Moving in a herd?

Follow the Leader was a game I often played as a child. The goal was simple: follow the chosen leader. If I didn’t, I’d be out of the game. Quite frequently, I was left standing while the other kids went on playing. Now that I have grown up, I still fail to follow the leader.

 

 

(An old photograph that I had clicked on a film camera, with a group of photographers. All of us then had a different concept of composition and what to click)

 

Today, I was browsing through online photo albums of old friends and acquaintances. Most of them are advanced amateurs, heavily invested in photography gear.

What immediately stood out were the clear trends in their compositions. Those into bird photography often had repetitive shots—the same bird, same background, and even the same angle. It felt like watching a group walking together, lenses in hand. One spots a bird, and suddenly, they all aim and fire. Not always, but quite often.

An interesting anecdote told by one of them – Three photographer friends recently went on a bird-photography nature walk near a lake in the hills. They invited me to join, but I politely declined—bird photography isn’t really my thing. When they returned, they had some stunning shots: sharp, well-lit, and perfectly exposed images of local birds. Later, one of them casually revealed how these photos were captured. Apparently, there’s a business in organizing bird-photography walks. The locals, along with bird guides, set up specific locations with food and water to attract the birds. A small tent is set up for the well-equipped photographers, while a perch is strategically placed for the birds. As the birds land for an easy meal, the photographers capture them—same bird, same setup. When I asked how the perch varied in different shots, his answer was simple: the perch is moveable. They have a collection of 5-6 perches, swapped out each morning. ‘And what about the background?’ I asked. ‘Oh, that’s a printed sheet hung at a distance. It gets nicely blurred in the photos, and they change it every now and then,’ he replied. I burst out laughing. No wonder all their photos had the same perch, same bird, and identical out-of-focus backgrounds! In the other shots, once again, the results were strikingly similar across all three photographers.

Not all my birding friends go to such lengths, but many still end up with similar results. It seems that even a forest trail with a group of photographers isn’t the best idea for a unique photowalk. That said, there are a few birders whose work I truly admire. They approach their photography differently and it shows in their shots.

Now, back to the main point I wanted to address. As I mentioned earlier, the photographs all followed a similar trend, making it difficult to tell who took which shot. It felt like a case of lost individuality—none of the images reflected the unique style of the photographer behind the camera. All that stood out was the generic ‘so-and-so photography’ watermark. Sad, really.

 

(Yellow Vented Bulbul – captured on a photowalk with a friend. His interest was in the landscapes and I was trying to photograph some birds for marketing our homestay)

 

Next I saw the albums of some photographers who had been going out in groups to some famous places in the city. Old buildings, portraits of the same old person, the street with the rickshaw puller. Once again the same trend. A herd mentality. Each one of them had tried clicking the same subject from the same angle, and ended up with the same composition.

Thankfully, most of these people have a good social media presence. The numbers of wows and likes greatly help boost their ego. I have seen such photographs going viral, being shared on social media. One particular photograph of a child holding a begging bowl made multiple rounds on social media, along with at least three others taken at the same location. As a photographer, it pained me to see such heavily edited images—reduced saturation, exaggerated ‘structure’ and ‘clarity,’ all teetering on the edge of being overly dramatic. It felt like these photographers were chasing social validation, seeking a sense of belonging by aligning themselves with a larger group.

 

(A rice farmer with his son. Just a snapshot I captured while on an assignment.)

 

The herd mentality extends to post-processing and photo editing as well, which, as I’ve mentioned, deeply pains me. Heavily edited images with layers of filters have become the latest trend. These photos quickly garner floods of ‘wows’ and likes, despite being oversaturated or undersaturated, with exaggerated clarity, structure, and vignetting. It feels like photography is being lost to photo-editing. Everyone seems to be following the crowd, with no originality—nothing that holds my attention for more than a second. Well, that’s not entirely true. Occasionally, I spend more time reading the comments, but then I’m not really looking at the photograph.

These comments, likes and wows, shares, number of views… to me, these are not at all an endorsement of anyone’s photography. They are actually an endorsement of the networking, the number of contacts one has! Feel free to disagree with me. These just happen to be my thoughts and I am one of those few photographers who still miss the film era.

 

(Another waterfalls. Can I help it if these waterfalls and mini-cascades look attractive to me? In this particular photograph I went with the present trend and used a mild soft-focus filter and improved the middle level contrast)

 

For those of you, who are still with me in this essay of mine, here are some things that I recommend-

Popularity is not an endorsement. Just because someone has a large network, does not mean those photographs are worth copying. I can understand the longing of being a part of the group and making an effort worth some praise. This is our evolutionary instincts at work. (A good hunter had a good network).  Grow above them. Make your work speak for itself.

100 photographs of the same composition makes all those 100 photographs worthless. What if Leonardo Da Vinci had been a robot that painted a few thousand copies of Mona Lisa? Would it still have been that famous? No! Maybe famous but definitely not as much as it is now. Why do you then want to click the same old building or the same fishing boat? Try something new, something different.

Be aware of the peer-pressure. If you walk around with friends who are into birding, your mind will tell you that bird photography is the in-thing. You should be doing that. If you are with some street photographers in India and trying to copy street photographers who happened to be just visiting India, you will end up with countless images of beggars, religious persons, people selling their wares on streets and vagabonds. Are you trying to create another ‘Slum Dog Millionaire?’

… and ditch the trends. On the risk of being repetitive, I still recommend avoiding all those trending photo-editing tricks, plug-ins and filters. Be original! Express yourself instead of copying the trends.

 

“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.” – Ansel Adams

 

In a nutshell –

The photographers who earn my quiet admiration are those who pursue photography purely for the joy and personal expression it brings them. I have a friend who takes stunning photographs and keeps them for himself, savoring their beauty and the purity of his passion. No following trends, no copying others, and no seeking validation—just pure, simple photography for the love of it.

Be mindful of the trap of herd mentality. Appreciate the work of others, learn from it, but don’t follow it blindly. Let your own creativity shine through.

This article, originally published on my photography site, is now archived here; while some details may have lost their original context over time, it still offers an intriguing read.
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