What do you do before settling down to read or work on a book?

I tend to walk my dogs....and cat! Our feline, Rosie, follows us on our twice daily outings, much to everyone's amusement. Here she is below following us along the canal and into the fields....

The Bayberry mascot tired after a long day of Beagling

Recording audiobooks is fun and all, but you do need to get out and recharge your creative batteries every so often - how do you do it? I like head out with my camera and stalk the wildlife around the lakes near my home. This time of year is amazing, there's so much gorgeous stuff bursting into life!

This morning I went for a walk and saw the old favorite, small fluffy things floating on the water - ducklings and signets!!

For the nerds among us, I use the following kit: 

Canon C100 Camera, Sigma APO 300mm f4.0 prime lens and a Atomos Ninja 2 external recorder. I edit using Davinci Resolve 16. If you want to know more, comment below or message me.

So, I've got a Spotify channel.

This is exciting. Well, I've had it for a year but just not really told anyone! For anyone that's interested, here's a brief summary of how I got started recording audiobooks..

I used to be in a band. 

Which ended a few years ago, and I was looking for something creative that I could do, preferably something I could do that would make the long winter evenings a bit more creative and fun. But most things I thought of required other people, and as much as I like other people, they do tend to let you down when it comes to organising stuff. Initially I wanted to do a podcast, I have tons of good ideas but really, I need someone else to co-present, and I just couldn't get anyone interested enough to commit to do it. So what could I do, that was creative, and self-contained? Well, I've been making short films and documentaries for years, and recording audiobooks seemed like a natural extension of that, and I had most of the gear already.....

So, what could I record?

Writing my own short stories is fun, but not something I could do on an ongoing basis, it's too time consuming to write and record. So, I set about finding novels that are out of copyright, classic novels, and started recording them. I'm still doing that to this day, a nd I've got Moby Dick, War Of The Worlds, A Cloud Over Innsmouth and others available on Spotify and Soundcloud. After a couple of years, a friend showed me the ACX website, which is where narrators and authors collaborate to make audiobooks for Audible. I was hooked immediately. I'm recording my 7th book now, and it's immensely satisfying knowing my work is publish and being enjoyed by hundreds of listeners.

The ACX process is somewhat unclear initially, but I've now got a firm understanding of their requirements, and my submissions seem to sail through the QA checks without issue.

A Spring Afternoon Stroll

Lock Gates on the W&B canal

Just a short post to share a short film a I made this afternoon while out walking with my dog, the spring sunshine was so lovely and the lakes looked so great I had to get the Osmo+ out and film it! The DJI Osmos+ is a neat little gimbal camera I've been using for a while, it's not new exactly but it works brilliantly, check out the silky smooth shots!

Getting Outside.

It's so important to get outdoors, the end of lockdown is coming and being outside and enjoying nature is so very, very important!

Getting outside is so utterly critical in these lockdown times... I always take my camera when I walk my dog, I hope you enjoy this little video I made, I never get tired of sunsets and warm evenings!

For those who are interested, I film using a Canon EOS C100 camcorder, and my trusty Canon & Sigma lenses. I also use something called an Atomos Ninja, which is an external recording device that allows me to capture video in superior broadcast formats like ProRes and DNXHD. 

I edit in Davinci Resolve, a fantastic piece of free yet totally professional post-production software. It's a steep learning curve but worth it!