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My "Controversial" Take: The Washington Post FIRED EVERY Photographer!!!
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Jared Polin, Fro Nose Photo.com and welcome to Raw Talk, episode number 186. Today is Thursday, February 12, 2026. The time, 11:29 in the a.m. exactly 79% left on my watch. And my heart rate three days ago read 69 beats per minute. I don't know what I was doing, but nice. It's currently 33 degrees here in Philly. Steven's not back yet. He will be back next week. Now, that doesn't mean we'll be fully up and running on the podcast, but we'll have to see because I'm about to talk about where I'll be next week because I won't be in the studio here. I will be on the road doing something else, which I'll talk about in just a second. So we'll have to see as Steven gets back into the swing of things, if we're able to pull it off the way that we want to pull it off, which is, you know, me doing it with Stephen. And we can do it over the interwebs because we use Riverside as a way to connect over the interwebs. But we also can record. Well, we record natively into audition so that we both have our native good audio, which is better than what Riverside offers. And then I send Stephen the wav file and then he puts it all together. That's why we clap at the beginning of these things, which you don't get to hear. But yeah, Steven's paternity leave, I guess, is coming to an end. And there is a lot for him to catch up on, of course, because he literally went out right at the end of the. The month. Of the first month. And there's. There's so much to do at the beginning of the year and throw into that adding a new employee in the way of Austin and getting Austin caught up on all the procedures. Even though I took Austin to. To Paris and Austin's working on a Paris vlog. He's working on a review that we did of the Leica M11 monochrome verse, the Leica MEV1. So he's working on a lot. We've got the 7 to 14 Canon fisheye to do a and the 1414 to do a review of. The photos are done, the notes are written, and it's just a matter of Stephen getting back in on Monday. And we will be filming Monday when he comes in to get those things in the can. And then we. Stephen also can catch up on the edits that Dan's been finishing to polish Off. Like I think we have a comparison of the A7.5 versus the A7.4. I believe we have that. We also have a user guide for the A7.5. So all of these things take time and we appreciate your guys patience and everything that we do. It's an ongoing process and of course I do want to make my video guide. So yeah, there's, there's a lot. There's a lot going on. There's always a lot going on and it never ends. Is it? Is it? And this is part of my, my personal rub. Like does it end? Does it need to? Not that. Does it end, but do I need to work super hard? Does it matter if something doesn't get done? Because it will get done at some point. Does it have to be done today? Do. But. But then I feel like I'm not doing anything though. Everybody tells me I do a ton and I guess I do do a ton, but I rarely feel satisfied. I wonder what Chat GPT says about people who rarely feel satisfied. Let's see what is wrong with people who say they never feel satisfied. Let's see what ChatGPT has to say about me. When someone says they never feel satisfied, it usually isn't that something is wrong with them. It's more that something underneath isn't being met, processed or understood. There are a few common psychological patterns behind that feeling. You are gay. Wait a second. What are you talking. No, I just made that up. No, they. It says, do you drive a Subaru? Is the question. And I'll be like, well, Dan. Dan drives a Baja. Okay. It says the heat a nick. The heat a nick. Treadmill. Nothing feels like enough. Humans adapt quickly. You hit a goal, feel good, it fades. You want the next thing. Well, the thing is I rarely ever feel good. When I hit that goal, I feel all right. And it doesn't fade. It's gone instantly. So I'm worse off than it already is. If someone ties their sense of worth to achievement, status, money, value, validation or progress, satisfaction becomes temporary. The brain recalibrates and says, cool. What's next? No, I. I don't feel like that all the time. It's not about money and validation though. I do like money and I do like being told I'm doing well. Leave comments, Tell me I'm doing well. Let me know. Send me messages on my text line. 313-710-9729. Say, Jared, you're so good. I don't need to hear that. I like hearing it. I like to hear, like, good things. Not Bullshit. I'm not like the King, and you bend over and kiss my ass. That's not the thing. This is extremely common in high performers and entrepreneurs. Yeah, that's me. Perfectionism. And this is not where I intended this whole podcast to go right now, because I've got a bunch of other things to talk about. I'll tell you that. I gotta talk about where I'm going next week. Gonna talk about watching the Olympics. But the drones. And then we're gonna talk about the Washington Post. But now we've gone down this rabbit hole. You guys want to know, and I want to know. Perfectionism. If the internal standard is it's only good if it's perfect, it should always be do. I should always be doing more. This isn't enough yet. Then satisfaction never arrives because the goalposts keep moving. Well, I don't believe in that. It's only good if it's perfect. I believe that you should do the best job that you possibly can, but sometimes you just need to ship it. And perfection is the enemy of done or whatever. Yeah, but I should always be doing more is something I always think. And this isn't enough. I always think that as well. For a lot of things. This can look productive from the outside, but exhausting on the inside. Yeah, that's how it looks. Emotional avoidance sometimes, never satisfied is a distraction from deeper feelings. Okay, let's see what these are. Emptiness. Okay. Loneliness. Fear of not being enough. Lack of meaning. Well, lonely. Sure. I'm single. Though I do have a date tonight. A second date. I usually don't get past the text phase. No, I'm just kidding. If I can get past a second date, it's usually a good sign. And it's not getting past. It's just, are you a good fit with the person that you're hanging out with? Is there potential there? Is it easy? Is it happy? We went out the first time, and it was like it got better and better as we talked more. In fact, I listened more. Jared listened more. Usually Jared's dominating conversations, but she likes talking, and I am down with that. So that I don't feel like I'm over talking and oversharing. Let someone else do that. And I can learn a lot, which is true in life. Shut the fuck up. Shut your mouth and listen to people. As I make a podcast all by myself, talking into a microphone for 45 minutes to an hour about myself because no one else is here to share me, which means it's lonely out here being me. Fear of not being Enough. No, don't worry about that. Lack of meaning. Yeah. Most shit doesn't mean shit to me. Achievements become a coping mechanism. If someone is constantly chasing the next win, they may never slow down long enough to feel fulfilled. To feel fulfilled. Yeah. I don't. Depression, even high functioning. One key symptom of depression is anhedina. Reduced ability to feel pleasure. Oh, no, I feel pleasure. Oh, do I feel pleasure. That's right. Now I'm not depressed. I pretty sure about that. Let's see. Someone might achieve things, experience good moments, get praise and still feel flat. That's not a character flaw, that's neurochemistry. Now what I'll tell you is there's been times where like for example, I will do a boot camp and it's all day. You're spent on high. Like you're on high, you're engaged, you're talking, you're sharing, you're teaching, you're on edge. You're not on edge, but you're like, you're high functioning at that moment because you want to give your all. And then at the end of the day, everybody's gone, all the helpers are gone, all the people that paid to come are gone and they go on their way and you're left sitting at the studio all by yourself. That's why I like to schedule dinners after. So I feel like I actually accomplished something. But yes, there's times where you can ask Steven, you can send him a message and say, how many times has Jared said that it feels like I didn't accomplish anything today, even though we filmed four videos, wrote a script, did something else and. But that's the feeling. I'm not going to not tell you that, but that's how I feel a lot of times is that we just did 13 freaking things in the day and I feel like, well, I didn't do anything. Yeah, that's an ongoing thing in my head, all right. Identity tied to striving. Some people are wired to be builders. They don't actually want satisfaction, they want momentum. For them, satisfaction feels like stagnation. Peace feels like boredom. Contentment feels like complacency. Their nervous system is calibrated to growth, not stillness. Yeah, then I can see that too. How long is this gonna go? I think it's almost done. Existential restlessness. Some people aren't chasing success, they're chasing meaning. If life feels shallow, repetitive, or disconnected from purpose, satisfaction won't stick because the deeper question hasn't been answered. But what is the real question? Because I Feel like every day I wake up, I'm like, oh, well, it's the same rinse and repeat again. Even when I change it up and I go to Paris or I go on a safari, like, it's still right back to those old routines. Okay, I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like this, but here's the real question. ChatGPT says when someone says they're never satisfied, it helps to ask, are they unhappy or are they just driven? Do they feel empty or are they energized by pursuit? They have a big. There's a big difference between chronic dissatisfaction, dissatisfic, fucking can't read. How about I can't read and I'm fucking angry about it? Sorry about cursing. I'm not. Chronic dissatisfact, dissatisfaction. God, dissatisfaction. That feels painful. No, I don't feel pain in that. And healthy ambition, that feels alive. If you want, I can go deeper. Are you asking about yourself? A partner, A high achiever? I'm asking about myself. Asking about myself. Oh, and. And I've learned that a lot of people are turning to ChatGPT for therapy help. I don't fully agree with that, but I'm also not a big therapy fan. Right. Like, I think you need the human nature. But on the flip side, I think therapy culture has gone way too far. Like, better help. Like, you can go online and this is not sponsored by them because I wouldn't do it. But what I found weird is I went on to BetterHelp because everybody's like, oh, you know, you should get a therapist. You should really talk to the rapist and the therapist. And I'm like, well, I don't like therapist one. The first therapist guy that I saw tried to sleep with me. I guess he's gay or other. And I was like, that's great and all, but we're here for my therapy, not for you to try and hit on me. And then the other one that I saw. Oh, he was second. The first one I saw, she. I kind of. This is probably not a good thing to say, but when I was going through the photos of the therapist I was seeing, which ones were hot, like a dating app. I can't lie. I can't lie. Why can't I? Because, I mean, I can. But I was just like, well, she's hot. Like, I'll pick her. But I didn't like the fact that she would always look at the clock. I would be like, do you have somewhere else better to be? Are you hoping to get out of here. Are you done with me? Like, do you want to be gone at that 45 fucking minutes or 50 minutes of your bullshit hour? Yeah, this is where my brain goes. I'm like Larry David. I would be sitting there and she'd look at the clock and I'd be like, really? Really? You just looked at the. You just glanced at the clock. Do you not want to. Oh, it pissed me off. It pissed me off. Ah, shit. I gotta turn off the. I forgot to turn off the. You probably heard it. Come on. That is the. Hold on. I'm turning off the air conditioners. And by air conditioner, I mean the heater. So I'm gonna talk through it. But you probably do hear it in the background because we've got these microphones set to sensitive and I'm supposed to turn them down. So anyway, I'll keep going. It should turn off in a second, so don't mind it. I'm glad you said that directly first. Nothing is wrong with you. Oh, thanks, ChatGPT therapist. I also don't believe that you should be taking therapy help from ChatGPT. Really. I think you need someone to moderate you. But also I do think that the part of the pussification of people today is that this idea that you must see a therapist, or if you're not seeing a therapist, you're not working on yourself. I had a person I was seeing a girl that I was seeing who. Who said that she works on herself and I don't. And I was like, well, excuse me, first off, your way of working on yourself is your way of working on yourself. My way of working on myself is my way of working on myself. That doesn't make yours right and make mine wrong. That doesn't make it that at all. I do things different. I don't find solace in silence and going to yoga. That's not my jam. That just doesn't work for me, so I don't pay attention to it. And so just because you do it the other way doesn't mean that I'm wrong. And so that didn't work out, obviously. Let's see, we're going to move on in a second. But first, nothing is wrong with you. But never feeling satisfied can mean few things, and the difference matters. Let's narrow it down. When you say you never feel satisfied, does it feel more like I hit goals and it fades almost instantly? The nothing really feels that good even when it should? Nah, nah, nah, nah. I like certain things that feel really good and I'm down for it. I always feel like I should be doing more. So let's start that. I hit goals and it fades almost instantly. Yeah, nothing really feels that good even when it should. Nah, nah, I'm not that one. I always feel like I should be doing more 100%. If I slow down, I feel uneasy or restless. Uh huh. I feel empty even when things are objectively good. Yeah, I could say that too. You don't have to answer perfectly. Just which ones feel closest to you. One, three, four and five. Since you. Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna move on from ChatGPT here. But yeah, no, that, that's me in a nutshell is never feeling satisfied. So I know there's nothing wrong with me. I just operate on a different wavelength. Maybe fulfill. Maybe I'll be happier with someone, maybe I won't be happier with someone. I don't know the answers until I actually am in those situations. I do enjoy having a significant other at times because I like caring for them. I really do. I like that aspect and I like being, you know, liked. I do feel like sometimes I'm not enough. I do feel like worry that I might do something wrong or that they're not happy. And I'm constantly seeking affirmations of positive affirmations of yes, everything's okay and that's not good itself. But I've dated that back to when I was a little kid and watched the beta tapes of me playing soccer and hear myself on the soccer field in goal coming off the field saying daddy, did I do good? Because I was seeking that positive affirmation. So maybe they should have just said shut up, get back in goal. You, you did okay, but stop fucking seeking affirmations. You don't need to get affirmations, you just, just fucking do it. Something like that. You should yell at kids more, I think. I think they should be yelled at. I don't think they should be hit, but there certainly should be discipline. And I mean yelling at nicely when needed. But I don't have kids. I have my niece and nephew. I don't yell at them. They're not mine to yell at but. But they are afraid of me in times and they're afraid of my brother and sister in law because there is but, but a healthy fear of when you know you did wrong and I just give you the look or say your name, you know that there's repercussions. So they know there's been repercussions and the repercussions for them have been Sitting in the corner for two minutes, right? Like you do something wrong, you sit in the corner. Like there is something where you get taken away. Your video games or tv, like those things. Never physical. I still don't think physical worked. The fear of that, maybe when we were younger was a thing, but thankfully we weren't physically abused. I know people have been, and that's terrible. And that is not an answer to beat the shit out of someone because you had a bad day. There's something a hell of a lot deeper when. When you spill some. Some juice on the carpet. That's not me, that's my brother. We won't even go into that today. Okay, so where am I going next week? I will be going to Dallas. Where? Arlington? Yes, I'll be going to Arlington because there is a Professional Bowlers association event. It major of the se. It's the first event of the season and it so happens to be a major. So if. If you are in the Arlington area, starting on the, I think 14th or 15th, there's qualifying. I show up on Wednesday the 16th for qualifying. And you can always attend the bowling. I. I don't know if it's $5 or 10 or free just to show up and walk in and watch the early stuff, but it is highly enjoyable if you're into bowling or you're interested in it at all. To watch professionals at the highest level from like 2ft away and they literally walk past you. You can't do that in any other sport. So I am going and I will be filming. Now, we're not officially filming season two of the bowling show. That's not what it's called. And I. They still haven't announced it. The press releases should be coming out imminently and the trailer should be coming out imminently. And as soon as that stuff happens, the floodgates are opening for me to share as much information as I can about the first season and where it's landed. It's on a major network, a major legacy, one that's still super viable and one of the best, greatest places to land. And I can't wait to share that. And the first season, mid March. Okay, mid March. We're looking at a release date, so I'll just say March 16th. I don't know what time in the evening or wherever you are, but it will be on demand for people as well. But yeah, March 16, Monday is. Is when it's going to be released. That will be episode one. And there will be five episodes in season one. Now we're in A limbo period right now because it's hard if you don't release a season before the other season for them to be like, okay, this is really taking off. We want to greenlight season two. So therefore I am independently going myself with another shooter to independently go and start shooting like we did without permission in the first place before to. In the hopes that it gets picked up for a season two. Because the last thing I want to have happen is Wait around. Wait around. Wait around gets approved. And you've missed some of the major happenings that have happened. We don't want that to happen. But this is at my own expense. This isn't a company paying for it. This is me going out as Froknow's photo or Froduction Productions, as my production company is called, and going out on my own dime. Or I'm going as Froknow's photo because, yes, I'm going as Froknow's photo. That is for legal purposes. And the reason is it's not for the show and I'm covered under Froknow's photo. That is for legal purposes. I just want to put that out there. So that's. That's what I'm saying. Um, so I'll be going and I will be filming. Now. Last year, I shot with the R1. I shot with the R1 because I like having a viewfinder, or I thought I liked having a viewfinder to put my eye up in it. But it became much harder to steadily. Not steadily, my camera. My shots in the show are great. A lot of slow mo, a lot of action, a lot of, like, great moments and really good stability because I'm not on a steady camera or anything, but I had stabilization in the body and stabilization in the lens. And it started to get tiring, though, looking through the camera. It was harder to get certain angles. So I reached out to Canon last week and I asked them if they could send me a C80. The reason I asked for a C80 over a C70 is a C80, we think, has a very similar sensor to the R1, if not the same, and it's a full frame sensor in a cinema body. Now, the problem with the C80 is that it still takes SD cards instead of CF Express B cards, which are a hell of a lot better because CF Express B are faster and larger storage and just a better card. It's just faster for offloading purposes, especially if you're doing 512 gigs on a card. It takes an SD card a hell of a Lot longer to transfer. I don't even know what the SD card speeds are. It's like 2 or 300 versus 3,000. So it's a hell of a lot slower process with SD. Regardless, the C80, I'm going to set it up in a way that I can switch into 60 frames a second, 120 frames a second. It has built in ND so when you run outside, you don't have to worry about putting an ND filter on the lens. It doesn't have image stabilization, but the lenses I will be using, the 24, 105 primarily in the 70 to 200 will have image stabilization as well as I will take the fisheye to give a different look, to give a different perspective. And in order to get the fisheye video, I will be throwing the CC, not the C50, the R6 mark 3. Let me make a note. Take R6 mark 3 for full circle fisheye. Like that could be pretty cool for, I don't know, for something for the show. So having that ability to do it. But in order to do open gate, in order to do the full circular fisheye, I need to do open gate. And so for that I need to do the C. I don't think there's open gate in the C80, right? Is there open gate C80 canon? I don't think there is. As of the firmware update, this Canon EOSA does not feature open gate. It is not the father. You are not the father. Right. So it doesn't have open gate. But I can do that with the c. Sorry, the R6 mark 3. So I'll be out there filming. My buddy Tommy who is the DP on season one, he'll be out there filming. We should have a sound guy going around and we should pick a couple of bowlers to focus on. I'm rooting for Timmy Foy Jr. He's my go to. He's like the guy that I think's on the cusp of winning. We could see what happens with Kyle Troup this year. After coming off of a bad season, does he come off to a much better start this year? What will Belmo do? Will EJ still rule the world? All of this and more on season two of Beep beep beep on network. Beep, beep, beep. So that's what's going on. I'll be out there. If you want to come out there and hang out. I mean, I'll be working, but if you are in the area, bowling is a great thing to come and Watch. It is fantastic. It really is. To get that close to see these guys bowl is amazing. Anyway, moving on. I'm not watching a ton of the Olympics. I'm not an Olympic guy. I just don't sit around and watch a bunch of stuff. So I noticed, though, there's a lot of drone footage. There's a lot of drone. It's not just footage, it's live drone footage. So any of the downhill stuff, they are. These guys are going downhill in the slums at like 60 miles an hour plus 60 to 70 miles an hour, and they got these drones flying at 60 or 70 miles an hour behind them. Now, that sounds like crap when all you hear is. When you hear all of that. But the footage is tremendous. It gives you a perspective of speed and an angle that you aren't used to seeing. So it's really cool to see that happening. Um, what. What do you guys think of that? I just think the technology is crazy, that they're flying these drones. Someone has to fly them. They have to be very good at what they do because you don't want to run into an athlete. And if you don't, if you lose control, you don't want to have that happen either. But it's also live transmitting to the. To. To the world instantly. That shit is incredible. So I think the positives outweigh the negatives of having a drone out there. And that was just something I wanted to point out because I saw it. But the biggest story I want to talk about this week is the Washington Post firing all staff photographers and 8 of 14 of their photo editors. If you saw Photo News Fix this week, I talked about this in Photo News Fix, and I want to talk about it in more detail here. And the reason I said in Photo News Fix, that people might think I'm going to scream about this and take a certain side and be like, this is terrible. Photographers should never lose their job. It goes much deeper than that. And you have to think like a business person. Yes, you have to think like a human, too, but you have to think like a business person as well. So what am I talking about? Well, the Washington Post has fired. Was it 800 or 300 of their staffers? 300 of 800 they had to cut down. But the fact that they have a newsroom of that many people, that's a lot of mouths to feed. That's a lot of money. Money, right. So I looked it up, and two years ago, the Washington Post lost $77 million. $77 million loss last year, they lost 100 million. So they're down $177 million in two years. How do you operate a business and keep it running if it's in the hole $100 million plus a year? How do you keep throwing money at something that keeps. That is failing, inevitably failing? Now, with that being said, I'm well aware that Bezos owns the Washington Post, and for a long time he was hands off. And for a long time it was growing and doing well. It's a very niche market, right? It was doing well. They were getting good traffic, they were getting new subscriptions, new signups. But as of a few years ago, Bezos started to wade into the political world and say, well, we can't back Kamala Harris, which they were ready to do. Therefore, he pulled the backing for them to endorse a candidate and said, well, we can't do that. And then people started to flee because they started. He put some people in place that are more right leaning and look, that's his choice. He owns the newspaper. Generally, people want them to stay out of editorial sides, but newspapers through all of history have been skewed one way or another. There are left leaning papers, left leaning news, there's right leaning papers and right leaning news. I don't like the fact that it's like that. I like more common sense and just stick to facts. But the news business is exactly that, a business. Oh, and let's talk about newspapers going way back. One of the biggest racists in the history of racism is Ford. Henry Ford ran one of the largest anti Jew newspapers in the world. Due to circulation, let's say, let's ask ChatGPT something. Let's see how. What was the circulation. What was the circulation of Henry Ford's anti Jew newspaper? So let's see what it comes up with here. The Dearborn Independent. Henry Ford's newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, reached a peak circulation of approximately 700,000 copies per week in the early 1920s. It was published weekly from 1919 to 1927. Beginning in 1920, it ran a series of antisemitic articles later compiled into books, titled the Internal Jew. Ford used his automobile dealership network to distribute the paper nationally. While paid subscribers were lower, the paper's distribution strategy dramatically increased its reach. I know you guys didn't sign up to hear about this, but shit, he was one of the biggest racists. Let's see. In 1927, following a public backlash and libel lawsuit, Ford issued a public apology and the paper ceased publication. Fuck you, Henry Ford. Yeah, that's just some of the stuff that you don't know about the prominent racist throughout history. Just the anti Jew sentiment in the 1920s was insane in this country. And it wasn't just Nazi Germany. Okay, back to the newspaper here with Jeff Bezos. Yeah, so a business needs to be able to make money or at the very least break even. Because breaking even means it is making money in some sense. And yeah, I don't care that the guy's worth 225/billion dollars. That doesn't mean that he should operate a business at a loss. Now did he drive it into the ground and cause this 100%? Yes. It's his doing. Is that his choice? Yes. So the nppa, the National Press Photographers Association, I guess is it of America, I don't know, said this. It's hard to overstate how significant a moment this. Let me read that again. It's hard to overstate how significant a moment this is for photojournalism. The Washington Post particularly has been an inspiration to to countless photojournalists through its fearless and relentless coverage, both domestic and international. Their photojournalism, their photo journalastic. Wow, I can't read today. It says their photo journalistist. I don't know what's wrong with me. Either I can't read or I didn't copy and paste this right. Their photojournalists and editors have swept the bop, which I don't know what that is, but I think that has to do with the Pulitzer Prizes and stuff and have regularly won Pulitzer Prizes over the decades. They are legends in our field. Like I get it, I totally get it. I understand what that means. I totally get what that means. But that doesn't equal success. And just because they've been an inspiration to countless others doesn't mean that that just continues forever. Right? It doesn't pay the bills. A business is a business. I have some notes here. I don't care if one of the richest people in the world owns the Post. And yes, he's a major part in the decline in relationship by which I just said and meddling in the news. But you can't just sit on your laurels and rest on your laurels to be like, well, it's been a legacy for 80 or 90 years, the Washington Post. So therefore it should always remain. We know that newspapers have been dying, which then shouldn't come as a surprise that people are being laid off. If you're not making money and you're losing $177 million in two years, well, you can't sustain a business. And you should have seen the writing on the wall if you were a photographer there, an editor there, or anybody else in the newsroom. And that's not to say that there isn't a need for news 100%. There's a need for journalism and news. But a lot of people have taken that to Substack or other outlets that they've grown and created on their own. It is not easy. You have to get access, you have to do the hard hitting stories, you have to fund it yourself. But I think you are better off today creating a small group of three, four people or starting with one, but then having three or four people that work with you. If you can generate enough revenue and you can do damage, you can. And I'm not talking about bad damage. You can do good damage. You can do good reporting. That's not slanted. It's just sticking to the facts. But I don't have a problem with editorializing and sharing your thoughts. That is okay to share what you think based off of the findings that you have. And so we're in a modern world of journalism. I am not a journalist. I am a photographer who so happens to make YouTube videos. People see me as journalistic because of I write articles, I do photo news, I do this podcast. I share my thoughts because. But it's a lot of editorial. But it's all backed by fact in my opinion. Well, can it be fact in my opinion? It's backed by my real world experience. If I am wrong and blatantly wrong, I'm going to correct it and let you know that. But when things are supported by fact or experience, you can share your opinion and that's totally fine. So yeah, I feel bad for the eight photographers and the eight editors that got laid off and the hundreds of other people that got laid off. But you had to have seen the writing on the wall. You have to find a new outlet in the modern era to be a success. And I get it. It's a cushier job to get a paycheck and not have to worry about running the business and just do your job. But the same thing applies here with Froknow's photo. This is my business. I can't just go take pictures 100% of the time because I have to run a business. We have to not operate in the loss. If we lose money, that's not very sustainable. That's not sustainable. I've always said if I make enough money to go out to eat every night and pay my employees and pay for the properties, then that's a win. Because that is a win. I'm building wealth that way. But as a business owner, there is a lot that goes into this, and you can't take the losses. And sometimes you're just too big. And sometimes you need to pare it down and you need to start over, or you need to just change course and pivot and go the direction that makes more money. And if that means firing the majority of your staff, then that's what it means. Now, on the flip side, if Bezos has ordered his people to really hurt the growth of the paper, which is possible, which is a possibility, that that's happened, right? Like slowly just take away its credibility and shift its reach and its focus so that people don't believe it anymore. That is. That is what happens, and that is what propagandist governments start to do, is they start to devalue or confuse people, that if they throw enough information out there, they'll stop wondering, they won't know what is real, which means they stop paying attention altogether. That is exactly what's happening with the current government that's in place. I mean, that's straight out of the propagandist playbooks of the Putins Put out so much information that no one knows what's real and no one knows what isn't. And if it's salacious and over the top, I mean, does it matter anymore? Right? Because it doesn't. Like, I don't want to go there. I don't want to go down that road, but it's just what's going on. We all have eyes, we all see it. So I feel bad that they've lost their jobs and I hope that they find other jobs. Yes. If you're a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, where do you go? But that's the question now is where are the outlets for you? Do you then go shoot for Gettysburg or the ap? Do they have room for you? Can they pay you enough? Do you want to do that? Or do you want to control your own destiny? Not everybody does. As I read through ChatGPT, talking about my life and talking about loneliness or talking about emptiness or never being satisfied, these are the things that are my traits. These are things that lead to my success, but also lead to me questioning things in my brain, right? Like, what should I do? Can I do more? It always comes down to more and more and more. And I'm not talking about, like, more money, more money, no more things to do. Because there's so many times That I wake up, not even wake up, but I sit here during the day and be like, well, what am I supposed to do with my life? And I know from the outside looking in, people are all like, well, you're doing great. You have your properties or you have your business and you have this. And hopefully I have my health, knock on wood. But yeah, that's all well and good, but I don't feel the satisfaction for most of it. I know that it's good accomplishments like getting a show on this network and getting a show sold is incredible. But on the flip side, I reach a shit ton of people through YouTube without having to go through all the rigmarole we did for four plus years to get to that point. But it is kind of cool. But then again, it never, it never satisfying because when season one gets filmed and it's done, cool. You want a fucking cookie? Now let's make season two. Like, I don't, I don't. What am I gonna celebrate? Great, let's move it. Let's go and do it again. So I guess, yeah, I fall into that I'm never satisfied category and you can hear me talk of it. That's just what it sounds like. I'm not satisfied. I don't know, what else do I have here? You could always share your thoughts with me at 313-710-9729 or comment on Spotify or YouTube or iTunes. You could always share your thoughts. I mean, that's what this is all about. It's partly a conversation. You're not going to like everything I say and we're not going to agree on everything, but hopefully you get where it comes from. So yeah, there's a busy time coming up. About to head out to Dallas to go do stuff. Oh, and then also the World Baseball Classic. Right. I think I've talked about that being the. I think I have the official team photographer for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic and they get to play in Miami. So I'll be spending time down in South Florida for like at the spring training places and I'll be spending time in Miami. Cause that's where the event is. In Israel's pool. They've got the Netherlands, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they've got Venezuela, I think Nicaragua. And I know that they have the Dominican Republic. And man, is that Dominican Republic team stacked. It is stacked and loaded. Do I think Team Israel could win? Maybe they can win some games. That would be nice. That would be really cool. If they can eke out some victories. I Think they did that last time around. That would be awesome. If you get great pitching and you like. If you can get great pitching and you can shut the teams down. Well, that's true in anything. You could of course win if you put runs on the board. But holy shit, does Venezuela look good? And does the Dominican Republic look good? They all look fantastic. So we'll see what happens. But yeah, I have a busy couple of weeks coming up and then if the bowling show does get picked up for season two, then it gets even more busy. Like, I can't go to the second major of the season for the bowling event that takes place March 1st through 8th because I will be down in Miami focused on being the team photographer, which they already know that I'm not the guy that's going to give them instant photos to post right away. To me, it's about a photo story. We are creating something greater than what needs to go out instantly. I will help them with their social teams to get stuff out quicker. Right. Like there's certain things are fine, but my goal is to bring Austin with me for a bunch of it, if not all of it, to document behind the scenes what goes into being the team photographer out there. Taking the 4x5 shooting with like, am I taking a 402.8? Like I probably will because. But a 100 to 300, see, this is where that TC would come in handy for certain things. I wouldn't ideally want to do it and I could put a TC on it to get a longer reach, which I might compromise in this situation because I can only carry so much gear with me. A 400 is great, a 100 to 300 is more versatile when it comes to game action. But a 400 gives you those tighter shots. Now if I go to 300 millimeters and I put a 1.4 teleconverter on it, most people won't know the difference. I'll know the difference, but if I have more room to take my 4x5 and the 100, it's like you want to have a 400 with you, but I want to show the scene. I don't want to just take tight, tight photos. I am really curious. I'm going to email Canon right now and see if they will be at the World Baseball Classic and have lenses down there for me to borrow. Because if I could just borrow a 400 while there and not have to bring it, that would be the ultimate ideal situation because it's just there's so much stuff to carry. I don't want to have to worry about carrying so much stuff because I'll have to check something on the airplane and I'm not checking the 4x5 or my Aero Ektar lens. I can check the holders, right? The film holders. I don't want to check any of the big glass. I might check the tripod and anything and close, which I don't normally do. But for something like this going away for 10 days, I got to do it. I'm having special, special. I shoot raw shirts made for the event too. You'll see it when I get them. All right. I got to get on with my day. I hope you guys enjoyed this. This is episode number 186. The time now is 12:09 in the PM 12th February, which is a Thursday. Currently 79% left on my watch it's still 33 degrees and I thank you guys very much for listening. Jared polinfront photo Com See ya.