On behalf of myself, Naseem, Libor, Jason and the rest of the Photography Life team, we would like 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 lights.
Almost exactly a year ago today, Naseem and I had a conversation about the state of our website and the internet as a whole. That day, we talked about the rise of AI-generated junk websites, the viruses of social media, the proliferation of “content farms” written by non-photographers, and the hold of invasive advertising on what used to be a recreational activity — namely , reading and learning about photography online.
During that conversation, he and I decided to immediately remove third-party advertisements from Photography Life, leaving our largest source of revenue without an alternative. We weren’t sure if this decision would mean something like the death or rebirth of the website, but we felt it was necessary to try. And the response from our readers was nothing short of remarkable. I probably don’t need to remind you what happened next, but I’d like to add some numbers:
- In 2024, we wrote 245 articles On photography life…
- Involved 32 lens reviews,
- plus 162 additional posts On our new members page…
- Involved 12 Photo Critique Livestream,
- Together 2 e-books And 2 multi-hour video workshops,
- while showing everything Zero third-party ads on Photography Life!
During that time, we built a community of photographers on our members page, which has grown from the ground up to 2706 photographers, while also having over 100,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. In a world where traditional blogs are dying out – and camera sales have slowed – you’ve shown that it’s still possible to survive and thrive as a dedicated photography website.
I hope you’ll forgive me for slowing down the pace of articles a bit these past two weeks while our team prepares for an even bigger 2025. We have two new online workshops coming up as well as a series of larger lens reviews almost ready for publication, and that’s just in January! In the meantime, we’re always available whenever you have questions about photography, our gear reviews, or anything else.
My two biggest passions in life are photography and photographing life. This website has been a labor of love since day one, and the best part of my job is connecting with other photographers to improve our skills. I think it’s fair to say that 2024 was the biggest and most unusual year in the history of Photography Life, and I’m so glad you were here to share it with us.
With this, our team wishes you a very Happy New Year!
