Bad Habits We've Ditched as Photographers (Pt. 1)

Breaking bad habits can transform your photography. In this episode, we share some of the habits we’ve ditched, from overshooting and winging it to over-editing, and how those changes have improved our craft. Packed with personal stories, practical tips, and a few laughs, this episode is your guide to becoming a more intentional and efficient photographer.

Expect to Learn:

• How to shoot with intention, rather than capturing everything in sight
• Why you should create a detailed shot list instead of always winging it
• The value of dialling back on heavy-handed edits and editing more subtly
• How to focus on high-impact tasks instead of spreading yourself too thin
• The importance of slowing down for better results

Sponsors:

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Thanks also to the National Park Foundation for sponsoring today’s episode. Enter the Share the Experience photo contest for a chance to win $10,000 and prizes from Celestron, Historic Hotels of America, and YETI. The grand prize winner’s photo could be featured on the America the Beautiful—the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass.

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Thanks for listening!
Go get shooting, go get editing, and stay focused.

@sethmacey
@mantis_photography
@thephotographermindset

Transcript

00:00:20.24
Seth Macey
Did you know you share an uncanny resemblance to Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age?

00:00:26.49
Aaron
Did know that, especially with longer hair.

00:00:29.56
Seth Macey
He's got 10 years on you, I believe. So...

00:00:33.11
Aaron
Well, that's not good then.

00:00:33.16
Seth Macey
We just need you. I'm, this is what I'm prefacing. You didn't let me get there. It's what you'll look like in 10 years. You still look very, very ah youthful.

00:00:39.75
Aaron
Oh,

00:00:43.49
Seth Macey
but So you've heard that before.

00:00:43.71
Aaron
let's put up, have my good friend who's a big Queens of the Stone Age fan always says it.

00:00:51.67
Seth Macey
Jamie, pull that up real quick.

00:00:53.70
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:00:54.15
Seth Macey
Yeah, no, I was just editing and I was listening to Queens of the Stone Age and just headbanging, so I have a little bit of a headache right now. And I watched the live sessions. I was like, Aaron, how'd you get in the studio there?

00:01:03.33
Aaron
yeah Yeah, it's true. Uh,

00:01:06.51
Seth Macey
You just need to you need a few more like hand tattoos, knuckle tattoos.

00:01:11.22
Aaron
okay I could do that. Also, people say ah Jim Currier, who was a tennis star.

00:01:12.93
Seth Macey
I feel like those would hurt. Who?

00:01:16.64
Aaron
Jim Currier was a pretty good tennis player back in the day. He's 55 now.

00:01:19.45
Seth Macey
Jim? Oh, wow!

00:01:24.57
Aaron
but You like that one.

00:01:25.78
Seth Macey
Oh my God.

00:01:27.32
Aaron
You like that one.

00:01:27.34
Seth Macey
oh wow. It's you.

00:01:30.51
Aaron
Yeah, that's a good one. I'm looking at it now.

00:01:35.04
Seth Macey
he looks like a gem.

00:01:37.83
Aaron
he's ah He was a beauty of a player.

00:01:40.26
Seth Macey
Wow. I'm sure just full of grace.

00:01:42.73
Aaron
What's ah Josh? What's his last name? I can't. I'm just homey.

00:01:44.64
Seth Macey
Josh Homie. We'll get into the episode. Don't worry, people. Don't worry. But if you're at home, if you're Queens the Stone Age fan or not, go look at Josh Space, H-O-M-M-E.

00:01:50.16
Aaron
Oh, my doppelgangers. Yeah.

00:01:55.63
Seth Macey
It is Aaron in 10 years.

00:01:58.60
Aaron
And then Jim Currier and then right in who, who which one is more me Jim Currier or Josh homey.

00:01:59.78
Seth Macey
Jim Currier and you'll, yeah, you'll freak out.

00:02:06.30
Seth Macey
I've got to go Currier. but But Josh Homie's more your, it's like your alter ego bad boy.

00:02:12.34
Aaron
Yeah, my vibe.

00:02:13.53
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:02:14.71
Aaron
Yeah, I like it.

00:02:15.03
Seth Macey
Yeah. All right. That was fun. That was fun. Do you know who I get a lot?

00:02:19.62
Aaron
Yeah.

00:02:20.25
Seth Macey
And then we'll move on.

00:02:21.88
Aaron
I don't. like yeah Nothing's hitting me.

00:02:22.62
Seth Macey
any any of my Any of my It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans out there?

00:02:27.41
Aaron
Oh, that guy?

00:02:28.95
Seth Macey
Yeah. um

00:02:29.67
Aaron
Ryan Reynolds' friend? Good friend there?

00:02:30.99
Seth Macey
Yeah. What's his name?

00:02:33.43
Aaron
I can see that.

00:02:35.17
Seth Macey
Oh, what's his name?

00:02:36.71
Aaron
It's the eyes.

00:02:38.38
Seth Macey
Yeah. ah

00:02:42.64
Seth Macey
It's Always Sunny Philadelphia cast. Here we go.

00:02:53.37
Aaron
Rob.

00:02:55.55
Seth Macey
McElhenney.

00:02:56.90
Aaron
Yeah.

00:02:57.51
Seth Macey
Yes, it's the eyes. I get that a lot.

00:03:00.32
Aaron
Yeah, I could see that.

00:03:02.45
Seth Macey
I'm basically a multi-multi-millionaire, in case you didn't know.

00:03:03.12
Aaron
Wow, cool.

00:03:06.99
Aaron
Yeah, me too. And a tremendous athlete and musician.

00:03:10.52
Seth Macey
Yeah, wow, we're awesome if we were other people. But today's episode is going to be on habits we've broken out of or are trying to as photographers. Those can be life habits that have had an indirect impact on making us better as creatives or more directly related to the realm of photography. I have a list. I know I prompted you earlier today.

00:03:34.03
Seth Macey
So I'm here to save you if you've got nothing, if you came unprepared.

00:03:37.02
Aaron
Yeah, no, I don't have a list, but I have thoughts.

00:03:42.75
Seth Macey
I have a long list, so maybe that's a ah good, bad thing.

00:03:42.87
Aaron
So.

00:03:49.38
Aaron
It's it's fine.

00:03:49.44
Seth Macey
I figured you could just pick a random number and I would go through my list and say what it is.

00:03:55.06
Aaron
OK, one through what?

00:03:56.91
Seth Macey
I'm actually number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Those were just the ones could, those were the ones rifled off in 15 minutes. I'm sure if you gave hour, could have like 100.

00:04:03.48
Aaron
Jeez.

00:04:04.94
Seth Macey
those were just the ones i could those were the ones i rifled off in fifteen minutes i'm sure if you gave me an hour i could have had like a hundred

00:04:13.54
Aaron
ah

00:04:13.88
Seth Macey
Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

00:04:15.33
Aaron
seven lucky number seven yeah

00:04:15.36
Seth Macey
like it. You want to go with seven? Everybody always picks seven when asked to pick a random number. So, way to be unoriginal.

00:04:24.23
Aaron
I guess yeah that's what I said geez just got back from work sorry guys give me give me 10 to

00:04:25.24
Seth Macey
You want number seven?

00:04:28.05
Seth Macey
Okay. A little bit of sass there, everyone. You hear that? Jeez. Jeez. All I'm trying to do is confirm. Make sure it was your final... That's not what you're going do? You're want the price right? Or not the price right. Who wants to be a millionaire?

00:04:42.25
Seth Macey
I'm going to final answer. That's what I said? Or you just... You idiot.

00:04:47.07
Aaron
There's this famous quote and then I'll digress. And I just remember it. I saw it live ah during the OJ Simpson trial. Remember Kato Kaelin?

00:04:56.52
Seth Macey
ah This is predating me a bit.

00:04:58.29
Aaron
Yeah.

00:04:58.30
Seth Macey
Sorry.

00:04:59.26
Aaron
Anyways, Kato Kaelin was like the the hippie roommate, I believe. And he was on the stand and they kept peppering him with questions. And he was he was doing what I do, Seth. And you will recognize. He went, mm-hmm.

00:05:11.70
Aaron
Yeah. Mm-hmm. And the... The prosecutor was like, sir, ah you have to say yes or no. You cannot say there's no yes or no button on the transcribe.

00:05:23.84
Aaron
And he goes, well, maybe you should get a button.

00:05:28.83
Seth Macey
So good.

00:05:29.80
Aaron
Yeah.

00:05:30.65
Seth Macey
So good, Will.

00:05:31.87
Aaron
Anywho, number seven, let's go.

00:05:34.29
Seth Macey
All right, number seven, bad habit as a photographer. This is kind of like there's a slash in the middle. So shooting everything, slash, this makes culling so hard and adds so much time to your workflow.

00:05:48.33
Seth Macey
So goes back to what we've been, you know, we talkeded we touched on this topic a lot. Not shooting with any intent. Just firing off at everything. Not sitting back and waiting and deciding, is this a good moment?

00:05:59.94
Seth Macey
Is this a shot that's worth taking? I have a mirrorless that fires 24 frames a second. I may as well just blast everything I see on this trip. You're adding so many hours to your editing process or calling out of back of camera that could be much better spent actually editing the good photos.

00:06:23.25
Seth Macey
So I guess this is another way of saying, not shooting don't shoot every single thing that you, not every single thing that you see is a good photo. So stop shooting it all.

00:06:36.74
Seth Macey
Take a second, assess, look at what's actually really catches your eye or attention and focus on those things. Do less and you'll end up with better quality. Bad habit that I had to get out of. I used to just...

00:06:50.95
Seth Macey
Travel somewhere, let's say. I did this in Iceland, actually, in 2018. ah I have so many terrible photos from that. and like you always Not every single photo is going great, but it's like wow.

00:07:00.60
Aaron
Yeah.

00:07:02.56
Seth Macey
Why did I take 40 pictures or 400 pictures of Silanzifos from the same spot that I maybe moved three inches?

00:07:08.83
Aaron
Right.

00:07:11.39
Seth Macey
I got to go through all these now and delete, delete, delete, delete. delete Oh, does this one a little bit better? Whereas you could have just

00:07:19.53
Seth Macey
made a better decision in the moment of what you thought looked good.

00:07:22.97
Aaron
Do you think some of that comes with, yeah, and confidence in yourself?

00:07:23.34
Seth Macey
So experience, yes.

00:07:28.15
Seth Macey
Yes, exactly. But I guess I'm bringing that up to, um you know, if there's beginner intermediate people listening to give them that confidence to do that because it is hard to, it's a hard sensation to feel like you've really grasped.

00:07:29.71
Aaron
Yeah.

00:07:49.11
Seth Macey
I don't need to shoot a ton and I'll still walk away with a lot of good stuff.

00:07:53.70
Aaron
Yeah, it is tough. And I think there's certain subjects that lend to that more than others. Like I have a hard time during a sunrise or sunset. staying in the same spot kind of and like oh the light's changing another couple pictures oh the light's changing another couple pictures and ultimately you're going to pick your favorite one and a lot of them are similar you're like oh well i like the sky in that one but i like the the lighting in this one more oh that the sky's really great you know like you end up trading off somewhere and picking one and there there's not

00:08:16.11
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:08:26.07
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:08:30.39
Aaron
usually a clear, clear, clear winner. There's usually a handful of maybe moments or so.

00:08:33.53
Seth Macey
No.

00:08:37.11
Aaron
I think it kind of depends on, on the situation a little bit. And I found that too, with, I found an anxiety, a small anxiety with, I hope this is in focus. I better take another one just in case.

00:08:48.57
Seth Macey
Oh, yeah.

00:08:48.61
Aaron
I hope that one's really sharp. I better take another one just in case.

00:08:51.29
Seth Macey
Especially if that happens to you one time.

00:08:51.62
Aaron
Uh,

00:08:53.17
Seth Macey
You're like, oh, is it just going to be like last time?

00:08:55.66
Aaron
yeah so overdoing it to like prevent mistakes that are not present some of that came with my original camera not to slight nikon but their first mirrorless it just had really bad focusing uh i know i'm sorry uh they've come a long way not to slam them but it just was tough in the beginning and i got burned so many times that it created that a little bit of that anxiety of like

00:08:58.90
Seth Macey
Oh, yeah.

00:09:10.94
Seth Macey
We haven't dunked on Nikon in a while. Good times. Yeah. I feel ah but but ah

00:09:24.52
Aaron
what's this focusing on let me make another one let me make another one um so uh to your point too with that i've really enjoyed some product photography where you can really slow down and maybe go into manual focus and really take a look at the composition nothing's moving in front of you

00:09:24.53
Seth Macey
yeah

00:09:27.65
Seth Macey
i feel you

00:09:45.22
Seth Macey
Mm-hmm.

00:09:47.56
Aaron
Is the lighting good? Is this how we want it? Is this gonna crop well? Slowing way, way down. What's my aperture out? Is this gonna blur things I don't want blurred?

00:09:57.94
Aaron
Is this gonna, should I make everything a little bit more sharp? Should I, do I want that depth of focus really slowing down to be like, click, that's the one. All right, moving on, next product. Let me put it in place and do the same thing.

00:10:12.32
Aaron
Versus kind of being out there and the nerves of, getting the shot and not thinking about what's happening. Like there's probably um a million landscape photos I've taken with a aperture of three or four and been like, yeah.

00:10:27.27
Seth Macey
Because you've just forgotten.

00:10:28.79
Aaron
And you're just like adjusting it and like, I gotta take this now.

00:10:29.30
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:10:31.77
Aaron
And then being like, wait a minute, I need to ah and to get this actually situated.

00:10:37.32
Seth Macey
Yes. i That's very well said. i mean, and it's a good thing picked number seven because this happened to me yesterday to a lesser degree. I was doing photos for a client and I went out, or maybe it was Sunday, it doesn't matter, ah with Haley and I felt myself...

00:10:53.61
Seth Macey
I have to put kind of guardrails in place. Like, okay, I'm only going to shoot two scenes of this. I'm only needing to make one photo.

00:10:59.20
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:11:03.40
Seth Macey
deliver one photo. So in the past I would shoot like five different scenes and take way too long. Right. Uh, and so now i just, I have to put those limits on myself two scenes or have half an hour for this one scene.

00:11:10.31
Aaron
yeah

00:11:18.94
Seth Macey
And even still, I was looking back at the photos I mentioned. i was editing today when I was listening to Queens of the stone age and you look, decided you looked like Josh Homme.

00:11:26.27
Aaron
yeah

00:11:26.65
Seth Macey
Um, I was like, man, there's so many of the same. What are you doing, man?

00:11:32.96
Aaron
Yeah.

00:11:33.96
Seth Macey
i was like frustrated with myself. Like, i don't know. What's the difference between this one and this one? Like nothing. So it still happens from time to time. um But I think it's important to be conscious of and get better at it because you save yourself a lot of time and frustration like I just described.

00:11:49.23
Aaron
Absolutely. And with, with planned work, I feel like, which by the way, I didn't ignore your video. I have to still watch it. Uh, just at work, just to give you a quick side note there.

00:12:01.56
Aaron
Um, With planned work, I think the pregame,

00:12:08.84
Aaron
and this might lead into ah second one. This is one that I'm gonna say out loud, it ties in.

00:12:12.20
Seth Macey
Okay.

00:12:13.29
Aaron
But with planned work, having a pregame and an actual shot list and deliverables that you are going to attack versus, think some people, and I definitely did this, was like,

00:12:28.37
Aaron
okay, I'm going to a, I'm going to a cabin or a shoot for two days. I'm going to do as much as I possibly can. And I'll figure it out later. You know, like I, I'm just going to shoot nonstop and then I'll pick my favorite 15 or I'll put together a reel from a random thing of clips and not really think about what are they actually asking for.

00:12:51.55
Aaron
And with that, what am I doing? And i actually learned a lot from chat GPT and just putting in those parameters. Hey, ah a cabin needs 15 shots.

00:13:02.65
Aaron
I want it to be a original. Come up with a shot list for me just to look at. Not that I copied it per se, but just their organization, AI's organization of a shot list and what they're thinking and how it kind of got presented helped me to say, okay, I can do this on my own a little bit better.

00:13:23.04
Aaron
and not go to a place and just, oh, I'm sitting down for 10 minutes. I could be shooting.

00:13:31.72
Seth Macey
Mm-hmm.

00:13:32.34
Aaron
Versus saying like, no, i already got the shots that I needed and wanted to get. i want to do a few more extras or i have another idea that hit me here. But really doing what you're supposed to be doing and doing it to the best of your ability. If if I hire a painter to paint my office, I want them to paint my office.

00:13:52.55
Aaron
I don't want to come home and they're like, hey, I took the liberty of painting your you a hallway and up the stairs as well. I'd be like, well, okay, thank you. But do I have to pay more? Like, it just,

00:14:06.35
Seth Macey
Or here's 40 different samples.

00:14:08.72
Aaron
yeah. So it's like, I think slowing down, which ties into a different one we can talk about later, but like trying to impress or trying to prove yourself.

00:14:18.28
Seth Macey
Yeah, yeah.

00:14:18.78
Aaron
ah um But yeah, it all ties into like slowing down, planning, taking the one shot in five minutes versus 400 shots in 10 minutes and then adding 30 minutes going through them all to pick the one to pick the one shot.

00:14:36.07
Seth Macey
Yeah. So maybe the the habit to break, to try and summarize that, is to try and potentially get out of the habit of making something out of anything.

00:14:51.13
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:14:53.18
Seth Macey
And instead, being a little bit more deliberate. I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm goingnna go to this place. I'm going to shoot as many clips as possible. And I'm for sure going to be able to create something out of that. And you can a lot of the time. But I think having a direct, specific narrative in mind or...

00:15:14.24
Aaron
yeah

00:15:15.99
Seth Macey
benchmark to achieve is helpful with, I guess, stress on location.

00:15:21.29
Aaron
Yeah.

00:15:22.51
Seth Macey
You're not running around the entire time. do And having that, do I have enough? Do I have enough? Do I have enough? Do I have enough? That doubt is so stressful. It may not feel like it, but it is.

00:15:32.53
Seth Macey
I like that lot.

00:15:33.02
Aaron
Oh, it is.

00:15:34.35
Seth Macey
you know so i like that a lot

00:15:37.17
Aaron
Yeah. ah Especially with a video, I think you can get trapped without a storyboard, without a narrative. If you think about a reel, let's say you're going to do a 20 second reel or even less.

00:15:50.77
Aaron
those that's That's a very quick amount of time. If you go into a place and say, you list down whether it's three shots, two shots, one shot, eight shots that you're like, I want these shots to share this story or this narrative.

00:16:06.78
Aaron
That is such quick work.

00:16:08.81
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:16:09.42
Aaron
It really is like, boom, let's do this. Let's get this one. Each one's a couple of seconds long because you're, you're going to put them together and it's going to be a cohesive story. If you just shoot shoot shoot, shoot, shoot, not only that, but I get slowed down too by, I really liked that clip.

00:16:25.16
Aaron
And then I have too many, and then it's a 45 second reel. And I've kind of lost the plot here, you know? So I think being very planned is ah habit that I've learned and let go of, um, to save a ton of hours, honestly, hours,

00:16:36.58
Seth Macey
yeah

00:16:44.38
Aaron
going through the extra and trying to figure it out after the fact.

00:16:49.61
Seth Macey
Yeah, that ties into, I guess, mine as well.

00:16:52.23
Aaron
Yeah.

00:16:52.35
Seth Macey
ah Okay, let's ah let's not get too caught up on topics. We can get through three a ton.

00:16:57.20
Aaron
Yeah.

00:16:57.53
Seth Macey
pick Pick a number. You can't pick seven.

00:16:59.53
Aaron
Two. Thank

00:17:00.50
Seth Macey
Two. Ah, good one.

00:17:03.05
Aaron
you.

00:17:03.72
Seth Macey
Habit. Bad habit. Trying to do a little bit of everything.

00:17:10.77
Aaron
Yeah.

00:17:12.70
Seth Macey
Got to do TikTok. Got to do Instagram. Got to do my newsletter. Got to write a blog. Gotta send 100 emails. When you do a little bit of everything, everything suffers.

00:17:26.66
Seth Macey
If not the quality, let's say you can do all those things in an excellent fashion, something else gets smacked, whether it's sleep, relationships, your stress management capabilities.

00:17:48.07
Seth Macey
You can't, at least for me, i don't and you know a lot of the people that I've tried to surround myself with, whether that's virtual parasocial relationships or you know my contacts or friends that I look up to,

00:18:02.57
Seth Macey
start to realize that you can't just blast 110% on every single possible thing that's available to you.

00:18:13.16
Seth Macey
It's picking a few things, devoting your undivided attention to them for a few hours a day,

00:18:25.96
Seth Macey
allowing yourself to not be tempted by all those other things that your brain is telling you you should be doing, and building progress at a natural pace.

00:18:42.62
Seth Macey
I think the, I may, this may not, people may not like this, but like the Gary V mindset

00:18:52.20
Seth Macey
of just like grind grind grind grind, grind, grind, grind. I mean, sure, but I don't know what quality of life is like that. um I don't like the idea that hustle culture has told everyone that this is what you need to be doing. You can be extremely hardworking and hit your milestones working at a slower pace, but that has much more intensive focus in a few areas.

00:19:24.78
Seth Macey
I wish I learned that sooner.

00:19:28.73
Aaron
Yeah, that's a good one. i don't i don't know that I've struggled with that per se too much. I've focused on different things at different times, but I just couldn't, I never could juggle multiple things at full capacity. I guess that's what you're saying.

00:19:46.20
Seth Macey
Yes.

00:19:46.72
Aaron
but So maybe I recognized it and just never really tried to a point of burnout or exhaustion or annoyance.

00:19:52.86
Seth Macey
But if you're on your phone all the time and you had all these heads telling you, like, I'm doing this, you should be doing that, do this, do that, do that, you'd be like, oh, okay, like, I guess I need to be doing these things.

00:19:57.72
Aaron
Yeah.

00:20:01.18
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:20:01.75
Aaron
I just saw one that was like, my audiences are completely different on TikTok versus Instagram. That's why it's so important to do everything all the time. And I was like, no, thanks.

00:20:15.62
Seth Macey
I really like, ah there's a good video I watched the other day. It was, is it Matt Devella? Is that how you say his last name? People will know.

00:20:22.43
Aaron
I don't know.

00:20:23.74
Seth Macey
He's a big YouTube content creator. I think he has like almost 4 million subscribers. And he talked about this, how just, I think he had an interview with Cal Newport, or he interviewed Cal Newport, who's big on this.

00:20:35.47
Seth Macey
And he just said, I'm slowing down. I'm making one long form video ah week and I'm going to put so much effort into the quality of it and I'm going to cut out a lot of the other stuff. I'm a new father. and I'm going to spend more time with my kids.

00:20:52.21
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:20:53.05
Seth Macey
And just the case study and the way he described the improvement to his overall life, I was like, this is one of the biggest YouTube creators saying I'm doing less. I'm focusing.

00:21:06.07
Seth Macey
my

00:21:08.73
Seth Macey
my range of work has shrunk, but the intensive focus has increased.

00:21:19.37
Seth Macey
And, you know, we talk about this, doing that 3-2-1 that I always mention.

00:21:23.13
Aaron
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

00:21:23.83
Seth Macey
Three maintenance tasks a day, two urgent important tasks a day, and one project for two to three hours. I've been doing that for a long time, and I just felt, my stress feels so manageable, relaxed, and I feel like I'm getting Closer to where I want to be with certain goals and feeling like I'm actually making progress. Whereas before I used to be tempted by everything and feel like they were necessary. There were necessary things to do that just were not.

00:21:56.77
Seth Macey
um where the workload wasn't manageable and feeling guilty. Well, it seems like all these other people are doing these things. How come I can't? Whereas I'm sure most people are finding that unsustainable.

00:22:07.76
Seth Macey
So habit to break, trying to do a little bit of everything and having everything suffer.

00:22:09.49
Aaron
Yeah.

00:22:16.71
Aaron
Yeah, therere there's a few people in the world that are probably expert level at multiple instruments, but usually you focus on one and the rest can follow suit.

00:22:30.40
Aaron
I think if you decide to be a YouTuber and that gets really successful, you can then decide you want a team to take your stuff and put it on all the other platforms and funnel to your main thing.

00:22:30.40
Seth Macey
Mm-hmm.

00:22:43.04
Aaron
ah But... ah agree. I just don't think it's possible to, that's not, it's not sustainable to bite off that much and do a good job everywhere and push everywhere. The one thing I do know about social media is I feel like you, you do have to work very hard to, and very smart to make a dent in in it, whatever that may be, whether it's reels or TikTok or YouTube, but you have to be very consistent and put out good stuff and do it all the time. And that takes a very direct focus. I don't know if you could do that over, would be watered down in some aspect.

00:23:26.07
Aaron
whether it's like you said, sleep, and then now your videos aren't energetic or you're fumbling over your word, like whatever it is, it's going to get watered down. So focusing in, in one area, putting your all, if you want to into that, I think is a, is a good play.

00:23:44.03
Seth Macey
Yeah, so I mean...

00:23:44.08
Aaron
And then, and then spread out once you're, once you're like that, was that guy's name? That has the 4 million. That's going to really slow down.

00:23:50.79
Seth Macey
Matt Tavella.

00:23:51.54
Aaron
Yeah. He got to that point. I'm sure he wasn't slow in the beginning. sure he put out a ton of stuff in one way and got to a point where now he can even put on the brakes even more. You know, I,

00:24:04.77
Aaron
I feel like in in in music, John Mayer rings a bell. I'm going come out with a pop album. I'm goingnna get famous. I'm going to then I'm going to do a blues album because I want to. Now I'm going to tour with the Grateful Dead because I, because I want to, or I'm able to, and just kind of allow yourself to then do the things that you want to do.

00:24:23.05
Aaron
So work hard, focus.

00:24:23.37
Seth Macey
I wonder if he'd come on the show. I'm going to ask him.

00:24:25.42
Aaron
ah Maybe he does love talking. So it's possible. If you're like, you could talk into a microphone. He might be like, yeah, I'll be there.

00:24:34.62
Aaron
Ask them.

00:24:34.80
Seth Macey
um So yeah, I mean, I just looked it up too. Matt Develo, he did the that documentary on Netflix. I don't know if you watched it, the minimalist one, Less Is Now. I didn't know he was the director of it.

00:24:46.78
Aaron
Oh, I did not know that. know that

00:24:48.97
Seth Macey
So um cool stuff.

00:24:50.03
Aaron
Cool.

00:24:53.37
Seth Macey
All right. You don't have numbers that I get to pick from, so it's not as fun for me. Can I pretend? Number nine.

00:24:58.39
Aaron
Yeah. picking like Oh, nine. That's a good one. That's a good one.

00:25:04.56
Aaron
um Number nine is a little bit boring, but I think over just one that I thought of is over time, you get much better at your organizational system.

00:25:18.55
Aaron
And I was just recently kind of What I've been doing lately is something comes in mind. I was on a run the other day and a black bear crossed in front of me about 100 yards ahead. And I thought about black bear photos and like, oh, that tree moment was cool.

00:25:32.85
Aaron
I'm gonna go edit one of those. so So things that, remind me of photography or photos that I've had or experience that I've had. That's what I'm doing right now. And like looking back at all these photos that are logged somewhere and just sitting there and trying to get some, some more juice out of them. Just, just take the moment to relive the moment and edit something. See where my editing has changed from when it happened. It's, it's been an interesting experiment.

00:25:58.27
Aaron
Anyways, going back in time, and i see my organization compared to how it is now. And all the things that I've saved and all the moments that I've saved and all the photos that are like this whole session was like absolute garbage.

00:26:12.90
Aaron
Like, why did i why did i upload all these photos of a blue heron from ah hundred yards away?

00:26:15.66
Seth Macey
Right.

00:26:21.34
Aaron
don't, i don't need any of this. So. as I've matured, I would say in this space, just the, the, the the attachment early on to every photo and saving every single thing.

00:26:39.29
Aaron
And as we said in the earlier parts of the show, like overshooting and taking a hundred of the same shots and keeping all of them. I think that,

00:26:50.49
Aaron
system has improved and that system takes time and education and thought process and slowing down and like, where am I importing this to? Where do I want this to remain? How am I labeling this?

00:27:04.31
Aaron
Is it to the level of nooch where everything has a freaking keyword? No. But if it's important, labeling it so I can find it and going from there. I think things fill up, it gets expensive.

00:27:14.83
Seth Macey
Right. Mm.

00:27:17.86
Aaron
Oh, eight terabytes filled, need another drive. Now what do I do with this old drive? Do I keep it? How do I reference this? like It just gets harder and harder the more you keep and it bogs down your computer. It costs more money.

00:27:29.89
Aaron
It wastes time looking for things. I think being a little bit more cutthroat with what you keep is a good skill to have. And i it's one of those things, if I go in this closet right behind me and look at things that I haven't really looked at in a long time,

00:27:48.83
Aaron
and I say to myself, like, oh, I should donate this or throw it out, there's a part of you, right, that's like, oh, but I kept this for a reason. I like it. Or this is a memory. don't want to get rid of it.

00:27:59.90
Aaron
But if someone did it in the middle of the night, I don't know if I'd notice for however many years, right? So I think it's one of those things where there's an attachment early on, but try to be very critical with yourself in terms of,

00:28:17.48
Aaron
okay, I'm going to go through this and take the time now to save space, which therefore will save money, which therefore will save time.

00:28:27.95
Seth Macey
Yeah, I would agree with that. Bad habit to break is feeling like you need to hang on to everything digitally. Some stuff, it's like your closet, really just serves no purpose.

00:28:42.09
Seth Macey
There's this unsettling feeling of, oh, it's the permanence, right? If I get rid of this, I can never use it again.

00:28:45.97
Aaron
Okay.

00:28:47.56
Seth Macey
I can never see it again. Or if it's a person that you're unfollowing, I can never, and likely we will never talk to this person again without having to re-friend request them, which would be embarrassing, or follow them again, Right?

00:29:00.47
Aaron
Yeah. Nice. Yeah.

00:29:01.09
Seth Macey
I mean, I'm laughing. I just, I called my Facebook to, I had 800 people, 800 friends. I'm down to probably 200.

00:29:09.16
Aaron
yeah

00:29:09.86
Seth Macey
I called 600 people and some of them were people I was really good friends with in high school, you know, that I just haven't talked to or kept up with.

00:29:14.58
Aaron
yeah

00:29:18.50
Seth Macey
And it's almost this, uh, I'm kind of going on a tangent here, but it kind of, um, it applies.

00:29:28.23
Seth Macey
You, You know when youre you, at least we're talking photos or videos, you know when stuff is not worth keeping. It's the, like I said, it's feeling like you can never get it back.

00:29:39.26
Aaron
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

00:29:40.36
Seth Macey
But if you haven't used it ever, I don't think there's going to suddenly be a magical time where you do. It's just taking up space. It's noise. It's clutter. Get it out, right?

00:29:52.35
Aaron
yeah

00:29:52.39
Seth Macey
um When I was unfolling those people the other are unfriending 600 people the other day, it's hard. I was thinking back to like, oh, I remember when we this moment in high school, and it's saying goodbye to a former a former part of your former chapter of your life, and it feels so permanent, right? I guess I'm repeating myself. I understand, but it's just a weird... There's weird emotions to process when that's going on.

00:30:16.76
Seth Macey
It may seem silly, but just... I'm like, god I don't know. Like, goodbye. Right? Goodbye forever.

00:30:23.00
Aaron
yeah yeah and if you needed that person or they need you they can reach out but i guess if it's not serving you in the in the moment and so back to the analogy of the closet stuff like all right i'm not going to use this i haven't used this sleeping bag and

00:30:32.00
Seth Macey
no

00:30:39.49
Aaron
I don't know, 10 years. I guess if I need a sleeping bag or I have this other second one, and don't need to keep this one.

00:30:47.09
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:30:47.31
Aaron
And if I do need to, I can i can find it somewhere or get one. I find i I do that with client work that I've had where it's not my responsibility to keep this stored online anymore.

00:31:00.34
Aaron
Like if they have a Google Drive or a Dropbox and it's kind of along the lines of like, I hope you guys downloaded this because this is taking up space and I'm not using it.

00:31:11.61
Aaron
And, but I feel, <unk> should I let them know that I'm deleting it?

00:31:12.33
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:31:16.25
Aaron
No, this was work from four years ago. They're like, if they reach out and they're like, Hey, do you still have that stuff?

00:31:19.30
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:31:22.27
Aaron
I'd be like, no, but I can reshoot it. Like, you know, but it, yeah.

00:31:24.45
Seth Macey
Yeah. You can't keep everything.

00:31:26.69
Aaron
So you got to like, sometimes be like, yeah, I did this work. It's done. They've used it. They're not like, I can erase this folder.

00:31:35.45
Seth Macey
Yeah. i Amen to that. Side note, have you heard of du Dunbar's number?

00:31:41.08
Aaron
Button bars number?

00:31:42.46
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:31:43.28
Aaron
No.

00:31:43.87
Seth Macey
It's a, I'll read out the AI overview for people. It's just what I was basing my, this is what I based my culling on, on following on Instagram and my unfriending on Facebook just because there's people now I'm trying to trying to eliminate noise as much as I can in my life so Dunbar's number it's a concept proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggesting a cognitive limit to the number of stable social relationships a person can maintain maintain is estimated to be around ah hundred and fifty people

00:32:16.10
Seth Macey
This number is based on the size of the human neocortex and forms a hierarchical structure of relationships with the innermost circle being the closest friends in the outermost layer representing acquaintances.

00:32:28.59
Seth Macey
So it's like, it's essentially saying the size of our neocortex can only allow for a certain number of meaningful connections. Yeah. And anything else beyond that is difficult.

00:32:37.78
Aaron
Yeah.

00:32:40.87
Seth Macey
So like the higher, oh yeah, words hard, I struggle with that, hierarchical layers proposes you can really have five intimate friends, 15 good friends, 50 friends, and about 150 acquaintances or meaningful contacts.

00:32:56.37
Seth Macey
And anything beyond that becomes difficult to really have any sort of social, deep social interaction. um interaction

00:33:05.42
Aaron
Yeah, I think the the lower end of that makes sense to me.

00:33:09.61
Seth Macey
Right?

00:33:10.13
Aaron
150 would be, but I'd have a hard time counting counting that up.

00:33:13.44
Seth Macey
Yeah, I don't know if I can name like 50 people I know.

00:33:16.31
Aaron
Yeah.

00:33:16.53
Seth Macey
No, well. um All right, should move on?

00:33:17.29
Aaron
No well. Yeah, funny one.

00:33:21.85
Seth Macey
who 12.

00:33:24.54
Seth Macey
Not reading my camera user manual.

00:33:30.17
Aaron
That's a good one.

00:33:31.14
Seth Macey
Not reading my camera user manual. This goes back to kind of where we were talking about winging it. um People know a few years ago, I switched from Canon to Sony.

00:33:42.26
Seth Macey
And that was the first time I read my ah user manual. And I was reading through the the book and I was like, oh, that makes sense why they do it that way. Oh, I could use that this way. And that makes sense when I'm doing, when I'm in this scenario and I need to be doing this at the same time. I can program, oh I can program which card video goes to and which card photos go to. I don't have to have it all intermingled on one memory card.

00:34:08.65
Seth Macey
I was having like, duh moments. You dummy. Why didn't you read this sooner? Cause when I had my Canon camera, i mean, this has nothing to do with camera brands. I should have, it doesn't matter. I just, I winged it the whole time with my can. i was like, Oh, I just like, I'll immerse myself in the camera and I'll figure it out eventually. And I'm sure I left so much meat on the bone and so much left on the table that could have made, um my life so much easier and made shooting easier in certain scenarios.

00:34:34.05
Seth Macey
So when I got my Sony, I was like you know what going to read it. i'm a big I advocate for reading things. I'm a proponent of this. I should understand the ins and outs of the camera I have and how I can make it work for me and not feel like it's a ah such a foreign object.

00:34:49.53
Seth Macey
So bad habit to break, not reading your camera user manual.

00:34:55.22
Aaron
Yeah, that's a good one. And for those that, you know, it might seem like calculus reading a a user manual, there's tons of YouTube long form fees that this is the ins and outs of the new Sony a seven r four whatever it is that you're you're you've gotten or you're getting and they're they're archived. They're on there.

00:35:19.31
Seth Macey
Sure.

00:35:19.47
Aaron
And That's something that I definitely do when I'm excited about new equipment is watch those long reviews on how to use it. I like seeing it. I like hearing someone's voice, the applicable uses of it. ah Yeah.

00:35:35.12
Aaron
So that's just ah another option and following along in the book.

00:35:37.87
Seth Macey
sure

00:35:39.08
Aaron
But yeah, I think pre-studying for any complicated equipment and this stuff is expensive and because it's complicated and there's deep menus and deep options, pre-studying is, uh, is definitely a time saver and will get you feeling like you're somewhat familiar as soon as it comes to the door and you can, you can get going, uh,

00:35:59.98
Seth Macey
Right. Yeah.

00:36:02.63
Seth Macey
yeah

00:36:03.89
Aaron
Yeah, musically, I got a really complicated keyboard, a very expensive, very good keyboard with looks like a spaceship. And I must have watched 10 to 20 long videos about it before it showed up at the door, just so I could feel like, okay, I have an idea.

00:36:24.31
Aaron
And then some of it is, like you said, with the Canon diving in, making mistakes, figuring it out. Memorizing the buttons, memorizing the feel, setting it up the way you want to set it up. like A lot of that stuff is part of it, but you get a general sense of how this thing works and what their i engineering ideas were, great.

00:36:48.06
Seth Macey
Yeah, I mean, if you you compare it to literally a language, reading the manual is reading. And using the camera would be like speaking and applying what you've learned.

00:37:03.29
Aaron
Yeah.

00:37:05.06
Seth Macey
um So yeah, that's ah do you have more do you want to just rebut all mine?

00:37:05.20
Aaron
Boom.

00:37:09.82
Seth Macey
you more?

00:37:10.83
Aaron
No, I, I, you can, you have so many you can do too. And then I'll, I'll check on again.

00:37:16.02
Seth Macey
Oh, two for one?

00:37:17.49
Aaron
Yeah. Did I say four yet? No, I did not. Let's go to four.

00:37:20.65
Seth Macey
You want four?

00:37:21.77
Aaron
Yeah.

00:37:22.78
Seth Macey
Okay. Number four. Number four. ah bad habit to break as a photographer. Thinking that good work was enough for people, companies, brands to find me.

00:37:37.69
Seth Macey
I mean, I think that one speaks for itself. We talk about that a lot. I used to believe that... My work is very good. I've been told it's very good. mean, it is good.

00:37:49.54
Seth Macey
And that that's good enough to be, quote, discovered, found. You are so fantastic. Here's thousands of dollars to shoot our stuff.

00:38:01.90
Aaron
yeah

00:38:02.05
Seth Macey
Obviously, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but the amount of time spent waiting for things to happen as opposed to here's a great portfolio of work that I know I have.

00:38:14.19
Seth Macey
I'm going shop it and showcase it. And I'm going to go knocking.

00:38:22.44
Aaron
I have nothing to add to that. talk about We talk about that all the time.

00:38:23.81
Seth Macey
Cool.

00:38:26.01
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:38:26.10
Aaron
I think that's, a yeah, you gotta got to perform and knock on doors. That's it.

00:38:35.52
Seth Macey
Yeah. I mean, just having the portfolio is not enough. Yeah.

00:38:41.04
Aaron
a Bad habit.

00:38:43.19
Seth Macey
Can I go with number one?

00:38:45.04
Aaron
Yeah, number one. That's my favorite.

00:38:45.98
Seth Macey
I'm going to go with, actually, I'm going to know with number 432. through your book.

00:38:49.48
Aaron
Okay. All right. Got it. Putting too much stock into positive criticism.

00:39:02.33
Aaron
If that's the thing, is it? Yeah. ah Positive feedback on Instagram and the social media.

00:39:04.50
Seth Macey
Positive feedback.

00:39:11.22
Aaron
I think you can rest your laurels on oh, this got so many views, I must be sick.

00:39:19.06
Seth Macey
Right.

00:39:19.23
Aaron
This, everyone, all the comments said, fire, bro. I must be ah so the sickest photographer ever. found out pretty quickly that a lot of social media is self-serving and a lot of commenting is to draw attention to themselves.

00:39:38.05
Seth Macey
Be careful.

00:39:38.12
Aaron
and

00:39:38.61
Seth Macey
You're going sound like a cynic.

00:39:40.92
Aaron
And a lot of comment is just habit.

00:39:44.47
Seth Macey
Right.

00:39:45.58
Aaron
I look back and can objectively say that some of the photos that I put up in the early go were absolute garbage.

00:39:52.33
Seth Macey
Me as well.

00:39:52.57
Aaron
Terrible, terrible.

00:39:53.86
Seth Macey
And everyone listening.

00:39:55.08
Aaron
In fact, Seth, I think during you set up, I believe you set up or you were a part of this editing contest where we would trade.

00:40:03.50
Seth Macey
I set that up. Yeah.

00:40:04.56
Aaron
Yeah. We would trade Ross and I edited your train photo. Dude.

00:40:10.57
Seth Macey
photo.

00:40:11.24
Aaron
Yeah. Through Banff through Jasper.

00:40:15.63
Seth Macey
Did I put that one up? Maybe I did.

00:40:17.72
Aaron
Maybe if someone else, but it's that photo.

00:40:20.01
Seth Macey
Okay.

00:40:20.65
Aaron
I don't remember. some Somehow it came up, maybe on a memory or something.

00:40:24.79
Seth Macey
Did you just butcher it?

00:40:24.87
Aaron
And I was like, dude, like, really bad.

00:40:25.91
Seth Macey
you you Were you just terrible?

00:40:31.40
Seth Macey
Can we pull it up?

00:40:32.69
Aaron
I don't know. I can try to find it. ah

00:40:35.80
Seth Macey
Pull it up. Pull it up on YouTube. I hope it's up right now while we're talking on YouTube.

00:40:39.74
Aaron
It's possible. It's possible I forget about this completely and don't do it.

00:40:42.29
Seth Macey
No promises.

00:40:44.09
Aaron
ah But... just really bad. And that's the period of my photography when I probably got the most attention. That's the way Instagram was at that time.

00:40:56.55
Aaron
I think it's much more realistic to be honest and much more deserving of, yeah, few likes. Okay. Like nothing spectacular here.

00:41:07.31
Aaron
Great job. Uh, so okay before it's definitely inflated definitely inflated from the circles you hang with the the photo groups you're a part of and it goes to your head that like i'm on the right path here i i'm telling you i clearly was not i was forcing things and trying things and experimenting and throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what stuck

00:41:35.94
Seth Macey
Mom's spaghetti?

00:41:36.10
Aaron
And it was it was not good. It was not good. But I trusted this platform that was giving me true feedback. And the matter of fact was, i ah don't think it was necessarily accurate or coming from professionals or coming from experts in their field.

00:41:52.67
Seth Macey
Right.

00:41:56.16
Aaron
It's coming from wherever it was. So the bad habit being

00:42:05.87
Aaron
If you're not very honest with the pursuit of anything and like the studying of that craft, learning from the most famous, reading books, going through tutorials, taking educational classes even, and figuring it out, working, being honest with yourself, comparing, contrasting. If you just go with one avenue and you're relying on the feedback early on, a lot of these things, you won't ever see one piece of

00:42:43.56
Aaron
constructive criticism or, do you mind if we talk privately about your photography? I really would like to help you out. I feel like you're doing a lot of things right, but there's a few things that I can mention. Like that would be offensive.

00:42:55.28
Aaron
I feel like to some people in this day and age of like,

00:42:57.55
Seth Macey
Because it becomes, because it's like unsolicited. That's why we talk about finding someone who you trust their word entirely, where you can go to them be like, is this any good? And where you can be confident that they'll say, this is terrible and here's why.

00:43:06.44
Aaron
right.

00:43:09.17
Aaron
Right. But even unsolicited advice shouldn't be a personal attack. You can choose to be like, that guy's a quack or I'm not going to really listen to that. I disagree.

00:43:20.35
Aaron
Or say like, oh, that person might have a point. Like, that's interesting. Look at their background. They have they have four published books on landscape photography and they're there.

00:43:31.49
Aaron
reaching out to give me some advice, maybe I should listen. But I'm just saying that doesn't really happen. It's always like great photo. Awesome. Really like this.

00:43:41.25
Seth Macey
Right.

00:43:42.78
Aaron
That's definitely slowed down and that's okay. That's okay. And people complain like, don't think because we've gotten worse.

00:43:47.05
Seth Macey
Because we've gotten worse.

00:43:51.58
Aaron
I really don't. I've got, I feel like I've gotten much better than some of those photos from the beginning.

00:43:55.26
Seth Macey
Nice.

00:43:58.52
Aaron
I'll, I'll put, I'll put up some, I got to remember this. What mark are we at?

00:44:02.04
Seth Macey
I've already written it down.

00:44:02.47
Aaron
44.

00:44:03.20
Seth Macey
Train photo at 4051.

00:44:05.05
Aaron
Okay. um Yeah. Just leaps and bounds.

00:44:11.10
Seth Macey
We should do an episode where we react to our worst photos that we thought were good at the time.

00:44:14.89
Aaron
That'd be amazing.

00:44:16.06
Seth Macey
That'd be a great series. We'll do it.

00:44:20.03
Aaron
All right.

00:44:20.59
Seth Macey
Just means people have to go on YouTube, but sorry.

00:44:20.90
Aaron
ah

00:44:23.60
Aaron
Yeah, you'll hear our reaction. We'll describe it.

00:44:26.58
Seth Macey
ah They're just trying to get people to go to YouTube.

00:44:30.37
Aaron
No. No, you don't have to.

00:44:32.39
Seth Macey
and hope, but like, how are we going to get it up? No, I like it. Yeah.

00:44:35.92
Aaron
There's...

00:44:36.73
Seth Macey
Uh, I feel you. And I do this.

00:44:38.77
Aaron
yeah

00:44:42.16
Seth Macey
mean, this is a bit of a different topic. I do this with you. Right. And you and Ian and couple other people. i I did it to you today. I sent you my video and I said, notes are welcome.

00:44:51.84
Aaron
Right.

00:44:52.55
Seth Macey
Just here's the door for you to critique as much as you want.

00:44:53.68
Aaron
Yeah.

00:44:55.63
Seth Macey
I don't like when people just send photos or just send a video. I'm like, what do you what do you want me to do with this? Because it's happened to you before where someone has sent ah Ian. i'm add I'm adding Ian.

00:45:08.48
Seth Macey
He'll laugh because he's a good friend. Where he sent a photo before. I'm like, eh. Usually they're sweet. But the odd time and' be like, eh. But there's no like, what do you think of this? so I'm just like... nice man.

00:45:20.84
Seth Macey
Right.

00:45:21.47
Aaron
yeah

00:45:22.16
Seth Macey
And, uh, so I like to open when I send work that I'm looking for feedback on like I said, notes are, notes are welcome. That's all I would say. I think that's what I say to you, isn't it?

00:45:33.26
Aaron
Yep, you did today.

00:45:34.63
Seth Macey
And then you can, the previous video, you said no notes. I'm sure you'll have some today because you know, I may be incredible, but, um,

00:45:41.95
Aaron
You opened the floodgate.

00:45:46.13
Aaron
We'll see, I mean, probably.

00:45:46.21
Seth Macey
I may be the best videographer of all time, but I'm sure there's still notes. so

00:45:51.29
Aaron
Yeah, but it's all subjective.

00:45:52.13
Seth Macey
Okay. Yep. Moving on. What number you want? but but up

00:46:00.63
Aaron
Eight. Eight.

00:46:02.17
Seth Macey
Eight. Ooh.

00:46:06.52
Seth Macey
Wow. We already kind of touched on that, which was winging it.

00:46:10.07
Aaron
All

00:46:10.67
Seth Macey
Winging it always and not scouting locations. Is that different?

00:46:15.93
Aaron
right. Yeah, but slightly, but I think we can just parallel it to what we were saying. Like prepare ahead of time. It'll save you time.

00:46:22.83
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:46:23.81
Aaron
It'll make your photography better, your videography better.

00:46:25.39
Seth Macey
Yeah. I think there was a sense of arrogance that, oh, I'm like, I feel like I'm pretty good enough at this. I can show up and I'll figure something out and something great will come of it. And there's like a few times where that happens or that that that can happen.

00:46:34.84
Aaron
Hmm.

00:46:39.25
Seth Macey
But I still think that prepping is a better way to go. Scouting locations. Yeah. you know knowing which way the sunset faces at a certain spot, etc. um It's just a little, it keeps your i think your ego a little bit more in check. It displays a little bit more humility that, no, I'm just going to show up and crush it.

00:46:55.88
Seth Macey
mean, maybe, but maybe not.

00:46:56.02
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:46:57.32
Seth Macey
So um I don't think we need to go too much into it. But Bad Habit to Break was winging it always. Like, I would never plan. ah would just, I know where i need to be for this shoot, and I'll figure out something when I'm there, which I don't do anymore.

00:47:12.35
Aaron
yeah

00:47:14.69
Aaron
No. There's a lot of good tools for that. It tells you where the Milky Way is coming up, tells you the direction, tells you sunset, sunrise, moonrise, all these things where you can plan certain shots.

00:47:26.64
Aaron
And that's where you're going to see, you see some amazing sunset, moonrise, Milky Way shots. those Those aren't just like, oh my God, some might be, but like, oh my God, this is happening right here. i'm going to get a photo.

00:47:42.03
Aaron
Those are like really amazing.

00:47:47.10
Aaron
mathed out.

00:47:47.98
Seth Macey
Yeah.

00:47:49.19
Aaron
So, yeah.

00:47:49.63
Seth Macey
I'm sure you could apply that wing it not winging it thing to multiple genres.

00:47:55.68
Seth Macey
You want a different number since I'm going two for one?

00:47:57.92
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, nine.

00:47:59.43
Seth Macey
we already did nine.

00:48:00.73
Aaron
Oh, 10. ten

00:48:03.06
Seth Macey
Ooh, good one Number 10. Bad habit to break. Feeling like every photo needs a crazy edit to stand out or to be good.

00:48:19.48
Seth Macey
I used to be in a place where I was like, this needs to have, it needs to go into Luminar after being in Lightroom. We need to, it just needs to like fire on all cylinders. It needs a crazy edit that just makes it eccentric and stand out.

00:48:39.38
Aaron
Yeah.

00:48:39.61
Seth Macey
And I've really dialed that. You can get, you get so lost in that. And I think that's cool for, you know, Instagram landscapes and, potentially wildlife with all the crazy bokeh and stuff.

00:48:55.14
Seth Macey
But I found that that didn't translate well to a lot of brand business photography. People don't really want that because it's not often relatable to the target audience that's meant to be viewing it, customers.

00:49:14.95
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:49:15.83
Seth Macey
So I've learned in recent years too that often less is more and that you can actually stand out with a very pronounced editing style without being a maniac with all your Lightroom sliders.

00:49:35.30
Seth Macey
And focusing better on color balance, color harmony. Is this the proper ah level of contrast? I mean, back in the day, somebody should have confiscated the structure slider from me.

00:49:49.99
Seth Macey
That should have been taken away from me. clarity.

00:49:51.91
Aaron
Do they still have that?

00:49:53.97
Seth Macey
ah clarity

00:49:55.35
Aaron
Clarity. Okay. Okay.

00:49:57.15
Seth Macey
Back in the day, somebody should have taken the clarity slider away from me and said, hey, you sit this one out for like six months.

00:49:57.53
Aaron
Yeah.

00:50:03.17
Aaron
No.

00:50:05.30
Seth Macey
You're not allowed to touch that.

00:50:05.48
Aaron
No more, bud.

00:50:06.50
Seth Macey
No more clarity slider for you. ah I used to cook stuff because I just loved texture.

00:50:11.99
Aaron
Yeah.

00:50:12.21
Seth Macey
and i mean, that's fine. That's fine. But um it can be easy to overdo things in an effort to stand out.

00:50:13.81
Aaron
Huh?

00:50:22.45
Seth Macey
And I've just had a lot more fun tweaking and getting things as good as they can be fresh out of camera and rely, maybe this is a two-parter, relying less on the edit for the photo to be great.

00:50:36.63
Seth Macey
When you rely less on the edit for the photo to be great, you're working really hard to get everything dialed in straight out of camera.

00:50:44.01
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:50:45.49
Seth Macey
And you're having to put more weight into the composition, the lighting, ah wardrobe, but rule thirds, positioning things. There's a lot more effort that goes into getting it right at the point of creation as opposed to, ah, I'm a great editor and I have all these fancy tricks. I'll make something something extravagant that really pops.

00:51:08.65
Seth Macey
So that and also realizing that those crazy edits don't translate well across ah especially a lot of marketed and branded content.

00:51:16.66
Aaron
Yeah.

00:51:17.50
Seth Macey
So bad habit to break.

00:51:18.71
Aaron
That's a good

00:51:20.00
Seth Macey
Don't go crazy all the time.

00:51:22.59
Aaron
We had a company that we worked for together that straight up said, want this to kind of look like it's coming out of an iPhone, if you could. You know, like, just very natural.

00:51:32.09
Seth Macey
Which we we should have done was just shot iPhone.

00:51:35.81
Aaron
Like, don't edit much.

00:51:39.17
Seth Macey
Yeah, if I could go back in time and talk to you and i when they said that, I'd be like, hey, let's not even take our cameras out.

00:51:42.30
Aaron
Hmm?

00:51:44.60
Seth Macey
But that would be sacrilegious back then to you and I.

00:51:47.26
Aaron
Yeah, yeah.

00:51:48.17
Seth Macey
<unk> I've done iPhone 14 shots on professional shoots.

00:51:48.28
Aaron
True.

00:51:51.36
Aaron
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

00:51:54.62
Seth Macey
There's a clip in the video I just sent you that's shot on nine ford for iPhone 14.

00:51:54.80
Aaron
Yeah.

00:51:57.58
Seth Macey
This is like a marketing video. I needed a clip that um I just needed to have handheld iPhone Lite.

00:52:06.81
Aaron
hmm.

00:52:08.63
Seth Macey
Don't be afraid of that stuff.

00:52:08.69
Aaron
I'm see if I can find it.

00:52:11.08
Seth Macey
What?

00:52:11.99
Aaron
I'll see if I can tell the difference.

00:52:14.53
Seth Macey
Yeah. You will.

00:52:17.14
Aaron
uh cool yeah that's a good one uh my last one then i gotta get going for a run humble brag

00:52:19.59
Seth Macey
Okay.

00:52:25.87
Seth Macey
Ooh, you can hike some dinner miles. Feed the... Yeah, this guy's an athlete. he's a tennis star. He's the guitar singer queen of the Stone Age.

00:52:35.75
Aaron
gonna run a bit i got headbands for my hair pretty excited about it i know this is getting serious

00:52:37.28
Seth Macey
Wow.

00:52:40.18
Seth Macey
Jeez. Can we get a running nickname for you?

00:52:45.97
Aaron
Running nickname for me.

00:52:45.97
Seth Macey
You know?

00:52:47.33
Aaron
um

00:52:47.59
Seth Macey
Yeah. Yeah.

00:52:49.11
Aaron
and think a giraffe that's loose. That's a giraffe on the loose.

00:52:52.21
Seth Macey
What?

00:52:54.71
Seth Macey
oh

00:52:56.55
Aaron
J-G-O-L. A goal.

00:53:02.39
Seth Macey
Wow.

00:53:03.71
Aaron
Giraffe on loose. That's what I look like.

00:53:05.02
Seth Macey
i'mnna I'm going ask ah AI. Running nickname for my friend who is six foot five is new to running, and feels like a baby giraffe, freshly born.

00:53:22.53
Aaron
is going to be great.

00:53:24.59
Seth Macey
Give me options. All caps. Beep boop, bop boop, beep boop.

00:53:29.90
Aaron
Let's hear it.

00:53:30.80
Seth Macey
Stridezilla. That is lame.

00:53:32.36
Aaron
Stride and blame. Two out of ten.

00:53:36.00
Seth Macey
Galloping Giraffe. That's terrible. What is this?

00:53:38.22
Aaron
One out of ten.

00:53:39.27
Seth Macey
Tall Trotter.

00:53:41.59
Aaron
Four.

00:53:42.96
Seth Macey
The Wobbly Wonder. Oh, here's the one for you.

00:53:45.06
Aaron
Six.

00:53:47.51
Seth Macey
The Tower of Power. That's so good.

00:53:50.11
Aaron
Eh, seven. Alright. That's pretty good.

00:53:52.64
Seth Macey
Come on.

00:53:54.03
Aaron
Yeah.

00:53:54.67
Seth Macey
The sprinting stilt.

00:53:56.51
Aaron
Nope. One.

00:53:58.08
Seth Macey
Bambi on the run.

00:54:00.64
Aaron
Kinda like it. Eight.

00:54:04.43
Seth Macey
Well, I like tower of power.

00:54:04.56
Aaron
Oh, man.

00:54:05.67
Seth Macey
That was great.

00:54:07.06
Aaron
Yeah, it's a good one. That's the most flattering. So, I'll take it.

00:54:09.90
Seth Macey
Yeah. Okay. You'll be the tower of power.

00:54:13.40
Aaron
Alright, last one for me is slow ah F down.

00:54:18.96
Seth Macey
Ooh.

00:54:20.84
Aaron
Slow down.

00:54:21.14
Seth Macey
Slow the F down. My father-in-law used to tell his kids, he to say St. Thomas Fire Department. St. Thomas is a place around here.

00:54:33.57
Aaron
Yeah.

00:54:34.69
Seth Macey
STFD.

00:54:35.77
Aaron
Yep, so the F down.

00:54:38.03
Seth Macey
So...

00:54:38.24
Aaron
Yeah. ah The beginning was a lot of chasing. The beginning was a lot of frantic shooting. The beginning was a lot of non-planning. The beginning was a lot of

00:54:51.65
Aaron
just sort of winging it. And a few things taught me. i think that slowing down and letting things happen was definitely the better way to go in terms of photography.

00:55:08.29
Aaron
Some in wildlife, some in nature, some in landscape. um But I learned quickly and I tried to do it the other way. I tried to chase animals for a long time.

00:55:20.98
Aaron
I'm going to be walking. I'm to be moving, trying to find a blue heron. I'm going to be moving on a paddleboard, trying to get close to a kingfisher. Oh, there's one. I'm going go find it.

00:55:32.62
Aaron
Oh, it flew away. i'm going to go find it. Oh, it flew over there. I'm going to go find it. Instead of just waiting. Now the chasing gives you something to do and makes the time go by and it becomes a little bit of a game.

00:55:46.89
Aaron
But the waiting is a more mindful, patient, slow process that allows you to sit with your feelings, think about the rest of your life, think about a lot of things that may be beneficial in that moment to just be with your breath and slow down.

00:56:04.92
Aaron
And what I found was then the branch that the Kingfisher frequented, would eventually go to it.

00:56:13.46
Seth Macey
Mm-hmm.

00:56:14.63
Aaron
And that is one of my best photos of a Kingfisher is when it came to me. Same with a blue heron, let it come to you. So there's a lot of these moments of like frantically

00:56:30.85
Aaron
Looking for something and taking photos and coming home with a lot of sea photos. Maybe you got the subject, but it just was not great. Same with a sunrise or sunset.

00:56:44.48
Aaron
Getting there 10 minutes before sunset is going to make you run around like a psycho.

00:56:49.41
Seth Macey
Right.

00:56:50.98
Aaron
getting there an hour before sunset or two even and finding that one composition you really are in love with and knowing that that's there, being able to set it up with plenty of time and appreciate what's happening is just for me so much better for the soul.

00:57:10.95
Aaron
Now, some people want to run around and I'm going to, I want to get 20 photos out of this one sunset.

00:57:11.54
Seth Macey
right

00:57:17.22
Aaron
That's fine. But what I would go home with in that mode is, oh, the one I wanted to, I was rushing because I was trying to milk this sunset for everything.

00:57:28.66
Aaron
And I forgot to take off manual focus. And now that the one I wanted is blurry.

00:57:34.41
Seth Macey
Right. Mm-hmm.

00:57:35.49
Aaron
So in this case, like haste makes waste. And we've talked about that a lot, I think was an overall overarching theme of this whole episode, but slowing down in the entire process, the planning, the travel, the hiking to get to the spot.

00:57:54.77
Aaron
You don't want to be there where your heart is racing because you're trying to beat sunset and you're running around trying to find a spot and you miss that moment.

00:58:04.27
Seth Macey
Right.

00:58:04.59
Aaron
Like it's just, um just something I think I've learned through the journey and plan on continuing, especially going forward. I think you and I were different photographers this year in Alaska than we were last year.

00:58:18.96
Aaron
And that's only a year and being able to sit on a boat and just, yeah.

00:58:19.08
Seth Macey
Sure.

00:58:24.44
Seth Macey
Watch orcas. Yeah.

00:58:27.20
Aaron
and recognize like don't have freak out right now trying to get photos of orcas that are 200 yards away yeah oh great now have 700 yeah you

00:58:34.98
Seth Macey
doors open doors open no I'm not making idyme yeah I'm not making fun of people like that it it is exciting but like I think the point you're trying to make is you can just watch and think about do I need this is this yeah

00:58:45.18
Aaron
yeah

00:58:48.09
Aaron
yeah ni can

00:58:51.42
Aaron
You can observe and slowly say, like, where am I going to attack? I think that's that's all of art. Maybe even, like, sports is an art in a sense, or music's an art in a sense.

00:58:59.53
Seth Macey
sure

00:59:04.41
Aaron
It is. ah Like, where am I going to – I want to be very calculated with how I attack this versus frantically just playing, you know, psychopath mode.

00:59:17.51
Seth Macey
Right.

00:59:21.01
Seth Macey
hear you.

00:59:21.98
Aaron
which we've all been there. So

00:59:23.28
Seth Macey
Yes. So these were bad habits we've had as photographers.

00:59:28.24
Aaron
within photography, I think we could do a part two of like, cause well, a lot more of that, but I asked you the question and it's interesting.

00:59:28.94
Seth Macey
And um I think we can do a part two, whether it's next week or at some point, because I have a lot more.

00:59:38.44
Aaron
Like what, what bad habits have you lost in life because of photography? And i think that's it.

00:59:43.74
Seth Macey
the reverse.

00:59:45.36
Aaron
Well, like, Yeah. Or what good habits maybe, what good habits have you developed because of photography?

00:59:50.94
Seth Macey
Sure. Yes. That's a better way for me. Okay.

00:59:52.72
Aaron
Yeah.

00:59:53.21
Seth Macey
Well, we'll do one or the other or both.

00:59:54.88
Aaron
And that's, that's nice too.

00:59:56.40
Seth Macey
All right. Let's do it. I know you got to run.

00:59:58.36
Aaron
Cool.

00:59:58.56
Seth Macey
So until next time.

01:00:00.10
Aaron
Take care.

01:00:00.86
Seth Macey
See ya.