EP111 Jeff Cable | Team USA Olympic Photographer

[00:00:12] Speaker A: What's going on? [00:00:13] Speaker B: Is that audio working for you guys? [00:00:15] Speaker C: Oh, you guys have no music. It's cranking for me. [00:00:19] Speaker A: It's real quiet. [00:00:20] Speaker C: What's stuttering? Aha. [00:00:23] Speaker A: Who got the music right? Not me. [00:00:26] Speaker C: Even though I've had. I've had three weeks off. Congratulations. [00:00:30] Speaker A: I'm here. [00:00:31] Speaker C: I was here. I was here bopping around to it and you guys couldn't hear anything. Oh, I could hear the show, everyone. [00:00:38] Speaker A: I just heard like a little smidgen. [00:00:39] Speaker D: I'm like, oh, yeah, something went wrong there. We're very sorry, everybody. For those of you that are watching live, or those of you that watch later, we're really sorry. Justin is back and clearly he's not ready. But it's. It's been a bit of a running joke because every episode that I have run in Justin's absence, I have screwed up the audio in some way or another. And I know that a tradesperson doesn't blame their tools, but I'm blaming Justin. [00:01:04] Speaker C: So fair enough. [00:01:05] Speaker D: Yeah, you're my tool. But look, everybody, this is the Camera live podcast. It's the 28th of August, 2025. We're at episode 111, and joining us today is sports photography royalty. We're joined by Jeff Cable, who is the 2025 World Sports Photography award winning sports photographer who also shoots fine art, is part of Team USA's photography team. Is that the right way to put it, Jeff? [00:01:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I'm. I'm the only independent photographer for Team USA. [00:01:39] Speaker D: There you go for them. [00:01:41] Speaker A: Since 2008. Yep. [00:01:42] Speaker D: Couldn't set it better myself. Clearly I couldn't. Welcome to the show, Jeff. It's awesome to have you on board. [00:01:49] Speaker A: We. [00:01:49] Speaker D: We've got a lot to unpack you because you just, you do a lot of stuff and we certainly want to get to the heart of that. But I was gonna. I was gonna start off with our usual routine, but just before we went live, Jeff. Jeff dropped a bit of a bombshell. Justin, do you want to go over that? [00:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Who did you say? [00:02:10] Speaker C: So straight after this show, what do you have to do? [00:02:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So Steve Wozniak, who started Apple, actually got me started in digital photography, believe it or not. We didn't talk about that. We used to fly to Japan, and when digital cameras first came out, he would help. He would buy some all in Japanese and hand it to me and say, here's one for you. Try to figure it out. And we try to work on them together. Figure them out, because nothing was in English. And anyway, so was. Been a friend of mine for a long time. And I just reached out. His 75th birthday was last week, and I reached out to him and Janet, his wife, and said, like, I want to do a portrait session for you guys for your birthday. So as soon as we're done with this, I need to call them. We're trying to coordinate a time between my travel schedule with photo tours and everything else and his travel schedule speaking. It could be a while, but we tried to do it two weeks ago. It didn't work. So we're trying again. Maybe next week. We'll see if we can make it happen. [00:03:02] Speaker C: Man, that is crazy. [00:03:05] Speaker A: That is impressive. [00:03:05] Speaker C: Jeff, you know, was. [00:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah. You what? It's amazing. I mean, I've known him for almost 40. Yeah, over 40 years. It's crazy. But, yeah, the people I've gotten to know in this business are through. This business is. Is pretty cool. Yeah. The people you get to rub shoulders with. Pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. [00:03:26] Speaker D: Well, we're going to find out everything we can about that from you today. But just before we do, can you just tell us in your own words, perhaps, who you are, what you shoot, what you're known for? [00:03:36] Speaker A: What do I know? Oh, God. That'll be a short conversation. So, yeah. So I'm Jeff Cable. I'm a photographer. I get to do what I love. I'm living my dream, honestly, because I get paid to do what I like to do, which is pretty cool. I started, you know, way back, you know, when I was. I used to be in. In the technology world. So I was running marketing for companies, software and hardware companies, and actually worked for Woz for a little bit in about 20 years ago, like midway through our friendship, and worked with him for a couple years and. Anyway, so I was in tech world, but he, you know, like I said, Steve kind of got me into the digital cameras and everything. I'm like, this is pretty cool. And. But I didn't know what I was doing. I was like your typical person in automatic mode. And then I went to work at Lexar as director of marketing, making the memory cards for the cameras and everything, and started hobnobbing with some of the. We sponsored some really great photographers, and I started getting to know those guys, reading their books, being inspired by them, just hanging out with them, did a couple photo tours with them, and just kind of got the bug and. And that. So then I started shooting on the side. Someone 20 something years ago said, hey, can you do my daughter's bot mitzvah for me? I Was like, no, I don't want to screw this thing up for you. And. And they convinced me to do it. I did it as a favor to them kind of and said, look, you can pay me if you like them. If you don't, don't pay me. Because I didn't know how to charge for this. And I did it. They paid me and I had a lot of fun. And then two of their friends said, will you do ours? And then they're two of their friends. It was like, it just kept snowballing. Now I've done 500 of them. My rates have changed a bit in 20 years. 5x but like, um, so I started doing that and over time I was doing that on the side while I was in the tech world and it just got too much. I was traveling the world because I was running worldwide marketing for the companies. So I'd fly back from like Hong Kong or somewhere, come home and then shoot up. Shoot on Saturday and then edit on Sunday and go off on Monday back to work. So it was just a lot. Yeah. And then in 2016, before I went to Rio for the Olympics, I said to my boss, the head of, of Lexar, I said, well, hey, I'm taking a month off for the Olympics in Rio. And he looks at me as you're a director of marketing, you can't take a month off. And I said, okay. Then I quit. And he's like, well, we don't want you to quit. So I ended up going part time. And then right before the Olympics in 2016, I'm like, I can't do it anymore. So I let them kind of transition, get some people in. And then I rolled out. And so I've been full time for, you know, closing in on 10 years now, and the business has just grown exponentially between what I'm shooting and the blog readership and everything else. So it's just, it's taken on a life of its own and it's a good life. [00:06:39] Speaker D: That sounds amazing and definitely agree, you know, looking at your, what you've managed to achieve in that 10 years of being a full time photographer, professional photographer, your rise has been, as you said, exponential, but, you know, quite inspirational that if you put your mind and heart into something, that you can make it happen. So let's roll back now a little bit earlier than your transition into full time photography. You know, what's. Did you have creative inspiration growing up? Was your family more business minded? You know, were you good at art or did you have an interest in photography? [00:07:17] Speaker A: In the early days, you know what's funny is that's. No one's really asked it that way. So when I was a kid, I was like in, I don't know, sixth or seventh grade, and I guess it may be seventh or eighth grade. And I was at a very good school in San Francisco, elementary school. And it was pretty high end. They had like a teletype. You know, this is going back a long time, but they actually like a computer and they had a class on animation and it was single stop animation. You had to like take your drawing, click one picture on your movie camera and move it a little bit, do it again and. And I created an animated film and my teacher not even telling me, she submitted it to ABC locals channel in San Francisco for a contest and it won first place. And I didn't even know I was entered. So she told me, she pulled me a sign one day. She said, by the way, I entered your thing in a contest and you won a video camera and, and you get to go to the station. And I was like, oh, wow. And then they entered it into a video, the, a national ABC competition. And it, it took like a, a certain placement. I don't remember what it was, but like I was, you know, I was a kid and. And then after that I really didn't do a lot of creative stuff. I, I knew that I wanted. I majored in advertising because I liked creativity, but I also loved business. I thought that was the perfect combination. And so I majored in advertising, never went into advertising. I ended up in computer sales for, for seven years and then went into tech and then ran marketing for Symantec and Magellan Micron. Lexar was for a little bit. And so it just kind of transitioned over. The creativity has been there. Neither of my parents were that creative. My sister is a painter. Well, real estate realtor turned painter. Now my brother doesn't have a creative bone in his body. So he's the mathematician, he's, he's the banker side of the business. You know, he's retired now, but he can think of numbers and I hate numbers. But I will say that the marketing background that I had definitely helped in the business side of being a photographer because I, when people email me or call me and say like, you know, hey, I want to be a photographer like you and I want to be a photographer, what do you suggest? What should I major in? Photography? I'm like, no, no, no. Major in business and marketing. Learn how to take a good photo, right? Like if you don't understand how to run a business, you'll fail. Right. And I think that's true for almost any business. So having that marketing background helped me understand what it would take to be successful at this side of the business as well. Yep. [00:09:59] Speaker C: I. I want to dig into that a little bit, the marketing side of things. Before I do, I want to remind a couple of people we will get to Jeff's amazing Olympic photography and stuff later in the show. We're going to pull some up and dig through it. So don't worry, the photography side of things is coming. But also before we dig into the marketing background that you've got, I want to say hi to the chat because a few of our friends are back in the chat today. Good morning, John Pickett. Good morning, Philip Johnson. Samantha Olson. Morning. David Mascara from the bay as well. Good to see you, David. [00:10:33] Speaker D: Welcome back, Justine. [00:10:34] Speaker C: I like that. Yeah, yeah, I gotta. Welcome back, Justine. I'll take it. Kev Morse, good morning from Margate, Tasmania. Morning, Kev. Greg Carrick. Morning. Should I put sugar or honey on my wheat Bix? I would go with. I was always sugar on online as a kid. You do you table everyone? [00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Sugar. I don't even know what weed picks is. I need to. [00:10:58] Speaker B: Wheat pillow. [00:11:00] Speaker C: It's a cereal, a breakfast cereal. But they're like, it's, it's. It comes in like a block and you put like three or four blocks in the milk. [00:11:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:10] Speaker C: Okay. [00:11:12] Speaker A: We have something like. [00:11:13] Speaker C: What are they called? [00:11:14] Speaker A: Shredded. [00:11:15] Speaker C: Something like it. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:16] Speaker B: And they're kind of flat and then compacted into like little. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They look like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:11:26] Speaker C: The. The Australian, like surf life saving Iron Man World always sold it to us kids is like, this is the healthy. This is a healthy food. You have six wheat Bix for breakfast or whatever, but you put sugar and honey on them. Yep. Keep it healthy. And Greg says, oh, yeah. And welcome back, Justin. Yeah, thank you. Matt Boyle says. Yep. These ones. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Good to see you, Matt. What's up? Hey, man. [00:11:51] Speaker D: This is for your benefit, Jeff and any. Any American viewers that are watching, but this is. [00:11:56] Speaker A: This is wheat bits. So they're these. [00:12:00] Speaker D: They literally look like bricks made of wheat. [00:12:02] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:03] Speaker D: They've been an Australian breakfast staple for decades. [00:12:06] Speaker A: Got it. Well, next time I'm there, I'll have to try that. Yeah, yeah. [00:12:11] Speaker B: It's not like Vegemite. You'll probably like it. [00:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I did not like it. [00:12:16] Speaker C: Oh, you tried it? [00:12:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. No, I've been there many, many times and I did try it. But a typical American. I think I put it too on too thick. Yeah, yeah. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Baby steps. [00:12:28] Speaker A: Bearing. Yeah, yeah. [00:12:30] Speaker D: And it has to go on with butter or margarine. [00:12:33] Speaker C: Yeah, you have to have it with butter. [00:12:34] Speaker A: You can't. [00:12:35] Speaker C: If you can't have just Vegemite. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Next time I'm there with you guys. [00:12:40] Speaker D: We'Ll go out for breakfast. [00:12:41] Speaker A: We'll go out. [00:12:43] Speaker D: Yeah, we'll bring some Aussie favorites. [00:12:45] Speaker B: I don't know if you can buy. Get Vegemite on toast at out though. [00:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah, you can. [00:12:52] Speaker C: They do little trendy Melbourne cafes. You can, Jim. [00:12:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:57] Speaker D: I don't know what you have in the sticks. [00:12:58] Speaker C: We're from there. [00:12:59] Speaker A: You just go, greg, Greg. Do you feel left out because we all have J names? Just curious. [00:13:06] Speaker D: No, I didn't really notice you mentioned it, Jeff, but thanks. Yeah, no, I don't feel that. [00:13:13] Speaker C: Change your name now to Drag. Okay. Now, so I had a question written down here from when I was doing a little bit of research on you, Jeff, about marketing. And I wanted to know, is there, can you think of any, any specific things that you carried over from your life as a, as a sort of a top level marketing tech world person into the photography world, any lessons or any things that you. The core truths about marketing that still hold true now no matter what you're doing? [00:13:48] Speaker A: I would say almost everything. I know it sounds too generic, but like literally like how you treat people as a manager, right, how you treat customers. You know, I prided myself on talking to every customer I could when I was in the corporate world. Even if they were ticked off, I like to call them personally and say, okay, why, what happened? What do we do wrong? And treating customers like a friend. And I do that. Like all of my clients are like friends to me and I treat them that way. And I think understanding just common sense of business, like, I mean, I'm lucky because people say I have such passion for what I do, but I get to do something that I truly love. And so it's easy for me to kind of take that. Okay. I have to do social media. Well, cool. I get to share a photo I just took or you know, when I do the blogs from the Olympics, I get to share what it's like to be there because most people see the coverage on tv, they see the sport, but they don't get to see what is it like to actually be there and what are the challenges that we deal with. So I kind of take like, and I know people like behind the scenes stuff, right. And so, and I listen to what People respond back with, when people write to me and say, hey, can you tell us more about what it was like to be here? Or I. I see that you're at this venue. Is it really as bad or good as they say it is? And so, like, I think everything I learned over 25 or 30 years in the world of technology has. I've brought that to this business, and not in, like, this really conscious way. I think it's just. In just the way that I want. It's interesting when you run your own business because in the corporate world, you have to deal with the shareholders or the CEO or the president or VP or your boss, and so you have to kind of do things their way. And it's great to run your own business in some respects, because you can do exactly what you want to do. You know, I had a rock band here in the Bay Area that's putting out a new album, and they contacted me and I said, normally I'm like, I don't have time to do that, but I thought that'd be really fun. I think I'll do it. And they're like, really? You'll do it? Because, I mean, I've shot for some really big bands, and they're like, you'll never do our small band. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. And so I can just like. Because it sounded like fun. And I just talked to them like an hour ago. And so, like, I can pick and choose what I want to do, but at the same time, I also understand the core value of, of running a business. And I know how hard it is to stay true, like, to your brand and to. To run it and try to exceed expectations in every case, like when I shoot an event for someone. So this weekend I shot Thursday, Friday, Saturday, bar mitzvah Sunday, a wedding. Monday, I did another event all back to back. Came home on Monday afternoon. I got home, I had eight, eight or nine thousand images. I went through all, all of those by midnight that night, had all galleries posted for my client and all the clients, and they were like, freaking out. Like, how did you do that? Including edits and stuff for them? For me, I don't want just people to be happy. I want people to be like, holy crap, you gotta use this guy. And I haven't advertised in 12, 13 years. I don't know what it's been because I don't need to like the world. Word of mouth in the Bay Area is, if you want to go photographer, use this guy. And so again, I think all of that marketing background is. And I think about that all the time. Like when I'm shooting, don't walk around like you look like you're bored. And I see this with other starvers, they're like, and it's like, no, walk around and be excited that you're, you're capturing this amazing event for this family or the Olympics. You, you know, a lot of guys walk around the Olympics and they hate it. Right? Because if they shoot for an agency, really they're used to shooting for an agency and they're used to shooting sports except now they're being shipped off to a foreign country and they have to, you know, you no sleep, you're in a crappy hotel, you're working, you know, 16 hour days with crazy deadlines. So to them it's like it's a chore to be there. And I'm like, no, no. Like, I look at it even though about to do my ninth one, I look at it like, God, how lucky are we to be here. Yeah. Watching the Olympics. It's a mindset, I think. And I brought that mindset from that world to this world. [00:18:20] Speaker C: It's so true that you say that. So Jim and I, we shot weddings together for basically 10 years. And we would get the very regularly, the parents of the bride or the groom coming up to us at maybe like 9 o' clock at night, that kind of time. And they would come up to us and they just say, wow, you guys have just done such an amazing job you just done. And we're like, you haven't seen any photos yet. But it was the way that we carried ourselves through the day and the work that we, they could see we were working, we drifting around, wasting time, resting. [00:18:53] Speaker A: Which is really funny because like you said, I, they do this to me too, all the time. And I'm like, you don't even know if I'm in focus, right? [00:19:00] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Yep. [00:19:01] Speaker C: I have no idea. [00:19:02] Speaker A: But this is really important too because, and I tell this to all the photographers. I don't get hired. I mean, I get hired because I'm a good photographer, but there's great photographers out there. But it is how you carry yourself and it's how you make people feel when you insert yourself into their family. If it's a wedding and you have fun with them and you turn the camera around, look how good you look. And I, I do, I do, I turn the camera around all the time and I don't know, don't look at the lcd, look all the way in the eyepiece, you know, with mirrorless. And they look like, wow. Right? So it's so important on, like you said, it's like I said, it's your brand. Right. And so you want people to say, that guy's a great guy and amazing to work with and fun. Oh, and he takes great photos. That's how you run a photo. Yeah. And I taught my son. My son's now a photographer. He and his wife do photo video. I remember when he was 13 or 14 and he was doing video with a video camera at one of the events. I was shooting a bar mitzvah for something. And he was like, I'm done. And he sat in the corner like, teenage board. And I. I'm like, no, no, no, get up. The smile on your face. I don't even care if you're shooting or not. Pretend like you are. I want a smile on your face because you're representing my brand and I don't want you looking like you're bored. Right. And so learn from that. And I think he, you know, he carries that with him now. And I think that's important. [00:20:26] Speaker D: Yeah, it's a good life. It's an important life lessons. And it's all about work ethic as well. You know, how you. Because you can be the best photographer in the world, but if you're a bastard to everybody, then no one's going to hire you, no one's going to recommend you. You're not going to attract an audience. That could lead to potential clients and leads. It's just a fundamental truth. [00:20:46] Speaker A: Well, I think it's true for almost. People always say that you work with who you want to work with, like who you like to work with. And I think it's really. It's interesting. Me with other vendors too, right? Like, you guys have shot weddings. Like, if you're nice to the DJs, the coordinators, the florists and. And you engage with them and make it fun, then they're gonna recommend you to people, too. Yeah, it's very true. [00:21:08] Speaker C: Exactly. I tell you what you don't do, you don't watch. Remember this, Jim? You don't watch the most amazing dessert table get laid out by. By someone that obviously had a lot of kit. Like, they'd handmade everything for this beautiful dessert spread that they were going to lay out cakes and everything. And they spent ages setting it all up. And before they even were able to then go and get the bride and groom and kind of present it to them as this finished piece of, like, artwork Dessert table. The videographer snuck up and grabbed a cake off there and ate it. Oh, yeah. [00:21:46] Speaker A: I see this where I've seen vendors jump the line for food and. Yeah. And stuff. And I'm like. And I have my. My clients will say to me, like, jeff, did you eat? And I. And I say, I eat when everybody else is done eating. Like, yeah, again, this is the thing. Like, you have to think about this as a photographer or whatever you're doing. What are you representing? What are you showing to those people? Right. What are you showing to your client? And if you show that you're classy and you're thinking about them and it's about them and not you, that goes along, again, it's the brand and it's really important. Yep. [00:22:19] Speaker D: Yeah, most definitely. [00:22:21] Speaker C: That's great advice. Should we. I have a question here. I have a question here from, from David Mascara. Did you start with shooting Olympics in the film days or did you miss that era completely? [00:22:35] Speaker A: I'm really happy to say that I missed that. My First Olympics was 2008 in Beijing. And you know, the cameras were not as nearly as good as they are today. They weren't as fast, they didn't focus as fast. But man, I have such respect for any of the photographers that shot film. Manual focus. Oh my God. Now granted, I know the sports weren't as fast back then as they are today, but I mean, you know, shooting and like even the difference between. And I did a. A video, I think, for B H photo, I believe. And it was like, how much things have changed from 2008 when we were shooting on a four gig card, I think it was. Yeah. Or a one gig card. There was a one gig card at 300x speed. It was like slow. And the cameras were, I think eight frames a second, tops, maybe. [00:23:33] Speaker C: Do you remember what cameras you were using for that first? [00:23:38] Speaker A: It might have been. It was either a 1D canon. And I think honestly, it might have like my, my walk around camera might have been like a 4D. Like, it was like, like nothing like today, you know, but you look at like Paris, I'm shooting the R1s at 40 frames a second with pre capture, you know, with focus. It's just crazy. Off the charts, ridiculously fast. [00:24:05] Speaker D: I watched your video last night where you were talking about the gear. It was. It was a presentation you gave and you were talking about the Canon gear that you shoot with and you were showing how amazing the R1 was in terms of focus and the burst and you were showing and you would sort of just. You were hitting the arrow button and it was showing every little stage in Simone's routine as she landed. And it was. It was like watching a slightly slowed down video. It was phenomenal. [00:24:34] Speaker A: How much when I first remember when, when I told you I did. When I was a kid and I did those animations, it was Super 8. That was the film chemistry. Eight frames a second. Right. When I showed on that video, I believe was probably 30 frames a second. So if I, if I had put that together as a video, like you saw me go like this because I'm in Photo Mechanic. You know, there's a lag there, but yes, you could totally make that a. A full video on those, right? [00:25:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:00] Speaker A: And it is incredible. But how the focus locked in on her. You know, this is hard to shoot because they're going up, down from you, toward you, flipping, spinning. You don't have their face in view for, you know, fraction of a second, then back. And in the past, trying to keep a focal point on their face as they're doing all this was damn near impossible. And with mirrorless now and the R1, that would just lock in on the eyes, my take rate was just crazy good compared to the past. So the technology definitely helps. And again, you know, I use that in everyday photography. Right. If I'm doing a portrait session, you know, I don't have to worry about focusing on the eyes. In the old days, I move the focal point. Get it on the right spot, get on the right. No. And now you just go eye detection. And, you know, the R1 has my pupil detection. So if I have a group shot, I'll look at the bride on Sunday and it goes right to the bride and focuses. I'm like, this is, you know, it's. [00:26:01] Speaker D: Yeah, that's pretty phenomenal. [00:26:02] Speaker A: Is pretty cool. Yeah. [00:26:03] Speaker C: So you're using, you're using the. Gosh, it's hard. The terms are so similar. But I. I detect auto. So hang on. Which one are they used for? [00:26:13] Speaker A: Which. [00:26:13] Speaker C: But the one that moves. Tracks your eye with your. You're using that? [00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:18] Speaker C: Tracks your eyes. [00:26:20] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Yeah. [00:26:21] Speaker C: And it's pretty cool for regular work. [00:26:24] Speaker A: I do like you. It used to be in the old days, you had a group shot and you had 10 people and you'd go to focus. And even with mirrorless is cool because it would lock in on. But it might lock in on the wrong face. And then you have to try voice kicking over or whatever. And with the R1 and the R5, II, it has my tracking, so it looks at. So whoever. It's so cool because I turn off all the targets and all that. I don't want any of that in my frame. But whoever my. I'm looking at, the focal point goes to and locks in on. And this actually worked in. I just did a photo tour in Galapagos, and whichever animal I was looking at, it was locking in on. I mean, it's. It's pretty neat. [00:27:01] Speaker C: It's cool. [00:27:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:04] Speaker A: You know, I mean, it takes. [00:27:05] Speaker C: I want to ask you about. Oh, no, sorry. I was just going to say I don't. I don't want to forget. I want to ask you about that Galapagos tour later on. I want to. I want to find out all about it because it's a dream. It's a dream destination for a lot of us. I think so. But, yeah, that. That's. I can. So John Pickett just said it's I control. Yeah, I always get the terminology mixed up. Yeah, I control. I. I use it a bit because I shoot with R3 and R5. Mark II is like my. My kit and I use it a little bit. I've got it set up on my. My. Okay button actually in the center of the wheel toggles between eye control on and eye control off. Because I don't want it on all the time. But I. I just haven't ended. It hasn't become my default. You know, I don't know if I should just commit to using it or. [00:27:47] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I did not use it on the R3. I found that it was too. First of all, I think on the R3, you couldn't turn off that little target that's moving around. When your eyes moving, you can make it smaller. On the R1, you could just say, don't even show it. But the R1, the eyepiece on the R1 is massive. [00:28:05] Speaker C: So that. That viewfinder is so good. [00:28:10] Speaker A: Like, this piece is massive, right? And. And the hardware. So both the hardware and the. And the software is so much better on the R1 that. On the R3. I tried it. It's funny, I talked to all the engineers because the first time I used it was in Tokyo at the Olympics. So Japan, that's where Canon is. So all the Japanese were calling me in, like, every day, like, how'd it work? I go, no, I turned it off. I'm like, what do you mean? I got. I was so excited about using it, but it doesn't work right. I don't like it. And it was too distracting. And I tried it for I don't. A couple minutes and just thought, Nope. With the R1, it was the exact opposite. I tried to go, oh, my God, this is. This is the way it should be. So it's a big difference between the R3 that you're using in the R1. [00:28:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I. I got to play with the R1 a bit and the R5 mark. Pretty decent job. But I. Yeah, I have a problem with acquiring new equipment, but I held off on the R1. [00:29:04] Speaker D: And we've been teasing about the fact that he hasn't bought the R1 yet. And I think you've just almost sealed the deal for him. [00:29:10] Speaker A: I'll tell you what, you, you know, people ask me all the time, you know, should they switch? And it's hard, like, if you're just an enthusiast and, you know, it is a lot of money switching gear. I understand that. And so I tell people, look, you know, it depends. Like, as a professional, when these tools matter so much, I use this thing, you know, six days in a row, and it's a money maker for me. It's like a tool. Right. For any other person that's working. And so having the best tools does help. Does it make you the best photographer? No, it does not. You know, because everybody buys all this gear, right? It's all about, how many lenses do you have and, you know, how much money have you spent at your dealer lately. But, you know, it does help to have the right gear. But it doesn't make you the Darver. [00:29:56] Speaker C: No, no. And. And I would understand what you've got. Yeah, I would argue that with my limited experience on the R1, though, it is limited. But the difference between the R1 and the R3, for all but the most demanding situations, like shooting the Olympics, but for general, you know, for, say, weddings or something like that, the difference between those cameras, you know, the R1 does have much nicer viewfinder and stuff, but you're going to get 99% of the results of the R1 with the R3, because it was quite a great camera as well. It's like, it was so close, and then they just refined it. [00:30:32] Speaker A: One of the things that drove me crazy about the R3 was that you had to write to a CF Express card and then slow it way down by writing to sd. I hated that. But so for the Olympics, like that video that Greg was talking about with Simone Biles, where I'm firing off, you know, hundreds and hundreds of RAW files or thousands, like, almost successfully, like, just sequentially, just going through with an R3, you get to the point where the buffer would just stop. Because I always write to two cards. Always. Yeah. And so with the R1, because it's going to two CF Express cards, I could do that, but you're not blasting out hundreds of shots per second or whatever at a wedding. So again, there's some reality there. [00:31:20] Speaker C: And. And even like. So I shoot. I shoot a lot of mountain biking. And just the nature of that sport is it's not. You're not. You're not shooting for long durations. They're coming past fast and then they're gone and then they're coming fast. You know, it's not the same as, like you say a full routine that. That you could potentially shoot. Yeah. Continuously for a long time. [00:31:39] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:40] Speaker C: I guess it would be the same with something like. I know you've shot diving before. You know, diving, you need a great burst, but not for very long. And then it's. Then you got time for the buffer to clear. So I just. I guess it's a bit sport dependent. [00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah. The weird thing about diving is, you know, in the old days, before mirrorless, I'd be sitting at Olympic diving and I'd be with 20 other photographers or 30 or 40 other towers, and they come out and they come up to the diving board, it'd be very quiet. And then all of a sudden, here's right. And they'd be like, stop. Yeah. And everybody would look in their camera and chimp and see. Look at the screen, see how they did. And then be like, quiet again. Like. And now we're mirrorless. Like, I remember shooting gymnastics in Paris and everybody was shooting mirrorless. So you didn't hear a lot. You might hear that or nothing. And one guy was shooting with an older Nikon and it was like looking. I'm like, oh, my God, that thing's. Yeah. [00:32:42] Speaker C: You don't want to be the only one with D5. That's crazy. So do you. This is a good question. So, modern Olympics, are there any rules around how much noise the camera can make or anything in certain sports, do you shoot on silent shutter? [00:33:02] Speaker A: I try not to use silent because I like hearing the shutter. I'm an old school photographer who listens to the shutter. Crank up the ISO. I like to hear it. [00:33:13] Speaker C: Tell me this. [00:33:14] Speaker A: Even if it's artificial, I still like to hear it. [00:33:16] Speaker C: Do you think Canon. Canon or one of the other brands, but mainly Canon, because that's us. Do you think they should implement more of a haptic rather than a sound so we can, like But. But I guess that would create some vibration. [00:33:27] Speaker A: But. [00:33:28] Speaker C: Yeah, but just a slight feel. [00:33:30] Speaker A: No, I just like to, you know, it's quiet enough that I hear it that no one else hears it. Like if you're shooting inside of a church or temple or whatever, I can hear it, but most people can't hear it. That's just about right for me. I do like to hear the shutter, but there are times I'll shoot pure, you know, digital or you know, without shutter, just. And for mirrorless shooting, it's a little weird for me still just to see like Canon shows a border, a gray border around. Right? Yeah, yeah. Like, okay, I'm shooting. I'm like, are you like that was. That's so I actually not to. If you use pre capture in the Canon, which means it goes back half a second and gets what you didn't get, then it forces itself into pure mirrorless mode. And so that takes a little getting used to. [00:34:23] Speaker C: Yeah, right. Yeah. So. So it's fully silent. When there's pre capture enabled events. [00:34:29] Speaker A: They do. There are certain events at the Olympics, I didn't ask that question where they do say, hey, you have to. This one, you have to shoot completely silent. I mean like for instance, golf for pga. Yeah. They want silent because there was a. I remember a time where Tiger woods going crazy because some guy right before his swing was like, you know, and really loud. And so there's certain things like golf at the Olympics and certain things where they'll make us do that. But most of the stuff I'm shooting, you know, there's a lot of crowd noise and things. The weirdest thing was during COVID because when I shot Tokyo Olympics, there was no crowd. Right. It was just you could hear so much stuff that most people wouldn't want to hear. Because remember when you're in a team sport, those guys are f bombing at each other and, and stuff. And it was really weird to be poolside for water polo and hear some of the stuff he was yelling. Like I hope they're not catching that with those microphones. And I think what they did is they pumped in digital audience noise, I believe is what they did for tv because you didn't want to hear all that stuff. I loved it. I thought it was really cool because I got to hear a lot of the strategy that you normally don't even hear. It's not quiet enough that it's an issue for me there. [00:35:49] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay, that's yeah. Very interesting. It's. There's. That whole world is so you Know, I've only shot very small events. Very, you know, but, but even, you know, we have to have media credentials and stuff like that, but really small. And the control, even on a small event is a bit, I can't imagine what the control is on, on you guys. From an Olympic, you know, standpoint, really intense. [00:36:13] Speaker A: And it's funny because people who obviously have never shot the Olympics, which is most of the world, they don't get it because they'll say to me, like, why did you only shoot two sports today or three sports or whatever? And I'm like, no, no. Getting from one venue to the other could take you, you know, hours, or in the case of Milan coming up, 14 hours each way. So, like, but the restrictions, like, why don't you shoot from this angle? No, you can't. Like the, the restrictions are you, you go through a photographer's meeting before the Olympics where they set forth all the rules and then is that in, in. [00:36:47] Speaker C: Person or is that, is that meeting in person or is that like a zoom meeting? It's in person. So, okay, let's, let's, let's tell me this. So let's say, so Paris, like, how, when do you get there? Like, how far before it starts do you get there? And then like, how do these meetings unfold? Talk us through that part of it. [00:37:06] Speaker A: Yeah, so typically I try to get there at least two or three days before opening ceremonies because I'm trying to get time adjusted to wherever the heck I am. So I try to do that in Paris. I ended up cutting it a little closer. I think I got there like two days before opening. So I got there just in time to hit that meeting. And you can imagine being jet lagged and doing that, you know, sitting in a dark room for hours. But you know, the thing is, I've done so many Olympics now, I could almost read the, you know, memorize though, and tell, read it back to them. But I know the rules most of the time. But I sit through that meeting because there are always things that you learn. Like now, AI is a big topic, right? So what AI is allowed, you know, can you use it? You know, can you remove digital noise using something like topaz noise? That's kind of AI, can you. Yeah, yeah, I think they, they were like that maybe. But you can't like clone things out. You can't add. You add things. You can't, you can crop, but you can't like take out a foot if it's sticking into your frame. [00:38:06] Speaker D: And I remember seeing Jeff, one of the Photos you showed in on one of your YouTube videos on your channel, which we'll, we'll show people a bit later. You talked about a shot you took of. I think it was volleyball and there was the stadium. [00:38:19] Speaker A: The, the. [00:38:21] Speaker D: The playing field was lit up, but the background was really dark and you had the Eiffel Tower dead center. Well, it looked dead center to me. I know someone told you that. It didn't look dead center, but it looks dead center. [00:38:32] Speaker A: The final one was dead center. Yeah, yeah. [00:38:34] Speaker D: And you're talking about the lights. Like there was just like three or four lights in the background. And you talked about how even those tiny specks of light which would. Could be removed so easily. You're not allowed to touch. [00:38:44] Speaker A: They just. [00:38:45] Speaker D: Pod restrictions are. [00:38:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very restricted in what we can do, which is true for most agency work and stuff. But the other restrictions are like, every venue has its own rules. So you go through the main photographer meeting and then as Olympic photographer, even if you have your credentials, which I will probably be receiving here in another couple months for Milan, once you get those, that doesn't. Still doesn't allow you to go into the photographer, then you have to go into the main media center and get that blessed and then receive your, your vest or sleeve for winter. And then, and then you have to deal with the restrictions at every venue. So they'll go through in the main photographer meeting and they'll say, for this venue, this is the restrictions for this venue, this is the restrictions for every venue. But then that's really not where it ends because so if I'm shooting in Milan, I'll be shooting a lot of ice hockey for Team usa, so men's and women's ice hockey. So I'll get there in advance. First thing I'll do is go to the main media center and get my credentials blessed and get all that stuff done. If you're using pocket wizards or stuff like that, you have to have the frequencies. Custom frequencies approved, which we have. Get all that done. They put a holographic sticker on there and then you move it on. You do all that. Then you go to your venue. And so I'll go to the venue for ice hockey. There's actually two different venues about an hour apart in Milan. I'll go to each one. I. I have to find out each of the restrictions at each one of those. I'll look at the plexiglass. How clean is it? Are you going to switch it out at all? They always say they will and they don't but, like, where are the shooting positions? Who's the venue manager? Have I worked with them before? There's a guy named Steve who's worked many of the last Olympics for ice hockey. If it's still Steve at the main arena, good. He knows me. I know him. I know what pisses him off and what doesn't. So if I get there two hours early and I find the cleanest piece of plexiglass, because we're shooting through plexi, and I. And I put a piece of tape with my business card there, and he's like, yeah, no, and I'll rip it off. Like, you can't do that. I know what he. What I can get away with if I want to put a camera up on the rafters. Every venue has a different restriction. Like, you have to be here three hours before the event, go up, mount your camera remote would get all that done. That's it. Then you're done. And then. And then after the game, if I have a remote, they'll let you. They'll do a rafter call, and you'll run up and go up there with whoever's approved to take you up there to go get your. Your card out of the camera or whatever. Like. But. But this varies at every venue. And so it is a lot of times if I'm shooting, like in Paris, I went and I shot at the. At the Man Made river for kayaking, and I had never been there. So I got there, and the first thing I did is went to the media center there, and I talked to the photo manager or the assistant photo manager and said, okay, where are good ways to shoot? Where can I walk on this? Is there a restriction? Or TV cameras I need to be aware of? So there's a lot to deal with, a lot of stress that came with doing my first couple Olympics. Now that I've done so many, I kind of know the rules. I. And I know that, you know, kind of the cadence, and it makes life a lot easier. But. But that's not. [00:41:54] Speaker D: That's not the only thing that's changed, is it, Jeff? So, you know, you talked about, in your. On your YouTube channel, you. You talked about the change in demand for those final prints. You know, in the early days with your first Olympics, you know, the turnaround wasn't. Wasn't instant, but now you're pretty much instantly. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Yeah. How. What. [00:42:16] Speaker D: What have you done to sort of, I guess, adapt with those changes? What. How does that work for you now? [00:42:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I think one of the hardest and I think the most shocking thing to all of my followers on the blog and on social media is like when I talk about a 14 minute deadline because like when I shoot pictures, like even in Paris shooting for, let's say water polo, I the first water polo match I accidentally shot at 40 frames a second with pre capture turned on. That was a mistake because it was a one hour game and I ended up with 5,700 images. Well, if I have 15 minutes to go through 5,700 images to find the best ones and get them retouched, resized them back to the States, it made it a little tough on me. But you know, I learned don't shoot with pre capture unless, unless it's like a penalty shot. So I would just kick it in for the penalty shot, kick it back off, or don't shoot at 40 frames second, 25 or 30 is fine. And so it was a learning curve there because I was shooting with prototype R1s at the time. Yeah. And so, but yeah, I mean it went from 24 hours to 12 hour deadline to 2 hour deadline, to 1 hour deadline to 14 minutes. And the reason, like 14 minutes when I'm in Milan, I'm shooting for USA Hockey. The time break between first and second period and second third period is 15 minutes. So I have to get images back to the team so that they can post them on social media and say, hey, US is up over Canada. Two to one, tune in and check it out. And so social media has really driven that immediacy. And I'm a one man band. So I'm shooting, my laptop is on the ice with me right next to the glass. And the minute I shoot, I am, you know, as soon as the period's over, the memory cards in the reader, I use prograde cards which are like uber fast. This one's 3,400megabytes per second and I use that. [00:44:07] Speaker C: Hold on, you don't, you don't use Lexar cards? You don't use. [00:44:10] Speaker A: No, no, I don't. When I, I know it's crazy, but the guys that left Lexar got sold to a company that I, yeah, like the quality. And so pro grade are the guys that started, that used to run Lexar started Prograde. And this reader was USB4.0 reader. This thing is just, first time I used it, I thought it didn't work because I shot like 500 images of diving. Just practice. And I put the card in and I turned around for a second, I looked back and it was not lit up. And I thought oh, damn. It's not working. No, it had already moved all 500 images to the, to the Mac I was using. I do. I use, you know, the fastest memory cards, the fastest camera, the fastest reader. I use the Apple now takes care of me in every Olympics. I get the Latest, the newest MacBook Pro 8 terabyte SSD. So it's all tuned for speed. And I'll pre create folder that says, you know, USA Hockey woman versus Czechoslovakia with the date. I've already got it pre created. And then I also can either tag images in camera or mentally. I know I got a great shot of the goalie stopping that, so I'll go back and I'll look for those. So. But it's. And, and I always joke about that. A lot of Diet Coke, like a lot of stimulation here to keep me awake. But like, it is. It's a learned thing. Like, like I told you guys, I went through 9,000 images on Monday till midnight. But I can. I know going through like, that one's good. That one's good. That one's good. Bad. That one's bad, right? Like if I have a sequence of a wedding and it's the first kiss. I did go to burst mode for that. I don't need 50 of them. I want the top three or four. And I've kind of trained my eye to look for those for sure. [00:46:04] Speaker C: I'll a couple of quick comments and then we'll. We'll talk a little bit more about your workflow, I think, because that's. So Pete mellows at us, who's a former guest on the show and photographer, landscape photographer. He probably doesn't shoot anywhere near. You know, he's got three images to edit after his landscape shoots. [00:46:21] Speaker D: Pete says Pete also does. Sorry, Justin, I was just gonna say Pete also does some sporting events and their clubs. [00:46:31] Speaker A: So. Yeah. All right, sorry. [00:46:33] Speaker C: So who gets to edit all those, all those photos from the high frame rates that is you. You. You edit everything that you do, Jeff? [00:46:41] Speaker A: I do culling editing. You know, I do all the retouching. It's. It's kind of crazy. Like most photographers at the Olympics, they're connected. Like if you're shooting for EPA or Getty or AP or whoever, you're connected through an ethernet connection right to the, to the camera. And you're tethered and you're shooting and those images are going up to an editor and the editor is going through, going, yeah, that one, that one. Like I said, I'm the only independent photographer for Team usa So I'm on my own, which is really cool because I've been doing it for so long. They call me part of the Olympic family. So I can shoot for USA Hockey and then I can go when the hockey game's over. There's no game that day. I can go shoot whatever I want. So I've got the top level credential. I can choose that. But I've like the delivery. My contract is to get those images to that team and. But it's my job to get them, go through them, quickly retouch and get it back to the team. Everything else I shoot. If I'm shooting for fun, then I do it for my own blog and that's it. I don't sell them, I don't put them on wires. I just do it for me. [00:47:47] Speaker C: For you. A couple other quick comments. Brendan waits. Oh, sorry, Jim. I'll just. I'll just quickly whip through these and then you go. Brandon Waits, Cameron photo in Ocean Grove, Great photography shop. Go there and buy all of your gear. Says morning team. Can't wait to watch this full interview back. Jeff is a legend. Almost worth closing the shop this morning and watching live. You should have. You should have just closed up. Don't worry about those customers wanting things. And thanks, Tony, for the. Yeah, yeah, exactly. He's got it. He's going to make the money. Tony, get off my digital lawn. Thanks for the 2.99. We'll split that evenly between the four of us and thanks, Tony will be great. Good morning. And Pete Mellow says gymnastics this weekend will be 50,000 shots. I should say. Yeah, you'll have to. You'll have to dig through it and we'll ask. [00:48:35] Speaker A: Actually, that's way more than I would shoot. I. The entire Paris olympics. I did 80,000. Wow. Wow. [00:48:42] Speaker C: Oh, wow. Okay, that's crazy. Yeah, it's still a lot, but. Yeah, not as many as 50. [00:48:47] Speaker D: How much storage on average do you think you'd capture during an Olympics? [00:48:51] Speaker A: You know, I can actually tell you because I could look at. I've got everything on a server right here. I have every image I've ever taken in my life, minus. I go through and get rid of the stuff. I don't want to, But I've got 2.6 million images on the server here and. And this one is a QNAP NAS drive and I have another one at my brother's house 250 miles away and they sink every night at 1 in the morning. So everything I. Every image is backed up. So God forbid There's a fire here or whatever. Yeah, it's there. Yeah. But I think it's not as much as you would think because like I carry with me I've got a whole bunch of these four terabyte crucial SSDs with me and I only come close to filling them. So it's, it's probably less than a terabyte total. Yeah. [00:49:38] Speaker D: Which is still a lot. [00:49:40] Speaker A: Yeah, it is and it's not. I mean, when you're shooting non stop for three weeks, you know, from, you know, nine in the morning till, yeah, midnight and I do, I call through and get rid of, you know, especially shooting ice hockey, inevitably you're going to get that ref and you're going to have a black and white stripes right through your frame because they skate right in front of your camera. I mean, you'll get rid of all that stuff. I try to purge all that and just keep the stuff as good and usable. [00:50:08] Speaker C: I want to ask you about that, but did you have a question? Jim, you wanna. [00:50:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got a couple. Jeff, with the hockey, you're talking about the rafters and putting cameras up there. Are you leaving them there for the entire event or is it just for the one game? [00:50:21] Speaker A: It depends. I typically actually I don't do overhead raptor shots anymore. It's too much of a. It's too time consuming and I mean they're amazing. But most of the good spots that are dead center over the net are taken by all the agencies. So there's too many cameras up there. But I, I have set up remote cameras on the post right behind the goal, behind the, you know, kind of directly behind. And I've done that again. It's just one more thing to go through and more images to go through in that 15 minutes. So now I typically don't do a lot of that. I usually keep two cameras with me on ice. I've got one with the 70 to 200. So I just switched to this new 7200 the Canon has because this thing doesn't extend because I can't back into the glass if. And I've. And I've shot ice hockey in here in the Bay Area. And this guy had a lens that, you know, protruded when he zoomed. Well, if you're up against plexiglass and you do that, it smashed into his face because he was up against epoxy and it broke his nose and every bone in his orbital. Like it was brutal and so. Whoa. [00:51:27] Speaker C: He must have zoomed aggressively. [00:51:29] Speaker A: No, he Was in the hole. Because in the NHL you can actually go through a hole. And the guy got checked into the glass and it just. Oh, it pushes through. Oh, yeah. [00:51:39] Speaker C: I thought you meant he just him zooming, like against him. [00:51:46] Speaker A: And actually one of the things I. [00:51:47] Speaker D: Do, I do say hockey's a dangerous sport. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Yeah. I still play once a week. I don't use this. I take. I get rid of this at the Olympics and I go to a squishable rubber hood so I can put that up against the plexi, and that gives me a good inch of movement. So God forbid, if there is a heavy check, I'm ready for it. But then I'll have a second camera. So I have a 7200, which is what I use most. I don't think I'll use the 100 to 300. Probably stay with 7200. And then I have another one with a fisheye. So if guys are getting slammed right in front of me on the boards, I'll hold down the. I'll drop the 7200 and grab the other one with the fish and just. I've already pre focused it about a foot distance and I just hold that up and fire and hope to get a really cool wide angle shot. And I've got something on my website. [00:52:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:36] Speaker C: Nice. [00:52:36] Speaker B: Fantastic. And sorry, Jeff, the other question I had. Obviously cameras have come a long way since your first Olympics, but I feel like the lighting's probably in the venues is probably improved dramatically as well. [00:52:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, shooting Olympics is cheating. You know, I shot a water polo game. My girlfriend's son was playing in an alumni game at a local high school in the evening. The light was horrible and I thought. And it got to the point I shot when it was still kind of right before sunset. And I got some nice shots for them. Just messed around and then the sun dropped and they had like, you know, six crappy little lights. And I didn't even bother shooting because I cranked the ISO to like 20,000. Didn't look great. And I still couldn't get fast enough shutter speed, but. And I was just hacking for him. And I already gotten some good shots anyway. But shooting local games, you know, here, back at home, or in your local school is so much harder because the Olympics, it's lit for television. [00:53:37] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:53:38] Speaker A: They have very pretty consistent lighting and white balance, hopefully throughout the entire venue. So, like, when I shoot ice hockey at my local local rink. So like, I. I play once a week, but before the Olympics, all stop because I got I broke a rib right before the Vancouver Olympics. And let me tell you, trying to hoof gear, carry all that gear when you have a broken rib sucks. So now I don't skate. I take about six weeks before. A month before Olympics and stop. But if I. If I do that, I might go shoot my buddies just to warm up. Yeah. Let me tell you something. They're a lot slower than the guys in the Olympic team. The lighting is horrible, and so you're pushing crazy isos. Your images are subpar. When I get the Olympics, I'm shooting at ISO like, 1000, 1250 and getting really good shutter speeds. Try that at a home rink. No way. Just no way. So it's. It's. It's. We have the best athletes in the world with the best lighting, with. With people in the stands who actually care and excited. So you get, like, that excitement and versus you shoot. @ a high school, the parents are talking to each other. They're barely watching their kids, like, and they're mostly empty. And there's always that one door open on the side, so your lights coming in crazy from that one angle, like, so you don't have any of that. And your backgrounds are beautiful colors and stuff. So it's. It's. It's a whole different ball game. It is easier in that respect. [00:55:06] Speaker D: Jeff, talking about that sort of environment where you are, you know, you're at the Olympics and you talk about that, it's, you know, it's almost cheating because it's lit for television and you've got, you know, amazing spectacles to actually capture and you've got the right gear to do it. I saw one of your photos where you'd actually pan the camera around to show the photography pit or area that's cordoned off. Talk to us about that. That kind of. That huddle, like, you know, you often in some of the videos about you. I've watched your video. Sorry, you've talked about that competition, about how to get above the competition, how to stand out from the crowd. And I guess I'm curious. For people that are wanting to elevate their game but go to events and they feel outgunned, what advice do you have for them to sort of elevate and be different from the competition? [00:55:54] Speaker A: No, that's a great question. Honestly, like, when you're shooting in this environment, like, the picture you've got there, I mean, there's a lot of people. That was before Simone went on the beam, and this was a good hour before she went on, so I knew to get there early. It was already pretty packed. I was very lucky, actually, because I got there, it was more packed than I thought it would be. And weirdly enough, and this is so strange to me, these guys I look up to, because I do this all the time, they shoot sports and they're amazing, but a lot of them now follow my blog. And so weirdly enough, I show up to the Olympics and a lot of are like, can I get a picture with you? Can I get a selfie? And it's like, wait, what? Like, so I had like, numerous people say, hey, come. You can come stand here. I'll make room for you. Which is pretty incredible. But this is the competition. And, and when I say competition, I don't mean that, like, we all are work together and. And I think most the time at the Olympics, we're all trying to help each other. Hey, am I in your shot? Are you shooting with a wide angle? I'll try to keep out of your shot. I'll move over here. Or, you know, and so we, we, we. There's a lot of camaraderie. There is once in a while a time where someone will be a jerk, or I guess maybe I will be. I try not to be, but, you know, you'll get the rogue person who hasn't slept in four days because they're going full bore and they just, you know, have no patience. But to me, and I think the advice I give everybody is. And I get a lot of people who have never shot the Olympics, and they're about to shoot their first one, and they contact me like, okay, what's your advice? Push yourself, right? Compete against yourself, not the 2200 other photographers that are there. What can I do differently to fill my cup? And so for me, you know, I photographed Michael Phelps many times. I photographed Simone Biles many times. How do I shoot that differently? And sometimes you can't. Like, when she's on the beam, I'm not going to try motion panning it because I have a small window to get her. I want to get that at a fast frame rate and, and get whatever I can get. But, like, but if it's not Simone, and maybe it's someone from a different country, and I'm just warming up, maybe I'll try motion panning to fill my own cut or to show on the blog, hey, look at this cool shot I got. And so most of the stuff I do, other than the contractual stuff that I have to shoot for the team when I'm out shooting other sports or like in Milan, there's only four sports in Milan. There's ice hockey, figure skating, short track and long track, speed skating. Everything else is like a 10 hour drive. So I won't be able to cover a lot of other sports that games. So I'm like, okay, maybe I'll go show behind the scenes what's it like at a local pub, you know, in Milan where people don't have tickets to the Olympics and they want to watch it, whatever. So I'm going to try to find some other stuff to do but like, okay, that's pushing myself. What can I do to get some other cool content just for me and for to share on the blog or behind the scenes stuff or and I've got some other contractual stuff for sponsors or other people or even the team. I'm not just shooting sport, I'm shooting team photos, locker room photos, team parties, marketing stuff. They might need a lot of other stuff. But like I'm trying to push myself to get something different because I'm, I'm so add that I don't want to shoot. I've shot a lot of ice hockey and yes, it'll be great. I want to tell the story of what happened in that game. Better get that. But what else can I do to kind of push the camera or myself to kind of fill my, that creative bucket, if you will. And it's not competing against all the other photographers, although there is that. Like when you go to the press center, you want to be humbled as a photographer. Walk through the press center because they show all the best images that are coming through from the agencies and from every. And you. I sit there, I walk up, I'm like, oh my God, I suck. Like, literally, like, seriously, like there's some stuff you're like, oh my God, that's so incredible. Like, yeah, and it is, it's humbling because you think you're a good photographer. Do you see that? And you realize, you know, you're just one of many. And so it's like, like for me it's like, okay, I, I want to try. Like I've had my picture on those screens a couple times. Like, wow, that's cool. But then it's, the next one comes up, you're like, oh, mine looks terrible compared to that one. So yeah, it's competing with yourself, not competing with everybody else. And same thing we talked about before about trying to be a good person, maintain your brand with the client or with the vendors at a wedding or whatever. It might be a bar mit Sort of do that at the Olympics. I try to treat every other photographer with respect and kindness. And, you know, if, if I'm shooting somewhere and a guy held a spot for me and he's like, oh my God, I'm starving. I go, you held the spot for me. I'm gonna go get your burger. I'll be right back. Right. [01:00:52] Speaker D: Like in Australia, we call that mateship. [01:00:55] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think it's really important looking. [01:00:56] Speaker D: Out for your mates. [01:00:57] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, look, you're all exhausted. Let me tell you, the first couple days of the Olympics, everybody's on that high. Two and a half weeks in, you've been pulling, you know, 18 hour days. Three, three weeks in a row almost, and you're fried. And you still gotta, you know, you gotta keep, you gotta keep your. That same makeshift. I mean, it's really important, I think, to do that. Yeah, yeah. [01:01:21] Speaker C: Oh, that gets me. Okay, so we were talking about. So what happened? You got there looping back to. [01:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:28] Speaker C: What it's like to shoot the Olympics. You got there early, you went through the meetings, you do all the briefings and you figure out what, you know, what you're allowed to do, what you're not allowed to do, that kind of thing. And then now you're talking. So once you're in and you're shooting for what you do, which is specifically for Team usa, how many on the average day, how many things are there where you're like, okay, this, I have to be here for this, for this time to get this critical thing. And then how much of it is like what you were saying, where you're just kind of immersing yourself into what, whatever else it is you can find to photograph. And it's not critical, it's more for, I guess for you. [01:02:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:07] Speaker C: How much is. Is of each. What's the average day like? [01:02:11] Speaker A: It depends on the Olympics. Like Summer Olympics. I'm shooting as a primary team for USA Water Polo. Water polo games are an hour and 20 minutes, no breaks. So I'm, I'm there at the beginning, I shoot an hour, 20 minutes back to the. Every venue has its own local press and press room. So I just walk down from the pool level into the local press room and go start, start retouching that process. Even though I've got 15 minutes to get them some, I'm staying for sometimes another hour, hour and a half to get them more because I like to deliver 30, 40 images to them. Ice hockey, three hour game with breaks. So I'm editing on the ice Level, because I sit at ice level. So literally my feet are on the ice. Actually comes past the boards. So. So my feet are freezing because they're on the ice. And my laptop is usually freezing because I've got it down right next to me. But I'm pulling that up and I'm going through images on my lap. As soon as the game's over, I'm not going back to that press room to do the rest of the retouching. So then that could be. I have to get there. Let's say it's an ice hockey or water pole game. I'm there at least an hour early because contractually I got to shoot that game, and I don't want to miss it. You can't always rely on the press, buses or cabs or whatever. So you're there an hour early, at least, then you're there for the game. Let's say hockey in Milan. I'm there for three hours, then I'm retouching and stuff for another hour and a half, two hours. So I'm six hours in if it's a morning game now I've got the evening, and I can just look at my phone. We have a special app that we have for the press, and that shows me the schedule, and I can. Like us. How far am I from that? Now? Milan's different because at typical Olympics, I have, you know, tons of different sports to go capture. Milan's going to be really weird because so much of the sports are, you know, a world away in Cortina, so I'm going to be very limited to what I can shoot. So I might look and say, okay, is there any figure skating tonight? Is there any speed skating tonight? Whatever. And. Or if the event is at night, I might try to shoot as much as I can in the morning again, allowing myself enough time to get to the venue. It just depends. It's. Boy. And sometimes you'll have an event dead center in the day. This happened in Paris. We had some stuff that was right in the middle of day. Okay. So my morning, it's too risky to try to shoot something else. So I'll get to the venue, shoot that, edit that, and then do I really want to be up till three in the morning by going to a venue far away to shoot it? Maybe, maybe not. And so there's. There's no simple answer to that. Every day is different. Every and every sport's different. Yeah, yeah. [01:04:43] Speaker C: And, and, and how many days? Maybe, like, I know it depends on the Olympics and stuff, but how Many days, roughly, would have something that, that you're obligated to shoot. Is it. Is it almost every day? Every day. Okay. [01:04:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, in the case of, like, usually there might be one day off in between metal rounds and the prelim rounds and metal rounds, depending for water pole. It's interesting because they go men game, woman game, men game, woman game every day. So I know I've got men's game on Monday, women's game Tuesday, men's game Wednesday, women's game Thursday. Ice hockey is not like that. In ice hockey, the. It's possible that USA men are skating at the same time as the woman or within an hour. And the venues, the damn venues in, In Milan. There's only, you know, four sports going on in Milan, but the ice hockey venues are an hour from each other. They're on opposite sides of the city. If there's an overlap, the team will tell me. We want you to cover the men on this one or the woman on this one. Yeah. And then it's brutal. Or I might like, you know, because in Milan, they're going to do like they did in Paris. They're going to say, use our public transportation. Well, that's great for the public, but when you're, you know, carrying, you know, all that gear and having to go to a train station, which could be half a mile from the venue or more, and then you have to get to the next train station and get off, and you're half a mile from the venue or more. And so I'm trying to. I'm trying to work a deal with Uber. So if anybody from Uber's listening, I'd love to get them to sponsor me. I've got all the camera companies. I got Think Tank and Canon and Apple, Liberty on the camera side. But I'd love to get, you know, someone to sponsor me. So I could just hop in an Uber and bypass the train system and try to get from one to the other. Like, it's. It's daunting because you can't walk anywhere. So you're just running all the time. Because even if you're three hours early, you're still stressed that something's going to go wrong. Let me tell you how many times in Paris I took the wrong train and I got off. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm not near where I need to be. So I'd say, screw it. And I get a taxi. So my taxi bill in Paris was like a thousand dollars, because there's many times I just couldn't risk taking public transport. It's a very stressful environment. [01:07:02] Speaker C: Next question, next question. Because it ties straight into that. Because I was like, well, you know, if there was enough budget, you would just try and hire a local private driver to be your driver for the whole time. But obviously there's not the budget for that. What about all of your travel costs? Do you pay for all of your own costs or is some of the stuff on, on Team usa? How does that work? [01:07:24] Speaker A: So again, I'm different than an agency photographer. I go for Team USA and I really, I'm going for USA Hockey. And honestly what they pay me covers about my hotel, my airfare, so I don't go to the Olympics. So there are ways for me to make money, but not from Team usa. So if I'm shooting a contract for Team USA that's based on what they pay me and that covers my expenses about. But I can shoot for corporate people and I've done that. I've shot. I. And when I do stuff on my blog, I get contributors to help pay my expenses so I can make money in other ways. But honestly, even if I made no money, I'd still go because it's such an honor to be at the Olympics and to shoot it and I get such joy out of doing it. And of course I wouldn't be talking to you guys if I didn't do, if I just shot weddings or bar mitzvahs, you wouldn't have me on your show and all the other shows I do. They wouldn't care. [01:08:25] Speaker C: We would. Oh, that's not, that's not true. We take it. [01:08:30] Speaker A: All right, maybe you guys, I can tell you like, and I can tell you the NBC television here in the US and I've been on many times, they want to talk about the Olympics matter. We're talking, I'm talking to NBC right now about doing some pre Olympic stuff for them. Yeah, the coverage I get is amazing. My blog, you know, traffic which went from five people a day when it started to, you know, now sometimes getting close to a million a month during the Olympics. And I think I'm averaging 125 000amonth on, you know, typical months. [01:09:04] Speaker C: Amazing. [01:09:05] Speaker A: It's, it's like, you know, that's part of my brand again is that I do the Olympics. And so, you know, and, and a lot of clients I shoot for here in the Bay Area, they love saying our photographer is Jeff Cable, an eight time Olympic photographer. So I can charge more. It does make money for me in the long Run. But, but honestly, I know the team, you know, usa, the usoc, the Olympic Committee, usopc. It's all volunteer money. Right. People are donating money. So it's a non profit organization, so they don't have tons of money to pay me. And so I'm okay with that. And I make it easy on them. I can tell you that. There are many times I've been to Olympics, including Paris, where I said to the people from the usopc, hey, you guys have a press conference with all your top executives. Is anybody shooting that for you? No, I'll shoot that for free for you and I'll get you the images in 20 minutes. And you know, or I did something in Rio for USA Synchronized Swimming. Their budgets, they told me they couldn't even pay me like 25 bucks. Like, they have no money. And so I happened to be there. I said, I, I'll shoot it for you for nothing. Like, I try to do stuff like that for them. And of course that's goodwill because, you know, when I started doing this in 2008 and started doing stuff with the US Olympic team and they saw that I was doing stuff like this for their other teams, they said to me, hey, do you want to contact other people from other teams if you want to shoot? And they handed me this list that has every contact with every email and every phone number for every team communication lead. That was my goal to me. And so like, so I, I find ways to make it work for me. And it's funny, when I was talking to someone yesterday, I told them I don't. It's great. I make a very good living doing what I'm doing. But I love the fact that I can do this more for the passion of doing it and for the experiences I get, whether it's going to Africa, on safari 14 times, going to Galapagos, you know, doing photo tours in Costa Rica and Peru and all these, you know, China. But it's like my passport to the world and getting to meet cool people like you guys and do stuff like this. That's what the benefit is, really. More than the dollar. Yeah. [01:11:25] Speaker B: And I think that's the difference between, you know, running a big company and running a small company. It doesn't always have to make dollars. Like the dollars don't always have to make sense kind of thing. Yeah, sometimes it's the experiences, the, the jobs. [01:11:38] Speaker A: No, I mean, like, I shoot stuff for free. People think I'm full of crap, but I, I do like free stuff for. I've done Free weddings for relatives. I've done. You know, if someone can't afford something, I mean, I do. We have Make a Wish Foundation. I don't know if you guys have that. There's. Yeah, we do. Yep. I volunteer for them as much as I can. You know, with my schedule the way it is is tough, but. And the local hospital does a prom every year for the kids that can't go to prom because a lot of cancer patients and their immune suppressed and, you know, they're showing up with IV polls and stuff, you know, and people are like, oh, God, you're such a good guy for doing. I'm like, are you kidding? Like, these people are dealing with that we, you know, never have to deal with. And so I try to do as much as I can. You know, again, it's also fulfilling for me in a selfish way. Like, I get a lot of pride out doing it. Yeah. So it. And. [01:12:29] Speaker D: And life should be about balance. [01:12:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. You know, it is a lot about balance. And honestly, the fulfillment I get when I shoot the Olympics and I get feedback, you know, when someone like one of your people just said, I'm a legend. No, I'm not a legend. I mean, I just. Me. But when people like that say that it's. It's pretty. It makes you feel good that actually people look up to you, because I don't see my. I called someone today who wants to go to Galapagos. They just booked two tickets for two seats on my photo tour for 2027. And I called her, and she couldn't believe I was calling her. And I'm like, why? And she's like, well, you're calling me. And I'm like, I'm just a person. Like, it's just me. But, like, you know, it's funny because when people read the blog, they just think that I'm separate from that. I'm not. It's just me. [01:13:14] Speaker D: So I've got a question about. I'd like to talk a little bit about your photography tours. But just before we jump to that, Jeff, I just want to remind everyone that's watching or listening, whether it be live with us now or down the track on YouTube, please give this episode a. Like, it helps us out a bunch. It lets other people know that we exist and we can deliver more content like this to more people. But also just want to recognize that our sponsor today, apart from Tony with his 2.99, our sponsor today is Lucky Straps. Head to Luckystraps.com if you're looking for A premium handmade Aussie made leather camera strap head to Lucky Straps.com and check it out. And look, if you want a cheeky discount, use code Greg, Jim or Justin at the checkout. I'll leave that up to you as to which one you use. I'm being equitable. [01:14:03] Speaker C: Yeah, but obviously, who do you like the most? [01:14:07] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, do that. But no, that's terrible for my ego, but yeah. So Jeff, back to you. I want to ask you a question about, I want to talk more about your workshops and also your tours that you run. You know, you've been all over the globe with, obviously with the Olympics. You've been to some of the world's biggest cities at a time when there's just so much going on, there's a lot of dynamic energy. But you also run photo tours and obviously you do a lot of work close to home. So my question for you is, what's the mix between you doing being at home, even if you're working in your local San Fran Bay area at the time, versus being on travels? Like, what is that mix like? [01:14:51] Speaker A: Like for you it's hard because I'm gone so much. I literally, I did Costa Rica, I came home for a couple days, then I flew to New York because B and H had their big trade show, the build show, did that, flew home for another three days. Then I flew down to Peru, did a photo tour in Peru and did, you know, Machu Picchu and Cusco and all that. And then we went down to the Amazon and then we flew, then we flew. I flew from there to Ecuador and met another group for phone tour for Gapic goes. Got home, I think I, in seven weeks I was home for five days or four days or something. It was crazy because even when I was home, I wasn't here. I was either somewhere else or, you know, whatever. And so it's, it's tough sometimes, but it's really fun because I get to meet like I'm doing a photo tour a week from tomorrow in Alaska. Small boat, we're living on the boat, kind of like we did in Galapagos and we get to take zodiacs out and go photograph the glaciers and bears and stuff. It'd be really fun. And then I come back for three weeks and then actually a week and then I go to Boston for personal thing, come back and then go down to Costa Rica for a month doing back to back photo tours. I do a lot of stuff in the rainforest in Costa Rica. And so it's fun though. I get to meet 12 new people at every tour, give or take, depending where the tour is. I get to share my passion with them. And I love taking people who are, I mean, I take everybody from the novice who's never held a big camera before to pros, but to see them get really great shots that they love is really fun. And I, I love traveling. So I get to like, you were joking about Machu Picchu. Most people get, go there once in their lifetime. They're like, wow, I went Machu Picchu? Well, I just went for the second time in two years and I'm going back in 2027 for the third time. And you know, I've done 14 safaris in Africa. I've done, this would be my 16th and 17th photo tours in the rainforest of Costa Rica. And so I've done, you know, Laos, Vietnam, she's Cambodia, Japan, Scotland, Ireland. The weird thing is I've done almost nothing. I've done San Francisco and I have a photo tour, a short one, three day one coming up in next year. But like I said, you a little local one there, but most of the stuff is overseas and, and again, the Olympics is, is again doesn't pay well. But because of the following, I have, you know, with hundreds of thousands of people following the blog and social media, a lot of those people, like this woman I talked to who booked for, for Galapagos, said, oh, I've been following. I said, how did you find me? She said, I've been following you. For which I think she said two Olympic circuits. So like she's going for the third for Milan. And, and so I, I find people that way. But it's really fun because I love doing it. Like, people think I'm full of crap when I'm shooting. I, I've been to Costa Rica all these times and when I get a new shot of a, of a howler monkey, like with his mouth openers, I love it. So, yeah, it's cool to share that with people. It's fun. [01:18:05] Speaker D: And at what point in your career did, did the, the idea of the photo tour, what, what sort of planted that seed for you? [01:18:13] Speaker A: Well, I saw other people do it when I was at Lexar running marketing there. We sponsored photographers who were doing it. And one time this guy called me up and he goes, hey, can we get some loaner cards and readers? You know, And I said, I said, God, someday I'd love to do one of those. And he goes, I'd love to have you. And he goes, where would you like to go? And I Thought he'd I go Africa. And I thought he'd be like, yeah, that's great. How about, you know, Sedona or something close to home? And he's like, yeah, let's do it. And so, and I, and I started explaining like who I was. He goes, no, no, I know who you are. And I was like, oh, you know, and this was, you know, 15 years ago. And so anyway, so I did it with him and I thought that was really fun. And so I said and, and like, it's kind of cheating to get paid to go to Africa, right? Like, I mean, so I did a couple more and then, and then this resort in Costa Rica contacted me, you know, about that time and said, hey, you should come down here and teach. And I blew them off for like a couple years. Like, I don't know who those guys are. And then I had a trip that got canceled. So I contacted him and said, okay, I'll come down. And so my ex wife and my daughter and I went down there and looked at him like, oh, this is cool. So back then it was like this little homey resort, like rustic. Well, now it's a five star Hilton Curio like resort, which is really cool. And we go down there and we stay in one place the whole time and we just do day trips out to do the dolphins, to do the howler monkeys, to do your sloths and, and stuff. And then we do a day of macro with the red eye tree frogs and stuff. And so but it's day trips, so we're in one place the whole time, which is really nice. And so, and I've done it like so many times. I know all the best locations and the right times of day to go and, and all that. And honestly, the resort is so amazing. You can be in the pool swimming and you'll have howler monkeys and spider monkeys going right by. You know, there'll be a sloth in the tree over here and toucan, a macaw flying by. It's like you don't even have to leave the property, you can just shoot there. And so I just have a lot of fun there. And so I just, it just kind of grew and then, and then I thought, okay, well I've done Costa Rica so many times and all the people have gone to Costa Rica, which is hundreds of people said to me, where else do you go? And so I thought, well, where else do I want to go? And of course I was like, well, I would love to do Peru. So we did a test trip to Peru a couple years ago. I took my brother and his wife and my girlfriend, her daughter and friends went down there and I, I worked with this new vendor and he was awesome. And so I said, we're doing that. And I go, where else do you go? He has Galapagos and Pantanol. I'm like, we're doing that. So we did Galapagos. I'm doing Pantanol next year. And I said, like, it went so well. Okay, we're gonna do Peru in Pantona or in Galapagos in 2027. Yeah. So these are from the blog I just pushed last week. Keep going. There's some really cool stuff. This is the, the, the. Those are the water iguanas, which are everywhere. And, and I try to blog every week now from the Olympics. I blog every, like day, twice a day. But it was awesome in Galapagos because every day we saw something different. Yeah. And, and it was really fun. And actually one of the shots that's coming up in the next blog, I don't think it's in this one. They sneeze out the saltwater. There's a blue footed booby. And there's our boat that we lived on. And there's me. Yeah, everybody loves those guys. And there's our boat that was. Which is being retired. So we have a brand new boat coming for next year. But if you show the next one, the next one is really funny because it's me and my bathing suit getting down low to get a shot. [01:21:58] Speaker D: Love your commitment. Love your commitment. [01:22:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:22:01] Speaker C: So awesome. [01:22:02] Speaker D: Jeff, given all the places that you have traveled both for the Olympics and for running tourism, I guess even your own private travels for photography, what's. What's left on your bucket list of places you want to go or things you want to shoot? [01:22:17] Speaker A: There's so many. I mean, there's so many places that I want to go still. It's funny. Iceland is high on my list. I'm talking to a vendor right now for the end of 2026. I'm going to add that on my website, provide. Provided we lock it all down. I want to see the northern lights. I've already got a lot of people have gone with me on other trips that go, if you do Iceland, we're in. So I've already got like a whole, like Africa. A bunch of people went to Costa Rica. I hadn't been to Africa in a while. They said, if you go, we're in. So I booked it for 2027. I didn't even advertise it and it sold out all 11 spots. So then I called my vendor and said, can we do another back to back and I'll do another one after. He goes, yes. I put on my website, I was going to advertise it and it already is sold out. So like people who go to some places then just want to go to other places. So then it's like, okay, where do I want to go? And so other places I'm looking at, I'm actually looking at doing one in Australia, New Zealand. [01:23:14] Speaker C: Come on down. [01:23:16] Speaker A: I'm serious about doing it. [01:23:18] Speaker D: I think you should do a Bendigo Victoria tour. I think that'd really tough. [01:23:22] Speaker C: It's where almost as cool as the Galapagos place. [01:23:26] Speaker A: Well, you know, honestly, it is. I mean, you know, and the thing is like every place is so different. Like I'm. I feel so fortunate to, to be able to travel to all these places because, you know, you go to somewhere like Vietnam or Cambodia and you get this weathered faces and the market and it's so cool. Vietnam, you know, and then you go to Peru and you get, you know, the really short people that are darker like skin and you know, and, and you know, in their market, which is very different than the markets in Asia. But then you go to Galapagos and now you're, you're, you're shooting the blue for the boobies and the tortoises and you know, sea lions and you know, all the cool stuff that they have there. Then you go to Africa and you're doing lions and leopards and cheetah and. And you know, and then you go to rainforest and you have that. Like to me, because I'm so add. I love the variety of lions life and so yeah, there's so many places I've not been that are high on my list. I did one photo tour in Sydney during Vivid. You know, when they project all the cool colors on the Opera House. That was fun. I wouldn't mind doing that again. The guy I worked with was not the right vendor, unfortunately. So I gotta find the right partner to partner up with for. For Australia, New Zealand. I'm trying to find that. [01:24:43] Speaker C: You probably work with, you probably work with more, I'm guessing more travel like larger companies or something like that, that work. But if you're looking for a photo, if you're looking for a photographer that can run a tour that could, that could help. So, so there's a, there's a Night sky photographer who's teamed up with a photographer who's a commercial Pilot and the commercial pilot. His name is Levin Barrett, and he is. He's become the. The hospitality logistics side of these photo tours. He just loves organizing. Yeah, he is. And I'll. We'll send you his details. So he's been doing ones in New Zealand. He's from Australia. But he is, he is a. All of the reviews that we've heard about these tours is that they're just perfectly executed. [01:25:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I want the smaller vendors because here's what happens if you work with the big vendors. They're so expensive. Like, I just talked to a company about doing a tour in Australia and she gave me pricing with, you know, this is. Without me adding my little cut. And it was like $18,000 a person, us. And I'm like, oh, my God, like, wow. I'm like, that's insane. I said, I can't. [01:25:57] Speaker C: I can't my house in Australia for that much. [01:26:00] Speaker A: Right? And I'm like, I take people to Africa on safari for far less than that. Right. You can't say, oh, I'll take you to Australia. So I actually prefer to work with smaller vendors, but trustworthy people I can rely on. And honestly, like the guy I work with in South America, Dan, you know, he's become a good friend. I totally trust him. He's a great logistics guy because, like, I like people like that for logistics skill. I'm not a great logistics person, so I rely on them for that. And so. And again, I get to meet really cool people, you know, and in really cool places. And I don't really have a favorite, you know, I mean, every place is different. Like, I love Costa Rica. It's one of my favorite places to shoot. But it's. You go to Africa, that's life changing. I, you know, being on safari and seeing elements and elephants in the wild and, you know, and, and wild cats in, you know, on a hunt and doing a kill, whatever. I mean, that's really cool. And so, but again, it's like people always ask me what's my favorite thing to shoot at the Olympics. I go, anything new? Right? I've shot enough ice hockey. I do it contractually and I like it because I love the sport. But I used, you know, I won't be able to do this in Milan because I won't be able to get out to bobsled or whatever because it's too damn far. But, like, I love it in a typical Olympics and, you know, shooting, break dancing in Paris, because I've never shot. [01:27:25] Speaker C: I was gonna say I heard, but I Heard you missed ray gun. [01:27:33] Speaker A: I went for the evening session and missed ray gun. But. And it's funny because when you're at the Olympics, you. You know, nothing. Like, we. We go and we're working crazy hours, and we. We don't hear what you guys are hearing. So my phone's blowing up. Like, did you shoot the Australian break dancer? I'm like, what the heck is this? Like, for hours, I have no idea what you guys are all talking about. Like, all my blog followers, like, did you do this? I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about. And, like, then you find out later. Oh, interesting. You know, we. [01:28:04] Speaker D: We were just as embarrassed about that situation as everyone else on the planet. [01:28:08] Speaker C: So it was. [01:28:10] Speaker D: On behalf of all Australians, we apologize. For one. [01:28:15] Speaker C: We should not be allowed to break dance. [01:28:17] Speaker A: Yeah, but it was. It was the good. It was 50 minutes of fame, right? Like, they say, like, what is that person doing now? I bet they're on your reality TV shows or. [01:28:28] Speaker D: God, no, not on reality. They've been on a show we call the Project on a TV channel here. And it's kind of like it has shut down, but it's. It's kind of. [01:28:41] Speaker C: My focus. [01:28:41] Speaker D: A soft news channel. She went on that, and then that created controversy. Someone created a play, a live stage musical to celebrate it. She sued them. Yeah, she just pops up every now and then, just pulling these little moves on people. So she's not. She's not a. She's not our favorite daughter, that's for sure. [01:29:03] Speaker A: Got it. I just want to say, as a photographer, Justin, I know you're playing with your focus because there it goes. It's driving you crazy. [01:29:10] Speaker C: Got it. [01:29:12] Speaker A: This is where you know your photographer. Like, I look at myself right now. Go. I should put lighting over here. I should have done that. I love the fact that you guys gel your background, and I'm like, you know, and. But it was funny because I was watching you struggle with the focus just now, and I'm like, we're such photographers. Like, it's just. Yeah. That crazy, right? [01:29:32] Speaker D: If we're always adjusting something. [01:29:34] Speaker B: Yeah, but. [01:29:35] Speaker C: Well, I'm not gonna blame the gear. Oh, yeah, yeah, Exactly. We've had 100. [01:29:42] Speaker B: We didn't start with. We didn't start with gels. Yeah. [01:29:47] Speaker A: I wish. [01:29:48] Speaker C: I wish my background looked like Jeff's. Mine's just too messy. If I don't turn these lights on, you can see what's on my shelves, and it's out of control. Whereas yours is all nicely Organized and you got that. [01:29:59] Speaker A: So. [01:30:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I just got my new Canon Pro 1100. I set it up yesterday after I got home from New Zealand. I'm so excited to start with printing with it. But yeah, it's, it's. Yours is. Yours is much bigger. Oh, you've got. Oh, have you got 1100 as well? [01:30:14] Speaker A: Well, I've got the 1 1000, the predecessor. I have two of those and then I have the 4100 behind me. And it's really fun because I've got frames in my house that are 24, you know, poster size. Right. And if I get bored of a photo, I just reprint another one and throw it in the frame and throw it out. That's so cool. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, yeah. Fun stuff. [01:30:35] Speaker C: That's so good. Well, I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited to play with this printer. I really like the setup. It's the easiest printer I've ever set up. Everything just worked. They're connecting it to WI Fi and all that stuff. It all just worked. I was blown away. Normally that's a, a two hour fight where I end up putting my foot through the printer when you're printing with. [01:30:54] Speaker A: It, the way that the vacuum pulls in the paper. Like I used the other company before. So it's funny because Canon has sponsored me for cameras for 15 years. But Canon Japan is like, hey, if he's not using our printers, that's a problem. So many, many years ago, probably 12 years ago or whatever, they switched me over to Canon and my other printer would sometimes pull in the paper sideways. It drove me crazy. This thing every, every time, dead on, perfectly straight. And I love this thing. I print. I mean, I use it. I just did a print job today for a client. I use it all the time. You'll love it. It's fantastic. [01:31:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm excited. So we won't name the other brand, but I assume it rhymes with Snepson or. [01:31:34] Speaker A: No, it does rhyme with that. And they're still good printers and they were great people to work with, so it did. The only thing is vacuum pole. [01:31:46] Speaker C: So yeah, we had a 3880 and it did a good job. But it did. It just had its issues with alignment and sometimes getting confused about what paper size it was printing on and stuff like that. [01:31:57] Speaker A: Like you'll never have. [01:31:58] Speaker C: Glitchy. [01:31:59] Speaker A: It's so freaking good. Yeah, you'll love it. Very excited. [01:32:05] Speaker C: Is that. [01:32:05] Speaker A: That's probably. We. [01:32:06] Speaker C: We need to. Yeah, well played. Hey, Canon, you could sponsor the podcast for not Much like dollars. [01:32:15] Speaker A: One. Send that to Justin Castle. [01:32:18] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, just. Yeah, R1, send it this way. I'll even send my R3 back to you guys. We'll do a trade. Look how pretty it is. All right, let's talk about gear for a little, for a little second because we already know you shoot with an R1 and an R5 Mark II. What are your go to lenses? Is it true that I saw somewhere that you don't like prime lenses? [01:32:42] Speaker A: It depends what I'm shooting, but I don't like prime lens. Well, I. I shouldn't say I don't like prime lenses because some prime lenses are amazing. But I zoom so much. If I'm shooting an event and I'm shooting with a prime, sometimes it's too much or too little. When I'm teaching on photo tours, I really like the 100 to 500 or the 100, 300 or whatever. Because even at the Olympics, I can't tell you how many times I've shot a sport where I'm too close to the action or too far from the action. So I'm reframing all the time and again going back to trying to be different. Sometimes I like a wide shot and sometimes I like to be in tight. So I don't understand like shooting a Sport with a 600F4 because like, okay, I've had. I had a guy that went to Galapagos and he had a 600 F4 and I said sometimes he couldn't shoot because we were too close to the. I mean, when you walk by the blue footed boobies, you have to make sure you don't step on them. They're literally in the pathway. So you have to walk around them because they won't move. Well, you're so close to them. The 600 is too much. And other times 600 may not be enough or whatever. So like, I love the A zoom because I'm constantly reframing and I find that to be the best way to shoot most of what I shoot. Now if I'm doing portraits, I still use a 7200 for most of that. But I might use. I got an 85, 85, 12 and I was shooting a. I did a bar mitzvah reshoot. This family actually hired a photographer who butchered their event. So they called me up and hired me for their next kid and they said, can you come up and shoot? We're going to get redressed up. They did no portraits before, which is shocking. So I shot and we had, we had the temple to ourselves because no one was there. So I did all the portraits and we had time. So I got all the shots and I said, you know what, let's break out the 8512. I'm going to shoot a bunch of stuff for you and I love showing the kid and the family. What does that mean? F1, 2. Because they don't know, Right. So I turn the camera around, like, look at this. I go see, I have them do this. They're pointing at me and I'll focus on their face on one and I focus on their finger on another one. Right. In the one shot, their face is perfectly in focus and you can't tell it's a finger. And the next shot, the finger's perfectly focused and you can't even see their face. And I say, see, as a photographer, I'm choosing what I want to have in focus. So if you look at the portrait of you, your eyes are tack sharp. But look at the background that's just five feet behind you completely. So I'm educating them. Right. [01:35:10] Speaker C: And then bringing them into the process. I love it. [01:35:13] Speaker A: Yes. And so. And then they get it and it's fun for them. A lot of times I'll even post that image where they're pointing at me with their face in focus because it's kind of funny. But I lose. I like, I do like the primes for that, but for most of what I shoot, it's my, my gear. When I shoot a wedding, bar, mess, whatever. 7224, 70, 1535. [01:35:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:35:37] Speaker A: And a whole lot. Yeah, those are my. The go to's for pretty much the entire event. Yeah. Yeah. I'll bring a macro for the wedding to get the ring shot and all that stuff. But for the typical event, the trifecta, those three lenses. No, I'm on photo tour. Oh. And when I'm shooting an event, I'm R1 and R62 because I don't need 40. Yep. When I go on photo tour, I prefer the R52, depending what I'm shooting because I know I may have to crop in to get the shot. So I'll take the R52 and either an R1, R62, depending. [01:36:15] Speaker C: How do you find, how do you find the, how do you find the focus on the R6 2 compared to the R1 and the R5 Mark II? Is it close enough that, that it doesn't bother you? [01:36:25] Speaker A: It's close enough. It doesn't bother me. It's not as Good. It's not as fast. But again, back to your point earlier of the difference between shooting the Olympics and shooting an event like a wedding, it's great. It does a very good job. For all my personal events, I'm shooting totally fine. Is it fast enough for the Olympics? Arguable. Maybe, maybe not. I haven't tried it because I won't even take it. I take the R1s pretty much always. But again, it's interesting because a lot of people balked at the R1. It doesn't have enough resolution. Well, as a photographer I don't need 40 megapixels all the time and I would love to be able to just have a camera goes. What resolution would you like today at full frame? [01:37:07] Speaker B: That'd be great. [01:37:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And I've told this to the Canon like because the R1, there are times on photo tour where I know where, like on the one day that we go out for dolphin, for photography on, on the bay where we are in Costa Rica, I know we're going to be cropping because the dolphins may be jumping kind of far away. They might be jumping right by the boat, but it's hard to get them in frame. So I know I'll be doing some digitally crop. Cropping that. I'll take the R5 too. Other times I know that we're gonna. The monkeys will be six feet from us, so I'll take an R1. I know I'm not going to need to crop. So it just depends on what I'm shooting. And that's why it's nice to have a plethora of different cameras to choose from depending on what situation I'm in. Yeah. [01:37:49] Speaker D: A question about the R1, Jeff. You mentioned, I saw in one of your videos you're talking about that you were actually testing a pre production R1 at an Olympics. [01:37:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:00] Speaker D: How was that? How was that? Was that scary for you? Was that, did that cause you a lot of anxiety? [01:38:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So Canon, you know, normally like Canon, Nikon, Sony, they'll come out with a camera A month before, you know, before summer, Canon was running behind and I said to them, guys, I cannot go to the Olympics with a camera I've never used before because there's too much muscle memory and things. So luckily Canon under NDA and I couldn't even tell people I was going. They flew us to a location in the U.S. a bunch of U.S. photographers that were going to be relying on these cameras and we got to, you know, hold and play with an R1 and R52 in advance. And they actually hired a sports center where they had different sports indoors. And we shot to. To test it. Yeah. And that was. That was great. But it was one day of shooting or a day and a half, and then we're out. And so it wasn't enough. At least gave me some ideas of what I needed to do then. And I. Then they. I got a prototype. No, I did not get a prototype. I did. Before I. With the R3. I got a prototype a couple weeks before the games. With the R1, I did not. So I showed up in Paris. And the other thing with prototypes is you can't ship them over international borders. So I had to go to Paris and pick them up because, remember, it's not even a real product. So if it gets confiscated, toast. So I went to Paris. [01:39:33] Speaker C: Okay. [01:39:34] Speaker A: And they had three R1s prototypes waiting for me and R5,2s in Paris. But I'm trying to set this up. I can tell you that the first game I shot where I told you it had the wrong settings and I didn't shoot very well. I was kind of upset with myself, but I was trying to lose it, you know, use a new camera. And I'm also in a new venue. I hadn't shot Olympic stuff in two years, actually four years, because I didn't go to Beijing because of COVID So that was weird. And then you could only. [01:40:08] Speaker D: You could only shoot jpeg, is that right? [01:40:10] Speaker A: That sucked. Yeah, I was just about to say that I had to shoot JPEG because I use Photoshop. I use Photo Mechanic for culling and Photoshop for retouching, and it. Photoshop wouldn't open a RAW file from the R1. About a week into the Olympics, Adobe changed the camera RAW and included the R5 II. So if I use the R5 II, I could actually shoot RAW. So halfway through the Olympics, I switched to shooting RAW1. They never did, so that sucked. Shooting JPEG. Although the JPEG files were great. I prefer to shoot everything raw. But it's. Yes, it was really hard to. Because I've always joked, and if you've watched any of my interviews over the last 10 years, I've always said, don't give me a prototype the day before the Olympics. [01:40:56] Speaker D: Yeah, fair enough, too. [01:40:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it was not ideal. And I told Ken, and I kept pleading with them, like, give me a prototype in between. When they flew me out to that location, we still had about three weeks or four weeks before the Games. Can you give me a prototype to play with? And they said, we don't have any. And it's like, oh, my God. And then you're shooting on firmware, testing it, where they flew us out. We were shooting on different firmware, so some things didn't work right. We couldn't post the images online. And then we go to Paris. I get my prototype cameras, and the firmware has changed and some of the features have changed. So that was not ideal. And I'm pleading with Canon, don't do that before the LA 2028 games. Fair enough. [01:41:43] Speaker C: They will. [01:41:44] Speaker D: Fair enough. [01:41:45] Speaker C: R1 mark two coming. [01:41:48] Speaker A: That could be. And again, everybody always asks me, you know, what's coming next? Or have you played with this prototype? And of course, I can't say because. [01:41:58] Speaker D: I get that too, Jeff. I'm a Fuji fanboy, and I get to test and review Fujifilm products before they go live. [01:42:03] Speaker A: Live. And. [01:42:04] Speaker D: And these two down here will often grill me about what I have. And I've got to respect the NDA. I've got to respect the NDA. [01:42:12] Speaker C: What's funny is the rumors with. With all the rumors and everything going on, like, we know what he's got, and he'll show us the. The locked pelican case that they send him. And he's like, I can't tell you what's in this box. And we're like, I know what's in the box. [01:42:25] Speaker A: Well, the weird part is when people contact me and go, I know you have a Canon R1 because you're doing the Olympics. And. And I didn't. And, I mean, I played with it, but I'm like, yeah, I didn't even have one. And I've had people say to me stuff like. I mean, there's been rumors of an R6 mark two. Sorry, R6 mark three. [01:42:45] Speaker C: Three, yeah. Yeah. [01:42:46] Speaker A: For, like, months. And people are like, I know you have one. I'm like, no, I don't have one. And I think you're full of crap, because the R6II didn't come out that long ago. And I know Canon's typical schedules, so I'm like, yeah, I don't think there's an R6 Mark III coming out anytime soon. And they're like, oh, you're wrong. Yeah, no, and it's still not out. And people were. For the last three months have been like, no, you're wrong. Because Canon rumors says it's coming. And I'm like, they might say something, but, you know, and typically I will. Yeah. Or I'll have. [01:43:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:43:18] Speaker A: If I don't have one, I'll Tell people I think you're wrong. You know, and then when I do have one, I have to just be like, I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. [01:43:27] Speaker D: Jeff, I got a question about the Olympics for you. You know, you've, you've been to. How many have you been to? [01:43:33] Speaker A: In total? [01:43:34] Speaker D: You've been to six. Six Olympics? [01:43:38] Speaker A: Nine. Nine coming up. Oh, wow. [01:43:40] Speaker D: Okay. Amazing. Eight Olympics. And you know, you've seen and shot a lot. And you, you combine that with your places you've been with your photo tours. What's been one of the biggest career highlights for you in terms of something you've been to see and shoot? Olympics or. [01:43:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Or otherwise. You know, it's funny, I used to, like, every day is different. Like, someone asked me, what time. What's your favorite photo? I don't really have one, but certain ones stand out. I mean, I, I can tell you the first time I, I. 2008 Olympics, first Olympics. Going into the water cube and photographing Michael Phelps winning a gold medal. Yeah, I, I literally left there, I had a smile like, that went like to here for like the whole night. I was like, I was in bed going, I just photographed Phelps winning gold. That's so cool. Yeah, like that, that one from those shots. Yeah. I mean, that was really cool back then to be able to do that. And then you know, Simone in. Both in Tokyo, but also in, I mean, really in Paris because. No, I like that my ex wife didn't like that shot. Fair enough. [01:44:54] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:44:55] Speaker A: But I like the fact that you zoomed out on that one. That was during practice. That was before the games even started. But like, you know, that experience was great because it was my first Olympics and I was just blown away that I was there. But, you know, every, every games, I have a shot like I did a multi exposure shot in Tokyo for fencing that people still talk about if you go to Tokyo Olympics. Yeah, you'll see. Keep going. I know it's probably toward the bottom and it was a multi exposure. 4. 4 images. And it was, you know, that shot, it's coming up. That's what I was practicing, the multi exposure. Those were cool too. Keep going, keep going, keep going. Nope, that one. This one? Yeah. Like, and it's funny, like, I know exactly which one worked and which one did, but that one, you know, you have to, they have to move at the right speed and, and you know, that's not in Photoshop. That's all done in camera. Like, that shot was my defining shot for Tokyo. Everybody talked about you know, my shot say why. Yeah, yeah, it was a cool shot. [01:46:03] Speaker C: Awesome. [01:46:03] Speaker A: Harris was the Eiffel Tower shot that you guys were talking about earlier. Yeah, there's, you know, there's certain marquee shots that I know that kind of filled my cup. Like that shot that you see right there on the title. I'll bring that up now. Hang on. Actually, if you go back for a second and to the Olympic rings. Yeah, that shot. And I really like that shot. [01:46:25] Speaker C: That beautiful. [01:46:27] Speaker A: That's when I pre. Pre visualized about five months before the Olympics. Like, yeah, I heard that volleyball was gonna be there. And I'm like, that'd be a killer shot at sunset. And so amazing. Yeah, it was really fun to get that. But the other shot that keeps winning me the awards is up above, which is the skateboarding shot in the rings. Yeah. [01:46:47] Speaker C: Did you win an award for this? Was it only on the weekend it got announced? Second place? [01:46:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I've won a couple photographer. Sports photographer of the year was a couple months back. And then I just won another contest or whatever you call them a couple days ago for that shot. And it's funny because if you look at the next shot, the guy was dead center and. But I liked both images. But I posted on the blog and I said, which one do you guys like more? And I had all these people commenting on social media on the blog saying, I like the off center one better. And I said, yeah, I think I do too. [01:47:21] Speaker C: And I do too. [01:47:23] Speaker A: I think. And so it speaks for itself. But like, you know, for sure, if you look at all those images, I've forgotten a lot of them. You know, honestly, like a lot of the shots. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I forgot about that. But certain ones just burn in your mind, like, okay, that was a cool one. [01:47:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:47:40] Speaker A: And then you. But non, you know, that's. That was with the Canon 10, 10 to 20 super wide. That was really cool. In the grand. You know, again, try to shoot differently. Yeah. But you know, I go on photo tours and you know, the first. Yeah. I've shot howler monkeys and spider monkeys. Squirrel. Squirrel monkeys in Costa Rica over and over. But you know, once in a while I get one like, oh, I love that one. You know, and it just depends on the lighting or the. Or the, you know, interaction between them. Yeah. So like there. If you go to the Galapagos one, those are all shot on this last trip. Like the. I just built this. I was building the gallery live using Starlink from the boat and like, oh, wow. It was really cool. But the plethora of what you see there is just amazing. And that's all from one tour. And it's like, so it's just. Yeah. I mean, anything new, I love it. It's fun. Yeah. [01:48:42] Speaker C: You. You always include a lot, like, so, say, the inclusion of the Olympic rings or the logos around the Olympics and that kind of thing. Try to include that stuff in a lot of your iconic shots to really set the scene. [01:48:57] Speaker A: Does that. [01:48:57] Speaker C: Does that same mindset spill into your other work? [01:49:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I did a video a long time back. All my videos are free and they're on my website. I did a video, like, the 15 things I think about every time I click the shutter, Right? And you guys have, you know, being photographers, you know, some of these, like, you could be like, okay, am I. Am I in focus? What's. Am I at the right aperture? How's my background? Do I have a garbage can in the background? Am I clean? You know, how's my foreground? What's my shutter speed? How's the lighting here? Is my subject looking good or should I reposition them? Like all of these things? How's my exposure comp. Like all these things? And so, yes, when I'm shooting the Olympics, I'm thinking, you know, the job of a photographer is to tell a story, right? So if you. If you shoot an Olympic shot, you don't have the rings. It could be in any pool or any ice rink or any whatever. And so I try to show those rings because it's integral into telling the story of where I am. And especially if they have, like, on the balance beam, when I have Simone Biles, if It says Paris 2024 logo with the Olympic rings, even better on the beam and include that, right? And so, yeah, when I'm shooting, I'm thinking about, okay, is it a good background I want to utilize to tell a story, or is it a crappy background with a fire extinguisher like the wedding I did on Sunday? Well, where they did this parent speeches and the best man, there was a fire alarm right behind the person. And I feel sorry for the videographer, who is my son, because they can't knock it out. I can. In Photoshop, I can take that out easily. So they ordered one of those images, one of the prints I did earlier today, and I took that damn thing out. But the whole time I'm shooting, I'm like, I hate that fire, you know, alarm thing right there. And so, yes, I'm. I'm always thinking about foreground background and what works and what doesn't work. Yeah, there's the Paris logo right there. So okay, what's good? So I'm standing there and position myself with that on purpose. And also using that background, trying to avoid the remote camera for, for the broadcasting, which is actually straight behind her. Yeah, I hate that. My shot. So I'm trying to position myself in the best position to shoot. And I had actually photographed Simone when she was on the beam a couple days before that in the individual competition, straight on. So I thought, okay, I want a different angle because I want a different look. As we talked about earlier, I'm always trying to do something different for myself so I position myself differently for that shot. Yep. [01:51:31] Speaker C: And then, yeah, you can see here that the options that you had, you know, depending on where you position yourself, what's in the background and which, which part of that background is going to look cleaner or better or. [01:51:42] Speaker A: Yeah, we talked about prime versus zoom. This is the same lens, same shooting position and a very different shot because I zoomed back on the 70 to 200. I wasn't at 200, I was at 70 or whatever. So again, if I was using a prime, I wouldn't be able to pull this off. And so that's why I like shooting with zooms. Yeah, yeah. [01:52:03] Speaker B: Jeff, just something from before you said when like the new cameras get released. Do you know about like Adobe DNG converter for raw? [01:52:13] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, we used to use that all the time for the pre release stuff. [01:52:18] Speaker A: Under the time constraints I'm under, I don't have time. Like, it's so weird. People, people say to me, well, what about, you know, doing this or doing that, or how about like, you know, denoising the image? Or how about. And I'm like, no, no, 14 minutes, man, to go through. Yeah, typical event, I'm shooting 2500 images. Right. So 14 minutes go through 2500, there's no time to convert. It's funny, Canon said to me before the Japan Olympics, hopefully I'm allowed to say this. Probably they said, you can't post any images taken with the R3. And I go, well, wait a second, why am I there? Yeah, I mean, the team's gonna have them. I want to show them. Yep, literally. And they go, well, okay, so three days, about a week before Olympics say, okay, you can post, but you have to strip all the metadata. And I, and I told him, I go, you kidding? Like I have a 14 minute deadline. I don't have time to strip metadata. Like, yeah, I mean, literally, that might take 10 seconds, but I don't have it right. And so three days before the Olympics in Tokyo, we had a conference call and Canon gave me the clear not to strip the metadata. I told my, I don't have time to do that. And the crazy thing was I didn't strip the metadata. And then what happened? Every website, every photography website around the world, whether it was Asia, Europe, Australia, everywhere, posted, hey, Jeff Cable shooting with an R3. [01:53:47] Speaker C: Because I remember that. [01:53:49] Speaker A: Do you remember that everybody. I remember that everybody emailing me from all over the world saying, can you comment on the R3? I'm like, yeah, I don't have time to even comment. Like, sorry, can you be on our podcast? And I'm like, no, no, I'm at the Olympics, man. I'm heads down for three weeks. And then I came back and I did them, but like, but I outed it. And then everybody's like, here's the resolution of the R3, because Jeff Cable posted. And here's the. Yeah, unstripped. [01:54:14] Speaker C: I remember the debates, the debates around whether it was possible that it had been resized or not. You know, like, blah, blah, blah. There was all this speculation. It was great. It's the best PR Canon could have done. They couldn't have planned it better. [01:54:26] Speaker A: Yeah, true. It was fun for me because I, you know, I, I, I use that with Canon today, right? Like, when Canon goes, we can't get you a prototype of that. I go, look. Or actually with the R1, I didn't even have a real R1 for a while because I just didn't have it ordered yet. And it said, canon, like, I need an R1. And I go, send me an R1, like a real one. And they're like, well, I'm like, no, no. I'm getting emails from all over the world asking me for Data on the R1. I need one like tomorrow. So, yeah, I get an R1. Like, you know, I'm like, guys, people are asking me all these questions like, hey, do you use this feature? And I'm like, I don't remember if I use that feature or not. I need to get the camera in my hand. Hey, guys, I out of the camera for you. Hook me up, you know? Yeah. [01:55:11] Speaker D: Oh, nice. [01:55:12] Speaker C: Speaking of features. Speaking of features, a feature I didn't realize was in. I actually haven't even used it yet. I was, I saw it the other day and this is embarrassing because I normally, I don't do it as much anymore because they don't ship cameras with physical manuals anymore. And it really annoys me because I used to like to read the manual and I don't like reading it on my phone or whatever. I like to, I, I used to just get the book out and I used to just read the whole thing and, and I've noticed that I don't do it anymore. And I'm positive it's just because you have to go and, you know, download it and scroll through it. It's not as nice. [01:55:43] Speaker A: I think Canon still has the main, the paper manuals. Don't think. [01:55:46] Speaker C: Not in Australia. Australia. I don't know. [01:55:48] Speaker A: Maybe. [01:55:48] Speaker C: Maybe non Australia. We just get, we get like a. [01:55:51] Speaker D: Quick QR code in the box. [01:55:54] Speaker C: Yeah, it's all PDF and it sucks. [01:55:57] Speaker A: So. [01:55:58] Speaker C: But, but the feature that I didn't realize was a thing that maybe is embarrassing is Pan Assist. Do you use Pan Assist? [01:56:07] Speaker A: No. Yeah. You don't use it? No. Really? I just so much. Yeah, I do so much motion panning and people are like, which focus mode do you use on the lens? Do you go to 1, 2 or 3? I'm like, no, I never change it. Do you use a monopod or tripod? I go, no, handheld. And they're like, wait, what? And I tell people motion panning is a practice thing and I do it a lot. And so, you know, I don't use any of that stuff. But I've never tried Pan Assist. Maybe I should. [01:56:38] Speaker C: That's so funny. I felt embarrassed because I was like, oh. So all this time I thought, you know, like I thought I knew how to do motion panning pretty well, but it was always hit and miss and trial and error. And then I saw this mode pan assist and I've never tried it. And I'm so glad that you just said you don't use that. Okay, that makes me feel a little bit better. [01:56:56] Speaker A: Maybe I'll try it because I haven't played with it either. You know, these cameras, I always tell people these cameras are like computers that happen to take pictures, right? Like there's so much stuff in them. When I show that multi exposure shot of fencing and people like, oh, that's photoshopped, I go, no, no, your camera has it, right? They all get a user group and they'll get their cameras out like, oh, yeah, it doesn't matter. As Canon, Nikon, Sony, oh, never. Never knew what multi exposure was, you know, so I've never done one. It's fun. [01:57:26] Speaker C: No, I've never done one. [01:57:29] Speaker A: You have to be the right kind of contrast between Your foreground or your subject and your background and stuff. Even that one you just showed in Paris. You know, normally with fencing, it's theatrically lit, it's just a black background with white spotlights. But there, because they were the grand palace, they had spectators on both sides. We didn't have quite the contrast. I still tried it. Still fun to do, but it didn't have that punch that we. I got in. In Tokyo. Yeah. [01:57:58] Speaker B: Do you find. Jeff, I know you're a bit of it like a one man band is some of the agencies. Do they have, I guess, shooters that are there to get like the safe shot, you know, crisp, sharp, high shutter speed. And then do they sort of employ people that they're just there to try and get something that's more artistic that they can miss because there's someone shooting a safe angle as well. [01:58:20] Speaker A: Most of the stuff the agency is doing are safe. Right. Because they've got one person at this venue. One per. Like there's a guy just who I'm sure I'll be. I'll see in. In Milan. He'll just shoot ice hockey. Every ice hockey game. Doesn't matter whether it's for Team usa, you know, Team Germany, Team Russia. Where Every ice hockey game. Oh my God. That like, you know, like. [01:58:41] Speaker C: Yeah, that sounds. [01:58:43] Speaker A: And your neck would get so sore because you're in the same shooting position all time. That'd be tough. So now I've forgotten the question. Bring me back. [01:58:52] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. I was just asking, like, is there people that are there to shoot sort of the safe shot and then someone that's sort of shooting something more artistic? That. [01:58:59] Speaker A: Yeah, so. So if. If it's one person shooting in a venue, they're going to go for the safe shot, right? You got to get Simone Biles doing her thing. You got to get this person, this athlete from Germany, whatever. But if it's certain marquee thing, like when Hussein Bolt ran in Rio and you saw. I don't know if you guys saw that one motion P. Yeah. I mean, holy crap. Like. But you'd have to have balls the size of a cantaloupe to like pull that off on your own. Right. Like, no way am I gonna go photograph Hussein Bolt. One race that lasts 15 seconds or whatever it is and risk trying to motion pan it. No way. It's too risky. Yeah. [01:59:44] Speaker B: From the inside. [01:59:45] Speaker A: The agency's got 25 guys there. They've got a guy in the straight on position, the guy at the takeoff. They got the guy on the sides, they got the guy at the three quarter position, they have the overhead, they have this guy, they have the guy on the robotic. And then they have the guy that goes, you're gonna motion pan this thing now. You know, motion panning is hard. They're gonna get their best motion pan. It was epic shot. I mean, yeah, mindblowing epic shot. And it's kind of like the shot of the surfer there that the guy got for the Paris Olympics in the air that won photograph photographer of the year for sports. That was a no brainer. Of course he won. That was just a killer shot like. And it was like. I think it was like the second day of the Olympics and all the tires like. Well, I guess we're not going for the best shot of the game, but like the shot that motion pan. Yeah, they're gonna have a whole team of people because I asked, I said, who's crazy enough to motion pan that, that particular event for a seconds long. If you have 25 guys, you can have one or two guys to try to get the shot. Now the fact that Hussein Bolt happened to be cocky enough to turn and kind of look at him was epic. You can never ever plan that. [02:01:00] Speaker D: I mean, I call that the unicorn source. [02:01:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:01:05] Speaker A: Photography is the right skills, the right practice, the right knowledge of the camera being at the right place. And then it's, I mean that's just. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [02:01:16] Speaker C: And how many times did the photographer go for something like that in their career and not get it? You know, but they tried and you have to keep trying, you know, like they. How many at bats to get that to hit a home run kind of thing. [02:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you look at most of my coolest motion pans or multi exposure shots, it's not Team USA because I'm, I'm playing around shooting with the other athletes because I'm not contractually obligated. I mean that fencing, multi explosion happened to be an American. Some of my best motion pans for equestrian happen to be American. That's just lucky. But I'm trying on the other athletes because I can't risk it contractually for my team. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [02:01:56] Speaker C: Hey Jeff, I'm mindful of time because I know you've got, you've got a call was. So yeah, say hi for us too. [02:02:04] Speaker A: Actually he loves Australia, so I can't remember if he, he and I went there. I don't think so. But yeah, I mean I can call him anytime. But it's dinner time here. I know it's breakfast time for you guys. [02:02:17] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's 11. It's, you know, I've had breakfast, but I do. I've got a couple more questions if you have time, but if you've got to go, just yell out. [02:02:25] Speaker A: Yeah, no, fire away. [02:02:26] Speaker C: Okay, what were. Where do I want to start? I want to find out where to start. All right, first of all, we had a question back here about gear, which leads me into sort of a few questions I have about gear. Just, just. So moving from venue to venue sounds like an opportunity for thieves. Have you had many thefts of equipment or just damage or anything like that at the Olympics? Have you had any gear issues? [02:02:53] Speaker A: I'm knocking on wood. I have not. But I will tell you that I've heard many stories from people I know and other photographers. We all talk and if something happens, it's bad. It goes through the press center like, like a wave. Yeah, Rio, Rio was the, the worst. The Summer Olympics in Rio, I mean Brazil is already known. Nothing against Brazil because I like Brazil, but you know, it's not the safest place. And I remember opening ceremonies. Oh well, before opening ceremonies, people are getting stuff ripped off at opening ceremonies. I was getting text messages from people. Watch your gear. We've already one guy lost like 40 grand worth of stuff. So I have my foot through my backpack strap all the time like, and held on for dear life. Never left my equipment. But you know, it's something we worry about. They've got lockers in all the, all the venues. So like I've got a locker in the main press center, I've got a locker in each hockey venue in Milan and I lock stuff up. But there's even been talk like the lockers aren't very secure. They're like high school locker, like with a lock on. They're not. So yeah, so you worry, but you can't worry to the point of not getting your job done. So like I said, I knock on wood because so far I've been lucky. The camera gear I'm less concerned about because God forbid someone rips off my camera gear. Most time is not mine is Canons. So or, or I also know if it's my own, I can go back to the press center. Until canon, I need three more R1s, I need a 7200 and they'll give it to me and I'm back in business. What I worry about is my images, my SSDs, my laptop, because my laptop is already pre configured with phone mechanic and Photoshop and everything I need. So a lot of Times I'll do is I'll mirror the drive, the SSD on the laptop so I have a mirror of it on an ssd. So God forbid something happens and I'm in Milan, I'll go to an Apple store or I'll call my contacts at Apple and say, can you get me one from the Apple Store? And I'll get a replacement laptop and try to image the drive back and try to make that as painless as process as possible. But, yeah, you know, it is something that is on our minds always. And I remember being in Brazil and all I had was like, this. I'll show you. It was this kind of a rig. It was like an R. Well, Brazil, it wasn't. It might have been a 5D Mark IV or whatever with a lens. It was about this big. And people were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Do not walk in town like this with your camera. Because in Brazil, you don't even do this. You don't walk around town with a phone because they'll. They'll come by on a motorcycle and grab it or whatever. And so it's different than being in Australia or here or whatever. But literally, people are so used to that kind of way that when I walked around with this kind of rig, they're like, don't go outside your hotel like this. And I go, well, wait a second. I'm surrounded by guys with machine guns, literally on military vehicles. I think I'm safe. But during the Olympics, you're safe. The minute the Olympics was over, they were back to their old routine. So. So I have to just kind of hope to God, but Paris, my hotel, was not in the best area. And I had to walk through this park at like, midnight or two in the morning, pitch black. Well, it was lit. But they're like, do not do this. With $40,000 worth of gear. I don't have a choice. The train let me off. I had to walk back to my place. There's no Uber or anything. I just walk back. So I would, like, not put my headphones in, or if I did, I'd put one in. And I was keeping an eye out, but I asked the hotel, and, yeah, not very safe in the park, but maybe right now, because I think they brought in 40,000 extra police in Paris. Like, during the Olympics, it was safer. And we hope to God that's the case. But yet when you're in the public, and this might be an issue in Milan, too, you got to watch your stuff and hope to God, and I Like I said, I haven't dealt with that yet. I hope I never do. That would be, that would be. I mean, a lot of times I got my wallet in my bag along with all my camera gear and my laptop and all the access accessories that, you know, memory cards, stuff that would be hard to replace on site. So. Yeah, I mean, it's scary. That part is scary. Yeah. [02:07:13] Speaker C: You mentioned you work with Think Tank, who are by far one of my favorite bag companies. I'm. I'm a big fan of Mind Shift, which is like their kind of outdoor and I use their rotation packs a lot for mountain biking and snowboarding and stuff like that. What's your kind of go to camera carrying setup for like airplane travel and then around the Olympics? You mentioned a backpack. Like what do you use? [02:07:39] Speaker A: So I use the, I use the airporter bag, which is a bigger bag as my main gear bag. It's sitting right below me right there. That's with all my gear there. Kind of flipped around, didn't it? That was weird. Hold on, let's see if I can do that. A little bit more streamlined. There it is. Get the microphone out of the way. But there's the bag that's got. That's my main gear bag. That's for the wedding. And has it got backpack straps on it? No, that one. Backpack straps. That one does not looks like one we've got. And then the other room I've got eight more or nine more of them, different sizes. And I've got the, the one I really, I use. And I take two to the Olympics. I take this big one, which is my primary one Winter Olympics. If I know I'm going to be going in the snow and I can't roll this giant massive beast. Then I'll take the, the rolling backpack which is now called the Walker. It was called the Street Walker. Now they just call it the Walker because Street Walker sounds like a prostitute. But, but the Walker rolling backpack is phenomenal because it rolls. But it also has a backpack and I use that. And I've got some smaller versions of that that I take. But when I do a photo tour, I have, I do, I don't check my luggage. I do a carry on bag for my clothes. I don't need hair product. And then I take the rolling backpack and the roller. I roll through the airports because it's too heavy to put on my back. And as soon as I get in line for to get on the airplane, I, I put the straps on and wear it because they don't about me having two rolling bags and then I, I bleep in. I get on the plane. As soon as I get toward the plane, I put everything back and back in a roller version again. And that works really well because I mean, otherwise, you know, it's a lot of weight on your back and it's a lot, you know, it's a lot of shoulder pain and stuff. So. Yeah, those are my two main bags and I've got a bunch of other ones that are smaller and I do like this. The, like you said, the rotating bag is kind of cool for just a day shoot. [02:09:52] Speaker C: I, I've been using it because it fits, it fits a. I can fit my R3 with a 7202.8. The, the original one, the, the shorter one mounted in the rotation package along with a wide angle lens and another lens if I want. And all accessible from the rotation point, which is pretty crazy. Like out. The gear has gotten so small that it can fit a 7200 mounted in there. [02:10:18] Speaker A: Is the one thing I don't like. This one doesn't fold down as small as the old one. [02:10:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [02:10:25] Speaker A: But again, I knew that I needed this one for, for, for Milan. I mean, I could have borrowed one for Milan probably, but this one just, you know. And the other thing is I'm sponsored by Canon. They want me to have the latest gear, so I just sold the other one and got this. [02:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:10:40] Speaker A: Keeps them out here. [02:10:42] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm sure you'll get a ton of questions about the, the differences between those two 7200 because. [02:10:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Minimal. And even between the EF, you know, if you put an EF with the EFRF adapter, those lenses were so damn good. The 7200 is still my favorite lens for almost everything. I shoot portraits and stuff like that. And honestly, the difference, even though I'm sponsored by Canon, I'm honest with people and if they say, should I go from the version 1 to version 2 or version 2 to version 3 or from the preceding 72 under this one? No, you really don't need it. I mean, I need it because I'm shooting hockey and this happens. But no, I mean, they're all great lenses. You. Is it worth losing $600 by selling one and buying the new one? No. Now, going from the 100 400, you know, to the 100100400 version two, massive difference, you know, so. [02:11:36] Speaker C: Yeah, because that was the push pull one, the wheels one. Yeah. The dust pump. [02:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah. It was also not very sharp versus the 100, 400, or even the 100, 500. So, like, Canon's cool with me. Like, I'll tell them when they sent me the original Canon R mirrorless camera, I'm like, no, I don't like it and I won't use it. And I go, I'm gonna blog that I'm not gonna use it. And Canon was like, do what you have to do. And I'm like, cool. And I told people this is a good camera, but it's not for me. It only has one card slot. The focus isn't very good. I mean, they fixed some of that in firmware, but, like. And that really slide thing they put on there, I'm like, oh, kind of cool. And I tried, and it was, like, gimmicky. You know, I. I try to be honest with people. And the 72, all the 7228, damn good lenses across the board. [02:12:28] Speaker C: Yeah. Question here from LTK Photo. Hey, ltk, what's the longest focal length that you use? [02:12:36] Speaker A: So I had the 200 to 400 with the teleadapter built in, which took me to. Was it 650? I don't use the 600 F4 very often. I generally my. My longest lens now is the 100 to 500, which is. Oh, and the other think tank bag. So 100 500, which. I like that lens. It ends at 7. One, which is not great, but it's still a very sharp nugget lens. Every shot you see from Galapagos was taken with that lens. If you focus okay, yeah, it's a good lens. And then I have the 100 to 300, which is what I lived on for the Olympics in Paris. And the 100 300. I've got both the 1.4 and the 2.2x tele adapter, so that could take me to 600 millimeters. And that's the farthest I go. I was walking today with my girlfriend over by the beach along the California coastline, and there were whales out there. They weren't breaching, but they were blowing and stuff. And there was a guy there with a 600F4 with a 2x tele adapter shooting at 1200 millimeters. I've never done that. And she's like, I bet you wish you were shooting, right? Nah, because the whales are too far out. I don't want to shoot 1200 millimeters. I'd rather be on a boat, go right up to the whales and shoot. So, like, I'm spoiled in that regard. Yeah. So 500 really, 500ish millimeters is the most I have. And honestly, for everywhere I teach, whether it's the rainforest or in Africa, that's plenty. Yep. [02:14:08] Speaker C: I mean, we could talk to you all day and. But I don't want to. I want to, don't want to steal all of your time, but I do want to talk about what I think is probably one of the most common questions that you get that I'm not going to ask. I think, I think you get asked all the time, how do I become a photographer at the Olympics? I'm not going to ask that because we, we all know. Although I do love, love your perspective about, hey, how you talked about offering your work for free because some people say you should never work for free. And a lot of the advice I saw you give people was offer to work for free for various sports organizations, teams, whatever you can find to try and get an in and show them your value and how you work, which I think is great advice. But what I wanted to ask you was what's your advice for someone that's looking to transition to their own photography business later in life, during a career, after a career, whether they're sort of. Yeah. At the stage that you were where you had a successful career, you had done things, and then you still decided to go out and do your own thing. Do you have any advice for people that are thinking about taking that leap? [02:15:18] Speaker A: Yeah, honestly, I'll be honest with you. That was a tough, tough decision for me for a lot of reasons. You know, being in the corporate world, having expense account when you're traveling and, and, you know, getting treated really nicely when you go places because when you run marketing, people treat you really well. I got spoiled by that. I thought, do I really want to lose that? And of course, in the US you have health benefits that your company pays mostly for, and they're crazy expensive. Here, like, I pay $20,000 a year just for medical coverage, and it's not even good coverage. Yeah. What. It's crazy expensive. Oh my gosh. The decision to leave corporate and go on my own was a really tough one because I thought, am I going to make even remotely the same kind of money and I have to pay 20? Well, when I, when I was married and I had kids, I was paying 20, close to $30,000 a year for medical. I'm like, this is crazy. And so it was a tough decision. It was the right decision. As it turns out, I'm doing much better than I did in the corporate world. And I get to Control my own destiny, which is nice. But the, the, the key is back to what we talked about before, which is you have to run it like a business. You have to understand marketing. And again, understanding that you can't. Like everybody says to me, oh, you do mostly personal events. So this is before I did photo tours. So you just work one day a week on Saturday. That's cool. And I'm like, yeah, right. I like. Justin's laughing. We're all laughing because we all know it's not even close to that, right? Like, yes, you're shooting on Saturday. Sunday, I always post next day. Like without fail, I want to post next day and beat expectations. So that means half a Sunday is blown because I'm going through the images and doing all that. Then Monday, I'm catching up an email because I haven't done any email for Saturday or Sunday. And I answer every email I get. I don't care if I know them or not, if they're a follower or social media. I try to answer every email. So that's Monday, Tuesday, I do that. Then I got new clients contacting me. I've got old clients who are ready to order images or an album. So I do the album design. Oh, and then they order images. I got to go to the post office and mail them. So. Oh, and I got to do social media. I got to write a blog post. So it's like a seven day a week. Don't think that you're getting into this with a one day. Oh, this would be an easy gig. Because it's not. You have to run it like a business. You're. You're doing everything. So with, with that in mind, I love what I do. So it's. I don't want to stop doing it and I'm a total control freak. So I don't job out my retouching. I do it all. I don't job out my album design. I do that too. Like, I want to do it and I love doing it. But you have to understand that the investment in equipment, you guys know this. I mean, I'm sitting on, I don't know, $40,000 worth of gear at least. And then you have to have your insurance for your business. You're paying your health insurance, you have to pay for, you know, God knows you have to pay for your web domain and you have to pay for, you know, an LLC for your business. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's expensive. And so getting into it, you know, when a client says to me, wait, you Charge how much a day? And I go, well, you know, I'm good at what I do. I got 20 years of experience. But I also have to buy all this stuff. And, you know, they don't. Although then they find out I get all this stuff free from think taking Ken and Apple. But, I mean, the average photographer doesn't get that. Right. It took me 20 years to build a business to get sponsored by everybody. [02:18:55] Speaker D: Yeah. [02:18:55] Speaker A: But, like, it's a very expensive thing to get into, and you have to have the passion for it and you have to learn. Right. And once you learn the camera and you think you're good at the camera, then you have to learn lighting, which is equally as hard, if not harder than learning the camera settings. And so there's a lot that goes into it. And I, And I just tell people, just remember it's a business. Love it. And if you love it, it's great. But don't think I can't tell you how many emails I get from people, someday, I want to be a sports photographer like you, or a sports illustrator photographer. No, you don't. You don't want to do that because it's so hard to make a living. Like when you guys introduced me as a sports photographer. No, I do a little bit everything. I do wildlife, I do sports, I do events. Because frankly, the events that I do here in the Bay Area pay most of the bills. Because, I mean, that, that is, you know that there's money in that. Right. And. But if I was just doing. Trying to sell it at an art show or trying to sell my photos online, I could tell you that barely happens. It just doesn't. There's so many people trying to do it. Don't, like, you know, don't get suckered in. Shouldn't say this, but there's companies, you have a huge following. You'll sell tens of thousands of dollars worth of your artwork. No, you won't. And so, like, I try to be realistic with people. Yeah. And David just says, you know, I love that you're everything photographer. I, you know, I love to be an everything photographer because I don't want to just be sports. I love shooting, you know, events like doing that wedding for that family that I've known for 15 years. That was my labor of love. And I captured this amazing moment for them. And, And I love doing it. But when I'm out shooting animals for, you know, doing wildlife stuff, I love that, too. That fills my cup. And it's funny because, you know, we come back in Galapagos and get back to the boat. And my girlfriend's like, I'm gonna take a nap on me. I gotta see what the hell I got right. And I'm retouching. And she looks. She's like, you're a nut. Like, she's like, but I can't help it. Like, I want to see what I got, you know, that passion is what drives me. And it has to because it's not an easy business to run by yourself and be successful. [02:21:06] Speaker D: I think that's great advice. Absolutely. [02:21:11] Speaker C: Yeah. It's perfect to. To wrap all that up. Wrap it up the way you did then. Is it really? You have to have a deep, deep passion to make it work. But it can work. But you've got to love. [02:21:24] Speaker A: It. [02:21:26] Speaker C: Definitely can work. [02:21:27] Speaker A: Unfortunately, in this business, you either have to start by giving stuff away or you start at the bottom and you have to charge, like, and. And people are brutal. You know, my son, who's now in the business, and of course he leverages my name a lot and smart to do that. Yeah. He'll call me up like, dad, these people wanted to hire me to shoot a wedding and they want to pay me like 500 bucks. And he knows what I charge. He's like, yeah, I'm not doing that. And I'm like, well, Connor, you have to start somewhere, you know, and it's hard. [02:21:56] Speaker C: My first wedding was 500 bucks for a friend. [02:21:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:21:59] Speaker C: My first paid. My first paid one. [02:22:01] Speaker A: It's a crapload of work, right? You're investing 12 hours of high stress time. Not to mention the time before, planning the time after going through images and like, it's hard. And so he's smart enough to be like, nope, I'm not doing it. You know, But I also told him, you can't command what I'm getting because you're not me. You have to earn that respect. He's got it very good and he's doing really well. But if you have to earn that and it takes a long time and it's hard when someone says to you, oh, these are great photos. You must have a great camera. Oh, God, like, you, like, you know, right? Like, we've all had that. [02:22:36] Speaker C: It's a Canon R1. That's right. [02:22:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:22:39] Speaker D: Well, you know, a builder doesn't get told, oh, well, you know, your house is beautiful. You must have a great hammer. [02:22:45] Speaker A: Right? And a cook. You don't go to a restaurant and say, amazing meal. What kind of pots and pans do you cook with? Right. You don't pick up A paintbrush. And you don't paint like Matisse or Van Gogh just because you have the same paintbrush or paint. And so that's hard. But this is what you get at the bottom, right? And you have to have thick skin at the bottom because there's people that are going to treat you like that until you prove yourself. And I had to do this too. You have to prove yourself. And you know, for me, shooting the Olympics is my differentiator because clearly you don't become an eight time Olympic photographer if you suck. Although I have people that email me or put on social media, there's not one good image on this guy's website. And I get that sometimes too, you know, but I mean, you have to. [02:23:35] Speaker C: Yeah, anyone that says that must have, I don't know, maybe no vision or something. That's crazy. There's not one good image on this competition. [02:23:44] Speaker A: And I think it's people. I mean, it's jealousy because, you know, and I still get it. My son will book a job and I'm like, damn, why did I get that? [02:23:55] Speaker C: You're competing with him. You're contacting his clients and undercutting his prices. [02:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he shoots for me. He's, he's, he and his wife associate photographers for me and I'm actually flying him to Costa Rica with, you know, to do a video behind the scenes of me teaching because he's a great video guy. That's great. You know, and I told him I go, look, at some point in my career, I'm not going to want to do weddings and bar mitzvahs anymore because I'm gonna be just too old to do it. You know, the Olympics I'll do until I'm, you know, can't do that anymore. But you know, at some point I don't mind transitioning. Look, there's enough business if someone's going to get. I'd rather be him than someone else. So of course, you know, I try to foster that, but yeah, it's, it is weird competing against your own kids sometimes. [02:24:44] Speaker C: Yeah, it's great. [02:24:45] Speaker A: Y. Sure. [02:24:48] Speaker D: I am conscious of time and. Yeah, and, and, and we all have days to get on with. But you, you have an important conversation to have with someone. So. [02:25:00] Speaker C: I've got one last question. Do you have any more questions, Greg? [02:25:03] Speaker A: No, no, I'm good. [02:25:04] Speaker D: Do you want to ask the question? [02:25:06] Speaker C: Well, no, actually. Damn. That means I've got two questions. I, I have multiple questions and I forgot about the other question. All right, let me, let me start with a Question we ask everybody if it was the end of the world, some sort of zombie apocalypse type scenario. You know, you're in, you're at the Olympics and, and the zombies are spreading and all the athletes have turned into like elite sports zombies. And you had to capture the end of the world. And so. And you could, you could just grab one camera and one lens to document the zombie Olympics. What would you, what would you grab? [02:25:49] Speaker A: R1 7200 already? Yeah, I probably would try to motion pan that. Actually, if I motion panned, I'd use a wider like a 2470. But wouldn't it be cool? Like if everybody's like in the typical zombie mode coming at you slow, you'd have to be at like maybe fifth of a second, but that would be kind of cool. That'd be my last marquee shot before I die. [02:26:08] Speaker C: But yeah, yeah, they're Olympic zombies, though, so they'd be fast. They'd be fast on. [02:26:13] Speaker A: Yeah, well, yeah, maybe, but then you'd be a hundredth of a second of panning. Right, But I'd still try to. I'd still try to be unique on my way out. Good. [02:26:23] Speaker D: You wouldn't expect anything less. [02:26:27] Speaker A: What's the second? [02:26:27] Speaker C: I love that answer. Second question. So this one might be harder. I don't know. What is the craziest thing you've seen at any of the Olympics that you've, that you've shot just anything. It doesn't have to be do with photography, just something crazy that you were, you were there for. [02:26:48] Speaker A: I seen some really crazy stuff. Well, okay, One of the craziest things was in Vancouver Olympics, the hockey pucks they use are chipped and they have a hologram, a hologram sticker thing on them. And so if you get one, people were diving trying to get them, and if you got one, they pay like 700 cash to get a puck. And one flew over and get one right by me and another photographer grabbed it and that photographer took it, had it autographed, which is against our contract, and they went and they cut her credentials off and flew her home. [02:27:29] Speaker C: Wow, really? [02:27:32] Speaker A: So in our contract it says that we cannot shoot video, which means theoretically even an, like an iPhone. Like when I FaceTime my girlfriend or something or my kid and say, hey, like I'm technically not allowed, but the contract is very specific, all the things you can and can't do at the Olympics. And one of them is, we're not allowed to grabs. And. But she got the autograph on the puck and she was showing to everybody. Like, look what I got. I had Sidney Crosby sign this puck and done. And, and so that was kind of crazy. But yeah, I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. I've seen that happen numerous times. Times where people didn't follow rules and just got booted. And that's tough. I can ask for autographs because I shoot for the team, so I just ask them later. So I got a bunch of autographed jerseys and stuff, but they usually do that after the Olympics are over and take care of me now. Yeah, yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair. Cool. [02:28:25] Speaker B: Thank you. [02:28:26] Speaker D: Look, I think, I think on that note, Jeff, I think, I think we'll wrap for now. And. [02:28:32] Speaker A: And I've never done a two and a half hour long interview before, so. [02:28:35] Speaker D: You've never done it. Look at you with, with, with a bunch of Aussies. [02:28:38] Speaker C: This is hanging out. You are. You are so interesting. We could do four hours. We. Yeah, we're guilty of our interviews. Pretty long eating so much. [02:28:48] Speaker A: So if I keep doing that, then I'll skip dinner and then I'll lose more weight. Yeah. [02:28:55] Speaker C: We, we should quickly touch on before we finished that Just. If people want more information about tours and anything that you do, like David Mascara is asked about when and where is the Alaska tour. How do they find information about that kind of stuff? [02:29:07] Speaker A: Great. Good question. Yeah. So Alaska is actually next week and sold out and been sold out for quite a while. I'll probably do it again. This is the first time. So as long as it goes well, I'll put it up again in next year or maybe in 2027. Next year's Olympic year. So I won't. But we'll see. All my photo tours are on my. Everything's on my website. So just www.jeffcable.com. so J-E-F F the American spelling C A B L E dot com. And then on there is photo tours and I'm constantly adding new ones. Unfortunately, they're selling out really fast. I mean, fortunately and unfortunately they're selling out really quick. Costa Rica was my most common one. I just added new ones for 2026 because this year is all sold out. But I'm adding new ones kind of as I go. If you subscribe to the blog, you'll get an email every time I blog. And so I encourage people to do that because I'll put on the blog soon. I'm doing one that says here's my new photo tours. So it kind of gives you that heads up and that's really the best way. And the blog is really where I do most of my updating. I tend to blog every week and again I share how I shot it, what I was thinking when I shot. I share all the settings, I don't hide anything. I can't stand photography. Whereas I go, I'm not going to tell you what settings I did like, why. So I try to share everything. I'm very open on that. So that's, you know, subscribe to that. That's a good thing too. And actually a lot of Aussies for some reason I have a huge following on my blog from Australia, India, Istanbul as well, of course, the US and Canada. But yeah, kind of interesting to see the demographics of where they're coming from. [02:30:41] Speaker C: Yeah, we love great photography and I do love that you've been blogging for so long and kept it alive because it really social media kind of killed the photographer blog, I think. And I love that yours is proof that it's still doable, it's still valuable to people. People want longer form ad free content on your own website. [02:31:03] Speaker A: I don't do any advertise. I don't. Every week I get people wanting to advertise or do guest posts and I don't want it to look like a race car. And even though I have sponsors, you know, my sponsors, if I don't like something, they allow me to say that. So I don't want to be so reliant on advertising that I can't be honest about it. [02:31:22] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, that's a good move. [02:31:24] Speaker C: It's awesome. [02:31:25] Speaker D: It's something that's lacking at the moment, that's for sure. But look, on that note, I think. [02:31:29] Speaker A: We'Re going to wrap, guys. Yeah. [02:31:32] Speaker D: But first and foremost, Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your. Your experience, your wisdom, your knowledge and. And also your advice for people. I love that your approach to your craft is who can I teach? [02:31:47] Speaker A: What? Yeah. [02:31:48] Speaker D: Not how do I gatekeep and protect my little patch, my little hill? Which is wonderful. Your generosity is exemplary. And thank you so much for joining us on the Camera Life podcast. It's been an absolute treat for us now. [02:32:01] Speaker A: It's fun for me. I had a good time. That was cool. And together when I get to Melbourne, we're having a drink. Absolutely. [02:32:09] Speaker C: And Vegemite. [02:32:11] Speaker D: Yeah, bring Vegemites. [02:32:16] Speaker A: We're good. [02:32:16] Speaker D: I will bring you some wheat chicks too. [02:32:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Need some weed picks. [02:32:22] Speaker B: Some crazy people put Vegemite on wheat pigs. [02:32:25] Speaker C: They do all right. [02:32:27] Speaker D: And honey, like just straight, no milk. But anyway, on that note. Yeah. Thank you once again, Jeff. We'll drop your links in our description on YouTube for anyone that has been watching us today. Thank you so much for joining and taking part in. In what has been, you know, an amazing opportunity to talk to you, Jeff. But yes, we. This has been the Camera Life podcast, proudly brought to you by Lucky straps. Head to Luckystraps.com we make Aussie made handmade leather camera straps. And if you look after them, they'll last longer than your camera, that's for sure. But yeah, we're gonna maybe longer than you. You should probably hand them down to your children, include it in your will. [02:33:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:33:12] Speaker D: But on that note, we'll roll the. We'll roll the music. Justin, you want to say goodbye to some peeps? [02:33:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:33:18] Speaker C: Can you guys hear the music? Because I can. [02:33:20] Speaker B: We can. [02:33:21] Speaker A: It's cutting in and out. [02:33:24] Speaker C: Ah, well, I'll just say. All right. Goodbye, Greg. Greg says, say Fujifilm. I'm getting withdrawals. Yeah, it was a very Fujifilm light episode. I love that canon. Rodney Nicholson says, wow, great stories, great photos. He's infectious. David Mascara says, great show today, guys. Nice to see a local. And Roy Bixby said, great to see a channel without accents. Apparently we have too many Aussies on. It's great. Yeah, more Americans. LTK photo says, would you still edit before the zombies get you? [02:33:53] Speaker A: Yes, Absolutely. [02:33:55] Speaker B: Still got 15 minutes, edited upload. [02:33:58] Speaker C: 14 minutes. [02:33:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:33:59] Speaker C: Philip Johnson says, thanks to all. Special thanks, Jeff. Great show. John Pickett says, great show. And yeah, that's it. Let's go. [02:34:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Just know how many J's were in the comments. Not just to us with the Js. [02:34:16] Speaker C: Yeah, it's the J podcast. Three Js and a G. Bye, everyone.