The images in this article were captured by Justin Castles using the Canon R5ii and R1 with the RF 50mm F1.2 lens
Over the weekend of 11 to 13 October, Justin (Lucky Straps founder) and I (Lucky Straps groupie) traveled to Bright in northeastern Victoria for a photography experience like no other. We loaded up the Lucky Straps van with straps, gloves, merch (coming to the website soon), and enough camera gear to photograph a space shuttle launch and made our way to BFOP! What’s BFOP, I hear you ask? That’s an excellent question, dear reader!
BFOP is the Bright Festival Of Photography, an annual photography festival coordinated by Matt Krumins and Nick Fletcher - a pair of highly respected Australian photographers. Now in its eighth year, BFOP is a three-day festival packed to the brim with photography workshops and experiences, after-hours shenanigans, and organized chaos. Beyond the thinly veiled pretense of structured proceedings, BFOP proved to be one of the most essential photography community events on the calendar. Join me as I unpack the Lucky Straps X BFOP experience and describe what proved to be an amazing opportunity professionally and personally.
If you would like to listen to Just and Greg chat about their BFOP Experience, you can check out this episode of The Camera Life Podcast.
You can also listen to the episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
It Wouldn’t Be BFOP Without Bright
The annual Bright Festival Of Photography is held in one of the most beautiful locations on the map. Bright is located a little over 300km northeast of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The town sits in the valley at the base of Mount Buffalo, Mount Hotham, and the Alpine National Park. The Ovens River casually meanders through the centre of town and provides a gentle and lulling soundtrack to the town's stunning beauty. I trained from Melbourne to Seymour, and Justin, who had driven from Bendigo (the home of Lucky Straps), picked me up in Seymour. We drove the remaining two hours marveling at the lush countryside and pondering what our first BFOP had in store.
Typically a snowsport and mountain biking destination, the BFOP Team transforms the town of Bright, its natural assets, and community locales into fairgrounds for the visually inspired. Workshops were held in and around Bright and featured locations, including the aforementioned mountain regions, senior citizen centres, sports pavilions, and private homes. It was not uncommon to see giant packs of photographers roaming the streets of Bright with cameras in hand.
The Business Of Workshops
Every year, the BFOP team prepares for what can only be described as a global internet showdown. BFOP has become so popular that photographers bribe their ISPs to boost bandwidth and assure them of a successful ticket purchase and workshop booking. BFOP 2024 offered over 120 workshops, equating to around 2500 places run by 40+ of the country's best photographers. Given that this was our first BFOP, Justin and I thought the sensible thing to do was to livestream our workshop booking on YouTube. In the lead-up to the booking date, the BFOP team warned everyone that the rush would be so great you would either miss a desired workshop, the website would crash, or the sky would turn blood red!
While the early morning sky remained blue and the site slowed but was stable, we didn’t get into all the workshops we hoped for. The beauty of the BFOP schedule is that if you miss a workshop, there are dozens throughout each day to take part in. Besides, booking a workshop in a photography genre that you’ve never shot before is enticing - there’s a lot to learn, even for a pair of crusty Lucky boys! The range of BFOP workshops was impressive and included every possible genre of our craft. Workshops covered everything from food and portrait, to Shibari and nude light painting.
BFOP HQ
The nerve centre of BFOP is the Bright Community Centre - rebranded as BFOP HQ to offer weary travellers and photographers alike a place of respite, inspiration, information, and a great coffee or meal. During the day, BFOP participants frequented BFOP HQ in between their scheduled workshops to talk with peers, make new friends, grab a burger from the Alpine Platter food truck, or check out some of the gear on show. While Matt and Nick are the masterminds of BFOP, the show wouldn’t go on without the support of the big brands and retail vendors. For the first time at BFOP 2024, Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, Tamron, Wandrd, Laowa, NiSi, and OM Systems attended to offer essential BFOP backing, customer service, prizes, and loan gear.
Justin managed to get his hands on the yet-to-be-released Canon R1. Seeing a grown man behave like a kid on Christmas morning was adorable! That’s right, the team at Canon Australia loaned Justin the Canon R1 to take out and about for a test. All of the big brands offered customer support and loan gear throughout the weekend. As a result, many BFOP participants found themselves lined up at the Camera House Croydon tables, more than ready to hand over bags of cash in exchange for some new kit. BFOP HQ even hosted a pop-up bar selling the finest beers and ciders from Bright Brewery. I found Justin there on more than one occasion with a cold tinny in hand chatting to a fellow BFOPer.
BFOP After Hours Shenanigans
While HQ was a calm and comforting place during the day, it became a place of madness after dark. On the Friday and Saturday nights, Nick and Matt hosted what could only be described as a photographer’s fever dream. The pair whipped up the 550 BFOP attendees into a cult-like trance as they held charity auctions, quizzes, cosplay competitions, prize giveaways, and lunatic-level games and activities that involved the entire crowd. The pair even convinced someone to smash their ageing Sony only to win a brand new Nikon Z camera. It was a delight being involved in such an amazing community based experience.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the Friday night After Dark event that saw participants dress up in goulish costumes. Once the stage events had ended, we all wandered outside to find fire pits, fire twirlers and light performers plying their craft in the evening darkness. We all casually wanded a candle-lit path to watch, appreciate, and photograph the performers while a mesmerising soundtrack echoed. As if that wasn’t enough, it was announced that Aurora Australis was highly active and many scooted to nearby dark locations and even mountain tops to catch a glimps and a shot.
Community At Its Core
If you’ve been reading my blogs here on Lucky Straps, you’ll know that I’m all about community and the importance of connecting with other visual creatives. BFOP was a masterclass in community activity, appreciation, and involvement. The Bright Festival Of Photography showed us that we participate in a very special craft where people from all walks of life come together to hunt the light and capture precious moments in time. Further to that, everyone at Bright was so engaged in the opportunity and experience of connecting with like minded folk, offering assistance, or even car pooling to workshop locations.
We met so many amazing, funny, talented, and personable peers at BFOP. And it wasn’t just surface level niceties either! People connected at a raw level (as opposed to a JPEG level - sorry) and shared their stories, journeys, and experiences. The same was true for each of the workshop instructors who brought to the table raw talent and equally raw life experience. There were tears at more than one workshop and I made many new friends along the way.
The Lucky Straps Experience
Justin and I had an absolute blast at our first BFOP experience and we appreciate all that Matt, Nick, their partners, and the greater BFOP team achieved. I’ve never experienced an event like it and have learned so much about my photography, approach to the craft, and how our community works. Of course, while we were there for the workshops, people, events, food truck, and great coffee, we were also on the clock as Lucky Straps ambassadors. We lost count of the amount of times people engaged wth us to comment on the Lucky Straps brand, tell us a story of their first Lucky Strap, or say they recognised us from our podcast.
Justin, Jim, and I run a weekly photography podcast on YouTube known as The Camera Life - you should check it out. What’s more, we had the opportunity to talk to many people about the Lucky brand, products, and showcase some of the products Justin had brought along. In the leadup to BFOP, we also offered participants a special Lucky Strap with BFOP branding. It was so great to engage with people and share the Lucky Straps experience.
On our ride home from BFOP, Justin and I reflected on what was an incredible weekend. While it was our first time attending the Bright Festival Of Photography, it certainly won’t be our last. We are already making plans for BFOP 2025 and how we, and Lucky Straps can be involved in meaningful and creative ways. All images by Justin Castles - captured as part of his workshop of storytelling with photography.
