 How's it? How's it? I thought today that would do something just a little bit different It might be nice for you to get a bit of an idea about you know how things going with the channel what my ideas are Looking forward and to answer some of your questions. The first question That I'm gonna answer is one that a lot of people are like, okay, what's going on here? It's it's how's it? What does how's it mean? Where does it come from? Well quite simply it is a South African slang term as an informal greeting for hello. How's it? So H-O-W-Z-I-T For some reason I say it twice how's it how's it and and I enjoy saying it and so it's a nice way of being less Hello and welcome to the channel and more just kind of hey We're gonna have a little chat and just to hang out so that's what how's it means It's how's it how's it when I started this channel back in all the end of November last year It wasn't anything so I didn't have a grand Plan or anything like that. It was simply I wanted to create content that I was struggling to find on YouTube you know, I was looking for photographers and I was looking for people talking about photography and You know some of Ted Forbes's earlier videos were along those lines and as Sean Tucker's channel and a couple of other people but there seemed to be a bit of a lack of Stuff that would that I found really interesting and I thought what do you know what? Let's give it a whirl. Let's give it a go and just put some videos together and see what happens It was nothing more beyond that Now obviously as we can see from the numbers with the chow's there is evidently a thirst For the sort of content that we're enjoying this this talking about Photography with a capital B, you know, we're not looking at lenses and gear and stuff like that we're discussing the ideas The the the why is behind photography and it's been extremely gratifying to see how Responsive and how receptive You've been to what I'm creating here. What are the catch 22s about? Talking about the why photography is that if you don't know what it is that you're looking for You can't go and find it so Composition is a good a good example Compositions are fairly standard idea. You know, it's not it's not ground-breaking. It's not a hidden thing Most people are familiar with the the phrase Composition so they can go and search for it and and you can sort of see that there are a number of videos I think Ted Forbes did one recently about composition that that's great But what happens to the more esoteric things, you know Like visual language about how to see things in photographs and stuff So if you don't know the phrases you can't go and look for it and also great photographers is another thing You can't go look for people who you don't know So what can we do to? help this Be discovered about these concepts to get some exposure And I'm not talking here just about my own channel talking about all the channels So if we look at all the people who create content with a capital See about photography and I'm throwing in this thing for like using capitals Quite a lot and and yeah, whatever. Let's just go with it So what can we find? How can we get these these videos to be seen by more people who enjoy it and who would benefit from it? Well, one of the things is that YouTube is about people finding views YouTube wants to show Videos to people that get views and of course within photography most Channels tend to make gear of users lenses how to do the latest thing in in Lightroom or what have you and They get lots of searches and views and what have you and and that's why people make them because they get views because people watch it and They got well if I if I make a video about a famous photographer. I make a video about You know Some sort of concept in photography then nobody ever watches it and of course that's not the point so nobody ever makes it But there are more and more people starting to create Content I mentioned Ted Forbes. I mentioned Sean Tucker There are a number of channels when you start scratching away that you start finding them and what we can do as Photographers and people who enjoy this kind of content is to to comment on those videos to to share them to Give a like to subscribe to those channels because the more that we watch These channels more that we spend time watching all the playlists and things that they put together and Enjoying their content the more YouTube goes. Do you know what? I really like this This seems to be what people want to watch and it will start what's called surfacing these videos Both myself and obviously there's always is going to be my videos. Hopefully, but there are other people Who are going to benefit and we're all going to benefit as a community Because then people will start saying oh this video got a lot of watch time I'll make another one and another one and another one before you know, we're going to have a nice mix of You know videos that talk about lenses and gear and stuff and that's good to know obviously lens on a new camera So it's quite a weighty purchase and it's good to see people's reviews But it will also be good to see more and more videos created about The art of photography and this is what ultimately I would love to see more of you know, even if you have your own ideas about making a channel if you have something to share with the world about The art of photography then then do it the more that we all do this the more that we support the channels that create This kind of content and the more it's going to be surfaced within YouTube and the more that we can start in all Benefiting from it. I'm very much a noob at YouTube I've only been doing this since November and I'm learning as I go so you may have noticed especially if you look at some of the older videos My clothing wasn't fab my hair although. I only had one haircut I had my hair get just before the beginning of the channel and it was only last week or two weeks ago that I finally had it Cut so a bit, you know, so my hair is all over the place the audio changes the lighting sort of changes I'm starting to find my stride and I'm feeling more comfortable about creating Videos on on a regular basis and of course one of these things that I've felt more comfortable about doing is to sharing an opinion and this is very much What I'd love to do with this channel is to just not give you prescribed ways of doing things not telling you that you must do this Or you must do that. So this is this is not what this is about. This is about sharing an opinion and like opinions We all have one well, you know the phrase you know the word I'm sort of scratching it but let's let's keep this this channel family friendly right that we all have opinions and What I sit and talk about on my videos is is just that is an opinion of my own now It's great to see that there are a lot of people who share those opinions And it's also great to see there are people who who disagree with some of those opinions the recent video that I created about You know social media and jar Kenny Lartigue see I know without falling over it is as has created some not Diversive Discussions, but it has opened up a discussion just a nice adult Intelligent discussion. This is what I'd love to see on the channel is when I can say well This is one way of looking at this is how I sort of feel about it And then other people can chip in and say well, that's great But have you considered this and I think we will be in a much better position if we all Took a little moment to be less kind of like oh, I'm right I'm right and just you know and engage in healthy debate because as they're saying goes You know you never win an argument on the internet the popularity of the channel has meant that a question surfaced with within my own mind about How much I can commit to to the channel to creating Content to share with you to help you on your own photographic journey and and it's something I've been mulling over for some time now My studio has been closed for the majority of the last year since last May March rather and I think off top of my head kind of maybe three months out of that period It's actually been open. So it's forced me to to question Whether or not I want to remain there taking pictures of other people's children and spending time with other people's Families on a weekend when I could be spending time with with my own family and of course Prior to creating this channel and before it seemed that there was a desire for the content I'm creating. I wasn't really I was seemed to have been stuck But now that there's been this really heartwarming Response to this community that we're starting to forge together I've just been thinking more about whether or not I can be a full-time YouTuber for want of a better word and and I believe this question is the answer to that question is that yes I can be now I don't want to be one of these guys who starts doing gear reviews and stuff like that because that's absolutely not What I'm looking to do and and I will again Scouts on tell you that I will never do a gear review on this channel And I will never be selling lightroom presets and all that that sort of stuff But of course there is this idea that there needs to be some sort of financial benefit for me creating this content and and I don't want to Splatter all that the videos with adverts and I'm again I'm learning what is a good balance and some people have given me some great feedback And I know in an ideal world none of us would have any any adverts on on anything that we watch And but unfortunately this is kind of the nature of the beast if you'd like to support the channel I do have a buy me a coffee Setup so that's basically a little link and it's in within every single video that I make this in the description box There is a little link you can go there and and make a donation It's like, you know three pounds or three dollars rather and and it's just something to say look You know I appreciate what what you do and a lot of people have done that and I'm extremely grateful for doing that So if you'd like to show your appreciation Things like that are fantastic and and they really go towards helping things like you know getting a new Lapel mic and and a tailor prompt I don't this this particular video isn't scripted necessarily which you may have picked up on But a lot of my videos have some scripting so that I can you know actually say things that I Would say properly without it becoming a weird ramble for three quarters of an hour So all of these things that this financial support goes towards developing the channel It goes towards obviously supporting me to create these videos and and I really do appreciate it greatly Going in hand-in-hand with that is that a lot of people have Reached out and said look don't I offer any sort of photographic training? Do you know to offer a mentorship or can can I help them with with some things? And and I have done that in the past and it ends and and I enjoy the The whole process of sharing information, which is why I enjoy creating the channel And I've got an idea in embryo about trying to maybe replicate the The experience of being at photo school of learning both some technical aspects of photography But also learning the aesthetic aspects that so often are sort of swept away and and not really covered by a lot of sort of learn photography online places It's very much in embryo still and what I'd like to do is have sort of five or six of you To have a bit of discussion with who you know We can I can sort of pitch some ideas and and sort of say this is what I'm sort of thinking and find out what would be helpful to to people like yourself who may want to increase their awareness of Photography and and that art of photography. So if you are interested I'll put an email in the description box below So just send me an email and title it TPE interest and I'll have a little look to you And we'll have a bit of a round table sort of discussion or back and forth and and sort of see what I can come up with But it's an idea that you know, like I said, it's an embryo But I'd be quite excited about doing something like that which would give us a chance to also go into a bit more in-depth in some of the the the topics and the Concepts behind photography because obviously with YouTube is very limited time to create a video You know if anything more than 15 minutes or so and people's attention starts to wander and and sometimes that means With a lot of the videos that I only get like a minute or two Really to discuss a a subject and of course with a lot of concepts That's not even remotely long enough. So this is a way of sort of, you know Sort of putting all that together in a bit more of a deep dive if you want to I'm going to answer another Question that has been asked a lot on the channel is that where do I find my inspiration? This ties neatly with the concept we were talking about earlier about not being able to find things unless you know what it is That you're looking for now. I'm fortunate in so much as I have always been a voracious reader from when I was very young And and of course I went to photoscoring and was given some direction to find Books and what have been and aside from my monographs and downstairs I've got like about 150 monographs of various photographers and you can see there's a couple more on the on the shelves behind me I do like to read books About photography and and I'd like to share a couple with you that we've got here. So these there's a couple here that are Well, this is called ways of seeing by John Burger. This is Susan Sontag Of course, everybody sort of knows why say everybody, but if you don't Feel that you should and you're like, oh, I'm silly for not knowing it Susan Sontag was an intellectual who And that's just put you straight off hasn't it? She was an intellectual She wrote a lot of essays about Photography about you know, how we interpret photography and how what it means to us and and certainly reading books like this There are no pictures in it. It is simply dense text Does so much for actually opening your eyes about how Photography moves us and that's of course that that's the key thing is the how so John Burger so that's yes understanding a photograph and Ways of seeing there is on YouTube There's a and actually there was BBC documentary not a documentary a series about this and as well worth looking It's not specifically about photography, but it will certainly help open your eyes to You know to how you how we interpret the world. So those are kind of really good books They're a bit more kind of like bookie bookie sort of reading. I mean also camera Lucinda or sorry Camera Lucinda see I'm doing that again with the mispronounce nation of things camera Lucida And that's by Roland Barthes and French name word can't say but anyway, so that's also that that's a very interesting book about this concept It was not specifically about this concept this concept when you walk around a gallery What causes you to stop and look at various photographs of various paintings and yeah, look at these These are really really good to read. I'm just gonna pop them down over there And then if you are a little bit more sort of academically inclined, there are textbooks like this that will really sort of you know go into quite in-depth about photography and and what is sort of The more academic side, you know, so these are sort of textbooks that students would be reading and so this one's called Photography a critical introduction which again sounds like sounds like a page turner But if you are interested about being more in-depth about photography These are the books that people read that give them more of an understanding about photography and they're well worth Seeking out Down over here again. There we go. And and then Hidden gems hidden gems that don't cost a fortune that Nobody seems to have ever heard of and yet they were everywhere Before the internet and these go so this is there's a selection of Very short. Yeah, they're quite thin. They're not huge books called the Masters of Contemporary Photography Now these books are outstanding as inspirations for Discussing and finding out about photography. So for example, this one here is Using the mind's eye to create photos for collectors and clients by Dwayne Michaels now Well, I will cover Dwayne Michaels in in another video But this is the whole thing you look at this and there's there's actual text You know, they're talking about the the the the the photographs Discussing the hows and the whys and stuff and these these books which were published in probably the 80s I think you know, so you can find these on YouTube and on YouTube on on eBay on Amazon all these sort of places They're great to find these day and the quite often they're quite cheap as well I think the Dwayne Michaels one was probably wasn't much more than ten quid the so here's one of Bert Stearned I've told this one is How to share action ideas through pictures again, that would be fantastic There's the persuasive image and there's one from Elliot Irwin telling you all about the personal insights of a professional photographer and There's a lot. There's one and Annie Leibovitz one of the Mary Ellen Marks there's there's so many and as these kind of books that I find are really really helpful about Opening doors to discovering new worlds in photography and I would certainly highly recommend that you go on to to eBay I'll put some links of that of the names of these all down and in the In the comment section, so at least you've got books to start looking for and if you go on Amazon, of course you have the Other people who look to this board that that's a fantastic resource for discovering things and I haven't got a copy with me up here because I unfortunately all downstairs, but there's time life series of books, I think it's probably like that 20 volumes About photography that they released in I think probably the late six maybe early 70s But again, if you're in the US so easy to find and I dare say that if you go to a goodwill or you know Some sort of junk shop that there's probably a collection there I'm sure if you're in Florida that there is definitely some seeing as all of the junk in America goes to Florida to be put Into flea markets There we go, but that's why I find a lot of my inspiration both about Photography, but also ideas for for the channel for the videos So I hope that hope that's answered it a couple of a couple of questions I'm and I'm gonna continue smacking this book to give little pops in the mic throughout the whole thing Anyway, so thanks again, you know, it's been it's been so Wonderful to have you guys as part of this channel a part of this community that we did is growing up here and and I keep saying it's wonderful to to get this feedback and and it truly is and I really really even though I don't manage to always respond to all of the comments I absolutely appreciate so so very much the feedback the emails the positive comments that The slightly negative feedback because it all helps grow the channel and I really look forward to the rest of this year Being as fantastic and and being able to share with you these wonderful videos So thanks ever so much and we'll see you again soon You