3x2 Photocast - Episode 06

Welcome back to the six podcast. No, the three by two podcast where we do three photos for two people every month. And we're back for episode six. So welcome back, everyone. Welcome back to everybody that has been here since episode zero. Welcome back to everybody who's been here since episode 1234. Or five, or if six is your first one, thanks for joining. Tell your friends.

That was a very inclusive intro. You've covered all bases. Yep.

Yeah. So I wanna make sure nobody feels left out here. We're gonna start off, I think, this week, I start.

I think that's a pattern we're just making up. Yep. I think that's good. You go first.

Okay. And we had a theme last time. This time, no theme, just six photos. So let us get into it. So my first one is titled framed by Caroline. And this one caught my eye immediately for a number of reasons. So, first of all, I was quite surprised that it was a 28 millimeter because it doesn't feel like 28 millimeter to me. I don't know why that is. I just. If I saw this, I would not say 28. Mm. But that's what it is. It is this incredible scene of you're on a train. I'm pretty sure we're moving, because there does look to be, like, a little bit of motion blur out the window, but I'm not quite sure. That could be. You could be, and it could be wind. Not sure. But you're on this train. You're looking out the side window. It is a kind of round. It's a rectangle with rounded corners as a window. Two seats on each side. They're both this kind of green. I think they're green. They look green. Maybe really dark green. Kind of patent y, leather looking thing with green outside. So you got the green inside going out to the outside. There's this one single plug on the wall at the very center. This is very symmetrical. I'm usually. I don't know. I don't think I'm usually drawn to symmetrical things, but this just really does it for me. Where you have the seats on the. On each side that are the same, the window shape is just very satisfying. The outside, that just seems to go on and on forever. It almost looks like it could be, I don't know, corn or a rice field or some kind of agriculture thing. And. Yeah, just this. Like, it feels old, but not super old. But I do feel like I've gone back in time a little bit. And it has that sense of emptiness because there's no one sitting in the seats, the whole rest of the train could be full. We don't know. But it just feels like you are dropped into this place almost as if it were a movie scene. I could see this being part of a thematic sequence in a movie of going through this train. This one, I just really, like. I really wish that I could be in this place and see this train. Cause it feels like it's probably a pretty cool train.

Yeah. This is a great photo. And it hadn't struck me until you said. Until you said the thing about the symmetry, that it's not the sort of photo that you would normally like, but maybe we can put it down to your other favorite thing of edge, because that kind of shadow or frame up the top of the window, that's hugging the top of the frame, isn't it?

Oh, yeah.

So maybe that's it. Maybe this kind of crop or the things that are hugging the edges, that's, you know, that's in harmony for you. Is that right?

I think so, yeah. That's a good call. I think at this point, it's become kind of just subconscious, probably.

Yeah. Yeah. But look, I don't know if there's much more that I could add to what you said, because I was thinking about the fact that it looked like it was from a movie. I think what I like about this photo is that it feels cinematic and maybe relating to what you said about maybe you thought it would be wider or different, being 28 millimeter equivalent. Right. Taken with the Ricoh GR III. I can see on glass here, it almost feels like it's zooming out, like maybe it's just transitioned or cut to this scene from another part of a movie and we're kind of zooming out. That's going to reveal elements of the train, or maybe there's a character beyond the frame. Maybe there are people on this train, maybe not. So it feels like there's a lot of motion in this photo, like you said, outside the window going past the scene, but also maybe panning or zooming out in some way. So, yeah, it's like there's some unrealized or untapped story to this photo. Something's coming next. So, yeah, it's just a cool idea for a photo.

Photo number two.

Okay, so this is on a microdot blog site by Sven, and the caption that goes with it is, of all the photos I snapped this summer, this one's my favorite. A bunch of people I love heading to the beach for some fun in the sun. Umbrella emoji. Now, what I liked about this, it's a portrait shot of a beach scene. And I think I've said this about photos before on the podcast, so sorry if I'm repeating myself, but when you see a landscape kind of scene, you typically want to shoot it in landscape. And I like that this is done in portrait, because it's not always the way that you would think to do it, but it also works perfectly with this kind of diagonal line or trail of these people walking through the vegetation and the sand dunes towards the beach. And what you kind of assume or think is the ocean in the distance. You can see kind. Kind of across the horizon there to the right of the photo. I think it's just a considered nice image of a trip to the beach. And there's been some thought in how we lead the eye on this path that these people are walking. And the colours also interest me, because when I think of summer, I think of really warm, bright photos and lots of yellows or oranges or maybe a vibrant blue sky. Maybe it's different where Sven is from what it. From what I'm used to in Australia. So there's kind of a coldness to this photo that feels a little bit, and maybe it's a bit of cognitive dissonance. Samir, it interests me about the photo. I think of summer as really burnt. You know, like I'm getting burnt in the sun in Australia, but this is a different kind of summer. So, yeah, that kind of stood out to me. About this image.

I really like that you mentioned the portrait verse landscape, because that stuck out to me as well. This photo, it's a beach photo, but it's a photo not taken on the beach. And what I mean by that is there's clearly, like this path that you have to go through to get to the beach. Yeah, a lot of times, you know, the beach is right there. You get out of your car or whatever, and it's like, boom, there's the beach. But this looks like one where you have to. There's a little bit of a trek to get out there. And I think by having it be portrait, it lends to that length, like you said, where we're at the beach, but, like, not yet. We're going to be at the beach at some point. And this just. And because the people are so spaced out, they just get smaller and smaller as they get further and further away. It just lends to that. That, like you said, the diagonal, where that person in the front there is a normal sized person, then you go, whoa, there's somebody way out there and they're still not at the beach yet. So it gives that kind of sense of time too, that it's going to take us a little while to get there. Yeah, I really like the portrait angle with that line of people going out towards the beach and we can't even see the beach. Is the other part I love.

Yeah.

We don't really even know what the beach looks like yet, but we can imagine it's a sudden drop.

Yeah, they go over that crest and, ah, they just fall down Monty Python style into a. Into a rock or something.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So that's that one.

My photo number two is titled exit on level p by Benjamin. And this one is, ah. Where do I even start with this? So the shapes, I love the square. So let me. I should tell you what the photo is. So you're coming, I'm assuming, down a staircase, potentially out to this threshold that's going from inside to outside to a parking structure. It has the level p sign above it, very kind of old, old looking sign where it's the big metal box with semi translucent plastic in front of it with the very clearly single bulb in there to illuminate the whole thing because it's very bright in the middle and gets very dim towards the edges. And then the door is dead center. So again, a lot of symmetry happening in this one. Two glass panes on the side. And then something about I'm noticing more and more as we do this, anything that's got a red line in it, I'm very drawn to, and this is no exception, there are two red lines. And I like that they have this. You can't quite tell where they are. Are they on the windows themselves or are they on the back? Concrete barrier? And you're seeing them through the windows and the door is left open and it just kind of gives you an uneasiness that it's left open the way that it is and that it's not shut. Not like a horror movie per se, but it just gives this kind of unsettling feeling. And I think a lot of that comes from the tone of the. Of the image overall, where it's a cooler image, it's got this kind of dark yellowy brown to it, the lighting effect. And outside looks very cold as well. So the whole image just feels a little bit chilling to me. And it's that it's got that liminal space kind of thing going on where there's just. There is nothing there. There were people at some point and now there are no longer people. And I think the last, the final thing, which is not really an observation about the photo, but I found it very surprising that right as you walk out the door, there is something to immediately trip on and fall down that seems very unsafe.

You're right. I didn't think of that.

I don't know. So, yeah, that is Exeter level P. Yeah.

This feels kind of like a weirder extension to the photo that you brought up first. You know, this kind of symmetrical. Well, mostly symmetrical thing around this frame or window. Where do I start? Like, the red stuff. Okay. Those red lines, looking at them, particularly the one on the left, you can see this kind of bend in it, and it looks like it's tape that's put on the window. So I'm wondering if people have walked into these windows and hurt themselves, and these are just to go, do not walk into this glass. Which is funny anyway, given the fact that it doesn't look terribly clean. And you've got that kind of frame along the bottom of each side of that window, around the door. So, yeah, this seems like that's to stop accidents. Also, the way that the doors open, you can see the doorstop wedged there. And on the glass, on the windows around, you can see what appears to be. I don't know if it doesn't look like stickers. It's almost like it's pen or liquid paper or white out graffiti. You can see these drawings on the glass, which then overlap really nicely and strangely with the concrete beyond that glass. And then you've got. With whatever that overhanging sign is to the top right. Has someone written something under there? There's just. I can't quite make it out properly. But, like, that first photo, there are no people in it. And you can see that lots of people have been here. People have left their mark on this place, but they're not there. So I think that adds to the creepiness or liminal nature of what you're talking about, that people are here, but you can't see them, and you don't know when they're going to be there. And they could turn the corner right now. So there's a kind of. This place is empty, but it may not be in a second. So look over your shoulder or make sure someone doesn't run into the glass.

Yeah, very well put.

So, yeah, that's a great addition. I think this is actually, I think, in terms of weirdness or story. One of my favorite photos that you've included in this one. First one was good. But this is like extending that theme. It's very interesting.

All right, photo number two for you.

Yes. So I discovered this person's photo originally on glass, but then clicked through on their site and found that they actually had a whole blog post about it on their photo site. So I'm including a link to the photo, but then also the post around it. And the post around it is called documenting a trip to Charleston, SC or South Carolina. And the photo itself is of. I think it's called the. I might be mispronouncing it. Is it the Ravenel bridge or something? I think I looked it up, but this photo is part of a photo series of this family trip. Wendy, I think. Is that what I've put here? Wendy took with her family? I think it's just so interesting because it's part of this bigger series about essentially her experience trying to document a family trip and be artistic at the same time. And the kind of tension of, you know, being present with family, documenting things for history and being aesthetically pleasing or different about it. And what you see in this photo is the bridge. And if anyone's ever seen, you know, like the Golden Gate Bridge or even the Anzac bridge in Australia, any kind of suspension bridge, you can see these cables extending from those big pylons, which meant kind of like a letter a or an upside down v, and they stretch beyond the frame. And then also at the bottom right, you can see where they're bolted down onto the rest of the structure of the bridge itself. But the way that she's done it, with this kind of sun peeking past the cables, this blur to the sky, and this kind of blurry vignette to the cables as they extend to the frame, I think it looks really cool. And I love the fact that the way that she lined it up almost makes it look like these cars are driving miniature along the bottom of where it lines up with the beam. So, yeah, it feels like your eyes are led to that point at the top, but then you've got all these little points of interest and blurry things there. So, yeah, I just think it's really interesting to see photos like this uploaded to glass. And then where people do include a link to their blog post or where it might be elsewhere, you get to discover a little bit more of that story. And I have to read one little excerpt, one quote from the first paragraph in Wendy's blog posts, which just made me laugh. She was talking about using her used Sony camera, which is lighter than her regular Nikon D 750 and the sentence is, that makes a big difference in me being able to bring a camera when it's heavy. It hurts my shoulder to carry on a long day of walking. And when I wear it on a strap, it inevitably hits one of my kids in the head.

I could totally see that giant lens hanging off. Oh, no.

Yeah. So it's like, not only is she having to try to think, oh, how am I, you know, taking photos, how they're gonna look? Family versus artistry, but I might actually cuss one of my children.

Yep. You got a big Nikon with a 70 to 200 hanging off there right at hip level. That's. That's dangerous.

Bang. Yep.

Oh, man. Yeah, this one is super cool. When I first saw it, I immediately. Do you remember? I don't. It was quite a while ago, but there was, like, a. Not a trend, but for a while, there was a thing where you'd get, like, they were, like, plastic toy lenses, or I forget exactly what they were called, but there was one that did, like, tilt shifty stuff to where you could kind of, like.

Oh, yeah.

Almost like, wiggle it around. I don't know if I'm. I'm not describing that well at all, but it was like a weird plastic lens that you could kind of tweak as you were shooting, and it would do weird things. This kind of made me feel like that, where it was kind of giving that tilt shift effect a little bit. Like you mentioned, the. The cars feel super little. I mean, the bridge is huge, but the bridge height to the car level just feels, like, drastically enlarged in some way.

Yeah.

So it feels like that kind of feeling. And I like that it's from the car. You can see the dash, and also the fact that it sort of just looks like a film. A film shot that is then printed at your local whatever store where they do 24 hours printing. And it looks like this could totally just be a little five by seven photo that you found in a family book or something from a trip. And I think that's super neat. And the other thing about this is just the bridge itself. I don't think I've seen this bridge in person. It feels very familiar, so it's possible that I have, but because of the out of focus ness of a lot of it, the pieces going down along the right, they're just very interesting looking. The things that are holding the cables, they look very substantial and just very architecturally interesting. And the way that the cables go down the left are very uniform and comfortable, and then on the right they're very, like. Because you're closer, they're more sporadic apart and very oddly distanced.

So you sort of have this, like, less reassuring.

Yeah, yeah. You have this, like, peace and harmony on the left, and then it's kind of like, oh, what is happening over here on the right? Are we okay with this? Cause it feels like. It feels about 10% as many cables just because of the angle, which makes everything feel weirdly lopsided to me. But overall, it's very cool. And then you also get one little peek of the next, a structure further down in between. So, yeah, just a lot of really neat lines.

Yeah. And you made a point about, you know, different lenses or toy lenses. And in. In the blog post, Wendy talks about how she was using with her camera, the lens baby trio 28. And if you click through, that's the one. Yeah, that's. So I was thinking, I think you're on the money here, and it has different kind of twisted effects when you turn the barrel. We'll include the link in the show notes. We don't normally obsess about gear here, but it's an interesting example of perspective with the bridge where the cables are going. Tie that in with a different kind of lens setup, you get some quirky effects. So. Nice one, Wendy.

I will go into my third one of the day. This one is from Paul. It's called the perfect slice. Does existential heart emoji? So this is an interesting one for me. This is a food photo. I never actually thought I would. I would be so drawn to a food photo, but this is just great. So it is a large slice of pizza in the dead center. And what I think what's really helping here is the background. It's not on a plate. It's not like, on the pizza tray or whatever. It's on a checkerboard. Red and white piece of paper underneath that you imagine that's how they would serve it to you. And then the piece of pizza is perfectly positioned in the middle. Lovely crust with some seeds on there. It's got all kinds of toppings, great colors. The shape of the slice is what I would say is the perfect width of a slice. It's not humongous. It's not super thin. It's just, like, the right piece of pizza. And the toppings look incredible. And I don't. I. It's hard to explain why, but something about this slice of pizza, it just looks perfect. Like, you sat there and you. You did like food artistry to make sure each little piece was placed exactly right, even though I'm pretty sure that's not what happened. This looks like you just ordered a piece of pizza, sat it down on a table and said, well, that looks cool. I'm gonna take a picture of that. So, yeah, I don't know if. I don't know if I would ever pick a food photo or I didn't think I would ever pick a food photo. But here we are with what Paul is saying is the perfect slice.

Yeah. This is so vivid and so appealing, and it kind of pisses me off, because now I want it, but I know that it's a picture and I can't consume it, and I don't even know where the shop is. So, Paul, thanks for nothing, for making me hungry with your fantastic photo. But, yeah, it just looks great. It just looks like a great pizza slice, as you said. And the fact that, I mean, it's got this kind of symmetry to the photo in the sense that the slice is nicely arranged. And you have all these squares on that paper or tablecloth, as you said. But you can see that the ingredients have been thrown down with, like, genuine. I'm a pizza maker and I'm putting it down, and it looks kind of italian. It doesn't look like the kind of Domino's or Pizza hut thing, you know what I mean? Where it's like, you know, ten substrata of toppings that are arranged to be. It feels real. So it's a real photo. It looks fantastic. And, yeah, I'm pissed off. So thanks.

You're welcome.

My last one. Yeah, look, Lin takes great photos. I follow her on glass. She actually, I believe, is from Iceland. And this photo was not from Iceland. So it kind of. I thought, oh, maybe I should include one that's more of typical of maybe, you know, what she would take. But. Because there are some wildlife shots. But this is a shot of two zebras in South Africa. It's in Kruger National park. And it's called stripes. Stripes, stripes and more stripes. Sorry. And some more stripes. And it appears to be a baby zebra feeding or, you know, having milk from a mother zebra. And the way that Lynn has chosen black and white for this, which I suppose makes sense, because zebras are black and white, but extends beyond the frame into that blurred background that you can't see. See. And the way that the stripes kind of arrange and sort of intersect and line up with each other as the zebra curl, the baby zebra curls its head underneath the leg to feed from the mother zebra. I just think this is gorgeous. It feels like something that belongs on a wall. It feels like the sort of beautiful shot that, you know, I don't mean this as an insult. I mean, this is a compliment that, you know, a company like Ikea would go and try to commission this photo or license it to print on a bajillion prints that people would want to put in their houses to have on a wall or something. Something. It just looks really beautiful, and I can imagine everyone would want to snap it up and put it on their wall. So there's texture in the fur. There's just cool lines. It's just 100% zebra.

The title could not be more accurate. That's exactly what it is, and it is very much black and white. I wonder if it wasn't black and white, the two zebras would be black and white. But I assume that that bottom portion probably would just be super distracting if it was, like, bright green or something. So, yeah, I really love that it's just black and white. When I first opened it, it was kind of disorienting of like, wait, what is. What am I looking at here? Yeah, I know it's a zebra, but I'm not quite sure what's going on. And so it kind of feels almost like a. It's like a mobius strip of zebras where they're all. They're kind of just twisting around each other and connecting. And that's really cool. And I love that it's the baby one and the mom one, because you get also the thicker stripes on the one versus the thin stripes on the other. So you have that contrast as well. And the white on the little zebra is not as white. It's more of a gray than on the larger one. So you kind of get that here's like a. From two on. On what they are. And I would just say, too, just to finish my thought here, I really like how close in it is. It's not the whole. It's not backed out enough to where you're seeing both of them wholly. You're only getting a small portion of each. And I just. Something about that just makes it that much more, I guess, intimate. And you kind of feel more like you're seeing something that's just, like, very special, and you're right there with it. Verse being way back and just having all of the surrounding rest of this national park around it, where it would just be like, oh, there's two zebra. And then all this cool wildlife stuff, it's like, no, this is a very specific moment, and this is the focus, and this is the only thing you're allowed to focus on. That's. That's very cool. I like that a lot. So well done, Lynn. This is a very nice photo, and I really like seeing how different the stripes are. You get a lot of cool detail and how. How much the stripes really are just so unique amongst them. Yeah, really cool. Can't go wrong with a zebra photo, I don't think.

Yeah, well, I mean, maybe you could. And Lynn has avoided going wrong because she's been so deliberate in how she's composed it. Like you said, I. The way that it focuses on this specific moment and the way that it crops all of that stuff out. And I think it really makes the photo that she made it black and white by cancelling out what could otherwise be distracting. There's a lot of very considerate, deliberate thinking in this photo, and I think that's what makes it a great image.

That was it. There you go. That was three by two for this month.

Perfect.

Very good. Thank you, everybody, for listening. And we will see you all, or you will hear us next month.

Catch you next time.

Thanks for listening, Sadeena.