Landscapes and Wilderness with Cam Blake (EP168)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody and welcome back to the Camera Live podcast. It is Thursday 26th March, 2026 and yeah, welcome back. We, of course, today we are joined by a special guest. But just before we say hello to our guest, let's check in with the boss. G', day, Justin. How are you doing today? [00:00:42] Speaker C: I am wonderful. How you going? [00:00:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. I'm looking forward to you and I catching up a little later this afternoon. Our Orbits or clash, which is lovely. [00:00:53] Speaker C: They will. I'm going to bring the Q3 down. You can help me decide whether it's on the chopping block or not. Well, I'm going to bring my stay. [00:01:01] Speaker B: I'm going to bring my XC5 with that new 23. Maybe we should swap cameras. [00:01:05] Speaker C: Oh, that's a good walk. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:07] Speaker B: Anyway, enough about it. [00:01:09] Speaker C: 2 average auto focuses go head to head anyway. [00:01:13] Speaker B: But of course, being a Thursday morning, we are joined by an amazing guest and today we're joined by one of the best, which is Cam Blake, who could pretty much run this podcast on his own. G', day, Cam. [00:01:26] Speaker A: G', day, guys. How you going? I don't know if I'd be able to run it on my own and I don't know if I'm anywhere near the best. But I will agree with the Autofocus on the Q3. It's dinosaur age. [00:01:35] Speaker C: It is a little. A little sluggish. The firmware update did, did, did hasten it up a little bit and I haven't tested that properly yet because someone else has been borrowing it. So I, I'm keen to. I'll point it at Greg's beard later and see if the beard detect works. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Beard detect? [00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I guess you can't test that for yourself, can you? Being a. [00:01:54] Speaker C: Kept saying can't, can't detect. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:57] Speaker A: I think you should try and grow a beard before befop this year. [00:02:00] Speaker C: I am. I've been. I've been growing it since last beef up. It's coming since it was 12. [00:02:07] Speaker A: The last 12 years. God, [00:02:11] Speaker B: but it's great to have you on the show, Cam. How have you been? Thanks. [00:02:14] Speaker C: Are you good? [00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, been good. Been busy and just plotting along with life and photography, so everything's going pretty cool at the moment. So there are only early days in a year, so anything could happen. But so far so good. Yeah. So thanks for having me on. It's good. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Oh, no, it's our pleasure. It's been a long time Coming. And of course you have been, you have dropped into the show before. [00:02:35] Speaker A: I have, yes. [00:02:36] Speaker B: We finally get to unpack your story, your journey, your inspiration and where you're at today. But before we get to that, I want to start off the today's episode with maybe some quick fire questions. You've just recently returned from a trip to Japan. It was a tour that you ran with guests. So Justin and I have been to Japan multiple times between us and we love it for all of what it offers. I want to ask you a few questions about your experience. So some quick fire questions. Just quick fire answers as well. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Sure. [00:03:07] Speaker B: What was your favorite city in Japan to visit? [00:03:11] Speaker A: Tokyo. For me I thought Tokyo was another level of coolness. Yeah, it was very good. Yeah. [00:03:17] Speaker B: And what was it that you think stood out the most for a photographer in Tokyo? [00:03:23] Speaker A: The organized chaos was what sort of stood out for me. It was, everything was chaotic but organized so you could, you could set up shots well and sort of predict what was going to happen even though it looked like it was chaos. So I found that, you know, like some cities you go to, it's, it's a bit hectic where you're really just shooting from the hip and hoping I found like Tokyo you could actually set up some sort of interesting shots and, and get them and nail them as you were there because everything was a bit more organized. So yeah, it was good like that. [00:03:48] Speaker C: Can I, can I wedge a question in? Greg, about to do you day or night? Did you prefer shooting in the day or the night? [00:03:56] Speaker A: Night for sure. Night for me. The last night I was there, my assistant lady Cheryl who comes along helps. We went for a walk just to, just to clear our heads. After the tour we went walking through one of the regions and we just found this really cool back alley with cafes. The train was running overhead and like everywhere you point it was a shot and it was just a no brainer for cool stuff. So yeah, definitely night I thought. Night. And black and white night. I loved, I love doing some black and white stuff. Yeah, like there's color everywhere in Tokyo but the black and white for me seem to strip that back and sort of give you more of just the, I don't know, a bit more an authentic feel about the town as opposed to the over saturated colors and stuff like that. [00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, very nice. Next question. Now I know that you're used to a meat and three veg lifestyle given that you live in Tasmania. What was the most amazing meal or you know, tasting experience that you had in Japan? [00:04:51] Speaker A: It had to be my cheeseburger from McDonald's in, in one of the towns there. I try McDonald's everywhere I go. Well, you know, the cheeseburger was much better. It had, that's more seasoning. It actually tastes like a property burger, not a plastic piece of junk you get out here. But what was the best proper meal we had? Oh, we had so many, I can't remember to be honest. Yeah, I don't know which one was the best. They were all really nice. We had some noodles, some of the traditional noodles. That was really nice one night where you sort of just chop it all up in your own bowl and get everything going and make a mess over your beard. [00:05:28] Speaker C: Sober, sober, sober noodles. [00:05:31] Speaker A: Oh yeah, it is. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we went to this beautiful restaurant which had these incredible wooden rafters, all these massive wooden beams, like it was a photographer's dream in the actual restaurant. But we're too busy trying to keep the soup and noodles off the front of your face. Yeah, yeah. [00:05:48] Speaker B: Japanese super noodles is terrible with a beard. [00:05:52] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:53] Speaker B: It just goes everywhere. [00:05:54] Speaker A: That's why pretty much any, pretty much any meal with a beard's not much fun. [00:05:58] Speaker B: That's true, that's true. Especially places. [00:06:01] Speaker C: Speaking of Tokyo, Samantha Olsen's there right now. Morning from a wet and rainy Tokyo. Just dropped in to say hi whilst on the train. Well, hey, rub it in why don't you? [00:06:10] Speaker B: We hate you [00:06:13] Speaker A: line. [00:06:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, the Ginza line. [00:06:18] Speaker A: I just got addicted with all the sounds of Tokyo, like all the station sound and there's one station where it plays the Astro Boy theme song. Yeah, like I almost, I jumped out of my skin when I heard that. I'm like, that's Astro Boy. I think that you want to go deep with me quickly. That was one of the first times I ever got emotional watching anything was when Astro Boy died at the end of that series. That wrecked me for weeks after that. And then I, I heard the song at the station and I'm like, oh my God, it's all coming back to me. It's all flooding back to me. [00:06:44] Speaker C: So yeah, what an experience. [00:06:47] Speaker B: And, and speaking of experiences, what was the most bananas bizarre thing you experienced in, in Japan? [00:06:55] Speaker A: Oh, we, I, we had a fairly straightforward sort of trip. We didn't see any too crazy thing maybe we went up to the Orom Bondi Lakes, the Five Lake district and we had snow about a double decker bus height as we were driving out of there and it was blizzard, it was blizzarding and sideways snow and that was a bit of a bananas moment with a group of people, whether or not we're going to get them back down off these mountains or not. So I haven't seen snow that high before. I've seen photos of, of it that you see online, but driving out and you're sort of looking up and like, wow, that's, that's a lot of snow. That was a pretty bananas mode. But we did, but we didn't have any crazy sort of Japanese moments that you get. I had to go shopping for my son. He wanted some Pokemon cards. That was an experience. Trying to, I think I got vertigo just looking at all the cabinets and cabinets of Pokemon cards and then trying to speak broken Japanese, trying to explain what my son wanted to. That was a, that was a bit of a bananas moment. But I got what he wanted. He was pretty happy. So all was well. That ends well. [00:07:59] Speaker B: And did you manage. Sorry, Jay, you go. [00:08:01] Speaker C: I was just gonna say there can be some shopping experiences and just walking into places and it's unsettling. Did you walk into a pachinko parlor, you know, with the little ball machines that are really loud? [00:08:13] Speaker A: Oh, well, we went to Yama. We went to the big camera shop. I kind of think what it's called now and that's Yoda Bashi and that has a whole second level or half level of those machines. I, I for the life of me couldn't figure out what the attraction was. [00:08:28] Speaker C: It's like pokies. You can win, you can kind of win money and trade your balls back in for, for cash, which is. [00:08:36] Speaker B: You can't do it. Yeah, pretty much. But you can't, you can't trade it in at the pachinko parlor. You have to go to a separate business which is next door because that sort of gambling is illegal. So they can't give you money directly from that place. You've got to go to a different store front to trade in your balls for cash or physical prizes. It's a bizarre way to get around gambling. [00:08:55] Speaker A: I saw them everywhere, but I didn't understand what the deal with it was. So yeah, we didn't play it. [00:09:01] Speaker C: It was too hard to figure out how to even to. Yeah, but the sound was deafening. It was intense. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:07] Speaker A: Yodabashi. I, I actually there was a lady who went with this Joe, one of my nice customers, great customers. And she's a, she's a well experienced emergency nurse. And I started getting vertigo as I was shopping around all these locations and something popped up my Instagram feed about a Week after I got back, as soon as I left Tokyo, my vertigo sort of settled itself down. But apparently throughout all the department stores they play these high pitched frequencies to stop kids stealing stuff or congregate congregating around these stores. I thought it was rubbish, but I looked it up and apparently it's true. But it can affect old, it can affect older ears and affect your balance. So every time I went into a shop, yada bashi, I went in there 600000 times. I started getting all vertigo and dizzy and I thought maybe it's all the lights. But apparently there's these high frequency sounds they pump into these shops to try because, because only young people can hear these. I'm saying I'm old now. I'm, I am old. But you know, young, young, the young people can hear this frequency which apparently stops from. It's like, you know, like a dog whistle trying to keep the dogs away. But, but every time I went into a shop I'm like, I got to stop shopping, I'm getting dizzy with all this stuff going on. But it's really crazy. [00:10:16] Speaker C: Explains, that explains a lot. Like when Jim, Tony and I went for the first time, we were, we were very dizzy. We thought it was the 900 Asahis that we drank. But it makes, it makes. No, that makes way more sense that it was the, it was the high pitched freak. No, it couldn't have been. I'd never heard of that. That's crazy. And it, and you could notice it. Wow. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Well, as soon as I, yeah, as soon as I walked into these shops I thought it was like the fluoro lights or the fluorescent lights buzz like making my eyes go funny. But it wasn't. I, I turn around and I had, I actually had a moment in one of the shops where I was on the phone to my wife out here and I said, I just got to stop for a sec, I'm really feeling lightheaded. She goes, oh, you just. Have you eaten? I'm like, I've eaten heaps, I've drank water. But every time I come into these shops I start feeling weird. And then just out of random, I had this post on my bloody Instagram, came up and said, oh, have you ever felt dizzy? Going. I'm like, this is, this is a croc. And I looked it up and apparently it's a thing so good on the Japanese to find a way to. [00:11:14] Speaker B: They do, they do a similar thing here at my local Kohl's but they, they pump outside, they pump classical [00:11:25] Speaker C: Christmas [00:11:28] Speaker B: music to deter the Rough sleepers from camping at the front of the shop, asking people for money. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:11:35] Speaker C: Interesting. [00:11:35] Speaker B: They blast this music. I think it's terrible. I think it's inhumane. [00:11:38] Speaker A: But, yeah, [00:11:42] Speaker C: it does. [00:11:42] Speaker B: You know, at least, like, let's get some. Something modern, you know? Yeah. [00:11:46] Speaker C: Some nice jazz, whatever. [00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah, a little bit of jazz. We don't want them to enjoy it too much, clearly. Cam, last question. If you were to go back to Japan as a photographer, whether it be solo or with a mate or on a tour, what would you. What would you do differently? [00:12:05] Speaker A: What would I do differently? That's a good question. I'd probably take less gear. I took like a little. I took my M11 little street, sort of like range find. I use that to sort of work around the streets. And I took a bigger S. A DSLR around there as well. So I would probably leave the bigger camera at home and just take my M camera with a few more lenses and really, like, I had a little sling bag for most of the trips around the towns that I had my camera out of, and that works so well. But when we're on tour, we had like the car all with the camera gear and the backpacks and tripods. I would. I would have preferred just to have that sling bag and just wander around that. So next year, when we go another tour, next year we're going. I'll probably do that. I'll probably just take the sling bag, the little Leica, and, you know, three or four lenses just to cover most ranges and be happy with it. [00:12:52] Speaker B: So. [00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:12:53] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah, I. I found that too. My first trip to Tokyo. I took way too much gear and I hated myself for it. Ended up leaving by the second day. I left most of it in the hotel room and just had a sling with one camera, two lenses. And then by the last trip, I was just walking around with the one camera, one lens. I had a backup camera, like a little point and shoot in my bag. But, yeah, just. It just made sense to go light and just get into the process, you know. [00:13:17] Speaker A: I'm surprised you had enough room in your hotel room to leave here because there's like a shoebox. [00:13:25] Speaker C: Try being a snowboard photographer in a hotel room in Japan. So you've got snowboard bags and everything? Yep. And then you've got camera gear just lined up all over the place. There's one outlet that doesn't really hold the adapter thing in there properly. [00:13:41] Speaker A: So I was. [00:13:42] Speaker C: I was traveling with a power board that I had to. I shouldn't even say This I had to cut the earth pin off because otherwise it doesn't work properly. So I've got. I've still got over there, a modified power board that I was travel with. Oh, yeah, you should bring up the [00:13:55] Speaker A: B fob and just run the whole. The whole AV off that one. Yeah, I mean, sure love that kind of. [00:14:01] Speaker C: Yeah, [00:14:04] Speaker A: yeah. You're right about that adapter thing that hangs out of the wall, though. [00:14:09] Speaker C: Yeah. It just sort of droops down and you're like, is this going to work? And it usually does, but I don't know. Fire. [00:14:15] Speaker B: Well, one hotel room I was in, it was halfway up the wall and there was no shelf or desk below it. [00:14:20] Speaker C: Yes. [00:14:24] Speaker B: How do I do? Yeah, it's crazy. So I had to sort of, you know, prop my suitcase under it and set up a little power station. It's crazy. [00:14:31] Speaker C: One, one final question, just on gear before I'd love to say hi to the chat, is what focal length? Like if you were reckon, like if you were just going to take one lens or if you're recommending someone, hey, just take this one lens. If you're not like, you're not serious about capturing everything. You just want to rock around Japan with just one lens. What was it? Did you have a. [00:14:51] Speaker A: Most used it was either my 21 or 35. 20. 21 could be probably good for all scenarios, so you can get those vistas of Mount Fuji and then anything else that you go visit. But it's also great for that street photography. You can sort of get right up in front of things. So 21 mil or 35 mil would be good for me. I'd probably take the 21. 21's a. A fun, a fun length to work with. [00:15:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, my single lens last time was. It was a 35 mil equivalent. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's just, it's perfect for street. Well, I ended up buying a 35 mil over there. I spent way too much money on. [00:15:29] Speaker B: Nice. [00:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I bought a 35 mil F 1.4 Leica, whatever that is that was. So that was dirt cheap. Has a little bit of dust in it. But that's one thing I noticed about their camera conditioning. Like they say it's a B grade, dusty, foggy, and you pick it up, it's like it's brand new, it's got one spec. Like they really. They overcompensate what their. What their ratings are. So. Yeah. But I picked up a 35 bill while I was there and it was almost cemented to the camera for Most of the trip. So, yeah, good place. [00:15:58] Speaker B: Japanese secondhand camera stores are just bananas. [00:16:01] Speaker A: They are like. [00:16:02] Speaker B: I went into one in, in West Shinjuku and one floor was Canon, the next floor was Nikon. And then the next floor was just like. And it just kept going. Oh, it was like, yeah, I think how much fun. [00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. Map camera. How fun is it getting out of Sanjuku Station? Isn't that, isn't that. [00:16:19] Speaker B: That is a nightmare. Especially late at night. I arrived into, into Shinjuku like at 10 o' clock at night and it was road work. So everything that I had planned in terms of how to get to my hotel had just completely changed. They sent me up onto like a sky bridge. [00:16:34] Speaker C: Yeah, Yeah. [00:16:35] Speaker B: I just got so lost. [00:16:36] Speaker C: Yeah, the sky bridges are killers. Yeah. Big luggage. And you just hear this like, of someone coming down the stairs over the place. That was me. [00:16:48] Speaker A: And for all. For all their amazing technology and everything they do over there, Sinjuk, that. That's just a piss. Take a tourist. They're like, you know what? This station, we're not going to give you any help. Every other station's pretty good, but this one, no, you're on your own. And Google Maps doesn't work under there, so good luck. And you just gotta. You've just got to sniff your way out of there. So I think I came out six different exits on that, that station. [00:17:08] Speaker B: It's crazy. But those underwater, those underwater underground, like subway areas, they're massive. They've got complete shopping centers in them, food courts. I was able to walk from, from Shinjuku station to my hotel in West Shinjuku without seeing daylight. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Yes. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Like, my hotel had a subway entrance and a family night. You know, like, it's just. [00:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it's incredible. [00:17:31] Speaker B: It's family. [00:17:32] Speaker A: Martin Lawson's in 7 11. Take it away. Just. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:36] Speaker A: Best egg sandwiches ever I've ever had. We're out of 7 11. Unbelievable. [00:17:40] Speaker C: Egg sandwiches, pizza buns. Always good on a hot, chilly morning. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Yes. [00:17:47] Speaker C: Jen Cooper in the chat says, rocking the specs. Old man Blake. [00:17:50] Speaker A: Hey. Oh, man, they look really good. They're working, that's the main thing. Yeah, I was reluctant. I. I had a moment where I'm like, oh, God, I'm old. I've got to get some glasses. So let's go with it. [00:18:03] Speaker C: I'm the odd one out with glasses and beards. I've got neither. [00:18:07] Speaker A: Oh, well, you. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you're not out of puberty yet, so. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah, you're still in high school, aren't you? [00:18:15] Speaker C: No, I quit. All right, let's see who else is in the chat because, yeah, as, as Dennis has said, Jen Cooper's in the chat, Dennis Smith's also in the chat. Good to see both of you guys. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm rocking the Dan hat today. I'm like, what hatched? [00:18:27] Speaker C: Yeah, he's a bit Dennis. It's even in his little profile pic there. Yeah, look at that. [00:18:32] Speaker A: It is. Yeah. [00:18:34] Speaker C: He says Japan camera shops are simply juicy. [00:18:37] Speaker B: They are. [00:18:38] Speaker A: That's a good description. [00:18:39] Speaker C: David Williams says morning and hi cam Southwest Tassie trip last weekend, as advertised. What does that mean? As advertised? Smiley face. [00:18:47] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, as advertised. Well, last year David was on that trip and it got canceled. So this year he's actually finally joined us on a trip that was, went ahead, that was advertised. So and, but it was funny because we flew last year, we flew down. So you fly out of Hobart, 45, 50 minute flight, light plane down to Malaluca, which is right in that southwest corner. It's a dirt Runway. Last year we flew down and we just flew. Got all the way down to the Runway and just did laps just outside on the bay. Couldn't get in, the weather was too bad. Came all the way back to Hobart. We had to cancel the trip. So David, the legend that he is, came back this year. He, he sucked it up and said, I'll give it another go. And I'm like, good. And we're flying down there and we get about three quarters of the way down. I was in the plane, in the front plane and he was in the second plane and all I could see was these clouds building up where the Runway was and I'm like, oh, it's going to happen again. And from what I hear, and David's playing on the walk on the two way radio. He's like, oh, looks, looks pretty cloudy down there. And for a moment there it looked like we weren't going to get back in again. And I was just like, oh, this poor guy, he's gonna two years in a row. But we, we got in there and it was an awesome weekend. We had some great conditions. We had lots of laughs. It was great, great weekend. So. And thanks again to Dave for being patient and waiting. 12 months was awesome. [00:20:03] Speaker B: So nice work, David. Dedication. [00:20:05] Speaker C: Cool. [00:20:06] Speaker A: Love it. It was absolutely. [00:20:08] Speaker C: Who else is here? Robert Varnas here lurking. Good to see you. Lisa Leach. Good morning. Just a quick drop in for as long as I can get away with at work. Awesome. Jim's here. He said, balls. Monica's here. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Yep. [00:20:28] Speaker C: Craig a liff. I don't know if we've seen Craig before. Do you know Craig? [00:20:32] Speaker B: That rings a bell. Let us know where you're from. [00:20:38] Speaker C: Glenn Lavender's here. Creative Photo Workshop. Says, I'm just here for the comments. And he's also keen for. [00:20:43] Speaker A: Who's that guy? [00:20:44] Speaker C: Who's that guy? [00:20:45] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:20:45] Speaker C: He's. He keeps. He's always in the comments. I don't know if he's a photographer or just. [00:20:48] Speaker A: He's certainly not a photographer. [00:20:53] Speaker C: David Leporati says good morning. It's good to see you, David. [00:20:55] Speaker B: Hey, David. [00:20:57] Speaker C: David's already sent through. Oh, this is a good time to plug the thing. Greg. David's already sent through his toy photo submission. [00:21:05] Speaker A: Oh, yes, we saw you guys did that. [00:21:07] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you send one in. Come on, don't be. Just grab a toy, take a photo. So if you would like to join in on our little toy photography challenge, all you have to do, grab a toy, take a photo of it, try and make it cool, use a light or put it in a weird spot and do something cool. Explore your creativity and your photography somewhere around home or in a park or wherever you want. And email it to me, justinuckystraps.com and we're going to bring it up on the Monday, the random photography show this coming Monday. So you don't have much time. This is like a just get it done kind of challenge. [00:21:39] Speaker B: Just go. [00:21:39] Speaker A: I think you should make it even more challenging and say, no Lego characters allowed. [00:21:44] Speaker C: Well, that would, that would make. That would make us land very difficult. [00:21:49] Speaker A: About half, half the photos. [00:21:51] Speaker C: Well, it's just, it's just so easy because you can like, you know, they got little hands and stuff. [00:21:57] Speaker A: I don't know. Oh, yeah, there you go. Yeah, Gearings. [00:22:01] Speaker C: Yeah, look, if. Yeah, I'm gonna use the Lego character probably. I've got one other idea maybe, but [00:22:07] Speaker A: it's your, it's your show. You run it how you like it. [00:22:10] Speaker C: Well, we're just trying to start it off Easy Camp. We want people to give it a go. So, yeah, email it to me, Justin Luckystraps.com today you'll bring them up Monday, 7:30am Melbourne time, this Monday. So try and get the them in by 5pm Otherwise you may or may not make it onto the show. But, yeah, can't wait to see them all come flooding in. We've had. Yeah, we've had a couple so far and they are already way better than what I can do. [00:22:35] Speaker A: I've seen some of the light the lighting's getting quite creative. People are using sort of different gels and different. It's very cool. I like it. [00:22:41] Speaker C: Exactly, yeah. [00:22:42] Speaker A: If you want some LEDs now, a bit of both. [00:22:45] Speaker B: Some people. Yes. [00:22:46] Speaker A: Okay. [00:22:46] Speaker B: Gels. Yeah. But if you want some guidance, if anyone wants any guidance, we've also got an article that I wrote over on the Lucky Straps blog page. So just head to Luckystraps.com and in the about section there's a blog, there's a blog menu and there's an article in there about toy photography about how I set it up, you know, how I edit, how I shoot. So yeah, check that out. If you're looking for some tips or a bit of guidance, a bit of [00:23:11] Speaker C: inspiration, give you some ideas on how you can set things up and play around with, with backgrounds from your own other images. You know, you can put a landscape photo, print it out, put in the background, try and make it look like it's a real part of the scene, that kind of stuff. Lots of fun stuff in Greg's article. [00:23:25] Speaker A: Fancy, fancy. [00:23:26] Speaker B: I was out yesterday doing some, some toy photography. I was doing it out in the streets. [00:23:31] Speaker C: Street photography. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Street toy photography. [00:23:34] Speaker C: Street toy photography. [00:23:35] Speaker A: Nice. [00:23:38] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm gonna run a workshop. [00:23:39] Speaker A: Why not? Yeah. [00:23:41] Speaker C: Final couple of comments. Philip Johnson says. Morning all. Good morning, Philip. And last but not least, Paul says, hey guys, sorry can't make the live show today, but look forward to watching you guys give Cam a hard time on the catch up tonight. Excellent. Excellent. Yes. Oh, and Phil Thompson's here. Morning from Geelong. Look forward to what Cam has to say. Oh, you might change your mind once he starts. [00:24:01] Speaker A: It'll be all rubbish, Phil. You might as well tune out now. [00:24:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:05] Speaker C: Okay. [00:24:06] Speaker B: Now Cam, you've got a pretty beard, but you've also got a, you know, you've got quite a raft of skills and attributes that go along with the work that you do. You know, you're a, you're a landscape and nature photographer, you're a tour and workshop operator. Sometimes you're a beef up instructor when you show up. You also run the, when you're invited, the down south photo show with your mate and so you've got a fair bit going on. Obviously we want to roll back the clock a little bit and get to know where this all began for you. Especially, you know, how you came to unfortunately be tied up with, with your podcast partner. But where did, where did you the horror stories? Where did your photography journey begin? Where you was the inspiration growing up? Or was it high school? Or where did it Start I, I [00:25:02] Speaker A: think and I've probably, you know, people that know me probably know this story as well but like my, my dad Noel, he worked for olympus for about 30 odd years. He was a sales rep in Melbourne for Rudolph Guns which used to be the distributor for many things Olympus, they used to do Hoya filters, slick tripods, a heap of other stuff. So I, from as early as I can remember we always had a bag of sample cameras in the car, in the house that he used to take around to all the shops and you know, all the retail shops and you know, show the new models of the Olympus film cameras coming out. So I would have to say that my, my journey started with just picking up cameras as a kid, you know, like mucking around with everything, like it's just another toy really. So having that around, you know, having what dad had around and I used to go like on school holidays I remember I used to go out with dad on calls. I'd, you know, go all around Melbourne. I visit all the camera shops and I remember visiting Nigel and Croydon Camera House when I was a kid. So I've, Nigel's known me since I was a kid. My dad was, he's had a fairly good reputation in the industry. You know, everyone knew who my dad was and still do. So I think it sort of grew from that. And then I guess the, the evolution of it was well, once I've picked up a camera, how do, what do I do with this thing? And I did study photography at high school, but I probably started shooting film when I was about 13 or something like that, 13 or 14 maybe. And that would have been with one of dad's cameras and he's a roller filmmaker, you know, stop it, stop annoying us while we're out camping. Go take some photos or go do something. And then yeah, did it high school and then yeah, sort of just fell in love with it after that. But mostly I think the starting point would have been because dad worked in industry. I think it's just, it's just natural that your kids sort of get involved with it somehow. So. Yeah. Yep. [00:26:52] Speaker B: Oh, very cool. And do you, do you remember what that first camera was that you, you started taking shots with? [00:26:58] Speaker A: Yeah, my, the very first camera, I think that was mine. Like dad had all the, like you had the OM4s and the OM at the time. I think the OM3 and the OM4 were around about the sort of late 80s sort of thing that were out and then they brought out the all the is 2000s and all the sort of the. The single lens zoom, all in one type of cameras. And then he had lots of new cameras, the MJU cameras, there was heaps of those. But the first problem age. [00:27:26] Speaker C: Now they're super popular for like point and shoot film cameras. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Little compacts with a. [00:27:32] Speaker A: The slide. They had a 35 mil F2 really sharp little lens. They came in champagne or black. But yeah, they're worth a fortune now. Yeah, but the f. The first camera that I actually wound on, so to speak, I think dad got me a Pentax K1000 and I think I used that in high school. I think that was my school, my camera high school. And then the first autofocus camera I had was an EOS 600 or any of 650, one of those two. But that was the first sort of black beast. I had, you know, Canon written on the front. I thought it was cool because I was shooting Canon. I found out quickly that that's not what makes you a cool photographer. So I used that for a while. [00:28:13] Speaker B: No, hear that Justin, Hear that? [00:28:15] Speaker A: I had to, I had to get a Canon gig. The dig in there somewhere. So you know, I use that. And then, and then from there when I, when I sort of left high school I didn't, I didn't go straight into uni but I, I was actually my first paying gig ever of all any time was a photography gig. I was gig. I was doing Santa Claus photos at the Ringle shopping center in Heidelberg at the Kodak Express there. Dad used to call on them and they said, oh, can you give my son a job taking Santa Claus photos over the school holidays? So I was at the front of the shop, all the, you know, all the lights and stuff and that was shooting a Nikon something F4F3 or something like that. Another pretty fancy camera. But I left high school now I ended up working in Camera Action Camera House in Melbourne, which is now Digi Direct. And I was managing the secondhand department with another amazing photographer, Adam Moore, who is still floating around these days. But he taught me a lot about the old cameras. And the first time I bought a camera that I really wanted, the first ever camera I bought was my Olympus OM3TI, which was like the flagship film camera that they ever released. And I've still actually got one here. And I bought a second one in Japan just last week, last month. And that was the camera that probably got me really, really hooked. Yeah, I was in, I was in. I was in a lucky situation because where I was working I could get film at Cost price. I can get developing at cost price. So I just buy a bunch of film every weekend and just go out and come back on Monday and develop them all and go ah good, I got one out of three roles, right. Go out again, do the same thing. So, so yeah, that's a bit, it's, yeah it was a, it was an interesting journey when I was a bit younger, that's for sure. [00:29:58] Speaker B: Yeah, sounds it. [00:30:00] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that's crazy that you were running or helping run or a second hand photographer. You must have seen so many different cameras, felt them in the hand, started to get a feel for that sort of stuff, what different brands felt feel like and, and all that sort of thing. [00:30:14] Speaker A: 100 and it was really good because Adam, like I said, Adam used to sort of buy and sell and he still does to a point I think these days, buy and sell camera gear. Like he'd travel all over the world in his time off and go and get these exotic cameras and bring it back to Melbourne and sell them and like there's a big industry going on in those days. But something had come in and I remember we had a box upstairs in our office. One was cameras for the window and the other one was cameras for us. So we get trade ins and, and the trade ins that come upstairs like, oh, like an M6 that'll go in our box, you know, like a pentac, a pen tax, you know, you know fe or something like that. Or that'll just go into the other box for the window, whatever it might be. So we did, you're right, we got to, we got to play around with some really cool cameras. I remember we had a couple of those little Minox, those little. For spy cameras that took the microfilm they used to get trade people used to trade in all types of stuff. And because we did the trade ins we could sort of say oh, you know, do we, we like that camera? Because if we traded it in for less. Our boss Paul Clayton, who's still involved with Digi Direct as well, he used to watch us like a hawk about how, what we traded in, how much we traded it in for. But if we wanted something that we wanted, we'd give them a fairly good trade in price or low trading price that helped us buy it later on on our staff account without breaking our bank. So it was a complete conspiracy to make sure that benefited from what was traded in versus what the customer got. So it's a perk of the job. It was. We do one of the other good things about it was I learned how to sort of fix cameras as well. Like, we sort of had to service them and, and there was a thing, I think it was called a sensor meter, where you actually put the camera on and test all the shutter speeds and it give you a speed readout. And so we had to sort of clean them and sort of service them a bit before they went in the window. So that was also really cool to learn about just how the insides of a camera work. Like, I think the insides of a camera, especially the old classic ones, I think that would be. It's like watches, like a fine watch and how they work. The camera is the same and I think that's what I fell in love with more. So. And, and again, like a lot of people sort of suggest that I'm somewhat of an artist, but I really don't class myself as an artist. I'm just a lover of cameras, I think, and, and, and what they can produce. I think the magic of the whole process to me is what gives me a buzz as opposed to necessarily what I can photograph. And I think that all stemmed from playing around with them and pulling them apart and watching little springs go fly out across the other side of the room and, you know, having to find it fall on the ground to find the spring that doesn't let the camera work. And so, yeah, it's, it's a bit of a mixed love, really, like how they work and the magic of it all. And yeah, obviously, you know, shooting nature is beautiful as well. [00:33:02] Speaker B: It's interesting what you mentioned about comparing cameras to watches, that. There's a couple of people I follow on Instagram and one of them is a guy who repairs. I think he's in China, but he repairs really expensive Rolexes and all those fancy sort of watch brands. And it's fascinating watching him pull them apart and the pieces are so bloody tiny and then he cleans everything and he puts them back together and I just find it so compelling, like I can't take my eyes off it. [00:33:32] Speaker A: Yeah. What's up? [00:33:34] Speaker B: Watching the camera videos. [00:33:35] Speaker C: Next question from Dennis Cam. Do you think a connection with that process and technical stuff actually makes you a more considered photographer? [00:33:45] Speaker B: Good question. [00:33:46] Speaker A: Good question, Dan. I like Dennis's questions. I think it does. I think, I think in my opinion, to be a better photographer, I think you need, and I guess with any sort of, any sort of art form that you play or any, any dedication to something, if you understand how the apparatus works, you're going to likely do better at using it. So I think knowing how a camera works and understanding the ins and outs of them. And I also went and studied a few years later after I left high school. And that was all around the science of photography. So learning not only how the cameras work and understanding how the mechanisms work and appreciating that, and then learning a bit more or learning a lot about how the science of it all works, how light works and color and wavelengths and all that kind of stuff, chemicals reacting, understanding all that before actually sort of, I think I got mature enough to figure out what my brain would like to see. I think that put me in a good place to go out there and say, right, well, I know all the technical stuff now and I know how it all works and I know how all the magic happens, you know, now it's a matter of I'll just find what I like and start photographing and. But yeah, I think having that connection between understanding the camera I think definitely made me a bit more of a, more of a considered photographer. And I know I'm, I'm very, I wouldn't say I'm a slow photographer, but I think I'm a bit slower than most people where I don't just spray and pray and think, oh, there's a great shot there, I'll just take 10 shots and get one. Like I almost, I still shoot like I'm shooting film. Like I do take my time. You know, if I go like I went down to the southwest with David, who mentioned that before, you know, I would have taken 300 shots, 200 shots in three days of this incredible landscape. But my hit rate I think is a lot better because of that. I don't have to edit and don't have to cull so much because I'm just taking the shots that I know will be nice as opposed to spraying them and then figuring it out later. So yeah, bit more considered when it [00:35:43] Speaker B: comes to your editing. Do you edit with a heavy or a light hand? [00:35:48] Speaker A: I'm very light. So I do a two day session down here with customers where we go out one day and then we come into the office here and do some editing and printing, like any images that you might have seen on mine online or wherever. If I've spent more than two minutes editing, three minutes editing, like I kick myself because I've probably done something wrong in the field. So I like to try and get it right in camera. Not saying I want it straight out of camera, but you know, you've got to watch those highlights, you've got to watch the edge of your frames. You've got to watch your sharpness, your depth of field. You know, you got to watch all those things and. And I think I've been doing it long enough now where it's just sort of comes natural. But my editing process is light. It's very. It's very tempered to being natural. I want my images to look how I saw them. I don't, you know, there's nothing against. I know Jeff was on here last week or so talking about. He did his little video he's done about taking those really high popular shots where everyone's sort of over editing and over saturating and doing those big vistas and stuff like that. They all look good, but. But to me, I'm a bit like Jeff in a way that less is more sometimes where it comes to photography. And yeah, I always encourage customers to, you know, if they get a chance, go shoot a roll of film these days, like actually really test yourself. If you want to see how good a photographer you are, go put a roll of film. So it'll cost you a thousand bucks these days, but go put a roll of films from a camera and actually see what. Yeah, and actually see what kind of results. Results you get. I always get a real buzz. Like, I've got. I've actually got six rolls of film that are probably due back today from Japan that I took over there. I. I get such a buzz out of getting my film back, as opposed to putting a memory card in. Like a memory card is like, hey, I already saw that on the back of the screen and I've already looked at it. [00:37:37] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:37:38] Speaker A: That's great. I've already lived that moment. But when you get that bit of film back and you're like, holy. I, I'm actually all right at this. I've got, you know, seven rolls and I've got, you know, three usable shots. I'm a photographer, you know, it's. It's incredible. [00:37:50] Speaker B: So, yeah, yeah, it's a delayed gratification, isn't it? [00:37:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I, I want to ask about that and sort of. And you know, you shoot with Leica, which is crazy. So expensive and so cool. And I have two questions about Leica that I want to ask before because I've got to go in about seven minutes and then I'll leave you guys to it. But so first one, let's start with the film one. Are you ever tempted by. What's the model of the Leica? That's basically an M11, but with no screen on the back. [00:38:23] Speaker A: So that's the M11. P, I think. [00:38:25] Speaker C: P. Are you ever tempted by that to have that sort of similar feel but without the screen? [00:38:30] Speaker A: Yeah. 100 I. I considered actually trading in my M11 to get something like that again. It's just that. It's just that whole process. It's just. I don't know what I'm getting like. Yeah, I like that. But that was the magic of photography when it came out. It's like, here's a moment I want to capture. I think I've captured it right, and I don't know until I get back home or a few days later. And I think there's the magic of the light and all that kind of stuff hitting the sensor and all the film and coming through the optics. But the other magic part of that is, is when you get that shot back. It's a. It's a lovely feeling when you get a shot back that you, you connect with and you go, wow, that was a great shot. I really enjoyed that. And I remember how I was feeling. I remember what the temperature was like, you know, I remember the customer nagging me in the background. I was trying to get this great shot, you know, whatever it might be. But yeah, I thought about getting something like that. But yeah, alas, I've still got the M11 to use for that. It gives you the screen. But I do turn that screen off a lot sometimes. I. I sort of just shoot through the. Through the viewfinder and away we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:39:33] Speaker C: Which I guess is functionally the same, but just. It just temp. It's got the temptation. [00:39:37] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. [00:39:38] Speaker B: And there's a lot to be said for knowing your focal distance. You know, you like. You know, I mostly only shoot with 35 mil full frame equivalent Fuji lenses, so 23s. And I've used them so much shooting, I can pretty much know what's going to be and what's not. You know, you get used to that focal distance. You get used to the. Shoot it so often that you can just go, this is going to be in frame. [00:40:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:03] Speaker B: 100% what you go to for. For your film. [00:40:10] Speaker A: Go to. Go through. Go to film. I do like. Well, it depends if I'm doing street stuff like just like an Ilford 400 black and white would be pretty cool. I think It's. [00:40:20] Speaker C: Is it FP4 or if something like this HP5 FP4. And then I've been wanting Delta, the [00:40:28] Speaker A: One that's a C41 process one. I'm not paying money for some of the development, which I think I might be the XP, XP2 or something like that anyway. And then nature wise, nature wise I try and stick to Fuji Provia. So Fuji Provia 100. And the reason behind that is one of my biggest inspirations would be Peter Don Broscas. The, the late great Tasmanian photographer. He shot a lot of his stuff on medium format on Probia 100, early days, Velvia 100 but Provia 100 for me, I love. It's a really lovely feel. And whenever I, when I have my Fuji GFX's, I used to shoot that profile religiously through that camera as well. But again it just gives me that natural result. Like I, I'm not all for big saturations. I'm not all for over grainy or sort of pop arty kind of looks. I like what I see. I like what my eyes see is what I like to see. And that's what I try and capture. [00:41:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:27] Speaker B: Well, is what you think you see. So that's amazing. [00:41:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:41:32] Speaker C: Final question before I have to take off on that kind of realm of profiles and things. So I love the profile, the JPEG profiles that are included and the newer ones that are coming from leica with the Q3. Really love the look, particularly of. I can't remember what it is. I think it's like an Ekdar style. Yeah. Kind of vibe or something like that. Like it's, it's. It's fairly vibrant, has a great look and I have not been able to replicate it in Lightroom at all. Do you like how do you process your Leica files? Do you ever shoot JPEG and RAW or do you only shoot RAW and then just like. Have you used the JPEG profile? [00:42:14] Speaker A: I haven't touched them much. The only profile I'll get into on my Leica is I'll shoot in black and white. I'll use their black and white profile just so I can see the black and white shot as I'm doing it. Not in color, but most of my stuff is raw. If I'm on, if I'm on a trip where I want to share stuff pretty quickly online, I might shoot RAW and JPEG just so I can just get files up without really doing much editing. But it's mostly raw that I shoot. And then I don't have any profiles myself. But I, I do have a process of editing. I like to sort of keep some things quite standard through my, my edits and then it's just highlight shadows, bit of color. Adjustments and what, whatever else we need to do. So. Yeah, yeah. So I'm using Lightroom predominantly. All Lightroom, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. [00:43:01] Speaker C: You don't, you don't need Photoshop for the way that you process your files. [00:43:06] Speaker A: No, no. So my, my, it's all through Lightroom and then if anything I might, you know, I might chuck it out into Topaz for a bit of sharpening or something like that, or a few little adjustments like that. But the chunk of what I do would be in Lightroom and like I said, it's, it's, you know, two minute process. I found that if I shoot consistently in the field, then your edits become very consistent. So you have that, that real sort of feel and style with your shots from the camera to edit. So you sort of know what your file is going to be like before you touch them. So you know what your adjustments are going to be needed. So. And again, it's just all, it's just all repeat and practice and repeat and practice and repeat and you know, you get to a point where you know what, what works for you and you know, what sort of files you like to work with and everything becomes a lot, a lot more streamlined and easier to do. [00:43:55] Speaker B: Yeah, very cool, Very cool. I think we're going to kick Justin out now because things to do. [00:44:02] Speaker C: Yep, I'll, I'll be listening when I can and yeah, I'll catch you this afternoon, Greg. Hopefully you guys enjoy the rest of your chat. I'll be, I'll be in there listening. [00:44:14] Speaker A: I'll be in the vlog, now that the adults can have a chat. That's good. [00:44:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, well, don't, don't let Greg talk about Fujifilm for the entire episode and. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Okay, we'll just bag, we'll just bag Canon out for the other half. [00:44:27] Speaker B: Ah, no. [00:44:28] Speaker C: Ah, well, nothing I can do about that. And then otherwise this is probably a good time to throw in a quick ad read. Lucky Camera Straps. [00:44:35] Speaker B: This is. [00:44:36] Speaker C: This whole podcast is brought to you by Lucky Camera Strap. So if you need a nice leather camera strap, something comfortable that doesn't have bulky hardware all over it and it's easy to attach and detach and doesn't leave little dingly danglies all over the camera, go to Luckystraps.com there's lots, lots of different ones to choose from. They're quite comfortable so you know, they'll help you carry your camera everywhere you want to go. Even Japan if you want. [00:44:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, indeed. [00:45:00] Speaker A: Get into that market. That'd be good. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Use code Greg for a cheeky discount. [00:45:05] Speaker C: Oh yeah, that's true. Use code Greg and then you can keep the conversation going with this great question from LTK photo and I'll catch you later. [00:45:17] Speaker A: Cool, thanks, mate. Thank God he's gone, eh? [00:45:21] Speaker B: I know. Gosh, that guy can go on. He's wetting himself. Hey, Justin. Bye. Safe trailers. LTK photo popped a question in. [00:45:38] Speaker A: Well, I've got one actually. I bought one. So I've got the M11 and I've got the EV1. Why? I don't know, but I probably need to get rid of one of them. But it's harder to do than you'd like. I like it. Yeah, the viewfinder is good. The resolution of the viewfinder is not bad. There is moments where you feel like it's not high enough resolution to get sort of that sort of sharp image that you want to look at, but it is good. I like the fact that you can really chuck on those wide angle lenses, post sort of, you know, 35 or 21 and, and be able to see what you're shooting. You don't need an external viewfinder, the chuck on top of. But I like it. It feels, it feels like, it feels the same as the M11 in a way. The battery life's maybe a tad less because it's running that little viewfinder as well. But overall, yeah, I like it. I also took that to Japan as well to have a bit of a play around with that. But yeah, it's good, it's good. It's like again it, they're stupidly expensive and they're not, they're not for everyone, which I get. But they're good little fun toys to play with. So yeah, I like it. Yeah, it's a good, good camera. [00:46:52] Speaker B: So follow up for that. Given how many Leica lenses for the M mount for the M series are outside of those typical crop lines that you see through an EV OVF optical viewfinder, do you think that that's the future for Leica to stick with? Every time they bring out a new M model that a new M generation, I should say that there's going to be a new version of it. [00:47:19] Speaker A: I, I, I would suggest maybe not. I, I would say maybe this will be just, just that one line that they go with. They, they might do like an EV2 or anything like that. But I would suggest that the M line with the, with the range finder optical viewfinder, I think they're going to definitely continue that. That's, that's them. That's Their tradition. But it does make it a lot easier. Like, I like to shoot quite wide in my landscapes, you know, maybe 21, 18, 16 mil, whatever it might be. And just having that ability to not have to, you know, look at the back of the screen or, you know, have an external optical viewfinder on top and you can just look through the viewfinder itself. It's a big help, that's for sure. Especially, again, if you're doing street photography with ultra wide and stuff like that, you know, you're not sort of holding it out. I. I hate people with cameras who hold them out there. Big screen. My mate Jamie, who. Who I was telling before helped build my office, he's constantly looking at the back of the screen. I'm always yelling at him, put the bloody thing up to your eye. Look through the viewfinder, mate. That's what it's for, you know. But he just holds it out in front of him with this big screen. I'm like, all right, that's you. But. So, yeah, I don't think it takes [00:48:28] Speaker B: photos like a tourist. [00:48:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:30] Speaker B: Hold the camera. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So I, I don't think they're gonna completely. I. I doubt they would ever get rid of that M line with rangefinder, optical viewfinders. But they might continue this line of EVFs. Yeah. Into a second or third model maybe. Yeah. But, yeah, it's good. It's clever. Like, what they've done is good. They've sort of taken that, the Q3 EVF, and squeezed it down a little bit and put it back into the, like an M series, which is. Which is cool. So, yeah, you never know. But I don't think. I don't think it's their main direction. [00:49:04] Speaker B: Yeah. It makes me wonder whether they'd ever go with like the hybrid viewfinder. Like Fuji X1 hundreds have and have had for almost a decade. [00:49:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:13] Speaker B: No more than I think. Yeah. They've got the hybrid where it drops. It drops the digital screen into the optical viewfinder. [00:49:20] Speaker A: That's very cool. That is very cool. And. And to be honest, I probably would have liked that on the EV1. I reckon that would have been a very cool combination to have. But then I guess it's sort of almost taking the M, like the M series out then if they're going to put it all in one camera, that's sort of all their eggs in one basket there a bit. [00:49:41] Speaker B: But. [00:49:41] Speaker A: But yeah, I had. I did have some Fuji. I had an X Pro 1, X Pro 2, X Pro 3, and that was very cool. Where you had that sort of. It's. It's very, very, very well done. Yeah. [00:49:54] Speaker B: And hopes for an X Pro 4. Hopefully we hear about that this year. It's longer than we've got a Fujifilm. There's one here in Melbourne. There's actually an online event happening where they typically. That's coming up soon so I'll be glued to that one but again you know like a. Being like at least one camera that has a hybrid viewfinder when you can release two. [00:50:26] Speaker A: Yeah well that, that. That's right. And you know they don't make truckloads of them either so I don't know. I don't know how that EV1 is selling. I've seen mixed reviews online from it as well. So whether or not it's just a one off thing they try and then maybe they just go now we'll just stick back to the Q series and the M series and just leave it as that Maybe. But yeah, but yeah it's. It'll be interesting to see what Fuji bring out as well. As long as I get rid of that silly flip up screen or, or do something a bit different with that. On that last model they had that screen that wasn't there with just a little, little film. I thought it was cool but a bit gimmicky as well so. Oh, he's back. That was quick. [00:51:05] Speaker B: Oh what's going on? [00:51:06] Speaker C: Sorry I'm only back just quick. Your. Your audio is cutting in now a little bit Greg. So I thought I'd just jump back in and yeah, you might have to even jump out. Jump out of the studio and jump back in and I'll just, I'll hold the fort down while you do that. [00:51:22] Speaker A: I was trying to make my way. I was trying to read lips as we're going along Justin. So thank you for that. [00:51:27] Speaker C: Yeah I was just listening. I was like oh no. So I thought I'd jump back in [00:51:30] Speaker A: but yeah it is. I wasn't sure it was mine or he's in. [00:51:32] Speaker C: But yeah it is super interesting that they like the like yeah that I didn't go for that optical and EVF style like or maybe it's in on in the like something they're working on. But on the other hand do they just look at it like hey why would we want someone to buy one camera when they could potentially buy two. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Which, which is what this, which this idiot did. So yeah. [00:51:53] Speaker C: Yeah so yeah so I don't know. [00:51:56] Speaker A: It's. It's a cool camera but yeah there is maybe there's some issues with people not liking that, that's for sure. [00:52:02] Speaker C: Yeah, don't know. It's. But yeah, with the X Pro 4, it'll be it. That is a camera that could definitely tempt me to the, to the dark side if it's, I mean, if it's basically what the X Pro 3 was with a little bit of upgrades. Yeah, I don't even want much more than that. I just haven't bought an X Pro 3 because they've been so hard to get and the price is so high for a camera that's quite old. Yeah, I'm like, well, I might as well wait till the four comes out and you can just buy one instead [00:52:32] Speaker A: of watch all the threes come online cheaper because everyone wants the four. [00:52:35] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. How's your audio sound now, Greg? [00:52:41] Speaker B: Well, it always sounded fine to me, but is it any. [00:52:47] Speaker C: You're hearing it before it goes through the Internet. But now that sounds, that sounds better. [00:52:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that's how ears work. [00:52:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that sounds better. [00:52:57] Speaker C: Okay, I'll leave you to it. [00:52:59] Speaker A: Thanks, mate. Thanks. Thank you. [00:53:01] Speaker C: See ya. [00:53:02] Speaker A: There you go. [00:53:04] Speaker B: Oh, lots of gear talk this morning. Here's our mate, Dennis Cam. I have been playing with the and I'm excited about shooting some landscape with it. Do you ever intentionally shoot black and white landscape? [00:53:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I do. I actually do shoot a fair bit of black and white landscape. You know, I think we've all been admired or all inspired by Ansel Adams in the, in the day with these black and white landscapes. So, yeah, I do shoot a little bit and, and that's what I was saying before adjusted with the profiles I use, I will shoot in a black and white profile so I can actually see it. I, I, I don't do very well black and white landscapes. If I come home in color and then go, oh, maybe that'll work in black and white. Or maybe that'll work in black and white. I, I like to be out in the field and, and be shooting black and white so I can see the light and I can see the tones through the viewfinder on the screen as they're happening. It's, it's, it can be and people can do it, but it's quite tricky to be able to take your color eyes off when you're looking at color and just see tones and, and things like that. So, so yeah, I, I actually really like black and white landscape photography and I find myself going through, through, through moments where I'm like, oh, this, this, I just feel like shooting black and white. I I did actually own the M11, the M10 monochrome for a little while purely for that reason, that is. I just wanted to be able to shoot nothing but black and white. But then I, I got. That was a bit too restricted for me so I ended up going back to the M11. So. But yeah, black and white all the way. It's good fun. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Very cool. Just your topic, I hope you don't mind, but getting lots of gold out of this conversation. You mentioned earlier, you know, you, you had the opportunity to shoot with the original. [00:54:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:52] Speaker B: Have you shot with the, the newer one? And, and where do you stand on it with the, the digital? [00:54:58] Speaker A: Well, yes. See my, my relationship with Olympus these days isn't as. Is lovely as it used to be. I don't, I don't have any Olympus gear anymore. I sold it all. I, I've got all my film gear. I'm looking at, I've got a cabinet of film gear just here. But I was really, really excited when the OM3 came out and I bought one straight away. I'm like, I've got to get one of these because I've got the original OM3. It's that whole, you know, push back to tradition and stuff like that. It, it was a bit of a disappointment to me. It was. It's a lovely camera. It's made beautifully, it feels great. It's, it's handling in your hand is really bad. Like it's really nothing to grab onto. It's, it's a little bit disappointing in that way. But it's a beautiful camera. But I just found that the handling of it was a bit too, too slippery for me and, and things like that would, it would have made, you know, a great one to keep in the kit for a bit of street photography or travel photography. But it just, just wasn't for me. But I would, I would have loved if they brought out like a titanium version of that. Like a real, you know, send back to that old OM3TI, which was that sort of gunmetal gray. And, and I think Olympus, Olympus are missing or OM systems. I think they've missed so many, so many moments where they could have just blown the industry apart with cool cameras. Like, I know you guys mentioned the pen camera the other day that they're thinking of bringing that. That's, that's eight years and five years too late. That should have been brought out yon go. They're sort of, they're sort of, they're chasing their tail a bit. But I, I still like the OM System camera. I think their system of cameras is one of the best cameras I've ever owned. Their lenses are fantastic. Their functions and features are, you know, second to none with what you can do, you know, inbuilt stabilizers and inbuilt neutral densities and starry auto focus. Like they got so much that goes for them. I think my, my issue with them at the moment or has been for a while is I think they're marketing it to the wrong people and the wrong people are promoting the gear which, you know, they're trying to sell it to the young hipster traveler and they're not, they're not those kind of cameras. Like no, they're really, they're, they're an amazing wildlife camera. They're an amazing camera for lightweight travel and things like that. So I sort of got a bit different birding fast, lightweight. The, the AI bird tracking in those OM1 Mark 2s, I've, I get, I'm lucky because I get to play with everyone's camera when they come on workshops. So people have all types of cameras and that AI bird tracking is still the stickiest and fastest by a long way in any camera I've picked up in my hand. Maybe I haven't used them correctly but in my experience combined with one of the nice lenses that Olympus have, it's a great combo. But yeah, I just, I just sort of got to be fed up with them all and the. Yeah, so it's just disappointing. I might, I may go back and buy their gear again one day but at the moment, you know, the other thing as well, like they've had the same sensor pretty much for the last few models as well. You know, they've tweaked it a bit and changed it a bit but it's still, it's still a 20 megapixel sensor and you know, Panasonic and others are bringing out higher resolutions and I just feel like, and I know why, obviously they're not Olympus as they used to be them, they're, you know, they're just a smaller version of themselves which they probably don't have the budgets for, you know, research and stuff like that. But. [00:58:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, well that's, yeah, I mean having a smaller customer base is going to hamper your ability to, you know, to expand into new areas. You know, there's another megapixel race on. You know, Fuji based models are now up at 40 megapixels. And yeah, you know, Leicas are up at 60 and, and then you know, medium formats becoming More and more accessible thanks to Fujifilm's GFX range. And then you're looking at 50 or 100 megapixel. [00:58:44] Speaker A: Yeah. In the trap. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Justin and I got to play with the OM3. We had it for about a month. We both had for a couple of weeks. Yeah. Beautiful camera. Clever. Agree with the handling, especially with that little dial in the front, the mode color change dial. It just, it was hard milled plastic and it just grated your finger when you were holding it. [00:59:08] Speaker A: And then to try and get it, to try and get a hand grip for it like there was. There was no aftermarket grips apart from one or two and now three or US$400 each, like it was some ridiculous amount. So yeah, it was, it's a bit disappointing. Like I said, lovely camera and I, yeah, like I said, I got one as soon as it came out just to play with it. But I had it for a week and I just went. This just doesn't feel right in the hand. It's, it's, it's almost like it was a camera not to be used. It's like this is what the old cameras look like. We've made a digital version. It's a bit of a gimmick you can play around with. It takes nice photos but you don't want to hang on to it for more than a day otherwise you're either going to drop it or get sick of it. So. But maybe, you know, maybe they'll bring out a different. Maybe. Hopefully they take a bit of feedback on from, from people that have bought them and, and you know, bring out a version 2 or something like that. You know, that might be interesting but who knows? [01:00:00] Speaker B: I'd be very keen to see what they do bring out that is, that is pen related, especially fixed lens. You know, there's a real demand at the market at the moment for fixed lens compact cameras. We've been talking about that a lot over the last few weeks. I think Loom just dropped one a couple of days ago. Yeah, it's coming out and that's a really compelling offering, you know, for people that are looking for those compact, portable, travel, everyday carry kind of cameras. There's a real gap in the market at the moment. Yeah, let's go back to talking about your journey a little bit. Cam. So, you know, you've left school, your cameras are in your blood thanks to your dad. Did you. And you're working at. In the secondhand space at the store. Did you ever branch out to shoot events, weddings, babies, any of those sort of standard genres. What was that part of your career like? [01:00:56] Speaker A: So yeah, I, I did. In my career thus far I've pretty much shot any genre of photography you could think I've probably, I've had a crack at. But I remember I did my first wedding when I was still working at Camera House. I did that in the Parliament Gardens there in Melbourne. Did a wedding that would have been, I would have been maybe 19, 20 years old maybe when I did that over the journey. I reckon I've shot about 120 odd weddings over the journey. I did lots in Melbourne and did lots down here in Tassie. Was lucky enough. I got, you know, got to go to a few places like Fiji and New Zealand and a few other places overseas to shoot weddings for people. So I did a lot of weddings when I was working in town. After I left Camera House I went and I got a job working the government, working in child support agency, part of dhs. But on my lunch breaks there I got a gig. When Docklands is all building up with all the new apartments, I got a gig shooting all those for the local real estate. So I jump on the, the brown tram, the City Circle tram and go down in my lunch break, shoot three or four apartments, come back and go back to work. So I did and then I did a fair bit of real estate work around Greensboro where I live, grew up and out that way with some real estates there. Did portrait stuff, did model portrait portfolios for some models around the region that I was in Melbourne everyone had a baby that I knew growing up so they were all getting their baby shots. I've done all the baby shots and I've. And I've done commercial work down here like places like the Cradle Mountain, the iconic Cradle Mountain Lodge. Shot the whole property there for their 20 odd million dollar rebuild that they did, did all their food photography for their websites and menus. I've done some other places down here in Tassie where I've done food photography. You name it, I've pretty much done it at some stage I've had my hand in and I think the, you know, a bit of advice for anyone, if there is anyone listening but bit of advice for people, you know, if you are a photographer and you know, depending on it doesn't even matter what, what level or what stage you are, just give something a go like you know, the amount of people that say oh I'd never shoot a wedding, that's just crazy. Give it a go like, you know, set the expectations with the bride and groom, that there might be family, friends or something like that. But the amount what, what you learn out of shooting different genres in photography is guaranteed to help. Whatever your passion genre is, whatever you love, doing these other ones that you shoot will definitely help you get better at that as well. You know, like shooting landscapes. For me, that, that's my thing. But, you know, I, I went, I went and started doing a series of nude photography. I did like a series of nude models in landscape. So I, I think I called it Beautiful People in Beautiful Places and because [01:03:42] Speaker B: I knew how, like a BFOP workshop. [01:03:46] Speaker A: Well, I've, I've, I've. I've raised it with Matt and Nick a couple of times. They're a bit worried about the nude bit, but I, I'd like to do that as a workshop at be. I think it'd be great. [01:03:56] Speaker B: Amazing. [01:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah. But because I had the skills to do the landscapes and I'd shot so many portraits and land and weddings, it was just like, this is easy. Find a great landscape, find a great. Put this beautiful person there. Done like, it was really, really quite simple. And, and the response I got out of that series of work over about a year or two was really, really positive. Everyone's like, these are just beautiful. They're not distasteful. You couldn't see much. It was all really sort of quite discreet, but it just had these beautiful people and body shapes in this beautiful landscape. So, you know, without doing the landscapes, without doing the weddings and the portraits and stuff, I probably wouldn't have had the guts to go and try and do that sort of series of shots. So I always say to people, you know, give it a crack. If someone comes to you and says, oh, you know, do you want to come and do a family portrait? Obviously, I know you do photography, give it a go. Like the worst you can do is, you know, not get it right and say sorry, like it's not the end of the world. So I found by doing that, I got a lot of experience over a lot of years, just trying different things, you know, you know, whether or not it was, you know, doing, like I said, the Santa Claus photos at the very start or, you know, doing portraits of family, friends and babies. I've done aerial work for companies down here. I've hung out, out outside of helicopters, doing surveying work for farms and things like that. I, I did some work for parks and wildlife down here where they helicopter me on top of a mountain and said, here you go, you got four days to get out, take some Photos for us. So just by saying yes a lot and putting your name out there has really opened up a hell of a lot of doors for me. So, yeah, you got to jump in there and try it, that's for sure. [01:05:33] Speaker B: And like you said, elevates your camera craft. It elevates how you see the world. And when you're making compositions, the more you learn. Quick question in the chat from Justin, because we just can't get rid of it. What made you stop weddings? [01:05:49] Speaker A: I think I. [01:05:50] Speaker B: Sorry to do that in a squeakier voice. What made you stop weddings? [01:05:54] Speaker A: And hold your beard out the way. Yeah, yeah. And shave your beard off. Yeah, I think. I think I just. I think I just run that race. Like, I've done a lot. And it started to get very competitive, especially down here in Tassie when I was still doing them. The whole wedding market got really, really competitive. And, you know, you had all these, you know, quite a few backyard photographers who. I'll do your wedding for 500. I've got zero training and zero stuff, but I've bought some presets, so I'm okay, I'll be able to do it for you. And it sort of became. I'm like, I don't. I was still working sort of full time, and I was still doing some workshops and stuff like that. I was like, I don't really need this anymore. And it sort of. The last couple of years of doing weddings became almost just doing friends of friends, like, oh, you shot Bob's wedding. Can you come and shoot my wedding? You know, oh, yeah, I'll give it a go. So I didn't really advertise much anymore, and I sort of just let it die a bit because I just. I just didn't have the energy or time to compete with other people that were, you know, undercutting the market. But also, you know, they also have big advertising budgets, so they were happy to throw thousands of dollars to get their name out there. So. And it wasn't my thing. Like, it wasn't my passion. So it was a. It was a meal ticket for a while, but I just enjoyed. Enjoyed it. What it was. I met some really great people, had some really memorable weddings, had some really shocking weddings where we had people that were just terrible. We had really wonderful weddings where, you know, everyone's crying at the same time, and lovely backdrops to some weddings. So there's some really lovely moments. Probably the biggest thing I got out of weddings, though, was just really, really understanding reactions of people, like, ever. Like, a lot of People have said, oh, you, how you shot lots of weddings. You know what, wasn't it hard each time or wasn't it nerve wracking? I'm like, well, not really. It's the same play, just different people every time. Like the same things happen in every. Unless it's really unique. It's the same wedding every time. You know, the, the bridal cry at the same time, the, the, the groom will get teary when she reads out the vows and you know, they'll all laugh when the, the celebrant says something silly or, you know, as the night gets on, you know, the drunk auntie or uncle will do something and fall over. And like there's all these things that happen through all the weddings that if you, if you focus enough and take note of that, it really becomes like a play. Like you just, you're working through scene by scene and you're just capturing those moments that you know are going to happen. So I found that was a really cool, a real cool skill to pick up that, you know, and you can use it down everyday life. You know, if I'm doing the workshops where I am now, I can pick up when people are like getting what I'm saying or not getting what I'm saying or just by their personal reactions to where we are. You know, like down at the Southwest, we had just the other week we had this real foggy, foggy morning, super moody, super everything. And you know, I could have sat on this boat and told them all about how to shoot in the fog and do all this and do that, but it didn't require that because I could just see the reaction on people. Like, this is an incredible moment and we're just floating along. There's, you know, we had a big sea eagle fly past us and sit in the tree and we just sat there for 10 minutes while we took photos of him. I'm like, we don't need to teach anything. We don't need to teach anything here. We just need to enjoy this moment. So, yeah, I think I got a lot of that out of hanging around so many reactive people from weddings and portraits and stuff like that that you can sort of read your customers moments as well. [01:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's interesting that a lot of workshop instructors we've spoken to over the past couple of years of this podcast have reflected on moments like that where they've ones that comes to mind. He was running a workshop or when he runs his workshops, he often they'll land a small plane on a glacier in New Zealand or somewhere else, and they'll all get out and they'll all take their photos or they'll all get the camera gear out. But he'll say, once we've done this, we're going to just put the cameras away. We're just going to sit and enjoy for 20, 30 minutes before we get back on the plane and pick up our vomit bags. And I really love that, I love that, that concept of you see a beautiful landscape and you photograph your landscape and you see it through an EVF or on a screen and then you take it home and you see it on a computer. But do you really see it without any of that stuff? You know, that's right. Sort of getting out of the photographer's mind every now and then. [01:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Like if, I think if you're running tours and workshops and things like that, if you're not encouraging your guests to do that to, to, you know, yes, we're here with cameras, but the cameras, it's just a tool. It's got nothing to do with what we're feeling and seeing. It's just capturing what we're feeling and seeing. We do it on a lot of our trips where, like, even on the same trip down at the Southwest last week, Joe, who's one of my great customers, was sitting on top of this hill watching this incredible sunset over this absolute vast wilderness of mountains and Bathurst harbor and all that kind of stuff. And they had a bottle of wine with them, a couple of glasses. It was a really nice, relaxing sunset type of thing. And she just came up and said, next to me on a rock, she goes, how often good is this? This is amazing. [01:10:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:56] Speaker A: And she did. Her camera's on the tripod 20 meters away. She had no interest in taking a photo. Just like, I've just got to sit here and take this in. And like a lot of our guests, like, they're all workers or semi retired or maybe retired, but you know, they all still sort of live in the rat race. So you take them out of that rat race and put them into this incredible wilderness. Yeah, you can see it. It takes them a couple of days to, to chill. And then once they get, you know, some get there quicker than others, but once they get to that chill level, like, the experience just increases because it's just like, this is what I here for. I don't get this at home. Why the hell don't I do this more often and know that's, that's where we facilitate that if we can. [01:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's lovely. Now, speaking of us, and Den's just pointing out that my audio is off again. Is anyone else? [01:11:42] Speaker A: A little bit. A little bit scratchy, but I can. Okay. [01:11:46] Speaker B: All right, I'll stick with it for the moment, Den. Let me know if it gets worse. Workshop. So what was the first workshop that you ever organized and ran? Did you do it solo or did you do it with an ex? You know, with an experienced workshop instructor? [01:11:59] Speaker A: No, I do things the hard way. I did it solo and I did it for free. That's how stupid I am. So the first one I ever did was here in Tassie. So I moved from Melbourne down to Tassie with my wife. That was 2012, I think. We moved down here and I wanted to come down here and we just wanted a bit of a tree change, sea change and yeah, cheaper housing. We didn't want to live in the like again in the big city and stuff. And I originally wanted to. My original whole plan was to do photography landscape tours along the overland track. So walk people along that track for six days, teach them all about landscape photography, get them to experience the incredible overland track walk and things like that. But that was a bit of setup needed. I need to get obviously permits and licenses to do that. But so the first one I put out, I put out down here. When I got here, I'm like, look, I'm new to, new to Tassie. I'm looking to start my little workshop business up. And I did two or three of them where we just went out to Mount Field and out further to Lake Petter out into the southwest. Just a whole day trip. Just come along, self drive. I'll teach you as much as I can in the day about what I know about photography, cameras and all that kind of stuff. And I think the first one we did had like 30 or 40 people. It was ridiculous amount of people rocked up to the point where we were the Lake Petta car park. I'm pretty sure we had no room at the end of the road to park all the cars or people were parking it down around the corner a bit. And I went, oh, okay, this, this is pretty cool. And then we did another one which had maybe about 5, 15, 20 people. And then we did another one where we had similar sort of numbers Again, I thought, right, well, there's obviously. People obviously want to get out and they want sort of. They want the excuse to go out and they want someone to maybe take them out. And that's where I sort of put together. So the, the, the overland track Walk was one thing, but the very first paid workshop I did would have been one at Cradle Mountain which would have been a four day Cradle Mountain workshop. Probably in the autumn time when we got the fagus tree and all the colors are out there and, and then it sort of just grew from there. I'm really lucky that I, and it sounds like I'm kissing backside here, but I am lucky. I've got, you know, an incredible bunch of customers who really just inspire me to take them different places. Like I, I, all the places I go now have all been mostly inspired by customers saying, hey, I've done all your Tassie trips. Have you ever done this place or have you ever thought about going Japan? I'm like, cool, we can do that. Let me, let me see what I can put together. And away we go. [01:14:23] Speaker B: So isn't that a beautiful progression of, of yeah, what you do for a living that you're being inspired? I mean they're probably gaining so much info and knowledge and, and insight from you in return. You get a lot out of it too. [01:14:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and, and that's the thing, like, it's like I don't do any, I don't, I've never done any advertising of any sort. Really. Really. I might have done one little magazine, one little magazine advert back in the day, probably Australian photography magazine or something like that. But my business has grown purely on the back of customers just wanting to do more and you know, you can't think of enough for that. They, they're the perfect customers that you want where they keep driving you to grow your business because it benefits them to go to these places that you take them. So, you know, and then, you know, we've been lucky over the time as well. We've grown a customer list but we've also grown some really lovely relationships with other businesses as well. Like the weekend one that was with Par Avion who do. They're the only people that fly in and out of the Southwest. We did a Franklin river rafting photography tour for 10 years where we had Franklin River Rafting Company which we've really been friends with. They sort of gave us exclusivity on taking us down the river. They said we'll take you and that's it. No other group can go down with photographers as such. We've got some really lovely relationships around the place with hotels and you know, we've built some really nice relationships with little cafes in Stanley and you know, all these different places in Bright and you know, all Those kind of things where, yeah, it's, it's a lovely. You know, you come back next year and you walk in, hey, Cam, how you going? And it's. Oh, you got some new people. Who are these lovely. And like, it just becomes a really lovely moment. So, yeah, we've been really lucky, aren't you? Yeah, yeah. Without knowing it. Yeah, we have. [01:16:12] Speaker B: And supporting local and all of that. [01:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like we enter the tourism awards down here quite a lot every year pretty much we've done it. And it's like a 10,000 word application. It's a nightmare. And shout out to Chelsea, who's one of the ladies that helps me. She's incredible at writing all these things. She's a very smart lady. But she puts all this application together. She just takes my words, re jumbles it to sound good and puts it on. On paper. But one of the things we have to put in that application is, you know, do we support local businesses and hospitality and stuff like that. And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. We go there and I sort of said a few things and Chelsea's like, you support heaps. And she put this list together with a map around Tassie and these little dot points of where we went and we cover the whole state of people that we support through our business and vice versa. And it wasn't, it wasn't until then I went, yeah, this is a community. Like this is us putting money back into there. We're bringing people to Tassie and vice versa. So. Yeah, yeah. So it's very cool. Yeah, yeah. [01:17:12] Speaker B: So you've run tours all over the world? In the Americas, obviously, Japan more recently. We missed you at BFLOP last. I think you were in Scotland at the time. [01:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I was in school. [01:17:25] Speaker B: You were. And obviously all this you do around Tasmania, what are kind of your top two or three bucket list destinations that you'd love to run a tour? [01:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I actually got asked this question the other day, but I think it might have been on that trip we've just been on. I've got a real inkling to go to Patagonia. I think that'd be very cool to see. The one thing about my places I'd like to go with customers. I don't necessarily like to go to the real populated locations. Like there's nothing worse than rocking up to this classic view. And you've got, you know, five deep tripods and, you know, it's. I like to try and put people where it's not that busy but still spectacular. So Patagonia would be great but I know it would be quite busy. Antarctica is always on the, on the bucket list to get down there. That'd be probably number one to tick that off just because it's so unique and so, you know, so hard to get to in ways with people so. [01:18:21] Speaker B: Well, you're already halfway there so, you [01:18:23] Speaker A: know, on a clear day you can see it if you look out my door. So. So yeah, those two would be pretty good. Things like Alaska and all that, kind of northern Canada and things like that would be nice. I'm off to India next year with Glenn Lavender. We're doing a joint trip to India. So I'm really excited about you been before. I've never been to India, so this is, that's a new one for me. [01:18:49] Speaker B: Wow. [01:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah, so. And I'm putting all my trust in Glenn. He's. He's been there so many times and, and speaking of my old days, a shout out to Glenn if he's still watching. But when I first started at camera house, Camera action camera house, Glenn was the person to train me. He was my, he took, he took me under his wing on the sales floor and he, he was the first guy that I sort of knew at the camera house and, and then that was a bit of a full circle because my dad had known Glenn as a kid because his mum, Glenn's mum used to work in a camera shop and dad used to call on them. So there was all this linkage going through dad and all through the industry. But. So I've known glenn For Jesus, 20 odd years now and we did a couple of workshops, yeah, we did a couple of workshops here in Cradle Mountain a few years ago. But I'm really excited to get, get back together with him and you know, put the band back together as they say, and go to India. And I'm excited about that. Like, I think in the, in the last year or two I've really started to really have a passion for that street photography. Really sort of just enjoy walking around the streets of towns and cities and just, you know, capturing moments, shapes, textures, you know, buildings, whatever it might be people. I really enjoy that. So that'll be, that'll definitely be an eye opener. So. So yeah, those places are definitely. But the world's such an incredible place. Like, you know, you can go anywhere really, and, and you'll find something that shines to you and I think we're lucky like that. So. Yeah. [01:20:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And obviously, you know, here in Australia we've got. We're spoiled for choice of amazing locations, whether it be street scenes or landscapes or, you know, whatever it may be. We are. We are incredibly lucky in that respect. I'm just going to jump out of the stream for a moment. Apparently my audio is still weird, but if anyone has any questions while I'm out for cam, please jump in and ask him a question. And. [01:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I see them pop up. [01:20:45] Speaker B: They'll be in show comments which right there for you. [01:20:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah, cool. [01:20:50] Speaker B: Chuck them. [01:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:51] Speaker B: All right. [01:20:51] Speaker A: Far away back. [01:20:54] Speaker B: Okay. [01:20:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we hope you'd be back. Otherwise I'm running the show on my own. All right. Now we've got the show to myself. What do we do here? Yeah, chuck some questions in. If anyone's still watching and wants to ask a question. I'm sure people have got some tricky questions that might be there. But I hope everyone's going well out there and gearing up for later this year for bfop. I'm really excited about that. Oh, we've got dead air time here. I'm surprised that Glenn Lavender's not on there. I can see Dennis is on there. Who else has been chatting away? Adam Edwards, good morning to you. Who else we got? We spoke about the EV1. Yeah, the EV1 is a good camera, but the viewfinder could be improved a little bit, in my opinion. Yeah. Are you all gearing up then for your beef opera reappearance? It might be good to catch up when we get up. There should be a good year this year. I think we're going to get maybe some different things in beef up this year. I think Matt and Nicker putting stuff together. So here we go. Now we got Spruce the September two. Oh, yes. There's another tour with Glenn and I in September 2027 next year. Spots are limited. And there's Cheryl. Hello, boss, you're watching. Need a replacement. Brendan Waitz is watching. Great. Lucky straps is you should be driving and not watching your thing. That's okay. Five days, 10 days on the professional fishing boat in Alaska two years ago, documenting fishermen. That's pretty cool. See, I'd like to do something like that, like get on a. I've actually got something I'm going to be announcing in the next few weeks, which is on a boat and documenting something like that. But getting out doing like a fishing boat or doing some crayfishes and documenting, that'd be very cool. My question about workshops, please. What's your workshop question there? Any advice for someone that ran one workshop? Put Their entire effort into it and it went great, but it seemed so hard I was scared to do another one. Did Justin do workshops at some stage? Greg? [01:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah, he and Jim did a big one. [01:23:16] Speaker A: Oh they did? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember doing that. The advice, I don't know, like, it's a bit like the weddings, I guess you just gotta do it, you know, I mean like if you do something once, you're not going to be an expert at it and you can. It is nerve wracking. And like I still get nervous on every workshop I run is like, okay, have I booked the accommodation? Have I book to hire cars, have I got people's money, have I told them where to meet me, have I done this, have I done that? And you know, you're always running things through your head. You'll see that Cheryl Davis just commented. Hi boss on there before. So Cheryl's. I've brought Cheryl on as a co guide slash assistant slash it, slash pretty much everything. So having someone to bounce off is definitely improved my, my nerves on a trip. So being I used to have my cousin helping me out who was great but he wasn't so much into the behind the scenes organizing of it all. But having Cheryl there where we can just bounce off each other, you know, like, hey, we're, we're at this restaurant or something or we're just logged into this hotel and we're not sure about dinner, so dinner's not happening here or something like that. You know, instead of me stressing about it, trying to organize six people rooms, move cars, get bags out and organize dinner, you know, Cheryl can take some of that load. So she's been a godsend to have her on board. And she's an incredible macro photographer. She loves me spruking that part of her. Cheryl Davis photography. She has an Instagram account of wolves and weevils which has all her macro work on there. You guys should actually get her on this show to have a chat. She'd be great. We've had her on our show, the Down South Photo Show. She has an incredible eye for small detail. We're doing a Daintree macro workshop together up in the Daintree next month. And like I'm a man obviously and men look at things differently to women. So we walk around this track and I just see, I just see the big ugly bugs and things in the trees and I'm like, oh, there's something there. And Cheryl's like, oh, there's a minuscule little thing over here. What are you looking at and there'll be this tiny, tiny little, you know, bug on a tree that's camouflaged and she just sees it. I'm like, I don't know how you do it. So, yeah, yeah, incredible macro photographer. But yeah, it's if getting back to Justin's thing. But I, I guess it's just. Yeah, being organized. I think being organized prior to a trip, you know that you do hear some stories of people running workshops who don't necessarily have everything organized prior to it or they don't scout the place properly or, you know, heaven forbid they don't have the right permits to work in certain parts of Australia where they just rock up and oh, look, you haven't got a permit so you can't do this or do that. So being prepared and being professional and getting, just getting things in place, like just a checklist of everything you need to do on each workshop before you head out is, is definitely something you need to do. And that's why I put all my trust in Glenn Lavender, that he's got all those things checked off before we go to India. So did I mention there again there's another tour in September next year, 2027, India. Glenn and I, he's. [01:26:23] Speaker B: Yeah, you do. [01:26:23] Speaker A: He's told me, he's told me to spruce it again. [01:26:26] Speaker B: Oh, I saw that. He's very demanding. [01:26:29] Speaker A: He's very demanding. He's a funny guy. He's a lovely guy, Glenn. Much time for him. And I also saw my, my co host is there. Brendan said something about need a replacement to jump on. He was going to replace you. [01:26:41] Speaker B: Ah, you're gonna take out. That's what it's all about. It's domination. [01:26:45] Speaker A: This is a corporate takeover. Yeah, yeah. [01:26:50] Speaker B: Speaking of Brendan, wait, is your, your co pilot of Down South Photo Show? [01:26:57] Speaker A: Yep. [01:26:58] Speaker B: That comes to be in that relationship with Brendan. How did that kick off? [01:27:02] Speaker A: Wow. Well, that all that all kicked off again at Camera House. Camera Action Camera House. Just before I was leaving Camera Action Camera House, Brendan joined Camera Action Camera House. So we crossed paths over about three or four months, I think it was maybe six months at Camera Action and pretty much it was just we, we both love sport. That was about it. Like we just started chewing the fat about football, golf and cricket, which we do on the show a fair bit as well. And we just, we just had a common interest. I think we went and played some golf and you know, we went and saw some cricket and did a few other things like that. So we sort of just hit it off as mates. That Way I joined his indoor cricket team that played out at Maribyrnong. We, we want to a premiership. Brian's Bucks was the name of the team. We won the premiership there. And, and then yeah, like he, he, I left Camera Action. He stayed at Camera Action for a while and then he moved down to Geelong and worked at Camera House in Geelong and then he obviously opened up his very successful camera and photo. Ocean Grove, Cameron Photo. So he, he continued on with that but we, we just stayed in touch and Brendan has his own, Brendan's such a superstar in the photography industry that he has his own photography golf classic. It's the Brendan Waits photography golf classic that he has been running every year for the 20th year this year. So we've played that. So a lot of people from the industry will come and play in that golf game and, but really him and I, it's really just been around drinking and sport really as most Aussie blokes get to know each other. But, and then when Covert hit, I think there was a little break in Covert where I was able to get to Melbourne and was in his backyard sitting around a little fire having a few beers and we were just doing this, we're just talking about cameras and photography and what we do and what we don't do and you know, all that kind of stuff. And I think he said, he goes, this could be a bloody podcast. I said how do we do a podcast? And he goes I don't know, how do we do a podcast? And I said I don't know, let's do one. So we, we have absolutely zero idea on how to do a podcast. We still don't know how to do it. We just, it's just two mates, really good mates who have known each other for again, 20 odd years, just chewing the fat about passion that we love, which is photography. Like, you know, like you and Justin do same sort of thing, you know, bringing like minded people into, into the, into the limelight and doing that. And though we started the podcast, we had no idea what we're doing. It took Brendan, I think it took Brendan about 50 episodes to actually get the ratio of his photo on the actual screen right to match mine. So it looked unprofessional from the get go. But I think what resonated with people was that it was we were genuine. Like we're just a couple of mates talking and having a bit of fun and, and chewing the fat about photography. And you know, there was another podcast out there from Matt and another guy, Pat or Tuttle. I Can't remember his last name. Tom. Tom Fat Pomfret Y. And that was, you know, we just kept getting emails saying, for Christ's sake, please do something in that sphere that takes the attention off their podcast because we just can't listen to it anymore. So we just said, right, we'll take over that. We'll, we'll, we'll take over that for you. So, so yeah, that's, that's pretty much how it grew. And then, you know, for a while there we were quite popular. We, I think we're sort of rating as sort of number one or two photography podcast in Australia. And then we've almost done 200 episodes. We've backed it off a little bit. It was becoming quite a lot. But, but yeah, like, I love Brendan to death. He, he's a great mate. I'm going to see him tomorrow. He's actually on his way to Tassie as we speak because we've got a, we've got a workshop starting tomorrow on the east coast. So we have a lot of fun together. We've had a lot of laughs, we've had a lot of drinks. Brendan came on the first American Utah tour I did. He came along and co guided that with my friend, Cousin Daniel. So we've had a lot of experiences. We paid 850 Australian dollars each to play a game of golf in Vegas when we're over there. That was, that was just stupid. So we just do stupid stuff together. And yeah, you know, it's made, it's made for a great friendship over 20 years. So, yeah, it's good fun. Yeah. [01:31:16] Speaker B: Speaking of the golf, I know how passionate you are about golf. I see it on your socials all the time. Did you get to play around in, in Japan? [01:31:24] Speaker A: No, I did not. So this is the one thing I didn't do in Japan that I will be doing next year when I go back. Speaking of Cheryl, who helps me. Cheryl's actually become my unofficial official caddy on these trips. So whenever I go somewhere, I try and play a game of golf somewhere. And she's now caddied twice for me in Scotland, which has been fun actually, having someone rake the bunkers for you and fix your divots up and help find your ball in the rough because the ball's very rarely on the fairway or the green. Yeah, I don't know if it's, you know, I'm not sure if it's in her work contract, but it gets her out and about, so. So yeah, we try, I try and incorporate a game of golf wherever I go if I can. I'm probably not as much of a tragic. Brendan's probably more of a golf tragic than I am. He'll. He'll go and actually hang around a fairway and watch a local tournament or stuff like that. So I just enjoy it. I've played golf for many years. Played a lot of cricket, played a lot of football growing up. So pretty sporty growing up and you know. But one thing I, you know, photographing golf courses. The golf courses look amazing. [01:32:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I was going to ask that. Do you ever. Do you ever cross paths like do you ever cross pollinate those hobbies? Those. [01:32:34] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely, definitely. So like you've always got your phone on you. I've. I've taken my camera many a time on, on golf courses that I've been on. If I played a really nice golf course somewhere, take a camera with you. And I don't think, I think I may or may not have taken a photo, a camera on the, the golf we played in Vegas. So that was a tour pro course, a TPC course. So that was like the PGA level course which is why it was so expensive. And we got, we got paired up with these two American guys who are just a right big cigars and just drinking every hole and they paid for everything apart from the golf. They paid for all the drinks and they've bought us lunch. Just great, great people. So, yeah, and Brendan will kill me if I didn't mention this but he birdied a TPC golf hole. He actually birdied a hole in that thing. So he was pretty happy about that. So yeah, that's good fun. So. [01:33:29] Speaker B: Yep. Nice. Yeah. Let me jump to a couple of quick comments. I wasn't sure where we're up to when I had to dip out. Justin wants to know. Justin says never too early for airport beers. I'd agree with that. When I used to drink. [01:33:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Well I think Brendan. I think Brendan's at the air. Brenda must be at the airport now listening and drinking. [01:33:51] Speaker B: So it's. My mother would say it's five o' clock somewhere. That's it. [01:33:56] Speaker A: 100. [01:33:57] Speaker B: Also from Justin. Did you have to wear a kilt on the course in Scotland? [01:34:02] Speaker A: No, I did not. Was pretty casual actually. We didn't play on a. The high, high end course. Tried to get on St Andrews a couple of days in a row but that didn't happen. So. But no, no, just, just, just neat casual was pretty much the order of the day. [01:34:19] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. Comment here from Nev Clark G'. Day, Nev, from Western Australia. I would love to play. How do you pronounce that? Bamboogle? [01:34:28] Speaker A: Barn boogel. Yeah, he wants to play barn boogel down here in Tassie. Probably doesn't notice, but I'm a bit of a former golfer as well. Played off about seven for a long time. Haven't picked up. Yeah. So Nev, barn boogle. There's a couple of courses, Barnbugle, Lost Farm and the. The. I think it's the barn Bugle runs as well. There's three courses up near Bridport up in north, sort of north northeast Tassie. Stunning courses. Regularly voted, you know, one of the top Australian courses in Australia. So, yeah, definitely come down. I used to play off about eight Nev, so not anymore, but I've certainly blown out a bit more than that. But yeah, Tazzy's got some really great golf courses. There's a new one that's just opened up here called Seven Mile Beach. It's about 290 bucks to play around, if you want to play around, which is crazy. But yeah, golf's. Yeah, it's a great thing, golf. And like I said, makes for great photos as well. So I know Nevis, a bit of a photographer. I think he's a GFX owner, isn't he? I think Memory. [01:35:25] Speaker B: Oh, and he just picked up a Q3. [01:35:27] Speaker A: I might have three. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So take one of those with you as well. You can get some great shots. So. Yeah, nice. [01:35:39] Speaker B: Where was I going to go next with this? Oh, I guess. What. What's next for you? What. What's. What's on the horizon for your photography adventures? [01:35:48] Speaker A: Well, we're always evolving. So we've got a. We've got some trips coming up. We're off to New Zealand next month and then we're got Utah and Scotland later in a year and then India next year with Glenn, and there's another one in September, hopefully. So we're always evolving what we want to do. I've just been working with. So the weekend away we did down to the southwest, one of our guides, Jimmy, Jimmy ms, who's also another great photographer down here in Tazzy. He skippers a. An ex Sydney, the Hobart sailboat down here. And we're putting together a bit of a. A bit of a package to do a bit of a sale around the Three Capes region. Photography, photographing that as well. And we're still working on the fine details. I'm probably going to release it the next week or two. It's going to be fairly exclusive because it's not a, not a boat that can take 10 people on. But the second part of that is we may have access to shoot the Sydney, the Hobart yacht race ending at the same time as floating around these giant sea cliffs and Tasman island and all around the Tasman Peninsula. So we're working on the final details and costing of that. So that's one sort of thing that we're sort of I guess shifting gear a bit to do stuff like that. I don't know how I'll go. I've never really been on a sailboat for that long. I'll see how I go. But, but that'll be, that'll be amazingly spectacular. Like those, that's the highest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere all around that coastline. And speaking of Brendan, Brendan and I, we actually walked that three capes a few years ago and we saw it from the top looking down, but looking up from the water apparently it's just mind blowing. So we'll probably, we'll probably stop off at a few nice little coves like Port Arthur and Fortescue Bay and a few nice places for the night the, the time overnight and then head out during the day. And you get pods of dolphins, you get seals, you get albatross, you get all the sea cliffs and then you might even get the Sydney to Hobart yachts finishing as well. So, so I always looking for, I'm always looking for sort of somewhat left field sort of ideas and things like that, but we've got it. We're like, we're pretty, we're pretty, we're pretty good. Like we're filling up spots. Like most of next year's spots are feeling if not fill already and then in 2028 spots are filling and we've even got people about asking about 2029. I just had a lady book in a couple of days ago. We're doing a winter Yosemite tour from 2028 onwards. And this lady went and booked in the 2029 tour. I just put it up there. Yeah, I'm like, I'll give you, give you guys heaps of time to save and do stuff and just put it out there and she's dropped a deposit the other day. So, so yeah, we're like I said, we're always evolving and trying with the international ones I'm trying to give them like a three or four year circuit and then move on to somewhere else, same region. But you know, for example, Scotland, we might do a couple more years of that and then maybe do Ireland or something like that and work around that region a bit. But yeah, again, like I pinch myself that that's my job that I get to travel the world. [01:38:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I was gonna say it's a pretty ridiculous job when you, when you look at it, being able to travel around the world with like minded people doing something that you're passionate about and having fun along the way. It's, it's a, you know, there's a lot to be said for it. Most definitely. [01:38:57] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. And as always, Cheryl's not, it's not stopped working. She's just told me to mention those GEO stuff as well. So we seemed to, we teamed up with Australian Geographic, so Trentino, their travel department. So we're doing next year we're doing like six workshops with them, Flinders Ranges, the Flinders island here. And then we're also going to be doing the Tarkine with Ozgeo. So that's something that can also expand. They're wanting, they're wanting to expand with us quite a lot. I just don't have the resources to do that just yet. But they've sort of put me on as their prime sort of photography to a leader, which is amazing. [01:39:33] Speaker B: That's incredible. Well done. [01:39:35] Speaker A: That's, that's really good. Yeah, it's definitely a feather in the, in the cap, that's for sure. But. And now it's just a real balancing act of being home, being on the road, keeping everyone happy of all sort of angles. So again, that's why having Cheryl on board is great because you sort of bounce ideas off her and yeah, she's, she's my sort of level. She, I come up with these ideas. She's like, cam, just come down a couple of levels and just, let's just look at what we can do, not what you, you can't do. And so stuff like that and, and again, shout out to Brendan as well. Brendan's been a, a great soundboard for ideas for business and you know, he's been really inspirational with ideas for me and sort of how to leave my full time job and then go do this full time and all that kind of stuff. So. So yeah, it's busy and yeah, it's, it's forever evolving. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. [01:40:22] Speaker B: And how speaking of the transition from a day job to a, a creative job, how did that process go for you? [01:40:30] Speaker A: It was pretty easy for me because I just got fed up working for the government and I was just like, they can stick it up their backside. I'm not doing this anymore. They, they were just so working in the government. You know, I do say this to a lot of people. You know, we, we see it a lot in the news and you see a lot around your own social store, social circles. You know, people go, oh, the public service that I do, anything, they're all useless. You know, Centrelink this or child support this or, you know, NDIS this or whatever it is. Sadly, the people working there sadly just get, they just get screwed over. Like the conditions are so hard. The, the pay is now no longer like everyone used to think government jobs were really well paid. They are not anymore. Scott Morrison put an end to that. He decided to sort of stop giving Pay rises for 10 years. So, you know, share, share a thought for those guys when you ring them on the phone or go into the office was, you know, getting yelled at every day and getting all the different types of people walking in. So it was a pretty easy decision for me to say, you know what, I've, I've done enough of this. I, I went from full time to part time and started doing these workshops on the side. And then from there I decided to take the leap. And again it was a chat with Brendan about how he sort of went full time doing what he did on his own business. And his advice to me, which I'll never forget was, mate, I write my own roster, I play golf when I want to, I pay the mortgage and put the kids through school. That's, that's enough for me. And I'm like, you know what, that's enough for me as well. And so, but I stupidly, I pulled the pin in January 2020 and covert hit February 2020. So I quit my full time job and then went straight into a pandemic 10 pandemic. And so shout out to the Tasmanian government. They gave tour operators quite a few grants to keep them afloat. So that sort of kept me going. And then the good thing about Tassie, that was great when Covert finished, you still wouldn't, you still weren't allowed to travel overseas as such. But Tassie was still a destination you could go to because it was part of Australia. For those who don't know, Tassie is still part of Australia and you could then come down here and do workshops. So I have pretty much been booked out 80, 90 since COVID so it worked in my favor that way. So haven't looked back. My wife still works in child support. She sort of works off the phones a little bit, sort of in the Background, So she doesn't get that. That full on. Yeah, experience. But I still get PTSD from when I hear her come home from work or she's on a meeting or tells me what's going on at work. I just, I pull my hair out thinking I'm so glad I'm not there anymore. And again, you know, I'm absolutely blessed to be able to do what I do on a daily basis. You know, it has its stresses, it has its ups and downs and running your own business and this sort of climate's not easy, but it still beats doing what I was doing, that's for sure. Yeah. [01:43:16] Speaker B: So with, with, you know, running so many workshops each year and traveling a lot, what's the balance of home time at home versus time out in the field on a job? You know, how many months a year are you home? [01:43:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's a tricky one. I did the maths a few years ago. Last year I did the maths about how many days away I was versus how many hours home. And I was still home more than, you know, I'm away for probably 40 of the year, 60, 50 of the year. And then the difference is that you're away overnight, you know, you're sort of away for a week or 10 days or, and then you're home. So like for example, this year I've got almost most of July off, I think, and then we've got a fair chunk over the Christmas break into January off as well. So there's almost two or three months off throughout the year. But it's being away for those chunks of time, it does make it a bit tricky. It's hard to sort of communicate back home on different time zones and things like that. But I think having, having the technology we have these days, like FaceTiming and you know, stuff like that, I can ring the kids up. Like I still get notifications on my phone when I'm overseas that my daughter or son's like trying to get extra time on their iPad, you know, because mom's turned it off and you know, you get the notifications at 2 o' clock in the morning. So. But yeah, my, my daughter's just turned 13, so she's very techy, so she's on the phone all the time or FaceTiming and stuff like that. My son, he's, he's on, he loves his gaming and stuff like that. So you'll send me messages from online and stuff. But we try and catch up most nights if we can and have a chat, but and again, you know, I think it's important that when I am home, you know, I'm present. I'm, you know, there's a lot. There's still a bit of work to do when you get home. But that's the beauty of having this downstairs. I'm not, you know, I can just pop up and downstairs wherever I need. [01:44:59] Speaker B: Yeah, you can separate that. Yeah, that part of your life. [01:45:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, do the school runs and make the school lunches as much as you can. And I find that when I get home, and this is not a dig at my wife sort of is, but sort of isn't. But I find when I get home, I'm on. I'm on washing duty. I'm on, you know, cleaning the house duty. I think she'd last few days before I get home, she's like, well, he's coming home. He's been on a holiday. He can. He can sort that out. I've been doing all the kids and work and all that kind of stuff, which is fair. It works. It's working for now. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. This little couch here folds out as a bed. So there's an option if I do get kicked out. [01:45:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, at least you don't have to sleep on a concrete floor anymore. [01:45:38] Speaker A: That's it. I don't have to do anyway. Yeah, yeah, that's right. You don't. [01:45:42] Speaker B: Just going to jump on a quick comment here because I don't understand who this is or what this is about, but Velk for short says I need to see you two in hot pink mini skirts. [01:45:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:45:55] Speaker B: Velko for short. [01:45:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:45:57] Speaker B: What's your long name? And. And why. Why do you need to see that? [01:46:01] Speaker C: Is it the. [01:46:01] Speaker B: Is it. [01:46:02] Speaker A: Is he referring to us too, or. [01:46:03] Speaker B: I think so. Is it a kink? Is that what we're. Is that what we're dealing with? I'm not opposed to it. I just want to have a bit more info. [01:46:10] Speaker A: Beards and mini skirts. [01:46:12] Speaker B: Pink mini skirts. Yeah. Anything else? Yeah, I don't think this is the right podcast. [01:46:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you. Yeah, this is. This is the camera life. Not. Not the pink life. I don't know. Yeah. [01:46:22] Speaker B: Or the bear life. [01:46:23] Speaker A: You get some strange people on your show. We don't get any, like, anything like that on our show. [01:46:27] Speaker B: It's the risk of going live. And you should see when we have. On our Monday nights, we have our call in number and this Nick Fletcher calls, Dennis calls and Glenn Lavender calls and I sometimes I hate having that call in number. I really do. [01:46:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Especially with those three. Like you couldn't three worst people to call in, could you? [01:46:46] Speaker B: It's trouble, just trouble. Such a attention seekers, each and every one of them. [01:46:50] Speaker A: Yeah, they are absolutely cool. [01:46:54] Speaker B: So I need to ask a question on behalf of Justin because we typically ask this question of every podcast guest or he. He loves to ask this question. So here's the scenario. Imagine that it's the end of the world. Okay. [01:47:08] Speaker A: The virus not far from the truth. Y. [01:47:11] Speaker B: It's not hard to imagine right now. The. The deadly virus is spread. Everyone is turning into zombies. They're coming for you. You need to dash. What one camera and one lens do you grab to document the zombie apocalypse? [01:47:25] Speaker A: Well, I'm not going to do film because that's not going to get developed in time to see the results. So that's out. I would probably grab. I'd probably just grab my M11 that I've got here and chuck a. A nifty 50 on the front maybe and, and shoot the world as I see it or as it ends. Yeah, yeah, probably. Probably a 50 mil lens and my little Leica there that can, can, can handle it and, and see what happens. It doesn't have auto focus, so hopefully they're not. Yeah, hopefully the zombies aren't too fast moving, which they're not. Most movies they're pretty. [01:47:57] Speaker B: Usually a shuffle, isn't there? There's kind of a. [01:47:59] Speaker A: It is. Yeah. So. So that'll be Brendan and I at the end of our workshop next week. That's what I might get some practice shots then. Yeah, but into the world. Yeah, no, I'd be grabbing my camera, a 50 mil lens. I'd probably be finding a little place down here in Tassie, a nice little cottage somewhere maybe in the southwest and just hanging down there and see if the zombies get that far and see how we go. [01:48:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Or maybe just something that's only accessible by sea, you know? [01:48:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:48:26] Speaker B: Little secret cove. [01:48:28] Speaker A: Well that one is almost only accessible by sea and boat or eight days. So that sounds. Yeah, it sounds like. [01:48:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:48:34] Speaker A: Good place. [01:48:38] Speaker B: There was something I wanted to ask you because we have a lot of beef up faithfuls who watch the camera live podcast and for those of you that don't know, BEFOP is the Bright festival of photography. It's held every year in Bright in the Alpine region of Victoria. Cam has been to many and he's been a workshop instructor and I, Justin and I have been to two now and we're going again this year, which is amazing. Can we expect to see you at BFOP 2026? [01:49:05] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I'll, I'll be there. I'm chomping at the bit to get there so. Yeah, yeah, so I'll be there. I'm actually going to get up there a few days early and maybe run some little two or three hour little pre, pref op, blow your cobwebs out sessions. So if folks want to look, look on my website. They're all up there. They're like 100 bucks for three hours and come and get your cameras all sorted out and ask some questions and get yourself ready. But I'll be there. I love be was a big change for me as well. That, that, that sort of netted me a lot of customers from the first couple of BE I did. So, you know, you've got a captive audience of incredible photographers, you know, whether or not they're beginners or experienced, who love getting out and about with their cameras. So to be a tour operator it was a no brainer to plug your business up there. So. But you know Matt, Matt and Nick do an incredibly good job. They, they put on this festival every year. I know how stressful it is for them. They've only got a small team of helpers which you know, do their, do their job well. But it's a, it's a great way. I, I actually sort of, it's a, not a homecoming but it's a, it's a great way for every, all the photographers that we all know each other to also get together and, and catch up for a bit of downtime in the off in the other, in between times, between workshops. Yeah, you get to see lots of people, you know, lots of customers go there. It's, it's a really interesting. Like my grandparents lived in bright for 35, 40 years. So like I was practically a local growing up in Bright. I've been to that many times and getting back to Bright, if I can get back there anytime is a win. But to do it with a festival and you know something that you love so much, it's, it's a real benefit to be there. But you know what, you drive into Brighton, there's people everywhere with tripods and cameras and it's like this is my kind of town. This is, these are my kind of people. And then you know, you walk down the street and you know, you might get recognized, you feel somewhat semi famous because people know you but you don't know them and, but yeah, I'll be there. I'll be there from sort of the Tuesday and then I've got to actually fly out the day after the Monday out to Scotland, so back off to school straight after it. So. Yeah, so you're looking forward to it? Looking forward to catch up with you guys in person, have a beer and, and you know, everyone else that's going along and, you know, meet all the new people that are from your show that are coming along and Brendan and I will probably maybe do a podcast while we're up there as well. I think you guys did like a live thing while you're up there last year, so. [01:51:27] Speaker B: Yeah, so every morning we did a live before we headed to Beef Hop HQ to set up as Lucky Straps because we were there wearing two hats. This year we're bringing a bigger crew. We've got the same prop. Brennan. Sorry, not Brennan. Justin has already booked in our accommodation. We've got the same place we have last year, so we've got a big space with a big table where we set up the podcast and we'd love to have you guys on one morning. Yeah, I know Brendan's often. Brendan. I think last year Brendan was often up, up the mountain very, very early. But yeah, we'll certainly try to tease something up and get a bit of a camera life and down south collab going. [01:52:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, yeah. [01:52:06] Speaker B: Which would be a lot of fun. And yeah, last year was, was such a buzz for us for both the podcast and for the lucky Strap side of things. Lucky Straps proved to be incredibly popular. Yeah, but just that community again. People just coming up and saying, hey, thanks for your beef up booking party. It really helped me a lot. So, yeah, yeah, you know, whatever it may be. So it's, it's. Yeah, it's certainly, certainly a lot of fun. We're looking forward to it as well. [01:52:31] Speaker A: Just. Just to give you an idea of how, how wonderful everyone is at bfop. A shout out to Mel Haddon, who's one of our big supporters on our show. And I'm sure he listens to this show as well and comes on lots, lots of workshops. But off his own bat, last year he put together a Down south photo show, for lack of a better word, piss up. The night before BFOP started at the Alpine Hotel and he, he approached Brendan. I said, look, I really, I know you guys won't be there and Campbell, you'll be away and Brendan will be up Mount Buffalo. I'm out. Hotham, do you mind if I put on this little get together for fans of the show, we're like, mate, what do you need from us? Let's do it. It'd be great. And it started off with 20 people. I think it had about 60 or 70 people by the time Brendan came back. And he off, totally off the own bat. He just, you know, he loves the show that we do. He's very supportive and we love Mel. [01:53:18] Speaker B: He's. [01:53:18] Speaker A: He's a lovely guy and, you know, that's. That's what befop's all about. It's. There's no egos, there's no bs. [01:53:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:53:24] Speaker A: You know, if you're thinking of coming to BEFOP and just getting your big camera out and talking about how good you are, you're not going to last very long. [01:53:31] Speaker B: It's not the festival for you. Yeah. [01:53:33] Speaker A: It's not for you. No. Yeah. So come along. Just enjoy. And the other bit of advice I always give people as well is, you know, there's a crazy moment where everyone's got to book in their workshops and try and get into whatever you can get into, guarantee you're not going to get everything you want. That. That's just be. But it doesn't matter because it's. It's got little to do with what workshops you get into, but everything to do with the whole vibe and the whole community and the whole. The whole weekend. So make the most of what you get. And then also as well, like the photographers that are there, like, we run workshops, but when we're not running workshops, we're generally hanging around BEFOP hq. You know, we're there to help you guys as well. So come and ask us questions, come and introduce yourself, come and tell us what you do or don't like. You know, it's a wonderful event and yeah, I can't wait to get back. It's gonna be awesome. [01:54:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. No, we're certainly stoked for it for this year. We're still sort of. It's still early days, obviously, but we're starting to have some conversations with Matt and Nick about what role we're going to play this year for Lucky Straps and the camera life. Because last year we did all the interviews of all the instructors and yes, we did daily podcast. So, yeah, so we're. We're really keen and, you know, for me, it was one of the best weekend. Last year especially, was one of the best weekends I've ever had. It was just so much fun and so creative and so supportive because of the community. [01:54:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It is it's what it is. What. It sounds cliche, but it is one of those weekends that is awesome. Like, it's, it's always up there. Like, I think this will be. Maybe I've done six or seven of them now. I think maybe it is always something to look. It's always on the calendar to look forward to because it is, it's just that community and it's rare these days where you can go to a. A big event with 4, 500, 600 people and no one's a. And everyone's having a good time and everyone's there for the right time and everyone, you know, everyone's just checking their egos at the door and just there for something they all enjoy. You know, it's good for your mental health, it's good for your fitness, that's good for your, you know, creativity side. And. Yeah, yeah, and everyone has a blast. You know, you got, you know, like Julie from Nikon, she's always the star of the show. You've got you guys there. You've got, you know, you got Wes and you've got the guys from Fuji there. Matt from Fuji. Yeah, you know, you've got all the, all the gang there. That's really fun. And yeah, I always have a ball. It's. Yeah, it's hard not to have too much fun there. [01:55:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's very true. And yeah, like you said earlier, you know, full credit to Matt and Nick for creating something that, that actually can achieve that every year on year. You know, it wasn't a fluke. This is the vibe that comes with bfop. And, and, and I agree with you about booking workshops. You know, if you don't get what you thought you wanted, then lean into what you can get because it will teach you stuff about your overall photography craft. You know, like you were saying earlier about trying different genres. [01:56:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:56:18] Speaker B: You will learn from it. It will, it will benefit you in the long run no matter what you choose to shoot. [01:56:22] Speaker A: So, yeah, if I had a dollar for every time someone at BFOP I'll post B Flop came up to me and said, oh, I had no, no expectations of booking an X workshop with X person, but it was the best workshop I did for the whole weekend. It was completely out of my comfort zone and I learned so much or I had so much fun or I didn't know my camera could do that. Like, it's generally those little pocket surprises that people just get what they can and they end up being the workshop that they have the most fun at. So going with open mind. You got to learn. Like, all the instructors are incredible. Like. Well, I think we are. We're all pretty damn good. We all know what we're doing, you know, and you can sort of just suck us for as much information in that three hours or so and have a great time at the same time. [01:57:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Plus, you know, we get the, the shenanigans, the after hours activities that are just incredible. The way that they can entertain 600 people and everybody is having a good time. It's just phenomenal. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's incredible experience. Getting goosebumps right now. [01:57:23] Speaker A: Times have changed, though. I remember the first couple years I did it, Adam Dyson and myself were renowned for having a few drinks at bfop. Professionally, of course. But now whenever we do the group chat before bfop, well, they did it the year before. They have everyone on the big zoom call. It's like the big Brady Bunch with everyone on there. And it's always like now, yeah, you guys are here to have a good time. And it's always. But Adam and Cam don't drink too much. This is, you know, let's just keep it under control. Like what we haven't done for years, but we're still known for the two that got maybe a bit hammered on the first one we did. But it's, it's a drinking festival with photography is how we used to explain it, so. [01:58:03] Speaker B: I see, I see. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Well, I think that might be a wonderful place and a natural place to tie a bow in today's episode of the Camera Life podcast. And if you'll forgive me, Cam, I'm just going to do a very quick ad read. Yeah, we go live twice a week. Every Thursday morning, 9:00am Australian Eastern, currently daylight time, but soon to be standard time, basically Melbourne time. An interview, live interview, a photography, a photographer and learn about their journey, their craft and what they've done over the years. And then of course, every Monday evening we have our random photography show where we cover all the random bits of our industry. Photography news, product launches, unboxing of gear that we might have acquired and of course your images, where you can send in an image to our show and we'll bring it up on the Monday evening and we'll have a chat about it and, and we'll go from there. So if you do have images you want to send in, we have some limits now because we're getting a bit out of control, but we would love you to send in one image in. If you do Want to send a second image? There may be a behind the scenes shot of whatever your main image was. Just camera specs, not specs, sorry, camera settings and a little blurb about the journey and the experience that you had in taking that shot. And you can send that to justinuckystraps.com and so that's every Monday evening, 7:30pm Australian Daylight or eastern time depending. And of course today's episode of the Camera Live podcast is proudly brought to you by Lucky Straps. That's us. We make handcraft premium Aussie made leather camera straps to fit any camera. We have everything from wrist straps through to much larger, broader shoulder straps for heavier gear. But head to Luckystraps.com and if you do happen to drop a camera strap or maybe a hoodie or a T shirt in the cart, use code Greg for a 15 discount at the checkout. That bit's done. I always. [02:00:05] Speaker A: Very well. [02:00:06] Speaker B: Do you do ad reads on your podcast? [02:00:09] Speaker A: We don't, we don't even barely have a running sheet, let alone a bad sheet. No, we, we don't. We, we, we, we plug our own workshops and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, we're getting, Brendan's getting quite good at. He has a very much a radio voice that he puts on when he wants to do his own little advertising. So. But yeah, we, we haven't incorporated too much of that. But yeah, yeah, you did very well. You did well. [02:00:31] Speaker B: Thanks mate. Appreciate that. Well look, thank you so much for your time Cam. It's, it's always a, you know, it's always great to catch up and hear your stories of your adventures and your travels and your craft. But equally as amazing and important to hear about your journey today. We really appreciate you sharing that with us and we look forward to seeing, seeing you at bfop but also just seeing, you know, what you've got in store for the upcoming years for your workshop. So where can folks go to check out what you've got on offer, your workshops? [02:01:01] Speaker A: Yeah, easiest way is just my website which is www.tazphoto.com that's got all the workshops on there as well. A little bit of merchandise on there as well if you're thinking of buying a hoodie or something like that. But it's got all the details on there, all the workshops and then the down south photo show. We also do workshops. Which one of them? We're starting tomorrow so we do a few workshops a year there, there's a link on that, that to that page as well. But it can be all found on there. Feel free to tune into our podcast as well. We don't go as live and as often as you guys do. I don't know where you and Justin get the time to be honest, but. But we're on there. We've got 180 odd episodes that you can go back and watch. But yeah, no, thank you for having me on. It's like I said, lovely to catch up with you guys and look forward to having a beer with you in BFOP later on in the year. [02:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, indeed. Well, that's brought us to the end of the show, folks. I don't have the outro music because I don't have access to the Steam deck and we didn't think to set that up beforehand, obviously. But thank you to everyone for watching today. Let me just quickly jump through the chat and just say goodbye to some people. Jeff Oz, Underscore Video. Thanks for tuning in. Nev Clark as always. Brendan, of course, and Vork for short. Really want to get to the bottom of that. It's a bit. Cheryl, your right hand person has joined [02:02:25] Speaker A: the chat and get her, get her on the, get her on the show. She'd love to have a chat, I reckon. [02:02:30] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Adam Edwards, thanks for dropping in. LTK Photo. David Liparati, Robert Varna and everyone else, thank you once again for watching the Camera Live podcast and we'll see you on Monday night. Don't forget we're doing a challenge for toy photography. Check out on the social posts. There's some information there about what we want from you. There we go. Find a toy, light it creatively, take a photo, send it into justinuckystraps.com and we'll bring it up on Monday's evening. But that's all for now, so we'll say tata. Thank you everybody. Be safe. Thanks, Cam. [02:03:03] Speaker A: Thanks, mate. Thanks, Greg. See you guys. [02:03:05] Speaker B: See you guys.