Favourite photography YouTubers

Videos of photography? Come on ... sort your definitions (& essences) out ... and doesn't 'youtubers' mean people who eat potatoes? Seriously, photography's about stills. Not people flapping their mouths to a movie camera (& maybe waving their hands about to boot).

I’d say most YouTube Photography is a distraction from photography
 
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Andy Parkinson. If people don't watch him, he's relitively new to youtube but he's a judge on the WPY, won it multipul times and is a nat geo photographer.
Gavin Hardcastle.
Tom Heaton.
Stuart Wood.
Richard Campion.
James Popsys.
Courtney Victoria.
Jared Polin

Are probably the youtubers that I actively search for or spend time checking their new videos when released.

 
I will not subscribe to any tuber who insists on muzak behind their voiceover and I usually let them know in the comments. In fact if it starts with muzak and the muzak hasn't ended after a minute I click away.

Monica Brandstein is very interesting.

Chris Baitson for M4/3.
 
Aside from Heaton, James Popsys & Peter McKinnon I've probably gone off of the main 'typical' YouTuber's!! The occasional Shainblum or Simon Baxter might slip through. But even Fototripper I haven't watched for a while now. He, like others, just started to off the boil a bit & just didn't want to watch. Nigel Danson is the same - all clickbait title, repetitive stuff - Nigel's (and Gavin's) photo's are usually pretty gorgeous though. New gear stuff doesn't interest me too much either....

Most of my stuff I watch revolve around film photographers, street photography & hiking/camping.

Brae Hunziker, Chris Knight, Framelines, Haze Outdoors, Joe Greer, Kyle McDougall, Mike Chudley, Overlanding Sophia, Paulie B, Scotlands Mountains, Scotty's Gone Walkabout, Willem Verbeeck.....
 
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James Popsys, James Burns, Jamie Windsor. Must be a "J" thing. Can't stand the, "7 things the pros keep to themselves" "5 ways to improve your photography" "Three reasons why you should buy a £7,000 camera"
 
When I watch a youtube video the last thing I want to hear is muzak, I detest it. Secondly, muzak never, never, ever adds anything to the subject being discussed so one ear is being assaulted by some vile sounds while another is trying to pay attention to the monologue. If the author has confidence in his programme he doesn't need pointless and distracting muzak. Check out the number of really successful youtubers who still use muzak, there are not many and that is regardless of the subject under discussion, be it photography, DIY, politics or whatever. For some reason too many people posting videos seem to believe that they are incomplete without crappy muzak, God knows why.
 
Don't think he's been mentioned yet, and he's a bit of an anti-YouTuber with a refreshingly dry sense of humour - Craig Roberts (e6 Vlogs) https://www.youtube.com/@e6Vlogs

Very much about the photography, and only a little about the gear. Does a lot of walkabout, street and rural, often around Yorkshire plus the main cites including London.

Gets great photos from the mundane, and often seemingly featureless areas, as well as the more well-known landmarks.

And his very reasonably priced subscription is well worth the money. Do check him out.
 
I find YouTube photographers very smug, which is slightly irritating lol.

I also find that watching them makes me want to go where they’ve gone, only to go there and feel slightly underwhelmed lol
I Watch mark Smith who is in Florida, his osprey photography is top notch ,we were on Holiday in Florida and i went to to the place he gets his footage From , it was an amazing venue ospreys galore along with all kinds of other Wildlife, Best Days photography i have ever Had ,
Went again a few days later ,turned to my left and he was stood next to me taking photos
 
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When I watch a youtube video the last thing I want to hear is muzak, I detest it. Secondly, muzak never, never, ever adds anything to the subject being discussed so one ear is being assaulted by some vile sounds while another is trying to pay attention to the monologue. If the author has confidence in his programme he doesn't need pointless and distracting muzak. Check out the number of really successful youtubers who still use muzak, there are not many and that is regardless of the subject under discussion, be it photography, DIY, politics or whatever. For some reason too many people posting videos seem to believe that they are incomplete without crappy muzak, God knows why.

By 'muzak', I assume you're referring to background music?

Personally I can't get that worked up about it, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, for me, too much B Roll puts me off.
 
I do agree re B' Roll - just get on with it. Something else that ensures I don't subscribe.

The bottom line with youtube videos is that they are like anything put out for general consumption be that art in general, photos or mass produced items, done well there is nothing superfluous.

Drew Pritchard (Salvage Hunters) sums up good design - "good design just is." What he means is that design perfectly complements function. Youtube videographers need to view their output in the same way. Muzak never adds to the viewing experience, at best it bores and at worst it detracts. It fundamentally undermines the story. And yet we have photographers who presumably wish to be seen as artists undermining their output with pointless add-ons eg lengthy B Roll and crappy muzak. It is self-defeating.
 
I do agree re B' Roll - just get on with it. Something else that ensures I don't subscribe.

The bottom line with youtube videos is that they are like anything put out for general consumption be that art in general, photos or mass produced items, done well there is nothing superfluous.

Drew Pritchard (Salvage Hunters) sums up good design - "good design just is." What he means is that design perfectly complements function. Youtube videographers need to view their output in the same way. Muzak never adds to the viewing experience, at best it bores and at worst it detracts. It fundamentally undermines the story. And yet we have photographers who presumably wish to be seen as artists undermining their output with pointless add-ons eg lengthy B Roll and crappy muzak. It is self-defeating.

Oh, get a grip. You don't want YT videos, you want a lecture from a blackboard.
 
I do agree re B' Roll - just get on with it. Something else that ensures I don't subscribe.

The bottom line with youtube videos is that they are like anything put out for general consumption be that art in general, photos or mass produced items, done well there is nothing superfluous.

Drew Pritchard (Salvage Hunters) sums up good design - "good design just is." What he means is that design perfectly complements function. Youtube videographers need to view their output in the same way. Muzak never adds to the viewing experience, at best it bores and at worst it detracts. It fundamentally undermines the story. And yet we have photographers who presumably wish to be seen as artists undermining their output with pointless add-ons eg lengthy B Roll and crappy muzak. It is self-defeating.

The simple fact that many of the YouTube photographers that add background music to their videos, earn a living from it, which would suggest people are subscribed and watching on a regular basis, so I think you may be in the minority here!

Adding to that, if you're not a fan of music, b-roll, maybe stick to looking at photos in galleries or Flickr?
 
why so much negativism towards ppl on yt ... they just do what they like .. nobody is forced to look on that, choice is yours ... there are certainly different kind of people, some are modest and some other are smug .. and some are very inspiring, and it is what matters .. it's just same like in RL (real life) .. content you watch on is everybody's choice .. generic rants that ppl on youtube are bad are meh ...
 
I watch a few mentioned but don't subscribe to any, I will often do a search on a topic I am interested in and see what comes up - one I really like (did influence my recent upgrade to the R1) is Larry Chen, followed a lot of his shoots with Hoonagan and the pikes peak stuff

this is the one on the R1

Larry Chen

This interview one shows how down to earth he really is

How To Become The World's Best Car Photographer

 
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I follow;-

Pat Kay
Gareth Danks
Three Blind Men and an Elephant
Mike Chudley
Roman Fox
Manny Ortiz
Julia Trotti
Ian Worth
Curtis Padley
Nigel Danson
Laura BC
Paul Reid Photography
Lizzie Pierce
Kevin Mullins
In your Faye’s.
 
The only one, I watch now, is Stuart McGlennon.
Haha cheers :)

Some of the replies to this thread are quite interesting - YouTube largely is a game, for a creator to be 'successful' at it you need to gamify the system somewhat (thumbnails, titles, first 30 seconds of video etc.). If you're willing to do that and upload consistently (key), with a decently thought out strategy and if you're a reasonably engaging presenter, your actual photographic skills are largely irrelevant. There's a huge amount of mediocre photography on there but that's not what it's for, it's entertainment largely. If you want to see great photography pick up a book or go to a website or an exhibition.

For better or worse however, it's the direction in which all industries are heading including photography. If you've designs on being full-time within my sphere (landscape) in 2024, you have to embrace video in some form as it's expected from newer audiences. Luckily I'd established my business long before doing YouTube however I'd say that even with my somewhat sporadic output it's helped somewhat.
 
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For learning the art of "Still Life Photography", Barbe Moorings on the Youtube Channel "Camera Club Live" takes you step by step through the complete set up for various kinds of still life photo shoots. and he is one of your countrymen. He has been posting his shows every week for over 3 years, so there are many older shows to watch, and he posts a new show every week on Wednesdays. He is one of the best for teaching this form of photography that I have found. Don't be intimidated by his high dollar gear. Most of what he does can be done with speedlites and low priced alternatives. Any digital camera with a 24-70 mm lens or close will work fine for most of what he does, but there are a few shows where he uses "Tilt/Shift Lenses" and other expensive gear that you won't be able to repeat exactly if you don't have something equivalent.

I have done all kinds of photography for the past 70 years, even some "Still Life", but watching "Camera Club Live" has taught me a bunch of new tricks and I am doing more of it now, mostly on days when nothing else is scheduled for my studio. I'm staying busy, and there is a surprising demand for some of the better or "specific types" of shots. Banks, commercial offices, restaurants, doctors offices, etc. are interested in buying some of these prints, usually in larger sizes. Doing it has improved my lighting ability, and it has even helped me do a better job of properly lighting larger photo shoots. "Still Life" and "Product" photography are very close to the same, but many shots that I do are just an interesting assembly of items with no actual products involved. Others have specific brand products among a mix of related items, like a bottle of a brand of wine along with two wine glasses, a cork screw, maybe the removed cork, some fresh grapes, crackers and cheese, etc. all placed on a small table top with a complementing color table cloth. With good lighting to highlight the wine and table top, but nothing surrounding it (thank you inverse-square law) makes a very interesting photo. This lighting setup works well for a vase of flowers too.


Charley
 
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OK I'll pug MY CHANNEL !! I have NO IDEA how to ADD MUSIC BUT there are a few of me playing the piano such as 'Good Old Army Tunes with my VETS GEAR on and lots of How To Videos such as How to Avoid Blowing Up my Digital Camera with the Infamous Vivitar 283 Flash !
and I never get GIVEN gear to review and Plug
only SOME that Camera Club /FLICKR Mates have LOANED me --
 
OK I'll pug MY CHANNEL !! I have NO IDEA how to ADD MUSIC BUT there are a few of me playing the piano such as 'Good Old Army Tunes with my VETS GEAR on and lots of How To Videos such as How to Avoid Blowing Up my Digital Camera with the Infamous Vivitar 283 Flash !
and I never get GIVEN gear to review and Plug
only SOME that Camera Club /FLICKR Mates have LOANED me --

I've watched some of your vids before Peter and I can say that you are worth watching. Well done :D
 
I don't watch many photography YTers but the ones I really like are:
  • Morten Hilmer - brilliant wilderness style photography
  • Courtney Victoria - completely bonkers landscape photographer
  • Matt Kloskowski - great info on Lightroom and Photoshop features
The gear oriented crowd don't get a look in unless I'm specifically looking for reviews on something I'm thinking of buying. I used to also watch Photography Online but since they came back after a year of nothing I can't get into them again.
 
+1 for Pentax Pete ( Peter Elgar on YT).
I'm also fond of "Before Digital" but these are clearly a bit niche.

On the subject of music and b roll, I will sometimes use background music with a slide show otherwise it would be a minute of deathly silence as photos roll by. If I talk over photos it takes longer and of course not every photo needs commentary (I'm mostly seeking to show what to expect from a particular film camera).
B roll to me is a close up of whatever function I'm talking about in the main presentation. So I shoot a video of a camera on a wide lens then shoot b roll in close up afterwards to insert over the top. When I watch content with too much "atmospheric" b roll I can find it a little waring but some to set the scene if it's a shoot at a certain location can enhance a presentation.
 
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