Guest Artist At The BNW Bistro
I recently had the privilege of being a Guest Artist at the BNW Bistro. The BNW Bistro is a creation of Dave Payne, who I met on the social media platform Vero that is centered around photography. It is similar to Instagram, but oh so much better. If you’re on Vero be sure to follow Dave at @kaijkr8tv_bnw and me at @mikeschaffner.
Dave and I met through a common interest in BNW photography. BNW is my preferred style. Dave shoots exclusively in BNW. He uses a Leica Q2 Monochrom camera which as he likes to say, “only shoots in 11 colors; black, white, and the 9 shades of gray in between”. Now that’s dedication!
Dave created the BNW Bistro on Vero as “The Creative Resource Center for BNW Photography Created To Educate, Motivate & Elevate YOUR BNW Photography Journey”. Part of this is highlighting the work of BNW artists in a twice a month video where the guest artist introduces themselves, briefly discusses a few of their photos and answers some questions. It’s a great way to learn how other BNW photographers approach their art. Dave has done a tremendous job with the BNW Bistro which I and many other BNW photographers truly appreciate.
The Video Of My Guest Artist Appearance
Here’s the video. I hope you enjoy it. Click on the screenshot below and that will open a tab on your browser with the Vero Webview of the show. Then hover your cursor over the same image as below in the Webview to see the video play controls and then sit back and enjoy.
Update – The Video on YouTube
Update 8/14/2024 – Dave Payne has created a BNW Bistro YouTube channel and is in the process of adding all of the existing episode. New episodes will appear shortly after they are posted on Vero. I’ve embedded Episode #10 below but be sure to check out all of the episodes.
A Fantastic Learning Experience
In addition to honoring me with a Guest Appearance, Dave did me a favor in that I had to learn how to do videos. I had given some thought about doing videos as part of this blog but never acted on it. Dave’s invitation was akin to being thrown into the deep end of the pool and being told to learn to swim.
Keep in mind, I’ve never made a video before. And now I needed to make a video introducing myself. Yikes!
While I do have a camera capable of taking good videos I didn’t have any other video equipment. By no equipment I mean; no microphone, no lights, no softboxes, no reflectors, no light diffusers, and no video editing software. Coupled with no equipment I also had no experience and no clue on where to start.
So, I started with Google and YouTube, a borrowed microphone and figured it out (well sorta). Other than my camera and the borrowed microphone I jury-rigged everything else. I used desk lamps for modeling lights, sheets as diffusers and softboxes. It was comical to look at but it all seems to have worked okay.
In terms of software, I used Audacity, a free, open-source software for audio editing. For video editing I used Adobe Premiere Rush which is included in my Creative Cloud plan. Again, Google and YouTube were very helpful in finding and figuring out how to use these programs.
Oh to be sure, I made a lot of mistakes along the way. In the end, I learned about video making the same way I learned about photography; through trial and error and error and error and error…
A Thank You To Dave
I’d like to again thank Dave Payne for this opportunity and also for presenting me with this learning opportunity. Looking back on it, the whole experience really was fun and most definitely worthwhile.
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