You want to start off your critique with the positives. What is it that you like about this? You’re not attacking them. You want to start by telling them what you like, even if it’s something really minor.
David Kingham
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In this episode, I speak with nature photographer David Kingham. David is the owner of Nature Photographers Network, a community where photographers are encouraged to provide one another with constructive criticism. David’s own work reflects his love for improvement and the great outdoors.
We talk about:
– David Kingham’s journey, from taking nature photos to buying a photography website
– How to start a sustainable photography workshop business
– The reality of being a full-time traveller
& much more!
David shares a lot of practical tips related to workshops, nature photography, and travelling in this episode. His honest and straightforward answers will inevitably provide you with all the information you need to start taking your work to the next level.
Here is a preview of our conversation with David Kingham.
Q: What are the benefits of receiving constructive criticism?
David Kingham: There’s so many benefits. You can learn so much from other people that have different types of experience and different levels of experience.
I know I learned so much because I was on Nature Photographers Network many, many years ago. I got some amazing feedback on there and I met so many friends that I’m still friends with today.
It’s such a powerful way to grow your photography in a really quick manner by getting those different perspectives.
Q: What are the main things to consider when starting your own workshop business?
David Kingham: There’s a lot of people that do workshops without permits and they get away with it for a long time. There’s been people that have been caught and gotten kicked out of national parks and had their reputation ruined.
If something happens to one of your participants, if they get injured, then they could easily come back and sue you. If you don’t have insurance, you’re going to be in real trouble there. But even if you have insurance but you don’t have a permit, your insurance company is going to come back to you and say, “Why didn’t you have insurance? We’re going to deny this claim.” There’s a lot of bad that can come from not having permits.
Q: You’re a full time traveller and photographer, which sounds pretty amazing. What is required to have a lifestyle like this?
David Kingham: It’s not always amazing. Oftentimes, it’s quite the struggle. What you need is the freedom to be able to do it.
It just takes a lot of patience. You need to be a bit of a handyman because things break all the time. You need to have internet. We’ve had lots of different cellular hotspots and things to keep connected all the time. Most recently, we got Starlink, so now we can stay connected even in the most remote areas possible.
You have a little less of a community because you’re not always in one spot. We have lots of friends that we meet up with who are also full-time or even part-time travellers quite often. We still have some of that sense of community. There’s a lot more people doing this these days, so we haven’t found it to be that hard.
It’s a struggle all the time, with lots of different things. Hashtag RV Life or hashtag van life is just so glamorised on social media, like it’s some amazing thing every day. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a challenge a lot of the time. I wouldn’t trade it, but people should need a reality check that it’s not as amazing as it looks on social media.
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