SIC 34 - Giving Back Vanuatu

In this episode you'll find out about the power of giving and the key to mastering your post processing.

Share - Discover how giving can really change you (and help out those in need)
Inspire - Get inspired by the smiles from local Vanuatu kids
Create - The secret on how to master you post processing

Get you FREE copy of Johny's post processing workflow guide here.

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Brent & Johny

In this episode:

(01:13) Discover how giving can really change you and help out those in need
(02:06) Island of Imao - helped 3 villages there
(04:09) No power, no running water
(06:10) Get inspired by the smiles from local Vanuatu kids
(06:20) The biggest amount of fun
(07:30) Image telling people have nothing yet they’re content
(08:06) The secret on how to master you post processing
(08:36) Develop a workflow - step by step
(08:48) Reasons and benefits for developing your own workflow
(09:00) Create consistency across you work
(10:43) Change that workflow slowly as you developed more skills and develop your own style
(11:46) Post process workflow can be used for any type of photography

Episode Highlights:

Johny's Twitter
Brent's Twitter

Share - Discover how giving can really change you (and help out those in need)
local church - donated roofing iron
Cyclone Palm - devastated the country 2 months ago
bunch of people donated things
Island of Imao - helped 3 villages there

no power
no running water
no pesticides for their crops or fertilizer

Inspire - Get inspired by the smiles from local Vanuatu kids
kids from the village

biggest amount of fun
screams of happiness
people have nothing yet they’re content

Create - The secret on how to master you post processing
Random Slider Dance

a starting place with your post processing journey
develop a workflow
document things
next to your computer

Reasons and benefits for developing your own workflow
1. You always know how to get back that look that you’ve created in one image.

consistency across you work

2. You can change that workflow slowly as you developed more skills and you can develop your own style.

powerful way to go about your post processing journey
try a different post processing technique
as you’re learning new technique, as you developed a new style, change that workflow.

post process workflow can be used for any type of photography

Introduction
 
Johny: Hey Guys, what’s up? Its Johny here and welcome to another episode of the SIC show and as always I am super pumped to be here. I’m here with my main man B. How are you Buddy?

Brent: (Speaking Vanuatu language) that’s Pidgin; Vanuatu Pidgin.

Johny: Oh, yeah. This week on the show Brent’s got an amazing story of his journey from Vanuatu.

Brent: Yeah and I’m going to inspire you with an incredible image that I took. A happy image from one of the villages in a small island called Imao. And then Johny’s going to give us a tip on post processing workflow.

Johny: Yeah, mastering your post processing. Let’s get into it Bro.

Brent: Enjoy.

Discover how giving can really change you

Johny: So Brent man. You just come back from Vanuatu. Tell us all about what you’re doing over there?

Brent: Yeah, but before I do that I’ve got something for you.

Johny: Oh, a new sticker for my “lappy”. Do I get to choose which one?

Brent: Yeah, you choose one.

Johny: I definitely want the top one.

Brent: Okay, use the top one. I’ll use the bottom one.

Johny: Alright.

Brent: Let’s put them on.

Johny: Let’s put them on.

Brent: Stickers on, cool.

Johny: And we’re back. Check out my sticker. Thanks Man, awesome. So tell us what happen in Vanuatu by the way.

Brent: So I basically went with these groups of guys from a local church. And what they’ve done is their community has donated all their stuff like roofing iron.

Johny: So what happened over there?

Brent: Okay, a big cyclone. Cyclone Palm come through and basically devastated the country.

Johny: That was recently, wasn’t it? Couple of months?

Brent: 2 months ago.

Johny: Yeah, wow.

Brent: So I was in Vanuatu near Fiji in the south Pacific area. It’s only by 3 or 4 hours flight from Australia which is good. So a bunch of people donated things from the area and we shipped them over or the church did at least. And I went over once the shipping container arrived. And we helped distribute the roofing iron and clothing and all sorts of stuff to help the locals. And we also put the roofing iron and we helped built some houses and fixed them. But we actually went into this island called Imao which is quite an adventure in getting there. You’ve got to cross this channel with these big seas and then you got to take a tuck there and the roads are really, really bad. And then you got to hike up this mountain which is an old volcano. And we helped 3 villages there. I stayed in the Chief’s hut at the top.

Johny: Wow.

Brent: What an experience. Guys, if you’re given a chance to help out and give back, do it. This trip, I’ll never forget. It was amazing.

Johny: Yeah.

Brent: It was hard work. We work like slaves.

Johny: But that’s okay. That’s what you’re there for, Mate. You’ve given your time and give your energy. I’ll probably get grounded too. You get back and you realized your little palms you got here. You think they’re big but they’re only very little compared to what those people have to do.

Brent: And that’s what I’ve taken away from this, we’ve talked to the guys about giving. There are 9 of us in this trip. So we spent our money and we spent our time giving to the communities that are in need. But you know what I think? We got more back by giving. So what I got back was a recalibration. Basically, I can now anchor that Vanuatu trip and say “Whatever is happening in my life is not that bad because I’ve got a roof on my head.

Johny: Got a fridge full of food.

Brent: Fridge, our electricity, I got running water.

Johny: So you’re telling me just to make a cup of tea you’ve got to go and fetch the water and find a cow.

Brent: Go to the river, get the water. They actually don’t have rivers on this little island we went to. They got to catch the rainwater in a tank somewhere. So they got to go and get the water out of the rain in the water tank, come back, get firewood, make a fire, boil the water in the fire then out the tea bags in. And there’s no milk. The guy that’s got the cows, his little place was destroyed. They can’t milk the cows now.

Johny: So, not only no running water, no power.

Brent: No power, no running water, nothing really. Not even anything for the crops. They don’t’ have any pesticides for their crops or fertilizer, nothing.

Johny: So just hope it rains.

Brent: Yup, you plant a seed and hope.

Johny: Hope it rains and get it fed. That’s crazy, Man.

Brent: It’s incredible and here’s an interesting thing. The first couple of missionaries, the Christians that went out to Vanuatu like 100 or 200 years ago got eaten.

Johny: Really? That’s awesome, Man. You know what? I always say you know, like whatever you put out into the world; it comes back to you tenfold, Man. So you know, you spent that time, spent a bit of your money and giving out, it will come back you Man. It always does.

Brent: And you know, we’re chatting and we’re saying, “Why should you give?”, “Because you get all the stuff back.” But you know what? The real reason why you should give is because it’s the right thing to do.

Johny: Yeah, there you go.

Brent: You don’t need anything back.

Johny: No.

Brent: You just give. And help people that in need. Why not?

Johny: That’s it.

Brent: Because we can.

Johny: That’s it; awesome Man. We’re so fortunate in the countries that we lived in. Great story and thanks for the sticker, Man.

Brent: Yeah, no worries.

Get inspired by the smiles from local Vanuatu kids

Johny: Alright Brent, inspire us with one of your amazing images that you took while you’re in Vanuatu.

Brent: Yeah, so this is the one that I really like. The kids are down on the bottom village of that little island of Imao. You know, we took the boat across this big sea. I was scared because I had all my gear with me. Two cameras, a few lenses and everything. And I thought, you know, there’s a good possibility we could you know, drown or lose it.

Johny: Yeah, and we all know when we travel we’re pretty hopeful.

Brent: I don’t know if I had any.

Johny: So we got across there and finally relieved that we didn’t drown on the way across. Just in this little boat you know, nothing fancy. Anyway, we got down to this village and they’ve been devastated.

Johny: You can actually see it in the background of the image, Man that you’re about to show. Look at that.

Brent: There’s a lot of debris and this is on the beach. I saw these kids playing soccer or football; whatever you want to call it on the beach. And they’re just having the biggest amount of fun. All you need is a football.

Johny: That’s it.

Brent: And that’s all they really got; a lot of them and that’s the only clothing they’ve got; the shorts, the shirts.

Johny: Wow, that’s crazy, Man.

Brent: That’s it. No shoes and these guys are having a great time playing football. So I set up in the middle of the wall there; kind of a breakwater wall from the lagoon up to the village. And I just got them and said, “Sit over there, let’s take a picture.”

Johny: That’s awesome, Man.

Brent: And that’s what I’ve got.

Johny: Which is what I love about the image, it just screams happiness. This guy here holding the soccer ball in the middle, he’s got the biggest grin ever for such a little fellow and Man, it just screams happiness. And when you hear the backstory from an image like this, what they’ve been through, it just makes something like this even more impressive.

Brent: Yeah.

Johny: And I think that’s what so great about photography is the story telling. And the words you can put along with an image, it just makes that image even more powerful. If you come across this image and not knowing the backstory, you would’ve said, “I love the image. Look at this, screaming happiness.” But you hear the backstory and you know what’s going on behind the scenes, it makes that image even more powerful for me.

Brent: And for me, this image, what it tells me is people have nothing yet they’re content. Where a lot of us Westerners, we got everything and we’re complaining.

Johny: Yeah, we do.

Brent: And we’re depressed.

Johny: Yeah, we do.

Brent: For me, I always anchor on this image. I say these guys have nothing and they’re happy just to be able to run around and play soccer with their buddies.

Johny: That’s it, yeah.

Brent: Or their cousins or whatever.

Johny: Yeah, that’s great, Man; so inspiring.

Brent: Thank you.

Johny: Thanks.

The secret on how to master you post processing

Brent: So Johny, I guess you’ve got something to share with us in the Create section.

Johny: I have, Guys. It’s more of a thought. It’s a starting place with your post processing journey. A lot of times when we’re starting out and post processing Buddy, we do what I call the “Random Slider Dance”. You basically get your image in, your post processing software, Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop and you move stuff around and hopefully it starts to look good. You really know where to start and it can be really overwhelming. So I got this concept, well it’s not a concept. It’s something we’ve all talked about a lot but it’s something I like to say that you need to develop a workflow. And I’m saying actually document these things. Have it down in front of you, next to your computer, a step by step journey that you take your image to get to your final product. There are a couple of reasons and benefits for developing your own workflow. The first one is you always know how to get back that look that you’ve created in one image. You know what I mean?

Brent: Consistency?

Johny: Yeah, you can create consistency across you work. The second benefit is you can change that workflow slowly as you developed more skills and you can develop your own style; your post processing style. That’s a big one, you know what I mean?

Brent: Okay, yeah.

Johny: It’s just a very powerful way to go about your post processing journey. You know, all the way from importing your images to doing your first pass and your raw converter to moving pixels around to backup and storage; your whole workflow. You have it all documented. It’s just a really powerful way to start to master your post processing.

Brent: Okay, so because I notice a lot of people or especially me is I’ve got a certain workflow but sometimes I miss things. I might’ve gaps in my workflow.

Johny: Yeah.

Brent: You know, like the backup part. It’s one part that I do manually sometimes. And you know sometimes I jumped in and I’ll do something really quickly, a different kind of workflow. So with what you’re saying is you should stick to the same things, the same couple of steps every single time.

Johny: That’s right. I’m not saying don’t get creative. I’m not saying don’t try a different post processing technique. But get your image to that stage where it’s imported, it’s keyword; it’s backed up, sharpened. You’ve got to go to that stage where you’ve done the first set of processing. You’ve moved any pixels around; you have to remove any unwanted elements. And your image is sitting there and it’s basically ready to go on a portfolio and that stage you could try a black and white version. You could try adding some toning or with something different like that. And that’s where you start to get creative. But your basic workflow is to get that image to a place where it’s captured from the field or it’s backed up at home and ready to go. It’s good to document that, you know. Have it on the side of your computer. And as you’re learning new technique, as you developed a new style, change that workflow.

Brent: Okay.

Johny: Start off and have your white balance, set your white and black point. You can always have things and document your workflow. So it just reminding us because we know the steps. You know, when you’re learning you’re so overwhelmed with these things. There are so many steps and you think, “My god I’m never going to get my head around this”, but having it documented next to your computer.

Brent: Like a cheat sheet.

Johny: Yeah, a workflow. Just put your workflow down like step by step and change things. But if you’re like me, I do it digitally because I don’t do paper.

Brent: I like something to put it out actually next to my computer.

Johny: Yeah, that’s it. You’re the opposite.

Brent: A posts it. I’m analog.

Johny: You put it on the wall and work it that way. That’s cool. But developing your post processing workflow is the key to mastering it. It is the key.

Brent: Yeah.

Johny: Because you basically know what to do every time.

Brent: Yeah, awesome. So, have you got a cheat sheet for that?

Johny: I do.

Brent: Oh.

Johny: I do have a cheat sheet for you. And I’ll put a link down the bottom and you Guys can grab it. As you Guys know, I do shoot more on landscape photography but my post process workflow can be used for any type of photography.

Brent: Okay.

Johny: It’s not just lock into a genre.

Brent: Okay.

Johny: So I’ll write that there and grab that. And use that as a starting point for your own workflow. And as you learn new tips and tricks, as you develop new styles modify that workflow. And you may have different arms like I name mine one. My more advanced one comes off and there’s a black and white conversion workflow that I like to go through. You know there are different things like that. You know, try a different creative crafts and different things. Man, developing your own workflow is the key to mastering post processing and developing your own post processing style.

Brent: Definitely.

Johny: That’s it.

Brent: You know, I can relate to that because in my photography business, my portrait business I’ve got a workflow.

Johny: Yup.

Brent: And it’s got to go through all these steps. If you miss out on step, you don’t make the sale at the end.

Johny: Yup or if you don’t backup your images and you lose them.

Brent: Yup, exactly.

Johny: You know what? It saves frustration because you know what you’ve got to do. You know what to import. You got to add keywords, you’ve got to back up to this drive and you got to sort through all these images this way. You know all those things you just follow it. You can’t go wrong.

Brent: Yeah, cool.

Johny: That’s it; cool, Man.
***
Johny: Alright B, that’s it for this week, Man and very inspiring stories about Vanuatu. Thank you for sharing, Man. I wish I could’ve come. It sounds like it was an amazing journey, Mate.

Brent: It was, Man. And I actually forgot to tell you, Guys. This sarong was actually given to us by one of the ladies whose house we fixed. She’s a widow. She’s got 5 kids I think. And we went and put a new roof in her house. So check over this. It actually got all the islands in Vanuatu on there. So let’s pull them up here so you Guys can see so that’s basically Vanuatu; all the islands. And down here that’s where we stayed on the island. And then we went over to Imao, the little island that we helped out on over there. So we crossed that channel over there.

Johny: Cool, Man. Epic Bro and it sounds like it was a hell of a journey, right? And thank you for that image too, very inspiring Man. And hearing the back stories is awesome.

Brent: It’s my anchor image. I’m going to print that out and put it somewhere so when life gets tough and you think it gets tough and you look at that and you can see the joy in the kids’ faces.

Johny: And takes you back to that place.

Brent: Takes me back and know that life isn’t that bad.

Johny: That’s epic, Man. And Guys, don’t forget to pick up my workflow chart there. There’ll be a link there and print it out. Print it big. Put it next to your computer and follow that workflow. And if you’re having trouble to finding any of these steps, I’m in the lounge every day, Mate.

Brent: Me too.

Johny: Yeah, and we’re hoping photographers just like you, all parts of photography including post processing and there’s already over $500 worth of courses in there that you get instantly. Don’t you, Mate?

Brent: Totally and I’ll put a couple of my courses in there too. My “How to Photograph Kids” course is in there now.

Johny: That’s amazing. And “Mastering Shutter Speed” course is in there.

Brent: And a few many other courses are in here. There’s a lot more in the lounge, Guys and jump in.

Johny: And not only that, you get access to Brent, myself, you know, one on one asking questions; whatever you need, Man. We’re there to help. So check out the special we have for you. Here’s the link below this video and been another epic show, Mate.

Brent: Yup, awesome. See you next week, bye.

Johny: See you next week, bye.