Why This Photographer Refuses to Chase Exotic Locations

Gear envy and exotic locations dominate photography social media, and the pressure to match that lifestyle is real. If you've ever felt like your local landscapes or modest kit aren't good enough, this video speaks directly to that.

Coming to you from Craig Roberts of e6 Vlogs, this candid video finds Roberts reflecting on GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and the broader anxiety of not keeping up with what other photographers appear to be doing online. He opens with a story from age 18, when he jumped from a Pentax P30 to the Canon T90, Canon's flagship at the time, only to find that better gear didn't make him a better shooter. He still owns the T90, and he's kept it as a physical reminder that top-end equipment isn't the point. The video pushes back against the assumption that exciting photography requires exotic destinations, expensive gear, or a passport full of stamps.

One of the sharper moments in the video comes when he references Francis Bourgeois, the train enthusiast who became a social media phenomenon. Bourgeois was asked whether he travels to Europe or around the world to experience trains elsewhere, and his answer was a flat no. He doesn't need to, because British trains give him everything he wants, and he's happy revisiting the same ones repeatedly because the experience is always fresh. That perspective resonates with Roberts' own approach to locations: a place he's visited three times, half an hour from home, can feel just as alive and new as somewhere more glamorous if he approaches it that way.

The video gets specific about what long-haul travel actually looks like in practice, and it's not flattering. Going through security, delayed flights, waiting for luggage, losing most of a day just getting somewhere, it adds up. Roberts frames it plainly: he doesn't have the travel bug, and he's stopped pretending that's a deficiency. Where other creators seem to hop between honeypot locations around the world, he's content covering the whole of the UK, revisiting the same spots, and finding something new each time. His point isn't that travel photography is wrong, but that the guilt of not doing it is a distraction. Social media has a way of making the ordinary feel inadequate, and this video argues that resistance to that pressure is a legitimate creative choice, not a compromise.

Check out the video above for the full rundown from Robert on why chasing what everyone else is doing might be the least productive thing you do with your camera.