EP94 Luke Tscharke | Nature, infrared, aerial, & nightscape photography

[00:00:23] Speaker A: Well, good morning everybody and welcome to the Camera Life podcast. It's the 3rd of July 2025 and this is episode 94 of the Came Life podcast, proudly brought to you by Lucky straps. Head to Luckystraps.com for an impressively beautiful leather camera strap proudly made here in Australia, in Bendigo, Victoria in fact, by team Lucky Straps. We we're coming to you live today from a very chilly southern end of Australia. And of course we're joined by Justin and Jim. G' day guys. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Good morning. [00:00:57] Speaker C: Morning Greg. [00:00:57] Speaker A: Good morning. Is it cold in Bendigo this morning? [00:01:01] Speaker B: Not too bad actually. Not too bad. Not as cold as it was yesterday or the day before. They were chilly. [00:01:07] Speaker A: They were chilly. Speaking of chilly places, we are joined today by highly acclaimed and award winning Australian landscape photographer from Tasmania, Australia. And if you're not from Australia, if you, if you're watching or listening from overseas, Google it, you'll see why we call it, why we have the, the phrase map of Tazzy. [00:01:31] Speaker C: There it is. [00:01:31] Speaker A: But we're joined by Luke Sharkey. G' day Luke. [00:01:34] Speaker C: Hey, how you going guys? Thanks so much for having me on. Thanks for coming. [00:01:37] Speaker B: Thanks for joining us. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Oh, it's our absolute pleasure. Our absolute pleasure. I remember early on in the, when I first joined the team to co host this podcast with Jim and Justin, I remember Justin saying I need to get Luke Sharkey on. I need to get Luke Sharkey on. When we're talking about potential guests, you were at the top of the list for quite some time and, and here we are today. So it's so great to have you on board and is it a cold morning in, in, in Tasmania at the moment? [00:02:03] Speaker C: Look at cold as a. Cold is a, what do you say, subjective term. But I think at the moment you could say it's in that realm about 5 degrees. But we've had a few frosty mornings so it's nice to have a bit of a more overcast morning that makes the temperature just that little bit more accessible but you know, still in blowing the clouds and inside as you know when you're with your breath. So it a nice, nice chilly morning. Got nice to you know, get up and be on a podcast first thing rather than languishing in bed or something like that. So. [00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I'm, I'm very curious. I, I noticed on your about page that you've got, you know, pronounced sharky. I want to know what's the sort of the weirdest attempt at pronouncing your name that you've heard in your lifetime Your surname? [00:02:52] Speaker C: That's a really good question. And they're. That's exactly why I have it on there, because it's just so such a common thing. And I feel like it's my. Something that I can give to the world in helping people understand how to pronounce it, so that they don't have to have that level of anxiety when they meet me. But basically, the key one is when you go on a plane. And I think Qantas must have used to have had a policy where they tried to welcome you aboard saying your last name. So, welcome aboard, Mr. Sharkey. But be Mr. Taj, Mr. Chaka, Mr. And then it's just like, welcome aboard, sir. You know, there was no one. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Hi, Mr. Luke. [00:03:34] Speaker C: Silence. He kind of gets everybody. And it's from the Brussa Valley, where my. You know, I think I'm fifth generation from the Brossa in South Australia, and it's settled by Germans. And so in the Brosser, of course, everyone completely knows how to say it and it all makes sense, but you go anywhere else and it gets a little more interesting. And so when you're, like, waiting in a queue where they have to call your name out or something like that, you have to listen very carefully because they could be calling your name out, but it's just not what you're expecting. [00:04:06] Speaker B: He's sitting there, they're like, that's not me. Oh, hang on a minute. That could be me. Yeah, I just really want my coffee. [00:04:12] Speaker A: Please call my name. [00:04:13] Speaker B: Oh, that's funny. [00:04:14] Speaker C: Exactly. So. But it's good to be distinctive, I suppose, with the surname like that. So can't help. I think I was able to get my Instagram handle, which was easy because no one would have picked that. So that's pretty good. [00:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a fair point. And of course, being the Camera Live podcast, we are coming to you live right as we speak. And so if you are watching along, say hi in the chat. Let us know who you are, where you're and where you're watching from. Because we've been getting guests from all over the globe lately. [00:04:45] Speaker B: I might say good morning to a few of them. Actually, there's. There's a few in there this morning. Well, we got Paul. Paul's unfortunately says employment gets in the way again, but he says, good morning, everyone, and he'll catch us on the replay. Morning, Paul. Morning, Paul. We've got Bruce Moyle. Morning, everyone. Stuck at home with COVID so I can join you live this morning. So that's cool. Good to have you and hope you're well, mate. Cold here in Launceston as well. [00:05:10] Speaker C: I hope you're recovering. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Kev Morse. Morning all from Margate, Tasmania. The Tassie Crew is. Is here. [00:05:19] Speaker C: Yeah, they're representing. Really glad to see. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Philip Johnson says morning all. Philip, thank you. He saw some of our scheduled shows and he messaged me on Facebook and was like, the time is wrong for one of your upcoming shows. It's at 5:30, not 7:30. I was like, thank you very much. [00:05:38] Speaker C: Thanks. [00:05:38] Speaker B: Phillips. Phillips. In a very chilly Katoomba elevation there. [00:05:43] Speaker A: Where's Katumba? [00:05:44] Speaker C: I'm not sure. Blue Mountains. [00:05:46] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:48] Speaker A: It would be cold. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Sam Olson. Morning. Rodney Nicholson says, morning thrill seekers. And we've got the one and only Nick Fletcher in the house. Hello, legends. We've also got David Fluttersuck in the house who says, woo go, Luke. And then we've also got. We've also got David Clutter Buck in the house that says, looking forward to this with Luke. Let's see if he can be better than the amazing Nick Fletcher now. I don't know, there may be a little bit of shenanigans going on between. [00:06:29] Speaker C: Her account. Does he have two burner accounts? [00:06:33] Speaker A: Yeah, he's got two burner accounts. [00:06:34] Speaker B: I hope he's got more than two. We'll see. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Good to see you, Nick. [00:06:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:06:41] Speaker B: And finally, Greg Carrick. Morning all. Have to go to a funeral later. Oh, sorry. Thought I'd drop in and get in the mood. Well, wow. Goodness. [00:06:49] Speaker A: I don't know what to make of that. [00:06:51] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:06:51] Speaker B: I don't know what to say with that. What do we do with that? Condolences. Okay. [00:06:56] Speaker A: All right. Good morning, everybody. And just a reminder, if you, if, if you're new to the channel, make sure you give us a like on this episode. It helps us out a lot, lets other people see it. The algorithms of YouTube. Share it with more people, the more that it gets liked. And if you are new, please make sure you like and subscribe. Tickle the bell so you get notified of upcoming episodes. We do a Thursday morning episode, 9:00am Australian Eastern Standard Time, and a Monday evening episode, 7:30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. And that is the random photography show where we get up to all sorts of shenanigans. So. So, yeah, make sure you follow along. Now, Luke, we've been wanting to get you on this podcast for some time now. You're, you know, very early on. I mentioned earlier before we went live at the top of our list. It's great to have you on the show. Can you give us just a very quick 60 second grab of who you are and what you do, what you stand for? [00:07:51] Speaker C: Oh, 60 seconds. All right, here we go. Well, I am my, my job or what I do feels weird to call it a job but I'm a landscape photographer here in Hobart, Tasmania. But my background's actually as a scientist and I worked in the corporate career for many years and decided to quit my job and follow my passion. And you know, I've been doing now almost 10 years full time photography and I really got inspired by Tasmania early on and couldn't think anything more about where to go and when I was trying to do a trip or plan any shoots. And so I decided to move down here and sort of build a life for myself down in Tasmania and sort of surround myself with the beautiful landscapes that really inspired me and gave me so much. And so I like to take, yeah, beautiful pictures of beautiful things and hopefully inspire people to respect the environment and get out and do their own exploring and connection with nature as well. So you just, I think the world can be a bit of an ugly place sometimes. So if I can make it a bit more beautiful through the images that I share then that's, I'm happy for that to be my lot in life, you know. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Yeah, just on that, let's get heavy really quickly. Do you think that there is an increasing role in landscape photography to promote what remains of the natural world, to help protect it, to help people understand that hey, it is actually quite fragile, we are slowly destroying it. [00:09:26] Speaker C: Well, I think it's an inadvertent role. Like I'm not necessarily going out there. Even the great Peter Dombroskis, who's my images, his images are behind me. He went out there to really connect with nature and take those photos. And his famous Rock Island Bend shot was used in the Franklin campaign and sort of helped to save the river. And I don't think he necessarily went out there to save the Franklin by taking that picture. It just the work that we do can then be used to inspire for different causes. And certainly from my perspective I been able to donate my images to Dark Sky Tasmania to help promote dark sky conservation. And I haven't actually gone out there to take those pictures for that cause initially I just didn't realize I was shooting their campaign for them that whole time and they connected with me and I was able to provide those images to them. So in a lot of ways I think it's a much more organic way. We're kind of doing that whether we plan to or not. And in some ways then you connect with the landscape and realize that you can play that role in order to bring about that awareness. But I think it's also important to acknowledge that we aren't necessarily conservationists inherently and we have our own foibles and challenges in how we operate in the natural landscape as well. But there's certainly a huge role in. And we're really documenting the world as it was, not necessarily as it will be as climate change is taking over. So there's definitely a deep aspect to that. [00:11:06] Speaker A: So you're not chaining yourself to a tree with a Sony A7. [00:11:09] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I wouldn't take the Sony in there. I'd take a Fuji or something like that if I had to do that. [00:11:16] Speaker B: Wouldn't want to waste one of those. Good full frame. [00:11:19] Speaker C: Sorry we're talking about that before the show. But the. No, I think, you know, I'm extremely grateful there's people out there that, that, that are willing to do that and, you know, and I kind of wish I could do a bit more direct in action like that, but the reality is that, you know, we've all got our strengths and our places where we can have an impact. And I'd like to think that if I can get a lot of eyeballs to see some beautiful shots about a place, then, then that has its own inherent value and there's certainly a place for those direct action type things as well. But we've all got our point to play and so certainly being able to provide images and assist with campaigns and things like that make a huge difference, I think. [00:12:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And could you explain, just. Sorry, Justin, just quickly, what is dark sky conservation? [00:12:09] Speaker C: Well, basically, light pollution is really getting more and more encroaching into wilderness areas. And so the idea is that you can make smarter choices with how you light your properties or your houses or just the street light in urban areas and shield the lighting better, use less powerful lighting. Does the light need to be on at all? And by making those decisions, we actually have less light pollution overall. And it means that some places in the world now you can walk outside and see the Milky Way in the sky, just in suburbia, because the lighting choices that are being made mean that, you know, the night time's coming back and people's circadian rhythms are getting better. The wildlife that operate well, that are nocturnal get, get to, you know, be a bit more in their natural environment and those sort of things. So the, the concept is purely about an understanding that we can Actually reduce that light pollution as well. And as a night skate photographer, obviously having darker skies is also a really nice positive benefit in being able to get some beautiful photos as well. So everyone wins and I get to sort of help keep those skies nice and dark as well through that process. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Very cool, Very cool. I just wanted to highlight a couple of things, Greg. Just pump Luke's ties up a touch before we dig into his story. But if anyone isn't already aware of Luke's work, he's won numerous awards for landscape photography and night sky, nightscape photography, whatever you want to call it. Particularly amazing body of work with Auroras, which is quite captivating. And then also you've contributed and even been featured on the COVID of Australian Geographic multiple times, I think. And so that's very, very cool. And also a Sony digital imaging advocate, which is like a partnership. So you would do, work with Sony, the brand in Australia? [00:14:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yep, yep. Do a lot of work with Sony and, and definitely my biggest sort of brand sort of partnership. And, and I don't know if there's a better partnership to have than with the actual company that provides the very equipment you're capturing with and, and being able to actually, that they're supporting me through. I can run events on their behalf and that. That's a. Actually a big portion of my income in terms of that relationship as well. So it's a very organic and very, very meaningful connection that I have. We just actually had the big Sony Kando event down in Hobart which is where all of the advocates and ambassadors and the Sony team get together and go on some different shoots and events like that. And it's just amazing to be part of a brand that is so willing to invest in their community. And it's just. Yeah, just a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's amazing. [00:15:09] Speaker A: I think we're seeing more of that now. Brands are realizing that they can't just sell great products. I mean, it's always been a consideration. But I think, you know, we've seen improved and increased effort from camera brands to build community. And they've always had ambassadors, but, you know, greater levels of community involvement. You know, in Fujifilm, we've seen the Ex, the Creator Summit that they held in Sydney, very much targeted at content creators, like a younger market, younger demographic. We're seeing more of that stuff coming out from brands. What would be your advice? So for say, a photographer who, you know, wants to step up their game and maybe wants to be noticed and potentially in the future work with a brand, what would be Your number one piece of advice or a couple of pieces of advice you'd give someone to build their reputation and be considered by a big brand? [00:16:03] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I can definitely give a few pointers there and certainly what I've picked up from my perspective, I was lucky to be living in Sydney, which is where the head office is, and it does actually make a big difference to be relatively local to where the sort of decision makers are. So because it's a bit easier for them to call you in for a meeting or catch up or bump into them or attend events that they run. But if a brand is running an event like the summit, you're talking about where you can actually pay to go or be involved and just having your face in the room, even if you, you know, you're, you know, you want to go, if you're invited, don't barge your way in. But if there's an opportunity to attend, then definitely do so because you get to meet the people that would be making decisions about those programs. Also actively tagging the brand or whatever the social account is relevant to that brand in everything you're sharing makes a direct connection as well. And that become, brings about awareness. Hopefully it's in a, in a genre or topic that they're hoping to have someone communicate about. So that, that definitely helps. And then with Sony also, a lot of the ambassadors or advocates have actually come up through the Sony Alpha Awards and a lot of the times people that do well in the Alpha Awards or entering in that competition, you know, it's a direct way of the, the Sony team actually seeing the quality of the work that people are producing and if, you know, they see the name pop up everywhere and then they're also in the awards as well, then that definitely helps. And it certainly doesn't also hurt to send an email or if there's an open. I know that in the past the advocate programs actually had invitations to, I guess apply for it. So obviously that makes a lot of sense to do it at that time too. So if you're already sort of a familiar name with the team, plus you put an application in for the program or sent an email, I'm just saying, look, if there is any other social programs that you're running, I'd love to be part of, then don't be a pain in the butt either, but those sort of approaches would be kind of your best way of doing it, I would have thought. [00:18:13] Speaker A: No, I think it's great advice. [00:18:16] Speaker B: So I'm just going to attempt to fix my camera because it's hunting focus and I'm guessing the focus point is set to, I don't know, a corner or something. I rearranged my entire office yesterday and it doesn't look any different, but from my perspective, from my perspective it's all different nor better. You mentioned that Alpha Awards. Are you. Has that happened yet this year? Did I see that you're doing that? [00:18:42] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I'm so the astrophotography judge for this year, which I'm pretty excited about. It's the 10th year that they're running the AFRA Awards and it's pretty amazing because you get to enter the Alpha Awards for free. And the prizes, you know, I think it's quite considerable. Sony store vouchers. So you could definitely get your favorite lens or camera body that you're, you're hoping to buy. And yeah, the entries just closed, so that closed it on the 30th of June. And yeah, so looking forward to getting tapped on the shoulder soon and having a swag of entries come my way for going through. The quality is normally really high and I'm often looking at them going, wow, you know, I've got to lift my game because these, these images are coming through looking pretty good. So yeah, I'm just really pumped about that. [00:19:28] Speaker B: Just down vote them and crush their spirits and then, then you'll win. You know, this person's too good. I'm going to give them a really low score. Otherwise they're gonna become an amazing photographer. [00:19:40] Speaker C: Better be fair and impartial, as they say. But no, definitely, yeah. It's an interesting job being a judge and I have done it a few times. I'm actually judging a few other competitions this year as well and it's a very unusual place to find yourself in some ways because you, you know, am I biasing? I like to overthink and so am I thinking about this thing too much or is it, you know, the difficult level of difficulty to take the shot isn't necessarily a decision factor in the quality of the image and so how much weight do you apply on these different factors? So that can be a real struggle sometimes. So. But it is a fun process too. [00:20:21] Speaker B: Have you ever done it on a panel, you know, that sort of live in person judging style weather images, you know, how they used to do it in AIPP and stuff like that, the images would get presented and then the panel discuss and that kind of stuff? [00:20:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I've done live judging at camera clubs, which is very daunting because any comment you're making the person that's taken that image is literally in the audience. And so using the sandwich technique of a, you know, suggestions of improvement, you know, is a good way of doing it. But that cough wasn't meant to be about anything. It was just, I love, I love the idea of being able to provide really constructive feedback, not criticism about what I feel could be done to improve the image. Whether the photographer agrees with, that's another thing. But I guess that's what I'm there for to, to provide that feedback. I just don't see a point in judging something and, and just saying you don't like it and moving on, because there's no value in that for anything. And I have also judged the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition quite a few years ago now. And that was also a really amazing process to go through an entire competition like that and, and really see how the, the cream rises to the, the top with that as well. So definitely a, a pretty privileged role to be in. I always make sure I say, you know, like, this is just my opinion, you know, someone else might come along and say, you know, something completely different. And also, you know, when you're getting to the top echelons of a competition, really anything in that could have won. At the end of the day, if you're in the top 10%, realistically you probably could have won. This might be a few images that are just complete outliers, of course, but, you know, the reality is of these competitions that it's pretty fierce and in terms of the competitiveness and, you know, if you're getting good result, then you should just be able to pat yourself on the back from that. Well, that's what I like to tell myself anyway. Yeah, I don't get a good result. [00:22:31] Speaker B: Few questions and comments in the chat. Just quickly just on that. But first, before I get to the question, another Tassie Digifrog is here. Dave Clark. It's weird that that Nick's burner accounts have ended up as Dave's as well, because we already had an abundance of Dave's. Now we've got even more RXA photography. Good morning. Robert Varner. Hi. From New Jersey. Robert. And the one and only Grant Fleming, former and maybe still kinder co host of the show. We just had a silent partner. He hasn't been on an episode for, I don't know, 80 episodes or something. Grant says. Morning all. Been a big fan of Luke for many years. Can't remember if I found him on Project Rawcast. Or Oz Scapers back in the day. Did either of those ring a bell? [00:23:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I think a couple of those. I think both of them do. But yeah, that's, that's gone back. That's a, that's the time. Yeah. Instagram makes you realize you've been in the game a while when you, when you about think, think about those sort of podcasts and those things. But yeah, it's, it's good. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Very cool. Bruce Moyle forgot to enter the Alpha Awards this year, but, but he does. Hang on. First we'll just. Robert Varner says my photos are so bad my camera filed for a divorce. [00:23:59] Speaker C: Hiding away. [00:24:00] Speaker B: I'm sure Bruce wants to know if you're judging at Iris Awards. [00:24:04] Speaker C: I'm not at the Iris this year, but I am. I think Bruce is also heading over to the New Zealand photo show, which is, yeah, really, really excited to have been invited to speak at that this year in Christchurch. So I'm heading over in early August and yeah, so great to be involved with that. And I don't know if I've really got the professional judge training that's maybe some of those competitions really need. Certainly my, my friend Paul Holland, who I work with is, you know, got that in spades in terms of how much experience he has and makes me realize how much there is to learn about judging as well. So I don't certainly pretend to be a, you know, top line professional judge by any means, but I guess at the end of the day you're just saying what you think looks good or not. So I can definitely do that. [00:24:46] Speaker B: Exactly. I saw the dates for that New Zealand photo show literally this morning when I was looking at some of your stuff and I was like, so I'm going to New Zealand. I'll be. I'm flying into Christchurch on the 6th, I think. I don't. But I think I'll be. I'm snowboarding and it's all like, it's all booked and sorted. [00:25:08] Speaker C: We're. [00:25:08] Speaker B: We're doing Halley out of Methven and I don't like, I don't think I was trying to figure out whether the dates. If there's any way that I can. [00:25:15] Speaker C: Well, you should do. There's a trade show here and everything so it would line up. [00:25:18] Speaker A: I think Dennis Smith is going over too. [00:25:20] Speaker C: Oh, cool. Oh, fantastic. [00:25:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, I think, I mean, you could almost claim the whole trip on business now, Justin. Half it. [00:25:27] Speaker B: The Halle trip might be a stretch, but damn it, I can't believe that it's. Anyway yeah, it's funny. What are the. Because I even thought I was like, oh, it won't even be. It won't be anywhere near where we are. So, you know, it's probably not even. And then it's like, I'm flying into Crosschurch. It's right there. Anyway, I'll see what I can do. [00:25:47] Speaker C: Hmm. [00:25:50] Speaker A: Let's roll back the clock a little bit because there's a few things I think we want to cover off and particularly around that kind of those big life decisions around a, you know, moving to Tasmania to make the most of the opportunities that the landscape presents. And we have had a number of guests and obviously people in the chat from Tassie who are landscape photographers who just, you know, they just embrace that opportunity, which is pretty phenomenal. But also about your life change in career. You know, you decided you were a scientist and you decided to move into full time photography. But before we even get to that, those stages of your life, let's go back a bit further and talk about your early inspirations from a creative perspective. You know, where you were, were you an artistic kid? Was having a camera in the family something that you remember? You know, when did you kind of get into photography? I guess when did you realize that this was something for you? [00:26:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, wow. It's going back in time, isn't it? But I, I found the other day actually a little, little thing I wrote in school, it must have been in primary school. It was like my left my life 20 years from now and I was like, I'll be a professional photographer or I'll be a park ranger in the Flinders Ranges taking photos. And my photos we are published in magazines and, and books and things like that. And I wrote that, you know, I must have been always thinking it would be nice to be taking photos. And my uncle Mark actually is a park ranger and he was a photographer as well. And I think I got quite inspired by how he could go out with a camera and capture some of the creatures that he finds and the landscapes that he was working with. And that certainly had a big influence. And on top of that, my dad had a very healthy Nat Geo collection at home and some encyclopedias and some old sort of books about, you know, Lapland or, you know, the, was it Vancouver island or other sort of Alaska? These sort of places where you could just page through and they're all very pictorial. And I would always be thinking about how it would be amazing to be able to take those sort of photos myself. And so my parents had a old Film camera but. And I'd take that and they gave me a point and shoot and you know, I'd try and take some shots with that but realized it's actually not as easy as it looks. You know, you can't just go and take a sort of a Nat Geo photo with a point and shoot sort of film camera. And I never really pursued it that much because I didn't want my family to my parents and that to always have to be paying for film to be developed and you know we had, I was a family of five kids so you know it's a, you know, the money's always a bit stretched and I thought it would be a bit self indulgent to do that. So I never really followed up on that until digital really came out. So when, when the, the canon sort of DSLRs became affordable and I was working full time, I was like, you know I've always had this passion for being able to take a photo. Actually my first camera was a Sony DSCV1 which actually was a five megapixel digital camera I got in the early 2000s and. And so I was playing around with those kind of cameras earlier on and but it was really when I moved to Melbourne in about 2007, 2008 when I got really inspired by the skyline coming from Adelaide where I was at the beforehand seeing like you know the Balti Bridge and Web bridge and the Yara and they had this amazing Ferris wheel at Burang Ma and I was just like this is a kind of a playground for taking night sort of cityscape photos. And so I, I decided to try it and, and you know, I think I was paying sixteen hundred dollars for a 450d and a twin lens kit and I just spend most evenings after work going out photographing Melbourne cityscapes from Williamstown or yeah, the other places I mentioned a lot of, a lot of basically didn't have any filters. So I worked out that Blue Hour was a, a really good time to be going out taking photos because you have a nice transition, the exposures balance really well and yeah, just sort of took it from there really. And I got involved with the Flickr community in Melbourne which was really amazing because you'd go and have a drink and you know, maybe have a few too many drinks and then go out and take some photos around the city and talk about cameras and made some really good friends through that. And really then I've always been quite a, an awkward social person. So being able to connect over cameras was A really nice way of being able to do that and make some friends through that. And for a new person in Melbourne to be able to make some friends was really great. And yeah, it sort of just moved from there really. So that's so started up really shooting cityscapes in Melbourne and, and kind of snowballed from there. You could say, wow. [00:30:47] Speaker B: So started with cityscapes. Like when you say snowballed from there, do you remember any moments where you're like, all right, I need to go on a trip specifically to a location. I want to go and shoot this thing that I've seen or explore this location. Do you remember when that first started happening? [00:31:08] Speaker C: I think it would be just sort of spreading my wings from Melbourne, like going out to photograph the Batesford Bonsai, we used to call it, all the beautiful tree out in Batesford near Geelong. And someone's, I think someone's butchered that and they had to cut it down, which I was devastated about. But you know, photographing like or in the Bellarine Peninsula or I think when certain new things opened up, like different bridges or, or aspects like that, it was, it was fun to do that and photograph those new, new things. It was a really good time to be in Melbourne because that there's a lot of development, there was a lot of new things opening and interesting buildings to be photographing. And you're going down to the Mornington Peninsula or and then gradually up into the Yarra Ranges then to, you know, the Grampians and sort of started to spread further and further. And I realized that I could now do a bit of landscape work and other kind of areas of photography that weren't just city based as well and sort of explore that a lot more. So I can't remember a specific time in this context of going out to explore, but it just became a very clear passion of mine to be able to always capture the world in the way that I wanted to. [00:32:27] Speaker B: Were there any, maybe not specific times, but are there any specific images that you have memories of that you sort of were, I guess, milestones where you were like, I'm, you know, super proud of this one image or something in those early days or I don't know, or other people really resonated with, with a particular image that you shot that helped motivate you to keep going and keep progressing your craft? [00:32:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I had an image that I took of Melbourne from Williamstown which would have been within the first thousand photos I took, I think. And it actually got picked up by Flickr and got used Quite a lot on Flickr across different. It was. Became like the. The main image that they used for Melbourne when they were talking about Melbourne communities or things like that and that. That and then, you know, take shots and they'd get put up through the Explore algorithm on Flickr, which at the time was kind of like the place to be putting your photos. Really. Yeah. And it felt really good to get some engagement. So it was very early sort of social media days from that perspective and ironically later, because when Instagram started up or got, you know, bigger, I could just pull all my Flickr shots and just put them onto Instagram. So I had this pipeline that of shots I knew that would do really well straight onto Instagram, which. Which definitely helped me grow my account earlier on. [00:33:50] Speaker B: That's interesting. Did. Did any. Did you notice any similarities or differences between what went well on. On, say, Flickr versus when you, like, started posting on Instagram in those early days? Were the same sort of photos popular on both? [00:34:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I was just sort of picking my best shots. And back in those days, this is like 2014 on Instagram, like, everything did well and you. There was no filter, there was no algorithm, so you just put up a photo and all of the comments and likes and everything was a very, very different experience. And so, yeah, that was. Yeah, that was so it really. That sounded a bit, you know, a bit arrogant to say, but really it was like that everything would just. There wasn't that many other landscape photographers on there as much as well. So if you put up some, you know, quality work, then it would get noticed pretty easily. And so that was. That was pretty. Pretty awesome. No ads at all? No, it was just. It was a chronological feed. You could game it a bit too. You could change your tags and then, you know, so there was. There wasn't a lot of the rules that they have now around stuff. So not that I was gaming it necessarily, but the. It was. It was optimizing different platforms before Meta. [00:35:11] Speaker A: And it was exciting in the days you were excited to get your images onto this new platform because it meant that you could share your work with others and, and you could see your friends work and. And gain inspiration from new photographers. But now I find it so hard to find, you know, due to the algorithms, even just stuff that my friends have done. That's amazing that you just never come across it. [00:35:32] Speaker C: I find that really. Challenge. Definitely a challenge. Yeah. [00:35:36] Speaker A: So from Melbourne. [00:35:38] Speaker C: Sorry, I was just gonna say I find them nowhere near as engaged with it as I was back in those Days because of the changes that they've made and the skew towards video. For me also, I don't really want to have to do reels or things just to be seen. I feel like that's a real detriment to people that really focus on stills. Yeah. [00:35:59] Speaker A: It's a lot of extra work, isn't it? [00:36:02] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's. I just don't want to have to spend my time creating that kind of content when that's not what I'm trying to achieve really. And maybe, maybe, you know, you have to, you have to always follow the path that's going to get you the results. And maybe that's to my own detriment, but I feel like that's, you know, you've only got so much time. Yeah. [00:36:22] Speaker B: Do you, have you experimented with or looked into any of the like photography focused social media platforms? I guess the, the modern attempts at Flickr, like Glass or Another one was just. I'm just trying to find it. Another one was just announced today actually. [00:36:42] Speaker C: All right. Okay. [00:36:44] Speaker B: It's not, it's like in pretty something just trying to find it. Here we go. Alan. Alan. Shola. Shola. Shola launches social media network for photographers called Iris Irys Iris. But it's not the screen grabs and stuff from it. But I don't think it's officially public yet. [00:37:08] Speaker C: But I guess, yeah, I just get a bit exhausted with it all to be honest. I mean I feel like you know where you're gonna. Yeah. It's just if anything hearing about another platform just makes me want to less post anything because it's just like how are you going to possibly be able to manage all of that? I, I think for me I'm just gonna, I tried Blue sky as well and it's just again like it might be a better platform but the, it's just how many, how much time do you want to spend scrolling and, and, and like the reality is if you want to do well on social media, you do need to engage well and that's, that's actually sometimes work. And, and really I built my social media account which is, is gradually declining now. But I built it because I had, I changed. I moved where I was living in Sydney. I had used to walk to work and then I moved up into the northern beaches where I had to actually take a bus to work every day and that I immediately had an hour commute each way every day. And I was like I'm going to use this time constructively and scroll. But actually when I'm scrolling I'm actually commenting and I'm going to post a shot in the morning and then respond to all the comments that I get during the day as well as comment on everyone else's photos in a really genuine way that actually means something. And by doing that I was actually able to grow my account really quickly because to get engagement you really need to engage with the platform yourself to. This is a bit of a law of reciprocity there and I, you know, I find now that I'm doing it full time and I don't have a commute, I actually have less time to do that kind of a process. And so that's, that's also a real challenge to keep up with that community engagement. And how many platforms can you really meaningfully engage with and, and have that level of authentic commenting on other people's shots just like ah, real banger mate or whatever. Like how like I don't see a lot of value in that and it's just really back scratching so. So from my perspective, yeah it's either do it well or don't do it at all in a way. So that's, that doesn't work for everyone. But that's how I like to think about it. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Yeah, makes total sense and it does. I get that sort of feeling as well where it's like you feel spread thin and these newer platforms. Yeah you'd really need to want to just pick one and just go with that. If you, if you tried something else rather than trying to do Instagram and, and, and all this other stuff and try these other platforms. It's just, it's a lot of posting and a lot of looking around and yeah, probably not. Yeah, not a lot of value. I don't know, it's tough. [00:39:53] Speaker C: I think if I had to pick another one I'd probably go threads. It does look like that it's quite a positive and, and engaged community on there. So that might be when I should engage with more. But yeah. [00:40:04] Speaker B: What's it like for photography though though? It's not still not really an image focused. It's more of a. Just a conversational as opposed to photography specifically. Not, not that I'm. I don't know, it's like I love a social media platform that doesn't have to be photography first but just something. [00:40:22] Speaker C: That. [00:40:25] Speaker B: You know, has formats that suit that medium. [00:40:29] Speaker C: I guess when the reality that Flickr back way back in the day, that was perfectly fine and yeah it should have just kept going because it became like 500px was basically the New Flickr. [00:40:41] Speaker B: That's. [00:40:42] Speaker C: And like you know that that's. You don't need anything more than that. So it was already there. So people just get bored with stuff and want to try something different. But you know, and switching to mobile makes it a bit harder to know how to present a photographic work because you know, probably more people consuming it that way. And how do you show a landscape photo if you're scrolling vertically? And so there's a lot of complications to that of course. But yeah, the, the platforms itself have always been pretty great really. It's just a matter of, you know, having one that, that works for you I suppose. So at the end of the day now I'm just like, well I should really just focus my own website and at least have that, have that which is not. But have that more up to date and make sure that that's where the primary effort goes and then you can sort of disseminate those photos to where they need to go after that. [00:41:38] Speaker A: I think there's a lot to be said for striking a balance, maybe making a deal, setting yourself some borders around rather than spreading yourself thin over multiple platforms to get your images out there, stay dedicated to one. And the time that you save in that, go out and shoot more, you know, go out and build that folio of work so that when you do present it to your social media community it's, you know, it's, it's highly engaging because you're actually investing time in your photography versus investing time in, you know, handling multiple social media platforms. It's such a terrible time sink, you know, even just not, not even posting, even just you know, scrolling through social media. You lose hours and you can really get drawn into it. So I, you know, I try to set myself boundaries about not over investing time on that but, but it can be tricky especially if you're trying to promote a business. [00:42:37] Speaker C: I think the best thing to do is just sort of schedule a post so that you can, yeah, you can just drop them and then it's still not really fully great because it's still nice to engage with the images as well. But at least by being able to, that's still being posted, it's better than not posting at all. And sometimes you can then avoid that over engagement piece where you sort of get drawn into consumption. I've got a big sign on the top of my monitor. Create more than you consume. And it's very hard to do, I can tell you that. Sucked in. [00:43:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good, that's a good sign. I'D have no chance of doing that on YouTube. And we create four hours of podcast a week. I think I'm still, I'm still behind. Sam Olson says Vero community is highly engaged. Yeah, Vera, not Vera Vero Communities. Highly engaged. No algorithms at all. Everything is seen in the order it's posted by the people you're following. That's cool. [00:43:41] Speaker C: Signed up to that too. I have to just miss just like how much do you want in your headspace? I suppose. But yes, if you're going to pick one and it's engaged, then the concern I have or not concern, but like in some ways to. Like if you're trying to do it from a. Like if you. Who you're talking to and if you're on a community. I'm certainly not playing down Vero, but if I'm posting on Instagram, there's actually brands on there, there's people I could work with on there, people that might want to buy prints and things. And I'm concerned with some of the other platforms that you're just talking to other photographers and you might be getting meaningful feedback and you're getting engagement. But if you're looking at it from more of a business perspective, you do want to be in a place where there is those brands or other people that may want to work with you or the work being seen by a more broader audience. Because if I'm trying to inspire other people about the environment or what I'm doing, I want just the general population to see that too, not just other photographers who already might be empathetic to what I'm talking about. So it is important, I feel, to still be visible in a space where that bigger wider audience and brands and other businesses that might want to use my services are actually there as well. So that's just another consideration. [00:45:01] Speaker B: It's almost like if there was a spin off sports league, like a new, new football league with no advertising or anything. So it's really nice and clean and, and cool. But there's only other football players watching you play. [00:45:14] Speaker C: Yes. [00:45:14] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Instead of the general public. It's kind of like that where it's like, it's, it's nice and our images can be bigger because the, the software is designed not to compress them as much and all that sort of thing is cool. But yeah, there's no one really else being exposed to that other than other photographers. Makes total sense. [00:45:32] Speaker C: Yes. Just don't want to be in an echo chamber like that, I suppose. Or not that. Yeah, like it's still, it's not, not invalidating the experience of that by any means because you're getting a lot out of it. But it's just, it's more about what your strategy is or what your, what your bigger purpose might be with what you're trying to achieve. I think when, when, when you think about that. Yeah, yeah. I think photographers are very guilty of talking to other photographers and feeling like that's like it is meaningful engagement. But is it? Actually I feel like some of the more successful photographers that have a bigger galleries or whatever, they understand that they need to talk to the general public and not just other photographers and that kind of aspect. So that's just a thought process. [00:46:16] Speaker B: Yeah. One final comment on this before we get back to your photography journey. RXA Photography says Vero seemed to be the it thing for about a month. I haven't thought about it for a year. So. Yeah, they do seem to. Yeah, I forgot about 500px. That's still here. I just pulled it up. It's like it's still there. They're still. [00:46:35] Speaker C: I think it got bought out or something and that made the terms changed on it or something from memory and that, that made it a little bit less attractive for people that they were worried that their photos might end up in other places they weren't expecting. Don't quote me on that or make sure you read the terms yourself. But you know that think that was. There was some question marks around. That definitely was the place to be for a while though. I never really enjoyed that platform myself but certain people did quite well through that one too. But yeah, that's. Yeah, it's just I'm trying to always think that it's great to talk to other photographers. I love that. In fact, probably my favorite thing about photography is the friends and people that you meet and the connections that you can make. But it's always nice to also be able to spread more broadly past other photographers and inspire people that, that aren't into photography at all but appreciate beautiful images and that kind of thing. So. [00:47:31] Speaker A: So Luke, you're in Melbourne and you mentioned earlier that you moved, you later moved to Sydney. What was the timing around your career like? You know, you from what we talked about earlier and reading your bio, you studied science. What science was that and how did that influence, you know, where you were at the time? [00:47:54] Speaker C: Yeah, so I have a science degree in food microbiology. So my first job was actually testing wine in a winery for a winery that makes Jacob's Creek. So it was A very large winery in the Barossa Valley. I used to say one for me, one for the analysis. But you know, it was, it was interesting working with wine on your own in a lab. But you know, I was. No, I definitely followed all the company rules there. But it was, it was definitely an amazing time to be, you know, in my early 20s and immersed in an industry like that where it's art meets science in a way with, with making wine. And you know, when I walked in there I didn't know what color Riesling was. And after that, you know, I, I was in the sensory analysis panel and, and like learned a lot about wine. I was thinking about becoming a winemaker or working more broadly in that field and. But I also had career aspirations as well. And so I, I moved out from the microbiology lab there and actually moved over to Melbourne to work with Kraft Foods and I worked with Vegemite and peanut butter in the Port Melbourne factory at Kraft Foods, which is a, some pretty iconic brands and really amazing to be able to see the, some of these sort of processes of how you make Vegemite, which is an extremely, a unique kind of manufacturing process. And so that was an amazing time to work with them. [00:49:14] Speaker A: And I remember, I remember driving home on a summer day, on summer days over the freeway and you could smell Vegemite. [00:49:22] Speaker C: Yeah, it was, it was, it was super cool to, to. I actually was working on some new products for them like the ones where they were incorporating more cheese based mixes and things like that and testing them for micro, microbiological stability, making sure that we didn't harm anyone with the formulations if there was any microbes that could grow in there and, and cause any problems. A few years before they had the craft foods peanut butter issue which was quite, quite damaging for their brand. I wasn't there at the time, but certainly they had some very robust processes. Man, I'm going into like a full quality assurance mode. [00:50:01] Speaker B: I want to know about, I want to say this is, I guess I want to ask lots of questions. I'm not going to because, you know, professional secrets and all that kind of stuff. My, the only question I'm going to ask is, do you still eat Vegemite? [00:50:13] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. [00:50:14] Speaker B: Okay. That's all I need to know. [00:50:16] Speaker C: Oh yeah, it's a, it's a fascinating product and, and yeah, it was, it was a really amazing time to get an insight into that and, and really, yeah, just a, a really interesting job to have, I suppose. And yeah, I do think fondly of working in Those times I don't miss working in a factory though. I much rather have my office being a beautiful beach or a mountain or something like that. But yeah, that's, that was, that was pretty fun. And from there I actually moved working for Coca Cola Amateur, as they were called at the time in the Moorabbin factory and doing quality assurance and microbiology for the Coca Cola products like Powerade and Coke itself and some of the flavored beverages that they make. And I got headhunted from there to work in the head office in Sydney. So I moved from Melbourne to Sydney and worked for the Coca Cola company, who's the sort of corporate or the full American company, but the sort of the Asia Pacific within that in Sydney. And so that was a step change in terms of. I moved out of doing more science based quality work and was all procedures and policies and audits and making sure that all of the bottling facilities across Australia were actually following the Coca Cola company standards, which, which they were. And I. What was cool about that was I could actually fly around to all of the manufacturing city Coca Cola places in Australia, which was in most of the capital cities, and have to do audits. So then of course I made sure that I could stay for the weekend to go up to Cervantes and photograph the dunes or head out in like the northern suburbs of Brisbane and shoot some mangroves or, you know. So I was able to build my photo portfolio a little bit by doing these audits and things as well. Still did all the work of course, but made sure I could stay on and take some photos as well. So. So that was a really great way to help build the portfolio. [00:52:21] Speaker B: So would you be planning that in the lead up to these trips? You'd be like, I'm gonna, you know, on the way after this, on the weekend I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna take photo of that. Like were you planning in advance or were you just finding yourself where you like, I need a couple of days and then. Then you'd figure it out once you're up there. [00:52:37] Speaker C: Oh yeah, well, I guess, you know, you know, annual leave is absolutely sacred because you don't get that much and you're always forced to take a break over the Christmas as well. So you only got. And I wanted to put all of that time to Tasmania. So I was like, well, I have to make the most of the weekends then. So I would fly in on the Friday evening aft and then stay the whole weekend in that place. And then the audit would be normally a Whole week or thereabouts. And so then I would do the audit for the week and then I'd stay the following weekend as well and then fly out on the Sunday night so I could be back in the office on the Monday. So I'd actually get like two bookended weekends. And so with Perth, I would go up to north and do Cevantes and, you know, Nambung national park, that sort of area, and then go south to Yelling up and Margaret river area and, you know, Sugarloaf Rock, I think. Is that what it's called? I can't remember off the top of my head, all of those beautiful locations down there. And so I was able to kind of make this sort of thing work and, and yeah, definitely, very intentionally planned around that. So. But, you know, obviously I was only going if I had work on this, so it wasn't like I was gaming the system that way. And the, the company was going to pay for the flight no matter what, so I just paid for all my common. It was all fine. But yeah, it was, it was a nice, nice way to make work and, and leisure time sort of interrelate there. So that was good. Yeah, that's awesome. [00:54:08] Speaker A: So what was the. Was it, you know, I, I sometimes quote Oprah Winfrey and say, what was the aha moment for you when you went, you know what, I can, I can do this full time. I can, I can let go of the secure income and make a living as a photographer, you know. How did that process come about for you? [00:54:29] Speaker C: Well, it was very long drawn out and basically I had to get to the point with my job where I felt like I was dragging my corpse to work every day because I was so disengaged with it in a way. Well, it was like I was getting so excited and inspired about the photography that I was doing. And at the time, you know, I was getting a lot of engagement on Instagram and, and I was really passionate about that. And like, it's like all of my passion that I had was in photography and work was just really. Even though I was doing a good job at it, it just wasn't really providing any fulfillment in my life anymore, I guess. You know, I've moved out from doing these cool science experiments in a lab to now being like Mr. Policy and Policeman kind of thing in a corporate sense. And it's really not what I got into it to start with either. So I think that was another big factor. And so it's like, I'm the saying, you know, when the pain of Change is actually less than the pain of it staying the same. And that. That was really what was starting to happen. And on top of that, I had a conversation with my boss where he just said I wasn't an inspiring person at work. And I was like, every day on Instagram people are saying that my work's inspiring. So I'm like, so, you know, that's, that's already a pretty big hint. And then I got asked to by the Tasmanian Walking Company to photograph the overland track through Tourism Tasmania as a job. And that was coming up in. In sort of a May time experience. And I was like, well, I actually don't have enough annual leave to do that. And my boss never gave me leave without pay. And I was like, well, maybe it's just time to, to give it a go. I know. I mean, the job was never going to pay more than what my corporate salary was paying, by any means. But the point was that, you know, I'd saved up some money and I was like, well, all right, maybe this is the time to do it. So that, that kind of. And, you know, I was also having to turn down other potential travel opportunities as well, because I didn't have enough annual leave to do them. And I was just, I'm. I really want to have these experiences in my life and I don't want to have to say no to these opportunities. And people were saying, can. Can you do workshops or things? And I was like, well, I don't really have time for that. I'm working and I want to do my own photography too. So anyway, point being that all of these things sort of started stacking up to a point where I just was like, yeah, it's, it's time to do it. And I gave myself sort of six months to see how it would pan out. And I'm still, still doing it all those years later. [00:57:03] Speaker B: Epic. That's a long run. Like, that's. Especially with landscape photography. That's very impressive. [00:57:10] Speaker C: Very, very. Well, it's, it's not a. I would. I mean, my, my favorite quote is, you know, if you make. Want to make a million dollars in photography, start with $2 million. You know, like, it's probably heard that one, but, you know, it's. It's like, um, that's pretty much what it's like. It's like a lifestyle decision. I'm sure there's, you know, there's definitely people that have done well out of it, but I don't really want to be that kind of person either. I want to Just have a really enjoyable life and not be all about the business or, you know, sales or things like that. So it's a challenging place to operate and definitely easier working for someone else. But to have a full spirit and the connection that I can have and the lifestyle that you can have, as you guys would know, it's very hard to, it'd be so hard to go back to that now. So hard. Even though it'd be a lot easier from the salary perspective. It's just, I'll just be sitting at the desk all day just thinking about my next trip. I just know it, you know, thinking about I should. I could be editing something, I could be doing a print right now, you know, you know, so if I ever think about I should go back to full time work or something, I just run that scenario through my brain and I, you know, I just go straight back to, all right, I'm going to do some edits and sort of jump start that whole process. [00:58:32] Speaker B: Yeah, how, how did you have a. So in the, the lead up to making the jump, did you have, you said you had some savings, did you do some calculations on like what your current cost of living was and basically figure out, all right, I can, I can survive for, for this many months or whatever with what I've got. And that's kind of my Runway to give this thing a go. [00:58:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I think my, my goal was to not have to dip into savings if I could help it, obviously. And so that was the first, first criterion really. And if I could do it without having to pull money back out then, then obviously it was sustainable. And I gave myself kind of like that six months where, you know, if I had to dip into the savings then I could, I don't remember if I had to, but you know, I was living at Sydney at the time. You know, the rent was a bit more pricey. It's not a cheap city to live in. But at the same time there's a lot more clients there, there's a lot more big corporate players there that you can. And I've since found when you move away from a place like that, a lot of those opportunities dry up. They really like to work with people that are quite local. So I think that that sort of a, that sort of was still okay. And when I moved to Tassie, a big motivator of that was just a cheaper cost of living as well. So that, that also made it more sustainable. But then I also lost a lot of potential with those bigger businesses as well as a bigger population. Base to. To help with workshops and things. So it's sort of scaled in a way, but I definitely don't regret my decision whatsoever moving to Tassie. But that was certainly a factor in terms of reducing the overheads, in terms of a cost of living and that kind of thing. [01:00:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:18] Speaker C: Even just stuff like driver's license or just like really basic insurances. Everything's cheaper in a place like Tesla. [01:00:25] Speaker A: Yeah. But it is a fairly significant jump to go from heavily populated, you know, concrete jungle of Sydney to Hobart. That's a pretty significant change of life, isn't it? And I guess for you wasn't just about. Like you said, it was a considerable factor about the cost of living change, but you. You were changing multiple aspects of your life at once. How did that go for you? What was that transition like? [01:00:56] Speaker C: It was. I've never been more excited in my life. I really don't think I've been about to have a baby in September. I'm assuming that's going to be more exciting. But it was. It was extremely exciting. The. Just the day I made the decision that I was moving to Tassie was like accomplishment unlocked or something. And for me personally, it was. It was the. One of the best things, if not the best thing I've ever done. And I don't really. I go back to a place like Sydney now and no offense to city slickers or anything, but I felt really overwhelmed and I was like, you know, feel it's claustrophobic and. And I've gotten used to being able to have them all wide open spaces and, and being able to see the Milky Way in the sky at night and being able to just drive 30 minutes, or I can drive a couple minutes down and photograph an aurora on the beach and. Just easier to get around. I want to go to somewhere in town. I can just park in front of the. The shop that I want to go to on the street. You know, it's a big country town, really, and so there's definitely things you miss out on too, like bigger concerts or. I mean, like the, the. When I was in Melbourne, being able to see all the bands I could see and the, the festivals and what was going on, it's just a hive of activity and I missed that even moving to Sydney, I missed that so much. So, yeah, I guess I really. Yeah, it was very clearly my place all along. I just hadn't realized it. [01:02:28] Speaker A: So you've moved yourself to Hobart and, you know, can you remember the first sort of once you'd actually settled in you'd moved in. Can you remember the first landscape shoot you went out and, and did. You know, I think very soon after. [01:02:46] Speaker C: I landed there was a aurora on. And I just remember realizing that I could just drive out and do it. And one of the reasons I, I moved to Tassie was that every visit I'd done to Tassie I hadn't been able to photograph an aurora even though I knew they were happening. And so, yeah, I think I went down to Goat Bluff and Matt did a time lapse of the aurora and you know, very excited. And I'd seen the aurora before, but not in the Southern hemisphere. So that was certainly a pretty exciting moment to be able to just be able to pop out and do something like that. And it was almost a bit overwhelming in some ways because there was so many opportunities all of a sudden and so many things that I could do. So that's. Yeah, but that was definitely a strong memory of mine. [01:03:33] Speaker A: Yep. And just for the, maybe for the uninitiated, can you just talk to us a little bit about auroras just very quickly from your understanding what causes them and why has it been so prolific in, in the last sort of 18 months? [01:03:48] Speaker C: Oh yeah. So auroras are caused by huge packets of energy coming from the sun that are sort of released in either coronal mass ejections or by high speed streams from coronal holes. And so all this energy is coming towards Earth through the plasma, the solar wind and that's, you know, smashing into Earth and basically being channeled down into the poles. And if there's the right alignment, you get an aurora in a real sort of top line. And the reason it's been a bit more common lately is that the, the sun has a, I think it's a seven year cycle. I could always. Or 11. I was bloody forget the thing. But the point is that at the moment it's the, near the solar max. And as over the next couple of years it's going to start declining again and there'll still be auroras but they just won't be as big and as frequent as what they are at the moment. And obviously the, the big solar storm in on May 11 last year was kind of like the, the pinnacle event of the solar max. And I'm actually having an aurora exhibition later in August with four of my, well, three of my friends. I'm the fourth person and I'm really pumped about that because we get to sort of show what the aurora is all about. And it's over National Science Week. So we get to also talk about the. The science aspects around Aurora formation and, you know, sort of help educate the public a little bit about that as well. So that's pretty exciting. And where's that happening? [01:05:18] Speaker A: Where's the exhibition? [01:05:19] Speaker C: Yes, exhibition's in the Salamanca Arts center. So it's right on Salamanca Place, which is the place to be really. So we're really pumped about that. And the gallery is called Social. And so we're opening on the 8th of April, sorry, 8th of August. And we're running through to the 18th of August. So if you're in Hobart during that time, please do pop in and check out our artworks. It's myself, my friend Andrew Phipps and Benjamin Aldridge. We're all doing a group show and it should be a really an amazing experience to be able to bring that to sort of like Hobart and talk about Auroras and give it the sort of time it deserves in a way. So it should be. Should be good fun. [01:06:07] Speaker B: Spotted a comment I missed while I was looking at some of the comments from Andrew Island. Hi everyone. New here. Hi. Andrew says I met Luke on a recent Dark Mofo photo walk via Sony Scene was a great evening of night photography. [01:06:22] Speaker C: Yeah, that's good fun. Yeah. Went out and run some events. I run events through the Sony Scene platform, which is kind of Sony's. All of the advocates run events and sort of, I guess runs events on Sony's behalf. And I always love doing photo walks around Dark Mofo and it was really great this year because they had a few extra installations. It's a bit more of a full program this year. The last couple years was sort of backed off a bit and so yeah, I was able to do those and have really awesome people come along and have a big lone kit of Sony gear and be able to go out and. And take some photos. I had an amazing installation called Sora which was these spinning light bars and could create some really fun photos in there. So it was a good time. Good time. [01:07:10] Speaker B: Also, Bruce says congrats, but you don't even look like you're showing. That's nice. [01:07:15] Speaker C: Yes, I know. Well, my partner definitely is, but she's. Yeah, she's handling it so, so well. I'm just so, so wrapped with how it's all unfolding at the moment and so fingers crossed it all, all keeps going that way. But thanks, Bruce. Appreciate that I am showing a bit. I've definitely slipped on my diet just a little bit. [01:07:36] Speaker B: Speaking of showing, I think this is the, maybe the first ever comment from Eilish who we've, we've hassled to. To sign up for YouTube so she could comment she's Grant's better half and she's showing at the moment because I think she's due literally any moment and she has commented that we should all show our favorite landscape photo and explain why we're not all going to do that because Greg and, and myself and Jim's landscape photos aren't very good. [01:08:04] Speaker A: Thanks. [01:08:05] Speaker B: But we don't. I wondered since we're talking about. [01:08:09] Speaker A: Thanks for speaking for us there, Justin. [01:08:13] Speaker B: I've seen, I've seen, I've seen all of our work. I can confidently say no, no, we're just not, we're not, we're not good at it like you are. We haven't put the work in but I thought maybe we could have a quick peek since we're talking about auroras. Just to start with, we could have a quick peek at some of your images of auroras and see if there's any particular favorites that you've got of your own work, Luke and maybe you can tell us a little bit about how they unfolded and that kind of thing. Is there anything that's. That that sticks out to you in. [01:08:45] Speaker C: And this is off your website? Yeah, the top right one there, the Southern Night Lights 1. That was a really interesting image in. I took that in early May, took that on the, the morning of May 11, which in that evening there was actually a huge, huge aurora that was the biggest solar storm of maybe 70 years. And so I went out in the beach that morning and got this sort of like as the pre show when the, the shock actually hit Earth. And I posted it, it was on a Saturday and I posted it around 1pm and didn't really think much more of it and got a comment from someone later. It's like what the hell's happened to your photo? And it, it was up to about 95,000 likes and I was just like, it just went. Turned out going completely viral and ended up getting I think about 19 million views on Facebook and the premiere and like hundreds of thousands of likes on it and all of that. And I was just like I've never had a photo to that before. It was just pretty phenomenal. Crazy. It's stunning. [01:09:53] Speaker B: It's stunning. [01:09:54] Speaker C: Yeah. So it's just nice because what's meaningful to me about it is that it's actually my local beach. So that's a two minute drive from where I live and I sort of felt like, you know, that I didn't really have a lot to work with and compositionally with that. So. And I love to be able to sort of show the connection that you can have with the aurora and just being there in an amazing place. And I think everyone would love to be able to place themselves in that position and see what it would feel like to be in that spot. So adding a figure like that just makes a big difference to the photograph. No one's really going to buy a printer that so much because they don't have that personal connection with me there, of course. But as a, just a statement, yeah, it's, it's been a significant. I don't know if I'd say it's my favorite image I've got an aurora, but it's certainly one that had a big response. [01:10:48] Speaker B: You could, you could AI people into the photo so that they feel like they're in there and then I don't even know if AI does that. [01:10:59] Speaker C: You could Photoshop. [01:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, well, Photoshop, that's, you know. [01:11:03] Speaker A: There'S a guy, there's a guy on socials who does, he does these quirky Photoshop changes for people. Like they'll say, ah, can you remove my, my arms look too thick. Can you fix it, you know, like in a photo? And so they turn their arms into stick figures or like they do crazy. He does crazy kind of Photoshop changes. It's really clever. [01:11:22] Speaker B: That's fun. Before I ask you, I want to ask you about the technical aspects of this photo, just gear and settings and that kind of thing. But before I do, when you were standing there, what, what does that look like to the naked eye? You know, that, that moment that's sort of. [01:11:41] Speaker C: That. Yeah, that actually there was a lot of color there. So I could see the reds, I could see the greens. That's a particularly strong aurora. And I've copped a bit of flack for like the colors that are picked up by the camera for this. Yeah, that sort of thing. But the reality is that it was the start of one of the biggest solar storms of, you know, of recorded history, I suppose so, you know that I feel like that if that's about to happen, then it's probably going to be pretty full on. So that's definitely a factor there. But yeah, it's definitely like that. I love it how the reflections really intensify the colors. You want a big aurora. So the whole point is that, you know, you're probably heard that you can't really see an aurora, but if the aurora is strong enough, you can. There's rods and cone cells in your eyes and the rod cells are like your night vision. And if the. And that's, that'll pick up that sort of there's a structure there or something moving and you really need it to the light to be strong enough to then register on the cone cells when you can actually see the, the color. And so if it's bright enough you'll see the color, but if it's not, you'll just see it as a sort of a milky sort of just black and white basically moving. You'll see the stuff moving, but that you don't get anything else. So that was bright enough to see naked eye very easily, which was pretty specky. Yeah. [01:12:59] Speaker B: Wow. All right. And so how did you capture it? What, what, what did you use? [01:13:03] Speaker C: And that would have probably been my favorite lens of all time, which is a 12-24 GM lens. More than likely I can't remember off the top of my head other than that it would have been a. I also use a 14 mil GM lens, Sony and a 20 mil G which is an f 1.8. It could be the 20 as well, but probably the 12 to 24. And then I use an A7R V now for my night photography. So it's likely it was that. And you know, I normally shoot pretty wide open with Auroras and I try to use a shorter shutter speed where I can around five seconds just to keep a bit of definition of the beams. If you go, you know, over 10, 15 seconds, if there is any movement in the Aurora, you're actually going to start to get that blurring in the shot. So you're not going to see the actual definition of the aurora. So it's always. And also if you're standing there, you want to have a shorter shutter speed too just so that you're not having to have any motion blur. So I'll often run a time lapse so then I can just walk out into the time lapse. And if I'm standing really still, I only need one 5 second run of that where I'm really still for that shot to work. And then I can just find the. Also the frame where the Aurora is sort of got the best position versus where I'm standing as well. And you know, this shot wouldn't have worked as well I think if I was standing right on where that beam to my left is. Or maybe it would have like you can sort of. I probably have one where it was and you just work on what, what I try and find where the aurora balances best with the. How the composition works as well. I might change where I stand if I feel like the reflect. It does annoy me that my full reflection isn't there. There's that sort of ridge there where my head's sort of obscured in the reflection. If I could have done it again, I probably would have taken a step forward so that the reflection was a bit more complete. But maybe that makes it look more natural and actually looks better. I don't know. [01:14:57] Speaker A: What direction were you facing? Do you remember roughly what direction? [01:15:01] Speaker C: Most of the time it's south because probably more to the south east. But on this particular aurora, and certainly in the evening of May 11, you could actually take an amazing aurora shot looking north. Which was the amazing thing about it because the aurora was actually over the top of us, which is pretty rare. But in this case, most of the time we're always looking to the south where the aurora ovation is. Or at least to the southeast of the southwest. [01:15:26] Speaker A: I remember at the time last year, lots of people on social media were. And it was, you know, it was so big and popular that it was appearing on, you know, commercial news channels and, and the like where people in northern parts of Australia were capturing the aurora during some of these big events last year and earlier this year, which is something that we haven't seen for quite some time. Like we, you know, I can't remember people as far north as that ever taking aurora shots. It was quite powerful. [01:15:53] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's interesting to reflect on that because. Because we have that solar cycle where there's maxes and mins and. And digital, you know, technology or imaging technology has only really gotten its strap hit its straps in the last 10, 15 years. There's only ever really been one solar max where we've had all this whiz bang equipment to be able to capture all this stuff, especially on our phones as well. So really everything's all lined up for us to be able to now do this and that. That's one reason why it may not have been something you thought of in the past. Because A, it wasn't on people's radars and B, people didn't actually have the equipment to be able to capture it anyway. And the further north you go, the less bright it is. Which means you really do need a camera to be able to get that color. You can't see it with your eyes. So it's sort of like that perfect storm in a way that we're just living in a time now where it's all possible. So it's pretty cool. Yeah. [01:16:47] Speaker A: I remember last year at bfop, the bright festival of Photography. Justin and I were there representing Lucky Straps and we, we were standing around a fire pit and someone rushed up, said the allure, the Aurora is going off and we're quite, quite chuffed for, for Matt and Nick who run bfop that they'd organized an Aurora. But people were racing up the mountain. People were just taking photos with their phone. It was so powerful. Like, and not in, not in a, a light polo pollution free zone either. Like we were just standing outside BFOP HQ in front of a fire pit taking photos of the Aurora with our phones and you can see the color. Like it was amazing how, you know, it was magical really. [01:17:30] Speaker B: Yeah. The people that went up up Buffalo got, got great shots that night. [01:17:34] Speaker A: Yeah, they did. [01:17:34] Speaker B: We should have. [01:17:36] Speaker A: We should have. You're pretty. [01:17:37] Speaker C: Well, it's hard to, I mean there's, there's times where you just, you know, you should do it and you don't and then the FOMO kicks in and I'm very, very familiar with that. So. But you know, it's cold and it's dark and the, and it's effort, it's very hard. But you do find yourself doing some pretty crazy things sometimes to get these shots and you do, you know, pat yourself on the back later for doing that. So. Swings and roundabouts, I guess. [01:18:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's, that's the other thing too. It's the unknown. It's like, hey, it's happening. But it can go and come back. You can be out there for hours if you want, if you want to get a great shot. It's not like you're just you, you rock up to your location and you're like, all right, I'll get the shot in the next 10 minutes. It's like you might have to sit around and then you don't know if, if you've got to wait longer for it to come back or if it just won't come back and you're just sitting out there in the cold, just waiting. [01:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:31] Speaker C: And yeah, good strategy is just to run a time lapse and then if you're nearby, if your car's nearby, just hang out in the car and just let the time lapse run. You might be able to have a bit of a snooze and then, you know, you're capturing everything anyway. So that, that's, that's worked for me in the past. [01:18:46] Speaker B: So that's the secret to all these great Aurora Photos. I knew there was something to it. [01:18:51] Speaker C: You gotta have a few little tricks up your sleeve, that's for sure. [01:18:54] Speaker B: 15:15. Sony's just pointed in every direction, just time lapsing. [01:18:58] Speaker C: Always every. [01:18:59] Speaker B: On every beach in Tasmania you have. [01:19:02] Speaker C: One camera that's running the time lapse and then you can have another camera where you're roaming around actually kind of getting your compositions. And so you're always going to be capturing something because sometimes you might choose to move just at the wrong time when the aurora really kicks off. But at least you know the time lapse is getting that. So it's a really good strategy actually. Yeah. [01:19:21] Speaker B: These are some accurate comments from photographers. So first Bruce Moyle, I was the one that was taking photos with my phone and then RXA photography, I got a good one with my phone from Southeast Melbourne. Couldn't be bothered getting the Z9 and tripod out. [01:19:36] Speaker C: Like that too. Sometimes if you know that you don't really have the location for it. Sometimes it's nice just to get a record at least anyway. So definitely identify with that. Yeah. [01:19:45] Speaker B: All right, just quickly are there any other in, in your Aurora specific work, any other photos that stand out to you that we should have a quick look at? [01:19:53] Speaker C: We will certainly say the barn beams one or the, the Federation Peak where the curse is over. At the moment they're pretty challenging vantage points to get to in order to be able to take an Aurora shot. So they're really meaningful. That one as well, I was referring to the one below that but that one is also a challenging spot to get an aurora from. And so I, I think for me it's really meaningful when I've got cisplay. I'm gonna have to update that on the cat but the theorem, you know, it's a three day hike really to get into the spot where, where I took that shot from and wow, I didn't really plan for the Aurora to be there. So to have the moonlight kind of lighting up Federation Peak and then having the Auror I just happened to be in the right place to sort of capture this scenario. And so you know, I've certainly photographed bigger auroras and more spectacular arrangements but for me it's very meaningful because of the effort that goes into it and how it all worked. Like I shot that on a 55 mil Sony Zeiss lens which I only actually took because I like to use it for infrared. And it turns out because I was so much further from Federation Peak, if I didn't have that lens all of my shots would have been with you know, the peak just being a tiny little dot because I had a 14 mil otherwise. And so there's a lot of like amazing kind of white things that lined up. To be able to actually get a shot like that, especially also just the effort. It's definitely one of the hardest days of hiking of my life to actually get up to that vantage point to, to get that shot. And then you still have to try and stay awake for it and, and run a time lapse. And it was actually so calm that evening that I rolled out my bivvy bag and slept on the summit of the mountain that I was on rather than going back down to the campsite below. And that was amazing too, to just sort of be lying down and watch the aurora over the southern or basically the ocean over Bathurst harbor or the south coast of Tasmania just dancing in the sky and that sort of thing. So definitely some special moments there up in the mountains. [01:22:10] Speaker A: Sorry, I was just going to ask you, Luke, what, what is the ratio of special moments versus, you know, you get out to a space, whether it be you, you know, you climb for three days or you go down to your local beach, you know, what, what is the ratio of special moments versus missed opportunities for you where you set up and nothing actually happens? [01:22:28] Speaker C: Well, a lot of that is opportunistic when it comes to auroras, at least. Like the, the aurora shots are just sort of luck in a way, because I'm going anyway. I don't necessarily plan the trip because I know there's an aurora happening. I'd like to be in that position. But say that the Federation Peak image, the total trip was seven. I think it was seven or eight days. So it's a long period of time. It just so happened the evening that, that I wanted, that we were up in the mountain was the one that had the aurora, which is brilliant. This also happened other trips where the night after I was up in the mountain, the aurora happened, or there was another one, the barn beam shot that I had there. The night before that I was actually up on the Cradle Plateau hoping to get the aurora over Cradle Mountain from up that area. And there was a fog the whole evening. It was one of the biggest auroras that had been for a few months. And I could, couldn't capture anything because the whole plateau was in fog. And so I was like, I'm not going to. It was. The aurora kept going the second evening, so I'm not going to put up with that again. So actually climbed up Cradle Mountain to then be able to get A shot from Cradle Mountain of Barn Bluff so that the, you know the, the inversion went under the, the front of the mountain so that the Barn beams one. There's the one I'm talking about there on the right there the names. Yeah that's it. And so that, that shot there I had to get to a higher vantage point so that that cloud inversion didn't actually I wasn't in that. It was going below and that worked out really well. [01:23:59] Speaker A: So dedication. [01:24:00] Speaker C: Just a very faint outline of the overland track as well in the foreground that's sort of winding its way towards Barn Bluff which is one of the tallest mountains in Tasmania. So to be at that vantage point where you look like you're above Barn Bluff is, is pretty cool as well given it's. I think it's number four or number five in, in the tall mountains. So those sort of shots are very opportunistic in a way but you also know if the conditions are there you put that extra effort in. It was quite a lot of effort to, to get to that vantage point but you know that because it's clear, you know the reward's going to be there if you put that effort in. And it was definitely better than I was expecting. But it's. Yeah the. There's a lot of times where you, you don't get what you want. But I'm not necessarily going into the mountains specifically for aurora in on these longer trips because it's just too long for it to. There's too much effort to get to those places for it not to work out. I mean there's probably some scenarios where you could probably do it but it's, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yeah and often in the mountains too there's a lot of. There's been quite a few fogged out ones where everyone else is getting cool shots and I'm just in the foggy part because I'm up in the highlands and miss out that happened over at New Year's in the wars of Jerusalem where there was a massive aurora and all I could get was this pink cloud because all of the clouds that were around me were just lit up pink from the aurora but I couldn't see it so that can be frustrating. Yeah, I think there's a roller. [01:25:35] Speaker A: I was just going to say there's quite a theme running through your, through your work but also through your journey about being present. And I often talk about this when I do street photography walks with photographers about you know, people see These amazing street photography shots from, you know, people like John street, who's. He's one of our friends on the show, and he's an amazing. He's got an incredible life for street photography. [01:26:02] Speaker C: But. [01:26:03] Speaker A: But, you know, for every banger that you see on his feed, there's hundreds of shots and hundreds of opportunities where he's been on the street, he's been present, he's found good light, good composition and energy in the community to capture something. And I guess that what I'm picking up from your story in terms of what can we learn from Luke is that being present, making yourself available to the opportunities you talked about when you were working a day job and you had a, you know, a very busy career, you would create the opportunities on weekends to go out and make the most of the time that you could have with the camera, you know, and, and I think there's. There's a lot to learn from that. You know, people that pick up a camera for the first time, you're not going to go out and take winning shots or viral shots for your socials. It takes effort, it takes work, and it takes being present a lot in your craft to. To get to that point. [01:26:58] Speaker C: I'd also had another thing. Yeah, I wanted to cut your train of thought off, but. No, no, no, no. The other thing that I'm very big on is, is planning as well. And it's. It's definitely about being present, but it's been present at the right time and. Or at least maximizing your chances of being there, present at the right time. And that involves understanding the weather and understanding timing in terms of whether sunrise, sunset, where best to camp is, or position yourself, understanding the angles, where the compositions actually are, maybe doing a recce. So you've got good understanding and knowledge. Having a database of locations that you want to photograph so that if conditions align in a certain place, you can act on that and not have to get decision paralysis. So I'm huge on being able to plan around the weather and the conditions to make the most of the time that I do have. And also if it's not there, then actually folding the hand and just staying at home and focusing on other things. So really being able to pick the timing that I go out if I can is also really beneficial to. [01:28:14] Speaker A: Yep. [01:28:15] Speaker B: Do you have any tips for. Oh, sorry, Jim, were you going to say something? [01:28:19] Speaker C: That's right. [01:28:19] Speaker B: You go, no, I was just gonna say, do you have any tips for people that. That haven't really done that level of planning before? Maybe the Planning, I don't know. I'm not thinking of anyone specifically me. The planning, the planning that they do consists of like I'm going to go to this location at, on this day. That's like level of planning. What, what are some tips? You know, where do you go from there? Like just the, the next level. Not, not to the, the detail that maybe you go to. But like what, what other things should I be taking into consideration beyond just I'm going to go to this location on this day or this time to take some landscape photos? [01:28:57] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that's a super good question. And firstly, I would say that there's nothing wrong with that approach at all. Like def. Like I do it in a way because I just get so frustrated when things don't work out. So I know that if I can plan around that, then that's fine. But certainly just rocking up somewhere and adapting to the conditions and finding a photograph is absolutely, totally valid. Nothing wrong with that. But like, I also know that if you're aware of a good angle or a good composition before you get there, you, you don't have to fumble around. And it's, you know, you have a lot more success I suppose, with the time that you're putting into things and walk away with something that you know that you can use. And it's certainly important if you're being paid to go to a destination and they actually want you to provide some work that they can then use in, in their marketing as well. So it definitely has a flow on benefit. And so I would say obviously understanding sunrise, sunset times and, and angles of light and how that's going to interrelate with the foreground elements that you're planning to use is really important. And then also understanding what the cloud's doing before you arrive. Is it going to be high cloud so that you're going to get some nice color or lower cloud that might be blocking the sun and creating more of a diffuse glow. There's also alignment of Milky Way or the moon. Kind of depends on the kind of astronomical elements that you're trying to work with in your scene. Additionally, and certainly having an understanding of the. I like to go in pre visualizing or having a good idea of the kind of shot I'm trying to achieve, like having a goal and then I can actually sort of execute on that goal. And it's extremely meaningful when you go in with a shot in your mind's eye and you can actually walk away with something that kind of represents what you were hoping for. For me that feels like a real successful feeling and makes me feel like I'm good at what I do. So. But you know, some people might say well that's sacrilegious. You know, you should be able to just be intuitive and, and move through and I guess my brain's not, not wired that way. I still do that. I still make the most of opportunities. But I'd love certainly with a big hike like I'm gonna go away for seven days and a hike, I want to know, have a shot in my mind's eye of what I'm wanting to achieve to at least inspire me to go out there and go do all of that effort. So it's really important. [01:31:23] Speaker B: Pete Mallows in the chat. Hey Pete, there's a great quote. Plan, plan, plan. Then pray, pray, pray. Especially in Tassie where the conditions will surprise you at any time. [01:31:33] Speaker C: So true. Yeah, that's a very good one. Luca. [01:31:37] Speaker A: Their apps that you use or websites that you use to help plan, you know, for people that might be looking at. Okay, well you know, I've been out and about and weather has failed my efforts or I didn't realize it would take me this long to climb that hill or you know, and I've missed the opportunity to take the shots. Are there apps or websites that you'd recommend people use? [01:31:57] Speaker C: Yeah, my. I actually did an online course about this last night. But the, the. My favorite of all time is windy.com which is pretty much free for everyone to use and it's just got an incredible amount of information and especially just on the free tier, what you can do with that is, is really phenomenal. I, I've subscribed to premium so I have a bit more resolution of granularity in the data that I can look at. But even on the free plan, windy.com is, is super amazing. You can see Sydney being slammed there with the, the sort of cyclonic system there. From the wind coming in there it looks pretty, pretty foul there. So this is amazing friends. Hopefully you're all okay. But the so so using the wind layer is fantastic just to visualize and then using the satellite is great for understanding what's happening. More of a short term out as well. And then being able to look at the like snow forecasting. I've. I've even got my imposter weather station uploaded into Windy. So there's actually other weather stations and, and data points that you can look at as well. And there's webcams on there, you can plan trips on there and see how the weather's changing across the trip. You can put a pin down and show the. The sun angles and things like that. It does tides now as well. It sort of does pretty much everything apart from auroras. [01:33:25] Speaker B: So you, you mentioned before. I was going to ask you specifically about it. You mentioned. Oh, it depends if the clouds are low or high. Clouds. [01:33:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:33:33] Speaker B: Can this tell you that? Because I don't know if I've ever looked into. [01:33:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, sorry. If you click on more layers on the side there, you'll see that there's. If you go down to cloud, just a little, just down the bottom there that you'll see high, medium and low. And there's also fog. And you can actually pin those. And so by. I think you click and drag them maybe, and you can actually drag them onto the main screen. So then you can have them more accessible as shortcuts. [01:34:00] Speaker B: So I can see, I think you. [01:34:03] Speaker C: Maybe at the top you click on Edit and then it will allow you to, you know, you can set it up in the. Using to show the layers that you use frequently, but you can click between those layer types just to see, you know, where everything is. I generally tend just to use higher, though. Sorry, total cloud, which is just clouds. And I also use a custom color scheme as well, just to make it a bit easier to visualize. Because I feel like on Windy, it's a little bit. The grays kind of don't tell you enough of how dense that cloud is. So I do as well. But that's a super powerful. But my favorite of all is using meteor grams rather than using the cloud layers. Because the meteorgram can show you kind of a timeline of what's happening across for a particular point, say Bendigo or whatever, over what's happening over the next 15 days. And you can just sort of scroll across and almost see straight away what's happening. So it's very, very powerful doing that too. [01:35:03] Speaker B: Is that, Is that on here? Media grams? [01:35:05] Speaker C: Yeah. If you just click on a place on the map. Yeah. And see how that's popped up. Now if you go down and click on where it says meteorgram down the bottom says basic, Wave, tide, wind, then click on meteor gram right down the bottom. [01:35:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm blind. [01:35:22] Speaker C: So now what it's doing now is it's showing you the cloud layers. Feel like I'm giving a workshop here. It's showing you the cloud layers. Sunday mornings trick people into giving free workshops. No. Well, I mean, this is. I'm so passionate about this program because there's so much in there that people don't know to help them get better results with their photos and so. And you can see the elevation and stuff on the right there. When the model's next going to be updated as well, is in there as well. [01:35:51] Speaker A: So will this also cover like noise, Sorry, light pollution? [01:35:56] Speaker C: I don't know. I think that. I can't remember if there's a light pollution layer. It's a really good question. It's possible that the one other one that's really useful is bushfires as well. It can show where the bushfires are. [01:36:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's got air quality, but it doesn't. It's not that I can see anything. [01:36:11] Speaker C: That's a. That's definitely a good one. To, to request, I actually requested that they add a particular model called Access C and they did add it. I don't know if it's based on my request or not, but Access C is a much higher resolution weather model that the Bureau of Meteorology puts out. So being able to use that. If you click on where it says four more, you see where it says ECMWF on the bottom right and there's a color bar. Yeah, there's go to where it says four more on the side. [01:36:40] Speaker B: Four more, sorry. [01:36:40] Speaker C: Yeah, you can see where it says Access CVT and click on that. So you can see there's a lot more detail, a lot more granularity, there's more edges, it's more refined and so that's a more high resolution model which I'd recommend to use within the next 48 hours. If you're looking for a cloud forecast over using the standard ECMWF or Access models, you can see how the time horizon there's only two days because it's, it's a much shorter, much shorter term model but it's high resolution, that's why it's shorter term. So. [01:37:19] Speaker B: Sorry, how accurate is it? Do you find? [01:37:23] Speaker C: It's. I mean it's the forecast, isn't it? So it's, it gives you data points to work from. And what I tend to find is if I compare that from Access VT and then I'll, I'll choose ecmwf, which is the other model I like. If they both sort of say something similar then I'm feeling pretty good about, see how they were, you know, certain points they both showed cloudy. So I would say, oh, it's pretty likely then that there probably will be some cloud on a Friday at 10am at those points. So you can kind of play the models off against each other and if they all tend to agree then then that provides a greater level of certainty around that sort of review. And it's very important knowing these sort of things. If you're going to drive three hours to photograph an aurora and you've got a few different choices where you can go. Having a good idea of where the weather might be better is nice to. Especially when you've got clients and other things where they need to, you know, know what you're up to. [01:38:20] Speaker B: Yeah, this is amazing. This is like my level of outlook in terms of stuff is like is it going to rain or not? Is it windy or not? And then is the cloud, is it sunny, overcast or medium, you know, like broken clouds? That's, that's my level of complexity of checking the weather. This is amazing. [01:38:44] Speaker C: It's a bit overwhelming in a way but you know, there's only certain, certain layers I probably use all the time and other ones are just handy to refer to here and there. But it's definitely the reason why I recommend this one because it's nice to. There's other services out there but it's just nice to use one that, that generally integrates most of the information. So yeah, look out if anyone's watching and keen to learn more. I do workshops quite frequently on weather planning. I had one last night so I'm definitely really passionate about helping people make the best choices before they go out. Nothing wrong with going to the bad weather but if you want to get better success with your pictures. Most of the shots that I sell are beautiful, pretty sunrises and you know, nice weather. So I try to find that if. [01:39:34] Speaker B: Someone, if someone wants to track those workshops down. What's the easiest way for them to find your workshops that you do for planning that kind of stuff? [01:39:42] Speaker C: They can sign up to my mailing list and I can let people know through that or also just checking my website, I'll list all of the workshops I'm running. I'm also planning to do some tutorials where people can actually purchase that. It's something that I'm working on at the moment and so that keep an eye out for that. So certainly. And then I'll also list them through Sony Scene as well. So if you're. We welcome all brands too. It's not just Sony so you can also sign up through there but I do allow. Well most of the time they're registered through Sony Scene but it doesn't matter what, what brand that you actually use. I should do also sign ups from my website because Some people are probably just like, oh, no, not a Sony shooter. The weather. The weather doesn't really care what camera brand you shoot with. So that's always nice. [01:40:35] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I definitely recommend people jump on that and I might too, because I need to level up my planning game. Plus it could be handy for planning snow trips a little bit more about the weather. [01:40:49] Speaker C: Yeah. Having a decision tree about understanding what, you know what. Sometimes it's like, you know, see how overwhelming that is? It's like, well, how just having a basic process flow of deciding what information to check sometimes is. Is the best thing you can provide. So, yeah, that's. I love it. I'm nerding out and already you can see, but that's all good. Awesome. [01:41:11] Speaker B: We might. Oh, sorry, Gay Jim. [01:41:13] Speaker C: I was gonna say, Luke, you're talking earlier about planning. [01:41:15] Speaker B: Is that something that's come across from. [01:41:17] Speaker C: Like your previous career? Yeah, I think, I think I like to overthink things and my. I've got a very active brain and it likes to question everything and make sure I've made the right decision. It might even be a level of perfectionism there as well. And so from my perspective, if I can do the best I can to maximize my chances of success, I suppose one of my jobs is literally continuous improvement in a corporate or quality sense. So I guess I'm always keen to improve my own processes to increase the results that I get. And planning is definitely still relying on luck. You just have a better chance of getting what you, you want at the end. And you know, when people are saying pray, pray, pray. Well, you probably don't have to pray as much. You know, the, the more, the better our data models get, the less, the more confidence you can have. But when you're dealing with mountains, even if you've got all the confidence in the world, sometimes not there. So it's definitely a, a big factor of the way my brain works. And I wish I could be the kind of person that just goes for a drive and see what happens, but I like to have some level of control, I suppose, on the, on the outcome too. And it's. It is nice when you can be in the right place at the right time and actually come away with the shot rather than. I hate especially at night. You really can't at night just walk anywhere or find a shot. You really have to have a plan for those scenarios. So it probably has come a lot from night photography as well. Yeah. Yeah. [01:42:52] Speaker A: I used to have a manager from my old corporate life Years ago. And his favorite quote was poor performance promotes. Sorry, Poor preparation promotes poor performance. He says I piss poor performance. But yeah, you get the gist. It's. [01:43:08] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:43:08] Speaker A: There's definitely that element to it. [01:43:10] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Having it does help and yeah, I, I just feel like sometimes if people aren't getting the results they want it, there's, there's a huge element to it where if they had a bit. Spent a bit more time just understanding what they're trying to achieve and finding conditions that aligned or compositions or kind of went in with a bit more of a vision from the start, then, then they may actually accelerate how fast they take images that they're happy with. So that's a perspective anyway. [01:43:43] Speaker A: Yep, that's fair. [01:43:46] Speaker B: I want to find out about your camera gear. So this question is a good jumping off point. Bruce asks, so if you had to carry only one lens, I think this popped up while you were talking about hiking and having, you know, fortuitously having the 50mm with you. If you had to carry only one lens, wide angle telephoto, what would you choose? Zooms don't count. [01:44:07] Speaker C: Zooms don't count. Well, that's Bruce. [01:44:09] Speaker B: Zooms don't count. [01:44:12] Speaker C: Bruce, I'll have to have words with you late. No, I think if I had to pick a prime then I guess is what he's saying I'd probably go in with. I don't actually own it yet, but the Sony 16 mil prime is a pretty impressive little lens. Either that or the 20. I've got the 14. It's probably a bit wide, but because I see the world in wide angle and Sony doesn't make a 12 mil prime, I'd have to probably go the 16 or the 20. The 16 is just incredibly small too. So it would be so easy to carry that around and do what you need to, but it wouldn't be. I couldn't go any more telephoto than 20 mils when it just doesn't work for landscapes as well, or at least the grand landscapes I like to shoot. So it'll definitely be in that range. But my favorite lens of all time, if it could take a Zoom, is the 12-24 GM that Sony do, which is a massive lens. But it's just. Yeah, I can't keep talking about it because I got emotional. I love it. [01:45:15] Speaker B: All right, we're going to get a full, we're going to get a full rundown of everything that you own. Not everything. Everything camera related. Not everything. You don't have to go through the whole house. But before that RXA photography. Greg has said that the army version of that quote is prior preparation and planning prevents piss poor performance. [01:45:32] Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. [01:45:34] Speaker B: A lot of peas. 7P's 7Ps. Yeah that if I just googled that FE16 mil 1.8 weighs 300 grams. [01:45:43] Speaker C: That's. [01:45:44] Speaker B: That's amazing. Nice. [01:45:46] Speaker C: And yeah I was using that in dark mofo. We had some of our photo walks were sort of using that as a feature lens because it's just come out and I was able to handhold eight second exposures and they're actually usable at eight seconds. So that was sort of really bracing myself and things. But still to be able to get. I think it's a factor of the image stabilization plus the fact the lens is wide and very short. It just buys to be and it's got quite a small front aperture ring. The the opening isn't as large as what say the 14 mil might be. So I think it all sort of works together to create a. A pretty amazing hand holdable package as well. So I might not even need a tripod if I took that lens around which is kind of crazy. [01:46:28] Speaker B: That is crazy. [01:46:29] Speaker A: That is very, very cool. [01:46:34] Speaker B: You would recommend it run us through the whole kit. Run us through everything that you're. Everything that you currently use. [01:46:42] Speaker C: Oh this is like a dream for me to be able to talk about gear. Thanks guys. So a 7R5 besides camera ever made Very controversial I'm sure but absolutely love it. A1 Mark2 I just recently got for my Antarctic trip and can't say enough good things about that camera as well. Especially having pre capture and the speed boost capabilities. Being able to do 30 frames a second at 50 megapixels with pre captures just a total game changer. And then having a 12-24 GM. But the 14mil GM, the 20mil G, the 24mil GM, the 55 Zeiss, the 135 GM then I have the 70-200 F4G2 the 100-400 GM and I recently got the 400-800 G as well. I don't take all of that in the bag at once but it's pretty heavy if I did. I have an A7 IV as well and an infrared A7. Well full spectrum A7 III and I've got a couple. I've got an A7R that's infrared converted and two A7s mark 1s. It's probably about it. So you've got quite a. Quite a Healthy collection there and impressive. Yeah, I also have the, the 20 to 70 F4 which is a really nice sort of walk around lens, especially for bush walking. So. [01:48:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's why when they come out I thought that's a, that's a really cool. [01:48:10] Speaker C: In the last year, I would say it's relatively recent and having great focal length. Yeah, it's a bit, a bit of barrel distortion that's corrected in camera on the 20 mil end, but it's definitely a pretty. I used to use the 24 to 105 and I much prefer having an extra 4 mils on the wide end rather than have the extra reach on the other end. And it just means that. So when I was in Antarctica I could fit in the front of the Zodiac which would have been a bit harder at 24 mils. So it's a really quite a versatile lens actually. And yeah, I enjoy using that one too. It's very small and easy to fit in the kit. So. Good for hiking. I sort of have. Some of those lenses are more prioritized for hiking and some of them are more just. I'll take out in other scenarios. So it just depends. Yeah. [01:48:57] Speaker B: Do you have a go to kit like this, These components, these, this camera body or, and. And. Or lenses come on every shoot and then you add to it or just. Is every shoot tailored from the beginning? You're like, all right, this one's a, you know, an A1 Mark II with this lens and this lens and. And then the next shoot you might not take those lenses. You take different lenses altogether or are there a few like staples? [01:49:23] Speaker C: Staples, yeah, definitely have the staples. Now that the absolute staple is the 1224 GM. If I don't bring that, I always regret it. I'm just so fixated on the wide, wide angle, 12 mil just to be able to fill foregrounds and work with. I just can't get past that. I don't care if the background's diminished, I just love my foregrounds. And it's also really versatile from an Astro perspective too. Being 2.8 it generally gets you by most scenarios. And so then I'd take the 20 to 70 pretty much always because it's just easy to fit in the bag. And then if it's a smaller trip, I'd take the 70-200g mark 2 which has macro capability and is quite small and compact too. So really the 12 to 24 is always this big massive lens I'm taking but I just can't not take even on a big seven Day hike or. I mean, that thing's just been so many places. I just can't not take it anywhere. I can't use filters for it because it's, you know, the front element's so big, but I just don't care. [01:50:23] Speaker B: I was just about to ask with. With filters. We'll circle back to that in a second. But yeah, sorry, go on. [01:50:28] Speaker C: And then, and then, yeah, and then 100 to 400, if there's any wildlife involved is a really great one. I haven't really used the 400 to 800 much, so I don't really. That's more just local shooting. And I've got a wetlands in front of the house so I can get some bird shots. And then the 20 mil will come out too, if there's a chance of it being Astro or maybe the 14 it. And prioritize the 20 mil more towards Aurora and the 14 is more around Milky Way. So I just sort of depend on what my goal is and, and which one of those I take or if I've got, you know, I'm not doing a hike, I'd take both of those. So it just depends on the weight limits at the end of the day. But I get a lot of comments about my backpack looking like I'm about to go on a hike and I'm just like, well, this is good practice. You know, I was going to ask. [01:51:14] Speaker A: You about your bags. [01:51:15] Speaker C: You know, it. [01:51:16] Speaker A: Justin's got a. An inordinate amount of camera bags. I've had my fair share over the years and I'm sure so has Jim. In fact, I'm sure pretty much everyone watching or listening along has had a bag gas gear acquisition syndrome problem at some stage. What is your go to camera bag for hikes? [01:51:37] Speaker C: I actually, for hikes I don't use a camera backpack. I don't think there's any bag on the market that's built like a camera bag on the market that's actually built for hiking. I'm happy to, you know, change my mind on that. Please change my mind. But I really don't think there is. So I use a. Just an Osprey pack and actually use. And they're not made anymore. I'm very keen to actually make my own camera pouch. But it's basically, it's called an Aquapack brand pouch. It's very bulletproof with the sort of. It's totally waterproof outer with a foam pad in it. And I can fit my camera with a lens on plus another lens in that. So if I'm hiking I can, can just open that up, pull the camera out and take a shot. But I can also, you know, clip it up, chuck it on the snow. Not really submersible so much, but pretty much everything else I can. If it starts raining, I know that the gear in there is fine. So I really, I learned that the hard way because I used to hike putting all my camera gear in my bag. You don't want to be taking a 30 kilo pack off every time you want to take a photo because you won't be taking any photos. So you really do need to have a pouch or something on your front. I don't like the capture clips because I've seen accidents there. So it's just always the same pouch that's been extremely well used and I'm just sitting on the front of me there and that's, that's what I use for hiking specifically. If it's not hiking, I've got F stop packs that I use which I'm, I really enjoy so, so that's the most of the time I'm using the F stop packs of course, but the hiking, I just really, I do have a large F dot shin. I think it's quite big, but it's just, they're just not right for hiking. [01:53:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I got one of those. It's, it's not great for hiking. I don't, I don't use it anymore because it's also too big for me for general photography because it's massive. I got to sell it. [01:53:28] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll try and get in selling mine before yours but I'd like to believe it. It's okay. But it's. I don't know if you can ever get around just having a front pouch that you can really access the gear quickly. It just, just doesn't work otherwise. [01:53:48] Speaker B: No, I've, I really love the mind shift rotations but again they're not, they're not big enough. They're a camera bag with a little bit of extra storage. They're not a hiking pack. But have you seen those where you can swing the, the waist belt around? [01:54:02] Speaker C: Yeah, it just. When you, when you're doing like big multi day hikes, you just need stuff that's really bulletproof and is built for the job. And hiking packs are, the reality is that they're made actually to carry serious weight and unfortunately I'm a chronic overpacker so my bags are always extremely heavy and everyone's like why are you taking so much stuff? And I'M like, I don't know, I just thought, I've got everything I need, so. And then, you know, I'm always like, like getting a spreadsheet out, working out all of the things to take so I'm not over packing. And then right at the last minute I'll throw in another lens or something, just undoing all of the work that I've done to lightweight the kit. So, yeah, I definitely have a belief that if you're going to put all that effort in, you might as well take the gear out there that you actually need. Otherwise, you know, what's the point, in a way. So it does mean that the bag gets pretty heavy sometimes, but it's all part of the fun. [01:54:54] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. We're coming up on two hours, but I've got only a couple more questions if you've got a few more minutes, Luke. [01:55:02] Speaker C: Oh, man. Yeah, I can keep going all day. Sorry, sorry, viewers. [01:55:06] Speaker B: Well, first, that's what they're here for. While we're on gear, I just had a couple of questions. First of all, you said the A7R V was the best camera ever made, which is wrong, but. No, what I want to know was. [01:55:25] Speaker C: So. [01:55:25] Speaker B: So a 7R V versus a 1 Mark II. Obviously the a 7R 5 is, is slightly higher megapixel, more obviously oriented towards landscapes, I guess. Is there a meaningful difference in image quality between those two cameras to where you would specifically be? Like, I really want the A7R V with me or are they close enough now? [01:55:49] Speaker C: I think they are close enough. I mean, realistically, I probably haven't given the A12 enough of a run, but the A7R V does have a bit higher res. 61 versus 50, I think so. So there is that going for it. And I'm definitely saying that as a landscape photographer, obviously if I did animals or other things full time, you know, obviously I have to say that too because I'm a Sony advocate as well. But no, I guess I'm genuinely very happy with it. And I can't imagine what they could put in another body. I mean, there's a few firmware things and other things, but like, I can't imagine what they could possibly do to make it something, you know, I'd be quite happy to keep using that for, for a long time. And certainly the rear screen design just blows my mind how well they executed on that and how it flips out in all the different axes that it has now. And it's really just. I was at last year's Kando event. I actually had a part of a focus group and actually bring in some of the people from the head office in Japan to meet with the creators and actually get feedback face to face. And I was actually able to thank them to their face for creating the screen, which was really meaningful to me because every time I use it I'm like, oh, this is so satisfying. So. But. And I find it very hard to use a screen now. That's just the standard little flippy thing. It just really shits me. [01:57:16] Speaker B: I'd love to. [01:57:17] Speaker C: Terminology. [01:57:18] Speaker B: I'd love to get in the room with the Canon engineers and talk to them about their screen, but I wouldn't be praising them. It would not be. [01:57:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean I was, I was there with some of the other designs that Sony has had. So to. To actually get something that I actually wanted was. Was really phenomenal. And so that, that's just sort of an example of where my mind's at with that. Obviously I'm a bit of a fanboy but, you know, I'm allowed to be proud about that. [01:57:44] Speaker B: We all are. We all are. [01:57:45] Speaker A: Superpower. [01:57:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:57:48] Speaker B: Okay. I think that's probably. That's most of my gear questions. Is it? [01:57:53] Speaker A: You guys have any gear questions? [01:57:55] Speaker B: Oh, I guess now's the time to do that. [01:57:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:57:57] Speaker B: Okay. Which we kind of did before. All right, we know where this, we know where this is going. End of the world zombie apocalypse. And you have to go and document it with just one camera and one lens. What are you going to grab? [01:58:11] Speaker C: Yeah, so a 7R 512 to 24. Sorry, I thought it's pretty obvious. Yeah, I mean I'm definitely going to miss out on some of the longer shots, but it's just the way that I like to tell the stories. And you know, to me that's, that's. I'm sure the apocalypse is going to have some pretty big explosions, so you want to be able to fit that in with a 12 mil, won't you? So I think that's probably a pretty good choice. Yeah. [01:58:35] Speaker A: And there's a lot of drama to be had from a wide angle shot of a zombie like coming at you. [01:58:40] Speaker C: Very good point. You know, actually, yeah, that's. I hadn't really considered that. And. But you do have to get pretty close to the zombie for that to happen. [01:58:46] Speaker A: At 12 mil especially, they're going to. [01:58:48] Speaker C: Be right on distance. Hopefully. I don't really want to be getting to those close up zombie shots because that's. That might be someone discovering my SD card after the fact. [01:58:58] Speaker B: I think these photos are amazing. All. [01:59:05] Speaker C: The cameraman never dies. That's true. That's very true. [01:59:11] Speaker B: Okay. There's a couple more things I want to cover off and that is two things. One question was going to be around printing stuff, and then another thing I wanted to do was just have a look at some of your other images, some of your favorites non aurora focus stuff. Which one should we do first? [01:59:31] Speaker C: Should we do. [01:59:32] Speaker B: Let's look at some images. [01:59:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:59:35] Speaker B: So I want to start off with what one of my favorite images from your website, which was this one. I really like this shot. Yeah. Can you tell us about this image? [01:59:50] Speaker C: Yeah, it's probably my most awarded image. It won the international landscape photograph of the year really early on in my career. I think it was 2015 from memory, which is really when I was only kind of starting to hit my straps with it all. And I think it was a huge catalyst in me being able to do it full time, to be honest, because getting a bit of recognition for your work in such a big way kind of gave me a lot of confidence that I had enough ability. You know, is this weird thing, right, like you can't just pick up a drill and go, I'm going to be a dentist. But you can pick up a camera and go, oh, I'm going to be a photographer. You know, So I had to. I felt like I really had to get some results or something to kind of prove that I could, you know, at least internally. And so getting a result like that and taking an image like this and having, you know, a good amount of success with that really helped. And it's just a. It's a tree in the middle of a field in the Brossa Valley. You drive past it just not thinking of anything. But the big storm cloud moving over was just perfectly placed and obviously the lightning bolt, I couldn't have dreamed for that to be hitting in a better spot. Maybe the apex of the hill could have maybe been slightly, maybe. [02:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:01:04] Speaker C: And the darker cloud on the right sort of offsets that. So it's kind of like a classic rule of thirds where the two. The dark cloud and the white bolter on the, on the third lines and then the, the horizon lines are sort of the top and bottom thirds. And then you've got this strong central subject. So from a. A competent competition perspective, there's not much else to take points off because there's nothing in the foreground otherwise. So. So that, that I think also actually helps it as well. And it was just a lucky shot really, because it was all handheld, kind of just taking. Pumping the shadow basically and, and managing to actually get a lightning bolt shot. I don't even think I was on a tripod when I took it. And I can tell you I got out of there pretty quick after that happened because that was. If that's hitting that hill, that hill is really only 500 meters away or something like that. Yeah. And that is all hail behind the. The. The. The tree because I. I know because I found that out with the. The car got pummeled. So. Not. No, Brusso Valley is not normally a, you know, storm alley sort of place, but it just. I made my luck because the. I knew the storm was going over and I just happened to find the tree and. And lined it up and. And it all happened. The other interesting thing about it is it's an infrared image, and it really wouldn't look the same if it wasn't in infrared. And it was a weird decision I made when I went out, left my sister's place where I was staying, and I decided to take the infrared camera. And I'm not sure exactly why, but I'm glad I did because it's made the foliage white. It's made it stand out against the darker spirit cloud behind. [02:02:45] Speaker A: And isn't there a saying about fortune smiles on the brave or something like that? [02:02:50] Speaker C: Probably. Definitely made me very happy that I got into infrared as well. And. And a lot of my images that have got awards are actually infrared images. And I spend such a small proportion of my time shooting infrared, and they seem to be the one that. Ones that cut through the most. So, yeah, I should be doing more black and whites, really. I just do it more for fun. And maybe that's the whole thing. I'm doing it for fun when I do black and whites, and that's when I create the. The images that connect more. But yeah, it's. That's the story. And I've been back to the tree. Lower tree is broken off, lower branches, but I'm still there. [02:03:26] Speaker A: Yep, that's. [02:03:27] Speaker B: I. Yeah, I love it and I'm really. Yeah. Beautiful image. Regardless. I'm sure it would have been amazing no matter what you shot it with, but infrared is very compelling and very striking. And I'm slowly really educating myself on infrared via this podcast. Every time it comes up as a topic, I ask a few more questions and I'm slowly getting towards one day maybe getting a camera converted or something. So today my question for you is, you mentioned before that you've got two cameras that have been modified one infrared and I think one full spectrum. What does that mean? And what are the differences between those two things? [02:04:04] Speaker C: Yeah, good question. So the infrared conversion means that it can only photograph in infrared because they remove the hot mirror filter, which kind of blocks infrared and UV light and only lets in visible color. And they take that off and they actually put a filter onto it that only allows you to shoot an infrared. So it's kind of baked in infrared camera only. And that's great if you want to shoot infrared, but then that's all the camera can do. One trick pony. And even it's fixed to the particular wavelength. So I normally. My first conversion was a 720 nanometer. I since fell in love more with a darker infrared, which is a, you know, they call it like a deep black and white. And so that's at 850 nanometers. And actually sent a camera back to get reconverted so that it was the darker one. And I'm like, well, I can't do that again. So this next camera that I got, the A7 III, I got it converted to full spectrum. And then you can actually use these little sensor clip filters that go over the front of the sensor so you can manually change them out yourself. [02:05:00] Speaker A: And I can now choose on socials. [02:05:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So I can choose to photograph now in whatever wavelength I like. And I can even. It's not perfect, but that camera can also even shoot invisible color as well using a filter that. That sort of acts like that hot mirror filter that was taken out originally. It's image quality wise. There's some issues with the corners. It's not quite as perfect as if it was a proper conversion. So if you're really just only wanting to do infrared, I'd recommend a direct conversion still. But if you want to have a bit of flexibility and be able to play with it, then you can use the full. Get a full spectrum conversion, which means it photographs in all wavelengths of light. And then you can use those clip filters to be able to choose your own wavelength and choose your own adventure there, which is pretty like as a science brain like mine, you can get all these wacky looks and do all sorts of cool stuff. Like if you're like completely over photography or just like want to do something so different and just totally open up and you know, like just you got a creative rut, like being at a shooting a different way, but of light that no one can see is a pretty cool way to do that, to get out of that. [02:06:09] Speaker B: Where, where do you get These conversions done, do you have any recommendations of where. Where we can. [02:06:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:06:15] Speaker B: Send cameras? [02:06:16] Speaker C: Well, my last one was actually in Melbs. It was at. At Camera Clinic or they closed down but they have a sort of sister company called Imaging by Design and so they still do conversions there and I got my A7 III converted there so you don't have to send it too far. You can do it in the states as well. But I did the sums and the states will be cheaper for the conversion. But then by the time you post it there and all extra time and who knows what's happening with tariffs and stuff now as well. It was just a lot easier to do it locally in the end and it's about $600 to get it done. So it's not a, a cheap exercise. But they are pulling your whole camera apart to take a filter out and not leave any problems behind. So it's a, it's a fair call on that. And yeah, so don't have to send it too far. Just give those guys a call and they'll let you know how the timing's going with it. Yeah, very cool. [02:07:09] Speaker B: All right. Some of your favorite photos. I'm on your website Direct Me. [02:07:15] Speaker C: Gallery and then I think there's a, A section in there for artist favorites and that's a, that's probably a good way to do it. Yeah, probably need to. I don't know if all of them are my favorites. It's funny. I need to. I really. It's. It's probably the classic photography thing. You're. You. You don't like. At the end of the day you neglect your own website and I've definitely done that. So, so, so much of my more recent work's not on there. It's a bit embarrassing, but that's all right. It's. It's a good reminder. The tractor Barn Bluff shot's pretty special to me. The one with the orange. The orange cloud over the top. Because that was. That happened when. On my first overland track or my first real multi day trip really when I did the overland track back in 2014 and it made me fall in love with Tasmania and being out in the wilderness and, and being able to stand on this track and seeing Barn Bluff lit up in this way with the, with this cloud over the top like it's a UFO and just being there in that environment. I was there with a friend but he was away shooting somewhere else. So I had this sort of probably for the first time experience where I was solo in the wilderness and it was Just the wind and just silence and this beautiful scene. And I was there taking photos of it and there was a real sort of profound moment. It's the one I always sort of pick out as my sort of moment where I realized that I really want to be doing this into the future and I want to come back to Tassie and learn more about it and shoot more places. And I want to do more bushwalking and more exploring and being able to find these sort of amazing places in the wilderness that we can take photos at. And so that's a real. So if you wanted the moment that sort of helped me get into wilderness photography, then this is definitely one of those. Yeah, so that's a. That's special for me. [02:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a beautiful shot. [02:09:13] Speaker C: And the Lake Oberon one near that too, which you. Which you used in the show. Graphic sort of just. Yeah, that one there, that. That's special to me because I was really inspired by Peter Dombroskis's work from. And I saw his shop from Lake Oberon and just had never really thought that there was a place like that that could actually exist in Australia, let alone Tasmania. I thought it would be like Patagonia or something like that. And I was really transfixed by that sort of a location. And so we did a lot of planning and actually did the overland track to prepare for this walk. So I walked it a second time because it's quite. It's a five day return hike to get in there and quite challenging and a lot of preparation and. And I was very determined to take it in a different way to the shot that I'd seen of the location. And so I found this organ, this composition that sort of looked a bit like the Southern Cross as well. And yeah, you can even, I think, see our tent all the way down next to the lake there in the shot. And that's. Yeah, it's just a really special image for me because of the amount of work and effort that went into being able to create that and also be able to represent these beautiful places in a way that I really wanted to and, and also have the inspiration from another photographer to go there, but also create my own original work rather than sort of copying the same composition that someone else had done at that sort of place. So I found that really meaningful for me as well and certainly was a heck of an adventure as well. So that's a really special one to reflect on. [02:10:54] Speaker B: Rodney says magnificent. [02:10:56] Speaker C: Which is Rodney. [02:10:58] Speaker B: Well, that's following on from the last photo which he gave a 9.5. So. [02:11:03] Speaker C: Very good, I think, you know, I often hear that too. And it's like people say nice things and I'm like, well, I'm, you know, they're really, at the end of the day, just commenting on how beautiful the place is. And I'm, I'm trying to do my best just to point my lens in the, in the, in that angle and, and get that result. So, you know, I always think internally too, that, like, the nature's really doing all the work for us and our job's just to do the best job of representing that. So I like to think when you say magnificent, it's also, you know, a nice shout out to those beautiful places as well, for existing. Yeah. [02:11:41] Speaker B: It certainly takes, yeah, you got to do it. It takes a lot of skill. Like even this, this. It's a striking image, but yes, at a different time, from a different angle on a, you know, on a different day, it's not going to look like that. [02:11:57] Speaker C: So, yeah, it's a special one for me because it's actually in the Brossa Valley and you wouldn't necessarily think of it as being in a place like that and. Yeah, like just how I use the, the, the, the clouds coming out of the tree and sort of framing it that way. If I had, if I could pick right now what my favorites are, probably wouldn't. It's funny how I've got them in this particular category, but it is a nice, like, it's nice to get a photograph from a place like, say, the Brossard bolt shot too. Right. Like, it wins some big competition results. And it's just taken around the corner from my sister's place. It's not like I've gone to Iceland or somewhere. Like, I kind of love that about photography, that you can create these amazing. You know, I talk about planning and finding these great locations, but sometimes it's just in your backyard. You don't have to actually go that far. A lot of the time it's just understanding the light and being there at the right time and composing it well. And I just really love that about photography, that you can definitely make a place or your job's to show it off the best you possibly can. And, yeah, it's really cool. [02:13:04] Speaker A: I think it's interesting too, that. Sorry, Jim. You go, oh, sorry. [02:13:08] Speaker C: You've got to be able to see that, though. Like, you know, yes, it's just around the corner from your sister's place. You might have seen that tree a hundred times, but you saw it. [02:13:16] Speaker B: You know, in that way on that day. And that's what makes it special. [02:13:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's. There's definitely a level of intuition that comes to. With that and understanding composition and understanding, you know, subject separation, making sure the top of the tree isn't hitting the top of the cloud. There's some fundamental rules or, like, an aesthetic balance that's always great to. To have as a rule set that goes through in the back of your head. That's, you know, people say, can't really teach composition or some. I've heard people say that, but I think there's actually some fundamental things that you can follow that actually really are great rules to run through in your mind around separation and balance and things like that. Not having stuff too close to the edges, all sorts of different things to consider, and having a visual journey in the image and those inherent things are stuff that you just do. And it's nice to, you know, when it all comes together, I suppose. [02:14:11] Speaker A: I think the thing that stands out for me the most about your work, Luke, is how well you recognize and capture and celebrate the raw beauty of Australia. You know, we often. We hear people talking about traveling to Iceland and Antarctica and, you know, really exotic destinations to get that, you know, that sort of pristine, raw nature. And I think that's wonderful. I wholeheartedly encourage that. But there is a lot to be said about what's in our own backyard and what's in Australia in particular. You know, we have some of the most stunning, raw natural beauty in the world. You've just got to get to it. And sometimes, like you said, you don't have to travel too far to find something that's just as magnificent as spending, you know, two weeks on a ship going to Antarctica and back. [02:15:00] Speaker C: So, absolutely. I mean, such a huge proportion of people live by the coast and beaches, and just that alone is. Is enough to get you going. And yeah, we really, in the COVID sort of taught me, too, that you don't really need to have to travel too far. You can. You really can, you know, get some amazing stuff in your backyard. And I. I've found I've been in Iceland before and taking all these amazing shots and seeing all these amazing things and still thinking, well, I'm seeing cool stuff. But I get the same excitement when I'm at home, too, at these amazing places. So, like, well, I could save a lot of fuel and just do another trip somewhere else in Taz, and I'd probably get the same level of fulfillment. At the end of the day, I know, the landscape is dramatically different. But if we're doing it, if we're doing it just for that fulfillment, then realistically, you know, do you need to do that travel? So now I'm very much just like if I'm paid to go somewhere overseas, I'm happy to do that. But otherwise I'm super content just hanging out in TAs and finding new places and shooting things in a way that maybe hasn't been shot before, doing some unique stuff. And that to me is all I need. Yeah, it's really great. [02:16:07] Speaker A: Very cool. [02:16:09] Speaker B: I have one, one final question. I think, I think it's never usually the final question, but we'll see. Printers. Do you print your own work and if so do you work with a lab or do you have a printer yourself? And how often are you printing? Do you sell prints? Talk to us. [02:16:28] Speaker C: Yeah, so I sell prints and I do print my own work up to a 2 size. Actually when I won the David Malan Award, I got a Canon gift vouch voucher and I was like, I don't know really what I'm going to buy with a Canon gift voucher, but I actually bought a printer. So I've got the Pro 1000 printer and that serves me extremely well. It's a very, very good printer. And so I print up to a 2 with that and then if I have a. An order size larger than a 2, I'll send it to my print lab. Full gamut here in Hobart. Who print all of Peter Dombroska's work? Who's my photographic idol? He's a. The only Australian photographer in the International Photography hall of Fame. And so if like his works, if he can, if his process is good enough for Peter's work, then it's definitely good enough for mine. So I'm pretty happy with that. And yeah, so Simon does a great job. He studied under Les Walkling so he definitely knows what he's doing. And that's. Yeah. So that they do my larger size prints as well. And yeah, so definitely enjoy the printing process. I should print more. I think probably everyone says that and I'm really happy with the results I'm getting. Actually I use platinum canson platinum paper. [02:17:41] Speaker B: Oh, that's nice. [02:17:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, it's really good with the blacks, especially with the darker shots, like a night shots you would. You don't want to use a rag where the blacks can really block up and plateau is really great for black and white images and images where there's some subtle detail in the shadows. It allows those still To. To sort of be visible. [02:18:02] Speaker B: Well, you may have just cost me a lot of money. I did get a price on the Pro 1100 the other day. I haven't. So Jim and I used to work from the same location and we had the Epson 3880 which now Jim's got on his. In his office. And I haven't had a printer nearby for. Geez, I don't even know now. Five or six years. [02:18:25] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [02:18:27] Speaker B: And I miss it as much as that 3880. I wanted to do the scene out of office space multiple times and stomp it until it doesn't make any sounds or print anything because it just does stupid things all the time. [02:18:41] Speaker C: But. [02:18:44] Speaker B: Why has it been working well for you? [02:18:46] Speaker C: I'm not saying anything. [02:18:50] Speaker B: But yeah, the. Seeing your work come out of that printer and looking. It's just different to viewing it on a screen. And I need to get back to doing that regularly, so. Okay, that's good to know that, that you. You like that printer. It's been working well for you. [02:19:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it's definitely prints well. It's extremely slow and it takes so long to get going. But when it does do what it does it. It's very few rejects that, you know, I see it on the screen. I've got ISO monitor that I color calibrate. So the color management I do is not too bad. And I'm generally happy. I'm certainly happy with the results compared to full gamut. So I don't feel like, you know, a customer's getting anything less if I'm printing it or Simon would. I would definitely not do it otherwise. So I'm very happy with that. And you know, sometimes Simon does them anyway if I'm traveling. But yeah, that's. It's. I think the 1100's a step up again, so. But I think the thousand's still pretty nice too. So it's. It's definitely a. Yeah, a great thing to do. As Bruce said, it's just, you know, if you're thinking about it, you definitely do it because seeing the prints actually exist in the flesh like that and, and look so good. Like it's better than seeing it on the screen. For sure. It's. It's a very fulfilling process. For sure. [02:20:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like. It's like the image is finished, then when it. When it comes out of the printer as opposed to just sort of floating around on your hard drive or post it on social media. [02:20:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:20:12] Speaker A: And they often just disappear. You know, I mean, unless you're actively putting them on socials or a website. You know, you often don't see your own images, they just disappear into the, into the algorithms. And you know, I, I mean I'm just as guilty of not having enough of my prints up from my travels and stuff but, but yeah, it's actually got me thinking about it too. [02:20:34] Speaker B: For those listening on audio, Bruce says do it. Buy a printer, just do it. So I guess I'm doing it. He also says, he also says Simon is a legend. [02:20:47] Speaker C: He's a huge supporter of the photographic community too. Simon. I can't say enough good things about Full Gamut. And they do print all from all around Australia too. So if you're hunting for a printer. Yeah, do look them up. Good shout out there. [02:20:59] Speaker B: Have to check it out. Speaking of shout outs, unless Greg or Jim have any other topics they want to dig into or you Luke. I wanted to just go over some of the stuff. The other stuff that you do like workshops. I know you've got a blog on the, on your website and also you do have your own podcast talking, Talking Landscape Photography. So how, let's start with that. How often do you do episodes for talking landscape photo photography and where can people find that? [02:21:31] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. Look up Talking landscape photography on YouTube. It's a show that we started during COVID when we wanted the community to connect again because we couldn't go out and take photos. So we might as well talk about landscape photography if we couldn't go out and take the photos. And so we, I started that with my friend Paul Holland and we're still, still running it although 6 the frequencies really dropped off with. I'm either been traveling like in places like Antarctica, Paul's I think in Spa or Iceland at the moment. So it's very hard for us to kind of coordinate our schedules or. Sounds terrible. [02:22:05] Speaker B: Must be. [02:22:06] Speaker A: So yeah. [02:22:09] Speaker C: Because we're always home. Right. But then our, our you know, travel schedules came back again. It's like oh man, we still have to try and keep this thing running. So we, we, we switched to fortnightly. We were doing weekly initially and now we're. Yeah, I think we're 130 episodes or so at the moment. And yeah, it's, it's definitely a bit more of a trickle in terms of the episodes coming out but it's been a really meaningful presence in our lives for many years that show and so yeah, there's plenty of amazing photographers that we've talked to over the years and a lot of great information there about places and topics and, and just photographers background. Learn some really great photographers that we've talked to over the time. So definitely feel free to check that out and subscribe if you, if you so desire. Thanks for the shout out there. [02:22:59] Speaker B: And what about workshops and other education stuff like that if people want to get more from you. You mentioned the planning workshops earlier. What else do you do longer, longer workshops, overnighters, things like that as well. [02:23:11] Speaker C: Experience? Yeah, I do got all sorts going really. You can do an on demand workshop if you happen to find yourself in Tassie and I can pick you up and take you out and try and shoot an Aurora or stuff like that. We can also do multi day photography experiences. My model now is more of an adaptive model where we come in, you fly into Hobart and then we actually go where the weather's good which is a really great. Tassie's a special place for that where you can actually do the planning like I do and actually find locations where the weather's more optimal and so we're more likely to get a clearer sky for Aurora or Astro or getting better sunrises, sunsets rather than being based in Cradle Mountain and it's just water wall cloud the whole time and you can't really do anything with that. It's not as fun for me and it's probably not as fun for the guests. So we, we can cruise around and chase the conditions around Tassie rather than having them dictated to us which is nice to be. And then yeah, do the online workshops. A lot of different editing or planning oriented workshops around landscape photography. So keep an eye on my website or on Sony Scene. I have all of those listed on there and I, I do occasionally drop a mailing list newsletter as well. So I'm. Sign up to my newsletter and you'll get some more information about what I'm up to. [02:24:28] Speaker B: Awesome. [02:24:29] Speaker C: Very cool. Thank you. [02:24:30] Speaker B: Anything. [02:24:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:24:32] Speaker A: What's on the cards for you next? What. What's coming up that's big for you? [02:24:35] Speaker C: Yeah, probably working on this exhibition that's in August that I mentioned. I'm pretty excited about that and how we've integrated into the science week for the Aurora exhibition in Salamanca from the 8th to the 18th of August. That's pretty exciting. Certainly having a. Our first baby is, is very exciting as well and oh yeah, I think it's going to put a hold on a lot of things from September onwards for a bit of time and then. [02:25:00] Speaker A: I've got some work probably about 25 years. [02:25:06] Speaker C: I'm, I'm. I know what I've signed up for and I'm, I'm all there for it because. And a place in my life now where I'm, you know, I guess you could say a little bit more settled and don't need to feel like I need to travel off to all these places all the time. Certainly being able to do things online and living in a place where I can take amazing photos just down the road doesn't hurt as well. So. Yeah. But it's definitely going to be a different experience later in the year, so hopefully it's a good one. I'm sure it will be. [02:25:34] Speaker A: No doubt. [02:25:35] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So that's sort of what I've got on the cards. But there's. I'm also hoping to put a book out next year. I was hoping to do it this year, but Bubs coming along. It's going to be a little bit of a stress to try and do it this year, but I am working on a book that I'm hoping to, to release at some time. So that's, that's another big project. So it's always something going on. There's always enough to keep me busy and emails are always piling in. So it's, it's a, it's a good time to be alive and feel free to sign up to the newsletter or follow my website for any updates. [02:26:13] Speaker B: Awesome. Very cool. Rodney Nicholson says that's the, the best thing is about to happen. [02:26:19] Speaker C: I'm pretty pumped about it and looking, looking forward to, you know, maybe training up the next generation of Tassie Wilderness photographers. Who knows? But no expectations. But yeah, it could be a real. [02:26:33] Speaker A: Steve Irwin Bindi Owen kind of experience. [02:26:35] Speaker C: You know, I'll be there with a Sony camera first thing. First thing they, they play with. I don't know. We'll see. [02:26:43] Speaker B: Try and get them in the Junior Ambassador program. Straight out. A couple final comments. [02:26:51] Speaker C: Who knows? [02:26:52] Speaker B: Oh yeah, you might pivot. You might pivot completely. It happens. [02:26:57] Speaker A: Or babies in landscapes. [02:26:59] Speaker C: Well, that's. It could be. Yeah. [02:27:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Like when they're in the pots. [02:27:06] Speaker C: They still do them in the pots. Justin. [02:27:08] Speaker B: That'll go viral. [02:27:10] Speaker C: I've got a shot of my partner Joe as a maternity shot with the Aurora behind and it had a blue bioluminescence or pink Aurora. And so I was just like a, you know, is it going to be. [02:27:20] Speaker B: Blue or the, the reveal. [02:27:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Yes. That was pretty fun. [02:27:25] Speaker B: Nature's reveal. [02:27:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:27:28] Speaker B: That's awesome. A few final comments. RXA Photography says I'm printing proofs for a book as we speak, I also have four by six prints all over the house. Yeah, that's what I want. I've got prints, but nothing new. LTK Photography. I'm very happy with the Canon Pro 300. It fits my needs. [02:27:47] Speaker C: It's cool. [02:27:48] Speaker B: I think that one prints. Yeah. And it prints over a three anyway. Yeah, it's still a massive, massive printer, this one. We'll have to dig into another day because I don't even understand it. LTK Photography says on the topic of UV photography, Pentax made ultra achromatic Tuka Mars lens. I don't know if that's a word or not, that used elements made of quartz fluoride for forensic photography. [02:28:11] Speaker C: Wow. Yes. It's an interesting thing because if you're photographing these different wavelengths, the lenses or the glass, the optics aren't designed necessarily to photograph in non visible wavelengths. So you get these hotspots or other characteristics of the lenses. And so if you can create a lens that has optical characteristics that work with those wavelengths, then you can get better pictures. So it's quite a significant thing. If you're getting into. I don't really do UV photography, but. [02:28:43] Speaker B: We lost him. [02:28:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you're frozen there, mate. [02:28:46] Speaker B: He's frozen. What's happened? Or is it something he's holding that pose, lost in thought? [02:28:54] Speaker C: Maybe. [02:28:55] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe. Oh, you're back. [02:29:03] Speaker C: And again. [02:29:05] Speaker B: Well, hey, at least he's back. [02:29:11] Speaker C: The right time. [02:29:12] Speaker B: The cable. The cable from Tassie to the mainland must have got hit by a boat or something. [02:29:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we're losing him slowly. [02:29:22] Speaker B: Yes, it's the islands drifting away from the mainland. Rodney says my son thought the enlarger was. Was a spaceship, which is pretty cool. [02:29:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it's cool. We've got your back. [02:29:33] Speaker B: L. Yeah, we think. All right, anything. Anything else before we wrap up? [02:29:41] Speaker C: Oh, look, I'm just a real awesome privilege to be on the pod, really, and just being able to talk about what I love to do. It's very fulfilling to be able to share my knowledge and hopefully help other people take better photos and just share the love, really. So, yeah, thanks for the opportunity. [02:29:59] Speaker A: Absolute pleasure and we love you for that. Here at the Camera Life, we're all about community and which is why we go live for all of our podcasts, because we want people to be involved in the discussion. We want people to ask questions. Justin is working towards one day having a number that people can call in live. [02:30:15] Speaker B: That's the dream. [02:30:17] Speaker A: I think he always wanted to be a radio presenter or something. Like a dj. [02:30:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:30:21] Speaker A: I think maybe something. Something going on. [02:30:24] Speaker C: Definitely something we don't do on our pod. It's much less interactive and probably more of a presentation style, but probably drifted away from that actually from when we first started. But it's really lovely to see that and have that engagement and, and certainly being asked questions as you go. Probably everyone's thinking the same thing, so it's nice to be able to, yeah. Quickly reveal those informations. [02:30:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we love it. [02:30:50] Speaker A: Definitely. You know, and if we can change, if we can change the way that someone works or we inspire someone to get out and try something different, you know, to. To head out to a local spot and try some night photography or whatever it may be, then. Then I always feel like when we hear those stories of, oh, because if I watched your show, I actually went and did this. That that's, that's when we win the day. Oh, yeah, because we're inspiring others, we're helping others. [02:31:14] Speaker C: Meaningful impact on people's lives and, and be able to. Ye end of the day, that's what I like to think I'm doing with my photography is inspiring people to go out and either see how beautiful the world is or want to interact and connect with it in their own way as well, after acknowledging, you know, what's out there. So it's, It's a great thing. [02:31:34] Speaker A: Yeah, most definitely. But look, I think we'll, we'll. I think that's a good note to finish on. Ready to wrap up there, Justin? [02:31:41] Speaker B: Absolutely. [02:31:42] Speaker A: All right, well, look, thank you to everybody who has been watching or listening along, whether live with us today or down the track, when you're watching through this episode after the fact, this is the Camera Life podcast. This has been episode 94. It's the 3rd of July, 2025. And just a reminder that we would greatly appreciate it if you gave us a like on this episode. If you've just watched it or later hit the subscribe button. We've got plenty more goodness coming up in the future. We, every Thursday morning we interview a photographer to learn more about their journey, their inspirations, their craft, and what they're currently working on. And then every Monday evening, we have our second show, the random photography show, where we just talk shop. We, we, we cover viewers questions, we look at comments, we look talk about gear, we talk about industry events, rumors, lots of rumors. [02:32:37] Speaker B: A7R6 maybe. [02:32:38] Speaker C: I don't know. Yeah. [02:32:43] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the A75 that's coming. Yep. [02:32:45] Speaker C: Yeah, apparently. [02:32:46] Speaker A: Apparently. But look, on that note, on behalf of all of us here at the Camera Life and at Lucky Straps, just want to thank you, Luke, for sharing your time and your personal story with us. It's been, yeah, truly inspirational and we really appreciate you taking the time. It's, it's, it's great to finally hear you speak after Justin's been banging on about you for months and months and months. [02:33:11] Speaker C: But. [02:33:11] Speaker A: But rightly so. Well deserved indeed. And, yeah, we wish you all the best for September with. With the arrival of the next generation of Sony ambassadors. [02:33:23] Speaker C: There we go. No expectation, but yes. Now, thank you so much for the invite and just being able to talk about what I love to talk about the most in the world. Can't beat that. [02:33:34] Speaker B: Yeah, very good. [02:33:35] Speaker C: Absolutely. [02:33:36] Speaker A: Absolutely. [02:33:36] Speaker B: Roll the music. I'll read some comments out while we do it because Andrew island says we'll definitely head down to the gallery during the exhibition. I work locally in Salamanca. Rodney Nicholson thoroughly enjoyed Luke. Robert Varner excellent presentation, camera emoji and Bruce Moyle says, good show, guys. Look forward to seeing Luke in nz. One more. Finally, Samantha Olson says truer words have never been spoken about how to make a million dollars in photography. Start with $2 million. [02:34:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:34:10] Speaker A: Yep. Learned that the hard way sometimes.