It's a new week, which means it's time for a new episode of Starter Series, my YouTube series based on finding affordable equipment to help you create better photo and video content. This week, the topic of interest is the 35mm f/1.8 lens, and for this video, I'm using the DX cropped sensor version.

I've been trying to come up with a new project for YouTube, something I would get enjoyment out of making. What I ended up with was coming back here to the blog as a reference point, and looking at a post I made, called "Starter Series". The initial concept of that post was to give myself the advice I wish I had been given when I was first starting out with buying equipment for photography.

There have been a bunch of projects that I have been working on for the past few weeks. I've been reaching out to mentors and people with whom I'd love to collaborate. That time has been spent talking to fellow creatives in adjacent fields, asking questions on how to make something that you, dear reader, can get value from and that is authentic to myself. 

Hi there. It's Chris. If you're reading this, you may have noticed it got quiet around here. Really, really quiet. There's good reason for that, and I'll explain. 

When starting out in photography, you might not have access to the best lenses. If you're lucky enough to jump into this with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, more power to you. But for the rest of us, we might start from a more humble origin, in the form of kit lenses.

When it comes to future work, I'm looking at video monopods. They cover so many bases, it's hard to compete for run and gun jobs. Here are three reasons why video monopods are wonderful and would make a great addition to your kit.