Bub-Blah bub-Blah bub-Blah
Have you ever noticed how much they TALK?
As a photographer, I try hard to keep up. I subscribe to emails from several photographic publications, including but not limited to —
- PetaPixel
- Digital Photography School
- Photzy
- Digital Photography Review
- Fstoppers… and more.
These online pubs almost always include videos on cameras, lenses, techniques, tips, post-processing, and more. I often watch the videos for content, education, enlightenment. I know stuff, but there is far more I don’t know, or forgot. I want to learn things, but…
…Have you ever noticed how much they TALK?
Not all, but (it seems) most. There they are, filling your screen, endlessly blathering on about — something. I am not complaining about them explicating their subject; rather, the fella I mean is the one who is, bluntly, a talking (endlessly) head, dominating my screen from hairline to chin, talking, joking, talking, smiling, anecdoting, talking, and (if we are lucky) briefly showing occasional stills of the before and after of the miracles he pulled out of his Photoshopping hat to make an already-pretty-good picture simply —
AMAZING!
Wow.
So tell me — how can I do that? (I really wanna know. It’s why I’m watching.)
But so many of them appear to assume that I already know how to do the whateveritis process, or the camera tip, or whatever. We don’t need to get down to no nitty-gritty, pal, so let’s grab a cuppa and chat. Well, he’ll chat, and I’ll listen.
Say a real, recognized expert explains Photoshop or another application process. I don't mean Unmesh Dinda or Aaron Nace or others like them. Those guys introduce their subject, disappear, and get right into the meat, the nuts and bolts of it, showing their work on your screen, even offering the original raw files they are using so you can work along with them. After their brief introductions, you hardly see them again. That, to me, is the Right Way. It is Tao. Namaste. (Gesundheit.)
Maybe it’s just me, but when I turn my desperate eyes to YouTube for
HELP!
Too many of these guys just want to look deep into my eyes — and talk.
Not helping.
They don’t show you how they did it because THEY ARE TOO BUSY MAKING FACES AT THEIR CAMERA AND TALKING. Talking. Talkingtalkingtalkingtalkingtalkingtalkingtalkingtalkingtalkingtalking. They never shut up. They never really explain what they did. What they did was terrific. But how did they get there? How do I get there?! I dud-oh. It is really quite frustrating.
Yackety yack (don’t talk back).
And it’s not just photography! (Yes, I’m on a rant here.)
Have you ever watched an “unboxing” video?
What the…
Guy (usually), talking nonstop while pushing a box around on a desktop. Push to talk. Pick the box up; talk. Turn the box over; talk. Put it back down, push it around some more, and talk.
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
Eventually (!!) removes the product from its packaging. Breaks the seal. Talks. Talks about the packaging itself. Breaks some more seals while talking. Finally talks his way down to the actual product. Lifts it reverently as if it were the Gem of Kukulkan, talks, flips it over, talks some more, and…
That’s it.
Guy opens box, removes thing.
Woohoo.
It’s not about the box OR the thing: it’s about the guy hearing himself talk. It’s worse if he speaks into the camera.
And wottabout shaky camera work? No tripod? WHYyyyyyy?
YouTube oughta have a law.
Here endeth the rant. 😠
