AMA with Leo Laporte, Jason Howell, Mikah Sargent, and Ant Pruitt

TWiT Hosts and Contributors
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Hi Everyone, we are all in it together to beat the coronavirus pandemic, and we invite you to Ask Me (our hosts) Anything. Email ama@twit.tv with any question for Leo Laporte, Jason Howell, Mikah Sargent, and Ant Pruitt, and tune into the TWiT Live Stream (www.twit.tv/live) at 11:30 a.m. PT Friday, March 20.

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I’m lookin’ fwd to this

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@Laura Can you add the time zone to the post please ?

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Pacific time. Thanks :fist_right:t5:
…

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@JasonHowell, @Leo, @ant_pruitt, & @mikahsargent. Outside of the office, what are your daily drivers? What desktop/laptop do you use? What is your smartphone of choice? and last but not least why did you choose them?

Love what you all do!

P.S. from Springville, In across the hollar from somewhere, In.

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@Leo

I am not sure if I will be able to watch live - maybe this will be podcasted later.

Besides tech and fountain pens. What else interests you? What other hobbies do you have?

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LOL @ the “Somewhere, Indiana” reference!

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This was fun. Actually joined the chat room for the first time. :roll_eyes:

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thanks guys had a great time and Rosemary gets points for the best question!

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Thanks for posting that for those of us who could not watch it live. I had to work

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Fun show
More please!
My 2 cents

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Just getting to the end of it now. Very fun and candid.

EDIT: Why on earth did “getting to” auto-correct to “beating”…

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thanks for answering my question @Leo .

Since my mail had multiple questions to other Twit host; i hope you folks would be so kind to answer them here for me and maybe answer some questions the community might have missed out on.

@JasonHowell

  • If iOS and Android OS is no more but all other mobile phone operating system were still alive such as Symbian OS, BlackBerry OS, etc (before 2000) ; which OS would you be likely to use and why ?

@ant_pruitt

  • Love your photography work, love HOP. Would you be so kind to let us know your photography origin story and the people who inspires your work ?

@mikahsargent

  • What one feature from windows or android will you consider jumping the Apple ecosysyem ?
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Pull up a chair. It’s storytime. I apologize now for typos. . . .

Thanks for the question. :fist_right:t5:

My journey started with the Droid-X smartphone. I previously owned a couple point and shoots and took shots, but that phone really made me more interested. I was at work one day, during one of my allowed “smoke breaks,” and I took a random shot during my walk. (I don’t smoke, btw. Anyway…) I took a shot of the nearby lake and thought it was pretty nice. Over the coming weeks, I continued to shoot and started sharing them on my old blog and flckr. People started giving me kudos. So I kept going with it. At the time, I couldn’t afford another camera so I just kept going with the phone and researching how to get better. Tried joining some online and local communities.

I found that the local communities and online forums were full of jackasses. People were so rude to me when I asked about different tips and tricks. I was belittled because I was shooting with a phone. If I had been shooting with an old Kodak 110 or disposable camera, they may have been more kind. So I just kept reading up on things on my own and playing with manual camera apps to learn more about the exposure triangle and composition. I started a smartphone photographers community on Google+ and held challenges as well as a somewhat weekly hangout on air. I enjoyed sharing what I had learned as well as learning from the other community members.

I did eventually get my hands on another dslr and mirrorless camera over the years and kept shooting and sharing my efforts. I decided to put more energy into shooting and marketing myself. And when someone would ask how I shot or processed something, I shared it. I didn’t want to treat them the way I was treated. That lead to creating tutorials on YouTube and blogs. Thanks to the power of SEO and self-promotion, this lead to paid opportunities to create content as well as sell prints. Even prints of shots from a smartphone.

As I learned something, I shared it. I spent a lot of time shooting random items in my home. As well as playing with light, playing with settings and playing with apps. Reading about apps/techniques helps, but hands-on effort is what really helps me.

I’m by far not the best photographer out there, but I am pretty good in my eyes. And I really enjoy clicking the shutter. It bugs me when I don’t get to click the shutter in a day. I try to snap something every single day. Doesn’t matter what it is. Doesn’t mean I share what I shoot every day, but the exercise of shooting is great for my heart and soul.

I’m glad Mr. and Mrs. Laporte have given me the opportunity to share my story with its loyal audience. I believe anyone with true desire and hunger can become a better photographer and even become a paid photographer. Especially since I’ve done it. When I wasn’t handling my day-to-day family tasks or my fulltime IT job, I was doing something with my photography. And from what I’ve learned and seen from some of my favorite photographers, that’s exactly the effort and energy it takes.

Ok. I’m done. Hope you all are having a good day/evening.
I’m currently trying to clean up at least one of the corners in my home studio.
#CreateAndDominate

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