I never use chatGPT to write these newsletters. It’s a direct download from brain, to keyboard, to you.
The very fact I feel compelled to say that I think just shows how much the world has morphed since chatGPT and its army of friends arrived on the scene.
Like, I would actually be disappointed if you thought I used chatGPT to write this even though the content should be what matters.
I don’t know why that is, because being totally honest with you I love the AI revolution and I spend a good chunk of most days now studying it, experimenting with it, or using the tools.
But anyway this newsletter isn’t about AI. Even though I’m sure future ones will be as I learn stuff I think you would benefit from.
But the AI revolution is just another thing that can make us all feel like everything’s changing, everybody’s changing, and what you do, how you do it, and even why you do it the way you do it is being challenged.
Or at least that’s how it feels to me.
Wedding photography stayed the same for ages.
It did.
Whatever you think about trends, about documentary, about editorial… I think wedding photography changed between 2010-2015 then basically stayed the same for 10 years.
That’s my theory and I’ll happily be challenged on it.
But then it changed. And it didn’t just change a bit, it changed a lot. And it didn’t change slowly or gently, it changed rapidly and violently and it sort of shook all our comfort zones and continues to do so.
And right now, I don’t think wedding photography knows what it is, so how the heck are we supposed to?
This flux state will bring with it new and unexpected client requests, it’s already brought us content creators and paparazzi flash, the film renaissance and a hybrid boom.
And while I felt a bit annoyed and uncomfortable at first I’ve realised that a flux state in anything gives massive opportunity for learning and experimentation.
It’s like right now anything goes. So why not use that wild-west feeling to try new stuff, experiment with new gear and new ways of working, rework and rebuild your business with all these new tools available to it.
I’m not saying go off and create a pixar version of yourself, add a koala and then animate that (like I did a couple of weeks ago, just because I could) but equally don’t stick the blinkers on to all that is new because if you do that you might miss genuine opportunities in art and in life. Who knows.
I’ll be honest when I started in 2010 the average quality of wedding photography was not good. It was the end of the classic, traditional era and it was still the beginnings of the digital world really and wedding photographers were looked down upon as ‘not real photographers’ – it was still a bit of a joke of a photography genre to the rest of the photography world.
The average quality of wedding photography now is excellent. Really good. And wedding photography is probably still sniggered at by some, but overall I think we can all be really proud to say ‘wedding photographer’ when asked what we do for a job.
Back then I remember I’d always say ‘photographer’ and hope they didn’t ask what kind of photographer…
Anyway my point is that the average moves over time. You don’t necessarily see it (kinda like inflation) but it does.
And the risk there is that all of us tend to get into photography, get to a point where we’re kinda happy with our work and the results of it, and then we sort of settle there.
The analyst in me wants to draw a graph here, but I’ll tame the nerd.
But if you can see what I’m saying – when we settle on our style, approach and results that often means our forward artistic momentum slows significantly or stops.
But the average never stops. Which means the average can overtake you.
I’m not pointing fingers and I’m not accusing you of being below average – I think I’m just as guilty of the settling, and while I think of my work as above average I’ve become painfully aware that me and the average are a bit too close for comfort.
Basically through all this I’m encouraging you to take advantage of the fact that wedding photography is a bit all over the place right now as a learning and experimentation opportunity.
Instead of jumping on one of the many bandwagons – down with hybrid, documentary is better than editorial, AI editing is lazy… we’ve all heard it… people love a tribe…
Instead of that, let everyone else waste their time on all that and then just quiet the noise and take a good look at what’s actually happening.
Are you uncomfortable about the direct flash trend because you don’t know how to do it? That’s me too. So let’s learn. Only when we learn can we truly reject or accept it as something that fits within our style or photography ethos.
Are you rejecting AI because you don’t want it to exist and prefer a world where skills like writing, graphic design, photography, photo editing and even business strategy are only done by well trained real humans? Well AI is here to stay and even if you choose to keep it away from the creative elements of your business, there are so many ways in which it can help so I’d encourage you to learn.
Why?
Because these flux states are the greatest of times to learn new stuff, pivot, seek out new opportunities and break out of creative and business ruts I think.
And I personally don’t want to fall behind the average so I always love to learn, but in my new found passion for learning all that is new again, I realised I’ve not really committed much energy to learning myself over the last decade. Not much in my business or photography has changed drastically in that time.
But all that time the average has been moving, and continues to move.
Right, I read that back and it sounds borderline depressing if you read it that way. So let me finish by contradicting myself a little.
You can stay as you are. And maybe you should. Maybe we all should, instead of being sheep to everything. Because when you’re a sheep you can’t be original, you just chase all the other sheep from point A to point B and then from point B to point C.
Meanwhile the grass at point A is now lusher and more plentiful, and you can see clearly because you’re not surrounded by sheep, because we’re all fighting over every blade at point C.
So you can dig your heels in, fight the fomo, and stay at point A. But do it out of head-held-high conviction not nose-turned-up or head-in-sand stubbornness because those are two very different things.
But even if you do stay at point A, keep an eye on the moving average and do what you need to do to keep a good distance above it.
Thanks for reading.
Adam
PS – It’s been lovely to see lots of you at the FedTalks events I’ve been doing with FedWed lately. We’re on a three month break from those events now but we’ve got 4 more events in Sep and Oct and it would be great to see you there.
