Welcome Back And Quick Catch-Up

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Save It for Swing Shift. I'm your co-host Rob and my other co-host. Is that where I jump in? RJ? Yeah, hey. Yeah, that's yeah. I'm RJ. Hey, hey, bro. Hey.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Welcome. You sound extra chipper today.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

I I feel extra chipper. I'm just happy to be back talking to you again.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Oh, well, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

I uh right back at you.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Thanks, dude. Uh-huh. So uh we left off last episode with you uh starting to talk about your perfect job. So let's start off with uh today's podcast with that.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Oh okay, cool. Um can I get a little update from the last episode though? Um uh apart from that though, just following up.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

What would you like an update on? No, I want to give an update. Oh, you want you have an update. Okay, yeah, you're in financial runes uh from K QVC, I assume?

Stiction Explained In Plain Terms

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Uh not currently.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Um no, I actually surprising that I didn't turn it back on. There are many times I thought about turning it back on. I just kind of forgot. But no, I wanted to uh follow up on something for you. Uh stiction. Stiction. So the definition of stiction, it's the static friction force that resists the start of motion between two surfaces in contact. Now critically, it's larger than the kinetic friction that exists once something's moving. That's why it's a thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Interesting. That went completely over my head.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Okay. So cool. So we'll just talk about the other thing then, I guess. Um I yeah, I was actually so I discovered this thing last week.

Remote Observatories And Dark Skies

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Uh, and I'm like, I've been learning a lot a lot more about it. Do you know what a remote observatory is?

SPEAKER_03 2:14

No, that sounds cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yeah, it's uh it's sort of a general term, but basically it's where you have um you have uh telescopes or astronom astronomy cameras or whatever set up um like in a place like at the top of a mountain outside of a city, but like they can be accessed remotely, right? Oh yeah, so it's just a general term. But um there's this dude in Texas, and what they called him in the the video that I saw where I discovered this thing, they called him a telescope rancher, and he because he well, maybe the listeners don't know, but you know that I'm I am and continue to get more into uh astrophotography. Um right.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Correct, yeah. He sent me lots of cool photos of stars and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yeah, I haven't in a while. They're I'll have to send you some more recent ones, they're getting better all the time. But yeah, um, yeah, like pretty much uh any clear night. Um I'm out there trying to do it. But uh anyway, call this guy uh telescope rancher. So he's in Texas, kind of like mid-Texas, and he has set up a remote observatory, but for for anybody really, but it's aimed more uh uh on the amateur side. So like usually these remote observatories, it's like thousands of tens of thousands of dollars a month, you know, to set up your gear there or whatever. Um he's like, uh, I'm gonna set up a thing, and you know, if you have a telescope or whatever, like you send it to me, and uh I'm gonna set it up out here and basically hook it up, power an internet, and then you do whatever you want with it. You can just tap into it. Yeah, and the reason why it's the the concept is amazing is the vast majority of people don't live um in a place where the skies are good for this, right? Um yeah, because you know, city lights and all that stuff. And uh so people get telescopes and they're like, well, this is fun, I guess. But like they really can't get good DSO deep sky objects and stuff like that, and so 'cause there's too much light interference or yeah, too much. Yeah, just pretty much too much light. It's a big thing. Um, or if you're like in the north, uh northeast, northwest, uh just not enough clear sky nights, right? Interesting. Yeah, uh so you can and uh and when I say amateur, like these guys are I mean, we're talking like five, ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollar rigs they have. Holy sh that's crazy. Yeah, and wow and I mean it goes down all the way to like he hosts or housed the telescope that I have, which is like way on the in the entry level side. Um, so he does a lot of those too, but basically anything you got. And so he's got he sets up uh a pier, you rent a pier, um, and it's like it's brilliant. Like it's called Starfront Observatories, and it's just the coolest thing because it's just this acreage out in the middle of nowhere in Texas, and he's got these buildings, and I would guess the buildings are probably like 20 by 40, and like at four in a grid, maybe like four or five feet apart. There's yeah, there's these piers. So at the pier, you send him a thing, you rent a pier, and he's got the whole so the the building is the the walls are cut in are like in half. So the fixed half only comes about four feet, and then the whole roof. This is I'm looking at the I'm looking at the website right now. This is so cool. The whole roof just slides back at dusk, and uh yeah, it's freaking crazy, dude. And I'm like, what a great, what a great idea, and I'll tell you, it's so cost effective for for people who want to do it, because like to get up here he prices them based on like I think swing radius, so like you know, how far you know, how far out, how much clearance do you need around the telescope, yeah. And so for like the uh for like a really good high-end, maybe like ten thousand dollar amateur astronomy rig, you can get it on like one of the smallest piers that he has, which is like 200 bucks a month. Now for somebody it sounds like a lot, but for somebody who's into this stuff and doesn't have sky availability, that's awesome. Yeah. And it looks like it's blown up. Like I like I came across a video, some some ask other astro guy who went out and interviewed this guy and showing I'm like, God, that's a cool thing, he has. And so I looked up some videos of the guy who actually runs it, and like there was one like a year ago, and it's kind of like an intro, like you know, and he said they had they had like five buildings, and then there was one like ten months ago, yeah, like ten buildings, and then there was the most recent one I saw was I think like two months ago, it was 14 buildings, and like I think 800 telescopes.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

That's incredible. Well, I mean, just looking at kind of like a a uh like a higher elevation shot of where they have those buildings set up, it looks like they have kind of a well not kind of, they have a huge plot, so they could probably put easily five to six times that many buildings, too. That's pretty smart. It's it's a cool, cool idea.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

So so fucking clever. Um and like the I've got an angle. Okay, hold on. Okay. I was gonna tell you the uh oh yeah, I'm looking at the website, so you can see like how his setup is. It's really fucking cool. Um really neat. Uh and they also have another thing he does, so like like I have what's called a smart telescope, so it's it's an all-in-one thing, and it really cuts through a lot of the stuff um to be able to do this, but again, it's way on the entry side. But these, I mean, this thing is like the footprint, it's like you know, six inches by six inches square, and it sits about I don't know, ten inches tall, it's tiny. And so he hosts those too, and it you can see in some of the pictures on the website, he there's just a rail like on the front edge of the building. Oh, yeah. And he puts like like 20 of them there. And those are a lot cheaper. Well, those are a lot cheaper. I I think those are like I don't remember. That's a hundred bucks. Oh, it is Star Bar. Oh, Star Bar. Star Bar, yeah. Yeah, C-Star, that's the one I have. Now there was two different ones that because I think he started he's doing two different things now with the Sea Stars. You can you can rent a spot on the bar and like send him your C-Star. Or uh and maybe he's not doing this, maybe not doing that anymore. Because it looks like what he decided to do is just get a bunch of C-Stars and be like $100 a month or whatever. You can you know, we'll give you login for it.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Uh oh, okay. So that that was gonna be my angle was like you could you could create like a a third-party leasing sit setup to where people can rent other people's unused telescopes for you know, by the hour or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Yeah, you mean for for him, yeah. That's uh see that's that's that's totally an angle, right? Like it's because you gotta wonder, like, on the one hand, people who have this money in these rigs and are willing to pay money to have them out there and all that kind of stuff, they're probably gonna be doing it most nights, but not every night. Um Right. And I don't know, that could get complicated too, because uh it's a good idea. But let me tell you like how what like what he provides, which I think is incredibly smart. Um he provides power, probably one 120

The Telescope Rancher Business Model

SPEAKER_02 10:33

volt power, one line, and one Ethernet to the internet, and the pier. So it's like an eight-inch steel pier they put into the concrete, it's massive. So you get one pier, you get power, you get internet. And that's what's so genius about it because every single every single spot on his place is exactly the same, and and it makes it easier for people to get into it because it's like, well, I have uh, you know, I have a home-built, you know, thing running a Raspberry Pi and it connects to this thing and that thing, and this is how the power cycles and blah blah blah. Well, he didn't have to he didn't care. Like he's gonna plug it in. You log in and do what you want. Then other people will have like you know, a mini PC with custom software or a laptop like strapped to it, and it's just like it doesn't matter because they'll power it up to put on the internet. Um, and so they're out there, they staff at 24-7, they provide basic tech support. So, like, if you know, can you go power cycle? My thing is not working, or whatever. Um, and I'm like, A, this is brilliant, fucking brilliant, yeah. That's a cool idea. And B, literally the best job for me because I'm a night person. Yep, I don't like people, uh, don't really like jobs. Um and I'm just like thinking, yeah. And you got a lot of space, a lot of space, yeah. Just like I'm out there tending to my tending to my telescopes, and uh, but this thing seems to really have taken off. Like, really have taken off. And it's not old. I was looking at the property records. Back to your point about the um the amount of space. Yeah, he uh it looks like well it's it's he's got two plots, and I don't know if they're adjacent. I didn't look that far into it, but the one the first one he bought was it's only two years ago. Uh oh wow, and it was only about only about 15 acres, and so a lot of room to grow. There's a second one, I think it's like 18 acres, but yeah, this dude, this guy's a fucking genius. Let me so I because I did the math on it. I'm like, okay, 800 telescopes, say even 150 a month, that's that's a chunk. Uh and you know he's making you know he's making more than that because you got big rigs and everything else. And uh so when he bought this thing in 2024, he I'm guessing, based on the tax rules, I can't say exactly. I'm guessing he paid $130,000 to $150,000 for the land. Um that year, 2024, the taxable value on the land, and bear in mind this includes an agricultural exemption like my property does, taxable value was $1,280. In 2025, the taxable value was two thousand dollars. The taxable value $2.4 million. Holy crap. Wow. Wow. Yeah. And it's just like I I think it's such a like I'm I'm a little like verklempt about this thing because I just think it's such a cool idea. Such uh I mean I the whole like astronomy and astrophotography to me is very interesting, but just a cool way to do it, cool way to get to let other people, you know, do it that can't do it, and just a smart implementation, right? It's like yeah, dead simple, but also we're gonna be there 24-7, you know. Oh, we're running out of getting close to capacity, get my building guy to make another one of these same build. I mean, just and I think the most maybe not the most recent, but one of the recent videos I saw uh some some astrophotographer guy or whatever went out there to visit and was like interviewing and stuff and going. They were doing they were doing uh at that time fairly recently, they were doing four installs a day. Jeez, not of peers, not of peers, because basically they're doing doing peers all the time for availability, but they're setting up four of these rigs a day. Wait, like the buildings? No, no, no. The they're s the the astro rigs. Oh, okay, wow. So they're unboxing and they're installing and they're connecting and everything.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

So let's go back to that, but just be for my own edification, because I'm I'm you know, obviously I have no experience with this stuff, but so you said they plug them into power, they plug in Ethernet. Are these things like like all in one house to where you can just plug directly into it and access it, or is it do you have to run a PC to it? So like you'd have to send your telescope and some some something that would be able to communicate between you and the telescope? Yes, the answer is yep. Because on both sides. Yeah, so some telescopes are all all in one, other ones you have to add some equipment to it. Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

And so like mine is all in one, and I would say like what I have and my my class tell it like very in entry level. Uh that's I mean, it's just gonna be those very small entry-level rigs that are completely self-contained. Um there are so you probably don't know much about photography. I don't really either, but I'm sure you know that like if it's like, hey, if I want to be a photographer, do I need like a lens and then this thing and that thing, or do I need this other thing? Like, yeah, yes. It can go from real basic to real nuts, right? Sky's the limit, no pun intended. Yep. And so some of them will use like astro controller things, so like they'll you know, connect their telescope to an astro controller, which is like a purpose-built computer kind of. Uh other people will just send a laptop with the astro controller. Um, it's just basically like something to interface with a telescope, something to interface with the um the mount, which is the mount. Telescope and a mount are two different things.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

So like the oh, so you you have like a mount that is mechanized or motorized, right? And then you have the controller that is able to tell the the mechanism what directions to go. Because I'm assuming that part of this is that you you have coordinates or whatever to be able to kind of dial in on whatever you're trying to to look at, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Well, it has yeah, that exactly. You're right. They they all have to move because you you know, even if you want to shoot the same thing every night, it's constantly moving, right? Because the earth is constantly moving.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

Oh, okay. So it's yeah, that makes sense. That's stupid that I didn't think about that.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Well, uh Yeah, no, it's it and it's it's really surprising how fast it's moving, which sounds weird, but like, for example, um if like if I put my telescope on target and I'm just looking at what it sees, like on my phone, and I don't have it set like to track or whatever, you can sit there and like probably about on this beat, see whatever you're looking at moving to the right. Um, and so yeah, so you have a mount, you know, you have mount that controls the movement of it, whatever. Um, that's not gonna put it on target, though. Then you need some kind of uh targeting system. Then you got the telescope itself, then you've got the the interface between them. Um, and some of these are a lot of them actually are cooled, uh liquid cooled. Um, because optics, whatever, I don't know anything about that. Optics do way better when they're cooled. Um, so they have rigs that you can put on these things that'll get them down to like 40 bolt 40 below ambient, and they'll do that just to get a better image.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Um interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

And so it's like the sky's the limit, uh, in terms of what you can do and how you can do it.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Can't take my joke. I said that already, so come up come up with something else to say. Yeah, it's the sky's the limit, no pun intended. Oh shit. That's good. Good one. Um you know what, dude. I missed it. Dial in.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

I missed it. Sorry.

Gear Setups, Tracking, Cooling Basics

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Uh no, but uh there so so basically, and that's why he's smart to do it the way he does. Which which is like, you know, I'll give you power, I'll give you internet. And the whole point is like if you build, if you buy a high-end telescope with a tracker and whatever, cool, you know. Or if you you can build it, you can build them kind of like you can build computers, I mean different components and stuff. Whatever you got a rig that works, send it over to me, I'll plug it in, and then you just got to connect to it.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

So, okay, so hear me out. Because I I mentioned my idea initially, and you're like, oh, for him, but a good angle for this is creating another layer to this as a third party to where you can give these people the option to lease out or rent out their telescopes to others at a set price depending on what kind of rig they have. Oh because they're already paying this dude rent, right? So it's like if you have usable time that you're not gonna be uh utilizing as the owner, you could lease that out to those to other people and try to comp back some of your the money that you're outlaying for this for this setup.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah, no, totally. Um it would no and I thought that was a really good idea. I'll I will tell you though that it would be really complex because um just because of the variations on how people do it. Now, sure, maybe there's an angle for uh a third party to sort of like you know, have like some sort of inner integration system or a gateway, basically. Like, you know, if you configure your system to talk to my system in this way, then I can let other people talk to your system for just kind of standardize it for everybody, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Yeah, and it's uh that's your that's your wheelhouse.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah, yeah, that's not uh that's not very appealing to me though. Um like honestly. The yeah, I bet I think what he's doing is uh like it's very it's very appealing. Um and like I just like they have videos and time-lapse stuff you can check out, and that's really cool like at night when all things are running, and it's like uh just be really fun and interesting just to like sit out there like on the roof of all the buildings and just like watch like all the telescopes looking around, doing stuff. Like yeah, a bunch of little looking at tonight. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Bunch of Mike Wazowski spinning around. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool. So you you also mentioned I mean, we've been talking about this for a bit, so I want to keep things moving, but you Also mentioned that you're considering getting into 35 millimeter photography.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Uh yeah. I think what I actually said was I'm I'm I'm on the cusp of it. Yeah, the cusp. Okay. Which means I think it might be imminent. Just uh you know, like I don't know if it's gonna go anywhere, but like it's pretty interesting. Of course, there's another really interesting thing is photography. I mean, good lord, the levels and the layers on that. Oh my god. Oh yeah. Um, and there are not necessarily with 35 millimeter, but there are overlaps with like astrophotography, all obviously. Because here's the other thing, a lot of people do astrophotography, they don't even use telescopes, they just use like a really high end high-powered lenses, yeah, DSLR, and you know, some sort of mount that tracks and everything. Um that's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. So like you

Renting Telescope Time As A Side Hustle

SPEAKER_02 22:53

can get really good sort of wide angle, like you know, constellations, nebula shots with cameras. Uh you know, if you want to get tighter on stuff, you really want a telescope, but yeah, I got this. So the 35mm thing. So like about a year ago, I was at a garage sale, and I ended up get buying this camera for a dollar, and I just bought it because it was an older camera, analog, you know, analog camera, and I'm like, that's cool, and it's a dollar. So I just had it in my closet since then. And uh I really messed with this, but then a couple weeks ago I was looking for something, I came across, I'm like, uh, I wonder if this thing even works, and I got it out and it did not. Um, and then it turned out that I didn't know how to use it, and so I it did work. Um, and really interesting, you know, I got the rat shitty ch to to wind it, and then the shutter button, and I'm messing and the flash. Oh, it's got a flash box with it. You remember that old sound when it charges the flash? Yeah, that's cool. And I'm like, I'm just messing with it and I'm like, this is so satisfying. Like, yeah, especially in today's world, you know.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

Everything's digital. Yeah, it's like it's the difference between a motor, a motorized vehicle versus a uh an electric vehicle, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:16

I I would think so, yeah. Um and and even the difference I would say between a uh current uh internal combustion vehicle and one from 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

Fuel inject direct fuel injection compared to carbureted, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

No, I was just gonna say like a uh you know, like my truck compared to like a a 92 uh truck. Um just yeah, because you can there's feel and whatever. And so I was just kind of futzing with this camera, and then I started learning about it, and it's really interesting. It's actually kind of a very niche sort of camera. Um, and it's uh so it's basically completely analog in the sense that it was pre-microprocessors and any of that shit, but like it's it's uh called an automatic camera, it's an auto, it's not a camera because it automatically figures out the aperture and whatever. And like that's takes two little button button batteries, and when you push the shutter halfway, it gives you a green light or a yellow light. And if the yellow light comes on, it's like this. Like you can do it if you want, but it's gonna be super, super fuzzy. Yeah, well, not fuzzy because because you gotta focus it, but um it's like you don't have enough light, you need a flash. Interesting. Mm-hmm. And that's pretty neat. Yeah, and then put the flash on and it sinks with the camera, whatever. And uh so the camera itself is kind of interesting, whatever. Um, but just the clickety-clacketies, I'm like, this is like and I'm not just being silly, I'm like, this is very satisfying, I think, in a way that's really good.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Well, one of the things that I've always kind of look, you know, going from digital go back to film is there's it's almost like a granular texture to to film that you just can't get with a a digital device. You know, like almost like you can feel it when you look at it. That's a really good way to put it.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Um really good way to put it. And you're absolutely right. Uh and not to get too dorky, but the reason why is that film we'll pass that. Yeah, film is made by randomly distributed microscopic particles of silver halide on film. And then and so they're not like what you would think of pixels, they're varying shapes, infinitely varying shapes and sizes at a very small level. So you get that graininess.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Um let me ask you this real quick too. So I think I heard this recently where apparently like the cost of film is like super crazy high. Yeah. Is that true?

SPEAKER_02 26:56

It is. Uh yeah, yeah, it really is. Um, I think there's two sides to that coin. Obviously, I've only been looking into this very recently, but uh I think that I think yeah, well, yes, it's expensive. The other thing is it's sort of having an a resurgence um that's cool since the pandemic. Uh which that's really doesn't surprise me. So is vinyl. You probably heard that. Yeah. Um and these things are and kind of back to my you know, the clickety clacketies and the shutter button, everything. Like I I'm like, I think this is uh I think this is good. And then like learning how it works and everything. But then more what I think is even more interesting is you know, to take a picture, it's not like now. I mean, one, you have to try and and you have to frame

The Pull Of 35mm Film Photography

SPEAKER_02 27:55

and you have to compose and you have to focus and all this stuff. But then two, you you you got like t ther t 30 shots, right? On a roll of film. And then you're done. Like you don't want to waste one. Yeah, and yeah, and then you're done, which I think I think a lot has been lost with the ability to um take infinite pictures. Yeah, on both sides. One, a lot of people can't take pictures, even with a really good phone camera.

SPEAKER_03 28:25

I'd I'd be one of those people.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Uh I don't know about that. I haven't seen enough of your pictures, but a lot of people. But a lot of a lot of them just like just blurry, out of focus, not framed well. I'm not saying you have to like compose a shot every time, but like it's just so casual. A lot of them are stupid. Um But honestly, what I think is really lost in this whole thing, and I was thinking about this a lot. This is maybe what kind of got my mind to the the film cameras. I think about this a lot when when I did those eight millimeter films, right? Like oh yeah, for mom's uh Mother's Day gift. And then did you hear that Cricket had like eight more? No way, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

So I had sent because I put some of my just for context for the for the audience, Cricket is our family our mother's cousin, correct? Yeah, that's yeah, I just say she's our cousin because I it's confusing a bit.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yeah, um, and so like I I put some of the ones I did for mom on YouTube, and so I had sent a link to Cricket and Cricket and Laurie, and Laurie is Cricket's cousin or sorry, sister, uh so another cousin. Um, yeah. Wait till we get into all the different last names. Um uh anyway, she was like, Oh my gosh, I wonder if you could do these two, and you sent me a picture, and she had like eight reels. So I'm like, oh my god, there's more. Um, so I just recently got done doing those. But here's my point. I was like, this is it, right? Like these reels are finite three minutes, and wow three minutes for a reel. And again, kind of like Philip Hammer, you don't know what it looks like when you're doing it, right? Yeah, yeah. So you want to be good about it and you want to get quality shots and and uh you know good utilize the film. But when I say yeah, that's it, it's finite. But the other thing is like um that's it. Like that's the record, that's the picture, that's the the video from this trip or whatever, and I think that's a good thing because like what ends up happening is I probably got 10,000 pictures on my phone, right? Yeah, and like when you guys come out for a visit or other people come visit or whatever, it's a vacation, it's like what's what's what do we look at when we look at vacation pictures? Like we just scroll back to like that timeline-ish in our phone every now and then, and like this, that, the other, and I have some, you have some, Jamie has you know, there's like yeah, and uh I just so I I think there's something really appealing about like you know, the time, the slowness, the patience, whatever to capture something like on film, but then also the record of it. Um and that's something else that like I feel like just a lot of this stuff's gonna get lost, right? Like I would wager apart from school pictures and maybe some prints you guys have done for certain family things, probably all of the photographic record of your kids is in in the digital the phone clouds, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:41

It's either yeah, or even we our our family started still when you would get like a a disc of like school photos and stuff. Yeah, but it's still digitized, right? The thing that's cool about I guess that that's romantic about film is that today's the best day of quality of that photo, it's only gonna get worse, it's only gonna continue to degrade.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Yeah, yeah. I mean that's one that's one thing, and that I mean over time that gives a character, that gives it value, right? Sentimental value. Um and then and then also kind of back to what I was saying is like in the moment where you're taking it, like I'm taking a picture, I'm using one of these frames covered in silver allied. That I mean it's gonna be done, it's gonna be toast after that. And so I'm gonna use it to capture something intentional and meaningful, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Great way of putting it. Yeah, you have in you have to have intentionality or or purpose when you do that, right? Yeah, exactly. Uh and what about the development side of things? Because you you like can you still take your film to places to get it developed?

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Um I I would reckon you probably can. I don't know how many of those places are really left. Um what uh for sure you can send them out, right? Um but it's actually not that hard to develop them at home. I've learned. Really? Yeah. Yeah, uh, which is another really interesting, really interesting process. Um and then there's a there's the last step, which you kind of like in the in the in the world of dropping off your film at the one one hour photo, it's kind of combined into one. But after development, then there's prints. Because when you're developing it, it's just basically developing the negative. You're right. Then making prints is like it's basically like the reverse of taking the picture, like onto photo paper. It's really interesting, but yeah, you can do all these things at home. Um, it's uh to give you an example, like the 35 mil I'd say for like a three-pack of 35mm rolls, like Kodak, like 40 bucks.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Spendy. Um, and I don't know what the cost development costs would be if you send it out. I don't know, blah blah blah. But yeah, the film itself is pretty expensive. Um and and uh the you know, and it's just one of those things, like it's a perfect fit for my brain in terms of like getting into something that's spiraling out of control because right, yeah, you know, there's like what kind of camera, you know, or what kind of lens, and how does that

Film Costs, Intentional Photos, Home Developing

SPEAKER_02 34:31

even work? And then it's like you've got so the hardware aspect of it, and then you've got sort of the soft, like artistic side of it, you know, like how do you frame and light and focus, and then you've got the mechanical aspect of developing them and then uh printing them if you want to. I I don't know. Um and like for right now, I've just been perusing like a lot of vintage cameras on eBay.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

Oh, okay. Yeah, so so looking at different types of hardware too.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Yeah, kind of keeping yeah, uh keeping it simple. I'm gonna probably get a few, nothing to it, nothing expensive, like cheap old ones. Um, but like kind of keeping it simple, just like your standard, you know, camera with like a you know, a lens, you know, maybe like you know, just a normal lens, not whatever. Not like telephoto or large format or whatever. And um and these old cameras are just so cool. Like, yeah. I mean, looking at them, man, they're just so cool, and they all these dials and gauges and meters, and that's just like so right up my alley.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

Um so next time we come out to visit you, you're gonna have like a either a chest rig or like a fanny pack. Just bust it out, and like well. I'm talking I'm talking to somebody that can't hear me right now. So I'm gonna use this opportunity to thank our uh today's sponsor for our episode, which is QVC, which stands for quality value quality, uh, value, and uh it's not channel, it's uh um something with a C. I'm just gonna keep talking so that way hopefully he can figure out his audio issues on his side. Today, just for context, is July 2nd. So we're two days away from the 250th birthday of America. So hope everyone has an absolutely great weekend celebrating our uh independence. Hope you're all very safe weekend, um, but also have a lot of fun. Yeah, I am talking to myself. I'm just trying to feel some dead space, bud. I even did a uh little plug for our sponsor, QVC. Uh it's Banana Town.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

One brother talks, the other jumps in half the and we're off again. Big weird facts. Nobody knows.