From me, Nasim, Libor, Jason, and the remainder of the Pictures Life crew, we wish to want you all a really Joyful New Yr! Might your 2025 be stuffed with joyful moments, good occasions with household and mates, and delightful mild.
Nearly precisely one 12 months in the past as we speak, Nasim and I had a dialog concerning the state of our web site and the web as an entire. That day, we talked concerning the progress of AI-generated junk web sites, the virus of social media, the proliferation of “content material farms” written by non-photographers, and the stranglehold of aggressive ads on what was an satisfying exercise – particularly, studying and studying about pictures on-line.
Throughout that dialog, he and I made a decision to right away take away third-party adverts from Pictures Life, thereby eliminating our greatest income with no various in place. We weren’t certain if this resolution would spell the demise of the web site or one thing of a rebirth, however we felt it was important to attempt. And the response from our readers was nothing wanting outstanding. I in all probability don’t must remind you what occurred subsequent, however I want to put some numbers to it:
- In 2024, we wrote 245 articles on Pictures Life…
- Together with 32 lens opinions…
- Plus 162 additional posts on our new Member Web page…
- Together with 12 photograph critique livestreams…
- Together with 2 eBooks and 2 multi-hour video workshops…
- All whereas displaying zero third-party adverts on Pictures Life!
Throughout that point, we created a neighborhood of photographers on our Member Web page from scratch to 2706 photographers, whereas additionally crossing over 100,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. In a world the place conventional blogs are dying out – and digicam gross sales have slowed – you confirmed that it’s nonetheless doable to outlive and thrive as a devoted pictures web site.
I hope you’ll forgive me for slowing the tempo of articles a bit throughout these final two weeks whereas our crew prepares for an excellent larger 2025. We’ve acquired a collection of massive lens opinions arising, together with two new On-line Workshops almost prepared for publication, and that’s simply in January! In the meantime, we’ll all the time be accessible any time you may have questions on pictures, our gear opinions, or anything.
My two greatest passions in life are pictures, and Pictures Life. This web site has all the time been a labor of affection from day one, and the very best a part of my job is connecting with different photographers to enhance our abilities collectively. I believe it’s honest to say that 2024 was the largest and most uncommon 12 months in Pictures Life’s historical past, and I’m very glad you have been right here to share it with us.
With that, our crew needs you a really Joyful New Yr!
