Who's Watching? And Episode 9 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres
Last night's Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres was the longest yet – just shy of 1½ hours.
See what happens when there's no one to interrupt me?
I've always been a bit of a blether, but I'm a listener too. I want to know the thoughts and ideas of the person I'm in conversation with, so this usually means I'm not talking the entire time. But the podcasts, by their nature, are very much a one-sided affair.
I think I'm slowly moving past the awkwardness of talking into a little round webcam rather than having a real live face to interact with. Although not having anyone to nod or grunt and let me know they've understood what I've said means I'm quite probably over-explaining things.
The problem is I have no idea of the level of expertise and understanding the viewers/listeners have. And of course that will be mixed. There are bound to be some who wish I'd gone into a little more detail, and others who "got it" ages ago and wish I'd move on a bit quicker.
The unnaturalness of just talking to a webcam is certainly being helped now that I'm interacting a bit more with the Facebook Comments.
I don't think anyone realises just how lovely it is just for someone to say "Hi Kim" and let me know someone is out there.
And if they make a comment about something in the podcast, or ask a question, then it helps to make me feel validated in what I'm doing.
I definitely felt the flow of Episode 9 was pretty good. I'm no longer tripping over the technology like I was in the earlier episodes, and I found I had plenty to talk about with the photo I was discussing and the images that had been put in for Critique.
Mind you, whether anyone is actually listening to it all is still something of an unknown.
The Facebook Metrics seem to indicate I was averaging between 12 and 17 live viewers throughout, but then the stats also say I had 177 views and the average view time was just under 4 minutes.
Does this mean I had a hardcore of about a dozen people and a steady stream of people popping in and out for a minute or two, or was it a constant turn over of people with no one actually watching all of it?
And then there are the people who don't watch it at the time, but catch up on the recorded version I upload to YouTube.
Again, though, I have no idea if anyone is watching it all the way through, or doing a lot of fast-forwarding.
However, for now at least, I will carry on with them and hope they gain traction. I still feel pretty certain there must be a lot of people out there in the world who would find my podcasts a real help in taking their photography to the next level.
My problem now is how to find them...
Meanwhile, for those who wait for the accompanying blog post before they watch it, here is Episode 9 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres, in which I discuss:
0:00 - Introduction - what's coming up
1:49 - Background to the photo "After The Show"
5:12 - Behind the scenes video for "After The Show"
11:53 - Sequence of photos that led to the final image of "After The Show"
32:57 - Using coloured gels with speedlites in photography
46:19 - Introduction to Critique of submitted photos
48:00 - Critiquing images
127:33 - Coming up next week
If you've not done so already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.
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/
See what happens when there's no one to interrupt me?
I've always been a bit of a blether, but I'm a listener too. I want to know the thoughts and ideas of the person I'm in conversation with, so this usually means I'm not talking the entire time. But the podcasts, by their nature, are very much a one-sided affair.
I think I'm slowly moving past the awkwardness of talking into a little round webcam rather than having a real live face to interact with. Although not having anyone to nod or grunt and let me know they've understood what I've said means I'm quite probably over-explaining things.
The problem is I have no idea of the level of expertise and understanding the viewers/listeners have. And of course that will be mixed. There are bound to be some who wish I'd gone into a little more detail, and others who "got it" ages ago and wish I'd move on a bit quicker.
The unnaturalness of just talking to a webcam is certainly being helped now that I'm interacting a bit more with the Facebook Comments.
I don't think anyone realises just how lovely it is just for someone to say "Hi Kim" and let me know someone is out there.
And if they make a comment about something in the podcast, or ask a question, then it helps to make me feel validated in what I'm doing.
I definitely felt the flow of Episode 9 was pretty good. I'm no longer tripping over the technology like I was in the earlier episodes, and I found I had plenty to talk about with the photo I was discussing and the images that had been put in for Critique.
Mind you, whether anyone is actually listening to it all is still something of an unknown.
The Facebook Metrics seem to indicate I was averaging between 12 and 17 live viewers throughout, but then the stats also say I had 177 views and the average view time was just under 4 minutes.
Does this mean I had a hardcore of about a dozen people and a steady stream of people popping in and out for a minute or two, or was it a constant turn over of people with no one actually watching all of it?
And then there are the people who don't watch it at the time, but catch up on the recorded version I upload to YouTube.
Again, though, I have no idea if anyone is watching it all the way through, or doing a lot of fast-forwarding.
However, for now at least, I will carry on with them and hope they gain traction. I still feel pretty certain there must be a lot of people out there in the world who would find my podcasts a real help in taking their photography to the next level.
My problem now is how to find them...
Meanwhile, for those who wait for the accompanying blog post before they watch it, here is Episode 9 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres, in which I discuss:
0:00 - Introduction - what's coming up
1:49 - Background to the photo "After The Show"
5:12 - Behind the scenes video for "After The Show"
11:53 - Sequence of photos that led to the final image of "After The Show"
32:57 - Using coloured gels with speedlites in photography
46:19 - Introduction to Critique of submitted photos
48:00 - Critiquing images
127:33 - Coming up next week
If you've not done so already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.
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/
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