Tag Archives: video

Photography

A Return To Harbin Park

Path in Harbin Park
Path in Harbin Park (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)

Harbin Park in Fairfield, Ohio is an interesting place. It is a city park, yet doesn’t feel like one as it is bigger than most. While it contains the typical basket ball and volleyball courts and covered picnic pavilions, it is also a target rich environment for Geocaches. It was this outdoor past-time that first lead me to Harbin Park on a regular basis. It is photography that brings me back.

Star Wars and Home Brewing Day (May, 4th) beckoned many to the outdoors as it was the first warm Saturday of the year. The passing clouds and wind kept one from being too warm and many took advantage. It was time to take advantage and shoot some video. Several people had been sending questions via YouTube and it was time to answer some.

Many ideas flowed through the brain: depth of field, rear curtain flash, HDRI. Which would survive the truth of the situation? Which would be forgotten? What new ideas would arrive once there and walking around? Oh the possibilities.

The first two videos are up on YouTube: Photography in Harbin Park – Intro and Being on the Path – Harbin Park. While walking down a wide path, a new opportunity came about. It was time to get the iPhone out to discuss how to get a blue sky. This is one of the most common questions asked of me. So, here’s the demonstration.

Visit the videos and enjoy. More editing is to be done and more videos will follow. Send your questions in. It is time to learn and explore photography. It is time to explore your own Harbin Park. It is time to get out and see the world through the lens.

Have fun!

 

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Random Musings

Announcing a new video challenge

Image representing YouTube as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

It is time for something different. It is time to push the boundaries of our experiences. It is time to get out of our comfort zones. It is time for a video challenge. It is time for the June 2012, Video Challenge!

There have been other challenges on YouTube. Some were to make a video a day. Others to shoot twice a week. Some were on a give topic: photography, marketing, introductions, etc. Others had none. This challenge needs to be something different. Something not yet seen. Something real.

Today I did shoot the video announcing the challenge and it will get created and posted. Here is the announcing blog post. What better place than a blog about the future? What are the rules, you ask? They are quite simple.

Rules for the challenge

  1. Have fun – above anything, before everything, have fun making your videos.
  2. Do anything – make a video about cheese, make one showing the wind, it doesn’t matter. Make what ever you want. Capture motion, computer generated, PowerPoint screen capture, it doesn’t matter.
  3. Get out of your box – do something you’ve never done before, go somewhere you’ve never been. Usually make videos inside? Go out? Like the outdoors, do one in the city. Use new techniques and ideas. Explore. Expand.
  4. Runs to the end of June, 2012

That’s it, other than the YouTube guidelines, of course. Post one a day or six. Post as much and as little as you like. It doesn’t matter. The whole point of the challenge is to get out there and go stuff.

Ready. Set. Go!

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Commentary

Like, have fun dude!

Over and over, the same mistakes get made when marketing. It matters little if it is a video or a blog post or a capture page. All have the same mistake, the same theme. They are all too serious.

The video

In the video, the person pitching the latest and greatest whatever is well dressed and groomed. Other than their mouth, they hardly move. After all, they have a serious business to offer. They want to be taken seriously. Therefore, they are serious, so they present serious. Is there any other way?

Write to me

Blog posts that fall into the too serious category are long and boring. They ramble on and on, use eloquent and awkward speech, and seem as though their authors have swallowed a Thesaurus. The grammar is near perfect, punctuation correct and don’t have contractions. Readers leave nearly as quickly as the arrive.

Combining all of the worst

The long landing pages combine all of the bad aspects of videos and blog posts. They go on and on. The never-ending text is only interrupted by bad videos. The text is laid to use all the colors of the rainbow, multiple font sizes, bold and underline. The content is bad enough, so the author assaults the reader every which way. Oh good grief.

Have fun

Why all the seriousness? Lighten up a bit. Don’t be sophomoric. Be entertaining! Be Lively! Get your point across clearly in a relaxed manner. Don’t worry about perfection, worry about value. Introduce a comma, splice to see if anyone is paying attention. Sure, get the spell and grammar correct (at least mostly), but not to the point of awkward absurdity. After all, this is a post to get attention and make a connection. It is not a term paper or a doctoral thesis.