Today it's been 100 days since I last uploaded a video to YouTube.
For someone who spent years creating content, that feels like quite a milestone. The question is, should I be celebrating it, or should I be worried?
A few years ago I probably would have seen it as a failure. One hundred days without uploading would have felt like I'd given up, fallen behind, or somehow let the channel die.
Now I'm not so sure.
Life has been busy recently. We're in the process of moving house, family life keeps us occupied, and work takes up its share of time. Like many people, I only have so many hours available each week, and I've had to decide where I want to spend them.
Photography has remained a constant throughout all of this, but my relationship with it has changed.
For a long time, photography and content creation became closely linked. A photo walk wasn't just a photo walk, it was potential video content. A day out became something that needed filming, editing and uploading.
Over the last few months, that pressure has quietly disappeared.
I've still been taking photographs. I've still been exploring new places, shooting film, and enjoying the creative process. The difference is that I've been doing it for myself rather than for an audience.
There's something refreshing about heading out with a camera and not worrying whether the footage is interesting enough for a video. No thumbnails, no analytics, no upload schedule. Just photography.
Ironically, stepping away from YouTube may have helped me reconnect with why I started photography in the first place.
That's not to say I'll never upload again. I still enjoy making videos and sharing experiences with others. But if I do return, I want it to be because I have something worth sharing, not because I feel obligated to keep a streak alive.
So, should I celebrate 100 days without YouTube?
Maybe not the absence of videos themselves, but what those 100 days represent.
More time behind the camera.
More time enjoying photography.
Less pressure to create content.
And perhaps a reminder that sometimes the best thing you can do creatively is step back for a while and rediscover why you started.
I for one miss your videos, but also glad to see you are enjoying your photography instead of it becoming more like an obligation to produce more content. I really appreciated your pinhole camera reviews which led me to purchasing both Zero Image 4x5 and RSS 6x9 cameras.
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