How to Build a Personal Brand in Landscape Photography with Nate Luebbe

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. Welcome in to the Professional Photographer Podcast. I'm your host, Pat Miller. We are live at Imaging USA 2025 in Dallas. Our show presented by Sony. I'll gush on them for a minute, but this is the Scale Your Influence series. And on today's show, Nate in the Wild, we're going to talk about personal branding. We got to talk about landscape photography, but we also have some fun talking about travel and social media and a whole bunch more. So you're in for a treat. And thank you for tuning in. Now, the gushing on Sony, okay, we got to do that because we've been using their Cinema Line cameras all week. Amazing stuff. Not to mention their Monitor & Control app that runs on an iPad. It's been a showstopper. Like, literally, I'm sitting here talking to you, and people are lining up, looking at the iPad in the background. No wires. It's been amazing. So, Sony, thank you for the gear this week and for supporting the show. We appreciate it. Okay, he's standing by. Let's say hello. Nate in the Wild. welcome to the Professional Photographer Podcast. How are you today?

Nate Luebbe: 01:09

I'm so good. Thanks for having me here.

Pat Miller: 01:10

I'm excited you're here. It's like, of all the places in the world you could be, you're on this little podcast because normally we see you everywhere.

Nate Luebbe: 01:18

I know, inside a building, sitting in a chair. It's like, not my natural habitat, but–

Pat Miller: 01:23

Real pants. I mean, what's going on here?

Nate Luebbe: 01:24

Well, no, these are still hiking pants. Staying true to my roots.

Pat Miller: 01:28

At least we have that.

Nate Luebbe: 01:29

Yeah, right.

Pat Miller: 01:30

Okay. So you get to travel the world. Landscape photography, how did you get into it?

Nate Luebbe: 01:35

So I would say that I got into landscapes before I got into landscape photography is kind of how I view it. I was born in Montana, raised in the mountains of Colorado. My dad and I are both Eagle Scouts, so I just, I grew up hiking, camping, being outdoors. And as we talked a little bit about before this started, my dad was a reporter for many years. He was a radio reporter, but he had friends in newspapers, so he always had a camera. And as a kid, you know, like 10 years old, we'd go hiking in Montana, and he would take photos, and, you know, he'd be like, well, I'm putting a branch in the foreground so that we have some depth of field, and it lends some contact. And I was like, shut up, dad. Nobody cares. And then when I got older and I had a, you know, my smartphone had a camera built on it and I started taking photos and I realized, like, I was crouching down to get a branch in the foreground, and I was like, oh, I was listening. And so, I don't know, I just started taking photos for fun. And I realized that I had subconsciously absorbed all these little, like, nuggets of wisdom from my dad over the years. And I found out that I just kind of had an innate aptitude for it because of that. And so, I don't know, just kind of took off on its own. I was already hiking and camping, and then the camera just found its way into my life, and it was like a perfect match.

Pat Miller: 02:46

Was there a period of you taking landscape and not telling the story on media, or did they both hit simultaneously and they fed one another?

Nate Luebbe: 02:55

You know, I'm of that age where, like, I barely remember pre-social media life, you know? Cause, like, MySpace came out when I was in, I guess, like a freshman in high school or middle school. And so for me, it's always sort of been like this omnipresent entity in our lives. And I wasn't like, immediately, oh, I'm going to take this photo for Instagram. But, you know, like, from the first photos I took, we were still going to, like, share it with our friends. So it was kind of like a natural progression.

Pat Miller: 03:22

Yeah, I didn't expect you to say Myspace. Wow!

Nate Luebbe: 03:25

I know, I mean, back in the day, right?

Pat Miller: 03:28

Yeah, back in the day. Now, getting ready for the interview, I went back to the earliest YouTube video you have posted.

Nate Luebbe: 03:34

Okay.

Pat Miller: 03:35

And you were Nate in the Wild on the first video. Did that just come to you when you ran with it, or do you delete all the stuff before that?

Nate Luebbe: 03:41

So. Well, I wasn't on YouTube initially, so that's like one of the newer social platforms. My last name is Luebbe. And so when I first got on Instagram, my name was Nate Lubs.

Pat Miller: 03:50

Yeah.

Nate Luebbe: 03:50

And then as I started growing, I was like, I should get a more professional name. And so I had a big brainstorming session. We were all trying to find, like, a Nate Geo kind of a reference.

Pat Miller: 03:59

Yeah, right.

Nate Luebbe: 04:00

It was tough to type it in a way that, like, made sense. And so, I don't know, I just went with Nate in the Wild. And it, like, felt good. And I don't really think about it too much. Just kind of feels right, so.

Pat Miller: 04:08

Is that how your fans and followers address you now?

Nate Luebbe: 04:10

They do, yeah.

Pat Miller: 04:12

That's so cool. I love that. Okay, so that's who you are. That's what you get to do. But now you do such a great job of telling your story. How do you think about telling your story on media and social media and YouTube? Is it a conscious process? I mean, you're kind of a native, right? Digital native. But when you're thinking about telling your story, what goes through your mind when you do it?

Nate Luebbe: 04:35

I think maybe part of the reason I've found some success is that I don't think too hard about how I tell the story. I try to just kind of exist. I hate like saying the word authentically because a lot of people overuse the concept of authenticity with media, but that is really just like the truth. People don't want to see a manufactured persona. They want to see you as a person. And like my fiancé, Autumn, and I teach a lot of workshops together, and people join us as much for the knowledge and the instruction as they do just to like meet us and hang out with us. And so, I don't know, that's just kind of like how I like to do it is be myself on social media and hope that that comes through. And obviously, I'm not going to like show the boring parts like sleeping. You have to be a little bit curated. But I try to just sort of like be myself. I'm a goofy, light-hearted dude, and so I try to put that Persona out there.

Pat Miller: 05:24

Yeah, it's definitely playful and it's very authentic. I know you don't want to say authentic, but it definitely comes through. Like I felt like I met you before I met you because it's very, like I say, playful and easy to enjoy, and all of that is nice, but it doesn't really matter if the work isn't great. So how do you balance really great work and telling a very personal story? Like, is there ever a trade-off of those two things?

Nate Luebbe: 05:53

Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's been probably the–just the last year or two I've started focusing more on YouTube and it's been a huge learning curve with like it used to be I would see a beautiful sunrise. I was like, I'm going to take a photo that I'm proud of. I can sell a print or I can put it on my website portfolio.

Pat Miller: 06:11

Sure.

Nate Luebbe: 06:12

And it's been, it's definitely been a learning curve because like taking the photo requires 100% of my focus. So setting up a camera behind me to capture BTS or you know, we just all have to, to wear a thousand hats these days. And I would say I'm still learning it a little bit. I've started simplifying my workflow. I just got this cool little arm where I can like mount a GoPro on my camera.

Pat Miller: 06:33

Cool.

Nate Luebbe: 06:34

So I can take the photos but also get the BTS. I don't have to think it at all.

Pat Miller: 06:37

Yeah.

Nate Luebbe: 06:38

So yeah, it's. I don't know, I feel like you do have to make a choice, like are you making a video about the process of the photo or are you taking the photo? Because if you try to do both of them at 100%, I'm not sure, at least for me, I can't quite do both yet.

Pat Miller: 06:53

Do you have to quarantine time just to be an artist? I mean, independent of others watching you, you're saying it's still a trade-off, but is there still quarantine time to just solely focus on what you're doing?

Nate Luebbe: 07:03

100%, yeah. And I kind of just make the decision like in the moment. If I see something that's truly, I know, like a career defining experience or photo, I'm going to just get that photo. Like I want to sell prints or I want it on my website. But if it's, you know, like an 8 out of 10 sunrise, yeah, it's great to like use it as an instructional moment, capture some BTS. So. But you know, like I photograph polar bears three different times now, and the first time I ever saw a cub, it was my third trip. I'd been up there twice already. I wasn't thinking about BTS. I was like, I want to live in this moment. I want to get a photo of a polar bear cub. Like this is the most important experience for me. I don't have any BTS from it because it was not relevant. You know?

Pat Miller: 07:50

You do, but you didn't share it.

Nate Luebbe: 07:53

Yeah, exactly.

Pat Miller: 07:54

That's the best part.

Nate Luebbe: 07:55

And it's cool because I had friends there who took some iPhone video and like that's their memory of that experience. You know, I'm not going to say that my $20,000 setup was better than their iPhone. It's just we all had our own, like that was a life changing moment for all of us. We all experienced it in our own ways. Not thinking about the social media experience as much as how we want to remember it, which is, I feel like it's a healthier way to experience nature anyway.

Pat Miller: 08:18

Sure. So sharing has always been a part of what you're doing. When did you start to notice the traction? When did you start to get the feeling of, wait a minute, people are really interested in what I have to say. I'm building a relationship with my audience. When did you start to feel it?

Nate Luebbe: 08:32

Yeah, that's a great question because I specifically remember the exact moment I was just on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. I just got my first camera maybe like six months before. It was a tiny little Olympus, the original OM-D E-M5. I shouldn't say my first camera, like my first non-phone camera or whatever, but I was just on a hike with a friend in Rocky Mountain national park and I took a photo of her standing on a rock with a nice background. I was like, this is neat. And I put it on Instagram. I don't know, I had like 2,000 followers or something. But Osprey backpacks DM'd me and offered to buy the photo so they could license it. And that was the moment I was like, whoa. Like, like photos actually have intrinsic value. Like people care about seeing these because at the time it was just like I went on a hike. Post. You know? I remember the very specific moment I was like, oh wow. Like people will pay for these. People actually enjoy seeing photos. They matter in some way. Even if it's commercial versus emotional. It was a kind of an eye-opening experience for me.

Pat Miller: 09:36

And fast forward to today. I mean, you're a media talent. I mean, you are a media company.

Nate Luebbe: 09:41

Yeah.

Pat Miller: 09:42

That happens to take pictures. I know you don't think of it that way, being an artist, but the rest of the world, like brands, they look at you as a way to distribute their stuff.

Nate Luebbe: 09:49

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm very fortunate that I am able to work with brands, and I have some that support me in wonderful ways. I'm a Sony ambassador now, and they've done so much for my career, more than I feel like I can ever possibly say thank you for. I joined the team very early in my career. It felt like getting drafted to the Yankees out of high school.

Pat Miller: 10:09

Yeah.

Nate Luebbe: 10:09

You know, I was the like 17-year-old who could throw a fastball but didn't know anything.

Pat Miller: 10:12

Yeah.

Nate Luebbe: 10:13

And the team plucked me out of obscurity. And it's really cool now that I'm able to make a career out of this and find value in experiences that I would want to be having anyways. I'm beyond blessed that I get to check items off my bucket list and pay the bills at the same time. That's a crazy way to live.

Pat Miller: 10:32

I can only imagine what your bucket list looks like. Are those locations? Are those certain mountains someplace? What is your bucket list you haven't done yet?

Nate Luebbe: 10:40

Well, so it's cool because it's constantly changing because I'm so fortunate I get to check things off of it. But it's a combination of like experiences and places. You know, Antarctica was on it, and I got to go two years ago. Greenland was on it. I just went in October, which is really cool. So now I have like a whole new list. I've never been to Africa. I'm dying to see like elephants and giraffes. I want to go to Bhutan because it's, you know, one of the more restrictive countries for travel. So very few people get to go there. So yeah, I've got all these like, you know, it's constantly changing and it's one of the most gratifying things when you dream about a place and you finally get to see it. And I think the coolest part is I've never had one disappoint me. Like I had Antarctica so high on my list. Like it was on the boat there. I was like, there's no way, like this is going to ruin me because I've held it so high on my list. There's no way it's going to be as good as I'm expecting. And it was even better, which is crazy. Honestly.

Pat Miller: 11:39

It's crazy because a place that looks so vacant when you think about it. It's cold, it's white, there's maybe some penguins waddling around, right?

Nate Luebbe: 11:47

I know, yeah, yeah, totally. But I like those desolate landscapes. I love jagged peaks, glaciers. So it like feels inhospitable at first glance, but then it's actually one of the most biodiverse and life-rich locations on the planet. Like you don't see three penguins. You see 30,000 penguins. You don't see a humpback whale, you see a pod of 10 humpback whales. And so it's really interesting. It looks like nobody could possibly survive here. And then because it's so far from human impact, it's actually one of the most vibrant locations I've ever been. It's really incredible.

Pat Miller: 12:20

Just out of curiosity, are you a natural traveler? Like, do you like the art of traveling or is that part of the cost of doing business?

Nate Luebbe: 12:28

Well, that's a good question. I don't like airports and sitting on airplanes.

Pat Miller: 12:34

Yeah, totally.

Nate Luebbe: 12:35

You know, so I wouldn't say like, I like traveling, but I like being traveled. Like I like being in new locations. The act of getting there I wish was a little bit less painful.

Pat Miller: 12:45

Right.

Nate Luebbe: 12:45

And obviously it's, it's worse post 9/11 of course, I remember as a kid, my parents would take me on trips and it was just like, go to the airport, walk on your plane. And I think if it was more like that still, I would probably enjoy it more, but, yeah.

Pat Miller: 13:00

All right, so Sony private jet. Hook a brother up here. Come on, we got to get this going. That's what we need.

Nate Luebbe: 13:06

Well, my ultimate bucket list destination, I guess I should talk directly to Jeff Bezos is the moon. Let's go, Jeff. Come on. There's got to be some egotistical billionaire out there who's going to go to the moon. And if you need a private photographer, I'll go for free. And I promise not to throw up, so.

Pat Miller: 13:26

Talk about desolate.

Nate Luebbe: 13:27

That's what I'm saying.

Pat Miller: 13:28

Cool formations. Can you imagine?

Nate Luebbe: 13:29

I went to space camp as a kid, so I feel like I'm halfway trained already.

Pat Miller: 13:32

Well, space camp, Eagle Scout, I mean, come on. You are thoroughly trained.

Nate Luebbe: 13:36

That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

Pat Miller: 13:37

All right. So people are wanting to do what you do. People would love to have a world where they travel, they take beautiful pictures of beautiful places, if they're aspiring to do what you do. Give us some feedback or guidance or advice where we can start our journey to follow you.

Nate Luebbe: 13:54

Yeah. There are two pillars of it, and the first is that your work has to be of a level that people are willing to pay for. I know that sounds obvious, but I do see a lot of people who buy a camera and then immediately try to start monetizing their content. And you can burn the bridges before they're built. You know, if you start taking on paying clients and you can't deliver, they talk to each other. You're going to kill your career before it takes off. So unfortunately, you do have to practice. You do have to get good enough. And PPA does the certified photography professional. They do the CPP degrees. You can take classes, you can go on workshops, you can learn from people. So, there's good ways to do that. But then you also have to have a lot of business acumen. And that's actually the part I didn't have or expect at first. And it's probably the toughest learning experience for everybody. But you can take the best photos in the world. But if you don't know how to draw a contract or manage a licensing proposal or licensing terms, unfortunately, that's like a huge part of my job is I exchange emails with people, we negotiate rates, we negotiate licensing terms. I work with an executive producer to bring on talent, and we outline shot Locations and scripts and, you know, depending on the size of your production, there's just a lot that goes into it that extends far beyond pushing the shutter and editing in Lightroom. You know, it's a complicated job, but I would say, yeah, learn the business acumen and get your work to a caliber that is worth the rates you want to charge. And then beyond that, it should all fall into place honestly.

Pat Miller: 15:28

No problem. We're done right there. Right? It seems to be a universal truth as I've hosted this show and talked to top flight photographers. The people that are really killing it, they are technically amazing, but they're better entrepreneurs. They really understand what we're trying to get done here. It's not just pretty pictures.

Nate Luebbe: 15:47

Yeah. I mean, just like any business startup. It's networking, it's marketing, it's outreach, final deliverables. Yeah, absolutely. You're an entrepreneur more than a content creator.

Pat Miller: 15:59

Unbelievable. Great conversation. Nate in the Wild, thanks for coming on the show.

Nate Luebbe: 16:03

Yeah, thanks for having me. This was awesome.

Pat Miller: 16:05

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Professional Photographer podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. We definitely did, but here's how we can tell if you enjoyed it. Hit subscribe. Hit like. Give us a comment. And it's important that you do so one because it guarantees good luck. Like when you comment on our videos, you're going to have a great week. I promise you. But also, it lets us know what we're doing right, what we need to do more of, and it also helps our guests know how they are helping you along. So, it's more than just a vanity metric. Hit like. Hit subscribe. Leave us a comment, and good things will happen to you. The other thing that you should be doing, you need to be joining PPA. If you're not a member of Professional Photographers of America yet, well, hello? You're missing it because at PPA, they've got some killer benefits that you can take advantage of, namely, equipment, insurance, top notch education, and you can be surrounded by other photographers that are building their business, and they want you to win. If you're building a photography studio, you belong here. Learn more about PPA at ppa.com. That's ppa.com it's been a pleasure to host this show for you. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Pat Miller. We'll see you on the Professional Photographer podcast next time.