There was something else bugging me about YouTube. Something I forgot to mention in my Bye Bye film. I feel like most of the folks who were watching my YouTube channel expressed their desire to become better photographers, but I always had the feeling this was more of an act than an actual goal. And then I did a little research to validate my point. And now I kinda wish I hadn’t. Like smelling sour milk then taking the carton away from your nose only to smell it A SECOND TIME, just to be sure. Damnit.
There is a scene in The Departed where Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg are talking to a young recruit played by Leo DiCaprio. Sheen looks at him and asks,
“You want to be a cop, or do you want to appear to be a cop. It’s an honest question. A lot of guys want to appear to be cops. Gun. Badge. Pretend they’re on TV…“
This is how I feel about YouTube. It’s more about pretending to be than actually being. For the first time ever, I ventured deep into the bowels of my YouTube analytics. Under an “Audience” tab I found my worst nightmare, or in other words, what my viewers had been watching.(Outside of my channel.)This is the part I wish I hadn’t seen. Good grief. “Your audience watched these six films.” For a grand total of 175 minutes. One hundred and seventy five minutes. Just under THREE HOURS.
The best part, there wasn’t a single minute about making someone better. These films, while technically falling under a photography genre, had nothing to do with actual photography. These films were in some ways about everything except photography. Which brings me to my question. And there is no way around this baby, so if you are a snowflake you might want to veer off course now.
Do you want to get better at photography?
If you do, you can’t waste nearly three hours. Even if you wasted two hours it is still too much. Name a hand-eye coordination sport that doesn’t require focused, consistent practice to achieve a high level of proficiency. Go ahead, name one. I feel like people who spend their time on YouTube are like tennis players who carry a racquet all day long but never set foot on a court. This, for me, is like nails on a chalkboard. Fortunately, I came up during a time when there was someone better saying “Let me see the work,” before any type of engagement would happen. If you had the work you could play, and if you didn’t have the work you were encourage to keep plugging and come back again at a later date. You never got mired in geeky conversations because if you didn’t have the work, well, nobody cared what camera you were using.
If you want to get good at photography you must shoot all the time.
There is no other path. None. Zero. And if someone says there is another way, they are either lying or trying to sell you something. Photography is not about what film camera you are using. Great photography isn’t about your clothing or your look or what printer you are planning on using. Great photography(documentary) is about light, timing, and composition. No matter how many layers of wasted time you put between yourself and your portfolio, light, timing, and composition are out there waiting for you. They suffer no fools. And they certainly don’t spend their time on YouTube.
Adding to the degree of difficultly, but adding to the thrill factor is learning how to edit. Making great snaps is one thing, but learning how to edit them is another skill entirely. There is a reason why we had full-time pictures editors since the inception of the sport/industry. I find that most prosumer photographers have a difficult time with the editing process, especially those who don’t print their work, but I’ll get to this more in a minute.
Editing isn’t easy, but laying down a brutal edit on your beloved little darlings will only make you better. And it will only increase the potential impact your work will have. When I teach workshops I often encounter the photographer who makes a very broad edit then says “Okay, I’m done.” I have to gently remind them, “No, you’re not.” I need a top twenty, a top ten, the single best image and the single best image that would work as a cover for a potential book. (These are often not the same image.) (Editing advice is one of the best aspects of a photo workshop. You could even argue it’s as important as making the images.)
Speaking of books. I’ve mentioned this many times before. Books scare people, and rightly so. Books are a masterclass in skill diversity. Books will make you quit before you begin. Books will show you what you are missing. And books show you as much about what you don’t know as what you do. Books allow you to spend 175 minutes on YouTube because YouTube is like a half gallon of Ben & Jerry’s. Sweet, easy, smooth. You know you shouldn’t but you do it anyway. And when you step on the scale the next day, light, timing, and composition are there in the background waiting for you to stop pretending.
Two days ago, my wife mentioned a young photographer who was trying her hand at going pro. She asked what I thought. “I will do anything in my power to help her,” I replied. Why? Because this young person is a worker. She is constantly in the field. Constantly testing, shooting, failing, experimenting, doing research, studying her photo-history and learning about and meeting the real photographers in her community. This young person is a player, not a pretender. (I fear it will still be a long road.)
There is nothing wrong with entertainment. If that is your goal, hey, so be it. Enjoy the process. But if actually getting better as a photographer is your intended destination, well, I have some suggestions.
- Relax. Getting good takes time. Years, most likely.
- Find real critique. These days, it is easy to find yourself in an environment where all you hear is positive praise. This is how it works online but now how it works in real life. Find someone who can provide real feedback.
- Find a mentor. Someone with real skill, knowledge and history who can help you shape your work, and help you learn from your mistakes.
- Study photography history. So many people spend more energy avoiding this task than the energy required to complete the task. Knowing your history actually makes finding project ideas easier and more rewarding.
- Study photography books. Getting a book published requires massive time and resources. It also means that several sets of eyes looked over those images, edited those images, and also sequenced those images. Study these books. Ask yourself why they chose the cover image. Ask why they opened and closed the book with certain images. Consider the number of images used in the book, and also determine how many years were required to make the principle photography.
- Stop wasting time online and go shoot.
Ultimately, what we might be talking about here is suffering. Are you willing to suffer for your work? My best guess, eighty percent of YouTube watchers aren’t willing to suffer. It’s why they are on YouTube to begin with. Again, if entertainment is the goal, I totally get it. But if getting better at photography is a real goal, then maybe twenty percent of watchers have what it takes to even begin to think about refinement.
Environmental mastery. Knowing what makes you happy, knowing what you are good at, and knowing the environments in which you can allow these two to roam freely. This site is mine. The algorithm is my heartbeat. This site is for anyone and everyone, but the hope for the future is to offer something more to that twenty percent who feels the hunger and knows that pretending is nothing but empty calories. I finally realized, after many years of doing this, that I can help some of you. I can. It’s that simple. And that, my friends, is my goal.
Comments 27
“Books will show you what you are missing” Indeed. I kept travel journals with sketches and writing in my college days, but have not written anything other than information manuals and signage since then. It shows. Every paragraph is painful, but I am motivated to keep plugging along. How much easier it would have been if I had written something, anything at the time I was taking the photos. Thank goodness I tagged all the photos. BTW, I enjoy the blogs because I can read them on my short break at work.
Author
Writing can be a cruel adventure. For anyone. You don’t need much. Even one paragraph a day for thirty days is something tangible.
Thank you very much for your help Dan!
Exelent as always and very inspiring. Some quotes of this will end up im my notebook.
Have a good one and watch your back …. And neck
Frank
Author
Oh…my back and neck….not so good. And thank you Dusseldorf!
The rhetorical (and perpetual) question I ask myself is: who is my audience? At the moment it’s just me, and that has to be enough before I reach anyone else.
Author
Just you is a great thing.
Dan, why do so many people complain about the platforms and being on the platforms, even as they continue to be more “extremely online”?
I’ve chatted to Dan about this via email, but thought I’d share it here too as it’s relevant. For a time I was trying to “go pro” and join a few friends that make a living as professional photographers. From the start I’ve resisted social media and platforms like Instagram. They were constantly on me about not being there, and missing out but whilst also complaining about clients being cheap, difficult to work with, only wanting high-impact (but shallow) photos that did well on the platform. They couldn’t see that everything they were complaining about was rooted in the clients and work coming from a platform they told me was essential.
I left my pro ambitions behind — be careful what you wish for — but the jobs I did have were great because I stuck to my guns and didn’t compromise on the kind of work I wanted to do. Not a great way to make a living though, and I think that unless you’re willing to make a long play outside the wire (as Dan would say) you need to cater to and put up with the platforms to pay the bills — even if you’d rather avoid them altogether.
Author
Yes, most people are going to be far happier NOT working as a pro. Being a pro influencer is an option, and easier to do than become an industry pro. You just have to make a deal with the devil most of the time. Lucky for me, all my friends are on a first name basis with the devil.
Author
they are physically addicted to the platforms. Sounds dramatic but it’s true. The platforms were designed to exploit human vulnerability and they do just that.
I would add if you want to become a better photographer print your work all the time. Print them on different papers, at different scales/coverage. Print using your best inkjet printer and also on a cheap laser printer. Constantly challenge yourself to reimagine an image – take a laser print to the copy shop, get them to make a copy and then make a copy of that copy etc etc and learn from how the image changes/degrades over generations of copying. Draw or paint on your prints. Interested in making a book? Edit a small group of prints down to 6-8. Buy some 11×17 paper for your printer. Look up how to create a book out of a single sheet of paper just by folding and cutting a strategic slit to get a booklet of 10 pages. Layout your images on the 11×17 sheet so they print where the pages form after folding. These little books are delightful, fit in a regular letter envelope and can be mailed inexpensively any where in the world. Mail out some copies and bask in the glow of being a published photographer. Rinse and repeat to get better and better while you’re doing the principal photography for that long term project for your coffee table photobook.
I love what you wrote here! i agree. and making any kind of book is so inspiring. just have to keep experimenting and be less focused on the outcome and more on process. i am trying to learn all i can. thankfully, there is uncle dan in the world to guide us. cheers.
Author
there is no such thing as a perfect book….
Author
You know me. Print is the price of admission. I feel people who don’t print are mostly posers.
I love it Paul!! Aaron Hardin a YouTube photographer a cut above your average one .. he was even recommended by someone we all know and love.. has a video on how to do the single page book!!
I need a printer again! I’m so ready to print, just need a cheap printer with a subscription based ink service.
Author
Chris Pichler does single image books.
Dan, I so needed to read this. I’ve been picking up my camera a lot more recently. I’m a bird fanatic. I have many bird feeders and love to sit on porch snapping as many photos as I can. Also have been journaling quite a bit along with it. It’s good to get negative comments on things, otherwise how would we improve? You’re honestly an online mentor for me.
Author
Combine those two. Bird images with random thoughts triggered by certain birds.
Um… Here’s a horrific thought, Dan. Some of us just liked your YT videos because you’re entertaining and we have no intention of ever becoming photojournalists. And we like our photos just fine as they are. :-).
Author
Hey, like I said, if entertainment is your thing then that’s fine too.
But if I don’t watch all those photo “influencers'” videos on YT how will I know if Pentax’s new Lomo camera is any good or if sticking a Leica red dot on an old LUMIX will create the holy grail of cameras? All this takes hours of painstaking research. Actually I saw all this as I was unsubscribing from all the influencers and deleting the YT app. Then I went out and ran two rolls through a 645 camera and ended the day by reading a book.
Author
There you go. That’s called life in the real world. I can’t imagine wasting time on those channels but it’s clear many people do. I realize I’m on a clock and need to do things NOW>
I feel that another aspect of photography is the organization of your images. I wish I had better organizational skills when I started. This discipline may have carried over into actually making the images themselves. It burns me when someone asks for images that I made for them 20-30 years ago and I spend hours trying to find them. I am getting better at now, but wish I had a lesson early on.
Author
This is HUGELY important. And is such a problem for just about everyone I know. Anyone who tells you they have a long term solution….is lying.
Years of dabbling, years taken off photography, then finally getting back into it. I have no desire to go pro, and I have no real desire to do anything but “edition of one” prints and field manuals for my own purposes. Yes, I bought some fancy new cool guy gear, but the best decision was a little Canon 4×6 photo printer. It definitely doesn’t look like darkroom prints – more like automated minilab prints. But, it’s been a great experience and probably the most inspiring thing I’ve ever owned.
You hit the nail on the head for youtube photo content. I fall into that trap as background noise at my day job and as trying to replace browsing local photo stores (because they barely exist here)…but the whole thing came crashing down not long ago. I saw someone post a claimed 4-year review of some fancy leather camera strap (with a slidey-thing like the black rapids)…except that he had it rigged up backwards so that the attachment wouldn’t slide up the strap enough for him to get the viewfinder up to his eye – the adjustment buckle that goes on your back was in the middle of his chest (also the neck cutout was obviously wrong). He might have owned it for 4 years, but he hasn’t used it enough to realize he had it on backwards. As you would say, that seems par for the course of youtube photo reviews.
Author
Most YT photography channels seem to be driven by untrained folks who know little to nothing about photography. Again, they are great at building following, but when it comes to learning photography from them, not even close. You would be better off sleeping in traffic.