Reviewing Your Toy Photography - The Random Photography Show

[00:00:00] Speaker A: That. Well, good evening everybody and welcome back to the Camera Life podcast. Sorry, were you going to say something? Were you going to interrupt me already? [00:00:37] Speaker B: No, I just said bam. I just wanted to get the first word. [00:00:41] Speaker A: Of course I did it. Yeah, well, I bet you feel good about it too. Anyway, where was I? This is the Camera Life podcast. It's a random photography show where we bring you all the latest industry news. We talk about what's going on on the socials, we look at a whole bunch of stuff. But tonight we've got a very special episode. Do you want to tell the people what we're doing tonight, Justin? [00:01:04] Speaker B: Well, we're unveiling the images everyone's created this week for the toy photography challenge, including my photos and some of your photos. Greg, you inspired this challenge with your blog post article about toy photography when you gave it a try and now we've got, I don't know, it's like 10 to 15 people gave it a crack this week and sent in their images. So that's pretty fun. [00:01:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And interestingly, looking through the list of people that have sent in images, they're not the people I expected that would do it. [00:01:35] Speaker B: Really? [00:01:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting. Not that I had high. [00:01:38] Speaker B: Did you expect to do it? [00:01:40] Speaker A: I don't know, I just, I just some of the people who've sent in photos and caught me by surprise. It was great to see. It is very good. [00:01:48] Speaker B: It's good to see. There's been anyway put some work into. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I saw your behind the scenes video. [00:01:57] Speaker B: You haven't seen the photo yet though. [00:01:59] Speaker A: No, no, we'll leave our judgment for later. [00:02:02] Speaker B: Yep. [00:02:03] Speaker A: But anyway, that'll be the plan. It is the plan. But yeah, guys, stick around. We're going to cover off a little bit of news but then we're going to dive straight, straight into the world of toy photography. We're going to look at some inspiration on the socials that people that I've found over the couple of years who are doing amazing toy photography, like high production value kind of stuff as well as some sort of middle of the road people. So yeah, we're going to get to that. What else have we got coming up tonight [00:02:31] Speaker B: about, about gear. Just a cheat because you, you, you had an article published what in the last couple of. When did that thing come out? [00:02:41] Speaker A: At the end of last week. Yeah, with the Australian photography magazine. I, Yeah, I wrote an article called why Less is more and More is Less and it's all about downsizing. Not necessarily downsizing your kit, but heading out the door Going off on a shoot with very minimal gear to optimize your outcomes and to focus more on the experience and the image making than rummaging through your camera bag. That's kind of the premise of it. [00:03:08] Speaker B: But yeah, and I thought in honor of that, we could talk about gear that we're looking at buying. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Sure. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Because, because, because, like, less is more, but sometimes also more is more. So there's a couple of things. There's a couple of things on. [00:03:26] Speaker A: Jason, tell me what it is that you're trying to buy. [00:03:28] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no, no. We'll talk, we'll talk about it in that segment. But yeah, I just thought it'd be fun. And I know you've been looking at camera bags and things, so we're gonna, we'll chit chat through all that. It'll be good. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, indeed. All right, well, let's get stuck into it. Hey, let's say first. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Oh, good idea, good idea. Well, this is Dennis from 4pm furiously editing behind the scenes toy videos. Thanks for the inspiration. Yeah. We've got, we've got a photo from Dennis and he's made a behind the scenes video that we're gonna play a bit later in the episode. And it is very cool. Philip Johnson is here. It is very cool. Rodney Nicholson is here. I just, I, Yeah, I want to give it a try. Rodney Nicholson says, evening all. No toys tonight. Just off the plane from paradise. I mean, is that surface paradise? I don't know. [00:04:20] Speaker A: Yeah, he was up north. [00:04:22] Speaker B: Philip Johnson is looking forward to the Art Wolf interview on Thursday. Aren't we all? That's gonna be mega this Thursday. Art Wolf. [00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Actually had a message from. [00:04:32] Speaker B: What did you say? Philip? [00:04:33] Speaker A: I had a message from Philip earlier today. We're having a little chat about art and I said, you know, here at the Camera Life, we give the people what they want. I didn't actually say that, but I thought of it now. I should have said it back then. [00:04:47] Speaker B: I just can't believe these. Yeah. Anyway, it's going to be great. Interview. What'd you say? A hundred books? It's that. 100 books. [00:04:52] Speaker A: I think it's got 100 books. I think that's what I read. [00:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:55] Speaker A: 50 years of photography. He set out to deliver 100. Sorry, a book. Not 100 books. Every year. A book every year. And he managed to do more than that. So it's amazing. [00:05:06] Speaker B: It's. Yeah. Huge. Huge. So many questions. It's going to be a great interview. So make sure if you're available, join us for that. But obviously, as always, you'll be able to listen to it back however you want. YouTube, Spotify, you know, Apple podcasts, wherever. We're the camera life. [00:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Who else is here? Greg Carrick is here. Looking forward to three hours of you guys toying with us. It won't be three hours. Lisa Leach, good evening. Sorry, no toy image from you. That's a shame. We would have liked to see it. I bet you would have come up with something special [00:05:39] Speaker A: on the weekend, too. We'll get to that a bit later. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, because she was also in published. You guys are both published together. [00:05:46] Speaker A: We both had articles published last week. She was in Better Photography and I was in Australian Photography Magazine and we both had articles, so it's pretty cool. [00:05:55] Speaker B: I thought you were in the same magazine. I was like, oh, that's a coinky dink. [00:05:59] Speaker A: No, no. So we caught up on Saturday for a streetwalk and also just a gloat about. About our excellence as published authors. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Just tell each other how amazing you are. Yeah. [00:06:11] Speaker A: That's all it was. [00:06:12] Speaker B: That's fun. [00:06:16] Speaker A: Yes. [00:06:16] Speaker B: Felicity Johnson is here. David Leporardi is here. Great image coming in from David. David Skinner is here. Bruce Moyle. Good evening. Craig Murphy just made it. Good evening. Brett Wooderson, Tweak Productions. Evening, party people. Looking forward to seeing what everyone come up with for the toy theme. Yeah, it's going to be fun. Lucinda's here. Howdy. Bruce Moyle. I didn't even get to shoot. Just too busy on other jobs. Looking forward to seeing everyone's work. Damn, Bruce, yours would have been. I bet it would have been crazy. [00:06:48] Speaker A: There's always next week, Brucey. Always next week. [00:06:50] Speaker B: There's always. Yeah, you can. You can send a special one in next week. Rick Nelson. Paul's here. Paul. Other Paul's here. Or which one's Other Paul? You can both be other Paul. Grant's here. What's up, Grant? Digifrog and tin type man. A quick hi from the uk. Well, yeah, thank you. Good to see you. [00:07:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:11] Speaker B: All right, everybody. [00:07:12] Speaker A: Welcome, everybody. [00:07:15] Speaker B: Anything else before we get to the news? Should we tell the people about our sponsor? We've got a new sponsor. [00:07:21] Speaker A: A sponsor. We do have a new sponsor, yeah. Who is it? [00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it's Lucky camera straps. It's us, you know, it's always us. If you would like it, a delightful leather camera strap. One that's very, very comfortable. Carry a camera all day. Like your camera is not even there. But it is there whenever you need it to take a Photo beautiful quick release system. You know, anti theft, all that sort of stuff. Cut resistant Dyneema webbing. We've got them. Luckystraps.com use code Greg for 15% off. Yeah, okay, that's that. [00:07:54] Speaker A: And of course if you've got any questions about any of the products on our website, you can shoot us an email, let us know and say hey, I've got this camera. I'm not sure if it'll fit or what do you recommend for this type of camera? Always happy to help you guys out. To choose the best strap to connect with your craft. Hey, how was that? Was that good? [00:08:13] Speaker B: Hey, I see what you did there. You could even if you have a question while we're live, you can just call the show. We actually have a. With the only photography podcast in the world that has a live calling number. You can just call us. I'll answer the phone if it works, if I can get the Rodecaster connected to the Bluetooth and we'll answer your question about that or anything. So call the show. Plus six one because we're in Australia. 4855-12370. That's plus 614-855-1123. 70. [00:08:40] Speaker A: Okay, nice. [00:08:42] Speaker B: What's Craig Carrick say? [00:08:44] Speaker A: He says if you're into this is your lucky day. Well done. Crackers. [00:08:50] Speaker B: Right. All right, let's get into the one last week. [00:08:55] Speaker A: What? Sneaky. Yeah. [00:08:59] Speaker B: Wow. Okay, into the news. [00:09:02] Speaker A: Into the news indeed. Play the jingle. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Jingled. [00:09:08] Speaker A: Let's do these in sequential order, boss. [00:09:11] Speaker B: Okay, I'll pull them up. [00:09:13] Speaker A: All right. Top of the headlines this week over the last week is that Sony is actually suspending all orders and I imagine production of memory cards due to the global memory shortage. So we've talked about this a couple of times over the last probably couple of months. The cost of especially SSDs, SD cards, storage that you put into a computer system, all of those sorts of applications, the prices are just going through the roof because data centers are buying up all products and the tech bros are probably buying up all the natural earth elements that are required to make those products. So you know, we're in a bit of a weird situation. And even if they did have them, they couldn't ship them to us because there's no oil left in the world. So you know, it's all, it's all looking peachy. [00:10:08] Speaker B: That's a fair point. Yeah. Even if they could make them, we couldn't get them. Yeah, it's. Everything's just gone crazy price wise. I was looking at SSDs the other day, luckily, I don't need one right now, but I just kept hearing people talk about the price, talk about the price, and, yeah, they're double what they were when I looked at them. I don't know, 12 months ago, just over and. Yeah, it's just not hard to justify. Very, very hard to justify. [00:10:37] Speaker A: Well, I'm looking at going back to hard drives because I'm running out of storage space, and my little. My wee, little sandisk SSD is just hanging in there, I think. [00:10:50] Speaker B: So you think you go to, like, a spinny disc drive? [00:10:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I'll just go back to spinny discs. Well, we use them perfectly fine for, you know, all those years. I know they're not as fast the way I work. [00:11:02] Speaker B: I have two. Well, to not complicate it too much, I have two spinny discs, one for photo, one for video, for stuff that I'm not working on right now, my laptops for stuff that I'm working on right now, which is obviously the fastest storage. And then I have multiple SSDs for projects that I might be working on and want to back up, but they're not ready to kind of go under the spinny archive drives or whatever. And that's simplifying it a little bit. But, yeah, I would recommend sort of starting to segment stuff out to like, hey, I don't need that on this drive. And so I can just move it to a spinny disk. And if you're worried about redundancy, because they are more prone to failure than an ssd. Yeah, just get two of them and set up Carbon Copy Cloner so you use one as your main drive, and then Carbon Copy Cloner will just copy that once a day to the other one. [00:12:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I think next time I come to Bendigo, I'd love to spend an hour with you just going over how I've set up my storage, because I hate lightroom cataloging. You know, I want to upgrade my drive, my storage drive, and then I've got to move my catalog to a new drive, and it doesn't like it. It just does my head in. Anyway, we'll talk about that another day. [00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah, we can. We can talk about it. It's not as easy as. It's not as. Sorry, it's not as hard as you think, because your catalog doesn't have to be relocated. It can. It can reference many, many drives in one catalog. So you can just move the photo, the. The bulky photos off the stuff where you're like, ah, there's a 10, 000 photo. They just need to sit over here, you know, because I don't look at them every day. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:43] Speaker B: Oh, Bruce said he has to had to buy. Oh, no, I have to buy 10 terabytes of drives tomorrow. Thankfully I don't have to pay for it. Oh, that's. Yeah, that's lucky. [00:12:52] Speaker A: What's that going to cost, Bruce? That would be. [00:12:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Indeed. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Lucinda says I'm currently copying over all my older SSDs to hard drives to have my SSDs back in rotation. Yeah, that's a good way to do it. Yeah. Get that stuff off onto. Onto slower drives and bigger drives. Just go. You can get like one. I think one of mine's a 16 or an 18 terabyte, just desktop, Western digital. Just a stock standard spinny hard drive, external. And then. Yeah, it's just got heap of video stuff on there that I don't really need. Like if I lost it, it's not the end of the world kind of stuff. I've got it all as final projects on a different drive. So. [00:13:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Anyway, I just need to set mine up better. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Yeah, we can go through it. All right, next news article. [00:13:41] Speaker A: Okay, well, this is something that will tickle your fancy. Canon, in an interview at CP plus, heads of Canon said that they will continue to expand the RF lens lineup at a rate of six to eight new lenses each year. [00:13:58] Speaker B: Yes. [00:13:59] Speaker A: So, you know, you better start saving up. [00:14:02] Speaker B: You know what's great? I'm just. When you say that, I'm like, what would I want? [00:14:07] Speaker A: What would you want? [00:14:08] Speaker B: What would I want? What would I want? I want. I would like a really. They won't make one because they've got the 28 mil 2.8 and pancake you've got. Yeah, I would like a 28 mil. That's like an F2 or something. They won't make one, though. They'll do an F 1.4, which will be in that VCM lineup maybe eventually. And I'll probably buy that. It's not huge. They're not. The vcms aren't huge, but it'll. It'd be bigger than I'd like, but they've got that 28 mil pancake, so they're not going to do anything that's close to that size in like an F2. What else would I like? I would really like. [00:14:48] Speaker A: You have a macro lens. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Well, sorry, I was thinking what would I like them to make that doesn't exist? I would definitely like a Macro. And they make it. They make a delightful 100 mil macro that if I could ever justify buying, I would. But at the moment I wouldn't use it enough to justify an L series macro. Yeah, but, yeah, in terms of stuff that's. That they don't have in their range, that I'd love to see. There's been rumors of a 24-70 F2 instead of the 28 to 70 that they launched. Their kind of. That was like their big flagship lens when they went into mirrorless. I think if they did a 24 to 70 F2, that would certainly shake things up a bit, depending on how good and how heavy it was. I would really like to see the. The rumored lens. They talked about a 70 to 152.8. Yep. That's lightweight and compact. That'd be pretty sweet. [00:15:47] Speaker A: Yep. [00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:48] Speaker A: And that would be in direct competition with that Sony lens that came out last year, wouldn't it? Didn't they? [00:15:53] Speaker B: No, because that's. That's an F. Yeah, that's an F2, isn't it? [00:15:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. [00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's. That's like a super, super duper. That's probably what Canon will make to try and compete with Sony at that level. Whereas I'm thinking like lower quality, super lightweight. Toss it in the bag and you've got a. Like a 70 to 150 or something like that. Because I've really been enjoying those smaller Canon lenses that they released, the 16-28 F2 and the 28 F 2.8 and the 28-70 F 2.8, the super light and. Yeah, anyway, yeah, apparently. Apparently I like things fast. I do. Depends what it is. Yeah. I mean, it's. It's awesome to hear that they're not slowing down on pumping out lenses that 45 mil, 1.4, 1.2. Sorry, that isn't the greatest quality that they brought out this year, but it is cheap and it's nice to shoot with. That's the form factor. That works well for me. [00:16:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And you've kept that lens, haven't you, that 45? [00:16:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm. I've got to clear out some 50 mils because I've got all of them. But I keep thinking about doing this video where I compare how they all shoot and that's why I've got them all still sitting around and I just haven't got around to making the video. I really should just give up on it. Don't know. But I think when I go on my Upcoming trip in May. I think that 45 mils be gonna be the 50 mil. That'll be the. The 45 mil will be the 50 mil lens that I take. I'm pretty sure. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Even with all its flaws. But it's just lightweight and, and easy. [00:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And you've got a little bit of extra, extra width for environmental portraits. [00:17:34] Speaker B: And I did wonder that whether I prefer that focal length. [00:17:39] Speaker A: I wonder if you'd prefer a 40. [00:17:40] Speaker B: To be honest, I've had a 40 before and I didn't like it really. Wasn't. Wasn't quite 50 enough and it wasn't quite 28 mil enough. And look at this. We're talking gear talk. We're not even in the gear talk. [00:17:52] Speaker A: Oh yeah, we're still in the news. Sorry, I got. [00:17:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, we'll get back. But that's good. So Canon are still pumping out lenses six to eight a year. That's what we want to see. I, I'm sure a lot of those will be crop sensor as well. I think they're still building out that ecosystem. So I'm sure I wouldn't be surprised if three or four of the six lenses end up being rfs crop sensor lenses. [00:18:16] Speaker A: But yeah. [00:18:17] Speaker B: Anyway. [00:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And I think somewhere today I read something about them wanting to refocus on APS C. Yeah. [00:18:27] Speaker B: So they definitely need to if they want to have that as a competitive segment against people like Fujifilm. They can't just like put out a few kit lenses and hope everyone will be happy with that, you know, like that won't do. [00:18:39] Speaker A: No, no. Won't stand for it. [00:18:42] Speaker B: Nope. [00:18:43] Speaker A: I'm a little bit concerned because our live viewer chat says there's only one one person watching. If you're in the chat, say hi just to let me know that you're actually watching live. [00:18:52] Speaker B: There's definitely more than one people. I think there's just one. [00:18:56] Speaker A: I think there might be. [00:18:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Who do you reckon is. Is it Bruce? This is Bruce. [00:19:00] Speaker A: It's probably just Bruce. Yeah. Yeah. [00:19:03] Speaker B: Oh, it's Dennis. [00:19:05] Speaker A: Oh, it's Dan. Oh no, it's everybody. That's really odd. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Look, okay. The system works kind of well. [00:19:15] Speaker A: I think it's good because, you know, we often talk about how Canon won't still have not opened up their full frame RF mount to allow third party brands to fill some gaps. So let's hope they fill their own gaps. [00:19:28] Speaker B: And that is probably the thing. I was, I was gonna just brush past that. But anyway, that is probably the thing that they Can't. If they're gonna keep doing that and who knows how long they'll try and do that for. There's been rumors it's, it's maybe coming to an end within the next 12 months. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:45] Speaker B: They do have to keep pumping out their own lenses if they're going to block Tamron and Sigma and everyone else. [00:19:51] Speaker A: Especially Tamron. Yep, yep. Because all the Tamron Sigma needs to do that. Tamron and Sigma already have the lenses design. They've done it for, they've done it for Nikon, they've done it for Sony. You know, they just have to create a new mountain. I know it's, it's not that simple, but you know what I mean? Like they could really hit the ground running. [00:20:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh yeah. It'd be crazy. [00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting. Let's talk film. There's a couple of articles about film photography here. So Kodak Eastman have just announced and released two new films. Two. Yeah, it was two. [00:20:34] Speaker B: It was two. I think I've got them in. I just pulled up a different one that has less ads and. [00:20:39] Speaker A: Good idea. [00:20:40] Speaker B: I think it's. But I think it's got them separated into two new. Into two different articles. But I can switch between them. [00:20:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool. So basically the guts of it is, is that Kodak Ektapan black and white films have, have been released for 135 and 120 and in 100, 450. Is that 3200? [00:21:08] Speaker B: Yeah. The Ektapan is. Hang on, I'll switch this. Yeah, so. [00:21:11] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's two. So there's two. There's Ector color and Ectopan and Ectopans. The black and white one which is. Yeah. 100, 400 and 3200 ISO speeds. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Yep. And then the Ektacan Pro color neg films, 160, 400 and 800 for daylight balance color negs, which is cool, you know, and I think it's good to see because we've seen a lot of, you know, obviously brands like the mography and cine still are pushing out new, new film stock as they get their hands on it. But to see, you know, an old school player like Kodak or Fujifilm come out with new stock, that's, that's really reassuring for the market and the industry. [00:22:00] Speaker B: It is. [00:22:01] Speaker A: It means that they haven't completely abandoned film. They're still putting in effort. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah. It's not actually something I would have guessed was going to happen, but show us how much I know about the film industry. But yeah, I thought they would be definitely just sort of working with. I mean, they've got so many great film stocks. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:20] Speaker B: I would have just thought, you know what. [00:22:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:22] Speaker B: It's not really the time to develop something new. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:26] Speaker B: Well, it's great to see still. [00:22:27] Speaker A: It is. Would you. Would you have a crack at these one day? [00:22:32] Speaker B: Yeah, but I've still got. I've got two drawers of stuff that I'm like working my way through of like different things to try after Joel, Come on. And I. I bought a heap of new sort of things to try, so it. I won't be buying these for probably six months because I've got plenty of other things to give a whirl, so. [00:22:50] Speaker A: Fair enough. It'd be interesting to see what they're priced at too, comparatively speaking, once they [00:22:55] Speaker B: make it to Australia. [00:22:56] Speaker A: How. [00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah. How expensive they are compared to the other. Other things. [00:23:00] Speaker A: Yep. And then in other film photography news, the folks at Petapixel did a video and an article, a review for the Lomo MCA 35 mil film camera. They gave it really high praise. [00:23:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I had a close look at that a little while ago that. That camera and. And there was mixed reviews on it. So. Yeah, it'. Haven't I read most of the article. I haven't watched the video yet and they did. That seemed very, very positive reviews. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:35] Speaker B: Were not so positive. So I sort of need to revisit it and see because I think there's definitely a market here for a. There's. There seems to be super cheap, almost reloadable disposables, basically. [00:23:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. And you can pick them up at JB and Big W and shops like that. [00:23:56] Speaker B: Yep, yep. And then there's like a few kind of in between ones, but it's hard to get a read on what's good. And then you just jump straight up into. And this is excluding everything secondhand, obviously. There's tons of secondhand film cameras you can buy, but if you want something new. Yeah. There's the Pentax 17, which is half frame. And then you just jump into like likers and stuff. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Yes. [00:24:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. There doesn't seem to be a lot in that leaf. I want to spend. I want to spend $800 on a film camera or $1200 on a film camera. And I want something that's nice. [00:24:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I wonder, you know, it feels like there's a gap there and it's really rare in this day and age to see gaps go unfilled for so long and I think there's still A lot of fear about reinvesting in film, in developing new film cameras. You know, the 17. The Pentax, wasn't it? No, the Ricoh. What was the brand? It was Pentax. Same thing. Anyway, you know, that was. That was a bold step and it'd be interesting to know how well that actually performed compared to their expectations, because I would imagine that all the other brands were looking very closely to see what happened in that space, but no one has stepped up to offer a competitor product or an alternative product. And there's such. Like you said, there's such a big gap between sort of a maybe three, $400 film camera. Then all of a sudden you're looking at several thousand and there's just that big. That big void there. So it'd be interesting to see whether. Whether this continues this trend and someone actually looks to fill that gap. [00:25:32] Speaker B: The top plate of this camera was one of the most contentious things, the big quote that they've put on there. Yeah. Which is. Which is an odd choice for a. Well, for any camera, really, to have that much writing and like a quote just kind of inscribed on the top of the camera when you look at it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Odd choice. [00:25:54] Speaker B: Going back to film for a second, exe XY's in the chat. What's up? Exe says, hello. Ector color is Portra, by the way. So it's the same as Portra. What do you mean? It is Portra Ector color. But portrait doesn't come in. Oh, it does come. 160. Okay, so what's the difference? 160, 400, 800. So it's just Portra. Yeah, appears to be. Okay, this article says. Yeah, appears to be. Rebranded versions of Kodak's extremely popular portrait films. Ah. [00:26:33] Speaker A: Oh, they just renamed them. [00:26:35] Speaker B: They've been distributed by Kodak, Alaris, rather than Eastman Kodak itself. Yeah. [00:26:43] Speaker A: So Eastman Kodak is the original. Is the original. Well, part of the original company that they didn't sell off when film. When digital cameras first came in and film collapsed and then Alaris, they bought a big chunk of Kodak at some stage. [00:26:57] Speaker B: Right. Well, that's dumb. Okay. [00:27:00] Speaker A: It's almost like they're competing with themselves. So you can either get the. The Kodak Portra or you can get the Kodak, the new one, the Ector color. [00:27:15] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:15] Speaker A: But the same thing. Not Portra. Sorry. Anyway, you guys know what I mean? [00:27:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:20] Speaker A: This. [00:27:21] Speaker B: It's as. It's as confusing as you're making it sound. Releasing two competing Kodak brands, they have the same product? [00:27:29] Speaker A: The same product. [00:27:30] Speaker B: Product names. Yeah. Yeah. Great question here from Seymour Bush. Can Greg show us his entire T shirt? [00:27:38] Speaker A: I can hang on. I don't want to stand up too much. I don't have any pants on. No, that's not true. There you go. It's Astro Boom. [00:27:50] Speaker B: Nice. [00:27:50] Speaker A: How's that? [00:27:51] Speaker B: Yeah, very cool. [00:27:55] Speaker A: I thought it was fitting for tonight's toy photography theme. It is, yeah. [00:28:00] Speaker B: Very fitting. [00:28:02] Speaker A: Thanks, boss. Final bit of news. Yes, DGA, the DJI Avata 360 was announced. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:13] Speaker A: What are your thoughts? Have you had a look at this yet? [00:28:16] Speaker B: No, no, no. It's the avatar 360 has been. I mean it's been out for a little while. [00:28:21] Speaker A: Like I know it has too. Sorry. [00:28:23] Speaker B: But, but it's, it's, it's. They're trying to. It's like. I don't know. So that. Yeah, it's come out recently, obviously competing head to head with insta360s or what. What do they call it? The Insta Anti Gravity. Anti Gravity drone. Which they sort of said was a separate brand, but it's basically it. It is insta360. It's come in way cheaper than anti gravity from, from what I can tell, it's hard to see in here in Australia. But it comes with various remotes. Whereas the anti gravity only works with the goggles, whereas the DJI one can work with the more basic remotes. Or, or if you've already got a remote. Unfortunately mine won't work because it's one generation too old. If you have an RC2 it works, but my RC1 doesn't work. But yeah, if you had like a current gen drone that uses the RC2, you can just buy this drone only as an add on. [00:29:26] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:29:28] Speaker B: Which is a big. That's a big plus for DJI users. [00:29:32] Speaker A: That's very cool. [00:29:32] Speaker B: I want to try this 360 thing, but I don't have to buy the whole setup again. I'm just adding a drone onto my existing controller. [00:29:42] Speaker A: For your fleet of drones? [00:29:44] Speaker B: To the fleet? Yeah, a drone fleet. So it's, I mean things are heating up in the 360 drone world. I've seen videos of people flying them and it does look like it would be fun, but it actually looks almost like the. For me because I'm not going to do like 360 fly through videos of stuff to make, I don't know, cool sequences or whatever. Like I'm not filming, yeah. YouTube videos with that kind of footage in it. But it just looks like it would be actually an experience to fly it. Wearing the goggles and being almost like. Yeah, like you're flying through the world and you can look around and stuff that. I would like to just try it. Maybe someone will buy one and I can just have a go. [00:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Never really interested me at all. It's just not my kind of. It's just not my bag, I guess. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Which is funny because you play video games and the controls are basically the same. Yeah, you'd be great at it. You'd be here natural. You know, they're. Yeah, I'm terrible at flying them. I just run into trees all the time. [00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah. No, don't buy this, Justin. [00:31:04] Speaker B: No, I think it would be easier having the goggles on and being able to see where I'm going rather than just watching the drone. Yeah, yeah. [00:31:11] Speaker A: But it would take a while to get used to that, wouldn't it? Because it completely changes how you see the world. You know, you're so reliant on your. On your eyes to ground you and provide balance and all of a sudden you're, you know, you could be. You could be flying crazy, you know, aerobatics and. Yeah. Yeah. [00:31:32] Speaker B: I don't know. It'd be cool. Imagine when you can't hurt yourself. [00:31:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. [00:31:36] Speaker B: I think people can. People can feel sick, I think. Yeah, I know I felt sick using the VR headsets, but. So it's probably like that. Okay. Any more news? [00:31:48] Speaker A: Nah, that was it. It was pretty light on this week. [00:31:52] Speaker B: This week? [00:31:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Not a lot going on. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Apparently Paul says zero interest in drones as well. David Skinner says you get vertigo and throw up. Yeah, I think. Oh, Glenn, Lavender's here. [00:32:05] Speaker A: What's up, Glenn? [00:32:06] Speaker B: There's a. Glenn says there's a great music video shot entirely on an Insta360. That really shows the possibilities of them. Was that shot on the. On the handheld 360s or on the drone. But yeah, they're. They're pretty cool. Just the post production work is also something I'm not interested in. I just. The footage ends up just sitting there. [00:32:28] Speaker A: It's. [00:32:28] Speaker B: It's not even. They've made it very easy. It's just not something that I'm into sitting there and trying to reframe. What. What do I want this shot to look like? I'll start here and it'll pan across there and stuff like that. I'm just. Yeah, I don't know. It's not the way I like to work. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Fair enough. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Fair Enough. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Fair enough. Indeed. All right, that's it for the news. Let's get on to our next topic, which is gear talk. [00:33:01] Speaker B: Gear talk. So let's start with. Let's start with your bag quest. I really want to find out. [00:33:11] Speaker A: Well, you know, it's interesting, Justin. I keep flip flopping on things and I've bounced between researching camera slings because I like slings. I've got a good camera backpack and I've got my everyday carry backpack for, you know, just getting out and about. It's not a photography bag, but I've been having a look once again at the. Also looking at the small hard cases for holding just a few bits of gear. [00:33:44] Speaker B: I believe they're colloquially known as a pelican case, Greg. Yes. To store pelicans in. So, okay, so you've gone. I thought you would. You'd gone. [00:33:53] Speaker A: What are you trying to achieve? I don't know. I think I just want to spend money, to be honest. And you could have a card because you're a champion at it. [00:34:03] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I was going to say, but you don't have a car, so you've got all this extra money that we're all spending on diesel and you're just like, you know what? Camera bags. [00:34:11] Speaker A: Camera bags? Yeah. [00:34:13] Speaker B: There isn't ships full of camera bags getting stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. [00:34:18] Speaker A: No, no, no, they're all fine. [00:34:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:34:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:22] Speaker B: So you want something down for you? Yeah, like, because you've got. So you've got something small enough that you can take a camera and like one lens or one or two lenses. [00:34:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got this little. [00:34:32] Speaker B: Or something now. [00:34:34] Speaker A: I've got this little Cura soft pouch. Sorry, I'm terrible at the product showcasing and it's just a little. It's got a lucky strap in it. [00:34:42] Speaker B: Oh. [00:34:44] Speaker A: Anyway, it's a little fake suede pouch by Cura. Justin. I were talking about Cura last week. So we met up for lunch, which was lovely. We had a pub meal and we talked about camera straps. Funny that. And Cura in Japan is a company that makes camera straps. They also make these pouches, but they've been making camera straps for generations. In fact, their family, the same people who make the silk Cura camera straps, also made armor fixtures for samurais for like, not. Not for cosplay. For real, like, you know, hundreds of years ago and there was still samurais running around chopping people up. It's the same family. Anyway, so they make these and I bought one of these because they're Beautiful. And I love their products. And I just carry my XT5 with my 23 millimeter in that and I just dropped that into my Bellroy backpack. But I, I'm, you know, I spent good money on a, you know, upgraded camera, a prograde lens. I'm worried that I'm not protecting it enough when I carry it around, you know, or even when I'm storing it. So I'm just playing around with different options as to how I'm going to look after it, you know, because it's like when, you know, when you buy a really expensive lens or when I buy any lens, the very first thing I do in the camera store, if I'm in a store is buy a protection filter and put it on the lens right there and then because it's like an insurance policy against you cracking that front element accidentally. You know, you spend a hundred bucks on top of. Yeah, you spend 100 bucks on top of a 1500 2000, $3000 lens, you just add a little layer of security. And I feel I'm starting to that way about the camera lens combo. I don't, I don't have the right receptacle. There's a word receptacle for it. And so I've just been playing around with ideas around camera slings. I've looked at wanded I've looked at. I don't really want to go down the peak design path. Not a huge fan of their slings. Wotencraft I looked at and even Bellroy who's my preferred brand, my preferred supplier of EDC items, they have a camera sling. It's the only camera bag in their entire range. And it's a 10 liter sling that's, it's padded and it has dividers and all that sort of stuff. So I've just been looking at different options but whilst also going back to my old, old routine of looking at camera cases, hard cases to store it in. [00:37:21] Speaker B: So does that mean you're going to end up with both a soft case and a hard case? [00:37:26] Speaker A: No, no, I can't justify both. Yeah, be one or the other. It'd be one of the other. More than likely will be a better bag just for my dad and carry for. Because I, I am trying to take my camera with me wherever I go, you know and I need to have the best bag for that because I've, you know, since getting this camera and lens I've found that by having it with me all the time, I'm just constantly taking photos and experimenting and playing around with you know, image making and that's a good thing that I want to encourage. I don't want to discourage it by not having the best possible bag. How's that for an excuse to buy a new bag? [00:38:08] Speaker B: You've convinced me. I definitely think you should. Greg Carrick's made a good point. You're not going to carry around a hard case. But I think that's for a different purpose. Greg, Greg 1 to Greg 2. I think Greg wants the hard case more for like store and organize all equipment. All of my kind of thing fits all lenses and bodies and stuff is one case and if I was traveling or something I take that with me. Whereas the soft bags more for like you're out for the afternoon or the day or whatever. Yeah, yeah. [00:38:45] Speaker A: And realistically I'm not going to be able to afford the hard case that, that I, that I would like to hold everything. They're just so expensive and they're about to become more expensive, you know because why the whole movie made of plastic and where does plastic come from? Everybody go on, have a guess. [00:39:09] Speaker B: The ground. [00:39:09] Speaker A: Petroleum based products. [00:39:12] Speaker B: Plastic trees. [00:39:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:39:16] Speaker B: Yes. Petroleum based products. So not ideal. Not ideal. David Skinner says a tummy bag is great for a small camera and one lens while walking around. What exactly is a tummy bag? Do you mean a fanny pack? Yeah. No backpack required when you have a tummy bag. If it is a fanny pack or a bum bag. I've never heard of it called a tummy bag before. That's interesting. Unrelated SEYMOUR Bush purchased a 24 to 72.8. That's nice. You'll need a large bag. Oh very, very nice. [00:39:52] Speaker A: Is that the Rick Nelson likes one? [00:39:56] Speaker B: Seymour Bush's Canon I believe. [00:39:58] Speaker A: Oh okay. Now we all make mistakes. [00:40:00] Speaker B: Can't remember. Yes. Rick Nelson. I like the look of Wotencraft. So do I. I have one. Hang on. I think this is like the Pilot 7 liter. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it is a Pilot. [00:40:17] Speaker B: You should buy a fair while a couple of years. Long enough that they actually come now. And I've got to get one because this is, this one's quite annoying. They had this kind of connector like to close the lid which is fiddly. [00:40:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:30] Speaker B: But they now have a fidlock which is much better because. Yeah, getting this in there, I didn't, I didn't like that at all. But in general the material is nice. The layout's not bad. It's not amazing. [00:40:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:43] Speaker B: They tend to be slightly fiddly. But this, this size can actually fit one of my cannons with A lens mounted on it and another lens next to it. So it's decently large, but yeah, pretty good. Pretty good. In general. I don't like swivel. I don't like swivel straps on bags. I don't know why they do that, but they always do that. But otherwise, like, it's, it's good, it's high quality. [00:41:06] Speaker A: Yeah. They're a bit pricey, the work and craft. [00:41:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:09] Speaker A: But they're often made with, with better quality materials. [00:41:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it's cordura fabric. So it's going to be like very, very durable and protect your gear. But yeah. Who else has said here, Greg, if you want to try a cheaper alternative off of the hard case, maybe the tactics case from the big green shed. [00:41:33] Speaker A: But yeah, I've got a couple of. I've got a couple of smaller ones from Bunny. Actually. No, I've got bigger ones too. They were just very cheap and I just use those for general gear storage. I don't have the dividers or anything like that. I'm just, you know, they're just dumping grounds for all the bits and pieces we collect as photographers. [00:41:52] Speaker B: Lisa Leach says I struggled carrying a sling bag. On Saturday around Melbourne. We'll be heading back to my Shimoda backpack. Yeah, this is, this gets really tricky with sling bags at a certain. You've got too much gear to carry them comfortably for a long amount of time. It's pulling on one side, it swings around. It's like once. Yeah. At a certain size of kit, a sling bag is really not the best choice. And a backpack's much better. [00:42:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:20] Speaker B: Worse access. [00:42:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, it is. I mean, the, the good thing about this Solution, putting my XE5 in there and putting it into my Bellroy backpack, is that my Bellroy backpack I bought because it, you know, I bought the most expensive, not expensive, the most comfortable option for. Because I've got neck issues. Right. And so I got a really good quality everyday carry backpack and I've got bits that I put in and take out of it when I go on walks or I go out to do shopping or out to do photography. But yeah, I was just looking to see if there was something that was better suited to what I'm trying to do by really minimizing my gear. Just having one camera, one lens in a bag with some spare bits and pieces to go out for a street walk or whatever it may be. [00:43:10] Speaker B: So, yeah, one camera in one lens. You could definitely go a pretty small bag with your setup. [00:43:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:18] Speaker B: A couple of quick comments before we Move on from the bag section. Unless anyone's got a good suggestion for stuff Greg should look at. Craig Murphy says, I don't think he can find the perfect bag. Slash sling. Just pick something you like and go with it. Peak or Bellroy. Can't go wrong. Good advice, Lucinda. Lucinda says, yeah, it is good advice. Lucinda says, I just got a pretty great sling bag for Uniqlo from Uniqlo Bag for Content Making Things. Not a camera bag, but you could put a cube in it. Yeah. David Skinner says a tummy bag is a bum bag that is to the front. [00:43:57] Speaker A: Aren't all bum bags to the front, [00:44:00] Speaker B: which is funny because they call bum bags. Interesting. Okay, so you're. I have one of the world's greatest camera bum bags in the mind. Shift rotation backpack that I swing around to the front that looks like a kangaroo pouch. But yeah, I've never tried just a traditional bum bag style thing. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:22] Speaker B: I don't. I think all my gear would be too big for it. [00:44:25] Speaker A: I grew up in the 80s. I can't, I can't go back to bum bags. I swore them off a long time. I had therapy. Like, come on, you could try. [00:44:33] Speaker B: You never know. What else did we want to talk about? So I want to talk about the fact that my, my Q3 is. Was on the chopping block, but it's making a comeback. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Tell us about that. [00:44:49] Speaker B: Well, a couple of things happened. We caught up in Melbourne and I had been lusting after your XE5 for a while now, but I took the Q3 to Melbourne and your XE5 was there with your beautiful new lens and I was holding each of them and the ergonomics for my hand, it was. Was quite crazy how much better the Q3 fits in my hand and the XZ5, despite. I thought they would feel almost the same just based on the fact that they're both kind of rangefinder cameras. They're very similar size. [00:45:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:29] Speaker B: But. [00:45:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And you've got very delicate little boy fingers. So, you know, I get it. [00:45:35] Speaker B: These are big hands. These are big hands. They're big mitts. They're big mitts. And. And I don't even have a grip on the Q3, but for some reason it fits in my hand perfectly. And I remember the first time I went into the shop and picked one up and I was like, oh, this is why everyone always says these are great to hold or whatever. Yeah. But I never realized that. Yeah. Maybe it just is luck that it fits nicely in my hand and some other cameras don't. And I should. I don't know. That's. It's a big part of it because you've got to be able to comfortably carry it for a long time. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:06] Speaker B: So. [00:46:07] Speaker A: But you know what's interesting? When I picked up your Q3, what really stood out to make the difference was the thumb divot at the back. Yes. That, like, I thought that was just a cool design element, but it actually adds so much control. [00:46:24] Speaker B: Yeah. It. And it's not. I don't have. Because they sell, like, I think for like, $9,000, you can get an extra thumb grip extension that goes in the hot shoe cover that's got a cool brass finish or something. I don't even have that. I've just like. It's just the camera as it comes. No grip. [00:46:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:42] Speaker B: Or anything. And, yeah. It just fits in my hand. And so Dennis says, here, mate, get a grip. It's wild. And he means get a grip, not get a grip. But, yeah, I. I don't think I would prefer the Q3 with a grip. I think if I was going to hold a camera with a grip, I would just want the. One of my cannons with a full, proper. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:02] Speaker B: Grip that is big enough for my large mitts. Deep grip. Yeah. The thumb grip is 459,450. [00:47:13] Speaker A: No. [00:47:13] Speaker B: Million, anyway. [00:47:15] Speaker A: A lot. [00:47:15] Speaker B: Millions. [00:47:15] Speaker A: A lot. [00:47:16] Speaker B: What am I reading? Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. I wasn't even paying attention. Yeah. I. I don't know. So that with the Q3, the ergonomics, I realized just how great they are for me, particularly, not necessarily for anyone else. And then the update, which I did before I lent it to a friend. And then the firmware update, and I got it back, and I got a chance to test it a bit more, and it actually focuses in continuous autofocus now. It doesn't just, like, miss every shot, which is good. It's pretty impressive. It's still not blazing fast, but it's way better than it was. And now I'm gonna have to really rethink. Cause I had written off the Q3 for the style of photography I do while I was traveling, especially street stu while in. In, like, Southeast Asia. That I like to move too fast for this to work. And I'm not really a sedative, F8, and zone focus kind of person. That's not. That's just not how I do. I shoot at night too much and stuff to do that sort of thing. But I actually think I'm excited to take it away in May to Indonesia and give it another whirl on the streets because I think it might work now. So that sucks because I thought I was going to get to sell it and not have that money sitting there in a camera anymore anyway. [00:48:38] Speaker A: Well, I mean, look a. It will always hold its value provided you look after it. But it's, you know, if it, if it works for you, then yeah, give it another crack. I mean, is that the only camera you're going to take away like you did when you went to this? [00:48:53] Speaker B: No. [00:48:53] Speaker A: No. So are you going to take another queue? [00:48:56] Speaker B: I'll, I'll take a Canon 1 canon body with as I said, probably the 45 mil 1.2 lens which is yeah, so cheap. But that would kind of give me like then I'd have a 28 mil and a 50 ish mil and then I'll probably take a zoomy and a wide of some sort. I'll take a bit more gear on this trip because I'm, I don't need to, we don't need to travel minimally. It's not going to like, I don't have to watch what I'm packing as much and I wouldn't mind having some options. And that actually, that actually brings me to my next part of the gear talk. The other thing that I'm thinking about spending money on is I'm tempted on one of these insta360s go in the go ultras. They're like a little camera that's small enough to magnet on a pendant because. Yeah. And Bruce, he's got one, he says it's pretty good. And I've got a hankering to do some more like POV photography videos. And I don't want my giant the setup that I had that I was running when I did them because it was winter here. So it worked out okay because I zipped a jacket up around it but it was like a full gimbal. Yeah. And I can't, I can't rock around Indonesia with that, you know, 30 degree heat. So yeah, Bruce says he digs his. So I've been looking at them. They're on sale at the moment. They come with a free ring remote. So you wear this little ring and you can just turn it on by pressing it with your thumb. No. You know, so you can just start recording on this little, little ring remote. [00:50:35] Speaker A: That's insane. [00:50:36] Speaker B: That's cool. Yeah. [00:50:39] Speaker A: How much is it roughly? [00:50:42] Speaker B: The, the kit that I want to get is $680, which I've just got so many little action Cameras and stuff, and they just end up not getting used as much as I would like. And I'm trying to justify the fact that I'll make some videos and it'll be fun, it'll inspire me to get out and shoot. And then I'm like, I don't need more gear. And that's the. And then saw your article was called Less is more. And I was like, okay, this is probably a sign that I shouldn't buy this camera, but I would, you know, I really would have liked. And I've got cameras sitting around everywhere, so this is a. This is an excuse. But for the toy photography that I was doing, I would have liked to just have that thing just recording on my chest easily. [00:51:31] Speaker A: Just. [00:51:31] Speaker B: And then just make a video out of it. [00:51:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:34] Speaker B: But I could have done that with, you know, a GoPro on a chest mount or whatever. But it's all just extra stuff. This thing, you just put, like, the pendant around you. It's like a necklace thing with a magnet. [00:51:44] Speaker A: Yes. [00:51:45] Speaker B: It just clips onto it. Just very crazy. [00:51:49] Speaker A: So what are its limitations? [00:51:53] Speaker B: Well, the video quality is not great. And that's about it, really. Just. Yeah, video. [00:51:59] Speaker A: Does it record audio? [00:52:00] Speaker B: It'll run out. Yeah, yeah. Records good audio. It's even got an optional. You can get a wireless mic, which I don't think I would need, because the audio that it records, it's because it's close to your mouth. It actually works quite well if the camera's on your chest. Yeah, but if you were going to use the camera off your chest. Yeah. It'd probably be good to have a wireless mic or something. But no, you just. [00:52:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:21] Speaker B: Throw it on your chest and just cruise around the streets and take photos. And you think you'd prefer that over. [00:52:29] Speaker A: Sorry, go on. [00:52:31] Speaker B: Oh, Bruce says the video is pretty good, depending on the settings. Yeah, it's not great video. It's probably equivalent to, like, a phone. I would say, like an iPhone. [00:52:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:39] Speaker B: Maybe a good iPhone. [00:52:40] Speaker A: It's not terrible. [00:52:41] Speaker B: Yeah, no. What were you going to ask? [00:52:48] Speaker A: You would rather get that over a pair of the. The Ray Bans with the camera, like, [00:52:56] Speaker B: because they only do vertical. Those. Those glasses. [00:52:59] Speaker A: I just. [00:53:01] Speaker B: I want to be able to do stuff for YouTube if I do it. The glasses are definitely appealing for that kind of thing as well, but they're even worse quality. Right. And I think. I think that tech's gonna move fairly fast, so I wouldn't mind waiting a version or two generations. Yeah, yeah. I'm not in a super rush for it. It Makes sense. But I just don't post much to social media. Probably should. [00:53:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:30] Speaker B: But I just don't. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:31] Speaker B: Whereas the, the thought of doing, being able to do an easy walk, say I go on an hour photo walk and then I cut that down to like a 15 minute video and insert the photos I took on the walk and it's just done. It's not. It doesn't have to be in a punchy like 60 second reel or something with a hook and whatever they do on the social medias these days. [00:53:53] Speaker A: Oh, the kids these days. Well, I don't know if you've heard about this. [00:53:57] Speaker B: Yeah, this. [00:53:58] Speaker A: But you know you can sell old camera gear to fund new camera gear. [00:54:05] Speaker B: I've heard of this strategy. It's an interesting strategy. I need to look into it more because I'm not quite sure how it all works. Yeah, there's, there's plenty of stuff I could sell. I've definitely got a 360 camera that is on the chopping block because I only use it for snowboarding. So yeah, it, it could go. What's Dennis saying? My DJI Action 4 is a remarkable walk around camera. Yeah. So that's. And that's the thing. I've got a GoPro. I'm just too self conscious to wear that while doing photography out on the streets. I just feel because I have to have it on a. If I'm going to wear the GoPro, I have to have it on like a chair which is uncomfortable as it is. If anyone's ever worn a GoPro chesty mount, they're not. I'll wear it mountain biking but I don't like it. Yeah, it's not super comfortable at all. Yeah. Dunno. [00:55:00] Speaker A: That's tricky. I'll weep for you. [00:55:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:02] Speaker A: Terrible decision to make. [00:55:05] Speaker B: Well, let's all work on this together guys because the sale ends in one day. 21 hours and 33 minutes. The Big Smile sale at Insta360. [00:55:19] Speaker A: They're running out of names for sales periods now. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:22] Speaker A: Black Friday. We've got Boxing Day marketing department come up with some new names for sales. [00:55:28] Speaker B: Big Smile. Yeah, the Big Smile sale. It looks a little bit like TAMU kind of style. Anyway. It's not. Yeah, let's not go there. But it's not the greatest advertising. But hey, I'll take. I mean it's discounted. It's discounted 100 bucks. And they're throwing in this $80 ring thing remote that I may or may not use and they're throwing in a tote Bag that you can have if you want. Greg. [00:55:53] Speaker A: I like totes. Totes. [00:55:55] Speaker B: Like totes a Dupont Tyvek tote. I don't even know what that is. Fancy. The kids know anyway. Yeah. Lucinda says Ray Ban Meta. Here you come. I don't know. I didn't. I need it. I need them to do horizontal, too. If I could switch between horizontal and vertical, I'd be in it to win it. [00:56:18] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you could just turn on the side a little bit, make that your angle, literally. [00:56:29] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's the summary. That's the summary of the gear Talk is the Q3 is back in. It's back at the forefront of my brain after that's hanging out with you in Melbourne. It's. It's. I'm excited to shoot with it again. I took some shots of my nephew jumping his electric bike off a dirt jump and they were actually in focus and I just put it into, like, human tracking. And, yeah, it worked. [00:56:53] Speaker A: And it worked. [00:56:53] Speaker B: It didn't get every shot, but. But it worked. Whereas previously, like, not as. And because this was at f1.1.7, like, you know, testing it out. Yeah. Jeff oz video says 360cam is excellent for BTS in the studio. I bet. I bet. But I just. Yeah, it's just not my style having to re edit it later on. Sorry, what were you gonna say? [00:57:17] Speaker A: Don't know. It's gone. Senior Moment's gone. [00:57:21] Speaker B: Anyway, Q3's Q3 is back. For now, Q3 is definitely coming to. It's. It's coming to Indonesia with me and we'll give it its final final test to see whether it's staying in the kit or going. And otherwise. Your new lens was super cool. You seem to be loving that. It was nice to have a feel of that. It is heavier than would be ideal for an XE5, but I think it's worth it. [00:57:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And it's not. It's not glued on. I don't have to. I've got other lighter lenses. Having said that, it's very hard to not shoot with this lens. Like, it is just. There is something very special about this lens, you know, and. [00:57:57] Speaker B: And that's where you know it's worth it. Where you're like, oh, it's heavy. I'd way rather it be light, but I'm taking it. Yeah. [00:58:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:04] Speaker B: Because. And you've got. You've got the lightweight option. You can easily take that out instead. But if you're gravitating towards it, you know, you're seeing stuff in the images that even if. Even if no one else sees it, but if. If it makes you want to take the photo because you're like, I know when I look at this on the computer, it's going to look amazing. [00:58:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:24] Speaker B: That little bit of extra bit of inspiration. You got to take it when you can get it. [00:58:29] Speaker A: You know, it's funny, one thing I have noticed, which I never used to do is. What's that phrase? Chimping. When you chimp at your images, you [00:58:37] Speaker B: look at every image. [00:58:37] Speaker A: After you take it, do you zoom [00:58:40] Speaker B: in to see how sharp it is? [00:58:42] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. Just keep going into it. Yeah. It's like, oh, look at that. You know, it makes me feel great. [00:58:50] Speaker B: That is funny. I remember that every time I got a big, like, upgrade of. Yeah. Of a lens or something like that. You definitely do that way more because it. It's really satisfying. When I got the Nikon 105, 1.4, you just run around at a wedding and shoot that thing wide open at 1.4, 105 mil. And then you just. And it's so sharp, that lens, when it's on like a D850 and you just be punching in on the back screen just like, oh, you know, hopefully I'm not missing anything while I'm staring at for itself. [00:59:26] Speaker A: The kiss, the cake, the dance. Yeah. [00:59:30] Speaker B: But then, you know, you realize, yeah, no one really notices the difference between that and just a 70 to 200. But, you know, whatever, if you do, [00:59:36] Speaker A: it makes you happy. [00:59:38] Speaker B: That's right. [00:59:39] Speaker A: Yep. [00:59:40] Speaker B: That's right. [00:59:40] Speaker A: All right, should we talk toy photography? I have no other gear talk. I have nothing to offer [00:59:49] Speaker B: anything from the comments. Okay. Toy photography. [00:59:57] Speaker A: Toy photography. So just to. Just to recap for everybody, I've done toy photography on and off for a couple of years, more often on, but more recently because I've now got this macro lens and I've got like, you know, the flash and the diffuser and everything going on there. I thought, you know, I'd give it another shot. And so Justin and I were talking and I decided to write an article for the Lucky Straps blog about how to shoot toy photography and why. Toy photography is an amazing genre. If you're, you know, if you live in a climate that sucks in winter, you don't go out much, but you really want to stay creative and stay ahead of your game. It's a great, simple genre to set up in a small space. You know, you can order in some toys from Amazon and, you know, you don't need much gear. Basically. And so, yeah, we wrote the article, and then obviously last week we talked about that a bit, and we decided to set a challenge, which has been super exciting because I've seen some people, as I said earlier, submit images and talk to me about this stuff with that sense of play and fun in their tone, which is lovely, because that's what trying a new genre should be. It should be playful, it should be fun. It should be something that you get excited about and, you know. And then the other day, a couple of days ago, I saw Justin's behind the scenes video that Yelena shot of him setting up his multiple. What, you have like four different flashes. And he was getting right into it. All right, sorry, sorry. I won't. I won't ruin the surprise, but just to sort of prime, you know, get the. Get the toy photography lubrication, although that doesn't sound very good together, I thought I'd bring up some social media sites on Instagram, some. Some accounts that I follow of, you know, people that do toy. Toy photography at the very, very next level. And I wanted to share some of those with you before we get into looking at Justin and my images and before we get into looking at your images, which is, you know, why we've set this challenge. We wanted to see what you guys could do. [01:02:02] Speaker B: And. And don't forget, we're going to be looking at Dennis's cool behind the scenes video of his image, which is, yeah, pretty sweet. All right, what do you want me to bring up first? Let's. [01:02:13] Speaker A: Let's go from the top. Who was first on that list? I can't find it now. Yeah, Father's figures. [01:02:19] Speaker B: Figures, yeah. [01:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got these backwards. [01:02:24] Speaker B: So this is. This is David. David Valdez. Valdez, Yep. On Instagram. It's at Father's figures. [01:02:33] Speaker A: Yep. So we talk about next level. There's actually a behind the scenes video. The last post that he dropped is actually a little quick behind the scenes recap of a shoot he did years ago, and he wanted to reshoot it with a better quality model. And. Yeah. And often you'll see these behind the scenes kind of videos that go along with it. [01:03:03] Speaker B: Gosh. Yeah. That soak, like, so much effort. Wow. It's in a snow tunnel. [01:03:15] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. So he often does this. He, he. He just builds a huge mound of snow and then just digs a tunnel out, puts some lights in it or at the. At the back end of it, put the camera at the other end. It's very cool. [01:03:31] Speaker B: What a way to spend what A way to spend a sunny day in the snow. [01:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:36] Speaker B: And then. Yeah, that's the, the final image. [01:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Pretty cool. [01:03:44] Speaker B: So all. Is all of his stuff a similar theme. I haven't see, I haven't looked at any of these really, really Star wars [01:03:51] Speaker A: kind of sci fi heavy, especially more so recently he's done some Nintendo stuff. He does, you know, Marvel and DC characters. He's even done a few with Godzilla, which are pretty cool. But yeah, he'll even use firecrackers and, you know, little smoke machines and, and the, you know, you can get those little cans full of air and compressed air uses those to stir up dust below the model so it looks like there's movement and there's, you know, action. But yeah, yeah, very cool stuff. [01:04:27] Speaker B: So cool. Yeah. So, so clever. He's got the fan, he's got like a spinning sparkler thing. We probably can't even buy them in Australia. Wow. Yeah, very impressive. [01:04:47] Speaker A: So that's. Who was that? That was father's figures. Next on the list is one of my favorites. This is Johnny Sergeant Bananas. We were actually going to have him on the show last year, but it fell on the week of BFOP and so I had to postpone it and then he got busy and I got busy. So I'll look at getting him back on the show in the future. But he was the first toy photographer that I started following because he appeared on a, on a show that I was watching. Now I can't think of who. Adam Savage. Have you guys ever watched? No. Of Adam Savage. He used to host Mythbusters and for a long time now he's had his own platform called Tested. There's a website, tested.com. there's a YouTube channel, there's socials. Anyway, they got Johnny in. I think they went to his house and interviewed him while he was doing toy photography and then they got him in a few months later to do another, another project with them. But his stuff is amazing. It's so cinematic. There's so much environmental effects going on. Smoke, light rain, mist, snow, everything in his scenes. It just create this beautiful, kind of beautiful moment. [01:05:57] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, look at the setups. Yeah, [01:06:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:07] Speaker B: And. And so many different styles to his. Not. He hasn't just got like one style. Everything's the dark. Yeah. You know, the dark look or the whatever. It's like he can replicate lighting from so many different movies and. [01:06:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's often fascinating seeing the behind the scenes stuff of like they will build these props, you know, they will make little fake Crumbling walls and you know, create sort of little dioramas to put these figures into. Just to take this one shot, you know, it's not just putting a toy in front of a camera and firing away. There's a whole lot of stuff to it. [01:06:51] Speaker B: I think the behind the scenes stuff really makes it for me, obviously, because we're photographers. So it's cool, it's cool to see how someone's doing this, but it also, yeah. In the, in the world of AI, it also is really nice to see that you're like, okay, so it wasn't just. Yeah, like this. Like you didn't just have the figurine and then you AI'd the background in there. You're like, no, the background is real. Which is crazy. [01:07:15] Speaker A: Yeah, [01:07:18] Speaker B: yeah. [01:07:19] Speaker A: Yep. Moving along. The next one is Manu Perspective mostly does Star wars scenes with the. And I've got a few of these figurines, which is what this one is. This is a black series Star wars figurine. Highly detailed, articulated, you know, legs move. I've even got. He's even got little doors on the front that open up and you can attach little, little arms to it. [01:07:47] Speaker B: But what's something like that run, Greg. What, what, what's the cost of this? Okay, so not. It's like a 300 toy or something. [01:07:57] Speaker A: No, no, no, no. And so a lot of these figures that he is using are black series figures that you can get at JB hi Fi, EB games or Amazon if you're into that sort of thing. And, and obviously he's, he's got a very specific style. He's got this very much kind of in the middle of. Of war, muddy, dusty, dirty, lots of haze and, and those sorts of effects. So he's really leaning into that sort of battlefront kind of style of toy photography. And. Because these figures. Yeah, [01:08:37] Speaker B: I'm just thinking because I know how long it played around for in just a quick like it was just, you know, nothing like this to the amount of detail that's gone into it. I'm like, I wonder how much time each one of these takes. Yeah, that's awesome. [01:08:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean they're great because you can. I mean they are articulated in several points, but even then they're quite finicky, you know, to get them. Yeah, yeah. [01:09:04] Speaker B: They don't just do. [01:09:05] Speaker A: What? No, yeah, they don't. [01:09:07] Speaker B: They don't just do it. They're not, they're not little people. Yeah, he's very cool. So, yeah, very much he's compared to Sergeant Monana this is very much like. It's mostly in one style, and the style is, like, it's. It's a trademark style. Yeah, that battle. Dirty, dusty, muddy. Yeah, yeah, amazing. [01:09:40] Speaker A: Next one is Oz Toy photography, Ryan. And he's got a mix of stuff. Yeah, he's got a real mix. He. He's. He's not sticking to a particular style or theme, but, yeah, he's. Yeah, he's really mixing it up with his stuff, which is great. And there's also some, you know, some comedy elements to it as well. [01:10:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw this. This one. Yeah, yeah, right. [01:10:18] Speaker A: He's not afraid to have a bit of fun with it, which is great. But you know what? If you do this for a living, the best thing is you can claim all your toys on tax. [01:10:29] Speaker B: Huh. [01:10:30] Speaker A: How good is that? [01:10:30] Speaker B: Well, if you make. Yeah, yeah, if you can make some money out of it. These guys wouldn't make money out of this, would they? Or would they? [01:10:37] Speaker A: Don't know. I don't know how they would unless they were doing it for a specific, you know, project for someone, but I don't think that would come up that often. But she's not in the climate we live in now with AI. [01:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:53] Speaker A: And that's where, you know, AI can't replicate this stuff. You know, it can come close. I know, I get that. But it doesn't have that personality that these sort of setups have, I don't think. [01:11:09] Speaker B: Well, the problem is, though, then it can replicate. Then. Then it sees these somehow and then it can replicate these. [01:11:14] Speaker A: Replicate them. [01:11:15] Speaker B: That's. Yeah. You know, like. Yeah, it could. [01:11:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah. But no, it doesn't have the imagination. [01:11:22] Speaker A: No. All right, and then the final one. Just have a quick squeeze out before we. We jump into some of our photos. Is Toy Photography Club. And again, just a mix. Lots of. Lots of Marvel and DC stuff. Lots of Spider Man. Love Spider Man. [01:11:46] Speaker B: But, yeah, just coming up tonight. Yeah, So, yeah, yeah, great work. [01:11:57] Speaker A: But a mix there. There's some lego, there's some pop vinyls, there's, you know, whole bunch of stuff. [01:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I think my favorite out of all those was potentially, I think, maybe Father's figures. Yeah, maybe. Or Sergeant Bananas, both of those. They're pretty. They're pretty. They blew me away. [01:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah, they're very, very clever. And there's lots. You know, I've got books here because I'm. I collect. Sasha and I both collect lego. We've got a crazy LEGO collection, and we've also got a whole bunch of books about Lego and I've got one book that is all Star Wars Lego shot like this, like with a cinematic kind of feel to it. You know, it's really clever stuff. And, you know, people are burying their sets in the snow, within ice and in mud and sand and, you know, just really leaning into it. [01:12:56] Speaker B: There's actually a, there's a Lego exhibition type thing happening in Bendigo at the moment. Like an experience type thing with heaps of stuff going on and actually popped up the other day. You know, take your Lego. What are they called? Mini minifigs. Mini LEGO Men. Minifigs, out into the world around Bendigo and take photos and enter them in the, in this photo competition around Bendigo and you can win a, a prize of some sort. I don't think it was a large prize. And I was like, oh, maybe I'll. Maybe I'll enter something in that. And then I saw that it said. And then all entries agree to the photo being given up for use for promotional activities or whatever. That's, that's how they get you every time. [01:13:46] Speaker A: Feels like a scam. [01:13:48] Speaker B: It's not a scam, but it's just. I think, I think the prize was like a voucher or something and I was like, oh, you know, I need it. Yeah, I don't know, I need a camera bag or something. Okay, where do we start? Do we start with. Do you want to start with your images? Yeah, go on. Where do you want to start? [01:14:07] Speaker A: Why not? All right, let's start with mine. So I showed you guys earlier my, my R2D2 Black Series figurine. I just carried him around with me for the last week since we decided to do this. I had him in my, in my bag with my camera. And yeah, whenever I was out and about and I saw some good light because I, the, the images I shot for the article that's on Lucky Straps now were all created with artificial light. And I wanted to go out and just do some natural light outside shots. And so I didn't have any lighting. I just had my XE5 with the 23 1.4. And yeah, just when I saw a good opportunity or a good spot, I'd bring out R2D2, put him in place, pose him, set up some shots. And again, I was just doing kind of environmental portraiture style stuff, so I didn't want to add in too many elements. I just wanted to keep it a really clean, simple image. So, yeah, these are some of the images I took with the toy photography now in the. [01:15:14] Speaker B: Greg and I, obviously, because we do the podcast, twice a week, every week, have done for 160 something episodes. We get the benefit of being able to make you guys see as many of our images as we want. But in the spirit of the challenge, Greg, is there one image that was the image for you? [01:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah, the one. Let me see what number it is. Ends in 7228. [01:15:38] Speaker B: 7228. I'll flick through a few on the way to it, but just so we know. Oh, it's the last one. Yeah, cool. I'll flick through on the way to it because I'm interested to know, were you. Was it one of the last shots that you took? Like, did you work your way towards what you were looking for by changing all these different poses and moving him around and. [01:15:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yes and no. I wanted to try a bunch of different locations. This was just what I saw walking from my house to Chapel street to the supermarket to pick something up. And I think on the way back, I don't think I even took any photos. So it was just as I came across stuff on my walk. And this here is a concrete bench that's outside the supermarket. It's kind of a big. It's like a big donut with a. With a planter in the top. And this. He's just sitting on the seat. And in the background there were just some interesting shapes. And the light was falling beautifully. And I went with this. And I warmed it up a little in post just to make it feel a bit like sand. Like that whole Star wars, you know, Episode one was on Tatooine. It was a sandy planet, and I was just trying to sort of lean into that a little bit harsh. Shadows, long shadows. Sandy planet. Baron. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So this was my. [01:16:55] Speaker B: I think [01:16:58] Speaker A: it. [01:16:58] Speaker B: And the first ones have got the most. I don't know, fitting vibe for this character, this one, particularly with that, like, you say that hot, you could just tell it almost looks like hot, you know, this arid. Yeah. Full sun. Yeah, Yeah, I love that one. [01:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I just. I just really wanted to keep it really simple, you know, so. Yeah. [01:17:25] Speaker B: Is there any. Is there anything you do differently if you went out to. To do it again? Anything you learned through the process? [01:17:35] Speaker A: Anything I learned. [01:17:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:45] Speaker A: Don't do this on a busy shopping day because everyone looks like you. Looks at you like you're a weirdo. [01:17:54] Speaker B: Put it this way. Do you prefer. Did you prefer the process of going out and about and doing this in natural light or playing around inside at home with full control of the scene, using Little LED lights and things like you did for your article that originally inspired the challenge. [01:18:10] Speaker A: It's a hard one. I like both, but I think I would prefer to focus on the natural light stuff. And again, that's kind of in the spirit of the article that it was about. You don't need much to do this. Just have a bit of fun with it and try it out, you know, which is why with the article I just stuck with, you know, toy portraits with a little bit of environment around them. I wasn't adding any bells and whistles. It was more about the toy standing out on its own. So. Yeah. Yep, [01:18:45] Speaker B: yep. David Leporati says, love the first and last images. Yeah, me too. Exactly. Those two really had. Had something about them that fit this character and look, they took a step further away from, you know, the regular environment and into a different world, which I think is the point. [01:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that. Yeah, you're right. And I purposely wanted to make the background, which is why I use the 1.4 lens. The background sort of blown out a bit because I just wanted it to be really simple and not have too many elements in it, you know. But all the other shots that were, you know, the ones where. If you go back to the first photo again, please, Jay, just quickly. [01:19:27] Speaker B: Yep, [01:19:30] Speaker A: these ones. So that was just. There was like a. There's a building just around the corner from me and it's got like a kind of a shoulder height wall and then there's a great. That goes up that. That steel bit above the toy's head and I just got on a very sharp angle. Just let the. The background disappear. Add a little warmth at the end with a mask at the very end, just to add a little bit more of that sort of hot. That hot feel to it and just. Yeah, just let those two elements tell the story. [01:20:01] Speaker B: I love it. Great work. [01:20:03] Speaker A: Thanks, boss. [01:20:03] Speaker B: And. And very different. I love that you were able to come up with a completely different style from the ones from your article. So. [01:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And that's what I wanted to do [01:20:11] Speaker B: in a couple of weeks. [01:20:12] Speaker A: No, no. Pretty happy. [01:20:17] Speaker B: Yeah, you should be. [01:20:21] Speaker A: Can't wait. Should we take a look at yours? [01:20:24] Speaker B: Yes. Should we do the diagnosis first or should I show the behind the scenes first? [01:20:31] Speaker A: Behind the scenes first. But just on that, the reason why I didn't have any behind the scenes stuff is because there wasn't really much to show and maybe I should have shown the broader environment and I didn't think about it at the time. So next time I'll make sure I include behind the scenes stuff, but let's look at yours. [01:20:47] Speaker B: You did the. You did the behind the scenes for the. [01:20:50] Speaker A: Why? Yeah, I guess for the article. [01:20:52] Speaker B: You know, for the article. All right, I'll have to share. So I'll share this. I'll share this video, this quick behind the scenes video. I won't play the audio because I'll just talk you through it. So here's a quick video that Yelena helped me shoot of the behind the scenes. So this is me saying, well, here's my setup. This is the backyard. That's Yelena's fig tree. But I've had to put an umbrella in it to try and cut some of the harsh sun. And I'm saying, come with me down here, follow me. And then down here, you'll see the little Lego setup. Hang on, let me just pause this here. So I had to come up with an idea. I had a few different ideas. And then I asked my nephew for some Lego, and he actually built this, like, setup, which you'll see in more detail soon. He built it. I haven't changed it at all, other than I changed the head and hat of the man to be more suitable for a photographer. And I actually gave him a longer Canon L series lens because he only had quite a. He had, like, a little pancake prime on his body. And he's. He's actually a wilderness wildlife photographer. So I gave him an appropriate lens for the task. Everything else is as Vaughn built it. So, Vaughan, nice part of the creative process here. Okay, where are we? Play on. So there's my little man. There's the Canon R5 Mark II with the Godox X3 Pro trigger on the top. And I'm using a 35 1.8 RF macro lens. That's a Godox V860. That's a Godox V100 towards the back right. And then a Godox AD200 back left. Godox AD200 in a strip box on the left as a fill. Yeah, that's the AD200 at the back coming through sort of the back of the fig tree, if that makes sense. And yeah, as I said, the umbrella is there to cut. It was like in the middle of the day, I was getting sunburnt to cut some of the light that was coming through, so I had a bit more control. And then I used the hose on mist to try and simulate some rain. [01:23:12] Speaker A: That's so cool. I'm so proud of you. [01:23:16] Speaker B: See, that's so awesome, [01:23:25] Speaker A: You spraying all your camera gear anyway. [01:23:28] Speaker B: Yes, I've got some more. I've got some more photos I can show you of the camera gear. Okay, so we'll go back to the photos. I ended up taking 300 photos, which is way more than I thought. Here's some more behind the scenes stuff. So where are we? That's a Wet camera. The X Pro 3 touchscreen trigger is really nice to see your settings. This is the Godox X Pro 3. But it is not as good when it's wet because the water droplets start changing flash settings. So just FYI on that. And also, it's just more fiddly to adjust things than buttons and dials. So touch isn't always better. Yeah, always better. But the screen. The screen is very nice. So. Yeah, they're the flashes. Yeah, it got wet. It got real wet. Okay, so now for the actual photo that I picked. Is this going to be the right one? Who's going to know? I'm going to need you guys help anyway. But anyway, this is the photo that I chose. [01:24:55] Speaker A: Oh, that is so awesome. [01:24:58] Speaker B: This is a photographer in a rainy jungle. I wanted to be cinematic. That's why it's in the 16 by 9 ratio. I know I could have gone further into proper cinema, but, you know, I shot it in camera so that I knew what I was trying to do. And the. The whole thing with this is I didn't realize it. I don't know if Vaughan even realized it, but it was. He's searching for something. He's searching for the perfect photo, the elusive wildlife photo that he's out in the jungle to find. And he doesn't realize that the magical moment is happening right behind him where the monkey's picking fruit off the tree and eating it. So that's the story. [01:25:36] Speaker A: All that big camera gear and you still miss the shot, boss. [01:25:39] Speaker B: That's right. [01:25:40] Speaker A: Something in that for you. But now that's. That's insanely good. That is so clever. Well done. [01:25:47] Speaker B: So it took a while and if you'd like to. [01:25:49] Speaker A: Yeah, but that's awesome. [01:25:51] Speaker B: I'm pretty happy with it. I think there could be better. I could have. I could have done better. If you'd like to. So this is the. This is the raw shot. So you can see, like editing wise, I. I removed a highlight from a leaf behind the monkey because it was really bugging me. Cropped it to 16 by 9. That was actually done in camera, but canon RAW saved the full file and then obviously just color. Color editing. But that was it. [01:26:21] Speaker A: That's amazing. And Vaughan has seen this he has. [01:26:26] Speaker B: He's seen a few of them. All right, so final thing, just to take up all the time of this show. So, like, this is a show about me. I'm going to blast through really quickly a selection of some of the shots from basically from, like, first setup to getting to that shot. But I won't, you know. So, like, this is kind of where it started. And then. Adding in different foliage, moving lights around, changing lighting, trying different spray techniques because some of them looked like too much like droplets. Camera kept getting wet. The monkey in some of them when I thought it was going well, but the monkey had, like, huge amounts of water on him that looked like. Like this. [01:27:11] Speaker A: Oh, no. [01:27:13] Speaker B: You know, so. So it just looked. It looked bizarre. Because it did. You know, you're like, that doesn't look right. It was. It was a lot, too. I had to keep wiping the monkey down anyway, so it's a big day [01:27:24] Speaker A: when you have to keep your monkey down. I think that's right. [01:27:31] Speaker B: All right. All right. [01:27:33] Speaker A: Very cool. You should be really happy with that. [01:27:35] Speaker B: That's me. [01:27:36] Speaker A: Phenomenal. Well done. And the chat reflects that. Everyone's very, very, very stoked. Let me just go through a couple. Seymour Bush called you Uncle Arthur in your video. I thought that was appropriate. Dennis. So great. Tweet Productions. Crazy setup. So cool. I really need to learn how to use flashes. That would have helped with my photos. Dennis chimed in with another one. Damn. Who's that? David Liparotti. Wow. Lucinda. Nice work, boss. That is cool. We're all getting green within me. You're on fire tonight. Crackers. Damn, Justin, that's so mad. Awesome source, Craig. Good. Yeah, it just goes on. Lots and lots of praise. Well done. That's great. [01:28:23] Speaker B: Thanks, guys. [01:28:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:28:25] Speaker B: Should we. Should we do. Let's break it up a bit, shall we? We'll do a few, and then we'll do Dennis's, and then we'll do more. [01:28:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:28:37] Speaker B: Just to. To break things up a touch. Why not? Helena says, hope Jazzy shows Vaughan's photo submission, too. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I don't even know how I'm going to do that. I'll work on that. [01:28:52] Speaker A: All right. [01:28:54] Speaker B: Vaughan actually did. Did one as well. [01:28:56] Speaker A: Oh, that's cool. [01:28:58] Speaker B: Got submitted. I'll work on it. I'll work on it while you're reading one of them out. All right, let's go to who we got first. Do you want to read out John Latimer? Yeah. [01:29:15] Speaker A: John Latimer. G', day, John. Thanks for submitting an image. Hey, guys. Thanks for the kind words on my photos I sent in last week so the previous week. Really appreciate it and I'll send in more in the future. Awesome. One of my other passions before photography is miniature painting. So this week's challenge is right up my alley. I enter miniature paint competitions a few times a year. And this is a figure I painted last year and got a highly commended for my entry. The whole figure stands around 7cm tall. This photo, taken with a A7R III with Sony's 100 macro lens backdrop is the COVID of a board game. Very clever. Lighting is my paint desk work light and model light on my GodOx 863 flash edited on Lightroom mobile. I'll also attach some progress photos of my painting before toning down the undertones. In the entry image is for this week is the finished painting I entered for the comp. Love the show. Take care of. Awesome. John. [01:30:13] Speaker B: So, yeah, this is nuts. That level of detail is crazy. And then when you see that. So this is the painting, the behind the progress shots. And then there's also a BTS shot too here with the like. How clever. Using the background. The board game. It looks so like, look at that. It looks so real. Well, like, like real like a movie reel, you know? [01:30:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's very cool, John. [01:30:44] Speaker B: Yeah, amazing. [01:30:46] Speaker A: Yeah, well done. Very well done. [01:30:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:51] Speaker A: Cool. [01:30:52] Speaker B: That's. Yeah. When I saw that one come through on the email, I was like, holy moly. Yeah, step my. Step my game up. Okay, number two. Where are we? [01:31:05] Speaker A: David Skinner. [01:31:06] Speaker B: Skinner. All right, David Skinner. [01:31:12] Speaker A: All right, I'm going to read it or are you gonna do this one? [01:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you read it out while I finish doing a couple more things. Thanks. [01:31:17] Speaker A: All right, cool. This is Teddy on his bike, 71 years young, but Rita made him a new outfit with a hat. As when she was a little girl, she thought Teddy was cold. Oh, that's so cute. So she put him in a bit too close to the heater and burnt all his scalp fur off. [01:31:35] Speaker B: That's gold. [01:31:36] Speaker A: Her dad stitched him a new skirt. Gosh, he's been through a bit, hasn't he, Teddy? Her dad stitched him a new scalp. And the hat covers the bad Teddy. Surgery taken with the Nikon Z7 Mark II. 70 to 120 at 115 ISO 160F16.1 1/60th. 1/60th of a second. I'm sorry. The bike is an ornament I keep on my desk for display. The other photos show how I did it. First, I held the Ornament bike in front of my eyes, in front of my real bike, leaning upright on a hedge, moving forward till they were the same size, one behind the other. By measuring the distance on the ground between the two bikes gave me the perspective of scale where I had to put the toy bike on the. On a box relative to the road. [01:32:24] Speaker B: That's so clever. So. So real bike. And then because it's actually way smaller than, you know, when you see this, I'm like, oh, that must be a pretty big Teddy. But then when you see that, it's tiny. [01:32:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it's tiny. Yep. That's very cool. I had to lay on my back. [01:32:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:41] Speaker A: Head against the steps, rail in the direction of the box to get Teddy on the bike as if he was riding on the road. Some cloning to get rid of the box and to remove sticky tape holding lightroom did a reasonable job, but not perfect. But that doesn't matter. No, it doesn't. Had fun. Thanks, Greg, for the inspiration. And then there's a second email that came through with the behind the scenes. I think, oh, no, there was a second image. [01:33:10] Speaker B: So another image come through on an email, which I'll show just because it's pretty crazy. I've already put an image in, but if you have time or another time. This is one of my favorites, created using Photoshop on an Otway's creek landscape and two of my wife's ornaments that I could see a story to create titled homeward Bound. And so, yeah, I just, I thought it was interesting because it's such a different way approach to. [01:33:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:33:40] Speaker B: Trying to do something similar. Like one's very much just perspective and kind of using, I guess, the trick of the camera to try and, you know, with this one, to try and make it look to scale and all that sort of stuff. And then this one, it's more about creating a story with your imagination and using Photoshop to craft it together and piece the scene together, obviously with photography as well. But yeah, just two different approaches to the same kind of thing. [01:34:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Amazing. Magical. Love it. Well done. [01:34:14] Speaker B: Magical. All right, up next, who do we have next? [01:34:22] Speaker A: Craig Murphy. [01:34:23] Speaker B: I think Craig Murphy is next. All right, I'll read out Craig's. [01:34:29] Speaker A: All right. [01:34:29] Speaker B: So what do you do when the. When the weather has you completely bunkered down on the Victorian coast for a few nights? Naturally, you take up the challenge from one of your favorite photography podcasts. Oh, and photograph a toy. Step one, head into town and definitely don't buy the most expensive toy in the shop. It has it has Lamborghini countach vibes so it feels so feel justified. It's very. A very understanding partner. Well that's good. Step two, running through. Rummage through the car in sideways rain to find the loom cubes you swear you packed along with some string lights you forgot about until now. Step three, set it all up inside the camper trailer while 40 to 60 kilometer an hour winds try their absolute best to relocate you to Tasmania. Attempt to keep everything still, fail, try again. Then finally time the the shot perfectly between gusts that feel like they're about to tip the whole camper over. Fun times anyway. A fun little challenge and a good way to pass the time while being weather bound. Hope you enjoy the shot taken with the Olympus EM1X. I know how much you love micro 4/3 with the 17mil f 1.2 pro lens FL600R flash and two OG lume cubes. I've included a behind the scenes shot as well. More for you and Greg to laugh at and that is this one. Hey, I love the, I love the beer in it. That's. Yeah, that's exactly this kind of photography challenge for me like all right. [01:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You had a beer sitting down next to. [01:36:02] Speaker B: I did have a Corona. I started off with with just a, like a, I don't know like a soda or something and then halfway through I was like it's hot. I need a beer. [01:36:13] Speaker A: That's really cool. Yeah, I love Craig. [01:36:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I love the, I love the street lights and then. Yeah, that's sweet. [01:36:24] Speaker A: Yeah it's really cool. Well done. Gosh, just from rubbishing stuff from your car. That's awesome. [01:36:31] Speaker B: Yeah. He says needed a beer. Yeah. Oh no, wrong one. Needed a beer and then tweak. Production says just shows you can do this type of photography anywhere. It really is that, that like a thing that you can just do as a. You know like you could even constrain yourself to one toy or something and just be like all right, what can I do with this today? [01:36:52] Speaker A: Yeah, well I now keep this guy in my camera bag. So when I get my new camera bag, if I do, I was going to. [01:37:00] Speaker B: You could have three of them. [01:37:01] Speaker A: I'll get another one. Yeah, that's it. Justin, you know me. So yeah, I just, he's just always in my bag now and if you know the right spot, the right inspiration. Oh, where'd he go? Oh, there you went. Oh, here I am then. Yeah, I set him up and take a shot. [01:37:19] Speaker B: Set him up and take a shot. All right, who's next. [01:37:25] Speaker A: Oh, I've been looking forward to this one. [01:37:28] Speaker B: All right. [01:37:29] Speaker A: Do you want me to read this? I'll read this one. David Liparati. [01:37:31] Speaker B: Yep. [01:37:32] Speaker A: Is in the house. Please find attached my photo for toy photography and behind the scenes images. Image 1. Razor quest turning and burning. I built and painted this small scale model of the Razor quest about 18 months ago and have planned to photograph it but never did. Greg's toy photography in last week's episode and the article on lucky straps as well as a PETA Pixel story on cinematic toy photography inspired me. I decided to have the model flying through clouds and so use cotton wool balls built up around the model and over the wings. And then we'll get into the behind the scenes in a moment. So let's have a look. [01:38:10] Speaker B: Oh, hang on. I hadn't. It wasn't. You didn't tell me it wasn't up on the screen. You've been reading all that out. Sorry. There it is. Oh, my gosh. [01:38:16] Speaker A: I'm reading. You had one job. [01:38:18] Speaker B: Sorry. The people watching are like, what are we looking at, guys? There is the image. [01:38:24] Speaker A: How. That's amazing. I love the jet trails at the back. [01:38:31] Speaker B: It's nuts. [01:38:32] Speaker A: All right, let me read. I know. We've read image one, haven't we? [01:38:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So the next bit goes to the. To the behind the scenes. I just want to make sure everyone's had a chance to digest this. That's so cool. [01:38:46] Speaker A: And the way that the light blues and darkens towards the back, I love it. [01:38:52] Speaker B: When I first saw this, I was like, how much of this is edited because it looks edited. And then once you see the behind the scenes, you're like, oh, my gosh. [01:39:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:39:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:39:03] Speaker A: You should have known better than to doubt David Liparati actually made the whole shot. [01:39:07] Speaker B: No, there was no doubt because editing in this style of photography is part of it. That's the thing is I don't actually don't have the skills to do what the guys do that, that, you know, take it to that next level where it looks real, you know. Yeah, but. All right, ready? [01:39:25] Speaker A: Let's go to image 2. Razor quest behind the scenes. Turning and burning. Oh, it's tiny. [01:39:33] Speaker B: Yes. That's the first thing that blew me away. I was like, oh, it's one of those really small. I'll see if I can some of this and. And move around the screen. [01:39:42] Speaker A: The image was shot using, of course, a Fujifilm X T2 and a Nikon AF 20mm lens on a kip on tilt shift adapter set at the lens at 12 degrees tilt down. Okay. This lens tilt technique enabled a medium aperture f8 to 11 with the focus depth of field running along the top of the model and requires no focus stacking. That is so clever. Exposure half a second at f11,400 ISO daylight white balance. The lighting was an LED panel at 3400K warm and small. LED blue on the back behind the model. I think what's even more impressive, equally impressive, is the behind the scenes images. Yeah, they're framed and shadow dropped and everything. [01:40:37] Speaker B: So the, it's the. Okay, this is what we need to dig into. So going back through. So the lens. The lens tilt technique enabled a medium aperture of f8 to f11 with the focus depth of field running along the top of the model and requires no focus stacking. So it's. There's a tilt shift adapter in here or a tilt. A tilt adapter, I guess. Not a tilt shift adapter. No, it is a tilt shift adapter. Yes. Keep on tilt shift adapter set of the lens at 12 degree tilt down. And so the. And then you've. So you've got this increasingly wider depth of field like that expands away from the intersection point of the lens plane and the camera sensor plane, which I think I understand how it works, But I'm not 100% sure. But yeah, sort of like allowing it to run further along the tilted. Because the actual craft is tilted, the tails tilted away from the camera. Yeah, it's. It's nuts. [01:41:49] Speaker A: That's incredible. [01:41:50] Speaker B: I would have just. I would have just cranked it up to F22 and being like, well, that's the only way I can do that. Yeah. [01:41:57] Speaker A: Don't buy a macro lens, Justin. It'll be wasted on you. [01:42:02] Speaker B: Oh, it's actually. Do you want me to read that down here at the bottom of the. Here it says the shine flug principle. I think I'm reading that right. Allows you to achieve an extended depth of field by tilting the lens or camera so that the lens plane, subject plane and image sensor plan intersect at a single point. The depth of field area will change dramatically. It will change in a wedge shape. The wedge is narrow at the wide open apertures and a wider wedge at stop down apertures. And then there's a final fourth shot of this, the fourth diagram basically showing [01:42:43] Speaker A: what, [01:42:45] Speaker B: how you can have a narrow depth of field running along between those two subjects. And then at F8 and then F16, everything's in focus but then showing. So here we've got camera sensor plane, lens sensor plane, and then you can see the wider and wider plane of focus, depending on what aperture you've chosen. [01:43:13] Speaker A: That's insane. [01:43:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:43:15] Speaker A: Amazing. [01:43:15] Speaker B: I never, never played with that technique. Don't even have a tilt shift adapter, but now I'd like one, [01:43:23] Speaker A: but amazing. [01:43:24] Speaker B: Look at that photo. [01:43:25] Speaker A: I know. That's so cool. Very cool. [01:43:30] Speaker B: Epic work. No notes, as they would say. All right, we'll do one more, then we'll do Dennis. What's that? Yeah, we'll do. Do one more then. Then we'll do Dennis. So, David, Jamie Vanden Brink, Tweak Productions. Thanks for the theme this week. It helped me get the creative juices flowing. My image is called the Perils of a Macro Photographer as an homage to myself and others who have found themselves a bit close and personal with our beloved creepy crawlies. This Saint Andrews Cross spider has been hanging out in my backyard for ages, and I thought he could help me out with my adventurous minifigure. Mike the Macro Photographer. I'm a LEGO addict and have many sets I could have shot, but I thought it would be fun just to take one figure and put him in the real world to tell a funny story. Just hung him up from a piece of black cotton to place him in the web and the spider just came to him. Shot of my R5 Mark II 24 to 105L is F4 and a Phottix M200 LED panel. 1, 400 F16, ISO 12, 800. Fair bit of denoising because I wanted depth of field, but it was worth it. Oh, it was worth it. [01:44:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:44:52] Speaker B: That's awesome. [01:44:53] Speaker A: That's. That's amazing. So clever. Such a good story, too. [01:45:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Like the macro photographer. [01:45:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:45:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I just. I can't believe how I had to look. I had to look at this a fair few times to see if, like, it was this photoshopped in or whatever, because I was just like, that can't be a real spider. The same. So, you know, is that real? Yeah. And it is. It's awesome. And the. I think the. It's the fact that the expression as well. I didn't even know they made Lego people with that expression of terror on their face. [01:45:32] Speaker A: That's awesome. I love that so much. Oh, now I want to do more shots with Lego. [01:45:37] Speaker B: Yeah, Lego's Lego is great because they've got some little hands and stuff. You can do some stuff with them. Yeah, it's fun. And also because they're so small, it really does get into the macro. The only lens I use was the macro lens. Although this is. This is impressive. 24 to 105. So you got nice and close. Well done. His face is Emmett from the Lego Movie. That's awesome. Great. Felicity Johnson says that is brilliant. Craig Murphy, Nice, fun shot. David Leporati, Love it. And Dennis says haha, that's amazing. Scary as. All right, speaking of Dennis, we'll go to his image next. Before we do, we'll do a quick. Oh, quick callback. David Leporati says the lens tilt technique is used by landscape photographers when shooting with a large format view cameras or tilt shift lenses on medium format, slr, dslr, mirrorless cameras. Right. It is the same technique. Yeah, me neither. But I guess it is the same as as using a. Yeah. Using a normal tilt shift lens to get more in focus. But I've never seen it used on that style. [01:46:51] Speaker A: I've never seen it explained that. [01:46:54] Speaker B: No, never. [01:46:55] Speaker A: But now. [01:46:57] Speaker B: Yeah, never. [01:46:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:00] Speaker B: Okay, let's bring up Dennis's. Where is Dennis's video? Because it's awesome. Add to stage. Hopefully you guys will be able to hear this. If you can't, let me know. Here we go. [01:47:28] Speaker A: Hi everyone. Dan here. Well, this week was a bit of fun. I listened to the Camera Life podcasts and each week there is a photography challenge. And this week was toys. So I broke out some light painting tools I've had around for years. A very small scanner and the smallest light painting tool I've ever made. And I got them out and had a crack. It was pretty challenging. Being smooth with a very small tool is hard, but after about 190 shots this is what we got and it was so much fun. Turn the light lights off, put some music on and have a crack. Macro is hard, shallow depth of field, but I think you'll agree the results were a huge amount of fun. Thanks for coming along. Peace. [01:48:16] Speaker B: How freaking cool. [01:48:18] Speaker A: I know. It's just when I watched this video, I just sat there with this, you know, shit eating grin on my face. I was so delighted to see Dan doing this. The way that he scaled everything down and actually he sent us a behind the scenes photo. Was that yesterday at some stage on the road. [01:48:36] Speaker B: I've got it and it's ended up in someone else's folder. Hang on, let me just find it. I've got a behind the scenes shot and his actual shot that he wanted to send in and it's gone. One second. [01:48:49] Speaker A: All right, so just. [01:48:50] Speaker B: I'll pull it up. [01:48:52] Speaker A: While Justin's doing that, I'll read out Dennis's comments with the image. Bloody hard to pick one. I didn't get it finished last night. But have a sick behind the scenes video coming, which is what we've just watched. Sorry about the vertical behind the scenes. Pick a 7R4 Tamron 90 mil Macro F9. Is that 16 seconds all hand lit and micro light painting tool. That's phenomenal. So very clever, Dennis. [01:49:28] Speaker B: There we go. I knew there was something going on. All right, I'm back. Here comes Dennis's image. Ta da. And ta da. That's the one he chose. Crazy. I want to see all of them though. Dennis. There was some great ones in that video. There's so many good ones. Can't believe you took one hundred and so if you took one hundred and ninety shots. So I took three hundred shots, but mine were at two hundredths of a second or some down to one hundredth, whereas yours were at sixteen seconds. That's a lot more time. That's a lot more. That's a lot of work. [01:50:13] Speaker A: We do know Dennis doesn't do anything by halves. So, you know. No, that's incredible, Dan. Thank you so much. [01:50:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that's epic. Now let's see if this behind the scenes photo is going to work. There it is. Yeah. Look at this. Look at his setup. Cover the video. So three cameras and the little, the little light painting tools. That is that [01:50:40] Speaker A: so clever. So, so clean. [01:50:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Freaking awesome. Okay. [01:50:52] Speaker A: All right. [01:50:52] Speaker B: Well done, Dennis. [01:50:54] Speaker A: Yep. [01:50:56] Speaker B: We are on to Rick Nelson. [01:51:00] Speaker A: No, Maya Hall. I've got next. Hang on. Am I missing someone? I've skipped a page. [01:51:06] Speaker B: Sorry, you've skipped. [01:51:08] Speaker A: My bad. Rick Nelson. [01:51:12] Speaker B: Yeah, Rick Nelson coming right up. [01:51:15] Speaker A: Do you want me to read this one? [01:51:17] Speaker B: Go for it. [01:51:19] Speaker A: I pulled out a pop figure I have this week with a couple of old lenses I had floating around the shop to bring the photo together. I shot using the high key filter settings on my S5 Mark II. And this is all straight out of camera. The reason is I've been doing the 52 frames challenge for years now and only missed one week in four years. And this was a perfect opportunity to do both at once. Very cool. [01:51:48] Speaker B: I really enjoy that you've included some, some camera gear. That was one of the things I wanted to do. I was trying to think if could I use yeah, like a really teeny tiny, like Lego or smaller toys with camera gear as kind of the scene. But have it, have it look, you know, say like Star wars and it's like the, you know, a lens element is a big, I don't know, glass thing and you know, so you try and use it where you can't really tell that it's camera equipment. [01:52:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:52:23] Speaker B: Because it's up so close. That was one of the ideas I had. But yeah, this. This is sweet. [01:52:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very cool. [01:52:29] Speaker B: And so it said. It said in here, didn't it, that you use the high key filter setting and it's straight out of camera. That's nuts. Yeah, that's. That's really impressive. Yeah. As a jpeg, that's. That is crazy. Well done. [01:52:46] Speaker A: Yeah, he's added here. I tried to shoot through the lenses with my macro lens, but it wasn't working to how I liked. [01:52:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It always. You have these ideas. I had a ton of ideas. And then once you start sitting down in the backyard and trying to make something work and you're like, oh no, that doesn't work. You just have to figure it out. That's what's fun about it. You couldn't. I didn't know if what was going to work and what was going to have to be adapted and that, that. I enjoy that style of photography where you're not sure if you can pull it off or we have to try and change your strategy later on. [01:53:22] Speaker A: Yep. [01:53:24] Speaker B: Wonderful, epic work. [01:53:25] Speaker A: Wonderful. Who we got next? Paul. [01:53:30] Speaker B: Paul Carpenter. Bit of World War II action image. Title is Battle of Little Britain. Here's my quick and dirty toy image along with the accompanying behind the scenes shot. All done on an iPhone 15 as I'm supposed to be studying for an exam this afternoon. As a kid, I made World War II air fix aircraft models all the time and I just happened to receive this Battle of Britain kit consisting of a Spitfire and me109 as a present a few years ago. These are the first I've made in nearly 40 years. I placed the models on top of a ladder on their display stand with a blue sky in the background and took some iPhone shots. I tried macro mode but depth of field was too shallow, so just stuck with the normal camera. Edited them initially in the Apple Photos app to remove the background and propeller blades with a cleanup tool. Then use snapseed to burn in some prop blur with a brush and then finished with a vintage Technicolor film simulation to mimic the original 1969 war film. Thanks for the challenge. I can certainly see how much potential there is for the genre of photography when using high end lenses and Photoshop. Yeah. To do it on a phone is next level. [01:54:47] Speaker A: But that looks amazing. Oh, what? Yeah. [01:54:50] Speaker B: Yes. That's the before. [01:54:55] Speaker A: Yeah, [01:54:58] Speaker B: yeah, yeah, that's Sweet. [01:55:01] Speaker A: That's so cool. And the fact that it got you to build models that you hadn't. You hadn't done that sort of thing for decades. It's just incredible. I love that. I love that for you. Yeah. [01:55:11] Speaker B: Look, everyone's blown away with the spinning props. Yeah. [01:55:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:55:15] Speaker B: I didn't even know how you would like. [01:55:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:55:18] Speaker B: On a phone. That's nuts. Rick Nelson thought it was real planes for a second. So cool. [01:55:25] Speaker A: As soon as it came up, I thought, oh, hang on, is that the wrong image? But then I realized it's all toys. How are they toys? It's. Yeah. [01:55:33] Speaker B: So cool. [01:55:34] Speaker A: Well done. Awesome work. [01:55:35] Speaker B: Yes. Freaking epic work. And well done getting it done too, when you're not supposed to. That's how everyone should do things. When you've got. [01:55:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:55:42] Speaker B: More important work to do. Take a break and. And do something because. [01:55:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Toy photography. Yeah. Yeah. [01:55:51] Speaker B: All right. Greg Carrick. [01:55:55] Speaker A: Yep. So Toy Rassic park, deep in the wilds of Mount Evelyn in a land before time. Fujifilm XT2 Kina, 11 to 16 mil at 15 miles. One 125th shutter, ISO 100 at f 2.8. [01:56:19] Speaker B: EPIC. Greg actually sent in a different. A different photo. And I said, oh, sorry, it's. We got the toy thing this week. And he was like, hold the line. And then like, not long later, this come back into my inbox. I was like, well done. Well done. That's cool. Got out and made it happen. [01:56:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:56:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:56:40] Speaker A: I love it. It's got a real sense of play to it as well, you know? [01:56:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:56:45] Speaker A: Like it could be a scene or it could be some kids toys left out in the backyard, you know, like, it's that whole. Where's the scale? You know? [01:56:53] Speaker B: It's great. Yeah. [01:56:54] Speaker A: Well done, Greg. Love it. [01:56:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I'll have to buy some dinosaurs. Yes. I think dinosaurs could be very fun. [01:57:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:57:06] Speaker B: Because. Yeah. [01:57:07] Speaker A: Very cool. [01:57:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Just you can take them all around anywhere. Yeah. And then you can even do them in cityscapes too, as like. [01:57:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:57:15] Speaker B: Jurassic Park 4, Jurassic Park 5. [01:57:18] Speaker A: And have Lego figures running away from them with that screamy face. [01:57:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:57:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:57:26] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. Maya Hall. Hey, Maya. [01:57:34] Speaker A: Hey, Maya. [01:57:34] Speaker B: Maya says, not my toy, but I wish it was. This is a section of an artwork Once Upon a Time by Lee Wei from an exhibition, the Hooligans, currently on at White Rabbit Gallery, Chippendale. The work shows future world leaders imagined as life sized children playing on military toys in the playground. You might enjoy guessing who this future leader is. I hope you don't mind this lateral approach to the brief taken on week three of our version of photography walks for wellness, inspired by Craig Witchens episode and Greg Street Photography. Oh, that's cool. Gallery and museum make perfect stops for our walks, providing excellent toilet facilities. Take it on my Nikon Z63.40mm, 1/6 of a second. F9, ISO 1000. We definitely don't mind you taking a lateral approach. I actually thought there'd be potential, you know, like more people that are sort of like thinking outside the box with what toy photography is. Not that I don't mind that everyone's embraced the toy toy side of it, but yeah, definitely you can take any theme you can take and make it what you want to make of it, I think. [01:58:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:58:52] Speaker B: So this looks like a. A crazy exhibition. [01:58:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:58:55] Speaker B: To see it. Yeah, It's a very clever idea and I love that. [01:58:59] Speaker A: I love the mood. Yeah, I love the mood of it. [01:59:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So well done. [01:59:05] Speaker A: Very good. [01:59:05] Speaker B: Thank you for sending in an image. Keep them coming. And then from my hall to John Hall. Hey now, John hall says I wasn't going to bother this week since I don't have any toys in the house. However, toy means different things to different people and it occurred to me that I do have a few toys. They're just full size and live outside. So here's one of mine taken on the Z6 II with 24-120 F4s at 24mil F8, 16111, 1.6 seconds, ISO 100 lit using a couple of LEDs with quarter CTO gels. And the head torch used a remote shutter and a 10 second delay to set the shot up. That's. [01:59:54] Speaker A: That head torch is a great idea. Like, I mean, obviously it works well there, but even for toy photography, just to add that little bit of fill, you know, you can just literally look where you want the light to go [02:00:05] Speaker B: and just move it with your head. [02:00:07] Speaker A: Yeah, you can put. [02:00:08] Speaker B: You could put like outrigger arms on your head, you know, like a key light and then a fill light and then, you know, softbox boxes and then just get really clever with. Imagine what Dennis could do with this. What do you reckon Dennis would. How he would do if he had to attach a light painting tool to his head? Can you imagine him trying to move around the scene to do. [02:00:34] Speaker A: I could. I can imagine Dennis dancing ballet quite proficiently. He just has that. He has that grace to him. [02:00:41] Speaker B: He has that grace. Well, John, I love that you did this. I love that you took the time to set everything up, light it, gel the Lights to make it warm, but then have the slightly cooler, like the daylight balance head torch provides a focal point in the center on the engine. I think that's, yeah, very well executed and great idea with toy photography. [02:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Great interpretation. We have genre. [02:01:07] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. And we welcome it. We have one final last minute entrant, and that is former host sometime one day coming back when I can convince him. Grant Fleming. I've been hassling him all weekend to take a toy photo and he says this is what two minutes gets you before your two year old grabs their toy back. I'll do better. I'll do better next time. [02:01:39] Speaker A: Well played. [02:01:40] Speaker B: I think, I think you did great. [02:01:42] Speaker A: You did great. [02:01:44] Speaker B: Is that. Is that. What am I seeing there? Is that rain? Is it like. What is this? Is it editing or is it real? [02:01:54] Speaker A: That's cool. [02:01:58] Speaker B: Also, you're buying a two year old. Like a creepy velociraptor type. [02:02:05] Speaker A: Kids love dinosaurs. [02:02:07] Speaker B: Okay. These are the scary ones though. Look, its teeth are out. [02:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it is pretty scary. [02:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, thank you, Grant, for making it happen. I'm glad you appreciate the effort, mate. Yeah, well, I think actually that's the. That's the last one. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. That is the last for taking up the challenge. [02:02:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, guys. I feel incredibly humbled by just how serious you. You guys all took. How seriously you took the art of play. So you're right. You're having a conniption. [02:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Bruce just reminded me. What about Vaughan's photo? God, I'm glad Bruce is here. Vaughn would have killed me. [02:02:44] Speaker A: All right, [02:02:46] Speaker B: so finally Vaughan's photo. So first of all, thanks again, Vaughn, for making my photographer. I don't know what you call this. Lego Rama. Little Lego set that I could just plop into my background. So Vaughan. Vaughan used the. Greg will love this. The Fujifilm. What do you call these things? Insta. What's Instax? That's right. To photograph a LEGO spaceman on the moon. I believe this is paper towel for moon texture. And they attempted to do a photo of the, you know, I guess the scan, but it didn't really work out. Well, the resolution on the Instax doesn't hold up to a high res scan. So I think this actually works better for the submission. [02:03:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:03:42] Speaker B: So well done, Vaughan. [02:03:44] Speaker A: Good job, Vaughan. [02:03:45] Speaker B: I get him a better camera. [02:03:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:03:50] Speaker B: And some more Lego maybe one day. Oh, he's got a lot of Lego, but yeah, you can always have more Lego. [02:03:58] Speaker A: Yep. [02:03:59] Speaker B: I like, actually like. It's got the vignette. Hang on, let Me bring that back up. Is that, is that just part of Instax? They all have that natural like. Or not. You know, the vignette around the outside actually really makes sense. [02:04:09] Speaker A: I mean, the lenses on the mart, really, you know, they're not like a quality. They're pretty, pretty basic, some of them. [02:04:20] Speaker B: Felicity likes it. Vaughn, well done. [02:04:23] Speaker A: Well done. Thank you so much. [02:04:28] Speaker B: A lot of questions in the chat about challenge for next week. Look, I don't have one. I don't have one planned. [02:04:35] Speaker A: We'll talk about it. [02:04:37] Speaker B: We'll talk about it. I would like to do another one. I don't know if we can do them in a week. I think a week turnaround is a, is a tight timeline for we don't burn you guys out. But also we, you know, we gotta try and keep the show. Not too tricky either. [02:04:52] Speaker A: I don't know, why don't we give it open and Justin and I will have a chat and we'll think of something new for you guys and that way too can have a crack at. [02:05:04] Speaker B: So, yeah, yeah, it is Easter Monday. We, we probably will do a show, but I think if, if you want to do one, Greg, like, I'll probably be able to do one, but we'll probably keep it, we'll keep it pretty chill. We might not even have much planned, so don't send us too many photos or anything and we'll, we'll try and think of a challenge. Maybe we can announce it on next week's show for the following week. If anyone has any ideas for themes or anything like that, comment below after the show. Leave them in the, in the. The main comments after the show. And yeah, we'd love some ideas for future challenges. We've been brainstorming, but we'll come up with some more because it was really fun. It got me outside, got me out in the backyard. It's a good time. Who wouldn't set up four flashes to take a photo of one Lego guy? [02:05:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And douse all your camera gear and water. [02:05:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I can handle it. Someone's got to test it out. [02:06:01] Speaker A: That's right. [02:06:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. Okay. That was a great show. Thanks, everyone. [02:06:06] Speaker A: It was a great show. Yeah. Just before we tie up and bring this episode of the Camera Life podcast to a close, I just want to remind everybody that we do this live twice a week. Every Monday evening we have our random photography show that starts at 7:30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time or Melbourne time, if that's easier for you to look up, where we talk about industry news we talk about what's going on on the socials, we do your photos like we've just done tonight, along with a bunch of other stuff. And then every Thursday morning at 9am Australian Eastern Standard Time, once again, we go live with interviews of Australian and international photographers to, I guess, bring to light their craft and in the hope that it will inspire you guys to do more with your cameras. And this coming week on Thursday, we have a veteran in the industry, Art Wolff is joining us. Art is. Gosh, he wears so many hats. He's an educator, he's a conservationist, he's a photographer, landscape, nature. He does workshops, he does tours, he's a published author, has his own publishing house. He's done it all. So we're going to unpack Art's full story, we hope, in the time we have allocated to us on Thursday morning, 9am Australian Eastern Standard Time. So, yeah, it'll be fun. [02:07:22] Speaker B: Join us or listen later. Don't forget, we're on Spotify, Apple, podcasts, all the places. So if you prefer audio when you're listening back, track us down, give us a follow and otherwise be sure to follow us on the socials because we'll be putting these themes out and you got to be everywhere. I don't know, I put it on YouTube, I put it on Instagram, I don't know. Put it everywhere. We'll try and get it to you. [02:07:46] Speaker A: All right. [02:07:46] Speaker B: Is that it? [02:07:47] Speaker A: I think that's it, boss. You have a good week. I'll see you on Thursday. Be safe, everybody. [02:07:53] Speaker B: I'm super excited. Greg Carrick says, slam that like Button. I think that's a great idea. And Tweak Production says like Button has been slammed, so that loop is now closed. Phil Thompson says, you don't have to be mad, but it sure helps. I don't know what that means, but [02:08:07] Speaker A: yeah, [02:08:10] Speaker B: it's a good motto. Rick Nelson, thank you for the great show, guys. Fantastic images, everyone. Thank you. Thanks for participating. [02:08:17] Speaker A: Well done, guys. [02:08:19] Speaker B: Bruce, he says thanks for a fun show. Hopefully I can tune in this Thursday. Have a great one, everyone. Who else? Who else? Oh, Craig Murphy says, what's going to finish first, this podcast or my laptop battery? Dennis, lovely night. Thank you. Thanks, Dan, thanks for doing that video. That was epic. [02:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:08:35] Speaker B: David Leporati, thanks for the cracking photo and for joining us. He says, great images, everyone. Tweak Productions. Thanks for making us get out of our genre Bubbles. That was really fun. It was. It was fun. What else? Everyone else that was here. Paul says, what the. You are wolf on this Thursday. Awesome. Yeah. Gonna be awesome. It's gonna be great. [02:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:08:58] Speaker B: Thanks to everyone else that participated tonight. And we'll see you guys in the next one. [02:09:02] Speaker A: Bye, everyone.