Old School Photography (+ other musings) with Kai Wong
The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show
Chase Jarvis
4.8 • 641 Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2021
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you've ever looked up film and digital camera lessons on YouTube, there's a high chance you've bumped into Kai Wong's top-of-the-game photography videos or even come across one of his videos featuring yours truly + a lego camera.
Previously known for creating innovative content with a humorous bent for one of YouTube's most subscribed photography channels, DigitalRev, Kai quit his seven-year-long association with the Media House in 2016. After stepping down as the company's face and presenter, he started his own YouTube channel, Kai W, which now has over 67 million views and nearly 1 million subscribers worldwide.
Kai joins me on the podcast today to discuss how he made the best use of the past year, isolating (or introspecting) and writing his first book, Old School Photography: 100 Things You Must Know to Take Fantastic Film Photos.
While emulating others' work could give you a head start for creating content or writing your book, Kai explains why being authentic in front of your audience is critical in the long run.
Some other things we discuss in the episode include:
- Kai's expansive knowledge of camera lenses, film and gear
- The winning tips to building a strong YouTube channel: personality-driven, casual, accessible, unique
- From ideation to creating ingenious unscripted videos - Kai's way
- The timelessness of old-school photography equipment and techniques
- Why the rewards of writing a book outweigh the challenges
Enjoy!
Have a question?
Text me 1-206-309-5177
Tweet me @chasejarvis
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Today's episode is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world's largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts -- Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, what's up? |
| 0:05.0 | It's Chase. |
| 0:06.0 | Welcome to another episode of the show. |
| 0:08.0 | Very excited about today's guest. |
| 0:09.0 | If you have been following me for n number of years, then you will not have forgotten an episode |
| 0:16.0 | where I was given a Lego camera and forced to make amazing pictures around the city of Hong Kong. That |
| 0:21.9 | invitation came from Kai Man Wang, legendary YouTuber, dear, dear friend who has a bunch of new |
| 0:28.5 | announcements. He's sharing a first time here with us in the show. I cannot wait for you to see this |
| 0:33.8 | episode. Kai is hilarious, humble. He's got a new book, a new YouTube channel. You've |
| 0:39.4 | got so much stuff cooking. And we also get to take a walk down memory lane with respect to |
| 0:46.3 | favorite cameras, favorite lenses. So if you're a camera nerd, this episode is going to be for you. |
| 0:53.5 | All right. If there was one thing we all had way back in that weird world that was 2020, it was time alone. |
| 1:00.8 | Maybe you call that isolation. |
| 1:02.2 | Maybe you call it introspection. |
| 1:04.7 | Anyway, you think about it, there was more time to think and reflect, but also to imagine |
| 1:10.1 | and to envision what the future might look like. |
| 1:13.7 | So now in 2021, what will this year be? |
| 1:16.7 | Will you take a step towards that passion, toward what you know deep down inside you're meant to be doing? |
| 1:24.7 | Isn't it time to put action behind those beliefs, those thoughts, those dreams that |
| 1:29.7 | you've had? I think it is. And there are lots of ways to do that. Listening to podcasts like this is |
| 1:35.5 | one, but I want to here invite you to sign up for Creative Live. Now Creative Live is where |
| 1:42.0 | the world's top creators, entrepreneurs, Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times, bestsellers, and the best of the best go to teach what they've learned over the course of a lifetime. |
... |
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