HUMAN

Name: Phillip Townsend
Age: 48

Residence: Seattle, Washington

Occupation:  Cameraman

Years involved with Iditarod: 10

Iditarod role: Cameraman for Insider

Current Location: Ruby, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 13, 2020
Temperature: 22F/Outdoors

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I got involved with Iditarod when Kevin Bodie asked me if I could fill in at the last minute for a snowmobile cameraman that couldn’t make it. Greg Heister called me, asked me if I could ride a snowmobile, and I lied and said I could. My first time in Alaska, I was on a snowmobile and drove a thousand miles chasing the race. My snowmobile looked like a Mad Max vehicle when I got to Nome.

What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?

I’m here today and involved with Iditarod because it’s a hell of an adventure. None of my other jobs come close to this. I always know if I can do this, all my other jobs will be easy when I go back to them. Honestly, I just think the images, when they work out, the images that you can capture out here are second to none.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences.

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences, every year actually, is a being on the snowmobile and just watching the sunsets. Oftentimes that happens while you’re watching a musher in the sunset. I’ve never captured, I don’t think, exactly what I see when I’m riding. You keep chasing that, trying to capture your visual when you’re riding this amazing tracking shot that you have of a silhouette of a rider going up a ridgeline while the sun is setting. You chase that image trying to capture it. I haven’t caught it yet.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is, you’re never really going to find out much about yourself if you don’t challenge yourself. I’ve done that every year when I’ve done Iditarod. And I know the mushers have and everybody else out here does when they’re out here. There’s so many challenges and I think that if you can overcome them out here, I think in everyday life it just makes it that much easier.