RandyJohnson.org

photography

Everyone Hates Instagram

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Have you heard of Backspaces yet? It’s an app similar to Instagram. I’m not sure when it launched but I can guarantee they are seeing a massive amount of new users because of the whole Instagram privacy policy updates yesterday. And if you weren’t aware of the Instagram news yesterday, people were all pissed off because they said they might sell your photos to businesses or whatever.

So you take a shitty pic of your dumb friend standing in line at Best Buy on Black Friday, you upload it on Instagram (a free app to share with millions), add a badass filter, type up the funniest caption ever, think of 30 random hashtags, then hit the Done button. Then Best Buy wants to buy that image to use in their marketing. Instagram sells it to them. You find out and instantly want to murder someone because you are the “photographer” and deserve to get rich off of your creativity or whatever.

Are you a photographer?

If you were a photographer, you’d be a photographer. But I’m sure you’re just another cubicle rat trying to get rich quick by doing the least amount of work. What if I told you Joe Blow down the street seen one of your pics, looked at his bare wall, printed out your pic, and hung it on his wall? Would you want to sue him? Probably.

Here’s a quick tip, why don’t you just make your account private? Oh, I already know that answer. You need an insane amount of attention. You need to post a photo of yourself every day so people can tell you how hot you are, or how cool your life is, or whatever strokes your ego. You need everyone in the world to see you. This app gives people a 24/7 behind the scenes look into your life. This is like your reality show, and you love the spotlight. Seriously, stop being so full of yourself.

I think people should be more focused on doing epic shit. Plain and simple.

Free time? What’s that?

Could you imagine how crazy people would get if Instagram just went away one day unexpectedly? People wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. They would lose it! Facebook would still be there, but then they’d be depressed they couldn’t easily add filters to their photographic masterpieces.

See what I mean? Instagram has always been free, but people take it for granted. They could have easily charged $20, $9.99, or even $1 for membership, but they kept it free. They even made it ad-free. Why? Because these people love what they do and they know they are adding value to people’s lives. I’m sure they knew back in the day that it might really catch on and there would be a way to monetize it. But they weren’t trying to get rich quick or take the lazy route.

Most people are average.

The average American wakes up early, goes to a horrible job, is depressed all day about said job, is out of control excited when 5:00 hits, races home to sit on the couch, then proceeds to eat a ton of bad food while watching 8 hours of pointless sitcoms. They will repeat this for the next four days, then they find ways to spend more than they make the other two days of the week. All while checking Instagram every 15 minutes. But if Instagram was gone, you’d find another meaningless app to fill that void.

Could you imagine all the cool shit people would be doing if they took the hour (I rounded this way down) they spend everyday on Instagram and put that towards something they love? Hell, even 20 minutes a day. I’m not opposed to Instagram at all, but when I’m not on it, I’m busting my ass doing what I love. I just think the world would be a happier place if they weren’t spending all their time doing things they hate or finding ways to escape all their problems. Fix your problems, do what you love, be happy.

Be appreciative.

At the end of the day, no matter how much you hate their terms and conditions or privacy policy, they are still providing you with a free service that allows you to express yourself, share photos with loved ones, or keep up with distant friends. They built this app on their dime for you. Why can’t people appreciate anything?

Randy Johnson. Still Not the Baseball Player.

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I’ve been in this world for over 30 years, and people still relate me to the baseball player Randy Johnson.

“Wait, that’s your real name?!?!?”
“Yes.”
“So, I bet your arm is sore from pitching all those years.”
“Ya, I’m actually not the baseball player.”

It’s not a big deal, just annoying when I’m in a conversation with a hardcore sports fanatic. It’s usually an ice-breaker.

“What’s your name, even though I’m bad with names?”
“Well, are you a sports fan?”
“YES! I love baseball and football.”
“Remember Randy Johnson?”
“The pitcher? Hell ya I do! The Big Unit!”
“Well, that’s my name too.”
“NO WAY!!!”

A Few Short, Kind of Funny, Stories

1. Baseball Cards. Most of my friends know that I don’t care much about sports. But most of them don’t know that I used to be crazy about sports. I used to be a big sports card collector, saving up money just so I could ride my bike to the local card shop and buy a new pack of cards. You know, hoping I’d open up a pack in front of the store owner and see the rarest card ever made. In fact, to this day, I bet I have one of the largest Randy Johnson baseball card collections around. I literally have thousands of his cards, many are in hard-plastic cases and graded, and some are autographed. I really have no use for them and they just sit in a box, so I’ll probably wait a couple more years when he gets in the hall of fame and then try and sell them. Should sell for a decent price then.

2. Internet Marketing. One of my skills/services is search engine optimization (SEO). Basically, that fancy terminology means I help my clients rank higher in Google. It’s definitely a time-consuming process. It’s not as easy as flipping a switch and you’re sitting at the top of the first page. It’s a constant effort. Anyways, the more unique your keyword is, the easier it is to rank higher since there is less competition. Take my roommate for example. I setup a site for him and we used his FirstNameLastName.com for the domain name. He has a very unique last name, so it almost doesn’t matter what his first name is, but it’s also not as common. So within a week, he was already ranking number one in Google with pretty much no additional work. So with my name, I’m going to have a tougher time for a couple reasons. One, my last name is very common, and my first name is sort of common. But the biggest reason is, there is a famous person that shares my name. So it’s going to take a ton of work to overcome all of the content on the internet about him. But that’s my goal with this site!

3. Photography. I was doing some research not too long ago regarding the keyword “Randy Johnson” and seeing what sites were showing up after doing a simple search. One stood out for some reason: RJ51Photos.com. I browsed the site for a bit and checked out the Twitter account associated with it. It wasn’t too long after that, I realized after he retired from baseball, he has been focused on photography. Kind of funny since I do some photo and video work. Checking out his about page, I seen he was always into photography and now he had more time for it. I followed him on Twitter and sent him a quick tweet. The next day, I had a new follower… and it was him. I was kind of shocked because he has a ton of followers but only follows like 20-30 people, and I was one of them. Ultimately, he didn’t respond to either of my tweets and eventually unfollowed me, but either way, it was like my 15 minutes of fame. Haha.