My first real YouTube collab, back in October 2019: Canadian landscape photographer Rachel Lerch and I, on two different continents, each showing the landscape we live in and why it matters so much to us as creators.
How it started
Rachel contacted me a few months earlier after discovering my channel, and I was flattered when she asked to collaborate. She's a pro landscape photographer whose channel was growing fast. Compared to her, I consider myself a rookie. We decided to merge our two styles and talk about the importance of landscape: how the place you live shapes your videos, and why it's worth showing it to your viewers.
Rachel in Canada
Rachel told us that Canada has four distinct and beautiful seasons: a white, pristine winter, a lush green summer, and a fall full of colour, which is exactly when she filmed. Photography has been her passion since she was a child, the perfect mix of technical geekiness and creative art. She says photography is therapy, and the moment she steps outside into the landscape everything else falls away.
She took us to one of her favourite local places, Hendrie Valley in Hamilton, Ontario: reds, oranges and yellows in the canopy, crunchy leaves on the ground, a dirt path with a wooden handrail that makes a perfect leading line, and a bridge she shot with her 16-35mm. She even invited my family and our twins to visit Canada one day.
My side: a reserve near Brindisi
For my part I went to a protected marine reserve about 10 km from Brindisi. Because it's protected, we had to park around 3 km away and hike in, about an hour and a half through the wild. I'd come here as a kid on a school trip and hadn't been back in a long time. It left me speechless: the quiet, the sounds of the animals and the sea, the smell of salt from the beach close by. I saw an eagle, ducks, frogs, countless lizards and butterflies, and even rescued a small lost turtle and put it back in the grass.
I love showing where I live. It creates a relationship with viewers. Some subscribers have even asked me to go back to places and show them better because they were planning trips to the south of Italy.
What I took home
Sometimes I forget how close this place is to home. With twins and a job, my time is precious, so every free half hour should go to what I love: shooting videos. I promised myself to come back more often, probably with the kids. Thanks, Rachel, for getting me back into nature.