EP 16: Tara Kerzhner — Capturing Moments, Telling Stories, and Shooting What You Love

Tara Kerzhner is an award-winning photographer, cinematographer, and accomplished rock climber. We talked about being creative while stuck at home, the importance of shooting what you love, balancing her work with art and climbing, becoming a more powerful climber, and telling stories through film.  

Support on Patreon:

patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing  

Show Notes:  

http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/tara-kerzhner  

Nuggets:  

2:06 – Using the podcast to hangout out with friends  

2:51 – Cactuses  

5:50 – Working from home, “the snack loop”, and Tara’s favorite tea  

11:33 – Working in restaurants, learning to manage money, not having mentors, and a sheltered upbringing  

15:21 – Learning to believe in herself, “garbage collecting”, and increasing your percentage of good photos  

17:37 – “Shoot what you love”, being grounded for 6 months, and taking risks  

19:29 – Some of Tara’s favorite photos and what made them memorable  

23:51 – Learning about storytelling and film making, and why Tara feels like she hasn’t made her best film yet  

25:16 – Tara’s new film camera  

26:50 – Tara’s photo tick list, shooting “new” angles, and Jim Thornburg  

29:59 – Balancing working with art and climbing, sending ‘Vesper’, and going in and out of shape  

34:24 – Why Tara is considering doing more strength training for photo/video work  

38:22 – “Un-Smithing” herself, seeking out more powerful climbs, and ‘Don’t Call Me Dude’  

44:26 – Why grades “don’t really make sense”  

47:06 – Tara’s goal routes at Ceuse, trying ‘Sprayathon’, and the irrelevance of grades  

50:38 – ‘To Bolt’, and why climbing it would be such a meaningful route for Tara  

53:33 – Alex Honnold’s free solo big wall tick list  

55:02 – Multipitch sport climbing, wanting to go climb ‘Logical Progression’, and why multi-pitch trad climbing isn’t always type 1 or 2 fun  

57:55 – Why free climbing El Cap isn’t a current goal  

58:53 – Cats  

1:00:08 – House cat —> ocelot  

1:01:39 – What Tara feels especially grateful for  

1:04:25 – Sladies 2, the ethics of what we choose to do right now (during COVID), and why Tara isn’t planning any trips right now  

1:06:40 – Why Tara is excited to explore more editorial/journalistic photo and video work in the future, shooting in Fiji, and photos vs videos  

1:08:50 – Tara’s website, Instagram, and why she prefers email when responding to people  

1:10:32 – Climbing on the home wall, why 45 degrees might be the hardest angle in rock climbing, and “it’s all about body positions”  

1:12:13 – Wrap up, why Tara doesn’t like some of her earliest films, and “it’s good to be up on the wall”