Ongoing projects, YouTube photography, and a new photo book
A little update with some thoughts on YouTube.
I sent approximately 30 sheets of 4x5 film to the lab this week. I’m shooting more than I ever have with the large format camera and can confidently say I’m having more fun with photography than ever before.
I’m tentatively working on two projects.
First is the sandlot baseball project, which is coming along nicely. It certainly has its challenges. They typically don’t know when they play until a few days before, so I have to be flexible.
The project is pretty simple. It’s mostly portraits of players with a few environmental and landscape shots of the games. Hopefully, I will have something to show by the end of summer, but I’m prepared to take as much time as I need — I will probably regret saying that.
Self Assignment and YouTube Photography
The second project is a “self-assignment” I’ve taken on after a conversation with Bryan Birks over Zoom. After realizing that a major career change might be in order, as I move away from the corporate video world, I figured it’s time to start building up a portfolio of cohesive photography storytelling. Photography that isn’t just pretty landscape shots.
This fact has always been a source of complicated feelings for me. For instance, most photography I’ve produced in the past 5-6 years has been for my channel. I’ve rarely taken a photo and it has not been a part of some video for YouTube. Given the nature of my videos, it’s most likely a landscape shot taken at Golden Hour. I like these photos, but at the end of the day, I don’t really feel anything for them.
There are a few that carry significant meaning for me, like this one from Big Bend in 2019.
But overall, they were just assets that contributed to the bigger project, rather than the other way around. I’m working on a video now and trying to balance the quality of photography and video, and I’ll be damned if it’s not extremely difficult. Wish me luck, I guess?
The fact remains — making a video about photography is damn hard. The workflow is fucking chaotic.
How can you possibly make the best photos of that subject while simultaneously thinking about and doing three other things all at once? The quality of the videos almost always ends up trumping the quality of the photos.
It’s no shocker that “photo YouTube” inevitably turned into gear reviews and vlogs. Creators beholden to the bi-monthly sponsorship deposits don’t have time to be perfectionists or challenge the medium. Can you blame them? They’re backed into a corner.
Call me biased but my two buddies Bryan Birks and Brae Hunziker, are tapping into a formula that works — leaning into storytelling. If other channels are doing this and I’m just ignorant - please send me recommendations.
Kyle McDougall, Tatiana Hopper, and Robbie Maynard are other channels I still enjoy following.
Watching YouTube is a trip, man. Let me know if I’m way off base here, but I’ve found the cycle of consumption (different from the ‘cycle of creation’) to be as follows:
***This is NOT every channel
Find Channel
Binge Channel
Follow Channel for Months/Years
Channel Changes OR Doesn’t Change - Both Negative
Step Away from Channel
Occasionally a beautiful 6th and 7th step occurs…
6. Channel Finds Enlightenment and Returns to Old Ways or Finds Originality
7. Fall Back in Love with Channel
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Anyways, back to that “self-assignment”
While using the 4x5, I’m also using my GFX 50r to save money and realistically simulate what an assignment might be like. It’s coming along nicely, I think. I’ll be sharing the set of images once all the negatives return from the lab. Maybe I’ll make a video similar to Bryan's going over the shoot and talking about the photos.
Boxers by Kurt Markus
This week I’ve been obsessively looking at Boxers by Kurt Markus.
Markus traveled to Havana, Mexico City, Brooklyn, and Dublin photographing aspiring boxers of all ages. The black and white portraits are seeped in emotion and grit. The book is mesmerizing.
This body of work will act as a guidebook while I practice posing athletes and telling stories through the images I take of them.
See you next week,
Logan
"After realizing that a major career change might be in order, as I move away from the corporate video world, I figured it’s time to start building up a portfolio of cohesive photography storytelling..."
I totally understand not wanting to emotionally naked, but I'd love content about ^that process. I'd love to know how you've navigated coming to that realization and the immediate steps you took/are taking to make that change because I'm in the same position myself.
But the internet is "the internet", so I understand keeping that stuff out of a YT video.