EP25 Nev Clarke Talks Landscape Photography, Fujifilm GFX and More

[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's too late. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Hello. Welcome to Camera Life podcast. It's the 8 August 2024 here in freezing cold Australia. This is episode 25 and brought to you by lucky camera straps. If you've been watching along at home, this is. We've been back for. This is our fifth episode back, I think. Yeah, that sounds about right. Back catalogue of the most recent episodes and episodes from last year are available on the YouTube channels for the camera life and Lucky straps. Last week, we were joined by fellow Fujifilm photographer Ian Tan, who talked to us about his journey through photography and his love of the craft. But more importantly, he talked through how he's turned his portrait work into cosplay photography. So attending events like Comic Con and Pax to photograph people in full costume of their favorite characters from anime, gaming, manga and Marvel Universe, things like that. So if you haven't seen that one, please check it out. If you're watching live, we're coming to you. Well, three of us are coming to you from Victoria in Australia, and one of us is coming to you from hope I get this right, Albany in Western Australia. We'll get to him in just a moment. So, yeah, please be sure to check out the channel. Jim, Justin, welcome. Good to have you on again, obviously. [00:01:42] Speaker A: Good morning. [00:01:43] Speaker B: Sure. [00:01:43] Speaker A: So it's nice to be here. It was a good intro. That was very nice. You're getting very good at it. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, just getting a flow. Getting a flow. How are you, Justin? [00:01:54] Speaker A: I'm great. I'm great. I've had a busy week. Things are going well. I've done lots of photography, and it's good. It was good because we actually caught up on the weekend. [00:02:04] Speaker B: We did. I'm surprised you said you had a busy week because when I saw you last, as we were having breakfast in Bendigo on Saturday morning, you said, I'm just going to relax for a couple of weeks now. I'm just going to take it easy, just chill out a bit. [00:02:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Obviously that hasn't. [00:02:19] Speaker D: That's a busy week. [00:02:20] Speaker A: So. Okay, real quick, because this is going to derail the show if I get into it too long. But basically we. We went for a photo walk. [00:02:27] Speaker C: What was it? [00:02:27] Speaker A: On Saturday morning? [00:02:28] Speaker B: Saturday morning? Yeah. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Because you come up to. To Bendigo Friday. [00:02:33] Speaker B: We did a tour of the hq at Jim's place and went to the factory and. Which was absolutely fascinating. And we managed to squeeze in several meals. [00:02:45] Speaker A: We did good. [00:02:47] Speaker B: Good. Yeah, we ate well. [00:02:49] Speaker A: And then a photo walk on Saturday morning, which it left me feeling like I'm not very good. At taking photos if there's not a subject, if it's not. Because, you know, for ten years, I've taken photos for a purpose. Someone's wedding, sports, photography, there's always something going on. I've got to capture it, and that's. That's not too bad, but when it's like, hey, just go and take some photos. I was. I was struggling a bit, and so then I was thinking about that all weekend. And on Monday, I decided to do a 30 day challenge of taking a photo every day, actually putting that photo out into the world, because that's something I also don't do a lot of. If it's personal work, I usually. It just. I just look at it and then leave it on my computer. So posting it, which at the moment is on Instagram because I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it. So that photo has to go up on Instagram that same day. And I also have to put a video out the same day of me taking that photos or trying to take photos, whatever I decide to do. So I've done that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I went out this morning, but obviously the video is not up yet, so we're not good enough. So we're four days in. So my very quiet few weeks has turned into quite a busy week. But it's been really fun. [00:04:07] Speaker B: Cool. Nice to hear. Good to hear that you're out and about with your camera. Jim. How about you? What have you been up to this week? [00:04:13] Speaker D: Um, not a lot of photography stuff. Just editing. Just trying to tidy a few things up before I head away for a few weeks, so. [00:04:19] Speaker B: Yep. [00:04:20] Speaker D: Um, no shooting since the weekend. [00:04:22] Speaker B: Yep. How did you find the Saturday walk? The. Did you find that without a subject, without a focus? It was tricky. [00:04:31] Speaker D: A little bit. I kind of focused a little bit on you three, so that kind of gave me something to. [00:04:37] Speaker A: That's cheating. [00:04:43] Speaker B: When I come next time, I'll come a bit more prepared with some proper challenges for you. [00:04:47] Speaker D: Sounds good. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah, well, next time we're coming to Melbourne. That's true. Yeah. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that's good. [00:04:53] Speaker A: You're going to show us street photography in Melbourne. [00:04:55] Speaker B: I will say one of the most impressive things about going to Bendigo, apart from the amazing food, was Jim's shirt collection. [00:05:05] Speaker A: He's got more colours of flannies than anyone. [00:05:09] Speaker B: I was very. Not only of the quality of the shirt, but the quality of the pressing. [00:05:15] Speaker D: They're not pressed. [00:05:17] Speaker A: That must have been a brand new one that you were seeing, Greg. [00:05:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he presses. [00:05:20] Speaker A: I think he takes them straight out of the plastic. [00:05:22] Speaker B: And didn't Greg Norman used to do that? He'd wear a shirt every day and throw it away or give it away. Yeah, that was the rumor. [00:05:30] Speaker D: Yeah. We're not there yet. [00:05:31] Speaker B: No. No. Well, we are good to hear from you guys about your week, and it was amazing to catch up. Thank you once again for having me in Bendigo. I learned a lot, and it was great to meet Jim in person and Yelena and catch up with Justin, because we have methadone before. We've been working together for a number of years, so. But we are joined today by special guest Nev Clark. Welcome, Nev. Welcome to the Camera Life podcast. [00:06:00] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. It was kind of obviously arranged late in the week, and I was really excited, actually, and then I went, oh, what am I getting myself into here? But, no, I just really excited to share a little bit about my journey. And, yeah, it's interesting because I. I've been a worker with young people for a long time, and it's often the first question I ask people is, what's your story? And I pretty much approach photography the same way. I pick up my camera and I go, right, what story am I going to create with this? I'm very much in that kind of storytelling genre. If you hear it, you often hear that term storyteller. But I really do kind of approach photography from that, because essentially, when we take photo, we are trying to tell a story. So it's. It's been an interesting journey. My photography, I thought I called it a career, but it's a. I just call it a journey. And, yeah, where it goes, I'm not sure, but I'm loving it. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I like the idea of visual storytelling. As you said, I think it's a really important part of what we do because it's a topic that we keep trying to eventually intend to talk about more on the podcast. But I. Who are we taking photos for? Who are we telling the story for? Who are we telling it to? And how do we present the story to people other than making it postage size on an app? I mean, that's still important. Photographers have embraced social media and sort of turned it to their own uses, which I think is amazing because it helps people get known and seen and out there. So, definitely plays an important part. But, yeah, I think it's a really good point. Cast your mind back, nev, to the beginning. What was your first. What was your first entry into photography? And picking up. [00:07:49] Speaker C: It's funny. I did photography in high school. And it was really an interesting time, I'm happy to say my age. I'm 54. And I remember in the. In the mid eighties, our high school wanted to run photography. And there was a photography teacher at the school and back in the film days, and the school literally said to us, we've got no funding to run photography. I'm sorry, but we've got no money to do this. And the photography teacher was very. He was one of those very industrious kind of guys who just said, we can do this. He said, we had about seven students in the class and he said, what I need you guys to do is give up your weekends and we're going to build a dark room. So we did some fundraising at your local bunning store, selling whatever you could do to get enough materials. We got stuff donated and we actually built the darkroom ourselves. Then we accessed a grant through, I think it was called Western Australian Arts, which I think. I still think it's called that. We put an application into them and they were able to fund us with some cameras. And then he taught us from the get go of how to do film photography. Yeah, it was a very, like, which I always laugh now we literally jump online and we buy a camera and it arrives in a box and we rip it out and we start playing with. This was like the complete opposite of that. This was like, no, we're actually not going to give you a camera to start with. We're actually going to get you to build a dark room. So, you know, and all seven of those kids said, yeah, we're up for this. So we gave up our weekends. We would arrive at the school on a Saturday morning and you kind of work year, literally building the darkroom. And the amazing thing with that story is that up until, I think it's about four years ago, that dark room still existed and was still being used by the school. Now they've gone over to digital, finally. That was probably the last school in Australia, if there's a. Having googled it, obviously, but I reckon there'd be the last school in Australia that was still doing film photography. And I often would go out to the students and have. Have a chat to them occasionally about the story behind it. And there's a photo in the school. And both my teenagers. I've got two teenagers now, and they're just finishing high school. What, the last one's coming through. And, you know, they were. They were telling that my son was telling the story to other kids that, you know, my dad actually built this dark room. [00:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:13] Speaker C: So it's a really nice story and it's, it's kind of who I am about community, that, that sometimes you have to, if you want something, you have to actually put, you know, put your hard hat on and go and do the work. I'm a big believer in it more too. Yeah. Yeah. So that was where my photography journey started and, and I sort of got into just a little bit of film photography, obviously, back then. And my mum was a photographer, bless her cotton socks. She was a, just a walkabout shooter with an old little camera. And, you know, I, my dad would take me out fishing to these amazing places and I wasn't a less my dad's cotton socks. I wasn't really a fisherman. I hated fishing, actually. But I could say that because he's gone now and it's okay. But I love my dad, but he would take me to these amazing spots. But as a typical little teenager, I'd get bored. So mum gave me a camera and then suddenly I'm there and I'm enjoying it. I'm taking photos of all this stuff. And it got expensive because I was one of those snappers that just would rip off 35 mil roll just in an hour. And then, mum, I need another reel, you know, kind of thing. So, yeah, and it, and it, I sort of fell in love with the seascapes and I live in a beautiful place. And sorry to correct you, Greg, it's actually Albany. As in owl? As in big Albany, not Albany. Did I say Albany? [00:11:41] Speaker A: I heard it in the intro and I was like, oh, he's got it wrong. [00:11:46] Speaker B: He told me the correct way to say it and everything and I. [00:11:49] Speaker A: Not Aubury. Not, not like Aubrey. I'm going to note Elbury. [00:11:57] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, sorry. That's all right. All good. So, you know, going out, taking these seaskates with mum and it was really funny. I, my dad would go fishing to like, sometimes quite late in the night. So I was, I was even trying to do night photography with this little film camera. You know, it was ridiculous what I was trying to achieve. And then I'd, I'd get back to school the next day with the roll of film and I'd be missing classes because I was dashing off to the photography darkroom to get my stuff processed. You know, it's like, so even back then, I was, I was kind of addicted to it. Um, Justin, when you started. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Sorry. Uh, never decided. [00:12:32] Speaker C: No, no, that's good. That was the end. [00:12:34] Speaker B: Um, Justin, did you do film photography? In any sort of education setting. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Actually, no, that's not true. So, yeah, I was gonna say no, I didn't do film photography, but in high school, yes, we, um. I went to catholic college in Bendigo, and we had a dark room. We did some film photography. I found the process. I remember finding it interesting, but I also found it, I don't know, complicated. Maybe I wasn't that interested in it. It certainly is not where photography started for me. It's sort of. I remember doing it, but I don't remember making anything where I was really excited about the photo that I'd created or whatever. I found the darkroom process interesting, but, yeah, the shooting process, I don't think. I think the teachers, from what I can remember, were overly inspiring on the shooting side of things. I think it was more about teaching the process of how to develop photos in the dark room. But, yeah, we had a lab. [00:13:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. [00:13:35] Speaker D: Yeah. At uni in first year, a little bit, we did a bit of film. There's a few different assignments we did on film. So that's the camera there, that one, wherever it is, on the wall. Um, that I used. So, yeah, it's, uh. Yeah, did a little bit, but haven't done a lot since. [00:13:54] Speaker B: Yep. Okay. Um, just, uh, Jashani. We'll say Jashani. My son's. It's not like Albert Albany. Uh, my son's school in Melbourne still uses film. Uh, he came with a k 1000 pentax and a few rolls of film last year in year eleven. That's great to hear. [00:14:11] Speaker D: That's awesome. [00:14:11] Speaker B: I studied. I finished year twelve and went and did a year 13 equivalent, which would probably be like a tafe now. I'm 51 in a few days. So I studied. There was no digital photography when I started, so it was film, like Nev. And I think film photography taught me, obviously, a huge amount about the craft, but it's the kind of principles that I carry through into my digital work. I mean, granted, I'm using Fujifilm, which a lot of people say look and feel like film cameras, but I think. I think it made a huge difference in when I. Because I had a big gap where I didn't do. I had a digital camera, but I didn't do much photography and a film camera, but they were sort of more point and shoots in between school. And when I took up digital photography, and I think it made that process so much easier, transition into. Into digital and just sort of understand exposure triangle and, you know, all those sorts of things just quickly. [00:15:15] Speaker A: Greg it's actually, it's. It's Jshannie, who's actually one of our long time listeners used to comment. No, no, we. I think we called him J Shani for episodes and episodes. And then I got an email from him. I was like, ah, that makes more sense. But, yeah, good to see you. Thanks for coming back and checking the show out again. [00:15:38] Speaker B: Yeah, welcome. So, Nev from high school, where did photography lead you then? [00:15:46] Speaker C: Well, funnily enough, it's a little bit like your story. I didn't sort of pursue it much beyond that. Funnily enough, I had a bit of a life movement thing where I left Albany and I moved north. I don't know if you guys read a tip, Albany. If you've ever read a Tim Winton novel, he talks about Angelus in the books. Los Angeles is this cold, mystical, wet town that it just rained all the time. And as a young teenager, sort of 19, I. I just wanted to get out of the place. I wanted to go and find the sun. So I actually moved north to Geraldton. And I really didn't do much photography at all. I did have my cameras and occasionally I would shoot some, some film and, and get them done. But I sort of took a big life break from photography until I came back to Albany when I was about 31, 30 31. And that's when I sort of recommenced my photography journey. It was just because I was working, doing other things. And then even when I got back into photography, I met a partner and I did the whole, yep, have kids. And, you know, when you have kids and you're just busy and you're working and trying to. I just really. And it wasn't until I was about 41 where I started to go, actually, you know what? I've got to kind of, kind of do this. And funnily enough, my, my lovely ex wife. And I say that all beautiful respect to her. She was an amazing person. She said, oh, you should get back into it. And so when I. When we split up, I then, funnily enough, was going out to buy a coffee table, of all things, because, you know, you got a new house and you got to put your feet somewhere. So there was this camera sitting on the. On the bench at the house that I was picking up the coffee table, and I said to the guy, that little camera there, are you selling it? He goes, yeah. I said, oh, how much? He says, oh, no, I've already sold it. I've got another guy coming. I says, oh, mate, I'll give you 300 for and the coffee table. So he said, yeah, sold, you know, so I took the camera, probably bought someone else's camera, but away I went. I grabbed this little Nikon D, I think was a D 3400, I think it was. And I loved it, you know, and. But it took me a while to go from that back using a film camera to that digital space, just the way my brain works as well. I did find it really challenging, but got the hang of it pretty quickly. I mean, compositional wise, I've never had a problem with. Well, I'm not saying I'm the best composition person in the world, but I never really had a problem with composition. It was more the what does this button do if I press this? Oh, what does that do? Kind of thing. That was always my struggle. But then, slowly but surely, I upgraded that camera to a D 7500 about a year and a half later. Then I went to the D 850 about a year after that, maybe so. And then, you know, you're basically into this. Suddenly you're holding this $5,000 camera and you're thinking, what am I doing here with it? But it was really going well. I was doing a lot of community stuff, which I still do a lot of, you know, I'm still in that space of doing, you know, a fair bit of professional, paid work. And then there's, every now and then I'll get an email from a little community organization that says, hey, nev, we need a photographer on Saturday. We've got no money. Can you come for an hour? And I'll go, yeah, no worries. I'm there. You know, I still don't, I don't lose that. I'll never lose that because of who I am. But I, you know, I got into the job that I got into, which is working in drug and alcohol counseling, and I love that job, and I still do that job today. And in fact, I think in many ways, that job made me a better photographer. It grounded me. It, you know, it's working with really vulnerable people. So to jump forward a little bit further, I then started to run some little groups with young people, teaching them photography. And that's kind of where I'm at today, doing a fair bit of that stuff as well. And a lot of that is now funded, which is great. So community organizations will come to me and say, I've got some funding for a program, can you come? And it's not. We're not talking high end dollars here to do this kind of stuff. You're doing it because you love it, but I, you know, you're seeing a kid who maybe have, who's got some anxiety or depression, and he picks up a camera and he starts walking around it, and they start to. You can just see the look on their face they're creating there. They're growing immediately, and it's just the most amazing thing to watch. And it's. And funnily enough, I often say it's not about the image that they're going to take with that camera. That's just, this is. Let's forget about that stuff for a second. It's. This is really about, this kid is suddenly engaging in something where he's doing something really good for him. So. And I was kind of like that myself. I grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood. You know, life wasn't easy as a kid for me, and I kind of, my goal was always to grow out of the hood into something. And my dad always said to me, you know, just stick at it. Don't give up on stuff. And he was very determined to say to me all the time, he said, just keep going. So, yeah, that's kind of my story, how I progressed. And then. Do you want to know about the Fujifilm crossover or. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll get into that in a sec. [00:20:54] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:20:55] Speaker B: Talked about the community work that you do with, with vulnerable, you know, kids and teenagers. Tell us a little bit more about that. Like, how did you get into that, that side of things? [00:21:08] Speaker C: Well, it was interesting. It was actually back in my days in Geraldton, I was living up there, and I was playing basketball with some friends, and I really enjoyed basketball. And I started sort of a bit of sports coaching when I got back to Albany as well. And one of my friends of mine, he had a program that were running through what's called the Australian Sports Commission, which is formerly known as the Australian Institute of Sport. He said, oh, we want to get some kids into sport. So, funnily enough, I rocked up to that. Did a one day training course on how to be a sports coach. I'd done a lot of coaching already, so that wasn't difficult, but got the qualification, and they sent me off to a school to teach sport. So there was all these schools up on the board that you could choose from, and all the people in the room were all choosing the very private schools and all the good schools. I thought, you know what? I'm going to go back to my primary school and give back. And it was one of those really tough neighborhood schools. So I went back and I taught sport at the school. And essentially I got almost employed by two schools in my area to run sport and just giving back to the community. So. And then I progressed in my professional career, started applying for other jobs, and drug and alcohol work came up because there was a job advertised and I saw it and I applied for it and I actually didn't think I'd get it. I was kind of, I didn't feel like I had enough qualifications. But when I got the interview, they said, look, you've got years of experience working with young people. So. And I was about 40 years of age, I think I've been there now 13 years. I think love that job. They've been great to me. In fact, they really do support my photography journey as well. In fact, I'm just going to hopefully embark on a little project soon to do some work with the organization, using my photography skills to do all our merchandise and stuff. So that's great. So my journey with young people is just one of working with them. I worked with homeless people for a while. I worked with, in schools. Now I've done drug and alcohol work. And, you know, it's a, it's a tough job some days, and I often say that I was talking to my boss. You say, this is a really tough gig some days, but photography helps me. It's my self, it's also my self care. It's, you know, I felt it even the other day. I had a pretty tough day and I literally grabbed my camera and within 20 minutes here I'm standing in front of a beautiful seascape and I, my world just goes away and I'm in my happy place. I call it my happy place. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. So, yeah, so it's been a journey, and, and where it goes next, I don't know. I, you know, there was a period probably last year where I thought maybe I could make the leap. I was watching a couple of the podcast from a couple of weeks ago about making that leap to, you know, being a full time photographer and generating enough income. And at the time, I probably was, I was hard because I was working this job and then I was doing my photography and it was like, I was so busy, it was almost chaotic. But then I thought, oh, okay, if I give up my day job, I'm going to lose, you know, a lot of money. But I'm also going to have to really up my game around getting photography based work. And one of the challenges of Albany is we have a, we have an amazing, I call it my favorite word plethora of great photographers here. There's, it's like this photography little hub here that's just amazing. There's so many good ones and I'd be competing for them. So I've kind of just pulled my reins on the horse a little bit and gone, you know what? I can wait for that a little bit longer until I'm financially in a better spot where my mortgage comes down, and then I'll make that jump again. And I'm okay with that. I sometimes think if. I've often thought if I became a full time photographer, would I lose my heart and soul for just going out and shooting, I'd be thinking, oh, God, I've got to make some dollars out of this today. You know, this gig, I've got to be, you're going to be chasing invoices, you're going to be chasing work, and you're going to have to sell yourself. And as you people would know, that's all really quite challenging. Yeah, so I'm in that beautiful space of, yeah, I'll just finish off Greg by saying I'll get there eventually, but not quite ready for that. [00:25:20] Speaker B: No, I think it's, it's good to be reflective like that. Jim, did you find that a similar challenge when you moved to full time photography? [00:25:28] Speaker D: It probably is. I guess it's still, you know, I guess like what Justin's doing at the moment of just deciding you're gonna shoot for no reason. I don't often do that, really, ever. And then when I do, I enjoy it generally with a subject, you know, I'll go out and do something that, yeah, is fun, but, yeah, I don't really often shoot just for myself and for no reason whatsoever. [00:25:52] Speaker A: When we were sort of when we were both deep into weddings, because Jim does a heap of weddings still now and a heap other photography work, but I don't do as much anymore. But when we were both kind of doing a similar amount, it usually took something special to be happening for us to pick up our cameras and head out and do something that was just for us. So we needed some sort of purpose. Yeah, because when you shoot back to back twelve hour weddings on a Friday and Saturday, and you've got three or four days of editing ahead of you that next week, and then you do that week after week through a wedding season, it does get very. And also gear management just becomes part of your life and a chore like batteries, memory cards, keeping everything organized and stuff. And so having to you build it up in your head, I think as being more than what it is, where it's like, we're gonna go out and shoot and you're like, oh, I gotta get all my gear organized. Instead of just like, I'll just grab, just grab a camera and go. I don't know. That's what it felt like for me sometimes, anyway. And then you sort of think it's been months, months since I've taken a photo that wasn't for, for work, basically. There was definitely spans of months. I don't know how long you've sometimes gone, Jim, but maybe less now because you've got a daughter. You probably pick up your camera a bit more for family stuff. But prior to that, I'm sure that, yeah, there's definitely times where I went months between shooting something that was not paid for by a client. [00:27:31] Speaker D: Definitely. I've been trying to change the barriers for me. And sometimes that might just be having a memory card that's simply for personal use and you don't have to format it. It can just sit on your desk. You can just literally pick it up, put in the camera. You're not putting two cards in because it doesn't matter if you lose it. Like, you just, it's just there when you need it. [00:27:53] Speaker A: We built a pretty regimented structure around. Like, we always shoot to two cards. Everything gets backed up in three places. You always, straight away, you ingest your cards so that you can then format them to know that they're ready to be used on the next shoot, you know? So you sort of have this checklist of what's involved in a shoot, and all of that became a barrier to. I'm gonna. Yeah, so that's actually a really good idea, Jim, to use having a card that's just like personal stuff only. And it doesn't need to be formatted until it's full sort of thing. [00:28:28] Speaker C: Yeah, true. [00:28:32] Speaker B: I've got a friend who, he was a completely. A Fuji X series user for years, and then he. We'll try and get him on the podcast, but he. [00:28:41] Speaker A: Should we change this podcast to the Fujifilm Life podcast? [00:28:58] Speaker D: When are they jumping on board as a partner? [00:29:02] Speaker A: Cannon forever. Cannon. I love you, Cannon. [00:29:05] Speaker B: But he, he jumped to Sony full frame. He's got a couple of a seven s. Seven s. Anyway. And all of his glass. He's got gorgeous glass collection. And he uses that free sports photography, and he does like a lot of water sport, like kite surfing and photography and things like that. But he has a Fuji X 100. I think it's a mk, four or five I think it's the four. And he keeps that just for personal use. And so it's a completely different ecosystem. It's just there. It's always with him. It's easy to tuck in his work bag or, you know, if we're catching up somewhere and we're going to meet in the city because he lives on Philip island, but if we're going to meet up some. At some stage, he'll bring his x 100 with him. And that's just his fun camera. So it changes his mindset. Like with the SD cardinal, you're not so worried about it just sitting there for, you know, days, weeks, months, without even possibly editing them. He's just always got this. This camera with him. And that changes his mindset to how he approaches his work. [00:30:10] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:30:10] Speaker C: Yeah. I can say to. What I often say to people when I'm teaching them as well is if you're, you know, you've got three or four cameras or whatever, just buy a little camera, maybe. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. I try and get them off their phone, but stick it in your glove box, like, it doesn't matter if it gets stolen, like claim insurance or whatever, but if you have it on you, it's in your glove box. Keep a couple of batteries in there, whack an SD card, and that's your. Just drive around, you see something interesting, stop for five minutes and take a shot, and you'll capture some amazing moments. I often think it's about that process of, I'll go home. I've got to get my camera organized. I've got to get the batteries in, and I got to. Oh, what lens? That's. You've already stopped yourself doing it. You know, that's so I just think, yeah, have a glock. I call it the God box camera. [00:31:01] Speaker B: I think Justin knows about that, but he. He just leaves his, like, a q three sitting on top of the dash in his van. When I arrived in Vandergrift, I was carrying both of my fuji cameras and. And my brand new MacBook Pro and a whole bunch of other tech in my bag. My Nintendo switch and Justin's van doors are all wide open in the driveway at Jim's place, and he's like a q three sitting on the dash in the sun. And I said, wow, you wouldn't see this in the city. [00:31:35] Speaker A: I had to explain to Greg that Bendigo's a little bit different. And, look, we've got to be a little bit careful here. But it's. Yeah, it's not the same. Look, I wouldn't have. We were at Jim's house within, I could see the car, but I wouldn't leave the q three on the dash of my van. If I was, like, parking somewhere, someone might mistake it as a Fuji and steal it. [00:31:57] Speaker B: You did put it away. Jim's dad showed up, and. And he got out of his car and just left his door wide open too. Like, I just. It was a bit of a theme. [00:32:07] Speaker A: It's how we roll in the country. The Leica Q three. Just while we're on that subject, it is the camera that I dreamed about for years and bought for that purpose of, like, this will be my personal camera, and I did. I've used it for that, and I took it on our big trip to the US and shot only with this. It was the only camera I took and had a great time with it. And now that I've kind of used that to break the. I don't know, break my mindset around my work camera and personal camera and stuff like that. [00:32:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:46] Speaker A: This last week or so, I've been shooting with the r three, and I think I like it more. It makes, like. Even though the Q three is beautiful, that, like, getting back to my camera that I know, like, it's. It's muscle memory extension of what I'm thinking kind of camera. Yeah, I can. I'm definitely. [00:33:07] Speaker B: So you make the mistake of picking up a Leica over a fujifilm. [00:33:12] Speaker A: You haven't tried the Q three yet, Greg? [00:33:14] Speaker C: No, I would just get the Fuji. [00:33:20] Speaker A: It's funny. The only thing that really, that I love about Laika, and I wish there was some way to do it with cannons. I don't know if the newer Nikons or Fuji and stuff have these sort of features, but there's a lot of stuff going on in the viewfinder. And you can simplify it, but there will still be, like, little icons and things, like our image stabilization is on or something like that. I want to get rid of all of that. The, like, you can get rid of everything other than just, like, your settings, and that's the scene and the settings. So you can get rid of everything. You can get rid of everything, but then you don't have your settings in the viewfinder, and I kind of like those. So it's like, I just want, like, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, get rid of everything else, and I haven't. [00:34:08] Speaker D: You just get a z eight. [00:34:09] Speaker A: Justin, can you do that on the z eight? [00:34:11] Speaker D: Yeah, I often change, but does it. [00:34:15] Speaker A: Ever, like, is it ever got little icons and stuff like that. [00:34:18] Speaker D: Or you can just have like. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Yeah, just the. [00:34:23] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:34:24] Speaker A: Remember the good old days of dslrs where it was just, you just saw the image and then there was just like the meter and the new settings and that was it. I do like that. [00:34:33] Speaker D: So you can have that, you can have everything. You can have nothing. [00:34:36] Speaker A: Speaking of dslRs, just quickly, before we get to that nev, how good it was the d 850, though, as a camera, we use those for years and that did produce exceptional images. [00:34:47] Speaker C: It's really funny, guys with the d 850, I, you know, and I was kind of in that space, do I go mirrorless? And I went to Perth, which is about a five hour drive, and I, I think the z one or z first z camera had come out and I was umming and ahhing about that, or the D 850. So I, I took, they let me hire one out for the day and I'd already taken a few photos with the d 850 and because a friend of mine had a d 850, so I borrowed his, and then I just sort of jumped on my computer. I had a look at the files. I just couldn't see a major jump from the d 850 to the first series of Z cameras. So I went, you know what, I'm just going to go with the d 850. And I still as good as the z eight. And I've had a look at the files from the z eight and the z nine. That, yeah, that you, they probably make the photography easier because it's a mirrorless camera, but there wasn't that big image quality jump. So I stuck with the d 850 up until probably about a year ago, and that's when I sort of transitioned to Fuji. But I've still got my d 850, funnily enough, and I'm just, I want to sell it, but I can't. It's like, it's got this emotional. Yeah, oh, yeah, you got, you go, I'm almost typing it up to put it on Facebook and then I go delete. [00:36:02] Speaker B: So it's like, it's like I'm selling. [00:36:04] Speaker C: Off an old friend, you know, it's. Yeah. And you do have that relationship with your camera. And it's like, I think one of the things I developed is a, is you almost name your camera and you have this relationship. The D 850 is just an amazing. I still say if you've got only x amount of money and you, you're looking to get it, that's, that's a camera that's just about indestructible great image quality and now affordable with the lenses, man, you can kick yourself out and. [00:36:31] Speaker A: You don't need to do video at all. Like, if you're not trying to do any hybrid stuff, if you're purely stills and you're on a budget and you want. Yeah, probably maximum bang for buck image quality and with other features, obviously you could get a really cheap camera with good image quality these days. But if you need like, that robust kind of pro level body, it's killer deal secondhand. Yeah, Jim sold a couple of them and they were so cheap that it's like, wow, you can get some great, great deals at the moment if you're happy to shoot dslr instead of mirrorless. But. [00:37:03] Speaker C: Yeah, now speaking and even. Yeah, go ahead, Greg. Sorry, sorry. [00:37:09] Speaker B: Just wanted to cover off the, the comment from J. S. Harney. I hope I got that one right. I've got an expo too, so I could qualify for Fuji sponsored podcast. Absolutely. [00:37:20] Speaker C: More Fuji. [00:37:24] Speaker B: Cannon. Cannon. Cannon. They're the best. [00:37:27] Speaker A: They're the best of the best company. I love them. All the people are awesome. Canon. [00:37:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah. Can we jump onto your change to Fujifilm and talk about what, what Fuji gear you're shooting with at the moment? [00:37:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I know. Yeah. But I'll tell you how I jumped to Fuji and then I'm interested to. [00:37:49] Speaker A: Know that what, what made it. Because pulling away from the D 850, a beautiful, amazing full frame camera from one of the two leading brands, Canon and Nikon, to pull away from that to a very small brand like Fujifilm is almost crazy. [00:38:03] Speaker B: You would say one of the most. [00:38:04] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it was at the time, and funnily enough, what it was as I was looking for a smaller camera just to walk about with, because taking the d 850 was, you know, always a bit of a mission and I just needed a smaller camera and I didn't really have one. So I was looking around and Nikon had a couple, I think they had a couple of small Z cameras and stuff, but I sort of wanted to try something different. And I just jumped on Facebook marketplace and I was scrolling through and I went, Fujifilm. And I clicked on this little camera in Perth and it was $900 for an xs ten. So it's a little one with stabilization. I thought, ah, $900. Yeah, just, yeah, I'll have one of them, thanks. And it arrived and I took it out and I was playing around with it straight away and I literally, the very first photo I took with it, I went, whoa, that's different. And I straight away just it. You had that, you know when you get that memory center, when you remember something from years and years ago, and obviously everyone knows about the Fujifilm look, but it was literally. It did take me straight back to being a high school student. Here I am with a film camera, kind of. And even though the s ten is a. A pasm style camera, the images out of it were straight back to my film days. And I've actually said that a lot about Fujifilm. One of the great things about their cameras is you can pick up the high end camera to the base. Cheap ax. I think there's an AE or AX model, which is the cheapest one, and you could take the same two photos and you're probably going to get a very similar result. That's the beauty of their cameras, is that it doesn't really matter which model you use, you get this consistency around the cameras. I think also, I love ability as well. Yeah. I love that little camera shot with. [00:39:53] Speaker B: I've. Sorry, mate, just to say I've shot with them like, you've just picked up the latest GFX. We'll get to that in a second. Hundred megapixel camera. And it was like picking up an X T one. It was, yeah. Which was an entry level, which was the first generation of the XT series. And it just felt like, yeah, I could. I knew how to use it instantly. [00:40:12] Speaker C: Hmm. Can't say that about no whack. It's funny because my mum, my mum was a canon user, so I've got a little soft spot for them as well. It was my first film camera as a cannon. So let's just give them a little. But, yeah, just quickly, the viewfinder, the. [00:40:35] Speaker A: View there, the viewfinder thing. So the X Pros have the optical. Are they the only fujifilm that still haven't, like, an optical option? Oh, no. X 100 as well has. [00:40:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:46] Speaker B: And don't know what they'll do on. [00:40:47] Speaker A: The next one, that it's better than EvF. I do like an optical viewfinder and dslrs still have a place with that. I think they're gonna. They're gonna end up becoming like a retro. You know, I shoot DSLR kind of through optical experience. Yeah, I think so. And just quickly, one more comment circling back to having things ready to go, to get out and shoot Tony. This is how friend Tony get off my digital lawn. He has the same theory with camping. You should see his car. It's. He can leave to go camping with no notice. It's. I'm not kidding. He's got a, an automatic coffee machine and not like a nespresso pod machine, like it grinds the beans in the canopy of his ute. It slides out on a little. [00:41:31] Speaker D: And the microwave. [00:41:32] Speaker A: So he's taken that theory of get out and shoot with your camera with no notice. He does that with camping. [00:41:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Nice one, Tony. [00:41:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I loved the files out of the Fujifilm cameras straight away. I, I posted a couple of photos on the Fujifilm page and said, look, I'm just playing around with this. And, and then I just thought I upgraded to the XT five because I wanted something that I could use for professional work when I get to go out and do a shoot. I just found going to the smaller camera was the way to go. And. But I love the x t five. When I transitioned to that because it had the dials and it was straight back to my film days again. And, you know, and I also. It's just the way I'm happy to share this is that sometimes I have a little bit of tiny little bit of dyslexia, which is interesting because one of the things I struggled with is menus. I still do, if you give me a whole bunch. I mean, who doesn't? But mine's probably more pronounced. So the x t five was just this beautiful dials on top, you could just do everything but in, on top of the camera pretty much, and away I went. So I love that camera. But as I progressed with that camera, the, the low light limitations as a landscape photographer, um, were a little bit challenging. But I do love that camera, and I think that camera is an amazing camera. I've, in fact, a few of my students, I've recommended buy that camera because I think it's amazing camera. But, um, I then got back more into sort of doing some more landscape prints and so forth. And I love the prints out of that camera, but I missed, what I did miss was the low light performance of a full frame camera. And as we know, Fuji don't make a full frame camera. And I wanted full frame capability, but still with the Fuji colors. So what you end up with going GFX, that's expensive. I did really well. So the last two years, I've done really well selling calendars at the end of the year, landscape calendars in my local area, and they do really well. My photography is really well known. And so I went, that's going to be project GFX. If I sell enough calendars, I'll have the money for a GFX camera, which was my reward. So I put a lot of effort into promoting my calendar. And I'm one of those guys that when you're suddenly motivated to buy something, you're quite happy to give up. Coffee, alcohol, live off rice, whatever it takes. [00:44:01] Speaker A: Go door to door with calendars, selling them around town. [00:44:05] Speaker C: Pretty much, yeah. And that did really well. And I. I went into the. I bought the GFX, which I've got over here, the GFX fifty s two, which is the, you know, the base level GFX camera. And I think. Still think this is an amazing camera. I. Even though it's very slow focusing, you can still do some portrait work with it. You can still do a lot of things with it. So I got. That was my first GFX camera. I got it in the Black Friday sale from last year, so to speak. And when I first took some photos with it, landscape photos and a few general photos, and I uploaded them to the computer and I was kind of in that. Yeah, I still have my d 850 brain. It's just going to be that big jump that I'm looking for. And then my jaw just hit the ground. I was like, oh my gosh, this is just a whole new ballgame. And that's not to say that the XT five doesn't produce great images, does, but when you look at them on the computer, you go, I now see what they're talking about. You. You see that GFX look that you struggle to get with any other camera. So I had that camera. I've had that camera for about a year, and I got into some weddings last year, and a few other bits and pieces that I've been doing. And I shot a couple of friends weddings, and they paid me, so that was great. But I was using the x t five. And I love that camera for weddings because it was really good. And even I know we've had the famed autofocus issues with the Fuji cameras, which, funnily enough, I haven't had that problem. Been able to make it work? Um, yeah. Which is. Let's not go there. That's another whole, whole subject we don't want to go into. But I love the look of the circumstances. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I loved. I loved the look of the GFX camera, the images. So the natural progression was when the. When the x. Get the numbers computer, when the GFX 102 came out. But it was a very. It was a big camera. It was going back to that real huge medium format. And I didn't like the viewfinder that was sticking out. So I decided to go wait for the hundred s two to come out, which was really an upgrade from what I had. And away I went. So, yeah, those images you can see on the screen are all taken with the. The new GFX s two, which is beautiful. Yeah. [00:46:29] Speaker D: Hmm. [00:46:30] Speaker C: Produces amazing image quality, like the level of detail it produces. Even just that photo there. If you, if you look in, you can see the grain in the wood. And when people say about GFX cameras that they say, oh, it takes you there, that's why it takes you there. It's because you feel like you could sit on that seat. You feel like you're there. And this particular photo here, the rock, you feel like you're standing on the rock because the quality of the image is so good that you feel like you're there. And that's what I was actually looking for, just that feeling that you're standing there. And, yeah, I love the GFX cameras now, and I don't find them. I mean, they are a bulkier camera, but they're no heavier than a D 850. In fact, it's lighter than a D 850. And just, I think the way it. This is the new one, the hundred. It's actually just the way it sits in your hand. It doesn't. It's. It's bulky and big, but it doesn't feel that when you're shooting with it. And I think that's the key. It's not. I often talk about cameras not so much about the weight, but how does it feel in your hand? So. Yeah, yeah, that's how I've ended up with that. And this one had the upgraded stabilization, so it's got eight stops. And I was playing around with handheld photography, seeing how low I could go, and I got down to like half a second shots handheld. And even with a 200 or 100 to 200 lens, which is their GFX, their main zoom, it's kind of their 70 to 200 almost. I think I got down to one 15th of a second handheld shooting a. Like a water going over a rock at one 15th of a second with a two at 200 still pin sharp. [00:48:16] Speaker A: And I'm like, even pin sharp at 100 megapixel, that's great, because that is all a consideration as you go up in megapixel, is, is keeping the image sharp. [00:48:24] Speaker C: It's just. And I was just like, I've arrived. That's, that's. That's no limits. That's the no limits in camera. Yeah. And it's it's. I've said that to people. Once you start uploading GFX files, you go, well, I don't know if I could. Yeah. But I mean, I still love my XT five and I shoot a lot with it, but, but the GFX just produces. That's beautiful. [00:48:45] Speaker B: My shopping list, the XT. [00:48:47] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a great camera. [00:48:50] Speaker B: I reviewed that for Shotkit a couple of months ago and it's just. Yeah, the bees knees. [00:48:55] Speaker C: Yeah. So, so, yeah, so, yeah, I'm immersed in the Fuji now. Yeah, yeah. [00:49:00] Speaker B: Just, just before we move on, then there just a couple of questions from J's Harney. This is the area that interests me as a landscape photographer. Is the appeal of the Fuji medium format mainly the increased resolution or the increased dynamic range or tonal spread or everything? [00:49:17] Speaker A: Yeah, this is what I wanted to ask about as well, and especially when is it relevant, is it, can you see the difference even on social media or is this mainly relevant for printing really large? Yeah, I want to hear all about the difference in image quality going up to something like the GFX 100. [00:49:38] Speaker C: I would say if you're shooting for social media, and you will have seen this by said by lots of people, I'm probably going to repeat what they say is if you're just shooting for, and I don't mean to disparage just shooting for social media because I think that's still valid, is that you don't need a GFX camera. You don't probably, probably don't even need a full frame camera. I mean, we've got de noise now in Lightroom and other software that you can use, you can clean up a whole bunch of noise pretty easily. So the low light performance is not as critical for website, social media, Facebook kind of photos and even some printing. But if I'm going into the bigger print space, and I've actually just recently did a billboard for one of the local agencies here. [00:50:20] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:50:20] Speaker C: And I saw the difference in the dynamic range that I was able to get. I was in a low light situation shooting a particular image that I didn't want too noisy because I knew it was going to get blown up really big. And it just performed how I'd want it to perform. And you know, I often use the analogy that GFX cameras are like Hummers. They're big and bulky and they're not particularly fast, but they're really effective at certain things. Yeah. And, and that's kind of the analogy, but you better know how to drive it is what I say is like I haven't just arrived day one with a GFX camera in my hand. I, you know, I've gone from one camera to the progressed upwards, but yeah, amazing. [00:51:03] Speaker B: I think that's a very good point that you raised. And we will circle back to the. Now we'll circle back to the Fujifilm auto focus. From my experience with the sort of work I do, which is travel street, I do some product work, I do some portraits, I have done a couple of events. I haven't found the autofocus to be a problem, but I know other people compare it to say SONY who, you know, who are often quote labeled as being the masters of autofocus speed and performance. But I know when I shot whatever, you know, I don't shoot sports and I don't chase wildlife. But when I reviewed the GFX 100s Mk two, they sent me the new 500 mil f 5.6 super telephoto medium format lens. And I was a little shocked at first by how slow the focus performance was on that combo. Granted they were pre production models so it may not have been final firmware, but I found trying to even just walking around botanical gardens and I'm not a wildlife or nature photographer, so birding is not my thing. But even trying to get crisp shots in focus of. Even with the. The animal detection on the eye detection threat and the animal detection, I found it really sluggish compared to say the. I'd also just reviewed the XT five and the XT 50 which are both using the latest processor and readout speed. [00:52:44] Speaker A: So what about the XT five? I know it is. Obviously it's a lot faster and they've got the x. What's the xh two s? [00:52:53] Speaker C: The X and X H two? Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:52:56] Speaker B: They've got the XHS and the xh two s is kind of more for videography whereas the XT five. [00:53:02] Speaker C: Yeah, the hybrid. Hybrid. Yeah. [00:53:04] Speaker A: So the. Obviously the autofocus. Are you guys saying also that the autofocus in the X series cameras is known as being nothing, not great. Is that. Is that sort of because. [00:53:15] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a reputation really, from the early days. [00:53:19] Speaker A: Oh, from the. Because I haven't heard that at all. [00:53:21] Speaker B: I remember, yeah. [00:53:22] Speaker A: So remember Russell Ord. Jim Russell or epic sur photographer? [00:53:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:53:29] Speaker A: And started shooting with Fuji and I kinda thought from, from that. Yeah. Like the XT four, X T five kind of series. I thought they had basically caught up like maybe. Maybe not as fast as a pro level canon, obviously. Probably way faster than Sony, but they. I was under the impression that there wasn't much difference. Like, maybe they weren't quite as fast, but they were very much usable for sports and action and stuff like that, especially with people like RuSSELL using them. So what's the deal? [00:54:02] Speaker B: Yeah, they are. We'll jump to Nev in a sec, but I've got something to say, but. [00:54:08] Speaker C: Go, man. [00:54:09] Speaker B: Early days, I started with an X T one, and, you know, the X Pro one was. Well, sorry, the X 100 was the first X series camera. The X Pro one was the first X series interchangeable lens camera. And that was rocking, I think a 16 megapixel sensor at the time, and only three lenses came out with it. So this was the rebirth of Fujifilm X series in the digital age. They're already making digital cameras, but this was their real push into premium product. And so they were very slow. The lenses were sluggish. They were optically brilliant, sharp, wide aperture lenses, but that was sluggish on autofocus. That wasn't their area of expertise. Their engineering wasn't. Wasn't up to scratch with other brands that were coming out at the time. The XT one was the same, the XT two improved a bit, but they weren't really, at the time, pro level sports, wildlife cameras people were using for that, but they just didn't have that, that kind of drive. And then by the Xtree X T three, X Pro three era, things had improved. X T four, X Pro three. Sorry, things had really jumped quite a lot. They'd gone to a new processor, which is the X trans four. And, you know, it was. And the lenses, they were starting to produce really high quality, fast lenses with the new linear motor system. So then by the XT five, where we're at now, in the xh two s, we're using the X processor five, and we're using fast, wide primes and zooms with linear motors, and they are incredibly fast. But the X. Sorry, the GFX is the GFX stuff. It's a different story. [00:55:54] Speaker D: Yeah. So is that. Is that hangover still there, though, for the consumer? [00:55:59] Speaker B: I don't believe so, no. And plenty of people are using Fuji, like you said. Like Russell. I think he's a Fujifilm ambassador. [00:56:05] Speaker C: Yeah, he is. Yeah. Yeah. I reached out. I actually. Just to jump in there, I reached out to Russell, actually. He was over our way doing some stuff, and I'm not sure if he lives in WA, but he was doing some Margaret river stuff, and I saw some photos online so I just flicked him a message that maybe you'll reply and thinking about the GFX S 102. And he'd done a Fujifilm promotion video with Fujifilm Australia and. But I wanted to, you know, get the real oil. What's it really like? And he said, never. He looked at my photography and he went, you will love that camera. Just straight up. He said, jump in, dude. It's good. I've been using it for three days. And I went, yep, that's good enough for me. If he's endorsing it and saying it's good, there's certain people you can trust in the world of photography. And he said, yeah, just go buy it for my type of work. So yeah, that's how I ended up with it. [00:56:56] Speaker A: We've got to get him on the podcast at some stage. [00:56:58] Speaker C: Yeah, get him on. He's a great guy, actually. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a legend. And anyone out there, if you haven't seen Russell Ord's, the film about him called one shot, I'm not sure where you can stream it now. There's a lot of trailers online, but it's actually, it's about a 30 minutes might be on Red Bull. It's a 30 minutes, like mini documentary and it's insane what he puts himself through to get his surfing photography. So, yeah, if you want something photography related to watch, go and watch one shot about Russell Ord. [00:57:30] Speaker C: Cool, cool. [00:57:31] Speaker D: Very cool. [00:57:32] Speaker A: There's some comments here about the x 100 autofocus is going to hurt Greg's soul because the original. I know that you love the original. [00:57:39] Speaker B: That was my first Fuji camera. Yeah. [00:57:42] Speaker A: Apparently it's. It's so slow and unreliable to autofocus that it makes it film like because you've got no idea what you've captured in the moment. [00:57:52] Speaker D: Yeah. After using that X 100 for a couple of months, trying to make it. [00:57:59] Speaker A: Work for lucky, that was the classic. This is the original. Original. Classic. Like twelve megapixel or something? [00:58:04] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, I've retired it to retiree. [00:58:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a prop. Look, you can get some photos with it, but you got to be patient. Yeah, it's slow. [00:58:14] Speaker D: You can work your way around it. And for what I was using it for, everything was static. I was just taking photos of camera straps. Yeah, but it's, it struggled still. [00:58:22] Speaker A: Yeah, but it just shows. [00:58:24] Speaker B: It's 13 years now. 14. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And you were swapping from z eight to a zero to a 13 year old auto focus. A little slow. [00:58:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:33] Speaker D: Look, it's no 51 point to it's. [00:58:36] Speaker C: A Datsun 180 B. You know, it's the old Datsun versus the Hummer. You know, you're not driving the hammer. And I often say that to people with cameras is you gotta, you gotta understand the mechanics of what makes a camera inside work. Often. I saw a great video on YouTube about what's inside a camera because I always love that stuff, you know, like what's inside and, and Fujifilm, just to jump in there. Greg, about Fujifilm, if you look at their history, they've, they've always had probably not the best autofocus in the world, I'm happy to say that. But I, but what they had set as their selling point was their beautiful colors. So people just kind of went, you know what, it's probably not going to be as good as the other brands, but I'm going to get the colors. And, but then we had this massive influx with the x 100 v. And even before that, some of the cameras, people buying them, and typically people who weren't into photography, but wanted to get into photography, if that makes sense. They buy these cameras and they just turn it on and expect to just put on the auto id check, then go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and get a million great shots. It doesn't, we all know that it doesn't work like that. There's a whole bunch of things you got to do before that. And I think that's been the problem, is that it's almost the type of Fujifilm shooter is, is a camera guy or a camera girl that maybe hasn't done the work beforehand. They're not prepared to dial in some settings. They're not prepared to maybe up their shutter speed or change some of the settings in camera. They just want it to work out of the box straight away. And people go, I bought this camera two weeks ago and it doesn't focus. And I go, well, if you actually changed any of the settings on it, have you played around with the aperture of you? [01:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:11] Speaker C: What's aperture almost like? It's like kids these days. [01:00:15] Speaker A: That actually, that makes Tony's comment even more applicable. Classic gym, always blaming the tools. [01:00:23] Speaker C: Yeah, but they challenging. I'll admit that. I'll admit they are challenging cameras to use, but I'm going to flip that. I like it. That's just me now. This won't suit everyone. I like the fact that those cameras make me work for the shot a bit. [01:00:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:39] Speaker C: And now you can go and buy the light. I had to laugh at that, not laugh at Cannon. I'll have a little crack at cat it here. And the latest, the latest canon cameras got this amazing. Yeah. Feature where you could pick out one sports person bouncing the basketball and follow that person around. I'm thinking, wow. I'm like, that's the camera pretty much doing it all for you. Now, that's not a bad thing because that's a professional grade. Yeah, brilliant. [01:01:10] Speaker D: Yeah, that's where the tech's at. So. [01:01:12] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:01:13] Speaker A: I think the thing is, because I saw that the release of that tech in person, and the thing is, it's very specific and it's specific to, you know, you're shooting the NBA or basketball, the Olympics, soccer at the Olympics, you're, you've got no control because you're in a fixed location, often using massively long primes and stuff like that, like super telephotos. And your job is to get the shot of the match that happens like that. Yeah, it's, it's in those situations where that technology is going to be like, the difference between, yeah, if you just miss focus on the, on the shot of your lifetime at the Olympics and this changes it to not missing focus, you're going to want it and it's going to do the job, but you're, you're spot on in terms of, like, when that trickles down into, like, you want to enjoy shooting your kids soccer game on a Saturday morning and you want to enjoy the process of photography, you probably don't need that. And it might even make it less fun. You know, you might be less engaged because the action isn't fast enough to, to need that tech thinking, you know, for you not, not to say you shouldn't use it or whatever, I go for it. If you want, if you want to buy an r one and shoot kids soccer, hey, I'll come and. I'll come and use it with you. But, yeah, I think it's like the pace has to be so fast to really appreciate the benefit of some of that new tech pulling focus for you when the ball goes in a direction you weren't anticipating, because that's the whole new autofocus kind of algorithm was like, if the ball heads in a direction you weren't anticipating to a player, that you weren't anticipating your focus on, it can pull focus to that player instead that ends up with the ball, and suddenly you've got an in focus shot where you would have had a shot focused on the player that didn't get the ball. And it's like I could see in a high level sports photography situation that being a pretty cool feature. But yeah, you're spot on in terms of if it takes all the fun out of it, when you're just trying to enjoy yourself and learn about photography and. Yeah, it thinks for you. I don't know. [01:03:38] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:03:39] Speaker D: It's just what people have said the same. [01:03:41] Speaker B: Sorry, Jim. [01:03:42] Speaker C: Sorry. [01:03:43] Speaker D: I was gonna say, would luck, would people have said the same thing about autofocus when it was originally? [01:03:47] Speaker A: Probably. [01:03:48] Speaker D: You know, it's doing all the work. You don't have to because that, that was. [01:03:53] Speaker C: Yep. [01:03:55] Speaker B: Back, back, back when, you know, metering was introduced. [01:03:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:59] Speaker A: Film cameras cheating. Get your light meter out. [01:04:04] Speaker C: And it was interesting because I probably, you know, every now and then I can be a bit too opinionated. My fault of mine. Whack. Is that I was saying to people back in the day that we shot sports with film cameras with no auto focus. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:04:20] Speaker C: So if you want to complain about autofocus, here's a film camera. I want you to go and shoot that for an hour. Once you've done that, let me know. And I tell you what, if you come back from that, you won't be complaining about autopilot. Oh, this what I. Brilliant. [01:04:33] Speaker A: You know, but it's also like when you get that shot, how cool, you know, like how. [01:04:37] Speaker C: Yes. [01:04:38] Speaker A: Feel when you, you need go back and it's like, it's actually sharp and, you know, they were marking the ball. It's the perfect moment or whatever. Yeah. It's like satisfaction and. Yeah. So I guess maybe that's a good point is like, unless you're at a super high level with sports photography, is it going to take some of the satisfaction of getting the shot away? Is it just become easy? And then you're not like, you know, you just, you're just bursting away and you get a million every shots in perfect focus and you're like, ah, well, you know, yeah, it's easy. [01:05:09] Speaker C: And I think, you know, it depends. Yeah. People, I think photographers now and people in general, I'm probably in this category. I'm sure you got. We're all time poor. You know, we're busy, we've got things on. [01:05:20] Speaker A: Not really. [01:05:23] Speaker C: We grab that, we grab our camera and we, we head out and we've got an hour and we drive to that spot where we know there's a big eagle sitting on that thing and he takes off and we've only got half an hour to be there and we want to get that shot. So I get that side of it as well. So I think that's where we're kind of geared to is we're all time poor. We just want to get the shot and away we go sort of thing. So. But it's, you know, come back to the Fujifilm thing, is that they, they tried to fix the autofocus through several firmware updates, and that became more frustrating for people. And again, but even with the latest firmware that they put into the X T five, I had a playwright a little. I wouldn't say it's a corporate shoot, but just a shoot for some people that were doing an activity just recently with my XT five, and, and I took a heap of shots, and I looked at my hit rate, and it was still around that 90% mark. Occasionally, it would miss. And funnily enough, with Fujifilm cameras, I found out nothing about you, Greg, but I found when they missed, they, like, instead of focusing on me, it'll focus on my camera bag at the back here, or, sorry, that side. Yeah, it would, it would miss completely. And funnily enough, I can live with that, because that's just a, that's just a hunting thing that just misses. All cameras do that. But I think that's where it frustrated people. And I think also the x, to jump in with the XH two s, that's the video centric one. That's more the real hybrid. It's actually more of a video camera than it is a stills camera. And when they updated the firmware for that camera, they did all three. The xh two, xh two s and X t five. That's the one that seemed to get affected the most. So a lot of the complaints online are more about the XH two s, and they're all just really blowing up about that. And I don't have that camera, so I can't comment. But that seems to be the video centric guys who are doing video. They introduced a thing called, you know, the touch, where you can touch on the screen and it focuses the video, which I found really interesting, because if I was doing video, and I don't do a lot of video, if I touch the camera, my camera would move, so I don't do that. But that was the issue. But I've got a theory on why the cameras. It's only a theory on why the cameras aren't maybe as good as some of the other cameras, but it's just a theory. Yeah. [01:07:43] Speaker A: What is the theory? [01:07:45] Speaker C: All right, it's a bit of a tech one, and this came from a friend of mine who he turned his camera into the eye one of the IR cameras. So you know how they take out the, the filters off the top of the sensor. So under, on a camera, there's a sensor, then there's sometimes two or three filters that sit on top. And to turn your camera into an IR camera, you actually take, literally take those, those filters off. And I said to him, I want you to have a play with the autofocus on people. Why you're doing it. And he did this, and he said, yeah, it seemed to be more snappy. So I have a theory that these cameras are. Well, there's Sony sensors. Anyway, most of the Fujifilm cameras, in fact, most of the cameras around the world have a Sony sensor in them. And I'm wondering, and I'm only wondering. [01:08:30] Speaker B: Did you hear that, Justin. [01:08:34] Speaker C: Whether it's the filters that sit on top of the sensor that are the problem? I'm. I don't know. I'm one of those people that goes through the different ways. Is it the firmware? Is it the hardware? What is it that's causing the problem? There has to be some problem there. But anyway, it's just a theory. [01:08:50] Speaker B: Interesting. About those IR cameras. B and H photos still sell an X T four IR version that only released in America. There's also a GFX one. Yeah, I think the original GFX 100. I might be wrong. Remember the IR version just in America? [01:09:07] Speaker A: Remember the Astro cameras? What happened to that, too? Didn't Nikon release the D 810 or D 850 that had a specific filter? [01:09:16] Speaker D: D 810 E, I think it was. [01:09:19] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. [01:09:21] Speaker A: And, uh, cannon do. No, maybe it was only Nikon, but, yeah, there's been a few things like that, and that all sort of seems to be disappearing, you know, like maybe to cost too much to produce these special models. I didn't know Fujifilm did an IR model. That's crazy. [01:09:39] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, B and H was selling it. I couldn't find any record of it being actually developed by Fujifilm. It might have been a B backyard hack, but. But they were selling it, like, and, you know, Fuji would obviously authorize them to sell a certain product. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure one of the GFX. I'm sure it's on Wikipedia, there was a really limited release of a GFX model, that sensor. Unless it was a monochrome. [01:10:03] Speaker C: Hmm. [01:10:04] Speaker B: No, I think was I. And there are companies that will make your camera into infrared or a monochrome sensor. [01:10:11] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:10:14] Speaker B: Because Leica obviously released some, some of their digital cameras with monochrome only sensors. [01:10:21] Speaker C: And I think it's. I think it's a lot. I think I've kind of seen this. There's a lot of trends in photography. We see it all the time. There's a certain type of photography that suddenly becomes really popular for a period of time. People love it. And I was sort of in that phase where it became really popular really quickly, and everyone was, how do I make an IR camera? And now it's sort of, you know, it's kind of backed off a little bit, and I don't where it goes. And I'm not necessarily a fan or not a fan of the camera. I think it's great that people are doing something different, but we do see these trends that come and go, but there's more staples that stick. And I think IR kind of fits, and I'm hoping I'm not upsetting the IR guys at all, but. But it does kind of fit in that very niche market. But it is interesting they made a camera for it. So guess people. What people were doing is they were doing backyard jobs, you know, getting their camera out, ripping off the lens and going, all right, I was just gonna kind of grind this away and, you know, just totally wrecking their cameras and going, oh, that's no good. So, you know, they went, okay, well, we'll just make you one. Oh, great. Yeah, here we go. So, yeah. Interesting. [01:11:25] Speaker A: I have a question for Nev, unless you've got something. Greg, you want to direction, you want to take this conversation, mate. So, Nev, you. You shoot and make, like, with your landscapes, you make calendars each year. And how long have you been doing that for? First, how many years? [01:11:46] Speaker C: This is my. This will be my fourth year. Okay. [01:11:50] Speaker B: Yep. [01:11:50] Speaker A: Right. So in your third year, you sold calendars to try and help raise funds for your first GFX camera. [01:12:00] Speaker C: Correct. [01:12:02] Speaker A: Hypothetically, if a photographer in Bendigo wanted to produce a calendar and sell enough of them to make enough money to buy a new canon r1 that's just been released, is this person new? [01:12:19] Speaker C: Hypothetically. [01:12:20] Speaker A: Let's call him Dustin. How would Dustin start off on his journey to sort of doing this project? Like, how did you get started? And what advice would you give for someone who wants to produce a local calendar and potentially even sell. Sell some of them? [01:12:37] Speaker C: Okay, so what I probably. The pre work was done probably just by post. There's a page here called the Albany page, which is just a generic Facebook page. And they're fantastic because they allow us, the photographers, just to post images of Albany. And it probably stops the pages becoming so political as well, which can happen. [01:13:00] Speaker A: So distracted people with a pretty photo. Bring them back. [01:13:04] Speaker C: Yeah. So I. So I started posting my. And I was late to Facebook. Oh, man. I think I've only been on Facebook for about four and a bit years. So once I joined that page and started posting my photos, people just said, oh, those photos are beautiful, nev. And. And one person commented, just said, why don't you do a calendar? And I went, hmm. And funnily enough, there was a guy here who's actually a friend of mine who does. Who's a photographer, and he already had calendars, and he said to me, nev, I'm kind of getting a bit sick of it, you know, jump in, man. See how you go. First year, sold 100 calendars. I thought that was great. That was the first year I did it. And I ordered from a company over east, and he gave me all the how to do it kind of thing, and so what. But the. In terms of the images that I tried to capture, I came up with a bit of a theme, which was around beach and so forth as well, because I love that. But I've since changed the calendar a little bit, that I'm including a bit more variety in it. And this year's one, who knows what it'll be, but it'll be a bit. A bit of everything. But I tried to make it connected to the community, so iconic places. And then, funnily enough, I don't use calendars myself, as in, you know, the hard calendar, but people still do. They're still really popular in this digital world. People like being able to, you know, draw on a calendar. So it just grew from there to there, and I just bombed it on Facebook and Instagram. I had a local news agency that supported it, my local coffee shop, which has some of my photos on the wall as well. So there's a little art gallery at a place called Kate's place. Thank you. Love you lots. Kate's place. They are fantastic at supporting me. They said, you can come down, nev, and have your calendars here. So I had a post up Saturday morning. You can come and buy a calendar. So I was just getting walk ins as well, and people were coming in going, oh, can I get ten? And I'm like, I've only got six here. So I have kept having to order more. So last year, I think I sold 512 was my. [01:15:11] Speaker A: Wow. [01:15:12] Speaker C: Was my number that I got to in the end, and I ended up doing one for Denmark, which is a little place down the road. It's a town of about 3000 people. So I even did an individual one for Denmark as well. I put that together and the local news agency guy is a friend on Facebook. He said, oh, I'll sell them for you in the news agency, Ned. So it's grown to the point where this year I'm actually having to start now to get the calendar kind of rolling before I. Because last, the first year I did it, I sort of started doing it in about November. And I went, well, that's a bit late. And then it's come back to, it's come back to September. Now it's August. And I'm like, I need to get on to this because it's a big mission. [01:15:49] Speaker A: Do you try and. Try and have them ready to sell in like December for Christmas gifts or when, when do you sell them? Yeah. Okay. [01:15:56] Speaker C: I put a poster. Yeah. Put a post up and then have them ready. And then I have a bowl leftovers because people. Last minute gifts kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:16:05] Speaker B: Just a comment from, uh, from get off my digital lawn. Jim's been toying with the idea of doing it. A lumberjack calendar. It could be a different shirt. [01:16:11] Speaker A: I was gonna say, will it just be Jim in exactly the same every time? [01:16:16] Speaker D: Yeah, we can do that. [01:16:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:20] Speaker D: I'll need a few more actually, for doing twelve. [01:16:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. [01:16:25] Speaker A: Claim him on text, Jim. Okay, so this is interesting. So you sold 500 calendars. What's the population of Albany? [01:16:39] Speaker C: About 35,000 people. [01:16:41] Speaker A: Wow. So this could be done. This could be done for a suburb of Melbourne. You know, like, you don't have to do a Melbourne calendar because it's very hard to sell a Melbourne calendar. But if you did a. A Fitzroy calendar. [01:16:54] Speaker B: Broad meadows. [01:16:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:55] Speaker A: A broad meadows calendar. Yes, yes. [01:16:59] Speaker B: Undercuts. [01:17:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:17:01] Speaker A: Hey, but people might buy them, so. So pick. Pick a smaller niche area. You know, you don't want to sell to the biggest city or whatever. And then. [01:17:10] Speaker C: Yep. [01:17:11] Speaker A: Local obviously needs to be great photography, otherwise people aren't going to be interested. You probably have somewhat of a following with your photography already. Were the photos in the calendar photos you'd already posted online, or were they new content that people hadn't seen before? Like what, what about that? [01:17:27] Speaker C: A little bit of a mixture of both. So I had, what I'd noticed is, you know, you can do this now with social media. You can have a look at the posts where I've gone. Wow, that photo was really popular. Knock that one down. So I almost had. Yeah, exactly. I almost had six or seven photos that were kind of. That were really beautiful ones that I was going to. And then the last sort of five or six photos were going to be ones where I kind of picked and choose. But I also, because of the first, the first three have been landscape, seascape, sort of mountainscape photos. I picked them with the season so, you know, for the summer ones, they were beachy. And then I had some winter ones of the mountains and trails and stuff. And I. Yeah, um, and then a cold jetty shot. And then coming into the spring, there was a beautiful canola photo as well. So I tried to make it seasonal that as the months passed, the photo would match the season, um, sort of thing, and which I'll probably do again because that kind of works and it fits. But, um. Yeah, that's kind of how I did it. Yeah. [01:18:29] Speaker A: How's that? Nick? On focus. Jim. [01:18:30] Speaker D: Sorry, just I've moved 2000s. So my desk is this way. My desk is this way because this is where I work. This is my laptop setup. And there's not enough room to fit. [01:18:45] Speaker A: Excuses for your poor camera. [01:18:48] Speaker D: No, I'm just too far over to the side. I'm just trying to get some limelight on some of our photography. [01:18:54] Speaker C: I'm hoping that all my. I'm hoping that all my elk. I'm hoping that all my Albany crew would jump on because they love a flannel mate. We're flannel city here. It's perfect. [01:19:06] Speaker A: Any other advice? So what about getting them made so you find a company that will do the production? [01:19:14] Speaker C: Yeah. And I'm not. I don't want to say which one, but. [01:19:17] Speaker A: No, that's cool. [01:19:18] Speaker C: I would say do your research and look. Are you, can I say which one I used? Yeah, absolutely. [01:19:23] Speaker A: Do whatever you like. [01:19:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I use. I'm a fan. They're vistaprint. Okay. They're big. [01:19:28] Speaker A: Really? And it was a good process. [01:19:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Good. Yeah. [01:19:32] Speaker A: Wow. [01:19:33] Speaker C: I sent them an email saying, you know, I'm interested in using a company. How does it work? Sort of thing. And then they replied back and so forth. And what they were really good at was when I did the platform. There's a platform you use, it's a template and so forth. When the first batch I did, they actually emailed me back after I sent it through and said, oh, look, you need to drop your photo down or up a little bit because the hole punch will punch through the photo. And I went, ah, because actually, and I didn't mention this before, but one of the ideas with the calendar. Vistaprint is, it's printed on thicker card. Now I sell them for about $27. So they're, they're a premium calendar. But beauty of them is that you can actually take out the photo at the end of the year and people turn them into prints. So the quality of them is printed on beautiful card. And you can take that out, put it in a little frame that you can pick up from an op shop or whatever and suddenly you've got a nice little nev Clark photo on the wall. Beautiful. Recycling. Because our community's big into recycling. I mean, who isn't? So I wanted the calendar to be recyclable as well. So they were really good. I could order in bulk and even. And it's always a challenge in Western Australia. Look, I did reach out to a few companies in WA, in Perth, and even locally I did try first, but my friend of mine who'd done calendars before, he said, nev, just go through Vistaprint. You will have a great experience. And they were great. I'm hoping they'll be great again this year. So. [01:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah, what about the, so the print quality and the color? Because if I, if the word vistaprint pops into my head, that the synonymous words are usually average print quality and color. In terms of photographically, I'm not like, I'm sure they do great for every, you know, and obviously they did a great job for calendars. Did you notice any color shifts or anything weird with the photos or. [01:21:27] Speaker C: No, no, I found them very good. One thing I would say, one thing I would say, and this is probably more of a printing thing. And we'll digress for a second, we'll come back to that, I think with printing. And I always say when you start printing photos, just get a couple of test prints done initially. [01:21:44] Speaker A: So what I did was don't start with 500 calendars. [01:21:48] Speaker C: You say, no, no, go, go just to your local printer, someone that you've got, that you've got a good relationship with. And what I did before I did my first calendar, Chantelle, who's my cut and crop printer, she's great. I said to her, can I just get a couple, like a three or, sorry, a four prints done of these photos? And she, she sent them back and I had a quick look at them and they were great. And I went, yep. So then I just ordered the first ten calendars from Vistaprinta. I wanted to, so I just ordered ten and they arrived and I went, oh my gosh. Perfect, perfect. Great. Happy days. Right? Let's bulk and away we went sort of thing. So, you know, just using that strategy to dot, just order your first hundred first, straight off, just get ten. And, and then if they're, you're happy with them. But vistaprint are good. Like if there's any problem with an imperfection or there's something goes wrong, they, like, there was one, oh, I had one problem with about five or six calendars where. And I think it wasn't to do with the printing. What's happened is when you print on a card like that, it's quite thick and you need to give the print a bit of time to dry. Okay. So you can't just print it and then slap it together and away you go. You actually have to let the photos dry. And then, and I think what's happened is I haven't given it enough time for it to dry and there's been a bit of sticking. So when you've opened the calendar, you can see that happened on ten calendars. I took a little screenshot with my phone, sent it back to them and they were like, nev, no problems, just bin them. We'll give you the next ten free. They didn't even question it. They were like, no problems at all, nev, we're good with that. And away we went. So that was the only problem I had. And I've been using them for, like I said, three years. Happy days for me. [01:23:41] Speaker B: Question. [01:23:43] Speaker D: Yeah, sorry, with, with the, the calendars, are you buying them in like batches, I think you said maybe of a hundred. [01:23:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:23:49] Speaker D: Or are you like to sell 500? You know, because it's hard to know what you get. [01:23:53] Speaker C: Yeah, it is. And what I did, what I probably have learned through this experience is I, I put this initial Facebook post up on my own page. And what I did with my own Facebook page is just make it bigger and bigger every year. I think I've got the 5000 max thing now. I've turned it into that professional page where you have followers and you just get more and more. And so initially I just thought I put a post up around, I think last year was around September, I think. And immediately I had about 200 people message me going, great, Neville, get your color. So I know I had 200 sold. I asked for people to prepay. Look, I probably am in that space now. I'm going to do a website and people can order it from that. I am probably looking at that. But this year or last three years, how I've done is I've had actually had an excel spreadsheet. People just go on that. And how many they order and have they paid? And they pay. And I then have a pickup point in Albany, so Kate's place, where I just take them all down there, like hundreds of calendars. And I sit in the cafe, and the reason I do that is that people can just come in and if they've paid, they just collect. And I get to meet every person that buys a cabin. [01:25:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:04] Speaker C: And it takes them up some time. Okay, so you're going to spend maybe 6 hours of your time meeting the people. And, you know what was amazing out of that? People who, who I'd never met, you know, because you don't always meet many of your social media followers. You're only going to meet a handful. I got to meet, you know, hundreds of people that followed my photography and that's flowed. Okay, so the next phase is they go, I love your work. And they get to see a few prints on the wall in the cafe, and they go, is that your work? And I go, yeah. Oh, my gosh. So then they, you know, six weeks later, they go, I need a print for my office Nev. Can you get. Yeah, so it, yeah, it's a way of flowing from that, and it's a free form of advertising. So every month. Yeah. And I've, I've actually helped a few other photographers around Australia who've seen my success because they do one in your local area, have a go at it. You know, just even if you do the first 25 or 30 with your family, just do a family one. And, you know, you know, start off with something like that because they're still popular. I think we. It's a bit like photography, isn't it? It's like we've moved into this digital world where everyone's using their calendars on their phones. But I often say there's still a place for, for vinyl in the world. [01:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:20] Speaker C: You know, there's still a place for the record or the calendar, so. Yeah, yeah. [01:26:24] Speaker A: Actually, I love that idea of going even small. So obviously, yeah, you could just start with your family, test gifts and things, but you could go to, like. Yeah, go to a. If you. I mean, if you're lucky enough to live in like, a small rural town with a small population, start. [01:26:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:26:41] Speaker A: Or even. Yeah, like a. Yeah, go chunk it down. Because. Yeah, you take away competition. [01:26:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:26:48] Speaker A: If you want to do a Melbourne calendar, you're probably competing against some very experienced photographers with a massive body of work or just some company following big followings. But if you make it smaller and smaller and smaller till you. You're targeting maybe just a few thousand people. It's like, yeah, you might only sell 50 calendars, but 50 is great. You know, like, start with. Start with something. [01:27:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:10] Speaker A: Yeah. That's a great idea. [01:27:13] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's sort of. I don't know, it. It grew into that. A bit of a project. And it was. It was. Yeah. The last year, it just. To be honest, it got a little bit out of control there and just so many orders kept coming. My phone was just lighting up constantly and I was keeping track of all the numbers. And I think I got to about December 20, and I put up a little post. If I have forgotten you, like, if you didn't receive something, please just message me. I'll honor it without question. I think I missed two calendars where I didn't send it to the right spot or one lady. And I sold calendars to some Facebook followers in America. [01:27:50] Speaker A: Wow. [01:27:51] Speaker C: I had. I sold five australian calendars to Americans who just loved my photography and went, oh, I want, I want. I want a nev Clark on my wall. [01:27:59] Speaker A: So it was like, isn't it? You know, I reckon there's an Albany, New York, actually. [01:28:04] Speaker C: Yeah, there is. Yeah. Yeah. [01:28:06] Speaker A: Did they just get confused? [01:28:08] Speaker C: I don't know. Where is this? [01:28:12] Speaker D: We haven't seen this place. [01:28:14] Speaker C: Is that New Jersey? Yeah. It's funny. [01:28:21] Speaker B: Maybe we should do a lucky straps calendar. Just. [01:28:23] Speaker A: I was trying to. I mean, I don't know if anyone would buy it, but what if. So what if the photos were. Mum would buy people. [01:28:29] Speaker B: Sure. [01:28:29] Speaker A: Well, maybe. Yeah, maybe if it's just Jim and his flanny over and over again. Not just a flanny. Don't get. [01:28:38] Speaker B: My brother does one. Used to do one. He used to be a pentax shooter and he used to do a calendar every year. And then one of his kids did one. I don't know if it was a school project, but she'd taken up photography and. [01:28:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:28:50] Speaker B: And you can just get. It's like getting, you know, your own business cards printed. You can get as many as you want. [01:28:55] Speaker A: Maybe we could do a camera life one. Photos. Photos submitted by. By audience and guest and audience as well. And we'll just. And we'll choose them because they don't be a fun show to do while we live. Choose which photos we're going to include in this calendar. [01:29:14] Speaker B: We've only got seven subscribers, so there won't be that many photos. We might have to cut a couple months out. [01:29:18] Speaker A: Well, I was going to say, can all of our subscribers, please submit two photos. [01:29:26] Speaker B: Very interesting. Yeah. [01:29:29] Speaker C: So this year? Yeah, it's been amazing. [01:29:33] Speaker B: Yeah, that's great. That's great. And so it's something you think you'll, you'll keep on doing? You'll continue? [01:29:37] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm actually, yeah. And I've, I'm just, I haven't got a lot of time. I probably got about another three or four weeks to work out my marketing strategy, so forth. And a couple of the news agencies, I've got friends who own news agencies and so I'm just talking to them about, you know, obviously, can they sell them for me and so forth and, you know, and I'll do that as well because it did become a lot of work last year, but I'm, and I've got a few other photography projects coming up that are going to take up a lot of time. You know, it's, it's cramming a lot. So I'm just trying to work out my strategy with that. But, yeah, I'll do one again. I'm looking at Denmark, and there's a little place down the road called Bremer Bay, which is a beautiful seaside fishing town that's got a population of about 500. I think I'm going to talk to them about a local calendar as well. I'm going to go over and do some shooting for them as well. And, and just even Mount Barker, which is another little town, I, maybe I could do a calendar there, 50 or 60 calendars there for the locals. I think localizing it to that because people want something that's organic to them. So, you know. Yeah, it's really growing. And it's funny because, you know, you walk into shops and you see those calendars, two dollar calendars. Right. And there'll be certain people that will pay that. Right. That's fine. No problems. But there's still a place for people buying a premium calendar. [01:31:01] Speaker B: Yeah. It's gonna hang on your wall like a piece of art. Then you want to. [01:31:04] Speaker A: For twelve months. Like twelve whole months. It's, it's worth it. [01:31:09] Speaker D: So that's why I reckon some people want the calendar, too, is to have something nice on the wall. That's changed. I haven't invested in, crazily invested in some huge art piece, but thousands on this spent $30 or something. And they've got a nice photo on the wall that also has a purpose of, um, you know, helping with life. [01:31:26] Speaker B: My parents have had a calendar hanging in their toilet room for, since I can remember, in the same house, same toilet room. [01:31:33] Speaker A: They've always the same calendar. It's going to be out of date. [01:31:38] Speaker B: My dad goes in every year and changes where the dates fall. But they've always had a calendar. But a lot of them get calendars from, um, like, my dad used to work in the automotive industry, and he would get a calendar. [01:31:51] Speaker A: I know the calendars. [01:31:53] Speaker B: He was getting like a brand, you know, like it would be petters, but there was very minimal Petters branding. [01:31:58] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. [01:31:59] Speaker B: But it would all be about the photo. So they would employ a photographer or buy stock images, probably. So that's another opportunity to, I guess, expand that upon that idea that you could offer to shoot photos for a business for their own color. [01:32:13] Speaker A: Well, Jim and I have photos for a business before a calendar two times we. For, who was it? Kenworth, the truck company. They do a tracking a trucking calendar every year. It has to be like the truck with their. With the driver. You know, a bit of a story. You know, it's not just the same photo over and over again because there's. [01:32:41] Speaker D: Like a main shot and then they do like an inset or two with the driver. With a driver and stuff like that. So. [01:32:47] Speaker B: So it's not like the old chico roll ads with the girl draped across the bonnet. [01:32:51] Speaker A: Unfortunately, no. We draped the male driver over the bonnet. [01:32:56] Speaker D: Yeah, it was actually really cool, actually. So a few years later, for the second one, we did Justin, the one out. I shot his wedding as well. [01:33:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Jim picked up a wedding client out of a. A truck calendar photo shoot because he was a great dude. [01:33:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, Corey, that's the flow on effect, isn't it? That's. Yeah, you know, it's. And if you think about it. Yeah, and if you think about it, it's having your photos in someone's office or someone's. And initially, you know, kind of when I got into photography, you had to do a lot of stuff where, especially as a landscape photographer, I would literally just say to people, I'm going to get you a print and a little frame done, and you can just put it in your office. Don't worry about money. I just want to. If you can have one piece in someone's office, they. How many people are going to walk past that every day? And they go, that's a nice photo. Who did that? Oh, that's a Nev Clark. Oh, they're straight onto your facebook and suddenly you're selling prints just. Yeah, you're going to have to. You're going to have to because I think this is where a lot of people who get into photography, they're almost like, you know, they pulled the camera. And I was listening to last week's podcast about how, you know, I've got a business card and suddenly I'm a photographer. Well, we're probably all doing. I love that. I love that. Because in many ways we're all like that. But we have to start somewhere. And often just getting your work out there, just getting it in a cafe, getting it on someone's wall, even putting some of your own photos on the wall of your own photos on your own walls. So when you have a dinner party, people walk past, oh, you took that, Nev? Yeah. That's beautiful. I've been working with some clients in Perth and, you know, a lady in Perth messaged me. She's from Albany. And a lot of people leave Albany. So I try and target people who've moved away to get some photos on their wall. And they have a big dinner party. 200 people come. You're gonna have 200 people that are gonna see your photo. One of them is gonna like it or, you know. So it's that. It's that, yeah. Because I think we've gone into this real website and. Funny. I'll be honest, I don't have a website yet, you know, and I kind of should have one, I'll be honest. But. And I'm close to building it and I keep starting it. I still think there's a place for the. The market where you get your photos up on walls and people see that. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. [01:35:20] Speaker A: Because that sells there is for sure. [01:35:23] Speaker B: Did you manage to find any photos. [01:35:24] Speaker D: Of the truck, western Star, Justin, not Kenworth? Sorry, I was wrong. [01:35:28] Speaker A: I was western St. Yeah. [01:35:29] Speaker C: How? [01:35:29] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:35:30] Speaker A: Find this, Jim, do you think images. [01:35:34] Speaker B: Give me the butter company. West? [01:35:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:35:40] Speaker D: Oh, it'll be on the distance. That's on the other computer. [01:35:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll find it off. [01:35:44] Speaker D: It'll be in your Dropbox, I don't think. Because you always set the final images. [01:35:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm tracking it down. I'll find it. Don't you. You guys just continue without me. [01:35:55] Speaker B: Chat amongst yourselves. [01:35:56] Speaker A: Chat amongst yourselves while I search through ten years of photography work. [01:36:02] Speaker B: Have you sold any prints, Jim? [01:36:05] Speaker D: Like years ago, like before I was like first year uni type thing. I sold a couple and then nothing. Not prints, I guess I sold photography, yeah. A lot since then, but. Yeah. Not actual prints for a long time. [01:36:23] Speaker B: Yeah, but like, in my early days of doing some professional work, when I would hand over the digital files that often print some larger since some of the best shots, like I'd print two or three in a larger size and just so, just included in the, in the package kind of thing. Or I'd give them a, you know, I'd give them a. Not the standard. What's, what's, what's the next size up? Was it four by seven by five? Yeah. Five by sevens. [01:36:50] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:36:51] Speaker B: I'd give them a bunch of those and just say, yeah, if you go to, go out for dinner or friends to coffee or you can show like old, you know, you'd shot with your photo album or you, or you stack of photos out of your envelope and. [01:37:03] Speaker D: Yeah. So that, that's what allow our wedding clients get is. [01:37:08] Speaker B: Yep. [01:37:08] Speaker D: A little sort of book that's put together with some five by sevens in there as well. Just so they've got something tangible. [01:37:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:37:19] Speaker D: It's, it's, it's not, it's not a. They don't know that they're getting it. [01:37:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:37:24] Speaker D: It's, it's just, just something extra. [01:37:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I would never tell my clients that that was happening. Yeah, it was. [01:37:31] Speaker D: Hopefully none of them are listening to this really popular podcast. [01:37:36] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny because I dabbled in some wedding photography. I said dabbled and I kind of dipped my toe in the water the last couple of years. And funnily enough, a very funny, quick funny story. My third, my x t five. It was funny. I ordered it and it came and there's not really a camera store in Albany that sells many cameras, so I order everything online and the XT five arrived. And that's like any person, I'm not one of those people that does the unboxing and then tries to dial all the same. I just pull it out, clunk it on and I go and shoot with it almost immediately. [01:38:12] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:38:13] Speaker C: And I went down to my local beach, which is about 2 km from here. I live in a little beautiful little suburb near the beach. And I literally had the camera out of the box battery in. And I'm just walking towards the beach and I noticed these people standing up in the corner on this little wooden section getting married. And I thought, oh, that's interesting, people getting married. That's lovely. And I'm walking part. I'm just minding my own business. And the lady yells out, oh, are you a photographer? And I went, yeah, you know, I dabble. That's what my words were. And she said, oh, we don't have a wedding photographer right now and we're getting married. Would you would you take some photos for us? And I went, you know what? Why not? I wandered over and met these people. So my very first photo with my x t five was actually a wedding show. And I stayed there for about half an hour. Got some beautiful shots of this couple getting married. I had to dial in the camera. I said, look, I said to the lady, look, I've only just pulled this camera out of the box. I'm not quite sure I'm sticking the dials. And first shot was like, well, that's overexposed. Oops. Okay. Dialed it in. I got it working within a few minutes. But it was lovely. It was. And then I, you know, that night, I sent about 20 photos to this couple and their friends and family. And so. But here's the nice thing out of that story is that you give. Six months later, one of the people who was in that, in that little group messaged me and said, I need you for a shoot, nephew. You give, you get back. [01:39:38] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. [01:39:41] Speaker C: I say to a lot of new photographers, don't expect to just rock up with your brand new camera and all your merchandise, and you're suddenly going to have this big clientele. Yeah, it's, um. And, and it's a slow burn. Yeah. And I think there's this perception if you watch Insta. Instagram reels or, or any of these marketing agencies, that you can make $100,000 in your first six months if you just do this. And I. Good luck with that. [01:40:11] Speaker A: You can. You can make a hundred thousand dollars in your first six months if you just spend the five years before that working for free to get yourself into a position to then charge what you were. Everything that I've gotten that's been a very cool opportunity has always come from working for free. A lot of people are kind of against that, and there's a time to know your value and when to charge. But I got into shooting snowboard tours in Japan by working for free. Mountain bike photography and videography. Started working for free, even, like, wedding photography. The first one I did wasn't actually free, but it was very, very, very cheap for a friend. Like, very cheap. So, mate traits. Yeah, yeah. Beyond mates rates. But again, like, it was, I was, I was untested. It was risky for them. Yeah, for sure. I found them. I found the photos. Oh, I think, yeah, here we go. So, yeah, this is cool. [01:41:12] Speaker D: This is Cory's. [01:41:13] Speaker A: This is the sort of stuff that we, we do when Jim and I work together. So that we started in the day shooting with Corey just getting some, like, warm up shots and stuff. [01:41:23] Speaker D: Was this the first one? [01:41:24] Speaker A: Yeah, this is the first. [01:41:25] Speaker D: Yeah. So we had, we had no idea. [01:41:28] Speaker A: Like, what they want. [01:41:29] Speaker D: So we literally overshot this. [01:41:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we did some. Some cheesy shots with Corey with the truck, just in case that's what they wanted for their cat. Look at it just. These are low res because I'm just zooming in on thumbnails. But then we moved the truck and started working towards what we thought was going to be like a hero image. [01:41:55] Speaker C: Oh, I love, I love that canola shot. Yeah, that one to the right there. Yeah. Beautiful. Look at that. [01:42:01] Speaker A: Is that going to open? How does Dropbox work? Double click, double click. Double click. Oh, yeah. There we go. [01:42:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:42:08] Speaker A: Now it has to think. [01:42:09] Speaker D: That's great. That's beautiful. Nice. Yeah, just. [01:42:11] Speaker A: It just took a while under exposed. [01:42:13] Speaker C: Look at that. [01:42:13] Speaker A: You're a bit under exposed, Greg. [01:42:18] Speaker C: There's a calendar photo, there's a cover. [01:42:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that's just. [01:42:21] Speaker D: Well, they get better. [01:42:22] Speaker A: They get better as. We worked with that for a while and then we wanted to do some driving shots on the road, which was risky. I think we all. [01:42:32] Speaker D: We got some light came on to the store. [01:42:35] Speaker C: This was like that one. I like the one with the dust. The dust, yeah, yeah, the one to the left there. You know, this is like. [01:42:44] Speaker D: Yeah, that logistic logistically, because it was such a big truck here to do like a blocky every time we wanted to do a dust photo. So here to do like a five minute block on these dirt roads. [01:42:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:42:59] Speaker A: But, yeah, back around, this was a really fun shoot. Like, getting shots like that is. [01:43:04] Speaker D: It's super rewarding, shooting off the top of the car. So, Justin. So we were both shooting. So like, one would be up, one would be down. So just trying to maximize our time because we didn't. [01:43:14] Speaker A: We didn't have a drone, so this was. This was. Yeah, all handheld to get up higher. And then it got to sunset, which was probably the. The funnest part of the shoot. I. I think I got. Oh, yeah. Is this your shot, Jim? I can't remember. [01:43:30] Speaker D: I don't know. Who's this? I can't remember. I can't remember. [01:43:33] Speaker A: There's no way of telling who's who shots, who's with us. [01:43:35] Speaker D: Especially back here. We had that same camera, the birds. [01:43:39] Speaker A: And guess what? This was all before AI. So none of the birds are added in with, like, AI and stuff. This is all just like photography. I got in the cab with my. [01:43:56] Speaker B: On the right. [01:43:56] Speaker C: Oh, I like that. Yeah, yeah. Just. [01:43:58] Speaker A: Wow, look at that. Oh, here's a behind the scenes shot of us doing our thing. [01:44:06] Speaker D: I think that's. Come on, me. You take me. [01:44:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's good. Says that a ladder. [01:44:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's a. That's a lucky strap there. [01:44:16] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:44:17] Speaker A: If anyone would like to buy one. If anyone would like to buy one, you can use QR code in the top, right? [01:44:23] Speaker B: Oh. [01:44:26] Speaker A: Geez, that was smooth. I was like, yeah, these were some of the ones that we were pretty stoked about, I think on the left. [01:44:34] Speaker B: That one. Yep. [01:44:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I like this one. [01:44:37] Speaker C: Hmm. Oh, wow. [01:44:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that's cool. [01:44:40] Speaker C: That's cool. So. [01:44:42] Speaker A: So, yeah, this is calendars for us. [01:44:45] Speaker D: Yeah, we've done two photos, so where. [01:44:48] Speaker A: This would have only been one month. And we took a lot. We took a lot of that. A lot of options. [01:44:54] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's interesting because I've got. I've got a few. I've got a few country clients who have done some work for as well. And I just recently did a. Did some work for a Perth company who wanted some farming shots. And I got to spend, you know, 3 hours in a harvester while they were harvesting. Like, literally the harvester was going. And I've never, ever seen. Been inside. Inside a harvester. So you're doing this new experience, and it was amazing, you know, seeing the family, the work that goes into farming. You. We just see the loaf of bread at the supermarket. I get to see the whole. And it was amazing. It was. It was. Yeah. Just seeing those sorts of shoots are really cool because the people are just. Just lovely. They just. Yeah, it's so accommodating. Yep, no worries, mate. I'll do another loop for you. [01:45:46] Speaker A: No problems in the harvester. [01:45:51] Speaker B: That's very cool. A little comment there from Alex. Gorgeous sunset photos of that truck, boys. [01:45:57] Speaker D: Thanks, Alex. Alex is from Bendigo. He's a photographer as well. [01:46:01] Speaker C: Cool. [01:46:01] Speaker A: Nice. [01:46:02] Speaker B: We should get Alex on the podcast. [01:46:04] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. [01:46:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:46:07] Speaker B: Okay. [01:46:08] Speaker C: And I think it's about. Yeah. Yep. Go ahead, Greg. [01:46:11] Speaker B: Sorry, I was just gonna get started. Jump into some news articles before we wrap up for the day. [01:46:16] Speaker A: You got a little bit of news for us? [01:46:18] Speaker B: There's not a lot going on at the moment. It's a bit quiet in the photography world. All eyes are on the Olympics. Canada dropped their big numbers. Who Justin, is now going to be selling calendars to afford. You've already done the mathematic, haven't you? How many calendars you have to sell to afford the r1? [01:46:36] Speaker A: Yeah, just one. But it's going to be an $11,000 calendar if anyone out there is a free strap. [01:46:47] Speaker B: All right, well, we can't wait to see that one, Justin. [01:46:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be good. It'll be good. [01:46:51] Speaker D: You could shoot a personal calendar for someone and it's $11,000, but it's a project that you then go and shoot for them. [01:46:59] Speaker B: Is Yelena cashed up? [01:47:01] Speaker A: I don't think she would pay for that. Okay, what do we got? [01:47:10] Speaker B: The first bit of news. A photo book publisher is being sued for using drone images that include art installations. So, in. This is set in the UK? No, in Germany. So there's a copyright law known as the panorama freedom that allows the license free use of images and videos of copyrighted works that are permanently located in public spaces, such as art exhibitions. So the idea is that they're, you know, these art installations are viewable from a distance. There's a law that allows photographers to, you know, take landscapes if the art installation is in the background, like, let's say it's a huge sculpture park or something of that nature. Or, you know how you see some people put sculpture is on the beach. I don't think Germany has any beaches. But anyway. [01:47:57] Speaker A: Does it need to be a copy? So. But it's specifically so not just any art. Not like street art. It has to be a copyrighted piece of art. [01:48:06] Speaker B: Okay, so there's an artist's name attached to it. It's not just. Yeah, it's not just street art. So. Okay, the drone photo. The big legal debate is that drone photography doesn't fall under the panorama freedom, because they say that the panorama panorama freedom law applies to what can be taken at eye level by someone standing in. In public. [01:48:34] Speaker A: Whose eyes. Jim is tall. [01:48:37] Speaker B: Well, Jim is tall. Yeah, maybe we'll say that there's a limit. Okay, we'll say Jim's the limit. 6263. Well, your eyes are at about five nine, so we'll say five. [01:48:52] Speaker A: Anything over there? [01:48:54] Speaker C: So the truck calendar, you know, the truck photo where you're standing on the ladder, does that go over. [01:49:01] Speaker D: Straight to jail? [01:49:04] Speaker B: The publishing house has published a couple of photo table. Jeez, my words. Coffee table books with these photos, with these public art pieces. So they're in a public space. But Vijay build Kunst. That's Kunst, an agency representing the rights and claims of artists and authors, are suing the publisher of the coffee table book because they're saying that the drone photos don't qualify because they're taken from an aerial view. Not a panorama view. [01:49:38] Speaker A: Right. [01:49:39] Speaker B: So it's a really gray area and it will. I thought it was just interesting because, you know, the debate basically is over where does. Where does panorama's eye line stop and a drone's eye line begin? [01:49:52] Speaker A: And their contention would essentially be that this is as egregious as taking a camera into an art gallery and taking a photo of the Mona Lisa and then putting it into a coffee table book without permission. Is that kind of essentially, or, you know, not Mona Lisa, but like a modern piece of art that an artist has done. You're. You're saying essentially you're reproducing it for profit and without money. [01:50:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:50:15] Speaker A: Without approval or licensing or whatever. [01:50:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:50:19] Speaker A: Right. [01:50:20] Speaker B: So I just thought that was an interesting piece for the drone, because I know that you've got several drones. [01:50:28] Speaker C: I've got a drone. Yeah. I've got a drone. Yeah. [01:50:30] Speaker D: Tony said you had 15. I think you have. [01:50:35] Speaker A: I have two drones, but have you got. I have. Let's not talk about it. Hey, what's that? Is that the mini? What is that one? [01:50:44] Speaker C: Three. That's a three. I've still got three. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great little drone. [01:50:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:50:50] Speaker C: Three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:50:52] Speaker B: There you go. [01:50:53] Speaker C: What a fantastic piece of technology. What? What? It. I mean, that's funny because I. Yeah, I was a bit. I gotta meet. I was a bit. Anti drones noise. Um. You know, when I go and shit, I like to be quiet and just discreet. Leave me alone. I don't like the. But when I got this, I was kind of like, oh, just give one a play. It's quiet, you can barely hear it. In fact, when you launch this one, it goes up in the air and no one can hear it or see it. You know, it's fairly funny how in Australia we have the law. I think you have to be able to see it. [01:51:25] Speaker A: Yes. [01:51:26] Speaker C: Once it goes above about 70, 50 meters, I can't see any. Good luck seeing anyone on cloudy day. You just can't see it. [01:51:32] Speaker A: You gotta have eagle eyes. Yeah. [01:51:34] Speaker C: To absolutely see it. But it's been great. My son actually just got the four, the new, or. Now the second model to this one, and he loved it. Caught some whales, caught some whale footage a couple of weeks ago and that. I think that the great thing about drones is they've got people into photography that maybe weren't into photography. [01:51:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:51:53] Speaker C: It's really funny because there's a toy factor to it. Yeah. [01:51:57] Speaker B: Like a remote control. [01:51:57] Speaker C: Just want to make. [01:51:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:51:59] Speaker C: Can I just go back to one comment about the whole maybe chuckle. She's probably just about to get on her key, but my partner is german and she's been in Australia for a long time. Amazing woman. She supports my journey and I just want to thank her if she's watching. But they are very different in the way they are around privacy stuff, you know, because of the whole thing that happened. The way they perceive protection around images and stuff is very different. So I think culturally we kind of have to understand where they've come from. And I think that probably adds clarity to, you know, because in Germany, and I read up about what you're allowed to do in Germany with cameras and drones and stuff, and they're very strict on, on a lot of things. So there's a contextual reason probably behind that, I would imagine. Again, it's preamble cultural things that, that they had protection. It's interesting. [01:52:51] Speaker B: Damages they're claiming are only 2900 us. Yeah. [01:52:56] Speaker A: So. So it's not even for them. It's not even about the money. They're kind of, they like principle. Their principle. [01:53:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:53:02] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. [01:53:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:53:04] Speaker B: We'll probably rewrite the law if it gets changed. I was going to raise a point. What was it? Oh, yes. It was a comment from Alex. [01:53:14] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:53:16] Speaker A: Depends on how prominently copyrighted the artwork featured is in that drone shot, probably. Yeah, I guess it depends. You know, if you're, if you're somehow legally allowed to fly a drone really, really high and the artwork is a dot, they're probably not going to. [01:53:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Even if your art book is called here's how to see the best art parks in Germany for free. [01:53:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:53:37] Speaker B: Well, obviously raise some eyebrows. Let's, let's jump to another news article. Let me just see. Here's one for our friend Justin. Hey, is that. Where's the heading canon announces even more supply shortages. [01:53:54] Speaker A: This is one of those things, you know, how different people and different news media will spin things on headlines. This headline should actually readdeh. Sales of new canon products booming. Very successful. Best cameras ever released. [01:54:09] Speaker B: Would you like me to bring up the sales figures? [01:54:14] Speaker A: Moving on. [01:54:16] Speaker B: Quietly. Quietly, yeah. So they've announced some. It's mostly accessories. Yeah. They are not alone. I know that when, whenever Fuji drop a new x 100, they're still trying to catch up on sales of the last one. [01:54:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:54:30] Speaker B: And if you look on the Fujifilm website at the moment, they're very popular at the moment because, you know, they're affordable and there's a lot of influencers using them online. So they're much more popular than Canon or Nikon. But a lot of the camera lenses are out of stock. [01:54:51] Speaker A: Popular because they look nice as props in TikToks. [01:54:55] Speaker B: Yeah, whatever sells, you know, the nice. [01:54:58] Speaker C: And shiny silver looking, you know, retro e dials, you know. [01:55:04] Speaker B: But yeah, there's a, I mean, a lot of RF mount so. Yeah, from Af mount, so there's, you know, a lot of people are sticking with the ecosystem but moving to digital mirrorless over DSLR and that obviously requires new lenses. So there's, there's a number of things that are out of stock, but we won't go into too many details because I don't want to make Justin uncomfortable in any. [01:55:26] Speaker A: I'm saying I'm sticking with it. It's positive. It's not supply issues, it's demand issues. [01:55:31] Speaker B: It is, yeah. And we saw a couple of weeks ago, we showed some numbers where year on year 2024 is up in sales across all brands. Digital cameras, which is wonderful. It's great for the industry, it's great for visual creatives, it's great for the companies because the more they're selling, the more they invest in tech and the next thing that comes along. [01:55:52] Speaker C: I've often made that point too, guys. I often say people that, you know, when there's a new camera out, people go, oh, you don't need that new Turk and you shouldn't buy that camera because it costs money and all that blah. And I go, well, the camera company has to make money. That's kind of how it works. Otherwise there's a whole bunch, there's a factory and there's a whole bunch of employees and there's a CEO. And if they're not making money, well, then you're not going to have any lenses or you're not going to have this. So they have to make money and new models come out. [01:56:21] Speaker A: Sure, that's right. It's interesting to run out and buy it. Like you don't know and you shouldn't sort of feel that because it is sometimes hard when the new thing comes out and now you feel like the camera you had or have is no longer good enough, even though nothing has changed in your experience, it's just the fact that this new thing exists. You feel like, oh, now I'm outdated, you're nothing. [01:56:43] Speaker B: But I think there's a provides value there. Yeah, obviously you haven't reached yet, but where you reach a point where you think what I have now is what I need. [01:56:55] Speaker C: To chase. [01:56:56] Speaker A: But you want the x t five. You just said it earlier. [01:56:59] Speaker B: Yeah, but I haven't gone out and bought it. You don't pay yet? [01:57:03] Speaker D: Haven't yet. Haven't bought it yet. [01:57:05] Speaker B: I've got it yet. [01:57:08] Speaker C: I'll post mine over to you, mate. So you just hire it for a week. [01:57:14] Speaker B: And then change my address, change my number. A couple of weeks ago we talked about or maybe last week, I can't remember. Time has no meaning anymore. We talked about the Paris Olympics and Canon's professional services and we saw some wonderful photos of shelves and shelves and shelves of the cameras they have there for photojournalists, mostly newer r1 s and five reals, Mark II's and a whole bunch of big, big lenses. And Nikon has recently, we've recently got pictures of Nikon's professional services, not quite to the grand scale. [01:57:49] Speaker A: Whoa, Jim, that's sad. What are they? A couple of D 850s? [01:57:56] Speaker D: Hang on, hang on. You could take any photo. It's like the Canon one was done by a real estate photographer and this one's, this one was probably shot by a press photographer. Just showing the important stuff is now. [01:58:09] Speaker A: It looks more like it was taken by a Nikon photographer who didn't have the appropriate gear because they didn't have any gear at the Olympics. [01:58:17] Speaker D: Hang on, 200 z nine? S, 100 z eight. There's a lot of stuff there. [01:58:23] Speaker A: All of the stuff was probably, was probably out being used at the Olympics. [01:58:26] Speaker D: When they maybe Nick on photographers and just actually own their own key and they're not just relying on canon to supply it for them. Yeah, Justin, maybe because they're making money as photographers. [01:58:37] Speaker A: I actually think we should change the name of this podcast to camera wars. This is. We need a Sony person as well. [01:58:47] Speaker C: We need to get a Sony guy. [01:58:53] Speaker A: Do a once a month camera wars episode. Yeah, maybe that'd be fun. [01:58:57] Speaker B: Get some contentious. [01:58:58] Speaker C: It's kind of like, it's kind of like. It's kind of like lighter. Yeah, you pour a bit of petrol on the ground, you light a fuse and just watch. [01:59:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I like to do. Yeah. Very, very quickly with. Oh, go on there. [01:59:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I would just make one very quick. I did see one article, I didn't read it fully. It was just one of those ones I was scrolling. But people believe actually that Fujifilm actually slowed down production of cameras so they don't. So adds more value to the camera. They were claiming that because of the launch so many people wanted the camera and they couldn't supply them with the X 100 v one, that they literally were deliberately doing that as a strategy. So the camera became more valuable. [01:59:39] Speaker A: There's a simpler strategy than that. I tell you how I would do it. If I own Fuji and I wanted to do what you're saying, I would make as many cameras as required that people want to buy and I would put a $1,000 on the price tag of the camera and then less people would buy them. But they would if that, if that was their strategy, was to increase the value of the camera by making it out of stock. And you would have it go out of stock very frequently in and out of stock, whereas there was like six months when you couldn't get it. That is not the way to make a profitable company. You don't just restrict sales for six months. You would do it like a bid at a time. Hey, we're in. Then you, then an email goes out, oh, they're back in. You would do that like, they would do it tactically, and that's not what they were doing. It was a supply shortage for sure, and demand outstripped supply. [02:00:31] Speaker B: We're still post. They're still trying to regain lost ground, for one. Yeah, they're also trying to. They would have made a buttload of X Pro three s. They didn't sell because the pandemic shut everything down. That's why they haven't released a new one of those because they probably still have. You know, they invested in tooling and machinery to make those cameras. The last thing they want to do is throttle supply for the sake of bumping up the price. All of all cameras have gone up significantly in price. So it's a loaf of bread. [02:01:06] Speaker D: Yeah. [02:01:07] Speaker B: But interestingly, issues have been impacted by rare earth metal shortages, silicon shortages, chip shortages. All of those things have a. [02:01:18] Speaker A: The article we just read, canons got supply issues with some battery grips and eyepieces. Do you think they're doing that to drive up the price of the eyepieces? No, they're a $28 item. You know, like, it's a supply issue because everyone has ordered them, because they've ordered new cameras. It's just, it's. Yeah, it's not. Fujifilm just got caught with massive demand and probably some issues that we haven't heard about because they're kept internal because they've had some issues with manufacturing the cameras. Yeah. [02:01:49] Speaker C: And if you look at. I just wanted to quickly go back to the cost of the GFX camera, the original GFX. I think it was the one, the first brig 100 model, how expensive that was. And now you look at the 100s, far better camera three years later and it's five or $6,000 cheaper. I often say to people, camera gear has, yes, has become more expensive. But when you relate it to a top end, the top end models, they're actually coming down when you look at across the board. It's just that our perception is they're going up all the time. In reality, if you look back, the D 850 when that came out, how expensive was that? And compared to what, the z eight now? Yeah, they haven't gone up. It's just our perception that they have. [02:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:02:36] Speaker D: We have another question from Alex about AI. When do you think generative AI is going to really start taking away jobs from photographers weddings and commercials? And are you worried? [02:02:49] Speaker A: We covered this topic a year ago and I think we'll do another full episode on at some stage, but in my opinion, the short answer is, and weddings, never, sports, never. Don't worry about that. Use it as a tool, but don't worry about it stealing a job, because when you're capturing real moments and real people, things are unfolding. AI can't do that and it's not going to happen. What would be concerning is the low value, low context, sort of stock photography world and stuff like that. Greg writes a lot of articles, like, you know, if you're doing some article as a, as a writer on some generic topic, and you can just generate generic images to go with that article, that's where I think AI might steal some work from what would otherwise have been stock photography. But that stock photography thing has been a touch tough sell for photographers for a long time now anyway, unless you're doing very targeted, high value stock photography, that sort of has a fairly niche appeal. You know, the world of sort of having the photo of the receptionist with the headpiece in to use on your website about us page or whatever, making money from stuff like that is kind of, in my opinion, I think that's a probably over and AI was going to steal that, I think. [02:04:21] Speaker D: Or people just get the real receptionist in the photo. Well, and that's where we're at now. It's that cheap to just get a shoot done. We're going to shoot the real receptionist in the reception, like you're going to see when you come to the clinic or wherever. [02:04:35] Speaker A: And that's the way businesses will stand out from people that are using AI generated images or whatever, is to use real images and get a real photographer. So if anything, I think it's only going to drive more demand if you work with it, if you let it be your reason? That business isn't going to work or that things are getting taken off you, then it'll happen. Don't let it be a reason, work against it. Work with the industry that we've got. But I think there's going to be plenty of opportunity and certainly weddings, as Jim would know, weddings are hard. If you want to do that work, there's always going to be work. They're not easy. [02:05:15] Speaker C: So, yeah, I would also say, yeah, I would also just say that, and maybe this is from my working, my day work. We've worked in addictions now for twelve years and I kind of understand how human behavior works pretty well. There's trends that come in and out, okay, they things that come in and AI was big, and it still is big, but give it time. And I say to people, just give it time. And it starts to come down because of just what Justin was saying, that there's still a place and, and Jim would know, this is doing weddings, this, the authentic realness comes back. You know, we thought that record, vinyl, I use example, or we thought that vinyl and film cameras would all die off. You know, I saw a stat the other day how film cameras are making it massive surge back, that the authentic, real experience for people is still there and they will come back to that. [02:06:08] Speaker A: Do you remember how popular HDR photography was for a little while? [02:06:13] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's, oh, look at this. [02:06:17] Speaker A: Whoo. [02:06:17] Speaker C: You know, it's kind of like. [02:06:19] Speaker B: And then I think just on the AI thing, before we wrap up the show, guys, I think my biggest concern with it is where it's used to, um, correct mistakes and overcome things that are easily overcome with skills. [02:06:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:06:38] Speaker B: You know, and true learning and educating yourself on a process. If it's, you know, people will rely on a simpler process of telling, you know, they take the photo, but then they get AI to make it look like everyone's happy or, yeah, change it. And even smartphones already do this where you can, and it'll take a burst of photos and you choose which face is the best for the shot, and it will put that face you choose, like the overall shot you want. So you might have a, you know, a group photo, but one person's got a sad face. So you look at the photo where that person's got a happy face and you move that face to the other photo. It's a copy and paste, but it uses AI to do it. And I think that's the real, and I know there's a place for it, but I think that would be my biggest concern and AI in general, we see it being used. My partner's a university lecturer, and it's a big problem for universities and education spaces because people are using AI text generators who do their homework and their assessments and things for them. [02:07:44] Speaker D: That's exactly what I'd be doing, Craig. Absolutely. [02:07:48] Speaker A: Well, Jim, you need photography. You could have, you. You would be generating your photos with AI and just submitting those as your artwork. [02:07:57] Speaker B: That's probably what. [02:08:01] Speaker D: My assignments were written. And I'm like, this is not anything that's gonna teach me how to be a photographer. [02:08:09] Speaker A: But before we wrap this show up, I want to. I want to plug something which ties in directly to what Greg just said, which is if you want to see what it's like to take real photos, and I'm not saying anyone else isn't taking real photos. That was a bad word to take photos with. No, I'm posting. Almost every photo I'm taking is posted straight out of camera, Jpeg. So it's not edited. There's no AI. It's just what I'm shooting. And it's just in random situations that aren't. Yeah, they're not perfect, so the photos aren't great, but I'm really enjoying putting that work out there and just letting it be what it is, not having it have to be the best photo ever taken and show people how good of a photographer I am. They're just photos. Check out this on the camera life channel with the 30 day challenge I'm doing every day. Go out for a photo walk, take photos, come along with me. And. Yeah, I think it's like Greg was saying, it's, you know, if you're just relying on pressing an AI button in lightroom or something to try and make your, your photography pop or something like that, I don't think that's the way to grow and get better as a photographer. And I'm growing and getting better just by getting out there and shooting and posting work. [02:09:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it would say getting better, but you're getting out there. On that note, we're going to. We're going to wrap up the show, guys, before I say our thank yous and goodbyes. Nev, what have you got on this week? For photography or this weekend? Getting out? [02:09:41] Speaker C: Yeah, this weekend. Well, the canola is starting to pop, so I'll probably get out and get a few canola photos, which is really good. And don't want to go into a big long story, but the ABC, the local ABC who support my journey last year, we ran a little campaign to get people to not stand in the canola crops because the farmers get really angry. So we do that every year. We do a little photo shoot. And please don't stand in the canola. Use your zooms and all that sort of stuff. So. And just really getting more into the new camera. I've only had it three weeks, and I'm just. It's still got that shiny new feel to it, so I'm loving it. Yeah, it's a great camera, and. Yeah. Busy, busy this weekend? Yeah, yeah. [02:10:20] Speaker B: Jim, what have you got on for the weekend? Any photography? [02:10:23] Speaker D: No. Oh, actually, I've got a wedding expo, so. Yeah, kind of photography related. I'm going to be showing all my photography at a wedding expo. So there's a local culture hitch expo up at Ulumbra theatre in Bendigo. It's gonna be pretty good. Justin's coming along. [02:10:40] Speaker A: I'll be at. I'll be at the snow Mountain. [02:10:42] Speaker D: Oh, okay. [02:10:43] Speaker B: I thought you were coming along. [02:10:45] Speaker D: I thought. Yeah, I thought you RSVP to that one. [02:10:47] Speaker A: I'm sorry I missed my invite. It must have got lost in the Internet. [02:10:51] Speaker B: Is it. [02:10:52] Speaker D: Is it Justin and Jim, or. Just. [02:10:53] Speaker B: Sounds like just Jim. Just in. Double booked. Speaking of expos, I saw that Bendigo, next year, they're going to be hosting a. I think it's an anime expo or something. Like. Like a pop culture expo in Bendigo. [02:11:10] Speaker D: Probably the showgrounds or something. [02:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And it made me think about Ian's cosplay photography and organize a bit of a get together and head up to Bendigo. [02:11:20] Speaker A: That's a good idea. Maybe he can. He can run a little workshop or something. That would be sweet. [02:11:24] Speaker B: That's what I had in mind. So stay tuned for that one, folks. Let's wrap up. I want to thank Nev for his time and his insight and sharing his story. I think there was a huge amount to learn from your journey, how you approach your craft, and even just some really nice practice ideas for people to create a little bit of income, or a lot, depending on how many calendars you sell. So. Yeah, thanks so much for joining us, Nev. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast today. [02:11:58] Speaker C: Yeah, great. And I just want to thank you guys for having me on. It was. I know it was a little bit of a short notice thing, but, yeah, I really appreciated the chance to share a little bit of my story with you guys and the wide world and. Yeah, thank you for having me on. [02:12:14] Speaker D: Thank you. Thanks for coming along. [02:12:15] Speaker A: Great. [02:12:16] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Cool. [02:12:17] Speaker A: Hey, Jim, just quickly. Look, look, I can see that lucky's got these stickers. It says custom made in Bendigo just for you. [02:12:28] Speaker D: Is this just for custom straps? [02:12:30] Speaker A: Yep, just for custom straps. Will have that little sticker. So you know you got a custom strap. [02:12:34] Speaker B: Yeah. That's looking at getting a lucky camera strap. Heads to the website, and if you opt for customization, you can have embossing. You can even arrange to have your business logo created into a embossing plate that. I've seen it done. I've seen it happen firsthand. It's very impressive. [02:12:53] Speaker A: Scan the QR code near Nev's head for 15% off. He'll probably point to it if you can. Oh, see, every time. No, other way, other way, other side. There it is. Scan that code. 15% off. [02:13:12] Speaker B: Very good. [02:13:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Awesome. [02:13:16] Speaker B: That's it. That's it for us. That's a bit of a wrap. I know we've run a little bit over, but that's fine. We had lots to talk. [02:13:22] Speaker C: Yeah, my apologies. [02:13:23] Speaker B: No, no. [02:13:23] Speaker A: Don't know. It was great. Thanks for sticking with us. [02:13:26] Speaker B: Fantastic. [02:13:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [02:13:29] Speaker B: So just quickly there. Where can people see your work other. [02:13:32] Speaker C: Than probably just cafe. Head over to my instagram and follow me on the gram. I'm also on Vero as well. Vero's. I don't know if you guys are on Vero at all, but it's a. I like Vero, actually. It's. It's kind of less. Less advertising. No reels, no video over Vero. Just photos. Simple, those two platforms. And Facebook as well. You can follow me on Facebook as well. And yeah, if you need to contact me, anything over this way or anything about anything, just. I get lots of random messages from people on all sorts of photographs and I. You know what? I stay humble and I'll always answer someone's question if someone sends me a message. [02:14:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. [02:14:12] Speaker C: We'll. [02:14:13] Speaker A: We'll make sure we put a link in the description of this show with your instagram and that sort of stuff. [02:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:14:18] Speaker C: Thank you. [02:14:19] Speaker D: Thank you. [02:14:19] Speaker C: Thank you for the pleasure. It's been beautiful. Thank you. [02:14:24] Speaker B: This has been the camera life podcast brought to you. Bye. Good folk at lucky straps. Lucky camera straps based in Bendigo, Victoria. And make sure you get out with your camera this weekend. Anyone, everyone take some photos and be sure to add comments like subscribe, tickle the bell, and we'll see you same time next week. Thanks for joining. [02:14:49] Speaker D: Thank you. [02:14:49] Speaker A: Thanks. [02:14:50] Speaker C: Thank you. [02:14:51] Speaker D: Music we got a dance now. [02:14:52] Speaker B: I've got a dance. You too, nev. Get into it. [02:14:57] Speaker C: All right. Bye.