#307: Is ChatGPT your new best friend? And lens week

Neale and Kev return from Fujikina having run workshops and spoken on panels, and are full of the joys of spring for the next! Hint hint. But there’s a problem, we’re running dry of questions, is this the end? Another hint hint. Questions and thoughts about what Fujifilm kit to take on an astro photography trip, a lifetime trip to Japan, do the boys prefer prime or zooms, some thoughts about Sigma lenses and different focal lengths for your X100 camera! And the big one; our thoughts about ChatGPT, whether you’re using it for writing, life-planning, editing, or even writing code for your website. Oh, and the boys are thinking about moving to a small idyllic island in the South Pacific! Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  For links go to the showpage. If you'd like to travel to far-off places with a camera: https://www.thejourneybeyond.uk/

Watch out watch out, there’s a Haggis about, and it’s playing central defence for the Vatican City’s football team! All will be revealed. The boys are looking ahead to their appearances at Fujikina this coming weekend and there are questions into the show about character and vintage lenses for travel cameras, and we ask whether Instagram should be looking over its shoulders at Flickr which is making a resurgence. Will Kev consider selling his camera bag dividers, why is my camera resetting, any tips on using the Fujifilm app, what are the most important books the boys have in their collections, is there any love for square format pictures, and what does Kev think of the 500mm beast lens? Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  For links go to the showpage.

Kev’s returned from Spain, and he’s possibly brought a suitcase full of scorpions home, so we’ve sent him to check! We say goodbye today to Pictime, our sponsor for the last few years, waving them off, but still loving their product. Questions in to the show include whether the GFX is right for wedding work, or is it an incy bit slow, what’s the best social platform to concentrate on if you’re social shy or social fatigued, street projects to whet the creative appetite, and how to sort your images after a long day’s shooting. We also, have a book of the week by James and Karla Murray called Vinyl NYC, celebrating record shops of that great city. Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  For links go to the showpage.

Shhhh, don’t tell Gemma, but Kev’s got GAS and he’s starting a cider business! That surely won’t help! This time it’s a telescope, and we reckon at FujiCast HQ he’s hidden it in one of those shopping bags he keeps to sneak new gear into the house. On the show today, a little more on connecting cameras to telescopes, standing desks for your health, should I change my primes for one single zoom to go one body one lens, video tips including grading and sound. What non-Fujifilm gear would the boys entertain in their kit bags, stuff they might go back to or buy brand new? Turns out Kev may take a dalliance with a red dotted camera from that question. Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.

In the midst of Summer with Kev sunning himself by a Spanish pool until 2027 the boys answer your questions about everything Fujifilm and beyond. This week, what are Kev and Neale planning to photograph in their retirement?! What is this R word? Do creatives ever truly retire? Also, being a creature of habit with the scenes you know, to travelling abroad with your lens - with a greater sense of adventure. We talk about travel photography, how to work with IBIS, problems with command dials, the upcoming Fujikina Photo Festival event in London, making cider, and what advantages do I really get by upgrading an older X-Pro system? Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.

Kev’s off to Spain, so he’s understandably winding down, and after spending time photographing 22 priests, it’s probably just the break he needs. On the show, the regular spiky subject of Adobe subscription increases and how we deal with the rises and price of life, plus are there alternatives to popular platforms like Lightroom and Photoshop? Also, what can be improved with new cameras, they’re all practically perfect aren’t they, so is it worth constantly updating our cameras? Sony v Fujicast focusing, London’s upcoming Fujikina event, storing jpeg recipes, is social media replacing the need for a website, and is it worth buying an X-Pro3 in 2025? Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.

Neale and Kev swap their stranger wedding adventures, swapping being apt in the case of Kev’s revelation! Also on the show, mouse v tablet editing, the money spent on kit we never use (!), great photo galleries and classic British pub suggestions to visit for a special tourist trip to London, how we’d run our photography businesses if we were to start again, advice on setting up an X100VI, Kev’s best chess moves in church and the target market for the new X-E5 camera and new 23mm lens Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.

We’ve reached 300 episodes! What’s changed since the first one, from a time we didn’t even see a pandemic coming? Well, for a start, the DSLR has quietly taken its place in the museum, while Kodak, CineStill, and Fujifilm ramped up film production, as demand for analogue exploded again; turns out grain never really went out of fashion. Medium format isn’t chained to a tripod anymore either. With Fujifilm’s GFX line, photographers are now shooting huge resolutions on something that fits in a shoulder bag. Oh, and then there’s AI. In 2019, you might rightly have shouted, “A WOT?” Now it’s the invisible hand behind how clients and an audience find you. With more people using AI to search instead of scrolling Google pages, your website, your words, your presence, they all need to speak a language that machines can read, as well as humans. Also on the show, Kev’s Driving School has started its engine, AI writes us some poetry, things to change on your website to allow AI to seek you, what to say when a client asks to see the raw photos from a shoot, buying the latest GFX, film photography borders on your website, and SCRL. Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.

Kev’s unboxing a glimpse into his new photographic pastime, but what has arrived at Studio Mullins? All will be revealed. Also on the show: Lightroom sharpening tips - have the worms returned?  GFX100RF dynamic range discussed and hopefully solved, pricing strategy and how we’d launch our photography businesses if we were starting again today - what would we do differently? We discuss smaller gigs in the light of consumer confidence, excellent used-camera purchases, advise how to survive multiple weddings in a row and street law. Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.

Neale is trying to cheer Kev up, who is sitting in a blacked out room in beautiful Malmesbury, counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until he can escape the UK for the sunnier climes of España! On the show, the boys discuss using Pictime as an art gallery, software solutions for back-up, the foto app, fixing up a retiring camera, the best compact camera in the Fujifilm range to travel with, switching to video using an X-T4, and we also feature the Zine work of Adam Ramjean, as he photographs the Notting Hill Carnival. Email the show with your questions: [email protected]  Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.