible to say, I'm not going to manipulate this towards my own glorification of experience. Experience is very deceptive. So, that's the hard thing that if you're true to your experience, okay, but you can deceive yourself very easily. I've done that a lot and it's hard to undo that. I've had to work at that.
So, there's something in there being a high degree of honesty within relationship, towards identifying what is true outside of us. So, if I'm looking at quality, I'm saying, "Okay, if you took the idea of a remote say, what's a high quality remote?"
Logan Rackliff:
Right, or a photo.
Trent Bell:
Or a photo. Let's go with photo.
Logan Rackliff:
Okay. What do you call a high quality photo after-
Trent Bell:
A high quality photo? Oh, that's a hard one because I put a lot of lies into my photography, but the quality being measured is the best communication of the creation. Let's say the architect made this creation. I come in and I do my best to represent the ideal of what that design was meant to be. Oftentimes I'll be taking out fire alarms and plugs and switches or neighbor's houses that are too close. So, I'm lying constantly visually, but what we're trying to show is that here's the creation and this is as close to honest without being a complete lie. There's a weirdness in there. If not, let's just all get a film camera and just one click and put it online. There's a degree of manipulation there, but high quality in a photo.
Logan Rackliff:
That's very interesting you said that, because as you know, when we shoot out, the color is everything.
Trent Bell:
Oh, yeah.
Logan Rackliff:
Because we have to show it. When people buy something and it shows up at their house, it's look like what they-
Trent Bell:
Exactly. Yeah. Now, the quality there comes in with time-
Logan Rackliff:
Challenging.
Trent Bell:
... in my opinion.
Logan Rackliff:
Well, correct. So, generally, when we take a photo and you look at it at its raw, it is not the color of what it actually-
Trent Bell:
Unless you really can tune it in with a color-
Logan Rackliff:
The lighting and everything.
Trent Bell:
... grader and all that, but with digital now, you can just shoot raw and it doesn't matter. But in post-production, you better sure get the tuning in.
Logan Rackliff:
So I love that you're talking about authenticity, finding the blend of authenticity. So, if we show the original photo typically to everybody, that's not what the color actually is. It's the lighting, it's reflections, what's around it.
Trent Bell:
Well, I found with your mats too, from certain angles, there's a reflective nature to the fibers that play a game. That's really cool too.
Logan Rackliff:
Plays a game. There's no question about it. It's challenging, but yeah. It just sounds like you're saying it's an authentic and an ideal, I suppose. That's what I'm hearing.
Trent Bell:
To me, quality has a time coefficient to it that I think if something's quality, its quality will be around longer. So, that if something is made really well and it's durable... See if you can balance beauty, beauty isn't normally highly durable. Durable is usually more utilitarian. So, you're always playing these games with stuff. But with a photo, to me, a really high quality photo is one that will feel more timeless. High quality architecture will also be more timeless too. So, fads will catch quick.
A real attractive, slightly revealing thing will immediately get your attention, but it's not going to be a good long-term solution probably. So, to me, that quality of a photo is one that how is this going to be timeless or is this going to be a photo that gets dated really quick? So there's one way of looking at it that if it's well done, if the color correction is nice and the styling's nice, it's going to have a shelf life that's much longer. That's one way of finding that.
Logan Rackliff:
Well, let's think of another one. I'll give you a minute. What's your favorite object around your house or at work or whatever, something you use? It could be on a fairly regular basis. Do you have a favorite go-to thing that you just love using?
Trent Bell:
A material possession thing?
Logan Rackliff:
Mm-hmm.
Trent Bell:
That would be the Airstream camper.
Logan Rackliff:
Okay.
Trent Bell:
Well, for one, it's beautiful, but it's not that durable. I mean, you can scratch, it's so easy, but it's so beautiful.
Logan Rackliff:
Why is it your favorite?
Trent Bell:
So I'll start with the least valuable reasons and get to the best. The least valuable one is that it's just so beautiful from the outside. Second is it's really beautiful on the inside too. It's just you go in and there's a lot of light and the roundness of the space, everyone that comes in stays and talks.
Logan Rackliff:
Oh, nice.
Trent Bell:
There's something weird there. Anyone that comes in does not leave quickly, and it happens every single time. My wife went out with a friend to just show her, and they came out five hours later. They were just talking in the dinette there. They just ended up like, "We'll just stay here and talk rather than in the house where we were at." So it is just weird, but the most valuable thing is that anytime we're using it, it means our family is away from the day to day and we're working as a unit together. That is just so beautiful when all the other cares are gone and you're there. Just me, my wife and my two boys, we pull up somewhere. They know. They get the chucks out and do the thing, and Amber does her thing. I do.
We're working together as a family unit, and we just spend that time together. Never before have I had a material possession that accommodated that with such grace and beauty. So, now of all material possessions ever, it brings in this time with family in a beautiful way. It allows you to go to new places but do the same really valuable thing in new places everywhere. So, it has that novel aspect to it as well, which is just really nice.
Logan Rackliff:
That's so cool. So, to me, I feel like you just explained everything. You explained quality and somehow you even brought adventure in there, which I've never really quite thought about.
Trent Bell:
Yeah.
Logan Rackliff:
You talked about authenticity and timelessness and beauty. So, I'm passionate about finding true quality and what it means to everybody. So, how can people find you? Where can we get-
Trent Bell:
www.trentbell.com. Who says www?
Logan Rackliff:
I know, I know.
Trent Bell:
Just Trent Bell, trentbell.com or on Instagram or Trent Bell Photography. It's just all one word.
Logan Rackliff:
Just Google Trent? Yeah, Trent Bell Photography.
Trent Bell:
Google Trent Bell Photography. If you google Trent Bell, it's either me or an Australian title guy.
Logan Rackliff:
I did see that.
Trent Bell:
He's way better looking, especially without his shirt than me apparently.
Logan Rackliff:
Make sure you get the photography and stuff in there. Yeah, I was like, "Who's this guy?"
Trent Bell:
I keep hoping he gets really famous and then tries to buy my website.
Logan Rackliff:
Oh, man. Why not? All right, perfect.
Trent Bell:
I'll just move over to trentbellphotography.com.
Logan Rackliff:
Yeah. Anyway, thank you so much, Trent. I really appreciate it.
Trent Bell:
Thank you.