TUSKER’S YOUTUBE VIDEO HITS 100,000 VIEWS
It all started with a voice. When Eddie Frank heard the voice of Will Lyman – deep, commanding, and erudite – Eddie knew he had found the one…
Starting off as a precocious young man, Eddie trained as a professional photographer, with hopes of someday shooting for National Geographic. Working to hone his skill, Eddie found no shortage of fascinating subjects. As the young Frank jaunted across Africa, he shot unforgettable scenes – twilight in the Sahara, sunrise filtering through the underbrush of the Rwandan jungle, agile Bushman hunters closing in on dinner. Eventually however, Eddie’s passion for photography took a back seat to a bigger dream that had been brewing since birth. Eddie abandoned his burgeoning career as a professional photographer to start his own adventure travel company.
Thirty-six years later Eddie’s company, Tusker Trail, is one of the industry leaders in adventure travel. It is hard to say where Eddie would have landed if he had stuck with photography, but ask Eddie today, and he will tell you he got the best of both worlds – a successful adventure travel company, and still endless good material for him to photograph. On every trip that Eddie guides – all 44 times up Kilimanjaro, on the Mongolian frontier, standing in the shadow of Everest, digging into the flanks of Aconcagua – he has carried a camera, resulting in an extensive and outstanding archive of adventure photography.
Despite being a rugged outdoorsmen, Eddie has a creative streak that there is no denying. So when Eddie decided it was time to make a video with his collection of Kilimanjaro photos, there was no question that he was going to do it right.
Eddie began creating “Kilimanjaro – A Lost World”, a video compilation of his best photos and imagery from the mountain. The end result was a thoughtful, captivating visual story of the mountain that is Tusker’s lifeblood. Receding glaciers, rose-colored ice fields, triumphant smiles at the summit, inky mountain dusk, all thoughtfully arranged into a visual story of Kilimanjaro, as seen from the unique perspective of a man who has literally lived on its slopes. But the imagery still needed a voice, a regal voice, and a voice that did the mountain proud. Listening to an old Nova episode, Eddie remembered a voice that fit the bill – Will Lyman, narrator for the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Nova, and Frontline.
Once Eddie knows what he wants, he goes straight to the source. Eddie found contact information for Lyman’s agent, and sent a copy of the script to the agent. And that was that. Lyman agreed to do the video straight away, and before he knew it, Eddie had a finished product that combined world-class photography with one of the most famous voices in America.
When Eddie put the video on YouTube, the views started occurring immediately. First posted in 2007, the video has now exceeded the 100,000 mark! That so many people take the time to check out the video is a testament to its quality, but the best part of 100,000+ views is that people are enjoying it, and that was the whole point to begin with.
