So we're back. It's been a month.

It has been a full month. We're now squarely in the middle of July somehow, which means a new three x two photocast for July 2024. So welcome back, everyone.

I can't decide if the time's gone quickly or really slowly because it feels like a month, which is kind of strange. Normally, it feels like time's going too quickly, but it actually feels like it's been a month. I don't know what that means. It's not a really interesting thing to say either. But all we need to know is a month has passed, and we're back.

Here we are. We've kept our promise so far. We said we were going to do monthly, and we are continuing to do monthly. So welcome back. Let's see. So I think I'm going to start off this one with my first pick.

So this one, I pushed you to do that. You go first.

Yeah. This one is from Joe on glass, and it is untitled. So we will call it untitled. First of all, just, it takes a while to even quite understand what's going on here. There is so much color action. There's things happening. There's frozen person. I think it's like a trampoline with, like, maybe a child jumping on it. But the trampoline appears to be covered in the. It looks like marbles, but I feel like that would be very painful to stand on. So maybe it's, like little jelly things or something, but there's just a million of them. They're all bouncing up with the person. And it just is incredible. It's like this rainbow of little round balls flying up, and it's that weird thing where, like, there's always, like, the, you know, you do the shallow depth of field, so you have the bokeh and all that. And it's like this sort of is like a twist on that to where they really are. Just, like, little colors, colorful spheres within the photo, even though it is a pretty shallow depth of field, it's, like, right at the bottom, you can see all the little balls very clearly. The person is in the back of that, and then there's a couple in the air, mid air that are caught and just frozen. And I just love all the. I love the color. And the sense of frozen action is just really. It's intriguing. And I really want to know what those are. Cause I have this, like, internal kind of fear of that person coming back down and, like, standing on marbles. And that just feels like it would be very uncomfortable, but, yeah, just really cool feeling. And I like to think this is just like a little backyard experiment. Playful shot, trying things out.

Oh, it's awesome. Everything about this is fantastic. I wouldn't even try to overanalyze it because it's just a great moment in time. And I do reckon they are marbles, or at least something solid like a marble. Because if you look at those little balls floating in the sky just there, just in the air around this person jumping, they all look like they're intact. They don't look squashed or like they all look perfectly circular. So I reckon there's going to be, like, a quadruple lego treading effect on this poor person's feet. It's just. Oh, my God. But you know what? This photo, it reminds me, you know, when you watch, like, videos? Okay, so, you know, Chris Nichols and Jordan Drake, they're with petapixel, and they did the DP review stuff camera store for years. And when they refer to things like bokeh balls, I feel like this should set a new standard for, like, YouTube camera reviews and tests for videos. I want to see camera reviewers on YouTube, youtubers jumping on trampolines, launching things to test the bokeh ball quality of any given camera or lens. I reckon this has stepped it up a notch.

This is the new standard. This is the new. Standing in front of a brick wall to check the distortion and all that.

Yeah, I want to hear over analysis of cat's eye and, like, soap bubble effects on marbles or similar objects being bounced on a trampoline. So, Joe, you've set the standard. This is a new benchmark.

Oh, I think that's great. And they have to have, like, behind the scenes outtakes, too, of that's actually taking place in every episode.

Yeah, no, it's just great. And just the decision to focus, I'll just say on the very foreground because I think you could focus on the person, but some magic would be lost. Like the fact that you really see those little spheres up close and then that blur lends to the action and the motion of the whole thing. Great choice, Jason. It's a nice shot by Joe.

It makes it feel more magical with the person being out of focus, with the things around them being kind of very ethereal and so forth. Yeah, I think you're right.

It's great. No, good choice.

All right, what's your. What do you got for your first one?

I start this first one with an apology to listeners, because if anyone was paying attention, I said, we were going to discuss a self portrait or someone who does self portraits, I think back in episode two. For the next one, I forgot I got enthusiastic looking at other photos and went, oh, geez. I didn't fulfil my promise. So now I'm doing it an episode late. And this is someone who, if you've been on glass, if you haven't seen her photos, how, I would ask, have you avoided seeing these photos? Mary Claire Griffin, she does these unbelievably surreal and absurd self portraits where generally her face is obscured. She looks like she's in a different world or she's being sucked into a vortex or something, or she's compressing herself into some bizarre, confined space. In this one, it essentially looks like she's levitating, like, against a hotel room curtain, against a window. And it is called number 121 hotel room. And it honestly looks like she's flying. And you can't see her face. You can just see some of her hair popping out. She's got her feet up and it looks like she's about to fly out the window. Now, I had a tough time actually choosing one to discuss for this episode because if you scroll through her account, even the more quote unquote ordinary ones are extraordinary. Like, I don't know how she comes up with this. Is someone ever photographing her? I'm assuming not, because they're all kind of generally classed as self portraits. So she's setting a camera up on a tripod or a table or hanging from something and then levitating and shoving herself into bizarre places. So, Mary, I don't know how you do it. I'm freaked out, but I commend you. And this is another fantastic example. People need to check it out.

Absolutely. When I, you know, when I looked at this before we started, I was just like, yeah, wait, what? What is happening? Happening here? There's so much. There's so many questions. I have one thing that I just, I really appreciate is the. Well, a, just the fact, like, the technical way that you even did this. I struggled to even understand.

Yeah, yeah.

There must have been a tripod here with probably not a self timer, maybe remote shutter or something, I don't know. But who cares? It looks awesome and incredible, but I really love the. So the giant curtain, first of all, it looks like a hotel curtain. So, like, I immediately know, even without the title, this feels like a hotel. But I also like that the clothes that she's wearing are not too dissimilar from the curtain. Rather than it being like, you know, a very contrasty scene. I actually kind of like that it's more uniform and the contrast is more about, like, her hand and her feet that are sticking out. So I think that's really neat. But the questions that this brings up of it very much looks like she is being pulled into this thing in a very supernatural way.

Yep.

This feels like there would be a. Some kind of ghost movie. And this was like a scene in that where they're being pulled and, like, sucked into the, like you said, the vortex behind the curtain. And then I also really like the. The really large border on it to make the photo. I don't want to say less significant, but it just, it gives it more of, like a. A central focus to the photo because of all this stuff around it. If it were just cropped and you were just looking at the, you know, the edge around the curtain, it would be. It would still be awesome. But it feels like this. This gives it even more central focus to the. To the person in the middle, Mary, flying into the curtain. So, yeah, just super cool. And I can just imagine, you know, it as doing this as a set or so forth and just being like, well, let's see, what am I going to do in the hotel room this time? Well, I think I'm going to fly into these curtains in some weird way that just. That's just fun. And I love that.

Yeah, you make a great point about all of the space around her that she's left. It's fantastic. And, you know, we said magic. That word magical. For the first photo that you offered, I would explain or kind of describe Mary's photos as being equally magical, but in a different kind of surreal way. I really want to know how she does it, but at the same time, I feel like you'd see too much.

Yeah.

Like it might actually harm the magic. So I'm happy to be, you know, kind of completely unaware in this. Ignorance is bliss. Just keep it coming. It's great.

Like a magic trick where, like, you. You want to know but you really don't reveal it.

Yeah, don't reveal it.

Definitely.

There you go. Self portrait. Very, very unusual ones, but fantastic.

Let's see. My number two is from Philippe. It is called freedom and it is just a contrasty wonder. There's so much contrast going on here, so it's almost split.

Sorry to interrupt you. When this was first loading up, I thought there was a problem loading the page.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, it's actually part of the photo, right?

Yeah. If we were on dial up. You would think that the photo stopped loading.

Yeah, yeah. But, yes. Now I see it's actually masterful. It's deliberate. So go on, Jesse.

So it's. And so I love this. Just right out of the gate, it's not 50 50, right? So the whole bottom of the frame is just basically black. There's a little bit of detail there that you can kind of almost see that it's like a hill. The top is, you know, very bright and airy above that. I don't think this is. It's not technically black and white, but, I mean, you know, it's very shades of gray, if nothing else. But that cut line across the middle is. It's not 50 50, just below. And I love that. Cause I just feel like it. It feels purposeful. And it wasn't just clinically like, I'm gonna make half the frame black and half the frame knot. And then up in the sky, there is a wonderful v shape of flying birds going from kind of left to right. And even if it were just that, it would be incredible, because there's just this juxtaposition between light and dark and then extra dark on the top with the birds. But then on that hilltop, I'm assuming it's a hilltop, there is a person with just this joyful hand spread as wide as they can be. Imagine they're looking up at these birds like, this is the most incredible thing they've ever seen in pure silhouette. So it's just all of these silhouettes on silhouettes, and it just. It just really looks awesome to me. I love everything about this. I love the contrast of everything. The fact that there's this joyful person looking up at this, you know, this wonder of the world of these birds in this perfect v. It's just. It's great. There's great shapes. There's great lines of. It's just awesome.

I mean, I'd just be repeating what you've already said. I think it's fantastic. Something that came to my mind looking at this and how beautifully Philippe has taken it is. You know, if you've ever followed glass on. I think they do it on, like, mastodon or LinkedIn or different networks. They ask little questions like this or that. Like, should you ask before you take someone's photo or not on the street? You know, just things about the practice of photography. And I think one of the recent ones that I saw was, you know, is a fleeting moment better than parking yourself somewhere and trying to get the photo. I imagine that Philippe had to have some patience in getting this shot. Do you know what I mean? Like maybe lining something up because it looks beautifully lined up. But then again, like, how do you line up something like this? I mean, does he know this person with their arms outstretched and the birds going over? It's just. It feels like a perfect moment. And I don't even know how you would wait for this. So, yeah, yeah, I'm kind of just talking in circles now. Maybe. I just wanted to say, philippe, you've done an awesome job capturing what is a very unique moment in a very creative way that's deliberately minimal. I think it would be awesome if you could see all the detail, but it doesn't need it. The gradient is fantastic. Just leave it at that.

One other thing I forgot to mention that I think people know by now is that I love things touching the edges of photos. So I don't know if this was cropped this way.

Edge tension. Yes.

I love the fact that those birds go out to that outer edge and then just continue on because it just gives you that sense of there's so much more happening. But this is what we're looking at right now. So thank you for that, Philippe.

Jason, your edge tension obsession or obsessions maybe too strong. Your love for edge tension is. Is very well known. My boss, Craig, who listens to things like hemispheric views that we do with Andrew when he first heard about edge tension. Every time there is some form of edge tension out there in the world, now, if he spots it, it's like, ooh, edge tension. I recognize that. I like that one.

So it is an obsession.

People know.

Absolutely, yeah.

And now I'm noticing all the time, too. Ooh, edge tension. I don't know if I would have liked that, but now I do because Jason said it's interesting.

You're welcome, and I'm sorry.

Okay, so, nice one. I'll go to the next one. So we're leaving glass for now. And I found this one on microdot blog, and I actually found it through the lovely discover feature. If you are on Microdot blog, it's kind of like, you know, the human curation that happens on some other networks on some other networks, you know, avoiding algorithms and so on. But I know that Manton, Reese and the team were doing that quite early on or really emphasizing that before some others. So this is a photo that I found in the photo discover feed by Davey Craney. And it appears to be a close up picture of a moth on the side of a car. Now, I don't know if this would be classed as macro or not. It doesn't look like it doesn't look close enough to be a macro shot. It might even just be a shot with an iPhone. But I really liked it. First of all, I don't know if you would class this as edge tension, but I noticed how close to the side of this reflective door the moth is, and it instantly caught my eye as this. Oh, this is interesting. It doesn't have that kind of wide field of view that a lot of iPhone shots tend to have. You don't really think of close up shots with iPhones necessarily, but it's this vivid, sharp shot. And I'm sorry, Davey, if it wasn't an iPhone. I'm just, I'm just assuming here it's just this, you know, vivid, sharp shot of a moth on a car. You've got the reflection of all the scenery around it, these blurred water drops, and it just stood out to me as, like, this moth is actually quite beautiful. We tend to think of things like, I don't know, butterflies or other kind of colorful insects and moths kind of being a little bit, I don't know, are they, like, the dorkiest of insects? Is that fair to say? Like, they're kind of bundled to be more.

More bland. You could probably say, yeah, yeah, they're.

Just kind of fluffing around a bit from. But this, this is a. I don't know, this is just a gorgeous photo. It reveals some beauty in nature in a very everyday scene on the side of, we assume, a car or a truck or something. I just think it's like a beautiful little thing that Davey or Davy Craney has noticed. The caption's very simple. It's just like a butterfly or moth emoji next to a cardinal. Nothing else said. It's like, just a little bit more than saying untitled. So well done to Davey Craney for noticing a little beautiful moment in nature.

A lot of photos tend to be these big, elaborate things. We talk about big, crazy things all the time. But the everyday stuff we talked about. One, I think it was last episode, that was a backyard scene. That was just an everyday thing. But we tend to look past those as in general, because of just social media culture or whatever. We look past the kind of everyday beauty to try to find these ten out of ten things or whatever. And it doesn't put this photo down in any way. It's just like, everyday stuff is awesome as well. So to see something like this, I've been in that, I've been in that same situation a million times where you're walking around, you just go like, oh, my gosh, look at this awesome thing that's just, like, on the side of a building, and it's beautiful in the moment. So to capture that is great. And I really like that the moth is not, like, on a plant or on some kind of other nature. It's on this very, like, harsh manmade thing, being a car. And the. Because the car is reflective, there's just this cacophony of noise in the reflection of people's feet, other cars, the street. You know, you can see some of the sky there in nature. And then there's just this kind of beauty sitting on top of this chaos. And I think that's really cool. I really like that, you know, the difference between the beauty and the chaos and also the. I think the. I love that the raindrops are there or whatever the water was, because it just gives a little bit more of that, like, nature and kind of beast mix. Yeah, it's just super cool that there's this beautiful object that is not man made, just part of nature sitting on top of this, like, very kind of, you know, rough man made object that is a car. So really cool. And the orange color there is to die for. Those colors are just incredible. And the fuzz. I love all the little fuzzy bits.

I did wonder if the orange were going to mention. I resisted that.

Yeah, yeah. There's nothing that could be orange that I want, you know, probably love. So big points for that as well.

Slight digression. How do you. I don't think we've ever even asked. I've never asked this. How do you feel about oranges as a fruit?

Oh, they're great. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

They're great.

Yeah. And they look great, too, because they have a great color.

That's what I was just wondering. Like, did your love of the color extend to loving the thing that the color is, you know, named after?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Okay, cool. Well, I'm glad we settled that. We can move on to the next photo. Thank you, Davy Craney, for a wonderful photo.

Yeah. Thank you. Let's see. So this is my third one. Wow. We're already on number three. Holy. Holy. All right, this one is over on Tumblr. I don't remember how I found it, but I did. From Doc Huff is the name on that. And the title. I don't have it in front of me because I have the photo full screened, but it was the Nagano prefecture, and it is this. Oh, how do I even get into this? It is, I think when I see this, I think reverse black and white. And I don't know if that makes any sense, but it's like a black and white photo where it is predominantly white, I should say what it is. It is trees covered in snow. So the trees are just sticks. You know, it's very much winter snow all on the ground, tree branches all covered in snow. And it is just incredibly like snow out white out condition, almost, with just very minimal gray coming from the trunk of the tree going up and all of the, you know, tons of branches coming out from it. But the fact that it's just so predominantly white verse, I think generally in black and white photos, you. You tend to have more of a deeper contrast, sometimes more heavily skewed towards. Towards the darker side, whereas this one's just sort of complete opposite. And it's not like it's, you know, one of those ir photos or anything. It's just the fact that there's so much snow here. That's all there is. You're in the middle of nowhere with snow. So it feels super peaceful to me, and very, just elegant how the snow is placed upon all of the branches and how it feels very alone and desolate because there is one, two, maybe a third tree in the back. But predominantly, it's the one tree in the middle is the central focus. And it just feels. It has this overwhelming feel of just cold aloneness. And I just really like that. And that reverse. I'm calling it reverse black and white. I don't know if that's a thing, but that is something you just don't see a lot.

Well, it's certainly like, you know, if you ever see a vignette, intentional or not, in photos, normally, people think of them as being dark or black vignettes. Of course, vignettes can be white or lighter, but I never really think to use them or. Or never really come across situations where they would exist. And this is like the most extreme version of that, this, like, blown out, washed out, kind of lower contrast white vignette. But it's. It lends a sense of mystery to the photo just because of the conditions that this was taken in. And I'm kind of sitting here wondering, looking at this photo, like, how many trees are there beyond this? How did you make the choice to shoot this one? You know, but you are kind of left, as you said, in this moment of peace. You're just kind of stuck looking at this one and maybe the second one behind it so, yeah, it's peaceful, it's mysterious. It kind of leaves you wanting more, but not in a way that you're dissatisfied with the photo. But just like, where is this? Where does it go? So, yeah, I think it's cool. The way that we're saying Doc huff, not Dochuff or Dokhoof, has taken this photo.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Yeah. And look, I would never. Yeah, I would. I think I would be very tempted if I'd taken this photo to kind of up the contrast a bit. I don't know. That's just how I'm like, maybe hardwired. But this was a good choice. It's, again, it reveals, oh, I wouldn't have done it that way. Oh, that's cool. This is creative. So I feel like I learn when we look at these photos, probably the.

Best part of this whole thing is seeing. Seeing things that I think would. That I would do differently and thinking, wow, actually, that, yeah, maybe I wouldn't. Maybe I shouldn't now. So. Yeah.

Yeah. Very nice. Well, good. Final choice. We've actually had a bit of. We've had a bit of nature in a row here, haven't we? We're going to go to.

We have. Yeah.

Yeah. Look at that.

Which is funny because we don't really like for anybody listening, just like behind the scenes or whatever, like, we don't share these up until basically right before we record. So there's no, like, hey, here's a theme. Or it's literally pick three things that you have found in the last month and we just throw them in the hopper and see what comes out the other end.

Just go for it. Yeah, yeah. Well, here we go. Last photo. This is by Nigel on blue sky. Now, if you follow the link, you'll see four photos. They're all of birds from the. Is it Farn or Farna Islands? I'm not sure how you pronounce that. I'm actually kind of ignorant. Well, anyway, the one that I'm going to pick on is, I think, probably one of the wildlife photography world's favorite animals to photograph, at least on all the things that I've seen, you know, whether it's photos online or YouTube videos, it's the. And you're probably thinking, oh, a puffin. They are cute. But how many puffin photos are there? Well, this one, if you expand it, it's the third one or the bottom left one in this grid of four photos. And there are how many fish? I don't know. Let's see. 1234-5678 are there eight fish, like. Like sardines or something, hanging out of this puffin's mouth? And it's just like, I think about the number of times, like, okay, you know, you go to the movies, right, and you're all set to go. You're sitting there and I'm a real popcorn person, right? And I will shamelessly shove, like, fistfuls of popcorn into my face.

Yeah, yeah.

Grips. And the salt is, like, burning my lips, but it's heaven. And you go, oh, relief. There's some coke. And now, you know, back to the popcorn. This is like the puffin equivalent of going to the movies and shoving popcorn on your face. Finishing the entire mega tub before the trailers are finished. Right. What on earth is happening here? How on earth did this puffin manage to get all of these fish arranged so perfectly in its mouth? As the photographer, Nigel, be honest with me. Have you gone up and arranged these fish in this puffin's mouth? Because all four of the photos are beautiful, but this is just miraculous. So this really stood out to me. And, of course, puffins are just kind of quirky, beautiful birds to begin with, but what a unique situation. And look, I've watched a bit of. If any of you have ever watched Emily from micro four nerds, the YouTube channel, I follow her in a lot of her kind of micro four third centric photography. She did some fantastic videos recently, I think, at the Faroe Islands or something, testing long lenses in the om one mark two, photographing puffins. She got awesome stuff, right? All these great photos and videos. But I didn't see anything like this. Like fistfuls of fish in a beak. So. Great moment, Nigel.

Yeah, this is so good. I love it. And I love that it's this profile. It's not like a straight on or a three quarter. It's like a perfect profile. The black and the white contrast of the feathers. And I think my favorite part here. So, yes, there are like a billion fish in the mouth, but the fact that the puffin's eye is completely black and void of life and every single one of those little fish has this very, you know, you know, the eye is. It draws you to it because it's very shiny and it's more of a. What we're used to of seeing, like, you know, a dark center with. With the eye around it. But it gives them this. They all have this look of concern, which they should. I mean, granted, they're, you know, they're. They're dead or dying, but they all have this just little, almost kind of funny. Like, I hate to say that, but it's kind of a funny comical look on their face of like, oh, what just happened? So that, to me is really interesting that the puffin just has this, like, just deadpan.

Yeah.

You know, stare.

Yeah, whatever.

And then all the fish are just kind of like all of the, all of the livelihood and the entertainment and the excitement is in these fish. So. And it does feel very much like you ask, you're like, okay, now hold on. I'm gonna put this fish here. I'm gonna put this fish here. But obviously that didn't happen. This is just, you know, years and years and, and thousands of years of evolution of making them know how to pick these things up just the right way. They don't, you know, just the right amount of pressure so they don't cut them in half. And it's just. It's great. It's such a. It's such a cool and just neat capture because you like this bird. If it were just the portrait with no fish in the mouth would be great still. But it just lends this extra bit of interestingness that all these little fish are just stuck. I love it. It's great.

Yes. And I'm gonna have to look, actually. And this is where I was like. And I just forgot to do it. But in the post that Nigel did, it says obligatory puffin money shot video link on previous posts. So I'm gonna have to go and have a look. There might actually be a video attached to this that reveals more. So I can't say anymore because I forgot to get around to it. But here we are.

It's just him arranging the fish in the mouth.

And hold still, puffin. Hold still. And snap.

It's a pet puffin that's been trained. Oh, that's great. Well, fantastic last pick. We did have quite the nature theme, which. Hey, that's great. I'm happy about that. But, yeah, that's our three. I did three. You did three times. Two. Three by two. I think that is three by two. Photocast for July. Thanks, everybody. And see you all in August.

By what.