Everyone loves a comeback story. But what about the part where you’re just… sitting in a garage at 2 a.m., surrounded by half-charged batteries, broken gear, and a growing sense that something inside you might be cracking?

This episode isn’t about triumph. It’s about that strange, quiet middle, the one nobody posts about, where you’re not broken, not healed… just angry. Angry at the industry. Angry at yourself. Angry at the space between who you are and who you thought you’d be by now.

But that anger? Maybe it’s not a problem to solve. Maybe it’s fuel.

Topics Include:

• The weird middle space between burnout and breakthrough
• How anger can be creative fuel—if you let it
• Why “healing” and “finding joy” aren’t the point
• The choice to keep working, even when the work feels pointless
• Depression, resistance, and what it means to show up anyway

Opening Song:

“Demons” by The National
Used under license. All rights to 4AD Records and the artists.

Support the band at: americanmary.com

All other music provided by:

🎧 Artlist.io

Mentioned in the Episode:

• A broken laptop stand
• The hum of depression
• That 2 a.m. garage air
• The space where the butterfly might land

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What happens when you still love photography but start to wonder if there’s any place left for you in the industry?

In this raw, vulnerable episode, Patrick Fore gets brutally honest about what it means to be a working photographer in 2025. From a moment of personal crisis in a cluttered garage to the soul-draining grind of cold outreach and algorithm-chasing, this episode pulls back the curtain on the emotional and existential cost of staying in the game.

You’ll hear:

• Why radical honesty might be the only antidote to creative burnout
• The tension between art and commerce, and why it matters more than ever
• A reflection on the dark side of the photography education economy
• A personal story about hitting the wall, and choosing not to walk away
• A deeper dive into the concept of Flow vs. Resistance, and how to find your way back to meaning in the chaos

Whether you’re a full-time freelancer, a weekend warrior, or someone questioning the whole damn thing, this episode isn’t about pretending. It’s about naming the mess, wrestling with it, and finding a way to keep going.

📬 Subscribe to Field Notes, the weekly companion to the podcast:

https://www.terriblephotographer.com

💬 Let’s connect:

Instagram @TerriblePhotographer

Newsletter: Field Notes (via Substack)

Book: Lessons From a Terrible Photographer (coming soon)
Email me - patrick@terriblephotographer.com

Credits:

This episode contains a referenced clip from “How to enter ‘flow state’ on command” by Steven Kotler for Big Think (Watch here) and a short excerpt (under 30 seconds) from Pixar’s Soul, used to illustrate the concept of creative flow.

Music provided by and licensed through Artlist.io.

Episode Title:

Why Shapes How

On Intention, Execution, and the Lie of Objectivity

Description:

You can nail the lighting. Get the shot. Hit all the settings.

But if you don’t know why you’re making the image, it’s just visual noise.

In this episode of The Terrible Photographer Podcast, we dig into the lie at the heart of modern photography — that technical mastery is the pinnacle of the craft. It’s not. Intent is. And most people are scared of it.

We talk motorcycle maintenance, emotionally hollow images, and what happens when a “family photo session” turns into something that actually means something.

Whether you shoot portraits, weddings, branding, or weird experimental self-portraits at 2am with a desk lamp, this episode is a reminder: your camera doesn’t make meaning. You do.

Inside this episode:

• Why so many photographers stop learning once they hit “base camp”
• The family shoot example that reveals what intentional work really looks like
• The myth of photographic objectivity — and why your perspective always leaks in
• Why TikTok’s rough, real content hits harder than a polished campaign
• What separates technically perfect images from the ones that actually stick

Want to go deeper?

Sign up for Field Notes — a free weekly email for photographers who want something more honest than gear reviews and Instagram hacks.

When you sign up, you’ll get the first chapter of my book Lessons From a Terrible Photographer — in PDF andaudio, delivered straight to your inbox.

👉 Get it at www.terriblephotographer.com

Credits:

• Music licensed and used by permission through Artlist.io
• Episode Art Photography by Earl Wilcox – shot in Santa Barbara.