‫-: Dang.
‫-: Hello everybody.
‫Group: Hey.
‫-: Hello. Oh.
‫-: What year is it?
‫-: Wild. ‫-: Where are we?
‫-: 2030.
‫-: Feels like 2030. What is up everybody?
‫Welcome. ‫-: We are live.
‫Yeah, we're like so rusty. ‫-: How do I do this again?
‫-: When was the last time we went live?
‫(Phil laughing)
‫-: Welcome to "Photography and Friends Live"
‫Will, Sam and I are in the house
‫and we're so excited to be ‫-: We're back.
‫-: back in action.
‫-: We back. ‫-: What's up guys?
‫-: Nothing man. What's up with you?
‫How's your summer been? Where have you been?
‫What's going on? What's your name?
‫Who are you? (chuckles)
‫-: I don't even remember any of those things anymore.
‫(both laughing)
‫Summer has been good.
‫Hello everyone in the chat.
‫Let us know where you are tuning in from.
‫We got some of our favorite people in the house.
‫Barry, Brian, Jose, Persante,
‫thank you so much for being here, for chatting.
‫Head over to the "Photography and Friends" YouTube channel
‫and chat us there.
‫That's, like, the easiest place for us
‫to see those chats coming in.
‫-: Oh yeah. ‫-: But yeah, summer.
‫I took a lot of time off this summer to be with the kids.
‫It was the last time that my kids,
‫little kids aren't in grade school.
‫My boys are in grade school now.
‫So yeah, it was fun summer. Did a couple trips.
‫Went to Idaho, which was amazing.
‫Super beautiful up there and did a little oceanside trip
‫and a lot of time just hanging out at home.
‫Swim lessons with the kids.
‫-: Wow.
‫-: Trying to stay cool. ‫-: They good swimmers?
‫-: No they are not, but they're trying to learn.
‫Lucia, my little one, she's better than the boys.
‫And it's all the teacher because the boys were in, like,
‫a upper level, but the teacher would, like, ask them
‫oh, do you want to jump in, like, go under the water?
‫And they'd be like, "No."
‫And so they just wouldn't do it.
‫But then Lucia had like a hardcore teacher
‫that was just like, you're jumping in the water.
‫You're gonna have to swim to the top.
‫-: Oh my God. ‫-: And she, like, did it
‫and it's pretty exciting.
‫But yeah. So I've just been up to that kind of stuff.
‫And yeah, boys just started school.
‫So ready to get back into "Photography and Friends"
‫and classes and all that kind of stuff too.
‫So how are you guys doing?
‫What'd you guys do this summer?
‫-: Sam.
‫Oh, did we lose audio or is that just me?
‫-: No, I muted myself.
‫-: Oh, okay. (laughing)
‫Hi. We're new here. ‫-: Yeah.
‫Summertime. Summer started in July, I guess.
‫I got stuck in a category five hurricane.
‫-: Oh, that's right.
‫-: That was a thing.
‫Have we talked since then?
‫-: I don't think so.
‫-: Yeah.
‫Went to Nepal then Thailand.
‫Then was supposed to go to Micronesia,
‫but there's a hurricane-
‫-: Oh wait.
‫This was when you were supposed to be filming a project?
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: Yes. Okay.
‫-: And then came back and then had-
‫Yeah, it's been busy.
‫It was like tons of work there for a moment.
‫Went to a ranch with Will for a week, hung out with horses.
‫-: Oh yeah. I forgot about that. (laughing)
‫-: Did a little photography.
‫I took photos at my friend's elopement.
‫My fiance was the officiant,
‫and so I said I'd do photos and videos and stuff.
‫And it was actually really fun to be in that wedding mindset
‫and getting shots and posing a couple
‫and doing all that stuff, it was a lot of fun.
‫And then just, yeah, lot of video projects
‫and stuff like that.
‫But it's been lovely.
‫I realized how hot it's been everywhere else
‫and Santa Cruz isn't a little microclimate.
‫So it was, like, 90 yesterday. It's very hot.
‫But today, it's super overcast and like 60 degrees
‫and it's sort of been like that throughout summer.
‫We'll get a couple nice days
‫and then it'll get nice and cold again, so.
‫-: That sounds nice.
‫(Sam laughing)
‫-: It's pretty humid here in Tennessee. (laughing)
‫-: Oh, I can only imagine.
‫-: Will, what have you been up to?
‫-: Oh man, I've been doing a lot of video stuff.
‫Yeah. I mean, Phil and I were talking about earlier.
‫I think the biggest thing I did that's coming out soon
‫is I directed and shot some videos for Kolbie Kalay.
‫Totally cool. Those will be acoustic set.
‫I've done some concert stuff.
‫Some friends around here, we're doing a lot
‫of acoustic video stuff.
‫I've been shooting a lot of film, but I just got a couple
‫rolls of 120 back that I took to the county fair.
‫And yeah, with some friends and the film-
‫Actually, I think I traveled with these two rolls
‫back and forth to LA too much, 'cause they're supposed to be
‫fine in the X-ray, but I have gone through the X-ray, like,
‫maybe six times (laughing) with those rolls.
‫And so now they're, like, there's a streak
‫across all of 'em, which is kind of a bummer.
‫(indistinct talking)
‫It's on both rolls.
‫It's 800 Cinestill and it's on both rolls
‫in two different magazines for my Hasselblad.
‫So I'm pretty sure that's the case.
‫But yeah, I know I've been seen a lot of film doing that.
‫I had a wedding at LMU and I shot, which was fun.
‫-: That's cool.
‫Had you shot a wedding at LMU before, which is the college-
‫-: I did for Courtney,
‫-: Oh, yes. ‫-: or for Donovan.
‫-: Yeah. ‫-: Yeah.
‫But that was, like, 12 years ago maybe. (laughing)
‫-: Yeah. Yeah.
‫-: And so then I reshot. I shot one recently.
‫And I did some medium format photos too, alongside that.
‫I wonder if I can find those?
‫I'll have to send 'em to you guys.
‫But that was super fun.
‫I do have a wedding inquiry I got today.
‫Shooting a wedding in April in Mexico.
‫-: Nice.
‫And you separated all your Instagram accounts?
‫-: Oh yeah. Have you noticed that?
‫Yeah.
‫This is a whole diatribe that we go on.
‫If you guys have questions about why I'm doing this
‫for social media, please feel free to post
‫in the YouTube chat.
‫But I had this long break from Instagram
‫and I'm really kind of-
‫I'm not anti Instagram, but I'm trying to step away more
‫from social media or at least have a better
‫relationship with it.
‫And my main account, my William Carnahan account
‫is for pretty much work only.
‫So from now on, I'm only posting anything that has to do
‫with things I've shot.
‫My blog posts, classes, all that stuff.
‫And then I have an adventures account,
‫which is more about like camping and, like,
‫I'm going on a backpacking elk hunt with A Day in the Field.
‫We just saw a comment in there.
‫Next week where we're gonna be making a YouTube video.
‫And then I have my wedding only Instagram account,
‫which is like something I'm just gonna be
‫posting wedding stuff for, and that just has come about
‫because like I have a lot of people that are like,
‫I don't see any of your wedding stuff.
‫Like, I wanna see your portfolio and the websites are fine,
‫which is good, but Instagram allows me to tag people
‫and get more wedding content built.
‫And so if you're interested in following me,
‫I forgot the name of it already.
‫I think it was William...
‫What was it, Sam?
‫I had a long talk with Sam about what I should name it.
‫And yeah, so I'm slowly trying to build up
‫my wedding Instagram account and that's where I'll...
‫WilliamCarnahan_Weddings.
‫-: I think the thing about that, which we could talk,
‫I mean, we could keep talking about this, but I don't wanna-
‫-: Yeah, do you like it? Do you not like it?
‫-: Diving into Instagram, but it's an interesting idea.
‫I think as photographers,
‫a lot of people are just over Instagram,
‫but it's still important to have it
‫as a wedding photographer, an active photographer,
‫that profile where people can go see your work and it gives
‫you an excuse to post more photos than what would be
‫on your website portfolio, which is usually more
‫curated and limited, so.
‫-: Yeah, and personally I feel like I get into these,
‫and this is like a personal thing.
‫And I don't know if people can relate, but I get into these
‫Instagram holes where I'm just endlessly scrolling
‫and it feels like a waste of time.
‫And then, like, I don't know, if I see other people's posts,
‫I'm like, "Man, I wish I was doing that."
‫It's like this, Instagram has this weird mental control
‫over me that I've been trying to step away from
‫or change my relationship with.
‫And I think by separating all these things,
‫it's an experiment.
‫So we'll see how it goes.
‫-: It's all an experiment.
‫We're all going through it.
‫(indistinct talking)
‫-: And also, I mean, I think to your point, Will,
‫of what you're doing and for photography people on here,
‫having a dedicated thing that is your body of work
‫that you're trying to share with people,
‫Instagram's a great tool to share that with someone.
‫-: Absolutely. ‫-: And can share your website
‫of course and your Instagram account should lead
‫to your website that showcases, you know, that stuff.
‫But, you know, I've been going through rebuilding my website
‫and I won't get to Brittany and Barry's websites
‫'cause they've been posting some cool, they're new websites.
‫But curating what the work is that's gonna be on there
‫and all this stuff, like, the Instagram feed is also a tool
‫that's gonna, like, showcase all that.
‫But if you do specific things, having specific accounts
‫for each of those makes a lot of sense, I think.
‫-: Yeah, and I'm into that.
‫I feel like it's a nice separation in my head.
‫I was talking to, I think he's in the chat.
‫Again, A Day in the Field.
‫He's on TikTok a lot and he's like, I just don't...
‫If I didn't wanna become a personality to share my work,
‫I wouldn't have to be across all social media platforms.
‫I don't know.
‫It's different for everybody and, like, what you're doing.
‫But yeah, if you guys have questions about that,
‫let us know.
‫I like the website idea.
‫It's just not as easily accessible on a whim
‫or if you're trying to get clients, you know,
‫to get exposure.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: See. Also, I've never, I don't think I've ever,
‫I don't know if my Instagram account played a role
‫in me getting a job, but I've never had, to my knowledge,
‫a job because of my Instagram account.
‫-: Oh, I have for sure.
‫-: Yeah. So.
‫-: You're not very active.
‫-: Yeah. You utilize yours more, I guess.
‫-: Everyone tuning in right now, how are you guys feeling
‫all about Instagram or...
‫-: We got a Vero person on here.
‫-: Remember that fun experiment? (laughing)
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: It's just hard because the user base is in Instagram
‫and it's not necessarily connecting
‫with other photographers.
‫Like, I love the Vero concept there, but it's that everyone,
‫including clients are on Instagram.
‫And so it's getting people that are non-photo photographers
‫to see your work as well.
‫-: Right.
‫-: The thing though is, like, Instagram doesn't push
‫photos at all anymore.
‫My entire feed is videos and I don't care about
‫getting a lot of likes, but I pay attention.
‫And it's like, okay, I posted to 25,000 followers
‫and 30 people liked a photo.
‫It's like, that's because Instagram
‫isn't showing it to anybody.
‫And that's fine, because the only reason, honestly,
‫I use Instagram is so that I personally can look back
‫and be like, oh, this is like a diary
‫of my life via photography.
‫For me, it's not a place to get jobs,
‫but it's as photographers recommending it, it's hard.
‫I don't know.
‫-: But you can send your Instagram to someone,
‫they can see your work.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: I think that's, like, the most utilized part of it.
‫-: Totally.
‫-: And however many likes you get are not like,
‫I mean, there's all the strategy of when to post
‫and doing reels and like if you're trying
‫to get insta-famous, then that's a thing.
‫But if you're just trying to share your work,
‫who cares about likes?
‫Who cares about how many comments it gets?
‫Who cares about all that stuff?
‫Share your work, have a portfolio and it's a great tool
‫to share what you do.
‫-: I'm doing some-
‫Okay, there's so many tangents.
‫And first, I just wanna say thank you all for being here.
‫Again, we see people in the comments.
‫Barsha, Pasa, Red Rose Skull, Carlos, Robert, Marta.
‫Bob, Denise, thank you for being here.
‫Let us know 'cause I wanna ask Will and Sam this.
‫What camera are you currently using?
‫-: Oh boy.
‫-: What's your favorite lens?
‫So put in the chat, the camera you're on right now
‫and your favorite lens you're using.
‫But speaking of Instagram. So last thing about Instagram.
‫My wife and I were doing something for the kids' preschool
‫where we're offering affordable family photos
‫for the holidays.
‫And it's gonna be like a one-day thing where-
‫It's a fundraiser for the school.
‫So we're doing it, like, basically for free.
‫But we were looking for another photographer
‫and there was a mom at the school who has an Instagram
‫and my wife sends me like, oh, check out their Instagram.
‫Do you think they would be good? And it was exactly that.
‫I looked at her Instagram, it was a thing like,
‫okay, I can see, yes, you have quality photos.
‫You're hired for this free fundraiser.
‫But yeah, it was like using Instagram to verify
‫that you can take photos for this event.
‫And that is an idea.
‫If you're looking for a way to get-
‫You could probably do this and get paid to do it.
‫I'm doing it for free 'cause I'm a parent.
‫But go around to schools and they're always
‫looking for fundraisers.
‫Holidays, people want to get photos done ahead of time,
‫so you should probably be planning this right now
‫for doing it in October or November.
‫But hook up with a school, nonprofit school.
‫Nonprofit around and yeah, put together a one-day thing
‫where you can get, you know, one batch of photos
‫in one location, have a new family come in every 45 minutes
‫or something and work with the school or whatever.
‫I'll let you guys know how it goes,
‫but I think it could be a viable way to make a bunch
‫of connections as a photographer.
‫Lock in those families for family photos year after year
‫after year for any event.
‫It's a great way to start a business as a photographer.
‫-: Mama say Instagram is the devil. (laughing)
‫-: I like that. ‫-: It is. It really is.
‫-: Look at all the Canons people are using.
‫-: You know, I think Canon has done such an amazing job.
‫Their step into mirrorless world
‫was a little bumpy at first, but, like, the specs on their
‫cameras they're putting out and the usability and the fact
‫that their adapter actually works well with old class.
‫It's, yeah, they do good stuff.
‫-: Yeah, I would've gone Canon if they had mirrorless
‫when I jumped over to Fuji.
‫Nicholas Tarsky with the Sony.
‫-: Nicholas. ‫-: I'm curious how everything's
‫going with you wedding wise.
‫We did a great, well, Will and Sam did a great interview
‫with you about your wedding photography business.
‫I want to hear an update.
‫Everyone check that interview out
‫over at photographyandfriends.com, under the pod-
‫I think it's under the podcast.
‫Unless it was just a live stream.
‫-: I think it might have been a live stream.
‫-: I think it was live.
‫-: Okay. Well, did I post it as that?
‫Anyways, Nicholas, I'm curious to see if your strategy
‫of using Yelp ads and and things like that is still working
‫or if you've found other things to do or whatnot.
‫But anyways, yeah, lots of Nikon.
‫If people have questions, shoot 'em at us.
‫We're just gonna be here for the next 30, 45 minutes,
‫however long you want us to be answering questions.
‫I saw someone was in the Nikon camera class
‫and had a question.
‫So yeah, go ahead and ask any questions.
‫Actually, that Nicholas Tarsky is on the podcast.
‫I added that. So.
‫-: Cool.
‫-: Check that out if you're interested in wedding photography
‫and yeah, launching that kind of business.
‫-: A lot of Sonys, a lot of Canons.
‫Sam, what did you shoot your wedding with?
‫-: I shot it with my Leica Q3, which was wonderful,
‫and the Sony a7R5, which is the...
‫(indistinct talking)
‫Yeah, Will and I got that for our work stuff,
‫just because we do all of our video stuff with Sonys.
‫It was really nice having, 'cause we have the full set.
‫I have the full 16 to 35, 24 to 70 and 70 to 200.
‫(indistinct)
‫Sony and having the 7200 on there and then the Q3
‫which is a fixed 28 was like exactly what I wanted.
‫I think I would've preferred like a 85 prime lens, probably.
‫But, man, I just...
‫Getting the lighting right, getting all the things right,
‫the Sony looks great.
‫But, like, the quality of the Leica just, it's still,
‫it's kind of hard to look at the two images side by side
‫'cause it's like, well, that's not.
‫Why doesn't that look (laughing) as good?
‫But no, it was super fun.
‫It ended up being in, like,
‫it was up in the Pacific Northwest.
‫I have a friend up there who's a bush pilot
‫and he has a water plane.
‫And so he took us out to this remote lake
‫and we were, you know, in the woods by this lakeside.
‫-: When are we gonna see these photos?
‫-: I'll post a couple.
‫(Will laughing)
‫-: That's, like, painful. (laughing)
‫Oh, I'll post a couple.
‫-: It's a new world for me.
‫-: I know.
‫I'm just excited to have one of you guys
‫be shooting a wedding, you know, that I want to see
‫and compare and help and contrast and share
‫and, you know, all the things.
‫-: Fair, fair, fair, fair.
‫-: I saw a question in there, speaking of that.
‫What is it? Do you guys use AI to batch and edit?
‫-: No.
‫-: No. (laughing) ‫-: Not photos?
‫Yeah. ‫-: Not yet.
‫I'm sure in the future, if there's gonna be like a reason
‫to do that or it's good enough, I would be willing
‫to try it on a wedding to cull photos,
‫but probably not to edit.
‫I've just gotten it down to a system and I do it by hand
‫and it's, like, it's been working great for me.
‫So why change it up?
‫Unless, you know, I could see that there could be a reason
‫to use it in the future, but I haven't seen it
‫really perform that way.
‫-: I've seen someone with, you know, basically anything
‫where what's supposed to be the main subject
‫is out of focus.
‫There's certain things that you can tell it to call out.
‫I think a big part, like sometimes those accidents actually
‫end up making wonderful photos and the idea of not
‫personally going through the photos I take
‫and selecting which ones I wanna do.
‫I don't know.
‫I don't know if I'd fully trust that to a-
‫-: I did see the article recently,
‫literally about what we were just talking about, like,
‫probably last live stream.
‫-: Yeah we had an AI. Yeah.
‫-: How, like, someday people aren't even gonna want to do
‫head shots or anything anymore because they can just
‫throw a photo into a random, you know, AI generator
‫and then it'll come up with a bunch of headshot
‫options for them and it's already happening. (laughing)
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: That was quick.
‫-: There's a question on the Nikon camera class.
‫Marta is asking about the D5600 settings.
‫I guess this might be a better offline question.
‫If you're in the photography and friends community,
‫which you can join over at Plus.PhotographyandFriends.com
‫for free, we can answer a bit better
‫and maybe you could send a screenshot or a photo
‫of what the back of your screen looks like,
‫because the setting should look the same
‫as what we have in the class.
‫That class is geared towards DSLR cameras.
‫But the D5600, I don't know.
‫-: They might have done a new firmware
‫that changed the screen layout.
‫-: Maybe. Yeah, I don't know.
‫We can dig into that.
‫But maybe, Martha, if you can post that
‫over on the Plus Community, that would be helpful.
‫Nicholas says that he has four weddings this weekend.
‫(indistinct talking)
‫Too much.
‫(group laughing)
‫-: You monster.
‫-: Are you, like, running a business
‫with multiple photographers or are you shooting
‫four weddings this weekend yourself?
‫-: I bet he second shoots (indistinct).
‫I bet one of them that he's at least second shooting,
‫but I could see him doing full blown weddings for...
‫I mean, like if you had an elopement on a Friday or like,
‫you know, one big one on a Saturday or, but you know,
‫that's what you gotta do, right?
‫If you're full-time wedding photographer,
‫knock out four weddings in a weekend.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: And you've made your
‫money from them. ‫-: That's helpful.
‫-: And you mentioned that you're getting a lot of leads
‫from vendors, venues, Instagram, organic.
‫I think the vendors and venues is super important to be
‫connecting with other people.
‫But also, like, venues.
‫That's crucial because a lot of venues
‫will have their preferred photographers listed
‫when someone purchases or, you know, rents out a venue.
‫Nicholas, do you have any advice for how you've been able
‫to get recommended by venues or (indistinct).
‫-: Yeah. No.
‫I mean, I think Nicholas should speak up to that,
‫'cause you just build relationships and you take time.
‫If you guys can go follow Nicholas' Instagram page,
‫I'm not on Instagram, but we can find that, maybe.
‫Like, he's been doing it now for a few years
‫and started with our classes way back when
‫and is killing it, but I think not only
‫is a good photographer, but over time,
‫you build up the consistency
‫and he's been very consistent with stuff.
‫So I would go check that stuff out.
‫I wanted to say something else but now I forgot what it was.
‫Oh, I forgot to tell you guys.
‫Maybe I did this offline,
‫but we haven't streamed since then.
‫But that wedding that I shot in Houston,
‫did we talk about this?
‫-: No. ‫-: Online.
‫And I was shooting alongside this videographer,
‫and halfway through he came up and was like,
‫"Wait. Are you Will?
‫Like, do you know Phil Ebner?"
‫And I was like, "Yeah."
‫And I was working with him all day and he is like,
‫"Oh my god. I've taken all your classes online.
‫If it weren't for Phil,
‫I wouldn't know how to edit wedding videos.
‫He, like, inspired me to do this."
‫And this is in like some random place in Texas.
‫He's like, "I had no idea we were shooting together.
‫He wanted to take like a selfie with me."
‫-: That's so funny.
‫-: The couple was like, what is happening right now?
‫(Will laughing) ‫-: That is so funny.
‫Oh, I have a little buddy who wants to come chat.
‫-: Oh, what up?
‫-: Can you answer the questions ‫-: Oh, hey.
‫-: about photography?
‫-: She's like, no.
‫-: Where are you going?
‫-: Love you.
‫(indistinct talking)
‫-: Okay.
‫-: Anyway, sorry, not to hijack that.
‫But I thought that was cool.
‫It's just nice seeing in person
‫the effect that we can have on people shooting stuff.
‫-: That's a great reminder.
‫I mean, like we mentioned.
‫So you kind of hinted at, but we have a couple students,
‫a couple maybe here, Barry and Brittany who started out
‫with us on Plus and taking classes and now you have these
‫great websites that you've been working on
‫and sharing with us.
‫And, Barry, you have a question about
‫overcoming imposter syndrome, but it's great to see
‫students, you know, actually taking action.
‫It's not just us.
‫It's, like, taking action and doing the work and...
‫-: Yeah, and that's, I think, one of the biggest things.
‫It's taking photography from a hobby to a job or a career
‫or even a part-time job.
‫But like Brittany went out and set up a photo shoot
‫with 10 models and hair and makeup
‫and I mean, had this crazy day of production,
‫but she just posted her new website
‫and there's tons of amazing work.
‫I mean, some from other photo shoots as well,
‫but a bunch from that.
‫And, you know, it's kind of all the conversations we have,
‫all the courses we teach.
‫It's all great and it's a good base,
‫but until you're going out and doing the work
‫and doing four weddings in a single weekend
‫or getting clients and working with people
‫and establishing those relationships,
‫I mean, that's the real marathon to all this
‫because you gotta keep going and you gotta keep connecting
‫with people and you gotta keep, you know.
‫There's a question in "Photo and Friends" about, you know,
‫leaving a client or moving on
‫and the fear of losing that connection.
‫And it's like, well, why do you have to stop
‫that connection, unless it's, like, you don't like working
‫with the people, then yeah, don't work with people.
‫But, you know, it's kind of like,
‫Will and I have this whole rule,
‫and I'm sure we've talked about it,
‫but you always give something a year, you know.
‫You might have a conversation today and you give it a year
‫because it's not gonna happen overnight that someone's like,
‫oh yeah, like let's work together tomorrow.
‫It's probably gonna be in a year.
‫And if you keep posting to Instagram,
‫if you remind people about the work you're doing or share
‫new work with, you know, important vendors
‫or important people, you know, that's how you keep them
‫on your radar and you keep them reminded of, you know,
‫the work you do and that you do good work
‫and the type of photography you do or video.
‫But, Barry, you're an amazing photographer
‫and I understand imposter syndrome,
‫but you are more than capable than taking great photos
‫and you've worked with clients and they've been
‫happy with your work.
‫Asking for money is just always a kind of a strange thing
‫and everyone approaches it differently.
‫Will and I have talked that we're horrible at business
‫because we're oftentimes too to lax
‫with our conversations around money.
‫But, you know, finding what's fair, finding what's justified
‫and setting out those parameters beforehand,
‫I think is what's most important,
‫just so you don't get in awkward situations.
‫It's like we went to Ghirardelli
‫and when we first got started and we gave them a budget.
‫Oh yeah, this is great.
‫And then we were locked in for the next 10 years
‫and we slowly could charge more, but our initial rate
‫was so low, but that's what we set it at.
‫And so they're like, "Oh yeah, these guys are great.
‫and they worked for cheap."
‫And it took so many years to, like, slowly build that up.
‫But once we went to the next big client,
‫we were able to from the get go, start at a higher number.
‫But it took...
‫-: Sometimes, I mean, this is different than photography.
‫But I feel the same way too with, like, my online business
‫and I'll get approached by people who want me to partner
‫on a video or do a sponsored video.
‫And usually I'm, either just don't do it or I say,
‫okay, yeah, I'll do it, but I'll just do it for free
‫or whatever, reviewing things.
‫But there was a recent company that reached out to me.
‫I was like, I'm at a point where I'm like,
‫I don't need to do every video partnership
‫that someone comes to me with.
‫And so I was, like, I'm just gonna throw out this random
‫big number and they agreed to it.
‫And I was like... ‫-: You're like, "Dang it."
‫-: Yeah, I was like, "I should've been doing that."
‫Yeah. I was like, "Aww man, now I have to do the work."
‫But no.
‫It was like, I have that imposter syndrome
‫with my online business still.
‫Yeah, I don't have any advice other than just, like,
‫you just gotta do it and see how it goes.
‫I think the thing is people, like when you're-
‫It's the same, like when you're doing photos at a wedding
‫or if you're doing photos of, you know, portraits,
‫headshots, couples, photography, you might be nervous,
‫but they're nervous too and they don't, you know.
‫They're hiring you because they don't know how to do it
‫and they don't have anyone else to do it for them.
‫And you know so much more than them about photography.
‫So.
‫Yeah. Barry, you can do it for sure.
‫We got a question. Let's see.
‫ShutterbugDenise asked, "What causes the slight variation
‫in aperture measured by my camera,
‫such as 5.5999 instead of 5.6?"
‫84 and... ‫-: Huh.
‫I've never heard of that.
‫The zoom one, if it's 84 instead of 85 millimeters,
‫if you're on a zoom lens, that when you zoom in,
‫it would change that.
‫-: Yeah, I guess I'm curious what lens
‫and what camera is this?
‫Because maybe it's like a lens that doesn't...
‫-: Oh, like a declicked aperture ring.
‫It looks like it's that plastic.
‫-: Maybe it's a knockoff brand kind of lens or something
‫that doesn't read properly in the camera.
‫'Cause 84 to 85 millimeter, that's not the aperture.
‫That's the focal length, right?
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: I don't know, Denise.
‫-: It's not the focusing ring, it's for the prime.
‫If it's a prime lens, it's just...
‫I mean, maybe your camera got an update
‫and your 85 is more like an 84.
‫There's a whole thing, like.
‫Well, like the 28-millimeter on the Leica,
‫everyone's just like, it's not a 28-millimeter.
‫It really measures at, like, 26 or something like that.
‫It's a 28 and...
‫-: 55 to 250, is that the milli?
‫(indistinct talking)
‫85 at 55 to 250?
‫-: Yeah, so you just, you were zooming in
‫and you weren't at exactly 85.
‫You were slightly wider than 85,
‫and so that's why it said 84.
‫The aperture thing, I've no idea why it would
‫give you a 5.59999 readout.
‫-: Yeah, I've never seen that.
‫-: Any other questions, thoughts, things?
‫Oi. Wait.
‫So you mentioned, Sam, ‫-: Oi. Oi, mate.
‫-: about your camera that you use for the wedding,
‫but what's your everyday carry nowadays?
‫-: Me? ‫-: Yeah, or both of you guys?
‫Yeah.
‫-: I mean...
‫-: I sold everything.
‫-: Okay. ‫(Will laughing)
‫I think that's the same from last call, maybe.
‫-: Yeah, yeah. ‫-: Yeah.
‫-: No. He just bought that camera. (chuckles)
‫-: Well, that's the camera I bought in replacement
‫of all my other cameras, because now I don't have
‫any other cameras.
‫-: Nice camera.
‫Mine is a Leica Q2, which I've been every day
‫carrying since 2020.
‫-: Nice.
‫-: Three years, and I don't have any plans to get rid of it.
‫But I was shooting some behind the scenes on a music video.
‫I was doing video and I had the cue around me and I got some
‫really awesome photos with the Q2.
‫(indistinct talking)
‫Editorial looking shots, (coughing).
‫Excuse me, which is great.
‫-: I just found my Nikkormat.
‫Phil, I think we might have been together.
‫Phil and I studied abroad in Germany and we did a class trip
‫to the Czech Republic to Prague, and we went and found
‫this old camera shop in, like, the old town or something.
‫And forget exactly who I was with,
‫but I bought a Nikkormat, which is like an old school
‫Nikon film camera.
‫-: Yeah. ‫-: And I was just moving things
‫around and I found that camera,
‫-: Awesome. ‫-: and there's a role in it
‫that's probably a decade old at this point,
‫I want to shoot out to see if it's still any good,
‫but pretty excited to find that.
‫I don't have any Nikon lenses anymore though,
‫so I need to get something for that.
‫-: I have some Nikon lenses. ‫-: I'm sure you find, like,
‫some old lenses.
‫-: I think I have some old Nikon lenses
‫in our shared storage unit, Sam. (laughing)
‫-: Cool. Okay.
‫(indistinct talking)
‫-: I've been shooting more film.
‫I've been carrying around Sam's, like, what is it?
‫M7?
‫-: M7. Yeah.
‫-: I've been carrying that around a lot.
‫And then also my Hasselblad I've been trying to shoot on.
‫I had something really sad happen to me when we went-
‫I went to the ranch that we normally go to, like a couple,
‫like a month before Sam and I went to work there
‫and I shot three rolls of 120 and three rolls of 35,
‫just testing out all these rolls.
‫I spent, like, 130 on the film itself
‫and, like, I was just having fun walking around.
‫I wasn't working. I was just enjoying taking photos.
‫And I used a service where you're supposed
‫to mail the film in.
‫Instead of my traditional going to the shop
‫in Torrance, California, I shipped these six
‫rolls of the film, paid for 'em through the service
‫and the post office lost all six.
‫-: Dang.
‫-: I hate that story. ‫-: Are you watching
‫Peter McKinnon's YouTube videos,
‫'cause he is all about film photography.
‫-: Off and on. But, like, it's cool.
‫I've been in to film.
‫We've all been in a film our whole life.
‫Now it's like the trendy thing, which is cool.
‫I appreciate it,
‫that everyone's checking it out and doing it.
‫It just, you know.
‫Yeah. It's been great watching him.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: I think it's wonderful that people want to get into film.
‫It's just it's another camera.
‫It doesn't matter what camera you're using.
‫I can make any of my digital photos
‫look like film at this point.
‫But the process of taking film photos, I think is wonderful.
‫I think the biggest thing that people are missing out on
‫with shooting film though, is the darkroom aspect.
‫I think that is incredibly important.
‫Like, as a photographer that taught me
‫so much about really, like-
‫-: I'm sure that'll be Peter McKenna's next step.
‫He's gonna make it darker.
‫-: He has the space, so I hope he does.
‫-: I don't watch many of his videos anymore,
‫but I feel like every YouTuber I follow
‫is on the exact same path of, I started YouTube
‫because I'm into video or photography and then all I do
‫is make YouTube videos that are for the algorithm,
‫like camera review reviews and now I need to go back
‫to the art of what I really love and I'm taking a step back
‫from YouTube videos, blah, blah blah.
‫It's like literally the same arc, every creator that I see,
‫even if it's not photography, it's just like the whole
‫YouTube lifespan of creators, I feel.
‫And maybe it's just like the generation that I follow,
‫it's like this generation of YouTubers who started, like,
‫five, 10 years ago, they blew up and now they're like
‫getting burnt out on it.
‫But I just find it like really funny when every single
‫YouTuber I follow is like, puts out the same video about
‫I need to step back and make videos
‫that I really want to make.
‫-: I need to do that too.
‫I'm so behind on my (laughing).
‫-: I do that too. (laughing)
‫-: The whole concept of, like, all right, what am I doing
‫this week that's gonna be interesting
‫and let me look at the trends of what's pop culture
‫right now and let me go make-
‫I don't know, I just...
‫The thing I've gone really into, which I love 'cause I don't
‫really watch photography YouTube anymore,
‫I don't care whatsoever is woodworking YouTube videos.
‫And I love watching other creatives that have learned
‫how to do video to share their craft.
‫And, like, this one woman that does incredible woodwork,
‫she'll do these little video tricks and I can tell
‫she's so proud of herself.
‫She attached a GoPro to a piece of wood she's moving,
‫and the entire time, you see her eyes in the corner
‫looking at the GoPro.
‫(Will laughing)
‫It's kind of funny.
‫Yeah. That's how a lot of people use this.
‫And it's like, man, like if you're not a video maker though,
‫or photo person, like, you're having to take on a whole new
‫skillset on top of the thing that you're actually doing.
‫And it's, I don't know. I just got tired of, yeah.
‫I got tired of it.
‫-: Oh yeah.
‫-: Like I could be going out there
‫and doing some epic trip or doing some...
‫It's just like, nah.
‫-: There's one YouTuber that I've been enjoying a lot
‫that you might like, Sam, 'cause he does some woodwork but,
‫are just like projects is trout and coffee.
‫He's this guy that lives in, ‫(Will laughing)
‫I think Vermont.
‫He has a cabin.
‫A lot of it's just like...
‫A lot of his original stuff was like,
‫just like fall foliage in Vermont.
‫But he does, like, a lot of projects around the house
‫and again, it's like he knows how to use
‫the camera really well.
‫So it's beautiful.
‫His stuff, I really like and it's kind of like
‫what I wish I would do if I had time or wanted to do video.
‫Just like following him around the house,
‫like doing his projects.
‫But it's, like, beautiful and it's not, like,
‫camera reviews and that kind of thing.
‫But yeah. I don't know.
‫YouTube.
‫-: I think we've got some questions.
‫-: Yeah. We got a lot of questions. (laughing)
‫(Will laughing)
‫All right, let's see.
‫Starting from the top, Amadu says,
‫"Any tips to call photos faster?"
‫Do you mean cull photos faster?
‫Like, go through your photos faster?
‫-: I think they mean cull photos.
‫I would say for me, 'cause I cull photos all the time
‫and I do a lot of 'em.
‫You just have to find a groove
‫and you have to practice at it.
‫But a lot of times in Lightroom, I just scroll through 'em
‫and use the star system.
‫So I'll go through 'em once, give 'em three stars
‫and then see the three stars and then go through 'em again
‫and get four stars.
‫But honestly, I'm really fast at it now because I've been
‫doing it for almost 20 years.
‫So it just takes practice.
‫-: I think for me, finding the time of day
‫that is a good mindset of calling photos.
‫If I do in the morning, there's other work
‫I have to get done and I don't like culling
‫photos in the morning.
‫But in the afternoon, when I'm kind of like tapped out
‫for the day, I'm just gonna sit back.
‫Gonna like, I don't know, drink some iced tea and lemonade
‫and just, like, sit through thousands of photos,
‫star rating them, and the more you can do that
‫on the front end, the easier it all gets later on.
‫Will, one thing I did start doing
‫was the colored flags as well.
‫It's like this is for...
‫This is gonna be like, you know,
‫I did for, like, the bride and then for the groom.
‫So marked different meanings of different photos
‫and then I also did the star system.
‫But you just gotta sit there and go through one by one and-
‫-: Yeah, Lightroom is fast
‫'cause one, two, three, four, five.
‫One, two, three, four, five are all star ratings
‫on your keyboard, and then six is red, seven is green,
‫eight and nine are colors too.
‫And then also if you hit F on your keyboard, it'll flag it.
‫So there's ways to just- ‫-: Well, I mean, that brings up
‫a good point though.
‫I don't know, AmaduYourPhotos,
‫if you use Lightroom Classic to go through your photos,
‫if you're using another app, if you're trying to do it
‫in your computer's documents, it's a lot harder than using
‫a tool that's made for organizing photos
‫like Lightroom Classic.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: So yeah.
‫-: What else we got?
‫-: Let's see.
‫Okay, Michael asks advice for first wedding.
‫-: Ooh, congratulations.
‫-: Yeah. That's awesome.
‫And I know it can be nerve wracking too,
‫so that feeling is totally normal.
‫-: If there's an event planner or somebody
‫that you can talk to about the schedule beforehand,
‫knowing, like, what the order of events is gonna be
‫and knowing where you need to be.
‫And if you can, also get there earlier
‫and scout the location and know where,
‫okay, from four to five is your time to do
‫photos with the couple.
‫It's like, well, where are you going?
‫And, like, know location you want to go,
‫know what the lighting's gonna be, find that place.
‫Will.
‫-: Yeah, I mean there's a million things.
‫(indistinct talking)
‫I've shot so many weddings.
‫But I would say, like, know the event order.
‫That's a really good thing to do.
‫And remember, like, you're trying to tell a story
‫more than anything else.
‫So, you know, and doing that wide, medium, close.
‫Everything that's happening, do a wide, medium, close.
‫Like, putting on rings? Wide, medium, close.
‫Getting ready? Wide, medium, close, you know.
‫Speech? Wide, medium close.
‫And then keep in mind that the best photos,
‫at least for me in a photojournalistic sense,
‫not every photo is gonna be in what is actually happening.
‫When the bride and groom are up there
‫or when the partners are up there, look at the audience.
‫Is somebody crying?
‫Does someone have their hand over their mouth?
‫Think about, there's a speech.
‫Right after the speech, there's always hugs
‫and those are really good photos.
‫So, you know, wide, medium, close of everything.
‫But keep in mind that it's not just
‫the event that's happening, it's other people around
‫that are doing things.
‫So keep an eye out for that.
‫And then, you'll get really wonderful photos
‫and a lot of people don't necessarily get all the time,
‫And just try to be present.
‫Just try to remember to slow down and, like, be there
‫and understand what's happening around you. (laughing)
‫-: From the words of Ted lasso. Be a goldfish.
‫Should anything happen during the event
‫that you missed a shot, whatever it is, just keep going.
‫Like, you're there for someone's wedding.
‫Everyone there's family and friends.
‫Be a family and friend.
‫Like, be in a good mood. Have fun with it.
‫If you miss something, don't worry about it.
‫Move on to the next thing, get the next thing.
‫Just don't, you know...
‫Try to stay in the moment and stay present
‫with whatever's happening and have fun with it
‫and be personable and, you know, yeah.
‫-: And they've hired you for a purpose.
‫So, you know.
‫And this goes for all of you as photographers.
‫Brittany, Nicholas, like, you guys are hired for a reason
‫and that's you and you're there to be there
‫and trust that there's a reason why you're there, you know?
‫Just be yourself and do your thing.
‫-: I just wanna echo though.
‫So, Michael, I'm not sure if this is true
‫or I'm reading into it.
‫But you're saying for someone who's never shot
‫or been to a wedding before.
‫So maybe, I don't know how old you are.
‫Maybe you're...
‫I remember like getting out of college or whatever
‫and starting doing wedding videos and feeling like,
‫yeah, I don't even know what a wedding, the process is like.
‫So yeah, talking to the coordinator and just making sure
‫you know each of the moments is so important.
‫I mean, we go over that in the wedding photography class.
‫The other thing that I will say is if you've never been
‫to the venue before, if you can go there ahead of time,
‫check it out so that you know where you might want to take
‫like, couples photos or family photos.
‫And if you can't go to the venue,
‫maybe look online on Instagram at, like,
‫the venue's location or on Google.
‫Search for, like, the location and wedding to see
‫if there's any wedding photos out there for inspiration.
‫So you can see ahead of time, like,
‫okay, there's this cool tree or there's this great patio
‫that at this specific time of day, might have good lighting,
‫just so, like, on the day of you're not running around
‫trying to find these places or at the very least,
‫get there early ahead of time and try to do that.
‫So yeah, hopefully all that helps.
‫-: Keep us posted.
‫-: Yeah, good luck.
‫Nikolai asks, thank you, great stream so far.
‫Appreciate it.
‫Hit that like button if you're enjoying the stream
‫and want us to do more of them.
‫(Will laughing)
‫What gear is the best for portrait photography
‫and what do we use?
‫-: I go back and forth for the headshots that I do corporate.
‫Or for actors and stuff, I use an 85-millimeter prime.
‫That's like my go-to portrait lens that I use for stuff, 85.
‫I think I'll switch over to the 28 on the Q2 when I'm doing
‫like a portrait session or just have it on the side create
‫some context if it's not in a studio.
‫But yeah.
‫I mean, primes for me are like the best thing to use.
‫85, 50.
‫-: I've been going through my, all my photos to create
‫a portfolio online for my website
‫and, like, I do think that a 50-millimeter
‫or 85-millimeter prime is best.
‫But I've also never done really headshot sessions or formal,
‫like that kind of thing.
‫All my favorite portraits were taken with my Leica Q or Q2
‫and now the Q3 and all of that is a 28-millimeter.
‫-: Full frame.
‫I'm not sure I would ever suggest someone that for that.
‫That use.
‫But for my style and traveling
‫and the situations I end up in, like,
‫I just really like them.
‫They're wider portraits.
‫They're definitely not like a headshot but.
‫-: But they create some context, especially if you're, like,
‫out in the fields.
‫I think it just depends on your style, like,
‫what you're trying to achieve. ‫-: Yeah. Exactly.
‫-: And I've done a few, you know, portrait sessions
‫with a crop sensor camera, the Fuji XT4,
‫and I'm on the 56-millimeter, which is close to that 85
‫for more of the headshot.
‫But when I've done, like, couples,
‫like, engagement photos or family photos,
‫I like to have a wider lens too, which I'll prob-
‫I think, I'm trying to remember what I bring.
‫I think I just stick to my 16 to 55,
‫which is like a 24 to 70, which isn't necessarily, like,
‫the best portrait lens, but I can be wide enough for those
‫family photos where they're like sitting on a bench
‫or walking down a path or something where they're more
‫in the environment, full body shots.
‫So I think it depends on who you're photographing.
‫But if you're trying to get those more environmental shots,
‫a 56 or an 85 might be a little tight
‫for those kinds of things.
‫Cool.
‫Just a note, Dickinson Eckhart,
‫you asked about a blue moon question.
‫I saw your comment about it but I didn't see
‫what your question was.
‫So maybe repeat that if you have that.
‫Jose's asking if we're gonna do portfolio critiques.
‫I'm not sure when our next live stream's gonna be.
‫We'll try to set up, I think, more regular,
‫a regular schedule of live streams for, I don't know.
‫In the future and we'll try to set that up soon.
‫Maybe for our next live stream,
‫we could just do, like, a portfolio critique
‫and we can just have anybody who wants us
‫to critique your portfolio, submit your photos ahead of time
‫or a link to your portfolio.
‫I think that'd be super cool and we'll set that up over
‫on Plus, which you can join for free as our community.
‫That's where we have all of our events scheduled anyways,
‫and you can RSVP there, but we'll have a specific portfolio
‫critique session and as many people as we can,
‫we'll critique your portfolios.
‫So I think we have talked about that in the past
‫and we should definitely do that.
‫Maybe we'll just do that next time.
‫Bill is asking Will, is the 28 millimeter,
‫does that fulfill most of your needs for your Q2?
‫-: I'd say for my...
‫-: For most people who don't know, it's a fixed lens camera.
‫-: Yeah, it's a fixed lens camera,
‫and I'd say, like, for my everyday carry, it does great.
‫It's fine.
‫I mean, when I have it and I'm walking around,
‫yeah, for sure there are times where I'm like,
‫man, I wish I had, like, a 18 to shoot this landscape
‫or I had, like, a 200 to snag that thing
‫that's really far away, but as an everyday camera,
‫I like that I've taken out the ability to make a decision
‫on what lens to take out every day.
‫It's, like, I just take that camera
‫and then I get what I can get and I get what I can't get.
‫It's a high megapixel camera.
‫It's like what, Sam? Like 46, 47?
‫-: 42.
‫-: 42 megapixels.
‫So, like, even at 28, you can crop in a significant amount
‫and still maintain, like, a really solid photo.
‫Now that's a Q2. The Q3 is 62?
‫-: One.
‫-: 61 megapixels.
‫So even more so, and that's a fixed 28 as well.
‫And then even while I'm shooting a wedding,
‫during the ceremony, I have the 70 to 200 on my right side
‫and then I keep the Q on my left.
‫The 28 has been a great wide shot for me,
‫at least wide that I want, while I'm using the 70 to 200
‫on my other side and then I'll switch that out for 24 to 70
‫and the 28's still like a good, you know, in-between
‫even though I can get to 24 on the other camera.
‫So I don't know. the 28's been fine.
‫And I really do think there's something about being
‫creative enough to, like, having restrictions
‫around your creativity will allow you to push yourself more.
‫And so, you know, if you're not close enough, like,
‫and you can walk up.
‫If you can't, you can't.
‫if you're not wide enough, walk back.
‫And if you can't, you can't.
‫Do something else to create a creative composition
‫or do what you need to do.
‫That's just an everyday camera, right?
‫If you're trying to shoot something specific, like sports,
‫the 28's probably not gonna be great.
‫Or if you need to shoot an event,
‫just the 28's not gonna be great.
‫Or, like, you are doing portraits,
‫but you want to have some compression in your subject,
‫the 28's not gonna be great.
‫But if you're walking around and you want context,
‫and you want to show why and you can do street photography,
‫I think it's phenomenal and it's great
‫and that quality on that camera specifically is phenomenal.
‫So. And that's all I have to say about that.
‫-: That's interesting, you talking about that
‫'cause I'll just bring up this follow up question
‫about if we could choose one lens and it had to be
‫a prime lens, what would it be?
‫-: He's getting to my heart strings here.
‫-: Would it be different than the 28-millimeter?
‫And personally, I always go back to my 16-millimeter
‫on my Fuji film, which is probably 28.
‫-: It's pretty close to 28.
‫-: 24.
‫-: 24, 20, yeah. And so it's a little bit wider.
‫I think for my photography it's...
‫I mean, I'm just always taking photos of, like,
‫my kids and stuff.
‫So, like, being too tight is so hard for me.
‫So I'm always wider, generally. So.
‫That would be mine, and that's on a crop sensor though.
‫So.
‫-: I really am happy with a 28.
‫I think even if given the option, I may go to a 35.
‫But for some reason, just having that little extra room,
‫and again, like I said, because it's a higher
‫megapixel camera, we have the ability to crop in
‫and the quality of the lens at 1.7 or even 28,
‫there's still a ton of fall off on it that looks nice.
‫So yeah, I don't know. Maybe it depends on the camera.
‫But I like the 28.
‫-: Sam.
‫-: I mean, the Q's, I think, the best camera I ever made.
‫I think the 28's perfect.
‫Yeah.
‫I agree with everything Will was saying.
‫It's also like, it's a wonderful standalone camera
‫and then it's also if you're doing an event
‫or doing something else, it's an amazing second camera.
‫If when I was doing the elopement thing, like having a 7,200
‫and also ability to go to 16 or 35 or 24 70 as I need to,
‫but the images and taking the time to step in closer,
‫step farther away with the 28 millimeter and the quality
‫of that lens, it's just really hard to beat.
‫And I think you can get great portraits.
‫You can get great wide shots.
‫Yeah. It's a great all around focal length.
‫-: A lot of people would probably like the 35-millimeter
‫as an all around or what I have on my Fuji XT4 right now,
‫which is the 35, which is close to 50 on a full frame.
‫So.
‫-: When I was learning photography in high school,
‫back in the day when I was shooting film,
‫I shot on a 35 millimeter all the time,
‫like just constantly and that was the only lens I had.
‫And I think it taught me how to, like,
‫get good in compositions, you know?
‫-: Yeah.
‫I'm gonna bring up, we got three more questions.
‫We'll hit them really quickly.
‫I'm gonna start with this one Dickinson about photographing
‫the moon with foreground.
‫It sounds like you had trouble getting the moon
‫and the mountains in the shot.
‫Moon rose from a behind, but homes in front did not-
‫-: I feel like that's just a matter of widening out.
‫It might also- ‫-: When you say lost.
‫Sorry.
‫When you say Dickinson, when you lost the foreground,
‫are you talking about just, like,
‫literally cropping out that, or lost it in like exposure
‫or something like that?
‫-: Oh. Or maybe it was out of focus too much.
‫-: Moon rose from behind,
‫but homes in front did not have lights on.
‫So I mean, if it's an exposure thing and you're exposing
‫to the moon and that whole foreground is gonna be dark,
‫then maybe that's what you're talking about.
‫That's gonna be tough.
‫I mean, if you're shooting in raw,
‫maybe you can bring up that exposure.
‫If you're more just asking about framing it,
‫-: Oh yeah. Lost in exposure.
‫-: Okay.
‫-: So lost in exposure, meaning they're too dark
‫compared to the moon probably,
‫'cause the moon was so bright.
‫-: Yeah.
‫Like, the foreground mountains were just black like the sky.
‫-: Yeah, yeah.
‫Which, because the moon is so bright and it's so much
‫contrast compared to anything else you're taking a photo of,
‫probably the only way to really do that would be
‫a bracket exposure.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: So taking one shot a lot faster, you know.
‫Higher F stop, higher shutter speed, whatever it is.
‫Lower ISO and then another one that allows in
‫a lot more light to get a good exposure to the mountains
‫and then you just sort of...
‫-: You have to comp them together and post. Yeah.
‫You marry two photos.
‫You're exposing for the moon and then exposing
‫for the mountains in two different photos
‫and then putting 'em together.
‫That's, I think, the only way to do it
‫if it's that big of a bright difference
‫depending on what camera you're using too.
‫-: Yeah. Yeah.
‫Bracketing. Sam on it with that.
‫Good idea. All right.
‫Amadu has two questions.
‫Considering ever evolving trends in photography
‫and the competitive nature of wedding photography,
‫how do you envision, ‫-: Oh my god.
‫-: adapting your creative style?
‫-: Let's do a whole talk on this subject.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: Let's do a live stream just on creativity.
‫-: We'll have to try not to go too deep into this.
‫But I would say it's a tough balance.
‫I had a wedding company with a friend
‫and part of what he didn't like about it was that he didn't
‫want to change his own photography style
‫to match business trends, because that's just not
‫what he wanted to do in an artistic way.
‫Now I think there is a thing to be said about
‫wedding photographers and that you are chosen
‫as a wedding photographer based on your specific style.
‫So should you keep up with the trends and adapting?
‫Sure you can or you can try and make a niche for yourself
‫in your specific style.
‫I don't know. That's like a deep business question.
‫It also depends on where you are in the world
‫and where you're taking photos 'cause you know,
‫a New York wedding photographer who shoots black and white
‫is very different from someone that shoots in San Diego
‫and it's all bright and beachy stuff, so, yeah.
‫-: Yeah, yeah.
‫-: Hard question to answer
‫-: We can talk maybe more. ‫-: In 30 seconds.
‫-: Quick question. I think we all agree on this.
‫Rochelle talks about adding watermark.
‫Asked about adding watermarks on social media.
‫I would say no.
‫Anybody that wants, it's just kind of a distraction
‫that takes away from the art of your photo
‫and anyone that really wants to steal your photo can easily
‫remove a watermark, even if it's intricate,
‫in a complicated area, AI can do that super easily now.
‫-: And if you put it fully across your photo,
‫it's like you're taken away from the photo
‫in the first place.
‫I don't know. (laughing)
‫-: Yeah, I don't think-
‫Prove me wrong, but I don't think anyone has gotten
‫a job or anything because someone saw a photo
‫and looked and saw a watermark and was like,
‫oh, I'm curious about that photographer.
‫If it's on your social media and assuming people
‫are seeing it from your social media,
‫they already see who took the photo.
‫And like I said, if someone wants to steal it,
‫regardless of if it has a water mark or not,
‫they can remove it and ‫-: Totally.
‫-: it's hard to, yeah, prevent that.
‫-: Yeah.
‫-: We're at time. I think we should cut it.
‫There was one more question.
‫I don't know if you want to hit this question about,
‫again, from Amadu about maintaining your own
‫artistic passion and financial stability.
‫Balancing that with creating unique
‫and memorable experiences for clients.
‫-: I think it's really, like, a never ending balance.
‫And I'm currently working on a project or two projects that
‫I did my creative bit and had a plan and executed that
‫and then the client came in and changed that.
‫I'm not in a place to tell them they're wrong.
‫I'm not in a place and I actually,
‫some of the changes that I fought against
‫or internally fought against, I think did strengthen
‫the piece and ultimately they're the ones paying
‫and it's their choice.
‫So there's times when I think it's good to battle for
‫or share that you really, you know, believe something
‫should be a certain way, but when it's for a client
‫and you're doing that, you wanna deliver a good product.
‫And the creative process, like, I think photography is very
‫singular in a lot of ways.
‫I think what film has taught me, working with large teams
‫is that other people bring in creativity and other people
‫have ideas that you might not see.
‫And opposed to just shutting it out and saying,
‫"No, I know everything.
‫I'm the best at this and this is how we're doing it."
‫It's like other people have ideas that can work
‫and opposed to making that hard thing,
‫but instead making it fun, like, creative endeavor
‫and collaborating, I think, is hugely important.
‫So.
‫-: It's a balance and you're the one that has to decide if,
‫you know, at what level do you wanna be sacrificing
‫what you enjoy doing or not enjoy doing or what you wanna
‫share as an artist or not.
‫It's just a constant balance.
‫-: Yeah.
‫Well, this has been awesome. I'm glad we got back.
‫And like I said, Sam, Will and I will chat about
‫the frequency and when we can do these.
‫But Dickinson, thank you for the comment.
‫We definitely wanna do this more often
‫and I think summer break was just a break
‫and we're gonna be back at it.
‫If you want us to do more of these,
‫head over to Photography and Friends Plus,
‫which is free and let us know.
‫But also, the other thing, just in return that you can do
‫is review our classes that you've taken.
‫I posted a link to your learning page on Udemy,
‫if you've taken our courses on Udemy,
‫and on that page you can easily leave reviews
‫for the classes and that's so important for us and helps
‫the classes and helps us do more stuff like this
‫and run the community.
‫So if you can take a minute to do that right now,
‫if you haven't done so, ‫-: Right now.
‫-: that would be amazing. ‫(Will laughing)
‫So anyways, Will, Sam, anything?
‫-: No. Thanks for being here.
‫-: Yeah, thanks everyone for being here.
‫It was good to catch up with you guys.
‫-: Yeah. ‫-: Yeah. We'll be back.
‫-: All right, see you all next time.
‫Much love. Bye.
‫-: Bye.