The Beginner Photography Podcast

The Journey through Photography: Overcoming Personal Time Challenges with Brad McMillan

• Raymond Hatfield

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#339 Today on the Beginner Photography podcast, Brad McMillan is being interviewed about his experience in photography, from having a portfolio of different genres of photos to his background of being a wildland firefighter for eight years and driving a tow truck for 12 years. He explains what first inspired him to take photos and remembers the trip he took in grade nine taking the 35mm point and shoot film camera his mom loaned him.


The Big Ideas:

  • Don't jump handrails!
  • Photography captures memories.
  • Capture the memory, not perfection.
  • Photography requires skill.
  • Lighting must be practiced.
  • Know your lighting direction.
  • Use natural light for drama.
  • Ask permission before photographing.
  • Photography captures emotion effectively.
  • Know your exposure balance.
  • Learn to read histograms.


Timestamps:

  • 00:05:46 Don't jump the handrail.
  • 00:06:27 Photography helps share memories.
  • 00:17:09 Capture the memory, not perfect.
  • 00:19:09 Learn to adjust settings quickly.
  • 00:26:45 Practice and experiment with light.
  • 00:30:04 Know your lighting and intention.
  • 00:41:15 Use a monopod for lighting.
  • 00:43:09 Ask permission before taking photos.
  • 00:50:05 Invest in storytelling photography.
  • 00:59:12 Settings don't matter.
  • 01:02:10 Practice and experiment.


Resources:

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Brad McMillian:

I think it tells a story of like days gone by, but it's still somewhat new back then. You didn't see female mechanics. It just wasn't a thing. Right. But now, I mean, I've got friends that are female that are females that are mechanics and some of them know way more about cars than I do. And absolutely love that aspect. I love. People doing whatever they feel like doing. Right. And I feel like there's a good story in that. I really want to tell stories, is something that I've really realized that I really want to do because the stories to be told.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the beginner photography podcast brought to you by cloud spot, the easiest way to deliver and sell your photos on line. Guess what? We got another community spotlight interview coming at you today. This Community Spotlight is my opportunity to interview you, a member of the beginner photography podcast community, because I want to learn more about you, what your struggles are and why you love this crazy thing that we do called photography. Now, today I am interviewing Brad McMillan. Brad's been in the group. He's been a member of the group for, a few years now. And in that time he has shot quite a lot of stuff from knife photography, a wedding or two, his own life portraits. And I think there was even some products in there. I could be wrong about that, but regardless, he has a portfolio of images that he has shot different genres. so today. He gets to share a bunch of that, and I think as you'll hear from this interview, you'll see that I think photography was a really slow burn for Brad to get started, but now the wick has hit the dynamite and he is pushing forward on all cylinders. Wow. That was. I had dynamite, I had, cylinders, I had, pushing ahead like steam. That's a lot of things right there, but I think that just, maybe lends itself. Yeah, I did that on purpose. That lends itself to all the different types of photography that Brad has done, with all of the, terrible analogies that I gave there. So, I'm gonna avoid any future embarrassment and we're just gonna go ahead and get on into this Community Spotlight interview with Brad McMillan. Brad, I think You know the deal. We are going to start super easy with this one. I just want to know who are you and what do you do?

Brad McMillian:

I'm Brad McMillan and, I run Brad and YYZ photos and I've been getting into video, and it's all part time for right now and hopefully eventually I'll be able to go full time with it. But, other than that, I drive a tow truck. So I get to see lots of really, interesting things.

Raymond Hatfield:

I would imagine, driving a tow truck. That's always been a job that I feel, especially living in Canada has got to be extremely difficult, but. Still better than being behind a cubicle desk and like just sitting, you know what I mean? Like behind, am I wrong there? Or is it one of those graphs is always greater type things? I could

Brad McMillian:

not sit behind a cubicle desk. I've tried it. Can't do it. I'm an outdoor person, always have been. growing up, I was a wildland firefighter. Um, just after I, graduated, I, well, first I started scaffolding for four years. Working construction up on the big plant sites, then I went to wildland firefighting. I was a volunteer firefighter for 8 years, then I've been now driving tow truck for 12 years. Actually, just recently was my anniversary there. So, outdoors is definitely in me. I grew up camping, seeing all kinds of stuff. We used to do lots of road trips and, I remember sleeping on the floor of the car and then waking up and rolling the window down just basically like that. enjoying the, the weather. you gotta get your head out the window, like the dogs, right? You know, they know, they know what's up. They know what's up.

Raymond Hatfield:

Dogs have the secrets to living a happy life. That is funny. so is nature one of the reasons why you got into photography or was it something else?

Brad McMillian:

well, I've always kind of enjoyed taking pictures. So I always used to borrow my mom's, little 35 mil point and shoot film camera back in I think it was grade nine. we went on this trip to Eastern Canada. We did like Toronto and Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Niagara Falls, things like that. and I brought this film camera along with me. She's like, I'll just take it with you. It's a little point and shoot. there's, No settings on it whatsoever. And I blew through the six rolls of film that she gave me in the first two days. And I had to, I had to go buy more, like I had to get a teacher to bring me to a store to buy me, to buy more. And this was like in the late nineties. So there's not a lot of digital out yet. and yeah, I ended up buying another, like a couple of packs of rolls. And, I shot that entire trip. Don't know where any of the photos went. Um, I'm pretty sure that they, we lost them in a flood. Our house flooded a couple of times before we managed to get a sump pump installed. And then once we got it installed, it fell over. So we had to get it. And then we had another flood. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

It doesn't work when it falls. Come on. Yeah. So you hadn't even like seen any of those photos though. So what was it? About the picture taking process that you loved so much that you had to blow through all those roles and then eventually get more

Brad McMillian:

memories. Memory. I just, I really enjoyed capturing those memories and, I actually had a friend of mine capture one of the worst memories ever. not worst as in, it was a terrible memory. Worst as in like, it was a terrible idea type memory. Ah, okay.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Brad McMillian:

when they were, If we were these tunnels, you can go underneath the falls and I tried jumping the handrail to go put my hand in the falls. Oh, come on, which it's a terrible idea.

Raymond Hatfield:

The rail is there for a reason, Brad,

Brad McMillian:

right? I made it about five feet before I already got in trouble. And someone, one of my friends is already like, almost blew through an entire row with like, All my facial features and everything that's at that. So,

Raymond Hatfield:

yeah, this is the kid who it was before he, you know, goes missing and drowns forever. My gosh. My gosh. But like you hadn't

Brad McMillian:

done stupid things like that

Raymond Hatfield:

in a camera is always there with you. but like you hadn't even seen these photos yet. Right? Like on this trip, you hadn't even seen these photos. Why continue to press the shutter button? Is it because you knew that you were going to have memories or was it something? Well, it's, it was

Brad McMillian:

funny for me because. when I took that photo, even without seeing the photo in my mind, it went, my mind did the same thing as the camera went click. And that moment was captured in my head. I can remember Casey trying to, we did this, rollerblading tour of the F1 track in Montreal. And I remember him trying to go off this, speed bump, trying to jump up and go down. I think he was trying to grind the rail a little bit, but he didn't really know how to grind it very well, and we weren't using the right roller blades for that anyway. And he went, did that and broke his arm. and like I captured the moment in my mind it's like, click, it's there. I remember it like it was yesterday. so I don't remember. So what does the

Raymond Hatfield:

camera do for you? If, like, if these photos are in your head, what is it that the camera does for you? Is it the ability to share or is it just reinforcing in your head?

Brad McMillian:

I'm definitely, well, I'd like to call myself an introverted extrovert. I love being around people. I love talking with people. I love sharing stories, sharing anything that I can with people. But at the same time, I also need my space. When I want my space, I literally want nobody around me.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. So, but when I am around those people, It's, I like to be able to share those stories and having a visual part of it helps me connect that story with them a little bit better, a little bit easier.

Raymond Hatfield:

So then when did that progress past the point and shoot camera? when did it advance for you?

Brad McMillian:

well, it wasn't until quite a few years later. So that would have been, when I got to do math, like mid nineties. maybe late in the 90s, like 97, 98 type thing. And then my mom had another camera, one of those power shots, the Canon power shot, where you can zoom it in forever. and I remember I took photos at my cousin's wedding and they ended up losing a lot of their photos. So I ended up giving them a bunch of those photos, which definitely were not very good. Oh, wow. Um, so like they had a,

Raymond Hatfield:

like a hired photographer and you were also taking photos just on this power shot. And they lost those other photos?

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. Well, my mom knows that I enjoyed taking photos. She's just like, well, here, use the camera. If you want to take some photos, go right ahead. I'm like, all right, cool. And yeah, I have no idea where those photos went, that they had. But I remember my aunt asking me, Hey, did you happen to get any good photos of that? can you share them with us? I'm like, yeah, not a problem. So I went and sent them and I mean, they, Especially for like back then they were, you know, I guess half decent for, my abilities, but, like now when I look at them, like, Oh, like they're good memories and they made those good memories and it allows them to tell that story with other people as well. They can be like, Oh yeah, this is the stuff my cousin got for us. but that was like the early 2000s and it wasn't until my ex in laws gave me this, old Canon XSI, which I think is like a equivalent of a 450D or something like that. Yeah. They gave me that with a 55 to 50 lens and a 51. 8 and an 18 to 55. They gave it to me for Christmas one year because they had seen that I liked taking pictures and I was like, Oh, this is great. And I never touched it.

Raymond Hatfield:

What? Why? Why?

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. It was like 2011. I didn't touch it. I honestly, I don't even know why I didn't touch it. we had just had my son at the time and

Raymond Hatfield:

even more of a why

Brad McMillian:

you'd think that I would want, but I just focused on him so much and I just started this new job towing and we were putting in like crazy hours.

my scheduled shift was from 7:

00 AM to 6:00 PM. And I was typically

working from 6:00 AM till about 9:

00 PM

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow. Full days.

Brad McMillian:

Oh, yeah. So like when I got home, my wife at the time, there were plenty of days where she was just exhausted. She was to stay home, but she was just exhausted. So I'd get home at like nine o'clock and have to put the kids in bed. I get them ready, like to give them a bathroom as that. And then I make my meal, because there wasn't anything made at that point in time because she was pretty tired as well. And so I'd make myself some food and then I'd shower and be like, okay, well it's like 1130 at night. I have to be up at five o'clock in the morning.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Wow. And there's no time for photography.

Brad McMillian:

No, no. And on weekends, of course she always had everything planned and scheduled for us. Oh, today we're doing Costco. Today we're doing this. And it's like, well, okay. Well, we didn't get out very much. So I just never picked it up until, 2015, but I don't have my phone on me. So at work, I always had like really interesting calls, like really cool cars, really, interesting accidents where like, it's really rare to see like a semi truck flipped over on its roof. Oh, sure.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, Wow. Yeah. That is strange.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. So you don't usually see that. You see them flopped over sleeping on their sides, but you know, when they're rolled over on their back like a dog,

Raymond Hatfield:

they're not top heavy. That doesn't make any sense. That's amazing. So you took photos of these things.

Brad McMillian:

So that's the stuff that I was taking photos of and people were liking what I was doing, but I was like, they're filtered to crap. And you mean like Instagram

Raymond Hatfield:

filters?

Brad McMillian:

Oh yeah. Like hard on the Instagram filters, but I didn't really like the filters. It was just like, well, this makes the photo better. Right. And then I realized that it wasn't actually making the photo better. It's just making it like super saturated, super sharp. And I was right around that point where I realized I don't like filters. So I started editing them myself, like in the Instagram, you can go to the edit and you can change that. So I would apply like a really basic filter, something that would, not change the photo too much, but add some color grading or something. And then I would adjust from there. And I realized I liked that so much better. um, I started doing that and people were like, Oh yeah, we really like your photos. And it's people from work. And that was actually led to 2015 when my friend from work. inviting me down to Vegas for her wedding and she's like, can you photograph our wedding? I was like, I can try. She goes, well, we want you to photograph it because, we want you there anyway. You're a good friend of ours. I'm a friend, friends with her husband as well. And she's like, we just want you there anyway, but we know that you can take some decent photos. So. We want you to document that for us at the same time. I was like, okay, yeah, that sounds great. So, I paid for my way down there. They paid for like everything down there. It was probably the best wedding I've been to. It was so, it is so, so small and intimate. There was just like a bunch of their friends there, their parents. And. And that's it. it was great. we spent I think it was five days down there and it was really weird because going to Vegas, you usually find a way to get down to the strip and this and that. But it wasn't until actually the night of the wedding, after everything was kind of settled down that everyone went to the strip, which was really weird. And yeah. I ended up getting lost and all that fun stuff. It's

Raymond Hatfield:

one road, but okay.

Brad McMillian:

Well, I got lost from my friends. Oh,

Raymond Hatfield:

okay. That's different. Yeah.

Brad McMillian:

I, somehow ended up three casinos down from all my friends and had no idea where they were. And I didn't have my phone with me. Yeah, so that was interesting. So I had to trace my steps back and I eventually found them, but

Raymond Hatfield:

That's good. so was the idea that you were going to be using your phone camera to be taking photos? Since I'm assuming that she had only seen your photos taken from your phone on Instagram?

Brad McMillian:

She had seen that, but, we hadn't discussed how I was going to take the photos. So I ended up just, I bring my camera down there and I got some really good photos. even now I look back and I'm like, Oh yeah, this photo. So, you know, there's a lot of things that are good with this, but there's a lot. That's really bad with this now when I look at them, right. selective color, terrible idea.

Raymond Hatfield:

There was a phase. Everybody goes through a phase. Yeah. No worries. No worries.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. And then, the masking, I did some masking and then did the background blur to like the whole photo and it doesn't look any better. real at all. but like they're like unfocused and it's like, Oh yeah, that'd look great. I remember I have this one photo of, actually I did it. I think I did it to all of them. So I did the people who are all walking together down the aisle plus the groom and the bride separately and together. And. I went through and took, amassed all of them out on each one and blurred everything else.

Raymond Hatfield:

I can't even imagine how much time that must've took because I'm sure there wasn't, this was 2015. There was no like auto masking settings. This was like all by hand. You were brushing.

Brad McMillian:

Well, this was, it was funny. So I sent them the photos and then a few years later, I think it's 2018, I was flying to the Philippines for my brother's wedding and on the plane, I'm like, I have nothing to do for 15 hours. So I literally pulled my laptop out and I edited for 15 hours. I didn't sleep on the plane or anything like that. I edited for, well, I edited and then I also took, a time lapse which didn't turn out, but I took the time lapse of the sunset, or sunrise story, which was like a three hour sunrise, because we're kind of flying at the same time. So it's like kind of chasing us and slowly catching up rather than having the 20 minutes where you usually have, it was like a three hour sunrise is absolutely phenomenal.

Raymond Hatfield:

But with a time lapse, it just looked like a regular sunrise.

Brad McMillian:

Well, was on a plane and there's turbulence and things like that. And I was still kind of figuring the camera settings out, like how to get things done and stuff like that. so I re edited all of those photos and that's what I did then in 2018. And I actually, I'm so friends with them. So I was like, Hey, I'm like, I re edited those sort of goes, what do you guys think? And they loved them and it's great that they loved them. and I think it was just the memories that were captured with that. And one of those things that, I actually took from you, was, I would rather capture the memory than not capture it at all. So, for the last two years. I haven't been afraid of high ISO.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes. I'd love to hear that. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad McMillian:

I've been shooting, I've got photos of my son, when we were skating and I was shooting at 10, 000 ISO and it looks fantastic.

Raymond Hatfield:

Do you think that they look fantastic because of the moment that you two had together, or do you think that the photo itself is fantastic?

Brad McMillian:

Both, technically it's fantastic. It's technically, like it doesn't even actually look like there's a whole lot of drain in them, unless you like. Pixel peep, which us as photographers, pixel peep, but most of our clients, unless they know anything about photography, they're not pixel peeping. They're looking at the phone and going, Oh, I love that. so I, I have this photo of him. We were skating at Olympic plaza, which is downtown Calgary. And. He went and sat down to have some of his hot chocolate that I had bought him. And he's sitting there drinking this hot chocolate and I have a Calgary tower lit up behind him. So they have all these lights on the Calgary tower and he's sitting there just kind of sipping it. He's got his little hockey helmet on and he's wearing his plaid because he loves plaid like his dad. And he's sitting there sipping his hot chocolate and I just have to cap the tower behind him. it's really well composed photo. but the memory of that whole event of skating with him is what I remember whenever I look at that photo. So, technically, it's a good photo, but also, it's 100%.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. And I think

Brad McMillian:

that, When you have those two things together, that's what makes a great photo versus a good photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right? Sure. Yeah, of course, of course. was high iso an issue for you in the beginning or was it always something that you were aware of or what were some other struggles that you had when learning proper photography, I guess with a, DSLR?

Brad McMillian:

Well, the, high is SO was a struggle at first because I had that xsi. Mm-Hmm.. And it does not do well with high ISOs. I think it only tops out at 1600 or something like that. Yeah. so that was a problem. And then I upgraded to a 60D. That's a big upgrade. yeah, that's, not bad. It's still the crop sensor, which worked really well for the stuff that I was doing at the time. I was doing a lot of landscape stuff at that point in time and some portrait stuff. and I learned now that when I was using that 50 on there, it was a lot similar, more similar to my 85 that I have now. And. I really liked that 50. I was like, Oh, that's 15. So I bought another 50 for when I upgraded it again to my 6D Mark II. I bought another 50. I'm like, Oh, that's good. This doesn't look right

Raymond Hatfield:

because it was wider because it was full frame.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah, exactly. So it took a little bit of adjustment there, but struggled with my shutter speed, actually. I remember that first wedding and I remember they were talking about pulling the bride into the pool. Oh, okay. This is after the wedding and everything's done and she actually changed out of her wedding dress. And we are all finished dinner and I remember a couple of guys like, oh yeah, we should get her in the pool because nobody had swam in this pool yet. I'm like, we should get them in the pool. So then they grabbed both the The bride and the groom, and they just like very quickly pulled them into this pool and I was trying to capture it. And I remember, it's almost like a, like one of those speed panning shots because it was all blurry and you can tell what they are because I managed to have a fast enough shutter speed that it didn't completely blur everything out, but I wasn't in focus. and although the memory is kind of there, it's not a great photograph because there's nothing technically good about that photograph, like nothing, like you can kind of see who it is. At the same time, I missed the moment.

Raymond Hatfield:

So you think that if you had a better understanding of shutter speed, you would have been able to properly capture that photo the way that you envision it?

Brad McMillian:

Oh yeah. would have been able to increase my shutter speed, increase my ISO. And it might've been a little bit grainy, but at the same time I would have had more of them in focus and still have, if I knew about how to do panning, while shooting. I could have had like when you see like in sports, when you see the running and they're in focus, but everything behind the spot, kind of blurred out stuff, right. I could have, come closer to that, but again, this is 2015. It was like before I even got at all into photography. once I bought my 60D, I got really, really into photography.

Raymond Hatfield:

Were you, were you working less?

Brad McMillian:

well, yes, a little bit. that would have been. Actually right around 2018, and, well I think it was 2017 that I got that 60D, and, I took a few photos with it and what had happened, I actually had my camera bag stolen and I was in this, off camera flash photography course that actually my friend David was putting on. and I had my camera bag stolen. So all I had was just the camera and the lens that I had in my hand and that was it. we were downtown Calgary and wasn't keeping a very good eye on my bag. And so that was, I mean, It's my fault for just leaving it there. Yeah. So, uh, This is for the,

Raymond Hatfield:

XSI that got stolen. And then is that why you upgraded to the 60D or is it the 60D that got stolen? And then you upgraded to the 6D Mark II.

Brad McMillian:

yeah, it was, so it was the XSI that got stolen and had the 60D on me. And yeah. And so I was like, Oh, I kind of want to have a second. Bodies, so I ended up buying, took me a little while, but I ended up buying the 6D Mark II and I still have the 6D, just behind me here. And then I have my 6D Mark II, which I'm filming on, and then I recently upgraded to an R5.

Raymond Hatfield:

Gosh,

Brad McMillian:

the only reason why I upgraded to an R5 is the video capabilities. That was it. That's the only reason

Raymond Hatfield:

I see. So, the 60 Mark two, right. Making this decision to go from, crop sensor to full frame. It sounded like there was still some questions that you had since you, you use the same 50 millimeter lens on, from the 60 D to the 60 Mark two. And we're, kind of confused about that. So were you aware of the difference between crop center and full frame when you have upgraded?

Brad McMillian:

When I finally did upgrade to the 60 Mark II, yeah, I'd finally understood that there was a crop factor on the 60D, cause I started really, I got really, really nerdy with cameras when I started, looking at the 60 Mark II, I got like super nerdy on it and I started really getting into it, but I don't think I fully grasp the, differences between the crop sensor and the full frame.

Raymond Hatfield:

Until you actually see it.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. Until I actually got my hands on it and tried it out. Well, at that point I had bought it, but I mean, I tried out the, I was going back and forth between the 6D Mark II and the 5D Mark IV. saving up for either or I know, and then I ended up using a buddy of mine's 5D Mark IV and I did not like it at all. don't think I understood how the autofocus and stuff worked on the 5D4 versus the 6D Mark II. And, So I really didn't like how the autofocus worked on that one. Again, I used it for one day, so I never had a chance to really work it. so I didn't really like it. So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to go with the 16 mark two. And I mean, it was a little bit easier on the pocket book too. So that was

Raymond Hatfield:

nice. That does make it easier. Doesn't it?

Brad McMillian:

Yeah, but I got like super nerdy. I started getting right into, a lot of the review pages. And that's where I got, kind of hooked up with Seth Miranda and he would like, correct, like everything that I did. And I was like, This guy knows a lot. And then I started, that's where I found the podcast and I was like, this is great. I'm like, I'm getting so much info now. And I, during, 2018, there was a slowdown of like almost like a recession. And so I had a lot of time on my hands. So I started really diving into that stuff. Work wasn't, 16, 18 hour days anymore. Now it's working eight to 11 hours. Manageable. Yeah. So I was taking in a lot of information at that point in time. What was it that you were shooting? I was shooting mostly landscapes and then I was shooting the occasional portrait and, took those landscapes and realized why I can do certain things. Things like why I can have a slow shutter speed. Well, cause it's on a tripod and nothing is moving. Right. You might get some movement in the clouds or the water. But other than that, like nothing's really moving. So it's like, well, I can have a slower shutter speed. Well, why would I want a slower shutter speed? And then I started experimenting with why I want a slow shutter speed versus why I don't want a slow shutter speed. And then I found out, well, the aperture changes things and I didn't really struggle with the aperture. That one came really simple to me. The hardest part, even just trying to explain it now that I, I mentor a couple other photographers and stuff now. The hardest part is explaining that, yes, the aperture, as you close down your aperture. It makes everything in focus, but you also lose light. There's a, explaining that there's a give and take to each side of that triangle. It's probably the hardest thing to explain. Cause people are like, well, how do I get this? I'm like, well, you can do this, but then you also have to do this. Yeah. But you have to compensate somehow. And It doesn't matter how you compensate, there's going to be a loss of something. And you have to decide which concessions you want to make, which compensations you want to make.

Raymond Hatfield:

I 100 percent agree. And yeah, I've found the exact same thing is that once you understand the exposure triangle, it makes sense because, you understand what ISO does what aperture does, what shutter speed does, but when you're new to photography and you're not exactly sure what all those terms mean, trying to learn a teaching tool, which is the exposure triangle, how it works and how all of the three pieces work along with it is very difficult. And that's why, having some sort of visual reference or the ability to be able to do it yourself through practice lessons, or just, spending the time to figure these things out on your own. Is extremely helpful. So you have the, you had a little bit extra time and you started figuring these things out, yourself. Now I had, went back into the archives of the group just to see kind of like what, photos you had been posting, obviously for this conversation and. I think what's interesting is that I feel like you have always had some sort of eye for light. I don't know how far you were into your journey before you joined the group, but if you found the podcast from Seth Miranda, I met Seth Miranda in 2020, so it would have been shortly after that that I had him on the podcast. So before that, what was your relationship with Seth? Light, like what was your education with light? Did that start from the beginning? Do you think that this is inside of you or was this something that you had to learn on your own? I

Brad McMillian:

had to work at it really hard and I still do. Like I still work at it really, really hard. I recently just, had a, photographer that I've been mentoring a little bit and had him over here. He's a landscape photographer, but, we took, Light and showed him how to, I showed him how to use some off camera stuff and showed him how light changes as you move it around and how he can relate that to landscape stuff. But it took me a long time to learn that stuff. And again, I'm like, I'm still really learning that stuff. That was one of the things that I learned from Seth is, how light changes and how light works. And there's a really big relationship between light and shadow.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes.

Brad McMillian:

And you have to understand that relationship between light and shadow and how you can make that work for you for what you're trying to capture.

Raymond Hatfield:

But that implies that you have to know what you're trying to capture. And then you use life as a tool to be able to do so. And that is, I think, where a lot of people get, get hung up. And that's, I guess, what I'm trying to figure out here, because looking at your images, you have, at least from what I've seen, some sort of inherent understanding of. Either light's direction or just having images with pleasing light, I know that you said that you're working on it, but I guess I'm trying to figure out, do you feel like you've always seen light in a way or was there something that you learned that help you to better see and use light just with your eyes?

Brad McMillian:

I think like when I go to take a photo, I do, especially now, but even fairly early on, I've been told I had an eye for photography. I've been told that. Most of my adult life. And then I look back and I go, okay, well, I don't know if I really had an eye, but I had intention. Yes.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes.

Brad McMillian:

I would see something that, that pleased me or something that I wanted to capture. So like now with my portraits and stuff like that, I have, when I go into the portrait and I can be shooting and then be like, Oh, do you know what? I had this idea. And. I have a look that I want in my head, but I have to figure out how to capture that. And I go through and I mean, I don't nail it first try, like, ever. Right, right. but either have to move the light or move myself to get that light the way I want it. Mm hmm. a lot of people say you need a clean background for certain things. I'm like, yeah. I've invested in these good lenses to be able to take that background out of the equation. If I need to, I can clean it up with the bokeh and, work on it like that. So, I never really focused as much on the background, although now I look at my background and see if I can get, you know, I've been working really hard on color theory recently and it's tough. It's so tough. Yeah. so now I've been starting to look at, okay, well, I've got a good composition on this and I've got good light and now I want to work with colors. So now I'm working with progressing that color theory a little bit, but, to get that light. always had something in my head to be able to. for how I want it to be lit. So if I want something to be dramatic, I always had that instinct about, Oh, I want this to be dramatic. And I love dramatic lighting. that's my love is dramatic lighting. And I want to see how that works. And it's like, I take the shot. No, that didn't work. It's not, that's not where I want it. And then I move and I go take the shot. No, that's not quite how I want it. And then I go up. Oh, there's, that's a little bit different. I'm like, okay, now I'm getting there. I'm there. And I slowly worked through the shots. Like I've got thousands and thousands and thousands of photos and I show, a handful of them.

Raymond Hatfield:

Cause you're shooting through, you're practicing.

Brad McMillian:

Exactly. and I've never been afraid to. admit that I did something wrong. even with, when I have clients and stuff like that, I'll be like, I take a shot. It's like, Oh, do you know what? That didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to. Let me move some stuff around and I'll move a light and I'll do this. And I've never had a problem with admitting that, Oh, I, didn't do that. Right. let me fix this. And troubleshooting has always been something that I've always been very good at. but. With my job, that's like most of my job anyway, is troubleshooting. People are getting into trouble and I got to fix it. Right. So I've kind of taken that into photography as well. And I've dove really hard into the troubleshooting aspects of photography to be able to. Fix the problems that I didn't even have yet.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, wow. this is just a side question for anybody who's wondering, who is maybe nervous about working with clients when you say something to the effect of like, Oh, you know what? It didn't work. let's try something else here. Has a client ever said, wow, you're super unprofessional. I want my money back. We're not doing this anymore.

Brad McMillian:

Not one. Never. Not one. Um, that's right. Nope. Not one. Not one. they always go, Oh, okay. Cause, like for headshots, I usually tether. because it's usually in a studio or an office or something like that. So, I usually, tether. And I remember I was taking these one shots and this one, actually the one client, she goes, Oh, I don't really like the lighting on that. I don't really like how I look. And that's what she said. I don't like how I look on that. I said, okay, well, what don't you like? She goes, Oh, you can see my wrinkles here. I'm like, okay, perfect. Well, let me fix that. She goes, Oh, so just like do it in picture. I'm like, no, just give me a few minutes and we move these around and we're going to, fix that to make it a little more flattering. And we moved it and she was happy with the photos and haven't heard anything bad about it. So made the mistake of not having that flat light on her. Because I kept the same lighting that I had for the guy before her. Uh huh, uh huh. So what was it that you changed?

Raymond Hatfield:

That was my mistake. Right, yeah, no, I understand that. What was it that you changed to help, alleviate some of the perceived wrinkles on her face?

Brad McMillian:

Well, I made it more, of a flat lighting, not quite flat, but I made it more flat. I adjusted my light to be, more over top and in front. And I had a, like a balance card underneath. I have this portrait illuminator. It's like a big half semi circle type thing that goes underneath their face. and it bounces light back up to get rid of the shadows underneath and stuff like that. And I adjusted her position a little bit more. So I had her bring her chin a little bit more to get rid of the, double chin that nobody wants. And, cause the lighting I had before that was more of a, not quite Rembrandt, but pretty close to a Rembrandt type lighting, which is more of a dramatic lighting, which is more my style for sure, but not what she wanted for her headshot, which I don't blame her at all. if you want a headshot, you want something that's flattering for yourself.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah. Now you mentioned dramatic lighting there. you mentioned it earlier as well, that you like more of a dramatic lighting. feel like when I hear dramatic lighting, I can see something in my head, but like for those who are listening right now and maybe they're not very sure kind of about the terminology of lighting and how it all works. How would you describe dramatic lighting and how would you, go about setting it up for something like a headshot?

Brad McMillian:

well, Whenever I think of dramatic lighting, like really dramatic lighting, I always go back to the movie Face Off. Yes. do you remember the, the cover poster where it shows Travolta and Cage and they got half their face is lit and half it's not like straight up split lighting, super, super dramatic, more, more shadows or really harsh shadows. Versus softer shadows. And usually with softer shadows, you don't usually have that as dramatic lighting. like I know people can't see it, but right now I've got very decide I have very good shadows, like hard shadows on this side of my face and very soft shadows on the other side. Right. So I have more of a short lighting going on right now, but, so setting it up, usually you want to have something, you can have a softer light and still have hard shadows. Right. Not having that bounce card in there, those dark, deep shadows.

Raymond Hatfield:

So if somebody is like listening and maybe they don't own a flash, right? They don't have anything like that. Like right now, all that they have is there is their camera and their lens. How do you suggest they go about trying to find, and create their own dramatic lighting?

Brad McMillian:

I mean, the sun is great for dramatic lighting. the sun is fantastic to get, super, super harsh shadows. the way I was taught and it works really well is, hold your hand up and walk around and keep your hand in the same position, but you walk around and you can see the shadows falling on your fingers and how they look. And. When you get to that point where you like how the shadows are falling, then you can move your subject in there and you can get those shadows.

Raymond Hatfield:

I see. I like it. Yeah. We were taught, in film school, there was a trick where, you make like a fist and I guess the idea is that the, that the knuckles here would represent something like the nose and you just kind of walk around and you look for, for good light. So that's a tested and proven, way to try to find, the quality of light. So I appreciate, you sharing that. I want to talk a little bit about, cause I looked at, your posts in the group and one of the earliest ones that you had posted was from, you had went to some sort of, I believe it's a cosplay event, right? And you were like outside and photographing some of the attendees. First of all, was approaching these strangers a difficult challenge for you? And second of all, what were you trying to get out of these images?

Brad McMillian:

well, I had a friend of mine come up to me like, Hey, is, Expo Calgary coming up? Or I think that's what it's called. do you want to go and shoot some portraits? And I was like, sure, let's go shoot some portraits. We got there. Were they participating or

Raymond Hatfield:

were they also a photographer?

Brad McMillian:

He was a photographer as well. Okay. we did not buy any tickets to get in or any of that, which is why they're all done outside. Yeah. at this point I had a bit of an understanding about lighting and about off camera flash and how because I like to have those dramatic type scenes and especially with cosplay that's generally something you would kind of like depending on what you want set up. So I was like, Oh, I can darken the background. No problem. Just got to set my settings to darken the background and then I have my light. And so this whole thing I'm going through and I had now they want you to stay mobile if you're doing photos there. So you can't set up a light stand. You can't set up, I mean, the tripod they're typically okay with because you camera on it. You can just pick up the tripod and away you go. So I didn't, I couldn't bring a light stand with me. So I grabbed a monopod and I put this, I think it was a, an 80, 200 on this monopod with an umbrella. So it looked kind of weird walking around one hand with this umbrella. I look kind of weird, but, so I'm sitting there and I would adjust my lighting as I needed to, because I can just sit there and hold it. I can move my arm around or whatever. Problem with it is, is the fact that you can either, Hold the monopod and take the picture or cause I didn't bring my tripod. You can not get the picture or just use two hands on your camera. Well, about an hour into our photos, I'm sitting here going like this with one hand with my 60 Mark two and a 85 one, four, trying to shoot these photos. And my shoulders just start killing you. Yeah. but. Walking up to the people, it was, it's actually kind of daunting, because I'd never done anything like that before. I don't do street photography. I've tried, I don't find that I'm very good at it yet, but I, I do try to get up there once in a while and do it. and I try and get outside my comfort zone and go up to like these random people. Like there's, one gentleman in a coffee shop. It was, the moderators of that, that amateur group that I talked about earlier, we were all having coffee and I saw this one gentleman, I'm going to call him a character, because he had just like these curls sticking out from underneath this little, Like newsboy type hat. but he was like middle aged gentleman and he had like this newsboy hat on these little curls sticking out and these like red, like bright red glasses. And oh, like I said, he was a character. He's super nice guy. I really enjoyed talking with him. I still talk to him on Instagram once in a while. And I was like, Hey, can I just take your photo? And he's like, yeah, sure. Not a problem. And it's funny. Cause almost every single person that I've asked, if I could take their photo, most of them say, yeah, sure. Not a problem. And I've never had a problem with that. I mean, probably because when I'm out there, I give out more of a professional vibe type thing. like the fact that I'm not like just some weirdo, but Hey, can I take your photo? I, I go out to them and I say, Hey, I'm a photographer. can I capture your photo? And, here's my contact and I have a, a digital. Card that I have on my phone and you scan the QR code and it brings up all my contact info for how they can get ahold of me if they want the photo, which is the same thing I did at the expo. we were sitting there, I mean, I have, I've got this big light and this light with this big umbrella, I should say. And this. professional looking camera. and I wasn't like trying to chase people down or anything like that. We were kind of waiting near the doors and just kind of catching people as they're coming in or out and be like, Hey, you have a really cool costume. Do you mind if we take a photo? They're like, no, not a problem. They're like, Hey, can you send that to me? yeah, as soon as we get it edited, I'll send it to you. And I give them my phone and show them my info. And it's actually really eyeopening that how, welcoming those types of people were. So anytime I do go for a little photo walk or something like that, and I see somebody interesting, I'm nervous to go up and ask them, but at the same time I go, do you know what, this has worked before, why can't it work now? And I've had a couple of people say, no, no, I don't really want you to take my photo. I'm like, okay, not a problem. Thanks for listening to me. And I go on my, about my day, but none of them have ever been angry or harsh to me at all. Yeah. They've always been fairly Pleasing and welcoming or if they didn't want it. They've always been very polite about him. It's like no, I'm okay I don't really want my phone. I was like not a problem. You just don't go after them for me Like, oh, no, I swear I could get you could get a good photo Like there's no point in saying that because they obviously don't want it done You just don't need to chase them down and try and get that done even more.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, I tried thinking about that Like why is it so? scary to approach somebody, right? to take their photo. And, I have found the same thing as you, that every time I've asked somebody to take their photo, they've either been very nice and said yeah, which they say more often than no, but when they do say no, it is, it's just like that. It's Oh no, thanks. not interested and that's it. And then you just kind of keep going on your way. But we have this idea that People are getting angry, and upset, and start yelling, and I've never seen that happen. Except for when somebody like tries to take a photo without any sort of permission. And it seems odd. what is going on? What are you doing? are you singling me out or whatever? Not that I've seen that in person, I guess, but

Brad McMillian:

I've had one instance where somebody got, angry at me taking a photo, and it was there was a homeless gentleman that was being treated by EMS and I actually, the way I was framing, of course, you can't tell how I'm framing in the photo, right? For me just taking a photo, but the way I was framing it, I was actually taking the light pole and using the light pole to frame him out. Cause I was really interested in the EMS side of it and capturing the EMS. And I guess it must've been a friend of his or someone that knew him, had come up and he's like, Oh, it's really rude of you to be taking photos of my friend, blah, blah. And I. He said, I'm actually not trying to be rude or anything like that. Cause I was, it was using a long lens. I wasn't close or anything like that. and I just pulled it up and showed him like, see, I'm actually trying to frame him out of it. So that way it just shows them doing their jobs and not your friend. So your friend doesn't have to be, upset about getting his photo taken. And he calmed right down and it was all good. Cause he realized that I wasn't trying to take advantage of that situation. Show off something that was kind of bad, which when you think about history and photography and things like that, it's not always about the good stuff either, but we try so hard to capture all that good stuff. Sometimes we have to, get that picture of our kid crying. Yeah. Not just to show at their wedding, but, but to just show that, Humanity isn't always good. There are bad parts of our lives and there always will be bad parts of our lives because nobody has a perfect life.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right.

Brad McMillian:

Just me.

Raymond Hatfield:

kidding. Not,

Brad McMillian:

not

Raymond Hatfield:

the case at all. Yeah, no, I feel the same way. when it comes to capturing those harder moments. which is why probably shooting weddings is one of the worst things you should do. Everybody's just so happy all the time. I do have one bro.

Brad McMillian:

seen some pretty, interesting weddings.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, no, yeah, no, for sure. There are definitely interesting weddings, but I think typically the, um, If you're willing to invest a certain amount in having somebody take photos, I feel like you're going to try your best to Have a great day, you know what I mean? Like I, I dunno, I've definitely been to weddings where, just communication was very poor. you know, and you could just feel it and you're like, what is happening right now? And you try to shoot it. You're like, how can I get this feeling in a photograph? Even though they're not going to want it. I want it like almost as a personal challenge to see if I can capture this awkward feeling, in this room. And that is. That is hard. How do you capture the feeling of awkward at a wedding day? Yeah, very difficult. But, anyway, I'm right there with you when, with, photographing kids and, feeling upset. But that's also a hard one too, because you don't want them to feel like something is wrong. Like something's weird by you taking their photo. I don't know. I'm not a psychologist. I'm probably just totally screwing my kids up.

Brad McMillian:

Maybe that's why. The people feel weird about that is because we don't capture it often enough,

Raymond Hatfield:

right? Yeah. We don't normalize it or anything.

Brad McMillian:

it's hard to capture even good or bad. It's hard to capture emotion

Raymond Hatfield:

and

Brad McMillian:

show that in a, in one photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah. So when

Brad McMillian:

you do, capture that emotion, whether it be good or bad, I feel like you've done something well,

Raymond Hatfield:

right? that's a good point. I feel,

Brad McMillian:

I feel the same. I feel, I feel like you're winning if you've managed to capture that emotion.

Raymond Hatfield:

Uh huh. That's a hard one. That is a hard one. Cause then you ask yourself like, well, what am I going to do with these photos? what's the end goal? I'm not going to print this photo. I'm going to keep it, but what am I going to do with it? And I guess that's just what you figured out. You save it for the wedding, I guess. I guess that's what you did. Yeah. I want to know when it comes to your photography, kind of where you're at today in your journey, you're exploring a more, more of a professional route as well for you. what does a dream photo shoot look like? what is your world series moment? what kind of photo shoot is that?

Brad McMillian:

I actually have these two photos in my head that I I've wanted to capture for several years now, and one very, very Joe McNally inspired lighting, very, kind of dramatic and like sharper, like the whole photo is kind of sharp. It's a classic truck, like we'll say like pre fifties type of truck. and it's broken down at a shop. Of course they're the couple, it'll be a couple and they'll be dressed, to match the era. And then there'll be a mechanic there and the mechanic's got the hood up and he is like inside working on the vehicle. And, I wanna do several different iterations of this. I wanna have the classic take where, the male mechanic and. She's sitting there like smacking her husband, see, I told you, and I really want to kind of get something like that. But then I also want to, do a more modern take on it and have a female mechanic working on the truck. And same sort of thing where she's like, see, I told you it was going to break. Blah, blah, blah. so that's kind of one that I want to get a little bit wider. You can see the, the garage, you can see the truck, like the whole truck, or most of it. So that photo is something that I really wanted to.

Raymond Hatfield:

What does that mean to you? I want to know what, like more, more about that shot. Like what does that photo mean to you? Like, why is that photo in your head? Why do you want that photo?

Brad McMillian:

I think it tells a story of like days gone by, but it's still somewhat new. And especially if I can get. both iterations of it, because back then you didn't see female mechanics. It just wasn't a thing. Right. But now, I mean, I've got friends that are female, that are females that are mechanics and some of them know way more about cars than I do. And. I absolutely love that aspect. I love, people doing whatever they feel like doing. Sure. Right. And I feel like there's a good story in that. And I, really want to tell stories, is something that I've really. realized that I really want to do, which is another reason why I've started getting into video as well is because there's stories to be told. And sometimes you can't capture the story that you want in a photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right. Right. Brad, I know that, one of the photos that you have, Several times you've posted in the group about your Spotify wrapped. And, uh, according to the metrics you have listened to the podcast for more than 9, 000 minutes, and that is just insane. I want to know out of all of the episodes that you've listened to hundreds, literally hundreds, was there one that stood out to you?

Brad McMillian:

not one in particular because I listened to them and I take little things away each time that I listened to it. I really enjoyed the one where you got to talk to the Dodgers photographer. Oh yeah. John Seto. Yeah. That was super entertaining. I really loved it. I loved that you, you're listening to it, you can definitely hear it in your voice. You're super fanboying. but at the same time, you're like, get this professional. I loved hearing all that in your voice. really enjoyed the first episodes, which really got me hooked. The first episode was for me anyway, which was, Seth, Miranda and Vanessa Joy. Those two different episodes. Those ones really got me hooked on the actual podcast. And I mean, Seth just has so much to say. Yeah, absolutely. All the time. like he has so much knowledge, so much to say. And it's so interesting the way he says it. And questions that you asked in that episode were. We're spot on.

Raymond Hatfield:

Thank you.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah, between the two of you. You guys really drove that entire episode and it just got hammered right into my head. you had a photographer on there. That was really interesting. Oh, Justin Anderson.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that, by the way. Yeah.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. Yeah. Justin is a good friend of mine. Him and I've gone storm chasing and, shot some Milky Way and stuff together. I actually saw him last year at Moraine Lake. we both shot the Milky Way there last year.

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow. I guess there's a very small amount of time where that all lines up. Right.

Brad McMillian:

yeah, And it's even harder now because they just this year last week announced that the parking lot will no longer be open. You have to take a shuttle up there.

Raymond Hatfield:

Really? Oh my gosh.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah, which is really frustrating for night photographers because from what I've seen. Understood. I mean, I, and I could be wrong here, but they're probably not going to have shuttles running overnight.

Raymond Hatfield:

what's the reasoning behind that?

Brad McMillian:

because it's so active. There's just so many people trying to get up there. So like, well, now you just got to book a shuttle. I said, okay, well, are you going to have the shuttles running 24 hours? Because, every photo that I've taken at Moraine Lake, other than, or works, we actually have, I've actually delivered cars up there or picked up cars from there before. other than those. Like I do night stuff. Yeah. I do night photography up there. Yeah. Yeah. So like I have, I actually have a video of showing the time lapse of the Milky Way going across Moraine Lake. And then, and then we stayed, my girlfriend at the time, she really wanted to get a photo of Moraine, at sunrise, so we stayed right through until sunrise and the real quick story. It was perfect. we were expecting, as we're driving out there, we're seeing lightning flashing and everything else at that, and we're like, oh, we're gonna get clouded over and get rained out, blah, blah, blah. None of the clouds came through in our scene. None. Score it. Yeah. So Milky Way comes right across, the mountains on the south side there, and then, As it's coming up into morning, I'm like, you know, it'd be really nice. Just a few clouds, just give a little bit dramatic skies to this. And like right before our suns or sunrise, like 20 minutes before the sun started coming up, we started getting these gravity waves that built up, which is like the closet looked like a street that's like straight down. We got these gravity waves built up. So there's four or five. Like long clouds in the photo, of course, going the same way that we're looking, which is perfect. And we get like that little hit of light off those clouds, hitting the mountains as well. And it's just, it was literally the perfect day to go,

Raymond Hatfield:

my gosh. And in the future might not happen. Cause who knows if there's going to be shuttles up there? What a shame.

Brad McMillian:

Well, so my friend Dylan and I, we've Already started discussing. We're like, well, I guess we're just going to have to figure out a way around this. We're like, well, let's do like a two or three day hike. Oh yeah. So we're going to come around the backside of Moraine down towards like Minestema and stuff like that. And then. We'll come basically come out at Moraine in the morning and then jump on the shuttle coming down.

Raymond Hatfield:

I see. Oh, okay So there's still workarounds, but it's not as easy. That is a shame because I always feel like when it comes to nature The easier that you can make it for people to come and enjoy it the better But I guess that that is a as popular as it gets as a location, right? So have a question about You know, again, the episodes that you've listened to of the podcast, because one thing that I struggle with, when asking questions is that like a lot of. Guests have a lot of, knowledge, but they also have a lot of stories, So as far as coming up with a balance between asking very directly, how do you achieve X in a photo versus, tell me about your journey through photography and maybe something unravels that way, where do you kind of lie on that scale of, how you like an interview to go?

Brad McMillian:

I love hearing stories. I'm a storyteller myself. I love hearing stories. I find that the settings don't generally matter with a photo. Right? As long as you can get that balance that you want. Because every photo is going to be different. and I think it was actually on your podcast recently. It might've been on, Socality, but, someone mentioned that, I don't understand why people ask what your settings were for a photo,

Raymond Hatfield:

right? Right.

Brad McMillian:

Because it doesn't matter. as long as you can achieve that exposure balance to what you want, you can sit there and I mean, perfect example. when my ex girlfriend and I went out to Emerald Lake, We went and got these shots of, they have the, this little, I can't remember what it's called. It's like a little cafe. Mm hmm. it's like a wooden cafe, like a log house type thing. And we both shot that photo. It's both exposed very similarly, completely different settings, right? So it all depends on what you want to get out of that photo. Do you want this in focus? Do you want it all in focus? Do you want to show that panning speed of the camera movement? Do you want everything frozen? Right? Or do you care about, grain in your photo? Do you not care about it? So I don't find that the settings really matter once you've learned how to achieve the exposure that you want.

Raymond Hatfield:

You're right. Right. And that's hard. Every moment has a different exposure than the next, just because light is changing and I could look at your photos. And read your settings and go out and put in the same settings in my camera and not achieve anything similar to what you got. I think that's hard also for new photographers to figure out.

Brad McMillian:

Yeah. And that was really hard for me to wrap my head around. Cause I saw photography, like other people saying, Oh, what was your settings on this? What were your settings on this? And I would try and do it and be like, well, I didn't work. Yeah. Why didn't that work? even in a studio, it's the same thing. Unless you have the exact same modifier. Unless you have it the exact same distance from your subject and your camera's the same distance from your subject. And you have, the same daylight balanced studio that they have versus, me, I've got 10 walls all around me. So my wall, it, the light's going to bounce differently around my room than that one. And if it's a big wide open room versus, my small little studio area to my right over here, it's got nine foot ceilings. And it's like a. 10 by 12 area. Versus, someone like abs, you say, who has a giant warehouse to work in, right? Right. Yeah. Right. Like that light's going to bounce completely differently. It's not going to work the same. I've got seven foot umbrellas. I'm not going to be able to set that up in my studio area. Right. Well, not that I would, not that I'd want to, but

Raymond Hatfield:

yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think, so for your recommendation, figuring out how exposure works, the best way is just to. Right.

Brad McMillian:

To do it, use your histogram. Histograms super important, exposing that and learning not just how the histogram works, but learning how to read that histogram properly, to get the photo that you want. So sometimes you don't want most of that graph in the center or, a little bit to the right or whatever. Sometimes you do want it mostly to the left. Right. To get those dark shadow. I mean, I'm a dramatic guy, right? It's dramatic lighting. Yeah. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Right? There's the music. I knew it was coming. You're the music. So I like the dramatic stuff. So I see a lot of darks in my photos, a lot of those shadows. So I like to see mine exposed a little bit to the left versus a little bit to the right.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, it is tough, to figure out, but, with time it gets easier and easier. And, when it gets easier, that's when you can really play, because you better understand your tool. Brad, this was an awesome conversation, man. I know that we can find you in the group. you're there, you're sharing photos, you're sharing stories, you're commenting on people's, posts and whatnot, but if, listeners want to learn more about you and find you outside of the group, where should we do that?

Brad McMillian:

I have a website, Brad and YYC photos. com. And I also have my Instagram, which is Brad underscore in underscore YYC. And that's just a, YYC is the Calgary airport code actually.

Raymond Hatfield:

Really? Oh my gosh. My son would have known that right away. I promise you. Yeah.

Brad McMillian:

That's the reason why I went with YYC rather than Calgary, because lots of things have Calgary in it. And I was like, I want to be a little different.

Raymond Hatfield:

Remember. This community spotlight series is all about you and the supportive beginner photography podcast community. Now, if you would like to be a part of this very supportive community, I would love to have you. You can find a direct link to the group in the show notes of this episode, or by heading to beginnerphotopod. com forward slash group. so much for listening today. And remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow.

Outro:

Thank you for listening to the beginner photography podcast. If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review in iTunes. Keep shooting, and we'll see you next week.