late to the party - or just not good enough?

I have a small YouTube channel.  And an even smaller following on Instagram and 500px.  And no matter how hard I work or try, growth is slow and for the most part stagnant.  My images just can't get any traction, and I think more people watch political debates than my videos!

And I often find myself wondering why this should be the case.

I'm very self-critical of everything I do, particularly my photography, but I know that it's at least as good as the work of at least some of the really popular landscape photographers out there.  And watching their videos makes me think why they are so popular too.

Now, please understand, I do not crave popularity at all. But I just wonder why some people are and some people aren't.  And bizarrely in a lot of cases it isn't down to the quality of their work.

just about sums things up!

Was it just a case of someone just being there at the start of a particular platform?  And now that they have gained that large audience is it exponentially easier to get more likes or views?  I just don't know.

There are any number of experts out there telling you how to get a million subscribers or followers on whatever platform, but I have absolutely no interest in playing social media "games", buying views or liking other people in the hope they'll like me too.

I want my work to speak for itself, but unfortunately in a world governed by social media algorithms I think it's harder than ever to get, keep and grow an audience.

I've lost count of the number of "popular" photographers out there who dispense advice and have an audience that hang on their every word - and yet they do not share their work online for that audience to see.  And they are raking in the cash.

Now, I'm fortunate in that I don't need an audience to get by and make a living.  But in these troubled times there are any number of talented artists out there who just can't catch a break.  And they really need to to survive.

It's plain unfair and really, really sad.