2 days ago
9
By Spencer Cox No Comments
Published On January 1, 2025
From me, Nasim, Libor, Jason, and the rest of the Photography Life team, we want to wish you all a very Happy New Year! May your 2025 be filled with joyful moments, good times with family and friends, and beautiful light.
Almost exactly one year ago today, Nasim and I had a conversation about the state of our website and the internet as a whole. That day, we talked about the growth of AI-generated junk websites, the virus of social media, the proliferation of “content farms” written by non-photographers, and the stranglehold of aggressive advertisements on what used to be an enjoyable activity – namely, reading and learning about photography online.
During that conversation, he and I decided to immediately remove third-party ads from Photography Life, thereby eliminating our biggest source of revenue with no alternative in place. We weren’t sure if this decision would spell the death of the website or something of a rebirth, but we felt it was essential to try. And the reaction from our readers was nothing short of remarkable. I probably don’t need to remind you what happened next, but I would like to put some numbers to it:
- In 2024, we wrote 245 articles on Photography Life…
- Including 32 lens reviews…
- Plus 162 extra posts on our new Member Page…
- Including 12 photo critique livestreams…
- Along with 2 eBooks and 2 multi-hour video workshops…
- All while showing zero third-party ads on Photography Life!
During that time, we created a community of photographers on our Member Page from scratch to 2706 photographers, while also crossing over 100,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. In a world where traditional blogs are dying out – and camera sales have slowed – you showed that it’s still possible to survive and thrive as a dedicated photography website.
I hope you’ll forgive me for slowing the pace of articles a bit during these last two weeks while our team prepares for an even bigger 2025. We’ve got a series of big lens reviews coming up, along with two new Online Workshops nearly ready for publication, and that’s just in January! Meanwhile, we will always be available any time you have questions about photography, our gear reviews, or anything else.
My two biggest passions in life are photography, and Photography Life. This website has always been a labor of love from day one, and the best part of my job is connecting with other photographers to improve our skills together. I think it’s fair to say that 2024 was the biggest and most unusual year in Photography Life’s history, and I’m very glad you were here to share it with us.
With that, our team wishes you a very Happy New Year!
May your 2025 be merry and bright!
English (US) ·