What Two Decades Behind a Lens Taught Me About Instagram and the Soul of Landscape Photography

What Two Decades Behind a Lens Taught Me About Instagram and the Soul of Landscape Photography

Every few months, someone in one of my workshops asks me whether it’s even worth posting on Instagram anymore. They’ve spent hours editing a shot, written a thoughtful caption, and watched it collect fourteen likes while some heavily filtered snapshot of a foggy pier racks up thousands. I never have a clean answer, because the truth is complicated. That’s exactly why I spent an evening watching Mark Denney work through this question in his video, Watch the full tutorial on YouTube.

The Hidden Cost of Sharing: Why Landscape Photographers Must Guard Their Secret Spots

The Hidden Cost of Sharing: Why Landscape Photographers Must Guard Their Secret Spots

The Double-Edged Lens Over the past twenty years, I’ve watched the landscape photography world transform in ways both magnificent and troubling. The internet has democratized access to inspiration, connected photographers across continents, and created vibrant communities around our shared passion for capturing wild places. Yet standing in those wild places today, I’m increasingly confronted with a paradox: our greatest tool for sharing beauty has become a threat to the very places we love.