Episode 49 features Anthony Quintano; journalist, visual storyteller, photographer, and someone who’s looking to and has made a mark.
We discuss wanting to be behind the camera, getting noticed, volcanoes and the movie Volcano, twisters and the movie Twister going to outer space and so much more.
During the episode we cover:
- Visual Storyteller
- So you want to be a cameraman?
- Journalism
- Singular focus
- Twisters and Volcanoes
- Weather Obsessed
- Choosing the shot
- Space, the Moon, and the ISS
- Making an impact
- Being remembered
- And much more…
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:22:44
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer dot com capturing the magic of the funny game of baseball. I tell the origin story of my relationship with a cat. And while Kate was a recovering true crime podcaster, I still don’t understand the mass interest. This is The Palmer Files, episode 49 with Anthony Quintano. Journalist, visual storyteller, photographer, and someone who’s looking to and has made a mark.
00:00:22:59 – 00:01:06:38
Agent Palmer
We discuss wanting to be behind the camera, getting noticed, volcanoes in the movie Volcano, Twisters and the movie twister going to outer space, and so much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:06:42 – 00:01:29:44
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic. Also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 49th episode is visual storyteller, multimedia journalist and photographer Anthony Quintano. Anthony’s career is a distinguished one, having worked with or for NBC news, CNBC, MSNBC, ESPN, NBC sports, Honolulu Civil Beat and TD Bank, just to name a few.
00:01:29:49 – 00:01:52:32
Agent Palmer
He’s covered the Olympics, New Year’s Eve from Times Square, countless conventions, a volcanic eruption, and so very much more. What you are about to hear is a discussion about Anthony’s background and how he got into broadcasting and social media, how he fell in love with the idea of being behind the camera, and where that has led him, including the unexpected title of journalist.
00:01:52:37 – 00:02:13:38
Agent Palmer
We also discussed being versatile when it comes to taking photographs and capturing video. Being obsessed with weather and being space nerds, going for the unique being remembered and so much more. Before we get going, remember that if you want to discuss this episode as you listen or afterwards, you can tweet me at Agent Palmer. My guest, Anthony Quintano at Anthony Quintano.
00:02:13:38 – 00:02:36:48
Agent Palmer
That’s a n t h o n y q u i n t a n o, and this show at the Palmer Files for all things Anthony you can visit Anthony Quintano.com which along with the show notes for this episode, will include links to Anthony’s social media and his YouTube channel, as well as other curated content, including a spot where you can purchase some of his beautiful photographs.
00:02:36:53 – 00:02:50:39
Agent Palmer
Email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. So let’s frame it up nice and get it all in focus.
00:02:50:44 – 00:02:59:39
Agent Palmer
Anthony, you are a visual storyteller. Now that’s what you do. Have you always been a visual storyteller?
00:02:59:43 – 00:03:11:43
Anthony Quintano
It’s a it’s a good question. I have always been involved in visual storytelling, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually had the time. It’s my job title now. Okay, but I’ve been a visual storyteller since high school.
00:03:11:48 – 00:03:24:00
Agent Palmer
Is it? I mean, I I’ve, I followed you on Twitter and your accounts and stuff, so I know it’s both static and moving pictures. But where did it start?
00:03:24:05 – 00:03:33:33
Anthony Quintano
So, so the visual starting history for me was really still stills when I was taking a photography class in high school.
00:03:33:42 – 00:03:34:08
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:03:34:18 – 00:03:50:05
Anthony Quintano
But when I graduated from college, actually, even during college, I really determined that I wanted to do video and I wanted to be involved in television broadcast. And that was my that was my goal for a career.
00:03:50:10 – 00:03:50:37
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:03:50:38 – 00:04:14:21
Anthony Quintano
I wanted to be a video camera man. I wanted to be the TV cameraman on a TV show or event production. And what what happened was, is I did this project at community college where I was tasked to edit anything together in video form. And I am a big fan of movies. I grew up with movies. I love film, but I don’t like the process of some of motion pictures.
00:04:14:23 – 00:04:17:00
Agent Palmer
Okay. Yeah. It’s a lot.
00:04:17:03 – 00:04:39:21
Anthony Quintano
It is a lot. And so we were tasked with this production where I had to edit together whatever I wanted. And so I picked song and edited together all my favorite movies to Bon Jovi. Raise your hands. Okay. On the slippery one wet album. And I put together I think at the time there was no downloading movies. No.
00:04:39:21 – 00:04:46:41
Anthony Quintano
And ripping them or whatever. I had to go to blockbuster and rent all these movies. At least 20.
00:04:46:54 – 00:04:47:27
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:04:47:31 – 00:04:50:28
Anthony Quintano
And edit these videos together.
00:04:50:29 – 00:04:52:07
Agent Palmer
Now, what are you editing them on?
00:04:52:08 – 00:05:08:27
Anthony Quintano
So it was a, non-linear editing machine. It’s an actual physical, like, deck that goes on your desk. It has two knobs, and there’s two. I forget what they’re called, but they were like, giant VHS.
00:05:08:32 – 00:05:10:11
Agent Palmer
Okay. All right. Yes.
00:05:10:16 – 00:05:24:46
Anthony Quintano
So you put the the video that you want to rip from in one in the video that you’re editing on, on another 20 of two tapes. And you literally have to set your in and out points and let the scene play out in order for it to edit or record.
00:05:24:47 – 00:05:30:54
Agent Palmer
So in real time, like if you want to cut 26 seconds, you’re sitting through 26 seconds.
00:05:30:59 – 00:05:51:38
Anthony Quintano
It’s a pain. It used to be a very painstaking process. Sure. And it would definitely be something that would deter somebody from that kind of industry. But I was hooked. I would spend late nights in this in the University edit suite cutting this. I was obsessed with this project because I was having so much fun, and I was like, this must be what I want to do.
00:05:51:43 – 00:06:13:50
Anthony Quintano
And then, part of that was a TV production class, and I was obsessed with it. I was love, I’d love to be on camera. I loved controlling my shot, zooming in and out and panning and all that kind of stuff. And, it was at the time it was boring talk shows. But then what happened was I went to Suny Plattsburgh after community college in very far upstate New York, and we had a TV, a class.
00:06:13:50 – 00:06:33:52
Anthony Quintano
There was pure TV production. We had a full on studio. And your job was to show up and put on a show every day or every week, once a week. And that was my obsession, is that class. I failed all my my history class, my philosophy class, whatever other things I had to take, I couldn’t stand them. I, I would skip them.
00:06:33:57 – 00:06:54:06
Anthony Quintano
I was obsessed with my TV class. The one thing that really kicked my career off was that winter break. I ended up getting the opportunity through the college to be a a runner on, TV. I was at AT&T Summer. Sorry, not summer winter goodwill games.
00:06:54:11 – 00:06:54:39
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:06:54:39 – 00:07:18:12
Anthony Quintano
And it was in Lake Placid, New York, and I was a runner grunt worker. I had to do whatever they wanted. Right. Go get coffee. Paul Cable’s coil equipment, put equipment away, whatever. But I had access to all these professionals in the industry, and I was learning stuff on this job that I never learned in any of the the TV classes that I learned.
00:07:18:16 – 00:07:45:42
Anthony Quintano
So I was hooked. I worked so hard on that job. It was a week long. I was standing in snow that was up to my waist on a mountain covering skiers coming down the hill. It was crazy event, and I impressed my, the, the person I reported to so much that, me and a few others were selected to continue doing freelance work on other event gigs beyond that.
00:07:45:42 – 00:08:01:47
Anthony Quintano
And so I went back to school for the next the spring semester and the filling out again and only only passing my TV class. But at this point I’m like, I’m in, I’m in the industry, I’m getting this freelance work. Why do I need to keep going? My father said, I’m not paying for schooling while you’re done here.
00:08:01:47 – 00:08:20:51
Anthony Quintano
And he filled out. That’s it. You you waste your chance. And so I actually, I ended up having to get a full time job as a bank teller back then. And whenever I would get a freelance job, I would just take vacation time and go work this religion. So my next freelance job after that was working with ESPN, and I was like, Holy crap, my second job freelancing.
00:08:20:51 – 00:08:26:52
Anthony Quintano
I’m here working on a TV production crew for ESPN. It was a great outdoor games. Also in Lake Placid.
00:08:27:03 – 00:08:27:51
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:08:27:55 – 00:08:46:25
Anthony Quintano
It was really cool. They actually don’t do them anymore, but it was like, you know, lumberjacks, axing wood climbing trees. And it was pretty really cool event. And I did that for a while, and then I ended up getting a lot, you know, New York City Marathon. I was I was working, but I was all doing it as like a utility, which is an assistant to a cameraman.
00:08:46:34 – 00:08:47:06
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:08:47:08 – 00:08:53:07
Anthony Quintano
So after the third year of doing this, it was starting to get a little frustrating because I was like, okay, well, how do I advance from here?
00:08:53:08 – 00:08:57:42
Agent Palmer
Are you a bank teller for all? For most of these three years as well?
00:08:57:46 – 00:09:14:41
Anthony Quintano
No. I ended up taking a full time job as a lifeguard and doing that for a while. Obviously only during the summers. Yeah. And then, I ended up getting. I was working at a movie theater as a cashier. I ended up getting a job, at the Cheesecake Factory at some point. So you got all these odd jobs?
00:09:14:41 – 00:09:17:48
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Odd jobs to keep the the the dream alive.
00:09:17:49 – 00:09:43:24
Anthony Quintano
Exactly, exactly. Because I felt like if I, I couldn’t survive, obviously, I was I was still living at home with mom. And so I had to bring money in, but I didn’t want to let my dream go. Although the woman that initially hired me for that, that Lake Placid gig, the first one told me you’ll never get a job as a cameraman.
00:09:43:29 – 00:10:02:29
Anthony Quintano
And I asked her why. She told me that directors, especially in remote production event production, are very insecure and they love having all the same guys all the time because they know how they shoot, they know how they work. And it’s it’s one of those things that you just don’t want to risk having a new guy come in and do it.
00:10:02:29 – 00:10:06:06
Anthony Quintano
And so I was I was really heartbroken about that.
00:10:06:06 – 00:10:08:37
Agent Palmer
But they had to have a new guy. I mean, those guys don’t.
00:10:08:37 – 00:10:26:12
Anthony Quintano
But here’s the thing is that it’s all based on word of mouth. Okay. So if the camera guy does bail on a gig, he’s the one that usually provides the backup to him. And they because they trust him, they’ll take his word that this guy is good. It doesn’t always work out there. You know there are guys then.
00:10:26:13 – 00:10:50:17
Anthony Quintano
Yeah but but that was that was the frustration for me. And I didn’t really know enough about the industry. So I ended up getting, my father had passed away around this time and had left me and my brother an inheritance, and I ended up using that money to buy my own equipment. I was like, I’m going to prove that I’m a very good cameraman.
00:10:50:22 – 00:10:56:04
Anthony Quintano
And that was my argument with to hers. Like, well, how could I ever prove that I’m good if I can’t get on a camera to begin with?
00:10:56:06 – 00:10:57:05
Agent Palmer
Yeah, okay.
00:10:57:05 – 00:11:23:53
Anthony Quintano
And so I ended up getting my own camera, my own editing system. This was the old Max. Like the, the translucent ones that you could see through. And it was a big tower, and. Yeah, that was, it was fun to have your own gear and be able to shoot you want. So I actually ended up going out to, like, random local events and just filming B-roll of things, anything that, news worthy or whatever.
00:11:24:02 – 00:11:32:28
Anthony Quintano
And this is right around the time where YouTube started coming up. And, you know, this is social media, like Myspace, Friendster was a thing.
00:11:32:32 – 00:11:36:58
Agent Palmer
So you’ve got so you platforms for these, this stuff you’re shooting.
00:11:36:58 – 00:11:41:44
Anthony Quintano
So that the thing was, is like, okay, I have the equipment now, but how do I get people to see my stuff?
00:11:41:57 – 00:11:42:19
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:11:42:29 – 00:11:59:28
Anthony Quintano
So so I learned about YouTube and I was like, I got to get on there. I had to put out whatever I can so people can see my work. And Twitter ends up coming up. I wrote about this time. And so I, you know, whenever something newsworthy happens, I go and I try to capture like a news guy, except I’m not working for anybody but myself.
00:11:59:33 – 00:12:23:22
Anthony Quintano
Yeah. And, there was a point where I caught. So the flight that crashed into the Hudson River. Yeah. U.S. Airways, I think it’s 1545. I ended up catching the transport of the fuselage out of New York City and ended up passing our apartment, and, ended up getting video of it, and I tweeted it out, and it went viral.
00:12:23:22 – 00:12:36:48
Anthony Quintano
I was getting requests from media outlets in Europe, and I was I was like, Holy crap, my mind’s blown. And it wasn’t video itself. It was the whole concept of social media and the fact that I could reach so many people.
00:12:36:48 – 00:12:37:40
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:12:37:45 – 00:12:55:18
Anthony Quintano
And all of a sudden I’m gaining all these followers and I’m like, Holy cow! So now it’s like, why do I need to go work for anybody, anywhere else? But yeah, eventually, because I ended up building my own following, and continue to do that kind of work, I ended up getting a still camera. In addition to my video camera.
00:12:55:23 – 00:13:17:41
Anthony Quintano
And so I’m doing both now. So whenever I go to a newsworthy event, I’m shooting stills and video. I tried the whole wedding thing for a year, and I hated it. But now during that time, it was funny because I would I would do a wedding video and I would design and take photos for the DVD cover, because back then you had to give people DVDs of their ready.
00:13:17:46 – 00:13:18:53
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:13:18:58 – 00:13:52:18
Anthony Quintano
So strange that that’s a pass now. But, that’s what really got me into photography again. And I actually, I was torn because I was doing both and I really love both, but the still photography was really catching on personally. And so at some point I ended up getting my full time job at NBC news. Much of it was because over the years I had built up experience being a videographer, video editor, a photographer for knowing how to live stream and understanding social media.
00:13:52:18 – 00:14:00:08
Anthony Quintano
And I ended up I had that time. I had like 8000 followers on Twitter, and that back then it’s like, holy, you know? Yeah, you’re that’s a huge following back then.
00:14:00:08 – 00:14:02:02
Agent Palmer
Sure. Early days and.
00:14:02:02 – 00:14:23:36
Anthony Quintano
He’s and he was impressed because I had built all that on my own. And it was funny because the, the first night I went to go be, director of social media for NBC news, I had ended up tweeting at him because I saw he got the job as the first person with social media as a position, and I tweeted, I instantly tweeted at him and said, I would love to meet.
00:14:23:36 – 00:14:41:35
Anthony Quintano
I’ve been doing social media. I’d actually been freelancing for CNBC around that time, and so I was involved with with the company. And so he invited me in and they had this, this live show planned the same that I was meeting him. And so after we had our meeting, he invited me to come hang out while they taped.
00:14:41:35 – 00:15:02:08
Anthony Quintano
They did a live stream and they couldn’t get their live stream to work. And so I jump in and actually get their live stream working again. And so that was it. Zoom. I had the job, and then it took like six months of creating the position or whatever. But I was the first, social media manager for NBC news.
00:15:02:13 – 00:15:39:15
Agent Palmer
So I want to ask because obviously there’s a huge difference between still and moving. As far as pictures and stuff, as an outsider, I guess as a writer who I will use pictures when I need to to accentuate my words. Is there an actual internal struggle for, like, I, I want to be just, still or just moving like, like, can we all get along or do you need to have a specialty like, oh, I do video or oh, I do, you know, you know, photography, right.
00:15:39:15 – 00:15:43:56
Agent Palmer
Like, can can we all get along or do you have to have your, your expertise?
00:15:44:01 – 00:15:46:11
Anthony Quintano
Well, I don’t know what you mean by get along.
00:15:46:16 – 00:15:54:02
Agent Palmer
Well. It just feels like people have to make a decision. Right? Like, I’m, I’m I’m a film guy. You don’t. Okay?
00:15:54:07 – 00:16:14:18
Anthony Quintano
You don’t. So here’s the thing. And it’s going to be interesting in the, in the next couple of years, but it’s so easy to record video now. You don’t need a huge camera. Like it was impossible back then because the cameras are huge for video. Now. It’s your phone. Yeah. You don’t you don’t need a fancy camera anymore.
00:16:14:23 – 00:16:28:36
Anthony Quintano
It depends on what you want to do. But, I actually put a hot shoe, on the hot you a little, phone mount, and I have my phone recording video while I’m taking stills.
00:16:28:40 – 00:16:31:46
Agent Palmer
Okay, so it’s a little. Both.
00:16:31:51 – 00:16:45:22
Anthony Quintano
You can’t you these days, if you’re a photographer, you have to do video. If you want to be, get your name out there and get your work out there. You have to be versatile. It’s it’s unfortunately where the industry is going or it currently is.
00:16:45:35 – 00:16:46:18
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:16:46:23 – 00:17:10:28
Anthony Quintano
Where you in order to brand yourself and market yourself, get out there. You need to be doing video, you need to be doing timelapses. You need to be doing stills. You can’t just do one thing. There are people who do and they choose, you know, to be pure. And I’m a pure photographer is great, but you’re limiting yourself if you there are little pens, if you don’t care about the, you know, reach an following.
00:17:10:32 – 00:17:30:00
Anthony Quintano
That’s fine. Keep doing what you’re doing. If that’s your love, stick with it. And it’s good to do that. It’s good to focus on the one thing because you can perfect it. I feel like a a stress and anxiety whenever I’m out there, because there are moments where I still have to decide, do I want to focus on taking pictures or video of a moment?
00:17:30:05 – 00:17:54:09
Anthony Quintano
Because there’s certain things that you just can’t do? Both. Okay, good examples. The solar eclipse that I just photograph. Yeah. You can’t photograph that or video it with the phone because it’s the sun’s too far away. I would need a really big lens like the one I’m shooting stills now. My still camera that I have tied to this giant lens does both have records, video and stills, but it doesn’t do it at the same time.
00:17:54:18 – 00:18:01:25
Anthony Quintano
Yeah, so what could I do? Now? Here’s the problem. I’m on a boat with the giant lens. That boat is not still.
00:18:01:29 – 00:18:02:07
Agent Palmer
No.
00:18:02:22 – 00:18:17:33
Anthony Quintano
So I’m going to be going up and down, up and down with the waves. That’s not going to be a very pleasing video for the audience. So I’ve made a decision. I’m going to focus. I recorded video on my phone that was behind the scenes with my phone. Okay. You know, like I was getting out there getting into position.
00:18:17:48 – 00:18:36:06
Anthony Quintano
What it looked like just before. Then, as soon as the sun started coming up, I focused on the stills until until it was at a point where we we weren’t, you know, getting good shots anymore. And so then I go back to the video a little bit. So that’s that was, you know, it’s always a battle in my mind to decide what I’m going to do.
00:18:36:15 – 00:18:50:10
Anthony Quintano
But camera, there’s a point and it’s still the discussion is going to be a point where the frame rates in video are so high that you’re going to be able to pull a frame that is high res, is it still.
00:18:50:15 – 00:19:20:22
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, it’s taken. Yeah, we’re pretty close to that. And then you I mean, I guess from the little I do dabble in for photography, I will say I think the eye of a camera person, regardless of what kind of the eye is something that you you don’t learn, you just accrue the through experience because you.
00:19:20:22 – 00:19:20:53
Anthony Quintano
Can’t teach.
00:19:20:53 – 00:19:55:47
Agent Palmer
That because like, even when we get to a point where, okay, there’s a the future, you know, 50 years in the future, there’s a five minute eclipse and you can take all five minutes of video and then you can pull any frame you want, but I’m, like, I, I you if you gave me all of those frames and whatever the frame rate is in 50 years, I would just be like, I don’t know, these these 50 look, okay from this, you know, two minutes like I and I, I don’t know how.
00:19:55:51 – 00:20:11:05
Anthony Quintano
You do it so well. Look, when when you’re shooting video, you can’t achieve a certain look in a freeze frame of a video. Then you would with a still photo, for instance, the motion blur, long exposure. This is like an it’s.
00:20:11:10 – 00:20:16:38
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean the example being what the desert shots where you see the stars.
00:20:16:43 – 00:20:25:06
Anthony Quintano
Except with the trap light lighthouse, which is long exposure. Yeah. There’s certain things you still cannot achieve with a video camera when it comes to stills.
00:20:25:17 – 00:20:26:05
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:20:26:10 – 00:20:47:00
Anthony Quintano
Video cameras are still awful at night. And so, if you have a good, still camera that has the ability to take a long exposure, that’s your goal. And that’s. So that’s what they’re doing right now is, you know, time lapses, but you still you you can build you can take stills to the point where you have a video.
00:20:47:04 – 00:21:12:33
Agent Palmer
Speaking of, you know, video and, and movement. You and just from following you on Twitter, it feels like there’s a part of you that wants to be a storm chaser. Now, is it just that you have, like an interest in it, or do you like, like is it like an interest from afar? Like, I like the movie twister as much as maybe the next guy, or maybe more than that.
00:21:12:33 – 00:21:16:11
Agent Palmer
But I don’t want to go there.
00:21:16:16 – 00:21:39:21
Anthony Quintano
I’ve been obsessed with weather since I was a kid. I’ve been obsessed with lightning, with snow, any kind of storm activity I’ve been obsessed with before twister existed. Okay, again, that was just obsession with weather. When I saw twister, I was obsessed. I was like, I need to see it, I still am, I still have yet to see a tornado in real life.
00:21:39:21 – 00:21:42:19
Agent Palmer
Have you, have you have you gone on a storm chase?
00:21:42:24 – 00:21:48:56
Anthony Quintano
Oh yeah. Let me tell you, it is not easy. See it? They make it look easy. They will.
00:21:48:56 – 00:21:54:11
Agent Palmer
They make it look like any time you go out, there’s going to be void. Like, you might not be close, but you’ll see it.
00:21:54:16 – 00:22:15:17
Anthony Quintano
No, it is not easy. And when you’re out there, it could be an entire, you know, when a tornado pops up on the radar, all of a sudden. Yeah, it could be in a whole nother state, and you’d have to drive three hours to get in order to get it. There’s no way to know if we knew where tornadoes were going to drop, we would.
00:22:15:22 – 00:22:34:32
Anthony Quintano
Well, tech people would be safe. Sure we don’t. And because of that, it makes it really hard to chase. Now we’ve gotten really good to kind of get a general. And there’s some chasers who do this for a living who know where they have a really good idea. But I know some of the best cheese, the red Timbers, one of the best places I know out there.
00:22:34:36 – 00:23:00:27
Anthony Quintano
And he still has days where he misses stuff. Or, you know, he didn’t. It didn’t. The storm didn’t pan out the way they thought it was going to be. So it’s not a perfect thing, but you could go on one of these tours for tornadoes, and there’s a good chance you’ll see something. I, I tried it a couple of times where I would, I would go in my own vehicle and follow them.
00:23:00:32 – 00:23:00:59
Agent Palmer
Okay?
00:23:01:06 – 00:23:25:11
Anthony Quintano
I can’t keep up. I would lose them. And then I would have to go off on my own. I still to this day, I got first. I had a bad experience in Colorado with some other chasers, and I think at that point I was like, you know what? This is not it’s not I don’t know enough. You really need to be a meteorologist or understand and meteorology to do it safely.
00:23:25:15 – 00:23:49:33
Anthony Quintano
And, I don’t know enough to, to do it that way. And so I figure I’m going to let the pros do it. I’ll look from a distance. Maybe one day I’ll sign up to one of those tornado tours and, and be a tourist. But, I tried doing it myself a couple times. I caught some good, great storm cells, which are, I mean, tell you, the weather out there in the plains is just surreal.
00:23:49:37 – 00:24:06:00
Anthony Quintano
And we catch a glimpse of it every once in a while. Here. We just had some amazing shelf clouds come through the New York City area, so I can still do it in my backyard when I say I’m not going to chase them anymore. But if they come to me, I’m going to be out there in case.
00:24:06:05 – 00:24:07:15
Agent Palmer
All right. I mean, because.
00:24:07:15 – 00:24:16:40
Anthony Quintano
I but I love weather. I’ll you’ll see me even when I’m not chasing. I’m tweeting about weather, and I’m. And I’ll share other people’s work whenever they capture amazing stuff is there.
00:24:16:45 – 00:24:42:58
Agent Palmer
So you I know a little bit about your career from post NBC where you have basically traversed North America all the way to Hawaii and back, you know, for various jobs and this that. But, I mean, you travel in the meantime as well. Is there like, I feel like you’re across all mediums. You’ve done multitudes of different stories.
00:24:42:58 – 00:24:52:34
Agent Palmer
Like is there is there one story that or or event that you have covered from your career that like stands above the rest?
00:24:52:39 – 00:25:00:23
Anthony Quintano
The ultimate peak of my career and experience is covering the volcanic eruption in 2018, in Hawaii.
00:25:00:28 – 00:25:01:08
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:25:01:13 – 00:25:14:35
Anthony Quintano
It was life changing for me, and after covering that event, I actually said to my wife, and I’m depressed. I’m depressed because I don’t know what would be more interesting than this, but.
00:25:14:35 – 00:25:30:25
Agent Palmer
You didn’t know. I mean, okay, but I will say this before that event, you didn’t know that covering a volcano would be the high point. Nope. So there’s a chance you just don’t know what the next high point is.
00:25:30:30 – 00:25:43:05
Anthony Quintano
Yes, but I’ve set the bar saying that my next, my peak, my next bar on that, bucket list is going to space and photographing Earth from from the space station.
00:25:43:05 – 00:25:46:06
Agent Palmer
Is that is that the next that’s the next peak for you.
00:25:46:11 – 00:25:49:07
Anthony Quintano
It’s the next peak that I know I will never get to.
00:25:49:09 – 00:26:06:09
Agent Palmer
I, I don’t know, never is a strong word. I mean, it look, in the next and the next decade, I expect that at the very least, costs will go down and there will be journalists going up for free. So,
00:26:06:14 – 00:26:25:30
Anthony Quintano
Fingers crossed, I hope I am an old man who gets to go up for his. You know, he’s on his deathbed and gets to do my dream. I love space to and and so I even as a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. I just was never smart enough.
00:26:25:35 – 00:26:44:21
Agent Palmer
No, no, I look, I never even tried. I mean, at the very least, you and I are. We’re kind of in agreement there. Like, I, I wanted to be an aerospace engineer because I did not have the I didn’t I knew enough about myself to know, like, I didn’t want to go, but I wanted to be around those people and around those things.
00:26:44:26 – 00:27:07:13
Agent Palmer
And when you talk about gadgets like, I don’t know, like, no, it’s not a gadget, but is there anything cooler than a Saturn five? Like, yeah, we’ve seen the space shuttle and we’ve seen, you know what? What Blue Origin. And you know what space X no, I’m sorry. In my head, you’re still not any better than what we took to the moon.
00:27:07:18 – 00:27:26:14
Anthony Quintano
I have to exactly. At I have to say, I’m not a fan of these rockets. I want to I if I’m going to go up, I want to go up in a shuttle. I missed the shuttles. Yeah. I missed seeing them launch, you know, watching these rockets launch. It’s just not as impressive as watching the space shuttle launch.
00:27:26:18 – 00:27:40:15
Anthony Quintano
But, that’s it for space shuttles on until they build whatever we’re going to build to go to Mars. Which I think we’re seeing now. Right, is the, the big silver bullet. Yeah. Thing. I don’t know the name of it.
00:27:40:20 – 00:28:11:35
Agent Palmer
Yeah, well, the name, there’s so many names coming at us all at once. And the other thing is, I understand the concept behind these rockets, but. And, look, being a space nerd kind of colors the lens a little bit as we see these things. But knowing that we’re just getting back to powerful rockets that took us to the moon 50 years ago.
00:28:11:35 – 00:28:21:44
Agent Palmer
Soon, 60 years ago, soon, like we’re we’re so far removed. And yet in all this time, we’ve now coming back to this.
00:28:21:49 – 00:28:39:30
Anthony Quintano
And it’s what’s nice is that we’re at a much faster pace. I feel like, I mean, space throwing up rockets left and right. Yeah. It’s it’s the pace of things is so much quicker than back. Back in the early days, you know, you know, us going to the moon and then building, building something on the moon to then go to Mars.
00:28:39:39 – 00:28:47:28
Anthony Quintano
Yeah. Leaves that open opportunity where you’re right. I might be able to take a bus to the moon and shoot Earth from the moon. Well, who knows?
00:28:47:33 – 00:28:55:32
Agent Palmer
I mean, okay, so you have your choice. Space station or the moon, I, I mean, I, I would still do this.
00:28:55:32 – 00:28:56:58
Anthony Quintano
I would still do the space station.
00:28:56:58 – 00:28:57:42
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:28:57:46 – 00:29:22:59
Anthony Quintano
Yeah, the moon just seems boring to me, you know? I mean, the the idea that you know, would be cool to be on another, another object in space. Okay, that is in man made. But the, the, the closeness of the space station, like being able to see detail, of the planet from that distance is what, what makes me want to go to the space station than the moon?
00:29:23:02 – 00:29:44:23
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I, I think I could see that. I feel like you’re. It’s one of those things where you go to the moon, either because you’re interested in the moon or because you want to see the Earthrise. And once you’ve seen the Earthrise, you’ve seen the Earthrise, whereas in, you know, high Earth orbit or wherever the, you know, space station is, you get to see.
00:29:44:28 – 00:29:49:59
Agent Palmer
The New York at night, you get to see Sydney at night, you get to see them during the day.
00:29:49:59 – 00:30:06:59
Anthony Quintano
Like you, the moon’s too far once too far and it’s a ball of dust. It’s just like you know, you’re there for an hour and it’s like, okay, I’ve done, you know, I want to go back. That would totally be my attitude. Like, I’d totally take this big, amazing moment and be like, okay.
00:30:07:04 – 00:30:07:47
Agent Palmer
All right, I’m done.
00:30:07:52 – 00:30:10:06
Anthony Quintano
What’s next? Let’s go to Mars.
00:30:10:11 – 00:30:26:53
Agent Palmer
Well, on more terrestrial grounds, right. You know, hopefully one day from a safe distance, you will get your twister. But aside from that, is there an event that you haven’t covered that you would like to.
00:30:26:58 – 00:30:28:57
Anthony Quintano
That’s a good question.
00:30:29:02 – 00:30:32:53
Agent Palmer
Like, I mean, you’ve been to, like, almost every convention that could ever be.
00:30:32:58 – 00:30:36:40
Anthony Quintano
Are are you talking about, like, a weather event or are you talking about. No, just any.
00:30:36:45 – 00:30:37:20
Agent Palmer
Event.
00:30:37:29 – 00:30:38:56
Anthony Quintano
Like, oh.
00:30:39:01 – 00:30:39:13
Agent Palmer
That’s.
00:30:39:13 – 00:30:46:07
Anthony Quintano
A good question. No, I want to just cover volcanic eruptions.
00:30:46:14 – 00:30:48:19
Agent Palmer
Okay. The. That’s the.
00:30:48:24 – 00:30:56:32
Anthony Quintano
I’ve covered the Super Bowl. Okay, I have covered I haven’t covered the Oscars, but I’ve been outside the Oscars when it was going on.
00:30:56:36 – 00:30:57:38
Agent Palmer
00:30:57:43 – 00:31:19:04
Anthony Quintano
I’m. I have no interest in baseball or World Series. I’m not a baseball fan. So. Yeah, I mean, I’ve, I’ve kind of done all the, the big event stuff. But as far as natural, like that’s the most amazing thing. That was what made me awestruck by the volcanic eruption. Is that this is this is this is how we started.
00:31:19:09 – 00:31:46:03
Anthony Quintano
This is what we were made of. And to see it happening in front of your eyes and how powerful it felt, like all the things I was feeling, like the rumbling under the ground, under my feet, the heat, I was awestruck at the power. I felt so little when I was covering, when I was standing in front of the volcano and all this lava was flying around me, I was like, if I, I die a happy man.
00:31:46:03 – 00:31:52:52
Anthony Quintano
At that moment, because it was just so amazing to see life happen like that.
00:31:52:57 – 00:31:59:55
Agent Palmer
Now, you were already in Hawaii at that point, right? You didn’t go for that. You happened to be there.
00:32:00:00 – 00:32:21:04
Anthony Quintano
I moved to Hawaii in 2015 to take a job at, nonprofit newsroom. Okay. As their social media person. Again, any job that I took as a social media person, they also utilized my skills as a photographer and a videographer to create content. Yeah. And so I was able to go out and report on stories and stuff like that.
00:32:21:04 – 00:32:40:15
Anthony Quintano
And so what’s funny is, is when the eruption. So the eruption happened in 2018 and it was on the Big Island, not Oahu, where I was living. And I was actually on vacation when the eruption started. I was, I was in Yosemite at the time and watching it on social media. I’m like, oh my God, I can’t believe I’m not there.
00:32:40:20 – 00:33:00:07
Anthony Quintano
And we come home, to Wahoo! And my wife says, you’re going to jump on a plane to go to the Big Island, aren’t you? And it’s like, and this is like on a weekend. So my editor, my editors aren’t going to send me. So the thing about Civil Beat, the newsroom I was working for is that they don’t cover breaking news.
00:33:00:12 – 00:33:01:04
Anthony Quintano
They’re investigative.
00:33:01:17 – 00:33:02:10
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:33:02:14 – 00:33:22:04
Anthony Quintano
So they had no interest in covering the eruption, but I went on my own on the weekend to go see what I could see, and I get there. And so. So what the way was working was, is it’s not your traditional volcanic eruptions, you know, one not you know, everyone thinks it’s all it’s always one big mountain. And the top was off.
00:33:22:08 – 00:33:46:14
Anthony Quintano
This was very different. This was a multiple openings in the ground coming up and spewing lava. So, you know, picture a crack opening in the ground. Yep. And just lava shooting out. And eventually that lava ends up forming a cone, which looks like what your traditional volcano would look like and multiple. And there was, I think, 25 fissures.
00:33:46:14 – 00:33:58:32
Anthony Quintano
So, you know, that opened up. So by the time we landed, it was up to number 15. And the day I got to the Big Island, they all stopped.
00:33:58:37 – 00:34:00:12
Agent Palmer
And I was just.
00:34:00:12 – 00:34:21:49
Anthony Quintano
Trying to, like, everything stopped. And I was like, this is it. There’s nothing’s going to happen. So I go to bed and I wake up. The next morning, a fissure opened up. Somebody live streaming it on Facebook. I’m following closely. I’m like, oh my God, thank God. And I and the guy posted the coordinates in that thing. It’s like I can go in and see it.
00:34:21:54 – 00:34:38:31
Anthony Quintano
So I ended up finding the coordinates and we were literally all in this open cow pasture where this fish is just going off in the middle of the woods, and that was it. We were like ten feet from moving lava.
00:34:38:36 – 00:34:57:58
Agent Palmer
How? Are you a daredevil? Like where? Like because. Because if you told me. Right. Like a fissure is going to open up a mile from your house, where do you want to be? I would probably not go closer to it, personally.
00:34:58:03 – 00:35:20:08
Anthony Quintano
I think. I think it’s funny. My wife asked me the same question, like, why do you do this? Why do you do all these depth of fight? I think it’s the uniqueness. It’s the fact that you and everybody else are scared to go to it. I don’t want to be where 100 other people are taking photos. I want to be where I’m taking a photo and I’m the only one that took that photo, okay?
00:35:20:17 – 00:35:24:45
Anthony Quintano
It’s the uniqueness of the of it. It’s not so much the danger. It scares the crap out of me.
00:35:24:52 – 00:35:25:39
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:35:25:44 – 00:35:43:23
Anthony Quintano
I was scared to death, but it was the fact that, oh my God, I’m going to be one of like six other people that has a photo or video of this. It’s it’s it was historical, the cover, this eruption. And so I’m part of history at this moment. And so that that’s just like all going through my head, it’s like I got it.
00:35:43:23 – 00:36:06:30
Anthony Quintano
I got to capture this because that’s, that’s really my, my goal in life is to have made an impact in some way, affected history in some form so that I’m somehow remembered when I’m gone. I want to have a legacy, okay? I’m not. I’m not trying to, like, save the world or cure anything or anything like that.
00:36:06:30 – 00:36:31:53
Anthony Quintano
But the thing that after the eruption that happened that I didn’t know was going to happen is my name was mentioned on the Senate floor for my coverage of the volcano. Senator Mazie Hirono listed out a bunch of names of news, organizations that were covering the volcano and then singled my name out for live streaming it because of all the people I was helping by streaming the volcano.
00:36:31:58 – 00:36:34:31
Agent Palmer
So they knew where it was, what was happening.
00:36:34:40 – 00:36:55:05
Anthony Quintano
That they knew every from every moment what was happening. Because of the live stream, we managed to find a house that was at a safe place. It was uphill. There was nothing remotely close to erupting around it. Every time I filmed it, everyone thought it was very close, but it was actually at least a mile, mile and a half away.
00:36:55:10 – 00:37:16:14
Anthony Quintano
But we were just we had zoom lenses, so made it look a lot closer. But we had a house with power and internet. It was like the most perfect situation. We were watching all these volcanoes open up, and we’re chilling in the living room watching this all go up. I have a video on my YouTube channel, of me in the living room with the photographer staying with me, and we’re like, Holy crap, we’re just sitting here.
00:37:16:14 – 00:37:39:41
Anthony Quintano
And you literally look out the window and there’s this erupting fissure right there, and it’s so it was so surreal. We couldn’t sleep the first couple of nights because there was a gas explosion from the volcano every like five minutes. And that explosion was it was it would shutter the window like you would. You would see the window bow from the explosion.
00:37:39:46 – 00:37:43:52
Anthony Quintano
We were we actually taped the windows because I thought the windows were going to break from the explosions.
00:37:43:52 – 00:37:47:28
Agent Palmer
Now, was it, was it the force or the sound or both?
00:37:47:33 – 00:37:47:57
Anthony Quintano
Both.
00:37:48:06 – 00:38:08:16
Agent Palmer
Both. So because because look, I mean, we talk about twister and like, you don’t go find a tornado every time you go out volcanoes. It’s one big thing and that’s it. Like you, you don’t. And maybe some earthquakes associated with it. You don’t hear about any of that other stuff, in, you know, in the movies. Right.
00:38:08:16 – 00:38:18:08
Anthony Quintano
And like, you know, and this was some and this was unlike what you saw in the movies, like, because like you said, all you see, actually, I’m wrong. The movie volcano.
00:38:18:13 – 00:38:20:26
Agent Palmer
The one with Tommy Lee Jones, Tommy Lee Jones.
00:38:20:26 – 00:38:35:49
Anthony Quintano
Okay, that was that was a fissure that opens up in L.A. Okay. It wasn’t your traditional volcano. And then that a building into this cone. That’s exactly what we were experiencing in Fisher. Except instead of just one, we were dealing with 25.
00:38:35:54 – 00:38:40:50
Agent Palmer
Yeah, well, and and instead of it being LA, like, it’s would, you know, it.
00:38:40:50 – 00:39:06:52
Anthony Quintano
Was, it was in a residential area. So an entire neighborhood was wiped out. It wasn’t, you know, a city, you’re talking about, you know, small homes, trailers, stuff like that. But there was a full, full neighborhood where people were living. The good thing is, is that the eruption was happening at such a slow pace that people were evacuating when the cracks or forming cracks are forming under people’s houses.
00:39:06:57 – 00:39:12:35
Anthony Quintano
People’s houses were falling into these cracks, before the lava started coming up now.
00:39:12:38 – 00:39:39:36
Agent Palmer
All right. So so this is my general ignorance showing, I guess. But do people. And look, I’ve lived in the northeast for my entire life. So do people in Hawaii kind of understand volcanoes? Just like people on the plains understand tornadoes. And while you may not know when or what, you know what the signs are and like when to leave.
00:39:39:40 – 00:39:40:31
Anthony Quintano
Not everybody.
00:39:40:36 – 00:39:41:41
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:39:41:46 – 00:39:50:26
Anthony Quintano
Not everybody, because there’s a lot of white people that moved to Hawaii, and I call them white people because they’re not Native Hawaiian. Yeah, native Hawaiians know it very well.
00:39:50:31 – 00:39:51:15
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:39:51:20 – 00:40:10:43
Anthony Quintano
Or even people who’ve lived on the Big Island for a long amount of years, not just Native Hawaiians. It’s the people who’ve moved there. Probably get a year or two because it’s, you know, the Big Island and living on these areas and the Big Island there, they there’s older lava there from previous eruptions. So a lot of that land is very cheap.
00:40:10:43 – 00:40:25:50
Anthony Quintano
So it’s very appealing for people to live, you know, go live in Paradise so you can buy your own land here and put your own house or whatever. So a lot of people will just come after vacationing and end up buying a house there. And those are the people who did not know what was going on or how it was going to happen.
00:40:25:50 – 00:40:46:30
Anthony Quintano
I met a few of those people. And then there’s the people who knew right away the cracks, the fissures you become. You learn about it when you move there, you start to learn about it. You hear about the early eruptions, you have to get insurance for this, obviously. So I’m sure at that point is where you start discovering.
00:40:46:30 – 00:40:50:50
Agent Palmer
It’s actually I’m I’m guessing it could happen. Is it actually called Volcano Insurance?
00:40:50:55 – 00:40:56:58
Anthony Quintano
I don’t know exactly what it’s called. Okay. I don’t, it’s possible, but I don’t know.
00:40:56:58 – 00:40:57:21
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:40:57:36 – 00:41:02:38
Anthony Quintano
I just I do know that some people did not have insurance and lost everything.
00:41:02:43 – 00:41:29:16
Agent Palmer
So for me, right, I live within I’ve lived in eastern or northeastern Pennsylvania for my entire life, basically. And I’ve been I’ve traveled elsewhere. But this is where I am. So a blizzard when hurricane, hurricane Sandy was my first hurricane, right? Like, you know, but other than that, it’s been blizzards. I know nothing of tornadoes. We, you know, there have been a few within 50.
00:41:29:16 – 00:41:30:23
Anthony Quintano
Miles out here of.
00:41:30:23 – 00:41:45:44
Agent Palmer
Late, but, you know, not not crazy like that. And, you know, volcanoes are foreign to me, you know, that might as well that might as well be Mars as far as my universe here. Right. And so to me, you might.
00:41:45:44 – 00:41:46:58
Anthony Quintano
Get an earthquake, though.
00:41:47:03 – 00:42:09:28
Agent Palmer
Well, I, I remember, I remember what is it? Man? What? My memory’s going to be bad now. I think it was 2011, 2012. We had, we had a, like a two point. We had enough to make you feel like it was an earthquake. Now everybody out west was like, that’s not an earthquake. Yeah. We don’t as a for a place that doesn’t get one.
00:42:09:28 – 00:42:19:34
Agent Palmer
Anytime the ground moves, it’s it’s of note. So I remember that. But like, for me, all of this is so foreign.
00:42:19:39 – 00:42:20:13
Anthony Quintano
Absolutely.
00:42:20:13 – 00:42:26:51
Agent Palmer
And unlike you, I’m, I’m, I’m going the other direction, probably, like, I know not I’m not going there.
00:42:26:56 – 00:42:39:12
Anthony Quintano
Well, that’s it’s funny because everyone now knows that I’m, I’m a death defying photographer, that when the end of the world comes, I’m going to be out there filming it and not running to a shelter here.
00:42:39:12 – 00:42:51:26
Agent Palmer
But, I mean, you’ve been fair. Like, you know, you were you weren’t, you weren’t, you know, roasting marshmallows on the lava, right? Like there was a you were a safe distance away. So.
00:42:51:31 – 00:43:21:04
Anthony Quintano
And I don’t just do it to go take a picture either. After being a journalist and working with news organizations for ten years, I’ve learned the value of information and providing that information. And so what I do is try to help inform people in an emergency. So when I do do this stuff, like in a storm, if some if I’m chasing and I see something and nobody else is around, I report it so that people know what’s going on.
00:43:21:09 – 00:43:40:55
Anthony Quintano
A lot of people found it very helpful to there were a lot of people whose homes weren’t or question marks like they left, and their house was still there. A lot of people wanted to know what was their property damage during the eruption. Can you check on us? You know, hey, is my house still there? Can you get some pictures of it or whatever?
00:43:40:59 – 00:43:44:47
Anthony Quintano
You know, those kinds of little things were helpful to people.
00:43:44:51 – 00:44:13:47
Agent Palmer
I mean, we we talked a lot about your, I guess, media, background, the journalism thing. I mean, you didn’t go to school for that. And even if you did, those were not classes you were attending. So how does the journalism kind of take hold? I mean, obviously you’re working within the media, but you’re not, you know, there’s a progression that you’ve made into being a journalist just by, quote unquote, learn by doing.
00:44:13:47 – 00:44:14:08
Agent Palmer
Right?
00:44:14:08 – 00:44:34:17
Anthony Quintano
Like I used to ask my boss, this at NBC news, because I, I was really intrigued by who the, you know, the reporters and the journalists I was working with. And what would happen is, is when I would go out and and capture something. While working at NBC news, people started calling me a journalist and I was like, am I a journalist?
00:44:34:22 – 00:44:34:53
Agent Palmer
00:44:34:58 – 00:44:57:03
Anthony Quintano
Is. And then I started thinking like, don’t I have to go to school and get like certified? Is there a plaque or something that says, I, I’m a journalist. There isn’t. There is no anybody’s a journalist. You’re a journalist by interviewing me. And so, it’s very it’s a very broad title. Journalists are storytellers. There are people who write books.
00:44:57:03 – 00:45:20:58
Anthony Quintano
There are people who who tell, you know, audio stories and stuff like that. So it’s a big spectrum. And because I report to inform, I’m a part of that world. I did not. And I tell that people all the times, like, I didn’t go to school, I didn’t study journalism, but I, I’ve done reporting, I’ve helped people, I’ve shared their stories.
00:45:20:58 – 00:45:41:29
Anthony Quintano
And I still do that to this day. That makes me a journalist. Currently, I’m not an accredited journalist, meaning I don’t work for an accredited news organization. Which I can’t go and I don’t have the access that a journalist has who works for CNN or NBC news now. So that really makes the difference.
00:45:41:34 – 00:46:09:43
Agent Palmer
If, I mean, you’ve you’ve worked for bigger organizations throughout your career. If you had if I were to say, you know, you get to go back 20 years, but you’re starting over, would you, would you stay freelance? Would, would more often. Because obviously now that’s a path that’s actually more viable than it ever was. Or would you kind of, you know, see what opportunities came?
00:46:09:48 – 00:46:34:28
Anthony Quintano
I for for the longest time I’ve wanted to work for myself. I, I had a hard time working for other people and I struggled with that a lot. And so when I left Hawaii, I left without a job to go to. And my hope was coming off of everything I did in Hawaii that I’d be able to do, freelance and live off of it.
00:46:34:33 – 00:47:07:17
Anthony Quintano
I’ve learned it’s not that easy. And it is. No, it is so insecure, that it just it was it was scarier to become poor and almost homeless than to work full time. And so I learned that I couldn’t make it work. I tried it, and, it got a little too scary for me. And my wife and so, I gave it my best shot at Colorado.
00:47:07:22 – 00:47:28:30
Anthony Quintano
And that’s why we moved to new Jersey or back to New Jersey’s, because I ended up getting this full time job. Now it’d, And thank God I did, because then Covid started, and if I was attempting to do freelance during that, I would we would have been on the streets. And that is not a good time. No.
00:47:28:35 – 00:47:46:07
Anthony Quintano
To be on the streets. No. So yeah. So I, I took my ego down from the clouds thinking that I could go out on my own and do this and I couldn’t. There are people who can. There are people who make it work. They do. They hustle like crazy. They work 24 hours a day trying to make it work.
00:47:46:07 – 00:48:05:47
Anthony Quintano
And that’s the thing is, like, I, I don’t really want to I’m getting older. I don’t want to be working endlessly. And there’s guys who camera guys that I know who go from one country to the other, one location, another one new story to the other. They don’t go home. They don’t have homes. They just live out on the road.
00:48:05:52 – 00:48:23:44
Anthony Quintano
And that’s the life they love and they choose. And I, you know, they started that way and they they make it work that I like the breaks. I like being able to do what I want to do. And so working full time has allowed me to, you know, I was able to photograph the solar eclipse and still hold the full time job.
00:48:23:49 – 00:48:24:40
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:48:24:45 – 00:48:33:50
Anthony Quintano
And so that’s kind of, the my reality, it’s much more secure, a lot more security. And doing it this way.
00:48:33:55 – 00:49:07:58
Agent Palmer
People in, in in my experience, so I’ve been I’ve been unemployed for almost two years now. I never took vacations. So here’s all my savings going to keeping me living at a moderate lifestyle, I guess. But one of the interesting things was because I have a blog, because I was interested in podcasting and because I have, a business which is just a side hustle.
00:49:08:03 – 00:49:34:36
Agent Palmer
My first six months of unemployment, when I was networking with people who knew any little bit of all that went, why don’t you do it on your own? Why don’t you? What? Why don’t you make your side hustle, your full time hustle and and and for me? It’s not the work that’s the problem. Like, it’s not the the putting pen to paper.
00:49:34:36 – 00:50:04:41
Agent Palmer
It’s. It’s the hustle. That’s the I, I, I cannot sell myself. I am a horrible. If you give me a job, I will do the hell out of that job. But I’m also not, going to go out and find that it’s like, so, so when you talk about security. Oh my God, like that, I, I’m with you 100% like, yes, being your own boss is cool.
00:50:04:45 – 00:50:10:49
Agent Palmer
But you know what else is cool? Knowing that next week the pay is the same as this week.
00:50:10:54 – 00:50:38:11
Anthony Quintano
Yep. And there are times where it takes away from my dream. Like I want to be in Iceland covering the volcanic eruption there right now and if I had the resources, I would be living there documenting that eruption like I did. No, I, I don’t have the resources. And then on top of it, Iceland’s not letting people or they are now, it’s just too expensive to travel there for me.
00:50:38:16 – 00:50:56:03
Agent Palmer
But because I’m working from anywhere right now, though, like, if you did, like, I get it, you know, if if the last few years hadn’t been, rough and you were in a better financial place, could you still work and, like, you know, temporarily go there during the eruption?
00:50:56:08 – 00:51:24:32
Anthony Quintano
Well, technically, right now, I could take vacation time and go, okay. And technically, I have the money to do it. So I have no excuse at the moment. I could go for, like, a week and cover it. My problem is, I think the other thing is the uniqueness. There’s been hundreds, thousands of people who’ve been able to go to that qualcuno for the last month or two, and so it’s kind of been beaten to death.
00:51:24:32 – 00:51:31:46
Anthony Quintano
And so if I go, my stuff isn’t going to be nearly as interesting as the stuff that, you know, it’s already been done.
00:51:31:51 – 00:51:32:53
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:51:32:58 – 00:51:54:43
Anthony Quintano
And that that’s kind of what takes away the desire a little bit for me. Because, you know, it’s one thing to take something for yourself. It’s another thing to know that you’ve taken something that other people appreciate. And yeah, sure, I could document it in my own way and make it unique in that form, but it’s a very expensive trip, a lot of money to go and do that.
00:51:54:43 – 00:52:01:41
Anthony Quintano
And we’re still we still have a lot of debt to pay down from our our year of unemployment in Colorado.
00:52:01:46 – 00:52:23:42
Agent Palmer
Is there like, okay, so what do you do for fun then? Because like all of this is passion and it’s work and it’s not by any stretch easy. You know, it might be fun to go out on a boat and shoot an eclipse, but I’m not going to call that easy. So, like, what do you do for fun?
00:52:23:47 – 00:52:45:09
Anthony Quintano
That is my fun. It is, being able to go on an adventure like that is my fun. Me sitting on a beach for a day is not fun. I’ve gotten so used to not hanging out with other people. So going out to a bar, not nothing of interest to me. Even hanging around other people.
00:52:45:09 – 00:53:12:30
Anthony Quintano
Not interested. Me. I want to see things that I haven’t seen before. I want to discover. I want to be out hiking to, location. I’ve never seen that scenic. I want to travel. Traveling is fun for me. And then documenting that travel.
00:53:12:35 – 00:53:32:32
Agent Palmer
I do have to confess to having a tinge of envy when it comes to Anthony’s singular focus of the one thing he wanted to be that he achieved it is something else. Because his journey, as you have heard, has not been linear. But he was able to do what he wanted, and from there he survived and evolved into other roles and positions.
00:53:32:32 – 00:54:04:03
Agent Palmer
But that first one singular drive, I do envy that the ability and drive to go after it is one thing and is definitely a requirement for achievement. However, the first step is to know what you want and that is something I struggle with because for me it isn’t singular or it never appears to be. And so I’m always pushing myself towards something well, being pulled in other interesting directions only to be moved again, like an untethered boat on the sea, adrift.
00:54:04:08 – 00:54:28:30
Agent Palmer
A few episodes ago, I postulated that perhaps we all end up where we are supposed to, which would explain why Anthony, who is not a daredevil, still wants to go that extra mile to cover newsworthy happenings, even if it means chasing tornadoes or reporting from the lava flows of an active volcano. He is every bit the cameraman he always wanted to be.
00:54:28:35 – 00:54:53:20
Agent Palmer
So perhaps even though I don’t have a definitive direction or goal, I should keep striving forward as the wind of my mind blows. Because if I don’t move at all, I can’t arrive anywhere. And if I’m going to believe all of that, then why not believe in the idea that, and I got this from an odd song called Rivers Cried in the desert.
00:54:53:20 – 00:55:17:03
Agent Palmer
More things are named after water, if you name it, maybe it will appear. So I’m going to start naming where or what I want to be, even if it’s going to change, and I urge you to do the same whether you are adrift and know it like I am or you don’t. Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 49.
00:55:17:08 – 00:55:37:02
Agent Palmer
As a reminder, all links are available in the show notes. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you are still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can tweet me at Agent Palmer, my guest, Anthony Quintano at Anthony Quintano that aren’t h o n y q u I nta.
00:55:37:04 – 00:55:58:49
Agent Palmer
And oh and this show at the Palmer files for all things Anthony you can visit Anthony Quinn tano.com which along with the show notes for this episode, will include links to Anthony’s YouTube channel as well as his socials and other curated content, including a spot where you can purchase some of his photos. Email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com.
00:55:58:57 – 00:56:08:46
Agent Palmer
And as always, your home for all things Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
00:56:08:51 – 00:56:14:32
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00:56:14:36 – 00:56:22:47
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00:56:22:52 – 00:56:29:58
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Me.
00:56:30:03 – 00:56:35:26
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00:56:35:30 – 00:56:50:28
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Me.
00:56:50:33 – 00:56:53:35
Agent Palmer
All right. Anthony, do you have one final question for me?
00:56:53:40 – 00:56:57:34
Anthony Quintano
Why do you podcast.
00:56:57:39 – 00:57:10:55
Agent Palmer
So it it’s weird because, I know why I started the podcast.
00:57:10:59 – 00:57:11:54
Anthony Quintano
Which is.
00:57:11:59 – 00:57:38:36
Agent Palmer
Why it was a it was it was time, you know, I had been guesting on everybody else’s shows. It was time to do my own thing. But of late, I’ve been thinking, you know, my blog turns ten this year, this podcast is going to turn to for me. I’ve started to think about that question in terms of why I continue to podcast, and it is fun.
00:57:38:41 – 00:58:10:35
Agent Palmer
I like it’s fun, but I don’t quantify that as a reason to keep doing something, and I still continue to do it. And I don’t know why I’m, the the why may be my holy grail. I, you know, because I, I guess I can easily go. Why, if I’ve been blogging for ten years and I, I enjoy it like I enjoy the writing process, I enjoy some of the research I do.
00:58:10:40 – 00:58:34:38
Agent Palmer
You know, I enjoy reading the books that I review and, you know, occasionally I’ll do deeper dives and that research is fun. But why do I continue to do it? Like, I started this podcast and I haven’t missed a Tuesday since I did, and I started the blog ten years ago. And yeah, it’s come and gone. But over the last 4 or 5 years I haven’t missed a Thursday or I should say for the podcast I haven’t missed.
00:58:34:38 – 00:58:59:42
Agent Palmer
And every other Tuesday I’m still in my own head trying to figure out why I continue these things. That I started them is so far behind me now, I still can’t figure out why I continue. I I’m crazy, I don’t know, I feel like I have things to share. I, I don’t know, I’m still trying to figure out why I continue these things.
00:58:59:47 – 00:59:06:24
Anthony Quintano
So do you picture a day that you’ll stop and if you do stop, what’s next?
00:59:06:39 – 00:59:43:47
Agent Palmer
Yeah. So I, I discovered that the blog turns ten this year because I what it’s I’m not a person who would ever pay attention to that. I’m not a birthday guy. Right. Like I don’t celebrate those things. And I was doing math for something else and went, oh my God, my blog turns ten. What? And so you think about do I take a break?
00:59:43:47 – 00:59:51:56
Agent Palmer
And the same with the podcast. Podcast turns to you think about do I take a break?
00:59:52:01 – 01:00:18:57
Agent Palmer
I don’t know what my life would be if I didn’t have those rhythms. It’s Thursday, the post goes out every other Tuesday. The the podcast goes out, and in between I’m doing the editing and the the reaching out to future guests. And like the the rhythms of those creations in a way have become the rhythms of my life now.
01:00:19:01 – 01:00:42:11
Agent Palmer
Unemployment has had a huge deal to that. This is all I do right now. When I’m not looking for something more sustainable. But I. I wonder what’s left. I’m. Let’s move away. I’m afraid to stop because I don’t know what happens. I’m not going to say, like I’m a shark. I’m going to die if I stop.
01:00:42:19 – 01:01:07:39
Agent Palmer
But I’m afraid what happens? Like, do do I lose the energy? Like, do I lose the momentum of just doing it, doing it, doing it, or maybe there is something else, but at the moment, the honest answer is I’m too afraid to stop and I’m having a pretty good time anyway.
01:01:07:43 – 01:01:10:01
Anthony Quintano
Is there? Do you have an audience?
01:01:10:05 – 01:01:47:45
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I mean, I have an audience, I and I, I, I’ve cultivated a very, small following that like a small, a small core following that then has like periphery. So I know my, my core blog audience and I know my core podcast audience. And then, you know, depending on the guest or the topic, it expands exponentially. But I think maybe, perhaps I’m still doing this for me.
01:01:47:49 – 01:02:09:46
Agent Palmer
I, I, I know there are other blogs like mine out there, and I know there are other podcasts that have conversations, but I haven’t found them that sound like this or that, you know, read like mine. So, you know, if if for nothing else, this is for an audience of one. Me?
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).