Tag: growth

Is YouTube Dying?

Interesting Stuff, Landscapes, Photography, Videos

For some odd reason, over the past couple of weeks, several of the landscape photographers I follow have posted videos about their YouTube experiences. Some have been active for years, others for just a couple. But all are reconsidering what the effort to produce content ultimately means to them and whether/how they should continue.

Most have noticed a slowing in the growth of their channel in both views and followers. Some of that appears to be a legitimate change in audience interests. But some of it also seems to be the ever present YouTube algorithm, which chooses how and how often a video is presented for viewing.

I rely on YouTube for my artistic “fix” and also for more mundane activities such as home repairs. So this change is troubling to me. What does it mean?

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Farm Life

Life, My Community, Photography

I had the pleasure, and it was a pleasure, of visiting a working farm a few days ago. Bragg Farms, in Clarington, Ontario, is home to cornfields, sunflower fields, soy fields, potato fields, many free range chickens and, wait for it, tourists, along with a website and an online store.

I had the chance to spend time talking with one of the owners and it was an eye opening experience. Farm life certainly isn’t what it used to be when I was a kid.

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Technical Skills vs. Artistic Eye

Artistic Ideas, Expertise, Life, Photography

Photography is an interesting hobby/occupation: there is so much to learn to simply take competent photographs. Some (ok, including me) believe that learning the basics is key to eventually being able to express yourself artistically. But some come at it the other way around – using their artistic nature to develop their photographic eye, then learning what is needed to express it digitally, often through trial and error.

I grew up in and worked in very technical arenas – my parents worked in fields where following the rules was paramount and expected, and where training and development were necessary to be able to work in their fields at all. I then spent a career in an engineering company (an electric utility) where “creativity” was not really encouraged and could have devastating consequences.

Then I retired…

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What It Means to be an Expert

Artistic Ideas, Expertise, Learning, Photography

I’ve had the pleasure since 2014 of immersing myself in photography full-time. Prior to then, it was a hobby, indulged in only when other things didn’t demand my time. Since then, it’s been the other way around. I can honestly say that it is the one job I have had in my life that I have truly loved. It isn’t really a job, either, for the simple reason that I don’t depend on income from it to live.

You approach things differently when you love doing them. Everything about the subject fascinates you – even the mundane can have some appeal. But for me, every time I learn something new and am able to apply it, it’s better than anything else in the world (except family, friends, health and comfort, of course).

Acquiring lots of knowledge eventually labels you an “expert” and someone said that in reference to me the other day. I immediately corrected them and said I was still learning. But yes, in that particular area, I had pretty much figured it out. I stopped to think what it means to be an “expert”. The answer is interesting.

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If It Ain’t Broke, Maybe It Shouldn’t Be

Artistic Ideas, Fine Art, Photography
photo of fireworks
Photo by Anna-Louise on Pexels.com

Happy, happy New Year.  I sincerely hope that wherever you are, you will have a safe, happy, glorious New Year.  I think we all deserve it.  My part of the world went into lockdown again a few weeks ago, and I’ve taken it perhaps more seriously this time, by not venturing out at all since its declaration, except to pick up something curbside that was ordered well before lockdown.

So that means a lot of time on my hands, right?  Would that it were so.  I’ve set myself a number of goals, and am moving forward on each one, perhaps more slowly than expected but moving.  One of those goals was to make some artistic direction decisions about my photography.  More on that in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, I’ve also immersed myself in ideas that might set me in a new direction.  This post is about one of those – rules in photography. Continue reading “If It Ain’t Broke, Maybe It Shouldn’t Be” →