Someone I met today was a Youtuber! He was manipulating a dial with one handle, while supporting a wobbling, unopened tripod with another hand. I watched his balancing act before approaching.

"Couldn't you have opened up your tripod and then recorded yourself?"
"I thought about that after I was done."

We got to chatting and he revealed himself to be an Apple user, but had been wanting to check out the Surface Studio for some time. It was the first time he was seeing one in person, but he had watched so much about them.

"So what do you do for work?"
"I'm a YouTuber."

On one hand, he looked like someone who wouldn't be a YouTuber. His beard was graying, and a few wrinkles appeared as he talked. He dressed younger than he was, with a printed shirt and baseball cap that reminded me of my friends in college. On the other hand, he stood straighter than some of my friends on their best days, with an energetic excitement coloring his voice.

"What do you do on YouTube?"
"I review Apple products."

He thought that the Surface Studio was cool in comparison to the "gimmick" he believed the Apple touchbar to be. He admired the screen and design, stating it would be awesome to edit videos on. He showed me his channel, scrolling to the exact one where he called it the gimmick bar.

"I make videos too, but nothing like what you do. Mostly just me talking about really silly things. I bought a DJI OSMO Mobile since I'm going to Iceland in March. Figured it would be a fun way to take videos and log too."
"Oh that's cool. I've been taking drone shots."
"Drone shots? Have you seen the Mavic Pro?"
"Yeah! I have one in my bag!"
"Can I see it?"

He proceeded to bring it out and show it to me. I told him I thought it was cool and I asked him what he liked about it so far. He shared that he was able to fly it on the Pali Lookout, without a problem; he cited the strong winds as a cause for potential malfunction. Although, he did use his drones to try and capture the whales on the east side. The sound of the motor becoming more and concerning, and he didn't want to risk it.

"Is this your first vacation with the drone?"
"Yeah. My wife and I shoot drone videos in the day time and then we go home at night and I edit it all together."
"That's cool. It seems pretty easy compared to the other stuff you do."
"Yeah! Vlogging is super easy. Compared to what I do, I can see why so many of those guys do it."

I suppose at the end of the day, it's all perception. Vlogging seems rather difficult to edit together, but then again most of mine are pretty complex. I asked him where he was from originally and he said Turkey, having moved to Los Angeles in 2007.

"How have you liked flying your drone here?"
"I like it so much better. It's beautiful and people here are much nicer. In LA, you can get all the permissions and fly your drone around. But, if the police tell you to stop, you HAVE TO STOP. They can confiscate your drone."
"Wow, that's crazy."
"Yeah. But here, people are so nice, even in LA. In Turkey, not so much."

I suppose to me that was interesting to share. Turkey does have a long, complex history and has been a meeting point of east meets west throughout the years. I believe The Great Schism occurred in Turkey, and just recently they had that weird instance where the media got taken over or seized, depending on which perspective you take on yourself.

I wonder what he thinks about the current social climate, with people feeling unease with the current President-Elect, or the potential cabinet members. Is it worse or better?

In any case, if he thinks vlogging is easy... Guys, I still have a chance!