Whenever we hit a milestone, we reflect. We look back and think about what went right as well as what we’ve learned.

As a startup, we just crossed our six-month mark and 10,000 photo submissions which were pretty significant milestones for us. As a tiny and passionate team of entrepreneurs, we’ve reviewed and discussed each photo submitted to our platform.

Some of them we discussed in great detail.

As a team of entrepreneurs that love of photography, but not professional photographers, here’s what we’ve learned about photography and the industry we serve.

By the way, we decided to share our six-month update in the spirit of Six Word Memoirs.

Every photo should tell a story.

The best stories are always outside.

People are the best story subjects.

Pets are great subject runner ups.

Filters are nice toys, not tools.

The best photos are often unedited.

Authenticity is everything in photo storytelling.

Influencer marketing tactics are incredibly inauthentic.

Influencer tactics will eventually fade away.

Absolutely no one enjoys stock photography. 

Same with airbrushed or photoshopped photos.

Get up close to your subject.

Good lighting makes all the difference.

Natural lighting is the absolute best.

Your iPhone flash isn’t good lighting.

Your arm is the original #selfiestick.

No to #selfiesticks, yes to tripods.

Zoom with feet, not with phone.

Flatlay will eventually be played out.

Not familiar with flatlay shooting? Good.

But if you decide on flatlay…

• Try to stick with a theme.
• Try to let your objects breathe.
• Try to use simple, clean backgrounds.
• Set your camera to square mode.

Photos take a ton of memory.

Always buy more storage if possible.

Don’t store photos on social networks.

Remember MySpace, Posterous, Google+, or Flickr?

Store your photos on two platforms.

Dropbox, & Google Photos are great platforms.

Hundreds of stories surround us everyday.

Everyone has a story to tell.

Happy shooting,

The BYLINED Team.