GPB’s nature show ‘View Finders’ lands national audience for third season

In February 2022, educator and amateur photographer Chris Greer had just wrapped a day shooting footage for a YouTube video at the Hogpen Gap on the Appalachian Trail in the North Georgia mountains.

“I was chilled to the bone,” he recalled. “I went inside my cabin, turned on the fire, poured a decent-sized glass of bourbon and turned on the TV. I saw ‘Georgia Outdoors,’ ” the long-running Georgia Public Broadcasting nature show.

“Everything coalesced,” Greer continued. “My brain went to a certain place. I could do something like this. I could create a TV show based around my adventures and travel to find the most beautiful locations for photographers along the way.”

The result: “View Finders.” It’s now in its third season and Greer has garnered so many fans and sponsors, the 30-minute show has officially gone national. New episodes air at 9:30 p.m. Mondays n GPB, and all past episodes can be viewed for free on-demand at gpb.org. It is also now on 125 PBS stations nationwide.

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After two seasons hitting Georgia locales such as Sapelo Island, Tallulah Gorge and Cloudland Canyon State Park, Season three highlights the visually stunning expanses of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, the vast fields of elk and bison on Ted Turner’s Vermejo property in New Mexico and the rugged coastline of Acadia National Park in Maine. But since this is a GPB show, Greer and his co-host Paul Daniel in a future episode visit the Golden Isles on the Georgia coast, including St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island.

And Greer is already working on Season four with planned visits to the British Virgin Islands, Iceland and the Faroe Islands this summer.

“I wanted something fresh and kind of higher energy,” said Greer, a Tennessee native who lives in Watkinsville with his wife of 19 years and two sons, ages 9 and 12, and teaches technology at Georgia College in Milledgeville. “I wanted it to be cinematic and creative.”

“Georgia Outdoors” over its 15-year life span focuses more on specific topics like the state’s wine country, the plight of the American black bear and invasive species impacting Georgia’s ecosystems. “View Finders” has more of a travelogue feel.

“If ‘Georgia Outdoors’ is like a nice relaxing cool glass of ice tea on the porch in the evening,” said GPB chief executive officer Bert Wesley Huffman, “ ‘View Finders’ is your ginseng shot to get you going in the morning.”

Credit: GPB

Credit: GPB

“View Finders” is a melange of visual eye candy, information about whatever park or location they are in from experts in the field, and photographic advice from Greer and Daniel, supplemented by on-screen pop-up notes. Some of those are straightforward (e.g., “When doing longer exposures, a tripod is very useful to hold the camera steady to prevent unwanted blur.”) and some are more arcane (“A neutral density filter is placed on the camera lens to reduce the amount of light hitting the filter, which allows for longer shutter speeds.”).

The low-key interplay between Greer and Daniel is part of the equation as well.

Greer hired Atlanta photographer Daniel for Season two to take over for his former co-host Jason Clemmons, who couldn’t take the time off to shoot the show. Daniel, a Brooklyn, New York, native who works in construction sales, has spent most of his time shooting urban scenes, so this show gave him an opportunity to stretch his wings.

“He’s a city guy who had never camped,” Greer said. “Until we visited Wind River Mountains in Wyoming, he’d never been on a horse before.”

While hiking Amicalola Falls in the North Georgia mountains in a Season two episode, Daniel compared the hike to working the treadmill at L.A. Fitness.

“It’s just like L.A. Fitness,” Greer cracked, “except there are bears that eat you.”

Another odd appeal is the show’s minimal stakes. Setbacks include haze or the lack of clouds for visual depth, while challenges involve waking up early enough to catch a potentially jaw-dropping sunrise.

Credit: GPB

At the Grand Teton National Park, Greer forgot his camera for a key shoot and had to traipse back to his cabin. (Greer posted a facetious “photo tip” on screen: “Never forget your camera when you are heading out to photograph a stunning sunrise.”)

During the Acadia National Park episode, they tried to do a “one lens” challenge meaning they could only use a single lens throughout the entire day. Daniel got upset because the lens he chose prevented him from taking the best shot of a mallard duck.

“I came all the way to Maine to see one of these things,” Daniel said in frustration while Greer noted, “I’m just curious how long I’m going to hear about this. This is going to be brought up for years.”

Another key component of the show is Greer’s musical taste. The first two seasons, he focused on Georgia indie rock and folk artists such as Wyatt Espalin, Trappers Cabin and Walden. In season three, he expanded to national artists.

The Acadia National Park episode, for instance, features songs by Lord Huron, Gregory Alan Isakov, Hazlett and Empire of the Sun.

“There are songs that elicit an emotional response to me,” Greer said. “Songs are so powerful if you can combine them with really incredible imagery, it can be a cool experience.”

He opened the Acadia episode with Lord Huron’s “Ends of the Earth,” which is appropriate since he says while snapping photos where the Atlantic Ocean meets the rocks: “I feel like I’m standing on the edge of the world!”

Credit: CON

He commissioned the theme song “Chasing Light,” performed by Athens duo The Lonesome Dawn, fronted by his now associate producer Sarah Lawing, who joined the show in Season three. The song was “written to reflect our adventures out in the landscape trying to capture beautiful images,” Greer said. It plays in the final scene every episode leading into the end credits.

Lawing, as a producer, said she worked hard to improve the sound on the show, such as enhancing the waves crashing against the rocks in the Acadia episode.

“View Finders,” Lawing said, “cuts through the noise of the entertainment and media landscape right now. I’m 40. Chris is a little older. We may not be used to going to PBS for our programming but this is really a chance to sit down and immerse yourself in an experience that is beautiful and can bring joy.”