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Features

This Is Why Your Photos Are Boring (But It’s Not Really Your Fault)

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/07/2018
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Panasonic GH5s review images 39

Last Updated on 08/10/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

The photography that you’re shooting and putting out into the world is boring.

The lead image of this piece is, to me, one of the most boring images that I’ve created in the past few months. It’s true. But to many of us, photography is self serving. It’s very much just about you all the time. In order for photography to be less boring, it needs to be about others. That statement is significantly more complex than it sounds.

The reason why your photography is boring doesn’t even necessarily have to do with you, but with people’s attention spans. The internet, for all the freedom it provides, also gives us the privilege of being bored from one second to the next. If something isn’t really jiving with you, you can change. Content (like this article) is literally created more on the basis of catching someone’s interest vs necessarily being important. It’s a widely accepted theory in the world of journalism; we’re entertaining ourselves to death.

Think of it this way:

  • Don’t like what’s on one channel? Then go to the next.
  • Don’t like this blog? Go to another.
  • Don’t care about that photo you’re seeing on Facebook? Don’t sit there and stare at it; move on.

Now, let’s consider the behavior when someone is engaged:

  • Like what’s on this channel? Then continue watching the baseball game.
  • Do you adore this article? Then you’re probably still reading.
  • Like that photo you just saw on Facebook? Then you’ll most likely keep staring at it.

People look at photos just because they can, but what keeps them looking and staring at them generally has to do more with their own needs and wants. If someone is hungry or amazed by some awesome food, then they’ll sit there and stare. More than likely though, they’ll look at a video instead.

So now you need to figure out how you, as a photographer, can tell the entire story in one frame when a video can tell an entire story in one embed from YouTube. How are you going to do that? How are you going to do it to appeal to the variety of human needs and wants?

The answer to this is complicated. Each person has their own interests and wants, but a good photo makes people sit there and stare even if it’s just for a few seconds. They’ll interact with it on social media. They’ll save it. Photos otherwise just get taken in and moved past.

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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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