Yeah yeah. How are you doing?
That’s how I started.
It had been a long day. A long season, honestly. Yesterday I returned home at around midnight. Missed my upload window. Had to use my joker. So today I have to compensate for both videos.
Day 14 was yesterday, but it was about engagement.
And I’m curious about something.
When You Look at a Photograph, What Makes You Stop Scrolling?
For the past weeks, I’ve been posting things. Sharing my experiences. And I don’t have a lot of engagement on my posts.
But the one post that got a little bit of engagement was when I shared my experience when I was walking out there, when I got detained for shooting near state buildings. That story sparked reaction.
And there’s one post where about five people DM’d me because they couldn’t comment under the post, but they liked the photos that I shared.
That made me pause.
Because maybe engagement isn’t always visible. And maybe what moves people isn’t what we assume.
So I started asking myself a question. And now I’m asking you.
When you look at a photograph, what makes you stop scrolling?
Is it emotional? Is it beauty? Is it relatability? Is it shock? Is it the storytelling? Is it technical perfection?
What makes a photo honest to you?
Photography Only Works When Someone Connects
As photographers, I can chase light all day. I can get arrested. I can adjust angles. I can frame carefully. But at the end of the day, photography only works when someone on the other side connects.
And connection looks different for everyone.
Psychologists talk about something called emotional salience. We pay attention to what feels personally relevant. That’s why one person scrolls past a perfectly composed image and another stops because it reminds them of home, or triggers a memory, or reflects something they’ve been feeling but couldn’t name.
So maybe engagement isn’t about perfection. Maybe it’s about resonance.
Day 14 Isn’t Me Complaining About Low Numbers
It’s me getting curious.
If I’m building a body of work, I want to understand what lands. Not to chase trends. Not to manufacture viral moments. But to understand perception.
Because photography is not just about what I see. It’s about what you feel when you see it.
So I’m flipping the lens.
When you see a photograph, mine or anyone’s, what makes it memorable?
Let’s talk about it.
Now let me go and record Day 15. I’m not changing. It’s like this.
