Voice and Style in Photography and YouTube
Show Notes
This was a very cathartic video to make, as I finally put some of the thoughts in my head into something tangible and available to others. Lately I’ve been questioning how I can improve my videos and photography and how can I develop my own unique style to my videos and photography. I haven’t yet found a complete answer to those questions, but by asking them I think I am on the right road.
The advice from so many creators is to find what makes you unique and create around that, but that is very hard advice to follow. Essentially they are telling you to create something no-one else can, but if no-one else has created it then how can you think of an idea to create. That advice annoys me a bit because they have already found their voice and are able to present themselves in a unique way. But that doesn’t mean that we have.
This is not going to be the most popular video on my channel but I wanted to discuss these ideas a bit, and to talk about how I am going to try and develop my own voice and style in both YouTube and photography over the next few months and years.
Over the past week I’ve been watching a lot of Sean Tucker’s videos and his insights left me pondering about how best I can create something that is authentically from myself. I know there will be some that think this is a rip off of his own style, but I couldn’t care less. I needed to make this video, so I did.
My conclusion, after pondering this subject, is that style and voice will only develop with time and with patience. You can’t force yourself to create something that has never been done before. Only with having an open mind and allowing yourself to evolve, and by creating continuously, will it be possible for your style and voice to develop.
I am beginning this journey and I will be recording my steps to that goal, that is the biggest benefit of YouTube. I will see myself, my style and my creative voice developing in my videos and in my photography. I hope you will join me on this journey by subscribing to my channel.
I’m including the original script that I wrote below, when recording I go off script and let myself go down several rabbit holes of thought, so it’s interesting to see how they differ.
The Original Script
Over the past week, I have really begun to question what I want to get out of this channel and my photography. I enjoy making the videos, editing together the vlogs over the past few months has been one of my primary jobs of the week and it’s been one that I often look forward to, because I find it a challenge. Thanks to these vlogs I have been enjoying learning new skills and applying them. It reminds me of when I first began my photographic journey. Experimenting with the camera and subjects, being inspired by different creators and their approach to photography. Those ideas are being replicated in my approach to videos. I am finding new and different creators and I enjoy watching their vlogs, but each one has a different approach. And that leads me to wonder, is my approach to generic?
Often, there is advice thrown around by other creators to find your own voice and to make videos you enjoy, but that’s easy for them to say because they have already found their voice, their style, and their audience. They are confident in what they do, and you can tell that when they are enjoying what they do as well.
This past week I discovered a new photographer, someone whose work is the polar opposite of what I do, a street photographer and a portrait photographer, but his videos have really struck a chord with myself. When I first began my photographic journey, street photography was a big inspiration but I never had the confidence to take street photography as a subject for my own photography. Maybe in the future as I grow as a photographer, I will endeavour to work on street photography as a subject. He has rekindled that old inspiration.
But more than that his videos are inspiring because they are more than just vlogs from in the field, they have a documentary style to them, and they are well written and thought through. The photographer is Sean Tucker, I’ll put a card up to his channel.
His style of videos and the content he is producing is more concerned with the philosophy of photography, which is particularly poignant to myself as my degree was centred around philosophy. Philosophy has been an interest of mine that has fallen by the wayside as I have moved through life and finding it in the context of photography was fascinating and rekindled my love for the subject.
At the moment I am struggling creatively, as I am sure many of you are, because my ability to create and to produce artwork that I think represents my voice has been hampered by something that is beyond my control. I want to walk in the countryside, go to the sea and to smell clean air away from the city. Those things are what get my creative juices flowing. But right now, that’s just simply not possible.
I am still trying to create, but I wonder if I am forcing myself to do it, and if by forcing that creativity, am I producing the best of what I can? Am I producing images and videos that best represent my ‘voice’?
Honestly, I don’t know. Challenges are good things for photographers, artists and writers, anyone who is creative really. It forces us to think outside of the box and to create something new outside of our comfort zone. That creation of something new may enable us to redefine our voice and our priorities.
With my vlogs in general, I struggle to find meaning behind them. To present something more than what you see and to really impart knowledge and inspire other photographers. That’s what I wanted for this channel. To inform, inspire and to create. Those are my 3 goals of YouTube.
I didn’t start this channel for fame or fortune, I did hope that at some point I might earn a little revenue to help support my work and my creative efforts, but what I wanted more than anything was to inspire others to pick up a camera and head out. To arm those people with information that helps them to pursue their creative goals. And for myself to create new and exciting images and videos.
Now I’m questioning, how do I do that?
My in the field vlogs that have formed the backbone of this channel are very difficult to bring together to have a wider meaning other than this is me with a camera taking a picture. I struggle to teach in those moments about compositions, about technical aspects of photography, about particular techniques of photography or editing. I feel those things are important as they give you information and answer questions that you may have about photography that will help you grow.
The in the field vlogs are certainly fulfilling at least one of my goals: to create. I am forced to create on a weekly basis because otherwise my channel will suffer, if we consider the unknown algorithm, but also I wanted to accomplish that goal of creating regularly.
I can only hope that the second of my goals: to inspire is being fulfilled. I don’t know if by watching my vlogs you want to go out and get your own images. Explore your own creativity and try something new. Moreover that’s something that is impossible for me to know. I’m not looking over your shoulder, inspecting whether you are creating or doing photography. The only possibility for me to know this is if you tell me in the comments.
The real problem I’m having is the third goal: to inform. That is something I am going to work on. As I mentioned in my Update vlog ‘The Future of this Channel’, I want to create vlogs that inform you on a particular subject or technique. But here’s the catch, how can I do that and preserve my ‘voice’ in the video.
There are already thousands of videos that explain the exact same concepts that I want to talk about. They have been produced to a much higher standard than I can because they have a lot more resources than I do, and they are infinitely more popular because they already have millions of views and subscribers. More to the point, how can I add to those videos and not compete with them. How can I find a way of telling those ideas that is particular to myself. And this is the wall that I am hitting against, because I have no idea how to do that.
There’s another youtube photographer who was able to immediately find his voice and who I have been watching a lot of lately, and that is Fototripper. The reason he makes such good videos is because it’s not only about the photography, he is trying to entertain you with little comedy skits, in between, around and during the serious photography talk. It’s just utterly brilliant! I haven’t seen anyone else doing anything like that and it works, because you end up having a laugh while learning about photography. He found his ‘voice’ and created something completely unique.
I have thought of creating a series of videos with 5 Tips as the structural point. For example 5 Tips to Get Better Landscape Photos or 5 Lightroom editing tips to get better images, that sort of thing. But that style of video has been done to death and I wonder if I am jumping onto a train that has already left the station and entered a different town. Have I come to YouTube too late for it to actually help with my work and what ideas can I have that will be different.
And all this circles back to ‘what is my voice’ and ‘how can I best present my authentic self to you as a viewer’. This concept of a voice goes beyond youtube videos and comes back to photography as well. How do I develop my photographic voice?
Most famous photographers have found their voice, their way of communicating through their images that means that when you see one of their images you can immediately say, ‘oh, that’s an ansel adams shot’ or ‘that’s surely an annie leibowitz portrait.’
In one of Sean Tucker’s videos he is talking to Rachel Talibart, and she made a comment that really stuck in my mind. She recommended that photographers go out and get life experience before coming to photography, because you need to find your voice. Your voice is important to working as a photographer and that develops with life. She made a point that in your twenties it’s difficult to find your voice because you don’t know what you like, let alone what you want to say. And that was like a meteor that hit me from nowhere.
Because I am in my twenties and I am struggling to find my own voice. I’m sure it will come with time and the benefit of making these vlogs will be that I can see myself develop, as a photographer, as a writer and as a video creator. I hope it is an interesting journey and at some point in the distant future, I can say ‘ this, this is my voice and I got here thanks to hard work and dedication, through not giving up when things were hard and for continuing to hone my creative skill.’
Hopefully with time, that is how I will inspire you the most. If you’ve watched this far and are expecting a quick tip on how to find your voice or style, I hope you realise that that is impossible. Your voice in any creative pursuit does not come from a 3rd person, instead it comes from within and it is something that will only develop through constant creative expression and experimentation.
My advice to you and to myself is to seek inspiration, look for others that inspire you regardless of the media: videos, books, podcasts, or whatever. Just absorb information on everything, not only about photography but other creative disciplines and go beyond that to other areas of academia. All of that information will spill forth in your creative pursuit and eventually, it will help you define your voice. Then challenge yourself, challenge the way that you create, what you create or even how you create. But don’t stop creating. That is the real key. There will be moments when you don’t know what you should be doing and my advice is to create crap. Just make something even if it turns out to be utterly awful.
In the meantime, I am going to keep brainstorming on how I can improve the informative side of my vlogs. I hope what I am doing continues to inspire you. But most of all, I just want to keep creating until I find my own voice, once I’ve done that I think it will be a lot easier to inspire and inform. And I think that, every now and again, I’m going to make a vlog like this. Contemplative, questioning, and searching. I think that there are a lot more people in the same shoes as myself, trying to find their way and looking for help, and by watching this they will not feel alone and they will keep trying to become better, as will I.
I’m going to try an experiment over the next week, in an attempt to reignite my creative fire. I’m going to go out with my camera and take pictures. Some will be crap, some will be good. But the big thing is, I’m not going to vlog those excursions. I’m only going to be with my camera and just create. I’m going to try and be loose, stop pursuing perfection, and remember what I love, because it has become clouded over the past few months. My video next week will be about the images that I captured and I’m going to talk more about creative block in terms of photography.
To see how that experiment into photography block goes subscribe to my YouTube channel.
About the Film
Just a little information about the film and how I made it, as well as some links to equipment.
I edited the film using the Free Version of DaVinci Resolve. It’s an incredibly powerful piece of software that I am still trying to understand and will possibly write an article about in the future.
The tracks featured in today’s film were licensed via a subscription with Epidemic Sound. (By following that link, if you purchase a subscription then I will be gifted with a month free for referring you to their services)
The music for this video came from a single artist: Ebb and Flod, I just really enjoyed their slow and contemplative style and it fit with the theme of this video perfectly. The tracks were:
Giza
Alexandria
Rosetta
Luna
The Scent of Earth After The Rain
A short Kit List
These are affiliate links, which means if you follow them and make a purchase I will earn a small commission for referring you to Amazon UK. You can find out more about affiliate links here.
Main Vlog Camera is a simple Panasonic G80 with the kit lens, its a great little mirrorless camera that I got for the sole purpose of creating YouTube videos. It’s capable of filming in 4k and seems to do everything that I want it to.
Rode Mic, I got this little microphone to boost the audio quality from the inbuilt microphone.
Action Camera, I use this to film myself when walking. It’s a simple DJI Pocket Osmo camera that has a motorised 3 axis gimbal head, which means that I stay in focus and static while the landscape around me moves. It’s also capable of filming in 4k and the audio quality is quite good.
Voice Recorder, to boost the audio quality when it’s windy or I’m using the action camera I use this handy little voice recorder with a lapellier microphone to record audio.
For a complete Landscape Photography Kit List you can read through what equipment I take with me when I go out here.
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Written by Daniel Long
Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.
