Switching lenses

Episode 8: The importance of community - Lens and light edition

• Mandy Wright

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 Broadcasting from Lens & Light conference in Mystic, Connecticut.

Esteban and Mandy discuss the incredible sense of community fostered by organizers Jen and Chris. Esteban praises the welcoming atmosphere and the helpfulness of the attendees. Highlights include engaging master classes, Esteban's class that focuses on storytelling techniques for weddings, and a fun speaker dinner filled with lively conversations. They also spotlight technological advances in photography, focusing on Aftershoot's new retouching beta and Fujifilm's Instax Wide Evo camera. Wrapping up, they preview upcoming photography conferences and workshops.


00:31 Lens Light Conference Overview

00:48 Community and Networking

03:54 Masterclasses and Keynotes

07:26 Speaking Experiences and Nerves

12:53 Fun and Memorable Moments

16:55 Upcoming Events and Conclusion

17:13 Reflecting on the Conference Experience

17:36 Exciting Encounters with Industry Experts

18:43 Tech Time: Innovations and Gadgets

20:18 Aftershoot: Revolutionizing Photo Editing

24:41 Fuji Instax Wide Evo: A Game-Changer in Instant Photography

30:30 Upcoming Events and Workshops

31:24 Conclusion and Future Plans

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

esteban:

Hello, and welcome to episode eight, eight of the switching lenses podcast. My name is Estevan Gill. I'm a wedding and portrait and fashion and commercial and baby and newborn and engagement photographer based in Guilford, Connecticut. And you do everything. I do it all. I do it all.

mandy:

So I'm Andy, right? Wedding photographer. That's all you do.

esteban:

What do you do with your time?

mandy:

You're such a liar. Uh, yeah, so how are you doing?

esteban:

I'm doing well, where are we right now?

mandy:

We are in a very exciting place, Mystic, Connecticut.

esteban:

Yes.

mandy:

Yeah, at Lens Light.

esteban:

Lens Light. Yeah. Yearly conference, second year in.

mandy:

Second year, yeah.

esteban:

And it's been amazing so far. It's

mandy:

been really, really good. Yeah.

esteban:

Like,

mandy:

I thought last year was incredible, and this year is even stronger.

esteban:

Yes. Yeah. And not only is it just a random conference, it's a conference that's put together by our friends.

mandy:

Yeah. So, Jen and Chris.

esteban:

Jen and Chris. Good friends of ours.

mandy:

Yeah. Amen. They have a really big dream about creating this like very close knit community here, um, in the northeast.

esteban:

Yep.

mandy:

Um, obviously based here in Canada. Which was missing

esteban:

for a long time. Yeah. Because a long time ago, especially when I started my photography career, um, there was a conference here. I think it was called, uh, I forgot what it was

called. Okay. But it was a very, like,

esteban:

close knit community in the Connecticut area. And it, it was very, very popular around this area, and it kind of went away, and they didn't have it for a number of years. And Jen and Chris were like, we're going to revive this community. And, I mean, obviously, we love community, so. It's something that is very near and dear to our hearts. And now it's back. It's not back, but it's a new one. Better than anything else. I mean,

mandy:

I can say I feel a sense of community here for sure, so I do think. For sure, it's back. And I'm new to this, so I, yeah, I don't really have a reference point for what it was like before, but I can say for certain that even last year, before I was spending so much time here in Connecticut, I had definitely felt a sense of community, even being an outsider, but the one international person here at the conference last year, and I still felt like I was a part of this, which is pretty amazing, because I have not felt that at any, no other conference that I feel like I was included in something so intimate. Yeah,

esteban:

and that's sort of like when, when we talk about community, and when you have a platform like we have Steel and Flint, uh, like somebody like Jen and Chris, I always talk about how whatever project you're doing usually ends up being a direct, just, extension of who you are as a person. And the feel here is like if you're talking to them. Yes. When you come up and talk to them, they're just It's, it's actually like,

mandy:

borderline, I just want to

esteban:

shake them and be like, Why are you so nice? Like, why are you the friendliest person I've ever met in my life?

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Um, but they, they literally are like the nicest people ever.

mandy:

Yeah,

esteban:

yeah. And, it's amazing. Shout out to

mandy:

Jen's mom who's, who's at the front, the front registration desk every year and she brought me over a piece of um, gluten free banana bread that she baked this morning. Like, how sweet. Yeah. And that's, yeah, like, where else is that gonna happen? Yeah,

esteban:

and like, everybody that's just involved, I mean, it's just, it's such a great team. I was on the committee last year, I'm no longer on the committee, but, um, But I still feel like I'm involved, and like, I, whenever we want to do anything or we have suggestions or anything, it's just, I've never really felt like Like, they take my suggestions and they're like, Oh no, we're not going to do that. Like, everything has been implemented and they just take feedback so well. Yeah. Um, but it's been amazing. It's been an amazing week so far. Um.

mandy:

There's some new people this year, but also a lot of familiar faces from last year which has been really nice to connect with all the friends we made last year.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Um, yeah.

esteban:

We, um, what did we do at the beginning? When we first got here? Yeah, so

mandy:

it started on Monday.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

With master classes. So we got in on Monday and we went straight to our friends.

esteban:

Yeah, we went to Jeff Tisman's Masterclass, which is a composite Masterclass.

mandy:

And

esteban:

it was awesome.

mandy:

Yeah, it was really good. Um, some theory and some demo and then, um, they all got to practice. A lot of talking.

esteban:

Jeff likes to talk.

mandy:

Yeah, if you don't know that. Uh, well yeah, uh, that was a great first little, like, dip or toe in. And then we went here to get set up at the hotel. Um, meet and greet that night. And then yesterday was just the last day. The full on conference all day.

esteban:

Yeah. Um, Non stop.

mandy:

Non stop. Which is great. Yeah. You

esteban:

do love being busy. And, I absolutely

mandy:

love being busy. I just, You know, I need like, An eight hour, To, Regenerate for the next day.

esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. It's like how I tell Leo, When we go to bed, He's like, I don't want to go to bed. And I was like, Well you have a battery inside you, So when you go to sleep, Yeah.

mandy:

Have you ever told yourself this? You recharge your battery.

esteban:

No.

mandy:

Have you ever taken your own advice?

esteban:

No. No. Do as I say, not as I do. Ah, okay. So, yeah, we um, we do need to regenerate our batteries, but it's, it was great. Like, I, I, I, the entire day was just packed full of, I mean, I had my class.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah, that was the keynote with Scott Robert

mandy:

Lim,

esteban:

who was awesome. Yeah. Like, we, we officially met him yesterday. And we got in the car yesterday going to dinner and you said Scott is also the nicest person in the world.

mandy:

Yeah,

esteban:

like he just automatically just excited. He's just one of those people just excited to see you. Passionate, he said he wants to talk to

mandy:

everyone. He just wants to make friends with everyone and yeah, yeah, it's

esteban:

just a very very welcoming individual. So we

mandy:

took in his keynote first thing, which was great. And then we went straight to your class, I think.

esteban:

Yeah, then I had my class which was supposed to be an hour and a half.

mandy:

Oh, sorry.

esteban:

Uh, it, I thought it was going to be about two hours, and it ended up being about an hour and a half.

mandy:

It was only supposed to be an hour and a half. Oh,

esteban:

yeah, yes.

mandy:

So you were like, you only ended ten minutes early.

esteban:

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, you were perfect. Yeah. It was

mandy:

absolutely perfect.

esteban:

Yes. So I talked about what I've been talking about for the last almost year now, which is, uh, What did I talk about?

mandy:

You, I don't remember. I'm just kidding. Uh, You talked about, um, storytelling with a technical eye. Without losing, uh, Okay.

esteban:

Or, or incorporating a technical eye without losing sight on storytelling. Right. So. Obviously with weddings, we're, I'm a very technically driven individual, like, I love the technical aspect of things, but I also am very passionate about making sure that I tell the story of the day, and like, how to, how to approach the wedding in a photojournalistic approach, and like, really tell the story of the day, but still be able to get some of those cool shots that I really love doing, like, the composites, and like, all that, like, high sheets and stuff, so, um, But it was it was a great class. It was a good turnout. It

mandy:

was really good turnout. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, it was great It was so smooth. It was easy It was so nice like you were supposed to be later in the week some stuff got switched around and so we got it out Of the way, I mean today out of the way, but for sure when you're a speaker, you're like thinking about your class and And you're preparing for it and processing and and and all of that So if it's at the end of the week, it could be more I think more like exhausting Yeah, because you're thinking about it all week then

Yeah,

mandy:

but you get it out of the way and then you have that high of like being done your yeah And then you can just go off that the rest of the week.

esteban:

If they would have asked me this Four years ago.

mandy:

I would have

esteban:

been freaking out but that's like it was really as a good Reminder that I've been doing this long enough where I'm very comfortable speaking.

Yep.

esteban:

Where you can, they could have probably called me an hour before and been like, Hey, can you do your class in an hour? And I would have been prepared. Cause I, I'm so comfortable speaking in front of a group of people. I can't wait for

mandy:

the day that I have that same feeling. Do

esteban:

you remember last year before your class?

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Freaking out a little bit? I

mandy:

won't be freaking out this year. Watch out.

esteban:

Oh, really? Uh huh. I think you're, you only have a year.

mandy:

It's funny because I think that you although you may it may have come more naturally to you initially I don't know, but maybe it did because obviously some people it does than others but like even last year I feel like No No No, empathy, no mercy. No nothing. It was just like how are you stressed out about this class? To me. Oh, yeah, it's just like This is my first time doing this. Oh, this is only my second time doing this and now it's a new topic in a new format. So it's still my first time. And it's like, and I, and I feel like maybe also you just like, maybe you think so highly of me and my skills that it shouldn't be an issue. But I think it's more of like, uh,

esteban:

I'm surprised. But I'm like,

mandy:

why wouldn't I be freaking out? This is new to me. I've never spoken any Rome.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

So. Yeah, I don't know.

esteban:

So, so prepare for that this year too? Oh, I think

mandy:

it'll be better. Like, I think it'll be an improvement from last year, but I'm still definitely going to be like nervous and anxious before it. And I do think that eventually that will just go away.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

And, yes, I don't think be the same as last year. I just, I think that there'll still be an element of that.

esteban:

Yeah, and I do, I do also, I mean if

mandy:

Yeah, it's just like weddings, like how long did it, how long, how many weddings did you shoot before you never felt any nerves on the wedding day?

esteban:

Oh, I don't know. It was probably a while. Yeah, like, still to this day, sometimes when I'm shooting, uh, like if we're doing like a big wedding where it requires a lot, more if it's It's

mandy:

something you're not used to? You're not familiar with? It's new? There's extra pressure. It's more of

esteban:

a, it's more of a eagerness of like, Yeah. I'm excited for this. Um, Well,

mandy:

apparently, I don't know if this is true, but I have read that, um, like nervous and anxiousness. It's actually the exact same feeling in your body as excitement and eagerness, but it's how your brain is processing it. So it's what the message your brain is telling you is. So some people, some people work, some people work on taking those feelings of anxious and nervousness and try and retrain their brain to take the message as excitement.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

So I did some reading on that and I don't know like how true that is or not, but it's interesting. So like trying to think like, no. This is not nerves. I'm excited for this talk today. Yeah.

esteban:

So how do you train your brain to I think it's it from I think it's

mandy:

like a Like telling yourself like a mantra like when you feel it like trying to convince yourself that you're actually excited Yeah, it's not nerves and anxiety. This is excitement

Huh?

mandy:

Yeah, it's interesting.

esteban:

That is very interesting. I mean, I do feel excited about it. I feel that eagerness of like Yeah, like I want to get in front of people. I mean, I think the most nervous, like the same feeling

mandy:

in your body is similar. Yeah. But it's kind of how your brain is telling you what that means, like what the message is.

esteban:

The last time I was kind of nervous was during Shut Fest Plus, which I had the class, which is like, I mean, hundreds of people in the room. I wasn't ner,

mandy:

I have secondhand nerves sometimes when you're up on stage. That is one of them. Really? Because I, because I, if I try, if I, for a moment try and imagine myself in your shoes, I get the feeling like overwhelm my body and I'm like,

esteban:

yeah.

mandy:

So I, yeah, because I'm like, wow, like this is incredible. Like, I don't know, but you handled it so well, you couldn't tell you were nervous.

esteban:

It's still, to this day, it's still kind of insane to me that people are willing to sit in a room and listen to me talk. Like that's just crazy. Um, but it's, it's an awesome feeling. Like it's like, I definitely don't take it for granted. Uh, with Shutterfest Plus, I was so nervous that I actually ended up doing a pushup competition.

mandy:

Which is something that you and you and then I have been doing at like workshops and conferences like to get pumped up before which Like we haven't been doing it this year yet, but I really did love when we were doing it it's fun just to get that like or

esteban:

we just get your adrenaline

mandy:

going and your heart rate up and Yeah, so you had the whole class do it.

There

esteban:

was literally like, whoever

mandy:

wanted to participate, maybe like 30 people, I don't know. All found a spot on the floor and started doing it. But

esteban:

yeah, it's been a good week so far. Uh, lots of classes. We went to Jeff's class. We had my class, which was great. And then yesterday, it was a ton of stuff happening. Yeah,

mandy:

we did lots of interviews with people. We're so excited for some new reels. Yeah, so if you haven't

esteban:

been on our, on our Instagram, you can see a ton of different video content that we've been doing. Yeah,

mandy:

that's something we should push people towards, Instagram. Yeah, we're putting a lot more video content out there. And Switching Lenses

esteban:

podcast on Instagram. Yes. And you'll see a bunch of videos with a lot of educators, a lot of people. And then we're doing some, we're taking a different approach for this conference. We want to make sure that we're not just posting the same thing over and over again. Oh, yeah, we don't want it to get old. Um, so, we're changing the questions. Obviously the, the speakers, the people that we're interviewing, and then we have some, some stuff planned out for, for other conferences too, so.

mandy:

Yeah, so some new stuff we filmed yesterday, you had some one on ones and mentoring, and then we went out for the speaker dinner.

esteban:

Which was a lot of fun. We went to Mariner.

mandy:

The Mariner, yeah, and we were paired up with Sean Lee. Sean Lee. He's a really

esteban:

good dude. Yeah. It was a really good time.

mandy:

It was like, it was a little bit more toned down than the one we had last year. Because we were with like, six women.

esteban:

Can we tell them about what happened last year? Oh, hell yeah.

mandy:

Do you Yes. You

esteban:

tell a story very well.

mandy:

Okay. So, um, so these speaker dinners, how they work is, it's like go out for dinner with a speaker, the attendees can sign up, like it's released and then they can sign up and there's a limit to how many people can go. Um, we got the message from Jen and Chris last year after they released them that our dinner, um, sold out like instantly. And we were like, really? Like, that's amazing. We're a big deal. Like, and this is like, that was literally my first time speaking at a conference. And I was just like, well, I know he has something to do with it, but I mean, I'm excited. I'm part of this. Like, ours sold out like instantly. That's amazing. Um, So we're super excited for it. We planned some icebreakers, um, and whatever else. We get to the dinner, and we go sit down at the table. There's two spots open on opposite ends of the table. And we sit down, and they're like, Who are you? And we were very confused. We were like, what? Um, we're Mandy and Esteban! The speakers are hosting the dinner! They had no bloody clue who we were. And we were like, I mean, obviously that hurt us a tiny bit, and we were like, why are you, why did you sign up? Like, we're very confused. Like, how did this sell out instantly if you have no idea who we were? And they all just looked at each other and were like, this is a really good restaurant. So

esteban:

they, they could not care. about this beaker. They were just like, this restaurant looks amazing,

so.

esteban:

We just picked the restaurant because we wanted good food. And it ended up being, like, such a cool conversation. Yeah, it was amazing. We used our icebreaker, which

mandy:

was great because they got to know us. Yeah, it was amazing. And what we were about.

esteban:

We loved talking to them. We saw them this year, so they're returning. They were just a

mandy:

wild bunch of women. And it was like six or eight women. And they were wild and loud. It ended up being, like, an amazing experience. Yeah,

esteban:

yeah, it was so cool. Like, I really love getting to know them. Yeah. We still kind of catch up once in a while on social media. Yeah, they give us a hard time.

mandy:

It's amazing because they're like, yeah, they're that type of people that like to just give people a hard time. Yeah, which we love. Which we also love. Yeah, it's

esteban:

totally us.

mandy:

So it, like, the fact that they didn't know who we were was just, like, icing on the cake.

esteban:

Pretty awesome.

mandy:

Yeah, so this year was like, it was toned down from that, but it was an amazing, it was just, like, more of, like, a A quieter experience at the restaurant, but we all had a really good time, and got to know each other, the food was so good, the margaritas were also amazing. Oh

esteban:

yeah, the margaritas were really good, yeah.

mandy:

Then we, then someone suggested we go get ice cream, so we walked over to um, the, I don't know, Mystic Bridge ice cream or something it was called, which was really good.

esteban:

It was good, but I felt like crap afterwards. And then

mandy:

all of us were like, ugh, like wobbling up there. Yeah, bad idea. Yeah.

esteban:

But, it was a good time, we really had a good, a good, good night. Getting dinner and getting to know more people. Yeah, it was

mandy:

really good. And

esteban:

then we also have like the networking events at the end. So this is one of the other things that I like, where like there's a bar and like people can congregate a little bit and get to know each other. So that was, that was fun too.

mandy:

Yeah, it was a good time. Just the nightcap. Yeah,

esteban:

yeah.

mandy:

Yeah, and then so today we're doing some more interviews and then we have the like Banquet Gala tonight, which we're all getting dressed up for. And what's the theme? Hollywood.

esteban:

Hollywood.

mandy:

Yeah, so I think the theme is either dress up as you are a Hollywood star, so like red carpet attire, or dress up as your favorite Hollywood star. So we should probably, based on last year, I'm guessing we're going to see some characters.

Yeah.

mandy:

Um, but we're hoping to get some footage of that and some interviews. So, you'll see a little bit of that on Instagram, hopefully.

Yeah.

mandy:

Yeah. Um, so yeah, we still got, uh, two half days. We've got the rest of today and we've got a half day tomorrow. Um, before we're on to the next thing.

esteban:

Yeah, which is in two weeks?

mandy:

WPPI, yeah. WPPI. Yeah, we won't get into that too much. But yeah, that's where we'll, we can. I didn't want to

esteban:

start thinking about WPVI. Yeah,

mandy:

yeah, yeah. We're still, still getting the great education here and mingling with people here, so. Yeah,

esteban:

yeah. It's been a really good time. They really have done such a great job organizing this conference. You can see that it still has that very close community feel. Um, but there's still like little things here and there. But more

mandy:

speakers, more events.

esteban:

More videography stuff. More videography as

mandy:

well, yeah. So there was a

esteban:

cinematographer speaking earlier at the keynote. Which, we were setting this up, but, but it was. Yeah. People that came out there were like, she was amazing. Yeah,

mandy:

yeah, so we, yeah, regretfully we, we couldn't make it this morning because we were doing our own commitments, but, yeah, it's uh, oh well. We're hoping, hopefully we can talk to her at some point.

esteban:

Yeah, I would love to, because Yeah, we can maybe,

mandy:

yeah, just go say hi and introduce ourselves and ask her some questions maybe and, yeah. Because it turns out she filmed a documentary we watched recently, which is insane. Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah,

mandy:

like what? Yeah, so.

esteban:

Yeah, RPG documentary. Yeah.

mandy:

I

esteban:

remember being on a plane, crying my eyes out watching it. Yeah. It was an awesome documentary and we didn't realize that it was um, that it was her that made it,

mandy:

so. So very exciting educators and a lovely experience here. It's been amazing.

esteban:

I really can't wait. For today and tomorrow.

mandy:

Bigger and better next year. Yeah. Yeah. It's been great.

esteban:

They're already planning, which is always a good sign when they're planning, they're already talking about next year. Like next year's happening. Absolutely it's happening. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a good time so far. Yeah.

mandy:

So we're bringing back a segment that we've been doing in the other podcasts. Tech time. Tech time. Tech time. Yeah. Which is fun. I think we should be including this with all the. I know. Yeah. It's like we're. Because we're full of technology here. There's like an expo, show floor at every conference, full of new technology, why are we not featuring more things? To a couple of companies,

esteban:

Nanlite, we walked in and we're like, we didn't realize that this was going to be so dark, and they're like,

mandy:

we got you. They set up, like, came in and set up the whole thing for us. Like, we

esteban:

look good because of Nanlite right now. Ah, Geeko to Tripod. Yeah, of course. Like, it's just like It's such a cool, like, and that's just like the Yeah, again, back to the

mandy:

community thing, like, what? Like,

esteban:

how would, like, I would have never in a million years expected to, like, be able to walk into it and be like, listen, and even like, um, when we were in Dallas, uh, Cheetah Stand.

mandy:

Yes. We were

esteban:

freaking out over a tripod. Yeah. And I, I kid you not, I walked into their thing and they were like, stopped what they were doing, like, what do you need? Yeah. And just everyone It just really fills my heart when like you just literally just walk into any booth and you're like, can we get help?

mandy:

Yeah, they're like

esteban:

absolutely.

mandy:

Yeah,

esteban:

it's just it's been amazing. So so very lucky to have everybody that has helped Set up

mandy:

our little mini studio here. And yeah,

esteban:

yeah, so tech time.

mandy:

Yeah, so tech time So

esteban:

you want to go first you want me to go first?

mandy:

You go first. I'm really excited about your tech time. So you go first. This is big news.

esteban:

Yeah. So tech, my tech time is a software.

mandy:

Which you all know about by now. You better know about by now.

esteban:

So it's aftershoot and they're releasing, they just released their closed beta.

mandy:

Yes.

esteban:

For retouching.

mandy:

It's incredible.

esteban:

Yeah. So we were, I did my class yesterday and then I um.

mandy:

Did a little demo.

esteban:

Yeah, we did a little demo of the retouching. Yeah, and it was incredible. Yeah, like it's just blown

mandy:

away.

esteban:

Yeah, and it's in closed beta right now so we're giving them feedback where I mean, there's a couple of things here and there that obviously but overall like the The results that I'm getting are amazing. Yeah, like just a couple sliders and it just to think that I remember spending like hours and hours Just doing frequency separation in Photoshop and I remember going like there is no way that I'm ever going to do this for like hundreds of photos at a wedding. No,

mandy:

no, no.

esteban:

And now it's a matter of just like going in and

mandy:

I mean, it's literally click a button or move a slider.

esteban:

You move a slider. Or press a button and

mandy:

all the sliders move for you. And then you just

esteban:

sync everything. You copy and you paste it into other images. And it just does it for you. Yeah. And it's just mind blowing. So now I can literally go into Aftershoot. I can import my images, I can back up the images to a different hard drive, I can cull, edit, and retouch all within a single software. Mind blowing, right?

mandy:

Being able to do everything under one,

esteban:

and I'm not a fan of Lightroom. I'm very vocal about how much I don't like Lightroom because it's just not very well optimized. And to think that I'm going to be able to do 90 percent of the stuff that I do in Lightroom in Aperture, and it's a company that loves me. I love, it's a company that we love, it's a company that is run by some of our closest friends in the industry. It's just, it's just amazing. Yeah,

mandy:

so the results are like, comparable or better to any other program we've used in the past. Yeah, in beta right now. And they're just in

esteban:

beta. Which is always a very interesting thing because even when it came to editing and their stuff, uh, the editing came out, was it last year or something? Uh, editing. Maybe two years ago? Two years

mandy:

ago. Oh, it's two years ago. Yeah. Yeah.

esteban:

Like, the way that they're able to catch up with competitors and then create an even better product is just pretty awesome, so, yeah. So, shout out to Aftershoot.

mandy:

Yeah, yeah.

esteban:

Sure, they're working very hard on this and I'm, I'm hopeful that everybody will be able to get their hands on it, so.

mandy:

What's always like very, it's pushing, it's also pushing our art further because just like how edits, workflow and how most of us talk about how maybe it's sped up our workflow, but now we're taking more on because we're spending more time doing other edits or perfecting other parts of the image that we would have never spent time on before because of the 10 hours we spent, you know, in Lightroom editing and weddings before it's cut down. Now we're finding ourselves like nitpicky, um, and, and doing other things, elevating our art. And now I just feel like if you get retouching in there and that's automated, like. All of the time that we spent doing those things, getting rid of blemishes, like stray hairs, all of that stuff, like where, where is our art going to go from here, like in three years from now, like how good is our work going to look because of how much of that, that basic stuff has been taken off our plate that we can, yeah, I don't know.

esteban:

And, and the other thing is that you have complete control of how much you. How much effort you put into it too. So if you, if you want to go in and like play around with everything, like you can also do that. It's not something like you hit a button and just does everything for you and you have no control about how much or how little you, you do. Like you can, you can just, um, yeah, you can, you can basically do as much as you want or as little as you want. So if you want to automate everything, they just came out with a one click, uh, call and edit. So you hit one button.

Holds

esteban:

your weddings, or your shoots, or whatever it is, and then it edits them with one button.

So, really cool. So

esteban:

yeah, so that's my Tech Time. Um,

mandy:

the retouching

esteban:

beta, which should be available to people soon ish.

mandy:

So

esteban:

hopefully sooner than later.

mandy:

But yeah, very impressive so far.

esteban:

What about you? When's your tech time?

mandy:

Um, I have a very exciting one because I'm a big fan of instant cameras.

esteban:

Yeah.

mandy:

Um, we have a lot of them actually. We do. We do. So A lot of

esteban:

printers. Yeah. Um, and they're usually made by one company. Which we also love.

mandy:

Yeah, so And

esteban:

I use their stuff for weddings. Yeah,

mandy:

so Fuji. Fuji, Fujifilm. So, I don't know, maybe it was like three years ago that you gave me the Evo?

esteban:

Yup, it's the Fuji EVO

mandy:

Instax. Instax, uh, EVO. Um, which is a small, like, it looks like, um, I don't know what the, it's smaller than the other, the ones that you're used to but takes the same film. The other Instax. Um, but it has an app, it stores the pictures in the camera itself. There's like, anyways, it's, it's very high tech for an instant camera. It's Instax

esteban:

wide, I think it's called.

mandy:

Oh, I'm talking about the EVO.

esteban:

Oh, the, the original. The original, the one that you bought me. Did I just give away your I'm just kidding. I just came away here. So yeah,

mandy:

so the Wide Evo is the tech time of the

esteban:

new one that just came out. Yeah,

mandy:

and I do have it here. It's beautiful.

esteban:

It is a very beautiful camera. Yeah, it's

mandy:

like really nice. It looks like, how cool do I look?

esteban:

You absolutely look very cool. Yeah, I look amazing. I just, it's just very sleek. Yeah, it's very

mandy:

sleek. It has new, so besides the fact that it prints wider.

esteban:

Yeah, so they're bigger, wider. Yeah, so

mandy:

I'll take a picture of you. And, alright, here we go. Beautiful. And then it has this cool little crank to print it. Which is also fun. The other version has the The other one had like a

esteban:

Yeah. Like a winder or something. Oh, actually, sorry. That might be the winder. And then this is more like an advance.

mandy:

Yeah. Like in the foam world. Yeah, yes. This is like a Yeah. Yeah. Um. Ahem. And it has the same, like, light leak filter options. This is like the bigger, wider version. We have the other one to compare, but, yeah. Um, still has the same, like, filters and light leak. Um, you can actually switch this to be ultra wide angle, which is really cool too. If

esteban:

you're doing a selfie, it's good for that. Yeah.

mandy:

Oh, yeah. Should we do a selfie? We should do a selfie. Ah, it's so cool. Alright, let's see here. So it has the selfie mirror in the front as well. So it's just a little flip of a button. Yeah,

esteban:

there's a switch up front that you can put a wide angle on.

mandy:

And let's see here, how do I get it back? I'm going to put something fun on this one so you can see what it looks like. Like maybe a light leak?

esteban:

Yeah, I love light leaks. Light leaks are good.

mandy:

Even when they're fake? Alright. Yes. I'm going to let you do the honors. I

esteban:

do not

esteban (2):

hate on any fake light leaks. Because it's on

mandy:

your side. Okay.

esteban (2):

Alright,

mandy:

here we go.

esteban (2):

And three, two, one.

mandy:

Cool.

esteban (2):

So.

mandy:

Um, it has face and eye detect, which is incredible. For like,

esteban:

uh, an instant camera. Yeah, like, it's,

mandy:

it's kind of, it's kind of funny. It's amazing that it would have that.

esteban:

Yeah. And what's it retailing at?

mandy:

Um, I think he said 349.

esteban:

349. Yeah. Yep.

mandy:

Um, which is

esteban:

kind of awesome. And then when you compare it to the original wide, it's actually smaller. And it has a lot more. So yes, you can save images into

mandy:

like a memory card. A memory card. Yep. Um, you can print totally from your phone if it's Yeah, if it's, yeah. It's the same card as the other one. So like a micro sdd. Yep, yep. And yeah, the app is, the app is also like a huge selling feature for me, for the original Evo, because I use it as a printer.

Yeah.

mandy:

Um, even if I'm out and I don't wanna take the whole camera with me, I take cell phone photos and then I just print them off. When I get home, which is amazing.

esteban:

I have the wide printer by itself that I've used with my Fuji cameras and uh, with my phone. But this essentially does the same thing and it's its own camera so you can bring it out. Which we do love doing those instant cameras.

mandy:

We do. But we can see ourselves, like this looks so cool. We could see ourselves bringing this to a wedding to print off some. I mean it's a very common thing to print off prints for the couple before you leave. But I feel like, yeah.

esteban:

It's it's a very cool camera. It just looks beautiful.

mandy:

Mm

esteban:

hmm. Very well designed even like the font the wide just has like a

Mm

esteban:

hmm a cursive look to it. Very like vintage II and the The patterns on the yeah, the grip

mandy:

Yeah, it's just

esteban:

a beautiful camera.

mandy:

Yeah, and actually this I like too because you're not going through menus and stuff These are like the buttons on the side Oh, yeah. These little rollers to switch your filters. Oh, yeah. So, um. Yeah. I'll go back to the other view here. This one here, you can change your filters.

esteban:

Oh. That's nice. Which is really cool.

mandy:

And then this one over here. I like not going

esteban:

into menus. That's my favorite thing about cameras.

mandy:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, very fun. Cool. And so, yeah. This is my tech tab.

esteban:

Nice. Yeah. Cool.

mandy:

Anything else for today?

esteban:

No. I think that's it.

mandy:

Yeah. I think we're gonna go enjoy some more of Lens Light here. Maybe pop back into the show floor here and. Speak to some more people here at the booths. We haven't really gone through all and I know there's some other places you wanted to check out. Yes, some more tables. So

esteban:

yeah, yeah, I want to

mandy:

Yeah,

esteban:

take it all in.

mandy:

Yeah.

esteban:

Yeah All right. Well, thank you all for joining us. Thank you We will be back on a regular

mandy:

schedule here. Yeah, now that

esteban:

we've been mia for a bit

mandy:

Yeah, I mean it was a holiday break. Um, and then getting back into this routine. We had six or seven conferences this season.

Yeah.

mandy:

So we're on number two right now. Um, so we're just kind of getting into the rhythm of this. But we're going to come back on a regular schedule, uh, with the regular segments. And we're really excited to get back on.

esteban:

We'll be at

mandy:

WPPI

esteban:

in a couple weeks. Then we fly back in and we'll be at New Hampshire PPA, which is going to be another awesome, very more intimate, uh, conference. Then we have, um,

mandy:

Shutterfest, which is one of our favorites too. We have

esteban:

some really cool stuff planned for that.

mandy:

Oh, actually, yeah. I mean, Loveless and Sal's, yeah. We have lots of good stuff.

esteban:

Um, which we did an entire episode of their shoot.

mandy:

Oh yeah, we did, yes. So you guys know about that now. And

esteban:

when you When we come back, we have, I mean, PPA, which is also like an awesome group of people. So, um, yeah, we have a ton of stuff. Yeah.

mandy:

And we have our workshop at WPPI. Oh yeah,

esteban:

we have a workshop at WPPI. We'll probably announce another workshop. Yeah. In some other locations, which hopefully soon. Yeah. We'll shoot that. Yeah. Tons of stuff. Coming up. Cool. All right. Well, thank you all.

All

esteban:

right. See ya. See ya. See ya.