(camera shutter clicking) - I am Paul Cyr.

I live in Presque Isle.

I dabble in photography.

(light music) So I started at 10 years old.

I've been doing it all my life.

Oh, I grew up in Hamlin.

It's up on the Canadian border.

French was my first language.

Still learning how to speak English.

Literally a three-room schoolhouse, whatnot, for the first seven, eight years of school.

Then we moved to the big school in Van Buren.

I was the oldest of six on the farm, big family farm.

(light music) My mother had a little bit of an interest in it.

And was a $6 deal on the back of a Cheerios box one year, probably in the mid 50s.

And she ordered it, and it started from there.

I mean, I just started, it was black and white when I first started.

I always had an interest in wildlife.

I would take pictures of the wildlife, and it went on from there.

It's a challenge.

Get the right light, right timing, try to outsmart the bear or the bird that you're trying to catch.

It's not easy, and that's what makes it fun.

(light music) It's all trial and error.

I didn't know where to go.

I mean, I never had an interest.

I do my own thing, and if it doesn't come out just right, I'll just go at it again.

I spend a fair amount of time, couple, three hours, two or three days a week at least.

Usually in the morning.

(light music) (upbeat music) My favorite photography is the farm aerials in August and in September.

That's where I started this in my early years.

And when you're up in the air, and you've got this huge panoramic scene in front of you, it's a big checkerboard with different colors, it really is, it's nice, it's enjoyable.

I mean, I do a lot of wildlife, lots of other stuff, some night stuff.

I enjoy in the winter with the snow.

You get a lot faster shutters, all kinds of stuff.

(Paul chuckles) (light upbeat music) I have a small grass strip here that we used to actually race snow sleds on, which, you know, but I outgrew that, thank God.

Didn't get hurt.

And few small planes would come in and outta here.

And then these guys started flying powered parachutes.

For years I thought they had to be crazy to get in one of those.

So finally one day I succumbed, and I took a ride in one.

I had just restarted my photography.

I took 15, 20 years off, and I was busy.

Get back into photography, and I thought, wow, this is an ideal platform for taking pictures.

You're flying slow and low.

And so the guy that flies me had an older machine.

I said, "Hey, how about we invest in a newer one?"

And that's where it's gone from there.

(light upbeat music) You'll get different seasons.

Right now the early waterfowl are coming back.

I got a few of those yesterday, different spots.

And some years those spots are good.

Some years are not so good.

I'm following a couple, three eagles' nest right now.

Anything interesting in front of me, I'll take a picture.

(light upbeat music) (light upbeat music) To do the photos you saw, they're mostly all on this hill.

The subject's gotta be elevated, and they're always moon setting to the West.

So I'm about 3/4 of a mile away, sitting lower, and I've got range.

So I can go North or South as the moon is setting in the West.

And you can have an object here.

I've had guys on their bikes doing laps.

I've had horse and buggies.

I've had antique cars.

In fact, it was a nephew down on the one knee proposing to his future wife, you know, all silhouetted in the moon.

(light music) This mountain started about 25 years ago.

It was the side of a hill, but there was a little outcrop of ledge.

And I was doing a ditch, and I brought the Phil over to help cover the ledge so in the future I could mow it.

One thing to another, a contractor got ahold of me, and then I had a place for Phil Shore.

And the thing grew, and it's now about 100 feet high.

And I've dug holes, one on each end so I can get down and shoot from ground level.

(light music) I've got three tractors, three trucks.

I've got almost every antique steel piece of equipment that was ever made, including a full size grain combine, 1915 version, stuff I've collected through the years.

I've got equipment to pick up those pieces.

I can move them around wherever I want.

I enjoy it.

It's like a giant play pen for me.

(light music) Years ago when I got back into photography, obviously to shoot a black bear was a desirable picture to get.

And I soon realized that they're not that easy to get.

They got a ridiculously good sense of smell.

So I was able, I succeeded.

I get a few out in a wild, but after a while there was a friend of mine who was getting rid of food at Martin's.

Martin's would pick up a lot of food.

It's only good for a few days.

So I had an outlet of food.

I started, I had a little blind I'd get into, and I started feeding bears.

I had a live camera that would go into my shop, so I knew when they were there.

And so a lot of the pictures I've got now, or most of the pictures I've got now are from a, because I feed the bears, and they come to me, so.

And now I've got some nice wooden blinds with chairs and windows and everything.

You sit in, and you can enjoy the show.

(light music) I've done it for so long that it's almost, I don't know, it's not, I don't think it's that big a deal, but other people enjoy it.

That's half of it right there.

You know, that's all of it really, so, when you can bring pleasure to someone else.

My pictures get into all kinds of places, institutions where, you know, there's people there that need help.

The VA home in Augusta, I believe has got 'em from one end to the other.

My stuff is getting all over the place.

It puts a smile on people's faces.