Rethinking Photography

While my day job is web design & development, the interest I have put the most time and effort (and finances) into is, by far, photography. I purchased my first DSLR after graduating from high school and was immediately hooked. However, it has always been a relatively casual pursuit–something I do while out on a walk or to document a holiday. Sure, I took photography courses in high school and collage, and even entered a few photography contests throughout the years, but most of my photos have just ended up on Instagram or, more likely, sitting on a hard drive. But, lately–for a few reasons–I’ve been wanting to change things up.

The Online Photography Sharing Landscape

Throughout the last five years sharing photography online has gotten… Tricky. If you have had a large existing following for a long time, you’re probably doing just fine. But, if you are a no-name hobbyist like me, it’s become nearly impossible to get your work seen by more than a handful of loyal followers. And it’s not just Instagram. There are now numerous platforms to choose from to post your work, but they all have similar issues for small artists: Overcoming the algorithm, and photography becoming a more and more mainstream hobby (something I celebrate, even though it means I’m getting less traction online), which means standing out from the crowd is extremely difficult.

The solution, if you ask the internet, is to post more, post a wide variety of content types (posts, reals, stories, long-form videos, etc.), post higher quality work (easier said than done when you also need to post more), and optimize your content for the algorithm. Meta continues to gamify their platforms, pushing members to post and engage in a certain way to maximize screen time (and their own profits). Meanwhile, smaller platforms just don’t have the same number of users, meaning a smaller audience. Posting on as many platforms as possible can provide a helpful web of possible engagement points, but no one wants to spend half a day posting on different platforms.

Recently, I realized that this has all led to me feeling the need to post more, or post things I wouldn’t necessarily want to, in order to at least try to reach more people. For a while, this was actually fun… It got me out to shoot more and I, initially, cared a little less about only posting my best work, which was freeing. However, after months (years?) of posting this way, I’ve gotten tired. Not only that, but I’ve realized that I’m no longer proud of my work. Post a series of luke-warm images, spend five minutes writing a half-hearted description, pick a few random tags to add, check the likes once in a while, repeat. It made photography monotonous and impersonal. My focus became production without any real heart in my work.

The Solution?

Well… There is no one solution. So, I had to think about what the solution for me looks like. Here’s what I came to understand.

Focus and Intention - The Funnel

I want to slow down.

At this point, I have tens of thousands of photographs on my hard drives, 95% of which have never been, and likely never will be, used. I don’t regret taking a single one of those photos, but if my goal is no longer to post as frequently as possible, perhaps it’ll be worth being a little more intentional about what and when I’m photographing. To do this effectively, I need to have focus and intention in my photography… I need to have an end in mind. After thinking about that for awhile, I’ve come up with a funnel of endpoints, four in total, for my photographs, which I think will help me better focus my creative thinking when it comes to photography.

1. Mastodon

   This is the closest platform to Instagram I’m going to keep around. Along with posting generally on Mastodon, it will house all of my post-worthy photography, from landscapes to wildlife to… Whatever! This is the place to really experiment and try new things. However, with no algorithm, there’s less pressure to post often, and I find it much easier to ignore the drive for likes here. Additionally, with recent developments at Meta, I’ve chosen to delete all of my accounts as of December.

2. 500px

   500px isn’t perfect, but they’ve made good strides since I had last used them to give more ownership to photographers and to reduce or eliminate the posting of AI generated images on their platform. That’s meaningful to me and, as I also find the platform to work well and appreciate the modern UI, I’ve been quite happy to return. I’ll post a little less frequently on 500px than Mastodon, being more selective and choosing images closer to my “style.” Think not quite a portfolio, but not a social media profile, either. 500px is also a decent way to gauge how well received a photo might be, as the community is made up of photographers who will be more critical than on social media.

3. Portfolio

   In the nearly two decades that I’ve been shooting photos, I have only once built a “portfolio” of images (I put that in quotes because looking back it was really just a collection of random images I thought were interesting). At the time, it was part of a collection of work I needed to submit to apply to art school. Now, though, I have a better understanding of the type of photos I like to create, and so I think it’s time to build out a real online portfolio. This has involved quite a bit of time sifting through thousands of photos to determine which will be in, and which will stay out. It’s also been a great opportunity to reflect on which styles of photography really speak to me. Once I have a baseline “these photos have a chance,” they will get narrowed down and finessed, to start building a gallery of images that I didn’t just take, but that make up my work. These will be put into a gallery here, on my website, that I can totally control. It’s an exciting process!

4. Prints

   For 2026 and beyond, I want to print more photos. There is something truly special about holding a physical print, hanging it on a wall or flipping through a book. It brings your work to life in a way seeing it on a screen simply can’t. Now, I don’t have aspirations of selling hundreds of prints, but I know the more I print my work, the better I will understand my work… What works and what doesn’t, what is worth the paper and ink. What would be truly amazing would be to create a collection of work that, someday, I might show the public. Long term goals.

But, Why?

This all might seem like a lot of hubbub for a hobby, but I think any serious hobby should involve a bit of introspection. Traditionally, we often define ourselves by what we do for work… But we’re all so much more than that. I think most people, if you can get them to open up, really care deeply about things they don’t make a cent off of. Could be knitting, or painting, poetry, or family… That’s one of the most beautiful things about art and the human experience to me, that everyone has something that they care about in their way.

People say the more you put into something, the more you get back… So, in 2026, I’m going to be putting a little bit more into something I care a lot about.

What are you pouring yourself into, and why?