The Terrible Creative

There's a difference between being visible and being known. Most of us have confused the two. In this episode, Patrick is sitting at a networking event in San Diego when a graphic designer asks him a question he wasn't ready for: "Who are you to write a book? To make a podcast?" What followed was a masterclass in what happens when radical transparency meets a closed receiver — and why no amount of...

The fear underneath every AI conversation in photography right now isn't really about the future. It's recognition. In this episode, Patrick sits down with the hard question nobody in the industry is asking out loud: were we already making replaceable work before AI arrived? He traces the argument from a weekend with the Capture One leadership team, through his own portfolio audit, two unscripted...

Something is changing. This bonus episode is the announcement I've been putting off — partly because I wasn't sure how to say it, and partly because the timing is, as with most things in my life, sideways. The Terrible Photographer is becoming The Terrible Creative. Same show. Same voice. Same refusal to pretend I have it figured out. But the door is wider now — because the emails I've been gettin...

There's a moment in Season 11 of Alone where a man named Dub — forty days into the Canadian wilderness, starving, alone — watches a bull moose stand just out of reach on the other side of a freezing river. He has the shot. He has the skill. The river is just between him and the thing. He watches it walk away. Then it starts to snow. Then he slips. Both boots go into the water. "The moose was rubbi...

Every job has a floor. A salary. A review cycle. Someone in authority who tells you you're doing fine, keep going. Freelancing has none of that. There's no feedback mechanism that tells you you're okay. No quarterly check-in. No laminated menu that says: this is what we are, this is what we cost, this is what done looks like. There's just the work. And then the silence after the work. And then wai...

A photographer friend once gave me three words of advice that I've never been able to use: just be yourself. Not because the advice is wrong. But because it assumes a stable, available self waiting underneath—one you can just step into when needed. For a lot of us in the creative industry, that self got covered over so gradually we didn't notice it happening. In this episode, I'm getting into some...

London. 1886. A respected doctor stands before a mirror and drinks a potion he swore he would only use once. He doesn’t grow horns or sprout claws. He simply becomes... lighter . The weight of Victorian morality, the heavy wool of his reputation—it just slides off his shoulders. The first time, it requires the chemistry. By the end, Hyde doesn’t wait for an invitation. He just arrives. This is Epi...

I posted a question on Threads: "Where are you posting your images these days?" The answers were scattered. Glass. Grainery. Pixelfed. Substack. Flickr, somehow. Very few said Instagram. There is no home anymore. Instagram was built by photographers, for photographers. Square format mimicking film. Filters mimicking darkroom techniques. A grid layout that functioned as a digital portfolio. For a w...

It's 3 AM. You're scrolling through infomercials. A televangelist is selling "Miracle Spring Water" for $50—promising financial breakthroughs, healing, transformation. All you have to do is send money and believe. Fast forward to 2026. A YouTube thumbnail: "This CAMERA changed EVERYTHING 📷🔥" Description: "Amazon affiliate links below." Same hustle. Different spring water. In this bonus heresy, w...

Rochester, 1888. George Eastman releases the Kodak camera with a brilliant slogan: "You press the button, we do the rest." Serious photographers immediately panic, calling new users "Button-Pressers" and "Kodak Fiends." One writer declares photography dead: "When everyone is a photographer, then no one is an artist." Same fear. Same argument. Different century. This is Episode 2 of Heresies —where...

Most photographers drown in the edit. Not because they can't see what's good. Because they can't choose what matters. This episode is about the violence of editing—the courage it takes to kill good images, the ego that dies in the process, and why great portfolios are built on rhythm, not range. I tell the story of a La Jolla shoot where I took 1,900 frames in two hours and couldn't figure out whi...

When a client says "I want exactly this," are they hiring you to execute their vision—or are they asking you to solve a problem they can't articulate? This is the first episode in a five-part series called Heresies —where we say the uncomfortable things the industry doesn't want you to think too hard about. In this episode: Why listening to your client might be killing your work. Why taste is a te...

There's a woman in Bangkok who's been selling noodles from the same corner for 43 years. She turned down Bon Appétit. Not because she's shy. Because she didn't want to cook for strangers with expectations. This episode started with a voicemail from Jason, a listener in North Carolina who shoots photos of his kids and has no interest in going pro. He called me out for ignoring non-professionals. An...

EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Three hundred years. That's how long my family has been in America. Jamestown. Virginia. Colonial laborers. Post-Civil War homesteaders in Missouri. And not one of them—not one—ever owned anything that lasted. In 1726, when a British clerk wrote "Fore" instead of "Fauer," my family's name changed. But the pattern didn't. This episode isn't about New Year's resolutions or fresh...

You've mastered the craft. You've built the business. You're successful. But you're still lonely. You're Joshua Bell in the subway—playing a Stradivarius while everyone walks past. You've taken off the costume, rejected the hierarchy, and you're still isolated. So now what? In the finale of "The Long Middle" series, Patrick explores sociologist Ray Oldenburg's concept of "The Third Space"—the pubs...

Why does a $600 light get dismissed while a $3,000 light gets respect, even when they produce identical results? Why do wedding photographers apologize by saying “I’m just a wedding photographer”? And why do we hide the work we’re actually doing because it’s not the “right” kind of work? In Part 3 of The Long Middle series, Patrick examines the hierarchies that divide creative professionals, and a...

When Vanity Fair published Christopher Anderson’s portraits of the White House’s inner circle, the internet reacted to the politics. But as photographers, we need to look closer. We need to look at the framing. In this bonus episode, Patrick Fore deconstructs the word "Framing." It’s not just the rule of thirds or leading lines—it’s authorship. It’s the decision to show truth over comfort, and hum...

Why do photographers wear so much black? Why do we feel confident on stage but panic at networking events? And why is it so hard to find real community in the creative industry? In Part 2 of "The Long Middle" series, Patrick explores the costumes we wear—not just the black clothes and gear, but the professional roles and personas that keep us safe and isolated at the same time. From 17th-century J...

In January 2007, Joshua Bell—one of the world's best violinists—played a $3.5 million Stradivarius in a Washington D.C. subway station. Over 1,000 people walked past. Only 7 stopped to listen. He made $32. If you've ever felt like you're playing your heart out while everyone walks past... this episode is for you. This is Part 1 of a 4-part series called "The Long Middle"—about that specific season...

Belle Gibson faked cancer. The Stauffers rehomed their adopted son when the content became too difficult. Ruby Franke is currently sitting in a prison cell. It’s easy to look at the monsters of the influencer economy and think, "I am nothing like them." But if you peel back the layers of how we document our own lives, the difference might be smaller than we’d like to admit. In this episode, we dig...

June 6, 1944. Robert Capa is wading through the freezing water of Omaha Beach. He captures the most important images of the 20th century, and technically, they are a disaster. They are blurry. They are grainy. They are imperfect. And that is exactly why they matter. In this episode, Patrick explores the physics of light, the "hostage negotiation" of the exposure triangle, and why we are so terrifi...

In 1863, the Paris Salon rejected Édouard Manet's The Luncheon on the Grass for being too messy, too flat, too "unfinished." Today, it's one of the most important paintings in art history. Meanwhile, the "perfect" paintings that won the medals? Nobody remembers them. In this episode, we're deconstructing the biggest question photographers face: What makes a photo "good"? How do we measure it? Who...

In this episode, I talk about the question that has been following me around like a stray dog with abandonment issues: “What am I doing wrong?” A late-night Zoom call. A missed phone call that might have cost me a job. Fabric mocking me at 2 AM. Postponing Christmas. Pretending patience is a virtue when really it’s just a financial liability. This one is not a framework or a lesson. It is a confes...

This is the episode I’ve been avoiding. Not because I don’t have an opinion about AI — but because I have too many feelings about it. Gratitude. Fear. Anger. Wonder. All tangled together. AI has become my external brain — a tool that helps me function, organize, even parent. And at the same time, it’s the thing that might end my career. In this episode, I talk honestly about what Adobe’s new AI to...

Episode 34 | November 2025 I was in my garage last Tuesday, shooting beef tallow. Yes, beef tallow—jarred cow fat with a marketing department. And while I'm adjusting highlights on solidified animal fat for the fourth time, I'm thinking: I used to shoot for Rolling Stone. What happened? Then my friend Candice texted. An illustrator in St. Louis. I asked how business was going. "Everything is a gar...