Hidden Reality of Being a YouTube Photographer 

You can find my workshops here tinhouse-studio.com/product-category/workshop/ ;)

Direct and honest with no clutter. The same voice as your photography. Much appreciated.

Gosh, I really wish popular review channels had this level of understanding of bias (and desire to maintain their integrity). I ended up unsubbing from four or so late this last year as they uncritically accepted brand money or product from sometimes multiple directions like it was nothing. Ironically I think brand ambassadors are easier to take at face value: you know their bias. But when “independent” creators get on the brand juice and still feel like their independence is being preserved… yeah, a bit of incredulity over here.

Love your insights and knowledge Chris- especially coming from a REAL commercial photographer- not the typical YT shooter only shooting for Self, not actual CLIENTS.

You touch on a lot of legitimate points. There are ethical / moral dilemmas associated with all of RU-vid. What bums me out the most is that the top "Photography" channels are more talk show / gear review personalities than photographers. For instance, they do very little paid shoots / professional work, and when they do show them working, it's essentially just to advertise or "test" a new lens. I've started a channel based on one of my hobbies, but mostly because I know I'd be somewhat... controversial / blunt, like yourself lol. I get *way* more value / inspiration from your talking head segments and demo's than hearing about "Len's Manufacturer's NEW Xmm Lens and Why You Should Buy It" videos lol

This video came at just the right time. Wanted to know about Payment in Kind, just didn't know what it was called.

The reality is talking all day to a camera, passion projects, and not actually doing much real client work. Also they get free stuff if they say nice things about products. LOL. I didnt watch the video yet but I subbed. I like your videos.

As always, no time wasted when watching your videos. Learning a ton! On a different note, are you using a different lens on this video? Kinda look different from the previous ones (a good kind of different).

one how to connect the subcribtion (as in members only videos on youtube), James Turner YT has his members-only videos connected to his website

Just found this channel and doing a bit of a binge watch Liked and subbed cheers. Interesting topic. Personally press Photography is my day job, the pay isn't what it should be but I love the work to bits, working in newspapers teaches me so much about so many aspects of photography, My side hustle of a wee RU-vid channel is financially laughable, subs and views are poor so the Adsense lark is not worth the work, time and effort I put into it, no sponsorship deals, or endorsement deals or any buy me a coffee type things, but insanely I still do it I actually enjoy the whole process of producing something from nothing under my own steam, I've seen a massive learning curve from my first video to my latest and I still know next to bugger all about video and audio, but I am improving, I hope, also having a somewhat introverted and awkward relationship with actual real life people the most vital thing about YT is it keeps my head and my time occupied in a fairly useful way, RU-vid is a great creative outlet, that alone to me is priceless. Right onto your next vid, let the binge continue cheers.

Great Honest Information! Love listening to you. Thanks.

Ireland has the least Business tax, so all tech giants have their headquarters there. Anything that you pay through fb or ig will be billed to their Dublin office. I was also confused in the beginning

You are speaking so much truth there, that's the reason I can't listen to the camera or lens reviews. They emphasis on so many things that don't matter in the real world, or they say this one is better than the other because of this or that. They don't tell you that this one is paying them so they become bias in the reviews. It doesn't take too long to discover that if you're really listening. Thank you for shedding some light on this.

Good talk 👍 Great channel

Such straightforward informative commentary, I love it!

So refreshing ...and so different from that boring, redundant content of so many other photography channels that unfortunately turned into a cul-de-sac over the years...

Good info .. thanks ..

I wish other so called influencer would give such open insight about their work instead of showing off, what they have earned within a year. Bravo and thank you

Yeah the RU-vid photo community is way oversaturated with gear jockeys. And unfortunately too many who have no idea of what they’re talking about. Over the past 4 months or so I’ve upgraded all of my lighting (stuff was old, abused, and in some cases, even hazardous) so yes, I went in search of some reviews. Had to stop when the one said that his new lights had to have high speed sync because he was going to be shooting lots of liquid splashes 😮😮😮 Yes, had to stop with the YT reviews at that point. Thanks Scott for your insight. Maybe you can do a video some day on how to ferret out the frauds.

Really appreciate your honesty and insight into RU-vid, great video.

Im curious about what ethical dilemmas you might have against lightroom presets? Personally I would never purchase one, as I know how to.. ya know.. use lightroom, but I can understand why some photographers who are earlier on in their photo editing skill would get use out of them.

I think the balance of free information and payed information looks quite good to me (ethically sound): For those who are just listening "for fun" there's enough in your free stuff, and even aspiring pros should find helpful content. Those who need more will gladly pay when they have the impression that it would be helpful beyond the free videos. Sounds good to me!

Once a sponsor is involved pretty much hard to be subjective.

Who was knocking at the door? 😄

Your videos are excellent and informative.

The only part missing of your information was that RU-vid do not pay for your cost to make a video, it’s a do video’s till you make some money if you get a lot of eyeballs on your videos! It’s a bit of a rip off!

How do you know how to navigate all this? Do you take business classes? Well, now I know there's a link...

Not easy to find this transparency of YT.

I'm watching to see how quickly your hair is growing back. Looking good! (jk)

Great points. I have a channel... but im at a whopping 70 subs as i write this lol. Goona be long time before i make some money off this. 😂

I wouldn't feel bad about doing something for a rate the free market could never match. As they say in aeroplanes, "Put the oxygen mask on yourself first before others." If that is your pathway to moving forward to the destination you would like to be at, take it. Others in the market have their own value added and propositions of value. Welcome to business. Your pitch is important. Sometimes one hand has to scratch another in the big picture. The reality is if I heard person X is being considered for the job, but I know person Y is available and more than capable, and I'm in a relationship with them, I will promote they get the gig and then ask person Y for a referral fee. The moment you start worrying about what is fair to the people X, you've guaranteed you'll be the nice guy that finishes last. You dan't have to an A-hole, but it is a dog eat dog world. I didn't make the rules, I just know how they work.

Standing by for that crisis...nah I'm just kidding. lol

the channels i always unsubscribe from are im switching to this camera brand.

I'd be shocked if almost anyone actually pays "tax in kind" on review items that just never find their way home. ;) How would the government even effectively audit that? Its kinda like tips at a bar or restaurant, technically you owe income tax on it, but realistically is any bartender reporting their cash tips? I remember when I used to review products, our policy was to always return the items and I'd have to fight with companies to take the items back. Not because they were trying to bribe me with them, but because getting a used item back is useless to them and just a hassle to deal with. They can't throw it back on a pallete as new, they often don't have mechanisms for selling lightly used items and it isn't worth their effort to create one so they usually just throw it away or it ends up in a closet someplace that incurred extra expense because of the cost of return shipping.

There's knowledge you give away for free and knowledge you don't .. can't imagine why you're agonising over not giving the crown jewels away .. you owe us nothing and we are giving you nothing except a few clicks (and YT gets its advertising revenue) .. many thanks for what you do give away, though .. 😁