Hi everybody, this is Ty Schwartz with Snap Lens and we are here driving again in
the back hill country of Texas.
It is such a beautiful, it is flat, it is hilly, there is cacti everywhere.
I have never been this deep into Texas and I'll tell you what, it is absolutely
beautiful.
So one of the things that popped up as I'm doing this drive in Texas.
is I love looking I actually I do I like I like watching tick tock I'll tell you it's
a nice little - brain break - it's kind of like - when I play the train game I have a
train game that.
Allows me to - get my thoughts together and think in a linear manner.
I think sometimes that my brain - over goes.
And over thinks things.
And so I need a brain break and so I'll turn on tick tock.
And I am that person that sits there and scrolls and watches tik -toks for two
hours, and I'm like, okay Where did time go and why am I still awake?
but that's that's that's the really cool thing about social media is If you if you
manage your social media time and you think about what you're doing what you're
not doing You know and you have a purpose for it.
So for me looking at tik -toks is a brain break
The same thing for Instagram.
Now I'm not, I would love to say that I'm on Instagram way more than I am.
I'm on Instagram just enough to know what's going on and looking at what other
photographers are doing and just seeing some really cool images.
I always find it interesting.
There's a lot of Instagram models that they're learning and it's interesting to
watch them.
grow from the first couple of times that they've modeled something to after a year
or two as they've matured as a model.
And that's kind of what my topic is today, is the maturity of our understanding of
what impact is in the world of photography.
Now, impact is one of the elements of the 12 elements of a merited image.
And I think that for me, when it comes to impact,
I think about TikTok and I think about Instagram and Facebook.
I don't do so much with X.
It's more, X is so political that I just can't do it.
But I do like social media because it allows you to scroll.
If you don't like something, you can scroll on.
I typically don't make a lot of comments because if I disagree with something, next
thing I know it is just nothing but.
intolerant people be visceral.
And that's not something that's a lot of fun.
So what I do is as I'm scrolling, I'm looking around and I'm saying, oh, this is
interesting.
I stop what I'm doing.
I'm looking at something.
I'm really interested in what I'm watching and learning when I'm seeing this stuff.
But it's interesting to me.
So whether it's video or it's a photograph, it's creating an impact.
It's emotionally.
attaching me to something that's going on in somebody else's life or it's connecting
me with a vision that somebody has.
It's given me an idea for sometimes I'll have an idea that's floating around in my
head and I can't necessarily get it on paper or describe it or I've described it
100 % wrong and I've tried things and I've made it wrong.
But by scrolling through social media sometimes I get a great idea based on
somebody's idea and then I take that idea and then I add my personality to it and
for me, I'm adding my impact and my understanding and my level of
Communication visual communication to that now I'm not going to go out and I'm not
going to copy somebody verbatim.
I mean, I think that is you know, I
not as creative as you could be.
But if I take parts and pieces of other people's ideas and then I turn that and I
grow that into my own idea, then I've created impact for not only me, but
hopefully the people who look at what the content I'm creating, they're saying,
okay, so that's different, that's unique, that's really impactful for me, and I'm
helping them come up with ideas or visions, and that's what...
I think being a creative analytic is, is how do I take and I analyze other people's
work and then I take those ideas and then I create it and mesh it into my own.
And I think that's kind of a simplified way of saying, hey, I'm doing a mashup.
There's no way that anybody would ever want to hear me sing, so I'm not going to
do a singing mashup.
You definitely don't want to see my, see me dance.
My wife Nicole has.
banned me from dancing in all 50 states and pretty much every country we've ever
visited.
She knows that I have zero rhythm to dance whatsoever.
I could carry a tune in a bucket and the bucket would sound better.
I've tried to pick up musical instruments.
I have zero ability to create beautiful music.
It's kind of like a dying goose squeaking at Hallhorn.
It's horrible.
singing abilities, but when it comes with a camera I'm able to create and design and
tell stories and create impactful emotional events for people and I think I
think to me that is That is important When I look at my images, I I want to have
Memories, I want to know what I've done Over the last couple of days.
I want to know what I did last month.
I want to know I
You know, I want to be able to tell my life stories in the images that I created.
And it doesn't have to include me in those images, which is what I love about being a
photographer is there's so many images and so many stories of just watching people do
amazing things and then trying to figure out how to tell their story and create
impact for the viewer.
Because I want the viewer to say, wow, that's a great image.
What are they doing?
you know, and find out information.
One of the things I loved about the Navy is the images that I created.
Got to tell the story about sailors doing stuff around the world.
I absolutely love telling humanitarian mission stories because, you know, you
have a sailor that's from Iowa that's never been out of the country going into,
you know, Indonesia and helping people who need help.
I think that is an impactful story, but how do you tell that story?
How do you create the impact where people want to ask questions?
And I think that is one of the challenges that you have as a photographer because
for me, I don't think I could ever be a bulk photographer.
I could never be a high school portrait photographer that just went into an
elementary school or a middle school and just photographed every single kid the
same exact lighting, the same exact pose.
click click click click that to me I hated doing that I've always hated doing that.
Because there's no - for me there's not a lot of creativity it's just a lot of
people coming in sitting down smiling next person - and it's I could be a factory
workers very repetitive - but what I do love about photojournalism or creating
high school senior portraits is.
You know what's your personality what what's impactful to you.
And what do you want to tell the world about yourself?
Because you have to imagine 10 years from now, are you going to still be playing
that instrument?
10 years from now, are you still going to be running track?
Or are you going to be running at all?
I mean, I know after I was injured and I broke my leg, it was so painful to run
that it just was very, it was life changing.
So I just want.
people to see when they create when I create images what's changed in their
lives and one of the books that I read as a kid.
Was a book about transcendental analysis and basically how do you say hello to
somebody after you haven't seen them in a while and that's what I want that impact
to be is hey I know this person but.
Is that the same person in this photograph or is it a different person.
What impact have they have on my life?
Or what impact have they had on other people's lives?
What story is happening here that's impactful to my emotional state when I
look at that image?
So those are the things I think about when I'm thinking about impact and creating
images and telling stories.
I think that it's real important for me to understand that just that one image.
life changing impactful image - I remember - and I know I'm running out of time I try
to keep these down to ten eleven minutes - one of the most impactful photographs that
that.
I took was I was on mission.
Photographic Marines.
And one of the Marines was sitting up on the A.
V.
- and they were leaving the back of the ship and I just happen to photograph him
sitting.
On top of the A.
V.
And I made the front cover of one of the Navy military magazines.
And I was out photographing, I think George Bush had gone to Naval Air Station,
Coronado.
And his mother was there.
And somehow she had gotten hold of the PAO.
The PAO walked her over, introduced her to me, and she let me know that...
That image was the most impactful image of her life because six months after I had
taken that image, her son had been killed in Afghanistan.
And that was one of her favorite images of her son doing what he loved.
And I think for me, the emotional impact of that hit home more than any other
photograph I've ever taken because...
I was able to capture what I thought was just a moment in time and I thought, oh
wow, cool photo.
And that's as deep as I got with that photograph until I met the mother.
And then I realized that as I'm creating these images, I'm telling the story of
somebody's son, somebody's daughter, somebody's significant other.
And that is more impactful and life changing.
not just for them, but for me as a photographer.
And I'm seeing things that I'd never saw before I even had that moment with his
mother.
And even telling the story now, I get kind of choked up because of how impacted I was
with that level of sincerity and honesty from mom.
Anyway, so thank you for listening.
I am Ty Swartz with Snap Lens Education.
And I...
would love for you to check us out on YouTube, check us out on our SnapLens
.blog, visit SnapLens .com and see if there's anything there that you like.
Our goal is to help people learn about photography, just kind of get insights
into the photographer's mind and just really just tell stories and think about
why we do what we do as photographers.
And I just absolutely love everything.
photographer.
Thank you and stay tuned for the next episode.