The internet is a gold mine for photography related information as we all know. But the one place that I look to more than any other for photography related inspiration, motivation and information is YouTube. For those of you that may not be aware, YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet behind Google, processing more than 3 billion searches a month.

Approximately 100 hours of video are uploaded to the platform every minute, and while that provides us with a variety of options when it comes to finding content, it also means that there can be a lot of noise to wade through to find what you are looking for. 

To save time for those of you that are only new to photography, I thought I would put together a top 5 list of my favourite YouTube channels to follow.

Thomas Heaton

Thomas is a landscape photographer from the UK that posts a weekly video blog (VLOG) of his photography adventures. His videos are very informative and entertaining, covering a variety of topics and landscape related situations. I came across his channel about 18 months ago and it is by far my favourite on YouTube. 

Fototripper - Gavin Hardcastle

If you like a bit of comedy with your landscape photography vlogs, then look no further than Gavin Hardcastle’s channel - Fototripper! I have only recently started following his channel and it is quickly becoming one of my all-time favourites. Gavin is not only a great teacher, but he injects comedy into everything that he does which make for some hilarious episodes that will keep you in stitches. Definitely worth your time!

Michael Shainblum

If you are looking for inspiration, you can't go past Michael's 4K time-lapse and aerial films. The imagery and details that he captures are mind-blowing and they are always combined with an awesome audio track. His films are very immersive and it is easy to become completely oblivious to the outside world while watching them. His channel also has some great VLOGS and tutorials on Photoshop and Astrophotography.

Ben Horne

Ben is a large format wilderness photographer that predominantly shoots all of his images on 8x10 film. His images are simply stunning and after you watch some of his VLOGs and see the process involved in capturing his images, you will come away with a true appreciation for the quality of his work. On his website Ben mentions that he absolutely loves working with large format film because of the inherent limitation, and the strong sense of discipline that is required. 

Fstoppers

Fstoppers is a community of photographers, videographers, and other creative professionals focused on sharing reviews, photo tricks and tips, tutorials, and news. If there is a topic that they haven't covered on their channel, then it probably isn't worth knowing about. I started watching their videos right back when I first got into photography and they consistently produce really informative content, albeit sometimes with hilarious results. By far my favourite series they have posted is the 'Photographing the World' behind the scenes episodes with Elia Locardi. Check it out below.