I did it. I vlogged. This is definitely not something that comes naturally to me and the finished product is...rough. Here's what I discovered my first time out as well as a snapshot of what's in the vlog itself.
Vlogging made me feel connected. I assumed that filming for a vlog would be distracting. Instead, I found myself really connected to what I was doing throughout the day. I had more focus and I paid attention to detail in what was going on around me. They say, “Be where your feet are.” Vlogging helped me do that.
Editing will take practice. Despite all the tutorials on how to create YouTube videos, I found editing to be hard. Ultimately, I enjoyed the process, but I spent hours cutting things, adding things, futzing with sound and music. All that for a very short video. It’s a little choppy, this first time out, but I started to see ways I can improve the quality.
Content. This video gives a snapshot of my typical day, including discussion around challenges I’m facing with my creative project, transcription work I’m doing for a local house museum, and athletic training as I emerge from the pandemic and get back to the rink and the gym.
Despite the rough first outing, I'm excited to keep working on the YouTube craft. Now that travel is possible again, I envision some local history field trips to allow me to stretch my legs a bit. Editing likely will start taking less time and the flow of the videos should improve as well. Mostly, I'm just glad I did it. With time, I hope the video component of this project will help to spark people's curiosity about history and how historians do it.