Today’s Rant by Joe Farace
A social media influencer is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet.—Wikipedia
I used to be somewhat active on social media, although much less so these days. I’m not on Facebook for reasons and I’ve bailed on Twitter and Pinterest these days too. I don;t participate in any of these sites/apps mainly because I don’t think any of them do anything to help me, my brand (if I actually have one,) or my blogs or YouTube channel. My thoughts on this topic haven’t changed much since my post of a few years ago called Does Social Media Help Your Photography Business? If you have time, you might give it a read .
Instead, these days you’ll find me on Instagram where all of my posts are photographs that are related to this blog pr maybe just images that I wanted to make and are not driven by astroturfing and payola. It’s just photos I’ve shot and am still making. Why? To paraphrase Quentin Tarantino, “because i love making photographs!”
I don’t consider myself a decision influencer
Why? Starting with the fact that I also don’t consider myself a celebrity; I’m just a photographer and a guy who’s written a bunch of books, lots of magazine articles and tons of blog posts abut photography—digital and film. I’m not employed, personally sponsored or paid by any camera, lens or software company company, their public relations agencies or any combination thereof to write positive comments about a particular camera, lens or whatever on social media or anywhere else.
And no photo-related company or PR group pays me to write what you read here, on my car photography blog or in any of my previous magazine stories or books. None of these companies give me free cameras or pay me to stand up at trade shows and ooh-and-aah into a microphone over their latest cameras or lenses. (The ads you see on this site are products I actually use and have used for many years. I appreciate the current advertisers’ faith in me and hope that you will support them and in turn me.)
Except when I’m writing a review, all of the cameras and lenses mentioned on this blog were purchased with my own money and were not payment-in-kind or kick-backs from camera companies or their PR agencies. Any equipment I receive for review from camera or lens companies is returned to the company after I finish writing the review, although I suspect that is not the case for some other bloggers and YouTubers.
Because people often ask me about the kind of gear that I use, most of the equipment I own is listed in the Gear section, so it’s there for them to see. Some of my cameras were gifts from my wife, Mary, and she doesn’t care what I write about, only that I have fun with these cameras.
In Reality
With a few notable expectations, not every camera or lens manufacturer will lend me equipment to review for this blog. Is it because I won’t guarantee them a good review? I honestly don’t know but while these same companies are unfailingly polite when I ask about reviewing a lens or camera, they never send me any equipment to review. So if you wonder why certain brands of cameras aren’t mentioned on this blog, now you know why.
There was a time when gear that I reviewed was from many different manufacturers were provided to me by a third-party retailer who made no demands on me beyond asking that I write my true thoughts and return the equipment to them within 30 days. They don’t do that anymore and I don’t know why. I’m not complaining; I try to live in the real world. Such is the state of the paradigm shift that has ravaged the photographic industry since digital imaging began and the effect of social media hit it oh-so-long ago.
In everything I write here, I try to give my honest opinion about cameras, lenses and software and tell the truth about them because I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror without being embarrassed. Since my first magazine article about photography appeared in the late and wonderful magazine Photomethods back in 1981, everything I’ve written has been in honest service to my readers. I’ve carried that same approach into everything I’ve written since then including more blog posts than I could count.
To end on a positive note, I want to thank each and every one of you for reading this. This blog and my car photography blog are a labor of love for me. I started both of them because I wanted to share my photographic experiences with others and that continues to be my philosophy to this very day.
All of the blog posts you see are made possible by people like you. If you would like to support what I do on this site and my car photography blog through an inexpensive Patreon subscription (with special benefits) or a one-time donation, please click here. And If you do I would like to thank you very much.
if you would like to read an interesting and thought-provoking book about social media. I suggest you pick up a copy of Digital Vertigo: How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us by Andrew Keen. Used copies are available on Amazon for $7.18 as I write this. The Kindle version is $3.51 for those who prefer a digital format.