EP24 Cosplay Photography and More with Ian Tan

[00:00:06] Speaker A: How good? [00:00:13] Speaker B: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Camera Life podcast brought to you by Lucky Straps. This is episode 24, the 1 August 2024 here in not so sunny Victoria, Australia. Checking the weather forecast this morning, I think Bendigo was zero degrees and Melbourne was one degree. So if you're coming from a northern climate, lucky you. As I said, this is the camera life podcast. We're coming to you live. We're streaming to our camera live podcast channel on YouTube as well as the lucky camera straps channel on YouTube. We've also set up and running live on Apple, Spotify and Amazon audio podcasts, and the back catalogue of our podcast is also available for those of you that like to listen rather than watch. Last week, we're joined by Greg Carrick to share some of his fun and very creative ways of approaching his craft since retirement. Be sure to check out that episode from last week as well. That was episode 23, and if you're watching live, thanks for joining us. Make sure you comment, ask questions, whatever you want to bet, whatever you want to do now. [00:01:27] Speaker A: Comments Greg, just quickly, they're going crazy. Maybe the word on the street got out that we will be giving a camera strap away. We launched a couple of new colors yesterday and I said in an email, very quickly, if you jump on the podcast and make a comment, we'll pick one of the comments at random to win a camera strap and wrist strap bundle of one of our new colors. So jump in the comments, say whatever you want, just keep it nice. Maybe ask a question of Ian if there's something that pops up, and we'll give it away in around 1015 minutes, roughly. [00:02:05] Speaker C: I think people are here to see Ian. Justin, judging by most of the comments. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Most of them are. Most of them are. Speaking of which, a couple. Tom, Freda, good morning from Canada. It's the evening here. Newly subscribed and catching up on older videos. So far, very impressed. Wow, you're going the right way to get yourself a camera strapped. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Random welcome. [00:02:26] Speaker C: Tom's already bought a few. [00:02:28] Speaker A: Who else have we got? Tay, Bassi? Woohoo. Ian. [00:02:32] Speaker D: Oh, hey, Taylor. She's an amazing photographer. [00:02:38] Speaker A: Oh, really? [00:02:39] Speaker B: Ian's brought his own crew. [00:02:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:41] Speaker B: Speaking of which, we should introduce our guest. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Do it. [00:02:45] Speaker B: But just very quickly, I'm Greg and we're joined by Justin and Jim from the lucky Straps team. And we're joined today by Ian Tan, who I've known for quite some time. Ian's my I call him Papa and I call Reena his wife mama. That's how close we are. They're not, obviously, not really my parents. We're not biologically anyway. But Ian is a Melbourne based photographer and videographer, and he's been my photography mentor for a good number of years. And welcome to the show. [00:03:18] Speaker D: Thank you very much, Greg. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Jim. Great to be on the show. [00:03:22] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for coming. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Good to have you, mate. Good to have you here. Well, as soon as we've got you. Got you talking, why don't we kick off? We're talking about Ian's work, and maybe Ian, if you want to give us a little bit of a history about your journey in photography, how you got started and maybe what your first camera was. [00:03:45] Speaker D: Sure to you. Sure. I've been a photographer for probably about maybe 15 years. Started off probably similar to how most people start. You bring your camera on a holiday, you start taking some photos and go, hey, this looks pretty cool, pretty fun. So me and my wife, Reena, we. We both enjoyed it so much that we both decided to jump into photography. So, as most of you photographers would know, that's probably twice the expense. But it was something that we both enjoyed and we both could do together, so we went full into it. So my start was mostly in travel photography, which then became landscape photography. And at that time, I was using a Canon 600 d, I think, with a 16 to 55 mil lens or a 24 to 70 equivalent. So that's how I got started. So I just wanted to take pictures of whatever places that I visited and saw. Enjoyed that process a lot. And then I decided to look into getting a. A rangefinder style camera. So I looked at Leica and I went, oh, this looks pretty cool. And then I look at the prices, and I went, no, this is not so cool. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Justin doesn't have that problem. [00:05:11] Speaker D: But also around that time was when. Yeah, we all do, right? Gas. Gas is a lifelong addiction. But around that time, I got. That was when the Fuji X 100 was released. And I saw that and I go, oh, that's pretty cool. So I bought one, and that was pretty much the gateway drug that got me into the Fujifilm ecosystem. I love that camera simply because it just made me want to take it out and go out and shoot pictures. So being a rangefinder style camera, I decided to give street photography a try. It was fun. Wasn't that good at it, I don't think. But my sort of mantra during that phase of photography was just to take photos of things that I saw every day and to try to find beauty in the mundane. So I just took photos of everything and it was sort of. From there I discovered that, you know, obviously, street photography. I continued to do landscape photography. I branched into astrophotography. So after getting the X 100, I also bought the X T one, which was more like a SLR style camera. And then from there, I upgraded to the XT two. When that came out and we were still traveling, my wife and I. So with the XT two, we went to Alaska in the middle of winter, and we chased the aurora. So we were out shooting 02:00 a.m. in the morning in the middle of an Alaska winter with the aurora just exploding all over the sky. And, yeah, it was pretty amazing. It was heaps of fun. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Now you don't have to travel very far for the Aurora. [00:06:57] Speaker D: Yeah, this is true. However, the aurora looks very different. The Borealis looks very different to the australian version, so. But, yeah, that was heaps of fun. [00:07:10] Speaker A: Did you get the shop that you were hoping for? [00:07:12] Speaker D: Yeah, we did. Well, we actually made two trips. So the first trip we went, we allowed ourselves maybe about a week, and it really wasn't that much time because you can't predict the aurora. And also, it happens at the level above the clouds, so if you have a lot of cloud cover, that sort of wrecks it for you. So that first week, we. We did see the aurora, but because of all the other factors, we didn't really capture really good photos of it. So we said, you know, we got to go back and we got to try it again. So we. Then we allowed ourselves a little bit more time, and, yeah, we had a few days of really amazing activity. At one point, there was. The lights were just, you know, it was just a light show. You know, you could see with your own, with the eyes. And we just said, all right, let's just put the camera down, lie on the snow, and just look up and just enjoy the show. And that was. That's what we did, so. But we also got some amazing photos, so that was heaps of fun. [00:08:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's kind of a bucket list for a lot of photographers to head somewhere like Iceland or Alaska or Canada and get into some extreme. [00:08:20] Speaker D: Definitely any sort of country sort of within the arctic circle, would you be able to see the aurora? We also managed to shoot it in Norway. So we went to Norway to visit and also to shoot the aurora. So my advice would be, if you want to shoot the aurora, Alaska is good, but if you want to do something other than shoot the aurora, some of the other scandinavian countries are probably better, because when you're done shooting with it. There's at least other different sort of landscapes and different parts of the country you want to visit, whereas Alaska is kind of nice, but it's a lot of wilderness. And if you want to see something like, say, art galleries that some of we visited in Norway, Alaska is probably. [00:09:09] Speaker B: Not the place to do that. [00:09:10] Speaker D: So if. [00:09:11] Speaker A: If you want to Alaska, you would. If you were going there, your trip would be really based around sort of accessing the wilderness rather than cities and that kind of stuff. [00:09:23] Speaker D: Definitely. So if you do go to Alaska, I mean, we didn't end up doing the outdoor rugged stuff like camping and all that, but if you can, because it's quite a fair way to travel. I think it was like a 27 hours journey from Melbourne for us. [00:09:40] Speaker B: That's a long way. [00:09:41] Speaker D: Yeah. So if you do go, you know, obviously take the time to spend there. We did camp in a cabin in the Wrangells and Elias National park, so that was quite fun as well. But you can obviously go there, see the wildlife, you know, if you can get a tour and see if you can photograph some bears. Also, Canada is not that far away, so we did decide to go to Canada as well after Alaska. So that was a nice side detour. [00:10:11] Speaker B: Just a question for Jim and Justin, guys. Have you ever been that far north? Have you ever been into the Arctic Circle? Jim, how far north have you been? [00:10:21] Speaker C: Japan, is that just like. It is far. [00:10:24] Speaker B: It is very far over the equator. [00:10:26] Speaker C: I think Japan's probably as far north as I've been. [00:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah, me too, mate. [00:10:31] Speaker A: I think New York. New York is as far as I've been. I think that's higher than Japan. I don't know. [00:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah, probably. [00:10:36] Speaker A: I'm not sure, but yeah, it's on the list for sure. It's the dream. Maybe we can do a camera life. [00:10:45] Speaker B: Trip to Norway under funded by lucky. [00:10:50] Speaker C: Straps, of course, funded by the podcast, because we've got. [00:10:55] Speaker A: We do sell gloves that designed in Norway. [00:10:59] Speaker D: I saw that it would be a work trip. [00:11:02] Speaker C: They are very awesome. Yeah. [00:11:05] Speaker A: And that's exactly what they're designed for, is those kind of trips. And they're designed by a photographer and his partner in Norway. That's where they live. That's what they do. He's worked as a. What do you call it when you do sled dog stuff, you know, with the dogs that he used to run like tours and stuff with sled dogs and all that sort of stuff in the arctic? Like he. That's. That's what he knows. [00:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:30] Speaker A: So he knows how cold it can get. Exactly. But maybe we can. Maybe we can all go visit him. Just arrive at his front door, like. [00:11:37] Speaker B: Hey, can we just get a photo for tax purposes? [00:11:41] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:11:42] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:11:44] Speaker A: Then we're going out to try and find the aurora. [00:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Jim. [00:11:48] Speaker C: Sorry, Ian, if I missed it. Were you there during winter or summer? [00:11:53] Speaker D: Yes, I was there during winter. So you want to go during winter because that maximizes the. The nighttime conditions. So in winter, obviously, the nights are longer. So if you go at night, then that maximizes the amount of time that you can see the aura, because you can't see during the day or when there's light, it's only when it's dark. [00:12:14] Speaker A: What sort of camera gear would you reckon people take for their first time? What's, like, the essential if you're going. If you're going on a trip, and this is a big part of it, what. What's essential to have with you? [00:12:27] Speaker D: So if you're going to shoot the aurora, you want essentially the same gear as if you were shooting, you know, astrophotography, milky way sort of stuff. So a prime lens with a wide aperture, a wide angle lens would be preferable in terms of batteries. I didn't have an issue with my batteries dying on me, assuming. Well, I kept, you know, a good store of batteries. I probably may bought four batteries, which I kept inside the pocket of my jacket to keep them warm. But the only technical issue I experienced with one of my cameras was the, I think my X Pro one. One of my buttons froze, so it wouldn't work. But once I came out of the call and back in the hotel, and once the cameras warmed up again, it was working fine. So. [00:13:19] Speaker A: I guess a good question, actually, would be like, did you? So you've done trips like this more than once? Was there anything that you learned from your first trip that you made? Sure. On my next trip, I'm going to take a lens. I'm going to buy a new wide angle lens with a wider aperture or a better tripod or something like that. Was there something that you figured out that you were missing on that first trip and you got it for the second trip? [00:13:45] Speaker D: So my first trip, I probably brought too much gear, as you normally would, because you're going somewhere far doing something special. You know, my first instinct was over prepare rather than under prepare. So I had all the, you know, the gears. So I was shooting on a 14 mil APS C equivalent lens for. For most of it. And that went down to f two eight, I think, was the maximum aperture on that. And then I had a decent tripod. I mean, fujifilm cameras aren't heavy anyway, so it was a very light setup, but still, it wasn't. It wasn't like one of those compact travel tripods. It was the next step up so that it was steady enough. The biggest issue with shooting out in winter is cold. So the last thing you want to do is, you know, have your body temperature fall so low that you start freezing and then that pretty much ends the trip for you because you have to go back and warm up. So. So cold. Cold. Being dressed adequately is probably the biggest. And that took up the most amount of space in our luggage. Just the parkers, the winter boots, all the different layers, etcetera. In terms of category, it's a bit. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Different from going to Bali in your shorts and singleton thongs, isn't it? Just to jump in. Sorry. Ian Estee north just asked what is the best time of year to go north to photograph the aurora? And you said, winter. You're just going to have to. [00:15:16] Speaker D: Yeah, I think there were. There are different periods. I'm trying to remember when we went, because this was more than like, nearly ten years ago now. I think it was around October. There's one session and then I think in. Later in, or earlier in the next year, sort of like around February. March is a good time as well. But one thing we do look out for would be the Aurora forecast. Now, it's hard for anyone to sort of forecast it, but what they do is they look at the. There is a Facebook page called Aurora, Aurora watchers or something like that, that we were sort of following quite a lot before we went. And they sort of. And they predict it's. Again, it's not a certainty, but they sort of predict when the solar cycles will hit its maximum or, you know, isn't that happening? So if you're specifically going to photograph the aurora, then I would look into that, start doing a lot of research. We were also fortunate to go with a guide, so we met up with a guide over there and he's a photographer as well, and he's quite experienced in chasing Aurora, so he was able to give us some good advice as well. [00:16:30] Speaker B: That's a great idea. [00:16:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:33] Speaker B: Just on the auroras. We've had a lot of aurora activity here in the southern hemisphere lately. And, I mean, I know it's always sort of been on and off with a friend of Ian and mine, Dale, who lives down on Phillip island. He often shoots the aurora from the back beach of Phillip island, pointing out at Antarctica, and we've had a few. We only had one last night or the night before, a predicted aurora. Unfortunately, the weather or the cloudy forecast has obviously gotten in the way. Ian, have you been following what's going on with the aurora in Australia at the moment? Is it something that you have considered chasing here? [00:17:17] Speaker D: No, not so much, because my photography focus is now sort of more on portraiture and cosplay photography rather than landscape. But it is definitely possible to shoot the aurora from here. I think we are kind of a little bit too far north to get some really good shows, unless the activity is super strong like we had recently, what, a couple of months ago when it was so strong that you didn't even have to. You could go to any beach that's south facing it, you'd see it. But mostly the main difference between the northern and the southern auroras that you can sort of see visually in your photos is that the northern auroras tend to be very wavy. You get those nice wavy like patterns, whereas down here they tend to be light pillars. So you'd see it as, like, a gradual fade of colors from the horizon up to the sky. And it's mostly reddish, purplish, maybe sometimes yellowish hues, whereas in the north, they tend to be. You tend to get the greens and the yellows and the blues. So they are quite different, which is quite interesting. [00:18:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Tom. Tom Frieder says, for a truly exotic northern lights experience, Canada's arctic is incomparable. Google aurora borealis. I can't pronounce that word. Go on, give it a shot. Tell me someone. Anyway, somewhere very cool, someone can write. [00:18:52] Speaker C: It in the comments, and we'll. [00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Need to spell it phonetically for me. Yeah, I should. I need one. I'm just gonna try and find you. While you guys were talking about that, Richard Taddy, who we had on the podcast last year, got a crazy member. It wasn't just the recent time when the aurora flared up, but was it in May or something that it was quite big all across Victoria. [00:19:16] Speaker B: Yeah, end of May. [00:19:18] Speaker A: Got. He got this shot, like, west of Bendigo. [00:19:23] Speaker D: Oh, that's lovely. [00:19:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:26] Speaker B: Crazy. [00:19:26] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. [00:19:27] Speaker B: They were taking shots from Northern Territory. [00:19:30] Speaker A: Were they really? [00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Some people were getting, like, phenomenal shots, of course, you know, because if you hit the right spot, there's zero light pollution. [00:19:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:38] Speaker B: So you're gonna see everything. [00:19:40] Speaker D: And I think one of the important things, and this is probably true of landscape and astrophotography as well, is that it's. It's. It's. It's nice when you can get a really good composition of foreground background elements, like this one. Obviously, that. That, uh, that silo art piece is. Is a real striking feature. But then you get the aurora in the back, and I reckon that's what makes this shot. Yeah. [00:20:04] Speaker B: The silo art on its own is. [00:20:05] Speaker D: If you didn't have the silo art. Yeah. And it's just an empty sky, it wouldn't be as cool. Yeah, yeah, that's very cool. [00:20:12] Speaker B: Very cool. Actually, just talking about this made me think of a story. Someone who I won't name. Justin knows who this person is, but I certainly won't name them or shame them. But they went to the Arctic Circle, I think it was Iceland, with a borrowed, very expensive medium format camera. And they were set up on, like, on the top of a glacier, I think it was. Or a cliff looking down. Overdose. You know, more glacial land. And the camera was set up on a tripod and he took his hand off it and a gust of wind blew it into a ravine. [00:20:50] Speaker D: Oh, no. [00:20:50] Speaker B: And they sent a drone down. They had a drone. They sent a drone down and it was completely irrecoverable. So always keep your hand on your. [00:21:00] Speaker D: Camera or fit us. I lost a drone in Norway. [00:21:03] Speaker B: Camera. [00:21:06] Speaker D: I know how that feels. I lost a drone in Norway. [00:21:08] Speaker A: Was the drone a flyaway or, like, what happened to. [00:21:13] Speaker D: It was a DJI. Ouch. It was a phantom three. Yeah. [00:21:20] Speaker A: I mean, did it fly off like it was. You know how sometimes they lose? Lose. [00:21:24] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. This one, I think it lost signal over a mountain range. So I flew it over a mountain range, and as I crested the top, I saw, like, an incredible sunrise. And I was going like, oh, this is looking so cool. And then, like, to me, I go, oh, crap. [00:21:40] Speaker A: Oh, no, it's gone. [00:21:44] Speaker B: It's gone to the drone gods. SJ north has just asked the question. Ian, perhaps you can answer this one. Would you recommend a full frame camera or can you use a micro four thirds camera? [00:21:56] Speaker D: I've never used a micro four thirds camera, but you could certainly use it. I've had people on, I've seen people in the. In other different camera workshops use micro four thirds cameras, and the images look good. I think that the usual convention is that if your sensor is smaller, noise tends to be a little bit more of an issue. But I think these days, with software AI type noise reduction programs, it's probably less of an issue. So I wouldn't let that stop you. If you think that it only got a micro four, that's camera and you have to go buy a full frame. I think you should be able to get rid of. I think you should be able to. [00:22:39] Speaker B: I wonder how. Sorry, Ian, I spoke over you there. I was just wondering how the aid noise works with astro shots, where you've got tiny little specks all over the frame and some are bright and obvious as part of the galaxy or the Milky Way, but others would be so tiny. Would the aid noise, especially like in lightroom, would that possibly be. [00:23:08] Speaker A: I'll test it and tell you. [00:23:10] Speaker B: Okay. [00:23:12] Speaker A: Oh, I think it would just look a little. Maybe not fake, but a little too clean. Yeah, a little too clean, depending on how heavy handed you are with it. [00:23:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that would be the risk you take. And then you start to get that look where it sort of looks. Yeah. [00:23:29] Speaker D: Not as always. It's something you should definitely test at home before you, you know, go. Go overseas. So if it were me, I would go out and do a astro shoot, you know, on the beaches of Melbourne somewhere and. And just test that out. [00:23:45] Speaker B: I feel like. [00:23:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna say, I feel like just running back to that. What's better? Having good glass would probably be the better option of the two, you know, and there's no point having a full frame and having a slow lens, so, you know, having something that's 2.8 or two to 1.4 would be a better option than having the best sensor. [00:24:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think also on that, you know, like Ian was saying, you know, go out and practice. Go out with it. Join a photography community that does Astro before you head over to. Or you head up north on an expensive holiday, unsure about your skillset or your gear, join a community that does Astro. They're all over the place. I know of a number, you know, down here in Victoria. There's one, a big one, in Phillip island, but they're all over the place. And go out with the group and learn. For some people that have been doing it for years, you know, test your gear out, borrow, loan, rent, what you think you might need before you make any purchases. And one, you'll be part of a community and you'll get the support and guidance and feedback you need. And then, two, you'll actually build your skills. So when you do head north, say, to the arctic circle, you don't take your hand off your camera and have it fall into a ravine, and you'll take great shots. [00:25:09] Speaker D: I wouldn't get that close to a ravine in the first place. But I do agree, you do learn one valuable thing. I learned before I headed to Alaska, when doing a lot of astro shoots here in Melbourne, was that operating your camera in darkness is without having to always turn on the light, because when you turn on the light, it actually destroys your night vision and it irritates the hell out of everyone else taking photos beside you as well. So learning, just getting the muscle memory of. Of how to work your camera in. [00:25:43] Speaker B: The dark with gloves, in the cold. [00:25:45] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. [00:25:47] Speaker C: And you could literally practice that at home on the couch, you know, if you wanted to just do it comfortably. [00:25:54] Speaker B: Just. [00:25:55] Speaker C: Just practicing using your camera, not being able to see. [00:25:58] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:26:00] Speaker B: A couple of comments that have come through from the channels. Tay said micro must, might just have less dynamic range. [00:26:09] Speaker D: Probably. [00:26:11] Speaker B: But again, sensor and processor tech is ever improving. [00:26:15] Speaker D: So it depends on how fussy you are with the quality of your image. I guess for some people it might be good enough, but for others they would see extra noise or not enough dynamic range. And in which case, if that really bothers you, then, yeah. There's not much way around the design of sensors and cameras that, yes, you just have to go bigger. [00:26:38] Speaker B: Yep. And I think also, you know, if you've. If you've managed to save up or work towards an expensive trip and you're willing to spend, you know, 25 to 30 hours on a plane or in an airport, and that's your budget, and you've got a camera, you know, shoot with what you've got, but know how to use it, make the most of it, get out and practice with it. Comment here for Justin. Mm hmm. Referring back to the drones. Justin, how many drones do you have? [00:27:06] Speaker A: I've got two. Two drones, not 15, but, yes, you can borrow one. But no, that's, that's our good, that's our good friend Tony. He just likes to make fun of me. [00:27:20] Speaker B: Another question from SJ north. Ian, maybe you can answer this. Are you best to use a reduced or white when shooting astro? [00:27:28] Speaker D: I think a red light impacts your night vision less. So if you do have a red light on one of those head, head mounted headlamps, they often have a red light setting. That's what it's for. So. [00:27:42] Speaker B: Yeah, they use red lights in ships in the bridge, so people can still see what's coming. Icebergs and the whales. [00:27:51] Speaker A: Speaking of comments, I did promise we'd have, would give away a camera strap early in the show, so I'm going to get Ian to choose a random comment. I'm going to suggest if he, if he doesn't want to seem biased, maybe don't pick someone that you know really well, but, I mean, we'll never know. [00:28:12] Speaker D: What are you doing to me? My fans will desert me. [00:28:17] Speaker A: Choose at random. Don't choose. Get off my digital lawn. He gets enough stuff off me for free anyway. [00:28:24] Speaker D: How many. How many comments do we. Or how many people do we have? Can I. [00:28:27] Speaker B: There's about three or four that have commented. [00:28:29] Speaker A: Just. Yeah, zoom around. There's a few in there. It's quite a prize. So. [00:28:36] Speaker D: Yeah, well, I mean, from the questions, SJ north seems to be very invested and very. I reckon if we gave SJ North a camera strap, we could convince them to take it up there, maybe take some promotional shots for lucky straps while they're there. [00:28:55] Speaker A: That'd be nice if SJ north would do that for us. [00:28:58] Speaker C: Hey. [00:29:02] Speaker B: And Tay, who I believe you know is pretending that they don't know you. [00:29:06] Speaker A: But congratulations, S. Yes, you are the winner, SJ north. Dm us will figure out this. I didn't really think it through. [00:29:16] Speaker C: Just contact us somehow and we'll figure. [00:29:20] Speaker A: It out that you are in fact you, and then we'll work it out from there. [00:29:24] Speaker B: How are they going to contact you guys? Jim? Justin? [00:29:27] Speaker A: Instagram through the website. I'll give you a secret code word for you to comment on YouTube so I can make sure that this is your account. And that's how we'll do it. I'll just come up with that on the spot. And you will get one of these new, new colored deluxes. Either the brown with wine red, which. [00:29:46] Speaker D: Is quite a favorite, or can I nominate myself? [00:29:50] Speaker A: Well, you could have, but it's too late. [00:29:52] Speaker B: Too late, mate. Oh, look, Jim's got one there. [00:29:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:56] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah. You've been running. I've got. [00:29:58] Speaker C: Yeah. The benefit of doing the promo shoot was that, you know, we can't sell the ones that we've already used, so someone had to have it. [00:30:08] Speaker A: This one's. This one's all nice and worn in. That's. This has been mine for six months, probably. It's the first 1st prototype, and it's. It's very nice and soft. [00:30:19] Speaker B: Very cool. Now, um. [00:30:20] Speaker A: Now back to it. [00:30:22] Speaker B: Back to it. So SJ north has said 100%. I'll take promo shots for Lucky. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:30:28] Speaker B: Tay says, congrats, SJ. And SJ north is very appreciative. Yeah. Thank you, guys. [00:30:35] Speaker D: You welcome, SJ. You're gonna have to get the gloves as well if you're going somewhere cold. [00:30:42] Speaker B: You gotta pay for those, though. But, yeah, congratulations. So you've won yourself some lucky straps products, which is wonderful. Just another quick question from Tom Frederick. Olympus Micro four thirds has a special mode designed for Aurora live composite mode. I have seen that in action in a video. [00:31:06] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:31:07] Speaker B: I hadn't heard of that, but, yeah, I can't remember how it works, but it is interesting that it's specifically dedicated to that. [00:31:17] Speaker A: All right, moving along, I was really keen to find out some more about cosplay photography. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, Ian, tell us about current reason you hear. Ian, tell us about some of your current work that you're doing with cosplay photography, which is a relatively new genre, I think, at least here in Australia. I'm sure it's been a thing in Japan, where cosplay had its early beginnings in parks in Shinjuku and Harajuku streets, where teens and youths would dress up as favorite anime manga gaming characters with phenomenal outfits. So tell us a little bit more about that genre and your involvement in it, please, Ian. [00:32:09] Speaker D: Sure. So I've probably been involved specifically in cosplay photography for the last three, three or four years. And I got into it firstly because I'm a little bit of a geek myself. I do enjoy all aspects of pop culture, from the movies to anime to video games, which is where these areas are traditionally, where most of the inspiration is drawn from cosplayers. And probably the. I'm trying to think that the first time I got involved, I think I had someone approach me to take some photos of them in their cosplay. And I think he was. He made his own armor of a character named Deathstroke. So if you're not familiar with the character, basically, if you. He's got, like, a helmet, it's kind of black and orange. He's got armor on him and he's got, like a sword than maybe a gun or something like that. And when he asked for. When he approached me for the shoot, he's going like, oh, I want something kind of gritty in an urban setting. So for that shoot, we went up to the rooftop car park of a car park in Sidley street, just near, kind of like near the river. And, yeah, we got up there, got some shots of him kind of like looking over the edge of the roof, the side of the rooftop with the city in the background. And my kind of thought process was to try and make it look very cinematic, like it came out of a movie. So, yeah, so, and then the images that came out of that, he really loved. One of the photos actually made it into a cosplay magazine, which was cool. So. And I really enjoyed the process because it sort of combined my growing interest at that time of doing some portraiture with placing the subject in an interesting environment, which kind of relates to the landscape photography that I've been doing. So once I started doing a little bit more of that, I thought, hey, this is pretty fun. Then I went along to one of those conventions, like Oz Comic Con, I think I'm trying to remember which was the first one, I don't think I can remember, but it was one of those conventions where there were lots of cosplayers around, and I started to just reach out to some of the people there asking if I could shoot them. And from there, you make friends and you make connections. And then when the people there actually enjoy your work and they like it, they want to work with you more. So that's how I started to know more and more people and get involved with more and more shoots. Yeah. So it's a great way to get into portrait, portrait photography, like, if you've never done it before, and particularly with most portrait photographers, they tend to get started with, say, models. Oh, yeah, that's one. That was a beat shoot that we did at the start of this year. And the characters are all from a video game called Final Fantasy. And as you can see, most of the cosplayers will either buy their suit or make their costumes. So some of them would have made some parts of their costume. Some of them would buy a full costume itself and maybe add some other parts that they make themselves. But as you can see, that's a ray Skywalker from Star wars. That's Becky. That's the character is Ray Skywalker, but that's Becky cosplays. And she cosplays a lot of Marvel characters like Captain Carter, Wonder Woman, or Wonder Woman. That's TC. That one's a shot from a recent event that I organized. So I had an idea to organize a masquerade ball in a. In a venue called the George Ballroom in St. Kilda. So that was a lot of work to organize all. And I think we had about. We had about eight photographers for that shoot come along, and I organized about 16 cosplayers to be involved. I think it's probably more than 16. And group shot some of them. Yeah. And, yeah. So I paired off photographers with two cosplayers, two or three cosplayers, and assigned them different locations in the room, and we would all shoot. And then later on during that session, I pulled everyone together and I said, hey, let's get together. Let's organize this, like, a scene, like a ballroom scene from a movie, and I had some of the. Oh, there was also a ballet dancer that my wife organized to come along. So as you can see, it kind of looks like the. The cosplayers are all there watching a ballet dancer perform, and I told them to act out some of the scenes as well. So they're kind of, like, whispering conspiratorially to each other, going, oh, that looks really cool. I could do better. And, yeah, it's really fun. Really fun. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Just. Just quickly, was this the. Was this the first shoot you were talking about, or is this a re. [00:37:45] Speaker D: Yes. [00:37:45] Speaker A: Wow, that's awesome. [00:37:47] Speaker D: Yeah, so. So that was one of my first cosplay shoots. The other one was, I also worked with a cosplayer. I think her Instagram handle is Chrissy Q. Chrissy Q. And Chrissy is amazing because she does a black widow cosplay, and if you've seen her cosplays, she looks very much like Scarlett Johansson. [00:38:15] Speaker A: Okay. [00:38:17] Speaker D: But. But she's also a really experienced cosplayer, so always. Yeah, that's her in black. You can see her there. [00:38:22] Speaker A: Oh, she really does. [00:38:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:27] Speaker D: But her cosplays are always, like, on point, very, very immaculate. It's almost like. It's almost like movie. Movie accurate, but. Yep. And she's also a black bell in Taekwondo. Think. Oh, so she can do all the kicks and all the crouchy positions, the action shots. [00:38:50] Speaker A: They teach that at Taekwondo. [00:38:53] Speaker D: It's the. What do they call it? It's the superhero pose. You know, the one where they drop down low. Yeah, yeah. [00:39:01] Speaker B: The sort of stuff that we can no longer do. [00:39:04] Speaker D: Exactly. [00:39:06] Speaker B: Tay's saying that she's a shapeshifter. [00:39:10] Speaker D: Cheers. Cheers. [00:39:12] Speaker C: Are you lighting most of these, Ian, or you using natural light? [00:39:17] Speaker D: I'm using both. I'm using both. So, as you can see, like, some of them are obviously lit with flash, but, like, this. This particular shot was down at Cape Shank, pulpit rock, and that's just natural light. [00:39:33] Speaker A: So there's obviously, in some of them, there will be kind of, like, Photoshop work and stuff like that. I assume this. [00:39:47] Speaker D: Yes. [00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:48] Speaker D: So Photoshop as in depth was taken actually during the day at a convention. The background is. The only thing I did was to make day look like night. I haven't replaced anything. I haven't used. I haven't replaced the background or anything. [00:40:03] Speaker A: And do you. Do you do that, or do you have. Don't replace backgrounds or you do sometimes. And how much is that a part of what you do. [00:40:12] Speaker D: I rarely replace backgrounds simply because I like to. I take a lot of time when, when I plan a shoot to select the correct location or the correct background for my shot so that I don't have to replace because my Photoshop skills are fairly basic. I don't, I don't do composites or I've tried, but they turn out really bad. [00:40:33] Speaker A: So I generally avoid really hard. Yeah. [00:40:37] Speaker D: Compositing. Yeah, I suppose it has become easier with AI, but again, I'd rather not. I'd rather use the actual background because we've got such beautiful locations here in Victoria, I mean, in Australia in general. And I think it'd be a waste not to use that and to replace that with something else. [00:40:57] Speaker A: William, that's what I was interested to kind of talk about and ask you about, because obviously you could go as far as you want when it comes to image manipulation with cosplay. I mean, they do it in the movies. It's like, it's not, it would not be unreasonable to do a heap of Photoshop work on a cosplay image to make it look like a movie poster, for example. So I was really interested to hear your thoughts on does doing it in a real location with a real background and using lighting and framing. Uh, is that kind of like an extension of the, the cosplay itself? Because, for example, um, you know, these people are putting a lot of effort into the costumes, um, to look, look as close to their desired goal as they can in real life. Um, rather than just saying, oh, we'll just photoshop the, the mask on later, or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, it's almost, the photography is taking that similar kind of aspect where it's like, hey, maybe it won't look exactly like it would in a movie scene, but it's a real, a real person in a real costume in a real location. [00:42:15] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:42:16] Speaker A: Do you understand what I'm trying to do? [00:42:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I do. I do. Yeah, I do. So one of the aims with my cosplay photography is that firstly, I want the cosplayer to be recognizable. So obviously here, you know, it's spy. If it's Spider man and the face is totally obscured, then it could be anyone again. Right, but, but. [00:42:40] Speaker B: We did that last weekend. [00:42:41] Speaker A: You look good. [00:42:42] Speaker B: I know. [00:42:45] Speaker C: It's grown fast. [00:42:46] Speaker B: I just can't crouch. The beard is stuffed into the mask. [00:42:50] Speaker A: You can go upside down. So that's. [00:42:52] Speaker D: Oh, crazy. That's great. Yeah. [00:42:57] Speaker B: Just can't crouch. [00:42:58] Speaker D: But I want the cosplayers to look like themselves as much as possible. That's. That's my first. That's my first kind of rule. I don't really have, like, hard and fast rules, but that would be my first rule, you know, so I don't do manipulation of their bodies or their, you know, I don't try to make them look slimmer. [00:43:20] Speaker A: I. [00:43:21] Speaker D: That sort of stuff, you know, I want them to look like themselves. Then the second, obviously, is to be true to the cosplay character that. The character that they're cosplaying. So in that case, I have done, and I do do, like, for example, with Star wars, often they'll have a lightsaber, and it's a prop, and it will light up with an led, but when you're using a flash, it will overpower the brightness of the led lightsaber. Anyway, so I would go in, and that. That bright blue is photoshopped in. [00:43:51] Speaker B: So is that Eleanor? [00:43:53] Speaker D: Ian, that is Captain Eleanor. [00:43:55] Speaker B: Yes. Captain Eleanor is another shapeshifter. I've met her in person. That. Where did we go? Was it Comic Con? [00:44:02] Speaker D: Yep. At Comic Con. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Yep, at Comic Con. [00:44:06] Speaker D: She's amazing. [00:44:06] Speaker B: She does all her own, and she sews all her own costumes. She's made. [00:44:12] Speaker D: She's. She's incredible. So in this shot, obviously, I photoshopped the lightsaber blade in. The flare is real, though. You can drag and drop flare effects, but that particular flare is real. I used a one quarter black mist filter on that one, and it gives a really nice flare. [00:44:34] Speaker B: That's great. [00:44:36] Speaker D: But I do want to stay true to their character as well. So if they have powers, for example, I would try and Photoshop, for example, not black widow, scarlet witch, or Wanda is a character that often has these red type of effects coming out. Like that one. There you go. Yep, yep. So I photoshopped in the, obviously, the power effect between the hands, and then I added in some smoke on the edges. So that's probably a case where I have added in something to alter the background to kind of bring that character to life. But again, the. The character, the face, the shape, you know, who they are. Physically, that's 100%. This is Hannah, so. Yep. So that. That is. That is that. That balance that I try to do again, I have seen other photographers who will take a character and place them within a castle setting that's been, you know, that. That's. That's a background replacement, and that's. That's. And I don't. I don't knock that, because it's very hard to find castle settings here. In, in Victoria, if you lived in eastern Europe, they'd be everywhere. [00:45:46] Speaker A: Right? [00:45:47] Speaker D: But, but over here, it's very hard to find them. So to be totally true to a character that that is, you know, that is of that setting, it's, it's, you know, it's sometimes inappropriate. Again, there are some cosplayers who say, definitely no AI, and photographers say, definitely no AI, and there are others who, who will happily make use of those tools. I don't judge anyone. Again, it's all about the art. So as long as you have that conversation with your cosplayer and say, this is what I do, if you're comfortable with that, then great. But if you're not, then let's find a way to work around that to get to the end result. [00:46:24] Speaker B: I think that's important. You mentioned recently I joined in at Comic Con in Melbourne at the exhibition center, because to follow him, I was writing an article about Ian and his cosplay photography for Shotkit. And so I followed Ian one morning and just documented him at work. And what I think I found most, what I think was the most important element, obviously, there's the photography skills, but it was the, the communication and the relationship that Ian has built with every cosplay artist that he works with, and even people who didn't want their shots taken by him on that day. There was camaraderie and trust, which is a big part of Ian's personality. But it was really interesting because I think cosplay photography, they have to make themselves a bit vulnerable. You know, they're playing make believe in public, and whilst it's becoming more and more acceptable, there was probably a still some stigma around that, you know, why you dressed up for kind of thing. But it is booming at the moment. But it was just really interesting watching Ian work and having cosplayers approach him and him offering them some shots and to be sure, you know, shared on their instagram, because all cosplayers have an Instagram feed, and that's how they find work and their community, too. So it's a really interesting process to watch. And Ian's kit, despite him having some, one of the biggest Shimoto backpacks I've ever seen. Shimoto backpacks, you know, he worked fairly simply. I think I've got a shot here of Ian at work if you want to see it. Let me just jump into that. So this is the article that I wrote. That's Captain Eleanor there. That was at the Comic con, and that was just in the convent. That was just in the convention hall causeway. So outside of the convention center. It's inside the convention center, but it's not inside the main hall. Ian was set up there, and I've got some shots of Ian at work here. Let me just. Somewhere. So that was Ian's camera. You want to tell us a little bit about the camera you're using for your cosplay and the lenses? [00:48:37] Speaker D: Yep. So for that particular shoot, I was using the GFX one hundred s. And I've only got a couple of lenses. So it would be the 45 mil. That's a 45 2.8, I think. And then also the 110 mil f two. So in full frame equivalent, that would be a 35 mil and 85 mil. So a 35 mil for wider environmental portraits. And then the 85 mm for more closer, tighter, tighter, tighter shots. So that that's. That's all I have camera wise, in terms of lighting. I shoot with profoto. So that that's a. That little unit's a profoto, a two. So it's just a very small size flash, about the size of a coke can. And then it does a. There's a small octa softbox that I use. And then, obviously, a light stand. And I try to keep it simple because I like to roam around and find different backgrounds to suit the subject. So, for example, in this case here, Becky's outfit really suited it wouldn't I wanted. I like my backgrounds very clean, very clean and minimal. So. And I felt that the orange or the reddish type of hues in this background suited her to kind of bring her out. So I'd walk. I'd walk over. I'd walk her over to that location and shoot there. So my setup helps me to be mobile. Often, if you go to the conventions, you see some photographers who have three light setups, and they're pretty much in the same place shooting in that area. But, yeah, I like to move around. [00:50:24] Speaker B: Very cool. It was a fun afternoon, and like I said, it was just really fascinating watching. Watching Ian work with these people. Many of them, which is, you know, young adults, kids compared to me, anyway. But here he is getting extreme close ups. [00:50:45] Speaker A: What's the business of cosplay photography like? Is this a viable business opportunity? [00:50:55] Speaker D: It's probably. I don't think it's enough to be a full time job. Usually photographers will charge anywhere from, say, because if you go to a convention, for example, you could charge something like, say, 30, 50, $60 for, like, a half an hour session. And then you deliver, you know, half a dozen images, something like that. Cosplayers will pay for that. So, so we're not, we're not talking, in terms of money, the amount of shoots that you would do for, say, a corporate shoot or, or a wedding or even a traditional portrait shoot. It also depends, as Greg said, cosplayers, the age range runs anywhere from, you know, teens all the way up to people our age. And again, that's a very wide income range there. We know students probably wouldn't spend a lot of money. People on the other income range may. But I find that the cosplayers who would spend money on a shoot would be those with really elaborate costumes or those who want, because some of them will use those photos to then print out prints of themselves that they sell at conventions. So in that case, that there is, there is, there is a little bit of a commercial aspect there. And cosplayers themselves also, most of them don't tend to charge at conventions. Most of them are just there not to make business, but they're just there to have fun, to enjoy their craft, to show off their creativity, also to catch up with friends. Cosplaying together with a group of friends is a huge reason of why they do it, because it's very much a community activity. There are obviously cosplayers who, because some of them, particularly the movie accurate costumes, they can cost up to thousands. So they've obviously made the investment and, you know, they, they are available for, for, for hire, for events, parties, that sort of stuff. So. But again, it's not, it's, it's not something that, that would sustain, would be a single source of income for them. You know, it'll be, it'll be a side hustle for most of us. [00:53:29] Speaker A: What about your. So these more elaborate styled shoots, you know, away from the, the conventions and the ones that you're sort of putting a fair bit of time and work into with a particular character. Are most of the ones that you're doing, are most of them paid work, unpaid work? You know, is it, is it sort of a semi passion project for some of them? [00:53:51] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:53:52] Speaker A: With you or. How does that work? [00:53:54] Speaker D: Yeah, it's, it's, it's mostly tfP. So it's. Meaning it's unpaid. And again, it can, it can depend on, on the shoot. Right. So if it's a cosplayer that's approached you specifically to say, hey, I want to do this studio shoot. I want to get these props and I need it for this amount of time and this is the purpose, then you'd probably negotiate some sort of a price for that, a cost for that. But a lot of my projects are collaborative, so it'll be cosplayers that I know and I'm friends with, coming up to me saying, hey, I've got an idea for this, and I'll go, oh, that sounds like a really cool idea. All right, let's, let's do it, you know, and, and if it's a studio shoot, all right, let's, let's book a studio. We'll share the cost and then go it that way. Because the way I see it is, yes, I am giving up my time as a photographer to take the photos, to edit it and do all that. But the cosplayers themselves also have invested their time to make the costumes. Often, often it can take them months to do it. It's not just something they can whip up in a couple of days, unless it's an existing costume that they already have. Often to do something from scratch would take them months. They would sew. If some of them would make their own props. They make the guns out of foam. They 3d print stuff. They 3d print stuff. Exactly. So it's very much a cost to them in terms of materials, time, effort, that sort of stuff. So from that point of view, it's a collaboration. And most of my shoots that are organized outside of cons are unpaid for that reason. And, yeah, and I see it as an investment as well, in my own skill, in terms of, like, if, let's say we have to share cost of going to a location, petrol, travel studio, that sort of stuff. Because as photographers, we obviously do invest a lot of time in gear. Right? Everything costs, from lenses to bodies to bags, et cetera. But I think particularly I found that in this stage of my photography life, if you like, I find that investing in skills is, you know, is more beneficial than gear because we're at a stage where, or I'm at a stage where I know this. This is the gear that I need. I don't need to change cameras every year. I don't need to, you know, buy every single lens that comes out in the next six months. So. So my money is more better spent investing in my shoots, which benefits me creatively, and I learn new skills, etcetera. [00:56:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm just imagining some listeners right now going, oh, that, that's easy to say for a guy that's got a GFX 100. [00:56:51] Speaker D: No, but I don't. [00:56:53] Speaker B: You can't go much hard anymore. [00:56:56] Speaker A: I've already got the best camera you can. [00:56:58] Speaker C: This will do a year or so. [00:57:00] Speaker D: Yeah, but it was true, like, even when I first started, because I shot with the Fujifilm XH one for the first three years of my cosplay. Cosplay journey, you know, and, yeah, and again, most, most of my. During that time, I shot with either one or two lenses. So I had a 24/7 equivalent zoom, which I use most of the time. And then I had a 56 mil, which was a 85 mil equivalent for specific portraits, you know, shallow depth of field stuff. So, yeah, I keep my gear very simple. You know, I don't, even though I've been 100% Fuji my whole life, I don't bash other brands, because at the end of the day, the camera, the lights, they're all just tools to be creative. And you could really do it with any camera that's been made in the last six years. Camera technology has been that good that really, if you know how to use a camera, understand the basics of the exposure triangle, understand how to, how to use lights, even natural light, you know, sources of light, and know how to edit your image as well. You can make amazing photos no matter what you give. [00:58:14] Speaker B: Very true. Very true. We've got a couple of questions in the comments. I'll pop it up on the screen. The first one's from Tom. Have you run into licensing issues from Disney or Sony when publishing images? And do you get model releases? [00:58:29] Speaker D: Licensing issues? No, I don't know that the legal things about it, but I don't think there's anything that stops you, particularly with cosplay costumes. There isn't any trademark on costumes that I'm aware of. There are no identifying logos like Marvel or Star wars or anything like that. So I haven't encountered any licensing issues that way. Model releases. If I'm using, for example, with those images that we use for your, for your article, Greg, we did go around and talk to all the individual cosplayers to ask if they were comfortable with us using those images, so. [00:59:13] Speaker B: Yeah, and we credited every cosplayer in the article. And Ian's work, of course. Yeah. I don't think it's too good. I don't think it's a gray area. I think it's. I mean, a lot of these costumes are pulled together from, like you said, purchase products which is actually on the, you know, the distributor and the retailer as to whether they've got permission to sell those products. If it's, you know, like a screen, accurate copy of something, you know, people have been making, you know, dress up clothes for, of their own you know, forever. I'm sure that, you know, if you. If you go to, like, a big w or a target or a Kmart or whatever, you know, you can buy Disney. Cause Disney clothing and all of that sort of thing. So. Yeah, I don't know. It's a good question, though. [01:00:03] Speaker A: I think you could. You could potentially have issues maybe if you were trying to make it a big business and you're say, advertising, hey, come and dress up as Spider man. [01:00:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:15] Speaker A: And I'll take your photo for this much money. And you're actually, like, sort of putting that in the ad. And I think that's potentially where that line starts to cross, is like, hey, you're using. You're using our trait, like, our characteristics, to profit. But, yeah, I think what you're doing, like you say, nothing's actually. You're not crossing any lines that I could see at all. [01:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Another great question from SJ north, our winner of Lucky Strap this week's episode. Do you need to get permission to take photos at a comic con or similar event, either for money or for free? [01:00:51] Speaker A: That's a good question. [01:00:52] Speaker D: Okay, so the answer is yes, if you're within the convention area. So, for example, at Comic Con, the Melbourne Exhibition center, there's a corridor that spans the whole building, and then the actual convention itself happens behind the closed doors of one of the areas. So between, for example, between door four and six, you'd have. The convention would book that space. So if you go into that area, photography is controlled, so they generally wouldn't let you in with a full on flash and professional camera gear. Smartphones, obviously, are different matter. But if you want to shoot outside in the corridor and outside the convention center, the exhibition center, there's no restriction there. So it depends on the convention. There's another convention called supernova, which is at the showgrounds. Now, to enter that one, you have to actually go through the gates of the showgrounds. And it's paid. You need a ticket to get in. So obviously that one you need to pay to go in. Whereas with the Melbourne convention center, you don't actually have to buy a ticket, because if you don't want to go into those, behind those closed doors, then you don't have to pay. But the cosplayers will generally hang around outside the area to get their photos taken if you want to take photos of them. So with that one, you don't actually have to buy a ticket to comic con or any convention that happens in that particular building. So it depends. But the other important thing which I want to stress about permission is also people often go and try and take sneaky shots of cosplayers without asking them. I think it's very important to ask their permission. True, they do want their photo taken usually, but yeah, it's always best to ask permission because it just shows courtesy and respect for them as a human being. And it's as easy as just going up to say, hey, I love your cosplay. You look so amazing. Would you mind if I took some photos of you? And, yeah, 99% of the time they would say, yeah, we'd love so. Or obviously don't approach them if they're eating, if they. If it looks like they're taking a break or having some, you know, having a conversation with someone important. But outside of that, yeah, most, most of the time, people would be. Most cosplays would say, yeah, you know, I wouldn't mind you taking some photos. [01:03:21] Speaker B: I know past conventions, I went to, like, Melbourne's first comic con and, you know, back then, it was harder to get cosplay products without, you know, importing them from Japan. Costumes and props and things like that, you know, the prop replicas were still pretty limited and people were patching together their own outfits out of cardboard and bits of fabric. And it's come so far, like, you see the shots from your ballroom shot, you know, the level of detail and the. And often handmade costumes are just phenomenal. But there is a huge industry out there also producing products for cosplayers. People doing 3d printing and actually hand stitching, you know, chainmail armor, leather armor, you know, accurate swords and weaponry. It's quite phenomenal. But I know in some of the earlier days of conventions, both here and in the the US, there's a lot of issues where people were becoming abusive and inappropriate towards cosplayers. They saw them, especially female cosplayers. Unfortunately, you know, in some of the fandom, costumes are quite revealing and people were seeing it as an opportunity to even get a bit hands on, which is really sad. But I know it has improved. But I think, yeah, it's a really important point around the respect, yeah. Of the individual artist and, yeah, you. [01:04:50] Speaker D: Never, ever, ever physically touch anyone, cosplay or not, you know, anyone, anyone, without asking their consent. And particularly, like, with cosplayers and female cosplayers, like some of them, it's hard to tell that. I don't know, I struggle to tell the age of some of these people as well, and a lot. And, you know, there are cosplayers who are in, who are under 18, and as Greg said, they will dress in very revealing outfits. And yes, as a photographer, you open yourself up to possibly criminal liability by touching someone and then them accusing you of sexually harassing them. So not only from a human respect and decency perspective, but from a criminal liability perspective, if you. [01:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [01:05:38] Speaker D: You have to be careful. [01:05:41] Speaker B: Taz added a comment I cosplayed at the first Melbourne Conicon Comic Con, then stopped because I couldn't get materials for what I wanted to do. Ten years later, and there's literally a cosplay shop ten minutes down the road from me. So it has, it has progressed a lot, and it is an industry that, and standing at the, with Ian at Comic Con couple of months ago, the, the amount of people that was streaming through those doors that were in cosplay was just phenomenal. Whereas when I went to the original, it was you. They would stand out because there'd only be a few, you know, a handful of people really putting in effort, but the amount of people, and I remember Ian and I just sort of stand there going, oh, that, that person's from this, and, oh, that's a sim. And, you know, there's different characters that we, because I'm a geek, too, that we both recognized, but it was just amazing. And kids, adults, people with additional needs, people in wheelchairs were cosplaying. It was absolutely phenomenal to see. And it's, you know, it's kind of the purest way to take your fandom is to replicate your favorite character and be as accurate. [01:06:50] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:06:50] Speaker B: I mean, accurate representation of them. [01:06:53] Speaker D: 2030 years ago, we were kids watching our favorite, you know, fandoms, whatever it was, Star wars or Marvel or, you know, anything from comics. But now we're older, but we've kept, still kept our love of those, of that. And as older people, we have more disposable income as well, so. Yeah, and then you put that together with the rise of online shopping from things like Teemu and Taobao and Aliexpress, and, yeah, a lot of these things are available there as well, costumes, outfits, and they're affordable. So, yeah. [01:07:31] Speaker B: Interesting. Got another comment, a question from Tom. You're in a public place. How do you deal with other photographers shooting over your shoulder after you've set up with the lighting and a consenting model? [01:07:43] Speaker D: Well, if you're in a public space, legally, there's nothing you can do about it. I know photographers sometimes will turn around and snap at the other person saying, hey, don't do that. You don't have permission, but legally, there's nothing you can do to stop them. Personally, if they're actually harassing my model or getting in my way, then I will tell them to stop and please step back. But I generally like to avoid confrontation because that could lead to violence, and I don't. I don't condone violence. I don't like violence, even if it's not me initiating, like, if someone threatened to hurt me on my model because I've tried to tell them no, then, then obviously that's, that's, that's an issue, and we, you know, we would move away. We would go somewhere else and stop shooting. But, yeah, it is tricky, but really, there isn't much you can do about it. And I don't encourage any photographer to do this because it's, firstly, again, you haven't asked for consent, but secondly, to the photographer who's actually shooting, it's quite distracting. [01:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty disrespectful. [01:08:56] Speaker A: Yeah, you'd actually be far better off to wait for a break in the shooting and then tap in on the shoulder and introduce yourself and say, hey, do you mind if I watch what you're doing? You know? Yeah, looks like you're getting some great images. I'm still, you know, getting into this, and I'd love to watch you work for a minute, if you don't mind. And then, who knows, next time, you know, a few months later of a friendship and you might be coming on shoots to watch Ian work and help him with lights and stuff like that, you know, like, you're far better off to build a relationship than to just hope that you can get a couple of posts on Instagram 100%. [01:09:33] Speaker D: I'm always very supportive of up and coming photographers who are new or who want to learn how to shoot portraiture or cosplay. And, yeah, if you ask me, nine times out of ten, I'd say, yeah, I don't have a problem with you shooting over my shoulder as long as you don't interfere with my cosplayer or me in our shoot. Yeah, no issue with that. [01:09:54] Speaker B: I noticed that when I was there at Comic Con with them, that there was also a very tight knit, not just between Ian and the cosplayers and between the cosplayers themselves. There was a real sense of community there, but also between the photographers that were all shooting cosplay. They're kind of all in around the same area in the causeway of the convention center, and there was a lot of camaraderie. And just friendship there and support, which was wonderful to see. [01:10:21] Speaker D: Yeah. The dedicated cosplay photographers. There's quite a tighten, small community of us and we mostly know each other and it's great. We're quite positive we support one another often, if, you know, we'll cover for one. And if one of us needs to go to a toilet and say, hey, can you watch my gear for five minutes? Yeah, we'll do that. Or if someone has a gear breakdown and need to borrow something, we'll happily do that as well. So I really enjoy and value that aspect of our community as well. [01:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah, Tay's just. Tay's gushing. Is an amazing role model, mentor. We appreciate him a lot. [01:11:02] Speaker D: Thank you, Tay. I'll have to get you a lucky strap. [01:11:05] Speaker B: I think Tay's a. To be honest, this doesn't sound like the e and I know it all. Very good, very good. While we've got Anna, you happy to stick around for a little bit if we cover a couple of other things? [01:11:21] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. [01:11:22] Speaker B: Very cool. I was going to ask you what your dream camera is, but it sounds like you've already got that. So. [01:11:30] Speaker A: Is Leica still knocking on your door when you dream? [01:11:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good question. [01:11:34] Speaker D: Well, I don't know. I don't think so, because I'm happy with the camera that I use. And as you know, whenever you change system, you need to. If you've been shooting with a particular system, you develop muscle memory, you're very familiar with the menu systems. And. And to me, if. If you can get to a point where the camera isn't hindering you in creating, as opposed to, you know, you standing there trying to figure out, how do I turn this setting off, how do I do this? To me, that's getting in the way of you creating. So, yeah, if you gave me a. Like, a camera, to be honest, I probably wouldn't use it. Not because there's anything wrong with the system, but just because I'm already familiar with my tool and it does exactly what I want it to do. So. Yeah. [01:12:31] Speaker A: What about lighting gear? Are you looking to add to that kit? [01:12:35] Speaker D: Okay, now we're talking. [01:12:38] Speaker A: Right, get. [01:12:41] Speaker D: But again, like, like flash. Flash gear is one of those things where, again, you, once you find something that works, you just. You just stick with it. Like, I shoot with profoto, which is a fairly expensive brand. And to be honest, if you're a new photographer coming up to me saying, hey, what flash gear should I get? I'd say, go. Go and get some godox flash gear, because one, they're reliable. Two, they do what they do very well, and three, they're affordable. Very affordable. If it breaks down, just get another one kind of thing. Whereas profoto gear is something like four times the price, and there really isn't any difference in the quality of light. I literally did the side by side test of the two flash units. One is a godox one's profoto. There is, there is literally no, no difference in the quality of light. The only difference I found was a very minor increase in lighting and temperature consistency for profoto. But again, I'm talking, I took a string of 20 shots, and maybe Godox had two images that were where the white balance changed slightly and the coloring was different. Yeah, but other than that, it's fine for single shots. So unless you absolutely need that 100% color accuracy kind of thing for your work, then maybe photo. But, yeah, I don't. I'd always steal someone to go docs. [01:14:11] Speaker B: I saw recently one of your images, I think you used it. I think you bought it for the ballroom shots. That the, the big lantern on the boom, was it a lantern? [01:14:20] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Yep. So that was an aperture constant light? Yeah, I think it was 300. Yeah, yeah. And, and I had it with a big lantern softbox suspended on a, on a, on a c stand. And, yeah, that was just to add a little bit because the ballroom itself was fairly, fairly dark once you moved away from the windows. So there was just a little bit of light to accommodate different photographers shooting at the same time. You couldn't do that with flash because, you know, someone were using. [01:14:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:14:53] Speaker D: Etcetera. [01:14:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we, we use godox. I actually just reminded, I smashed one on a shoot and that. [01:15:00] Speaker C: Whose did you smash? [01:15:02] Speaker A: Well, it was one of yours, but now you have mine, so technically I smashed mine. I don't know, but it was a lot less painful than I imagined smashing a profoto would be. But that actually reminded me, Jim, that's probably the closest that shoot is the closest we've done to cosplay photography. It was, it was a shoot I, for a stage production of the Little Mermaid, and we were out at a lake and we did in a studio and stuff like that. And, yeah, we got some cool shots. I don't know, do we have any that we can show or we got. No, probably not. I was like, maybe we can get critiqued by the master and see. [01:15:41] Speaker D: I haven't done a mermaid shoot yet, but I know, I know some cosplay photographers who do that. [01:15:47] Speaker A: Yeah, we didn't. We didn't go to the point of putting the mermaid in the lake. That was probably. [01:15:52] Speaker C: We tried to, but winter and students and they were like, no, you know, then allowed. [01:15:58] Speaker D: Yeah, here we go. Taylor wants to see your shots. I want to see shots. [01:16:02] Speaker A: I'm putting him on the spot. He's probably gonna have to try and dig them out of his giant network storage. But they're in a lot room catalog. It was, it was, it was a fun shoot. [01:16:14] Speaker C: I'm trying to think what's the easiest way for me to bring them. Bring them up. Can I get Lightroom onto streamyard? [01:16:20] Speaker A: Yeah, or you can just do a folder of images and just bring them up like that. Like in preview. If you've got exported jpegs it's probably the easiest. Sorry. For those listening with just audio only. If we kind of bring up images and look at them and just go ooh. [01:16:37] Speaker B: Or describe each one in detail. [01:16:39] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. But yeah, for that, for that shoot Jim and I used, we used different camera systems, Nikon and Canon, but we were able to use Godox, the same Godox lighting system just with our own triggers. You wouldn't want to do that with really more than two photographers though. It gets messy and confusing. But yeah, yeah, I definitely, I complete agreements with you. Profoto would be amazing, but Godox is totally fine for professional use and a lot cheaper. [01:17:11] Speaker D: I will say one thing, one. [01:17:12] Speaker B: Go on, Ian. [01:17:14] Speaker D: I was gonna say, I will say one thing for the profoto flash that I'm using the a two. It's built like a tank. I've had it on a stand and it's dropped over many times. Often the unit will hit the ground and the battery will pop up. But then I just pop the battery and it still works. [01:17:28] Speaker A: Well, that's not what happened. [01:17:32] Speaker D: It is very well built. So that's, that's one thing I will give. [01:17:35] Speaker A: Maybe I'll have to try that, see if I can break one. [01:17:39] Speaker B: I was going to ask, do you think that they'll ever build into professional grade bodies? Do you think they'll ever build flash triggers into the camera system? [01:17:50] Speaker D: I'd say no, simply because every flash system has their own protocol. So that makes it hard from that perspective. Unless the camera. [01:18:01] Speaker A: Yeah, Canon was the closest, I think. Yeah, there were. What models were it that could control the RT? I'm pretty sure there was one. Can one or two canon camera bodies that could control the RT series flashes, I reckon. [01:18:18] Speaker B: Okay. [01:18:19] Speaker A: But I'm, maybe I'm misremembering but I'm pretty sure they put a protocol in there and then it, like Ian says, it's like, I think it, they dropped it pretty quickly because too many people, you know. [01:18:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:31] Speaker A: It just different flash systems and all that sort of stuff, and, and things get updated and then next minute that body doesn't work with the newer flash they want to bring out or whatever. And I think that, yeah, decided it was too hard. Maybe I'm misremembering, but yeah. [01:18:46] Speaker B: Oh, I've lost my camera. [01:18:48] Speaker A: That's okay. You're still there. [01:18:49] Speaker C: Let me share it. [01:18:51] Speaker D: Are you going to change it to cosplay, Greg? [01:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just gonna get dressed into my Spider man suit. The editor said, has said listening with audio only, but I can still tell how fancy your backgrounds and fashion senses are. [01:19:04] Speaker A: Awesome. [01:19:07] Speaker D: I'm in traditional Melbourne gear in a puffer jacket. [01:19:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:13] Speaker B: See what's going on with my camera. [01:19:15] Speaker D: So, Justin, what sort of. What sort of photography do you do? Justin, what sort of do you enjoye. [01:19:20] Speaker A: Enjoy? So now I'm very much doing sports photography, which is a little bit of work and a little bit of passion mixed together. Like, I do get paid for it, and it's, a lot of it is hybrid photo video as well. And that's been really fun. So I found that I really enjoy, as much as I enjoy getting new gear, and I'm always doing, I'm currently testing two lenses at the moment. Three, two. Not sure two lenses to see if I want to buy them. But I like constraints. So mountain bike photography gives me the constraint that it has to fit in a backpack that I can carry on the bike for a long period of time. So I find it really fun to be like, all right, what two or three lenses am I going to take to be able to shoot photo and video for a full weekend of all different. I mean, it's all say if we go into a mountain bike shoot, we'll go to a location, lake Mountain or something like that. And we need to make tourism video and a full set of 150 photos or something like that. And I need the gear to do that. That fits in a backpack. So I enjoy that side of it. If you can take all of the gear and an assistant and lighting and all that kind of stuff, it's fun, but I don't find it as much fun as just run and gun kind of stuff. So, yeah, basically that. And I also just recently went traveling and shot only with the Leica Q three for nine weeks, and definitely enjoyed landscapes and that kind of thing more than I ever have. So I'm trying to think about how I can do a bit more of that. Only in the last few years have I gone from photography being my primary income to no longer being my primary income. Like lucky straps is now sort of my main focus when it comes to business. So I'm still trying to figure out, like, what's photography for me when I don't need it to make money? Because it used to be a business. It used to be weddings, primarily, and it was the way to keep the lights on. And now that it's not that, I'm figuring out what it is. [01:21:49] Speaker B: Interesting. [01:21:52] Speaker D: Are you finding you're shooting a lot more video than photos these days or still a good mix of both? [01:21:58] Speaker A: Still a good mix of both. There's the odd project I do that's, that's only video, but most of them are either. And most of them are both or just photos, actually. Have you. [01:22:12] Speaker B: Jim's found some images. [01:22:13] Speaker C: Do you want to see the behind the scenes? I don't see the, some of the. [01:22:16] Speaker A: No, no, the. Just the finished images. Just like. Yeah, the lake and then a couple of the studio ones. Maybe just get some, get some critiques. [01:22:26] Speaker D: That's cool. That's very cool. [01:22:27] Speaker A: So the, the purpose of the studio was to then be used for them to Photoshop into posters and stuff, which is why the background is not a lot of deep. You know, like, we didn't put any effort into getting the wrinkles out of the background or anything like that because they were going to cut the characters out and then put them on, on graphics. So it was all about the lighting of, on the person themselves. [01:22:51] Speaker C: Um, I found the. [01:22:55] Speaker A: Oh, the lake ones. [01:22:57] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:22:58] Speaker A: There. [01:22:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:22:58] Speaker A: Oh, no, they're behind. Well, show the behind the scenes of the lighting setup. Probably before or after we smashed it. [01:23:10] Speaker D: Yeah. Nice. [01:23:12] Speaker C: So shooting. Can I skip through them? This is not going well. Enhance. [01:23:18] Speaker A: Enhance. [01:23:23] Speaker C: I'm in Dropbox, but you're in the droplet. [01:23:25] Speaker A: Wow. [01:23:25] Speaker C: This is not in the right folder. [01:23:28] Speaker A: Sorry. For you guys at home, we don't know how to use computers. We focus on cameras and then after that, we don't know what we're doing. So, you know you can bring up folders from Dropbox on your computer, right? [01:23:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't have that logged in to, to do. Okay, where's one of them? That, yeah. And then, so there was also. They did some video as well. We didn't shoot this, but Justin got some behind the scenes. [01:23:55] Speaker D: Oh, that's cool. [01:23:56] Speaker A: It was. The video guys went, they went all out. They had, they had, like, three or four different colors of reflector. So, like, the front reflector that would be under the face to throw a little bit of light. He had three different colored gels across the reflector to get different, like, hues coming up on their lights, and then they're blowing bubbles across with that little fan. Bubbles for the mermaid. Yeah, they were having actually a great time doing it, but we. The shots we got out at that lake, which I could pull up, were very similar to, I imagine, how you work a lot of the time. Just one. One strong light overpowering the skyd to try and bring the exposure down, and then sort of. Yeah. Then just working that. That one lighting angle. Yeah, from there. [01:24:43] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shooting outdoors presents the challenge of wind. Right. Which will blow things over. And that means, you know, if you. If you're getting multiple lights, you either need to have multiple assistants or you need to bring sandbags, which adds to weight, etc. So. [01:24:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I found it. You found it? Yeah. Are you sure you're not just tricking us? [01:25:07] Speaker C: No, I've got it this time. I don't know how to. [01:25:13] Speaker D: Oh, that's. There we go. [01:25:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, the one with the trident was the. [01:25:22] Speaker D: Brilliant. Brilliant. [01:25:23] Speaker C: Yeah, the guy. [01:25:26] Speaker A: It's all good. I've found it. If you need. [01:25:28] Speaker C: You've got it. [01:25:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:30] Speaker B: Okay. [01:25:32] Speaker C: This guy. [01:25:33] Speaker D: The outfits are really amazing. Very nice. [01:25:36] Speaker C: Yeah, that. A lot of. Lot of work into them. [01:25:42] Speaker A: Hang on, I'm coming in hard, actually. [01:25:45] Speaker D: Yeah, that is gonna say that. [01:25:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:25:48] Speaker D: Amazing. [01:25:48] Speaker A: So just sort of those. Those ones. Just one light. Um, yeah. And then nice hero shots. [01:25:56] Speaker D: That's good. [01:25:57] Speaker A: Yeah, basically just hero shots. They're definitely not. They're not your level, but we did. We did our best. [01:26:02] Speaker D: No, they're. They're great. They're amazing. Composition is great. The light is great. Poses are fantastic. [01:26:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It was actually really fun. [01:26:13] Speaker C: The sun during this, the sun was because of the clouds. It was, it was every minute, it was changing from full sun to full shade. So we sort of, we'd set them up so that the sun was a backlight if it was out to try and just because we didn't have a lot of time, but. Yeah. [01:26:31] Speaker D: What time of the day? What time of the day was this? [01:26:33] Speaker C: This was, like, mid afternoon by then, because we started in the morning in the studio. [01:26:37] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:26:38] Speaker A: So kind of 03:00 p.m. 02:00 p.m. something. Yeah. [01:26:40] Speaker C: And, like, there's a kids. Yeah. We had to kind of just get it done. There wasn't really. [01:26:46] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:26:47] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Shooting in. Shooting in our dils, but yeah, that's the other challenge. [01:26:53] Speaker D: Right. Sometimes, you know, we all, like, love to shoot in golden light, but. But often the weather doesn't cooperate, especially here in Melbourne. Yeah, you have to. You have to make do. [01:27:04] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, it was. It was really fun. Tom just asked, was that continuous lighting? No, that was most definitely flash. Yeah. So basically here, this is me triggering that flash to get my behind the scenes shot. So I've exposed for the whole scene and then enough flash to do that. Whereas Jim would have had different settings on his trigger and his background, stuff like that. So it looks like Jim's triggering this flash or that. It's a constant light. But no, he's actually hasn't shot yet. And I was. [01:27:34] Speaker C: It was. Yeah, I. [01:27:37] Speaker A: That's. [01:27:37] Speaker C: That's two godox ad 200 pros. [01:27:41] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:27:42] Speaker A: No, not pros. That was. That was the 600. Oh, is it the two. The two had already died at that point, I think. [01:27:49] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [01:27:49] Speaker A: Okay. That's why. So that lovely lady that's holding that light for us is doing so because minutes before that, we smashed two ad, two hundred s and a beauty dish. [01:27:59] Speaker C: My two ad, two hundred s. I think. [01:28:02] Speaker B: I think Jim's still a bit bitter about that, Justin. [01:28:04] Speaker A: He keeps bringing it up. [01:28:06] Speaker B: He does. [01:28:07] Speaker A: He does seem to be letting it go. [01:28:09] Speaker D: Does he? [01:28:09] Speaker B: No, no, it's a bit of a pain. [01:28:12] Speaker D: Look, I said, do you find you use constant lights more these days or less? [01:28:20] Speaker A: Well, Jim just bought a couple of tube lights. That's what's. That's not a lightsaber in the background of his thing there. [01:28:29] Speaker D: Is that a fat pavel tube? Is that like godox? [01:28:33] Speaker C: No, no. Yeah, the TR 120. I bought a couple of them. They've been great. [01:28:38] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot. [01:28:40] Speaker D: A lot of cosplay photographers use the eyes using constant lights now simply because of the option of having different colors. And the. [01:28:48] Speaker A: I bought a couple of these cheap TL 30 tubes. TL 30, what brand are they? [01:28:54] Speaker B: They go docs. [01:28:55] Speaker A: Go docs. But I joined them together with this little adapter. So now 60. Now a TL 60 is 355. $50.02. TL 30s. Is there $100 each? So I think I've figured out a way to hack the system. [01:29:12] Speaker C: How many watts are they? [01:29:13] Speaker B: Don't share it with anyone. Keep it a secret. [01:29:16] Speaker A: Yeah, but when there's two of them, it doubles, Jim. [01:29:20] Speaker D: It doubles the power. [01:29:22] Speaker C: Yeah, but is that still more than one? [01:29:24] Speaker A: It doubles the light output because you're putting two of them next to each other. So when you're comparing them specs wise, if one, if they're, if a TL sixty's say 30 watts or whatever they say it is, can't remember 18 or 30. If these are only half that. If you put two of them together, that is double, they are double the power. That's, that's how it works. [01:29:45] Speaker D: Not double the brightness. Does it double, isn't 60 watt double the brightness? It depends how rather than double the amount of light. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not good at physics. But intuitively, if you have one, assuming the 60 watt can have double the brightness power. Like if you look at the lumens, if, let's say it's 2000 was only 1000 lm, putting 230 watts together would still be 1000. Would think in terms of maximum brightness, even though you have more light area. [01:30:20] Speaker A: Because if you imagine the way that you disprove this is if you are measuring the lumens that say 1 meter thousand lumens at 1 meter distance. Because lumens is measured at a distance. Because obviously light falls off if you put, say the way to prove this theory is if you have one and it's a thousand lumens, you're not sure whether two will increase. It put a thousand lights next to each other, do you think the amount of light hitting that spot will increase? Okay, yeah, so it does increase, but it's, and it's the same with. Because it takes a lot more power. Like you double the increase of power. That's the inverse law for the brightness at a distance. So if you double the wattage is the same as doubling. Yeah. It's hard for me to explain because I don't understand physics either. I left that in halfway through year twelve when I stopped listening. [01:31:18] Speaker D: It makes sense. It makes sense. [01:31:19] Speaker A: But yeah, it's like, if you think about it that way, if you were to just keep adding these lights to it, it's definitely going to increase the overall brightness. Yeah. Where it gets confusing is, are you adding power to the same output system? So say if I just doubled the power of a 30 in the same size, the same led tube, or are we adding more tubes, like more leds along a tube with more power? Or if you were adding more leds along a tube with the same power, then that would probably have less light output at a, at a distance, if that makes sense. If you had a long tube but with the same wattage as a short tube, it would probably have more of a spread of light. But it would have maybe less light at that 1 meter measured spot because it's a less focused, it's like putting a softbox on a. Or you know, like a small reflector versus a spread. The small reflector is going to get more light output measured at 1 meter in a small distance. Yeah, it's. I don't know. [01:32:21] Speaker D: I reckon you're going to need to have a gaffer on as your next guest for you for a future podcast. [01:32:28] Speaker A: Maybe. Maybe I'll do like a mister beast lighting video. I bought 1000 tube lights to see how bright we can, if we can light up a whole city. [01:32:38] Speaker D: And at the end we blow it all up and then we blew it. [01:32:40] Speaker A: Up and drove it into. Maybe, maybe. [01:32:47] Speaker B: Okay, should we jump to some news? Yes, on that. My head hurts. [01:32:52] Speaker A: Long story short, sometimes we use continuous lights. [01:32:55] Speaker B: I was trying to follow. [01:32:56] Speaker C: I promise we're getting there slowly. We came from flash. [01:33:01] Speaker A: Early days of flash video certainly accelerated my adoption of continuous lights over flash, you know, but yeah, it's still, there's still very, you know, for the sort of stuff you do, you know, continuous lights, anything outdoors, the power is just not there. [01:33:19] Speaker D: Yeah, that's right. [01:33:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially for spending the same amount of money for portability. [01:33:24] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:33:28] Speaker B: So news, let's jump to some news. News of the day, news of the week. I've been trawling the Internets and I came across a couple of articles that I thought might be of interest, trying to find the one. Given that the Olympics are on, let me just share my screen with the folks at home. So as we know that the Paris Olympics are on at the moment, if you, unless you're living under a rock, you wouldn't know it was on. This is the, this is Canon's kind of storage space where they have all of the gear for photojournalists and, and the like. And these are all canon on the right here. These are all eos, Mark, eos, R, five s, MK, two s, and on the left these are all. See if that loads so everyone can see it. These are all new ones. And so look at all the just stretches. That's quite a serious chunk of cash and photography gear there. But then there was an article that someone wrote, let me just jump to this screen. Sorry. [01:34:46] Speaker A: There we go. [01:34:47] Speaker B: Look at that. [01:34:48] Speaker A: Let's just go do some shopping. [01:34:50] Speaker B: So professional service area where people can go and obviously lease or buy gear ready for the other. [01:34:59] Speaker D: It's like that scene from the Matrix, right? When neo goes, I need guns, lots of guns, lots of lenses. [01:35:10] Speaker B: Serious investment. [01:35:12] Speaker A: We should recreate that. [01:35:13] Speaker D: Yeah, just, you know what I want to recreate one day is you guys have seen, there's a scene in John Wick to where he visits the sommelier and he goes and he presents him with like, you know, all these different guns. Like, what do you want for. For main course, this gun, and then for dessert, this. Yeah, we should do that for like. [01:35:31] Speaker A: A camera with lenses. It's interesting you bring that up, Greg. I actually joined. I've been, I've been meaning to join Canon professional services since I bought my first r series camera when I switched back from Nikon. That was four years ago, but in the last week I actually finally did it, which. It's a fee. I don't think it ever used to be a fee. I'm not sure how that. When that changed, but. So you have to pay a fee to be a part of canon professional services and then you get access to like their faster repairs and cleaning and stuff like that. What I didn't realize is they actually let you loan lenses to test as well, which is why I've got. Yeah, I've got, uh, got this little fella which is crazy. [01:36:15] Speaker C: Pretty dangerous for you, I reckon. [01:36:17] Speaker A: I know they, they obviously saw me coming. Um, that's a 70 to 200. [01:36:23] Speaker B: Wow. [01:36:24] Speaker A: 7200 f four. And it weighs less than my 50 mil. Admittedly the 50 mm 1.2 is heavy, but it's just nuts. [01:36:32] Speaker B: That's 1.2? [01:36:33] Speaker D: Yeah, that's a, that's an rf lens. Is it rf? [01:36:36] Speaker A: 7200 f four. [01:36:37] Speaker D: Wow. [01:36:40] Speaker A: Since I was in the little, the website thing. Anyway, the 100 to 500, which is pretty cool. Anyway, CPS on the back on their lens cap, so I don't steal their lens cap. But yeah, so I, I'm just testing those, those out while I'm waiting for my five reals mark two reals to arrive. But yeah, it's CPS. [01:37:01] Speaker B: Oh, you ordered one? We ordered the strap to get the free camera. [01:37:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I just wanted to get our strap and so I pre ordered it and I don't know when it arriving but I'm pre ordered and as soon as it arrives I'll let everyone know. And I'm hoping to have an all star show of people that get the five reals mark two reals in the first couple of weeks and just find out what everyone's thoughts are after they start shipping. [01:37:24] Speaker B: Well, here's someone. Here's MK Chan photography from. Hello from Toronto. Pre ordered the five reals mark two reals. So there's your first guest. On your special show. Yeah, we'll be using it with my recently purchased lucky strap. [01:37:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Make sure you reach out to us when your five mark two arrives. We'd love to have you on the podcast and find out what you think about it. [01:37:43] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:37:45] Speaker A: Very cool, very cool. [01:37:47] Speaker B: Very cool indeed. What else we got in the news? Let me just have a quick look. What are the other. This is on Nikon rumors. I'm not a huge fan of rumors, but I thought it was worth sharing given that Jim's a Nikon shooter. Jim, did you say Nikon or Nikon? [01:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good question. [01:38:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm not in America. [01:38:07] Speaker A: Nikon. [01:38:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I think. [01:38:10] Speaker D: I think it's Nikon from a japanese perspective because Japanese don't say any guy. They always say knee. [01:38:16] Speaker B: There you go. [01:38:17] Speaker D: So don't quote me in America, which are everything. [01:38:22] Speaker A: We'll take it. Yep, the official pronunciation. [01:38:28] Speaker B: New firmware updates on the way for the ZFZ seven mark two. You've got a z eight, don't you, Jim? You're running z eight s? Yeah, two z eight s and z nine cameras. [01:38:39] Speaker A: What does it say? What they're, they got to do with the. [01:38:43] Speaker B: One of the new features is to update them to support or improve the support for the Nikon imaging cloud, which is, from what I understand, it's camera direct to cloud service. Fujifilm just recently launched their own version of this to Canon. Have something similar? [01:39:03] Speaker A: Justin, honestly, I don't know. That is one gripe I have with Canon is not the cloud. But even just getting images to your phone is not easy. So I don't know if everyone seems to be sort of moving towards this sort of stuff. That's like a fast access to the images that you've taken and yeah, I don't know if they have a cloud at all. [01:39:25] Speaker B: Well, I know that the Fujifilm one, they recently launched it with the X 100 mark six and the GFX 100s mk two. I don't know if it was on any other of the GFX models, but they've partnered with a cloud service, which I think is probably a key element, obviously for direct to cloud raw file transfer and the platform, the cloud service platform allows for instant collaboration. So going back to the Olympics as an example, you're taking your shots, you're sending them to your cloud service and your editor is already on them by the time they land, ready to be published or posted or whatever it may be. So I think it is the future, especially in photojournalism. [01:40:16] Speaker A: Hmm. [01:40:17] Speaker B: You know, downloading to your phone or your laptop or your iPad and then editing and then uploading to your media site takes time. You don't get the scoop, if that's still a thing. But with the cloud service, you know, it's pretty much instantaneous. [01:40:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:40:31] Speaker A: Interesting. [01:40:31] Speaker B: Is this something that interests you, Jim, this Nikon image? Nikon imaging cloud? [01:40:38] Speaker C: I don't think so. [01:40:39] Speaker D: So. [01:40:40] Speaker C: But me, maybe it's like a backup or something, like an extra. [01:40:44] Speaker A: That. [01:40:44] Speaker C: That would be the only. [01:40:46] Speaker D: I'm thinking if you're a wedding photographer who only shoots but you, you contract out your editing, potentially you could shoot and then it all goes into offline and then whoever does edits your photos could pick it up and just edit it and for a faster turnaround. Maybe. I don't know. [01:41:03] Speaker A: Maybe. Yeah. It just depends on how it. When, how and when it transfers and like. No, you would obviously have to be on Wi Fi or it would have to be like tethered to your phone or something like that. I really don't know. I feel old. I don't know how it works because the files are, you know, weddings. What's, you know, wedding averaging couple hundred gig. Jimbo, 100. [01:41:28] Speaker C: Yeah. Ten hour wedding would be close to 250 gig. [01:41:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like that's, that's. That's not happening anytime soon over a yemenite camera. Wi Fi that I know about. [01:41:38] Speaker B: So, yeah, if anyone out there is listening along and you use a cloud based service for your photos, whether it be Nikon or Fuji or whoever, drop us a comment and I would love to hear your views on it. Yeah, moving right along. What else have we got? We've covered that. Oh, here's one. This came up recently. Sorry, guys, I'm just. My fingers are frozen. [01:42:07] Speaker C: You need. You need some valorette gloves. [01:42:09] Speaker B: Yeah, you need some. Yeah, we do need some luckystraps. Tamron painted, patented two massive fresno zoom lenses. So the Tamron 400 to 1000, which is just pretty crazy. And the 250 to 700. So the 401,000 is an f ten to 11.5 mm. [01:42:36] Speaker A: Wow. Patent, reasonable, patented. Doesn't always mean they're going to bring these to market, does it? It just means that it's in the works maybe kind of thing. [01:42:48] Speaker B: Yeah, but at least people are thinking about it. [01:42:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:42:51] Speaker B: You know, and if they're dropping patents for this sort of lens and other companies go, oh, maybe we should think about it. Canon or Nikon or Fuji or whoever or other third party lens developers, you know, it increases competition and people just thinking about what do even niche photographers need who needs a 1000 millimeter lens? Yeah, well probably some sports, you know, surf photographers when there's their way out in, you know in a swell or wildlife from your lounge room. You know, like it's, it's, it's a. [01:43:33] Speaker A: Long canon have got the 200 to 800 f six three to f nine. I don't know if it's a. Is it, is it Fresno Fresnel Franelization? [01:43:46] Speaker B: Fresno Fresnel? [01:43:48] Speaker A: I thought it was Fresnel. I don't know anyway. I don't know if it's. If they use that in the design. I know Nikon. Nikon have some PF lenses. Fresnel phase. What do they call them? Phase first Fresno PF in the Nikon range, those lightweight tallies like the 300 f four and the 405 six. I think so. I don't know if Canon uses that in that design but their 200 800 is fairly compact and light considering the size. So yeah, maybe it's kind of in competition with a lens like that. But Tamron doing what they do and kind of going even bigger, even longer, like their, their old 150 to 600 kind of set set the tone for a lot of that along with Sigma. So that's cool to see. [01:44:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I. Very cool. So from a news perspective, that's kind of the highlights. It's been a fairly quiet week. I think everyone's hunkered down and it's just focusing on the Olympics. Canada's still riding a wave from the, the five reals mark two r one launch and now they're just sort of, I guess optimistically watching the reviews roll in. Some reviews have been coming in for the z. Is it the z six mark three? [01:45:09] Speaker C: Yep. [01:45:09] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. [01:45:10] Speaker B: Yeah. That's getting mixed reviews. Yeah. I haven't looked too deeply into them but I know that there's been some, some concerns about image quality of that. Yeah, that one. [01:45:25] Speaker A: It's interesting with the sort of like that the faster cameras and particularly the a 93 with the global shutter. I've been watching closely with the a nine three being compared to the r1 a lot. The r one coming out as a flagship and then everyone's sort of saying it's not even. It's nowhere near as fast as the a 93 canon have really dropped the ball on this. It's quite interesting because if you go back to when the a 93 reviews cut started coming out, it quickly went from this camera is epic to this image quality is pretty average compared to a modern camera. There's obviously sacrifices they had to make to get the global shutter to do its thing. So, yeah, I think people forget really quickly that a lot of the times with cameras, you can't have everything. Every camera that's made is a compromise. There is often they'll say, oh, there's no compromise. There always is. It's going to be speed, image quality. Something gets compromised because you can't have everything. [01:46:32] Speaker B: And even if they, even if they release the perfect camera, what, what are they going to sell to you next year? [01:46:38] Speaker A: Well, there's that, but I was asking. [01:46:40] Speaker B: You, Justin, because you'll buy next year's camera. I know. [01:46:43] Speaker A: Well, they've got one year to come up with something better. That's the. Yeah, that's what we want them to do, is give us. They'll make it smaller and then. Yeah, exactly. And then they've got one year to make it even. Even better. But, yeah, I don't know. I do often wonder because everyone always says they hold stuff back for the next model, and I'm sure they probably do, unless there's competitors that are leapfrogging them, in which case, I can't imagine them holding something back if they think they could take the market, if they could be the best. So I do always wonder whether that's more of a. I'd love to talk to an actual, you know, someone from high up in one of these companies to find out, like, do they, are they holding something back for the next camera release or are they literally doing the best they can compromise right now with price and everything taking and reliability taken into account, and it's just where the technology is at. [01:47:34] Speaker B: I don't know, I think it's a very formula. [01:47:37] Speaker C: Yeah. They're gonna make sure it works too. Like they might have the tech, but making it fit in the body with all of the other things might not be. Yeah. [01:47:46] Speaker A: You know, and always for a cost as well, because, you know, they've got to make money. [01:47:51] Speaker B: Yeah. They've got a machine, it, they've got to tool up machinery, they've got to buy raw materials, pre, pre production materials from other brands that create components, all of that stuff. Whilst putting a friendly, you know, targeted price tag on it. [01:48:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:48:12] Speaker B: And then it's a very complex formula. [01:48:14] Speaker A: Charging a lot for the lenses. [01:48:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:48:17] Speaker A: Because then we don't have. [01:48:20] Speaker B: Always invest in glass. [01:48:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. [01:48:23] Speaker B: Well, that's our news for the week. Before we wrap up, just a few things I want to cover off. Just remember, if you're watching along at home, to hit the. Hit the subscribe button to either the lucky strap lucky camera straps YouTube channel or the camera life YouTube channel. And make sure you tickle the bell button so that you get notifications. And we generally put up a pre live listing on YouTube and you'll get a notification to say hey, this is coming up soon and you can get yourself all ready with your morning coffee or your afternoon beverage. Um, before we, before we do wrap, Jim, any photography plans for this week or this weekend? I should say it's Thursday today. [01:49:11] Speaker C: Um, I think we're doing a little photo walk with you maybe. [01:49:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the plan. [01:49:19] Speaker A: That's Saturday morning. [01:49:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's my only photography plans other than finishing up some editing. [01:49:25] Speaker B: Nice. [01:49:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:49:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm heading to Sunday or Saturday. Are we doing the walk Saturday? [01:49:31] Speaker A: Saturday? Because you won't be here on Sunday. [01:49:34] Speaker B: Oh yeah, sorry, I'm coming Friday. I'm getting confused. So. Yeah, thanks mate. I'll read my flights. I'm heading over to Bendigo for a couple of days to work with the team from lucky straps. I've met Justin before face to face and I haven't met Jim in person or Yelena. So it'd be good to meet the team and we're going to do a couple, we've got a couple of things planned out for the, for the couple of days I'm over there. Maybe we'll capture some video footage for one of the channels, who knows? But Justin, other than me teaching you how to do street photography, have you got any other photography related plans for the weekend? [01:50:16] Speaker A: I'm testing out these lenses so I'm going to figure out how to do that. I'm going to attempt to do some sort of a lens testy review type video on these two lenses. I'm going to compare the 7200 f four to the 7202.8 and also the 24 to 105 f four. I'm going to compare them all and see really how the image quality stacks up and whether I can get away with a nice little lightweight f four instead of the 2.8. [01:50:43] Speaker D: Nice. [01:50:43] Speaker B: So that canon professional services fee just paid for itself really, didn't it? [01:50:47] Speaker A: That's right. [01:50:49] Speaker C: Nikon does that for free. Justin, just. [01:50:53] Speaker A: Yeah, but then you have to use one of their stinky cameras so you know there's pros and cons. [01:51:02] Speaker B: Ian Tan, any plans this weekend photography wise? [01:51:07] Speaker D: I have a cosplay shoot on Saturday shooting a couple of cosplayers who uh, have characters from um, an anime called or a manga called Nerdy Streamer. So I'm not, not familiar with that one. But they want to do a shoot in, uh, there's. There's a. There's a store in Melbourne Central called Million Live where they've just got rows of these machines that, that are a little bit like the skill testers where they've got all these little things, all you. They sell like gacha balls and that sort of stuff. So, yeah. Yeah. So it's going to be a very. Might be a very brightly lit, neon sort of shoot. And then after that, we might just wander the streets of Melbourne to see what else we can hit to shoot. But, yeah, that's my weekend. Otherwise, other than that, I'm just going to catch up on my sizable editing backlog. Probably got about 1010 shoots in the backlog to edit, but working my way through those. [01:52:07] Speaker C: Yeah, sorry. In real nice as well with that, that shoot you've got. Do you have to, have to get from the. From the place, like the location? [01:52:17] Speaker D: Normally I would, but when I did a scout of this million life store, they just put these things inside an area and there's. There's no. There's not a. Not like a manager, an employee who just sits. [01:52:29] Speaker C: Oh, cool. Yeah. [01:52:30] Speaker D: So it's. It's kind of like a self serve sort of thing. So we're just going to go. [01:52:34] Speaker A: Did you say that was in Melbourne Central? That's interesting. I know in the store you should be fine, but I was waiting for Yelena to go and buy something from Lululemon. And I was standing at the front of the store and I had my fairly new Leica Q three. And I was trying to figure out some stuff in the menu, how I wanted to set it up. And so I was sort of like, looking at the screen and playing around with it and stuff like that. The security guard come over and told me, I need to stop shooting right now. He said, if you're shooting professionally, you can't be here. And I said, well, I'm not. Like, I'm just playing around with my new camera. And he said, yeah, but that's a professional camera. He said, you can do anything you want with your phone. You take as many photos you want with your phone, but don't get that camera out again. [01:53:24] Speaker B: That's weird, isn't it? [01:53:25] Speaker A: It is weird because there is no difference between a phone and a camera in terms of whatever it is they're trying to stop a phone. He made it quite clear to me because he was trying to be not. He was sort of being firm, but quite nice. [01:53:38] Speaker B: And he said it was an ego thing. He was just. [01:53:41] Speaker A: No, I think he's been told he needs to do this. And he definitely made it clear. He said, mate, go for it with your phone. I don't mind at all. Just don't get the camera out again. So he wasn't trying to tell me not to take photos. He was trying to tell me, don't use the camera. You can only use your phone. I was like, I wonder if it's. [01:53:57] Speaker B: Because I've seen lots of groups of, like, young people and small dance troops, especially around federation would know, using their, their, like, using better cameras on a gimbal to shoot tiktoks. [01:54:13] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:54:14] Speaker B: And, you know, especially at Fed Square. I see a lot of it at Fed Square, because often that's where I'll start. My street walks. [01:54:21] Speaker D: Yeah, I think generally, if it's outdoors, it's. It's fine. It's indoor, sort of like in your shopping malls. You'll get the security guards. Yeah, I've had that before as well. I mean, for this shoot, I'm not going to bring a lot of gear. I'm going to. I'm going to bring maybe that small flash or maybe not even use flash at all, just a sneaky camera sort of thing. But. But if they ask me to leave, obviously I would. I know it's not. [01:54:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I think confrontation, being in the store, I think you'll be probably more. Okay. I feel like it, like, if it's within, you know, a little. Yeah, I think it was because I was out in the walkway kind of doing. Whereas I assume in the stores, it's the. For the store to manage. Yeah, yeah. [01:55:01] Speaker D: So, yeah, I'll find out on Sunday. [01:55:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let us know if you need to be bailed. [01:55:10] Speaker D: Thank you. I will. [01:55:14] Speaker B: Well, I'd like to thank Ian for joining us today. It's been really insightful and wonderful to see the work he's doing, not only in photographing. Photographing. Photographing, photographing cosplay artists, but also in building community around it. And having seen Ian work firsthand within this community, it's great to see that these cosplayers trust that the photographer is going to do the right thing. Do that he does. So thank you, Ian, for joining us. Been great to have you on the show. [01:55:48] Speaker D: Thanks for having me, guys. It's been a pleasure. [01:55:50] Speaker A: Thank you, Ian. [01:55:52] Speaker B: So we're going to wrap up. Maybe the next time you see us will be. Won't be live from Bendigo, but you might see some footage somewhere of our little get together in Bendigo. Ian. Actually, just one last question, Ian. Where can people see your work? Where are your socials? [01:56:07] Speaker D: I'm on Instagram. Really? That's. That's about the only thing. I'm not on tick tock or anything. It's kind of beyond me, but definitely Instagram. It's. It's on the. On the screen. Instagram at. Get a pug at. Guitar pug. [01:56:20] Speaker A: Guitar pug. [01:56:22] Speaker D: So you can see the pugs in the background here. I used to have two pugs, so. But they've. They've moved on. And I used to play guitar. [01:56:30] Speaker B: Well, yeah, it's a talented Mandev. All right, well, we're gonna wrap it up, guys. This has been the Camera life podcast brought to you by lucky straps. Jim, thanks for your time today. [01:56:46] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:56:46] Speaker B: Good to see you. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. [01:56:49] Speaker C: Come to the strap factory packing place. [01:56:53] Speaker B: Yeah, gonna come to the headquarters. [01:56:55] Speaker A: Lucky HQ. [01:56:57] Speaker C: Lucky HQ, yeah. [01:56:59] Speaker B: And. And, Justin, thanks for your time today. [01:57:01] Speaker A: Thank you. [01:57:02] Speaker B: And congratulations to our winner of the free, new free Lucky strap offer. If you've got questions, if you're watching along or you're watching this after we've finished recording live, please feel free to add questions, comments, and we'll try to get to those in future episodes. We're still trying to plan next week's guests, but be sure that we will have a good show for you then. So, on behalf of the team, I'm Greg. Thanks for tuning in and have a great weekend. [01:57:32] Speaker A: Thank you. [01:57:33] Speaker D: Thanks, everyone.