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Time to slow down... + Giveaway winner!
It's finally time to announce the giveaway winner for the Google Pixel 4a! I also share why I will have to slow things down and answer some questions/comments you left.
👉 Giveaway announcement video https://youtu.be/dnxsSYjIg8w
✋ COME SAY HI!! ✋
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford (http://bit.ly/lba_instagram)
- TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@loic.bellemare.alford
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/loic294
- Facebook: https://fb.com/lbaphotographie
🖼 SHOP FOR PRINTS 🖼
- My online store: https://store.lbaphotographie.ca
🎶 MY MUSIC 🎶
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/iu5gau/
📸 GEAR I USE ON YOUTUBE 📸
https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo https://geni.us/dji-pocket-2-combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card https://geni.us/sandisk-extreme-128gb
- Canon 6D Mk https://geni.us/canon-6d-mkii
- Google Pixel 4a https://geni.us/google-pixel-4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM https://geni.us/canon-lens-24-105
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-16-35
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-70-200
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD https://geni.us/vanguard-veo-265cb
- DJI MAVIC AIR https://geni.us/lba-dji-mavic-air
🌍 MY PERSONAL WEBSITE 🌍
oh man life is hard sometimes so i just want to have a nice little chat with you and talk about what is happening because when i did the original video about reaching 10 000 subscribers and also moving to settle announcing the giveaway uh in that video i actually talked about all the kinds of plans i had and i was really excited about all the ideas of video i wanted to make but in the last two weeks i've been really struggling to get the videos out it's been really hard to find time to create the videos and i just think in general and that's definitely never i did in the past also is not realizing how long it is actually to create a video so a video can take only a few hours if it's really fast to film and it did but most of the times it takes me a few days in the end to create because it actually takes a lot of time filming a video because i have to repeat myself multiple times but if we're even filming the video i actually have to write a script which can take a few hours depending on what i'm talking about then i have to edit the video which is a very time consuming process actually takes usually a few hours i can be even a full day just editing a video so again a lot of work goes inside of that and then even uploading the video can take something like an hour thinking about descriptions tags and all kinds of things like that so just a process that takes a lot of time and a lot of things changed in my life recently so if you saw my old video i moved to seattle and i'll leave i live alone so that means i have a lot more tasks to do so doing my groceries just keeping my apartment clean and all kinds of things like that just take a lot of time inside of my week on top of that i also want to have time to be able to talk with my family see my friends and things like that so in the end of the week i don't have that much time left uh free to do things like making videos it's also because of work so work takes a lot of time right now if you don't know or didn't listen to other videos i work full-time as a software engineer so making videos it's just a side passion for me so it doesn't make sense i'm sacrificing time at work to be making videos i prefer putting my time in my full-time job and working there that doesn't mean that i don't enjoy making videos i don't want to be making videos but i just have to put more effort inside of work because that's the most important part for me right now i also realize it's been a really long time i didn't go outside to take some pictures just for fun for me i always go out these days taking pictures thinking about a video idea or subject or something like that so i really want to have a little bit more time for myself to go outside and take some pictures because the whole idea of this channel was being able to share my passion about photography but i'm absolutely slowly losing it because when i have to do it for a video i always have the idea in mind and i was stressed about making sure i'm getting the good pictures to prove my point inside the video so it's not as fun and i kind of miss just going out and having chill walks where i just take pictures for fun and really don't care about the results in the end so that's definitely something i want to be able to do a little bit more to be able to share it afterwards also the big change i have to say here is actually i can be posting more videos whenever i want not necessarily on the schedule and forcing myself to post a video every single week because i just realized that's not feasible right now and trying to publish a video every single week is simply going to be kill meeting me in the end not killing me literally but actually just making me really tired and not enjoying the process anymore at all and this is a whole side project just for fun so if i'm not having fun making the videos there's no point at all making them i definitely don't want this video to be only me complaining about how life is hard it's hard for everybody everybody has different struggles so that's just totally normal but i want to answer a few of your questions also comments i got so just to clarify a few things so first of all i think that a lot of people are kind of sad not having videos in nature or by the side of the lake anymore which is also definitely something i'm sad not being able to make the videos by the side of the lake like i used to but the good news is actually that where i live right now even though i'm close to the city center still has a lake not too far still has a lot of forest so you're still going to be seeing all kinds of beautiful places around there's also a lot of mountains around where i live so i'm definitely trying to still make videos as much as possible out in the nature because that's the place i prefer making videos but if it's not possible making video outside it rains a lot here during winter so i might have to make a little bit more of these videos inside i also really want to concentrate on making videos about subjects i'm passionate about i've been receiving more and more marketing emails about companies suggesting products for some products i've been picking a few here and there that i know were interesting for me to test out and also interesting to share with you but i really want to stop doing that as much as possible and concentrate more on things i'm really passionate about item photography video or even tech products like the group 6 pro that's coming out soon that's actually a product i'm really looking forward to test out it's actually one i'm going to be paying for my with my own money to get so it's not going to be something that's sponsored or anything like that so that's really one thing i want to concentrate on making videos where i'm passionate about the subject because i think that's going to be better videos for you better videos for me that are going to be more fun to make in the end too i also really get the comments from people telling me that i should be growing faster that i should have more subscribers or all kinds of things like that and i must say i really appreciate all your comments but just remember this is a passion project for me so my goal is not to be growing the biggest youtube channel possible or things like that it's really just to make videos whenever i want to and like really grateful for all the people that are following the channel and enjoy every single video i come out with it's definitely not something i expected a year ago i didn't even have 250 subscribers so having over 10 000 now is already pretty incredible and something i never really expected to happen so for now i just want to concentrate on making videos really that i'm passionate about and share that passion with you and get the best videos possible out there like i said for all my pixel fans i'm going to be getting the google pixel 6 pro that's a phone i'm really looking into buying and i know for a lot of people it's a very expensive phone and i want to talk a little bit about that it's not a phone that's gonna be affordable for everybody that's for sure i understand that i really like the price of google pixel 4a i think it's a really good phone for the price but for me i also took something like i think around 10 000 to 12 000 pictures in the last year using my google pixel 4a so having a phone where i can get better lenses better image quality more range especially with the zoom instead of it which is something i'm really excited about it's going to be a great addition and it takes so many pictures inside of it that i see my phone as being a tool uh for doing these videos for doing photography in general so it's not just buying it because i want to have a cool piece of tech it's actually buying something that i'll be using every single day i take pictures pretty much every single day with my phone so it's definitely something that in my case i think is worth buying but if you don't have money for it i definitely think that these phones are still pretty good so you don't need to be always buying the newest piece of tech just because it's cool having a piece of tech you should always buy a piece of tech because it's actually going to be a tool they're going to be using more and makes sense for you in your use case i also wanted to switch a little bit the format of my videos so i got some people that really like some of my more gear oriented videos but i really want to bring it back more to tutorials on photography and filmmaking i actually didn't talk about filmmaking that much but i think a lot of people that came here came here because of my videos on photography using the phone or on my videos about using the giant pocket too so i want to go back more to these products and also more about the subject of photography and filmmaking because this is my part where i'm more passionate about and doing tech reviews are kind of fun but not the videos i really enjoyed that much so it's definitely going to be a focus in the future of talking more about these subjects i also wanted to talk a little bit more about why i don't share too much about my personal life i really try being genuine on my videos and sharing what i really think about products what i think about photography what is my journey on youtube and things like that especially inside of the video just being very real with you but there's also a whole other aspect in my life that i'm probably not gonna share i never really did a youtube channel because i wanted fame when i get subscribers or things like that my goal wasn't to share my personal life so definitely want to keep my personal life personal and i also understand that a lot of people around me probably don't want to have their own life being publicized by me so it's totally fine for me to keep all of that personal i'm going to share as much as i can inside of these videos when it makes sense to be sharing them inside a video but a lot of times sometimes i get comments that are more personal and if i don't answer the question it's simply that i don't want to be answering that question because these are not necessarily things i want to have public on the internet so it's not that i don't want to be answering the questions to you uh it's simply that i want to keep some parts of my life personal and not be shared publicly on the internet okay so now let's talk about what probably most of you are here for and it's the results of the giveaway so first of all i want to say thank to everyone that participated i read all of your comments it was really great hearing uh which we do like which video you want me to make so i really appreciate all of your comments so right here i have an excel spreadsheet with all of you that entered your information so just to be clear here i want to explain how i'm going to be selecting the winner so here i have a score of every single person that entered inside of the contest and the score is simply if you subscribe to the channel and also have two social medias you're gonna get four points if you're following one social media it's free points and if you're not following on these social medias this is going to be two points um then i have here a simply a random function so nothing too special inside of here it's simply going to come out with a number between uh the first the lowest number here and the highest number that i have inside of my table and the winner is it's james bakler so i actually recognize this name i know you comment on a lot of my videos and also follow me so i'm gonna be reaching out in the next few days to make sure to you get the google pixel 4a as i offered inside of this contest thank you again to everybody else that entered this contest i was really happy to get all of your comments and be able to read them and get a better idea of what you enjoyed instead of my videos and also the ones you want me to be making in the future i hope you still enjoy this video even though it's not all my typical video i just really wanted to share what was going on and why in the next few weeks you know i might not see as many videos coming out i might even skip two few weeks to have some time to be working on the videos i already filmed a few videos in my series for mobile photography for beginners but just didn't have time to be editing them in the last two months so really i have to catch up right there i also filmed some vlogs that are finished but i don't have time to edit them so just have a lot of work already to just finish the videos before having time to film multiple other videos i also have a few other projects underway so as soon as possible i'm going to be finishing them but if you don't see video for one week two weeks four weeks and you're at least going to know what is happening and why i haven't been publishing any videos recently so definitely if you have any questions let me know in the comments below i always read all the comments so i'm always happy to see if you have anything to say or to ask but yeah see you in the next video bye-bye
Video Links
- 👉 Giveaway announcement video
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford ()
- TikTok
- My online store
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound
- https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card
- Canon 6D Mk
- Google Pixel 4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD
- DJI MAVIC AIR
- http://bit.ly/loicba
What is this video about?
It's time to announce the winner of the Google Pixel 4a giveaway, and I also wanted to have an honest conversation about what's been going on behind the scenes.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've realized something important: creating videos takes way more time than I initially thought. Between filming, writing scripts, editing, and uploading, a single video can easily consume several days of work. Add full-time work as a software engineer, moving to Seattle and living alone for the first time, and the basic responsibilities that come with that—groceries, cleaning, seeing friends and family—and I simply don't have enough hours in the week to maintain a strict upload schedule.
I've also been missing something crucial: the simple joy of photography. I used to go out for walks and take pictures just for myself, but lately every shoot has been framed around a video idea or concept. I'm stressed about getting the "right" shots to prove a point, and that's stolen the fun from the process. I want to reclaim that. I want to slow down, shoot what genuinely excites me, and share my passion for photography authentically—not as content fuel.
Going forward, I'm moving away from a strict weekly schedule. I'd rather publish videos when I'm genuinely excited about them than burn out trying to hit arbitrary deadlines. I'm also going to focus more on what I'm truly passionate about: photography tutorials, filmmaking, and tools I actually care about—like the Google Pixel 6 Pro, which I'm buying with my own money because I see it as a real tool for my work.
I'm grateful for the growth this channel has experienced—reaching over 10,000 subscribers was something I never expected—but my goal has always been to make videos I'm proud of, not to chase subscriber counts. I also want to be clear: there are parts of my life that I'm keeping private, and that's intentional. I'm here to share my perspective on photography and tech, not to publicize every aspect of who I am.
As for the giveaway: congratulations to James Bakler, the randomly selected winner. I'll be reaching out soon to get you the Pixel 4a. And thank you to everyone who entered—reading your comments about what you'd like to see next was genuinely helpful.