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Justin Brady: Real Iowa’s Real talk. No drama. I’m Justin Brady from the Jet Throws Barbecue Studio, and this is the Iowa Podcast. If you’ve seen an Iowa tourism magazine or seen a big story about. Iowa in the news and they just featured this really, really cool photo, did you know all those photos share something? Or I should say some in common. He’s here in the studio. It’s Brian ing. Thank you so much for coming on the Iowa Podcast,

Brian Abeling: for having me.

Justin Brady: Your Facebook page, um, has quite a few that has attracted some attention, but also just your Iowa photos in general. It, It might be easier to start with. The list of where they haven’t been featured, but um, they’ve been all over. they’ve been in the news they’ve been on tourism magazines, and I did look at your heat map of Iowa Photos and they are just all over the place. We’re gonna get into all that before we do. If you like barbecue like I do, this is the Jet Throws Barbecue Studio. If you want 30. in free barbecue, go to Iowa podcast.com. Click that banner at the top, go buy a hundred dollars gift card, and they will give you. A $30 gift card. So go get more chicken wings. Um, all Over the place, dude.

Brian Abeling: Yeah, yeah. It it’s everywhere.

Justin Brady: Is there anywhere? I mean, first, let’s stop, let’s start with, um, where like what is the top, like five maybe of where your photos have been featured and you were like that was a career highlight. That was really really exciting. highlight. I mean, there’s a lot. of ’em, so it might be hard to

Brian Abeling: ones. I, I gotta admit, I’ve always liked. I’ve always wanted to do photography work for various magazines. And so lately the stuff for our Iowa and the Iowa one, um, I always get giddy when I go to Hy-Vee or go to Barnes and Noble and you see your own work right there on display. People walking around, people picking it up. That’s always really cool. That never, you never get tired of that. Uh, another oddity, you’ve been to the Des Moines airport, you’ve been to the luggage place where you pick a carousel, you pick up your luggage. There’s a TV monitor there, and it’s always just showing little hype videos about Des Moines. I have a video or have at least at least one video clip on there. Probably running for the last 15 years. Really? Yes. every time I’m at the airport, I stop and my wife’s like, okay, you know, there’s something there. You can stop looking. You stop. And I’m like, no, I wanna see what’s running today. Oh, it’s the hot air balloons. Oh yeah. it’s fine. It, it’s whatever. So that’s some work with Greater Des Moines partnership. Uh, then I do some stuff with Catch Des Moines and other places as well. So, I mean, yeah, that’s, uh, the magazine work, the airport, um, highlights though, I mean, I was asked to help out at the Indianola Hot Air Balloon Festival. Oh yeah. And of course they’re like, well, yeah, I know we, we need, we need some, we need some stuff. And we’re gonna send you in a hot air balloon, so I’m like

Justin Brady: like, okay.

Brian Abeling: the same time with a hundred other hot air balloons. Not just up in a hot air balloon, but let’s go at the same time that you’re in this mass chaos of a hundred balloons going up like that. That’s just cool. Um, mountain Dew skateboarding, loved doing stuff like that. Red Bull events. Uh. All that kind Field of Dreams. How could I forget Field of Dreams? I didn’t go to the first Field of Dreams game, but I went to the second one, did some work for the Iowa Magazine at that one. That’s, wow, that’s, that’s an awesome event. Would love to go back the third time. By the way, if somebody needs me to cover for the third

Justin Brady: Hint, hint.

Brian Abeling: get, let’s let’s, clear that. Hint, hint,

Justin Brady: Hint, hint, everybody. Yeah. It’s, uh, you post all these photos on this Facebook page called Iowa Road Trip. So I’m assuming is, is, we’ll get into this later, but. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of photos, and you’re all over the place. Is this your fulltime job just taking photos?

Brian Abeling: No. No. What, do you do That’s not, that’s my night job. My, my day job is the director of technology for West Des Moines schools. So that’s the day job. Night job is Iowa Road trip. And let’s go back and clarify. You said, oh, there’s photos all over the place. Okay. So like this morning at 10 o’clock, as there’s probably a post of who knows where in Iowa. An hour later there was a post somewhere else and people are like How, how’d

Justin Brady: get there?

Brian Abeling: How’d you get there? How, what? Like no, it, it is all scheduled. It’s all automated because I’ve

Justin Brady: of course,

Brian Abeling: the state for over, well over a decade shooting photos, doing festivals and little roadside attractions and all these little stuff. And so what I did is I, you, you go online and you build these buckets that basically said, like, I started with summer. Fall, winter, spring. Pretty complicated system there for, for the buckets. And then, and then, you know, there’s, within each bucket there might be a thousand different images with some text and some information. And then every so often, we’ll then we started moving into festivals and other different things. And so yeah, about every hour it just pops out and shows you a new corner of Iowa.

Justin Brady: So you’re just extremely organized and basically when you do travel the state, you’re essentially taking photos all the time and you’re documenting them, logging them for later.

Brian Abeling: Yeah, so as my wife says, the camera eats first, so I, she’s over it now because everywhere we go out to eat, every so often she’ll be like, pushes the plate over. Oh, this is, because she knows she’ll, she’ll be like this, this is cool. This, this is a great looking sandwiches presented. She’s like, go ahead. Just get it outta your

Justin Brady: Go. go ahead. sweetheart.

Brian Abeling: Get a picture of it

Justin Brady: We can wait till it gets

Brian Abeling: cold. I was over at the Ingersoll when they opened up for the, for one of their, one of their evenings as well. We, my wife and I were up there in the balcony, Ingers saw, and we’re, and I’m apparently taking so many pictures of food, these four elderly lady behind me, and they, they started bringing their food up to my table. What? Yes. And they’re like, we noticed you’re taking a lot of pictures of food. I thought maybe you’d wanna take a picture of my dessert.

Justin Brady: Hold on. So, okay, wait a minute. so people, is this a normal thing, where people will like bring you subject subjects to shoot when you’re at a ver various events?

Brian Abeling: Oh actually that is true. Yes. If I’m at certain events, like I’m, the very first time I was at, oh, let’s say, uh, orange City Tulip Festival, I’ve been to Pella many, many times. I decide, okay, orange City needs a little love. So I head up there, I go to the Tulip Festival and you know, the streets are crowded with people and people start, somebody starts yelling my name, They’re like, oh, we noticed you’re in town. And I’m like, how did you notice? I haven’t posted anything yet

Justin Brady: oh, ’cause it was scheduled.

Brian Abeling: it’s all scheduled. So I’m like, I don’t post when I’m there live. I mean, I usually collect it and then I do it later. So I’m like, so then they’re like, oh, we gotta show you this, or we gotta show you that. And locals who pick you up and recognize you, well we’ll do that because they, they’ve got something in mind like, Hey, did you know about police over here? Okay, tell me about it. Let’s go see. Yeah. So that, that does happen, not, not all the time, but yeah, that’s.

Justin Brady: You mentioned uh,

Brian Abeling: to my plate is extreme

Justin Brady: you, I have, I have so many questions, but you mentioned Pella and you had told me earlier before we met that, uh, over email, that there’s this really interesting story about Pella and that for. Uh, Iowa photographer, you’ve taken photos all over the state, like literally every corner. But for what? there’s one weird reason you get up at 2:00 AM or shoot photos at 2:00 AM. in Pella during Tulip Festival.

Brian Abeling: Pictures and not even, well, usually before the festival, but you, the tulips, I take pictures of tulips at night. if that is one of the, like if you had a list of things that I do every year, that’s one of ’em. As I go to go to Pella and I’ll try to be there between 2, 2 30 in the morning and you kind of got Central Park and Sunken Gardens. You got all those places to yourself and you’re shooting pictures of the tulips at night. And actually the parks are well lit, so it, they make for really interesting photographs of tulips in the middle of the night when everything’s still and there’s nobody there.

Justin Brady: So just like. long, you see, I don’t, I don’t know the

Brian Abeling: do long exposure shots of them and sometimes not.

Justin Brady: Really? sometimes not. So you bring in your own light?

Brian Abeling: No. Mm-hmm. There’s actually, actually, they’re actually well lit. The places is actually well done. It’s, and the only time I’ve ever run across people is like the, a couple of years ago, I think some guy asked me to move my car ’cause they were cleaning the streets at two 30 they were getting ready for the festival. So otherwise there’s nobody there. But yeah, it’s, but that’s an oddity that I go to pretty much every year. Just like. You’ll go, so you’ll go at that moment in time, you’ll stay till about sunrise. And when the sun comes up, I’ll stay for maybe half hour, an hour, and then I usually take off.

Justin Brady: Yeah. the you, you also mentioned that, um, you got because 2:00 AM this is something that’s really funny because it’s something that I just would’ve never thought of, but you’ve gotten this weird question, which is, oh, sometimes you’re up at like 2:00 AM shooting photos in Iowa. Isn’t that dangerous? Where’s that come from?

Brian Abeling: that come from? It comes from somebody who’s not familiar with Iowa. ’cause I’m like, it’s, it’s two 30 in the morning. I’m at Pella. Like, well, well, but how do you protect yourself? I’m like, this is Pella. Hello. From what? From, from what am I protecting myself from? I mean, I, I’m gonna get be first in line at the bakery. I know that. And that’s it. I’m not there to get in line for the bakery. I’m there for the tulips. And, uh, but no, that’s just, yeah, that’s, but that’s one of the great things about Iowa. You don’t realize how safe things really are. I mean, you, we, we’ve been all, I mean, I can be all over the place and, uh, people will stop, check on you, make sure things are okay. Um. But yeah, there’s nothing I need to protect myself from at Pella to you.

Justin Brady: a this, I mean, this is kinda like Iowa. Nice. This is Iowa nice on display. As a photographer shooting all over the state, have you been routinely stopped by people then just checking on your wellbeing, seeing what you’re doing, making sure, has anybody tried to. feed you randomly?

Brian Abeling: Yes. So here’s the random one. Let’s see. I’m in Jones County. I am parked on a gravel road. Uh, there’s a old traditional windmill and it’s out on the horizon. So it’s a good distance away. So that means when I zoom in on it, I’m gonna get the sun setting up against it. So I’m driving up down the road trying to figure out exactly where the sun’s gonna go. I finally land in the spot and I’m like, okay, this is it. So then I just, you know, I got 20 minutes till sunsets I’m just gonna park the car here, get the tripod set up, get things going. You know what, right as I’m getting ready to go after the sun passing right through this, this windmill, the pickup comes by and the pickup comes by. ’cause the farmer’s, like my wife saw you. And after about 10 minutes, she’s like, I, she told me I have to come check on you to make sure you’re okay. And that’s the kind of typical Iowa story. And she’s like, you look like you’re okay. Yeah, I’m okay. Sometimes they’ll stop and talk and see what’s going on, and other times they’ll look at me and go, you’re fine. And they go back to work.

Justin Brady: You. you mentioned, um, that’s super funny. You, you Mentioned Iowa, sunsets, and this is also something you pointed out. a while ago, but You mentioned Iowa sunsets and I don’t know. I kind of think there’s something special about Iowa sunsets, but as a photographer, is there a reason for that? Is it just because we have so much open land and the air’s clean. What are the reasons for that?

Brian Abeling: Simple. We don’t have mountains.

Justin Brady: don’t tell anybody.

Brian Abeling: But we can see from sky to sky, so you can see from horizon to horizon. That’s a big factor. I mean, otherwise, I mean, yes, Florida and Arizona have great sunsets too. Uh, but, but, but Iowa and, and Iowa really was on display during that first field of Dreams game because when the sky lit up at, at sunset during that game, it was on the national stage.

Justin Brady: Mm-hmm. Was

Brian Abeling: wow, look at that. And the rest of us are like, okay, that’s Tuesday. Any given day was, you know, could have a sunset like

Justin Brady: Yeah. That

Brian Abeling: was great that it was on stage at the perfect time.

Justin Brady: Yeah. Yeah. ’cause it was the one that looked like, fire or something. Right? You, you were talking to me about that before. Yeah. That’s, uh, yeah. Well, as, as you’ve said before, they want you back. for the field of dreams thing. He’s available everybody. The, What are some of the. favorite shots that that really stick out? Like, uh from across Iowa, what are those favorite Iowa shots or moments that maybe aren’t on everyone’s top to see list?

Brian Abeling: Oh, Uh, well top photos and I’ll, I’ll tell you how I got my top list. How I got my I’ll, and I’ll rattle through some of those is when I first posted pictures to Facebook, I was posting ’em on my own personal account and people kept tagging photos they liked and they would say. They would say like they would tag you and they’d say, Justin, road trip, we need to go here. Hmm. And so they already kind of picked my winners. And so it was things like Mines of Spain, um, horseshoe Bluff, it’s called in Dubuque, Iowa. Iconic photo there that’s kind of lived on for years, that every time it gets posted does really well. ’cause people are like. Dude that’s not in Iowa. I’m like, yeah, yeah, that, that’s in Iowa Rollercoaster Road up in Al McKee County. People are like, yeah, that’s fake. That’s not real. I’m like, no, no. This why It’s called Rollercoaster Road. That is the actual name of the road and it is legit one mile of seven massive hills and. Yeah. And so those couple of photos as well as the, the tulips and, and, and uh, and Pella and then of course the hot Air balloon festival. I always, always gets attention from me as well. ’cause people are like, yeah, that there’s not that many hot air balloon that’s just, just, that’s not Iowa. I’m like, yeah, that, that is. We do have a balloon festival that is the largest in the Midwest. Yes.

Justin Brady: Why is that? Why I mean, there are. I don’t, it took me probably years to figure this out, but I think of like Northeastern Iowa, Northwestern Iowa, there is some very extreme topography. Yeah. And in most Iowans are completely unaware this stuff even exists. Why is that?

Brian Abeling: I don’t know why that exists, but that’s what’s, that’s what’s so interesting about it, is that that people will look at it, and in fact, somebody once told me that, that they felt like Iowa Road trip is all about like getting Iowans to visit Iowa And I’m like, there’s some truth to that because there’s kind of like, and especially true after COVID, ’cause 2020 kind of changed that all of a sudden the idea of a road trip was very popular in 2020 and getting outdoors and go visiting something local was totally popular. And that was a big swing for me as well. ’cause I started in 2018 is when Iowa road trip started and in 2020, whereas things took off actually right away, I mean. Facebook page went to 50,000 followers within three months.

Justin Brady: Whoa. Yeah.

Brian Abeling: Whoa. Yeah. It’s just the, the growth was just out, out obscene

Justin Brady: the Iowa Road trip Facebook page goes from zero to 50 in three months. and of course Today it’s 330,000 I

Brian Abeling: Somewhere in that range. Yeah. Now part of it is, is it’s well planned though, too. Um, because as I said earlier, you, you asked me like favorite photos, and I named a few of those. See, I knew what my winners were. I knew what the main shots were. And so then what we did is we planned out and said, Hey, if we’re gonna change names. At the time it was called Enabling Productions. You know, still had 10,000 followers. But then it was, then we said, Hey, we’re gonna stop that one and we’re gonna switch to Iowa Roadtrip. We’re just gonna build from scratch. We’re not gonna change the name on the existing page. We’re just gonna build from scratch, build from zero. But if we’re gonna build from zero, let’s plan it out and let’s build three to four months worth of content and we know what already works and what gets people’s attention. Let’s throw that up and then think about how to make it a little more engaging and yeah, and, and And and you throw it out there and you try it and then all of a sudden, yeah, and it just, it just took off. It just absolutely took

Justin Brady: And, And like you said, the planning involved is substantial. I think a lot of people, you must be a planner or high, highly organized, or at least have lots of systems because just you know, we do video Iowa podcast.com here. We do videos and social and the planning aspect is actually quite challenging. And it sounds like that’s probably why you gained so much momentum and attention. Mm-hmm. But it, I think it’s also that, you know, just like any state, I think some maybe except for California, um, people from Iowa, really have a lot of pride of where they, you know, grow up. And uh, a lot of, I think that’s also a little bit of disrespect. The rest of the country kind of disrespects Iowa sometimes. We’re kind of used to being the butt of jokes and we’re kind of used to the, you know, when the caucuses, both sides came here. Iowans are kind of used to the national media kind of mocking us a little bit. And so when people see something that’s like waving that Iowa flag and like putting things on this on their Screens, like, look, this is a pretty legit state. We have some, pretty cool stuff here. that we don’t deserve the mockery. I think that gets people excited.

Brian Abeling: Yeah, it, it does and it’s always good too. Every so often you’ll, you’ll post something and somebody like that will jump out and go. Whatever. The Iowa has nothing. Iowa is totally boring Right. and, and I don’t have to respond. I don’t have to do anything. I just let the followers take care of it. ’cause usually let

Justin Brady: Let the, let the camera talk.

Brian Abeling: Those, well, the other, other people jump in and then are like, we can tell you’re not from Iowa. Oh yeah. Go on, move on. See You control someplace

Justin Brady: Yeah. Yeah. The beauty of social media. Right. You could, I’m sure you have stories, probably not a good, probably not the topic for today, but it’s the, you can post the most like wholesome. Amazing thing. on Social media. and there’s always someone who’s furious. Like You could post a picture of a Sunset with. kittens in the foreground with people playing in the background and check off every box and someone would be like, this is the worst piece of crap I’ve ever seen

Brian Abeling: that. Yep. Yep. But I, from my perspective, I don’t, I’m probably, I could get accused, I don’t read a lot of the comments. Oh. Like, why do I need to read the comments? I just need to go create more content. Go take more pictures, feature more places, put it out online and let you decide

Justin Brady: Are are your favorite, Iowa? So you told me your favorite iconic. Iowa photos. Are those also Your favorite Iowa moments?

Brian Abeling: Ooh,

Justin Brady: I got them, Yeah,

Brian Abeling: I probably not, my, some of some of ’em that I described were favorite moments. Balloon festival, mountain Dew skateboarding Field of Dreams was awesome. Uh, but some of the other moments that are still good would be ones without any crowds.

Justin Brady: Oh, sure.

Brian Abeling: Like Places you’ve been by yourself and like I’ve had Kota caves to myself and the lights weren’t working, which I thought was awesome. I had a great time. I was setting up all kinds of stuff that was, that was outrageous. Um, or Pikes Peak State Park. There’s time periods when you’ll get to that overlook that overlooks the Mississippi sits 500 feet above the, above the river, and sometimes the clouds will roll in and they’re underneath you, and so you’re looking out over top of the clouds as they’re rolling over and stuff coming through. That’s gorgeous. Um, so I mean, there’s lots of good key moments, um, that are, you know, like I said earlier, that were festival based or meeting people or meeting small business owners or, uh, as well as sometimes out exploring and hitting some spot and you just got it all to yourself.

Justin Brady: Mm-hmm. Have there been any, like, I do have to ask about favorite moments here in Iowa, but Um, are there also any just bizarre moments when you’re out taking photos and someone just says something or does something just really weird and you’re like, what just happened? ’cause people get, I will say, people get a little weird, not bad, but a little weird when the camera comes out. sometimes. And So, here in Iowa, have there been any experiences where you’re like, what just happened?

Brian Abeling: Well. it, It’s probably not that bizarre. Not quite along your lines, but, so we were talking about mines of Spain, horseshoe Bluff, and that was one of my iconic photos. And I was back there a couple years later taking more photos in the same area and I’m just walking by myself and I had the camera with me and this couple walks by and they stopped and they said, isn’t this place gorgeous? They’re like, we live an hour from here. And we never knew it existed. It’s because we saw some photo online, so of course I’m usually more quiet and laid back, but instead I decide today, you know what, I’m gonna, put, and I just pull up my phone. I said, it’s probably this photo. And they’re like, yeah, that photo we saw online. That’s why we drove up here to see this. And I’m like, oh, I took the photo ’cause Then they’re looking at me. like. They’re like, got that puzzled look. Questioning all that look, eyes glancing at each other, and they’re kind of like, Hey, we, we need to go. This guy thinks he took that photo. They’re like, no, it really was me, but I don’t think they bought it. But that’s okay.

Justin Brady: How does that Make you feel because that’s an interesting. experience. when you, like something, you did, a photo, you took, that moment you captured is actually driving. is getting people to get in their cars and physically drive around the state to check that stuff out. Like What’s the reaction?

Brian Abeling: the reaction is awesome. I love it. I, I, I, I love it as well. And it’s the same. And as I said, I, I started doing a lot of state, state parks and other stuff, but now as I’ve started to include small businesses, um, that’s even more powerful because then people would be like, I, you know, when you stop back in and they’d be like, do you know how many people stopped in and bought a pretzel because you took a picture of our pretzel? Seriously? And they’ll be like. We sold out. They were like, we were out of pretzels by, yeah, just ’cause I stopped in and I liked this giant pretzel. I took a picture of it, threw it online, and the owner, you know, a couple weeks later was like, dude, we sold out of pretzels that weekend because you put it online.

Justin Brady: That’s, so I had a, there was a, i, I was telling you this before we got started. I had a small show in WHO Radio for a little while. It was the weekend version of. Van and Bonnie, essentially, and we mentioned uh, I won’t call it out because they got kind of mad at us, but we mentioned a pastry company in Pella, uh, past, they, they made pastries and we just threw it out there. And the, my co-host at the time just guessed on the price. She’s like, I think it’s somewhere around this price. I don’t know. they sold out like weeks in a row, and then they actually called the station and said, could you please stop talking about this because you got the price wrong and everyone’s coming asking for this price. please, please delete it and stop talking. about us. And our program director at the time, he was like, I think they misspelled your thank you. I think they misspelled. Thank you. He’s like, all right. He goes, you get some, yeah, so it, it is funny that you talk about, pastries or you talk about food or something, and Iowans lose it in a good way. Um. uh, Maybe that’s a good segue to talk about how Iowa, small towns, you were mentioning this, how Iowa small towns judge their worth and it’s

Brian Abeling: sometimes it their worth is, is, measured in the sam in a sandwich. It could, and in most cases it’s a port tenderloin sandwich. It’s, it’s the scenario of you stop in a small town, you’re taking pictures of something and they look at you and they’re like, Hey, if you’ve been down over there, and then point over there, they’re like, if you’ve been over to Dairy suite. You gotta get one of those, you haven’t been there. And then they put their hands up like it’s a fish story like it’s this big

Justin Brady: yes, That’s good.

Brian Abeling: and they’re like, okay, I’ll go check it out. So yeah, they’re Iowans love pork tender lo, they’re big into it. We’re also big into arguing about who has the best loose meat sandwich. Yeah, that’s another one. Oh my gosh. That just drives people crazy.

Justin Brady: That’s a good point. Yeah. Iowans are like food, like, uh, just Do, don’t get us started. About the loose meat sandwiches. The pork tenderloins. Yeah. If it’s, If it’s not as big as Captain America’s shield, You’re not doing the pork tenderloin. right.

Brian Abeling: I’d hate to see that. Yelp review. New restaurant. You’re hunting for the Tenderloin. You’re like, oh, they just don’t get it.

Justin Brady: What are some of the, like what are some of the places in Iowa that again, you if we, you have this on your website, you have a pin of where you’ve been and take taken photos out in Iowa and it’s everywhere. So what are some of the places you think we just all take for granted here as Iowans

Brian Abeling: we take for granted? Well, you kind of hit it earlier, in fact, that you’re, you’re thinking like if you were born and raised in central Iowa, you’re like, Iowa is pretty flat. And by the way, that, that was me too. ’cause I grew up actually in upstate New York, lived in Illinois for a while and, but now I’ve spent most of my time in in Iowa. And I would say I thought Iowa was. flat. When I came here and then I married my wife who was from Denison, and I’m like, there’s like hills here, what’s going on?

Justin Brady: Mm-hmm.

Brian Abeling: And then same in northeast Iowa. I’m like, oh, here’s just that I, I fit right in that same misconception that like, uh, that I was flat and that and that, that’s it. And it’s like, nah, it’s actually all beautiful rolling hills. I mean, there are some really flat sections, but that’s the minority,

Justin Brady: I think the flat sections are the most traveled,

Brian Abeling: right? Yeah.

Justin Brady: 35 and 80. And the reason they put 35, and 80 there, I would assume Is because they were flat. And it was cheaper to, build through there rather than, can you imagine them trying to build a major interstate through northeastern corner of Iowa, like that would be hundreds of billions of dollars to get anything. to

Brian Abeling: Mm-hmm.

Justin Brady: there. So there’s a reason. They put the interstates where they put them. Um, so. The, uh, you Mentioned you were from, New York and then Illinois. So what brought you to Iowa? was it your wife that brought you to Iowa or did she just drive the hooks in when you were

Brian Abeling: in elementary school. I came here in elementary school. What brought us was John Deere. My dad worked for John

Justin Brady: Oh,

Brian Abeling: dealership in upstate New York dealership, went out of business. They offered him a position in, uh, they offered him a position to stay in in upstate New York. Um, and I think my mom at the time said North or South Carolina was her preference. And my dad was like, Iowa. And This is, I was, in fact, I was in with my dad driving through Waterloo past the John Deere plant a couple of years ago. So I’m like, so Dad, you came to Iowa a bunch before the rest of us. He’s like, yep. So early, late sixties, early seventies. Um, they would bring him to Des Moines to Davenport. To Waterloo. And so driving through Waterloo, he’s like, yeah, I remember coming here, I don’t know, probably 1970 or so, and they came and they whined and dined me and, and, and it was, I wanted to, wanted to move to Iowa. Loved the people, loved the place. And, and so that’s what, uh, so then uh, was probably in the eighties actually, by the time they, uh, that business, uh, went under and, uh, the dealership, uh, went out of business. And so then he, uh, then moved, uh, since brought us and we moved to Mon.

Justin Brady: Hmm,

Brian Abeling: Where we went. So we’re here because of John Deere for the

Justin Brady: Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned Illinois though, Did you temporarily. move there and come back? Yeah,

Brian Abeling: for a number, for a number of years myself after, after college. So yeah, so then I was in Illinois for a number of years and then made the decision to come back home.

Justin Brady: So you mentioned you’re in tech in like a It In tech, yeah. So is the, did the photography thing for you just start out as an outlet or is this something you’ve been doing for a while Because a

Brian Abeling: during high school we used to do film. It was black and white film, and I did some stuff, and actually at that moment in time I did film and I did astrophotography. I did a lot of nighttime photography in high school. Um, but then started to do some stuff, uh, in college. Then also did some stuff afterwards. Of course, then there’s that time period where you’re just getting started. You didn’t, I didn’t have much. Then the kids are born. Then you start taking pictures of them. And then I’d probably say there was next phase after that, after pictures of kids being young. Next phase was taking lots of pictures while you’re on vacation. So I would go on vacation and I’d take thousands of pictures and I loved it and it was great. And we’d, you know, do all this stuff. And then after a while I was like, you know, I really don’t have to go on vacation to learn to take great pictures. Mm.

Justin Brady: Mm. Interesting. So

Brian Abeling: then I was like, Hey, I can do this at home. So then my next little, uh, attention or detraction was, was Des Moines pictures. So I’d say for a number of years, I would, was known for just taking pictures of, uh, downtown Des Moines. And Then in fact made a time I wanted to learn time-lapse photography. ’cause I saw some stuff that, uh, Rodney White, uh, was a big influence from, uh, Des Moines Register. So he had done some work, uh, early in time lapse. And so I saw that and said, I’m gonna teach myself how to do this. And so I went and did a time lapse, um, on Des Moines. And that actually got huge traction, was on the news in the register and a bunch of other places. And so. Then That, uh, uh, helped lift things as well. That was all prior to Iowa Road trip, the, the time lapse work. But, um,

Justin Brady: last question is. Because, and I’ve talked about this several times, but because there are, your photos are all across Iowa, literally every corner. These probably aren’t just like trips you’re taking and shooting photos because you’re going to that location anyway. Because of The distribution of spots you’ve been across the state of Iowa, it looks very intentional. So are you scheduling trips to very specific points in Iowa to get these photos? Are these day trips, are these like you’re staying in couple days there?

Brian Abeling: Yeah, it, I’d say there’s a couple different trips. Yes, there’s intentionality to a, to a lot of it. Um, so there are places where I’m like, yes, I’m gonna go here and I’m gonna pick up these little attractions. Um, I’m gonna key it on some festival that’s nearby or some other celebration or something like that. Um, but there’s also trips that are at least once or twice a year, I take, uh, takes vacation time and basically I go by myself. So I go and I. I, kind of have a rough idea, like a, a good one for example is Northeast Iowa. like if I’m gonna go shoot fall colors, I don’t even schedule a hotel. Because I don’t know where I’m gonna be.

Justin Brady: Wow.

Brian Abeling: you just get in the car and you go,

Justin Brady: you just go,

Brian Abeling: you go and you just start looking and you say, all right, colors are not so good here. Going a little further north. Sure. All of a sudden there’s no leaves. Okay. Turn around, go back south, find your spot, and then you eventually gotta find some place to land for the night. So yeah. And those type of trips are not planned ’cause you’re just looking for something, which is the best fall colors that you can find. So you can tell people, Hey, here’s where it’s at right now.

Justin Brady: For unplanned Iowa trips, then where’s the craziest place you’ve had to crash and find a place to stay? Just crash

Brian Abeling: car.

Justin Brady: Yes, of course.

Brian Abeling: In the car? at

Justin Brady: a rest area or

Brian Abeling: Yep. In the car.

Justin Brady: On the, side of the road.

Brian Abeling: a state park. You can pick some spots. I mean, uh, a popular one in northeast Iowa would be, uh, yellow River State Forest. Mm-hmm. So. a. There is some primitive park or uh, campgrounds that are there. And so you’ll just, you know, at the time I think there were eight to $10 for the spot for the night, and there’s usually something available that’s in campsite. Yeah, you just park in the campsite and then you just camp in the car and then that’s it. And then I’m usually, you know, I’m shooting all the way till sunset and then I’m up before sunrise anyway, and then back at it again. And that’s a good spot for nighttime photos anyway, because if you’re down that little valley where Yellow River State Forest is at. Is, there’s really no lights, there’s no towns nearby. So it’s great for astrophotography as well. And so it’s, but yeah, but it could be anywhere. I mean,

Justin Brady: That the dedication to the, I mean, I was, I thought this was a full-time thing. I thought it had to be ’cause the dedication the organization, the spread of photos you’ve taken is everywhere.

Brian Abeling: it’s a time factor though too. So I’ve been after it for, what is it, 2026. Holy cow. So it’s been 10 plus years Sure. That I’ve been out taking, so every year I’ll take 50,000 or more PO photos. Put that across 12 years. The collection is pretty massive then. Yeah. Um, so it’s, it’s, it’s uh, it’s like a lot, like I’ll look at now and I’ll be like, okay, I got 12 vacation days left this year, and I’m already looking at like, where am I gonna go? And it’s, it’s in Iowa, where am I gonna go in Iowa, uh, for that? And of course I got vacation days where I also, we take off and get out, get out of the state. But yeah, it’s it’s a lot of, and I’m probably gonna retire in, you know, maybe three to four years will retire and then I’ll probably. It’s Just switch to the night job.

Justin Brady: It’s

Brian Abeling: be working. I don’t know why I call it retirement. Does

Justin Brady: mean there are more photos coming when you

Brian Abeling: Oh, I, I, I assume so. I, I, I assume so. I hope so.

Justin Brady: Oh, Brian ING Iowa Road Tripp is his Facebook page. You should absolutely go visit it. What’s the website and the easiest way to find that Facebook page.

Brian Abeling: on Facebook. You just search for Iowa Road Trip. Um, online. The blog is Iowa roadtrip.net,

Justin Brady: Iowa Road trip.net. Iowa’s photographer, Brian Abeling, of course, joining us today. Brian, Thank you so much for coming on the Iowa podcast. Absolutely fascinating.