So has it been a month? Not quite. I think so. We're all over the place.

Yeah. We never said it would be every 30 days. It's just in a given month of a year there will be an episode and so far we're holding up to it. Welcome to October.

So we're back for three by two. Your favorite aspect ratio for photography, one that I like, but you know, except I'm not going to hold it against you. Is it my turn first this time? We said it was.

It is. Yeah. I think we're going with you in the starting position.

Now this first photo that I've chosen, I thought, you know what, as we record, it's industrial category month on Glass, right. And for people who are listening who might not have used glass, I'd be surprised. That's probably how you found us. But just in case, on Glass each month they have a category, a genre that everyone can contribute to and then that just kind of slips into the general list of drop down category or genre options for photos that you upload on the network. So this month, October 2024, is industrial. Now, I love industrial shots. I happen to work for a steel manufacturer separate from what goes on on this podcast. And I upload industrial shots when I can, of course. The month that is industrial month. I don't really have many site visits happening. So yeah, I won't be able to contribute much in all of my old archive cuts for nothing, but I won't hold it against them. I'm glad that they've introduced it as a category. So Courtney on Glass has uploaded what I think is a great industrial shot. And it's hard to choose because there are so many cool ones that pop up. Some of them are manufacturing specific, some of them have like industrial chic or a kind of ruined derelict vibe. The one that I've chosen here I kind of chose because it's a reminder to me of how massive the world is in a sense. So if you're not looking at the picture right now, it's essentially looking up at what Courtney has called Collingwood Millennial Overlook. And it's like this tower, it appears to be abandoned. It's this old industrial brick building with all of these kind of glass windows of all kind of varying tones. It looks like some of them have been broken and then replaced. Some of them are definitely broken and missing. There are these kind of cylindrical, I don't know, like silos or storage holdy things. And then there's kind of like mobile or cellular phone tower things that have been Mounted on the roof. So it's like this building is no longer used, derelict and abandoned, but it's been repurposed as like a mobile tower, I assume. And yeah, like I said, I chose this because it's seriously focused on this thing high up in the air. And it's just one sliver, one tiny view of the world. But what we're looking at is massive. And you realize just how big a lot of these industrial sites are. And look, I have no idea exactly where this is, but it just impressed me.

Yeah, this is super cool to me as well. I wrote three words, beautiful gritty detail. Yeah, I'm such a sucker for like old. I'm definitely not alone in that. Like people love like old derelict stuff, but just the amount of, with how far away we are and the incredible amount of detail we still get in each of those little tiny windows and the, the dirty gritty stuff going down the side of those silo things you mentioned. Super cool. I love that it's a close up and it somehow can give you this like sense of scale without there being a sense of scale and that. I guess what I mean by that is like there's not a full on wide angle of this whole thing with like a person standing next to it. So you understand like, oh, this is really, really tall. Even without that and being really close into it, it still gives you that sense of how incredibly tall it is. And also you touched on this, the presence of time in this photo where you can see that this once, I assume was a working factory of some kind at some point in the past. Maybe it still is, probably not, we don't know. But the fact that then as you mentioned, kind of bolted on to this old structure from the past is this now new technology of cell phone towers or radio towers or whatever these are that were clearly not there when this thing was built. And there's that like shipping container next to it which I'm sure is housing everything for all these antennas. So it was like we could build a whole new tall thing to put these on or we can just shove them up on top of this thing. And that's what they've chosen to done here, to do here. And I just think that's super interesting of this kind of reuse of the past in a way to fit the modern society of what's needed. And that's, that's really neat and just I can't get enough all the little tiny windows. I love these old buildings. We have a lot here locally that are in this Kind of same condition where they're broken out, they're just kind of run down, but all those little tiny windows are just. There's something fascinating about that to me, you're right.

That kind of heritage of that design of factory or, you know, because you don't really see things built like this in the same way anymore. And I think what I find most interesting about industrial photos, and maybe when I say industrial, I mean things that were in fact industrial, like an industrial factory. It kind of really challenges your idea of what beautiful is in an urban environment. And I don't say that to sound kind of lofty or silly. I mean, these things are built to be utilitarian. They perform a function. And generally people would say that they're hideous, but then they also carry a lot of history or they age in certain ways that can be very. I don't know if endearing is the right word, but it creates a sense of nostalgia or history. The way that, like, a leather wallet or watch might wear or something. You know what I mean? So do you demolish this thing and waste it or do you repurpose it? So, I don't know. I just think that this photo here carries a lot of that tension. It's like. It's not pretty, but it is kind of interesting and gives character to a city in a way. So. Yeah, it's just super interesting to me.

Yeah. The leather wallet with, like, that patina is sort of like these windows. Yeah. Where it's not. If a window is broken, it's not the whole window. It's one of many within a collection. So it kind of gives it this. It's just this. It's. It's like multiple lives for the same window. And, like, each little piece tells a story. I. I may be going, like, way too, you know, into it, but whenever I see these windows, I just kind of wonder, like, what. What happened to that individual pain versus every other one that's there. So very cool.

Yeah. I imagine this is kind of like the building equivalent of walking down. Like, imagine walking through some street market in some far off rural place, and you come across this friendly person working at a stall, and then they smile and then half their teeth are missing.

Yeah, totally.

And you can just imagine just. I don't know if that sounds very cliched or something. It would just bring a smile to your face. Like you see the history in that person or that kind of character. It's like this kind of gummy building is smiling at us in its own industrial way.

I absolutely Agree.

Anyway, I'll let you say your first photo now.

All right. My first one here is from April, and it says, sometimes starting something new feels like. Feels a lot like coming home. And this is a film photo. So right out of the gate, I was drawn to it because it has that gritty film feel. I assume it's actually film. I don't know. It doesn't really matter for the purpose of the photo, but it is this desert scene. There's a few people in the background. There's some low mountains in the background, but the. The focal point is very clearly right in front of you. These six stacked rocks, which already is cool, but each one is painted a very vibrant colors. You have red, pink, blue, green, yellow, and orange up on the top. They're stacked beautifully. But something about this photo is very strange in that if you focus just on the object, you could think of the rocks as being fairly small, like hand size. You could. You could hold them. But then when you kind of go back and look in the background and see these tiny, tiny people and mountains, it tricks you now, like, oh, wait, no, these are. These are actually huge rocks. So it does this sort of weird perspective thing, at least for me, where they're both really small and huge at the same time, which I just. I think is so fun. And then that just layer on the fact that they are incredibly brightly colored. And I just. I don't think you can go wrong with this. It's just great in every way that I could find. So that is my photo number one.

Yeah. This is really cool. I know exactly what you mean about that sense of scale and how it throws you off, depending which layer you look at. And there's that little person, I think, right next to that lowest rock. Is a person bending over, or are they seeing to a child or something?

It looks like it.

It looks like they're picking something up, or maybe there's a small child. Anyway, yeah, it's. It's really, really artfully done. And I think you think about how much, like, people talk about misinformation or concerns with AI and warping reality. That's something that we've been able to do with photography for ages. Like, you can. I'm not saying this is misinformation, but you can see just how much the framing of a shot or that sense of scale or pointing out those layers can warp someone's view of a situation. So I would encourage people to get out there with a camera and misinform people gently and artistically like this, rather than going down the path of, I don't know, questionable targeted Facebook campaigns or AI generated images. So well done, April, for doing it in a nice and cool way is what I say.

Absolutely, I concur.

Cool. Next one.

Yep.

Number two, this photo I found on Microdot blog by Stupendous man, which I thought was a very interesting user handle. Just Stupendous. I just thought it was good. Yeah. And he's even got like a. Assuming it's. It's a he with man in the name, this little icon there. Anyway, I don't know if Stupendous man is a person or a character I'm just not familiar with, but cool name. Nice to meet you, Stupendous Man. And this photo has a caption. I love taking pictures of my doggo. Lost in thought. Now, I assume this is a golden retriever or a Labrador. I'm not sure where they sit on the shagginess scale, long hair, whatever. But looking at the photo, this. It's a really tight portrait on the profile of the side of this dog's head looking beyond the frame as it leans on what appears to be some sort of wooden or wicker bench without, I don't know, a covering on it or something. And look, this is one of those, I just think, beautiful everyday photos. And when you think about, you know, the fact that this. This dog is looking beyond the frame and looks like it's lost in thought, it just kind of sucked me into, well, what do animals really think? Do they think, you know, that kind of question of how human, like, are they? Or how much do we kind of project what we think onto them? But clearly, whatever this dog is doing, it's having a good time and it's relaxing. And I thought, you know, what I stress about a lot, probably needlessly in my human life, maybe I should live a bit more like this dog. And it just kind of drew me in a bit.

Yeah, I love the. You know, I feel like when I say everyday photo, that makes it somehow seem less when that's definitely not the intention.

That's relatable. Every day is relatable.

Yeah, absolutely. And I don't have a dog. I do have cats. And it's impossible not to love a pet photograph regardless of what's going on. But I do love. And it does make me also think, like, what are they thinking about? Because oftentimes they will just stare at random things, look at different things, and you wonder, like, truly, what the heck is going on in that little brain in there? I Think you're right about the like, hey, maybe just like chill out because sometimes you just need to not worry about stuff. And this also has that effect of when I look at it, I instinctively want to turn my head to look in the direction because it gives you that like strong meaning of something is over there out of frame, that we'll never know what it is. But I still kind of want to turn and look. So I've done it twice already where I'm like, is there something over there? I don't know. But yeah, it's just. It's a great pet photo. You can't go wrong. And I also love the ear. The ear fur texture looks so incredibly comfortable. I just want to pet this dog till the end of time.

It makes me feel better about my ear for I'll tell you that, you know, it's like, ah, as you get older and I'm not that old but you know, as you get older it's like, where is this, where is this hair coming from? Why does it need to be on the ear? Oh, wait, you know, this dog's pretty chilled and he's got more than I do. So that's fine. Just be chilled like the dog and.

Will never look as good as this wonderful dog.

Also amazing what pets find comfortable. Like would you lean on a piece of furniture like that with your. With your chin? Probably not. That just shows how tolerant and relaxed they are.

It's incredible the positions they put themselves in that are seemingly comfortable.

I'm sure you have that with cats. It's like, why are you on appliance or.

Absolutely.

How did you fit in there? What's going on?

100% see every day. Relatable. Yeah, definitely. Number two for me is titled Kodak 5222 XX. So film stock, I believe. And this falls into my category of loving objects in places that they do not typically belong. So we have a, I will assume a lake. It is a black and white photo. A very dark black and white photo. We're on the. We're on the shore here. We've got some plant life in the front here. It's raining slightly. So we have the cool water droplets hitting the water and giving us those nice circles going outward. And then right sort of in the middle there is a just beat up beyond chair sitting in the middle of the lake with just the top of the seat poking out and then the back of the chair and that's it. It's just a chair in a lake. And I love it because when I Come across something like this, I instinctively want to take a photo of it. Because seeing things in places they don't belong is just. It's exciting. And I think this chair is great. It gives you this sense of loneliness of. It makes me want to build a story around it, like someone was sitting here waiting for something. And this. It took so long that this just all kind of came around them and it never came. So I think you could paint kind of personal stories or make up stories about things like this. And it being in this dark, black and white kind of moody feel really does justice to this. So I'm a big fan of stuff like this.

Yeah, it's great. And it's. It's minimal in the sense that, you know, it's monochromatic. It's a chair in water with some, you know, reeds or, like, plants in the foreground. But you've just got these. I don't know. You feel like there's a sense of space and distance here with the reflected shadows of what I assume are trees up at the top. It's all framed very nicely. And this is a subtle thing, but I love the concentric circles in the water from raindrops that just. I don't know, that kind of. It looks flat in the sense that it's just this minimal water, just this surface. But it gives it that sense of, I don't know, 3D or texture or something. But, yeah, I wouldn't change anything about this photo, but I would be very amused to see how the vibe of it would change significantly if a person was sitting on that chair.

That would be fun, just sitting there, waiting. You mentioned that those two circles in the kind of lower right side are my favorite, where there's the larger one and then the smaller one kind of intersecting it. Just so cool. I could probably sit there and watch water droplets in a lake for way more hours than I should.

Well, I think that would help you to achieve the nirvana that the dog has in that photo.

That's true. If we put this to the left of the dog photo, we know what he's looking at.

That's what he's looking at. Yeah. His little piece of unfinished furniture. Sorry, maybe this finished. But when he's leaning on stood aside and he's like, this is really cool and kind of strange. But just knowing that every raindrop that falls is going to fall in a different place and what it results in is going to be different. Like, no moment is the same. I think if you look at a photo like this and then Remember the dog. See, I'm combining two photos that have nothing to do with each other. Now you will remember. Hey, unique moments. Don't worry about it. Just go with it. And then you'll finish listening to this podcast, go to your next work meeting and forget everything that I've just said and stress out again, but just try to remember these photos when you're in that situation.

You've got a good 45 seconds here to just take a moment.

Yeah, yeah. I've never thought of myself as someone who would relax people, you know, while speaking, but I'm never gonna do meditation tapes or something. But listener, just breathe. Relax. Think of the raindrops. Think of the weird chair. Think of the dog. Calm yourself.

It will all be okay.

Breathe. It'll all be okay. Now, to completely ruin that vibe, I'm going to go to my last photo. So this, this one's by Jan on Flickr, and it's the third photo of three. A little series or collection that he made is called Just Playing Around. And the further explanation is just trying out my camera in the evening to see what it can do. And that camera here is listed as a Nikon or Nikon Z7 and with a 50mm F1.8. And yeah, this photo, it's a black and white photo, heavily, kind of dark around the edges, like a really kind of cool nighttime vignette. And with very kind of soft illumination in the middle. You can see this. It's basically a scene of mannequins in their, I don't know, homeware or tracksuits and hoodies and pajamas or something. And this photo essentially sums up a feeling that I've had for years and years, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, that mannequins are wrong. I don't think they should exist. They are creepy. And look, I understand that they have a function and I don't have nightmares about them. But every time you walk past them, it doesn't matter if they have faces or no heads or they're in a reasonable pose or a strange pose, they're just. They're just off, I think. And I kind of wonder, like, when I look at clothes, I mean, I can imagine what they look like when I walk past because I know what a shirt does. Like, I don't need to see a pretend human wearing it to go, oh, is that where the arms go? Like, oh. Because if it had just been hanging there on that coat hanger or hook, then I would have had no idea how to wear that So I don't know if this was Jan's intention, but I think it's a very cool, creepy photo of this very pensive moment of this mannequin's life thinking in a shop window. So, yeah, kind of like the way that I reflected in the first photo about these little areas and industrial kind of environments that you might look past. This kind of reveals how many other shops are out there, how many other scenes and deliberate, visually merchandised or designed places are there around a city that maybe you don't notice. So the next time you walk past a mannequin, look deeply into its eyes and wonder what it's. What it's going to do when you turn away.

Well, I definitely was not expecting that. So thank you for that insight into the world of Martin. I did not know that you felt so strongly about mannequins. Okay, well, I'm going to go a slightly different direction in this one, I think. First of all, I'm always incredibly kind of. It's like I have this respect for night photos because they're so damn hard and getting, you know, and I mean, like night photos, like dark, barely any light. Doesn't matter how big the sensor is, how, what. How open your aperture. Like, just night photos are hard. Getting them to not be grainy, making sure you get something that's actually, you know, in focus and illuminated properly. It's just. It's really hard to do. And I just. I always appreciate when I see a really good one. And this is one of those. It's. It's a storefront, as we've already covered it has mannequins in it. But I kind of. I was thinking of it a different way. Whenever I think of mannequins, I always think of something like. Like Twilight Zone sort of stuff where, like, mannequins are. They are not real people, but they still sort of have this, like, alternate universe life or something where that's what I mean.

It's kind of unsettling. You know what I mean?

Yeah. So, like, they're sitting there right now because you're looking at them. They're not doing anything, but they kind of live their own lives, they do their own thing. So I think this is a good example of that, where they are, you know, they're doing their job, quote unquote, which is to sit there and show off clothes. But they still sort of have this human feeling to them. And yes, they are modeled after humans, but that one specifically in the center there, that's sitting down, sort of looking down in this, like, thinking kind of face, it very much just feels like there could actually be some thought happening there. So maybe that alludes to your, you know, slight uneasiness about them. But I think that's really neat because you could easily put real people there and it would be the same photo. But knowing that they're not real people changes everything about it, and I think that's very interesting. Also, sub plus note the clothing of the person next to that that's standing or the mannequin next to that, standing up in the fuzzy pants, in the fuzzy sweatshirt. I very much want that. So if we could figure out where I can acquire this outfit, I would very much like to have it.

Yeah, Jan, if you can just let Jason know where he can purchase these outfits. You don't want the one with the leaves on it. I think that you could rock that one.

I would take the leaves, but that other one looks really comfortable for winter. So.

Yeah, look, I'll echo what you said. I think Jan's done a great job just capturing this at night, like you said, getting usable images, let alone cool ones that have a story or cool aesthetic about them. And I think this is where crossing over with that, how human does a mannequin have to look? Or does it look somehow that central subject, this. Presumably, it looks kind of, I suppose, female mannequin, although I don't suppose it has to be gendered because it is technically a statue. It does look kind of sad or lonely. Like you can imagine it's been sitting there all day doing its job, and now the lights are turned off and it still has to sit there. It looks emotional in a way. You. You apply this anthropomorphised emotion to this thing that's just a statue. And yeah, I think it's very well framed. And even though I'm unsettled by them somewhat, I think Jan's done a cool job.

Noted for mannequin photos in the future that I will pre warn you.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not scared of them. I just look at them and I just go, do we really need them? It's kind of like, I would say I'm into evolution for listeners. I'm not going to go too far into this. I would not subscribe to the idea of a grand designer intention, but if there were, I would say, I know spiders perform a function, but did you have to design them that way? Why couldn't we have miniature dogs that run around eating flies or something? Why do we have to have these Hairy exoskeleton, eight legged freaks. I mean, I would question that grand designer. If you are there, why did you like Ricky Gervais said in one of his earlier shows, like he said they're just the shitty bits that were left over and just kind of chuck them together. And there's a daddy long legs. Surely you had better parts. Why did you have to do this? Anyway, I digress again.

So spider mannequins we're going to find for you next. Got it.

That would be my worst nightmare. Spider mannequins, yep. For any people out there who need an eight armed shirt or something.

Yeah, totally. I will round out with my third photo. This one is called Travel Companions by Sam. And I like this for multiple reasons. The very first one being when you look at it, I think a lot of people would think that's not how you take a family portrait. You're way too far away. What are you doing? You can barely see these people. And I think that's what makes it incredible. Because taking photos in general, I think a lot of the time is about trying to do something different or something creative with it, at least for a lot of people. And portraits can be, you know, you can say, hey, stand in front of this thing, I'll take a picture. And maybe the thing is all there. Maybe it's not like, what's the focus, the thing behind them? Is it the people? Is it a mixture of both? How do you balance that? And this is just balanced all the way to the left in the sense of I'm going to stand way back here. You both are going to go stand up against this wall. That looks incredible. It is this brick wall with all kinds of shades, everything from very cool grays and blues to very warm browns and yellows. And I get the sense this wall goes on forever, given this photo. And I think it's just a really creative, cool way to take a family portrait where you get both. The family there still very can clearly see who the two people are. But it makes them feel tiny, which I think is fun because they're against this massive, beautiful wall. And you've kind of accomplished everything in one photo. You get the cool wall. Cause if you just took the cool wall without the people, it'd be like, well, it's a wall. It's neat, but you know, it's a wall. But then you have the people as well. So you have the fun factor and your family is there and then the bright colors of the people in the photo against that wall. Again, just an Extra layer of depth. And yeah, I just think it's super cool that this was a. This would be a great place to do a photo just like this. And because it's that sort of non standard portrait you could imagine if you cropped weigh in on this, it'd be a great picture of the two people. But you'd lose that kind of third person in the photo. That is the wall. And I think the wall plays as a character in the photo and I really like that.

Now you make a great point. And two points came to my head, what you were saying about how much of the background you show in a family portrait. We've all taken selfies and stuff, Right. We've all been part of family or group shots with friends or something. And I see it frequently when people take photos of their friends or selfies or portraits or whatever and they dominate the scene of the place that they're visiting. And I think, well, oh yeah, what's the photo for? Like if you want a photo of yourselves, fine, but presum, presumably if you're traveling and you can generally tell when someone's a tourist, like, is it not about the place and you just happen to be in it? Why are you the focus? So I think this achieves that thing of look at this cool place that we were in, not it's all about us. So they perform a function in creating a memory and showing that scale, as you said. But it just balances nicely with what the intention of the photo is, which is to show the cool place that they were in. And as I was looking at it, I was thinking, I know that they're standing against a wall, but wouldn't it be fun to think about? Imagine if Sam the photographer is actually up poking out with their camera out through a window and they're lying on the ground.

Oh, oh, that would be so cool. I want that to be the case now.

Yeah. But if you just imagine it is, then that's what it is.

Yeah, that's true. It totally could be. Wow.

Yeah.

Perspective.

Yeah. Because I mean, that could be a road, right? We know it isn't, but I just thought that's kind of interesting because I've seen roads that have that kind of texture before, like particularly in Europe and stuff. But anyway, and this also the one.

Other thing that came to mind for me was thinking, if you're this far back in an area that potentially has other people, how long did you have to wait for this frame to be free of other people walking by or just generally being around? I wonder Or. Or maybe this was one of those just serendipitous places. You walked around a corner, this existed, and you just went for it. But it's those little kind of like, what happened before and after this that is always interesting with photos.

And you can be sure that if it was. If it had been a situation like that where they had to wait. Family like photos, smiles and patience, they start to diminish rapidly. They do, Yep. So hopefully it didn't take too long because I am seeing at least one big smile there.

Well, there you go. I think that is three for each.

Fantastic for October. Yeah, this was good fun. And yeah, we don't kind of plug ourselves much on this show, but I suppose, you know, if you want to get in touch, we are both on glass, Right. Check out each other's photos if you happen to be there. I mean, that's the main photo network that you use, isn't it, Jason? That's where you tend to draw them from.

Pretty. Pretty much, yeah. It should all be in the show notes as well, like how to. If you wanted to send us a message or get in touch or otherwise.

Yeah, because, I mean, we like discovering other people's photos. I mean, you don't have to submit them because that's not really how this show works. We just kind of find stuff that we like and talk about it. But we are always keen to discover new people and know what you like about photography or what your experiences are. So don't hesitate to get in touch. Find those links.

Yeah. And if you like this weird format for a show, tell a friend.

Brilliant. Thanks for your time.

Thanks, y'all. See ya in November.

Sa.