What’s the point? As I get dangerously close to 15,000 subscribers, I was reminded that I need to remind you of something. If you unsubscribe to my channel I will salute you on the way out. Not only will there be no hard feelings but there will also be the idea planted in my brain that you might be using your time more wisely, perhaps even using it to embark on your own long-term photo project, book project, or both.
YouTube, for the most part at least when it comes to photography, is a bit of a minefield.
This is not a long-term play for me, and if I never made another film I’d never skip a beat, but again, I don’t consider myself a YouTuber. When I was on the ship to Antarctica several people found out I had a channel. Can you guess what I told them? I said, “Don’t waste your time.” At fifteen thousand subscribers, there is no financial benefit. I can’t say zero, but at approximately $140 per month, there is no chance the channel provides enough financial return to offset the cost of producing the films or buying the equipment required. But there is a benefit.
The benefit is us being able to have a conversation. I have always found YouTube to be the conversation platform in a social media world dominated by the soundbite. (IG, TT, SC) This conversation is the point, at least in my case. The second benefit is meeting some of you in real life, which is precisely what happened on my recent trip to Argentina. That is the benefit of YouTube, at least for me. At heart, I’m just a still guy who has been focusing on still photography since 1988. While it doesn’t consume me like it once did, most of my friends are professional photographers, so I am still immersed to a certain degree. I know what I like, and I know what’s good, unique, or original. Knowing these things comes with a price that far outweighs the revenue of my silly, little YouTube channel.
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Ninety nine per cent of you tube is a waste of time, literally. How on earth did we buy cameras and lenses before YouTube? In fact, if one is looking for kit advice, it’s probably counter productive.
However, the one per cent are worth viewing and can be entertaining, thought provoking and informative. I would confidently say your channel is all three. Your modesty encourages engagement with your audience. It’s different, hits just the right notes and exits at about the right time. If you packed it in, I’d miss it, but I’d also get it.
I went to a talk last night by an artist called Stanley Donwood. He designed all the Radiohead covers and works in Lino print. At the outset, he said “ you’ll probably learn nothing during this talk” and I was open to that. On the contrary, I learned a lot, not that he would know that. I feel a little the same about your videos. You don’t set out to preach or try to be informative but there’s always something.
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Ha, that’s a safe message before a talk. Heck, if someone can speak well, I’ll learn something. Regardless of topic.
YouTube is awful. Really, the site is awful. Very happy that I only got sucked in for about 6 months (in terms of intending to watch you or J Kenji and instead spending an hour with The Sopranos). But I do like your videos. I can’t think of another place you could post them. I am glad that you link to most of them through this site.
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Eventually, subscription site with FAR less range of film but far more detailed photographic education. At least that is the goal.
There’s so much crap on the Internet, that the loss of a site such as this one would be painful.
Approximately a year ago, we lost a channel called Leicaphilia due to the death of its owner, Tim, a fine photographer and a remarkably gifted writer. Unlike many people that I come across on photography-related sites on the Internet – probably the only reason, apart from music, that I go there at all – he had a broad knowledge of the world outwith the U.S. That’s of huge benefit if one is in the position of addressing a worldwide audience that, pretty much by definition, is what the Internet is all about. Quite apart from the attractions of his obvious talents, there was also the relief that he wasn’t in the business of trying to sell me anything: he did it for his personal pleasure. That’s one of the great motivators for doing anything.
Frankly, that’s why I bother having a website: apart from getting me outside and giving me something to do rather than sit around the house all day and kill my old self with indolence, keeping a website alive also offers me a very convenient and almost constantly available access path to my photographs, the good, the bad and even the ugly. In direct conflict with those who keep making the point about strictly editing one’s “work”, I do quite the opposite because the site has nothing to do with looking for work and impressing would-be clients, it is entirely for my personal benefit and convenience, and by the viewing figures, just as well! 😉
Something that you bring to your site, Dan, is a great manner and presence. That is far from universal on YouTube.
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My plan is to keep this site, but leave YouTube for a subscription site. In essence, more photo specific content about doing stories and breaking down images.
You created an excellent website. I was searching for years to find strictly personal blogs like these. Your example of a site is so hard to find. Photographers are told to curate and like you said, ‘edit down tight’. Personal sites without needing to sell and market, I find truly inspirational. I was thinking?……
Thank you for publishing, Rob. I will briefly linger on your site, if you don’t mind.?
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Thanks Goran. Get ready for a lot more here on Shifter.
Dan – if you produce one of your movies – don’t you profit from this because it forces you to organize your thoughts? I remember when I was at university, it always helped me to try and explain stuff to my fellow students. When I thought I’d figured something out, it was often a completely different thing to explain it to others so they could understand.
What I meant to ask about your journal: Do you get back to those written notes after a while, or is making notes part of developing your thoughts? Such that those notes become irrelevant after you’ve written them? Also: Does writing by hand vs. using a computer make a difference for you in this regard? – I’m curious because for me, it only works when hand writing.
Enjoyed looking through your website, Thomas. I realised that I had visited before, and having a second look at the “Track” series showed you to be a braver man than I ever was: I know, without going there, that it represents exactly the kind of place, along with abandoned houses, where I simply can’t set foot. I think now, as I write, of that Blair Witch movie, and it all fits into the same horrific mould of incipient death by unnatural forces. One could simply vanish. I have no idea from whence this phobia arises, but there, or rather here, it is.
I hate woods. Driving from Brive towards Clermont-Ferrand many years ago, I had to get out for a pee; just a few feet into the woods and I was totally disorientated, convinced I would never find the car again. I discovered earlier on that empty beaches out in the wilds are much the same: in 1973, just before the Turks invaded Cyprus, I was working up on the panhandle, in the extreme north-east of the island, and the model and I wandered down a slope to the beach where we did our photography, and then climbed back up to the road to move on. When we reached the road, I had absolutely no idea whether the car was parked, to the left or to the right of us. She said left, and she was right. How the hell, guessing aside, could anyone know? Maybe that’s why the Romans preferred long, straight roads with no bends. Scary stuff.
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Who told you I was organized? I get your point, and maybe there is some resonance there for me. And yes to the journal. I use them again and again. It’s a blast.
I watch your videos on my tv so never see any comments. I didn’t even know there was a community section. But I’ve just had a look and there was quite a bit your were posting from Antarctica that didn’t make it here.
Don’t neglect us lot 🙂
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A few things only. Most of what I post there goes here unless I run out of time. And my use of YT is tapering off. It’s such a horrible place. There are benefits in terms of meeting new people, but I much prefer this site.
I’m sorry but I really don’t think your YT channel is silly. For me, it’s a great source of creativity, knowledge and entertainment. I don’t think you should take any notice of all those mean comments. Your YT channel is not for those people. Keep up the good work!
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Well, I’m glad you enjoy it. My hope to make something far better and more specific to photography.
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I am most likely going to move on but I will hopefully be sharing something better.
Long time follower, and I do mean long time. Seems to me that YouTube, like most other things in the time we live in now, will reward good, important, original work with either simply ignoring it, or rude and ignorant comments. From what I gather (because I never read YouTube comments), you are on the right path. Maybe not the most successful, but right nonetheless (thankfully, you seem to have a handle on that).
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Yes, if you live to the algorithm your life is over. It’s a cruel, cruel place and not built for quality. It’s build for following and clicks.
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I’m going to move on, but I will invite you to something else I feel will be much more useful.
In reply to Rob Campbell (I hope that’s OK with you, Dan): Thanks Rob! In fact, while working on Track #2144 I had the most dangerous mishap in all my photographic excursions. While trying to find the perfect angle for a shot, I tripped and fell backwards into one of those drainage ditches. The water was only knee-deep, but had my head hit one of the brick curbs and I’d become unconscious, I could have drowned. Luckily I “only” totaled my D800 – I directly drove to the Nikon subsidiary in Düsseldorf to try and have it fixed and caused quite a stir as I must have looked like the thing that came out of the swamp :-). I got another second hand D800 as soon as possible and went right back to this same location. I felt I wasn’t done with this project and I had some time pressure because there were plans to convert the railroad track to a bicycle trail. Actually, the place was so rich with German history – the track was part of a railroad network to execute the Schlieffen plan, later, during the Third Reich, they had a forced labor camp in the tunnel (“Untergrundverlagerung Buchfink”), you name it. And the wild nature in this railroad cutting was a perfect setting. A haunted place for sure. I never dared to venture into the tunnel, though.