Finally, after months, days, and hours of procrastination and struggles, I have officially raised the curtain on my cooking video blog post on YouTube. The premier dish being “Mung or Mungo Beans with Pork, Spinach, and Coconut Milk”.
Preparing for it wasn’t easy.
Decisions had to be made first on the following:
1. Name of cooking blog site
2. Image for the blog site
3. Videotaping equipment
4. Lighting
5. Camera angles
6. Highlighting only the food
7. First dish to showcase as a video blog post (vlog)
The name of the cooking blog site finally came into being when a very good friend, C.A., suggested that “Romeo”, “Hot”, and “Kitchen” would be great blog tags.
Creating the cooking blog site image was a challenge. Since the obvious choice was my kitchen, making it immaculately clean and clutterless was such an arduous task. But, I did it, grumbling in the process. I jazzed up the scene by setting up the table and added lit candles. I then took several pictures, sharing the best with friends. When friends saw the picture of the kitchen, they admired its mint condition, but asked where the clutter went. I told them that the clutter was moved to the other end of the room. They were amused. However, had I taken a bird’s-eye view picture of the entire kitchen to share with them, they would have been aghast to see such striking contrast.
What I used to videotape was my iPhone 6 Plus. Availability of a tripod was a great help. However, I struggled with firmly attaching my iPhone to it, having no iPhone tripod mount to use. Rubber bands did the trick, but became too cumbersome when attaching, detaching, or setting the iPhone up correctly. I did spend one whole afternoon crafting a crude iPhone tripod mount (see “A REWARD AFTER CRAFTING A CRUDE IPHONE TRIPOD MOUNT”) in my garage and was happy with it. However, my pleasure with the outcome was fleeting, since I decided to purchase a ready-made-in-China tripod mount right that evening anyway.
I used to do both macro and microphotography having a camera, Nikon Nikkormat years ago. So, I had some knowledge as to lighting and camera angles.
Sources of light included daylight coming through kitchen window, incandescent light coming from hanging lamp above my kitchenette table, LED light from a retractable desk lamp, LED light from a portable corded lamp, LED light from a portable rechargeable magnetic stick, and incandescent light from overhead gas stove vent. So, one would think that I had all the light sources to work with, right? But, it took several tries in positioning them for the desired lighting without having the cooking heat and hot vapors short-circuiting them. Besides, I had to have ample space to do the cooking itself without them getting in the way.
Using iPhone to take videos was very convenient, especially with the already available ready-made-in-China tripod mount. However, finding a way to take videos of the cooking itself was a different animal altogether. I had to be very careful not to get my iPhone too close to the cooking pot or wok and especially the stove flames.
Other than my voice and hands, it was (and still is) never my intention to include a view of myself explaining or describing the dish. Hence, no sight of my face in my video(s). And I was glad that my discerning friend, C.A., thought that doing so was a great thing. To her “watching a person explaining the dish is too cliché now”.
Having what I thought was the right setting and videotaping equipment, choosing the first dish to videotape was interesting. I tried videotaping a dessert, but had to scrap it since I forgot to turn back on my iPhone when it was time to resume taping, I missed taping an important step, and I flubbed the narration. First of all, it was one of the two dishes that I decided to cook to take to a dinner party with friends. So, why not videotape it while whipping it up, right?
Luckily, with everything falling into place – lighting, camera angles, taping, dubbing, iMovie editing, and votes of confidence from my dinner friends who loved the dish, the videotape was close to perfect. So, I chose “Mung or Mungo Beans with Pork, Spinach, and Coconut Milk” to premiere my YouTube cooking vlog on Friday, October 4, 2019.
Now, I don’t claim to be a chef. I am a retiree who now has the time and capability to cook and videotape comfort foods that I like. My recipes are based on the availability of ingredients and the ease in creating the dishes. It is my hope that some viewers might find my cooking demonstrations to be instructive, and ultimately inspiring, such that they’ll replicate the dishes and end up liking them too.
So, where do I go from here?
Should I videotape more recipes? Should I take cooking courses? Should I get the more expensive and elaborate pieces of videotaping and lighting equipment? Should I get the more sophisticated movie and dubbing apps? Should I work on promoting my vlogs? How could I encourage viewers to click on “Like”? How could I entice them to subscribe to my vlog?
To quote the favorite phrase of an erstwhile CEO and President of the hospital I retired from, “More to come!”
What do you think?
