I dipped my toes into the idea of Vlogging some time last year, only by way of making videos of my trips away for friends and family. Besides giving them a bit of a laugh it also sparked in me the idea that perhaps it was a good way of helping me to cope with some other personal things and giving me something else to think about and do when out and about.
At the back of last year a new Facebook group was setup called SheClicks which I joined, as it promised to be a great forum for fellow female photographers to share images and expertise and potentially meetup. Part of the group is a mentoring system and this allows fellow photographers to mentor or be mentored by each other. I picked up a few mentees who were interested in developing creative skills to use in their photography, like textures, compositing, using a Lightpad and other creative photographic techniques.
I already had a YouTube Channel so I decided it would be easier to make use of it and post up videos showing how I work and offer creative tips on producing creative images.
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Initially I decide to just make screen capture type instructional videos as these would be the easiest to make and involve little outlay, so I had to look around for suitable screen recording and editing software. I opted for 2 open source applications, OBS for screen recording and Shotcut for video editing. I’ve been using these now for a while and have to say I am quite happy with the way they work and the features they have included in them.
I’m not trying to be an ace vlogger, there are plenty more people out there who far better than me at this malarkey, but I thought it would also be interesting to show people where I get me inspiration for some of the creative work I do. This means doing some video in the field.
Up to now I’ve been using my little Canon S120 for recording video but I realised I need something a bit more sophisticated if I wanted to do it seriously. I am a Fuji XT2 shooter so using this camera is an obvious choice when it comes to recording. The only thing I have found with it, is the internal microphone is not particularly good so I’ve had a look around for other options. I decided to go with the Rode VideoMicro which is compact, requires no battery, fits perfectly on the hot shoe and comes with furry windshield. As far as I can see it seems to be quite a good little microphone, but I’ve yet to try it in the field so we’ll see..
So far I’ve created about 15 mostly instructional videos and one Out and About video and I have to say the response to them has been fantastic and the support from everyone has been great.
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