An old school approach is in order
Why a Substack and why now?
A newsletter? Really?
Really. I’m old school, as far as the internet goes. I’m email and forums in a world of disappearing stories and AI-discovery social media. I have my own website and even brought back my Tumblr. Yeah.
Social media right now isn’t the same experience I signed up for years ago. Back then, when I followed or subscribed to someone, I got to see more of what they were creating and connect with them.
Today, the opposite happens— a follow on Instagram dooms their posts to the void. Meanwhile, stuff from people I don’t know shows up in my feed instead. Content that I didn’t specifically opt-in to see? Isn't that… spam?
No, no, it's “discovery”, I'm told. It's AI-suggested content based on what you’ve shown interest in, not on who you follow anymore. (Which is weird, because I follow people whose work I’m interested in.)
So now Instaspam wants to serve up entertainment based on interest rather than posts from social connections, and they want to do it with short-form videos rather than photos, just like TikTok. Both apps want to provide endless channel surfing where you don’t even hold the remote anymore. Hello, Black Mirror.
We may be complaining about reels today, but well before that content form was pushed on us, Instagram was already heavily influencing what people were making, when they were making it, and how often they did so. It’s just more jarring now because a video is clearly different from a photo.
But people have always been changing their styles and identities to please this platform.
We’ve all seen the tons of photographers playing to the gallery, jumping on dumb trends like International Donut Day, and mass-creating photos with IP mashups then drip-feeding them to appease the algorithm. Carousels of b-side photos and BTS shots. Stories with nothing more than “new post”.
(I know, I know, we all don’t have the same goals and that our interests can change over time. These creators might genuinely enjoy doing all of that. But I suspect not.)
So it’s not really the reels that are driving people like me away. It’s that we’re getting them from people we don’t even follow. And seeing posts from people we opted in to was kind of the point of being on a social network like Instagram.
My Substack is a way to disconnect myself from all that noise— literally since Instagram lets you add music to a still photo now— and center my efforts on discovering new ways to play in photography.
It’s not my exclusive playground by any means— I’ll post to Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, and YouTube because those platforms do offer something different to me in terms of audience and experience. And in turn, I will offer a different voice or take here on Substack than I do anywhere else.
What am I going to do here?
I’ll be writing about my photography ideas, techniques, workflows and all that good stuff for sure but also adding my insights about community, social media, and mindsets as a photographer.
Expect posts that answer questions like “is it content or is it art?” alongside “how your lens creates emotion and connection” types of topics that are technical, yes, but ultimately serve creative goals.
I’ll also share some creative and inspiring work from LEGO artists like this one by James Garcia, aka thereeljames on Flickr:
I love the mood and the concept of this photo: a quiet space that’s warm and full of things the subject clearly enjoys. I’m feeling this right now.
Here’s an angle we don’t usually see in LEGO photography anymore, mostly because it’s viewed as the default of the amateur. But this deliberate high angle, wide shot captures the environment that James built and gives us context: what is so special about this place to this subject?
And I love that he built something out of LEGO bricks too. The models themselves aren’t complicated, with just a handful of mini-builds arranged to create a convincing library.
LEGO is special this way— you can build whatever you need to tell a better story and create more visual interest.
I think sometimes we LEGO photographers are too enamored of the cute minifigs that we don’t bother with the rest of the system. With LEGO bricks, we've got more to create with in universe than any other toy line. Minifigures is but one theme in the catalog.
James’s photo is a good reminder that we don’t need to be master builders or have a basement full of LEGO bricks to create a beautiful scene.
Let’s take better toy photos
That’s the goal and that’s what I’ve named my Substack. Take Better Toy Photos will be a mindfully curated newsletter with information and inspiration about photography and community for toy photographers who want to improve their skills and keep playing.
And because it’s a newsletter that feels like a microblog, I can do that once a month. Let’s say the first Saturday of every month.
Plus, it’s free. Maybe I’ll do some other thing later with a paid tier but the monthly Take Better Toy Photos newsletter will cost you zero bucks.
Are you in?
Social networks were created to allow people to communicate at a distance, but today they actually divide people, put up impenetrable walls of advertising and content that people did not ask for. What used to be a communication tool has now become a time-stealing and dulling tool. Everything turned upside down. What a blessing it is to see in the feed only those people you follow…
In addition, social networks only deliver stress with the feeling of time slipping through your fingers: You have literally a few hours to see a post before it is swallowed up by the abyss.
Substack is something really new to me and it feels like old school. I can hardly reduce my time on the Internet, but I can definitely replace unnecessary content with interesting reading.
Thank you!
If this is old school, then I'm cheerfully old school! I'm looking forward to this - there's something relaxing and comfortable about it, like something you want to read in a quiet space and time, and really absorb.