is photography a hipsters hobby?

I can't comment on the direction of professionals, but I think it's an innate human desire to want to capture memories. It's of course become more popular due to the proliferation of social media and narcissistic culture (read: Christopher Lasch). As an aside, your post reads like a conscious stream of thought. You may want to re-write.

unshavenyak wrote: ↑ I can't comment on the direction of professionals, but I think it's an innate human desire to want to capture memories. It's of course become more popular due to the proliferation of social media and narcissistic culture (read: Christopher Lasch). As an aside, your post reads like a conscious stream of thought. You may want to re-write.

Having gained a better understanding of what it is, I can see your point. Is it a sign of something deeper than a messy train of thought or should medical intervention be sought?



I'm also intrigued by this Christopher Lasch person. It's fitting how when I typed in his full name including his nickname "kit" , I get a bunch of vapid videos about makeup.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... t%22+lasch


Good point about narcism ruling society today; or at least I think that's what you intended to say. Yet another bone to pick, if you will.

Re: Old school vs new school, the content and the principles are the same, the evolution of the delivery is different, anything for the click-money these days. People like Peter see the $ and shift their work towards their YT channel over regular photo assignments. All the big players do it, just check out a camera launch and you'll see Toby, Max, Fro, Northrup, etc walking in the background. Or all the teachers on CreativeLive. Everyone is out for pie in the social media world.

The way people vlog in general is better, vid from HotDeals Whetstone thread, they all want the click-money:

Peter is entertaining for a few minutes, but then you feel like you're watching a channel made for people with ADHD. It's stylish but has no actual substance.

It's all about what you wish to get out of your pictures. If your objective is to fish for likes on Instagram, then yeah, you can probably call it a hipster hobby. For me, I mainly take photos on my vacations to capture the experience. All of my pictures are candid shots of the places I visit and people/things I see. I don't appear in a single photo.

Oni-kun wrote: ↑ Peter is entertaining for a few minutes, but then you feel like you're watching a channel made for people with ADHD. It's stylish but has no actual substance.

As someone who's starting from near zero, I find his information helpful but he acts and looks like a skater doofus. Reminds me of Sean Penn's character in Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

AncasterRFD wrote: ↑All the big players do it, just check out a camera launch and you'll see Toby, Max, Fro, Northrup, etc walking in the background. Or all the teachers on CreativeLive. Everyone is out for pie in the social media world.

For the longest time, I thought the Northrups were brother and sister....

I only found out two weeks ago they were married and had a daughter.

Maybe cause none of their videos really suggest subtle chemistry between them

Supercooled wrote: ↑ As someone who's starting from near zero, I find his information helpful but he acts and looks like a skater doofus. Reminds me of Sean Penn's character in Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

I knew him back in 2010, his wife was working her way up to General Manager of Best Buy in Newmarket and he was at Henrys at the time. I think they got married in 2010.

Oni-kun wrote: ↑ Peter is entertaining for a few minutes, but then you feel like you're watching a channel made for people with ADHD. It's stylish but has no actual substance.

Especially when he’s vblogging walking around, not actually teaching anything. To them, fluff gets clicks too if they’ve built a channel brand.

Supercooled wrote: ↑ As someone who's starting from near zero, I find his information helpful but he acts and looks like a skater doofus. Reminds me of Sean Penn's character in Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

I’d say he’s in his 40’s by the grey but he’s definitely leveraged social media with his persona and slick editing, although he’s not really a gear guy like the others I mentioned. Max is one of my favorites, unbiased to the point.

If you’re starting from zero, I believe the sale is still on CreativeLive, John Greengo’s new Fundamental of Digital Photography. Minus another $15 referral. By far one of the best, 5 days of content iirc. Going on YouTube is a sea of unorganized tutorials.

I guess it has to do with the demographics and the advance of technology.
Ex: Younger generation of people prefer to watch a movie than to read the book the movie is based on.
Generally speaking, younger generation of people prefer watching TV than reading a book.
I grew up in the transition when there was not much technology. I preferred and still do, to play outside than to stay at home playing video games. My 7 y/o son prefers the opposite.
Youths like the knowledge chewed up and giving it in milk shakes as they don't want to chew the information, maybe they're desperate, or tired, or find it unsatisfying.
Many older people than me prefer reading books, and many younger people than me prefer watching TV shows. I'm in the middle. I prefer watching documentaries,

In this article from 2015 The demographics of YouTube, I couldn't find any category about documentaries. So what the OP exposed, younger generations prefer watching YouTube channels of Peter Mckinnon, probably because he's funny to watch and acts ridiculously, than watching Philip bloom.

@Supercooled
Fundamentals class if free to watch live starting tomorrow at 12pm ET

https://www.creativelive.com/class/fund ... r-tomorrow

If you decide to buy it, you can actually save CL classes on your phone to watch anytime.

I like Thomas Heaton's work on YouTube since its mostly self-made landscapes.

Landscape photography gets expensive, very quick.

Not factoring the cost of flights, food, or lodging but rather the cost of a good tripod, l-bracket, filters, polarizers, adds up very fast!

Is Alex the knife guy? Didn’t notice. I think new vids appease short attention spans with their movements, quick cuts and chirps. Older instructional vids feel like Bob Ross. Actual content is the same.

Supercooled wrote: ↑ recently rekindled my interest in photography or more specifically videography. people I followed years ago like Philip bloom, Dave Dougdale, ect. seems to cater to a different market than what the new crop of enthusiasts are. local boy Peter Mckinnon for instance has over a million subs in less than a year while an industry veteran like bloom hasn't even hit 200k. no idea how that works.

I think youtubers are trying to be more cool and hip to get followers rather than concentrating on the information aspect. I like Casey neistat but it seems like there's a new version of him popping up ever other day and they "blowing" up the interwebs.

what's your thoughts on where photography is in terms of health and directions it's going. everyone with a camera and a youtube account sell themselves as film makers nowadays.

I'm not quite sure about the point you're making... When I think of "hobby", I think of something that speople do for fun, not something they do for money. Many of my friends who are into photography as a hobby are in it for themselves, and aren't looking to make money from their photos

The people who are on YouTube that you talk about, people who are vlogging, etc are doing it for more hits/views/subscribers, which leads to money. But that's their profession, or maybe a side hustle they're doing, and not just a hobby.

Also, what do you mean by "hipsters hobby"?

AncasterRFD wrote: ↑ I’d say he’s in his 40’s by the grey but he’s definitely leveraged social media with his persona and slick editing, although he’s not really a gear guy like the others I mentioned. Max is one of my favorites, unbiased to the point.

If you’re starting from zero, I believe the sale is still on CreativeLive, John Greengo’s new Fundamental of Digital Photography. Minus another $15 referral. By far one of the best, 5 days of content iirc. Going on YouTube is a sea of unorganized tutorials.

I may be selling myself short a little when I said I was starting from zero. I've learned a bit a few years back when I bought my first "proper" camera with the T3i. Structured tutorials aren't hard to find on YouTube from guys like I mentioned before. Dave Dougdale, DSLR Shooters, Adorama but they're in piece meal format so you have to keep at it. Already learned so much about filming techniques from a new sub by the name of D4Darious.

M1GOmigs wrote: ↑ I'm not quite sure about the point you're making... When I think of "hobby", I think of something that speople do for fun, not something they do for money. Many of my friends who are into photography as a hobby are in it for themselves, and aren't looking to make money from their photos

The people who are on YouTube that you talk about, people who are vlogging, etc are doing it for more hits/views/subscribers, which leads to money. But that's their profession, or maybe a side hustle they're doing, and not just a hobby.

Also, what do you mean by "hipsters hobby"?

I'm equating hipster with trendy or in the parlance of our time to quote a favourite movie of mine. I'm sure not everyone with a channel is living off of their proceeds right now and only as you said, a side hustle for them. My feelings when I watch these channels are they're just following the same formula hoping they can make it big too hence it's no longer about the art anymore but replicating the slider shots, blurred backgrounds and unorthodox editing leading to YouTube looking and sounding the same. Can you imagine if mainstream film making went to a series of jump cuts like we're seeing today with YouTube?

Max does offer great content and appeals more to geek nerds but sometimes it is unnecessarily long. I just watched Peter's Canon M50 review and then one from Kai. I can see the appeal of Peter's style. His "production values" is like watching a movie trailer so yeah, his popularity is well deserved but his personality is still pretty cringy. Someone in the middle between the two would be great.

Supercooled wrote: ↑ I'm equating hipster with trendy or in the parlance of our time to quote a favourite movie of mine.

If hipster = trendy to you, then photography isn't even close of being a trendy hobby. People I know who owns a camera bought it before the rise of good camera on smartphones and out of necessity. None of them use it for fun or creatively.