Why you shouldn't trust "photography" channels like Tony Northrup

Today I watched Tony's Northrup's "What's in my camera bag?" video, where he showed which gear he took on his recent trip to Morocco. These kind of videos are fairly common and popular recently, so I could've chosen some other channel as well, but since he's one of the top photography influencers on Youtube in 2018, an area I am personally interested in, I decided to choose him to share some of my opinions about these kind of videos, and the state of photography influencers in general, as well as the problems I have with it.

First let us see the video.



These are my 4 conclusions after watching Tony's video:

1) It's promoting exorbitant consumerism

I'm sure that the gear in Tony's and Chelsea's travel bags consists of items that the couple personally loves. Both Tony and Chelsea strike me as honest and down to earth, so please don't take my criticism as a personal attack. It's not that at all. It's a syndrome of a greater issue affecting a big portion of Youtube tech reviewers. The issue I have with their travel gear is that it's extremely expensive. Check the value of the items Tony listed in the video's description (I checked the prices one by one and made this chart):

18,000 USD in total! And that does not include Chelsea's smartphone, her Sony lenses and additional accessories, because they weren't mentioned, but I think it's safe to assume that in total both of them travel with gear in value that's way over 20,000 USD, which is insane in my opinion. That's a cost of a good quality sedan where I come from. While Tony is not saying one should have such expensive gear when they travel, but as influencer with nearly 800,000 subscribers he is sending such message to his viewers, because a lot of them purchase based on his recommendation or look up to him (and by listing hot links to Amazon he hopes people buy this gear). With this video he is promoting a photography lifestyle of exorbitantly expensive gear, whether he intended it or not. And that's not the only video that he posted with such implications, nor is he the only channel that does so. This is becoming increasingly common on Youtube, unfortunately.

2) Expensive gear doesn't make you a good photographer

In the video Tony shows some of the photos he made during his Morocco trip. The photos are actually what triggered me to write this post, because in my opinion, they are terrible. They look like they were done with a cheap smartphone while he was walking. Here 3 screen shots:

You don't need a 6000 USD worth professional Nikon kit to take such awful photos, a 300 USD Android phone will do the job as well. And the poorly made blur is not the main thing that is awful, there is no composition, no depth to these photos, these are snapshots that a lot of tourists with point and shoots make. For such a big photography influencer like Tony I believe the bar should be much higher than for your average Joe Shmoe, though.

3) Photography influencer does not equal photographer

I'm perfectly fine with gear reviewers who are masters of explaining the technology behind gear, and give useful tips about how to use the gear in terms of functionality and don't claim to be photographers, but Tony and Chelsea brand themselves as being photographers (Tony's Instagram description says "Photographer, author, & YouTuber"). They also have several videos and books out there on teaching photography, so they're trying to be everything: gear reviewers, photography teachers, and photographers. That would all be fine, if they were able to take a decent picture to begin with. If you check Tony's and Chelsea's portfolios, you will see that they're full of boring and heavily post processed images with bad compositions, made with heavily corrected expensive lenses, and with a strong emphasis on sharpness. Interestingly, I like Chelsea's portfolio much more, you can feel that unlike Tony she has an artistic sense. Tony on the other hand is such an engineer type of guy, probably operating with numbers and DxO Mark values in his mind when he takes photos, not with his heart. His images reflect that to me by being incredibly mundane. For comparison, click on the portfolios of Lee Jeffries, Dani Diamond and Portraits by Sam and compare the portraits to Northrup's. Or compare their landscapes with Philipp Richert, Daniel Cheong, and Iurie Belegurschi work. No offence, but this is like night and day.

4) Hotlinks to Amazon imply bias

A screen grab from Tony's video description:

Tech reviewers who often link to Amazon and other commercial platforms in their video descriptions are not impartial. By the very essence of that act they are biased towards promoting gear that is expensive, because they increase their kickbacks with every purchase made through that link. If a part of their income is based on that, that will heavily impact their decision as to which gear to mention in their videos, and it's usually not the cheap and good value gear, because they won't earn much. Even if they think they're not consciously being biased, they are subconsciously. It's just another way of how brands buy them (besides the "free" trips to various locations like Sony usually does).

In conclusion

Beware of "teachers" and "experts" who are not able to practice what they preach. Beware of the gear acquisition syndrome, because that's what the brands and influencers are trying to trap you in, so that it ensures their continuous revenue stream. And don't think that you need the latest and greatest and most expensive photography tool to be a photographer. Go out and shoot with an entry level DSLR, and don't waste your time with Youtubers. The more you shoot, the better you will get. Photography is an art of manipulating light and mastering the skill of composition. Gear is secondary and doesn't ensure you to be a great photographer - the Northrup's prove this point every day. Same can be said about Fro Knows Photo and most of the Youtube photography channels.