That's exactly what my snapchat is like

So I just logged on for the first time since October because I remembered that an update to the site was supposedly coming. I had legitimately forgotten about ES, and that's kinda sh*tty considering I was once a very active member. When I was active, it seemed like membership and general activity were both declining. I recently started an Instagram page dedicated to my car photos (@sdj2photography, if you're interested), and have found that Instagram is much more engaging and many more people see the photos if they're posted there. I primarily use Flickr now to look at other, more professional photographers' work rather than to promote my own. I feel like the winter decline is in response to just that, less nice cars being out and about due to it being winter. I hope this site can live on and be what it once was, but I don't think hat that can happen until the admins apply the update. Also, I hope all you guys are well and that your car related lives are going as good as they can be.

Another thing that keeps me from posting is the fact that I just do not like my own pictures. I feel like almost everything I take is sh*t compared to other people, and I just do not have any content that compares to what other people have seen. Idk if it's just an artist thing, but I would love to have my photos come out more like andrewo's or King_AM's. There's just something about them that intrigues me but I can't put my finger on it.

Your photos are fine, and I can always tell a photo of yours when I see one. You have a style and that's not a bad thing.

Well thank you, but idk what it is. I think maybe it's because of the environment my photos are taken in? And also I lose like five followers every day on my IG for no good reason. Like whenever I post I lose followers lol. That might have something to do with me feeling this way...

Also, whenever I do get some good pictures, there's always like 30 people spamming the same thing on their pages so that kinda keeps me from posting as well...

Hardly anyone likes their own photos. I hate all mine too with maybe just a few exceptions.

Not gonna tell you to post if you don't want to but each photographer has a few favorite photographers they want their photos to look like and they're never the same people as everyone else's favorites (I wish mine looked like LH Auto and Lennard Laar but that'll never happen).

Maybe some random person out there thinks the same about ours.

But I'll admit it's one of the main reasons I hardly post anymore too.

For the record, what actually got me into car photography was looking at your shots on this site. Seeing the cool cars you've seen here in the Northeast made me think "What's out there in my town?" So I started going out spotting, experimenting with photography, eventually getting Lightroom etc. Seeing the photos on the Rivitography account were a big inspiration for me.

Jason, if you live your life worrying about what other people think of your work, you're always going to be disappointed because no matter how skilled you are at your particular skill, someone out there is still going to think it sucks. Obviously it's one thing if you only do a half-ass job all the time, but you've been into photography for a while now and have learned from any mistakes you've made in the past. I personally have always thought you were one of the best photographers on the site and have edited some of your pics in innovative ways (like the blue Novitec F430 you posted a couple years ago), but don't look for unanimous approval from everyone because you're never going to get it.

Well thank you everybody for your kind words, but something that still bothers me is how a lot of people I know have like 30k followers just from taking pictures of cars? Like I take photos too, why do I not have that many?

Hopefully once I get my laptop back in two weeks I can start posting my photos again on here. I just wish this website was still as popular as it was in 2013 though...

Well I just found out another reason why the spotting hobby is dying: because the car-spotter/photographer community is cancerous as sh*t.

Seriously, I was doing one of those live story things on Instagram with me walking around Miller Motorcars today and giving some narration about the cars, and then occasionally asking what people wanted to see next. Innocent enough right? No. I got spammed by a bunch of Massachusetts/Connecticut spotters telling me "UR MOM IS SO GAY LOL" and telling me that my voice was cringeworthy (which is a gigantic slap in the face for me as I have Aspergers Syndrome and my voice cannot be helped).

Another thing is how much these spotters suck up to the owners of the supercars. The worst I've seen so far is everybody congratulating @sparky1888 on his new Agera RS and Huayra BC and making separate posts with pictures of his cars like "CONGRATS SPARKY CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR CARS!!!" Like I'm not trashing Sparky at all, he has some pretty nice stuff and it's fun seeing the Sparky Squad at the shows, it's the photographers (or as I like to call "minions") that I have a problem with. There's nothing wrong with commenting on Sparky's page telling him "Awesome sick, can't wait to see them!" but going out of your way to make a completely separate post about it hoping to get recognized by him and glorifying this dude like he is the second coming of Jesus Christ? Like oh my god, please have some dignity. What other people see as "just appreciating the car" all I see is "NOTICE ME SEMPAI!!!!". People will probably say "lol ur a jealous hater" but I'm really not. Every time I see this kind of sh*t happening I want to vomit.

(had to erase what you said, passed the character limit)


It's definitely no secret that there are some unpleasant people/things happening in the carspotting community. Another one to mention are the crowds of people who crowd behind cars and follow inches behind them and even keep doing this thru roads and all for no reason, not like they're gonna get a good shot from doing it anyway.. Also I don't want to generalize carspotters, because theres still alot of good ones out there. You just gotta look past the bad ones, as hard as that sometimes may be. Luckily where I live we don't have such a "messed up" carspotting scene as it seems some other places sometimes have.

Found something else wrong with the car community while perusing YouTube: a lot of them are obnoxious and have no regard for anybody who doesn't have as much money as them.

I just watched a vlog on car week and before these four guys went to Monterey, they stopped in Beverly Hills to do some car-spotting. At one point they are waiting at a red light and they are sitting next to a Chrysler PT Cruiser. The driver narrates "Look at that, a Chrysler PT Cruiser", proceeds to roll down the window, take a megaphone out, and shout to the driver "The worst American car ever made". All four of them proceed to laugh their heads off and drive off. This is completely unacceptable. Maybe that guy a) doesn't have the funds for a better car or b) actually enjoys driving that car. Like goddamn I guess respect for others doesn't fly in the car-spotter community.

Another example is justlivinit doing a mannequin challenge right smack in the middle of NYC clogging up traffic with a bunch of Rolls-Royces. Like those people have somewhere to be, but they are just trying to show off how much money they have in front of everybody. When I called bullshit on it, I wound up getting blocked.

I swear to god I am going to have to make an entire video on "Everything wrong with the car-spotter community" but I know I'll just wind up getting pounded by people as it's an unpopular opinion. All of this sh*t is why I am ashamed to be labeled as a car photographer, and why the thought of taking pictures of cars makes me cringe. I don't want to be associated with all of these hyperactive monkies. I'm just another kid trying to enjoy cars and recording that I saw them. I am also getting sick of losing followers because I don't post just money cars. I document the fun of owning an automobile in general as they all come in different shapes, sizes, cost, power, and colors.

I forgot one of the most classic examples of selfishness in the community:

I found out that fastlane.photography was having a rally and a bunch of cars were going to be showing up at this place called Hayfield's, which is this country market in North Salem, New York. It's about a 20 minute drive from where I am and I was already planning on going to the Cars & Coffee they were having that morning, so I decided to go to the Cars & Coffee and wait for them to arrive afterwards as I heard they were going to be arriving at around 12:00. Sure enough, they all came and I got my pictures. I told fastlane that it was a great rally and he said "thank you"

As soon as I got home, I posted a picture of a matte purple Z06 from there which was met with fastlane yelling at me on Instagram saying "Not cool you showed up uninvited. Don't do it again" (even though Hayfield's is a public place on Route 121 where anybody could have seen it and I had every right to be there)

So so so well put. I enjoy shooting cars and posting my photos to Insta, but seeing everything wrong with our community also makes me cringe sometimes. Carspotting was started by people with a passion, and today the people who really care have been drowned by idiots and posers.

That seems pretty uncalled for, also not sure why he didn't say it to your face, if he saw you there. Make sure not to miss the next one you find out about :P