Peter McKinnon is a popular photographer and YouTuber.
He has 5.9M subscribers on his eponymous YouTube channel.
Introduction-
Peter McKinnon was born on 28 October 1985.
He hails from Northern Ontario, Canada.
His father, Monty McKinnon is also a YouTuber and he runs a YouTube channel by his name and his channel is mainly focused on guitar.
Peter has a younger sister.
Music & magic-
As Peter was born into a family of music lovers, he grew up as a drummer and started drumming in his sixth grade.
During that time, he was also interested in magic and his father once took him to a show of David Copperfield, a famous American magician.
Later, when Peter grew up, he did a show with David in Las Vegas.
An underachiever-
Peter was an underachiever in school and used to always receive poor grades.
After completing his schooling, he joined a college to study for a diploma degree but just prior to earning the final college credit, he dropped out.
His first camera-
In 2004, Peter’s sister gave him his first camera, a HP PhotoSmart R607.
During that time, skateboarding was his passion and he started shooting videos of himself skateboarding with this camera.
Soon, Peter developed a liking for the cameras.
Lot many jobs-
Since his childhood and until he became a full-time YouTuber, Peter worked in many jobs.
At 11, he worked at a circus complex and his job involved washing elephants and selling snow cones.
This was Peter’s first job.
Then, he worked at a steakhouse, Best Buy store, a few OfficeMax stores and Home Depots.
Then, Peter also worked at a tree service and landscaping enterprise and here, he got bullied so, he quit on the first day itself.
He also worked at a wood factory located near Toronto Pearson Airport.
In 2004, Peter uploaded all his photos onto iStock and earned $35,000 within a few months and he was 19 at that time.
Getting fired-
Later, Peter joined State Farm and while on his three-month probation, he took a sick leave and attended a magic show of David Blaine in New York.
Soon, State Farm got to know about his trip through his blog and as they hadn’t approved him to go to New York, they fired him.
Later, Peter and his wife joined Apple but they left the company on the first day of training itself.
Then, as he was always interested in cameras, he joined Henry’s, a camera retailer.
Here, Peter learnt many things about cameras and also befriended many photographers and learnt from them.
After working for two years at the camera shop, he quit his job and took an internship with Stillmotion, a wedding shooter company.
Failing at business-
Peter also tried his hand at the leather business.
He made various products like bags, purses, wallets, belts and other handmade goods.
But as his business couldn’t become profitable, he couldn’t continue it.
Working for Ellusionist-
Later, Peter joined Ellusionist, an online magic retailer to work as a salesman.
Here, he also worked as a photographer and cinematographer and this experience later helped him to shoot high quality videos for his YouTube channel and this played a vital role in the success of his channel.
Peter worked from home for this company for seven years and while working here, he met Chris Ramsay.
Chris was his colleague and he was running a YouTube channel.
Becoming a full-time YouTuber-
Initially, Peter was publishing his videos on Vimeo but later, he didn’t pay his subscription.
Even later, he wasn’t ready to pay the subscription, so he deleted his channel on Vimeo.
As Peter already started a YouTube channel by the name, Peter McKinnon on 16 February 2010, Chris Ramsay suggested he start working on his YouTube channel because YouTube had a huge audience.
So, from November 2016, he started publishing videos on his YouTube channel.
Peter started his YouTube journey in a spare bedroom of his home and mixed vlogs with camera tutorial videos. (In 2019, he built his home office).
Later, he started getting bored with his work at the magic retailer company so, he quit his job in March 2017 to become a full-time YouTuber and by that time, he was earning from his YouTube channel.
Chris Ramsay also quit his job along with Peter to become a full-time YouTuber.
His first viral video-
Peter’s first video to get viral is ‘8 Camera HACKS in 90 SECONDS!!‘
This video was published on 8 December 2016 and Chris Ramsay suggested he do this video.
As of December 2023, Peter is a successful YouTuber and has 5.9M subscribers on his channel.
He has a website.
Love for photography-
Earlier, Peter along with his father visited Peter Lik’s gallery and he was very impressed by his giant photographs and this made him fall in love with photography and he too wanted to become a landscape photographer like him.
He learnt photography from his friend, Michael Clarke.
Then, for around three years, Peter tried to shoot photos like Peter Lik.
He considers Peter Lik as his inspiration for photography.
Later, he appreciated Peter Lik and his work in one of his YouTube videos and Peter Lik watched that video and messaged him that he too was a fan of his work.
Peter Lik also gave Peter McKinnon his book by the name, Equation of Time as a gift.
Personal life-
While working at a Best Buy store, Peter met his future wife, Janice on boxing day.
Janice hails from El Salvador, Central America.
They got married on 20 November 2010 and this couple is blessed with a daughter and a son.
Peter is a nature and coffee lover and lives in Toronto, Canada.
So, how are you inspired by the success story of Peter McKinnon?
Share with me in the comment section below.
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