Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres - Episode 2 - Making Changes.

Getting genuine feedback on something you've created is never easy.

As mentioned in my post on the build up to starting the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres podcast, (see Going Live on Tuesday at 7.30pm), most people are terrified of causing offense, so will either praise us unnecessarily, or stay silent, which gives us a skewed idea of our abilities.

So when I asked a few people what they thought of Episode 1, a lot of what I got was encouragement and compliments. Which, don't get me wrong, is lovely to hear, but isn't necessarily going to help me improve.

However, my son Rogan was brilliant. He has a unique combination of:
a) being in his early 20s, so has a far better natural grasp of youtube, social media, and moving in this online world,
b) having grown up as the son of a Philosophy graduate, so is far more interested in dissecting and deconstructing a problem than praising someone,
c) relished the opportunity to be able to be in a more knowledgeable and superior position than his Dad, and
d) just being an all round nice bloke who's happy to help.

So we spent a long evening on a Skype call going over the various aspects – what worked, what didn't, and areas that could be improved.

In this coming episode, changes you might notice include:
- space for the podcast title and other social media outlets where you can find me
- I've changed the lighting so it no longer looks like I have 2 stripes on my face from the way the overhead lights were refracting through my glasses. It also means you can see my eyes more easily
- I no longer keep reaching round behind me to grab the glass each time I take a sip of water

A lot of the rest of it will just come with practice.

The nervousness with which I introduced the first episode does make me cringe when I watch it back. But the introduction in the second episode was even worse, because now you could see my eyes and make out the sheer terror more clearly. It was so bad, in fact, that before I uploaded it to youtube, I re-recorded the beginning.

However, once I settle into the flow and stop being so self conscious, I seem to come across much better.

I know this comes from having to read a script for the intro, in case I forget anything. I am terrible at remembering things word for word, so have to write it down. But reading it off the screen means I'm not looking at the camera. So my eyes end up darting back and forth and I'm hideously aware of how bad it looks.

Hopefully this will get easier with each episode.

I have to remember, I've only done 2 of these things so far, so it's only human if I don't have it perfect straight away.

It's still better to have something out there, and to be learning the craft of presenting an online podcast, than doing nothing.

So here is Episode 2, originally broadcast on Facebook Live. And once you get past the introduction, I'm sure you'll find it much more engaging.

Fortunately I finally managed to sort out the problem with youtube, so this recording is now there. Do please click subscribe as once I get up to a certain number of followers, there are more options available to me - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres?sub_confirmation=1



If you'd rather skip to a particular section, here's a contents list:
0:46 - Thank you to those who gave me feedback on last week's episode
1:30 - Deconstructing photo of tailor, Andrew Livingston
7:07 - Introduction to Rule of Thirds
09:18 - Rule of Thirds indepth demonstration
18:44 - Critiques of submitted photos and Q&As

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/