(soulful piano music)
- Shall we talk about Instagram?
- Yeah, let's talk about Instagram.
My eyeball's running like a mad person.
Okay- - You should catch it.
- I should--
Ahhh!
- where is my eyeball?
- Where is my eyeball?
I can't find it.
It rolled away.
If we lived in the same area we could do like
a full workout- - Yeah.
- That was based off lifting cameras and gimbals.
- Yeah.
- Or we could do a full training montage,
where we get ripped by just like using,
- I like this
- Camera gear.
(beep) why do you have to live all the way in Alberta,
- I know. - You should move to Buffalo.
- You guys need to come to the mountains.
- Definitely. - I'll meet you there.
- That's what we'll have to do.
Have a little double date action.
- Yeah.
- Great.
- It will be so fun.
- Yeah, so Instagram.
- What is up people?
Dunna here.
And today we're hanging out at Sony Camera Camp
and I'm hanging out with Becki,
from Becki and Chris.
- Becki here
- She's gonna try her best to not swear on my channel.
- I have a huge swearing problem.
I'm trying really hard,
it hasn't been going so well, so far.
- It's gonna be bad. - It's gonna be bad.
- I have an impulse to censor myself-
- Oh right.
- because I taught drum lessons to kids for a long time,
and I had to. - Okay,
so I should not say (beep)?
- Well,
- Sorry, I just said it.
- No, do it.
- Probably shouldn't say (beep beep beep), anything
of those- - Yeah.
- you can beep them out.
- So today I wanted to sit down with Becki
and talk about Instagram,
and specifically about the Instagram feed
and kind of the importance of that.
It's something that I deal with a lot,
and I'm sure lots of you think about,
like should I have a consistent feed,
do I want a consistent look,
does it matter,
does anyone actually go look at the, specifically
the grid and see how it looks,
or are they all just scrolling.
For me, it's like always been like something that I want
my grid to look nice- - Yeah.
- and I do it in rows so like one location,
or one shoot is at least a row,
maybe even two or three rows, kind of thing.
- Yeah.
- But what's your kind of approach to that?
- So it's so funny, because I'm so bent
about having like the look.
So I don't go by rows,
but right now it's just like they all have to match.
- Yeah.
- So it's like dark, moody, kind of like de-saturated,
and I'll switch from a landscape to a portrait
to maybe like a room shot or whatever,
but I always look at my grid and I'm like,
"Oh, it has to be perfect,"
but then like I just said to you,
like I had to go and look at your grid
'cause I see your photos all the time-
- Yeah. - in the feed,
but I rarely go and look at somebody's grid,
- Yeah. - So why do we care
so much about looking at our own grids,
- Yeah.
- When I feel like nobody's really looking at them.
- 100 percent.
Yeah, and I mean like the only time that I'll go to
somebody's actual page to see their grid
is if I need to hit the message button.
- Right.
- Like I need to send them a message or something,
and even then you can go into your messages
and then search for them or whatever, so.
It's a tough thing to know,
but then also when I'm,
I think when I'm discovering somebody new maybe
is the time, - Yes.
- So if Instagram suggests something
I might go to their grid and if they have a killer
looking grid, I'll be impressed anyway,
- Yeah. - Like initially.
Somebody mentioned someone that I should go follow,
they were suggesting it or whatever,
and the first thing I did, pull out the phone,
and went to it, and the photos were nice,
like if I clicked on each one they were really nice
but the grid didn't impress me.
- Right, yes!
- And so I was like, "Okay, like yeah this is cool."
But I wasn't like blown away with it.
- Right.
- Whereas like when I go to your guys grid,
and I think I've talked about this in other videos before,
like it is, it's consistent,
and even if you go to the grid
and you click the first one and then
you're scrolling through,
it's nice to see a consistency.
- Like a bit of a transition.
- Yeah, or like, - a consistency.
- Did you guys do like, Fall to Winter,
like you kinda changed a little bit through
- Yeah, we did, and then I just stuck with that winter vibe
- Yeah, but I think it's interesting, because like you said
on a normal day to day
you're not going to the people who you're following
and looking at their grid but,
when somebody says "follow this person"
and you're going to their page, like that grid
is kinda like your portfolio, - Yeah.
- So, like when I go to websites,
say to like look for services or whatever,
if that website doesn't look good, then I'm out,
- Yeah. - whereas like, their services
or their portfolio might be okay,
but the first thing I'm seeing
- Yeah. - is their website,
and if that doesn't look good then I'm like,
okay maybe I should find somebody else
who has a better design - totally.
- So, it's kinda like the same thing,
it's like, okay your photo might look great,
but your grid is like your first impression,
and I feel like its important to
kinda have that looking good. - Totally.
- But, its also a lot of effort to make the grid match
and it's like, do you care enough to do it, you know?
- Yeah, actually being here at
camera camp has been really weird,
because like I use Planoly to plan my grid and stuff.
I think I have three more that were supposed to go up
from like a hike I did a couple of weeks ago,
before I was gonna even get to camera camp,
- Right. - But I'm here now,
people wanna see what's going on now,
like I can kinda take advantage of the now factor
of everything that's going on - Right.
- But, then do I break my grid,
and go into camera camp stuff?
So at this point, at least for me,
because I like to do rows - Right.
- I had finished a row.
- Oh perfect!
- So, I can save the other row that I had planned for later,
but I'm not very, like current about it,
and sometimes that kinda gets in the way,
because I'm so worried about my grid
that the now factor, like I said,
of like being current about whatever's going on,
- Yeah you kinda miss that, - Yeah.
- Like in the moment, yeah I'm kinda the same,
like I had one photo ready to post while we were here,
and then I've been posting just photos
on my personal Instagram,
because I don't wanna ruin my grid,
- Yeah. - And I haven't had time to
like, sit in a room and edit the photos to match,
because it is a lot of time and effort
- Yeah - tweaking and sending it
back and forth to your phone, so
- Checking it like, A-b-ing it, yeah.
- Exactly, and like, does the colors match,
but then also is the balance okay?
- Yeah.
So I have like, my personal Instagram
where I, like I just started using it again,
and I just like throw (beep) up real time,
on my phone, from my camera.
If its (beep) I don't care,
it's more of like, a memory thing.
- Yeah - So, it kinda like satisfies
that like, on the flyness,
while also maintaining the nice grid on
our joint Instagram account.
- I like your personal one too
- Thanks! - It's like, fun to watch,
like it is like vlogging, versus like studio videos almost.
- Yes. - The two different accounts.
The personal one feels like vlogging,
like I'm following you around in your life.
and the things that are going on.
And then the main account, the Becki and Chris account,
is like, it's all that dark moody kinda thing
- Yes - and it's more like you said
like a portfolio - Right.
- And like, I'm sure that if anyone is looking for
photography or design or whatever,
they'd probably go look at that and are very
impressed by it, kinda thing. - Right, yeah.
- I don't know if I ever told you this,
I have a preset that I made
in my Lightroom that I just called "B and C"
- I love that! - And it was me trying to
emulate your guy's like, grid look kinda thing.
- Yeah. - And I think it ended up
turning into the one that I called Toronto,
when I was in Toronto,
the one that I used for that whole segment, kinda thing.
- Right. - Its like an offshoot
of the one that started - I love it
- of me trying to steal your guys look
- It worked really well for Toronto,
'cause it's like that gritty - Concrete Jungle.
- Yeah, it's almost very like like Alen Palander?
- God his feed is so good - It's so good!
- He must shoot so many photos 'cause his always does like
the carousels too.
- Yeah, and he posts often - Yeah almost daily I think.
- He's one of those people
who I actually go to his grid to look at,
because I get a lot of satisfaction seeing it,
and like the way he balances it all,
and his colors are really nice.
- Yeah - All his carousels
are beautiful as well.
- Yeah, it's nuts
- I don't get that many good photos.
- Yeah, me neither.
- I'm like, (beep) I need content for Instagram
what's cool that's like in my room right now,
- Yeah. - and then I'm like
well, this is alright. - Yeah
- and then it doesn't look good
- Do you ever do photos of yourself?
Like do you set it up on a tripod,
and like timer it or whatever?
- I've been trying to do more of it
- Yeah - because what I found was
That our joined Instagram was turning into
just photos of Chris,
and he also has his own Instagram account.
- Yeah, Dr.Chrisnicholas - Dr.Chrisnicholas is his
for anybody who wants to check it out,
(Dunna whispering) it's not as good as hers.
- (Becki whispering) Thanks!
Wait I take all of his photos! No I'm just kidding
- Yeah you're worse with his - Yeah!
- You obviously put a lot more effort in your own!
- Yeah I just trash his
just so he doesn't get more followers than us.
I'm just kidding.
But, yeah no, what were we talking about??
- I don't know.
- I want to be more present,
like my name is on the account
so I feel like I should have photos of myself
- Yeah - So I've been starting
to do it lately,
but I'm so uncomfortable in front of the camera,
I don't know what to do with my body.
- And you can't use photos that anyone else took.
- Yeah because they don't match
- Because they don't match your stuff
- Yeah which sucks - That's the thing
That's the problem with me too is like, you know,
I'm sure there are lots of people
who took lots of great photos of me out here
but if they don't match my editing style,
and you don't necessarily wanna be that person who's like,
"hey can you send me the raw for that?"
- Yeah - So, I did that with Dillon
actually, in Toronto,
because I had that like Toronto preset
that I was gonna use on everything
- Right
- He took what's now my profile picture,
with the Canada flag in the background and stuff,
- Right
- and I wanted it to have the same look,
and I felt really weird, 'cause I was like,
"Hey, I know your edit is great and stuff -yeah
but can you send me the raw,
so that I can do my look on it?"
- Yeah. I think though,
if you're doing Instagram, people usually understand,
like Chris Hau and Lizzie Pierce came to visit once,
and we were shooting,
and I basically just gave Chris my camera
and he shot a bunch of photos of us
- Yeah - and they were on my camera
- Yeah - and I shot a bunch for him,
and just sent him all the raw files,
'cause I knew what I would do was not what he would do,
- Yeah - like his feed
is so punchy and colorful and ours is so black and white
- Well it's still punchy but it's super de-saturated
- Yeah, but its awkward to ask
- Yeah, I do like just handing somebody a camera and being,
like "hey, can you take a photo of me on my camera,
- Right "so that we don't have to deal
with file swapping later, and I'll do the edit"
- That's kinda the nice thing about having a joint account,
I'll be like, "Hey Chris,
"can you take a couple pictures of me."
But I do find if I have a vision in mind
I have to really tell him. - Yeah.
- Because I can give him the camera,
and he can get great shots,
but if its not what I have in mind,
then I'm kinda like "aw (beep)"
- Yeah. - I didn't get what I wanted
- So, I just have to be very specific about
- Yeah, yeah - framing or whatever.
- Do you ever just take the shot and be like,
here's the framing that I want, go emulate this.
- Yeah, I'll do that sometimes
- Yeah - Usually I'll just be like
"do whatever" if I don't have any ideas,
but yeah it's tough man.
Like the tripod stuff, you do a lot of that
- Yeah - you do a lot of that
- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah.
- In some of the newer Sony stuff
they took out the ability to tap on where you wanna focus,
and that made it really difficult,
so I don't know what I'm gonna do anymore.
I still have a 6500 where you do have
the ability in the app to tap and focus,
but I'd like to use my new cameras
- No exactly, yes. - to take my photos.
Its fun, and it's challenging too
because you're constantly running back,
because you go stand where you wanna stand,
and then you're like,
oh the framing's not quite right,
and you gotta run all the way back to the camera,
and the Wifi only works so far from the camera.
- Right - Yeah, it's interesting
- Yours is a lot more high-tech set up than mine is
- Yeah
- I still shoot photos on the 5D
- Interval timer? - Yeah
So I put, like, something where I'm gonna be, like a pillow,
and then, like, focus on it, - Yeah
and then I use the interval timer,
I have to set it up and it's not in the camera,
and then I gotta hope to god,
'cause there's no face detect, the auto focus,
there's no app,
- Yeah - its like old school
- Yeah, no doubt. - Yeah which kinda sucks.
- 5D mark? - three
- Three, yeah.
- A lot of people think that they like,
need to have the latest and greatest, you know,
to have a nice Instagram account,
but you can really have a nice account
with any camera.
- We've gone way on a tangent here.
- Well yeah, this is gonna be (beep) for you to edit.
you're gonna be like
(beep) this video I'm not putting it up this is too much!
- A conversation with Dunna and Becki
- Yeah - Yeah
- Yeah you can just put some really cheesy music
- I know! - Like a script title,
and it's like us
- I'll get some B-roll of the fancy boats and stuff here,
yeah that'll be fun.
I should explain too, that we're sitting out here,
because Gerald, if you know Gerald Undone,
and Chris, from Becki and Chris,
are back at the other end of this dock,
and we're actually their subjects right now,
so we have to sit still, and we thought it would be cool
to like, actually try and film something for you guys,
while they're, you know, doing their nerd thing
- Yeah - whatever it is.
- They're nerding out over there,
like look at the hands and (beep.)
- There's like a really extreme crouch going on
- Yeah - and some hand movements
- Yeah
- we're gonna get terrible iphone video,
because the light is crazy and they're far,
but here we go, ready?
Will we keep going? Nope that's as far as we go okay,
they're standing up
- [Dunna] Oh somethings happening
- [Becki] Somethings happening, they're moving, okay
- [Dunna] Oh I think maybe they're wrapping up
- [Becki] Ooh are they done?
I heard done
So, we're kinda just like,
we're just talking about Instagram,
and you know, hanging out here.
- Yeah, so, I mean,
the problem with the conversation of the Instagram grid,
and what has happened in this conversation,
is that we didn't come to anything definitive.
- Oh yeah
- Before we talked about this, we didn't plan on,
you know sometimes when you do videos you plan on what,
the tips that you give, and where you're gonna kinda end up,
we didn't plan any of that,
we just like sat down and started talking, so.
- Yeah, it kinda depends on what
you're using that Instagram account for,
if its for portfolio, if you're building a personal brand
or a brand for your business,
then maybe it should look a certain way,
but if you're doing it to kinda, document your life,
and have a place where your memories can reside,
then, you can kinda go of the
not caring so much about the portfolio.
I care a lot about my grid, I think because,
coming from a graphic design background,
I care a lot about branding and look,
and I feel like,
your logo, your grading, your thumbnails, your grid,
everything should kind of have a consistent feel,
so that when somebody sees your work they know automatically
hey that's Dunna's photos because
it's in this specific style or has a certain, like
what do you call it, like
- A certain rub of the fingers.
- Yeah a certain rub of the fingers.
It has a certain look you know,
and you're like, okay that's obviously Dunna's shot,
because it's got this color, or that certain,
like little special ingredient on it,
so that's why I think I'm kinda so bent on the grid.
- Yeah, I really like it too, like I don't know,
it feels almost like a game too to me
- It does
- I'm competitive in that way, where I'm like
I wanna be able to do it for a certain about of time,
and mines not nearly as intense as yours is.
Mine kinda changes, either every row or every six or nine,
it'll be like a block that all look the same
- Right - That being said
like a lot of the stuff I edit in a similar way, anyways
like, I'm not going from like, oh
this stuffs all like moody and purple,
and then this next stuff is all like
bright orange or whatever,
it's all fairly consistent regardless,
'cause of my editing style
- Exactly - I'm a control freak
- Definitely, yeah and there's so many ways
you can do it too, like you do that,
where you're kinda going like sets.
- Yeah Mine I feel like are fairly
we don't change the look a lot anymore,
and I've seen other people who will start at purple,
and they'll do a gradient all the way through the rainbow
and that's an interesting one - Ooh
- Or they'll do, a white one, a dark one, a medium one,
and then it's kind of like a checkerboard almost.
- Yeah - So, there are so many ways.
They don't always have to just match,
you can really get creative with it,
and just try different things.
- You have to kinda plan it out in the app
and you can see what your current grid
looks like and add more, I'll leave a link down below.
If you wanna check out the one I use,
if you are into the grid,
if that's something that you do wanna get into,
those things are invaluable.
Because sometimes I'll use one of my presets or whatever,
and it won't necessarily
work the same way that it did on that other photo
- Right - just lighting
or the environment,
or like if you're in the bushes,
or something and there's lots of green,
and you get that green hue or whatever,
and so being able to put it into one of those apps,
and see whether it works with the other ones,
actually helps with being able to be consistent throughout.
- Right yeah.
- These guys got boomy voices
- Yeah they just moved a lot closer to us,
those guys are (beep)(beep)
don't they know we're filming a video over here?
- And they're always crouching
- It's like a power move, you know?
- I think so yeah, power stance
- You have to like crouch, get a good leg burn.
- Ooh butterfly - its a butterfly!
- Ooh jesus! - aah!
- Okay that was a little too close for comfort.
Well that was interesting, it was cool to chat,
like I find sometimes,
making really planned out videos works,
but also its great to be at an event like this,
just to sit down with like-minded people
and just kinda talk through the process,
and you know kinda realize
that maybe some of the things
that you thought you weren't doing so good,
maybe you are on the right track
'cause other people are doing it,
and talking about the grid with you is good
- Totally, yeah it's something I've been meaning
to talk to you about for a while.
- It's a daily struggle but also
there's an immense amount of joy that comes out of it.
Its like a love/hate relationship for sure
- Totally!
- If you take anything out of this video,
it's just that we're really cool
- Yeah - and Instagram's really cool
and you should go follow us both.
- Yeah do whatever you want, do whatever makes you happy.
- And also subscribe and hit the like and, what's going on
- Yeah you should definitely follow me on all the things,
what are you guys talking about??
- We're talking about your beautiful squat
that was happening over there
- I had a good squat going on,
and then when I tried to stand up, it was like
(crunching noise)
- Gerald Undone everybody
- Yeah that was Gerald.
- Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time!
- Good bye!
(soulful piano music)
- I feel like I should tell everyone to follow you,
but then I feel like it would get really long.
- Yeah, everybody follow both of us okay?
- Everybody's already following her.
- No.
- You're famous!
- I'm trying!
- Good Jesus!
Sorry
(excessive beeping)
what the (bleep) the Jesus was that.
- Well here's what I think, they say black is slimming
the camera adds 10 pounds, so it evens out in the end
- Yes
- So people are actually seeing what we really look like
- This is what we actually look like!
- Totally, I'm very warm right now,
I'm gonna have a sunburn.
(soft piano fades out gradually)