Latest / the Visual Historian - "A Photographer's Journey" / Walter Lyle and GK talk about Youtube, cameras and work life balance

Transcript

Walter Lyle and GK talk about Youtube, cameras and work life balance · the Visual Historian - "A Photographer's Journey"

0:08
SPEAKER_02: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
0:10
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back everybody to the Visual Historian Podcast.
0:13
SPEAKER_02: If this is your first time here, my name is George, also known as GK.
0:18
SPEAKER_02: Here in New Orleans, I love this intro.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: It's positive.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: It's rock.
0:23
SPEAKER_02: It gets my spirits going.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm amped up.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: I want you to be too.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: So listen, I have a buddy on the line.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: I can't believe uh we were talking before we jumped on here, and I can't believe it's it's close to a year since last time we actually did this, and that is only because uh he has been as busy as I am with the family and the business and YouTube and yeah la la la la la la la la.
0:48
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back Mr.
0:51
SPEAKER_02: Walter Lyle.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
0:54
SPEAKER_00: It has it's I'm good, and I was just you know, when you had texted me earlier this week, or uh, you know, to do it again, my first thought was we gotta do that more often because it's been like you said, it's been almost a year, it's been too long.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: And uh we both have a lot of things to constantly catch each other up on, I feel like.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: Dude, first I appreciate you having me up.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, I I follow you on YouTube.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: I love your your channel, I love your perspective.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, you um oh man, yeah, we're gonna get into this.
1:22
SPEAKER_02: Um, as far as uh the camera brands, but it's not even about the brands.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: We'll we'll go from there.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: But to catch everybody up really quick, um, give them a quickie little rundown on who you are and what do you do.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean it's and uh, you know, GK, as as you would probably relate to this, and people ask you that what do you do?
1:42
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I don't know where to start.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: I do a lot of different things.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll I'll start with uh what pays the bills.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: I am a um uh I I work full-time as a video director at um a marketing agency in Arkansas here where I live.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh so what pays the bills is, you know, I would say more kind of uh small town produ uh commercial production work.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Um and so that again pays the bills.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: And in our um somehow first world country, I still need a full-time job for health insurance.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: So that gives me the family health insurance too.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh I do I still do a little bit of of freelance work uh aside from that, you know, like weddings and families and whatnot.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: And um, but then the the third thing I do, if that was the those are the first, the third thing I do that is taking increasingly more time, uh, is uh the YouTube channel.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh this week I broke 10,000 subscribers, which was really fun.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: I saw that.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: An unexpected and uh milestone that it it it it's very humbling every time I hit milestones like that because I'm um it's a good reminder that as discouraged as I can get sometimes there are still some people that for whatever reason care about what I have to say.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: And so I I always really appreciate the uh um just the just the kind words that people leave and just the fact that uh no matter what I seem to be talking about, at least some people seem to care and it resonates with some people.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's um if all I can do is add some value to our entertainment at people's lives, then then I'll keep going.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, absolutely.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, your your 10k mark is what I'm still striving for, and it's you know partly my fault because uh after COVID, I kind of took a break.
3:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh had a re had a be like a superhero and take all the energy back in and reapply it to where keeping the business going and the family and the bills just keep on coming.
3:39
SPEAKER_02: Um so YouTube um is not paying any bills.
3:44
SPEAKER_02: And um, I've actually it's not to derail, but I have recently decided um okay, really quick, are you making any money on YouTube off of your monetization alone?
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh off monetization, like you're talking like AdSense, just like straight from YouTube.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh the answer is yes, but I mean not even enough to like pennies, yeah.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm pulling up my YouTube studio right now because it gives you like a monthly estimate of like how much you might make per month.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Um I think right now the most recent is like, I don't know, steady around like 175-200 bucks a month, which is not nothing.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: It's not nothing.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, yeah.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's about it.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's when like uh a lot of people who see who who are who don't are not on YouTube or they don't make content or anything, they they see view counts or subscriber counts and they're like, oh, you must be like, you know, you could go full time with this.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: You want to hear like brother no, right?
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Like it is, I don't think people understand how how little most people on YouTube make just from uh from AdSense.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: So um, but yeah, uh a little bit, a little bit.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: I know same.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: I'm sitting here going, okay, I have two theories.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: First of all, if if we only got a dollar per subscriber a month, that would be fabulous.
5:06
SPEAKER_02: I mean, oh, dude.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, I could go full time if that was if that was the case, but I mean that is that could not be further, could not be further from how it actually was.
5:15
SPEAKER_02: People are like, oh my god, you got 10,000 subscribers?
5:18
SPEAKER_02: What is that?
5:18
SPEAKER_02: Is that like ten thousand dollars a year, a month, a week?
5:20
SPEAKER_02: What is that?
5:21
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, it's nothing.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: It's it's not nothing.
5:23
SPEAKER_02: It's not what you're doing.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: And the other part too is like because the algorithms change so much and and kind of how um I mean YouTube recently changed the way they even calculate views, which is a whole topic on its own.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: But uh the you know, uh subscriber count matters a lot less now than it did even a few years ago, because ever you know, in the old days of YouTube, that's you you you that's how you watch YouTube, is you watch who you're subscribed to.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: But now, um since TikTok and and Instagram reels and everything, everybody has adopt all these platforms have adopted the same type of algorithm where it is just algorithm-based instead of subscriber-based.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: So for better or for worse, a subscriber count these days is almost a little bit more of a vanity metric than anything else.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: It's just more of like a growth metric as to far as as far as like, you know, I don't know.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: But like there are all kinds of channels I watch now who still have like a hundred over a hundred thousand subscribers, like from the old days, uh, but they're getting maybe the same number of views that I am, you know.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: So we just not like a flexion thing.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: It's just like this stuff changes all the time, and like some of the stuff just doesn't matter as much as it used to.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: So it's fascinating to keep up with, if anything.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:35
SPEAKER_02: I know recently I'm like, you know what?
6:37
SPEAKER_02: I may turn monetization off for a little for a while just because one, I don't have your kind of numbers right now.
6:43
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm still I think I'm stuck right over 2,000 something.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, which again, like like you said, doesn't matter anymore.
6:50
SPEAKER_02: Um but I'm sitting there going, you know who wins on these monetization thingies or the companies that are on there.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if you've got a a recognizable brand, you only needed five seconds to get in front of somebody.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: So when they're like uh skippable ads, and you're thinking, you know, they're not gonna get anything out of it, sure they do.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: They get a whole lot more than you're getting out of it, and you're hosting the damn thing.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: So I'm and and yeah, the other part of those ads too is like I don't know what ads are being like when I keep my stuff monetized.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Um and I do keep again around 200 bucks a month is not nothing.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: So like I'll I'll I'll keep it on, but like I I don't know what ads are being shown on my YouTube videos, I have no idea.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh so it could be it could be terrible things that nobody's ever told me, so I don't know.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, I've watched a video back before, even recently, and it's an older video, and then the ad that played, I was like, wait, what?
7:44
SPEAKER_02: Like it was one of my one of my videos?
7:46
SPEAKER_02: No, mine.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: I I I was watching some old stuff, and whatever ad came up, I went to the behind the scenes of my channel and turned off monetization on that video because I didn't like the advertiser that was on there.
7:59
SPEAKER_02: I was like, screw you, yeah, like that doesn't line up with what the hell I'm talking about, you know?
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and it's I I think about that sometimes, and I'm like, man, like how how much of a chokehold does capitalism have me in where I'm like, ah, should I keep the monetization on?
8:13
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know, because that you know, right?
8:15
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: Agreed, agreed, but man, oh my gosh.
8:20
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so last time I talked to you, I was 100% foodie.
8:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, still love my food.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: Um I um I so now I have a Sony.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh I have the A7.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: You got the A7R5.
8:33
SPEAKER_02: The R5.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: It's it's a pretty it's a beast.
8:36
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna lie, it's a beast.
8:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I only have one and I do need one issue with this camera.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: And I've even contacted Sony, and I think the guy that was on the call with me, he's a he's a an idiot.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: He didn't know what the hell I was trying to say.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: Um I mean, I'm just gonna put it bluntly.
8:52
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling him going, bro, listen to me.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: I pay for the expensive express BA, wherever the hell cars they are, little square thingies.
9:00
SPEAKER_02: I'm paying for that.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like well, how come when I go clickety-clickety-clickety and I wanna like my food?
9:07
SPEAKER_02: I can go clickety-clickety and switch to video, rock, and switch back to pictures.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: Well, on this camera, it's not consistent when it writes too long.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: Like sometimes I'll get nine, fifteen, whatever frames before it's like writing, like more than you know, and I get it.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: We're shooting 60 meg files, sure.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: Um the problem is when it's writing, I can't flip to video.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: So me doing hybrid work, it's uh it's frustrating.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: And this past uh December, when I was photographing the ballet, um, the way I shoot the ballet, this this camera, I hate to say couldn't keep up, but um yeah, it was writing so much instead of working, and it bothered me so much.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: And you know, the average normal job that I have, it's not a problem.
9:55
SPEAKER_02: You know, right.
9:56
SPEAKER_02: But some people like, yeah, maybe it's your cards.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: Um Godo SDs have always been great.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, have you priced SDs lately?
10:07
SPEAKER_02: I don't have much all of it, anything memory related is just stupid right now.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm sitting going, it's a piece of plastic and some brass and it's little, and they went$400 for a terabyte on a mini SD.
10:22
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, you're moron.
10:24
SPEAKER_02: No, yeah, no, I will keep on recycling what I have then.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it's it's tough.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I haven't bought SD cards in a couple years.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I'm you stock up over the years, you know, working in this space a lot, but uh I'm thankful that I have a lot right now that I bought a while back.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Um I I do, I was thinking the other day, you know, because like I said, all memory is expensive now, especially like uh SSDs.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been working off of SSDs for years too.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: I keep all my all my work on there.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And I have a drawer that I'm looking at in my office right now.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Let me see.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't how many of these do I have?
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh probably close to a dozen SSEs from over the years.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And this could be that's like a retirement account at this point, right?
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: These are these are expensive.
11:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: Just the other day, uh, because it used to be uh just get another card, you know, get a new card.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: Why not?
11:18
SPEAKER_02: It's been two years.
11:19
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, you gotta refresh these things.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: And I went on the other day on Amazon and I was like, let's go to Timu.
11:25
SPEAKER_02: What else do they have?
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've heard they have ones over there.
11:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure, they're a third party, probably fifth party.
11:32
SPEAKER_02: Who cares?
11:33
SPEAKER_02: The price is fantastic.
11:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like, no, no, no, no, no.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: But I gotta be honest with you.
11:39
SPEAKER_02: This uh the reason why I got the Sony wasn't for, I mean, the megapixels was was one thing just for a lot of the kind of commercial work that I do.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: But um, I wanted to see what the best focusing system in the world was like to work with.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: And um, I keep getting blown away.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: I really do.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Man, it's it's something else, you know, because I've been using Sony since I think I got so the A7 III came out in 2017, and I got the A7 III at the beginning of 2018.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: So, and I've I've been on the system since then.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: I've added other stuff in the mix, but Sony has always been there as like my main workhorse system, especially for video, and uh, and they they got it on lock, man.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I, you know, I love my Fuji's too, but I did a video uh several weeks ago on my channel about how I kind of tried to I do a little experiment to see if I could make my because I have the A74 right now as one of my Sonys.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: Um I was like, could I make this like my fun camera, like my my dad camera, my personal life camera, like I use my Fuji's for that you do for a few weeks.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh the answer was no.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: I still prefer I still prefer my Fuji's for that.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: But I was like, man, I had forgotten, I kind of forgotten how stupid good the autofocus is.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: Even because I'm using older lenses, I'm using an old Zeiss lens on it, that old uh Sony 28F2.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are old lenses that are like outclassed by miles by the other stuff that Sony has now.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: But even still, like it's better, like the autofocus is still better than really anything I'm getting on on Fuji Crop sensor.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was like, yeah, it's I can't I I can't ignore that.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: So apparently I decided to be a uh a rebel, and uh when I have my camera, my body strap on with my two bodies, I thought it'd be a great idea.
13:35
SPEAKER_02: Now, granted, I have several lenses with my Fuji, so I've I've got a system.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's really hard to get rid of a system, you know.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: So I got the XH2S.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: Um, that thing is fast, that thing keeps up.
13:48
SPEAKER_02: Um it is rocking what 23, 24 meg files, but they're beautiful.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, some around there.
13:53
SPEAKER_02: They're beautiful, they're beautiful.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: But so my Fuji's on my left with the long lens, usually.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: The other night I shot a band on stage in a bar, so it was dark inside, all the lighting was on stage.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: Looked great actually.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, yeah.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: And I had the lens, what lens do you have on there?
14:10
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say it a Viltroc 75 1.2.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I heard great things about that one.
14:15
SPEAKER_02: Great little lens, it's a fixed lens, so it should be quicker on focusing kind of thing.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: And then on my right side is is my Sony and uh the Sony I was doing video in pictures.
14:27
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: When you get the files back on your computer, color-wise and how they look.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I gotta go look at the raw um dot arw or is it a dot RAF?
14:40
SPEAKER_02: Because sometimes I can't tell which is which.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: Um usually, usually the defining moment of which camera is which is when the face is in focus or not.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Or even like it's like on upon first glance, you're like, yeah, that's in focus.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: And then you make it a sick of zooming in and Lightroom, and you're like, nope, it missed.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: What the hell?
15:04
SPEAKER_02: What the hell?
15:05
SPEAKER_02: Like, I've been praying to the Fuji guides.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, man, I really do love you for who you are.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: I just don't like what you are.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: I I I often no, that's the best way to put it, and I've often said that I'm in a toxic relationship with Fujifilm.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: Like they are like an abusive partner that I just can't help but love.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, or I'm like, listen, there's so many things about you that I like, but there are many things about you I I really hate.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: It is uh it's that hot chick, it's that hot girl that you dated that you didn't want to let go because God, she's gorgeous.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, you you know you couldn't bring home to mom.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of like she's so mean to you.
15:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's like Fuji.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: Fuji's like, I know you love me.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: I know you're like, hold on, many, I am so fast.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: You know you like me fast.
15:52
SPEAKER_02: I am fast, baby.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: And look at my colors.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: My outfits are beautiful, and I've got several they're called film um simulations.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: Now, the only thing is I sometimes misfocus.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: My personality is terrible.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my personality goes a little wrong, but uh besides that I'm perfect.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: So that's right.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: The only saving grace I can say is thank god blurry images are in are in style right now.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: So man, that's yeah, the uh I've I've because I've thought about that too, because that yet is is is a big trend now.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm wondering if it's because the X100V popped off on TikTok in 2020.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm wondering if that was what's what's the correlation between Fuji blowing up and then blurry photos also blowing up at the same time.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: My God in heaven, you know, and and I I haven't gone public on this yet, but I'm getting ready to do some TikToks and the whole blurry photo thing, um, in in a parody form, of course.
16:45
SPEAKER_02: But my thing is, look, all you photographers out there, you're you're using the wrong terminology.
16:51
SPEAKER_02: Okay, there's two terminologies that everybody's using wrong.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: First of all, the word raw photos is definitely being used raw.
16:58
SPEAKER_02: We'll talk about that in a minute.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: If yes, being re used very wrong in conversation.
17:02
SPEAKER_02: Um what's being used wrong is the word blurry because it's not because all these things that they're showing off that are beautiful images have movement.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: They're not blurry.
17:14
SPEAKER_02: They're blurry on purpose, which means you're creating movement.
17:18
SPEAKER_02: So the difference of missing focus and then creatively using movement is two totally different things.
17:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, completely.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: And I've seen, and you have too.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: You've seen I've seen some very creative people out there where they got the bride and groom, they're kissing, very smart, make them hold still, lock lips, don't move.
17:34
SPEAKER_02: Bridal party, both sides, you guys walk with with a purpose through each other, and they're shooting and aiming at the bride and groom and they're holding it down to like a fifteenth or a quarter.
17:44
SPEAKER_02: You know?
17:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: Click, click.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: Bride and groom hasn't been moving, they're sharp, everybody else is a little blurry.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: That is an excellent use of movement.
17:53
SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: Now missing focus when you weren't trying to.
17:58
SPEAKER_02: Those are different things.
18:00
SPEAKER_02: Those are blurry out of focus shots.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: You know?
18:04
SPEAKER_00: So I think and I I think just uh on on that topic, kind of because I've had I've had very similar opinions uh over the past few years as as that's been a thing, is using using motion blur specifically to show motion, to show action.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that is, I mean, I mean that that's not a trend.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: That's just a tale as old as time.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Photographers have been doing that for decades and decades.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Um where I'm like, you know, or or even like, you know, uh, there are a lot of famous photos that miss focus a little bit because there was no autofocus at the time.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just you know manual focus on on film cameras, and they're and they're amazing photos.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: People still love them because they tell a story, they make you feel something, whatever.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: And and I totally understand, you know, now in 2026, we have all this technology and and cameras and lenses that we can we can shoot and never have any of those things.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: We can never miss focus, we could freeze every frame, but people, we we still want we want to feel like just the the the humanity of it, and and I think that's what people are trying to do when they kind of manufacture motion blur or miss focus or whatever.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're just trying to recreate those feelings.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: And so I get it.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm very sympathetic towards it.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: But my like kind of my my pushback against it would be well, is it but is that real?
19:28
SPEAKER_00: Or are like you know, are you manufacturing something or were you actually shooting on film or with a vintage lens or something and you tried to get focus and you just barely missed?
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Right.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Like is it you know, because those are those are different things.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Did you did you slow your shutter speed down to one fifteenth of a second and then purposefully you know jiggle your camera while you're taking a photo of the couple when they're when they aren't moving at all?
19:53
SPEAKER_00: That's a different thing.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason it feels a little fake, a little manufactured.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Again, there's push and pull.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm not saying one is better or worse.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I'm not trying to be old man yelling at clouds here, but you know, there is I'm like, yeah, let's let's let's as you're doing these things, as you're following these trends, that's not an inherently bad thing.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Just be a little, I don't know, just just ask yourself questions as you're doing it and try to see, try to try, try to uh look inside yourself and see where you're coming from when you're shooting that way.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: You know, I had some older guys um locally when we go to our state functions and they would be encouraging actually.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: Um and at the time when the uh digital cameras were newish, you know, Fuji had a great beginner digital camera, by the way, over nightline can.
20:43
SPEAKER_02: They just did I didn't own one, but I was jealous of my friends who had them.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: The colors are always beautiful.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: However, um I always had the older guys who were encouraging actually tell me, are you being intentional with what you're doing?
20:57
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, What do you mean?
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Of course I mean what I'm shooting.
20:59
SPEAKER_02: He goes, No, no, no, like how are you using your camera?
21:02
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, most of the time it's on aperture priority if I'm outside and stuff, and then inside I'm full manual.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Okay.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Do you understand what's happening on your aperture priority?
21:15
SPEAKER_02: So I understand you want to work quick, but do you understand what the camera's doing?
21:19
SPEAKER_02: Do you ever find yourself in moments where you go click, you look down, and it's not what you wanted.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Yeah, I do.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: He's like, and how does your stuff inside look?
21:29
SPEAKER_02: I went, perfect.
21:30
SPEAKER_02: He goes, Stay on manual.
21:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there you go.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, really?
21:34
SPEAKER_02: He goes, stay on manual.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: He goes, You want to be a master photographer without taking you 10,000 years to get there?
21:40
SPEAKER_02: Stay on manual, constantly be aware of your settings, be in the moment, be very present with your camera.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: It's not just on you, you are the camera.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: You're shooting a manual.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: Man, I have been doing that for a couple of decades now, and I'm not lying.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: I go back to a program mode for shits and giggles, and I hate it.
21:58
SPEAKER_02: I hate it.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: I absolutely can't.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Standard.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: The screen is constantly being metered no matter where you point in the camera.
22:04
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, what is going on?
22:06
SPEAKER_02: And I may I may take 10, 12 shots like that.
22:08
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, nope.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: M.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Right back to M.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: You know?
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Right back to there.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: I've made this comparison before, and I've also admitted it's it's out of my depth because I've never actually learned how to drive a stick shift car.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: But from what I have had heard people tell me, uh, once you drive a stick, once you learn how to do that and you have all that control over your vehicle and how you drive, it's really hard to go back to an automatic.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of how I uh liken it to cameras as well.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: Like once you learn man, because I mean I I to my cra I've made a lot of mistakes over the course of my relatively short photography career so far.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things I one of the things I did right was when I got my first DSLR, I immediately put it on manual.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: And I like I I never learned in the auto modes first.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: I I just went straight to learning my exposure triangle and learning what my camera's doing.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, and now yeah, sometimes when I'm shooting with a manual focus lens, um, there's just a lot of moving parts when you're trying to manually change all of your exposure settings and get your focus as well.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I'll put it on aperture priority or uh, I think it was at program where you use your uh only the ISO is automatic.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: And uh and even then I'm like, it's it's getting some of the I'm glad I'm shooting in raw because the exposure is a little bit up and down here with the camera metering, and then I'll switch it back to manual anyway.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: So um right.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it it it does it makes you a lot more intentional and you're knowing exactly what your camera's doing.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: So there's no there's no guesswork.
23:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh, because I've been seeing it, you know, um uh so much, so many photographers are coming up in my TikTok threads, and some are good and some are just you know in a beginning stage, and I was there, so I love being helpful, positive, you know, complimentary, but I'm listening to their original problems that they're talking about, and it's the same thing I kind of keep coming back to.
24:01
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay, so you use flash for the first time ever on an actual job, and you wonder why things didn't come out good, and they don't shoot on manual, they're using some kind of program inside.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, you can't do program inside.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: You just know they that's where they're messing up in the camera companies.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: It should be all program modes are only designed for sunlight.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Yep, not for only, only do not especially if you're using flash, especially if you're using flash, that's tough.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: Oh dear God in heaven.
24:37
SPEAKER_02: So uh wow.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, that's something else I wanted to ask you.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so anyway, people talking about the whole clinical, you know, look of like the Sony or um any camera, honestly, that's like nailing focus.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: And I'm over here like raising my hand, like, do you know how long we waited to get here though?
25:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's uh I've I've I've heard you know, because I I I'm younger.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't start photography until 2013.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're very heavily in the DSLR era at that point.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And it because I I see both sides of it being in the generation that I'm in.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, we uh people my age and around my age, like we are often there's a there's a word for it, I can't remember, but often nostalgic for an era we weren't even alive for.
25:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and so I I totally get that.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm a part of that sometimes.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the the thing I hear most often from uh photographers who have been you know a lot more experienced than I am, been in it longer than I have, they remembered those film days where they were like, Man, I had so many uh I wasted a lot of money on films, had so many unusable shots from Missing Focus or Exposure or whatever it is.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: And then and then now like as soon as Mirrorless came out, on DSLR too, but especially mirrorless, when you have that the just the live exposure view on both on your EVF and your back screen, and it's and it's super responsive and accurate, and the autofocus never misses, and they're like, I mean, they they these photographers haven't shot film in in forever because like I don't need to anymore.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Like this is this is so much better.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's an interesting dichotomy between you know, kind of that more experienced generation and and type of photographer compared to you know, somebody who's right now in their 20s or 30s or even 40s, who are like, oh, you know, I'll I want the the messiness, you know, I want whatever, you know.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Um so it's it's interesting.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: I you know, I I know photographers who are like as soon as good autofocus was on a digital camera, they never touched film again.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Um and so, you know, but everybody's different, everybody's got you know their own goals and aspirations within photography.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: I love that's kind of a kind of my favorite part of it, is like everybody's different, and it would be really boring if everybody was the same and wanted the same thing and did the same thing.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really glad that everybody if there's all if there's we've never been in an era where there are more options to do photography the way you want to do it than we are right now.
27:05
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely freaking lutely, and look, I am tickled to death that there's so many people in um in this working generation that appreciates all of the past and you know, to be able to experience what we were doing all the time back then.
27:21
SPEAKER_02: And you're not wrong.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: I mean, shooting film, manual focus of big bodies with the Bronica.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: I had a Mamia and a Bronica, and um you're moving around, you're getting dance shots, dear God in heaven.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what maybe 70% of the images were sharp, you know, right?
27:35
SPEAKER_02: Focus in focus and sharp were two different words.
27:39
SPEAKER_02: They just didn't exist, you know.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: Um the sharp stuff was studio and anything that was candid and moving with it, it was just hard.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: It was just yeah, it was hard to work, which is why we appreciate the focus now.
27:53
SPEAKER_02: Um but at the same time, I completely love that film look.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: You know, whenever I put film in and I I go shoot, I expect the imperfection.
28:04
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's the beauty, that's the beautiful art part of film, is that you expect the the not perfect, and that's what makes film film.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's and that's the reason that people shoot film is they they they go into that experience wanting the imperfection.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Um and and and and I made a video about this recently, kind of just like, you know, why let me see, what was the title of the video?
28:29
SPEAKER_00: It's like why your bad photos matter now more than ever, um, which is you know pretty much this topic.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's you know with AI and just technology and everything, like it has never been easier to make to make something creative perfect.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, whether you do it all by hand, you can make it perfect, or you know, use AI, whatever if you want to.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: But like you can spit out something that has zero flaws.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, the problem with that, you know, and there there are use cases for that for sure.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: But the flip side of it is that now it doesn't quite feel as human because we are the human experience is inherently imperfect and flawed.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: And so uh, you know, uh, taking not bad photos on purpose, but when you misfocus a little bit, or if your exposure is off, or you had to shoot an ISO 12,800 and now it's really grainy, like whatever the case is, like that's the kind of stuff that makes your art feel more human now.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: For again, for better or for worse, for whatever that is worth.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Some people really like that, some people really don't.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: It's all fine.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I think like to kind of cut through the AI noise and and all of that, I'm I mean, I was kind of making the case of like, listen, lean into those imperfections.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, be okay with like making mistakes and failing, uh, and but using that to learn or losing that to be a part of your style, you know, there's all different kinds of ways to do it.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh god, yeah, dude.
29:55
SPEAKER_02: I mean, look, I I try to tell people all the time, I'm like, I I'll never forget my first 10 years in business because first of all, I picked up a camera at 22, 21 and a half, twenty-two.
30:07
SPEAKER_02: Okay, picked it up, had to learn it, had to go at all these seminars, had to pay.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: There were there weren't any colleges around here that were teaching what I wanted to learn.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, they were all doing like photojournalism, and I wanted to learn studio.
30:22
SPEAKER_02: And um that took me.
30:23
SPEAKER_02: Which is which was very different.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: Very, very different.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: And uh my grandmother was a model her entire life, so I have these old uh tear pages from her um from behind the scenes and all, and I just loved the behind the scenes shot.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: Like there's always like a test shot the photographer did, and um, it would show his lights and you know, she said and I was like, that's what I want to learn, you know.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: So when I started my business um in '94, like um I'm still learning.
30:53
SPEAKER_02: So I'm in business and still learning, and nothing was perfect, like nothing was perfect, and I was just uh stumbling through it.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: But man, the beautiful part of that beginning era of learning is everything you learn is great.
31:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, everything has a purpose.
31:13
SPEAKER_02: Like if somebody gives you one little nugget and you think in yourself, why didn't I know that?
31:18
SPEAKER_02: Like, holy god, yeah, that is so amazing.
31:20
SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah.
31:21
SPEAKER_02: So when some guys are on the threads and they're trying to over talk people, like, well, you know it's your exposure triangle, and blah blah blah.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: Shut up, stop it.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: No one cares.
31:31
SPEAKER_02: Nobody gives two shits.
31:32
SPEAKER_02: When I used to teach seminars, I was I was so good at teaching people because I'm a visual learner, and uh you know, my little ADD creative self needs to uh stay focused and stay attentive.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: So I would always work through visualizations on why what does what.
31:50
SPEAKER_02: So every once in a while you get some smart booty guy saying, uh how come you never talk about the technical stuff?
31:56
SPEAKER_02: I said, No, I do.
31:57
SPEAKER_02: I just say it in English.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: Right.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
32:03
SPEAKER_02: So anybody who's out there that's listening to this, um, and you're in your first 10, yeah, just know you're you're not supposed to be perfect.
32:11
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've been doing this 32 years.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm not perfect.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: Do I know a lot?
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Do I am I consistent?
32:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a lot more than I was my first 10 years.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I still respect uh learning all those things, and it's so many wonderful, beautiful accidents that happened in the past that are actually part of my technique, and they were like a goof from the beginning days.
32:35
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's amazing how when you just keep moving forward one inch, what actually comes out of it, you know.
32:42
SPEAKER_02: But I agree with you 100%, man.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: Don't try to carbon copy yourself according to somebody else.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: Don't do that.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, you're gonna you're gonna just disappoint yourself and get frustrated.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And and I think yeah, that kind of touches on something else I've been like I've been big on for the past few years.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, with our we're talking about social, I think about that before we started recording, but we were talking about social media and just kind of the algorithms and and what everybody's wanting to do with it.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Um I think uh an unfortunate there's a lot of unfortunate side effects of social media, but one of them is that everybody sees I've tried to phrase this.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Everybody sees people's successes and everybody's like final products, you know, and um and they're like, oh, I just want to get there.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I just want to create the thing I want to create and have it be perfect and have it be exactly what I wanted it to be.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not that, if I can't get that very quickly, because also, you know, for a couple generations now, we've everybody's been big on instant gratification or instant like success.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, oh, if I don't, I'm gonna try photography, and if I don't, you know, uh after two years in, people aren't booking me for what I want them to book me for, I'm done.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm quitting, I'm never touching a camera again.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: This was stupid.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I haven't seen the success that I want to see.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: And my my first I say, good, you should you should quit then, if that's what you're in this for.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: Um because the the the great thing about photography or any creative pursuit, you know, GK, you and I both musicians too.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, the cool part about doing what we do is not necessarily not always like playing that first big show or booking that first big wedding.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: The the cool part of the creative process is everything you did to get there.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: Like that's the fun part of it.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, not to quote Miley Cyrus too much, but uh it's not about how fast you get there.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: It ain't about what's waiting on the other side.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: It's the climb.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the great part about it.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: Um and so yeah, and this not to diminish those big wins, booking the big wedding or playing the big show or whatever, those are great.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Like those are milestones.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: That's how you know, those are like touch points.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, I'm doing a good job.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I've made it to this thing I wanted to make it to.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you can't appreciate and enjoy everything you did to get there, you miss the whole point, I feel like.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Like that's where a lot of the fulfillment and joy comes from, at least for me.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, if if you're just pursuing those big moments and the big things and uh and all that, yeah, you're gonna burn out super quick, you're gonna get mad, you're gonna get frustrated, and it's um then and you probably should quit.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: You should find something else that you actually that you actually enjoy.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, agreed, agreed.
35:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, thankfully I started when I did at the time frame that everything was happening, because you know, this is my career.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: This is the only income I have earned in my 32 years is through photography.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: So I kind of do everything.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: You know, I was a I was a stubborn young man when the older guys were like, you need to specialize in one thing, you need to be known for the whatever.
35:51
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh huh?
35:52
SPEAKER_02: And goes, yeah, the wedding photographer, the children photographer.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, that's that's ignorant to me.
35:59
SPEAKER_02: And what are you talking about?
36:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm going, but dude, I like everything.
36:03
SPEAKER_02: Don't you like food photography?
36:05
SPEAKER_02: Don't you like boudoir?
36:06
SPEAKER_02: Don't you like you know, it's like to me, if you learn the camera, you understand the lighting, go do it.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Try everything, go learn.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: You can do anything you want, you can do anything you want.
36:17
SPEAKER_02: I had a uh go sorry, go ahead.
36:20
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
36:20
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say my stubbornness um was on point, actually.
36:24
SPEAKER_02: And thank god, thank God I did do everything because um now I do.
36:30
SPEAKER_02: I do phone rings, I can say yes to whatever they're asking me for.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it makes you versatile.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and that's um I'm I'm the same way when I somebody's like, ah, you can't do that.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: My my first inclination is to go, okay, yes, I can now.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm absolutely gonna do it.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: Um I didn't want I didn't want to in the first place, and now you made me mad and I'm gonna do it.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Um but one of the best pieces of advice I heard, I was I was in college.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't even about photography, but um, I took a random, uh, my minor in college was uh um English and I specialized in creative writing.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: My um I come from a family of writers, and that was uh it was very enjoyable for me.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: And the very last creative writing class I took, this is my second semester of my senior year of college.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: I was about to graduate, and I took a screenwriting class.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the uh the the professor uh used to work in Hollywood.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: He was a writer for uh shows like Weeds, uh True Blood, stuff like that.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: Um and so very experienced, you know, knew what he was talking about, also eccentric because he used to be a Hollywood writer.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: And now he and then uh he said as soon as he was able to put his kids through college with that money, he moved right back to Mississippi where he was from and doing his own writing there.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: So he was great.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: And one of the like the best pieces of advice I've ever heard in my life, uh, that still sticks with me is from him.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: And and he said, say yes to everything until you can't anymore.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, that's and and at the time I was like, you know, 21, you know, just still getting started in my photography career and all that.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I was I I kept that, that was my mantra for a long time.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: Um now, of course, two young kids, 30, I'm 31 now, got a career and mortgage and everything.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, I can't say yes to everything anymore.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: Um I had to I had to say no to a lot of things that I I want to do.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, I'm in a season of my life where I can't do that anymore.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: But for a long time, I was saying yes to everything.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh learned a lot and and and learned not to um specializing can be helpful for a lot of people.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh but for me, yeah, I sh I shot all kinds of different things.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Um and I man, that's the best way to learn, in my opinion.
38:50
SPEAKER_02: Heck yeah, man.
38:51
SPEAKER_02: Heck yeah.
38:51
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you you said it earlier, where we're in a we're in a world right now where you you can do so many damn different things.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: I mean, good lord, your opportunities are just endless, you know.
39:01
SPEAKER_02: I think the most I think the most struggle that people are having right now is is financially, um being in business, you know, not being able to cut that cord from the other job or whatever it is.
39:13
SPEAKER_02: I think that's the hardest thing because it's not the craft.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: Everybody loves the craft, but uh you know, if people did not go to any seminars to learn the business part, I could see this being I don't know how anybody can start a business these days without having some help, you know, some guidance.
39:31
SPEAKER_02: And and you're like me.
39:32
SPEAKER_02: I I just need like one Saturday in a class, y'all talk, I take notes, I raise my hand, Sunday I will know what the hell I have to do, you know?
39:42
SPEAKER_02: So to go research YouTube videos or whatever it is and kind of piecemeal these things, that's that's gotta be hard if if that's what people are doing, you know.
39:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: If it is.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's it's hard even to like not even if you're trying to do pick up photography or any other creative thing as a to start a business with it or make any money from it, but just to just to pick up a new hobby is really hard because I'm like, well, there are a lot of people who are like, that time I could spend on this hobby, I probably need to get a second job, or I need to like do something that I know is gonna make me money quicker.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, instead of trying to, you know, it could take years to get good enough at photography or whatever to make any kind of money from it.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: And so it's like, I get it, man.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: Like it, it, it, it's hard to justify time spent on hobbies um or anything, you know, new new creative skills or anything, especially if you have a family or just a lot of responsibilities.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: And so it's hard, but which is why, again, I'm I'm thankful that I I even I you know I don't do YouTube or my my own business full time, but my full-time job is in, you know, I get to work with cameras all the time and uh get to shoot video and and photos and all this.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not not every job is super exciting.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: I've shot, I mean, the vast majority of my you know, the work I do uh for my day job um is not gonna go in my portfolio because it's like, you know, I don't, you know, it's it for lack of a better way to put it, it's boring.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: But like, man, that's the boring stuff that puts food on the table.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so because I but I still love it and I love it enough to still want to do it on my own time.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm literally looking at my Lightroom's up on my computer right now, and I'm I'm looking at some very sweet photos I took of uh my toddler last night um just for fun.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: We did a little walk down the street, and like I'm I'm thankful that I have the capacity, the creative juices that keep flowing when I clock out of work to do that kind of thing.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh I've often said if I had a career change, I don't know, if I were to become like an insurance salesman or whatever, or just completely change away from doing this stuff for money, man, I'd still keep at least one camera and one lens and I'll probably still shoot a lot.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: Um and just not make any money from it.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: But um, but everybody's different.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, I know a lot of great photographers who do not touch their camera when they're off the clock.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Really?
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's fine.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: And that's fine.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, it's it's everybody's different.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh I can't relate to that, you know.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: I I love I love this too.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: I I love it too damn much.
42:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm always on.
42:16
SPEAKER_02: My my my brain's always on.
42:18
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I I I I kick myself around having the camera with me, you know.
42:22
SPEAKER_02: It never fails.
42:23
SPEAKER_02: Something really cool is happening, and I'm like, God damn it, I'm not even gonna grab my phone because it's stupid.
42:28
SPEAKER_02: It won't even look, the phone won't look like what I want it to look like.
42:31
SPEAKER_02: And you know, yeah.
42:32
SPEAKER_02: Why'd I leave my camera at home?
42:34
SPEAKER_02: It's so dumb.
42:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like what I do for a living, for Christ's sake.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: Um I I never regret, uh I very often regretted not having a camera with me.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I've never regretted having it with me.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Like that is always like, oh, you know, anytime I have it with me, I'm I'm glad I do.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: Even if I just get like one good photo from whatever's going on, yeah.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I have it.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah, man.
42:57
SPEAKER_02: And it usually is one.
42:58
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's usually like something is happening, and it's like, oh, if I had my camera, I would go click, click, click and go, mm-hmm, I got it.
43:08
SPEAKER_02: Exactly what I need.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're probably like me, even when you don't have your camera, you see like you're looking at lighting, you're looking at potential compositions and framings, and like, man, if I shot this photo right now, I would edit it like this, or it would be, you know, I'll crop in a little bit, whatever.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I I can't turn my brain off from that.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
43:26
SPEAKER_02: The w so there there is a curse that comes with learning your skills to the point of you it's like your back of your hand, okay?
43:34
SPEAKER_02: The curse, for me at least, because I'm here in New Orleans, and if anybody has ever been to New Orleans and you know downtown, um a lot of our land has uh subsided over the decades.
43:48
SPEAKER_02: And let's just say nothing is straight.
43:51
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you'll walk down a block on a building, you put your camera up, and the gutters the horizon of the gutter does not match the horizon.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: I send up the sidewalk.
44:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
44:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, but um anytime I go somewhere, I'm hypersensitive on how things look.
44:09
SPEAKER_02: I can't tell you how many times I've been in like a restaurant or a hotel and where they put the main like where the cake table is, and it's not directly under the chandelier.
44:18
SPEAKER_02: Like nobody backed up to look at it, they just plot the cake and walk away.
44:22
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh, you're killing me, Smalls.
44:26
SPEAKER_02: It's not something I can fix in Photoshop.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:31
SPEAKER_02: You know, nor do I want to.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: See that stuff.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: All itself for me, it's manifest because I do a lot of uh professional video work where we're working with or setting up our own scenes with lighting and all of that.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: And so, like, where it's manifested a lot for me is when I'm watching a movie or a TV show and I'm like, I this story might be fine, it might be terrible, but I'm judging this movie almost entirely on the way the camera's moving and what the lighting is doing, you know, like that's that's where I see all of like the the art.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: And all the people are like, oh, but the writing and the acting.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm sure it's fine, you know?
45:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I'm always looking at like how did they how did they light this scene?
45:06
SPEAKER_00: How you know, where's that background light coming from?
45:08
SPEAKER_00: How did they mimic uh lamp light that's next to the couch in this living room they're filming in?
45:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh how did they key this?
45:14
SPEAKER_00: Where's the kicker coming from?
45:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, and how did they and then especially how they use that light to uh set a certain mood or help propel the story along, which is like, you know, not a lot of people, I guess, pay attention to that.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: But that that's a curse, because I I I feel like I enjoy movies less than less than I used to because I can't I can't not see it anymore.
45:33
SPEAKER_02: I we saw we saw a horror movie the other night.
45:36
SPEAKER_02: It was actually a funny horror movie.
45:38
SPEAKER_02: It was good.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: Um ready or not on Netflix.
45:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh oh, I've heard of it.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
45:44
SPEAKER_02: If you haven't seen it, go see it.
45:45
SPEAKER_02: It's really good.
45:46
SPEAKER_02: And um, like you, I was appreciating all of the lighting choices, the moods, uh, the color tones.
45:54
SPEAKER_02: I was sitting there going, you know, it was it was a it was a good movie.
45:57
SPEAKER_02: Would I put it in great, you know, cinematic world, Bill?
46:02
SPEAKER_02: No.
46:02
SPEAKER_02: But I told the wife, I was like, wasn't that didn't that look so good too?
46:06
SPEAKER_02: Like it was a good movie to watch.
46:08
SPEAKER_02: Like it was fun to watch, you know.
46:10
SPEAKER_02: So um, you should do that though.
46:12
SPEAKER_02: You should do a video on how you would light yourself on an interview if you were your client.
46:18
unknown: You know?
46:19
SPEAKER_00: I I've I have thought about trying to do talk about video stuff, but um, it's a bit like earlier on, like when I first started to get a little bit of traction with the channel, and it was I was only talking about photography to that point, and I threw in a video or two about like video production or about like like one of my videos was about the the A7S III, the Sony, which has been like my workhorse video camera for several years now.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: Still have it.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, but of course, that video was uh uh from me was all about how I use it for video and how good it's for video, and nobody cared.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: I I made like like it's just it's that algorithm thing of like if you get into if you if you make your channel a certain kind of niche, it is.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: And if you try to go outside of that niche on that same channel, it's gonna flop.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so yeah, I I'd love to talk more about my video stuff I do because I I I I do, you know, I'm like I said, more video pays the bills a little more than photo does for me these days.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just it's hard to talk about it because it's a comp it feels like it's a completely different audience that wants to see that kind of thing.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: So um yeah, I I I'd love to, but it I'd have to do it the right way, I feel like.
47:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: I have I have a great question for you.
47:38
SPEAKER_02: Just because I have paused my channel long enough to where me kicking it off again, I feel like I I I think maybe one of the reasons why I haven't really dug into it again is because I haven't decided on what you're saying.
47:50
SPEAKER_02: I and I do agree.
47:51
SPEAKER_02: I need to pick a lane, at least a a wide lane, but a lane.
47:55
SPEAKER_02: You know, what do you think I should do with my own channel for me?
48:00
SPEAKER_00: Oh, don't put this, don't put this on me, GK, because I could tell you something and you try it and then it'd be terrible and you're gonna blame me for it.
48:06
SPEAKER_02: No, no, but it it could also be great.
48:08
SPEAKER_02: But you know, like you talking about.
48:09
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
48:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like you talking to me over the like a year or two or whatever, and uh a year, and uh, you know, you kind of have more of a sense from the outside looking in than I do looking from end to end.
48:22
SPEAKER_02: It's hard.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: No, I I I'm the same way.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's kind of that's the creative process is you get outside eyeballs on your stuff and and tell you what what they're feeling.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh from like when I first got started, when I first started the YouTube channel, like I had like I decided on kind of like a style and a direction I want to go in, knowing that it would, you know, kind of shift and evolve as as it naturally as it went on.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I feel like I really kind of hit my stride when I did decide on like a a theme or like uh something I'm always gonna try to tie every topic back to, which is for for now, for a while now it's been make photography fun again, because there's I just feel like there's so many people who have, you know, made we talked, we kind of touched on some of this in this conversation, but like, you know, try to make it a business too quick or whatever.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: And then there are people who are just way too serious about it.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: And so kind of my whole thing is like, hey, y'all, this shit is supposed to be fun.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're supposed to be having a good time.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that's kind of like I try to tie everything kind of back to that in general.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: And so um, I don't know if I could give you, GK, a specific like suggestion on something like that.
49:29
SPEAKER_00: But I think you know, everybody has their own unique perspective and their own value to add.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh I, you know, I think for me being like uh a dad, you know, a dad to young kids, um, but working in the field professionally, but also doing photography for fun, that's kind of my unique little niche that I kind of found myself in.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: And so I think for you, like I don't, I'll uh I would say this to anybody who's wanting to, you know, do whatever on YouTube or social media in general, make a presence for themselves is you know, what is it about your voice that makes you your style, your experience that makes you unique?
50:02
SPEAKER_00: And so, like from the outside looking in, you know, you've got you said you've been doing this for 20-something years, 30-something years.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: 32.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: 32 years, GK.
50:12
SPEAKER_00: You got 32 years of experience.
50:14
SPEAKER_00: You've seen so many different eras of photography and how it's shifted and evolved.
50:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that right there is a lot of value, you know.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, there are like people with that level of experience on YouTube, but not a lot.
50:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people on YouTube in this space are like my age or younger.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: And so, like, if you lean into that, if you're like, listen, you know, you call them young whippersnappers if you want to.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't put words in your mouth, but you can call them young whippersnappers.
50:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, do you use that to your advantage and and and say, you know, talk about the different eras that you've seen, talk about the experiences that you've had.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: And um uh yeah, just just lean into the like I mean, you're you're a seasoned veteran and make it known, you know.
50:57
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like that's what I would say.
50:58
SPEAKER_02: Kind of like a then and now kind of thing.
51:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
51:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, and and there's a lot of different, like I say, you know, I I try to tie everything back maybe loosely sometimes, but back to making photography fun again.
51:10
SPEAKER_00: So if you just kind of keep your experience, your level of experience in the back of your mind as you come up with your different video topics and um and and whatever, and kind of use that as your um your sandbox, your playing field, whatever, to kind of dictate how you talk about each of those topics.
51:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think there'd be a lot of value there.
51:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
51:31
SPEAKER_02: Look, man, I'm lucky.
51:32
SPEAKER_02: I'm lucky that I was super young when I started my business.
51:35
SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm only 54 um with freaking 32.
51:40
SPEAKER_02: It's it's kind of nuts.
51:41
SPEAKER_02: You know, so I don't even I don't see myself as the as the older guy.
51:44
SPEAKER_02: I know I'm older, but I'm not the old guy yet.
51:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, no, no, no, absolutely not.
51:49
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
51:50
SPEAKER_02: So I still feel like I'm just I'm not just like you, but I I know where you are.
51:54
SPEAKER_02: I feel like I wasn't there that long ago, you know.
51:57
SPEAKER_02: And luckily, we are sharing this awesome world together, even though it's different generations in it.
52:03
SPEAKER_02: It's like we're all dealing with the same technology, we're all dealing with the same thought process.
52:07
SPEAKER_02: It's really cool, you know.
52:08
SPEAKER_02: This kind of this common language that us photographers have.
52:11
SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that's the fun part too.
52:13
SPEAKER_02: The more you learn, the more you understand the conversations.
52:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, that that right there, that right there, that kind of stuff, I think would have its the kind of thing you just said would have its own value in at least one YouTube video, if not more.
52:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, like just using that to to your advantage.
52:29
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna write that down because I'm gonna have to make that like the tagline and then just build around it.
52:34
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm gonna invoice you for consulting after this.
52:39
SPEAKER_02: Please do it, man.
52:40
SPEAKER_02: I gotta, I gotta buy a few diapers for you.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, you got say, yeah, you know, I'm I've I got stuff to pay for.
52:47
SPEAKER_00: Same, same.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: Hey, a busy man.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: The other big life change that we've had, you know, we uh and I was I'm kidding about that, but uh I felt the pressure over the past few months.
52:58
SPEAKER_00: My uh I'll just then my wife.
53:00
SPEAKER_00: No, yeah, it's good.
53:01
SPEAKER_00: Please don't Venmo me anything.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh my uh my my wife quit her job and we had our second a few months ago, and so we've been doing the this is our first time doing the the single income thing, the with a stay-at-home mom.
53:13
SPEAKER_02: And uh weird you are oh my god.
53:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay, what this is why you and I click.
53:20
SPEAKER_02: This is this is what attracted me to you when I saw you the first couple of times.
53:24
SPEAKER_02: You came up in the feed, and it was a relatability to you that I couldn't really put my finger on.
53:29
SPEAKER_02: But every time you video you had a new one come up, I was happy to see it, you know.
53:34
SPEAKER_02: My wife, when we started having kids, it was important for her to be a stay-home mom.
53:39
SPEAKER_02: And my joke, my joke, when we were dating, I was like, you know, I'm self-employed, right?
53:44
SPEAKER_02: Like uh when it's there, it's there, when it's not, it's not.
53:50
SPEAKER_02: Um she was a stay-home mom for 15 years.
53:54
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
53:55
SPEAKER_02: That is my biggest uh success story to date, and I will probably most likely take this to the grave as my uh biggest accomplishment.
54:03
SPEAKER_02: And that is even uh me having an employee or two, right?
54:08
SPEAKER_02: And she was home.
54:09
SPEAKER_02: So that also goes to show you how things were different, you know, 18 years ago, 20 or joya's what, 23, 24?
54:17
SPEAKER_02: How old is she?
54:17
SPEAKER_02: Holy crap.
54:19
SPEAKER_02: That long ago, and that's the that's the how photography world has changed, you know, from uh B being shooting three kids a day to hardly any kids, and now yeah, things just kind of like evolve.
54:32
SPEAKER_02: But that's great, that's great that you guys are doing that, and I can 100% I can tell you right now, it is hard, but it's not as hard as you think when they're little.
54:41
SPEAKER_02: Because kids, little baby kids, toddlers are not expensive.
54:46
SPEAKER_02: It's when they hit high school.
54:48
SPEAKER_02: High school.
54:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm I'm aware.
54:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, listen, I told you, I was I'm I'm one of four kids.
54:55
SPEAKER_00: Like I saw my parents deal with it year after year after year.
54:59
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all ever eat steak?
55:02
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean not a ton.
55:03
SPEAKER_00: And I will say, my you know, my dad uh, I don't know what with their finances looked like.
55:08
SPEAKER_00: They did a good job of not making that our problem, you know.
55:11
SPEAKER_00: They they kept us safe from all of that, you know, burdening burdening us with with knowledge or their own stresses.
55:17
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure they had all kinds of financial stresses and had to budget a lot.
55:20
SPEAKER_00: But um, it was when I was, I'm the second oldest.
55:24
SPEAKER_00: So when I was in middle school, my mom, because she was she was a stay-at-home mom, but she, like I said, she was uh I come from a family of writers.
55:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so she did a lot of freelance writing when that was still a thing for newspapers and magazines and whatnot.
55:38
SPEAKER_00: And so she's able to do that from home, slotted in between you know, school pickup and stuff like that.
55:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, and she homeschooled a lot of us um for for several years too.
55:47
SPEAKER_00: So I don't I don't know how she did it, but um it was when I was in middle school, she went back to school to get her master's in English um and and went, and now she's for uh many years now is taught in um uh higher education.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: So she's been teaching at colleges.
56:03
SPEAKER_00: And so um it was around when we were a little more independent and maybe needed, you know, as teenagers, but also needed, you know, like we're all we want a car, we want our own car, now we want like all, you know, like we gotta go to college.
56:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, well, we both got both of us gotta be working now to pay for all this crap.
56:19
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, she was a stay-at-home mom, but also like sprinkled in work um, you know, throughout the years.
56:25
SPEAKER_00: But and I was, you know, now that I'm a dad too, I was I I can realize how much how much of a hard job that was and how much hard work that she put into it for for several years and um probably put a lot of things on hold, you know, for her own life and her own career that she wanted to do.
56:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so uh yeah, I'm thinking very thankful for my wife too, because that's something we talk it's always her choice, you know.
56:47
SPEAKER_00: This isn't you know, this wasn't like me going to her and being like, you're gonna stay at home when we have the second one.
56:51
SPEAKER_00: But if you're a lady.
56:53
SPEAKER_00: And she uh and and if she was here, she would tell you, oh no, that wouldn't fly anyway.
56:57
SPEAKER_00: Like that would not be something that would happen in our house.
57:00
SPEAKER_00: And I I wouldn't want that.
57:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, she and I are partners, we are equally yoked, we are raising our children together.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: But um, when she she was uh a physical therapist and it was a lot of manual labor and and kind of some hard hours.
57:13
SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, she was like, When we found out we were pregnant with the seconds, she was like, There's a light at the end of the tunnel.
57:18
SPEAKER_00: I am getting the hell out of this for a little bit.
57:20
SPEAKER_00: So uh so she's been she's been killing it, she's doing a really good job.
57:24
SPEAKER_00: But it is hard though, you know, it's a with a three-year-old and a five-month-old.
57:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh I do what I can to always come home for lunch on on days when I don't have shoots or meetings.
57:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, as soon as I get home from the day, I walk in the door and I'm I'm on duty too, you know, help with everything.
57:39
SPEAKER_00: And um, but it's it's like you said, it is not as hard as maybe I thought it would be, um, either financially or, you know, just in general, having two kids.
57:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh, yeah, we've been making it work.
57:52
SPEAKER_00: We pull back on some things, you know, pull back on some spending and um and we're maybe contributing a little less to savings than we used to, but uh these, you know, these are years you can't get back, and that's we kind of keep reminding ourselves um, you know, this is a very important time for uh for them.
58:07
SPEAKER_00: And if it's something she wants to say at home, then and it can work for us.
58:11
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
58:12
SPEAKER_00: So I yeah, I'm very thankful for the position to be in.
58:14
SPEAKER_00: But I'll say all that to say, like, having the second kid going down to one income, I have never felt more of a fire under my ass to make to make more money, to work harder, and like, you know, um, and I think like I've said before, like I probably could have started a YouTube channel um several years ago um and like been consistent with it.
58:35
SPEAKER_00: But like I never I've always my ADHD brand have always struggled with motivation and inspiration.
58:40
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until uh, you know, we had our, you know, I was a dad and had a lot of you know responsibility where I'm like, I gotta do something more with this, you know.
58:50
SPEAKER_00: Like I I I need to, you know, get my act together and and and whatnot, you know, because I used to just as soon as I finish work every day, I'm playing video games or watching TV.
58:58
SPEAKER_00: But then you get married and you have kids and you're like, okay, um, there's more to life.
59:03
SPEAKER_00: There's more to I I I could be contributing more to society and to my family if I if I were to just get it together for a little bit.
59:11
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean kid kids, man, they make they make you get it together.
59:16
SPEAKER_00: Um if they don't, then maybe you're doing something wrong.
59:19
SPEAKER_02: Right?
59:20
SPEAKER_02: It really is the best thing, though, man.
59:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm not gonna lie.
59:22
SPEAKER_02: If it, you know, even though things it got tough eventually, um it was it was the best thing possible.
59:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I love the fact that my kids were home, you know, and uh at the time my studio was only five blocks away.
59:35
SPEAKER_02: So and then when they did go to school, it was across the street, it was across the highway.
59:40
SPEAKER_00: And it was Yeah, yeah, yeah.
59:42
SPEAKER_00: And and and my my office that I'm I'm in right now uh is around October of last year.
59:46
SPEAKER_00: I I got my own office space downtown because we were getting ready to, you know, for the kids and the and the wife to be at home.
59:52
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, I need my own space to focus.
59:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is maybe a three-minute drive from our house.
59:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm I'm super close by.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, very thankful for that.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a good setup for now.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
1:00:05
SPEAKER_02: We you and I definitely need to do this more often.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_02: And I think what the next podcast, I'm gonna talk to my wife and take some take some notes because I forget things.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, but business wise, you can write off your kids um a certain way.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_02: There's um a health savings account that you can have that's actually tax-free as long as the money is used towards medical stuff.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_02: I think we definitely need to do another podcast based on those kinds of things that you know, a lot because I didn't know about it until somebody told us you know, like, you know, you can write your kid off if you use them in an advertisement.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, huh?
1:00:42
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, all you gotta do is I mean you post pictures of your kid, right?
1:00:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you advertise in your business.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_02: So you can write them off every year after like$2,500.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, get out.
1:00:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's actually that's crazy.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_00: We actually actually we just stopped posting our kids on on social media and everything because of the there's some some dodgy AI stuff that's going on, some legislation that they're not not protecting kids that well.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully that changes at some point.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, for now, it's uh it's tough.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, man, there's so many things we could we could keep talking about.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'll text you.
1:01:15
SPEAKER_02: We'll we'll I just need to jot down some uh some subject matters and uh going off the conversation itself is not the hard part, the hard part is just what are we gonna stick to on this podcast?
1:01:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, I think we were talking about this before we started recording, but we you know, you and I are both just like ADHD, just like wherever the brain takes us, that's what we're talking about, you know, and like it's just you can go from one topic to the next in 30 seconds.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_00: So uh so I apologize on my end if I took those two tap down too many rabbit holes.
1:01:47
SPEAKER_02: Today was great, man.
1:01:48
SPEAKER_02: I think it was a good uh circumference.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_02: Um the hard yeah, yeah, the harder podcast for me is gonna be um I think it's this Monday coming up.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh as a photographer, he hit me up.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_02: He's one of these art gallery kind of photographers, and um he's like a college uh literate professor kind of person, so his vocab is very um Macbeth-ish.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like smart guy.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_02: Too smart.
1:02:17
SPEAKER_02: I was I even asked him this thing you wrote, was it AI?
1:02:20
SPEAKER_02: Because the over the overuse of the hardest words I've ever heard in my life are on one page.
1:02:30
SPEAKER_02: It's like it's like, do you talk like this or is is this just how you write?
1:02:35
SPEAKER_02: You know?
1:02:37
SPEAKER_02: My literary, my literary combo, you know, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
1:02:40
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, yeah, we can we can chat.
1:02:42
SPEAKER_02: I said, but let me let you know what I want to talk about.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_02: You know, I want to talk about how in the hell you have your work in your gallery stuff, and like how do you go from there?
1:02:50
SPEAKER_02: Because as you know, photographers and artists of all genres, and you know, what I wanted to do with this podcast, for me at least, is um showcase all the angles of anybody who's creatively in business, you know.
1:03:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, which I love that because I mean that like we said earlier, there's so many different types of photographers and way to do photography, and it's all valid and it's all fun.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_00: If we were if we were all the same, it'd be super boring.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm I'm really glad that you do this kind of podcast and and talk to so many different kinds of people because I'm not a gallery artist at all.
1:03:22
SPEAKER_00: So meaning.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it'd be cool to have that perspective from somebody.
1:03:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he's he's really good.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_02: He's he's been in PPA magazine, he's been interviewed a couple years ago, and uh, I mean, I know he's he's he's a big deal doing what he's doing.
1:03:34
SPEAKER_02: So I'm sitting here going, okay, well, look, just know when we have a talk, most likely I'm gonna jot down some of my three big words that you use and see if I could use them in a sentence on my own on my own.
1:03:47
SPEAKER_02: Right, you know, but um he seems really cool.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I'm I'm kind of um excited to have somebody on the uh complete opposite spectrum of what we do to be on because I look I love Joe Rogan.
1:04:00
SPEAKER_02: I love Joe Rogan, and I um I'm very respectful on how he can have almost anybody on his podcast, and the boy knows how to have a conversation, you know.
1:04:09
SPEAKER_02: He's that's true, he's smart enough, or he does his research enough to where he can guide the conversation and it's something worth listening to.
1:04:18
SPEAKER_02: You know?
1:04:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:04:19
SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, all right, they say do hard things.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna do a hard thing.
1:04:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah.
1:04:26
SPEAKER_02: But man, look, I am so stinking glad that you came on.
1:04:29
SPEAKER_02: You you're this is Yeah, me too.
1:04:31
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
1:04:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're definitely gonna do this again.
1:04:34
SPEAKER_02: Um, I actually have a funeral to go photograph in a couple of I know, I know.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_02: I got a phone call from a buddy of mine that uh owns a local magazine, and he's like, hey, the owner of Tropical Isle passed, and they're having her funeral from this hotel back to Tropical Isle.
1:04:53
SPEAKER_02: They're having a big second-line funeral with the horse and buggy casket and like the whole deal.
1:04:58
SPEAKER_02: Um, can you come cover it?
1:05:00
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm open.
1:05:02
SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
1:05:03
SPEAKER_02: So this may be a first, and yeah, I never thought I'd be saying I'm going to photograph a funeral, but um I've I have I have photographed a funeral myself.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_00: It's been a few years, but it was uh a friend of mine, his grandmother, and they asked if I would take a take a few shots.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's you know, it's it's what you expect, you know.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_00: I and I I I know you're uh like we talked about early season professional, you'll you'll handle it with the with the respect and reverence and everything, but um yeah, it is it's it's of course slightly different than than most anything else, but uh, you know, if if it's a more of a celebration of life, you know, it doesn't have to all be somber.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_00: So I hope it goes well.
1:05:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
1:05:42
SPEAKER_02: And look, if you if you know anything about New Orleans in our second lines, you know, we don't we don't have the big casket thingy doesn't really happen unless you're right, a pretty important person in in the city and be a lot of people to know you.
1:05:55
SPEAKER_02: The average second line is just a party in the street.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah.
1:05:59
SPEAKER_02: This from from what I understand, I mean, I haven't done one, so I'm kind of excited on a photojournalistic angle, because that was my first that's one of my many loves with photography, is I love editorial kind of things.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_02: I love to back off and and just watch and shoot.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_02: And like that's that's fun for me.
1:06:15
SPEAKER_02: So I know this funeral most likely is gonna be slow.
1:06:18
SPEAKER_02: Um kind of like you know, you they it kind of goes through the emotion to start off slow for a couple blocks, and then the band kind of switches, and then we party when we get to our location.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_02: Kind of like the sell like the morning of what happened, but we're celebrating the life, you know.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_02: So it's gonna be neat.
1:06:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that'll be my next uh YouTube video.
1:06:40
SPEAKER_02: Honestly, that would be there's not a lot of that kind of content, so yeah, yeah.
1:06:45
SPEAKER_02: And I'm doing some hybrid work.
1:06:47
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get some video as as well as as pictures.
1:06:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, nice.
1:06:50
SPEAKER_02: So I need to go get in my outfit and get out of here.
1:06:54
SPEAKER_02: But let uh thank you so much for being on here.
1:06:56
SPEAKER_02: We definitely died, we have to do this again.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely, and I and once again I I I appreciate you know giving giving me the uh time to just kind of unload.
1:07:08
SPEAKER_00: This is always it's it's therapeutic for me too.
1:07:10
SPEAKER_02: Heck yeah, man.
1:07:11
SPEAKER_02: So listen, all my listeners out there, go to YouTube, look up Walter Lyle L Y L E.
1:07:18
SPEAKER_02: He's uh he's a great guy after this podcast.
1:07:20
SPEAKER_02: You feel like you know him a little bit more.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_02: So when you message him, make sure you tell him, hey man, I heard you on the visual historian.
1:07:28
SPEAKER_00: And tell me how much you hate my style.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_00: Right?
1:07:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, love you, brother.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_02: Take care.
1:07:36
SPEAKER_01: Love you.