This post is basically a collection of rants I have about photography during modern times. What makes it spicy is that it doesn’t restrict only to Instagram/internet behavior, but also some things I see in real life while interacting with people at events, photowalks, etc.
Over time, I wrote articles here on this platform addressing these topics in regular writings rather than rants. If I remember a post I did about a specific topic, I’ll add a link to it.
I appreciate when people expose themselves and are truthful like that, so I think you will appreciate knowing me a little bit more as well. Let me enumerate my top 10 list of displeasing acts and annoying photography topics I have observed over the last decade.
10. The film vs. Digital conversation
I put this at number 10 on the list because, fortunately, it's a conversation that is fading away and getting better. Film photographers are awesome and humble enough to disengage with this bait. As polarized as the world is nowadays, all mediocre people need are two things to compare and elect a winner. This topic isn’t different. When someone comes to me asking which one is better, I tell them I need to <insert excuse> and get away from that person. I even recorded a podcast the other day to talk about this.
9. A certain company’s toxicity
I don't need to say the name for you to recognize this company. I can just say they were the leaders in photography in the 90s and then abandoned their customers to sell motion pictures to Hollywood because money talks, babe. Now that film is re-emerging, these opportunists come with product renaming and pretend they give a fuck about community, while they're selling the same product with different packaging. They make customers believe that resolving some cross-company politics is for customers' benefit. The fact this company isn't giant is because they are politicians, not lovers of the business they operate.
8. People who think photography = gear
Once in NY, I met a person who is proud to say they are “Team Alpha,” referring to a specific camera model from a specific brand. I was so sorry to hear that, especially because this person posts bad photos in their portfolio and literally uses equipment the wrong way, like a speedlite strobe pointing to the sky (will that reflect on Mars?). This person is always advocating for the brand rather than the art, has read zero photography books, and is ignorant. I don’t think this is the way, unless you want to work as a salesperson for that brand (and even then, some brands like Leica require you to be culturally invested).
This behavior makes me sad, and there’s nothing I can do to help that person out without having it get far from me.
It’s not a big deal though, just a rant of mine. Let people be happy with whatever they want, Raf ¯_(ツ)_/¯!
7. 100K+ YouTubers who think they’re God
This one happened during an event in NYC. I wasn’t there, but it was so obvious and ugly that a friend of mine came to comment about it with me. The story goes like this: there was a photography event in the city, one of these that lasts the whole day, with panels, YouTubers talking stuff, brands showcasing their nice products, etc. It was a nice event, well organized.
After the conference day, everyone at the event headed to a bar for the night, making the bar fully crowded with most people from the event. This part is important to say because I strongly believe the folks I’m going to criticize would not behave like that if they were at a regular bar with people who don’t know them.
The “famous” YouTubers were cutting the line to get their beer, while the rest of the people waited in line for tens of minutes.
Everybody saw that, Mr... (I won’t say the name, of course).
Note that there are some incredible YouTubers out there, including Nick Lopresti, Max Adams, the Petapixel guys (these are super humble and approachable), David Imel (<3), and many more.
I know people are just trying to make a living out of photography videos on the internet, so it isn’t hard to be a decent person. Do better, YouTubers.
6. Substack folks and their engagement bait notes
This is a practice that I’ve been observing on the internet, and it is worse on Substack because it is an emerging platform with people eager to make genuine connections and grow together.
I noticed that some big Substackers create notes like “Photographers, post your work here” or “Let’s meet each other in this Note,” and nothing else. No further action.
Holy dears, people see what you are doing.
In case you don’t know, they are gaming the system by having people comment on their notes just to generate engagement, while genuinely not caring about what these people post.
Here’s what they can do if they really want to help: get the people who commented and recommend your publication in theirs. Whenever people subscribe to their giant, tens-of-thousands-of-followers publications, a percentage of subscribers will also subscribe to you.
That’s how they can help, in case they’re genuinely interested.
5. Photographers shoppers
This is a common one, and sometimes I fit myself in this category (who says I can’t criticize myself)?
There is a very fine difference between being a photographer and being someone who feels inspired to photograph due to new equipment.
Which one are you? I am not gonna lie, I like photographing with what I have, but sometimes my GAS speaks louder and I can’t resist getting new gear to feel inspired to photograph something. I am not perfect, and I sometimes put myself in this very list.
Here’s a possible solution: temporarily exchange gear with friends. That’s an interesting way to save money and not have to put your hands in your credit card in order to get inspired to photograph something.
I wrote about this here:
4. Photographers who make photography the least important thing when they are out photographing
“Let’s go have lunch” is the phrase I most worry about hearing when I am photographing with a group.
Oh shit, here we go.
They will get in the restaurant and stay there for three fucking hours while golden hour is becoming pee hour (same color, different meaning).
Here’s how it works, in case you missed science classes during middle school: the Sun orbits the Earth and a complete spin takes 24 hours. Thanks to humanity, who is greatly boiling the planet and causing “El Niño v2.0 - AI edition,” half of the year is either too cold or too hot to go out and photograph.
That reduces your “photography window” to roughly 6 hours per day. During these 6 hours, do yourself a favor and value photography. Value the light. Pay attention to the light, to the Sun. Leave the restaurant for dinner, when there’s no more light. Grab a quick sandwich, continue photographing during the afternoon, and don’t miss the golden hour.
3. Photowalk people photographing the very same thing
Monkey see great scene. Monkey press shutter button.
I think people don’t realize that you can get the most out of photowalks when socializing with other photographers. You’re not gonna get your photography Oscar award from a photo in a photowalk.
I am not stating this as a perfect guy who never did it. In fact, there are many nice shots I took during photowalks, but they are not particularly unique, ya know?
I’m not saying it’s prohibited to do that. Just be happy the way you are, that’s the most important.
2. Photography creators and the low bar
This one is a reflection of number 1. The other day, I was browsing social media, and I saw a guy saying “Are you familiar with the sLoW ShuTtEr TeChNiQuE?”
Curious, I watched the rest of the reel, only to discover that what the guy called the “slow shutter technique” consisted of photographs taken with a slower shutter speed, hence blurring what’s in motion.
Or worse, the ones that call any ordinary thing a “life hack!”, these are hillarious!
The other day I saw a guy saying that increasing the ISO on your camera is a life hack.
What kind of world are we living in right now?
1. Instagram
This one deserves a special place in the fucking hell.
To me, this platform is the number one destroyer of photography on Earth. Little by little, over decades, it imposed the vertical format, then promoted extremely saturated images, then it started showing ads in an insane 1:2 ratio. My Instagram feed is at a point where I basically see 2 posts per ad. Right now, it is full of AI Slop, accounts that steal other people’s content with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, reels with hundreds of images displayed in dozens of seconds, doomscrolling, dopamine needs, uncurated volume, the attention economy that replaced image quality, Meta glasses, etc. The list is infinite.
Some people say that Instagram didn’t destroy photography, just transformed it. Well, okay, you can tell it transformed it, but in my opinion, it transformed photography by trying to turn it into a garbage can.
I feel that we, real photographers, storytellers, and film advocates, are the last frontier to preserve art, history, and good-quality content before Mark destroys everything once and for all in trade for his trillions of dollars.
Instagram is the number one thing I hate about photography in 2026.
As an additional note with underestimated long-term social impact, the hunting for likes made it worse for people under social disadvantage to get serious photographic representation. I even reflected about this in a podcast episode here in CC.
Love your advice to swap equipment when suffering from GAS. A bright spot in a depressing — but all too true! — post. Lots of food for thought.
Hey Raf, I can relate well to most of what you are saying in your rants. Insta is without a doubt the definition of evil, however, given that we all say so, why is it still there? I have no other social media than this - substack - and I have now given up on Notes entirely, because I no longer wish to feel like I am always behind. It is like death-scrolling on those other platforms. It cannot continue to eat up my time. I subscribe to those I care about. I now have time to read them all. I may be slow, but make a point of doing so. I like the interaction, comments and questions people raise. I will keep writing my Posts, I will keep up keeping up with my subscriptions. That is what I will do. And as I so often say these days... the rest is just noise!