EP68 Nathan Coote | From Street Protests to Silo Art

[00:00:10] Speaker A: Good morning and welcome to the Camera Life podcast. What are we? Episode 68, I think you know, digging into April, flying through the year and this morning, no Greg, just me, but joined by Nathan Coot. How you going, Nathan? [00:00:28] Speaker B: How's it going, man? [00:00:30] Speaker A: Wonderful. I've got coffee, actually got coffee and then backup coffee because it's going to be a long podcast. [00:00:37] Speaker B: So is there anything like sneaky in the backup coffee? [00:00:41] Speaker A: No, no sneaky. But they both got extra shots, so yeah, we're ready to rumble. And the chat's with us already as well. We've got David from the San Francisco Bay area, which is pretty cool. Morning, David. Good morning, Philip Johnson. And good morning, Yelena, who is one of the Lucky Straps team and you know, my favorite team member. Good to see you all. Good to see you, Nathan. What is up? [00:01:13] Speaker B: Not much. It's a pretty early wake up. [00:01:18] Speaker A: You're not normally a morning person. [00:01:20] Speaker B: No, not really on a day off. I mean, I'm on school holidays at the moment, so. Or break or whatever, but. Yeah. [00:01:29] Speaker A: So we've dragged you out of bed. Well, that's good, that's good. We'll get you up early and we'll talk about your photography career. You're a freelance photographer. You do quite a broad range work from what I can tell. [00:01:46] Speaker B: Your mic's off. Oh, I can't hear you. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Hang on. We're back. Are we back? [00:01:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Can you hear me? [00:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:02:01] Speaker A: It looks like my rodecaster's playing up this morning. Dang. But you got me now. [00:02:08] Speaker B: I can hear you. I can hear you, but I can also hear myself. [00:02:14] Speaker A: I got this. Try that. [00:02:24] Speaker B: Hello? Perfect. [00:02:30] Speaker A: Greatest show on the Internet. Technical difficulties in the first two minutes. Bear with us, folks. [00:02:40] Speaker B: It. [00:03:07] Speaker A: Glad Nathan's holding down the fort. [00:03:10] Speaker B: That's what happens when Greg's not here. [00:03:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. I think, I think I got it for now. I'll figure it out while we're on the fly. I can hear myself in the headphones, but I can only hear you through the my main speakers, so. Okay, let us know in the chat if something goes wrong. Anyway, back to this. You are a freelance photographer and you, you do a diverse range of work. How would you describe yourself for those listening as a photographer? [00:03:38] Speaker B: I guess my photos are probably a range of documentary, sport, protests. I really enjoy back country, small towns, country towns. Things that probably. You'd probably drive around and stay on the main highway. You wouldn't get off. Yeah, I think that's probably the best way to explain my work. Honestly, I really don't like that question because I find it really difficult to say what exactly my work is because I find that I have a foot in a lot of doors. Because I find that if I stayed on one topic or one genre of photography, I think I would get bored pretty quickly. So it's nice to have a bit of variation. [00:04:32] Speaker A: Makes total sense. It makes total sense. And trying to pigeonhole yourself into a. Yeah, a single word or something like that is pretty tricky. And probably, like you say, limits yourself into what areas you want to explore in photography. I was more. I was interested to know how you describe it because, you know, you see a lot of. A lot of your images and we'll get in further into your backstory soon. But I was just. I was very interested to know whether you describe yourself as a street photographer at all. [00:05:10] Speaker B: I reckon I have, like, elements of it, but I wouldn't say that that's just my thing, I guess. Like, I do take photos on the street, so. Yeah, sure. But also, like, I'm not gonna shove a camera in someone's face randomly on the street and take a photo unless there's like a backstory behind it, like at a protest or something like that, if that makes sense. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Totally makes sense. Yeah. So it's really those. Those newsworthy moments where you feel comfortable getting amongst it. People are there, they're there to make. To make a stand on something and to be seen. So they're happy to be documented and you're happy to go in there and get amongst it? [00:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I'm pretty shy person. So, yeah, seeing that kind of element of my work where I do get into the thick of things, it kind of. Sometimes I look back, I'm like, the heck. Like, that doesn't make sense as, like, I'm a bit of a shy, kind of introverted person. [00:06:20] Speaker A: Okay. How did. How did you end up with a camera in your hand? Where did this all start? [00:06:30] Speaker B: Thanks to Mum. So growing up in the early 90s, 2000s, whatnot, I. A camera was in my face all the time. Mum has a solid collection of photos of me from birth to now. So, yeah, I was always around photography. My uncles, my cousins, it was usually a thing at Christmas time and birthdays and stuff like that, that there was usually a camera stuck in the middle of the table. And then also I did a. The way I really got into photography was I did a first family trip to Tasmania with my parents in 2007, and that was just another one. Like Mum was taking photos. I wanted to Take Some Photos was kind of my introduction into, like, actually holding a camera, taking photos, that sort of thing. And then just in high school. Yeah, it's pretty much it. [00:07:41] Speaker A: So do you remember the first time you. You took a photo and you got to see the finished product and you were like, that. That's cool. Was there. Did that. Do you remember that? [00:07:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think the first time I ever took a photo that I really, really liked. Obviously there's, like, lots that go through from here, there, and everywhere, but there was. I really got into taking photos of, like, graffiti and street art and all that sort of stuff. And there was this artist called Drew Funk, and he was painting at this stencil festival thing in. On a gallery on Hoddle street. And he was. He'd, like, finished his piece, and then he stood back and lit a can and had this big flame coming out of it. And I, like, took that photo. And that was like my first, like, whoa, that's a cool photo. And then he, like, put it on his blog. And I mean, I was only in year nine, so however I was doing, you know, like 14 or something, I was like, cool, I'm on this guy's blog. Like, this is sick. [00:08:55] Speaker A: I've made it. [00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, I think that was probably, like, the. There was heaps of stuff beforehand, but I think that was like, the turning point of, like, my photography was around that kind of, like, to in mental, like, to, like, pursue it, I guess, and to continue to take photos of it. [00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That was the thing, the spark that we were like, okay, this is something I want to do, and more energy towards. Do you remember. Was that your camera that you took it with? Like, did you have your own camera at that point? Or did you, like. Was it a school camera, one of your mom's cameras? [00:09:37] Speaker B: No. So I used to use this, like, I remember what it was. I think it was like a Fuji film, sort of like those ones that Mark were talking. Mark was talking about on his podcast on his show about how, like, ARP went from film to digital. Like little Fuji nothing kind of cameras. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Digital camera. [00:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And then I used to use that all the time. And then for my birthday one year, I got. I think it was 2009, I got a Canon 1000D. [00:10:16] Speaker A: Nice. [00:10:19] Speaker B: Which is now a pot plant in my backyard. I like, took out the shutter and put a. Put a succulent in it. Hang on. [00:10:31] Speaker A: So you tried to convert it into a leaf shutter? Oh, that was a. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Anyway, that's terrible. [00:10:36] Speaker A: That's terrible. [00:10:40] Speaker B: Roasted and then, and then I, yeah, started just using that and shooting with that. So I think that's what that was shot with. [00:10:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Okay. So that was 2009. Where were you in your life journey? Like school and stuff like that at that point? And with photography I was still self. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Taught, so I was in year nine, 2009. So yeah, just school things I guess and I guess and just taking photos of things that I like thought was cool. I don't really know. I was. It was a very long time ago when I think about it now and it's probably something I haven't really thought about in a while but. Yeah, like just doing school learning Photoshop. I mean I still don't really know much about Photoshop. It's like a endless tool, Endless bottomless pit. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:50] Speaker B: So yeah, I was just learning that and I just discovering. Discovering works but like from different teachers, from different arts teachers and stuff like that. Because we had a pretty solid arts community kind of thing of teachers at my school. So that was really handy. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Were there any, any particular teachers that stand out? A few that I guess on the show I've talked about a particular teacher that just sort of nudged them in the right direction or unlocked some ways of thinking about their work that kind of inspired them to take it from a hobby into maybe a career pursuit. [00:12:34] Speaker B: Yeah, there's like, I feel like you had obviously, like when you obviously got changing year levels, you obviously get different teachers here and there, whatnot. But within the arts teachers there was probably maybe three that I reckon that really stood out for me. So I had one, her name was Ms. Andriofsky. She was my VCE teacher for both year 11 and 12. So in that year level that was really like a push. Like I think it was more like most. When you're in year 12, you kind of do become more friends with the teachers because you've been there for so long. So there was more of a friendship than like a teacher student kind of thing. And then there was another teacher called Mr. Delforno. He's like one of those teachers that I, I didn't stay in contact with. I'd love to know what he was up to, like what he's up to and share him my work that I've sort of done over the years. And then there was another one called Stephen Bramble who was actually a substitute teacher because his brother was my like theater studies teacher or something. But like I just got along really well with him. I don't, I don't know what it was we just got along really well and. [00:14:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:03] Speaker A: And so from there it sounds like you had a pretty supportive like year 11 and 12 in the photography side of things. What after that were you like, I'm going to go and make a living doing this or did you go and study further? What was the plan? [00:14:20] Speaker B: I actually got told by my careers teacher that my photos weren't good enough. [00:14:24] Speaker A: Oh, nice. I got told by my English teacher that there is no chance that you could ever be successful playing music. Don't even try. [00:14:45] Speaker B: Wow. [00:14:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Support. [00:14:47] Speaker A: Thanks. Hey, looking back on it, they were right. We sucked. [00:14:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:52] Speaker A: But don't crush people's dreams in year 11. Come on. [00:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So she hadn't. Yeah, so she told me that when you sit in the like careers office and you have a chat about your future and stuff. But yeah, she had never seen my photos, so it was a bit of like just a. Just a geek. [00:15:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:15] Speaker B: But who knows, maybe if I did do a trade I would probably be less poor and richer driving a Hilux around or something. I don't know. Who knows? [00:15:26] Speaker A: It's not really what it's all about. [00:15:28] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:15:29] Speaker A: Okay, so she knock. She knocks the wind out of you and says, yeah, don't pursue this. What did you do? [00:15:36] Speaker B: I ended up pursuing it. I studied photography for two years at a place called Photographic Imaging College. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Where's that located? [00:15:46] Speaker B: It was located. Weird. So I went to school in Hawthorne and then at a big public school that's changed names a few times and then it was next door, like right next door. It was basically shared like the same grounds and it was in like a bunch of like portables just like stuck together and so yeah, studied there for a year and then they moved from Hawthorne to Preston. So yeah, growing up on that side of the town where it was only like 15 minute bike ride to uni or school to then catching a train to Preston, it was a big change. But I find that that change itself also opened up a whole new avenue of my photography and, and being able to see like a whole new avenue of Melbourne, I guess because I was so like reluctant to staying around like Prahran, St Kilda, Malvern, Richmond, that sort of area. [00:16:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So it unlocked. Unlocked a new world of things to document, I guess. [00:16:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's next door to Northland at ncat. Northern College of the Arts and Technology. I think they've changed their name. I think they're like NCAT Photography or they're a part of like the NCAT sort of thing. But for Me they'll always be known as PIC or Photographic Imaging college. [00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so two year course, was it different to what you expected, the course once you got in there and started studying? [00:17:34] Speaker B: I think the thing that sort of stood out to me and I mean I feel like when you come straight out of high school you think everyone's the same age as you, you know, like everyone is like oh, we're straight out of high school. Like you're 18, you're 18, you're 18. But it was like a real mix. Like yeah, there was the pocket of class that were 18 but there was also a lot of like different aged students. So I think having them in the mix made it a bit more. [00:18:05] Speaker A: A. [00:18:06] Speaker B: Bit more like you weren't just like a bunch of fresh 18 year olds mucking around because you were excited. It was a bit more like engaging in an aspect. But it was what I was expecting and like a whole heat more. I had a lot of fun, lot, a lot of fun there. [00:18:25] Speaker A: What do they teach you? Like just you know, off the top of your head, like what are some of the things that, that you didn't know coming into the course? And they spent a lot of time. Is it like we talking lighting, technical camera stuff like working with subjects, what creativity, inspiration. [00:18:49] Speaker B: I think, excuse me. I reckon like I, I do know that it was, it was very film heavy. So that was a cool aspect of it. I think that was what I was not expecting. Soup. Like a lot of like I learned a lot, very, very like a lot, a lot from that, from that aspect. But I don't know, it just really covered like all avenues of photography from inspirational artists to going to exhibitions. Like you were required to go to a certain amount of exhibitions to just be out there in the field and looking at work. You were like, teachers would say like, you know, the best camera with you, the best camera that you have is the one that's with you or you know like take photos every day to train your eye, like all that sort of things and I guess like those little avenues of comments I took literally. So like take a camera with you wherever you go. Like I think I, I've probably not taken a camera with me maybe probably haven't taken the camera with me maybe twice this year or something. Something ridiculous because it's just always like surgical. It's always with me. I might not take photos but it's with me. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Interesting. So every day, everywhere you go, you've got a camera with you. Are there times when you're specifically going out to shoot versus times when you're just. You're just taking your camera with you and there's no plan to shoot. And how's that mindset sort of different. [00:20:43] Speaker B: So I guess when I am going out to shoot, I'm. There's been a thing where I've been where I just take a camera, phone, wallet, keys, and just walk into the city. So just walk from the southeast or the south Perrin area and just walk into the city, downside, streets, laneways, whatever, and just photograph things that I find interesting. Shadows, cars, houses, shapes, all that sort of stuff. But then where. If I have my camera with me and like wherever I go, it's more of just like a passing moment. So if I am driving or am out and about, it's. Oh, that's cool. I'll take a photo of it now so I don't have to come back to it. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So what is it then? I wanted to get into this a bit later, but we're here now, so why not? What is it then? Do you know what catches your eye, like when you're walking around? Do you know what it is that you're looking for? And can you describe that thing that makes you stop, you know? [00:21:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess at the moment it's mostly. So obviously it's changed over time. There was a period of time where I was like, just taking photos of like old cool cars. Whatever an old cool car is to. People might change, but I was taking them. It's on my Instagram, but it's like every photo is like vertical. You got the car, you got maybe a house, like a cool house in the background or something. Like maybe the car like mimics the house and everything is like shot perfectly and it's just really nice front on. And I was doing that for like three or four years and that was pretty much like my main focus. Like, I had friends finding cars down the street and being like, there's a cool car down this street, you should go take photos of it. So I guess like, for. For that period of time, it was mostly just taking photos of cars. But now. But. Oh, and also to note, I wasn't driving, I was also riding my bike. So I. Most of them are found either at the start of like me on my learners and then. Or just after getting my learners and then being able to drive around and see things, stop, have a look. But yeah, it was always just. And they were all taken with film. So, yeah, that was all a whole heap of fun. And at the time it was a series And a body's a body of work that I was really passionate about. And I photographed the absolute crap out of to the point where I am not interested in it at all anymore. [00:23:52] Speaker A: So it was just a small. Because, you know, from everything that I've seen that you do. And this was a few years ago now that you were doing these. These shots as personal work. You know, a lot of your other work has people in it, or it'll be. There's a lot more. You know, what's. What. What am I trying to say? There's a lot more variety in the framing and what you're doing. What was it about this. This style of shot that originally made you just go, yeah, I'm gonna just keep. Or like you said, you know, shoot the crap out of this particular style of image of cars in front of stuff. [00:24:39] Speaker B: I remember. So I do remember the first two times that I, like, took a photo of that in that style. There was a car in my street at the front of my house, and I took that photo. And then I was on a trip up to Marysville, Snow Lake Mountain, that sort of thing. And we were on Black Spur, and a friend of mine, he was driving, like, a Volvo, like, wagon. And it was just white, very creamy white. And then there was just all the ferns and everything in the background. And I took a photo of that in the same style, and I was like, that's just a coincidence that I have, like, these two photos that are, like, exactly the same. Maybe let's keep exploring it. And I don't know what it was, but it just kept being like. Like most things you. If you say, like, look for a pink car, you're most likely gonna start seeing pink cars. You know, like, that was what I was doing. So I took two photos of it, and then I just kept seeing them more and more and more in situations like that. So I think that's where that sort of. And it kind of just snowballed into seeing them more and getting excited about it. But to go back to what I guess my style is now, or what I'm attracted to now, it's more like old houses, things that are like cars with car covers on them. Like, I did, like, a. I went through a phase of finding photos like that. But, yeah, a lot of, like, old houses and kind of niche front yards, and I guess a lot of things that kind of reflect back to, like, Australiana sort of aspect, which you do. [00:26:40] Speaker A: You do a lot of road trips and stuff, too, right? [00:26:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's fun. [00:26:45] Speaker A: Tell me Tell me about that. Like, I think I was looking back through and I was like, oh, cool, this. There's shots I saw. Looked like he did a road trip to Coober Pedy and there's shots of the Nullarbor and stuff like that. And then I was sort of looking through, I was like, he must have done a big trip then. I think I saw as well. Recently you'd been up near Queensland. [00:27:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:27:10] Speaker A: Like, is this all driving? Like, do you just get in the car and go tell me these trips? Because I love the work that's coming out of them. [00:27:19] Speaker B: So to begin with, like, if we go right back, I. A lot of trips with, like, my parents driving around Victoria. I think, like, our trip to Tasmania in 2007, what sparked it all was what was probably like my first actual trip trip somewhere with my family. Like, it wasn't like. It was like an actual family holiday. It wasn't, we're going to Sydney to see family or we're going to Rosebud or. It was like Mum had planned, like a whole bunch of stuff and we were going to do it and it was like two weeks away or something. But when I was. Maybe 10 years ago, one of my best mates, Oliver Dauncey, he. He's on Instagram. He takes great photos. He does take great photos. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Left to try and get him on the show. [00:28:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he'd be good. Pick his brain. He knows everybody. So. Yeah, he. He used to. I met him through Flickr back in the day. Really Taking. Yeah, he was taking predominantly skate photos and I was dabbling in skate photography and he. We were just like, chatting through messages. Like, send a mess. I feel like, so old. You send a message, wait a couple days. Ollie would reply back and forth, back and forth. It wasn't like direct messages or anything, which was cool. And then I actually met him at a club. I was sitting at a club, in a club somewhere, unlike the smokers. And Ollie walked over to me and was like, nathan, Ollie, what's up? And that's how we, like, actually met face to face. But he used to take. He'd go on, like a road trip, grab a bunch of friends and they would. We'd all just go anywhere. Wilson's Prom, Big Drift, Lake Mountain, Marysville, Blacksburg, the Grampians, like, would just. He'd just be like, I'm going on a Sunday. If you want to come, you can come. If not. If not. And he just put the feelers out there. And then in the end, a lot of like, I don't drink, but a lot of his friends do or did. So in the end it would just be me and him because everyone would be too hungover to come in the. [00:29:54] Speaker A: Morning on a Sunday morning. [00:29:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, we were always just like driving all over the place, finding all these places. Ollie, like, originally did, like, a lot of landscape photography, so he had, like all these locations in his back pocket and I was just tagging along for the ride, basically. It was, like, cool. This is like a whole new part of Melbourne or Victoria that I've never really explored too much of. And then, yeah, I got really into it when I got my car and got my license. I was pretty late to getting my license because I live in the city pretty much. Or in the suburbs. Like, bike everywhere, train everywhere. Like, public transport's really accessible, so you live close to. [00:30:45] Speaker A: You live close to Greg, Co host of the show. And Greg doesn't have a car. He's just like. Yeah, no, just walk. [00:30:53] Speaker B: He lives public transport away from my house or something. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Go knock on his door, make sure he's all right. Poor Green. [00:30:59] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got. [00:31:00] Speaker A: He's got the. He's got the flu or something. So that's why he's not with us this morning. [00:31:05] Speaker B: Do a welfare check on. [00:31:08] Speaker A: Deliver him some ramen or something. He'd love it. Actually. [00:31:12] Speaker B: Just. [00:31:12] Speaker A: Hey, while we're taking a little break, got another co host of the show in the chat, Jim. Morning chat, fam. Morning, Jim. You're packing some orders. What's happening? We've got Dave from Tassie in the chat and David Bellitho. This popped up earlier. Is talking about. He might be talking about me, but I think he's talking about you, Nathan, that he's a great documenter of life and you certainly are. [00:31:38] Speaker B: That's actually my girlfriend's dad. [00:31:41] Speaker A: Ah, nice support. [00:31:44] Speaker B: He told me to say caterpillar. That was the code word, to say hi to him and my girlfriend. [00:31:52] Speaker A: There's no code words required. You can just say hi. But I like it. Caterpillar. Very good. Jim's currently embossing camera straps. Good work. Well, we won't distract you, Jim, but feel free to chime in with. With any comments because you. So, Jim. Jim and I worked together for a long time shooting weddings, but prior to that he was a. He was a press photographer here in Bendigo for the Bendigo Advertiser. So running around doing everything from sports to. To, you know, bushfires and floods to babies. Babies up at the hospital that got born that week, you know, like all the different stuff. So your. Your protest photography and that kind of thing. Activism that you've got some amazing images from primarily around Melbourne. Do you ever. Does that. Is that stuff just for you or what? Where does that work go? Does it ever get picked up by news outlets? How does that work? [00:32:58] Speaker B: For me? Currently, it's. If I am the only one there, I'll send them off to some friends or something who work for AAP and they work on the picture desk and they'll disperse them as they please. But, yeah, not so much anymore. It's more just a. Documenting what's around me in Melbourne as it is and what's going on, these big historical events. I mean, I've grown up looking at photos that are all on an aspect of, you know, seeing Melbourne as. As it is, you know, 40 years ago or something. You know, major floods, Vietnam War protests, all those sort of things. But I find. I think that's a big inspiration into what I take photos of now on that aspect is like, documenting what, like, life around me. So, yeah, that's mostly just for myself at the moment. [00:34:06] Speaker A: Okay. So it's something you're not something you're trying to make a career out of specifically in that direction. It's just something you feel the need to. [00:34:17] Speaker B: For a time, like, for. For a moment of time. Yeah, there was, like. That was something that I definitely did want to pursue, but I think it's. Yeah, I think my. Maybe it's passed. I'm not sure. It might pick up again. I guess it. Yeah, it varies every time, but it's also, like. I don't. Sorry, I'll go for it. That's probably another, like, avenue of my work that I also don't like to be pigeonholed into, but I feel like I do get pigeonholed into it because I have very striking photos. Like the bin on fire or. [00:34:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:57] Speaker B: Me getting pepper sprayed or. Yeah, something like that, I guess. [00:35:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So you're worried that the. The images, which are really great, might start to. Yeah. Define you and pigeonhole you away from the other work that you enjoy creating. [00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I also, like, when I was predominantly shooting street art and graffiti, I was like, you're a street art photographer. It's like, not really. I just like to take photos of it. [00:35:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So you're. You're very much. I mean, there is. There's certainly a style here across, like, for everything from this to, you know, your personal work, the work with cars and that sort of stuff. There is a style there that you can see, but you're very much a generalist in the sense of you like to document things, but not. Not document one specific style of. Yeah, I'm a. I'm a street art photographer. I'm a. I'm a protest photographer. That could definitely be pretty limiting. Is it something you've had to work to, you know, do you sort of like, go, oh, I'm not going to post that because I don't want people to think I'm a street art photographer? And that's it. [00:36:17] Speaker B: I find that I probably should post a lot more than I already do. That's some videos from. [00:36:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I know they're. I remember seeing this when it. When you posted it. This. This. Yeah, this stuff went everywhere. [00:36:32] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah, I. Oh, that one's. That one's. [00:36:37] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a warning. [00:36:39] Speaker B: I've never had that happen before. [00:36:43] Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah, it doesn't even want to go to the next one. Crazy Instagram telling us what we can and can't show on our show. [00:36:50] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I don't know. Like, I. Oh, sorry. What was the question? I got distracted. [00:36:57] Speaker A: Sorry I distracted you by playing videos of. Of behind the scenes of your shoot. I was just. It was more just. I find it interesting that you're. You struggle with those things where you're like, oh, damn, I'm seeing some success in that area. I don't want everyone to think that that's all I do. So whether or not you sort of hold back on, when you sort of. You start to see some success with something like, say, photographing street art, and then you're like, oh, I don't want to just be the street art guy. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, I probably don't share as much as I probably should of my like, like projects or stuff like that. But I guess, yeah, I. I do show little aspects of it here and there, like mostly on, like, insta stories. If, like, that's what I'm working on at the time, like, here, this is me, this is what I'm shooting or something. But it's not so much here. This is what I'm shooting as a post, which I probably should do. And I think that's what I lack a little bit of. And my girlfriend tells me that a lot. Where you should probably post more instead of just like once every week or once every fortnight or something like that. But yeah, like, there was a period of time where I was in the street art, graffiti realm of things. I was going out with a mural artist. His name's Jimmy Deviate. And we were going to regional towns around Victoria and South Australia with his assistant Justin, and we would. They were painting silos and big murals. And I was just there. I was there to document it all. So I was being paid by him or paid by, like, the community or something. So there was a period of time where I was. I guess, Yeah, I was a street art photographer. But I would always document it as, like, I'm just. I'm still a documentary photographer while I'm still documenting, like, the process, the people, the environment around it. It wasn't just, this is what I'm photographing. There's more to it, more behind the scenes, the more intimate moments than just, like, the wall itself. It's like Jimmy and us, like, sitting at, like, There's a photo somewhere. Like, Jimmy sitting at, like, the back of my car with, like, a table and, like, fish and chips. And that's just like. That's the lunch break. Like. Yeah, here's him mixing paint. Here's him picking paint. Like, that sort of aspect of things. Not just. Here's a massive concrete thing in the middle of nowhere with a bird on it, front of. [00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're gonna, like, taking it to the next step where it's like, forgetting about all the lifestyle and. And process part of it. [00:39:57] Speaker B: But. [00:39:57] Speaker A: But say you. All your focus is. All right, I gotta wait for the perfect light to hit these silos at the perfect time to get this one beautiful, like, shot of that piece of art. And then that's your sole focus. Yeah. You're. You're worrying about the entire process. [00:40:14] Speaker B: So it's like meeting people. There was, like, a lady that would, like, drop off. Like, you always make friends with all the locals because you're there for, like, a month at a time or something. [00:40:26] Speaker A: How long? A month? [00:40:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So the first one I ever did was, like, straight out of lockdown. And we would. We're in a town called Pecola. It was the first time I'd ever worked with Jimmy. Him and his wife Carmen, they hit me up and asked me to. I actually did a video, the first time I'd ever done, like, a very long video. And they asked me to film and document and photograph, like, the process of this silo being built. I had no idea where Pecola was. You search it up and it's like, someplace in Europe. Well, not anymore, but the place comes up and we. Yeah, we were out. It's basically like. I think it's an hour, an hour and a half, like, north of Shepparton. So. [00:41:17] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. [00:41:18] Speaker B: And then it's like an hour and a half trip from there to Bendigo, I'm pretty sure. [00:41:27] Speaker A: Yeah, which. Which doesn't sound like a lot for those of you in the, uh. Yeah, for those of you joining us that aren't from around here, especially if you're joining us from overseas, because we do have some wonderful overseas listeners. The. The area that we're talking about is like. Yeah, think about like Texas. You know, you go a few hours out of a major town towards nothingness, and it starts to get very, very sparsely populated and small rural towns, small communities. [00:42:00] Speaker B: Yeah, like Pecola. We. I searched. I was like, yeah, like I'm down. I searched it up and we're like, oh, sick. It's got a pub like directly across the road from the silo. Great. Awesome. So we get there and there's like the chalkboard sign out the front and it just says closed. And we're like, sick. And then we learned that like it had been closed for like ages and there was like physically nothing in the town, like at all. Oh, no, seriously, you'd have to drive, like nothing. Oh, actually that's a lot. There was like a bowls club and a footy club, but it was like the middle of summer and the bowls club was open like a couple days a week sort of thing. But on like a food snack aspect of. Of things. There wasn't anything in Percola. So yeah, like there was documenting the people that we would meet. You were there for four weeks, so you would end up. Excuse me. You'd end up basically being a part of the town pretty much. You were learning. There was like Chinese whispers, you were learning town politics. You were, you know, like there was rumors that like the silo had been defaced and the police were down to check who defaced the silo. And some guy named Boxy told me this at the bowls club. Like just random yarns from random people that I became friends with over a four week period. It hadn't been defaced. It was just the outline of a leaf that had been put on the. That hadn't been finished yet, but they were very, very certain that had been defaced. [00:43:47] Speaker A: Oh, that's great. Small towns. Small Australian. [00:43:51] Speaker B: But yeah, I guess like that kind of like. I guess that kind of like links back into like exploring and road trips and stuff like that. Because you're not exactly just there for the whole. Well, you're there for the whole four weeks or three weeks or whatever, but you're not like, I'm not Gonna stay there and photograph or film him painting for that whole duration of time. Because who wants to see. You're basically watching paint dry pretty much. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:24] Speaker B: So nobody really wants to see, like, the same photo over and over and over. [00:44:27] Speaker A: That's what I was gonna say. There's only so many angles you can take of someone. [00:44:30] Speaker B: So I would just. [00:44:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So I would like some. So I'd either do some research for the area and just drive off and find smaller other towns and other photos to take for, like, just myself. Or there'd be another town, like a neighboring town. I'd be like, oh, we want our shed to be painted. Or this community hall. And Jimmy would be like, go on, Susset. You know what I look for? Is there a bakery, Is there a pub? Like, these key elements of being in the middle of basically nowhere. [00:45:09] Speaker A: I thought you meant. When he said, you know what I look for, I thought you meant, like, the type of wall that it was or like that too. [00:45:16] Speaker B: But the. [00:45:17] Speaker A: The bakery in the pub. [00:45:20] Speaker B: The key elements of. Of. Yeah, because, I mean, you don't want to. You don't have to, like, drive an hour to go to the supermarket. Yeah. In like, a bigger town, like, say Bendigo or something, where you're like, in, like Charlton or Wedderburn, for example, like, he did a job out in Wedderburn. And luckily for, like, them, they're like, there is an IGA there, but they're still pretty isolated. Like, hour, two hour drives. [00:45:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So, okay, getting back to. So it sounds like you've. You've done a fair bit of paid work in the street art mural sort of space which has funding. You know, like these. These sorts of projects do get funded. They want them documented so they can tell the story of how it came to be. These silo art murals have actually become a really popular thing in Victoria. There's a whole silo art trail. People go specifically on trips to look at them and obviously then see the towns and the surrounding areas. It's a good reason to go on a road trip. Do you like. If you lent into that, do you think you could have made more of a. Like a financial career out, you know, make it paid work, more regular work or something like that. And, you know, pulling away from that as you saw success, do you think it held you back in any way? [00:46:57] Speaker B: I think the, like, two, three or whatever. Two, three years out of. Probably three years out of, like, the pandemic. I think that's where it was. Like, this is. This is a career. This is Great. Like, I'm loving this. I'm going away regularly. I'm meeting new people after being locked up for so long with like lockdowns and stuff. And also being like in Melbourne and having all those like crazy lockdown stuff, being able to go to all these new places, travel a bit more and being paid for, like something that I really enjoyed doing. Like, yeah, that was great. I really enjoyed that. But then it kind of just dwindled a little bit because I think everything had. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there's like everything had been painted. I guess there was. [00:47:57] Speaker A: Those were all. They all look. [00:47:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Like there was all like small towns, like wouldn't want. Would like, would want a certain artist, but maybe they couldn't afford that artist so they would go for someone local or there was like a whole thing about like, why not we get local artists and not like people that are like international renowned. And that was like. There's a whole lot of politics in that sort of realm of things. That's well out of my league to speak on. But that was something that sort of would pop up a fair bit as well. [00:48:35] Speaker A: Okay. So it sort of wasn't as easy to keep. Keep that rolling once, once that sort of. It had faded back a little bit. Lots of the projects have been done and it was time to. To look to the next thing. I guess I did want to ask. So you. Yeah. You work with previous guest Mark Blotoft. How do you pronounce it? Remind me. [00:49:05] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:49:06] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:49:07] Speaker B: Honestly. Couldn't tell you in my phone. His name is just Mark Arp. That's it. Okay. [00:49:17] Speaker A: You work with Mark. So do you. Do you. Are you one of his photographers? How does that. Yeah. Are you doing that for work now? [00:49:24] Speaker B: Yeah. So yeah, I'm one of his photographers. So I'm one of the Melbourne crew people. So I've been working there for three years. [00:49:30] Speaker A: Nice. And. And doing like volume photography for schools and organizations. [00:49:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So I, I take the portraits. So I'm one of the portrait photographers. [00:49:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:42] Speaker B: You can love to hate it. Some days are great, some days are shock. [00:49:50] Speaker A: I mean. Well, I mean, you do get that with any, any photography job. Sure. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:49:56] Speaker A: Especially if you try and make a living out of something. There's always going to be rough days, you know. But we've had a few people on that have supplemented their, I guess what you would call their passion side of their photography business. I know Joel Alston, he's a film photographer based up in Sydney. I Think or just below Sydney. And he's recently sort of pivoted his wedding business to all film, full analog. But it means he's getting way less bookings and I think now is even he's pushing further towards less weddings and just more street lifestyle, film photography. And so to be able to do that. Yeah, he's. He's working as a volume, like, school photographer as well, and he's loving it. He's like, it's freed him to be able to pursue the photography that he wants to pursue rather than being like, all right, how many weddings do I need to pay all of my bills? And then what style of photography do I have to kind of put out into the world to make sure I get that number of weddings? [00:51:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely made me, like, appreciate the stuff that I do from, like, the side, like the street stuff or the protests or whatnot. It. [00:51:30] Speaker A: It's. [00:51:30] Speaker B: It's kind of, like, refreshing. Like, I'm not. I wouldn't say that. I'm like, I do dabble in portraits here and there, but I'm not a portrait photographer. Like, I don't take photos of, hey, sit down there and I'll take your photo sort of thing. But I've definitely have learned a lot. Like I mentioned, I'm a very shy and introverted person, but shooting schools and photos and of students and teachers and I also do. We. I work with the graduation side of things. I mean, Mark mentioned that as well. Like, that side of things I can, like, I really enjoy doing. Because you're talking, you're building confidence. You're building like a. I know it's. You're not really building a rapport, but more with, like, teachers or in the grads. You're building like a rapport with someone, like, really quick, you know, understanding their kind of realm of things real quickly to work with them nicely. And I feel that that's helped me out in the field. Yeah, it's definitely given me the confidence to be. To. Yes, your head is down. I want your head up. You know, like, I guess with like, my sports stuff, like, in particularly, I've been doing a lot more, like, big, like, club champion photos, which is like a whole realm of people, like a whole club, basically, and to be able to direct them. Hey, you with the pointy hair. Hey, you with the curly hair. Like that sort of thing. Like, it's. It's more in here than, like, oh, can you get that person with the pony hair to, like, move? [00:53:25] Speaker A: No, it's just quick. Yeah. Quick and confident, you know what you want. And then you. And people want to be directed to you. When they're in those big groups, they're just like, we want. We want this photo done so we can go drink beer or whatever it is. Because they've won, hopefully. And yeah, it's like, let's just, let's go. So they want the photographer to be confident and direct, but it does. It takes. It takes time and work and just doing the. Doing the reps. Do it for a thousand kids. And then, yeah, all of a sudden you don't even give it a second thought to be like, yeah, hey, can you stand over there? Can you turn this way? Put your arms in front of you. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, that's very cool. Just quickly. Bruce has commented. He says Joel is in Newcastle. That is. [00:54:08] Speaker B: Right. [00:54:08] Speaker A: And that's where he's. [00:54:09] Speaker B: I forgot. [00:54:09] Speaker A: I don't know why I thought Sydney. I knew it was. [00:54:12] Speaker B: I mean, it's. [00:54:13] Speaker A: It's close. Sorry. [00:54:14] Speaker B: It's pretty close. [00:54:15] Speaker A: It's pretty close. Close enough. So tell me, like, what's the job like? Just. So walk me through, what are days, like when you say when you're shooting into school? Like what. Like when you rock up to work to when you get home, like, what's. How does that. What do you. What do you have to do as a photographer? Doing that job. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:38] Speaker A: And then I'd also love to hear about some of the stuff that you do back at the office as well. But first let's just talk about, like, hey, it's. It's a shoot day at a school. Like, what do you have to do? [00:54:47] Speaker B: So we usually. So, yeah, we all have our own, like, work laptops. So technically you're meant to download the job beforehand. Sorry, Mark, if you're listening, I don't do that. I do it on the day and then, yeah, basically meet at the job. [00:55:08] Speaker A: Site, 7am what do you mean, download the job? What does that mean? [00:55:12] Speaker B: So, pretty much so you. So you open up a software called NetLife and you. They'll all be all the schools that you're shooting for the week or whatnot, and you're meant to, like, basically load up the job so it's already downloaded onto your computer and it managed. [00:55:30] Speaker A: That software is like what they used to manage all the different jobs and all that sort of stuff. Okay, Right, right. [00:55:35] Speaker B: So then, yeah, rock up the job, meet the crew leader, whoever that might be, meet the contact for the school, if there is one, and then go to the room that you're situated in grab all the gear, backdrops, all that sort of stuff. [00:55:59] Speaker A: How much, how much gear do you take? [00:56:02] Speaker B: There's a lot, a lot of heavy stuff. So it's one backdrop, a light box with two lights, a bag with light poles and backdrop poles and stuff like that. As you can tell I'm not a studio photographer. Those things over there and I don't know, an umbrella or something. Um, yeah, so that, yeah, so that whole aspect of photography is so like foreign to me. I only know like, I know like little bits here and there. But school photography setups is probably the most I would know with lighting setups in regards to like a studio based sort of thing. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:52] Speaker B: So then yeah, we set up our backdrops. Make sure like the main thing I think is what we focus on is like flow. You don't want anything like congested. You want it like to be able to get the kid in and out. You don't want them to like linger. You don't want there to be a hiccup. So then we have the space. So it's like a decent gap between studios or whatnot as best we can. [00:57:23] Speaker A: Well that's what I was going to say is. So there's more than one photographer usually at a shoot? [00:57:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So it depends on the school size. So like you might have a school. Like there's a few schools that we shoot. Some like inner suburbs, some like north, like northern suburbs, Epping area that. Excuse me, like you might have like six, six port photographers which is like a massive day. It's huge. You got like six ports and then you've got like Mark and someone else running the like the group stuff. So you might have two group photographers and six ports or something like that. So it's just like schools that are like 2,000 kids or something like that. Like something ridiculous where then you might go to a school where there's only like, like I did a job the other week in Myrtleford out near Beechworth and there was only like 150 kids and it was just me and one other guy. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Okay. So it like really would you both shoot then? You and the other guy or. [00:58:29] Speaker B: Nah. So he, he shoots groups and then I'll shoot ports by myself. [00:58:35] Speaker A: Okay. So yeah, that's the, that's the lingo. Ports. [00:58:40] Speaker B: The lingo, yeah. And then, yeah, so then we set up our spaces, mark out lines on the ground, make sure everything's down, make sure the Internet's plugged in, lights are working, gray card, it's essential. And then we have, we have slack Open. And then there'll be like a group chat for that job. So every photographer and a lady who works out of our Geelong office, Christy, she'll. She. I don't know. I don't think it would be a job that I would be very good at because I think I would get bored and probably distracted. But Christie watches every photo that comes through and, like, will pick and be like, oh, that one. Get that student to come back because their glasses are, like, wonky or their collar is up or their tide is like, she. She's on it really can be like. [00:59:47] Speaker A: That'S the job is just every, Every, like she's just checking every photo. Yep. Yeah. Good, good, good. Oh, no, that kid. Yeah, that's not quite right. The parents won't be happy with that. Send them back. [00:59:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Crease in the backdrop, reflection on the glasses. Yeah. All sorts of. If you're. And then like, if you're. Yeah, if you're like. Because obviously, like Mark mentioned, like, obviously the. It's volume photography. So they're not going to really worry too much about editing because if they had to edit, like, say you've got one school that's like 2,000 kids, but there might be two schools, three schools on that day that also have that many kids or, like around that. So, like going back and editing photos and like, I shoot a game of cricket and there's like 900 photos in that and I'm like, this sucks. It's gonna be. This is gonna be fun. But yeah, so, like, she'll go through everything she can. Yeah. And then she'll also tell you if your settings are good. So your settings are like. I think it's like 125 shutter speed, f8 and then 200 ISO or something like that. So, like, if you knock it for whatever reason, she'll like pick you up on it or like tell you to your lights are too hot or lights are too cold or whatever. [01:01:23] Speaker A: And just having that. Just having that sort of. I don't know, what do you call that kind of person? That person just watching over everything. Does that help you focus on. On that next kid more? So, so because, you know there's a safety blanket there where you're like, it's not. You're not going to get back to the office later and be like, oh, no, that's. That didn't work, or whatever, because someone's keeping an eye on it. So you get to just focus in right on the person that's in front of you. [01:01:52] Speaker B: Yes and no. Like, sometimes, like, I think more for me like as a ports photographer you're more looking, you're more focusing on like so that like on, on NetLife when you are taking the photos like if you're looking at the screen itself there is like when you take the photo of the kid you've got a line on the top of the head and a circle. Like the circle like a passport photo. Like when you, if you do it for yourself or something on your phone or whatnot. So your main focus is that. But when you're looking in camera and you have like the grid line set up you can also kind of like divvy up like yes, this line, this second line in, on the, on the grid and this bottom line here. That's pretty much the perfect kind of situation. [01:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:02:53] Speaker B: So you're, yeah, you're aiming for that but then you're also aiming for like head up, a little smile. Some people like obviously it's not in my personality to go really high voiced and talk all very cutesy to a kid to get them to smile but to me it's like if you're, if you don't want to smile like I'm not gonna force you to smile but I would like a little bit of a smile if there is one because I mean you don't know what's going on with that kid at home. But. And they also might not just want to smile like. [01:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, we've all had, we've all had that photo on the fridge. [01:03:35] Speaker B: Exactly. Everyone's got the. Yeah, exactly. And you can always like throw that in like that little like joke in there. You just like oh you know, like picture this photo. It's gonna be on the fridge. It's gonna be on your grandparents fridge. I would, yeah, you probably don't want that photo to be there for the rest of your teenage years. [01:03:55] Speaker A: Do you really want this shown at your 21st birthday party? [01:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. So yeah. And then yeah, take all the photos you guys like all the age, all the, all the grades and stuff. Some grades are easier than others. Yeah, like a lot obviously different body shapes, different like you've got to come a bit closer and more cropped for certain kids because of their like they don't have broader shoulders and you know your sevens aren't as broad as year 12s, all that sort of stuff. And then at the end of the day pack down full pack down, load the cars back up and then just drive home. And then when we get home we do a, an upload. So I'll just You go basic. So when you're taking the photos, you're meant to be tagging. So you tag like you star. So let's say like a private school, you meant to do like four, four photos, four tags. You like star the best one, which is like the one that the school use, which is the ID photo. Just see a normal passporty like photo and then the rest will be. Yeah, a bit more like what the parents. What you want to kind of like sell to the parents sort of thing. [01:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:05:20] Speaker B: So then you tag all that and then you do your upload. So you might. Yeah, in the end you might be like uploading like 2000 photos or something. Ridiculous. [01:05:32] Speaker A: And I just leave the ones that are going through live on the Internet that are getting checked by the head office overseer. They're just little Christy. That's right. [01:05:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:45] Speaker A: They're just, they're just little photos. They're just like too low res to actually deliver. They're just small previews for her to check. [01:05:53] Speaker B: I believe so. Yeah. [01:05:54] Speaker A: And then you got to upload the. Hang on. [01:05:56] Speaker B: And then you do this. [01:05:57] Speaker A: Let's, let's, let's backtrack. Are you shooting in RAW or jpeg? [01:06:00] Speaker B: No, I believe jpeg. [01:06:02] Speaker A: Jpeg, yeah. And I'm going to ask the next question. But first, Nevada Nev Clark, wonderful photographer and guest on the show from over in WA he says I'd love to do that here in WA. Sounds enjoyable. The problem is Nev, you shoot with 100 megapixel gfx cameras and I'm pretty sure you'd want to use them while you were doing this because you'd want to be able to like zoom in on the, on the tiny little parts of their eyeball and stuff. And I don't think these sorts of Companies roll with 100 megapixel GFX systems. What sort of camera system are you using on the, on the. [01:06:41] Speaker B: I think it's a 7D Mark II with a 24 to 70 F4 I think. I think that's what from memory. And then like the groups photographers, they were shooting with Nikons, like Mark mentions it in the, in his. And then I think they've got fives or what it R Sixes or whatever. The. I'm not sure I've really had much to do with the group aspect of it. It's more just kind of helping set up then taking the photo itself. Yeah. So yeah, and then we just upload the photos and you just let it upload. Go do your own thing. Go take Photos. Go. Go to the shops, go for a walk or something like that. [01:07:25] Speaker A: Yep. [01:07:26] Speaker B: And then on to the next day. So you don't have to work, like, you just have to upload it. You don't have to. You don't have to do anything because you're just there to take photos and. [01:07:35] Speaker A: You were tagging them live during the shoot. So you don't have to go back through and tag anything and review. [01:07:42] Speaker B: Like, if you've missed some. Yeah, if you've missed some, you can. You prep like you do the upload and then it comes up and you're like, there's say 10, 50, whatever. However many you've missed, you can tag them and you can go through. Then there's like family photos you got to take. They're pretty, like pretty chaotic because you're not just wrangling one kid. It's 2, 3, 5, 7, 7. On like a tiny portraits backdrop is. Is. Yeah. [01:08:19] Speaker A: Tricky. [01:08:20] Speaker B: Average. Yeah. [01:08:23] Speaker A: It's interesting that you're using. I mean, I assume you would use a backdrop, but for some reason with the way everything's going with AI and all that sort of stuff, I thought they might be replacing backgrounds now. So just use like a white background or green screen or whatever and then just. And then. And then they insert like a texture or whatever later on. But is it shooting on the physical background that gets delivered? Like, it's the, it's the color, it's the texture that you. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Classic blue that's on like every. Yeah. So like, some schools are different. Like, you might do blue. There might be. There's like a. It's like a material. It's. But because, like, there might be only two schools that do it. The materials just all like, it's like pulling out a sheet that's been like rolled up in your closet for the last, like, year. It's real crinkled and everything. So you got to try and make that look smooth as possible. But. So that's that one. Then there's like a white backdrop. That's always interesting because if you got like a white backdrop and the kids got like white shirts. [01:09:28] Speaker A: Oh. [01:09:29] Speaker B: Kind of like. [01:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:31] Speaker B: I haven't seen the photos, but in my mind it thinks like, I think, like, what the heck. Like, that's so strange. [01:09:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:36] Speaker B: Get lost in this white backdrop and then they. Yeah. Like the groups, like we do, you might do a green screen for like sports photos for the like footy clubs and like portraits for them or big group photos for them. So they'll do. Yeah, they'll do A green screen so they can like put a, the club photo or a photo of the footy ground or something like that or like the club building or the logos or whatever on the background. Yeah. [01:10:09] Speaker A: So yeah, yeah, it's, it's so interesting. It's like there's a lot behind it now to the point where, you know, there's no way a one man band operator could, could compete in that world. You know, like with, without all the systems that are in place with that business. Like it's, you know, there's so much to it. I'm just imagining what it would be like if I had to rock into a school and do that. Just me and then just, and then get home and then do all of the back end to get the right photos to the right people. [01:10:43] Speaker B: It's. Yeah, it's like there is, I mean there's a massive crew of people that go behind. Like you've got, I don't know, like there's people that are in the company and we've got so many portrait photographers now, but there's probably like half maybe that I've never worked with. [01:11:05] Speaker A: Wow. [01:11:06] Speaker B: Like there's a lot of people that I've never like there was someone that was new last year but I, the first time I worked with them was this year. So there's like, it's a very like wide range of people and all like different aspects. [01:11:23] Speaker A: Do you have to, so do you have to do other work in your role outside of shoot days? Like is there, is there other work that you have to do that that isn't just going to a school or an organization or whatever and doing the shoot? [01:11:38] Speaker B: No. So I, I just rock up and shoot ports just for like for ARP or Arthur Rigg photos. Like I just shoot portraits. Yeah. For them and. Yeah. [01:11:51] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it. You don't have to go in, you don't have to go into the office and like, I don't know, clean the toilets or anything. You don't have to. There's nothing else that you have to do. Okay, that's cool. [01:12:00] Speaker B: I like, I hardly like, I think I've probably worked on maybe one job with Mark this year and he's my boss. So like I don't really, I don't really get like, I don't really see him that often. [01:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:13] Speaker B: Usually when you work with Mark, you know, it's going to be a really big job that's like. Yeah. Or it's going to be like some crazy school or something like that. [01:12:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Is he like The. Is he like the. What do you call it? Like the Mr. Miyagi of Arthur Reed photos? Is he like the. See like the. The oracle that everyone asks him the questions and. And he, you know, he's like that. [01:12:35] Speaker B: Mark knows forever. [01:12:36] Speaker A: Mark knows all. [01:12:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you can, like, call Mark and he's just like, oh, hello, Mr. Nathan. What can I do for you for. And I was like, blah, blah, blah. Lights, this. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:49] Speaker B: Backdrop, camera, teleport, some troubleshoot. [01:12:57] Speaker A: Everything over the phone just from his. From his memory? [01:13:00] Speaker B: Pretty much, yeah. He's been around long enough to know all that sort of stuff, so. [01:13:05] Speaker A: Yeah, Nev sounds interested. He's like, I'd get a nick on ZF 24 megapixel. Much of the work over here is contracted. It's intrigued me. I would love to not have to edit. What else are you saying? Western Australia Education Department contracts it out to the bigger companies. They take horrible, overexposed, terrible photos. Yeah, okay, well, Nev, do it. Go. Go see if you can get a job somewhere or something. Go and do it and then tell us what it's like. Tell us what your first day. Shooting ports. Because I got the language, the lingo. Shooting ports for schools. Go and do it. [01:13:45] Speaker B: I mean, WA is big enough to. I'm sure there's all avenues of. [01:13:50] Speaker A: Yeah, well, like, who's doing. Who's doing rural schools and stuff like that. You know, like, there's got to be someone jumping in a. In a Land cruiser and driving nine hours to. To do a school that's got 40 students, surely. [01:14:03] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. [01:14:04] Speaker A: It's like. That'd be fun. [01:14:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So like a part of like, arp, they'll send you on like they called run jobs and you might. Like I did, like I mentioned, I did a job in Myrtleford. I did a school in Bendigo with Nick Walton Healy at the start of the year. [01:14:21] Speaker A: Oh, cool. [01:14:23] Speaker B: And then, yeah, like, they'll just. You'll just get an Airbnb, jump in the car, work car, and drive to wherever they send you. And you just. So, like the metal for job. We did like a school with like a hundred kids. We went for. Went for one day, shot a school, finished like really early. But then after that we just went to Mount Buffalo national park, which is like an hour drive away, and just explored there. [01:14:50] Speaker A: So how good Buffalo? [01:14:53] Speaker B: It's great. I love it. [01:14:54] Speaker A: Beautiful. [01:14:55] Speaker B: Such a good place. But yeah, like, you. You do. You do do the schools in like metropolitan Melbourne and like Greater Melbourne. But then you. There is opportunities for you to go to like regional Victoria. [01:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. I love that it's allowing you to pay the bills with photography and also continue to focus on various areas of other styles of photography without having to pigeon. Pigeonhole yourself into being the, the street art guy or, or whatever. Yeah, it's great. It means you can, you can really push yourself and explore without that fear of like, oh, what, what happens if I don't get, you know, work in that area anymore? Or whatever. But yeah, Nev's got one more technical because he's. It sounds like he's setting up a competitive business in wa. What software do they use for checking the photos? Is it kind of like Capture One or Lightroom or is it something. Something? Yeah, like specific or custom for, for that industry. [01:16:04] Speaker B: It's called netlife. It's as much as I can tell you. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's terrible. [01:16:10] Speaker A: Yeah, anything that's, that's specialized, like, stuff like that's always going to be. It's always going to have pros and cons. [01:16:17] Speaker B: I think it's like some overseas company. I'm pretty sure. I'm not. I honestly couldn't tell you anything about netlife. [01:16:27] Speaker A: You'll have to never reach out to Mark. He'll. He'll tell you. [01:16:30] Speaker B: He'll pick. Yeah, he'll. He'll tell you the. He'll probably rip out the instruction manual or something, you know, like, just read it out from. Yeah. [01:16:45] Speaker A: I wanted, I wanted to. I wanted to loop back to your personal work and talk about some of the stuff that we haven't sort of dug into yet. And especially this podcast is essentially just a way for me to get, to get photographers on here and then I can pick their brains for my own personal gains. And today the personal gains that I want are. I want you to tell me about personal projects and shooting for yourself because that's something that over the past few years I've been trying to figure out what that is for me, what that looks like. I haven't been, you know, most of my early days of photography, most of that was. Oh, you good? You got audio. Hello. He's muted, folks. Stick with us. Can't unmute. Your guest mic isn't connected. Oh, there we go. We got you back. [01:17:48] Speaker B: My headphones died. [01:17:50] Speaker A: That'll happen. [01:17:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that'll happen, yeah. My personal work. So I guess, like, my personal work kind of does loop back to your talking about the, like, road trips and going to far north New South Wales and Coober Pedy and stuff like that. So yeah, there was. There's been kind of going back to when I first got my car. I did a lot of. I did a lot of travel around Victoria and Tasmania and also sorts of places just have like a wagon. So like load the car up, put. Put a self inflating mattress in it and yeah, bugger off for like a week or two weeks or three weeks or whatever and just live out of my car. Sleep. [01:18:46] Speaker A: No, no like itinerary. Like you obviously got maybe a loose plan of like where you want to head. But do you. Yeah, you like day one here, day two here or just not set sail and see what happens? [01:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So like there were, yeah, a few times done like trips to South Australia. Like I did a trip, I think it was early. Oh well, my trip to Tassie. Like I had no itinerary. It was get to go from like Devonport to Hobart by the weekend to meet my mum, who my mum was flying over to spend the weekend with me and go to like Salamanca market and do Hobart things. [01:19:24] Speaker A: Hobart stuff. Yep. [01:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And then after she left it was like my cousin came over on his motorbike with a swag on the back. So he was like. It was like, where do you want to go? I'm like, ah, this place looks cool. Let's do that. Like it was like, let's find it the night before. Let's just travel around. There was maybe a few things here and there that I really wanted to go to. There was like in Queenstown, in. On like the west coast. There's a. In Queenstown there's a thing called the gravel and it's a football oval. That is. Originally it was gravel because grass wouldn't grow basically. But now it's like a trotting track. Like sand, like a thick sand and they play on that. It's pretty. [01:20:16] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [01:20:17] Speaker B: In the AFL realm of things, it's very famous. I think it's like I. There was like a. One singular game there and I pretty much planned like my whole three week trip around this one game of football. I know that sounds like absolutely ridiculous to like anyone probably listening to this, but I think, yeah, I really, I just really wanted like a few friends had been to games there, but I just really wanted to see a game on gravel or sand. [01:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:52] Speaker A: Was it awesome? [01:20:54] Speaker B: It was sick. It was like a. It was a game between Queenstown and South Bernie and like South Bernie is. Or anywhere to Queenstown's three hours away Pretty much, yeah. Like it's very remote and so like no one Wants to travel. Like, Queenstown dominates that ground because it's their home ground and they know how they're training on. [01:21:19] Speaker A: On. [01:21:20] Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, the scores are always, like, ridiculous, like, nuts in the hundreds. But, yeah, it was like a memorial game for two men who lost their life in a. In a mining accident. So it was a bit more personal in the game. So there was a lot more, like, emotion. Yeah. So I learned a lot. I started chatting to this old guy who lived in Main Street. His house had, like, over, like, 500 garden gnomes in the front yard or something. And he gave me. Basically, he was like, you can go to the museum. But I didn't think I needed to go to the town museum because I learned everything about the town from him. And four quarters of football. I don't think we watched any football. It was just him just telling him. Telling me his life story pretty much. But, yeah, like, no, no, no. Real, like, set plans or anything. Like, I did a trip to South Australia right before COVID kind of. I came back from COVID being like, the heck is this covert? Like, I came back from Adelaide from. From this trip being like, the heck is covert? Like, I haven't really looked at my phone or been on the news or Internet. I was like, oh, yeah, I heard about it, but I didn't know much about it. And pretty much I just went to Adelaide and went places and so got to Adelaide and was there for, like, two days and then just drove back. Saw a friend and drove back. [01:22:55] Speaker A: Wow. So it's more. It's about the trip, not about the destination. It's like, yeah, it's not like I'm going to Adelaide for a week. It's like, I'm gonna spend a week, week going to and from Adelaide and. [01:23:06] Speaker B: Yeah. And finding stuff. Cool stuff. So, like, I did a trip with my partner Emily. We went to. So we went to AD well, again, we went to Adelaide for Christmas, and then after Christmas, we had like, what is it, five days or whatever it is to New Year's to get to Coober Pedy. So we decided to go to. I wouldn't recommend it at all to go to Coober PD on New Year's. Don't go. [01:23:38] Speaker A: I thought you meant in. In general. I was like, oh, it's on my list. [01:23:41] Speaker B: Go to Coober pd. But, like, spend maybe, like, two days max there. Maybe. It's pretty. Yeah. So the journey there is really cool. Yeah. Stopping off little spots here, road houses, that sort of stuff. So, yeah. Cooper Peters on that aspect is great. Like we did that trip that was really cool. Nothing's opened on New Year's. Oh, that was. And then yeah, I saw, I don't. [01:24:13] Speaker A: Know where the best spot to show it is. I saw that you had stories on here from that trip. [01:24:19] Speaker B: Yeah. On my website I updated my personal work stuff. So like it's got a bit more, I call them postcards because they're basically just like snippets of pockets of. So yeah, if you're going to personal work and then go down, I'll dabble on that other series above the 19 to 19 series. [01:24:41] Speaker A: I do want to ask you about that for sure. I like that. Perfect. This is what I was looking for. Australian. I actually think this is, this is the sort of stuff that I, I really love and I, and I know it's out there and I get sucked into thinking that this sort of stuff is only like in the us in the desert, driving, you know. Yeah. From, from towards Vegas and on Route 66 and all that sort of stuff which I was lucky enough to do some of that trip last year. And I'm like, I, I know this, this, an Australian version of this is out there and I haven't seen it and, and you have. [01:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like, it's so, it's so interesting. Like that's Main Street Coober Pedy on I think on Tuesday at like 6:00 in the morning or something. Like you get up really early and just go and take photos. [01:25:39] Speaker A: Explain to someone that's not from Australia where Cooper PD is in relation to like Melbourne, Sydney. [01:25:48] Speaker B: It's. What is it? It's like an eight hour drive or something from. No, not even. I think it's more. Hang on, I'm investing. [01:25:59] Speaker A: I can pull, I should pull up a map. Let's just do. [01:26:05] Speaker B: Coober pd. It's, it's a long way. It's like Coober Pedy to Adelaide I guess is probably the best one. [01:26:19] Speaker A: Yeah. But unfortunately our American viewers probably don't know where Adelaide is. [01:26:24] Speaker B: So. Adelaide. So Adelaide, from Melbourne to Adelaide it's an eight hour drive, I'm pretty sure. And then from Adelaide to Coober Pedia which is like directly up pretty much is another 8 hours, 9 hour drive. [01:26:41] Speaker A: So this is, this is it here. And the color of this map is. [01:26:46] Speaker B: Appropriate like if you, if you zoom in on Coober Pedy itself, like because for people that don't know, Kubipedi is mostly underground because it is so hot out there. So there's a lot of like underground houses. So you like, look at it like that. And yes, there are like establishments, but a lot of them are underground. So like. [01:27:12] Speaker A: So Bryant Hill Dugout. [01:27:15] Speaker B: There's like a camp. [01:27:16] Speaker A: There's a. There's a picture of it. Yeah, it's just dirt. [01:27:20] Speaker B: It's like. Yeah, I think, I think only like the main street and like there's like a lookout, which is really funny, which is like the big, the big rent or winch, I think. The big winch. Yeah. And that's like. I mean, it's on a lookout, but there's really. [01:27:40] Speaker A: There'S really just, just quickly, one quick comment from David De Parker. Says have to run, but thanks. Strong imagery and a good chat. David, we need to get you on the podcast when you're not flat out. We'll email you again. David's epic photographer. Do you know David? [01:27:56] Speaker B: No, I don't know David. I should look at David. [01:27:59] Speaker A: He's his work. [01:28:00] Speaker B: Looking at his little. [01:28:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. His profile picture tells. Tells you enough of what you need to know. Yeah, yeah, we've got to try and get him on the podcast. Thanks for. Thanks for listening, David. Bruce. [01:28:14] Speaker B: Yes, Bruce. Pitch black was. Oh, yeah. [01:28:18] Speaker A: Is that where it was filmed? [01:28:19] Speaker B: I. I love that movie. If you go back to my, my website and there's the photo of the giant spaceship thing, I think it's up. Yeah, that one. Yeah. So that's from that. That is the spaceship. [01:28:37] Speaker A: Oh, man, I didn't know that. I'm gonna re. Watch that movie and then I'm gonna drive to Cooper Pedy. Yeah, that movie was great. If, if anyone hasn't seen that Vin Diesel. Low budget. Awesome. [01:28:51] Speaker B: So like the building that's like behind me in this photo, there's. It's like a jeweler. I mean, because. So Coober, I think it's 90. 90% of like the. Or 80. Some really high percentage of opal is from Coober Pedy. I'm not going to say exactly because someone's going to be like, no. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean there's like you, you can walk down the street and every, almost every building is like an Opal buyer. There might be a sign that says like opal buyer. There might be like opals here. The best opals here, like all sorts. So, yeah, the guy behind me, he's, he's got like this big photo, like pitch black photo of, of the spaceship, like as like a poster, I guess you could say. Yeah. But yeah, like, yeah, very, very interesting place. Very. [01:30:02] Speaker A: I love look at this. Yeah, that's so good. [01:30:06] Speaker B: This is so funny. [01:30:08] Speaker A: Street sign next to a pile of dirt. So, yes, Bruce says that's what we're talking about, how far away it is from everything. It's a long way from everything in Australia. In the middle of nowhere. And exactly what Bruce is the middle of nowhere. [01:30:25] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. [01:30:28] Speaker A: And I think it's just. It's one of those places that. To go on a road trip and just see what you can see and have the camera. Actually, that's what I want to talk to you about. What do you. [01:30:38] Speaker B: What. [01:30:38] Speaker A: What gear do you travel with when you do a trip like this? What do you. What sort of camera are you shooting with and how much? [01:30:44] Speaker B: I shoot with a. I remember Mark had props, so I shoot with a Fuji XT 30 Mark II for, like, everyday stuff. [01:30:54] Speaker A: Yes. [01:30:55] Speaker B: Usually with their, like, stock lens. I find their stock lens is really good, which is an 1855 F 2.8 and then 2.8 F 4 or whatever it goes to when you zoom in. And I. And then my, like, my work rig is a 1 DX mark 2 with a 16 to 35 or if I'm shooting sport or anything, like at a distance, a 150-600- Sigma contemporary lens. And they're pretty much like the two and then like a 16 mil on the Fuji, like if I'm going for a walk or some street stuff. That photo there is, for people that aren't watching is a photo of a wedgetail eagle on top of some roadkill. And for ages. That was like a photo that I really wanted in, like the nature, Australian, outbacky, backcountry road kind of scheme of things because I like. Well, wedgetail eagles are massive. They're huge birds. But yeah, that was like a photo that I. I really wanted to say if people don't know, they can like pick up baby lambs and all that sort of. [01:32:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:32:21] Speaker B: Crazy nut stuff. So, yeah, that was a photo. Like when I saw that, thanks to my girlfriend for pulling over on the side of the road for allowing me to get this photo. [01:32:35] Speaker A: What. So would you have shot that with the 1 DX Mark 2? [01:32:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And the. And the big 150 to 600, the big lens. [01:32:44] Speaker A: I love the, the heat. [01:32:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:47] Speaker A: In the background, like you can see. Yeah. Hot. Was it hot? [01:32:54] Speaker B: It's so hot. It was like. Yeah. December. January. Oh, yeah, late December. [01:33:02] Speaker A: Yeah. I love these images. Is this. So tell me, do you have plans for this kind of work? Is there something you want to do a Book, an exhibition. Is there a long term goal? [01:33:18] Speaker B: I think like a book or a zine or something like that. For a while it was like, I'd like to have a show with this sort of stuff. My ideas for it like, come and go. I feel like it's a series like of Australia or Australiana that I. I have enough work for, but I also don't have enough work for. For it. That makes sense. Like I could have more. [01:33:46] Speaker A: You're not satisfied yet? [01:33:48] Speaker B: Not. Yeah. Like, I've been to cool places, I've seen a lot, but I feel like there's a whole part of. I mean Australia is massive. There's a whole part of Australia that I haven't yet got to. Oh. Oh. Whoa. [01:34:03] Speaker A: Hang on. We. We've still got you. [01:34:08] Speaker B: Holy. I can't see you. [01:34:11] Speaker A: I can see you. So that's okay. Can you hear me? This. Today's episode must be cursed. I'm so glad the chat stuck with us. [01:34:22] Speaker B: Sorry about that. [01:34:23] Speaker A: Okay. I was like, it's okay. We can still see you. Yeah, this is, this is one of those shows where everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And I love it. [01:34:33] Speaker B: So. Yeah. And then like there's obviously like lots of places that I have been to, but also there's Australia's. There's a whole like top end. I've never been to like Uluru or, you know, whole bunch. [01:34:46] Speaker A: Tell us about, tell us about the big SLR camera. [01:34:50] Speaker B: So I. So I did a trip with my parents across the Nullarbor. It was a series. It was a trip that we'd planned once before. It was going to be like me and my dad. There was a few hiccups. So then like we did it again like the following year. And it was basically we flew to Perth, hired a camper van and then just drove back to Melbourne over like a two week period. And yeah, stopping it. Like a few people told me, I do want to do that trip. Nullabor is boring. Blah, blah, blah. You know, like there's not much to see. But they're. I mean like any trip you go on, like, there's as much as you. There's as much to see as you like, want to see. So like I made sure that we stopped off at like every roadhouse. [01:35:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:35:48] Speaker B: Like possibly could because each one was so different and unique to like the last. So yeah, this was like early, super early on in the trip. This was like a spot that I. I came like, I found. I was doing some research, like what big things are in Wa. Or Something, you know, like, which I found that there's like a whole website for big things. [01:36:14] Speaker A: Is there? [01:36:15] Speaker B: Yeah, like there's a guy that's gone around and he's like made this website where it's just like big things of Australia and there's stuff that like, you look at and it's like, yeah, the local primary schools made that or they've actually got funding and it's like a huge, like, infrastructure or something. So the. Yeah, the big camera or the big SLR camera is actually a camera museum. Is it really? [01:36:39] Speaker A: Because it looks like just like an old service station or something. Like a tin shed that's been. [01:36:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much what it is. So the stuff on the left, that's. Yeah, I assume where like the petrol bowsers would have been, but. Yeah. So the BSLR and you. Yeah, it was closed when we were there, unfortunately, but. And it's pretty like they may open today, they may open tomorrow. They might be closed for like two weeks. It's really. But from what I've seen photos on Google and like read things about it, it's basically just a big camera museum. [01:37:20] Speaker A: That's awesome. [01:37:21] Speaker B: In the middle of nowhere. [01:37:22] Speaker A: I'm gonna have to make a pilgrimage across. I do. I want to drive over to. To wa, but we keep. The trip keeps getting bigger in our heads because we want to spend some time in WA as well. But I don't want to rush the drive over and the drive back. So I'm like, how long? You know, it sort of. We're like, oh, you should be able to do it in three or four weeks now I'm like, I think it's more like a six. [01:37:42] Speaker B: A six? Yeah. [01:37:43] Speaker A: Thing probably like I. [01:37:47] Speaker B: We did it in like 10 days. But I probably like, would have really liked to have like. I probably could have stretched it out a bit longer. [01:37:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:37:57] Speaker B: So, yeah, like, yeah, the big camera, that was a cool spot. And then it's. Yeah, like you can obviously can go out at night and like, it's dark. It is very, like, it's. [01:38:10] Speaker A: Whoa. So you gotta. You took a. Took a drone as well, or are you just really tall? [01:38:15] Speaker B: I'm just really tall. Yeah. Yeah, I took a drone and yeah, there were like a few shots that I really wanted to take with the drone, one being this and the other one being like on the edge of Australia, like along this great Australian bite. So that's like the 90 mil, 90 miles straight. So that's the. The longest, straightest road in Australia. Excuse me. So, yeah, so yeah, pretty. [01:38:47] Speaker A: And then that's. That's the great Australian. [01:38:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Which was like, probably then like the most nervous I've ever been taking photos on my drone ever. [01:38:58] Speaker A: Would you think it was going to get taken out to sea or something? [01:39:01] Speaker B: I was like, if there's going to be some, like, gust of wind that comes through, who knows what's going to happen? But yeah. And then as soon as I landed the drone, there was like, lots of wind. I was like, it was meant to be. [01:39:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that looks epic. But what's crazy is. So tell me, what does it look like? You know, because when you drive up to it, like, you see these photos that you've taken, like with the drone, but when you drive up to it, it's pretty hard to get a view of the cliffs, isn't it? Like you sort of. Yeah, you can't really see what it looks like. There's no lookout points or anything like that. [01:39:40] Speaker B: Yeah, like, the only kind of point of like, along the, like, great Australian, but you can see is, is the head of the bite, which is where there's like a whale conservation kind of area. So, like, you can, when you're driving along, you drive through, like, the Nullarbor, like the Nullarbor Roadhouse, which is like the, like the main kind of roadhouse. It's like the picture kind of perfect, kind of one, maybe. [01:40:11] Speaker A: So. [01:40:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw that. [01:40:13] Speaker A: I was like, that's the view you get from the. [01:40:15] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. So that was a photo that I had in mind for ages. Just. [01:40:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. [01:40:21] Speaker B: People not looking at. My dad's sitting in a camp chair, basically sitting like right on the edge of. Of Australia, basically. So that's pretty much the view. It's nothing. It's so vast. It's just like. You can't. It's just. Just keeps going on and on and on. But yeah, the head of the bite, you. You can pull in. There's like a. An establishment thing there you can go to. You can take photos. Yeah, that photo there with the whale, you go up. So, yeah, that's the, The Nullabor Roadhouse. [01:40:54] Speaker A: Look at that. I just love the. [01:40:56] Speaker B: I. [01:40:57] Speaker A: It's so, you know, I mean, if you zoom in on the trucks and stuff in the background, but other than that, like, that could have been taken, what, 50 years ago and it would probably look the same, basically. Yeah. [01:41:13] Speaker B: So, yeah, it, it, like, it's classified as like the great Australian road trip or something like that. It's. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. If you can make it fun by, like, stopping at places when you're like, yes, there's a roadhouse. Yes, it might look the same, but if you kind of look beyond that, there are little quirks and different things. Like, my dad and I, we had like a pool comp. So, like, each roadhouse would stop and play down a pool and it was like, who would win what? Like. So it just kept going on and on. But yeah, they're just. Each one is so different from the other. Like that one, Belladonia. Like, there's so much history behind Belladonia. There was like a space part of like the International Space Station or some satellite thing crashed from NASA, crashed down in the Nullarbor and in Esperance. And there was this like. And NASA put out a thing saying, oh, if. If you retrieve it, if you retrieve parts of it, there'll be a cash prize. So all these people went out looking for this piece of satellite and there's like a whole, like, museum in the Baladonia. I think that's how you say it. Roadhouse. About. About that. So they're like. You buy any of their, like, bumper stickers or patches or something, it's all like, Baladonia. And then it has like a camel and then a. A satellite. And that's like. They're like, really thing. That's their thing. [01:42:59] Speaker A: Yeah, their claim to fame. [01:43:01] Speaker B: Where's the. And there's like another place down. [01:43:05] Speaker A: Think I'm just going to pull up a quick. A couple of quick comments. Judy. Judy Taylor. I think she's talking about this. The clouds look like whales. I think I see it. Are we talking about. We talking about here or were we looking at the other photo with the. Anyway, I love it when you can. Or was it this one? Maybe that's a whale. I don't know which. Which photo was it? Judy, I wanted to ask you. I was gonna ask you about this and then Nevs just asked or brought it up. You guys might have heard of the world's longest golf course. Essentially, there's a golf hole at every town on the way across the Nullarbor. So you play a hole. As you're kind of driving, you stop and play a hole. Did you guys do that? Did you see that? [01:43:47] Speaker B: No, I did see that. There's like everywhere. It's usually at the back of every. Of every roadhouse. So there's just. It's. Yeah, it's pretty funny. It's literally like a plot of fake grass and then like a whole heap of red dirt and Then like a plot of another fake grass with the hole. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's awesome. [01:44:14] Speaker A: Judy says it was the roadhouse photo. Yeah, I see it. Did you. Have you ever seen. Seen that, Nathan? The whale? You know, the eye, the mouth. [01:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:44:26] Speaker A: Love it. Yeah. Tell us, show us some more stuff. What? [01:44:30] Speaker B: What? [01:44:31] Speaker A: Tell us some more stories. [01:44:33] Speaker B: Some more. Yeah, like, I guess so. That was. Yeah, a good. Oh, the bottom abandoned house one. [01:44:40] Speaker A: This one. [01:44:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that was. I think that was like the only house that I saw along the Nullarbor. Like it's so like vast and plain and stuff. It was fully abandoned with like a tree growing out of it. But yeah, it was. Yeah, it was a really, really cool structure. But yeah. So yeah, did I guess. Moving on from the Nullarbor, I did a trip. We did. Yeah, like I mentioned, like you mentioned the northern rivers, Northern New South Wales trip. I house sat for an old friend of mine for 10 days, so made the most of exploring that kind of like top end. Like the. Just the border and all its like unique. Uniqueness. Like the big prawn. [01:45:34] Speaker A: Like the big prawn with bunnies in the background. It's. [01:45:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:45:37] Speaker A: Could you. Could you get much more Australian than that? [01:45:39] Speaker B: Well, I learned that after like doing some research, trying to find out where it was. So part of the big prawn used to be not so much the tail, but the head part used to be a part of a service station. [01:45:53] Speaker A: Oh. [01:45:53] Speaker B: So like I find like with a lot of my work and my photos I could probably understand just. Or like hear me talking about it now is I like to find like the information about it. Like I want it. Like I really want to know the info before I go. I guess. So it used to be a part of the service station was just like on top of the server and then they were going and it was like a really off pink kind of prawn that had been sitting at the bottom of your fridge for like since Christmas sort of prawn. And they bunnings saved it. So Bunnings, they got the tail added. They gave it a fresh coat of paint and yeah, now it's out the front of Ballina Bunnings in New South Wales. And in the most recent storm, I'm pretty sure they lost one of the legs or like the like dangly bits came off with the most recent like hurricane. [01:46:50] Speaker A: So good. Lost a. Lost a pincer in a hurricane. [01:46:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:46:55] Speaker A: I'm glad bunnies did that. That's awesome. That's so good. See you Nev. Nev says Great show, guys. Thanks, Nathan. I'll follow you on socials. Gotta go and do my day job. Have a great day, everyone. Thanks for listening, Nev. [01:47:10] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:47:14] Speaker A: So you obviously seek out, you seek out the weird and the Australiana. You do a bit of research beforehand and, and let that kind of guide the journey. But how much of what you, what you find and what you document is just, it just occurs in the, you know, it just through sort of natural. You're driving, you get curious, you turn down a different road or something like that. How much is. Is having to do the research before and how much is like wow, that looks. That's interesting. I'm gonna go and photograph it. [01:47:46] Speaker B: I'd say like 50. 50? [01:47:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:51] Speaker B: Sometimes like I'd, you know, getting frustrated driving or something and like stuck in traffic and I might just like duck down a little side street and then find something cool and be like whoa, maybe that was meant to be or something like that. Let's drive down this dirt road that if I look on maps it says that we like it will loop us back around instead of going along the main road. Yes. It might take 20 minutes longer, but who knows what we might find. Yeah, like the, those photos just there with the. The valley is watching that like sign and then the bridge they were. So we were staying in a place called Chillingham. And there was the main road into town like to another town or there was the back way through the valley to get to like Gold coast. And that was found on the back way to go to Gold Coast. Same with that one. That was like a really cool. Yeah, it was just there. It's just something like. I don't know, it was just something about it like the, the mix between like a man made structure and nature. And I've always found that really interesting of like man made structures in nature and how nature kind of like evolves around these man made structures. [01:49:25] Speaker A: Yeah. There's such a similarity between the concrete pylons and the trees. The bear trees as well. Like it's, it's, it's the. You know. Yeah. One is completely modern and man made and the other one is, is nature. But they look so similar the way that they're just standing in the water. They've got discoloration around the bottom of. You know, like it's, it's. Yeah. Yeah. And so those, those things that you, you just uncover because you decide to take it back way instead of the, the main road. [01:49:54] Speaker B: Yeah, like the, the next one with like the sun, the sunglasser hut for Example, like, I drove past that and was just like, that's sick. And then like a couple days later drove past it again. And it was. I don't know, there was just something about the fact that there was. Yes. No cars in front. Yes. The sky was blue. Yes. The sun on it was really, like, intense and really nice. It just. I know. It's just very like Gold Coast. [01:50:23] Speaker A: It is. Whoever planned the. The paint, like the sign writing and the paint colors and that for that particular store is. They're a genius. [01:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it works. It's like a shop in the corner of this whole, like, kind of warehousey bunch of like, structure. And that's the. The only one that had, like, poppy color, I guess. [01:50:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:50:53] Speaker B: Color that like, really was in you. In your face. [01:50:58] Speaker A: What do you do? What do you do as far as post processing for your personal work? Are you shooting raw jpeg? [01:51:07] Speaker B: I shoot jpeg. Don't hate me. But also Fuji. Fuji's colors are like, so, so nice. So I mean, you have to like, do too much, but I'll. Yeah. Throw it into. I think one thing that, like, you obviously notice is a lot of like, my personal work is. Is square crop, which comes from shooting a lot of film and medium format mostly. And I don't know what it is. I just. I find that it's just, just. I don't know, it just works. It works for a lot of this sort of stuff for me, I find. But yeah, just a little dabble here and there in. In lightroom is pretty much all I. All I do for post. I don't muck with it too much. [01:51:57] Speaker A: Do you shoot square in camera? You haven't set to. No, no. So you set it and then you crop it square afterwards in lightroom. [01:52:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:52:04] Speaker A: But you've already picked a simulation in a film. Are they called film simulation? [01:52:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I should. So my white balance is the cloud white balance. I don't. I think I occasionally will if I see a scene and I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe that will look good in black and white. Yes. I do have two black and white film simulations or film recipes. I think that's what they're called in them. But other than that, like, I just shoot either cloud or sun. White balance. [01:52:36] Speaker A: Okay. I got an interesting question for you. Do you keep up with just talking about crops and Fuji and all that sort of stuff? Do you keep up with like, new camera releases and that kind of thing? Is gear something you're interested in or. Not really at all. [01:52:55] Speaker B: Not. Not really. Like, I know that sounds Silly because I jumped on the bandwagon with Fuji when, when everyone was like the. Was it the X100V and stuff like that. But I. Yeah, so I, I guess kind of this comes into like the 19 to 19 series that's on my website. I was shooting with a little Sony A6000. I bought that to go to New Zealand with like in 2019. Just as a smaller camera than taking my big Canon which at the time I was shooting a 6D. So then I, I ended up using that for a lot of it. So I was shooting mostly everyday things with that little camera. But I was, I don't know, there was just. There was still love for it but I think because I was shooting every day a bit more I felt let's maybe invest some money into buying a Fuji. So I did buy a Fuji. I do love my Fuji. It was probably like the. One of the best purchases I've made in a very long time. [01:54:12] Speaker A: Greg will be, Greg will be just tingling when he is this part of the show. [01:54:16] Speaker B: Mark told me that he's like, you guys can nerd out on Fuji gear. I was like, I don't know anything about Fuji gear. I just know it takes good photos. Um, but yeah, so I ended up just buying, buying that and be. And yeah falling in love with it. But on a gear level like yeah, I might look at stuff but I'm not like I'm not going to jump on it because it's got like 40 megapixel camera specs and all that sort of stuff. Like to me at the end of the day it's like it comes back to like what one of my teachers said. Like the best camera that you have is the one with you. It doesn't necessarily like if it's your phone, it's your phone but like I don't know if it's a point and shoot. If it's a camera that sell is like 40 meg, like sure, cool. But as long as, as long as you're taking photos that doesn't matter. Who cares what it is? [01:55:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're. And that's. I mean even like the 1 dx mark 2 is an epic camera this huge. But. But it's huge. And, and you're, but you're also happy to use that when the time's right and you're happy to use the Fuji when the time's right. Yeah, it's more about just, yeah, whatever camera suits the purpose and it doesn't have to be the latest and greatest. It's just what you've got and what's going to do the job the best. I'm mindful of time because it's been almost two hours, but there's two more things I want to talk about and you can decide which order we talk about. I mean, before we do that, Rodney Nicholson's in the chat, says, loving your work, Nathan, and so am I. Loving it. [01:55:56] Speaker B: Cheers. [01:55:56] Speaker A: Very, very cool. I want to talk to you about two things. I want to dig into your latest personal project that's been going for a while now, 1919, and I. And I also want to ask you about your inspiration. I know you got a couple of books with you that you brought as props for this podcast. What do you think we should talk about first? Inspiration or 1919. [01:56:22] Speaker B: Think maybe 1919. Because then. Yeah, I think it's a bit more int. Yeah, tell me about it. Yeah, so it was a body of work. Like I mentioned, I was shooting with a. A6000 camera and it was basically, I gone through a shitty breakup and a bunch of like, personal hardships and whatnot. So I started shooting photos again, like, as a personal level. Had like a big break, a big just like reset on everything. Like, didn't go on socials, didn't do that. Was just. Let's go back to the roots of what makes me happy. What, why I started photography, that sort of aspect of things. So I was taking photos every day, going out for walks like that, really pushing to make myself happy. And then I. I went to make a post on Instagram or like to share what I'd taken in that kind of space of time. And I realized that the first day that I started taking photos was the 19th of whatever month. And then when I went to look at these works or take. Post a photo, I. It was the 19th of the next month. So I kind of just was like, let's just. Let's just do that. Just leave it from. These are the photos that I've taken from the 19th of one month to the 19th of the next. And then, I don't know, I feel like it's a bit of a trend for me, but it's like if I start something and it's got a bit of a nice kind of like, ring to it, I guess in regards to the photo aspect, I just like jump on it and it snowballs. Like with the car series, take two photos, it starts to appear. In this instance, I started to take photos and enjoying it again. I started to really enjoy photography. Photography for myself, not so much for a work, work Process, but more for me. And then I, yeah, just kept doing it and I made sure that I was trying to do something new each month. So, like, a friend was like, I'm going sailing. I'm. I've started doing sailing again. We're doing races, me and mum do it out of Williamstown. And he kept putting it up on Instagram and I was like, sick. I want to do that. So I went to Williamstown and I know nothing about sailing. And I jumped on the back of his boat, of the boat. And we did sailing through really choppy waters through Port Phillip Bay. And me taking photos in the back. Nervous as hell. It's probably like the most scared I've ever been. Was so scary. Multiple reasons. Gonna drop the camera in, possibly gonna fall in. And also I'm on a boat that I. Yeah, scares the hell out of me because you're like, the water's just there and you're gonna fall in. So, yeah, I kept, yeah, taking photos of everyday things that I saw. My parents, my friends. And then now it's this body of work that I've been working on for. I think this is the third year. [01:59:45] Speaker A: The third year. Wow. Have you ever missed a month? Like, okay, no, before you answer that. So you've got this project, you've set it up where it's got some constraints. One of the constraints is, I guess on the 19th of every month you post the images from the previous. Is that how you do you post on the 19th? Yeah, it doesn't matter when you post. [02:00:06] Speaker B: Or it's either like the 19th or the 20th, 23rd. It doesn't really matter as long as it's like, to begin with, it was, yes, I have to post on the 19th because it was just like, what was in here? But I got lazy and then it just kind of dropped off and it was like, whatever. It doesn't matter as long as I'm sharing those. [02:00:26] Speaker A: Sharing those images. [02:00:28] Speaker B: Yeah, sorry. [02:00:30] Speaker A: It looks like my camera isn't charging by USB today, so it's going to probably go flat any second. So I'm just going to change a battery. So one of the constraints is you've got to have a collection of images from each month. Is there a number of images you're aiming to have or is it. It doesn't matter as long as you've got one image that's still enough. Like, how do you think about that side of it? [02:00:51] Speaker B: I've thought about it. Like, it's changed over time. Like sometimes I'm like, oh, maybe there'll be a month where I might not take that many photos. And yes, I might only share two or three. But yes. Sorry, I just saw Bruce's. Yes, it is super more manageable than a photo a day sort of series. [02:01:17] Speaker A: I agree with that completely. Like the 365. I like that yours has got a. A constraint or like a deadline or whatever. Yeah, it's not so. Yeah, it's not so formal that it needs to be every day or, or whatever. So it's got like a little bit of leniency if you're not feeling it, if you're sick or whatever. It's like, hey, it's. It's. [02:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I can. [02:01:40] Speaker A: I don't have to shoot any photos this week. I've still got a few other the weeks, you know. [02:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So I usually kind of like funnel it down to a little bit of variation. Not too much of, like, repetitiveness and then also kind of like funnel it down, like. I mean, obviously Instagram, for a little while there was only 10 photos. So I only did it for 10 photos. But now it's like, you can share like 20 photos on, like, that sort of thing now. So it's. It's varied. Might be 12, might be, but I usually just funnel it down. I'll still, like, pick my best. But what I share is I'll funnel it down to 10. But there might be photos in this, like, on my website that I might not have shown. It's just like, I have them in, like, as in my best photos for that month, if that makes sense. [02:02:38] Speaker A: It does. And there is. There is a wonderful variety. So everything that you've got on here is black and white in this on your website, which, if anyone wants to check it out, it is linked below along with Nathan's Instagram. But head to his website and head to the 1919 collection, which you can find under his personal work, and check out some of these images because they are great photos and it's just proof that this sort of forcing yourself to get out and push and enjoy. That's great. [02:03:17] Speaker B: You can see there's. This was like. I think this is an example of, like, the photos that if we go back to talking about, like, silo and mural jobs, this is like the. When we're not taking photos of Jimmy painting, because that's Jimmy down there. If you can see the person in. Yeah, so like, that's him walking through the tunnel, through the bridge tunnel thing. So, yeah, we're always out, like, exploring and looking for, like, neat things in, like, the Towns and stuff. [02:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just the. The. There's something in these images and I don't know whether it's. Yeah, I don't know. I can't put my finger on it. But they have. [02:04:05] Speaker B: Even. [02:04:05] Speaker A: Even compared to the other images on your website, there's a different feel. And I don't know whether it's. It's from the way you were approaching when you were shooting with them, whether it was sort of more. More spontaneous or like, say you were just having more fun shooting this work or if it's the way that you've curated it. This collection all has a. Even though the images are so varied, it all has a cohesive feel to me, anyway. Yeah. [02:04:41] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. Like, I really enjoyed making them black and white. I think having them all black and white is just. It keeps them somewhat the same. [02:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:04:53] Speaker B: Like they're all connected in some way, even though they are so varied in style and subject matter. Yeah, that's something I really enjoy doing. [02:05:06] Speaker A: This is. This is a great photo. Can you explain this photo to anyone that's listening on audio or just anybody? [02:05:14] Speaker B: So I really like. Obviously I should. Yeah. Protests and emotion and sports events and things like that. But for me, one of my, like, favorite things to do is like, growing up. Obviously I went to. Oh, I went to a lot of cricket and sport and AFL and all that sort of stuff growing up. And for me, the McGuire on Boxing Day or whatever. Bay 13, which is a pretty prolific bay in MCG, I guess, like folklore, I guess you could say, is. Yeah, pretty much where everyone gets really wasted throughout a game of play and just gets pretty loose. Mexican wave, chance, all that sort of stuff. And the photo is a bunch of guys getting. They call it a beer snake and they get like stacks of cups. And there's a photo. The photo is taken through the crowd. So there's arms and stuff around and everyone's getting, like, really hyped. And there's a guy that's got a beer snake that's probably like two times the height of him. And he's. Yeah, he's so stoked on it. But, yeah, really, really expression. [02:06:34] Speaker A: The expressions not only on his face, but just the surrounding crowd of just like pure joy and celebration at the size of this stack of cups is so good. [02:06:45] Speaker B: I mean, if you don't know cricket, I feel like it would be like. I mean, I haven't really watched much baseball, but I feel like it would be like baseball in America. Like, you either love it or you hate it or it's. You love it and it can be a little bit boring. Cricket is like that. So you got to kind of make fun and make do in the crowd. And as much as it's frowned upon by like security and stuff to make beer snakes because, I don't know, it could be dangerous or something. Know people say that they're actually helping the cleaners by collecting the cups for recycle. Yeah, people. People fro for beer snake. [02:07:34] Speaker A: That's pretty cool. That's a great photo. That's a great photo. And so. So this is a good example of your. You. You didn't come here specifically to take photos. You would have been here anyway, I assume. [02:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I was. Yeah. There's another. There's another photo that I'm pretty proud of. If we go back to like my mate, like the main page. [02:07:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [02:07:58] Speaker B: And go to sport news and sport and go down. I think it's right to the end. Go up. Yeah, that one with the dude skull on the beer. Yep. [02:08:11] Speaker A: Oh, man. [02:08:13] Speaker B: So, yeah, I didn't. For me, like, I love cricket, I love footy, but to me it's like a part of Australia that isn't really documented from the stands point of view. You see a lot of photos from like Rennie Ellis and photographers like that of like a bygone era of photos from the crowds, people bringing their own Eskys in, people bringing their own beer in. That real kind of. I guess you see photos of Australia from like the 80s and 90s, and that's what you see is. [02:08:56] Speaker A: Yes. [02:08:57] Speaker B: People in like stubby shorts with a singlet on, drinking canned beer at the footy or at the cricket. So you don't see that. I. For me, I. I don't think I see. There's maybe a couple of news photographers that come to mind. A friend of mine, Chris Hopkins, I know we've discussed a bunch of times about photos like in. In the crowd, but yeah, I find. [02:09:25] Speaker A: That like, Chris is scheduled a couple weeks, April 24th on the show. [02:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. [02:09:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we're excited about that one. [02:09:33] Speaker B: I have him down as a. I wrote down some inspirational. He's down as one of my inspirational photographers. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I love his work. [02:09:44] Speaker A: We'll get. Which we'll get to. We'll get to your inspirations next. But yeah, he had an impact on me just recently actually. So, yeah, he's. He's quite a photographer. [02:09:54] Speaker B: So, yeah, he, like, we've discussed, I think, like the next photo of the. The Indian like, mega fan is. [02:10:02] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [02:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that same day. That was Boxing Day, day one. That just went, like last year, and he and I. Oh, anyway, to go back to, yeah, I took a lot of photo. Like, I love cricket, but I also love the atmosphere, the fans, and I love taking photos. So, like, that aspect of, you know, people sculling, beer and whatnot, it's very like cricket. It's very Australia. It's very just. It's just the culture of it all. [02:10:38] Speaker A: You know, what I love about this shot is, like, at the moment, that seems like it's just a great photo. Like, oh, yeah, that's just a great photo. But like you were saying, you know, when you look at. Back at those photos from the 80s and 90s and things like that, like, this, in 20, 30, 40 years is going to have things in this image that speak to people. The fact that everyone's got their phones out, like, will we even have phones in 40 years? Like, what, What. What will everyone have? Will they look back at this and go, oh, that's when everyone had, you know, like, that's when everyone had phones, like, and everyone would hold it up when a moment happens. So it's. It's like, there's so much in this shot that's going to, you know, maybe these shorts won't be quite as popular. [02:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:11:23] Speaker A: 20 years. 30 years. You know, like, it's. I. I'm. I'm pretty. That's something that I don't know if we think about as much as. As photographers as we should. And. And it sounds like it's something you think about quite a bit. [02:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. In, like. In, like, the other photos that I took from this day, like, there was one particular guy that I watched stagger down the stairs, and I was like, I'm gonna go sit behind him because he looks like he's, like, a bit rowdy. And that section that he's sitting seems like the rowdy part of the ground. And, yeah, I really got embraced. People would, like, look at me first and be like, like, you're ready. Let me, like, are you ready to take the photo? Like, this guy, he, like, cheers me first nodded his head and then did it. Yeah, I have, like, a photo of him, like, cheersing the crowd and then sculling. But, yeah, and then the other one with the Indian mega fan guy, he. I, like, I've known about him for ages. Like, he's pretty. He's pretty famous in regards to, like, in Indian or Indian cricket in general, but also cricket super fans and Fans in general. And I was hoping that he would be there. And I was sitting in the stands up on the top level, and I saw him down there, and I was like, I'm gonna go down there and take, like, I'm getting this photo before I leave. And I sat. I stood in the stairwell for 45 minutes waiting for something to happen. They got a wicket. Indy got a wicket. They went nuts. He went nuts. And I just ran down the, like, the stairwell because there were no seats or anything that I could sit in, so I was just like, I'm just gonna linger. And then, yeah, ended up finding a seat and then just like. And then India ended up doing really well, so they just kept getting wickets. So I think in the end I got, like, maybe 40 photos of just him, like, being very, like, just celebrating. Static. Yeah. Loving it. But, yeah, I ended up sitting with Chris. Chris was like, oh, like, where are you? I'm like, I'm in front of, like, I'm sitting beside the Indian superfan. And he was like, cool, I'll be there in a moment. Knew exactly where I was, because like an hour earlier, he'd also been sitting there shooting photos for, I think, the Guardian or Getty or someone. Whoever he works for, whoever he was working for that day. But, yeah, similar. Similar loves of shooting. Shooting fans. [02:14:19] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, even. And Bruce is in the chat. He says the fans are nearly always way more interesting. The color of life from every way of living mixes together. Yeah, that's it. Such a. A broad, you know, variety of people all there for the same reason. Yeah. So good. Tell us about your inspirations other than Chris Hopkins. [02:14:44] Speaker B: Yeah, so I knew that I would forget certain people, so I wrote down, like, a few bits and bobs. I guess, like, I have two elements of, like, what inspires me. Like, I have photographers and their styles or a specific photo or something like that, but then also, like, things around me. So, like, I've written down, like. Like, my environment. So what's around me in general, like my parents or, like, friends or emotions that you see around getting lost. I guess we've already dabbled on that a little bit. But, like, just getting out there, getting lost, finding my way, that can be taken in any way you want to, like. Yeah. Old books. So I've got some old books that I've brought in because I know you and Greg like props. So, yeah, there's this photographer who's also in my inspirational photographers called Douglas Baglan, and he has made these books. He's pretty Famous Australian photographer that documents the people of, like, Australian Outback and whatnot. So there's Rough as Guts and Dinkum Dunnies and they're pretty much, yeah, just rough. Australian Outback lifestyle is rough as guts and the people that are, are in it. And yeah, from like swagsman to people living underground and yeah, like, photos of, like, dugouts and that's awesome. And like, it smells like an op shop. The book, you know, like that smell. And then, yeah, Dinkum Dunny's is just like toilets in the Bush, which I think is really. It's just a funny book. Like you. Yeah. That's not something that you would think to photograph, I guess. [02:16:55] Speaker A: No. But Australia does have a pretty interesting range of toilets. [02:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, like road trips and commutes, like that sort of stuff. Small and. Yeah, I've already dabbled on, like, small towns, country towns, random pubs, people that you meet at the pub, people that, yeah, passing by. I think a lot of my conversations with people traveling and when I was predominantly shooting film and with a tlr, you know, like, you get to start up a lot of conversations around. Does that still work? Can you still get film for it? A lot of conversations and like, I just start chatting to people like, oh, where are you from, mate? Does that camera still work? That sort of thing? So I think a lot around that, in the scheme of, like, environment and things around me are inspirations. But then photographers like Warren Kirk. Do you know Warren Kirk? [02:17:59] Speaker A: I don't know. [02:18:01] Speaker B: He. He made this book. He made a few books, but he's made this book called Suburbia. [02:18:08] Speaker A: Nice. [02:18:09] Speaker B: Which is, yeah, very good. He's very good. I think his name on Instagram is pretty ordinary, but he's been around for a while. His. His work is. Is very, very good. Very like front on just minimal, minimal stuff. He also has another one called Westography as well. So all stuff from, like, the western suburbs of Melbourne. But yeah, very, very good photographer. Who else? I have another, Mark Forbes, he is a very. He's from Melbourne, a friend of mine. His stuff is very similar to Warren Kirk's, just very minimal. Not many like, just real calming, minimal kind of works. Jesse Marlowe, he's a. Is another one from Melbourne. I really. Yeah, I, I guess goes back to like, documenting Melbourne for what it is. He has photos from. Oh, he's a very big street photographer, but he has a lot of photos from an era of Melbourne that I don't know. So that's really interesting. It's similar to, like, Rennie Ellis as well, seeing pockets of Melbourne that non existent anymore are rather I find really interesting. And then. Yeah, then probably like some painters like Jeffrey Smart, just the way that he's painted works color, shade, that real just minimal sort of aspect. And then I have two books that I really like that I really wanted to show that I've found purely just by chance in op shops is this one. It's the photos from the people not watching. It's photos from the 1st of January 2000 and it's all the photos are taken on the 1st of January 2000 across Australia. [02:20:25] Speaker A: All different parties from a heap of different photographers or whatever. Yeah, a collection. [02:20:31] Speaker B: So then like the back page is. Is all like profiles of the photographers. [02:20:40] Speaker A: Oh wow. [02:20:41] Speaker B: So yeah, that one's a really good one. Pops up every now and then like in op shops. And then the other one that I really like, which my girlfriend's dad, David Bolitho, who was in before I was at his mom's house and. Or Em's grandma's house and I found. I was going through their books and I found this book and then like two days later I found it at the op shop and I was very, very stoked on it. And it's a day in the life of Australia and then it's May. This is like all the photo. I mean it's pretty average, but that's all the photographers that are in that, that took photos on that day. [02:21:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:21:26] Speaker B: And then this image here is. These photographers are holding a. A giant mirror to mirror the photographer who's taking the big group photo. So he's like. As well. Yeah. So like that's awesome. But yeah, so these photos were all taken on the March 6, 1981. So all on the same like day as well. Like all across. [02:21:54] Speaker A: Are those books related in any way or are they just two different publications that have a similar idea? [02:22:00] Speaker B: Same idea. You're like, like there's one that I. I probably should have done this earlier. Found one. But yeah, so like. Well, this is a good page. Like for instance, this one of this guy. [02:22:21] Speaker A: Oh man. [02:22:23] Speaker B: So his name's Crocodile Harry and he lives in Coober Pedy. So. And he was a croc hunter. But in my like Coober Pedy travels, you can go into his house as like a museum. So you pay like, like gold coin donation sort of thing and go into his house and you can like explore around. So that's. [02:22:45] Speaker A: Wow. [02:22:46] Speaker B: That's in his house, like, but he's since passed away. But like that's cool. Like I think that's what I really like that aspect of like a bygone era, I guess. [02:22:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And the story's living on. [02:22:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:23:00] Speaker A: So through images and. [02:23:03] Speaker B: But yeah, there's like. Or someone said. Yeah, I have the U.S. yeah. [02:23:07] Speaker A: David. David mascara says he's got the USA version. That's so cool. Is he. Is your USA version, David? Is it a first of the first 2,000 thing as well or is it just from like a random date somewhere? [02:23:19] Speaker B: So they have. There's like different ones. Like there's. I recently got a day in the life of China. Oh, cool. And there's like on the back page it says day in life of Spain, Italy, America, Japan, Canada and China. [02:23:34] Speaker A: Right. And is this. Is that the one from eight. The 80s? Not the one. [02:23:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's from the 80s. Yeah. [02:23:39] Speaker A: From the 80s. Yeah. Okay. [02:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Also another one that you can like find every now and then at the op shop, which is. [02:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I've been on a bit of a bit of a book spree lately. I've been buying a few new books that have. That have popped up through guests and stuff like that. But I do also, if there's like a books every now and then there's like books fairs and stuff in Bendigo and just go in there and just see what. What there is in just large format photo books and stuff like that. [02:24:06] Speaker B: Sick. [02:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's always good finds to be had. [02:24:09] Speaker B: Oh, when they first came out, when. [02:24:11] Speaker A: You bought it new David, that's. That's awesome. [02:24:15] Speaker B: Here I am buying it for like maybe it has the $5, $3. [02:24:20] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah. David's got an epic collection of like Nick on film cameras and, and SLRs and mirrorless and everything. He's a. Yeah, he's a photography. Photography fiend. Yeah. What? I'm old. [02:24:35] Speaker B: That's funny. We love it. [02:24:37] Speaker A: One day, David, we're getting you on the podcast. I reckon you're gonna have some stories. [02:24:41] Speaker B: Let's go through your collection. Yeah. [02:24:43] Speaker A: Show us all your books and cameras. Be a five hour podcast and. [02:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah, sorry. And the last one, I. This is a book. I've. I don't know how to say the person's name, so I'm not going to try. [02:24:56] Speaker A: Take a step. [02:24:57] Speaker B: Yeah, this is the name here. [02:25:02] Speaker A: Oh, I don't even know if I can. Hey. Okay. [02:25:08] Speaker B: I can't even say I'm not going to try. But yeah, the book is. It's pretty. It's pretty known. It's a. So this photographer was studying at the time and they were Taking photos of. Out their window of this play. Like a public ping pong table. [02:25:28] Speaker A: I saw this. Yeah, the ping pong table. And it was. It's the. The life. Like life. [02:25:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:25:33] Speaker A: Happening around that table. [02:25:34] Speaker B: Ping pong table. Yeah. So it's just like as time goes as a person, like stretching. [02:25:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very. [02:25:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's just like the whole life of the ping pong table. And it was a book. When I first started seeing my girlfriend, it was. I said it was my favorite book that I didn't have. So I learned about this photographer in. When I was studying. I think it was like first year photography or something. And they. One of the teachers showed me it and I was like, that's cool. And I kept seeing it. It was always like a little bit too expensive or I didn't have like it was only like store copy or something like that. And then for my birthday this year or anniversary or Christmas or something like that last year I. Yeah, she got me that book and it was like. But she had to get it from like overseas. It was nowhere in Australia that had it. Had to get it on like Amazon or something. But yeah, it's probably like one of my favorite books because it's for ages. It was. Yeah. My. The book that I never had, but it was my favorite. [02:26:39] Speaker A: That's awesome. [02:26:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:26:41] Speaker A: And it's worth it. You'd recommend. If people can get their hands on it. [02:26:44] Speaker B: It's. It's a very like coffee table book. [02:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:26:48] Speaker B: Like a. Why do you have this? I'm a photographer. I like it because. [02:26:54] Speaker A: Because I like it. Because if I can, I'll find a link to it or something and put in the show notes below. Since neither of us can pronounce the name of the. Of the photographer, I'll see if I can track it down. Hang on. Yeah, what's the name again? What? Yeah, what's the name of the book? Can you. Is it. [02:27:13] Speaker B: I don't even think it has. I'll find it interesting. Yeah. Couldn't tell you. [02:27:22] Speaker A: Photography book about table tennis table. Come on, Google, hit me. Oh yeah, here we go. Ttp. [02:27:38] Speaker B: Is that what it's called? I think that sounds. Maybe it's on there. [02:27:41] Speaker A: I think the book is just called TTP. [02:27:43] Speaker B: TCP. [02:27:45] Speaker A: Yep. [02:27:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Winner of the first book award, 2018, first edition, fifth printing. [02:27:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll. I'll drop a link. [02:28:02] Speaker B: I'll do so I've just always known it as the table tennis table. [02:28:09] Speaker A: Look, I'll put the full name in the chat and I'll find a link later to the book in Australia. But yeah, TTP seems to be what it's called. Trust me though, Google works if you Google photography book about table tennis table it's the first result. [02:28:26] Speaker B: So yeah. [02:28:30] Speaker A: And David said you're not going to believe it, but I just found A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces and also A Day in the Life of Soviet Union. 5.99. Nice. And what's it say? 1987 front cover shot with a Nikon F3 on Kodachrome, back cover shot with a Nikon FM2 on the Soviet Union book. Yeah, they sound like great books. Go on a shopping spree so we can track down on the Internet. [02:29:01] Speaker B: But. [02:29:04] Speaker A: Matt's chimed in. Good to see Matt in the chat. Hope the gallery is going well. He says if a girlfriend is tracking down obscure photo books for you, she's a keeper. [02:29:15] Speaker B: Yep, sure is. [02:29:18] Speaker A: Sure is. All right, it's almost. We've been rolling for a while. It's been almost two and a half hours. I'm sure you've probably got stuff to do today, but before we wrap up, actually a couple of things. I've got one more rapid fire question for you in a second. Before we do that, I just saw a message come through from Jim. This show is sponsored by Lucky Straps. We make leather camera straps. We've made them for 11 years here in Bendigo in Australia and we ship them all over the world, which is pretty fun. They're great straps, check them out. But if you do want to buy one, we set up codes for the three co hosts of this show. Justin, Greg, Jim. So if you want to buy a strap, you can use any of those three codes to get a discount. And Jim just messaged before to say another order's come through with Jim as the code, which means he's currently winning as the most popular co host of the show, which is crazy because he does the least amount of episodes. So please, if you are going to buy a camera strap, use the code Justin and get 15% off. Don't use the code Jim or Greg. Use Code Justin. Anyway, that's the ad read for today. [02:30:27] Speaker B: Jim's like easier to remember though it. [02:30:29] Speaker A: Might be that we'll go with that. It's definitely not because he's the most popular. But yeah, I was like, I can't have this. It has to be. We cannot. So please use code Justin. I love that I leave the ads till two and a half hours into the podcast as well. It's definitely the best business strategy you could possibly have. Now, finally, before we let you go, two more questions. First question is silly but fun. If there was a zombie apocalypse and you had to jump in the car, set up the inflatable mattress, and just head into the outback of Australia to hide from zombies, but you can only take one camera and one lens to document the Australiana rural zombie apocalypse, what would it be? [02:31:15] Speaker B: It probably my Fuji with the stock lens, I think. [02:31:19] Speaker A: Nice. [02:31:20] Speaker B: I know that sounds. Yeah. I don't know. Like, I kind of dabbled on a little bit, like when we were talking about gear. But yeah, I don't know, something. Growing up, shooting Canon and shooting like, you know, you get a. I got like a thousand D. That was my first camera. But having that and then having like whatever their stock lens is the 18 to 55, where it's like f4 to 5. 6. And it's like a plastic yuck piece of thing. Yes. Sorry, David, it is the wrong answer. Sorry. The Canon 1 DX would probably be the best thing because it's like built like a brick, but also it's heavy. [02:32:02] Speaker A: It's heavy. Gotta lug it around. [02:32:04] Speaker B: Very heavy. Yeah, but, yeah, the. The stock lens, I don't know, it's very. It. It's built nicely. It feels heavy. It feels, well, weighty. It feels like it. It's. There's a bit of love to it, I guess. But. Yeah, no, I do really, like. I shoot that a lot. I use it a lot. Yeah, I don't know what it is. [02:32:27] Speaker A: Stick with what you know when there's zombies coming at you. All right, and final question, like, all right, well, where can people follow you? Keep up with what you're doing? And. And do you have any plans for. Yeah, anything in the near future showing your work, anything like that you want to plug? Hit us with it. [02:32:44] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, I just. Instagram Nathan ccp. One word. Because sometimes people put the space in the middle and go, oh, you're like Chinese Communist Party. I'm like, no, no, it's my middle name. Last name. Photography is what that is. [02:33:02] Speaker A: You know, it's fun, it's funny. I was gonna ask. I didn't know if it was like a kind of an in joke or something like that that you'd set up. You know, when you first set up Instagram, you're like, this would be funny or whatever. But no, that makes. [02:33:11] Speaker B: Not at all. [02:33:12] Speaker A: It's now. Okay, cool. [02:33:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And I used to, like, hate when people would, like if I was in a show or someone would like Credit my work. It was always like Nathan Space, ccp. And I was like, no, one word. This looks really bad. Doesn't look good. So, yeah, just on Instagram and then I have my, my website portfolio, which is in. Yeah. Which will be in the link. I just recently curated a show at Revolver upstairs in Prahran down Chapel street, called out of Sight, which is. I was invited to curate a show, come up with a completely new name, everything concept for a photography exhibition. So it's a one night only thing. It happened last Friday, one night only, from 5 till 9pm 15, 16 photographers. The theme for this year's was street photography. Whatever your. Whatever you see that as. And yeah, was pretty successful night. I've been invited back to come back again next year and run it again. So who knows what happens there with that. But that'll be next year's issues. A zine. I'm looking to do a zine. When I figure out how to actually make a zine. Which I'm sure it's probably super easy, but at the moment I think it's quite difficult. [02:34:40] Speaker A: I'm sure there's more to it than. Yeah, yeah, hopefully if anyone's got experience, reach out. [02:34:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got a few friends that are always like, just do it, I need you, I just need to ask for help. So most likely with my 19 to 19 series and I'll probably do it as like first year, second year, third year sort of thing and then maybe take that series of work, 19 to 19 to a solo show because I feel like it's a. Yeah, very. It's a variety of work but it's also like we met, like you mentioned, like it's taken in a specific style. Yeah, it all kind of links together. So yeah, I'll probably do that. That's my love. [02:35:21] Speaker A: I love that series and I think that's a great thing to pursue. And the cool thing is, is that, you know, it can, you can, it can keep going, you know, it doesn't have to finish. [02:35:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:35:31] Speaker A: You can still curate a collection and put it out there in some way. [02:35:35] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And for me, like always like those bodies of work and shows and stuff. Like I'd never had a show prior to or like before. I've never had a solo show or anything. So for me it was always like, is do I have a strong enough body of work to have a show? Like I was always going to exhibitions and seeing people's works and being like, I don't really have a body of work that's strong enough for a show yet. So I kept putting it off. Putting it off. And I think now I'm at a position where I have a strong body of work to showcase. [02:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Do it and let us know when you're doing it. We'll try and come down and check it out. I'm sure Greg will hopefully be in his neck of the woods. [02:36:18] Speaker B: Yeah, excellent. [02:36:20] Speaker A: And yeah, with that, that's pretty much it. I want to plug a couple of shows we've got coming up. Like I said, we've got Chris Hopkins in two weeks, 20, 24th of April. Don't miss that one. That's going to be a great show. I'm very excited. And next week we've got Dean Cooper, landscape photographer from South Australia. So that'll be awesome. Philip Johnson says thanks, Justin. And Nathan, good show. Get better, Greg. Yes, get better, Greg. David says David Mascara from San Francisco, number 15 just got delivered a D500. So 15 Nikons in David's David's little collection now, along with some epic 80s photography books, by the sounds of it. And he says thanks. Thanks, guys. Loved your black and whites, Nathan. So Bruce says, thanks, guys. Great show. Love your work, Nathan. [02:37:14] Speaker B: Cheers. Thank you. [02:37:16] Speaker A: A lot of love in the chat today, so really appreciate your time. Two and a half hours. Epic. [02:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah, Sick. [02:37:26] Speaker A: Really cool. Anything you want to say to the team before we sign off? [02:37:31] Speaker B: No, thanks. Thanks for the invite. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I don't know. Thanks. People who support my work, friends, family. Yeah. [02:37:42] Speaker A: I think we're going to look back at that kind of work in 20, 30, 40 years and be like, fuck, that was. That was a cool time. And it takes. It takes people like you to document it and document in a special way that that speaks through, you know, I love it. [02:37:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Cool. [02:37:59] Speaker A: All right, with that, we're out. We'll catch you guys in the next one.