It's the end of March, this is Chris and you're listening to Tips From The Top Floor episode 932.
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Hey, how's it going? I am back and yeah. So here we go. This is a podcast about photography.
There's so many things happening at the same time right now that it isn't easy to...
And some things change and change and change so quickly that they are...
Yeah, whatever I say about them... Talking AI of course... The week after that will be obsolete.
Okay, let me kick this off with saying welcome to Thomas.
Thomas is a new patron. Thank you so much. If you want to support the show, go to tfttf.com support.
There's multiple ways to do that and it does make a difference.
And I thank you very much for that.
So welcome Thomas, everyone. Peace of news.
And then to...
Two interesting topics. Okay, so piece of news. The thing that happened last week,
DP review will shut down on April the 10th. Alright, so I've discussed this on Happy
Shooting already on the future of photography. We made an entire episode about it. So that would
probably make sense listening to as well. But yeah, of course, I have to talk about here.
The gear discussion test YouTube channel review website that pretty much holds the entire
history of digital photography.
It's an amazing treasure trove of detail reviews down to the pixel.
And when I started off in digital photography, that was for me, that was a very, very good companion.
I spent time on that website, I was active in the forums.
I also quickly discovered that yes, the whole pixel peeping isn't everything.
And if you go back into the archives there, we'll get to that in a second, then you will
very likely find some older, old, very old posts from me from some 20 years ago,
where I tell people, and I was not the only one to go out and take pictures
instead of spending all your time on a forum, debating minutia. But anyway.
DP review is an amazing archive of the technology of digital photography and
how it developed over time.
And Amazon bought them, I don't know, 2007 something, which didn't change anything pretty much.
The expectation back then was that Amazon would completely change that and make it into a,
I don't know, gear sales machine, but they left it pretty much the way it was before.
And now that Amazon is laying off people the entire tech industry is laying off people. They looked at what don't we really need anymore
and they decided that DP review is gonna be shut down which again sent a shockwave through
the photo nerd community including over here. So yeah and then a day I think a day later
or two days later after that announcement there was a second announcement by Petapixel,
And Petapixel, who is a news website and they don't do gear reviews as much.
They said Chris Nichols and Jordan Drake, the two people behind DP Review, are going to find a new
home with us. So there you go. DP Review is going to live on in one way or another. And Chris and
Jordan. They already opened youtube.com slash pedapixel, the pedapixel youtube channel.
So yeah, not sure in which way the DP review legacy will continue, but Chris and Jordan,
are taking care of it, so that's a good thing. And the last bit of news around that was
Because the internet archive, archive.org is working on backing up the DP Review Archive.
Aka all the tests and whatever is on that website. I'm pretty sure they already had quite a bit of that but you know, I could imagine that
to go in its own collection as a historic document, so to speak.
A digital historic document. So that is going on as well. I'll link to these things in the show notes.
So not all is lost, DP review will live on in one way or the other and that's a good thing.
So, whew!
Alright, so the other thing I wanted to talk about is I have an episode in the works about.
Guilt fear and frustration in photography and it's not it's not done yet. I'm still working on it, but I,
Would like to run a few of the of the key points by you and maybe,
Get some of your input some feedback on it, which you can leave at TF TTF comm slash. Hi.
So, let me see guilt Guilt is the part that I've already pretty much finished and it's about the guilt of
– I'm pretty sure we all can relate to that – it's the guilt of leaving your
or our big cameras at home because of the much more convenient alternative, the little
rectangle in our pockets.
So I'm planning to dive into that guilt and what it means for us and maybe some strategies
on how to deal with it.
Fear. Fear is a big one right now. Fear and uncertainty of what will happen with parts of photography in the age of AI.
And I'd be lying if I said I'm not nervous about it. I'm also excited about it at the same time.
I do have access to GPT-4, and if you've used GPT-3.5 on ChatGPT, GPT-4 is again another animal.
One thing is clear, some things will change but nobody really knows in which way exactly.
So that creates uncertainty and fear.
So those two, the guilt and the fear part, they're kind of ready.
But then again, your feedback, tfttf.com. Hi, super welcome.
I might change them around a bit.
And the third one is the frustration. And there are frustrations in photography.
That's the one area that I'm still trying to kind of figure out completely.
The picture's forming, but a couple of years ago, I did a short survey on social media
and I think even here,
asking people about their frustrations with photography.
And it turned into an idea for a book manuscript, but then that, then COVID kind of got in the way.
So that book never happened. And I want to pick that topic up again.
And I asked people back then, what are your frustrations with photography
and received quite an amount of different responses.
And I've since kind of distilled it down a bit, but I'm not really there yet with it.
Let me give you a few of the points that I've been thinking about in terms of frustrations.
Well, first, frustration stems from market saturation.
There's an abundance of photographers these days because, well, there's an abundance of
cameras these days and decent cameras.
Even your rectangle has a bunch of decent cameras built in. So there's much more competition for professionals and that has an impact on the industry.
And I think we'll need to look for strategies for differentiation here.
Set ourselves apart because We've we've built skills and I'm not talking the skill of finding the right exposure,
I'm talking about skills that are still quite intangible.
In terms of the eye image composition and so on so market saturation one area,
intellectual property issues second area frustration like the social media and easy sharing
have led to lots of unauthorized image use, image theft.
So, yep, that's definitely an area to talk about. Post-processing, another area
that might have some frustrations, like digital manipulation, filtering,
they challenge authenticity.
And I'm not talking about the hypsomatic filters from many years ago,
I'm talking about filters nowadays that includes AI and other things.
So that challenges authenticity, challenges artistry, and it's worth exploring like photographer's opinions,
on ethics, their maintaining integrity and so on.
Adaption to change, again, another area of frustration, the technological advancements,
they require a constant updating of skills and or equipment.
So I think we'll need to look at education there, tools, the impact of change on photographers.
Then the entire area of value in photography.
The public perception of photography's worth is clearly affected by their easy access to tools.
These two tools. Like everyone thinks.
That with the right tools they're a photographer. And we'll get to that in the last topic on this
episode. But maybe they are, right? Maybe gatekeeping isn't the right strategy. So
that's an area of exploration. And last but not least, balancing tradition with innovation,
like navigating between the embracing of new technology and preserving of traditional
techniques that is yeah hmm so all that I think adds to frustration with
photography or can be a point of frustration with photography I'm still trying to get like to sort this out better and get a grip on how to make
this into an episode that's not just interesting but helpful so this is where
you come in do you have any ideas on the guilt and the fear and the frustration
in photography, let me know. Go to tfttf.com slash hi. Let's have a discussion.
All right, last but not least, They Tricked Us is the title of a blog post that I just,
read. And I'm blatantly stealing that from CJ Chilbers. He is a writer and a longtime
listener of the show and you as longtime listeners might remember him because he's been here on the
show a couple of times in the past and he just sent out this newsletter with this topic where I
went, wait a minute I know this and let me just let me just a short one let me just read the
entire thing to you. I'll link it in the show notes so you can read it yourself but let me
Let me know if that sounds familiar.
Here is CJ.
All of the following rock guitar gods sold tens of millions of albums.
Guitar players like myself believed for years that these artists had access to futuristic tools
and production tactics that were out of reach for the ordinary musician.
The opposite was true. Eddie Van Halen's iconic striped guitar, used to write, record and perform some of the most
legendary songs in rock history, was pieced together from factory second parts. Slash
recorded the groundbreaking debut album from the Guns N' Roses using a replica Gibson Les Paul
guitar. The album sold countless real Gibsons, arguably giving the company a second life.
Def Leppard's Phil Cullen and Steve Clark recorded Hysteria, the album that defined
the sound of the late 80s pop rock anthems through a small plastic amp in a box with,
a belt clip, not racks of equipment or giant amps.
A few sounds available through the box created useful constraints, a setting for the ballads,
a setting for rockers.
That's pretty much it.
They had way more time to focus on songwriting. Why are the solutions to creative problems so often presented as a list of expensive
tools rather than a process?
Because it's easy, it makes money and it's simple enough to connect with any audience.
This month YouTuber Josh Scott showed that an ugly used guitar pedal from 20 years ago
selling for about $60 online could sound like a $7000 guitar pedal.
This caused such a stir, the price of the ugly pedal shot up 2-3x overnight.
Josh's point was that you should make the most of the cheap guitar you already own.
His point was missed by the market. Process wins every time.
In these examples, the constraints presented by the artist's less than impressive tools
are exactly what created better process and execution.
Those constraints also produced truly unique sounds, which copycat musicians would empty
their bank accounts chasing in the next several decades.
All they really had to do was make the most of what they had to create a better process.
Back to photography.
Inexperienced clients won't take you seriously until your theatrics match their expectations.
Right?
Think about it. Doesn't matter if you use decades worth of skill to quickly achieve the expected result in almost no time
and with very simple tools. Doesn't matter.
Because these are learned expectations and either you have god status, then all you do is magic anyways and you can,
Use whatever you want or you play the game, you wave the big unnecessary tools, you bring
the I don't know, unnecessary three assistants and you come with an unnecessary trailer full
of lights and backgrounds.
And it's also why beginners tend to put all the weight on the tools and then maybe give
up after two years because they haven't achieved god status yet. And this again in turn generates
guilt and frustration. Thanks CJ for putting that one out. Link is in the show notes. Thanks everyone.
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And that was it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for subscribing. Thanks for
leaving a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts, you're awesome.
And of course thanks to CJ for writing this article. On Guitar Players I love these ideas that effortlessly span different disciplines, that's awesome.
And as always you can leave feedback for the show at tfttf.com slash hi that's tfttf.com slash hi.
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Also big thank you to all of you who support the show on Patreon. I appreciate you and you can start supporting the show at one dollar per episode.
Of course, you only pay if I release an episode. Thanks all for supporting your favorite creators.
Find out more at tfttf.com support A quick update on the Eastern European Electric Photo Road Trip in September.
I am currently in the midst of booking accommodations and of refining the details of our two tours in September.
The second one sold out, the first one still has two spots open.
We will definitely be visiting the world's oldest astronomical clock in Prague and Vienna.
Has an abundance of attractions such as its breathtaking architecture and its vibrant,
historical coffee culture. I bet you have never seen a coffee menu this large. I sure haven't.
Budapest will enchant us with its scenic Danube views and of course the iconic parliament building
and we'll explore the mysteries of Transylvania including a visit to the fortified Beartown
church and to Sigiswara. It'll be an unforgettable 10-day journey packed with incredible memories,
as you document the beauty, the rich history and the diverse culture of eastern Europe
through your lens. More at discoverthetopfloor.com. Two spots left.
Discoverthetopfloor.com.
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