Ron Chapple | Photo Credit: GEO1
All the right moves.
By Rana Faure
Ron Chapple’s odyssey has taken him and his GEO1 team into the world of exploration both literally and figuratively. Ron’s photographic journey started as a still photographer and evolved to founding GEO1 specializing in LIDAR technology (light detection and ranging) a “remote sensing method used for measuring the exact distance of an object on the earth’s surface”. GEO1 utilizes LIDAR for data collection for emergency response, archaeological exploration, and mapping projects around the globe.
Ron Chapple and his GEO1 team collaborated with National Geographic Society geographer, Alex Tait, in mapping Mount Everest. They worked in conjunction with the USGS Rapid Imagery Response Program, (USGS Emergency Response) to collect aerial data of the Kilauea Volcano as the lava flows that devastated towns in the 2018 eruption and many other programs that contribute to our increasingly important exploration and understanding of our world. Right from the GEO1 homepage, you get a sense of excitement: the distinctly skilled staff, utilizing technology to gather accurate data that allows for exploration beyond conventional methods. “GEO1 is a highly responsive solutions team providing survey and mapping, analytics, and data delivery. We thrive on challenging logistics, fast turn-around times, and extreme locations.“
Photo Credit: GEO1
GEO1 utilized LIDAR technology to map archeological sites that helped discover lost cities in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada for National Geographic explorer Albert Lin’s show ‘Lost Cities with Albert Lin’. The episode can be found on Disney+ and clearly shows their process of collecting the data with GEO1’s intricately planned flight paths capturing data through the overgrown jungle and revealing “evidence of ancient human settlement — a process that would otherwise take years, if not decades, to complete on foot. With our data, archeologists discovered six sites of early human settlements!”.
Before his move into the world of geographic data collection, Ron Chapple was an aerial director of photography shooting motion for film projects. Prior to this high flying trajectory, Ron founded ThinkStock a subscription-based stock photo agency which he founded after years of experience as an on the ground, hands-on, still photographer, with FPG, (a stock photo agency later acquired by Getty). His roots as a commercial and fashion photographer started as a local news photographer in college. Along with his focus on the creative, it was also always on the business model as well, the technology and workflow evolution would follow. Ron Chapple shares his journey, his passion, and the transitions throughout his career, and in this unprecedented time the capacity to transform is powerful and the ability to pivot is necessary.
We asked: Tell me a little about your story, your path into photography, media entrepreneur, innovator, and technology early adopter.
Ron replied: As a kid, I was always outdoors. Whether camping or working outside, I always seemed to be making things. My father was a hobbyist woodworker so we would make things together in the basement. I was an avid Boy Scout and my group of friends would camp out 2-3 weekends a month year-round regardless of snow or rain or heat. Reflecting back, that is probably where I learned my location skills that I continue to use every day. I started shooting pictures in high school. I thought I would be pre-med then once I picked up that camera I saw the world with clarity. Every tree, texture, and subject became an analogy to a deeper layer of understanding. My high school shop teacher taught me to work in the darkroom with the prints washed in a tub on the floor of my parent’s wood-paneled station wagon while driving home. I started shooting portraits, news/sports, to make money, then headshots at twenty. I lucked into a few commercial and fashion projects… and then…fast forward 6 years. A client presented a layout for me to quote four of the six images. Always curious about my competition, I asked about the other two images. Learning he was using stock photos – I began my stock photo research. I launched into stock at the right time and as rights-managed licensing was growing and the right place with FPG International, a growing family-run stock agency in NY. My commercial work evolved into annual reports with the collateral benefit of spending time with management and marketing strategists, always willing to share business insights as I created portraits or photographed their facility.
Photo Credit: GEO1
We asked: You’ve had a few “lives” in photography/media/technology. Can you describe your different incarnations?
Ron replied: The incarnations are more about the business methodology than the media. While I started out creating silver specks on a film emulsion, now those specks are pixels and points of light on digital media. As a commercial photographer, you are a service provider and wait for the phone to ring. My first business model transition was to generate a living by licensing images through stock. Stock photography is a combination of research and development to determine trends, then production, and ultimately distribution. The investment is upfront, and in the FPG days that investment wouldn’t break-even for 18-24 months. Stock was also my entry into global business and international travel. As FPG transitioned into new ownership and the royalty-free licensing model arrived, I launched Thinkstock, a royalty-free brand. Within a few years, we formed a distribution network of 100 distributors around the world. Thinkstock was purchased by Jupiter images and ultimately Getty Images after 4 years. With a fundamentally low threshold for boredom, my emerging interest in aerial photography morphed into aerial cinema. The first BBC Planet Earth landmark series had just arrived with amazing aerial video and a new awareness of HD digital video as a viable media. I invested in a Cineflex gyro-stabilized helicopter gimbal to shoot aerial stock footage which further morphed into becoming an Aerial Director and providing aerials for networks like National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and BBC. I traveled to over 30 countries to create aerial cinema. One of our sectors in the aerial cinema market was to collect video of electric transmission corridors. We would come in right after the survey company completed the lidar work. Much like the “stock” awakening in the early days, learning about lidar as a potential service offering created more questions than answers. Ten years ago, lidar sensors were also incredibly expensive at $1,000,000+ and way out of our league both financially and from a technology experience perspective. About 5 years ago, a lower-priced lidar sensor in a small form factor came into the market. We lined up a potential client and invested in the new technology. Sadly, the first opportunity went away and we created exactly zero revenue in the first year of owning a scanner as I had way underestimated both the business development cycle and technology learning curve.
We asked: Your company GEO1 uses sophisticated technology to acquire high-quality What prompts your transitions? What guides your process? Is it the technology or in response to clients’ needs?
Photo Credit: GEO1
Ron replied: I am inspired by new technology and the potential market needs… before the market knows their needs. Though there is a risk, the concept of helping lead the market is intoxicating and ideally leads to the next level of technological development. Every market sector eventually progresses towards “perfect competition” and ideally to transition into the next opportunity before the general equilibrium theory takes effect. There was a simple yet profound statement in an article I read early in my career about the evolution of business… “Someone out there wants to eat your lunch, and that might as well be you.” From that moment I decided one of my goals would be to put myself out of business by transitioning into a new business before the competition did it for us. Many years ago, I remember a saying that “In the digital world, you should think of your computer as disposable and your software as a subscription” which is so true today. The prescient part of that thirty-year-old observation is that almost all software is now subscription-based! We are often reluctant to move beyond our past creations. We should instead think of our past creations as learning experiences and stepping stones to a new future.
We asked: What skills are most easily transferred during transitions? What were the biggest learning curves?
Ron replied: Entrepreneurial skills are easily transferred, which is to say never stop asking “What if” when thinking about a potential pivot. I fully believe in the power of human effort to create a new future. The biggest learning curves are first the vocabulary of any new industry and learning what solutions to provide to the client. You need to be prepared to alter your strategy and services quickly for nuances that will appear as the opportunity is revealed.
We asked: What kind of research do you do before a transition to a new opportunity?
Ron replied: Research now is about developing a company strategy of what market sectors can use our technology, and where we can provide a unique solution to our existing or potential clients. Our competition ranges from other small companies like ourselves to 500M corporations that can throw massive cash into a sector. We are still exploring and learning what will work for us in the long term. The techniques that work best for the company are threefold: A) Brainstorm with existing clients on their view of the future, B) Read lots of newsletters, and equally as important, C) Create open-ended discussion with our team on new ideas that we find inspiring. For example, one of our Slack channels is simply called “Tech Ideas” where we all post interesting articles.
We asked: Freelance photography is a truly self-motivated endeavor, is your current motivation different? What inspires you?
Photo Credit: GEO1
Ron replied: My motivation has evolved to be even more inclusive of a team effort to provide solutions. First, my goal is that our team feels engaged and fulfilled by the challenges and opportunities. Next, I strive for our company to deliver an alternative perspective and to make a difference for our clients. One of our current endeavors is acquiring and analyzing data to mitigate the risk of wildfires – our work helps save lives, and nothing could feel better!
We asked: Do you develop a new clientele roster for each of your incarnations?
Ron replied: Yes, however, there are always cross-over clients that want your new services. Some existing clients are also venturing into new areas, and need our new capabilities. For example, the aerial cinema work we do with National Geographic opened up the opportunity to use lidar in the jungles of Colombia and for mapping the Khumbu Glacier at the base of Mt. Everest. In the larger ecosystem, both existing clients and vendors can be part of the network for everyone to grow their business. I have always believed not in a simplistic win-win solution, but in creating a scenario where there are benefits for absolutely everyone associated with the project. The only time a business venture can succeed is when everyone involved derives a higher than anticipated return on their investment.
We asked: In your transitions do you break down your workflow, structure, and start over or does your existing workflow translate to a new medium?
Ron replied: Yes and no, but I confess that I am occasionally surprised by the amount of time needed to really learn a new process. Some of our existing processes translate, although not as linearly as I thought. The lidar and survey industry vocabulary demands absolute accuracy as the data is used to make engineering decisions. Our workflows evolve as we learn new equipment and markets. Once we brought in geospatial analysts with new contracts every one was empowered to be part of creating the new workflows.
We asked: You are now hovering high above the earth, seeing a different perspective. What story are you telling? How is it different from more earthbound stories? And from high up, can you see the future? Just kidding.
Ron replied: For me, the story is always about “exploration” and seeing the world with new eyes. Whether the visualization is 2D or 3D or 4D, the creative goal is delivering a fresh perspective to the viewer. Aerial imagery is true teamwork with the pilot. It forces the photographer to live in a 3-dimensional world where the perfect angle may come and go in a fraction of a second. Along with our crews, flying in a helicopter at 500 feet above the earth is always a privilege and one that is continually interesting to me. Even from that altitude, you can smell the scents emitted from the earth.
We asked: Watching one of the stories you helped tell on National Geographic’s series Lost Cities with Albert Lin, shows how technology can help tell an amazing story. Tell me about the experience, the best part, the biggest challenge?
Ron replied: Definitely exciting to see the results of our lidar scanning! Phil Carter, our Aerial Systems Director, processed and analyzed the data within 24 hours. The speed that we can use the technology to reveal lost civilizations is amazing. Working with National Geographic in such a beautiful part of the world is easily the best part of the project. And honestly, no real challenges other than weather. We have worked in far more rugged and logistically challenging locations in our aerial cinema days.
We asked: How has covid19 affected your business? Have you been able to refocus your existing model to help service your clients? Are you finding opportunities you hadn’t anticipated?
Ron replied: COVID-19 has affected our business in the sense that our team is now sharing ideas on a ZOOM call rather than in person, and of course more complex travel logistics. I think there is also an emotional disconnect that prolonged social distancing has created for all of us that may not show the long term effects for quite some time. I almost feel guilty saying this but on the business side, 2020 will be our best year to date. When COVID hit in March, the challenges felt like 9-11 and the Great Depression of 2008. I had the good (or bad) fortune of launching business iterations during each of those times… and the amazing thing is that a downturn is a perfect time to pivot your business. Clients that would not take your call all of a sudden had two hours for a conversation. Cash flow during both an economic downturn and investing in new opportunities is a challenge. Our solution was to limit purchases of new equipment this year and invest in the workflow process which yielded more tangible results. None of this is possible without a strong team, whether full-time employees or contractors. Everyone jumped on board to develop and enhance both workflows and the quality of our services.
We asked: Do you have a five-year plan?
Ron replied: Five years sounds like an eternity! My goal is first to provide our amazing team with engaging and rewarding opportunities, and then to use our company’s skill set to provide data and analytics that can make a difference for climate change, wildfire mitigation, and archeological discovery/preservation. The geo-spatial industry will have an important role to play as the world begins to recover from the pandemic in 2021.
We asked: We often ask photographers to list their equipment…” what’s in your bag” but looking at one of your Instagram stories I thought it might be a bad idea given the vast number of cases you travel with. What is your most valued piece of equipment?
Ron replied: Our most valued “equipment” is the human mind – the resourcefulness of our team to manage logistics and challenges on location. We encourage constant communication which enables a better product for our clients. However, the most important aspect of our work is the safety of our crews. Safety extends to every member of the team and ranges from COVID mitigation to pre-flight briefings. In an aerial survey, every person in the helicopter is an essential team member with responsibilities for crew resource management.
We asked: Also, feel free to mention any other projects that you would like to highlight!
Ron replied: Not so much a project highlight, but to let any reader know they can contact me at any time with questions or ideas about their business. These are unique times, and we are all in this together! Most important, I would like to stress that we are all part of the photography community, and the way we lead our lives, conduct business, and the images we create can have great influence. Photographers need to be part of the solution to eliminate systemic racial inequality through their actions and their images.
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Mapping Mount Everest by Alex Tait, geographer at the National Geographic Society, recounts his experiences on an expedition to the world’s tallest mountain.
National Geographic Exploring Ciudad Perdida | Lost Cities, is high up in Colombia’s most isolated mountain range, the Sierra Nevada. Archaeologists have spent decades exploring this dense jungle to find out about the people who lived here over 500 years ago. Lost Cities with Albert Lin combines hi-tech archaeology, breath-taking visuals and genuine exploration to make headline-grabbing discoveries.
If this article was of interest to you, take a look at some of the other articles in the Questions with a Pro and Questions with an Educator series.