This post is from an article I wrote for In Focus the Niagara Falls Camera Club newsletter in September, highlighting some of the many podcasts I subscribe to for inspiration and information.
To start, I have been using PCs for years therefore I am a Windows(7) user. I however have embraced iOS (Apple) for Phone and Tablet. On my PC I installed iTunes, the easiest way to synchronize media (Videos and Audio files) on my computer with several devices. There are many ways to sync media, I choose to only sync when I plug my device into computer with the provided USB cable. If you have videos there are ways add them to your iTunes Library. Only the files I have checked are added onto my devices.
A podcast is either an audio or video file. These files can be downloaded to your computer and or devices from the iTunes Store or publishers’ sites. Many websites have direct links to the store or they may provide a way to save the file from their sites. The downside of directly downloading is this is not easily automated. In iTunes you can choose to Subscribe to a Podcast and it is automatically download programs when you have iTunes opened. If you have not listened to a particular series in a while iTunes will mark the Series with an “!” when you open you are told that you have not listened to recent episodes so iTunes has made the decision not to add more unless you tell the program to continue. Right now including music there are more than 62 days (115GB) of media in my iTunes Library (space is cheap). You can delete files anytime to free up space.
I will listen to Podcasts while in the car, cycling, cutting the lawn and any other time I might not be focused on a particular task. Instead of prime time television (we have cut our cable off) I will watch video podcasts either on the computer, tablet or on the TV via Apple TV. Watching video podcasts in the bike or in the car is NOT a good idea.
Some of my subscribed programs:
Rick Sammon and Juan Pons record a podcast on the 1st and the 15th of each month. http://dpexperience.com/ there are regular interviews providing new prospective and sneak peeks into photo industry developments. I always look forward to each new podcast.
Tips from the Top Floor: Chris Marquardt is the longest continually running photography podcast with more than 600 episodes http://www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com/ Chris publishes podcasts weekly except when he is traveling. He covers topics ranging from analog (film) to digital techniques, trends and stories. Interesting Q&A that can become very technical.
Martin Bailey is a very interesting British photographer and author now living in Japan. His podcasts are chock full of information. He leads and participates in several photo tours around the world. Martin tries to post weekly except when travel interferes. He wrote a great book “Making the Print” with Craft and Vision. He also regularly writes columns for other Craft & Vision publications. http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/ I have heard him as a guest on several other podcasts.
I have been a long time subscriber to LensWork a very high quality Monochrome magazine that comes out of the Pacific Northwest 6 times a year. It is published by Brooks Jensen. Brooks also has over 800 podcasts that he recorded and blog musings at: http://daily.lenswork.com/ most podcasts are 4-7 minutes of thought provoking content. An interesting aside is LensWork publishes colour on the Extended or digital issues while the print version has remained monochrome.
Photoshop User TV is a weekly video podcast from Kelby and Co. looking at all things Photoshop http://kelbytv.com/photoshopusertv/
Another KelbyTV podcast is The Grid. This show brings much of the news in a weekly hour video program hosted by many of the key Kelby writers and instructors. http://kelbytv.com/thegrid/ you can watch live online Wednesdays at 4:00 PM EST.
Digital Photography Café: with Trevor Current and Joseph Cristina talk weekly about technology and Business usually posted Monday each week http://digitalphotographycafe.com/
TWIP This Week in Photo is a weekly podcast from Fredrick Van Johnson typically posted on Friday and live Thursday night. This podcast can run up to 2 hours and is a look at new gear and news stories from the past week. He usually has 3 people in the conversation. Topics can be geeky. He regularly interviews photographic thought leaders. http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/
Craft & Vision is a unique eBook publisher from Canadian explorer and photographer David duChemin. He has gathered an amazing group of photographers and authors to produce a broad catalog of excellent photographic centered eBooks that sell mostly for less than $5 along with some free. Matt Brandon interviews David duChemin and many of the authors in 50-60 minute monthly podcasts that can be found at: http://craftandvision.com/craftandvision-podcasts/
Photofocus is published the 5th 15th and 25th of each month by Scott Bourne and Rich Harrington discuss current news stories and interviews. http://photofocus.com/
I have seen Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape speak in the past. There is a forum on his page that connects photographers from around the world. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/index.shtml Lots of good and interesting info in the many forums.
You can also find even more free tutorials on YouTube where you can search and subscribe to a wide variety of content. This could be another article.
Many of these podcasters have profiles on various social media platforms so you can follow and interact directly with them.