 How's it going guys? Photography and its heart has a couple of uncomfortable truths. I've been wanting to get off my chest for a while. And the first is that, you know, it's not that hard. Photography really, it's not difficult. Okay. This is, we all tell ourselves, I think, well, I say we, sorry, I mean, for my including yourself in this, I'm not natural, but, you know, there's a lot of people within the photographic industry who make out that photography is harder than it actually is. And anybody who's kind of, you know, sort of pushing this idea that, you know, it's a hard thing and, and what have you, I think is kind of doing you a bit of a disservice, you know, because they are making you feel to begin with that this is a struggle, that this is something you have to like really work out, you know, certainly the, the nuts and the bolts have taken pictures. And that's, that's where this all stems from, is that photography is, it's a technical process. It can be repeated over and over and over again, right? And it's not like painting, where if I, because I'm a terrible painter, right? If I was given a set of brushes and stuff, you know, it would take me a long time to learn how to use those brushes, you know, in a way that I can actually get something from up here onto the, the painting of the canvas. Whereas with a camera, you know, half an hour just perusing the manual gun through this like that. And even for somebody who's only just ever picked up a camera for the first time within like an hour or so, they're going to be creating, you know, pretty good, you know, but work with photographs, certainly better than if they spend an hour with a paintbrush just slapping on paint. And maybe this is where we kind of, maybe it's a bit of inferiority complex. You know, photographers have always, since the dawn of photography, had this thing of like, ah, we want to be artists. We want to be, you know, what a, what a, what a, you know, and yet the rest of the art world tends to, you know, look at photographers and go, well, you just press a button, don't you? It's not that hard. You know, they all know this thing. And going forward, I would like for you to try not to focus too much on the technical thing, because it isn't that hard. You know what, an hour or two with somebody who knows what they're doing to show you the ropes of how to actually use your camera to get the results that you want is enough, right? That's 80% of the job done. The 20%, the really that makes your photograph great is what comes from up here. You know, that's how to compose the picture and, you know, put things together, the elements inside the scene to create something that's a bit more than just a photograph. So anybody who is telling you that photography is hard, that, you know, it needs a lifetime of experience to master the efforts. They're not telling you the whole truth. They're telling you that maybe that they kind of feel left behind somewhat. You know, there are professionals, obviously, who have had a lifetime of experience and knowledge and who grew up in a world where photography wasn't as an accessible as it is now, as easy now, you know, because it is a little lie about, let's not beat around the bush. Gear has made photography far more, let's say relaxing, because it does a lot of the work for you. But don't, you know, just don't worry too much about the technically and concentrate on learning to speak visually with your pictures. Now, that kind of neatly segues into the fact that gear, gear actually does matter. You know, I tell you that gear doesn't matter, right? So it doesn't really matter. And ultimately, it doesn't play as big a role as, you know, as some people make up, but it does matter. You can't do certain things without certain lenses. You can't, you know, create certain images. You can't do those milky way shots and stuff with, you know, with a camera that's not up to the task. So it does matter. But it doesn't mean that you should focus on gear, that you should think about, you know, oh, my photography has been held back because I don't have a fast lens, or because I don't have a super telephoto, or something like that, or I don't have the latest body. If there is a specific problem that is holding you back from creating what it is that you want, then, yes, gear matters, absolutely gear matters, but don't get hung up on it just to say, oh, you know, gear is saying, because we've all seen these photographers, oh, you know, they're always sitting there going, oh, well, you know, the Nikon X17Z has this thing, and then my phones go, be, be, be, be, be, be, be in the corner and stuff like that, you know, because that's my notification saying this man, and invariably it is a man, is talking about gear, and that's going to get super boring very quickly. Maybe that's why there's this thing of people saying, you know, gear doesn't really matter when it does, because actually those conversations are pretty dull, right? They are pretty boring. That's maybe, you know, why I get wrapped up in, you know, ragging on camera clubs a little bit, is because my experiences with that is that people want to talk about gear, they want to talk about quantifiable specific things, oh, your picture isn't sharp, it isn't this, it isn't that, they want to tell you what's wrong with things. In all my years of being a photographer, everybody seems to always tell you what's wrong with your photographs. Why are we so bitchy, I think is the word, with other people's work, you know, it's always like, this is wrong, and that's wrong, you know, this is, you know, 10 minutes on YouTube looking at photography videos, we'll show you this exactly, you know, what's wrong with your photographs. This is a beginner mistake. Are you completely stupid because you made this mistake, which then boils down to it's not really a mistake at all, right? It's such a snippety, snappety community. It's why do we do this? You know, we should be celebrating each other, right? We should say, look, let's encourage everybody. There are too many, and again, it feels like I'm pointing fingers at older photographers, and it's older professionals, and it's not entirely fair, but they have, as I mentioned earlier, that wealth of experience, that knowledge, and yet, they're not going to share it, they're not going to share it with anybody because God forbid that person who's given some of the knowledge, right, some of that experience might take clients away from them. I used to see this when I'd go off and, you know, go to like workshops and seminars and things about, you know, building up a business and working as a professional portrait photographer, and I was sitting talking to one gentleman over breakfast one day, and, you know, I said, ah, I've got this work experience girl coming in, you know, school work experience sort of thing, and I said, I'm just, you know, I'm showing her all the ropes and, you know, sort of thing, but I'm also kind of saying, look, you know, if this is what you want to do for a living, this is kind of what you need to do in regards to pricing and all sort of things, and he, I thought he was going to choke on his bacon. He said, why, what are you doing showing people how to, you know, run your business? Why are you showing them this? Are you not afraid they will go off and they will open their own studio and take business away from you? And I said, okay, well, first of all, she's 17. So I don't think the chance of her opening studio is okay, but also if you are not telling these people how to become better photographers, how to work and be professional about things, then we're ending up with a photography culture, certainly in the professional world, when nobody is helping anybody learn from the ground up. So the people from the ground up that make mistakes and then they tell the people beyond that they're making them as this is how you do it, because they don't know any better. So they're teaching the eight by 10 print, how much is an eight by 10 print? Nobody cares, right? This is not what's stopping your business from being successful, right? But this is what happens when older photographers who have the knowledge, who have the experience don't tell people, those people then go off and they start doing things their way. Now that's fine, they can do things their way, but their way isn't, I don't want to say it's the right way, it's not the right way, right? But they're not given the benefit of being taught. All these people, you know, the people, the Renaissance painters, I'm thinking, you know, Rembrandt, Rembrandt, who's not Renaissance, is he? I don't know. Who knows, right? It's a doubt for my birthday, I don't know, right? But he had a factory, you know, a workshop of people who were learning, apprentices who were learning how to paint like Rembrandt, Van Dyke, all these Dutch people, you know, it felt like a bit of a factory, it was a bit of a turnout sort of thing, but they were learning, they were learning the ropes, all the great photographers, you know, the avidans and the pens and all these sort of people. And up to today, they apprenticed with people, they learned from each other, they were gracious in sharing and spreading their knowledge, not in a kind of like, that's wrong, this wrong, I would do this and you know, made five beginner mistakes, but encouragement. I would, if you do one thing in 2023, I want you to start encouraging other photographers to becoming more of themselves. If you have some experience, and even if you've only been taking photographs for six months for a year, or if you've got a camera at Christmas and somebody gets a camera in February, you've already got a couple of months experience that you can help say, look, you know, this is, oh, I struggled with that as well, right? Let's, you know, this is how you do it. And that's, that's kind of what this is all about. You know, photography isn't hard, right? And it isn't an area where we want to just become constantly smacking people down, telling them what they're doing wrong. Phew. Well, yes, rant over. It's just going to finish, draw a line under that one. You know, photography is a, it is a joyous experience. You know, it's wonderful to take photographs. You know, the very fact that it isn't that difficult, you know, means that it is accessible to everybody. It is such a wonderful way of being creative. If, like me, you have a big disconnect between your head and the painting hand. And as we go forward into 2023, I want you to think about these sort of truths or uncomfortable truths at the heart of photography that, you know, that it's not difficult. So when you understand it's not difficult, then we can just go forward and just not worry about the technical aspects of things. Get the basics done, know what's going on inside your camera and then feel free to experiment, to be creative, to do whatever it is that you want to do, right? And then, you know, know when gear is the problem and know when it isn't the thing that's holding you back. At the very least, that's going to save you a lot of money, I think, you know, through all these sort of things because sometimes it is and other times it is not. And then be supportive. Reach out to fellow photographers, you know, and say, look, not, this is what I would have done different. You know, this reminds me of that old joke, you know, about the, you know, the lead guitarist, you know, is how many lead guitarists does it take to change a light bulb, right? And with answers is 100 because it takes one to change the light bulb. And the other 99 to say, well, I would have done it better. So that's kind of where we are with photography these days. Everybody wants to show off about what they think they know. So if you are looking for feedback on your images, if you're looking for, you know, sort of some honest, you know, thoughts about how you can improve, either you can take, you know, one of the courses, you know, that I offer, you know, one of my mentoring sessions or even if it's just half an hour, just to get some feedback, some directional pointers. And if you're interested, there's a link in the description box below, then, you know, look for that. But even if you don't want to do those sort of things, find some photographers whose opinion you admire, if you're in groups, if you are in, you know, LinkedIn saying or a Facebook group or, you know, Reddit or Discord or what have you, you will kind of know this, there's people who think the same way as you who kind of are on the same vibe, right? And, and I'd like you to reach out to them say, look, you know, do you want to just sort of bounce some ideas around, you know, get some sort of, I have looked at some of your photographs and you look at me and, and be supportive of each other. If you need help with something, reach out to people whose, whose opinions you respect. Don't just go off the internet and say, hello everybody, I have this photograph, tell me what's wrong with it. What you're going to get back? You're going to get a bunch of know-it-alls telling you what's wrong with it, not how to make it better. Telling you, this is what I would have done, which is like the cockest thing anybody can say to your photographs, right? Because they didn't take it, you did. It should be, okay, I see what you're doing here, right? If you want to go in that direction, then you could try X, Y and Z things. That's what this is all about. There is a wealth of information out there on the internet of clever, knowledgeable people who are also good at passing on that knowledge. Reach out, make 2023 this year where you kind of go, all right, I'm going to invest in myself, in myself, the photographer. Not necessarily in my gear, right? Not necessarily in software or things like that. The promise to fix anything and of course AI is now coming on board and I would suggest look at AI, see how you can embrace it, see how you can use it to maybe take your photography directions you're not thought of. To get some feedback on your photography and to give you prompts of directions that you can go and to become the very best photographer that you can be, there's a link in the description box below to my one-to-one sessions. Thank you ever so much for watching and check out this video here. I'll see you again soon.