 Provoke a reaction with your photography you need to do that you need to do something with if somebody goes I hate your photograph at least you have challenged them at least you have said to them You know what? This is what I want to do You have planted a flag in the sand and you've gone I'm going to create this photograph and I'm creating for me if you like it Fantastic if you don't jog on great photographers Understand that creating photography to please the masses is the quickest way to ruin your creative spirit How's it? How's it? Back when I was 19, I started at photo school and I was full of excitement and joy about finally beginning my career as a professional photographer and and I sat in those classrooms and and I was taught how to you know Create photographs that looked like various images and and that was an important way of learning and Over time my group might make my class we began to compare ourselves to each other Throughout the the critiques and all those things we would say well, you know I want the crowd to To like me to say that that work was good so you would start taking your photographs and Putting into them the things that you knew would get a positive response from her people around you It's a natural reaction, especially when you're new that you want people to like what it is you do And of course then I went off into the big wide world and I started working as a photographer and For a while it was fine. I had my own you know way of doing things, but then along came the internet and Through that I started dabbling with with digital as the digital was coming in in and because I hadn't had a training in digital I was going online and looking at these kind of notes There's very basic tutorials about how to do various things and I was liking the effects that I was seeing I was going artist this is great And and I would try and copy what I saw there and and then along came, you know social media and all these things and I Wanted people to like my photographer I felt that I had some sort of God-given right for everybody to go wow your photography is awesome You know and and of course when somebody does say those things it strokes regal makes you feel good And it made me feel good, and I chased that dragon I embraced going after that that dopamine rush with both hands and I went off thinking that you know if I could just Get a handle on all of these techniques that I was seeing all these things that people liked and were responding positively These two then they would like my photography as well And then I would become you know fated as some sort of wow, you know genius photographer But through all of that I was losing What had drawn me to photography in the first place and that was you know doing Photography simply for the pure love of doing photography of being like my grandfather used to remind me just you know Seeing the world in in your own unique way and putting it in on to film just for that pure pleasure of doing so There was a man on a forum who I met and I started talking to who Reminded me of that grandfather figure in my life and I started to Remember and reconnect with the photography that I wanted to be making and it was such an important change in my life Did it freed up my photography? It made me a better happier more creative Photographer because I wasn't now worrying about trying to please other people and and chasing those Pointless likes and his pointless shares. It's understandable why this happens, you know, we are By our very natures, you know drawn to the praise of others of of saying Hey, you know you did a good job and and in the modern world This is never more evident than you know places like Instagram and and Facebook and YouTube to a lesser extent where we are So easily drawn into the idea that you know, if other people Like our work if they just hit a like button and move on to the next picture Then somehow we are creating great Photography and I really don't think that is the case at all It's of course one thing to learn by copying You know all of us when we started off photography started by You know doing tutorials by learning to achieve various things and that's a natural process But we tend to get lost in this idea that copying is just the way to Make something that is popular and I really would like you to stop thinking about Copying just for the sake of copying because that's what's what is popular at the moment That is what's kind of you know, driving all the likes and if you if you photograph in a certain way Then other people will like your photography and and by definition you may think that you are a good photographer The great issue with all of this of course is that that social media is one giant echo chamber so one person comes along and Creates something new that tends to resonate with a few people and then they Create more to make like that and so on and so forth You know, you just got to look at these ideas of you know shooting portraits with extremely shallow depths of field very Contrast across processed kind of looks with with sort of gaudy neon types of colors all these things, you know, they're all just Fads that come and go around and if you've been in photography for a while You'll see them come and go and you'll see the news the new guys, you know pick them up and go Wow, this is this is amazing and you know, they're fine, but it's not what we want to do as photographers We want to speak in our own unique voices We can speak in our unique voices by being brave And this is what you really need to start doing is to to if you want to show your work is To stop worrying about what other people think about it Don't care that they might say it's rubbish or whatever. In fact, if people don't like it That's a good sign I would say that that is a really great sign because it means that while you might not be creating Fantastic work, you know for it for you in your own mind or what have you at least you're not creating something that is just you know like like Milk toast for everybody else that they just kind of like oh yes, I like that, you know Provoke a reaction with your photography. You need to do that You need to do something when if somebody goes I hate your photograph at least you have challenged them At least you have said to them, you know, this is what I want to do You have planted a flag in the sand and you've gone I'm going to create this photograph and I'm creating for me if you like it Fantastic, if you don't jog on that is really what we're looking to do here You need to start standing up for yourself and and being brave and saying I don't care I do not care if you don't like my photographs because they're not for you For that was a bit a bit full-on wasn't it? Okay, let's just take it down for a little bit But this is the whole point, you know that you're not creating photographs for other people You're creating them for yourselves and sometimes, you know, you are going to make mistakes You are going to make little missteps. You're going to go in directions that don't really quite work But the thing is that you are willing to try you are willing to take the chance You are willing to experiment and and explore the unknowns Don't worry about all these videos that tell you all the seven mistakes that you must you must absolutely not make as a photographer You know, it's it don't worry, you know mistakes are cool. You can learn from mistakes Man Ray You know, there's that story about how, you know When he was having a darkroom assistant and they actually opened the door and and you know, the prince got ruined Oh my god, you know the prince of ruin and that's where, you know, Man Ray's just famous solarization Images came from I really hope that that story is true But it illustrates the point quite nicely that, you know mistakes mistakes are part of a learning process There are they are a thing to be learned from so don't be afraid of making mistakes and don't be afraid of Upsetting other people with your photographs So what are the steps that you really want to kind of go around about how you fix this? How do we start on this process of? You know being brave and and and and challenging our ideas about photography Well, the first thing I think and I'll link to a more in-depth video about this at the end is that It's great as I mentioned as a beginner to learn from other photographers to you know Learn the basics of of how to actually wield the the tool that you have in your hand that camera in a way that You know that actually works, right? But you get to a level and you need to start going beyond where everybody else is drawing their inspiration from and so you need to go off From photography you need to to go away and expand Where it is that you're looking for your images, you know the moving image You know art galleries anywhere that has any sort of visual Ideas that are not specifically photography that you can bring into your photographs if you love painting Then bring those painters that you like into your work if you love, you know album artwork cover if you love graphic design If you love something i'm sure that because you're a visual person you like other visual mediums and just photography Bring those inspirations into your work Your work will be far richer for it because you are bringing in fresh Ideas rather than those stale Ideas that everybody else is just kind of repeatedly regurgitating While we're on the subject of ideas you You have to stop thinking that likes Validate your photography that that if a thousand people Like your photograph then that's good and if 10,000 people Like your photograph then that photograph is is like 100 times better than it was it doesn't work like that You know it doesn't work like that and and and a lot of you I know are not into the whole kind of social media thing But really don't seek validation about whether or not your photography is good from anybody else because it really It it does not matter what other people think That whether or not your photography is good And there is it. There's a little kind of caveat to that is that you can't actually Decide whether or not your photography is good because it's not up to you And this is a point that touched on in a previous video that that Who decides your if your photography is good or not is the viewer is the person who's looking at it And you may not get tens of thousands of people go. Oh my god. That's amazing if you photograph Work that people don't like but for the people who do like it. They will absolutely They will adore it They will be so into your photographs that is not even funny because you are making something that is has a unique voice has a voice that reaches out to them to them specifically And pulls them in and that's what we want to get in your photography You may not have the 10000 likes, but you may have two or three people who for them You are the greatest photographer who's ever lived and I want you to ultimately always remember that that you Are somebody's favorite photographer As soon as you get hold of these concepts as soon as you grasp the nettle of wanting to Create photography once again just for yourself then all of a sudden all of a sudden You're going to take off so much worry. We spend so much time worrying about what other people think That it is like a lead cloak that just weighs us down and it drags behind us the whole time And it consumes our thoughts every time we we go to press the shutter. We're like, oh, well, let's get me lots of likes We're like, well people like this picture. Will it be okay? You know it and as soon as you stop worrying about the opinions of others Then you will find that your photography becomes so much More fluid it becomes a free of more rewarding Experience akin to the feelings that you first had when you initially started Photography it doesn't matter if you've been photographing, you know for a week. They're still there You know, you know 100 years if you've been photographing for 100 years, let me know in the comments below I'd love to talk to you But these are the you know, this is the thing you you need to kind of just be free You need to be zen because when you are in all these states of mind It will connect you more with the actual process of seeing the world Of photographing it in your unique way of being the best photographer that you can be And and this is that's a theme that comes up so much on this channel is I would love for you to be the very best photographer that you are capable of being because I know that you can be I know that you are you know, occasionally we all make little Trips into the into the wilderness that doesn't quite work and and we sometimes feel that we're we can be a bit lost But come back come back if you're feeling lost to that feeling that you had when you first picked up the camera Which is that this is awesome and this is this is a an endeavor that is like It's like magic it still feels amazing that you can see something that everybody else can see and See something unique in that it's How many other people go through their lives day to day just never never seeing Never never looking never being aware of everything that is around them I want you to do that. I want you to stop taking boring Photos that just everybody else goes. Oh, yeah, that's nice. You know make photographs that are you that Get in there that that grasp everything that that you know that make people either go I love this or I hate this I really hope that you now go and photograph with more conviction This is that video that I was talking about earlier about the inspiration if you're stuck for ideas go and check it out You