 Welcome to the first episode of From the Balcony. Like many of you, I can't get out in the field right now and take photos, which I much prefer to do for my vlogs. All my plans for the year have been put on hold, a lot of uncertainty as we work our way through this global health crisis, this craziness. So with all this extra time in my hands, I'm just trying to be productive, trying to come up with things that I can do to learn, take this time to learn new software, editing techniques, working on my website, trying to come up with some video ideas, some video topics. I need a distraction and I think there's probably a lot of you out there that are kind of in the same boat. Just need something to kind of take your mind off of what's going on out there right now. I'm hosting a vlog series from the Balcony. I'm going to view this as an opportunity, an opportunity to explore a wide range of photography topics and an opportunity to connect with the photography community. Anybody that's been subscribed to my channel for quite a while knows that I use Affinity Photo for my photo editing. I've been using it for a couple of years. For me, it's a Photoshop alternative. It does everything I need to do. There's something you can think about trying. Right now is a great time to give it a shot, to look into it. You can download a free trial for 90 days. That's three months free. I mean, you got nothing to lose there. And if you're interested in purchasing this software right now, they have it 50% off. At full price, it's the best bang for the buck. At half price, it's just a killer deal. I've purchased the iPad version for 10 bucks. I've been thinking about getting the iPad version for quite a while so I decided now's the time. I got the time to learn it and experiment with it. I'm thinking that as I get more familiar with the software, which is not a whole lot different than the desktop version, I will make some videos from the balcony showing how I use the software, how I use the app. I purchased the iPad not that long ago. It's kind of an alternative to a laptop. My preferred way to edit images is on a desktop. But there are times where I'd like to be able to work on a photo away from home, away from the desk. And I'd like to explore the possibility of using my iPad. In the weeks and possibly months to come, nobody knows when this is going to settle down. I hope to be making more videos, more content, more vlogs on a regular basis. We're going to explore Affinity Photo on the iPad. We're going to look at a wide range of photography topics from film to digital. So I hope you'll be joining me here on the balcony and coming along for the ride. This is just an introduction to the series. And I think I'm going to go ahead and end the video right here. As always, thanks for coming along for the ride. So I hope you'll enjoy me. All kinds of stuff just to try to fight the boredom, be productive when I can. Man, I didn't realize I lived in such a noisy neighborhood. As you can see, it's your typical back balcony. But this is where the magic is going to happen right here. We're outside, but we're staying at home.