Vlog Week: Behind-the-Scenes and Behind-the-Camera

As we kick off Vlog Week, I'm excited to share some behind-the-scenes stories from my latest project - building a mobile dark room. In this new studio, I've been searching for ways to optimize the space while still maintaining a functional and comfortable environment for myself and our guests. Unfortunately, my previous bathroom didn't quite fit the bill, as it had a built-in washer/dryer closet that took up valuable space. To combat this, I decided to create a mobile dark room that would allow me to work on prints without taking over the entire bathroom.

This mobile dark room is still in its early stages of development, but I'm eager to share my progress with you all. One of the main goals for this project was to minimize clutter while still maintaining functionality. To achieve this, I've been stripping down my equipment and experimenting with different storage solutions. For example, I recently reorganized my chemical collection by transferring them from glass bottles to plastic containers, which not only reduced waste but also simplified the process of organizing and accessing my supplies.

As a photographer, I'm always looking for ways to improve my workflow and refine my techniques. One area I've been exploring is the concept of "minimalism" in photography - can one create high-quality images with minimal equipment and setup? To answer this question, I've been experimenting with different darkroom setups and testing the limits of what's possible with a compact mobile dark room. This exercise has taught me that sometimes, less really is more.

In addition to sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of my darkroom adventures, Vlog Week will also offer a unique opportunity for our audience to peek into my photography workflow. From selecting chemicals to developing prints, I'll be taking you on a journey through the process of creating images from start to finish. This may include showing you how I store and organize my files, as well as revealing some of my favorite techniques and tips.

Throughout this week-long experiment, I'll also be experimenting with new formats and styles - think behind-the-scenes vlogs, behind-the-camera insights, and maybe even some guest appearances from other creatives. My aim is to make Vlog Week an immersive experience that goes beyond simply sharing behind-the-scenes content; it's a chance for us to get up close and personal with the creative process.

To make things even more interesting, I've also been brainstorming ideas for future episodes of The Show - including new formats, collaborations, and innovative approaches to storytelling. Who knows what kind of exciting developments will come out of this Vlog Week experiment? One thing is certain: it'll be a wild ride.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eneverybody Ted Forbes here art of photography today we're doing something a little bit different we're going to do something that i'm going to call vlog week and i'll tell you a little bit about what I've got in mind here this is going to be a little bit separate from the main podcast haven't decide whether I want to put it in the main podcast feed or not I've got cats walking around you can see that it's going to be fairly informal and casual but the whole idea is that I want to start pushing content out more often and I also want to try to do some things to give the podcast will lift and be fresh a little bit so what we're going to do is just some very informal video blogging here for the next seven days we're going to be putting content up like you wouldn't believe and this was kind of a cool week to do it I was going to be my to do list here and you know this week we're working on several things for the show including starting to set some stuff up for the advisory committee that we put together and of course that's all going to be transparent I want you guys to all be in on that as well even though I have a committee form to help make decisions but we've got some stuff there we're actually going to do a dallas meetups and you'd start looking at locations and start planning on that been procrastinating that for a while another thing is kind of cool and I was going to do more formal podcast on this but it might be kind of cool to just kind of informally talk about it but one thing i want to do that i'm setting up is building a mobile dark room and I'll take a little bit about that the mobile dark room basically last februari I moved into this new studio and my bathroom is where I used to have a really large bathroom in my last place that had you know a built-in washer/dryer closet that made it nice to be able to store the enlarger I don't have that here and I'm really not into just you know having the bathroom taken over by dark room because when you have guests over they might want to use it and I mean I think this kind of interesting topic for people who have been interested in building a dark room how minimal you can go still get work done actually have a project in mind them and be working on for this and I thought I might be kind of cool to you know share some of that in the in the old vlog here so this is vlog week so yeah so we're working on a mobile dark room we're going to be doing some you know that could share some behind-the-scenes stuff and all that and so basically the whole deal is this is going to be a lot less formal than the main podcast hopefully just as informative and hopefully even more entertaining but we're going to actually a very up location things like that I don't really know what I'm going to do with this yet I'm just kind of vamping here while the cameras rolling but the whole idea is to just kind of do a burst of stuff to try to get more content out and going and try to do things in some kind of new and different ways I actually need to order some chemicals this week when I moved the studio I pretty much threw out all the chemicals that I had and basically chemicals are not expensive for darkroom application and so I just thought it was easier to start over fresh and I throw out some plastic bottles that were getting nasty and I just emptied the glass ones and clean them out so we're going to hit the reset button there so that might be kind of interesting I'll show you what am I select what we're going to do you know what it's for how we're going to develop it's going to be fun stuff I've had people ask me about behind-the-scenes kinds of stuff that I do as far as my own photography workflow goes stuff like that so that might be kind of a cool option to look at is you know when we make photos what do we do with them where do they get stored we might show more to the studio which might be kind of interesting anyway so it's it's kind of like anything goes you know I really hate the word vlog but that's what it's going to be is we're going to we're going to do a video blog and try it for seven days and if I don't go mad from shooting video all the time and the time that takes then hopefully will come out the other side with with some new ideas for shows and better stuff and maybe I'll turn my phone rang off next time before we get going so really there are plenty of vlogs out there that just have useless stuff on them like you know telling everybody that Saturday and what I had for breakfast but for one I didn't have anything for breakfast this morning so I really have nothing to report their into I would like to make it slightly more interesting than that it's kind of like photography behind the scenes it also kind of forces me to keep this place clean or cleaner than it normally is if I'm actually going to be throwing it up on youtube and showing everybody what I live like okay so that's going to be it this is vlog week so seven days of this we're going to do complete behind the scenes on the show we're going to try some new stuff we're going to experiment you get to kind of see what goes into making the podcast even because we're going to be working on that a lot because I've got a bunch of to do items on there and you know we're going to get around taking some photos to I've got a new project that I'm more hang on that I might share with you some it's something I've kind of been planning a while was inspired by some things that I saw a couple weeks ago at a gallery and really want to kind of take my own take on and run with so anyway this is day one you know hopefully this is interesting and we'll see you tomorrow for day twoeverybody Ted Forbes here art of photography today we're doing something a little bit different we're going to do something that i'm going to call vlog week and i'll tell you a little bit about what I've got in mind here this is going to be a little bit separate from the main podcast haven't decide whether I want to put it in the main podcast feed or not I've got cats walking around you can see that it's going to be fairly informal and casual but the whole idea is that I want to start pushing content out more often and I also want to try to do some things to give the podcast will lift and be fresh a little bit so what we're going to do is just some very informal video blogging here for the next seven days we're going to be putting content up like you wouldn't believe and this was kind of a cool week to do it I was going to be my to do list here and you know this week we're working on several things for the show including starting to set some stuff up for the advisory committee that we put together and of course that's all going to be transparent I want you guys to all be in on that as well even though I have a committee form to help make decisions but we've got some stuff there we're actually going to do a dallas meetups and you'd start looking at locations and start planning on that been procrastinating that for a while another thing is kind of cool and I was going to do more formal podcast on this but it might be kind of cool to just kind of informally talk about it but one thing i want to do that i'm setting up is building a mobile dark room and I'll take a little bit about that the mobile dark room basically last februari I moved into this new studio and my bathroom is where I used to have a really large bathroom in my last place that had you know a built-in washer/dryer closet that made it nice to be able to store the enlarger I don't have that here and I'm really not into just you know having the bathroom taken over by dark room because when you have guests over they might want to use it and I mean I think this kind of interesting topic for people who have been interested in building a dark room how minimal you can go still get work done actually have a project in mind them and be working on for this and I thought I might be kind of cool to you know share some of that in the in the old vlog here so this is vlog week so yeah so we're working on a mobile dark room we're going to be doing some you know that could share some behind-the-scenes stuff and all that and so basically the whole deal is this is going to be a lot less formal than the main podcast hopefully just as informative and hopefully even more entertaining but we're going to actually a very up location things like that I don't really know what I'm going to do with this yet I'm just kind of vamping here while the cameras rolling but the whole idea is to just kind of do a burst of stuff to try to get more content out and going and try to do things in some kind of new and different ways I actually need to order some chemicals this week when I moved the studio I pretty much threw out all the chemicals that I had and basically chemicals are not expensive for darkroom application and so I just thought it was easier to start over fresh and I throw out some plastic bottles that were getting nasty and I just emptied the glass ones and clean them out so we're going to hit the reset button there so that might be kind of interesting I'll show you what am I select what we're going to do you know what it's for how we're going to develop it's going to be fun stuff I've had people ask me about behind-the-scenes kinds of stuff that I do as far as my own photography workflow goes stuff like that so that might be kind of a cool option to look at is you know when we make photos what do we do with them where do they get stored we might show more to the studio which might be kind of interesting anyway so it's it's kind of like anything goes you know I really hate the word vlog but that's what it's going to be is we're going to we're going to do a video blog and try it for seven days and if I don't go mad from shooting video all the time and the time that takes then hopefully will come out the other side with with some new ideas for shows and better stuff and maybe I'll turn my phone rang off next time before we get going so really there are plenty of vlogs out there that just have useless stuff on them like you know telling everybody that Saturday and what I had for breakfast but for one I didn't have anything for breakfast this morning so I really have nothing to report their into I would like to make it slightly more interesting than that it's kind of like photography behind the scenes it also kind of forces me to keep this place clean or cleaner than it normally is if I'm actually going to be throwing it up on youtube and showing everybody what I live like okay so that's going to be it this is vlog week so seven days of this we're going to do complete behind the scenes on the show we're going to try some new stuff we're going to experiment you get to kind of see what goes into making the podcast even because we're going to be working on that a lot because I've got a bunch of to do items on there and you know we're going to get around taking some photos to I've got a new project that I'm more hang on that I might share with you some it's something I've kind of been planning a while was inspired by some things that I saw a couple weeks ago at a gallery and really want to kind of take my own take on and run with so anyway this is day one you know hopefully this is interesting and we'll see you tomorrow for day two\n"