, the Swedish based photography site, has brought a new and welcome dimension to the photo-sharing arena that seems to have too many ‘me-toos’ and not enough聽innovation. We’ll look here at what the site brings, focusing in on their fascinating聽photographer interviews; short 10 minute clips where some of the world’s finest talk about their process and their craft. Concentrating on education and inspiration, the site offers聽cool tools and features that聽 help photographers of聽any experience learn more and up their game.
They take this to an extra.. ahem.. ‘level’ by gamifying aspects of the site where you earn the now ubiquitous currency of ‘XP’聽(for聽heavens sake there are even sites like 聽that takes it out of the gaming world and into real life but that’s an entirely different blog!). On YouPic you level-up based on your uploads and your engagement with things like ‘repics’, the聽YouPic version of a retweet. They also have critiques where you can ask for and give feedback, getting first hand reviews聽from your peers and those you aspire to emulate.
It’s all housed in a cool design with great stats and progress bars to encourage you to improve. Overall a refreshing change from the plethora of marketing psychobabble riddled sites with generic features and lip service to ‘community’聽paid in spades through the same old same old聽‘likes’ and ‘followers’.
and Google photos聽are great for storing and organising photographer’s work but if you want to immerse yourself in inspiration聽and consequently, motivation, you could do worse than聽use YouPic.
The outstanding feature has to be the . YouPic have been pushing these out over the last few weeks with a really intelligent mixture of genres and styles and, above all else, they’ve gone for a selection of real ‘A list’ shooters. With these great photographers giving us a brief glimpse into their lives and work, it truly gets to the heart of what this site is all about, the photography.
Interviews published so far include:
- – the thought-provoking and revealing world of riots, conflict and gangs.
- – stunning and ethereal fine art聽with聽lighting and style at the core.
- – the engaging Magnum genius on serendipity you have to work at聽and the use of colour in photojournalism.
- – Learn what it takes to become Travel Photographer of the Year.
They are all worth a look, here’s three for starters:
聽works in the far reaches of our planet, overcoming extraordinary physical and technical hurdles along the way.
too close for comfort,聽encounters of the marine kind.
My personal favourite聽is probably the ,聽I’m a sucker for a black and white wildlife shot, but it’s great to understand in a simple 11 minute clip exactly how he approaches his work and the fundamentals that drive him. Knowing the right location to聽shoot a specific beast, not using a long lens,聽getting down to ground level with a remote and using elephant manure as and when necessary!
Take a look for yourself. Truly inspiring.