This year I really stopped caring about "creating content". I realized that trying to make stuff to keep up with trends or posting to stay relevant SUCKED THE JOY out of everything I was doing. I changed my perspective and started focusing on just taking photos because I love doing it. I have challenged myself to post something EVERY DAY this year, and I have done it so far. But, I am doing this for myself. To keep record and have the ability to look back on all I've done. If people like it, they like it...but either way, I keep it moving. Things are much happier this way.
I feel this 100%. At the start of the year I decided I would try to put more effort into growing on platforms outside of UA-cam (YT doesn’t even feel like “content creation” to me) and after making a dozen reels and posting half of them I realized just how little I truly care. Back to just posting photos I’m proud of when I feel like it.
I'm an" old school" foto shooter, my focus is capturing images that are interesting to me. so I don't do video content. BUT i understand the pressures on younger photographers trying to earn a living . in today's world video content is an absolute must and i emphasize this imporant point to the young photographers i meet . zen billings in canada Excellent vid Dylan , very insightful .
Good points, and of course there’s conflict in this topic. For me personally, I’m over retirement age, and I carry a compact camera and take photos to capture memories of places and experiences that have meaning to me. I rarely post anything. On the other hand, I’ve made several really cool in real life friends with photographers who I first “met”, or discovered would be a better word, because they made UA-cam videos. I’m really glad they made those interesting videos, or I likely would never have known them. As you put it, finding balance applies to pretty much everything in life.
Also not to mention just how fast social media moves. What was a new exciting image yesterday is now forgotten. I wish we could slow down and really show love and appreciation for each piece in our whole body of work.
I don’t want to shoot video, it’s like telling a musician they have to play guitar if they want to sing. Yes it is possible to do both with the same gear, but they are entirely different media. Watching video shorts is nothing like viewing great photography and it is getting harder to find sources of inspiration. The videos about gear are good if you need to make a choice about gear, but they do not inspire me to go shoot. There’s to many sound bite videos about techniques that are made as clickbait and those are annoying too. What I really find inspiring are videos where photographers talk about their creative process, POV walks, that are an insight into how others think. Because we have all been in a place and had the thought that there’s nothing interesting here to shoot (I need to go somewhere else) and to see how others can find their creativity in those situations is actually helpful.
I have to keep reminding myself that when I do street photography it's for the zen of the walk and not the likes. I rarely post anymore on Instagram. I do like two focused FB groups, one for Arizona birding, the other Henri Cartier Bresson b&w street photography.
Thank you for this video. I’m a photographer first and just kind of piddling around with video. Video has overwhelmed the photography world. It’s sad. You see a great new lens come out and go to UA-cam to get info about it and it’s always reviewed in and video scenario first. Sometimes photo capabilities aren’t even discussed. Same thing with cameras. UA-camrs always bitch and moan about things like ‘the a1 doesn’t have a ‘flippy screen’ so this is a no go for vloggers’. Well good god the camera wasn’t created for vloggers. It’s a photo camera first and it takes damn good video as well. The vloggers got their zv-e1 and their fx-30 in the last year and a half. Then they start comparing them to the a6700 and point out all the weaknesses for video. Again, I feel this is a photo first camera with pretty damn good video capabilities. I lean more towards guys like you who have a photo first prospective. No hate to the content creators but I don’t need to video the scene I’m shooting photographs at. Thanks again man, this is coming from a 52 year old living in boring and bland Utah with 20 years of photography behind me. Love your videos. Keep it going! 👏👏👏👍👍
I agree 100%. I’ve made an effort to cover video related capabilities as little as possible in my videos because it annoys the hell out of me too. I’ll always be a photographer first and you would not see me complaining if my “photo camera” couldn’t record a second of video.
I was watching an interview with Rick Rubin the other day. His philosophy is to create for you. Treat it like a diary. Make what you love, create your own art and post it any way that works for you. Stop worrying about everyone else. When you worry about others you muddy your own creativity. You create for others not yourself. I'm guilty of posting for the algorithm. I'm trying to break that habit. I love what I'm making lately and I'm not worrying about how much I film. If I end up with footage to add then great. Free yourself to express your true self! I've been at this for 10 years and reached a little over 600 subs. If I didn't love what I do, I wouldn't still be doing it.
Even though I'm an amateur because my hobby is supported by a career completely unrelated to photography, I still feel some of the pain you've described. I post most of my work to flickr, and I put a lot of work into each photo both before and after I get done taking it. I want them to look as good as they can! I very rarely get a lot of views or likes on anything because I'm not really trying to. At the end of the day it doesn't matter to me, in a tangible sense. But I also see other accounts that will post very low-effort, boring stuff and they are inundated with views & faves. Makes me feel like... what am I doing here? Feels the same as I do in my job, I am not a person who is good at "playing the game" and would prefer to get better at my job. But in a sense that is not as rewarding as social engineering is. Social engineers are almost always rewarded more, even though they are not as good at what they're doing, because they spend all their time marketing and putting on a show. At the end of the day I'd personally rather be the artist than the professional. Anyways, just wanted to point out some parallels to my personal experience.
When I transformed my Instagram account from the typical personal life stuff to my hobby photography, I decided to just not care if I gain a following. ...and I’ve been very successful in not gaining one :D Sure it’s frustrating at times to not get my work in front of more eyes, but the stuff I shoot for fun IS my hobby, so I won’t let anything get in the way of the fun. I don’t use that account as a portfolio, I have no plans to make any money off of what I post there, so... I’m cool with how things are. And while I LOVE watching photowalk videos because I learn a lot from them, the thought of going through all the hassle to produce something like that myself is terrifying. Nope, not gonna happen!
Makes sense! People are trying to get high likes because that’s the new metric for what’s good work for all art forms out there, today. You suffer chasing content that you think people like and don’t produce things you (the supposed artist) like. You get followers, not fans, and they’re not really waiting to see what you can make next because you’re not an artist to them, you’re a content creator.
You know I couldn’t have agreed with you more! I HATE SOCIAL MEDIA! Yes I said it! I’ve been a photographer for over 25 years and I own my website. I used instagram for a few years, found my pictures reposted by someone as their own then the final straw was getting hacked and having no recovery help from Metta! Once you post to these sites you giveaway your rights! I was hired to shoot a wedding by the parent of bride and later rushed to release the final product so the new couple could share them on social media!! 🤦🏽♂️
I’ve just got back from Iceland and “content creators” are an absolute pain in the f*^king ass….they were everywhere,selfish,rude,annoying and most of all disrespectful for garbage content…..well towards the end of our trip one went too far,it did not end well for him or his gear….😊
Nice video with good and important thoughts Dylan! I can relate to this. Also if I feel like a photo make me think that I've grown as a photographer, post it on Instagram, and get much less likes and comments than I expected - it's a crappy experience.
Hi dylan, Awesome videos very helpful. Just curious to know that i have sold my a7iii to buy an a7cii but im confused about professional work like event photography (networking) where i mostly use Godox vs1 speedlight. Does godox vs1 works on a7cii or better option to go with a7iv? Love the compact vibes. Awaiting your response
Respectfully you’re majorly overthinking this and way too concerned about social. You can build an extremely successful business without social media or a small audience. Photographers are losing because they don’t know business and they’re spending WAY too much time and energy on this stuff.
This is mainly advice to newer photographers but I don’t disagree with you. For my personal commercial/professional photo work, it’s almost entirely off of social media working directly with production companies and agencies that I’ve built a relationship with in my city. I don’t even display it on my website anymore. Any online distribution of my photos is done entirely by the clients (businesses/agencies/production house’s socials or websites). I’ve built connections with people who are much better at business than myself so that free’s much of my time to focus on stuff I care about such as this UA-cam channel.
![[UA] NAVI проти G2 Esports | Blast Premier Fall Final](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QWlIm4FGESQ/mqdefault.jpg)
This year I really stopped caring about "creating content". I realized that trying to make stuff to keep up with trends or posting to stay relevant SUCKED THE JOY out of everything I was doing. I changed my perspective and started focusing on just taking photos because I love doing it. I have challenged myself to post something EVERY DAY this year, and I have done it so far. But, I am doing this for myself. To keep record and have the ability to look back on all I've done. If people like it, they like it...but either way, I keep it moving. Things are much happier this way.
I feel this 100%. At the start of the year I decided I would try to put more effort into growing on platforms outside of UA-cam (YT doesn’t even feel like “content creation” to me) and after making a dozen reels and posting half of them I realized just how little I truly care. Back to just posting photos I’m proud of when I feel like it.
I'm an" old school" foto shooter, my focus is capturing images that are interesting to me. so I don't do video content. BUT i understand the pressures on younger photographers trying to earn a living . in today's world video content is an absolute must and i emphasize this imporant point to the young photographers i meet . zen billings in canada
Excellent vid Dylan , very insightful .
Good points, and of course there’s conflict in this topic. For me personally, I’m over retirement age, and I carry a compact camera and take photos to capture memories of places and experiences that have meaning to me. I rarely post anything. On the other hand, I’ve made several really cool in real life friends with photographers who I first “met”, or discovered would be a better word, because they made UA-cam videos. I’m really glad they made those interesting videos, or I likely would never have known them. As you put it, finding balance applies to pretty much everything in life.
Also not to mention just how fast social media moves. What was a new exciting image yesterday is now forgotten. I wish we could slow down and really show love and appreciation for each piece in our whole body of work.
I wish I could have been a photographer in an age without Instagram or social media and see how different my photography would be
I don’t want to shoot video, it’s like telling a musician they have to play guitar if they want to sing. Yes it is possible to do both with the same gear, but they are entirely different media.
Watching video shorts is nothing like viewing great photography and it is getting harder to find sources of inspiration. The videos about gear are good if you need to make a choice about gear, but they do not inspire me to go shoot. There’s to many sound bite videos about techniques that are made as clickbait and those are annoying too.
What I really find inspiring are videos where photographers talk about their creative process, POV walks, that are an insight into how others think. Because we have all been in a place and had the thought that there’s nothing interesting here to shoot (I need to go somewhere else) and to see how others can find their creativity in those situations is actually helpful.
I needed to see this video. Thank you. I have been feeling the pressure and it’s taking the fun away from this hobby.
Thanks for your wisdom Dylan xx
I have to keep reminding myself that when I do street photography it's for the zen of the walk and not the likes. I rarely post anymore on Instagram. I do like two focused FB groups, one for Arizona birding, the other Henri Cartier Bresson b&w street photography.
There’s something therapeutic about going on a peaceful photo walk.
Thank you for this video. I’m a photographer first and just kind of piddling around with video. Video has overwhelmed the photography world. It’s sad. You see a great new lens come out and go to UA-cam to get info about it and it’s always reviewed in and video scenario first. Sometimes photo capabilities aren’t even discussed. Same thing with cameras. UA-camrs always bitch and moan about things like ‘the a1 doesn’t have a ‘flippy screen’ so this is a no go for vloggers’. Well good god the camera wasn’t created for vloggers. It’s a photo camera first and it takes damn good video as well. The vloggers got their zv-e1 and their fx-30 in the last year and a half. Then they start comparing them to the a6700 and point out all the weaknesses for video. Again, I feel this is a photo first camera with pretty damn good video capabilities. I lean more towards guys like you who have a photo first prospective. No hate to the content creators but I don’t need to video the scene I’m shooting photographs at. Thanks again man, this is coming from a 52 year old living in boring and bland Utah with 20 years of photography behind me. Love your videos. Keep it going! 👏👏👏👍👍
I agree 100%. I’ve made an effort to cover video related capabilities as little as possible in my videos because it annoys the hell out of me too. I’ll always be a photographer first and you would not see me complaining if my “photo camera” couldn’t record a second of video.
I was watching an interview with Rick Rubin the other day. His philosophy is to create for you. Treat it like a diary. Make what you love, create your own art and post it any way that works for you. Stop worrying about everyone else. When you worry about others you muddy your own creativity. You create for others not yourself. I'm guilty of posting for the algorithm. I'm trying to break that habit. I love what I'm making lately and I'm not worrying about how much I film. If I end up with footage to add then great. Free yourself to express your true self! I've been at this for 10 years and reached a little over 600 subs. If I didn't love what I do, I wouldn't still be doing it.
If you haven’t read Rick Rubin’s recent book then you need to!
Even though I'm an amateur because my hobby is supported by a career completely unrelated to photography, I still feel some of the pain you've described. I post most of my work to flickr, and I put a lot of work into each photo both before and after I get done taking it. I want them to look as good as they can! I very rarely get a lot of views or likes on anything because I'm not really trying to. At the end of the day it doesn't matter to me, in a tangible sense. But I also see other accounts that will post very low-effort, boring stuff and they are inundated with views & faves. Makes me feel like... what am I doing here?
Feels the same as I do in my job, I am not a person who is good at "playing the game" and would prefer to get better at my job. But in a sense that is not as rewarding as social engineering is. Social engineers are almost always rewarded more, even though they are not as good at what they're doing, because they spend all their time marketing and putting on a show.
At the end of the day I'd personally rather be the artist than the professional. Anyways, just wanted to point out some parallels to my personal experience.
So right!
When I transformed my Instagram account from the typical personal life stuff to my hobby photography, I decided to just not care if I gain a following. ...and I’ve been very successful in not gaining one :D Sure it’s frustrating at times to not get my work in front of more eyes, but the stuff I shoot for fun IS my hobby, so I won’t let anything get in the way of the fun. I don’t use that account as a portfolio, I have no plans to make any money off of what I post there, so... I’m cool with how things are.
And while I LOVE watching photowalk videos because I learn a lot from them, the thought of going through all the hassle to produce something like that myself is terrifying. Nope, not gonna happen!
Makes sense! People are trying to get high likes because that’s the new metric for what’s good work for all art forms out there, today. You suffer chasing content that you think people like and don’t produce things you (the supposed artist) like. You get followers, not fans, and they’re not really waiting to see what you can make next because you’re not an artist to them, you’re a content creator.
You know I couldn’t have agreed with you more! I HATE SOCIAL MEDIA! Yes I said it! I’ve been a photographer for over 25 years and I own my website. I used instagram for a few years, found my pictures reposted by someone as their own then the final straw was getting hacked and having no recovery help from Metta! Once you post to these sites you giveaway your rights! I was hired to shoot a wedding by the parent of bride and later rushed to release the final product so the new couple could share them on social media!! 🤦🏽♂️
I hate social media too but for some reason one day I woke up and decided to make it my job 😂
I’ve just got back from Iceland and “content creators” are an absolute pain in the f*^king ass….they were everywhere,selfish,rude,annoying and most of all disrespectful for garbage content…..well towards the end of our trip one went too far,it did not end well for him or his gear….😊
Nice video with good and important thoughts Dylan! I can relate to this. Also if I feel like a photo make me think that I've grown as a photographer, post it on Instagram, and get much less likes and comments than I expected - it's a crappy experience.
i go out to shoot photos 👍
Hi dylan,
Awesome videos very helpful.
Just curious to know that i have sold my a7iii to buy an a7cii but im confused about professional work like event photography (networking) where i mostly use Godox vs1 speedlight. Does godox vs1 works on a7cii or better option to go with a7iv?
Love the compact vibes.
Awaiting your response
The fastest shutter speed you’ll be able to use with the A7CII is 1/160. I don’t really use speedlights too often so I can’t offer the best advice. :/
I do shoot like a photographer, I hate the phrase content creator.
Respectfully you’re majorly overthinking this and way too concerned about social. You can build an extremely successful business without social media or a small audience.
Photographers are losing because they don’t know business and they’re spending WAY too much time and energy on this stuff.
This is mainly advice to newer photographers but I don’t disagree with you.
For my personal commercial/professional photo work, it’s almost entirely off of social media working directly with production companies and agencies that I’ve built a relationship with in my city. I don’t even display it on my website anymore. Any online distribution of my photos is done entirely by the clients (businesses/agencies/production house’s socials or websites). I’ve built connections with people who are much better at business than myself so that free’s much of my time to focus on stuff I care about such as this UA-cam channel.
Please don’t hold lav mics in your hand, makes you look like a “content creator” 😂
It gives me something to do with hands so I feel more comfortable in front of the camera. So nah, imma keep doing it lol