You’re my hero. How is it that you say all these things I know and feel. But you SAY them. Thank you.

“ Village people tank top”…..” Cause we were losers”. 😂

Based on my experience I can confidently say, "I would not resist the chocolate donut."

You always make my day with your wisdom. Thank you again for all you do.

I had a mesh shirt. It was bright orange. Thanks for bringing back that Zoolander memory.

Small things are so underrated!

Thanks, Dan!

Best video ever. As you said, puro oro amigo. Just the truth. Unfortunately, there are lot of people who don't want to hear the truth. Ok, I'll do it for myself and I'll learn as well from more experienced photographers, that's healthy. Thanks Dan for telling us how potography insdustry and photography really is..

Superb!

Just a simple THANK YOU for your videos keep going

I always smile when I see you uploaded a new film.

« Small is enough ». This.

That, was awesome...

I remember the 80’s and hair, both sadly long gone, and don’t get me started on chocolate doughnuts dude! Great stuff Daniel! 🙌

I enjoy your Dragnet, Sgt. Joe Friday, "Just the facts, Ma'am" attitude.

Thank you so much for this pep talk, Dan -you are so on the money with it all! ✨✨

There's a lot of people out there who shouldn't be there...Photography has always been my hobby since i was 10 and will always be my hobby no matter what i'm shooting.

As always Dan, wise words. Wish I'd had this sort of pep talk years ago!

Stop self-promotion man, :) Puro oro.

Don’t forget positive laziness, the laziness that leads to efficiency, to stop doing things the old hard way if there are better new ways to do something.

12 sermons from the mount. Great stuff.

27:57 made me smile like a lunatic.

Very insightful, thanks for sharing.

Dan, I love your channel and really love the “Dear Photographer” films! I especially loved what you said that Small is enough/Small is OK! I am a hobbyist photographer and shoot for myself, friends and family, a local charity, and some events at my corporate job and am content with that. You are such an inspiration! Take care!

Entertaining. Liked the opening. I’ll have to check the first two episodes.

I enjoyed your talk Dan…take care!

Realy great stuff !!!

Dan! Thank you so much for all your work! I discovered you on Advancing Your Photography and have been watching your videos there and here on your channel for a couple of weeks now. Words cannot express what a breath of fresh air, bordering on savior, your videos have been. I was convinced that KZfaq policy only allowed photography channels to sell gear. Yes, I'm kidding, sort of, but it's not that far fetched - if you're familiar with Christophe Bruno's 2002 project "Google Adwords Happening", you'll recall that he was banned from Adwords because he used them to place poetry, not to sell stuff. It feels like 95% of YT photography channels and videos sell gear. Sure gear matters, about 5% I suspect. The exact opposite of what we see on YT. And yes, I'll admit, some of those videos did help me make some gear choices that I think have been useful. But when all that's playing is gear! gear!! gear!!! it can start to feel like that's the only thing anybody cares about. And it does push you, or me, to buy more. I've searched for "Documentary", "Photojournalism" and related words, and have always come up short. What a delight this time that I found one of your conversations on Advancing Your Photography. Even the rare videos about "creativity" on other channels somehow didn't inspire me that much. Your videos make me want to create new work. My own journey was different than yours. It's impressive that you had such clarity about doing documentary work right at the beginning. I did about two years of street photography here in LA. A lot of street! Places like Hollywood and Venice Beach are nice in that the density and craziness make them great spaces for moving in with a 35mm lens, my favorite focal length, and capturing interesting moments. After loving street for 2 years, I did a half year of photojournalism and found the storytelling quality of a 2 sentence caption so much more compelling that I can't do street anymore. And then I wanted to go deeper, to do some longer form, documentary projects. I started the first steps on a few longer-term ideas in February and March of 2020 and then on 13 March 2020 everything changed. I've been taking a lot of selfies for almost 2 years now. But I'm getting itchy to get out into the world. And your videos have made me a lot more eager. One idea I've gotten from you is that it isn't about "great photography" and it isn't about being a "great photographer", that it's about finding an interesting person, group, or culture, and letting them tell their story. Good film editing, or tailoring a suit, or anything else, shouldn't call attention to itself. It shouldn't be the film, suit, etc, that says "look at me." it should be happy to be in the background as we experience this film narrative or well-dressed person. I went to a talk by Allan Kaprow at The Getty Research Institute a few years back. He told a story about studying with John Cage at Black Mountain. He said that what Cage taught him was that "anything, looked at closely enough, is interesting". I'm pretty sure that's true for documentary projects. It can probably be about anything if your investigation is deep enough. That doesn't make me the right person for all projects. I'm probably the wrong person for lots of projects. But I think it does mean that if something is interesting to me, if I'm willing to put the time in, that it can be a worthwhile documentary project. I just got a photography book on a photographer that was new to me. The text goes on and on about "my vision", "my photography", "how I see the world", "what I bring to photography". I found myself screaming "shut up!" Probably not fair, but I wasn't in a mindset to read so much about the artistry of the maker, I wanted to experience the story the photographs were telling. Something I think I've gotten from your ideas about not worrying so much about gear, about doing the research, about putting in the time, is that you probably can't do good documentary work by hanging out with a bunch of photographers. It is great to see their work. But I probably need to spend a lot more time with the people whose stories I tell. People who don't know about and don't care about megapixels or color grading. Sadly, my local Photography Meetup Group is not the best place to think deeply about photography or documentary. I have to say again that your videos have been a breath of fresh air. I unsubscribed to all the other "photography" YT channels. And I unsubscribed from the political stuff. I do like being informed, but it produces a lot of frustration. Instead, besides your gems, I've tried to focus on videos not on photography or documentary, but on actual people living and working in interesting areas. If I'm going to watch videos while I eat, they might as well be research for documentary projects. I feel like we probably still have another 2 years of COVID ahead, but I've decided to try to start some new projects in 2022. The ideas that involve lots of people indoors, I think I'll save for some future time, but the projects that involve much smaller numbers of people, I think I'll put my mask on and give it a try. KZfaq "photography" videos were really depressing the crap out of me. Every video I'd watch - who knows why I kept watching them - would frustrate me, "why more of this?" "This is stupid!" And then after I'd calm down, I'd start to think... maybe I need that? Your videos have changed everything. Thank you, Dan!

Small is more than okay. Always the fresh air.

Long term projects?...Check out Matt Black's American Geography. This is an amazing, epic, old school, film based, intellectual, 6 years in the making, photo and multimedia project on US poverty.

Now I am thinking about chocolate donuts. 🥺

Everything is Everything… ✊🏿

This is my most favourite series on KZfaq. I’m 8 seconds in and I’m already asking for 4. On the record.

For decades I thought laziness was bad and worked myself close to death (in the literal, medical sense). Then I realized that laziness helps in negotiating better salaries and wages, it's an essential element of a market. Without laziness we run the risk of eventually making ourselves slaves. However in free-lance creators, yeah, laziness can be bad in that sector.

interesting subject re "needing a thing" -- I usually give myself several months when I think I need something - I try to imagine "earning my way into some gear". Its not a perfect approach - but it does avoid buyer's remorse for sure.

Sobering 30 minutes in all of this social/content/ego stream. Great job!

Don’t think I’ve ever had a chocolate donut, chocolate every thing else though, and if you disappear I would miss you, keep them coming Dan please,. As we bounce from photograph to content and back again, for me that’s black and white film to colour digital and back again, just enjoying the ride

Was that email from the guy at the end of point 11 Craig Mod? I’m always in awe of him.

Enjoyed it very much. Got me thinking

I have enrolled at the School of Daniel Milnor for Common Sense, no BS just telling it how it is. Do you have cowboy DNA? Thanks for this recalibration therapy and your hard work. pip pip

You know what Dan, for all that you do for us, you deserve a chocolate donut, take a break, sit back, relax for a few minutes with one of those hundreds of photography books you have and take a big ol bite of that fresh, soft, chocolate donut. But please, for the love of Mike...wipe the chocolate off of your fingers before you turn the page. :) Enjoy your Thanksgiving Dan.

Off topic... I could have sworn I watched a video where you mentioned a bag that you carry. Did you say you carried an Osprey brand backpack?

You really should have a workshop for folk wanting to extract themselves from photography. PA.....ironically the acronym for the press association, should in fact be Photographers Anonymous. Everyone on here's trying to sell you into photography, be great if I knew actually how to get out. Ok, so I'm kind of joking, but it's really hard to get out. Your friend you referred to who is burned out and fed up, would probably be much happier out than in. I'm talking about pros who have been in the business too long.....I'm pretty sure photography destroyed photography for me.

Paul studied 13 years after he met Christ, before he started out on his mission to save the world.

Puro choro Millnor!

Photography in general has been dumbed down, and many photography channels have followed suit. Most channels have taken on the flavor of Popular Photography magazine. Your friend who tried to help a bad photograph win a contest, not cool. Even if things like that happen all the time, why mess with your Karma like that! I like to compare photography to literature. Salgado's projects are like novels, the Life Magazine photographers produced short stories, and I also believe there's a place for photographic haikus.

This malaise you identify in photography is echoed in the book ‘Is Jazz Dead?’ by Stuart Nicholson published in 2005 that I’m reading at the moment. Is it a consequence of the modern world and easy connectedness and availability of art and content. I don’t know.

Regarding email guy: "Evidently Mr. Ringo's an educated man. Now I really hate him." Photography is a hobby for me that I sometimes make money at. Even still, I got burned out around May this year. Decided to take a break. Had 2 shoots in July that I had already arranged, but that was it. The longer I was away, the less I missed it. Worked with a friend on a concept based on a music video I saw and that went OK. I'm slowly working my way back, with a shoot soon, and another in December. After that? Who knows. I haven't posted anything on IG (the only social I really use for photography) for a couple weeks, and maybe I will again when I finish editing some more images. This break has been good in some ways..it's allowed me to do a bit more language study and watch some youtube videos on a new hobby I may take up. All I know is how I was doing photography before is no longer mentally sustainable for me, so I'm switching it up...probably more along the frequency of things vs. subject matter, but I am leaving that open. I've really enjoyed your various "films" here for the past 6-8 months...part of what I got from here is what "told" me it'd be OK to leave it for awhile. So, thanks for that. Maybe come spring I might actually use my dad's fly fishing equipment I've had since 99 but never fished with. I just have nobody I know who fly fishes (or really, fishes at all...my late father in law was the other fisherman in my life...). Stay opinionated!

18 views in 7 minutes. Cool...