Switching lenses

Episode 2 : Artificial Intelligence is probably (not) going to take our jobs!

• Mandy Wright

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Photo Journeys, AI Innovations, and Haunted Travels


In this episode, we discuss Mandy's modeling experience, photography's 200th birthday, and the iPhone 16 release. We also explore AI-generated headshots, comparing Aftershoot and ImagenAI, and share highlights from our trip to Savannah, Georgia. Additionally, we touch on Kimpton Hotels' seasonal perks, cool tech gadgets, and our excitement for an upcoming trip to Florida to visit Halloween Horror Nights and Disney World.


00:00 Welcome and Introductions

00:44 Mandy's Modeling Journey

05:08 Celebrating Photography's 200th Birthday

08:35 iPhone 15/16 Release and Features

17:50 AI Headshots: The Future of Photography?

28:22 Aftershoot vs. Imagine AI: A Photographer's Perspective

40:27 Memorable Wedding Shoot at Cipriani's

43:14 A Hilarious Wedding Story

44:48 Challenges of Wedding Photography

45:54 Our Portrait Photography System

47:31 Teaching at Shutterfest

51:57 Signature Shots and End of Night Flatlays

55:51 Spontaneous Adventure to Savannah

59:13 Savannah's Culinary Delights

01:02:07 Exploring Savannah: Ghost Tours and More

01:06:53 Haunted Hotel Experience

01:11:17 Tech Time: Camera Gear for Travel

01:20:49 Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

Follow us on instagram : https://www.instagram.com/switchinglensespodcast/

Esteban:

hello and welcome to another episode of, or our second episode. I feel like we haven't been doing this for a very long time. So our second episode of switching lenses, I'm Esteban Gill, one of your hosts, and I'm joined by. With international supermodel, Mandy Wright. International supermodel and mediocre photographer. Is that your actual title? Ooh, ouch. Oh. Uh, so, so it's super photographer and mediocre model. Which one do you prefer?

Mandy:

Can, can I be super both? Sure.

Esteban:

And I'm joined by super both Mandy Wright. Ha, ha, ha, ha. You're a supermodel now. I'd rather be a, a,

Mandy:

yeah, well. I don't know if, I don't know. You're an international supermodel. Yes.

Esteban:

You, you actually have been featured by Mercedes Benz USA a couple of times in the last few weeks, right?

Mandy:

Yeah, three times I think. But who's counting? I'm definitely counting.

Esteban:

I don't get a text every time it comes up. They posted me again! Oh my god! It's pretty exciting, I mean. It sounds like you're excited. It

Mandy:

is!

Esteban:

I mean, I'm definitely super proud, especially how it came about, right?

Mandy:

Yeah, it it fell into my lap, really.

Esteban:

It did. How how did how did how did it all happen?

Mandy:

Well, our good friend, Steve Walter.

Esteban:

Shout out to Mr. Walter,

Mandy:

to my buddy, Steve.

Esteban:

We can also go into that.

Mandy:

Yeah. Uh,

Esteban:

whenever I refer to Steve, the last time I talked to you before you met him. Yeah. I always referred to. To him as my buddy Steve. Yeah,

Mandy:

never a last name, never just Steve. Just my buddy Steve. It was always my buddy Steve. Yeah. And it caught on and now I like to say my buddy Steve too.

Esteban:

Well, yeah, so it all started with, with Steve. Yeah. Right?

Mandy:

Who, um, asked for us actually to model with your car so that he could, um, bid on a job essentially I think is what it was. Um, and then. The agency, I guess, liked the look of it all and asked if I could be on set for the actual shoot with Mercedes Benz.

Esteban:

And they didn't ask me to model either, which was very surprising.

Mandy:

They did ask. Why are you laughing? They did ask you, kind of. Steve said you could join in for some.

Esteban:

It's like the, uh, when we're doing family portraits and the new boyfriend's on the side. And everyone's just kind of like waiting for the photographer to say, well, you know, just bring him in, like, just make sure you put him at the end so we can Photoshop him out. It's okay.

Mandy:

Yeah. So, um, by just some luck, the shoot was on a day that we could make work and then we, you so graciously drove me all the way to Rhode Island. Yeah. For this full day shoot with them with like two. Two fancy cars, one vintage car. Yeah,

Esteban:

those cars were amazing. I was in heaven looking at all those cars. I'm a big fan of the red one, the GT63. Which is, I have a C43 AMG and And that's kind of like a dream car. It was amazing. I got to drive it a little bit. Yeah. It was really fun being able to sit inside a 160, 000 car.

Mandy:

Yeah. I was all around just a very cool experience being, I've never been on a production like that before. Um, and yeah, it was cool to just kind of, to see that. I feel like I was, Besides modeling for it was definitely just like watching and paying attention to what was going on. It was very interesting. Intimidating. Also I can't imagine being the photographer on, I mean, you have a, you know what that's like being on a big production and the pressure of that. But it, to me, it seems very intimidating, way more comfortable being on the other side of the camera for this one.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely very intimidating at first. I think it's cool. I actually, yeah. I enjoyed a lot when I have to do those types of shoots. Um, but I feel like I would be more intimidated being in front of the camera, just trying to, to model for something like that. And you did a really good job. Proud of you. I think it was, it was pretty awesome to, to see you just kind of step up to the plate and, and just absolutely kill it while you were modeling next to all these people that, I have been doing this for probably a very long time, uh, even, I mean, I, I think I just sent you a link. I was just randomly on a website and I saw one of the models that, that you were working with. Yeah. Um, and he's kind of everywhere and he was on like a reality TV show or something. And

Mandy:

yeah,

Esteban:

like these are like people that do this for a living. Yeah.

Mandy:

Yeah. They do it for a living and somehow I managed to get in there and yeah, get a taste of it. So hopefully more of that to come, but.

Esteban:

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there will be cool. Yeah, cool. So

Mandy:

big day today. It's birthday.

Esteban:

Yes, it is Photography's 200th birthday.

Mandy:

Damn it, I was gonna make a joke. Oh. I was gonna say. Someone's Someone's 200th. Something's turning 200.

Esteban:

I feel 200. And it's not as difficult. My back is absolutely killing me. Well, thanks for

Mandy:

ruining my joke. It's photography's 200th birthday.

Esteban:

Yes, photography turns 200 today. We were just online and randomly saw that it turns 200. So, happy birthday. Photography. You old fuck. We actually looked up the first photo ever taken. What an awful photo. You look like you're

Mandy:

200 years old.

Esteban:

But then it was colorized, which made it slightly cooler.

Mandy:

Yeah, and I read that, I guess it's on display in Austin, Texas. And it's been there for quite a few years and occasionally travels, but that's pretty cool. I think that if we're ever in Austin, I'm putting effort in to go and see it.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

That's pretty cool.

Esteban:

Yeah. It's very, I feel like it should be, uh, I mean, considering how, what a large medium photography is, I feel like it should be,

Mandy:

yeah. And a

Esteban:

more, yeah, I feel like, I don't know, like, it just sounds like it's, oh yeah, it's in, it's in. Austin's, like, in the basement of the City Hall in Austin. I

Mandy:

think it was taken in, I think it was taken in France, the picture. Yeah, like,

Esteban:

why isn't it at the, the Louvre? Yeah, why isn't it next to the Mona Lisa? Yeah, like, what, why would it be in Austin, Texas? It's like, oh, it's at the, uh, It's, it's, it's at the, um, What's that place that, that Noah's family goes to?

Mandy:

The Bucky's?

Esteban:

It's at the Bucky's off exit 48.

Mandy:

Oh, man. Yeah, I mean it's probably at a nice place. We know absolutely nothing about this, but I'm sure it's a nice museum. It's probably not. It's Austin, Texas. It's probably

Esteban:

just a hipster's house that just randomly found it on the ground when they went to France. Um, cool, yeah. So, yeah, 200. That's a very long time to really think about how a what photography is now, um, and how it's developed. Anything from like that photo to God, like the turn of the, was it the 19th or 20th century? 20th century? Yeah. The 20th century. And just, man, it's just crazy to think how, how much the feed, the medium has, has developed since I'm assuming the late 1800s? When was the photo taken, do you know?

Mandy:

1824. Wow,

Esteban:

that's, oh yeah, it's 200 years. We'll edit that out. I know math. I was like, when was this taken? I was like, I think 1800 is a pretty good guess. 1890,

Mandy:

I think.

Esteban:

Oh man, I feel like with this podcast people are going to realize just how stupid I am.

Mandy:

I'm sure my time will come.

Esteban:

Oh, well, okay. I mean, I thought it came on the first episode, but it's okay. With your hoarding habits.

Mandy:

Yes. Joke. Um, okay. On to the next.

Esteban:

Yeah, so we're just going to talk about some news things that we've been seeing in the last week. Um, so yeah, so photography turns 200 today. Um, I guess the biggest news in the photography world in the last couple weeks has been that the, uh, the iPhone 15 or 16. Was announced. Is it the 15th or 16th? We've done a lot of research on this. I actually ordered it, but

Mandy:

Yeah,

Esteban:

I don't know which one it is. It looks really cool.

Mandy:

I think. How cold was it?

Esteban:

How cold?

Mandy:

When you camped out to get the iPhone. Oh my

Esteban:

god. All right, so Um, I, when I, when I was growing up and I was in like my teen years, I was the person that was camping outside of Best Buy for new releases. Um, if anybody plays video games, the one specific instance that I remember camping out for, like, I used to love it. I mean, I still love video games. I'm a big video game nerd, um, Metal Gear Solid for the PS3 or maybe PS4. I camped out for that. I remember just freezing my ass off outside of a Best Buy wait to, to purchase a Metal Gear Solid. Um, and then I would also camp out for new releases like the, uh, iPhone and all that stuff. Black Friday was a big day. I would, I would, I would go to Best Buy at like three in the morning and sit in line, uh, until they opened up and get tickets for whatever, like cheap TV was on sale.

Mandy:

well, I actually like the idea of it. The idea of it's kind of cool. A little bit of an adventure getting to do that.

Esteban:

Yeah, it was cool. I feel like it's

Mandy:

exciting.

Esteban:

I know, yeah. I really enjoyed doing that. And now it's just all digital. Like, whenever you want to buy, like, tickets to, like, a concert. I remember, I mean, if anybody's from the Northeast, they probably remember Strawberries. Um, Strawberries was a record store and a CD store, and they sold all kinds of stuff. Uh, and if you wanted to buy concert tickets, you have to go to, you have to go to Strawberries to buy concert tickets. So you'd buy the actual tickets at, at Strawberries. Um, and then obviously you have Best Buy too, which, um, to buy anything like any new like technology or anything like that. So, yeah, so, so I ordered the iPhone. Um, I'm kind of excited. I haven't really been I mean, the, the one that I have right now is the iPhone 13 pro. Uh, I think it's like three years old and it's been kind of, I mean, I know that everyone was talking about how Apple, how the, the

Mandy:

phone stopped working about four weeks ago. Yeah.

Esteban:

It's a thing. And I think, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they've been sued for this because they've programmed the phones to be,

Mandy:

and the batteries, something about, I think that's what it was. Yeah.

Esteban:

Yeah,

Mandy:

but for you, it's just say you don't get text messages.

Esteban:

Yeah, and then I'll just randomly be texting somebody and It'll it just won't go through and then eventually I'll try to go through as a regular text And it just it's been very frustrating the last couple weeks So I was like, you know what? I'm either gonna go to the store and buy the whatever the newest ones or I'm just gonna wait for the new one to be Announced and see what it has. So I'm glad I waited because it has a really it has some pretty cool features It has a dedicated camera button You Which you can customize to like aperture, I don't know if you can do like shutter speed, but it looks, it looks really good too. Um, and then the biggest thing for me was the space, uh, issue, like the, the size of the hard drive. I have a 256 gig right now and it's just crazy. basically almost full. So, um, I, I knew that I had to go with either the five 12 or the one terabyte. So I want the five 12 save 300 bucks I think was a difference in price, which can we just talk about how expensive these phones are?

Mandy:

Yeah. Well, um, I actually, I'm looking at a different phone than you. So I think the ones that I'm looking at might even be more expensive cause I like the Max.

Esteban:

Yeah. So you're a max. Yeah. Person. I am. Definitely not. Although

Mandy:

I don't need the space. You need, I don't think, because I think I'm going on 1 28 right now or something, and I'm okay. Oh, you

Esteban:

have a 1 28.

Mandy:

Yeah, and I function

Esteban:

okay. I could not function with a 1 28. It's like people that buy a MacBook Pro on and they buy, remember MacBook Pros used to have 128 gigs. That was, I was, I would just be like, that's, even if you're, if you have an external hard drive, I feel like I would just fill it up in like a day. Yeah. I mean, 128 gigs is like a single wedding that we shoot.

Mandy:

I know. But I, I have everything on like, um, auto backup, like, Oh, like the iCloud? Yeah, so like even the photos. They're not they're storing like a thumbnail of them. So like I can click on a photo I took like a week ago, and if I want to see the full version, it's downloading from the iCloud. Oh, see I

Esteban:

don't do that.

Mandy:

Oh, and then your phone always has space because it always just pushes everything backing up automatically to the iCloud.

Esteban:

Uh, and I pay for the 2TB iCloud account.

Mandy:

This sounds like a conversation we should have had before you ordered your phone. And I also have the apps to, I think you do this though, the apps uninstall if you haven't used them after like a certain period of time. See, but the That can be annoying, but

Esteban:

The issue I have is that, uh, Leo's iPad is hooked up to my phone or whatever my account is. So whenever he downs an app It downloads into my phone. And I just have like pages and pages of apps. I'm just like so tired of having a million apps.

Mandy:

Yeah, this is a, this is a settings problem. Okay, so. If he puts something on his iPad, it shouldn't be automatically going to your phone. Okay.

Esteban:

Alright.

Mandy:

We'll have a conversation after the show. Get this thing sorted.

Esteban:

But anyway, it's, I'm excited about the new phone. I haven't been excited about an iPhone in a very long time. Um, I think that the new colors, I think they're new colors. They look really cool.

Mandy:

Oh yeah, the colors do look nice.

Esteban:

Yeah, I got. One of like the, I don't remember which one it was the, I think it was like a titanium or something. It was like a, almost like a gold. Oh yeah. But like a lighter gold I think it was.

Mandy:

So how much was it? We were going on to a price. Oh

Esteban:

yeah, yeah. Um, I think it was maybe$1,400. Okay. Um, which is insane. Yeah. I mean, I don't think phones should cost that much. No, that's fine. I remember when I bought the first iPhone ever. Uh, whenever it got announced and it was 600 and that was a stretch. That was like just completely like just an astronomical price. Like 600 was just unheard of for a phone. I mean, I guess the technology has kind of grown with it too. I think the stuff that you can do on a phone is pretty incredible, especially when it comes to photography. I think that the photo features on phones right now are amazing. You, I mean, there's a pretty good argument to be made about whether you Uh, walk around camera or not, for most people at least, I know that we kind of do, but.

Mandy:

But lots of people are very content with the cameras on their phones, as they should be.

Esteban:

Yeah, yeah, so But it's it looks pretty cool. I think the colors are great. The screen looks really nice. I'm definitely not a Plus person. I can't if I can't comfortably put it in my pocket, then I I don't want it So I guess I can I can report back. It comes out on the 20th I think we're gonna be in Florida when it comes in cuz it gets shipped. So Maybe in like two or three episodes I'll be able to report back on how much I like the new iPhone. I'm really excited to try out the camera button that it comes. I never thought that there would be a dedicated, uh, camera button on, on an iPhone. Especially a company that tries to get rid of buttons. Yeah. They added one to it, so. Just for, yes. Oh, and the other thing I'm really excited about is having USB C.

Mandy:

Oh yeah.

Esteban:

Which I think is what I'm most excited about. Just not having a lightning connector. Yeah. I think that's just the most annoying thing so I'm glad that they want the USB C because I have a million USB C cables and it just gets annoying trying to find a random, uh, lightning cable.

Mandy:

And suddenly I feel like I need to upgrade because you'll never have a Cord for me. Oh, you

Esteban:

have? Yeah. Because

Mandy:

now I'm like, we always share phone cord. Yeah. You're shit outta

Esteban:

luck. Yeah. Yeah. Sucks for you. You can have all my lightning cords.

Mandy:

Oh, you're so sweet. For Christmas.

Esteban:

I'll be a Christmas present.

Mandy:

You're so sweet.

Esteban:

I know. I'm, yeah. The sweetest.

Mandy:

I know. Cool.

Esteban:

Okay, so that's the iPhone. Yeah. Um, okay. And speaking of iPhone, because so, so one of the biggest features that Apple has come out with in the past, it's called, it's ai, but they call it. Apple intelligence. I think it's called really. So when they introduced our Apple, uh, their AI features on their new phones and their new iOS, which actually came out today, um, they're really trying to push the AI thing. So very Apple, like, um, something that has been around for quite a few years now. Now, Apple is kind of introducing it as like their own and something like, yeah, Yeah, we, we came up with this one. In reality it's been time kind of annoying. It's very annoying. Yeah. Like, come on. But they do tend to do things a little bit smoother and better and yeah. More, I mean, I'm Monopoly user. Yeah. Reluctantly,

Mandy:

right? Yes.

Esteban:

Um, so that's, so AI is a big part of their new, not only phones, but their new ecosystem, their, um, their iOS. So I'm really excited to play with that, which kind of leads us into the next. Uh, topic that we want to talk about, which is, um, photo pacs ai. We were just randomly browsing things and we realized that there's, there are

Mandy:

AI headshot.

Esteban:

Yes.

Mandy:

I guess that's,

Esteban:

yeah, we, the

Mandy:

best way to call it or describe it. How does it work?

Esteban:

It's, it's weird. So, so basically, I, I feel like just anything to do with ai, everybody wants to be a part of now. Mm-Hmm. So like, it's just. Anybody that has ever did any done any sort of like startup or anything, I feel like they just know that AI is where the future's gonna be. And now we were looking at this website called photo packs.ai. And what it is, it's essentially telling you that you can just upload a photo of yourself and it will generate up to a hundred headshots. Like a professional headshot. Yep. For$10. Yeah. So their marketing is actually very interesting. And by interesting, I mean, I mean, it's kind of shitty. Are you worried about your job? Well, it says, the first thing that it says on the website is, Skip the photo shoot. Yeah. That makes me want to punch him in the nuts. Yeah. Um, it says it's a 24 hour turnaround. Money back guarantee. That's actually really

Mandy:

slow for AI.

Esteban:

Yeah,

Mandy:

this would be like a 24

Esteban:

second turnaround.

Mandy:

Yeah, 24 hours. This is gonna be like the The The AI grocery stores And there's really just uh Hahaha

Esteban:

So it's, oh my god, we are just all over the place and I love it. Oh my god. So when we travel there's, especially at like JFK I think it was JFK where we first saw, right?

Mandy:

The

Esteban:

Amazon. What are they? Animal stores?

Mandy:

I don't know what they're called.

Esteban:

I forgot what they're called. So basically what it is, is if you're an Amazon user and you're, and you can sign up for this thing and they basically just read your, your thumbprint.

Mandy:

Yes, it's connected to your Amazon account.

Esteban:

Right. So what you do is you just have your fingerprint read. Yeah. At the entrance it opens up and it's whatever you take out. Right. Okay. Yeah. It automatically charges to whatever credit card you have on file. So you're thinking

Mandy:

You just pick up what you want at the convenience store.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Like in airports or whatever. And then, and then you walk out the door and that's it. You don't have to go through a till.

Esteban:

So you're thinking that holy shit, like Amazon is just like this super like advanced company that just, I don't know how they do it, but it's just amazing. And then you found out. And

Mandy:

then they saw this reel or something on social media that They're all closing down and they were, they're like almost all disappeared now, but because Really, it was run by, um, like, um, I guess a, a warehouse or a big office full of people who just watch the security cams and keep track of what you pick up and walk out of the store with.

Esteban:

So Jeff Bezos was basically like, all right, let's

Mandy:

We don't have the technology for this, but we do have a lot of people. And

Esteban:

I think the, they were, they were in India, in India, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Mandy:

So. Yeah.

Esteban:

Yeah. So they were just all there in a warehouse, just looking at everybody, seeing what they, like, okay, this person

Mandy:

Grabbed a bottle of Dasani, and gave a lace gift.

Esteban:

We're gonna charge this account? What a bizarre thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm, I guess I'm glad they're

Mandy:

gone. I'm imagining right now that there's actually just a bunch of people behind the scenes generating these photos. And that's why it takes 24 hours for it to come back. Cause it's really, It doesn't make sense.

Esteban:

It doesn't, so.

Mandy:

But we'll see. So I've done. We are obviously going to.

Esteban:

Yeah, so we're going to sign up for it. Absolutely. We're going to get our headshots done. Um, just for the sake of research. Oh no, this is our

Mandy:

branding shoot.

Esteban:

No. Um, so we'll get them done and then we'll report back probably next week to see what we think about them. So I've done. I, I will say, even though I'm kind of against this whole concept of trying to replace something that, I mean, when you look, I mean, some YouTube headshots, right? Like, I feel like there's a lot of things that, that you're paying for when you're, when you're paying for a headshot. Um, but I do like, I do like Mid Journey, I love creating, generating things in Mid Journey. Um, I love trying to, to be creative on, on different things, like whether it's like a logo or something like that. Like I, uh, just like little snippets here and there that I think just to find inspiration for different things. So if I, um, like for example, I, I, I want to get a tattoo and I know the concept that I want and just trying to verbalize that thing is very difficult. So putting it into Into mid journey and then getting some sort of inspiration and then maybe telling like the actual artist Right where they say hey, listen, this is something around what I want. How can you make? Something with your own art or something. Yeah, using it as

Mandy:

a tool to like get out what's in your head out.

Esteban:

Without necessarily replacing, I'm sure 10 years down the road there's going to be an AI tattoo parlor where you just describe what you want and automatically tattoo it on you.

Mandy:

Oh, that sounds like it's going to be great.

Esteban:

Listen, there will always be somebody. I mean, this place, headshot thing, it says there's over 50, 000 photos generated. So I don't know how long this website has been around, but Um, I mean, if you do the math, so here's a math test for you. Oh, God. So it's a hundred. Let's say it's 000

Mandy:

divided by a hundred.

Esteban:

Yeah. So that's like seven.

Mandy:

Isn't that 5, 000? Yeah. Okay.

Esteban:

Wait, is it? Wait, are you the one that does bad math now? So let's see. So go to the calculator, 50, 000 divided by 100. Oh, we're both bad at math. Good thing we're average at photography and really bad at podcasting. Um, so yeah, so, so it's 10 bucks. We're gonna order we're gonna see what it's what it's all about. But we're gonna post

Mandy:

our results too so that you can see them Because

Esteban:

I've done them in mid journey So I've uploaded like photos of myself and I've asked it to do like a like a cartoon version of it It never really looks like the photos that you upload. Yeah, so I'm curious to see what like the back end of this is

Mandy:

Well, I imagine it's just like they're just photoshopping your face on like a picture A generic body and backdrop.

Esteban:

The people that were fired by Amazon. It's the same warehouse.

Mandy:

They just have like their ten sets and they're like,

Esteban:

just

Mandy:

plop your head on each of these. And that's what I'm imagining this turning out like. Alright, well, hopefully

Esteban:

that's, that's what it is. But we'll report back. It'll be interesting to see. But yes,

Mandy:

we're gonna put it on our Instagram account for you to see.

Esteban:

Yes, which you should follow.

Mandy:

And it's at, Um, what is my Instagram account? Where are we right now?

Esteban:

Uh, so we are in Where are we?

Mandy:

I'm going on like no sleep, so You are. Yeah. What is our Excuse me. It's

Esteban:

Switching Lenses Podcast.

Mandy:

Yeah. Right? Yeah. I don't even think it has podcast at the end. I think it's just at Switching Lenses.

Esteban:

Switching Lenses Podcast. Okay. And you're the one that created it.

Mandy:

Yeah. So I was wrong. So

Esteban:

make sure you follow us at Switching Lenses Podcast. And we'll post the results of what our headshots will look like. What a 10 headshot will look like. An AI headshot. So, alright. So that's that. Uh, hopefully that dies very quickly. Um, because I'm not a fan of paying 10 for headshots.

Mandy:

Yeah. We'll see.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Maybe we are going to be fans of paying 10 for headshots at the end of this. I

Esteban:

imagine that they're like the best headshots. Well, I mean, I don't really. I guess I do have headshots, but. Um, yeah. Uh, let's see. What do we got next? That's it for the section, right? So it's, it's news and hot topics. So we talked about how photography is allegedly 200 years old today. Um, iPhone release, photo packs, AI. All right, good.

Mandy:

And we're onto question and answers.

Esteban:

Not Q and A, question and answers.

Mandy:

What's our question today?

Esteban:

Oh, this one comes from the group. Yes. And it was A question that I did not pull up that

Mandy:

I will pull up right

Esteban:

now.

Mandy:

I believe I asked you for your show.

Esteban:

Yes, of course. I'm going to scroll down into the group. Um, cause it was a Uh, oh boy. It was a, it was a topic about Um, AI, which again, it's a, we were just talking about AI, but then I guess we can go into like the whole AI and into where we're kind of benefiting from it. Um, and it was a question about the differences between the two major players in the AI industry. So, uh, and that is Aftershoot and

Mandy:

the one we don't speak of. Imagine.

Esteban:

Is it Imagine or Imogen AI?

Mandy:

I don't think Imogen's a word. Is it? Is it?

Esteban:

I think it's Imagine.

Mandy:

Do I get to make fun of you now?

Esteban:

Why?

Mandy:

For calling it Imogen.

Esteban:

Well, I always think of Imogen because I think of Imogen USA.

Mandy:

What's Imogen USA?

Esteban:

The conference we were just talking about ten minutes ago.

Mandy:

Imogen.

Esteban:

Yeah We'll be right back

Mandy:

It's your time

Esteban:

Take a commercial in today's sponsor Canada dry lemon lime sparkling seltzer water And Coca Cola. We had some pretty big sponsors. Starting at two cans right now.

Mandy:

All right. Good job deflecting.

Esteban:

Yeah. Anyway. So this comes from Matt Poole in Steel and Fun Society, and he was asking, imagine AI versus aftershoot. Um, and

Mandy:

I would like to point out that he specifically asked for us not to comment on it. And here we are doing an entire episode segment on it.

Esteban:

Uh, let's see. I think it was, he was very specific about, um, if you're a paid or sponsored by either, hush. Let's see what the community has to say. Referral links notwithstanding. Uh, price, we know one is built on a monthly subscription and one is per project or per image, I guess. Uh, so if cost is your reason, give us something else to work with. If something is good enough and we want it, the price shouldn't matter, right? Professional photographers, okay, I totally disagree with that statement. Uh, keep it civil, everyone's entitled to their opinion, even if you disagree. So, um, so the, the, the question is, what are people using, um, in the community? There's almost a hundred comments in the, in the thread. Um, And I, I think it's just a, it's a pretty good conversation because at the end of the day, um, as someone that has used both, I think they're both great products. I think they both give pretty comparable results. Um, I personally prefer Aftershoot, uh, for a couple of different reasons. I think that you probably, Probably

Mandy:

the same reasons, I think.

Esteban:

Before we even go into this, we should disclose that we are ambassadors for Aftershoot, and we love Aftershoot. Um, obviously we are very good friends with, with Harsha, Justin, Veronica, so they're the, um, uh, the people behind the company. Um, but, but my, my, uh But

Mandy:

you've actually used them both, so you do I have, yeah. I, I have not used them both.

Esteban:

Right. Yeah, because aftershoot used to be just a calling and then and imagine used to be the editing So at one point I was calling with aftershoot and editing with imagine And then now they both kind of go together competed and started doing what, what the other was doing. And, and now they're direct competitors and I think they're probably the two biggest ones. I think there's a couple different ones. Somebody mentioned another one in the group and I know that develop has one, which I've used and I honestly couldn't even, like I almost couldn't even figure out how to download the damn thing. Um, But, but my, I guess my experience, like you can go with your experience, like why do you, why do you generally use aftershoot? I'm sure we probably have the same reasons.

Mandy:

Yeah. Well, yeah, and I was gonna say although I can't speak to the results of one versus the other, I'd like, that's the features and stuff on paper is why I've chosen one over the other. Yeah, for sure. So the biggest one being offline for me. Yeah, yeah,

Esteban:

I mean, we've got to shoot some weddings while we're in the middle of a flight. Yeah, exactly. Uh, with no Wi Fi. Yeah. So that was, that was definitely, that's a big selling point for me. Um.

Mandy:

And I, yeah, I'm often shooting places where I don't have a good, strong Wi Fi connection and I mean, sometimes I can't even upload weddings when I get them finished, um, but I can edit them, which gets me, um, a step ahead, so. Yeah. Yeah. Um,

Esteban:

it's funny because that day that that thread was posted. Uh, imagine servers went down and you kind of, you kind of think like, Oh yeah, like okay, like, not that it happens, but like, obviously their servers aren't going down like every other day, but, but it's a good reason to, to think about, well, what if I have to like get a shoot out or something? I have to do something where I have to deliver images and the server is out and we really can't do anything. Not that you can't go into Lightroom and add them yourselves, but If you're used to

Mandy:

a certain workflow though, it's it sucks having to switch that up and it yeah Yeah, and I think at the end of the

Esteban:

day um if if I mean, I always tell people that it really just comes down to what you What your workflow is. It comes down to what you will benefit your business most. And some people are just okay paying per image, uh, whether they're, maybe they're not doing as much volume. Um, I know that for me, one of the biggest selling points for after shoot is the pricing structure. Um, and I look at it from a, from an educator standpoint and from an actual user that's using the service for my one wedding. So from an educator standpoint, it's easier for me to communicate a product if it's less convoluted. Um, if it's just more straightforward as far as pricing goes. So if I can talk somebody into, into telling them why I use a product, then I can finish that pitch with. And it's, I don't know, 50 bucks a month. And it's unlimited and you can do as much, I don't know if it's 50 bucks a month. We don't pay for it so I'm not really, I think it's like maybe 60 ish. For like the top tier. I probably shouldn't say any prices because I honestly have no idea, I'm just coming up with numbers. Um, but, but it's easier to sell somebody on a, on just a, a certain pricing structure that's just easier to explain. Uh, as opposed to maybe telling them, well, it's, it's X amount of cents per image. Uh, there's a, also a monthly fee to keep up your, your profile and. So it's a little bit different. They're different. They're very different structures. They both work very well It really comes down to to how you run your business and I know that Excuse me ever since that I started using aftershoot my workflow has significantly changed So now what I do is I actually edit every single photo that I take So if we take 10, 000 photos because we get unlimited You just edit everything and then you call after So that when you do go back into Lightroom and you're going through your final, uh, walkthrough of your images, if I want to add anything to it, I'm adding an already edited image. So I think that's, that's huge. Um, I actually, last year at some point, I did the math of how many images I was able, I edited last year and how much it would have cost me with Imagine AI. And it would have cost me almost 15, 000. 15, 000. Uh, more by just using imagine obviously if I were to use imagine I would change my workflow to not. have to pay for stuff that I, I did or that I shot, but, um, but yeah, it's just something to definitely think about because I think it's, it's cool to be able to just pay, uh, pay a flat fee and only be able to do unlimited stuff. So,

Mandy:

yeah. And I like seeing my images now, like edited on first review, you know, like I don't, I'm almost never looking at raws anymore.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

Uh, oh man, I could probably read a couple of these, these, uh, comments here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I disagreed with his comment, it's just, I definitely think that price is a massive factor because I think at the end of the day we want to be profitable, we want to make sure that our margins are, are large enough where we can be profitable and stay in business. Um, so for example, like this person edits over 300, 000 images per season, um, so, so that's definitely comes into play when it comes to, to editing, so,

Mandy:

yeah,

Esteban:

uh, let's see. Uh, Mark Creary has used Aftershoot. I used both for about 1. 5 years each, but I'm with Aftershoot now. They both can do about the same. So I did not switch because of the differences between them. Both programs seem to be catching up to each other in the areas where they were weaker. So I figured any shortcomings would get fixed eventually. I say that I had more negative issues with Imagine though, and had chats with the developers because of it. And they were receptive. That's another really important point. Even though, obviously we have our favorites, I think that as consumers we benefit a lot from competition. Yeah. Because they're constantly pushing each other to do better, so. Yeah. Um, I think that, A lot of companies that end up on top and they're the only, only player in a certain aspect of an industry. I think they kind of end up imploding a little bit. They, because they're just content with what they're doing and people are paying for it. But when there's a direct competitor trying to innovate, it kind of pushes everyone else to do better. And as much as I like to talk shit about Sony, I think Sony is always the camera system that kind of comes up with the new features and everyone is always behind him trying to catch up. So, they're always kind of competing with each other. So I think at the end of the day, the more competition there is, the better for the consumer, which is us. So, yeah. But yeah, we are big fans of, of Aftershoot. Um, for many reasons. Yeah, yeah, we love the people behind, behind Aftershoot especially. Um, when, when we hang out with them and they almost get beat up in New York City.

Mandy:

I didn't know what story you were going to reference. There's, there's endless, endless stories. Um,

Esteban:

quick story. I'm sure, I'm sure Harsha is going to listen to this. Um, And we were in New York City doing street photography, and I told him that we would go to Canal Street. Um, and Harsha decided to take photos of some illegal street vendors. I was with Jose, um, who, if you've probably been in the group, you probably know who Jose is. And the guy got so mad. He was selling like, counterfeit purses or something. And of course, Harsha took a photo of him and the guy got in his face. And He was, he was like, no, I'm going to call the police. I'm going to call the police. And I'm just looking at him and he goes, yeah, go ahead and call the police. You're literally doing something that's illegal and we're not. We're taking photographs in a public place. You're the one that's doing something illegal. And, and Harsha, He's gonna hate

Mandy:

that you're telling this story. I don't care.

Esteban:

Um, but, but the guy was so mad. He was like, he was starting to call the police. And then I just kind of like pushed him off. And I told Harsha to keep going. Um, and then Jose was like, Oh, I was getting ready to get into a fight. And I was like, no you weren't. Cause you looked like your knees were buckling a little bit. So. Um, yeah, so don't take photos of people on Canal Street that are selling counterfeit purses. That's the moral of the story.

Mandy:

Harship will never visit Canal Street again. Oh yeah, every

Esteban:

time we see Canal Street we send him a photo of it. And he's not, he's never happy about it. Yeah, so, we love Harship.

Mandy:

We do.

Esteban:

Yes, um, yeah, so the people behind, I mean the people behind both companies are great. I think they're, they're both really, they're all really nice. Um, but. We definitely are very, uh mm-Hmm. We were very much, yeah. Yeah. Way biased towards afters. Shoot. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, so that was imagine, so carry imaging, imaging versus afters. Shoot.

Mandy:

Imagine,

Esteban:

imagine. Imagine AI. Imagine Apple Intelligence versus aftershoot Apple Intelligence.

Mandy:

Okay.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

On to the next.

Esteban:

Yeah. What is, what is the next topic?

Mandy:

Shoot with us.

Esteban:

Shoot with us? Yeah. That sounds like shoot with me.

Mandy:

It does. I feel like we mentioned that last time. Did we?

Esteban:

Maybe. Oh, we have, yeah, we did, yeah. Are

Mandy:

we repeating ourselves already? Episode two. Two episodes in.

Esteban:

Oh my god. Yeah. Sounds just like episode one.

Mandy:

Okay, so, shoot. We did mention this.

Esteban:

So shoot with us is a, is a, the concept behind it is that we want to talk about a shoot that we've done, whether it's a wedding, or, or any sort of shoot. So, today we decided to talk about a shoot. A wedding that we did. Back in March. March.

Mandy:

Yeah. It's just one that we, we really liked and then we had a lot of good talking points and so we thought we'd, we'd jump back to March and talk about this really beautiful wedding.

Esteban:

Yes. And where was the wedding? Do you remember?

Mandy:

Cipriani's.

Esteban:

Cipriani's on Wall Street. Yeah. Yeah.

Mandy:

I'll never forget.

Esteban:

Beautiful, beautiful venue. How many times did we

Mandy:

walk by it before shooting at it and we're like, Yeah. We're gonna be here shooting a wedding. Yeah.

Esteban:

Yeah. It's a really cool venue. It's. Cool location. Fucking huge. Yeah. It's huge. I think there was almost maybe 500 or 600 guests.

Mandy:

I'm sure you could have had more.

Esteban:

Oh, yeah, I didn't I mean there's a lot of times when you go into like a big venue and It feels crowded, but this this place could fit a couple hundred more people. I think

Mandy:

It was gorgeous.

Esteban:

Yeah, it's it was a beautiful wedding

Mandy:

very cool location Yeah. On Wall Street.

Esteban:

It was kind of a pain, I mean, just like if anybody ever shoots in New York City, the whole parking situation is always a pain in the ass. Um, the, I mean, I've been, I've had weddings in the past where we're running late to the ceremony and I have to, and we're sitting in traffic. In the middle of the city and I, I have to have like Jose take over the car and I just have to grab my bag and just run to the church. There's just a lot of things that you don't really account for when, when you're shooting in such a busy place. Um, there's been situations where I'll be in a bus with the entire wedding party and the family. And we're, we're stuck in traffic and I just say, well, let's get out of the bus and just walk. to the reception or the ceremony. Yeah,

Mandy:

stuck in traffic.

Esteban:

And sometimes they're the best shots, so. But this, this, this wedding was, by far, I think this was, this is such a beautiful. Parking wasn't an issue at this wedding. Yeah, they hired like a, uh, it was like a company that does ballet for everybody, so. Yeah. Um, so it was, it was beautiful. The venue was beautiful. There was also the special guest. Oh. Do you remember the special guest? Yes. What was the band? They they, the song Oh yeah. Oh my God. Nothing at all. Because I want it all. Oh yes, that's what It's nothing at all. I don't think so. Oh, we shouldn't be singing this'cause we don't have rights to be Sorry. We'll cut that out.

Mandy:

For more than one reason we should be cutting this out.

Esteban:

I mean, you never know, you might be a supermodel, maybe it's my time to shine. Um. Okay,

Mandy:

so the singer

Esteban:

of this

Mandy:

beautiful breakup song.

Esteban:

The best part was when the bride. Took the mic, like snatched the mic from him and whatever.

Mandy:

Started singing. No, she said,

Esteban:

said, Well, the whole thing was that her brother surprised her and her friends because it was their favorite song growing up. So he, the singer comes out and starts singing, um, O Town. O Town. The band. So he starts singing the song, and then she takes his mic and she goes, I wanted Celine Dion, but this'll do, or something along the lines of that. No, I didn't even remember that. Oh, it was, it was hilarious. It was the best. Like she said it was like a joke or something. Oh. Um, and he, It was just like, so this is like a breakup song. So I don't really know why I'm

Mandy:

singing it. Why I'm here at your wedding. Yeah,

Esteban:

but he was such a cool dude. Um, he stayed the entire night. He was a party animal for sure. He was, he was like one of the last people to leave the building, basically. You would think that some of these people would like, they would go and just sing their song and then just book it out of there. But no, he was there all night dancing his night away. Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah. Big wedding, big, uh, Greek Orthodox wedding, the church was beautiful, um, the getting ready portion was beautiful. We could post photos of the wedding. The, uh, the biggest challenge I would say, which I want to start talking about with these, uh, with these shoots, because it's not all rainbows and butterflies. The biggest challenge for me was definitely the portraits. Yeah. Um, which.

Mandy:

We were given.

Esteban:

Yeah, not a ton of time. I think we only had like. Less

Mandy:

than 15 minutes? Yeah. Less, yeah.

Esteban:

Probably less than like. And

Mandy:

we were working with a videographer, so it wasn't all our time either.

Esteban:

Yeah. Which is something that I think there's a big misconception when it comes to maybe like some of the weddings that we're posting is that people tend to think that maybe we get like an hour, hour and a half with portraits and we don't. Um, and we're okay when our couples aren't necessarily super into like, Leaving the reception or like doing all these things in order to prioritize portraits because at the end of the day, we're just there to document. So if it's not important, I don't want to say not important, but if maybe the priority isn't there to stop what they're doing, we're okay with that. We just kind of work with whatever we have. We do the best with whatever little we're given or however much we're given. And we've, we've kind of come up with like a little bit of a, um, like a structure of how we do it. Yeah. A system of how we, how we shoot portraits. Do you want to, do you want to tell them our secret?

Mandy:

Yeah. Our secret. Yeah. You get to be the photographer and I have to be the director. Just to sum it up. I'm

Esteban:

just the button pusher. Yeah. You're the one that does all the, cause you're much better at, at directing and like actually.

Mandy:

So I think that this is the, I mean, we know our strong suits and we know that that's why we think we work well together. Um, What we're better at and what we're weaker at and we complement each other in some areas for sure Um, so I think this might have been the first time we really implemented that but um really short for time and we're both shooting like side by side trying to figure out what we're doing and I If i'm remembering correctly, I think I just like dropped my cameras and I said You Do you want me just to direct and you could just keep shooting? Yeah. Um, and you said yes. And so I went over, fixed up the bride and groom, and then just stepped back and then continued to verbally give them direction while you shot. And we were able to get, like, a ton of unique images in a very short amount of time.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah.

Mandy:

Um. It's a cool system. Yeah. With each of us just focusing on different things.

Esteban:

Yeah. And you're very good at, like. Doing the whole transitional posing where you're, you're not just like telling me, I put your left hand here, put your right hand here, just like you're asking them to do very natural things where they're interacting with each other and I'm just snapping away. It's funny you mentioned that because We also did this at Shutterfest. Yeah, when you were teaching your class We're talking about pose like what was the class called fuck posing or something? Let the bodies talk.

Mandy:

Yes

Esteban:

and you were talking about posing and The idea we did the same thing. So you were just directing the models while I was shooting It's

Mandy:

funny because that whole concept I don't think even came into my head at the time As a way to teach the class until that week and then it popped into my head like during the demo section Why am I gonna shoot and direct the couple? Well, I'm trying to explain my thought process like I should have you shooting so that I can just talk them through it Yeah, and then we can also demonstrate how we've kind of perfected this system But yeah

Esteban:

Yeah, we do that pretty much every wedding.

Mandy:

Yeah, at least anytime time's tight. Like obviously I want to shoot too Yeah, no, I think

Esteban:

we usually start that way. Yeah, and And then we eventually you you Get your shots as well. Yeah, I think if you're short on time I think it's a really good way to do things, especially if you're working with somebody that that you know Might be might have a stronger understanding of posing and directing because I know I don't I mean, I usually have like my go to directions and poses And I I'm not I don't I know that I'm my structure is definitely not like doing any of that stuff You're very good at it. So And even while you're directing you might just snap off a couple of shots to during during the portrait So it just works really well. I think it's a really cool system.

Mandy:

Yeah,

Esteban:

you should teach a class about it.

Mandy:

We definitely should

Esteban:

yeah That's a good idea.

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

Because some of the feedback that we got from Shutterfest was that I really enjoyed how Mandy was explaining what she was doing while Esteban was shooting and while I was shooting I was also changing my angles and, and they were getting in from, like they were learning the angles that I was shooting while they were learning the posing aspect of things with you so.

Mandy:

Yeah, yeah. That's the thing too even during that I remember I think you might have done a bright eyes or while we were up there too. Uh,

Esteban:

maybe, I don't remember. Uh. Probably, I do, but I don't know if there's any opportunity I get.

Mandy:

Yeah, I'm trying to remember, because I, yeah, you're really good at different, using different techniques and, and thinking that way. Mm hmm. Like with settings and.

Esteban:

Is that a compliment?

Mandy:

Um, kind of.

Esteban:

Okay, well, kind of, I kind of thank you. It's a compliment. Oh, okay. Yeah, you're very,

Mandy:

you're very good at quick, uh, thinking quickly. Um. with the, with like technique and, and changing and getting variation that way. And I think when I'm under pressure, my brain is like, you've got good, like good situation. I tend to like, forget about that. I can make variation happen within the camera. And I'm more like trying to just change their posing. So I think that this works well because you're still thinking about different settings, different angles, different techniques you can use. Yeah. And I'm just thinking about the posing, if that makes sense.

Esteban:

No, it does. And I think that's one of the things that I like to teach during my workshops, is that sometimes I just get where I want to be, and then I'm the one that's kind of changing my positioning. Um, and the techniques that I'm using to get the shots that I want, especially when it comes to off camera lighting, where once I get my light, then I can create a much different shots, or a much different feel, and Uh, based on where I'm standing in relation to the light. So, excuse me. That's one of the, that's one of the things I love teaching is that you can get vastly different shots with the same settings, but your positioning is going to make a huge difference on what the, what the shots will look like. So, um, yeah, that was a, that was a pretty awesome wedding. I'm trying to think of what else, what else happened at that wedding. That was,

Mandy:

that was significant. Yeah.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Yeah. I, it's.

Esteban:

We'll post some of the photos. I think it'll, it'll, people will see just how grand, like how awesome it was. The, oh, the guest list was amazing. So beautiful. The florals were gorgeous. Um, guest list was, was really cool. This is one of the first weddings where I actually learned. that how you like to, to get your, the signature shots, the signature drinks for the couple, which I've never done. Uh, you're the cake shots. Um, things that I never even thought of. So, um, so one thing I've learned from Mandy and in the last year or so is that you like to photograph If somebody has signature cocktails, you just order some either some virgin cocktails or just order the actual cocktails and then give them to the couple afterwards, um, and you photograph the cocktails.

Mandy:

Yeah. So yeah, either in front of, if there's a sign for a custom cocktail or bringing them over to the head table. Have them hold it. Have them hold the drinks. Cause they were holding it. We did like an overhead

Esteban:

shot of both hands kind of holding their own drinks.

Mandy:

They also had, um, Um, like a coffee bar. So they had, um, like a custom stamp for the top of cappuccinos and lattes with their, like, with their date and their name. So that was fun to photograph too. And, but yeah.

Esteban:

And that transitioned into the, um, end of night flatlay that you have done for a while now.

Mandy:

Like my favorite photos to take right now.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. It looks like yours are, are, are really cool. It went from flat light to flat light with really cool lighting because now you're incorporating slower shutters Yeah, i'm like,

Mandy:

I almost don't I almost don't like doing them um, just like a regular no like even if i'm not moving the camera, I just like the effect of the The stuff that doesn't get lit to be like fuzzy looking. That makes yeah like Yeah, so even even last night or last night Um Did I work last night? You did. Yeah, I did. Even last night. Well,

Esteban:

it's past midnight, so.

Mandy:

So yeah, last night, um, the bride didn't want any blurry photos, so I was like I wasn't quite sure exactly where the line was drawn with that and so I was testing the waters a bit and so after I got some clear shots of the reception I was, I was, I was like, I'm gonna slow down my shutter speed a little bit, like a tenth of a second or something. Let's just take these a little fuzzy.

Esteban:

That's usually my go to, one tenth of a second is usually. I always explain it, I mean I guess it's with natural light too. I always explain it with one tenth. Something's frozen in it. But yeah. With one tenth of a second, I always describe it as, it's slow enough to capture motion if somebody's moving fast enough, and it's fast enough to get people sharp in the image as long as they're not moving. Um, so one tenth is definitely my, my go to. But you have

Mandy:

a steady hand. I will say that.

Esteban:

Do I? I never. Yeah,

Mandy:

I can't do 1 10th handheld. Really? No, not with like a wedding party and no, even I struggle sometimes with like 1 13th.

Esteban:

Really?

Mandy:

Sometimes. I mean, I'll still generally try and use that if I'm like doing a combo shot of like some blurred, some unfocused, but it's, it's still tough for me.

Esteban:

Yeah. Um, she's yelling at me because I'm yawning.

Mandy:

By yelling he means I shook my hand.

Esteban:

I just got slapped across the face.

Mandy:

You're yawning on your

Esteban:

own?

Mandy:

You know your podcast sucks when you're yawning.

Esteban:

When is this shit gonna be over? I just want to go to bed.

Mandy:

Well, we're almost through this torturer.

Esteban:

Uh, make sure you, uh, subscribe.

Mandy:

Okay, let's carry on.

Esteban:

So that was, uh, that was shoot with us. Amazing wedding. Um, it was beautiful. We can, we can post some of the photos on the Instagram.

Mandy:

We will.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

So, take me on an adventure, Mr. Gill.

Esteban:

Well, we're already at an hour and we still have two things.

Mandy:

Let's stop pointing out the time. So it's a quick adventure.

Esteban:

Yes, it was a very, it was a very spontaneous adventure, which we booked the week of, maybe the week before.

Mandy:

And I think our idea of where we were going changed like 10 times leading up to this.

Esteban:

Well, we were in New Jersey with Jeff, our friend Jeff Tisman, who I feel like we're going to mention every episode.

Mandy:

Our

Esteban:

Who we're gonna see on Wednesday. Um, and we were at The Great Adventure. Okay, I actually don't remember

Mandy:

what story you're recalling. Well, we

Esteban:

were, we were in line and we were talking about, like, we loved roller coasters and we were talking about, I mean, one of the topics was this podcast. Like, well, how are we gonna do this podcast? Yeah. And then we were trying to decide, like, where we should, we should, um, Um, Travel to, and I think the people behind us were wearing shirts from a, uh, uh, what is that place called? Carowinds. Carowinds in North Carolina.

Mandy:

And they were wearing shirts for the Fury? Something

Esteban:

320, Fury 325. Yes. Which is a giga coaster. Yes. Uh, we were actually in line for our first giga coaster, which was, uh, Kuhnduqa?

Mandy:

Kuhnduqa?

Esteban:

Kuhnduqa? Kuhnduqa?

Mandy:

What's that the name of that one?

Esteban:

Yeah, King of the Con. I know it's so it's it's a giga coaster So if you don't know what a giga coaster is, that's the tallest roller

Mandy:

coaster in the world, so it won't be hard to google that. Yeah,

Esteban:

it's it's a mile tall. It's 5, 280 feet.

Mandy:

Is it?

Esteban:

Remember when you said don't make fun of you like you're making fun of yourself on the podcast I'm

Mandy:

like trying to picture a mile tall.

Esteban:

It's like 420 something feet. Yeah, okay. Um, it was amazing. And we can also post a video of it. Oh yeah! Cause we took a video on our metaglasses. Yeah. Which we love for BTS and for just stupid shit that we're doing. Yeah. So yeah,

Mandy:

we're gonna definitely post that right away, that mile long rollercoaster.

Esteban:

Um, so, we were in line and then they recommended that we go there, so we were like, Alright, we're gonna go to Charlotte next week or whatever. Yeah, we were literally

Mandy:

like, told them, we were like, you sold us, that's where we're going, we're booking the trip to North Carolina.

Esteban:

And we were going to, and then we were like, uh, do we really wanna do like, cause then we were We were tired. Yeah. It's the wedding season,

Mandy:

we're tired.

Esteban:

We were doing, we did that, we did, uh, we were gonna do Charlotte. I was in Florida with the kids. The week after for Universal and then we were, which we are next week, we're going to Florida for your birthday to go to Universal for What is it called again? Halloween Horror Nights. Yes So I was like I will this is gonna be like two straight months of roller coasters, which sounds awesome But maybe a little bit too much. So we we went on a one of our like my local airline a local airport website and see like where they flew to and We decided on Savannah, Georgia.

Mandy:

Yeah, which was the best decision. It was amazing. I love that so much. Yeah Exactly what we needed. I think in the middle of wedding season.

Esteban:

Yeah, it was a really really fun trip everything from like I mean I had The best meal I've ever had in my life Two best meals I've ever had in my life. Are you shrimp and grits at the pink house?

Mandy:

Oh.

Esteban:

That was incredible. Yes. Yes. And I will never forget what it was like putting that in my mouth. Yeah. That's what she said.

Mandy:

It was incredible. Yeah.

Esteban:

It was amazing. Yeah.

Mandy:

I would eat that.

Esteban:

And my all time favorite meal that I've ever had.

Mandy:

This is just hilarious. Yeah.

Esteban:

I don't even remember what it was.

Mandy:

It's called a Low Country Boil.

Esteban:

Low Country Boil.

Mandy:

It is pretty much exactly what you would imagine it to be. A seafood dish served in a plastic bag.

Esteban:

Plastic bag. We ordered it. Um, we paid extra to have the shells

Mandy:

taken off.

Esteban:

Screw having to take that stuff out.

Mandy:

So bougie Low Country Boil.

Esteban:

And this person came out, and just, with a plastic bag. Just plopped the bags down. And just opened it up, and I was like, wow, this is not gonna be good. Yeah. And it was the best meal I've ever had in my life.

Mandy:

So it was shrimp, potatoes, corn, and

Esteban:

Corn on the cob.

Mandy:

Corn on the cob, and, was there anything else?

Esteban:

I don't know.

Mandy:

Oh, sausage.

Esteban:

Sausage, yeah, but it was seasoned perfectly, it was Yeah.

Mandy:

What kind of seas Old Bay?

Esteban:

Yeah, it was Old Bay.

Mandy:

Old Bay and London, I think. It was unbelievable. But yeah, I guess they just cook it in these bags for like hours on end. Yeah. And then they just serve you your food in a bag. And honestly, I was kind of, I was starving, so I was ready for anything. But I was a little turned off that I was going to be eating out of a plastic bag.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

But it was incredible. It was

Esteban:

so good.

Mandy:

I'm not going to say it was the best meal I've ever had, but it was very, very good. What's the best

Esteban:

meal you've ever had?

Mandy:

I don't know.

Esteban:

Oh, here we go with the not answering questions. Oh, sorry. Yes. What's, what's like the best meal you can think of right now?

Mandy:

Well, the shrimp and grits I think tops the low country boil. Really? Okay.

Esteban:

I think that, no, I think the, the low country boil was better. It was just so good. It's just the seasoning. I liked, It's so simple. It's a simple concept that you could probably just do for yourself at home. It was,

Mandy:

yeah, it was literally just the basic ingredients and some seasoning.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was incredible. But yeah, the food was amazing. Everywhere we went was just, yeah. The food was just incredible everywhere we went. Right. I don't think we had a bad meal there. Oh,

Mandy:

every, yeah. Like we had tacos. Oh, the cocktails were also very good. Yeah. Everywhere we went. Um, yeah. Yeah. So good. Yeah. The food was real. Well, I mean, it's the south, I mean, people always say the South is good for food, but it lived up to our expectations for sure.

Esteban:

Yeah, I, I didn't think that, uh, I knew that it was probably gonna be good, but I didn't think it was gonna be that good.

Mandy:

So besides this low country boil, what was your favorite experience of the trip?

Esteban:

That's a, that's a good question. So we did a ghost tour, which is interesting. I wouldn't say it was my favorite thing, but it was very interesting to hear more like a historical point of view and getting to know more about the, the different things. If I were to Say that my favorite thing

Mandy:

can't say a little country boy. Oh, no, I'm

Esteban:

about to say my favorite thing They have like three video game stores right next to each other. Do you not remember going there? Oh,

Mandy:

I remember I'm That's the highlight for you.

Esteban:

What are you talking about? I love video game stores in the vintage video games It was it was amazing. Yeah, all the three stories like being it was actually it was really cool. You hated it

Mandy:

Oh, shut up, you know, I didn't hate it I would have complained. Every

Esteban:

two seconds. Are you ready to go? This is awful.

Mandy:

In the history of us shopping together, I don't think I've ever asked you if you were ready to leave a store. Have I? No.

Esteban:

No. But it was awesome. That was cool. I've never seen three, like, vintage video game stores that were very robust. Had a lot of stock, a lot of cool vintage stuff. Mm hmm. Right next to each other. Um, we did that. We did the boat ride. The,

Mandy:

um, queen No. All I can think of is Maid of the Mist. Only boat name I remember. Yeah, it

Esteban:

was, it was just a, like a tour. Yeah. A two hour boat ride or something.

Mandy:

It was a, yeah, a big, cool looking boat. Oh my god, we are selling Savannah right now.

Esteban:

Um, the streets were really cool, the cemetery.

Mandy:

Oh, that

Esteban:

was not my favorite thing.

Mandy:

Least favorite thing. You were so miserable. That was that was

Esteban:

my least favorite thing I've done. Ever in the history of Esteban. It was

Mandy:

actually like torture. I

Esteban:

was bit 342 times. So

Mandy:

it was filled with mosquitoes. They were vicious. And it also rained while we were there.

Esteban:

And it was like a thousand degrees.

Mandy:

And we didn't have a car. We got dropped off. So we just like, we were like, well, this is like a, this is supposed to be the cemetery of cemeteries. It's all cool things to see, lots of history, good people buried here. Um, so we got an Uber there and it was, there wasn't really a lot going on there. And it's huge. So you had to like walk really far to see stuff.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah.

Mandy:

Well, it, and we saw stuff. We did, and it was basically what you'd expect walking tombstone through tomb, walking through a huge,

Esteban:

and like a couple of like statues. Yeah. And a million and a half mosquitoes on your body at all times. Yeah. I I, I mean, I think I had mosquito bites like weeks after.

Mandy:

Yeah. You had something going on there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, it was, yeah. It was brutal. Yeah. So, so we highly recommend Savannah maybe. Don't go to the cemetery. At least not in the rain. Yes. Bring bug spray.

Esteban:

Yes. That's the thing is that we had to, we had to ask somebody for, one of the tour guides. Asked them for bug spray. She was very nice. Um.

Mandy:

The tour guide of a tour we were not on. Yeah. We stopped them and we're like, hey, can we just take some of your bug spray?

Esteban:

Um. I don't know. What was your favorite part? I know what you were going to say. I didn't want to say that was my favorite part. Oh.

Mandy:

Well, no, I don't know.

Esteban:

You don't know what you, Oh, I thought you were going to say the pool.

Mandy:

Oh, okay. That was definitely, that was definitely something I was thinking about. What was your favorite part

Esteban:

about

Mandy:

it? Oh, I don't know. I'm still thinking, but yes, the pool was amazing. I don't know how we got so lucky, but I think we, once we booked Savannah and we realized we had a nice pool, we were like convinced that we were going to have some nice pool time and then we get there and no one's in it for like two days. It was just us. It felt like a personal pool. So we spent hours there every day and we're not generally pool people. Like when we travel, we're not spending our time near water, the lakes and stuff.

Esteban:

Yeah. I think the last time we actually spent some like significant amount of time in a pool was in Miami probably. Which is cool. Cause like a rooftop pool, you just, there's also not a ton of people up there. Um,

Mandy:

but yeah, we, we, we swam. And, uh, did an entire photo shoot, multiple days in the pool.

Esteban:

It's a cool pool. The hotel was awesome. Do you remember what the hotel was? Yeah. The Bryce.

Mandy:

Yeah. Yeah. The Bryce hotel. Yeah. I actually wanted to transition. I forgot from the ghost tour to the hotel because apparently, so we didn't, when we were deciding where to stay, I remember we were debating between like a historic house that would most definitely have been haunted or like a new hotel. And so this is a old, like a renovated building, and it used to be a Coca Cola factory. Um, which I guess that should have been an indication that there was probably history and also hauntings. But it did not, um, did not really cross my mind. And then we just joined this ghost tour, and one of the first things the tour guide said to us was, You're staying at the, one of the most haunted hotels here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Esteban:

Did something happen

Mandy:

Oh, yes. How did we forget? Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. How did

Esteban:

we

Mandy:

forget? Oh, no. What happened

Esteban:

at

Mandy:

the

Esteban:

Bryce Hotel in Savannah, Georgia, under the bed? I really hope that came out. I don't know if we're going to record that.

Mandy:

Oh, he's been using his voice all week when he talks to me on the phone and it creeps me out.

Esteban:

Roadcaster Duo. Great, great podcasting device.

Mandy:

So before we go completely off topic again, um, What happened? So he told us that It was the

Esteban:

second floor. We were on the third floor. He said the third floor is definitely haunted. The second floor is the most haunted. Um, but something happened. Somebody fell off the window or something. Is that what it was?

Mandy:

I don't remember. I don't remember the, the story of the history, but I remember him asking if anything happened and then we both looked at each other. Yes. And were like, holy shit. Yes.

Esteban:

Something fell, but we never In the closet.

Mandy:

Yes. In the middle of the night. And it was loud as fuck and woke us up both out of our, like in the middle of the night deep sleep. Yeah. We both woke up, looked at each other and said, what was that? And I remember feeling very frozen in fear for a few seconds. And then I guess we both just fell back asleep. But we both remember it, we both woke up, and we checked in the morning, and there was like nothing that could have fallen to make any kind of noise. But it was loud enough to wake us both up. Yeah,

Esteban:

we both woke up. So it wasn't like one of us was having a dream or something. Like, it really felt like something large fell. But

Mandy:

it's interesting because I think we, We were scared and then we just doze off and then never thought about it again until the next night at the Ghost tour when he specifically asked us. And we both were like, oh, yes, something happened.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

But that was it. Yeah, we, we went around, took a lot, took some photos of the hotel. We haven't seen anything weird. Nothing else happened. Yeah. But it was a beautiful hotel. It was really cool.

Esteban:

Yeah. The hotel was awesome. The staff was, was great. Was great. Yeah. Um. The pool is just amazing. Yeah. I love that pool.

Mandy:

And we've stayed at other Kimptons, um, and generally we're, we're really liking the vibe of them. Yeah. For like a more, a more boutique feeling hotel. I mean, there's still chains, but yeah.

Esteban:

Yeah. I feel like, um,

Mandy:

The amenities are nice.

Esteban:

We were between that and

Mandy:

something

Esteban:

else that was like a bigger chain that, um, I forgot what it was, which is still a nice hotel, but. Um, but I'm glad we chose that because I just think it just has a really, a really cool look.

Mandy:

And if you, there's always a secret password with Kempton Hotels. Oh yeah. And if you say, if you like work the password into conversation at check in, you'll get some kind of perk. I mean, there's a big And we

Esteban:

got

Mandy:

free parking. We got free parking.

Esteban:

That's what we won. Yeah. And we didn't have a car.

Mandy:

Which would have been nice if we had because it was like 50 a night. And we stayed four nights. Yeah. Um. But I know in the past, like, I think around Christmastime, they had wrapped gifts under a tree one time and they were like, Just go pick a gift from under the tree. And it was like a bottle of wine or something that I picked. So like it's totally different depending on the season and so you can just find that by googling like, Kimpton password. Yeah,

Esteban:

so if you ever stayed at a Kimpton hotel, go on Google and and look at the secret password. Yeah.

Mandy:

Okay.

Esteban:

Um, I think the, what's the last, oh yeah, Tech Time, which, which is actually a pretty good segue because we used your recommended, uh, well actually we both, this is stuff that we used during Savannah. Yeah. Yeah. So, conveniently. Yeah. Yeah. So, what do you want, what do you got?

Mandy:

So I got, um, these cute little screenless digital camera, I think that's what it's called. Right. Yeah, screenless digital camera. So it's pretty much like shooting a film camera in terms of like what you can see. Um, but it's, it's got a memory card in it. So you can plug it into the computer after and see your images. Um, the one we bought was called Camp Snap, I think. Yeah. Um, which I

Esteban:

keep getting ads for everywhere, wherever I go, whether it's Instagram or Facebook. So it looks like they're really pushing. Yeah. Um, but yeah, Camp Snap.

Mandy:

But yeah, it was really fun to, to shoot with and then, I'm like, I'm a little impatient with film. I like, I like, I like to see, I say this and, and you just developed a role for me from like a year and a half ago. I

Esteban:

mean, I got it back. I just scanned it.

Mandy:

But generally, I feel impatient about it. Like, I like the idea of not knowing everything I'm capturing, but I don't want to wait a week to see it. Um, I want to, I want to see the results sooner. So this, this helps. So I think we waited, did we wait two days until we looked at the pictures?

Esteban:

Um. Or

Mandy:

did we go to a certain number? We had some kind of threshold. Yeah, we were like. That we were like, we won't look at them until like, I don't know, X amount of exposures I think.

Esteban:

Yeah, and we can also post some of the images, but I think that overall. Um, it only shoots JPEG, um, it has like a film simulation that you can actually download into the camera if you want to shoot like black and white or you want to do something else. Yeah, yeah, you can change them. Um, it's cool. It's definitely, the images definitely look very digital. Yeah. If that makes sense. Um, but I think it's just more about the overall, I don't know, I guess the process of it. Like it's just. You're not really worrying about, like, composing, you're just kind of snapping away.

Mandy:

You're more in the moment when you're not looking at the image right after, right? Yeah. You're not worried about what you look like, or?

Esteban:

The flash is like an LED, it's not, it's not like, um, Uh, like an actual flash, it's like an actual, it's like an LED that just lights up. The flash is terrible. Yeah. Um, but that's the cool thing about it is that the limitations kind of make you appreciate it. Yeah,

Mandy:

I think it was like 65 or something. We got

Esteban:

it at Hollister, uh, Urban Outfitters, Urban Outfitters,

Mandy:

but they have a website that you can go on and buy them from as well.

Esteban:

You get the different colors, um, so for 65 bucks,

Mandy:

yeah, it's just fun to play with. I think it'd be great for kids too. Yeah.

Esteban:

Yep. Yep. There's also another brand. Yeah. Is it like paper cam or something like that? Do you remember somebody mentioning that?

Mandy:

Yeah, they're like, I think the quality of those images is significantly less. And it's like, it's literally like, um, It's like made out of cardboard. Yeah, cardboard so you can like fit it pretty flat in a pocket.

Esteban:

Yeah, which is kind of cool too.

Mandy:

I haven't used one myself, I've just seen the images online of it. Yeah. Yeah, so.

Esteban:

That's cool. Um, So my. Tech time recommendation. It's also something that we used extensively during Savannah And that is actually I guess I used two cameras. We used two cameras a lot. One of them was a Am I allowed to do two?

Mandy:

This time only.

Esteban:

Okay, do you want me to just pick one?

Mandy:

I don't know what you're saying or what you're thinking because you were like, it's gonna be a surprise so you can pick one You could pick one

Esteban:

I'm gonna do two.

Mandy:

Why do you even ask me? I don't

Esteban:

know. Cause they're both so cool and we both, we use them at Savannah and Savannah. Okay. So the 360 camera. Yeah. Cause they're both like within the same realm of, of cameras. Yeah. Alright. So it's a 360 camera which is an Insta360 X3. There's an X4 version now which is newer I think. I don't know, I might just have more megapixels or something. But the X3 that I use. I've had that for over a year and I use it at once and I just happened to like bring it And it was honestly such an awesome camera to use Especially because I really enjoy doing the tiny world Um, images, which we can also post. You can see what they look like.

Mandy:

Seven Instagram posts from this one episode.

Esteban:

Um, but like what a cool little camera, like just to, this is a fun, just if you're on a, on a vacation, you don't want to have to worry about like lugging around just this huge DSLR mirrorless camera. You just, the image quality is, is great. Um, you can record 360 videos. You can do a, um, a thing called. What is that? Like matrix, bullet time, which is a cool feature. There's like an add on string that you can just swing the camera and it does like a bullet time shot. I feel like we need to make a video of some of it, it's ridiculous,

Mandy:

but it does take a cool photo. It does. But you feel stupid swinging a camera around on a string.

Esteban:

Yeah. I think my favorite feature is definitely the tiny world images just because you can get very creative, especially with. With the, your surroundings and being able to make them look really cool. Um, and then the same brand, which if you've never heard of Insta360, I mean, talk about like just the innovators in, in a part of the technology, photography, industry that, I mean, it's, it was pretty much taken over by GoPro for a very long time. And now it's all about Insta360. So the ones that are innovating, GoPro has kind of fallen behind. They just kind of have the GoPro. They tried the drone thing. It didn't really do anything because they all fell out of the sky. Um, and people got refunds, but, um, But Insta360 is just such a cool company. They have all these awesome little cameras. You've held me from buying a few different ones. Because every time they come out with something, I'm just like, This is so cool and I could totally use this once and then never use it again.

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

Which is what I do with everything I buy.

Mandy:

Yeah. Which isn't bad because lots of it ends up in my hands after. Yeah, yeah. But,

Esteban:

yeah. Um, but the other Insta360 camera, Um, Yeah. I know exactly what it's called and I'm going to say it right now. I'm not typing it in to, um, I can

Mandy:

hear you buying time here.

Esteban:

It's called the Ace Pro. So it's a 360 Ace Pro and It's such a cool camera too. It's basically a GoPro competitor. Um, it has, I think, a bigger sensor than a GoPro and also has AI features. So you can, you can bring it into an, into the app and then give it prompts. And like, if you want to turn yourself into like Spiderman or something, it'll, it'll basically use AI to, to change some of the video, which I don't use. Um, but the big thing that we used during the trip was the, uh, the globe. Uh,

Mandy:

Like enclosure?

Esteban:

Yeah, so it's, it's to be able to shoot underwater. So when you shoot underwater with these cameras, because the, the lens cover is so close to the water, you can't really differentiate, uh, the water and, and outside of the water. So what you do is you buy this enclosure, that's basically just a globe, um, where it separates the water and what's below water and, and above the water. Um, And just, I never thought that I would use that camera so much and I just randomly ended up ordering the uh, the, the enclosure and it just ended up being something that we use a lot. Yeah. And again, we'll post some photos. That's 8, 8, 8 posts. Yeah,

Mandy:

8 posts. Yeah. But I mean, that one shot's so cool. Yes. It's really cool. So I'm excited to use it in Florida next week.

Esteban:

Yeah. That'll be cool. Yeah. So does that mean I have to bring the globe thing? Yeah.

Mandy:

Oh, were you not planning on it?

Esteban:

I mean, are you going to a pool? Oh, the hotel has a pool.

Mandy:

And Volcano Bay.

Esteban:

Oh yeah, yes. I was going to bring it. I was just testing to make sure that you knew I was going to bring it.

Mandy:

And I reminded you to bring your swimsuit. Oh yes, you did

Esteban:

say that, yes. Yeah, so I'll definitely bring it. But, but yeah, it's called an Insta360 Ace Pro. If you are in the market for a GoPro, I would definitely look into this. Because I even saw a couple of comparisons between the GoPro, not the newest one, but I think a new one just got announced like yesterday or something. But the one that before that, like low light capabilities significantly better with the Insta360. And I just think, again, they're just a cool company that's constantly innovating and coming out with really, really cool products.

Mandy:

Okay. Yeah. Tech time complete.

Esteban:

Tech time done. I think, I mean, we're at an hour and 21 minutes. So I think

Mandy:

this is better than last time. Is this longer or shorter than last week? I think it's like the same exact time. Wow.

Esteban:

Yeah. Well, it's pretty impressive. So

Mandy:

we're very consistent here.

Esteban:

Yeah, I think when we get to like 200 episodes, we'll go under an hour.

Mandy:

Yeah, I think they're going to get longer, not shorter.

Esteban:

No, I think they're going to get shorter for sure. Sure. I hope so. Yeah.

Mandy:

Yeah. Yeah. OK. Well,

Esteban:

so. That's it. That's episode two.

Mandy:

And next week

Esteban:

We're gonna be in Florida.

Mandy:

Yeah, we're gonna come to you from a very exciting place.

Esteban:

Um, the Alligator Ranch. Tiger King.

Mandy:

Yeah, the Swamps of Florida.

Esteban:

Yep. No, we're gonna be in Orlando. We're going to Halloween Horror Nights.

Mandy:

And Disney World.

Esteban:

We're going to Disney World. And we're going to What's the, what hotel are we staying at?

Mandy:

Oh, cabana Bay. Cabana Bay. Yeah. Universal at Universal Studios. Yeah. Yeah.

Esteban:

Which we stayed in at the beginning of this year. Mm-Hmm. Which was fun. Yeah. So

Mandy:

we're really excited to go back.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's it. Episode two is, is done. Yeah. Um, any feedback, any questions, feel free to post in the group. Send us a message. Messages on Instagram. Yeah. Follow us on Instagram at switching lenses. Podcasting.

Mandy:

We know it. Thank you for listening.

Esteban:

Yeah, thanks everyone for all the support. We had some really cool feedback from last week and we had a ton of people download the episode. So, uh, it's been fun. Um, so I think we'll do another one.

Mandy:

Yeah, I think so.

Esteban:

Cool. Alright, well we will talk to you all next week from Florida. And See

Mandy:

ya.