Live Reveal and Winners Announced - 2025 Photo of the Year Competition!

[00:00:02] Speaker A: The camera light, the flashing night frame, the world see it. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Right. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Gotta get the air conditioner. [00:00:23] Speaker C: Well, good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Camera Live podcast. This is our first podcast for 2026, and it also happens to be our very special episode for your photo of the year competition. That's right. We are giving away millions of dollars worth of prizes. Million bar, isn't it? [00:00:44] Speaker B: Maybe. Anyway, it might be. [00:00:47] Speaker C: Might be. But, yeah, this is a very special episode. This is the first time we've done this. Now, obviously, every Monday night, we look at your photos, and it's one of our favorite parts of doing this show. Tonight we're going to do that, and we've even got a special guest here with us, and we're going to award some prizes and some praise and, you know, we might even talk about a few of them. But joining us tonight, obviously, we have the boss with us. G', day, Justin. Happy New Year. [00:01:09] Speaker B: Happy New Year. [00:01:10] Speaker C: And to you, sir. And, of course, we are joined by the legendary wild Dennis Smith. How are you, sir? [00:01:20] Speaker A: Wild. [00:01:21] Speaker B: Wild. [00:01:23] Speaker A: I'm amazing. Yeah. Stoked. I've been. I've been up a ladder painting the house for a week, so this is a nice break. And I mean, what an. I mean, how honored am I to be on the first show of the year? So I'm stoked. [00:01:35] Speaker C: Yeah, you are. Justin and I had a fight over it, but, you know, you're here now, so we'll just. But no. [00:01:43] Speaker B: Great to have you on board. [00:01:44] Speaker C: Looking forward to your feedback on everyone's photos. And in a minute, we're gonna. We're gonna dive into even our own best photos of the year. But before we do that, Justin, do you want to take it away? [00:01:55] Speaker B: Well, first, should we do a little quick rundown of the full plan of the show? So I have everyone's images that everyone that sent in their images all queued up, hopefully on my computer, unless I've lost them now. Yelena did a wonderful job of actually going through my inbox, making sure we didn't miss anybody, hopefully, and then putting out a little list. Made a list, checked it twice. Everyone's naughty and nice. And I think I've got everyone's submissions in, and I've got your wonderful words that you added with your images if you did that. So I'll read those out and stuff, and we'll go through them all and chat about them. And then at the end of the show, we'll be awarding each of the winners from our own choices. Mine, Greg's, Dennis's, and Then we will do a people's choice award as well. And I'll give you more details on that just as we start the competition. That's something that you guys will be able to get to decide the winner. What else did we decide on for prizes anyway? That's. [00:02:51] Speaker C: Well, we've got some lucky straps. [00:02:54] Speaker B: Oh, yes. [00:02:55] Speaker C: Some big hitter lucky strap vouchers to give away or you know, store credit, so to speak. [00:02:59] Speaker B: 250 per prize. So there's four of those prizes. [00:03:04] Speaker C: For the main prizes. [00:03:05] Speaker B: For the main prizes. [00:03:06] Speaker C: We might also sneak in a couple of smaller ones for runners up. [00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah, there could be some honorable mentions. We'll see how we go. It depends on the images. The cool thing is is Greg and Dennis haven't seen the images yet. I've seen them, obviously in the process of downloading and organizing them that I haven't put you. [00:03:22] Speaker C: Meanwhile, Yelena did that. You sat back and had a coffee and watched. [00:03:25] Speaker B: You know what? It took me four hours today to organize them. It took longer than I thought. [00:03:31] Speaker C: I retract my earlier comments. [00:03:32] Speaker B: I was, I was very meticulous in making sure that I didn't miss one and that the numbers all matched up. I was like, imagine if I read out the wrong person's image with the wrong description. And I was like, oh, I can't do that. So we know it's serious. [00:03:45] Speaker A: When there's a clipboard, there's a clipboard. [00:03:47] Speaker B: See, he's got the document printed. So where were we? Oh, and so Dennis also has his, his award. His prize will come with a special additional. So it will get the $250 Lucky Straps voucher. But what else will they get, Dennis? [00:04:03] Speaker A: Well, one of the things that I thought I was trying to think what to do for every, you know, what would be a cool thing to donate in the old days in the past it would have been a box of light painting tools. But. But I don't make them anymore. So what I decided to do was you would think of it as a mentoring session, but what I'm going to do is a couple of hours across two hour session and then a follow up two hour session with the person that I choose as the favorite image just to do whatever the heck it is you want to do on Zoom. That can be technical conversation, a business conversation, a mental health conversation, a marketing conversation. Yeah, I do a lot of stuff. And, and, and so yeah, whoever, whoever that person is, we're going to spend three or four hours hanging out on Zoom together. Whether anybody actually thinks that has any Value. [00:04:51] Speaker C: I do. I think it's a wonderful, generous offer. And, you know, and I think it's. I think it's incredible. Just on that you'd mentioned about, you know, some having a mental health chat, I do want to recognize and celebrate that you formally finished your course. Tell us about that just very quickly. [00:05:11] Speaker A: Yeah, so I. So two years ago, I made the decision to study to become a counsellor. Not on the council down at your local town hall, but a counselor in mental health. And the amazing thing, we talked about this the other day, you know, we were talking about with. I think it was Jacinda, Lucinda was talking about mood boards and goal setting. Above my door, above my door over here is a sign that says 5th of January, 2026. And that was my goal across two years, to finish my counseling. At 2pm on the 31st of December, I submitted my. My last paper and I received it this morning and approved, like a pass. So I'm. I'm gonna try and stop people committing suicide. [00:06:02] Speaker B: That is very noble of you. Yeah, thank you. [00:06:05] Speaker A: And I believe. But it's going to be an art therapy practice. I talked about it at Beef Up. I believe that photography and art has the ability to save lives and. And so that will be the core of my practice. But, yeah, I appreciate that, Greg. Thanks for recognizing that, mate. It's been. It's huge. [00:06:20] Speaker C: Especially someone, you know, in. In the senior decline of their years to. Now. Justin, you want to say hello to some people? [00:06:34] Speaker B: I definitely do, yes. And then we'll do a quick what's in Greg's Box? A little quick segment before we get this thing fired up. All right, who have we got? We'll whip through it fast. Philip Johnson was here early. Love to see you, Philip. Greg Carrick says. G', day, boys and girls. Buckle up for a great night of the best photos in the world. That's right. We are, we are officially making this the Greatest image of 2025 competition. Greatest photo worldwide, I guess. I don't know anyone can enter it. It could be worldwide. So, yeah, congratulations to the winners when they do get it. Rodney Nicholson says, Happy New Year, team. Gin and tonic and crumb prawns all around. Ian Thompson. Good to see you. Mark Blotoft. Happy New Year. Felicity Johnson. Lisa Leach. Grant Fleming. Tweak Productions. Happy New Year. Looking forward to seeing everyone's wonderful photos. Who else have we got? Rodney Nicholson wants garlic. Oh, no. Great. Gaelic it is. Party time. Always. Who else have we got? Ltk. David Leporardi. Man, it's a Crowded, Paul. [00:07:39] Speaker C: Quite the crowd. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Yelena says Dennis is looking sharp. Well, someone. Grant says it looks like you're in the movie Entrapment. Can you. Can you slide it? Do you remember that movie I did? [00:07:50] Speaker A: I thought about that before. [00:07:51] Speaker B: I've got my Catherine Cedar Jones. Yeah, yeah. You have to slide under the laces with your butt in the air. That was a highlight of that movie. Yeah. You had to have your butt up. That's right. It's the only way to get under the laser. You couldn't just. You couldn't just slide along the ground like a worm. Sexy. Who else? Bruce Moyle. I'm here for the talk, but also Dennis and crew. Lucinda's heading to Rodney's house for prawns. All right. [00:08:20] Speaker C: Who else? [00:08:21] Speaker B: What else is going on? Nathan says good evening. What's that? [00:08:25] Speaker A: Royalty is in the house. Down the bottom there. Lottie is one of my best friends. She is part of the community. That's exciting. Hey, Lottie. [00:08:33] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Like an amazing. [00:08:36] Speaker C: You are an old card. I got it. [00:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Adorable. [00:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Amazing. [00:08:43] Speaker B: Who else have we got? Tin type man is here. Sorry I'm late. Anthony Stonehouse. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Hi, all. [00:08:48] Speaker B: Looking forward to seeing everyone's shots. Though I might have to catch up on the recording as I need to head out for dinner. Cancel it. This will be better. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I did. I had chops. Tweak. Production says two hours chatting to Dennis would be an awesome prize. I actually. I secretly hope I win it, although I don't think I'm eligible. But Dennis could still pick me. Okay. All right, I think. Oh, and Rick Nelson is here. I think that's everyone. If I missed. Jump. Sorry. It's great to have you all here. Massive show. And. Oh, there is one other prize. So we have had quite a few submissions from previous guests of the show. I don't know how we're going to award this prize. I think it has to be a consensus amongst the three of us. But there will be a photo of the year from a guest. You can't pick yourself, Dennis. And photo of you from the guest. And they will win glory bravely rights glory for the next 12 months. And that's. That's when they'll have to defend their title. [00:09:56] Speaker A: So I reckon that is a great idea, actually. No, no prize. Just glory. Like a crown. Like a sash. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe. [00:10:03] Speaker C: Maybe get a shield made with all those little plaques on it. [00:10:06] Speaker B: Well, I was going to say a trophy, but like some sketchy trophy that's just hammered together With. With whatever I can find in the shed. Yeah. [00:10:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:14] Speaker B: I don't know. Think about it. Anyway. Oh, Liz. Okie. Good to see you. Good day? [00:10:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:20] Speaker B: Okay. Oh. Should we do you. What's in the box? [00:10:23] Speaker C: Let's quickly do it. Let's get this out of the way. Let's get this out of the way. So we talked last week about. Got my knife. Kodak. How do you say it? Chimera. [00:10:32] Speaker A: Chimera. Chimera. I think it is. [00:10:35] Speaker B: I think it's pronounced Shamara. [00:10:37] Speaker A: Sharmara. [00:10:40] Speaker C: Have you got the new Codex? Charmer, darling. And these are blind boxes, which are all the craze right now. I didn't. I didn't grow my fingernails so I could do the ASMR stuff. So we don't know which one I got. [00:10:56] Speaker A: But here's the box. Whoa. [00:10:59] Speaker C: Look at that. [00:10:59] Speaker B: Nice. That there's all the different options. Okay, so that indication on the front doesn't tell you what you're getting. It is from that point on it. You don't. You still don't know. Is that what's in. So on the shelf in. In the jb. Hi. That's what you would see in the camera store. Yeah. Okay. [00:11:15] Speaker C: So there's seven variants. Oh, this. I didn't know this. It's got four different photo frames and seven different colored filters. Filters. I think, Bruce, you got two or three of these as well. Anyone else picked them up since last week, let us know in the chat. And it's got like these. This was 55 bucks basically from JB. Plus I had to get a micro SD card, which was like 10 bucks. [00:11:41] Speaker B: Yep. [00:11:42] Speaker C: Here's the ASMR. [00:11:46] Speaker A: Very sexy little box that. [00:11:48] Speaker B: It is a sexy little box. [00:11:49] Speaker C: When you talk dirty about my box. All right, let's see what we've got. Let's see what we've got. Oh. [00:12:00] Speaker A: Yes, the little gray one. [00:12:03] Speaker B: Nice retro. Jeez, they're smaller than you think, aren't they? [00:12:08] Speaker A: Said the vicar to the older boy. [00:12:13] Speaker C: It's got a USBC and a micro SD card port on the bottom. This. This is half the size I thought it was. [00:12:19] Speaker B: That is tiny controls. [00:12:22] Speaker C: Look at the screen. [00:12:23] Speaker B: That is tiny. [00:12:25] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:12:26] Speaker B: Hold it up. Hold it up to your eye like you were going to take a photo. Oh, it doesn't have a viewfinder, but. [00:12:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it's got an optical. [00:12:33] Speaker B: Does it? [00:12:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:34] Speaker A: What is this, a camera for ants? [00:12:37] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:12:38] Speaker A: Oh. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Wow. [00:12:43] Speaker C: It does video. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Okay, that's cool. [00:12:46] Speaker C: I don't know how. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Set it up as your new webcam. [00:12:51] Speaker A: I was at my in laws the other day and they were going on about getting their VCR player going. So I helped them get the VCR player going. Anyway, long story short, they still had the video camera that they took on their trip in 93. It's inside charging at the moment. That's pretty funny. It doesn't even have a screen. You got to look through the viewfinder. But that's going to be fun to play with. [00:13:11] Speaker B: Nice. [00:13:12] Speaker C: But yeah, it's bloody. Isn't that cool? [00:13:16] Speaker A: Does it have bulb mode? [00:13:21] Speaker C: No. Like we talked about last week, people have been tinkering with these, adding lenses and, and doing all sorts of crazy stuff with it. That is seriously little. I, I, I thought it was twice that size. I love it. [00:13:33] Speaker A: All right, cool. [00:13:33] Speaker C: That's my. What's in the box? Silica, anyone? [00:13:38] Speaker B: I just remembered that before we start this, actually I need to do an ad because we spend a fortune on this podcast, believe it or not, and I need to make sure it's tax deductible. So where is it? I had an idea. You know, if you, if you've listened to this podcast before, you know that we don't really do ads. Where is it? [00:14:00] Speaker C: I do an ad read once a week, but they're always different because I always forget the text. [00:14:04] Speaker B: That's right. Now I can't find it. Of course. There we go. This is how organized we are for promotion. No, that's not it. Okay, I can't find it. [00:14:22] Speaker C: What's Dennis got? [00:14:22] Speaker A: Oh, the film camera. [00:14:26] Speaker B: Oh, what have you got that thing used to get. Yeah, and I took it up, I took it on our holiday and I was like, I'm gonna take some great images. And then I didn't. Yeah, I just didn't, I didn't load film into it. It's a bit clunky to load filming and I never got around to it and I had to Google what is F11. All right, so lucky camera straps. We make leather camera straps here in Australia. If you not familiar with us, check us out Luckystraps.com but I want to read this email out that come through to our customer feedback area to Yelena, because she takes care of everything. And it says, hi, Elena. I just wanted to quickly reach out to you and say thanks to you personally and the entire team for the excellent customer service and product. I've just left an honest review on your webpage. I really do not leave many reviews as usually if I get a product that I pay money for, to me, the transaction finishes there. I only Leave reviews for exceptional customer service. I am impressed with the product, but also with you communicating to me so that I knew what was going on, especially before Christmas. The logo is worth the extra money for sure. And it comes up looking pretty damn good. So I'll leave it there. But I just wanted to let you know that I would have been pretty happy with the strap as is, but the customer service made me double happy. So best wishes for the year ahead and maybe print out a copy of this letter for when you have your performance reviewed later this year and ask for the pay rise that you deserve. Oh, yes. [00:15:58] Speaker A: I love it. Wow. [00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah, Good job. That's the sort of emails that we get and that's how we do ads on this podcast now. [00:16:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:09] Speaker A: And Rick. Yes, it is the Sprocket Rocket. [00:16:12] Speaker B: It's yes, Sprocket Rocket. I've got it. I've got a roll of gold sitting there to go in it. I thought that'd be nice. Nice sort of nice vibe. One final ad before we start the show. Officially, if you're not subscribed, you can't actually win a prize. So if you're not subscribed and you've entered the competition, you better subscribe now. We have no way of actually checking that, but it's a rule, it's an honor system. So, yeah, subscribe. We do two shows a week, Monday nights and Thursday mornings. Australian Eastern Standard time, Monday nights. The fun random shows like this one, where we spend more time interacting with you guys, talking about the news. Craig unboxes things. I unbox things. Dennis just sets up laser beams in the background. Whereas Thursday mornings are our long form conversations with photographers from now all over the world these days. Yeah, yeah. Which are really fun. And you can go back and dig through that whole archive of over 50 interviews with photographers, which is unbelievable. Unbelievable. So, okay, I guess that's it. Is that it? Should we get into it? [00:17:16] Speaker C: Let's get into it. There's a lot of images. [00:17:18] Speaker B: Let's do it. [00:17:19] Speaker C: Oh, we're gonna look at ours first. [00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah. To get the ball rolling, so to speak. Let's start with ours. Be a little bit of a test, warm up. Let me share. [00:17:28] Speaker C: If I could find where I put the photo. There it is. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Which photo? [00:17:33] Speaker C: The photo that I took. [00:17:34] Speaker B: I'll bring it up for you. [00:17:35] Speaker C: Oh, you've got it. All right. [00:17:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I got it. But I'll start with. Let's start with Dennis's. Are you ready, Dennis? [00:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah, let's go. All right. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Here we go. [00:17:51] Speaker A: So I think I've showed. I think I've shared this image before with the group but I took a lot of photos this year and a lot of really ones I really loved. But the reason that I chose this finally is it had a bit of a story and this was a site that's been demolished for a couple of years and this was the very last thing standing on a massive concrete slab like a huge industrial site and it's 100 lit by hand. So I've lit the all the rubble by hand and then done added the light painting. But why it connected with me is it made me. Reminded me that, that something that is completely utterly destroyed in the last remnant of a big large, strong thing can be beautiful and, and that's kind of how it felt for me is, is this. This is a twisted massive beam of steel. Yeah. I love the tonality of it. So it had it all for me. It was a two year project and there it is and it's a. It's a single enclosure. It's. Sorry, yeah I'm my paid note. It's. It's. It was 12:40am It's a 28 second exposure for me is a. That's quite a short exposure. Yeah. It's fully sick by the way. [00:19:14] Speaker C: It is fully sick. [00:19:16] Speaker B: I love how different it is. Like you say you make so many amazing images and some that you would probably. That if you put them on Instagram there's others that would probably get more likes, you know what I mean? More crowd pleasers. Whereas this is. Yeah, that's has something different that you want to show and I like that. [00:19:37] Speaker C: And, and I especially like the fact that this was at the end of, of you know, that two year period that this was the last remaining remnant of something that people used to live in or work in or you know, a structure, something that we created and it's just been destroyed because it's no longer serves its purpose and I think that's really, really, really beautiful. [00:19:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I loved it and, and it. And it means a lot to me this image. I'm going to print it too, which I don't do a lot. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Yep, you should. [00:20:06] Speaker C: Definitely. [00:20:07] Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah thank you. [00:20:09] Speaker C: Wonderful. [00:20:09] Speaker B: Love it. Great choice. [00:20:11] Speaker A: I reckon that would have got 29th place if I had entered it into the competition. [00:20:15] Speaker C: No, nah, at least 25th. [00:20:19] Speaker B: Maybe even crack the top 20. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe. [00:20:25] Speaker B: I love it. It's a great choice and I think. So what do we see? Yeah, Paul says fantastic how the light mimics the structure and that's what I. Yeah, I sort of. It's like, where does it finish and where's the light painting begin? Because of the way that you've sort of mimicked the twisted metal and. Yeah. [00:20:44] Speaker A: I mean, another thing is this. I. This was about the 40th image. The 40th attempt at this image. [00:20:52] Speaker C: Yep. [00:20:53] Speaker A: On that night. [00:20:55] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Thank you. Carry on. [00:20:58] Speaker B: Les Okie says would have won its category. [00:21:03] Speaker A: Thank you. I'm honored, honest. [00:21:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Okay, Greg, let's see if. [00:21:10] Speaker C: Keep it moving. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Oh, hang on. Oh, can I zoom in? [00:21:14] Speaker C: I know it's a macro photo, but you could make it a bit bigger. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it must be. Maybe it's low res or something. [00:21:20] Speaker A: Okay, that's pretty high. [00:21:24] Speaker C: So I shot this one. I showed my X E4. So this was before I got the new camera. And I shot it with the 30 mil Fujifilm Macro, the F 2.8. My settings were F18 11 80th and Plus. I also had the Godox flash and the Cygnus Tech macro diffuser. And this was one of my first. I think this was like my second foray into macro. Like going out hunting for subjects the day before or the few days before I went out and I couldn't capture any insects. I got a lot of flowers and I was happy with those. But I love this image this year for me because it signifies change. It signifies new opportunity to move into a new genre, to explore that. You know, I've talked a little bit about some of my experiences with street photography and how that that whole environment is changing for me and I'm still sort of playing around with what I'm going to do in that space. But macro for me really changed the way that I look at the world. And I think it's really important that I recognize that with. With one of my favorite images from. From that. That experience. So I did find a bug. Finally. [00:22:39] Speaker B: There's a few comments, like there's a few good comments on this one. I love your choice of image for this because. Exactly. Like you said, it's a new. It was a spark on a completely new adventure in your photography. [00:22:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:49] Speaker B: And the beginning of. And. And not that you've abandoned street photography. If anything, I think some of the street photography you've been taking lately is some of your best work. [00:22:57] Speaker C: Oh, thanks. [00:22:58] Speaker B: It. It's almost like this is driven it forward at the same time. I don't know whether it's related or not, but. [00:23:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:06] Speaker C: Well, I think it's inspired me to keep shooting. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:10] Speaker C: Because I often have these lulls. I'm sure we all do at some point. But I often have these lulls where my mental health tanks a bit and the camera just gets forgotten. So, you know, this. This sort of gave me new energy to just keep pushing. So there it is. [00:23:23] Speaker A: Focus. Right. It's that thing. It's focused. And the thing with going macro going tiny is it. It super brings it in. Right. And I think sometimes when you're going like when you're out and or doing landscape or the street, it's still being very focused. But sometimes when you bring it right in tight even mentally you're so zoned in on it and for sure. What a remarkable fly. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Yeah, what a remarkable fly. [00:23:51] Speaker C: He is pretty cool. He stood still for me. [00:23:53] Speaker B: A couple of great comments. Pretty fly for a Greg. The. I liked this one. The. The native resolution showing on my screen is actually Fujifilm sensor size. That's why I had the big black box around it. [00:24:09] Speaker C: Nice. [00:24:09] Speaker B: It was a crop. It was actually a crop image. I need to hang on. I need to fix. I need to fix this so that the comments don't cover up. Dennis, that's better. Save update. [00:24:22] Speaker C: Oh, you can cover. [00:24:23] Speaker B: There we go. No, I don't like it. And yeah, you found a bug. Nice one, Greg. Everyone loves it. Any others that we need to check out? How did you bribe the insect? [00:24:37] Speaker C: I think he was almost dead because he just stood still. I think he was in his last moment. No, I don't know but every time I've gone to, I've done a couple of good shots of bees. Bees are when they're. When they're. When they're tired at the end of the day. Felicity Johnson taught me that. Wait till the end of the day. The bugs get tired and lazy. They don't move as fast. Yeah. But yeah, I was really thrilled with this because it also, you know, I just invested in a new lens. I don't do that very often. And it proved to be able to hold its own. So happy with that. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Beautiful man. And the thing. Without wanting to dwell on every single image. But what I love about it is because the light is so hard to the left, it really gives it shape. I mean getting shape with light is exactly the same principle at macro level or micro as it is big. [00:25:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:32] Speaker A: The shape in his eyes, just incredible. [00:25:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:36] Speaker B: Maybe a prelude of things to come, but there's a few macro shots in tonight's submissions, which is exciting. [00:25:42] Speaker C: All right. What about your. Your favorite image? Justin? Let's. Let's see what you. [00:25:47] Speaker B: Now we saw this just a few weeks ago, so it's no big surprise. We don't need to spend much time on it. But I went through my entire lightroom catalog for 2025. I just organized it by date, started by started, and just worked my way through the whole year quickly, scanning, scanning, just to see what jumped out at me. There's obviously, there's definitely better images, but I was trying to think of something that. That I really enjoyed, and it was this one that we looked at the other week. Yeah. [00:26:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:17] Speaker B: So, yeah, the reason I enjoyed it. Yeah, it's. It's cool image. It's not going to win any awards or anything, except for maybe Dennis. No. Okay. It's not going to win any awards or anything, but it. We were on an adventure, and this was just on the side of the road. We were driving through this snowstorm in a camper and just pulled up on the side of the road and saw this scene, and we're romping around in the snow, taking it. And this isn't part of the image submission, but this sums up why it's one of my favorite images is because right there, Elena was rocking around with the Q3, taking photos in the snow with me as well. And it was just fun, a fun time taking photos for nothing other than fun. And also, the snow is great. [00:27:01] Speaker A: And there's Yelena. Yeah. [00:27:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Superstar. [00:27:05] Speaker B: So, yeah, that was the road right there. And we were just having a fun time, getting cold. Then we got back in the van and kept on driving to Milford Sound, where I didn't get any really good images. [00:27:18] Speaker C: So there you go. [00:27:20] Speaker B: That's beautiful. [00:27:21] Speaker C: What a great story. [00:27:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that was my favorite image of 2025. I narrowed it down to about six, and then it was pretty tough from there. All right, well, maybe. Maybe the portrait would have been a better submission. I don't know. Okay, shall we get into it. [00:27:42] Speaker A: Now? Lisa's saying there's some feedback on the audio. [00:27:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought I was getting an echo, too. I was going to ask you guys, but it's. [00:27:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:48] Speaker B: Seems to stop now. [00:27:49] Speaker C: YouTube open, Dennis? No, no, no, no. All right. [00:27:52] Speaker B: It stopped now anyway. Has it stopped for you, Lisa, and the rest of the chat? [00:27:56] Speaker A: I moved my mic away from the laptop a little bit. [00:27:59] Speaker B: Might have been that. [00:28:00] Speaker C: Might have been that. [00:28:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. All right. Oh, before we start this, I have to have to talk about how we're gonna do the People's Choice Award. Like, so. You guys listening now? Are the people now? I decided to be able to include people that listen back later in this. We can't decide the People's Choice Award tonight. So what we're gonna do. If you're listening to this either now or later, grab a pen or something or your phone. Each image is gonna be numbered, but it will also have the person's name. So write down the number or the name or whatever. And then after this show is aired. You can't do it while it's aired, I don't think. Go into the comments section. Not the live chat, the actual comment section, under the video. And this is how I think we're going to do it. We're going to do it Brownlow style. So in your order, 1. In your order, 1, 2 and 3. No, this will get confusing, though. It's like, you know, three. Three votes for your favorite image, two votes for your second favorite image, and one vote for your third favorite image. That's how I think we should do it. Okay, what do you guys think? Is it too complicated? [00:29:05] Speaker A: That sounds good. Yeah, that sounds good. You do the adding up. [00:29:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And then. And then. So by next Monday's show, I'll add up all of the votes and someone will be the winner. No making a hundred thousand YouTube accounts to vote up your own thing, but I mean, if you've got that time, then. Amazing. Okay, so get a pen and paper and let's get into it. [00:29:31] Speaker C: All right, let's make a start. [00:29:33] Speaker B: Let's make a start. [00:29:34] Speaker A: So should we. Are we going to take turns reading the description? [00:29:37] Speaker B: Well, I was going to read them all, but if you want to, I mean, you've got the paper. Yeah, I'd love it. Do you want to read the first one? [00:29:43] Speaker A: Me? [00:29:44] Speaker C: Yeah. Hell yeah. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Let's go. Because it's a short one. I'll tell you what, there's some crackers here. [00:29:49] Speaker B: There is. All right, here we go. Image number one from Paul Carpenter. [00:29:56] Speaker A: Yeah, Red. Okay, I'll dive into it while you're looking at it. So this is Paul Carpenter, and the image is called, or the title is, Nugget Point, New Zealand. This is my best image of 2025. Not because of the JPEG file you're looking at now, but because this is what I found on the first morning of my New Zealand road trip with my best mate from primary school. Nugget Point Lighthouse is about an hour and a half southwest of Dunedin, and after a 4am start, we clambered up a goat track. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Love it. [00:30:29] Speaker A: To get this view. As the sky absolutely lit up, the image stands out not just for the pretty sunrise, but as a record of the entire experience that accompanied it. Accompanied it. Just magic. And there's no EXIF data. [00:30:47] Speaker B: There might be in the file. I didn't pull them out if they were, but there is. It's F11, ISO 103.2 second exposure. The Canon R5, of course. That's why it looks so great at 35 mil focal length. [00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Rad. I mean, I think it's gorgeous. I love how the light, whether it's intentional or not, I love how the lighthouse connects with the horizon. [00:31:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:31:15] Speaker A: Story. Right. And this is. This whole thing we don't. I'll only say this once because it's 37, but the beautiful thing about this is you see the two dimensions of the image, and what we're going to learn with all of these is the third dimension, which is the story. And I think that's gorgeous. [00:31:31] Speaker C: Yep. Very cool. [00:31:32] Speaker B: Echoed by. By Grant. Sometimes the photo means more to you because of the story behind it. [00:31:37] Speaker A: That's it. That's it. Gorgeous, Paul. [00:31:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Beautiful colors. Amazing work. And with that, we'll move on to image number two, which I can read if you like. [00:31:50] Speaker C: Yeah, you go. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you go. Let's take turns. [00:31:53] Speaker C: Go. [00:31:53] Speaker B: This is. And this is just by pure coincidence, another Paul. Paul. I think it's pronounced. I don't know. [00:32:02] Speaker A: How do you. [00:32:02] Speaker B: How do you pronounce C O M E A U, K, mo. I'd say Mississippi River. View of the Mississippi river from east bank near University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I really like this one because I feel I got the reflection where I wanted a watercolor sort of look. Also reminder that these views exist in the middle of a decent sized city. Also loves the podcast. So this was shot with an X T4. I know, I know. It actually says in brackets with the XF50 to 142.8 at f10.50 mm2.80th of a second. ISO 800. [00:32:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Are we giving extra points if. If they use a camera brand that we like? [00:32:53] Speaker B: You can. Absolutely. It's your choice. It's a. It's a Greggy. You're giving away a Greggy little statue made. Great work, Paul. Thank you for that, for sending it in, I think. You obviously can't listen to our Monday shows because you're in the States and it's a very difficult time zone, but thanks for listening. [00:33:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Amazing image, too. Beautiful. [00:33:16] Speaker B: Up next, you want to take this one, Dennis? [00:33:20] Speaker A: Yeah, let's go. [00:33:21] Speaker C: I'll go on. You go, Dan. [00:33:22] Speaker B: Oh. [00:33:25] Speaker A: I'll go. [00:33:25] Speaker B: Felicity. [00:33:26] Speaker A: And how nice. Because it's Felicity. Native wasp. I love this photo of the native wasp settling down to roost in my Shea oak tree. It is my favorite time of day. The sun was setting and the bugs start to roost, making them easy to photograph. Is taken on a Nikon Z8 with a 105 millimeter 2.8 lens, 200th of a second f11, ISO 200 using a Cygnus Tech diffuser on my flash. Wow. That's right. I think I got all of that. Felicity. That's amazing, isn't it? [00:34:02] Speaker C: Yeah. That's absolutely stunning. And just the compositional values, the. The way that the light falls in the background, the way that the subject separation is so crisp. It's just absolutely. And the way that the. The frame is cut by the. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Yes, the branch. [00:34:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's the lighting in the background. Everyone's sort of. Everyone's. Obviously, we're all flocking to the same thing. It just really makes it. It's a beautiful shape, beautiful colors. It's not blown out, the gradient in the colors. I don't know what it looks like for you guys on the other end of the Internet, but the gradient on the colors on the screen is smooth. [00:34:36] Speaker A: You know, it looks like a studio, right? It looks like it's been shot. [00:34:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:40] Speaker A: Plus. [00:34:40] Speaker B: Let's see. Can we enhance? Oh, yeah. [00:34:44] Speaker A: Jesus. [00:34:47] Speaker B: It's. [00:34:47] Speaker C: That 105 mil is just magic. It really is. And. And, you know, it's magic that Felicity clearly knows how to. How to wield. [00:34:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well done. That was Felicity Johnson. I don't know if we said Felicity's last name. She's just known as. As, you know, the one and only Felicity. [00:35:04] Speaker A: The one is wild. [00:35:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Amazing shot. [00:35:09] Speaker A: Thanks, Felicity. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Sorry, Greg. I didn't know if you got these pulled up as well, if to read them out. [00:35:14] Speaker C: I can. Yeah. I've got a second screen. [00:35:17] Speaker B: So beautiful. All right, what do you want to do? [00:35:20] Speaker C: I will do the next one, which is Philip Johnson. [00:35:24] Speaker B: No, I've written a different. [00:35:27] Speaker C: Oh, no, I misread it. It's Phil Thompson. Sorry. [00:35:29] Speaker B: Phil Thompson. I was like, sorry, what have I done? Well, I thought I was dirty. [00:35:33] Speaker C: I dropped the ball. Milford, miss. This shot was taken during the first cruise. First morning cruise with Mitre. Peak Cruises on the April 14 this year. I was literally hanging on to the hand railing on the stern of the boat with one hand and camera in the other, just shooting. My daughter and I stayed at Milford the previous night. Began raining about 10pm the night before and just didn't stop. Water puddles and waterfalls everywhere, apparently 144, 143 mil of rain in 24 hours and winds gusting up to 78 km blowing the waterfalls back up the rock faces. You can. You can see that the turmoil in the. In the environment. It's amazing. This was shot with my camera, is a Pentax K1 Mark 2. And I had the 28 to 105 lens on that trip. Settings were 1/5 of a second. F14,200 ISO. It was edited in ACDC Photo Studio Ultimate. I've never heard of that. [00:36:31] Speaker B: Me neither. [00:36:32] Speaker C: After being run, it's acd, the capitals and then cse. Yeah, part of it. And then after being run through DXO, Deep Prime. [00:36:43] Speaker B: Yeah. The motion is everything. The 1/5 of a second is everything in this image. I would have probably just snapped it at a fast shutter speed because the boat's moving and everything's moving and you're just like, oh, yeah, that's a photo, you know, and then it's just a snapshot. But this has, this just draws you into it. And the fact that it's included has, has two of the other boats in the frame. Yeah, but. [00:37:06] Speaker A: And they. And, and, and they're sharp. The one, the one at the front is like sharp. That's crazy. [00:37:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:12] Speaker A: What a great image. [00:37:13] Speaker B: Now. Oh, wow. This. This is a big file. Hang on. Let's get in on the boats. [00:37:19] Speaker C: Oh, look at that. [00:37:20] Speaker A: Yeah. That's sick. Ass. [00:37:22] Speaker C: That's crazy. [00:37:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:23] Speaker A: And of course, Milford Sound. [00:37:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Now I'm gonna go back out because I wanna. I promised that I would not just love every image tonight. And I needed to do some critiques. And this is a very, very tiny critique because I love this image, but it seems like that we've got a handrail down the bottom. Can you guys see that? I probably would have cropped that out. [00:37:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:45] Speaker B: Personally, because it's not much. You wouldn't lose much of the image. You're not going to lose, I don't think any major, like no major features. So that. That's probably my only critique. But other than that, I love this image. [00:38:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Super rad. That's a technical term there. And the judging world. Super rad. [00:38:09] Speaker B: High prad. [00:38:10] Speaker C: Super rad. Yeah. [00:38:11] Speaker B: A couple of quick comments because we do need to keep things rolling, but we've got yet the movement, the mood is amazing. That is wild. Unreal. Getting seasick. And. [00:38:22] Speaker C: And that's from Rodney. [00:38:24] Speaker B: He lives on the sea. Motion is incredible. So much of the image. Love the backdrop. It's all about the motion. And Rodney Nicholson says, pentax, there's always one. [00:38:37] Speaker C: Nice. [00:38:39] Speaker B: Okay. All right, I will do the next one. And that is David Leporardi. I told you, macro's a strong, strong player. Yeah. He might be having a little. Little renaissance. And this is. And of course, it's. So David Leporati says I have too many images to choose from, infrared, macro and more. But this photo of a bee, which is also. I think he's shown on the show back in September, is one that I'm extremely happy with. The color, clarity and lighting really make this image shot on Fujifilm XD2 with the 60 mil Macro micro nickel lens, manual focus, 1 25th of a second, F11, ISO 250 with the Godox 480 flash, manual power, and a macro flash diffuser. [00:39:34] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:39:35] Speaker B: And he goes on to say, photo. This is from the man himself. Photographing bees is harder than photographing aircraft, as bees don't fly in a predictable way and they can sting you. [00:39:49] Speaker C: Yeah. Can we zoom in on the head of the bee? [00:39:52] Speaker B: We can. We absolutely can. Hang on. Oh, no. [00:39:55] Speaker C: Oh. Oh. That was very close to be doing. Look at that. [00:40:00] Speaker A: I mean, that's so sick, man. He's gonna have his. That he's got little. He'll have, like, spots on his sensor. Those yellow dots on his eye be like dust removal. His brain would be dust removal to get. [00:40:13] Speaker B: To get the pollen out. Look at it. Look at its little. It's got little claws. [00:40:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:40:21] Speaker B: Wow. [00:40:21] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:40:22] Speaker A: I think the thing with macro, right. There's this whole. There's this whole gig. I did some jewelry photography macro once, and there's sort of this desire to have everything front to back in focus. I love having a shallow depth of field in macro photography. [00:40:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's. I guess the hard thing is it's like even. Even at F11, it's still shallow. You know, that's where it gets tricky. The closer and closer you get. Yeah. It's like. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Amazing. [00:40:53] Speaker B: Yep. Paul says all those macro images have been spectacular for their detail, composition, and even the background. Yeah. Top shot. Yeah. Grant says Super Hornet. To be. To be. But still. Yeah, everybody is. Bees are hard. I've tried. [00:41:11] Speaker A: I've tried. Yeah. Bees are hard. I'm furiously making notes here so that at the end I can go. Yeah, that's the one. [00:41:19] Speaker C: Yeah, same. All right, let's jump to the next one. [00:41:23] Speaker B: Okay. [00:41:26] Speaker C: Cracking image. David. [00:41:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:28] Speaker A: I'll take this one. [00:41:29] Speaker B: One of you boys take this one. All right. [00:41:31] Speaker A: All right, let's Go. This is Jason Dagan chilling it. Amazing show from. Chilling it. I love the energy and the happy faces from the crowd. [00:41:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:43] Speaker A: This is the 19th of December, 2025, chilling at red Artist Whalers and the Band Room. Warnam Ball, which sounds like it's in Australia somewhere. 904pm, Adobe Black and white conversion in Lightroom. Blah, blah, blah. Technical stuff, but there's a bit of tweaking going on there. F8 on a Sony A7 III. Yeah. 20 mil prime. Holy moly. Just the greatest Sony lens ever. If it's the G. Yeah. [00:42:14] Speaker B: Nice choice. Nice choice. [00:42:16] Speaker A: That's a stunning lens, man. What a great photo. Hey, there is a wild energy going on there. [00:42:22] Speaker C: There's huge energy going on. [00:42:24] Speaker B: Tons. [00:42:24] Speaker A: I love. There's a guy looking at the camera, too. You gotta love that. [00:42:28] Speaker B: Oh, there is too. I didn't spot it. Hang on. [00:42:30] Speaker C: Is he under the elbow? Right at the end of the elbow. That one. [00:42:34] Speaker B: This one? [00:42:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Look at that. And these chicks, man, they're like so into his abs. [00:42:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the package. Yeah. [00:42:46] Speaker A: That's great. [00:42:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's great. And it's great, too, because it's like, you know, this isn't. This isn't a giant festival. You can tell it's a small venue. You can see, like, look, you can see PowerPoints, you know, up on the ceiling. Like, it's a. You know, it's just a small venue, but the crowd is packed in there and they're stoked. Great shot. Great black and white choice, too. [00:43:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:06] Speaker C: But it just hits you straight away, doesn't it? That energy, that. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep. [00:43:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that's very cool. [00:43:12] Speaker C: I love it. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Yeah. David. Left, right, black and white. [00:43:16] Speaker A: I'm photographing my own daughter's wedding in. In. In 10 days. And I'm going to be trying out this style a lot. With that, you should here with the Q3 and a flash. [00:43:27] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [00:43:28] Speaker A: Nice photo, Jason. [00:43:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Question here. What's the ISO on this? So it's. [00:43:34] Speaker A: Oh, sorry, sorry. We want a full technical breakdown. Sorry. No, I mean F8, ISO 201, 125th, which is interesting. And a 5500 white balance. So he's going full manual on the 20 mil. [00:43:55] Speaker B: Very, very cool. Yeah, yeah. This is where Lauren says, I'm thoroughly impressed by his deltoids. Yeah, exactly. [00:44:06] Speaker A: So are those women in the front there? [00:44:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, up next. [00:44:15] Speaker C: All right, so it's over to me. We're doing Andrew Connor, number seven. [00:44:19] Speaker B: Yep. [00:44:20] Speaker C: Andrew Connor, Mount Buffalo. Taken from top of Mount Buffalo. Whenever I Go to the high country. Just got to go up top and hope for a cloud inversion and those magical mountain hues at sunrise. The colors on this day around Easter were lovely but not spectacular. However, I really like the way the clouds almost formed a waterfall over the peaks here. Converted to black and white as the original was more dull pre sunrise. Those morning blues that almost distracted from the subject, I thought. Shot with a Sony RX10 Mark 4 bridging camera. 1-80-F 5.6, ISO 250 all handheld. [00:44:59] Speaker B: Nice. [00:45:00] Speaker A: Cool. [00:45:01] Speaker B: Very, very nice. I've never taken a photo like that. That's so cool. Never seen that. I don't think. [00:45:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Mitch. Mitch just said stunning. I actually thought it was an ocean shot at first. So did I. [00:45:13] Speaker A: The way that. [00:45:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:45:16] Speaker A: It's like water flowing off rocks. [00:45:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:45:22] Speaker B: That's a beautiful shot. [00:45:23] Speaker C: I wonder how high up that is. [00:45:25] Speaker A: Must be high, man. Like. [00:45:26] Speaker C: Yeah. Like if the clouds are under you like that. [00:45:29] Speaker A: Well, Buffalo. It might not be, actually. If it's at Mount Buffalo. [00:45:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:36] Speaker A: I wouldn't have a clue, really. I just love it. [00:45:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:38] Speaker B: Yeah. It's got grant. It's gotten granted. [00:45:41] Speaker C: Frothy. [00:45:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Damn. That's sick. I'm jealous. I want to get up there and do a long exposure of this. Yeah. Long exposure would be very interesting. [00:45:50] Speaker C: Tallest mountain. [00:45:51] Speaker A: Yeah. It would be like water flowing. Because you can tell. Well. But isn't it neat? What I love about it, isn't it nice that at 1-80th of a second, it still gives you that feeling of flow, Right. Of movement and flow, which is really nice. [00:46:05] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. [00:46:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Without losing detail or just making it. [00:46:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:08] Speaker C: You know, Glassy. Yeah, that's it. It's still got texture, it's still got depth, but it's got lots of movement. Yeah. It's really well done. [00:46:15] Speaker B: This is a good question. How many times do you need to get up there to capture this moment? Yeah. Yeah. [00:46:20] Speaker A: That's it. Right. [00:46:21] Speaker C: Yep. Gotta be present. [00:46:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:24] Speaker B: All right. Are you all in the crowd? You all taking notes on your favorite images? Don't forget, this is very important. The People's Choice Award is possibly the biggest award of this whole thing, so. [00:46:37] Speaker A: Could be. [00:46:37] Speaker B: We need you. Yeah. Without you, we don't have a People's Choice Award, so make sure you take some notes. Remember your favorites. [00:46:47] Speaker A: Without you. [00:46:53] Speaker B: Okay. [00:46:53] Speaker A: You can have that one for free. [00:46:55] Speaker C: Yep. Good. [00:47:00] Speaker B: Image number eight. [00:47:01] Speaker C: Number eight. [00:47:02] Speaker B: Shane Baker, water polo. Oh. This image was captured at the recent New South Wales Water Polo State Championships in Sydney inside the dive pool At Sydney Olympic Park, a venue notorious among photographers for its challenging low light conditions. What the photograph reveals is the raw power and relentless athleticism of the athletes. Every moment demands explosive swimming speed, brutal physical contests and the ability to rise vertically from the water while locked in combat with an opponent. All of this happens while maintaining tactical awareness, reading the play and fighting off the constant threat of being dragged under. It's a sport that offers no respite and no margin for hesitation. Despite the difficult lighting, the scene allowed for a dramatic rendering of intensity and motion. This image was shot on a Canon R1. I knew it. That thing's so good. With the RF100 to 300. 2.8. Oh, stop it. 2.812 and a half thousandth of a second ISO 8000 freezing. The split second where strength, balance and instinct collide. [00:48:15] Speaker C: Now I, I love this image and, and I get the description that, you know, this is, this is about human power, like it's about athleticism. But I'm pretty sure I saw Dennis Smith do the same thing in the. [00:48:25] Speaker B: Ovens river in Bright, you know. Oh, you know what I, I was saying, I wish I had. So if I had have had this guy, this Shane Baker's amazing one with the 100 to 300, I wanted to get some like close up shots of you where it's just like your face and hands. Yeah, yeah, that would have been so good. [00:48:50] Speaker C: Anyway, I didn't mean to take us away from the image but. [00:48:54] Speaker A: Here'S, here's the thing, right, So I, I don't, I don't have the high res of this. Are you able to punch in sort of around his face somewhere there? [00:49:02] Speaker B: Yes. Let me just. [00:49:04] Speaker A: I've got a comment on this that the R1 is the fancy paints cannon at the moment, isn't it? [00:49:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:49:10] Speaker A: What's amazing right is is if this is at ISO8000 and I'm happy to, happy to be, you know, for, for him to mention this, if this is@, @ ISO8000, it's probably been through some noise reduction, right. And noise reduction is very, very good these days. But a great file and a great image holds up to a bit of noise reduction. So often, you know, you'll put these things through, through a modern noise reduction piece of software or even lightroom and it just turns it to mush. It has held up so incredibly strong to do that because there's. Yeah, like either that or I'm getting an R1 tomorrow. That's what it looks. [00:49:53] Speaker C: Like. Amazing for. [00:49:55] Speaker B: That. Yeah. I was going to say I did. I shot a fair bit with it at the. At the beef up. [00:49:59] Speaker A: 2024. [00:50:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And while, look, the high ISO wasn't miles above my R3, but the R3 is exceptional as well. And yeah, it's eight. 8,000 is like. It's nothing. But I can't. I can't tell from this file whether I can't tell if it's had, like, aggressive noise reduction or not. It. [00:50:21] Speaker A: Doesn'T. I mean, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, but. But it just. That's what boggles my mind with modern cameras. Right, Is how well and modern it is. But that's insane that you can get. I mean, how the hell would they have done this in 1893? It would have been. [00:50:37] Speaker B: Complicated. Yeah. Large. Amazing. Amazing image. Shane, Great work. I. Yeah, I. I don't know. Just awesome. I can't imagine how hard it is. I've shot a little bit of, like, swimming and stuff like that. Just. Just trying to nail focus can sometimes be a nightmare, you know, let alone get a great moment. And obviously the R1 is built for it, but especially in a venue that's. That's not. Because, yeah, if you. If you go too much lower on your shutter speed, you're starting to get motion blur and stuff like that. Like, you can see. You can see in the face that the. Like, you can see the. That tension and stuff in the skin. You know, like, you'd lose that otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. Great. [00:51:19] Speaker C: Work. Very. [00:51:20] Speaker B: Cool. Love it. Love to see some sports in. [00:51:22] Speaker C: There. Yeah. You. [00:51:24] Speaker B: Know. All right, our next image is Flip from Philip. [00:51:31] Speaker C: Johnson. [00:51:36] Speaker A: Okay. Can I take. [00:51:37] Speaker B: This? Yep, go for. [00:51:39] Speaker A: It. Philip Johnson. And the title of this image is Glory Location. Govitz Leap Lookout overlooking the Gross Valley. I like to wonder. It's where the dawn light reaches the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. And when conditions are right, light and mist is magical. Shot on a Sony A74F 3.51, 1,600 of a second at ISO 320 and 70 mil. Gorgeous. [00:52:15] Speaker B: Man. Yeah. I love the way the. [00:52:18] Speaker C: Shot. It just feels like a veil, like a. Like a thin veil over the land. Like, it's not like it's dense like fog. It's just. It's just like a layer. Like a layer of. [00:52:26] Speaker B: Lace. Yeah. Look at that coming. [00:52:29] Speaker A: Through. Yeah, the. The. [00:52:32] Speaker C: Trees. [00:52:33] Speaker A: The. The light hitting the. [00:52:34] Speaker B: Trees. [00:52:36] Speaker C: Yeah. And I love the crop. The crop is. [00:52:39] Speaker B: Gorgeous. [00:52:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Look, it's cinematic, right? Like that, that. You know, there's a few dust spots on a sensor there. I think all my Screen's very. [00:52:48] Speaker B: Dirty. No, they, I'm just, I'm looking at them now. They are on the file, I think and I don't know, it depends what. What Phillips used to. To edit or, or whether this is potentially a jp. I'm not sure, like straight out of camera maybe. But yeah. [00:53:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Well that would be remarkable if it. [00:53:04] Speaker B: Is. If it. [00:53:05] Speaker C: Is. [00:53:06] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it's. [00:53:07] Speaker B: Gorgeous. What a. [00:53:09] Speaker A: Spot. It definitely needs a bit of light painting on the left hand side. [00:53:13] Speaker B: There. A little. [00:53:15] Speaker A: Orb. Oh, that's all I ever. I. I'm blown away with images when I can just immediately see something now that's beautiful. [00:53:24] Speaker B: Philip. Yeah, great work, Philip. The first time I saw this I was like, oh man, that's one of those mornings that you just wish you could get but you don't. You know, you do the hike or you do the. You get up there or whatever and that, that. Yeah, this thing's just magic. I'd love to know how many times that. That shot you. You wanted and how many attempts, you know, how many times exited that. [00:53:47] Speaker A: At. Yeah, well that's. [00:53:48] Speaker B: It. The right time. [00:53:49] Speaker C: And. Yeah, well he lives in that hood, so yeah, amazingly he's got access to that when he. [00:53:56] Speaker B: Can. Yeah, very cool. So good. All right, up next, this is Our first number 10. This is our first guest photo submission of the night. And I think it's only after that that Greg reads it out because we've got the same. [00:54:15] Speaker C: Name. Yeah, well that makes sense. Isn't that insane? So insane. I've seen it multiple. [00:54:24] Speaker B: Times. [00:54:25] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, let me read it out. My composite photo of the September 2025 lunar eclipse taken from Burke's Lookout, Mount Dannenong over four hours, capturing the whole eclipse. Moonshots then composed in an arc over a photo of Melbourne from the same position with the same camera lens combo. The Milky Way taken with longer exposures. The stars weren't showing up in the sky with short exposure. Fujifilm XC4 for the win. Tamron 18 300, which is not the sort of lens you'd go to for a macro for a Astro shoot, but that's very Greg Carrick obviously. Multitude of exposure triangles as each shot required changes. All editing done in affinity. [00:55:08] Speaker B: Photo. Yeah, so good. That was Greg Carrick by the way. I don't know if we read out his surname, but just for those of you that aren't familiar, friend of the show, Greg Carrick and such an impressive like just, just undertaking, you know. Yeah. And be like, you know what, I'm gonna give this A. [00:55:28] Speaker C: Go. Yeah. [00:55:30] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just time and time like that. That's the. I didn't even really know how the hell you'd put something like this together in post, but it's certainly if. If that camera has not moved, which is what he's suggesting. And. And it's the same lens the whole way. And. And it's like. That is pretty sick. [00:55:49] Speaker B: Man. [00:55:50] Speaker A: Yeah. How cool. Planet Earth is so. [00:55:54] Speaker B: Red. [00:55:55] Speaker A: Yeah. And Greg is a bloody good. [00:55:58] Speaker B: Photographer. Yeah, he. [00:56:00] Speaker A: Is. That's. [00:56:00] Speaker B: Cool. I think he even. I. I purposely didn't look at them, but I think he had a few social media post trying to sort of get the. The group's opinion on. On what image to submit. It's very smart. Very smart way to go about. [00:56:16] Speaker C: It. [00:56:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So cool. [00:56:20] Speaker A: It's. [00:56:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Very proud of you. It's an amazing. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Shot. [00:56:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Technically. [00:56:24] Speaker C: Wild. Lots of praise for. [00:56:26] Speaker B: Greg. Yes. He's just quickly, before you do the crazy says 19 images in this. [00:56:31] Speaker C: Thanks. [00:56:33] Speaker B: 19. [00:56:34] Speaker A: Yeah. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 19, 16, 17, 18, 19. That's actually pretty amazing, actually. One for each of the. [00:56:45] Speaker B: Moons. [00:56:46] Speaker A: And. And so it would have been one for each of the moons. An astro. And then the sky and then. [00:56:52] Speaker C: The foreground, then the city and then the. [00:56:53] Speaker B: Foreground. Yeah. [00:56:55] Speaker A: Yeah. And then put together in photo. Photo join. [00:56:59] Speaker B: Amazing. Yeah. Epic. [00:57:01] Speaker A: Work. It must have been beautiful sitting there through that as well. Right. Like, what an amazing meditation on the awesomeness of the. [00:57:09] Speaker C: Universe. [00:57:10] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. Until. Until you muck up one of the shots and then your meditation turns to just absolute. [00:57:16] Speaker A: Fury. That's when AI just comes. [00:57:23] Speaker C: In. Help. [00:57:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Even so, this is a good point. Like, awesome composition. Yes. You know, this is the stuff. Like, it's even just sort of planning it out, choosing the location to try and pull this off. There's so much into it beyond just the fact that then you have to execute the photo. [00:57:42] Speaker C: Yeah. And then shooting it with the. [00:57:44] Speaker B: Telephoto lens and a Fuji. [00:57:47] Speaker C: Insane. Shut. [00:57:48] Speaker B: Up. No, that's enough of that now. We got heaps more of those. This show is just getting started. Whatever. All right. Shall I read out the next one? [00:58:03] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah, go. [00:58:03] Speaker B: On. Okay. All right. Jamie Vanden Brink, AKA Twig Productions, contemplation of a classic. This photo is of Grant Jordan, aka Red. He has just wheeled out his 1960s Triton race bike out of the pit garage at Queensland Raceway and is just about to fire it up to race. This bike is not pretty. Not built to win, but built to race. It is a legacy of the. To the passion of motorcycle racing. The owner of this bike, Ian Milton, raced it in the 90s after he retired from solo racing. His son then took over the seat. Red has now been entrusted with this family's pride and passion piece to keep the old girls motor alive and humming around the racetrack. Ian was just awarded a lifetime achievement award by Motorcycling Queensland for keeping these classic machines running for the next generation. I have a heap of photos of bikes at speed and in action, but I love this moment of quiet contemplation from the rider before firing up over 60 years of history. Pit lane is usually a place of constant activity, but it just felt like everyone in pit lane was waiting to hear it roar into life before they could join it. Thanks for the consideration. Hope you like my photo. And it's. [00:59:26] Speaker C: Story. Yeah, very cool. Beautiful story. And the. [00:59:32] Speaker B: Composition. What's. [00:59:35] Speaker A: That? Can you zoom in on his face? Have you. [00:59:37] Speaker B: Got. I. [00:59:37] Speaker A: Can. I bet there's a catch light in his eye from that amazing. [00:59:41] Speaker B: Tank. Oh, I can't get any closer than that. But it does actually look like his eyes. You can see on. [00:59:47] Speaker A: My. Yeah, the light on his face bouncing off that tank is. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Gorgeous. Yeah. [00:59:53] Speaker C: Yeah. Can we go. [00:59:53] Speaker A: Back? I'm a bike guy, so this. [00:59:57] Speaker B: Is. You're a bike guy. Hang on. I'm struggling to get. For some reason, unless I go, nope, I don't know how to get it. [01:00:05] Speaker C: Back. I love the way. [01:00:05] Speaker B: That. Nope, I know you've done. [01:00:08] Speaker C: It. Just leave it. [01:00:10] Speaker B: Stop. Okay. I'll just have to leave it there. I can't get it back to, like, where it fits the. [01:00:14] Speaker C: Window. There's a couple of things about this composition, and I mean, granted, it was Jamie, wasn't it? Jamie. [01:00:21] Speaker B: Didn'T. [01:00:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Didn't create these colors, but saw them. You know, you've got. You've got your primary colors, you've got leading lines. You've got beautiful depth as well as the meaning. You know, even without hearing the story, there's. There's obviously something really important going on. [01:00:36] Speaker A: Here. Yeah, yeah. The composition is super special. Right? Like open space, blank space, whatever you want to call it. Insert composition. Technical. This. This idea of contemplation and where he's going in the open space waiting to be filled. And I also know the noise that is coming out of that bike. And it would be cool. It would be echoing because there's no one there. It would be echoing but knowing if. If, you know, all the goosebumps are crazy. If you know that noise, then it makes the contemplation and the silence, even more powerful. [01:01:12] Speaker B: Cool. Yeah. [01:01:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:15] Speaker B: Beautiful. [01:01:16] Speaker C: Epic. Very. [01:01:17] Speaker B: Cool. All right, let's go. [01:01:21] Speaker C: To. To a good friend, Lisa. [01:01:25] Speaker B: Le. Hang on. Lisa. [01:01:29] Speaker A: Leech. Yeah. [01:01:31] Speaker C: Wicked. I'll. [01:01:35] Speaker B: Go. Voice of gravity, Lisa Leech. A huge thank you to you, Greg and Jim and Grant for welcoming me into the camera life community and becoming such an intrinsic aspect of my journey. Well, Lisa, you are the winner because you're the, you know, the most praiseful of us. Congratulations. No, I'm kidding. That's how we roll. Show's over. [01:01:56] Speaker C: Folks. Lisa's won it. [01:01:57] Speaker B: All. Yeah, she says in the comments now, apologies. I forgot about adding a narrative behind the image. That's okay. No problem at all. A few people just put, this is my favorite image. And that's no problem at all. Don't stress. Your image is still amazing. You've had a wonderful year of growing as a photographer at warp. [01:02:13] Speaker C: Speed. Absolutely. [01:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:15] Speaker A: Silky. And also these. These. I've not done a huge amount of waterfall photography, but what I do know is it takes some kahunas to get to where this image is. Unless there's a viewing platform right there. But it's slippery. You'll be constantly washing, getting water off your lens. You'd be fapping. [01:02:35] Speaker B: Around. And that's actually the big. The big one. You get a shot, and by the time you get a shot, you've got to wipe the water off, start all over. [01:02:43] Speaker A: Again, and getting down and experimenting and shooting and getting back down. It's slippery and dangerous. But there's this. There's this really nice leading line here coming from right to left, and I like the duality of the stark, hard rock. And then on the other side of the image, the rich, deep, lush forest. I think that's really. [01:03:08] Speaker C: Gorgeous. Yep. And again, a unique. A unique crop factor. Going one to. [01:03:14] Speaker B: One. Yeah. [01:03:15] Speaker A: Square. Yeah. Yeah, good point. Love that, actually. [01:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Lisa also says I've fallen in many waterfalls this year, so that. Yeah, adds to the. [01:03:28] Speaker C: Story. [01:03:28] Speaker B: Wonderful. Okay. Oh, another. Another friend of the show. Another previous guest coming up. Who wants to take this one. [01:03:42] Speaker C: Away? I'll do this one. So this is from Levin Barrett. Oh, my God, look at. [01:03:47] Speaker B: That. Now, just quickly before you say that, some of these, I've added a name because I needed to have a name in here, so they weren't all titled with, like, a photo. So. So some of them I've just added, you know, that this. This is what it was referred to as very presumptuous. No, it's just I had to. There was no other way for Me to organize them in my, my system so they're not all titled, but most of the ones that have like a. An important sounding name like, like Lisa's voice of gravity. I didn't make that. [01:04:16] Speaker C: Up. Right. Did you make up this. [01:04:19] Speaker B: One? That's what I'm trying to remember. I think I'm second guessing everything. I think I might have just called it. [01:04:24] Speaker C: That. [01:04:24] Speaker B: Okay. Because that's all right. That's what it. [01:04:26] Speaker C: Is. This is from Levin and someone has titled this photo. I just thought I'd throw this image into the mix for 2025. Photo, Year of the year, comp. I can't help myself. I love a comp smiley face. If I'm not eligible or you don't think it's appropriate, given I'm a previous guest, just ignore it. Nah, we're gonna do. We're gonna use it. This is an 11 shot panorama. 4 for the foreground and 6 for the sky. That's insane. Sony R7A7 Mark 5. A7R Mark 5. Sorry. Sony 20mil. [01:05:05] Speaker A: F1.8G. Dennis 20mil. [01:05:08] Speaker C: 1.8G. 13 seconds F2.2 ISO 4000. I devoted three days in the Wimmera to getting some Astro. Turns out there is nothing out there. After driving for hours with only a farmhouse every 30 minutes, I was beginning to panic. Finally, with minutes to go before sunset, I spotted this shed in the middle of a paddock in the distance. Turns out it was next to the road, easy access and just perfect for what I was trying to do. Perfect skies, great subject, wide open space, and even a grass fire in the distance. Oh yeah, where is. [01:05:41] Speaker B: That? Oh, maybe I'm. No, I could be managing it on. [01:05:44] Speaker C: Here. Grassfire in the distance made for a perfect evening and arguably my shot of the year. Maybe it was out of frame, but it was just part of his experience. That's. [01:05:54] Speaker A: Insane. Yeah. Look, there's a couple of things I love about. [01:05:57] Speaker B: This. [01:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys know that I do a bit of Astro and I'm the opposite. It's always one shot, blah, blah, blah. But there's something. And so inherently I find Astro stuff a bit sort of yawny. But there's a couple of things I love about this. One is that it feels as unnatural as it feels. I love Astro. That feels quite natural. It's not like overly brutally punch saturated and like this feels kind of, you know, the muted and stuff. And the other thing that I think is good and shows the skill of Leaven as an astrophotographer is that he's lit the Foreground by walking about 50 meters to the right hand side and then done his illumination of the foreground, which gives shape and shadow and all that stuff. Yeah, I think it's absolutely gorgeous. Yeah. [01:06:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Justin, can you just. Can you just push into the bottom right corner for me? Yeah. So you've got this, you've got this beautiful arc of the core of the Milky Way in the sky, but in the ground you've got this. This mimicking lines in the ground that are also semicircle. It's gorgeous. It's just magic, isn't. [01:07:14] Speaker A: It? Now what people? What. [01:07:16] Speaker C: People? What? [01:07:16] Speaker A: What? I don't know if, if I'm. If it's not obvious to everyone, but sometimes it's hard to understand exactly what you're seeing here because obviously, or no, not obviously, the, the beginning and the end point of that are going from, you, imagine from hard left across you and over to the other side. So the. The panorama of the stars is out of proportion to the foreground. And, and I think. And I think again, that's another thing that can be really brutally overdone and just made really gross and, and getting that sort of nice even arc and stuff takes. It takes real skill. It does. [01:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:08:00] Speaker A: Amazing. And the foreground is light painted, which I. [01:08:03] Speaker B: Love. Which you like. I think you hit the nail on the head. It's like creating a night sky image that looks as magical as it is when you're out there in the middle of nowhere, but not trying to make it look. Look more magical, just so it pops when you put it on. On social media or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's striking, that balance on making it look natural, which is very difficult because you're doing something that's a little bit unnatural because the camera has so much trouble. You know, you can't just quick snap of it, so no way. So well done. A lot of love in the comments. Tim Sciamma says, love this. Really want to learn Astro using Panorama Drama specifically. David Leporati says, stunning image. Felicity, otherwise known as Flick. There's quite a few corrections earlier. Flick says, incredible shot. And yeah, lots of tweak productions. Always want to try Astro. Yeah, it's stunning. Beautiful. [01:09:00] Speaker A: Beautiful. My. My image that I was. [01:09:02] Speaker B: Gonna. [01:09:02] Speaker A: My. My second choice to put in was an image I made out on a salt lake where I adjusted the aperture and the focus all in one exposure. So I was. I lit the foreground, foreground element, did light painting and then refocused onto the stars and, and adjusted the aperture and then kept exploding the stars. That was fun. That's crazy. That is really. [01:09:27] Speaker B: Crazy. [01:09:29] Speaker C: Okay. All right, who's up next? [01:09:31] Speaker B: Gorgeous. Who's up next? We've got. Where is it? Liz Okie. [01:09:40] Speaker A: Holy. I'll go for. [01:09:42] Speaker B: This. [01:09:43] Speaker A: Okay. Liz Okie. Hopetown Falls Attached is my favorite 2025 shot from 23rd November at Hopetown Falls in Victoria's Otways with some editing info and what a flat raw version look like before editing. That would be interesting. The mask I created is a bit like using the Burn tool in Photoshop. I was pleased because I got some great shots. While I like them. I got off my butt on a crappy weather day knowing it was good waterfall weather. I met an online acquaintance, Jill Fry or Gil Fry, and her husband Ian on the track into Beauchamp Falls. Amazingly, I met Cam Blake in a similar way. That's okay, mate. You'll. [01:10:25] Speaker C: Yeah. You'll recall we all make. [01:10:26] Speaker A: Mistakes in a similar way with his family, but it's Springbok Falls in Queensland. I want to say thanks to you, Greg and the whole family team for what you are providing to the photography community, Justin. It is creating a community and enjoyment. ISO 64f 11.6 of a second at 15mil. Well, there you go, Liz. That is. [01:10:54] Speaker B: Wild. It's a beautiful. [01:10:56] Speaker A: Shot. Yeah, it. [01:10:57] Speaker B: Is. [01:10:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Waterfall shots. Yeah, there's a lot but, but it's, it's really, really. [01:11:08] Speaker B: Nice. It is really. [01:11:09] Speaker A: Nice. [01:11:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Very quickly is. I just want everyone to know because I, I didn't. We didn't maybe missed it is. It's number 14 image number 14. Sorry, we might have missed it. Sorry. Go on. What you like about, about. [01:11:24] Speaker A: It? Yeah, I. Look, I, I. What I love about it is, is all the, all the technical stuff. Yes. The leading line, the position it, the exposure time is really nice that it gives that, that, that not too. Although the water coming off the waterfall is really sort of, you know that, that long exposure look. I love how the water in the foreground because he hasn't gone stupid long. You still get that sense of, you get that sense of the water moving rather than it being all misty. And I think that oh my God, how embarrassing. This is ADHD forgetting names. Who's our legend mate at BFOP that does waterfall. Did the waterfall book but he was one of the great presentations at BFOP where I learned that waterfall and long exposure water photos don't have to be 98 seconds. You can, you can shoot at, you know, what do we got here? You know, 0.6 of a second and you still get movement but you get texture in the water. That's what I love about it. And that my first reaction was Holy. Yeah. When it popped up on the screen. There's something magical about. [01:12:30] Speaker C: That. Thank. [01:12:31] Speaker B: You. Yeah. Was it Adam. [01:12:33] Speaker A: Dyson? [01:12:34] Speaker B: Yes. At who you're referring. [01:12:35] Speaker A: To? [01:12:36] Speaker C: Yeah. I never got to meet him this. [01:12:37] Speaker B: Year. Mark with the. [01:12:38] Speaker C: Assistant. It was his first year, I think, wasn't it. [01:12:41] Speaker A: Adam? [01:12:42] Speaker C: No. I might be thinking of someone else. The thing that I love about this, this image and the experience that it kind of evokes for me is that often by, you know, by the, by their nature, waterfalls are in often in like a gully, you know, in a, in surrounded by walls of rock or, or whatever. And there's also that, that, that the noise of waterfalls is so intense because it's, it's relentless. You know, when you stand next to a big waterfall and you almost can't hear the person next to you. I love that part of that experience. And this sort of, this reminds me of. [01:13:17] Speaker B: That. You know what's really fun about waterfalls in places like Bali, when there's. [01:13:24] Speaker A: A whole lot of dicks. [01:13:25] Speaker B: There. Yeah. So when influencers want to get their photo taken under the waterfall, they walk under and they realize it's like getting hit with nails falling from a four story building and they're like, ow, ow, ow, ow. They're trying to stand there and look good for the photo. Anyway, I, Yeah, the green. So the greens. On my screen, the greens look so perfectly exposed. They're not. None of them have clipped or anything like that. Yeah, obviously. I assume there was a filter probably on like a CPL or something to maybe if not just amazing work, just not sort of over editing the greens or anything because they just look just right. Like they, they're vibrant but they're not. Nothing's clipped that I can. [01:14:06] Speaker C: See. [01:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So great CPL filter. Yeah, really, really. [01:14:12] Speaker A: Good. So, yeah, wicked. [01:14:14] Speaker B: Liz. Yeah. Great. [01:14:17] Speaker A: Work. Everyone's a beautiful photograph, mate. And you get a half a bonus point for mid for mentioning Cam Blake and his. [01:14:23] Speaker C: Family. Yeah, well played. [01:14:25] Speaker B: Sir. Well played, well. [01:14:27] Speaker C: Played. Let's, let's move along. Number. [01:14:30] Speaker B: 15. Yeah, I'll read this one out because I did make this, I did make this name up. I, I had to title this one. I had to title this one Salvage because it didn't have a title and it says, hi everyone, I'm a huge fan of the show. Michael, how do I pronounce this? Seneschal. [01:14:49] Speaker A: Seneschal. Yeah, sure. [01:14:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Hi, everyone. I'm a huge fan of the show. I've been listening for a while, but this is my first time reaching out. That's what I love about this competition. We've had quite a few people sending images that, that aren't able to be in the chat because they might listen later or whatever. So it's really cool to have you guys joining in and we're learning your name and it's. It's awesome. So thanks, Michael and everyone else. It says I wanted to submit this image because it taught me a lesson in salvaging a shoot. Well, maybe you be the judge. LOL. A friend of mine recently picked up the Nikon 180-600 mil lens, which I also own. So we met up to take photos of birds with our same lenses. I was shooting with my Nikon Z8, but honestly, I wasn't happy with what I was getting. The birds were erratic and distant, and even at 600 mil, they looked tiny in the frame. However, because I was shooting at 30 frames a second, I realized I had captured long sequences of flight paths. I decided to combine the sequence into a single composite image. It allowed me to take a shoot that felt like a failure and engineer an image that I like far better. And I really like. I. I think it's really. [01:16:00] Speaker A: Cool. So this is a. [01:16:01] Speaker B: Composite. It's a composite. It's not. If it was a single capture, it would probably be automatically at the top of my list because I was like, wow, what are the chances of getting all these, you know, like, in that framing. But even as it accomplished it. And I love the story of taking something that felt like it didn't go well and going well, I can still make something out of this that I really like. And I, I. [01:16:23] Speaker A: Really. I just removed the dust spots from his. [01:16:25] Speaker B: Sensor. Oh, did you think. Did you wipe them off your own screen? Oh, hey, isn't that the worst when you start. We used to do that when we're editing Weddings and you start it, you start removing spots and you're like, oh, that's on my. [01:16:38] Speaker A: Screen. Birds are hard. Hey. And, and I, I think I, I. When you see the light come through the feathers like that, it's. [01:16:47] Speaker C: Just. [01:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So. [01:16:49] Speaker B: Beautiful. Yeah. [01:16:50] Speaker A: So. So they're all, oh, wow. [01:16:52] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. They're all. [01:16:55] Speaker A: Yeah. How. [01:16:56] Speaker B: Cool. I just love that idea of going, well, what? I didn't get what I wanted out of this shoot. What else can I get out of. [01:17:04] Speaker A: It? Yeah, yeah. And play. And play. [01:17:07] Speaker C: Experiment. And. [01:17:08] Speaker B: Bravery. So great. [01:17:11] Speaker C: Work. Very cool. All. [01:17:13] Speaker A: Right. And that sounds coming. [01:17:15] Speaker B: Up. Yeah. [01:17:18] Speaker C: Yeah. What was it? 180 to. [01:17:20] Speaker A: 600. Yeah, yeah. Some crazy. [01:17:22] Speaker C: Thing. Next up we have Anthony Stonehouse. I'll read this one if you're okay. Barangaroo Wharf. Here we are. Let me just see it. Okay. Catching up on episodes. But here's my entry for the end of 25 comp. After work I often head into the city with my camera and no real plan apart from taking the long way home and seeing if something interesting happens. I love that. That is such a cool approach to your craft. On a summer evening in February, I decided to catch a ferry from Circular Key to Barangaroo, hoping for a few harbor shots and maybe something happening on the ferry itself. I already knew the Barangaroo wharf well. I'd photographed the sweeping roof structure there before. So as we pulled in I had my camera ready. Then out of nowhere this guy jumped up in front of me and took this almost the same shot I was lining up. It was strange that he didn't seem to see me there with my camera ready for a split 7 second. Everything just worked through. Everything just worked though. Sorry. His hat echoed the shape of the wharf roof. And even his red backpack lined up perfectly with the red pylon and warning light above. It wasn't planned and it didn't last. He took one photo and moved on. That's what makes this moment memorable for me. I spend a lot of time walking the city after work looking for small moments of. Of composition and most of the time that don't quite come together. This time I had the background in mind, but the subject appear unexpectedly and for once I was ready. The image was shot on an adapted Sigma 14 to 24 on a Nikon ZF. It was big awkward setup that I've since sold and the only time I really tried ultra wide street photography. But for this one moment, it was exactly the right. [01:19:00] Speaker A: Tool. Funny how someone describes a Nikon ZF as a. As a awkward, big awkward. [01:19:08] Speaker B: Setup. Yeah. I mean the, the 14 to 24 I guess is pretty. [01:19:13] Speaker A: Big. Yeah. It's a chunky bit of. [01:19:15] Speaker B: Glass. It's a chunky. Yes. [01:19:17] Speaker C: Yeah. It's a big. [01:19:17] Speaker A: Kid. What a cool story. Hey, what a neat story. Like someone. Yeah. [01:19:21] Speaker B: Again. [01:19:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And you can sense of place. You can see the, the tower thing up on the left there. I mean if, you know, I. I have no idea what Balanga bungalow warfares, but it's very. [01:19:34] Speaker B: Cool. Yeah, I like it. It. It has that quirkiness about it that you See, Yeah. From certain street photographers that. That sort of. They chase this kind of stuff. Quirky people mirroring objects and. And things like that out in the world. Colors and shapes and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, it's definitely got that feel about it. So. Yeah, well. [01:19:56] Speaker A: Done. Yeah, very. [01:19:58] Speaker C: Cool. Very cool. [01:19:59] Speaker B: Indeed. Okay, number. [01:20:03] Speaker A: 17. Number 17. Mr. [01:20:06] Speaker B: Thompson. Take it away. [01:20:09] Speaker A: Dennis. Yeah, I'll take this because my good mate, Ian Thompson. Cradle Mountain from Dove Lake. Cradle Mountain from Dove Lake. 9:32am In. In February. So would have been. I know, warm. Would have been warm. 1/20 of a second. F11 Canon 600D with an 18 to 218 mil. Ian. My very first ever camera was 50D and an 18 to 200 lived on that, so that's pretty rare. Metadata was included in export overseer. Cradle Mountain was one of the trip highlights of our four months in. [01:20:53] Speaker C: Tasmania. That's a bit. [01:20:54] Speaker A: Luxurious. He had a circular polarizer on. Yeah. 18 mil and a 600D. That's all of it. Wow. There you. [01:21:03] Speaker B: Go. Hey. [01:21:04] Speaker A: So. Yeah, that's amazing, isn't it, that. I'll tell you what blows my mind when I hear a story like that of. Of the camera that it shot on is. There you go. It's a. It's a. It's like an old camera with. [01:21:22] Speaker B: A. With really. [01:21:23] Speaker A: Old. Which is fun. The 18 to 200 is a. It's like a kit lens. It's like a base kit lens. And that's an absolute banger of an image. Right. All the details there. The. The dynamic range is there. Yeah. Wicked. I love. [01:21:40] Speaker B: That. It's. It's like. Yeah. Instead of spending the money on cameras, spend the money on four months in. [01:21:45] Speaker C: Tasmania. Yeah, very. [01:21:47] Speaker A: True. It looks good upside down as. [01:21:50] Speaker B: Well. [01:21:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [01:21:51] Speaker B: Amazing. Look at this. I know that. [01:21:55] Speaker A: Place. Mr. Blake. Hey. He's coming on the show, isn't. [01:22:02] Speaker C: He? Yeah. The week after. [01:22:05] Speaker B: Next. [01:22:06] Speaker C: Yep. Joining us on a Monday. [01:22:07] Speaker B: Evening. Yeah. What a shot. Yeah, the. [01:22:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Ian. Gorgeous. [01:22:14] Speaker B: Mate. Yeah. You got to get pretty good conditions to get that. A reflection like. [01:22:18] Speaker A: That. Oh, yeah, that's. That's the one, isn't it? Like it's all there. Yeah. Gorgeous guy. And you can feel it like. I don't know. I imagine it's always cold in Tasmania, but February would be. February would be. February would still be quite warm, I suppose, in that way. Yeah. Lovely. I love that photograph. [01:22:37] Speaker B: Thanks. Yeah, thank. [01:22:39] Speaker C: You. Very well. [01:22:40] Speaker B: Done. Yeah. Okay. Number 18, Simon England @ the Hunter Valley Zoo. I took this photo. Are you. [01:22:55] Speaker C: One. [01:22:56] Speaker A: Behind? No. I thought I had One of them in my backyard the. [01:23:00] Speaker B: Other day. Oh, one of the birds. [01:23:02] Speaker C: Okay. Sorry. Yeah. [01:23:03] Speaker B: Oh, wow. I took this photo in November 2025 at the Hunter Valley Zoo. They have an open Avery where you can walk amongst the birds and do not have to fight the cage mesh. I took this with my om1 body and the 40 to 152.8. And the mc20 teleconverter fitted. I fit it. I filled the frame by zooming into 190 millimeters F 5.6 for the soft background. It's as low as the teleconverter will let me go. And ISO 1600 because it was an overcast day and I wanted to keep the shutter speed up 1,250th of a second. Mr. Lightroom cleaned up the noise for me. I picked this photo because it proves that I'm getting my head around taking a decent picture. I was able to choose the correct settings so the right bits are in focus, the right bits are out of focus, and the subject is in the correct area within the frame. There is still a lot of luck required, but I'm starting to minimize its impact on my. [01:23:59] Speaker C: Photography. [01:24:00] Speaker B: Process. Nice. And I. [01:24:02] Speaker C: Love that. Yeah, that's really good to be aware. [01:24:04] Speaker A: Of that. That's a beautiful sentence, isn't it? There's a lot of luck required, but I'm starting to minimize. [01:24:11] Speaker B: The impact. Yeah, exactly. I, I, When I read that, I was like that. That's exactly it. That's how, that's how you get better. You're like, well, you know, still may or may not work out, but, but you get it's less and less. [01:24:24] Speaker C: Impact. Yeah. Can we zoom in on the eye, please? I always love zooming on the. [01:24:29] Speaker B: Iron Birds. Ready? Whoa. Look at that. [01:24:34] Speaker A: Fire. Yeah. And for what it's worth, the, the my. For all the Leica and, and Sony and all the gear I have when I'm traveling, when I'm on the road on my passenger seat is a 40 to 150F 2.8 Olympus Lings. Really? Yeah. It's my drive around. Yeah, I, I have the, the, yeah, that's that with a M1X, but, yeah, that's my absolute travel lens. It's remarkable. What a. [01:25:05] Speaker C: Beautiful. [01:25:05] Speaker B: Photograph. Yeah. Yeah. Great work and great. Yeah, great. [01:25:09] Speaker A: Everything. Let's. I mean, my, my, my challenge, Simon and I, and this would be fun for you to try. I don't know if you have the photo. I don't know if you have photo access to Photoshop, but if you, if you, if you. [01:25:23] Speaker B: Draw. [01:25:24] Speaker A: A. That. That branch in front of the bird. If you draw a mask around it and then do a. An AI. Whatever it is, remove or fill, you'd be quite blown away with the result of how it will. [01:25:37] Speaker B: Look. Perfect. Yeah. Like it would. It would take that image to the next level in terms of it looking. Yeah. [01:25:44] Speaker A: Really? Yeah. I mean that's the luck thing. You can't. You can't. You can't stop where the. [01:25:48] Speaker B: Where the. The. [01:25:49] Speaker A: Branch is. Yeah. With the branches. [01:25:51] Speaker B: But yeah. You speak up and snap. [01:25:53] Speaker A: It off. Yeah. You better remove that. [01:25:55] Speaker B: Really. [01:25:56] Speaker C: Easy. Yeah. [01:25:57] Speaker A: But. Yeah. What a stunning. [01:25:59] Speaker B: Camera combo. Yeah. [01:26:01] Speaker A: As well. And you've. [01:26:02] Speaker B: Killed that. What a beautiful rainbow lorikeet. Rainbow Lorikeet. Apparently Lucinda gets him in. [01:26:07] Speaker C: A. [01:26:07] Speaker B: Backyard. Yeah. And. [01:26:12] Speaker A: New Zealand. We don't get any. [01:26:13] Speaker B: Colorful ones. Greg. Greg Carrick says a good composition. Even a bit of catch light and yeah, there is a little bit of catch light in the eye just to really make it pop. Yeah. It's looking at you. And Cam Blake says I hear Simon now has a new 50. [01:26:29] Speaker A: To 202.8. Which is a. Which is a sick piece of. [01:26:34] Speaker B: Glass, man. Yeah. Lauren just got that lens. Yeah. And Grant says these birds are a photographer's dream. [01:26:43] Speaker C: Those. [01:26:43] Speaker B: Colors. Yeah. Oh, and our friend Bruce is here. He just says sorry for not commenting. Watching, listening and color grading a short film on a deadline. That's how it's done. Multitasking. Good. [01:26:54] Speaker A: Work. Okay. Can I have. [01:26:57] Speaker B: This one? Absolutely. This. [01:27:01] Speaker A: Is. [01:27:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh. Who. [01:27:02] Speaker A: Is it? Oh my God. So this is Mr. Nick Fletcher. Are you in the. [01:27:07] Speaker B: House, Nick? Number 19. We're up to. For anyone following along. Guest. Former guest of the show. So he's in the. [01:27:16] Speaker A: Guest category. Yep. Amazing. And also for those that don't know, semi founder of the Beef Up Festival. And I imagine we're about to learn the astonishing story behind. [01:27:28] Speaker B: This image. I titled this one. [01:27:32] Speaker A: Too, unfortunately. Did you? Yeah. Nice. Definitely not my best photo of the year, but the one that spikes the most emotions. This was taken at our base camp at Amadablam. Kami was our Siddhartha, the Nepalese dude who runs the base camp and all the expedition logistics. An important person when you're going mountain climbing. He was a super calm guy and was probably the most respected man in the Khumbu Valley. He'd run more than 30 seasons on Everest along with a host of other mountains and there was nothing he hadn't seen. He was the guy who coordinated the rescues when it all went. [01:28:10] Speaker B: Pear. [01:28:11] Speaker A: Shaped. Wow. He had four. Sorry. He had four yaks he was really proud of that wandered around base camp causing general chaos. This photo was taken after Kami had sent Ganesh, the cook's helper, to shepherd the naughty yaks out of camp just as the afternoon fog rolled into camp, leaving the mountains exposed above. I was holed up in the mess tent as the temperature was about to drop from pleasant enough in a light jacket to. Good God, that is bloody freezing. Said waiting. But I poked my head out in time to see the mix of light, errant yaks and a somewhat bored Ganesh. I shot one frame and then headed back in for tea and cakes. Fuji GFX R100 RF in uppercase. A shot without ibis or a tripod. You guys rock. Well, there. [01:29:10] Speaker B: You go. You. [01:29:11] Speaker A: Rock, Nick. And again, you know, this just. This just dives into this whole concept that by the nature of a photograph, it's two dimensional. Right. But the second that you start to learn the how, the why, the story behind it, all of a sudden it just started. Just sort of folds into three dimensions off the screen. And I know Nick and his wife Evelyn were away in the. In the Himalaya climbing, and so there was probably a lot of stuff going on for them at the same time. Time, so. What. [01:29:44] Speaker B: A. [01:29:45] Speaker A: Treat. Yeah. An astonishing photograph. Yeah, it's nuts. And. [01:29:52] Speaker B: Gorgeous story. Everyone's pretty stoked with. [01:29:55] Speaker A: This one. Yeah, yeah. [01:29:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Beautiful composition. Great shot. Great black and white. Makes me want a. [01:30:02] Speaker A: GFX100RF. Yes. Without. [01:30:07] Speaker B: A tripod. Tintype man says, how on earth are you going to choose a winner? It's a great question. That's a great question. I think we've got a bit of a plan for how each of us are going to choose our winners because we just pick what we like. But what's going to be tough is us choosing the guest. The guest image of the year. That's going to be very difficult, actually. I don't really think. [01:30:25] Speaker C: That through. That's okay. We'll. [01:30:27] Speaker B: Get there. We'll get there. We just. [01:30:29] Speaker C: Have to. I know the stakes are high, but we'll. [01:30:31] Speaker B: Be okay. They are high. [01:30:34] Speaker C: It's glory. There. [01:30:35] Speaker B: Is glory. I would. I would imagine Nick would love to go home with that trophy. [01:30:41] Speaker A: But doesn't. I'm looking forward to hearing some stories of that trip. It sounds like. [01:30:44] Speaker B: There was. [01:30:44] Speaker C: I. [01:30:45] Speaker B: Know. [01:30:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like some pretty wild going down, that's. [01:30:49] Speaker B: For sure. Yeah, yeah. Rodney says my score sheet is. [01:30:53] Speaker A: A nightmare. You want to see mine? It's. [01:30:57] Speaker B: Like it's. Yeah, yeah. Who would have thought with. [01:31:03] Speaker C: No ibis? Yeah, I. [01:31:06] Speaker B: Don'T know. I don't know how. So just remember, you guys that are scoring at home alongside us with the People's Choice Awards, don't include Nick Fletcher in the People's Choice because he's a guest. He can't win that one. I'm sure he would like to, but if they're, if they're a guest, hold them off. But I'll figure that out. We'll work it out. Okay? Lawrence, don't. Don't second guess your image choice, Lauren. It's great. Don't. [01:31:33] Speaker A: Second guess. Joy is a. [01:31:36] Speaker B: Great choice. [01:31:38] Speaker C: That's. [01:31:38] Speaker B: Right. Absolutely. I think, I think that's actually what I titled your titled your image. All right, here's a lesson for the next time we do a comp. Title your own images. Otherwise I might muck it up and just make something up. Okay? The next image, image number 20, very frequent image provider to the show is the one and only David Mascara. And I'll read this out because I love this photo. David Mascara and I titled this one Hate Ashbury District. The metadata is Nikon F2 as on HP5. Smiley face. This was my favorite street photo of the year because it so represents the Haight Ashbury District district in San Francisco. The free spirited people of this district make you feel like you're back in the 60s or 70s. This was taken on the day celebrating the Grateful Dead. So many throwback characters, it was hard to choose. If you guys aren't familiar with this district, it's where free love and hippies probably originated from. So many bands and artists lives lived here. Too many to listen. If you know who Jim Marshall is, then you know this district. He was best known for his photography of this area and all the great bands that have come through here. Happy New Year to you and all your cast and viewers. Thanks, David. Do you see what the. [01:33:10] Speaker C: Sign says? I can't. [01:33:12] Speaker B: Read it. [01:33:14] Speaker A: Hang on. [01:33:17] Speaker B: It's hilarious. [01:33:18] Speaker A: Three Hungry. I mean, you couldn't AI that, could you? You couldn't. You couldn't make. [01:33:23] Speaker B: It up. Well, you could now. It's probably trained on this after we've shown it on here. But. But prior to us showing it, you probably couldn't. [01:33:29] Speaker A: AI it. So he shot this on. [01:33:32] Speaker B: Film, right? Yeah, yeah. And look at this dog. That is. [01:33:38] Speaker A: The best. God, there's a lot going on. [01:33:41] Speaker C: In this. There is a lot. Yeah, there is. [01:33:43] Speaker A: A lot. There's a lot going on. But there's something quite remarkable about there being this sort of Whole section through the middle that is really clean with the guy in it. Yeah, is. Is crazy. Yeah, I love that. And. [01:33:59] Speaker B: Obviously pretty. Yeah, it's kind of. Kind of divided into thirds with a busy top and a busy bottom. And then there's. [01:34:07] Speaker A: Clean center. Yeah. [01:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And especially when, you know, it's like you can't just take. Take 10 different angles of this or whatever. It's not. I don't know how long that that dog was chilling up there. [01:34:20] Speaker C: But. Yeah, but he has that knack, doesn't he, of seeing. [01:34:25] Speaker B: The. [01:34:26] Speaker C: Moment? Yeah. And he's ready to press the shutter. Like he. He sees. He sees everything at play very clearly. And he pushes that button right at the precise time. [01:34:36] Speaker A: Really clever. The. [01:34:38] Speaker B: Decisive moment. Exactly. Okay, who we got next image? Chris Q. Yep. Hang on. Get myself working. Yep. Go. [01:34:52] Speaker C: For it. All right, this is image number 21 by Chris Q. Korean Friendship Bell. Hi, guys. This photo was taken on April 25 last year. This is a photo of the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro, California. My family and I traveled to San Pedro. Is it San Pedro or Pedro from Las Vegas, Nevada, for my father's funeral. We were there for a few days and I found myself going on solo photo walks. By going out a few hours before waking up my family and by going out a few hours after everyone had gone to bed. This is my favorite photo of 2025 because it reminds me of the positive impact of that photography has had on my life. By being a form of therapy. I began photography for the creative and artistic aspect. And now that I have a young family of my own, I use this medium to capture the ever fleeting moments of daily life with my wife and children as well. This photo was taken on a Sony A7C Mark II with the 2452.8G 24mm ISO 500F7.1 and 1130 of a second shutter edited in. [01:35:56] Speaker B: Luminar Neo. [01:36:00] Speaker A: Great. Boom. I love the color. Just. There's so much craziness. [01:36:05] Speaker B: About. [01:36:05] Speaker A: This. Yeah. I mean, you've got to. [01:36:08] Speaker C: Assume. [01:36:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. This is me trying to see. [01:36:12] Speaker B: It properly. Yeah. Sorry. It's. It's. It's looks way better on a big. [01:36:15] Speaker A: Screen. The. I really love it. I love the. The. Com. Well, either the composition or the crop. I'm presuming it's. It's one one or the other. How. It's just a whole lot of space at the bottom. Makes the. The building rise up out of the. Out of the. [01:36:33] Speaker C: Shop. And. And of course, I travels. [01:36:36] Speaker B: Into it. It's interesting you say that because now that I was actually thinking, I was like, I wonder what it would look like as more of a panoramic crop. But now that you say it, you would be tempted just to frame up and get more of the colorful sky. But I think that would. Wouldn't look as nice as this, you know, I mean now that I'm thinking about how it. Because. Because that like the roof line curving up towards the top of the image. I. Yeah, yeah. One thing I can. Sorry, I was just gonna say I can. I can say on, on my screen, the image is edited with a perfect balance of. Of trying to keep all of the colors and everything like that, but without just going overboard, you know, there's no overhyped colors. There's no trying to push the shadows too much. It looks very natural but also. [01:37:26] Speaker A: Very vibrant. It's, it's. And of course what is missing from the left hand side of that sort of. It's a perfect space there for a bit of light painting up the stairs, just round to the left there. That is like a perfect, perfect spot for a bit of light padding, mate. What an absolutely gorgeous and what a stunning. Of course, very close to. [01:37:49] Speaker C: My heart. [01:37:50] Speaker A: Great story. What a beautiful story. Right? What a just a. Like I can feel the calmness. I can feel the calmness that he is feeling there. I can feel the serenity, the peace. Gorgeous. Wow. Okay. [01:38:04] Speaker B: This is great shot. Great. [01:38:09] Speaker A: Shot, Chris. [01:38:09] Speaker C: Yeah, lovely. [01:38:11] Speaker B: Well played. All right, we'll keep it moving. We are over halfway through. Just quickly. Chris was also the only person to send me a tiff file. I don't know if that, if that means that the extra care taken in the edit required more color data, more bits. But. [01:38:29] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. Or did I say that. [01:38:31] Speaker B: Out loud? All right, we will keep it rolling. Number 2222 from Brett Wooderson. I'll read it. Read this one out titled it Maguire's Motorex Attached is my favorite image from 2025. It is not the best, but the one that I felt summed up what I'm trying to do with my photography moving forward. I started focusing on car event photography in 2025 and whilst most photographers just focus on the cars and sometimes the people, I'm trying to focus on the overall picture. I think it's the landscape photographer coming out of me. Thanks for a great year. Looking forward to 2026. And this was shot on EM1 mark II. 90 mil F 2.8. 2000th of a second at ISO 200. It's a very interesting point. Do people at car shows get. Get sucked into the cars a bit too much? And don't. Don't take a step back and try and get in the overall vibe of. Of these festivals. The vibe include the Ferris wheel, you know, include some of the stuff going on in. [01:39:42] Speaker A: The background. That's the first thing I thought when I saw this as well spotted. And, and having. Yeah. And having the. The thought to come back and. And get it. And there's people in the Ferris wheel too, which is cool. Yeah. [01:39:58] Speaker B: Really nice. Yeah. And the, the particular rides and stuff, they're not easily dated. They don't look very modern. So it's actually kind of tricky to tell when this photo. [01:40:11] Speaker C: Was taken. Yeah, there's like this American fairground kind of thing. [01:40:17] Speaker B: Going. [01:40:18] Speaker A: On. Yeah. Yeah, very cool. I love the Rod and the Monaro. I was in a Monaro GTS in New Zealand when I was very young, maybe sub 10 years old. And the person driving it fell asleep and we went through a fence and into a paddock. Yeah, hilarious. And drove away. So it wasn't too bad because in New Zealand there's no giant gum trees on the side of the road. But yeah, that's really nice photo. And did I see here Olympus M1 Mark. [01:40:49] Speaker B: II? [01:40:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. Yeah, you. [01:40:52] Speaker B: Sure did. All right, up next, another guest image. This one is from our friend. [01:41:04] Speaker A: Lucinda Goodwin. That's. [01:41:07] Speaker B: Not fair. I'll go again. Missy Higgins at Port Fairy. This image of Missy Higgins at Port Fairy is one of one of my favorite collection for 2025. The image looks like it was shot in a studio with one soul spotlight in the frame. However, there is 6,000 people behind the camera. The emotion and lighting is. That draws me in. [01:41:29] Speaker C: The most. Yeah. And it's got like a film quality to it, the way that it's been edited as well. And the. The masterful capture of light, it really makes it timeless once again. [01:41:41] Speaker A: You know, Lucinda has this. [01:41:45] Speaker B: Like. [01:41:46] Speaker A: This. She. She has this just beautiful way of doing that, making you feel like she, you just. Just for you, like it's, you know, Missy's there singing and, and also the emotion and I'm a Missy Higgins fan, you know, and it feels like her so gorgeous. A lot in control of the light. [01:42:08] Speaker B: As well. I, I like the. The shapes and lines that seem to be echoing from the piano. The spotlight and then the, like the line on the floor, the shadow on the floor. Yeah, it's all kind. Yeah, it's got a really nice framing. It's hard to tell like where is the camera tilted or not or. It doesn't matter. It's. It's just got a very. Yeah. Really. [01:42:33] Speaker A: Great framing. So it's such a skill that this stuff concept. There's so much light going on, man. Like, controlling that light must be extreme. Yeah. [01:42:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Beautiful. Lucinda. [01:42:49] Speaker A: Great work. It's been a joy getting to. To know your work this year. Like. [01:42:55] Speaker B: Really gorgeous. Yeah, yeah. Great addition to the. To the. [01:43:01] Speaker C: Podcast. [01:43:01] Speaker B: Too. Yeah. Jumping on, helping. [01:43:03] Speaker A: Us out. Oh, yeah. [01:43:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Gorgeous. All right, let's keep it rolling. Up next, who wants this one? I won't read it yet because he's too close to home. It'd be a bit of home cooking if I. [01:43:15] Speaker C: Read it. This one's from. From Grant Fleming. City Bridge. This is my favorite photo of the year. It's nothing special. Well, I don't agree. It is. It's amazing anyway, but for me to find time and get out of the house with all my gear, this was huge. I like that it shows stillness and movement in the same photo. Motion blurs from clouds, people, and vehicles, but stillness in the city and vehicles as well. This was also out of my depth, as I normally like to shoot nature. This was shot with a shitty Canon R5 and a 15 to 35 2.8 with a Nissi 10 stop ISO 120 mil, 7.1 aperture and 20 second exposure. And I think it's one of the nicest, most appealing images of the city I've seen in a very. [01:44:03] Speaker B: Long time. Yeah, you don't see. You don't see it with this color. [01:44:07] Speaker C: Palette often. I don't know whether. [01:44:09] Speaker A: It'S richness. [01:44:11] Speaker C: No. [01:44:11] Speaker A: No. Yeah. Melbourne is Melbourne. Melbourne often. Like, the last time I went in, we drove in from the Adelaide side, and it always feels like something out of a Batman movie. It feels like Gotham. Like just dark, dull sort of a place. Of course, once you hit the city, it's like. [01:44:29] Speaker C: Just outrageous. But it is like that coming in from the west, isn't it? It's just. It's just a freeway and. [01:44:35] Speaker A: Concrete. And so the color here is. There's just so much. [01:44:42] Speaker C: Gorgeous color. And I really applaud the one to. [01:44:45] Speaker A: One ratio. Yeah. Square framing again. Yeah, That's a good point. [01:44:51] Speaker C: Actually. [01:44:51] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. What a lovely. [01:44:54] Speaker B: Photo, actually. Yeah. It's actually really good. Grant. [01:44:58] Speaker C: Good job. Yeah. Well done. Who would. [01:44:59] Speaker B: Have. [01:45:00] Speaker C: Thought? Yeah. Are we putting Grant down as a guest. [01:45:03] Speaker B: Or disqualified? Nah. No, because technically we've never. [01:45:12] Speaker A: Interviewed him. Oh. [01:45:14] Speaker C: That'S true. I don't know. I. No, I don't watch the show so I wouldn't have. [01:45:18] Speaker B: A clue. Let's put him in the regular category. If you would like to vote for Grant, the regular category is that we are on image. [01:45:25] Speaker C: Number 24. Oh, it's going to be hard to judge. [01:45:29] Speaker A: My scoring. My scoring system's gone a bit. [01:45:32] Speaker B: Pear shaped. Looks like you're changing it on. [01:45:34] Speaker A: The fly. Kind of. It's interesting. I wasn't expecting so. [01:45:39] Speaker B: Much awesomeness. Started it. He started at 9.8. I know where to go from here. What am I. [01:45:47] Speaker C: Gonna. [01:45:47] Speaker A: Do? 9.9. 3. 1 out. [01:45:51] Speaker B: Of 10. Maybe we should do that next year. We'll hold. [01:45:56] Speaker A: Up. [01:45:57] Speaker B: Signs. Yes. Diving scorecards. Yeah. And it's locked in immediately. Okay, moving on. Okay, where are we? Number 20. Who wants to read this. [01:46:10] Speaker A: One out? [01:46:11] Speaker B: Okay. Yep. [01:46:13] Speaker A: Beautiful. 25. Yeah. Right. It's a bird. John Latimer. Right. Egret, which I'm presuming is the type. [01:46:22] Speaker B: Of bed. Oh, no, I've misspelled it. It's. [01:46:24] Speaker A: White egret. White, white egret. I won't read the entire thing in my posh English accent, but. Hey, guys. Big fan of the pod photo of a white Egret photo taken at home Bush Marshlands in Sydney. I travel there for work and love exploring the marshlands. I'm into bird and nature photography and managed to get what I think is a great photo at golden hour. This is a tidal inlet, so they tend to hang around for easy fishing. Didn't get the shot of him catching the fish, but the golden light was amazing at this moment. I love this photo because at the time, for me, everything felt like it fell into place. After doing a few workshops with. [01:47:10] Speaker C: Matt Crummins. Oh, we're. [01:47:13] Speaker A: So sorry. Going out on my own. What he said and taught started to make sense. And after many photos of Justice, I love it. I felt like there's a story behind it. I've improved with composition, so to me, it's a great photo that I'm proud of. Sony A7R3 with a 200. 200 to 600 mil lens. Photo taken at 600. It's a great lens combo. I used that lens to shoot some video of birds recently and fell over and dropped it. But yeah, wow. So, yeah, the. The description is really interesting because when the. When the image first popped up on my screen, the color felt off. It felt. There's something felt off about the rocks in the background. Like the. The tint was off. But now the description of it being at the time of day but also at low tide because what that color is, is the. The green mossy color that you get on rocks when the tide. [01:48:20] Speaker B: Goes. [01:48:20] Speaker A: Out. Exactly. Doesn't it. Doesn't it create really beautiful contrast with the bird? Yeah, yeah. [01:48:30] Speaker B: How amazing. [01:48:31] Speaker A: Yep. [01:48:31] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. Got. [01:48:33] Speaker C: That. [01:48:33] Speaker B: Warm. Yeah. And if someone said, oh, yeah, I shot this in the middle of the day or whatever, you'd be like, I don't know. But yeah, now. Now you understand. [01:48:41] Speaker A: That. That's. Yeah, you'd be saying, I want a refund from. [01:48:44] Speaker B: Matt Crummonds. But. But how good is doing a workshop? And then. And sometimes during a workshop, you feel like it's a lot of information, but then you go away and you have a bit of time to digest it, and then you go out and you shoot and you're like. It starts to click and you're like, yeah, I'm getting it. I'm. [01:49:02] Speaker A: Getting it. So, yeah, yeah. Now. Very nice. Very cool. Nice contrast. Well seen. And it's a fluffy bird, which is. [01:49:11] Speaker B: Very cool. Yeah. Great work. Great work, John. Up Next, image number 26 from Rick Nelson. It's none other than the Pelican Photobomb. This. This is my favorite photo of the year. After working one day finding some kite surfers by the bay to photograph and getting photobombed perfectly by a pelican shot on my Lumix S5 II with the Sigma 100 to 400 mil at 800th of a second. F6, ISO 1000, I've got a pretty. Pretty rare shot to. [01:49:51] Speaker A: Get Rick. The funny thing is, if you look at the guy's expression, the guy doing the surfing thing, when you look at his expression, it's like he knows the bed. Is there anything. Yeah, whatever. Like, get out of my. [01:50:06] Speaker C: Shop. [01:50:06] Speaker B: Man. Yeah. Is he looking at the bird? Is he looking at the photographer? Yeah, it is very. It is just. [01:50:16] Speaker A: Crazy. Yeah. That's amazing. I mean, what are the. [01:50:24] Speaker B: Odds? 100. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Was there. Was there a thousand pelicans then? Maybe. But if that was just the one lonely pelican just zooming past, what are the odds? Okay. Yeah, great. Very, very cool. Oh, this is an interesting. This is an interesting one. Who wants to read this. [01:50:43] Speaker C: One out? Yeah, I'll give this one a shot. This is number 27, folks, that are playing along at home. Janice Terrill Terrell Comet Atlas over an electrical storm. Oh. [01:50:56] Speaker A: My God. What the hell is going. [01:50:59] Speaker C: On here? So let me read the little blurb. Here is my favorite photo of the year. Comet Atlas over an electrical storm taken 22nd of January. This is my Favorite photo because I've always been in awe of the night sky. The same sky that shone on our ancestors will shine in our descendants long after we are gone. The universe is not static. It is in constant motion. But it takes a visitor from beyond our solar system to demonstrate this dynamism. In January 2025, Comet C2024G3 Atlas made its final approach to our sun before disintegrating. On this night, a thunderstorm moves towards the comet with lightning lighting up the low cloud bank. The night sky in all its splendor was on display, taken with the Nikon Z8 and a Nikon Z85 1.8S, ISO 800F 1.8 for 8 seconds, edited in Lightroom and with some Topaz Denoise. That. [01:51:56] Speaker B: Is just. It's. [01:51:57] Speaker A: Crazy. Yeah. I don't even really know what to make. [01:52:00] Speaker C: Of. [01:52:00] Speaker B: That. [01:52:00] Speaker A: It's. Yep. It looks like some city light in the. It looks like that, that sort of. There's the light from the electrical storm, but it looks like there's a town or some other. [01:52:12] Speaker B: Artificial light. Let's see what we can get down into here. Is this like, where. [01:52:19] Speaker A: Is it? Oh, yeah. [01:52:19] Speaker B: There. [01:52:20] Speaker A: Is. [01:52:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And there might be a bit of glow coming. [01:52:24] Speaker A: Through, but. Yeah, that's what it. [01:52:26] Speaker B: Is. Yeah. And then you go into. [01:52:28] Speaker A: This part. Yeah. And then the. [01:52:31] Speaker C: Comet. [01:52:32] Speaker A: Thing. Amazing. Is that the one that was meant to be. [01:52:35] Speaker B: A ufo? No. [01:52:37] Speaker C: Was it? No, everyone's a ufo, according to. [01:52:39] Speaker B: Some people. No, there was one that it did. No, I, I can't remember which one was the ufo. One that was more recent. [01:52:45] Speaker C: I think. Yeah, that was. That was only recently. [01:52:48] Speaker A: The Japanese. Yeah, the. [01:52:51] Speaker B: Recent ufo. One three third Something Atlas. [01:52:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. This is gorgeous. There's a few, there's a few things, like. I love the composition. I really love how she's pulled it, pulled it down. I, I know that you would lose the tail, but it'd be very easy to, to try and follow some rule of quarters or something. Thirds. But that really leaned in, leaned into bringing it, the image down and, and, and letting the sky breathe, which is. [01:53:22] Speaker C: Just. [01:53:22] Speaker A: Gorgeous. Yeah. And some, and, and also some choices that have been made around bringing out the, the foreground, but really done subtly and nice and, and not being afraid to leave. [01:53:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Stunning. Well, I think in this case, because there's so much cloud in that. [01:53:40] Speaker A: Sort of. In that one. [01:53:42] Speaker C: Third line. If we do, if we are looking at rules. But the, the. I assume it's a lake or a river in the front. I imagine it's a Lake. It's quite big, you know, it's. [01:53:52] Speaker B: Really. [01:53:52] Speaker C: Grounding. Yeah. For the whole image. Yeah. [01:53:57] Speaker A: It'S amazing. Sharpie is. [01:54:00] Speaker B: Coming out. Yeah. Very, very cool. A few questions about where is it? I'm not sure. I'm just looking at. I don't think there was any information about that in the email, but, yeah, great work. Like, I didn't even know. I can't even get a lightning shot without a comment, so I don't even know how you pull this off. Like, couldn't get either, let alone both in the one frame. Okay. All right, moving on to image number 28. I'll take. [01:54:34] Speaker C: This one. [01:54:34] Speaker B: All right. [01:54:36] Speaker C: Lauren. [01:54:36] Speaker B: O'. Brien. I titled it Joy, and I think I got the title right. I hadn't picked up my camera in a while for myself. Work, yes, but not for the joy of it. Somewhere along the way, the joy had thinned, replaced by necessity. As the light slipped away, I ran inside to grab my camera. The first weekend of daylight saving that soft stretch of evening you don't want to waste. When I come back out, my daughters were already lost in giggles, tangled together on the grass time, doing that quiet thing it does when you're not paying attention. This frame reminded me of why I fell in love with photography in the first place. Golden hour spilling across the backyard. Grass stained knees, a newly missing tooth. Wild laughter. The kind of love you don't get. You don't direct or design. Just harvest an ember exactly as they are. Exactly as this. [01:55:33] Speaker C: Season is. Wow. [01:55:38] Speaker B: Big. [01:55:38] Speaker A: Goosebumps. Yeah. [01:55:40] Speaker B: Oh. [01:55:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. The power of photography. Right. Like in, you know, I'm. I'm heading over to my daughter's wedding in New Zealand and a week in a bit. And so I've been looking back over old photos of her and this. The power of a photograph is that you forget so much of our lives. I do. And. And Lauren will look back at this image in years to come and remember that moment. They'll hear the giggles and. [01:56:06] Speaker C: Feel. [01:56:07] Speaker A: The sun and it will bring her the joy that she feels looking at it now constantly throughout her life. And the kids will enjoy it too. [01:56:17] Speaker B: Right? [01:56:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [01:56:19] Speaker C: Amazing. [01:56:20] Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah. You chose well. Don't worry. [01:56:25] Speaker C: About that. Yeah. Hit us right in. [01:56:27] Speaker B: The feels. Yeah. Tweak says, I'm not crying. [01:56:30] Speaker A: You're crying. Amazing. [01:56:34] Speaker C: Beautiful words. Your words are. [01:56:37] Speaker A: Just gorgeous. Yeah. That powerful reminder that when we, you know, when you shoot commercially is to. Is. It's hard to remember to pick the camera up and make something for us. Right. When it's always for. [01:56:50] Speaker B: Someone else. [01:56:51] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [01:56:54] Speaker B: Beautiful. Wonderful. All right. Okay, home stretch, home stretch now. Not long to go. Next. [01:57:06] Speaker C: Image. [01:57:07] Speaker B: Is. Whoa. Take it. [01:57:13] Speaker C: Away, Greg. Okay, so this is Jessica tormey. Julian Kingma, ISO 125F911-25th. This is my favorite image of 2025. Not because of technical skill or creative ambition, and not because it stands out on its own. It's my favorite because of what it holds. This photograph closes my capstone folio. A body of work about healing my inner 10 year old. It doesn't offer resolution or answers. It simply sits with presence, consistency, and the experience of being met. This is why this image stays with me and why out of everything I made this year, this is the one that matters the Most. Jules began 2025 as my mentor and ended it as my best human. He shows up gently and consistently. That alone has meant more than I know how to explain. This image is how I see him. He is an anchor when one is needed. The light in the darkness. Chiaroscuro. Quiet, strength, Honest shadow. Not one or the other, but the space. [01:58:14] Speaker A: In. [01:58:14] Speaker B: Between. [01:58:19] Speaker C: Wow. Deep. [01:58:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. [01:58:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:58:27] Speaker A: Great. [01:58:27] Speaker C: Lighting. Yeah. Oh, I think Sasha must be. [01:58:29] Speaker B: Cutting onions. [01:58:30] Speaker A: Oh, Craig. I mean, wow. Like how. Just. [01:58:35] Speaker C: Remarkable. [01:58:36] Speaker B: Jessica. [01:58:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Yep. Clever use of light. [01:58:41] Speaker B: Absolutely amazing. And. And technically, just. Yeah, like, zoomed in. It's. It's. Yeah, a beautiful shot when. When you take it. [01:58:51] Speaker C: In. [01:58:51] Speaker B: Close. Yeah. Very. [01:58:54] Speaker A: Well. [01:58:55] Speaker B: Executed. [01:58:57] Speaker C: Choices. Yeah. But I love this too. Everything right about port, everything right about portraiture. [01:59:03] Speaker A: Is here. [01:59:04] Speaker C: Yes, Greg. Yeah, indeed. Well. [01:59:07] Speaker B: Said character. Absolutely Cool. Very, very. Just. I love seeing the variety of images that. [01:59:16] Speaker A: We'Re getting. [01:59:18] Speaker B: Yes. [01:59:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:59:19] Speaker B: And. Yes. That we're getting. Just random, you know, from portraits through to sports through to macro, wildlife, family, like. Yeah, it's. It's pretty cool. I was actually very excited when I was getting all the images together. I was like, this is. This is a very broad. This is. This is just photography for photography's sake, of all styles. Yeah. I didn't. I didn't have comet photo on my list of things that I thought we might get, but although Greg Carrick usually is out there when the comets are flying around. [01:59:53] Speaker C: So. Yeah. Standing in. [01:59:54] Speaker B: The dark. Standing in the dark. [01:59:57] Speaker A: All right. Oh, that's a. That's an interesting one. I learned my lighting skills from Vicki Bell. That is really interesting because if you learned anything from Vicki Bell, I can imagine that you didn't just learn lighting. [02:00:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes. She's the powerhouse of gorgeousness. Yep. Damn it. That is so. [02:00:21] Speaker B: Beautiful. Yeah. Well done. Also, Nick Fletcher says, late to this love get Greg's macro adventure. Jason's concert photo of chilling. It is fab. So that's where he's up. Oh, yeah, look, Greg's Eclipse is nuts. So that's. You're a little. Well, wait till you get to this. [02:00:40] Speaker A: Bit, Nick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's in the past. We're. [02:00:45] Speaker B: In the. He's in the past. Yeah, we're talking. [02:00:46] Speaker A: To him. We're talking to him in. [02:00:49] Speaker C: The. [02:00:49] Speaker A: Past. Future. Your photo was sick, man. But you haven't seen it yet because you're not there. [02:00:53] Speaker B: We're here. I know. My brain's gonna explode. Okay, moving on. Who wants to read out Rodney Nicholson? [02:01:04] Speaker C: Let's go. Oh, what is going on there? Number 30, Rodney Nicholson, shadows of Light. I love the colors and its painterly feel. Also, it's a place I often dive into. Lots of friendly stingrays and the occasional seal. Okay, Aquaman ISO 80, a 40 millimeter. [02:01:26] Speaker B: 5.611 60th. Was that just a rhyme or was that a haiku? Trying to figure it out. What's a haiku again? Anyway, that's. [02:01:40] Speaker C: Very cool. It is. [02:01:42] Speaker A: Very cool. Yeah. There's streaks of white and leaves and all sorts going. [02:01:48] Speaker B: On here. [02:01:51] Speaker A: Yep. Abstract. Abstract. Yeah, yeah, very. [02:01:56] Speaker B: Abstract. Oh, yeah. Rodney's been doing it for so long, he's seeing things that I just would. [02:02:07] Speaker A: Not. [02:02:07] Speaker C: See. And. And to his credit, over the Christmas break, well, you know, not that he ever stops, but I've been following him on socials and he's just out there flogging his calendars and his prints. He sets up his tables outside, you know, where people are coming past. Yeah, he loves it. Yeah, he loves. [02:02:27] Speaker A: That interaction. Yeah. Working, working. Yeah, that's what. It. [02:02:30] Speaker C: Worked. Yeah. Yep. Still doing probably what, what got him started, you know, selling prints on a. On a fold. [02:02:39] Speaker A: Out table. Yeah. God, that's. [02:02:42] Speaker B: Amazing. [02:02:42] Speaker A: Actually. Yeah. All right. [02:02:46] Speaker B: Nice work. You got mic. [02:02:48] Speaker C: Problems, Greg. [02:02:50] Speaker B: Do I? Oh, no, just when you were. Sounded like you were. [02:02:54] Speaker C: Twizzling it. Sorry, I keep playing with it because it's, you know, right near. [02:02:58] Speaker A: My mouth. We're doing well. It's only. [02:03:01] Speaker C: Nine. [02:03:01] Speaker B: O'. Clock. Yeah, yeah, we're almost. [02:03:04] Speaker A: We're almost. Although I'm in. [02:03:06] Speaker B: The past. All right, hang on, I'll. I'll get this one. David Clark Digi Frog. I called it. I called it the studio. This one was taken August 25th. Funny story, this. After working for many months converting a spare room into a little pet studio, I was super excited to have my first real test shoot with favorite and only daughter who is a vet nurse on her 23rd birthday and her rather ditzy dalmatian cash with our rather perfect shepherd, Marley. Everything worked spot on. Then the next week, my son, his wife and their one year old asked to move home with us for about a year in quotation marks whilst they build their new house. Hence studio rapidly dismantled as room now needed for important family space. Ah well, it will come back out of the box one day and I'll pick up the project where I left off. Became my favorite shot of 2025 Canon R3, 24 to 105 EF at f9,200 a second. ISO 1000 softbox gridded and. [02:04:15] Speaker C: Background gelled. [02:04:17] Speaker B: Great lighting. Yeah, well done. This, this hits close to home since I'm also trying to set up a little. A little pet studio, you know, just. [02:04:27] Speaker A: A space. It's funny how the. The dog, she. It looks like she's leaned like gone to lean into her favorite dog and it's leaned away from. [02:04:36] Speaker C: Her going. Yeah. [02:04:37] Speaker B: I know. They've mimicked. [02:04:39] Speaker A: Each other. A little bit of space. [02:04:41] Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. She's like, put your head next to mine. He's n. I don't. [02:04:46] Speaker A: Think. [02:04:46] Speaker B: So. Yeah. [02:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah, girl. Yeah. Amazing. And of course the. What's that? That. That's a German shepherd, isn't. [02:04:54] Speaker B: It? Yeah. I have the important one getting the both dogs to look as though it's not as this looks like. It's like, oh, just pop them there and take the. It's never as easy as even a well behaved dog to add two and then get him to look at the camera. It's, you know, well done. [02:05:11] Speaker A: But also. [02:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Damn. Damn. On having to shame about the studio. Change. [02:05:16] Speaker A: Your plans. I. [02:05:17] Speaker B: Hear you. Family comes first. Yeah. You got space to set up a studio. [02:05:22] Speaker C: There, Greg? I've barely got space to take a. There's like 18 people in this house and 56 cats. So, you know. No, it's all good. I love it. Okay. [02:05:37] Speaker B: Who'S next? [02:05:38] Speaker C: Who's next? Number 32, if you're playing along at home. [02:05:43] Speaker A: Mitch. [02:05:43] Speaker C: Gamble. Whoa. Seminyak Sunset. All right, you. [02:05:48] Speaker A: Go down. Yeah, why not? Seminyak Sunset. Now. Seminyak is in Bali. [02:05:55] Speaker B: I. [02:05:55] Speaker A: Think. Yes. I took. I took thin. I took thin. Just at. [02:06:03] Speaker B: The end. Took this. [02:06:04] Speaker A: This. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I took this just at the end of the year. I took this just at the end of the year while my wife sat and drank cocktails in Seminyak. This sounds like an Excellent holiday shot on a Sony A7R5 and Sigma 16 mil. Killer combo. Happy to attach a better file. This is just. [02:06:24] Speaker B: The version. Yeah, never mind. I. [02:06:26] Speaker A: Fixed that. Yeah. One of my favorite shots of the year, for sure. So, yeah, killer combo. But looking at this, I just noticed the tiny. [02:06:37] Speaker B: Little person. I was gonna say, I don't know if you guys had seen it yet, but I'll. [02:06:40] Speaker C: Zoom. [02:06:41] Speaker B: In. Yeah. Where is it? Hang on. How am I gonna find. There we go. So this person. Oh, wow. This person is what makes the shot when you go out to. [02:06:51] Speaker A: The frame. Really clever, Gail. Really. [02:06:56] Speaker C: Clever, actually. Because at first I thought, is that like a. Is that like a plank of. Like a. A pylon coming out of the water? But then from here, obviously, it's. It's. You know, it's tiny. It's much. Not much bigger than a smartphone. Looking at it. [02:07:09] Speaker B: On. [02:07:09] Speaker A: Here. Yeah. And I don't know if this is a thing. Apparently, Bali is a. Seminyak is a business place. [02:07:17] Speaker B: Like. [02:07:17] Speaker A: It. Yeah. You could be. You could be on a remote beach anywhere in the. [02:07:22] Speaker B: World there. Which is straight out of camera, custom color profile. [02:07:29] Speaker C: Love it. [02:07:30] Speaker B: Love it. And sorry, not much of a story. That's fine. Not all. [02:07:34] Speaker A: Images needed. That's a. [02:07:35] Speaker B: Great story. Why? It's a. [02:07:37] Speaker A: Great story. And. [02:07:38] Speaker B: An A7R5. I might have titled it Seminyak. [02:07:43] Speaker C: Sunset too. So. [02:07:45] Speaker B: That'S all. Sorry. So, yeah. Waited for the guy to walk through the frame for the composition. That's. [02:07:50] Speaker A: That's. [02:07:51] Speaker B: Awesome. Yeah. Like patience. Center framing. Right. With that glow of sunset surrounding. It's just. Yeah. [02:07:58] Speaker C: Perfect. Yeah. And you're making those decisions not to sort of go, I can't be bothered waiting. I'll just point up a little bit and crop. [02:08:06] Speaker A: Them out. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's the. That's the decisive. [02:08:13] Speaker B: Moment, right? [02:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. The decisive moment. That's it. That you could read his entire. His entire papers written. [02:08:22] Speaker B: On that. Even Rodney. So I didn't even. I forgot about this. And this is something that I picked up from the old, you know, wedding photography days and stuff. When you're shooting silhouettes and things, it's all about where the limbs are. Because if someone's standing in a straight line, it's a very boring silhouette. And like, let's just. Let's just enhance and, you know, so we've got legs, you know, arms. Otherwise, if you took that at the wrong moment, it could be a very boring silhouette. But it's quite dynamic as well, and it needs to be, because it's. [02:08:49] Speaker A: So. [02:08:49] Speaker C: Tiny. Whoop. But it's even left like the. The person's even left awake. A slight wake behind. [02:08:55] Speaker B: Their. [02:08:56] Speaker C: Feet. Motoring. Yeah, like it's. It's really clever. [02:09:02] Speaker A: Really nice. [02:09:03] Speaker B: Amazing colors. Great shot. And Nick Fletcher's up to Michael's bird shot. Well done, Nick. You're. [02:09:11] Speaker A: Doing well. He's. [02:09:13] Speaker B: Doing well. You're going to be up late tonight, Nick. Okay, I guess. [02:09:22] Speaker C: Is it 33? All right. This is Paul Sutton. Red reflecting. I don't know who gave it. [02:09:30] Speaker B: That title. It might have. [02:09:33] Speaker C: Been me. Camera was the Panasonic GX8. 1 25th of a second. F 3.5, 15 mil lens. ISO 200. Sunrise reflected on the water. Taken on the 31st of May at 6. 37am this is my favorite shot this year as the sunrise is red reflecting sharply off the water. I have rarely seen this process using DXO Photo Lab V8. Thank you very much. I've discovered your show in 25 and I'm really enjoying it. Well, we're really enjoying it. You're really. [02:10:05] Speaker B: Enjoying it. Thanks, Paul. Thanks for sending it through. And I can't believe the colors in this thing. Look. [02:10:11] Speaker A: At that. Water is so cool. Living on Mars would suck, man. Like there'd be. [02:10:18] Speaker B: No water. [02:10:20] Speaker A: No water. Be all. Be AI. This is. [02:10:22] Speaker B: So good. Yeah, this. It is. Yeah, it's a cracker. Great work. What's it. Hang on. I don't know if I know what a GX8 is, but I'm assuming it's not a. Is a GX8 a full frame frame? I don't. [02:10:36] Speaker C: Actually know. I don't think so. [02:10:38] Speaker B: I think. No. But yeah, great work. It's all about being there, getting up, being there at the right time. You don't get sunrises like this every day. So. Yeah. [02:10:52] Speaker C: Well done. Got to be. [02:10:53] Speaker A: Oh, God. Yeah. Panasonic GX8 is like a little micro point. [02:10:58] Speaker B: And shoot. That's what I was. That's what I was wondering. Yeah, I don't. I don't think. [02:11:01] Speaker A: It'S even. My camera's. [02:11:02] Speaker B: Over there. That's right. It's so. It's so. It's not even a crop sensor probably it's like a. A smaller. Like a 1 inch sensor or something like. [02:11:12] Speaker C: That. Maybe. Possibly. I. [02:11:13] Speaker A: Can'T remember. I know that's 20 megapixel thing, but it's a lot. It's. Yeah, it's a little thing which. [02:11:21] Speaker B: Is amazing. Yeah. Well done. [02:11:26] Speaker C: God. [02:11:26] Speaker A: Those. Yeah. Color and waters. I'm lucky. I live. I live the sun sets directly off the beach where I live and you wander down and just sit sometimes and just stare at the water, which. [02:11:39] Speaker B: Is amazing. All right, the next one's, the next. [02:11:45] Speaker A: One'S deep. Do you want. [02:11:50] Speaker C: To go? Do you want. [02:11:51] Speaker B: You go. I'll read it out. From Scott Longdon, a tin type man of tintype man fame. I thought long and hard about entering this photo. You see, I've taken many amazing photos this year. We got to travel around the UK and Scotland mid year and I got some amazing landscapes. I've been lucky enough to place highly top 10 and finalist in some decent competitions with some of my digital images as well. However, this competition is about what I think is my best photo. To be honest, this technically isn't my best photo. It's simply taken as a quick shot on my phone, which is all I had to hand. The composition isn't perfect, nor is the lighting. In fact, pretty much everything about this portrait could be classed as wrong, except it's the one that has the most impact on me and still makes me cry every time I look at it. It's a photo of my mother in law dying while I held her hand just a few moments before she passed away. It's a photo I'd never have dreamed of taking, except that I did a session at BFOP a couple of years ago where the instructor was passionate about taking photos of people dying and the deceased. I think it was Paula Mahoney's session. It's something we rarely do in our culture and is sometimes seen as taboo. Except as she explained, we take photos of peoples as babies then through their life. Why shouldn't we remember people through all the aspects of their life and celebrate them fully. I remembered this in Winifred's last moments and took the photo as a celebration of the full and happy life she led and the love she brought to us all. So it isn't necessarily my best photo, but without a shadow of a doubt it's my most impactful. [02:13:54] Speaker A: This year. [02:14:00] Speaker C: Remarkable. Hey. [02:14:02] Speaker A: Yep, yep. There's this, what he says about this in the west, you know, all cultures have different values but, but he's, you know, talking about this idea of not being afraid to do this thing that is happening here and it, it's powerful on so many levels, right? A personal connection for him to her. It's a, it's a memory of her. It's a memory of her and her last moments, but seemingly really at peace. That's, that's what the photograph does. A reminder also that, that this is a photography podcast that the best camera in the world is the one you have in. [02:14:46] Speaker B: Your. [02:14:46] Speaker A: Hand. Yeah. And it's allowed him to, to do this thing, which is beautiful. And thank you for. [02:14:52] Speaker C: Sharing, Scott. Yeah, it's really brave, Scott. [02:14:55] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, immensely. What a. [02:14:59] Speaker B: Beautiful moment. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. When I said it, when I saw the email, I was like, oh, it's. That's going to be a tough read. Yeah. [02:15:11] Speaker C: So. [02:15:11] Speaker A: Special. Yeah. And again, you know, just a. This incredible thing that we're all involved with in, in learning, like, you know, it's, it's beef up, but into anything where you can, you know. Scott is a very, very, very talented photographer in his own right and yet turns up at befop and learns something, is inspired by something that another photographer has taught him. And, and it's. This is this beautiful thing that we have in our community where it doesn't matter how good you are in, in one way or a different way, if you, if your heart and your mind is open to learning, you can always learn really powerful people, powerful things and new things that allow you to be. Have the courage to do new things. [02:15:58] Speaker B: For you. Yeah. [02:16:03] Speaker C: Well said. Yeah, very well. [02:16:05] Speaker B: Said. Humbling. Yeah, yeah. There's some, lots of comments including Greg Carrick saying beyond all the feels, this is so well composed. And I, I actually agree with that too. Like, it's so true. Hey, it's actually a great photo. Yeah. [02:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:16:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Connection. Yeah. Rick Nelson says this is real photography where technique leaves the room and yeah, lots of other great, great comments. Okay, who would like to read the. [02:16:47] Speaker C: Next one? [02:16:49] Speaker B: I. [02:16:49] Speaker A: Can'T. Okay. [02:16:51] Speaker B: Okay. Brucey. The one. [02:16:55] Speaker A: And only. Ah, here. [02:16:56] Speaker C: We go. Oh, I love. [02:16:59] Speaker A: This photo. Yeah, I'm just gonna bring it up on my screen a bit bigger while I'm reading this. Yeah, magical. It's funny that because I remember this. This is Bruce Moyle. Infinite Branches of Possibility. What an honor to be reading this. This image has been shown before, but I guess, I guess why it's my photo of the year at the moment I reserved the right to change my mind is because it constantly comes back to my mind at random times. I see it as both an image of a guy out in the middle of nowhere, but also someone that has every option open to them if they put in the effort. I constantly feel a drift. And while I am lucky to have an amazing family, good steady work, and a variety of communities, including this one, to take refuge in, there are always days where feeling isolated happens. Therefore, I reframe this image from isolation to Every possibility is available. The artist statement I made when I first posted it. What may look like an unending and lonely space requires you to see the infinite branches of actions that can be initiated. Unlimited possibilities. Just paddle in the direction that your soul feels. Feel free to change direction again if you change your mind. Okay. Settings are super not interesting, but attached as well. Well, 1.1-60th of a second. F35 ISO. [02:18:39] Speaker B: 285 millimeters. Could. Could that. [02:18:42] Speaker C: Be 3.5? Yeah, I. [02:18:45] Speaker A: Don'T know. Yeah. Yeah. [02:18:47] Speaker B: I don't. I don't know whether maybe I. Maybe I mucked that up. I don't know. Yeah, I. [02:18:53] Speaker A: Probably typ. So how. How. How utterly gorgeous. As an. As an idea. Right? Insert. Insert sick photo. But yeah, just. Again, it's this thing of. Hey, I'll tell you something wild that is happening for me. [02:19:10] Speaker C: Whether. [02:19:11] Speaker A: It'S. It's. I feel like I can see the curvature of. [02:19:14] Speaker C: The. [02:19:15] Speaker A: Earth. [02:19:15] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. It draws you in. It draws you over. [02:19:19] Speaker B: The horizon. But it's. [02:19:20] Speaker C: Flat, Dennis. [02:19:23] Speaker A: Thank you. [02:19:24] Speaker C: It is. The scale is epic. [02:19:27] Speaker B: Isn'T it? And. Yeah. And just in case anyone needs the. Where is it? Yeah, just to get the. The paddle border. [02:19:35] Speaker A: So cool. It looks like the paddleboarder is standing there staring out rather than. [02:19:40] Speaker B: Actually. [02:19:41] Speaker A: Paddling. Right. Yeah. I mean, I. I remember seeing this image before, but again, it sort of goes back to this. To that one at Seminyak. Is this idea of this is. This is something that. That may or may not have been really intentionally composed, but have. What a gorgeous idea. Right, that. That depth is now. This depth to it. Because now I'm. I'm putting myself in that. [02:20:06] Speaker C: Mindset. [02:20:07] Speaker A: Of. Yeah. Possibility, change direction. Yeah, all. [02:20:12] Speaker B: Of that. And the treatment is awesome as well. Like the. The toning black and white, the way it's been done. [02:20:17] Speaker C: It's. [02:20:18] Speaker B: Perfect. Yeah. Absolutely perfect for those. Yeah. If you're playing along at home. That was image number 35. And Bruce is so wonderful that he's in the guest category of this. This wonderful competition. So don't include him in your. In your votes for the people's choice. Okay. All right, this next one's a bit of a read. Who's feeling. Who's feeling. [02:20:47] Speaker C: Long. Ready? I. [02:20:49] Speaker B: Can read. You. [02:20:50] Speaker C: Can read. Do it for. [02:20:51] Speaker B: A living. Yep. Yeah. [02:20:53] Speaker C: All right. This is from our. One of our earlier guests, Nathan. That's quite a long time ago. Oh, look. [02:21:00] Speaker A: At that. Yeah. [02:21:03] Speaker C: That'S. [02:21:03] Speaker B: Wild. Holy. Yep. Futuristic sci. [02:21:08] Speaker A: Fi. [02:21:08] Speaker C: Dystopian. Yeah. Well, so much. [02:21:11] Speaker B: Going on. It's. [02:21:12] Speaker A: A. [02:21:12] Speaker C: Movie. Venezuela. [02:21:15] Speaker A: Don'T, don't. I thought you. [02:21:18] Speaker C: Said dystopian. Okay, here's Nathan's considerable blurb. So hang in, folks. He tells the story. Sometimes for me, it's not always about how good a photo looks, but the story of memory attached to it. Oh, bingo. For me, this night was the A League Grand Final between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City, the first time there had been a Grand Final derby in Melbourne. As a lover of sport overall, mostly what draws me to sport as a whole, besides growing up playing footy and cricket, is the raw emotion fans bring to the game. Soccer or football, whatever you call it, depending on what side of the world you're on, is notorious for being a high emotion sport. 90 minutes and it might be a draw. For me, soccer is one of those sports that the fans are what make it better. The chance, the banners, the flares and the passion. There had been a bit of chat in the media coming into the Grand Final derby about rival fan groups, and after some extensive research and knowledge from recent years and some conversation with people in the know, I had a feeling that it would have been a large turnout. I took my small rig set up with me, a Fuji XT 30 Mark II and two lenses, 16, 2.8 and a 35 F2. I knew the light would be a mixture. And after experiencing shooting the AFL grand final celebrations of Richmond in 201717 and then Collingwood in 23 on Swan Street, I knew the light was a hit and miss. To begin with, Victoria police were not allowing anyone on the road. A strange motive as the size of the group began to grow and kickoff time was getting closer and fans were beginning to grow impatient. Before you knew it, we were on the road. Flare smoke fills the air and somehow I'm at the front. A small group between the line of heavy right police with batons and shields and these hardcore Melbourne Victory supporters. It might sound dumb, but I was more nervous about the reception I'd received from the supporters on my left than the police on my right. I got tapped on my left shoulder asking who I was and who I was shooting for, something that happens so regularly when out shooting large scale events like this. I said, my name is Nathan. And he replied, I know your work. You shot those photos at the weapons conference protest last year. Your work is sick. You are all good. I didn't get his name, but I was like a small. It was like a small acceptance and I became less worried about what was happening on my left side. Every time something got a little hairy amongst the supporters, he would Grab my shoulder as if it was him saying he's with us. Eventually, the police let the crowd pass and the supporters of Melbourne Victory began to make their way under the train bridge and towards the stadium. The series of photographs that I took that night tell more of a story than just this one single image where this single image sets the scene. And this story helps. Shot on an XT30 Mark II with the very compact Fujinon XF16. 2.8. 1/400th of a second at 2.8. [02:24:06] Speaker A: ISO. [02:24:07] Speaker B: 800. Crazy. It. [02:24:13] Speaker C: Is crazy. It is. [02:24:14] Speaker B: Incredibly crazy. Yeah. F8 and be there. Nathan says he's. He is still here watching the show. He's just playing switch. He's trying to score some points. [02:24:27] Speaker C: With Greg. Yeah, he. [02:24:29] Speaker B: Knows how. He knows the way to. [02:24:30] Speaker A: My house. It feels some. Some images look so good. They feel staged. Like you. This looks like a field. It looks like a still from a movie set. Like, see how all the cops tops legs are kind of the. [02:24:48] Speaker C: Same way, but yeah, they're all. [02:24:50] Speaker A: Lined up. It's really complex shooting stuff. [02:24:55] Speaker C: Like this. Oh, wow. Here's a comment from Mitch. I was in that right squad before I quit to pursue photography full time. I know those members. I can feel the heaviness of. [02:25:09] Speaker A: This. [02:25:09] Speaker C: Night. Yeah. Oh, my God. I just got the biggest one. Rush of goose. Goosebumps. That's full on. What a. [02:25:16] Speaker A: Bizarre connection. Like, I. I mean, yeah, it must be sort of quite freaky being them. What an amazing. [02:25:33] Speaker B: Shot. Hey. Yeah. [02:25:34] Speaker C: Just incredible. Really amazingly well done. [02:25:37] Speaker A: Nathan. Yeah. Beautiful and kind of scary, which is kind of cool. 1984 vibes. [02:25:44] Speaker C: For. [02:25:44] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah. Yep, yep. Crazy. [02:25:51] Speaker A: There's a. There's a thing that I've done a bit played with and. And you see people doing it when they're photographing weddings. Sticking a360 camera on top of the, you know, the hot shoe of your camera. It would be stunning. See, to feel the energy in. In the space, right. That's what my. My mindset does, is to be Sunday. But you can feel it. I can already feel it. I don't. Don't need to. To, to. To hear it or sense it because I feel it in the photograph, the. [02:26:22] Speaker C: Tension. [02:26:23] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. And I think that's what makes. That's what makes it such a very, very. [02:26:27] Speaker C: Cool photograph. And the way the positioning that creates those long shadows. Yeah, that really draws you into that bright spot on the left. That's just amazing. Like, it just. You're just being pulled in. It's like you're having to march through that line to the light. [02:26:46] Speaker B: You. [02:26:46] Speaker C: Know. Yeah. Incredible. Well. [02:26:50] Speaker B: Done, Nathan. [02:26:52] Speaker A: Great image. What's the TCP in. [02:26:54] Speaker B: Your handle? It's his name. He's not. He's not. It's not what you think. It's not, you know. [02:27:05] Speaker C: It'S Communist. [02:27:06] Speaker B: Communist party. Yeah. [02:27:08] Speaker C: It'S. [02:27:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I'm just trying to think like it stands for. I can't remember what it stands for. Hang on. I'm sure. [02:27:17] Speaker A: It is hill Talison, about. [02:27:21] Speaker B: 2 6. Yeah, it's because it was the same. Same question. Come up. We better keep this. [02:27:28] Speaker A: On trucking. Let's. [02:27:30] Speaker B: Keep going. Yeah, yeah. [02:27:31] Speaker A: See, look. No, I always know. [02:27:33] Speaker C: The reason. [02:27:34] Speaker A: The question. I'll tell you the reason. There's a place in Adelaide called the center for Creative Photography. [02:27:41] Speaker B: That's why. That's it. And photography. That's it. Yeah. I couldn't remember what it stood for. Nathan Charles. [02:27:48] Speaker A: Coot Photography. I got. [02:27:50] Speaker B: It. Wicked. [02:27:52] Speaker C: Very cool. [02:27:52] Speaker B: Thanks, Nathan. Oh, dear. Okay, where. [02:28:00] Speaker C: Are we? Three. [02:28:01] Speaker B: To go? Yeah, almost there. Actually, they're four. There's one extra one that I didn't get into this folder, I think. Image number 37. Tina Moriarty, boat. This is my photo of the year taken with my Nikon D5606. 40th of a second. F 6.3. ISO 110. Maybe that's 100. I don't know what those old ones used to go. Anyway. I'm a sucker for a boat. A boat photo. Yeah, when. [02:28:30] Speaker C: I'm traveling. I love your boats. [02:28:31] Speaker B: Don'T you? Yeah, boat photo. I'm a boat photo sort of person. And I love all of the. Oh, look, Rick Nelson says that's my wife. Yeah, explain. [02:28:47] Speaker A: Rick. [02:28:48] Speaker B: Explain. Yeah, I. Yeah, I love the amount of birds on this old boat. These like seagulls. I really like this. Oh, it's very cool. Yeah, Very, very cool. It's got a vibe. So. Yeah, but that was all the info. All the info that was included. So that was image number 37. And I'll keep it rolling into image number 38 from Christian Margetts. I think Title Transition maybe by me. Hope it all is well, what to enter. I want to enter the attached as my favorite photo of the year. Whilst I don't expect it to knock off Greg's Fuji socks, it captures a rare kind of quiet one of those in between moments where the world pauses before the next train arrives. I have to move a lot because of work and 2025 was a move year. Moving from one country to another via another. The stark black and white. The clean grid and the three dark circles feel like order carved out of chaos, reminding me that calm can exist even in a place built for constant motion. Whenever I look at it, I remember how much has changed while moving through ordinary days and how those small, silent stops can hold whole chapters of my life. It's a picture of a station, but to me, it's a picture of transition and of finding steadiness in the middle. [02:30:23] Speaker A: Of. [02:30:23] Speaker C: It. Wicked. That's. [02:30:26] Speaker A: Very cool. What's the framing on that? [02:30:28] Speaker B: Is it. Hang on. Oops. [02:30:31] Speaker A: Go back. Oh, okay. Yeah, so if you go. [02:30:33] Speaker C: Back, it'll. [02:30:34] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. So that's. [02:30:35] Speaker B: The frame. Hang on. Yeah, I think it's. Sorry, it's. I think it's actually a small. It's a small file, I'm. [02:30:41] Speaker C: Pretty sure. [02:30:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So it's. [02:30:42] Speaker B: A bit. Yeah, because it's pretty showing. It's. It's very hard to tell because it's got stark black, but that. That there. The edges, and then there is black underneath the platform. Under the platform. Yeah. So it's. Yeah, it's. Sorry, it's. I don't think I can change the background of. Of this. No, Sorry. But yeah, sorry. I should have checked that. [02:31:11] Speaker A: Framing first. That's. Yeah. Very cool photo. Right. Like, well spotted. And black. [02:31:18] Speaker B: And white. Yeah. I really like. [02:31:20] Speaker A: This one. Yeah, me too. I wonder what the. [02:31:24] Speaker B: Words say. It's a good question. We could probably figure that out, but that's a job. [02:31:30] Speaker C: For another. But it's kind of cool not. [02:31:32] Speaker B: Knowing, too. [02:31:33] Speaker C: That's right. You know, if you can imagine yourself arriving in this space and looking up and going, oh, I have no idea what that means. I don't know where I am. You know, it adds mystery. [02:31:43] Speaker B: And. [02:31:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:31:45] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah. I. I used to find this going to Japan a lot. I would just get on a random train and get off at a. [02:31:51] Speaker A: Random station. [02:31:52] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Because there's so much joy to be had just getting lost, you know, and we don't do that enough. We're always looking for direction. [02:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:32:00] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah. Bet. [02:32:03] Speaker B: Yep. Wonderful. All right. Second last image. This is Liam from Liam. Hang on. Why is that not working? Here we go, from Liam. Resize that again. [02:32:17] Speaker C: Very cool. [02:32:18] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. This is one of my favorite photos I took this year when I was at the B and H. [02:32:24] Speaker C: Build Expo. [02:32:25] Speaker B: Oh, fancy. One of the models was sitting down, talking, taking a break. I really liked the natural pose. That event really made me want to take my photography seriously. Cool. Yeah, I like that it's a model, not During a model shoot, you know. [02:32:42] Speaker C: Like. Yeah. Yep. I love the overall softness of it. You know, there's a real. There's a real kind of. It's. It's. It's a little. I don't know the words. And. And it's exemplified as well. The control of light is exemplified by the pillar directly behind her or that curved space, whereas every one of those panels is a. [02:33:02] Speaker B: Different. [02:33:03] Speaker C: Tone. Yes. As it pulls away from the light and goes around the corner. I think that's what it's doing. It's like. [02:33:09] Speaker B: A pillar. Yeah, it does. It looks like a pillar. Yeah. Under a building or a bridge or whatever. Like with the. [02:33:16] Speaker C: Dry. Yeah. But it's got this really soft. [02:33:18] Speaker B: Grainy feel. It does, yeah. Yeah. Good mystery. [02:33:23] Speaker C: Looking away. Yeah, that's a great one. I really. [02:33:26] Speaker B: Like that. [02:33:26] Speaker C: Well done. And the fact that it's. [02:33:28] Speaker B: Candid, you know, One final photo. Let me just pull that up by doing this. And you won't have it in your. In your booklet that I prepared for you. But. But this is from Fleur Ferguson. Fleur was actually an attendee at mine and Jim's one and only workshop, possibly the greatest photography workshop ever. [02:33:56] Speaker A: Done in the history of. [02:33:58] Speaker B: The world. Four, day three, night camp. Experience with all styles of photography for wedding photographers. We did astro. We did champagne popping. We did dance floor. We did portraits. We did. Anyway, let's get back to Fleurs thing. Fleur was there, and it was. It was awesome. We saw it recently. It was just so good to sort of. Because this was a long time ago, so it was great to. To reconnect. Okay. Fleur says totally different genre for me to photograph well out of my comfort zone. But a favorite result. Everything aligned in one quiet moment. The stormy sky, the soft light catching their coats, and the gentle rhythm of the giraffe moving together. It feels timeless and calm with a sense of connection and story rather than just a scene. Camera settings were Nikon Z8, the Nikon 180 to 606.3. 530mil. So, yeah, that lighting's epic. That. That is epic. So it's image number 40, the final image of. [02:35:05] Speaker A: Tonight'S 40. Yeah, that was. [02:35:08] Speaker B: Number 40. That was. [02:35:10] Speaker A: Number. [02:35:10] Speaker B: 40. Sick. So, yeah, that wasn't. That might not have been on your. [02:35:15] Speaker A: Sheet, Dennis. No, it's not. I'm. I'm currently. [02:35:18] Speaker B: Coagulating scores. Yep. While you do that, I might do a quick recap just through the images, fast from start to finish, and just read the numbers and names out. Oh, 41 really couldn't have been, unless I counted. [02:35:36] Speaker C: Something twice. No, I. [02:35:37] Speaker B: Got 40. I think it's 40. Yeah, everyone's stoked with a lot. Anthony Stonehouse says, nice colors and light, gorgeous lighting flow. Yeah, great work. All right, I'll quickly whip through them while you guys do some tabulating on. On your stuff and some thinking. I'll whip through them and I'll try and call out which ones are the guest ones too. So, number one, Paul Carpenter, which is the lighthouse image. Number two, Paul. I don't know how to pronounce his last name. Kommo, Mississippi River. Number three, Felicity Johnson, Flick. And the. The macro wasp, which is currently zoomed in. [02:36:22] Speaker A: Whoops. Sorry. That is a. [02:36:25] Speaker B: Sick wasp. It's a sick wasp. It's also zoomed in. Number four. [02:36:30] Speaker A: Phil Thompson. That's. [02:36:33] Speaker B: Right, that. That. Milford. Number five. They're all zoomed in. Hang on, let me see if I can re resurrect these. No. Number five, David Leporati, the Bee. Number six, Jason. Duggan. [02:36:56] Speaker C: Chilling. [02:36:57] Speaker A: It. Yep. That's how my wife greets me in. [02:37:01] Speaker C: The morning. Is that how you look in the morning? I. [02:37:05] Speaker B: Doubt that. Yes. And he's like, what's up? Good morning. Number seven, Andrew Connor. Oh, I gotta fix this. Zoom. Hold on. Just give me one second. I gotta. I gotta fix this. Okay, clear screen. Get this back. [02:37:33] Speaker A: Up there. Yeah. [02:37:36] Speaker B: That worked. Okay, better. Number seven, Andrew Connor. Now, Buffalo sky, cloud inversion. Number eight, Shane Baker, water polo. Oh, that is still zoomed in. What is happening? Okay. [02:37:53] Speaker C: Sorry, team. Just push through it. [02:37:56] Speaker B: Push forward. Yeah, I just pushed right. Number nine, Philip Johnson, the Epic Landscape. Number 10, Greg Carrick, a guest image. And the crazy lunar Eclipse Composite. Number 11, Jamie Vanden Brink, Contemplation of a Classic. Number 12, Lisa Leach, Voice of Gravity Waterfall. 1311 Barrett, Insane. [02:38:34] Speaker A: Sky panorama. That's a really good photo. [02:38:36] Speaker B: Of. [02:38:37] Speaker C: That. Yeah. Isn't. [02:38:38] Speaker B: It? Yeah. Also another guest image. Fourteen, Les Okie, Hoped. [02:38:45] Speaker C: And. [02:38:45] Speaker A: Falls. [02:38:46] Speaker B: Yep. Yes. Fifteen, Michael Seneschal, the salvaged image of the birds, which is a very cool composite. Number 16, Anthony Stonehouse, the Barangaroo Wharf. That's a cool story. Yeah. Number 17, Ian Thompson. [02:39:11] Speaker A: Cradle. [02:39:12] Speaker C: Mountain. [02:39:13] Speaker B: Sick. Oops. Oh, no. Number 18, Simon England @ the. [02:39:23] Speaker A: Zoo. Great shot. That is the sentence. The sentence of the night. There is still a lot of luck required, but I'm starting to. [02:39:31] Speaker B: Minimize. [02:39:31] Speaker A: Its impact. Yes. On my photography process. That is a stunning quote. That's a T. [02:39:36] Speaker B: Shirt right there. This is a great question here. Is this the longest podcast you've ever done? Guess what? No. Our One with the next. [02:39:46] Speaker A: Image is maker. [02:39:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Good time. Number 19, Nick Fletcher was actually way longer. I think it was about 3 hours. [02:39:55] Speaker A: And 45 minutes. A. [02:39:57] Speaker B: Great watch, actually. Yes. Nick Fletcher, Ganesh and the Yaks. Now the guest image, David Mascara. The image from Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. Number 20. Number 21, Chris Q. The Korean Friendship Bell. Beautiful sunset. [02:40:22] Speaker A: Colors. Number. [02:40:27] Speaker C: 22. He's. [02:40:30] Speaker B: Here. I don't. Don't know. Number 22, Brett Wooderson. The Maguire's Motorex hot rod in front of the ferris wheel. Number 23, Lucinda Goodwin. Guest image, Missy Higgins at port fairy. Number 24, Grant Fleming. The Melbourne City and Skyline. That is a banger. [02:40:57] Speaker A: Square. Great shot. He's. [02:41:00] Speaker C: A. [02:41:00] Speaker B: Guest, though. Yeah. No, no, we put him in the regular category because he's not actually. Grant's not a professional photographer. He's just a regular old hobbyist. He just helped us get the podcast rolling. He's a good friend of mine and he hasn't been on for a long time. We've never interviewed him, so I'm putting him in. [02:41:16] Speaker C: The. [02:41:16] Speaker A: Regular. [02:41:16] Speaker B: Category. Yeah. Yeah. Number 25, John Latimer. The White Egret in Golden Hour. Matt crummons. Inspired. Number 26, Rick. [02:41:33] Speaker C: Nelson. Pelican Photobomb. That is. [02:41:37] Speaker B: So good. Whoa. Yeah. Number 27, Janice Terrell. The Comet Atlas Over. Electrical Storm. Mind blower. Yeah. Number 28, Lauren O'. Brien. Joy. The kids just having a great time. [02:41:57] Speaker A: On. [02:41:57] Speaker B: The grass. Yeah. Number 29, Jessica Tommy. The portrait. The mentor, Julian Kima. That zoomed in a little bit, too. Sorry about that if I forget. Number 30, Rodney Nicholson. Abstract of the sea. Number 31, Digifrog Dave Park. The Dog Studio. The leading dogs. The pet studio. That. That almost was now on pause. Number 32, Mitch. [02:42:35] Speaker A: Gamble. Seminyak Sunset. That's a. [02:42:38] Speaker B: Banger as well. It is. Number 33, Paul Sutton. Red reflecting. Number 34, Scott Longdon. Portrait of Winifred. Number 35, Bruce Moyle. Infinite Branches of Possibility. [02:43:01] Speaker C: Another. [02:43:01] Speaker B: Guest image. Banger. Yeah, Banger. Nathan ccp. Nathan Charles Coot Photography. And his crazy image of some street. Right. Gear. That was number 36. Number 37, Tina Moriarty. Where did it say? Back here. I think Rick said she wanted to enter and used her old email as. It's Tina Nelson. She follows me around when I take picks. [02:43:37] Speaker C: That's so. [02:43:37] Speaker B: Cool. That's right. Rick Nelson's wife. Tina. Tina Nelson. Not Moriarty. The boat covered in birds. Great image. Number 38, Christian Margets. Yeah, that's probably zoomed out a bit Transition the train station. And then number 39, Liam K model at the Build Expo. And then finally number 40, Fleur Ferguson. The giraffes. That's them. [02:44:18] Speaker A: All. All right. What a bunch of banging photos, man. I was. [02:44:29] Speaker B: Not expecting that. Yep. Tricky, tricky. Choose. And this. The variety. The variety of stories. [02:44:38] Speaker A: I love it. Yeah, just some great stories. And. Yeah, you're right. You're so right. The variety of stuff is. Is amazing. Everything from macro to just all of it. And some stuff I was not expecting either. Yep, really nice. Incredible. One is the. The one that has landed at the top of the pile for me is. Surprised me that. That it has, which is really interesting. And I've been sitting here with my elaborate notes and things trying to work it out, but. But it's. I keep going back to it. And you. I'm glad you were showing them because it just bounced out. [02:45:18] Speaker B: At me again. All right, well, a couple of. Do you. Do you want to reveal yours first? I'll read out a couple of quick comments before we do any reveals, if you like. Yeah, Felicity Johnson flicks. Just give everyone a lucky strap. Honestly, when I was looking back through the images, that is. That is a tempting idea to not have to pick someone just to be like you. All. [02:45:40] Speaker C: Win, show's over. [02:45:43] Speaker B: That would be. That would be far easier. And Greg Carrick says smash that, like, button. That's actually a. [02:45:49] Speaker A: Really. [02:45:49] Speaker B: Good point. Yeah. This was something that we sort of. That was popped up as an idea. And if you guys have stuck with us already, thanks so much for watching the show. That's amazing. Insane. But also, if you have a chance, just throw a like on the thing. And then also please, please, please vote for your favorite images for the People's Choice Award that will reveal next week. So you can have a say. Give us your three votes, your two votes, and your one vote. So you've got three images you can put in there. Who do you want to get three votes? Who do you want to get two, and who do you want to give one? And the most votes will be the people's choice, like. [02:46:20] Speaker C: The brown line. But not in these. Not in the. Not in the live video comments. Wait until we've finished and then you can jump into YouTube and put it in the standard comments. [02:46:27] Speaker B: Under the. [02:46:27] Speaker A: Video. Exactly, yeah. Ah, that's. [02:46:31] Speaker B: Interesting. Good point. Okay, who wants. [02:46:37] Speaker C: To reveal first? You ready. [02:46:41] Speaker A: To go, Dan? I am, yeah. So my. My favorite image. Are you going to. [02:46:46] Speaker B: Bring it up when I. I'll bring it up once you announce it. I'll find it quickly. And. And. Oh, can I do that? Yeah, I. [02:46:52] Speaker A: Can do that. Yeah. So my favorite. My Choice is number 21. And that image is. Was created by. [02:47:04] Speaker B: Chris. [02:47:04] Speaker C: Q. [02:47:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And. And for a couple of reasons. Not, Not. Not because I. I think it's the one that most needs some light. [02:47:15] Speaker C: Painting in. [02:47:16] Speaker A: It. But, but. But I loved. I loved. I really connected with. When he was talking about the image and the creation of the image, but some really bold decisions have been made in the composition that I just absolutely love. And, and if it is a. If it is a single exposure, I think that. That the choices made around the post processing have been unremarkable. The exposure control is just remarkable. I absolutely love it. And so for me, that's my favorite image of the year. And. And part of it is. Part of it is. It's not just the words that he's used and, And. And technically, but it's an image that I would love to have taken myself because I can feel. Yeah, I'm. I'm kind of imagining how. And. And all of those things. So. Yeah. So congratulations, Chris. You. You are my selection for Image of the Year, which means not only do you get yourself a lucky strap, but if you're keen, I would love to connect with you for some time online and talk about anything you like, potentially your image. How. [02:48:42] Speaker B: Does. [02:48:42] Speaker C: That sound? Yep. So just a reminder to everyone that. That we're each giving out a $250 Lucky Straps gift. So, you know, and we sell straps. Wrist straps, shoulder straps, thin straps, fat straps. Do we call them fat? We don't. But we also sell merch. We sell T shirts, hoodies, leather belts. Leather belts, the whole. The whole work. So congratulations, Chris. And. [02:49:10] Speaker A: You get down. If for any reason, if, if for any. If for any reason, Chris decided that he did not see any value at all in talking to me about anything at all. I do have a. I do have a second place, but we can deal with that when it comes. Amazing. So amazing. Thank. But thank you, everyone. Like, I mean, just what a stunning array of images. And I have a guest. [02:49:38] Speaker B: Pick as well. Awesome. All right, are you. [02:49:42] Speaker C: Ready, Greg? Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready. Okay, you tell me, can we bring up. Where'd it go, Jessica? Which was number 29. [02:49:55] Speaker A: Kind of classic. That was. [02:49:58] Speaker C: My second place. Yeah. It's a really, really powerful image captured perfectly. The lighting is sublime. There's almost like there's this story that needs to be told. And fortunately, she did tell us the story, and it was beautiful. It paired perfectly with this image. And the expression, the pose, the use of light, the use of dark. Masterful shot, really, in my view. And this is. This is my number one for photo of the year competition 2025. And you've just won yourself a 250 lucky straps gift card. So well done. And thank you. Thank you so much for sharing. You know, it's easy just to send someone an image and say, here's the photo I shot. But to tell the story behind it and to link it to how that's valuable for you as a person and how that relationship works is absolutely magical. [02:50:56] Speaker B: So. [02:50:56] Speaker C: Thank you. Awesome. So, yeah. What. [02:51:00] Speaker B: About you, boss? Oh, this has made it tricky. This has made it a little tricky because I had a bit of a short list that I was waiting to see. I thought if I go last, then I've got to kind of change things. Depending on. [02:51:11] Speaker A: Who. [02:51:11] Speaker B: You pick. Yeah. So I'm just completely posing myself and making sure that I'm. I'm happy with my. [02:51:20] Speaker C: Pick. Oh, it's. So let's just make. [02:51:23] Speaker B: A decision, man. Oh, okay. All right. So there's so many. You guys have made it really hard. Just. I really want to put that out there because there's a lot that I could pick and the stories actually made it even harder because there was so many great stories. But I just. I don't know why, but this, this just got me and I don't know what about it got me. So. Sorry. This is number four. Phil Thompson, the Milford Sound photo. And it just. When I was looking back through them, it was something that I think when I first saw it, it didn't. I was like, oh, that's sort of a photo of the boats wake, you know, but then when I saw it bigger and saw the boats on the side and the storm and all. And I think maybe because I've been here and. And I saw it not in these conditions. It was way more favorable conditions and it was still kind of wild. This looks really wild. And I just. I don't know, it. [02:52:23] Speaker C: Spoke. [02:52:23] Speaker B: To me. Yeah. So Phil Thompson. [02:52:27] Speaker A: Was. [02:52:27] Speaker B: My. [02:52:28] Speaker C: Pick. [02:52:28] Speaker B: Amazing. For. Yeah. Image of the year. But I did also have. So I had a few other people written down. I've got to make sure I make notes of. [02:52:39] Speaker C: All this stuff. Are we. Are we. Should we give out some runner. [02:52:43] Speaker B: Up prizes maybe? That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. And I've got a few written down. A few. We'll keep it quick. A few quick honorable mentions. And I want to kick one off with the first one. I want to kick off is just Les Okie for just a cracking waterfall shot. Yeah, you know, just. Just like. Just a great waterfall shot. It was. [02:53:06] Speaker A: Right there. So. Yeah. It's funny. I had three. I had three here. 21 and 29. 21 and 29. So the. [02:53:15] Speaker B: Portrait and. [02:53:16] Speaker A: 14. So that. Those. The waterfall. They were. [02:53:20] Speaker B: My three death. Can't. You can't see it. But they're. They're all written on. On part of my ear. So they all struck a chord. They all struck a chord with me for sure. Greg, have you got. [02:53:32] Speaker C: An honorable mention? Yeah. Well, from. From non guests. So community members, I give my honorable mention and I'd love to gift a 50 Lucky Straps gift voucher to Flick Johnson for. [02:53:48] Speaker B: The. [02:53:48] Speaker C: Macro shot. Yes. Yeah. Really, really amazing composition. Beautiful capture. Really, just. [02:53:55] Speaker B: In. [02:53:55] Speaker A: Every way. Yeah. So I've got to pick. I've got to find an honorable dimension that's not. When you guys have already picked. It'll. [02:54:03] Speaker C: Come. [02:54:03] Speaker A: It'll come. Talk. [02:54:05] Speaker B: Please hold. Paula. Well, you don't. You don't. You don't have to pick one, man. There were so many good ones that. [02:54:13] Speaker A: So another honorable I love. You know something that. That is punching me in the balls is Grant Fleming's. [02:54:24] Speaker B: City. [02:54:24] Speaker A: Bridge. [02:54:25] Speaker B: Image. [02:54:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey. Why. I tell you why that that keeps coming back to me is because it's unusual, but, like, there is something really special about that image in that. Not just. If you didn't know it was Melbourne, you would go, holy, look at this. Water is soft about this old bridge. The composition that. Going like it's doing this Z thing and the colors, but knowing it's Melbourne, it just adds this whole another layer of whoa. Because it. It, it. Yeah. And. And you. And what? What, what? The other thing I love that so many people get so wrong is it's. It's muted, it's punchy with the colors, but. [02:55:13] Speaker C: They'Re. [02:55:13] Speaker A: They're not. Not. It's like 5% on the side of awesome when the 5% the other way can end. [02:55:22] Speaker B: Up. [02:55:22] Speaker C: Quite gross. Yeah. And the other thing I love about this image, A is the one. [02:55:28] Speaker A: To. [02:55:28] Speaker C: One ratio. Yes. But B is that nothing in this frame is competing with anything else in the frame. Nothing competes with another. Like it just all stands very solidly in the. In. [02:55:40] Speaker A: The frame. Yeah. So that's my. That's my pick for. [02:55:45] Speaker B: Our runner. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. [02:55:49] Speaker A: There's. [02:55:49] Speaker B: So many. Ah. I don't know. There's so many. I'd love. I'd love to pick more like Paul the first we Led off with this one great shot. Like, there's so. There's so. [02:55:58] Speaker C: Many. I could. Yeah, they. [02:55:59] Speaker A: Were all wonderful. It's going to be interesting to see the. It's going to be interesting to see that the, The. [02:56:05] Speaker C: The viewers picks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't envy them. Okay, should we quickly. Should we quickly. [02:56:16] Speaker B: Allocate the glory? Let's allocate. [02:56:19] Speaker C: The glory. [02:56:19] Speaker B: It's. This is. How are we going. [02:56:21] Speaker C: To do this? [02:56:22] Speaker B: One each, maybe. Can't give. [02:56:26] Speaker C: Away three glory. Well, one. Each of. [02:56:29] Speaker B: Them will vote. Oh, like who's your favorite? Who's your favorite? And then I see what. [02:56:32] Speaker C: You'Re saying. Perfect. And. [02:56:33] Speaker B: Then we'll make. Maybe the chat can help sway our decisions too. All right. Have you. [02:56:37] Speaker C: Got yours ready? I do, I do a couple of quick honorables. Greg Carrick for technical prowess. Gosh, that man knows a camera and a lens system like no one else I've ever met. Nick Fletcher for not dying up on that mountain, from. [02:56:52] Speaker B: What. [02:56:53] Speaker A: I heard. Yeah. [02:56:53] Speaker C: Well done, Greg. Yeah, but that shot is just like it could have been taken 100 years ago, you know, on an expedition. It is just absolutely gorgeous and timeless and powerful and compelling and whimsical as well. So it's. It's gorgeous. But my. So who did I say? I said Greg Carrick. Nick Fletcher. So many great entries. But I am going to give the glory from me to Nathan for his soccer slash. Football slash. Right. Police evening in the. Yeah, it just. There's just something otherworldly about this. There's almost. I think you said it, Justin, like a sci fi element to it. But this is just real life. This is, you know, these. And it always fascinates me about. Right. Police. They always seem so stoic, but deep down they. [02:57:46] Speaker A: Must be themselves. Are. [02:57:47] Speaker C: They human beings? Yeah, you know, I just. I think we lose sight of that all too often. Yeah. They've got armor and they've got shots. Shields and they've got. But they're just as fragile as people on the other side. So I think it's a really powerful image. I love the leading line of the line of police that goes into. Into the light. And I love the fact that there's people blocking that and creating shadow and. And there's lots of shadow on the ground. It's. It's. It's shadow in. In that. In. In the smoke from the flare. I think it's a really compelling image and Nathan, you should be really proud of it. And I know it's just one of countless amazing images in your Collection. But it's. [02:58:22] Speaker B: It'S, it's special. How are you traveling with yours, Dennis? [02:58:28] Speaker A: You got it. You know, I, I was, I wanted to stay at Red Earth Lodge next year, and, and I, and I also want to hear the whole story behind that, that amazing trip. But yeah, you've got me here. I'm, I'm here with you guys. I'm, I'm here with you on this image. I, I think it's remarkable. And, and, and, and, and it, it sits for me, it sits right alongside Nick's image in, in these sort of just fleeting moments. You know, Nick pokes his head out and sees this thing and you know, they've, they both positioned themselves and like all of these image images, the right place, the decisive moment. And, and, but if we, if this was the image that we chose for the glory, I'd be happy to put my name to that. But closely. [02:59:20] Speaker C: Followed. [02:59:21] Speaker B: By Nick. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm happy to lay my voice. [02:59:28] Speaker C: That way. Yeah. So what. [02:59:30] Speaker B: About you, Justin? Yeah, it's tough and I don't know. So I don't know if we sort of. Because, yeah, there's quite a few. It's really tough. And, and Nick's actually asked me like, what about Scott image of him and mother in law. Scott's. Scott's image. I'm actually. Because we haven't interviewed him, Scott's image is actually in the, in the, in the regular category. He's still up for People's Choice award for his portrait of Winifred. And I have actually have him down here. I had actually two more honorable mentions. Well, there's, I actually wrote a lot down because I'm, I think I, at one point I was like, I think I'm writing. I've written them all down. So, So I actually did want it. So he's still up for people's choice of award, but I had Scott Longdon as just the. [03:00:16] Speaker C: Most. [03:00:16] Speaker B: Impactful image. Yeah. Honorable mention. And then also I had Rick Nelson down as funniest image. And that's something I'd like to keep. [03:00:27] Speaker A: Going. [03:00:27] Speaker B: Honorable mention. Yeah. So, yeah, I had, I had a few going there. But so my other. In terms of guests, I, I really like Nick's image because I like the snow, the mountains. This is a place I dream of going. This sort of scene I would love to see for myself. I also like. Bruce's shot is epic and otherworldly. Levin's. I could only dream. Where is it? There it is. I could only dream about taking an image like this. Like this. Yeah. But I think in, in the, in the top couple of mine was this. Where am I? Gosh. This. [03:01:10] Speaker A: One. [03:01:11] Speaker B: From Nathan. Yeah. And since you guys are there too, I think that's got to. [03:01:14] Speaker A: Be the. [03:01:14] Speaker C: One. [03:01:16] Speaker A: I think. Yeah. I, I, I, I mean. Hang on a sec, hang on. We forgot to mention, Nick actually took that shot. [03:01:23] Speaker B: Handheld with noises. That's true. Handheld with a. [03:01:29] Speaker C: Very expensive camera. He was in a tent eating tea and cakes, whereas Nathan in front of. Right. Police. And who knows what was. [03:01:37] Speaker A: About to happen. [03:01:38] Speaker C: Good point. Really. Nick had the easy. [03:01:40] Speaker A: Shoot to see. Nick's comment. Better bring my. [03:01:44] Speaker C: Swag next year. Yeah, yeah. You gotta. [03:01:48] Speaker A: Sleep outside, mate. Sorry. No, I think I'm, I'm really happy that this is, this is the, this, this. [03:01:55] Speaker B: Is the glory. The glory. Nathan wins the glory. But yeah, all of, obviously all of the images from the guests were great and all of the images from everyone else. You know, I keep going back, go past Mitch, Mitch's shot like that. I mean, there's so many good ones. Oh, Lucinda. We forgot about Lucinda's one as a guest. [03:02:15] Speaker C: Shot. Also amazing. [03:02:16] Speaker B: I don't know. [03:02:18] Speaker A: We can't stop. Well, I think, I think it's really important just to, I think it's important to remember that I actually did pull myself out of potentially winning. I did make that point to you, that I would not allow my image to be selected as the greatest image ever created in the history of all light painting. [03:02:36] Speaker B: But that's okay. Yeah, that's all right. I mean, you, I guess you win the Host of. [03:02:43] Speaker A: The Year. Yeah, We're. [03:02:51] Speaker C: Gonna clip that. We're gonna make it a clip. Dennis, you are the Host of the Year. In fact, I'm thinking of resigning just so you can. [03:02:57] Speaker B: Take my seat. Host Image of the Year. I say Greg, not Host of the Year. Host's image of the. I don't know. I was worried. I'm just, I'm just handing out awards like Oprah. I'm just like, you get an. [03:03:12] Speaker C: Award, you get. It's almost Tuesday. I think we're. [03:03:15] Speaker B: Quite tired too. Yeah. Les says Phil Thompson is a lot chuffed with his win. That's good to hear. Nathan says, thanks, guys. Really appreciate it. Thanks for sticking with us. Thanks to everyone that stuck through this. This is a three hour. Imagine if we. So, so that was 40 entries. Imagine if we got 80 entries. I don't know what we would have done. I hadn't really. [03:03:37] Speaker C: Thought that through. No. [03:03:39] Speaker B: Neither had. [03:03:39] Speaker C: I. All right, what's going to happen next for people that we've nominated as 2025 photo of the year competition for the. [03:03:47] Speaker B: Camera Life podcast. I've got everyone's emails. Give me a bit of time. I don't know what when I'll sort of be able to get everything through to everybody. But I've got all your emails from all your submissions. So we'll get back in touch with you via email, set up your vouchers and stuff. You'll get put in touch with Dennis, Chris, Q. And, and we'll go. Yeah, we'll just go through it like that. And then next week, super important show. Back to regular scheduled programming for the Monday night random shows. Except we'll be doing the unveiling of the People's Choice award. But that means you guys, if you're listening on Spotify or whatever, Apple podcasts, we appreciate you. You haven't seen any of the images, so please come over. Hang on. That means you've listened to a three hour podcast and not seen it. That, that you won't be listening right now. Look, if you're hearing me right now, please come to YouTube comments and, and put in there your votes for three votes, two votes, one votes for your People's Choice award photo of the year. Yep. [03:04:45] Speaker A: Please, please, please. Yeah, I'll be impressed if anyone's. [03:04:48] Speaker B: Figured this out. Oh yeah, your laser beams. We should make you bigger so people can see them. Hang on. See this? Look at this. This is. It took him three hours today to set up. [03:05:00] Speaker A: His laser beams. Three hours. [03:05:01] Speaker B: I spent nga. Oh, that laser beam is moving. Oh, so. [03:05:05] Speaker C: Is. [03:05:05] Speaker A: That one. No. So these are real. So. [03:05:09] Speaker C: These. [03:05:09] Speaker A: Are actually lights? Yeah, it's. It's about this. So this line on my arm, it's a, it's a. It's a portrait on my website. Dennismith.com au galleries by the line, it's called. I'll leave that. [03:05:28] Speaker C: There. Thank. [03:05:29] Speaker B: You. All right. Anything else you need, you want to promote, Dennis? Anything you got coming up you want people. [03:05:33] Speaker A: To know about? Yeah, we, we've. I haven't even done the promo video yet, but yeah, we. Adam Edwards and I are doing. [03:05:42] Speaker B: Our Lake. [03:05:42] Speaker A: Mungo. Oh yeah. Workshop in May. That's. That's a two night light painting slash workshop. Landscape light painting workshop at Lake Mungo, which is wild. But no, man, I'm. I'm pretty much starting to my counseling. [03:06:02] Speaker C: I'm. [03:06:03] Speaker A: Gonna be. Yeah. [03:06:03] Speaker C: The. [03:06:04] Speaker A: Next. Next. Yeah. Like it's on your real job. Yeah, that's my thing. Yeah, I'm going up to. Going up to. Yeah. Bit of travel. Coming all of that and just, just this is another. I'm really looking forward to this year with the podcast and, and stuff. Just again, lovely. And what a buzz. [03:06:26] Speaker B: To be here. Thank you so much, Dennis, for. For helping us do this. It would have been. It wouldn't have been as fun without you, that's for sure. And. And it would have been one. [03:06:36] Speaker A: Less prize, so. One less prize. [03:06:39] Speaker C: That'S for sure. What you've done. Look. [03:06:41] Speaker B: What you've done. We. [03:06:42] Speaker C: Really appreciate it. Are we ready to wrap. [03:06:45] Speaker B: Do you think? We are. I gotta get over time by an hour. [03:06:50] Speaker C: And a half. Just before. Nothing ever goes to time, just before we do wrap. Once again, thanks to Dennis Smith for joining us tonight, for providing amazing feedback on every image that was on display, but also just for hanging out in the chat and supporting us and supporting you guys. And it's always a pleasure to have you on the show, Dan. And again, congratulations. We are incredibly proud of you. You seem to be always busy, yet somehow you found time to finish a course, to get a qualification, to make a difference in other people's lives. That's. That's pretty phenomenal and we're proud of you for it. I start crying again. Justin, let me tell you what you've done. Well, no, it's going to be. [03:07:31] Speaker B: A short show and that's all we have time for. That's. [03:07:36] Speaker C: All we have. But, but look, on that note, this has been the Camera Life podcast. It is the. What is it, the 5th of January, something like that. It's almost Tuesday. And we are so grateful to everybody who submitted photos and stories and hung out with us to celebrate what we all love doing, which is, you know, seeing the light, chasing the light, capturing the light. It's. It's phenomenal and we love you all for it and thank you very much. But let's play the music and the boss can. [03:08:05] Speaker A: Say some goodbyes. It takes courage to put your photos out in public. [03:08:12] Speaker B: By the. [03:08:12] Speaker C: Way. It. [03:08:13] Speaker B: Does. It does. Thanks, everyone for sending them in. It does take courage. TG frogs going to bed. Thank you. Rick Nelson says, awesome show. Thanks for a great time each week. Mark Blotoff. Great episode, gents. Great format. The story behind the image is a really nice touch. Well done. Thanks, Mark. Just noticed you got 2.20 80 subscribers. Was that the goal for the end of 25? Yeah, we made it. [03:08:37] Speaker A: To 2,000 subscribers. Yeah. And I'll see you. [03:08:40] Speaker B: Later. Go, mate. Oh, yeah, he's keen. He's. He's gonna be there. Great character to his third radio show. Rodney Nicholson. Awesome night, everyone. Classic Liz Okie. Thanks, everyone, for the fun, the feedback. What a great night, celebrating everyone's photos. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Tweet. Good to see you. Prawns are going back in the fridge. [03:09:02] Speaker C: That's. [03:09:02] Speaker B: A shame. Yeah. All right, thanks for a great episode. Thanks, David. Great image. [03:09:07] Speaker C: Great everything. Goodbye. See you.