Peak Preparation Pains
It’s only when watching a few of the others that I realise just how good the YouTubers I follow really are at presenting their stories on screen. Nowadays I don’t watch them quite as religiously as I used to. Well except for a chosen few, that is. That young Shainblum goes from strength to strength you know. And I do like Nick Page. Mostly, I’m interested in locations rather than camera gear, composition and settings. I think I’ve got a handle on the basics now thanks.
But what was proving useful now was sitting in front of the TV at home and asking Alexa to show me YouTube videos on the Peak District, which she generously did without complaint or delay. Suddenly my feed brimmed with all manner of offerings from any number of aspiring Heatons and Dansons. Many places I’d heard of and seen in your images, and others that were brand new to me. I started watching, hoping to thin out the growing list of potential subjects I’d studded all over the map. I won’t name names, but some of these chaps had cases of seriously misplaced confidence in their own presenting skills. Others were worse. A few I had to stop watching for fear of nodding off to sleep for two months and missing the entire expedition, as middle aged men who looked and sounded like me waffled on tediously like me about settings and focus stacks for up to ten minutes at a time into cameras poised three inches from their noses, rather than showing us the landscape in front of them. “I don’t want to see you, I want to see what you’re looking at!” complained Dave in exasperation one morning in Buxton as we previewed a location we were planning on visiting later in the day. Seriously, if you’re struggling with insomnia, message me privately and I’ll send you a link to the antidote.
The irony is that quite often, the images these explorers inevitably shared were often worth struggling through their broadcasts for. Not always, but many of them clearly knew their way around a composition, despite their shortcomings as a TV host. Once again I resolved never ever to expose myself to ridicule by becoming a YouTuber. And while Dave won’t admit it publicly, I think he’s developed a liking for Gary Gough. He was rather less enthusiastic when I showed him a video by a man whom I shall forthwith refer to as “Mr X,” as he talked us through his visit to the Three Shires Head waterfalls. Funnily enough, Mr X came up in the results a few days later as we searched for posts from Perch Rock Lighthouse. Suffice to say we skipped that one. It’s not a pretty sight when your brother sticks his fingers in his ears, screws up his eyes, begins moaning softly and asks you when it’s going to stop. Poor Mr X. I ended up feeling sorry for him.
But they were at least having a go, and I’m certainly not here to mock when I wouldn’t dream of putting myself in front of a camera out there. After all, I was here because they were fulfilling a requirement on our behalf. I just hoped Dave and Lee appreciated what I was going through as I researched the national park in which we were about to spend four days taking photographs. Some of them were actually rather good, and one - Ian Worth - was duly added to my subscriptions list. One morning I was returned to a video I’d seen some years before from Mads Peter Iversen, as he snapped a crowd of togs standing above a cloud inversion on Chrome Hill before sunrise. In comparison to what I’d witnessed elsewhere - well I can see why he’s done so well at this YouTube business. It was an oasis of televisual excellence amongst the slumberings at the snoozefest. The photos were pretty spectacular too. And Chrome Hill, close to our Buxton base was one of our intended subjects. But Mads and a few others aside, I mostly suffered as I prepared for adventure and pored over the Fotovue Photography Guide to the Peak District as a companion to what the big screen was showing. The trouble is, two weeks after coming home my YouTube landing page is still full of Peak District photography videos, and I really need to find that one of the waterfalls around Glencoe again - the one presented by the bloke with the voice like a strangled chicken. That’s my next advance homework assignment. Meanwhile - here are Dave and Lee, wandering across the Great Ridge not long after a sunrise that never happened, seemingly oblivious to my ordeal with the TV remote at home.
By the way Geoff - if you’re reading this I definitely don’t mean you. You’re good at it. Thoughtful B roll, tasteful music selections and great images too. Phew, that was close!
Peak Preparation Pains
It’s only when watching a few of the others that I realise just how good the YouTubers I follow really are at presenting their stories on screen. Nowadays I don’t watch them quite as religiously as I used to. Well except for a chosen few, that is. That young Shainblum goes from strength to strength you know. And I do like Nick Page. Mostly, I’m interested in locations rather than camera gear, composition and settings. I think I’ve got a handle on the basics now thanks.
But what was proving useful now was sitting in front of the TV at home and asking Alexa to show me YouTube videos on the Peak District, which she generously did without complaint or delay. Suddenly my feed brimmed with all manner of offerings from any number of aspiring Heatons and Dansons. Many places I’d heard of and seen in your images, and others that were brand new to me. I started watching, hoping to thin out the growing list of potential subjects I’d studded all over the map. I won’t name names, but some of these chaps had cases of seriously misplaced confidence in their own presenting skills. Others were worse. A few I had to stop watching for fear of nodding off to sleep for two months and missing the entire expedition, as middle aged men who looked and sounded like me waffled on tediously like me about settings and focus stacks for up to ten minutes at a time into cameras poised three inches from their noses, rather than showing us the landscape in front of them. “I don’t want to see you, I want to see what you’re looking at!” complained Dave in exasperation one morning in Buxton as we previewed a location we were planning on visiting later in the day. Seriously, if you’re struggling with insomnia, message me privately and I’ll send you a link to the antidote.
The irony is that quite often, the images these explorers inevitably shared were often worth struggling through their broadcasts for. Not always, but many of them clearly knew their way around a composition, despite their shortcomings as a TV host. Once again I resolved never ever to expose myself to ridicule by becoming a YouTuber. And while Dave won’t admit it publicly, I think he’s developed a liking for Gary Gough. He was rather less enthusiastic when I showed him a video by a man whom I shall forthwith refer to as “Mr X,” as he talked us through his visit to the Three Shires Head waterfalls. Funnily enough, Mr X came up in the results a few days later as we searched for posts from Perch Rock Lighthouse. Suffice to say we skipped that one. It’s not a pretty sight when your brother sticks his fingers in his ears, screws up his eyes, begins moaning softly and asks you when it’s going to stop. Poor Mr X. I ended up feeling sorry for him.
But they were at least having a go, and I’m certainly not here to mock when I wouldn’t dream of putting myself in front of a camera out there. After all, I was here because they were fulfilling a requirement on our behalf. I just hoped Dave and Lee appreciated what I was going through as I researched the national park in which we were about to spend four days taking photographs. Some of them were actually rather good, and one - Ian Worth - was duly added to my subscriptions list. One morning I was returned to a video I’d seen some years before from Mads Peter Iversen, as he snapped a crowd of togs standing above a cloud inversion on Chrome Hill before sunrise. In comparison to what I’d witnessed elsewhere - well I can see why he’s done so well at this YouTube business. It was an oasis of televisual excellence amongst the slumberings at the snoozefest. The photos were pretty spectacular too. And Chrome Hill, close to our Buxton base was one of our intended subjects. But Mads and a few others aside, I mostly suffered as I prepared for adventure and pored over the Fotovue Photography Guide to the Peak District as a companion to what the big screen was showing. The trouble is, two weeks after coming home my YouTube landing page is still full of Peak District photography videos, and I really need to find that one of the waterfalls around Glencoe again - the one presented by the bloke with the voice like a strangled chicken. That’s my next advance homework assignment. Meanwhile - here are Dave and Lee, wandering across the Great Ridge not long after a sunrise that never happened, seemingly oblivious to my ordeal with the TV remote at home.
By the way Geoff - if you’re reading this I definitely don’t mean you. You’re good at it. Thoughtful B roll, tasteful music selections and great images too. Phew, that was close!