Big Photo Hunt
A photography conversation for aspiring and amateur photographers filled with exclusive tips and real life stories to help us all improve our skills and grow, together. Join host Ken Deckinger as he shares insights from members of our friendly community of photographers encouraging and supporting each other's growth.
Big Photo Hunt
Big Photo Hunt Member Spotlight: Photographer Daryll Buchanan
Scotland-based photographer Daryll Buchanan is not only a skilled landscape and portrait photographer but also the creator and host of Portrait and a Podcast, where he blends his love for photography and comedy by interviewing popular comedians—capped off with a portrait session.
In this episode, Daryll shares the story of how his passion for portraits led him to launch his podcast and offers insights into his unique creative process. We also dive into a lively discussion about the photographers and YouTubers we both admire. Whether you’re a photography enthusiast, a comedy fan, or just curious about the creative journey, this conversation is packed with inspiration and fun.
Stay connected with Daryll at @daruleofthirds for more of his work and updates on his podcast.
Show Notes:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:14
I don't think I have a problem with the technology of AI. I have a problem with people using it and not owning up to it. I think that's one of the issues. I'm just kind of working that out on your podcast.
00:00:09:26 - 00:00:11:28
Keep it going. I'm going to have to send you a bill.
00:00:13:24 - 00:00:20:12
Get into therapy now. This is great. Lie down on my couch, Darylll. Oh, but please, my couch.
00:00:20:23 - 00:00:22:00
Don't stop crying in five minutes.
00:00:22:02 - 00:00:23:02
Yeah, Darylll. Tell me.
00:00:23:04 - 00:00:24:00
I'll tell you about my dad.
00:00:24:02 - 00:00:25:27
I was like, tell me about your mom.
00:00:27:15 - 00:00:32:27
I know, I'm actually not really interested in your mom. I'm sure your mom is lovely, but, you know, that's a whole other podcast.
00:00:35:28 - 00:00:57:11
Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt podcast, a show where we talk with aspiring and professional photographers to help us all grow and improve our photography together. I'm your host, Ken Deckinger. If you're one of our community members and you'd like to be a guest on the show, please visit Big Photo hunt.com for more information.
00:01:09:23 - 00:01:41:22
My guest today is Daryll Buchanan. Daryll is a big photo hunt member in Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland and he, just like many of us, is on his photography journey working to improve and grow as he goes. He's also the host of a really cool podcast called portrait, and a podcast where each guest not only joins them for an episode of the show, but they also experience a photo session with the hosts beforehand. So basically, you take their photos and then they sit down to talk, right? Is that what it is?
00:01:42:26 - 00:02:16:22
Yeah, it's creative professionals that we have on. So comedians, musicians, artists, actors. Um, and it started off that we'd arrange a photo shoot mainly in Ayrshire. We're trying to promote like the local area, but if they need to be closer to home, Glasgow, Edinburgh. That's cool. Um, and then we'd have a separate session in the studio. But for this new season, it was proving a little bit difficult. We missed out on some really good guests, so we've now changed it. So we're taking like the roads, lav mics and the clip on mics and we go to them. So for example, recently we did one in Glasgow with us, comedian Sean Chalmers.
00:02:16:24 - 00:02:27:08
We met him at the hydro, which is like a big kind of stadium that he wants to sell out for his comedy. So we take photos around about there and then we just click the mikes on and interview them. So it's all done in 2 or 3 hours.
00:02:27:24 - 00:02:32:03
And what comedians is it just are you guys comedians? I mean, I know you're funny. I've listened to some of these episodes.
00:02:33:10 - 00:02:48:02
What comedians. So just basically anyone I'm a fan of in Scotland, I've not had an American on yet. I really hope we've not had an American on yet and I'm just offending them right now. So anyone Scottish I think will recognize these names, but I'm not sure about across the pond.
00:02:48:07 - 00:02:59:06
It's funny when you start looking into it, the communities are these pools of actors and people that are famous in one country or the other. Sometimes, unless they're like a megastar, they just don't cross-breed like they don't make it over the pond.
00:02:59:12 - 00:03:20:15
Yeah. I think from Scotland to you, it doesn't make it across. Maybe apart from, like Daniel Sloss, Billy Connolly. But the other way we know all you guys. I think like especially the the scene in Austin, Texas just now thinks pretty huge. And we're all we're all following it avidly. But yeah, Scotland's a tiny country. I think it's got like 6 million people in it. So it's not a lot of exporting comedy.
00:03:20:19 - 00:03:34:13
I'm sorry man. We send over our McDonald's Kentucky Fried Chicken and our comedians comedians is good. But you know, so I don't know if I'm ever invited, but if I am one day or if I'm not even one day, I'm going to show up. I'm just going to be like, Dara.
00:03:34:20 - 00:03:36:06
Hello. I'm here. Dara.
00:03:37:10 - 00:03:38:28
I just know Pam isn't.
00:03:39:00 - 00:03:39:15
Yeah.
00:03:39:17 - 00:03:40:19
I just want to welcome that.
00:03:40:21 - 00:03:44:08
Thanks, man. I just I just need some new photos of me. So that's the only reason I go.
00:03:44:12 - 00:03:45:06
Oh yeah, absolutely.
00:03:45:08 - 00:04:02:07
I looked actually, flights are cheap right now. Are they? I'm just curious because we're I'm actually booking some travel right now in general. And I was like, what does it cost to get to Glasgow? And I was like, it's like $600 right now from here. I was shocked. That's low. It gets its it's off season. Nobody really wants to go right now. It's like not cold, not hot, just muddy kind of thing.
00:04:02:24 - 00:04:07:07
Yeah. Very much. If you ever coming over, let me know. There's so much to see in a small country.
00:04:07:09 - 00:04:09:10
Yeah, I will, and I'm just kidding. You don't wanna put me on your podcast.
00:04:09:12 - 00:04:10:16
No, I absolutely loved it.
00:04:10:18 - 00:04:23:20
Yeah. I don't know if I'm exciting as some of these other people, though. You've got real, real talent over there. So we're going to get into the photography. But let's start by telling everyone who Darylll is. Tell us about you, your background and how your journey into photography started.
00:04:24:01 - 00:04:55:27
So yeah, I'm that'll be canon at Darrowby Photography on Instagram if anyone's interested. And my 30s and living on the west coast of Scotland, uh, in terms of photography, it's not my full time job. Um, obviously I have the photography podcast, which is more it's basically an excuse to try out portrait photography. Um, something I always wanted to do, but I'm not hanging about with, you know, like people that need the photos or models or anything like that. So it's a good excuse to get into it. And yeah, apart from that, I actually work in financial crime, so I'm in banking.
00:04:56:09 - 00:05:00:06
Wait, you're a banker or financial crime, like you're an investigator or something?
00:05:00:22 - 00:05:28:00
Yeah. So I started off investigating accounts with, like, unusual activity. It was really interesting, actually, just on retail accounts. So looking for, you know, like tax evasion, illegal businesses, sanctions stuff. And now it's more businesses. So like investment banking and just making sure we've got all our documentation in. But ideally I would like to get out of that space and into photography and a creative career. But it's not as easy as it as I'd like it to be.
00:05:28:02 - 00:05:35:03
So is photography just a creative outlet, something that you got into to kind of just express yourself when you're not tracking down, like, financial criminals and stuff?
00:05:35:25 - 00:06:03:27
Yeah, I think over the years I've noticed if I'm not doing something creative on the side or I don't have something to focus on in that way, I'm not happy. Like, I like, I like work, it's cool. You go and see your people. It's all fine, but it's not. I know it's not my passion. It's fine. It pays the bills. You know, I've met a lot of cool people from it. But outside of that, anything to do with just the kind of creative fields, that's what I look for. I may not be the best at it, but it's definitely my motivation.
00:06:04:08 - 00:06:10:11
I get it, I'm the same way. I mean, I don't make money from my photography. You know, I think some people pay me not to look at my photos, but.
00:06:10:13 - 00:06:11:01
Otherwise.
00:06:12:17 - 00:06:16:02
I just do it because I need it. It's just enjoyable. It's like a pleasure to me.
00:06:16:23 - 00:06:33:20
It's interesting that a lot of us have that need for some sort of creative output. Uh, I don't know what what it is about people or, like, what's in our nature to have it. And I know not everyone's like that, but I definitely appreciate that. And other people wouldn't. Uh, yeah, it's a good endeavor, I think.
00:06:33:26 - 00:06:41:12
I think that it's almost. This sounds really corny. Do they say that in Scotland? Corny? Yeah, yeah. Okay, this is corny.
00:06:41:14 - 00:06:41:29
But.
00:06:42:06 - 00:06:51:05
I think it's almost like our way to connect with the Earth and the world. It's our way to visually or however you express yourself just being in connection with everything.
00:06:51:23 - 00:06:53:01
Yeah. No, I like that.
00:06:53:12 - 00:06:56:05
When did you first pick up a camera then. And start getting into it.
00:06:57:14 - 00:07:27:20
I mean, apart from like a wee disposable camera. When I was young, I actually started making little films when I was a teenager. Yeah. Had some, like, difficult times growing up. So I got, uh. I used to steal my step dad's video camera when he was at work or on tour or something like that. And we made, like, our own version of jackass was right into that. We made the spoof horror films based on, like, Halloween and just started practicing editing and stuff. And that's when I kind of got into that sort of creative side of things.
00:07:28:03 - 00:07:58:11
And then years later, in my early 20s, we were on our a hike and a couple of my friends had cameras and we were just on these, you know, when like the clouds are really low setting over the mountains and it just looks amazing. And you've you've made the effort to get up at sunrise and it's just incredible. And they were taking photos and I was just kind of standing there like with my phone. And I'm like, oh, this looks really cool. And I started chatting to them about it. And yeah, I think it was just the scenery and that sort of I think we spoke about it before with the with Sean Tuck.
00:07:58:13 - 00:08:05:26
He's saying like finding order in the chaos and you find like your own section of that landscape that really stands out to you and you capture it and stuff.
00:08:06:02 - 00:08:07:24
He's awesome, isn't he? Sean Tucker.
00:08:08:13 - 00:08:08:29
Yeah.
00:08:09:03 - 00:08:10:00
What? He's brilliant.
00:08:10:02 - 00:08:48:06
What a great guy. And such a good orator. A lot of times people on YouTube or these people that are putting out videos or just whatever they're doing, they're reading from a teleprompter. Sean is just speaking and speaking from his heart. And he may have a teleprompter, but I don't think he does, because when I interviewed him, he was speaking to me and it was like I was watching one of his videos. It was just coming out of him. He's so genuine. For our listeners, we're talking about Sean Tucker, who is a YouTuber and a photographer, and he creates videos that are about photography, but they're much more about the meaning and the philosophical aspect of photography.
00:08:48:08 - 00:09:02:04
And we have an episode on the big photo hunt with him. So if you want to hear him, he's great. Or you can go to his YouTube Sean Tucker. So okay, so what kind of stuff do you like to shoot? Like what kind of photography? You mentioned that you're doing the podcast as a way to get into portrait photography.
00:09:02:17 - 00:09:03:02
Yeah, just.
00:09:03:04 - 00:09:37:01
Before I answer that as well. The podcast is a funny one. Like you say, Sean speaks very naturally and it felt like you were watching an episode. I find that with you, like as soon as you came on piers live or Pierre Lambert, the street photographer, we did the course together, if anyone's wondering. Um, and you came on. But you speak so nicely and clearly and you could you, like, automatically liked you. So I think you like you have that and it's brilliant. But I feel I don't know if it's a Scottish thing. Americans I could listen to all day. They sound enthusiastic and knowledgeable English people as well, like Sean and stuff.
00:09:37:03 - 00:09:48:13
That sounds professional at work. If I'm on a call and it's like English and American speaking, then I speak and I'm like, oh, uh, Scotland says, and I don't know, it just sounds like a stupid accent to me. I don't want to be racist to one country.
00:09:48:21 - 00:09:58:09
Thank you. First of all, I think it's just the foreign, the difference, right? Because I actually feel that way about the British. And your Scottish accent is very cool to me.
00:09:58:13 - 00:09:59:04
Okay, cool.
00:09:59:06 - 00:10:15:27
Yeah. The stereotype of an American tends to be a little bit more outgoing, a little bit more in your face. And I know that. And so I'm probably that. I try not to be an asshole, but I yeah, I know, I get it. I know you're not saying I'm an asshole, but hey.
00:10:17:27 - 00:10:23:11
But I just kind of, like, live life and I'm here, and I mean, thank you, I think. Thank you.
00:10:25:00 - 00:10:26:00
We'll move on swiftly.
00:10:26:02 - 00:10:26:17
Before.
00:10:26:19 - 00:10:29:25
You work out if it's a compliment or an insult. It was a compliment.
00:10:29:29 - 00:10:44:09
No, I know, I'm just. I'll figure it out as we go. It's funny. My kids who are American, they like to. Not all my kids, but one of my daughters in particular. She likes to walk around the house and speak in an English accent and.
00:10:44:11 - 00:10:44:26
Okay.
00:10:44:28 - 00:10:53:12
Yeah, yeah, because she feels it's much more proper. She's like, daddy. And I'm like, wait, you were born in New York City?
00:10:55:16 - 00:11:03:13
I did the accents in my house as well. I don't know what it is. I rarely speak in my own accent at home, which is probably an embarrassing thing to admit. But yeah.
00:11:04:24 - 00:11:27:13
I was in London once, walking down the street and it was like eight in the morning and I was looking for some place for breakfast or something, I don't remember. And I was walking down the street and there was a guy standing on the street and I was like, asking for directions for something. And he immediately came out and started talking to me like a cowboy. And I was like, yeah. It was like, I think my accent might have sounded like that to him or something. I was.
00:11:27:15 - 00:11:28:00
Like.
00:11:28:10 - 00:11:36:09
I was like, I think I asked him literally, can you tell me where this place is or something? Please? And his response was, well, sure thing. I could tell you where that is.
00:11:36:11 - 00:11:39:16
Or I thought, yeah, I was like.
00:11:39:18 - 00:11:44:05
Do I sound like that? And I might have sounded like that, but I don't think I sound like that. No.
00:11:44:07 - 00:11:44:24
Right. No.
00:11:44:26 - 00:11:53:29
Not so. I have a northern US accent that's more of a South or maybe a Texas cowboy. That's not. And that's probably offensive to anyone in Texas. That's not I know that's not what people sound like.
00:11:54:01 - 00:11:56:15
All I know about the South is Theo Vaughn. Really?
00:11:56:17 - 00:11:59:03
So is what Theo Vaughn.
00:11:59:05 - 00:12:00:11
Do you know him? The comedian?
00:12:00:13 - 00:12:07:08
No, I'm not into comedy. It's not like I'm like, I don't like to laugh. I just don't have the attention span to sit down and listen to someone tell me jokes.
00:12:07:17 - 00:12:08:02
Yeah.
00:12:08:04 - 00:12:08:22
That's fair. Yeah.
00:12:08:24 - 00:12:46:17
There's only so many, like, hobbies and interests you can get into. I was just going to get back to your original question about the photography. Sorry, the landscapes and everything were like my original go to, and I still take a camera about it for for going somewhere cool or on a hike or something. But yeah, I think just being open, I don't know if you're the same. I've seen your kind of landscape stuff and street stuff, and it's just good to try different things. I think with the with portraits it's good because a you connect with people. I also have fun, and especially with my podcast, because I'm into comedy, most of the guests are comedians, so you just have a laugh with them anyway and you're taking like silly photos.
00:12:46:19 - 00:12:59:26
It doesn't have to be all staged and all like Vogue, as if it was like a fashion model, for example. But yeah, the meeting people. Plus, I know it's a new person, it's a new location. So like you're constantly like, can you swear in this?
00:13:00:00 - 00:13:00:15
Oh.
00:13:00:21 - 00:13:01:09
Yeah.
00:13:02:14 - 00:13:03:04
Thank you.
00:13:03:09 - 00:13:04:26
I was trying to keep it clean, but yeah.
00:13:04:28 - 00:13:05:14
You're like, oh.
00:13:05:16 - 00:13:08:06
There's there's very little there's very little clean about me.
00:13:09:10 - 00:13:09:25
Okay.
00:13:10:27 - 00:13:42:02
I won't ask anymore. But yeah, you're like yourself before every shoot. And then when it turns out good, you get like such a rush and stuff like that. And it's. Yeah, it's that delayed gratification and challenging yourself that I really like. Whereas with landscapes and stuff, I feel it's such a great way to get into it because landscapes don't move and you're just waiting for the right light or something. You're you're looking up editing. If it's like Thomas Heaton, Nigel Dance and even Pierre Lambert with the street stuff. But then for me, anyway, there came a point after a few years, I'm like, okay, like I'm kind of done with landscapes for now.
00:13:42:05 - 00:13:45:22
I might go back to it, but the portraits are I really enjoy.
00:13:46:10 - 00:14:24:20
I'm just now trying to study landscape photography more. And recently I was reading a book that was recommended to me by one of my favorite landscape photographers, who I've also had on the podcast, this guy named Ben Williamson, and he recommended a book on the podcast by a guy named Jerry Monkman. The book is like, I think it's like 15 years old or something. Like, he's still talking about DSLRs and all these things that, you know, but the concepts are really good. I'm trying to really study it. For me, setting up the composition where you've got that element in the foreground and you've got the mid-ground and like the background, like I'm trying to do that, it's very tough for me to find those right three pieces and put them together.
00:14:24:22 - 00:14:26:21
So I'm really working on that. Yeah.
00:14:26:23 - 00:14:58:09
See what we're on photographers that we love. There's a guy I need to. And most people I think will have heard of him if they're in like the film photography community. But V'landys view alien does. He takes photos that are like true to his life. He originally did a series of photos in his friends back garden, and they're like a couple of them had, like the guns and stuff because he lives in Detroit. Um, and they're sitting in their car. Like smoking blunts and stuff like that. Every now and then, you come across someone that's just taking photos that are, like, true to their life. And it's brilliant to see that.
00:14:58:11 - 00:15:01:11
It's a really good account. And his portraits are amazing.
00:15:01:21 - 00:15:04:27
Do you like street photography? Is that something interesting to you?
00:15:05:15 - 00:15:15:05
I love watching videos on it. I love like seeing photos. Yeah, I love it. I've tried it. I don't think Scotland is the best place for it.
00:15:16:02 - 00:15:16:17
Why?
00:15:16:23 - 00:15:17:26
Why is that?
00:15:19:00 - 00:15:49:20
Well, like if I go into Ayrton Senna, there's maybe like two other people in the street. Depending on what time I go into, half the shops are shot. It's not a nice place to look at. And another thing, I don't know if you'll agree. In America, everything seems like it's all on blocks and everything's nice and symmetrical when you get your buildings. Whereas in Scotland, like, the pavements are like that and the shops are here. So even if you take a photo, it looks annoying. Like compositionally you're like you're trying. It's like, should I street the pavement or should I straighten the shop? Like, what am I doing here? Um, but everything seems so, like, neat in America.
00:15:49:22 - 00:15:54:13
Or especially the cities. Yeah, I love looking at it, but I've only tried it maybe 2 or 3 times.
00:15:54:27 - 00:16:30:01
For me, I'd probably love that because it's so different from what we have. I'd probably be all over the streets and like, yeah, I wonder, things are neat and straight here. It depends where you are and what city you're in. Some of the older cities, New York, for example, New York City's got everything. I left New York City and I live in Boston now, and Boston's got a little bit of everything because it's got a very old component to it. A lot of America. You know, it's just like big roads with Walmarts and Costcos and so and big gas stations. Not very exciting to photograph, although I want to start photographing gas stations because, yeah, I think they're going away.
00:16:30:12 - 00:16:41:03
And 30, 40 years from now when gas stations are turned into battery charging stations, I think it's going to be really cool to say, look at this. This is where we used to do we used to get our gas.
00:16:41:15 - 00:16:45:00
Yeah, that's a kosher Jewish on. Or do you follow many film accounts?
00:16:45:09 - 00:16:47:04
There are some that I follow.
00:16:48:01 - 00:16:54:21
Yeah. You get some amazing looking gas stations over there. Petrol stations, as we call them here. Yeah, I love that kind of photography.
00:16:54:23 - 00:17:13:04
There's some photographers that shoot on film that I follow that are out west, here in the States, and they shoot out on, like, I don't know if it's route 66 or whatever the in New Mexico or the deserts in Arizona or something. And they've got some really cool stuff. I'll take a look at the other ones because yeah, I want to start doing more gas stations. I know it sounds silly, but.
00:17:13:06 - 00:17:14:06
I know that's cool.
00:17:14:09 - 00:17:30:16
Like, if you look back at gas stations from like, the 1950s to now. Yeah. I mean, you're just like, wow, what is that? And now from here to 50 years forward. But I know that's more than 50 years, but 50 years forward from now, you're going to look at them and be like, okay, that is. So you guys were like, dinosaurs.
00:17:30:18 - 00:17:31:03
Yeah.
00:17:31:08 - 00:17:37:20
You get the old Coca-Cola ones that are all covered in rust and everything. You still find some places that. Yeah, they're yeah. You get some proper cool shots.
00:17:38:03 - 00:17:47:03
So tell me where you are in, like your photography journey. Like, where are you? And, like, what do you want to work on? What do you want to improve on and how do you do some of that?
00:17:47:25 - 00:18:21:14
So just as a bit of like a laying the foundation, I've tried like I've tried a wedding, I don't think it was for me. The bit I didn't like about it was the stage portraits and the pressure of like, oh, you need this person. Don't forget my auntie, don't forget my great gran. She's only get like, whatever she needs, help up the stairs. You know, all the kind of high pressure family stuff. I like the running gun more. Kind of taking things in. Like capturing a moment in time or feeling or something like that. That's cool. And I think I get that with the street portraits. But yeah, in my photography journey, I, I just love it, but I'm not.
00:18:22:09 - 00:18:49:07
I don't rate myself. Yeah. You know, you keep looking at people and you're like, these people are amazing. I give myself like, I don't know, I'm like, here. And I want to be like out of camera up there. I think that's one of the best things about photography, though. There's so much to learn in every genre. And let's say even like you master the gas stations and the street photography, there's still landscape. And that's a whole other thing in itself. There's still portraits, there's still Animal photography. It's just it's. Yeah, it's a great hobby to get into.
00:18:49:17 - 00:18:54:06
I know you like portraits, and I know you're trying to practice portraits. I hate portraits, I hate shooting portraits.
00:18:56:00 - 00:18:58:15
I just, I don't you know what I think? Turn me.
00:18:58:17 - 00:18:59:02
Off.
00:18:59:04 - 00:18:59:23
In the podcast anymore.
00:18:59:25 - 00:19:01:07
That shit. Oh, shit.
00:19:02:23 - 00:19:03:24
I see, I told you I was.
00:19:07:02 - 00:19:38:03
I think what turned me off was when I first started getting into this, and I would go out in the street and take photos of people and make like little portraits of them. And my goal was actually on this wall behind me was to put all these portraits of people up on my wall. It was kind of going to be my way of just capturing moments in my life. Of all the people I've met in my life and have this whole thing, and I started putting them up there and I was like, I don't like these people, and I don't want to be reminded of them.
00:19:38:05 - 00:19:47:08
No, it's not true. It's just like, I just don't want to be reminded of these people. Who are they to me? And like, I remember taking that photo and it was not a very pleasant experience. I don't want to ever remember it again.
00:19:47:21 - 00:19:51:08
Like as in you're doing street photography like a person. That kind of street portrait.
00:19:51:10 - 00:19:52:08
Yes, that kind of street.
00:19:52:10 - 00:19:53:11
Okay, okay. Got you, got you.
00:19:53:13 - 00:19:53:28
Sorry.
00:19:54:02 - 00:20:08:00
I was more meaning like when I meet the guests, I call it street portraits. So I'm not, like, using lighting in the studio and everything, but we're just out and about on the street, and then I take their portrait. But I know them. Got it? Yeah, I know what you mean. With the strangers?
00:20:08:11 - 00:20:14:05
Yeah, I have one. I don't know if you can see. Can you see that? There's one photo left there. This this lady right there. See her?
00:20:14:24 - 00:20:15:14
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:20:15:16 - 00:20:24:07
Her t shirt says coffee is my soulmate. And she was so sweet and so fun to take a picture of. And she was posing and I really liked her. So I kept her up there to remember.
00:20:24:09 - 00:20:25:08
Kept that one. Yeah, yeah.
00:20:25:10 - 00:20:27:21
Oh that's cool. At least you did it as well. No. You know.
00:20:28:12 - 00:20:30:21
Yeah. I got to test it. Yeah, absolutely.
00:20:31:08 - 00:20:48:13
I was just going to say with your entrepreneurial or startup mind if that's like what you've always been doing, has that crossed over into like you wanting to start your I know you've got the photography platform, but is that crossed over into how you take photographs. Are you thinking of like trying to think of like the your unique way?
00:20:49:07 - 00:20:49:27
Um.
00:20:50:13 - 00:21:25:21
No, because I do the photography more for just me. And the reason I say no is because the way I look at startups and being an entrepreneur is kind of trying to understand what the users want, what people want, that are using, for example, the big photo hunt and delivering, delivering that to them. And if you deliver the value and you deliver that successfully to them, then they are happy and the product can grow and the business can grow. For to photography like I don't really do it to say, what do viewers want? What do people want on Instagram? Yeah, I just do it because I really like like it and I'm taking pictures of what I like.
00:21:25:23 - 00:21:36:18
And so it's I take a little bit different approach. What I do do though, is look at the big photo hunt and say, what would I want in something like this? And that's why I started it, because I wanted it.
00:21:37:03 - 00:21:38:23
You know, I love that. Fair play.
00:21:39:05 - 00:21:46:02
So you touched on some things, but do you have any resources that you might suggest or people that maybe our listeners might benefit from checking out.
00:21:46:11 - 00:22:23:23
The resources that I've found most useful are link to creativity. I think John Cleese has a great book just called creativity. He's he was one of the Monty Python guys, Sean Tuckers. But the meaning in the making, I think Pierre Lambert, he breaks everything down. And he also the POVs are obviously dead useful because you're just watching him how he takes photos for an hour. V'landys has a great channel. It honestly just depends on your genre. But if anyone wants to ping my message or I'm more than happy to chat about any genre like I love film, it's got so much soul and it can capture things in such a different way to digital.
00:22:23:25 - 00:22:45:04
Not that digital is cheating. I do love digital and it's great to have it with you, but if you get a good photo on film, it's just ten times as rewarding, I think. I think because it's more difficult and you can't see it when you're taking it. But people like Willem Verbeek and all the Magnum Photos people, the people they feature are just, incredible. Like, couldn't even dream of taking photos like that.
00:22:48:24 - 00:23:28:09
Hey, it's Ken. I hope you're enjoying this episode of the Big Photo Hunt podcast. I want to take a moment to tell you about some of the great things happening over at The Big Photo Hunt. For one, last month we gave away a Fujifilm X 106 camera. This month we've got more stuff to give away, and we're also hosting another live online photo review session with a professional photographer. Send in your photos and our guest photographer will give you feedback. If you're an amateur photographer looking to grow or you just want to join what is arguably the most fun and friendly photography club on the planet, maybe even beyond.
00:23:30:13 - 00:23:36:06
Check out Big Photo hunt.com for more. Okay, now back to the show.
00:23:40:12 - 00:24:06:01
Because a lot of photographers, I think there was a couple in particular that I used to just love, and he had these beautiful shots of like the coast, and it was always just a crazy skies and waves. And then he posted like one reel, just kind of out of character for the account. And it was just a completely flat sky. It was all artificial light and you're like, oh, come on, like this whole time it's just been fake to me personally. You get amazing editors, but it's not the same as a great photographer.
00:24:06:10 - 00:24:21:17
It's two different worlds, right? It's like you can appreciate the edit and you can appreciate the photo and you can appreciate an edited photo. But when a photo is completely doctored and changed, it's like, hey man, no wonder I can never find that beach because it doesn't exist.
00:24:21:28 - 00:24:29:22
Yeah, I suppose, like, what's photography meant to be? It's drawing or painting with light. Yeah. So that's kind of painting with a computer.
00:24:29:24 - 00:24:31:12
More painting with Photoshop or something.
00:24:31:28 - 00:24:43:28
I don't know. I don't even get me started on AI, but, um, yeah, it's disappointing when these things come to light and I do really appreciate the kind of more true to life photography.
00:24:44:16 - 00:24:47:16
Just give me the highest level of why not to get you started on AI.
00:24:50:06 - 00:25:20:11
AI has its uses. Obviously. If you're in Lightroom and it's selective edits and all that stuff, brilliant. If you've got a client and you're paying you for work, like I had one with, um, Billy Kirkwood recently, and he's he has a show called House party. At the end of it, everyone's got glowsticks, everyone's going crazy. And he had a photo where he threw glow sticks at me, and I was trying to capture it, like, around the camera. And I got, like, this one, this one, this one. And then none of them were here. So I went into Photoshop and I was like, I fell. And I just did a little circle, the lasso tool and it's like blur glow stick. It worked perfectly.
00:25:20:17 - 00:25:32:18
That kind of stuff is cool. But then when you see, like, see like the photograph is here and it's like a, like a guy, whatever. And they've just I felt like the orange trams and Lisbon and a beautiful sunset. You're like, what is that?
00:25:33:00 - 00:26:03:05
We're on the same page as that. Yeah. Okay. I've been learning a little bit about some AI, and I've been practicing this generative fill in Photoshop, and I have this scenic photo of a beach that I took in Sicily. It's great, but something was always kind of off for me. I realized what was off was that there's people in the ocean and like, it's in Cefalu, and you can see like the buildings and it's really nice. But I started playing around with generative fill in Photoshop, and I actually just removed like 3 or 4 people from the scene.
00:26:03:07 - 00:26:20:27
They were like in the ocean, kind of waiting in the water, and it just balanced out the image a little bit. And for me, that helped a lot, because now that I'm actually gonna put that one on my wall, it wasn't working. But now it's perfect. It's if if I had put a sailboat in there or like the Loch Ness Monster, that's where you have to draw the line.
00:26:22:09 - 00:26:30:24
I don't think I have a problem with the technology of I have a problem with people using it and not owning up to it. I think that's one of the issues. I'm just kind of working that out on your podcast.
00:26:32:06 - 00:26:34:09
Keep it going. I'm gonna have to send you a bill.
00:26:36:04 - 00:26:42:24
Get into therapy now. This is great. Slide out on my catch, Darylll. Oh, but please, my couch.
00:26:43:08 - 00:26:44:11
Stop crying in five minutes.
00:26:44:13 - 00:26:45:04
Yeah. Darylll.
00:26:45:06 - 00:26:45:21
Tell me.
00:26:45:23 - 00:26:46:10
Let me tell you about my dad.
00:26:46:12 - 00:26:48:08
I was like, tell me about your mom.
00:26:49:26 - 00:27:07:10
I know, I'm actually not really interested in your mom. I'm sure your mom is lovely, but, you know, that's a whole other podcast. All right, before we delve into something too deep, I've got three questions that I ask of every one of our guests at the end of our podcast. The first question is, what camera system do you use?
00:27:08:05 - 00:27:09:18
I have a couple. Is that cheating?
00:27:09:28 - 00:27:11:00
No, I have two.
00:27:11:22 - 00:27:45:16
Okay, so my main go to is the Sony A74. I will say at heart, I'm a Fuji boy. Just the the whole like metallic body. Old school looks so cool and it being easy to use manual settings for your body, but it just isn't there with autofocus. So Sony A74, it's the kind of perfect hybrid for me. It's brilliant at video, really stable with the in lens for the kit lens and in-body Stabilization. It's amazing megapixels, super fast autofocus, and tracking 85 mil for most of my portraits, although I just got a 50mm.
00:27:46:09 - 00:28:16:16
My other system is, uh, Mamiya RB 67 Pro S, so it's a 1964 completely mechanical film camera. If you don't use it in a month, you forget how to use it. I'm on YouTube pretty much before every shoot. It's 120mm film, which is about £1,516 a row. So what I do when I'm out taking photos of someone, if I find a good composition or like a great background with my digital camera, I'll be like, okay, this is worth film.
00:28:16:29 - 00:28:32:26
I'm not there yet where I can just take the film camera out so I am cheating 100%, but I'm just like, okay, this this shot deserves to be I want to see this on film. Um, and I just use the digital as your kind of running gun. But yeah, they're my two main ones. I've got a collection of film cameras, but I don't use them as much.
00:28:33:09 - 00:28:38:12
All right. The second question I ask everyone is what is your favorite genre to shoot and why?
00:28:39:12 - 00:28:39:27
So?
00:28:43:10 - 00:29:07:21
That's a good question. I think just now it's portrait. Whether it's in a documentary, it's still a portrait. If it's someone like, you know, in the 70s and 80s or something, and if you can capture that kind of moment and get everything, you know, like the backgrounds, all working with them, it's as if it's all set up. It's super rewarding and a good challenge. So yeah, I think I think that, but that's not to downplay any other genre. I think it's all it's all good.
00:29:07:28 - 00:29:20:25
I feel like I owe you an apology. Here I am shooting on portraits, the whole podcast, and it's like your heart and soul. It's everything you've ever loved. You've got your parents, your family and portraits. And I am saying I hate portraits.
00:29:21:28 - 00:29:24:00
Sorry, I've just launched you on Instagram and stuff.
00:29:24:02 - 00:29:24:17
Yeah.
00:29:25:15 - 00:29:27:27
There we go. See? Back to being an apple.
00:29:30:25 - 00:29:40:09
All right. And the final question I have for everyone on the show is, on a scale of 1 to 10, How often do you get that burning itch? Just go out and shoot photos.
00:29:41:09 - 00:29:41:24
And.
00:29:42:06 - 00:30:17:24
I'd say nine. Yeah, occasionally I just want to chill. But yeah, I'm always I'm always thinking about it. I'm always wondering about photos or having to look at old photos. How could I have improved that? And you want to get out. But yeah, definitely. Nine and just quickly, while you're seeing that that kind of burning feeling, what really got me back into photography as a I had Lyme disease for a while. I didn't know I had it, I was just knackered and I thought I was depressed and I was just like, what's going wrong? So I didn't know I had Lyme disease. Um, but one night, like, the sun was just orange coming in my window and I was like, wow, this is amazing.
00:30:18:18 - 00:30:49:14
My gran had passed like two, two days before, so I'd been with the family and this is the first night on my own. I'm just like on the bike, just kind of zoning out. And the light was orange. So I ran out, took my camera down the beach. I was just taking like standard sunset. Sunset shots need to be careful. not to wait again for a while. And this guy walked by with his dog and a paddle board and I was like, oh my God. Because the sky was like orange. And there was this beautiful, like carpet of like sunlight reflected towards me. And this guy walked by.
00:30:49:16 - 00:31:20:03
So I was like, oh my God, this is, this is going to be such a cool, like silhouette photo. So I like, ran up the beach to get him lined up with this thing and took the photo. And it's like the best I thought was ever done of mine. It was like hundreds of likes or wherever, like I've seen people with it as their profile picture sold like 45 prints, which is just nuts because I've not sold, I've maybe sold one print of any other photo ever. And I took that as cheesy as or corny as as as you say. I took that as like a wee nod from a gran who just passed and I'm like, okay, this is this is her.
00:31:20:05 - 00:31:23:22
Like, just get back in to get out there, start, start taking more photos.
00:31:24:09 - 00:31:25:26
This is on your Instagram.
00:31:26:07 - 00:31:37:03
Yeah. It'll be somewhere. Uh, it's like an orange one. There's like the sun coming down. There's a silhouette of a paddleboarder, but his dog's kind of sitting, looking at him. them. I've not. Have you tried a dog in a paddleboard? I've not tried it yet.
00:31:37:05 - 00:31:39:06
No. My dog won't even go in the water.
00:31:39:19 - 00:31:40:12
Oh, really?
00:31:40:14 - 00:31:44:15
He's the only. He's the only lab on planet Earth that won't go in the water.
00:31:46:22 - 00:31:47:18
I like it, I like it.
00:31:48:00 - 00:31:48:15
Yeah.
00:31:48:17 - 00:31:53:12
He's great. He's a great dog. Trust me, he farts, he tears up my furniture, and he won't go in the water. Do you want.
00:31:53:14 - 00:31:53:29
Him?
00:31:56:07 - 00:31:57:10
I was gonna say sounds like.
00:32:01:03 - 00:32:05:25
And you know, I didn't know that before this podcast. I'd have to be giving you a place to live to now.
00:32:09:18 - 00:32:11:09
Well, I wish I can't help, but.
00:32:12:06 - 00:32:12:27
Yeah. Sorry.
00:32:13:15 - 00:32:16:00
Another podcast down the drains.
00:32:17:03 - 00:32:17:18
Right?
00:32:17:20 - 00:32:19:03
We did so well until the end.
00:32:19:08 - 00:32:19:25
Yeah.
00:32:20:15 - 00:32:23:14
That's right. I knew this thing was gonna blow up on us, I knew.
00:32:25:14 - 00:32:27:01
Where can people find you online?
00:32:27:22 - 00:32:54:24
Um, at daruleofthirds on Instagram or at portraitandapodcast, if you're interested in the podcast, any things, podcasts, data, things I think is probably more interesting than my own photos, but I kind of cross the photos on both platforms so you you'll get them. But, um, and if anyone is watching this, I know I'm not a name or anything, so I really appreciate you if you've made it this far. That's awesome. I'm not the most interesting guy, but yeah, absolutely. Love what you're doing with the big photo hunt in the community you're building. So yeah.
00:32:54:26 - 00:32:56:07
Thank you, Daryll Buchanan.
00:32:56:09 - 00:33:01:24
Thank you so much. Everyone. Go check out portrait and a podcast. I'm assuming it's on Spotify and Apple and everything.
00:33:01:26 - 00:33:03:20
Yeah. Everywhere. Yeah. YouTube. Yeah.
00:33:03:22 - 00:33:05:09
Awesome, man. Thank you so much for being here.
00:33:05:11 - 00:33:06:21
Thank you very much. Cheers.
00:33:07:24 - 00:33:22:13
Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. Our next show will feature more valuable stories from our community members. If you'd like to audition to be a guest, please visit Big Photo Hunt for more information. Thanks again for listening today.