Why this blog?
Hey everyone! Austin here. As probably most of you know, I have posted weekly videos of my trips to history museums and national parks for nearly the past five years on my YouTube channel. It's been lots of fun!
There is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to making my videos. Sure, there is the dreaming, the planning, going on trips, shooting the footage, editing the footage, and finally uploading it to YouTube. But a long time ago I realized the basic concept of "If you don't have input, you won't have output." For example, if I want to be super excited and knowledgeable on camera when I go visit an air or space museum, I need to know a thing or two about what I'm filming. Likewise for any other type of museum. The results are A) I appreciate more what I'm seeing in real life, and B) I end up being more excited about on camera, which C) just plain makes for better videos!
Anyway, a while back I started feeding my "input" by reading several-hundred-pages-long history books. Hands down, my favorite genre to read are space history books, particularly the Apollo program! Believe it or not, I really don't travel all year long just to make sure you see a new video from me each week :) In the vast stretches of time between vacations (i.e. time to shoot new videos), I live a normal life but still have history-related fun by reading these books. I thought it might be fun to start writing some book review articles of some of the space history books I have read! So if you are interested in going the next step beyond watching my videos, you'll have a heads up of where to go intellectually. So I think I will try to post a once-a-month book review column on here called "Armchair Astronaut"! :D (and if you have any suggestions of which books I should review, let me know in the comments below!)
Secondly, I've been realizing that there is so much fun stuff I do that simply isn't possible to share through the medium of video. For example, over the holidays I received a new-to-me camera. I'm excited to play with all its' new features! I will definitely continue my weekly videos for a while at least (I'm sure through this year!), but I also have been liking more and more the idea of going to historical places and simply taking photographs. This can be of places that I have already made videos of, but simply want to return to. Every time you visit a place it is a new experience, even if you have been there multiple times before! And even if I don't care to make any more videos of, say, Chickamauga Battlefield, I would still love to share the pictures I take there with you on my repeat visits! In fact, I had a great time taking pictures there this past Christmas break, and hope to return a couple times over the next few months with my camera. This blog will be a great way to share my photo-only adventures with you all.
So get ready to keep having "a blast with the past", just in a different way!
Oh, and if you're interested in seeing my videos of Chickamauga from a year and a half ago, click here to see that playlist! :)
~Austin
There is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to making my videos. Sure, there is the dreaming, the planning, going on trips, shooting the footage, editing the footage, and finally uploading it to YouTube. But a long time ago I realized the basic concept of "If you don't have input, you won't have output." For example, if I want to be super excited and knowledgeable on camera when I go visit an air or space museum, I need to know a thing or two about what I'm filming. Likewise for any other type of museum. The results are A) I appreciate more what I'm seeing in real life, and B) I end up being more excited about on camera, which C) just plain makes for better videos!
Anyway, a while back I started feeding my "input" by reading several-hundred-pages-long history books. Hands down, my favorite genre to read are space history books, particularly the Apollo program! Believe it or not, I really don't travel all year long just to make sure you see a new video from me each week :) In the vast stretches of time between vacations (i.e. time to shoot new videos), I live a normal life but still have history-related fun by reading these books. I thought it might be fun to start writing some book review articles of some of the space history books I have read! So if you are interested in going the next step beyond watching my videos, you'll have a heads up of where to go intellectually. So I think I will try to post a once-a-month book review column on here called "Armchair Astronaut"! :D (and if you have any suggestions of which books I should review, let me know in the comments below!)
Secondly, I've been realizing that there is so much fun stuff I do that simply isn't possible to share through the medium of video. For example, over the holidays I received a new-to-me camera. I'm excited to play with all its' new features! I will definitely continue my weekly videos for a while at least (I'm sure through this year!), but I also have been liking more and more the idea of going to historical places and simply taking photographs. This can be of places that I have already made videos of, but simply want to return to. Every time you visit a place it is a new experience, even if you have been there multiple times before! And even if I don't care to make any more videos of, say, Chickamauga Battlefield, I would still love to share the pictures I take there with you on my repeat visits! In fact, I had a great time taking pictures there this past Christmas break, and hope to return a couple times over the next few months with my camera. This blog will be a great way to share my photo-only adventures with you all.
So get ready to keep having "a blast with the past", just in a different way!
Oh, and if you're interested in seeing my videos of Chickamauga from a year and a half ago, click here to see that playlist! :)
~Austin
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