5 Thoughts on Modern Photography

The last year was an interesting chapter for all things photographic. There were new camera launches, music events and lots of mountains, hills and treks. I deliberately took a step back from photography to evaluate and thus, hopefully to improve. There are five key things I have finally managed to learn and better still, managed to get over.

1. The best camera actually IS the one you have with you!

I used to hate this statement. In the past I have participated in debates over cropped, full frame, iPhone f-stop, weather sealing…. the list goes on. This photographic snob finally realised that if your main camera is at home it isn’t taking photos. More importantly I realised the humble old iPhone can actually deliver some great results in the right environment. I captured two photos in the same location running in the forest. The weather was ideal on both occasions, as a result both earned the mantle of Flickr Explore. (Top photo and below).

Don’t get me wrong, I am not celebrating some sort of hollow social media success. (See point number 5, below). The point is simple, a photograph with 14000 views and hundreds of likes isn’t necessarily better than one with a few views. Since when did we start measuring value in likes? The fact remains this isn’t going to look good printed at A0 but equally, I didn’t have my camera with me….. QED.

2. You can find your photos anywhere.

A hazard of posting your photos online is the likely hood they will end up being re-used without your knowledge or permission. If you use an image service to monitor your copyright (as I do) then this is a lesson you will have already learned and it hurts. This year it has amazed me how far and wide some of my images have ended up and how they have been used. Magazine ads, book covers, posters and a plethora of websites, it’s almost like the calculated risk of being caught is worth it. Don’t get me started in those who go as far as photoshopping out your watermark….. and worse adding their own.

Resolving such issues can be tricky especially as they could have purchased the image through my library on Getty. Pointing the finger is stressful, awkward and not without risk, it can often be like David and Goliath.

If you want to make yourself miserable then head over to Google images and upload one of your favourite photos. I no longer look, it’s another stress I don’t need. That said an agency handling such things makes life that bit easier.

3. Photography hates negativity.

If you are not in the ‘creative zone’ to take photos you won’t ever be happy with the results. If you approach photography with the view that you won’t capture anything good then you won’t be disappointed. In some ways expecting to fail it’s the easiest way to sample success. If you find yourself in this place creatively then take a break. Leave your camera at home and revisit it when you are ready. If you are measuring your success by likes or flickr explore, take a break and return when you are ready. Why did you start capturing images in the first place? until that is your reason again, take a break!

4. Experiences are better than things.

Each year we produce a photo book, we call it the annual photo book, a name that shouldn’t be a surprise. When this year’s book landed from blurb books we always revisit the book from ten years before. Looking back over the years it isn’t the queuing for the new iPhone, the jump to 24 megapixels and other such technological launches that appear. The book instead contain the important chapters, the experiences, the trips, the simple days out and the holidays. The simple lesson is that  money you are saving for thee new piece of hardware, car, camera that you (think you) need could be much better invested in experiences. Don’t put the experiences off to the future, you only have now.

5. Social media stories aren’t reality.

I am not saying all social media is bad or fake for that matter, however how many times have you looked at the feeds of those on social media adventures, living perfect lives, zero stress, always happy and somehow always on holiday?

How many times have you looked at the lives of others and lamented your own? The fact is we all only post photos of the best bits of our lives and more importantly, if it seems to be good to be true, it probably is! I recently read an article that suggested some couples are bringing a professional photographer with them on holiday…. how much can you actually experience never mind enjoy a holiday if the focus is how it is presented on social media and with what hashtag? #justsaying.

If social media is making you unhappy then take a break and return when either,

1.  you have enough photos for people to think you are a world wide adventure photographer who is happiness personified.
2. you can afford to take a professional photographer on holiday.
   or finally,
3. you can treat social media for what it is, on the whole, relatively meaningless.

Use it to keep in touch with friends, use it of inspiration or news but don’t use it as a measure of anything important.

 A turning Point.

It has been a special year and yet I took considerably less photographs than last year, in fact I captured less photos than I did in the 5 years previous. It wasn’t that this year wasn’t busy, I had a handful of music projects, lots of landscape walks and climbs. We had the trip to Australia and the mega Cape to Cape trek. It was a great year on the surface but there was a lag in photographic excitement.

Software Shoutout

If you are an outdoor photographer and track your runs, rides and hikes on Strava then why not combine your activities with your photography, check out Velographic.

Velographic is free and imports your activities from Strava enabling you to add your route and other metrics to a photograph. I have about 25 already created that could end up a really nice Instax photo collage project of the future.