You Tube Photography Channels

YOU TUBE PHOTOGRAPHY CHANNELS

You are spoilt for choice my friends. Analogue or digital-there are hundreds of enthusiastic people vlogging their little hearts out on topics based on photography. It’s amazing that I managed to get to the level of competence I have without the benefits of the advice from these grand masters.

I now watch YouTube videos of young photographers who shoot nothing but analogue roll film rather than digital.  The circle is complete. To them digital is too clinical and too brash. They eulogise about the look of film and the tonal palette it provides. True. There are some good ‘young buck’ photographers using film on You Tube but mostly it’s not about film itself it’s about their own image, about being different and about being ‘trendy. Many of them shoot the most boring images in a rather lovely way. It’s actually hard to find an interesting photographer on You Tube which kind of worries me. Most are male, lots are nerdy (-and, that lurks in the back of my head, as maybe that is a pre-requisite and I don’t want to be tarred with that brush, thank you). They don’t tend to look sexy either. 

The bottom of the You Tube ladder is to do ‘unboxings ‘. This is where you watch someone getting animated about unpacking the camera and bits and pieces from the box it arrived in. What’s that about? These are presumably the same people who write lengthy reviews of electric toothbrushes for Amazon?

Then there are the types who actually test cameras and lenses and tell you what aperture is the sharpest (oddly, it’s always f5.6 or f8 – that thrill is gone, sorry!). They compare the edge sharpness of a lens with the centre. Who spends much time looking at the edges of a photograph? A consequence of all of this frantic media exposure regarding old equipment is that it keeps driving up the price of, once affordable, cameras and lenses. Find a vintage lens, say it’s amazing and how you picked it up in a thrift shop for £6 and now sleep with it under your pillow and, overnight, the price on E- bay goes stratospheric for the rest of us. 

There are the ‘Is the XZ5 better than the XZ4? -let’s look at the differences..’ I’m guessing these people are largely paid by the camera companies to encourage constant up- grading? (I’d always go for the XZ4 as its probably just halved in price….)

There are the cool ‘street shooter’ types who video themselves harassing people in the street armed with a Go -Pro camcorder on their head and a camera (normally a slick little Fuji or Ricoh) in their hand. This must happen more in the southern counties in the UK as I’ve never seen this type of behaviour in the northeast of England? They would be quickly mugged and dispatched back to Jessops via their insurance policy.  

There are the ‘landscapers’ who drive into the wilderness in luxury campervans, cook tinned soup and wander into nature armed with a massive tripod and a telephoto lens in search of the perfect tree or water reflection. A lot of these people seem young and suspiciously well off- they upgrade their cameras and lenses constantly and  always advertise their You Tube sponsors ( normally ‘Squarespace’ – the perfect website building platform ) so there must be money in it if you reach the top of the vlogging pyramid? I’d love to see the back story of some of these people? They seem to live in nice houses and presumably need to make mortgage payments? Is vlogging that financially lucrative? Did they inherit money or marry rich people? Photography is meant to be one of the hardest professions to get into and make money from. 

Some Photo-Vloggers use humour and have pet dogs – I like those types best. Lots of them live in California or the Nevada desert. There can’t be an abandoned gas station, motel or a cactus left in the USA which hasn’t been photographed at dawn or dusk by these guys. They must be queuing up and taking turns?  

There are trends particular to the UK. Currently it is to shoot people walking into /out of shadows. These images have to be really contrasty with absolutely no shadow detail and, preferably with strips of bright light straight across the face of the subject. It helps if you live in London ( South Bank or Soho best ) as there seem to be no shortage of suitable shadows down there. Up in the Northeast we tend to get a lot more boring muddy greyness. Shooting people through steamed up windows comes a close second, preferably with as much neon lighting as possible- Chinatown is ideal.   Most You Tube pros are now reverting back to using roll film and they even show themselves loading film into the camera and you are meant to gasp in awe at the sight of this. 

Lastly, in terms of categorization, there are the philosopher types who discuss the deeper meanings of photography as a social tool and how to ‘find yourself’ and then motivate yourself to reach photographic Nirvana through a Zen approach. I guess I find this type of thing more interesting to me personally but there is often more than a whiff of pretention about it all.

Most photo-vloggers are male. Off the top of my head I can’t say I’ve seen many female faces? One or two maybe but very low key? It would be nice to think that females, being more sensible, are too busy actually taking images for themselves and not their followers. Less ego maybe? 

Sometimes one vlogger recommends the channel of another- without fail this other person is far inferior. I watch and I think “Am I missing something here?” But no. Is it just to make you appreciate that the bottom of the barrel is a lot deeper than you thought?

In truth, I often end up just giving up on watching photography vloggers mid vlog as I find myself just not caring. It’s just boring. You need to find something interesting to shoot and not just rave about the tonal palette of the film you’re using.

I prefer to unearth interviews or documentaries with real tried and tested pro photographers who share their ideas and approach. The video quality is often awful as they were shot back in the 60’s and 70’s on tape but at least these people have a track record and something to say for themselves.

I suppose that anyone who vlogs must originally have had some ego to feed if making money or getting freebies from camera companies wasn’t their sole intention? I’ve had to make a few videos myself and I know the time that it takes to shoot, edit and post online. 

You must want to reach that higher ground of being an ‘influencer’ then your lifestyle really can go stratospheric. If you follow such people then, by definition, you are an ‘influencee’. I wouldn’t ever want to be an influencee and be told what toothpaste to use or which deodorant is best which pair of designer jeans is in vogue. You are just a sheep surely? What was it Andy Warhol said about everyone wanting 15 minutes of fame? If only 15 minutes were enough? Some of these young social media lifestyle influencers have committed suicide when their followers drop- that is truly a sign of how ridiculous our world has become- truly tragic. Don’t think any photo vlogger has ended it all to date – too boring and too ugly or maybe taking photographs takes away the pressures of daily postings.

Hang on – all this content comes to you for free so it seems harsh to be critical. You are been subjected, nay bombarded, to subliminal advertising before, during and after each clip which is what You Tube is based on, unless you pay a substantial amount to upgrade. Have you met anyone who has up-graded? If you want my advice ( and that would be a first ) just have a ‘dabble’ into the You Tube photo vloggers if you are a recent starter to photography but what you want to presumably do is create your own unique images and not follow your peers. Time spent glued to your laptop is time you could be out with your camera. Also, too much time looking at your laptop is bad for your eyesight and, given time, you might not be able to actually even see through a viewfinder properly – be warned!

You Tube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest- I’m on them all for fear of missing out more than anything else and so are you.