EP 109 Curtis Graham | Motorsport Photographer & Race Car Driver

[00:00:25] Speaker A: Well, good morning everybody and welcome to the Camera Life podcast. It's 21st August 2020 and this is episode 109 of the Camera Life podcast, proudly brought to you by Lucky Straps. If you are looking for a premium handmade customizable leather camera strap, head to Luckystraps.com oh my God, the music just started again. Well, that's embarrassing because there hasn't been a show yet and Justin wasn't here that I haven't stuffed up the audio in some way. But yeah, this is like I said, head to Luckystraps.com check out the straps we have on offer there. They're handmade, Aussie made in Bendigo, Victoria. And we'll get that out to you and use Code Greg at the checkout for a healthy discount. But let's move on with the show. Audio issues aside, now you'll notice today there's absolutely no one here from Lucky Straps apart from myself. [00:01:24] Speaker B: They've. [00:01:24] Speaker A: They've all abandoned me. Jim's having a sleep in Justin somewhere in New Zealand with Yelena. So I've had to rope in some. Some really desperate photographers who just wanted some airtime. A joke, of course. Co hosting with me today is Dennis Smith and Jason Lau. G', day lads. [00:01:41] Speaker C: Hey, hey, hey. [00:01:43] Speaker A: Good, good, good to have you guys back again. Always great to see you. You guys are becoming regulars, which is lovely. But of course, being a Thursday morning Camera Life podcast episode, we have a guest with us and I managed to snag Curtis Graham, who's an automotive motorsport photographer. G', day, Curtis. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Hey, how you going? [00:02:05] Speaker A: Good, mate. Great to have you on the show. Curtis and I have known each other for a couple of years now. We seem to just bump into each other at photography events, which is, I guess, not that unusual, hey? [00:02:19] Speaker B: Mostly Fuji. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Mostly Fuji, yeah. Funny that. I don't know why. But look, before we dive into having a chat, a deep dive into Curtis's story. Curtis, can you just give us like the 67, 60 second version of who. [00:02:34] Speaker B: You are, what you shoot, put me on the spot. Okay, cool. So 60 second version. I did pre warn you. Yeah, no, I know, I know, I know. I didn't. I didn't think about the answer. I thought I'd just waffle. But I love shooting cars, I love racing. I like nerding out on, you know, camera gear, other things. I work in IT and 9 to 5. But yeah, just sort of try and chase fast cars and take, take photos of them. Not even fast cars, slow cars going as fast as they possibly can too. So I'm an avid enthusiast of the Honda Civic. So that's about it. I, I own far too many cars and I've. Yeah, it's, it's a terrible habit. But yeah, my, my life is very. Cars and cameras at the moment. [00:03:26] Speaker A: And look, you're, you, you're amongst great company here because for those of you listening along or watching along live with this right now, as you may or may not know, Dennis Smith is often involved with automotive photography and incorporating automotive photography with his light painting pro. And Jason La is, is an avid motor fight motorcycle fan and, and is often out shooting bikes as well. So you're in good company, Curtis. [00:03:54] Speaker B: Love it. [00:03:55] Speaker A: You might actually get grilled, but. [00:03:58] Speaker B: That'S fine, no promises. [00:04:00] Speaker A: But look, before we dive into that, let's, let's welcome the chat. Great to see everybody. Philip Johnson first as usual. Philip, thank you for showing up again. John Pickett. Morning. Morning, John, Great to see you. David Mascaro. Hey. From the Bay Area. G', Day, David. I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, David. We brought up some of your images from your San Francisco street walk last. Last week. We brought those up on Monday night. So if anyone hasn't seen that episode, go back and check out the random photography show. Episode 108. Nick Fletcher's in the house. Holla, Nick LTK photo. Good afternoon. And Nick Fletcher. Yo, Dennis, Looking sexy. [00:04:44] Speaker C: It's all for you, Nick. I knew you would be here. [00:04:49] Speaker A: And Philip Johnson. Is that a record? Three minutes in and the Fuji got mentioned. Yeah, it might be a record, but, you know, either way, I'm earning cash off every time anyone says it, so. That's not true. It's really not true. Anyway, yeah, thanks, mate. Yeah. All right. That's the formalities and the housekeeping out of the way, let's talk a little bit more about you, Curtis Graham. What we like to do here, we'd like to roll back the clock and get a bit of an impression or an understanding of your earlier inspirations, how you got into the world of photography when you first picked up a camera and when you realize that you could actually make something of it. So just give us a little bit of a, a bit of a background check here on, on where it all began. [00:05:37] Speaker B: Yeah, so I think it began actually. My, I think it's actually both of my hobbies at the moment sort of relate to things that my, my father was doing when I was a kid. So, you know, one day dad said he wanted to buy a cool camera and I was. I can't remember, I was probably like maybe 12 11. And he bought a nice 550D. In fact I still have it right there and he, he picked it up, he took some photos here and there and I ended up sort of stealing that camera. And I think I've told this story a few times but is. I just. I just kept picking it up, I just kept taking it with me places and I just kept taking photos of things however bad they were. But I just really enjoyed it. There was a photo that I took. I think the first sort of wow factor for me when it came to photography is I took a photo of my old family dog in black and white in the. The monochrome mode on your. On your Canon. Because I didn't quite know how to use RAWS back then and it came out as a jpeg and I sent it to my dad and yeah, it was like. It had some nice bokeh, it was composed quite well and I was like wow, this is actually really cool. And he loved it so much that he had it as his wallpaper for his phone for tens if not still has it as his wallpaper as his on his phone. So for me that was. That was basically how I started in photography and that was. I don't know what my influences really were. I just sort of liked taking it with me. I was going a lot of like thrift events and things like World Time Attack Challenge and started up in at Eastern Creek. So I took it there. You know I took a photo of an NSX that I thought was really cool. So yeah, basically that's sort of how I got started. [00:07:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool. And so with, with your, your dad being you know getting this camera and, and you know allowing you to steal it from time to time. Were your parents creative people? Were they business minded people? How did they influence your creative process? If Anyway. [00:07:49] Speaker B: I don't know. I think my dad's pretty creative but also my, my dad worked at a car dealership and he would bring home you know the latest Toyota sports car or you know, Hondas and stuff like that and that's sort of where the, the automotive side of things comes from. But in terms of creative. Yeah, my parents both into like the, the music like quite hardcore. Like they're, they're very into you know, rock and roll and, and punk rock and things like that. My dad was a bit of a punk back in the day, so was my mum. So yeah, that's sort of how, that's sort of how it all came about. I'D say, yes, they're creative. [00:08:31] Speaker A: Yep. [00:08:32] Speaker B: I don't know if I've ever seen any creative outlets from. From either of them besides my dad picking up a camera, but I would suggest that they are. [00:08:43] Speaker A: Fair enough. Okay. And so in those early days, what camera did you say you were running around with? A 95. Oh, okay. [00:08:53] Speaker C: Amazing. Amazing. My first camera ever was a 450D, so I'm wearing the same. I still use it. It's crazy. [00:09:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:03] Speaker B: I don't think I've picked it up in a while. I think I actually. I think I just hacked the firmware once just so you could do like raw 4k, whatever. [00:09:12] Speaker A: How does that work? [00:09:14] Speaker B: Yeah, no, you. There's. I can't remember what it's actually called, but you can. With all the old cannons, you can hack the firmware to unlock new features out of it. [00:09:22] Speaker A: Wow. [00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:23] Speaker A: Never heard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a really interesting thing. I remember once I wrote an article for Shock Kit, and it wasn't about hacking firmware or software in camera. It was about creating glitches by impacting the code in the image file. It's probably still on ShotKit now. It was all about just highlighting and cutting out whole sections of code randomly to see what the effect was on the image. It could just be a standard photo, but you'd create all these glitches because the code couldn't read it. It couldn't work out what it was supposed to show, and it would show odd things. That was a lot of fun. [00:10:07] Speaker C: There it is in the chat. It was Magic Lantern. Yeah, it was Magic Lantern. Yeah. I hacked a five. Died of 5D Mark II and. And hacked it for the same thing. [00:10:17] Speaker B: Just. [00:10:17] Speaker C: And it would just. It would literally just unlock it. It was like. It was like you'd found this magic master key to just. It was wild. Yeah, it was. It was an incredible thing to play with. [00:10:30] Speaker A: Very cool. Speaking of the chat, we've got a new player in town. Bum Pudding. Love your profile name. Is that someone you. [00:10:39] Speaker B: That's obviously someone say, my. Some of my friends are absolute degenerates. [00:10:47] Speaker A: And then I bet he drives a. [00:10:48] Speaker B: Tough D series Civic. Yes. [00:10:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:50] Speaker B: Yes. [00:10:51] Speaker A: Nice. Welcome to the channel, Bum Pudding. Make sure you like and subscribe. Helps us out a lot. Okay, so early days. Curtis, you're running around with a Canon that you still own, which is amazing. And what. What was sort of the evolution for it to become more of a. Than just a. I'll grab the camera every now and then to go out when did it be. When did you realize that this had really set in and this was something for you? [00:11:21] Speaker B: Not till many, many, many years later. Like I sort of put it down for a bit. I was playing in a metal band and I was getting out to gigs a lot and I started doing a lot of gig photography and the 550D and low light and gig photography didn't really cut the mustard. So I ended up going out and buying myself a, an a6300. I think it was at the time, the, this little Sony with the 50 mil 1.8 and cracking camera, awesome camera. Like even to this day you can get amazing results out of that thing. Um, but yeah, I think that's sort of where I, I put it down. I started going to gigs and then I picked it back up going to, going to shows and, and sort of taking photos of some of the other bands that were playing at the same time. And then, I don't know, I just sort of started taking it everywhere because it was such a small, light, compact, little, little setup and like I could sort of get away with it. I, I did a couple of overseas trips and did the, you know, the whole touristy thing and I found myself always taking photos, especially when I was in Japan of really cool cars. And I was like, how this is, this is quite good or you know, have like having cars in different settings and especially in Japan, it's pretty, it's a pretty busy sort of, sort of area and you can get some pretty amazing, some pretty amazing shots with just, you know, cars that are parked on the side of the road. So from there I figured you could. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Take a photo of the road like just pointing straight down at the road. In Japan, it would still look like a work of art. [00:12:58] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:58] Speaker A: I'm thinking about Japan. There's some sort of magic source there, some sort of unicorn thing they've got going on. It doesn't matter what you photograph in Japan, it's just. Oh my God, it's compelling. [00:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that's exactly right. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Not to, not to discredit your work. [00:13:11] Speaker B: No, no, I, I knew that it wasn't great at that point, so I just took it with me and, and sort of just kept taking photos and, and carried it everywhere. And then I think it, it kind of changed when I, I think I moved to. Yeah, I think it was when I moved to, to Melbourne actually, about four years ago and I just started going to like, I didn't know anyone. I just started going to random events and taking photos of race cars because I just walk all day and just take photos of these cars and I would, you know, I don't know how, but one day I was like, oh, I wonder if I slow the shutter speed down and follow a car and see what happens. It's like, oh, that's. That's an actual technique. And I started researching these techniques, and it sort of just developed from there. And then, you know, I had people saying, hey, can you. Can you send me the photos of that. Of your car? Of. Of. Sorry. Of my car and be like, yeah, yeah, sure, no worries here. Just dump the. The. The folder to them after I've edited them and started playing around with lightroom and different effects and, yeah, I was just trying to. Trying to change things up a little bit. And, yeah, apparently people like the results, so, yeah, that's. And then. Then people started saying, oh, how much do you charge? How much do you charge? I'm like, man, just take them. Like, I'm happy for my work just to be out there. I don't. I don't care about, you know, money. That's. That's not why I do it. I just want to create. Yeah, look, we'll get to that. [00:14:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:14:41] Speaker A: And so when did that flip happen where you went? No, no, no, don't worry. I'm just doing it. I. I love doing it. I'm happy to do it. Don't need to pay me. Talk to me or us. I should say about that flip to when you went, oh, hang on. Actually, I need to start making some cash off this. [00:14:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So, funnily enough, again, I moved to Melbourne. I'd been taking a lot of photos of cars at events and. And, you know, stills and on the racetrack and things like that. And I was part of my Port Melbourne Focus residency group. You know, like how you like your little local area Facebook group. [00:15:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:19] Speaker B: And someone was actually asking for, you know, a family portrait of their. Their kids. And I'm like, oh, I can do that. Like, if it's a weekend or whatever, it's just maybe like an extra little bit of cash for me. Cool. [00:15:30] Speaker A: Cool. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Did the shoot with her. Met up, had coffee, and she says, oh, well, I'm a. I'm a publicist at gm. And I'm like, oh. She's like, I want to get you on a couple of shoots. I've looked at all your. All your automotive work, and I really like it. I was like, okay, what does that mean? She's like, we'll fly up to Brisbane. You just need to get a few Shots for the paper and all that kind of stuff as we're launching this car. And I'm like, okay, whatever you would normally charge. And I'm like, I don't know what I normally. So I sort of. I sort of asked a few friends and was like, hey, what do I. What do I do for this? And, yeah, so ended up doing the launch for Silverado, the 1500 and the. The new 2500. Yep. And that's this. That's the point where I was like, oh, oh, I can actually do this. [00:16:22] Speaker A: This is. [00:16:23] Speaker B: This isn't about. I mean, the photos have to be quality, don't get me wrong. But it's more about the people you meet along the way and where they can sort of push you. [00:16:34] Speaker A: So I think it's interesting that, you know, that I don't believe in fate, but that, you know, you met someone doing a completely different gig, and I just happened to be the sort of person that you needed to hear from at that point in your career. You know, it's really fortuitous and. And quite amazing. I just want to ask the lads. So, Jason, do you. Do you remember your first gig or when that flip happened from, you know, taking shots for mates to. And I know, you know, you grew up old school like me, in a dark room, you know, do you remember that first gig when you. When you received a paycheck for. [00:17:13] Speaker D: Was probably straight out of uni, where I shot my first wedding. And that's normally how a lot of photographers get started. My first, you know, tens of jobs were all on film, so I actually shot my first wedding and I just hadn't done the film. I have to this day have never seen those photos. It was like. It was like a super, super budget wedding out in Bendigo. And I shot, you know, six, eight rolls of film, which back then was a lot of photos. Like, you know, you get two, 300 photos. And I was like, well, here's a film. [00:17:48] Speaker B: I'll. [00:17:49] Speaker D: I'll see you later. Have a good life. And I got my first paycheck from that. And, yeah, that was my first job. [00:17:55] Speaker B: So you didn't even develop them? [00:17:57] Speaker D: Nope. I just. Because they were so low budget. There was so low budget, they're like, we can afford for your service. That's it. [00:18:04] Speaker B: I was like, that's awesome. That's so cool. [00:18:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:18:11] Speaker B: And. [00:18:11] Speaker A: And from that point, you realize that, actually I can. I mean, you obviously already knew it because you studied photography in university. Just out of interest, Jason, during your studies, was the business of Photography a part of that? [00:18:27] Speaker D: It was a small part of it. And to be honest it's a bit of a challenging thing because I teach commercial photography now. I teach at Collarts College and I teach how to be a business and basically how to make a living from doing photography. But when you're 18 even the concept of being employed is a foreign thing. Like tea, like it's just like I gotta be entrepreneurial and this is probably, and this, you'll hear me rant about this a lot. I feel like the education system needs a bit of a revamp because when you're a creative you're told you go down the creative path. [00:19:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:06] Speaker D: And if you're good at numbers you go down the business accounting path. No one told me how fun running a business would be and how fun entrepreneur, how creative entrepreneurship could be. So even when in my college days, I entered my college days going same thing as you Curtis, I love it. I don't care how much money I make. And now I say to my students, if you don't care about how much money you make in five years time you won't be doing the thing that you're passionate about. [00:19:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:37] Speaker D: And yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just part and parcel of knowing your worth and then knowing that, that what you do creates value for other people and that you should be handsomely compensated for it because you are actually creating value for other people's lives. So that, that's, that's been, that was a, a big lesson for me and I think it's something that is a little bit underaught in both education and life. And here's my last, the last thing I'll say about this, the majority of advice you'll get about creativity are from non creators and they are terrible, terrible advice. So that's good. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Hey so Dan, what about you? I see you shaking. What about your first paid gig? [00:20:26] Speaker C: Look, a giant. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Remember back that far? [00:20:29] Speaker C: Well yeah, a giant rabbit hole has just been opened. I'm going to try not to go down it. But I do mate. [00:20:34] Speaker A: Look, it's funny like just rim it, just rim it. [00:20:37] Speaker C: Yeah, okay, I'll rim it. Thanks. A Don't say that you're getting. Nick Fletcher will be getting all excited. Look, photography came to me very late in life. Like I, I bought my first, you know, 450D when I was 36 and so my background before that was in really high end corporate sales and communications and marketing and so photography, you know a very quick segue through what you were just saying is I, I learned really fast that having a good photography business and being paid for it had almost nothing to do with the images being stunning, if they were. That was a byproduct. I just learned really quickly to be a good communicator, a good human fun, make it easy, you know, be there when I say I'm going to be there, all that really basic fundamental stuff. But yes, I do remember the first time I ever wrote an invoice and it was hilariously funny and the job was wild. But more importantly, I remember the first time I ever wrote an invoice that was related to my other, my fine art stuff, so my light painting. And when I, I remember the day that I realized that that was an actual business, that I was making stuff that had value both artistically and commercially in the genre of fine art that I was working. And so I remember, I remember that that's more that, that's the thing that gives me goosebumps is when I think about that side of things and I. [00:22:15] Speaker A: Guess for, for, for a lot of photographers is when, when you, when your work is recognized as art, it's like, I've always wished someone would say that, you know, I've always hoped someone would see my work as creative and artistic. And yeah, I'm not just a product, you know, well, it's really powerful. [00:22:29] Speaker C: And I, and I think, you know, when I was looking through, when I was looking through you know, Kurt's work, you know, in coming for here. [00:22:44] Speaker A: There'S. [00:22:44] Speaker C: So many car photographers. Automotive photography is, you know, it's one of those genres, like a lot of stuff now, where anyone that has a camera and has even the slightest interest in cars or bikes goes out and, and you know, if you, if you open that algorithm in social media of car photography, you just get absolutely obliterated with gazillions of images. The line between it being something that is like going out and making images and it being a compelling automotive image that has not only artistic merit but also commercial value is if you can cross that line and write an invoice for making a car image that's really special, you know, and when, when you talk about being, being flown up to Brisbane to do that work, you don't end up there unless you are a good communicator. You're good at listening to what they want. You understand the brief, you understand the commercial viability of the, of the images you're creating. And, and, and that's a strong thing. And I agree. I Agree that it's something that's probably not taught enough. [00:23:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:49] Speaker C: In this day and age. And the reality, the last thing I'll say on that is the reality is in 2025, if you're not making really good work and you're not an exceptionally good communicator and have some entrepreneurial spirit, you might as well go get a job at the chicken shop because you ain't going to be making photos for money. [00:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's. That's sound advice. Absolutely. [00:24:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:13] Speaker A: So back to you, Curtis. Now you don't just take photos of cars. Let's talk a little bit about how you actually got into car. Into car racing, into automotive racing. Where did that? [00:24:24] Speaker B: Yeah, actually, funnily enough, the guy who got me into it was visiting and he came around, had a beer last night. So basically, I've always liked cool cars. Whatever I've. I've liked. I've had an interest in motorsport for quite some time. I, I've. I tried the whole drifting thing. It ended up costing me far too much. I was like, no, this isn't for me. I basically ruined my brand new 2012 GT86 back in the day. And I was like, n. Drifting is not for me. I'm just going to have a cool car, have it look nice, blah, blah, blah. So fast forward a few years, I end up buying a little MX5 for dirt cheap. And I was like, okay, I might take it to the track. And I was getting sort of pushed a little bit by some of my friends. One of my other mates ran a tire shop. He's like, oh, put these tires on it. Like, they'll be really good if you want to ever go track it. And I was like, I'll track it now. Not really. Then one of my mates who I grew up with in, in, in Sydney, bought a GTR when we were in Sydney when we were in high school. Sorry. So he bought this R32 GTR for, I think it was eight grand at the time. He recently had that thing valued at like 70 or 80. So, yeah, yeah, he got very lucky with that thing. [00:25:57] Speaker A: So I was just gonna say, I've been watching. I've watched them for years. Oh, gosh. Who are they? Marty Mulholland. And yeah, look, I'm not a, I'm not a car guy at all, but this is Modi. Car Mods is an example of a YouTube channel that is done so exceptionally well that they just hook in people because of the delivery of their content, the natural. Yeah. Order of things that they do you know, they're really down to earth Aussie guys and they take the piss out of each other and themselves and they just love what they do. And I, I don't, I don't dig cars at all. I don't even own a car. But their content is so compelling. Like, it's a really great example of, you know, content done well. If you luring in people that have absolutely zero interest in your core, in your core function, you know, that's probably. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Been a main inspiration for, for me as well. Like I've been watching those guys, like a new episode comes edge. Just like it's second nature for me to just watch it, you know, like. Yeah, but so, yeah, my mate Stephen who, you know, bought a gtr, came out and said, hey, do you want to, do you want to go for a track day? Like, yeah, all right, let's go. So we ended up going out to, to Ludnum. I think it was pretty much just after it had opened and ever since then I've been hooked. I slung my little MX5 around with the, the nice semi slick tires that my mate had pushed me to, to put on it and yeah, I had an absolute ball and it was so much fun. So I, I haven't stopped since. [00:27:30] Speaker A: And so what, what sort of racing, again, don't know much about the racing world. What sort of like, is there a class that you race in? Is it a open competition? Is there. Tell us a little bit more about the structure of it. [00:27:44] Speaker B: So until recently I wasn't doing anything competitive, more social, just sort of enjoying like going on a track day with some mates, you know, hanging out afterwards and having beers. Like that's what we do and we're like, we'd, we'd, we'd, we'd race or we'll go around the track. We don't really call it racing unless you're door to door. We, we sort of just call it a track day. Long story. Anyways, so, yeah, we would just do it socially, sort of sort of for bragging rights. Just who could, who could set fastest laps? And a big influence in that sort of space was Ying Tom and Cam at Nugget Nationals. And those guys would, you know, just put on casual sort of track days for a 1.5 liter class and below. Doesn't matter what your times are, just come have fun. So that's sort of how I got into it. But more recently I've been trying to push myself and be a little bit more competitive. And I recently did, you know, a couple of budget enduros. I did a 24 hour endurance race at Malala recently and been competing in D series Cup. So, yeah, just still very grassroots and very amateur, but. [00:29:05] Speaker A: Sounds like a lot of fun. And so you're still, you're still racing the MX5? [00:29:10] Speaker B: No, so I've gone still. I still have. [00:29:15] Speaker A: How many cars do you own currently, Curtis? [00:29:19] Speaker B: Four. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've downsized. I had. [00:29:24] Speaker A: We. [00:29:24] Speaker B: There was a point where my whole street was lined with my cars. [00:29:28] Speaker C: It was just classic. [00:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:30] Speaker B: Like I was getting people coming around saying, hey, you're gonna move any of these things? Like I'm like, okay, I think it might be time to sell and that I wanted to put some, some budget into building a proper race car. So I was like, you know, it's time to sell some of these. But yes, I, I have a bad addiction and I, I still sit there, I pick up my phone, I'm like, oh, what's on Facebook? Marketplace, you know, yeah, what can I buy and hot up? [00:29:53] Speaker A: Actually, I don't know if you remember Jason, but Curtis was at the Fuji X half launch with Alpaca where we caught up and, and while we were there he was, he kept looking his phone going, I've got to go pick up these wheels. Every time I see. [00:30:07] Speaker B: I do remember that. [00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:09] Speaker B: And then like the next day I, I ended up taking, taking photos of that car because I bought them for my other Honda Civic and I ended up taking photos and doing a, a nice little photo shoot with those wheels on. The car looked good. [00:30:22] Speaker A: And, and so is there a reason why you've stooped so low to drive a Honda Civic? [00:30:31] Speaker B: Hit me well with that one. So I still drive. I still have, I still have the MX5. Well, I have a, an MX5. I have a 2017 or no 2018. I can't remember the latest one, the ND, but the Honda Civics, like they're cheap. [00:30:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:51] Speaker B: They're so many parts available for them. You, you can, you know, there's, there's so many different ways you can take them. They have an awesome rear suspension setup for the Gold Nero ones anyway, which a lot of, a lot of, A lot of hatchbacks are just like a solid beam. These are actually independent, so they're actually quite capable track cars and there's so many engines and things you can put in them and they, they're just fun. Just fun. [00:31:18] Speaker A: Yep. I think call them nuggets. [00:31:22] Speaker B: They are nuggets. Absolutely. I'm not going to ever defend that. Ever dispute that. Sorry. But yeah, they're so much fun. [00:31:31] Speaker C: So the Civics, it's a front wheel drive car though, hey? [00:31:34] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [00:31:36] Speaker C: Yeah. That's amazing. That's really interesting that, that's a super compelling track daycare. I mean, ultra fun. Hey. I mean lightweight, it would be like driving back in the day I had Minis, like original Minis. Yeah, it makes me think about that. Right? So small, lightweight, when you strip those things out, they don't weigh, they weigh nothing. [00:31:56] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [00:31:57] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that's wild. If you, if you were, if, if, if you had 100k budget and you could go out and build anything to be, but, but it had to be in that class, right? In that small capacity class, what would it be? Would it be a Civic? Would you build 100k civic or would you go to something else? [00:32:17] Speaker B: If it was, if it was for a track car? [00:32:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, probably. [00:32:21] Speaker B: I'd probably still build a Civic. Yeah, yeah, because they're quite capable too. Or just out of the box. Buy a like a half decent Porsche, like with that sort of budget. But there you go. [00:32:34] Speaker A: Nice. [00:32:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I think there's something to say about the Honda Civic. It's, it's, yeah, an everyday commuter car but like you can, you can hot them up and there's a, there's a cult following for him. Even like, even Honda Jazz's people race like. Yeah, I'm a big advocate of the Honda Jazz. I love the Honda Jazz. I think the Honda Jazz is the best car ever. Ever. [00:32:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Amazing. All right, photography question. I got a photography question. Let's bring it back to the glass. Hey, so I, I having, so racing, spending day, spending, spending time at the track and being around the cars, does it like open this door to access to heaps of stuff to shoot? Like is that a, is that a. Does it help lubricate that pathway? [00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it absolutely does. So you sort of. What I seem to do is I try and build like for, for an event, so to speak. The most recent one I did was Steve's in the Trees. So what I did was we. I had trackside access, everything like that. So yeah, I'd go out, I'd try and take as many. Like this was like a two, three day thing. So every day just go out and take as many photos as I possibly could get home. It took me like a month to go through them all, edit them all, curate them all, put them all up into a, into a big gallery. Then I would just put on the, like the, the event chat or the event Groups just like, hey guys, like this is who I am, this is what I do. If you ever want, you know, stills of your photo, stills of your car, Sorry, you know, not on the racetrack. We can organize something like here's some of my other work. Blah blah, blah. Have at it. Enjoy the, enjoy the photos. If you want any more photos, you know, of. Oh wow. If you only like want any more photos of, you know, your car from the day, I might have some. Just ping, ping me and let me know. And that, that sort of laid back attitude helps a lot because people open that dialogue and just sort of, it just starts the conversation. Yeah, where I can go, oh yeah man, I got plenty more of your car here. Here, here are some of the photos. Like oh yeah, these are awesome. Sweethearts, next time you're up, let's, let's do a shoot, you know. [00:34:42] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a, that's a great way to approach it. Hey like, rather than attacking straight away with. Here's a low res. Do you want to buy a high risk? [00:34:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not about that. [00:34:52] Speaker C: No way. And, and there's some gorgeous stuff in this feed. Like I love all the. I'm a Kiwi and, and back in the day we, you could import Japanese cars with no duties. So because we didn't build cars there and so you could buy, you name it, like any Japanese Porsches, anything European you could bring straight out of Japan into New Zealand at stupid cheap prices. And so this stuff, all I connect with all this stuff. You're very broad skill set with your photography, mate. Like the, the, the humans, the cars, the band stuff, they cross over really well. [00:35:38] Speaker B: I just like shooting but I gravitate to cars, but I just like shooting. Like. Yeah, I, I was doing like a series which I really, really sort of need to pick back up and I, I was kind of like a street, street photography series that I was doing for myself where I'd pick a camera, a lens and I just go for a walk on a weekend and whatever I got, I posted. Yeah, it was, I don't know, like it's probably been done a million times but like it's just, it's so much fun. Like I would, I need to actually keep doing that because that was a lot of fun. So I just like shooting. I just like, even if, even if I just walk down the street and try and find something to shoot, I generally luckily sometimes get a car. But yeah, street stuff's good fun. [00:36:24] Speaker C: Do you find, do you find that? Because one of the things I haven't I haven't shot a lot of cars, but. But I've shot enough and. And the style that I shoot in to know that they're really hard. Very humble. [00:36:36] Speaker A: Dennis. [00:36:38] Speaker C: Cars are very hard to photograph. Right. Because they are the. They are the. The. The. They're a nightmare. That they're shiny, they. They. They're curvaceous. It's all about highlights and shadows and. And spectral highlights. Do you find that shooting cars makes you a better photographer in other genres and vice versa? Like, do you find that crossover? [00:37:06] Speaker B: I think so. Yeah. Actually. Well, learning. We'll take it. We'll strip it right back. [00:37:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:12] Speaker B: You know, learning what a polarizer does. The easiest thing to learn what a polarizer does. If you shoot cars. [00:37:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:20] Speaker B: Physically. See what it's. You know, what's happening and, you know, it's. Yes, in that aspect. [00:37:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:29] Speaker B: But. Yeah, I guess so. I'm trying to think of it. I'm trying to think about. Yeah, I guess it does. Because your attention to detail on certain. So you. [00:37:41] Speaker C: You. [00:37:41] Speaker B: You're. You're focusing on a certain element, not the car as a whole, but maybe that, you know, rear third shot or whatever it may be. It helps you sort of compare. Yeah. Composition, I think. I think, actually, yes, you're right. Composition. It has helped me with a lot shooting cars. [00:37:57] Speaker C: When I was learning. When I was learning. When I was learning photography, someone said something to me that. That. And because I was older, when I learned, I was just like a sponge. Just no one could say anything to me that wasn't. And someone said to me, they were looking at my work and said, yeah, one day you'll learn to see the light. And I was like, okay, whatever, hippie, and stick it back into here. And then went away. And then it was like. I remember the day, it was like, boom. I started to see everything. Like, I would be walking around without a camera, just going, oh, my gosh. Highlights, shadows, soft light, hard light, or whatever. And. And I think. I think if you. I think if you challenge yourself to shoot stuff that is really hard, it makes you a better photographer across different genres. And. And you. Because you see differently, right? It's. [00:38:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:53] Speaker C: And you learn stuff. I had never thought to shoot a car with a polarizer. Here we go. You've taught me something. [00:39:00] Speaker B: Yeah, just slap it on. You can. [00:39:03] Speaker C: You can. [00:39:04] Speaker B: You can make a terrible paint job look pretty good. [00:39:09] Speaker C: It's a great tip. I shoot in the dark, so. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:12] Speaker B: Oh, yes. [00:39:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:16] Speaker A: I was gonna ask Jason, you know, you shoot a lot of Motorbikes and you ride a bike yourself, do you find that that work supports, inspires, gives you creative insight to when you shoot your fashion, portraiture, product stuff? [00:39:35] Speaker D: Oh, actually love both. The contrast both genres offer me. Like, I, I don't, I'm that particular kind of creative where my people ask, ask, ask me all the time, what's, what kind of stuff do you like shooting? And in my mind it's like, it's just the next thing I want to shoot, whatever that is. I love that variety. Like some people really thrive on honing in on a craft. I just like going, what haven't I done yet? Or what haven't I done today? And that, that really gets me out of bed. That's why I love fashion, because fashion, I can shoot something really high end, really kind of dark, really light, really soft, really hard, really kind of edgy. And that's fun. With motorcycles, I, I love everything about it. I know this sounds really trash, but like I, I got into it, I got into motorcycling because I wanted to learn how to ride a scooter if, in case I ever went to Bali, I didn't want to hurt myself. That's, that's really it. I actually had, Wow. I had no interest in motorcycles whatsoever. It was just a thing with two wheels. [00:40:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:44] Speaker D: But as soon as I, I, I got it, I got it and it bit me hard, especially when I got into the custom bike wheel. So it was just layers and layers of creativity upon creativity. You know, even just a stock bike, someone has created that and there's a real beauty in that. But then you can change that, you can alter, you can take a bit off, put a bit on, change the color, whatever it is. And then there was the, the culture around it and there's so many cultures around it. The sport bike world, the vintage bike world, the Harley world, the chopper world, the high, high powered bike, the little scooter world, the little Vesper kind of, kind of stuff. Like there's just so, so much that my, my little creative brain just got lost in it for, for a long time. You know, inspired by like builders like from Deus, who, who created cafe races and things like that. And I just, what, I just wanted to get into it. So the, the photography part really just happened just because it was from websites like Zen Garage and. [00:41:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:50] Speaker D: And things like that where I saw beautiful photography, automotive stuff, which I felt so disconnected from. I thought, I think I want to do that. I remember doing my first motorcycle shoot for a magazine and I didn't even know what I was looking at. I was like, can you tell me what's good about this bike that I should point my camera at? Like, is it the exhaust? Is it the. I can see it now, but I can remember the first time going, I know it's generally cool, but I want to know how it's specifically cool. And, but once he got into it, there was like, I can, I can see. I got, oh, I love, I like those rims. I like the way that seat bolts onto the fender and, and there's so much creativity in it. And I, but above all, I think I love shooting the culture around it as well. So the bike is one thing, but it's also the people. And that's actually Curtis. I, I see that a lot in your work that you remember to capture the people. And I think that's so important because, yeah, without the people, you know, I judge it. If the people are crap in the industry, I wouldn't be in it. And the thing is, I, I've gone into it, you know, people think, oh, you know, there's a bunch of like angry, you know, anti social bikers out there and every bike rider I meet is just a cool person I want to talk to. And, and that's kind of also what got me into it. And, and yeah, so in shooting a lot my stuff, I've, I've actually really enjoyed being, blending the, the fashion aesthetic into my motorcycle stuff, into my love of lighting. And I, I feel like my, my work has a place. You know, at first I had to go through that imposter syndrome, like I'm shooting bugs that don't really belong. But now I kind of go, well, this is actually my voice in it. I get to, I see the styling, the lighting and I just fall in love with the whole thing. Whereas sometimes some photographers, automotive photographers can love the vehicle or whatever so much they actually forget how to make the shot a little bit better. They just go, oh, that's a cool car. That's cool bike. Here's a photo of it in midday light, you know, in front of a palm tree and be like, well, that's. It doesn't really do anything for me as a shot. You know, for me, if I can create a shot and someone who has absolutely no, no interest in automotive whatsoever can love it, then I consider my job done. [00:44:18] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that is a, that is a, that's a, it's, it's like Greg saying before that he loves the, the mighty car mods, right? Like, not even a Car guy. But. But is into it. It's a really. You can, you can enjoy a photograph because it's an amazing photograph. If the byproduct is that it's something that has commercial viability, that's just like a super bonus, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:44:42] Speaker A: It's true. And you know, it's. It's tricky. I've always had. Had trouble, you know, shooting inanimate objects, but when you add people into the mix or the human element into. Adds so much more context and especially if they're people that are generally involved in, in the product or, you know. [00:45:00] Speaker B: Have you guys seen riocam? Have you heard of Rio cam? Jason probably has. No, he's bringing like the supercar poster back, which on the gram. [00:45:14] Speaker C: It's Rio camp. [00:45:15] Speaker B: Yeah. If you look at his stuff, it's exactly what you're talking about. [00:45:25] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hello. Okay, so here's a. So this. Looking at this stuff makes me think about something. And, and it's. And it leads into a question I've. I've had burning on my list of questions that I've got here. So what makes a compelling photograph full stop, right? And, and, and what. What is a good photograph? And, and it, and it leads into a question I have for you about how to get into making good photographs. So for me, I look at this guy's gram. I'm not zooming in, looking to pixel peep it. I'm not looking to sort of all I know is I've got a, you know, 12 images on my screen that this guy's photographed and I want to go see more. Right. Like it's just instantly compelling. It's inter. Instantly interesting. Because I'm a commercial photographer, I kind of know what it takes to make those images, but it doesn't matter. Do you? When I think about your. When. So my question for you, mate, is around. Let's say there's someone watching this now, listening to us talk. We've all done a little bit of car stuff and they want to get into it. What do you. I really love your. The way you were describing before about how you approach it from this really beautiful place of going out, making images, sharing the images with people. People gives you a bit of access. You get to make images, they get some nice images. What's your best bit of advice for say someone doesn't matter whether they're young or old, someone who wants to have a crack at making car images. What's a good way to get into it? Like how, how, where do you start walking down the street finding nice cars and making images or going like, what do you reckon? What is, what is a good way to get good at making car images? [00:47:15] Speaker B: It's the same, same premises, any sort of hobby. It's practice. It's what we like to call seat time. So, yeah, I think the easiest way to get access to something, an interesting car to shoot is go to, you know, your local car meets, find, just talk to people, be approachable. If you see something you like, just go, hey, man. Hey, would you, would you mind like just moving that just over here so in this like, little bit of light here so we can take a cool photo. I think it'd be really nice. I'll send it to you. Just, you know, be approachable, network a little bit, get down to local events that are like, local motorsport events. Like, you know, for example, I. One of the guys that I absolutely love his work is, is Brett from, sorry, George from Ignite Image. And he, he shoots F1, but he also comes down and shoots our little 1.5 nuggets and makes them look good. [00:48:17] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:48:18] Speaker B: That's good, you know. Yeah. And like I, I love that, that attitude. And he's always been like, I, I always message him, hey, when you get me to shoot the F1 with you, when you get me, I'm pulling his leg. But at the same time I've, I've really looked up to him and how he approaches work and sort of, it doesn't matter what you shoot, just keep shooting and just keep honing your craft. You'll find. I guess that goes back to the previous, the start of that question, what makes a good image is like you will find out what you think makes a good image by just honing your craft. [00:48:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think seeking feedback is a big one. Yeah. And you know, and it's a hard thing to do. We. I was talking to Mika Boynton yesterday and she's a landscape photographer from Bright in Victoria. She's been on the show before. You can check out Mika's episode for anyone that's interested. Not now, later. But I remember when we interviewed her, you know, she wanted to do landscape photography and she was up in the Kimberley's teaching at a remote school and in her after hours and weekends she would just go out and shoot landscapes around the Kimberleys and. But she didn't know how good she was or not, you know, and so she would submit her work to every competition she could locally and, you know, across Australia to get more, to get the feedback. Not to necessarily to, you know, strive for prizes. But it was a great mechanism for her to get feedback on her work. Critical professional feedback that she then built up herself with. You know, she used that as a, as a tool to elevate her own performance and, you know, and, and finesse her craft. And now she's a highly decorated, amazing, amazing landscape photographer. You got it. [00:50:12] Speaker C: You gotta. But you also got to be bloody. You can seek feedback. The, the hard part, the hard part and, and I think what people miss is you've got, you've got to be open to receiving it. If someone, if someone looks at your image and says, I don't know, you know, you got to go, okay, and, and take it, take it on board and, and think about it. Yeah, sitting. Yeah, there's, there's. If you, because if you don't do that, you're never going to actually get better. [00:50:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:50:42] Speaker B: You. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Yeah, a little bit of self awareness goes a long way. [00:50:46] Speaker C: Curtis, do you, do you guys do events at Zen? Do you do events where people can come along and shoot at Zen? [00:50:54] Speaker B: So we, we do host like an end of month meeting every month. It's, it's generally in Sydney. I try my best. I've only been to two in the last year, so. But generally it's a good time. You know, Justin and Nick put on a really good event and same with Dave. I think they're changing locations soon so I don't know if there's one this. But yeah, getting down to a. Getting down to an end of month mate is probably the best way to, to sort of if you want to start, I guess like. Yeah, there's always cool cars there. Everyone's really chill. Reggie's always on the barbecue. Shout out, Reggie, you're the mvp. [00:51:37] Speaker A: If there's a bar, you just can't go wrong. [00:51:40] Speaker B: It's awesome. Yeah. Some of the guys get on the decks. You know, sometimes we get beer sponsorships so we just hand out beers like. [00:51:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:48] Speaker B: Nicely, of course. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Sounds like it's up your alley, Dennis. [00:51:52] Speaker C: Well, mate, we need to, we need to. Yeah, we should do something in Melbourne. We should get that RX3. Whoever owns that RX3, mate, it's on your. [00:52:02] Speaker B: So funnily enough, that guy actually bought the prints off that, that car. [00:52:07] Speaker C: Wicked. [00:52:10] Speaker B: Car for, you know, 15 years and. Yeah, yeah. [00:52:13] Speaker A: Curtis, we've mentioned Zen Garage a couple of times. Can you just give us. I've got the site up there for anyone that's watching along. Tell us a little about what is Zen Garage and, and how did you become involved with it? [00:52:26] Speaker B: So Zen was big back in, I'd say like early 2010s, Zen was, you know, it actually there was actual location. They were, they were selling T shirts, they were doing a lot of this, you know, a lot of these automotive groups sort of automotive posts and, and doing some, you know, hosting some events and all this kind of stuff. And you, you'll see some of like, some of the end of month meets that they used to have, like, would fill out car parks, like. Yeah, fill out, you know, like car parks at home. [00:53:00] Speaker A: Bush. [00:53:01] Speaker B: It was, it was massive. And I sort of had been following along and it was sort of just an outlet, I think, for Justin to, to sort of be a bit of a rebel. He comes from a graphic design background and, and he sort of liked to break rules and bend, bend norms and things like that. So it was just a lifestyle, you know, anything raw fun, you know, that took our interest really. So I guess how I got involved was I noticed that Zen had sort of died off a little bit. I kept in contact with, with Justin via Facebook. You know, he would post his, his morning rants and then one day he would, he'd post it. He posted, hey, let's. We're getting Zen Garage back up. And I just instantly reached out and said, mate, I followed this like as a kid, you know, in my, in my late teens, sort of. I want to be involved. If you're getting it back up, let me know. I'd love to shoot, you know, I'll do it for fun. I don't want to be paid. I just, I love the whole ethos of it, like. So, yeah, that's sort of how I got involved. And Justin was like, hey, I really appreciate you taking the initiative. So, yeah, I just kind of started meeting the guys and I think two years ago at World Time Attack, I met Nick, who's, yeah, one of the, one of the other owners. So, yeah, we've just been shooting ever since and they, they ring me go, hey, do you want to come do this? Yep, absolutely I do. I'll be on a plane or, you know. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Yep. [00:54:37] Speaker B: So it's, it's, it's just fun. It's a lot of fun. [00:54:41] Speaker C: All right, mate, you can, you can, you can photograph one car. You get one, one car, any, and you can photograph it anywhere in the world. What is the car? What is the location? I, I was lucky enough to, to do that last year. What, what's yours? [00:54:56] Speaker B: Ah, that's a good, I don't know, see locations I don't, I don't think of. I sort of try and put a car. I kind of work with what I have. I always have. I haven't actually. [00:55:12] Speaker C: I got, I got why you're thinking about. Oh, sorry. Go. [00:55:16] Speaker B: A Formula one track. You know, a classic Formula one car going up. Oh, rouge. [00:55:22] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:55:26] Speaker A: What about you, Dan? I know you did the Porsche. [00:55:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I got to, I got to, I got to light paint a, a Le Mans winning 956 and yeah, which was pretty wild. I didn't even know. I knew it was going to be there, but I had um, access to it 25 hours for three days and, and I got to hang out with the guys while it was, came off the truck and they were warming it up and getting it ready pre event and then I got to shoot it through the event. But yeah, I had access. I was at the Icons of Porsche event in Dubai last year and had 24 hour access to all of the cars. There was me and security through the night. And yeah, the port 956hunst the 3. It was a 956 and a 3 5, but it was the Jackie X Lamo winning. I'm an old boy. [00:56:14] Speaker A: So yeah, it was pretty wild. [00:56:16] Speaker C: And they also had. So yeah, that was, that was. And yeah, that was. But I'm with you. If it was any car anywhere, it would be a Formula one car, like a real one. I've shot some other stuff, but a real Formula One car, probably a McLaren. [00:56:31] Speaker B: I'm trying to think that makes a lot of sense. Maybe like an F40. Maybe an F. Yeah. [00:56:40] Speaker C: I've shot. [00:56:40] Speaker B: I, I shot one on my 550D. It's probably another turning moment. I was like, oh, I got to shoot a F40. I've overexposed the crap out of the image and it sucks. [00:56:50] Speaker C: But it's art. It's art. [00:56:54] Speaker A: I keep telling people, just make it black and white, add some grain, call it art. [00:56:57] Speaker B: I've done it. I did that and it still looks awful. So, yeah, no, I think if I had my, my time to pick any car anywhere, be an F40. [00:57:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:12] Speaker B: Where would I put it though? That's the, that's the question. I've always thought retro, like 80s like. [00:57:19] Speaker C: Cyber of Miami, like my Miami somewhere with some palms and some bit of Miami Vice. [00:57:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:57:27] Speaker A: Hey, Jason, what about you, mate? If you had your chance to shoot, you know, a favorite vehicle in an amazing location, what would you opt for? [00:57:37] Speaker D: Well, this is a funny thing. Like I, I Like really junky stuff to shoot sometimes. This is just like the, the more unrecognizable, the better. You know, like I, I, my, my custom Harley doesn't have the word Harley on it. And if people don't know it's a Harley, I don't particularly care. Like, it's, it's, it's kind of sort of hidden under it. But I mean, in terms of cars, Dennis, I, I mean I love the Le Mans, like the really retro ones too. Like the 60s. Le Mans put me in a big, dirty, empty warehouse. Yeah, that's, that's my, my dream scenario. [00:58:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Amazing. Wild. [00:58:14] Speaker D: I'll make it dusty. I'll make beams of light come through. [00:58:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:58:19] Speaker D: You know, even just like something with like, you know, the skylight with the little beams through. I want to get the beams reflection over the car so you can see. [00:58:29] Speaker A: The dust to capture the light. [00:58:31] Speaker D: Yeah, that's my dream. But actually in terms of shooting vehicles, probably for me, I, I, if it's still, I can shoot it. But cur, I, I, I really admire a lot of your panning shots a lot. And you know, you talked about how you sort of discovered the love of that. I, I've done a bit of panning, like, you know, moving shots myself. I've hung outside, you know, vehicles while, while, you know, someone surfs, surfs Harley across a bumpy country road. Take us through your process because I, I'm actually, yeah, I, I think they're, they're great. I think you get a lot of kinetic energy, but at the same time there's a real nice Christmas to the cars take. I'd love to hear your process around it. [00:59:19] Speaker B: So it's a lot of trial and error. Luckily, with a lot of the drifting stuff, you can sort of, if they're following the same line, you, you try different settings or you know, adjusting your polarizer at, at certain points so that either the windshield's nice and, and crisp or the side of the car is nice and crisp, depending on what angle you're standing at. The process is, I get called a machine gun. So literally I think just trial and error and, and how you're standing and, and just following, just, just getting that follow you, you, when you, when you get it right, you, you know, you've got it right and you don't even need to look at the back of the camera. But yeah, I think that's the process is trial and error. Shoot as much as possible and use, use a, use a polarizer, but adjust the polarizer and get different looks of the car next time they come. Yeah. [01:00:27] Speaker D: Are you often yourself static or do you often shoot in a follow vehicle? [01:00:34] Speaker B: I shoot mostly just sitting at the side of the track. I'll walk around the whole track. [01:00:37] Speaker D: Yeah, that's actually a lot harder to do. [01:00:41] Speaker B: I just, I've never had the resources to. To, you know, jump in someone's car. And obviously I'm going to these local events where, you know, people are paying good money to. To take. Spend time on track. They don't want, you know, some kid who's, you know, in. In a follow car or something like that while they're trying to. While they're trying to practice their craft. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I just try and get around the track as much as I can, walk around it, do all that kind of stuff. [01:01:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:01:10] Speaker D: Right. The polarizer thing is something I've not thought much about, so that's great advice. [01:01:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:14] Speaker A: That's both. Taking that away. [01:01:16] Speaker C: That's amazing. [01:01:17] Speaker A: The other day you get. [01:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah. As. As you make it, you can make a car pop. Like the paint job look like reflective, but you get rid of a lot of the mirror. [01:01:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:01:30] Speaker B: So you'll notice a lot of my shots, the. The. The paint looks quite. Not flat, but it looks consistent. [01:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:39] Speaker B: And that's how I achieve that. And then sometimes I'll even stack other filters or I'll. I'll, you know, have like a. A tripod and then just move the polarizer and just burst while I'm moving the polarizer. [01:01:53] Speaker A: Yep. [01:01:53] Speaker B: So. Oh, my goodness. [01:01:54] Speaker A: Wow. [01:01:56] Speaker C: Yeah. Wicked. [01:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I never really thought about that about shooting a person actually adjusting as you're going. I know Greg Carrick, who's been on the show a couple of times. He. He was using a variable ND filter to manage his exposure. So he would set the camera how he wanted it, then use the variable. He turned the exposure triangle into an exposure square effectively by adding ND filter to control the light. And he would. He would use that and often do slow shutter work, but use the ND to manage his exposure. Really interesting application. I just want to take a moment just to make a little break in today's discussion, just to remind everyone who's watching and listening along. Thank you so much for joining us. If you're new here, please make sure you give us a like, if you don't mind. It helps us out a lot. Lets other people. Let's YouTube, tell other people about our channel and subscribe and hit the bell icon. That way you'll get notified of all of our upcoming content. The Camera Life podcast airs twice a week. Every Thursday morning with a special guest. And Every Monday evening, 7.30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, we have the random photography show where we talk shop. Basically, we talk about our craft, we talk about the business of our craft. Every now and then we have panels. We've had Jason on a panel in the past talking about film photography. So yes, stick around. And the reason why we go live with our podcast is that we love community involvement. We want you guys to ask questions, make comments, get involved in the conversation. So on that note, I'm just going to jump to a couple of comments that haven't. We haven't covered yet. Who was I up to? Lisa Leach joined us a little bit earlier. Morning, Lisa. And I think I saw her partner in crime around somewhere. Paul's here. Morning, all. G', day, Paul. And what else have we got? Ian Thompson. Good morning. [01:03:54] Speaker C: Soon, mate. Oh, my God. [01:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's rushing up very quick. Eight weeks. Don't stress, Dennis, you'll be fine. Neil Leach. G', Day, Neil. Thanks for joining. And then a question for you, Curtis, from Paul. Curtis, will you be driving, photographing cars at Sandown on the weekend? [01:04:12] Speaker B: That's the. What is that? [01:04:14] Speaker C: It's the. [01:04:16] Speaker B: Oh, it's some festival. No, but I might, I might, I might shoot down. It's around the corner. So, yeah, I actually might because I did see it pop up on, on my Instagram or my Facebook or something. I can't remember what it was. It's some festival. There's going to be some, some classic cars from memory. Yeah, might be fine. I was, I was planning to have a, a nice chill one without cars this weekend because I haven't done that in a long time. [01:04:46] Speaker A: It's not like you. [01:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, I know. But yes, I, I can come down. [01:04:52] Speaker A: Cool. A question for a comment from Neil. You have some awesome images, Curtis. LTK photos, some beautiful work. And again, I try to go to the local car meets when I can. It's amazing to see what people show up with. Oh, yeah, and what else have we got from Bum Pudding? When you think about it, it's terrible. [01:05:18] Speaker B: I think I know who that is. [01:05:19] Speaker A: Okay. I obviously know you. A polarizer is incredible. Especially when I constantly leave it at home. Yeah, I've done that. And just finally to bring this up to date from JS Hani, we haven't heard from you for a while. Where have you been? I've tried to shoot MotoGP at Phillip Island. A few times and usually resorted to manual focus at the apex and then tried to pan at various shutter speeds. But I've never even considered a polarizer. Wow, you're just changing people's lives, Curtis. [01:05:49] Speaker C: Yeah, you've done a, you've done a thing, mate. [01:05:51] Speaker B: I don't know, it's sort of just. It sort of just fell into my lap. I'm like, oh, take a photo of a cast still with a polarizer. Oh, you may as well do it on track and then adjust it to try and get exact. [01:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, very clever. And a little comment here from Ian. I volunteer, I think, at a country speedway at night, footwork and stance is so important for panning. Yep, very cool. [01:06:16] Speaker C: Yeah, that's really interesting. There was that guy on, there was that guy on the podcast a while ago doing endurance stuff in Europe and, and I, I, I was fascinated listening to him talk about his process around what, not, not only the process, but he, he's shooting it commercially, so he's got to deliver real quick. But, yeah, yeah, just, you know, we've all done that thing where we burst to do things, but he was talking about coming out the end of a shoot with thousands of images and, and, and yet thousands of images raw and, and how his process of going through it blew me away. [01:06:51] Speaker A: Was that Andrew hall from Fiji? [01:06:53] Speaker C: From Australia? [01:06:54] Speaker A: Was it, Nick? [01:06:58] Speaker C: Yeah. That was wild. That was really. Both of those guys are just complete legends. Can I ask you a favor, Curtis? If I was to come to Melbourne, would you let me make a light painting portrait of you with your race car? [01:07:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:07:11] Speaker C: Cool. Done. Look at it. [01:07:12] Speaker A: You heard it here first. [01:07:13] Speaker C: Yeah, man. Yeah. I've been. Well, I've been trying to get across the Melbourne for ages. I used to go all the time pre covered, but I'm trying to line up five reasons to go lucky. I'm lucky Straps is one. I'm going to do some light painting portraits at Lucky Straps, catch up with a couple of mates and, and come and see you with your, your sick little race car. That would be wild. [01:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah, very cool. [01:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm down. I love it and I'd actually love to see your process. [01:07:42] Speaker C: I had a little thing. [01:07:44] Speaker B: I haven't seen any of the vehicle stuff, but the, the ball of light. The. Yeah, the light. [01:07:50] Speaker C: I'll send you, I'll send you a link. I'll send you a link to some of the Formula one stuff. I think, I think you'll enjoy that. Because what, what I do is I do. I have this process where I shoot I actually did a presentation on this, like a live in person presentation the other day for Sony because I've never really talked about it in any detail but I broke it down and it is. I have two, two, sometimes three, sometimes four cameras but, but it's a two camera rig where I have a stills camera and a video camera locked in hard next to each other. And while I'm shooting the stills, I'm shooting 100 frames a second video. And then blend the two so that people can see that it's actually real. Like you can actually see the process. Of me. [01:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:31] Speaker C: What of me actually light painting it, but always one exposure and it's really cool. But what. Part of the motivation for asking to come across is I really like the way you think about how you shoot what you shoot, your attitude around sharing and teaching and sharing information. And so it would be really remarkable to come across and cross do that thing right. Like, because I'd love to see how you work and it would be cool to show you how I work. It would be. And it's a thing and I would really love to do that. [01:09:05] Speaker B: Sounds good. [01:09:05] Speaker A: There you go. Stay tuned folks. Hopefully one day we'll see some images soon. So Curtis, where are you at these days? What sort of work are you generally picking up? Is it, you know, what's the mix? Is it 80 motorsport or is it different? What else are you shooting? [01:09:24] Speaker B: I. To keep. To keep me. Keep me. I do, I mean I do a little bit of weddings like here and there. I still, I still do that stuff just to. For a bit of pocket money so I can spend more on gear rims. So. Yeah, no, I think in terms of, in terms of actual jobs I'm doing soon I'm doing another job for gm. They're sending me Corvette E Ray, the new one. Cool. So this is, this is one of those ones that I'm really looking for, forward to and I have no idea what I'm going to do for it. They just, their brief was make it very car enthusiast ish and send us the photos and we'll pay you for it. [01:10:09] Speaker A: So it's an electric vehicle or is it a hybrid? [01:10:12] Speaker B: It's a hybrid turbo V8. [01:10:14] Speaker C: Yeah. That's crazy. [01:10:17] Speaker B: I think it's like 1200 horsepower and I'm like, you sure you want to give me that car? Nah. So now I had a chat to the guys at GM and they were like, yep, take it. We want to say. [01:10:30] Speaker C: Amazing. Wow, that's exciting. [01:10:33] Speaker B: It's one of those things that I'm like, oh, this is actually going to be real. If I could do this for the rest of my life, I would have. Picking up. I'm still going to local events. Like I've got an event in at London next weekend, I believe, so I'll be there for. I'll be flying in, flying out for K. Sushi is actually drifting London, which of all things, if you know who that guy is, he's the. The drift king, so to speak. The founder. [01:11:07] Speaker A: Where's London, mate? [01:11:08] Speaker B: Sorry, London's in Sydney. Sorry, apologies. In Western City. [01:11:11] Speaker A: No, that's right. [01:11:13] Speaker B: So I'm going to that and then of course the week after I'm going to back up to Sydney for World Time Attack at Sydney Motorsport Park Park. And that's. That's a big one. [01:11:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, so tell us about that event. How does that. What does that involve? [01:11:26] Speaker B: So this one's a. Like, it's my favorite event of the year. It's like all the coolest, fastest race cars come from all over the world. Japan, U S. Australia, New Zealand. And they slam around Sydney Motorsport park and they say you can get the fastest lap and that's all it is. That's. [01:11:44] Speaker A: So there's no class breakdown or. [01:11:46] Speaker B: Oh, there's, there's plenty of class breakdowns and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, there's hypercar, there's club sprint, there's open, there's unlimited, there's. There's a bunch of different classes. But it's. The whole concept is you go out and you try and set the fastest lap in the allotted time. [01:12:05] Speaker C: Wild. [01:12:06] Speaker A: And so you're going as a driver or a photographer or both? [01:12:10] Speaker B: No, I'm going as a photographer. I don't think I have the. The credentials for that one yet. [01:12:14] Speaker A: No. You don't think a little Civic can make it up the hill? [01:12:18] Speaker B: There are. There actually are some Civics competing, so. [01:12:25] Speaker A: I'm sorry, mate, I tease. [01:12:29] Speaker B: That's fine. [01:12:31] Speaker A: My first car was a Toyota Corolla that had more rust than metal. So, you know, I. I'm not a car guy. [01:12:38] Speaker B: Mine was a starlet of all things. So. Same, same deal. [01:12:41] Speaker C: Whoa. Your first card is a starlet? [01:12:44] Speaker B: Yep. [01:12:45] Speaker C: That's crazy. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Let me jump to the chat. There's a question here from JS Honey. Tech question. And for Jason, JS Hani. I'm pretty sure he rides a Ducati at the moment, although I don't think that's the picture in his profile. Sorry, tech question. Are you shooting a mechanical shutter or. Or have readouts become so good that Electronic shutter with high frame rates become viable. [01:13:11] Speaker B: So yes, like, I don't, I'm not a big like gear kind of guy actually. No, I am. No, I am. I mean that's how I met Greg. I'm running a Nikon ZF. I use a 24 megapixel camera that is 15 frames a second. That's, that's all I use. Mechanical. I don't, I don't trust electronic shutter just yet. However, we did pitch to Nikon Australia to try and get some gear for World Time Attack and I would really like to try the Z9 and how that works. But I'm, I'm just using a, basically a base model Z50 Z63. But yeah, it's mechanical shutter only for now. I think electronic readouts have become good enough. I just don't trust it yet. [01:14:03] Speaker A: Yep, fair enough. What about you, Jason? [01:14:12] Speaker D: I've, I've tried electronic shadow shooting a lot of moving stuff and it's weird. It's, you get like a head here, the front of the bike here. It can be fun. But I actually love the idea of global shutters and cameras. I, I welcome it, you know, I, I, I, but it's, it's not that readily available yet and because like there are sometimes where I would love to shoot high speed stuff at f 1.4. Like just let's, let's, let's, let's try it. But like it's, unless you're, you're got some variable ND stacked in front of it, it's, it's nearly impossible. Possible. And, and like, like bum pudding. I, I often forget my polarizing filter or my neutral density filter because I like to travel light, you know, so. Yeah, actually. [01:15:00] Speaker B: Yes. [01:15:01] Speaker D: Great. You'll enjoy this. When I, when I was up in Brisbane shooting with BMW for their motorcycle launch, I shot with my X Pro 2. So that's a, as an 8 year old. [01:15:13] Speaker C: Oh gosh. And you've got one too. [01:15:16] Speaker D: Because it held up. [01:15:18] Speaker B: I have a. Yeah, I, I still shoot my XT1. I love my XT1. [01:15:23] Speaker A: But you've got an X Pro 2 X Pro 2, haven't you? [01:15:27] Speaker B: No, no, I've only got the XT. Okay. XT1 and all the rest of film. Film cameras or in stacks and Jason. [01:15:38] Speaker A: You'Re happy with the outcome? Client was happy with the outcome or. [01:15:41] Speaker D: Honestly I, half the shots I, I use were the JPEGs and I just love that. [01:15:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:15:49] Speaker D: Like, you know, when you nail the exposure, the, the, it's got this character to it. I Don't know if people ever even see my account. It's Jason L photo. So I got Jason Lau photos as my fashion word. Jason L Photos is the, is the motor stuff that I shoot. But like, I, I love it. And it's, you know, like I, I, I sort of inspired by my press photographer friends who shoots a lot of press stuff. He goes, I mostly just shoot JPEGs too, because it's just, it's, it's pretty good. And I, I, that's, that's. If you're not shooting, enjoying the JPEGs on a Fuji, then why are you shooting a Fuji? [01:16:30] Speaker A: Very good point. [01:16:32] Speaker B: This is why I moved Nikon, because I ended up just using my XH2 in RAW all the time. And I'm like, are you okay for. [01:16:40] Speaker A: Me to bring up some of your shots, Jason? [01:16:41] Speaker D: Sure, of course. [01:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, they're awesome. [01:16:44] Speaker C: Yeah, dude, that, that's, yeah, I'll just. Your, your bike stuff is, is sublime. [01:16:50] Speaker D: Thank you so much. [01:16:51] Speaker C: Yeah, man, just sublime. [01:16:53] Speaker A: But, and, and the diverse range of styles that you managed to, to nail are just incredible. Like, and even. And I especially love some of the angles that you shoot stuff from. You know, often I'll see a shot of yours pop up in my feed and it, it literally pops because you've chosen an angle and a composition that just doesn't feel typical, but it's just as compelling, you know. And on the screen now is a classic example of that. Yeah, you know, you're obviously on the ground. [01:17:20] Speaker D: I've been dreaming of that shot for years. It's, it's, it's actually got my wife to sort of angle the camera up because that's actually me in that photo. And it's just, yeah, just the willingness to find someone else. [01:17:34] Speaker A: Oh, that's you. You didn't even take the photo. [01:17:40] Speaker C: Mate. That three. Jason, that 356 photo on your feed is in studio. That is gorgeous, man. [01:17:52] Speaker D: Thank you. That's, that's light painted. [01:17:56] Speaker C: Well, there you go. See, maybe that's why I thought because it's, you know, it's done properly, I. [01:18:02] Speaker A: Could feel another collaboration coming on. [01:18:04] Speaker C: Oh my God, look. I was lucky enough to meet Rene Stout, who, who is the, the greatest Porsche. Well, I don't know. He, he's, he's the guy when it comes to Porsche photography. He was at this event I was at last year, and we connected quite deeply, actually, before and after the event. But it is, he was like the OG of studio lighting Porsche images. And it made me think of him when I Saw that. And, and so that's the thing. Just. [01:18:32] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely a thing. Let me just jump to a couple of comments that have popped up. So this is from Bum Pudding, who. I'd love to know your real name. Where are you, where are you watching this from? Give us some. [01:18:46] Speaker D: Right behind you. [01:18:47] Speaker A: Yeah, dude. I find with my Sony you have to use mechanical shutter, otherwise the rolling shutter effect ruins photos with any form of artificial lighting or panning. So there you go. Sage advice. Jim is in the chat. G', day, Jim. Slacker. Did he say Nikon? How did you let him on the Fujifilm podcast, Greg? But he also has a Fujifilm camera, Jim. So that's, that's why I let him on Fujifilm Nerd. And also he's, he's. And his nick on it's, you know, it actually looks like a Fujifilm camera. Anyway, so I, I made an exception on this occasion. [01:19:28] Speaker B: I actually posted. I don't know if you remember, Greg, when I, when I bought it, I taped over Nikon and I wrote Fuji. [01:19:35] Speaker A: In like you did too. [01:19:36] Speaker C: Yeah, it's hilarious. [01:19:38] Speaker B: Fuji X Group. I was like, hey guys, check out my new camera. [01:19:41] Speaker A: And J.S. hany. Sorry, my mistake. But no, the old photo was A Triumph Sprint 955. It's currently laid up with a blown head gasket. Have you still not fixed that? And the daily ride is the. How do you pronounce that, Jason? Guzzi. Which is. Yep, Guzzi V85TT. And another comment here from LTK Photo. Love my X Pro 2 with the XT2. Yeah, I agree the X Pro 2 was a phenomenal entry for Fujifilm. And when they. Look, I went to the launch for the X Pro 3 in Sydney and don't get me wrong, stunning camera, but it was more of a marginal upgrade from the X Pro 2 than anything. And the thing that Fuji was selling with that X Pro 3 was the new body finishes. So they had this Duratech. Duratech. It was this anti scratch. Well, there were two coatings. It was a magnesium coating, magnesium top plate with a coating and you could get an additional coating which was like an extra five or six hundred bucks from memory to make it scratch resistant. And so that they, they launched that X Pro 3 at too higher price and unfortunately then it then you know, covert hit and it all sort of fell into it. Well, yeah, and they haven't, they haven't released a, a version four. And I don't, I've got to say I can't blame them. You know, I reckon the X Pro 3 really hurt them, especially with COVID Anyway, we'll wait and see what, what comes up. I know nothing by the way about it is. [01:21:14] Speaker B: Well good enough. I love that camera. I, I kind of want to buy another like a 40 megapixel sensor. Fuji. I think they were just awesome. [01:21:22] Speaker A: Well, I just got my first. Not my first Fuji obviously, but my first one that I actually own. 40 megapixel Fujifilm. I got the XC5. [01:21:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Such a good camera. [01:21:33] Speaker A: Oh, it's just beautiful. Love it. So, yeah. So let's talk gear a little bit. So you're shooting motorsports with the, the Nikon? [01:21:46] Speaker B: Yep. [01:21:47] Speaker A: And what, what sort of lenses are you working with? [01:21:50] Speaker B: I'm working with two lenses. I'm working with a 70 to 200 and a 50 mil F14 and that's it. [01:21:58] Speaker A: Oh, nice. Oh really? You don't go any wider? [01:22:01] Speaker B: Nope. Look, I have. Yeah, I actually, I hate to admit it, but I also have a. A 7 III workhorse that just has a. A 60 or what is it, a 16 to 35. What is it? I can't remember. It's a. Some zoom lens and it's. It literally like I only use it for the wide end if I'm getting close up and I barely use that camera. [01:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:22:32] Speaker B: But it's. I bring it with me everywhere just. Just in case. But okay. The amount I, I get done is mostly with a 50 and a 7200. [01:22:43] Speaker C: Nice. [01:22:43] Speaker A: Nice. That's really nice. It's a really streamlined kit. [01:22:46] Speaker C: This is more, right? Less is more. [01:22:48] Speaker A: Yeah, true. Jason, what's the kit do you usually rock with when you're, when you're shooting bikes? [01:22:53] Speaker D: Well, actually for that Brisbane trip I. There was the X Pro 2 with the 23 F2 and my 5612. That 5612 is. I still have my magical, magical lens. [01:23:05] Speaker A: And one of the best lenses ever made. Yeah, it's a gorgeous piece of glass. [01:23:09] Speaker D: And I actually got asked that a while back like what, what kind of lenses is do I shoot bikes with? And a lot of new photographers tend to want to go wide angle and nice and close because it feels very dynamic. But for me a motorcycle looks best around that sort of 56 or 85 mil equivalent because like everything feels a bit more compact. You get to see it more as a whole rather than a stretched out bits and I think it's aesthetically more beautiful. [01:23:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah. [01:23:38] Speaker B: I tried a 40 mil for a while. Just the little, little 40 mil F2 that came on the came on the Nikon. I feel like I got some okay images with it, but it just felt awkward. Even though it's just that 10 mil, it just felt awkward. [01:23:51] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. And, and I think that's a big part of developing your eye. We talked about, I think Dennis, you called it seeing the light earlier. You know, actually when you told that story, it reminded me of when I was at sort of the peak of my street photograph photography period, we'll call it, because I'm currently trying to reinvent myself. But when I was at the peak and I was shooting, obviously only shooting Fujifilm and I shot everything in, I shot RAW plus jpeg. But the film simulator, I always had almost classic Chrome, which is based on a Fujifilm old Fujifilm film stock. And, and it got, I was out with my camera so much that it got to a point where I was starting to feel like I was seeing the world in classic chrome. I knew which parts of an image, what colors would pop with classic Chrome. [01:24:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:24:39] Speaker A: And you know, and it just, my eye just saw the world in classic chrome and, and how that would look, you know, and it's, it's an interesting time in, in a creative journey when you realize that you get it. [01:24:54] Speaker C: Yeah. When you see, yeah. That, that's it. [01:24:56] Speaker A: You see it. Yeah. [01:24:57] Speaker C: Like I, I, I did. So I did India last year with the Q3, which is 28 mil fixed. And, and I, I, my fantasy camera for that. So auto. All my automotive stuff is 50 and 85 mainly. Yep. But, but I, my fantasy camera for my next to, to, to head back to the streets of India is the, would be a monochrome 43q3. And, and I love, I love that idea of, you know, you're talking about. I love putting all my cameras onto black and white simulation so that I can, I'm trying to teach myself how to see in black. And all my favorite photography books are all classic black and white stuff. But I, that 43 is, is they like us say that that is the, that's the what the eye sees. So that 50, 43 type zone. But yeah, I would love a monochrome camera. Yeah. At that focal length. [01:25:59] Speaker A: They haven't made a monochrome Even for the 28 mil version of the Q3, have they yet? [01:26:03] Speaker C: Not yet, no. No, no, no. [01:26:04] Speaker A: But, but they're rumors about it. [01:26:07] Speaker C: I don't know. I don't look, I, I imagine it is. All I know is that, is that I'm gonna sell my left hand to get one. I'm gonna chop it off here. And donate it as a, as a. Yeah. So that I can, I think what. [01:26:21] Speaker A: You should do is just get, get like a plug when you, when you sell your hand, a plug with a standard tripod mount and you can just. Yeah, I think that's, yeah, that should go wrong. [01:26:32] Speaker C: But no, that, that, that's. Yeah, I, I think the 2028 is nice. It's pretty wide though. But all the car stuff, I'm, I'm with you guys. 50. If, 50. Because when you look at a bike or a car, right, if it's, if it's that weird sort of stretched, distorted thing, how do you, how are you respecting the design of the vehicle? It's, you know, they, they, they put a astonishing amount of time and energy and effort into, into designing these vehicles so that they're aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And as soon as you go away from that, you know, mainly wider just gets weird. And, and I, I think I, I mean I, I grew up, I grew up with car magazines. Like just shelves of car magazines. And, and that, that's kind of, that's my reference. [01:27:23] Speaker A: And just for the kids watching along at home, a magazine is a product. It has pictures and words on. [01:27:29] Speaker C: Actually I used to publish. I, this was just. I found this the other day. I used to publish a magazine about my light painting. Actual paper magazine and, and we would ship those all over the world. That's right. Yeah. That was really cool. Yeah, yeah. [01:27:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I, I miss magazines. I, I tried to subscribe to a couple recently. One called Hornet. I think it's a Melbourne made one. Anyone heard of Hornet? No, it's advertisement free. So this, this lady publishes the magazine and it's ad free, I believe from memory. But yeah, I, I miss magazine. I remember going to my nan's. I was fascinated going to my nan's and she had stacks and stacks of the National Geographic, you know, the. [01:28:22] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. [01:28:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:28:24] Speaker A: Oh, and every time I went there, it just called to me, you know, this huge stacks of yellow magazines because there was just so much good stuff in them. And I know that Nat Geo is still going. Yeah, I'm well aware of that. But yeah, I missed the whole that magazine era. I think it's a shame. Where were we? We're talking about gear. Oh, there's some Comments about gear. LTK photo. Oops, sorry, love. Max Pro 2 with the, with XT2. Both cracking cameras. JS Haney. The Pro 2s have proven more reliable than the Pro 3s. Yeah, yeah. I don't know the Pro 3 is just a bit of an enigma. You know they just didn't quite take. [01:29:05] Speaker B: And, and they're still handmade though as well. [01:29:09] Speaker A: Oh, that makes no difference. Don't be like that. No, it does but yeah, the Pro 3, it just sort of. It's just a bit of an enigma in the range bum putting dreams about an X Pro. And also that the A73 mentioned. [01:29:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I didn't even have it on my shelf. I don't, I don't like to advertise. It's a good work, don't get me wrong. [01:29:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Are you, are you ashamed of you. Of your Sony camera there, Curtis? [01:29:40] Speaker B: No, no, I love it. No, don't get me wrong, I do love it. It's just, it's one of those cameras that I think everyone's owned at one point. [01:29:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:29:48] Speaker B: And it's just a tool. It's that, that, that camera doesn't invoke any emotion when I, when I. [01:29:54] Speaker C: That's interesting. Hey. [01:29:56] Speaker A: Yeah, they're my work. [01:29:58] Speaker C: Sony, Sony is my workhorse cameras. A7 but, but mainly video. So I shoot a mountain of like low light video obviously with my light paintings. The A7S3, I've got two of them. But yeah they, Sony's are my workhorse. But you're right, they're like the taxi. They're the thing that, that you just is solid, you know is going to get it. But when I want to. When I, I was walking around in the Flinders last weekend and I had a, an Olympus and a, and a Leica over my shoulder. Two kind of extreme ends of the thing and both of them were making wildly stunning images. [01:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:30:37] Speaker C: But that's when I want to have fun. [01:30:39] Speaker A: Yep, that's a fair call. Another comment here from Neil Curtis. Did you ever get the opportunity to photograph Ken Block in action? [01:30:49] Speaker C: No way. [01:30:51] Speaker B: I think I did. [01:30:52] Speaker C: I'll need to go back on your feed. You've got a, you've got a photo of, of, of. Oh my God. How hilarious. Now I've old mate from New Zealand wrote Mad Mike. You've. Yeah, you got a photo of me. [01:31:05] Speaker B: I photographed him more times than I've had warm dinners. I love him. He's so much fun. [01:31:10] Speaker C: What a legend of a human. [01:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. He's sick. Ken Block, maybe. I don't think so. He, I don't think he ever came to Australia for World Time Attack and if, and if he did I probably have a snap of it somewhere. Yeah, but it probably would have been on a, on a Canon 550D I. [01:31:31] Speaker A: Don'T know the person. So who's Ken Block? [01:31:34] Speaker B: Ken Block was a rally legend who sort of blew up car culture in America with the whole Hoonigan brand and sort of made his rally career into a very marketable brand and became a legend by doing some of the most crazy cinematic. Drifting through streets of X City. Any city you can think of besides Sydney, because we, we banned him. Any, any city you can think of. He's probably drifted through it and he's made a cinematic about it. So. And they're really well shot. So yeah, I think they're cool. If you have a look, they're called Jim Khana. If you look up Jim Carter, Ken Block, you'll, you'll find some cinematic masterpieces. [01:32:24] Speaker A: Very cool. Now I have a, I have a local two part question for you, Curtis. Years ago with my late wife, she was from Canberra, we went there and we accidentally unknowingly booked our time there because her family was there at the same time as Summer Nats. So my question to you is, have you photographed Summer Nats and did you feel uncomfortable being the only person with a full set of teeth? [01:32:47] Speaker B: No, I haven't, I haven't actually done Summer Nats. However, there's a, there's a girl who I know who street shoots for Street Machine Ash. Her work is amazing and she shoots Summer. She loves it. She absolutely loves it. Just burnout cars. She does burnout cars. I don't see the appeal. I mean it's pretty, it's pretty bogan, but I love it. I think, I think it's cool. It's not really one of those ones on my list. If I get asked to shoot, of course I will. Yeah. Yeah, but not for me. [01:33:21] Speaker A: All right, very good. Another question here from LTK Photo. So, Curtis, do you print your work? [01:33:27] Speaker B: I do, I actually do. I have a, do I have any prints here? No, I don't have any in this room. Other prints in the room with you right now? No. So I, I do, but I, I just bought myself like a little Epson A3 printer and that's how I print my stuff. [01:33:44] Speaker C: Wicked. [01:33:45] Speaker A: Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. [01:33:48] Speaker B: I'll go to Kmart and just buy a couple of 12 frames, put them in there. Y, Just, just for me. People have asked me and I've, you know, spent the money on decent frames and you know, glass finishes and stuff like that and got it printed properly. But 99% of the time I, I, I, I print for myself and I've got, I think the cupboard downstairs is just Dusty old prints of mine. So, yeah, I actually really enjoy the whole printing process because when you see your work and out in front of you physically, it's really cool. [01:34:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's an interesting process and Justin has just, I don't know if he's had a chance to use it yet because it arrived and then he pretty much left for New Zealand. He's just gotten a new Canon printer. I think it's a two maybe anyway. And you know, talking about the cost of it, it's just crazy. And, and obviously if you're going to print and frame stuff to give to clients, that's a whole nother expense. But it's a whole process because there's all color correction and you know, making sure you're getting it right for print. It's not as simple as getting it right for, to show on a, on a phone screen that big. You know, it's a very different process that actually takes some, some effort and understanding and knowledge to achieve it. But having said that, we always here, whenever we talk about printing, we always recommend people go out and just print some of your shots. 4 by 6, 5 by 7. It doesn't matter what they are. It will just help you to appreciate, appreciate your images in a different way. [01:35:14] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [01:35:16] Speaker A: So. [01:35:16] Speaker B: And yeah, you have friends and you have old prints, like give them to them, like. Yeah, give them your print. Like I, I find that that's the coolest thing. My mom. Actually, one of the first ever things my mate printed was this photo. And it's so dusty and it's in like a little like terrible frame, but it's just, it looks faded and warped and stuff. But this was the first ever thing I think I printed. And that was from my old A6300 and it's ratty as crap and I love it. [01:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:35:51] Speaker B: And my friend actually took the photo on my camera, set it up for me, goes, oh, this is, you know. [01:35:59] Speaker C: That'S cool. [01:36:01] Speaker B: And so I printed it out and I actually, actually was meant to give that to him and I think I did. And then he moved, he moved in with me for a little bit and then he left it. [01:36:13] Speaker A: He's telling, he's telling you something there. [01:36:15] Speaker B: Oh no, he's one of the main reasons why I picked up a camera as well. So. Yeah, or continue to pick up a camera. [01:36:22] Speaker C: Amazing. Have you, have you, have you seen the guy? There's a guide, I think in America who goes around and he finds cool cars and he has this rig where he'll shoot, shoot the Car and he has one of those little printers and he. Yeah, and he, he prints, he processes it. Prints it, put it in a bag with a little thing and leaves it under the. Yeah, the, the windscreen wiper. Just such a great idea. [01:36:45] Speaker A: That's really cool. I've been following a street photographer. Street photographer, slash portrait photographer who does that. I think they're in the uk. No, Italy. They're in Italy. And they'll find compelling people on the streets. They'll take a shot. Got a printer in his bag. I think it's like a Canon selfie. And he's got all these cheap little frames and he just frames it and hands up to them and says, you know, I took this shot of you. [01:37:06] Speaker C: Well, that's what I'm doing with the Instax. The, that, that thing default with the Instax. The original idea for that, and that's what this is leading into is the idea of being in the street with that, with one of those Instaxes and doing a light painting portrait of someone and then printing out and putting a, a sticker on the back with a link but giving sign it and give it to them and they get it on the spot. They get to experience a light painting portrait and it's literally only ever one of one. And so a similar, similar idea of that, you know, this idea of having something physical in your hand that, that is a photograph. [01:37:46] Speaker B: How do you. Yeah, how do you set the shutter speed on your Instax? Or are you using like a. I. [01:37:50] Speaker C: Haven'T, I haven't done it. I haven't done it yet. But, but they want it. There's one. Because that's the challenge of course, is that it needs to be a long exposure. Right. And there's one, there's an Instax, blah, blah, mini blah, blah, 90 something or other that has bulb mode. And so. Yeah, you, you. Yeah, it has bulb mode. So yeah, so that, that's, that's the one. So it has bulb mode. And you can. So I can do 10 seconds, which is all I need to do a portrait. There is a, there is a wide. I like the idea of. There's a wide, wide one, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you've got to go to a loam, a Lomo or there's a Lomo Lomography body. [01:38:28] Speaker A: Yeah, my partner just got that, the Lomo wide glass version. [01:38:33] Speaker C: But see, I want, I want Fuji to send me a box of 200 films for the, for B flop and a couple of cameras. So I'll be sticking with the. That for now. [01:38:42] Speaker A: Let me know if you need contacts. [01:38:44] Speaker C: With Fuji, because I've got a match. [01:38:46] Speaker A: Obviously, I'm on the payroll, so. [01:38:49] Speaker C: Well, I'll send you the pitch document. [01:38:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Keen to see it. That'd be great. Bit of an update here from Slacker Jim at Lucky Straps. I. I jest, Jim, you're not a slacker. I know you're working very hard. It's still in the box, Greg. This we're talking about Justin's printer. He wants to milk a few more what's in the box segments on the Monday night random show. It was just a prop to begin with. It's probably an empty box, Jim. There's probably nothing in it. Very cool. Well, I am conscious of time and I wanted to get a quick update from each of you about what you're up to and what's on the horizon. So, Jason, can I start with you? What. What's going on in your photography world at the moment? I see you've been testing out some. Some gear recently. [01:39:33] Speaker D: Yeah, I've got a. Yeah, I've got some very fun gear to test coming up. Not sure how much I can say about it, but it's. It's. [01:39:42] Speaker B: It's. [01:39:43] Speaker D: I'm currently playing. Currently playing with the Fuji GFX100RF. That's been a gorgeous camera to shoot with. I did some fast. You're enjoying it last week. I love it. [01:39:54] Speaker B: I. [01:39:55] Speaker D: It makes me think differently and that's very exciting. Like. [01:39:59] Speaker A: Yeah, if. [01:40:00] Speaker D: If a piece of equipment in your hand can make. Can alter your brain chemistry, I think it's. [01:40:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:40:04] Speaker D: It's a very powerful thing. So even just. I've been shooting with that just on the XPAN format. Like. [01:40:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:40:12] Speaker D: I call it the anti Instagram shot. Like, it's completely useless on Instagram. But I absolutely love framing with it because when you've got a thin frame, you start to see a line through a composition that you don't see on a regular frame. Like, you start to connect the dots between foreground, middle ground, background. You start to see relationships differently or you just start to see patterns differently. And I'm absolutely loving that. [01:40:38] Speaker A: I'm looking for a quick question on that. Sorry, Jason, interrupt you. Just quick question on that. Have you. Have you shot any portraits or fashion vertically in that format? [01:40:49] Speaker D: Well, that. That's kind of what. What I want to start trying. Yeah. Happy experiment with that. [01:40:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:40:56] Speaker D: And. Yeah, and just shooting wide angle. But even if you don't like it as a wide angle, when you punch in on 100 megapixel shot quite heavily, you still got a 24 megapixel shot. It's astounding what you can get out of that. And if you're just shooting for, you know, web, you can go even harder. Yeah, but actually the, the challenge I enjoy is I think we tend to favor sort of out of focus backgrounds sometimes as a bit of a crutch. Like it seemed like, you know, if I shoot it as at, at F1.4, the person's eyes are sharp, background's out of focus. It's all very nice and romantic, but like, when you have to take into account that the background's a bit more in focus, you think differently as well. And you start to appreciate, you know, creators like Steven Spielberg who would shoot deep focus image, wide angle defocus, and all of a sudden you go, oh, I can actually tell a story through my frame, through the depth of my frame as well, rather than just focusing on the middle subject. So I'm really enjoying the way these cameras. I'm gonna have a play with the new Ricoh GR4 that just got announced today. And I just saw the announce. I just saw the announcements. I'm allowed to at least say that that exists now. [01:42:16] Speaker B: I got the email this morning, I was like, oh, yeah, same. [01:42:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:42:21] Speaker D: The thing I love about all of. [01:42:22] Speaker A: Us have all gotten a bit excited over it. [01:42:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:42:25] Speaker D: Well, I want to use, I want to specifically use that as a fashion camera because I, I think there's, there's a lot of scope there. There's a new lens on that, so I really want to test the sharpness of that. But I also like the idea of that's my 28 mil lens. It actually edits really well because I shoot Sony for a lot of my fashion work and I can leave my 85 on my Sony and if I need a wide, I'll just pull the RICO out and I'll shoot that. Yeah, just pull. [01:42:52] Speaker B: Go. [01:42:52] Speaker D: Yeah. Here's the other shot angle option. Here's my telly option. Yeah, I, I did that with a previous ricket and I really enjoyed shooting them together. I thought it was an excellent pairing. It actually takes up less room than the 28 mil lens. [01:43:06] Speaker B: That's incredible. [01:43:07] Speaker A: I think that I, I'm excited for the, the grand for. It's certainly a camera that I have had my eye on for a long time. I want to get one to test it and review it for lucky straps. But yeah, I think it'd be a very, very interesting street photography experience with A camera like that. My concern is that, as we saw with kind of the second half of the GR3's lifespan, stock issues, like you just couldn't find them anywhere. And I mean, you know, and they brought out how many different versions of the gr3. Like they had the core version and then they had the. Is it hcf, something like hc, hdf, something like that? That's right, yeah. So they brought out that and then they brought out the. Yeah, then they brought out the Street, a diary edition and another one. And then they brought out the different focal distances as well. So there was like seven SKUs for essentially a camera that you couldn't get any of the SKUs of anywhere, you know, and it felt almost like Rico had spread themselves too thin on the SKU front and producing that many different. I mean, I'm sure the body, like there's lots of consistent elements, but there's still in different assembly processes for each of the, each of the different models and different parts, you know, and I wonder whether that kind of throttled the ability to get product out quick. So it'd be interesting to see what they do with the GR4, whether they're going to go with, you know, a big variety of bodies or whether they're going to trim it down and make sure they actually deliver on the core product and know that they can before branching out into all the fancy versions, which, you know, I'm all for. I think it's great. It adds style and a different, you know, a different aesthetic to the camera. I like the street edition when it came out because it had the nice orange highlights on things, but, yeah, it'd be interesting to see. And anything else coming up for you, Jason? [01:45:05] Speaker D: That's mostly it. Just, just doing some, some camera testing and that. That's really, really fun. Just had an amazing fashion day yesterday with Australian Style Institute, so we, we train stylists on how to style for editorial photography. So that's always really fun. Experience, experience shooting that. So I, I'm really enjoying the education space as well. [01:45:27] Speaker A: Nice. Very nice. And you're a natural educator as well, so I'm glad to hear that you're still enjoying that. So, Dennis, what, what have you got on at the moment for you? [01:45:37] Speaker C: Well, mate, I'm, I'm, I, I am in a very much in a transition phase at the moment. So my, my commercial, video and photography business is coming to a bit of pretty natural and structured end at the end of this year because I've nearly finished my study for my new career, which is in counseling. So I'm going into for you know, you know that my photography forever has always been about mental health and so I'm formally formalizing that. So I'll be working as a counselor from January and so my commercial work is dialing down but. Except what's really exciting for me is that means that my light painting and all the stuff that happens in this room here is, is going to be ramping up again. I've by the nature of studying pretty hard this year my YouTube channel has kind of come to a bit of a bit of a screech and things like I still have my GFX one hundreds two camera review is so still on the timeline and, and that's been there for six months. So things so back into teaching, sharing, making work in the studio but mainly just around making tutorial videos and stuff. I'm leaning way back into that which is super exciting because that's the stuff I enjoy. And of course befop. Yep that date is screaming up. I've planned my workshops, I know what I'm doing for workshops and I'm just trying to work on this world record attempt that we're going to do on the main stage which is we're going to attempt to make as many light painting portraits as we can in one hour and it'll be on the main stage in the main room. And at the moment I, I've. At the moment it's. I would like it to be on the Instaxes so that they're live and hard copy and I think we could probably do somewhere between 120 and 160 portraits in one hour. Full light painting, hand lit people and then some zhuzing. So that'll be a huge amount of fun. [01:47:53] Speaker A: Nice. And just a question for you Dan. Is there an existing world record? [01:47:59] Speaker C: No, this would be a. Yeah. I. About 12 years ago I did this thing where I. I wanted to see how many ball of light, ball of lights I could create in one image and I did something like 63 and that blew up. It got to the point where teams of people were in paddocks in America doing hundreds and then, and then a mate of mine in India did like many hundreds but no there isn't. The Guinness Book of World Records does have the ability for me to do a very short turnaround application so that we then make it formal. But, but at the end of the day mate, it's just, you know what BFOP's like. It's just going to be an opportunity for me to just go completely loopy for an hour on stage and just have a mountain of fun and laughter and, and I'll be getting people to turn up with the most stupid thing they could possibly wear. Of course, Mr. Nick Fletcher, the first thing he said is, is there a record for how many nude like painting portraits you can do in an, in an hour? And I said, no, but me nude or them? I think he wants to see me in my undies again. [01:49:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, you do like to get your kid off often. [01:49:05] Speaker C: I don't mind getting a bit nude, mate, that's for sure. But now look, I, I, and it. [01:49:11] Speaker A: Wouldn'T be beef up without a little bit of nudity. [01:49:13] Speaker C: It would not be beef up without a bit of nudity. But I'm really looking. It's going to be a big beef up this year. Yeah, and I'm super. And of course we're, you and I are working on a nugget of an idea which I think is going to bring an element to the festival that I think is really beautiful and, and needed and that's all around mental health as well. So. Yeah, yeah, I, I, and, and, but the last thing is this here when I, you know, you've made it when you get to co host the Camera Life podcast. So today has been, today's has been a real thrill for me. I'm normally just mincing about in the comments, but no, I feel. What about us and, and how nice to be on the screen with two really, really lovely guys who make nice images, I feel. And you as well. [01:50:02] Speaker A: Great. Oh, thank, yeah, I was wondering which of the two. [01:50:05] Speaker B: Three. [01:50:05] Speaker A: Three. Dennis, thank you. Oh, thanks for that update, mate. And Curtis, anything else that's coming up for you in the, anything that you're excited about or anything that's stirring around in that, in that brain of yours. Any ideas you want to share? [01:50:20] Speaker B: Just, just that, just that Corvette. I'm looking forward to that. [01:50:23] Speaker A: Oh, actually, yeah, that's gonna be messy. [01:50:26] Speaker D: We have. [01:50:27] Speaker B: I need to plug this. Me and a few mates who are. Hold on. We actually, we actually got as many sort of grassroots motorsport automotive photographers together as we could and we mashed all the photos up into a book and it's called Manual Focus and I need to plug it because I keep forgetting to plug it. What was that? Sorry? [01:50:53] Speaker A: Is, Sorry, is there a website for it? [01:50:55] Speaker B: I don't know. No, there's no website. However it is, there's an event. We're going to host an event and we're going to slap a bunch of cool cars in a warehouse and have a bunch of like printed out art artworks and displays of all the. All the. All the photographers. [01:51:16] Speaker C: Light painting, portrait booth mate in the corner. [01:51:20] Speaker B: Well, we'll have the Corvette there, so we could do. Do something cool there. Let me find the link because if you're in Melbourne. [01:51:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:51:30] Speaker B: And you want to come look at some cool car photos and meet some of the most degenerate individuals. Where do I put it? Is there a chat you had me out. [01:51:43] Speaker A: Yeah, you can put it in the. Down on the bottom right. There should be a button for private chat. Can you see that? Yeah. [01:51:51] Speaker B: Yes. [01:51:52] Speaker A: Just pop it in there. [01:51:54] Speaker B: Wow. Apart from that. Private chat. Sorry, I can't find it. Am I silly? Oh, private chat. I do see that. [01:52:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:52:02] Speaker B: Cool. [01:52:03] Speaker A: There we go. [01:52:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's what's coming up for me. [01:52:09] Speaker A: Let me share this, everyone. [01:52:15] Speaker C: I'm such. I am so. I do not have Facebook. That is so cool. I'm so proud of that. [01:52:22] Speaker B: It's. It's a double breed. [01:52:25] Speaker C: You left to send me a screenshot of that. [01:52:29] Speaker A: A celebration Automotive Culture manual focus Saturday, September 13th. So in three weeks, Big House Arts, Coburg North. And what have we got in here down the road? [01:52:42] Speaker B: Yep. [01:52:43] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, I'll send you. I'll send you the dates. Dan. [01:52:50] Speaker C: I'm going to be in Melbourne on. On the following week actually for the first. But. But yeah, that sounds like an amazing event. [01:52:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:52:57] Speaker B: Should be fun. I'm really looking forward to. And it's just a bunch of guys that, you know, do the exact same thing as I do. They. [01:53:03] Speaker C: Awesome. [01:53:04] Speaker B: Just walk around a track and take photos or, you know. Yeah. Just love cars. [01:53:11] Speaker C: Amazing. [01:53:12] Speaker A: Oh, and Bum pudding has said he's talking about me. [01:53:16] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:53:16] Speaker C: Degenerate. [01:53:18] Speaker B: Degenerates. [01:53:19] Speaker C: Yeah, good. [01:53:21] Speaker A: Very cool. As for what's happening here at the Camera Life podcast and with lucky straps. So Justin and Yelena are still away. They're away for another week. I think they come back on the 27th. So they'll be back for our first. For their first show back on the 28th. Jim's busy getting straps ready for customer orders, which is. And he's doing that solo at the moment because the others are slacking off in New Zealand. And Camera Life podcast, we've been really busy here. We've been interviewing. We're official media partners. One of the media partners for the BFOP Bright Photography Festival event coming up in October of this year. Justin and I went last year just to check out the lay of the land and we're so glad we did because we've met countless amazing people who have become friends. Dennis is a prime example of that. And yeah, just looking forward to that event. But we've been interviewing every BEFOP workshop instructor doing some little short form audio only podcast interviews so that anyone that's looking at booking a BEFOP workshop can actually have a listen to the interview, learn a little bit about the instructor, learn a lot more about the workshop. So you know what your, you know what you, what you're getting into. So if you're, if you're going to befop, join the BFOP Groupies Facebook page because all the info will be on there. And yeah, we're looking forward to being a big part of that, that festival. Community photography, culture festival. It's, it's very hard to describe. We're certainly looking forward to it. Hey. Hey Jason, have you ever been to a beef up or has it ever tempted you? [01:55:04] Speaker D: I don't. Nope. Never been to one. [01:55:07] Speaker A: Oh, we have to get you there. [01:55:08] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, you'd be mate, you would. It feels like you, you, you feel like a beef upper, that's for sure. And of course Curtis, we know now, we now know Curtis is a complete degenerate. So you'll fit in mate, you, that's, that's like a prereq for being a, for being a, for going up there to talk, teach. That's for sure. [01:55:32] Speaker A: Yeah, bring it on. Let me just wrap up quickly with a couple of comments from the chat. What do we got? J.S. hanny here. If I can get my mouse to work, I think the extreme resolution of the Fuji RF, that's the GFX100RF offers really good 6524 ratio abilities. [01:55:55] Speaker D: Yeah, it literally has that setting in there. You can just turn the dial to that. [01:55:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And how do you find that feature while, while we're on it? Because I know when it first came out a lot of reviewers were saying, oh, it's a gimmick, it doesn't make sense. Why would you put that on there? What are your thoughts on it, mate? Real world user. [01:56:11] Speaker D: It's exactly why I want to use it. It's exactly for that. Because people say you can crop, but that's not, that's totally different to framing. You know, if you see your frame that way you understand why you want to. If you crop afterwards it. You actually don't take the shot that's necessary for that kind of framing. Yeah, so just about. It's like, like I said with that 100 meg pixels. I, I've just between scrolling through the, the ratios and even just digitally zooming in, it's like I have a whole kit of options at my fingertips without having to think about bringing any more equipment. So. [01:56:51] Speaker A: And, and that's really compelling, isn't it? I, I've always loved that and I've always encouraged people to give it a shot when they say that they're in a rut because I'm kind of a walk out the door with the camera in my hand guy kind of guy. You know, I've got the camera, the lens that's on it, got a spare battery in my pocket. I put on my AirPods and some music and off I go. And the, the GFX100RF like the X100 Fuji camera, it just offers that all in one opportunity and you make it work. You know, like you said, I was. [01:57:20] Speaker D: Contemplating taping my, my screen on the back of my Sony to get that, that aspect ratio. So desperate to shoot that way. [01:57:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:57:28] Speaker D: And, and now that I have, I realized that in a sense my instincts were right. Like if you can see it, you approach it totally differently. [01:57:36] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Very well said. [01:57:39] Speaker B: The, the adapter for my, for my Fuji GW 690 which I haven't used yet. The like 3D printed adapter to put it in that aspect ratio and you can use 35 mil on it instead of 120 film. [01:57:54] Speaker A: Oh wow. [01:57:54] Speaker B: I want to give that a while. [01:57:55] Speaker D: Oh good, that's cool. And then you get the sprockets in your print as well. [01:58:01] Speaker A: Nice, very nice. Back to the comments. Get off my digital lawn. Tony is paying for his guilt. Sorry, I'm like Greg wanted to see this live. That's okay mate. It'll be on YouTube forever. I don't know if you've heard how the Internet works but, but we appreciate your contribution to, to, to the fund. Uh, Jim apparently has something to say. Uh haha. If Greg didn't book so many co hosts I would have jumped on today. You see what I've done here, Jim? It's a long game. I've, you know, the, the boss is away. You know, I've squeezed you out with some, with other co hosts. I'm finally going to make this the Fujifilm podcast. That's, that's been my plan all along. Tony has said stim back to work. And Philip Johnson. Oh, it's a farewell. It's. Many thanks gents. Good show. Special thanks to Curtis. Nev Clark is in the chat. G'. Day Nevada. Sorry for the late joining of the show. You need to pay a fee for that, Nev. Apparently just talk to Tony. Sorry for the late joining of the show. I have been up in Exmouth flying in airplanes and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. We'd love to get you back on at some stage, Nev, to look at some of your recent work. I've been chatting with him over the course of the last couple of weeks and yeah, he's, he's working on some amazing stuff which is, which I'd love to share with everybody. But look, on that note, I think we might wrap smack on the two hour mark. First and foremost, I want to thank our guest today, Curtis. When I floated this with. Actually it was at the, the Fujifilm Alpaca event that I first hit. I got him to look away from ebay long enough after buying Rims, Facebook Marketplace. Sorry, mate. To uh, to invite him onto the show. And uh, and he said yes. And we're glad that you did, mate. It's been absolutely fascinating conversation. You know, you've, you've taught two seasoned professionals. I learned an awesome thing, something today and I think, you know, for me, and I've often said this to Justin and Jim, that you know, if we inspire someone to try something different or we inspire someone to get out of a rut or we teach someone new here at the camp, something new here at the camera life, then we've done our job and we've won the day. So thank you very much for helping us fulfill that brief today and we look forward to more of your exciting work in the future. [02:00:24] Speaker B: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. [02:00:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. And you're stuck with us now, you're alumni and we're just going to hand you every day. But obviously of course the show wouldn't have gone ahead without co hosts because Jim was slack. We'll just stick with that story. First and foremost, Dennis Smith. Thank you so much for joining today, mate. Always a blast to have you on. Love your energy, love your work and we're looking forward to seeing what we can achieve in bright eight weeks. Yeah, sorry to scare everyone that's waiting for B5 but it is only like eight weeks away. And of course Jason, Jason Lau, thank you once again, mate. Great to have you back on. As always, really appreciate your contribution and insights today and helping me keep this show moving along when everyone else has deserted me. I'm not bitter at all. [02:01:13] Speaker D: Anytime, Greg, anytime. [02:01:16] Speaker A: But on that note folks, thank you to obviously to everyone who's watching and listening along, whether it be now live with us here and making comments and asking questions and being wise asses. But if you're watching this later, please leave a comment, let us know who you are, what you shoot, where you're from. Make sure you hit the like button because by doing so it tells Facebook to tell other people that this is worth watching. Make sure you also subscribe and tickle the bell notification. And it wouldn't be, wouldn't be right to end the show without thanking our sponsor. Lucky straps. Head to Luckystraps.com if you're looking for a premium Aussie made handmade leather camera strap for your kit today. So head there. But on that note, I'm gonna play, hopefully play the right music. We'll give this another shot and we'll say goodbye to some people. Lisa, Leech and Neil, thank you, Jim for showing up. Tony js, Hani, Bum pudding. [02:02:19] Speaker C: Thanks. Bum pudding. [02:02:20] Speaker A: Thanks. Bum pudding. I use that one. Ian Thompson, John Pickett, who else got Paul Henderson, Philip Johnson, Nick Fletcher's been in and out. But yeah, thank you to everybody. I'm sorry if I've missed anyone, but ltk, I think that's about it. Oh, and Craig, yeah, thanks guys. This has been Camera Life podcast. [02:02:40] Speaker C: We'll see you Monday night, Legends. [02:02:43] Speaker A: Bye, everybody. [02:02:44] Speaker C: Have a beautiful day.