Index
Six weeks done. Six weeks of daily photos, six weeks of daily walks, six weeks of wondering what all this means.
So far, what it has meant is that I'm getting to know my neighborhood and my neighbors better than I have in years and that my dog is very happy with all the extra walks. It has also meant that I've been reflecting a lot on just what being a photographer means to me1.
And I haven't really figured that out yet, but I'm starting to get some ideas.
One of which revolves around the concept of audience. When I started this project, I deliberately chose the most popular photo-sharing social media app on the planet, and one that is...less popular. As the project has gone on, I've become dissatisfied with Instagram's user experience - as far as I can tell, almost no one, including my friends and followers is seeing my photos, but lots of people I don't know and who don't follow me see my reels. To paraphrase the Kardashians, Instagram, quit trying to be TikTok. But Flickr is not really doing anything for me, either.
Flickr is still a great site for sharing photos. As long as you are willing to email each and every person you want to share those photos with. The discovery facet of Flickr, not to mention its user interface have not changed much since I was last active there, circa 20102. I had high hopes, like foolishly optimistically high hopes that I could spread the word and suddenly people would flock back to Flickr. Unfortunately, most of the response seems to have been "Flickr's still around? Huh."
In a not-at-all surprising twist, this issue is affecting a lot more people than just me. Every photographer forum I'm aware of has been having the same kind of debate: where to go from Instagram? There are lots of recommendations, lots of new apps and platforms, lots of promising sites. The trouble is, none of them have Instagram's reach, none of them have Instagram's audience.
So the question becomes: do you go somewhere that lets you display your photographs better, somewhere more in line with how you want to present your photos to the world? Or do you go where the audience is?
In other words, why are you sharing your photos in the first place?
And that is a question I haven't really been able to answer. Back when, I shared my photos because I was capturing moments that would otherwise go undocumented. After I started traveling, I was both documenting my experiences and sharing new-to-me and new-to-my-audience cultural discoveries. But these days? When everyone's got a camera on their phone and is more than capable of documenting their own experiences?
I've always had a bit of an inferiority complex about photography. I feel like I'm a competent photographer and out of the weddings and events I've covered over the years, I have a few photos that I feel are really, truly great. But 99% of my work is either "passable" or, well, not. Now, I know, intellectually, that that is not an uncommon ratio. But back in my school days, I worked alongside a few people who were true artists with a camera and a studio and it was intimidating.
Which is why it took me a long time to start sharing my work. In the beginning, I latched on to photojournalism and worked towards that. Get in fast, get the shot, get the safety shot, get out and write the story. But studio work, compositional work, portraiture, and, god forbid, artistic expression? I'll leave those to who are more skilled than I.
But then came the internet and, well, here we are. I'm not sure what it means for me to share my work yet. I'm not sure why I'm doing it. I'm not sure where and if I should continue to do so. But I've got a few more weeks to figure it out.
Here are the week's notes:
5 August 2022 - "Night Vending" - I wanted to test out using my phone at night. Mixed results, but I got a nice drink, so that's okay.
6 August 2022 - "Bike" - Wow. I actually got out of my own neighborhood for once. Spotted this bike while walking around downtown and really liked it.
7 August 2022 - "Lavender" - Photographing flowers feels like a bit of a cop-out. You're letting the flower do all the work of making an interesting photo rather than finding a story to tell. But they are pretty.
8 August 2022 - "Washed Out" - Okay, ignore the upper left corner. It got too washed out. I included this photo in the week's collection because I do like the composition; this is one for the "re-shoot it but better" file. The copse itself is hiding an old, abandoned house that no one is willing to buy. I expect that in another ten years, both the house and all the fields around it will be new houses.
9 August 2022 - "August Moon" - Another not great photo, but one I included simply because I was impressed that my phone camera was able to get even that good a shot. This was taken at about 6:30 p.m. just before full sunset3.
10 August 2022 - "Pooling Around" - One of the few things we've been able to do this summer is visit the waterpark. We've got a great one just near our house and we had both perfect weather and, for Japan, uncrowded conditions. Lovely day out.
11 August 2022 - "Radio Radio" - So it's not really a radio tower. I'm both fascinated and disturbed by the power lines that dot the landscape around my neighborhood (as if that weren't obvious by now). The way this one rises up from the trees seemed interesting to me.
If you read my main newsletter, Learned, then you've heard a little bit about this. Then again, if you're a paid subscriber to Learned, you've heard all you ever needed to hear and then some!
This is a very "old man yells at clouds" thing, but I really miss a lot of the social media that was around in the early 2000s. Everything centered around blogging and we had a lot of cool variations on that theme that have disappeared. Back in those Web 1.0 days, the best way to get photos onto your blog was to host them on Flickr and use their tools to push high quality thumbnails to your website.
I don’t know if it’s still there, but if you’re ever in Flagstaff Arizona and you see a Chinese take-out place called August Moon, do yourself a favor and stop and have lunch.
Loved 'August Moon'
You know you love clicking towers right?
I stayed in awe of August 10th's picture, too bad that you mentioned the washed out part in the top-left corner because I had completely overlooked it.