The Healing Power of Smartphone Photography, with Joe Van Wyk

Photography isn't just about capturing images—it can be a powerful tool for healing and presence. Joe Van Wyk's journey from struggling graphic designer to mindful photographer reveals how smartphone photography transformed his mental health and creative expression.

Growing up with artistic talent, Van Wyk initially took a conventional path, pursuing an MBA and international business to emulate his successful father. When this left him deeply unfulfilled, a chance encounter introduced him to graphic design, awakening his dormant creativity. As technology shifted and depression crept in, Van Wyk discovered that street photography produced an unexpected "high"—a profound sense of presence that pulled him from dark thoughts into the moment.

This revelation became the foundation for Van Wyk's book "The Mindful Photography Field Guide: 15 Smartphone Photography Practices for Inner Peace." His approach centers on three principles: Focus (grounding in your body with hand on heart and breath), Capture (documenting present moments without perfectionism), and Shine (sharing with others as an act of service). It's a practice that works regardless of your belief system, though he openly integrates it with his Christian faith.

After years investing in expensive camera equipment, he's gone all-in on smartphone photography, using just an iPhone 16 Pro Max and simple accessories. His "walk around videos" shot in ProRes demonstrate how powerful this approach can be, producing stunning results while eliminating technical barrier

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Chapters

• 9:49 [Ad] Scale Faster with The Growth Hack
• 10:14 (Cont.) The Healing Power of Smartphone Photography, with Joe Van Wyk

Transcript

Erin Manning: 0:02

Welcome to the Dead Pixel Society podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixels Society podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Advertek Printing, and Independent Photo Imagers.

Gary Pageau: 0:18

Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau, and today we're joined by Joe Van Wyk, who is from Mindful Photography, and he's coming to us today from Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Joe's got a crazy long story of being in the industry pre-digital and getting into photography and now going exclusively with smartphones. So, hey, Joe, how are you today?

Joe Van Wyk: 0:42

So let's talk a little bit. Are you today, Gary? It's good to be here with you. Thanks for having me.

Gary Pageau: 0:46

So let's talk a little bit about your journey. We were kind of talking about that before we started recording about. You know, you went through a career change, kind of got into the graphic arts business and it changed your life. So talk a little bit about that transition.

Joe Van Wyk: 1:00

No doubt I'll actually start with kind of the fruits of the story that I'm going to tell you about, and it's this book that I have in my hand, called the Mindful Photography Field Guide 15 Smartphone Photography Practices for Inner Peace. I look at that and, as I'll probably touch on my faith, is very important to me and most people have heard this idea that God works all things together for our good. And I look at that book and the experiences that I've had and the suffering that I've been through and to see that as the culmination is really rewarding. You know, it's one of those things that's nice about being later in life when you get to look back and see those things and how they all fit together.

Joe Van Wyk: 1:45

I remember I was in my late 20s and in the early 90s I'm just getting ready to turn 60. So in the early 90s I had boy. I thought I had the world by the tail. Rather than paying attention to that little Joe kid inside me, creative kid inside me, I was really looking to my dad and really hoping to emulate what he had done. He was real successful in business and so, you know, I went to college and then went to grad school and got an MBA and went out and started working in international business and I thought that was the thing.

Gary Pageau: 2:26

But that was the time for it, right?

Joe Van Wyk: 2:28

I mean, I was going to be hot stuff, yeah yeah, early nineties, and I absolutely hated it. I just hated it. The cut and dry business world wasn't getting able to use any of this visual creativity at all that I was so good at, you know, growing up as a kid and always, you know, art classes, et cetera. So I really floundered. I ended up going to work at this little Christian bookstore with a music department in San Antonio, texas, and as just what started off to be just a short holiday season job. And that's when this chance encounter happened, this, this guy who came into the music store and I learned about his career.

Joe Van Wyk: 3:14

He was a graphic designer, huh, and he worked for this thing called a service bureau. What a service bureau is, as you know, gary, is it was the step between the graphic design shop, the ad agency, whatever, and the printing press. So we would do film output that they would use to burn the plates at the printing place and press and drum scanning and high end digital pre-press work that ended up morphing into either digital printing or the printers themselves took on that responsibility and they had those image setters and whatnot, and then it went direct to place. So suffice to say this encounter. I went to work for this company in sales, and so I learned everything about that whole field and how files were created.

Gary Pageau: 4:04

It was QuarkX Express at the time of course you mentioned a lot of old school stuff to me. Totally right. Quark Express.

Joe Van Wyk: 4:12

And I mean Quark for years before InDesign came on the scene. So I learned that field inside and out, started to kind of dabble in doing some graphic design myself, found that I had a real knack for it and after just about a year year and a half I ended up hanging out my own shingle and going and starting my own graphic design company. Had a client that I landed and that was my first client, Think Cigar Company in San Antonio, Texas, the oldest cigar company in the United States, and I did a catalog for Fink for 30 years, a print catalog. I'm actually getting ready. They haven't done one in a couple of years. I'm actually getting ready to do a little refresh, just so they have a print catalog. So that was the beginning of me getting into the graphic design field, publishing catalogs, branding work, and then eventually that led to me getting into photography and videography.

Gary Pageau: 5:18

Okay. So were you a one person shop or did you have employees? How, I mean, is that cause a lot of the people put out their shingle, right? That's kind of what they want to do is do their own thing. So you kind of had to take on videography and photography to satisfy clients, right?

Joe Van Wyk: 5:36

That was part of it, and it was also something that I just I had such a love for as from time I was a child actually photographs and and I so it was also kind of a a new career direction for me too.

Gary Pageau: 5:55

So, so so are you doing like professional shoots on the side as part of that I mean? I mean, as we're dealing at weddings and social events, as well as commercial work, as to where you're dealing at?

Joe Van Wyk: 6:04

weddings and social events as well as commercial work. Is that how that was working? Absolutely so the time frame that we're talking about is about 12 years ago, when I was doing, you know, professional photography and I would do events never did weddings. No way, no, how that's, I don't have the guts for that.

Joe Van Wyk: 6:23

Sorry but I did do a lot of events and portraiture. Portraiture was my main thing, absolutely Lighting and the whole bit, but the event. Meanwhile, I was starting to get heavily into street photography and building up my YouTube channel so you can see some of these videos up my YouTube channel. So you can see some of these videos. If you search for Joe Van Wyk on YouTube, I'm at J O E V A N W Y K on YouTube. All social media that's. That's my handle.

Joe Van Wyk: 6:54

And so I started to get into this form of street photography where I'd walk around with my Sony full frame camera, say with a 35 millimeter lens or or I might have a oh. There was a time I had a Leica Q. I love that camera, and so I would mount a GoPro onto the top of the camera and I'd be walking. So I was in Austin at the time.

Joe Van Wyk: 7:18

I moved here to Colorado five years ago and I would walk around the streets and approach people and hit them up to take their portrait. Some of them were people living on the streets, some of them were people just, you know, business people walking around, whatever. So I would record this interaction and how I worked with people and those videos really got popular and meanwhile I was working with some photography gurus who did workshops and stuff. So I'd go to New York and do that style of shooting. So I built up this YouTube channel and that is very much part of my story of recovery from at the time I went through. I've always had some struggles with depression and anxiety, but during those years in Austin it got really, really bad and I would go downtown and shoot these videos somehow muster that.

Joe Van Wyk: 8:20

You know that's the last thing you want to do is get off the couch and be, productive, right, but I would go down and shoot these videos and have these encounters with people and I would notice that when I got back to the car it was just like, oh my gosh, that was such a rush, like I like, like completely elevated walking on air.

Joe Van Wyk: 8:39

And I didn't completely elevated walking on air and I didn't call it mindfulness at the time, but what I was tapping into is this very intense, creative, active form of mindfulness and dropping out of this monkey mind of mine and down into my body and my senses. And so that was very much the genesis of the mindful photography field guide and I wrote these 15 practices for inner peace, you know, based on a lot of these experiences and then assimilating that. The book got put on a shelf about five years ago. This idea I had this idea back then thought it might be a therapeutic curriculum of some sort put it on the shelf and then a couple of years ago, I just decided you know what I'm going to do this thing, and so I've gone all in on it. I published it last April and I revived my YouTube channel and I'm out there making content again.

Gary Pageau: 10:05

So talk a little bit about, like, where you were at professionally when you were struggling with this, the dark period, the depression because you know, my guess is your career is probably doing fine, Right, and there are people who kind of struggle with they're doing great in their career business-wise but emotionally they're a mess. Is that what you were going through?

Joe Van Wyk: 10:28

I would say no because the career part of it. Well, I'll say no to the oh the career was a success. Yay, because in actuality I was hitting head on this transition in my career. I knew that the graphic design phase was coming to an end. I was having a hard time bringing on new clientele. I had a couple of very old clients that were with me forever. I knew that those were floundering and I and I just knew there was something else for me, career wise.

Joe Van Wyk: 11:05

Meanwhile just on a personal note, but I think this is relevant especially to the men listening to this Uh, there was a second marriage involved in all of this. That only lasted four years and I ended up marrying someone. So I was at that vulnerable part in my career and my journey and I was also kind of on the verge of this very depressive episode. I thought this was going to solve all my problems and I married someone who was very advanced in her profession. We were in very different places in that sense. So, as a man who puts so much of our identity in our career, it was really vulnerable. Here I am struggling and she's at the top of her game, et cetera, and I'm the man and I'm not even close to bringing in what she was bringing in et cetera.

Joe Van Wyk: 12:05

So I definitely think that that exacerbated the sense, the depression. But the depression is nothing but purposelessness. It's nothing but lack of hope, and so much of the hope that we find as men and humans is in our endeavors, in our purpose, in our career. So that was what had really turned upside down. Now, thank God, you got to turn that cup completely upside down and empty it before you can start over. So I think, looking back like 10 years ago, that was this point where I was shedding some of these preconceived notions of where I wanted to go with my career and where I was taking it and, inevitably, what I was capable of.

Gary Pageau: 12:51

So are you still doing the photography piece? You said you kind of walked away from the graphic arts and although think cigars, you're still doing their catalog arts and although think cigars, you're still doing their catalog.

Joe Van Wyk: 13:05

so are you a cigar smoker or are they just a uh, a no, because I'm an old. I used to smoke, you know, years ago, so I know the second. The whole time I've been in this cigar business, you know, I've never taken a puff off of a cigar because I know nicotine is nicotine baby and that's the last thing I want to do is try sampling some of the merch and, you know, end up smoking again.

Gary Pageau: 13:27

So so you're still doing the photography thing, so so you kind of focus on that, you're working on that, and you know I've been to your website. It's, it's lovely work. You know so clearly. You know what you're doing. So tell me about a little bit. About, first of all, what is mindfulness in your definition, because a lot of people use different things. Right, there's all kinds of mindfulness apps. I think my Apple Watch is trying to get me to be mindful all the time too. So in your context, what does that actually mean?

Joe Van Wyk: 13:55

Means presence to me? Sure, it means noticing, right here, in those last five seconds, I was kind of anticipating your next question. I was, I was starting to stray a little bit and now, right now, click, I'm fully with you, I'm fully present with this. You know, beautiful human in front of me that I'm interacting with, I care about you and like'm, I'm really valuing this brief time that we have together. I'm all in my senses are on you and my heart is with you. And I'm not thinking about impressing you or what the next thing is. I'm going to say so in this very moment. That's what that looks like.

Joe Van Wyk: 14:40

When it comes to photography, anybody who has, uh, passionately practices photography knows this. You know going out and and doing the thing, the creative thing that you're best at right, and that whole experience of oh my gosh, there's something wrong with the clock, it's showing that two hours just went by. That can't be right. Boom, that's mindfulness, when we just get completely lost in creation. Is this creative form of mindfulness? In the West, the mindfulness that has come about and that term and all is very much an agnosticized kind of mindfulness. But in the East, you know mindfulness and, like the Buddhist mindfulness, it's totally ingrained, threaded through the religion. So in my case it has felt like a little bit of an orphan experience or an oddball experience, because I am a deep believing Christian and I'm also really into this mindfulness thing.

Joe Van Wyk: 15:50

So, wait, is that compatible? Oh, I think it is, I think it is Absolutely. I mean, I can't imagine we, we can't experience God through just thinking, thinking, thinking Right, and part of the revelation of this book and part of what I talk. I'm open about my faith in the book, but I'm also passionate about no matter what your belief system is, whether it is or it isn't, these practices can help. They don't require the you know, the God concept. But, my goodness, those of us as Christians, if our whole world is just think, think, think and hear a scripture and study the Bible and yada, yada, then where is the time? Like the verse says, be still and know that I am God. Where is that time that we're spending? So I really really urge Christians to learn just basic meditation, like I did through this practice of centering prayer that I learned from the late Father Thomas Keating.

Gary Pageau: 16:54

So it's a Christianian infused book, but it's not necessarily for necessarily just for Christian people.

Joe Van Wyk: 16:59

If you're not a Christian, you'll get a lot out of the book anyway, the part about being open about my faith really is kind of at the beginning of the book. The practices themselves are a little more pure form of mindfulness, but it's a hope that I come from a perspective of reality, because we all come to this place, we're all calico cats of our belief system, our religion, everything. So we all come with some sense of a higher power and so I really want to be open about that and not pretend that okay, we'll put that on the shelf and we'll just talk about this benign.

Gary Pageau: 17:39

But you're also not saying you've got to do it my way to experience the mindfulness photography thing, right, oh, absolutely.

Joe Van Wyk: 17:48

Yeah, there's a. There's some quotes of scripture in this book, but there's also quotes from Eckhart Tolle.

Gary Pageau: 17:53

Okay, so so let's talk a little bit about some of the practices. Right In the book you talk about focus, capture and shine. What, what does that mean?

Joe Van Wyk: 18:03

It's a great question. Yeah, every one of these 15 practices has that, and so it's just a little formula that I came up with. I would say that what I've written in this book I sincerely hope it helps you and your listeners. But I wrote this book for me Like I had to get down in writing these revelations that I was having that were helping me so much. I knew that if I just focused on what is helping and healing me, that surely there are going to be other people out there who identify with this and that can be helped in the same way Highly sensitive people who are creatives, who struggle with depression and anxiety, maybe people who are kind of in my stage in life or, let's say, the 40 plus adventures out there.

Joe Van Wyk: 18:56

So focus part is so critical because these practices you can go out. Let's say it's today and I go, you know, tomorrow, oh, I'm going to go up to such and such trail and I'm going to go for a hike. I'm going to bring my smartphone with me, put it on airplane mode and I'm going to do the practice for out of the mindful photography field guide. All good, that's one way to use these practices, but really what's most important and effective for me is that there are these interventionary techniques. So focus, for instance. When I say focus, it means, let's say, I'm out in the wild, and it may be that I'm up on a trail in a beautiful forest and I should be just taking in the glory of God and so wonderful. But yet I'm up there and the monkey mind is churning faster than it ever has. You know, we can't escape that just by changing our environment, right? Or maybe I'm just taking a walk with the dog and I'm obsessing about somebody who's done me wrong. Boom, that's the moment where, hand on the heart, like you're saying the pledge of allegiance, where, hand on the heart, like you're saying the pledge of allegiance, hand on the heart and three belly breaths, we're dropping out of this monkey mind and into our body. So that's the first step, is intervening.

Joe Van Wyk: 20:22

The first step in any kind of mindfulness is noticing okay, I've been hijacked, my mind is in in a come, come back to presence. So it's focus on body and surroundings. Right then, and that process of doing that, I'm waking up to reality, my senses around me. So that's the focus part is hand on the heart, three belly breaths and opening our eyes to ground in the environment that we're in and then capture. Rather than capturing an award-winning photo, this is the point where we're just capturing the present moment. So if it is a walk with the dog, it may be that I decide to go out and capture photographs of five different kinds of leaves on trees that I see. No, not five different trees, but maybe I'm going to get zoomed way in and macro mode and take some veiny shots of individual leaves and then I'll have that collection to edit down when I get back. That would be capturing the present moment.

Joe Van Wyk: 21:29

And then the last step shine is to shine our light and bless others. I've been through a lot of programs, methodologies. I've been around this block for a long time on the whole depression thing and those emotional struggles, struggles of highly sensitive people. I haven't found a single effective program or methodology that doesn't emphasize service to others. So me shining my light and blessing others with these photographs, that completes the cycle.

Joe Van Wyk: 22:05

It's sort of like a beautiful Colorado stream and you go upstream and the beavers have been building a dam and next thing you know there's a stagnant pond up there that's not flowing anymore. We've got the service work and reaching out and loving others is an example of kind of tearing down that dam and letting God's love flow through the us and bless others. We're made this way. This is sort of like what you're doing right now, gary. This is a huge ministry to you. This is a huge form of of blessing others by helping people shine their light and put their message out there, and you know how that feels when you're, when you're serving that and you're letting that creativity flow through you and bless others.

Gary Pageau: 22:52

Well, that's nice. I did not think you were going to go to me with that, but that is true. I mean, you have to think about serving people as sort of your modus operandi for whatever you're doing. But I want to shift gears a little bit, because we're talking a little bit about gear. Speaking of shifting gears, we're talking about gear beforehand, and you're gonna let go of all your gear and focus on the smartphone. And you've got some nice stuff in terms of you know, you got prime lenses. You mentioned leica earlier. So there's no shortage of high quality photographic equipment in your life. But but why focus on the smartphone? Is it the technology or is it just the way the phone works?

Joe Van Wyk: 23:30

it is all of the above, okay. Like I said, I used to be so obsessed with gear that's a lot of photographers get into it.

Gary Pageau: 23:38

Right, they get into the the lens of this one and if I just buy that lens I'm going to be that much better. And you know I've got a leica, so I'm better than you and you know that sort of thing big time.

Joe Van Wyk: 23:51

That was me, that was, and time goes on. I'm starting to notice. Oh man, these iPhone cameras are getting better and better, and now the software behind them, that is well, just at night I just dropped a couple of videos on my YouTube channel. A couple of weeks ago I dropped this video, these, these new, this new video that I'm doing, this style that I'm doing I call walk around videos, and so I go out with a simple gimbal and my phone and just start walking around some of these beautiful places here.

Joe Van Wyk: 24:28

You see these. I mean it may be like nighttime in kyoto and somebody doing a walk around video or some mountain walk in Switzerland and I started noticing these and how cool and mindful they are. So I started to do these Joe van white kind of street photography style walk around videos. Now, some of these walk arounds are up in the forest, so I'm off completely. You never know I'm there, I'm not speaking anything. This all the sound is completely ambient sound. So when I'm doing a walk around up in the forest, you're hearing my feet clomp in the snow, but you're not hearing any commentary from me you're not swinging that thing around and doing a selfie, come on, you're missing an opportunity.

Gary Pageau: 25:16

You've been an influencer, man Right.

Joe Van Wyk: 25:19

And I'm doing some of that too. Plenty of those. So that's a forest example. But I'm also going around some of these small mountain towns I lived in and doing walk-arounds through town. Well, I've done a couple of these in Aspen in all its splendor, you know an opulence, aspen. But this week I just dropped I say you know what? What time is it now? 918 AM my time, at nine o'clock.

Joe Van Wyk: 25:46

The newest version dropped and that is me doing a how to video video, how I shot the aspen walk around video at night. So I actually do a commentary on top of this video. I've taken just the best of the best parts out of it and I'm explaining to people of the mentality of okay, folks notice, here I'm walking around and you see these people coming towards me. Okay, I'm letting them come towards me and now watch as I wrap around the backside of them and then head off in that direction. I love that. So I'm going through and doing that.

Joe Van Wyk: 26:22

So I'm hoping this will give people the opportunity to kind of learn my mindset and some of the techniques behind it, and we'll get out there and do their own, because it really is a mindful, immersive experience. It reminds me of street photography and that adrenaline rush when I was out there doing that. You know who Bruce Gilden is, obviously, yeah, brooklyn shooter, yeah. So for anybody who doesn't know, he's this older guy, he's still around, real tall guy, thick, new York, kind of obnoxious kind of guy seriously in your face.

Joe Van Wyk: 26:59

So he's using he happens to be using a like it. It doesn't matter, but he's got a big flash and a cable and he's people provoke a response out of people, right.

Joe Van Wyk: 27:10

So he's like in their face, camera right in their face, in a flash to pop. And when I first saw that, I was so blown away and I started doing some of that myself, at risk of life and limb, like I'm not sure that I would do that same thing today. In years ago I still felt somewhat safe enough to to do that. So I explain in this latest video that I dropped I actually have some B-roll of some of those Bruce Gilden style in your face shots and then fast forward to now where I'm not quite as ready to put life at limb at risk, and how I'm feeling that same kind of exhilaration. I'm making these walk around videos because you have encounters with people. As you're encountering people that you're meeting, say, on the sidewalk, they know you're shooting and you never, ever looked them in the eye. You're looking down, you're doing what you're doing and you're catching all of this activity going on. So it's like you yourself are walking through that scene, right.

Gary Pageau: 28:14

We got to talk a little bit about gear a little bit. So you're focusing on the iPhone. I see you've got probably you know a fairly recent iPhone, but is there a specific app or a specific thing you use for this? Do you use any like accessory lenses to screw on the front, or is it just the iPhone out of the box? And what apps do you?

Joe Van Wyk: 28:32

use the iPhone out of the box and what apps do you use? So I invested heavily in Sony gear, full frame Sony cameras, prime lenses and whatnot and, yes, like what you referred to it all. It's hard to even breathe when I think of it, but I am getting ready to sell it all off. I'm going all in. So what I'm using now is I've got the latest, greatest iPhone 16 Pro Max, like that Aspen walk around video at night. I shot that using this iPhone 16 Pro Max on a simple DJI gimbal and I was shooting in ProRes. Have you ever shot in ProRes?

Joe Van Wyk: 29:12

I have amateur Res, that's me have you ever shot in pro res? I am. I have amateur res, that's me. It's well, pro res is this apple codec? Yeah, yeah, it is a pipeline like huge, huge it's like raw format for video, kind of exactly.

Joe Van Wyk: 29:26

so 30 minutes of video shot in pro res is probably 150 to 200 gigabytes of video file. So moving those around and stuff is really, really tricky. But that's what I shot these nighttime. Walk around videos on it and you're just going to be blown away by the quality. And if I had shot that with my Sony I currently have a Sony a seven four If I'd shot that on, say, a, my gm 24 millimeter 1.4 lens, it would not have looked close to that good, because it's not doing the magic that the iphone is doing, not only through that, that codec and that high-res video capability.

Joe Van Wyk: 30:10

That's beyond just just a, a simple 4k, but also it's part of the software. It's part of the codec and it's part of that software. I don't care how it's getting there. All I care is that shot looks amazing and I'm doing it on something that I can slide into my pocket. I actually do have two.

Joe Van Wyk: 30:31

I soon learned that I really needed two iPhones. Sometimes I'll shoot the shooter and do some B-roll of me using a phone and I'm shooting it with another, or I'll have the phone on a gimbal in front of me and then my second phone, say ultra-wide mode showing techniques that I'm doing. So having two of these is great. Wireless mic setup when I'm delivering so having two of these is great Wireless mic setup doing when I'm delivering videos here in my studio. I'm using this front facing cinematic mode, blurry background, and then using this killer mic that I'm talking into now, USB-C mic, plugged directly into my iPhone. I don't have to tell you the the hassle of doing that with a professional setup. Right, and it takes the fun away from it. That's the main thing, yeah.

Gary Pageau: 31:24

That's what I'm saying. You've radically simplified, simplified your, your gear environment.

Gary Pageau: 31:29

So you can focus on what you're doing but no so so you're just using the out of the box apps. You're not using any kind of uh, specialized. It makes there's a lot of great apps. I mean I can rattle off a bunch of apps I use regularly for cameras. You know, camera plus is a great one, halide's a great one. Um, you know, I mean I've got, I got my preference, but you're just using what's what's, what comes stock in the camera I am.

Joe Van Wyk: 31:51

Whenever I have the opportunity to go stock, to go native, I do. Adding. Just throwing in third-party stuff just complicates it. Now there is one thing that I'm dying to try is the final cut app right for the iphone that lets you shoot. If I'm, it lets. It gives you a lot more choices manual choices, whatever but you know, when I'm shooting out on this iPhone yes, I'm, I'm getting as technical as making sure that I'm shooting. You know, 24 frames per second. You know, shooting in 4k, that's all fine and dandy, but I could care less about some ND filters. That's going to kick myself into.

Joe Van Wyk: 32:35

You know, having 180 degrees shutter, blah, blah, blah and all of those correct ways to shoot manually that I just don't need because nobody can tell the difference really a real world person, and again, it just takes the fun out of it. That's what this tool reminds. It reminds me of when I was a kid just having fun with something and not having to worry about all the technical settings, not to mention the audio. Just, even without an external mic, the audio is so fantastic on these iPhones. Did you know that these have mics? I think this new one has like five different mics, front and back. So when I'm shooting these walk around videos and you have some killer headphones or something, it totally sounds like surround sound You're hearing noises coming out of your back.

Gary Pageau: 33:31

Left front's really something so yeah, I mean because they're trying to push you towards the vision pro, obviously the spatial audio and all that, all that stuff, sure. So I'm just curious, do you expect, if you're doing like your professional work to do? You know you're going to show up at a corporate headshot shoot with this setup. Do you think clients are going to accept that, or do they just care about the results?

Joe Van Wyk: 33:57

Professionally, I'm done. Oh, okay, all right. Okay, I'm done with that. Okay, so anybody in the I know you even recently you've had some guests that are into portraiture. But I'll tell you, gary, I don't want to be in the headshot field right now. Oh, thank you when I can upload a crappy, you know selfie of myself and have AI create some killer business photo out of it. Okay, I know, maybe it's not there 100%. What I could do with a headshot of you would rock your world, but are people really willing to pay for it? I think that business model is done, dead gone.

Joe Van Wyk: 34:42

Shooting events Nope, still a valid market for that. However, how many people are chasing after that work right now? So that's part of me being quote that gear. Now I will say this I actually have another gig. It's a part-time gig, kind of a three quarter time gig, working as a marketing coordinator for a local parks and recreation district. So I'm still shooting with and so happens, I've fortunately convinced them to buy a sony a74 and a 35 to 150 zoom. So I'll still have that in a pinch when I'm doing things like sports and kids running around in a field or whatever. So I still have that. But yeah, this is part of that. Going all in is me admitting that all of this gear that I have that's collecting dust right now is really holding me back. I'm done. I'm really ready to transition to this next phase, and I have and I'm all in.

Gary Pageau: 35:45

So, people, if anyone else wants to go all in on mindful photography, where would they go for more information about mindful photography and your book?

Joe Van Wyk: 35:56

You know that is a fantastic question. I'm glad you asked Mindfulphotographyorg. Go there, check it out. Please sign up for my newsletter. You're going to find a link to the book on Amazon, to the mindful photography field guide, or just search for it on Amazon. But I'd also love you to just seek out my YouTube channel. Really, youtube is is the social platform that I'm I'm focusing on. So all of these videos that I'm referring to, whether they be instructional or these walk around videos, they're all on my YouTube channel at Joe van Wyk on YouTube.

Gary Pageau: 36:34

And does, does Frankie the doodle appear on your any of your videos?

Joe Van Wyk: 36:38

Frankie the doodles there. He's my companion on this five year journey that I've been on. It's he's been the most amazing companion. He's a great mountain dog too Awesome.

Gary Pageau: 36:51

Well, great Joe, great to meet you, great to talk. I love talking photography with people who are super passionate about it, and we'll be sure to check out the book Mindful Photography at mindfulphotographyorg. Take care, thank you, Gary.

Erin Manning: 37:04

Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixel Society podcast. Read more great stories and sign up for the newsletter at wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.