Light Talks The Lens Light Life Podcast Episode 2

In our second Episode, Gail and Sarina talk about the journey to issue 3, the learnings of the first three issues and the take aways from the people and the community. 

We discuss what is in store in the future and explore some travel stories. 

To subscribe to the magazine go to www.lenslightlife.com or to explore the community content. 

To contribute to the magazine email us on production@lenslightlife.com or message us on Facebook or Instagram

To follow us on Instagram go to @lenslightlife 

To follow us on Facebook go to @lenslightlife

Website www.lenslightlife.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Gail Mitchell, good morning. Good morning, Serena Jackson. How are you? I'm very well. How are you? I'm very good. It's a bit chilly though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Oh, it's miserable up here. But and I'm in front of the computer and I've got Photoshop open just in case.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Well, there you go. I've just spent about three hours trying to get this roadcaster thing working again because I haven't done it for months or years actually. So there you go. But that's that's you know, first world problems, I suppose. Um welcome to the second long-awaited episode of the Lens Light Life podcast that you and I are are doing. Um I feel like we're a bit seasoned now that we issue three came out today, so um, which is really exciting. And um tell me, just I'm gonna interview you for a minute, I I suppose, and then we'll see how we go. Um, because this is new for you. I I I understand that. Um tell me how has, because it's sort of six months, but how has the production and and how do you feel it's gone and and what how do you feel like it's yeah, what how do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So from the first issue, I think we we didn't have a lot of content outside of ourselves, um, apart from the absolutely amazing Victoria Hack, who was just mind-blowing, um, and her photographs and their shoe was stunning. Um, but we sort of didn't know as much about what we wanted as far as additional content. And I think we've really we've drilled that down and we've got some wonderful articles under Chasing Light, um, under Behind the Shot. Um, we're starting to sort of fill the content in the magazine, and I think not just the the key artists for every feature, but the fact that in in every article we have 10 contributors who give us beautiful images, different genres, different locations around the world, you know, some with five followers and some with you know 50,000 followers. So I like that our community is growing. Um, and I think in the background we're learning, and we're learning what our customer wants, what our you know, what our community wants. I'm really happy with how it's developing. I I like issue three way better than issue one.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, I think it's um it's it's so it evolves, uh it's what again, I think that is the exact the right word is evolving as before before our eyes or as we as we're doing it and we're learning on the go. But um, yeah, I totally agree that the the content has blown me away. Like the quality of the people that we're talking to and the contributors, and obviously with um Mika last last issue and Lucy this issue that the and and having a street sort of life photographer is just awesome because obviously you and I are landscape photographers. Well, I'm not even a photographer these days, I haven't put a camera in my hand for a little while. Um, but it it's so it's also the fact that it's not we didn't have a lot of content outside ourselves, and that's changing. We've got obviously uh Carmel's done an inter an article for this one, and we've got some other people contributing to articles for the next one. Um, but it's it's just exciting to feel like um the community's growing, that the yeah, our presence, the people that are coming back to us, the feedback. Um it's really exciting and and hopefully people are learning something from it.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, I mean, we don't want to be an educational magazine. I mean, that was that was obvious from the start. Um, and it was when we're when we've asked for feedback, that's been noted that you know we're not getting involved in the tech behind what we're doing because so many magazines do that. And I don't think that's what women want from this type of publication. You know, the people we talk to, then there's more heart to it, there's more emotion to it. You know, they are shooting because they're passionate. Um, and their F-stop, their ISO, and their shutter speed. It's not the most important thing in the world to them. It's that feeling of being out there, and I think that's coming through. I mean, our Instagram following is growing exponentially, which I think is amazing because that's that's organic, that's people hearing about us, and and and I think what we thought we wanted to build is needed. And that it's that's positive affirmation for us.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

And we've done um two photo walks with Julius, which has been fun. So one at um Lunar Park and the other at Observatory Hill. And and I think that that kind of thing as well is is, I mean, apart from being super fun, um, it's great to just see and meet new people. And again, it's that it's that inspiration that I I hope that it all brings so that someone wants to put a camera in their hand, regardless of what they're shooting, or or that you know, they're learning to take a shot, or they're seasoned and experienced and just want to look at different genres that are in the magazine.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah, or they're like you and I and have a camera with us with all sorts of tech that we've never used before, and we just experiment with it. So, you know, we're all learning.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

That was actually very funny. So I suppose a little bit about that. At the photo walk, we turn up and the the the weather was, of course, it was perfect weather for uh a picnic, but not perfect weather for shooting because there was no clouds, there was no pretty colours in the sky, and and sunset was was pretty miserable. But um, having said that, lots of people took some incredible shots that um they've been posting since that, and and it shows that you can actually get a good shot from anything. Um, but we sat there and we thought, well, what are we gonna do? So we we got the um Gail's OM1 out and it's got the live composition on it. So we we thought we'd Google quickly how to do that. So we we did it, and then we we watched really cool on the screen how the the light trails from the cars started building on the back of the screen, and so then we we posted a photo together. A collab.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

It was a true collab. I mean, I didn't even take a tripod, I was just thinking I need the discipline of just being handheld, and you'd take in your your Hassie and your tripod. So between us, we sort of had totally different gear as well. So it was good to to learn something new and pass it on on the spot to the people that were there. Yes, it was as we squealed with delight as the light trails grew.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

It was very cool. Um, but that again, so we we we turned up and learned something at and got inspired to now go and take light trails on the OM1.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Um, but that's and the social side of that. Like everybody wanted to catch up for a drink afterwards, so we booked a couple of tables on the rooftop of the Glenmoor, and it's just a it's a nice community. I think one of the learnings though, we limited the numbers on both of the on both of the shoots we've done with Lumix to 25 people. I think for when we do lens like life by ourselves, I don't think we should do that. I I think I don't think it matters if a hundred people turn up, but just we just have to be more careful about where we go afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. But um, you know, more so more fun, more social, more talking, more meeting, um, more inspiration. Because the yeah again, I I was chatting um one of my big learnings recently, and there's an article in this issue about my um terrible underwater photography skills, because I I stupidly thought that if I rock up to uh Fakarava, which is where we went scuba diving, and turned on an underwater camera, that it would be exactly the same as overwater and that I would be able to take a shot. And um sadly I couldn't. I had no idea what I was doing. The light was very different, and everything that I did was either blurry or not blue or terrible. And so um there there is actually some of my least talented or least um what is the right not good? Least good is not good, very not not not very good English, but my you're not very proud of. Not work that I'm not hugely proud of that's in the magazine as a demonstration of how um things can go wrong. So we put an article in um in the in the this issue more about what you know how things can go wrong as opposed to how things can go right. And I think that that's good learnings as well for for me and anyone else that wants to try and do underwater photography. It is a skill that it's a but at the at the uh photo walk, I was talking to Chantel, who is a she she's an avid scuba diver as well and quite a good um underwater photographer, so so was giving me some pointers. So now I need to go scuba dive again and and try try the camera again and see if I can do something better.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

The best laid plans, it was a bit like that. I think um in the second issue I did an article about Vietnam, and I went there thinking, okay, I'm gonna take the sort of shots that Serena and I take. Like I like I love long exposures, I love panos, and I started doing that, but in Vietnam there's not much that actually suits that. Like it's fast, it moves, there's lots of action, and the people are absolutely beautiful, like warm-hearted, generous, open. And over the two weeks that I was there, I went from shooting my traditional landscapes to shooting people and got some of the best, you know, laughing, line faces, and real personalities, and you know, people working on the streets who just wanted to have their photographs taken and were open and friendly, and you know, like sometimes your plans and what you think you're going to get aren't what you end up with, and it's a fantastic experience to let yourself go with the flow.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Difference is though that you got good photos and I didn't. But what um what did blow me away was I was not expecting um Tahiti, which Fakara is part of, um, to have incredible droning.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Um I I thought some of the drone shots I think of yours are beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah, it was that just the colours between the sand and the water and the green of the palm trees, and the water is so blue. It is just it is actually you have to pull it back a little bit because it's just so so blue. Um, but there's not a lot of handheld, I get I I really struggled with that because it was just so open. It was um, and we we didn't actually nail um Amazing Sunsets bar about two, and sunrises practically didn't exist. So it it that was a bit sad, but um yeah, again, it's you still create a new drone with you, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

The mini.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I did, and I wish I'd um again, I'd because I wasn't expecting it to be amazing. I wish I'd taken the the four, the Mavic four, but um the Mini was really good, it just it it was so light, it it it it's it fits in your pocket, it is really incredible. Um, and I'm really impressed with the quality, but it it it bounces around the minute there's a a spot of wind. Uh and with the quality of the droning that I experienced, I would have preferred to have the bigger sensor that's in the in the Mavic, but um just from the purposes. Next time, I'll have to go back. We'll have to go back. You can come with me and you can learn underwater photography as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I didn't like those shark pictures, and I would not want to be in the water with them.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

You know what? Um it was amazing. Uh look, we went there specifically to dive with the sharks, and we did the north pass and the south pass in in it's what's called the wall of sharks, which is in Fakara. And um, and it's this atoll literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is two flights from Papy AT, and then we went on an hour and 45 boat ride down to the south of the atoll. And so we're literally in the middle of nowhere, and um, no internet, there's 4G tower in one little spot. So for three days, we were literally off grid pretty much. Um, but this diving was um I'm a bit of a wuss. Everyone I don't like spiders, snakes, heights, you know, all that kind of thing. But and I and I don't like the idea of swimming in Sydney at the moment because of all the great white sharks that seem to be. They eat you. They do. And so the concept of actually getting into the water, you know, 25 metres below and swimming with literally hundreds of sharks, um, I for some reason I wasn't freaked out by it. I I it it just sort of we had a plan, we learnt to scuba dive, um, and we we went to to Fakarava to to do this and and pulled it off, which is pretty amazing because I'd I'd never um scuba dived until January when Mel and I went and learned to scuba dive, effectively get our license. And then we had to do the advanced course because we had to go uh below 20 meters to 30 meters, and so you had to do two courses. And we were literally 25 meters below the surface. The the the visibility was insanely incredible because the water is just so blue and the light is amazing. But there there were hundreds of sharks, and it was incredible, and they're just they're not fussed by you at all. They just are they are they well fit? Uh they they must be. There's thousands and thousands of fish, so it's pretty incredible. But you just feel I felt so small, like you're just sort of clinging on to the the it's a it's a channel and it's a past, so there's quite a strong current, and you you're just sort of clinging on, holding on so the current doesn't take you, and you feel like you're watching a highway with just fish and sharks and wahoo and tuna, and then there's all lots of pretty fish, and it's just I mean, it's we are so small in this world, and and you really felt that when you're just sort of watching all of this unfold, and it was it was pretty spectacular. Um, and we both felt very privileged to to be able to do that. But we're now trying to because it's one of the top five dive sites in the world for seeing sharks, and we're sort of like, okay, well, what do we do now? That's given that was our first sort of foray into it. Um, now we want to go and see um uh like squid and cuttlefish and octopuses and all those sorts of things, uh, but because we didn't see a lot of those. Um, and apparently Sydney's one of the best places for that, so we'll we'll learn that. But I've got to learn how to take a good shot if I want to go and do the the giant cuttlefish that are currently in Cabbage Tree Bay and and just off Manley. So it's heaps heaps around.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Um we get we get stingrays on on Jimmy's here. Like quite big ones.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Really?

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yes, we do, and that's just over your back fence. It is, it is.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

You don't even have to go anywhere. Seeing as I'm a local now. Um but so yeah, the the whole the whole experience of um failing, and I guess I mean that the photos aren't terrible, and I'm I'm I'm happy with them because I got some and you can see the sharks, but the experience of of I guess failing to my expectations is something that is actually a really good experience, if that makes sense. So I I now just can't take any anything like that for granted in regards to the way that I shoot or the way that I work. Um, and and and I think that's a really good story also for the magazine.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, yeah. And and even though you say the photographs aren't good, Matt, they are beautiful. They're coral, just stunning. And and the sharks. The sharks. Yeah, the sharks. You may have expected more, but the photographs have come out really well.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

We went Mel actually did video and and strangely enough, so we we we went underwater with three three things. So we had the DJI Osmo Action 4 or 6 or something, I don't know, and then the the GoPro. And the difference between the GoPro and the um DJI was remarkable. I if you were and and I'm I'll probably do a write-up in that and might not make the magazine, but we'll probably go onto the website. Um, the difference between the DJI and the GoPro, the DJI absolutely left the GoPro for dead in regards to um film. So the light. Um, so basically, I don't, this is all stuff that I now know that I didn't know at the time very well or didn't think about. But as you drop below the water, the the water filters out light. So it starts with filtering out red and then um green, and then it it the last colour is blue. So when you get so obviously the the photos at in the magazine are very blue because they're 25 meters down, so really all you can see is blue. Um, but the video that Mel captured when we were down that low, the DJI actually does that really well, and and the you can't see that it is as blue as the GoPro or the I was using the TG7 ohm OM, which was uh Olympus, but now it's OM. So it's an underwater camera that everyone talks about as being um amazing. Um I don't think I had it set up right, or I don't I'm not an amazing underwater photographer, but even the the GoPro didn't work nearly as well. So it's quite fascinating um about how they render colour that far down. But some of our videos are incredible. Uh Mel's videos are incredible, not mine.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Mel's Facebook posts were incredible. Yeah, she put up that a heap of photographs and they were absolutely stunning. So I expected an awful lot from you.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Yes, thanks. Not really. Um, but so yeah, what and what's what else is does did you do you like in this this issue?

SPEAKER_01 18:36

I kind of like that we started the whole theme of intentional constraints in the last issue. And this is probably the opposite of what we've just talked about because you know, Tahiti and the experience that you had, that was extraordinary. And that's you know, that's not going to be everybody's experience. What can be is the intentional constraint of shooting the same location on a regular basis, you know, as as we do up here in Hawk's Nest. Um, and it was great because um Carmel Montgomery gave us some feedback on the issues, and um, and so we sort of asked her if she'd like to be part of a part of an article, and she shoots the same baths on a regular basis. Um, and her images, she challenges herself as she shoots to find new comps, to use different focal lengths, to you know, to go minimalist, to go long exposure, to get action, to have people on the shots. And um, she's put together a fantastic article on on just that on the intentional constraint of shooting at your local on a regular basis. So I'm looking forward to seeing what the feedback is like from that. I mean, I love her article, and that goes back, went live today. Yeah. So it it opposite extremes, you know, just not everybody gets to travel. So, you know, what do you do when you're at home? So she's, I think, quite inspirational.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

I think it because I I mean, I've I've gone through the the the in focus room podcast. I used to always talk about the fact that I live just near Bronte. So I would I between Bronte and Cooji, I shot there, you know, so many times. I just got bored with going back and shooting the same thing over and over and over. So it is a it's a really good way of trying to challenge yourself to see something differently. Yeah and and that's really important because I totally stopped doing that. I just go and set the, you know, and hope there's nice colour or the nice waves or there's some good flow or you know, blah blah. But it's actually trying to find exactly that, trying to find something different in the same spot.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah. I remember being on the um Stockton breakwater on a beautiful morning, stunning sunrise, um, and Trina was there, Trina Vale, and she had a 24 to 70, which was so not the right lens for what I would have done. You know, it was you wanted wide angle, you you didn't want to be in any way confined. Um, and and she'd set herself to challenge that that's what she was shooting with that morning. And I thought, oh, you know, that that would be so much harder. But she took some beautiful shots. It's yeah, it's a I mean, I think this whole theme of intentional constraints is something that we can that we can carry on with, and and maybe this is another way that we can get um international, local, different genres to participate. So I think that it's sort of nice to build something that we can that we can continue on issue by issue.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Yeah, it's a it's a it's an interesting uh take or an interesting challenge that we should actually all do uh exactly as you say, regardless of the style of photographer that we are. I mean my work traditionally is um panos, long exposure panos, um, which are certainly not uh constrained other than Other than their panos, um, and they're very traditionally very wide angle.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Um, and and and anywhere. But it so actually doing what Tarina did and putting a different lens on or trying squ I mean, even um just square or a different crop, just trying to do something differently at the same place, I think is um and the only thing different is the only thing similar is the place. Is that I mean what what other ways would there be if you black and white, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

That's a that's probably an easy one, right? Because I mean those sunrises and those sunsets, it's the colour that looks beautiful. But when you think black and white, you've got to think tonality and you need extreme lights, and yeah, yeah, it's it's a it's a different way to look at a scene. I think that could be something we could do uh further down the track. Phone versus camera.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Film versus digital. Ooh, there's a haven you've written an article about that. It is, and it is in this issue. And and it's funny because that's exactly I guess the theme of that that article was um I like film better because of the constraints of it. It's slow, it's you can't see the outcome. I have film in my camera that um I haven't seen, and it I took them months ago. So it's so I don't even I don't even know what's in in I I send the film off and it comes back and I go, oh wow, that's I didn't know I I forgot about that. Um and and you don't take because I mean film is expensive to buy and and it's not like you know rocking up with a digital camera and shooting off 500 shots and then coming back and finding one you like. It's it's um it's it's just it's the the process of just slowing everything down and trying to image and imagine what the image is and how it should be. And then you actually it's manual, you've you've still got a m light meter the light. You've it's just old.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

I mean, like it's it's how we learn when I I had the one experience of that when I took that lyker of yours to Bodie Ghost Town. I took it with me to the to the US, thank you. Um, still got that 36 roll of film sitting in my bag waiting to be dropped to be developed. And I've got to be honest, I'm terrified to think what I've got. But I I think I I I sort of was so glad because when I told you I was going to a ghost town, there were going to be like old buildings and you know, old cars and rusty, and film made sense. And the light was standing that uh that afternoon. It was there was a storm that came through. So I will I will drop it in to get it developed the next time I'm down in Sydney or I'll send it off to get it done. But it is terrifying. You take a shot and you cannot, you can't look in the back screen to see whether or not, yeah. It's just I know I have no idea. And I also I think I told you, like, hello. Um, I didn't even remember what size the roll was, and I thought it was 36, but when I got to 36, it just kept taking photos. So I've probably taken about six photos on 36. So that one's going to be really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

That that's what it's it's not even a double double exposure, it's a six, six, uh six exposure, but um it'll be probably pretty cool. You never know. And and you know what? Uh sometimes um the accident photos uh um uh uh uh on film are the ones that you actually like the best. So um I'm I I I haven't I haven't nailed it. I don't think I've got a couple that I'm really proud of in regards to film.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

The Rolly, like you've got you've got the Rolly down to a fine art.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Um, but it's I still I still don't quite get the light metering right sometimes. So um yeah, I think um I probably need to spend some more time learning that. Uh actually maybe using the light meter that I own rather than going, oh, I think I've think I've got this in my head. Um but it's just it I've really enjoyed the process of slowing down um rather than you know going to the beach and there's flow and you come home with 500 shots.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Um and isn't that funny, personality voice, because everybody thinks that you're the crazy runaround one and that I'm the calmer one, but you have the patience for film. And after that one experience, I was like, yeah, no, I'd like your camera back.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

I think I think life is so um so fast, and and we do um, I mean it's I guess that's um a metaphor, isn't it? The camera, the film and the digital is life is fast and slow. Um, yeah, it's I I definitely have enjoyed that. I mean, I always it's funny, I I for years um I used to say every time we interviewed someone through the In Focus Women podcast, um, that uh to me photography was a form of meditation.

unknown 27:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

And so you, you know, you get down in the morning and or in the evening and you spend time with nature and you you either take a photo or you don't, but you obviously do most of the time. Your feet either get wet or but you you you just experience the the most beautiful light and the most beautiful time of of the day being usually sunrise. I I don't haven't got out. I've I've done a lot more sunrises than I have sunset, but that's just you know when kids and work and all that sort of stuff. Um and then I and then I haven't I had hadn't done a lot of shooting in the last um year or two, which has been a pity, but I I'm starting again. But I also did actually take up meditation and and and totally understand that the the the med that it is that like even though I used to say that it was like a form of meditation, it actually is a form of meditation. Am I I'm probably talking nonsense and not really making much sense, but um, so for everyone who who thinks that they're using photography as a form of meditation, or they you know, you actually are, and it is it is just about that calm and slow, and then you reel off 500 photos and everything digital's fast, but um, yes, I think film and film and digital are a metaphor for fast and slow life.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

I don't know what I just rambled on about, so yeah, that's all a bit crazy, but that's okay. Um and what are you looking forward to coming up? What exciting stuff do you have coming up? We're going to we're going to Victoria to shoot.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

We're going to shoot winter and it's snowing down then. Finally snowing. Yeah. Thank goodness. I was thinking we're going to have to detour and go to New Zealand instead because it looks like it's beautiful over here in the South Island at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Oh, it looks incredible. We I guarantee you we would go shooting to go to shoot the whore frost and it wouldn't happen.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Yeah, we yeah, we'd have a heat wave.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

We don't we don't have much luck around our conditions when we get to New Zealand.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Um I was trying to look at photographs for the website of you and I, I found those photographs when we went to Tasman Lake. And it was hosing down to the skin, there was one dirty iceberg. We weren't even sure if we were in the right place because everybody else's photos had been multiple and it was winter and it was just like, what the we couldn't even see the glacier.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

It's just glacier. Mount Cook was wet. I did go back with Cass and um we did it was it was no colour. We did see a couple of icebergs. Um, it was cold, but again, I have not had any luck at Tasman Lakes. Um so no, we I know we we could well in in in news for us is that Cassie, my youngest daughter, um, is keen to go to Christchurch to go to university next year. So we might have to visit Christchurch regularly. And Twazel's just up the road. I know she she if she could have picked anywhere in the world, I think Christchurch is pretty good for us.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Yeah, that's really good.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Yeah, well I love Christchurch.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Well, what I would like to do, um, like thinking thing much, much longer term. So, you know, when we spoke to Victoria Hack, it was via Zoom, and you know, like she painted this picture of Canada and the living in British Columbia, like, oh wow, it's like I wish we were there with her. You see her photographs, it's man, I'd love to see that with her. Um, and then Mek, unfortunately, you know, we'll catch up with her for a drink when we're down in Bright at the end of the month. So that's that's cool. And she's an expert on that area, um, as is Matt. And I've got a beautiful gallery, so it'll be nice to touch base. Um, Lucy, whose article just came out today. Hey, street in London, how good would that be?

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Oh, that would be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

That would be so, so good. Too late because we've done the articles. Yes. But what do we have coming up for the next episode?

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Just thinking, we've got Isabella. Um I think she lives in Milan, so that would be pretty good. That would be okay. A quick trip to Milan to uh to do the interview. That would be pretty, that would be pretty fun. Um, although we'll be speaking to her probably via Zoom in the next couple of weeks. I know, something to aspire to. Sadly. But maybe that's that that's maybe that's our goal for next year and all the issues that uh we're we're we'll be doing is actually going and interviewing the person as opposed to on Zoom. I mean, who who needs Zoom?

SPEAKER_01 31:41

I know, I know. You don't get the feel for the place by Zoom.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

No.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

I'd like to sit down with Isabella and have an editing lesson.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Oh, she's she just her work is just the aerials that um oh she blows and she goes to the coolest places. Um I think the her recent aerial series, which is the one that's going on the cover of the next issue, um, is from Argentina, and they are you I mean, look, they're just incredible. Um so anyway, we'll keep being inspired by amazing people. I know um and and the I mean I and again this is why I love this so much is A, we get to talk to the coolest people and B, we get to um I get inspired by just looking and seeing and hearing their story, but even the the like Lucy's because I I I attempt to be a street photographer every now and again and I'm terrible at it, and um it's so it's again one of those things is I've struggle with taking photos of people on the street. I feel like they're they don't like it or they and and so but I see these shots and I just go, how did you get them? How did you either not speak to them or not ask them or you know that they're okay? Because I point my camera at someone, you know, just on the street to Sydney, and they all look at me as if, well, you're taking my photo for it. And so I feel very intimidated by by that. So anyone that does street, I think, um, I think they're super cool because they've they've got just this skill of either being invisible, which I I'm not, um, potentially it's the bright clothes or the bright colours that I wear that I'm my volume. Yes, that's quite loud. But um, yeah, so I've got to learn, I've got to speak to people and learn about how that works for them and how they they manage to do that, because yeah, I I can't.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Or or there's always the fallback of the zoom.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Yeah, but I think it I think when you do street with the zoom, it flattens it. It's sort of you you lose that depth that you get from like the the the 35 or the you know the 28. So or the 38. 30 20, yeah, 38. Um so uh it's it's yeah, anyway. I'm fascinated by uh by talking to more people about that.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah, yeah. I I I've gone out with um Beuldius a few times because he's such an expert on the street and and he gives me pointers. You know, when we were standing on Observatory Hill and we were looking at the road that runs through to the bridge, right in front of us there was this gorgeous old brick building, and there was a street light in front of it, and the streetlight threw a perfectly round circle on the road, and he zoomed in on it, and it looked like something out of a movie set. And I hadn't even seen it, it was right there in front of me, it was right in the in our foreground, it was at the bottom of our shot. We've probably lost it in all the track the trails headlights and taillights, but I didn't even see it, and he and he just zoomed in and took a stunning shot, and it was like it's just a different way of looking at things.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

It it is, and I didn't even have a zoom. I don't even have a I now I think about it, I don't even really. Oh, yeah, that's right. I think that's somewhere here. I don't know. That's good for street. Yeah, okay. Uh well, is it is a zoom uh anyway. I don't know. I've not I don't see people on the street like a trop a a true street photographer with a zoom.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Maybe that's our challenge for the next one is actually go out and try and capture some proper street.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Oh, that will be that will be fun. In Vietnam, the people were open to it. So and and the the shots I love the most are the ones when they weren't looking at me, they were joking as a group and laughing, you know, heads thrown back, and it was the warmth between them. They're the shots I liked the best. So I I was I was uh sort of on the edges, but but you know, with a with a 50 mil lens. So not I wasn't a long way away. That was that was quite lovely. But I don't know, I'm I would also be like you, I'm a little bit concerned that people just you know don't like you taking their photo without asking permission. And once you've asked permission, then they don't necessarily look as cool and relaxed as they did.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Yeah, and part of the street is exactly that that it's yeah, um not it's not it's candid, it's not staged. Um and so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Let's try a few genres that we're not expert at.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

All of them except for potentially drone and landscape. Portrait I'm terrible. As soon as you put a person in or an animal, I'm not a wildlife, I'm not a bird, I'm not I'm terrible. I'm I'm the minute it moves and it's not slow and and and you know, I'm I'm the anyway, unless it's water.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

We're good at that.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Well, so I guess um we'll we'll start wrapping it up, but um what are you excited about in the next cycle? So in the next issue, what are we what are we looking for? What are we excited about? I'm gonna go and try some street, maybe there's a a story in that of attempting to be a street photographer.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

We played around with light too in an earlier issue, um, playing with you know, for our for our we wrote it when it wasn't winter here, but that whole idea, and it well, you and I will have to think about it when we're down in um Brighton at the end of the month, shooting in low light and shooting you know when there's fog or mist or um that there's there's there's quite that's quite a technique as well. Um I think going forward there are we need to look at, and I know in issue four we're thinking about shooting with um artificial light, neither of us are expert at that. That's gonna be you know, that's gonna take quite a bit of research, and hopefully um somebody who's way more expert than us can help us with that article. But it it I love that this community is so open to helping. We'd like to write an article and you're really good at this. Let's you know, let's work together to get something that we can share because that's one thing about women in photography. We want to help each other. We we don't we aren't less because we give away skills, we aren't it doesn't make us less to make someone to help someone else to be better. And I think the magazine is showing that with the generosity of um our contributors. Um and then I think with our with our photo walks, we can sort of bring that to life.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

And I guess that's a really good point, is if the if you are listening um and you are interested in helping or contributing or being uh being a contributor or writing an article or you're an expert at something that we're not, which is a lot, um we we're more than happy to have a chat about uh helping out with Lens Light Life because um we are totally it's it's it's it feels like it's a bit um about us, but we're we're trying to not, we're trying to expand it so that it's a full community.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Yeah, we had to start somewhere. Um and and if you're feeling that like you aren't good enough, I mean one of the ladies that I've been talking to, Carmel Dennis, she's a grandmother, she's got grandkids, she's you know, she she has a whole like family life around her, but her happy place is being out with her camera. Um it actually mostly with her phone. So she doesn't use Lightroom, she doesn't use Photoshop, but her images are beautiful, so there's no limit on on her and all you need to do is you know, give us a photograph with a little bit about you and a little bit about the photograph, and you can be a contributor. It's that simple, it's not hard.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

It's awesome. I love that. I love that aspect. I love I love that people get to see their their work. Yeah. And that and then other people get to see their work. So that's that's just so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Well, hopefully it won't be us for now. We're we we're already pulling back our content because it wasn't even supposed to be about us.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Yeah, thank goodness. I'm running out. I'm running out. I'm putting in bad content because I well, that was the point of that story, but anyway. Well, thank you. We'll we won't wait another six months or however long it's been since our last podcast. We're gonna try doing it more regularly. So I guess subscribe to the podcast so you can hear what's coming up in the in the issues. Feel free to subscribe to the magazine. You can do that at Lens Light Life. Follow us on Instagram, um, Facebook. I think we're on threads. Um feel free to and feel free to communicate with us because that's what we love.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

Thanks for your team. Keep an eye out because we'll post the next photo walk in the next two or three weeks.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Yes, definitely. And yeah, thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Thank you.