We Started a VLOG - here's why

Exciting news! Hot off the press!  I've started a VLOG (Video Blog).  This VLOG will be located on my YouTube channel, and is more of a look into my daily life.  I got the idea to do it after watching a few other YouTubers vlogging their daily lives and it kind of seemed interesting to me.  I'm setting out to do this with Chloe my lovely girlfriend, not to get YouTube famous or anything like that.  The sole purpose we've started to VLOG is because it is forcing us to get out and do more exciting things with our lives.  Our first episode if you want to call it that, got us out on a picnic down at the Tempe Town Lake.  Which, due to the excessive Phoenix summer heat wasn't our best idea, and didn't last all that long, but it was something we've never done before.  I know, I've never taken my girlfriend of almost 4 years on a picnic! *shame shame* Besides getting out and living a more interesting life, it also allows us to give our friends and family who primarily all live in the Midwest United States, a look into what we've been up to.  Our parents appreciate this the most since we've just moved out here a year ago and we don't get to see them and talk to them everyday like we used to.  Not to mention we are learning a lot more about our new city! Another good reason to do this, for me at least, is it has gotten me more familiar with programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro CC and After Effects.  I haven't used these video editing platforms before because I have primarily been a stills only photographer.  This is helping expand my skill set as well as get me using my camera in a way I'm not used to.  Yes filming video has a whole new set of rules and parameters I'm just getting a taste of.  Though I should also mention the main chunk of these VLOGs are shot with my iPhone 5.  But I am sprinkling in some higher end shots done with the GoPro Hero 3+ (super slow motion, 120fps in our 4th of July VLOG was pretty beastly!), as well as my professional DSLR, the Canon 6D.

I'm sure as this VLOG progresses I will upgrade from using my iPhone to maybe a nicer point and shoot camera with nice 1080 video.  The main reason I don't use my GoPro which provides excellent video quality is because the audio quality is absolute garbage, and the iPhone actually provides decent audio.  Another thing to note though is this isn't about the gear at all.  These VLOGs are not high quality productions.  They are meant to be about the content, the fun loving experience of living life. Sort of run and gun.   I would be very appreciative if you could head over to my YouTube channel and check out our series of VLOGs so far as well as please SUBSCRIBE if you like what you see.

Here's our first few VLOGs for you to check out :)

Mike Ryan Photo Shoot - Behind the Scenes Video & Stills

I was fortunate enough to be hosting Benjamin Wong otherwise known as just Von Wong in the photography community during the week of my photo shoot with Mike Ryan and his lovely girlfriend and her daughter.  Ben's an accomplished photographer already, but to keep his skill set growing he plans to move into video.  So with a generous amount of gear lent from Sony he opted to follow me around on my shoot with Mike, and shoot some awesome behind the scenes footage.  Here's the epic finished product of my first ever behind the scenes video! ***EXCITING!!!**

Luckily Triple Scoop Music has some amazing royalty free music I was able to use, which really added to the awesomeness of the video.

On top of the great video, I also came out of this shoot with some awesome stills. -->

As always you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, & Google+

Vlog 2: Surviving the Summer | Brandon Tigrett RAW

The month is now October, which means if we lived in any other state besides Arizona, we might be seeing the leaves change colors right now, along with a rapid drop in temperature.  Well we don't, we're in Phoenix, AZ, and we have just made it through our first summer here.  That's right, 115 degrees was our daily high, with a low of 107 if we were fortunate.  But, we moved here for what we now get to experience, the 9 remaining months of perfect weather!  Being that it is now October, we are into those amazing months.  This post and accompanying video is to show a little update of what all has gone on over these summer months, and also to give a little update as to what the future holds for me, and Brandon Tigrett Photography LLC.

So little recap of what happened over the summer:

-Moved to Scottsdale, Arizona -Mackenzie(sister) & Maddy(cousin) came to visit for a week at our new apartment -Got a new kitten, Gracie -Saw 4th of July fireworks, TWICE! -Worked with some awesome people on photography assignments -Filed my articles of organization and was awarded my LLC for the photography business -Flew to Nashville, drove to Benton, KY and attended our good friend's wedding! -Made new friends

Ok so now youve got a brief recap of the summer, here's what I have planned for the future!

CANT TELL YOU YET! TOP SECRET!

Just kidding! :) I'm actually in the planning process of a book similar to what Chase Jarvis did with the Seattle 100 book.  The idea stemmed from wanting to do something for the Hot Shot firefighters from the Yarnell, AZ fire earlier this summer. And then once I looked further into what Chase had done, I thought I could do something even bigger for the AZ firefighter's, and the rest of the people in Arizona who are really giving it all to make this state a better place.

On top of that the weather has been amazing lately so we've been hiking a ton lately, and here's a panoramic photo I stitched together made up of 4 photos, shot with a 50mm prime lens.

I also have a few other plans in the pipes that I can't necessarily share, but they will hopefully be out for everyone to see soon.

Here's a recent short video I edited together from some GoPro footage I took from last summer while golfing with my buddy.  I didn't know what I wanted to do with it at the time so I was glad to finally get around to making a small story out of it.

As always you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+.