EP 381. As Viewed Through the Lens

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Duck Season Somewhere, where today I’m going to ask you the question. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to come to Argentina for the first time? Joining me today is Justin Mueller, cameraman Justin Mueller from Minnesota, my buddy. We’ve been down here for two weeks and, man, I love bringing first-timers down here. Justin had the opportunity to film for a couple of weeks at a couple of our destinations, but he’s also had a time to shoot a little bit. And I just wanted to share with you all what a first-timer’s impression of Argentina was like. Justin, how the heck are you, man?

Justin Mueller: I’m good, man, I’m good. We’ve been down here for almost two weeks now by this point already.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, two weeks, two weeks tomorrow, we’ve been down here. What were you expecting when you came to Argentina? Like, we talked about this a year ago, that, hey, get you down here to do some camera work, but what were you expecting in Argentina versus what it was?

Argentina’s Abundance: A Hunter’s First Impressions

“It’s hard to even fathom sometimes when you’re just looking up and you’re seeing all these doves and all these ducks. It’s like this right here is Argentina just like they say it is.” – Justin Mueller

Justin Mueller: I mean, you hear about Argentina, you hear about the doves, you hear about the ducks, you hear about the species, you hear about it all. It’s hard to even know what to expect when you’re hearing all, people talking about how good it can be and how many ducks you’ll see and how many ducks you might shoot and the doves, obviously, the doves is what a lot of people talk about. And it’s all that and more. It’s hard to even fathom sometimes when you’re just looking up and you’re seeing all these doves and all these ducks. It’s like this right here is Argentina, just like they say it is.

Ramsey Russell: You got the full money of this trip. We didn’t just roll off a plane and go straight to the lodge. We started with Las Flores, but first I had to clear guns, I had to clear a char dog. I knew that was going to take too long to clear and get down to where we needed to be the next day. So we spent the night, we went and saw Buenos Aires. What was your impression of Buenos Aires? Because I can remember, me, you, and Ryan getting off the plane for the first time and going there. And you all both just wide-eyed, you all never, I mean, we were in a metropolis, A big Gotham city of Buenos Aires. And you’re a small-town Minnesota boy, Man. What was that like, coming to Buenos Aires?

Justin Mueller: It’s different and it’s funny because everything’s Spanish. So, I told my mom. She’s like, how are you gonna survive? And I was like, well, I know how to say bathroom, and I know that queso is cheese, so I can eat. I’ll be fine.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Cheese and beer.

Justin Mueller: Cheese and beer and bathroom. Yeah, that’s all I needed and instantly, it’s like, oh, crap, where’s baggage. But it’s just the amount of people that were there and know, you know, people are coming up to you asking if you, If you need a ride somewhere, but you don’t know what they’re saying to you, because it’s a Spanish. So it’s just there’s a lot going on. You had it set up nice, you gave us the meeting spot on where to go. You told me Ryan would be there, he was there two minutes after I was. So that helped. It was very organized like that, but, no, It was just a lot to take in for the first time, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: So we spent the night. First night we went to one of my favorite restaurants in Buenos Aires. I don’t even remember what we ate, that’s been so long ago. But it was good. I’m sure.

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Goat, I know, I remember what I ate. I had goat.

Justin Mueller: I had the Rib-eye and it was good. A lot of food, nice fancy place. I mean, everyone treating you like royalty, it was just for you, you’d wanted to be. But the food was incredible, man, absolutely incredible.

Ramsey Russell: We got a good night’s sleep. We got up, we drove forever. We got down to Las Flores. We got there at 04:00. We must have had the slowest driver in the country because everybody else drives like, I don’t know what they drive like a bat out of hell, what they drive like. Not our guy, he was slow. We got there at 04:00. I’ll be honest with you. I was a little worried we weren’t going to get a honey. And we show up, there’s all this food laid out. I grab a piece of pizza while I’m putting on my clothes and changing over real quick. I get another piece while I’m putting on my waders. Boom off we go to shoot, me, you and Ryan. Ryan’s first duck hunt. Your first time filming a duck hunt. You just go grab a spot and shoot. It was cloudy. It was a small little pothole, but as we pulled up, a cloud of birds got out of there. What were you thinking at that point?

Justin Mueller: I was like, we’re here. Because, like we were saying the way down, the shuttle ride took a while. Van couldn’t go as fast as we were hoping, so we wanted to get out in the field, but it was so dry getting down there, we didn’t hardly see a duck the whole way down there. And I was just like, where are we going, what is this. Because we were out in the middle of nowhere, and you were telling me, you’re like, well, this guy kind of moves with the ducks. If it’s dry, he finds a spot to go. We might be hunting a different spot. And I was like, all right. And sure enough, like you said, we roll up there, and you’re like, there’s the pond and just. I mean, thousands of ducks are getting off of it, and it’s like, okay, we’re here. And that hunt, not to get too far ahead of ourselves here, but we hunted for 45 minutes?

Ramsey Russell:  Yeah.

Justin Mueller:  We were done.

Ramsey Russell: It’s only a 15 duck limit in the afternoons and Ryan and I, kind of took our shot, took our turns, and we were very quickly done. And I remember you walking up, saying, what’s going on? I’m like, we’re done. Oh, really? What? Huh?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Justin Mueller:  It was real quick shooting. What was the filming opportunity like? Actually, I met you up at Prairie limits outfitters with Ben and Brian, excellent operation. So I knew from having seen footage from them and how highly they speak of you as a cameraman. I knew you had experience getting flying birds. But what was it like? What was that hunt like through the lens?

Justin Mueller: It was good. I mean, obviously it was good. There was so many opportunities, so if you kind of missed one was no big deal because you knew there was going to be a lot more but these ducks fly fast. It’s a lot different than filming mallards and filming geese. You’re hunting, teal and everything, and they come whipping into those decoys and they’re flipping around, they’re taking tight turns. I mean, it’s great to watch them work.

Ramsey Russell: To your credit, Diego, who has worked with other cameramen before in bigger operations and a guy that carries all his gear on his back. The first time he hunted with us that morning, by the time he park truck got to the hole, you were already kind of in place. And he says, I like this guy. I said, what do you mean? He goes, he hides. He hides, he knows where to go. He said he’s in the perfect place for the way this hunt’s going to happen this morning. And that tells me you may have done some duck hunting yourself in the past.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, I grew up duck hunting. Like you said, we met with Ben and Brian, we met at their place, I should say. I’ve done countless waterfall hunts and episodes for them, so I’ve had a fair amount of exposure doing it. But I actually originally got into hunting. I grew up on a dairy farm in central Minnesota, and we had this little pasture pond. I mean, I’m talking like an 8th of an acre, size of the swimming pool. But there was a lake on the other side of the property, and the ducks would trade over. And then when I say ducks, I’m talking about a dozen ducks, a dozen wood ducks, maybe two teal and a mallard, but that’s where I got my start with hunting. I would sit back there with my little 410 back in the day and shoot a handful of ducks. So I’ve been in waterfall, interested in it and learning about different ducks and hunting them my whole life. So I kind of have a bit of an idea of what’s going on.

Ramsey Russell: How long have you been a cameraman?

Justin Mueller: I’ve been doing it for seven years now. The first three years.

Ramsey Russell: You’re only 28?

Justin Mueller: I’m 28 years old. Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Justin Mueller: Yep. I started filming my friends and myself and my buddies when I was 19, when I was in the college year. Yeah, I’ve been doing it for full time now, about four years. The first three years was kind of the business development phase, where I was just trying to find new clients, new gigs. I was trying to figure out how to work my camera. But fast forward till now, it’s been about four years of full time freelancing.

Ramsey Russell: You grew up on a dairy farm. One day, we were sitting on the tip, one morning, bright and early, we were sitting on the tailgate of a truck while everything was getting sorted, and me and you and Mister Ian were talking about that. I said, man, where do you grow up? What do you do? And you started talking about working on a dairy farm. And that really answers a lot of your work ethic, as I’ve seen it the last couple of weeks of your mentality, how you approach the day, how you approach the gear, how you’re always doing something, and you just kind of run on autopilot. That answers a lot. What was it like growing up on a dairy farm?

Justin Mueller: I grew up in a farm community, but, like, in high school, I was the only farm kid, if that makes sense. You know, one of the few. It was different, I mean, it’s you’re milking cows and you’re working before school, which is convenient time you start at 4, 4:30 am. And you work until school, and then as soon as school is done, well, guess what? It’s time for the afternoon chores. It was almost like it was planned that way.

Ramsey Russell: You’re kind of born into a job.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, born into a job. And, whether you like it or not, as being the only boy, too. I have two older sisters. It was like you said, born into the job. And we were a small dairy farm. We milked 60 cows, which isn’t a ton, but for me and my mom and my dad, that was plenty.

Ramsey Russell: And I asked you, what was Christmas morning like at the Mueller house? Well, I mean, how did y’all spend Christmas? Because those cows don’t wait, do they? Justin Mueller: No, they don’t wait, it’s every single day. It’s Christmas, it’s your birthday. It’s when you have the flu. It’s every day, twice a day.

Ramsey Russell: What did your dad tell you if you didn’t feel good?

Justin Mueller: He just kind of laughed at you and said, that’s too bad.

Ramsey Russell: You said something the other day, one day out in the blind, you said, the way he phrased it, like, it’s okay if you don’t feel good. The cows need milking son. Something like that, I mean, it’s just the cows needed milking.

Justin Mueller: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: And it shocked me that I figured I knew cows needed milking in the morning and milking in the afternoon. But you started at 03:30.

Justin Mueller: 04:30

Ramsey Russell: 04:30?

Justin Mueller: Yep

Ramsey Russell: Boom. 04:30. Not 04:28, not 04:32, it’s 04:30.

Justin Mueller: Yep.

Top of Form

Ramsey Russell: And it was the same cow?

Justin Mueller: Hm hmm

Ramsey Russell: And how did you keep everything in crop? Because if these cows are getting milk and it takes so long, how do the other cows stay on schedule?

Justin Mueller: So our barn, like I said, held 60, 30 on each side. It was a Thai-style barn. So it wasn’t like these new latest and greatest technology, it was older style, and each cow had their spot, and if they went in the wrong spot, they got kicked out and moved. They went by their brand. And my dad had a chart hanging up on the front side where you feed them, and it said their brand and how much food. So you knew they were in the right spot. I mean, everything was detailed out. And like you said, we started at exactly 04:30 because he wanted to keep that milk schedule absolutely perfect, not a minute off. Because what would happen is, if you’re inconsistent like that, they start to get mastitis and you have lower milk quality. So at the time, when I was young, I thought it was stupid. I was like, why are we doing all this extra work. Well, it was just my dad running a very good business and treating the cattle the way they should be, not making them uncomfortable, giving them every single thing they need to perform good, which obviously is in the good name of his business. But, looking back now, I just appreciate the fact that he ran that dairy farm so solid all around.

Ramsey Russell: How did he get into dairy farming? And your mom, she’s a dairy farmer. She was born into it, married into a job, too. How did. I mean, were they both come from dairy farmers?

Justin Mueller: Yeah, my mom came from a dairy farm on the other side of town and my dad grew up on the dairy farm that I grew up on, and he bought it from my grandpa. Ramsey Russell: How much milk does a cow make in a day?

Justin Mueller: It kind of varies. It all depends on your cow, but it’s a fair amount, couple of gallons.

Ramsey Russell: Couple of gallons a day. Each milking?

Justin Mueller: Each milking, yep, twice a day.

Ramsey Russell: So a cow is giving up four gallons a day.

Justin Mueller: Atleast.

Ramsey Russell: For how many years? What’s a dairy cow’s career look like.

Justin Mueller: We had some older cows who were just around for a while. They’re getting up 11, 12, 13 years old, and those were just kind of, the old timers in the barn, but they’re, they’re in their prime from a couple years old until about ten.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. So you grew up on a dairy farm. You work from day, you know, you didn’t worry about what you had to do when you got out of school. You didn’t worry about what to do. It wasn’t sleeping in. Now you had work before you went to school. And I guess you went to like a public school or.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, I went to, it’s for Corey High School. It’s in right in the middle of Minnesota. It’s actually a combination of three towns, Cold Spring, Richmond, and Rockville. And those three towns make up the school. And I graduated with, I think, like 170 between those three towns. So it was a decent-sized high school.

Ramsey Russell: Did it ever dawn on you, I’m just asking. But did it ever dawn on you? And if so, at what age did it dawn on you that some of your classmates probably didn’t have your sense of work ethic.

Justin Mueller: It dawned on me about 9th grade.

Ramsey Russell: 9th grade.

Justin Mueller: Yep. Because I played, the only sport I played was baseball. I wanted to play football, which is funny because I have no interest in it now at all. But my dad said, you get to hunt or you get to play football. I’m not gonna let you do half-ass two things. You get to pick one. And I was like, well, I’m choosing hunting. So then obviously I went to baseball in the spring. But I remember my coaches telling me, they were like, you just keep working and keep doing your thing and you’re going to be all right because you’re a farm kid.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s right. I think there’s a lot of truth to that. I really do. And I think a lot of young Americans today could use a work ethic. What do you think of the ripe old age of 28?

Justin Mueller: I mean, it’s honestly great for me, but no, it’s, I mean, it’s just part of life. I think, work ethic was obviously ingrained in me from a young age, but I think it’s something that people can acquire. They’re just not motivated or they don’t have the means to actually do it. They might talk about it, but they don’t actually do it.

Ramsey Russell: No matter what you do, for no matter what you choose to do. I think work gives you a sense. It gives your life a sense of purpose. I think from being around you for a couple of weeks and hearing your story in the duck blind and in the truck, rides out to the duck blind and back, I think I’ve learned it. I mean, you’re just kind of born into a job, therefore you were born into a sense of purpose. When did that sense of purpose dawn on you that maybe you didn’t want to be a fourth generation or third generation dairy farmer, you wanted to go into the outdoor industry and be a photographer. How’d that come about?

Justin Mueller: Actually, my dad kind of told me, sat me down, I was probably 15, didn’t really know. I was never the guy to be good in school or anything like that, I was just kind of going through the motions, didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I can’t talked to my dad about the farm, and he’s like, don’t take it over. It’s not going to last. There’s no longevity, we’re not big enough. And I was like, well, I can expand it, and he’s like, where are you going to come up with the millions of dollars it takes to expand this place because it ain’t making it.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s really what’s happening to agriculture in general. It doesn’t matter what you’re growing beef or dairy or row crop. I mean, it’s all about scale. It’s such marginal profit. It’s got to be big, big, big. Am I right? That kind of what the trend is?

Justin Mueller: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is because, like I said, our farm for today’s standard was very small. Back 15, 20, 30 years ago, it was a good-sized farm, a little over 200 acres and 60 cows. That’s like your typical, just small farm. But he told me, he’s like, you’re not like, he goes, you’re going to have another 10-15 years, and you’re not going to make a penny doing this. He’s like, it’s sad to say, but it’s the truth. Now, I’m 28 years old, and he was 100% right. You see small farms going out of business and up for sale across the country, everywhere, not just in Minnesota. So he kind of was like, you should explore doing other things. And I worked landscaping for a while, and I enjoyed that. I liked the creative side of someone being like, build me a backyard with a retaining wall and a sidewalk and flower beds. And I like doing the design work with that and everything. Then I just started, actually. Well, I got into filming because one time I had this turkey hunt, and it was just the picture-perfect morning. I was a younger hunter at the time, and I came home and I told my mom and my dad. I was like, the turkey came in and just pounded the decoy, just couldn’t get off it. And I ended up shooting it. And they were, neither of my parents have a very good interest in hunting, so they were just like, oh, okay, that’s kind of cool. In that moment, I was like, I need to film this so I can show you guys what I’m talking about.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Justin Mueller: And that’s what started the filming for me. Yep.

Ramsey Russell: It’s interesting to me, dairy farming and hunting because one time, years and years ago, I was living in Stauffer, Mississippi, and there was a big dairy farm south of town, one of the biggest in the state. And we’d go out there in Canada goose hunting. Boy, they had some great resident Canada goose hunting. And one day, one of the young, owner’s sons, the farmer’s son, came up and was hanging around, help watching us. We’re picking up geese. His dad came by, I guess, to get him. And we told the kid, hey, we’ll be out here next week, come and join us. Man, you get a kid involved. And the little boy told his dad, his daddy come back and said, don’t put no ideas in his head, people. He said, thank you all for the invite. You all are welcome to come out here and hunt. He’s got chores.

Justin Mueller: Sure.

Ramsey Russell: He’s got things to do, and he don’t need to be distracted. He really ain’t gonna have time to be hunters like you all. He’s got work to do. And it sounded like you had a lot of work to do too. You had to bend it around those milking schedules and feeding schedules and farm chores. I mean, but you had just little slivers of time. You go out and duck hunt, didn’t you?

Justin Mueller: Yep. Yep. You go out and hunt anything. I hunted anything I could get my hands on back then.

Ramsey Russell: And so to show your parents what turkey hunting was like cause they were too busy. They like to start working, like at that other farm I just talked about, you wanted to go filming. That kind of created this interest in outdoor filming.

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Could you see a lot of people? A lot of people go and get cameras and try to cut their teeth in the outdoor photography space, but you’ve actually done it. Why do you think you were able to do it and so many people were not?

Justin Mueller: And it works out for me now, but I kind of credit my success to the fact that I never had a plan B when I got the idea that I wanted to film full-time in the hunting industry.

Ramsey Russell: Never part-time job.

The Key to Success in the Hunting Industry

“The absolute best way to become a content guy in the hunting industry is to get your ass at hunting camps as much as you can and as often as you can because that’s where we met. That’s where you meet everybody.” – Justin Mueller

Justin Mueller: Never anything else besides that. Now I worked part-time jobs in between gigs to make it all happen and make it come together and make more money. My first year of actually filming, I bought my camera in March, 5 months before hunting season. I didn’t have a single client, so I was like, what am I going to do now, so I got a job at a gas station, then I got a job at a daycare, then I got a job at Mattress Firm. All in between gigs because I’d go to my boss and be like, hey, I need ten days off to go elk hunting. And he’s like, no, and I’m like, well, I’m going, sorry, is there going to be a job for me when I get back? And sometimes they’d say yes, but most of the time, they’d say no. So I’d get back and just find a new job, didn’t matter what it was like I said, I worked at a daycare for two years, on and off. Just to kind of make that happen and then by the time the end of my second and third year came around, I got better at editing, I got better at filming, I got more clients, a couple bigger clients, and I always run my business off of the fact that I never say no to jobs. If they make sense, hit my price point. If I got a lot going on, I’m going. I think what happens with a lot of guys who want to get into the industry as they have a safety net and they fall on it, and then it just becomes too convenient of a lifestyle for them to go back out and do it. The absolute best way to become a content guy in the hunting industry is to get your ass at hunting camps as much as you can and as often as you can because that’s where we met. That’s where you meet everybody.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. You’re exactly right about that. Birds of a feather flock together. I’ve said it a million times. That’s where the action is.

Justin Mueller: Mm-hmm.

The Magic of Argentina’s Hunting Grounds

“You feel like you’re in a million-acre marsh, but then it gets daylight, and you’re in about a five-acre duck hole.” – Ramsey Russell

Ramsey Russell: I tell people when they come to Las Flores, you get there on arrival day, change clothes, eat a bite to eat, go out, warm up, shoot 15 ducks apiece real quick. But then the next morning, all hell breaks loose. So, now, our first morning, we were there in plenty of daylight. I mean, pitch black, dark daylight. We go out to a pothole. And it never ceases to amaze me that in the dark, waiting out to the blind, you feel like you’re in a million-acre marsh, but then it gets daylight, and you’re in about a five-acre duck hole.

Justin Mueller: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: What was it like to you? What were your thoughts getting your gear together, waiting out in that water and going out that first morning to shoot ducks? Justin Mueller: I tried to keep my expectations low, because I have that problem with every hunt. I’m like, this is gonna be awesome. And then I’m like, in Argentina, this is slam dunk. So I tried to keep my expectations low, but I think, like what you said, you think you’re in this big marsh. I think you have that going on in your mind because there’s so many ducks and so many birds, and they’re all making noise. It sounds like you’re in a zoo. So you kind of just think you’re in this giant area because you can hear all this stuff. You’re like, man, I’m hearing ducks all directions around me, hearing all these birds all around me. And then it gets light out, and you’re in this little pothole. Well, it’s because it’s loaded. But yeah, I mean, every morning, every hunt down there was as good as the last. Every morning we were getting our limit in no time. We were being selective with the ducks shooting the ones you want to shoot. And there’s so many times where they would just land in the decoys because you couldn’t keep up with them.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Justin Mueller: And they would just jump up and fly away. That’s just part of it.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. When that area really, really, really hooks up, it’s so fast and furious, I couldn’t even think about running a dog. When we were there, it was misty, it was foggy, it was not really raining, but it kind of sort of felt like it. And the ducks were just slow enough. I could get her in to pick up some birds in between the volleys and only compromise a few plays. I’m just not going to shoot over normally like that, and so it really kind of worked out good. It was a nice, fast pace, but it wasn’t too fast, one so fast, it’s chaotic.

Justin Mueller: Right.

Ramsey Russell: And when it’s chaotic, you can’t run a dog. And it’s important to me to run Ochar, you know what I’m saying?

Justin Mueller: Mm hmm

Ramsey Russell: Well, she loves it, as you can tell. She loves that kind of stuff. You’re right about it being dry. It’s so dry in Argentina this year that a lot of operators have closed, have postponed seasons, have pushed their dates back. It’s a horrific drought and from the time we left Buenos Aires and drove five and a half hours, I was just astounded at how little water there was. I’d never seen it this dry. But leave it to him, that outfitter, Atlas Flores, he spares no expense and does whatever he’s got to do to find the water. When you find the water in a dry year, you find all the ducks. And we had all the ducks. Talk about some of the species you saw, because you really, we really got to see. There was only one or two duck species that we didn’t encounter there, we encountered practically the whole spectrum of ducks there in that first stop. What was it like watching those different ducks? Were you pretty quick to pick up on what the different species were?

Justin Mueller: No, I was not. You pretty much showed me everything and showed me what to look for, hens and the drakes. The only really duck that was on my bucket list was the cinnamon teal. I don’t know why, but for the last 10 years, I’ve always thought it’d be really cool to see one, just for whatever reason. And then, I mean, we got one the first morning. So I got to see one, got to hold one, look at it, and they’re beautiful ducks, they all are. But you really, kind of taught me everything that I know about hunting Argentina as well as the species. But, we had everything from Silver Teal, we had those white-cheek pintails working, we had the rosy bills working. I mean, I got a nice spread of what Argentina has to offer, just on the first hunt alone.

Ramsey Russell: Lot of the guys come down here want to encounter all the species. And I get it, man. If you’ve never done it, you want to put your paws on every single one of them. But if somebody’s been here a lot, my favorite species are the rosy bills. They’re hard to come by in dry years, but we did kill some. And the pintails, I love, I love the yellow-bill pintails. They work good, they whistle, they come in, they decoy. But something about that beautiful white-cheek pintail, man, do I love a white-cheek pintails. You might hear me if you had me mic’d up. You could hear me start talking to myself when I spot a white-cheek pintail, I get excited. And nowhere are you going to see, hardly anywhere are you going to see Chilo wigeons outside of that province. That’s really, that’s their area. That’s where they’re going to be. They don’t really have a continental migration, but they do drift up from the south and come to that area because of the prevailing habitat. Whereas way up here in northern Argentina you’re not going to see them, but rarely are you going to see Chilo wigeon. Very loud, very vocal. Just a lot of fun. How was filming Argentina different than where you might have filmed waterfowl before?

Justin Mueller: We were hunting a lot of potholes. I was literally set up in the water, just underneath deep water, I was kneeling with my waders on, and it was about perfect. Probably my camera sitting on the tripod out in the middle of this, I don’t know, they’re not cattails, but they’re.

Ramsey Russell: yeah.

Justin Mueller:  There you go and we were out there just hunting those little holes and I mean, it’s, they’re in your face, it was very, it was actually very easy filming.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I can see that. And, I was saying, then we came back to Buenos Aires, met the women, because now we’re doing a couple trip, wrapping up a couple trip here up at La Paz. And we all went to a tango show. I know you had better things to do to go to a tango show that night, but the ladies wanted to go and they had a great time. And then we drove because you asked me like, look, we drive 5 and a half, 6 hours south, then we come back to Buenos Aires and spend a night and then we go 5 or 6 hours north. So you got to see about a twelve-hour as you drive stretch.

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Of this country. And could you tell a difference between the north versus the south?

Justin Mueller: Yeah, I mean, especially as you go out from the city too. You can tell where the people are that have money and where the people are that don’t have money. You can tell all the small towns. The one thing that I thought was really cool, and you pointed this out, it’s like we drove for essentially 12 hours, and I have yet to see a Walmart, yet to see a Target, yet to see any of that. It’s all just mom and pop. And, you like you said, you kind of made the comment, it’s every little city block or area. It’s like its own little ecosystem and they all support each other.

Ramsey Russell: It really is. It’s like this little community we’re in right now of about 20,000. It’s a local economy. I mean, it’s all mom and pop. There’s not a Walmart here. I have seen them in Buenos Aires, but they’re far and few between. Here in these rural communities, everybody, the fruit guy, the baker, the candlestick maker, everybody swapping money. And that to me, is like, it just hearkens a bygone day of America. A small farm day of America, and I love it. I think they do, too, whether they appreciate it or not. I think they like the fact, I mean, they know. I wonder, we’ve eaten all this, these different cuts of beef up here, and they probably been going to the same butcher for their whole lifetime to get it.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, I’m sure.

Ramsey Russell: I just find something desirable about that. I don’t know where my meat’s coming from at Walmart. I don’t buy it at Walmart. I go elsewhere, but still, I don’t know where it’s coming from. I would like to know where it’s coming from. How it’s cut and all this kind of stuff. Speaking of the different cuts of meat, I mean, what do you think about the different because you started off with a Rib-eye steak at the steakhouse, and that’s the one cut of meat I don’t order in Argentina, because that’s what I favor back home. What do you think about all these other different cuts of beef down here?

Justin Mueller: Every single meal is better than the last one. I mean, it just is. Every time, like, this is the best way I’ve had it so far. I literally said it today, the second last day of the trip that was my favorite meal so far.

Ramsey Russell: You said that last night too when they served a short rib.

Justin Mueller: I did. That was the other short ribs are real good too, yeah. I mean, it’s cool because like, Martha was saying how beef and just the food aspect alone is such a big part of the culture down here. I don’t think we have near that in the US. It’s just like, eat whatever you can. But down here it’s like they pride themselves heavily on the food, the wine, the beef, you know, kind of the romance around the actual cooking itself. Everyone’s so proud to make food down here.

Ramsey Russell: I think the typical, unless you’re going on a business dinner or something like that, a typical dinner in America, the family goes out, kind of get hangry if the service ain’t quick, you just want to eat, go back and watch TV. And down here is totally different, like, that restaurant we go to in Buenos Aires to stay at a campo. We get there at 08:00, that’s when they open. And I mean, they’re still setting up tables. It’s a massive restaurant.

Justin Mueller: Beautiful.

Ramsey Russell: And we’re some of the first people in it, 08:00 at night, dinner time back home, 6. And still we leave at 10 or 11, because it’s a long process, you bring out different courses. They’re not in a hurry unless you want them to be. And as we leave, the restaurant is packed and people are still coming in. It’s a madhouse out there trying to hail a cow because people are piling in, that’s their dinner time. It’s 10 or 11 or 12 o’clock. And that’s why Ray was asking yesterday we’re driving through town about the Siesta and it’s a big cultural deal, especially out here in rural Argentina. They show up for work, they open the shop from like 8 to 12, then they close down till 4. There’s hardly any businesses open except a grocery store. [Dogs Barking in Background] Oh, listen to dogs going at it. And then from 4 to 8 they’re back open. Then at 08:00 they might go get them a mock tail, eat a cookie, drink a coffee. Now to 10:00 they start going to look to eat dinner. That’s crazy, isn’t it?

Justin Mueller: It is.

Ramsey Russell: It is totally different.

Justin Mueller: The nightlife in Buenos Aires especially was unbelievable. I mean, it was hopping at 10:30 at night. It was like you said, it was like our rush hour traffic at 05:00 was happening there at 10:00.

Ramsey Russell: So we come up here to La Paz, and the first morning duck hunt is totally different than what we experienced down the Las Flores. Talk about what you were thinking when the headlights pulled up. There’s all those horses lined up tethered to the fence with the little wool saddles on it.

Justin Mueller: Well, grew up on a farm, but I’m not a horse guy. I don’t have any experience riding them. I’m looking at all my camera gear and I’m home going to strap it on my backpack and do all this stuff. And it was a little intimidating, but I was like, it’ll be fine, they’re not going to sound like we’re going to run across the way here. But it was just different, man, they got horses. We pulled up, the horses were ready, they were saddled, guides were waiting on us. Everyone hopped on horses. And you go out and it’s not at all like a pothole at all. It’s a giant marsh.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Justin Mueller: And in this giant marsh, it’s almost like a flooded clover field is what it looks like from above.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I mean, it’s like all shindig, few dry spots, few mucky spots. But basically from where those horses are tethered 3 miles to the Parana river.

Justin Mueller: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: It’s just this massive river delta that they graze for cows. And those aren’t pleasure horses, those aren’t pony ride horses, those are freaking work gaucho horses. It’s like you and I were talking, even if you had a four-wheeler, if you stuck it, you’re stuck forever unless you get a horse to come pull you out.

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: That’s the only way to get through there.

Justin Mueller: That wouldn’t even be an option. You’d get 50ft out and you’d be stuck. That’s not even an option. And we went so far you couldn’t walk and like, you made the comment, you’re like, how many people are out here ever? I mean, we were just in the middle of this marsh, and it was huge, and it’s beautiful. And there’s more kinds of birds than I can even think of out there, flying around, ducks everywhere. It’s just, I mean, when that sun comes up, it’s loud.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, it’s loud.

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell:  And it’s not just water fowls, waterfowl flying 365 degrees, two here, three there, flock yonder. There’s swans, there’s southern screamers they call it jaha- jaha-jaha. They’re freaking otatoes.

Justin Mueller: Oh, man.

Ramsey Russell: Which are very noisy for little aggravating birds and everything else, it’s just flocks of eyes coming through. It’s almost primitive, isn’t it? Like a very wild place. Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And what strikes me about that wet spot on earth, man, is that, this time of year, there may be a half dozen or so hunters around there, but the remaining of the year is just a few gauchos and a whole bunch of cows plodding around. That’s it. Justin Mueller: That’s it.

Ramsey Russell: It’s wild.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, very. And the hunters are our hunters with us, it’s our group here. You know what I mean? It’s not like we’re competing for this area. It’s us.

Ramsey Russell: It’s us.

Justin Mueller: And we’re so. I mean, there’s so many ducks, and it’s such a big area. You know, it’s flat, you can look across the pair of binoculars and see your next blind over there and hear them shooting and stuff, but, like, there are so many different ducks. And they’re just all moving around in those little potholes within the marsh

Ramsey Russell: In between the blinds and all around the blinds there’s plenty of places to land besides over your decoy, so you just, sometimes they short stop you or fly around and look, do stuff. But that’s okay. It’s not like we’re not getting enough duck shooting. Just gotta wait them out, play a clean game. Yesterday, whenever last time you and I duck hunted was, kind of started off slow, I was thinking, wow, this is real slow for Argentina, I had two ducks by 08:00 I’m thinking, man, I’ve been here an hour, and I got two ducks. And ten minutes later, I had half a limit. A little flurry comes up. But you know what else gets me about those horses [**00:43:59], in daylight we’re coming out, and we got to go through 2 or 3 miles of that walk back. The ducks just are swimming away from you, kind of getting up in front of you. I mean, they’re not bewildered like a boat or an outboard or four wheeler. They’re just kind of moving out of the horse’s way.

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: So it’s not really, there’s not a lot of disturbance factor going on out there. And I just enjoy that wildness.

Justin Mueller: It’s just so different, I mean, when’s the last time anyone listening here has rode a horse, a horse out to go duck hunting. It’s just something you don’t do but, like, we were riding out in the dark and you can’t see nothing because it’s dark. You hear the splashing, we’re walking through water, you look up and there’s not a city anywhere near here. It is just stars in marsh. I mean, it’s just such a beautiful area.

Ramsey Russell: Have you ever seen so many stars? Because you’ve traveled enough. You probably have up in the mountains.

Justin Mueller: But the only times in the mountains.

Ramsey Russell: It’s rare, I mean, you’re so far removed from a farm light or a city light or anything. And even when you’re riding out, you got your headlamp on when you climb up on the horse and get sorted. But then you turn it off. The horse knows where he’s going, he can see probably better without that light. And I can see the silver sheen of all the water, with a headlamp on it just may look like grass, but with the light off, you can see the water. Same thing those ducks and horses and stuff can see. And it just changes the whole aura, doesn’t it?

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: One thing about it, like,  you’ll get off some of them soft spot and that horse knows if he walks too slow, he’s going to sink. So he starts to trot a little bit. Then when he gets to dry ground, he starts walking again. He knows exactly where the heck he’s going.

Justin Mueller: Yep, like you said, those are workhorses. They know exactly what’s going on.

Ramsey Russell: This is a combo hunt. The first afternoon, could we shoot ducks and doves and pigeons, this year drought, we left the Perdiz alone. We might go fishing tomorrow afternoon, but the first afternoon, we go to a feedlot. What were you expecting? I know that’s in your wheelhouse, cows and feeding them stuff, and the smell and everything else, but were you expecting those kinds of birds? Were you expecting those clouds of birds to boil out?

Justin Mueller: No, I was expecting everything but the amount of birds. I knew, I kind of figured how it’d be laid out, there’d be cattle all over, kind of knew why they were there, what they were eating. I mean, it’s almost like watching mosquitoes come off of water. It’s just, I mean, you drive in and you can’t even guess how many are there. And it’s like that for every single person where we’re dropping people off, there’s just doves everywhere.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think about the parakeets?

Justin Mueller: Those were cool. I didn’t even know that was a thing until you told me. And I was like, parakeets? You’re like, yeah. And I was like, all right. Open stayed open-minded about it. But man, those things are they’re thick, they’re everywhere.

Ramsey Russell: You remember on the drive up the close we started getting to civilization, all these nests, you start these big. They built colonies. So it’s not just like a little bird nest, like a little robin nest sitting in a thorn bush. This is a massive dwelling that they just keep adding to and adding to and adding to. Do you remember, we saw that right away, just a mile long cut through the woods of power lines?

Justin Mueller: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: And every little word at the wire and everything interstate, there were just hundreds of those big nests. I mean, there must have been millions of those birds out through there. And in fact, here in this province, entrees Rios at some point in time in history, they say that the monk parakeet accounted for 70% crop depredation. Man, you know, these are simple people. 70% of your crop gone, that’s a lick.

Justin Mueller: That’s everything.

Ramsey Russell: And they want them shot. They’re actually on the plague species list. Shoot with reckless abandon. And there’s not enough hunters that can afford, $20 a box ammo to shoot them, so they love us gringos coming in and shooting them.

Justin Mueller: Yeah. They are a hundred percent a nuisance. Hundred percent. Like their nests are everywhere and they’re huge and like you said, that strip of power lines. That’s what really opened my eyes, because you see him in the trees, you see them all over. You’re like, yeah, that’d be kind of annoying. But then you see a mile long strip of power lines and every single, like, every single pole is just a giant nest on top. And it’s like, I don’t even know how they function in some of those areas.

Ramsey Russell: They don’t, I can tell you when you get far, get it far out of town, like where we’re hunting. If they short out of power line, those people don’t just reach on the wall and call the power company and somebody’s got them back in power for, in a couple hours, it could be weeks, days, you know what I’m saying. They’re a real problem. They eat all the crop and eat everything. And then the next big hunt we went on. The next day, we went on an all-day pigeon hunt, which I told you was my favorite. And you’ve done some pigeon hunting before?

Justin Mueller: I’ve done some pigeon hunting, yeah, just growing up on the farm, we had silage piles, we had the egg bags, the silos, cut cornfields, now we don’t have near the numbers in Minnesota, but we’ll go out and shoot a handful of pigeons here and there, but it was cool because, man, they decoy, and they decoy so good. And they come sometimes in singles, sometimes in swarms, but they just do it right where you want them every single time.

Ramsey Russell: And again, with all the meat cooking and everything else, I mean, it was just, so we shoot our pigeons, we come back midday. And you know somewhere around lunch, some of the hunters shot better than others, and they were talking about that. And I just got to wonder, man, I wonder how my old camera guy, I know he shoots pretty good with his camera. I wonder how he shoots with a shotgun. So you got to, you got to get a crack at some pigeons. What was that like?

Justin Mueller: Well, it was actually embarrassing because I’m like, yeah, I grew up shooting pigeons. I’ve been doing this my whole life. Hand me the gun for a box, and I think I hit, like, maybe three and entire first box of shells. And I knew it, too, man. I shot, like, 15 times before I hit my first one, and I was like, Ramsey’s got to be back here, just laughing here and right now.

Ramsey Russell: It kind of made me feel better because I can miss with the absolute best of them. I’ll hold my own when anybody but I can miss with the best of them, either hot you hot or you not you not. And, but you got a camera on you, you’re very conscious of the misses. And now sitting back watching these shows, yeah, man, I can relax now, this guy can’t hit shit.

Justin Mueller: Trust me, I was conscious of those misses.

Ramsey Russell: But you did kill some pigeons.

Justin Mueller: I got a couple pigeons, yeah, yep, got a couple of them, got a couple doves. Yeah, it was good. But, man, those pigeons, I just can’t get over. I mean, you’re literally, it’s like a duck hunt, the way they come into the decoys. You hunt them just like you play the wind, you get your spot, you have a blind, your decoys right out there, you had a mojo out there, and they’re just right where you want them every time. There’s so many of them, you get to pick your shots if something comes, flying from left to right, and it’s well within your range, but it’s not in the decoys you don’t feel like you need to shoot that one because there’s so many coming in.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. That was an amazing. The pigeon hunt is absolutely my favorite day up here. It’s like duck hunting with hiking boots. And it’s a big bird, and it’s so elegant, the way it presents itself. And guys that have hunted wild pigeons before, they absolutely love that. That’s what they’re looking for, to come back down here. And people that have come here, they all come back saying, man, we absolutely love the pigeons. It was amazing. And then yesterday, we go out to the dove field. And you had told me, I thought, Justin, one time, you had told me, you had read red stories and always dreamed of coming to Argentina because of the, what you’d heard about the dove, stuff like that. What were you thinking when we drove up and you can see the ground moving out there?

Justin Mueller: I mean, it’s just, the only thing I can relate it to is for the guys who have been in areas with tons of snow geese, that’s what it kind of looks like, but it’s doves. Ramsey Russell: Millions more, maybe.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, way more, I’d say. And it’s not like you just see them flying around, like what Ramsay said. You literally see, it looks like what the ground is moving, and it’s not just one spot in the field where doing that, and you’re like, oh, there they are. It’s everywhere you look. There’s a bunch over here, a bunch over there, and they’re just, it’s just a swarm of them, and you’re sitting right in the middle of it.

Ramsey Russell: How did you try to even attempt to capture that on film?

Justin Mueller: It was tough. Just because it’s easy to film big pockets of doves but what you don’t see is the fact that when you’re watching the video, you see what I’m filming through the lens, but you don’t see the 360 degrees around me where that same exact thing is happening, that I’m just not filming it. I’m filming a pocket of them, and there’s twelve pockets of them. So I tried my best to kind of move around and get different areas, but it’s one of those things where, and I hate to say it, because I’m a camera guy, but it’s one of those things where the video will never do it justice. You have to get out, and you actually have to see it for yourself and be there hunting.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve tried to film it. I’ve tried to do it with an iPhone, I’ve tried to do wide angle, I’ve seen videos, and it’s indescribable. And even me describing to you is indescribable. You can’t comprehend it until you’re sitting there and looking as far left as your head will turn and as far right as your head turn, and there’s just this massive black seething cloud of millions of doves rolling and shimmering and flying and undulating. And then when they break up, it might be five or ten different things going on at one time. You’re like, holy cow, this is unbelievable.

Justin Mueller: It is unbelievable. Yeah. And we were all right in the middle of it. I mean, it’s funny because you could hear the other guys shooting, and everyone was just hammering.

Ramsey Russell: It’s going at it.

Justin Mueller: Yeah. Going as much or as little as you want to shoot you can, if you could shoot until you just physically couldn’t anymore out there at those doves.

Ramsey Russell: But you did do something I’ve never seen before, yet seen on video, and that was you flew a drone. What was that like?

Justin Mueller: I was a little nervous, not gonna lie. I do have business insurance on my drone. So I was like, worst case scenario, I have to pay a few hundred bucks. But I was like,  let’s go for it. And we flew that drone out, and, I mean, if you guys look at Ramsay’s Instagram page or watch some of these videos we’re doing, you’ll see it. But I was literally inside the flock of doves. There was doves hitting the drone, the drone would kind of move left and right, and it would center itself again.

Ramsey Russell: Alarm going off.

Justin Mueller: Oh, it was going off. It was beeping at me, saying, land now, objects in the way and I was like, I know. But, yeah, it was cool, we got some great footage of that but just, as much like I said, as much as I hate to say until you actually see it in person, doesn’t matter what you’re watching for a video, it doesn’t do it justice. But I tried my best to portray it pretty good.

Ramsey Russell: The first time I remember you flying the drone was down at Las Flores, one afternoon, you put it up, it’s beautiful sunshine. You got the sun just right. And we’re kind of leveled down, looking at me and Ryan from across the pond. And about this time, those four tatoes, one of those little lapwings, they didn’t like that drone one damn bit. I’ve never seen them. I’ve always seen them in pairs. I’ve never seen two pairs gang up on something. No, did, man, they were all over. They swarmed on that thing like white on rice.

Justin Mueller: And I saw them coming, too. I saw them coming through the camera. I could hear them, and I saw him coming, I was like, oh, man, what are they going to do, and I was like, well, once again, we’ll see what happens. And they just went crazy at that thing and the funniest part was when I got back, you guys, like, did you see all those? I was like, yeah, I saw them, I was watching them live on my phone, and the controller was yelling at me. There’s objects everywhere, it was beeping, it was vibrating but luckily it didn’t hit it.

Ramsey Russell: Do you all have a dove season? Do you all actually have a dove season in Minnesota? Do you dove hunt, because that’s a big thing in the south growing up dove hunting, did you grew up dove hunting, too?

Justin Mueller: We grew up not really going out dove hunting, no, the season starts the first Saturday in September, if I’m not mistaken, for back when I was doing it, it was always September 1st. I haven’t checked in the last few years, but early September it starts, and there are spots you can go out and shoot a handful of doves. You might shoot 5, 10, 15 in your group or whatever, but it’s nothing like you have in the south. If you go 5, 6 hours west of me and get out into the Dakotas, now you’re starting to get into some more dove area. But our area where I live, we don’t have just too terribly many of them.

Ramsey Russell: What gun do you shoot back on? What shotgun do you have?

Justin Mueller: I have an 11-87, an old Remington.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Justin Mueller: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Oh same thing, my uncle [** 00:56:43], by the way.

Justin Mueller: I started off, my first shotgun was a single shot 410, where you could switch the barrel and make it into a 22. And then from there I went to a Remington 11-87, like a lot of guys do.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Justin Mueller: Then I just, I stuck with the 11-87. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t shoot very good at these doves and pigeons.

Ramsey Russell: I was just thinking the reason I asked that question, because yesterday, shooting doves, to me, especially for like a first timer with what you described growing up dove hunting, you had a very impressive shooting record. Given that Benelli Super Black Eagle-3, you missed a few and then got dialed in.

Justin Mueller: Mm hmm.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I thought you did real well. You did better than some of the hunters did. I’ll put it to you that way, my cameraman did better than that.

Justin Mueller: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell:  How would you compare the hunting down here to some of the hunting you’ve seen elsewhere? And I know I’ve kind of asked that question, like, how’s the habitat differ? What about the volume, what about the freedom, what about the hunting styles like that versus your hunting experiences back home with some of the ones you filmed elsewhere?

Justin Mueller: Back home there isn’t very much of a duck hunting culture right around my immediate area. Minnesota landed 10,000 lakes, you’d think that there would be.

Ramsey Russell: There used to be.

Embracing the Joy of the Hunt

“You might shoot two ducks or twelve ducks; it’s still a good morning.” – Justin Mueller

Justin Mueller: There used to be, and there still is, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not anything compared to some of the big duck states, you know, like Arkansas, your Midwest states and stuff like that. Down here these guys are focused on, especially the first place we went, they’re focused on numbers. They want to get you your ducks. And they pride themselves on that. And I think a lot of guys, especially myself, would appreciate that because I grew up going out hunting where whether you shoot two ducks or twelve ducks, it’s still a good morning. We shot a couple ducks. And that still applies for down here, but you’re going to shoot a lot of ducks. So I think a lot of guys would appreciate that, the amount of work still goes into it on their end.

Ramsey Russell: It’s still honest hunting.

Justin Mueller: It’s still honest hunting, yeah. I’m not going to guarantee you anything, but you’re going to shoot some ducks when you’re down here.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, doves and pigeons. But it still requires you got to connect the dots.

Justin Mueller: Yep. You got to hit them.

Ramsey Russell: And you got to be willing to get up early, go out in the dark, get on a horse, and, I mean, you got to play the game, it’s still a game, you know what I’m saying the decoys got to be outright and everything else.

Justin Mueller: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: Justin, when you come into something like this, sight unseen, you’ve duck hunt, you’ve been at camp, you’ve been up to prairie limits, you’ve done a lot of stuff in the duck hunting world, but you’ve never been to Argentina. The food, the culture, the city, the habitat, the types. I mean, you kind of went in blind to large pec. And then we talked about maybe some objectives for La Flores versus some objectives for La Paz. How do you approach that as a photographer and a videographer? It’s all brand new, but how do you capture it? How do you capture the essence of it?

Justin Mueller: The beauty about it being brand new to me is everything I see is new. So it’s exciting and its film worthy. When you start doing the same thing over and over and over and over, you start to take things for granted a little bit. So when I come down here, the first time I saw one of those parakeet nests, I was like, oh, look at that, we’re gonna have to film some of that. So everything you see and that maybe that’s a good thing for people to watch this video and listen to these podcasts and your social media and stuff because as a first time guy there’s so much down here that you don’t even realize you’re gonna experience until you get down here and really get into it. But from the film side there’s just always a story to be told what’s going on, well here, this is more of a couples thing. So what’s the story going on here, obviously, the hunting is good, we can go fishing, but there’s more to do here than just that. Whereas, the first place we were down south, it was like, focus on the ducks, because this is where the hardcore duck hunting guys are going to be coming.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah that’s right. I just noticed, gosh, you carry the camera everywhere, and I’d look up, you were filming the Paria or filming the stakes or film the cut of meat or filming something going on and it was just, I guess because it’s the same but it’s different. Have you ever seen such a meat culture?

Justin Mueller: No, never. I mean, every meal

Ramsey Russell: If I ever hit a lick and can build another house, I guaranteed, if I don’t have but one feature in that house that I want, it’s gonna be an indoor Paria, which is about an eight foot wide fireplace, that I can build a fire in and slide those coals up under the grate and cook steak and cook all that good meat.

Justin Mueller: Man, it was, because they had one of those at both places we’ve been to. And, I mean, what can you say about it’s good.

Ramsey Russell: It’s perfection.

Justin Mueller: It’s perfection and these people know how to cook a lot better than I gonna go home and make some macaroni, and I think that’s good. So when I come here and eat all this.

Ramsey Russell: How is filming duck hunts here anywhere else different than some of the other projects you do, like, I deer hunt, but not really. I mean, I’m good for an afternoon stand if I can read a book. There’s a cell phone signal. I’m not that hardcore guy, man. I don’t see how you guys climb up a tree and sit for four days in sub-arctic temperature. I just don’t see how you do it. Especially if you’re shooting a camera, not a bow in there or something.

The Freedom of Filming in the Outdoors

“The only limitation is yourself. You can do anything you want, and I really like that.” – Justin Mueller

Justin Mueller: I mean, I’d rather do this, the weather’s good, you have camaraderie, you can move around. There’s obviously things you have to worry about and do when you’re hunting ducks but there’s a lot more creative freedom for me, because if I want to get up and move and be in the blind with you for 20 minutes, and then I want to fall back to the left because they’re coming in over your right shoulder, I can do all that. When you’re deer hunting, you’re in the tree, and you’re in the tree. And you see very, very good deer hunting films out there, and there’s guys who are way more talented than I am doing stuff but you kind of hit a creative wall because there’s only so many shots you can get out of a tree stand. And everyone kind of is doing the same thing. When you’re on a hunt like this or any duck hunt, for that matter, the only limitation is yourself. You can do anything you want, and I really like that.

Ramsey Russell: How do you keep yourself from falling into a rut? It’s like you see, and a lot of respect, you see a lot of the same old, same old own social media or on videos. Now the moped pulled up, two Argentine women, and now the dog’s bargain again but this is Argentina. How do you prevent yourself from falling in that rut? And every now and again, everybody listening knows what I’m talking about. If you’re sitting there streaming in social media, swiping your thumb, all of a sudden you stop because somebody’s done something different. You see a different perspective, a fresh perspective, something different. How do you do that?

Justin Mueller: I guess you just always gotta be looking and thinking. There’s always an opportunity for something, like, obviously, we rode horses out, that’s gonna be a good content piece. Everyone would see that and everyone’s gonna film that. But what you gotta try to do is pull out more of the storytelling stuff and the emotion stuff and get people smiling and laughing and high five and the dog coming in with the ducks, try to get, I mean, it’s hard because sometimes you do fall into that rut but I think a lot of it I can credit too, is the fact that, like, this is my brand that I built from the ground up, and I’m proud to be where I am. There’s guys who are way ahead of me and way more all this, but where I am now, I’m really proud of myself for getting there. So it’s my job, and it’s on me to try to keep things fresh and deliver the best content I can for my clients who are paying me to be here.

Ramsey Russell: Last couple questions is, what do your hardworking dairy farming parents think about their son being an outdoor photographer, coming to Argentina, traveling around the world, what do they think about you?

Justin Mueller: At first, they weren’t too sure about anything I was doing.

Ramsey Russell: Well, you told me your mama had to look Ohio up on a map. What do you mean you are going to Ohio? Where’s that at?

Justin Mueller: Yeah, I took an internship in Ohio for a production company and I was 20, and I had literally bought my camera, like, five days but I presented it terribly to them. As you know, now that I’m older, I’m like, those poor parents. But I’m like, hey, I got my first camera, by the way, I’m moving to Ohio. And they’re like what are you talking about. My mom pulls out Google, she’s like, where’s that, that’s far away is away. And even the first couple years, because I lived at home, here come a camera in the mail, here come lenses, here come batteries. And my dad’s that, save your money. He’s a farmer. You might have a bad year. You need that money. Every time something would come in the mail, I could just see him like, oh, my God, how much money is he spending. And every time it was like, this might be the last camera though you’re gonna need for a while, right. And I was like, yeah, for a while, you know, 6, 8 months, I’ll get a new one. But now they’re very proud and very supportive. My parents are very much, if you’re gonna work hard and do something, then do it, but don’t do it half-assed. And I think they see now that I’ve been doing this so long, that’s what I’m doing. Sure, it’s a little un-traditional, especially coming from two dairy farmers, but I think they’re very happy to see me getting out and experiencing life because, I mean, it’s no secret they’re dairy farmers. They spent a lot of their time at home working twice a day, every day. So I think they really enjoy seeing me going out and seeing the mountains, seeing Argentina, traveling around the United States, and at the same time, getting to do what I love doing.

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Ramsey Russell: Well, I was going to ask you. That culture kind of, I can see where that creates kind of a home body. How did you develop an interest in leaving the farm, leaving the state, going to Ohio, going to Argentina, going to Canada? What sparked that travel bug for you? Got you out of that comfort zone.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, it was the fact that our farm has really bad hunting on it. There’s not many ducks, there’s not many deer, there’s some turkeys, but that’s about it. And from an early age, I was like, I need to find a way to branch out because I seeing stuff about Argentina doves, I’m seeing stuff about hunting elk out west and hunting big deer in the Midwest. And I was like, I need to find a way to get out and see more of this stuff. And kind of, at the same time, once I got later in life, I was like, I want to find a way to make my living and get paid to be hunting. Not in the hunting industry, to be hunting every single day I can. And there’s not many jobs that allow you to do that. I went to college and got a sales marketing degree, business degree. Even at that time, I was kind of like, well, I could be a sales rep for some companies in the hunting industry if I can find a job. But at the end of the day, you’re still not out hunting every day. So I think that’s what kind of led me to get into the film photography aspect more of it is, I could actually be out shooting. And sure, the number one question I get is, don’t you miss actually hunting. And I always say I hunt all the time. I’m not the one pulling the trigger. But when those ducks come in and they land right by the mojo and they’re doing all this stuff and shoot a bunch of rosey bills, I get to look back at that footage and be like, I was right there, and I killed them with the camera, is what I tell people.

Ramsey Russell: Well, the older I get, the only single thing I would change about duck hunting would be if we could do the whole entire process of it right down to hold them up and taking a picture. Then we could unstrap them and pitch them up in the air, and they’d fly off. And you kind of get to do that.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: That’s got to be rewarding.

Justin Mueller: And it’s cool because, I got into filming and photography to be out hunting, and that was how it was structured, hunting first, film photography second. But now I’ve been doing this for a while where it’s like, now I get to go out hunting and I get to take pictures. Even if I’m at my house turkey hunting by myself, I won’t shoot something unless I get good pictures of it. Two years ago, I let a turkey walk right out of the decoys because I couldn’t get a good picture of it strutting. And it’s just kind of funny how those roles reversed, and it kind of makes you appreciate the beauty behind it all and not just the fact that you’re pulling the trigger every time.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your social media? What’s your Instagram account? How can people get in touch with you?

Justin Mueller: Instagram’s, the biggest one, its @justinmuellerphotography, pretty simple.

Ramsey Russell: Do you have a web-page?

Justin Mueller: I don’t need one. I’ve always said since day one, I should do that tomorrow, I should get a website tomorrow.

Ramsey Russell: You’re staying as busy as you can be.

Justin Mueller: As busy as I can be. And you look at my Instagram, I post enough, I don’t post nearly as much as you do, but it’s because I can’t take on any more work. I’m slammed. I spend all my time working other people’s stuff. But I do post a fair amount of pictures in between.

Ramsey Russell: I appreciate you, Justin. I’ve really, truly enjoyed being down here with you. I’ve enjoyed being rooming with you, eating with you, visiting with you, hunting with you. And I’ve enjoyed just what little I have seen so far. Enjoyed looking at, looking kind of through your viewfinder and seeing what you’ve been capturing. It’s been an amazing trip and really appreciate you coming down with us.

Justin Mueller: Yeah, I appreciate you having me.

Ramsey Russell: We got another big one planned here not too long from now, we’ll save that for later. But folks, you all been listening to my buddy Justin Mueller. Check him out @justinmuellerphotography on Instagram from Argentina. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Duck Season Somewhere. We’ll see you next time.

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