Allan Weitz

The most important lessons I have learned from producing a podcast include knowing what you're talking about, having questions lined up in advance, asking guests to clarify their names, and having good personality and character in the show.
 
Transcript: "What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from producing a podcast? Well, first of all, I work very closely with my producer and I'm the host of the podcast. That said, important lessons that I have learned is number one, know what you're talking about, know your subject, know your guest, have your questions lined up well in advance, learn to pronounce their name properly. I can't tell you how many times I've blown names. I learned to ask it up front. But something even more important than that is if you're gonna be doing a podcast is that make sure that there's a good personality to the show. I know as a host, one of the things that I do is I try to make maximum use of my voice, modulate, hit high notes, go into low notes, change the tempo, change the phrasing, and that's the way you keep people listening to you. And if you're listening to me right now, that's one of the reasons. So I would say that those are the takeaways. Know your stuff, know your guests, and work on the presentation of how the show comes off, the character and personality of the show."

My unique expertise lies in photography, specifically camera technology and lenses. I also have developed my ways of interviewing people on my podcast, by having an initial script and then going off in a direction that feels right.
 
Transcript: "What topics do you have the most unique opinions, methods, or expertise around? Number one would have to be photography and it has to do with the act of taking pictures. Camera technologies, different formats. I'm really interested in lenses, especially older lenses and adapting them to newer camera technologies just to see what happens. I find lenses are very much like an artist's paintbrush and every lens has its own signature and there are certain photographs I can only take with certain lenses. So lenses, cameras, and the art and a pleasure of taking photographs is something I would say I'm pretty darn good at for all this time. And that would be kind of followed by interviewing people and speaking to people. As the host of the B&H Photography podcast for the past eight or so years, I've really developed my ways of speaking to people, especially on the fly. We often start off with a set script and 50% of the time I go right off of it and start going off in the direction that feels right. And we've had some of our best shows that way. So intuition in interviewing people on a podcast, but number one would be photography and having to do with picture-taking, cameras, and lenses. There you have it. Oh, I'm also a really darn good grandpa."

Avoid using stutter words like "um," "ah," and "okay" when creating a podcast script. End sentences with certainty without up-speak and try to avoid inserting filler words like "you know."
 
Transcript: "Do you have any lists of do's and don'ts when creating a script for a podcast? Not necessarily the script, but when reading the script or ad-libbing like I am right now. There are a certain number of little tick words that we use and I am guilty of many of them. My primary issue is with the word um, ah, okay, or well, and I mean, you know what I mean? And it's worse when people start an answer with, you know what I mean? No, you haven't answered me yet. So try to get rid of all the stutter words. Try to connect all of the key words together without introducing, you know, stuff like that. You know what I mean? Get rid of all that stuff. And something that, again, this is really gets my bug going, is that something you should, ah, see what I mean? Something you should never ever do or try to avoid when speaking on a podcast or anywhere publicly is don't ever end each sentence with up-speak because nobody speaks that way. It's amazing how many people get there and end all their sentences the same way. And you know what happens when you end your question in up-speak? You're turning it into a question. Now if somebody is listening to you speak, they must assume that there's some element of authority to what you have to say. As soon as you end with up-speak, okay, you've now said, I think, maybe, do you think that's okay? You're introducing an element of doubt to what you're saying. So you're less convincing. And ultimately, it's just plain annoying. So never ever, ever end that way. Try to avoid the ums, ifs, uffs, you know. And again, you'll have a much, much better script and a better podcast. Good luck."

Yes, a point-and-shoot camera can produce the same image quality as a professional DSLR. However, the smaller sensor on a point-and-shoot may not capture the same level of detail and highlights/shadows as a full-size DSLR.
 
Transcript: "So, can a point-and-shoot camera produce the same image quality as a professional DSLR? In a nutshell, yes, but also keep in mind that when you say point-and-shoot camera, you're not just talking about cameras that are small pocket-sized cameras. You're talking about cameras such as the Sony RX100 series cameras and other cameras that have that same one-inch size sensor in it. They take phenomenal photographs, and they're not full-size, full-blown DSLRs. Same thing with, say, the Leica Q2. That is technically a point-and-shoot. It's got a fixed wide-angle lens on it, but it's got a full-size 47mm sensor, and yes, that takes amazingly good pictures. Now, do keep in mind, magazine covers have been taken with smartphones. So can you take good pictures? Yes, you can. What you're not going to get with a smaller sensor is the same detail in the highlights and shadows if you're shooting on bright, contrasty days. So again, it comes down to fine details, but in a nutshell, yes, you can take great pictures with small sensors."

Creating tension in photography can be done by filling the frame with the subject, using blur and camera shake, and watching the expressions on the subjects face.
 
Transcript: "How can tension be portrayed through photography? Many ways you can do it. One of the most obvious ways I've seen it used, say in portraiture, is to get to a point where you basically fill the frame with the face of the person you're photographing rather than letting space be around it. So, I mean, that's obviously a lot of tension. Generally speaking, filling the frame with your subject, leaving just a bare amount of space around it, creates a visual tension. Strong negative-positive spaces, tight compositions, blur can sometimes infer tension, or camera shake. And then again, if you're doing portraiture, it's the expressions on your subject's face. So there's many ways of doing that. And again, a lot of it has to do with playing around and experimenting. But I would say, number one, get in close, get in tight, and in the case of portraiture, watch the eyes and watch the face."

Never hand-hold your camera at a shutter speed slower numerically than the focal length of the lens that you are using. If your camera lens combination has image stabilization, you can hand-hold your camera at even slower shutter speeds depending on how many stops of image stabilization it has.
 
Transcript: "What's the slowest shutter speed I should use when hand-holding my camera? A very, very simple rule of thumb is never hand-hold your camera at a shutter speed slower numerically than the focal length of the lens that you are using. So if you're shooting with a 50mm lens, don't hand-hold it at a shutter speed slower than 1 50th of a second. If you have a 500mm telephoto, 1 500th should be the slowest shutter speed. And if you're shooting with a 15mm ultrawide, 1 15th should be the slowest shutter speed that you should hand-hold that. Now, note I said the slowest. You will get sharper results if you up the shutter speed. So if you have a 50mm lens, yes, there's a good chance you're going to get a very good sharp picture at 1 50th. You'll get a sharper picture at 1 25th and even sharper at 2 50th. So that is just a starting point. But again, depending on what your aperture is, light values and everything else. But keep that in mind. Now, if your camera lens combination has image stabilization, say 5 stops of image stabilization, which is not unusual these days, you can now hand-hold your camera at even slower shutter speed. So if you were shooting, say, at 1 25th of a second as the slowest handheld shutter speed, with 5 stops, you can now hand-hold it at about 1 3rd of a second, which is tremendous. And again, that's the slowest shutter speed that you should hand-hold it at. That's it."