Full Moon Episode 68

[Basa Benejan]

BenMoon is a Pacific City, Oregon based photographer and filmmaker who enjoys working with a diverse range of adventurers, athletes and musicians. Surviving cancer in his twenties inspired a greater connection and appreciation for others and the natural world. Ben finds human emotion to be a source of constant fascination. He is best known for his viral short film Denali, which explored the friendship between Ben and his dog. #DenaliFilm on Vimeo.com/122375452

Aaron: Friends. Welcome to work life play. I'm your host, Aaron McHugh. I'm here to help you find work you love, learn to play, live adventurously, become curious and live your life with joy and purpose. Ready, set, go friends.

Welcome to another episode of work life play. Today. My guest is Ben moon. And how I found Ben moon was I think probably originally through a Patagonia catalog. So Patagonia, the clothing company and then is a adventure photographer. So a lot of the images that you'll see in the catalog, he is the guy behind the camera. And then I saw a really amazing short film by Yeti, like as in the cooler company and Ben moon and a pitcher for the tigers. A guy named Daniel Norris, who as a side note lives in his bus. He drives a 70 early era, um, VW bus similar to our bus. And they did this movie called off season and off season was following Daniel Norris as he lived in his bus and travels. And it turns out he and Ben go on this annual trip together. So that was my interaction. Number two, interaction number three was a movie that you can find on Vimeo by Felt Soul Media called Denali.

And it's a tribute film to Denali Ben's dog that he had for a number of years until he passed away. What's beautiful about the Denali story is it was about his dog getting sick, but it's also about Ben and his journey of getting sick with cancer and subsequently as a survivor now of cancer. So in the course of this interview, we kind of talk through the spectrum of cancer to the Denali story, to now him moving into writing a memoir and a publishing deal that he's just landed or on the Eve of landing, um, some of the work and the help that he has received from, uh, the people in this writing process to some of the shouts out to folks, the two particular ladies that helped him in his cancer diagnosis, and also just kind of the soul of the guy of who is Ben moon and what makes him tick and what does he, what's like, like gets him out of bed in the morning.

So he's a beautiful man. I think you'll really enjoy the conversation with us and what you're going to hear threaded throughout the course of the interview is segments of audio from the film, the Denali film. I would highly recommend that you look up the Denali film and you can just type in and Google Denali, Vimeo. So Vimeo as in the video channel. And then I'd highly recommend you watch the offseason film by Yeti, also about Ben and Daniel Norris, particularly about Daniel Norris. But Ben does all the photography and film behind it, and he is also a participant in the road trip that is featured through the course of this offseason film. So really just killer dude. Um, check out Patagonia. Um, definitely find Ben moon on Instagram. It'll blow your mind the stuff that he posts in terms of the photography that he does. And one of my favorite things is he does these portrait stills of, I just call them people of great impact.

So what he can capture with this camera of an individual person, and they're almost always black and white. It's the one that I've seen and they're these really powerful, powerful, powerful pictures of the soul of a person. And so on there you'll find folks like Yvon Chouinard and you'll find folks like Tommy Caldwell, a lot of folks in the outdoor scene, a lot of folks that are doing neat rad stuff. I'm in the outdoors and also in conservation and other neat endeavors related to the outdoors. So I hope you enjoy this interview. Definitely spent a lot of time in crafting it so that it does a good job hopefully in being attribute to the life, the man, the lessons in the journey and moon hope you enjoy.

Aaron: So I found that quote, I was doing some reading on different articles and stuff that you had had appeared in different interviews. So the part I've been super stoked about connecting with you on is not only the work that you do and in your world of adventure photography, but also just the, what I perceive to be the guy that you are. So I'm excited about just having, like I mentioned, like a, Hey, can we just have a real conversation and let's just see where it goes. So thanks for making time for this and tell us a little bit about where you're calling in from and where's home for you.

Been Moon: Yeah, I live on the Oregon coast. Um, it's about two hours Southwest of Portland. Uh, it's a little town called Pacific City. It's kind of an amazing little, um, convergence of a lot of different lifestyles. Um, it's an old, uh, you know, it was a native fishing, you know, as a native settled settlement was here and there, you know, the, the resources naturally here, so bountiful, there's, you know, obviously on land there's the elk and the deer and I'm in the water. There's, you know, we have, you know, don't just grab and lingcod and you know, the clamming and there's the salmon run up this river. Um, and so it's a pretty incredible place just in general. The, the Niseko river runs through runs through your town and that's where the salmon run. And, but also it's like there's a really incredible surf break, um, here.

And I've been surfing it for about the last 19 years, I guess. And so it's, yeah, so it's, it finally made me home over here. I used to live in, uh, bend over on the other side of the mountains for about nine years. And then I live in Portland for a bit and finally moved over to the coast a couple of years ago and made it my full time home. So, um, but one thing I love about this beach is you can drive right up to the break the, the beach and, you know, tourists can enjoy it. Um, surfers can enjoy it. The fishermen, the dories launch straight from the beach, um, his little Cape called Cape Coanda, um, that shelters us in Northwest wind. And there's a big haystack rock out front. And, um, the Dory fishermen, the Dory boats that fishermen launch from right from the beach, and they, you know, bring them up on beach and it's kind of one of the rare places that that still happens. Um, and so it can get a little hairy with it when the surface good, cause you got to kind of, you know, watch out for the Dory boats as well. But the tourists and surfers and fishermen and everybody can enjoy it equally.

Aaron: Right on. So Ben, what I love about watching your work and seeing the photography you do in video and film is it really does seem like there's this convergence of what we we talk about on Work Life and Play. And it's this when all things, this trifecta, you know, merges into one. So I, I just see that from, again, looking through the lens of Patagonia magazines or, um, through your, your film with your dog Denali or your Yeti off season with Daniel Norris. Like you just seem like you, you just view the world through this, this really unique lens. So tell us a little bit about the backstory and um, I'd love just to hear you riff for a bit.

Ben Moon: Yeah. The, I mean, the film I made about my dog was, you know, he was one of the reasons why I used, you know, Pacific, the, the for the film and for the ocean segment was, was here in um, where I'm at right now. And it was a pretty incredible space too. He and I had been coming here since, you know, he was a puppy and so it was kind of a no brainer. It was like this, the ocean, the ocean here and the Smith rock, which was the other backdrop in the film where the two places were at basically kind of through all life struggles and ups and downs, you know, through cancer. And you know, I was married really young and had a divorce. And through, through all of those struggles, I, I always kept coming back to those places even though, you know, that was kind of like, that was there before.

And after all of these, you know, kind of the most challenging experiences of my life. And, um, and so I think that's why this, this place is so special and decided to make it home. I'd lived over near, you know, near Smith rock, um, while I was in bend and not, not too far away and you know, really dedicated myself to climbing for a solid 20 years. And, you know, and that was kind of where I was my playground and I still love going there and I still love to climb, but I decided to switch it over to the ocean and I'd always kind of found my kind of my center and where I was felt the most restored and grounded by being in the water. And when I was first diagnosed with cancer when I was 29, I had all these second opinions and things and all I wanted to do is go to the water.

And I remember I'd heard some really gnarly news that I was going to have to have, um, you know, colostomy bag and emergency surgery for that. And that was one of the heaviest things for just that younger, you know, person to deal with. And as far as like, you know, you might live from this but it's going to be permanent. And, um, so I, I remember just diving into the ocean and swimming out and in Denali following me out there and you know, just, I was just in my board shorts and it's, you know, ocean here's like, you know, 45 C for warm. And so, and it just, but it was a place that I felt like I wanted to wanting to come to you and, and so it's kind of played a backdrop of a lot of my films and such. I've just, I just appreciate having that blend of ocean environment and natural landscape. And you know, when, when Daniel and I met, I wanted to like, you know, come and show him where I, where I like really found my home too. So, and his off season just kind of plays into the fall season and which isn't always the best. I mean, it's sunny, we have sunshine for the next two weeks, but it's just, you know, every winter is different here. So, um, you never know what you're gonna get.

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