Capturing Cody Yellowstone
By Emily Bent
In 2023, VERB Interactive approached our partner, Cody Yellowstone, with the idea of launching an exciting program for their winter season. The goal was to highlight the region’s natural beauty while encouraging travel during their shoulder seasons. With our deep understanding of what makes Cody Yellowstone special and a passion for pushing the boundaries at every opportunity, this idea grew to become the award-winning Cody Yellowstone Wild Winter Photography Workshop. The workshop brings together photographers from all walks of life to document and capture the wonders of the West, complete with working sessions and feedback from professional photographers Scott Kranz and Stephen Matera.
The latest edition of this workshop took place in February 2024, and one of the attendees was VERB’s very own senior designer and photography hobbyist, Christain Miklos. We were thrilled to have Christian attend the workshop to capture content for partners in Cody Yellowstone while helping him fulfill his dream of working with renowned photographers. After he landed back in Halifax, we sat down with Christian to hear all about his experience in the Wild wintery west of Wyoming.
Tell us about your love of photography and what drew you to participating in the Cody Yellowstone Wild Winter Photography Workshop.
Professionally, I’ve been working with our partner, Cody Yellowstone, for a few years, and I invest a lot of my free time into photography. It’s a hobby that takes up most of my time and money. This year was the first time I felt comfortable enough to invest in a workshop specifically for photography, which I planned to turn into this year’s vacation.
I thought the Cody Workshop would be the perfect time to travel, learn, and save a bit of money with our travel credit (VERB employees can access $750 to go towards visiting our clients). I reached out to my creative director to ensure the workshop was open to me and confirm that I could apply my travel credit toward it. My request was met with an enthusiastic “Oh, we’ll send you!”. I was shocked and excited — an opportunity to take a vacation and do my hobby at the small price of having to drive a 4Runner around the mountains? Count me in.
What was it like? How was the experience?
It exceeded all expectations. As a VERB employee who could tag along with the rest of the planning crew, I joined the professional photographers on a scouting day before the workshop began. It was amazing to do a shoot day with a trio of professional photographers in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. The workshop itself was flawless. Every participant that joined was great, and Scott [Kranz], Stephen [Matera], and Amy [Gerber] were fantastic teachers. There are few places I’ve been to that have made me say “Wow” out loud, and at least three of them are in Wyoming. The landscapes were so stunning that I sometimes forgot to take photos as I was lost staring into the hills.
Why did you want to go to this workshop?
I love doing photography. My dream is to be a professional adventure photographer like Jimmy Chin or Chris Burkhard. Lofty, but attainable. So far, I’m only self-taught — learning most things from YouTube, and I wanted to invest in some practical experience and education from professionals. Being able to work at an agency that puts on such incredible workshops and experiences, I can grow my skills and knowledge base as I learn from the best of the best. Work and play all in one place.
Describe what it was like watching your VERB counterparts at work.
It was interesting to see and do what I can to help with the public relations side of the company when I usually don’t leave my creative bubble. It’s always been eye-opening to sit in on calls and meetings that aren’t just about creative work and see what goes into marketing and the logistics of doing what we do. Working cross-department allows me to deepen my understanding of our work with our partners.
You took a lot of photos. Do you get to keep these, or does the client get ownership since you went on behalf of VERB?
Since this trip was paid for by work, we are treating all the photos I took as if this were a regular partner photoshoot. VERB owns the images, and Cody Yellowstone gets unlimited license to them. I still get full credit as the photographer, but I don’t directly own them. Some of the photos have already been posted on Cody Yellowstone’s social channels; they will probably also make their way to the VERB socials and any campaign work we do for the client from here on out!
What destination would you like to document next with your camera?
Mountain people never stop being mountain people, so the bigger the mountains, the bigger the pull for me. Visiting Chile and Argentina to see the Andes is on my 2025 bucket list. Nepal and the Himalayas are also on my list. While I don’t think Everest is something I would do, the base camp, or even one of the nearby peaks, like Lhoste or Nupse, are expeditions I would love to say I’ve done.
Here at VERB, we love seeing our colleagues combine work with passion projects. Travelling coast to coast, across countries, to deliver best-in-class work on behalf of partners while pursuing personal passions is one of the many perks that make VERB stand out as a great place to work. You can follow Christian’s photography journey and keep your eyes peeled for Cody Yellowstone’s next big workshop on Instagram.
Emily Bent is a Social Media and Content Strategist with VERB Interactive — a leader in digital marketing, specializing in solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. Find out more at www.verbinteractive.com.
