EP36 Why Photography Workshops are Wonderful with Pinky Spencer

[00:00:07] Speaker A: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome to the Camera Life podcast. This is episode 36, if you can believe it. And what is it now? Like eight weeks till Christmas? Maybe a little less. It's 31st October, 2024. We're coming to you live from three different parts of Victoria. We'll get to that in a minute. But look, stick around if you want to hear about photography tours in New Zealand. Stick around if you want to hear about astrophotography, wildlife landscapes and how our special guest works their magic and creates stunning images. So this is the Camera Life podcast brought to you by Lucky Straps from Bendigo, Victoria. If you're watching along now or later, then welcome. Don't forget to like and subscribe and hit the bell button so you get notified of when we have podcasts. Also, don't forget that we do upload to audio podcast channels for those of you that like to pretend you're working while listening to a photography podcast. We've all done it. We've all done it. But. But welcome, welcome. Justin, how are you, mate? [00:01:23] Speaker B: I'm good, how are you? [00:01:25] Speaker A: I'm all right, not bad for. What is it? It's a bit of an overcast. South Yara. Morning. How are things in Bendigo? [00:01:32] Speaker B: Look, it's. It's a little bit chilly, but not too bad, not too bad. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Just it's been a bit chilly in the mornings. [00:01:38] Speaker B: It has been. Can't pick it. Gets hot, cold, hot, cold. It's that time of the year. [00:01:43] Speaker A: It is, it is. And special. Welcome to Pinky Spencer. Hey, Pinky. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Hi. Hi. How are we now? [00:01:50] Speaker A: You're coming to us from Phillip Island. [00:01:52] Speaker C: I am. And it's beautiful. Sunny today. Well, we had a lot of rain last night, but the sun's out and. Gorgeous day. [00:01:59] Speaker A: It feels like Phillip island is kind of the northernmost island of Tasmania. You seem to have your own ecosystem, your own dialect. Yeah, I know a few of you down there now. [00:02:10] Speaker C: Yeah, you do need a passport to come over the bridge, apparently. So, you know. No, it's a beautiful part of the word world. I've lived here for 30 plus years and. Yeah, love it, love it, love it. It's fantastic. [00:02:22] Speaker A: Were you. Were you a country girl to begin with? [00:02:25] Speaker C: Yes, I always have been. Yeah. I grew up on a dairy farm, so. Yeah, I always love country. I can't be in the city. I'll go for a day visit and I can't wait to leave. [00:02:35] Speaker A: Unfortunately, whenever we catch up with street walks, I'll try not to take it personally. That you're rushing for the train. [00:02:40] Speaker C: No, no, no, exactly, because. Yeah, no, exactly. [00:02:46] Speaker A: So for those of you listening along, surprise, surprise, Pinky is a Fujifilm photographer. And we'll get into the gear that Pinky uses in a moment, I promise you. We've got some non Fuji shooters coming up. We've managed to wrangle in some guests from BFOP from the Bright Festival. But for those of you that are listening from outside of Victoria perhaps and don't know where Phillip island is. How far away is Phillip island from Melbourne, Pinky? [00:03:12] Speaker C: About an hour and a half drive directly south of Melbourne. [00:03:15] Speaker A: What about to cycle? Because you cycle quite a lot. [00:03:17] Speaker C: I do cycle, probably five, a bit longer. But I have to be fair, I've never done that. I know people that have, but I don't fancy riding along the busy highways. So I've never done it. So it's just. So, yeah, it's a fair drive for Melbourne, but it's a beautiful drive. So. Yeah. [00:03:34] Speaker A: Yep. And Philip Island. So that's southeast of Melbourne, correct? [00:03:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So it's where the penguins are and the MotoGP. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Ah, there you go. That's a couple good Seal rocks still there. [00:03:49] Speaker C: Yeah, Seal rocks is still here as well. That'll never go anywhere. So yeah, big nature park. Huge, huge nature park. So lots of opportunities to shoot and it's south facing, so lots of opportunities to get the aurora and to clear dark skies for astro and landscapes and wildlife. It's paradise, really. [00:04:08] Speaker A: It is, it is, yes. I remember years ago a friend of ours from the Fujifilm Australia group, Dale Rogers, yeah, He would shoot Aurora. This was before all the current. This was years ago, before auroras became much more intense, which they seem to have lately. But a friend of ours was shooting Auroras from the back beach at Phillip Island. [00:04:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:33] Speaker A: Pointing south and he would, he would get these amazing shots with a couple of surfers standing in the foreground. Like it was just cool, quite magical stuff. Yeah. We should try and get wrangled Dale on board. But, but we're here to talk with you, Pinky. [00:04:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:48] Speaker A: We want to hear all about your, your creative journey, your early beginnings, your inspirations, why you choose the genres you choose. And I think there's a. I think you've already partly answered that and that you've always been a bit of a nature country kind of person. [00:05:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:04] Speaker A: And what better way to celebrate that than with photography? Well, exactly, but let's dial it back a little bit. Can we start by talking about what were your earliest inspirations or memories of photography. You know, when did you first pick up a camera and go, oh okay. [00:05:24] Speaker C: Well my dad always had video and was always taking, you know, the slides when I was a kid and then we'd have the slide nights and I don't know, I've always had an interest in photography and then it wasn't until I had like those point and shoot cameras for a long time. And then in 2016 I decided to buy a secondhand Canon and I did a astrophotography workshop with the one and only Dale because he ran photo ranges down here on the island at the time and he did courses and we quickly found out that my camera and lens setup was absolutely not ideal for astro. So he actually lent me one of his Fujis and I shot with that just for half an hour. And the ease of the dials anyway, I just fell in love with the system and, and also because he knew it so well, if any of us here had questions we could just ask him. Because if I'm brutally honest, every photographer that I know on Phillip island shoots Fuji because of Dale, which is really, it's really interesting. But personally I wouldn't say I bought my first Fuji which was in 2017, 2016. And I've just sort of grown and I've just done workshops after workshops. I've done quite a few with Dale and YouTube. YouTube's great for learning. So. And just getting out there shoot and it doesn't matter, you just shoot for yourself. So just shoot and you know, see what you get at the camera when you get home. [00:06:54] Speaker A: And so what, what, what was that first Fujifilm that. Do you remember what Cameron Dale lent you first off? [00:07:00] Speaker C: X T2 I got from him. Yeah. And I, Yeah, so and it was a great, great camera. And yeah, I just, I just found that the ease of all the dials on the top, I just find it a very nice camera type. It's nice and light. If I can pick on one thing with them they just don't do an ultra wide lens so that's probably the only. 16 is the widest but other than that I can't fault it. [00:07:24] Speaker A: Oh, there's an 8 mil. [00:07:25] Speaker B: Now I was going to say so is 6. When you say 16 is the widest, is that a full frame equivalent? This 16? [00:07:34] Speaker C: It's a crop. [00:07:35] Speaker B: What's the widest full frame like what would that be equivalent to full frame? What's the widest that they go. [00:07:41] Speaker C: It's 1.5 this. So the XT's are 1.5 crop sensor. So it'd be 16. So you look at about 21, 22, something like that. [00:07:51] Speaker B: The widest they had for a while. [00:07:53] Speaker C: Well, for a long time it's. Yeah, yeah. And. And with a low enough. [00:07:58] Speaker A: Oh, they had a 14, but it was very old. It was one of the original. [00:08:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:08:02] Speaker A: Fuji lenses. [00:08:04] Speaker B: And now they've got an eight. You're saying they do have an eight. [00:08:07] Speaker A: It's a F5. Six, I think. [00:08:10] Speaker B: And so that would. An eight is a 12 mil. Yeah, it's a 12. So it's. So it's pretty. That's pretty. Yeah. Very wide. [00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I reviewed that. So I reviewed that for shot kit. It's a cracker of a lens, but unless you're doing something like architecture or Astro. [00:08:29] Speaker B: But Even Astro, like 5.6 on a crop is pretty dark. [00:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it is pretty dark. [00:08:35] Speaker C: It'd be really good on a tracker. [00:08:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly. [00:08:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:08:42] Speaker B: I didn't. Yeah, I didn't realize. I always thought they had like that kind of equivalent, whatever, the full frame equivalent of like a 16 to 30ish, you know, I thought they had one of those. I don't know. [00:08:52] Speaker A: Well, they've got a 10 to 24. Yeah, that's an F4. They didn't update that with the new one, so it's still an F4. So that's not bad. A lot of people use that for Astro and I think you've got that. [00:09:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I do have that. [00:09:04] Speaker A: We've talked about that before. [00:09:06] Speaker C: Yeah. But I mainly use it just for sunset and sunrise. I haven't used it because I haven't had to. I've always had the 16 to use for that. And I just. I just stitch them together. [00:09:18] Speaker A: Yeah, fair enough. [00:09:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:19] Speaker A: And there's the. There's also the XF8 to 16, which is a red badge zoom. It's a constant 2.8, but it's very expensive. [00:09:29] Speaker C: I know we've talked about that. [00:09:31] Speaker A: You were considering buying it before. [00:09:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I was, but it was just. Yeah, I just. Out of my price range, unfortunately. I've got too many lenses already, so, you know, no such thing according to. [00:09:46] Speaker B: Look, no such thing. Kind of. But there's, there is too many lenses can. Cause, you know that. What's it called, you know, kind of like parallel paralysis of choice, you know, like, like, you know, your brain's like, which one should I use for this spot? And then it just, it can, it can really throw you off. [00:10:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And it can lead to you missing stuff too. Like if you walk out the door and I'VE written articles for Lucky Straps. You can check them out on the website. But I've written articles about, you know, more is less. Less is more. Sorry. [00:10:20] Speaker B: I tend. I tend to. I actually tend to capsule my gear, like, so I've got a lot of lenses, but when I'm heading out shooting, it'll. I'll usually have three at the most that I'm. If I'm. A lot of the time, I'll just take one on a camera, like if we're going for a photo walk or something. But if I'm actually shooting a job, I'll still usually keep it to three. And everything else sits in the car for an emergency if I break something or whatever. But usually they pay gigs, aren't they? That's right. But even then, in pay gig, like, I don't have a bag that's got all of my lenses in it. [00:10:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:57] Speaker B: Because it slows me down and weighs you down. And also. Yeah, you're constantly thinking I should use this or that. I usually pick the set. It's quite often now the. Like a wide 15 to 35 on the full frame and then along the 70 to 200 and then a prime, the 50 mil 1.2 prime or something like that. And it's like, all right, that's. I'll shoot the entire day on those three lenses. It's very simple to decide. And then. Yeah. Because if you have. If you got eight lenses in your kit, just too much. Too much thinking. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're also often on a bike. [00:11:31] Speaker B: Well, that's true too. So keeping the weight down. Yeah. But even. Even. Not, like, even when I shot that commercial stuff for Fur Fee over in Shepparton, like. Yeah, everything stays in the car except for three lenses. And. [00:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:44] Speaker B: Just. Yeah. I don't know. Just simplifies things for me mentally for sure. Anyway, sorry. Sidetracked. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Don't be sorry. This show is all about sidetracks. [00:11:55] Speaker B: That's right. [00:11:57] Speaker A: So Pinky started with the X T2. And how did you find that difference between the Canon and the Fujifilm system? [00:12:06] Speaker C: To be fair, I never really gave the Canon the time of day after that first shoot. [00:12:12] Speaker A: Must be broken. [00:12:14] Speaker C: You know, that was actually a thought, but no, I just kind of figured that and I just stepped over and honestly, I just. Yeah, I've never really looked back. And I have. I've at times considered getting another system, but then, you know, there's so much cost involved with replacing everything and changing everything over that I've just gotten. I mean, it's just Easy to stick. It does a really good job for what I want. It's nice and light. I can, I can hike for miles with it. I'll just keep it. [00:12:41] Speaker A: It's just a tool in the toolkit, isn't it? [00:12:43] Speaker C: It doesn't exactly. [00:12:44] Speaker A: The badge on the front is less relevant. I mean, doing commercial work is different. You need. You have certain demands that you have to meet to meet the client's brief. But yeah, it's just like any old hammer fits your hand comfortably. [00:13:00] Speaker B: And yeah, I am curious though, because this is such a pro Fuji podcast, when you have considered switching, which you've then thought, no, it's just not worth like a full system changeover is very expensive. What are the things that make you think, is it like a type of lens or something like that? Is it usually more lens or more. More camera that makes you think, oh, maybe I should look into switching systems. [00:13:29] Speaker C: It was more the capabilities, the lenses and the setups. And I was actually thinking about going the Sony Alpha for a little while as well, just for. Which is beautiful, but very expensive. And I just kind of thought, look, I can still achieve the things that I want to achieve with camera gear that I've got now. So what am I actually trying to do? Not a. I'm not a professional. I'm not pretending to be a professional. I just shoot for my own enjoyment and what am I trying to achieve with that? So, yeah, I'm just sticking. I did, I did after New Zealand. I will say I did actually buy Move Shoot Move Tracker to get a bit more depth in that Milky Way. It hasn't arrived yet, so I'm very excited. [00:14:08] Speaker A: Did you get to use them while you were away? [00:14:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I did, yeah. And it was just so simple. It was because we went with Richard Taddy and he's got all the gear because he's the major, major astro fellow. So I did the tour with. Am I allowed to give a plug? I did the tour with Levin Barrett. I did the tour with Levin Barrett from rarefue Photography and he does a collaboration photography tour twice a year. Once at Tasmania, which I did earlier in the year, and then this one with Richard Teddy from Nightscape Images. So those two guys are just incredible to go on a tour with. Absolutely incredible. [00:14:43] Speaker B: That's so cool. Richard's a legend. He's a. He's a podcast guest. Previous podcast guest. We did. [00:14:49] Speaker C: Yeah, right. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Mega Astro. Like, I think it was very long, like three or four hours long. Just talking about astrophotography and. Yeah, so he's A wiz. [00:15:00] Speaker C: He's incredible. And like, when you look at his YouTube, like he's just during COVID because he couldn't run the tours at Restrada anymore. And that's where I did my first tour with him in 2019 and he couldn't do them and so then he just decided to put them all on YouTube for free. And all he asked for during that time, because he wasn't making any money like everyone else is, he just asked for a donation. And how generous is that? I mean, just a lovely guy, he's just a great guy. And Levin is exactly the same. So we had a great time. So. Yes. [00:15:34] Speaker A: Jump into your holiday a bit more in a sec. Can you explain how the tracker works? Because I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to astronomy. I was too promising to come down and visit you. [00:15:47] Speaker C: Well, you must. I was. Well, when I get my tracker, I'll show you how to use it. So, yeah, so it's just on the tripod and then you've got your phone for your polar alignment and then you, you put your camera on top of it and it just kind of moves with the stars. Now the most important thing that you have to do is you do have to shoot your foreground light painted shots first, because as the camera moves, your foreground's going to move as well. So when you stitch them together, you've then got to a shot in exactly off your foreground of. Exactly. Because essentially an astro shot is about the foreground. It's not necessarily about stars if you're shooting it that way. So, yeah, so. And then it just kind of moves with the star so you get a lot more depth. And because you can leave your aperture up and you can, you can just make your, you can use a longer lens and everything changes. You no longer get star trails after your 30 seconds, so you can just have it open a lot longer. You can do it for 80 seconds and it will just move, which gives you a lot more detail. [00:16:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. [00:16:52] Speaker C: So I'll be able to use that 5.6 aperture because it just gives you a lot more detail because it allows it. [00:16:58] Speaker B: But yeah, you sort of have to. You step into that realm, which I'm sure you've already done a ton before, but it's like you're no longer making the. Just the one image in the camera. You're. You're approaching the scene of like, all right, foreground and then. And potentially, I think Richard, doesn't he sometimes do like many foreground shots? Like he'll stack his foreground as well and then. And then do the sky tracker shot and then put it all together to create those sort of. [00:17:26] Speaker C: Yeah, so before Richard really started using the trackers to the extent that he is now, what we were taught we did the foreground was like six or seven shots, different angle, light painting. And then the background that the Milky way was a 10 shot tracked with a. With a noise reduction program on your computer that you put it into. And then you stack the 10 shots off the Milky Way and you flatten that into one. And then you put the five shots in on front. So it's, it's. I actually personally really thoroughly enjoy the editing process of it. I really love that. Yeah, I love that. So. And I still have gone back a little bit to Single Shot Astro just because it does also give you a lot of detail. And I should really know that as well. It shouldn't always be that complicated. And I've just over complicated it with the tracker. But I just really enjoyed seeing it in use. And I thought, you know what? I just. They're cheap. They're 20 off. I had to buy one. [00:18:28] Speaker A: We've all been there as well. [00:18:29] Speaker C: We have all been there. [00:18:31] Speaker A: It's on sale. [00:18:32] Speaker C: It is on sale. Come on. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. And if it inspires you to get out and shoot more as well, try a new technique. It's kind of like a, you know, a new puzzle for your mind to approach. Yeah, I think it can be a good way if you're sort of getting to the point where, particularly for, you know, sometimes with single image Astro shots, you sort of feel like, all right, I know this, what the settings are going to be before I've even set my tripod up. Because they're kind of the same most of the time for a single image Astro shot. Yeah. If you're sort of looking for a bit more of a challenge, I guess I think it's a perfect idea. [00:19:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking forward to receiving it. [00:19:15] Speaker A: And if you get greater depth in the. In the galactic core, then, you know, you're just amplifying what you're creating. [00:19:23] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Which I think is amazing in itself that you know, that we can use our cameras or you can use your camera, like rarely have done Astro, but you can capture, you know, light that has traveled billions of years. [00:19:38] Speaker C: It's mind blowing. [00:19:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Just for that second or 80 seconds that you. That you're pointing your camera up. I think it's incredible. [00:19:45] Speaker C: Yeah, it's mind blowing. [00:19:47] Speaker B: I love some of the. I don't know what, like, what's the technical name for, like, where it's deepest, like more into the galaxies and stuff, like deeper space. Astro, no foreground. You know how they. It's basically a telescope on a tracker. Those crazy setups. Have you ever seen anyone use them in person? I've never actually seen something. [00:20:08] Speaker C: I have not. I have not. We had one of the guys on tour with us and he does really nice Astro and deep galactic shots as well, but I didn't actually get a chance to talk to him about that. And he uses a tracker and. Yeah, he's very talented. He did a beautiful shot of the Astro at Mount Cook that he just edited. [00:20:28] Speaker A: So, yeah, I remember the days of Flickr. I used to follow a lot of Flickr channels or groups, whatever. They, however flicker used to work. And it was all Astro stuff, but it was a lot of them were that deep space, you know, seeing nebula and yeah. You know, dust clouds and like, just incredible. [00:20:49] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, it is incredible. But yeah, that to me, like, I can appreciate it, but it's not something that I think I would actually enjoy shooting. For me, it's about the whole package. And that's very. That's a very personal thing for me. But I do. I do enjoy looking at them. It is interesting to see. [00:21:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:06] Speaker C: The detail that they can get and. [00:21:08] Speaker A: The details getting greater and greater as optics improve and. [00:21:11] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:21:12] Speaker A: I mean, even if you look at the stuff from the James Webb telescope compared to Hubble, like, the level of detail is phenomenal. It's crazy. [00:21:19] Speaker B: That stuff's insane. [00:21:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. [00:21:22] Speaker C: Well, while we're in New Zealand, we went to the Dark Skies Project and we got to look through all the telescopes. And really, that was very, very cool. It was incredible. Yeah, it was very interesting and how much detail you could get through the telescopes. And they said, you know, these telescopes aren't new. There's a lot newer technology out there. So I can only imagine how amazing it would be to look through a new telescope now. So, yeah, that was very cool. Very cool. [00:21:49] Speaker A: That's interesting. And whereabouts in New Zealand is that? [00:21:53] Speaker C: Oh, Lake Tekapo. It is, yeah. So. And that's. And so the town has actually, it's called the Dark Skies Project and it's on top of the mountain. Now, we were meant to go to the top of the mountain, but they had 80 kilometer an hour winds that night, so we couldn't go there. So we went to the craters instead, which was just as special, but they've got an agreement that all the streetlights in the township are dropped right down so they have no light pollution, even though they're only a 5, 10 minute drive out of town. So it's a really special area to be at. Yeah, it's quite amazing. And the commitment from the township to it is clearly quite impressive. So, yeah, it was good. [00:22:35] Speaker A: Very nice. So on the topic of Astro, what was it about? I mean, I know you talked about the whole package, that the landscape is just as, if not more important, a part of the composition for you. [00:22:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:48] Speaker A: What was it that made you decide to A, shoot nighttime landscapes and B, astrophotography? [00:22:58] Speaker C: Really, I didn't really have that much interest, if I'm brutally honest. It was a few friends down here that said, we're doing the workshop with Richard. Do you want to come along? And I thought, oh, well, I'll go and learn something new. And it was three days and once I saw the detail that we could get and how we could put them together. And like I said, I do really enjoy the editing process. So for me, I was just. Once I did one shot, I was like, oh, wow, this is really incredible. To have a play and be able to manipulate a photograph into one photograph. To me, that was a really cool way to look at the sky with different eyes. And I just became, I'm not going to say addicted. I thoroughly enjoy it, but it's not my only genre that I really enjoy. So I just. Yeah, I just get a buzz out of. Got a buzz out of it at the tour. So, yeah, I just kept going with it. Really nice. [00:23:52] Speaker A: And he just said that. [00:23:53] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:23:55] Speaker C: Yeah, that was in 2019. We did so before COVID So. Yeah, and of course. And that was the beauty. So when Covid hit and nobody could travel down to the island, there was dark skies everywhere on the island. So you could pretty much shoot in. In places that you would normally not have an opportunity to shoot because there'd always be other people walking with light stuff. So it was. It was. It was quite surreal. But it was really. Yeah, it was pretty cool because. [00:24:24] Speaker A: That's right, they had rules that people that lived out of, let's say towns like places like Philip island, they couldn't travel to their holiday home. They couldn't. [00:24:35] Speaker C: Correct. Yeah. [00:24:36] Speaker A: Because there was that second residence rule. [00:24:38] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:24:40] Speaker A: Fleeing to their holiday homes. [00:24:42] Speaker C: Yeah. So effectively Philip island, like. Like Philip Island 30 years ago, where it was always really quiet. It's certainly not like that now anymore, which I enjoy both. But it was certainly a really Nice time to be a wildlife landscape astrophotographer on the island. [00:24:57] Speaker A: Yeah. No pesky tourists? [00:25:00] Speaker C: No. [00:25:04] Speaker A: So astrophotography is not your only love. You do shoot. [00:25:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:08] Speaker A: You do shoot landscapes when the sun is up. [00:25:11] Speaker C: Yes. [00:25:11] Speaker A: And you also shoot wildlife. [00:25:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I have a fascination with birds of prey. I, I'm not a birder, but we had a birder on. I call them bird. I shouldn't say that. We had a bird, bird photographer. We had a birder on the trip in New Zealand and she kept shooting all these wrens. And I'm like, no, no, because you've got photos of birds. I said, just birds of prey. So on the island here we've got white belly sea eagles, wedge tail eagles, Nankeen, Castrols, Harriers and oh, golly, I can't think of the other one now. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Peregrine falcon. [00:25:52] Speaker C: Peregrine falcon, that's it. And so they've become quite at the nobbies because everybody just walks around because there's walking paths everywhere. They've become, the little ones have become quite okay with people and so they just, they don't, they don't shy away from you. So you have a perfect opportunity to shoot them as they're feeding and hunting and yeah, that's. I do thorough. Thoroughly enjoy that. But same with sunset, sunrise landscapes. It's. It's all. As long as I'm outside, I enjoy it. So. Yep. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Nice. I'm going to bring up some of your images in a minute just to show. Sorry for the audio listeners, but let me just jump to your Instagram account. You okay if I share that with. [00:26:37] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. [00:26:37] Speaker A: People watching along the world. [00:26:40] Speaker C: The world. [00:26:46] Speaker A: So this is a little bit of a sneak peek that you posted this morning. [00:26:49] Speaker C: I did. That was really interesting. I. We were. That was out of my room, like that was my window. It was incredible. And it was a really. Like I said, it was a super clear day and the cloud was just rolling. So I just, I put the camera in the window and I went out for a walk and I came back to 450 shots and I thought I'd put them together in Photoshop this morning. So. Yes. [00:27:16] Speaker A: So that's kind of like absenteeism photography. [00:27:19] Speaker C: It was a little bit. Yes, correct. [00:27:22] Speaker B: Mount Cook is beautiful, isn't it? That whole area, everything. [00:27:27] Speaker C: It was incredible. We landed on the Tasman Glacier with a plane and on one morning and it was just, it was mind blowing. Absolutely mind blowing. I'll definitely go back, that's for sure. [00:27:39] Speaker A: So you landed on the glacier? Yeah, in a Small plane. [00:27:43] Speaker C: Yeah. And we were all crammed in there. There was like nine of us in the plane and we had to. They landed in one spot and we had to take off again because it was too icy and if we were to turn we'd probably flip over. So it was like a landed take off and go. And then we went around the other side of the glacier and it was stunning. It was. And it was not cold, so it was just stunning. [00:28:05] Speaker A: That's very cool. [00:28:06] Speaker B: Was that. [00:28:06] Speaker A: Let's jump to some of your. Sorry, Justin, you're going below. [00:28:09] Speaker B: I was going to start asking questions about the workshop, but we'll. Let's look at some images and then. And then I want to hear the entire like everything about that. That trip. [00:28:18] Speaker C: Yep, sure. So this is, this is Kilkundo Trestle bridge. This was on May 11th with that big aurora that there was a million and one people standing at this bridge. So I went there at like 2:00 in the morning and the majority had left by then. But you can still see a few people moving around on top of the bridge. And that was the day before at the same spot. I'd never done a star trail around there and I thought I'm going to try it and you can see a cheeky little aurora in the background there. [00:28:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:28:50] Speaker C: The next day she went bonkers. [00:28:52] Speaker A: So I just feel like with just these two shots alone, you're just showing off, really. [00:28:56] Speaker C: Yeah, sorry about that. [00:28:58] Speaker B: You don't, you don't often see. And obviously it's. You guys are sort of getting fairly south. You don't often see as much of the green at the bottom of the aurora. From what I've seen of, you know, what people are, you know, like there's a lot of, a lot of green there and usually mostly pink. [00:29:17] Speaker C: Yeah. I will say May 11 was bonkers. Like seriously crazy. My husband and our daughter, they followed me around the whole night. You could see it with a naked eye and our daughter had never seen it before. And she was blown away and said, look at the pink sky. It was just bright pink to the naked eye. So I've never seen one. I've never seen one like it. [00:29:37] Speaker B: Could you see it? Could you see any movement? Like I've never seen. I keep getting skunked when it comes to auroras. Could you see that moving at all? Like any kind of change in the sky or did it, did it just have a pink kind of tinge to the sky, to the naked eye? Like what. [00:29:59] Speaker C: You could see this one? You could See it? And it was like it would get brighter here and then brighter on that side and the pinks were just getting taller and then lower and it was. Yeah. [00:30:09] Speaker B: Wow. [00:30:10] Speaker C: Like I could not get the whole aurora in my 12mil Samyang. So there you go. That's it. [00:30:16] Speaker B: So time for a new system. [00:30:18] Speaker C: Well done. No, I couldn't get the top in. So. Yeah, it was just. Yeah. Crazy. [00:30:26] Speaker B: That's such a good shot. Especially the way the bridge like sort of separates the gradient of colors. [00:30:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:32] Speaker B: And then. And then the reflection of the greens in the water. That's. Yeah, it's stunning. It's so cool. So this. [00:30:40] Speaker C: I didn't try that night. [00:30:42] Speaker A: This star trail you've got here. So this is an example where you've. You've obviously stacked the foreground onto the. [00:30:49] Speaker C: Yeah, correct. Is that right? [00:30:51] Speaker A: I've got that right. Because you've got the. [00:30:54] Speaker C: Yeah. So what, what this is. So the. The star trail is 10 shots at 3 minute exposures. So you get that trailing every and then you put them all together and then it becomes the trail. So the front, if you look at the bridge and the water, it looks like it's light painted. Right. But it's actually not. It's so well positioned that every time a car goes past it just lights the bridge up enough and the cars come past from both sides. It never shines directly at the bridge. It just sort of glances past and it just lights it enough so we didn't have to do anything to the foreground. And that's. They shot it like 20 seconds and then the background and then you just stitch them all together. Yeah, yeah. But I've since this one. So this was in May and since learns a different way that I'm going to try that gives me more color in my star trails. So I was taught that on the tour. So I just haven't had a chance to put that into action yet, but I will. [00:31:57] Speaker A: And we've got some of your landscape shots here. [00:32:02] Speaker C: That was at the nobbies. So everybody shoots every. Everybody shoots the knobbies from the top. And I thought, oh well, let's just go down to the bottom and see what it brings. And I really like that band of cloud behind it. Just sort of. And yeah, I quite liked it. The rocks. [00:32:18] Speaker A: It's great. [00:32:19] Speaker C: Yeah, it sort of talks to me. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Oh, here's one of the rare times you came to Melbourne. [00:32:25] Speaker C: Oh, golly, yes, I did. And that was another. That was a photo that was a walk that I did. And the only reason I did this walk was I didn't know the spots because I see these shots all the time and I thought I have no idea where these are taken. So I just did a nighttime shoot and I actually enjoyed it but I couldn't wait to get out. So that's my little nankeen and I. [00:32:57] Speaker A: I've never heard of a nankeen. [00:32:59] Speaker C: I shot that with my 16 to 55 and I was less than 5 meters away from him. [00:33:06] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:33:08] Speaker C: He just sat there looking at me and I thought I wonder what you're thinking but beautiful bird. And a lot of photographers have got some really close beautiful shots of him. He's just not scared. [00:33:22] Speaker A: So yeah, that's a great shot. Look at that with the feathers out. That's stunning. And so this was a 16 to 55. [00:33:32] Speaker C: Yeah, he just hovers, he just hangs around. He just doesn't do anything. He just, yeah, he's just. [00:33:39] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what he's doing. [00:33:41] Speaker C: Oh, he knows what he's doing. [00:33:42] Speaker A: He's got the camera out again. [00:33:44] Speaker C: Yeah. I'll pose this way and that way. I think he's got, I think he's got me summed up actually if I'm honest. But yeah, yeah. [00:33:51] Speaker A: Oh, that's wonderful. [00:33:54] Speaker B: Yeah, very cool. Justin, I was going to ask what, what do you do with your images beyond social media? [00:34:05] Speaker C: Nothing, nothing. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Do you know, I just print them out for around the house or anything like that. [00:34:12] Speaker C: Do you know I never have and I get told off all the time by my family. I haven't and I really should because some of them would actually lend itself to it, especially the ones from around the island because they're like where we are, where we live and yeah, I really should but I haven't. It's a miss of me. [00:34:30] Speaker B: What's, what's stopped you from doing that, do you think? [00:34:36] Speaker C: Maybe will it look good or like you do? I think as a creative person and a photographer you do question your. Especially when you're not a professional and you've just been self taught and you're, you know I do think you question that at times and I don't, I just, I've never really given it a thought but I really should. I think looking at those, I think I should. [00:35:01] Speaker B: Have you ever printed any of your images? [00:35:04] Speaker C: I had one. If you go back to that for a second, Greg, I'll show you one. And I didn't have it printed. It was actually someone contact. I posted it on social media so on our local community group. Just wander down a little bit. Keep going. There's a that one. That. No, keep going. Hang on, sorry. There's one off the Philip Island Bridge on there. [00:35:31] Speaker A: Yep. [00:35:32] Speaker C: That I shot. Yeah, that one there. That one. And I shot that at night time and I stood at the top of San Remo and to get sort of a line going over and I had to wait for all the cars. So that's a few images stitched together to get the cars going over. And one person saw it and they said, this is exactly the view out of my lounge room and I want to see this view in my kitchen. So they had it, they printed it into a really big like a couple of meters and it's it. And they've got a hand above their kitchen table and it looks great. I was really impressed. It looks really good. That's the only one and I didn't sell it. I just gave him the image and that's the only one that's ever been printed that hangs in someone's house. So that's pretty cool, actually. [00:36:20] Speaker B: It's very cool. [00:36:21] Speaker A: It is very cool. [00:36:24] Speaker B: Seeing your work printed is super satisfying. I was sort of fortunate enough that when I was shooting weddings, I made the choice to buy a printer to be able to print 10 to 15 photos for each wedding couple so that they had some physical images. Because, you know, it was. Everyone was getting everything digitally at that point. And I just wanted people to be able to sort of see some of them physically. But it also gave me the ability to print at home, you know, any image that I just. That I sort of thought was special enough to want to see physically. I could just print it out whenever I wanted. And so I did a kl, I think it was KL workshop, a one day workshop in Melbourne on printing. And they sort of taught you about color management and stuff like that because often what you see on your screen doesn't always translate to what comes out on the paper. And that can be a bit frustrating when you pay to get some stuff printed. And then so once you sort of get that figured out and I don't know I'd be interested. Obviously printers can be expensive, but the way that you talk about enjoying photography and especially the stacking and stuff like that of night images, it wouldn't surprise me if you enjoyed the process of printing finished images as well. [00:37:46] Speaker C: It's interesting that you bring that up. So I don't know whether you've heard of Ben Erickson. He does a lot of printing down here and he's the one I did that Melbourne Photo Group with and he invited me to do a printing workshop with him. So there's a, there's a photo on mine that I took at Cradle Mountain and that one, he really liked it and he said, you need to print this. And I just went, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get around to that. And he goes, now you need to come and do a print workshop with me and I'll teach you how to print them and then you can just do it yourself. And I just, I haven't, I haven't done it. But maybe that's something. Maybe you're right. Maybe that is something that I need to give some thought to. [00:38:24] Speaker B: It's worth trying if it, if it gives you any interest at all. Because it is, it's very satisfying seeing that, that it almost. Because it never quite feels finished to me when it's still on the computer. And then once it's printed, then it feels finished. It feels like that's, that's done now. And. Yeah, and it always, yeah, it's super satisfying. I would if, yeah, if you have the opportunity to do a print workshop even without having to invest in a printer and stuff like that, yeah, go for it. But yeah, I'm, I'm even considering I don't have. Jim's got out our printer now that he uses for weddings. So I don't have one kind of in my office anymore. And I've been considering getting a, just a smaller one. We got one that does a two, which is pretty big and kind of a pain sometimes because printers do have their problems. They can be frustrating. But yeah, just to be able to print like a 4s or even maybe a 3s would be, I think, really, really fun to have again. Missing it. [00:39:23] Speaker A: I think it's worthwhile and especially given that you like the. [00:39:27] Speaker B: Sorry, do you print? Do you print? [00:39:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I printed a bunch of stuff after every one of my trips to Japan. Yeah, I did photo books like, and the first trip the photo book was, you know, like 3 or 4 centimeters thick because I just put every photo in it. And then as I went along and I became more confident in picking my own and I think that's the hard thing to pick which photo to print because printing is expensive. It can be, especially if you're going large and, and that would often stall me, like, oh, I don't know if this is worth putting it that size. But as I went along and you know, on my last trip I made two photo books, very thin coffee table style books. And one was called Tokyo Chrome, which is my own. What I've labeled My street photography preset in Lightroom. I call it Tokyo Chrome. Although now I'm up to new Tokyo Chrome. So very creative on the naming conventions. And the other one was Tokyo Monochrome. And so one book obviously has. And it only has 35 images. I don't know why I settled on 35. I think I just reached that number of colored images from my 2019 Tokyo trip and then 35 monochrome images. So. But in terms of printing to mount, I have also done that. I've got quite a few big prints. Got a big. One of my favorite ones. It's. What would it be? Probably like meter 20 by whatever the ratio is 90 or something. That's about as big as I've gone. I think so. Yeah. But I think Piggy, given how much you like the editing aspect of making sure that you're satisfied with the final image and the stacking process. And I think, like what Justin said, it just adds that extra element of getting your color science right and your color management right before you either take it to get printed somewhere else or you end up printing it yourself. But I, you know, I always recommend even just start off with some, you know, some eight by tens, go and get them done at officeworks and just. [00:41:37] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:41:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:38] Speaker A: It's not the. It's not the best color reproduction. I mean, they do use Fuji labs and printers, but, you know, you don't have a lot of control over the color accuracy. [00:41:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:46] Speaker A: But just to get that feel for, you know. Or what's the smaller size? Six by nines? [00:41:52] Speaker C: I think. [00:41:53] Speaker B: So six by four, I think six. [00:41:55] Speaker A: By fours or five by sevens. Yeah. You've got. Justin even just print out, you know, going. I mean, they cost nothing to get printed these days. [00:42:03] Speaker C: No, correct. [00:42:04] Speaker A: That's right. Just choose 20, 30, 50 random images and go and get a stack printed and just spend some time sitting with them and going through them and, you know, lay them out on your coffee table or dining table or the lounge room floor or. And it just changes how you see what you're producing. [00:42:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:23] Speaker A: To show them to anyone necessarily. It's. Again, it's just part of what you're doing for you. But it does change. There's something very tactile and. Yeah. [00:42:32] Speaker C: When you can hold something. Yeah, yeah. [00:42:34] Speaker A: It's that. It's like, you know, books versus Kindles. It's. It's kind of along that. I just love a physical book. You know, I like the. It's. It's the whole experience. It's not just reading the words. It's where I'm sitting and how I'm holding it and, you know, how comfortable all of those things. It's the same with looking at prints. [00:42:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:51] Speaker A: You know, it's a very different experience. So I recommend it to you and anyone who's listening along at home to. Or at work. Yeah. To print some images. Even if you just go to officeworks or, heaven forbid, Big W or something here in Australia. Actually, no, don't go to Big wwe. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Office Works, or there are. There's a ton of labs around that you can just, you know, online. They're more. More professional than officeworks in terms of photo quality. They're not, they're not outrageously expensive. But yeah, like Greg said, if it's a barrier to entry thing, if it's sort of like, oh, I'd have to set an account up and this is too hard or whatever. Yep. Just throw them on a. What? Throw them into Office Works. At least just get something in your hands. [00:43:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:37] Speaker B: And see. Yeah. And then. [00:43:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're expensive. [00:43:40] Speaker A: You might tuck them away in a shoebox and, you know, not look at them again for another 20 years. But it doesn't matter because you've completed that step in the process. [00:43:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:49] Speaker A: And who knows, you might find a gem in that pack of 50 images that you get. Pretty small. You might find a gem and go, actually. And you might stick it on the fridge for a couple of weeks or, you know, stick it where you think you might want to hang it if you had it bigger and get used to how that feels in the light at different times of the day, you know, and then you might think, actually, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get that printed big and you don't have to go huge. [00:44:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:12] Speaker A: But it just helps to connect you with your work away from a screen as well. [00:44:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:44:19] Speaker A: And it shows. And it's proof of the end to end process for you. [00:44:23] Speaker C: I can, I. I can see that's, that's the thing because when it stays on the computer, you always sort of, you know, it's never really finished, is it? Like, it's never really. [00:44:31] Speaker A: And I think, I think you forget sometimes, especially take so many images. You know, I'll often go through my Lightroom catalog and go, oh, I don't remember. Oh, that shoot. Yeah. Oh, wow. You know, and yeah. If it's on a screen, a phone screen, or on, even on a hard drive, you're not going to see it. [00:44:50] Speaker C: No, no. [00:44:52] Speaker A: But anyway, I think we've preached you enough. [00:44:58] Speaker C: Maybe. Maybe convince Me that I do need to do this. [00:45:02] Speaker A: I'm sending you a link right now to an Amazon page where you can buy a printer. Printer. Okay. [00:45:06] Speaker B: There you go. Yeah. And great. It's an affiliate link. Greg gets a commission, but. [00:45:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I get a cut. Yeah. [00:45:15] Speaker B: If I might as well sidetrack the podcast like I always do. Speaking of printed work, I was in. I was down your direction, Pinky, actually, but not far enough. I probably should have gone for a drive. Yelena had a seminar on the weekend in Frankston, so we stayed in Mornington. And I was just kind of cruising around there doing some stuff, and I went to Mark Gray's gallery in Mornington. Have you been there? [00:45:44] Speaker C: No. [00:45:46] Speaker B: I've followed his work for a long time. Have you ever heard of him? Greg? [00:45:49] Speaker A: No. [00:45:50] Speaker B: Really? He's a landscape photographer. You have to pull it up now, seeing the work in his gallery. Big, Big, you know, acrylic, like floating acrylic style prints where they're. And then. And the light between two sheets. Yep. And it just looks like it's glowing like. It looks like the colors just look. Yeah. Insane. I'll see if his website probably won't show them up very well. Anyway, I went in there and I want to try and get him on the podcast, actually. But seeing those prints that big, like, we're talking, you know, a couple of meters wide. Pano. Beautiful. And then. And they're like. You walk up to them and it keeps drawing you closer and closer and the closer you get. And I was, like, finding myself. They can probably tell when a photographer goes in there because I'm, like, looking at them like, I wonder what camera you use for this again. There's a lot of detail in this, but, yeah, like, the closer you get, the more you could see detail in the image. It was just. Yeah, it was amazing. Let me pull it up. And it really sort of got me excited to maybe go to some more photography galleries. Photographers galleries around Australia. When I can try and put that into the trips. I'm trying to find this. Hang on, I'm bringing it up. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Have you ever thought of exhibiting like a. Even if it's in a local coffee shop or something? Pinky. No, you gotta. Sorry. [00:47:35] Speaker C: I really. I. Wow, that is impressive. I have. I haven't. And I. I always. I don't. Oh, yeah. I don't know why I haven't got an answer for you, Greg. I don't know whether. I don't. Yeah. I don't know. Oh, that's gorgeous. [00:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah. His work. I think he Shoots a lot with the various medium format cameras and stuff like that. I have no idea what he does, but it's lots of panos. Lots of, yeah, like really amazing sunrises and all sorts of stuff. But just like he's been doing this for a long time. Obviously he's got a huge body of work, but seeing, seeing the work printed in person, they was just, oh, wow, captivating. [00:48:22] Speaker C: Look at the sunlight on the rocks. That's amazing. [00:48:28] Speaker B: He does workshops, workshops too, which I've seen, you know, many times advertised but never sort of never gone for it. But I'm excited now to maybe try and get on one. I think he does like sort of smaller workshops around Melbourne and then bigger trips as well. [00:48:46] Speaker A: Yep. [00:48:47] Speaker B: And that's why I do want to get your story of your workshop because I really think workshops are something that more and more people should be. It always seems a bit risky because they're often pretty expensive and you don't, you're not sure like what the experience is going to be like. But. Yeah, compared to buying a lens or a new camera or something. I think that that experience of, of either a workshop or like you've done like a big experience overseas. Yeah, it's such a. I don't know. [00:49:23] Speaker A: A new lens isn't going to make you a better photographer necessarily. No, no, there's a workshop. You'll learn something and you'll engage with others and you know, separate to all. [00:49:33] Speaker B: That, it's the, it's the memories, the experience, like forget the photography side of it, but just like seeing a new place and having someone, you know, show you, it's just anyway, landing on a. [00:49:44] Speaker A: Glacier in a small plane and. [00:49:46] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly, yeah, that, it's just. Yeah, it's adventure. But yeah. Anyway, we'll try and get Mark onto the podcast, but visiting the gallery and seeing these things, you can't. I don't know, I should, I should have taken some photos. The guy that was, that was there that showed me around, he, he was like, oh, you can take some photos of the gallery if you want. Just make sure you tag us. But yeah, you can't. The picture doesn't do it justice. But the images, like even these vertical. What's a vertical panorama called? Whatever this is like really narrow. You don't see that, that sort of framing done often, but they just looked so cool. [00:50:28] Speaker C: Anyway, I have to get up there. I think I need to go check this out now. [00:50:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's just like on the main street in Mornington, just. I actually didn't realize where it was. I walked past it and I was like, ah, it's right here. And yeah, the work is. It's absolutely stunning. Yeah, yeah, I'd like to. It got me. Got me inspired, that's for sure. I've got a new project, Greg, that. We'll talk about that later. I'm gonna spring it on you. Might be a new podcast segment. Maybe once we're cool, once we're across everything in this episode, we'll jump into it. [00:51:00] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, let's. Let's put a pin in it. As my kids say, whenever I'm ranting about something, Pinky, talk to us about your latest workshop. You went to New Zealand for three weeks? Just on three weeks. [00:51:15] Speaker C: I was there for nearly three weeks. The tour went for 12 days. [00:51:18] Speaker A: Yep. Okay, tell us about this. Tell us about this tour that took you around New Zealand to all these amazing sites. [00:51:26] Speaker C: It was a tour with. We had 13 people all up, so there was two non shooters. So they were partners of the photographers that came along and we had the two leaders, so Richard and Levin, and they just took us to all these amazing places. But like Justin said, too, it's the travel to and from those places that's just as special. And the lunches and the dinners and the really fancy breakfast. It was just a special. But I've met some really gorgeous people. I learned so much. It was just because every photographer that's there, we had two in the group that probably hadn't done a lot of photography. They were sort of just starting out. So for them, it was a really steep learning curve, but they dealt with that really well. The others had all been photographing for a number of years, so I learned something from everyone, as I did in Tassie earlier in the year as well. So it was just really special. And I'm sure I've got lifelong friends out of it that I will always be able to call on. If you're from Sydney. If I want to shoot in Sydney, it'll just be a phone call. And, you know, we'd go shooting in Sydney. So we went to some amazing places, from the Meraki Boulders to the lighthouse to Lake Tanao. We just. So many beautiful spots that they cased out in previous trips that they found. [00:52:45] Speaker B: Where did it start and end? Like, where did you fly into? What was the. What was the process? [00:52:50] Speaker C: Okay, so I flew into Christchurch and then we had a dinner the night before. We got picked up by the big bus on the Monday morning and then we set off. So we basically did a loop through the south island. We went to that, that tree, that Wanaka tree and, and we did the Mount Cook. We went to Mount Cook and then Lake Tekapo, the lighthouse. We saw the seals that are just on the beach and you just photograph them from two meters away. And the Meraki boulders were very special. We had a. And I think this is the thing again that I learned, that really reiterated for me was that the elements aren't always going to work in your favor, but you've just got to make them work for you. At the time, whether the sunrises that we had, we didn't always see the sun, but it was still really special to be there. And some of the cloud formations will still make a fantastic photograph. So it was just a really eye opening trip and I'd never been to New Zealand so for me it was like a double whammy really. It was just beautiful. I loved it. I'm going back, I'm going back. But I did, I actually did a tour with them with the same with Richard and with Levin in Tasmania in April. And that's when he mentioned this New Zealand tour. So I'd had no hesitation, I just jumped straight on. [00:54:13] Speaker B: How do you find these tours? Like, if I wanted to, can I google it now? Do they have a website whose websites are done? [00:54:23] Speaker C: It's on rear view photography and this. So this year is the first year that Levin and Richard have done tours together and I think it will be an ongoing thing. And so Levin is. Interesting story. He's a pilot, a jetstar and he's nearing retirement and he's trying to find something to do in his retirement. So this is what he's going to do for his retirement, you know, to keep him occupied. So yeah, it's really cool, really cool. [00:54:54] Speaker B: Oh wow, look at his website. Hang on, I'll pull it up while we're chatting about it. But you guys can keep talking because yeah, workshops are. I'd love to have just endless podcasts with people that run workshops or have been on workshops because yeah, I really think it's a super important part of photography no matter whether you're just getting into it or you've been doing it for 10 years and you're looking for a new spark, some new inspiration or just a new adventure, I don't know. [00:55:21] Speaker C: And it's also a little bit of. Everybody has a different way of doing certain things and you know, you do your way, whether it's I don't know how to shoot Astro or how you compose a photograph, but somebody else Will have a slightly different point of view. And once you hear that, you may pick up something about that as well. And I just find it really interesting. And I also find it really interesting in some of the shots that we did, we all shot the same perspective and we all edited completely different. And I find that really interesting part of the process as well. So. Oh, that was us. So how cool is that? [00:55:58] Speaker A: Look at that. [00:56:00] Speaker B: Wow. [00:56:00] Speaker C: It was pretty special. Yeah. Yep. So, yeah, it's just beautiful. So that's the old church. So that's the old church. God. In Lake Tekapo. From memory. Yeah, like Tekapo. And it's a really well lit up very. It's a. Apparently it's one of the most photographed or the most photographed churches in the world because it sits right in front of the Blue Water Glacier Lake. It's really. It's stunning. It's absolutely stunning. So. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's beautiful. [00:56:37] Speaker A: Can't believe you landed on Ecclesia. [00:56:39] Speaker C: I know. That was just so, so surreal. So surreal. Yeah. Oh, interesting story. So we had Levin, who's a pilot and then we had one of our other guests. He's a hell helicopter pilot. And the. The pilot that we had was clearly a very capable pilot. But we got really close to the. To the mountaintops and they were both cringing the whole time. All the rest of us were totally oblivious to the danger at hand. But they were like, oh my goodness. But it was, it was a very surreal experience to have this tiny plane land on a glacier like it. Yeah, it was quite. It was remarkable. So the one, the one down there with the boulders, that's the Meraki boulders on the, on the right hand side. The other one. Yep, that's the Meraki boulders and they're really interesting. They just a line of boulders in the middle of the beach and there's no other rocks around and there's no. Nothing around. Like there's no houses or anything. So it's, it's a really cool spot really. And I tried some high key so I've got to edit them yet. I haven't edited them. So I thought. I've never had a crack at high key so I thought I'd try that. So. Yeah, it was just, it was very interesting. Beautiful trip. Loved it. [00:57:54] Speaker B: Looks like they've released dates for next year. [00:57:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So jump on it. Honestly. Honestly, it's, it's. You're. You stay in the best accommodation. It was incredible. The food is just amazing. And yeah, he puts you in spots that you as If I was. If I was a. If I was just a tourist, I would never find that sort of spots that he takes you to. Like at one point we went to Mueller Lake, not Mueller Lake, Mope Lake, and that's on the way to Mount Cook. And it's such an inconspicuous little dirt road in the middle of nowhere. I would have never even found that road. And it was probably one of our most special sunrises. The reflection of the color cloud in the water was absolutely amazing. It was just. We just. Yeah, it was crazy Good. Crazy good. So they're actually doing it a little bit differently next year. Next year they go on the reverse. So that the first two days for us was a lot of driving. So what they're doing next year, they're going to land in Christchurch. So they're going to do that. They're going to do the trip sort of backwards and then they're going to fly out of Queenstown. So it's a day shorter. It just stops a lot of the extra driving that we did. Personally, I didn't mind it because it also allowed me to see the countryside as we're just traveling through. But. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, if you get a chance. Honestly, these two are absolutely amazing with their. The way they. Happy to share all their knowledge with you and yeah, you'll learn a lot and you get to see beautiful countries. So, yeah, jump on, I say. [00:59:40] Speaker B: Wow. So, you know, for anyone listening, we're just scrolling through the website for next year's one. It's not a cheap tour, you know, it's over $7,000. But it is. This one that they're doing next year is nine nights, 10 days with two photography guides. And from what I can tell, it includes. So it includes all your accommodation, which you said was. Was pretty wonderful accommodation. It wasn't. [01:00:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:04] Speaker B: Not talking backpacker hostels. [01:00:06] Speaker C: Oh, no, definitely not. There was. There was a couple of places that it was, look, I'm gonna say three star. I mean, it was still fantastic. But that was the only accommodation available, like at the. There was a couple of spots and so he didn't really have any choice. But the rest. It was just incredible accommodation. And it includes all breakfast and your dinners. It just does not include lunches. [01:00:34] Speaker B: Lunches. Yeah. [01:00:35] Speaker C: And it. And the trip, obviously, like the travel. [01:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're like, you're seeing Milford Sound Worm Caves. It doesn't. I don't. I'm trying to see if this one has the flight. The glacier. [01:00:50] Speaker C: No, that was extra. So we paid. Yeah. So we paid extra for that because that was. And because not everybody in the tour did that either. [01:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:59] Speaker C: And because it, because it can be so whether like if the weather had have been slightly different we wouldn't have been able to do it. So it's so finicky on the weather that he just said it's an extra. And yeah, I can't really remember, I think it was like 500 for that, for the flight but. And I know that's not cheap but oh my gosh, I wouldn't trade that in the world. That was probably the highlight for me for the whole trip. What's that? Glacier flight. And to see some get some photography. Like to stand on a glacier and get a sunburst over top of snow capped mountain was just like I'm still blown away by that, you know, it was incredible. So yeah, super cool, super cool. And I, I learned a lot and I thought, I mean I thought I knew quite a bit about landscape photography and but you're always, you're always learning and once you stop learning I think is once you're at the end of the road with photography, that's just my personal view. I think you always keep learning and you keep changing things and you just keep doing things a little bit differently and yeah, like I walked away with a move, shoot move Nomad. What do you do? [01:02:11] Speaker A: And so with the tour, with the, the flights were included in the, in the package, you get yourself there, you. [01:02:17] Speaker C: Get yourself to Christchurch. Look, it's not cheap, it probably cost me ten grand to do the tour which is a lot of money. Especially you know, I'm married, I've got a husband and he didn't come with me and but honestly I, I still, I, I still loved it and it, it combines two things that I really love travel and photography and yeah, so it was a very special and the reason why look, I was never ever even so with Richard. When we did the 2019 tour with Richard up in Rostrada, we had a guy from New Zealand on that workshop with us and Richard had collaborated with him to go over to New Zealand to do a tour. And I jumped on that tour straight away like it was, there was no questions asked and so we were booked to leave the country on the like the 19th of March 2020. And guess what happened on the 19th of March 2020. So yeah, and that was, that was. [01:03:16] Speaker B: Right like that would have been smack like three days before, right as it was happening. Like that wasn't even. Yeah, because that's about ran. It was March Wasn't it like February? It was just. There was just like. It all started this thing. [01:03:30] Speaker C: Yep. And it all started happening and I remember ringing Richard on the Saturday before going, hey, what are we doing? Like this is, you know, this is starting to look a bit like we could get stuck over there because, well, at this point we are still going. And then on Sunday night they close the borders and he sends me a message, goes, well, it's off now. I know he was up things that you. He was devastated, actually. Yes. [01:03:57] Speaker B: So much work. [01:03:58] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. So then I rang Richard in September last year. I was on holidays and I've been doing some photography and it just jumped in my mind and I thought, oh, golly, like Covid's gone. Like, you know, we can travel again. Let's touch, touch base with Richard and see if this New Zealand trip is still happening. He said, no, it wasn't, but he was doing something with this other guy and they were going to Tasmania and that's how I ended up in Tasmania and that's how I ended up in New Zealand and that's how I'm going to end up in Norway in six years when he's going to do his trip to Norway. [01:04:33] Speaker A: Six years. Wow. You really plan ahead. [01:04:35] Speaker C: But that was discussed. That was discussed. But yeah, we'll see how that goes. But yeah, so I, I just really. Yeah, tours are it for me. I enjoy it thoroughly. Enjoy. I do always go shopping after a tour though, which is a bit expensive but you know, when you've already invested. [01:04:53] Speaker A: That much money, what's a little more. [01:04:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it's funny, I agree. [01:04:58] Speaker B: Go on a tour instead of buying a new lens, then you come back and you're like, I need to buy a new lens. [01:05:03] Speaker C: I already bought the new lens before I left New Zealand. So there you go. [01:05:10] Speaker A: And so where next for you? Where's your next. Where do you want to go next with your camera? [01:05:19] Speaker C: I keep putting. Learning the move, shoot move and doing that really well and then just I think delving into Astro a little bit deeper now that I've got that would be something that I'd be keen to try and just expanding, just getting. Not better. Just doing things a little bit differently with my landscapes and yeah. Maybe chase a bit more wildlife. I'm not sure. I'm just really enjoying what I'm doing and yeah, I just, I'll keep doing what I'm doing, I think. [01:05:52] Speaker A: And it's music to our ears. But if you had, if you have a bucket list, what destination would be next? What's your top three. [01:06:05] Speaker C: Iceland. Lapland would be a top contender and I'd love to go to Antarctica, but I don't think that's ever gonna happen. I just think all that sort of really broad landscape, like the really big expansions I do have, actually, I missed out on probably my biggest bucket list. I want to see the grizzlies in Alaska. So I'd love to travel to Alaska. I think it's. It's. I have a theme, right. So I like these. The snowy, the cold, the. I think that's the auroras. I think that's a real theme for me. It seems to be. [01:06:42] Speaker B: Anyway, I was going to say, obviously the northern lights and stuff are calling you based on the first couple of destinations you mentioned, I think. [01:06:51] Speaker C: And a girlfriend of mine did it last year. She went to Norway last year on a photography tour and they got amazing auroras and northern lights and just like, oh, crikey's. Why was I not there? [01:07:03] Speaker B: Does the African wildlife safari stuff ever, ever tempt you, that kind of thing? [01:07:09] Speaker C: It does, but I don't. It's too. Or it's like a safari. I'm not sure that would cut it for me. Like, I don't know. I. I have given it some thought. I know a guy that we have down here by the name of Pete Fogarty. He does tours to Sumatra for the gorillas. And I've certainly thought about that because I thought that would be very, very, very special too. He's only. I think he's done him for two years, so I'm going to give it a bit of time and then maybe, you know, in a couple of years, see what he's up to with that. He also does a lot of. He's sort of kind of taken over from Dale a little bit because Dale doesn't run workshops down here anymore. And Pete just sort of. He. He's sort of taken over that. That space from Dale a little bit because Dallas moving to Queensland. So if you want him on the podcast, you better get on, so you better get everyone. So, yeah, he's moving to Queensland. [01:07:58] Speaker A: So when I. When we were setting up the relaunch of the podcast, I considered Dale, but at the time he was overseas. [01:08:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:06] Speaker A: Working because he's in trouble. Protection and children's services. So anyway, he wasn't available, but yeah, we'd love to get him because he's got a very special eye. [01:08:20] Speaker C: He does, yeah. [01:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Very clever. Very clever photographer. [01:08:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:27] Speaker A: Pinky. What? You know, for people that are interested in maybe doing a Tour or a workshop, what do you recommend is a good starting point? Like you know, is it, is it a week, is it two weeks, is it a three day interstate trip? Is it. [01:08:44] Speaker C: I think if you're, if you've never done one, just go do a street walk like I do with you and just see how that, how that feels and then, and then do a three day or even a full day instead of just a street walk and have, and maybe find something or someone that does specific, like where you learn. Because the street walks that we do are just meet, greet you shoot and you know, it's a social event really. Yeah. If you find somebody that does like a day like what, what used to happen here with photo ranges, they teach you about your camera, they teach you about composition and settings and all the rest of it. Do a day of that and if you really find that you are connecting with that sort of way of learning, then yeah, just build it up. Like I only ever used to do two or three days and now it's gone for 11 days. And I just think you build it up, you start somewhere and you see how that feels. And also I think, think it's really important to get the right people that you connect with as well. Like the guides that you get I think are really important as well. And there's a lot of really brilliant, very gifted photographers out there that are more than willing to share their knowledge with you and you've just got to grasp onto those people and just run with it. I think once you find this. Yeah, once you find them, you find them, which is really cool. [01:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think that's good advice. I think community is a good starting point too, as you said, you know, go if you're in a photo club or an online photo community that's active and they do street walks or they do, you know, they go down to Anzac Avenue during autumn, you know, in a small country town every year or. Yeah, go along with those and. Yeah, and for what it's like. [01:10:32] Speaker C: Yeah, because I think if you, if you're stuck in your own little bubble, in your own little square and you don't expand your horizons then and you kind of, you never, you never learn anything different, you just get stuck in your ways and I think even non professional people, they can teach you so much about photography and places that I think you've just got to grasp on those people. I thoroughly enjoy the walks that we do with our group even though I hate the city, but I still enjoy it because it actually forces me to look at that life in a different eye or through a different eye as well. Like, I would never think to shoot architecture or street photography, and yet I really enjoy those days that I go up there and do that. I also did the one at the Gardens up in the Dandenongs a few years ago, which was fantastic as well. Yeah. So, yeah, it's just one of those. And I did a portrait one with the girl in the studio, which is something I would like. That's not at all who I am, but I just like to push my comfort zones and to see where I sit with all of that. So, yeah, it's cool. [01:11:36] Speaker A: Yeah, there's certainly a lot to gain from it. I remember. Well, I. I realized during Beef up at the bright festival of photography that Justin and I went to a couple of weeks ago. If you guys want to know more about that, check out our We Survive Beef up video on the channel. Just how valuable those sort of workshops. I mean, it wasn't a tour necessarily, but just how valuable those workshops were, the ones that I did. And you're right, you know, these photographers, these are professional photographers. Some are running studios, some are running galleries. You know, they're very busy, focused people, but they still would stop and tell you, you know, the emotional story behind their journey as part of the. I found that really compelling. And because it. It lets you know where their sort of headspace is at and why they approach their work the way they do. And you learn from that. You learn from a. You know, from someone else's raw experience in the craft, but also just. Yeah, really, you know, doing workshops that I wouldn't normally do, you know, food photography. And I did intimate portraits, and I find portraits really uncomfortable. But maybe. Maybe my kids are right. Maybe I do have autism. Anyway, we'll look into that. Hey, Justin. [01:13:00] Speaker B: It will study it. We'll study an episode. [01:13:03] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we'll unpack that. [01:13:05] Speaker C: I did. I did push my comfort zone once, and that pushed it too far. I really, absolutely hate. No, I shouldn't say. I shouldn't use that phrase, because it's not. I was approached by two friends in the same year to shoot their wedding. And I ins. My first reaction instantly was, absolutely not. And they weren't. They didn't have. They weren't huge, extravagant weddings. They didn't have a lot of money to throw at them, and I wasn't going to charge if I was going to do it anyway. They kind of talked me into it. The pressure that I felt and the pressure in the editing process that I Felt made it so for me that I chucked my cameras for 12 months and didn't touch them. And that was. That was during COVID where I did not touch my camera. So probably 22, 23. Then I came. I was sort of sitting at home one night and a girlfriend rang me and said, hey, because she knew I had been out, I hadn't done anything, and said, hey, what are you doing? Come on, let's go for a shoot. And I said, no, no, I've lost my mojo. And then I ended up going back out shooting and I sort of found my way with it again. But that's something I will never, ever. And I have full respect for you, Justin, because. Oh, my goodness, no. And because I'm not, I'm not. I'm not into. I'm a bit like you, Greg. I don't particularly like shooting portraits. I find them a bit intrusive and so that's not my genre at all. So for me to shoot two people at the most special day of their lives was just so overwhelming. No, never again. I won't be doing that again. And it's. It's an art all on its own. [01:14:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's. It's a ton of pressure. If, if you don't feel the pressure leading up to a wedding, obviously it gets easier the more you do and all that sort of stuff and you get better at it. But if you're not feeling pressure, then I would probably argue you're not taking it as serious as it should be for that kind of event. And yeah, it's. I don't know, especially if you haven't done many or any to be doing a friend's one. There's just that thought of, like, what are they expecting? Are they going to be happy with this? What if I. Whatever, you know, muck something up or they just disappointed or. And it's just. [01:15:33] Speaker C: Yeah, and that was. And that was the thing. So where the friends of us, where they got married, we were the guest and the photographer. Like I was standing inside and they were standing in the doorway with the sun behind them and I thought like, this is no way. So I actually said, you guys need to just move over if you want photos of this. And they didn't tell the celebrant, so it didn't happen. So, yeah, I ended up shooting them from the outside in and it was just a nightmare and I just. But I got some really beautiful shots of the fan of the family groups, which is really what they really wanted. And afterwards, as well, off the couple and. But when I remember when I added them, I put them on a USB and I, I was just going to give them the whole USB and I went through the photos with them and I was like, oh, my God. Oh my. Like, what are they thinking? Are they thinking this is a really crappy job or are they happy with the work that I've done? And I felt really uncomfortable and so I never. They asked me three times. Twice I said no. And then I was just like, oh, golly, I'm gonna have to. But I will never commit to that again, ever. It's just not, it's not my thing. [01:16:40] Speaker B: I would. I mean, it's, it's good to push yourself out of your comfort zone. See, who knows, you might fallen in love with shooting weddings and made a business out of it or something like that. But generally when it comes to weddings, I wouldn't do one unless I was like, I wouldn't commit to doing my first one unless I was thinking this could be a pursuit of mine. And I want to, you know, I want to put a lot of work into the lead up of this first wedding and then see whether I like it. And then maybe it'll be, you know, a side business or whatever for me in the future. But if a friend just sort of approached someone and asked them and you were thinking about doing it as a one off, it's not. It's you. And as you've found out, it's not worth the amount of prep and learning and pressure to do that one for a friend. I don't think. [01:17:34] Speaker C: I mean, no, definitely not. Definitely not. I mean, I am glad I experienced it, I guess, to realize that this is really not something that I want to pursue, but it's, it's, it's not something I will do again. Def. Oh, like. And our daughter's getting married in February and she's got a beautiful photographer, so I'm stoked. [01:17:54] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:17:55] Speaker C: I'm very happy about that. [01:17:56] Speaker B: Let them do their thing and. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then you don't have to worry about any of it. [01:18:01] Speaker C: Not going to be worrying about a thing. Exactly. So. But yeah, definitely, that did definitely stop me from picking up my camera for a good 12 months. [01:18:10] Speaker B: That sucks. It's like the people that, you know, you hear stories of people that train and then they run their first marathon and then they, like, they don't run again for five years because it just like destroyed their soul. PTSD from running? [01:18:28] Speaker C: I have PTSD from wedding photography. [01:18:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:31] Speaker C: Oh, gosh, I've just signed up over that now, so. Yeah, we're good to roll again. [01:18:35] Speaker B: No, that's good, that's good. [01:18:37] Speaker A: Would you ever. Would you ever pick up the camera again for a wedding if someone begged you, Justin? [01:18:43] Speaker B: For sure. If. Well, like, I'll still. I'll shoot a wedding with Jim. It's just that now to do one by myself would. It would need to be someone I know. Yeah. I'm just not in a place to commit to that, like. Because the problem is it's always. You're always committing like a year and a half in advance. And like, even as we found out, I think I told you, like. So we've got the dates for the Bright Festival of Photography next year and I want Jim to come over and he was like, oh, I've got a wedding on the Saturday. So, like, he's. He's already booked for a wedding on the Saturday of Bright, and he's probably had that booking for maybe up to 18 months or something like that. So. So there's that side of it that I. That really started to get to me, being booked in so long in advance, but also just the. Yeah, that pressure side of it. Like, I know I can take good photos, but once you sort of get out of practice it a little bit, it is very draining. The next day you feel like you basically hung over from. For me, from like the whole. The whole day of interacting and having a group of people look to you and be like, now what? You know, like, be creative right now with the next spot, you know, because everyone's sort of. They want to get through. It's usually that the pressure is right in that the rest of the day I can do with my eyes closed. You know, the ceremony and all that sort of stuff. You just kind of. That's easy documenting, no problem. But it's those moments where it's like everyone's looking to you for like, all right, now make some art with us in it in a very short amount of time. And you sort of. You just got to be on and it's. [01:20:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's tough. [01:20:30] Speaker B: Whereas if it was friends. Yeah, for sure. It's. Yeah, for sure. Especially if they were happy with a more candid, relaxed style. And obviously, if it's shooting with Jim, where I'm the additional photographer and he's kind of taking the lead for the day because he still does. He still does. You know, plenty of them every year is. Well, in practice, then I would do that as well. As long as it's not booked in too far. In advance. But there is. There is a bit of enjoyment in doing it. You get to take. The thing with weddings is you get to take photos of stuff that people want. They want the images and they want great images, and you don't get to do that in such a variety of situations in a day. Very often, you know, where you're shooting everything from portraits to like, we do sunset photography, night, we've done night astrophotography at weddings, all these sorts of stuff, and it's. And someone is really excited to see the image and have it because it's theirs, their memories from that day. Whereas most of the time, you know, you're never going to do in one day usually, you know, portraits and candid photography and then a sunset photo and all this stuff, and then have someone be super excited to, like, see all the images and really be, you know, gushing about them. That. That is definitely a. I don't know. I know what you'd call it, like a dopamine hit. It's like a. Yeah, it gives you positive feedback. That feels great, but. Yeah. [01:22:09] Speaker A: I don't know. [01:22:10] Speaker B: Does that answer your question? [01:22:12] Speaker A: I've forgotten what the question was, but, yes, it does. Thank you. Yes. Yep, it does. Is it time for some news? [01:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah, there's news and then there's my. [01:22:26] Speaker A: Oh, you want to talk about your surprise project? [01:22:29] Speaker B: New project that I need some. I need some feedback on. [01:22:33] Speaker A: All right, let's go with that. [01:22:34] Speaker B: Okay. Then we'll do some news because Canon released some new lenses. Did you see that? [01:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah, not yet. [01:22:42] Speaker B: Anyway. Well, we'll talk about this first. Okay. So. So I've been thinking about the photo essay stuff ever since I did that workshop at Bright with Chris Hopkins. [01:22:58] Speaker A: Yep. [01:22:58] Speaker B: I think. [01:22:59] Speaker A: I think. Yeah, the photojournalist. [01:23:01] Speaker B: Yes. [01:23:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:23:03] Speaker B: Should get him on the podcast. [01:23:04] Speaker A: I've invited him. [01:23:05] Speaker B: Oh, nice. That'd be cool. Hopefully he says yes, please, Chris. So I've been thinking about that. And so I was down in Mornington and I went to. Actually, this was before I went to Mark Ray's gallery. And I was kind of wandering around and I got the camera out and I put the. I got the R5 Mark 2 with the 50 mil on it, and I thought I would just wander around the beach at Mornington and sort of take some shots. I'm going to show you the shots. Maybe if I can share my screen. [01:23:42] Speaker A: Anytime you're ready, mate. [01:23:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we're getting there. Technical difficulties. There we go. They probably won't translate well to this tiny little screen, but they look Good. On my big screen. So yeah, so these are 12 images that I shot just in a morning in Mornington. Not at, not at the best light or anything like that. It was like mid morning, all black and white, JPEG straight out of camera, which is how I'm liking to roll at the moment. And I was just trying to capture the vibe of the general morning scene because it wasn't a busy day, but there was a little bit going on and I was like, this could be a project that I do where each week on the podcast I have to have a new 12 image little mini photo set ready to. Ready to show the world. And I don't know if it's a good idea or not and I'm going to let you guys decide. [01:24:58] Speaker C: I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. And I think you should let the guest of that week pick your subject matter. [01:25:05] Speaker B: Oh no, no. [01:25:07] Speaker A: What? [01:25:09] Speaker B: That's terrifying. [01:25:10] Speaker A: That's a great idea. [01:25:13] Speaker B: No, no, I think, I think what I'd rather. This one doesn't translate very well to the tiny screen that. That's a plane up there. And I thought it went really well. [01:25:21] Speaker A: Is that a sensor dot on the right? [01:25:23] Speaker B: Probably. [01:25:24] Speaker A: Is that my screen? No, no, it's my screen. It's all right. [01:25:27] Speaker B: That's your screen. Okay. Is it? [01:25:30] Speaker A: No, it was a little screen. [01:25:31] Speaker B: It's on your screen. Yeah. See, there's a plane up there and then there's a bird in this one. I thought it sort of went well together. Anyway, so they're my images for this week potentially. So what I would be happy to do is just get roasted by whoever the guest is that week on what I could have done better and that kind of thing. I'm happy with that. And then. Yeah, the reason I'm thinking a week like do it each week is it means that the images could be from one photo walk or it could be spread across the whole week. It could be something like this where it's a scene like a place that I visited and I just go for a walk and capture some stuff. Or it could be a theme that's more of a photographic technique limitation or just a lens choice or something like anything that pulls together the set of images for that next week. It could be a color theme or something like that. But ultimately I like this idea where it's more of capture them all in one, in one shoot and kind of tell a little bit of a story. I know these don't tell much of a story, but I tried No, I. [01:26:49] Speaker A: Think it tells a story. [01:26:51] Speaker C: I like them. I really like the beach. The beach. That beach hut. The two side beside with the mural. [01:26:57] Speaker B: There was obviously. Yeah, there was a ton of beach huts. But I really like the combination of the art on these two next to each other. [01:27:04] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really like that. That's. [01:27:07] Speaker B: You know, what's. What's really hard is committing to black and white at a colorful beach location with colorful beach huts and beautiful blue sky and blue water and all this stuff, but I'm happy with it. [01:27:21] Speaker A: I think that's part of the challenge, though, isn't it, to not rely on the. The poppy visuals that you've stumbled upon or purposely found, you know, located. You're not relying on that to tell the story. You're relying on the, you know, the contrast and the tonal values to tell the story of what's going on. [01:27:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. It was. It was fun. It was a fun experience. It made, like. Yeah, I don't know. I enjoyed it. So I'm thinking, what do you think? What do you. What do you guys think of that as a challenge that I could maybe do for a full year? [01:27:53] Speaker C: I think I like that. I like the idea. [01:27:56] Speaker A: I think it's worth having a shot at it. [01:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Any. Any rules or things you think I could. [01:28:04] Speaker A: I. I don't want to impose. I don't think I would want to impose rules upon you as much as I'd like to. That, you know, we could say, all right, you can only shoot it with one lens, or for the whole year, you can only do it with your 28mil RF. As much as I like that idea, and I've put myself through those challenges before, but I don't know that it's sustainable. And I think this is a. This is an experiment. The way I see it, this is an experiment about applying your learned skills over, you know, time using a camera and try to discover something new with it. I think the rules might be too limiting. I like the idea of it being a set number of images that you have to. You have to capture. And I think the JPEG thing's good because it forces you to be mindful and compose. [01:28:57] Speaker B: I'm unsure. I'll think of it. The JPEG thing. I'll probably shoot a lot of it. Jpeg. I don't know whether I'll make that a rule or not. I haven't decided yet, because I do. I don't know. I don't want to push out the idea of being able to shoot in Color and get a particular sort of style or something like that. I don't know if it's critical that they're all straight out of camera jpegs, but I do definitely like it. Like, it bugs me so much. A couple of these horizons are tilted in these shots. [01:29:31] Speaker A: I wasn't going to say anything. [01:29:32] Speaker B: Did you notice the view? You want to straighten them, don't you? It's like, it's. [01:29:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:29:42] Speaker B: That one's pretty good. But, like, that one's crooked. Yeah, that one's crooked. [01:29:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:29:52] Speaker B: That one's slightly crooked. And now it's slightly. I mean, they're all. [01:29:56] Speaker A: Yeah, they're close. [01:29:57] Speaker B: They're close, but they're not perfect. But I think it's one of those things that. I don't know. It. It's. It forces you to stop making your camera crooked. So I do really like that idea of not editing them, but I haven't decided if I should commit to that yet or not. [01:30:17] Speaker C: I think it's got to be a theme, though. Like, you can't. It's got to be if you're going to do the challenge. And I, like. I agree with Greg. It's like, to have the same amount of shots, but I don't. It's got to be like a. A theme, week to week. I think that kind of brings it together. Don't you think, Craig? Don't you think that that would make sense to do that? [01:30:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Definitely have some sort of theme. [01:30:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:30:40] Speaker A: Each. [01:30:41] Speaker B: Each week will have a theme. I just don't know if I'll set the theme or if it will evolve. Does that make sense? Like, it'll. Yeah, through the week while I'm shooting, or I've even kept the idea open. What I don't want to do is I don't want to dig into my back catalog of photos and put a set of images together in a theme. That's not going to be allowed in my challenge in my head. But I have left the idea open that maybe there might be something where I'm collecting images over a number of weeks that only end up as a collection eight weeks later. [01:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:31:24] Speaker B: You know, I might take it might be, say, I don't know, say it's abandoned buildings, and I might only get one of those a week, and it might take 12 weeks for me to actually put that set together. Meanwhile, I'm doing other ones each week, you know, so it doesn't necessarily have to be that I go out and shoot the whole set in one week, but it has to be Fresh images that I haven't shot yet, starting from essentially when I did this shoot last week. [01:31:51] Speaker C: I like the idea. Yeah, I like the idea. [01:31:53] Speaker A: And I think you might. And you might develop a theme over time. Like you might decide that you're going to photograph people drinking coffee. Silly example, but you know what I mean? And you're going to. You're going away overseas soon. [01:32:08] Speaker B: So that's what's got me thinking about it is, like, what am I. What am I gonna take photos of over. Like, why. Why am I taking photos over overseas other than just being like, I was here? And this gives it a little bit of. A little bit of something. I don't know. [01:32:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it does. [01:32:25] Speaker B: So I like. It might be hard to. I'll have to. You might have to show them on the. On the podcast for me while I'm away. I might have to send them to you and I'll see if I can dial in. But I got to keep that. Keep that commitment of, like, a deadline each week to submit my 12 images. [01:32:42] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I think that's. I think it's a great challenge. It'd be interesting to see if you can. If you can sustain it for a year. It's a long time, but. [01:32:51] Speaker B: How many photos is that? [01:32:53] Speaker A: A lot. [01:32:53] Speaker C: Oh, 52 times. [01:32:56] Speaker B: 624 photos, you guys. Over the next year, you guys are going to have to watch me display 624 photos. Sorry. [01:33:03] Speaker A: Talk about Grandpa's slideshow. [01:33:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:33:06] Speaker B: I've basically just turned this podcast into A four. Making people look at my images and pick on my horizon lines. [01:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Dedicate a whole hour to it. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a really good challenge, and I think we talked about last week. I'm still trying to work out what my next challenge is. I've been quite busy with writing and reviewing products. I've just sent back the last of the cases to Fujifilm Australia of all the gear they sent me to review. Terrible job. [01:33:39] Speaker C: I have to ask you. I have to ask you. That lens. Oh, lord. How good? [01:33:44] Speaker A: 500. [01:33:45] Speaker C: Yeah, that impressed me. [01:33:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I mean, I've never. I've never really done a lot of birding. To quote Justin. Or was it you, Pinky? You said birding. Birders. I'm not a birder. We've got a friend, Fuji Group, Igor. Who? Tiger, isn't it? Igor Evans. [01:34:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:34:09] Speaker A: And he. He's a birder, and he's an incredible birder. Dean Creedy does a lot of great birding stuff in our Group. But yeah, that 500 mil lens was very impressive. [01:34:23] Speaker C: Is it heavy? [01:34:25] Speaker A: That wasn't too bad. [01:34:26] Speaker C: I can't remember compared to the 1 to 400. How did it sit in your hand? [01:34:32] Speaker A: Oh no, it's heavier. [01:34:34] Speaker C: What's it going to retail for, do you reckon? [01:34:37] Speaker A: Probably. I think it's already up. Let me have a look. [01:34:41] Speaker B: Did you Say it's a 5 6? [01:34:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:34:44] Speaker B: And a 500. That would make it. Oh my maths is so bad today. That's a seven. Is that a 750? [01:34:50] Speaker C: Seven fifty, yeah. [01:34:51] Speaker A: Holy. And it works with the two times teleconverter, so it could be a 1500 mil lens. [01:34:58] Speaker B: Just sounds made up. [01:35:00] Speaker A: Well, the Fuji times two. Let me just share this screen. Sorry, While we're chatting. Share screen. Fujifilm. That's my favorite part of the podcast. This is it here. So this is the 500 mil f 5.6. So 5,400. That's Fuji's retail price. I'd imagine that the retailers are probably dropping that to around 52. 5100. I don't think you'll get below 5 at the moment. 5 grand. It's a red batch, red badge. It's coming at the end of November which is starts tomorrow. It's less than 2 kilos. I remember when I was. I was writing the review for this one, which I'll just bring up very quickly and I was asking Fujifilm for specs. This is because it was under embargo, so they'd sent me the lens. I had it in my hand but I wanted some more details on like the lens assembly and what was going on inside it. And he sent me this, this weird press release that said, you know, for weight, well, it's under 2kg. It was really weird. They, they wouldn't commit to anything. Even though I had the lens in my hand. [01:36:17] Speaker C: They were, yeah, that's interesting. [01:36:20] Speaker A: And I ended up get with my calipers measuring everything myself until they'd sent me the official specs. But yeah, it's a bit of a. Bit of a champion lens. [01:36:31] Speaker C: You got some cracker shots for that? [01:36:33] Speaker A: Well, yeah, that's what I was going to say. So I mean these are the product shots that I took. These aren't Fujifilms, these are mine. But the sample images, I was so impressed because a few weeks ago, probably a couple of months now, I also tested the GFX500 5.6 which was an incredible piece of glass. But I just had to fight it constantly to get focus on moving subjects, whereas. And you know, the GFX isn't known for fast focus. It's good, but it's nowhere near the X series stuff. But this one, this, this XF lens was just incredible in terms of how responsive it was and gorgeous image quality on the XH2s. [01:37:24] Speaker B: Oh, they sent you the camera too, sir? [01:37:26] Speaker A: Yeah, they sent me that one because they wanted me to experience it with a, you know, with a flagship. [01:37:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:37:34] Speaker A: But yeah, I was pretty happy with it and got some great shots. And the last one with the Heron and these were, these were great. I loved it. Like I was just walking along and. Because with that lens, everything you've got to be like 3 meters away from anything. [01:37:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:37:49] Speaker A: And I glanced over and saw this. All these butterflies went, oh, okay. I lifted my camera and I was just at the right distance to get them in focus. But yeah, that was a lot of fun. That's me, by the way, with it. That's for scale. That's my favorite scale for scale. [01:38:06] Speaker B: And that's with the hood on. [01:38:08] Speaker A: That's with the hood on, yeah. [01:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's pretty, it's pretty compact. [01:38:13] Speaker A: It's not bad for a 500 mil. I did have the 1.4 teleconverter at the time because they'd sent it to me with another. This is my favorite one. [01:38:23] Speaker C: Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, that's beautiful. [01:38:25] Speaker A: And this is not a genre I normally shoot, so it's. Sometimes the lens. The gear does help sometimes. But. Yeah, I mean, if you can borrow one or give it a shot. Pinky, I'd recommend it because it's. Yeah, it's really impressive. [01:38:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:38:44] Speaker A: I would like to test the 200 mil f2, but that's. That's like a ten thousand dollar lens. [01:38:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty specialized. [01:38:53] Speaker C: Yeah. See, I don't tend to look at those because then I'll just want them and I can't afford them so I. [01:38:57] Speaker A: Don'T sleep over them. [01:38:59] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. [01:39:03] Speaker B: Don't tempt yourself. [01:39:04] Speaker C: Exactly. Exactly. [01:39:07] Speaker A: Well, just to recap on your, on your project, Justin, I say go for it. You've got nothing to lose and you've generally got a camera with you at all times. And so I think it's certainly achievable and I think it will teach you a lot about yourself and, and how you see things. Because I know when you did the 30 day challenge and we talked about it, you were saying the hardest thing is knowing what to point my camera at. Because when you were doing weddings and yeah, you knew what to what you were looking for. I mean, you were building a whole composition, but you knew what the sub. The core subject was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:39:41] Speaker B: It's very different. [01:39:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And we've all had that. That experience of feeling lost creatively where we don't know what our next. You know, what are we pointing our camera out and why. And like you said, Pinky, sometimes a situation or an opportunity or an experience can turn you off it and put you in a rut. [01:40:01] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. [01:40:03] Speaker A: That make you question? [01:40:04] Speaker C: Definitely. We had. We had when. When photo ranges, the group. It was like a community group down here. And a lot of people from all over the country were on this with Dale, and they did challenges like this for a year. 52 weeks of. You had to. And he had a theme for every week. And to do that every week, it was a huge commitment. I did it. And I think I missed, like, not many days in the year, but I certainly missed some. But to find that. To find the brief, like, to get that in a photograph was actually a lot harder than what I thought it would be. So I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of it. But it was. It was a bit of a commitment, but it is good fun. So it makes you look at the world a little bit differently, I think. And that's really important. [01:40:47] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, I think I should. And just to clarify the reason why, I'm thinking a set of images instead of, I think what it. It gives me. It gives you a constraint. 12 images, not 20, not 10 or whatever. It's like it's 12 images, but it gives me permission to shoot things that normally I'd be maybe looking at. Like, does this image tell a story? This one image. Whereas this gives me permission to be like, shoot something that doesn't tell a story, but in a single image. But it adds to the story in the 12 images, if that makes sense. So it's like, yeah, it'll allow me to be a little bit more broad in what the way I'm shooting and not worry so much about whether. If someone just saw this one image, will they be like, oh, that's a great image. But it actually just fits with and supports maybe some of the other images in the set. And I like that idea. [01:41:48] Speaker A: Yeah, No, I think it's a good idea. Make us happy. See how you go. [01:41:55] Speaker B: Well, week one. Week one, done. This was week one, Mornington. [01:41:58] Speaker A: I know that's a cheat. [01:42:00] Speaker B: No, it's my challenge. [01:42:02] Speaker A: Well, date stamp it. It's the 31st of October, 2024. We'll see where we are In a year's time. [01:42:08] Speaker B: Week one. Done. [01:42:09] Speaker A: So you're the best. [01:42:11] Speaker B: Well, it'll be the next couple of weeks. Should be easy because I'll be in Vietnam. It's almost like cheating. [01:42:15] Speaker A: It is cheating. [01:42:16] Speaker B: But then after that, then I'll. Yeah, we'll really start to make me get out and do something. If anyone's listening, you want to join the challenge, let me know. I might set up a little somewhere for me to, like, make my hub. So if anyone else is thinking, yeah, I'm going to do this every week as well, hit me up. We can do it together. We can hold each other accountable. [01:42:37] Speaker A: Maybe you should start a separate Instagram. [01:42:40] Speaker B: Oh, I don't know about that. I really hate social media. [01:42:43] Speaker A: Okay, then don't. [01:42:45] Speaker B: I don't know. I'll think. I don't know, I might make a little. Little groupie thing or something if anyone else is thinking of doing it. But if it's just me, I'll probably just post them on my Instagram and I might. The main thing that the priority will be that. That they. On this podcast each week, that means that they submitted, they're done, and that's like my. [01:43:05] Speaker A: And then that gives you a deadline and a reason to. [01:43:07] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:43:08] Speaker A: Yep. Very good. [01:43:10] Speaker B: Cool. [01:43:11] Speaker A: Well, let's. Let's jump to the news. Just before we do that, I just want to remind literally listeners at home that you're listening to the Camera Life podcast, episode 36. It's the 31st of October. Won't be long, and we'll be taking a Christmas break. [01:43:24] Speaker B: Will we? [01:43:24] Speaker A: Do we take a break at Christmas? We haven't discussed the terms of my contract. Really? [01:43:28] Speaker B: I think we could do. We could at least take January off. [01:43:31] Speaker C: What? [01:43:31] Speaker B: Maybe February. No, I'm kidding. [01:43:35] Speaker C: All of a sudden. All of a sudden, the 52 weeks. [01:43:38] Speaker A: Well, unpaid. [01:43:40] Speaker B: You better hope that. That Christmas isn't on a Thursday, otherwise you'll have to. We'll be podcasting Christmas morning. [01:43:45] Speaker A: I don't mind. I'm not a huge fan of Christmas anyway. Sorry, what were you gonna say? [01:43:50] Speaker C: I think Justin was just trying to get out of his 12 photos. For the two weeks? [01:43:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. [01:43:57] Speaker B: Already finding excuses. [01:43:59] Speaker A: I have been Santa on more than one occasion. [01:44:02] Speaker B: I can see. [01:44:02] Speaker A: Not professionally. More of an amateur Santa gig, actually. Every year on Christmas Eve, when my two kids were little, I would come home, I had a Santa suit, and I'd get dressed in the hallway of the apartment, like outside the apartment. And then I'd go in and, you know, the kids were like four or five. And they'd be, you know, and I'd bring them a present and then I'd, I'd leave and my wife at the time, she would, you know, facilitate the hype and the, and the video recording and, and yeah, they were good times and I was a very. And that was before I had a beard. [01:44:37] Speaker B: What? Wow. [01:44:38] Speaker A: That was, that was, that was with fake beard. Okay, not this one. Although I noticed in the. [01:44:44] Speaker C: It's going very quickly, it's not gray enough now. Anyway. Greg. [01:44:48] Speaker A: Not yet, still a bit, still a bit left. Thank you, Pinky. Anyway, as I was saying, you're watching the Camera Life podcast. Make sure to like and subscribe. Feel free to add comments if you're watching this later on. And, and yeah, we, we air live every Thursday morning, Australian Eastern Daylight savings time at the moment. But check out the back catalog and, and shoot us a message. And if you want to be on the podcast and you're a person of substance, then please let us know. [01:45:15] Speaker B: Or if you're not, even if you're. [01:45:18] Speaker A: A rapscallion, we'll take anyone. Yeah, well, that's enough about your love life, mate. Let's jump to the news. Quick bit of news I want to share first of all, which is kind of annoying for me given I've just spent a fortune on a brand new app. Only a couple of months ago Apple have introduced. They always do this. I know it happens every year, I shouldn't be surprised but now I feel that computer's not good enough. So Apple introduces new MacBook Pro with M4 chip family and Apple Intelligence. The Apple Intelligence thing, they're pushing that a lot. It's basically it's, it's good with platforms like. Well in America it comes pre installed with chat GPT which is you know like a tech spot which I, I'm not a fan of. [01:46:16] Speaker B: I mean pre installed. Does pre installed matter? Like what does that. [01:46:19] Speaker A: I mean you can't get it here. [01:46:23] Speaker B: But it's on the interwebs. [01:46:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I know it must be like a built in app. I don't know the details. Okay, just reading the headlines, Justin. Yeah, just doing the dot points, mate. Dot points. The reason why I brought this up as a newsworthy article on a photography podcast is because I know a lot of you out there use Mac for editing photo video. You know, whether you're running lightroom, dark room, Photoshop. Macs are really well designed and kitted out to manage the load photography workflows. New M4, it's got a minimum just the basic M4. It's got a minimum 16 gig of RAM, which is finally a good jump because a lot of them will have eight. And I found that frustrating having to spend more to upgrade, but I did anyway and that's up to 32 gig. That's on the base Pro chip. The Pro 4, sorry. On the base chip, the Pro 4 takes it up to 64 gig of RAM and the Pro Max takes it up to 128 gig of RAM which would be great for videography or managing larger files and larger volumes of files in photography. I'm not trying to plug Apple, you know, if you're running on a PC setup and you love it, then go for it. I just thought it was interesting to see how this sort of system would work with, for people like us. And Pinky, you're running a Mac, aren't you? [01:47:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Correct. Yeah. [01:47:59] Speaker A: And Justin, you're on a MacBook. [01:48:01] Speaker B: It's fully, fully pimped out. But it's the M1 Max 16 inch with, with all of the stuff which for video was an absolute game changer. I can edit very, very CPU intensive codecs of 4K footage without having to build any proxy files. For those of you who don't know, it's like, it's like being able to just work with a RAW file as opposed to having to build a preview file to be able to edit with which speeds up workflow, exports away faster. And now so from my experience, I haven't actually tested an M4 obviously because I don't have one or even an M3. But my M1 was a giant leap from an Intel Mac. If you have an Intel Mac, any level of these M4s or even a run out model of an M3 is going to be like, like Greg's got an M3 is going to be a giant leap for you. And then from what I can tell with the testing, if you're just talking sort of normal video editing and photo editing, M2, M3, M4, you're not talking big leaps. The big leap was going into these M chips but now you don't, don't feel the need to upgrade. If you've got a, you know, Greg's got an M3 that's two months old or something, you know, he doesn't have to throw that in the bin and get an. The people that will, they'll know if they need to upgrade. It's mainly there's, I think they're getting a lot of gains in 3D rendering and stuff like that. But if that's you, you'll know if you need it or not. Yeah, but if I was, if I was you, I'd be looking for a deal on an older model probably. Unless you want something that's fully spec'd out. Yeah, yeah. Even Yelena's got whatever the base model 13 inch M2 or M3 was maybe with just slightly more ram and she can edit 4k video and stuff on that. Fine. It's, yeah, it's pretty amazing the level that they jumped to when they went to these new M series chips. [01:50:11] Speaker A: The Apple silicon chip set. [01:50:12] Speaker B: This is. Yeah. [01:50:13] Speaker A: Because I jumped from a 2017 iMac that was an intel based chip to the M3 and the. Yeah, I think we've talked about it before but the difference was just staggering. And I'm, you know, and I'm not, I'm not. I mean from time to time I would review like a GFX one hundreds so the files are massive. I don't do video stuff so I haven't had to face that, that hurdle. But I just think, I mean you do pay for it. But I think it's, you know, I think the benefits are amazing with these sorts of machines. [01:50:47] Speaker B: Definitely. [01:50:48] Speaker A: And Apple continue to push the boundaries of what they can do. But I think you're right, it's like, like, it's like the jumps in iPhone models, you know when they, when they do one of their iPhone releases they, they kind of hype up the improvements. But compared to. Yeah, compared to an iPhone that you've been running for seven or eight years, sure the jump is, is amazing. But if you went from a 15 Pro to a 16 Pro youo're not, you're not going to notice a huge difference. [01:51:13] Speaker B: No, no, not a big deal. Better off, better off going on a workshop in New Zealand. [01:51:18] Speaker C: Bang on. Exactly. [01:51:21] Speaker A: I've got some other news. Another new film camera has been released. We're seeing a bit of a surge in film cameras. This one probably not for the faint hearted. Leica have announced the Leica M Edition 70. It's an analog film camera. I think it has a 50 mil Cinelux. It's, it's a stunning looking camera and it looks a lot like a, like a classic Leica 70 year edition apparently. US$23,000. [01:52:02] Speaker B: Holy moly. With the lens. [01:52:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it comes with the lens in the kit. [01:52:06] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah, that's probably an expensive lens. [01:52:09] Speaker A: So it's, It's a Summicron M50F2. Gorgeous looking camera. But. [01:52:19] Speaker C: I was going to say besides what it can do. It just looks stunning, doesn't it? They just a nice camera. [01:52:26] Speaker A: They are. Hey Siri, what's 23000 US dollars in Australian dollars? 23,000 US dollars is $34,985 and 70. So you get a bit of change out of a 35000 note. [01:52:42] Speaker C: So. [01:52:43] Speaker A: But that's crazy. 35 grand. [01:52:45] Speaker B: You get a highly spent Kia for that. [01:52:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But yeah. There you go. [01:53:00] Speaker B: Wow. Well, I won't be buying one of those. Yeah. But I'm sure there'll be a ton of collectors and stuff that will and maybe a couple of YouTubers. But yeah, not. Not me. [01:53:12] Speaker A: Yep, it is beautiful. But $35,000. Yeah, not sure about that. That's kind of all I had for news. [01:53:23] Speaker B: Did you see these? [01:53:24] Speaker A: No. Do you want to. [01:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll bring them up. They only. They only went live last night I. [01:53:30] Speaker A: Think but they've been announced for a while, haven't they? [01:53:33] Speaker B: They've been rumored for a while. I don't know if they were announced or not basically. So they brought out this, that 35 mil 1.4 hybrid lens which is like a photo on video lens. It's got an aperture ring on it that's de clicked which is a very video kind of ring on a Canon lens. Yeah, but it's de clicked. Oh so it. So it's video. It's like smooth aperture change for video but like which I. Look, I shoot a lot of video too but for me to use an aperture ring while shooting stills I want it to click and I'm pretty sure does it does some of Fuji's lens there's a switch to be like clicked or de clicked or whatever had like. Or do you have to order a specific type or. [01:54:18] Speaker A: No, no, they only make the one type I think. No, most of them are clicky. [01:54:23] Speaker B: They're clicking. [01:54:23] Speaker A: I think they do have some D clicky ones. Yeah. [01:54:26] Speaker B: I don't know. I need to find out more because I saw somewhere that they were like someone said Sony, it can be clicked or de clicked. [01:54:32] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. [01:54:33] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:54:33] Speaker A: People use Sony's a lot for video. [01:54:35] Speaker B: Yeah. But I love the idea of a clicked one for photography and these don't have it and apparently will. Will never have it. So. So for a lot of photographers that aperture ring will just sit in the auto position. When you put it in the auto position basically then the camera operates as normal where you change it on the camera, it's on the body. So why do you think that why. [01:55:00] Speaker A: Do you think you need that click? Because you need that. [01:55:02] Speaker B: The feedback. [01:55:03] Speaker A: Feedback? [01:55:04] Speaker B: Yeah, of changing each. So you don't have to look at the number changing to know what it's changing to. You don't need it. Obviously you could use that for stills as well. But I prefer for you personally. [01:55:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I do use, I do use it especially because for my Astro, I use a Samyang 12 mil and it doesn't talk to the. So it doesn't show the aperture on the screen. So I need to. Because when I do my light painting and my stars, I go from 2.8 to 5.6. So then I count how many clicks because otherwise I got to get my phone out and have a look over the camera and see where it's at. So for me it's super handy. [01:55:43] Speaker B: It's. And it's probably like it might be just a leftover from when I was shooting DSLRs, but I used to count clicks all the time. So I, you know, I could, I could be changing settings in manual mode because I shot every. I shoot everything manual. It's like you could know that you were matching an exposure but changing, you know what, how your depth of field or if you wanted to get some motion blur or whatever. And I didn't have to take it test shot or whatever and see if my exposure was the same because I just count clicks, you know, as I roll through the. The settings. I don't know. Anyway, what's more interesting is they've made the. So they've released. They had the 35 1.4 VCM and they've released the 24 and the 50 to match it. 24 and 50. And they're all the same body, exactly the same shape. [01:56:38] Speaker A: Wow. [01:56:39] Speaker B: So I haven't, I don't know if they've. They might put an image in this thing. Oh, so many ads. Ads, Ads. No, but basically they're all, they all look exactly like this. The only difference is the number 50, 24, 35 and obviously all the elements and stuff. Yeah. And there's a very slight weight difference. I think they're all around 500 grams, but the heaviest is about 580. And the lightest might be 520. [01:57:07] Speaker A: But the actual dimensions are exactly the same. [01:57:09] Speaker B: Exactly. Which they've done that for video benefits of using gimbals and that kind of thing that when you're swapping them out, they're identical. [01:57:20] Speaker A: But there's also a cost benefit to them, isn't there? In terms of. [01:57:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't Think about that. But yeah, probably using the same body. What bugs me is for photography, I feel like they've been compromised in terms of that, you know, they don't all need to be the same size, so one of them is bigger than it should be or whatever, you know, like in my mind I'm like, some of these they've made in a different way so that they can make them a uniform set. But they are a hybrid lens and that is it. That's the benefit. Unfortunately. I thought eventually a 50mil 1.4 might be an ideal lens for me because the Canon RF 50mm 1.2, which I love is on the heavier side and the 50mm 1.8 isn't, isn't the image quality I'd really like when shooting a lot with it. It does a great job for the, for the price, but it's a pretty cheap lens at a couple, couple hundred dollars. So I was hoping they'd release something in that mid Range as a 1.4 and they have, but I think it's still two and a half thousand dollars and it's still almost 600 grams. The 1.2's 950 grams. It's still a weight saving, but it's not, it's not down in that kind of lightweight prime. [01:58:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not a zone. [01:58:45] Speaker B: So anyway, it's, it's interesting. So they're out. There's three of those in the series now and I think so they've got 24, 35, 50. I bet it wouldn't surprise me if we see an 85 and maybe a 28, you know, filter range out at some stage. And if they can make all that fit in the same bodies. And they've also done more to continue the hybrid range. A new 70 to 200. Anyone that shoots Canon will know the RF 70 to 200 is amazingly small. But it does have an external zoom, like it expands while you zoom it. This is an internal zoom, so it doesn't expand 7200 and it is hybrid as well, so it's got that same aperture ring. It's a power zoom compatible lens, which is a fancy video thing that I'll never use to match. So now they've got the 24 to 105 2.8 power zoom and this 70 to 200 2.8 power zoom. And it's the first 70 to 200L that's ever been offered in black or white. [01:59:46] Speaker A: Wow. [01:59:47] Speaker B: Yes. [01:59:47] Speaker A: It's all that cost saving they made on keeping the one body for the other Three lenses. They've just blown it on making two. Two color areas. [01:59:55] Speaker B: So some, some interesting things are. Usually they say the white is to keep heat down on those big lenses but Nikon seem to have never had that problem. But anyway because they're all black. But the black body is apparently favored by video shooters who want less reflections. Reflections and stuff like that. Yeah that's true. So anyway it's interesting apparently also the black is 5 grams lighter than the white lens. [02:00:23] Speaker A: Oh. Different coating apparently. [02:00:25] Speaker B: Five grams worth of paint. [02:00:28] Speaker C: Five grams. [02:00:29] Speaker B: Anyway that's Canon's news. What's that? [02:00:32] Speaker A: Do you get a saving? [02:00:34] Speaker B: I believe they're the same price but I. [02:00:36] Speaker A: How much are they roughly? [02:00:37] Speaker B: Well I haven't even checked that one in Australia. I'm. I'm not sure I'm picking. It's going to be expensive. Let's see. [02:00:43] Speaker A: Scared to look at you. [02:00:46] Speaker B: 7202.8 powers. It'll be expensive. It doesn't even look like it's showing up anywhere. I'll come back to you. We'll talk. 535 3. [02:01:02] Speaker A: Okay. [02:01:02] Speaker B: I believe which is. They're. They're getting up there. That's the same with these primes being two and a half grand. It's like they're. They're pretty expensive. It would. As much as I love Canon it would really be nice to see them open up that lens mount to more third party options to give people just a little bit of variety in that affordable mid range because their cheaper range is filling out nicely and their top end is they've got a lot of options but that middle is. Yeah it's a big jump for people to go from you know a 250 or 350 mil up to a 2 and a half or 3 and a half thousand. $50 mil. There's just this wide range in there where someone might want to spend fifteen hundred dollars but there's nothing on offer for them. So. [02:01:44] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [02:01:45] Speaker B: And they. Oh lastly they released a. Another VR lens. The RFS 7.8mm f4 dual lens for crop sensored for VR. So they're really pushing into that VR. They said third one now. Yep. Third RF1 and Canon have. Sorry. Apple have actually mentioned Canon in some of their marketing materials and stuff for their Vision Pro. So yeah it looks like. Yeah they're putting. [02:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:02:21] Speaker B: Here we go. Apple previewed this new lens at its presentation in June. That's when it was first cited. It was in some of the materials in that. So watch that space. It's definitely. I'M interested to know what we can do in the future as photographers with, you know, you see Apple putting those spatial photos in iPhone capture now where they sort of have that 3D immersive and whether that's going to be something that as photographers we start working on too. You know, we're going to be able to do spatial immersive night photos of auroras and things like that. I don't know. [02:03:04] Speaker A: Interesting. [02:03:04] Speaker C: Cool. [02:03:05] Speaker B: Cool. [02:03:05] Speaker A: That'd be cool. [02:03:06] Speaker C: Cool. [02:03:07] Speaker A: That would also be a cool way to run a. Hold an exhibition, wouldn't it, that anyone with a GoPro headset, you could, you know, set up a room with just. [02:03:15] Speaker B: Your images and I was talking about that. So you're saying go to a physical space. I was. [02:03:22] Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no, no. Like be at home, but going to a virtual space that you've set up as a gallery. [02:03:27] Speaker B: I was saying that to. To Joel, barefoot and bearded at Beef Up. I was like, when is this going to be a thing where we can. Like, I can have my own exhibition and I don't have the cost of all the printed work and hosting the space, but I can, I can send Joel a link or whatever and he can walk through my gallery and the gallery can. Can then become so much more than, you know, normally we find a space that's in a suitable location and blah, blah, blah. You know, it could be a. We could host it. It could be a dungeon or a. Yeah. You know, like you could be on the moon. Like, you can. You could. People could get very creative with the way they want to display their virtual virtual hosts. [02:04:06] Speaker A: And they did that a lot during COVID with galleries. Galleries. [02:04:11] Speaker B: Did they? [02:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah, they. They created. It wasn't virtual. It might have gone to virtual headsets, but galleries in. In Europe that you typically paid for, they created channels where you could basically kind of stroll into a room. I think they did videos. Maybe it was just YouTube, but yeah. Where basically you just walk. They. It was like you were visiting the museum because you couldn't. [02:04:39] Speaker B: Because you couldn't. Yeah, yeah. It's super cool, though. I love that idea that maybe. And you know, I wish I was a developer or something that you could. Someone will build this thing that it could be a new way for photographers to interact and display work and, you know, view each other's work that's not on a tiny little phone screen on Instagram, you know, that you could be in a space and the photos could be present scented much bigger. Yeah, yeah, I love that idea. [02:05:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, definitely. [02:05:10] Speaker B: But. But those vision Pro things are pretty expensive, so there's that. [02:05:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I tried the one at Apple a couple of weeks ago. Oh, it was. Yeah. I went in. I made an appointment at the Apple store. Oh, my goodness. It was amazing. It was so cool. [02:05:24] Speaker B: So it. Yeah. What's. It feels great. Is it heavy? Everyone says they're heavy. [02:05:29] Speaker C: No. Well, I didn't think so. Like, I didn't. I didn't find it. I didn't find it offensively heavy. Like, you know, it's there, but it just allowed you to be right in that moment. They put me in the middle. They put me in on a basketball court with like these pro basketball players, and at one point it's coming straight up my face and I'm like, whoa. Like, actually, it was amazing. And if they went by one, but they are a little bit cost prohibitive at the moment, but I think they were coming down and. [02:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:05:58] Speaker C: Worth it. [02:05:59] Speaker B: Worth it. It'll take its time, but they'll come down for sure. [02:06:02] Speaker C: Yeah, it was really cool. [02:06:04] Speaker A: Remember how much DVD players were when they first came out? Yeah, they were over a thousand bucks. [02:06:11] Speaker C: But if you want to try it, you could just go to an Apple store. You make an appointment, it takes half an hour, and they take you through the whole thing. And it's super cool. Super. [02:06:18] Speaker B: I have to do that because I want to. Yeah. I want to experience it for myself. [02:06:22] Speaker A: It sounds pretty dedication, Pinky. [02:06:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, well. Gotta be in it to win it, Greg. [02:06:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. Look, on that note, let's just take this news article off the screen. On that note, we're gonna. We're gonna wrap up, I think. Ready to wrap up, Pinky. Of you. You out of words. [02:06:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I am. That doesn't happen very often, but I am. [02:06:44] Speaker A: It's not like you. Well, look, first and foremost, thank you so much, Pinky, for joining us. It's been fascinating talking to you about your travels and how you approach expanding your craft through photography tours. I think that's wonderful. And, you know, if you've got the means to do it, then, you know, obviously we highly recommend. You'll learn a lot about yourself. You'll learn a lot about how you, you know, exist with peers in a similar space. You'll learn a lot about your craft and you'll get to see some beautiful places basis. But like we said, if it's not in your means, then start small and build up to it. [02:07:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Which I think is great. So. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [02:07:26] Speaker A: Or even just hook up with a couple of mate. Hookups the wrong term, even. Just meet up with a couple of mates. Yeah, we're not promoting that on this channel. [02:07:35] Speaker C: No. [02:07:35] Speaker A: So just. Just meet up with a couple of mates and. And set yourselves some challenges, you know? [02:07:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:07:42] Speaker A: Go on a street walk and force each other to shoot black and white jpeg, you know? Yeah, exactly how that goes. Works for Justin. But look, on that note, we do have to wrap it up. Once again, thank you, Pinky. Always a pleasure to catch up with you. Are you heading into town on the weekend for the Fuji XL streetwalk? [02:07:59] Speaker C: Nah, it's a long weekend down here. It's cup weekend, so I'll be working. Unfortunately, nothing that exciting. But, hey, I could take my camera out at work and see what I can find. There's a new challenge. Why not? There's a new challenge. [02:08:12] Speaker A: Justin, good luck with your next 12 images. [02:08:15] Speaker B: Thank you. [02:08:15] Speaker A: Pressure's on now. [02:08:17] Speaker B: I know. Regretting it already. [02:08:20] Speaker A: No regrets. Life is too short. Any photography adventures this weekend? [02:08:26] Speaker B: No, no. Just getting ready to go to Vietnam, so. But I'll have to do something because I think by the time we fly to Vietnam and get there to get these to you for the podcast, I don't know if I'll be able to shoot anything in Vietnam, so maybe it'll be in transit or maybe it'll have to do something over the weekend. [02:08:45] Speaker A: Transit. Transit. [02:08:47] Speaker C: Airport theme. I like it. [02:08:50] Speaker B: I might just shoot the airport. Yeah. Get 12 images. [02:08:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Try not to get arrested. Well, no matter what you're doing, for those of you watching and listening along, get out this weekend with your camera. Even if you walk around the block, look up, look down, look for the light, look for the shadows, and just enjoy the process. Get out and take some images. I certainly intend to get back out there this. This weekend. I'm hosting a photo walk in Melbourne CBD with my photography community of Fuji Shooters. The best photography community of Fuji Shooters, definitely. You have voted again, Justin. I don't know how that keeps happening, but look, you have been watching and listening to the Camera Life podcast. This is episode 36 coming to an end. Next week's guest is still undecided. The jury's out or in. It's undecided, but we'll be sure to have an episode. You'll be here for this one next week? [02:09:51] Speaker B: No, no, no. I'll be in Vietnam, but I might be able to pop in for a little bit. But no, but I think Jim will be back next week, but not the week after. But I will confirm that today. But I think he can I'll just. [02:10:02] Speaker A: Take care of it all then. Now you go and enjoy your holiday. Seriously. No, no, please. [02:10:07] Speaker B: Keep. Keep the train rolling. [02:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah, but on that note, get out and shoot and hunt some light. Take care, everybody, and we'll see you next week. And thanks, Pinky. See you, Justin. [02:10:18] Speaker C: Thanks for having me. [02:10:20] Speaker A: Anytime. [02:10:20] Speaker B: Thank you. [02:10:22] Speaker C: See you guys. [02:10:23] Speaker B: See you guys soon. [02:10:24] Speaker A: All right. [02:10:24] Speaker C: Bye. [02:10:25] Speaker A: Bye, everyone. [02:10:26] Speaker C: Bye. [02:10:27] Speaker A: Welcome to the music. [02:10:28] Speaker B: Oh, there it is. There it is. [02:10:31] Speaker A: You had one job.