Get Ready for BFOP 2026 with Matt, Nick and CJ! - The Random Photography Show

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Well, well, well. G', day, everybody, and welcome back to the Camera Life podcast. It is the random photography show because it's Monday, 24th of August, 2026, and we have a very, very special show lined up for you today. With only 46 days left until the bright festival of photography opens its doors, how many hundreds of eager, keen photographers [00:00:52] Speaker C: we should start planning? [00:00:54] Speaker D: Do you have hundreds of days until the festival? [00:00:56] Speaker C: No. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Hundreds of photographers. 46 days. Hundreds. You're not even listening. We haven't even started. [00:01:02] Speaker D: Cruel. [00:01:03] Speaker B: All right, I'm gonna. I'm finished my read anyway. Everyone stick around. We're going to cover off everything that's coming up for BFOP 2026, which just so happens to be the 10th birthday of BFOP, so who knows what's in store? And of course, we are joined by none other than Justin Castles, the man who keeps the lights on. How are you? [00:01:21] Speaker A: Well, my lights are dim tonight, but they're on. [00:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. [00:01:25] Speaker A: I'm good. [00:01:25] Speaker B: That's fair. And joining us from. Joining us from the big FOP team, we have Matt Crummons, Nick Fletcher, and cj. G', day, guys. [00:01:34] Speaker E: Hey. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Hey, Greg. [00:01:36] Speaker C: Hey, Justin. [00:01:37] Speaker B: All of a sudden, you guys have got nothing to say? You. You haven't stopped talking before. We pressed the live button and now you've all gone camera shy. [00:01:44] Speaker D: I'll be honest, I've been getting dirty looks from everyone on this zoom call since you started, Greg, so. Well, I'll just be here in the corner. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll monitor behavior. It'll be okay. We've got a lot to cover off tonight. Like I said, it's only 46 days to be fought. People have got questions that demand answers, and we've got the people here that have actually provide the answers. We hope. We'll see. [00:02:04] Speaker D: Can we just tweet? Honestly, that. Can that be the last reference to how close we are? [00:02:08] Speaker B: Sure. Well, sure, I can. [00:02:10] Speaker C: Hang on. [00:02:10] Speaker A: I did have. I have one question. [00:02:13] Speaker D: Ideally, say that it's in the near future. [00:02:16] Speaker C: You know, we have just. Sorry, what? [00:02:19] Speaker A: When does it start? Because it says it's 46 days in one hour. [00:02:24] Speaker D: It says it's in the near future. I'm going to change the website, I think. [00:02:26] Speaker C: Okay. [00:02:28] Speaker A: Because it says 46 days in one hour, but that mean it would start at 8:30. [00:02:32] Speaker D: Oh, it's a different time zone. Yeah, I was looking at it before daylight savings. [00:02:38] Speaker C: Yeah, we should. We should be a bit cautious. What we all found out just before we went live is Matt Grumman has some Sort of terminal heart problem. And every 10 minutes he has to stop moving while some nurse runs in and takes his blood pressure. Literally. He's hooked up and all you're doing is talking about the thing that makes him more anxious than anything in the world, which is how much he hasn't done before. The thing that starts in 46 days. [00:03:07] Speaker D: Because whatever report this little device gives to the doctor, that is the difference between me being like hospitalized be or, you know, sticking around and, and making it work. So be nice. It is in the near future, I [00:03:18] Speaker A: think every 15 minutes we'll go calm. Every 15 minutes everyone will just chill. [00:03:23] Speaker D: We'll Z out, limp like a puppet, you know, like Pinocchio when he lost his charm. [00:03:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. [00:03:30] Speaker D: Not cool. [00:03:31] Speaker C: Not cool. [00:03:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:03:33] Speaker B: As I said at the top of the show, we've got a lot to cover tonight. We're going to talk a little bit about the history of be. We're going to talk a little bit about, you know, Beef Up Day last year. We haven't seen a repeat of that this year and we want to know why. And we're going to talk about, obviously, beef up 2026 and what part everyone is playing in the, in the upcoming festival in the near future. But before we do that, Jay, do you want to say good day to some folks in the chat? [00:03:57] Speaker A: I can't say hello to everyone because it's, it's crazy. We've got. Obviously it's just busy, busy. Dennis Smith's in here. He says it's on. I've been working on Beef up all day. Hi, Dennis. [00:04:09] Speaker B: Nice work. [00:04:11] Speaker A: Original Ron Johnson, a new person here. Interested to learn about this b fot. It all seems very complicated. [00:04:21] Speaker B: It is. [00:04:24] Speaker C: Did you see what he got wrong? Later, look at his next comment. [00:04:29] Speaker A: School of Light, which is Dennis Smith, do you. Photography. Do you do photography or are you just teaching flying? [00:04:35] Speaker C: Oh, he's done the School of Flight. [00:04:41] Speaker A: No, it's the School of Flight. Yes. [00:04:44] Speaker D: Yeah, it's an Irish flying school designed very specifically [00:04:52] Speaker C: School of Light. Dennis is a light painter. [00:04:55] Speaker B: We have had a running joke that Dennis needs to get a helicopter to come to Melbourne quite frequently. So, you know, maybe he's like, I [00:05:00] Speaker E: would pay money to see that. [00:05:02] Speaker A: I would say what? [00:05:03] Speaker D: Dennis Crasher helicopter. [00:05:05] Speaker B: No, I mean, if that happens, that's worthy. [00:05:09] Speaker D: He'd be the ball of light after crashing the helicopter. It will not be good. [00:05:15] Speaker A: That's not good. Few other quick, quick shout outs here. Felicity Johnson, Paul's here, Les Okie, Rick Nelson, John Latimer. Or who's that? Karen. Karen Wickworth. Hi, everyone. Richard, Male. Janet H. Can he. Yeah. First time in a bfop. Looking forward to learning all about this workshop book. [00:05:38] Speaker C: You're not going to learn much. [00:05:40] Speaker A: No, no, no. That's going to be the, that's going to be. The big topic is unraveling how that actually works. Greg Carrick wants me to bring on the puppy. It might make a special appearance. We'll see. We'll see. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Before we went live. [00:05:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it was in here before we went live, but then it ran out with my $400 on camera microphone and I didn't notice. So not ideal. Andrew Thompson at HRVC2. How to book. That's a, it's a long, that's a half an hour topic. [00:06:12] Speaker D: But we'll, we'll get to how, how to book. Like as in like reading or. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah, how to book, I guess. So how do I book? Lucinda Goodwin. Bruce Moyles. [00:06:24] Speaker C: Here. [00:06:25] Speaker A: Jennifer Johnson. Oh, everybody's here. And so actually, you know what we should say, Greg, did we mention that this, this is a special edition of the random photography show, so it's not our normal, you know, normally on Monday. [00:06:36] Speaker B: I was about to get to that. [00:06:38] Speaker A: Yeah, we talk about, we usually look at your images. None of that tonight. Nothing at all. What we're going to do is talk about a festival that you can't go to unless you've already got a ticket. So that should be fun for anyone listening from the States or anywhere else in Australia. And if you don't have a ticket to this, the bright festival of photography, this podcast is. It might be entertaining but not super helpful when information. [00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going to see if we can make Matt's heart alarm go off throughout the show. So stick around for that. That in itself will be entertaining, that's for sure. [00:07:08] Speaker A: How good. [00:07:09] Speaker B: But just a message for our regular viewers. Yes, this is a random photography show, but it is a beef up special for those of you that have sent in images for the. Your images section, which we usually do on a Monday night from 7:30pm Doing that tonight. [00:07:24] Speaker A: You can if you want. We were like, we won't have time for that. But if you want, if you want to. [00:07:29] Speaker C: No, I want to hear. [00:07:30] Speaker D: I, I think I want to hear Nick's take on some photos. Like honest. Take a couple more glasses of wine and I say Nick's take on the photos. [00:07:36] Speaker B: Well, we'll bring up some of your photos. Matt and Nick can critique them. [00:07:40] Speaker D: Okay, we could do that. That would be fun. I mean it would be great. I mean, I'd love to reciprocate, but then Nick would have to be a photographer and, you know, it's. [00:07:48] Speaker A: Oh, all right. [00:07:51] Speaker B: But. But as I was saying for regular viewers, we will catch up with the your images next Monday night. So I've been sent a bunch already or we've been sent a bunch already. And I have replied, I think, to almost everybody to say we're going to park it tonight. We'll catch up next week because we have this special on board before we get stuck into topics. Matt, Nick, cj, can you give us your elevator pitch? We recently. Justin, I recently completed all of the workshop instructor interviews and every instructor was required to give us their elevator pitch of who they are, what they're known for, what they shoot. So, Matt, let's kick off with you. What's your elevator pitch? [00:08:28] Speaker D: Relatively unknown. I take a lot of photographs to do with wildlife. I do a bit of everything, though. Help organize the festival, run lots of workshops in lots of different genres. Been doing photography very long time. But yeah, is that. [00:08:44] Speaker A: That's an elevated pitch. [00:08:47] Speaker D: I mean, it depends how many floors are going really. [00:08:49] Speaker A: I recently went on one of Matt's workshop tours in Africa and it was good. [00:08:56] Speaker B: That. [00:08:56] Speaker A: That's my honest take on it. It was good. We saw a lot of. [00:09:01] Speaker B: We'll give you a few more minutes. We'll give Nick a few more minutes to actually work out what it is that he does. Cj, let's fire up with you. You know, you're in the admin team now. You're at the. At the echelon level of bfop. What is your role this year? What's going to happen? [00:09:14] Speaker E: That's. That's right. My journey with BEFOP has been quite diverse. I started off as modeling and I've worked with BEFOP for about eight years. Then I started doing model allocations for workshops and now I'm part of the team with Matt and Nick doing a lot more coordination and booking and stuff like that. And it's been so much fun. So grateful to be a part of it. [00:09:34] Speaker D: You did forget the mental health checks that you perform regularly. [00:09:37] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. And I, I help them mentally as well. [00:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, we, we salute you for your service, that's for sure. But yeah, welcome. Great to have you on the show. Nick, what's your elevator pitch? Come on. [00:09:50] Speaker C: Well, I'm kind of the delivery engine room for this festival. I do sort of the bulk of the. The work behind the scenes. Basically, I carry these things. [00:09:58] Speaker D: You forgot you did Forget the, you meant to open with the, the like the Tony Stark, you know. Well, well, I'm, I'm secretly a billionaire and as a philanthropist, I love giving. And so I started this festival just kids, you know, that was pretty much picking up from the start. [00:10:15] Speaker C: Three years of the festival, I think. Oh, look, I, I, I, I, I sort of fell into this completely accidentally. A long story involving beer. But I, I helped set up this, this festival and I, I still a big part of playing with it and, but now Matt and CJ do much more of the work than I do. And I'm a super keen photographer. I do, I photograph sports mainly and if it's always the best workshop on beef op, you know, come and photograph motorbikes with me, which is what I do in my, my, my spare time as well. [00:10:50] Speaker D: What else have you been doing in your spare time, Nick? This is a low risk exercise as we lead into this festival where you're a critical component. What life choices have you sort of made that might contribute towards everyone's sanity? In my heart check thing. [00:11:03] Speaker C: Matt's referring to the fact that I'm going parachuting for a week this week. [00:11:08] Speaker E: Oh, really? [00:11:08] Speaker B: For a week? That's a very long fall. [00:11:10] Speaker A: I was going to think what height do you have to jump out at to stay up there for one week? [00:11:17] Speaker D: You know how I was saying he's the secret billionaire? So anyway, he's going on one of Elon Musk's rockets and, and then I think it's just, you know, you float for a long time. It's a long. [00:11:26] Speaker A: Nice. [00:11:27] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:11:28] Speaker B: Nice. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:28] Speaker B: Nice. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Okay, well, take some photos. You're going to take that GFX100RF up there with you. Or will it? [00:11:35] Speaker C: Because I doubt that very much indeed. Yeah, I don't think, Let me take that up. Loosen the plane. [00:11:40] Speaker A: No. Okay, well, yeah, take something. I want to see, I want to see some evidence. I need to see your face. [00:11:47] Speaker D: You will. It'll be on the front page of the news. And yeah. [00:11:54] Speaker A: Oh no, now if something happens, you're gonna feel bad. [00:11:57] Speaker D: Matt, I'm not. Everyone at bf, I'm gonna be like, look, he was meant to be doing those things and I don't like. Yeah, he's not here now. [00:12:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, Moto Workshop is canceled and that's about it. [00:12:09] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, [00:12:13] Speaker B: let's, let's talk a few, a few details about beef up. I won't mention how, how, how close it is again, I promise. But you know, every year BFOP seems to be a bigger and Bigger undertaking for you guys as a team. You know, this year before, for those who are unsure, beef UP runs from the 9th to the 11th of October. There are 40 plus workshop instructors that are delivering over 100. Well, I know it's getting bigger. I'm just going off the stats on the website. If you don't keep the website up to date, that's not my problem. [00:12:43] Speaker A: All right. [00:12:44] Speaker D: No, that's the last situation that we need to deal with is the website. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Anyway, hundreds of sessions, thousands of seats at workshops. You know what, the planning for this must be monumental. You know, give us a bit of an idea how much of your, how much of your year is consumed by bfop? [00:13:04] Speaker D: I'll let Nick take this one. [00:13:12] Speaker C: Go on, Matt. [00:13:16] Speaker D: It's like we, I think we, we said it perfectly the other day on our Facebook post, which is that this is, this is like a game of pickup sticks but with sand is a never ending quest. From the moment that it finishes on the first year and we take our first sip of beer to celebrate that we didn't die, the chaos begins, to be honest. Yeah, it's getting bigger and bigger. And like it is a. There's so many people involved. Like I, you know, don't be under any illusions that it's, that it's just the three of us. Like, we've got, you know, Dennis has been working tirelessly on a project for us that we're not going to talk about right now. We've got Adam Edwards working in the background on a few projects we have got. I think Bruce is involved in one of the projects with you guys, which I'm not sure has been announced yet. And like Nigel and Danny and Blair from Camera House, they are constantly working on this in the background as well. Everyone sort of looks after their part, which is great because it is a big task. Ultimately gets pulled together sort of in the room with Nick, C.J. and I. But yeah, there's a lot of people who are involved. But yeah, it's massive. Like it's, it's, it's stupid when you think about it. It doesn't work, you know, so you just don't think about it. You just, you just keep going. [00:14:35] Speaker C: And then what is, what is hilarious is every year that like, I can write you the script for next year, this year. So we will finish the festival. Matt will go, okay, right. What we need to do is we need to get all instructors to give us their information like by November. And then we'll have the website updated by December. And then we'll do the price and it run through this like perfect line of how everything's going to go and we will 100% miss every single deadline by a country mile and do the crazy chaotic shit we did the year before. That's how it goes every year. [00:15:10] Speaker B: Okay. [00:15:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:11] Speaker E: Except this year they've got me to help. [00:15:13] Speaker B: That's very true. [00:15:14] Speaker A: Based on our tiny, tiny part in all of this, we're ahead of where we were this time last year based on what we've had to do, which is doing the podcast episodes and stuff like that. All I've got earlier. [00:15:30] Speaker D: That's quite good news because I've actually got some things I can email you then if you've done and you've got time then Lotus, maybe put your foot in it. [00:15:40] Speaker C: Thanks, boss. [00:15:42] Speaker A: Hey, quickly speaking of Bruce Moyle, he said it's growing so fast that soon there'll be one educator for each punter at BCOP, which will be good. Soon there'll be 600 instructors, which will. [00:15:53] Speaker D: I tell you the joke, the joke is. Yeah, 600 instructors is one thing. Do you know that our wait list. So we, we started a wait list this year, which is ridiculous. We have now got over 250 people on that list still on the one list uncontacted. We've contacted probably 50 of them and we still have over 250 and it's growing by like 10 to 20 people a day. [00:16:19] Speaker A: Hey Greg, we should run a spin off. A spin off like we'll just do it in Marysville. What's the other one right nearby? [00:16:27] Speaker D: Tasmania. Do it in Tasmania. You could do T fox. That would be. [00:16:30] Speaker A: No, no, no. We just want to get people that we're going to come to bright somewhere 15 minutes down the road. We'll do it in Smoker where you [00:16:37] Speaker C: can do in Bendigo. [00:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah, just call it. [00:16:41] Speaker C: We could just put it. [00:16:44] Speaker A: I'll just, I'll copy the whole website and just. But then we'll just put a different address for the festival. [00:16:50] Speaker B: AI to teach the classes. It'll be cheap, it'll be easy. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Speaking of the website, just very quickly, just to derail things. We did do a ton of. We did, did a ton of review, not reviews. What are they called? Interviews. Interviews with all the instruments. [00:17:03] Speaker B: The Beef Up 2026 workshop, instructor, Spotlight, series of interviews. I'll have you know. [00:17:08] Speaker A: Yeah, you've got that down pat now. [00:17:11] Speaker B: 57 times. [00:17:12] Speaker A: All the, all the ones that we've done are now up on the website on the BE20, 26 instructors page. So that's how you can learn about all of the instructors, which is pretty nice. [00:17:24] Speaker E: Check it out. [00:17:25] Speaker D: And for those who are actually sitting there going, oh, I've been on there before, I've seen it. I loaded like 40 out of the 42 of them today. [00:17:33] Speaker B: Yep. Oh, nice. And we've got a whole bunch of new instructors, [00:17:41] Speaker A: So they're all up. So you can go and check those out. Hey, let's fill in a gap for the 89 people that are watching that maybe haven't seen our show before. This is the Camera Life podcast. That's why you're on the Camera Life channel. So we did all those interviews this year for all the instructors. They're like 15 minute interviews. But we normally do a show twice a week. So while you're here, hey, hit the subscribe button, please. We've done interviews with Matt Crummons, Nick Fletcher. We haven't done an interview with CJ yet, but who knows? [00:18:08] Speaker C: Have you seen the comment up there from Ron? I'm still confused. I think he means and. And why is the annoying one dressed up? [00:18:23] Speaker E: I didn't notice that, but I was trying to let them do their thing [00:18:26] Speaker D: and I was like, I'm happy to exit team. I got shit to do. So, [00:18:33] Speaker A: no, you can't go anywhere. We're only 12 from your next blood pressure test. [00:18:38] Speaker B: Yeah, it wouldn't be here for that. [00:18:40] Speaker E: Yeah, we got a timer for that now. [00:18:44] Speaker A: Okay, so where to from here? [00:18:48] Speaker D: Well, firstly, how do I join the chat? Can I just ask? Because I'm hitting join the chat and it won't let me join the chat. [00:18:53] Speaker C: What do you mean you can't? That's a feature, not a bug. [00:18:56] Speaker A: Matt, we've locked you out. No, what do you mean you can't see it at all? [00:19:02] Speaker D: I just trying to join the chat. [00:19:05] Speaker C: This is my everyday struggle you're all witnessing here. This guy builds our website. I mean, Jesus. [00:19:11] Speaker D: I mean. [00:19:12] Speaker C: I mean, [00:19:15] Speaker A: what are you doing? [00:19:18] Speaker D: I mean. Oh, good. Don't worry. Carry on. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Good. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Oh, okay, he is there. [00:19:23] Speaker B: Let's roll back the clock a little bit. I did say clock and it came out wrong, but I did say it. [00:19:31] Speaker D: Not a circumcision. Jo clock. [00:19:36] Speaker B: The time, the date. Let's talk about the first year of Bebop and how starkly different, yet similar it was to, you know what. What is currently on offer with Befop Festival. So tell me a little bit about the first year. What, What? What inspired you to start a photography festival to begin with? [00:19:55] Speaker C: Oh, look, I've told This story before but my good friend Rupert, he's British, you'd never guess my by that name. He ran Bright Brewery and I need. I was on the board of the Museum of Australian Photography and we needed a beer sponsor. So I rang Rupert and said Bright Brewery should, should sponsor us and give us free beer. And he said yeah, I'll do that if you'll run a photography festival in Bright. And I went wow, how can that that be? And turned out to be really really freaking hard. So I, I gen. I need to go back and have a look. But I, I think we took in about like it was 75 a ticket similar sort of format and I think we had like about. We actually had quite a lot of people. We had like 130 people, 140 people came to it and it was total, total, total chaos. I could tell you the million things that went wrong. Even my all time favorite was we. We hadn't sort of figured out how to do the allocation to. To workshops. So we just said just gives you a list of your favorite workshops. And then we had this. Basically we threw darts at a dart board and people got their workshop list and then we printed it out and for whatever reason I couldn't get it all on a page so I just shrunk the text and it was like four point text and I gave it [00:21:23] Speaker B: to a whole lot of sort of [00:21:24] Speaker C: 60 year old went oh I can't, I can't read anything. So I know it was, it was pretty chaotic but Nick, were you one of them? I was absolutely one of them, yeah. And I don't know Matt, I don't know how we got you involved like oh, it was Mel Lyons wasn't it? So some call it. [00:21:44] Speaker D: God, you know. [00:21:46] Speaker C: You'd photograph Mel Lyons wedding, had you? [00:21:49] Speaker D: No, she photographed mine with, with Anne Scott Virtue. [00:21:54] Speaker C: Anyway, sort of friend of a friend. You should talk to this Matt bloke. He's an instructor, he'll come. And he was dumb enough to come up there and then it's been a marriage made in heaven and we've been together ever since. Yeah. [00:22:04] Speaker D: Not one fight. [00:22:06] Speaker C: Not one. [00:22:08] Speaker B: And you know looking back over the, the well the nine years that you've already held beef up. Do you guys do have a, a year that you are particularly fond of that you love? That really kind of cemented the, the whole point of the festival for you. [00:22:22] Speaker A: Did one year run smoothly? [00:22:26] Speaker D: We've had two years of pandemic and an active shooter out of nine years not gone well honestly. [00:22:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah that was A big deal. [00:22:37] Speaker A: I forgot about that until just then. [00:22:40] Speaker D: It's been. I. I think about this often. Whenever I think, like, how bad things, you know, sometimes feel, I. I just genuinely sit there and. And think, you know, this festival sometimes feels like quite a lot. It feels quite difficult. And then I think to myself, it has survived nine years and, like, a third of the time we've been under some severe situations that are not normal in any, you know, world. So they stand out a lot. Yeah. [00:23:08] Speaker C: I've never told. [00:23:09] Speaker A: I don't even. [00:23:10] Speaker C: I've told you this, but I went when the whole Desi thing was going on. Like, it was about three weeks for the festival, so I just couldn't get any information off anyone. So I was up in Bright and I went in. They had the. They had the caravan in town, which was designed for people to go in, and they could sort of, you know, fess up to where Desi was or whatever it was, but. So they had two policemen in there. And I went in and said, look, I'm running this photo festival up here in three weeks. Just want to get a good idea on, you know, what's going on, what I can and can't do. [00:23:37] Speaker B: And he goes, oh, I don't think [00:23:38] Speaker C: you can do that. I think you can run that. This is three weeks for the festival. [00:23:44] Speaker A: Wow. [00:23:45] Speaker C: And I was like, okay, good. I'll just find someone else to talk to. Anyone else. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Ask me to get the answer. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Came about the following day and found a different policeman to get a different answer. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Yep. [00:23:58] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. [00:23:59] Speaker D: You can imagine the conversations that happened leading into last year. Yeah. And even, like, we flipped, like, five or six times during the festival last year, you know, like, it was. Yeah. [00:24:14] Speaker B: So, like, I think they were shutting down certain parts of the area, weren't they? [00:24:18] Speaker C: Three days. Three or four days before, like, I was promised by a very senior policeman it would open up. Didn't. Didn't. [00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:29] Speaker D: Broken promise. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Ah, you can't trust him. [00:24:32] Speaker D: Unheard of. [00:24:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:35] Speaker E: I remember walking up to, like, the. The accommodation that we were meant to stay in, and there was just, like, cops on every single road. And I was like, I'm just going to be working the photography festival. They're like, okay, we'll let you through. And every two seconds. Flight. Flight. Holly. Helicopter. Helicopter. And I'm just like, well, this makes it fun and interesting. [00:24:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:53] Speaker D: I think my favorite story from last year, though, CJ is absolutely nothing to do with that. My. My favorite story from last year is you. As some of you may know, CJ Also Coordinates our, I call them the modeling troop. And they got to the house, like a big share house, which I, we thought was gonna be like a party house. And then of course, yeah, chaos. But, but on the Sunday morning, I think it was after everything's already happened and the whole thing's basically wrapping up. Cj, I get a phone call from the, the, the, the rental mob going, someone's on text messages, someone's requested blankets and it's a hundred dollar surcharge. Do you approve this surcharge? [00:25:35] Speaker B: I was like, what the hell? [00:25:36] Speaker D: Like this is a weird thing. And no one said anything to me about it. And I was like, whatever. And then CJ turns around and goes, yeah, there's, there's no, there's no bedding and our models need some blankets. So. And this was two nights after they've already been there. What? [00:25:50] Speaker E: Yeah, we were like, no, we'll make it work. And this place was like, yeah, we can sleep all like 12 models. And then there's just like a pull out mattress on the floor. And I'm like, I am so sorry, you guys. And they're like, it's fine. We're used to tents anyway. One thing, good thing, there are a lot of festival performers. I'll just say that much right now. [00:26:09] Speaker A: Like, at least it's not muddy. [00:26:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:16] Speaker D: Once they convinced Nick to leave, you know, there was plenty of space. [00:26:19] Speaker E: So. [00:26:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I tell you, I tell you, the festival, super cool and just super lucky. Do you remember, I think it's 2024 when the Aurora switched on. Yes. And we were all out in the car park and someone went, oh my God, you can see the Aurora. And then suddenly people were out doing this. That was pretty magic. [00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:37] Speaker B: Yeah. That was just my first year that we were there and we were standing by the fire pit having a chat and someone walked up and just like showed me their mobile phone and I said, I just photographed the Aurora from just over there on my mobile. [00:26:51] Speaker C: Yeah. From the car park in the middle of Bright. [00:26:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It was crazy. [00:26:56] Speaker E: Get away from me. [00:26:57] Speaker A: Crazy person. [00:26:58] Speaker D: Is it safe for me to say that that was also the week? Is that the weekend, dare I say, where there was a catastrophic flood that happened the day after BFOP. It was either 2023 or 2024. And I was running a workshop straight afterwards. And it was like, like the Ovens river flooded the brewery kind of thing. It was like catastrophic. And that was memorable because like we, we panic about like all those situations and everything lined up that nothing happened. And then straight as soon as it finished, it all just came. Came to an end and it was like the weather gods open. [00:27:28] Speaker E: And I was so lucky. [00:27:29] Speaker D: So I was happy, you know. [00:27:31] Speaker E: Yeah. So lucky. It came after. Imagine. [00:27:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you guys have been flooded out before, haven't you? I. I've heard stories of, of a marquee being filled with water in the first couple of years. [00:27:43] Speaker D: Just for the record, no one got electrocuted and it was fine. [00:27:46] Speaker B: Okay, that's a plus. Is that this, is that the statement your lawyer made you say is that it felt. That felt pre prepared? [00:27:57] Speaker A: Apparently the flooding was 20, 23. [00:28:02] Speaker C: The marquee came within inches of a comeback this year, actually, didn't it? [00:28:05] Speaker D: It did actually. No, because that might happen. Like, that's a. That was. [00:28:10] Speaker C: We think it was bad. [00:28:11] Speaker D: It was just, you know. You know, it would have been amazing. Yeah, but that, that was, that's true. Like, I remember we, we, you know, back in the day, we had. We were so smart. Like, the thing is that, that's, that's what blows my mind is just how, how well planned and intelligent we are. But we had one year where we, we organized a skate ramp to be positioned about a meter of the main stage where someone was talking, unamplified, doing presentations. And on top of that, the retail tent was put in a ditch where it rained catastrophically and flooded them like ankle deep. So all of our suppliers, you know, had trestle tables sort of floating away like little rubber duckies. Oh, no. But, you know, like, we've made some moves. You know, We've made some moves. [00:28:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Now you've definitely stepped up your game. While we're on the, on the topic of CJ and, and the, the modeling troop being left to, you know, to source their own bedding and warmth in the middle of the Alpine region of Victoria. Cj, this year, how many, how many performers, artists, models, how many folks have you got coming along? [00:29:18] Speaker E: Yeah, so we have 12 this year. We have, we have like the main crew who have done a quite a few B flops and like, know how it all works and everything. And then we've got a couple of fresh faces as well, which makes it exciting. But the cool thing about my crew is, like, we're not just models, but we're also performers and dancers and do all these fun things. So I feel like it just makes the workshop a little bit more exciting, you know, that experience to not only shoot someone who's just chucking a pose, but someone who can move with a flow prop or fire or those Kind of things. So, yeah, there'll be. There'll be 12, 12 of us this year. [00:29:52] Speaker D: Can I refer Tim? Yes, we did get them blankets. [00:29:57] Speaker C: I want to revise my answer to the coolest thing we've done at vfop. I think it was the first time we did the Friday night fun. And we did. We did Dartmouth. And for those who weren't there, we had. We had sort of CJ's crazy team, like dancing far, twirling and awesome. [00:30:16] Speaker E: Yeah, we. We had like a 20. [00:30:18] Speaker A: Yeah, 20, 24. That was the first year we were there. What the hell is this? [00:30:23] Speaker E: Yeah, it was just like, literally just in our element. We had music pumping. We had like this kind of like a fire twirler. We had led like movers. We had like silk fan artists, we had dancers, and we had like, just any kind of expression of like art that you could grab. And it was just really cool to see on camera. [00:30:40] Speaker C: Oh, no, I've got to revise it. CJ was brilliant, but Dennis in the river was even better. [00:30:46] Speaker A: That was pretty good, though. [00:30:48] Speaker C: I'll give him that. [00:30:49] Speaker E: I'll give him that. [00:30:50] Speaker D: Did you just do a Kanye? I'm gonna let you finish, but, like, [00:30:56] Speaker E: I won't steal your light, Nick. I won't steal your life. [00:30:59] Speaker B: I'm a speaker. I'm a spit. Now, [00:31:03] Speaker A: how about. Should we run through a rough. A rough idea of what. What a BFOP weekend looks like start to finish for people that this might be their first year, or maybe this is. This is a different looking year from the last time they've been. What? What, like, what's the flow of the weekend, roughly? [00:31:20] Speaker C: Matt, you should. You're probably close. You go for it first. [00:31:24] Speaker D: I'd love to hear your technique. [00:31:29] Speaker C: So formally, it starts on Friday lunchtime, but actually there's a few things that go on before. Like we have a big bad bus trip which actually runs on Thursday and Friday. And on Thursday it starts Thursday morning. Friday it starts Friday morning, it goes all day. And we can talk. When it comes to booking strategies, that's one to think about. [00:31:46] Speaker D: But there's also beginners workshops on those days as well, just for those who need to refresh. Just throwing in there. [00:31:52] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah, so there's, you know, like, if you're coming up and making a, you know, a longer weekend of it, that's kind of a fun thing to go and do without the sort of. The real craziness of full on beef up. There's a lot of stuff that goes on on Thursday night now actually like that competing podcast has a dinner on that night. [00:32:10] Speaker A: Not competing. We work in together. We're very good friends. [00:32:16] Speaker C: But there's like if you're coming up on your own and just get on the beef up groupies Facebook phase and page and just say I'm. I'm a lonely heart. Someone will take you out for dinner. [00:32:28] Speaker D: It might be Nick, but someone. [00:32:32] Speaker E: We'll take you under our win. We got you. [00:32:35] Speaker C: But. But it kicks off formally sort of lunchtime on Friday. There's sort of. You sign in in the Bright Community center and we then have a little intro from. From the team and then all the workshop start and we'll come to how the workshops work. But you book on your workshops over the weekend and you know one of the things you have to get over is you can't do everything. So you're going to miss you know, a Friday night or our intro or whatever to do a workshop Friday evening. We always have kind of a fun activity. We never tell you what it is but we'll have a fun activity we're not going to tell you about on Friday evening. And that sort of kicks off at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. [00:33:14] Speaker B: Ish. [00:33:16] Speaker C: And generally it's all. There's some sort of photo based things. I don't get caught without your camera. Saturday kind of. The workshops start about 4am in fact the. I think the workshops run to about 2am and then start again about 4am they. It runs through all of Saturday. Saturday night is the shenanigans night. So someone else can explain what that is because I'm not gonna do it. Matt, come on. [00:33:44] Speaker B: Come on Matt, take it away. Shenanigans. [00:33:46] Speaker A: Well, isn't it. Is the theme already announced for. For. [00:33:49] Speaker C: Oh, Matt's. Matt's having his. [00:33:51] Speaker E: His. [00:33:52] Speaker A: Okay, over a minute of silence. [00:33:56] Speaker B: Please take it away. [00:33:59] Speaker E: It's like I got you, Matt. I got you. So on the Saturday night we've got the shenanigans. And the shenanigans is what you wanted to be when you were 10 years old. So. So we want you to dress up and have a bit of fun. We're going to be chaotic. It's going to be just a little bit of silliness. But did you want to be an astronaut? Did you want to be an artist? Did you want to be this? Did you want to be that? Dress up as that. And if you wanted to be a photographer. I don't know. I don't know if that counts. We want you to take it. Think outside of the box. [00:34:25] Speaker D: No one Wants to be a photographer. [00:34:27] Speaker E: I beg to differ. [00:34:29] Speaker A: You want to be a fighter pilot. That's. I'm just saying that's what I wanted to be. [00:34:32] Speaker B: A helicopter. I know that. Won't say it. [00:34:34] Speaker E: I'm not saying what mine is because it's a surprise. [00:34:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:34:40] Speaker B: Okay. [00:34:41] Speaker C: The other thing we should say on. On that night is we give away a shload of stuff. I don't know how much it would be. $30,000, Matt. I don't know. [00:34:53] Speaker D: I'm working on it. [00:34:55] Speaker C: Yeah, [00:34:57] Speaker D: but it's. It's a lot. I think last year we gave away, like. Yeah, I think it was close to 30 grand last year on the side. [00:35:04] Speaker A: I remember someone saying last year it was well over 25 grand is what I got. It stuck in my head for some reason. Yeah. [00:35:10] Speaker D: I had a pledge from. From the Camera Life podcast crew that said that they were going to donate. It was like eight or $9,000, which is just insane. So, I mean, higher at least. Of. Of. [00:35:22] Speaker A: And that. And that will be in, like, value of sponsorship for. So. So you'll. You'll get. For that, you'll win episode sponsorships, which are worth a lot of money. So, yeah, definitely be there for that. [00:35:36] Speaker C: But we give a We load of stuff. There's a whole lot of games. The audience gets involved. Like, we electrocuted people. What we. We smash someone's camera. The sledgehammer. [00:35:47] Speaker D: I've seen someone coat themselves. Their nude body in baked beans. No Spaghettio. Yeah, that was weird. [00:35:56] Speaker C: We had one where every single time we did it, this. This lady out of the crowd, just. Whatever we said, she just took all her clothes off. It was. It was the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen. [00:36:07] Speaker E: Like, what a queen. Honestly. [00:36:10] Speaker C: And. [00:36:11] Speaker D: Honestly. Yeah. [00:36:13] Speaker B: So the Saturday. [00:36:13] Speaker D: The Saturday night is. It's. Can we go. Can we go back to the very first question that you asked tonight, which was like, how would you. You said elevator pitch. If we do the elevator pitch of bfop, Right. Rather than elevated pitch of art. I always describe BFOP to people as school camp for adults who like cameras. You know, it's where all the weird, like, you know, after dark, that's where everyone sneaks between each other's dorms and weird stuff happens. We've had an official divorce through BFOP because of that. We have had, you know, people getting all sorts of weird. We've had. I've got lots of photos of Dennis's bum on my camera. [00:36:52] Speaker B: That wasn't from day F, from what [00:36:53] Speaker D: I was told, but I brought my phone to befop. So it was there. Yeah. [00:36:57] Speaker B: Okay. [00:36:57] Speaker D: Okay. No, there's. But it's a Saturday night. Is a night, I think, where it's like, quickly turn off your social media. Everyone's gonna have some fun. [00:37:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:06] Speaker E: Yeah, absolutely. [00:37:08] Speaker A: We played. Played giant beach volleyball. Yeah, it was, it was really. Entire community hall was playing beach volleyball, one side against the other. What else can I remember? It's. And it even starts, it starts off before the shenanigans. It started off even softly. It was just like camera photography trivia for half an hour, which was fun just to, just to ease people into it. And there was just prizes coming out, [00:37:30] Speaker D: left, right, down, and then bang, straight in. You know, like I will say this [00:37:36] Speaker B: for, for anyone that. And this is going to be their first be 2026. You know, last year's nighttime activities were phenomenal. You know, as a, as a, you know, as a participant. It was like being in a culture where everyone was on the same mind bending drugs, selling it. Everyone was smiling, Everyone had green beanie yellow gloves on. [00:37:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:59] Speaker B: And everyone was just having such an amazing time. I've never seen that sort of energy before in, in that sort of, you know, environment. It was, it was like nothing we'd ever experienced. It was incredible. [00:38:09] Speaker E: We had like, people with like, we had models with horse heads on running around. And then we had like a smoke machine over here. And then we had like rubber duckies, like squirting out water and all this crazy stuff. I was like, I need to get my models under control right now. But also love this. [00:38:23] Speaker A: I've got great photos of that. That was my favorite photos that weekend was that scene on stage for that 10 minutes was amazing. It got weird. [00:38:32] Speaker D: It got really. [00:38:33] Speaker E: We love that. [00:38:34] Speaker A: We're getting a few questions in the chat and I'm going to bring one up and then I want to remind people. So if you're here listening, one of the 99 of you subscribe to the [00:38:42] Speaker D: Camera Life podcast, But not all 99 people, that is. I emailed like 700 today. [00:38:48] Speaker A: It's a busy day. You know, they might be cooking tea or something still. They'll listen back later. But for the people that are here, it is live. We are live. So you can ask a question in the chat. We'll bring it up, we'll ask these guys. But also, if you really want to find out what's going on, just ring us. If you ring 048-551-2370, the phone may or may not work. We'll see. And then you can talk to Matt, Nick and CJ. Oh, four. Don't you call it. We'll get feedback. 048-551-2370. Call the show, ask your questions and we'll do the thing. [00:39:24] Speaker D: I just got a text message from our lovely friend Anne, who's decided that we're not important enough to join this year, by the way. And it just says, by the way, you look very tired. [00:39:37] Speaker A: Well, that's nice. [00:39:39] Speaker B: Well, she's a caring friend, you know. [00:39:41] Speaker E: I love it. [00:39:42] Speaker D: Always looking after me. Now that I can do something about it. On screen. Good. [00:39:46] Speaker A: Quick question from Margaret Metcalfe. Late to log in. Is there going to be Light the night again? I think that says light the night. [00:39:55] Speaker C: No. [00:39:55] Speaker A: Light the night. [00:39:56] Speaker C: No, no, no. It's always different every year. [00:40:00] Speaker D: Never. That will never happen ever again. Ever. [00:40:04] Speaker C: When we run out of ideas in about two years time, it'll happen. [00:40:08] Speaker A: Light the Night two. [00:40:09] Speaker C: We're back. [00:40:13] Speaker D: And my heart rate monitor. There won't be two years, Nick. So [00:40:18] Speaker B: this is why we're training up CJ now. It's. It's a contingency. [00:40:22] Speaker E: I'm taking all your jobs. [00:40:26] Speaker B: Question from Philip Johnson. G', day, mate. G', day, all. Will there be lands? Will landscape be open for booking first this year, like last year? So the, you know, the big bus trips, those sorts of things, we want to get those out first. [00:40:38] Speaker A: Actually. [00:40:38] Speaker B: That's a good point. [00:40:39] Speaker C: Matt and I haven't quite sorted that out. Yeah, probably not. Maybe. [00:40:44] Speaker D: Yes, the bookings for the bus trip will go out early. Absolutely, yes. Somehow. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Okay, so, so clarify for me. So the workshops are now up on the website. So the instructors are up. All of our amazing interviews we did with them are up. The workshops are now up so you can go on the BFOP website. [00:41:04] Speaker D: Just. You're going to have to keep this a little bit looser because you're sounding very specific and you're talking to us. [00:41:10] Speaker A: No, I'm talking to the audience. [00:41:12] Speaker D: Yeah, but like, we don't know a lot, so just like make it vague. [00:41:18] Speaker B: Just mute him, Jay. Just mute him. [00:41:20] Speaker A: I'm coming to it. I'm getting there. Trust me, I'm getting around. I'm coming around the corner to it. All the workshops are up under categories on the website. So you can go and you can browse the categories of workshops and look at them. But the booking doesn't happen for another few weeks through. [00:41:34] Speaker D: We don't even know when the workshops are actually on. Like, the schedule connects. [00:41:38] Speaker A: I saw a big spreadsheet. You guys are Working on. [00:41:41] Speaker C: Oh, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:41:43] Speaker A: It's not done yet. [00:41:46] Speaker D: The schedule is done. It has been handballed at the CJ at about 3pm and then we'll go through one last idiot check and we will then need to publish that somehow. [00:41:57] Speaker C: Well, actually, no, no. There's the interim step we forgot about, which is we circulate it. All of the instructors who then say, oh, I forgot to mention I'm not here till like 10am on Sunday. [00:42:08] Speaker D: I'm emotionally kind of on a Friday afternoon. Yeah, y. [00:42:15] Speaker B: So, yeah, we got a couple. [00:42:18] Speaker D: Yeah, there's a couple of steps, but that will be out. So I can give you my Loosey Goosey timeline, if everyone wants to hear the Lucy Goosey timeline, and then we can put that to bed. [00:42:28] Speaker A: You ready for bed? [00:42:30] Speaker D: No. Well, yeah, I am. According to my Lucy Goosey timeline would be that. I would like to think that by the 1st of September we will have a schedule published for you [00:42:43] Speaker C: and workshop pricing. [00:42:45] Speaker D: And workshop pricing with that schedule. When the schedule comes out, we will also have around about a week where we will have our extra credit packs, which we started last year, which were quite popular. They will go out as well. So an extra credit pack for those who are new to BFOP. When we go live with bookings, you've got 350 bucks worth of credit with your ticket. If you buy a credit pack, you don't get immediate access to that. What happens is you get to use your initial credit for about a week and then we introduce the second layer of credit into it and people can use that for about a week. And then only after that, people can use credit card payments to actually buy extra workshops. So the advantage of the extra credit packs is that you get in before those who just want to buy one extra thing. With a credit card, you kind of get a bit of a dibs. However, it doesn't disadvantage those who just have a ticket and want to use their credit. So there's kind of three stages to the going live thing, and that's all going to start kicking off after the weekend of the 13th of September. So sometime there. We haven't quite nailed a date down because we're still working on some of these things. We've got a couple of things that are out of our control that we're waiting on. But you can expect mid September actual bookings will start. But yeah, the landscapes will. Bus trips. Sorry, not all the landscapes. The bus trips will go out first because they do majorly affect what else happens. But I think this year the landscapes will be bundled in with everything else. I don't know that there's a lot of value. Well, last year we separated them out and I think that it was sort of a bit of overkill. The bus trips are big because they take up a whole day landscape workshops. You know, they're not that different in time to everything else now, so we'll probably leave that. Leave those with everything and just. And it'll be a bit of a free for all show. [00:44:30] Speaker C: And we have a few landscape workshops this year as well. [00:44:33] Speaker D: There's a lot. Yeah. Like we've. We. We did. We did the. The survey at the end of last year and I know some people probably think we never got back to them, but we actually took all that on board. We even had a. An event at Croydon for one of their days where C.J. was there. Yeah. And I was there and we. We sort of like coordinated a bit of like a round table. We got feedback from everyone. Honestly, a lot of things we can't do, but we did take that on board. And so, yeah, we're kind of trying to weave it into this year as best as we possibly can. [00:45:03] Speaker E: I think it was a fantastic thing to do because we were able to, like, yeah, get everybody's opinions and ideas and also, like, any advice that we may have not thought about on this side of things. So I think that was fantastic. And, yeah, we definitely took on board as much as we possibly could have. [00:45:17] Speaker D: And we got to put the drinks on the company account, which is kind of fun. Hey, jj. [00:45:21] Speaker B: Hey. [00:45:24] Speaker A: If you need any advice, if you want any feedback next time, feel free to. Yeah, yeah, I'm available. Yeah, you can run that drinks tab up as far as you want. Honestly. [00:45:36] Speaker B: I've got a question here from Margaret Metcalfe. Will the list of speakers. This is for the main stage speakers be released at the time of the workshop? So we can choose around these talks if we want to listen to these also. [00:45:50] Speaker D: No, I have guarantee that will not happen. [00:45:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Paul also asked the same question. I was like, it would be great, wouldn't it? But I can see how. I assume that stuff takes a while for you to. Because that's kind of the second stage of figuring out who's available when afterwards, and then they slot into the stage later on when, you know, closer. [00:46:10] Speaker C: I suspect if you had a team with their together, that could happen. No problems, but you're working with this. Okay, Justin, for the point you make, which is you got to nail the schedule and then you got to see who's Available, and then it just. It never happens. So we stop promising. [00:46:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:46:28] Speaker B: Well, Justin's available to give talks if you have gaps. He's mentioned to me earlier that he's really keen. [00:46:33] Speaker A: Definitely not podcast. I like to have a screen and a camera between me and the audience. It's much nicer. [00:46:38] Speaker B: Okay. [00:46:41] Speaker A: Ms. Ames says. How much are the extra packs? [00:46:46] Speaker D: Well, that's entirely up to you. [00:46:47] Speaker A: The. [00:46:47] Speaker D: The extra packs, I think they come in denominations of, like. I think they started a hundred dollars and they got to like 350 or something. The. The packs are exactly as they say on the tin. If you get a $150 pack, it gives you $150 worth of credit. No, there's no discount on it. They're not. [00:47:02] Speaker C: That's absolutely not what we did. 100% not what we did. [00:47:06] Speaker D: No, no. [00:47:08] Speaker B: But. [00:47:08] Speaker C: No. Okay, so just ignore anything this man's saying. At the moment, I can't remember. I can't remember the exact values, but there was definitely a benefit of buying a bigger pack. I just can't remember how much it was. [00:47:20] Speaker D: No, there was. I don't think they will [00:47:25] Speaker C: Matt and I will. Will jelly. [00:47:27] Speaker D: I'm gonna look this up. I'm gonna jump. I'm going on the back end of the website. I'm going to check last year's ones. I am almost certain about to eat. [00:47:34] Speaker C: See a grown man eat humble pie. It's either gonna be him or me. He's looking very confident. I'm starting to feel a bit nervous, to be honest. Take both. [00:47:43] Speaker B: Who's on team Matt? Who's on team Nick? [00:47:44] Speaker D: Pop it in the chat, I guess. Look, at the end of the day, the reality is that Nick does organize the vast majority of this, and so he would know. But I have a. I just have this inkling that there was a communication. We did at some point. [00:47:56] Speaker C: Stop talking and just look at your stuff. [00:47:59] Speaker D: I'm trying to log in, but I've got a lot of security things I need to, like, do. Scans and biosecurity, biometrics, the matrix. [00:48:07] Speaker B: While Matt's using big words. Question for you, Nick, from Lisa Leach. G', day, Lisa. Will the merch orders be mailed or collected? [00:48:17] Speaker D: Read the freaking description. [00:48:19] Speaker A: I can answer the question. They will only be able to be collected at bfop, and if you do not collect them, that they will not get distributed after the festival. You have to collect them at the festival, and if not, they'll be given to, I don't know, an op shop or a starving photographer somewhere. [00:48:37] Speaker D: It was Actually to a, a cold baby goat. [00:48:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:48:42] Speaker B: Oh, that's fair. [00:48:44] Speaker D: We have a friend's charity who raises orphaned goats and so, yeah, there's a contact there. [00:48:50] Speaker C: Someone's asking about camera straps. [00:48:53] Speaker A: Oh, that's that Ron Johnson guy. Oh, okay, let's pull that one up. Original Ron Johnson. Will there be camera straps available? There will be. I think peak design will be there. No, we will be there with our lucky straps booth right in front of where you walk in the door to the festival. We got stampeded last year. It was amazing. When everyone lined up to come in and register, we were just standing there, not ready to be attacked by a mob of photographers. But yeah, we'll be there. We'll have all of our camera straps. We'll probably do a cool pre order in the next week or two. But we just didn't want anything while everything was so busy. We've just been on the day. [00:49:35] Speaker D: I've done my research now. [00:49:37] Speaker B: All right, just hold that. We're not done. Just hold that, Matt. Just hold. [00:49:40] Speaker C: Camera straps. [00:49:41] Speaker B: We're talking about straps. [00:49:43] Speaker C: Sorry. [00:49:43] Speaker D: And realize. [00:49:44] Speaker C: My bad. [00:49:45] Speaker A: If you, if you'd like, if you'd like to just find out more right now, you can just go to lucky straps dot com. That's all the stuff that we have there. We're going to have some new products there. It's going to be great. [00:49:53] Speaker D: Can I ask a question about the new products, Justin? [00:49:55] Speaker A: Sure. [00:49:56] Speaker D: I saw, I was in Africa and I saw this ridiculously cool strap and I think you mentioned that you were considering making a strap like that. It had two slings. It was like a double shebang. To give me what? [00:50:14] Speaker C: Oh, you were doing one of those? Yeah. [00:50:15] Speaker D: Is that something that we might see at the festival? [00:50:20] Speaker C: I'd love one of those in leather. I'll pay a lot of money for one of those. [00:50:24] Speaker D: No more for rhino leather, Nick. Because that's what Justin was talking about when we were there. [00:50:33] Speaker B: More of an ostrich kind of guy. [00:50:35] Speaker A: We saw the baby rhino and I was like, oh, that looks tender. [00:50:38] Speaker D: That's good leather. [00:50:40] Speaker A: Yeah, good leather. [00:50:42] Speaker B: Allow your grandchildren. [00:50:44] Speaker A: No, we. [00:50:46] Speaker E: My vegan alarm is going off. [00:50:49] Speaker A: Unfortunately, Matt, that won't be there this year. There might be, there might be a little prototype for people. [00:50:55] Speaker C: Can I just, just say I, I, I did, I did get one of these amazing straps. And like the, the joy of being at befop is you get to touch them. And I've, I've now got one that they are like these beautiful. [00:51:08] Speaker B: Not us, the straps. I mean, you can Touch us if you want. Yeah. [00:51:15] Speaker C: Straps. They are so, so different to any other leather camera strap I've had. So, I mean, I don't know what you guys do like a. Yeah, pre [00:51:24] Speaker A: tenderize them by hand. [00:51:26] Speaker B: It's unicorn semen mostly. It just gives it a nice smooth. Anyway, so yes, we'll be there. We'll be selling camera scraps. We'll have the store longer a vegan product. No longer vegan. We will have camera straps. We will have leather belts. We'll have a few other leather bits and pieces. We will have some new products and we'll also have a bunch of merch. [00:51:48] Speaker A: Yeah, but don't worry about that merch. Buy some beef up merch because your time's running out for that. I think the last chance to order that is on the 31st of August. So only a few days to order. Beef up beanies, hoodies and T shirts. Is that right? [00:52:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep. [00:52:04] Speaker A: Yeah, you can do that. [00:52:06] Speaker C: Found out which of us is wrong. [00:52:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:52:09] Speaker D: Matt, my heart alarms beeping at me. What the fuck's going on? [00:52:15] Speaker A: Just before you fix that, I'll check a couple of comments. I saw this one back before Tony gave me the heads up the camera that the phone wasn't working. I think I fixed it. So if anyone does try and call, maybe it'll work now. I don't know. Felicity Johnson says they are superior straps. So comfy. They are. That's right. [00:52:33] Speaker C: Greg, Will we get a chance to try? Will we get a chance to try? [00:52:39] Speaker B: Try what? [00:52:41] Speaker C: One of these straps. Try it. [00:52:42] Speaker B: Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, we've done that before, haven't we, boss? We did that last year. [00:52:48] Speaker C: Didn't we get to try a. Oh yeah. [00:52:52] Speaker A: Oh, yes. You could definitely come to our booth and try a strap on. If you would like to try a strap on at the Lucky Straps booth. Just come down, see Greg and say, hi, Greg, can I try a strap on? And he'll fix it up. [00:53:07] Speaker B: I'm the guy. Yeah, I'm the kink master, that's for sure. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Still. [00:53:12] Speaker C: Still my all time favorite show ever with Greg just banging on about without realizing what he was saying. [00:53:19] Speaker A: Had no idea that it was just. Yeah, anyway, yeah, I was trying to be professional. [00:53:24] Speaker B: Come on. [00:53:25] Speaker E: Wait, you guys had those little ducks on? You know those little ducks. [00:53:30] Speaker A: Someone was leaving them everywhere. [00:53:32] Speaker E: Well, that's what I was gonna say because I remember being at your stall and there was little ducks everywhere and I was like, where the what the duck. Where all these ducks are coming from? [00:53:39] Speaker B: Or was it. Yeah, it definitely wasn't us. Other things that we're going just while we're talking about ourselves for a moment, other things that we'll be doing. We'll be there both as lucky straps during the day at BFOP hq, supporting our customers, saying good day to people, come up and say hello, selling merch, selling straps, belts, all that sort of stuff. But we'll also be doing a little bit of camera live podcast work, live from Bright. We haven't set the final dates yet, but we will be setting up a temporary studio in our Airbnb and we'll be coming live to your earballs and eyeballs. [00:54:11] Speaker C: And you can just drop in, as I found out, you can just walk into your house and drop it. [00:54:15] Speaker A: Just walking. [00:54:17] Speaker D: Can we publish the address? [00:54:19] Speaker C: We absolutely should. No, it was. It was super fun. I got a coffee and everything. [00:54:22] Speaker A: Yeah, Paul. Paul brought us donuts and stuff. [00:54:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I've spoken to him already. [00:54:27] Speaker D: He sounds good. [00:54:28] Speaker B: He's. He's working on the pastry plan already for. For this year. He's just across the road from us. [00:54:35] Speaker C: You just need a big sign outside and the front door open, and I reckon you'll have 20 or 30 people every morning. [00:54:40] Speaker A: Probably. [00:54:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:41] Speaker A: We'll get him a coffee machine this year. Yeah, early morning coffees. [00:54:45] Speaker B: Not that crap you made last year. [00:54:48] Speaker A: Well, you didn't make anything. [00:54:50] Speaker B: I made breakfast. I made bacon and eggs. [00:54:53] Speaker A: Yeah, uncleaned for the weekend because we couldn't get the eggs off the pan. [00:55:00] Speaker C: Back to important matters, Matt. Have you discovered what we did last year? Yeah. [00:55:09] Speaker E: Are you okay? Do you mean anything? [00:55:15] Speaker D: Yeah, look. Okay, so the credit packs. The reason that I say that is because officially they weren't discounted, but there was a sale price put on them, so. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. All right. So you get more for your money. Was a terrible idea, actually. Now we might not do the credit packs anymore because realistically all we did was just like, fleece ourselves of amazing dollars to pay these models that didn't have blankets. [00:55:38] Speaker C: Yeah. So, yeah, the credit packs. If you buy more, you get more. [00:55:43] Speaker D: Yeah, well. Yeah. [00:55:44] Speaker B: Okay. [00:55:45] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:55:45] Speaker B: So who was right? Nick was right. [00:55:48] Speaker D: It's a combination, to be honest. Yeah. [00:55:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:51] Speaker D: Okay, is the retail price was technically not discounted, but then I think we put a discount on because it just didn't work without it, so. [00:55:58] Speaker C: Yep. [00:55:59] Speaker D: Yeah. Anyway, Nick. Nick has. Has a valid perspective, you know, it's interesting. [00:56:06] Speaker B: Well said, Matt. That's very, very big of you. [00:56:10] Speaker D: We've all got something to contribute, you know. [00:56:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:12] Speaker E: It's all about growth. [00:56:13] Speaker B: Yep. Indeed. All Right, let's talk a little bit more about this coming bfop. Is there anything that you can give away or any hints or teasers that might get people a little frothy and excited? Anything that we haven't discussed already to do with beef up? Sorry, Matt. I saw your eyes light up. [00:56:32] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:56:33] Speaker E: Keep them on track. [00:56:39] Speaker D: I think, I think you've got to. Something that has always sticks with me with this without giving anything away. Right? Is that like this is. This has always been a big stress point. I think, you know, BFOP is a big project that we, we all kind of do in our spare time and the. No one feels that pressure more than the people who do the beef up thing. [00:57:06] Speaker A: Right? [00:57:06] Speaker D: Like those who attend. You've got all this like, oh, what's going to happen? What's going to happen? Whatever you're feeling, we're feeling like tenfold. [00:57:14] Speaker C: We have no idea what's going to happen. [00:57:16] Speaker D: We have no idea what's going to happen. But we still feel the pressure tenfold. But I don't want to give anything away, but I think you can be pretty confident that like that feeling is far greater than our sensibility. You know, like we, we, we, we feel that pressure and we, we are very happy to I guess go beyond whatever we need to do to make sure that that expectation is met. [00:57:51] Speaker C: I mean, if you look at history, we've, we've hired the most expensive helicopter in Australia. We've, we've put on, we basically got the fireworks show from Sydney Harbour on New Year's Eve. We brought it to Bright. We've thrown a grown man in the river and we're going to do bigger and better. [00:58:14] Speaker E: Yeah, we, we got good stuff in store for you guys. [00:58:17] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go, folks. [00:58:19] Speaker C: Well, what I would say is like beef up. You can sort of, you know, often we'll say, oh, you know, like when we did fireworks, we tell people we can do fireworks, bring your tripod and things. But a lot of the time at befop you just need to have your camera on hand. So just have your camera on hand. [00:58:36] Speaker E: Always. [00:58:37] Speaker C: Camera, always have your camera. [00:58:39] Speaker E: Always. [00:58:40] Speaker A: Can we, can we talk a little bit about some of the instructors and, or workshops? Just quickly. [00:58:47] Speaker D: I just in a positive or negative light. How are you feeling? [00:58:50] Speaker A: Whatever you feel like. No, I was just thinking I'd love to. So I was actually looking on the, on the workshop page and I like the, the categories. Rocks, Trees, Rock Skies, Trees, Peoplely workshop, Artsy Fartsy, Story time, Edible Sportsy Action, Nerdy techniques, I like this one that the doesn't fit in other boxes but you guys have some new faces this year and then you've got some like legends of befop. Is there anything pops your mind that names that pop in your head when I talk about either new faces or just people that have been around for years that are sort of the icons of befop? [00:59:33] Speaker C: Nick I was really excited like the half the reason, 90% reason I do this. I get to hang out with these sort of cool dudes. You want to get a fanboy over them. [00:59:44] Speaker D: I appreciate that. You know like you don't say that very often but when you do it does actually warm my heart. So I thank you for that. [00:59:52] Speaker C: I, I, I think it's brilliant. But there's a, and there are like, they're just legends of be like Dennis and Craig and just, just there's so many of them. But the they, the one that I personally got very excited about just because of what I do is Chris Benny. I mean you guys like one of the best interviews I've seen anywhere on anything was you guys interviewing Chris Benny. If you haven't seen, if you haven't seen that, like go back and watch that. That is a stunning, stunning interview. And you just, I actually learned just enormous amount just listening to that. So this guy is like a, I call it a high end photographer videographer who does serious, serious commercial. [01:00:40] Speaker A: His most recent behind the scenes on, on. So if you, if you want to see his behind the scenes stuff. So our interview with him's on this channel, the Camera Life. But his behind the scenes stuff is on a channel called Cube Productions which is Q U B not Cube, that's his channel. And his behind the scenes video of one of his most recent productions is insane. Oh thank you. I thought I might get puppy attacked. Sorry, Puppy's asleep. Sorry everybody. And yeah that, that latest behind the scenes video where they shut down the intersection at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne to drift an Audi through it like it was. The stuff that he does is insane. Anyway. Yeah, so he's coming. [01:01:27] Speaker C: Yeah, he's coming. And what I love is that you know there's, there's sort of two types of instructors. There's kind of like Dennis and everyone else. So like you've got the sort of Dennis of the world who are just tell me where you want to be me to be and I'll just be epic for eight hours and I'll organize everything and then there's a, ah, I just, you know, two days before I just wondered I really, really need. Do you think you can get me a white lion? Because I've got this sort of white lion thing and I need a crenelated sort of private building, you know, my heart monitor. [01:02:05] Speaker D: Nick, can you move on? [01:02:08] Speaker C: I should probably, should have, I probably should have mentioned this before but crenelated building with a large lake and it's important the swans on the lake. So you get those two like Chris. So I saw him there, I went, there's no way we get Chris. So I rang up Chris, do you want to do this? He goes yeah, that sounds awesome, I'll do it. I thought no, well you probably should ask me some more questions. He said I'll be there, it's fine. And then Matt followed up with him and he said, what do you need? He goes, oh well I'll sort some cars out or something and would you want us to sort cars now? I'll get a car. And then we rang, we were both there. We rang out the other day and said about this car and he goes yeah, yeah, I've got, I've got a half million dollar Mercedes sort of race car coming up. Do we, do we have to pay you? [01:02:51] Speaker D: Like I, I like to temper Nick's things because he can sometimes go on a tangent. But like that is exactly what happened. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're just gonna like Mercedes is going to deliver this up there. Oh, and then this other one from BMW is being delivered as well. We said, oh, we'll do like, should we consult on like the budget first? Because this sounds like it sounds, it sounds like [01:03:14] Speaker A: territory. [01:03:15] Speaker D: And he's like, he's like no, no, they're just gonna do it, they're just gonna do it for me. [01:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that's amazing. [01:03:22] Speaker D: Yeah, like what a mess. What, what a person. [01:03:24] Speaker A: Like, you know what was funny in the interview, he. And this is what people will enjoy this. Anyone that's going to be at befop find Chris Benny because he loves talking about photography, he loves talking about cameras. He is a camera nerd obviously. If you're into cinema by any chance, then whole nother dimension of camera nerdery. So we're talking about the new Fujifilm Eterna cinema camera and all this stuff and things he wants to play with and he owns all of his cameras because he doesn't like renting stuff. He likes to just have a shelf full of things that he can learn and grab them off the shelf for different shoots. And I said oh, so how often do you do reviews and tests and stuff for cameras. And he was like, oh, I've never ever been asked by any camera company to test anything ever. I was like, okay, that's opportunity. [01:04:13] Speaker E: Yeah, big time. [01:04:15] Speaker A: Like, yeah. He was like, yeah, that'd be really fun. I hope one day someone asked me to. I was like, oh my God, he's [01:04:22] Speaker C: such a cool dude. Anyway, he's gonna do his sort of really high end automotive photography and anyone who's done that just knows how freaking hard that is. Like you're just getting totally wound up on reflections. So he's going to do that, we're going to do that. I think on Mount Hotham. Look, honestly, I, I would pay a lot of money just to sit at the bar with a guy, never mind to go out with the camera. I mean, it would be. [01:04:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:47] Speaker C: So I'm fanboying on him. [01:04:49] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:04:50] Speaker B: We've got a lot of new, new instructors coming. So let me just go through the list. Chris, Benny. As we've already talked about, Peter Colson's joining the fold. Fashion photographer Brett Wood. And Lisa Milne heading to Bright for some landscape. Landscape stuff in Vanderwalde. Janice House. Who else? We've got V Pop Coombs. We've got Samuel Martin. [01:05:11] Speaker D: Greg. It's pronounced Giannis. [01:05:14] Speaker C: Janice. [01:05:15] Speaker B: Yanis. Oh, okay, thank you. All right, Yanis. Scott Stramic and Bridget Gower are joining us. [01:05:24] Speaker E: Greg. [01:05:24] Speaker C: I should say it's pronounced Janice, but Matt and I have both assumed that this was someone called Yanis and have been talking about Yanis for months until we found out that it was pronounced. So if every beef upper could call her Yanis, that would be great. [01:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, Just say I feel. [01:05:43] Speaker D: Go with it, Go with it. [01:05:45] Speaker E: I'm sure she'll love it. [01:05:47] Speaker C: You will. [01:05:47] Speaker B: Just topping off the list and Lucius Yin is the last of the newbies joining BE this year. Sorry, cj, you go ahead. [01:05:56] Speaker E: I was just gonna say I'm so excited for Peter be being on board this year because I used to work with Peter many years ago and even my mom used to work with Peter back in the day. So it's really cool to see, yeah, this like, kind of like, you know, progression of like him coming into like my world and when I used to be in his world and I'm like, so excited for him to come along and be a part of it because he's a legend. [01:06:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:18] Speaker D: I will say though, for those who are looking at the website thinking, how could CJ's mum possibly been involved with Peter Coulson because his headshot makes him look like he's 24 years old. Yeah. [01:06:36] Speaker A: Time to update the photo. That'd be really cool though. He does look different in. In video person. He's got a. He's got a massive YouTube channel too. So you can get a feel for his stuff. Head over there. Or you can check out our interview with him before the show. Any interview that we've done too. [01:06:55] Speaker B: Who else? I've got a few quick fire questions I wouldn't mind asking the team. Just having gone through the beef up groupies page and seeing some of the comments and questions that people have been asking, I thought I might throw these out there and just. Let's just get some answers from the team. First one is I can no longer come to befop. What do I do with my ticket? [01:07:16] Speaker C: You drop an email to cancel your plans. [01:07:21] Speaker D: Like, sorry, before everyone starts giving life advice, can we just appreciate that. That like Matt's entire life is taken up dealing with this right now. So like let's just. [01:07:31] Speaker B: That's why I brought it up. Of course. Matt, it was to over to you for you to go. Yeah. [01:07:37] Speaker D: Firstly, what you do is you read the terms and conditions on your T. You know, because tickets are non refundable. As much as people write me messages constantly going, oh, here's this really legitimate reason which sometimes super legitimate. The reality is I think what people maybe need to just breathe about for a second is there's lots of people. We have lots of things going on. This year we have been a little bit more, I'm going to say forgiving, lax, whatever you want to call it. Normally we let you transfer tickets between people so you can go and find someone on Facebook, Marketplace or ticket tech to sell it to. We have a huge wait list this year, so we have been taking some tickets back and then we've been reaching out to our wait list. But that is not a given. I just want to make that really, really clear. Like we are trying where we can to accommodate that. But please don't let that be your absolute first port of call because you might not realize it, but it takes us so freaking long to transfer one ticket to another person and to contact people out of the blue who haven't, you know, they maybe signed up for the wait list eight months ago and now they've got things on and they, you know, then we end up a whole email chain is actually probably the number. [01:08:53] Speaker C: Quick question, Greg. Or is this it is. [01:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah, this is the quick answer, I'm sure. [01:08:58] Speaker D: But. But like I just want to be really clear I've had people who have requested that I refund them and then emailed me every single day since that email saying, excuse me, have you got this yet? Excuse me, have you got this yet? It is literally the last thing on my list. So. Not because I hear anything against what you're doing, it's just our policy is sort of no. And where we can accommodate it. Yes, we will. So if you email us, please just appreciate that we will get to that email, but it's not going to be the first of my priority list. We're looking after all the things that make this thing tick first. And I think that I feel like there's maybe in the Facebook group people have been posting out that saying, oh, just email Matt and they'll just do this. But as we get closer, it actually gets harder as well because people have changed plans, they've got accommodation issues or whatever it is. So email us by all means, but please just expect that takes like two or three weeks at the moment. Like, it is not a quick thing. [01:09:53] Speaker C: I reckon there's almost no chance of Matt making it to the end of this podcast without his freaking heart alarm calling an ambulance. [01:10:01] Speaker D: I'm probably going to cry first and [01:10:03] Speaker C: then can we have a sweet steak on when the guy in the tax [01:10:06] Speaker D: dies should go up into a ball if I can tell you right now, like, and for those who are on the wait list as well, go you, because I have currently got 60 emails in my inbox for bfop that came through since 7am this morning. Of that I've got about 20 people who from over the last six days have contacted us about tickets. So there's probably another 20 tickets that are going to go out, which is about 10 of our wait list. But yeah, it just. There is so much effort that goes into changing that. It's not as simple as just being like, switch their name and the ticket. We've got about five or six systems that it needs to go through, so hence why of course also there's a transfer fee because it takes us a bloody long time to do it. So please be patient if you do put that request in and also expect it might not happen. And if you've got someone who you can sell your ticket to, do that first place. And yes, Craig Murphy, who just texted me, I would like a cuddle. And yes, and I am tired. I know this is not going well. Matt, like, no, I might ask the [01:11:07] Speaker B: next next question of Nick [01:11:12] Speaker A: for the [01:11:12] Speaker B: folks that maybe share right up to beef up with friends. And obviously people don't necessarily go on the same workshops together all the time. Will there be carpooling available for people to get to workshops away from the center of bright? [01:11:26] Speaker C: The answer is yes. Look, one of the things I am desperate that never gets lost from befop is that like that community we all kind of dig in and help each other and carpooling is one of those. And there's no greater thing you can do to your fellow photographer than throw them in the boot of your Mazda and drive them to a workshop. So there's always a board outside beef off HQ where you can write, you know where you need a lift to and you know 99 times out of 100 someone will give you a call and say yeah, jump in with us if you get really, honestly if you get really stuck. I have thrown someone in the boot of my car to a workshop. I wasn't running and driven them down there. [01:12:07] Speaker D: And you wonderful dubious about your questions around the busy framework. [01:12:10] Speaker C: That's right, that's right. They were bound and gagged and drugged but they got there. The the often the easiest thing to do, top tip is find who the instructor is and go and grab the instructor and go I haven't got a lift. Can I jump in with you? And again nine times out of ten if the instructor isn't having to get to the location early, they'll let you jump in with them. So yeah, we can, we can normally make it work but it fits in the list of magic we try and make happen but we can't 100 guarantee. That said I've never found someone who didn't get to a workshop. [01:12:48] Speaker D: I think we've never had someone who didn't get there and unless they didn't tell us first. [01:12:53] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah. So stick your name up. If you get sort of, you know, two hours for your workshop and no one's rung you then you know, come and grab a grown up and we'll try and make it happen. Yeah but, but don't, don't sort of panic if you turn up without a car. We'll make it work. Yeah, you just have a little bit more anxiety than the average person because you're running around not knowing there's pills for that. [01:13:15] Speaker B: Okay. Last couple of years that we've been amazing food trucks. Obviously we had a coffee cart just right outside the door. Are we seeing the return? Was it Mr. Bojangles? Are we seeing Mr. Bojangles back? Bro Jingles. Thanks. You always said bro. Yeah. [01:13:33] Speaker C: What I love and he's now it's all coming together. So we got that, we got a food truck, and then this donut truck emailed me and I said, no, no, we're all full. We. We. We don't need a donuts. And Matt went, we need donuts. [01:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:13:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:13:49] Speaker D: I say everyone just know that Nick hates you. [01:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I've got a funny story about Justin and donuts from last year's Beef up and a big scoop of butter, but we won't talk about that on this show. [01:14:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that was late night Greg. I was pre hungover. [01:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah, and you're wearing a item too. [01:14:10] Speaker D: But, you know, were you eating the donut with the butter or was it microwaved? [01:14:16] Speaker A: Microwaved a donut that Paul bought me that morning for the podcast and then put butter on it and ate it in my nightie before I went to bed after the shenanigans night. And that is how you beef up, my friends. That is how you beef up. Okay. [01:14:30] Speaker E: Deliciousness. [01:14:32] Speaker B: And she tried it. I mean, but. [01:14:35] Speaker D: Yeah, but as far as we're concerned, I think we have a donut truck now. Yeah. [01:14:39] Speaker C: Kind of fun. How's your cardiologist feeling about that, Matt? [01:14:45] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:14:48] Speaker D: Oh, dear God. Yep. [01:14:52] Speaker C: Before Beef up, was it last year? Year before, I spent sort of a whole week in the cardiac ward of the Alpha, much to Matt's delight. I'm sorry, it's Matt's turn this year. [01:15:01] Speaker A: Payback. [01:15:03] Speaker D: So I actually tuned out. What happened? [01:15:06] Speaker C: What did I miss? [01:15:07] Speaker B: I missed Sam Olsen. [01:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah, Greg, you missed. You missed Sam Olsen as a newbie instructor. [01:15:12] Speaker E: Sam Olsen. [01:15:13] Speaker A: Come on. [01:15:16] Speaker D: This is my fault. I will take full responsibility for this. I'm sorry. So Sam and I have been playing tag team, like calls slash texts for a long time. Sam is not currently on the website because I have not had time like a second to follow up. But yes, Sam, Samantha Olson is also presenting at bfop and we have. We're looking at some. The workshops we're looking at. Sorry. Were something that I was trying to work out a location for before we committed to. To doing so. That will be up in today's Monday. It'll be probably Wednesday because my plan is first thing tomorrow morning. Sam's my first call tomorrow. [01:15:58] Speaker C: Sorry, Sam. [01:15:58] Speaker D: He hates you. [01:15:59] Speaker C: Sam. [01:16:00] Speaker E: Welcome, Sam. [01:16:01] Speaker B: Hey, Sam. And you can check out. Sam's been on the podcast a few times too. [01:16:06] Speaker A: That's right. [01:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we get them all. And Nick poached them. [01:16:13] Speaker C: This is. [01:16:13] Speaker A: This is. [01:16:14] Speaker D: You're right. Nick is. Nick is in charge of most the logistics. And so just saying. [01:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah, most of the logistics. [01:16:24] Speaker D: Yeah. C.J. does some as well. [01:16:29] Speaker E: I'm here too. [01:16:31] Speaker B: You are? [01:16:32] Speaker E: I'm gonna need a lasso. I. Because I am the middleman, I've decided I'm gonna need a lasso for all the instructors for next year. [01:16:41] Speaker B: Yep. [01:16:42] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:16:43] Speaker E: Come on, sign up to your podcast. You can do it. Come on. [01:16:48] Speaker D: It feels like that, doesn't it? [01:16:50] Speaker C: Yeah, we should. What we haven't spoken about very seriously is for people who haven't been before, how to think about booking, how their strategy for what they're going to go to, how to think about booking, how all that works. And I know it. It's like for those who've been before, they just know what a chaos can't. That whole thing is. But we should. We should talk about that. [01:17:12] Speaker D: I think that we should go around the room and hear each person's individual strategy as to what they think people should do, and then you can choose. All right, Nick, let's go first. [01:17:25] Speaker B: Let's. Yeah, let's go with Nick. [01:17:29] Speaker C: Right, Well, I think the. The first thing is the. To just to live in the belief that the workshop you didn't plan on going to is going to be the best workshop you go to every year. That's what everyone tells us. So that immediately takes away the anxiety about. Look, I desperately wanted to go to Nick's workshop because it was clearly going to be the best, and then I missed. It doesn't matter, because whatever you booked instead is going to be awesome. [01:18:00] Speaker D: Yeah. Like eating a donut or something. Yeah. [01:18:02] Speaker C: And then. And then the. The second thing I would say is whatever Matt's going to tell you about how stable the website is is going to be bullshit. [01:18:13] Speaker D: Not totally. [01:18:15] Speaker C: Entirely. Totally. So find a workshop you like, put it in the car, book it, and then look for something else. Don't spend ages trying to get, like, the perfect mix because your cart will explode in the meantime. And anyone who wants to see what happens if you try and do this, go back to the podcast of Greg and Justin booking their BFOT workshops because it was a master class in what not to do. So I would. What I would do is I'd start with a list of seven or eight workshops you'd quite like to go to, perhaps put it in order and then just work through it. And you won't. You'll get, you know, 60 of them, you know, 40 of them. You won't. And enjoy what you. What you end up with. Yeah. [01:19:02] Speaker D: Matt, I think we're going clockwise. [01:19:06] Speaker C: All right, cj. [01:19:07] Speaker E: Cj, I think just go. You Kind of want something that's going to be comfortable for you, but also something that's out of your comfort zone. So the first thing that catches your eye. Absolutely, go for that. But I think the whole point of learning and the whole point of new experiences is to do something that's out of your comfort zone. So go for that thing that's really. Whoa. I would not usually do that, but I'm gonna do it in terms of. Yeah, I think, I think pick one that you're like, I'm comfortable with this, but I would love to learn more. And then one that is just so out of your comfort zone. [01:19:41] Speaker B: Yep. Good advice, Justin. [01:19:44] Speaker C: That's much better. Genuine. That's much better than my advice. [01:19:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:48] Speaker A: Okay. My advice is this is gonna be. This is gonna be the harder work strategy of all these. But trust me, if you want the best weekend, do this. Research every workshop instructor. I'm not even kidding. Even though this is a plug for our. We've done interviews with them all. Because the problem is if you just go by the name and the sort of the first couple of sentences of the workshop itself, you might get sort of tricked into thinking, I've got to do a landscape workshop or I could do this or that. The people doing the workshops can often be far more important than the title of the workshop itself. So, like, learn about the instructors and find people you want to learn off. And then obviously try and target those. Do what Nick said. Put one in your cart, check out, don't fill the card up. It'll time out and other people steal all your stuff. And then like I did, I ended up with nothing and had to start from fresh on all different ones. But then the different ones that I had no idea what they were ended up being amazing. So don't worry, whatever you book will be great. The other thing I learned is obviously you want to get a ton of workshops booked because that's what it's all about, right? But I was thinking, like, what am I going to do in between my workshop at 10am and then I haven't got another one till 3, 10pm because they were all booked out before I got a chance to get there because I did it wrong. There's tons of stuff to do for the hour or so gap that you'll end up having in and around the, like the main beef up hq. There's talks on all day. So, like, don't stress out that you're going to have spare time, I don't know, just by yourself. [01:21:21] Speaker D: I think they should book as many workshops as possible. Just. [01:21:24] Speaker A: I'm not saying you shouldn't book as many as possible and fill your day up. What? [01:21:28] Speaker D: I mean, I'm kidding. [01:21:29] Speaker A: Like, oh, you know what I mean? There was gaps and I was like, oh, what am I going to do in this gap? And. And there's tons of stuff to do in the gaps, so don't feel like you need to book from, like, 10 till 11:30 and then from 11:45 until it's, you know, it doesn't matter if you got an hour gap, you'll fill it. Absolutely. And that's about it. I think that's about it. But, yeah, go and read the instructor's bios, look at their Instagrams, listen to our interviews if you have time. They're all about 15 minutes, so they're not too long. And get a feel for who these people are, not just the name of their workshop and the category that it is. Because often some of them, they're doing. They shoot tons of stuff and they've just picked a category for this year, but they've got a really broad base of skills. [01:22:10] Speaker B: Yep. You done? [01:22:14] Speaker A: Yep. [01:22:15] Speaker B: All right, my turn. My advice is to have a think about your own photography and pick sort of two or three things that you really want to work on and then look for the instructors or the workshops, not the genre, but look for the instructors and all the workshops that you think might fill those gaps. Do a bit of research on the. On the instructor. Have a look at the details of the workshop. You know, talk about it on the Befop Groupies page. If you have to, reach out to some of the workshop instructors there because they're often posting in the group. But I definitely think that, you know, if you want to learn lighting, let's say you like doing product photography and you want to learn lighting. Well, there's a whole bunch of workshop instructors, masters at lighting. You don't have to do a product photography workshop to elevate that skill set, because lighting, you'll use in everything you do. So look for those sort of skill gaps and then work out how to fill them. But also, yeah, don't forget, lots to be learned from the stage presentations that are constantly ongoing. Lots to learn from just hanging around and chatting to people. You know, you may not get the workshop you want to be. You might bump into that workshop instructor, you know, at the shenanigans or whilst watching a stage presentation. You might get your answers, you know, your questions answered just by having a conversation with someone. So don't. Don't put everything into the workshop basket. You know, you're not going to get everything from it, but you will. You'll get stuff from all over the festival, if that makes sense. Anyway, that's mine. Matt, you're up next. Bring us home. [01:23:46] Speaker D: Bring us home. I've got three parts to my how to book your workshops. As the person who knows the back end system of this, the first one is book it backwards. So what we find very typically is that everyone wastes all their credit on Friday, Saturday, and they get panicky because their, their list is in chronological order. If you work backwards, you will get exactly what you want because no one's booking Sundays as their first thing to put in their basket. [01:24:14] Speaker C: That's a genius. [01:24:18] Speaker D: Book it backwards. Because most people go forwards and, and the Friday ones fill up really quickly. Saturday fills up pretty quickly and then Sunday's empty. But no one's got credits, so no one can do anything about it. So book the Sunday first and then go back. That's probably my biggest piece of advice. And we try our hardest, wherever possible, to split workshops in a way where every workshop runs twice at least. And we try and make it a situation where there's a time gap between them. The only ones that are right back to back are ones where there's a substantial setup time. So they kind of keep them together. But so in that case, book the second one, not the first one first. The second thing I'd say is something I've noticed on workshops throughout my entire career teaching photography, and that is that people stick to what they know and think that they're going to learn more. And it's just the most incorrect assumption that you could ever make. Like the example is if you are a wildlife photographer and you come on my wildlife workshop, for instance, my beginner's workshop, or I'm doing mammals in monochrome. There are some things you'll take away from it. But if you're already a wildlife photographer, chances are you've surpassed what I need to cater to when I've got a group of 20 mixed, mixed skill level photographers. And I think that this is where the landscape workshops go really wrong, is that you get people who are really passionate about learning landscape photography and they book on a landscape workshop. And what they don't realize is that they're signing up to a workshop that's, that's potentially catered to beginners through to advanced. And they're sitting there as the advanced person going, cool. Tell me the silver bullet. Where's the silver bullet? And the Instructor's actually really busy talking about the beginner's stuff because they can't leave anyone out. And that's not the fault of the instructor. It's just the dynamic of how those big group sizes work. And one thing I learned really early on in my career, and I do photography probably a bit differently to a lot of other, you know, people in our sphere, I, I do a bit of everything. You know, I've shot weddings, I shoot corporate commercial, I shoot headshots, I shoot wildlife, I do promos for brands, I do all the things. But the reality is, is that I learned the most about landscape work photography from portrait workshops, and I learned the most about portrait workshops from landscape photography because what you're trying to do is piece together all the bits of how photography fits together together. So, like, as an example, you're doing a portrait of someone. Like, take an environmental portrait. Craig Wetchen's doing them. Emily Black's doing some. Technically speaking, you've got Penny Stevens. They are really more concerned about the background first and then they're looking at the subject. So that's kind of actually like landscape. And now we're introducing a subject into it. And I think that there's so much to learn about other genres by exploring their counterparts, even macro photography or some of the intimate landscapes. You're going to go around and you're going to see the world a bit differently. And that means when you say, for instance, do your portraits well now you're not looking at the whole big landscape. Where's my background? Where's my background? You're actually looking at these smaller things going, hold on. On a long lens, I can narrow my background down and wow, that's actually enough. So don't think narrowly. If you're already a landscape photographer, landscape workshops are befops will be almost useless. Portrait photography for portrait photographers who are experienced will almost be useless. Look at the, the, the partnered workshop. Look at the thing that's going to teach you about the background or this other aspect, you know, where you're going to learn a whole lot more and it's going to make all the dots connect and you'll be a better photographer overall. [01:27:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll give you, I'll give an example. Like, I don't know what category we put Bruce Moyle in, but like, he does these beautiful sort of slow and multiple shutter shots with flash. So it catches these kind of flowing, beautiful images that kind of aren't anything I can describe. [01:28:19] Speaker E: Like mirrored. [01:28:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:21] Speaker C: And so he's always doing something creative. But it's not. You can't drop it into a nice little genre and it's not something you've ever thought of doing before, but go and do that and that's going to kind of stretch your creativity in a way you haven't thought about before. And I, like, I take some of things I see Bruce doing and I apply to Boom X photography because I get these, like, flowing images of riders going through the scene. And you can do it in all sorts of ways now, that is, you just don't get a chance to do that anywhere else. Go and do that. [01:28:50] Speaker A: Yeah. So Bruce has just put a comment here. I learned aerial photography by doing macro. And he commented before he said, the question I want to ask is, what would the instructors book? We miss out and damn, there's some cool people to learn from. And if you talk to any instructors through the week, you'll often hear them say, oh, they wish they could go and see this person's workshop or that person's workshop. And it's almost never someone that does their genre of photography, so it's usually mine. [01:29:14] Speaker D: To be honest, I think [01:29:16] Speaker A: I wish I could do Matt's workshop. But, yeah, they're always looking to go and see someone that's doing something, something that they don't have a skill set in because they think it's interesting and they want to learn about it and see how it works. [01:29:29] Speaker D: So I think their book on that as well. Like, the reality is that if you're already doing that genre, yes. You've already got some experience and, you know, like, you could argue about what you learn from it. But I think the thing, I look at BFOP these days and it's been nine years. Like, there's been a lot of workshops come through. We've done a lot of vetting, We've had a lot of beers over. This is to. [01:29:58] Speaker C: Someone. [01:29:59] Speaker A: Want to read out Dennis's comment? [01:30:00] Speaker D: You know what, Dennis, the great thing with you is that actually you'll be free to do that. You, you have freedom. So I look forward to seeing your left nut delivered to be pop stage. And we will grant you a ticket. [01:30:15] Speaker C: But. [01:30:16] Speaker D: But, like, we've seen it all. And I think that the longer this festival goes on, the harder it is for us to find the niche. You know, how do you. How do you ask people to keep coming up with the weird and the wonderful and the interesting? But I actually think it's not maybe about us coming up with the weird, the wonderful, the interesting. I think it's actually about relying on our participants, you know, people who are coming to book on the thing. That's the weird, the wonderful, the interesting for them. You know, I remember one of the most, like, weird situations in my entire photography career was doing some online workshops for. For people in Indonesia during COVID And it was to, like, to market resorts and lodges over there, so when things opened up, they'd have, like, some marketing material. And there was this one person, and he was sitting on a beach and he had his little phone up, and his background looked exactly like the beach background that we all superimpose as our fake background. And there was a Komodo dragon walking through the back. And the first question he asked in the thing was, yeah, but what do I take pictures of? And I was just like, what? And to him, you know, his normal was like, you know, that was normal for him, but he didn't appreciate it was different for everyone else. And I feel as though sometimes in photography you get so entrenched in what's normal for you that you forget there's this whole other world out there and what people want to see or what's trending or popular. And unfortunately, that's how it sometimes goes. But if you just look at the different genres, you might hate macro photography because you don't have a macro lens or something like that. You might think it's boring or whatnot, but the moment you sit there with someone who really knows what they're doing, you suddenly go, well, shit. Every single thing I ever see on the planet is now an entire ecosystem of photograph photography. You walk past a rock and it's like, there's seven hours of fun for someone else. Like, why can't you find the fun in that? And it's. And. And when you actually see it from the other person's perspective, you. You get it. So my advice, like, the number one thing is just like, see it from someone else's perspective. Because if you're already doing it, you won't learn a huge amount. This is the one place in the world where you will find that you can walk into a. A workshop where someone is completely stark naked, covered in projection lights and being sprayed with a misting bottle, and no one feels weird about it. And you can photograph a nude model that you might go actually, like, I find that's really uncomfortable. And you've got all these preconceived ideas. But you know what? Everyone who came back from the workshops where we had nude models, they turned around and said, oh, my God, I was nearly in tears because I Never really thought about the other side of this story and they never really thought about this and they've not been exposed to it. So it's not about trying to kind of do the thing you've always done. Beef hobbies are actually entirely the opposite. It's about trying to do the stuff that you thought either was maybe sometimes you thought was below you or maybe there's sometimes the things that you, you just thought weren't your interest. Get into that because that's where you'll find your new niche. Or you might even find just a single technique that goes, oh yeah, right. Like Bruce said, macro photography makes you a better aerial photographer because you start to realize that creat crazy weird patterns of lichen, as boring as lichen can be actually close up and shot straight down flat lay, that can be pretty interesting. Well, hold on, that's exactly like Lake Tyll, that's Shark Bay. You know all these places, it's the same technique and so you've got to stay open minded. And where people fall down in be land is when they book the same thing they've always done and then expect to hear something profound. And the reality is photography is not that complex. It just takes effort and it takes repetition and practice. So don't expect that in a 20 person workshop as a starter or a beginner's thing that you're going to learn something completely new. Go find a genre you know nothing about because you'll introduce a new technique you never thought existed. Yeah, [01:34:18] Speaker C: Bruce has made a point. I think super important is one I thought about a lot which is, you know, if you ask your average photographer what do you think of this picture? They'll say oh well, you know, your eyes and lines off and you're probably slightly miss focused. And all of which might be true, but I think there's a generosity that we really encourage at befop and you'll definitely see from the instructors which they start from. You know, that's an awesome photo. That's a great photo you should be proud of. If you want to ask for some more beyond that, they'll help you. But they start from, you know, that that's a photo you should be proud of and that's sort of that, that sort of reinforcing positive, you know, we, we're here to you know, make you the best photographer you can and make you feel good about what you're doing. [01:35:08] Speaker D: I don't think anyone's ever walked, you know, earlier you asked what's the most like the best memory from bfop, you know, the best befop year and, and thinking about what Nick just said then, I don't think I've got a best beef up year because they've all had their weird challenges and they've all had their ups and downs and like I don't think one stands out more than another for me. But one of the biggest things that stood out from BE for me is not the festival itself but some of the feedback that we've received. You know, like I will never forget sitting on the back deck at my old place in Essendon, I got a feeling it was during one of the COVID No, it couldn't have been Covid because maybe it was the first Covid year, I don't know. But like it was this one festival and we received an email and this is not the first of them either but it was one that was really like, it was long and quite deep. But it was talking about someone who brought their child, you know, adult child I guess, up to befop who was, you know, really had some severe mental health issues at the time and was, you know, on suicide watch and all sorts of, you know, really, really intense things and they, they, they took the, this, this person up to the festival with the intention of just like trying to break the mold, break the different, you know, like just be somewhere else, you know, and, and see a different world. And, and they actually came back and they emailed us this profound email that was like, it was brilliant. Come back and was like they said, they said to their parent, you know, who, that they'd found their people, you know, and they'd found their space. [01:36:46] Speaker C: And I remember, do you remember the one where it said like, like there was a whole, this horrendous tragic story and it went. It's the first time I've seen a smile. [01:36:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:36:56] Speaker C: It's like, oh my God. [01:36:57] Speaker A: Wow. [01:36:58] Speaker D: And so I think that that's the thing you've got to remember when you come to this festival. This is not some sort of like brand led creator thing. This is not a space where we, you know, all try and show off who's the best. There's no award for being first. This is just meant to be a space where everyone can just stop, strip off the be yourself, be the photographer that you want to be. No one has to agree with you and no one will disagree with you either because it's just like you just get to be yourself and do your thing and you'll be congratulated for just showing up and realizing that actually You've got a point of view and that's important. And so I think that with workshops, that should give you the license to look broader than what you think you are. You know, it should give you the license to think about what holes there are that you haven't explored. Like, what haven't you seen? You don't know what you don't know. You know, like, it's. It's that simple. So avoid the stuff that you think you already know because you'll be let down. Find the stuff that is just strange that you never get an experience with otherwise. And, and you'll find something. Something will click, you know, come shoot dirt bikes. Yeah, Yeah. [01:38:18] Speaker B: I think the other thing that it gives people license to. To do is, you know, it befop feels like an open playing field. There's no class structure. Everyone leads from the middle and everyone's there just to support one another, you know, and what it does give you license to do is to walk up to some people that, you know, you might have felt heroes of yours for the work they do and have. Just have a conversation with them. Just, you know, have a beer or sit down outside, you know, and have a coffee and, and have a chat to Bruce Moore or, you know, talk to Dennis Smith about your love of photography or, you know, everyone is open to that sort of stuff because that's what BEFOP is all about. It's all about nurturing community, you know, in a creative, fun and safe way. [01:38:59] Speaker E: Absolutely. And it's all about connecting with everybody that you look up to or people. Yeah. Like, this is the whole part of it. It's like we get to create with other creatives and like, other creatives have a different perspective of creation and that's what we can take from it. I think that's really special. And yeah, don't be afraid to go up and talk to people because that's the whole point. The whole point is to connect with each other as humans and share our light. [01:39:24] Speaker C: Can I just pick up some of the questions here very quickly? [01:39:27] Speaker A: I was about to bring some up, but I just want to double check. So, Matt, does that wrap up your tips on how to book befop? Is that. [01:39:33] Speaker D: Are you. [01:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:39:34] Speaker D: How long have you got? [01:39:36] Speaker A: No, I just, just wanted to double check before I just bring up this comment. Brendan Waits tip. Brendan Waits down south Photoshop says the Thursday big bus trip is a mega BFOP hack. You're beef hopping before befop bfops. And that is true if you can get on that. But it's got very limited seats, so I don't know, you have to. Fast. [01:39:59] Speaker C: Well, funny enough, often doesn't book out immediately on the. Because it's. It's so many, you know, beef up dollars. Often doesn't book out straight away and it gets picked up later. So you can sometimes get it with your credit pack or something else. [01:40:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So that. [01:40:15] Speaker D: Can I. Can I make it. Actually, sorry. There is one more thing we need to clarify, which I've got to work out how we clarify it on the website because it's a bit weird. Right. And I know there's a lot of excited people about it, but I'm going to let them down slowly, hopefully. This year we have published an astro workshop. [01:40:36] Speaker C: Oh, yeah? Yeah. [01:40:37] Speaker D: Don't know if anyone saw that. Obviously not, because everyone's looking very puzzled. No. Okay, good. Yeah, good. Good call. Good. Glad you're all reading the hard work that we do. So there was an astro workshop that we published with. With Scott, who is there on behalf of Canon. Now, it's not a Canon specific workshop. Everyone can obviously go, everyone's very, very welcome. But astrophotography is something that we've shied away from. We used to run it back in the day and we have agreed reluctantly to run it again. Again, that workshop is actually not going to be bookable with BFOP credits. That book that. That's going to be a straight cash booking workshop that goes live about a week before the festival kicks off. It doesn't interfere with anything else. It won't prevent you from doing anything else. It's quite late at night. But the reason for that, if, for those who are wondering and we can reference back to this video for those who haven't watched it, is that if it's clouded over or if it's really bad conditions for whatever reason, and we can't do astro, it's a bit of a waste because you can't really do much like Astro is Astro. And short of doing some fancy light painting, which Dennis is doing way better than whoever else is pretending to do it on an astro workshop, it's a bit of a bust. And so we need a mechanism where if the conditions are bad, we can refund that and just cancel it and be like, no, it's not happening and it's refunded rather than, oh, we're canceling it, we're refunding credits and some cash and some this and some that, and then it might be at that point too late for you to use that credit. So it's actually A bit of a, you know, a bit of a waste and you probably feel a bit hard done by. So that is the one workshop this year which will be a cash only. And when I say cash, I mean like credit card or whatever, but, like, it's not a credit booking and that will go live very late in the game. Um, you know, and again, if it doesn't come to fruition for whatever reason, then we'll be either trying to postpone it to the next night and if that still doesn't happen, then we're refunding it. So there'll be some conditions around that one. But don't bank on putting that in your initial bookings because it's just not going to be available at that point in time. [01:42:45] Speaker B: Yep, that's a clever way to do it, that's for sure. [01:42:47] Speaker A: Yeah, makes total sense. And yeah. Oh, quickly, Peter Coulson, photographer. Can someone at BFOP please take me a new photo? [01:43:02] Speaker D: We could have. We could actually make that a Saturday night game, I reckon. [01:43:05] Speaker C: Yeah, we could. [01:43:06] Speaker B: We can make it a competition for sure. [01:43:08] Speaker C: Oh, no, hang on. We genuinely. I'm all in. I'm all in on that. [01:43:12] Speaker E: Yeah, that is so fun. [01:43:14] Speaker D: In the photograph. On the donkey note. We do, we do. We, we, we. We have the. The ultimate black and white shoot off, you know, and that would be interesting because you know what, Peter? You, you, you, you. You're behind the camera and I. I'm sure you've got your fair share of experience in front of it, but I wonder if we. We flip it around how that'll go. [01:43:36] Speaker E: Yeah, Peter, get in front of the camera, darl. I love that he's even got a younger photo on his. He's on the bike in this one. We can use that one. [01:43:48] Speaker A: It's Benjamin Button. [01:43:49] Speaker C: Oh, he's in. [01:43:50] Speaker B: Oh, it is Benjamin Button. [01:43:51] Speaker C: I have no idea what he's getting himself into. [01:43:54] Speaker B: Oh, no, not doing. Be fine. Not doing that. Let's just talk a little bit about bhq. Who are some of the. Who are some. [01:44:04] Speaker A: Sorry, quickly, Greg. There was a few other, like, real quick logistics type ones that I don't want to miss up here earlier. Just a quick one from Roger Griffo. Hi. Can we know what time the last workshops will run on Sunday just to make decisions about department departure time? [01:44:21] Speaker D: Yeah, I can go. No. Yep, you go. [01:44:24] Speaker A: You did it. [01:44:24] Speaker C: You programmed it so you go for it. [01:44:26] Speaker D: Oh, no, no, you go then. [01:44:28] Speaker C: She's such a. [01:44:31] Speaker D: The. You know, it's. I like. I just get so much joy from that. So the last. It's true though, like, it's, it's like one thing in my life from like that's actually really funny. So generally speaking, the last workshops that run, they finish around 12:30. 1 o'. Clock. 1 o'. [01:44:53] Speaker A: Clock. [01:44:53] Speaker D: We normally do our wrap up and there is some substantial reasons to stay. So we often give away all the excess prizes at the wrap up. [01:45:01] Speaker C: We also give it away a half million dollar Mercedes. I understand, [01:45:07] Speaker A: and all of Chris Benny's cameras. [01:45:09] Speaker D: This is exactly what happened with the neck tattoo situation and we should have avoid this at all costs. My lawyer, the. But we know we do give away all the excess prizes. We have the banner signing, which is a really, really. I think it's an important part of bfop, to be perfectly honest. Like, so usually I'd say you can expect to depart beef, but with a donut and a coffee at about 2pm on Sunday. If you leave early, go for it. But like, just ask the guys from Sony last year they missed out on tons of stuff. So, you know. [01:45:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:45:45] Speaker A: All right. Just before Greg goes, one more quick comment from the original Ron Johnson that Crummonds guys at Cretan Total Womble. Oh, no, that's not the one. Where are we? That's right. Packing up the chairs is a prize in itself. That's the one I meant to pull up. [01:45:59] Speaker C: Well, I noticed Sarah Olson has got a house and she said she's got some rooms if, if you want to share it. [01:46:06] Speaker B: Sam Olsen. Sam Olsen. [01:46:07] Speaker C: Sam Olsen and her friend Sarah. Yeah, I've got some. I got a couple of friends from the Malat family that'll be in touch. [01:46:18] Speaker A: Wow. Oh, Dennis packed up the Sony table sheet. Okay. All right. Sorry, Greg, what were you. What were you going to ask about hq? [01:46:28] Speaker B: I was just going to talk about BFLOP hq. So, you know, obviously befop, there's, there's. We've talked about a lot. We've talked a lot about workshops, we've talked about, you know, some of the shenanigans and the nighttime events, but during the daytime, just give us a brief overview of what people can expect to see at BEFOP hq. What are some of the brands that are going to be on board, that sort of stuff. Nick, take it away, anyone? [01:46:53] Speaker C: So, you know, you know, he's been doing all the brand deals. So like, I, I always sort of, you know, on one hand we've got like these amazing professional camera bands and we've got them pretty much all there, I think, only, like, is not coming this Year just because they can't. But pretty much all the rest are here. But at the same time we're in like a 1950s like community hall. So it's like professional and the world's most unprofessional thing ever. So like on crappy tables and all the rest of it. But no, you've got pretty much every major camera brand and like Olympus, Fuji, what are we own systems these days? Fuji, Nikon, Sony, Canon, like they're all. Who've I missed? Matt, have I missed anyone yet? [01:47:40] Speaker D: A couple. Yeah, go on. [01:47:42] Speaker C: Have I missed. [01:47:44] Speaker D: I got Pixel 1. [01:47:46] Speaker C: Yeah, but they're not camera brand. Yeah, they don't get the other, the others. [01:47:50] Speaker D: Oh, sorry, you go camera house. [01:47:54] Speaker C: Dji, all the others. And the others that Matt's going to mention now, Matt, I'll just hand over to you now for the, for the others. I gave you a list of earlier. [01:48:02] Speaker D: We basically we without, without being like over the top. We've literally got like the whole industry there except Leica because they have a good, like, literally have a conflict of dates this year we've got some new sponsors that we're introducing. So Spices, which most people would probably not know the name. Spices Papers, but they do Hammermull. Hammermooler I always find it weird to pronounce because it's got lots of umlauts and stuff like that. But they are going to be, they're going to be there. We have got C.R. kennedy. They're coming in full swing. I've asked them to bring a robot dog because they do like robotics and stuff as well. [01:48:43] Speaker B: They do security stuff. [01:48:44] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. They've got some crazy stuff that, that's happening and they're doing the drone workshops with dji. They're the, the importers of dji. We have got our standard camera brands, obviously. We've got the Sony's, the Canons, the Nikons, the OM Systems, Fuji. We've got Blonde Robot bringing a lot to the party this year as well. And we're also speaking to a couple of brands still about, um, about joining the supplier. The third party stuff that they're the, the third party brands are always my favorite, to be honest, because they're the ones who bring the weird stuff you didn't know existed. Whereas the brands tend to bring the stuff you know already existed and they, they give you great prices but you sort of already knew that lens was out. Whereas, you know, these, these random kind of like accessories brands come up with like, oh, we're bringing these flash modifiers. You never knew existed and, and that's just something new in your universe. So, so we're working with them at the moment as well. But there are lots and lots of suppliers who make this whole thing tick as well. Obviously camera house glue the whole thing together. They're our retail, major retail partner and so Nigel Blair and, and Danny will be, will be there in full swing with their team as well. On the the camera house part, there's been a lot of questions already asked around like when are the one of the discount catalogs coming out? And I had a meeting last week over a beer with the camera house guys and what was really funny is how I think as an industry or as a group of photographers, I should say we think the industry is built like a regular retail industry. Like clothing's got 100% markup and bags 100% markup, sports 100% markup and the camera industry actually is more like 5% markup. And so we often kind of think that, oh wow, we're going to see these stupid, stupid, stupid things. BFOP I think by far has the best deals because we organize them on a per event basis for just those that are at the event so they can do some crazy stuff. But crazy in befop land is like, you know, the 1520 is like ridiculous in cameraland and we're certainly working on that. So the issue that we have is some of our attendees expect that we're going to hear about these discounts like months in advance. But the reality is, guys, you're going to hear about these when you arrive. We do our best to get discount brochures out early, but because they can't pre advertise stuff because it's really, really, really aggressive in the market and then everyone else complains about it. The reality is that the sales actually get launched at BFOP because they can't afford to give them lag time to let everyone else clue onto it. So expect to see the all the PDF brochures and things when you arrive and you get your lanyard at bfop. And of course the camera house guys will have it up in full swing as well, but you won't really see them leading into the festival. Don't expect like two or three months wait on it. You're not going to see that. You'll see it when you arrive because they just simply can't sustain it for long enough. And so yeah, if you're thinking about buying gear, you know, if you can hold out, do so. We'll obviously have our Pixel 1 mates up there as well. They're going to be doing some crazy, crazy deals as always. You know they're huge, huge supporters of the festival. You know, Andrew and Matt from Pixel 1, you know and then. But yeah we've really got the filters [01:52:16] Speaker C: super importantly which is pretty much all of the brands will lend you a camera lens to go and have a play on any of the workshops. Yeah. And without any hassle at all. Like Nikon. I love Face on sort of Julie from Nikon. Normally about sort of 7pm on every evening when she's realized she's lost about 25k of gear and she doesn't know who's got it. But you, you can, you can borrow like a high end body and a high end lens and you can bug her off for a couple of hours onto, onto a workshop. So it's a good guy. If you're thinking about something, drop the brands a note, you know, a couple of weeks for the festival and say this is what I'm interested in and they'll often put it aside for you so you can have a go on it. [01:52:56] Speaker A: That's, that would be my advice is, is if you've got anything in mind, have, have your, the things in mind, your money ready but know that you, you'll likely be able to test. I don't know if there was a Canon lens that they didn't have there. You know when I was. That they couldn't lend me. They had everything. They may not but chances are they will you'll be able to test it and then again I don't know if there was better deals available than what was there. It's very likely that that'd be the best deals you'd see year round anywhere. [01:53:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:53:28] Speaker A: So you don't sort of need to know beforehand. Just know that if there's something you've got in mind you'll probably get the best deal there and you can test it there. So just come kind of with, with an idea of what you're thinking also [01:53:42] Speaker D: that's a really good point Justin is that if you get there and you know there's you as you say, I think you can safely assume the best deals in Australia at the time will be there. But if you randomly found something that wasn't, don't complain to Nigel, walk right up to that brand and be like oi, what's going on? And, and the thing you don't maybe realize, you know, without giving away all the trade secrets is that you know the guys at camera house have to buy the gear from the guys at the brand, the brand is responsible for helping to support that. And if someone else is doing it better, it's that there is obviously some sort of way, shape or form that they can. And so don't, don't let that reflect on where you purchase your stuff. I mean, where you buy your gear matters. And I, I've said this a lot recently and, you know, Nick and I have had this conversation many, many, many, many times where we've always sort of joked that, like, there are some really aggressive partners in the retail network, like really aggressive partners, and they would probably bend over backwards to be a part of what we do. But we also know that they're not the people who help you necessarily. They're not the people who give you the real advice or the honest advice. They're not necessarily the people who will have the stock ready to go when they say they will. They're not the people who will give you the phone call and give you the service that you deserve. And so we've partnered with, who we've partnered with because we think that they're good people, not just, you know, they're. Because they're a brand. I mean, and I think that we should all, as festival goers, respect that and, and take on board the fact that we've done that vetting for you. So if you do see the better price out there, don't take it as though, oh, well, someone else has got it better. Bring it up, mention it. Give someone the opportunity to challenge that, because the brands are actually responsible for looking after you up there. And they will, like, they absolutely will. But if you don't speak up, then all you do is feed an industry of, you know, people undercutting each other but not giving the service. But we've got the opportunity to change that and make sure that we're putting our attention in the right spot. So support those who support us. That's the reason this festival exists. You know, obviously, all our punters who turn up, ticket holders. Awesome. Great. But I tell you what, you're not the only ones. If our suppliers and our sponsors didn't turn up, no one would be here. So we've got to make sure we all work together on that. And you'll get the best deal, they'll get the best deal, we'll all win. You just got to communicate with each other. [01:56:27] Speaker A: On a fun note, if you're ever going to switch camera brands, befop is where I would do it. 100, they would love that. If someone, if someone walks over to the Nikon thing is like, oh, look, I'm thinking of ditching Canon. Going full Nick on. [01:56:40] Speaker C: You will. [01:56:41] Speaker A: You will probably get the best deal you could ever get in that moment. [01:56:44] Speaker C: Oh my God. Julie would just do backflips. It would be unreal. [01:56:48] Speaker D: Can I actually throw something out there on that? I'm going to put a thing into the universe and Justin, you can back me up on this, right? At least I think you can. Or maybe you. Hopefully you can. So I know now I'm nervous because I'm throwing you, you know, under the bus. So I work very closely with some of the safari drivers in Krueger and they are usually come from pretty hard done by backgrounds and we the second trip. So after Justin was there, Martin, our driver, I gave him a one of my spare cameras to play with and he wants to start a photography prints business to support his current business. He's an awesome dude. And what I was actually hoping to do was. And it ties into what's being said in the chat at the moment about a buy swap sell situation. We do have plans for a buy swap sell [01:57:45] Speaker C: for nine years. [01:57:46] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. As much as Nick doesn't know about it. But the buy swap sell situation is that we can't do a lot of physical stuff the way people think we can. So we're actually. I. I want to create a virtual bioswap cell where it's paper based. So think about Facebook ads, but paper based. We'll give you a template. You fill out the template with your product and the photo and all that sort of jazz. We print, you print it, you come and pin it on the board and people can contact you. I personally am desperate for a camera with a telephoto lens. In fact, I'd love a couple of cameras with telephoto lenses to buy for some of my safari guides in Africa to take back in November. So for those who are wondering about bicep cell things, yes, it is in the works. No, it is not as simple as what you think it is. No, we cannot create just a big table at some point where everyone comes and does it because no one is around to do that. And we also have insurance issues and issues around whether BFOP is involved or not because things can't transact that way. What we can do though is we can provide a big board where you can post your advertisements and take your own responsibility for it. So that is on the cards. And I am very, very keen to hear from anyone who might be involved or want to be involved in coordinating that. [01:59:06] Speaker C: It's a well made point, Matt. And you know, on a really serious note, if anyone's Interested in a 300 mil VR2ed Nikon lens, I've got one at a great price. [01:59:18] Speaker A: Just get it. [01:59:18] Speaker C: Get in touch. So. No, generally I do. So just, just get in touch. Yep. [01:59:28] Speaker D: Nick is struggling at the moment and anything you can give would go a very long way. [01:59:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:59:35] Speaker A: Is he the person you're buying the. It's not Martin. You're actually buying the setup. Yeah. [01:59:42] Speaker D: To continue his whirly whirly, whirly whirly bike photography. He needs that extra gear so early. [01:59:49] Speaker A: Bike. [01:59:50] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:59:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh man. Martin needs. Martin needs a set of up. He'll be a. He'll be a. The stuff that he gets to see. He'll be an amazing. [02:00:00] Speaker D: He took 4,000 photos in the second week that we were there. Cuz. [02:00:04] Speaker A: With your, with your camera. [02:00:06] Speaker D: Yeah, I gave him the backup and he just like went to town. He was like happiest kid alive. [02:00:10] Speaker A: Like, oh, that's so nice. Because he was doing it with his. He was getting great shots with his phone. He was getting shots with his phone. And then he'd be like, oh Yeah, I got 40 million likes on that one. And we're like, what? Yeah, like this is viral photos that he took on his phone of like crazy. [02:00:26] Speaker D: He hashtagged like a little lion cub. Cute. And it got like 1.4 million likes or something like that. [02:00:36] Speaker A: He was, he was a legend. Oh. [02:00:38] Speaker D: So but anyway, the point is, is that there's a lot of places and in fact that's not the only place this year we do have some charity stuff going on. Now might be a time to go into it because I feel like in a second. [02:00:49] Speaker B: Let's cover it. Let's cover that off. And then we'll, we'll, then we'll do a final wrap and we'll call it a day. But tell us. No, it's fine. Tell us about what, what you got planned for charity. [02:01:01] Speaker D: Yeah, so we don't have anything planned for charity at the moment, which is a big relief for us because it's one less thing. But other people in our sphere do. So we have got a couple of charity projects that we are working on. One of them is to. Is run by Adam Edwards. So for those who don't know Adam Edwards, obviously gun photographer, interestingly speaking, he's a landscape photographer, but he has just been inducted into the, the Canberra. What is it? The National Portrait Prize. Like crazy, you know, like how cool is that and as someone who's not a portrait photographer, but he's been working with a guy who's daughter, you know, tragically, you know, her life was cut short, you know, and [02:01:53] Speaker E: he. [02:01:54] Speaker D: The portrait that's taken is of the dad holding her teddy with a sunset behind him. It's, it's a really powerful shot and it does speak a million words. And, and you know, for anyone who, who has kids, you can't even picture what that must be like. I just can't even fathom that. So firstly, a massive congratulations because he's taken the courage to step out of his sphere and photograph something that is not his sphere and do it incredibly well and be recognized for it. But he came to us and asked whether or not we would be supportive of a, a instructor charity auction of prints. So instruct, you know, our instructors will have 20 instructors prints that can be auctioned in, in support of that charity for the, you know, for youth. I think it's youth suicide. That's one of the charity projects that's, that's running. Um, we are also, I'm hoping that we can tie in one of the projects that you guys are running into charity as well. So we, we've not discussed that in great depth at this point because we've got lots going on. But that, that's another project. And of course we've got the ongoing commitment that with Chris Hopkins who runs the charity with the Uganda group and they support people in Uganda who have got kids with disabilities, which is like, you know, something that we can't comprehend. Like in a nation where there's no support for anyone, having, you know, kids with disabilities is crazy. And you know, for those who followed the story, we did the charity auction for them 2 years ago I think it was, and we raised about $5,000 which maybe in our world doesn't sound significant, that sounds like a half decent lens investment. But Fred who, who is in charge of that charity actually managed to buy a huge block of land with that $5,000 and they are now building a premises for their charity on that. So the money goes a huge long way and so we're going to introduce that into the fold this year as well. And yeah, so there's a fair bit going on in that space and you know, obviously we will do our best as a festival and, and as punters. I'm sure you guys will all come to the party as well and, and help to support that because yeah, when you see it, it's you, you. It's hard to comprehend how different the worlds are that we live in. [02:04:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep. Well said indeed. Very conscious of everyone's time. We've just. We've just passed the two hour mark, so we might. We might lean into some final comments from the team. Let's start with you, cj. What are you looking forward to the most about this year's vfop? What. What's. What's kind of got you happy? What's got you excited? [02:05:02] Speaker E: There's a few things. Being in the big house with all the models and performers is always so much fun. [02:05:09] Speaker D: It's gonna be even better. [02:05:10] Speaker B: I know. [02:05:11] Speaker E: Probably, yeah. Oh, yeah. And also, like, the photos that will come out from their. Their workshops because you just never know what might come out of it with all the props and fun things that we bring. Last year we had so many cool things come out, especially with, like, the slow shutter speed with LED stuff was just amazing. So I'm really keen to see if anything like that will happen again. But also just seeing all the regulars again, like, I miss my people. [02:05:39] Speaker B: Yep, that's good call. Yeah, I get that. I get that. Nick, what about you? What are you looking forward to most? [02:05:46] Speaker C: Oh, I love sort of seeing everyone, like the participants and all the instructors. That's just like the family getting back together. But I always find myself sort of like, absolutely giggling on stage on the Saturday night just because some idiocy has gone on that sort of was vaguely planned and it's just gone off the rails. So that, to me is just like, hilarious. [02:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah, nice. Matt. Matt, what about you? [02:06:19] Speaker E: What is that face? [02:06:21] Speaker A: He can't get past all of the tasks that he's got to do in his brain to get to the, like, oh, but then this will be ghoul. [02:06:28] Speaker D: No, like that. That is true. I think this year in particular, [02:06:36] Speaker A: looking [02:06:36] Speaker D: forward to something really different to normal. And it's not for a bad reason. I'm looking forward to the finale of B Fault. Not because I want it to be over and not because of any of that, but I feel like I can't describe how much of my consciousness this takes up. Like, I can't describe how much weight is felt on our end trying to do this and trying to meet the expectations of everyone there. And I think that, like, every year [02:07:17] Speaker C: we. [02:07:19] Speaker D: We have a conversation around, like, oh, is this the last one? You know, is this it? And we have this conversation around, like, how hard it is and how the struggles and we have all these things and we take the piss on podcasts like this. But. But it is a Lot. And I think that I look forward to the end, not because it's the end, but because it's when we see the result. I feel like it's when we get to see the hard work, the commitment, we see the drive, we see the excite, like, don't get me wrong, ticket holders, people who have come, that's like, awesome. But the biggest part to me is having conversations with our instructors afterwards, you know, on our Sunday night after party, and hearing how we've impacted them and hearing about how they. We all live in these silos, you know, we live in these really isolated kind of worlds where we work on our own and, and, and this is a chance to catch up and it's a chance to like, to, to, to see people. And so I, I look forward to the end where we can breathe that sigh of relief and be like, I like, hopefully we can feel as though we've just delivered for everyone, you know, hopefully, like all these stupid conversations. We, we, we have so many conversations. Hopefully that all just comes to a head and we just go. Everyone feels amazing and energized to do it again. And, and Nick and I work tirelessly and, and C.J. is being folded into this. We work tirelessly to make it easier next year so that we can continue doing this. And every system we build, every little thing that comes together, we're like, that's a win. And, and, and that is what is a satisfaction for me is getting to the end of it being like, hey, everyone feels like they've just won. You know, every punter goes home happy with the photos and everyone goes home with the community and we go home going, hey, like we, we met new people and all the instructors met like everyone again. And we just had like a good time and everyone won. That's my point, you know, and that there's a long way between now and then. [02:09:42] Speaker B: Only 46 days. [02:09:43] Speaker C: Oh, I know. [02:09:44] Speaker E: I promise. [02:09:44] Speaker B: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Finally, comments from the super coach. Jay, what are you looking forward to most? [02:09:51] Speaker A: The moment when the doors open and a stampede photographers hits us and we're like, as they come into the registration table and we just get taken up in the, in the pass through of, of, I don't know, hundreds of photographers. That was, that was so cool last year. I'm looking. That was really fun. Yeah, Stampede. [02:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah. I think, I think reflecting on a little bit that everyone has said, you know, there's people that I want to see again that I haven't seen for a year. You know, there's conversations I want to continue. There's, you know, whether they're a ticket holder or a workshop instructor or whoever it may be, you know, there's always someone to sit and have a conversation with about what we do and why we do it. And I think that's, that's what I look forward to the most, you know, sitting with folks like Philip Johnson and learning from his history as a photographer and, you know, catching up with new people like Matthew Garberg and getting fired up by their youth and enthusiasm and passion. You know, I think that that does everyone some good. [02:10:49] Speaker C: So, yeah, certainly look forward the guy who can't be electrocuted, isn't he? He is the one that. [02:10:54] Speaker A: Yes, he is. [02:10:57] Speaker C: That was literally the weirdest thing I've ever seen. [02:10:59] Speaker B: Yeah, he just smiled and just loved it. [02:11:01] Speaker A: You guys were getting smashed all over the stage and he just stood there and looked at you. [02:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah, he was jolting. He was jolting with each current, but he just took it. Yeah, amazing. Guess you had to be there. Sorry, everyone. [02:11:15] Speaker A: Very quickly, before we do go, we will. We've made it kind of a tradition now. It'll be back in some sort of form whenever the bookings do go live. We will be going live at the same time to watch the chaos unfold and I don't know, take questions or who knows what. We don't know who will be on the show. We might be able to try and rope Matt and Nick on, but Matt's always very busy. Maybe C.J. will join us. Who knows? [02:11:39] Speaker D: Yeah, but Nick's also pretty busy at the time. Just for the record. [02:11:44] Speaker C: Honestly, not that busy, to be honest. [02:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Stay tuned for that show befop booking party. Absolutely. We did it last year. I think we did the year before as well. [02:11:56] Speaker C: Yeah, but that was the one where [02:11:58] Speaker A: me and you trying to book by ourselves, everyone. The chat was like, what are you doing? Yeah, yeah. [02:12:03] Speaker B: So anyway, but look, on behalf of everybody in the beef up community, thank you to Matt, Nick and CJ for your time tonight. I'm sure everyone got a lot out of, you know, what we talked about, the things that we've covered and just, you know, for the news, new folks out there just getting a better understanding of. Of what BFOP is all about. We look forward to catching up with you guys. Obviously on the ground in bright in 46 days. And we're sorry, near future. Sorry. At some stage. At some stage. But thank you all for your time tonight and for jumping on the camera. Live podcast. Just a reminder to everybody who is watching and listening. We do this twice a week. Not this particular show with the beef up folks, but we do two podcasts live every week. Monday evening, 7.30pm, Australian Eastern Standard Time is our random photography show where we cover industry news, product launches, whatever's going on in the photography world, as well as your images. That's right. You can send in your images and we'll bring them up live on the show and talk about them and give you some feedback. And then every Thursday morning, we interview an amazing Australian or global photographer to learn a little bit about their inspiration, their craft, where it all began and what they're up to on the daily. You know, we've had many of the befop workshop instructors and now past guests of ours, so you can always go into the Camera Life podcast and look for deep, deep long form interviews of many of those instructors. But I think we've covered everything. Jay, what do you want to say good day. Sorry, I'm running out of words. Say goodbye to some people on the way out. [02:13:37] Speaker A: I will. Any final comments from the dream team? Up the top there. You guys got anything else you want to say? [02:13:43] Speaker D: Buy your merch and don't when you can't buy it at the festival. All right, that's right. [02:13:48] Speaker A: So the merch, it closes on the 31st, but that could be a different time zone because the time zone is different on the website. So do it by the place. What I would say, my thing is [02:14:02] Speaker D: that, like, we have been bugged for 10 years. We've been like, do merge. [02:14:06] Speaker C: Too much, too much. [02:14:07] Speaker D: And then we do merge and everyone's like, oh, I'll think about it. Like, if you want your merch, get your merch. If you want us to do it next year, it's a bit like a council budget. Use it or lose it. Yeah, buy your merch. [02:14:18] Speaker A: You cannot buy merch on the day. [02:14:20] Speaker C: You see. You see what C.J. and I have to live with. [02:14:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's funny. All right, let's. [02:14:27] Speaker E: Thank you so much for having us. [02:14:29] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. Thanks. Cindy Townsend. Thanks. John Pickett. Rodney Nicholson, Philip Johnson. As always, John Pickett. Janet. Craig Lezokie Jeff. Lisa Leach. Andrew Thompson, Sammy Bulmer. Matthew Garberg. Can't get electrocuted. Impossible. [02:14:48] Speaker B: Bruce. [02:14:49] Speaker A: Well, Felicity Johnson, Samuel Markham, Tim Pates. Who else was here? Greg Carrick. I can't. I don't know if I can bring the puppy. It'll be crazy. Danny, the original Rod Johnson was here. Karen Weckworth, Lucinda Goodwin, Kerry Jennings. I think I saw Brett Wood was here. That was cool. Kerry Jennings. I don't know who. I've read out Brendan Waits. You're all here. It was all awesome. John Latimer and. [02:15:13] Speaker C: I don't know. [02:15:13] Speaker A: I guess we'll see you guys on the next one. [02:15:15] Speaker D: Yeah. [02:15:16] Speaker A: Screw Matt. Original run. This guy's wild. Okay. [02:15:20] Speaker C: Brutal. [02:15:22] Speaker A: Okay. [02:15:22] Speaker E: Love and light. Love and light. [02:15:25] Speaker A: Thanks, everyone. [02:15:26] Speaker B: Be safe.