Red Dead Photography

If you have been following this blog long enough, you may remember a period about ten years ago where I was posting "photos" from the game world of Fallout 3. It was a fun exercise in real-world escapism that I haven’t done since.

Until now!

With the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 last October, and the more recent release of the online component to the game at the end of November, I’ve once again have been dabbling with the art of in-game photography.

Except for this time, I am going one step further and recording the video of my in-game character and editing videos of his street photography adventures in the same manner that I’ve been editing videos of my own, in real life, photography adventures.

Red Dead Redemption is a great candidate for doing this as the world modeled after parts of America in 1899 is very lush and detailed. And that there is also is an in-game camera that can be used to make the videos actually look like the character is taking photos from a cinematic standpoint.

If you’re already hooked, here is the first episode I’ve created. As with most of my videos on Youtube, it is meant to be funny first, and photography second.

The playlist for all the the Red Dead Photography videos I’ll end up making is right here. I have no idea for how long, or how many episodes I’ll end up drawing this little project out for.

About The Video Production

All of these videos are made within the online world starring the character I’ve named Chester Chesterton, who loosely ended up looking like Jeff Mermelstein.

I typically go into making each video with one or two jokes or humorous plot points in my head, but the rest is at the mercy of what I find within the game world on any given playthrough. The chaos is also compounded by other human-driven characters in the game who’s actions can be completely unpredictable.

These videos also aren’t streamer edits, so if you ask what my Twitch stream is, I don’t have one. I don’t record any voice while actually creating the play video, but instead later review the footage and do voice-over work to make it work with the footage I’ve captured. I like this method as I can record the photography session, and then spend some time mulling over what I have seen to create a narrative from. Sometimes this required me to go back in after the fact to record some extra scenes that I think might be needed to make the video editing more fun.

Red Dead Photography Gallery

Finally, here is a large gallery of select photographs I’ve captured within the Red Dead universe. Some might come from the video sessions. Others might be stuff I’ve encountered while not working on a video. Enjoy! And please subscribe to my YouTube Channel if you like this work. (Or if you hate it)