Why I started a YouTube channel at 35 and my foray into 35mm Photography- Trs Vids

Why Youtube, Why analogue photography and why now. Well, to be honest, having been stuck in doors for over a year, I switched my street photography energy to learning how to make films. You know, Vlogs, short videos that I think might help someone or at least make them laugh and I have fallen in love with it. Everything from telling short stories to editing it to creating little productions. Its been a great learning curve. At the same time, Although the city has been taken away from me, I have continued to photograph everything and even managed one wedding to photograph.

What does this all have to do with 35mm film photography you ask. Well, best start at the beginning,

I have been a part time photographer for 15 years. Shooting just about a 100 weddings, some small corporate and commercial gigs as well. Always balancing it with a day job (well apart from a 3 year gap when all I did was weddings). I found that my love of Photography was at its best when I wasn't totally focussed on the business side of it, so I decided to carry on working a city job whilst always making room for 5 weddings each year and some other work. That way, I stay in love with Photography and photography carries on paying for its self. Again, if you don't know, photography is NOT a cheap hobby. .

About 3 years ago I hit a small crisis of confidence in photography, particularly around my direction and after some artist sole searching I decided that my inferior complex was partly down to the fact I came in to this area as a fully digital photographer. Something you might say isn't a problem. However, for me, Photography has always been more than a technical knowledge or a simple photo. I see it as a artistic vision that I get to portray, particularly in my street photography work. I love story telling and love to create an image that tells lots of stories in one shot. For this reason, just knowing what ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture you need in overcast conditions isn't enough.

Anyway, I'm digressing. My point here is that I felt by not learning what clearly is the soul of photography I was somehow missing some solid foundations and at this moment, it felt like i was starting to sway. So, I set about slowing grabbing some cheap second hand cameras (Nikon F65) and some basic Fuji 200 colour. Then I bought a Nikon F301, a few more older lens (as well as some newer Nikon lens I had) and boom the addiction had started.

Thats it, I have learnt how to shoot on a camera made in 1985, learnt (although im still very bad at this) how to develop my colour shots. Learnt about pushing and pulling and what happens when you do it. Even had a peak in to the commercial side of devolving and printing and I am keen to keep on learning. Its been great.

Now, about 18 months ago I had a life event that made me realise that life is short. I won't go in to that today, but ultimately you shouldn't give a duck what people think about you. You should do what makes you happy, take risks and reach for the stars, because as my mum you to say, you don't get what you don't ask for, so if you don't try you won't get.

So, the Youtube channel was born, now I wasn't certain what to do with it, I started with some photography 'tips'. Which, as expected went down awful, I had no idea how to film, and arrogantly I thought photography and film making were the same and plodded about for 6 months creating rubbish. Further, I realised that a lot of people did these vids and did them better...... Much better............ Much, much better!

I then started to log my street photography outings which was better, but still incredibly immature and basic. However, I have always liked the idea of documenting me and my life, and photography is such a big part of me that the channel was always going to be about it. Lucky for me, I learn on the job, so a year ago I gave my self one goal, every video I published I would look to improve one thing on the next vid (within reason). So, keeping it small, it might be audio. It started with vids like this.... shooting with in built mics and quickly changed to a better set up as I learnt just how important audio is (although still lots to learn)

One thing I want to do, and always want to do is help and inspire. Thats why some of my vids are very personal because if I think a vid could help someone, even if it's about my darkest moments in life and I think its worth sharing, I will. Thats why I talk about depression, Dyslexia and the ThunderClap trauma I had. You will notice these types of vids are more straightforward as I didn't want to distract of glorify some of it so they are much simpler. However, what's the point of going through horrible things in life, if you can use that to help others! Thats my thoughts anyway.

Back to the vids, as the months went on I started to see a few people follow which was nice, but I needed a purpose, a goal and a target. Balancing this with a full time Job, Wife and Baby isn't easy so I promised my self I would try my best but not be too hard on myself when things didn't tho to plan. I can be a tad obsessive ya know :) . However, without some goals, some targets the channel would/will just disappear.

So, we arrive at today. I have decided to do just that. I decided to spend this year making the channel about me, creating playlist for those who come to my channel for some specific and creating what makes me proud and happy. Now, Im not daft and I quickly realised my best vids where those about my foray in to 35mm film. Things like simple camera tutorials, film reviews etc etc. So, really if I was a smart business person I would have just done lots, but my channel isn't about that, its about me, so I continued to make lots of things, but still always with one goal. To inspire or help.

Like this vid about social media and how I think we can help each other become more social media healthy, or just a tongue in cheek vid like the one below that I thought of and wanted to put out. All these are just my way of putting things out in to the world, hoping to help others.

Now, it must be said, I do want to try and make some money back for the channel in the hope a miracle does happen and I could make a full time job of it, so that's why you may see affiliate links ect or prints for sale, but I think that's fair in todays world.

Ok, back to today. I have decided to make the channel about my journey in to making films, so, that will be me making short films and films about photography, both digital and 35mm. However, I do love analogue and i think im in a better position to share my learning as i go on, so I will make sure i put out 2 vids a month on film stocks or 35, camera, so that if you start out you can have a look at some examples before buying. At the same time, we are starting to see life go back to normal and Ill be back out in the city with the Fuji's so im excited to vlog about that. However, the most fun and creative I get is doing simple daily vlogs, i find it awesome and love the challenge of telling a story about every day life, so ill find some time to do this as well. If all that sounds good, then sub and follow.

This is my vision for the channel and I'll work hard yo bring you lots of cool shots with films, show you the pics so that you can decide before forking out your hard earned cash. At the same time, do it with my normal geeky personality, you know, a bit of history to the films, maybe even show you some processing , scanning etc. So sub to join the fun for that.

Thanks so much for reading, if you have gotten this far, then throw a comment in the vid, share it with a friend. Id love to know if anyone reads my ramblings on here :) Anyways, have fun

Scott