The Beginner Photography Podcast

You're Being Lied To... I'm Done

• Raymond Hatfield

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#476 In this episode of the Beginner Photography Podcast, I pull back the curtain on the deceptive world of influencer marketing within the photography industry. I'll uncover how financial incentives and unethical practices are designed to mislead you when buying new gear. Learn why developing your skills should always take precedence over accumulating more gear. Reflect on your genuine needs before making purchases, and arm yourself with the knowledge to distinguish honest reviews from biased ones. As you listen, I encourage you to question the marketing messages you encounter, prioritize honing your craft, and aim for transparency in your own creative endeavors. 

THE BIG IDEAS

  • Skeptical Consumption: Always question product reviews to determine if they’re influenced by sponsorships. Trust your own instincts and needs.
  • Skill Over Gear: Focus on improving your photography skills instead of constantly upgrading your equipment—it's your ability that makes the difference.
  • Transparency Value: Understand the ethical implications of influencer marketing in shaping your buying decisions. Aim for transparency in your own practices.
  • Personal Needs: Evaluate how, why, and if you will use a product before making a purchase—tailor your toolkit to your specific requirements.

PHOTOGRAPHY ACTION PLAN

  • Evaluate Current Gear: List out all your current equipment and consider which items you use frequently. Identify gaps in your skills that you might improve with your existing gear before buying new items.
  • Research Ethically: Check multiple sources for reviews to compare and contrast their opinions on new products. Look for content creators who transparently disclose their sponsorships and affiliations.
  • Focus on Skill Development: Spend dedicated time each week practicing different photography techniques. Invest in courses or workshops that focus on building your core photography skills.
  • Create a Test Environment: Set up controlled environments to experiment and learn more effectively, using the gear you already own. Document your findings and review how well your current gear meets your actual needs.

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Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Raymond Hatfield:

investing in yourself is a infinitely better investment than investing in gear. For every single dollar that you spend on a new camera, you will have to spend that dollar again in like five years, but for every dollar you spend on yourself, on your skills, on your abilities. That dollar will become more valuable in five years than it is today. Hey, Raymond here from the Beginner Photography Podcast, and we have a bit of a different episode today because we have been lied to for several years. And, this year I think we've really reached a, a tipping point to where it's becoming a problem that we can no longer avoid. And I'm done. This is not like some sensationalized intro or title. This is really harming a lot of photographers specifically, you photographers who aren't new to photography who are just getting started and it's sucks to see. And I wanna share with you exactly what's going on. I'm gonna, pull back the curtains and hopefully, let you see what's going on so that you can hopefully avoid it. All right, so when I was, a kid I subscribed to this, it was a video game magazine and it was called Electronic Gaming Monthly. And, in it they would talk about, video games and news and they would also review like new releases. So for reviews, I think that the scale was like outta 10. So 10 being like a perfect video game. So pretty much, anything, I don't know, six or better, there'd be a good bet that the game would be fun and engaging. it wouldn't feel like a waste of money, but like, as time went on, I found that the scoring system got increasingly less reliable. So like, I'd buy a game that was maybe rated a seven or an eight, but I'd end up returning it because it was, it was just not a good game, you know? And it got to a point to where. if a game was, if a game was rated like zero to 8.9, it was trash. If a game was rated nine to 9.6, then it was decent. And then finally, any game's rated 9.7 to 10, like that was a good game. I. A fun game, you know? And the issue though was not that games were fundamentally changing. It was, in fact, I think that there's a good case that some of them were actually getting worse, but it's, it's the rating system that was changed because developers would see that if a game got a good rating, then sales would go up. What does this have to do with photography? Okay. I promise you I'm, I'm getting there. So developers would see that if a game got a good rating from a magazine, then the sales went up and if the game got like a really good or a great rating, then sales really went up. And when, you know, at the time, so much money is going into creating video games, like getting a 9.7 rating could literally be the difference between like a break even on the production of the video game and like guaranteeing a sequel and game developers started to incentivize these gaming magazines to rate their games higher. And because publishing is like a struggling industry at the time. They took all the help that they can get. And I, you know, you can't blame 'em for, for wanting to stay afloat, but they'd take money from game developers and that became standard practice until every single game was like a 9.7 outta 10 or higher, I mean, every game. And I think you can see the kind of problems that that could cause. So where are we at today? What's going on here? What do we as photographers have to worry about? The problem that we're facing today is very similar. It's a widespread, complete lack of transparency and honesty in influencer marketing within the photography industry. And this isn't like. boo influencers. This isn't like boo marketing, none of that. The problem is the transparency behind it. Okay? Because influencers are under pressure or incentivized by brands, and unfortunately often fail to disclose their sponsorship relationship, which is illegal, or they exaggerate the benefits of a new product. I'm sure that you've seen this before. My goal with this episode. Is again, to show you, a peek behind the curtains. I wanna show you how hot dogs are made so that you can start to be better informed and have the tools to make the right buying decisions for yourself. As photographers, it is crucial to rely on, on skill and knowledge, and not just cameras with their marketed promises. So what, what specifically is the problem? Because we have to just uncover what the problem is to figure out how we can fix it or, become aware of it so that we can, avoid it. Right? The problem here again, is specifically the lack of transparency, because that leads to you being misled into believing biased reviews and recommendations. Causing misguided purchases where you buy this expensive new gear expecting, life-changing results only to find that maybe your existing equipment was, adequate. But it also causes distrust. So once this happens to you several times, and this has happened to me several times, it erodes your trust in both, whoever the influencer is, I guess, and the brand as well. Yeah, but what's worse? Like the worst part about that? Like who cares? Okay, now I know not to trust that guy. I know not to trust that brand. It's not that easy. What's worse is that, and I've seen this happen many, many times, is that people watch these videos. They imagine that this gear is going to change their life. It's going to make them a good photographer. They buy it and it doesn't, of course, and it's frustrating to the point to where it causes them and potentially you to give up on photography. That is the worst. That is the worst. And like my video game example, I unsubscribed from the magazines because I was no longer getting reviews and information that I could count on because it broke past the tipping point. When every game is a 9.7 or higher, you know how do you know what to buy if they're all the same? So in 2023, the FTC actually, recognized the problem and came out with guidelines requiring you to disclose if you're working with a brand and you're posting about it, online, and that says that, you must disclose when you have a financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand. So a financial relationship is, not limited to, but to disclose the relationship. If you've got anything of value to mention a product including, free or discounted products, and that happens all the time, right? Just 'cause you get it for free, still means that it is some sort of like sponsorship or promotion. The other thing is don't assume that your followers already know about your relationship with a brand. So they require you to, disclose, even if you think that your evaluations are unbiased as well. I. They also give you information on how to disclose this. So they say that you need to place it so that it's hard to miss and that the, that the endorsement has to be in the video, right? If what you're putting out is YouTube video, it has to be in the video. It can't just be in the description. It has to be in both audio and video forms. So not only do you have to say it, but there also has to be, words on the screen that say the same thing. So those are kind of the rules of how you work with a brand and disclose a sponsor, a sponsored relationship with a brand. Okay, so we all kind of understand now how that works. So I want you to listen to a review, from a few years ago when the GoPro seven came out and remember. All of this was before these FTC rules. This is a clip from Casey Nyad. Let's hear what he says about the GoPro Hero seven. This is the just announced today GoPro Hero seven Black. A little over a month ago, GoPro invited me and a bunch of other tech journalists. I'm not a tech journalist. Inviting Anyway, out to this really fun like waterpark mountain bike, David Adventure to test these things out. I haven't been able to post any footage from that. It's been under an embargo. But here today I get to finally share with you my experience in testing the Hero Seven Black. Okay, so he sets up that he was invited by GoPro to test out this camera, which we as a viewer, can assume that of course GoPro is going to, invite him to the best environment possible to make this camera look amazing. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but now we, we now know that. Now let's hear him talking about actually using the camera. Okay. Ready? Thanks guys. Alright, so the other thing is the, uh, oh God improved audio. I think GoPros have never been known for their great audio, but they put a lot of effort into working you improving the audio. So let me know what you think. Does it sound better? He says GoPro to that point was not known for good audio, and then he goes down a water slide while actually talking to you to let you judge to see if it's better for yourself. He doesn't tell you that it's better. He doesn't say that it's worse. He tells you his experience from the past with GoPro and then invites you to judge for yourself if it's better. Okay, so now he's gotta wrap everything up. Should you buy it? Let's hear what he has to say. I guess the question that needs to be answered is, is this thing worth $400? And the question I had for Nick and didn't really have a satisfying answer for me was, are our cell phones now? They're waterproof. They have, uh, 4K, high resolution, super, high quality cameras built into them. And if we're gonna spend money on something good. Something better than our phones typically, we're gonna target something like this. So between the spectrum of a cell phone and an SLR camera, where does the GoPro fit in? And, I don't know. I think it's a very, I think it's a very tough question if you're a professional filmmaker, YouTuber like me. Absolute necessity. But if you're someone who has limited resources in what you can afford for hardware, I don't know that this would be the first thing you'd spend 400 bucks on. Very well balanced. He even mentions that he asked the CEOA question about where the GoPro fits in a lineup between, a waterproof cell phone with 4K camera and an interchangeable lens camera, and that he wasn't satisfied with the CEO's answer. And then he tells us who the GoPro Hero seven is for and who it is not for. Perfect reveal. That was great. If I watch that, I legitimately feel like I have enough information to make an unbiased decision. Okay. Now, recently, the Insta 360 X four just came out in May of 2024. So let's hear a clip from, a YouTuber, David Manning, who is, talking about this brand new camera. This right here is the Insta 360 X four, an eight K, 360 action camera. And honestly, honestly, they didn't have to do what they did with this camera. The X three was already the greatest action camera on the market, and with the X four, they literally upgraded everything. Most companies take a product and they go, ah, we added three things to slap on the box. Call it a new generation. And there it is. They legit upgraded everything. We'll talk about everything that is new today. first though, let's, let's take it for a rep. See what this action camera can do. David does not disclose any sort of sponsorship relationship, and we know that he is a sponsor because all Insta 360, sponsors or affiliates have a link to buy that camera that includes a free invisible selfie stick. Also, this video came out literally seconds after the announcement implying that he got it early, there was an embargo once it was announced, he could then talk about it in a sponsored. Relationship. Otherwise he would've got the camera before it came out, made the video, and then just released it. 'cause there wouldn't have been an embargo for him to, you know, there wouldn't have been any relationship to have prevented him from releasing that video. In fact, if he would've released the video beforehand, he would've got way more views than what he did. Anyway, so we can assume this is in fact a sponsored relationship despite not mentioning it at all, not disclosing it. Now, for comparison, let's hear the intro of Jesse Driftwood's X four video. I. This is instant three sixty's, all new X 4 360 action camera. It's an eight K, 5.7 K, 60 HDR 4K. It's got a lot of specs and we're gonna talk about it 'cause that's what we do on YouTube. This video is sponsored Byta 360. So not a review, but it is a showcase, a product I really like a lot and I've been using a lot for work, not just for this video. So love it. Okay. It is not. A review. Alright, great to know. Just a showcase. Perfect. Now I have the information that I need to watch the clip and again, make assumptions on whether or not it's right for me. Okay, cool. Let's hear, David, let's go back to the first guy. Let's hear him talking about the brand new touchscreen on the INSA 360 x four. But by far the most exciting part is a new touchscreen, a 2.5 inch touchscreen. On the X three, we already had a giant touchscreen, 2.29 inches, but now we've gone from 2.29 inches to 2.5 inches. Again, like things like this, you didn't have to, this was a big touchscreen, but now at 2.5 inches, like it's massive from 2.3 inches to 2.5 inches. He says that is the biggest difference that he is excited about. Just for reference, that is a five millimeter difference. If you take three nickels and laid them flat like on top of each other, that's actually six millimeters. So the difference between three nickels is more than the difference in screen size in this new camera. Now I'm not saying that that's not a difference. I'm not. That's cool. Look, a bigger screen. Great. But hearing him talk about it, you would think that this is life changing. And what that is is just a clear embellishment of the facts. So misleading. Okay, let's hear David talk about how great the eight K clips look, the X three was able to go up to 5.7 K 30 frames a second. This guy can now do eight K. It is wild to see the quality jump from 5.7 K to eight K to understand like what that is. That is 78% more pixels like you hear 5.7 K to eight K, you're like, oh, that's like, I dunno, like a little bit of a bump. No, it's actually 78% more pixels being shot at eight k. Then, then at 5.7 K and the X four is able to do that at H 2 65 compression, which means that even though you have 78% more pixels, you have the same file sizes as the X three at 5.7 K. So 78% more pixels, but same file size. That's pretty dope. Wow. Okay. So eight K definitely sounds amazing. You have to be shooting an eight K. That sounds great. Awesome. Now that part though, about the file sizes, how does that work? 5.7 K. These eight K files have 78% more pixels than 5.7 k, and yet with this compression, it's the exact same file size as 5.7 K. He didn't even test this because that is not true. I have the X four and anybody can test this one minute. With, INSA 360 x three, the previous generation is a 925 megabyte file, one minute with the X four at standard. So a, a lower bit rate is 1.2 gigabytes. It's 32% larger at a lower bit rate with this better compression. He's just reading off of the box. There's no real education on even why eight K is important. He talks about how great it looks, but why, you know, if everybody has a 4K tv, why would you even need eight K? I mean, to me it seems excessive, right? wrong here? I mean, he's talking about eight K and we gotta be shooting in eight k. But if I only have a 4K tv, like why? Why do I even need eight K? don't understand. Here, let's listen to this clip from Potato Jets X four video. So what's the big new update? Well, eight K resolution now, which usually I don't care that much about eight K 'cause once you get past a certain point, you can't really tell a difference. But. With 360 cameras, it's kind of a different story because I want to be able to capture me and Sam and the ground and the ocean and these cliffs, all these different angles, and then later just use the part of the frame that I wanna use. So I'm recording myself right now, but also this lizard right here. So by starting with ak, we actually get to export in 4K Now. Ah, okay, that makes perfect sense. Now I know exactly why I would want eight k over 5.7 k so that I can reframe my footage from this Sphere 360 video to a, a rectangle 4K video that you can use and, and post to YouTube. That makes perfect sense. Okay, so let's see, 78% more pixels. I wonder what the battery life is like on the new X four. Next up is the battery. Now, because we've got a larger camera, it's gonna be pulling more. It is a new battery, so if you have an X three, you upgrade to an X four, you will need all new batteries. But the nice bit about that is that we've gone from an 1800 milliamp battery to a 2,290 milliamp battery on the X four. This guy was already giving us 81 minutes of runtime on the X three. This guy now on the X four a hundred and thirty five minutes of runtime. Out of this battery that is a wild amount of runtime for a single battery on a 360 camera, two lenses, two sensors, stitching all of that together, 135 minutes of runtime. That is phenomenal. Well, wow, I mean, that sounds amazing. 135 minutes recording at eight k. I mean, that is a very impressive nu. Oh, hold on a second. Let's listen to this video also from Potato Jet, who has real world experience of using the X four for a number of weeks. Let's hear what he says about the battery life. So bigger battery, 135 minutes on 5.7 K, and 71 minutes at eight K. How does that compare to the X three? Well, if you're filming in 5.7 K, that's a lot more than we got with the X three. But if you're filming an eight k, it's, it's pretty similar, just slightly less, I think by a few minutes than the 5.7 K on X three. Oh, so that 135 minutes is at 5.7 K and you only get 71 minutes, which is only about half at eight k. Which why would you shoot at 5.7 K? Like this is an eight K camera. They keep, everybody keeps talking about how great eight K is. Eight K. Eight K, eight k, everything. Like why would they even include that number? 135 minutes at 5.7 K? That's last year's model. This is eight K. That's this the new model. Why would we shoot anything but eight K? Okay, so alright, whatever. We have 71 minutes, which is actually slightly less than the runtime of the X three, which it had at its max settings. Alright, so after talking about how great eight K is, when it comes time to talk about battery life. You're gonna give us the specs for last year's 5.7 K. Gotcha. Okay. Very, very misleading, but, I'm gonna give David one more chance. Let's hear if he thinks that we should buy the X four even if we have an X three. let's hear what he says. Okay, so the big question, if you have an X three, should you upgrade to an X four? And that, that is a difficult question my friend. The X three is already the best action camera on the market. Like I said, they didn't have to go and make this. This was already the leader and it was already amazing. But if you do have an X three and you want better image quality, higher resolution, and frame rates, better audio quality, a larger screen, 67% more battery life and removable lens covers like, yeah, you should go get an X four. It's like the pro ver, it's like, this is like the X three awesome camera. And this is like an X three pro. They took everything from the X three and they, they just made it a little better. Oh, you should buy it if you want eight K. Well, that's a race that nobody can win. Okay, but did I hear that correctly? Hold on. Lemme lemme go back to that. But if you do have an X three and you want better image quality, higher resolution and frame rates better audio quality, a larger screen, 67% more battery life and removable lens covers. If you want more resolution and 67% more battery life and you want battery image quality, higher resolution, and 67% more battery life. Hmm. Here's the thing, I bought the X four and guess what? It is an amazing camera. It is, it's great. but why inflate the specs and the features? What is the, the motivation behind that? and I'm. I'm pretty sure that Insta 360 makes the world's most popular 360 cameras. This series has to be the world's most popular. I mean, it's more popular than anything that Samsung could ever create, and I had both of their 360 cameras. It's more popular than, any other 360 brand, like Ricoh if they're definitely more in the commercial space. Insta 360 is winning the 360 game in the consumer space. It is a great. Camera. So I hear what you're saying. we heard from Potato jet and he had some, uh, some thoughts that seemed factual and everything, and that sounds great. We heard from Jesse Driftwood who like clearly disclosed, that it was a sponsored post and that it was not a review. So, is this just an issue with David Manning and, being misleading in his, content to, hopefully sell more cameras? No, it is not. And that is what makes this next part so frustrating. All right. And it goes back to the main issue of lack of transparency in influencer marketing. It's huge. So just over a month ago when Insta 360 came out with this new X 4 360 camera, we find out later. Very recently that Insta 360 was actually asking its sponsors, not to mention that the videos were sponsored. Now that's not only illegal, but it's very deceitful. Now, we found out about this because YouTuber iPhone de came out and explained exactly what Insta 360 was doing and what. Uh, exactly they requested from him. And once he did that, and once he announced I'm no longer working with Insta 360, their practices are garbage. A lot of other people came out and said the exact same thing. Now I mean, if any of my video game reviews I read, growing up stated, this game developer paid us to review this video game, I would immediately be a bit more skeptical of the validity of the review. And that's, here's the thing is I want to make perfectly clear that is not necessarily a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. Listen, I know that I'm interested in this product. I want to learn more about it. I want to hear from the people who have actually used it. That's fine. But if I know that a review is sponsored. If there's some sort of relationship with a monetary or financial gain attached to it, I'm going to take the words that they say and then just assume that their excitement is amped up about, 15 to 20%, and then adjust my perception from there. That's fine. because it's just like, photography manifesto, rule number nine. When money exchanges hands, you can no longer be biased or create what it is that you want to create because there will always be a desire to please the other party, and that's just human nature. I get it. That's fine. But by disclosing your relationship with a brand I. It allows your audience to look at your words through, slightly less rose colored glasses, if you will, and make better informed decisions. But that's not what they want. They don't want better informed decisions. They just want to sell cameras. We as humans are always looking for shortcuts. It's a survival mechanism. We want the same result with less work. I mean, who doesn't? So when. Here's an example. You see a photographer, right? You love their work. They've been shooting for decades, right? They've spent years honing their craft, learning the skills needed to take a great photo, the type of photos that you want to take, and then they say, they're reviewing a camera. This camera's great. Look at all these great photos that I was able to capture with it. In your brain, your brain says, Ooh, shortcut. And suddenly you think, wow, like this person took so long to get to where they are. I can bypass all of their mistakes and the learning curve that it took them to get here and just buy this thing that they're saying is incredible. And if it's good enough for them, I mean, I know that it's gonna be good enough for me. So what happens? Maybe you stretch further than you should financially to buy that camera gear, thinking that it's going to change your life. You get it and yeah, maybe it's good, it may be great, but it's not going to change your life. It won't take you from beginner to pro. No gear will, no piece of gear will take you from beginner to pro, but that idea is what we are being sold. If you wanna be a good photographer, you need this gear. Going back to, oh, should you upgrade to the X four if you want, the best image possible is what he says. If you want the best image possible and what, what that subtext is, is that this gear will make you good, and that is how you make money. You don't make money. Selling a long and hard journey of years of practice and introspection. Trust me, when you can get people to believe that the gear will make them better, you are gonna sell cameras, but you will also crush so many would be great photographers. Photographers who want to be great, so they buy the product and just don't fundamentally understand how to best use it. Or worse, they don't know what they even wanna say. And when you don't know what you wanna say, it's like it doesn't matter how loud your megaphone is, it's not gonna make any impact. And when you don't get the results that you want, it's like, oh, don't worry. The better one that fixes your problem is just right around the corner. And then now we're led into this perpetual, quote unquote the next one disease that is so damaging because it stops you from making any real progress. Any progress I. My wife has like a, she has like 143 day streak on Duolingo to, to learn Spanish. And just recently OpenAI announced that they're introducing real time translation for like 97% of the spoken languages on Earth, which is effectively making her need to like learn Spanish Zero. And yet she keeps showing up to Duolingo. Why does she do that? Why do this when you have a real time translator? Why does she feel the need to continue learning a language, which is a very difficult task? The reason is because of the self-fulfillment that she gets out of it. It feels good to be able to do something yourself. It feels good to do something hard, you know? You have this feeling of value. You're valuable. You worked it out with your brain. You're able to think more creatively and you should be proud of the things that you work hard on. Not just throw them away because there's a, an easier way to do it all. Kelvin Kipton, I think I said that right. He ran the Chicago Marathon. He has the world record, ran the Chicago Marathon in two hours and 35 seconds. He ran 26.2 miles in two hours and 35 seconds. Should we not be impressed because I can drive 26.2 miles in less than a quarter of that time. Like, no, it's impressive that he did that. It's impressive that he did it on its own. It's impressive that he did it with his own two legs. Like that is an incredible feat. But if Kelvin just listened to the marketing hype of cars of like, Hey, travel 26 miles in an average of 24 minutes in a car, he never would've put in the work to better himself and accomplish something great on his own, right? Gear is good. But skill is infinitely better and you can't buy skill and companies gotta sell something. So how did we get here? That's the next step. How did we get here? So to explain this, I'm going to break down exactly how influencers make money. Okay? Let's just stick to YouTube for this example. But the bones are the same kind of for everything else. Instagram, Facebook, blogs, TikTok, it's all the same, right? As an influencer, you make money by selling attention, okay? As an influencer, you have attention. Say you have on YouTube, maybe a hundred thousand subscribers. And in today's world, I mean, you just subscribe to the people who you like and, and who you trust, right? So because of the YouTube creator program, you actually earn money from views. If a thousand people watch your video, that's a thousand people that YouTube can actually show ads to. And then brands pay YouTube to show ads before a video, and then YouTube just splits that money with you. So in essence, more views equal more money. Cool. Okay. We understand how that side works, but also. A brand can work directly with you. If a brand sees, hey, this guy has a hundred thousand people who like and trust him, what if, we offer to buy your audience's attention in the form of, you making a video. So they approach you and they, they want you to make a video for them and show it to your audience, right? And at first they don't offer you money, but maybe, they will give you a brand new, not yet released $500 camera free to review. And that's pretty sweet. I mean, you just maybe got into YouTube 'cause it's like fun to talk about, cameras and stuff like that. And here's a company who's willing to give you like a brand new unreleased camera, like for free. Like that is exciting. So you get the camera, you review it, and then when you release it, you release the video the day that the camera is announced. Now, because that camera already just has some excitement because a brain just announced a new camera. When people go searching for information on that camera, your video comes up. Like first, right? So your video gets way more views than like all of your other videos because now you have people searching for this thing that's brand new and there's just no competition on it. And that brings you not only more money from more views, because now a lot of people are, searching for that video. But also it brings you new subscribers from people who are looking to learn more about this new camera and they liked your video and they think, oh, maybe I'd like to learn more from, or watch more of these videos as well. And you get a free camera out of it, like jackpot. So your audience grows. So next year comes around, they give you the upgraded camera, and they sign you up as an affiliate. Okay? So as an affiliate, every time somebody clicks a link to purchase a camera through, your own affiliate link, you earn a, a commission, sometimes it's 10%, sometimes it's 15%. So you know, for this $500 camera, that could be 75 bucks per camera. Let's say if you have a hundred thousand subscribers, 1% of your audience buys the camera. I. That's $75,000 that you just made in affiliate income just for reviewing an awesome, brand new camera that you also get to keep. Wow. It does not get any better than that. Am I right? So let's imagine for a second. What you would do when next year comes around and a brand new camera comes out and it's just kind of a spec bump, right? It's nothing major. It's improved shore, but it's nothing groundbreaking. What do you say? Do you say, yeah, this is a nice camera, but if you already have last year's model, like you don't need to buy this one, wait till the next one, you're gonna sell like four cameras through your link. That's not, a sizable income and the brand is probably gonna decide not to work with you anymore because you didn't speak favorably about them. Oh, no. So now you went from, $75,000 plus the YouTube creator income for this brand new camera plus tons of new subscribers to now you gotta look for that nine to five job again. You wouldn't wanna do it like I get it. You wouldn't wanna do it. Nobody would wanna do it. Nobody. In fact, listen to this clip from iPhone. Do. Who's the, the guy from YouTube who exposed Insta three sixty's practices here? I didn't know what to do. It was really depressing. The next thing was, NAV. And at NAV, every creator I saw was complaining about them. Like every creator that we chatted about was complaining about. I also got some dms, which I'm not gonna share which shows that they demanded the same thing. Some of the content creators dropped Insert 360. Some of them dropped after my post. Some of them already dropped just like I did. I think X four did was a tipping point. All of those creators were scared to come forward because they knew that it would kill their revenue and that it would kill their subscriber growth. This system that we have relied upon that we have trusted. the system that was, our guide when we felt lost and unsure. this system that sold us education is broken. The system can be trusted in the same way that it once was the system that was once our guide now misguides us, the system that sold us education now. It just sells infotainment. If you're feeling pretty dumb right now. Me too. You're not alone. This isn't new. but like we've reached this point to where it's just like, there is nothing else that we can do about this. And I bought Theta 360 x four. I mean, I do, I have the camera. I love it. But again, I knew exactly what I wanted it for before buying it. So I wasn't expecting it to be something that it wasn't. And like I said, the camera's really good. It's arguably the best consumer 360 camera that you could possibly buy. Now, will it change your life? It's very unlikely. But do you know what will change your life? Learning the skills that are required in photography. I know that's boring, right? You're out there saying, oh, here's my wallet, take my money. No, you're not. 'cause it's not fun. It's not sexy to say that. every time I get the urge to buy a camera, I tell myself that for the last year and a half, my daily driver, everyday camera has been a 10-year-old Sony point and shoot. It is 10 years old. I don't even know what the megapixels are, honestly. There's a shutter lag. The exposure is not always perfectly consistent, but you know what? It fits my need for an everyday camera perfectly. And I'm the only person who knows my needs because of my experience and my skills. I know exactly the type of everyday, behind the scenes family life camera that I need because I know the type of photos that I want in those situations. I don't know the photos that you would want in an everyday family camera, but I know this, I know exactly what I need, I'm not gonna take this to a wedding. I'm not gonna shoot portraits with it. I didn't shoot my eclipse photo with it. There are much better technical cameras, but this 10-year-old point in shoot allows me to take the perfect candid photos of my kids and our everyday adventures, meaning that all. Modern features and, x times faster auto focus and, x percent lower noise at base ISO and, an improved image buffer. It's like these things are great, but they're not a requisite for a good photo. And if shooting a 10-year-old point shoot camera has taught me anything, it's that investing in yourself is a infinitely better investment than investing in gear. For every single dollar that you spend on a new camera, you will have to spend that dollar again in like five years, but for every dollar you spend on yourself, on your skills, on your abilities. That dollar will become more valuable in five years than it is today. I mean, from a practical sense, that could mean that you can save money on buying last year's model. That you can buy a used camera or, or buy a point and shoot. I don't know. you know what your skills of, of seeing and framing and composition. What those are, you know, your skill of, of timing and waiting for the right moment, you know, the skill of, of seeing light and being able to apply that to each and every photo, no matter what camera you buy, even if it's last year's model, or if it's a third of the price of that new one with the 14% faster auto focus, wind trekking, fast moving animals on the Serengeti. Like, who cares? So I guess this is as good of a time as any to tell you that this episode is sponsored by me and my free picture, perfect Camera Settings workbook, where I'm gonna walk you through 10 popular types of photography and the settings that you need to get started. You know the drill, you can grab it for yourself totally free over@pictureperfectsettings.com. But think about this, right? People today are buying film cameras again. Film cameras, like 40-year-old cameras, where like at best you can get like an eight megapixel scan. Why would they do that? Are they doing it because they're dumb? No. No, they're not. They're doing it because one, it either fits a need that they have, or two, they already know how to use a camera, and you can still create great images with 40-year-old technology, you don't need the newest. They may tell you that you do, but trust me, you don't. Now, Here's this idea that I've had, right? Because the question then becomes, how do you know who to trust? And I get it right? These cameras are a sizable purchase and you don't want to make the wrong decision. So who do you trust? I am trying out this new concept that has been helpful to me so far, and I would encourage you to try it out for yourself as well, where you build your own personal board of photography advisors. So how does this work? If you want to participate in this great step one unsubscribe from everybody on YouTube. Don't worry. The YouTube algorithm knows you well enough. It's still gonna keep showing you all of those people's videos. You're not gonna miss a thing. Step two. Grab a piece of paper and write down four categories, creativity, technical gear and theory, and then a fifth column for business if, if you're interested in that. But then from your own brain, I want you to think about the YouTube channels that you watch and write down two or three YouTube channels for each category. What channels ignite your creativity? What channels help you with the technical side of photography? When you feel stuck, what channels do you trust for gear reviews? What channels educate you on, new topics that you are unaware of in photography? And lastly, what channels make the world of running a photography business make the most sense. Once you're done with that, rather than just scrolling YouTube and hoping that something pops up, that is interesting, just go right to your page of channels that you subscribe to and whatever your mood is, or whatever you need, click into that exact YouTube channel and get your answers or, or be inspired. I find that when we put our trust in just two to three teachers in like a specific category, that's enough to get a diverse enough set of information that you need without being completely overwhelmed. Because look, we can take anything and pick it apart. what's the best, what's the worst part of this forever. But just get two to three teachers in a very specific category, and that's all the information that you need to make a decision. You are gonna find so much conflicting information that you're gonna get overwhelmed. You know you're gonna be worse often when you started. So why do that? Don't do that. Just use your new board of advisors. So once you, what, what's that? Oh, you, you only have channels listed that you watch for gear reviews. Uh, Yeah. No, no, no, no. you're not the only one actually. I think that's a pretty common thing, you know? My board of directors, why, you know, I'm gonna share them with you. I'm gonna put my board of director YouTube channels in the show notes of this episode. So if you want to check those out, just go ahead and swipe up on this episode. Check out the show notes, and you can see, it's about, uh, let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 different channels for you. Two for you to check out. Just for you to get an idea of, of where to start, because honestly, that's all that you need to know. You need to know where to get started, and then you can branch out from there. Now look again, every company, it is their job to sell us stuff That's not new. It's expected, I'm not gonna be mad at a company for trying to sell us stuff, but the issue here today is the way that they're going about it. It's not just one YouTuber. It's not just one company. These are practices that are being implemented by every company towards every influencer, every person who has a sizable audience, they're being pressured to make the exact same changes, to not disclose their sponsorship agreements or arrangements to not disclose that it is a, a showcase, but rather a review to not even, test it for yourself, but just simply put out a video and just read the box. Like gimme a break. I can get all that information from a sales page. I hope that you feel better equipped to see sponsored posts now and see through the marketing to determine whether or not it's the right gear for you. We're always gonna be marketed to, but you need to look at it through your lens and not their lens. I watched all of the X four videos and I still bought it knowing that many of these claims were embellished. Why? Because, again, I knew exactly why I needed the camera, and it still fit all of those needs for me. So do me a favor. Next time you want to buy something, just ask yourself, how will I use this? Or better yet, will I use this right? It looks cool, but will I actually use that? Try to take an objective look past the cool form factor, and really ask yourself, will you use it? If you stay diligent, if you stay curious, if you keep shooting, not only will your wallet thank you from all of the useless purchases that you didn't end up making, but your future self will. Thank you for prioritizing building skill over accumulating gear. That's it for today.