Stop being a Sheep
Check out the YouTube Video
Barrrrrr!
Are you the type of photographer who takes risks—even if it means getting shot down in flames by your peers?
Or are you a sheep?
Most photographers play it safe
In my experience, most photographers are scared to make mistakes.
They’re scared of getting it wrong.
So they latch on to what other photographers are doing and saying—photographers they see as successful, or to some fixed set of “rules.”
They never stop to question where those rules came from or why they exist. They just follow the herd.
Followers don’t equal greatness
And often, the photographers they’re listening to? They’ve got numbers—followers, subscribers, views.
But let’s be real: just because someone has a huge following doesn’t mean they’re a great photographer.
The great actor Marlon Brando said about actors in his industry …
“Don’t confuse your talent with the size of your pay cheque.”
Often, it means these creators know what Instagram or YouTube wants—not what makes a photograph with character and originality.
Safe photography feels good—but kills growth
People follow these creators because it feels safe.
Their work looks neat, digestible, algorithm-friendly—something you could easily do.
You think: I can take shots like that.
Of course you can. ANYBODY CAN!
It’s photography that doesn’t ask you to think too much or take risks.
It just ticks boxes.
That comfort can be appealing when you’re insecure yourself. You look at their numbers and think, “They must know what they’re doing.”
But what they’re really teaching you isn’t photography—it’s how to take safe, cookie-cutter photos.
It’s sheep training dressed up as wisdom.
The herd gets defensive
Sheep get scared to go against the grain.
And some of these sheep—once they’re entrenched in whatever flock has welcomed them—get angry if you step outside what they think street photography should be.
I see it all the time in my comments:
“You can’t call yourself a street photographer because you pose people.”
Portraits, they mean.
Forget labels
Here’s the truth: the last thing I’d ever call myself is a street photographer.
Labels don’t matter to me—street, portrait, fashion, whatever.
I shoot what I want, how I want.
And I genuinely don’t care what another photographer thinks about that.
Don’t get me wrong—I care about people. But worrying about how some insecure photographer defines you? That’s sheep behavior.
The real reason photographers cling to rules
The fact is, many photographers are insecure.
They cling to rules:
“Street photography must be candid…”
“This is allowed, that isn’t.”
Most of those rules? They were invented by a handful of old photographers decades ago—photographers who were scared of losing relevance.
Why? Insecurity.
If you shine, they fade.
Zoom out
The oldest known painting is thirty-two thousand years old.
Photography? Not even two hundred years old.
And already, people have built this rigid rulebook of what counts as “real” photography.
It’s absurd.
I’m not saying there aren’t good or bad photographs—of course there are.
But bending your work to please other people? Letting them tell you what you can or can’t shoot?
That’s sheep behavior.
Don’t turn the wrong way in the elevator
It’s like that old Candid Camera experiment.
Actors stand in an elevator facing the wrong way. A stranger walks in, looks confused… and eventually turns the wrong way too.
Nobody told them to—they just felt the pressure of the herd.
That’s what happens when photographers follow rules they never stopped to question.
Break from the herd
So stop being a street photography sheep.
Stop turning the wrong way in the elevator.
Break from the herd. Face your own way. Shoot the world as you see it.
For more insight into how I approach shooting street photography check out my zine “the Way of the Street Photographer.”
