The DVD Extras

I’ve debated starting a membership-style type area for followers for some time. My biggest hurdle was simply what can I provide in a members area that I am not already doing. Producing weekly video content, social media content, newsletters, and workshop organization and prep takes time. How was I going to create more value for people who joined a membership?

After discussing it with some landscape photographer friends, I think things finally fell into place: DVD Extras. The phrase was said in passing, and maybe I wasn’t supposed to run with it so much, but it really clicked with me (and maybe dating myself since everything is streaming now!).

But, back in the prime of DVDs, there were often DVD Extras. Essentially, unpolished bits. Maybe scenes that didn’t make the movie. Or maybe commentary on why something was filmed one way or the other. Or maybe certain still images from the movie. Or any number of things. But at the end of the day, it was the extras that people who were big fans of the movie would find interesting, entertaining, and insightful. 

As I heard that phrase and thought about how that pertains to a landscape photographer’s member site, I thought that was the plan I would go with. Coffee Break, the name I am calling my member site, is essentially a collection of DVD Extras. 

Over the course of content generation I have a lot of video on SSD drives, much of which never makes it to a YouTube channel or social media post. Even the process of going out and recording video positions me to do small commentary videos that are easy to record but possibly not enough to form a whole video. 

Sometimes I have funny things that happen on camera - trips and slips, retakes of certain segments (we’re talking take five and take six levels here), or cameras falling that get caught on film. Blooper reels, if you will. 

And then there is the content that is landscape photography adjacent. My 4Runner setup, the extras that go into the camera bag that isn’t camera gear, my coffee routine, which coffee blend do I use, and so on, unusual packing rituals I might have, why I choose one thing over another, and so on. 

And that’s how I see the Coffee Break area working. Things I probably can’t talk about on my main channel, but things loyal followers would find interesting. This might be short videos or it might be writings like this. But it is the Extras - not the main content - which will remain on my current platforms.