Appreciate the feedback - those were definitely my goals with this sort of video

It can be such a peaceful place, yet alive too with the boat life

Thanks and best wishes from across the Atlantic

Thanks Tina for the feedback. I'm often left guessing as to what people like and don't like about videos so it's useful to know!

Aha you noticed the swing. I was tempted... but it looked a bit dangerous!

@@ChrisPT Yes, it did... I'm very brave from the safety of my living room! : )

The answer is both I think. Just look up Alvechurch moorings at the Worcester & Birmingham canal for more if you're interested

There's a few uses I can think of: 1) scenery for walking/jogging on a treadmill, 2) relaxation - in which case the audio is more important, 3) virtual exploring/travelling, 4) general outdoors and exercise inspiration. I think my motivation for making them is sound: I enjoy going for a long walk in the countryside from time to time, and if I can share the experience simply by putting a gopro on my head so that others enjoy it too, then it's win-win. Actually only a couple of my walking videos have got as many views as my popular running videos. It's the ones walking in the rain, which is a bit of a niche and very hard to get right, due to having to time your walk with the 'right' kind of rain, and issues with water on the lens/casing! Also the large file sizes are problematic. I've cut corners with previous videos in terms of resolution, but only just realised how high I need to keep the bitrate in editing for a video like this. Long story short, this is the first walking video I've managed to edit and upload in image quality that stays true to the original gopro footage - I ended up having to leave it overnight to upload... I noticed your walking videos - they looked great and you're in an ideal situation with your job to make them. Glad I was able to help you with your channel. I'd say the main ways people get a lot of views are 1) being useful with content, and 2) gripping story-telling. Unfortunately quality of video doesn't always correspond so much with views... So for example your river-kayaking video from yesterday with family is one of the best videos I've ever seen. Inspirational. But will it get a lot of views? Perhaps if you also made a video explaining how to plan an adventure like that and safety concerns etc ('useful') and/or talking through how fun it was ('story-telling'), you could make it go viral. But only if you wanted to of course, and you might want to keep things low-key in terms of the kids' exposure online, I don't know. I did start this comment with the idea it might end up as a bit of an essay! haha. Just lingering over my breakfast coffee so had a few spare mins and I'm a fast typer... No need to write a long response. Anyway big congratulations on the 1K subs!!! It's a big achievement and I know from experience the incredible amount of work and dedication it involves.

Just to add, it's not just the rain videos that are very hard to get right. Even with a video like this one, there's so many little complications. For example there was a house alarm nearby which wrecked the first 4 minutes of this video (I cut them out in editing) and then I had a judgement call about where/when to start the video since the alarm was taking a long time to fade... Issues of how to deal with passers-by and privacy, weather doing the wrong thing (in this case clouding over), diverging from the point of the video (in this case leaving the towpath for quite a long section because the canal went through a long tunnel), dogs barking. Also as I went through the marina there was some loud machinery so I had to progressively edit the volume down and up around that part of the video. A lot to think about! Feels better to have moaned about all of that. LOL. Oh one other thing, dappled sunlight through trees when you're walking really can be quite an annoyance - can make the video difficult to watch; and could even be dangerous for epileptics I guess.

Chris PT Super interesting comments there mate. I’m with you on the sound being important, it’s something I’ve never really bothered with in the past working in video but I’m getting more and more interested in it. I’ve noticed recently just how important it is, I watched a fantastic scenic video from Scotland and the sound was incredible, it really made it come alive, running water, birds, wind etc. In my job I could do some pretty interesting places as walking videos I think, maybe I’ll give it a go. I like the idea of cities and recording a moment in history too. Seeing the people and hearing the sounds etc. Very kind comments about my kayaking video. I loved making that! You’re right, it’ll never be popular in KZfaq but of course that is not the intention. It’s out there for me and my family and friends to view but also to hopefully inspire others and help anyone who searches for “River Severn kayaking” with some info. It’ll probably get just a few hundred views over the next few years as I guess there aren’t many people looking for that kind of stuff and a lot of the views will be from me!!! As I watch them back many times myself when working away etc. I noticed the audio on one of your rain videos in particular was great. It’ll make a good relaxation/falling asleep type video or app or something.

Thanks for your reply Chris. Just a quick extra point and I hesitated to mention this because I didn't want to cast a shadow over things. But there's a few news stories out there about kayaking tragedies, especially on the River Wye in Herefordshire which isn't far away. As someone who is quite risk averse, if it were my video I would put a prominent warning to people not to copy you. Hope it's not out of order to mention this. But it's surprising how people are influenced by videos. It's quite possible that a parent without your experience might try replicating what you did but run into serious problems, especially if conditions are not as favourable.

Chris PT Blimey, yeah that’s not a bad idea actually. I don’t watch or read news so haven’t seen anything. Good point, I should include something in the description