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Have CELEBRITY "Photographers" Gone TOO FAR??? RAWtalk 191
00:43:02
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- [00:01]
A
I think we got them good again this year, Steven. I know some people definitely got got. Steven. I'm getting messages from people who are saying, where can I find the I Shoot Film T shirt?
- [00:12]
B
They can just click on the link in the latest video.
- [00:14]
A
Did the link go somewhere?
- [00:15]
B
Yeah, it goes to the April Fool's Day Wikipedia page.
- [00:19]
A
You should have Rickrolled everybody.
- [00:20]
B
Oh, that would have been good too.
- [00:22]
A
So the reason I don't have an I Shoot Film shirt is I don't know who. If there's actually a trademark on that. I don't know if there is. I looked it up and I couldn't find one. But also, you know, I didn't really want to do an I Shoot Film shirt though. I would like to do more shirts.
- [00:37]
B
Well, I think a big joking shirt would have been more like an I Shoot JPEG shirt. But I feel like that's trying too hard to give away the whole April Fool's thing.
- [00:45]
A
But I had a really. This was a legitimate idea I sent you yesterday. And you didn't think it was real. You thought it was. You thought it was an April Fool's joke.
- [00:54]
B
Please explain.
- [00:55]
A
I'm going to explain this. I was, you know, I have issues with my I Shoot Raw shirt, meaning at certain places they have me turn it inside out. Namely the baseball stadium years ago, have. Have asked me to turn it inside out. Well, one of the photographers yesterday was like, you should get a Braille edition I Shoot Raw shirt. And I was like, well, that's a really good idea. Let me see what ChatGPT says. I shoot roll. Really good idea. Braille would be.
- [01:21]
B
Yeah.
- [01:23]
A
Well, then I could just walk up to blind people and have them touch me on the chest and they can see that I Shoot Raw being inclusive of people's disabilities. So you would have to do the puffy. The puffy print, not P. Diddy print. Cause that's bad touch. But you would do like a puff braille. It would say I Shoot Raw. I would enlarge it and have it on my chest. It's also a way that I can still wear the shirt and still know I'm wearing an I Shoot Raw shirt with froknowsphoto branding on the back.
- [01:54]
B
That is just the most ridiculously absurd idea I've ever heard.
- [01:57]
A
Stephen, do you know me?
- [01:58]
B
I thought you were legit joking. I'm like, haha, April Fool's joke. Like question mark. A braille shirt for a visual medium for blind people.
- [02:09]
A
That's funny. That's fantastic.
- [02:12]
B
Steve. How would they know that you even had a Braille shirt on. They can't see you.
- [02:16]
A
I will take their hand and put it on my chest with permission.
- [02:21]
B
And then when you're saying this, I'm like, you have to touch and feel Braille.
- [02:24]
A
That's the per. That's the reason. That's the whole purpose of the shirt. Steven, I thought you were just gonna
- [02:29]
B
literally print the text and have Braille. I'm like, but no, you can't feel. You need to feel Braille.
- [02:35]
A
Yeah, they're gonna be. That's why you use the puffy paint, the puffy print, which is extra thick,
- [02:41]
B
absurd, idiotic thing I've ever heard in my life.
- [02:44]
A
They can feel the bumps. A Helen Keller would totally enjoy it.
- [02:50]
B
My question is, does Braille even work when it's on, like, a shirt and it's like, you know, not perfectly flat on, like, a piece of paper or something?
- [02:56]
A
Well, yeah, because I think all the dots align properly.
- [03:01]
B
Like, no sense.
- [03:02]
A
I shoot and then raw underneath.
- [03:06]
B
And then they're gonna be like, oh, photography. What's that?
- [03:09]
A
There are blind photography.
- [03:11]
B
Yes.
- [03:12]
A
It's a shirt for Braille people.
- [03:13]
B
Let me promote a shirt about photography to blind people. And that's funny, too.
- [03:18]
A
That's funny. That is something. I will be doing it. Steven.
- [03:22]
B
Like, at least do the Japanese version of the I shoot Raw shirt that you did for the tsunami or something that's in Japanese. Like, that makes a little more sense.
- [03:30]
A
Yeah, I did that one. We sold over 600 of those.
- [03:34]
B
It still says I shoot Raw. You could still understand it, Obviously. Most of the camera brands are based in Japan. I don't know. That makes way more sense than putting Braille I shoot Raw on a shirt.
- [03:45]
A
Best idea ever. If you guys think it's a great idea, text us at 31 3.
- [03:50]
B
Of course they're going to say, it's great.
- [03:52]
A
I moved the paper. Steven, where's the paper?
- [03:54]
B
It's 313-710-9729.
- [03:57]
A
Text me if you think you want a Braille T shirt or if Jared is right or is Stephen right. Let us know.
- [04:02]
B
Yeah. Your army will come after me like they always do. Jared, so. Right. I love Jared.
- [04:09]
A
That's me. Just 37 times with fake accounts.
- [04:15]
B
That's funny.
- [04:15]
A
You know who thinks you're always right, though?
- [04:17]
B
Who?
- [04:18]
A
Stu's wife. Oh, Stu's wife. Tina. There you go, Tina. You get a shout out. Thank you for listening and being Steven's biggest fan.
- [04:28]
B
Hi, Tina.
- [04:29]
A
She. I call Stu and she's in the car and she's just like I like Stephen.
- [04:33]
B
Oh, okay.
- [04:35]
A
So April Fool's fix Stephen, why don't you? That's your brain. Well, I won't say brainchild, but you're the one who kind of directs the direction of that this time.
- [04:45]
B
The goal of these April Fool's videos, which we do them every year, it's always tough. We plan them out almost like a month in advance or at least two or three weeks, I'd say because it does take a lot of pre production. Usually these photo news fixes are a flash in the pan. We record them, film them, edit them, post them all within two or three days at most because obviously they're topical videos. With April Fool's videos, when you're making up fake products, it takes some time to make up said fake product. So the goal of these videos every April Fool's Day is to sell them like they're real. Announcements like a new real camera came out. Actually fool people, unlike a clear April Fool's joke, give it somewhat realistic specs with realistic looking press material. Like matching Sony's product tour video, matching their product pages using their press release and changing some of the wording around using Nikon's press release and their actual tech spec page and changing all of the specs around Canon's official press release. Same fonts, same size, same layout, all of that. And that is really selling the illusion that these products are real. But at the end of the video, it's like April Fool's. It's all made up. If you haven't watched this video, I highly encourage you to watch it at some point. Today it's our annual April Fool's video and we announced the A7R6 from Sony, the Nikon Z9II and Canon has officially unlocked the RF mount for third party lenses. And that comes with zero limitations.
- [06:09]
A
Yeah, I like limitations. I'm a big fan of them. Usually women put them on me.
- [06:13]
B
Again, back to trying to sell the illusion that these are all real announcements, real products. Then we also try and have some fun and throw in some something ridiculous like, you know, 1.2 frames per second, the boobs grip Nikon's red accent buttons. Unlocking Canon's mount. That's pretty damn unrealistic at this point.
- [06:29]
A
I didn't think 1.2 frames a second at 100 megapixels at 16 bit raw was unrealistic. Takes 1.2 sec. You can only shoot at 1.2 frames per second.
- [06:39]
B
It just seems really odd. I don't think I've ever seen a Frame rate with a decimal point.
- [06:43]
A
Oh, well, I, I think I have, I don't know where.
- [06:47]
B
Now the other thing too with these videos is I didn't rely heavily on AI to make ridiculously looking fake concept products and crazy press releases like every other April Fool's joke out there, especially in the year 2026.
- [06:58]
A
There is one AI generated image in the video.
- [07:03]
B
Oh yes, that image.
- [07:06]
A
Please explain the purple headed cock gobbler. I went into ChatGPT and I was like, I need a bird. Realistic looking. That is a purple headed cock gobbler. And it came up with two options. One literally had a penis nose that stuck out and was red. And I was like, that's a little too much. The other had a long one hanging there. So I just did a second one that had it cut it in half a little bit to make it more realistic and not show up on like, you know, Silicon Valley where Jin Yang is like, hot dog or not a hot dog? Yeah, hot dog. It's pizza. It's not a hot dog.
- [07:47]
B
Not a hot dog.
- [07:48]
A
Oh, what a great, what a great thing. If you haven't seen Silicon Valley, which we do have an, we did have an I shoot raw Silicon Valley shirt, which was funny as hell to me.
- [07:57]
B
Oh, I forgot the Pied Piper shirt. Did we actually sell that?
- [08:01]
A
We did sell it. Not a lot.
- [08:02]
B
Oh yeah, that was a good one.
- [08:04]
A
Yeah. I think I'm gonna have to start doing drops now. I'm gonna have to start coming up with ideas, doing them and then just doing a two week drop and that's it. And then maybe bring them back at the end of the year or something just to have it done all through a fulfillment, all print on demand and call it a day.
- [08:18]
B
Like Game of Thrones, like Stranger Things. We did all those shirts. I'm trying to think of a big show right now that everybody, everybody watches.
- [08:24]
A
Born to Bowl, Born to bow.
- [08:30]
B
Oh, speaking of choking, back to the Cock gobbler. That bird image that you made, ChatGPT first make, I told you, I'm like, I don't think we can use this. I think it's actually going to get flagged on YouTube as like a real penis. That's how realistic it looked.
- [08:47]
A
Well, Steven the nose, I did give it a sample image to upload to and say make it look like this one.
- [08:55]
B
It is amazing though what ChatGPT can do and Photoshop on top of that because I just basically took that image that you created. Well, chatgpt created, put it into Photoshop, use generative fill to expand it into an actual forest to make it look like it was a wide shot cropped in and it did an amazing job in like seconds.
- [09:13]
A
Yeah.
- [09:14]
B
I think the only other thing I use ChatGPT for was to make a 3D realistic rendering of the 2D image that I made for the Sony A7R6 and the Z9 2. So that helped sell a little more. The only thing that sucks about chatgpt is it always gives you like a low resolution readout and it always messes something up. Like if you look close, the buttons are a little weird and stuff like that. There's certain like soft angles when they should be like hard edges and stuff. But for the most part, if you're watching a quick video, you won't be able to see it.
- [09:43]
A
Yeah, we definitely got people again this year, even with recycled stories.
- [09:47]
B
So speaking of that, I'm sure some people noticed that they were rehashed stories from last year. Like the Z9 II was almost exactly like last year. I did update, you know, the dates and some of the tech specs, stuff like that. The Canon unlocked story is the same, but it's a whole new press release this time with new assets across the board. But you know, these are two stories that are still big. You know, obviously a Z9 successor is coming soon. The canon unlocking the RF mount is still one of the biggest stories. People are waiting for that one day. And then the A7R6 in my opinion is probably the next rumored, you know, Sony Alpha model camera. So that makes sense. We just basically switched the A7V model from last year and reworked a lot of the specs and put them into this year's fix. So thankfully I didn't have to make all the specs and fake products up from scratch this year, but I still had to change a lot and I think people bought it.
- [10:38]
A
So yeah, because the point is for us is to do realistic with some side little notes that make it not real if someone's really paying attention. Whereas there's, there's other places they do. They try to do the funny version, the clearly April Fool's jokes, like the 0 millimeter 0.95 and just use AI. I like to put a little more thought into the game, personally.
- [11:03]
B
Yeah, like we're not going to be like, oh, it's a 10 to 1,000 millimeter f1 lens. That Canon just like, obviously that's insanely fake. I like to try and hook them from the rip and make it seem really realistic and then throw in a couple little Hidden, you know, gems that clearly kind of give it away.
- [11:20]
A
Next year, we're thinking we'll just say this because some people listen now, but I do need to get a makeup artist in here and we need to do the bald headed, shaved headed thing and then get the body paint artist to paint an I shoot raw shirt onto me, onto my body. And then we need to do the episode that way.
- [11:44]
B
See, like, you just take it a little too far because I feel like we can get away with the bald part and making it look really realistic if we have a professional artist come in to make your head look shaved. But the T shirt part, the T
- [11:56]
A
shirt will look real. You won't know that I don't have a shirt on. That's the point. When it's done really well, you do
- [12:02]
B
already wear, you know, Schmedium shirts.
- [12:04]
A
They're already.
- [12:05]
B
Speaking of shirts, how about the I shoot film shirts? It's not a bad idea to make a shirt like that. It really.
- [12:10]
A
I like the other one I came up with that we didn't end up using, which used Kodak colors from the 60s. I thought that one was pretty cool
- [12:17]
B
because again, I wanted to try and sell it. So I just wanted to make it super basic like your current. I shoot raw shirts. Just literally say film instead. Oh, actually, that obviously is another AI generated image and it did a pretty flawless job for the most part.
- [12:29]
A
Oh, it's so good for merch. It's all we need to do is upload a real photo of me wearing the merch and say, use this. You know, put this on the shirt. Yep, we've done that. That's just so that's a great use. And I can hear people now. You're taking away jobs. No, I was the one who would shoot it. Yeah, I had Richie shoot it years ago. And this is just so much easier. You do one plate. You basically shoot a plate, a custom one, and you say, replace this shirt with this design. And it does. I have no problem with that at all.
- [13:00]
B
The unfortunate part is when you want to change something, like a subtle change and AI just completely destroys it. And it's like you have to start over almost from scratch.
- [13:08]
A
You know, I think there's going to come the point, since we're in the infancy of this AI stuff for this is circle the thing you want to change and then it's going to learn to, like, adapt or leave these things alone. And then you'll be able to be like, well, or you'll be able to have like, it's Going to skew off in six different directions. Which one is closer and so it gets faster and. And more responsive so that you can just design something.
- [13:34]
B
What I hate is I will literally type out, leave everything the exact same except this, and it will still change the entire image.
- [13:42]
A
Yeah, it's going to get better, though. Yeah. But anyway, that's the April Fool's fix. Hopefully you didn't get get or got got like the year we said that Nikon was doing away with Raw and someone said they sold all of their Nikon stock. Yeah.
- [13:57]
B
Just ridiculous.
- [13:58]
A
Yeah, that's what happened. But shifting gears, let's shift over to a boot camp. I put up a boot camp for Saturday, May 30, 2026, the first one of the season. People were asking for a boot camp, and we're doing it on May 30th here in Philly. You can go to bitly May 30 fro. All one word, bit ly May 30 fro. And you can grab one of the 18 spots. I will be promoting that coming up short in other avenues. So if you want to get a ticket, you want to come in, you got two months until that boot camp is happening, and then it's harder for me to pick dates later on. As of right now, it just all has to fit into what I have going on. So right now, we'll make May 30 work on Saturday here in Philly. Should be nice. So again, 18 spots available. We've sold out everyone, but the last one didn't sell out. But, hey, we love teaching these things and hope you guys want to make it here to come to the boot camp. So I'll be doing those promotions shortly. One other side note before we get into the next story is the unofficial Born to Bowl podcast now has its own official podcast. That's right. The unofficial Born to Bowl podcast has its own official podcast channel. If you go to Bit Ly Born to Bowl pod, it will take you to the Spotify. It's on itunes or should be on itunes. It should propagate there at some point, but that's where we'll be putting those to live so that it's separated. Because I know. I hate when a podcast does this. We should have done this from day one, but I rushed it out when I rushed it out and didn't realize how easy it is to start a podcast on Spotify. Since Spotify bought what was it not. Was it last? Wasn't last fm, it was anchor. Anchor. They bought anchor and then they make putting up podcasts super easy and give you the it's just super easy. Free hosting, free everything. Even though I pay for hosting on that other channel because we didn't want to switch for some reason. I think it had something like it would screw up our YouTube the way the YouTube videos show up or something. But whatever, we'll have to think about it. But anyway, that's there. Episode four should be going up shortly for the episode three recap. It's the fourth episode in the unofficial Born to Bowl podcast where I sit down this time with E.J. tackett. Let's move on to something that's not April Fools. Stephen We've got the Sony A7R6. I say first reactions because I didn't look at the specs this morning. It says close to 67 megapixels resolution, new body design, which I kind of find hard to believe on the market in May.
- [16:32]
B
They probably just mean new body design for the A7R6 because technically the A7V is a slightly refined like grip body design. But honestly I couldn't find a difference. I think it looked and felt exactly the same as every other, you know, latest model.
- [16:46]
A
Yeah, and then they had a one more thing. All three trusted sources hear about two more cameras coming soon after. I'm working on these details right now and hope to be able to share more details about this soon. But if confirmed also the next two cameras are quite exciting.
- [17:03]
B
Let me just preface this real quick. Those three specs that Jared just read off, he's Sony Alpha Rumors is saying that three reliable sources confirmed those specs. But another source, basically an anonymous source that he's never heard from before, threw out these like wild rumors and that's what Jared's about to read. These are not yet confirmed and honestly I think they're BS, but we'll see.
- [17:26]
A
Bion's XR2 I think they have the Bionz XR in the A7V.
- [17:31]
B
No, it's the XR2 in the A7V.
- [17:33]
A
Oh it is. All right. So it does exist with high bandwidth LSI and 67 megapixel XMR RS stacked they say stack CMOS sensor. There's no way they have a stacked 67 megapixel full frame. There's no way.
- [17:47]
B
That's why I'm saying I think these are bs. I mean this seems the list of specs that you're about to read or I will read whatever you want.
- [17:54]
A
Go ahead, you read. So I saved my voice.
- [17:56]
B
Okay, so like Jared said, 67 megapixel stacked CMOS sensor. They go on to say non partially stacked. I don't know why they said that. I think they meant fully stacked, not non partially stacked. Just a weird way to word it. Anyway, Ibis up to eight and a half stops of compensation in the center. They say in the center because I think the new SEPA rating is now based on the peripheral like edges too for IBIs. 30 frames per second, 14 bit raw electronic shutter continuous shooting. I find that odd because that's going to surpass the current a 1250 megapixel flagship camera. And then they say a 60 frames per second readout speed in 67 megapixels and 14 bit electronic shutter mode with full AE and AF professional AI autofocus model that significantly improves accuracy. 16 stops of dynamic range and mechanical shutter via DCG HDR 10K oversampling 8K 30P full frame and 6.4K oversampling 4K 34K 60 in Super 35 crop 6 4K oversampling 4K 120 Super 35 when the 4K angle of view priority mode is on, which we saw was introduced in the A7V. And then they go on to say dual 5K oversampling 4K 30 and 60p in full frame and dual 5K oversampling 4k 120 full frame when the 4K angle of view priority is also on. Again. I have no idea what they mean by dual 5k. Isn't that just 10k? I've never seen that spec exist. This just seems like someone making up random things. And then in another 9.4 million dot OLED EVF. So in the end it's going to ship in May. We'll have a close to 67 megapixel stacked sensor, new body and probably coming along with. They go on to say a 16-28 f2 gm lens.
- [19:45]
A
I'll get to that in a second.
- [19:47]
B
I mean complete that F2 Trinity.
- [19:49]
A
It wouldn't be the first time that Sony has wowed Everybody. When the A1 came out at 30 frames a second 50 megapixel stack sensor, that made a lot of sense. But I can't see that a a 7r line. I mean let me, let me take it back. They did it with the A7.5. They went a whole different direction with the A7.5. Maybe they're going to go that whole new direction with the A7.6. But could you imagine 67 megapixels at 60 frames per second readout speed with a stacked sensor?
- [20:17]
B
I can imagine it because to me this, well one, these are random over the top ridiculous specs. In my opinion this reads more like an A13 or what the A12 should have been from the rip more than the A7 R5 successor. But it's not a flagship. It won't be priced as one if the A12 can't even do 30 frames per second in 14 bit raw with a 50 megapixel sensor and it's barely two years old. Albeit I know the original Sensor is like 5 years old at this point. But still that current flagship is not even two years old. I don't think the A7 R6 will surpass that. I would be very surprised if Sony did that. It makes no sense at all that the A7 R6 would be cheaper with a completely new and better sensor and frame rate than the less than 2 year old current flagship. That is $6500 or whatever it is. Now I will say the A7R V was always the model or the A7R series was always the model to kind of like introduce new tech and features. That's the first one with the AI focus. Was the A7R V the first one with that new screen, the first one with that new giant high resolution EVF. So maybe the A7R6 will be the first one to introduce a lot of this new tech. We'll see.
- [21:26]
A
The two interesting things here are those lenses to me, a 16 to 28 F2. I personally rather see like a 14 to 2020, a 14 to 24.
- [21:38]
B
Maybe it's an F2.
- [21:40]
A
Yeah, I know but go wider. I don't need the, I don't want 16.
- [21:43]
B
The wider you go with a large aperture like that at F2, I mean it's going to be a massive, massive bulbous lens. Heavy.
- [21:50]
A
We'll see. But I know that there's a lot of sports shooters who would fall over themselves or fall all over themselves for a 100 to 400 F4 because they're they, they're clamoring for like a 200 to 400 or you know, the 180 to 400 but a 100 to 400 F4.
- [22:08]
B
So for context, that's what Sony Alpha Rumors is also saying will be released with the A7R6 along with that 16-28 F2. This 100 to 400 F4GM. I can't imagine how much that thing would cost.
- [22:21]
A
That'd be a $10,000, $12,000 lens probably.
- [22:24]
B
Yeah. And then back to the A7R6. I just don't think it'll be stacked at all. Not even partially stacked. I think the A7R series has always opted for resolution and quality over speed. I think the A1 was the high resolution and speed model, you know, the flagship. I think their line is pretty diverse at this point. They have a good lineup where the A7R series is always that. Again, high resolution, best quality sensor you can get, but it's slow. Slow frame rate, slow readout. Then you have the A9 III, which is super fast. Global shutter, lower resolution. And then you have the A1, which is kind of a combination of both of them, again being the flagship. So I think they're going to keep it that way. I think it'd be very weird to kind of make the A7R6 an A1 at this point. We'll see. But to me, these are very wild rumors and ironically they came the day before and the day after April Fool's Day.
- [23:17]
A
Yeah, we'll have to see what happens. I don't put a lot of credence into the 60. I mean, maybe 67 megapixels, but it's already been 62 megapixels.
- [23:28]
B
61, I think. And I do think the A7R6 will be the next Alpha model released since we're approaching four years. But then again, you have the A7S3 that is over five years old at this point. But I do think that's been pretty much replaced by the FX series. I think the FX3 mark 2 is probably coming next as well. But yeah, the A7R series definitely needs an update. I'm just curious if this is it again. Sony Alpha Rumors has confirmed that 67 megapixel resolution sensor from three different sources is a thing. I just question the whole stacked part and the rest of it.
- [24:05]
A
Yeah. So anyway, putting that to rest, moving on to. You've seen a lot in the last year, a lot of athletes or celebrities being on sidelines photographing in games. So there's been a lot of football games where you've seen a bunch of. Whether it's Simone Biles having a Sony camera in her hand shooting football or other celebrities shooting football. And generally with Sony cameras. Now we see Caitlin Clark sitting on the sidelines on the baseline at a Lakers game, photographing a game and photographing LeBron and LeBron James. Some people are up in arms that they're taking up a spot, as if they would have ever gotten the spot themselves. For one and two, your Caitlin, if she's Caitlin Clark, she's Caitlin Clark, of course, if she wants to go shoot a damn game, let her shoot the damn game. I have absolutely no problem with that at all. And the biggest problem I have, though, with most of these celebrities and how they're shooting is how they hold the camera. They're holding the lens wrong. And I know people.
- [25:12]
B
Are they looking through the viewfinder?
- [25:14]
A
Caitlin Clark was looking through the viewfinder.
- [25:16]
B
There you go.
- [25:16]
A
Right. But with the 70 200, she had her hand in a C on the side of it instead of underneath it. Like a U.
- [25:23]
B
A U?
- [25:24]
A
Yeah. That's how I can explain it. I just came up with that real quick.
- [25:26]
B
That's good.
- [25:27]
A
Yeah, like a U underneath, not a circle. Right? You don't want to see you next Tuesday. You want a you, like, uterus underneath. And I have no problem with her shooting whatsoever. I just wish there was some form of education. And yes, there is a right way to hold a camera. And yes, you should be looking through the viewfinder. And I'm seeing a lot more people again on sidelines. And it's a younger generation thing. And it's not exactly their fault that this is how they've come up shooting. But with some little slight tweaks, they will see a major difference in how they shoot. And I will stand by that for this generation and beyond. Because holding the camera will benefit you, if you hold it properly, will benefit you in getting better pictures. And there's, of course, times where not looking through will benefit you. But I think the biggest thing that I wanted to talk about here and hear your thoughts on it. Do you give a shit that celebrities get access to a sideline to take photos?
- [26:26]
B
I mean, I'm not a sideline shooter, so I really give zero Fs, but if I was and it took away a spot that I could have potentially had and I got turned down because of that, I could see myself getting.
- [26:39]
A
You're not getting the spot.
- [26:40]
B
I think if you're important enough, you are getting a spot and it shouldn't matter, right? I don't know. I think it's great publicity for whoever there's, you know, the team or Sony or whoever they're shooting for. And I think they also should be able to kind of shoot. They've earned it at this point, right? Not from a photographer standpoint, but from a celebrity athlete standpoint. Yeah, they should be able to kind of be wherever they want to be. We've seen it with Mystery man. Yeah, we see it with him all the time. He's everywhere. He's an athlete turned Photographer at this point, I truly think he is pretty much a professional photographer that shoots sports. So he's earned his keeper at this point.
- [27:17]
A
Actually on the 5th of April, or maybe it's the 4th, the Masters and NBC is going to release that something 24 the June where Junior shot the Masters last year, they did a kind of like a docu, a documentary on him there where he's getting like, they're not allowing him to not get good, like they're not accepting bad photos. He's there with the photo editor who's sitting there critiquing his work, showing him or telling him what he needs to do better and set the expectation of. I'm really hoping that he gets one good photo a day and that would be a success.
- [27:52]
B
Wasn't he like a task photographer like to shoot the Masters from the Masters?
- [27:57]
A
Yes, he was. He was one of the Masters photographers last year.
- [28:00]
B
Yeah, that was kind of like the challenge is to actually shoot for them as if he was a hired gun. And then it seems like they did this whole docu series around that. So I'm really, really interested to see that.
- [28:11]
A
Yeah, I want to see it because, you know, photography and all and Junior, I'd like to see what's happening there. So to wrap that up, really, I have zero issues with those people getting access. I just wish there was a little bit more education given so that you could help them be better photographers. And I know that the majority of the people don't care because they're not photographers who are watching. And it's good product placement for Sony, but. But I just think so. My takeaway though is that these athletes have no problem taking coaching. They would be open to doing things right. Because Caitlin Clark taking 8 billion shots from three as practice wants to be perfect at that. And I guarantee you that most athletes want to be seen as doing it right. They don't want to half ass it. And it comes down to someone showing them and educating and informing and coaching. And they absolutely can take coaching. They've taken coaching their whole life and they're open to it, they're receptive and they learn from it really quick.
- [29:14]
B
That's a very good point.
- [29:16]
A
Really quick.
- [29:16]
B
I do question, you know, back to saying this is great publicity for Sony and most of them are shooting Sony. Is it Sony getting them passes for these games and being like, hey, Caitlin Clark, do you want to photograph this game and use a Sony and whatever you want gear wise? Or is it Caitlin Clark reaching out to them and saying, hey, I want a photograph Can I have some gear? Whatever?
- [29:36]
A
Well, I know in the. Nikon. Sorry, Nikon. I know in the NFL sense of it, they have a partnership with Sony. So it's probably something that Sony higher ups have figured out how to do. And they're like inviting these people out to the game to shoot. In Caitlin Clark's sense, her photographer, one of these persons that follows her around that she's friends with, shoot Sony already. And so she probably set her up or got connected with Sony and was like, hey, Caitlin's gonna be shooting a game, can we get her some gear? And that's probably how they ended up doing it.
- [30:10]
B
I do find it interesting that some of these pro athletes are getting into the artistic world of photography. I feel like usually if you're a sports kind of minded person, you don't really enter that world. It's kind of one or the other. Like myself, for example, I really give zero Fs about sports, but I'm more of a creative. I've never really seen the two combined, at least successfully for the most part. And I feel like a lot of these sports guys are just like, I need to. Now I'm done with sports. I want to get more creative. I want to get out there and just, you know, feed that artistic mind.
- [30:40]
A
Well, it's another. It's another outlet, but it also keeps them involved in the game and in the team. So I know Malcolm Jenkins of the Eagles, we've conversed a little bit through Instagram, is out there shooting and using creativity and, and it's great. But he also has extra access because he's an ex player, which is awesome. Like, you use that to your advantage to get the access to do the photos. And they don't have to sell them. It doesn't matter. They just care about getting the shot. It's like getting a hit, you know, catching an interception, scoring a touchdown, getting a sack. It's all of that. Getting that photo gives them the rush of what it's like not the same thing, but it gives them the rush of what it was like to play. This is the alternative side of that. Getting the rush of getting that awesome photo of that moment.
- [31:27]
B
Do you think they're doing the full process from shooting to editing to exporting?
- [31:32]
A
I think some of the ones that take more interest in it are. And I think that the ones that aren't are just taking JPEGs and then posting it or throwing a filter on it, just like it was Instagram.
- [31:41]
B
I'm curious if someone like Caitlin Clark is kind of just Sending it to her phone, slapping a filter on it and posting.
- [31:47]
A
I could ask her photographer friend. I have her Instagram.
- [31:50]
B
Yeah, you should.
- [31:51]
A
I could always ask her how, how it went down.
- [31:53]
B
I'm trying to think too. If, you know, if this related to, if this was concert photography and if I was in the photo pit and we had say a musician that turned into a photographer and started to get media access and fill up a spot in the pit, would that annoy me? I don't know. I think only if he got, if they got in my way it would. Because obviously concert photography is a little different than say sideline photography for sports where you kind of have a clear path, where concert photography, you really have to work together as photographers to kind of not bone each other's shots.
- [32:21]
A
That's just in the pit though. In the pit, usually if you're the artist, you have access. We can go all the way back to Sammy Davis Jr. Not Sammy Davis Jr. Kitty. But Sammy Davis Jr. Has a photo book out. Sammy Davis Jr. Was able to take a camera into places that other black people at the time were not even allowed in. And he was taking these photos. Now his photos were not that great in the 1930s and 40s, but I have his book of his photos and that's another musician that picked up a camera.
- [32:51]
B
But again, I'm thinking more like what we're talking about, like sideline photography and having like a legit like media pass and you're just shooting like every other photographer. You don't have that exclusive behind the scenes access like a team photographer would. You're just kind of another part of the media. Yeah, I question if I would get annoyed. I don't know.
- [33:08]
A
Do you get annoyed if I show up to a pit just because I'm testing camera gear?
- [33:12]
B
I would get annoyed if I was behind you just because your hair adds another foot. It's very tough to shoot behind you or around you because of your hair, you know.
- [33:20]
A
Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney also got into photography. They all had an exhibit recently and Linda McCartney was a photographer, so she was a photographer documenting their lives and their kids lives on the road. And Ringo picked up a camera as well throughout his career.
- [33:38]
B
Interesting.
- [33:38]
A
So they've all had, you know, remember I had a website way back in the day before Froknow's photo existed, which was called One in Every Band. And the whole point of One in Every Band was that I encountered in every band at least one person who picked up a camera. It was all whether it was a crew person, whether it was the drummer, the lead singer. They always had someone who was interested in photography. So I bought a web domain and I used the early Squarespace back in the day to have one in every band. Dot com. Let's go to the Wayback Machine, Stephen. Let's see if it comes up. Ooh, yes, Wayback Machine. Nothing's coming up for one in every band. I'm kind of curious if that was the name of the website. I don't remember at this point.
- [34:22]
B
Was it spelled out number one or no?
- [34:25]
A
O, N E. The One Eaters.
- [34:27]
B
The One Eaters.
- [34:28]
A
The One Eaters, Stephen. I don't know. I can't find it. Maybe I'll think about it. I think that. Well, the premise was one in every band and I would like talk to them. But then I knew that. Look, I tried many things before froknowsphoto was a success and that was one of them with bands. Another idea was to get a tour bus, sell tickets to photographers to be on the tour bus, get a caterer, and you would go on tour with a band for like a week and shoot all the shows. Right. That was a little something that I thought of doing and they're just different ideas. It just didn't make sense at the time. Which explorer of light, what's his name, David Bergman, does something similar, but they don't go on tour, but they get access to the Luke Combs concert. So to shoot that show. And he does that from the pit education thing that he does. He teaches people and then they get to shoot the show.
- [35:25]
B
That's very cool because you're shooting a real. I mean, that's an arena show.
- [35:28]
A
It's an arena show. Best lighting, easiest thing ever to do.
- [35:31]
B
Yeah, it is, it is.
- [35:32]
A
You know, but whatever. People get access and he. And he. And he pays to. He gets paid to teach, so that's always cool. Moving on. I found this to be an interesting story that PetaPixel posted before we went live. And it's about OkCupid. The reason I bring this up is not because I'm on OkCupid. I'm not on OkCupid at this point. I don't use that app. It kind of started to suck back in the day. It was really good. But there was a lawsuit filed by the FTC against them. And it said that they used 3 million images or sold 3 million images to a facial recognition company, and that went against their own terms of service. But when you read this, according to a report by the Verge, OkCupid and its parent company did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the settlement, but agree not to make similar alleged misrepresentations in the future. So they got a slap on the wrist. They don't have to pay a fine. They just said, we won't do it again. That is an absolute disgrace that the match company that owns like match.com, okCupid, Bumble and all of those gets away with something like this. It's like their defense was, well, that was a long time ago. We don't do that anymore.
- [36:52]
B
Whoopsie.
- [36:53]
A
But my thing is, well, you did do it. Regardless of fixing or not, you did do it. Why are they not on the hook for anything? Why can they get away with this? It just seems to be like the little people get screwed for the smallest of infractions, but the big people go, oh, I'm sorry, we won't do it again. Again, they don't admit to admit to any wrongdoing either. That just pissed me off reading that whole thing and then seeing that I bring it up because it's kind of photo related. Because people talk about AI now and they worry about posting their children's images online. And. And the. And I look at people, people like, aren't you worried about. Aren't you worried about facial recognition or someone deep faking you? I'm like, guys, our images are all over the Internet for the last 20 some 30 years already. We've uploaded everything to Facebook, probably giving them permission to do anything they want with our images already. So we all did that in the late aughts, I guess it's called the Aughts 2005, 6, 7, 8, 9 and beyond. You uploaded for 10 years. You probably uploaded all of your life and images to Facebook, giving them all the fodder to train all AI on. And the other thing is, when you're traveling, when you're out on the street, there's facial recognition cameras everywhere. Now they all use facial recognition. So I'm not gonna worry about certain things. There's certain things where technology is a benefit to your life, and then there's other things to really worry about. I'm not gonna sit here and worry about it. And yes, my face could be used for nefarious reasons and other people's can too. But someone could literally take a picture they have of you from anywhere and upload it themselves back to the, you
- [38:39]
B
know, people hiding faces of their kids and stuff. I just, I never really understood that. Just because, well, one, you're not a celebrity, so no One, really cares about your child. Two, if you're worried about facial recognition or something, your child is growing and changing so quickly, that face isn't even the same face it was a week or two ago. You know what I mean? I don't know. I just feel like if you're that crazy about it, then you just shouldn't be on social media at all. What's the point of posting an image of your child if you're just gonna put a smiley face over their face or something like that?
- [39:07]
A
Well, yeah, and the other thing is LifeTouch. All of those, all of those school photos, photos, like they're all digitized at this point. They're all digital. There's a whole database of names and faces going back to the 40s and 30s all the way. And those are real photos. Guarantee you they've all been scanned, all the yearbooks scanned, all the information scanned.
- [39:32]
B
I just think it's inevitable. Again, I just don't really fully get the hiding your child's face with a smiley face because it's everywhere.
- [39:41]
A
The celebrities do it because they don't want their kids being bullied or that.
- [39:46]
B
I totally understand celebrities for sure. You want to try and give your child somewhat of a private life. If you're a celebrity, get that. That you don't want to force paparazzi on them or paint a target on their back, whatever it may be. But again, the everyday person. I've got a couple friends that post the whole smiley face thing and I'm just like, why even post it? Just, just don't even be on social media at that point if you're that concerned.
- [40:07]
A
Yeah, I agree with you, Stephen.
- [40:09]
B
And that's coming from a parent's perspective. You know, I post my daughter a decent amount on my Instagram story, but I have like a close friends feed that I post and only most of my family sees that.
- [40:20]
A
I never see it because it's mainly for my family. I think I'm in your close friends feed maybe.
- [40:25]
B
Are you? I don't know.
- [40:25]
A
I don't know. I see picture, I see videos of your daughter.
- [40:28]
B
Maybe it's most of it's my family,
- [40:29]
A
so maybe it's your wife posting that.
- [40:31]
B
Yeah. But I don't know. Again, I just think you shouldn't be on social media if you're that concerned because it's. It's inevitable at this point, unfortunately.
- [40:39]
A
Yeah, inevitable. So to wrap this thing all up in a bow, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens in May because if Sony has an announcement In May, it usually usually follows suit that other companies announced around the same time. It's just inevitable. It always happens that way. So if that is real, are we gonna see something from Nikon? Are we gonna see something from Canon? If so, what and when? I don't know.
- [41:06]
B
I'm trying to think again. I just mentioned the A7R6 is definitely. Or the A7RV is in need of an update. The A7S3, that successor. But is that just the FX3 Mark 2 from Sony? After that, I think we're pretty much caught up. Nikon needs a Z9II, a Z8. 2. We already have the Z6 III. We have the Z5II. Canon, we need the R7 Mark II. We have the R5 Mark II. The R6 III already. We have the R1. Like, there's not much from Canon that needs to be updated, at least.
- [41:38]
A
I don't know. We'll see what. We'll see what happens. But I hopefully can beat off this cold before it turns into a cold. Or more like right now, it's just in my throat.
- [41:48]
B
Steven sounds like it's too late already.
- [41:51]
A
Yeah, I've been traveling quite a bit, so there's been a lot going on. And not the same sleep. Not the good food. I think it always comes down to when I don't get good food. I think it leads to bad health or something.
- [42:03]
B
I mean, it could also be the weather. Man, the weather started getting me this week. The crazy change from, you know, 30 degrees to 80 degrees nearly overnight here, at least in the northeast.
- [42:13]
A
It's got to be my travel, though.
- [42:14]
B
And the pollen's hitting too.
- [42:16]
A
Maybe, but the crisscrossing will make me jump. Jump.
- [42:21]
B
I'm curious how sick I'm going to get in the near future when we start sending Hannah to preschool. That'll be fun.
- [42:27]
A
Yeah. So you want to wrap this up? You want to call it a day? Stephen Episode 191 let's do it. I want to know how many people want a Braille T shirt. So be sure to text me and say, just do a hashtag, I want a Braille T shirt. Or if you're blind and you listen to this, tell us you want a Braille T shirt, and we'll make it happen.
- [42:47]
B
There's so many better things you could do than a Braille T shirt.
- [42:50]
A
I know, but I like doing weird stuff, as you know. That's all right. Thank you guys very much for listening. Jared polinfrontosphoto.com See ya.
- [43:00]
B
Bye.