Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This before?
[00:00:00] Speaker B: No.
[00:00:03] Speaker A: And we're live.
Hello and welcome to the Camera Life podcast, brought to you by Lucky Straps. I'm talking very quietly because I don't know if there's anyone actually listening.
Is there anyone out there? Oh, Jim's here. Hey, Jim. How are you, mate?
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Good, how are you?
[00:00:21] Speaker C: I'm all right.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: I'm doing okay. It's been busy week last week, busy day today, so, you know, days are flying and it's already. What is it? It's the 24th of March.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: It's Monday. Yeah.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: I remember complaining how slow January was and all of a sudden March is over.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Really.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: It's crazy.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: It was tuna fast. Fast start the year.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: It has. But anyway, this is the Camera Life. This is the random photography show. And being the random photography show, we don't have a guest. We don't even have Justin. In fact, I feel lucky that Jim even showed up.
Yeah, we've all got responsibilities. Justin's actually on a. On a gig. He's working with his cameras.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: He's working for once, isn't he?
[00:01:01] Speaker A: I know. For once, running around like a goose.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: He'll probably be in the comments soon.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah, he probably will.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: He can't help himself. But yeah, he's away. He's actually in Bright, so he's doing a gig up there for Mountain bike shoot. Is it?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not. Not bebop.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: No.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: No one missed it.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: No, because he would have left us behind if it was.
But let's jump to some quick comments to say g'day to everyone that's joining us so far. So, Paul. Good evening, gentlemen. Nice to be able to catch you live. G'day, Paul. It's just me and Jim today, but, you know, in many ways that's better. Bruce. Evening, folks. G'day, mate.
Johnson. Evening, all. G'day, Philip.
And Paul said I have to pretend to work on Thursday mornings. Yeah, I think we all do.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Even while we're doing the podcast, we're just pretending to be busy and important and knowledgeable. But look, this is the Camera Life podcast. Don't forget that we come to you every Monday night. We have this random photography show where we just talk about whatever. Every Thursday we have a guest join us. Last Thursday I was away illustration. So I'm sorry that I missed you guys, but we were joined by Glenn Lavender, who I met for the first time at bfop.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Did.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: I mean, it would be fob. I'm pretty sure it was B flop. Anyway, whatever. Glimmers on the show. Were you on that Thursday morning I was.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it's good.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: How was that?
[00:02:31] Speaker B: It was good. Great to talk to Glenn. Very.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Awesome. Yeah, awesome to hear his story. A little, A little bit of his story. And for a guy that doesn't like photography, he, he loves photography. So.
[00:02:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, hear his story.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. I remember prepping for the, for the show and looking through his catalog of work. Just phenomenal. Some of his just environmental portraits and, and his sort of photojournalistic style. Especially the, you know, the, the stuff in India. Just magical. Some of it. Like all of it, really.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
It was cool hearing how he spoke about, like, backgrounds and what he included in the image and how he thought about it and processed it and often just how he. If it didn't add anything to the story.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it wasn't there.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: You didn't know. So everything was very thought.
Thought through. Thoughtful.
[00:03:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Oh, that's really cool. Very cool. One last comment, Glenn. I think Bruce means he did correct himself in the next comment. Glenn was at bfop. He was at bfo. But I'm pretty sure I said g'day, but. But yeah, that's it. That's where we're at now. I must apologize. I know that I'm in a very dark Batcave, like room A. I don't have any tubular lighting like, like my mate over here, Jim.
But also we're in the middle of Hard Rubbish week. And for those of you that don't live in Australia who may be watching along, Hard Rubbish week is when you take all the crap in your house that's too big to put in the bins and you dump it on the street in the next, you know, in the next couple of days, the council's going to come along and clean up.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Or all the people that come in between.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The altruistic.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: We don't get that up here.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: You don't get hard rubbish. Do you have a tip, though?
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we got tip.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Oh, we don't have a tip in South Yara.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: No space for a tip.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: No, we don't.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Yeah, Far too many coffee shops, nail saloons. But anyway, the house is a mess because there's just stuff everywhere. You know, there's seven of us. There's a lot of stuff. Anyway, I digress.
So, Jim.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah, sorry, I was gonna say, if anyone's got any questions, that's what we're here for tonight. We've. We don't have a lot to say, so if anyone's got any questions about photography or anything, let Us know or.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: If you want the dirt on Justin, then just let us know.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Because Jim's got plenty. I, I don't know anything.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: There's no dirt.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: No, there's no dirt. He's an all around good bloke, heart of gold.
All right, let's, let's jump to a topic that I've been thinking about and it's about motivation. So as a hobbyist photographer, I can freely afford to fall photography funks. I prefer not to and I try not to, but every now and then I get into a funk where I don't, you know, I don't feel motivated. I don't want to take my camera out, I don't want to do this shot. But obviously when you're a pro photographer or a working photographer, you don't have that luxury. Not that it's a luxury, but you don't have necessarily that, that kind of, what would you call it, like a buffer to just go, I can't be fucked today.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: And so I wanted to ask.
Yeah. So Jim, you know, you're a working professional photographer. You and Justin ran or still run, you still run it, but Justin and Jim's wedding photography business. And you're also running your own boudoir photography gig now, which is amazing. How do you find the motivation when it comes to getting up in the morning, knowing that you've got a shoot, or even if you don't have a shoot, how do you make the most of your time?
[00:06:35] Speaker B: I think for shooting, I'm never, not, I never lack motivation to shoot. Sometimes I maybe don't want to go, but as once I'm there, I'm just working, I'm shooting.
I never, yeah, I'm never midway through a shoot, I don't think. And wishing I wasn't there. Yeah, I'm always, I guess enjoying that aspect of it. Definitely editing and stuff can get tiresome at times. But yeah, the shooting side of it, I don't know, I don't, don't often lack motivation for that unless it's a really boring shoot. But even the only struggle before the shoot, I think.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: So once you're into it, it's.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah, once I'm into it. Sorry, microphone over there.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Oh, that's okay. I can still hear you. So is it a case of, you know, once you're there, regardless of what getting there felt like, you've got the camera in your hand, then you know, you're on the job, you're on the tools.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you suddenly brain's just in Work mode, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: And what about for you? What about creative shooting? I'm not saying that your work is not creative, because it is, but when you just want to, you know, like when. When I came to Bendigo and we got up early in the morning and we went out for a shoot and we're all a bit tired and grizzly, you know, Is there motivation there to do that sort of thing in your free time?
Not.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Not as much. That's probably where I struggle for motivation is. Is outside of work.
I sort of don't often pick up the camera to. To shoot for myself, but when I do, I do enjoy it.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't often, I guess, enjoy it.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: And for me as a writer. So when I write, I have to read a lot because I just do. That's just the nature of what I do. I have to read what I'm writing, I have to read research, I have to read my finished pieces.
I. I can't pick up a book just like I used to love reading science fiction. And I no longer find myself able to pick up a book and just get into it because that part of my brain is over. Is. I'm done for the day.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: You know, do you. Do you think it's a similar kind of thing where work is just. Well, I've done it now. I've used up that portion of my brain.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: I don't feel like going out.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. And even when I say have taken photos on holiday or something like that, it might take me a month or two to come back and edit them. And. And I guess the editing is, you know, usually a family holiday, something quite easy and light.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: But it's just not highly motivating.
[00:09:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Maybe in the same way you feel.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't feel the need, like. And I love reading and I often see books, you know, in. In the shop and new. New authors or acclaimed authors have sort of risen. I think, oh, that'd be a great story to start. And then I look at it and go, oh, there's seven books in the series. No, I can't be bothered. Whereas in the past, that would have excited me nowhere knowing that there were seven books to read, there's somewhere to.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Go after the first one. That's.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Yeah. But I don't. I don't feel that. And so, and then. And when I'm in a photography funk, I still do my work.
I just don't feel like going out and doing street or, you know, catching up with a mate to just Walk around the city with a camera and grab a coffee and I don't feel like doing any of that.
It's really interesting. Oh, here's the boss, everybody. Hang on. We better add him on him.
[00:10:02] Speaker D: Okay, I just got to do five minutes on the. Oh, Mick. Mick, you're live on a podcast.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Hey, Mick.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Hey.
[00:10:09] Speaker D: Slow mountain bike. He's my boss.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: I'd love. I'd love to be able to share.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: More insights, but I prefer the Sony.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Cameras because they make great TVs.
[00:10:17] Speaker D: Mix a Sony shooter.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:10:20] Speaker D: So that. He said, oh, you shoot Canon? I said, yeah, they don't make TVs.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: No, they probably don't.
[00:10:26] Speaker D: I said, but they do make fax machines, so I don't know if that's.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: They do. And copiers. Very good copiers. Hey, how you going?
[00:10:34] Speaker D: Yeah, good.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: We're.
[00:10:35] Speaker D: We've had a very busy afternoon.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: We're all disheveled.
[00:10:38] Speaker D: He's. Mick's off to the brewery. He's like, I gotta work in the brewery.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: He looks like you've already been to the brewery.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: You do look a bit bruish.
[00:10:45] Speaker D: Heavy bike upstairs. This is all the things that you do when you're reviewing bikes. Look at that guy.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Yeah, and. And is he gonna ride it down the stairs? Is that the plan?
[00:10:53] Speaker D: The next shot we're doing is down.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: The stairs after a few cans into the Subaru. That's right.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Why don't you set up a. Set up a pyramid with all the cans you've already drunk? And then.
[00:11:04] Speaker D: That is untrue. We literally just finished shooting. It's still almost like.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: What's in your hand, Justin? What's in your hand? Show us. Yeah, there's a beer.
I'm stirring you up.
[00:11:15] Speaker D: I've hard earned. First needs a big cold beer. Yeah, I told me when I was a kid.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Yeah, they did tell you that.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: What are you guys doing?
We just got started talking about motivation.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Motivation? Yeah. What motivates you, Justin, as a photographer to get up and shoot mountain bikes?
[00:11:36] Speaker D: Like professional gigs, mountain bike stuff. The thing that motivates. Motivates me is every time. Even though it's kind of the same, every time it's different. We're in a different spot. The light's different. It's a different problem to solve.
Also, it's actually really motivating when you're shooting people like.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Will.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Hey, Will.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Hey, Will.
[00:11:58] Speaker D: This is Will.
[00:11:59] Speaker C: Yo.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: What's going on? You're live. You're live to the world. It's like the treatment show just for you.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Will's been on YouTube a couple of times. Yeah, just a few videos.
[00:12:13] Speaker E: Oh, thanks for having me on.
[00:12:14] Speaker D: What a.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: What a pleasure.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So what do you think, Will, of the new GFX camera? What are your thoughts on it? Because that's what we're here to discuss. Yeah.
[00:12:22] Speaker E: Huge upgrade. Huge upgrade. Like if you've got the GX5, then like, I mean, you didn't even.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: You didn't even.
[00:12:29] Speaker D: You didn't even know what you're missing out on.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Like.
[00:12:32] Speaker D: Yeah, they're always better, aren't they?
Will, what camera do you shoot on?
[00:12:39] Speaker B: What do I shoot on?
[00:12:40] Speaker E: I don't even know what a 7 it is.
[00:12:42] Speaker D: It's an. I think it's an either an A7II or III.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: I feel like it's A3, maybe.
[00:12:48] Speaker D: Yeah, it might be A3. And Will creates content with that for a YouTube channel with how many subscribers?
[00:12:55] Speaker E: I don't know how many there are. I feel like it's like 80 or 90 or something like that now.
[00:12:59] Speaker D: And, and shoots photos that.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: 80 or 90,000 or just. Oh, okay. Can we come on your show?
[00:13:06] Speaker D: Yeah. It's funny, Greg had to clarify because our house is like 80 or 90 people.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: No, it's almost a thousand. We're almost there.
[00:13:13] Speaker D: Surely we're getting close to a thousand.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Flow mountain bikes. 80,000. Yeah.
[00:13:19] Speaker E: I think flow's been around for a while though. Like. Yeah, they've been doing the thing for a while.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: So.
[00:13:24] Speaker D: Yeah. But the point more so was that your gear, while it's not the cutting edge of Sony gear.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:13:30] Speaker D: And you're happy with it and you.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Use it and it's.
[00:13:33] Speaker E: It works for me. And I think like, like anything. Right. It's about the content. So. And, and I think you can. Like we do. I do a lot with GoPros, you know, like you can, you can do a lot with those as well. Even like self shooting sometimes.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: So.
[00:13:46] Speaker D: Photos.
[00:13:46] Speaker E: Yeah, GoPro photos as well as videos. So. Yeah, yeah, like just like, I don't know, giving yourself the best chance of success, like choosing the right light, choosing a nice trail and then the, the.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:00] Speaker E: The equipment for me necessarily isn't like as high up on the priority list, but if you give yourself the right conditions, like you can get some really good stuff.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah, we've definitely trialed some. Some photography at the wrong time and it hasn't worked. It doesn't work.
[00:14:15] Speaker D: No.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: As well. Exactly. Like time of day and we go. No, no, we got to go back to the rules. Is like mornings and afternoons. It doesn't matter how good your equipment is.
[00:14:22] Speaker E: Like.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah. If it's.
[00:14:23] Speaker E: The conditions aren't good.
[00:14:25] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:25] Speaker D: Good light works.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Why fight nature?
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:31] Speaker D: Before I go, I'm just going to show you our balcony because it's kind of crazy.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: So where are you at the moment, Justin? For the people at home?
[00:14:39] Speaker D: We're in Bright.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: Oh, you're at the Beef Up Pre party.
[00:14:43] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm just scoping things out for the Bright Festival of Photography. No, we're out here shooting a secret bike that I can't talk about. It's in there behind me. And is that the one that will.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Carried up the stairs before?
[00:14:56] Speaker D: It is the one Will carried up the stairs. Please don't tell anyone but like, look at our balcony. That's the brewery there.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:15:04] Speaker D: Yeah. So we're right across the road. It's crazy.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: So you're heading to the brewery for.
[00:15:10] Speaker D: The night, Justin, there's already a team over there. We're team. Team two. There's team one already at the brewery shooting some brewery content. Luckily I don't need to shoot.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that stuff's never that fun to shoot.
[00:15:26] Speaker D: It's work bikes on charge. What bike's on charge? We can't say what bike. I almost turned the camera around on it.
Oh, no. All the. All of our viewers will know.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:40] Speaker D: Very good.
I'll let you guys go back to talking about motivation and things soon. But I'll just let you know. It was a rough. It was a rough evening.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: The.
[00:15:51] Speaker D: Well, not afternoon evening. The R3 almost overheated. Like it was. Was hot out on the trails. Hot and dusty.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Did it give you like a card message or anything?
[00:16:02] Speaker D: Yeah, I was getting. Getting flashing messages and stuff that maybe.
Yeah, I cooked through a full battery on the R3, which is a lot because the R3's got the bigger batteries. Yeah, yeah, it was.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Were you shooting hybrid photo video?
[00:16:17] Speaker D: Yes. And that's the thing, the photos. Photos. No problem. Any camera could do the photos. Any modern camera could do the photos. It's when you switch back and forth from photo to video and the video in 4K in higher frame rates. Just choose the battery and it also choose.
It cooks the camera makes it really hot really fast. So yeah, it was.
I don't know, it wasn't even that hot. It was probably only 29 or something here. But just being out in the sun, there's no shade because they're blogged that section of the trails because it's a pine plantation. So it was just on a hill.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:55] Speaker D: You remember seeing the.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Yeah, those sections of the hills and we drove in.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Yep.
[00:17:01] Speaker D: So I was up there.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Oh, fair enough. That's really exposed. Just quickly, Philip Johnson's just said. Justin, getting in line for beef up tickets early?
[00:17:10] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm heading over there right now. Yeah, we're actually. We're basically above the Alpine Light Gallery. I might go and see if Matt's got anything. Any. Any nice pictures in the window.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good idea.
[00:17:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Bang on the door, wake them up. Don't they live above the gallery? Or maybe I've got that wrong.
[00:17:25] Speaker D: I don't know.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: Maybe next door.
[00:17:28] Speaker D: They could be. They could be in here.
All right, I'll let you guys go back to doing an actual podcast.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. That's all right.
[00:17:39] Speaker D: Have fun.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: All right. Enjoy, Bright.
[00:17:41] Speaker D: Yeah, we will.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: We will.
[00:17:43] Speaker D: You guys enjoy the podcast. Let me know how it goes.
I'll talk to you soon.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Oh, we've given away a bunch of straps already, by the way.
[00:17:51] Speaker D: Oh, awesome.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: It was Jim's idea. All right, we'll catch you later.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:56] Speaker D: Goodbye.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: See you, buddy. Bye.
There you go.
Guest stars. He's always watching, isn't he?
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Always watching.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: There's no shenanigans on this show. There's no getting away with anything while we talk about motivation. So for anyone listening, whether it be now or later, and we can get to your comments next week.
Have you dealt with this sort of issue with motivation around pro work? Like, have you found it hard to. To get into a job or that you've. You've burnt out, maybe? How do you keep yourself going back to the next job if you're burnt out?
[00:18:34] Speaker C: What.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: What's your advice for other people?
Let us know in the comments, because I think, you know, it's something that I think a lot of people go through in some form or another. Like, you know, we've already discussed the discrepancies or the differences between Jim and I. Very different people, very different approach to photography. But, you know, we both face different challenges in our work, so it'd be interesting to hear what other people have to say. So let us know in the comments.
Should we look at some images?
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, let's do it.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Just to. Just to screw over the audio podcast people.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Just have five minutes of quiet time.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Everybody, just. Just now if you want to go and make a coffee, if you're an audio podcast listener, now's the time.
Let's jump on Jim's images first. You want to just talk us through what this collection Is from.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: Jim that.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: You sent through from a wedding a couple of weeks ago.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: You okay for me to show it like this?
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Okay.
So this is Glenn and Nathan's wedding.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So we. It was a pretty warm day. Supposed to be sort of just over 30 but we're in Macedon so it ended up being a little bit cooler. So it wasn't overly hot some with the shots they. We did pre ceremony. So this is like sort of one of the first shots we did in there. So it's just kind of figuring out the light and the location and just that the time of day wasn't perfect but made it kind of work. And also they were pre ceremony. It was a lot.
A lot less relaxed after the ceremony was. You'll probably. And you'll probably be even better telling.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: The images they were less relaxed or you ceremony.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: They were pretty depressed.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And just you know, because we were working towards a time we sort of.
[00:20:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: We had constraints. Whereas yeah. Post. Post ceremony he's more chill.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: So what was this sort of around midday. It's pretty bright.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: No, it.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: I think that was a bit later.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: What was that? It was just after four so it was like reasonably late.
But it wasn't.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: As. Which is probably. It's probably the time I would normally be shooting. You know if I guess a normal wedding around that time.
It was a late ceremony. Like it was a five o'clock ceremony.
[00:21:04] Speaker C: So.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yep.
Yeah, you can let me go to the next one. Come on computer.
So are you using any lighting here to do it with available light?
[00:21:24] Speaker B: So just I guess with it shooting into the sun with it using I guess the light that's behind me to fill them and if you. I guess putting them as close out of the shadow of the tree as possible. Yeah but still like I've. I've put them in a little dapple of light so that they have a little bit of backlight on them.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, you can see that. And you can also see that there's this fine line here of light coming off their foreheads just to separate that a bit.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: So this is just a ceremony. They're actually that the. The celebrant there on the left. He's actually not a celebrant. They're actually. They got married a week ago at the registrar.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: So he was just.
Yeah, this is just sort of family and friends and he kind of did a bit of a semi serious, semi funny sort of ceremony. So. Yeah, his book. You probably can't see it there but it Actually says Celebrant for Dummies.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Was that a real book or did.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: He make that up? He made that. Yeah.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: That's really cool.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Good on him.
[00:22:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Here's sort of the same shot, but step back.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So again, I. I shoot most of my first kisses with two cameras. So the first shot is with the 105.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: This is the 105.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: Yep, yep.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: And then the second shot is with the 28. So I usually pre focus the 28, sort of half align it and hold it against my main camera and then use my left hand index finger to, to trigger. So I said all under the lens and yeah, use my left hand index trigger the camera and just sort of hope for the best and.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: So that's crazy, but. Yeah, it's.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: And they're such big cameras. You must have big hands.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: But I can't imagine.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I, I mean like thumb and finger there. So the camera sort of sits there.
[00:23:26] Speaker D: Yeah, sort of.
[00:23:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: I guess that makes sense.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Camera rests.
[00:23:31] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: Awesome. I often shoot with my thumb because I'll hold the camera like that and I'll just be walking along and I'll. I'll lift it and then just use my thumb to trigger it.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I haven't seen that until the other day when Justin are at that wedding and the, the lady was, was using her camera in portrait mode and using her thumb. And I've never seen that, Never seen that done before.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Actually I went on a street walk last week and I noticed the guy I was walking with was doing it too. Because we often hold our cameras lower and we're just shooting off the screen. Flipped up a bit. Just a quick comment in the chat. So Justin wants to know, beautiful black and white preset. Who made it? We all know who made it. Justin. Seriously? When did he make that? Like a decade ago?
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a while ago. We've been, we've been running sort of similar presets. It gets adjusted every now and then.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Does that have to go through his committee first before you can.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: No, no, you just do it, don't you? Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: That's just the rebel in uk, him. I'm gonna change it.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: I think, I think maybe I, I tweaked this one off his one also.
[00:24:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: You know this is for a Nikon.
[00:24:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: And isn't imitation the greatest form of flattery? Isn't what they say. Yeah, apparently so.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah. This is post ceremony. So much more relaxed, a little easier to shoot.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Well, you've really mastered the backlighting. The backlighting really scares me when I have the sun facing the camera. It's something that I really struggle with. And I've noticed both you and Justin, you shoot that way a lot.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah, well, for us it was always.
It's safer because you always knew that the light would be consistent on the couple and it reduced the shadows on their faces.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: So we would sort of shoot into the light so that the, you know, the bride didn't have a harsh shadow on their face or something like that.
[00:25:30] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: Especially because we often worked in bad conditions, you know, like, I guess bad conditions in the say in the sense of the wrong time of day.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: It might be 3 o'clock in peak summer and we're in a Chuka and there's just. If you try and shoot with the sun, you're just gonna. It's just gonna look terrible. So we always sort of shot against the sun.
[00:25:51] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: And sort of didn't always. A lot of people would just shoot in the shade. That was their kind of go to.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: And yeah, I didn't.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: I don't like that. Yeah, I think it's. It's much nicer to. And. And you know, it generates this high key background which really helps to make the foreground where you couple pop.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: And I've noticed that Justin doing that with his bike stuff as well. Often he'll have really, really high key background.
Like not, not blown out necessarily. Just. It's really appealing. It creates a nice contrast.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Sorry I cut you off, mate. You're going to say something and there's.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Like a little vignette around this one just to sort of pop them out a little bit more.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I drop a little vignetting on my street shots. I like it.
What's next?
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Evidently more black and whites, but this was a little ceremony spot. But we turned. I turned like we turned the arbor to get the. So that the sun was behind it because it was. So during the ceremony. Yep. Just to try and get some interesting light. And then I just shot that. There was. I don't know what sort of tree bush plan thing, but something in the way. A bit of. Bit of something in the foreground.
[00:27:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: Sort of barely. It was in the sun, so it was fairly blown out. But just to add a bit of.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: No, it's good. I love.
Adds some real depth to it.
[00:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: And a little mystery.
And again, the way that the highlights on the edges of the tree, of each tree branch, the way that they just Sort of. They bleed into the sky. I love that.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Very cool.
Here we go again with that.
[00:27:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: A bit more.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Of the same spot.
There's probably, like. There's probably a fair bit of light coming into the camera. Like these were.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: Yep.
Yeah.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: It's probably in black and white. It's probably less noticeable when color. You can definitely see that they. Yeah. They needed a little contrast and everything added to.
[00:27:49] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: And so are you. Some of these ratios are different. Like, this is a wider aspect ratio, isn't it?
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Is that how you deliver to clients or do you deliver consistent size?
[00:28:01] Speaker B: No. So, yeah, we'll crop sometimes square. Sometimes, like. I think that that's 16 by 9 or it might be.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: What is?
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah, 16 by 9. Sometimes I do like a 16 by 10 sort of still. Just crops a little bit off the top and bottom. Just depends on the image.
[00:28:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: If it's not sort of not required, then it'll often go.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: Same spot. Just like a little bit lower to the left. Yeah, yeah, there's.
Look at that.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Foreground bokeh. I've never seen it in the foreground like that.
All right, around the blue leg. Around this leg here.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Hang on. You can't see, mate. No one can see around here. See the.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: Beautiful little bokeh balls. I mean, you can see it off this and you can see a tiny bit across the arm. Although that could be. Could that be the plant or is that the.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: That's the plant still.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You can see here you've completely obliterated it into tiny little soaps, little bubbles. Perfect little bubbles. That's great.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Thanks.
This was just. They actually. This is something just funny. They had a magician after the ceremony to sort of entertain them and their guests.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: And, yeah, he was actually really good. He did some, like, crazy card tricks and it was very hard to work out how he did it.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: So, yeah, I was just in there for a bit of fun, but this is. This is sort of golden hour, sunset.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's lovely.
[00:29:41] Speaker B: Yeah, this is. The light was pretty cool by now.
[00:29:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Look how soft that glow is in the background, the way it just sort of dissipates.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: So, yeah, these are sort of shot. What's that? That was at 2.2, so.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Probably on the 51.2. So.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Definitely could have showed it more wide open, but, like, the background just would have been even. Would have gone even more so.
[00:30:02] Speaker C: Yeah, it would just.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it would have been hard to work out. There's just Enough context there, isn't there?
[00:30:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. Like even the sort of the. The gr. The grass behind them is kind of like. You see the main image, it is gone. Like it's.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: Yeah, but if you disintegrate, if you went to 1.2, that dam in the background, that would just look like a weird highlight. Whereas now it actually has some context because it's got some contrast around the rim of the dam and you can see the fence line.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: It probably would have had the same effect maybe. Who knows?
Look at that gorgeous light.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: And just what is the technical term for this? Is this ghosting where you see these tiny little reflections on the element? I don't know if it's ghosting or if it's something else.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Sometimes like you'd get rid of them, sometimes you don't. It probably just depends how distracting they are. I like for these. Yeah, it's sort of. It's not in a bad place.
[00:31:00] Speaker C: No. Yeah.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: It's not like it's covering an essential element of the photo. And in this one it's far enough away from them that it doesn't draw your eye to it or anything. Like they are definitely where you look first. Yeah, same with this one. And then you notice that there's just this beautiful light falling on them and then the. The ghosting or the flares on the. On the lens really elevate it, I think. I think it's a really lovely effect.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the 28 and then this one's actually the 20 mil.
So.
[00:31:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: A little bit wider than. Sort of don't normally shoot 20 until sort of sunset or dance floor. So.
[00:31:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Well, also often when you're doing weddings, I don't know about how you guys find this, but I would imagine sometimes you don't have the luxury of that much non distracting space either.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: No.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: If you were in a garden, well, there'd be a bin over here and there'd be a chicken over. There'd be something.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah, even the damn. If it's in the like one of the other shops, it's not in here. But that one of the guys heads was like in the dam and I was like, oh, it's a nice shot of them, but it's. The dam was a little distracting being in their heads.
[00:32:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Yep.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome.
So tell us about.
[00:32:15] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Oh, sorry, go.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: I was just gonna say just tell us about this image. Tell us about the lighting you used.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: So normally like I normally only use one front light, but the sun was still up. And it was kind of. The sky was looking pretty cool, so I thought maybe rather than using a backlight, I'll just use the sun as, like, a tiny little. You can see there's just a kind of whisper of golden sort of backlight on them.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. On their hair.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Sort of highlights on their heads. And I use sort of two front lights normally would just light for the bride, give her the best light, and then kind of hope for the best for the groom. But this time I just sort of had one light either side. That's why I can sort of see two shadows.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Behind them.
And. Yeah, it's just something, I guess, a little bit different to how I'd normally do it.
[00:33:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: And, yeah, it's stopped down a bit more and fairly low ISO.
And this is back to one light now. So you can sort of see the difference in the shadows.
[00:33:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yep.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: And so the light's coming from our left.
Yeah, you can see just. But you've still got this. This kind of slight edging of light, which is lovely.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: Oh, then they've got. There's a backlight on them now.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Oh, there is now. Okay.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: Yes. Yep.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Not just the sun.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: No, not just the sun.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: So where's your backlight placed? Is it out? Is it, like, directly behind them, out of view on a light stand, or is it.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Yes, it's behind the groom in the blue suit. So.
[00:33:46] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: That's very cool.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: This little silhouette. So that was. Is it the same. That's the same. Exactly the same settings as the previous photo, just with no lights. Yeah, just turn the lights off.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Look at that sky.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: That was doing you some favors that day, wasn't it?
[00:34:11] Speaker B: It was, yeah. Yeah, definitely. And probably could have even shot wider, but it just would have made them smaller. I guess so, yeah.
[00:34:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And maybe then the sun star wouldn't have been as dramatic or as obvious.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: If you've gone too wide, it would have just been a much smaller dot and it would have felt maybe a little odd.
That's the last one.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: So has this been delivered to the client yet, or are you still working through them?
[00:34:41] Speaker B: I'm still working to the rest of the images. They've seen all of these, so.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: So this is your. What do you call it, a sneak peek or.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: A sneak peek. Yeah. So normally turn that around a few days after the wedding. They'll see. They'll get this accident through about 30 images from the day.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: And how many do you think you'll deliver as a final package?
[00:34:59] Speaker B: To them, this wedding will probably be about 500.
[00:35:03] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: 4 or 500. It was. It was a shorter wedding. I was only there for four hours, so.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think it's called down to about 550, but I'll probably get rid of something out of that. I don't know if it'll be 10 or 50.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.
Very cool.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: Very cool. Have you got to show Greg? You got any shots from.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: I do.
Let me just get rid of the new camera. I do have some shots from the new camera.
Let me share my screen.
Where'd it go? Oh, it's over here now.
Still getting used to the two screen setup. Camera live images. So I don't know if these are going to be big enough. Let's add to stage.
I can zoom a bit.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: Oh, nice camera strap.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: It is a nice camera strap. I was very. This is the feature image on my.
No, not the feature image, sorry. This is the image I used. Whenever I do a review for Shopkit, I have to take a photo of me using the camera.
So I take all my own product shots, which. Justin and I went through some of them on Friday night.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: For those of you watching along, in case you missed that and weren't aware of it, Justin and I jumped on a quick podcast on Friday night to talk about the GFX100RF because it had just dropped the night before. I'd had it for two weeks under embargo, so I got to test it, take it out, play with it and. And write a full review of it. So whenever I do a review, I must do a photo of me holding the camera. And I always do with the lucky strap on. I'm a bit cheeky, but. But yeah, this is.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: We do talk about Shock Kit a bit.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: We do, yeah. I think it's. And the very. One of the first reviews I ever wrote for Shopkick years ago, it was for Lucky Straps. I was for the Lucky Strap straps and Justin sent me. Or maybe it was you. I don't know who it was, but someone from Lucky Strap sent me like a. It had like two straps and a T shirt and a bunch of stickers. And I thought it was the best thing ever because it was like the first review I'd done where I'd actually been sent something to review like I had. At that stage, all I'd done is review my own gear, which is often the way writers start on Shop Kit.
So, yeah, that was. It's really weird the way it's come full circle. That you know, I'm. I'm back working with shot kit again, and I'm still putting Shot Kit products in my reviews. So, yeah, I love it. So this is the camera. Go back and check out our Friday night podcast because you'll see me getting quite angry about things that I don't normally get angry. I'm usually a fairly cool person, but there's another product shot, so I do all my own product shots. When I do articles, often I get sent a Dropbox full of what the brand wants us to use, but I prefer to just do my own shots. I love doing product shots of camera gear.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Do you find that it's. It's more authentic to the story that.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Shooting your own photos?
[00:38:09] Speaker A: I think so, yeah. Because often I'll put ones in there where the cats walked into frame and is licking the camera or, you know, and the product shot's still great. It's just a bit funny now because there's a cat.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: You know, attacking it or whatever.
But, yeah, I. I think it's more authentic because it's how I'm seeing the camera. It's not how the brand wants me to see.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Is the camera. Yeah. There's no change. It's just real.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: But it's just real. It's just I've done it and. And I think it adds to that experience that I got to test this camera, that I got to explore every angle of it to be able to have a little bit of, I guess maybe authority when it comes to writing the review that I actually have. It's not like I've just been sent a spec sheet and make up a fake review, but, you know, thinking that I've actually touched it. So I prefer to go this way. But for some reason, my images are around the wrong way. So these are all shot with the GFX100. This was zoomed right in using the crop the folk, not the focus lever. What's it called? The tele lever, Teleconverter leverage. And what it does is it crops the frame to act like a zoom. There's four settings. 35, 45, 63, and 80. I think they're all medium format sizes.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: So they're a little bit smaller.
But this is just. This is one of my kids just trying to shoot a portrait just at f4, because it is only an f4 lens that's as wide as the aperture goes. Just to try and see what I could achieve with foreground background elements. And obviously the background. It's not like what we'll see with Jim shots where, you know, the. The background is. Is dissolving into, you know, in. Into softness. And I'm sure you could get. I mean, with the right lighting, you'd get bokeh. With this lens at f4, there's no reason why you can't.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah, the right compression, like subject to background.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And the distance between you and the camera in the background and the person in the back. Yeah, all of that stuff.
But this was just mucking around trying to get some shots for the review.
So. Yeah, a little bit of street photography, obviously, because that's what I do. This is in pan. This was the. The nightclub that got firebombed a couple of months ago. We live in such a lovely area.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Is that. Is that called Viper Room?
[00:40:39] Speaker A: I don't know.
No, I think another one.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: I love the fight. Like, love how everything is kind of like. It's just all the graffiti and, like, just disheveled building. But that sign is kind of so perfect. And it's centered.
Sorry.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that was all intentional. Thanks, Jim. Pointing that out.
[00:40:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:59] Speaker A: But I did like this. I had it in color and then I went black and white because of what she was wearing.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: Like, you know, she's wearing almost Ray Bans. She's wearing a tiger suit and a black handbag. How cool is this old lady? Like, and this isn't the first time I photographed her. I've seen her on Chapel street before. And I don't chase people. They just walk into frame. I find the light, then I find the context of the background, and then I just wait for people to walk into it. And I've shot this spot a few times because with the building gone and completely destroyed and bulldozed out, we now get these buildings on each side that are like over 100 years old. So we're getting all this beautiful brickwork and.
And even old street sign, like old shop signage on some of them.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, They've just been hidden.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Yeah, they just had a wall built up against them and they disappear and then they knock a wall down. All of a sudden you got all this history exposed.
But yeah, so that was that one.
This was just a little study and mostly in color. Yeah, this is Fujifilm.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a really good, like, dynamic range.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it's got a great dynamic range. It's. I mean, you know, it's.
There's so much to play with with the. With the data, you know, And I. I remember when I tested the GFX 1/ Hundreds Mark II, which is basically the same camera, same processor and sensor. That camera has ibis. But I was shooting in near dark rooms. Like just the first night I got it. I took it out and the room was dark because the kids were watching telly and the cats were on the kitchen bench. And I was just taking photos of the cats almost in the dark. And then later just pulling out so much detail and light from, from the image data from the raw data to create workable images, even with high noise. Like, it just, it's gorgeous to work with. You've got so much flexibility with the files if you love to edit.
But, but yeah, I, I found it a really impressive camera to work with mostly for, not for its specs so much, obviously. I, I, there was a lot of delight and joy to be found later by using the camera, editing these images. I was like, oh, cool, let's see what I can do with them.
And I love the Fujifilm colors, but just the joy of walking around with a point and shoot.
It's my vibe, it's what I love to do. But this thing was just next level. I mean, it's, it's, it's slightly bigger than a Q3, I think. It's almost slightly bigger, but it's, it's only like 750 grams.
And the lens really doesn't protrude much if you, if you just go without the lens hood. And, and it's a really nice, discreet little. I shouldn't say little because it's huge. But it's a really nice, nice camera.
[00:43:57] Speaker B: For what it is, though. For what it is.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: For what it is.
[00:43:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: It's not without limitations, but it's not a portrait camera and it's not an architect's camera and it's not, you know, there's a GFX and a lens for those jobs. Yeah, this is an everyday carry camera. That's all it is. It's the GFX equivalent of an X70 and an X100. Yeah, that's all I've done.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: And how much is it?
[00:44:25] Speaker A: About 9,000.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. So perfect kind of point and shoot, you know.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Look, if you're going away, just drop.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: This on your budget and, and stay home.
[00:44:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: Although I do. Like what? Just. Yeah, yeah, just eat cornflakes for the rest of your life.
I do like what Justin was saying, you know, maybe don't spend the, even with the Leica, don't spend the near 10 grand on a camera. Yeah, just spend four and, and travel with the other six. You know, like. Yeah, go and explore the world and just go with the next 100, which is, what, three and a half grand now, you know, for the latest one, it's 40 megapixels. It's got Ibis. It's quick, it's beautiful. It's got Fuji colors, all that stuff.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it's definitely. Or, you know, something else you might already have.
[00:45:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:45:12] Speaker B: If you've already got one camera, one lens and spend the money on the trip.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
I like the thinking. That's my style. One camera, one lens. Make the most of what you got.
These are. These are just JPEGs off the raw, so the detail is not there, to be honest.
[00:45:28] Speaker C: But.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: I thought that, you know, the level of details getting out of the image. This is a terrible example because you really can't tell with this file. It's been compressed.
But, yeah, amazing amount of. Oh, what did I do?
What?
[00:45:43] Speaker B: I go, jim, you're down like four.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: I think tomatoes. This was one shot with a bit of attacker.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: And I just loved all of these, you know, it was like something like. Even though they're lights, it kind of. They become like. And it's like something from a. Like an animation where there's, you know, stuff going everywhere.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: Like when they're moving through the frame. Yeah, yeah.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: And then there's just this guy wandering through the shadows and he just walked into the light. I was just standing there waiting for him to walk into the light and. Yeah, and he did so perfectly.
[00:46:17] Speaker B: And he just. Yeah. Even looking to the left of frame.
[00:46:20] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: He's doing it well.
[00:46:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: And I don't shoot burst, so the focus performance on this camera is very quick. It's not a Z9 or an R3 or. No, maybe the 5D Mark II. Sorry, the R5 Mark II. It's not definitely not quick like that. It's still a gfx. It's still a medium format. It's got a big chunk of sensor to get the light onto, but it is a leaf shutter. It is pretty quick.
So.
[00:46:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: What else have I got? Just some more fruit and veg from the market.
[00:46:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: Again, these photos don't really do it justice, guys.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: So how much details? Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: And I generally take this photo every camera I test so that I've got a bit of a standard, you know, because that's always going to be there. It's always there. And it's just at the corner of Chapel and Commercial and Malvern Road. And. Yeah, I love this building. It's home for me. It's always been in.
In my sort of view because it's quite tall for the last, you know, 30 plus years and it just, it reminds me of home. So I love photographing this building in different light.
This is just a bit of architecture walking past a park that.
And it was quite bright and it was the middle of the day. It was like 1:00, 12:00, 1:00.
Some is pretty high as you can tell. It's kind of just out of frame at the top left.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
And under the lines. Nose how. Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: So it is up pretty high. But I like the drama that. That caused or the. The level of drama. It's not as dramatic as if it was golden hour and the other side would be black and you know it's. There's enough light there but. Yeah.
Who says you can't shoot sport with the gfx. Look, he's even airborne. Look, it's off the.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: No, I like that shadow coming in from the right.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: This one.
[00:48:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: There's a black.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: I'm putting you into the sort of skateboarder.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a black and white where that's. It's a much wider frame. So I've cropped this in.
Yeah, that's just across the road from me just on the other corner. So it's.
It's a great spot to go just to get some test out speed of something.
There he is again.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: Editor said took that photo. I think he did a good job.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: He's done well.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: He has done well.
[00:48:54] Speaker B: Justin said. I just realized I forgot to change the background. I thought. I thought Justin. I thought Greg did that.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: No, I did not have.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: So there's some sort of Fuji tactic.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: No, no, that's a good point. It would have been me, wouldn't it?
That's very true.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: As I didn't say anything and I thought, oh, Greg mustn't have Justin's fancy background. That changes.
[00:49:16] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I've never done that. Tonight was the first time I've ever hit the go live button.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: We didn't have any music, so.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: Music. Sorry folks.
So that's the end of our images. So Jim's, yours were all shot on a Z8.
[00:49:34] Speaker B: Nikon Z8. Yeah.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: With a Nikon Z8.
[00:49:37] Speaker B: Yeah. With A variety.
[00:49:38] Speaker A: How big is it? How big is the Mega pickle sensor on that?
[00:49:41] Speaker B: Are they like 45, is it or just under 46, I think.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: Okay. And the GFX is 102.
[00:49:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: But it does beg the question like how many, how many pixels? How many Mega Pickles are too many mega pickles. Is there such a thing?
[00:49:59] Speaker B: If, if there was something like 25 to 30 I reckon would be good for just about if the. And then have it like insanely fast camera.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: So like an R1.
[00:50:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: So you think, do you think that this strive to high megapixels putting aside the medium format because that is what it is, it's a separate beast. Yeah. But like where all the full frame cameras are going, they're already hitting 40 50s. The Q3 goes up to 60. Do you think that will be like a. Like a race between the brands to see who can push their sensor tech higher in terms of the, the pixel count?
[00:50:39] Speaker B: I feel like it has been but you know like the, the Z8 sensor is the same count as the D at 50 sensor. Like they didn't push and go for 60. Like the, like the. Is the Sony the A1 or is.
[00:50:53] Speaker A: That 60 or something?
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Yeah, there's one of them that's, that's up there and I just feel like yeah at some point there is too much and you know Justin and I often sort of talk about. We used to love shooting with the D750s which were 24 megapixels.
[00:51:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: But the, the body was not.
The sensor was great.
Just the body was a low level pro Schumer body. So it didn't have a fast enough shutter speed and it had a tiny buffer and it was hampered in that way. And we always kind of said if it had a bit more of everything else it would be. Would be great but. And that's kind of where the D850 was good but maybe it was too big. The files.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the other thing. Yeah.
I mean I, I remember talking to you guys before I upgraded my, my Mac. So I used to run a 2017 IMAC and I did pretty well like it. I got it to eight years.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: You know doing editing and everything. And I remember when I got. I think it was when I got the 1002s Mark II the GFX with its 102 megapixel files. My iMac just struggled so much.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:10] Speaker A: Granted it was an older computer but you know if you are going up in pixel size then you've got to be prepared to deal with the data. Whether it be sharing them, having enough bandwidth to even just share them online storage. Whether you're using physical or cloud. If you're using physical it's going to be quick but you want to make backups, you're using cloud. It's Going to be very slow.
[00:52:33] Speaker B: But it's also just how many hard drives and if you're running multiple backups and yeah, that does get consuming.
[00:52:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: And one thing I, when I did the review for the 100 RF, one thing I said is that, be warned though, if you're going to go for this camera, you're going to need to upgrade your computer if you don't have something current because it will struggle. You know, it's processing a lot of data. I mean, Lightroom's a bit of a. Can be a slug anyway, when it's something. When it has a lot of work to do.
[00:53:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:53:01] Speaker A: But you know, you drop 102 or you drop a catalog of 102 megapixel files on it and you will watch it, you will watch it struggle, you will question if it's going to make it.
I guess for me, I mean, megapixels, like, don't get me wrong, I love shooting with the gfx. I loved having that, that amount of data that I could crop and you know, and I think one thing that I found really fascinating, and this is just a novelty side of things that would wear off within a week was even on the camera screen because the resolution wasn't too bad on the back. Zooming in and pinching and just keep zooming and keep zooming. And all of a sudden there's a person in the background that on any other camera would just be a little blur.
And all of a sudden they've got all this rich detail and you can tell their expression and it's just phenomenal. But it doesn't necessarily work for every photo. Like you don't. Sometimes you want that nice blur in the background.
[00:53:52] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. Well, that's. And that's it. Maybe with what I. How I shoot often, not wide open, but barely, you know, low apertures. Like I shoot a lot of the day at 2.2 to 2.8.
Am I wasting sort of data by not. Not using.
[00:54:13] Speaker A: Oh, never thought of not wasting data.
[00:54:15] Speaker B: But like as in.
[00:54:16] Speaker A: No, I know what you mean. Yeah.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: You know, I'm just looking for blurry sort of bokeh backgrounds and do I need 48 or 45 megapixel camera?
[00:54:25] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe not. I don't know. But I guess for a professional like yourself, you know, the sad reality is that if you step down, apart from going to like someone like an R1, but if you were to step back in terms of your resolution of your sensor, chances are it's going to be worse with low Light. Yeah, it's going to be worse with noise.
You know, it's going to be. It creates its own raft of perceived problems, doesn't it?
[00:54:53] Speaker B: Definitely.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: It is interesting though because, you know, the amount of Mega Pig, it's starting to fade. It's now more about focus performance in pro bodies. But, you know, for a while there it was all about sensor size and how many pixels we can squeeze in and what sort of pixels they are and how we, you know, backside eliminated that. Like it was all sensor stuff. And that's still important. But I think there's also more focus from brands on other neat features. Computational performance is a big one right now. Like AI stuff as well. You know, they're all going for these, they're all trademarking these big fancy AI related words that don't really mean anything, but they sound good in a promo.
[00:55:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:33] Speaker A: You know, there was the one when the, when the R5, no, the R3 or the R1 came out. It was. Had this deep neural networking, deep learning something and Justin and I were having a little giggle over how ridiculous it sounded. Yeah, it just felt like someone in the marketing department got their way.
[00:55:50] Speaker B: You know, they're just trying to sell. They're just trying to sell stuff.
[00:55:53] Speaker A: They are just trying to sell stuff. And who can blame them?
[00:55:56] Speaker B: No, there's people like us.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: They're ready to drop thousands of dollars.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: And speaking of selling stuff, lucky camera straps. We're selling stuff. And if you want discount, use code. Jim, don't use code, Greg. Or code.
[00:56:10] Speaker A: No, no, that's not fair. I'll just mute you.
He's muted everybody. So the code is Greg. G, R, E, G to get a discount. This will go towards my annual bonus. I didn't get one last year because Jim hogged all the cash. But you're back, mate. I'll let you in.
[00:56:31] Speaker B: Okay.
I could hear you.
[00:56:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I know.
[00:56:35] Speaker B: Yeah, but yeah, you can, you can, you can vote with your, with your thumbs.
[00:56:40] Speaker A: Vote with your wallet. Yeah, if you want, if you want a better quality strap, then use the code, Greg.
Even though Jim is packing them. Yeah, posting them.
But, but yeah, you can get a discount.
But head on over to Luckystraps.com have a look at the straps there. Obviously we love them. We love what we do with lucky straps. How long have you been working with, with Justin with the strap side of things?
[00:57:09] Speaker B: Just over 12 months, I think. But yeah, I've been.
I think I was Justin's first prototype photographer that he.
For the first, like when he first got the straps done. So like I've been, yeah. Using them since they were prototypes because back then I knew Justin a little bit and he said, do you want to, to test this camera strap I've made? And I said, sure. I love free stuff.
And yeah, I sort of started. Started from there has come full circle.
[00:57:45] Speaker A: I was talking about earlier.
[00:57:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's very cool. Yeah, I've been, been using it for a very long time, which was back in the early days. I was a news photographer but a journalist. So I was using my camera a lot and then I was shooting weddings on weekends in the end with Justin. So often I'd be shooting sort of six to seven days a week. Yeah.
And yeah, it was obviously Photo General is pretty hard on the gear.
[00:58:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: And yeah.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: And what were you shooting with back then?
[00:58:16] Speaker B: Nikon D3, D3s, D4.
[00:58:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:20] Speaker B: So yeah, sort of full frame pro body with you know, like heavy 2.8 lenses and. Yep, sort of.
[00:58:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yep.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: Yeah. They don't make, they don't make them like that anymore.
[00:58:32] Speaker B: No, no, they were, they were good. They're fun. I'll probably get one again one day just to feel how fun and then probably not like it because they're not as good as I remember.
[00:58:45] Speaker A: Use it as a doorstop.
[00:58:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:51] Speaker A: Well, what do you think, Jim? Do you think we've covered everything we can with the time we were allocated tonight?
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Yeah. What's, who's on what's happening Thursday? We've got Normal Camera Life podcast. We do have a normal life.
[00:59:04] Speaker A: And we're joined by Dan Paris. Now Dan is, he's in WA. He's going to get up nice and early for us. He's, he's a jack of all trades.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:59:15] Speaker A: Dan was an actor. He, his, his folio includes working on Neighbors years ago.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: As a photographer?
[00:59:24] Speaker A: No, no, no, as a, as a actor.
Sorry. He was an actor on Neighbors. Dan's also created a bunch of short films, mostly tourism related stuff for his local area of Esperance in Perth in Western Australia. He shoots landscapes, he shoots portraiture. Really interesting character. So we're gonna catch up with Dan Paris next week and sorry, this week on Thursday, I should say that's Thursday morning, 9:00am and yeah, we'll have a chat to him and, and find out how his career took so many interesting, unique turns.
[01:00:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I just thought we'd bring up one comment from. Yeah, this one before about the B flop tickets. I've just looked it up and it does look like they're out of stock. Yeah.
So yeah, I Guess if that changes we'll. Hopefully we'll find out. We'll let everyone know.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: Matt Crummons, who's one of the leads of BFOP along with Nick.
Matt I think is joining us in about a week or two on a Monday night show just to talk about some stuff. We've been meaning to catch up with Matt but he's been flat out. He's been.
He's been traveling to Africa because he does tours. He's also a commercial photographer. He's also running bfop. He's also.
He was the person that got the GFX after me.
I sent it from here to his place.
So he was the next cab off the rank to test out the GFX a couple of days before the embargo lifted. So yeah, he's a busy man so we're going to get him on. We'll. We'll pester him about tickets. It might be worth just contacting them because if they have someone drop out it might be nice to be on a list.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Bruce has just said they've got. They did sell it ages ago but they do have a white list so.
[01:01:12] Speaker A: Right.
[01:01:13] Speaker B: Can join the wait list in the same bit. You can buy a ticket, doesn't cost anything. You can. Looks like you add it to your cart.
I think they've got a. Yeah, and I think I saw as well. If you want to transfer tickets it's maybe like a small fee.
[01:01:28] Speaker A: So yeah, it's a bit of a pain in the ass for you to trans for them the way they've set it up. Everything's linked to your email address so. And Philip has said the same thing. They do have a whitelist so maybe bam, just jump on the wait list. Justin and I don't have tickets. Neither does Jim.
We are going to be fought. We don't know in what capacity just yet. Which is part of the reason why we're getting mad on. So we can pin him down and say can we come to befop? Yeah, but we'll be there as lucky straps. Not necessarily as workshop participants but we'll be around the traps shooting some behind the scenes. Yeah, we'll be around hitting the feature.
[01:02:03] Speaker B: We can bring some camera straps. Oh yeah, I'm trying to see if we can bring the embossing machine. Maybe we can do some embossing while we're up there.
[01:02:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I reckon we should just back the van up to the. To beef up HQ and.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll just bring the desk, the embossing machine and.
[01:02:18] Speaker C: Yep.
[01:02:19] Speaker A: And some big Speakers will just draw a crowd.
[01:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah, what do you.
[01:02:23] Speaker C: You.
[01:02:23] Speaker B: You could be a dj.
[01:02:24] Speaker A: No, I'm not going to dj. My kids already hate my taste in music. People don't need to hear that.
But, yeah, so that, I mean, that'll be here before, you know. What's that? That's normally in October. I mean, it's already into March.
[01:02:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:02:39] Speaker A: But we will be there in some capacity, so. Fear not, Team Lucky Straps.
[01:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, if you don't have teachers, just come and hang out with us.
[01:02:46] Speaker A: Yeah, we're just gonna hang out at the food van.
Although Justin was at the bar a lot last year. Yeah, Often I had to go and throw a bucket of cold water on him. But, you know, he behaved himself mostly. Yeah, but, yeah, no, it'd be good. But look, I think on that note, we might wrap up.
[01:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, we don't have any outro music either. No intro, no outro. Sorry.
[01:03:12] Speaker A: No. And I'm not going to beatbox for you because no one needs to hear that.
Are you gonna. I thought you're gonna say, I would like to beatbox. Like, as in, you would like to be.
[01:03:21] Speaker B: I'd like to hear you beatbox.
[01:03:22] Speaker A: No, no, no, I want to see that. No, no, really, I have no idea what I'm doing. But look, on that note, thanks for joining, Jim. I know that you. You've had a busy day and I appreciate it and great for Justin to jump on. And for those of you watching and listening along, thanks to our chat, everyone who's made comments, and don't forget to use Greg as code for lucky strap discount. Um, this has been the Camera Life podcast, the random photography show where we just, as you've just seen, we clearly come very prepared and we just dive right in to talk about it.
But we'll see you on Thursday.
Cheers to Paul.
Great images. Oh, thanks, Paul.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: Thank you.
[01:04:07] Speaker A: But, yeah, have a great couple of days, mate, and I'll see you on Thursday.
[01:04:10] Speaker B: Sounds good. All right, everybody, see you later.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: Be good. Bye.
