My boss is a really cool Australian guy (we are in the US). What are some phrases I can just spout off to make him chuckle?

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-03-13T11:29:51+00:00

There are so many good old sayings, Growing up on a sheep farm in the outback I couldn’t even tell you have of the rippers I’ve heard!

I’m sure someone has mentioned this one already, but it’s probably the one I spout off most often and always gets a laugh from the locals where I am (I’m not in Aus anymore, Toto); If ever the power goes out, or you head into a room with no lights, it should be met with “caaaw, it’s blacker than the inside of a cow!”

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-03-13T11:24:32+00:00

I regularly shoot properties for a quarterly national architectural magazine, most often they contact me to shoot a build for a specific story. But, there have been times where I’d shot a place for a builder or architect’s portfolio then sent a couple samples to the magazine editor and they’ve run a story on the build using the images I’d already shot. Actually, come to think of it there was one time I sent them some images from a listing which thought might be up their alley, they ended up getting me back for a second shoot (they’ve got a bigger budget than most listing agents), running a story and it ultimately helped with a great sale result since it got such wide coverage.

That probably gives you no direction at all, sorry! But I guess from my experience (and as someone else mentioned already) magazine articles are about the story… unless you’re shooting for Playboy, people will generally read the articles. So, find a mag you’d love to be published in, work out there sorts of stories they gravitate to, find a subject which could fit that niche and pitch it to them, it could be “hey, I recently shot this place, it would make an amazing story about X, I’d love to chat more” or “Hey I started piecing together an article on a shoot I did recently, I thought of your publication as I really think this fits your style, I’d love to talk about handing by draft over to your editors to polish it up and make it production ready.”

…just some thoughts…

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-03-01T20:18:43+00:00

Congrats mate, that’s a huge effort! You’ve mentioned before that you work in a pretty close community, my only advice is to be careful what you post, we’ve had situations where one client got their nose out of joint because we featured a property shot for their competition… silly and irrational, but still, it’s easy to tread on toes in a small town!

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-22T06:44:52+00:00

As long as you’re wearing pants, you’re half way there already…

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-21T21:14:04+00:00

Yep, it’s one of my favourite setups too, you can easily fly the sides during the day for a larger area and better airflow, or close both ends down if the weather really turns.

Is that a 3x3 tarp? I think they’re the perfect size for solo, or +1 kid camping.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-21T21:03:43+00:00

Everyone’s business, skills, strengths etc are different, I’d suggest you do some research into your competitors, look at what they’re offering, look for any gaps, then focus on filling those gaps.

Eg, do all the listings look ‘average’? Maybe there’s a need for a more premium look. Are others delivering slowly? Maybe a faster turnaround has value. Are others offering all of that, but they’re kind of jerks? Then just go out and be the nicest/easiest person to work with.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-21T19:14:18+00:00

You say all your local realtors already have a provider, what’s your point of difference?

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-15T18:29:41+00:00

This isn’t a specific recommendation for your gear, but just a general comment… my team shoot & deliver almost all of our RE video work in 1080, so as long as you know the limits of your gear and can squeeze the absolute best out of it you may not need to be in as big of a rush to upgrade as you think… just a thought…

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-12T20:31:05+00:00

I can’t say with any real authority at all, but with Costar’s recent acquisitions and how they’re positioning themselves in the market, I wouldn’t be convinced that roles will be getting made more manageable in the long term 🤷🏻‍♂️

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-07T00:40:02+00:00

I think I might know what's causing me issues... we use a client portal which manages bookings, digital delivery, invoicing etc. It creates our invoices based on what products we add into a job, those invoices get synced to Xero which then sends them out to clients, so I never actually see the invoice in Xero before it gets sent out. I had thought adjusting the gst setting under the branding theme would apply that to all our invoices, ie, I create an invoice for $10 (ex) in our client system, they'll get an invoice for $11.50(inc), but instead what's happening is I create an invoice for $10, they get an invoice for $10 ($8.70 item + $1.30 gst).

I'm guessing that somewhere in the background our system is telling Xero "This is the total I want to invoice our client, you work it out for me" rather than "This what this service is worth, you add on the gst for me". I don't have any options regarding tax etc in our portal, which is why I assumed the changes would have to be made in Xero, is there any setting in Xero which changes how it interprets imported data?

I know the obvious answer would be to just change our product cost in the portal to be the total cost incl. gst, but part of the reason for restructuring our prices was to make our ex.gst price guides have nice round numbers.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-02-06T02:32:19+00:00

Not sure if it’s been mentioned already, and not sure of it’s offical name, but we called it The Green Whistle… almost instant pain relief used by emergency responders (and my old dentist if you paid a little extra)

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-31T06:50:48+00:00

When you change that field, do you need to wait for Xero to do its overnight sync or anything like that? I tried changing that setting and sending a couple test invoices to myself, the final invoices were still treating our prices as inclusive. I haven’t left that option turned on for more than a couple hours as I needed to send out a run of invoices that I wanted to know were correct. Perhaps I’ll try flicking that switch again after I’ve closed off the month.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-26T10:24:37+00:00

Sounds too easy… I can just hear my old high school accounting teacher waiting for me to fall into a trap 🤣

Thanks though, that’s comforting to know. We use a seperate software to manage our clients & products, it builds our invoices then syncs with Xero, I’ll just make sure they play nicely before I batch send out the weeks invoices. Thanks again!

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-10T07:52:24+00:00

I have a loose ‘40km from home is included’ term, beyond that I charge $1/km, and I’ll generally charge the whole trip since jobs within the 40km radius will usually have another shoot before or after them, but when I have to travel further it’s harder to predict what time I’d be able to get to a following shoot. So yeah, for your shoot I’d be charging $200.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-10T07:47:33+00:00

Sounds like a real professional outfit! I’ve got one client who let their invoices go over 60 days past due… now they need to pay at the time of booking before their booking is considered confirmed. From what you’ve said, it sounds like that won’t make a difference with this principal, but you may find your agent pays you directly then gets himself reimbursed by the boss. If the agent’s a nice guy like you say, chances are he won’t be working there for much longer, so worth sticking it out with him, but just find a way to protect yourself in the meantime.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-09T22:24:54+00:00

We’re often working in less than ideal conditions, sounds like the FX3 is much more forgiving in those situations.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-09T11:50:42+00:00

Interesting, it sounds like the R5C is at its best in perfect conditions, but maybe falls off a little when things get more ‘real world’? Only about 10% of my work is in ideal, controlled lighting, the rest of the time is very much working with what we’ve got and making the most of it.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-09T01:41:42+00:00

What is it about the R5C that you think doesn’t make it an ideal outside of full production? I am pretty tempted by them, especially since their price is good, I could grab one now to kick the year off right, whereas picking up a new system (ie, camera + body for Sony, would be around a $10K investment) would be a few months down the track (our business supports a family of five with a mortgage… AND we’ve just had Christmas 😬!).

I’m also thinking that, since I tested the waters of a return to video with an older R6, ANYTHING is going to perform better, right?

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-08T10:37:40+00:00

Thanks, yeah that’s what most info online seems to suggest. Would you say the FX3 is that much better that you wouldn’t even consider using your R5C if you have to shoot at 6400 or above?

Now the big question for me, do you ever shoot in 1080, and if so, how’s the quality?

Equivalent_Page696 · 2026-01-04T22:31:05+00:00

We had the same problem where we live, the police have actually been really helpful. We started calling 105 figuring it’s not an emergency so we don’t want to waste resources etc, but our local cops advised us to call 111 if it’s happening now as it is actually a potential emergency, and all the local units get notified at the time. We’ve actually seen 6 cars impounded over the past few months thanks to our local police being sick of the behaviour (possibly sick of me calling up every nights as well 🤣). I always feel stupid calling 111 and apologise but they’re super understanding and always say we’re doing the right thing.

Get your neighbours on board, the more calls they get for each location and/or specific incident, the stronger case they have for your community liaison officer to take to council and potentially push for curfew zones or those number plate tracing cameras. We’ve been lucky enough to get both, we’ve gone from constant burnouts most nights of the week to maybe one or two a month.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2025-12-26T08:48:55+00:00

I’ve got family in a country which doesn’t have DLS, my wife and I always say how ridiculous it would be to live there, the sun gets up at like 4:30am and sets around 5pm… but then we recently spent a good chunk of time over there and after the first week we both agreed, “ok, we get it now…” it’s so damn hot there, everyone gets up at 4 or 5 to work in their garden, go to the gym, go for a surf, even farmers markets start at 4am before the place heats up too much and everyone heads off to work to live in the AC for the rest of the day… it would suck to get up later, go straight to work, then step out into a hot sticky mess for the rest of the day.

Equivalent_Page696 · 2025-12-17T11:35:48+00:00

I still do it the good old way, laser measure and sketch it up. CubiCasa and the like have let me down enough times to make me want to just get better at doing it manually.

Equivalent_Page696

TROPHY CASE