Too Many Photos — STREET SILHOUETTES

During my hiatus from photography, I unexpectedly reconnected with my petrol head roots. It all started when I descended down the rabbit hole of journalistic automotive content on Youtube. Ed Bolian of Vinwiki was the first. Then it was Tyler Hoover of Hoovie’s Garage and Freddy Hernandez of Tavarish. But, my interest made a sharp right turn when I discovered Jason Cammisa, formerly of Motor Trends and Issimi and presently of the Hagerty Network. There is nothing I love more than Mr. Cammisa’s RevElations and Icons web drop. Nothing!

Needless to say, the rabbit hole led me to a series of automotive excesses. That includes two three pedal cars amongst a hot hatch, a grand tourer, and a sports car - which isn’t enough. With that being the case, I have my sights set on some American muscle at the moment - all because of Mr. Cammisa’s bad influence. And, I can’t get enough of Mr. Cammisa and the automotive insights of other automotive journalists. So, it was only natural that I started to look for new sources, since I’ve pretty much exhausted the playlist from my existing sources.

As such, my exploration led me to Mr. Cammisa’s Carmudgeon dual, Derek Tam (hyphen) Scott of Issimi. Next, I found Matt Watson of Carwow, the Grand Tour spinoff Drive Tribe, Thomas Holland and James Engelsman of Throttle House, Donut Media, and of course Larry Chen of the Hagerty Network and the absolute final word on photographing car culture. In my opinion, there is no more prolific automotive journalist than Larry Chen! How Mr. Chen publishes so regularly, at that level of professionalism and scope of content, is beyond expectation.

Pearl District, Portland, Oregon - Leica M11 + Leica APO 35mm f/2 Summicron ASPH-M

The willingness to share is one of Mr. Chen’s most notable attributes. His videos are generally well over twenty minutes in length, shared at least three times a week. The range of his videos span all over the world from the United States to Europe to East Asia. On top of that, Mr. Chen - being the absolute final word in photographing car culture - also shares photos of cars on social media. In my opinion, no one else shares as many car photos than Mr. Chen. Within a single week, it is not uncommon for Mr. Chen to share over a hundred photos of cars.

That said, is sharing over a hundred photos a week a tad over exuberant? I mean, there has been weeks when it feels like a few hundred photos have been shared. The breadth of his photos ranges from cool cars he spots in car meets, drift cars going at a circuit, and monumental builds. If that is not enough, the depth of his photos covers every angle of the car he’s photographing in multiple locales. Frankly, nothing is left to the imagination, after Mr. Chen is done with his thoroughness. If there is ever an overachieving photographer, it’s Larry Chen.

No one is as prolific as Mr. Chen. I cannot be any more clear when I say that Mr. Chen shares more car photos than any automotive photographer. Mr. Chen share so much that one invariably questions if there is actually a point in which a quantity of photos is too many photos. If I did not like his photos so much, I would say that the multitude he shares is ridiculous. It really is ridiculous - but in the best way. Still, there is a lesson to be learned here. Mr. Chen is at another level. But for the rest of us, learning to edit down our photo selection is a must.

However, is it not always better to share more photos? As the expression goes, the more the merrier. I mean, who doesn't want to see their favorite subject photographed from every conceivable angle and locale? Such a multitude would be a feast for the eyes. That said, there is just so much that one can take in. Even the most indulgent can only accept so much excess and will become satiated. When that happens, each additional photo ceases to whet the visual appetite anymore. One just wants to finish viewing the photos and move on.

When a lot of photos becomes too many photos, none of them are special or unique anymore. In other words, quantity spoils our visual appetite. Every photo begins to look the same after a while. As a consequence, what is exceptional and what is mediocre are all lumped together into one inseparable mass. And, that’s the crux of the problem. If we share too many photos, our generosity will test the patience of a viewer to really appreciate each photo thoughtfully with care. Unfortunately, that’s too much to expect of the swipe and scroll generation.

Fact is, quantity commoditizes photos. It devalues the worth of each and every photo that is inseparably piled together in heaps and stacks of picture perfect multitudes. For that reason, quantity crowds out any hope for a photo to stand out individually from the multitude in realizing its worth of that proverbial thousand words. And so, that picture worth a thousand words will end up unnoticed in a stream of what appears to be thousands of photos worth less than a few words each. Whatever visual narrative it may have will be lost in the numbers.

It is not as if it is necessary to share so many photos with your viewers. You only need to share a handful - say no more than six photos continuously - in order to get your photos to be studied by your viewers with thought and care. Beyond that threshold, I doubt your viewer will have the resolve to study each and every photo with any thought and care. They are just going to swipe and scroll. Given that, what’s the point of sharing so many continuous photos all at once? All that multitude will only be received as an impenetrable wall of visual noise.

People only need to see enough to get the picture, so to speak. In terms of what I believe is the best practice, a single photo is all that’s required for a photographer to present a visual narrative worth that thousand words. A single well captured photo is always concise and to the point. That said, it does not mean that we should all be limited to sharing one photo at a time. Obviously, generosity is always welcomed. However, one must then be mindful of the aforementioned caveat to not test the viewer’s patience to endure an overdose of quantity.

To that end, any grouping of photos must have photos that are individually distinct or complementary to each other. In other words, there must be enough variance between photos to create an impression of separation within the grouping. And at the same time, there must also be enough similarity between photos to create an impression of connection within the grouping. Therefore, If a balance between variance and similarity can be struck without exceeding the threshold of multitude, a viewer’s resolve to study your photos won’t be tested.

In my case, I generally opt for generosity on this dog and pony show. I cannot say that I am stingy with sharing my photos, seeing that I share at minimum thirty-one photos per blog entry. That said, I always strive to create an impression of variance and similarity between the photos I share. I separate my group of thirty one photos into the title photo and five blocks of six photos. And within each block of five, I always mix up my photos with different shooting distances plus one close-up shot, while still maintaining continuity in the visual narrative.

Arbitrarily, I’ve picked thirty-one as my objective per blog entry. I know enough not to go beyond that number. Whether thirty-one photos is too much, that is anyone’s guess. That said, the reason why I don’t share more is because I know the academic rationale behind satiation. From macroeconomic study, I learned about the law of diminishing marginal utility. Basically, it means that the more we get of a certain something, the less we will appreciate it. Given that, I knew full well that my viewers will stop caring after a certain threshold of multitude.

And then there’s the Dorito Effect. According to Mark Schatzer, who examined the effect of laboratory created flavors, the secret to preventing satiation in excesses is the application of variance in whatever one is offering. In other words, the offering must have sufficient complexity so that the recipient can never quite pinpoint any repetitiveness in the offering. So in applying the Dorito Effect in my photos, I do my best to limit repetitiveness in my composition. But if there’s repetitiveness, it would be to for the sake of emphasizing a composition I like.

I know it can sometimes be difficult for a photographer to select which photos from a photoset is the best few from a pile of multitudes. It would be like asking someone which limb to spare from amputation. That said, we usually have more photos to spare to the cutting room floor than the two arms and two legs we mostly have. It is not the same, despite whatever feeling we might have towards being less generous. Given that, do yourself a favor and lose a few photos in your share. If you’re not famous, no one cares to see how prolific you can be.

As for the generosity of Larry Chen, I do confess to scrolling and swiping through many of his instagram posts and stories. It is quite imposing. That said, I really appreciate the largess of Mr. Chen’s multitude. Thus, I follow him on social media and I watch many of his YouTube videos on his own page and on the Hagerty network.

Special thanks to Grace for joining me on this photowalk.

Disclaimer

Oct 15 Too Many Photos

Disclaimer

Oct 15 Too Many Photos

Sep 17 On Visual Narratives