What would be our DREAM photography gig?

If Nick and Steve could have any photography trip or job, paid or unpaid, what would we each choose? Nick is spying on people coming to buy his house, whilst Steve is packing his bags for lots of business travel over the next few weeks, starting in Dallas. Nick live streams a town hall for thousands of financial advisers, and what kit should Steve take for his trips for when he has a little spare time to walk around. And should Nick buy a Fujifilm GFX100RF?

Transcript

Steve Vaughan (00:00.942)
Hello again and welcome once more to the Photography Pod with me Steve Vaughan and my good mate Nick Church. Nick how you doing mate? Are you flooded over down there in the West Country? Are you in a boat?

Nick Church (00:09.497)
It is, it has been absolutely torrential. It seems like from new year, just hasn't seemed to stop raining here. And it's a pain, which we're in the process of selling our house or trying to sell a house. And somebody, somebody said, the garden's not very pretty. It's like, blimey, know, middle of winter, we've had like two weeks of rain. It's not going to look great, but it is. no.

Steve Vaughan (00:26.114)
you expect? It's not like a bowling green is it really? You've to rod your monsoon rain for the last three weeks so yeah it's been terrible.

Nick Church (00:34.973)
It's just been, it's been a bit depressing, but it's fine. Yeah, it's fine. Um, yeah, other than that, we're pretty good here. I'm still got my cough, which is great. You know, we pleased about that to have that. Um, and yeah, we're a bit fed up of, uh, cleaning every time someone comes to visit the house and then looking at the ring doorbell to see how long they've spent. If they, if they've left in like 12 minutes, you know that. Yeah, yeah, but there's, there's, we've got a second viewing and they were there for 35 minutes first time. So that's pretty good on mine.

Steve Vaughan (00:43.842)
Yeah, I got one as well now. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (00:54.99)
Oh, of course, yeah. Yeah, I think we'll walk around the house inspecting, yeah.

Steve Vaughan (01:02.798)
Well, it's not bad. Yeah. Do you put the pot of coffee on? Because one of the tricks you're supposed to do is put a pot of coffee on so they smell coffee when people walk in. Is that one of the things you do? I haven't sold a house for years, so no.

Nick Church (01:11.281)
We haven't, we haven't done, we haven't done that only because I think it might be a little bit on the nose nowadays. But what they have said is that we should, we've got a little log burner on our sitting room that we should always like log burner. Just people love it. It really makes a difference. So I do always think about right. Who's correct. Cause they give you the name of the person that's coming around. So I do do a bit of Facebook stalking and see what they're into. And like sometimes if, if I can see that they like music, I'll get an extra guitar and put it in the studio here.

Steve Vaughan (01:16.952)
Okay.

Steve Vaughan (01:23.128)
Yeah, being a Finch-Dew-Lie.

Nick Church (01:39.389)
They can sort of say, maybe I could do some music recording or.

Steve Vaughan (01:42.83)
Here's a tip, mate, if you find out they're into swinging, perhaps you want to try something different. Yeah, let's not go there. Yeah. So you've been super busy for the last couple of weeks. So have I for different reasons, but you go first. So I know you've been doing a lot of work. You've been doing a lot of events. You've been doing some talking. So what have you been up to since we last did a pod?

Nick Church (02:03.741)
I've been doing a lot of talking. Well, yeah, it was all the amount of talk I've had to do. This was worried about my voice because last time I got a cough, I lost my voice and thought this is going to be great. But, I had a, so I had like a, a perfect two week period from a business perspective. The first week was going to be, um, working for SJP. It's the finance house, St. James's place. Um, it was doing their, um, what used to be called just meetings.

Steve Vaughan (02:24.92)
That's a James's place if you're not in the UK to finance business. Yeah.

Nick Church (02:31.965)
sort of company-wide meetings, but now they call them town halls because that's the way that that's like the new LinkedIn speak, I guess for, um, yeah, exactly. So, but it was a full on live stream to 3000, 4,000 remote team members and 200 people in the room, but it was mega. So they wanted two screens with slides on those slides being projected to the remote, the remote viewers as well. Those all been synchronized. had four camera angles.

Steve Vaughan (02:35.714)
Yeah. It's very American, very American.

Steve Vaughan (02:47.67)
Wow.

Nick Church (02:59.901)
And it had to fit into this very specific network, which is teams based and it's a very locked down network, as you imagine. So it was, you know, we, we, we'd done one before using the atom mini, you know, the direct streaming from it, but it just, it had to be so many security workarounds on their network to get that to work. So we just ended up just going straight to teams as a virtual camera, which was the one weak point in it, but it's fine. But it worked really well. Um, audio.

Steve Vaughan (03:28.003)
So the geek in me is really, really wanting to know how you did this and see Microsoft Teams. Yeah. And then you've got what effectively the camera has been seen as a webcam by teams. Yeah.

Nick Church (03:36.945)
We, we, we have the, yes, we use the atom mini video. Yeah. The video switcher and production mixer and stuff that can either, you can either plug it into the internet and it will stream directly. And then it's got the big buttons on there and you can change cameras and audio sources and stuff. Yeah. I may, love them. really geeky things. It's great fun. It makes me want to be a TV producer. And, but they'll also, if you just plug it into a laptop, it'll seem as a virtual camera a bit like I am now.

Steve Vaughan (03:42.168)
The black magic thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (03:53.677)
Yep, I've got one somewhere, yeah. Yep.

Nick Church (04:06.407)
to you. So this is the same thing. So you just do that. And then whatever you're switching, you've got all these pro cameras connected. It's just pushing that as a as the virtual feed. And so they were HDMI this time. Yeah, last time they were SDI HDMI this time. But yeah, it it went really well. It was good audio. The audio was a tricky one because they didn't I think they'd had I think you might have had problems with wireless audio at some point interference.

Steve Vaughan (04:06.444)
Yeah, yeah.

Steve Vaughan (04:11.895)
Right.

and they're all connected with HDMI.

Right.

Right.

Steve Vaughan (04:33.228)
Yeah.

Nick Church (04:33.661)
So they had a requirement that they in what UHF wireless microphone packs and things.

Steve Vaughan (04:39.532)
So not the sort of Rode and DJI type Bluetooth, not Bluetooth, but 2.4 gigahertz on wireless things. Yeah.

Nick Church (04:42.97)
Exactly, yeah.

Nick Church (04:47.077)
Yeah. Yeah. They would know no 2.4 gighertz stuff. So, but that had an extra complication of needing a pretty big audio setup, a mixing desk and all kinds of stuff. yeah. Anyway, where I was getting was this was, this was two days of work setting all this up, running the stream itself or being part of the team running it. and that was that week. And then the week after I had talks at the.

Steve Vaughan (04:55.341)
Right.

Steve Vaughan (05:06.574)
Wow.

Nick Church (05:11.197)
the society of photographers in London. So I was going to for three days to London to go and do the talk, then look around the show. Anyway, the SJP moved that meeting to the same week. So basically I was interleaved and the only way I could do it was to be, to do all the setup and training I had to give on one day in Siren's Sessler, this is where SJP were based. Then that night go to London. I was like, yeah, yeah. So, so I got there about midnight to the hotel, um, did the talk the next day, then I had to come back to SJP the next day.

Steve Vaughan (05:20.344)
Typical. Typical.

Steve Vaughan (05:30.85)
which is about 100 miles away for people not in the UK. Yeah.

Nick Church (05:41.233)
did that talk and then went back to London again the day after. I still had partners for the academy and stuff to catch up with and I wanted to go in. So I had to go back but it was fine. So I was pretty done in after that week but it was good.

Steve Vaughan (05:43.646)
Wow.

Steve Vaughan (05:49.688)
Gosh.

Steve Vaughan (05:54.73)
I'm not surprised mate. Just back to the St. James Place livestream, because you and I spoke about that and you asked whether I could help on the audio stuff and I said look, I know a bit about audio, but that's sort of waived by paygrade. It kind of reminds me of the things that we were doing during Covid. I remember doing a livestream of a waiting for somebody once where I had an A10 Mini and three cameras all connected up by HDMI cables and...

I think I charged nowhere near enough for doing it. I come over with a cold sweat even thinking about it now. But the thought of doing that with 3000 people on the end of it, does that not freak you out or?

Nick Church (06:25.349)
Yeah, it is. It does a bit. But so one of the roles I have was, was to look at, I always go into these things say, right, what's going to happen if that goes wrong? What's it was it that goes wrong? Because it's like anything that's live. The slightest bit goes wrong. could be a slightly dodgy cable. It's just dead air for everybody. It is a nightmare. So, so I have things like if the, even if the ATEM mini went down, we had OBS running and we would just take the wide angle feed from one of the cameras.

Steve Vaughan (06:36.238)
sure.

Steve Vaughan (06:42.584)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Nick Church (06:54.663)
plugged that straight in as I had a USB dongle HDMI dongle. So we would just have one camera source audio audio is mixed from the mixing desk and we'd go that way. yes, everything had a fail over, something to put in place that would hopefully keep things running at least, you know, even if not to the same, the same level, the time before we had, I I'd installed a, space, what they called the Elon Musk's internet.

Steve Vaughan (07:00.333)
What?

Steve Vaughan (07:08.908)
Mm. Mm.

Steve Vaughan (07:14.99)
Incredible.

Nick Church (07:24.413)
I've gone blank. Starlink. Yeah. So we had a Starlink outside just in case the network played up, you know, so we had that we didn't have that this time. So that was probably the one thing that we couldn't accommodate if there was network issues. But I don't think you know, it was complicated. Yeah, yeah, no, I did. Yeah, it was it was worth it. But it's, it's not just you can imagine like that. The live streams are funny, because we used to quote for work saying, right, that's the thing. And then there's loads of post processing.

Steve Vaughan (07:24.979)
there's the Starling Clink. Yeah.

What?

Steve Vaughan (07:36.174)
I hope you got well paid for it mate, because it sounds like a horrendously complicated thing to do. Good.

Steve Vaughan (07:48.707)
Mm.

Nick Church (07:52.381)
Whereas live streams in reverse of that, you have to do all the work upfront. then once live streams over, you pack it all away and go, and that's it. You never think about it again.

Steve Vaughan (07:52.44)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (07:58.191)
That's it. You're done. Yeah. And most of it, was one of the fun things about, cause I probably did about seven or eight live streams for various people during COVID or the photographers. when you remember when we had sort of seven and then 15 guests allowed at one stage. Um, and you know, I was doing all kinds of things. I live streamed a wedding, um, using the, I forgot what it's called now. It was little cameras, like a little GoPro with a, with all the gobbins built in. Um, I forget what it's called now. Memo. Memo.

Nick Church (08:10.846)
yes, yeah.

Nick Church (08:21.646)
Okay.

Nick Church (08:25.255)
We just stream directly from it.

Steve Vaughan (08:27.127)
Yeah, in those days you could go out on YouTube, but now you need a thousand subscribers to go live on YouTube, I think. But I remember being at a church in middle of nowhere in Oxfordshire and the bride had said to me beforehand, there's plenty of phone signal, because I'll have to use my phone to connect it. And I got there, no signal whatsoever. I thought I'm going to make this work. And the whole of the village was in the churchyard, going to watch my stream on YouTube. So no pressure. But I remember I got an iPad with me on a different network and I just about got a signal. If I stood still and didn't move,

Nick Church (08:31.441)
Hmm.

Nick Church (08:43.409)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (08:55.727)
with my arm in the air for about an hour, I got it to work and I was never again. But yeah, was looking back, it was fun, but you're right. And it was the fact that you could sort of pack away and say to the photographer, bye, enjoy the rest of the day. It was quite nice actually.

Nick Church (08:56.765)
It's so stressful.

Nick Church (09:06.121)
Yeah. And we know the sort of day that they're going to have. And we can just like, yeah, go up and, you know, a, have a lie down in a dark room for a bit, just to recover. had the same thing once. that's not that. Yeah, that's not ideal. But there was one where, we had, there was a live stream. was just providing that in a local venue and all fine. I'd done tests. I'd done a, I went to the venue, did a test. Wi-Fi absolutely rigid. That's fine. And then when I got there, they said, where's all the

Steve Vaughan (09:14.017)
Yeah, although I did get COVID on the end of one of them as well, which didn't help really. Yeah, but that's history.

Nick Church (09:35.613)
Chess, you know, it wasn't set up. They said, I'll be excited to do it outside. said, ah, and I, and outside at this venue wasn't just outside. was about 200 meters away. And so I thought, man. So I was really panicking. I thought I could use my phone and stream via, you know, 4g or 5g. Um, but I just, I managed to get enough of the venue wifi, but I had to have my laptop balanced.

Steve Vaughan (09:38.639)
Steve Vaughan (09:44.427)
man.

Nick Church (10:02.29)
it as far as it could go with the cable being taught. So I had like tight cables just to make sure, because I couldn't move anywhere else because I couldn't get a signal. That was pretty stressful.

Steve Vaughan (10:04.217)
In that way.

Steve Vaughan (10:08.303)
Man, yeah, I bet. I livestreamed a few funerals as well, sadly, which, you know, that was part of the time as well. So, I mean, digressing wildly here, but the last time I, because, know, Sam and I get involved in a local chorus society from time to time, the last show I was in, which was Ghost Musical, and I was the bad guy who shot him anyway. Of course, typecast. But what was incredible, blew my mind from real-life point of view, is that the orchestra

Nick Church (10:13.851)
Yeah, I have, yeah.

Nick Church (10:22.994)
Mm.

Nick Church (10:29.809)
Makes sense.

Steve Vaughan (10:38.319)
was in a completely separate room. So right across the car park, a school, it's a school hall, a proper theater, but a school hall. And all the orchestra, all the band were in a separate room and all of their mics and instruments were going to DA converters. And everything was coming across the car park into the auditorium with just a single cat five cable. Incredible. And it sounded fantastic. mean, it's just incredible the technology that we can do. Anyway, we digress wildly. So you gave a talk at the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers.

Nick Church (10:40.886)
well.

Nick Church (10:57.955)
gosh.

Nick Church (11:04.399)
Yeah. I gave a talk at that. Yeah. They had the way it works there is they do a day of master classes on the first day while in a different area in this hotel. So it was at the Nova Tudley in Hammersmith while the convent, while the, the event, you know, the trade show part is currently being set up. Then the next several days, that's the trade show. That's why I had to come back because it wasn't actually running when I was just in the master classes, but so it was good.

Steve Vaughan (11:11.981)
Right. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (11:28.355)
And was it busy this year? Because I've been in the past, but normally I'm just to walk around the trade show and see people we know really.

Nick Church (11:32.621)
It was quite, I mean, the, the master classes was full. So that was good. I was right at the end of the bill, which is tough because these are what I didn't quite realize is that having never, spoken at those, that event before I was just imagining the photography show where people kind of milling about going to different things, but these people that had sat in this, conference room for all day, you know, basically all day for this program of speakers. So

Steve Vaughan (11:35.993)
Good? Good?

Steve Vaughan (11:51.172)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (11:57.551)
It's like a training course. Yeah.

Nick Church (11:59.773)
which makes sense when you think about it. But I was, so I was last time I was thinking, Oh man, you know, they've been, I was just remembering back to university, you know, when you've, you've done a sort of two or three hour lecture, how just broken your brain is. So, um, but it was really good and it was very engaged crowd and my talks are always fairly upbeat. This was the death zone talk. So it's that one. Yeah. So getting, getting stuck. Yeah. And getting stuck with two full-time jobs and not being able to really

Steve Vaughan (12:12.067)
God,

Steve Vaughan (12:17.091)
What was your talk on?

switching from yeah, from going if he has to be in the pro. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Church (12:29.349)
succeeded either of them because you just don't have enough time. So that went really well. I was a little bit worried because that one is really targeted at people that are on that ramp up to being professional. I became aware about halfway through that almost everybody there was professional. So I thought, right. So I'd spend a couple of, a couple of hours in the day. Luckily I was last on. So I just changed the anger little bit of the talk just to fit fit. You you want to make, you want to feel people have got value for the money. It paid quite a lot for their tickets. So

Steve Vaughan (12:32.195)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (12:39.023)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (12:53.369)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (12:58.403)
Yeah, absolutely.

Nick Church (12:58.813)
Um, so I, I doubted it a bit and it was, yeah, it all went well. And then came back to the show later, you know, later in the week. And it was, what was, what I really loved was that they've got all of the, the, all of the photographers that are up for awards. They've got like a gallery section and there is some really, I was just blown away with some of the work there. It was really good. And you know, such a high standard. So kudos to everybody that had work, um, being shown there.

Steve Vaughan (13:05.869)
Hmm. I couldn't go this year, unfortunately.

Steve Vaughan (13:16.253)
cool.

There's always some amazing work there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Church (13:28.625)
Then wander around, I caught up with colleagues at light blue software, if Voto, our colleagues, our friends at Voto. So I caught up with them and that was good to see them. Camera brands. was, it was busy, but relatively small. I mean, it's, it's not, you can't compare it to the photography shows night night and day. Yeah. but the camera brands were all there. Didn't I think Nikon was there? Canon had quite a good set up, a big setup, Sony and Fuji.

Steve Vaughan (13:32.676)
Mm.

Hmm? Hmm?

Steve Vaughan (13:44.609)
No, which of course is coming back to the Birmingham this year in March, yeah.

Nick Church (13:58.909)
It almost seemed like they didn't want to not be there because that can sometimes send a bit of a negative message. People wonder why, but there was also only a couple of people, you know, with some lenses that you could, you could try. wasn't, it wasn't, you know, it didn't rank high on their PR spend, I suspect, but it was nice to look at a few cameras and things and

Steve Vaughan (14:05.378)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (14:10.754)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (14:17.711)
Throughout my career, before I became a photographer, career as a sales manager in the lab equipment industry and stuff, the much conversations we've had about going to an exhibition, well, it's not really worth going, but if we don't go, people will wonder where we are. And probably some of that goes on, think, yeah.

Nick Church (14:31.261)
Yeah, so you just find this and I don't know about this one, but certainly when I was in a similar kind of environment in a different industry, you'd pay less for a smaller stand and it'd be quite a lot, know, significantly less if you're on the edge. So sometimes you just have one there just so you're in the program right on the edge, the cheapest possible stand. But I looked around, I'm always drawn to the Fujifilm stands.

Steve Vaughan (14:45.09)
completely. Yeah.

Yeah. So did anything catch your eye looking around?

Steve Vaughan (14:59.439)
Mm.

Nick Church (14:59.649)
And I, yeah. So I looked at the GFX, a hundred RF, which I think, I think you've talked about before and I'd never seen one in the flesh. And I didn't even know that's what you know, when you pick a brand, have my glass, I have a glass on, so I could, that mean I can't, I couldn't see anything really close. I couldn't see what it was, but I could, you know, it's picked it up. I thought, wow, this is such a unit, you know, this, this, this medium format, fixed lens. It's almost like a medium format version of their, X.

Steve Vaughan (15:04.785)
we talked about that camera a while ago. Yeah, yeah.

Steve Vaughan (15:16.495)
Hahaha

Steve Vaughan (15:28.555)
It's like X100 has been working out, isn't it really? Yeah.

Nick Church (15:29.123)
XV X 100. Yeah. Yeah. And it's such a lovely camera and bearing in mind, I knew it was medium format, but I hadn't, I'm not, I like gear and I'm really interested in the technicalities of it. And I like to have the best gear if I can justify it, but I'm not one of those people that researches endlessly about what models are around how much they are. So I had no clue how much this thing was. I asked, I asked the Fuji person there. I said, well, how much is this one then? And she said, well, it's 750.

And I actually said that I thought, bloody hell, this is good. I might get one and then she said off at the moment. So I thought, ah, right. Okay. So if the discount's 750, I probably can't afford it. Yeah, I think they had it. was, was still a good price from what I understand now is about three and a half grand or 3,300, something like that. It was, you know, if you were, if you were in the market for one, it seemed like a really good discount, but uh,

Steve Vaughan (16:04.577)
off. So it's about four grand is it from memory? Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (16:20.271)
So let's knock it around a So when we talked about it, I remember cause Andrea's George LDS is the Fujifilm marketing manager. know, I know pretty well from the days we used to shoot Fujifilm. And I remember having a bit of a Facebook message chat with them about it really. And I think it's a, it's a really brave camera. So it's a hundred megapixel medium format in very commas, but it's certainly bigger than full frame anyway. It's the same sensor as in all the other GFX. I think it's probably the same ones in the Hasselblad as well made by Sony. But it's a...

Nick Church (16:39.421)
Mmm.

Nick Church (16:45.041)
Right.

Steve Vaughan (16:48.385)
It's the equivalent of like a 35 millimeter in whatever that is in medium format terms, but it's an F4 lens. And that was the thing that I was not too sure about.

Nick Church (16:53.884)
Yeah.

Nick Church (16:58.627)
Is there a I suppose with the sensor size that limit that f4 must do you think that's a constraint due to just keeping the lens as small as possible?

Steve Vaughan (17:09.187)
I thought undoubtedly it's geometry thing, it's a physics thing, otherwise the camera would be huge. No.

Nick Church (17:14.351)
it wouldn't really work if it wasn't, I mean, it's much bigger than the, the, the, the, what the full frame version, you know, the, the, but it's, still just about small enough. You could stick it in your pocket, you know, it's, just, and I think those, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely that. And I think those medium format files are just so engaging. think the resolution and the quality of those, of those files.

Steve Vaughan (17:29.037)
Yep. What's in the man bag? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Church (17:41.871)
is what makes me really attracted to that as a format. And I think I've said to you before, can see myself at some point getting a medium format camera. I just really love it. And I can't really illustrate exactly what it is about it other than having such resolution at your fingertips.

Steve Vaughan (17:54.607)
What you should do is...

Steve Vaughan (18:01.551)
Yeah, that's part of it. The dynamic range is stellar as well. what you should do is go to the Fujifilm UK site and you can almost certainly, I don't know if you can do the RF, but you can certainly borrow a GFX. So the one I borrowed was the interchangeable lens rangefinder version. You can borrow one for free for a weekend as a professional photographer. Obviously you have to put a deposit to do it. I think you have to just make sure you're not going to run off with it or something really.

Nick Church (18:04.701)
Mm.

Nick Church (18:23.348)
Mmm. How much is it supposed to?

Nick Church (18:29.425)
So John Smith, John.

Steve Vaughan (18:30.287)
I'll try and find a link and put it on the show notes as well. But you can do that also with the X series stuff as well. But we had a weekend away last Easter and I had one. In fact, I'll ping you some files over, not great photos, we'll just have a play with the files. But the dynamic range on them is unbelievable, really, what you can do with them in terms of putting it around, pushing it around and stuff. For me, I think the attractive thing about that camera is the crop ability, as you say, but in JPEG mode, because as we know, the feature film JPEGs are gorgeous.

Nick Church (18:46.813)
Hmm.

Nick Church (18:59.676)
Mm.

Steve Vaughan (19:00.031)
And there's a dial on the back of the camera, which basically changes the crop mode. So what you can have effectively is in full frame terms, a 35 millimeter, a 50 millimeter and an 85 millimeter lens all in one camera just by changing the crop mode dial.

Nick Church (19:16.017)
And what resolution is that 85? Just I can't do much. Is it? Wow. Yeah. That's great.

Steve Vaughan (19:18.435)
think it's still 50 meg or something like that. Yeah, exactly. for a one, I'm going to come onto this in a minute when it's a great segue if I wanted to look at looking actually, but as a walk around camera for a day, you know, if you're going away for a weekend, what a great option really, you know.

Nick Church (19:30.013)
Mmm.

Nick Church (19:33.563)
Yeah. Yeah, God, it would really just tickle the boxes, wouldn't it? Of not having bags again. What is in your bag then when you're, let's say you're going away for a weekend. I know you've got a bit of travel coming up, but if you're, if you're going away, what's in your, what's in your bag these days, Steve?

Steve Vaughan (19:37.294)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (19:46.649)
Just a bit.

Steve Vaughan (19:50.607)
Well, first of all, there's actually things, a perfect bag. Well, there'll be it as well. Yeah. Pants, socks, all the boring stuff. Yeah. First of all, there's those things, a perfect bag for a weekend. So I've still been looking at bags recently. I probably got to buy another bag, even though I've got more bags here than, than Wex probably, but still. So yeah, I'm going, I'm going on a fair bit of travel the next few weeks with my training business that I run in my own industry of lab equipment. So over the next few weeks, I've got to go to Dallas, Paris.

Nick Church (19:52.411)
Not pants and stuff, I mean your camera bag.

Steve Vaughan (20:20.567)
Amsterdam and Singapore. Probably not with Amsterdam and Paris so much, but certainly in Dallas and Singapore, I'm going to have a couple of days to myself to have a wander around. So when I'm in Dallas, I'm going to try and crack the case of who shot JFK and who shot JR. I wasn't the same person. But in all seriousness, I'm trying to think about what to take. because obviously you fly, you don't want to take too much stuff. So I've got a bit of flexibility, but no, without being

Nick Church (20:29.341)
Mm.

Steve Vaughan (20:49.039)
you know, rucksack to burden down really. So, um, at the moment on the list of what I'm going to take, uh, but I'm really interested in your thoughts on this is the A7C2 that I'm using right now as a webcam with a 40 millimeter lens. And that would be just my pointed shoot. It's the 40 millimeter. on. As it reaches over to fetch it, it's that one.

Nick Church (21:01.597)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Church (21:07.453)
What lens is that? A 40 mil.

Steve Vaughan (21:17.551)
Have you ever seen that before? Focus camera? No, the camera doesn't want to focus. It's only. So. F2.5. So they launched after the first C camera, the A7C came out, they launched three of these little stubby primes. Come on camera focus. So this one is a 40 millimeter. There's also a 50 millimeter and there's a 24. The 24 I think is a 2.8 and the G lenses.

Nick Church (21:21.617)
What brand is that? Who's it? So we'll start with F2. right.

Nick Church (21:32.125)
Hmm.

Nick Church (21:38.18)
yeah, that's it.

Nick Church (21:45.629)
Mm.

Steve Vaughan (21:46.287)
Um, so they're not GM, but they're still G proper aperture ring. can switch the click off and on. And there's also an AF MF button and the focus hold button, which I use actually for, um, switching the silencer off and on. Um, and it's a really nice little lens with a caveat that I find 40 a bit tight. We've partnered expression. Um, you know, I'm used to shooting 35. What I would, I think we've had this conversation before, what I love would love Sony to do is have a really

Nick Church (22:07.217)
Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (22:16.175)
good small 28mm lens in that format 28 f 2.8 there is a one from the old original but it's not very good

Nick Church (22:20.221)
Mm.

Nick Church (22:25.521)
And you find 24 a bit wider for your day to day. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (22:27.567)
24 is a bit too wide. 24 is on my focal lengths for weddings, for what I'm doing, I was in Birmingham on Saturday, did street photography around Digbeth and all the area around there where they've done lots of street photography, lot of graffiti and stuff. And 24 would have been too wide for that really. Having said that, then there's also the zoom option. I could go 24, 105, F4.

Nick Church (22:41.693)
Mm.

Nick Church (22:53.969)
Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (22:54.573)
Am I likely to do much stuff indoors with low light? Probably not.

Nick Church (22:58.589)
It's then are you getting into the jack of all trades territory that's, you know, get a great photo and you're thinking, oh, I wish I'd got that on a 35 or my 40 or, you know, yeah, it's a tough one.

Steve Vaughan (23:03.0)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (23:08.439)
Yeah.

Yeah. And there is a certain pleasure in having the discipline of just having one lens that you've got to make work really and saying, you know, okay, if I can't get it in, I go backwards or whatever. Or there's the lens I'm using now, which is the little Tamron 20-40 f2.8, which is a cracking little lens. I can't show you because I'm using it, but it's about that size. it is.

Nick Church (23:18.374)
Mm.

Nick Church (23:33.566)
That's an interesting focal range that, isn't it?

Steve Vaughan (23:36.495)
I've used it at weddings actually, and it's fine at weddings, you know, for, you know, and I've often used it for video for 20 to 40. I bought a second hand from MPB. There's a plug. If you want to sponsor us, let us know. I think I pay $350 for it or something like that. It's Tamron. So, you know, you don't have an aperture ring. It feels a bit plasticky, but optically it's great. So that if I want to go a bit wider, so I don't know, or I could go the full whole hog and take Sam's A1 and, know, 20 to

Nick Church (23:43.709)
Mm.

Nick Church (23:55.943)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (24:06.447)
24 to 70 f 2.8 the wedding camera but do I want to look at that around? I'm not sure I do. So what would you take?

Nick Church (24:12.445)
I quite like my 33 Fujifilm, so the 50 millimeter equivalent. I really liked that paired with the X-T5, I think is a really nice, it's just good enough. It captures everything. If you see something that's a little bit further away, then it's still fine. I'm trying to get into just taking one lens if I can, because it just makes the difference between it fitting into the bag that...

Steve Vaughan (24:19.715)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (24:23.855)
So that's a 50 equivalent, yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Church (24:41.021)
I would normally carry around versus having to have a specific camera bag with multiple ends in. And if I try and use a bigger, like man bag type thing with lens in, then you've just got loads of lenses in bags and inside. every time I'm getting one out, I've risked pulling another lens out and dropping it. And it's just, it's just not very good setup. Having it connected to the camera. I just find a much more engaging experience. I can go in, grab it. It's there, it's there right there. And that 50 just seems to do that. And it.

Steve Vaughan (24:57.911)
I know that would really have freaked me out.

Steve Vaughan (25:04.836)
Yeah.

Nick Church (25:09.379)
It falls into, know, friend of the pod Marcus, when he came on and he said about having a longer lens on a, on your camera and just take anything. If you need something really wide, just get your phone out because it's going to be relatively similar.

Steve Vaughan (25:14.433)
Ahmed, yeah, yeah.

Steve Vaughan (25:22.575)
Yeah, there is that. Yeah, I've got the 90 millimeter macro around here. So can you take that perhaps? Yeah. Of course, there is the other option, which is the Nick Sam's X106. I'll have to take that, you know, if I want to go Fujifilm, but I don't have a wider option. I did have the teleconverter for it, but I dropped it and dented it.

Nick Church (25:38.077)
You know, I understand she, you'd have to, with her, you'd have to get a bag of sand that's the same weight because she's got it on one of those platforms that can tell if it's the wrong way. Like in Indiana Jones, you know, you'd have to replace it.

Steve Vaughan (25:48.367)
Just like that, yes, she would know exactly, yeah. And as soon as, if I didn't get the right bag, then I'd have arrows and poison darts going through my head. Exactly, yeah. Not what we can really. So yeah, what would you, so you'd the Fujifilm, Keir, and not the Senegi, that's a good call, I think really. That's a good call.

Nick Church (25:54.203)
Yeah.

Nick Church (26:02.685)
Yeah, yeah, these days I tend to leave Sony here just to have that distinction between work versus something else. And it means I can then shoot those really nice JPEGs without having to worry about adding to the editing queue, which is never going to get any smaller. There's, hear there's a, I don't know how recent this is, but you know the 56 Fujifilm, there's a new version, isn't there? There's a version two, which is that WR range. So I've got the older.

Steve Vaughan (26:09.817)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (26:14.221)
That's true as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (26:24.451)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (26:32.944)
is that right? I had the original one when I shot Fujifilm, which Milk used to turn faster and that focused. Yeah.

Nick Church (26:33.146)
one, think.

Nick Church (26:38.173)
Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's what, and that's what I've got. And it's a bit noisy to focus, isn't it? But I think there's a silent vote. There's that silent version as well. So, um, but I can't justify getting that, but it's, um, that, would be a nice addition to have. I do like the 56 lens. I think it's really lovely. And it would just mean for what, if it was for a wedding, then I think that would, I would find that a bit sluggish, I think, but for holidays, know, for holidays and trips and things is fine. No problem at all.

Steve Vaughan (26:42.863)
Optically great, yeah.

yeah.

Steve Vaughan (26:58.392)
is.

Steve Vaughan (27:05.903)
I made it work for best part of three, four years probably. you know, and I shot with that in the 23 Fujifilm. So, yeah, he does. Yeah, he did. Well, he doesn't do weddings of course now, does he? Kevin, if you're listening, tell us otherwise. Having said that, you know, we're exiting the wedding business. We've just booked four weddings for the next couple of years, but summer next year is our finish. So when we do finally exit the wedding business, I might flog all the Sony still from buy some Fujifilm. Who knows? Yeah. So.

Nick Church (27:08.349)
Yeah.

Well, I Marlin's uses one, doesn't he? doesn't seem to have any problems.

Nick Church (27:24.26)
great.

Nick Church (27:35.611)
or get a Leica.

Steve Vaughan (27:36.151)
now you're talking. Do I want to like her? Now come on, why do I want to like her? Tell me why I need to like her. And if you listen, Rudy McMillan, I'm not asking you, I'm asking Nick. I've never looked cool in my 60 odd years on this planet, mate.

Nick Church (27:39.005)
That'd be nice, wouldn't it?

Nick Church (27:47.165)
Because it would make you look really cool, wouldn't it? That's the thing. Yeah, but this is the thing. If you got to this day, by spending that money, this is your last chance for people to think, wow, what a cool hipster that fellow is.

Steve Vaughan (27:58.627)
Thanks, mate. Yeah, said nobody ever about Steve Vaughan. I've here, we've been leaping all over the place. I've got to hear on my desk a pile of photos I found out from my university days. And no, they're not black and white, they are colour. And they're not on plates, they are actually photographs, Because one of my former mates or friends at university is organising a reunion, would you believe, in Birmingham.

Nick Church (28:15.473)
Frost Ruppings.

Nick Church (28:19.601)
Decorotypes.

Nick Church (28:25.117)
that's good.

Steve Vaughan (28:26.479)
I university in 1984, So how scary is that going to be, Yeah, that's true as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got that, yeah. So there's about 10 of us going, me two in London, and we're all going to have less hair and bigger bellies, and that's just the women probably. But it'll be interesting to see. I think there are a couple along with us, I think, in all seriousness. Yeah, yeah, gosh, yeah. Slightly, slightly nervous. Well, I thought I might scan in some of your photos.

Nick Church (28:30.459)
Wow, right. Los Angeles Olympics.

Nick Church (28:44.591)
Is that the only 10 that are still alive?

I think there's some from high school that, yeah, same.

Nick Church (28:54.525)
Yeah, we did one because Dawn and I went to school together. yeah, yeah, we had a reunion. It's probably 10 years ago now, but it was quite, it was really interesting because it was great to see everybody, but I felt the same a little bit apprehensive. I've not kept in touch with, I don't think anyone really for my year, but it's funny how people fall into the same, those same sort of stereotypes that suddenly you can see the same person that was 18 when you last knew them suddenly the now 45 or 40 in that.

Steve Vaughan (28:58.567)
did you? Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (29:08.815)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (29:20.846)
Yeah.

Nick Church (29:23.419)
And they, think we all kind of move a little bit towards what we were like for me. It's really, it was quite interesting. It was good fun though.

Steve Vaughan (29:24.611)
I wish.

Steve Vaughan (29:29.455)
What I do do, I keep in contact with some friends, some of them are now listening to the pod actually, some friends that I used to work with when I got my first job at a university as a research chemist for ICI. And we all worked in a research facility in Berkshire developing new agrochemicals. And any of worked there for a couple of years and everybody went their different ways. But we've all kept in touch ever since and we meet up every couple of times a year, usually in Birmingham, just during beer and Bollocks really.

Nick Church (29:43.293)
Hmm.

Nick Church (29:55.805)
Mm.

Steve Vaughan (29:57.775)
But that's exactly what happens the behavior that we used to have immediately comes back, know All the old Mickey take particularly with me and my footballing skills a lack of So yeah, all that Mickey take comes comes flying back. Yeah, so what was the app? Before the likes of Facebook and Instagram. What was the social media thing that everybody friends reunited? That's it wouldn't cause loaded if I divorces and things, didn't it?

Nick Church (30:05.469)
You

Nick Church (30:16.189)
Friends reconnected, friends reunited, yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think famously also had before the days of, I think even before the data protection laws, it proceeded, um, GDPR just everyone's email was on there. could just, you know, contact is like a, a, a haven for people looking for affairs or stalkers that wanted to go.

Steve Vaughan (30:31.211)
All right. OK.

Steve Vaughan (30:40.205)
Wow. I wish I'm neither, by the way. I've had one those in past and that's another story. Anyway, while we're on about trips, so, yeah, obviously I'm going on a few trips for business now. I know you've got a vacation coming up, but I had this thought it was a topic to talk about today. If you could go on any photography gig at any price without having to pay for it, whether it's professional or for fun,

Nick Church (30:43.057)
Well, I was both, so, no.

Steve Vaughan (31:10.031)
just like your perfect, your dream photography gig, work or pleasure, I don't mind. What would it be? That's a hell of a question to come up with.

Nick Church (31:14.258)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Church (31:18.381)
I think I'd like to do, can I say two places? I don't, in fact, it doesn't need to be a specific place anyway. But yeah, besides you just made the, made the game up. So you can, the rules, the rules are currently they're pretty fluid and you haven't stated the rules yet anyway. So it's not, I mean, I went to Iceland already and Iceland is incredible. So I'd like to go back there, but I would love to go to South America, place like Columbia.

Steve Vaughan (31:22.169)
Go on, it's my game, but yes, Yeah.

He's making it up as he goes along.

Steve Vaughan (31:44.047)
All right.

Nick Church (31:44.849)
Medellin, these sorts of places and just take photos. It just feels at the moment whether that would be too dangerous to do. And I'd have to look at whether, you know, I mean, this is hardly like money's no object. It's fairly achievable really. It's just whether you're going to get kind of killed by a cartel.

Steve Vaughan (31:56.183)
No. Yeah, yeah. What would you be photographing? Landscape, people, street, all of those things? Okay.

Nick Church (32:02.311)
People in street, think. Architecture people in street for that place. And I'd love to do more shooting in mountains as well. So in, I'd love to go to the Himalaya and shoot there. So that would be, I'd love to do climbing as well. But doing both is probably a of stiff order.

Steve Vaughan (32:10.905)
Right.

Steve Vaughan (32:15.63)
Right.

Steve Vaughan (32:22.701)
My idea of a nightmare, climbing. Yeah, I vertigo on a bus. I've got a business associate who's just come back from Argentina. He went to Argentina over Christmas period. He went to the very bottom tip of Argentina. So like Ushuaia around that way, which he came out raving about. So yeah, South America would be fun.

Nick Church (32:35.463)
Mm.

I think it's just such a beautiful place. we were looking at, were watching Night Manager recently. It's just, you know, I mean, obviously the filmmakers choose these beautiful spots, but what a fascinating place to get footage and photos of.

Steve Vaughan (32:43.887)
Yeah, I've watched that.

Steve Vaughan (32:51.011)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, I'd probably echo that. was watching the Pedipixel guys, they were in Costa Rica photographing birds, which I know will be my wife's bucket list. I've got two really. from a similar kind of vibe, but again, very achievable, I've never done it, it is India. I've always wanted to go to India and not photograph the Taj Mahal and all that stuff, but to photograph real India. And I know, you know,

Nick Church (33:11.933)
Mm.

Steve Vaughan (33:21.443)
photographers have done it, I Neil James has organized trips and things there in the past. So one which is totally unachievable, which I would love to do would be to photograph as a professional photographer, or at least have access to being a photographer at something like the World Cup final or a massive sporting event, something like that where you never ever would ever get opportunities to do it. Only because I love sport and imagine being on the

Nick Church (33:43.675)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (33:48.513)
on the side of the goal when whoever wins. Harry Kane scores the winner for England in the World Cup final, Dream on!

Nick Church (33:54.813)
I think, do you know, I don't think that's as unattainable as you, as you say, because it'd be hard, but I think only because of the competition to get there. mean, the, the, the, the creative Academy has been pretty busy with mentoring recently. And so there's, said about your bookings. So one of my mentors, mentors, mentees, mentees, think it's the right word, but it sounds pupils, students, yeah, mentoring, let's say mentoring students. He had his first booking this week. So that's great. You know, we started

Steve Vaughan (33:58.987)
It would be difficult. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (34:15.215)
Tutti-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-tuttu-t

Cool, yeah, congratulations.

Nick Church (34:23.869)
about a month ago. So he's great, but he, he also does sports photography, license sports photography. And, he's, he, he, we went, he, I saw him up at this site of top was actually one of the other reasons I wanted to go was just, we'll just get some face time with him. He was chatting to a guy on the Canon stand that works for, um, the telegraph doing some sport. And he was at a game. He does all sorts of games like premiership all the way down to lower league. And so he was at a lower league game last weekend. So he allowed this, um, my students go along and take some shots and he's doing a

Steve Vaughan (34:28.161)
Right. So do I.

Steve Vaughan (34:51.66)
Wow.

Nick Church (34:53.446)
championship game in a few weeks and I think there's opportunity for Steve to get to do that as well. I think there's, and he captured some fantastic shots when it was hit, I think it hit you in town. So it wasn't like the big one, wasn't sort of Real versus Juventus.

Steve Vaughan (34:55.482)
amazing. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (35:02.093)
Wow. Yeah. So I've done a lot of football photography in my time and there is a tipping point really or a level. So Premier League and stuff, have to have the accreditations, you have to be, you know, but if you go along to sort of the first tier below the football league, normally they're okay for you to take camera along. So I've been like Brackley town and things like that. And it's quite fun. And like a Sunday league team.

Nick Church (35:13.201)
Yeah, right. Yeah.

Nick Church (35:22.301)
Mm.

Nick Church (35:26.269)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (35:30.297)
They're thrilled to have you there really, but yeah, it is fun. And it really is another kind of challenge and another kind of pressure really to try and, not pressure, because you're doing it for fun, but you know what mean? To try and capture those moments in a different way to say a wedding, yeah.

Nick Church (35:43.389)
And it's a real dive into your settings, it? And getting those, because you want to see the text on the ball. You want to see the bit of turf coming up, you know, when they've kicked it. And so, yeah, I think that'd be great.

Steve Vaughan (35:47.777)
Yeah, completely.

Steve Vaughan (35:51.695)
Yeah, you do. If there's any sports photographers listening to us that would love to come on the pod, we'd love to. I don't know, we've had a sports photographer, have we? I don't think, no, yeah. I guess the other dream gig would be to spend like two months following England playing cricket around Australia and getting beat, course, by photographing the goals. That would also be brilliant as well, which probably, well.

Nick Church (36:01.499)
No, it took me half. No.

Nick Church (36:11.837)
Mm.

Might be a bit of a depressing, um, one, the last tour, but no, I suppose not the going to India. Funny enough, I was working in India. was doing a training course in software, so a different, different thing. And that was where I thought I'm going to India. This somewhere I've never been before. I should get a camera. And that's when I got my first camera. So, yeah, so I was planning to go sort of like through about two weeks, about two weeks later. So I thought I went and got a, a MD EM five or 10, 10, think.

Steve Vaughan (36:18.639)
you don't worry about the result do you? You you're drinking your beer. so yeah.

Steve Vaughan (36:32.291)
Yeah. Is that right?

Nick Church (36:44.711)
So got a micro four-thirds camera, selection of little lenses. I just wandered around. I was in Chennai. And so wandered around it. Yeah, had a great time. No, hang on. That was Malaysia. That was Malaysia as I'm getting it mixed up. Yeah, I went to Kuala Lumpur. But I did go to Chennai as well. But that was the year later. I had a Nikon system by then. But yeah, it was, but I wasn't professional. I still wasn't, I still didn't have in my mind that I was going to become a professional photographer at any point.

Steve Vaughan (36:51.759)
amazing.

Steve Vaughan (36:58.799)
Okay. Right.

Steve Vaughan (37:12.633)
No.

Nick Church (37:13.383)
But it was just great to see. It's just, it's a, an assault on the senses going places like that, but it's just everything's so different. I loved it. Absolutely loved it.

Steve Vaughan (37:18.159)
That's what I, yeah, yeah. I'm sure I'd be overwhelmed by it all and almost certainly come back with a tummy upset because I'd be eating all the food because I love spicy food as you know. yeah, just to be honest, not going on an organized tour, just basically say, and of course, India is a very, you know, very modern and developed country in many places these days, but just to say, I'm to get on a train from there to there and just see what it's like. I'd absolutely love to do that. Yeah. It'd amazing.

Nick Church (37:35.313)
Mm.

Nick Church (37:41.597)
Yeah. And that's the way that you guys, I suppose that's like say, rather than going to Taj Mahal where, where your photos are, let's face it, they're going to look pretty much the same as every other person that stood in that one spot. So you're going to see life getting going from Chennai to Mumbai or wherever, you know, and just taking shots along the way and wherever you happen to be getting shots a bit like, um, your man, um, doing the, um, route route 66 photography, you know, yeah.

Steve Vaughan (37:47.586)
appeal to me.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (37:58.317)
Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (38:07.599)
Ah, Jay. Yeah. Yeah. Hi, Jay, for listening. Yeah. Yeah. He's brilliant at that, of course. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I've been fortunate enough to go to Japan many times on business. I've had the opportunity to do a lot of photography in Japan. And that's again on Sam's bucket list of places to go. So let us know, dear listener, if you've got a location, a dream location in mind that you'd like to or you have been to, you'd like to tell us about, then let us know. We'd love to have you on the show and tell us more about it. Certainly. Yeah. That's a good thought, sir. Yeah.

Nick Church (38:11.377)
Mm.

Nick Church (38:20.795)
Yeah, I ca-

Nick Church (38:30.865)
Friend of the pod, Geraint went to Japan with, after his university degree, to shoot the, specifically shoot the blossom, you know, all the, all the blossoms and a type of, is that the bird? There's the bird.

Steve Vaughan (38:43.065)
Sakura.

Up in Hokkaido, is it the snow something? Yeah, yeah.

Nick Church (38:51.705)
Yeah, yeah, like a stalk type bird. So he ate it later. Some fabulous pictures there. And Geraint, congratulations got engaged. A week or so ago. I know. Yeah, he's not to be short. He's not short choice, is he? I'd rather be a bridesmaid.

Steve Vaughan (38:56.771)
Yeah.

I saw that, if only you knew a wedding photographer

know about that. Yeah, congratulations, Garen. Great news, mate. Congratulations to you both. So our last topic for the day, and you put it down on the description for today, a bit of a course correction. But back to what we're talking about when you're talking about with the SJP stuff is microphones.

Nick Church (39:14.865)
Yeah, it's really good. Yeah, to him and Meg, yeah.

Nick Church (39:27.549)
Mmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Just because I've been, well, I was out today battling more weather because I've, because I'm doing talks at the photography show, which is 14th to the 17th of March at the NEC this time again. So back in Birmingham and I'm doing two sessions there. So, um, one of the bits they typically ask people to do talks to do is just do a bit of content that they can, they can share. So I went out with me, Osmo and used my DJI mic and it started to tip down with rain as always, but I was just walking through the woods. So it was fine. I was a bit.

Steve Vaughan (39:39.279)
show.

Nick Church (39:59.831)
self-conscious using the selfie, you know, the selfie stick, whenever anyone walked the other way, I stopped, you know, you say, you just feel like such an idiot. But I don't know why that is because I'm only working. I'm just, just working. I just feel so I stopped, I stopped and then I have to take about another 10 minutes just to compose myself again, to get back into the rhythm of it. Anyway, so I was just, I just offloaded the footage and the audio obviously is on the footage itself. Cause I use the DJI two mic at the mic too. Yeah. And

Steve Vaughan (40:04.385)
I know. Yeah. You do. Yeah.

no.

Steve Vaughan (40:25.505)
The mic too, yeah.

Nick Church (40:28.241)
The audio quality is stunning on that mic. is so good. I'm really impressed with it. And it made me think, because I'm also today, I delivered a wedding film that I shot. did a hybrid wedding last year. And so for that, because I don't do video myself that often, if I've got a wedding film, like a cinematic type wedding film, would typically get Jan who's been on the pod and he's got, you know, a wealth of audio kit. I've got those wireless two goes, which are very good and they're

Steve Vaughan (40:30.753)
It is good. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (40:51.065)
Yeah. Sure.

Nick Church (40:57.255)
Probably similar quality to the DJI mic too. That's really good. Nice, rich audio. You still need to EQ. I like, I'm pretty fussy with audio, but, but apart from that, if I've got to mic up more people that I'm using my Sony TX six fifties and the difference is night and day when you, when you get audio from those, which I'm sure when I, unless they still work, they're not faulty, but they, used to sound fine to me, but now it just sounds deadly compared with those.

Steve Vaughan (41:03.929)
you do need to EQ it.

Steve Vaughan (41:23.567)
They're very tinny, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Church (41:24.835)
Really tiny. Yeah. You have to take out so much of the kind of upper mids and really work up. You know, I had to two bass, two EQ in premier, because one wasn't enough to be able to give it the infant needed. So, yeah, it's just really, really poor. The other one that's great that I don't have is the Hollyland kit. And that is really, really stunning as well. That's really good wireless, wireless kit. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (41:30.297)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (41:36.143)
Wow. Wow. Wow.

Steve Vaughan (41:49.145)
So also the 2.4 gig system.

Nick Church (41:52.605)
They, yeah, but they're, little, the good thing with those compared with the wireless to go is they are really small. They're about the size of a 20 P piece. Yeah, they're really good. And they, the newer version of them has onboard recording as well. Like the wireless to that's one of the reasons I like the wireless to go is it records audio on onboard as well as transmitting it. So these devices do as well. So if you do get any glitches, not great for live streams, of course, but if you do get glitches, then you've always got the, that content, the original audio, you know, 32 bit.

Steve Vaughan (41:59.375)
Oh, they're ones that look like a dot almost.

Nick Church (42:23.089)
What do you feel?

Steve Vaughan (42:23.343)
few things to unpick there mate. mean, the first of all, the vlogging thing. I was, as say, I was in Birmingham at the weekend, decided to just go on a train and walk around Digworth. Digworth's an area that's was sort of all the, a lot of the metal bashing places and stuff in Birmingham, which then became derelict and it's having a bit of a regen and, and, and, and I was doing what I always do, taking pictures and vlogging.

Nick Church (42:43.773)
Mm.

Steve Vaughan (42:44.015)
And this time I actually do something with the video. I've 90 % finished it. So, but you do feel the pride talking to a camera when you're walking around talking to you know, an Osmo mobile or a Pocket 3 or something. But then we think about how many people do you see walking around with their phones like this, talking to the phone like that when they're on a phone call. it pees me off if I can say that, because everybody's hearing the conversation.

Nick Church (42:48.669)
So am I.

Nick Church (43:01.916)
Yeah.

Nick Church (43:05.765)
Or do the apprentice way of where you just put it to your ear, but you put it on speakerphone, but have it to your ear. I don't want to sound like we're such two old duffers, but I don't think young people, I don't think they know how to use the phone. I don't think they realise there's a microphone in the earpiece.

Steve Vaughan (43:11.959)
Yes, it blows your ear out.

Steve Vaughan (43:18.303)
They don't know. Don't start me on Gen Z, don't know how to use the phone. I spend loads of time training salespeople who are Gen Z, don't know how to use telephone. That's another story. So there's no different really, is there? But you're right. You do feel a bit of a... What I use for that is just the DJI Mic Mini actually. The little one, which is only about the size of a 5 pp, if you're in the UK. It doesn't record internally, but the fact it's small...

Nick Church (43:31.227)
No.

Nick Church (43:41.514)
okay.

Nick Church (43:46.262)
Mm. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (43:46.683)
I like really. I've got the Mini 2 system as well which I do use for weddings. didn't like it at first, sorry the Mic 2 system. I didn't like it at first, in I sent it back. I might have got a 41 because it sounded terrible. But I think they've done, they did some firmware gobbins and as you say now it's a really great system and of course it will do 32 bit, 32 bit float. Have you got the little adapter for the Sony? If not, get it.

Nick Church (43:52.701)
You're right too, yeah.

Nick Church (43:57.533)
So did it.

Nick Church (44:02.909)
32 bit, yeah.

Nick Church (44:09.742)
No, what's that do?

Steve Vaughan (44:11.503)
So you know, most of these systems take a three and a half millimeter cable and plug it into the mic input on the camera. Yeah. So you basically take an digital signal, converting it to analog, taking it into the camera and converting it back to digital again. Well, you know, on Sony cameras on the mic, on the hot shoe, you have microphone inputs there as well. know that, So DJI, think it's about 25 quid, do a little adapter, which means you can put

Nick Church (44:18.749)
Mm.

Nick Church (44:23.357)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (44:39.075)
the DJI receiver on the hot shoe and it takes you straight into the camera digitally. So you don't have to mess about with levels or anything. And it's ace. It's about 25. Just talk a second. I'll find it.

Nick Church (44:42.575)
Okay, right.

Nick Church (44:52.017)
So guessing if you're not worrying about levels, that must be 32 bit. Audio floating, floating point audio as well.

Steve Vaughan (44:57.645)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So he says diving into his bag for the audio listener. Great. Great entertainment here. Where is it? So that's the receiver. Yeah. And you normally take a cable out. Yeah. All this does.

Nick Church (45:13.213)
Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah.

That's DJI you say?

Steve Vaughan (45:20.343)
Yeah, that sits on the receiver like that. And then it sits on the camera hot shoe and takes straight into the camera without having to use mess about with audio cables and potentially cables not plugged in properly or whatever. It's great. I really recommend it. About 25 quid I think it is. I'll find a link to it. So effectively the Sony thinks it's a Sony microphone.

Nick Church (45:26.449)
Okay.

Nick Church (45:42.52)
right. Does it? And that's the, that's the good thing, isn't it? Because the having the cable, you just got to watch your levels, haven't you?

Steve Vaughan (45:50.315)
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Whereas now you can't set the levels. Actually the option to set the levels you grade out because it just thinks it's a Sony camera. That's only a micro to say so. So yeah, I do have the Rode system as well. And because I like Rode gear, know, speaking to the Rode podcaster and the Rode bike and everything else. But I don't use it so much now really. It's a backup system if I need it for weddings.

Nick Church (45:55.207)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm.

Nick Church (46:06.525)
Mm.

Nick Church (46:12.369)
I'm surprised, I'd have thought they would have brought out something a bit smaller by now. It seems to have been out, because this has been out for like three years or so, the wireless go to four years, you know.

Steve Vaughan (46:20.579)
Yeah, I think they've got a mini system as well, but again, it's less powerful.

Nick Church (46:25.243)
Right. Hmm. I'm so, I'll tell you what I'm also amazed at is videographers that still use a shotgun mic.

Steve Vaughan (46:27.769)
So I mean, it's.

Steve Vaughan (46:35.864)
Interesting.

Nick Church (46:36.957)
You know, and I've never, I've never had one. think my son used to have one. Um, so I've never, I've never really heard what the audio is like, but what's the, why do people use that? I mean, is that if you don't want any visible microphone on in shot.

Steve Vaughan (46:40.366)
I've got one, yeah.

Steve Vaughan (46:50.223)
Do you do, to answer that question, when you do a video, do you do any sort of video of things like drinks and nibbles time, that kind of stuff? That's when I use a shotgun. Yeah, yeah, just some hubbub type noise. Yeah, yeah, because you're not really bothered about what people are talking about really. And in fact, you'd be intruding if you were recording it really properly. But it's just to get that ambient sound into the camera better than the camera mics would do it, yeah.

Nick Church (46:58.331)
Hmm, yeah. Right, just to get some hubbub type, yeah.

Nick Church (47:13.447)
Yeah. I suppose to be honest, I, yeah, I usually just use because it's that, that type that those sorts of clips are typically being played under an audio bed anyway, music bed. So the onboard camera for me is pretty, is fine just to give a, give a thing, but yeah, it would, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.

Steve Vaughan (47:24.921)
Correct. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (47:29.711)
Probably. Yeah. I use when I'm running my sales training over Zoom with Teams, I've got a boomed up here off of camera. can't see it, but I've got a road video mic NTG, which I use as my Zoom mic. My Teams mic just boomed over my head so I can talk without knocking if I don't want to. Yeah. Yeah. So that it's just USB-C into my computer, into my Mac. So then I can, I can talk, you know, and

Nick Church (47:47.133)
Right. Is that the one with the red, the red sort of cage? Yeah.

Nick Church (47:57.917)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (47:58.851)
People can hear me clearly, but I'm not knocking mics on stands and things like that really. So microphones, know, could spend the whole day geeking out on microphones. I probably did a little while. Yeah.

Nick Church (48:02.13)
Yeah.

Nick Church (48:07.637)
gosh. Yeah. I've got the NT one as well. The road NT one. Yeah. And that's a beautiful mic as well for, for sort of vocal for singing and music and stuff. Yeah. And like, I know it's good. Yeah. I'm working on a, it's an older, oldish song, but I'm re-imagining it. So I am plugging away, but it's just having time at the moment. It's not, yeah, but it's, yeah, I've always got it set up here and there's a plan in the future for the

Steve Vaughan (48:11.151)
great mic. Yeah, cadenza mic. how's your music going by the way? We haven't spoken about that for ages.

Steve Vaughan (48:24.857)
Okay.

Yeah.

Nick Church (48:35.801)
creative Academy to do sort of, you know, maybe guitar or music theory and things like that. So, or audio production using, you know, whether it's logic or, I able to live or Cubase or whatever else I've used all of them.

Steve Vaughan (48:39.869)
I'll be your first customer.

Steve Vaughan (48:50.927)
I'll be in saying that myself. Frankly, seriously, I've got a bass guitar upstairs. It's going moldy. and, and I can read music. I just can't, I can't, sorry, I can follow music. I just can't read music. so, but if ever you need an aging tenor, that's more like a, more like a five quid note, actually more like a baritone these days. you know, I'm, available. Yeah. A bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you need, you know, but backing vocals, I'm available. My rates are very, very good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I've been in.

Nick Church (49:08.409)
you

Is baritone deeper? Yeah, right.

Nick Church (49:18.127)
All right, yeah, bear in mind, what sort of rates are we looking at?

Steve Vaughan (49:22.991)
Make me an offer Nick, make me an offer. You name the shows, they'll be in Calamity Jane, all the Gilbert and Sullivan's, what have I been in? Loads, probably in about 15 musicals and I've also sung four part home and the SATB choirs as well. Mainly because I'm male and I'm alive. They're all shorter men in these choirs.

Nick Church (49:35.92)
Okay.

Nick Church (49:42.364)
Yeah. Yeah. Bit of a shoe in. I'd love to do that. I'd love to do more performing and stuff. It's time at the moment. Um, because if you, I am the sort of person, if I'm going to do something, I do like, you know, I want to do it properly. want to, if, if I'm going to sing in a choir, for example, I want to make sure that I'm a regular and actually useful to them and not just sort of dipping in and out when I'm, when I can be bothered or got time. So.

Steve Vaughan (49:46.743)
It's great fun.

Steve Vaughan (50:04.009)
It just takes over your life. So the last show I did, it's one rehearsal a week, but if you're a principal, it's two rehearsals a week for about three months. And then the show week, it's a whole week. And then you're with people a lot and all of show's over and then you don't see them again. It's quite difficult actually, it's quite hard. The highlight for me musically, and we probably should wrap up now because we are doing way away from photography.

Nick Church (50:22.781)
Hmm.

Nick Church (50:28.498)
Yeah

Steve Vaughan (50:28.707)
The highlight for me appearing on stage would have been about 2008 when I got to snog a girl half my age on my wedding anniversary on stage, which was interesting. I was wild Bill Hickok and I got to snog Calamity Jane.

Nick Church (50:36.665)
All right. I always...

I see. Right. I thought it was a like you're in a band and it was a fan that, you know, amorous fan had had jumped on the stage.

Steve Vaughan (50:47.599)
As if, as if, no, no, no, no, it was the climax of Calamity Jane, which is a good show actually, the Deadwood stage and all that stuff, yeah, slap my thigh. And on which note, I think we should wrap this nonsense up, Great content, good, good bands, yeah, yeah, 50 minutes has gone, we've been talking nonsense for 50 minutes, Nick, and it's gone, mate, but I enjoy that, so.

Nick Church (50:56.123)
Yeah.

Okay. it's good content, man. This is what the listeners want. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (51:12.671)
I should just say that I am traveling an awful lot over the next few weeks. I know you're super busy as well. our frequency of the show might just drop off a little bit. So it might be we don't get one out every couple of weeks for a few months, but we do our best to keep up with it. But apologies if I'm on the other side of the world.

Nick Church (51:29.533)
We take the listeners to be like sitting there looking at Spotify waiting for it to drop, you know, not be able to do anything else. We know that that's how our listeners are. So we're just giving you a heads up that you may want to have some other things to do for every now and again. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (51:37.347)
What happens all the time? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (51:45.391)
Like a life. So yeah, thanks a lot, dear Lister, for joining us. If you like what we do, don't forget to give us a like and a follow on your favourite podcast app, Apple, Spotify, whatever ones you like as well. We're always interested in having potential guests on the show. If you've got a photography tell you'd like to tell or a story you think people need to hear about your photography, we'd love to hear from you. You can contact the show on the email address I can never remember, Nick, which is...

Nick Church (52:14.405)
studio at the photography pod.co.uk.

Steve Vaughan (52:17.539)
Thank you very much for that. Don't forget to check out Nick's Creative Academy. If you are looking to expand your photography knowledge, the content of that is great. I'm a lurker in his training academy and some fantastic content in there. So don't forget to check that out and find out lots more about how to become better and better at your photography and even become a pro.

Nick Church (52:36.349)
There's an article in that moment I've just put up about how to remove banding and in, you know, silent shutter banding, which is, it's just proven pretty, pretty popular. Cause there's a lot of people obviously like me that, that you silent shut and they think, man, I forgot to turn it off. And I've got banding in my pictures, but yeah, you can fix it in Lightroom, fix it in Lightroom.

Steve Vaughan (52:40.609)
I saw that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (52:49.879)
Yeah, been there. Yeah, been there. Yeah, I'm definitely going go and look at that one myself as well, mate. thanks for listening, dear listener. We'll be back hopefully in a couple of weeks time. In the meantime, happy shooting out there and we'll talk to you soon. Goodbye now.

Nick Church (53:03.335)
See you later.