{"id":10869,"date":"2022-12-16T07:35:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T07:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/photographer-jeff-pfaller-uses-nature-and-exercise-to-resist-creative-setbacks\/"},"modified":"2022-12-16T07:35:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T07:35:11","slug":"photographer-jeff-pfaller-uses-nature-and-exercise-to-resist-creative-setbacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/photographer-jeff-pfaller-uses-nature-and-exercise-to-resist-creative-setbacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer Jeff Pfaller Uses Nature and Exercise To Resist Creative Setbacks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><\/figure>\n<p>Not long ago, Jeff Pfaller set out at 1:30 AM, hoping to photograph the rainbows sometimes created by moonlight at Yosemite Falls. So, in the dark and cold, he loaded his camera gear and hiked a steep, deserted trail to Glacier Point. His Charge 4, which he always wears on his adventures, told him he\u2019d logged over 10,000 steps. Once he set up his equipment, he waited patiently until the light from the full moon angled through the mist to reveal the color spectrum from violet to red, a rainbow with the stars of the night sky in the background.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhotography gives me a reason to challenge myself and to do the things I love,\u201d says Pfaller. \u201cI don\u2019t think I would have gone on that hike without the excuse of taking a photograph.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe title=\"My Fitbit Story: Jeff Pfaller\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OaBXR_alunQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Nature photography is not Jeff Pfaller\u2019s main gig, but it is his primary motivation to explore nature and keep heading down the trail mile after mile. Most often, the places he likes to photograph are remote. They are on the tops of mountains or dozens of miles into the wilderness. Staying fit for Pfaller means that he can enjoy the journey to the location as much as being there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo find places that retain a feeling of wilderness, you\u2019ve got to be able to hike where others aren\u2019t willing to go,\u201d says Pfaller. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be completely spent when I reach my destination. I couldn\u2019t do the type of photography I wanted to do without staying healthy. That is where my Fitbit comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To make sure he can continue his adventures, Pfaller makes sure to stay in shape in between trips. He likes how his Fitbit lets him gamify and track his health, including his daily step count and Active Zone Minutes. He often has friendly competitions with friends to keep himself and others motivated.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a sucker for the quantified self,\u201d he says. \u201cIt appeals to my personality. I love the data I get and I try to improve over time. Even on days when I don\u2019t have a lot of time and can\u2019t get to the gym, I make sure to get what I call my \u2018minimum effective dose\u2019 of exercise. I use the heart rate tracker on my Fitbit to ensure that I get into my Peak Zone for at least 20 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>But staying healthy, for Pfaller, is more than just staying physically fit. His mental health and acuity is just as important. A few years ago, he went through a period where he noticed he was more irritable and forgetful. Not knowing what was happening, he had a full medical checkup that didn\u2019t find anything. He decided to take a more holistic approach to the problem. \u201cUsing sleep tracking on my Charge 4, I started making sleep a bigger priority in my life,\u201d he says. \u201cI worked on a routine where I\u2019d go to bed and wake up at the same time. Over time as my Sleep Scores improved, so did my mood and mental functioning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pfaller has also noticed how physical activity, particularly walking, boosts his creativity. \u201cThere is something about the rhythm of walking and the way your body goes on autopilot that frees up your mind,\u201d he says. \u201cYou suddenly find this extra mental bandwidth to free associate and make new connections. It\u2019s in that state that I feel most creative. That\u2019s where I come up with my crazy ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many great thinkers from history, it turns out, have made the same observation. Steve Jobs, Charles Dickens, Aristotle, and the poet Wallace Stevens knew that walking boosted their creativity. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously said, \u201cAll truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.\u201d There is also experimental research to back up the connection. One study out of Stanford University showed that walking could increase a person\u2019s creative output by a remarkable 60 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While on a walk a couple of years ago, Pfaller had one of his crazy ideas. He got to wondering how far he could walk if he stayed up for 24 hours. He decided to make an attempt into a fundraiser for 826CHI, a Chicago-based writing and tutoring program. Starting at 5 AM, he walked over 60 miles, documenting the attempt on social media by sharing his Fitbit dashboard. \u201cBy the end, my feet felt like they were burning,\u201d he says. \u201cI ended up with bruises underneath my big toes that took months to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pfaller\u2019s next walking adventure comes this fall: a hike with his 16-year-old son to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the wilderness where Pfaller hiked with his friends in college, and where he first fell in love with camping and backpacking. \u201cI hope I can give him the same positive associations that I have with hiking so he\u2019ll become my backpacking buddy for many more trips,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It will be a multi-day adventure covering 42 miles, the longest his son has ever hiked. Along the way, Pfaller will patiently look for a shot that will capture a moment and create a memory of the trip. The photographs he favors reveal how nature can be both timeless and change in an instant. He looks to capture fleeting moments like a lightning strike across the Badlands of South Dakota or the synchronized flash of a thousand fireflies in a wooded grove in the Great Smoky Mountains. On this trip with his son there is a rock outcropping that\u2019s called Miners Castle that he has his eye on. It\u2019s been photographed many times, but Pfaller will be looking for that extra something that will make his photograph special.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never seen the Northern Lights,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll get lucky and there will be a magnetic storm and the photo\u2019s backdrop will be colors of the aurora borealis. But you can\u2019t predict what nature will offer. I\u2019ll be happy to settle for the Milky Way or whatever the moon is doing that night.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have your own Fitbit story? We\u2019d love to hear it! Share it with us by filling out the submission form <\/em><em>here.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"legal-text\">\n<p><i>This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or condition. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, altering your sleep habits, taking supplements, or starting a new fitness routine.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--\/.legal-text--><\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.fitbit.com\/jeff-pfaller-fitbit-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not long ago, Jeff Pfaller set out at 1:30 AM, hoping to photograph the rainbows sometimes created by moonlight at Yosemite Falls. So, in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}