Weekly Recap #17: "Creating Content"
This past week has basically been a culmination of what I've learned about content creators/youtubers/bloggers/vloggers etc. I started this blog last father's day & I've been slowly but surely navigating my way through this whole realm of being a "content creator". Its a really interesting thing, & some people are REALLY REALLY good at it, which makes trying to enter into this world a bit intimidating, & I still have so much to learn.
What originally attracted me to the idea of starting to blog again, doing mini photography tip vlogs on Instagram, & starting a YouTube channel was the fact that my friends & family constantly ask me sooooo many questions about photography & video that I figured this would be the perfect way to basically have an on going FAQ type of reference that has more thought out answers in the form of video or blogposts with helpful links & actual examples of the products I own being used. The universal friend-of-a-photographer question is, "What camera should I get?" This question is so loaded & the answer is always unique to each individuals needs & the opinion of each photographer in question. This is why the world of content creating has become so useful, there's rarely one universal answer that will work for everyone, or one style of delivery that is enjoyed by all. So what avenues was I going to choose to approach my responses to my FAQs? I figured the blog would be the best avenue to explore first due to the fact that you can immediately start writing & it takes the least amount of production. I also thought it was the best way to keep an online journal to connect with other creative parents on the level of "Being a parent is fun" but also the "You're not alone in this" factor that we all need a reminder of from time to time. With all the travel blogs & single content creators out there, this gives me the chance to connect to my audience on a slightly different level, & on a level that I know I also need advice on constantly. Next I began to explore doing 1-minute tips & tricks videos about photography & video on Instagram & Facebook. The cool thing about these videos is it gives me the chance to teach. I was briefly a photography teacher for 2 years, but found that it took too much time from my family & from availability for my photo & video business. I also enjoy the challenge & the chance that doing these 1-minute videos give me to try an improve on my "public" speaking. There are so many instructional videos out there that ramble on forever or have so many side stories that by the time you get to the end of the video you forget the original reason why you were watching it in the first place. I enjoy this challenge of trying to stick to a singular subject & cover it as clearly & quickly as possible. There is SO much room for improvement I can make here, & I plan on trying to improve that craft more & more every week. The last avenue I wanted to explore was actually one of the first ideas I had, I just knew it would be the most difficult to pull off, seeing that it would involve other people. While I have over 15 years of experience in photography & video, I have also enjoyed so many other creative outlets over the years like drawing, design, cooking, music, & even woodworking, but I would never claim to be in expert in those subjects. The blog & 1-minute videos are basically all of my own insights to photography & fatherhood, so the idea of doing interviews of other creative dads & really developing a "network" of shared knowledge sounded most intriguing because I can explore so many more ideas outside of just my own expertise. By doing this, I have the opportunity to learn something new & have an awesome excuse to hang out with other dads that I appreciate & look up to. I have been contacting other creatives for the past few months about this idea & have had several of them get pretty excited about the project & contribute different ideas that we may explore along the way, but the current focus will be these interviews. The first interview I've landed is of my very talented friend, Leif Skartland. I really enjoyed his responses & the crazy thing is, we probably hung out for around an hour after one of his shows & I'm only giving you 5 minutes of the interview. I may have to release another video with some of his other great insights as this series goes on. The time spent with Leif was so valuable & I'm excited to see all the different insight I'm going to gather from this process of interviewing other dads. Please be sure to subscribe to the Creative Dad Youtube Channel to keep up with the latest interviews & without further ado, here is Episode 1:
