Switching lenses

Episode 7: On location in Miami, FL! First wedding workshop, Wynwood and Art Basel adventures, app recommendations.

• Mandy Wright

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esteban:

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Switching Lengths. We're in, well, this is our first episode that we view, like, actually on.

mandy:

Yes, which has been a, what's that called?

esteban:

On location. On

mandy:

location. Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah. Which is sort of like the next step, right? So now we're doing video, we're having drinks and we're actually traveling. We're on a little traveling. So we want to get everybody. To travel with us.

mandy:

Yeah, and

esteban:

they kind of get an idea of what

mandy:

and it's been our vision all along and we're finally Finally

esteban:

happening. Yes, so it's been fun. Where are we right now? Tell us

mandy:

we are South Beach, Miami, Florida

esteban:

We're in Southeast Miami.

mandy:

It's sunny

esteban:

and it's an amazing day

mandy:

in your s1 go

esteban:

and I'm s1 Gil and you are

mandy:

Mandy Right,

esteban:

Mandy, right, and we're the hosts of what's our podcast called

mandy:

switching? been to any drinks Yes. Switching lenses. Switching lenses. Switching lenses.

esteban:

Uh, so now we're officially on location in Miami and we are here. We just finished up a, a workshop a couple of days ago, right? So, so we had a workshop a couple of days ago. This is the second, second or third time that we, we are in Miami. Um.

mandy:

Third time?

esteban:

Yes. When we did the workshop, we decided, hey, you know what? We love going to Art Basel. Art Basel is one of our favorite places to go to. It's a really amazing time. Uh, it's basically just Art Week in Miami. And as artists, we tend to appreciate walking around and looking at art, a lot of fashion, a lot of different things.

mandy:

Yeah,

esteban:

um, and then we did the workshop and then now we spent the last four or five days

mandy:

the weekend.

esteban:

Yeah,

mandy:

basically Yeah,

esteban:

just hanging out our Basel. So we have a lot of stuff to cover. We have so much Yes

mandy:

So we got here on Tuesday, I think.

esteban:

Yes.

mandy:

For our workshop on Wednesday, our very first The Wedding Day Workshop.

esteban:

Yes, The Wedding Workshop. The

mandy:

Wedding Workshop. Which is

esteban:

something that we've also been talking about for a while now and trying to introduce it. And this is our first sort of trial.

mandy:

Mm hmm.

esteban:

Um, it was awesome. Yeah, it was

mandy:

awesome.

esteban:

I had a really good time. I, I, um, We rented a cool Airbnb

mandy:

in the Wynwood area. You know, that's the, it's the

esteban:

artsy Brooklyn Arts. Yeah. The hipster area of Miami.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Um, it's not, it's rough Brooklyn though.

mandy:

Yeah. It's a little rough around the edges. Very art. Very Brooklyn. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but just, yeah, very artsy.

esteban:

Yeah. So if, if you don't know what Miami is like, um, so we're in South Beach right now, which is more of like the touristy area where all the resorts are on, the hotels are, yeah. Beach, high

mandy:

end beach vacation, yeah.

esteban:

Yeah, and then the, the, the Wynwood area is more like a lot of murals, a lot of graffiti, a lot of cool art, colors. Mm hmm. Not that you don't have colors, because I think it's Yeah. We

mandy:

have a lot of

esteban:

colors here, but

mandy:

By the, the, the rougher on the edges.

esteban:

Yeah, which is sort of something that we, we enjoy a lot, right? Yes, we do. Especially being big fans of, of Brooklyn and going there and um We're gonna explore a lot of Brooklyn. We really love the Wynwood area. So,

esteban (2):

uh,

esteban:

so we rented an Airbnb there and we, what the workshop is, is basically just an entire day of us just going through how we approach the wedding day, right? Yeah,

mandy:

and it was great.

esteban:

Yeah, yeah, we talked about, we talked about flat lays, posing. Uh, lighting. Getting

mandy:

creative at the boring parts of the day.

esteban:

Yep.

mandy:

How, um, very specific techniques, um, that we can implement on the wedding day, along with some tools and stuff we can use, and lighting. Um.

esteban:

What were those techniques that we saw?

mandy:

We did, um.

esteban:

Brownizers. Mm hmm.

mandy:

We did. A lot

esteban:

of natural white, which is more direct white.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Uh, we did some direct flash, which is very popular right now.

mandy:

Why am I blanking on all of this? You taught

esteban:

the workshop.

mandy:

So did you. What else

esteban:

did we do? Oh, we did, um, we did stroboscopic. We were, and one of the things that I really like about workshops is that sometimes you kind of discover things. So the entire group was just kind of working together towards getting what we were thinking we were going towards. And we ended up doing some stroboscopic

mandy:

flash

esteban:

photography, which is more experimental, which we don't generally do.

mandy:

But now I think we might implement a little bit. Yeah, it was very fun. We can, we got some cool techniques and some cool results. I mean, and

esteban (2):

yeah,

mandy:

I think I can see us implementing it and definitely in receptions going forward, probably.

esteban:

Yeah, it looks really cool and I'm looking forward to using it during the actual wedding where we can put it in a practice. But what overall is, it was a great day. I loved, I loved the attendees. I loved the, the people. Mm-hmm I got to meet my friend Mason, whom I've known for like eight years. And I've never met him. It just

mandy:

feels so weird to say, my friend, I've known, but I've never met him.

esteban:

I think that's the beauty of it, is that sometimes, especially with like the photography communities, and why I love going to like conferences and stuff, because you see people that you don't generally see all the time. No it's very different. And seeing him, it's just kind of one of those like, is he going to be the same? Because I talk to him pretty regularly, like they're like.

mandy:

Yeah apparently they talk on the phone and stuff, so it's just.

esteban:

He's actually my boyfriend.

mandy:

That sounds like it.

esteban:

Yeah. Um, even

mandy:

on FaceTime and

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. We help each other out. We all, we both work very differently. We have, we obviously work in different markets, but mm-hmm Different styles. Yeah. And he's helped me out things gearhead that sound like

mandy:

for both of you guys? Yeah. Based on the day spend when you bought.

esteban:

He, he is awesome. He just has a ton of gear and he loves film. So as much as, as we do so. It's really nice to connect with people that are very like minded, especially when it comes to gear, which we'll get to later on, because I want to talk about some of the stuff that we Yeah, we have a tech time

mandy:

for today.

esteban:

Yeah. It's still

mandy:

bothering me that I can't think of the other techniques we taught. It's literally like my mind is like Well, we taught flat

esteban:

lays, we taught

mandy:

The stuff, what did we do during the shoot with the models?

esteban:

We did a lot of direct, direct sun. We did motion.

mandy:

Motion, yeah, we did a lot of motion. Yeah, that's right. We did

esteban:

reflection shots.

mandy:

Oh yeah, looking for reflections like in nature and on. Or, nature's a loose term in the environment.

esteban:

Well yeah, I mean Because there was

mandy:

nothing about the reflections we found that were natural.

esteban:

Yeah, I think They were just

mandy:

already existing.

esteban:

I think that's one of the cool things that in the presentation that we, um, that we did is that sometimes when you think of reflections, you automatically gravitate towards, like, this, this, and this. Bye. mirror and

mandy:

phone thing. Yeah, and everyone kind of knows that. But there's

esteban:

reflections everywhere. There's reflections on water, there's reflections on the walls, there's reflections on a mirror.

mandy:

Yeah,

esteban:

there was like a little, like, little post on the photo. Honestly, little ledges,

mandy:

like, you can find a reflection to either create an effect or to actually have a mirror effect.

esteban:

And you found a really cool pole, like a post. Yeah, just like,

mandy:

again, we're in Wynwood, so there's art stuff everywhere. Yeah,

esteban:

there was like broken pieces of glass on a mosaic,

mandy:

yeah.

esteban:

Yep, and you photographed them with the reflection. Um, and

mandy:

then.

esteban:

And then, as a good observation of how we worked together during the day, like, you did that, and then I was like, oh, I want to try something else. You so much

mandy:

better.

esteban:

Well, I made it different, so, now I incorporated two different techniques. You did. So now you have the The reflection and then you have motion. So I had everybody walk by and I made sure that I implemented the whole motion thing. So I went to a lower shutter speed. I did the reflection and then while people were walking by, so it came out really cool. So both shots look really cool, but it's just like during the day we were able to get two different shots from different perspectives and we implement the different things, but all started from you seeing that little reflection there. And like I said, it doesn't have to be like the, even like when I teach, uh, Like the motion stuff. I feel like everyone always thinks that there's only one way of doing it. Like you have the couple here, the wedding party walking across, but there's so many ways to do that.

mandy:

We almost never do that.

esteban:

And there's just so many ways that you can implement. And that's the beauty of it, that you're just teaching a technique, but you want the attendees and people to implement it in their own way.

mandy:

However makes sense for the story they're telling. Yeah.

esteban:

So,

mandy:

yeah. And we have a couple more coming up. So then when that one was successful, so we're doing it again.

esteban:

Yep. So we're going to be in Dallas. Yeah. Next month,

mandy:

February 1st,

esteban:

end of next month. Or yeah. Well,

mandy:

you know,

esteban:

it's basically

mandy:

next month.

esteban:

Yeah. And, uh, we're doing it in the same location that Imaging USA is happening. So you don't have to be an attendee there, but if you, if you are,

mandy:

it's yeah, bonus thing you can sign on to and you don't have to leave the hotel. So very convenient.

esteban:

And it's in a suite in the hotel. Um, and then we'll do the same thing. We'll do an entire day of, uh, I'm just talking about how we approach the day. Yeah,

mandy:

demo.

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. A little

mandy:

bit of hands on. Right. Not a lot, but a little bit.

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and then we're also going to be in Vegas.

mandy:

In Vegas. March, I think it's the 14th. March 14th. Yeah. If not, it's that weekend. The Saturday. So.

esteban:

Yep. For WPVI. Um, I'm going to be teaching at WPVI, but I'm going to be teaching in Spanish. So if you

mandy:

want English instruction, if you want to learn from us in English,

esteban:

there's no other, other way than to sign up for the workout. Uh, so make sure that you sign up for it and you can find them on SteelHoleFunSociety. com if you go to workshop. Can you give

mandy:

us a little demo of like, what it'll be like for your class at WPPI?

esteban:

No.

mandy:

But you can. Just tell me something in Spanish.

esteban:

Um, Dónde está la biblioteca? Okay. What, um. Do you know what that means?

mandy:

It has something to do with teaching, with school.

esteban:

Well, yeah, it's where's the library. Oh. It's like the one thing that people learn in the United States when they are in Spanish class. Okay. Where's the library? That's really one of the

mandy:

first.

esteban:

Yeah, it's like everyone always says. Don't you

mandy:

don't you learn where the bathroom is?

esteban:

Donde esta el baño? Well, you go to the Bathroom in the biblioteca.

mandy:

Oh, actually the pool. You Americans are so weird.

esteban:

Oh Man Yeah,

mandy:

okay. Yeah, so that's the workshop. So it was great. I think Yeah, I think that was it. Oh, I wanted to I wanted to say something else about the Our Airbnb experience in the workshop. I knew I was going to forget this and that's why I wrote down a note.

esteban (2):

Yeah.

mandy:

So, we stayed there for two nights. And the first night, we were getting ready for the workshop, we're like, hey, we're in a shower. And he went to go turn on the water to take a shower. She's Um, and like 20 minutes later he yelled like, It's still that hot! And I went to check it out, we looked at it, we're touching the water, it's still pretty cold, like no sense of warmth. Uh, and he said maybe you should like, message the people from the Airbnb. And I'm like, well let's just take a look first. We looked around to try and find like a hot water tank, or, you know, something that we could do on our own. We couldn't find anything. We tried another bath there's like three bathrooms. We tried all the bathrooms. We could not get hot water. So I ultimately decided to text the host for the Airbnb and said, is there a trick to getting this hot water to work? So pretty quickly they responded and said, Nope, just let her run for a while. I'm like, okay, like how long is a while? I'm like, by this point it is well over 20 minutes, probably half an hour. So I messaged back and said, it's been at least 20 minutes. And they said, okay, send the video.

esteban (2):

The video. The

mandy:

video.

esteban (2):

Not a video. A video. Send us the video.

mandy:

And we were just like, what? The video? Like, we have to prove that we can't get hot water at this Airbnb? Like, we're getting pretty frustrated at this point because we're like, we're gonna be Yeah. We just traveled all day. We're gonna be disgusting.

esteban:

For the workshop. For

mandy:

the workshop. And, so, we're like laughing our asses off, and I'm recording a video, and he's like, touching the water, I wish you, I wish you could play it right now. I

esteban:

agree, we could add it to it.

mandy:

But

esteban:

we wanted to be smart asses because we were like, what the fuck, why do we

mandy:

have to prove that the water's cold? Yeah.

esteban:

Like, how do,

mandy:

and how do we do it? Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah,

mandy:

the water's fucking cold.

esteban:

So, You need

mandy:

a video proof? We'll give you a video proof.

esteban:

You're recording the video, and I want, I touch the one I want. Oh, so cold, brr. We sent that to them. Like, thinking that, oh yeah, like, we're being smart asses, like, whatever. Like, you guys are idiots, like, why would you even, like, request a video? But, yeah,

mandy:

like, I don't know if you guys have seen the reels or whatever of, like, The delivery app service is asking for proof that people didn't get their food, and it's them like standing at the porch with their like arms wide open or like No food, hungry, and that's exactly what we felt like. We were like, no hot water, Stinky, can't shower. So I send this to them and a couple of minutes later I get a text back that says, try turning the faucet the other direction. And

esteban:

we turned it the other direction. And

mandy:

I went out to the bathroom, and looked at the faucet, and I was like, We, all of them, we had tried three different faucets, four different faucets, all of them we turned the wrong direction.

esteban (2):

Yeah.

mandy:

Yeah, and at no point did we hit our troubleshooter and did we think we should turn it the other way.

esteban:

Immediately hot water.

mandy:

Yeah, immediately. Come

esteban:

out. Yeah. And that's when you feel the world just crumbling down. Like, wow, I, maybe I shouldn't be such a smartass.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

But yeah, we were wrong. And, uh, the water. And the water

mandy:

was hot. And we turned every faucet the wrong direction. Yep. And then I felt so bad for sending them that smartass video and thought, Oh, we're going to get a horrible review. So then I played really stupid and I sent a text message back that was just like, Oh, that's how the faucet works. Thank you so much for the help. Have a great night. Yeah. And they responded with, you're welcome, with a smiley face.

esteban:

Yep, so that was fun.

mandy:

Oh, man. Yeah embarrassing and fun. And yeah, we should definitely like quit that video in here

esteban:

Yes, it was pretty funny. And we thought it was hilarious. Well, we realized that we were completely wrong.

mandy:

Yeah,

esteban:

so Yeah, so that was that was the Airbnb Yeah, it was a great experience. The Airbnb was Was nice, kind of a weird host, but whatever. They were like, they were like basically outside our door at 11 when we were supposed to check out.

mandy:

1053.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Knocking.

esteban:

They're like, oh yeah, I mean, and I, I guess we just figured out that it's, it's our Basel week, so they probably think that there's a ton of parties and stuff. And like, if I have to clean up all day, but it was kind of weird.

mandy:

You wait until checkout time to see if they've left, not earlier.

esteban:

Yeah, yeah.

mandy:

But anyway,

esteban:

that was great. Yeah, it was great. And then the next part of the trip, which.

mandy:

South Beach, so totally new area. Yeah, so we,

esteban:

traffic is crazy. So you kind of have to stay within South Beach for Arpozol, right? Yeah, because we don't

mandy:

want to travel, like the commute. I mean, like 15 minutes turns into an hour.

esteban:

Yeah, I mean, we went up with my cousin Dan and his girlfriend yesterday, and it took them almost an hour to get here. And they said that it usually takes them 15 minutes

mandy:

to get to the

esteban:

hotel. Yeah, I'm just from Miami Beach, yeah. Right, so, um, so yeah, so we moved into South Beach. Uh, we stayed at Hotel Travail. Trav Travail. Which is a really, really cool hotel. Tiny

mandy:

little boutique hotel. Kind of like, further out than how we usually stay, but

esteban:

Yeah, which, and it was fine. I mean, I liked the idea of just kind of Well, it's a little bit farther than like the, the The

mandy:

central area, to be like the stay in. But it was so cool. It's a really nice

esteban:

hotel. The, the host, uh, Flo was awesome.

mandy:

We

esteban:

talked to him for like a half hour. Talking about photography and like apps that he should use. We showed him the insects camera. We took a picture of him and gave it to him. He was like, I'm going to put this on my hand.

mandy:

I mean, it's like we talked about a thousand different things. Which

esteban:

leads me to like, sometimes after like traveling and even like the experience that we had at the restaurant yesterday, even though you have like a, you might have like a really bad experience, but sometimes just a matter of just like being friendly to staff. Forget you along way, right? Uh, we were in New York City a couple weeks ago and we were at the Graduate Hotel. We booked a super last minute. We were literally in the car on our way to New York and we booked the Graduate Hotel, which we love because we've used the Graduate in New Haven and if, if, if you guys don't know what a Graduate Hotel is, it's basically just a themed restaurant from like all the Ivy League schools.

mandy:

Oh,

esteban:

right. Hotel. Yeah. Uh, that's themed after all the Ivy League schools.

mandy:

Yeah. So they're like wherever. So this was near. Wait.

esteban:

Oh, I forgot what school it was. There were schools in New York. Fordham? I don't know. No. It was one of those schools. Um, but we stayed at the one that's themed after Yale. Mm hmm. And we love it. Uh, so we stayed at the one in New York City. And we walked in. We just kind of made friends with the Mm hmm. the lobby first and the hosts. Yeah. And she upgraded us. So, like, they're, like, one of their nicest rooms. Yeah. And it was amazing. Um, so just being nice to people will bring you a long way.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

So And also having a tripod in. Yeah, also her

mandy:

knowing that you were going to record a podcast

esteban:

episode

mandy:

that, well, it didn't happen, but.

esteban:

Yeah,

esteban (2):

but we still got my

mandy:

tripod. But she was like, oh, you're recording here? Yeah. You're getting the best view, and it really was an amazing view of

esteban:

Manhattan. So, travel tip.

mandy:

Yes, carry a tripod in your backpack. Carry

esteban:

a tripod in your backpack, and then when they ask you, are you a photographer or videographer, just say, no, I'm a podcaster, and I do travel. I'm a travel podcaster. And we'd

mandy:

be recording in this. Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah, we're going to be doing, uh, and they love good publicity and it doesn't matter how if you have a million followers or a thousand followers, any publicity is good publicity, especially for these places that tend to, you know, they, they thrive off of, of them. But in TikTok making,

mandy:

um,

esteban (2):

Yeah,

mandy:

everything go viral.

esteban (2):

Yeah. Yeah

mandy:

for good or bad. Really? So we know the power of the internet the power of social media and influencers, which yeah, we experienced firsthand It's also during

esteban:

the week. So it's if it's during the week, then it's probably easier for you to get an upgrade too So

mandy:

yeah, does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.

esteban:

Um, so anyway, so we moved over to South Beach We've been here for the last couple days. We did a We did a few different things. We went to our favorite restaurant down here, which is B blows The Greek restaurant, best, uh,

mandy:

brussel sprouts

esteban:

you'll ever have. Um, I was disappointed with one of the dishes, but then we had a salad. It was, uh, well, which kind of salad is it? I mean, it was amazing. It was also

mandy:

brussel sprouts. Yeah. with other stuff, but it was amazing. So if you like Les do octopus for sure. Yeah. Octopus is delicious. I think it's my favorite.

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. Um, we went there for next, so that's kind of

mandy:

a

esteban:

Yeah, yeah. You

mandy:

like to do.

esteban:

We um, we've just been walking around doing like a bunch of different things. Yeah.

mandy:

Taking in whatever, little galleries, installations, shooting.

esteban:

Yeah. We went to a few exhibits. You never planned

mandy:

anything. Yeah. We just wing it.

esteban:

Yeah. That's, that's kind of the way that we like to do things. I mean, we have, we wanna have some sort of plan, but then we also want to make sure that.

mandy:

Um,

esteban:

Yeah, if you're walking around, you see something, you walk in, we walk into a party.

mandy:

Oh yeah, well, we were photographing, I mean, we had our

esteban:

cameras had our cameras,

mandy:

we were like pretty lights, nice walkway, let's take a couple shots here, and a guy turns the corner. Uh, yeah, in our shot, we started making conversation, and then he says something about.

esteban:

He's like, yeah, I'm the owner of whatever this company is, that's. I

mandy:

think he's talking about a record label. It was like a tequila or something like that, yeah.

esteban:

Like I own the company, like if you guys want to go into the party, go into the party, we'll want in there. And. We stayed for a couple hours.

mandy:

Yeah, it

esteban:

was great. And we met two Oh yeah, we made

mandy:

friends, yeah. Yeah,

esteban:

and that's the beauty of it. We're like, you walked in Great music, great drinks. Allowing yourself to, to, to really take chances when it comes to like going into these places. And I'm sort of an introvert when it comes to that stuff, but I love the idea of just like going in and

mandy:

Yeah, and the opportunity is there to say yes.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Just say yeah.

esteban:

We um, we went to, I guess the two biggest exhibits, Our two that were at the beach, that was like a boat exhibit, like a sunken ship exhibit, right? Oh, the installation. Yeah, the installation, sorry, on the beach. Yeah, it's

mandy:

like pop up installations artists will do, so one's this, yeah, with a buried ship.

esteban:

And then the other one, which is the most popular one, which is unbelievable, and we're definitely going to post some photos of it, is the elephant. Yeah, there were a hundred elephants that were migrating. They're migrating. So it's a, it's an art exhibit of a hundred life size elephants. Yeah,

mandy:

I don't want to say they look like sculptures, but they're actually like, they've been formed out of, um, like, um, invasive weed in India. Um, so it's dried, but from any distance they look like they're, they're carved. Um, and what's really cool is that each one of these elephants is actually modeled off of an elephant that they were viewing in the wild. Like, they're not just elephants. Like, they are modeled off of a very specific elephant, which is amazing. Yeah. If you're looking it up, I think it's called From India with Love.

esteban:

And it's a traveling exhibit, right? It is

mandy:

traveling, although from what I've, we didn't do a bunch of reading on it, but from the placard and talking to a few different people, I It sounds like this is, might be the end of the road, like they're, they're sold off.

esteban:

Okay, so they,

mandy:

they sold them off. Yeah, I don't know. Someone else said they're going to Texas, but they're slowly disappearing off the beach, like one by one. So I think that, I think that it might be the, the end of the road for them.

esteban (2):

Yeah.

mandy:

But it was incredible.

esteban:

Oh, it was beautiful. I mean, I've never

mandy:

been close to an elephant in real life. Um. And

esteban:

just seeing like a hundred of them just all out on the beach is, is amazing. Obviously we took photos of it.

mandy:

We tried to take medicine. Which is another thing, we've

esteban:

talked about in another episode where you're talking about influencers and obviously you're in Miami doing Art Basel Week, there's a lot of influencers here, there's a lot of people that are within that, that realm and as soon as they see something that could potentially be a niche or something that might not be around anymore, Everyone walks to it. Just like us, right? Like we, we obviously, we wanted to get a look at it. Um, we, we took a look at it during the day. The first or second day that we were here.

mandy:

Yeah, Thursday, maybe. Thursday, I think we came and saw it. Midday.

esteban:

Packed.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Both people. They were all taking photos. You know,

mandy:

it's 2 p. m. So lighting is what you imagine.

esteban:

Yeah. Um, and then we decided that, you know what? Maybe we're going to have to come back. Uh, maybe during sunrise, because the sun rises right at the beach.

mandy:

And maybe let's get a couple.

esteban:

Yeah, and maybe hire, like, like going, getting a couple and actually photographing a couple. Um, so before, I mean, I'm kind of somebody that just jumps right into things. You're a little level headed when it comes to that. You're like, well, let's see what it looks like tomorrow during the sunrise. Yeah,

mandy:

I was very much like, let's not post and be recruiting people for a shoot.

esteban:

Without knowing what

mandy:

we're getting ourselves into. Yeah,

esteban:

and I just imagine that it would be empty because nobody in Miami wakes up that early, at least partying.

mandy:

Saturday morning?

esteban:

Yeah, so. Saturday morning. We woke up at 4.

mandy:

30. Yeah, so sunrise is at 7, but someone thought it was 6. 30 when it was 4. 30.

esteban:

So I, I have an internal clock where it wakes me up. It's been malfunctioning

mandy:

like crazy. Yeah,

esteban:

it wakes me up at like 6. 30. If I have to wake up at a certain time, I'm pretty good at like, yeah, you're not needing, uh, an alarm clock, but I woke up at 4 30 and I didn't even bother to look at my phone or anything and I just kind of woke her up and I'm like, all right,

mandy:

we gotta get ready. We gotta get ready

esteban:

to go. And she looked over to me and goes, no way. We literally just went to sleep. And I went to go look at my phone. It was 4 30 in the morning. I was like, Oh, nevermind. We're going back to sleep.

mandy:

We didn't just go to sleep. But to me, it felt like I just knew there was no way I went 6 30 in the morning.

esteban:

Yeah, we didn't. I mean, we would have been late, but yeah. Um,

mandy:

uh,

esteban:

we, yeah, then, then we, um, yeah. We came down here. We came down here right before seven. Right. The sunrise was beautiful. It

mandy:

was, we could see it as soon as we like turned the corner from the hotel. It was just a beautiful red sky, but the crowd was even bigger. Bigger than the middle of the day. Crazy,

esteban:

right?

mandy:

Yeah. It was swarming with people.

esteban:

Yeah. It was insane how many people were actually, yeah,

mandy:

there.

esteban:

There was more people than, than there were the other day.

mandy:

And immediately I was like, holy shit. If we brought a couple here, we would have been scrooge.

esteban:

We did find, we saw a couple that was going to shoot there.

mandy:

That was their intention. Yeah. We

esteban:

actually got their Instagram and they're like, Oh, we're going to contact you about our, uh, our wedding.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Um, but yeah, it was a mad house. You

mandy:

could not, Like, I mean, you could get shots, but you're not going to get shots that are going to look Nothing like

esteban:

super creative. Nothing cool. Like, you're probably just like, really doing a lot of close

mandy:

ups. You're lucky if you get something without someone stepping in front of the camera, basically.

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. And that happens a lot.

mandy:

Yeah. And the amount of people, like, you couldn't even I don't think at any point did we see see an elephant in its entirety.

esteban (2):

Without anybody around it. Without someone blocking

mandy:

part of it. Like, there, like, there's a hundred of them.

esteban (2):

Yeah.

mandy:

And I don't think a single time did we see one, like, that didn't have other people blocking some part of it, um, because it was so thick of people at that time.

esteban:

And it's tough because you want, you know that the, the attraction are the elephants, but I, I kind of also see, Love the idea of kind of pivoting a little bit and saying, all right, well, you know what, there's a million people here, like, let's just focus on the people. So I started thinking photos of the people. I started taking photos of the elephants with the people. This is the exact

mandy:

opposite mentality that I usually have.

esteban:

Well, she was super cranky. Fuck these people. Yeah. I don't want any of these people in

mandy:

my shot. I

esteban:

was like, snap out of it.

mandy:

Well, and that just made me so much angrier because I had just finished trying to take a shot where he stepped in front of me. And I couldn't get the shot because he stepped in front of me and I was just like, You're one of them.

esteban:

Yeah, but that's what I said. I said, I said, snap out of it. These people are doing exactly the same thing that we're doing. Yeah, it's just,

mandy:

the problem with these things is that generally, People just have no awareness.

esteban:

No, no, yeah. They're, I mean, when you were taking, even like, So we, we ended up coming back. So we decided, alright, well this is cool and all, but, What would it look like? Because we've been talking about doing a long exposure. Let's go

mandy:

at night

esteban:

when there's no

mandy:

light and maybe it will be empty and we will make our own light and we will create something cool.

esteban:

And we were wrong again. We were

mandy:

there till 1 a. m.

esteban:

Yeah. And there was still a bunch of

mandy:

people there. People in their like club outfit. Yeah. Getting

esteban:

out of the club or going into the club. Yeah. And they're just

mandy:

photographing

esteban:

themselves with the flash. And now when you were walking towards it, you just saw these like flashing lights. Yeah. Uh. I mean, I get them at

mandy:

school and I don't, I don't think like that it shouldn't be swarming with people. It's just really tough when there's no one policing it. And people aren't taking, like people are not being respectful of the, the statues, which is happening at times. Oh my god,

esteban:

people like, There was a little tiny, uh, uh, elephant that people were jumping, uh, not jumping, but like, sitting on them, and I'm like,

mandy:

what the trunks last night. I've seen it happen multiple times. Drones flying everywhere. Oh my god, the drone that was like, Within like 5,

esteban:

5 feet above us. Yeah, 5 to 10

mandy:

feet above our heads. Like,

esteban:

very clearly against the law, like, you should not be flying your drones, like, that close to just, A crowd of people.

mandy:

Yeah, so like. And people

esteban:

just did not give a shit.

mandy:

All of that stuff is what was like aggravating me, and then the fact that like, I would have like an opportunity to take a shot, and then someone would literally like, step right in front of you to take their shot, and it's just like, there was no like, There was no respect or waving or like, I heard one, there was one lady who walked by and stepped in front and was like, Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm like, that is the first time that I had heard it in like the last like 40 minutes and it's been happening constantly. She was like the only one who was like, Oh, sorry, I stepped in front of you. Everyone else was like, get, get out of my way.

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if that's just indicative of how my BME is or, or, or just, I

esteban (2):

don't know. I feel like

esteban:

everyone's kind of like in their own little world, right? Yeah. Um, so we have to work around it. We still managed to get some really cool shots. We did, we did. Somewhat technical. I think what we ended up doing is, last night when we were doing it at like 1 o'clock in the morning, we realized that there's just a lot of people, so. Well, our

mandy:

plan was to go there and do some long exposures so that. anyone there would be blurred out.

esteban:

Right. So that's it. Like, so we want to do long exposure. But the amount of people

mandy:

there lighting.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Then that interfered with it because there was light trails, flashes of light, some elephants were exposed because people had them lit the whole time, some were not. And so with all that light, it made that technique challenging. And we did manage to get a few interesting shots. I'm excited to edit, but. But what we went there to do turned out there'd be another, um, challenge that we had to work around.

esteban:

Yeah, and, and our, I mean, I guess the last couple of shots were I think my favorite. Yeah, I think those were the most,

mandy:

um, the most wow. Yeah,

esteban:

which was something that is really, I think it's only available on Panasonic cameras and on Olympus cameras, which is called the Live View

mandy:

Composite.

esteban:

You said composite, not composite.

mandy:

I know, I said it for you.

esteban:

So it's a live view composite or a composite or a composite depending on where you are in the world so what it is it basically just takes a plate image and then you could I took a flashlight or a little LumiCube thing and I painted the The elephant elephants. Yeah, and it puts them all into one shot. So it's essentially just a composite that's on in camera Uh, it's a really cool technique. Uh, we actually talked about it with Noah.

mandy:

Yeah, you had a live, and I think we might have talked about it on the podcast maybe once. Yeah.

esteban:

But the shots are cool. Yeah, so now we were able

mandy:

to, yeah, get the elephants, some, like, context, and no people. And we positioned

esteban:

ourselves with, like, the buildings in the background too, which really give it a really cool look. Um, So it's cool because you have the elephants that are light painted, and then you have the, um, the buildings in the background with like all the lights, so, um, we'll make sure to post some of the, the shots and it looks, it looks really cool.

mandy:

We'll have to share one of the, we took um, Some time lapse videos as well. Yeah. And you'll be able to see the crowds we're working with.

esteban:

Yeah, that is one thing that I love about when we travel is that, We like, we bring it all. So we do like, Yeah. We did 360 photos. Yeah. We did 360, um, what's it called, time lapse? Time lapse, yeah. We did a time lapse with the DJI Osmo Pocket 3.

mandy:

Yeah, time lapse. We did a time

esteban:

lapse with both Panasonics. Uh, we did a time lapse, uh, We didn't do a 10 list with our phones, but we were using our phone a ton. Mm-hmm. Um, which

mandy:

we were, our, our, um, Ray bands

esteban:

or Raybans ray bands. Yeah. We were doing a lot of Ray PTS with the Ray bands. Mm-hmm Um, I mean, it's just like being able to utilize everything. It just, it makes things a little bit more complicated, especially when you're like, when you wanna be compact about what you travel with mm-hmm But it's worth it because you get so many different perspectives.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

And it's really cool.

mandy:

It's fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even something as simple as your phone. Yeah.

esteban:

As simple as your phone all the way up to shooting with a GFX medium format, uh, we shot film, we, uh, we shot with the, um, with the X Pen, uh, Jose, let me borrow his Nikon 35 TI. Which is an awesome camera. It's a little point and shoot Nikon, um, which I love because the top is made by, uh, I think by, um, Seiko.

esteban (2):

Yes. Manufactured by

esteban:

Seiko. So as a watch fanatic, I love the top of that camera. If you've never seen that camera, it's just absolutely beautiful, and I'm so jealous that he has it. Um, and we shot with digital film. We, um, we went to, to Lunchester, which is an awful experience. Yeah, we

mandy:

don't need to complain about that.

esteban:

Yeah, that was just, Don't go, don't. No, no, no, no.

mandy:

We don't need a complaints.

esteban:

Don't go to, what's the place called? What's it called?

mandy:

I don't know. I can't remember.

esteban:

Uh,

mandy:

Columbia.

esteban:

It's a Colombian restaurant in Miami. It's a new one and it's awful. God awful. Three hours we got our food.

mandy:

Yeah, it was, it was brutal. But we don't end to follow on a negative.

esteban:

Yes. So we ended up, but we ended up going to a, like a, a car show that also had like antiques and like a bunch of different things. Market, yes. Lea Market. Yeah, a flea market. And we met some people there too. From a local camera store.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Which was awesome because It was really good

mandy:

to talk gear in. Yeah, we bought film from

esteban:

them. Um, I asked them if they could service CLA the X Pan. Yeah,

mandy:

they're gonna look into it for you, which is really nice.

esteban:

They had some cool cameras. She took a picture of us. She took a picture of us with a Nikon 3D camera.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

But you basically, you take a couple of photos, there's a couple different lenses on it. And you can create a GIF out of it once you develop it. Uh, which

esteban (2):

is pretty awesome.

esteban:

Um, And that was it. We went there and uh, and then as we were walking out, we saw another camera place.

mandy:

Oh, oh, I was, I was, I forgot what you were referencing. We

esteban:

eyed this like, this mint condition, beautiful Hasselblad 500C. I have a 500CM, which is a little bit newer. But this, that camera was in mint condition. It came with three lenses and three backs. So I'm like, there's no way that this thing is like, if this is working condition, this is like a 4, 000 camera. Um, So I go up to the guy and I'm like, hey, do you, are you, how much do you want for this? And he was like, the shutter is broken on it, so I could do like 2, 500. And I was like, even at 2, 500, like those three lenses, there's a 150, the 50, and the 80. Zeiss in mint condition with the foxes. Yeah, the

mandy:

body was beautiful. It was like, there wasn't a

esteban:

scratch on the body.

mandy:

Yeah, it was perfect.

esteban:

And he was like, but right now I could do 2, 000. And I was like, I shouldn't be spending this money. And I was like, could you do 1500? And he didn't want to, you don't know what's wrong with the camera. So if you have to, he went down as low as

mandy:

18, but we still,

esteban:

yeah,

mandy:

we don't. Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah. So I have

mandy:

to walk away from beautiful things, but

esteban:

yeah, it was, it was in such good condition. It was a, such a good deal. I even offered to buy just the lenses. Cause I could totally use them for my 500 CM. Um, but, but I'm sad that I walked away. But, but it was beautiful. So I got his carding kit. I forgot

mandy:

to ask you about that. Is it that you regretted the spawning? Yeah,

esteban:

I said that I would sleep on it and I would figure it out, but the responsible side of me, which doesn't come out very often. This is the responsible

mandy:

side of

esteban:

you. I really didn't think that it was a good idea to spend two grand on, on a camera that I already have that needs to be serviced. Yeah. Even if I might, like, sell other stuff. So I've been thinking about selling a bunch of other things, so. I just don't want to keep, the reason why I sell other things is because I don't want them to sit around. So I don't want this to be another thing that sits around just because I was getting a good deal on it.

mandy:

And I think my mentality is sell before you buy the new thing.

esteban:

Yeah, yeah, which is totally fair. Um, maybe I'll put some stuff up today and if I sell it then I'll go back and call the guy and be like, Hey, I want to take it. So.

esteban (2):

Yeah.

esteban:

Because I almost told him, I was like, Alright, if I go to the bank right now and I take 1, 500 out, I'll give you cash. I'm sure he would have probably said like, alright, 1, 700 and then I would have probably been more inclined to do it. But at the end of the day

mandy:

I don't think you were convinced that it was the, that you should be buying it yet. Yeah, I think that was the

esteban:

biggest sell, especially as a camera that I already have.

mandy:

Yeah. But

esteban:

it's just a much better condition. It was just beautiful. With extra lenses, so. Um, so yeah. So that's, that's, that's that. And now I want it again. And podcast is over.

mandy:

No. We're gonna call this

esteban:

guy and tell him that we want it. No, just kidding.

mandy:

Um, but, speaking of gear. We could probably roll into tech time a little bit.

esteban (2):

Yes.

mandy:

So besides all of these devices and things that we've been shooting with this week, we've been using some very specific apps on our bones.

esteban (2):

Yes.

mandy:

And I'll let you tell them about it because these are basically yours.

esteban:

Uh, so for, for the apps, I mean, so I've been trying to use my phone a lot more. Now I have the newer iPhone, which we've talked about in the podcast. Um, but I really want an app that has that more like vintage, like, feel to it. Um, we've used in Vegas, Nicole showed us a, uh, it's like Hugi, H U G J I. Um, and it's a really cool app. It's almost like a disposable camera look. Um, but this app that I found, I don't know how I found it. And actually, Leo is a huge fan of it. He loves Name

mandy:

is your son, your Yes. 7-year-old.

esteban:

Yes. Um, and it's called 1998 cam.

esteban (2):

Mm-hmm

esteban:

And you can put some really cool filters, uh, which gives it a really cool vintage look. Um, you can import photos that you take from your camera, so I do like to. I do prefer to take photos with, within the main camera and then import them to that. Yeah,

mandy:

not with the apps.

esteban:

Yeah, when you take it with the app, it seems like it's a little bit lower resolution. Maybe it's not quite as, like, good. Which

mandy:

I think is common with a lot of apps when you're using things like Flutter. Yeah, yeah.

esteban:

Um, so I, I took a lot of photos. I've been trying to utilize the portrait feature on the, on the phone because I think it's pretty good with this new phone and the new update. Um, and the 1998 cam just, it really gives off a really cool look. You can put dust in the photos. If you want that like cool vibe on the, on your photos in it, it's really cool. So, um, so that's, that's the app that I've been really loving, especially when uploading just, you know, Really quick photos to Instagram, right? You should tell them

mandy:

about like, what you can do with an app. Like, how you make it look.

esteban:

Yeah, there's a bunch of different filters that are vintage, some film likes. Uh, they're not all very good, but there's some really good ones that I like. You can

mandy:

save your own presets?

esteban:

You can save your own preset based on your settings. And you can put the date on the bottom right hand corner, on whatever corner you want. A real

mandy:

90's look.

esteban:

Yeah, yeah. Which is cool.

mandy:

Leaks in the dust. If you do

esteban:

leaks, you can do dust. Uh, I'm not a fan of the dust or the leaks. They just lose a lot of the clarity on the image, but. Yeah. But you can do that and. Yeah, it's cool. It's a

mandy:

really cool effect. So we've been like playing around with that and.

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. And what other app did we.

mandy:

Um, I think it was just the two.

esteban:

What, what were the two?

mandy:

Fuji in 1998. Uh,

esteban:

Fuji in 1998. Yes. So, Fuji is

mandy:

like a surprise. Fuji, you don't have any control over.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Fuji, you open up the app and you take the photo within the app, Um, and it spits out a photo that could have like a light leak or like whatever else. So it's like a surprise.

esteban (2):

Yep.

mandy:

So, way more of that like film like experience where sometimes you don't know what you're getting. Yeah,

esteban:

like it's more disposable, right? So, it looks like a disposable app, like you even like, It has a, the UX is very, like, disposable film camera like. Yeah, yeah,

mandy:

like, exactly. Um, I remember correctly, I don't think you even see what you're taking the photo of. It's just, like, the back. Yeah. Like, it's very, like, yeah, you press the button, it, like, has a cheesy little, like, um, developing mode that it goes into. I think yours does the same thing, actually. Uh, and it Which I

esteban:

don't like.

mandy:

Right. But One of the

esteban:

things I complain about all the time with the 1998 up is that when you take a photo, it goes into another screen, and it's just Pretends it's developing. Pretends like it's developing it. And it's like, I just want the photo. It's a time waster, yeah.

mandy:

But yeah, so, Houdini, it's kind of like, the no control, getting that effect. Whereas the 1998 one, you can make it look how you want it to look.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Yeah. Which is,

esteban:

which is good. So,

mandy:

yeah. They're awesome to have that look if you don't have time for a disposable film camera.

esteban:

Yeah,

mandy:

or you don't have the money to spend on that little thing you can just use your phone to create that same Yeah, which you can

esteban:

spend a lot of money on. I mean, we just went

mandy:

into a store here like and we're looking at like Discontinued cameras and you still had for sale. Yeah, I don't remember what they were specifically you might remember Yeah,

esteban:

so I I mean one of them was there were a few like digital ones There was like a Nikon pigtail, which I've always wanted, because what it is, is you take a photo and you get it as a projector in it, so you can project the photo onto a wall. As a big projector fan, I think it's one of the cameras I've always wanted. Um, but yeah, no, just a lot of different things that you can do. And now that everything's so popular, especially around this area too, with a lot of like the influencer stuff. They were saying,

mandy:

like, those cameras were so expensive. Yeah, there's,

esteban:

yeah, a camera that used to be like 200 bucks back in the day is now a thousand dollars. There's like even that camera that Jose has. It's a beautiful camera, I think it's gorgeous, but you could, you could have bought that camera for like 500 bucks years ago, and now it goes for well over 1, 000 just because it's an old film camera. So if you don't want to deal with that stuff, then

mandy:

you can create the look at least.

esteban:

Yeah, with a nice, nice app for it. Just shoot digital. And like I said, I always love the, we talked about that in the podcast, in the podcast too, where we can do the, uh, Panasonic cameras and include the LUTs into them and have that look well within before we even go into the into the computer. So, um,

mandy:

I think that's it. Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah. It's been a good trip so far. Uh, we're happy to be back. We had

mandy:

a little bit of a hiatus.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Um, but we're back. And we'll continue on.

esteban:

Yes, yeah, with video. Video is always good. We'll make sure that we post a lot of the video on our, uh, Instagram.

mandy:

Yeah, some clips and stuff, yeah.

esteban:

And if anybody has any suggestions or anything just feel free to reach out to us. Um,

mandy:

I

esteban:

think we should start

mandy:

asking for travel locations, suggestions.

esteban:

Yeah, if you have any locations or places that we You feel we should travel too. I think that'd be cool. Yeah. I mean, we have this, we have a ton of travel coming up, but it's mostly work travel. So yeah, maybe we can make an extra day or two depending on

mandy:

how far

esteban:

we are. Yeah. Cool. So with that, we will see you all next week.

mandy:

Yeah. Next week.

esteban:

Yeah. With another episode where we'll talk about probably something else or the same thing over and over again.

mandy:

Probably something else. Hopefully. Hopefully.

esteban:

Sounds good.

mandy:

All right.

esteban:

Talk to you later. Bye.